{"id":294,"date":"2005-10-28T23:38:05","date_gmt":"2005-10-29T04:38:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/?p=294"},"modified":"2011-03-09T23:50:54","modified_gmt":"2011-03-10T04:50:54","slug":"war-powers-war-lies-part-9-away-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/?p=294","title":{"rendered":"War Powers, War Lies: Part 9: Away Games"},"content":{"rendered":"<address><span style=\"font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count: 1;\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<address>\n<address style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/?page_id=54\">The Big Picture Home Page<\/a>\u00a0| <a href=\"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/?p=445\">Previous Big Picture Column<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/?p=299\"> Next Big Picture Column<\/a>\u00a0<\/address>\n<address style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/?page_id=390\">War Powers Page<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/?p=279\">Previous War Powers Column<\/a> |\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/?p=299\">Next War Powers Column<\/a><\/address>\n<\/address>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count: 1;\">\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/address>\n<h2 class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: center; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: center 3.25in; mso-pagination: none;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">War Powers, War Lies: A Series<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n<h2 class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: center; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: center 3.25in; mso-pagination: none;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">Part 9: Away Games<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: center; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-pagination: none;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count: 1;\">Published in the Maryland Daily Record October 28, 2005<\/span><\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count: 1;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-pagination: none;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count: 1;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Good pitchers often make lousy batters, and it\u2019s harder to win if you have to let your pitcher bat.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>That\u2019s the appeal of designated hitters, superior batters who fill the pitchers\u2019 slot in the lineup.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>National League teams still pitch their batters, however, with one exception.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Designated_hitter\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman; color: #0000ff;\">In interleague play, the home team\u2019s league rules usually govern<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>So when a National League team visits an American League park, it catches a break.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>In the global war on terror or, as the Bush Administration likes to call it, the GWOT, the U.S. aspires to the situation of a National League team in interleague play &#8212; relaxed rules.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>This time we consider three aspects of the relaxed GWOT away game we are playing these days: foreign assassinations, extraordinary rendition, and prisoner export.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-pagination: none;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count: 1;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>On U.S. soil, except in response to active armed attack, military occupation by an enemy, or emergent crime, the government is not supposed to take lives extrajudicially.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>The <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.usconstitution.net\/xconst_Am5.html\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">Fifth<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"> and <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.usconstitution.net\/xconst_Am6.html\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">Sixth Amendments<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"> forbid it.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>This has been clear since at least <em style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/supct\/html\/historics\/USSC_CR_0071_0002_ZO.html\">Ex Parte Milligan<\/a><\/em> (1866).<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>Nor are the various military units trained to \u201ctake out\u201d specific individuals allowed to act against persons found on U.S. soil; this would ordinarily contravene the <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/uscode\/html\/uscode18\/usc_sec_18_00001385----000-.html\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">Posse Comitatus Act<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">.[1]<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-pagination: none;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count: 1;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Away from home, however, there are few legal restraints.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>It is true that language in <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikisource.org\/wiki\/Executive_Order_12333\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">Executive Order 12333<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"> (1981) forbids \u201cassassination.\u201d But that term, undefined in the Order itself, is generally defined under the current international law of war not to include the targeted killing of foreign combatants, including those in command positions, by stealth or ambush.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>(There <em style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\">is<\/em> a \u201ctreachery\u201d exception, forbidding killing of enemy commanders, including enemy political commanders, in violation of rules like truce and parley which are independently necessary for the implementation of other laws of warfare).<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>There is ample authority under international and domestic law alike for killing the likes of Osama bin Laden and his associates, as well as for efforts to kill Muammar Khaddafi (which we tried in 1985).<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>We may think of this kind of killing as assassination, but it passes muster under international law and hence under Executive Order 12333.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-pagination: none;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count: 1;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0<\/span>Certainly this Administration has taken to this option like no other, relying on Hellfire missile-equipped Predator drones and Special Forces to kill members of militant and insurgent groups in Yemen, Iraq, and elsewhere.[2]<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"> <\/span>OK, it\u2019s legit.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>But the important thing to note, for present purposes, is that it only remains legit while we\u2019re on a war footing.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>Oh, but wait \u2013 that does not mean declared war; it merely means an actual state of belligerency.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>And for the foreseeable future we\u2019re <em style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\">always<\/em> on a war footing with almost anyone we\u2019d care to kill.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-pagination: none;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count: 1;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>In other words, foreign assassination, by definition, is a war power.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>Which makes it awfully handy to have a perpetual war going.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>There is one minor catch; reportedly it is one that does not feel like a war power to the people who implement it, our nation\u2019s professional soldiers.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>Seymour Hersh reports that soldiers tend to note the prevalence of untargeted victims who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time (e.g. in the car with an assassination target), and end up as collateral damage.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>Their killers wearing U.S. uniforms in turn end up feeling as if they are doing the work of either murderers or of policemen who are breaking the rules.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>And feelings don\u2019t usually lie.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-pagination: none;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count: 1;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>We are also using the secret policemen of the CIA to break some important rules abroad.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>There has been a lot of reporting recently about the CIA\u2019s systematic involvement in \u201crendition,\u201d the practice of abducting someone in one country and taking him somewhere else.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s safe to say that it violates any country\u2019s law to kidnap people off its streets without that country\u2019s permission.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>But it\u2019s not illegal most places, including the U.S., to hale the victims of illegal foreign kidnaping into court.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>This asymmetry was enshrined in U.S. law as early as 1886, in a case involving a U.S. citizen privately snatched from the streets of Peru to face charges in a stateside court.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>The Supreme Court held in <em style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/caselaw.lp.findlaw.com\/cgi-bin\/getcase.pl?court=us&amp;vol=119&amp;invol=436\">Ker v. Illinois<\/a><\/em> that this particular form of away game was acceptable.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>In that case and subsequent cases, it was held, oversimplifying only a little, that illegally kidnaping people abroad to face domestic prosecution would not invalidate court jurisdiction or give rise to any kind of civil recourse against the capturers.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>In other words, even if it violated Peru\u2019s laws to seize Mr. Ker, there would be no undesired consequences here.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-pagination: none;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count: 1;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Until 9\/11 U.S. actions recognized as rendition were undertaken only in aid of criminal prosecution.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>Even when we captured and brought Manuel Noriega to the U.S., it was to face trial.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>And we used rendition to bring people here, not to move them elsewhere.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>Of course U.S. law also recognized the immigration-related practices of deportation, now called removal, and also of preventing entry by intercepting undesired aliens in transit and sending them back whence they came, known as refouler.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>Exercising our powers of deportation and refouler typically did result in us moving persons to foreign lands, but typically in aid of no more pointed a goal than not having them here.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-pagination: none;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count: 1;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>In recent years, though, the U.S. has made two abrupt and complete departures from former rendition policy.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>We started snatching people off the street in Country A and moving them to Country B, neither being U.S. soil, and did it as an instrument of pure military policy.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>In so doing, we emphatically eschewed anything smacking of either criminal justice or immigration enforcement.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-pagination: none;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count: 1;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Prof. John Yoo of Berkeley, a reliable defender of this Administration\u2019s aggressive expansion of war powers, agreed in a July 2004 piece in the Notre Dame Law Review that this practice cannot be understood or reconciled with U.S. law except as the execution of Presidential war powers.[3]<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>And this is certain a new wrinkle.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>True, the U.S. has historically asserted, virtually without judicial challenge, the obvious power to move prisoners of war seized by our military or allied armies from Country A to Country B.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>Indeed, the <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.icrc.org\/ihl.nsf\/FULL\/305?OpenDocument\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">1929 Geneva Convention on prisoners of war<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"> distinguished \u201cCapturing\u201d from \u201cDetaining\u201d Powers, realizing that the two might not be the same.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-pagination: none;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count: 1;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>But it is one thing for our armies to round up suspected members of the Taliban (an enemy militia) in Afghanistan and ship them to Guantanamo (technically foreign soil).<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>It is another to do things like some recently reported renditions:[4]<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-pagination: none;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 U.S. immigration officials seized Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian engineer, during a layover at Kennedy Airport, handed him over to the CIA, put him in an executive jet, and fly him to Syria where he was beaten for a week with two-inch thick electrical cables, and might have languished there had the Canadian government not protested;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-pagination: none;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In 2001, Sweden turned over to American intelligence Ahmed Agiza and Muhammed al-Zery, asylum-seekers, put them on a Gulfstream, and delivered them into the hands of Egyptian intelligence, which tortured them with electrical shocks for two years.\u00a0 One was sentenced eventually to 20 years in an Egyptian prison.[5]\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-pagination: none;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 CIA operatives grabbed Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr on a Milan street, bundled him off to Aviano airbase, and sent him via Gulfstream to Egypt where he was tortured with electric shocks, and hung upside down and subjected to extreme temperatures and noise that damaged his hearing;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-pagination: none;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In the runup to the Iraq war, the CIA seized Ibn-Sheikh al-Libi, a high-ranking Al Qaeda figure, in Pakistan, put him on a plane to Egypt, where he was tortured and told his interrogators what they wanted to hear, that Saddam Hussein had offered to train two Al Qaeda operatives in the use of chemical or biological weapons.\u00a0 After that he was shipped on to Guantanamo, where he recanted this now clearly outlandish admission.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-pagination: none;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0According to Newsweek in February, the CIA kidnaped Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen on holiday in Macedonia, placed him on a Boeing 737 owned by a CIA dummy corporation, took him to Afghanistan for five months of torture, and then dumped him back on the road to Macedonia.\u00a0 The person who dumped him reportedly laughed at him and told him not to complain, because no one would ever believe him. But public records about the jet\u2019s peregrinations bear him out.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-pagination: none;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <span style=\"font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hartford-hwp.com\/archives\/27c\/648.html\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">Jane Mayer reported in the New Yorker in February<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"> that the CIA seemed to be concealing the whereabouts of at least 100 detainees, which leads to a reasonable guess that many of them have been rendered in this fashion.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-pagination: none;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count: 1;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>When prisoners are rendered in this fashion, it is not about getting rid of unwanted guests, it is about torture. <span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0<\/span>Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo notwithstanding, there remain depths of torture we do not typically plumb.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>As explained <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/?p=279\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">last time<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">, we cheerfully espouse \u201ccruel, inhuman and degrading\u201d treatment of detainees (or at least we did \u2013<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>the Administration backpedaled in a December 30, 2004 Office of Legal Counsel Memorandum), but there are some practices we officially eschew.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>For certain things too vile even for us, we have the Egyptian Mukharat, and the secret police of Morocco, Syria and Jordan.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>Also Uzbekistan, where the torture specialty is boiling body parts, according to Jane Mayer.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>Rendering people we have snatched into the hands of these forces for purposes of torture probably violates our obligations under various laws and treaties; it certainly obligates our obligations under the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998, Pub. L. 105-277, which provides in relevant part that U.S. policy is \u201cnot to effect the involuntary return of any person to a country win where there are substantial grounds for believing the person would be in danger of being subjected to torture, regardless of whether the person is physically present in the United States.\u201d[6]<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-pagination: none;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count: 1;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Word is that the U.S. does receive official assurances of no torture from the countries to which we export our kidnap victims.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>But they are worthless, pro forma, and not intended to bind or fool anyone.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-pagination: none;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count: 1;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Now a new form of rendition is coming to the fore, the predictable consequence of the haphazard accumulation of prisoners in our Gulag at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and reportedly at secret locations in places like Thailand.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>The fates of these prisoners have diverged over the last four years.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>Some have been tortured and interrogated, some have been determined by military commission to have been enemy combatants (or perhaps not, although there are no reports yet of determinations that even one solitary detainee has been found never to have been a combatant), some have been convicted (or acquitted, though I cannot locate a one report of this either) of war crimes, some have most likely been ignored.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>Almost all, however, have become unwelcome guests and an embarrassment.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>Indeed, now that, thanks to the Supreme Court\u2019s 2004 decisions, they have some access to the courts, it is entirely possible that there could be a meaningful irruption of their grievances in a federal court in one of the many lawsuits brought on their behalf.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-pagination: none;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count: 1;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>And so the Government is moving to liquidate the embarrassment.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>Starting in March of this year, the Government let it be known that it was planning to ship hundreds of detainees to countries like Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Yemen.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>Afghans held in Afghanistan would be turned over to their government.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>This is something that could not have been accomplished if the prisoners had been kept on U.S. soil; they would have had certain rights under the removal procedures of U.S. immigration law.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-pagination: none;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count: 1;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>There was a response to these announcements in the detainee lawsuits pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>The prisoners began to resist being sent home before their due process claims could be adjudicated.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>There were decisions by various judges, mostly denying injunctions against repatriation.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>Apart from the perennial injunction issue, status quo preservation, these cases turned on what kind of treatment the prisoners could expect when they were returned.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>The 1998 law prohibiting return to torture was deemed by the courts to govern.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-pagination: none;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count: 1;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>The judges were somewhat skeptical about reassurances of no torture, and so the Government was at some pains to convince them.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>The <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/ejp.icj.org\/IMG\/AppendixG.pdf\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">comments of Judge John Bates in a July 2005 opinion<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"> may stand for all.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>He noted \u201csworn and unrebutted declarations from high-level Department of Defense and Department of State officials explaining that the United States did not transfer any Guant\u00e1namo detainee to a foreign state without first obtaining assurances from the receiving state that it was \u2018more likely than not\u2019 that the detainee would be humanely treated upon transfer (the legal standard set out in the regulations implementing the Convention Against Torture).\u201d<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>This interesting choice of words suggests how gossamer-thin is the assurance we are receiving. The Judge continued: \u201cThe declarations further explained that the Department of Defense does not ask receiving governments to detain a Guant\u00e1namo detainee on behalf of the United States on foreign soil.\u201d Note that the DOD is not saying the receiving governments positively will not detain the prisoners on their own behalf, nor even that the foreign governments have not promised such cooperation unbidden.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-pagination: none;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count: 1;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>In any case, according to a DOD October 1, 2005 press release,[7]<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"> DoD has outright released 178 Guantanamo prisoners, and has transferred 68 to other governments (Pakistan, Morocco, France, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Kuwait, Australia, Great Britain and Belgium).<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>But this leaves approximately 505 detainees remaining at Guantanamo.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>There is no word about detainees elsewhere.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-pagination: none;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count: 1;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Behind the vague press releases and statements to the courts, the fact is that we do not know what this massive rendition, already in progress, will amount to.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>Unlike the scandalous extraordinary renditions discussed above, this rendition may not be about torture.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>It could be about transferring these long-imprisoned Muslim men from one jailer to another, knowing that the second jailer will not be troubled, as the U.S. is, with the pesky writ of habeas corpus.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>Or it could just be about releasing wronged innocents in a way that embarrasses no one.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>We have no way of knowing now, and maybe will never know.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-pagination: none;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count: 1;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>What we do know is that when you play in someone else\u2019s ballpark, the rules can be a whole lot more fun.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>Heck, what rules?<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<div style=\"mso-element: endnote-list;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<hr size=\"1\" \/>\n<div id=\"edn1\" style=\"mso-element: endnote;\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-pagination: none;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">[1]<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>There is a significant backlash against the barrier posed by the Act.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>See T. Gizzo &amp; T. Monoson, <em style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\">A Call to Arms: The Posse Comitatus Act and the Use of the Military in the Struggle Against International Terrorism<\/em>, 15 Pace Int\u2019L L. Rev. 149 (2003); G. Felicetti &amp; J. Luce, <em style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\">The Posse Comitatus Act: Setting the Record Straight on 124 Years of Mischief and Misunderstanding Before Any More Damage Is Done<\/em>, 175 Mil. L. Rev. 86 (2003).<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<div id=\"edn2\" style=\"mso-element: endnote;\">\n<p class=\"MsoEndnoteText\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"><span style=\"font-size: x-small;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">[2]<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Chain-Command-Road-Ghraib-P-S\/dp\/B000GG4IXS\/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1290392599&amp;sr=1-1\">Seymour M. Hersh, <em style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\">Chain of Command: The Road from 9\/11 to Abu Ghraib<\/em> (2004)<\/a> at262-68.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<div id=\"edn3\" style=\"mso-element: endnote;\">\n<p class=\"Default\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span class=\"MsoEndnoteReference\"><span style=\"mso-special-character: footnote;\"><span class=\"MsoEndnoteReference\"><span style=\"font-family: &amp;amp;amp; color: black; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;\">[3]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0<\/span>Transferring Terrorists: The Changing Laws of War: Do We Need a New Legal Regime after September 11? 79 <em>Notre Dame Law Review <\/em><span style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: italic;\">1183<\/span> (2004).<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<div id=\"edn4\" style=\"mso-element: endnote;\">\n<p class=\"MsoEndnoteText\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span class=\"MsoEndnoteReference\"><span style=\"mso-special-character: footnote;\"><span class=\"MsoEndnoteReference\"><span style=\"font-family: &amp;amp;amp; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">[4]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"><span style=\"font-size: x-small;\">\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The information in the following bullets points was largely new and shocking when I mentioned it in the column reproduced here.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>However, it is all part of public common knowledge now, and I have not tried to put in citations to my original sources at this late date (November 21, 2010).<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<div id=\"edn5\" style=\"mso-element: endnote;\">\n<p class=\"MsoEndnoteText\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span class=\"MsoEndnoteReference\"><span style=\"mso-special-character: footnote;\"><span class=\"MsoEndnoteReference\"><span style=\"font-family: &amp;amp;amp; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">[5]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"><span style=\"font-size: x-small;\">\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Hersh at 53-55.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<div id=\"edn6\" style=\"mso-element: endnote;\">\n<p class=\"MsoEndnoteText\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span class=\"MsoEndnoteReference\"><span style=\"mso-special-character: footnote;\"><span class=\"MsoEndnoteReference\"><span style=\"font-family: &amp;amp;amp; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">[6]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"font-size: x-small;\">\u00a0<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Found in the <a href=\"http:\/\/vlex.com\/vid\/detention-removal-aliens-ordered-removed-19271934\">official annotations to 8 USC 1231<\/a>.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<div id=\"edn7\" style=\"mso-element: endnote;\">\n<p class=\"MsoEndnoteText\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span class=\"MsoEndnoteReference\"><span style=\"mso-special-character: footnote;\"><span class=\"MsoEndnoteReference\"><span style=\"font-family: &amp;amp;amp; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">[7]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"><span style=\"font-size: x-small;\">\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">No longer posted under the previous URL as of November 21, 2010.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoEndnoteText\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoEndnoteText\" style=\"text-align: center; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Copyright (c) Jack L. B. Gohn<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoEndnoteText\" style=\"text-align: center; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><\/p>\n<address>\n<address style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/?page_id=54\">The Big Picture Home Page<\/a>\u00a0| <a href=\"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/?p=445\">Previous Big Picture Column<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/?p=299\"> Next Big Picture Column<\/a>\u00a0<\/address>\n<address style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/?page_id=390\">War Powers Page<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/?p=279\">Previous War Powers Column<\/a> |\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/?p=299\">Next War Powers Column<\/a><\/address>\n<\/address>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the global war on terror or, as the Bush Administration likes to call it, the GWOT, the U.S. aspires to the situation of a National League team in interleague play &#8212; relaxed rules.  This time we consider three aspects of the relaxed GWOT away game we are playing these days: foreign assassinations, extraordinary rendition, and prisoner export.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[585,1757,1740,1745,1777,1761,1737,1779,1752,1639,1767,722,1738,1753,1763,842,1744,1469,1772,964,1783,69,140,1778,5,1762,1741,71,1764,1478,1784,1640,188,1770,1774,1750,1766,1754,620,1760,1785,1769,1747,1758,1768,1739,1242,1751,189,1759,1746,1782,467,1743,1748,1618,1749,1775,1765,414,1638,1742,1776,1756,1755,1780,1781,1773,1771,1652],"class_list":["post-294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bigpicture","tag-afghanistan","tag-ahmen-agiza","tag-american-league","tag-assassination","tag-australia","tag-aviano-airbase","tag-baseball","tag-belgium","tag-capturing-powers","tag-chain-of-command","tag-cia-dummy-corporation","tag-convention-against-torture","tag-designated-hitter","tag-detaining-powers","tag-egypt","tag-ex-parte-milligan","tag-executive-order-12333","tag-fifth-amendment","tag-foreign-affairs-reform-and-restructuring-act-of-1998","tag-france","tag-g-felicetti","tag-geneva-conventions","tag-global-war-on-terror","tag-great-britain","tag-guantanamo","tag-gulfstream","tag-gwot","tag-habeas-corpus","tag-ibn-sheikh-al-libi","tag-iraq","tag-j-luce","tag-jane-mayer","tag-john-yoo","tag-jordan","tag-judge-john-bates","tag-ker-v-illinois","tag-khaled-el-masri","tag-maher-arar","tag-manuel-noriega","tag-milan","tag-military-law-review","tag-morocco","tag-muammar-khaddafi","tag-muhammed-al-zery","tag-mukharat","tag-national-league","tag-new-yorker","tag-notre-dame-law-review","tag-office-of-legal-counsel","tag-osama-moustafa-hassan-nasr","tag-osama-vin-laden","tag-pace-international-law-review","tag-pakistan","tag-posse-comitatus-act","tag-predator-drones","tag-prisoners-of-war","tag-rendition","tag-russia","tag-saddam-hussein","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-seymour-hersh","tag-sixth-amendment","tag-spain","tag-sweden","tag-syria","tag-t-gizzo","tag-t-monoson","tag-thailand","tag-uzbekistan","tag-yemen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=294"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2061,"href":"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294\/revisions\/2061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}