Monday, February 14, 2005
"Dummy" Corporations and Airplanes with Untraceable Owners
Sub-contracting Torture
In recent weeks we have seen reports in the media about aircrafts that fly in the night to ferry prisoners (suspected terrorists) to countries which pay no attention to Geneva Convention.
The most comprehensive article I have read appeared in the Feb.14-21 issue of The New Yorker magazine. Jane Mayer's "Outsourcing Torture" contains fascinating details of this clandestine operation run by our government. The program is called "extraordinary rendition".
Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Morocco are reported to be among those taking part in doing our dirty work for money and/or favors. Strange bedfellows! They sure are.
What happens to those who do not survive the torture during interrogation ? Are their bodies dumped in the ocean as done in Argentina during the "Dirty War" ? See footnote.
As a point of interest, the executive order under which the Bush administration authorized the rendition program was established during President Clinton's term. Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and now this. Can we continue to claim moral superiority over our enemies ?
************
Footnote: In 1981, Jacobo ben Nathan Timmerman, who published a newspaper exposing human rights violations by the Argentinian military junta, wrote "Prisoner Without A Name, Cell Without A Number" describing his experience in the hands of goons of the junta. Quite a few high ranking officers of the junta were graduates of U.S. Army's School of The Americas.
Between 1976 and 1983, 20 to 30,000 Argentinians "disappeared".
Vanished
In recent weeks we have seen reports in the media about aircrafts that fly in the night to ferry prisoners (suspected terrorists) to countries which pay no attention to Geneva Convention.
The most comprehensive article I have read appeared in the Feb.14-21 issue of The New Yorker magazine. Jane Mayer's "Outsourcing Torture" contains fascinating details of this clandestine operation run by our government. The program is called "extraordinary rendition".
Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Morocco are reported to be among those taking part in doing our dirty work for money and/or favors. Strange bedfellows! They sure are.
What happens to those who do not survive the torture during interrogation ? Are their bodies dumped in the ocean as done in Argentina during the "Dirty War" ? See footnote.
As a point of interest, the executive order under which the Bush administration authorized the rendition program was established during President Clinton's term. Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and now this. Can we continue to claim moral superiority over our enemies ?
Footnote: In 1981, Jacobo ben Nathan Timmerman, who published a newspaper exposing human rights violations by the Argentinian military junta, wrote "Prisoner Without A Name, Cell Without A Number" describing his experience in the hands of goons of the junta. Quite a few high ranking officers of the junta were graduates of U.S. Army's School of The Americas.
Between 1976 and 1983, 20 to 30,000 Argentinians "disappeared".
Vanished
