Extraordinary Rendition: Investigations by non-state actors

Investigations by non-state actors (NSAs) into the legality of extraordinary rendition and the existence of torture by proxy show rendition and even torture occurring as early as 2003.

They are marked primarily by not only the NSAs, but the bodies they are investigating, showing evidence that they are operating completely out of their depth when attempting to apply the rules of behaviour for circumstances they are used to dealing with, to the profound issues and dire consequences associated with torture and kidnapping by states. In particular, the values of honor and fair play that were, optimistically if not naiively, held as inviolable by an earlier generation, and that functioned as a stopgap for the loopholes in law, are shown to be no match for a facile and opportunistic, yet strangely inept, interpretation of law in the hands of unscrupulous government entities.

Craig Murray 2003 revelations

In 2003, the United Kingdom's Ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, suggested that it was "wrong to use information gleaned from torture". He thus set the honorable course of not profiting from another's misfortune, or profiting from evil, against practicality. Rather than accepting this course as a prevention of further torture under the auspices of a fait accompli, similar to the one accomplished by Oliver North, the House of Lords elected to go the way of Jack Bauer, complete a with dramatic scenario to assert their point.

In March 2003 Sir Michael Wood, chief Legal Adviser, claimed that it was not illegal under the UN Convention Against Torture for the UK to obtain or to use intelligence gained under torture, provided the British government itself did not use torture or request that a named individual be tortured, in a communication to Craig Murray in the London offices of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).

The unanimous Law Lords judgment on December 8, 2005 confirmed this position. They ruled that, under English law tradition, "torture and its fruits" could not be used in court. But the information thus obtained could be used by the British police and security services as "it would be ludicrous for them to disregard information about a ticking bomb if it had been procured by torture." The Law Lords thus dismissed concerns about the validity of information obtained under torture, which have been expressed by various security agents and human rights activists.

Murray's accusations did not lead to any investigation by his employer, the FCO, and he resigned after disciplinary action was taken against him in 2004. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office itself is being investigated by the National Audit Office because of accusations that it has victimized, bullied and intimidated its own staff.

Murray later stated that he felt that he had unwittingly stumbled upon what has been called "torture by proxy". He thought that Western countries moved people to regimes and nations where it was known that information would be extracted by torture, and made available to them.

Murray states that he was aware from August 2002 "that the CIA were bringing in detainees to Tashkent from Bagram airport Afghanistan, who were handed over to the Uzbek security services (SNB). I presumed at the time that these were all Uzbek nationals — that may have been a false presumption. I knew that the CIA were obtaining intelligence from their subsequent interrogation by the SNB." He goes on to say that he did not know at the time that any non-Uzbek nationals were flown to Uzbekistan and although he has studied the reports by several journalists and finds their reports credible he is not a firsthand authority on this issue.

David Davis accusations

During a House of Commons debate on 7 July 2009, MP David Davis accused the UK government of outsourcing torture, by allowing Rangzieb Ahmed to leave the country (even though they had evidence against him upon which he was later convicted for terrorism) to Pakistan, where it is said the Inter-Services Intelligence was given the go ahead by the British intelligence agencies to torture Ahmed. Davis further accused the government of trying to gag Ahmed, stopping him coming forward with his accusations, after he had been imprisoned back in the UK. He said, there was "an alleged request to drop his allegations of torture: if he did that, they could get his sentence cut and possibly give him some money. If this request to drop the torture case is true, it is frankly monstrous. It would at the very least be a criminal misuse of the powers and funds under the Government's Contest strategy, and at worst a conspiracy to pervert the course of justice."

Again, the authorities are in this case applying an established (if already controversial) practice (plea bargaining) to a scenario which is out of all proportion to its normal milieu.

World Policy Council report

The World Policy Council, headed by Ambassador Horace Dawson and Senator Edward Brooke, criticized the Bush Administration in the area of civil and human rights for its policy on extraordinary rendition. The Council concluded in its report that extraordinary rendition

not only frustrates legitimate efforts to prosecute terrorists, but it makes a mockery of the high sounding principles that we hear invoked constantly.
2) robs us of the moral high ground and our justification for leadership in the world.

3) lowers us to the level of all those rogue and evil regimes that we have fought against in the past and against which we claim we are now struggling.

Dawson's patriotically correct and propagandist demonisation (to be specific, Pot calling the kettle red) of combatants and conflating them with governments aside, he states the obvious: in movies, the villain has always been a torturer. The trouble is that for too long, people have ignored the fact that the 'hero' sometimes tortures (pick any cop drama series at random, Dirty Harry, James Coburn movies), and the section of society served by this are now finding themselves enfranchised by similarly morally vaccuous authorities.

See Also and References

See Extraordinary Rendition and Extraordinary Rendition: Further Reading