Extraordinary Rendition: Is Anyone Innocent
In the article “A staggering map of
the 54 countries that reportedly participated in the CIA’s rendition program,”
countries were identified that participated and cooperated with the CIA in
multiple steps of the rendition program. The program was originally started
after September 11th attacks in 2001. The U.S did not want to bring
terrorist suspects back into the U.S or formally press any charges on them so
they developed this program to get around the rules by secretly transferring
the prisoners to locations for interrogation. The article names 54 different
countries that helped the CIA with the rendition program. Countries like
Poland, Thailand, Romania, and Lithuania housed some of the secrete prisons for
the CIA, while a lot of other countries participated in handing over detainees
for the rendition program. Many European countries, Middle Eastern countries,
and Asian counties were involved in handing over people to the CIA for
rendition. While on the other hand, countries like Greece and Spain, allowed
the CIA to use their airports for transportation of the detainees.
Iran and
Syria were countries that were involved with the capturing and transfer of
individuals. When Iran handed over individuals, no records were kept relating
to investigations or there whereabouts in the secrete rendition operations.
Syria has a history of civil war and the government has been know to be in
favor of torture techniques and inhumane conditions in their prison systems.
The U.S had vast knowledge of these methods and conditions that Syria had used
and yet the most common stop for detainees in the rendition program was in
Syria.
The
extraordinary rendition program was a huge controversy due to the issue that
the U.S and many other countries were unlawfully detaining people and violating
their human rights by torturing them and not giving them a day in court. The article talks about how many different
countries participated in the questionable program and that they all knew to an
extent that these people would be held and questioned and not formally charged
with anything. The program was created to capture suspected terrorists and to
prevent more terrorist attacks from occurring. However, the program went far
beyond just questioning the people and getting information. The people that
were detained are some times held in a prison for the rest of their lives
because their cases cannot be heard in court due to possible national security
issues. I personally think that this program should not have been even created
because it violates human rights and the CIA knew that countries like Syria
would use torture methods to obtain information. It also surprises me that so
many counties participated in the program. However, when the program came out
into the public, I now understand why no other countries have tried to charge
U.S officials with violations of human rights. The other countries probably
cannot charge them with any violations because they are just as guilty or
participating.
Article Source:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2013/02/05/a-staggering-map-of-the-54-countries-that-reportedly-participated-in-the-cias-rendition-program/
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