THE INTERNATIONAL LEGAL LANDSCAPE OF EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION ~ THE 5TH ESTATE ASIA

Sunday, March 22, 2015

THE INTERNATIONAL LEGAL LANDSCAPE OF EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION

Sunday, March 22, 2015

The time has now come for full disclosure of CIA torture, "rendition" atrocities and the prosecution of all involved

University Of North Carolina School Of Law

By Paula Kweskin, Taiyyaba Qureshi & Marianne Twu

03/15/2006

INTRODUCTION

The C.I.A.’s original rendition program was first developed in the 1990s under the Clinton administration as a way to break down the terrorist network known as Al-Qaeda and to capture senior Al-Qaeda officials. At the outset, the rendition program was designed to satisfy U.S. legal obligations by providing adequate legal process for those suspects who were captured and detained. Suspects were rendered only to countries that could provide assurances to the United States that the suspects would be treated in accordance to that country’s laws.1

After September 11, 2001, the C.I.A. significantly shifted the purpose of the rendition program to the “war on terror,” and began aggressively implementing policies for the purpose of gathering intelligence.

The most significant change in the rendition program post 9/11 was the C.I.A.’s decision to render individuals to clandestine detention sites around the world known as C.I.A. “black sites.”2

Suspected terrorists were transferred from overseas U.S. bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, but many were also apprehended by officials directly off the streets as they were traveling in these countries. Thus, the focus of the post-9/11 rendition program became the capture, detention and interrogation of suspected terrorists outside the reach of federal and international laws prohibiting such treatment.3 Investigative journalists and human rights organizations have termed these extralegal post 9/11 C.I.A. renditions “extraordinary rendition.”4 It is difficult to know exactly how many people have been extraordinarily renderedbecause the program is veiled in secrecy and the U.S government remains tight-lipped about the extent of its involvement.

In order to carry out these extraordinary rendition operations, the C.I.A. utilized private companies to handle aeronautical planning, to supply flight crews, and to supply the aircraft.

One such company was Aero Contractors, Ltd. (Aero), a company based in Smithfield, North Carolina that operates aircraft out of Johnston County Airport.5 Through the work of plane spotters, investigators and journalists, and the analysis of flight records, two specific Aero- operated planes have been linked to extraordinary rendition flights to black sites around the world in the period between 2001 and 2006: the aircraft with the tail number N313P and the aircraft with the tail number N379P.6.

Although these tail numbers have since been changed, but investigations reveal that these Aero-operated planes were used in the extraordinary rendition and torture of four specific individuals: Binyam Mohamed, Bisher Al-Raqi, Khaled El-Masri and Abou Elkassim Britel.7

These four individuals are British, Ethiopian, German and Italian citizens, businessmen and vacationers, and their stories reflect the circumstances under which individuals are apprehended, captured and then extraordinarily rendered.

Scholars and activists in the international community decry the practice of extraordinary rendition and the torture of detainees as violations of a host of international laws and treaties to which the United States has agreed to abide.

The U.S. government, however, asserts that these international treaties and laws do not apply. This policy paper focuses on three particular international legal norms: The Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention AgainstTorture, and the Nuremberg Principles, selected because the United States is a party to both the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention Against Torture, and thus has freely assumed obligations under those treaties, and the Nuremberg Principles because the United States was a leader in its creation after WWII.

This paper seeks to highlight the provisions of these treaties and principles that are most relevant to extraordinary rendition, and to reveal the obligations of the United States under these norms. Further, this paper hopes to narrow the impact of extraordinary rendition and torture from an issue of international concern to an issue of local and regional importance. Through Aero Contractors, North Carolina was directly involved in the extraordinary renditions of Binyam Mohamed, Abou Elkassim Britel, Khaled El-Masri and Bisher Al-Rawi. This involvement calls for accountability by not only the governments and officials of North Carolina complicit in carrying out extraordinary rendition, but also those who call themselves citizens of Johnston County, North Carolina, and the world.

Read the full report PDF HERE.

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