Lost in the weekend hubbub over President Obama's judgment that the U.S. and NATO forces were losing the war in Afghanistan was his interesting remark on renditions.
In a New York Times interview aboard Air Force One, the president reaffirmed that the administration is reviewing the policy of renditions - the practice of capturing a terrorist suspect and "rendering" him (or her) to the United States or elsewhere for detention -- but he pondered out loud one particularly difficult situation:
Obama Muses on a Difficult Rendition Situation
"We are now conducting a review of the rendition policy, there could be situations, and I emphasize - could be - because we haven't made a determination yet, where let's say we have a well-known Al Qaeda operative, that doesn't surface very often, appears in a third country, with whom we don't have an extradition relationship, or would not be willing to prosecute him, but we think is a very dangerous person. I think we will have to think about how do we deal with that scenario in a way that comports with international law and abides by my very clear edict that we don't torture, and that we ultimately provide anybody that we're detaining an opportunity through habeas corpus to answer to charges."
One precedent for dealing with bad guys in inhospitable legal environments was set by the FBI over 20 years ago, when it carried out the first rendition under the Omnibus Diplomatic Security And Antiterrorism Act of 1986 (PL 99-399), the law that authorized the bureau to handcuff terrorists abroad.
In a masterful covert operation using treacherous intermediaries, CIA and FBI agents lured terrorist airline hijacker Fawaz Younis out of Beirut to a yacht in the Mediterranean with the promise of a lucrative drug deal.
He was quickly cuffed, bundled back to Andrews Air Force Base, put on trial and sentenced to 30 years in federal prison. He was released after serving about half his term in 2005 and deported to Lebanon.
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Comments
Thanks for analyzing it. This blog caught it too: http://dissentingjustice.blogspot.com/2009/03/obamas-interesting-comments-about.html
Posted by: damitajo1
| March 10, 2009 10:25 AM
Brilliant minds think alike. :-) -js
Posted by: Jeff Stein
| April 3, 2009 12:49 PM
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