Congressional Record: June 24, 2004 (Extensions)
Page E1225
INTRODUCTION OF LEGISLATION PROHIBITING EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION
______
HON. EDWARD J. MARKEY
of massachusetts
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Speaker, the prison abuses at Abu Ghraib were a
national disgrace and have rightly been the subject of anger and
condemnation. But another torture practice continues to go on without
any public attention. Under the name ``extraordinary rendition'', the
CIA reportedly sends terrorism suspects, sometimes on the flimsiest of
evidence, to foreign countries that are known to employ torture in
prisoner interrogation. This practice is against all U.S. and
international law and is a moral outrage, and it must be stopped.
The practice of extraordinary rendition, the extra-judicial removal
of people in U.S. custody both domestically and abroad to foreign
governments that are known to use torture, has received little
attention because of the degree of secrecy with which it occurs.
Attention was drawn to the practice in September 2002 when Maher Arar,
a Canadian citizen, was seized while in transit to Canada through JFK
airport, and sent to Jordan and later Syria at the request of the CIA.
While in Syria, Arar was tortured and held in a dark, 3-by-6-foot cell
for nearly a year. He was ultimately released and detailed his story to
the media upon his return to Canada.
Although the more recent numbers have not been made public, outgoing
CIA director George Tenet testified to the 9/11 Commission in October
2002 that over 70 people had been subject to rendition before September
11, 2001. Human rights organizations including Amnesty International,
Human Rights Watch, the Center for Constitutional Rights and the ACLU
have detailed numerous other cases and are pursuing litigation in some
of them. On June 21, the Canadian government launched an investigation
into Arar's case.
My bill directs the State Department to compile a list of countries
that commonly practice torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment
during detention and interrogation, and prohibits rendition to any
nation on this list, unless the Secretary of State certifies that the
nation has made significant progress in human rights. It also specifies
that written or verbal assurances from a foreign government that a
person will not be tortured are not sufficient basis to override this
prohibition. The bill explicitly permits legal, treaty-based
extradition, in which suspects have the right to appeal in a U.S. court
to block the proposed transfer based on the likelihood that they would
be subjected to torture or other inhumane treatment.
Extraordinary rendition is outsourcing torture, and it is morally
repugnant to allow such a practice to continue. President Bush has
asserted that `the values of this country are such that torture is not
a part of our soul and our being.' The legislation I am introducing
today is designed to ensure that we not only ban torture conducted by
our own forces but we also stop the practice of contracting out torture
to other nations. Torture enabled by extraordinary rendition is
outrageous and must be stopped.
____________________
