Rendition Lives On

According to an article by Reporter David Johnston in The New York Times the Obama Administration has said it will continue the policy of the last two administrations with regard to the rendition♠ of terrorism suspects:

The Obama administration will continue the Bush administration’s practice of sending terrorism suspects to third countries for detention and interrogation, but pledges to closely monitor their treatment to ensure that they are not tortured, administration officials said Monday.♥ 

I am trying to think this through.  The Obama Administration "pledges" to closely monitor Syria and other nations to ensure they don't torture people.  And if they do we will do what?  Not send them any more terrorism suspects?  Chalk up the first ones to bad luck?

Given the creation of a new federal mechanism for interrogation of terrorism suspects, the High Value Interrogation Group, located in the FBI and headed up by the National Security Council, and given that we are saying we will not allow torture, I don't see a reason for resorting to extraordinary rendition.

I see this as a way to empty our prisons and to not allow terrorism suspects on US territory, where they could use our legal system to attempt to win their freedom or to engage in lawfare.♦

I score this as little change and little hope.

UPDATE

Kad Barma comments on this over at Choosing a Soundtrack.  Kad is younger than I am and thus a little less forgiving.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Or more properly, extraordinary rendition, is the practice of sending a foreign criminal or terrorist suspect covertly to be interrogated in a country with less rigorous regulations for the humane treatment of prisoners.
♥  Yes, Monday, the 24th and this is Saturday the 29th.  I don't read The New York Times, except on Sundays.  But, from Instapundit to BoingBoing to me it took that long.  So much for the speed of the Internet.
♦  Per Wikipedia, "lawfare is one of several alternative war-making concepts outlined in the 1999 Chinese book Unrestricted Warfare, which is principally concerned with the new variety of offensive actions available to an international actor that cannot confront another power militarily. "Lawfare" is a form of warfare waged by using the nascent field of international law to attack an opponent on moral grounds: "international law warfare (seizing the earliest opportunity to set up regulations), etc.""