Bush administration's global penal system.(INSIDER REPORT)

"Rendition is a vital tool in combating transnational terrorism," insisted Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in a December 5 statement prior to departing for Europe. "Renditions take terrorists out of action, and save lives."

"Rendition," as practiced by the Bush administration, involves seizing accused terrorists abroad and detaining them in "black sites" for interrogation. Some of those sites, according to CIA officials who spoke anonymously to the Washington Post, include dungeons in East European countries once operated by the KGB. "Rendered" detainees have also been sent to Syria, Uzbekistan, Egypt, and other countries ruled by regimes that routinely employ torture. Such was the case with Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian citizen who was seized in the U.S. and sent to Syria, where he was imprisoned for over a year, regularly tortured, and then released without ever being accused of a crime (see "Casting Aside Justice" in our August 8 issue).

According to Rice, "The United States has not transported anyone, and will not transport anyone, to a country when we believe he will be tortured.... With respect to detainees, the United States Government complies with its Constitution, its laws, and its treaty obligations. Acts of physical or mental torture are expressly prohibited." It should be remembered that the Bush administration's definition of "torture," as set out in ...