Barack Obama preserves CIA renditions as he keeps elements of Bush's war on terror

[TriWooOx]

Quote:Barack Obama has granted the CIA permission to continue carrying out the controversial Bush-era practice of extraordinary rendition, it has emerged.

And he did so just two days after becoming president and vowing to dismantle his predecessor's war on terror.

As the new U.S. President issued orders shutting down the American military prison at Guantanamo Bay and fought to show the Muslim world that 'America is not your enemy', it was revealed that the renditions programme may even be expanded.

Under executive orders signed by Mr Obama on January 22, two days after his inauguration, the CIA still has the authority to carry out renditions - secret abductions and transfers of prisoners to countries that cooperate with the United States.

Current and former U.S. intelligence officials told the Los Angeles Times that the programme may even play an expanded role going forward as it is the main remaining mechanism - apart from Predator missile strikes - for taking suspected terrorists off the streets.

The U.S. has been stepping up its usage of Predator missile strikes in states such as Pakistan - but the horrifying rate of civilian casualties that go along with such strikes make the practice almost as controversial as rendition.

The rendition programme became a major source of embarrassment to the CIA and the U.S. worldwide as details emerged of botched captures, mistaken identities, and allegations of torture.

The European Parliament condemned renditions as 'an illegal instrument used by the United States'.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband was forced to apologise to Parliament in February after admitting that two flights carrying terrorist suspects stopped on the British Indian Ocean territory of Diego Garcia in 2002.

The planes were transporting prisoners to Morocco and to the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo Bay.

His apology came after years of denials from the UK government of any participation in the programme.

Prisoners swept up in the program have sued the CIA as well as a Boeing Co. subsidiary accused of working with the agency on dozens of rendition flights.

It even became the subject of a Hollywood film starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon.

But despite the controversy surrounding the secretive practice, Mr Obama appears to have decided it was the one component of Mr Bush's war on terror that it must keep.

'Obviously you need to preserve some tools - you still have to go after the bad guys,' an Obama administration official told the LA Times.

'The legal advisors working on this looked at rendition. It is controversial in some circles and kicked up a big storm in Europe. But if done within certain parameters, it is an acceptable practice.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/...war-terror.html

[Blackthor]

Man, I got to get up to date! I'm hearing that his wife suppose to have a shady background also? I heard she was a CFR board member and some more stuff!