American Civil Liberties Union

Extraordinary Rendition

·        Extraordinary rendition is the practice of kidnapping or capturing people and sending them to countries that use torture or abuse. The government has sent detainees to countries infamous for their mistreatment of prisoners, including <?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = ST1 />Syria, Jordan, Morocco, and Egypt.

·        Rendition is un-American. Extraordinary rendition violates the Constitution and federal law. Its very purpose is to send people to places where, in the United States’ view, the rule of law doesn’t apply.

·        Congress must restore the rule of law. The federal government has acted lawlessly in targeting people – sometimes on the basis of mistaken identity, kidnapping them without ever seeking charges in any court and then shipping them off to foreign torture cells. 

·        America is better than this. As a symbol of freedom and democracy throughout the world, the United States must hold itself to our own high standards. When we resort to the use of torture and abuse, we lower ourselves to the level of our enemies and defy the basic values that we hold dear.

Pending Legislation

·        The Torture Outsourcing Prevention Act (H.R. 1352), introduced by Representative Ed Markey (D-MA), would forever stop the federal government from secretly kidnapping people and sending them to foreign governments that commonly use torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment in detention or interrogation.