Posted by
Always To The Right on Sunday, February 01, 2009 1:56:24 PM
For the last seven years, the Left has screeched hysterically over the CIA practice of rendition,
in which agents turn detainees over to authorities in their home
country for interrogation. Never mind that the practice started in the
Clinton administration, and never mind that the other options were
Guantanamo Bay, release, or two caps in the back of the head; they
pilloried Bush over renditions as if he’d thought them up himself.
Hollywood even made a movie about how awful the process is, apparently
matched in awfulness only by the film’s box office.
Barack Obama exploited that outrage when he promised Hope and ChangeTM,
and the Left squealed with joy over the Brave New Obama World in
national security. Now they’ll have to squeal again as Obama has had a
sudden revelation as President that renditions are more necessary than ever, if the CIA can’t hold these subjects at Gitmo or its own secret sites
Renditions created a huge global controversy primarily because the
home countries of the terrorists torture for information. Most of
these terror suspects grabbed by the CIA come from countries like
Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, and other emirates where the
Geneva Convention only provides a veneer of respectability and not
legal constraints of any kind. Critics complained that the CIA
essentially “outsourced” its torture to subcontractors in this
rendition process, ensuring that these methods would get used without
getting their own hands dirty and getting the information torture
produced.
Unfortunately, though, the political jeremiads of the Left has given
Obama little room to manuever. He has already ordered the CIA to close
its holding sites for such suspects, at least for indeterminate-length
detentions, which means any terrorists taken have to be moved somewhere
else in a relatively tight time frame. The one place the US has for
that purpose will close, thanks to the entirely hysterical political
press to close Gitmo. The CIA by law cannot bring the suspects back to
the US. That leaves release, rendition, or assassination as the only
three options left to Obama after all of the political posturing of the
campaign.
Frankly, I think the US does a better job of treating its detainees
than anywhere a rendition program would deliver them, but without a
Gitmo or CIA holding site, that’s the only way to ensure that we can
get any intelligence that will protect the US. I’m not surprised that
Obama has reached the same conclusion, now that he has the responsibility to keep the nation secure from foreign attack.
It’s amazing how clarifying that responsibility can be, and Obama at
least must have a little more comprehension of what Bush went through
the last seven years.
Perhaps the Left will suddenly realize the same logic and give him a
pass on this. Somehow, though, I think renditions may be a bridge too
far for them, and I expect that Obama will take a pretty big hit from
the hysterics in the next couple of days.