The United States will no longer use
extraordinary renditions, a controversial tool employed by the Bush
administration, in the war on terrorism, President Barack Obama's nominee to
head the CIA said Thursday, dpa reported.
Leon Panetta said the Obama administration has banned the practice of secretly
sending a captured suspect to a third country for interrogations that could
involve torture.
"Extraordinary renditions were, I think, the situation where we took a
prisoner and sent him to another country for questioning," Panetta said
during his Senate confirmation hearing. "And often times, that questioning
took place under circumstances that did not meet our test for human
values."
Panetta also said that no prisoners will be held at so-called "black
sites," where the CIA under former president George W Bush covertly held
detainees for interrogations without providing access to the International
Committee of the Red Cross.
Panetta, however, said the US government will continue to use the
long-established practice of taking prisoners to the United States or sending
them to another country for possible prosecution, but not under circumstances
where they can be abused. That method is known simply as renditions.
"In the renditions, where we return an individual to the jurisdiction of
another country and then they exercise, you know, their right to try that
individual and to prosecute him under their laws, I think that is an
appropriate use of rendition," Panetta said.
Panetta, 70, was an unusual choice to head the CIA because he previously lacked
direct experience in the intelligence community, but his nomination was
expected to glide through the Senate.
Panetta served as former president Bill Clinton's chief of staff and was also a
congressman from California. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence will
hold a closed-door, classified hearing with Panetta on Friday.
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