Georgetown University’s Daniel Byman suggests that rendition is poorly understood, particualrly by its most strident critics.
There is no question that renditions are a flawed instrument, especially when used recklessly and without exploring other options first. But it is a mistake to focus on the tool without understanding the problem it is used to solve: What does the U.S. government do when it has the opportunity to detain, question and gain information from a suspected terrorist who isn’t an American citizen, but does not have enough evidence to bring charges against the suspect in a U.S. court?
Rendition can be justified, Byman suggests, even if it presents the risk of torture or other abuses.
Because renditions lie in that gray area between the rule of law and the nation’s security, a more honest debate about the practice would serve the country well. Liberal voices must answer the painful question of whether suspected terrorists who are not U.S. citizens should be allowed to escape without hindrance when we have some evidence of threat or wrongdoing, but not enough to try them in U.S. courts. Conservatives, in turn, must confront the moral problem of torture and the political consequences of angering our allies. Only then can the worst abuses common to the program be curbed without jettisoning an important counterterrorism instrument.
The whole piece is worth a read.
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