Abduction, Black Site Prisons, and the CIA: Extraordinary Rendition Today

“Obviously you need to preserve some tools—you still have to go after the bad guys.” —anonymous Obama administration official, February 2009

While “black site” prisons and absentee trials of CIA officers in Italy for their alleged roles in extraordinary rendition make headlines, how is it being used today? The practice of rendition—covertly seizing individuals abroad and transferring them into another country—is not new and is clearly sanctioned by the government. Largely attributed to the CIA working with the Department of Justice and the FBI, the use of extraordinary rendition intensified following 9/11. But accounts of moving suspects to countries where they could be interrogated and tortured by methods illegal in the U.S. and holding suspects in black site prisons indefinitely earned the condemnation of human rights activists. While the Obama administration has reportedly put a stop to some of these practices, extraordinary rendition is still in use. The panel includes: John B. Bellinger III, a partner in Arnold & Porter LLP’s national and homeland security practice group and a former legal advisor to the Department of State from 2005 to 2009; Dana Priest, Washington Post journalist who won a 2006 Pulitzer for her reporting on black site prisons; and Morton H. Halperin, senior advisor, Open Society Institute.

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