Bush, Rice Mislead Americans on Torture Outsourcing

U.S. Sends Prisoners to Uzbekistan, Syria, Other Countries Known To Torture

WASHINGTON, DC- In the latest effort to mislead the public about the shameful U.S. practice of outsourcing prisoners to third countries -- known as "extraordinary rendition' -- President Bush issued the following statement, "We do not render to countries that torture, that has been our policy and that policy will remain the same." Yet, moments later the President defended the practice stating that the success of the war on terror depends on such covert operations.

Representative Ed Markey (D-MA), author of the "Torture Outsourcing Prevention Act," made the following statement on the President's deliberate efforts to mislead the public on the practice of rendition.

"The President said today that "we abide by the law of the United States, that we do not torture' then why is his Vice President lobbying for a loophole that allows American officers to continue engage in torture or other forms of humiliating or degrading treatment, and to transfer such prisoners to known human rights violators for interrogation ? The President needs to get his facts straight on this dangerous policy that has smeared U.S. credibility around the world.

"President Bush is not being honest with the American public. Uzbekistan and Syria, two of the destinations of U.S. captured prisoners -- are countries named in our own U.S. State Department Human Rights Report as known torturers. This administration needs to put an end to its campaign to defend this shameful practice and start putting energy into restoring the credibility we have lost around the world.

"In order to meet its obligations under the Convention Against Torture, this Administration has been engaging in a piece of legalistic fiction. It asks the torturing country for "diplomatic assurances' that the transferred detainee will not be tortured on the theory that a torturing country will keep its word to leave our suspects alone. Based on those assurances, it argues that our obligations under the Convention Against Torture have been met since there's no longer a substantial likelihood that the person we are sending to one of these known torturing countries will, in fact, be tortured," said Representative Markey. He added, "The Administration is employing tortured logic in service of a policy of outsourcing torture."

Rep. Markey is the author of the "Torture Outsourcing Prevention Act," a bill which would bar extraordinary rendition to countries that torture and which would sharply restrict the practice of obtaining diplomatic assurances to facilitate such renditions. An amendment derived from his bill was attached to the House version of the Defense Appropriations bill and last month Rep. Markey organized a letter, signed by 57 House Members, urging appropriators to include both the McCain anti-torture amendment and the Markey anti-rendition amendment in the final defense spending bill.

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