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Americans Want to End Secret Prisons
- Many adults in the United States express disappointment with the way their government is relying on the practice of extraordinary rendition, according to a poll by Knowledge Networks for the Program on International Policy Attitudes. 57 per cent of respondents think the U.S. should not secretly send terrorism suspects to other countries that are known to use torture.
In November 2005, the Washington Post reported on the existence of secret U.S. prisons for purported terrorism suspects located in Eastern Europe. U.S. president George W. Bush declared, "Anything we do to (protect the American people), any activity we conduct, is within the law. We do not torture." The Bush administration has neither confirmed nor denied the report.
The reports of the so-called "black sites" have caused diplomatic tension in Europe, as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is believed to have covertly transported detainees by private charter between locations, in a possible violation of a country's airspace.
Earlier this month, acting assistant attorney general Steve Bradbury discussed the situation at a Senate hearing, saying, "We do not transfer individuals to countries where we believe it is more likely than not that they will be tortured. That's a treaty obligation we have and a policy we apply on a worldwide basis today. Rendition itself covers a wide range of activities, many of them quite legitimate and traditionally used by countries all over the world, to bring people to justice."
Yesterday, the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Committee expressed "grave concerns" over seven topics related to the U.S. human rights record, including the "detention, rendition and torture of non-citizens." British law professor Nigel Rodley declared, "If some other state abducted U.S. citizens, for example those plotting to overthrow the regime in that other state, would the U.S. consider that state could hold them secretly anywhere on the planet for months or years on end?"
Polling Data
Do you think the U.S. should or should not permit U.S. military and intelligence agencies to secretly send terrorism suspects to other countries that are known to use torture?
Should | 37% |
Should not | 57% |
No answer | 6% |
Source: Knowledge Networks / Program on International Policy Attitudes
Methodology: Online interviews with 1,059 American adults, conducted from Jun. 27 to Jul. 2, 2006. Margin of error is 3.1 per cent.
