No apologies for Clinton here. But this excerpt from the New Yorker article, linked above:
Rendition was originally carried out on a limited basis, but after September 11th, when President Bush declared a global war on terrorism, the program expanded beyond recognition—becoming, according to a former C.I.A. official, “an abomination.” What began as a program aimed at a small, discrete set of suspects—people against whom there were outstanding foreign arrest warrants—came to include a wide and ill-defined population that the Administration terms “illegal enemy combatants.” Many of them have never been publicly charged with any crime.
Sadly, I don't think the McCain amendment addresses the issue of outsourcing torture--I believe it merely covers DoD personnel. I suppose that is where Bush finds his legal footing when he declares that "we" do not torture. According to the New Yorker, however, rendition is already illegal by a 1998 US law. This
should be a much bigger issue than Scootergate, IMO.
