The following statement was released today by Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA), in response to news reports of a secret directive signed by President Bush to give the CIA blanket authorization to engage in the practice of "extraordinary rendition” -- sending persons in US custody to other countries for interrogation, even when those other countries are known to engage in torture. Rep. Markey is the author of legislation to eliminate the practice of "outsourcing torture," introduced in the House of Representatives on February 17, 2005.

"The current practice of "outsourcing torture" is unacceptable and must be stopped. The President needs to rescind his extraordinary rendition "outsourcing torture" directives so that Americans can know that we are neither engaging in torture ourselves, nor outsourcing torture to other nations.

“I call on the President to declassify this secret order immediately. Right now, as a direct result of this order, the CIA is operating “Air Torture” – a fleet of ghost Gulfstream aircraft used to spirit suspects in U.S. custody to countries that do not respect laws against torture exclusively to have other countries do interrogations under rules that the United States allegedly abhors. This scandalous hypocritical game will come back to haunt our own men and women serving on the front lines in the war on terror.

The war against terrorism is a war against those who engage in torture. If we fight our enemy using the same inhumane and morally bankrupt techniques that we are trying to stop, we will simply become what we have beheld. I call on President Bush to stop the outsourcing of torture immediately, in deed as well as word."

Fact Check Sheet  iss_human_rights_rep050307.pdf (23.74 KB)