I am not a fan of rendition, but I fail to see how this makes things any worse.

Personally I think it's really quite scary how the Gov. runs illegal covert "black site" operations.

Hey, it's no secret that between '56 and the mid-'70s COINTELPRO (the FBI's Counterintelligence Program)ran illegal covert operations to "neutralize" orgs. deemed to be enemies of the US.

Actually the gov.'s practice of systematically violating the law goes back to WWI, when Hoover sent 35 agents, assisted by police, military personel and a "citizens auxiliary," to haul in some 50,00 alleged draft dodgers WITHOUT WARRANTS.

On June 2, 1919, bombs went off in eight cities, inclusing Washington, DC, where Att. Gen. Palmer's home was partially destroyed; he held the approx. 70,000 self-professed US Communists responsible, and, encouraged by Congress's refusal to seat the duly elected Socialist Vicotr Berger, Palmer initiated a series of illegal raids. And the 'round up" of 10,000 persons from 33 cities was followed up with THIRD DEGREE TORTURE.

In 1924, Att. Gen. Fiske curtailed the unconstitutional activities of the Bureau, reasoning that, "When a police system passes beyond these limits it is dangerous to the proper administration of justice and to human liberty."

In 1974, the Church Committee's investigation of COINTELPRO revealed that: "The Gov. has often undertaken the secret surveillance of citizens on the basis of their political beliefs, even when those beliefs posed no threat of violence or illegal acts ... Groups and individuals have been harassed and disrupted because of their political views and lifestyles. Unsavory and vicious tactics have been employed--including anonymous attempts to break up marriages, disrupt meetings, ostracize persons from their professions and provoke target groups into rivalries that might result in deaths. ... Gov. officials--including those whose prinicipal duty is to enforce the law--have violated or ignored the law over long periods of time and have advocated and defended their right to break the law."

In 1982, Congress passes the Boland Amendment, making direct military aid to the contras illegal. If the famous actor was to successfully charge forth with his cutthroat foreign and domestic policies, the Justice Dept. would have to ride with him--and be real selective about how it enforced the law!

This task was entrusted to long-time Reagan confidant Meese; one by one, the doomed DOJ's division heads, deputy and assistant att. gens. and special counsel fell to the sword of the new Att. Gen. Formerly the province of dedicated career prosecutors, these key positions were taken over by zealous 'yes men." In the words of Stu Smith, then president of a union that represented DOJ employees, "Justice became politicalized at a lower and lower level."

The DOJ, which had begun the decade embracing a custom of turning a blind eye to certain criminal activity, was by this time a full-fleged partner in criminal enterprises ranging from perjury to obstruction of justice. According to an anonymous former congressional investigator, "The bottom line is that the DOJ as presently constituted is a totally dishonest organization, riddled with political fixes."

Now the thing here is that our system of gov. is supposed to have enough built-in checks and balances to protect the people from these political fixes. Unfortunately (for the entire world!) nowadays, so it would seem, Congress is entirely corrupt, the Courts are entirely corrupt, the DOJ is entirely corrupt, the CIA is entirely corrupt, the high-level military brass is entirely corrupt, the UN is entirley corrupt, and our Pres. Bush is just one hell of a scary, corrupt, ugly bastard (but awfully wily, huh?)

It just goes to show--if you fool enough of the people, than just about anything's possible (huh???)!!!