Disappearing Act: Rendition by the Numbers

Piecing Together a Picture of the CIA’s Secret Rendition Program.

By

Peter Bergen,

Katherine Tiedemann,

New America Foundation

March 3, 2008 |

Mother Jones

A study on the "extraordinary rendition" program before and after September 11.

Click here to read this full article.

An extraordinary rendition may be defined as the extrajudicial transfer of an individual to a country where there is reasonable probability he will be tortured. In our research we have counted 67 known cases of extraordinary rendition by the United States since 1995. While the details are often incomplete, they help paint a more complete picture of this secretive and controversial Central Intelligence Agency program.

Our research is based on reports from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at NYU Law School, Andy Worthington's The Guantanamo Files, Stephen Grey's Ghost Plane, and media accounts. (Special thanks to Joanne Mariner of Human Rights Watch for her invaluable assistance.)

Before September 11

Then-CIA director George Tenet testified before the 9/11 Commission that there were more than 80 renditions before September 11, 2001. We found information on 29 cases of extraordinary and ordinary rendition prior to 9/11. Of the 14 that qualify as extraordinary renditions, 12 were to Egypt.

Prisoners who remained in American custody generally were accused of involvement with terrorist actions, such as the 1985 Egypt Air hijacking, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and the 1998 African embassy bombings.

Names in parentheses are alternate spellings or aliases.

	Name	Citizenship	Rendered From	Rendered To	Date	Outcome
1	Abu Talal al-Qasimi (Talat Fouad Qassem)	Egyptian	Croatia	Egypt	September 1995	Questioned on a U.S. ship off the coast of Croatia; transferred to Egypt in 1998; executed in Cairo
2	Ahmed al-Naggar	Egyptian	Albania	Egypt	July 1998	Hanged in Egypt, February 2000
3	Mohammed Hassan Tita	Egyptian	Albania	Egypt	July 1998	Sentenced to 10 years in prison in Egypt
4	Shawki Salama Attiya	Egyptian	Albania	Egypt	July 1998	Sentenced to life imprisonment in Egypt
5	Ahmed Ismail Osman Saleh	Egyptian	Albania	Egypt	August 1998	Hanged in Egypt, February 2000
6	Essam Abdel Tawwab Abdel Halim	Egyptian	Bulgaria	Egypt	August 1998	Sentenced to 10 years in prison in Egypt
7	Ihab Mohammed Saqr	Unknown	Azerbaijan	Egypt	Fall 1998	Unknown
8	Ahmed Mohammed Mabrouk	Unknown	Azerbaijan	Egypt	Fall 1998	Unknown
9	Essam Mohammed Hafez Marzouq	Unknown	Azerbaijan	Egypt	Fall 1998	Unknown
10	Mohammed al-Zawahiri (brother of Ayman al-Zawahiri)	Egyptian	United Arab Emirates	Egypt	April 1999	Imprisoned in Egypt
11	Hani al-Sayegh	Saudi	U.S.	Saudi Arabia	October 1999	Deported to Saudi Arabia, October 1999
12	Hussein al-Zawahiri (brother of Ayman al-Zawahiri)	Egyptian	Malaysia	Egypt	December 1999	Released in 2000
13	Abdul Rahman Muhammad Nasir Qasim al-Yaf'i	Yemeni	Egypt	Jordan	October 2000	Returned to Yemen, March 2001
14	Rifa Ahmed Taha (Abu Yasser)	Egyptian	Syria	Egypt	2001	Unclear if rendered before or after 9/11

After September 11

We found information on 117 renditions that have occurred since September 11, 2001. When we excluded renditions to Afghanistan, CIA secret prisons (or "black sites"), Guantanamo, or American custody, we found 53 cases of extraordinary rendition. All individuals for whom the rendition destination is known were sent to countries that have been criticized by the State Department's annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, which document "torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."

Of these 53 prisoners, more than one quarter have explicitly claimed that they were tortured while in foreign custody; four claim they were tortured while passing through American custody either en route to or following foreign custody. Four others may have been tortured while in foreign custody based on secondhand accounts or vague descriptions of treatment in prisons in their destination countries. Sixteen of the 53 individuals have been released after extraordinary renditions, and half of them claimed they were tortured while in foreign custody; two claim they were tortured while in American custody.

	Name	Citizenship	Rendered From	Rendered To	Date	Outcome
1	Jamal Mohammed Alwai Mar'i	Yemeni	Pakistan	Jordan	September 2001	Says he was not tortured in Jordan; transferred to Guantanamo
2	Mamdouh Habib	Australian	Pakistan	Egypt, Afghanistan	October 2001	Tortured in Egypt; transferred to Guantanamo; released January 2005
3	Jamil Qasim Saeed Mohammed	Yemeni	Pakistan	Jordan	October 2001	Unknown
4	Muhammad Haydar Zammar	German (Syrian descent)	Morocco	Syria	November 2001 or December 2001	Tortured in Syria; now in Syrian custody
5	Mohamedou Ould Slahi (Abu Musab)	Mauritanian	Mauritania	Jordan, Afghanistan	November 2001	Tortured in Jordan; transferred to Guantanamo
6	Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi (Ali Abdul-Hamid al-Fakhiri)	Libyan	Pakistan	Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Afghanistan, Libya	In CIA custody as of November 2001; rendered to Libya late 2005/early 2006	Possibly tortured in Egypt; sent to Libya
7	Ahmed Agiza	Egyptian (living in Sweden)	Sweden	Egypt	December 2001	Tortured in Egypt; still imprisoned there
8	Muhammad Zery	Egyptian (living in Sweden)	Sweden	Egypt	December 2001	Tortured in Egypt; released October 2003
9	Hassan (Raba'i)	Libyan	Pakistan	Libya, Afghanistan	2002	May have been rendered to Libya in late 2005 or 2006; status unknown
10	Muhammad Saad Iqbal Madni	Egyptian (held Pakistani passport)	Indonesia	Egypt, Afghanistan	January 2002	Fellow prisoners say he was tortured in Egypt; transferred to Guantanamo
11	Walid al-Qadasi	Yemeni	Iran	Afghanistan, Yemen	January 2002	Tortured in "dark prison" in Afghanistan; transferred to Yemen April 2004; released February 2006
12	Anas al-Libi (Anas al-Sabai, Nazih al-Raghie)	Libyan	Sudan	Probably Egypt	February 2002	Unknown
13	Abduh Ali Shaqawi (Abdul Rahim al-Sharqawi; Riyadh the Facilitator)	Yemeni	Pakistan	Jordan, Afghanistan	February 2002	Transferred to Afghanistan January 2004; transferred to Guantanamo September 2004.
14	Abou Elkassim Britel [Abu al-Kassem Britel]	Italian/ Moroccan	Pakistan	Pakistan, Morocco	March or May 2002	Tortured in Morocco; released February 2003; recaptured May 2003; currently in Moroccan custody
15	Suleiman Abdalla Salim (Suleiman Abdalla, Issa Tanzania)	Yemeni, Tanzanian	Somalia	Afghanistan or Kenya	March 2002 or March 2003	Claims he was tortured in U.S. custody; status unknown
16	Binyam Mohamed al-Habashi	Ethiopian	Pakistan	Morocco, Afghanistan	April or July 2002	Tortured in Morocco; transferred to Guantanamo, September 2004
17	Barah Abdul Latif	Syrian	Pakistan	Syria	May 2002	Questioned in Palestine Branch Prison, Damascus
18	Bahaa Mustafa Jaghel	Syrian	Pakistan	Syria	May 2002	Questioned in Palestine Branch Prison, Damascus
19	Abdel Halim Dalak	Unknown	Pakistan	Syria	May 2002	Student arrested in November 2001; Status unknown
20	Omar Ghramesh	Unknown	Pakistan	Syria	May 2002	Arrested with Abu Zubaydah; Status unknown
21	Unidentified teenager	Unknown	Pakistan	Syria	May 2002	Status unknown
22	Abu Zubair al-Haili (Fawzi Saad al-'Obaydi)	Saudi	Morocco	Morocco	June 2002	Tortured in Morocco; Status unknown
23	Sheikh Ahmed Salim (Swedan)	Kenyan	Pakistan	Unknown	July 2002	Status unknown
24	Yasser Tinawi	Syrian	Somalia	Ethiopia, Egypt, Syria	July 2002	Interrogated by U.S. agents in Ethiopia, then flown to Cairo; transferred to Syria
25	Omar bin Hassan	Palestinian	Somalia	Ethiopia	July 2002	Released after questioning on Somali border
26	Maher Arar	Syrian/ Canadian	New York	Syria	September 2002	Tortured in Syria; released February 2004
27	Hassan bin Attash	Saudi (born in Yemen)	Pakistan	Jordan, Afghanistan	September 2002	Tortured in Jordan; transferred to Guantanamo
28	Saif al Islam el Masry	Egyptian	Georgia	Possibly Egypt	September 2002	Believed to be held in a secret CIA prison
29	Abdallah al-Sadeq (Sadek)	Libyan	Thailand	Libya	2003	Libyan custody
30	Abu Munder al-Saadi	Libyan	Hong Kong	Libya	2003	Libyan custody
31	Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr (Abu Omar)	Egyptian; asylum in Italy	Italy	Egypt	February 2003	Tortured in Egypt; released February 2007
32	Aafia	Siddiqui	Pakistani	Pakistan	March 2003	Status unknown
33	Saud Memon (involved in Daniel Pearl slaying)	Pakistani	South Africa	Pakistan	March 2003	Released April 2007 ?badly injured and emaciated?; Died May 2007
34	Laid Saidi	Algerian	Expelled from Tanzania to Malawi	Afghanistan; Algeria	May 2003	Says he was tortured at Bagram; transferred to Algeria; released August 2004
35	Safwan al-Hasham (Haffan al-Hasham)	Saudi	Pakistan		May 2003	Appeared on a congressional "Terrorists No Longer a Threat" list in July 2006; status unknown
36	Jawad al-Bashar	Egyptian	Pakistan		May 2003	Status unknown
37	Mahmoud Sardar Issa	Sudanese	Malawi	Zimbabwe, Sudan	June 2003	Released July 2003 in Sudan
38	Fahad al-Bahli	Saudi	Malawi	Zimbabwe, Sudan	June 2003	Released July 2003 in Sudan
39	Arif Ulusam	Turkish	Malawi	Zimbabwe, Sudan	June 2003	Released July 2003 in Sudan
40	Ibrahim Itabaci	Turkish	Malawi	Zimbabwe, Sudan	June 2003	Released July 2003 in Sudan
41	Khalifa Abdi Hassan	Saudi	Malawi	Zimbabwe, Sudan	June 2003	Released July 2003 in Sudan
42	Salah Nasser Salim 'Ali	Yemeni	Indonesia	Jordan, Afghanistan, Yemen	August 2003 / October 2003	Tortured in Jordan; held in Yemen
43	Muhammad Faraj Ahmed Bashmilah	Yemeni	Indonesia	Jordan, Afghanistan, Eastern Europe, Yemen	October 2003	Tortured in Jordan; released March 2006
44	Salah Nasir Salim 'Ali Qaru	Yemeni	Jordan	Djibouti, Afghanistan, Eastern Europe	October 2003	Tortured at a "black site"; returned to Yemen May 2005
45	Muhammad Abdullah Salah al-Assad	Yemeni	Tanzania	Djibouti, Afghanistan, Yemen (CIA custody)	December 2003	Harsh conditions in secret prisons (no direct mention of torture); released March 2006
46	Khaled al-Sharif (Abu Hazem)	Libyan	Pakistan	Libya, Afghanistan	Late 2003	May have been rendered to Libya in late 2005 or 2006; status unknown
47	Ibad al Yaquti al Sheikh al Sufiyan	Saudi	Pakistan	Unknown	January 2004	Status unknown
48	Walid bin Azmi, USS Cole suspect	Unknown	Pakistan	Unknown	January 2004	Status unknown
49	Marwan Ibrahim Jabour	Palestinian (born in Jordan)	Pakistan	Pakistan, Afghanistan, Jordan, Israel	May 2004	Tortured in Pakistan; released in Gaza November 2006
50	Sharif al-Masri (Abd-al-Sattar Sharif al-Masri. Told Pak. authorities of Al Q plan to smuggle nuclear materials to U.S. from Mexico)	Egyptian	Pakistan	Unknown	August 2004	Status unknown
51	Qari Saifullah Akhtar (Amir Harkat-ul-Ansar Qari Saifullah)	Pakistani	United Arab Emirates	Pakistan	August 2004	Appeared on FBI's "Terrorists No Longer a Threat" list in July 2006; status unknown
52	Mustafa Setmariam Nasar (Abu Musab al-Suri)	Syrian-Spanish dual	Pakistan	India? Syria?	November 2005	Arrested by Pakistani police; was in U.S. custody in early 2006; now likely in Syrian custody
53	[First name unknown] al-Mahdi-Jawdeh (Abu Ayoub, Ayoub al-Libi)	Libyan	Pakistan	Libya

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