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Evaluating Extraordinary Rendition Oriane Simon Evaluating Extraordinary Rendition Oriane Simon A thesis in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Physical, Environmental and Mathematical Sciences Faculty of Geography March 2017 Table of Contents Chapter 1 Extraordinary Rendition ................................................................................. 1 1.1 El-Masri’s Extraordinary Rendition ................................................................................. 7 1.2 Why Analyse Extraordinary Rendition? ....................................................................... 21 1.3 Previous Research and My Approach ............................................................................ 27 1.4 My approach ............................................................................................................................ 32 1.5 Thesis Outline ......................................................................................................................... 39 Chapter 2 From Moral and Legal Issues to a Micropolitical Evaluation ......... 43 2.1 Previous Analyses of Extraordinary Rendition.......................................................... 43 2.2 Problematising the Idea of Being ‘Beyond Jurisdiction’ ......................................... 66 2.3 Creativity in Evaluating Extraordinary Rendition .................................................... 81 2.4 Evaluating Extraordinary Rendition .............................................................................. 90 Chapter 3 Transforming Beings .................................................................................... 93 3.1 A Rich World of Affections ................................................................................................. 94 3.2 Creativity of Judicial Proceedings ................................................................................ 120 3.3 The Creativity of Human Beings ................................................................................... 131 Chapter 4 From Judgement to Evaluation ................................................................ 143 4.1 An Institutionalised System of Evaluation ................................................................ 144 4.2 Decisions and Actions of Litigating Actors ............................................................... 157 i 4.3 From Judgement to the Capacity to Evaluate .......................................................... 172 4.4 Analysing Extraordinary Rendition ............................................................................ 189 Chapter 5 Prisoners’ and Perpetrators’ Capacities ............................................. 198 5.1 Affections Shaping Prisoners ......................................................................................... 199 5.2 Prisoners and Perpetrators Affect Each Other ....................................................... 227 5.3 Perpetrators’ Affections and their Capacity for Responsibility ....................... 233 5.4 Habits of Evaluating .......................................................................................................... 249 Chapter 6 Institutionalised Procedures Evaluating Extraordinary Rendition ................................................................................................................................................. 255 6.1 Difficulties and Potential of Preparing a Judicial Case ......................................... 256 6.2 Lengthy and Fragile Processes of Determining Legal Categories ................... 275 6.3 Lawyers’ and Activists’ Affections in Litigations in and About Gitmo ........... 296 6.4 Evaluating Within Judicial Proceedings .................................................................... 307 Chapter 7 Why Foster the Capacity to Evaluate? .................................................. 314 References ........................................................................................................................... 330 Appendix — Extraordinary Rendition Ordeals ...................................................... 367 ii Acknowledgements I am forever indebted and grateful to my supervisor Dr Scott Sharpe for taking up my PhD. This thesis would not have been possible without his energetic enthusiasm and encouragement. His support throughout my candidature, the continuous intellectual challenges he provided and accompanied me through were essential to it. Equally, I am extremely grateful to my co-supervisor Dr Maria Hynes for her guiding thoughts, inspiring insights and supportive comments. Both have given me invaluable insights into the Deleuzian philosophy and have greatly improved the readability, coherence and conciseness of this thesis with their diligent proofreading and invaluable editing skills. Thanks are further due to my co-supervisor Dr Alec Thornton for accompanying me on this PhD journey, his cheering words and proofreading. I further wish to thank Associate Professor Paul Tranter and Dr Peter McIntyre for their helpful comments as well as the innumerable UNSW Canberra staff for their various support all along my PhD. Special thanks go to the reading group, The Difference Laboratory, which Dr Scott Sharpe, Dr Maria Hynes and Dr John-David Dewsbury set up, and which introduced me to the Deleuzian philosophy. This reading group laid the foundations for my understanding of Deleuze, exposed me to important literature, and supported the development of my thoughts through informed discussions. Thus, I thank all the participants of the reading group for their helpful and intellectual contribution as well as comradeship: Breeze Mojel, Clare Southerton, Miranda Bruce, Philippa Barter, Rohan Todd and Seimeng Lai. iii I cannot thank enough my interviewees who took the time to share their experience with me for the purpose of this study. In this regard, special thanks are due to my co-supervisor Professor Clinton Fernandes, who got me in contact with several key informants. In addition, not only have many friends enriched my PhD experience at UNSW Canberra, but they also provided invaluable support. Besides many friends in Australia and afar who enriched my PhD years, special thanks go to you Ekaterina Kamlovskaya, Fiona Beck and Samuel Reid, Hannah Barrowman, Julia McQuoid, and Pierrick Chalaye for their friendship and help in difficult times. I am further extremely grateful to Miranda Bruce and Benjamin Chaplin for their unwavering support regarding both my thesis and my life. Thank you for your amazing friendship: you are at least as exceptional as asparagus cake! I would also like to extend my thanks to my parents, Maryline Simon and Roland Simon, as well as my Brother Colin Simon for their unshakable belief in me and their support from afar. I would not be here without you. And finally, but not least, I am much indebted to my loving partner Emilio Michael Schraner for all his sacrifices and his unconditional support throughout the PhD. Heartfelt gratitude for your love, your belief in me, and for always pushing me further. Thank you, amongst other things, for introducing me to cycling during the mental challenges of doing a PhD and pushing me all the way to doing the Medio Fondo. iv Chapter 1 Extraordinary Rendition I didn’t have to sleep dep [deprive] somebody for three weeks. I could have ...you know, I could have said no let them go to sleep, and just go home. […] at 22 years old I had no business being in there. Just on a maturity level. You can’t know...it was a combination of that and I mean I was drunk on the power that I had there. The power that I had at 22 years old was disgusting. I mean I was really responsible for the lives of 20 human beings. And you know they couldn’t...they couldn’t go take a piss or shit unless I said it was okay. And that’s a lot of power to give somebody when they’re 22 years old (Corsetti, 2013a, no pagination). I remember the requests said the music will only be up to such-and-such decibel and research has shown that this level, you know, cannot harm the hearing... and I was absolutely disturbed and baffled and perplexed, because this had absolutely nothing to do with how I had been trained. This had absolutely nothing to do with what the army had taught us was allowed. This had absolutely nothing to do with what experienced interrogators, through years of interrogation had taught me and told me — with many specific stories — works. It was extremely 1 uncomfortable for me and it was also uncomfortable because I was coming in as the first time there had been a civilian Team Chief. I was the first female Team Chief. […] And it just seemed wrong and I could not rationally imagine how this would work. And something that I was very, very fortunate with, was that when I had made a decision that I was going to say no to this, I went and talked to another Team Chief who was there. […] I went to him and I said, ‘I want to not approve this.’ And everybody around me assumed that this would just keep going on. And it was amazing. He said, ‘Thank God! Finally, somebody! You’re absolutely doing the right thing’ (Bryson, 2011, no pagination). Why do some people engage in ethically dubious practices? Why do some people abuse while others do not? The questions Evaluating Extraordinary Rendition follows concern how the capacity to evaluate functions, how it affects extraordinary rendition, and how in turn it is affected by the practice. Extraordinary rendition denotes the practice of transferring prisoners across borders without following due legal procedures
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