Spaces of Disappearance: The Architecture of Extraordinary Rendition

摘要

Recently Gina Haspel, a CIA operative who ran a so-called black site in Thailand as part of the Detention and Interrogation Program under the George W Bush administration - known for its use of 'extraordinary rendition', meaning kidnapping - was appointed as the Director of the CIA. The codename of that particular site was 'Green', and its alias 'Cat's Eye Prison'. According to Jordan H Carver's Spaces of Disappearance - The Architecture of Extraordinary Rendition, the site's location is still unknown, but it is suspected to be either the Udon Thani Voice of America broadcast facility, or somewhere close to Chiang Mai International Airport. The name of the first location is of course dripping with irony, while the latter possibility just points to the international web of covert connections of which this facility was a part. The appointment of Haspel is an indication that the use of torture, euphemistically called 'enhanced interrogation', has not been sufficiently addressed and abdicated by subsequent US administrations. In spite of the release in 2014 of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence's Report on the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program (also known as the 'Torture Report'), no one has been held accountable or brought to justice. Secrecy and obfuscation continue to surround the programme.