WASHINGTON - The CIA's independent watchdog is investigating fewer than 10 cases where terror suspects may have been mistakenly swept away to foreign countries by the spy agency, a figure lower than published reports but enough to raise some concerns.
After the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, President Bush gave the CIA authority to conduct the now-controversial operations, called "renditions," and permitted the agency to act without case-by-case approval from the White House or other administration offices.
The highly classified practice involves grabbing terror suspects off the street of one country and flying them to their home country or another where they are wanted for a crime or questioning.
Now controversial.
Meaning, apparently, that the tactic wasn't controversial at all when the Clinton administration invented it. It is kind of Amazing how the Clinton administration - which authorized warrantless searches and extraordinary rendition operations just as the Bush administration has done - gets a complete pass on this stuff from the media. If one were to simply read the media's reporting of these issues you'd think that they were all inventions of the Bush administration when, in reality, these tactics have been in use for years if not decades.