New rendition of old story

Corrupting our language is a cause of constant pain, and the Bush administration should go down in history as word destroyers. Rendition is one of them, for centuries it was happily a synonym for a translation or interpretation – a rendering.

Under Bush it has taken on a sinister definition, rendering means handing terror suspects over to third parties who have no qualms about torture. Frankly I was hoping the who murky issue would fade away, but now the UK have stirred things up again.

“United States officials have sought to quell the fallout by apologising to Britain for what they said was an "administrative error".”

The CIA used a US military airstrip on the British territory of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean to refuel planes carrying two suspects in 2002. That fact was not uncovered until a "self-generated" review by the CIA in late 2007 after persistent media reports.

One of the two prisoners is now jailed at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base and the other was released to his home country, where he has since been freed. UK PM, Gordon Brown would probably like to forget the whole thing, but UK media aren’t as compliant as the US version.

Brits are particularly sensitive about US military illegally using their facilities, and it is always a political minefield for UK governments. Brown has not continued his predecessor’s love affair with Bush, and will go down the politically expedient route. I wonder if that means the US will render CIA officials to Britain for some serious interrogation?