CIA Spends Billions, Perhaps Trillions On Rendition

By ROBERT WELLER

Many Americans were curious how much it cost for the rescue attempt for Balloon Boy.

Sheriff Jim Alderden, who while he was still playing the fool, said no money was spent that wouldn’t have been. Deputies work, Guard choppers need practice hours, etc.

When he realized how badly he had been fooled, suddenly he was talking about millions in reparations.

The cost of rendition _ the kidnapping of terrorist suspects or people who are their friends _ could have been enough to provide the nation respectable health care. No one knows, and may never know. In addition to travel costs bribes were required to get victims into a friendly country without the U.S. State Department knowing, because in general they followed our laws.

It is known that the feds seem to have a fetish for expensive hotels, airline charters, fancy meals. One hotel bill costs CIA agents $150,000, according to Italian agents.

I was never a spy but knew some, and I did travel on assignments where I had to keep my identity a secret. In those days I didn’t rent cars, didn’t stay in fancy hotels, and kept my mouth shut.

Traveling in top-of-the line hotels would make you much more visible. Frequent flyer miles galore were earned when chartered planes weren’t used.

Yesterday, an Italian court convicted 23 CIA agents for their role in the kidnapping and torture of an Egyptian who had been allowed to seek sanctuary in Italy. He had never done anything that criminal. The idea was to get him off the street.

People need to know that getting information is often not the goal. Getting a possible problem off the street is.

Michael Schueuer, who created the program for President ClintonPresident Clinton, believes it was a great success even without gaining information. “I would like to add interrogation was never a goal under President Clinton. One reason information was not collected was that if torture was used “it might be simply what an individual thought we wanted to hear,” he told a congressional hearing.

It is difficult to assess Schueuer’s claim about the results of these actions. Since they weren’t known to be planning crimes. On the other hand, even more hatred was spread.