Hey! Where’s the word RENDITION?

Without the word RENDITION in the headline, this story doesn’t really attract the eye, does it?

Yet, it should.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Tuesday that the government completed a records search into rendition requests made by the United States, finding three instances where the Clinton administration asked for permission to fly through its airspace while transporting prisoners.

Tuesday’s report followed a government statement in December in which it said it had no records of requests made by Bush administration for rendition flights through Britain to third countries.

At that time, Straw ruled out a judicial inquiry into claims that the United States has used British airports to fly terror suspects abroad for interrogation.

Human rights organizations and legal groups in the U.S. and Europe have accused the current U.S. government of “extraordinary rendition” or the covert transfer of terror suspects to third countries where harsh interrogation methods, including torture, are permitted.

The three flight requests revealed Tuesday were made in 1998, for trips to the United States.

I imagine “Human rights organizations and legal groups” will be less offended by Clinton doing it than by Bush. Just a guess.