EXTRAORDINARY MEANS OF PROTECTING A NATION…
Rendition is a 2007 political thriller directed by Gavin Hood, and starring Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal, Meryl Streep, Peter Sarsgaard, Alan Arkin, and Omar Metwally. It centers on the controversial CIA practice of extraordinary rendition and is based on the true story of Khalid El-Masri, who was mistaken for Khalid al-Masri.
![Khaled El-Masri (also Khalid El-Masri[1] and Khaled Masri, Levantine Arabic pronunciation: [ˈxaːlɪd elˈmɑsˤɾi, -ˈmɑsˤɾe], Arabic: خالد المصري) (born 29 June 1963) is a German and Lebanese citizen who was mistakenly abducted by the Macedonian police in 2003, and handed over to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). While in CIA custody, he was flown to Afghanistan, where he was held at a black site and routinely interrogated, beaten, strip-searched, sodomized, and subjected to other cruel forms of inhumane and degrading treatment and torture. After El-Masri held hunger strikes, and was detained for four months in the "Salt Pit", the CIA finally admitted his arrest was a mistake and released him. He is believed to be among an estimated 3,000 detainees, including several key leaders of al Qaeda, whom the CIA captured from 2001 to 2005, in its campaign to dismantle terrorist networks. Photo Credit: Google Images](https://i2.wp.com/moviestohistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Khaled-El-Masri.webp?ssl=1)
Extraordinary rendition is a euphemism for state-sponsored kidnapping in another jurisdiction and transfer to a third state. The phrase usually refers to a United States-led program used during the War on Terror, which had the purpose of circumventing the source country’s laws on interrogation, detention, extradition, and/or torture. Extraordinary rendition is a type of extraterritorial abduction, but not all extraterritorial abductions include transfer to a third country. The CIA’s extraordinary rendition program is over, but its scope is still shrouded in some mystery. A report, released by the Open Society Foundations, sheds new light on its shocking scale. According to the report, 54 foreign governments somehow collaborated in the program. Some of those governments are brutal dictatorships, and a few are outright U.S. adversaries.
Rendition is the Featured Blog of the Month for August for its political history! You can expect to read a critique of the extraordinary rendition program, and the case of Khalid El-Masri that inspired the film. You can also read a recommendation for the 2007 film by Gavin Hood. There is also a detailed review of the film up against the case of El-Masri that it is based on. You can also watch an interview with Gyllenhaal, Sarsgaard, and Witherspoon from 2007 when they promoted the film’s release. There is also a Top Ten List to commemorate the film being a Featured Blog of the Month, and for Rendition, the topic of the list is My Top Ten Political Thriller Movies! And finally, as a Featured Blog of the Month film, you can watch the Official Trailer for the 2007 film and then plan on watching Rendition tonight!
SCROLL DOWN AND WATCH AN EXTRAORDINARY TRAILER!
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