US law does not forbid rendition of terror suspects to countries that torture, says CIA lawyer

"U.S. law does not … preclude the United States from rendering individuals to a third country in instances where the third country may subject the rendered individual to torture. The only restrictions that do exist under U.S. law preclude U.S. officials from themselves torturing or inflicting cruel and unusual punishment on individuals during rendition operations, or rendering individuals from a place of actual armed conflict or occupation — all of which prove to be narrow limitations indeed." —Daniel Pines, assistant general counsel at the CIA.