This legal term has gained much attention in the press in the
past couple of years because of reports that the CIA has been
capturing terrorism suspects in one country and delivering them
with no court hearing or extradition process to a second, in
which torture is practised, in order to get confessions or
useful intelligence. The term dates to the end of the 1980s at
the latest, but is in the news at the moment because of
accusations that the CIA is being actively aided by the British
government, and because of a court case last month in New York
in which a Canadian citizen challenged his removal to Syria in
this way. The core of the term is rendition, an old but little-
known legal principle. It comes from an obsolete French term
that derives from rendre, to give back or render. Most people
know rendition as a posh word for the performance of an actor or
musician, but in the time of the first Queen Elizabeth — about
1600 — it referred to the surrender of a garrison (the occupants
rendered, or gave themselves