CIA veteran calls for return to rendition

EDINBURGH, Scotland, Aug. 29 (UPI) -- A former CIA officer says the wave of pro-democracy uprisings in the Middle East is a disaster for U.S. and British intelligence collection.

Michael Scheuer, who once led the CIA unit that pursued Osama bin Laden, says help from Egyptian, Tunisian, Libyan and Lebanese intelligence services has "dried-up" because of resentments or fear of retaliation, The Guardian newspaper reported Sunday.

Scheurer, speaking at the Edinburgh book festival in Scotland to promote a biography he has written of bin Laden, said rendition, in which terrorism suspects are sent to another country for interrogation, should be re-established so the United States and Britain can continue monitoring militants. Rendition became a controversial counter-terrorism tool after it was discovered that suspects were sometimes tortured during interrogation.

"The Arab Spring has been a disaster for us in terms of intelligence gathering, and we now are blind both because of the Arab Spring and because there is nothing with which to replace the rendition program," Scheurer said. "The people we have in custody now are pretty long in the tooth, in terms of the information they can provide in interrogations.