concerns that diplomatic assurances are being used in some cases as justification to transfer persons suspected of having information regarding terrorism-related activities to countries where torture is routinely used, sometimes specifically to extract such information. A spate of U.S. government revelations in February and March 2005 regarding the U.S. renditions program indicates that those concerns are not unwarranted. High-level U.S. administration officials have defended the practice of transferring detainees by rendition in the “war on terrorism” to other countries for interrogation, but have also insisted that in all such cases they seek assurances that the detainees will not be tortured. On February 16, 2005, Director of Central Intelligence Porter J. Goss testified before Congress and defended the CIA’s participation in such transfers.108 Goss also admitted that the United States had a limited capacity to enforce diplomatic assurances against torture: We have a responsibility of trying to ensure that they are properly treated, and we try and do the best we can to guarantee that. But of course once they’re out of our control, there’s only so much we can do.109 Newly-appointed U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales also said in a March 2005 interview that the U.S. State Department and CIA secure assurances that detainees subject to transfer will be treated humanely upon return, but that once a detainee is in custody in another country, “We can’t fully control what that country might do. We obviously expect a country to whom we have rendered a detainee to comply with their representations to us… If you're asking me, 'Does a country always comply?' I don't have an answer to that."110 These striking admissions by U.S. government officials acknowledge that once a detainee is transferred there is no way to enforce diplomatic assurances or fully guarantee a returnee’s safety. In response to Goss’s claim that assurances are “checked and doublechecked” the New York Times concluded: 108 Testimony of the Director of Central Intelligence Porter J. Goss before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, “Global Intelligence Challenges 2005: Meeting Long-Term Challenges with a Long-Term Strategy,” February 16, 2005 [online] http://www.cia.gov/cia/public_affairs/press_release/2005/pr02172005.html (retrieved March 9, 2005) 109 Tracy Wilkinson and Bob Drogin, “Missing Imam’s Trail Said to Lead from Italy to CIA; Prosecutors in Milan are Investigating Whether an Egyptian-born Suspected Militant was Spirited Away by the U.S. Using a Disputed Tactic,” Los Angeles Times, A-1, March 3, 2005. See also, Douglas Jehl and David Johnston, “Rule Change Lets C.I.A. Freely Send Suspects Abroad to Jails,” New York Times, March 6, 2005. 110 Mark Sherman, “Gonzales: No Guarantee Captives aren’t Tortured,” Associated Press, March 8, 2005. 37 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH VOL. 17 NO. 4(D)