obligations and U.S. domestic law and have “immediate and damaging consequences.”118 In the face of strong public criticism, the House Republican leadership amended this section of the bill and deleted the exemption from the Convention against Torture protection against refoulement to torture. Instead, they included a provision that retained the ban on removals that would violate the Convention against Torture, but added draconian detention provisions for certain classes of non-citizens who are granted this protection. These detention provisions lacked adequate standards and failed to provide for judicial review to safeguard against abuse.119 The provisions were not included in the legislation that was eventually passed in January 2005.120 Torture Outsourcing Prevention Act: Markey Bill Representative Edward J. Markey, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from the Democratic Party, has been a leading opponent of the practice of renditions in the U.S. Congress and has also argued that diplomatic assurances from abusive regimes are inherently unreliable. In February 2005, Markey introduced a bill entitled the “Torture Outsourcing Prevention Act (H.R. 952)”.121 The bill reaffirms the absolute prohibition against torture and refoulement and states that “it is critically important for that all transfers of individuals to other countries occur with full due process of law and in conformity with the obligations of the United States under article 3 of the Convention against Torture.”122 The bill specifically addresses the ineffectiveness of diplomatic assurances against torture: The reliance on diplomatic assurances from a government that it will not torture or ill-treat a person returned to that government is an ineffective safeguard for protecting persons from torture or ill-treatment. Assurances from a government known to engage in systematic torture are inherently unreliable. There is strong evidence that governments such as Egypt, Syria, and Uzbekistan have violated such assurances they have provided.123 118 Letter to members of the U.S. House of Representatives from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Human Rights First, Physicians for Human Rights and other human rights groups asking members to oppose the offending provisions and have them struck from the bill, September 30, 2004, copy on file with Human Rights Watch. 119 9/11 Recommendations Implementation Act of 2004 (H.R. 10) [online] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgibin/query/D?c108:1:./temp/~c108Qm13YF:: (retrieved April 6, 2005). 120 Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, Public Law 108-458, January 7, 2005 [online] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c108:4:./temp/~c1088oKsSS:: (retrieved March 29, 2005). 121 Press Release, “Markey Introduces Bill to Prevent Outsourcing of Torture,” February 17, 2005 [online] http://www.house.gov/markey/Issues/iss_human_rights_pr050217.pdf (retrieved February 23, 2005). 122 Torture Outsourcing Prevention Act (H.R. 952), F:\M9\MARKEY_017.XML, Sec. 2(14) [online] http://www.theorator.com/bills109/hr952.html (retrieved April 6, 2005). 123 Ibid., Sec. 2(15). 41 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH VOL. 17 NO. 4(D)