authorities facilitated by the use of U.S. aircraft and/or personnel.75 In February 2005, high-level U.S. officials defended this renditions program and claimed that it is U.S. policy to seek and secure assurances from the receiving state that a rendered person will be treated humanely upon return (see section Renditions and Assurances below). Persons subject to such renditions have no ability to challenge the legality of their transfers, including any assurances against torture or ill-treatment that the U.S. government may have been proffered by a receiving state. The use of assurances against torture is expressly provided for in U.S. law only in immigration cases in which a person subject to removal raises a claim under the Convention against Torture.76 According to the code of federal regulations (C.F.R.), 8 C.F.R. § 208.18(c), the secretary of state may secure assurances from a government that a person subject to return would not be tortured. In consultation with the secretary of state, the attorney general determines whether the assurances are “sufficiently reliable” to allow the transfer in compliance with the obligations of the United States under the Convention against Torture. Once assurances are approved, any claims a person has 75 See, CBS 60 Minutes, “CIA Flying Suspects to Torture?” March 6, 2005 [online] http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/04/60minutes/main678155.shtml (retrieved March 7, 2005); Douglas Jehl and David Johnson, “Rule Change Lets C.I.A. Freely Send Suspects Abroad to Jails,” New York Times, March 6, 2005 [online] http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/06/politics/06intel.html (retrieved March 7, 2005); Channel 4 TV (U.K.), “Torture: The Dirty Business,” (Part 3 of series on the U.S. government’s war on terror and the implications for the global ban on torture), March 1, 2005, post-production transcript on file with Human Rights Watch, [online] http://www.channel4.com/news/microsites/T/torture/cases.html (retrieved March 8, 2005); Jane Mayer, “Outsourcing Torture,” The New Yorker, February 7, 2005; Stephen Grey, “CIA Prisoners ‘Tortured’ in Arab Jails,” File on 4, BBC Radio, February 8, 2005 [online] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/file_on_4/4246089.stm (retrieved February 15, 2005); Seymour Hersh, Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib (New York: Harper-Collins), September 2004. 76 The Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998 (FARRA) is the implementing legislation that codifies the U.S.’s obligations as a party to the Convention against Torture. The legislation includes safeguards against transfer to a country where he or she is at risk of torture: “"It shall be the policy of the United States not to expel, extradite, or otherwise effect the involuntary return of any person to a country in which there are substantial grounds for believing the person would be in danger of being subjected to torture, regardless of whether the person is physically present in the United States.” FARRA §1242(a). Section 2242 (Public Law 105277; 8 U.S.C. 1231 note) All types of transfers are thus covered by this provision, including extra-territorial renditions. As noted below, the regulations implementing the FARRA include provisions for diplomatic assurances only in immigration cases. 29 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH VOL. 17 NO. 4(D)