Jane Mayer: The Dangers Of Extraordinary Rendition

The Bush administration's global anti-terrorism campaign was meant to prevent another terrorist attack on the United States. But journalist Jane Mayer says that policies like extraordinary rendition — whereby suspected terrorists are transferred to countries that allow harsh interrogations not permitted under U.S. law — have compromised American values.

Mayer cites that case of Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen who spent nearly a year in a Syrian prison after being deported from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport during a layover.

Mayer has written for The New Yorker on what she calls "the outsourcing of torture," on the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo and on the search for Osama bin Laden. She is the author of The Dark Side.

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