MethodologyHuman Rights Watch conducted research for this report from February 2007 to September 2008. Locating and arranging interviews with former rendition victims is extremely difficult. That said, we held in-depth interviews with 12 men and women who had been arrested and rendered to Somalia and Ethiopia, including several of the detainees released in February 2008. In August 2008, Human Rights Watch also spoke by telephone to several detainees still incarcerated in Addis Ababa with the assistance of an informed and reliable intermediary who was able to vouch for their identity. Human Rights Watch has also interviewed family members of several of the men who are still missing. We have corroborated information from our own interviews with accounts from other rendition victims provided by reporters and researchers for other organizations, flight logs, and additional secondary material. In August 2008, we sent formal letters to both the Ethiopian and Kenyan governments (attached as Appendices A and B) requesting additional information, but both governments failed to respond to our requests. Officials in the Counterterrorism Division at the US Federal Bureau of Investigation refused to meet with us or provide any official comment on our findings, and instead referred us to the US State Department. The State Department declined our email request for official comment. |