Extraordinary Rendition

The American fondness for military euphemisms is well-known, indeed some of their best ones have become commonplace in the UK too: 'collateral damage' to describe civilian deaths is now common currency in the British media.

Other examples are 'wet work' for assassinations, 'pre-emptive war' for invasion, and 'potential future terrorists' for children.

The latest one to reach our attention is extraordinary rendition which is where someone is forcibly abducted and transferred to another country. Its like an unofficial extradition, but usually to places no country would sensibly extradite anyone - places where torture is routine.

Its a big story at the moment as it looks possible (likely?) that the CIA have been either kidnapping people in Britain or transporting them via Britain and using British airports as staging posts on the way to who-knows-where.

"Extraordinary" I can understand, but "rendition" is a bit obscure for most of us. Although the definition in legal terms is the "extradition of a fugitive who has fled to another state", most non-lawyers will immediately think of the more conventional definition of an artistic performance - which is why it is such a great name for a band.

The phrase has musical connotations to most ears, but has a hidden, more sinister meaning. As such Extraordinary Rendition would be best for a politically-aware, anti-globalisation, anti-military, anti-US sort of band with a sound like Rage Against The Machine.

But it would be more likely to be wasted on a band with an extravagant stage show (like early Genesis, late-70's Tubes, Lemon Jelly and so on) or who do an unlikely mix of styles (like the Balanescu Quartet performing Kraftwerk songs or the dub reggae version of Dark Side Of The Moon - yes it does exist!)