This song was inspired by the 2007 trip to Australia of Dick Cheney, then Vice President of the USA, who in the pursuit of the farcical "War on Terror" had devised "extraordinary rendition" - because the USA didn't undertake "torture" they would transfer prisoners to a country which did. This song is based on what is believed to be a true story.

Lyrics

Ordinary Rendition
(B. Ralston)
Who would have thunk it, who could say
You’re headed for a holiday in old Skopje
Picked up at the airport, locked away
Before you know it whisked off by the CIA

This is just an ordinary rendition,
A song about “Extraordinary Rendition”
I don’t want to get charged with sedition,
So I will just repeat my submission that
This is just an ordinary rendition

Well the final itinerary was not what I planned
The travel agent never said Afghanistan
I try to dress casual, when I can
But a diaper and a jumpsuit, that’s hardly Milan

This is just an ordinary rendition,
A song about “Extraordinary Rendition”
I don’t want to get charged with sedition,
So I will just repeat my submission that
This is just an ordinary rendition

Well, beaten, drugged, stripped, sleep-deprived,
After three months just barely alive
No books, no papers, no TV, no cinema
With friends like you, did I really need that enema

This is just an ordinary rendition,
A song about “Extraordinary Rendition”
I don’t want to get charged with sedition,
So I will just repeat my submission that
This is just an ordinary rendition

Well five months later, things just get zanier,
I’m dropped off in the dark in the backwoods of Albania
No sorry, no funds, can’t even catch a bus or a train
What’s the story, CIA mania

This is just an ordinary rendition,
A song about “Extraordinary Rendition”
You can tell things are bad,
When they are couched in a euphemism
Things like “Extraordinary Rendition
You can tell things are bad,
When they are couched in a euphemism
Things like “Extraordinary Rendition
You can tell things are bad,
When they are couched in a euphemism
Things like “Extraordinary Rendition”