Jeffrey Smith, who was the CIA's top lawyer from 1994 to '95, told United Press International that it was time to end the uncertainty and secrecy surrounding these three practices and provide a legislative basis for them.

Smith, who was an adviser to the campaign of 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, argues that it is time for Congress to "step up to the plate."

"I believe the time has come for the United States to adopt laws covering these practices."

"Much of this," he said of the deployment of expanded powers of detention and other new techniqu es in the war on terror since Sept. 11, 2001, "has been done by presidential order without any real oversight or authorization from Congress."

On Sept. 17, 2001, less than a week after the suicide hijackings that resulted in the deaths of some 3,000 people, President Bush signed a highly classified legal document known as a "memorandum of notification."

The document gave the CIA broad authorities to use against those it suspected of being among the United States' terrorist enemies. For the first time, the agency was authorized to detain and interrogate people.

The agency was also granted greatly extended powers to render people suspected of involvement in terrorism.

Rendition is a quasi-legal process under which the United States will receive custody of people - or seize them - abroad and deliver them to a third country. In the past it was used primarily to deliver people to countries where they were w anted for terrorist crimes so that they could be tried.

Since Sept. 11, say officials, there has been a large increase in the number of so-called intelligence renditions, where people are delivered to countries so that they can be interrogated.

Officials say publicly that they do not render suspects to countries where they will be tortured.

"We have an obligation not to render people to countries if we believe they would torture them," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters Monday. "And we do - and we do get assurances on those matters."

But at the same time McClellan seemed at a loss to explain what other reason there might be for turning a suspect over to Uzbekistan.

"I'm not going to get into talking about specific intelligence matters," he said when questioned about the choice of Uzbekistan as a destination for rendition. "Those are classified matters, for good reason .

"But if you're talking about terrorists who have been apprehended in the war on terrorism, we do have an obligation to gather intelligence from them," he concluded.

Despite official reassurances, there have been several well-documented cases since Sept. 11 of rendered individuals being abused or mistreated.

One man, Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen who was sent by US officials to Syria where he was tortured, is suing the US government.

And Italian prosecutors are investigating the February 2003 disappearance of Hassan Osama Nasr, an Egyptian-born Islamic cleric whose family says was kidnapped in Milan by CIA officials and flown to Egypt.

CIA Director Porter Goss told a recent congressional hearing that the agency had "a responsibility of trying to ensure that (persons rendered) are properly treated."

He added that there could be no guarantees once the person had l eft US custody, but concluded, "We do have an accountability program for those situations."

Smith said that, in such an atmosphere, with lawsuits and media reports flying, it was possible that standards would change and "what was thought entirely appropriate 18 months ago may not be thought so now."

He said legislation would provide permanent standards and enable the country's intelligence officials to be sure of their ground.

At the moment, he said, CIA officials were "increasingly worried that they will be held personally or even criminally liable for what they have been asked to do for their country."

Smith joins a number of mainly Democratic lawmakers who have proposed bills on these topics.

Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., in February proposed a law that would direct the State Department to compile a list of countries that commonly practice torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatmen t during detention and interrogation, and prohibit rendition to any nation on the list.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., earlier this month published a law that would give the president limited and judicially reviewable powers to detain US citizens as enemy combatants.

And in a recent op-ed, Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., argued that a law was needed to define what was acceptable in interrogations.

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