The international left labeled the practice as “outsourcing torture,” and the media spent oceans of ink denouncing it.

And now the hopey changey Obama administration is expanding rendition programs.

WASHINGTON - The CIA’s secret prisons are being closed. Harsh interrogation techniques are off-limits. And Guantanamo Bay will eventually go back to being just a naval base on the southeastern corner of Cuba.

But even while dismantling these discredited programs, President Barack Obama left an equally controversial counterterrorism tool intact.

Under executive orders issued by Obama on Jan. 22, the CIA still has authority to carry out what are known as “renditions,” or the secret abductions and transfers of prisoners to countries that cooperate with the United States.

Current and former U.S. intelligence officials said that the rendition program is poised to play an expanded role because it is the main remaining mechanism - aside from Predator missile strikes - for taking suspected terrorists off the street.

This news has driven many of the denizens of Daily Kos insane (a short drive): Daily Kos: L.A. Times Says: Obama Administration Hangs onto Rendition. (Hat tip: karmic_inquisitor.)

Cognitive dissonance — it’s what the left has for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.