CIA agents guilty of Kidnapping

This is a story that hasn’t received anywhere near as much attention as it should have:

An Italian judge has convicted 23 Americans – all but one of them CIA agents – and two Italian secret agents for the 2003 kidnap of a Muslim cleric.

BBC Article for a good medium length summary.

The CIA personnel were involved in the controversial, and to many of us, outrageous, extraordinary rendition program. The trial took place in Milan, Italy.

There is a line of thought that says this trial is purely symbolic and has no real relevance to US foreign policy (what used to be referred to as the Global War on Terror under Cheney/Bush). This is garbage, the real reasons that this hasn’t become bigger news are the residual fear that the so called liberal media has for anything with the Cheny/Bush brand on it combined with a lack of video of a line of spooks in Orange jump suits and shackles – no images = no story.

History will note that employees, doing the job that was expected of them by an American administration, were tried and found guilty of kidnapping a person with the intent of having him tortured. This trial conviction happened in a “serious” country that is an ally and has a well developed legal system so it will be taken seriously by future historians.

On a more pragmatic note it all but ties 23 American Citizens to American soil – they are now war criminals and they, their families and the CIA have to live with that. The more we move away from the Cheney/Bush era and back towards normal civilized standards of national behavior, the more outrageous this crime and the many others will look. Future generations will view this through the lens of safeguards to individual rights such as the Geneva Conventions and other treaties. We are still close enough to the war crimes period of US history to make such objectivity difficult. So, in a nutshell things are not going to get better for those directly involved in the illegalities of the last administration or it must be said for those who sat by and did nothing.

The current US administration claims to be disappointed:

The Obama administration has expressed its disappointment at the convictions.

“We are disappointed by the verdicts,” state department spokesman Ian Kelly said in Washington.

He declined to comment further pending a written opinion from the judge, but said an appeal was likely.

From the BBC article

My main hope is that this disappointment is professional, and that in private members of the Obama administration feel that these men got what they deserved. If they feel this way then future decisions will be made by people with a functioning moral compass.

The following letter from the New York Times sums up both the significance of this trial and the only truly ethical position possible for this administration.

The letter in full:

Published: November 5, 2009

To the Editor:

The Nov. 5 news article “Italy Convicts 23 Americans, Most Working for C.I.A., of Abducting Muslim Cleric” states that the convictions “may have little practical effect.” I doubt that is the sentiment of the convicted C.I.A. agents. They are considered fugitives in 25 countries of the European Schengen area and subject to arrest. Upon arrest they will be sent to Italy to serve out their jail sentences.

It is to be hoped that these convictions will send a strong message to C.I.A. operatives and United States officials that the law cannot be violated with impunity. The convictions also tell us that unless and until the Obama administration holds United States officials accountable, other countries will.

Michael Ratner
President
Center for Constitutional Rights
New York, Nov. 5, 2009

Original

We cannot just forget what was done in our name between 2001 and 2008 and, albeit, to a much lesser extent now. If we do there will be a repeat. One only needs to look at the Neo Brutalism that is the American political right to see that this is something that we need to constantly mindful of.

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