CIA agents arrested in Italy

I've written several essays (such as here and here) criticizing the premises underpinning the Guanatamo Bay detention center.

As I wrote earlier: Let's say it were proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that every single action of every single soldier were acting in a way that was not only in accordance with international law but in a way that would make their mothers proud. Even if that happened, Gitmo would deserve a scathing rebuke. My objections are based primarily on the abhorrent political and (extra-)legal principles on which the internment camp is based.

Specifically I object to the fact that Gitmo detainees were arrested by American forces outside of lands subject to American jurisdiction and detained against their will, yet the administration refuses to either classify them as prisoners of war or as common criminals. I object that this is the policy of the US government.

Instead, the Bush administration decided to invent a pseudo-legal classification called 'enemy combattants,' so it could avoid both presenting evidence (like for common criminals) or treating them according them Geneva Convention (like for prisoners of war).

They did so based on the fiction that the suspected terrorists represent a class of combattant unprecedented in history. In fact, the suspected terrorists are non-state combattants, just like mercenaries and just like rebel groups. The former are dealt with via the traditional justice system; the latter are usually treated as prisoners of war.

Since the suspected terrorists were captured in what the president calls the 'WAR on terrorism,' it wouldn't be unreasonable to call them prisoners of war. Since other terrorists like Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman or Timothy McVeigh were tried and convicted via the traditional justice system, it wouldn't be unreasonable to treat them as regular criminals. But clearly, they must be one or the other.

Some say that Gitmo detainees are being treated like they were in Club Med (or 'Club G'itmo' as Rush Limbaugh calls it). For example, this CNS News article offers a headline more appropriate to a satirical publication like The Onion: Conservatives Tout Guantanamo Bay's Cuisine.

"For Sunday, they're going to be having -- let me see -- orange glazed chicken, fresh fruit grupe, steamed peas and mushrooms, rice pilaf -- another form of torture for the hijackers," huffed a California congressman.

Kidnapping people in a foreign land, detaining them without charge, having to present evidence against them or allowing them a chance to defend themselves and holding them indefinitely on the arbitrary whim of US authorities would normally be considered outrageous and un-American. After all, these were some of the objectionable tactics cited in America's own Declaration of Independence.

But as long as you give the detainees rice pilaf, it's perfectly acceptable to deny them their freedom (said breathlessly) without even the pretense of due process, the rule of law or any other kind of civilized justice.

But if detainees ARE indeed being treated so luxuriously (even putting aside gastronomy), one has to wonder why the US administration has been doing everything possible to prevent UN observers from visiting Guanatanamo. After all, if the UN folks tasted our orange glazed chicken, they might not be so 'anti-American'!

Yet the really interesting news come from Italy, whose government was one of our government's closest collaborators in the Iraq aggression. A few days ago, an Italian judge ordered the arrest of 13 CIA officers for secretly transporting a Muslim preacher from Italy to Egypt.

The officers are accused of kidnapping a Muslim preacher in Italy and sending him to the north African country where he was reportedly tortured (presumably with something stronger than steamed peas and mushrooms).

The US embassy in Rome and the CIA in Washington refused to deny the allegations.

First off, this is an example of how the Bush administration spits its allies... even on those who backed it to the hilt on the Iraq aggression.

This isn't exactly unprecedented, however. Only last week, the administration was accused of lying to the British government, its closest ally, over the use of Napalm in Iraq. So much for the vaunted 'special relationship.'

Normally, the Bush administration could've asked Italy to extradite the preacher to Egypt. Except that would've required the much-detested due process and European countries are usually hesistant to send suspects to countries that practice torture or the death penalty.

What's interesting is this. Kidnapping is one of the most common tactics commonly used by terrorists. So does that make the CIA agents terrorists?

Italy could've simply thrown the CIA agents in prison without trial, charge or evidence and call them... well... I'm sure the Italians could've come up with some scary sounding classification for them. They could've then kept the agents in detention indefinitely, perhaps even force feeding them fresh fruit grupe, until the Italian government felt like doing something with them.

Italy could've done that, according to Bushian logic, but it didn't. The alleged CIA kidnappers were charged through Italy's regular justice system.

Nevertheless, don't be surprised if a less friendly country invents some kanagaroo procedure to deal with American POWs (or whatever classification is invented instead) while cleverly citing the precedent of our commander-in-chief.