MB Civic

By Craig Whitlock | Saturday, December 16, 2006 | The Washington Post

In Milan, Italian prosecutors are laying out for the world to see the process of “extraordinary rendition” used by the CIA to kidnap suspected terrorists and interrogate them using coercive methods that any sane person would call torture – completely ignoring the laws of the countries where the abductions have occurred.

It is one thing to perpetrate such piracy in some far-off jungle where the rule of law is irrelevant. It is quite another to do this on the streets of a major city in Europe. Europeans are outraged. I too am outraged. And more than that: I still believe in America’s potential for good, and I have been betrayed by our leaders. I never voted in favor of this repellent and outrageous behavior, which makes me ashamed of my country. It has destroyed America’s reputation as a force of justice on the high moral ground, and it has been done against the will of the American people. Americans don’t do this. Those who commit such acts are criminals. Those who commit such acts in the name of America are traitors.

But why pervert decency and the law like this? Why kidnap and torture the accused without trial and due process? Our intelligence agents are violating their stated mission, and they are behaving like depraved sadistic serial killers. To make matters worse (as if they could possibly be worse), we already know from the psychiatric literature – the same scientific data the CIA itself uses to design effective interrogation methods – that torture produces unreliable and ofetn completely useless information. The tortured prisoner will say anything to make the torture stop.

So why do it? Are we punishing the suspects by torturing them? That is a direct violation of our Constitution, and of the UN Charter that our country imposed upon the world in the wake of the crimes of World War Two. It is a flagrant violation of a large number of resolutions and treaties trumpeting the supreme value of fundamental human rights, the rule of law and systems of international justice that our Government has signed on our behalf as Americans.

So what should we do? I think we should go after these sickos using the best weapon we have, our own laws. Doing so would be a timeless example to the world. Getting that done in the real world of politics and our system of justice, which ‘grinds exceeding slow but grinds exceeding fine’, is another matter entirely, and I understand that. I’m a Washington kid. I ‘get’ bureaucracy, like I ‘get’ English.

For now, I think the Italians have made a brilliant start, and on this Blog we should follow the unfolding story of their efforts to bring the Bush Administration and its CIA surrogates to justice. I will ask one more question out loud, because I believe in the rule of law and I endorse the UN and the morals behind its mission as a forum for the whole globe:

Should we send our current leaders – the ones who are ultimately responsible for these shameful and sickening crimes – to the Hague, to stand trial for extraordinary crimes against humanity? I vote yes. That’s why we have that court. Just being a US President does not put one above the law. No one is above the law. Those who break the law must pay for their crimes after a fair and open trial to determine their guilt or innocence. Period. What do you, dear CIVIC reader, think? I welcome your opinions.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/15/AR2006121502044.html