Italian Court Convicts 23 Americans

It is against American law to kidnap and torture someone. That is, unless you work for the government. If you work for the government, then you can pretty well break the law and do some pretty awful things. This was especially true during the Bush administration. Sadly, the current administration seems to have no interest in punishing the Bush administration lawbreakers.

But the Italian government and courts are different. Kidnapping and torture are also against the law in Italy -- even for members of their own or foreign governments. We have preached in the past that no one is above the law, but we're not very good at practicing what we preach. Fortunately, the Italian courts are different, and on Wednesday they proved that.

Yesterday, a Milan court convicted 23 Americans (and three Italians) of kidnapping an Egyptian cleric (Abu Omar) in 2003 and renditioning him to Egypt where he was tortured for months. The United States refused to help in the prosecution, but those who were guilty "left a sloppy trail of cellphone calls, credit card charges and photo identification documents that enabled Italian police to assemble a meticulously detailed portrait of the crime."

The former Milan CIA chief was given an 8-year sentence, and the rest of the Americans were given 5-year sentences. Their three Italian accomplices were given 3-year sentences. It is doubtful that the Americans will ever serve their time, because they had left Italy and were tried in absentia.

Personally, I think the sentences given were very light for the serious crime committed, but at least they were convicted, which is more than has (or will) happen in the United States. Here, any law can be broken as long as you can excuse it by claiming "national security".

The Italian court only made one mistake that I can see, and that is they convicted only the small fry who carried out the crime. They should have also convicted the ringleaders -- George Bush and Dick Cheney. U.S. courts should do the same.