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My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2005-06-25

This Could Set A Bad Precedent

An Italian judge has ordered the arrest of 13 officers and operatives of the Central Intelligence Agency on charges that they seized an Egyptian cleric on a Milan street two years ago and flew him to Egypt for questioning, Italian prosecutors and investigators said Friday.

One hopes that the Italian judicial system never gets a full tryout on this case. Sadly, at a time when the most valuable assets in the War on Terror are the men and women in the field and in the shadows, this sort of thing only discourages the proper deployment of those assets. And, sadly, Europe is the one place that most needs those types of assets. Just ask Spain. Or The Netherlands. How about England, who has shut down how many terror cells in its own land?

No, this one act by a judge who wants to feel good about himself today could easily lead to the deaths of hundreds, perhaps thousands in Europe and beyond. Is it worth it?

By the way, just to show where the folly of this episode is leading, read this paragraph:

Mr. Nasr, who was under investigation before his disappearance for possible links to Al Qaeda, is still missing, and his family and friends say he was tortured repeatedly by Egyptian jailers.

If he's still missing how can his family and friends know that he was tortured repeatedly by his . . . Oh, never mind.
Posted by: Michael / 6/25/2005 02:11:00 AM

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