“In a landmark ruling, an Italian judge on Wednesday convicted a base chief for the Central Intelligence Agency and 22 other Americans, almost all C.I.A. operatives, of kidnapping a Muslim cleric from the streets of Milan in 2003.

The case was a huge symbolic victory for Italian prosecutors, who drew the first convictions involving the American practice of rendition, in which terrorism suspects are captured in one country and taken for questioning in another, often one more open to coercive interrogation techniques. ”

NY Times

Though largely symbolic this is a symbol worth having. More nations may stand up against the exercised impunity of the U.S. government and say, No More! One wonders what the reaction of the U.S. would be to 23 Russian agents kidnapping from a sidewalk in New York someone they wanted to question, under torture? Or to the Chinese kidnapping Tibetan “terrorist suspects” from the streets of Boulder, Colorado. Vehemently opposed, we hope.

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