Extraordinary

ROME (AP) -- An Italian judge on Friday ordered the arrests of 13 CIA officers for secretly transporting a Muslim preacher from Italy to Egypt as part of U.S. anti-terrorism efforts - a rare public objection to the practice by a close American ally.

The Egyptian was spirited away in 2003, purportedly as part of the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program in which terror suspects are transferred to third countries without court approval, subjecting them to possible torture.

The arrest warrants were announced Friday by the Milan prosecutor's office, which has called the disappearance a kidnapping and a blow to a terrorism investigation in Italy. The office said the imam was believed to belong to an Islamic terrorist group.

I've been wondering when one of our tenuous "allies" would pipe up about the way we treat their countries as playgrounds for our black bag jobs. I imagine trying to whack Giuliana Sgrena didn't help endear our boys to the Italian authorities any.

What we euphamistically call "extraordinary rendition" has a bunch of less sterile names when other people do it. Kidnapping, for instance. Violation of soverignty, when done in other countries. Unconstitutional, when done here. An act of war, if anyone had the reach to do it to any of our top war criminals.