Author: CIA Case Evidence Of Abuse Of Power

Author: CIA case evidence of abuse of power
By Jessica Bloch | Bangor Daily News

The news that an Italian court convicted on Wednesday a base chief for the CIA and 22 other Americans for the crime of rendition was evidence that the executive branch of the U.S. government has too much power, activist and author David Swanson told a small group of people Thursday afternoon at the University of Maine.

The crime for which the Americans were convicted surrounded the kidnapping of a Muslim cleric from the streets of Milan in 2003, according to a story Wednesday in The New York Times. The cleric was flown from an American air base in Italy to a base in Germany and then on to Egypt, where he asserts that he was tortured, the newspaper said.

“Kidnapping is still a crime in some places, but not [to U.S. government operatives]. Here it’s not a crime,” said Swanson, who spoke in the Bangor Room of the Memorial Union as part of UMaine’s Socialist and Marxist Studies Series. Swanson is on tour supporting his new book, “Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union.”

The incident in Italy may be one example that the executive branch of the U.S. government has too much power over other branches of the government and at times has overstepped Congress, he said. Read more.