The Belmont Club has a couple of interesting posts up. One is about a largely forgotten phase of the campaign to retake the Philippines in World War II. Well worth a look if you have an interest in military history. The other is about concealed costs and corruption.
Italy wanted to be rid of Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, a suspected terrorist, but was unwilling, for domestic political considerations, to act against him. Therefore it arranged to have the United States snatch him from Milan. The United States wanted information from Nasr, but for domestic political reasons, was unable to apply torture to get it, however much the Left wanted that to be true. Therefore it passed him to Egypt for actual questioning. It goes on.
Torture is problematic. Abducting the citizens of allied states is problematic. But worse than both is this connivance between liberal democratic states to bore holes in their own constitutional orders. Nothing is left of Italian civil rights if the Italian government can drop one of its citizens through a hole like this.
