The latest row between the United States and our close ally is a furor over the CIA's apparent abduction of a Muslim cleric and alleged terror suspect from a Milan street two years ago. The seizure of Hussan Mustafa Osama Nasr was carried out by 13 American intelligence operatives who whisked the radical off to Egypt, where he allegedly has been tortured.

Italian authorities already had the cleric under surveillance. Prosecutors say they were on the verge of arresting Nasr and penetrating his network when he was kidnapped. An Italian judge now has issued warrants for the arrest of the 13 abductors, though no one really believes these secret agents with fake identities will be tracked down.

A storm rises over whether any Italian officials had foreknowledge of the operation. The noise is a diversion from the deeper scandal. The caper, known as an "extraordinary rendition," is one more example of contempt for the law that has taken hold of our own nation since 9/11.

It is worth thinking about at this most patriotic time of year, because the patriots who signed the Declaration of Independence would, most likely, have recognized the danger. We remember best their complaint about taxation without representation. But the authors had a lengthy list of grievances against King George III, whom they accused of a "long train of abuses and usurpations."

They said he trampled their "inalienable Rights" - and accused him of operating outside the law. They complained that the king had sought to "render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power." They protested that people had been deprived in many cases of "the benefits of Trial by Jury."

Now we view trials by jury for those we suspect of terrorism as a luxury, rather than a constitutional and moral necessity. Since 9/11 we've allowed the president to declare people to be "enemy combatants." They can be thrown into a stateside military brig or held indefinitely without charge at the Pentagon's prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The media suffers spasms over whether detainees at Guantanamo have been abused. This is important. But in a sense it is another diversion. The most fundamental abuse is rounding people up and holding them indefinitely at an enclave chosen to be beyond the law's reach.

The Supreme Court a year ago disagreed with the premise. It said the Guantanamo detainees have a right to contest their confinement in federal court. The Bush administration has defied the high court, claiming that military tribunals for which it alone writes the rules are sufficient. This president would render the military superior to civil power.

The Supreme Court also ruled that even a wartime president does not have the power to seize an American citizen and hold the individual without access to the courts. "We reaffirm today the fundamental nature of a citizen's right to be free from involuntary confinement by his own government without due process of law," Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote in the case of Yasser Esam Hamdi. Though Hamdi was released and returned to his family home in Saudi Arabia, the Bush administration still holds Jose Padilla without charge in a military brig.

Padilla was picked up in 2002 at Chicago's O'Hare airport, originally as a "material witness" in an alleged terrorism scheme. He is the most well known of those swept into this particular net. The Justice Department has used this law, meant to ensure a witness' testimony, to detain people - mostly Muslim men and including many U.S. citizens - without charge. Human Rights Watch says it has documented 70 cases in which these supposed witnesses were held, some for as long as a year and others, like Padilla, indefinitely.

The Supreme Court already has spoken. Our allies call us to account. The world watches as the United States shreds its own Constitution, the model for so many others. I've stopped wondering why we acquiesce in this disgrace. Now I just wish for us to celebrate our heritage by living up to it.

At this patriotic time of year, it is worth noting our nation's contempt for law since 9/11.

© 2005 Newsday, Inc.

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