A Chill Up The Spine

Yes: The Conviction of "Chuckie" Taylor by a Federal Court in Miami FL must be giving some of the "Extra-Ordinary-Rendition-eers what is known as a moment of clarity. Soon to be stripped of the protection of the office of Vice-President Dick Cheney, what will be the fate of the operatives who engaged in kidnap and torture under the guise of "intelligence gathering"? It's going to be difficult for them to defend their actions, especially in light of the fact that no intelligence was gathered as a result of their exercise in futility. Nor, in fact was any intelligence shown by the participants in this entire exercise in Biblical-Style Vengeance.
It appears that the Miami Court must be a good place to try foreigners and other criminals we don't like. Manuel Noriega, a former CIA operative who apparently stopped taking orders (bad idea!) after becoming Jefe of Panama, was kidnapped during the "Panama Invasion" in 1992, taken to Miami, and convicted of being an all-round baddie.
One has to wonder; if even a Head Of State can be tried/convicted - what about the CIA and DOD guys who umm... are open to charges of violating The UN CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE?
I think this part of the Convention is pretty clear:

"Part I; Article 1
1. For the purposes of this Convention, torture means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.

Chief Enabler of the torture program Alberto Gonzalez, and others of the Exceptionalist America persuasion, would probably exempt Americans (or at least their friends and fellow neo-cons) from prosecution for this sort of crime. But I sure wouldn't. Time was when Senator John McCain wouldn't either. We don't know how Candidate McCain stands on this.