What have we become? What would we call it if the head of a U.S. corporation were kidnapped because he committed crimes in another country? What happened to extradition? That isn’t good enough for us but it should be good enough for everyone else?

AMERICA has told Britain that it can “kidnap” British citizens if they are wanted for crimes in the United States.

A senior lawyer for the American government has told the Court of Appeal in London that kidnapping foreign citizens is permissible under American law because the US Supreme Court has sanctioned it.

The admission will alarm the British business community after the case of the so-called NatWest Three, bankers who were extradited to America on fraud charges. More than a dozen other British executives, including senior managers at British Airways and BAE Systems, are under investigation by the US authorities and could face criminal charges in America. extraordinary rendition

Until now it was commonly assumed that US law permitted kidnapping only in the “” of terrorist suspects.

The American government has for the first time made it clear in a British court that the law applies to anyone, British or otherwise, suspected of a crime by Washington.

More at the Times Online