Sleeping With the Enemy

This is not good policy.

ROME — Italy's Red Cross treated four Iraqi insurgents with the knowledge of the Italian government last year and hid them from U.S. forces in exchange for the freedom of two kidnapped aid workers, a top Italian Red Cross official said in an interview published Thursday.

Maurizio Scelli, the outgoing chief of the Italian Red Cross, told the Turin newspaper La Stampa that he kept the deal secret from U.S. officials, complying with "a nonnegotiable condition" imposed by Iraqi mediators who helped him secure the release of Italians Simona Pari and Simona Torretta. They were abducted in Baghdad Sept. 7 and freed Sept. 28.

"The mediators asked us to save the lives of four alleged terrorists wanted by the Americans who were wounded in combat," Scelli was quoted as saying. "We hid them and brought them to Red Cross doctors, who operated on them."

This is completely unacceptable. The whole point of the War on Terror is to kill terrorists, not bring them back to life. Two hostages traded for the biological salvation of four ruthless killers? How is this at all acceptable?

If the whole Gitmo issue wasn't enough for you, here's another reason to look twice at the Red Cross. They do a lot of great things, but moves like this are unacceptable.