MercuryNews.com | 06/25/2005 | 13 CIA workers ordered arrested — As this story unfolds the reporters are faiing to ask a couple of interesting questions. The Milan CIA Bureau Chief and the other spies were named. The unasked and obvious question: Will Italy ask for extradition? Ifso, then what will we do about it? In many ways this can turn into a diplomatic disaster.
And as for the CIA, whatever happened to the concept of clandestine? Apparently these guys were yakking on their cell phones during the operation and all the traffic was noted in the documnets.
MILAN, Italy – An Italian judge has ordered the arrest of 13 officers and operatives of the CIA on charges that they seized an Egyptian cleric on a Milan street two years ago and flew him to Egypt for questioning, Italian prosecutors and investigators said Friday.
The judge, Chiara Nobili of Milan, signed the arrest warrants Wednesday for 13 CIA operatives who are suspected of seizing an imam named Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, as he walked to his mosque in Milan for noon prayers Feb. 17, 2003.
Nasr, who was under investigation before his disappearance for possible links to Al-Qaida, is still missing, and his family and friends say he was tortured repeatedly by Egyptian jailers.
This is the first time that a foreign country has attempted to prosecute U.S. agents on charges of carrying out “rendition,” in which terrorism suspects captured abroad are sent by the United States to their home countries or to third-party countries, some of which have records of torturing prisoners.
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realted link:
Interesting Earlier Report
And people wonder why the US doesn’t back the World Criminal Court. 🙁
If I were Bush, I would tell the corupt Italian Governtment to go scratch.
In the name of Nelson Muntz, I say “ha-ha!”!
I would tell the corupt Italian Governtment to go scratch.
Might as well, its what we normally do. 🙁
Back in ’98, it was the US Marine jet cutting the cables on the tourist gondola near Cavalese, Italy.
http://www.cnn.com/US/9902/12/marine.cable.car/
And just last April, US forces shot Italian reporter Giuliana Sgrena – and killed an Italian intelligence agent protecting her – after she had been released by kidnappers in Bagdad.
http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/2208/context/archive
Bush seems to believe “if your not with us, you are against us”.
The Italians probably want to tell Bush the exact same thing.
So you guys would be just fine with a agents from another country snatching people off the streets in the US for torture ?
The whole thing is idiotic. After Watergate the CIA was forbidden to participate in such illegal activities. It has only been since Bush came to office that illegal activities are once again condoned. It seems that if you stoop to the same level as the terrorists, claim that your God is bigger, tell everyone that you are doing it in the name of justice, and say fuck you to the rest of the world it is OK.
If indeed they committed a crime then they should be tried in an Italian court. No one, be it a CIA agent, a guard at an Iraqi prison, or the President himself, is above the law. Don’t apologize that the man in question is a terrorist, if he is then charge him and put him on trial. To do less is the same as being a terrorist.
Americans have a difficult time understanding why almost the rest of the world either hate the U.S. or are very suspicious and distrustful. This is an example of the arrogance shown by the current administration. And, it is only one example. Last week the Senator from Illinois, Dick Durban suggested that if you were to read the FBI report then you might think these atrocities were being committed by a totalitarian regime such as the Nazis or Soviet KBG. My, oh my how the right condemned him for suggesting that any Americans would do such a thing.
It’s not Italy that is doing this, but a single judge, just like in Spain with that ridiculous arrest of Pinochet.
Pat,
Senator Church, et al, did indeed clip the wings of our CIA during the 70’s. 3,000 civilian deaths later, the people of this country decided that maybe a weak CIA is not in our best interest.
The person abducted from Italy was not an Italian citizen. He was an Egyptian with possible links to terrorism. He was returned to Egypt to face Egyptian justice.
Smith
He was kidnapped. And what do 3,000 civilian deaths have to do with this? Let me rephrase it, you act like a terrorist, you are a terrorist. Using one terrorist action to justify another terrorist action is lunacy.
The CIA’s mandate should not be to kill, torture, or kidnap, selected targets; that is vigilante justice. If these people are guilty then arrest them and charge them. That is called the rule of law. Most countries around the world have signed treaties permitting the arrest and deportation of criminals for crimes committed elsewhere. In the US vigilante justice is illegal, that is why there is a whole justice system.
Are you guys talking of the same CIA wich ppl in Latin America has NO simpathy at all? Because as fas as I know, thousands of ppl died south of the border and their relatives are blaming the CIA for funding it. So a CIA with clipped wings is a joke for me.
Smith -the “Clipped Wing” CIA had plenty of intel warning of the 2001 attacks, it was Bush et al that ignored it.
The CIA knew of terrorists being in the US, but were not allowed to tell the FBI about this because of rules put in place under Clinton. Also, Richard Clarke, the supposed genius counter-terrorism guy thought the main attack threat was overseas, and the Saudi embassy was decentralized, which ended up making travel agents responsible for handing out visas.
AB CD – what total rubbish