Italian Courts Fists the CIA Up the Ass

[Jenne]

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE5A40SQ20091105

CIA verdict in Italy challenges Obama on renditions
By Phil Stewart - Analysis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The conviction in Italy of 23 Americans for the abduction of a Muslim cleric poses a challenge to the Obama administration's plans to keep so-called "renditions" as an option for rounding up terrorism suspects.

It also exposes the limits of Washington's ability to protect American agents from prosecution abroad, even in countries counted as close U.S. allies.

"The fact that the U.S. declares rendition legal doesn't make it legal around the world. Other states' rules apply," said Robert Ayers, a former U.S. intelligence official.

"What we've seen in Italy is the Italians have said: Kidnapping is wrong."

The Italian court ruled the Americans, including the former CIA station chief in Milan and an active-duty Air Force colonel, were guilty of abducting a terrorism suspect in 2003 and flying him to Egypt.

There, Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr said, he was tortured under interrogation and held for years without charge.

The conviction of the Americans, who were all tried in absentia, turns them into international fugitives who risk arrest abroad. They were also the first convictions anywhere over "extraordinary rendition" and will embolden calls for similar prosecution in the United States.

"The decision in Italy underscores the need for the United States to hold its own officials accountable for crimes committed under the 'extraordinary rendition' program," said Steven Watt at the American Civil Liberties Union.

"It is shameful that the first convictions of this kind came from a foreign justice system, where those convicted are not likely to serve their time."

U.S. President Barack Obama has not ruled out renditions and CIA Director Leon Panetta told a Senate briefing early this year that suspects might still be sent to third countries for questioning subject to assurances they would be treated humanely.

PENTAGON FOUGHT TRIAL

Critics of the program say the same assurances were made under former President George W. Bush, yet past rendition cases have given rise to allegations by human rights lawyers that detainees were tortured while in custody of third countries.

Nasr, for example, says he was "hung up like a slaughtered sheep" and subjected to electric shocks and genital abuse.


(rest in article)

[Kai]

Funny it's the Italians doing this, what with their recent bouts of ethnic clensing.

[Jenne]

Isn't it, though?  Sometimes, I have to larf at the irony of life.  I guffaw'd in the car listening to an NPR spot on this, and my kid asked me what was so funny.  I just told him I was laughing at the current "order" in the universe.

[LMNO]

Funny it's the Italians doing this, what with their recent bouts of ethnic clensing.

And their frequent flirtations with fascism in politics.

[KopyKat253]

I say we sink Italy. Screw Alitalia while were at it!

[Jenne]

Nope, the food's too good.  That's how the Mafiosos really hold it over us.  It's not their drug-running, granny-bullying, vendetta-holding thuggery...it's their meat sauce a la Bolognese.

[KopyKat253]

 
Okay, but can we at least sink Alitalia?