BAND ON THE RUN:
Search for CIA Kidnappers of Abu Omar Spreads Across Europe. Former CIA station chief in Milan is most sought after and may have witnessed Omar’s torture in Egypt. With extraordinary rendition, what annoys our Italian allies most is a me first attitude of American agents. Agents regularly break laws of other countries, but some do it with more of an approving nod from local government than others. The question that must be asked while this sad music plays is what does this say about international law if we regularly break the law to catch people we consider criminals.
WANTED: WOMEN AND MEN
MILAN - From today, thirteen CIA agents are wanted all over Europe. The operatives are accused of abducting Imam Abu Omar in Milan and taking him to Egypt, where he was tortured. The formal transmission of the arrest warrant to the Eurojust judicial coordination office means that it will automatically become effective in all EU member countries. At this stage, any European police officer could arrest, as well as identify, the thirteen CIA agents, who are now “on the run”.
[IL CORRIERE]CIA STATION CHIEF MOST WANTED
The alleged former CIA station chief in Milan, a 51-year-old Honduran-born American who is among those named in the arrest warrants, is believed to have accompanied or followed Abu Omar to Egypt and to have been present for some of the interrogations, a senior Italian judicial official said yesterday.
That raises the possibility that the American agent was aware of the alleged torture, the Italian official said. The man's movements were tracked by his use of a cellular telephone to make calls from Egypt in the two weeks after the disappearance of Abu Omar, the official said.
Abu Omar, during a brief period of freedom in 2004, told associates that he was tortured with electrical shocks to his genitals and beatings during the interrogations in Egypt.
[LA TIMES NEWS SERVICE]
In some ways this new controversy comes down to a difference in philosophy and style. In its aggressive assault in the "War on Terror," the United States does not have the patience to deal with critics at home and allies abroad who insist on doing things by the book, the law book. The same administration that derides it critics at home for treating terror as a law enforcement issue take the same impatient approach with allies like Italy. The Italians had their own plans for prosecuting Omar Abu. He won't be prosecuted in Italy any time soon. Nor does it look like the American CIA agents will be, if they are ever found.
European counterterrorism officials have pursued a policy of building criminal cases against terrorism suspects through surveillance, wire-taps, detective work and the criminal justice system. The United States, however, has frequently used other means since Sept. 11, 2001, including renditions - abducting terror suspects from foreign countries and transporting them for questioning to third countries, some of which are known to use torture.
Those two approaches seem to have collided in the case of an Egyptian cleric, Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, or Abu Omar, who led a militant mosque in Milan.
By early 2003, the Italian secret police were aggressively pursuing a criminal terrorism case against Mr. Nasr, with the help of American intelligence officials. Italian investigators said they had told the Americans they had strong evidence that he was trying to build a terror recruitment network, possibly aimed for Iraq if the United States went forward with plans to topple Saddam Hussein.
On Feb. 17, 2003, Mr. Nasr disappeared.
When the Italians began investigating, they said, they were startled to find evidence that some of the C.I.A. officers who had been helping them investigate Mr. Nasr were involved in his abduction.
"We do feel quite betrayed that this operation was carried out in our city," a senior Italian investigator said. "We supplied them information about Abu Omar, and then they used that information against us, undermining an entire operation against his terrorist network."
[NY TIMES]
The go it alone approach to taking prisoners in other countries has its mirror in the United States approach to giving up its own agents when they are accused of crimes in Italy. It's not going to happen.
‘There is close to no probability that the United States is going to extradite any of these people to Italy, notwithstanding the letter of any treaty," said Peter J. Spiro, who teaches international law at the University of Georgia. "It's very unlikely that there is going to be any sort of cooperation on this end."
It is not unusual for intelligence operations to violate local laws, but operations like the one at issue here are typically undertaken with at least the tacit blessing of the local government. The government of Silvio Berlusconi has made no official comment on the case.
"If the apprehension and removal, to use those relatively neutral terms, of this individual, were done without the knowledge and authorization of at least some part of the Italian government," said Douglass W. Cassel Jr., who teaches international law at Northwestern University, "then it's a clear violation of international law."
[NY TIMES]
So what does the leader of the free world have to say about extraordinary rendition? George Bush has very well chosen, deceptive words when he was asked a question on rendition at his March 17, 2005 Press Conference.
Bush parses his answer quite plainly about assurances and countrymen being sent back home, but what of reports of people rendered to Egypt and to Syria that were not of those countries? A greater question remains. We take great pride in our intelligence service for its abilities. When we render people to other countries, are we saying those countries can do something we cannot? Or something we will not, but will allow them to do in our name? So long as they don't explicitly tell us. Nudge, nudge. Wink, wink.THE QUESTION THAT IS ASKED AND WHAT LIES IN THE ANSWER
Q Mr. President, can you explain why you've approved of and expanded the practice of what's called rendition, of transferring individuals out of U.S. custody to countries where human rights groups and your own State Department say torture is common for people under custody?
THE PRESIDENT: The post-9/11 world, the United States must make sure we protect our people and our friends from attack. That was the charge we have been given. And one way to do so is to arrest people and send them back to their country of origin with the promise that they won't be tortured. That's the promise we receive. This country does not believe in torture. We do believe in protecting ourselves. We don't believe in torture. And --
Q As Commander-in-Chief --
THE PRESIDENT: Sorry, what -- make Roberts feel terrible.
Q That's all right.
THE PRESIDENT: No, no, you shouldn't make --
Q It doesn't bother me at all. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: Elisabeth.
Q As Commander-in-Chief, what is it that Uzbekistan can do in interrogating an individual that the United States can't?
THE PRESIDENT: We seek assurances that nobody will be tortured when we render a person back to their home country.
[WHITE HOUSE]
PREVIOUS HERETIK POST ON RENDITION:
[EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION RULED ORDINARY CRIME IN ITALY]
MORE ON THIS AT: [TALK LEFT] [BEAUTIFUL HORIZONS]
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