Rendered Guilty

It was quite galling for CIA to kidnap Abu Omars from a friendly and allied country, Italy. The Italian intelligence had him under surveillance, and CIA could have asked the Italians to bring him in, and interrogate him in Italy. But in the presence of Italian agents, the CIA could not torture him to
confess and give up other associates. And Egypt, which gets $2.5 billion
a year in U.S. aid, was the right place - since torture in Arab countries is a
standard practice.

But the end of the whole story proves that the CIA was the double dupe on this case. a) Abu Oman didn't have any terrorist network information to belch out after his torture in Egypt. b) Regardless of the reluctance of the Italian government to officially ask it ally, the U.S., to extradite the CIA operatives, Joseph Spataro [used Armando in this article], the Italian magistrate continued the case and finally brought justice to the case - if not to Abu Omar. Spataro, along with Spain's famous magistrate Baltazar Garzon, who has investigate various Latin American "death squads" officials for crimes committed at the behest of the CIA, are a new breed of tough judicial officials ready to take on the untouchable -so far- CIA.

I am sure CIA knows better now, and it will probably be more careful in the future. But Garzon [on Latin killers] and Spataro on CIA have set precedents that other U.S. allied magistrates may have to follow if similar cases occur, rather than be seen as meek lackeys of the U.S. when their sovereignty
is violated. And I wouldn't be surprised if at some future day, and under another regime in Pakistan, if there would be a trial of CIA people in absentia there too. The Abu Omar kidnapping in Italy definitely opened a Pandora's Box for the CIA. Nikos Retsos, retired professor

No muy amablemente Danie ferrero (dany) y Gustavo Giorgi fueron
excluidos por incompententes

FUERON EXCLUIDOS POR BAJA PRODUCCION Y EXCESIVOS GASTOS

1. The rendered guy's name isn't given, which is surprising. it has been no secret for some years now. He's also, as this story says, "known as Abu Omar"-- but why not mention his real name up front? Careless work, or just a suggestion he's some sort of lay figure, not a real human being.

2. The rendered person was innocent of any guilt and has been released with no stain on his character. This added to the sense of outrage in the Milan court, and also should have in the mind of everybody reading this story. But, well, uh, the writer doesn't seem to care or think that matters, so probably few readers will.

3. There is abundant evidence from other former Egyptian prisoners, handed over by the CIA in Cairo, that torture there has been systematic. Sopme seems to have been recorded as mobile phone videos. It seems virtually certain that the CIA expects such torture, and expects the fruits of it to be passed on to the agency. Steain blandly says the victim in this matter made what seems a passing claim to having been tortured. But that's not the case at all. There was sworn evidence of his claim. And we have no confidence that the CIA no longer hands over people to be tortured in other nations. it started boasting of doing that before 9/11.

4. If the victim of these criminal actions does get awarded a US government property in Italy, this won't be, as Stein emptily says, "ironic". It will be justice, you know, that stuff that Washington during the Bush years was claiming a planetary prescript for. The absence of justice from the initial blundering, criminal rendition seems, in Stein's mind, mainly something that those Italians are rather amusingly.asserting, Possibly that's not what he thinks. it's not all that clear. .

Although it may prove Italy is not a banana republic it says the opposite about the US and the use of the CIA for our plausable deniable President's in use very effectively from Reagan on it seems.

The jump from the Tonkien Gulf incident to the blatant "We know they have WMD's and we know where they are" leaves scant wiggle room. The use of disappearance in South America to direct involvement of the CIA here does have to make us wonder about secret programs here at home under the wildcard of terrorism or the Whim of the Plausable Deniers!!

It's great to see _someone_ being brought to justice for these things. Now, if only we can trick Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the rest to take an all-expenses-paid vacation in the Riviera, or anywhere else that will extradite to Germany...

The worst of this is where one of the agents says that he was just following orders, despite his personal objection to the operation. Apparently the Nuremberg Defense is only bad when people we don't like do it.