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The War Profiteers - War Crimes, Kidnappings,
Torture and Big Money |
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February 28th,
2007 - U.S. Will Not Extradite CIA Agents to Italy |
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U.S. Will Not Extradite CIA Agents
to Italy Al Jazeera February 28, 2007 The United States will
reject any request by Italy to extradite CIA agents indicted in the abduction
of a Muslim cleric in Milan, a U.S. legal advisor said on Wednesday. Earlier this month, a Milan
judge ordered 26 Americans, most of them CIA agents, to stand trial with
Italian spies for kidnapping an Egyptian imam Osama Mustafa Hassan in Milan
in 2003 and sending him to Egypt, where he says was tortured. "We've not got an
extradition request from Italy ... If we got an extradition request from
Italy, we would not extradite U.S. officials to Italy," State Department
Legal Adviser John Bellinger told a news briefing. Bellinger, who is in
Brussels for meetings with European legal advisers, did not comment on the
case, but said that Washington would never hand over a suspect to another
country without assurances about their treatment. "We get assurances from
countries that individuals will be properly treated and if we can't get these
assurances then we will not turn people over to those countries," he
said. Bellinger also acknowledged
widespread concern in Europe about the tactics used by the Bush
administration in what it calls "war on terror" but said the risk
of legal action against American officials in Europe was harming intelligence
cooperation. "The continuing threat
of criminal charges not only harms cooperation on our end but does also cast
a pall over cooperation on the European side as well," he said. Correspondents say
Bellinger's comments were no surprise, and meant that the 26 indicted
Americans, who have returned home from Italy, would probably stand trial in
absentia on June 8. Among those indicted in the
imam’s abduction are the former heads of the CIA in Rome and Milan, Jeff
Castelli and Robert Lady, legal sources said. Five Italians will also
stand trial, including the former head of Italy's SISMI military intelligence
agency, Nicolo Pollari, who had already been removed from his job following a
parliamentary inquiry into the imam’s kidnapping. Prosecutors say a CIA-led
team, with SISMI’s help, kidnapped Egyptian imam Osama Mustafa Hassan in a
street in the northern city of Milan on February 17, 2003. Hassan, also known as Abu
Omar, was then flown via the joint U.S.-Italian Aviano air base to Germany
and then to Egypt, where he says he was tortured with electric shocks,
beatings, rape threats and genital abuse. Egyptian authorities
released Abu Omar earlier this month. After his release, the imam said he
would like to return to Italy to testify during the trial. “Extraordinary renditions” The Italian trial will be
the world’s first criminal prosecution related to a U.S. policy known as
“extraordinary renditions”, under which terror suspects are flown to third
countries without legal process. In September, President Bush
admitted that the CIA had held key terror suspects at secret overseas
prisons. However, he didn’t say if the secret detention program has been
shut, defending it as a vital tool in the U.S.’s “war on terror”. Human right groups say that
"extraordinary rendition" is a violation of international law, as
the suspects often end up being tortured in third countries. News of the Italian trial
comes weeks after a German court issued arrest warrants for 13 suspected CIA
agents accused of kidnapping a German of Lebanese origin and flying him to a
jail in Afghanistan, where he was tortured. Both cases have caused some
friction between Washington and its European allies. A European Parliament report
published this month slammed EU member states for turning a “blind eye” to
secret CIA transfers of terror suspects. External link: http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=12989 |