Italy warrants for 22 purported CIA operatives

Grimnar

Grimnar

Active member
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/12/23/italy.warrants2/index.html

Friday, December 23, 2005; Posted: 1:57 p.m. EST (18:57 GMT)

ROME, Italy (CNN) -- An Italian judge has issued European arrest warrants for 22 purported CIA agents alleged to have kidnapped an Egyptian-born Muslim cleric in Milan in 2003, a prosecutor said Friday.

The warrants make it legal for the 22 to be arrested in any of the European Union's member nations.

Prosecutor Armando Spataro said the warrants were issued December 20.

The 22 were already facing arrest warrants in Italy, and are considered fugitives.

Prosecutors have asked Justice Minister Roberto Castelli to call on the United States to extradite the 22. Castelli has not done so, and has said he needs more information about the allegations.

The case revolves around the alleged abduction of Osama Nasr Mostafa Hassan, also known as Abu Omar, in February 2003.

At the time of his disappearance, Milan prosecutors were investigating him for alleged links to terrorism.

Prosecutors allege that a CIA team seized him, flew him to Egypt, and used torture as part of an interrogation there.

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi summoned U.S. Ambassador Mel Sembler for an explanation. No details of their meeting were released.

Former CIA analyst Michael Scheuer said the Italian military secret service had approved the operation, and CIA sources who refused to be named told CNN that the agency had briefed and sought approval from its Italian counterpart for such an abduction.

But the Italian government vigorously denied having authorized Hassan's kidnapping, which it called illegal.
 
This sounds like a case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand was doing. And some serious political grandstanding.
 
WTF!? Italy is trying to arrest members of the CIA for "kidnapping" (capturing) a terrorist? That is ****ed up.
 
Go through many of my posts and see how often I have said most of our prosecutors and judges are extreme leftist. They really are. You happen to find confirmations like this, at times.
 
The person taking dictation for the Judge is probably a CIA operative, in fact, probably one of the 22. :type:
 
It would seem that the Chicago Tribune were none too impressed either.

Rule 1. Don't get caught.
Rule 2. If caught deny everything.
Rule 3. Make counter accusations.
Rule 4. As a last resort, deny the existence of Italy.


CIA's bungled Italy job
Sloppy use of cell phones, other missteps help police unravel cleric's 2003 abduction

By John Crewdson
Tribune senior correspondent
Published December 25, 2005

MILAN, Italy -- The trick is known to just about every two-bit crook in the cellular age: If you don't want the cops to know where you are, take the battery out of your cell phone when it's not in use.

Had that trick been taught at the CIA's rural Virginia training school for covert operatives, the Bush administration might have avoided much of the current crisis in Europe over the practice the CIA calls "rendition," and CIA Director Porter Goss might not have ordered a sweeping review of the agency's field operations.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0512250380dec25,1,7824008.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true
 
You're telling me the CIA actually screw things up? I never would have imagined they'd be incompetent since... uh... didn't they do something right back in the 60s?

By the way, not a huge sanction there. You get to abduct a citizen in his own country and your punnishment is you can't have cheese and wine in Milan anymore.
 
Whispering Death said:
By the way, not a huge sanction there. You get to abduct a citizen in his own country and your punishment is you can't have cheese and wine in Milan anymore.
Click to expand...

He was not an Italian citizen, though.
 
Send all 22 warrants to me , or at least certified copies there of. I will make a diligent search for the subjects (as required by law) really I will.

Then I will stamp them UNABLE TO LOCATE, and return them to the issuing court,:peace:
 
Here's the latest I've found.
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Italy's Pursuit of CIA Operatives Stalls​

Resistance by Berlusconi government and apathy about being able to keep the U.S. from infringing sovereignty fetter case of imam spirited abroad.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]by Tracy Wilkinson[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]ROME - The secret agents who captured Abu Omar weren't very secret.

In the days surrounding their abduction of the radical Egyptian cleric on a Milan street nearly three years ago, they chatted openly on their cellular phones, ran up huge bills at luxury hotels and even managed to let their rental cars be photographed by traffic cameras as they drove illegally through pedestrian walkways
Click to expand...

[/FONT]
The rest of the story
 
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Whispering Death said:
You're telling me the CIA actually screw things up? I never would have imagined they'd be incompetent since... uh... didn't they do something right back in the 60s?

By the way, not a huge sanction there. You get to abduct a citizen in his own country and your punnishment is you can't have cheese and wine in Milan anymore.
Click to expand...

Its not just Italy they can be arrested in its all EU nations which to some degree limits their effectiveness, on top of this it wouldnt surprise me if the arrest warrants went pretty much worldwide (New Zealand has had French agents arrested in Switzerland almost 15 years after the initial event) so I wouldnt treat it too lightly.
 
Welshwarrior said:
MILAN, Italy -- The trick is known to just about every two-bit crook in the cellular age: If you don't want the cops to know where you are, take the battery out of your cell phone when it's not in use.
Click to expand...

Quick question, why should these CIA operatives be trying to hide their location from a government that they were working with at the time?
 
Damien435 said:
Quick question, why should these CIA operatives be trying to hide their location from a government that they were working with at the time?
Click to expand...

Italian prosecutors said the CIA operation was an egregious violation of national sovereignty, a call taken up by some members of the political left. The prosecutors say that rather than furthering the war on terrorism, the stated goal of the Bush administration, the abduction was a setback.

"Kidnapping Abu Omar was not only a crime against the state of Italy, but also it did great damage to the war on terrorism," lead prosecutor Armando Spataro told the Los Angeles Times over the summer, even as he amassed more evidence and lengthened the list of suspects. "We could have continued the investigation and found evidence on other people. He would be on trial by now.

Anything else I can help you with?:cheers:
 
Thanks but I am only interested in the facts, as others have said this looks more to me like political double talk than anything else.
 
American operatives also kidnapped and imprisoned a German citizen in Germany. The German government were being spineless pussies about it so you probably haven't heard of it.

He was an American airman who defected into East Germany and by default beame a citizen of the Federal Republic of Germany upon reuinification. Now, I understand why the Americans would want to put him in jail. What makes me sick is how weak the German government does not try to defend its sovereignty.
 
The US not recognize dual citizenship for it's citizens, especially if that citizenship is invoked to prevent arrest or prosecution for a crime while claiming US citizenship.;)
 
It seems to me that it is indeed someone wishing to make a political statement rather than any true intent of wrongdoing. But then again I am a US citizen and I can do what I want in Italy and my government will back me up whrther I am right or wrong...right? Right? Uncle Sam where did ya go? :hide:
 
03USMC said:
The US not recognize dual citizenship for it's citizens, especially if that citizenship is invoked to prevent arrest or prosecution for a crime while claiming US citizenship.;)
Click to expand...

Whatever. My point is that they broke German law in Germany and nobody tried prosecuting them.
 
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