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| Europe |
| Europe's Runaway Prosecutions |
| 2007-02-28 |
| By David B. Rivkin Jr. and Lee A. Casey An Italian court announced this month that it is moving forward with the indictment and trial of 25 CIA agents charged with kidnapping a radical Muslim cleric. These proceedings may well violate international law, but the case serves as a wake-up call to the United States. Overseas opponents of American foreign policy are increasingly turning to judicial proceedings against individual American officials as a means of reformulating or frustrating U.S. aims, and action to arrest this development is needed. The Italian case involves a 2003 CIA mission to apprehend an Egyptian cleric named Osama Mustafa Hassan Nasr. Suspected of terrorist ties, Nasr was seized in Milan and transported to Egypt, where he claims he was tortured. This was, of course, an "extraordinary rendition" -- a long-standing and legal practice that generally involves the cooperation of two or more governments in the capture and transportation of a criminal suspect outside of normal extradition proceedings. It was through such a rendition that the terrorist "Carlos the Jackal" was delivered for trial to France from Sudan in 1994. |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #7 I'm more concerned about how 25 operatives-agents were caught or compromised, as that high a number doesn't bode well for CONUS Agency security. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2007-02-28 22:42 |
| #6 The first nation that tries and convicts an American in one of these monkey trials should get the UN. Literally, the US buys land and pays for the building of a new UN compound and the moving of all UN personal to the capital of that nation. Even if it costs a hundred billion it would be a win-win in the long run. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2007-02-28 18:22 |
| #5 and have been expert members of the U.N. Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights. Is that supposed to impress me, because it doesn't... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-02-28 11:26 |
| #4 Just bring the troops home. Let them be responsible for their own defense and protection of trade routes. Let them find another easy, rich market that was America. Wish them well and wish them goodbye. |
| Posted by: ed 2007-02-28 11:00 |
| #3 I say let them hold all the trials they want. The moment they touch an American however, consider it an act of war and put a 2000lb laser guided bomb through their prime minister's window. They'll get the message soon enough. |
| Posted by: Silentbrick 2007-02-28 10:55 |
| #2 Don't get mad, get even. This is where we ask the Iraqi government and courts to issue warrants on the Italian agents involved in bag money transfers to terrorist to spring the commie journalist. And just toss in a warrant for the commie for judicial interrogation as to whether it was a set up to get the funds. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2007-02-28 08:51 |
| #1 Excellent idea. Let's hope the Administration decides to do just that. |
| Posted by: mac 2007-02-28 07:54 |