Italy's Rendition Trials

Italy appears to be having political wars about the CIA rendition of Abu Omar. The real problem with the information that is available is that there is nothing available on Abu Omar and his own complicity with terrorist activities. He, of course, states he didn't do anything, even if the Italian police were investigating him.

ROME — The first criminal trial involving one of the Bush administration's most controversial tactics in fighting terrorism is set to begin in June after an Italian judge Friday indicted 33 people, including some two dozen CIA operatives and the man who until recently was Italy's top spy.

Judge Caterina Interlandi ordered the 26 Americans and seven Italians to stand trial in connection with the February 2003 abduction of a radical Egyptian cleric who was snatched in broad daylight on a Milan street and whisked away to an Egyptian jail, where he says he was tortured.

The Italian government hasn't yet found whether they'll attempt to extradite the US CIA agents, but seeing that the US government isn't known to just pitch intelligence agents, active or not, to foreign governments, I'm going to bet that gets them no where.

For evidence, Italian prosecutors have relied heavily on an extensive paper trail left by the CIA operatives as they allegedly planned the seizure of Abu Omar and carried it out. The agents rang up bills totaling tens of thousands of dollars at some of Milan's finest hotels and restaurants and chatted openly on easily traced cellphones. They left behind photocopies of their passports and frequent-flier cards.

Although most of the Americans were using aliases, Italian investigators were able to track calls and other contacts to Robert Seldon Lady, the now-retired CIA station chief in Milan, and the CIA's top man in Italy, former Rome station chief Jeff Castelli.

And

Interlandi set the trial to begin June 8. It could be delayed, however, because the government has asked the Italian Constitutional Court, the country's highest judicial body, to rule on whether prosecutors overstepped their bounds by wiretapping 80 or more military intelligence agents during the investigation.

Members of Italy's political establishment are at one another's throats over whether the trial should go forward.

Francesco Rutelli, deputy prime minister, accused prosecutors of endangering national security by "exposing" the agents and their methods.

But Antonio di Pietro, a Cabinet minister and a former star state prosecutor, disagreed: "Secret agents, whether Italian or foreign, can't act like a gang of Sardinian bandits."

You can understand the Italians being angry about this. On the other hand, acting like Sardinian bandits may be appropriate when the enemy acts far worse. And again, without knowing more about what the intelligence agents knew or expected, it is very hard to make a logical determination as to why they seized him.

Amnesty International, that guardian of terrorists rights at the expense of innocent lives also had to spout.

Amnesty International, one of several human rights groups highly critical of aspects of the Bush administration's anti-terrorism policies, said it hoped the Italian court's ruling Friday would add to pressure on Washington to halt "the illegal practice of extraordinary renditions."

Whatever. It's always interesting to note that groups like these wouldn't exist at all if it weren't for those who are willing to go toe-to-toe with those that would prefer you in servitude if not just plain dead.

No doubt, the rendition issue will start its way into democrat's hearings on all things that Bush has done. I'm certain they'll have a fair hearing. And you can be assured they'll not think about where their actions will lead in tying the hands of the next president that is a democrat.