Italy: ex-CIA Milan chief detained in Panama

[cali]

A former CIA base chief in Italy who was convicted in the 2003 abduction of an Egyptian terror suspect from a street in Milan has been detained in Panama, the Italian justice ministry said Thursday.

Robert Seldon Lady, the former Milan CIA station chief, was sentenced by an Italian appeals court in Milan earlier this year in the extraordinary rendition case to nine years in prison after being tried in absentia in Italy for the kidnapping of the Muslim cleric.

The trials of Lady, who has since retired from the CIA, and two other Americans in the case brought the first convictions anywhere in the world against agents involved in the agency’s extraordinary rendition program, a practice alleged to have led to torture.

The ministry said it didn’t immediately have details on when or where in the Central American country Lady was detained. Asked if Italy was seeking Lady’s extradition, the ministry said Minister Anna Maria Cancellieri was away on a visit in Lithuania and couldn’t immediately say if such a request had been initiated.

<snip>

http://www.salon.com/2013/07/18/italy_ex_cia_milan_chief_detained_in_panama/singleton/

Cue Congress and the Administration to start howling.

[Solly Mack]

1. Excellent.

Please extradite to Italy.

[Solly Mack]

3. I'm gonna kick this already.

Put a smile on my face.

He'll probably land back in the US somehow...still.

[suffragette]

5. Let me join you in a "kicking line"

[Solly Mack]

6. Now if only more would get detained.

I can dream.

[suffragette]

11. Yes, and prosecuted

[tsuki]

13. He and 25 others have already been prosecuted and convicted and sentenced. Bob Lady

is the only one an extradition warrant has been served.

[suffragette]

20. Thanks tsuki

I had remembered the case in general, but I had forgotten that.

[Segami]

7. I concur.....kick!

Waiting to see the next move and by whom......

[suffragette]

12. A few more kickers and we'll rival the Rockettes

Though I doubt they can munch on popcorn at the same time. I'll join you in that, too!

[Savannahmann]

2. Apologists unite

Explain how this is so much different than the bastard Snowden. Explain that the kidnapping of people off the street and holding them in black prison sites is perfectly OK so long as some of those you kidnap are actually Terrorists and not just random folks off the street.

[morningfog]

4. Are you asking how kidnapping and torture are different from releasing information

on privacy intrusions? I don't understand the comparision you are trying to make.

[Savannahmann]

8. The comparison is obvious

Snowden must come home because he's been charged with crimes, and the only thing available is that he must come home and face those charges. The CIA boss has not only been charged, but tried and convicted, but apparently the same devotion to facing justice doesn't exist for that case.

[Luminous Animal]

22. One is exposing illegal activities the other is committing them!

See just the same!

[tsuki]

23. +1000

[hootinholler]

9. This should be interesting

I bet Lady wishes he was one of the John Doe conspirators.

[Hydra]

10. I see none of the usual suspects are here saying he needs to face his charges

Disappointing...but they're all very sloppy on rule of law unless it's Snowden. In that case, hang him!

[tsuki]

14. True dat! nt

[forestpath]

15. K&R

[struggle4progress]

16. Ex-CIA Milan chief held in Panama over cleric abduction

18 July 2013 Last updated at 20:36 ET

... Italian authorities have so far only sought the international arrest of the former Milan station chief, Italian media say.

The CIA said it had no immediate comment on the arrest, while Panamanian officials have so far denied knowledge of the detention.

Panama and Italy do not have an extradition treaty.

Lady was reportedly arrested near Panama's border with Costa Rica ...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23367401

[struggle4progress]

17. Ex-Employee of C.I.A. Held in Abduction

By ELISABETH MALKIN
Published: July 18, 2013

... Mr. Lady was the C.I.A. station chief in Milan when the abduction occurred. In 2009, a Milan judge convicted Mr. Lady and 22 other American intelligence officials in absentia of the kidnapping.

The convictions were the first in an extraordinary rendition case. Three other former C.I.A. agents, including the former Rome station chief at the time of the abduction, were convicted in February. The same month, the court convicted five former Italian intelligence officials, including Nicolò Pollari, Italy’s former military intelligence chief, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the abduction.

Mr. Lady, 59, was arrested on an international warrant issued by Italy last December, after the highest appeals court confirmed his nine-year sentence. He had disappeared from Italy shortly after the investigation began.

It was unclear whether Italy would request Mr. Lady’s extradition, since it has no extradition treaty with Panama. Panama could choose to send Mr. Lady to Italy, officials in Italy said. An Italian Justice Ministry spokesman could not be reached for comment. A few months before his 2009 conviction, Mr. Lady told the Italian newspaper Il Giornale: “Of course it was an illegal operation ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/19/world/europe/ex-employee-of-cia-held-in-abduction.html?_r=0

[struggle4progress]

18. Italy Says Ex-CIA Chief in Milan Arrested in Panama

VOA News
July 18, 2013

... Three other Americans indicted in the case were granted diplomatic immunity and acquitted in 2009. But earlier this year, a Milan court vacated the acquittals, convicted them in absentia and then sentenced two of them to six-year prison terms and the third to a seven-year term.

An Italian court found Italy's secret services also were complicit in the rendition, and a former Italian intelligence chief was sentenced to 10 years in prison earlier this year. A former deputy received a nine-year sentence, and three other officials got six years each.

Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper says the Italian government authorized an international arrest warrant for Lady in December. But it says warrants were not issued for other CIA operatives convicted in the case because their prison sentences did not meet the minimum for an extradition request.

http://www.voanews.com/content/italy-says-excia-chief-in-milan-arrested-in-panama/1704881.html

[LittleBlue]

19. Extradite to Italy plz

[ConcernedCanuk]

21. MIC and NSA are on it.

.
.
.

gotta keep all that " extraordinary rendition " stuff from getting too much exposure.

Isn't extraordinary rendition just another word for torture?

like "collateral damage" is the slaughter of innocents?

Something is going to change,

it must.

CC