U.S. allowed Italian kidnap prosecution to shield higher-ups, ex-CIA officer says

[kpete]

Source: McClatchy

WASHINGTON — A former CIA officer has broken the U.S. silence around the 2003 abduction of a radical Islamist cleric in Italy, charging that the agency inflated the threat the preacher posed and that the United States then allowed Italy to prosecute her and other Americans to shield President George W. Bush and other U.S. officials from responsibility for approving the operation.

........

– The former CIA station chief in Rome, Jeffrey Castelli, whom she called the mastermind of the operation, exaggerated Nasr’s terrorist threat to win approval for the rendition and misled his superiors that Italian military intelligence had agreed to the operation.

– Senior CIA officials, including then-CIA Director George Tenet, approved the operation even though there were doubts about Castelli’s case – Nasr wasn’t wanted in Egypt and wasn’t on the U.S. list of top al Qaida terrorists.

– Condoleezza Rice, then the White House national security adviser, also had concerns about the case, especially what Italy would do if the CIA were caught, but she eventually agreed to it and recommended that Bush approve the abduction.

............



Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/07/27/197823/us-allowed-italian-kidnap-prosecution.html#.UfPcm9JzGpA

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VIDEO: Interview with Sabrina De Sousa, CIA officer, on Osama Mustapha Hassan Nasr's rendition
HERE: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/07/27/197824/interview-with-sabrina-de-sousa.html#.UfPqY9JzGpB

WASHINGTON — A former CIA officer has broken the U.S. silence around the 2003 abduction of a radical Islamist cleric in Italy, charging that the agency inflated the threat the preacher posed and that the United States then allowed Italy to prosecute her and other Americans to shield President George W. Bush and other U.S. officials from responsibility for approving the operation.

Confirming for the first time that she worked undercover for the CIA in Milan when the operation took place, Sabrina De Sousa provided new details about the “extraordinary rendition” that led to the only criminal prosecution stemming from the secret Bush administration rendition and detention program launched after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

[Bluenorthwest]

1. It is interesting watching people here claim to cry for justice for some

while they also claim that justice for others is optional, politically excused and that justice can be like a faucet, turned on for righteous victims but turned off for connected criminals.
There can be no selective justice, no random justice. When we let the guilty go free, that's what happens.

[think]

2. K&R

[SamKnause]

3. Abduction

Truth tellers keep it coming !!!!!!

Thank you.

[bobthedrummer]

4. K&R n/t

[cosmicone]

5. When will I see Cheney frog-marched into the Hague? n/t

[on point]

6. Still waiting for Holder and Obama to prosecute the Bush War criminals

[JoeyT]

7. We're a nation of laws!

Only most of the time we can't be bothered to enforce them.

Notice how a certain law and order crowd are largely pretending none of this ever happened.