EU-wide warrant over 'CIA kidnap'

[lovuian]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4555660.stm

An Italian court has issued Europe-wide arrest warrants for 22 suspected CIA agents accused of helping to kidnap a Muslim cleric in Milan in 2003.
The suspects are accused of abducting Osama Mustafa Hassan, also known as Abu Omar, without Italian permission, and flying him to Egypt for interrogation.

The new warrants allow for the suspects' detention anywhere in the 25-nation EU, a prosecutor said.

snip...
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently defended the use of rendition, saying it was an established practice and suggesting it was often carried out with the knowledge, or participation, of European governments
more...

Its Amazing how EU interprets their laws and how Rice doesn't see anything wrong...

22 CIA agents are not going to be able to work in Europe and is the US obliged to turn their employees over??? Bush is the WORSE BOSS...

[sasquatch]

1. I wonder if they're Bush loyalist CIA people

Should be interesting to see how the Loyalist vs Lawabiding battle will breakdown.

[lovuian]

2. Whats really going to be interesting is too see how many people

will have been trapped doing what Bush ordered them to do ...

they tortured they go to prison they kidnapped they killed

all they did this under his orders...

Now they are criminals in Europe...

Its really going to wake people in the Military and CIA that Bush has put them in some difficult and dangerous spots...

and after what Bush did to Plame ... He won't be defending and protecting them just letting them go to prison saying I didn't know...

[MrPrax]

3. Good Point...

and how many of the 22 see this as an interference in their overall career plans and are more than happy to turn themselves into authorities for clemency.

Hard to contract or work for a security consultancy biz if your wanted in Europe...

It also makes it difficult for other non-EU countries that generally co-operate fully and mutually on such matters as well.

[melody]

4. It also lays open the EU governments who were aware of it

The EU is now using this as a public relations attack against the US' image, but every one of the powerbrokers in their governments were fully aware of what was going on and consented to it beforehand. Now they're going to try to lay it all on Bush and he's going to fire back. This is going to get very ugly before it settles down.

Better a PR war than a military one, though.

[PA Democrat]

5. Fascinating article in the Chicago Trib about this kidnapping

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.

But when CIA operatives assembled here nearly three years ago to abduct an Egyptian-born Muslim preacher named Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, more familiarly known as Abu Omar, and "render" him to Cairo, they left their cell phone batteries in.

Even when not in use, a cell phone sends a periodic signal indicating its location, enabling the worldwide cellular network to know where to look for it in case of an incoming call.

More at:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0512250380dec25,1,7824008.story?page=1&ctrack=1&cset=true&coll=chi-news-hed