Italians issue arrest warrants for “13 American intelligence operatives": CIA Abducts Muslim, Spends $100,000 in Luxury Hotels

CIA Abducts Muslim, Spends $100,000 in Luxury Hotels: "By Kurt Nimmo | 06/25/05

The Italian dailies Corriere della Sera and Il Giorno are reporting the issuance of arrest warrants for “13 American intelligence operatives, charging that they kidnapped a radical Islamic cleric as he walked to a mosque here two years ago, held him hostage at two U.S. military bases and then covertly flew him to Cairo. He later said he was tortured by Egyptian security police,” according to the Washington Post. “The CIA and the U.S. Embassy in Rome declined to comment Friday,” although Italian court documents indicate Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, was indeed abducted. “Nasr was a longtime surveillance target of Italian counterterrorism police, who have made no secret of their frustration over how he was forcibly taken out of the country without their knowledge…. Nasr was kidnapped just after noon by eight U.S. operatives as he was walking from his house to a nearby mosque to pray. He was bundled into a van and taken to Aviano Air Base, a joint Italian-U.S. military installation. Hours later, he was put on a Learjet to Ramstein Air Base in Germany, where he was transferred to another airplane, which took him to Cairo, the documents show.”

The somnolent American taxpayer should be proud, even though the CIA operatives “spent more than $100,000 to stay in luxury hotels in Milan, Florence and Venice before and after Nasr’s disappearance.” Of course, we shouldn’t expect the CIA to stay in the Italian version of the Red Roof Inn. Violating international law (international conventions bar sending prisoners to another nation unless there are strong assurances of humane treatment, according to Nat Hentoff) and sneaking around behind the back of our supposed allies is hard and thankless work and CIA operatives deserve every perk they can get.

“[In] the post-9-11 world, the United States must make sure we protect our people and our friends from attack… One way to do so is to arrest people and send them back to their country of origin with the promise that they won’t be tortured. That’s the promise we receive. This country does not believe in torture,” our fearless fibber said on March 16. Naturally, once in Cairo, Mr. Nasr was kindly and politely interviewed in an air-conditioned office and offered gourmet coffee and Asseeda.
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So it appears Milan prosecutor Manlio Claudio Minale has a robust case against the CIA (additional background info is available from similar cases in Germany and Sweden). However, it remains to be seen if the Italians will successfully prosecute the CIA or their case will fizzle out, as legal maneuvers against the spook agency often do. Even if the Italians fail, however, the details they unearth are more grist for the ongoing case to be made against Bush and his cronies, who believe they are above international law. ...