"Dal punto di vista degli americani Abu Omar non e' un personaggio che possa
suscitare comprensiome e simpatia. Il suo curriculum racconta come predicasse e
praticasse la jihad. Si presume che, all'inizio del 2003, in Italia,
incoraggiasse altri ad andare in Iraq a combattere contro gli Stati Uniti nella
guerra imminente: non e' quindi strano che avesse attratto su di se'
l'attenzione della Cia (...)
Ignorarlo, con quel passato, sarebbe stato cosa da pazzi. Ma c'erano altri
modi per affrontare qualsiasi minaccia egli potesse rappresentare. Al momento
di essere rapito era sottoposto a sorveglianza elettronica: "Eravamo al
corrente di tutto, tutto, tutto cio' che Abu Omar stava architettando" ha
spiegato un alto funzionario della polizia italiana al giornalista della
Tribune John Crewdson. E gli italiani non avevano trovato prove che
dimostrassero una sua partecipazione all'organizzazione di qualche episodio
violento (...)
Omar non e' un soggetto raccomandabile: al contrario, non lo e' affatto. Ma
non e' che i soggetti poco raccomandabili debbano indurci ad abbracciare
comportamenti che fanno a pugni con la nostra coscienza e i nostri principi".
chicagotribune.com
Editorials
Rendering abuse
Published January 10, 2007
From an American vantage point, Abu Omar is not a sympathetic figure. The
radical Egyptian-born Muslim cleric not only preached jihad but practiced it in
Bosnia and Afghanistan. By early 2003, living in Italy, he was allegedly
encouraging others to go to Iraq to fight the United States in the coming war.
So it's no surprise that he would attract the attention of the CIA.
But his case shows how legitimate concerns about terrorism can provoke
inexcusable overreactions. In Feburary, 2003, Omar was abducted by the CIA in
Milan and flown to Cairo, where he was turned over to Egyptian security forces.
What happened next, at least by his account, was perfectly predictable: He was
beaten, tortured and sexually abused.
Under the Bush administration's policy of "extraordinary rendition," American
agents capture suspected terrorists and transfer them to the custody of
governments that are known to use cruel methods to extract information. In this
way, the U.S. government gets any intelligence obtained through such
techniques, but without having to use brutality itself. Critics call this
approach "outsourcing torture."
That policy has begun to bite back. Italian prosecutors have charged 25
current and former CIA employees and an Air Force officer with illegally
abducting Omar, who remains in prison in Egypt, even though courts there have
dismissed charges against him for lack of evidence. The Americans are not
expected to return to Italy for the trial, but the case remains an
embarrassment to both the U.S. and Italian governments.
Given Omar's record, it would have been crazy to ignore him. But there were
other ways of dealing with any threat he may have presented. At the time he was
seized, he was under wall-to-wall electronic surveillance. As a senior Italian
law enforcement official told Tribune reporter John Crewdson, "We knew
everything, everything, everything Abu Omar was up to." Italian officials told
the Tribune they found no evidence he was plotting violence.
If that monitoring wasn't sufficient, the U.S. could have asked the Italians
to file charges and arrest him. (In April, 2005, he was charged with helping
jihadists go to Iraq.) At worst, the CIA could have captured him and sent him
to Guantanamo Bay, rather than give him to a regime it regularly criticizes for
abusing detainees.
The administration policy is that it transfers prisoners to the custody of
other governments only on the assurance that they won't be tortured. Atty. Gen.
Alberto Gonzales, however, has said that such renditions are allowed unless the
prisoner is "more likely than not" to be tortured. In practice, that often
means turning a blind eye to barbaric practices.
But if the U.S. renounces the use of torture by its own agents, it shouldn't
be an accomplice in torture committed by other governments. Omar is a bad guy.
But bad guys shouldn't induce us to embrace unconscionable policies.
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune
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chicagotribune.com
Former CIA operative refuses to cooperate in rendition case
From Tribune news services
Published January 10, 2007
MILAN, Italy -- A retired CIA operative accused of helping kidnap a radical
Muslim cleric refuses to cooperate with Italian authorities in the case, his
lawyer said Tuesday.
Robert Seldon Lady, the former CIA chief in Milan, is among 26 Americans and
five Italians facing charges in the February 2003 abduction of cleric Abu Omar,
whose given name is Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr.
Lady, who is believed to be living in the U.S., is the only American defendant
to have hired a lawyer rather than have a court-appointed one. Italian
prosecutors offered Lady the opportunity to testify in return for a promise he
would not have to serve time in prison if convicted.
When the abduction was over, the other CIA operatives moved on to assignments
out of the country, but Lady retired to a villa in northern Italy, a home he
had to flee when the investigation heated up. According to prosecution evidence
reported in the Tribune on Monday, Lady was opposed to the abduction from the
start but was overruled by his superior, the CIA's Rome station chief.
For those reasons, it was considered a possibility Lady would cooperate with
prosecutors. His lawyer, Daria Pesce, said she had advised him to.
But Pesce said Tuesday that Lady had rejected the offer and had dismissed her
as his lawyer.
"Robert Seldon Lady says that this case should have had a political solution
and not a judicial solution," Pesce said. "The Italian government could have
decided it was a state secret--remember, this was a terror suspect. It would
have been possible if the Italian government had had the courage to reach an
agreement with the U.S. government."
Prosecutors say the abduction--known as a "rendition" in CIA parlance--was a
breach of Italian sovereignty that compromised the country's own anti-terrorism
efforts.
None of the defendants attended the closed session, which ended without a
decision on whether the case should proceed to trial. The hearing is to resume
Jan. 29.
In Italy, defendants are not required to attend preliminary hearings, or even
trials. Deputy Chief Public Prosecutor Armando Spataro has asked Prime Minister
Romano Prodi's center-left government to seek the extradition of the American
suspects, but there has been no response. The previous prime minister,
conservative Silvio Berlusconi, a close ally of President Bush, refused.
Among the defendants is Nicolo Pollari, former head of the CIA's Italian
counterpart, SISMI. Pollari's lawyers said they intend in the next session to
try to add both Prodi and Berlusconi to the witness stand, as well as their
defense ministers.
Abu Omar has spent most of the past four years imprisoned in Egypt. In a
letter from prison, revealed in Sunday's Tribune, Abu Omar alleged he had been
tortured with electric shocks, beatings and sexual abuse.
At the time of his abduction, he was not accused of a crime in either the U.S.
or Italy. He was later charged in Italy with helping young Muslims go to Iraq
as "foreign fighters."
The CIA has refused to comment on the case.