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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (239063)	6/29/2005 4:55:09 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1571927

Re: Having said that, if I move to Europe, France would be the last place I would moved to. And you know exactly what I am saying. Huh?! Actually I don't have a clue.... unless you're a CIA agent. Then you'll be under constant surveillance by the DST, Renseignements Généraux, etc. Ever since the terrorist attack in Toulouse in Oct(Nov?) 2001 --the blowup of the AZF chemical plant, the French have become suspicious of American/Israeli visitors, and understandably so.... Then again, Italy too might prove the wrong place for you to hang around --clue: Italy Wants to Extradite 13 CIA Officials By VICTOR L. SIMPSON, Associated Press Writer Tue Jun 28, 3:38 PM ET ROME - Italian prosecutors want to extradite 13 CIA officials accused of kidnapping a radical Muslim cleric and transporting him to Egypt where he reportedly was tortured, and they've asked Interpol to help track down the Americans, a court official said Tuesday. A man identified as the former CIA station chief in Milan is among the 13, according to a report by the judge who issued the arrest warrants. The American was traced by cell phone records to Egypt in the days after the abduction when the cleric was "likely undergoing the first" rounds of torture, according to the report obtained by The Associated Press. The Egyptian preacher was snatched in 2003, purportedly as part of the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program in which terror suspects are transferred to third countries without court approval, subjecting them to possible ill treatment. The order for the arrests in the transfer of the cleric — made public last Friday — was a rare public objection to the practice by a close American ally in its war on terrorism. The leftist opposition said Premier Silvio Berlusconi's government will respond in parliament Thursday to their demands to know whether Italian officials were involved. "It appears to be the most serious violation of national sovereignty in the history of the republic," said opposition deputy Marco Minniti. Court officials said they had no evidence of Italian involvement, but Vince Cannistraro, a former leading counterterrorism official in the CIA, said he doubted the U.S. government would launch such an operation in an allied country without coordinating first with the government. "No question," he told AP in Washington, adding the government may look the other way, as happened in Sweden when two suspected Islamic terrorists were handed over to Americans. Prosecutors have asked the help of Interpol in tracing the suspects, all identified as U.S. citizens, said the court official who asked that his name not be used because the investigation is still under way. The Milan prosecutor's office, in announcing the arrests last week, also said it would ask for American and Egyptian assistance in the case. The judge's 213-page order explaining the need for the arrests said the suspects' links to "foreign intelligence services" gave them the particular ability to destroy evidence and disrupt the investigation. The 13 are accused of seizing Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, known as Abu Omar, on a Milan street on Feb. 17, 2003, and sending him to Egypt, Milan prosecutor Manlio Claudio Minale said. He was taken to Aviano, a joint U.S.-Italian air base north of Venice, flown to Ramstein, another U.S. base in Germany, and then on to Egypt, according to the prosecutor's report. One of the suspects played a key role, according to the judge's order, which identifies him as the former Milan CIA station chief, Robert Seldon Lady, 51. It said he had been listed as a diplomat, but was retired and living near Turin. The report by Judge Chiara Nobili said there was "serious circumstantial evidence" against the former station chief based on his cell phone contacts with other alleged members of the CIA group, including calls putting him in Egypt in the days following the kidnapping. In the report, Nobili said the cell phone records show Lady was in Egypt from Feb. 22 to March 15, and those were likely the first days Nasr was being tortured during interrogations. Attempts by AP to reach Lady for comment were unsuccessful. His whereabouts were not known. Italian police raided his house Thursday, but he was not there, Italian newspapers reported. Some of the 13 names listed in the order might be aliases because that is often a practice of such operatives overseas. Several gave U.S. post office boxes as their addresses. The U.S. Embassy in Rome, the CIA and Egyptian officials declined to comment. [...] news.yahoo.com