CIA verdict in Italy challenges Obama on renditions
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The conviction in Italy of 23 Americans for the abduction of a Muslim cleric poses a challenge to the Obama administration's plans to keep so-called "renditions" as an option for rounding up terrorism suspects.
It also exposes the limits of Washington's ability to protect American agents from prosecution abroad, even in countries counted as close U.S. allies.
"The fact that the U.S. declares rendition legal doesn't make it legal around the world. Other states' rules apply," said Robert Ayers, a former U.S. intelligence official.
"What we've seen in Italy is the Italians have said: Kidnapping is wrong."
The Italian court ruled the Americans, including the former CIA station chief in Milan and an active-duty Air Force colonel, were guilty of abducting a terrorism suspect in 2003 and flying him to Egypt.
There, Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr said, he was tortured under interrogation and held for years without charge.
The conviction of the Americans, who were all tried in absentia, turns them into international fugitives who risk arrest abroad. They were also the first convictions anywhere over "extraordinary rendition" and will embolden calls for similar prosecution in the United States.
"The decision in Italy underscores the need for the United States to hold its own officials accountable for crimes committed under the 'extraordinary rendition' program," said Steven Watt at the American Civil Liberties Union.
"It is shameful that the first convictions of this kind came from a foreign justice system, where those convicted are not likely to serve their time."
U.S. President Barack Obama has not ruled out renditions and CIA Director Leon Panetta told a Senate briefing early this year that suspects might still be sent to third countries for questioning subject to assurances they would be treated humanely.
PENTAGON FOUGHT TRIAL
Critics of the program say the same assurances were made under former President George W. Bush, yet past rendition cases have given rise to allegations by human rights lawyers that detainees were tortured while in custody of third countries.
Nasr, for example, says he was "hung up like a slaughtered sheep" and subjected to electric shocks and genital abuse.
But the Italian case was focused on Nasr's kidnapping, not his allegations of torture. European courts could look to the Italian precedent when ruling whether future extra-judicial transfers should be viewed in the same light.
Like the U.S. State Department, the Pentagon expressed its disappointment with the verdict.
Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell noted that the Italian government shared the U.S. view that a NATO treaty should have shielded Air Force Colonel Joseph Romano from trial outside the United States. Washington had asserted jurisdiction.
"The minister of justice in Italy agreed with us ... and had, in fact, asked the court to respect our jurisdiction claim," Morrell said.
The Pentagon, in asserting jurisdiction in September, acknowledged that previous attempts to find "diplomatic or legal solutions" had failed. The United States has never acknowledged any CIA operation to kidnap Nasr.
The convicted former Milan CIA station chief, Robert Seldon Lady, said in an Italian newspaper interview published in June that he was only following orders and described himself as a soldier in the Bush-ear "war on terrorism".
"I'm not guilty. I'm only responsible for carrying out orders that I received from my superiors," Lady told Il Giornale newspaper.
The convictions came as the United States is debating the harsh interrogation of terrorism suspects who were in U.S. custody and whether to prosecute the officials responsible.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder named a prosecutor in August to determine whether criminal charges should be filed against CIA interrogators or contractors for going beyond approved interrogation methods.
(Additional reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky)
