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Italy judge clears way for CIA "rendition" trial

Submitted by davidswanson on Thu, 2008-03-20 20:25.

By Reuters

An Italian judge on Wednesday ordered the resumption of a trial against U.S. and Italian spies accused of abducting a terrorism suspect, in a blow to efforts to halt a case that Rome says violates state secrecy rules.

The trial in absentia against 26 Americans -- almost all believed to be CIA agents -- is the first anywhere over the U.S. practice of "extraordinary rendition," whereby terrorism suspects are secretly transferred to third countries.

Italian spies, including the former head of Italy's military intelligence agency Nicolo Pollari, are accused of helping the CIA team abduct Muslim cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr in 2003 and fly him to Egypt. There, Nasr says he was tortured.

Judge Oscar Magi had suspended proceedings shortly after they began in June last year, saying the criminal trial should wait until Italy's highest court ruled whether prosecutors had broken state secrecy rules when building their case.

But after months of high court delays, Magi decided the trial in Milan could go forward regardless.

"The measure suspending (the trial) can be removed," Magi told the court. "It will not cause any harm to the defense."

Prosecutors say a CIA-led team grabbed Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, off a Milan street, bundled him into a van and drove him to a military base in northern Italy.

He was then flown to Egypt, where Nasr says he was tortured under interrogation with electric shocks, beatings, rape threats and genital abuse.

Nasr was freed from prison in February last year and lives in Egypt. He faces an arrest order in Italy on suspicion of terrorist activity.

(Reporting by Nicola Scevola; Writing by Phil Stewart; Editing by Charles Dick)

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CIA

Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 2008-03-21 18:04.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
During the early and mid 1980s, Lt. Colonel North was instrumental in organizing the transportation of cocaine and marijuana from the various sites in Central and South America into the United States as a means of funding the Contra rebels. Congressional records show North was tasked with finding funding “outside the CIA” after the Boland Amendment cut off funding for the Contras in October, 1984. [5] Declassified interviews taken during Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh 's investigation into Iran-Contra, as well as North’s handwritten journal entries, detail an extensive operation involving civilian and military personnel from the U.S. and various Central American countries.

On February 10, 1986, Robert Owen , North’s liaison with the Contras, wrote North regarding a plane being used to carry "humanitarian aid" to the Contras that was previously used to transport drugs. The plane belonged to the Miami-based company Vortex, which is run by Michael Palmer, one of the largest marijuana traffickers in the United States. Despite Palmer's long history of drug smuggling, Palmer receives over $300,000.00 from the Nicaraguan Humanitarian Aid Office (NHAO) -- an office overseen by Oliver North, Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs Elliott Abrams , and CIA officer Alan Fiers -- to ferry supplies to the Contras.

North’s own handwritten journals provide valuable insight into the mechanics of the operation as well. In his journal entry for August 9, 1985, North summarizes a meeting with Owen. They discuss a plane used to transport supplies from New Orleans to Contras in Honduras. North writes: "Honduran DC-6 which is being used for runs out of New Orleans is probably being used for drug runs into U.S."

North has consistently denied any involvement with drug trafficking, stating on Fox’s Hannity and Colmes , “…nobody in the U.S. government, going all the way back to the earliest days of this under Jimmy Carter, ever had anything to do with running drugs.”

North has been banned from Central America's leading democracy, Costa Rica , for drug running.........

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