CIA Kidnapping, Pt. II

--Freedom for Sale,
Pavel Constantin (Romania)

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[continuation ... ]

Would it not be more correct to arrest with police powers after an investigation, and subsequent extradition of the subject for a transparent and correct trial by jury?  Isn't this why there is a United States Department of Justice?

Doing this operation within the parameters of international law would be a slower but surer method of conducting a counter-terror operation, that is, if it is a legitimate operation.

Immunity was conferred upon some members of the snatch-team, "like Col. Joseph L. Romano III, a former Air Force commander who allegedly helped smuggle the kidnapping team onto Aviano Air Base, from which Omar was flown out of Italy," but not for De Sousa.

"Well before her conviction, she lobbied hard for immunity. In May 2008, Jonathan C. Rose, now the chief of the rules support office in the U.S. court system, wrote an angry letter on her behalf to then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Rose called Rice out for allegedly approving Omar’s rendition at the CIA’s behest. ..."

Curious that Secretary Rice gave State Department approval to execute a kidnapping; can you spell "failed state"?  This should not be State Department function; no one in the U.S. system should be authorized to allow or to conduct criminal activity for any purpose (this includes President Obama's kill lists.) The CIA told De Sousa in '08 that “intelligence activities are not covered by diplomatic immunity.”  If Col. Romano was military operating with the CIA, how then did he invoke diplomatic immunity?

"[De Sousa] is fully aware that some in the Foreign Service believe she is unwilling to deal with the natural perils of their profession. With a mother in India and sisters in Germany and Canada, she says she never would have taken on any assignment that could have jeopardized her ability to travel freely. Her critics, she says, cannot understand what it’s like for an immigrant to be stuck in the United States and barred from visiting family abroad"

Criminal behavior is not a natural peril of intel service.  The U.S. is not Nazi Germany or the Stasi or Bulgarian assassins. How does De Sousa claim to be "stuck in the U.S."?  Apparently the irony of her participation in the deprivation of a man's liberty is lost upon her.  Such a mama's girl for someone willing to aid in a man's kidnapping and certain torture.

Criminal behavior is criminal, even for U.S. diplomats and intel functionaries.

CIA Kidnapping

 

So that happened
--State and Main (2002)
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[Follow-on from last week's Italian kidnapping verdict (A Faceless Man).]

This could be a fictional Aurelio Zen kidnapping, but it is sadly not.  In a true crime scenario, U.S. Central Intelligence Agents snatched a believed "radical Egyptian Muslim cleric" off the streets of Milan in 2003.

An ex-CIA operative involved in the operation, Sabrina De Sousa, told her mother, “There was an incident in Italy. It involved what the Italians consider a crime.” Imagine the hubris or the denial to be able to be amazed that she was being charged with an actual crime. “It was kidnapping. Don’t worry. I am not a criminal” (Kidnapping Unravels Spy's Career.)

Perhaps De Sousa drank the tea, and thought calling the snatch a "rendition" rendered it legal and permissible. In fact, the Italian Supreme Court found 22 CIA officers guilty of aggravated kidnapping; they will probably never be rendered to Italy for the execution of their sentencing.

The Washington Post notes, "Unlike the other Americans caught up in the case, [De Sousa] refuses to retreat into anonymity." This ostensibly makes De Sousa appear righteous, but in fact her cover has been blown from here to Milan, so there is only personal gain to be had from talking.

The Post continues to get it wrong when it writes, "More than anything, De Sousa’s legal battles reveal the cascading personal toll on a CIA officer when a secret intelligence operation’s cover is blown."  No -- the problem is not the agent's cover being blown but rather the fact that she was involved in the commission of a crime.  Having your cover blown is not a felony.  Kidnapping is, and kidnapping done in the name of freedom and democracy is doubly damning, as it puts icing on a terrorist activity.

Describing the naturalized U.S. citizen who began working for the CIA in the 1990's, the Post writes, "DeSousa's) olive skin and fluency in Portuguese, French, Hindi, German and Italian enabled her to blend into crowds and easily take part in surveillance of suspects."  Suspect is a police term -- does the CIA do police work or intel?

Why would an intel agency investigate the cleric?  If he is engaged in terrorist activity and was "under investigation", should this not be a host nation legal and criminal concern?  The CIA  is an intel agency, not law enforcement.

We are supposed to be the Good Guys here.  Note that the kidnapped was an Egyptian cleric, not a Taliban, not a Saudi. When the CIA kidnaps, it is called "counter-terrorism"; when al Qaeda does the same it is "terrorism".

Next: Pt II of CIA Kidnapping