Italy:
U.S. Will Not Hand Over C.I.A. Suspects

IAN FISHER / New York Times 1mar2007

The United States would refuse any demand to give up 26 Central Intelligence Agency operatives ordered to stand trial in Italy on charges of kidnapping a radical Egyptian cleric there in 2003. “We’ve not got an extradition request from Italy,” John B. Bellinger III, the legal adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, told reporters in Brussels. “If we got an extradition request from Italy, we would not extradite U.S. officials to Italy.” The case is contentious in Italy, reportedly part of the American program called “extraordinary rendition,” in which terrorism suspects have been seized outside local laws and taken to third countries for interrogation. The cleric, Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, was recently released from prison in Egypt. He said that American agents took him to Egypt and that he was tortured there.

source: 1mar2007

US ‘Will Not Hand Over CIA Agents to Italy’

SARAH LAITNER / Financial Times (UK) 28feb2007

Brussels — Washington would refuse any demand by Rome to give up alleged Central Intelligence Agency operatives to face criminal trial on charges that the agency abducted terror suspects, a leading US official said.

John Bellinger, legal adviser to the US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, said in Brussels: “We have not gotten that extradition request from Italy. If we got an extradition request from Italy, we would not extradite US officials to Italy.”

An Italian judge last month ordered 25 alleged CIA operatives and the former head of Italy’s military intelligence service to go on trial on charges of kidnapping an Egyptian iman in Milan in 2003 and taking him to Egypt for interrogation.

Mr Bellinger, who was in Brussels to meet European legal advisers, is the first senior US official to say publicly that CIA agents would not be sent for trial abroad.

The US faces continued criticism from many Europeans over its contentious practice of kidnapping terrorist suspects on foreign soil after the September 11 attacks on America. In January, prosecutors in Germany issued arrest warrants for 13 alleged CIA operatives in connection with allegations that a German citizen was abducted and then detained in a secret Afghan prison.

Last month the European parliament accused some European governments of turning a blind eye to the illegal transportation of alleged terrorists through their countries to face possible torture. The Strasbourg chamber said that the UK, Germany, Poland and some other member states allowed CIA flights to stop over without proper controls.

Mr Bellinger branded that study “unbalanced, inaccurate and unfair”, and cautioned that European probes into US officials could be damaging. “I do think that these continuing investigations can harm intelligence co-operation,” he said.

Mr Bellinger did not address details of the Italian case. Romano Prodi, Italy’s prime minister, is unwilling to agree to prosecutors’ demands to seek extradition of the Americans.

— Additional reporting by Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington

source: 1mar2007

US Warns EU Over CIA Flights

The Irish Times (Dublin) 28feb2007

A senior US administration official has warned that ongoing inquiries into secret CIA activities in the European Union may undermine intelligence co-operation between the United States and European nations.

The European Parliament accused Ireland, Britain, Poland, Italy and other nations in mid-February of colluding with the CIA to transport terror suspects to clandestine prisons in third countries.

In a report that concluded a year-long investigation, the parliament identified 1,254 secret CIA flights that entered the European airspace since the September 11th, 2001 terror attacks on the United States.

It said that these flights were against international air traffic rules and suggested some of them may have carried terror suspects on board in violation of human rights principles.

John Bellinger, legal adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, called the European Parliament report "unbalanced, inaccurate and unfair" and called on the EU governments to challenge the suggestion that Europeans need to be concerned about secret CIA flights.

"I can understand concerns about specific incidents but we should not somehow suggest that all intelligence activity is something illegal or suspicious," he said.

Germany, Italy and several other EU countries have been carrying out their own inquiries into secret CIA activities in Europe, inquiries Mr Bellinger said "have not been helpful with respect to necessary cooperation between the United States and Europe."

"I do think these continuing investigations can harm intelligence cooperation, that's simply a fact of life," Bellinger told reporters after meeting legal advisers to EU governments in Brussels.

EU parliamentarians have rejected Mr Bellinger's criticism and called on the United States to address concerns that some flights have carried kidnapped terror suspects.

"People are imprisoned without being tried first. That is unacceptable. (The US) should open up to us and tell us where they're flying and who they're carrying," said Kathalijne Buitenweg, a Dutch member of the European Parliament.

The EU legislature has given no direct proof that the CIA ran secret prisons in Europe, an accusation that prompted the inquiry in November 2005. Mr Bellinger refused to comment on reports that Poland and Romania housed clandestine detention centers, but said a lot of allegations concerning US intelligence activities have been "just rumors."

Mr Bellinger also said the United States would refuse any Italian extradition request for CIA agents indicted in the alleged abduction of an Egyptian cleric in Milan, one of the cases the European Parliament focused on in its inquiry.

"We've not got an extradition request from Italy. If we got an extradition request from Italy, we would not extradite US officials to Italy," he said.

Milan prosecutors want the Italian government to forward their request for the extradition of the 26 Americans, mostly CIA agents. The previous government in Rome - led by Silvio Berlusconi - refused, and Prime Minister Romano Prodi's center-left government has indicated it would not press Washington on the issue. The Americans all have left Italy, most before prosecutors sought their arrest.

Their trial opens in June. It will be the first criminal trial stemming from the CIA's extraordinary rendition program to secretly transfer terror suspects to third countries, where critics say they may have been tortured.

source: 1mar2007

U.S. to Refuse Extradition of CIA Agents

JAN SLIVA / AP 278feb2007

The United States will refuse any Italian extradition request for CIA agents indicted in the alleged abduction of an Egyptian cleric in Milan, a senior U.S. official said Wednesday.

"We've not got an extradition request from Italy. If we got an extradition request from Italy, we would not extradite U.S. officials to Italy," John Bellinger, legal adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, told journalists after meeting legal advisers to EU governments.

Milan prosecutors want the Italian government to forward to Washington their request for the extradition of the 26 Americans, mostly CIA agents. The previous government of Silvio Berlusconi refused, and Premier Romano Prodi's center-left government has indicated it would not press Washington on the issue.

The 26 are accused in the abduction of Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr from a Milan street in 2003.

Nasr allegedly was taken to Aviano Air Base near Venice, Ramstein Air Base in southern Germany, and then to Egypt, where he was held for four years and, according to his lawyer, tortured. He has been freed by an Egyptian court that ruled his detention was "unfounded."

In a newspaper interview earlier this month, Justice Minister Clemente Mastella suggested the government would not seek the Americans' extradition, saying that the friendship with Washington needed to be safeguarded.

The decision on whether or not to forward an extradition request would normally be made by the Justice Ministry. But in this case, Mastella has said the decision will be made by the whole government because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The Americans all have left Italy; their trial opens in June.

It will be the first criminal trial stemming from the CIA's extraordinary rendition program to secretly transfer terror suspects to third countries, where critics say they may have been tortured.

Five Italians, including the former chief of the country's military spy agency, also have been indicted in the case.

Bellinger criticized Italy for wanting to try Americans in absentia.

"It's ironic that the U.S. has been criticized for trying al-Qaida detainees without their being present at their trial and yet Europeans seem to be comfortable to try American officials in absentia," he said.

source: 1mar2007