The New York Times’ Rachel Donadio reports on the decision of an Italian judge, Oscar Magi, to convict 23 Americans, including a CIA base chief, Robert Seldon Lady, in the rendition of Abu Omar. Omar is an Italian who was captured by Americans in 2003 and sent from Italy to, eventually, Egypt, where he was evidently tortured. The U.S. government, of course, immediately said it would not respect the ruling. Meanwhile, the Italian prosecutor who brought the charges, Armando Spataro, now might seek an international warrant for Lady and the other Americans, who are mostly C.I.A. operatives.

The case reminds me that the Obama administration and U.S. Congress have still not drawn up an overarching strategy to deal with abuses emanating from the Bush administration “war on terror” (Whatever happened to the “truth commission“?). However, the Obama administration will likely feel no compulsion to respect the Italian judge’s ruling: the judge weakened the integrity of his verdict by convicting U.S. intelligence officials but absolving Italian intelligence officials, evoking a state secrecy privilege for the Italians.

Comment RSS - You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.