Funferal

Italians bring case against CIA officers over abuction, ‘rendition’ of Eygptian

The Italian case against U.S. agents who carried out an ‘extraordinary rendition’ of an Eygptian man from that country (to Eygpt) is receiving a lot of coverage today (including earlier on NPR’s All Things Considered Weekend Edition). The essence of the story, from Jeanne d’Arc at This Modern World, is the CIA’s apparent abduction of an Egyptian imam in Milan. The man was rendered to Egypt, where he was reportedly tortured. I can’t see an extradition attempt succeeding, though it could bring public attention to bear on the issue (and incidentally cause difficulties for Berlusconi). One wonders if German authorities knew that renditions were happening from the U.S. base there (though I’m guessing the base has been granted some form of diplomatic/sovereign status that reduces German ability to prevent illegal acts on the Ramstein base).