email of Letter to Sen Franken regarding Italy convinction of 23 Americans for torture.

one of my peace friends send out an email of his letter to Sen Franken.


Dear Senator Franken:

I just wanted to call your attention to yesterday's decision by Italy's highest court that upheld the convictions of 23 Americans who were tried in absentia for their roles in kidnapping and rendering a Muslim cleric to Egypt, where he claimed he was tortured.

This is what happens when we fail to deal appropriately within our own legislative or judicial systems with torture done in our names. While the convictions in Italy were only for the illegal abduction and transfer to Egypt, the claim of subsequent torture certainly entered into the decision to prosecute.

Because of our country's inaction, even governments we consider our allies find it necessary to act. And, of course, it's those who carried out these policies who were convicted, while the policy makers who initiated and authorized these practices face no consequences.

Something to think about during these עשרת ימי תשובה?, Aseret Yemei Teshuva. As you know, the al chait prayer is said in the plural, to indicate we are all accountable for the sins of everyone in the community.

Here is the link to the New York Times article about this decision, and below are Reuters and AP reports.

Sincerely,

Chuck T
Minneapolis, MN



Italy court upholds "rendition" convictions on ex-CIA agents

By Naomi O'Leary
ROME | Wed Sep 19, 2012 2:12pm EDT

(Reuters) - Italy's highest court on Wednesday upheld guilty verdicts on 23 Americans for the kidnapping of an Egyptian Muslim cleric, in the first criminal convictions for CIA "rendition" flights during the U.S. 'war on terror'.

The Americans - 22 CIA agents and one Air Force pilot - who are believed to be in the United States and were tried in their absence - are unlikely to serve their sentences. But they will be unable to travel to Europe without risking arrest.

Italy has never requested their extradition.

All of the Americans were sentenced to seven years' jail by a lower court except former CIA Milan station chief Robert Seldon Lady, who was handed a nine-year sentence. The decision was given to journalists by a court official.

Italy's highest appeals court, or Court of Cassation, also said five senior Italian secret service agents could be tried for the abduction, overturning a previous ruling barring a trial on the grounds it would reveal state secrets.

The five are the former head of Italy's Sismi military intelligence agency Nicolo Pollari, who resigned over the affair, his deputy and three others.

Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, an Egyptian imam known as Abu Omar, was snatched from a Milan street in 2003 and flown to Egypt for interrogation, where he says he was tortured for seven months. He was resident in Italy at the time of the abduction.

The Italian trial was the first of its kind against the "rendition" flights practiced by the administration of former U.S. President George W. Bush, which have been condemned by human rights groups as a violation of international agreements.

Amnesty International welcomed the decision.

"We have one of the highest courts in a European country upholding convictions of CIA agents for really egregious human rights violations," the human rights group's Expert on Counter Terrorism and Human Rights Julia Hall said.

"Our hope is that the United States would... begin to cooperate with people who are trying to reveal the truth about what happened during the Bush era."

EUROPEAN ROLE IN CIA FLIGHTS

The ruling could strengthen efforts to shed light on the rendition program, in which the CIA is alleged to have abducted terrorism suspects and flown them to countries where they could be tortured, a practice banned under international law.

Last week the European Parliament called on EU countries to fully investigate their role in any such programs, and endorsed a report detailing evidence of secret prisons in Lithuania, Poland and Romania.

A Polish investigation into a suspected secret prison led to the arrest of the country's former chief of intelligence earlier this year.

In 2007 the European Parliament found at least 1,245 CIA flights were made into or over Europe in the four years after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

U.S. President Barack Obama has tried to distance himself from heavy handed intelligence tactics employed by the previous Bush administration, and ordered the CIA to close its long-term prisons in 2009.



Italy's high court upholds convictions against 23 Americans in kidnapping of terror suspect
Wednesday, September 19, 2012

A protester holds up a poster with writing reading in Italian 'Justice for Abu Omar' above a picture of Muslim cleric Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, outside Milan's court house while the trial of 26 Americans and seven Italians accused of orchestrating a CIA-led kidnapping of an Egyptian terror suspect Nasr was taking place inside the courtroom, in Milan, Italy, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2009. (AP Photo / Luca Bruno)
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ROME -- Italy's highest criminal court on Wednesday upheld the convictions of 23 Americans in the kidnapping of an Egyptian terror suspect as part of the CIA's extraordinary rendition program.

The ruling marks the final appeal in the first trial anywhere in the world involving the CIA's practice of abducting terror suspects and transferring them to third countries where torture is permitted.

The 23 Americans all were convicted in absentia following a three-and-a-half-year trial, and have never been in Italian custody. They risk arrest if they travel to Europe and one of their court-appointed lawyers suggested that the final verdict would open the way for the Italian government to seek their extradition.

"'It went badly. It went very badly," lawyer Alessia Sorgato said. "'Now they will ask for extradition."

The Americans and two Italians were convicted last year of involvement in the kidnapping of Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, from a Milan street on Feb. 17, 2003 - the first convictions anywhere in the world against people involved in the CIA's practice of abducting terror suspects and transferring them to third countries where torture was permitted. The cleric was transferred to U.S. military bases in Italy and Germany before being moved to Egypt, where he says he was tortured. He has since been released.

Those convicted include the former Milan CIA station chief, Robert Seldon Lady, whose original seven-year sentence was raised to nine years on appeal. The other 22 Americans, all but one identified by prosecutors as CIA agents, face seven-year terms.

Previous Italian governments had declined to act on prosecutors' request to extradite the American suspects, most of whom had court-appointed lawyers the defendants never met. While some of the defendants in the case were known figures attached to the U.S. Embassy or Consulate in Milan, many of those named in the trial are believed to have been aliases, impeding any formal extradition.

Among those whose sentence was upheld was Air Force Col. Joseph Romano, who was head of security at the Aviano Air Force base where the Egyptian cleric was driven from Milan before being taken by plane to Germany and eventually Egypt.

Romano's lawyer, Cesare Bulgheroni, said he would appeal the verdict to the EU human rights court in Strasbourg on the basis that Romano was never formally notified of the charges against him, and that lower courts had rejected some witnesses. Romano was one of only two Americans who received permission to hire his own lawyer during the original trial.

The court also ordered new appeals trials for five Italian intelligence agents, including the former head of military intelligence, Nicolo Pollari. They had been acquitted by lower courts because of state secrets.

During the original trial, three other Americans were acquitted: the then-Rome CIA station chief Jeffrey Castelli and two other diplomats formerly assigned to the Rome Embassy. Prosecutors appealed the acquittal, as they can in Italy. The appeal is still pending in Milan.

(Copyright ©2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)