31 to Stand Trial in CIA Kidnapping Case --By COLLEEN BARRY/ AP

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/16/AR2007021600289.html

Friday, February 16, 2007; 10:37 AM



MILAN, Italy -- A judge Friday indicted 26 Americans and five Italians in the abduction of an Egyptian terror suspect on a Milan street in what would be the first criminal trial stemming from the CIA's extraordinary rendition program.

The judge set a trial date for June 8, although the Americans, who have all left the country, almost certainly will not be returned to Italy.

Prosecutors allege that five Italian intelligence officials worked with the Americans to seize Muslim cleric Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr on Feb. 17, 2003.

Nasr was allegedly transferred by vehicle to the Aviano Air Base near Venice, then by air to the Ramstein Air Base in Germany, and on to Egypt, where his lawyer says he was tortured. Nasr was freed earlier this week by an Egyptian court that found his four years of detention in Egypt "unfounded," and he is at a family home in Alexandria.

All but one of the Americans have been identified as CIA agents, including the former Milan station chief Robert Seldon Lady and former Rome station chief Jeffrey Castelli. The other is Air Force Lt. Col. Joseph L. Romano III, who was stationed at the time at Aviano. Prosecutors believe many of the other American names in the indictment are aliases.

The CIA declined to comment Friday on the case, which has put an uncomfortable spotlight on its operations.

Prosecutors are pressing the Italian government to seek the extradition of the Americans. The previous government of Silvio Berlusconi refused, and Premier Romano Prodi's center-left government has yet to make its decision.

Even if a request is made for their extradition _ a move bound to further strain U.S.-Italian relations _ it was unlikely that the CIA agents would be turned over for trial abroad.


All of the U.S. agents have court-appointed lawyers, who have acknowledged having no contact with their clients. In Italy, defendants can be tried in absentia.

How about sending those scumbags to Egypt ?