Italians today may be proud that their system of justice hasn’t spared intelligence agents of the world’s mightiest power, but the children of ancient Rome are well-acquainted with the consequences that are sure to follow.
In regard to Thursday’s convictions by an Italian court of the CIA’s Italy station chief and 22 other American agents, La Stampa’s Mario Calabresi, one of Italy’s leading columnists, writes in part:
“The sentences by the Court of Milan convicting 23 CIA agents for kidnapping a radical Egyptian imam are without precedent in the world. In Washington it is viewed with apprehension – threatening to reopen one of the most dreaded and thorny chapters of the new White House of Barack Obama. Milan police and Milan Public Prosecutor Armando Spataro have received deserved recognition for the correctness of their investigation, which despite considerable obstacles and a hostile climate, succeeded in demonstrating how the most famed and powerful secret service on the planet behaved on Italian soil. Their work shows – even though Americans continue to deny it – that one can reconstruct in detail the illegal behavior of the administration led by Bush and Cheney – and one can also bring them before a tribunal to seek a ruling on the legality of actions that infringe on basic civil rights.”
“But we know that this will inevitably have, as we shall see, repercussions on relations between our two countries. Because in the eyes of the United States, the behavior of Italian politicians has been confusing and unjust – so much so that state secrecy laws were used to protect members of the Italian secret services but not the Americans.”
By Mario Calabresi
Translated By Enrico Del Sero
November 6, 2009
Italy – La Stampa – Original Article (Italian)
The sentences by the Court of Milan convicting 22 CIA agents for kidnapping a radical Egyptian imam are without precedent in the world. In Washington it is viewed with apprehension – threatening to reopen one of the most dreaded and thorny chapters of the new White House of Barack Obama. Milan police and Milan Public Prosecutor Armando Spataro have recieved deserved recognition for the correctness of their investigation, which despite considerable obstacles and a hostile climate, succeeded in demonstrating how the most famed and powerful secret service on the planet behaved on Italian soil.
READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, your most trusted translator and aggregator of foreign news and views about our nation.
Founder and Managing Editor of Worldmeets.US