| In abstentia, of course. If we didn't have the gutless, clueless Bambi as president, I'd suggest calling the Italian ambassador in and asking him to explain why this happened, and how he's going to persuade his government to reverse it, or else explain to his government why we sent him and his entire embassy staff home. |
| Classic show trial missing only a groveling defendant ... |
The Obama administration ended the CIA's interrogation program and shuttered its secret overseas jails in January but has opted to continue the practice of extraordinary renditions.
The Americans, who were tried in absentia, now cannot travel to Europe without risking arrest as long as the verdicts remains in place.
| That might not be a punishment. |
Despite the convictions capping the nearly three-year Italian trial, several Italian and American defendants - including the two alleged masterminds of the abduction - were acquitted due to either diplomatic immunity or because classified information was stricken by Italy's highest court.
The case has been politically charged from the beginning, with attempts to mislead investigators looking into the cleric's disappearance and derail the judicial proceedings once the trial was under way. But the Italian-American relationship, conditioned on such issues as participation in the Afghan campaign, is unlikely to be hurt by the convictions.
| Pity, it should be. |
Only two Italians were in the courtroom to hear the verdict, including Marco Mancini, the former No. 2 at Italian military intelligence, who embraced his lawyer outside the courtroom after he was acquitted.
Former Milan CIA station chief Robert Seldon Lady received the top sentence of eight years in prison. The other 22 convicted American defendants, including De Sousa and Air Force Lt. Col. Joseph Romano, each received a five-year sentence. Two Italians got three years each as accessories.
U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the Obama administration was "disappointed about the verdicts."
| You shouldn't be 'disappointed', you should be hopping mad. |
Zaid, De Sousa's American lawyer, told The Associated Press in Washington: "The Italian conviction merely confirms the U.S. government's betrayal of our diplomatic and military representatives overseas."
| No, it demonstrates Italian perfidy ... |
"We are clearly disappointed by the court's ruling," Defense Department press secretary Geoff Morrell told a Pentagon press conference Wednesday.
The Americans, all but one identified by prosecutors as CIA agents, were tried in absentia as subsequent Italian governments refused or ignored prosecutors' extradition request - a position that casts doubts on the Italian government's political will to enforce the sentences.
| But it won't stop some goof-ball lefty lawyer from swearing out warrants, calling Interpol, and in general being a nuisance, to wit: |
| What happens if the Berlusconi government falls? Italy isn't exactly the model of political stability ... |
Spataro had sought stiffer sentences ranging from 10 to 13 years in jail, citing a conspiracy between U.S. and Italian secret services to abduct Nasr, who was under surveillance by Italian investigators building their own terror case against him. Nasr was suspected of organizing the movement of would-be suicide bombers to the Middle East, and Spataro noted in his closing arguments that the timing of his CIA-led abduction, as the United States was preparing to invade Iraq, indicated his potential importance.
| So we say that Nasr is a bad boy. The Italians haven't contradicted that. He was operating on Italian soil, so -- supposedly -- our CIA and the Italian secret police pinched him, popped him, whacked him, and shipped him. And I'm supposed to be unhappy about any of this? |
| Then what's the point of rendition? The whole idea is to get Nasr and his buddies to understand that it's in their interest to talk to the American interrogator holding a cup of coffee instead of the Egyptian interrogator holding a truncheon ... |
| Ken Anderson at the Volokh Conspiracy describes the motivation and implications behind this show trial. Take a look. |