December 23, 2005

E.U. arrest warrant at work against terrorists

Well... not exactly. An Italian judge in Milan has issued an E.U. arrest warrant for twenty—two purported/alleged CIA operatives for having in 2003 kidnapped an Egyptian cleric and — hold onto your hats — sending him back to Egypt.

And what was so heinous about this Egyptian's all—expense—paid trip back to his homeland so as to warrant the warrants? As Reuters reports:

Milan magistrates suspect that a team of 22 CIA agents grabbed Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr off a Milan street and flew him for interrogation to Egypt, where he was reportedly tortured.

These suspect reports of reported torture couldn't be related to New York Times and WaPo reports of suspected CIA flights and alleged torture in suspected East European secret prisons holding... well, you get the idea.

I'm sure this won't put any crimp in our allegedly suspect activities in the E.U. aimed at thwarting suspected terrorists allegedly plotting to harm unsuspecting Americans and — oh, my — even Europeans!

Keep in mind that this has nothing whatsoever to do with the government of Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi. The Milan judge has the authority to issue these warrants on his own. And they're good in all 25 E.U. countries. And law enforcement officials in all 25 are obligated, without any extradition hearing, to arrest any person or persons named in the warrants, and send them packing to Milan to appear before the issuing judge. No ifs, ands or buts about it.

Talk about unilateralism!

Dennis Sevakis 12 23 05

Douglas Hanson adds:

Question: Isn't the Milan judge's arrest warrant for 22 alleged CIA agents instigating the crime of revealing the identity of covert operatives in violation of US federal statutes? And if, and that's a big if, they were apprehended, wouldn't their appearance in an Italian courtroom de facto be a violation of that same statute? Where is Patrick Fitzgerald when we need him?