New info on rendition from Italian trial

If you've been following the renditions story at all, this is a must-read with tons of new details from testimony to an Italian court by intelligence officers. It combines the worst tradition of shadow government among Italian intelligence and security agencies with the worst you can expect from the CIA, as well as highlight the complicity of several EU governments in the rendition program, against their own citizens. Remember that there has already been at least one case of mistaken identity, not to mention that while I'm not surprised that Morocco or Egypt (or for that matter Italy) don't care about rule of law it'd be nice to see that at least some European countries do. And spare me the mock surprise, European politicians.

Most frightening, though, is this:

Arman Ahmed al-Hissini, imam of the Viale Jenner mosque in Milan and an acquaintance of Menshawi and Nasr, said both have been silenced by the Egyptian security services.

"The Arab secret services, they give names to the CIA of people who they want, people who are on the outside, such as Europe," said Hissini, an Egyptian native known locally as Abu Imad. "They give the names to the CIA, because the CIA can go to work in these countries."

I am quite willing to believe that some of the people targeted by the CIA rendition program are really nasty al-Qaeda types, although I still think it is the wrong way to go about neutralizing them, especially if there is little evidence that they are up to anything serious (indeed, surveillance might allow the uncovering of a bigger network.) But if the CIA just accepts a shopping list from the Egyptian and other services without questions -- what, are they trying to meet quotas? -- then we can all start worrying.

Comments

[Matthew]

Apropos nothing, there's a cafe in Schiphol Airport that sits at a bottleneck for departure traffic. If you're leaving the country for the Middle East, odds are you're going to pass within ten meters of this place.

It creeped me out one day to find three guys with cheap suits and that unmistakeable stare posed on stools talking Egyptian Arabic, nursing coffees, and watching.

Maybe they were on holiday, or maybe they'd just been checking out the new Cherokees at the Amsterdam Autorama.

[al-Himyari]

If you haven't read the so-called 'Milan Wiretaps,' search for them and read them. Pretty fascinating, and apropo.

[Engineer]

This trial has lasted way too long. The government was departmentalized. These guys were briefed on their jobs only and told that it was legal. They did not see the big picture. Would we treat soldiers that have done raids any differently. Why aren't the ones in charge on trial? These guys are carrying the weight. Think about the sloppy phone records- these guys thought they were doing something noble. They did not take part in the torture.