US ‘will not hand over CIA agents to Italy’
FT.comWashington would refuse any demand by Rome to give up alleged Central Intelligence Agency operatives to face criminal trial on charges that the agency abducted terror suspects, a leading US official said.
John Bellinger, legal adviser to the US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, said in Brussels: “We have not gotten that extradition request from Italy. If we got an extradition request from Italy, we would not extradite US officials to Italy.”
An Italian judge last month ordered 25 alleged CIA operatives and the former head of Italy’s military intelligence service to go on trial on charges of kidnapping an Egyptian iman in Milan in 2003 and taking him to Egypt for interrogation.
Mr Bellinger, who was in Brussels to meet European legal advisers, is the first senior US official to say publicly that CIA agents would not be sent for trial abroad.
The US faces continued criticism from many Europeans over its contentious practice of kidnapping terrorist suspects on foreign soil after the September 11 attacks on America. In January, prosecutors in Germany issued arrest warrants for 13 alleged CIA operatives in connection with allegations that a German citizen was abducted and then detained in a secret Afghan prison.
I'm glad the U.S. is refusing to extradite the agents. This has nothing to do with with legality, it is only to appease the left wing factions of Italy and Europe.
