Sabrina deSousa Says U.S. \ »
Posted By Radiofreeeuropa 2 weeks, 4 days ago in News
One of the 23 Americans convicted today by an Italian court says the United States "broke the law" in the CIA kidnapping of a Muslim cleric Abu Omar in Milan in 2003.DeSousa says the U.S. "abandoned and betrayed" her and the others who were put on trial for the kidnapping. She was sentenced in absentia to five years in prison.
Representative Pete Hoekstra (R-MI), a member of the House Intelligence Committee told ABC News that the trial was a disaster for CIA officers like DeSousa on the frontline.
"I think these people have been put out there. They've been hung out to dry. They're taking the fall potentially for a decision that was made by their superiors in our agencies. It's the wrong place to go."
Italian prosecutors said deSousa was a CIA officer who helped organized the kidnapping using her diplomat cover at the U.S. Consulate in Milan. Several former U.S. intelligence officials confirm to ABC News deSousa's role in the operation.
Read Full Story at abcnews.go.com »
266 Views Share Story 12 Comments Report
Submitted By:
Radiofreeeuropa
All progress comes from unreasonable people.
Rats live on no evil star!
Wasilla: All I saw...
Sorry, just palindroming around with terrorists.
Are you still ...
RSS Join the Discussion
+ Add CommentComments So Far: 12 (view all)
-
100%
Radiofreeeuropa2 weeks, 4 days ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
Sabrina and the others followed orders, what they took an oath to do. This was part of the "extreme rendition" authorized at the highest levels of the US government. No way should they take the fall for whomever gave the order. More and more whistleblowers are being hung out to dry in this country and it's time to put a stop to it. Let the people truly responsible for these crimes pay the piper.
Reply-
100%
traveler20002 weeks, 3 days ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
The Germans in WW2 were also "following orders"....
Reply
I do agree though that the "offense" is not as great/bad/big (hence the not to heavy sentences, I guess) as what happened in WW2, but, where do you draw the line????
However, more important, those who gave the orders go free and unharmed again.....
Like always, it's the "small guy" who pays.
e.g. GWB has committed numerous international crimes (unlawful war, war under false pretenses, vast number of people, on ALL sides, killed for no real reason, Guantanamo, lying to the US and world people, etc .....). But nobody bothers him, while he (and his friends) got richer in the process...
There lays the big injustice.
-
-
100%
Justice4All2 weeks, 4 days ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
The people responsible for issuing these orders should be held responsible. But this should also be a lesson to people who think they are above the law because someone else gave the order. Most of the people responsible for the Holocaust were just following orders.
Reply-
100%
GooberK2 weeks, 3 days ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
the people responsible for issuing the orders should come forward like a true noble warrior or anyone with any sense of moral decency.
Reply
if for no other reason than to say it was actually legal and be prepared to back it up in the court of law. the saddest part of this whole thing is that NO ONE will.
as betrayed as the people convicted are, they will be reluctant to name names for sense of patriotism or fear of retaliation. lets not forget - the people who ordered this are very powerful people with a vast network of public and underground resources.
-
-
-
100%
traveler20002 weeks, 3 days ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
so did a lot of Germans under Hitler......
Reply
I do agree (see an earlier comment here) that it wasn't comparable "offense" she did, but again, where do you draw the line...
She/they could have refused. I do not think that by refusing she/they would have been executed (killed) by her hierarchy (contrary to some of those Germans), but yes, her (there) career(s), chance of promotion, would probably have been finished, or she (they) might have been fired or "have to resign", but ........ she (they) did had a choice....
But, yes, the real guilty ones, those who gave the orders, and say, "if you don't do it ....." go "shot free"
-
-
100%
2sidestoeverything2 weeks, 3 days ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
This shows once again that only the lower ranking people get thrown to the wolves. All who were involved should have been charged not just a few. Our government has no right to go to other countries and break their laws. We're supposed to work with our allies.
Reply -
100%
cowboygrandpa2 weeks, 3 days ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
One cannot blame those who carry out the orders of those in authority alone, to only lay the blame on the people who did the deed is to say that Hitler was not responsible, Mussolini was not responsible, Hirohito was not responsible, Bush was not responsible, FDR was not responsible...
Reply
Do ya remember a president who said "the Buck Stops Here" Good old Harrry. He knew where the responsibility for the decisions lay.
He did not take them lightly, like some who are named in this post.-
100%
Dionys2 weeks, 3 days ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
One cannot blame ONLY those who carried out the orders. Certainly the biggest responsibility sits with those who gave the orders. But a large responsibility also sits with those who carried out the orders without question knowing full well, or suspecting, that they violated international law.
Reply
-
-
100%
Radiofreeeuropa2 weeks, 3 days ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
I agree with most of the conversants here. I would just like to interject that someone formerly involved in covert activity told me that "everything we do in intelligence breaks the law, as do all the other nation's covert activity...simply pretending to be someone else breaks the law...." It is easy for me to say they contributed and participated in a crime...an abduction. Apparently this is not such an unusual occurrence in itself as far as CIA activity goes...the big crime was shipping the guy off to Egypt for torturing...which these people had no participation in. Those that planned and set up the whole "extraordinary rendition" scheme are getting away with it...the "footsoldiers" are taking the fall.
Reply
It's a strange world...this covert operation world...I can see how if indeed everything you do in your job is illegal, it is difficult to discern when it is just from when it is not.-
100%
hyperbola2 weeks, 3 days ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
Let's be clear that our CIA has been involved in far worse crimes in Italy. Like collaborating in terrorist bombings by extreme right-wing groups that were then blamed on "leftists" by the media. That Italy is now standing up for itself in the face of CIA abuse is a positive sign. If the Obama administration is more than "pretty words", they will turn these people over to Italian justice.
Reply
Parallel History Project on Cooperative Security
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
Secret Warfare : Operation Gladio and NATO's Stay-Behind Armies
Synopsis of the Book
Chapter One: A terrorist attack in Italy
This chapter describes the discovery of the secret stay-behind army “Gladio” in Italy. The chapter takes the reader back to the Peteano terrorist attack of 31 May 1972. In that year an anonymous phone call after the attack suggested that the left-wing terrorist organization “Red Brigades” had carried out the atrocity, and for many years Italy believed that the crime had been carried out by the political left. Yet in 1984 Italian judge Felice Casson reopened the Peteano case after having discovered large-scale manipulations. The chapter describes how Casson during his investigations discovered the Italian secret stay-behind army “Gladio” hidden within the military secret service and how it had linked up with right-wing terrorist Vincenzo Vinciguerra who confessed to having carried out the Peteano terrorist attack. The chapter focuses on the agitated Italian public debate that followed when Vinciguerra exposed the so called “strategy of tension” through which members of the secret stay-behind armies and the military secret services had manipulated the public through terrorism. The secret armies supplied right wing terrorists with explosives to carry out terrorist attacks on the Italian population who were thereafter blamed on the communist party and the political left in general in order to discredit the political opponent. .......
http://www.php.isn.ethz.ch/collections/coll_gladio...
-
-
Add a Comment
Sign In With Your Propeller Account
Please keep your comments relevant to this story.
To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.