The Kidnapper & Torturer vs. the Whistleblower: The Gov’t's different Treatment

[Catherina]

Last edited Mon Jul 29, 2013, 03:24 AM - Edit history (2)

The Kidnapper & Torturer vs. the Whistleblower: The Gov’t's different Treatment of Lady and Snowden (Engelhardt)

...

Recently, Lady proved a one-day wonder. After years in absentia — poof! — he reappeared out of nowhere on the border between Panama and Costa Rica, and made the news when Panamanian officials took him into custody on an Interpol warrant. The CIA’s station chief in Milan back in 2003, he had achieved brief notoriety for overseeing a la dolce vita version of extraordinary rendition as part of Washington’s Global War on Terror. His colleagues kidnapped Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, a radical Muslim cleric and terror suspect, off the streets of Milan, and rendered him via U.S. airbases in Italy and Germany to the torture chambers of Hosni Mubarak’s Egypt. Lady evidently rode shotgun on that transfer.

His Agency associates proved to be the crew that couldn’t spook straight. They left behind such a traceable trail of five-star-hotel and restaurant bills, charges on false credit cards, and unencrypted cell phone calls that the Italian government tracked them down, identified them, and charged 23 of them, Lady included, with kidnapping.

Lady fled Italy, leaving behind a multimillion-dollar villa near Turin meant for his retirement. (It was later confiscated and sold to make restitution payments to Nasr.) Convicted in absentia in 2009, Lady received a nine-year sentence (later reduced to six). He had by then essentially vanished after admitting to an Italian newspaper, “Of course it was an illegal operation. But that’s our job. We’re at war against terrorism.”

Last week, the Panamanians picked him up. It was the real world equivalent of a magician’s trick. He was nowhere, then suddenly in custody and in the news, and then — poof again! — he wasn’t. Just 24 hours after the retired CIA official found himself under lock and key, he was flown out of Panama, evidently under the protection of Washington, and in mid-air, heading back to the United States, vanished a second time.

State Department spokesperson Marie Harf told reporters on July 19th, “It’s my understanding that he is in fact either en route or back in the United States.” So there he was, possibly in mid-air heading for the homeland and, as far as we know, as far as reporting goes, nothing more. Consider it the CIA version of a miracle. Instead of landing, he just evaporated.

...

The Lady Vanishes

It’s no less a self-evident truth in Washington that Robert Seldon Lady must be protected from the long (Italian) arm of the law, that he is a patriot who did his duty, that it is the job of the U.S. government to keep him safe and never allow him to be prosecuted, just as it is the job of that government to protect, not prosecute, CIA torturers who took part in George W. Bush’s Global War on Terror.

...
http://www.juancole.com/2013/07/whistleblower-treatment-engelhardt.html

[noise]

1. Basically powerful officials

have deemed themselves above the rule of law and have no shame in boasting that their embrace of police state tactics is the ultimate expression of patriotism.

[Catherina]

3. Yes, and then they abandon the lower level intelligence workers to the wolves

I know you saw this thread but I'm putting this link here in case anyone is curious what happened to the lower level people.
Former CIA officer the U.S.Breaks silence on the 2003 Italian illegal abduction names names.

I don't know how much longer we're going to be able to get away with such behavior.

[reusrename]

2. I wrote this response to another thread that is now locked (?) but I think it is on topic here.

What would be different if (as some suggest) Snowden had not gone to the press, if instead he had told Wyden everything that he told the Guardian?

Nothing at all would have changed. They would still be lying to Wyden's face, and he would still not be able to do anything about it.



WYDEN ALREADY KNEW! HE ASKED THE QUESTION IN WRITING BEFORE HAND! HE KNEW THEY WERE GOING TO CONTINUE TO LIE! WYDEN KNEW THERE WAS NOTHING HE COULD DO TO MAKE THEM STOP LYING!




If someone cannot see that Snowden, in his mind, had no choice, that he was morally, legally, and ethically bound to do what he did, then this is something very important to know about that someone. It's the difference between knowing and not knowing right from wrong.

Whether or not you agree with his choice, if you cannot comprehend the fact that he didn't see that he had any choice, then that is very troubling to me. It illustrates a fundamental inability to use reason. And if you are able to comprehend that fact, and yet you choose to ignore it, then that is even more troubling to me.

Sure, many people remained silent on this, including Wyden. That's because the fire is really hot. (Wyden's case was more unusual and much more difficult though, since he has to weigh staying on the committee, in order to try and keep an eye on what they are up to, against informing the public.)

[Catherina]

4. I wish people would get their stories straight. One minute Snowden revealed nothing

because everyone already knew. Oh yeah? Everyone knew? Well if so, then those people should be delighted Snowden confirmed their miraculous knowledge. And the next minute, Snowden is giving all our state secrets to the Chinese and the Russians.

I agree with you that fire is very hot. I think it's going to get a lot hotter. Everyone who cares about this issue realizes it's now or never. It's already an important election issue in Germany but that's nothing compared to what's going to happen in this country once hearings start. This isn't something they can sweep under the rug anymore.

[LuvNewcastle]

6. Snowden and Manning couldn't apply for whistle-blower status

because they had no one in government they could turn to who could get their information to the public. All the people in the chain of command were constrained because the info was classified. They couldn't even trust the American media to publish their info because the media here is so close to the government that they call officials to get permission before they run a big story. Snowden and Manning gave their info to the people they believed would get it to the public. These disingenuous people who say those two men deserve prison because they didn't follow the chain of command make my blood boil.

[sabrina 1]

7. Excellent comment, thank you.

[countmyvote4real]

13. Thank you for the clarity of your response.

And I am baffled how so many still find this issue murky.

[Katashi_itto]

5. K&R

[cantbeserious]

8. Thank You For Sharing

eom

[Ichingcarpenter]

9. Chomsky on US hypocrisy

Then comes the interesting question of extradition. The US has just announced again that they’re going to punish anybody who refuses to extradite Snowden.

At the same time the US is one of the leaers in refusing extradition. Bolivia is an interesting case. The US has imposed pressure at least… to try to block the Bolivian plane because they want Snowden extradited. For years Bolivia has been trying to extradite from the United States the former president who’s already indicted in Bolivia for all sorts of crimes. The US refuses to extradite him.

In fact it’s happening right in Europe. Italy has been trying to extradite 22 CIA agents who were involved and in fact indicted for participating in a kidnaping in Milan. They kidnaped somebody, sent him off I think to Egypt to be tortured. And agreed later he was innnocent…

Extradite the people involved, the US of course refuses. And there’s case after case like this… There are a lot of cases where the U.S. just refuses…

In fact one of the most striking cases is Latin America, again, not just Bolivia. One of the world’s leading terrorists is Luis Posada, who was involved in blowing up a Cubana airliner which killed 73 people and lots of other terrorist acts. He’s sitting happily in… Miami, and his colleague Rolando Bosch also a major terrorist… is happily there… Cuba and Venezuela are trying to extradite them. But you know. Fat chance.

So for the U.S. to be calling for others to extradite Snowden is let’s say a little ironic.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023359571

[Catherina]

12. Chomsky, calling a spade a spade. "Snowden should be honored"

Thank you, I went to find the video for my collection

[reusrename]

14. When he's right, he's very, very right.

I honestly don't know how people who can't understand these basic ideas can get through the day.

I can't imagine what it would be like to be so morally or ethically rudderless as to not be able to see this situation clearly.

It must be that fascism is not a real threat to some of these folks. It's as real to them as trolls and orcs, or some such thing. Denial?

[JoeyT]

10. We're looking forward on kidnapping and torture.

And by looking forward I mean pretending it never happened.

I suspect the protection of him isn't so much that they care about him as because they desperately don't want to see him have a "Hang me out to dry? I'll show those fuckers!" moment and start spilling the beans on any other illegal shit we've been involved in.

I'm waiting for the Law'n'Order crowd to turn up in one of these threads and start yelling about how terrible it is for a country to protect someone that broke another country's laws. Yep. Any minute now. Annnnnnnny minute now....

[Catherina]

11. The timing for this couldn't have been better to expose the double standards

and worse, for another domino to fall with a former CIA employee, Sabrina De Sousa, blowing the whistle on an illegal rendition in Italy where 23 CIA officers went down, that was even illegal by our criminal standards