Now You See Him, Now You Don't

[bemildred]

He came and he went: that was the joke that circulated in 1979 when 70-year-old former Vice President Nelson Rockefeller had a heart attack and died in his Manhattan townhouse in the presence of his evening-gown-clad 25-year-old assistant. In a sense, the same might be said of retired CIA operative Robert Seldon Lady.

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.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-engelhardt/robert-seldon-lady_b_3670332.html

[think]

1. "Lady fled Italy, leaving behind a multimillion-dollar villa near Turin meant for his retirement."

For fucks sake.....

[bemildred]

2. It's amazing how much money these guys like Lady are taking in, I agree.

[think]

4. And money made for the illegal renditions & assisting in torture no less

[bemildred]

5. Loyalty is expensive. Sometimes it's very expensive.

But what's some money when you are standing there by the drug money river with your bucket in hand?

[think]

6. With the spigot now open straight from the FED via Booz Allen

& other private contractors, drug running is no longer a necessary reach around for the company.

That said it would not surprise me if the agency still drank from that stream....

[think]

3. Reminds me of John Hull....

From the US Govt's website Justice.gov:

DEA's Investigation of Information It Received About Contras or Contra Sympathizers

~Snip~

. John Hull

Former Senate investigators for the Kerry Subcommittee highlighted John Hull as someone who appeared to receive special treatment from DOJ because of his alleged ties to the Contras and the CIA. Because of these allegations, we reviewed DOJ's handling of matters related to Hull.

Hull lived in Costa Rica on a large ranch from the 1960s until 1989. Originally from Indiana, he holds dual United States and Costa Rican citizenship. According to CIA records, Hull helped the CIA in its delivery of weapons and "humanitarian aid" (e.g. food and clothing) to the Contras and the families of Contra soldiers. Hull's ranch had airstrips which were used by pilots ferrying arms and other aid in CIA-subsidized operations to help the Contras.

1. Allegations Reviewed

As noted above, allegations were made that Hull rented out his airstrips to drug traffickers, that some Contras using Hull's airstrips were also trafficking in cocaine, and that Hull participated in some of the alleged trafficking. For example, convicted narcotics pilot Gary Betzner testified before the Kerry subommittee that he had used Hull's airstrips when he flew shipments of cocaine on behalf of the Contras. Jorge Morales, also a convicted narcotics trafficker, told the Kerry subcommittee, the DEA, and the CBS television program "West 57th Street" that the Contras used Hull's ranch as a transshipment point in the movement of cocaine destined for the United States. The DEA did not conduct any formal investigation of Hull and he has never been indicted on drug charges in the United States.

We assessed the information the DEA had regarding Hull and the propriety of its actions in response to that information. We also reviewed allegations that DOJ did not pursue fraud allegations made against Hull by the Overseas Private Investment Company (OPIC), an agency of the United States government. In addition, we examined allegations that DOJ has refused to cooperate with the Costa Rican government in its effort to prosecute Hull in Costa Rica on charges of murder, narcotics trafficking, and "hostile acts," and allegations that a DEA agent helped Hull flee from Costa Rica to avoid prosecution.

2. DEA Investigation of Drug Smuggling Allegations

A DEA research report prepared by DEA's Intelligence Division in 1987 stated that DEA's Costa Rica Country Office had received unconfirmed reports that Hull was involved in drug smuggling. Sandalio Gonzalez, DEA's Assistant Country Attache in Costa Rica at the time, told the OIG that the Costa Rica Country Office could not corroborate any of the information it received about John Hull.(84)

The research report also noted that, in November 1986, a DEA informant reported that Colombian cocaine was offloaded at an airstrip on Hull's Costa Rican ranch and then transported into the United States concealed in a shipment of frozen shrimp. Francisco Chanes was a director and registered agent of "Mr. Shrimp," a Miami-based company alleged by the source to have received the shipments....

~Snip~

Allegation that a DEA Agent helped Hull Flee Costa Rica

January 1989, John Hull was indicted in Costa Rica on murder, narcotics, and "hostile acts" charges arising out of his alleged role in the 1985 bombing attempt on Eden Pastora's life, in which several journalists were killed. In July 1989, Hull fled to Haiti and then to the United States.

On May 17, 1991, Costa Rican journalist Jorge Valverde told Ronald E. Lard, then DEA's Country Attache in Costa Rica, that Hull had claimed to have received help from a DEA Special Agent in his escape from Costa Rica. This agent was stationed in Costa Rica at the time that Hull fled the country. Lard advised DEA's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) and the Charge d'Affaires at the United States Embassy in Costa Rica about the allegation.

Within a week of being informed of the allegations, DEA OPR initiated an investigation. According to OPR records, OPR Senior Inspector Anthony Ricevuto interviewed the accused agent on May 30, 1991. The accused agent stated that he had been introduced to Hull by an acquaintance and had thereafter spoken to Hull perhaps four or five times. The accused agent said that he did not know how Hull escaped from Costa Rica and signed a statement to that effect.

After learning from a private investigator working for a criminal defendant in an unrelated case that "a DEA contract pilot" had flown Hull from Costa Rica to another country, and learning from Lard that one of the accused agent's informants in Costa Rica, Harold Wires, was a pilot, Ricevuto interviewed Wires on July 23, 1991. Wires claimed the accused agent had given him between $500 and $700 to fly Hull in a Cessna aircraft to Haiti. There, they met Jorge Melendez, a pilot for the DEA in Costa Rica, who flew back to back to Costa Rica with Wires in the Cessna. Hull was flown to the United States by Ron Lippert who, according to Wires, was a close friend of the accused agent. According to Wires, he, Kornicki, Hull, Lippert, and Melendez had had breakfast together in Haiti, before going their separate ways. Wires said that he had not spoken to the accused agent since shortly after Hull's escape, when he and the accused agent had a "verbal disagreement."

Ricevuto confirmed that Jorge Melendez had been a DEA informant and a freelance pilot at the time of Hull's flight from Costa Rica. He then interviewed Melendez, who stated that he and Lippert had flown to Haiti on behalf of a private transportation company. After staying overnight in Haiti with Lippert, Wires and Kornicki, Melendez had returned to Costa Rica in the Cessna. Melendez said he had never seen Hull in Haiti, and had no idea whether Hull had flown to Haiti with Kornicki and Lippert.

Twenty days later, Inspector Ricevuto received a telephone call from Harold Wires and Bobby Kornicki, who both said that the accused agent had not known Hull was on the Cessna going to Haiti. The accused agent knew only that the Cessna was to return to Costa Rica after it had picked up Melendez. When Ricevuto noted that this account conflicted with Wires' earlier statements, Wires repeated that the accused agent had not known about the plan to help Hull flee. Wires explained that he had "set up" the plan because he had felt that the CIA had "abandoned" Hull in Costa Rica. At a subsequent interview on September 26, 1991, Wires stated that the accused agent had given him $700 to refuel the Cessna in Haiti for the flight back to Costa Rica. It was Lippert who had asked Wires to fly Hull from Costa Rica to Haiti. The accused agent had never asked Wires to do anything to assist Hull. He noted that Hull had recently called him, upset after having read an article by Martha Honey, alleging that the accused agent had been involved in Hull's flight. Wires signed a statement saying the accused agent "was never a part or ever had knowledge of" the plans for Hull's escape. Wires was asked to take a polygraph and stated that he would discuss it with his attorney. It does not appear that Wires was polygraphed regarding his statement.

Ricevuto interviewed Ron Lippert on August 9, 1991. Lippert stated that the accused agent had helped plan Hull's escape, a claim he reiterated during a second interview with Ricevuto on September 30, 1991. Lippert agreed to a polygraph examination, which DEA SA John Schuller administered immediately after the second interview. SA Schuller found that Lippert was "deceptive in his answers."

On September 26, 1991, OPR Inspector Sandalio Gonzalez received a telephone call from a man who identified himself as John Hull, who said he was calling because he had spoken to Gonzalez when Gonzalez was Assistant Country Attache in Costa Rica. Hull was very upset about the newspaper article written by Martha Honey and said "they are framing [the accused agent]." Hull added that he had proof that the accused agent had nothing to do with Hull's departure from Costa Rica. Hull asked who he could contact at the DEA to discuss the allegations against the accused agent. Gonzalez told Hull to contact Senior Inspector Ricevuto.

On October 7, 1991, Hull wrote Ricevuto a letter responding to questions Ricevuto had posed to Hull by telephone on October 4, 1991. In his letter, Hull wrote:

I have no close personal friendship, interest or animosity toward [the accused agent] . . . . The only people that know the truth about how I left Costa Rica are the pilots and myself . . . . I have no idea if [the accused agent] knew how and when I was leaving Costa Rica. I assumed the ambassador was fully aware of my intentions. However[,] I have no direct knowledge to verify this, and no way to know what was discussed between [the accused agent] at any time, anyplace or to anyone . . . . (Q) Did I ever pay money to [the accused agent?] (A) No. . . . Hopefully this will clear up your investigation and stop the injustices being carried out against [the accused agent].

DEA's Board of Professional Conduct reviewed all of the evidence and testimony collected by Senior Inspector Ricevuto. On January 15, 1992, the Board recommended that the accused agent be issued a letter of clearance. Although our review is limited and we did not reinterview the persons involved in the incident, the DEA file indicates that DEA OPR's conclusion was reasonable.

5. The Justice Department's Actions Regarding the Costa Rican Extradition Request

In 1991, the Justice Department received a request from the Costa Rican government to extradite Hull. To evaluate the Justice Department's handling of the Costa Rican government's request, the OIG reviewed the relevant DOJ file, interviewed the two attorneys who worked on the request, and obtained relevant documents from the State Department.

When a foreign country seeks to extradite someone from the United States, the Office of International Affairs (OIA) of DOJ's Criminal Division handles the country's request. Depending on the custom and practice of the requesting nation, the extradition request is either sent directly to OIA from that nation's counterpart to DOJ, or is forwarded to DOJ through the State Department. Costa Rica customarily sends extradition requests via the State Department. On May 13, 1991, the State Department forwarded to OIA the Costa Rican government's request for the extradition of John Hull.

Before OIA can bring an extradition petition to a judicial officer and seek an arrest warrant, it must ensure that the documentation provided by the requesting country complies with the requirements of a valid extradition treaty and satisfies the probable cause requirements of United States law. In addition, OIA will not bring an extradition petition for a foreign crime where there is no "reciprocal" (equivalent or analogous) offense in the United States. This is known as the "dual criminality requirement." According to OIA attorneys, if OIA finds irregularities or insufficiencies in the documents supplied by the requesting country, as it often does when a request is something other than a simple charge that is supported by overwhelming and clear evidence, there will be "a lot of back and forth" between OIA and the requesting country. Sometimes OIA will deal with a foreign government directly. However, in Costa Rican matters (as with those of many other countries), the OIA will make its requests for additional information through the State Department.

OIA attorney Lystra Blake told us that Costa Rica's request for the extradition of John Hull presented a complex case with unusual charges: an offense under the Costa Rican "Hostile Acts" law; a charge that Hull had committed premeditated murder and attempted murder in connection with the La Penca bombing aimed at assassinating Eden Pastora; and an "international narcotics trafficking" charge.

The drug charges were based on informant information that Hull was allowing his ranch to be used by pilots affiliated with the Contras and that they used the ranch as a transfer point for drugs that were later flown into the United States. While the files are not clear on this matter, Costa Rican authorities appear to have based their allegations on evidence that Hull purchased a much larger quantity of gasoline than his small airplane would have used; Hull's contact with known drug trafficker Jorge Morales, who was in prison at the time; and informant information that, on at least three occasions between 1983 and 1985, planes carrying arms allegedly intended for use by the Contras landed on airfields owned by Hull, and allegedly were refueled and loaded with drugs for transportation to the United States with the knowledge of Hull. The other charges were based on allegations that Hull had some involvement in the plot to assassinate Eden Pastora.

OIA concluded that the documentation and evidence supporting the Costa Rica extradition request was inadequate. Over the next three years, OIA made many requests to Costa Rica for further documentation, for translations of various information, and for more information about the charges brought against Hull in Costa Rica -- information both about the substantive laws under which Hull was being charged and the facts on which the Costa Rican government was relying as a basis for those charges. OIA attorney Kevin Smith -- now assigned to the Hull matter -- told the OIG that this sort of protracted process is not unusual for Costa Rican extradition requests.

In March 1993, Costa Rica submitted a renewed request for Hull's extradition which contained documents indicating that the Superior court in Costa Rica had dismissed the drug trafficking charge against Hull for lack of evidence and that his extradition was no longer sought for that offense. This left the "Hostile Acts" and murder charges against Hull. However, on reviewing the documentation supporting the murder charge, based on Hull's alleged involvement in the La Penca bombing, the OIA found no evidence of Hull's involvement in this crime, indeed no evidence that he even knew about the bombing before it occurred. Accordingly, OIA attorney Lystra Blake, who handled the Hull extradition matter from its inception through May 1996, responded to the renewed request for extradition in a letter dated August 2, 1994, informing Robert Harris at the State Department that, although the revised documents submitted with Costa Rica's most recent request responded to a number of deficiencies in the original request, OIA found that they were still "not sufficient for presentation in a United States court." Blake noted in her August 1994 letter:

It is possible that [the Hostile Acts] statute is similar to the United States' Neutrality laws and therefore satisfies the dual criminality requirement. However, even if hostile acts satisfies the dual criminality requirement, this offense, by definition, may fall within the political offense exception of Article 4 of the [extradition treaty between the United States and Costa Rica]. We are looking into the matter to determine if hostile acts may be considered an extraditable offense. If it is, the documents are sufficient to seek Mr. Hull's extradition for this offense.

Blake also stated in her letter that the revised documents did not establish any probable cause on the issue of murder or attempted qualified murder. The letter stated that DOJ had found that the facts presented failed to show that Hull knew about the La Penca bombing before it occurred or that he participated in it. Blake asked that OIA's comments be forwarded to the government of Costa Rica.

When we asked Blake if OIA had, in fact, determined whether the Hostile Acts charge satisfied the dual criminality requirement and, if so, whether it fell within the political offense exception to the treaty, Blake explained that she had regarded this paragraph of her letter as an invitation to the Costa Rican government to inform OIA as to whether the Costa Rican government wanted to proceed with an attempt at extradition on the Hostile Acts charge, especially in light of information OIA had received indicating that the statute of limitations on the Hostile Acts charges may have run in Costa Rica. This account is supported by a cable, dated January 10, 1994, from the American Embassy in Costa Rica to the State Department and Lystra Blake. This cable described a meeting between Embassy personnel and John Hull's Costa Rican attorney, Yelba Mairena, in which Mairena informed the Embassy that the statute of limitations under Costa Rican law was about to run out on the Hostile Acts charge pending against Hull.

Blake recalled that she had orally advised State Department employee Robert Harris that she needed to know whether the Costa Rican government wanted to proceed on the Hostile Acts charge. But the Costa Rican government made no effort to move forward. Blake noted that conversations that she had with representatives (whose names she cannot recall) from the Costa Rican government after her August 1994 letter made clear that the Costa Rican government was not interested in pursuing the Hostile Acts charge. Indeed, Blake believed that the Costa Rican government was not genuinely interested in pursuing any aspect of Hull's extradition: "Costa Rica was really not pushing it, the officials talked a good talk" but were not forthcoming with documents and information.

Blake's belief that the Costa Rican government was not genuinely interested in pursuing Hull's extradition is supported by a cable the American Embassy in Costa Rica sent to the Secretary of State, the Ambassador to the United Nations, and several American embassies on October 10, 1990, before the Costa Rican government officially requested Hull's extradition. The cable recorded a meeting at the American Embassy in Costa Rica with Costa Rican President Roberto Calderon, and noted:

Another matter he wanted to bring to our attention, Calderon said, is the forthcoming Costa Rican request to extradite John Hull from the United States. . . . His government has no interest in extraditing John Hull. Hull is a personal friend, whom he respects and the executive branch has no interest in prosecuting him. Under Costa Rican law, however, the decision to request extradition is the responsibility and prerogative of the judicial branch. The executive is required to act as the judiciary's agent and has no discretion. Thus, when the voluminous request (of some 3,000 pages) is finally translated, the request will go forward.

A "comment" by the cable's author interprets Calderon's statement as meaning that "On Hull, Calderon is putting us on notice that there's no way he can turn a request off but is clearly hoping that Hull will not be extradited."

In sum, we found no evidence that OIA departed from the treaty requirements with Costa Rica, United States law, or its own procedures in handling the Hull extradition request. The matter was not pursued because Costa Rica dropped the drug charges, OIA found that the murder charges were not supported by probable cause, and the Costa Rican government did not pursue the "Hostile Acts" charge. Moreover, there is no evidence that this decision was influenced by any outside agency or was based on any improper motivation....

http://www.justice.gov/oig/special/9712/ch11p2.htm

[kenny blankenship]

7. This a good read, but it should also be posted to GD

for more exposure of this arbitrary standard of American "Justice".

[bemildred]

8. Go for it. I'm not possessive. I like slower forums sometimes. nt