The Central Intelligence Agency has agreed to make documents related to the destruction of interrogation videotapes available to the House Intelligence Committee and to allow the agency’s top lawyer, John A. Rizzo, to testify about the matter, Congressional and intelligence officials said Wednesday.[...]
“The Department of Justice has changed their minds, and today we have reason to believe that we will be getting the documents,” [House Intelligence Committee chairman Silvestre] Reyes told reporters on Wednesday.
Changed their minds. Is it coincidental that the the NYT just reported that four White House lawyers were involved?
There may also be audio tapes.
I wondered what has become of the Italian attempt to bring to justice the CIA agents who kidnapped Abu Omar, so I poked around a bit. There is supposed to be a decision on January 29 on whether a state document can be revealed in public court (although it already appeared in the press).
The CIA agents charged, who can be arrested if they go back to Europe, are not likely to make an appearance in Italian court.
The conviction [in absentia] of the Americans is a virtual certainty, say legal observers.[...]
Omar, now wanted in Milan on terrorist charges, would be eligible to collect damages from U.S. and Italian officials in the event of a guilty verdict.
And good luck collecting on that U.S. award.
His critics, [Italian prosecutor Armando] Spataro says, “see a trial in absentia of the Americans as an obstacle to fighting terrorism,” meaning that it wrongly targets the CIA, one of the very agencies leading the fight against the terrorists.“But we,” he stresses, “see following the law as central to the fight against terrorism.”
How novel.
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