extraordinary rendition

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Lithuania Plans to Sell CIA's 'Detention Site Violet'

Lithuanian government’s real estate fund announced it will unload the structure

(Newser) - A steel barn that's about to hit the market in Lithuania wouldn't normally attract international attention, but then again, there aren't too many barns out there that have served as CIA black sites. The Lithuanian government’s real estate fund says it is preparing to sell the...

Ex-CIA Spy Flees Italy Over Fear for Her Safety

Sabrina de Sousa is embroiled in a fraught rendition case

(Newser) - An ex-CIA spy says she has fled Italy for America—apparently to avoid getting tossed in prison, Reuters reports. Sabrina de Sousa was one of 26 people found guilty in Italy in the 2003 "extraordinary rendition" of Egyptian cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr in Milan. But De Sousa, who...

Italian Jail Cell Looms for Ex-CIA Officer 'Betrayed' by US

She was convicted of helping abduct a terror suspect in Milan

(Newser) - A former CIA officer says she's days away from being sent to an Italian prison and blames the US government for not doing more to help her, ABC News reports. In 2003, the CIA abducted Egyptian cleric and terror suspect Osama Mustafa Hassan Nasr from Milan, Italy, under its...

Pope Francis: Let's Abolish Life Sentences

They are nothing more than a 'hidden death penalty,' he says

(Newser) - That Pope Francis spoke out today against capital punishment is no big surprise. But he made headlines by coming out against life sentences as well, reports the Guardian . In a speech to the International Association of Penal Law, the pope urged all "people of good will" to fight for...

Poland Let CIA Run 'Black Site', Torture Men: Court

Al-Qaeda members' human rights were violated, tribunal rules

(Newser) - Poland has denied that it let the CIA run a "black site" on its soil, where two suspected members of al-Qaeda claim they were tortured, but the European Court of Human Rights came to a different conclusion today, blasting Poland for human rights violations. The ruling awarded $175,000...

Panama Arrests Ex-US Spy Over CIA Tactics

Authorities nab Robert Seldon Lady at Italy's behest

(Newser) - A former American spy has been arrested in Panama at Italy's behest over his role in the CIA's controversial Bush-era extraordinary rendition tactic . An Italian court convicted Robert Seldon Lady , the CIA's Milan bureau chief, and more than 20 other agents of kidnapping in 2009, but by...

54 Countries Aided CIA in Post-9/11 Interrogations

US helpers ranged from UK to Syria: report

(Newser) - The US was far from alone in its controversial counterterror practices after 9/11: More than a quarter of the world's countries helped the agency, a new report says. Some partners hosted secret interrogation prisons; some arrested suspects; others let the CIA refuel its planes at their airports, the New ...

Euro Court Slams CIA for Sodomy, Torture of Innocent

Meanwhile, Senate committee OKs report on CIA's interrogation program

(Newser) - The European Court of Human Rights ruled yesterday against Macedonia for allowing the torture of an innocent German man of Lebanese origins by the CIA in 2004—but the real brunt of the ruling hit the CIA's post-9/11 "war on terror" strategies, with the court explicitly calling them...

Syria Releases Mastermind of 7/7 Bombing

Al-Suri's release likely a warning to US over Syria unrest

(Newser) - The alleged mastermind behind the 2005 7/7 bombings in London has been released from a Syrian prison, reportedly as a warning to the United States and West by the regime of Bashar al-Assad, reports the Telegraph . Abu Musab al-Suri, also known as Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, is also suspected of being...

Defense Bill Could Allow Rendition of Americans

President would be able to send terrorist suspects anywhere he wants

(Newser) - President Obama has signaled that he will sign a defense bill this week that includes language giving him broad powers to indefinitely detain terror suspects—including, many legal analysts believe, American citizens. Now, Mother Jones has spotted another charming provision in the bill that would allow the rendition of terror...

UK Paying Millions in Compensation to Gitmo Brits

Men alleged that UK intelligence agencies colluded in torture

(Newser) - The British government plans to pay compensation amounting to millions of dollars to a dozen former Guantanamo Bay inmates. The men, all British citizens or residents, had launched court proceedings against the government and claimed that British intelligence services had colluded in their torture in secret prisons abroad, the Guardian...

Court Chucks CIA Rendition Case to Protect 'State Secrets'

Case pits human rights against national security, says judge

(Newser) - A federal appeals court has dismissed a case brought on behalf of five people who are charging that they were tortured in secret CIA prisons abroad. The sharply divided court ruled that the case against Jeppesen Dataplan, a Boeing subsidiary which allegedly assisted the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program, should...

ACLU: Feds Covered Up Role in Torture of US Citizen

Lawsuit tries to force CIA, FBI to come clean

(Newser) - The ACLU is suing the federal government for ignoring its Freedom of Information Act inquiry into the detention and torture of an American citizen overseas. Naji Hamdan, who spent 20 years in California before moving to the United Arab Emirates in 2006, was arrested in August 2008 and, according to...

First US Citizen Sues Feds for Rendition

NJ man alleges interrogation, coercion in Somalia, Egypt

(Newser) - A New Jersey man yesterday became the first US citizen to sue the federal government for "rendition," the extrajudicial transfer of terrorism suspects between countries. Arrested in Kenya in 2007, Amir Meshal was secretly flown to Somalia, then to Ethiopia, where he claims US agents repeatedly threatened him...

CIA Officer: We 'Broke the Law' With Kidnapping

She's one of 23 Americans convicted in Italy for 2003 rendition

(Newser) - One of the CIA agents convicted in Italy today of kidnapping a Muslim cleric in 2003 says the mission "broke the law" and that she feels "abandoned and betrayed" by the US government. The case involving ex-officer Sabrina DeSousa and 22 other Americans is the first challenge to...

Italy Convicts CIA Agents of Kidnapping

2003 case is first to challenge practice of extraordinary rendition

(Newser) - An Italian judge today convicted 23 Americans of the 2003 kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric on a Milan street, in a landmark case involving the CIA's extraordinary rendition program in the war on terrorism. Judge Oscar Magi acquitted three other Americans, citing diplomatic immunity. Former Milan CIA station chief Robert...

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