Will The West Endorse Torture Criminal Omar Suleiman To Be Egypt’s Transitional President?

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While Suleiman’s appointment likely was an attempt to appease the protest movement, demonstrations did not cease, as many saw the move as little more than a reshuffling of the old government.

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Italian judge convicts 23 Americans in CIA kidnap & torture case

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An Italian judge has convicted 23 Americans of kidnapping an Egyptian cleric off the streets of Milan in 2003, a landmark verdict against one of the CIA's most valued anti-terrorism tools - a practice known as extraordinary rendition.

One of those convicted for her role in a US government-backed plot admitted she ''broke the law'' but felt abandoned by her superiors.

Sabrina DeSousa told ABC television in the US that she and 22 other Americans sentenced in absentia ''broke the law'', but that everything she did was ''approved back in Washington''.

''And we are paying for the mistakes right now, whoever authorised and approved this'', she said, adding that she felt ''abandoned and betrayed''.

The court's decision was a victory for Italian anti-terrorism prosecutors and police who spent six years building the case.

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Prosecutor: Italy CIA kidnapping too grave to cover up

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The kidnapping of a terror suspect is too grave a crime to be covered up just to protect government secrets, a prosecutor declared Wednesday in the trial of 26 Americans and seven Italians charged in the abduction of an Egyptian cleric.

Prosecutor Armando Spataro gave his closing arguments in a trial that is the first in any country to scrutinize the CIA's extraordinary renditions.

Under that program, the U.S. spy agency transferred terrorism suspects to third countries for interrogation.

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