Italy charges CIA agents

I'll be the first to admit that the CIA can...at times...become quite dangerous. (I read somewhere they once tried to assassinate Fidel Castro with an exploding cigar, something that might infringe on Lonney Tunes copyrights)

Four days before Osama Nasr Mostafa Hassan vanished into the thin Italian air, three middle-aged American visitors checked into the $300-a-night Milan Hilton on Via Luigi Galvani. The Americans, a man and two women, might have been tourists or fashion buyers, the hotel's usual foreign clientele. Thier document seemed genuine. Only the names on those documents were bogus. So was their shared corporate address, a non-existent company with a post office box in Washington. According to Italian authorities, the three Americans really were spies, assigned to snatch Hassan off the street and ship him back to Egypt, where he would later say he was brutally tortured.

Okay, this so far sounds like the CIA (see the exploding cigar comment above). But the CIA doesn't snatch people off Italy's streets for no reason. (at least I hope really, really hope they don't) So why was Hassan treated the way he was? Let's read on.

Hassan was granted political asylum by the Italian government after arriving in Milan in 1997, apparently on the grounds that his membership in a radical Egyptian Islamic organization, Jamaat al Islamiya, which he had joined as a university student, left him at risk for political persecution if he returned home.

Aha! He was a member of Jamaat al Islamiya, a terror organization. I agree the CIA shouldn't be snatching people off the street like they were collectibles but in this day and age, terrorists or members of terror organizations should not be allowed to roam free ANYWHERE. Until the entire world turns against these radicals we will be facing an uphill battle. Now, if the CIA had snatched a child or a young woman for ransom (which you really can't put anything pass the CIA, they're a scary bunch) then I'd understand the arrest warrants. But since this person was a wanted terrorist, even in Egypt, it's time to start getting this people where they belong, in the country most likely to but them somewhere where they can't hurt anyone, be it behind bars or in the ground.

Now's not the time to play politics. Now's the time for action. Italy, relax, it's not like Hassan was an upstanding Italian citizen contributing to your society. He was wanted for terrorism. Let him answer for his crimes. If you're unwilling to do it, the CIA is always willing to help it along cause they've seen WAY too many James Bond flicks.

Anyway, the US isn't going to be handing over convert CIA operatives anytime soon.