US: The top legal adviser to the US government has said it will not meet any request by Italy to extradite 25 CIA agents linked to the rendition of a Muslim cleric.
John Bellinger also warned yesterday that several ongoing European investigations into US intelligence activity and rendition were undermining transatlantic co-operation.
"We've not got an extradition request from Italy . . . [ but] if we got an extradition request from Italy, we would not extradite US officials to Italy," Mr Bellinger said in a media briefing following talks with his European counterparts in Brussels.
Last month a judge in Milan ordered the Americans to stand trial along with Italian spies over the kidnapping and rendition of Muslim cleric Abu Omar to Egypt, where he was tortured.
The case was also highlighted in a European Parliament report, which said the aircraft used to transport Mr Omar to Egypt refuelled at Shannon airport.
Among those indicted for the abduction in 2003 are the former heads of the CIA agency in Rome and Milan and the former head of Italy's Sismi military intelligence agency, Nicolo Pollari. The trial, which is scheduled to begin on June 8th, is the first criminal trial over the US practice of renditions - the illegal transfer of terrorist suspects. Without US co-operation, the judge is likely to try the CIA men in absentia.
"It is ironic that the US has been criticised for trying al-Qaeda detainees without them being present at their trials, while Europeans seem to be comfortable with trying US officials in absentia," said Mr Bellinger, who launched a scathing attack on European investigations into US intelligence activities.
"These continuing investigations and continual threat of criminal charges not only harm co- operation on our end but also cast a pall over co-operation on the Europeans side as well," he said.
"If someone is part of an intelligence service in Europe or in the US that is watching one's colleagues being questioned, hauled before courts or at worst indicted, then these individuals are being far more cautious about any form of co-operation . . . I have seen that this is the case."
Mr Bellinger also strongly rejected the findings of the European Parliament's report into rendition flights, describing it as "unbalanced, inaccurate and unfair". Its suggestion that 1,245 CIA flights in Europe was something Europeans needed to worry about was "inherently nefarious" and threatened US-EU intelligence co-operation.
However, Mr Bellinger said there was a growing recognition in Europe that existing national and international laws were not sufficient to deal with the threat posed by international terrorism.
There was a "legal haziness" in dealing with terrorist suspects detained overseas, which the US was addressing by filling gaps in its domestic legislation. There were also gaps in international law, such as the Geneva Convention, in dealing with terrorism that needed to be addressed.
Mr Bellinger denied the US was exploiting a legal grey area through its policy of detaining terrorist suspects at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba. He acknowledged that Guantánamo was a point of contention between the US and EU but said EU states had not stepped forward and taken any responsibility or made any suggestions themselves to resolve the issue.
"Despite these repeated statements [ from Europeans] that Guantánamo should be immediately closed, there have neither been offers to help in any way or even suggestions as to how that ought to be done. The fact is the vast majority of all of the individuals in Guantánamo have come from countries in the greater Middle East where the countries are not anxious to have them back."