Italy to seek extradition of CIA agents ...

THIS is going to turn into a huge diplomatic snarl:

ROME - Italy is preparing to request the extradition of 13 purported CIA officers accused of kidnapping a terrorism suspect and secretly transporting him to Egypt, a court official said Tuesday.

Prosecutors also have asked the help of Interpol in tracking down the suspects, all identified as U.S. citizens, said the official who asked that his name not be used because the investigation was still under way.

The 13 were accused of seizing Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, known as Abu Omar, on a Milan street on Feb. 17, 2003, and sending him to Egypt, where he reportedly was tortured, according to Milan prosecutor Manlio Claudio Minale.

The U.S. Embassy in Rome and the CIA in Washington have declined to comment.

In announcing the arrest warrants Friday, the Milan prosecutor's office said it will ask for American and Egyptian assistance in the case.

The Egyptian preacher was spirited away in 2003, purportedly as part of the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program in which terror suspects are transferred to third countries without court approval, subjecting them to possible torture.

The order for the arrests in the transfer of the cleric was a rare public objection to the practice by a close American ally. It brought renewed calls Tuesday by leftist opposition parties for Premier Silvio Berlusconi's government to answer questions in parliament on whether Italian officials were involved.

The judge's order explaining the need for the arrests said the suspects' links to "foreign intelligence services" gave them the particular ability to destroy evidence and disrupt the investigation.

Some of the 13 names listed in the order might be aliases because that's often a practice of such operatives overseas. Several gave U.S. post office boxes as their addresses.

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I wonder if they actually got any information out of the guy to make the kidnapping worth all this grief.

I don't see how they can stop an extradition without violating the extradition treaty, and yet they can't hand these guys over, can they?

This will turn into nothing. The US will never send those agents to Italy. I dont mean this to sound condescending, but nothing Italy can do to the USA politically could turn into a "huge diplomatic snarl"

There will be some huffing anf puffing, but nothing will happen.

This will turn into nothing. The US will never send those agents to Italy. I dont mean this to sound condescending, but nothing Italy can do to the USA politically could turn into a "huge diplomatic snarl"

Wouldn't the powers that be in Italy already know that? Why would they continue if they didn't think they could score points.

There was a time when people said France couldn't create a huge diplomatic snarl - but that was before the sideshow at the UN over Iraq.