Sabrina de Sousa: Part II - Has The United States Dispensed With Its "Leave No One Behind" Policy
Sabrina de Sousa is a former CIA undercover officer who resigned from her position following the issuance of Italian arrest warrants for her and other U.S. officials. She was convicted by the Italian government of helping with the abduction of Egyptian cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr in Italy as part of a CIA "extraordinary rendition" program to snatch terrorism suspects in various countries and transfer them in secret to undergo interrogation in third countries.
She was one of 26 people convicted but the only one to spend any time in prison for the operation.
The Italian president commuted her four-year prison sentence but she was to carry out community service for three years, ending 8 November 2020.
De Sousa has always claimed her innocence, saying she was not in Milan on the day of the abduction and had no involvement in the kidnapping.
The views and insights expressed below are hers.
(This is Part II in a two-part series. Part I)
In 2002, Italy bypassed the CIA to provide the Bush/Cheney administration with a badly forged document (Nigergate), demonstrating Iraq’s intent to produce Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD).
In 2003, this time working jointly with the CIA, an Egyptian cleric was “kidnapped” and transported from Milan, Italy to Egypt, providing the administration with the al-Qaida (AQ) link to Iraq.
The kidnapping or rendition of the cleric, was part of the CIA’s Rendition, Detention and Interrogation (RDI) program. Since the “Milan rendition” was taking place on a NATO ally’s soil, it had to be authorized by the White House/NSC, and the governments of Italy, Germany (NATO - use of Rammstein Airbase for a stopover en route to Egypt) and Egypt (final detention and interrogation destination).
The ill-conceived rendition had presented the Rome CIA chief with a career enhancing opportunity, while the Italian government used it to further ingratiate themselves with Washington. The Egyptian cleric was already under surveillance by the Italian police. No charges had been filed against him. The investigation was abruptly stopped in order to facilitate the kidnapping of the cleric by a CIA “snatch team.” It provided the Italian government with plausible deniability for their own complicity. They would later loudly protest “violations of Italian sovereignty” to initiate the prosecutions of Americans, myself included.
An Italian law enforcement (ROS) official played a critical role in kicking off the rendition. The cleric was transported to Egypt via Germany. In the fall of 2003, the ROS officer was rewarded with a trip to CIA HQS, where according to his testimony he met the CIA leadership who had authorized the rendition - at the time considered a resounding success.
Former CIA Director Gina Haspel’s publicly released biography notes that she was assigned as deputy in CIA’s Counter Terrorism Center (CTC) from 2002-2003. Which put her in the chain of approval and authorization for the Milan rendition.
In 2004, the Egyptian authorities released the cleric, because neither Egypt, Italy or the U.S. had any prosecutable evidence to convict him. He described his torture at the hands of the Egyptians. Fearing the cleric’s return to Italy and resulting backlash from northern Italy’s sizable Muslim population, Italian courts swiftly convicted the cleric in absentia on charges of terrorism but never asked for the cleric’s extradition to Italy.
In 2005 an Italian prosecutor initiated an investigation into the cleric’s disappearance. The Italian prosecutor, riding a wave of anti-CIA sentiment for the RDI program, struck gold. The Italian ROS officer who had traveled to CIA headquarters, quickly ratted out the identities of those he had met in exchange for a plea deal. The prosecutor was headed to a highly publicized trial.
This was an inflection point for the CIA and Italian government. who moved swiftly to protect themselves against the impending issuance of EU-wide arrest warrants. Per Italian court documents (2007), the Italian prime minster informed the prosecutor that he had violated Italian State Secrets and could only proceed with the trial if they swapped documents in his possession, for those transmitted to his office by Italian intelligence.
The document swap resulted in the protection of senior CIA and Italian officials, while five U.S. diplomats - including myself and a U.S. Air Force officer - were convicted. (Two thirds of the 26 Americans eventually convicted, did not exist). This was a trial, with a predetermined outcome.
The Italian government then quickly granted the Italian intelligence officers already indicted with immunity, citing their relationship with the U.S. (foreign intelligence) as being covered by state secrets.
What’s astonishing is that Congress for twenty years and counting, chose to ignore a highly-publicized foreign trial and do nothing. Every member of Congress has scores of rank and file officers in their district, many of whom serve abroad for our country. Yet, Congress allowed a NATO ally no less, to blow the identities of our intelligence officers, prosecute and convict our diplomats and military without consequence. Importantly, this was the first time in U.S. military history that the military did not assert Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) for an Air Force Officer, resulting in his conviction. With no resistance from the USG, the Italian prosecutor charged U.S. diplomats with the crime “of not possible to not know” and “crimes against humanity.”
I retained Jones Day a reputable Washington firm, to communicate with Congress. Congressional disinterest eliminated the whistleblowing option for all those involved.
This is a disturbing precedent and one that can be repeated. In Washington self-preservation is the number one priority, where the end justifies whatever means necessary.
In a 2017 email, an Italian Ministry of Justice official summed up our government’s interference in the Italian judicial process. There was nothing Italy could do about me because I did “not having the support of her government.”
So what was I doing in Portugal? I was seeking resolution of my case.
A 2005 EU-wide arrest warrant issued by Italy resulted in a CIA travel ban. I was informed I could no longer travel to see my ailing mother and siblings who lived abroad – “indefinitely.” I grew up in a former Portuguese colony in India, with much of my family currently residing in Portugal/Europe.
The CIA justified the travel ban as necessary in order to “protect the careers of other officers.” A senior supervisor noted that naturalized Americans like myself come with “baggage” (my foreign family), while another reasoned that officers have to “sometimes leave pets behind.”
In order to visit my ailing mother and other family I felt forced to resign and therefore lost my pension. On the way out the door, I was told not to bother filing a lawsuit- it would be dismissed on the state secrets claim. Predictably, my lawsuit was dismissed.
The fallout from the Milan rendition requires a full investigation by Congress without interference by the intelligence community. Rank and file officers should not be left holding the bag for decisions made by their superiors.
The CIA and U.S. military appear to have dispensed with a commitment to “leave no one behind.”
Our entire intel leadership is filled with hacks and careerists who love being 'players' in the 'big game'. Imagine tolerating this BS from the Italians? We should have put a ban on all imports from Italy. Shut them out of any aid programs. Throw their ambassador out. And that's just for starters. We have the power but seem to be unable to use it in our own interests.
The more I learn about the deception within our government the closer to God and His truth am I drawn.