Ex-CIA officer pardoned for role in 2003 kidnapping of terrorism suspect

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

A former CIA officer who was poised to become the first intelligence official to face jail in connection to crimes committed during George W Bush’s “war on terror” has been granted a last-minute pardon by Italy.

Sabrina de Sousa, who was convicted in absentia in 2009 for playing a part in the extraordinary rendition of a radical Egyptian cleric known as Abu Omar, was expected to arrive in Italy from Portugal this week to serve a four-year sentence following months of legal wrangling over her controversial conviction.

But the office of Sergio Mattarella, the Italian president, released a statement late on Tuesday saying that De Sousa had been granted a partial pardon, which would reduce her four-year sentence of detention by one year. The statement said that De Sousa would be able to serve her sentence with “alternative measures” to detention, meaning that she could avoid spending any time in jail.

The statement did not clarify whether De Sousa, who is a dual US and Portuguese citizen, would have to remain in Italy to serve the sentence.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/28/ex-cia-agent-sabrina-de-sousa-pardoned-abu-omar

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Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Rome
Tuesday 28 February 2017 21.37 GMT

[AngryAmish]

1. Good.

[LanternWaste]

2. The CIA's inept role in the operation could be a big screen Steve Martin film...

She certainly received more leniency than her victim.

The CIA's inept role in the operation could not have been any more comically absurd though; as the Italians were able to track CIA operatives in the region because (wait for it) the idiots forgot to remove batteries from their cell phones, and the CIA went four days with zero contact between themselves and their Italian counterparts (I'd imagine this is Basic Secret Spy 101 stuff).

Goss did some major house-cleaning when it was revealed how sloppy the US operatives.