Node Of Evil - Fair And Balanced Reporting

Friday, July 16, 2004

 
From the UPI, an interesting twist in an international espionage case:


'. . . Switzerland's Deputy Federal Prosecutor Felix Baenziger has demanded a 15-month sentence for Mossad spy Issac Bental, who admitted installing illegal wiretap equipment, but his defense lawyers said he should be acquitted because he was trying to prevent terror attacks. Bental's lawyers agreed with the prosecution that Bental was in a team of five Mossad agents who were apprehended while installing surveillance equipment in the basement of an apartment building near Bern in February 1998 to monitor Lebanese Abdallah el-Zein. Local police released the other four agents after questioning. Bental was transferred to the federal police because he had a diplomatic bag containing the tools being used. After 65 days in jail, which would be counted as time served, Bental was released on $2 million bail on the assurances of the Israeli government that he would return for trial. Bental said the three charges against him ware [sic] true -- that he acted illegally for a foreign country, conducted political espionage and repeatedly used false foreign identity documents. Defense attorney Ralph Zloczower called his client "a simple agent, without any noteworthy special functions or position."'


The U.S., apparently, isn't the only state pursuing police actions against terrorists in other countries. As the U.S. has opened the spigot for questioning current legal standards in light of the threat posed by international terrorism, we await with interest the day that this same scenario happens in the U.S. How would the Bush Administration treat, for instance, a Brazilian spy who was caught tapping phone lines in the U.S. but who claimed he did it while "fighting terrorism"?

Andrew 2:43 PM : |

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