SpyTalk

According to prosecutors in Milan, Omar was snatched off the streets of the northern Italian city by a CIA team conducting an "extraordinary rendition."

Omar was flown to Egypt in a covert operation that eventually involved 25 CIA operatives and a U.S. Air Force officer at the Aviano Air Base, according to the charges.

A number of the defendants, who are being tried in absentia, were CIA employees working under State Department cover in Italy, including Desousa, prosecutors allege.

But in a May 15 interview with SpyTalk, Desousa maintained that she was indeed a State Department officer.

"I had nothing to do with the planning, and nothing to do with the kidnapping, of this guy," she said, contradicting Italian prosecutors and several published accounts of her alleged career as a spy.

Procedural delays by several U.S. agencies have prevented her from presenting evidence to her Italian lawyer that she was on a skiing holiday in Switzerland at the time of the February 2003 kidnapping, Desousa and Zaid said Tuesday. 

"The magistrate should be able to verify I wasn't there," Desousa said, even without documents allegedly showing she was staying at a Swiss inn.

But prosecutors have shown little interest in her alibi, dismissing it as a cover story.

Robert Seldon Lady, who was officially the U.S. Consul in Milan at the time, virtually confessed to his role in the kidnapping in a June 30 interview with the Italian newspaper Il Giornale.

"I'm not guilty. I'm only responsible for carrying out orders that I received from my superiors," Lady was quoted as saying.

Zaid denounced the State Department and Obama administration for not defending Desousa, and urged the President to raise the issue of diplomatic immunity with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano and other political leaders before he goes to the G8 Summit in L'Aquila, about 60 miles east of Rome, starting Wednesday.

"If this event took place as the Italians allege, then it was an official operation of the U.S. Government," Zaid wrote in an e-mail, "yet both the Bush and Obama Administrations have done NOTHING [Zaid's emphasis] to safeguard the important principle of diplomatic immunity, which Ms. Desousa held, and step in and protect American citizens from foreign prosecution, if not persecution of political differences."

The lawyer also urged the media to "inquire with the President, his spokesperson and other relevant White House staff whether President Obama intends to raise the issue" in Italy.

According to an unconfirmed report, the issue has drawn the attention of White House counsel Greg Craig and Defense Secretary Gates, who have directed their staffs to study whether the Status of Forces Agreement between the U.S. and Italy should abnegate the prosecution.

Obama aides travelling with the president in Europe could not be reached for comment.  

A Justice Department spokesman said, "We would have no comment at this time."

If the American defendants are convicted, as expected, they would risk arrest and prison if they traveled outside the United States.