Amanda Knox. (photo: AP)
31 January 14
manda Knox and the international circus that surrounds her actually matter. It's really about something bigger.
If it looks as though the case against Knox and
Raffaele Sollecito is superficial at best, there's a reason for that -
it is. To say that because a speck of Knox's DNA may have been
present - on a knife, or a bra clasp, in the apartment in which she
resided - is absurd on its face and constitutes no evidence of anything.
In addition, neither prosecutor got anywhere near presenting a viable
connection between the man convicted of murdering Meredith Kercher, Rudy
Guede, and Knox or Sollecito. The purported collaboration was the stuff
of a poorly written work of fiction. In fact there was no evidence of
collaboration between Guede and Knox or Sollecito presented to the court
at all.
In their totality, the combined theories presented to
the three courts by two prosecutors were so illogical and utterly
lacking in substantiation that it's the prosecutors, not the defendants,
who should have been on trial - for misconduct.
Further, that a second prosecutor could present a
second case that all but abandoned the entire premise of the first case,
after the first case was thrown out on appeal, is patently malicious,
and absolutely does constitute a separate/unique judicial instance and
double jeopardy in a very material sense. The whole thing makes a profound mockery of the entire concept of criminal justice.
But while there is little chance that Amanda Knox is
guilty of murdering anyone, she is in fact guilty of two very important
things: being an inconveniently pretty young woman and being an American
abroad in the Bush era.
By the fall of 2007, Italy was in a significant state of conflict with the US over the Bush administration's policy of extraordinary rendition.
Of specific note were Italian kidnapping charges against nearly two
dozen CIA agents for the kidnapping of Muslim cleric Abu Omar, resulting
in 23 convictions. The New York Times reported,
"Judge Oscar Magi handed an eight-year sentence to Robert Seldon Lady, a
former C.I.A. base chief in Milan, and five-year sentences to the 22
other Americans, including an Air Force colonel and 21 C.I.A.
operatives."
Italy's decision to confront America's cavalier
disregard for their borders, laws, and judicial system was in line with
objections and threats of prosecution by several nations, including
German arrest warrants for CIA agents in the kidnapping and
extraordinary rendition case of Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen.
What was at issue for those nations from which
citizens and residents were taken was their national sovereignty and the
integrity of their judicial process. None of which appeared to matter
to the Bush operatives, but mattered greatly to those nations where the
crimes occurred - including, significantly, Italy.
In the midst of this international conflict simmering
just below the surface of broad public view, a young American woman
traveled to Perugia, Italy, to study. Her subsequent arrest and
high-profile trial for the murder of roommate and fellow student
Meredith Kercher would rivet world attention on the very same Italian
judicial system that the US had casually disregarded throughout the Bush
years.
Italy never got their CIA agents, but they got a
pretty young girl from Seattle, and with her the undivided attention of
America and the world to the authority of Italian justice.
It's not clear if Amanda Knox will foot the bill for the 23 convicted CIA agents, but what is clear is that Italy and many other countries view America's policy of rendition as indeed extraordinary, and they have a point to make.
It's not clear if Amanda Knox will foot the bill for the 23 convicted CIA agents, but what is clear is that Italy and many other countries view America's policy of rendition as indeed extraordinary, and they have a point to make.
Marc Ash was formerly the founder and Executive Director of Truthout, and is now founder and Editor of Reader Supported News.
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