Sebastian Rotella: The accused abductors left a sloppy trail of phone activity, credit card charges and photo IDs that allowed Milan authorities to prosecute 26 Americans (in absentia), including the now-retired Lady, and seven Italian officials. The brazen nature of the alleged rendition has gotten much attention. But the trial has also revealed how the Bush administration's drastic tactics shook up the secret world of U.S. intelligence work overseas. Testimony has featured remarkable allegations about feuds and rogue conduct. The case apparently made and crushed careers and spread betrayal and suspicion among U.S. and Italian anti-terrorism officials. On the witness stand in October, Stefano D'Ambrosio summed it up: "We were between the tragic and the ridiculous."
Michael Scheuer: Senior White House officials, in consultation with President Bill Clinton, set America's Al Qaeda policy from 1993 to 2001. They told the CIA what to do, and decided how it should pursue, capture and detain terrorists. They approved renditions to Egypt and elsewhere. Having failed to find a legal means to keep all the detainees in American custody, they preferred to let other countries do our dirty work.
Douglas Jehl: The officials said the captive, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, provided his most specific and elaborate accounts about ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda only after he was secretly handed over to Egypt by the United States in January 2002, in a process known as rendition.
Decius: Getting tortured by a foreign government is a bit more serious than getting your phone tapped.
Trial of CIA, Italian agents provides rare look at intelligence work | 
