For years, failed President Barack Obama dithered and showed weakness instead of strength on the Global War on Terror, and spent many trips running around the world apologizing for America.
Worse, he sold some Americans down the river.
In 2003 American Sabrina De Sousa was working in Italy for the CIA when the agency, along with Italian agents, captured a suspected terrorist named Omar, and sent him to Egypt, where he was interrogated but eventually released.
But that didn’t stop Italian authorities from convicting De Sousa and 25 other Americans for the botched capture, despite significant evidence proving De Sousa was more than a hundred miles away when the raid happened.
For years, Italian officials have attempted to extradite De Sousa to face punishment, and the Obama administration failed to do anything to protect an innocent woman from potential punishment. But now that President Trump is in office, his administration stepped up to protect her.
From Fox News:
A former CIA case officer who faced extradition to Italy for her alleged role in the rendition of a radical Egyptian Muslim cleric is now free after Trump administration officials intervened, according to a source close to the discussions.
CIA Director Mike Pompeo lobbied his counterparts in Portugal and Italy on behalf of Sabrina De Sousa who was convicted in absentia along with 25 other Americans after the post-9/11 rendition of an Egyptian cleric. He was later found guilty on terrorism charges. The CIA had no comment on the case.
The source said Friday that Pompeo worked behind the scenes to show that, on his watch, no CIA case officer would be left behind for executing a mission authorized at the highest levels of U.S. government. De Sousa called her release “a huge and a very welcome development” in a statement Friday. “I want to extend my deepest appreciation to the Trump administration for all their efforts on my behalf,” she said. “Without their support I would be spending tonight in an Italian prison.”
Former Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., who was once the Republican chairman on the House Intelligence Committee and who lobbied hard on behalf of DeSousa, told Fox News, “The Obama administration and former CIA Director John Brennan abandoned De Sousa the last seven years, and in six weeks, the Trump team made her freedom possible.”
De Sousa took to Twitter to explain what happened under Obama and now Trump:
Fmr Obama off. failed to mention that in 2014 @CIA had excluded me from getting a pardon by Prez of Italy https://t.co/6SUpdiWfI2 pic.twitter.com/dhNo5arj3Z
— Sabrina De Sousa (@Sadiso) March 3, 2017
Full statement by Office of the Italian President on commutation of my sentence and significant impact of doing so. https://t.co/7VFDGw5qG9
— Sabrina De Sousa (@Sadiso) March 3, 2017
The Trump administration should be commended for doing what Obama would not: save an American from an unjust punishment by a foreign country. While the Obama administration showed no real interest in helping to provide De Sousa with the justice she deserved, Trump’s administration felt it important to fix the mess left by the previous administration and get De Sousa’s sentence commuted.
Fixing Obama’s mess is sadly a full-time job for Trump, for now.
Are you surprised that Trump’s administration went to such great lengths to get justice for De Sousa? Share your thoughts below!