British FM William Hague defended the move, saying Iran was enriching uranium “to 20 percent, for which there is no possible civilian explanation.” Hague, evidently, was unfamiliar with the US-built Tehran Research Reactor (TRR), which operates on fuel cells using 20 percent enriched uranium to produce medical isotopes.

The latest embargo announcement came after a false announcement earlier this month, in which French FM Alain Juppe claimed a deal was reached and other EU officials denied it a day later.

The embargo could be potentially damaging to a number of EU nations’ economies, Greece in particular, as they will have to find alternative sources of oil. A likely source will be Libya, where Italian oil company Eni has been ratcheting up output. But given increasing instability in Libya, this may not prove a secure source.

“The mission is nearly over, but the ‘nearly’ remains,” added La Russa, though neither he nor any other NATO officials provided any indication of when the war would end and when the no-fly zone would be lifted.

Rather, Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that the war would continue until “no threat exists against the civilian population,” which considering a new civil war is already on the rise, could be years to come.

NATO entered the civil war in mid-March with what was supposed to be a “no-fly zone,” and which quickly escalated into hundreds of air strikes across the nation, and massive backing for the rebel military force.

That was the news today out of a press conference today, when Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi openly condemned the war, and the Italian government also announced that they are scaling back their invovlement, and removing their aircraft carrier from the conflict.

The moves come just weeks after Italian officials made public their discontent with the conflict as currently being fought and called for a humanitarian ceasefire, a call which was angrily condemned by French officials as a “sign of weakness.”

The alliance has been split over the war from the start, with a number of member nations never starting involvement in the first place. With Italy being used as a staging area, their decreased involvement could seriously raise the costs of NATO’s involvement.

Now it is a key participant in hostilities, Italy, which is withdrawing from the war. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini cited recent NATO air strikes around Tripoli killing large numbers of civilians and called for an immediate end to the war and a creation of corridors to allow humanitarian aid into the nation.

Which sparked angry condemnation from a number of officials, who are really sold on the three month old war’s continuation. NATO’s Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, though not addressing Italy specifically, vowed the war would continue.

French Foreign Ministry officials were more directly hostile to Frattini’s call, as France has been the most outspoken advocate of the conflict. They condemned the call for humanitarian aid as a “sign of weakness” and insisted two weeks ago everyone was “unanimous” in their agreement for escalation and that it must continue.

Though the war can and will certainly continue without Italy’s direct involvement, many of the attacks are being launched from Italian soil. If the Italian government is serious about ending the conflict, they could make its continuation extremely inconvenient for the rest of the alliance by expelling them from southern airfields.

Officials assure that the troops won’t engage in any combat, but they could just be the tip of the iceberg. The European Union is now saying they are considering as many as 1,000 ground troops for “humanitarian assistance” in Libya.

The Gadhafi government agreed to allow a UN humanitarian mission into the country, and that could begin as soon as this weekend, according to some officials. That mission isn’t intended to be backed up by massive numbers of foreign troops, however.

But some of the nations keen on escalation seem to see this as a way in. The UN resolution authorizing the no-fly zone was never explicit about not allowing ground troops into the country, but the UN aid mission is distinct from that resolution.

Right now everyone seems to be eager to shore up close relations with the Benghazi rebels, and that is including “advisers” as well as pledges of millions of dollars in aid. The moves will surely be welcomed by some factions, with hopes to escalate the NATO war and install them as the new government. In a war without any obvious goals or exit strategy, such escalation is bound to raise more questions than it answers.

The updated account says that the soldiers were cleaning their weapons when they were approached by an Afghan soldier with a loaded M16 rifle. When they told him to unload the rifle he shot them and fled the base.

The Italian government insisted it was a “terrorist wearing an Afghan soldier’s uniform” that was responsible, but the indications now are that he was an actual soldier, and escaped successfully.

A number of such incidents have occurred in Afghanistan, likely attributable to the NATO efforts to greatly increase the size of the Afghan military through mass recruitment. This has provided an opportunity for insurgents to infiltrate the Afghan forces and get close to NATO troops for attacks.

Berlusconi, who has publicly said previously that he absolutely believes Israel will ultimately attack Iran, was revealed in the new comments, part of a WikiLeaks cable, to be concerned that Israel was planning to use nuclear weapons in the attack.

Though it continues to officially take a position of “ambiguity,” Israel has a large nuclear weapons arsenal and is indeed the only nuclear weapons power in the Middle East. Israeli officials have repeatedly threatened to attack Iran over its civilian nuclear program, claiming it constitutes an “existential” threat.

Berlusconi was said to have been briefed about a 2008 Israeli Air Force exercise in which warplanes flew a mock bombing run over Greece, apparently an attempt to simulate a flight to and attack against Iran. Others, including Australia’s intelligence community, have expressed similar concerns about the possible attack recently.

The longest sentence went to Robert Lady, America’s former Milan CIA chief. All the Americans were tried in absentia and are now considered fugitives from justice by the Italian government. The CIA declined comment.

The incident, dubbed the “imam rapito affair” by the Italian press, involves the abduction of Milan’s imam, Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, an Egyptian cleric who was in Italy on an asylum passport. The CIA agents kidnapped Nasr off the streets of Milan and shipped him to Egypt.

Once in Egypt, Nasr spent the next several years in and out of prison, where he was tortured repeatedly. An Egyptian judge finally ordered his release in 2007. His only charge during the whole time was membership in a banned organization, though even this was eventually dropped.

Lady has insisted he was acting on the orders of his superiors with respect to the “rendition.” Two Italian officials were also convicted today as accomplices to kidnapping, though the Italian government’s declaration of “state secrecy” prevented more serious charges and pointed to official complicity in the incident.

NATO spokesmen said they saw “no evidence” in the article and Italy’s Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa says he intends to sue the well known British paper for publishing the claims.

But far from just making unfounded claims, the paper actually cites quite a few people, including local Taliban leadership who say the deal was well known and members of the Afghan government and military who confirm that they were well aware of the relationship.

Perhaps the most troubling aspect of the report however is the 2008 ambush in the region that left 10 French soldiers dead and 21 wounded. The Taliban commander quoted in the Times says the French soldiers who came to the area launched attacks against his group, which were initially interpreted as a betrayal by the Italian forces. The French government is coming under growing pressure to investigate the background of the attack, the deadliest for them in the eight year war.

According to the Los Angeles Times, unnamed officials of the administration are defending the decision, with one quoted as saying that “if done within certain parameters, it is an acceptable practice.” With those other avenues of torture now closed to them, some have speculated that the Obama Administration may rely even more on rendition than the Bush Administration has.

The move has the potential to strain relations with the European Union. In early 2007 the European Parliament issued a report accusing several nations of turning a blind eye to CIA kidnappings and rendition flights. The CIA used European airspace for over 1,200 such flights, according to the report.

In one of the most infamous incidents, CIA agents kidnapped a Muslim imam off the streets of Milan, Italy in 2003. He was later shipped to Egypt where he was held for four years, tortured, and finally released when they ruled his detention was “unfounded.” The incident caused enormous controversy in Italy and led to the summoning of the US ambassador.