Italian spies connected with CIA kidnapping arrested

Two officials with the Italian intelligence agency were arrested on July 5 in connection with the 2003 CIA kidnapping of a radical Egyptian cleric in Milan. Prosecutors also sought the arrest of three operatives of the CIA and an employee of the US military airbase at Aviano, Italy. Last year, Italian prosecutors charged 22 others who were employed by or linked to the CIA, with involvement in the abduction of the cleric, Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr. Hassan, also known as Abu Omar, is believed to have been abducted from a Milan street in February 2003. Milan prosecutors probing the kidnap case believe Hassan was snatched by the CIA and taken to Aviano for interrogation, before being flown on to Cairo via Ramstein air base in Germany. Abu Omar is still being held in a jail in Egypt, but did make contact with his family and friends during a brief release. A friend who spoke to him said he had suffered electric shocks and other severe torture. The arrest of Marco Mancini, deputy head of the military intelligence agency, and retired general Gustavo Pignero, marked the first time that Italian officials had been linked to the abduction. The two men appear to be the first to be arrested anywhere in the world in connection with CIA operations known as extraordinary renditions, where suspects are delivered in secret to third countries to be tortured. According to Italian judicial officials in Milan, the arrest of the Italians followed the testimony earlier this year of a military police officer. He told prosecutors in Milan that the CIA had used him to perform a routine document check of Abu Omar on the street, a ruse to distract him moments before he was abducted. The police in Milan learned the identity of the CIA agents charged by tracing cell phones used during the kidnapping, and linked some phones to Aviano Air Base. But there were other cell phones identified near the scene that the police now say were used by Italian officers who accompanied Abu Omar to Aviano. US authorities have refused to cooperate with the Italian Justice Ministry in the 22 earlier arrest warrants, and Justice Minister Roberto Castelli has refused to pass on an extradition request to the US. Silvio Sircana, a spokesman for the Italian government, said several other Italian intelligence agents were questioned on July 5. "They guaranteed their complete noninvolvement in the episode," he said. On several occasions, Nicolò Pollari, the head of the intelligence agency, has testified that his agency played no part in the abduction. A CIA spokesman, Paul Gimigliano, declined to comment. The arrests will put pressure on the new government of Prime Minister Romano Prodi to decide whether to back the efforts of the Milan prosecutor, which the previous government of Silvio Berlusconi had opposed. Berlusconi, who lost an election in April, repeatedly denied having any knowledge of such an operation. Any proof of Italian involvement would confirm one of the chief accusations leveled by Council of Europe investigator Dick Marty in a report last month–that European governments colluded with the United States in secret prisoner transfers. In Strasbourg, the European parliament backed up the Council of Europe's accusations in a resolution adopted on July 6. It said that it was "implausible… that certain European governments were not aware of the activities linked to extraordinary rendition taking place on their territory." It was also implausible that the Milan abduction could have been carried out by CIA officials without the Italian authorities or security services being aware of it, the resolution said. Until now, the United States and European governments have brushed off the Council of Europe charges as mere allegations–a line that would be unsustainable if they stood up in a court of law. The Abu Omar case is one of the best known examples of alleged CIA secret operations in the US-led "war on terror." Human rights groups condemn the practice of extraordinary rendition, saying suspects have frequently been sent by the United States to countries that torture prisoners. Washington acknowledges making secret rendition transfers of terrorism suspects between countries, but denies either using torture itself against suspects or handing them over to countries that do so.