Italy's spy chief ousted over CIA kidnap case

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi on Nov. 20 dismissed the government's top intelligence chief, whois under investigation for his role in the alleged CIA abduction of a radical Egyptian cleric from Milan three years ago. With his removal, intelligence chief Nicolo Pollari became the highest-level Italian official to lose his job over the case, adding to suspicions that the previous government collaborated more closely with the CIA than has been acknowledged. Pollari's No. 2 was arrested over the summer, and Italian prosecutors are seeking the arrest of 26 US citizens, mostly CIA operatives. The operatives are accused of hunting down and seizing the cleric and then transporting him secretly to Egypt, where he says he was tortured. Pollari repeatedly denied having had advance knowledge of the abduction. But testimony from colleagues and evidence gleaned from police wiretaps suggest otherwise. Pollari, who led the military intelligence agency known as SISMI, may face indictment. Portions of the committee's draft report, released recently, accuse Pollari of lying to authorities and covering up SISMI's involvement in the abduction case. In addition to the Abu Omar case, Pollari's name was linked to a plot to produce, and leak to US agents, documents purporting to show that Iraq was attempting to buy weapons-grade uranium from Niger. The claim, which proved false, was used by the Bush administration to help justify launching the war against Iraq. Pollari and SISMI also were suspected of running an illicit wiretapping program and of compiling and planting false information on politicians, journalists and prosecutors considered unfriendly to Berlusconi's government.