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| Cia Misled Italy Over Omar Abduction |
| 2005-12-06 |
| Washington, 6 Dec. (AKI) - The CIA misled Italian anti-terrorism police over the whereabouts of a radical Islamic cleric who had disappeared from Milan a month earlier, according to Italian court documents and interviews with investigators. The Washington Post reports that the urgent message from the CIA in March 2003, saying they had reliable information that Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr - also known as Abu Omar - had fled for the Balkans, set back Italian efforts to track him down by a year. Italian prosecutors say Omar was kidnapped from a Milan street on 17 February 2003 by a group of CIA operatives, who took him to the Aviano US military base in northern Italy, then flew him to the Ramstein base in Germany before flying him on to the high security Tora prison in the Egyptian capital, Cairo. A year later, after being released but placed under house arrest, Omar told his wife and a fellow Egyptian exile in Milan, Mohammad Reda, in phone calls tapped by the Italian police, that he had been subjected to freezing temperatures and electric shocks which left him partially paralysed. He also warned Reda that he and two others were also on the Egyptian government's list of kidnapping targets. Shortly afterwards he was thrown back in prison because of the calls he had made to Italy. Omar had been under surveillance by Italian police for two years, suspected of having links with terrorist groups and recruiting young people to be used as martyrs in Iraq. His disappearance damaged a major investigation, says Armando Spataro, the leading prosecutor in Milan, because Omar represented a valuable window onto the Islamic underground world. "If Abu Omar had not been kidnapped, he would now be in prison, subject to a regular trial, and we would have probably identified his other accomplices," Spataro said. In June this year, Italian prosecutors issued arrest warrants for 22 CIA operatives over the kidnapping. It is the first time a foreign government has filed criminal charges against US operatives over their role in a counter-terrorism operation. Last month they signed papers compelling the US to extradite the alleged CIA agents, but Italian Justice Minister Roberto Castelli has still not approved the request, even though this is usually a formality. Italian prosecutors now believe the kidnap operation was coordinated by the CIA station chief in Rome and organised by officials attached to the US Embassy. Prosecutors say they have no hard evidence that Egyptian or Italian officials were involved in the operation, though Omar claimed two of the men who seized him spoke "perfect Italian". Shortly after the arrest warrants were issued, the Italian government denied any knowledge of the abduction, but current and former US intelligence officials say the CIA informed its Italian counterparts beforehand. On Tuesday, Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera quoted a former CIA officer it referred to only as Mike, as saying the Italian authorities will have been well aware of the abduction, as it was a "bilateral operation". Italian police tracked down the operatives involved through the signals sent out by their mobile phones, allowing them to pinpoint the agents' movements on a minute-by-minute basis. Several of the phones were said to be the service phones of US diplomatic staff in Rome, and were used to place calls to the US consulate in Milan and a number in Virginia (the US state where the CIA headquarters are located). "Whoever carried out this raid obviously didn't think they were doing anything clandestine, because there is always some kind of relationship with the state where the action is being taken," the former CIA officer observed. The head of the CIA's substation in Milan, Robert Seldon Lady, is one of the operatives identified as being involved in the operation. Italian investigators found a photograph of Abu Omar on his computer, taken on the street he was seized from 33 days before he disappeared. His wife had deleted all the files on his computer, but on rebuilding the hard drive, police are reported to have found evidence that he had run searches for the shortest route from the Milan street where Omar was kidnapped to Aviano. A list of the luxurious hotels in Milan the agents accused of being involved in the kidnapping stayed in was found in the rubbish bin in his garage. Evidence was also uncovered indicating that Lady was in Cairo during the two weeks when Omar is said to have suffered the most violent interrogation. Investigators tracked down two airplane tickets showing that he flew to Cairo from Zurich on 24 February 2003, and returned to Italy on 7 March. Lady, who has since retired from the CIA, has hired an Italian lawyer to get the charges against him thrown out. His lawyer filed a motion saying his actions had "explicit, or at least implicit authorisation from the Italian government," and arguing that the evidence seized from his home was obtained illegally. However, last week, in a written opinion upholding the arrest warrant, Italian judge Enrico Manzi dismissed her claim of lack of proof against Lady, saying the evidence taken from his home "removes any doubt about his participation in the preparatory phase of the abduction." |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #2 Cia Misled Italy Over Omar Abduction I certainly hope so. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2005-12-06 15:56 |
| #1 My opinion is that this is part of Berlusconi's reelection campaign propaganda... |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2005-12-06 11:29 |