For the first time in the investigation, two Italian officials were arrested on July 5 for their involvement in the kidnapping of Imam Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr (aka Abu Omar), a terrorism suspect in 2003. The Number Two at the Italian SISMI military intelligence agency, Marco Mancini , was arrested and taken to San Vittore prison, and Gustavo Pignero was placed under house arrest. Further, a judge issued arrest warrants for four Americans: three who worked for the CIA and one who worked at Aviano military base, Abu Omar’s alleged exit point from Italy.
Abu Omar was under official surveillance leading up to his kidnapping, and authorities suspected he was in contact with al-Qaeda operatives and was recruiting jihadists for Iraq . On June 1, Pignero (Manchini’s predecessor) called Mancini, who were under investigation for complicity in the abduction, from a public phone to discuss Abu Omar’s investigation (source). Pignero allegedly told Manchini that “Yankees” asked SISMI to monitor, a euphemism for detain, Abu Omar. The six accused are suspected of kidnapping Abu Omar in broad daylight in Milan and driving him to Aviano air base. From there, he was allegedly flown to Egypt where he withstood torture. Phone tapping in Italy is a highly common practice, so for two senior counterintelligence officers to blunder so grossly begged for their capture by attentive police. The prosecution contends that having monitored telephone conversations, the SISMI knew of the impending abduction.
Some 22 additional US agents have outstanding arrest warrants that were issued after they left Italy. CIA officers’ homes have been searched and evidence, to include surveillance photographs and email messages, taken. The team’s stay in Italy was hardly covert; for example, they ran up over $140,000 in hotel bills, and they chatted casually on insecure cell phones that allowed police to track their movement.
Silvio Berlusconi, the prime minister during this period, is accused of a cover-up, but the Italian government issued a statement, indicating it stood behind its intelligence officers and denied their involvement in kidnapping or rendition. However, investigators contend that Abu Omar was snatched illegally, and his criminal investigation is now botched.
If the Italian officials are proven to have been involved, the case would be a concrete watershed of European involvement in US rendition of terrorism suspects, a process that has been in existence since at least the mid-1980s. Another known case was that of German citizen Khaled al-Masri who surfaced in Macedonia and then Afghanistan . Most European nations, and the EU most notably, have been quite critical of the US CIA policy (source). The case is the first of its kind to prosecute the US CIA for “extraordinary rendition.” While the US has not denied the use of renditions, officials deny sending captives to countries that employ torture. It is stunning that the US would consider such tactics, as the use of torture is widely disregarded for acquiring valuable intelligence. Further, such a discovery, if proven true, will likely distance the few European allies that the US has. And, if the US can employ renditions (rather than criminal jurisprudence) to serve justice, the argument become harder to counter when foreign countries wish to employ Sharia law against US citizens, as in the case of the US soldier accused of raping and killing an Iraqi girl (RealNews), to serve justice abroad.
