Italy orders arrest of CIA agents for kidnapping Egyptian cleric
Egypt-USA, Politics, 6/25/2005

The UK's The Guardian reported today that "An Italian judge has issued arrest warrants for 13 CIA agents who allegedly kidnapped an Egyptian terrorist suspect in Milan two years ago and flew him to Cairo where he was questioned and tortured, it emerged yesterday."

CNN reported that Italian officials told it that the arrest warrant includes one for CIA former station chief.

The Guardian reported "The agents are said to have seized imam Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, while he was walking from his home to a mosque in the Italian city. They allegedly bundled the 42-year-old into a van before driving him to the Italian-US air base at Aviano, northern Italy.The following day he was flown to another US air base at Ramstein, Germany, and then taken by private jet to Egypt."

The Guardian added that "According to Italian investigators the alleged abduction, believed to have been part of the CIA's 'extraordinary rendition program' in which terrorist suspects were transferred to third countries without court approval, violated Italian sovereignty."

The Guardian reported that "Mr Nasr disappeared on February 17 2003. According to foreign intelligence officials he fought with jihadists in Afghanistan and Bosnia before arriving in Italy in 1997 and obtaining political refugee status. He was under investigation in Italy on suspicion of ties to international terrorism at the time he disappeared. Last year Italian newspapers, citing wiretapped conversations, reported that Mr Nasr had been released from custody in Egypt for reasons of ill-health and had called his wife and friends in Milan to say he had been tortured with electric shocks. Some reports have suggested that he is now back in custody in Egypt."

Meantime CNN reported that an Italian official source told it that Italy, who had Nasr under surveillance, does not know if he was a terrorist or not, but views the the US kidnapping as not only illegal, but counterproductive to efforts to fight terrorism.

Asked about this extrajudicial act by the CIA in Italy, the US Department Of State spokesman Adam Ereli said yesterday that this issue is "A matter with the Italian judiciary." He added "I don't have any facts or comments for you about those reports... I wouldn't have any information or be the right address for those kinds of questions."

Previous Stories:
  President Clinton calls for cleaning up or closing Guantanamo   (6/22/2005)
  Rice calls for free elections in Egypt, meets opposition figures   (6/21/2005)
  Egyptian report on human rights deterioration commended   (4/16/2005)

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