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Europe

Ex-CIA agent gets partial pardon for kidnapping of terrorism suspect in Italy

2017-03-01

[DeutscheWelle] Sabrina de Sousa was found guilty of unlawfully kidnapping imam Abu Omar in Milan. The Italian president took one year off her sentence in light of the fact that the US no longer practices "extraordinary rendition." Former CIA officer Sabrina de Sousa had one year shaved off her prison sentence on Tuesday by Italian President Sergio Mattarella. De Sousa was set to be extradited to Italia from Portugal on Wednesday to serve time for her role in the kidnapping of a Moslem holy man off the streets of Milan. The Portuguese-American de Sousa now faces a sentence of three years instead of four. The reduction was further significant because under Italian law she is now allowed to stay in detention outside prison, making it unclear if she would be able to stay in Portugal after all. The case relates to the February 2003 kidnapping of imam Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar. ...a member of the Egyptian terror group al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, he spent the 1990s in Bosnia before being kidnapped and transferred to Egypt for questioning in 2003. He was released from prison in 2007, and has been living without attracting much attention in Egypt ever since, though Italy convicted him in absentia of terorism in 2013 for acts committed before the CIA got hold of him... The holy man was one of many suspected Islamists who was kidnapped, questioned and sometimes tortured on CIA "black sites" off of US soil in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks under the Bush administration's policy of "extraordinary rendition."Despite being wanted in Italia as well on terrorism charges, a court in Egypt where he was being held found his detention unlawful and freed him in 2007. In 2016, the European Court of Human Rights ordered Rome to pay Nasr and his wife 115,000 euros ($127,000) in damages. Dozens convicted over the abduction De Sousa was locked away ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... at the Lisbon airport in October 2015 while visiting her mother. She is one of 26 US agents to be tried and convicted in absentia over the matter. She has consistently denied being involved and has repeatedly lost attempts to fight her extradition. Italia was the first country to take US intelligence agents to courts over the kidnappings and interrogations that took place in the Bush era. The Italian officials who were tried over the Nasr incident had their convictions thrown out when the country's top court ruled that prosecuting them could reveal information sensitive to state security. President Matarella said he decided to reduce her sentence largely because the program of extraordinary rendition had been suspended under President Barack Obama I am the change that you seek... Interesting timing, given the current American president.

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Home Front: WoT

Ex-CIA Milan chief held in Panama over cleric abduction

2013-07-18

A former CIA station chief convicted by an Italian court of kidnapping a terror suspect has been detained in Panama, Italian officials say. Robert Seldon Lady was sentenced to nine years in jail for his involvement in the abduction of the man, an Egyptian cleric, in Milan in 2003. The cleric, known as Abu Omar, was allegedly flown to Egypt and allegedly tortured. Lady was convicted in absentia with 22 other Americans for their alleged role in his "allegedly extraordinary rendition". But the Italian authorities have so far only sought the international arrest of the former Milan station chief, Italian media say. However, Panamanian Security Minister Jose Raul Mulino told the Associated Press that he was unaware of the detention. The CIA said it had no immediate comment. Lady was reportedly arrested near Panama's border with Costa Rica. The Milan case was the first involving extraordinary rendition, the CIA's practice of transferring suspects to countries where torture is allegedly permitted. The practice has been condemned by human rights groups as a violation of international agreements. Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, who was considered a terrorism suspect by the US, was abducted in February 2003 and transferred between US military bases in Italy and Germany before being brought to Egypt. Twenty-two CIA agents, including Lady, and one air force pilot were convicted in 2009 of abducting the cleric. Their sentences were upheld last year by Italy's highest appeals court. Lady reportedly rushed back to the US in 2007, when court hearings began in Milan to decide whether to put the 23 Americans on trial. He said he had opposed the proposal to kidnap the imam, but was overruled. A previous Italian government has said Lady was the only one of the 23 Americans that could be extradited, given the length of his sentence. If Lady is extradited, he is likely to spend six years in prison under a 2006 amnesty by the country.

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Europe

Italian agents helped CIA “kidnap” Egyptian imam

2006-07-07

ROME - Italy’s secret service cooperated with US agents in kidnapping an Egyptian cleric, Italian press reports said Friday, despite the government of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi denying knowledge of the abduction. The claims followed the arrest on Wednesday of two top Italian intelligence officials in connection with a judicial inquiry into the February 2003 seizure of the radical Muslim cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, on the streets of Milan. “First confessions: SISMI was an accomplice,” the serious business daily Il Sole-24 Ore said, referring to the Italian secret military intelligence service’s alleged involvement. The daily Corriere della Sera said “three agents (working for SISMI) acknowledged Italian complicity” in the operation blamed on the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Corriere della Sera said the three SISMI officials questioned by investigating magistrates had said the Italian intelligence service hosted several meetings at its headquarters to plan the abduction. Marco Mancini, the second most senior director of SISMI, was arrested on Wednesday along with another top official of the agency, Gustavo Pignero, over their possible role in the abduction. The two are suspected of “complicity” in the illegal detention of the cleric, the former imam of a mosque in Milan. So they were the ones who approved it. Bet they're feeling like they were left out to dry. At the time of his seizure, Omar was under investigation in Italy as part of police anti-terrorist operations. Corriere della Sera quoted testimony given to the investigators by witnesses who said that Mancini and Pignero had told their subordinates at the meetings that SISMI had to “help” the CIA ”abduct the imam”. "Why not just whack him, Marco?" "Nah, let the Egyptians do that. You got the papers ready?" The two said SISMI should send agents to Milan to examine the sitation on the ground and to follow Omar, the newspaper quoted witnesses as saying. Omar, who was living in asylum in Italy when he was snatched, was allegedly taken to a nearby US air base for interrogation and later transferred via Germany to Egypt, where he is still in prison. He claims to have been tortured in Egypt. And he'll keep claiming it given the storm he's raised so far. The Milan prosecutor has issued arrest warrants for 25 CIA agents and another US citizen in the case. The claims threaten to stain the reputation of Berlusconi, who always insisted that the alleged abduction was carried out without his government’s knowledge. They also put in a delicate spot the new centre-left government of Romano Prodi, which must now decide how to act after criticising Berlusconi’s inaction on the matter when the left was in opposition. “The government is in deep trouble. The Americans are furious. The heads of the intelligence services are at stake,” Corriere della Sera quoted the prime minister’s secretary of state Paolo Naccarato as saying. Since this all proves that we can't trust the Italian government, but then we already knew that about Prodi. For the warrants to be officially served to Washington to extradite the suspects, they have to be signed by Italy’s justice minister. "What's this, the artificial insemination agreement for Madonia?" "No, Minister, it's the warrants for the CIA agents." "Oh, finally, something easy!"

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Europe

Kidnapped Imam To Sue Berlusconi, Report

2006-06-16

Cairo, 16 June (AKI) - Abu Omar, an Egyptian cleric reportedly kidnapped by CIA agents in Milan in February 2003, wants to return to Italy and sue former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi for Italy's involvement in the plot, his attorney says. "Abu Omar wants to return to Italy, he considers himself an Italian," Montasser Al Zayat told Turin-daily La Stampa in an interview published on Friday. The attorney said his clients wants to sue Berlsconi "who is co-responsible for his kidnapping, to get compensation." Al Zayat added that Abu Omar "knows that he will have to stand trial in Milan but he says he is sure that judges will listen to him and acquit him because he believes he is innocent." The imam is currently in the Tora jail, in Cairo. Italy's intelligence services have been accused of helping US agents with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) kidnap the cleric. Milan magistrates have opened an inquiry into the case and Italian agent Luciano Pironi, a member of the anti-terror squad of the Carabinieri military police, is currently under investigation in Milan for allegedly helping CIA agents abduct Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar. Berlusconi, a close ally of US President George W. Bush, is accused of helping the US kidnap the man, considered by Washington a key al-Qaeda strategist in Europe. The Milan judges in charge of the case have also ordered the arrest of 13 CIA agents believed to be responsible for the abduction of the imam. His capture is part of a controversial practice of "extraordinary rendition" stepped up after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Terror suspects are picked up irrespective of national laws and sent to third countries in what rights groups denounce as 'outsourcing torture'. Serving the arrest warrants may prove near impossible and the prospect of extraditing CIA agents to Italy seems even more remote. The Italian official is the only person under investigation risking to be tried and convicted on abduction charges. The government of Berlusconi has always claimed it was not involved in the abduction. After being kidnapped, the imam reappeared in April 2004, when he called his wife - whose phone line was tapped - to tell her he was still alive. He also told an Egyptian imam in Milan, Mohammed Ridha, that after his kidnapping he had been driven to an American airbase, questioned and beaten, and the following day flown to Egypt where was handed over to the interior ministry. Omar was later unexpectedly released, on the condition that he told no-one what had happened. However after the phone calls to his wife and Ridha, which were reported in the Italian newspapers, he was arrested and is now jailed in Egypt. Sniff, sniff, story smells like ripe fish to me

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Europe

Italy may put CIA agents on trial in absentia

2006-02-09

MILAN (Reuters) - Milan prosecutors expect to launch procedures within a month that could put 22 CIA agents accused of kidnapping a Muslim cleric in Milan on trial in absentia, a senior judicial source said. The source, who asked not to be named, said prosecutors were growing tired of perceived foot-dragging by Washington and Rome over requests that would advance their investigation -- one of several European probes into suspected U.S. covert operations. The United States has still not responded to a request in January by Italy for judicial assistance in the case, which could potentially allow Italian prosecutors to travel there to question suspects and gather evidence. Neither has Italy's government responded to a request in November from prosecutors to seek the extradition of the agents from the United States. If no helpful action has been taken by early March -- as appears increasingly likely -- then prosecutors will close their investigation, the well-placed source said. "The next step will be to go to trial," he said. The European Parliament and the Council of Europe are watching the Italian case carefully as they move ahead with their own investigations into suspected U.S. anti-terrorism operations, including running secret prisons in eastern Europe. German and Swiss prosecutors are also looking into other accusations of U.S. covert transport of detainees, a process known as "rendition". An Italian trial of the 22 agents could potentially open a wealth of evidence in the case to the public, showing how terrorism suspect Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr was grabbed off a Milan street in 2003 in broad daylight. Prosecutors will count on the de facto testimony of Nasr himself, who briefly recounted the ordeal in conversations picked up in an Italian phone-tap. He has said he was flown to Egypt and tortured during interrogation. Italian investigators have accused Nasr of ties to al Qaeda and a Milan judge has issued a warrant for his arrest. He has been held by Egyptian authorities, his lawyer has said. Continued ... Not at all surprising.

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Europe

Europe's CIA Inquiry Finds No Evidence of Secret Prisons

2006-01-30

Not sure whether we covered this, given the change-over to the new box and all, so apologies if we did. But this seems to cut the whole accusation of detention centers in Europe off at the knees. STRASBOURG, France, Jan. 24 - An inquiry by the Council of Europe into allegations that the C.I.A. has operated secret detention centers in Eastern Europe has turned up no evidence that such centers ever existed, though the leader of the inquiry, Dick Marty, said there are enough "indications" to justify continuing the investigation. The indications include lunch and his expense account ... The report added, however, that it was "highly unlikely" that European governments were unaware of the American program of renditions, in which terrorism suspects were either seized in or transferred through Europe to third countries where they may have been tortured. Drawing from news reports, Mr. Marty contended that "more than a hundred" detainees have been moved anonymously and illegally through Europe under the program. Got any names? Dates? Locations? The findings, delivered to the Council on Tuesday, drew scornful reactions from some representatives of the Council's 46 member states, particularly from the British, who called the interim report "as full of holes as Swiss cheese" and "clouded in myth and motivated by a desire to kick America." Since it didn't determine what it was supposed to determine ... Mr. Marty, a Swiss senator and chairman of Council's Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, was charged with the inquiry after an article in The Washington Post in November cited unidentified intelligence officials as saying that the C.I.A. had maintained detention centers in eight countries, including some in Eastern European democracies. A subsequent report by Human Rights Watch cited Poland and Romania as two of those countries. Both countries, as well as others in Europe, have denied the allegations. But that doesn't count ... Mr. Marty's findings to date amount to little more than a compendium of press clippings. "It would seem from confidential contacts that the information revealed by The Washington Post, Human Rights Watch and ABC came from different sources, probably all well-informed official sources," a passage in the report reads. "This is clearly a factor that adds to the credibility of the allegations, since the media concerned have not simply taken information from one another." Oh no, they'd never do that! Part of the reason Mr. Marty finds the allegations credible are other well-documented cases of America's rendition of terrorism suspects on European soil, including the 2003 C.I.A. abduction of an Egyptian cleric, Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, who was sent to Egypt. Mr. Marty said he was equally wary of Romanian and Polish denials of the detention center allegations, noting that both countries are part of the American-led coalition fighting in Iraq and "escaped long dictatorships thanks largely to the American intelligence services." It's a concept called 'gratitude', of which you're not familiar. He has requested data on aircraft movements from the Eurocontrol, the European air traffic control agency, and satellite images from the European Union's Satellite Center. It is not clear what he hopes to find in the data or photographs. His assertion that more than a hundred detainees have been moved through Europe - a number he took from an article in the German newspaper Die Zeit - is not of a scale that would show in satellite images. Unless he's trying to count parked aircraft on different dates, and then assume that a 'CIA' plane at a certain airport at a certain date obviously had detainees inside, nope, nuttin' else, had to be detainees. I repeat, I'd be flying baby duck chow around just to confuse them. Both Mr. Marty and the Council of Europe's secretary general, Terry Davies, are convinced that the American press knows more about the alleged detention centers, but are under government pressure to keep the information secret. Pressure from the Bush administration works so well on the NYT, CBS and WaPo, we all know. "I know of a television company that has information that they are not willing to broadcast out of concern for their employees," Mr. Davies said. He declined to identify the broadcaster or the source of the allegation. Or what it said, or the threat made, or anything else that would lend the accusation, you know, credibility. Mr. Davies is scheduled to issue a report in February on what the Council's member states have done to ensure that such breaches of the Council's European Convention on Human Rights do not occur. Mr. Marty is expected to issue a final report on his inquiry in March or April. "This is no easy task," said John Sifton, terrorism researcher for Human Rights Watch. "The information doesn't fall out of the sky." For now, though, there is nothing concrete to the allegations of secret prisons beneath the chatter. "At this stage of the investigations, there is no formal, irrefutable evidence of the existence of secret C.I.A. detention centers in Romania, Poland or any other country," Mr. Marty's report said. That won't stop the accusations, of course.

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Europe

Italian court issues arrest warrant for CIA agents

2005-12-24

F*&kers - we need to rethink our aliances - Italian and Spanish prosecutors need to rethink their position in this world... An Italian court yesterday issued a Europe-wide arrest warrant for 22 CIA agents accused of kidnapping an Egyptian cleric from Milan and flying him to Egypt, where he says he was tortured. The move raises the stakes in the dispute between Europe and America over the CIA's controversial policy of "extraordinary rendition". It means that police forces in Britain and the 24 other members of the EU would be legally obliged to arrest any of the suspects, who would be sent back to Italy under a fast-track system adopted as a counter-terrorist measure after the September 11 attacks. The same procedure was used to return Hussain Osman, one of the alleged would-be suicide bombers in London on July 21, after he was tracked down to Italy. The Italian prosecutor, Armando Spataro, said he had also asked Interpol to try to detain the CIA agents anywhere in the world. Magistrates in Milan believe that a CIA team abducted Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, otherwise known as Abu Omar, off a Milan street as he made his way to a mosque in February 2003. The wanted men include the alleged head of the CIA Milan sub-station, identified as Robert Seldon Lady, who retired to a villa in northern Italy but slipped out of the country before arrest warrants were issued in July. Prosecutors issued the warrants in apparent frustration with the justice minister, Roberto Castelli, who appears to have been stalling on their demand that the Italian government request their extradition from America.

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Europe

Italy issues warrant for CIA team

2005-12-23

A Milan court has issued a European arrest warrant for 22 CIA agents suspected of kidnapping an Egyptian cleric from Italy's financial capital in 2003, Prosecutor Armando Spataro said on Friday. Milan is a real piece of shit town, regardless I'll bet these asshats don't arrest CIA operative one, ever, period. This is some liberal ass judge trying to make a statement. Guess what Dude, we did it, we'll do it again. And next time we hear about an impending attack in your neighborhood, we'll remember this little debacle. How'd that suit ya? The case is one of several investigations into whether U.S. intelligence agents used Europe to illegally transfer militant suspects to third countries for interrogation. The renditions have led to tensions between Washington and the European Union. This ain't a jihad against American policies, its a jihad against the West, and if you want to play stupid, well it really wouldn't be new would it? Notice Binny boy put Italy at the top of his list, and not for going to Iraq, no, for some shit that happened in the 12th century. But whatever. Milan magistrates suspect a CIA team grabbed Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr off a Milan street and flew him for interrogation to Egypt, where he said he was tortured. Boohoo, taste of his own medicine methinks. We got more in store for his type too. Prosecutors asked the Italian Justice Ministry last month to seek the extradition of the suspects from the United States, but Justice Minister Roberto Castelli has not yet decided whether to act on the request. Sure, go ahead, ask, and we'll tell you exactly what I'm telling you right now, kiss our ass! A EU warrant is automatically valid across the 25-nation bloc and does not require the approval of any government. The warrant was agreed by the European Union in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001 and was hailed as a key part of the bloc's fight against terrorism. Uh hu, and now its being used to subvert the WoT Under the agreement, any EU member state can ask another to hand over a suspect and in most cases, the other state will have to comply. Spataro told Reuters he had also asked Interpol to try to detain the agents anywhere in the world. As I said, bring it on baby! That would be a mistake. The U.S. embassy in Rome was not immediately available for comment and telephone calls seeking comment from the White House, Justice Department, Central Intelligence Agency and State Department were not immediately returned. Earlier this week, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said he did not believe CIA agents had kidnapped Nasr, but added governments would not defeat terrorism by playing by the rules. First I've heard anything rational Justice officials believe Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, is still in custody in Egypt. Italian investigators have accused him of ties to al Qaeda and recruiting combatants for Iraq, and a Milan judge has issued a warrant for his arrest. Before his disappearance, investigators had closely monitored Nasr, hoping phone conversations would provide clues about planned militant attacks in Europe. But their probe was cut short when the imam vanished on February 17, 2003. Court documents show the CIA agents accused of kidnapping Nasr on that day left ample documentation of their stay in Italy. Many of them presented frequent-client cards when they registered at hotels and prosecutors have one of the agent's United Airlines frequent flyer number. About a year after he vanished, Nasr was able to make two telephone calls -- to his wife, Ghali Nabila, and to a religious leader in Milan named Mohamed Reda, the document said. Nasr said in the calls he had been sent to Alexandria in Egypt and had been tortured with electric shock and exposure to extreme noise and temperatures. Boohoo He was allegedly re-arrested by the Egyptians for recounting the ordeal. Details about the renditions are emerging at a time when the United States also faces allegations that the CIA has run secret prisons in Europe and elsewhere. German citizen Khaled el-Masri says he was abducted in Macedonia in 2003 and flown to Afghanistan by U.S. officials. He is now suing the CIA for wrongful imprisonment. I've got your compensation right here, you do take American hot lead Express, right? Happy Holidays! EP

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Europe

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."

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Europe

Italy seeks extradition of CIA 'rendition' agents

2005-11-12

I find myself wondering if this is a re-election stunt on behalf of Berlusconi, who is running on an anti-American platform. He is also facing possible corruption and kickback charges. Italian prosecutors requested the extradition of 22 CIA agents, the newspaper Corriere della Sera reported Friday, in connection with an abduction case that has caused embarrassment in both Rome and Washington. The agents are accused of secretly kidnapping a suspect Islamic terrorist in the northern city of Milan in 2003, and moving him to a third country for interrogation in a U.S. practice known as "extraordinary rendition". Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, an Egyptian national and former imam at a mosque in Milan, was being investigated by Italian police at the time of his disappearance. Local prosecutors suspect he was abducted by a commando unit of CIA agents and then flown to Egypt via Germany. The cleric, also known as Abu Omar, later told his wife he had been tortured and beaten while being questioned in Egypt. The Italian government has denied any knowledge of the operation. The extradition request has been sent to Italy's Justice Ministry, which must now forward it to the U.S. government. According to Corriere, it may be blocked by Italian Justice Minister Roberto Castelli, who has just returned from a meeting in Washington with U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. So the headline should read "Italian prosecutors seek CIA agents", because the Italian government has not yet made that request to the US.

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Europe

Italy prosecutors seek extradition of CIA agents

2005-11-12

ROME (Reuters) - Prosecutors have requested Italy seek the extradition of 22 suspected CIA agents over the kidnapping of a terrorism suspect, grabbed off a street in 2003 and taken abroad, a judicial source in Italy said on Friday. The request was delivered to Justice Minister Roberto Castelli. The minister just returned from Washington, where he discussed the issue with U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, a U.S. justice department official in Washington D.C. said. Castelli's office declined comment. He must now decide whether to make a formal request to the United States to pursue the case, said the Italian source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "The general prosecutor's office has requested the extradition," the well-placed source said. Prosecutors in the northern city of Milan believe that the CIA was behind the disappearance of Egyptian-born imam Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar. They say he was grabbed off a Milan street and flown from a U.S. air base in northern Italy to Egypt, where they suspect he may have been tortured under interrogation by Egyptian security officials. You don't say. A Milan judge has issued an arrest order for Nasr, who is believed to be still in Egyptian custody. To do what -- let him go?

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Europe

Parents Fight Closure of Milan Islamic School

2005-09-10

Milan authorities who want to shut down an illegal Islamic school have fired up a row with some of the city’s Muslims, who feel their culture is under attack. The school shares its building with a mosque that prosecutors have linked to militancy. Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, a terrorism suspect with a standing arrest order in Italy, used to preach there. The official reason authorities give for ordering the school’s closure relates to building code. But parents doubt they are being sincere. I doubt they are, too. I think they want to clean out a rats' nest... “The building is basically a factory building, you can’t have children there. There are no bathrooms, and what would happen if there was a fire?” one official at Milan’s education authority, who did not want to be named, said yesterday. The city agreed a compromise with school representatives earlier this year for the 350 children who attend classes at the school but are officially counted as playing truant. The school would have moved to a more suitable building and adapted the Italian curriculum, with the option to take additional lessons in Arabic. But city officials said the teachers had failed to present a detailed proposal for a new building, prompting authorities to order the old school’s closure. "A detailed plan? Why would we do that?" Asked what kind of school they preferred, one of them answered: “Italian school — Arabic is so difficult.” But their parents disagree. “We want to send our children to a school where they will study Arabic, where they will study Islam,” said Mohammed, a Jordanian who declined to give his surname. "The weapons training in Italian schools is not up to our high standards!"

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