Newsgroup: it.media.tv
Titolo: Italy Arrests 13 (thirteen) CIA Agents for Crimes Against Humanity ! <= Holy Shit !

Jun 24, 10:52 PM EDT
Italy judge orders arrest of 13 CIA agents
By AIDAN LEWIS
Associated Press Writer
ROME (AP) -- An Italian judge on Friday ordered the arrests of 13 CIA officers 
for secretly transporting a Muslim preacher from Italy to Egypt as part of U.S. 
anti-terrorism efforts - a rare public objection to the practice by a close 
American ally.
The Egyptian was spirited away in 2003, purportedly as part of the CIA's 
"extraordinary rendition" program in which terror suspects are transferred to 
third countries without court approval, subjecting them to possible torture.
The arrest warrants were announced Friday by the Milan prosecutor's office, 
which has called the disappearance a kidnapping and a blow to a terrorism 
investigation in Italy. The office said the imam was believed to belong to an 
Islamic terrorist group.
The 13 are accused of seizing Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, known as Abu Omar, on 
a Milan street on Feb. 17, 2003, and sending him to Egypt, where he reportedly 
was tortured, Milan prosecutor Manlio Claudio Minale said in a statement.
The U.S. Embassy in Rome and the CIA in Washington declined to comment.
The prosecutor's statement did not name the suspects, give their nationalities 
or mention the CIA by name. But an Italian official familiar with the 
investigation confirmed newspaper reports Friday that the suspects worked for 
the CIA.
The official also said there was no evidence Italians were involved or knew 
about the operation. He asked that his name not be used because official comment 
was limited to the prosecutor's statement.
Minale said the suspects remain at large and Italian authorities will ask the 
United States and Egypt for assistance in the case.
The prosecutor's office said Nasr was released by the Egyptians after his 
interrogation but was arrested again later.
The statement said Nasr was seized by two people as he was walking from his home 
toward a mosque and bundled into a white van. He was taken to Aviano, a joint 
U.S.-Italian base north of Venice, and flown to a U.S. air base in Ramstein, 
Germany, before being taken to Cairo.
It said investigators had confirmed the abduction through an eyewitness account 
and other, unidentified witnesses as well as through an analysis of cell phone 
traffic.
In March 2003, "U.S. authorities" told Italian police Nasr had been taken to the 
Balkans, the statement said. A year later, in April-May 2004, Nasr phoned his 
wife and another unidentified Egyptian citizen and told them he had been 
subjected to violent treatment by interrogators in Egypt, the statement said.
Italian newspapers have reported that Nasr, 42, said in the wiretapped calls 
that he was tortured with electric shocks.
On Friday, the Milan daily Corriere della Sera cited another Milan-based imam as 
telling Italian authorities Nasr was tortured after refusing to work in Italy as 
an informer. According to the testimony, he was hanged upside down and subjected 
to extreme temperatures and loud noise that damaged his hearing, Corriere 
reported.
Minale said the judge rejected a request for six more arrest warrants for 
suspects believed to have helped prepare the operation.
Judge Chiara Nobile ordered the arrests after investigators traced the agents 
through Milan hotels and Italian cell phones, said reports in Corriere and 
another daily, Il Giorno.
Il Giorno said all the agents were American and three were women.
Minale said a judge also issued a separate arrest warrant for Nasr on terrorism 
charges. In that warrant, Judge Guido Salvini said Nasr's seizure violated 
Italian sovereignty, according to Italian news agency Apcom.
Nasr was believed to have fought in Afghanistan and Bosnia and prosecutors were 
seeking evidence against him before his disappearance, according to a report in 
La Repubblica newspaper, which cited intelligence officials.
Corriere said Italian police picked up details, including cover names, photos, 
credit card information and U.S. addresses the agents gave to five-star hotels 
in Milan around the time of Nasr's alleged abduction. It said investigators also 
found the prepaid highway passes the agents used for the journey from Milan to 
the air base.
The report said investigations showed the agents incurred $144,984 in hotel 
bills in Milan, and that two pairs of agents took holidays in northern Italy 
after delivering Nasr to Aviano.
Italian-U.S. relations were strained after American soldiers killed an Italian 
intelligence agent near Baghdad airport in March. He was escorting a kidnapped 
Italian journalist after he had secured her release from Iraqi captors.
Germano Dottori, a political analyst at the Center for Strategic Studies in 
Rome, said it is not unusual for intelligence agencies to have squabbles with 
allied countries but that he could not recall prosecutors directly involved in 
investigating or apprehending agents involved.
"At some point the Americans will begin to think they can't trust the Italians," 
Dottori said.
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 The Egyptian was spirited away in 2003
It is likely that these 13 people will be waiting about in Italy for
these warrants to be executed, of course.  How silly.