<html>
<body>
<font size=3><br>
<b>Italians Issue Six New CIA Warrants<br>
</b> By Tracy Wilkinson<br>
The Los Angeles Times<br><br>
<a href="http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/printer_072605J.shtml" eudora="autourl">
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/printer_072605J.shtml<br><br>
</a> Tuesday 26 July 2005<br>
</font>
<dl>
<dd>Appellate court agrees with prosecutors, who now seek 19 operatives
in cleric's abduction.<br><br>
</i></b>
</dl> Bologna, Italy - An Italian appeals court ordered
the arrest of six additional CIA operatives Monday in connection with the
disappearance of a radical Muslim cleric who was snatched from the
streets of Milan two years ago, a prosecutor said.<br><br>
The arrest warrants bring to 19 the number of
operatives being sought by Italian justice officials. None is believed to
be in Italy currently, and no one has been arrested in connection with
the case.<br><br>
"We now have 19 fugitives," the lead
prosecutor in the case, Armando Spataro, told the Los Angeles
Times.<br><br>
At issue is the disappearance of Hassan Osama Nasr,
also known as Abu Omar, an Egyptian who Italian officials say was
kidnapped by CIA agents and bundled off to an Egyptian jail, where he was
tortured. The operation was believed to be an "extraordinary
rendition," a controversial U.S. practice of clandestinely seizing
terrorism suspects in one country and transporting them to another, where
they are interrogated and sometimes brutalized.<br><br>
Italian prosecutors' efforts to arrest and try the CIA
operatives have proved enormously embarrassing to the agency and to
Italian government officials, straining traditionally close U.S. Italian
ties. It is rare for one of Washington's allies to attempt to prosecute
U.S. spies. <br><br>
The six for whom warrants were issued Monday are
believed to have followed Abu Omar, who had been living in Milan since
2001, determined his habits and patterns, and cased out routes for
transporting him to the U.S.-Italian Aviano Air Base in northern Italy,
from which he was flown to Egypt. <br><br>
The operation appeared sloppy: According to Italian
court documents and interviews with Italian law enforcement officials,
the operatives behaved recklessly, leaving a clear trail. They spoke
frequently and openly on cellphones and rented rooms at luxury hotels
using passports and credit cards.<br><br>
Although most of the names used were probably aliases,
the identity of the former CIA station chief in Milan was exposed and has
been printed widely in the Italian press and some American press. He no
longer works for the agency and has vanished from a retirement home he
purchased near Turin. <br><br>
Spataro, the Italian prosecutor, sought arrest
warrants this year for all 19 operatives allegedly involved in the
operation. A judge last month granted them for the 13 who allegedly
participated directly in seizing the cleric as he walked to a mosque. The
judge refused to order the arrest of the six who allegedly helped in
reconnaissance. <br><br>
Spataro appealed, and a three-judge court Monday
granted his request.<br><br>
"The court wrote that it is not possible to
distinguish between the two groups, the first that only studied the area
of the operation and [Abu Omar's] way of life, and the second group that
were the actual executors," Spataro said from Milan. "They were
all involved in the same project of kidnapping. They were all
responsible." <br><br>
The appeal, a copy of which was obtained by The Times,
alleges that all of the operatives participated in the conspiracy because
they shared hotels, and their telephone traffic indicated they were
frequently together and in regular contact. A female agent from the group
of six shared a room at the five-star Westin Hotel in Milan with a male
agent from the group of 13, the court documents allege.<br><br>
The CIA declined to comment on the case
Monday.<br><br>
At the time of his disappearance, Abu Omar was under
investigation by Italian counter-terrorism police who suspected he was
helping recruit suicide bombers. He was frequenting a mosque in Milan
that U.S. authorities had long branded a center of Islamic
extremism.<br><br>
The Italians insist they were preparing to arrest Abu
Omar when he disappeared and say the U.S. ruined their case. <br><br>
<a name="1"></a><br><br>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=3 color="#FF0000">The Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br>
(415) 863-9977<br>
</font><font size=3>
<a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">
www.freedomarchives.org</a></font></body>
</html>