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| Europe |
| Italy Judge Orders Arrest of 13 CIA Agents |
| 2005-06-24 |
| An Italian judge has ordered the arrest of 13 CIA agents for allegedly helping deport an imam to Egypt as part of U.S. anti-terrorism efforts, an Italian official familiar with the investigation said Friday. The agents are suspected in the seizure of an Egyptian-born imam identified as Abu Omar on the streets of Milan in February 2003, according to the official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information. The U.S. Embassy in Rome declined to comment. Prosecutors believe the agents seized Omar as part of the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program, in which terror suspects are transferred to third countries without court approval, according to reports Friday in newspapers Corriere della Sera and Il Giorno. Investigators traced the agents through check-in details at Milan hotels and their use of Italian cell phones during the operation, the reports said. All the agents are American and include three women, Il Giorno said. The reports said another six agents were being investigated for helping prepare the operation. They said police also received an eyewitness account from an Egyptian woman who heard Omar calling for help and saw him being bundled into a white van as he walked from his house to a mosque. The report said Omar was taken to Aviano, a joint U.S.-Italian base north of Venice, and was flown from there to another U.S. air base in Ramstein, Germany, before being taken in a second jet to Cairo. A judge also has issued a separate arrest warrant for Omar, news agencies ANSA and Apcom said. In that warrant, Judge Guido Salvini claimed the seizure of Omar represented a violation of Italian sovereignty, Apcom reported. Earlier this month, Milan prosecutor Armando Spataro told The Associated Press that the prosecution was treating the disappearance of Omar as an abduction. Spataro declined to say who was suspected for the alleged abduction, but he said Omar's disappearance damaged an ongoing operation by Italian authorities. He said he visited the air base in February. Omar was believed to have fought with jihadists in Afghanistan and Bosnia, and prosecutors were seeking evidence against him before his disappearance, according to a report last year in La Repubblica newspaper, which cited intelligence officials. Italian papers have reported that Omar, 42, called his wife and friends in Milan after his release last year, recounting he had been seized by Italian and American agents and taken to a secret prison in Egypt, where he was tortured with electric shocks. Italian officials believe he now is living in Egypt, although Italian newspaper accounts suggested he was returned to custody shortly after his release. |
| Posted by:Frank G |
| #13 I wish the CIA were doing this kind of thing, but I'm taking this report with a giant grain of salt. Let's have some more facts, please. |
| Posted by: Captain Pedantic 2005-06-24 21:10 |
| #12 "The U.S. Embassy in Rome declined to comment" All I heard was the clink of champagne glasses - wierd! |
| Posted by: flash91 2005-06-24 19:22 |
| #11 We're getting closer. |
| Posted by: 11A5S 2005-06-24 17:32 |
| #10 If the CIA were one tenth as diabolical as this yo-yo thinks, he'd be dead by now or ensconsed in a cell in Kyrgyzastan. Now, maybe they can cut a deal with what is left of the mafia.... |
| Posted by: RWV 2005-06-24 15:20 |
| #9 Yeah, a vacation. Thats it. (Ops guys gotta learn better how to bundle the loose ends when working in civilized areas - better fieldcraft is important! Go Get'em Director Goss!). And no, this is NOT on a par with Kurds picking up and jailing random Baathists. Bobby, the left never seems to tire of making false analogies based on whatever they think will smear the US. Like other allegations from the left, this onw is wrong -and wrong headed. Are you jsut another moonbat? I pity you if you believe there is a moral equivalnce. Read and learn - if you truly have an open mind (but not one so open the wind blows thru and nothing is retained), you'll realize you were wrong. This was a proven terr, one with considerable linkages and known past actions that were violent against the US and the west. The reasons the Italian judge is pissed is not because we got an innocent, but that it blew some Italian law enforcement investigations, apparently. And the judge needs to get his head out of his ass: direct actions like this are NEVER undertaken without cooperation from the "home team" (i.e. its highly improbable to imagine other than the situation where Italians from their agencies were involved at several steps). Especially whent he "home team" is friendly like the Berlesconi government. Aside from that, he can issue warrants for Mr Smith, Ms Jones, Mr Smith #2, Ms Jones #2, etc all he wants. Highly probable that they dont exist anymore (and never existed prior to being in Italy). He may as well issue an arrest order for Mr Clarke from the Tom Clancy books, for all the real impact it would have. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2005-06-24 14:00 |
| #8 Italian neo-kkkomunist judges arrive too late to help spring an(other) agent of terror, settle instead for some self aggrandisement, to communicate to their fellow travellers that the PR front is still the place to score revenge for joint ItalianU.S. anti terror success. *"Omar was believed to have fought with jihadists in Afghanistan and Bosnia, and prosecutors were seeking [but not finding, apparently, much]evidence against him" *Note, the son of sam and soddom, and ollah, in an endearing three-way, spread terror from Bosnia, such as the assassination of police officers in Serbia, the torching of centuries old christian churches there, to be rewarded by clintons sending our armed forces to fight on omars and companys behalf. And our soldiers are still there. Wanna talk quagmire, about cost, how 'bout no victory, except for the enemy? No "exit stragedy", forget a victory strategy. troops stationed, with no end in sight. freakin double talking hypocrits, straight from clintons hypocracy. |
| Posted by: an dalusian dog 2005-06-24 13:45 |
| #7 Mysteriously unequivocally indubitably vanishing right from under their noses eh? Judgeing by the judge I think we are making our point... |
| Posted by: BigEd 2005-06-24 13:29 |
| #6 Wow US spooks pull a rug job! Maybe somethings starting to click. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2005-06-24 13:12 |
| #5 Judge sounds like another moonbat. So sad... |
| Posted by: 3dc 2005-06-24 12:53 |
| #4 Abu Omar is one of the guys in the Milan wiretaps. |
| Posted by: Dan Darling 2005-06-24 12:37 |
| #3 "abducted". Isn't that what the Iraqi Kurds do when they think they're arresting bad buys? |
| Posted by: Bobby 2005-06-24 12:28 |
| #2 Any proof that Ol' Omar didn't just decide to take an Egyptian vacation? Sudden-like. For health reasons. |
| Posted by: mojo 2005-06-24 12:15 |
| #1 Everybody's got assholes for judges. If these guys want to go on such a power trip, why don't they run for office? |
| Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2005-06-24 11:46 |