BillyTheMountain
2005-12-24, 08:19 PM
NYTimes today, p A5: Italy seeks Arrests in Kidnapping Case: Accusing USA CIA of kidnapping and sending to Egypt for torture.....
WashingtonPost.com says: The warrants, approved by an Italian judge Thursday, followed a two-year investigation by prosecutors and police in Milan into the Feb. 17, 2003, disappearance of Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar. A veteran of military training camps in Bosnia and Afghanistan, Nasr was a longtime surveillance target of Italian counterterrorism police, who have made no secret of their frustration over how he was forcibly taken out of the country without their knowledge.
Italian prosecutors have concluded that Nasr was the target of a top-secret operation that the CIA calls an "extraordinary rendition." It is the forcible and highly secretive transfer of terrorism suspects to their home countries or other nations where they can be interrogated without the same legal protections available to them in the United States or the places from which they were removed.
Michael Scheuer, a former senior counterterrorism official at the CIA, said details provided by the Italians suggest that the Nasr case was not a CIA operation. He also said the agency would never approve a kidnapping in Italy.
According to Italian court documents, investigators in Milan determined that Nasr was kidnapped just after noon by eight U.S. operatives as he was walking from his house to a nearby mosque to pray. He was bundled into a van and taken to Aviano Air Base, a joint Italian-U.S. military installation. Hours later, he was put on a Learjet to Ramstein Air Base in Germany, where he was transferred to another airplane, which took him to Cairo, the documents show.
The documents also show that the Americans spent more than $100,000 to stay in luxury hotels in Milan, Florence and Venice before and after Nasr's disappearance.
WashingtonPost.com says: The warrants, approved by an Italian judge Thursday, followed a two-year investigation by prosecutors and police in Milan into the Feb. 17, 2003, disappearance of Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar. A veteran of military training camps in Bosnia and Afghanistan, Nasr was a longtime surveillance target of Italian counterterrorism police, who have made no secret of their frustration over how he was forcibly taken out of the country without their knowledge.
Italian prosecutors have concluded that Nasr was the target of a top-secret operation that the CIA calls an "extraordinary rendition." It is the forcible and highly secretive transfer of terrorism suspects to their home countries or other nations where they can be interrogated without the same legal protections available to them in the United States or the places from which they were removed.
Michael Scheuer, a former senior counterterrorism official at the CIA, said details provided by the Italians suggest that the Nasr case was not a CIA operation. He also said the agency would never approve a kidnapping in Italy.
According to Italian court documents, investigators in Milan determined that Nasr was kidnapped just after noon by eight U.S. operatives as he was walking from his house to a nearby mosque to pray. He was bundled into a van and taken to Aviano Air Base, a joint Italian-U.S. military installation. Hours later, he was put on a Learjet to Ramstein Air Base in Germany, where he was transferred to another airplane, which took him to Cairo, the documents show.
The documents also show that the Americans spent more than $100,000 to stay in luxury hotels in Milan, Florence and Venice before and after Nasr's disappearance.