| 31 days ago |  Italy
Eyes Indictment of Spy Chief |
Prosecutors recently announced the conclusion of an investigation against 26 Americans and several Italian intelligence officials. They include Nicolo Pollari, director of intelligence agency SISMI and the highest ranking Italian official named in the case.
However, the pending indictments and the possible trial have raised the prospect of uncovering higher-level collusion between the Italian government of Silvio Berlusconi, which was in power at the time, and the U.S. administration.
Milan prosecutors are seeking the arrest of the 26 Americans, all but one believed to be CIA agents, in connection with the case of Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr. The Egyptian cleric and terrorist suspect, also known as Abu Omar, was allegedly was abducted from a Milan street in February 2003.
The operation is believed part of an alleged CIA "extraordinary rendition" program in which terrorism suspects are transferred to third countries where some allegedly are subjected to torture.
Prosecutors say the operation was conducted by CIA agents with assistance from Italian agents, and have called it a breach of Italian sovereignty that compromised their own anti-terrorism efforts.
They say Nasr was flown via the joint U.S.-Italian Aviano air base and Germany to Egypt, where he says he was tortured.
"There's a private agreement between the United States and Italian governments for fighting terrorism, including the so-called renditions," Gigi Malabarba, a leader of the Party of Communist Refoundation, said Tuesday, according to the Italian news agency ANSA. "But the only one who will be held accountable will be Pollari."
Berlusconi has maintained that his government and Italian secret services were not informed about the operation and had not taken part in it.
However, prosecutors say that top officials at SISMI - including
Pollari - collaborated with the Americans to abduct Nasr.
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extracted/cached 11-24-2006 mpg