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Italy Judge Orders Arrest of 13 CIA Agents
AP ^ | 6/24/05 | Aidan Lewis

Posted on 06/24/2005 8:24:05 AM PDT by God pays good

ROME - 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.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: abuomar; arrest; botchedop; cia; dagos; fubar; fuggeddaboutit; greasybastards; italy; sovereignty; spaghettisuckers; spooks; ungrateful; waronterrorism; wops; wot
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1 posted on 06/24/2005 8:24:07 AM PDT by God pays good
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To: God pays good

Sharia comes to Italia?


2 posted on 06/24/2005 8:32:51 AM PDT by epluribus_2
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To: God pays good

Might I assume that the agents have long since left Italy?


3 posted on 06/24/2005 8:32:54 AM PDT by Enterprise (Coming soon from Newsweek: "Fallujah - we had to destroy it in order to save it.")
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To: God pays good

They assumed Dhimmi status years ago.


4 posted on 06/24/2005 8:35:06 AM PDT by deadeyedawg (Crush our enemies, listen to their lamentations, and drive them before us!)
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To: God pays good

"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."

Here we go again. "They tortured me, they tortured me!" Keep it up, maybe they shouldn't live to cry this bilge.


5 posted on 06/24/2005 8:36:03 AM PDT by poobear (Imagine a world of liberal silence.)
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To: God pays good

What?

They were just helping him get home to see the family.

No good deed goes unpunished.


6 posted on 06/24/2005 8:36:40 AM PDT by Mikey_1962
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To: God pays good
Good for the spooks!

I want every jihadi in the west to be looking over their shoulder.

A few "falling out of the helicopter" incidents are long overdue.

7 posted on 06/24/2005 8:37:59 AM PDT by robomurph
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To: epluribus_2

I truly doubt that sharia would ever work in Italy. They're much too independent.


8 posted on 06/24/2005 8:40:15 AM PDT by twigs
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To: God pays good
Investigators traced the agents through check-in details at Milan hotels and their use of Italian cell phones during the operation, the reports said.

Uh, shouldn't the CIA be better at doing covert operations than leaving an easily-traced trail like this?

9 posted on 06/24/2005 8:42:03 AM PDT by LibFreeOrDie (L'chaim!)
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To: God pays good

It will turn out he was just a willing participant in a sex bondage fantasy


10 posted on 06/24/2005 8:42:37 AM PDT by Minnesoootan
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To: God pays good

I assume this article means officers when it references agents, i.e. American CIA CS employees under diplomatic cover, rather than "agents" who would probably be Italian nationals on our payroll. It's a really important distinction and the author should have it down cold.


11 posted on 06/24/2005 8:46:19 AM PDT by BroncosFan ("The flogging will stop when morale has improved.")
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To: All

Excuse me, Mr Judge...as they say in Corsica...kush meer in tochus.


12 posted on 06/24/2005 8:47:23 AM PDT by sofaman
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To: God pays good

This "Judge" is a left-wing wing nut.


13 posted on 06/24/2005 8:49:31 AM PDT by hobbes1 (Hobbes1TheOmniscient® "I know everything so you dont have to...." ;)
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To: God pays good

France is the first islamic European country. Italy comes in second. Why deport the crazy islamic? Just dispatch posthaste the islamic crazy to the hereafter and let him enjoy his 32 ugly virgins.


14 posted on 06/24/2005 8:49:39 AM PDT by lilylangtree
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To: lilylangtree

Paging Mr. Bauer, Jack Bauer!?!?

24!


15 posted on 06/24/2005 8:59:46 AM PDT by GRRRRR (I've Had it with the Islamofascists...time to put em away for good!)
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To: GRRRRR

I only get to see the seasons on DVD....I can't wait until 4 comes out so I can rent the suckers or maybe just buy it...but I generally like to rent stuff first.


16 posted on 06/24/2005 9:01:35 AM PDT by rwfromkansas (http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=rwfromkansas)
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To: Mikey_1962

"They were just helping him get home to see the family."

I hope that they are now preparing transportation for this Judge to go to Egypt to see for himself if this imams trip has been represented properly. :)


17 posted on 06/24/2005 9:03:04 AM PDT by Vn_survivor_67-68
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To: God pays good

Seems like this was pretty sloppy tradecraft on the agents' part, but I'm sure that they are now long gone out of Italy. At least the CIA is now doing its job against these Islamoslugs. Kudos to the Agency...! And really, do the Italians really want to go down this road with us?


18 posted on 06/24/2005 9:07:14 AM PDT by Virginia Ridgerunner ("Si vis pacem para bellum")
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To: sofaman

While I am happy we got the guy, I understand Italy's point re: sovreignty.

I vaguely recall Israel killing or kidnapping some old Nazi living in the US. I was of the same mind: (1) good for you, Israel and (2) Hey, this is my country, who wants foreign secret agents running around?!


19 posted on 06/24/2005 9:14:17 AM PDT by MeanWestTexan
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To: God pays good

If they were really working with Italian agents, then let the court hash it out with the Italian government. Leave our agents alone.


20 posted on 06/24/2005 9:16:15 AM PDT by highball ("I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have." -- Thomas Jefferson)
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