Italy eyes rogue spies, not agency, in CIA kidnap

By Phil Stewart

ROME (Reuters) – Italy’s government said on Tuesday it did
not believe its intelligence agency aided the alleged CIA
abduction of a terrorism suspect in Milan — but left open the
possibility that rogue Italian agents may have been involved.

Defense Undersecretary Lorenzo Forcieri said the government
was not currently aware of any “involvement or complicity” by
the Sismi military intelligence agency, whose No. 2 was
arrested and jailed last week over his suspected role.

Another Sismi official was placed under house arrest over
the 2003 kidnapping of radical Muslim cleric Hassan Mustafa
Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar.

“The government expresses its confidence in (Sismi),”
Forcieri said, speaking before a Senate panel on behalf of
Prime Minister Romano Prodi’s government.

Asked later by reporters whether he thought a role by rogue
agents acting alone was more likely than agency involvement,
Forcieri said: “This is what it seems we can hypothesize at
this time.”

Prosecutors say a CIA-led team grabbed Nasr off the street,
bundled him into a van and flew him to Egypt. Nasr says he was
tortured there under questioning.

Twenty-six Americans, most believed to be CIA agents, face
arrest warrants in the case.

FAITH IN SISMI

Domestic spying allegations have also sprung up since the
Sismi arrests. Italian media, without citing sources, have
reported that prosecutors believe Sismi was building a secret
archive on journalists and others.

Forcieri said there was no evidence of this either.

Faced with grueling questions from the centre-right
opposition over the Nasr case, Forcieri repeatedly reminded the
senators that the kidnapping happened well before Prodi came to
power in April.

There has been speculation by some members of Prodi’s
government that the previous centre-right government of former
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, a close U.S. ally, might have
been aware of the plot to abduct Nasr.

Any proof of Italian involvement would confirm one of the
chief accusations made by Council of Europe investigator Dick
Marty in a report last month — that European governments
colluded with the United States in secret prisoner transfers.

Nasr’s lawyer says he plans to sue Italy for 10 million
euros ($12.73 million) for its alleged role in the kidnapping.
He is being held in prison in Egypt without charges.

Nasr had political refugee status in Italy. But he faces an
arrest warrant in Italy on suspicion of terrorist activity
including recruiting militants for Iraq.

(Additional reporting by Massimiliano Di Giorgio)