|
The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
|
May 15th,
2008 - Italian Trial of C.I.A. Operatives Begins With Torture Testimony |
|
Italian Trial of C.I.A.
Operatives Begins With Torture Testimony By Elisabeth Rosenthal New York Times May 15, 2008 Milan - A long-delayed trial
of C.I.A. operatives and former top Italian intelligence officials moved
forward here on Wednesday, as a judge ruled that Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi could be called to testify about the abduction of a radical Muslim
cleric here in 2003. Ghali Nabila, the wife of a
Muslim cleric abducted in Italy in 2003, left a Milan court Wednesday after
testifying in the case. Testimony also began
Wednesday. The cleric’s wife, Ghali Nabila, said her husband, Hassan Mustafa
Osama Nasr, known as Abu Omar, was taken from Italy and transferred to a
prison in Egypt, where, she said, he was repeatedly tortured. While
acknowledging a program of “extraordinary rendition,” or abducting terrorism
suspects outside the United States, the Bush administration claims that no
one is sent to nations that torture. “I found him wasted, skinny
- so skinny - his hair had turned white, he had a hearing aid,” Ms. Nabila
said, recounting her husband’s condition between prison stays in 2004. Wearing a veil that revealed
only her eyes, Ms. Nabila at first said she “didn’t want to talk about” any
abuse against her husband in prison. But advised by prosecutors that she had
no choice, she told the court in tears: “He was tied up like he was being
crucified. He was beat up, especially around his ears. He was subjected to
electroshocks to many body parts.” “To his genitals?” the
prosecutors asked. “Yes,” she replied. The Bush administration has
not commented on whether it was responsible for the disappearance of Mr.
Nasr, who was abducted near the Jenner Street mosque here in Milan in
February 2003. He was finally released in 2007. Last year, an Italian prosecutor
brought charges against 26 Americans - 25 Central Intelligence Agency operatives
and one Air Force colonel - in the first case involving the contentious
practice of extraordinary rendition. None of the Americans are
now in Italy, and the United States has said it will not extradite them. But
the case is still likely to reveal many details about a program shrouded in
secrecy. And last month, the case
took on greater significance here in Italy: Mr. Berlusconi, who was prime
minister at the time of Mr. Nasr’s disappearance, was re-elected; any
revelations about his or his aides’ complicity could damage his new
government. Last year, Italy indicted
the 26 Americans, citing a trail of incriminating cellphone exchanges
intercepted by Italian prosecutors in the days before Mr. Nasr’s abduction. Far more vulnerable, though,
are more than a half dozen high-level officers of Italy’s secret service who
have also been indicted, all accused of in some way approving, masterminding
or carrying out the kidnapping plan. The Italian government has
tried to block the prosecution or at least to limit embarrassing revelations
by claiming that some or much of the evidence is classified or privileged
information that could endanger national security. For example, the Italians
said that overzealous prosecutors should not have intercepted the C.I.A.
operatives’ phone calls. A constitutional court is to on this issue on July
8, although it has failed to meet previous deadlines. But the Milan prosecutor,
Armando Spataro, has vowed to press on, noting that even if some documents
are inadmissible, there are many levels of proof. “We have the maximum respect
for the constitutional court, but we don’t think any decision it makes will
stop this trial from going forwards,” he said Wednesday during a break. One of the documents in
question has been introduced by the defense lawyers for Nicolò Pollari,
former director of Sismi, Italy’s military intelligence agency, in an attempt
to clear his name. It would presumably show that he, at least, was unaware of
the kidnapping plan, or even actively opposed it. Mr. Pollari’s lawyers claim
that Mr. Berlusconi and his predecessor, Romano Prodi, have information that
would clear Mr. Pollari’s name. On Wednesday, Judge Oscar Magi, presiding
over the trial in a cramped, airless courtroom here, ruled they would have to
testify if called. Many members of Italy’s law
enforcement agencies were furious about the kidnapping. They say they could
have arrested Mr. Nasr at any time and had long had him under surveillance
for potential connections with terrorists. They say his clumsy and illegal
kidnapping erased years of police work that had put them on the verge of
gaining valuable information about Muslim groups in Italy. On Wednesday, defense
lawyers tried to counter Ms. Nabila’s testimony, portraying her as an
unreliable witness. She and her husband now live in Cairo with their
3-month-old child and are supported by Mr. Nasr’s family. After Wednesday’s session,
Titta Madia, a defense lawyer for Mr. Pollari, said that Ms. Nabila’s form of
heavily veiled dress indicated an “unreliable witness” since it was “an
expression of an extreme Islam,” moved by “a deep hatred of Americans and
toward the Western world.” For example, Ms. Nabila
testified that after Mr. Nasr’s 14 months in the Toran prison in Cairo, he
was repeatedly released by judges and re-arrested by the police, before being
finally released for good in February 2007. She said that during the extended
period of repeated detentions, her husband had told her that his Egyptian
interrogators offered him American citizenship and payments of $1 million if
he would cooperate. When asked a series of
questions about a home computer that was ultimately confiscated by the
Italian police long after Mr. Nasr’s disappearance, she said he had no memory
of the events. Daniele Pinto contributed
reporting. External link: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/15/world/europe/15italy.html |