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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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May 28th,
2008 - Cellphones Were Crucial to Tracing CIA, Italian Official Testifies |
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Cellphones Were Crucial to Tracing
CIA, Italian Official Testifies By Associated Press May 28, 2008 Milan - A top anti-terrorism
official told an Italian court Wednesday that investigators had reconstructed
the alleged CIA kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric in Milan by tracing
cellphones used by Americans. Bruno Megale, the head of
Milan's anti-terrorism police, identified 17 cellphone numbers in use by U.S.
citizens that he said were active and present in the area where the cleric
was kidnapped. The abduction was allegedly part of the CIA's so-called
extraordinary rendition program, in which terror suspects have been moved
from country to country without public legal proceedings.. Megale testified during the
trial of 26 Americans and others in the kidnapping of Osama Moutafa Hassan
Nasr, the cleric also known as Abu Omar, on Feb. 17, 2003. He said investigators had
been able to initially identify 11 cellphones in close contact with each
other during the two hours surrounding Nasr's disappearance. They used
software to identify traffic patterns, Megale said. "We saw strong
anomalies. Eleven users were in strong contact with each other," Megale
said. "The telephone calls got more intense closer to the time of Abu
Omar's kidnapping." By further analyzing
traffic, investigators identified a total of 17 cellphones deployed in the
operation in Milan - one group around the area of the kidnapping and another
group closer to the highway that appeared to be the transfer unit, Megale
said. "From noon on Feb. 17
we find that there are 17 people who were working in close cooperation,"
he told the court. "There is no other explanation." Further analysis enlarged
the number to 33 cellphones used also by members of an advance team that
organized the abduction and other aspects of the operation, Megale testified. Megale said investigators
believed that U.S. citizens used the 17 cellphones identified in the
investigation. He said all were activated between September and October 2002
and all went inactive around the time of the kidnapping. Many had been
present around the area of the kidnapping multiple times - with one user
showing up 95 times, he said. "They were used by
Americans because some of these telephones called American numbers,"
Megale said. Some of the cellphones also
called a number that the counterterrorism unit chief said belonged to Robert
Seldon Lady, the former Milan CIA station chief who is one of the defendants
in the case. External link: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/28/europe/italy.php |