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Abu Omar case

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Abduction and transfer to Egypt of Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr

Image from the CIA's surveillance of Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr (Abu Omar) recovered during investigations by the prosecuting authority of Milan[1]

The Abu Omar case was the abduction and transfer to Egypt of the imam of Milan Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar. The case became one of the best-documented instances of extraordinary rendition carried out in a joint operation by the United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Italian Military Intelligence and Security Service (SISMI) during the war on terror declared by the George W. Bush administration.

Nasr was abducted on February 17, 2003, in Milan by agents of SISMI and the CIA,[1] and transported to Aviano Air Base, from which he was flown to Egypt. There he was imprisoned for four years without charges, secluded, interrogated, and, according to journalist Glenn Greenwald, tortured by the Mubarak regime.[2][3]

The CIA operation interrupted an Italian surveillance program investigating Nasr's alleged participation in Islamist organizations. Despite the disruption, Abu Omar was indicted on international terrorism charges in Italy in 2005.[4] The Italian government initially denied any role in the abduction, though the Italian press described a "CIA–SISMI concerted operation." Nasr was released by an Egyptian court in February 2007, which ruled his detention "unfounded."

Italian prosecutors Armando Spataro and Ferdinando Pomarici indicted 26 CIA agents, including Rome station chief Jeffrey W. Castelli and Milan chief of base Robert Seldon Lady, as well as SISMI director General Nicolò Pollari, his deputy Marco Mancini, and station chiefs Raffaele Ditroia, Luciano Di Gregori, and Giuseppe Ciorra.[5] Prosecutors requested extradition of the indicted Americans through Italy's Ministry of Justice, then headed by Roberto Castelli, who declined to forward the request to Washington.

The case caused controversy inside the CIA after it became public in 2005.[6] CIA director Porter J. Goss ordered the agency's inspector general to review the operation,[6] but Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., then head of the National Clandestine Service, halted that review and said the service would investigate itself.[6] In 2009, Robert Seldon Lady said, "I'm not guilty. I'm only responsible for carrying out orders that I received from my superiors."[7] CIA officer Sabrina De Sousa, sentenced to five years, said the United States "broke the law ... and we are paying for the mistakes right now."[8]

On February 12, 2013, Milan's Court of Appeal sentenced former SISMI director Pollari, his deputy Mancini, former Rome CIA station chief Castelli, and two other CIA employees to up to ten years in prison.[9] Pollari appealed to Italy's Supreme Court of Cassation; on February 24, 2014, following a ruling by the Constitutional Court of Italy on the use of secret evidence, the court acquitted Pollari and Mancini.

Background

Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr

Abu Omar and his lawyer Montasser el-Zayat in Cairo

Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr (Arabic: حسن مصطفى أسامة نصر, Ḥassan Muṣṭafā Usāmah Naṣr; born March 18, 1963), known as Abu Omar, is an Egyptian cleric. In 2003 he was living in Milan, from where he was kidnapped and later tortured in Egypt.[10] The case led to Italian criminal convictions, in absentia, of 22 CIA operatives, a U.S. Air Force colonel, two Italian accomplices, and Nasr himself.[11]

Nasr belonged to al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, an organization once dedicated to overthrowing the Egyptian government that renounced violence following the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état.[12] The group was tied to the 1981 assassination of Anwar Sadat and a 1990s terrorist campaign culminating in the November 1997 Luxor massacre, leading the United States and European Union to designate it a terrorist organization.[13] After Egypt outlawed the group, Nasr sought asylum in Italy, having earlier fought in the Bosnian War during the 1990s. On February 11, 2007, his lawyer Montasser el-Zayat confirmed that Nasr had been released and reunited with his family,[14] after an Egyptian court found his four-year detention "unfounded."[15]

Surveillance and investigation

Nasr fled Egypt after al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya was designated a terrorist organization and was granted political asylum in Italy in 2001, holding an Italian asylum passport. From spring 2002, Italian and American intelligence agencies surveilled him through wiretaps and electronic monitoring. Italian authorities said they believed Nasr was building a network to recruit terrorists with possible links to Al-Qaeda, including Ansar al-Islam and networks sending fighters into Iraqi Kurdistan.[16] Citing reporting by Jason Burke of The Observer, the Italian newspaper La Repubblica argued in June 2005 that the Abu Omar case fit into a broader pattern of intelligence and information operations the Bush and Blair governments used to justify the invasion of Iraq.[17][18][19] Some reports also alleged Nasr was involved in plots against the U.S. embassy in Rome and against children of foreign diplomats at the American School of Milan, though sources disagreed on whether such plots existed.[20]

Abduction and rendition

On February 17, 2003, Nasr was abducted as he walked to noon prayers at his mosque in Milan.[21] According to court documents, he was forced into a minivan on Via Giuseppe Guerzoni and driven four to five hours to the joint Italian–U.S. air base at Aviano, where he was tortured.[17] He was then flown by a Learjet using the call sign SPAR 92 to Ramstein Air Base in Germany. German prosecutors opened an investigation into false imprisonment and coercion but dropped it after failing to identify the CIA agents involved.[22][23] SPAR ("Special Priority Air Resource") is a call sign used for U.S. military and VIP transport.[24][25] A second flight took Nasr to Cairo, where he says he was imprisoned and tortured.[26]

In April 2004, while under house arrest, Nasr telephoned family and friends and described being held by Egypt's State Security Intelligence at Tura prison, about twenty miles south of Cairo.[27] He said he had been beaten, subjected to electric shocks, and raped, and eventually lost hearing in one ear.[28][19] He was briefly released by order of an Egyptian judge for lack of evidence but was soon rearrested. Nasr was not freed again until February 11, 2007. In 2006 his lawyer, Montasser el-Zayat, said Nasr appeared underfed but showed "no signs of torture."[29]

Investigation and arrest warrants

Milan police reconstructed the movements of the CIA team during the nine days it operated in the city using extensive cellphone records, since the agents apparently never removed their phone batteries. The agents also placed numerous calls to the U.S. consulate in Milan, to Northern Virginia (home of CIA headquarters), and to family in the United States. The operation was led by Robert Seldon Lady, then CIA base chief in Milan operating under diplomatic cover as U.S. consul, and was carried out by the CIA's Special Activities Division.[26] Lady later said he had opposed the abduction but was overruled;[30] after retiring from the CIA, his diplomatic immunity status became uncertain.[31]

In December 2005, CIA director Porter Goss ordered a review of the agency's field operations, citing what he called the "sloppiness" of the Milan rendition.[32] In June 2005, Italian judge Guido Salvini issued arrest warrants for 22 people identified as CIA agents or operatives, including Jeffrey W. Castelli, and for Nasr himself on charges of association with terrorists.[21] Salvini found the abduction illegal because it violated Italian sovereignty and international law and had disrupted an ongoing police investigation. In November 2005, Italian prosecutors asked the Justice Ministry to seek extradition of the suspects; the government declined. On December 20, 2005, an Italian court issued European arrest warrants for 22 CIA agents, including Lady, Eliana Castaldo, and Lieutenant Colonel Joseph L. Romano III.[33][34] Some names on the warrants may have been pseudonyms; reporters were unable to confirm the identity of "Eliana Castaldo" through the phone number listed in the affidavit.[35]

A "concerted CIA–SISMI operation"

The abduction took place without the knowledge of Italian officials working directly on the Nasr investigation, who initially suspected Egyptian involvement. American counterparts told Italian investigators that Nasr had voluntarily traveled to the Balkans.[19] Italian minister Carlo Giovanardi told parliament that Italy's intelligence services had not known of the operation, but former CIA officials said the agency had secured consent from SISMI, and that Rome station chief Castelli had received explicit permission from his Italian counterpart.[26]

Investigators noted that the CIA team made little effort to conceal its movements: most stayed in Milan's best hotels for days afterward, few used aliases, and members used their real passports, credit cards, and cellphones both before and after the operation, later speeding in Milan traffic. Some observers took this as evidence of Italian complicity.[26] On July 5, 2006, two senior Italian intelligence officers, Marco Mancini and Gustavo Pignero, were arrested for their roles in the kidnapping — the first official acknowledgment of Italian involvement.[36] Italian wiretaps recorded Mancini admitting he had lied about his involvement.[36] Former SISMI Milan chief Colonel Stefano D'Ambrosio said he was removed from his post, and replaced by Mancini, after objecting to the plot.[36]

Prosecutors Spataro and Pomarici described the operation as a joint effort by Italian and American agents aimed at the "capture" and "secret transfer" of Nasr to Egypt.[37] Analysts cited a November 2005 Washington Post article by Dana Priest describing joint U.S.–foreign intelligence facilities in more than two dozen countries used to track terrorism suspects, though Italy was reportedly excluded from that network due to rivalries among its own intelligence agencies.[38] Testimony indicated Mancini had proposed himself to the CIA as a source, and that his career benefited from close ties to the agency, including a 2003 letter from CIA director George Tenet to Pollari.[37][39]

Trial

In April 2006, outgoing justice minister Roberto Castelli told prosecutors he would not forward the U.S. extradition request. Following the July 2006 arrests of Mancini and Pignero, SISMI director Pollari resigned in November 2006 and was indicted that December. Ultimately, twenty-six Americans and nine Italians — including Pollari, Mancini, Pignero, and carabinieri officer Giuliano Pironi — were indicted.[40] The proceedings were the first criminal trial concerning U.S. extraordinary rendition practices.[30] Opening arguments, initially set for June 8, 2007, were delayed until October pending a Constitutional Court ruling on whether prosecutors had violated state secrecy laws by using wiretaps of Italian agents.[41]

Two Italian defendants reached plea deals: Pironi, who admitted checking Nasr's identity papers during the abduction, received a suspended sentence, and journalist Renato Farina, an SISMI collaborator since 1999, received a fine.[15] Mancini told prosecutors he had acted on orders relayed from Castelli through General Pignero to Pollari, and described organizing a planning meeting in Bologna.[42] Prosecutor Spataro also uncovered a Rome office linked to SISMI dedicated to secret operations, including surveillance of journalists covering the case for La Repubblica.[42]

General Pignero, in a secretly recorded conversation, said Pollari had ordered surveillance of Nasr in preparation for his abduction.[42] Pollari, questioned by prosecutors in mid-2006, invoked state secrecy, a position upheld by the Romano Prodi government.[42] Spataro later obtained a SISMI document showing the agency had been told by the CIA in May 2003 that Nasr was being interrogated in Cairo.[42]

Because U.S. extradition was considered unlikely, the American defendants were expected to be tried in absentia. In February 2007, justice minister Clemente Mastella had not acted on the extradition request; infrastructure minister Antonio Di Pietro criticized the delay as effectively "covering" an illegal kidnapping.[43] After his release, Nasr filed a €10 million damages claim against former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.[40][44] The Prodi government challenged prosecutor Spataro before the Constitutional Court, arguing the wiretaps had exposed the identities of 85 Italian and foreign intelligence officers, and said it would await that ruling before deciding on extradition.[43]

Convictions

On November 4, 2009, an Italian judge convicted 22 suspected CIA agents, a U.S. Air Force colonel, and two Italian secret agents — the first convictions anywhere in a case involving CIA extraordinary rendition.[45][46][47][48] Robert Seldon Lady received eight years; other Americans, including Sabrina De Sousa and Lieutenant Colonel Joseph L. Romano, received five years each.[48][49] Each convicted defendant was ordered to pay Nasr €1 million and his wife €500,000.[50] Three Americans — including former Rome CIA station chief Castelli and two other diplomats — along with Pollari and four other Italian agents were acquitted on grounds of diplomatic immunity.[51]

Most Italian defendants were tried in absentia, and the 23 convicted Americans risked arrest if they traveled to Europe.[48] The U.S. State Department expressed disappointment,[49] and Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said the U.S. would explore its options after the court declined to move Romano's case to the United States.[49] Berlusconi denied any knowledge of the operation and criticized the trial.[49]

In September 2012, Italy's Supreme Court of Cassation upheld the convictions.[52] On February 13, 2013, the Milan Court of Appeals sentenced Pollari to ten years and awarded €1.5 million in damages to Nasr and his wife; Mancini received nine years, and Castelli, tried in absentia, received seven, along with two other CIA employees. Pollari appealed to the Supreme Court of Cassation. In July 2013, Lady was briefly detained in Panama at Italy's request before being released to fly to the United States.[53]

In December 2013, Nasr himself was convicted in absentia of terrorism offenses predating his abduction; Egypt did not respond to Italian extradition or interview requests, and Nasr remains in Egypt.[11][54][55] De Sousa was detained in Lisbon in October 2015 pending extradition; a 2017 partial pardon from Italy's president reduced her sentence to community service, precluding extradition.[56] Her original sentence had already been reduced under a 2006 amnesty.[57] A Portuguese extradition order against her was upheld on appeal in April 2016.[58][59] In February 2016, the European Court of Human Rights ordered Italy to pay €115,000 in damages to Nasr and his wife, Nabila Ghali.[54]

Political context

The disclosure of the affair shortly before Italy's general election embarrassed the third Berlusconi government.[31] Acknowledging foreknowledge would have implicated one branch of government undermining another; denying it would suggest a serious lapse allowing foreign agents to operate freely in Italy.[26] Berlusconi initially said he doubted CIA involvement and suggested it would have been justified regardless, reportedly remarking that terrorism could not be fought "with a law book in your hand," and later warned the trial would cost Italy the cooperation of foreign intelligence services.[31][15]

The case also exposed broader SISMI surveillance of Italian magistrates and journalists critical of the Berlusconi governments, reportedly conducted with help from reporters at Libero; the newspaper's offices were raided by police in July 2006.[36] Leaked diplomatic cables published in 2010 showed U.S. officials pressing Italy to prevent the indictments, with Berlusconi telling U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates that Italy's judiciary was "dominated by leftists."[60]

CIA chief of base's public comments

In June 2009, Robert Seldon Lady told Il Giornale: "I'm not guilty. I'm only responsible for carrying out orders that I received from my superiors."[7] He described the matter as a "state matter" outside his personal responsibility, saying he consoled himself with having been "a soldier ... in a war against terrorism."[7] His retirement villa was later seized by Italian magistrates to cover court costs.[7] He was briefly arrested in Panama in July 2013 on an international warrant before being released.[61][62]

See also

Similar cases

References

  1. ^ a b "Foto della Cia svela il sequestro dell'imam", Corriere della Sera, November 12, 2005.
  2. ^ Glenn Greenwald, "Italy's ex-intelligence chief given 10-year sentence for role in CIA kidnapping", The Guardian, February 13, 2013.
  3. ^ "I pm di Milano: arrestate gli agenti della Cia", Corriere della Sera, June 24, 2005.
  4. ^ "Corriere della Sera – "Arrestate l'ex imam rapito dalla Cia"". Corriere.it. Retrieved September 10, 2013.
  5. ^ "Rapimento Abu Omar, a giudizio l'ex capo del Sismi Nicolò Pollari", La Repubblica, February 16, 2007.
  6. ^ a b c Mazzetti, Mark; Shane, Scott (February 20, 2008). "Tape Inquiry: Ex-Spymaster in the Middle". The New York Times. Retrieved May 5, 2010.
  7. ^ a b c d "U.S. spy says just followed orders in Italy kidnap". Reuters. June 30, 2009.
  8. ^ Matthew Cole, Avni Patel, and Brian Ross, "Exclusive: Convicted CIA Spy Says 'We Broke the Law'", ABC News, October 4, 2009.
  9. ^ "Italian ex-spy chief gets 10 years in CIA case". Reuters. February 12, 2013.
  10. ^ "CIA agents guilty of Italy kidnap". BBC News. November 4, 2009. Retrieved November 4, 2009.
  11. ^ a b "Italy convicts abducted Egypt cleric Abu Omar", BBC News, December 6, 2013.
  12. ^ "Jama'a al-Islamiya rejects Assem Abdel Magued". Egypt Independent. December 5, 2013. Retrieved December 6, 2013.
  13. ^ "Council Decision of 21 December 2005" (PDF). Council of the European Union. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 12, 2012.
  14. ^ "Egypt releases 'rendition' cleric", BBC, February 12, 2007.
  15. ^ a b c "Italy indicts 31 linked to CIA rendition case," International Herald Tribune, February 16, 2007.
  16. ^ "Who is Abu Omar? Extracts from the Italian Police Surveillance Tapes". World Politics Review. Archived from the original on June 13, 2008.
  17. ^ a b "L'imam rapito a Milano dalla Cia", La Repubblica, June 28, 2005.
  18. ^ Adam Liptak, "Experts Say Trial Unlikely for CIA Operatives," The New York Times, June 27, 2005.
  19. ^ a b c Stephen Grey and Don Van Natta Jr., "In Italy, Anger at U.S. Tactics Colors Spy Case", The New York Times, June 26, 2005.
  20. ^ John Crewdson and Tom Hundley, "Abducted imam aided CIA ally in war on terror," Chicago Tribune, July 2, 2005.
  21. ^ a b "Auditions sur le rapt d'un imam par la CIA," Le Figaro, February 24, 2006.
  22. ^ Frederik Obermaier and Paul-Anton Krüger, "Millionen Schuss Munition für Kalaschnikows," Süddeutsche Zeitung, September 20, 2017.
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  24. ^ John Hooper, "CIA methods exposed by kidnap inquiry", The Guardian, July 2, 2005.
  25. ^ "US military planes criss-cross Europe using bogus call sign," The Sunday Times, February 19, 2006.
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  27. ^ "Parla l'avvocato di Abu Omar". Repubblica.it. October 17, 2006. Retrieved September 10, 2013.
  28. ^ "Abu Omar: 'In Egitto fui stuprato, Berlusconi lo sappia,'" La Repubblica.
  29. ^ "Abducted imam seeks return to Italy," ANSA, April 7, 2006.
  30. ^ a b "Italy orders CIA kidnapping trial," BBC, 2007.
  31. ^ a b c Tracy Wilkinson, "Court Widens Net for 22 CIA Agents to EU", Los Angeles Times, December 24, 2005.
  32. ^ John Crewdson, "The CIA's bungled Italy Job," Chicago Tribune, December 25, 2005.
  33. ^ "Italy warrants for 22 purported CIA operatives," CNN, 2005.
  34. ^ "Milan tribunal document" (PDF). Statewatch. June 22, 2005.
  35. ^ Greg Miller. "Shades of Cover". Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved October 4, 2016.
  36. ^ a b c d Tracy Wilkinson, "Italian Probe Broadens Beyond Abduction", Los Angeles Times, July 7, 2006.
  37. ^ a b Paolo Biondani and Guido Olimpio, "Un centro segreto Cia-Sismi," Corriere della Sera, July 11, 2006.
  38. ^ Dana Priest, "Foreign Network at Front of CIA's Terror Fight", The Washington Post, November 18, 2005.
  39. ^ "E il Sismi tese la mano ai nemici della Cia," Corriere della Sera, October 31, 2005.
  40. ^ a b "Rapt d'un imam à Milan: la CIA va devoir s'expliquer," Libération, February 16, 2007.
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  42. ^ a b c d e European Parliament, Temporary Committee on the Alleged Use of European Countries by the CIA for the Transport and Illegal Detention of Prisoners, rapporteur Claudio Fava, February 7, 2007.
  43. ^ a b "Italie: les vols secrets de la CIA face aux juges," Libération, February 17, 2007.
  44. ^ "La justice italienne prépare le procès des vols de la CIA," Le Monde, February 17, 2007.
  45. ^ "CIA agents guilty of Italy kidnap," BBC, November 4, 2009.
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  47. ^ "Italy Convicts 23 Americans for C.I.A. Renditions," The New York Times, November 4, 2009.
  48. ^ a b c "Italian judge convicts 23 in CIA kidnap case," NBC News/AP, November 5, 2009.
  49. ^ a b c d Daniel Flynn, "FACTBOX: Italy convicts 23 Americans in CIA rendition case," Reuters, November 4, 2009.
  50. ^ Colleen Barry, "Italy convicts Air Force O-6 in CIA kidnap case," Military Times, November 4, 2009.
  51. ^ Ian Shapira, "Kidnapping unravels a spy's career", The Washington Post, July 12, 2012.
  52. ^ "Italy upholds verdict on CIA agents in rendition case," BBC, September 19, 2012.
  53. ^ "Panama releases former CIA operative wanted by Italy," The Washington Post, July 20, 2013.
  54. ^ a b "European court censures Italy over CIA 'abduction,'" BBC, February 23, 2016.
  55. ^ "Italy: Egyptian Cleric Convicted," AP/The New York Times, December 7, 2013.
  56. ^ "Ex-CIA officer pardoned for role in 2003 kidnapping of terrorism suspect," The Guardian, February 28, 2017.
  57. ^ "Rapimento di Abu Omar: concessa la grazia parziale all'ex agente Cia Sabrina De Sousa," Corriere della Sera, February 28, 2017.
  58. ^ Raphael Minder, "Portugal to Extradite Ex-C.I.A. Agent to Italy in Rendition Case", The New York Times, January 15, 2016.
  59. ^ "Supremo rejeita recurso contra extradição de ex-agente da CIA detida em Lisboa," SIC Notícias, April 11, 2016.
  60. ^ John Goetz and Matthias Gebauer, "US Pressured Italy to Influence Judiciary", Der Spiegel, December 17, 2010.
  61. ^ "Ex-CIA Milan chief held in Panama over cleric abduction," BBC News, July 19, 2013.
  62. ^ "Panama frees ex-CIA official detained in Italy 'rendition' case," NBC News.
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