ROME, July 1, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Italy denied any prior knowledge or involvement in the kidnapping of a Muslim imam by the CIA agents and summoned the American ambassador in Rome to provide an explanation on the operation.
"This operation was never brought to the attention of the republic," Minister for Parliamentary Relations, Carlo Giovanardi, was quoted as telling the Italian Senate Thursday, June 30, by Agence France Presse (AFP).
"It is out of the question that an operation of this type would have been authorized (by the Italian government) and that the Italian secret services had played any part."
The mass-circulation Washington Post said Friday, July 1, that the CIA station chief in Rome had briefed and sought approval from his counterpart in Italy before the kidnapping of the Muslim imam. The daily said it obtained information from four CIA veterans, three of whom had knowledge of the operation.
Osama Mustafa Hassan Nasr, the former imam of a Milan mosque, was abducted February 17, 2003 as he was walking from home to mosque and bundled into a white van.
The Muslim preacher, also known as Abu Omar, was then moved to the US military base at Aviano in northern Italy, and from there to an Egyptian jail.
According to Italian court documents, police and prosecutors in Milan identified 19 Americans, four of them women, suspected of playing a role in the abduction.
Summoning
Following news reports on Italy’s involvement in the abduction of the imam, the Italian government summoned US ambassador Mel Sembler to discuss the issue.
"Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has summoned the American ambassador in Italy to clarify the affair of the Imam Abu Omar," Giovanardi said, adding that the ambassador would meet Berlusconi Friday.
According to court documents filed in Milan, investigators found no evidence that the Italian government or Italian authorities were aware of the kidnapping beforehand, the Post said.
An Italian law enforcement official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the political sensitivity of the case, told the Post that if the United States did not provide evidence of the Italian government's involvement, it would be difficult for the Milan court to confirm the four CIA veterans' assertions on Rome’s advance knowledge of the operation.
Italian prosecutors believe the agents kidnapped the imam as part of the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program, which allows the transfer of suspects to third countries without court approval.
The CIA has kept details of rendition cases a closely guarded secret, but has defended the controversial practice as an effective and legal way to prevent terrorism.
Full Account
Italian legislators have been pressing the government for weeks to provide a full account of whether it knew anything about the kidnapping of the imam.
Many say that they don't believe the government had no knowledge about the kidnapping operation, the Washington Post said.
"Obviously, they cannot admit this because it violates the constitution, Italian laws and international treaties," said Luigi Malabarba, leader of the Communist Refoundation Party and a member of the parliamentary committee that oversees the Italian secret services, according to the Agenzia Giornalistica Europa news service.
Tana De Zuleta, an opposition member of the Senate, also said the government needed to do more to persuade the Italian public it was unaware of the kidnapping.
"The silence is what is disconcerting," she told the Washington Post in a telephone interview from Rome.
"We're calling on the government to prove that they were really not complicit, by expressing, if nothing else, their indignation and disappointment."
On June 24, Italian authorities have ordered the arrest of 13 CIA agents accused of kidnapping the Muslim imam.
The case marks the first known instance of a foreign government filing criminal charges against US operatives for their alleged role in an overseas mission.
Renditions were first authorized by US President Ronald Reagan in 1986 and used by the Clinton administration to transfer drug lords and terrorists to the US or other countries for military or criminal trials.
US President George Bush has strongly defended such transfers as “vital to the nation's defense”.
Since 9/11, the CIA has rendered more than 100 people from one country to another, usually with well-documented records of abuse, without legal proceedings, an operation known as rendition, The Washington Post reported last March.