Keeping in line with
previous reports from New Yorker Columnist Sy Hersh, who stated that his sources had revealed to him the existence of a "Special Access" group of U.S. military personnel who have been traveling around the world and kidnapping suspected terrorist for interrogation, an Italian Judge has called for the arrest of 14 CIA agents for doing exactly what Hersh described before the November Election.
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Italy Judge Orders Arrest of 13 CIA Agents By AIDAN LEWIS, Associated Press Writer
(AP Photo/Luca Bruno) Muslims pray on the sidewalk next to the Islamic center of Milan during the traditional Friday prayer, Friday, Oct. 19, 2001.
Italian judge Chiara Nobile has ordered the arrest of 13 CIA agents for allegedly helping to abduct the Egyptian-born imam of the center Abu Omar in February 2003, and fly him to Egypt as part of U.S. anti-terrorism efforts, an Italian official familiar with the investigation, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Friday, June 24, 2005.
ROME - An Italian judge on Friday ordered the arrests of 13 CIA officers for secretly transporting a Muslim preacher from Italy to Egypt as part of U.S. anti-terrorism efforts - a rare public objection to the practice by a close American ally.
The Egyptian was spirited away in 2003, purportedly as part of the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program in which terror suspects are transferred to third countries without court approval, subjecting them to possible torture.
The arrest warrants were announced Friday by the Milan prosecutor's office, which has called the disappearance a kidnapping and a blow to a terrorism investigation in Italy. The office said the imam was believed to belong to an Islamic terrorist group.
The 13 are accused of seizing Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, known as Abu Omar, on a Milan street on Feb. 17, 2003, and sending him to Egypt, where he reportedly was tortured, Milan prosecutor Manlio Claudio Minale said in a statement.
The U.S. Embassy in Rome and the CIA in Washington declined to comment.
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