For the Imam and Telekom

Italy's head of military intelligence fired

There are major changes in the Italian intelligence services. Yesterday, the head of national military intelligence, Nicolo Pollari, was dismissed. The head of the civilian intelligence agency, Mario Mori, as well as Emilio Del Mese, who was responsible for coordinating both departments, also lost his post.

The reason for the purges was accusations of involvement of the top secret services in the abduction in February 2003 of the Egyptian imam Osama Mustafa Hassan, also known as Abu Omar. He was captured in Milan and secretly transported to Egypt, where he was tortured into confessing his links to al-Qaeda. This summer, a number of military intelligence officials admitted that the kidnapping was the result of “active cooperation” between Italian intelligence services and a CIA group secretly operating in the country. The name of Abu Omar surfaced in connection with an investigation in the European Union into the CIA's activities in creating secret prisons outside the United States. This made it possible to interrogate prisoners without fear of violating US laws. Italian investigators suspect Nicolo Pollari of playing an important role in these illegal operations. He refuses to give an explanation, citing state secrets. By the end of November, the prosecutor's office will formally charge him.

“These scandalous resignations are of great importance for Italy, we are talking about significant figures,” Gigi Riva, a columnist for the Italian newspaper Espresso, who conducted his investigation of CIA covert operations in Italy, told Vremya Novostey. He recalled that Nicolo Pollari reached the peak of influence during the premiership of Silvio Berlusconi, who lost the parliamentary elections in April of this year. Pollari gained popularity through his efforts to free Italian hostages in Iraq and Afghanistan. "Pollari said he did not know about the kidnapping of the imam, but there is evidence that he worked closely with the CIA in this operation," says Riva.

Under Pollari, top ranks of the Italian intelligence services were also involved in a scandal with documents that stated that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein allegedly purchased uranium oxide from Niger in 2001 to create a nuclear bomb. It was then alleged that the United States received part of this data, which turned out to be unreliable and became the reason for the start of the war in Iraq in 2003, from Italian military intelligence. “There is no information about Mr. Pollari’s personal involvement in the scandal with documents, but there are suspicions,” says Riva.

According to our interlocutor, the name of the chief military intelligence officer also surfaced during the investigation into the circumstances of the purchase by Telecom-Italy of a 29% stake in the state-owned company Telecom-Serbia in 1997. The Italian press claimed that the deal was made possible thanks to a bribe of $700 million to the then Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic. Five years later, the Italian company was forced to sell the purchased shares at half price.

Petr ISKENDEROV