CIA in the dock

Italy greets Bush with trial

US President George W. Bush's visit to Italy today is overshadowed by the trial that began on Friday in the kidnapping and smuggling of Egyptian Imam Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, known as Abu Umar, from Italy . In February 2003, he was captured in Milan and transported to Egypt, where he was tortured into confessing his ties to al-Qaeda. He was released from prison earlier this year.

Charges of kidnapping have been brought against seven Italian military intelligence (SISMI) employees and 26 Americans, 25 of whom, as the investigation has established, are CIA agents. They left Italy and are being tried in absentia; the United States does not want to hear about their extradition . Among the Italian defendants is the former head of SISMI Nicolo Pollari, who was dismissed in November 2006.

The name of Abu Umar surfaced in connection with the investigation launched by the European Union in November 2006 into the illegal movement and detention of foreign citizens suspected of terrorism. The kidnappings were handled by the CIA . At the same time, information appeared about secret CIA prisons in a number of EU countries, including Romania and Poland, whose governments denied this.

The CIA previously denied it in every possible way, but in September President Bush admitted that his intelligence agencies used secret prisons, without specifying in which countries they were located. He also admitted the CIA's involvement in the secret transfer of 14 terrorist suspects to the US base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

On Friday, Dick Marty, a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from Switzerland, revealed new facts about CIA covert operations in Eastern Europe. His report, “On secret detention centers and prisoner transfers in member states of the Council of Europe,” includes evidence of illegal detention, based in part on the testimony of former and current intelligence officers in Europe and the United States, as well as on new analysis of data from the international system registration of air transportation.

The report notes that from 2003 to 2005, the CIA operated covert centers in Poland and Romania with the approval of the presidents of both countries as part of the October 4, 2001, U.S.-NATO agreement. This allowed the CIA to use European airspace.

Citing anonymous sources in the CIA, the Swiss parliamentarian reports that the main suspects of involvement in the leadership of the international terrorist organization Al-Qaeda, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abu Zubeida, were detained and interrogated in Poland. Those arrested were taken to the airports of Szymani in Poland and Timisoara in Romania. The report notes that CIA prisoners were transported to Poland and Romania from Afghanistan, Morocco, and the Emirates. Dick Marty claims Romania's admission to NATO in 2004 was a "prize" for the country's involvement in CIA covert operations.

The data of the Swiss parliamentarian is confirmed by other international investigations. Recently, six non-governmental organizations, including Amnesty International, published their report on CIA prisons. There, Americans face claims of human rights violations. It is alleged that 39 people from Egypt, Spain, Kenya, Libya, Morocco and Pakistan have disappeared in secret US prisons. Their whereabouts remain unknown.

Victor VOLODIN, Ivan SOLOVIEV