The evidence led us to believe that the operative group consisted of Americans,” the investigator, Bruno Megale, the head of Milan’s antiterrorism police force, told a packed court. “Some of the phones had called numbers in the United States, some had called the state of Virginia,” where the Central Intelligence Agency has its headquarters. During a courtroom break, the prosecutor, Armando Spataro, suggested that the few steps needed to uncover the American operation could indicate that the people involved felt they had “some sort of impunity,” noting the number of Italian officials also accused in the kidnapping. Mr. Megale spoke on the second day of testimony in the trial of 26 Americans — all but one identified as C.I.A. operatives — charged in the disappearance of the imam, Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, known as Abu Omar, as part of the contentious American program of “extraordinary rendition,” in which terrorism suspects are kidnapped on foreign soil. In this case, the Americans are accused of whisking Mr. Nasr to his native Egypt, where he claims he was repeatedly beaten and tortured.
Appunti di un anonimo italiano
29/5/2008
