Former Italy Spy Boss Wants Rice Testimony in Abduction Case

[babylonsister]

Former Italy Spy Boss Wants Rice Testimony in Abduction Case

By Jeff Stein | September 24, 2008 5:22 PM

Italy's former spy chief, on trial for participating with the CIA in the abduction of a Muslim cleric, says he wants Condoleezza Rice to testify in the case.

Niccolo Pollari, former head of the Italian military intelligence service SISMI, and eight other Italians participated in the 2003 "extraordinary rendition" of an al Qaeda suspect known as Abu Omar, prosecutors allege. They say Pollari worked with U.S. agents to snatch Omar, whose real name is Hassan Mustafa Omar Nasr, off a Milan street and whisk him to Egypt for interrogation.

Pollari says he wants Rice, the current U.S. secretary of state and U.S. national security adviser in 2003, to testify for him as a defense witness, the Italian news agency ANSA reported Wednesday.

Rice green-lighted the "black op" to snatch Abu Omar, according to a March 2007 story by a freelance reporter working on a book about the case. The State Department did not respond to a query on the matter.

The U.S. Department of Justice has ignored requests from Italian authorities for documents related to the trial-in-absentia of 26 Americans, all but one CIA agents, on charges of kidnapping Omar, SpyTalk reported on Monday, Sept. 22.

Omar, who is now free and remains in Egypt, claims he was tortured and has shown visiting journalists extensive scars on his body.

The Italian prosecutor trying the case, Armando Spataro, has repeatedly asked the Justice Department for information on, and to serve summons on, the charged Americans.

But every request has been denied, according to Italian law enforcement sources.

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http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/spytalk/2008/09/update-former-italy-spy-boss-w.html