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{{Short description|Abduction and transfer to Egypt of the Imam of Milan Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr}}
[[Image:Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr CIA.jpg|thumb|Image from the CIA's surveillance of Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr recovered during investigations by the prosecuting authority of [[Milan]].<ref name="fotocia">[https://www.corriere.it/Primo_Piano/Esteri/2005/11_Novembre/11/pop_sequestro.shtml "Foto della Cia svela il sequestro dell'imam"], Corriere della Sera, 12 novembre 2005.</ref>]]
The '''Abu Omar Case''' was the abduction and transfer to Egypt of the Imam of Milan [[Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr]], also known as Abu Omar. The case was picked by the international media as one of the better-documented cases of [[Extraordinary rendition by the United States|extraordinary rendition]] carried out in a joint operation by the United States' [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) and the [[
Abu Omar was abducted on February 17, 2003, in Milan by agents of the SISMI and CIA,<ref name="fotocia"/> and transported to the [[Aviano Air Base]], from which he was transferred to Egypt, where he was imprisoned for four years without charges, secluded, interrogated and "brutally tortured by America's long-standing ally, the [[Mubarak regime]]."<ref>Glenn Greenwald: [https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/feb/13/italy-cia-rendition-abu-omar Italy's ex-intelligence chief given 10-year sentence for role in CIA kidnapping], The Guardian, 13 February 2013</ref><ref name="modocia">[http://www.corriere.it/Primo_Piano/Cronache/2005/06_Giugno/24/imam.shtml "I pm di Milano: arrestate gli agenti della Cia"], Corriere della Sera, 24 June 2005.</ref> The CIA operation interrupted a surveillance program that was being carried out by Italian authorities into Nasr's alleged participation in [[
The Italian government originally denied having played any role in the abduction. However, Italian prosecutors Armando Spataro and Ferdinand Enrico Pomarici indicted 26 CIA agents, including the Rome station chief and head of CIA in Italy until 2003, [[Jeffrey W. Castelli]], and Milan chief of base [[Robert Seldon Lady]], as well as
The affair also created controversy within the CIA when the story came to light in 2005.<ref name=NYTtapes>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/20/washington/20intel.html?_r=1&ex=1361163600&en=f22e6b05614d3dbc&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin | work=The New York Times | title=Tape Inquiry: Ex-Spymaster in the Middle | first1=Mark | last1=Mazzetti | first2=Scott | last2=Shane | date=February 20, 2008 | access-date=May 5, 2010}}</ref> [[Porter J. Goss]], the director of the CIA at the time, ordered the agency's independent inspector general to begin a review of the operation.<ref name=NYTtapes /> [[Jose A. Rodriguez Jr.]], then head of the [[National Clandestine Service]] (NCS), stopped the inspector general's review, stating that the NCS would investigate itself.<ref name=NYTtapes />
In June 2009, [[Robert Seldon Lady]], Milan CIA chief of base at the time, said
"I'm not guilty. [[Superior orders|I'm only responsible for carrying out orders that I received from my superiors]]."<ref name="reuters.com">{{cite news| url=https://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE55T3H420090630 | work=Reuters | title=U.S. spy says just followed orders in Italy kidnap | date=June 30, 2009}}</ref> CIA officer [[Sabrina DeSousa]], sentenced to five years in prison, said that the United States "broke the law ... and we are paying for the mistakes right now".<ref>{{cite news |first=Matthew |last=Cole |author2=Patel, Avni |author3=Ross, Brian |title=EXCLUSIVE: Convicted CIA Spy Says "We Broke the Law" |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/exclusive-convicted-cia-spy-broke-law/story?id=8995107 |work=ABC News |date=October 4, 2009 |access-date=October 4, 2009}}</ref>
On February 12, 2013, the Court of Appeal in Milan sentenced former SISMI director [[Nicolò Pollari]], his deputy director [[Marco Mancini]], former Rome CIA station chief Castelli and two other CIA employees to up to 10 years in jail.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-rendition-verdict-idUSBRE91B0OS20130212 | work=Reuters | title=Italian ex-spy chief gets 10 years in CIA case | date=February 12, 2013}}</ref> Pollari has announced he will appeal against this ruling at the [[Corte Suprema di Cassazione]]. On February 24, 2014, the Corte Suprema di Cassazione, following a sentence of the Italian Corte Costituzionale regarding the use of secret evidence in the proceedings, acquitted Pollari and Mancini.
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Hasaan Mustafa Osama Nasr was a radical Egyptian cleric and alleged member of [[al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya]] who had fled Egypt due to that group's prosecution as a terrorist organization by the Egyptian government. He was granted [[political asylum]] in Italy in 2001, and held an Italian [[asylum passport]].
As early as Spring 2002, he was under investigation by Italian and American intelligence agencies by means of [[Telephone tapping|wiretaps]] and physical and [[Covert listening device|electronic surveillance]]. Italian authorities have claimed that they believed that they had evidence Nasr was building a network to recruit terrorists, and possibly had links to [[Al Qaeda]]. They alleged in particular links with [[Ansar al-Islam in Kurdistan|Ansar al-Islam]] and ties to a network sending combatants in the [[Iraqi Kurdistan]].<ref>World Politics Review. [http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/article.aspx?id=2267 Who is Abu Omar? Extracts from the Italian Police Surveillance Tapes] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080613135945/http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/article.aspx?id=2267 |date=2008-06-13 }}</ref>
However, citing a book on Al-Qaeda by [[Jason Burke]], a British reporter at ''[[The Observer]]'',
Most observers have come to believe that Nasr was abducted by the United States as a source of intelligence on foreign combatants being recruited to fight in Iraq, which, at the time, the United States had yet to [[Iraq War|invade]].
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On February 17, 2003, [[Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr]] was abducted by persons affiliated with the CIA as he walked to his mosque in Milan for noon prayers.<ref name="Fig">[http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/20060224.FIG000001516_auditions_sur_le_rapt_d_un_imam_par_la_cia.html Auditions sur le rapt d'un imam par la CIA], ''[[Le Figaro]]'', February 24, 2006 {{in lang|fr}}</ref>
According to court documents, Nasr was pushed into a minivan on Via Giuseppe Guerzoni in Milan and driven four or five hours to a joint Italian-U.S. [[Aviano Air Base|air base at Aviano]], where he was [[torture]]d.<ref name="Repu05"/> From there, he was flown by a [[
In April 2004, while his incarceration had been downgraded to [[house arrest]], Nasr placed several phone calls from Egypt to his family and friends. He told them he had been [[Extraordinary rendition by the United States|rendered]] into the hands of Egypt's [[State Security Intelligence|SSI]] at [[Tura (Egypt)|Tura]] prison, twenty miles south of Cairo.<ref name=republica>{{cite web|url=http://www.repubblica.it/2006/10/sezioni/cronaca/sismi-mancini6/abu-omar-presto-libero/abu-omar-presto-libero.html |title=Parla l'avvocato di Abu Omar "L'imam sarà liberato a giorni" |publisher=Repubblica.it |date=2006-10-17 |access-date=2013-09-10}}</ref> He was subjected to various depredations, tortured by beating and [[electric shock]]s to the genitals, raped,<ref name="repubblica2">[http://www.repubblica.it/news/ired/ultimora/2006/rep_nazionale_n_2099822.html?ref=hpsbdx1 ABU OMAR: "IN EGITTO FUI STUPRATO, BERLUSCONI LO SAPPIA"]{{dead link|date=June 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }},
Nasr was not released again until February 11, 2007, at which time he was permitted to return to his family. After four years of detention, an Egyptian court ruled that his imprisonment was "unfounded."<ref name="ITH31">[[International Herald Tribune]], February 16, 2007, [http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/02/16/europe/EU-GEN-Italy-CIA-Kidnap.php Italy indicts 31 linked to CIA rendition case] {{in lang|en}}</ref>
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The CIA agents were implicated, in part, by extensive cellphone records which allowed Milan police to reconstruct their movements for the nine days they were in the city. Because the agents had apparently not, at any time, removed the batteries from their cellphones, investigators were able to pinpoint their locations from moment to moment. The agents also made numerous phone calls to the US consulate in Milan, to [[northern Virginia]] (where the CIA headquarters are located) and to friends and family in the United States.
The operation was led by [[Robert Seldon Lady]], former CIA chief of base in Milan, who was then operating out of the U.S. embassy under diplomatic cover as the "Consul of the United States in Milan." The operation was carried out by the CIA's [[Special Activities Division]].<ref name="italydidntknow"/> Lady has said that he opposed the abduction plans, but was overruled.<ref name="italyorders">BBC. (2007). [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6368269.stm "Italy orders CIA kidnapping trial"]. ''BBC.com'', February 16, 2007.</ref> Lady has since retired from
In December 2005, [[Director of the Central Intelligence Agency|CIA Director]] [[Porter Goss]] ordered a sweeping review of the agency's field operations because of what he perceived as the Milan rendition's "sloppiness".<ref name="bungledjob">Crewdson, J. (2005). [https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/948035881.html?dids=948035881:948035881&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Dec+25%2C+2005&author=John+Crewdson%2C+Tribune+senior+correspondent&pub=Chicago+Tribune&edition=&startpage=1&desc=CIA%27s+bungled+Italy+job+ "The CIA's bungled Italy Job"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930224108/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/948035881.html?dids=948035881%3A948035881&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS%3AFT&type=current&date=Dec+25%2C+2005&author=John+Crewdson%2C+Tribune+senior+correspondent&pub=Chicago+Tribune&edition=&startpage=1&desc=CIA%27s+bungled+Italy+job+ |date=2007-09-30 }}. ''Chicago Tribune'', December 25, 2005.</ref>
In June 2005, [[Italy|Italian]] judge Guido Salvini issued warrants for the arrest of 22 persons said to be agents or operatives of the [[CIA]], including [[Jeffrey W. Castelli]], head of the CIA in Italy until 2003.<ref name="Fig"/> Salvini said the abduction was illegal because it violated [[national sovereignty|Italian sovereignty]] and [[international law]] and disrupted an ongoing police investigation. He also issued a warrant for the arrest of Nasr, on charges of associating with terrorists.
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In November 2005, Italian prosecutors requested that Italy's Justice Ministry seek the extradition of the suspects from the United States. The Italian government declined.
It is possible that some of the names for the targets of the warrant were pseudonyms. Regarding "Eliana Castaldo", a reporter's attempts to contact her through the number listed on the affidavit produced inconsistent responses: one refused to identify the business, another said she was with an answering service, while a third said the number was that of a firm by the name of [[Washburn and Company]]. Each of the persons answering denied there was an Eliana Castaldo reachable at that number.<ref>{{cite web
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Furthermore, Italian officials initially denied the Italian government had authorized or sanctioned a US operation to kidnap Nasr. Italian Minister for Parliamentary Affairs [[Carlo Giovanardi]], member of [[Silvio Berlusconi]]'s second and third government, said in no uncertain terms to the [[Parliament of Italy|Italian parliament]]: "Our secret services were not aware of the operation ... It was never brought to the attention of the government or national institutions."
However, former CIA officials contradicted this by claiming the agency had secured the consent of Italian intelligence, and that the CIA's [[station chief]] in Rome, [[Jeffrey W. Castelli]], had been granted explicit permission for the operation by his Italian counterpart.<ref name="italydidntknow">Wilkinson, T. and G. Miller. (2005). [https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/861434211.html?dids=861434211:861434211&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Jul+1%2C+2005&author=Tracy+Wilkinson+and+Greg+Miller&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&edition=&startpage=A.1&desc=Italy+Says+It+Didn%27t+Know+of+CIA+Plan "Italy Says It Didn't Know of CIA Plan"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130405112225/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/861434211.html?dids=861434211:861434211&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Jul+1%2C+2005&author=Tracy+Wilkinson+and+Greg+Miller&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&edition=&startpage=A.1&desc=Italy+Says+It+Didn%27t+Know+of+CIA+Plan |date=2013-04-05 }}. ''Los Angeles Times'', July 1, 2005.</ref> Furthermore, the circumstances of Nasr's abduction tended to accredit the thesis of at least passive support of the operation by Italian intelligence services. In particular, questions were raised by the CIA agents' startling laxity in travel arrangements. By all accounts, they did little to cover their tracks. Instead of fleeing immediately, most of them remained in Italy days after the operation, in some of Milan's best hotels. Only some of them used aliases. The rest traveled with their normal passports and drivers licenses, paid for things with credit cards in their real names, chatted openly on cell phones before, during, and after the operation. After the abduction, they even carelessly bypassed speed limits in Milan. Some have speculated this represents evidence of Italian complicity, as little apparent effort was made to obfuscate the identities of the participants.<ref name="italydidntknow"/>
This hypothesis was confirmed by Italian investigations. On July 5, 2006, two high-ranking Italian intelligence officers were arrested by Italian police for their complicity in Abu Omar's kidnapping. These included [[Marco Mancini]], number 2 of [[SISMI]], Italy's military intelligence agency, and Gustavo Pignero, the agency's chief for the northern region of Italy. Italian wiretaps caught Mancini admitting that he had lied about his involvement in the abduction case.<ref name="beyondabduction"/> These arrests signaled the first official admission that Italian intelligence agents were involved in the abduction. Additionally, the former head of SISMI's Milan office, Col. [[Stefano D'Ambrosio]], claims that he was removed from his position by his superiors because of his objections to the abduction plot; he was later replaced by Mancini.<ref name="beyondabduction">Wilkinson, T. (2006). [https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/1072876201.html?dids=1072876201:1072876201&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Jul+7%2C+2006&author=Tracy+Wilkinson&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&edition=&startpage=A.4&desc=The+World "Italian Probe Broadens Beyond Abduction: Prosecutors in the case of a Muslim cleric seek evidence of illegal spying by intelligence officers. Some journalists also may be involved."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120914151941/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/1072876201.html?dids=1072876201:1072876201&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Jul+7,+2006&author=Tracy+Wilkinson&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&edition=&startpage=A.4&desc=The+World |date=2012-09-14 }} ''Los Angeles Times'', July 7, 2006.</ref>
Thus, public prosecutors Armando Spataro and Pomarici have described the abduction as "a concerted CIA-SISMI operation" organized by "Italian and American agents" with the aim of the "capture" and "secret transfer" of the imam to Egypt.<ref name="Biondani">Paolo Biondani and Guido Olimpio. July 11, 2006 ''[[Corriere della Sera]]'', "Un centro segreto Cia-Sismi" [http://www.corriere.it/Primo_Piano/Cronache/2006/07_Luglio/10/sismi.shtml available here] {{in lang|it}}</ref><!-- "L'alleanza CIA-SISMI": Itestimoni e gli indagati che hanno collaborato con i pm Spataro e Pomarici descrivono il sequestro di Abu Omar con la stessa espressionne: "un'operazione congiunta Cia-Sismi", organizzata da "agenti italiani e americani" con l'obiettivo della "cattura" e del "trasferimento segreto" dell'imam in Egitto." --> Paolo Biondani and Italian counter-terrorist expert Guido Olimpio cited the November 18, 2005, article published by [[Dana Priest]] in ''[[The Washington Post]]'', where she described the [[Counterterrorist Intelligence Center|CTIC]] (Counter-Terrorism Intelligence Center), a "joint operation centers in more than two dozen countries where U.S. and foreign intelligence officers work side by side to track and capture suspected terrorists and to destroy or penetrate their networks.<ref>[[Dana Priest]], ''[[The Washington Post]]'', November 18, 2005. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/17/AR2005111702070_pf.html Foreign Network at Front of CIA's Terror Fight – Joint Facilities in Two Dozen Countries Account for Bulk of Agency's Post-9/11 Successes] {{in lang|en}}</ref> " Italy was not included in this international alliance of intelligence agencies, which largest base was in Paris, named [[Alliance Base]].
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According to Guido Olimpio and Paolo Biondani, Italy was not included in the CTIC because of internal jealousy between various Italian intelligence agencies. But they noted that, despite that, the arrest ordinance against Marco Mancini and his superior General Gustavo Pignero referred to the operation as an example of the "non orthodox activity" (the only one known of) realized by the CIA and the SISMI "since 2002," thus demonstrating some sort of cooperation between US and Italian intelligence agencies, albeit not in the frame of the CTIC.
Furthermore, according to testimonies by SISMI agents to the Italian justice, Mancini proposed himself to the [[CIA]] as a "[[double agent]]<ref name="Biondani"/> " According to Colonel Stefano D'Ambrosio, former SISMI responsible in Milan replaced by Mancini, the CIA refused to hire the latter because they considered him too "venal." But his demand "left traces in the computer" of the US intelligence.<ref name="Biondani"/> All SISMI testimonies converge in saying that Mancini owed his dazzling career to his "privileged relations with the CIA.<ref name="Biondani"/> " According to SISMI testimony, after the February 17, 2003 kidnapping of Hassan Mustafa Nasr, then CIA director [[George Tenet]] sent a letter to SISMI General [[Nicolò Pollari]] in August 2003, to which Mancini would allegedly owe the real reasons of his promotion to number
Furthermore, apart
==The trial==
In addition to the 22 European arrest warrants issued in December 2005 and the arrest of the above-mentioned SISMI officers, an Italian judge issued additional arrest warrants for four Americans, three CIA agents and for Lieutenant Colonel [[Joseph L. Romano]] III, commander of [[Air Force Security Forces|security forces]] at the [[Aviano Air Base]] at the time, now working at Section 31b of the Pentagon.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0705-06.htm |title=Italian Spies Arrested, Americans Sought for Kidnap |publisher=Commondreams.org |access-date=2013-09-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130618153022/http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0705-06.htm |archive-date=2013-06-18 }}</ref> Ultimately, twenty-six Americans and nine Italians (including head of SISMI [[Nicolò Pollari]],
The start of the trial was set for June 8, 2007, although it was adjourned until October 2007, pending an upcoming ruling by Italy's Constitutional Court regarding the possible violation of state secrecy laws by Milan prosecutors who used phone taps on Italian agents during their investigation.<ref>The Middle East Times. (2007). [http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20070618-073721-8526r "CIA trial in Italy adjourned to October 24"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926231157/http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20070618-073721-8526r |date=September 26, 2007 }}. ''The Middle East Times''. Retrieved June 24, 2007.</ref>
Two other Italian suspects reached [[plea bargain]]s. Giuliano Pironi, who admitted stopping Nasr and controlling his [[identity documents|identity]] during the kidnapping, was given a suspended sentence of one year, nine months and a day. Renato Farina, vice-director of ''[[Libero (newspaper)|Libero]]'' newspaper, who was hired by the SISMI in 1999,<ref>[http://www.repubblica.it/2006/07/sezioni/cronaca/sismi-mancini/le-confessioni-di-farina/le-confessioni-di-farina.html Farina confessa: con i servizi dal '99 "In via Nazionale la vera base di Pollari"], Carlo Bonini and Giuseppe D'Avanzo,
Marco Mancini admitted to Milan prosecutors having followed orders of his superior General Pignero, who himself obeyed requests from Jeff Castelli, CIA head in Italy, to the director of the SISMI, General Pollari. Mancini confessed having organised a meeting in [[Bologna]] with all the heads of the SISMI centers. He illustrated on this occasion the plan for the abduction. The arrest warrants issued on June 15, 2006, against Jeff Castelli, other US agents, Mancini and Pignero were done on these grounds.<ref name="EP"/>
In the meantime, Milan prosecutor Armando Spataro found out the existence of an office, in the centre of Rome, linked to SISMI, in charge of 'secret operations.' It was directed by a close collaborator of head of SISMI Pollari. According to the [[European Parliament]] "Temporary Committee on the Alleged Use of European Countries by the CIA for the Transport and the Illegal Detention of Prisoners", headed by rapporteur [[Giovanni Claudio Fava]]:
<blockquote>The main target of this office consisted in distorting the national press information, through journalists ad hoc hired by SISMI, by editing false reports with the aim to keep high the ''"terrorism alert''" vis-à-vis the [[public opinion]]. Among the duties also the one of chasing and tapping the communications of the two journalists of the newspaper
In a secretly registered conversation General Pignero, Mancini's superior, confirmed having met SISMI director Pollari right after a meeting with Jeff Castelli, head of the CIA in Italy. He said on this occasion that he had received by Pollari a list of names, among others that of Abu Omar, and to have been ordered to observe the Egyptian cleric in view of his abduction. Pignero then ordered Mancini to proceed with all these activities.<ref name="EP"/>
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Interrogated by the Milan prosecutor in July 2006, General Pollari involved the Italian government and invoked a classified document. Romano Prodi's government has confirmed its classified status.<ref name="EP"/> During his hearing in August 2006 before the [[Italian Parliamentary Committee on Secret services control]] (Copaco), Pollari defended himself again invoking the [[raison d'état]].<ref name="EP"/>
In October 2006, prosecutor Spataro transmitted to the European Temporary Committee a copy of a SISMI document, from which it comes out that SISMI was informed by the CIA on May 15, 2003, that Abu Omar was interrogated in Cairo by Egyptian services.<ref name="EP"/> {{Interlanguage link multi|Enrico Micheli|it|3=Enrico Luigi Micheli}}, the Italian government's responsible for secret services, declared to the European committee that the Berlusconi administration had classified files related to the Abu Omar case, and that the Prodi administration confirmed such secrecy.<ref name="EP"/>
Any trial of American citizens is expected to happen [[trial in absentia|in absentia]]. The United States is not expected to [[extradition|extradite]] the CIA operatives. As of February 2007, the Italian government has issued no extradition requests, although the Italian judiciary has been calling for the government to do so since 2005. Justice Minister [[Clemente Mastella]], member of the new government of [[Romano Prodi]], Prime minister of Italy since the [[2006 Italian general election|2006 general election]], has still given no news of the extradition request given to him by Armando Spataro, the Milanese public prosecutor. Current Minister of Infrastructures and former prosecutor of Milan, [[Antonio di Pietro]], has criticized on February 15, 2007, his governmental colleagues, claiming that the refuse to transmit the extradition requests to the US abounded to "cover an illegal operation, the kidnapping <!-- séquestration --> of a person."<ref name="Libe2"/>
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In September 2012, Italy's highest court, the [[Court of Cassation (Italy)|Court of Cassation]], upheld the guilty verdicts that had been handed down by lower courts.<ref>{{cite news | url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19653566| title = Italy upholds verdict on CIA agents in rendition case| publisher = BBC | date = 19 September 2012}}</ref> The Italian government has not stated whether it would seek extradition of the convicted Americans.<ref>Barry, Colleen, and Frances D'Emilio, "[https://news.yahoo.com/italy-court-upholds-american-convictions-201150582.html Italy court upholds American convictions]", ''[[Yahoo! News]]'', 20 September 2012</ref>
On February 13, 2013, the Milano Court of Appeals sentenced former SISMI director Nicolò Pollari to
Sabrina De Sousa was detained at the Lisbon airport in Portugal on October 5, 2015. She was due to be extradited to Italy, but a partial pardon from the Italian president
==Political context==
The [[Exposé (journalism)|exposé]] of the incident, coming just before [[2006 Italian general election|Italy's general election]], was a major embarrassment for the [[Silvio Berlusconi|Berlusconi administration]].<ref name="courtwidens">Wilkinson, T. (2005). [https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/947807361.html?dids=947807361:947807361&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Dec+24%2C+2005&author=Tracy+Wilkinson&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&edition=&startpage=A.3&desc=THE+WORLD "Court Widens Net for 22 CIA Agents to EU"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130325043909/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/947807361.html?dids=947807361:947807361&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Dec+24%2C+2005&author=Tracy+Wilkinson&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&edition=&startpage=A.3&desc=THE+WORLD |date=2013-03-25 }}. ''Los Angeles Times'', December 24, 2005.</ref> If it had admitted foreknowledge of or complicity in the operation, it would have been admitting that one part of the government (its intelligence services) deliberately undermined the efforts of another (its judiciary). If it had denied any involvement, it would point to a serious lapse in Italian security, as it would mean foreign intelligence agencies would be able to pull off major operations within Italy, right under the nose of Italy's own intelligence agencies, with virtual impunity.<ref name="italydidntknow"/>
Either way, most observers thought it clear [[Silvio Berlusconi]] did not wish the case to proceed. He initially told the press that he did not believe the CIA was responsible for the abduction, and even if they were responsible, it was a justifiable action. He was widely quoted in the press as having said, "You can't tackle terrorism with a law book in your hand.".<ref name="courtwidens"/> He then declared to the [[Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata|ANSA]] agency: "This is a trial we absolutely should not have, and its result will be that our intelligence services will no longer have the cooperation of foreign intelligence".<ref name="ITH31"/>
The Abu Omar case poses the problem of Italy's involvement in the US "[[War on Terror]]".<ref name="Repu05"/>
The incident also served to highlight tensions between Italy's fiercely independent judiciary and its executive administration (including the intelligence services), which would have preferred the judiciary
==CIA chief of base admission==
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