ROME: The Italian government and its intelligence services were not aware of and did not participate in the alleged CIA kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric in Milan, a Defense Ministry official told Senate committees Tuesday, amid growing evidence that the Americans did not act alone. Former Premier Silvio Berlusconi, in power at the time of the kidnapping, always maintained that his government and Italian secret services were not informed about the supposed anti-terrorism operation and had not taken part in it. But prosecutors in Milan investigating the kidnapping arrested two Italian intelligence agents last week - the first official sign that Italians were, in fact, involved. The agents, Marco Mancini and Gustavo Pignero, have denied wrongdoing. Prosecutors also are seeking the arrest of 26 Americans, all but one believed to be CIA agents. Fighting terrorism with illegal methods has never been accepted or practiced by the government of our country, Giovanni Lorenzo Forceri told the Senate committees. This is also true for SISMI. He said the SISMI intelligence agency learned about it after the fact from a member of the Muslim community and immediately informed prosecutors. He added that the new, center-left government of Premier Romano Prodi supports the prosecutors investigation. Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, an Egyptian cleric and terrorist suspect also known as Abu Omar, allegedly was abducted from a Milan street in February 2003. Prosecutors say the operation was conducted by CIA agents, calling it a breach of Italian sovereignty that compromised their anti-terrorism efforts. They say Nasr was flown via the Aviano joint Italian-U.S. air base and Germany to Egypt, where he says he was tortured. The operation is believed part of an alleged CIA program in which terrorism suspects are transferred to third countries where some allegedly are subjected to torture. The CIA describes such operations as extraordinary renditions. He will sue Silvio Berlusconi for 10 million euros, in his capacity as prime minister and for his involvement in the kidnap by having allowed the CIA to seize him, Montasser Al-Zayat, the cleric s lawyer said. Abu Omar is currently being held in Tora prison, where many political detainees in Egypt are held.Italian Defense Minister Arturo Parisi on Thursday meanwhile stressed what he called the government s belief in the loyalty of the military intelligence service, an apparent reference to the relationship between SISMI and the Berlusconi government. Interior Minister Guiliano Amato called for the intelligence service to be reformed and for a solution to the eternal problem of fixing limits on intelligence operations. Right-wing officials leapt to the defense of SISMI. A group of senators from Berlusconi s Forza Italia party slammed the arrests as unjustified and said they held Italy up to the ridicule of the world. Agencies
