Italy arrests CIA agents for extraordinary renditions

Today it will be reported that the arrest of 13 CIA agents was ordered by an Italian judge in response to the kidnapping of Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, known as Abu Omar, on a Milan street on 17 February 2003. Nasr was renditioned to Egypt where it is alleged that he was tortured.

Quotes from the article follow

Nasr was seized by two people as he was walking from his home toward a mosque and bundled into a white van. He was taken to Aviano, a joint U.S.-Italian base north of Venice, and flown to a U.S. air base in Ramstein, Germany, before being taken to Cairo.

... A year later, in April-May 2004, Nasr phoned his wife and another unidentified Egyptian citizen and told them he had been subjected to violent treatment by interrogators in Egypt, the statement said.

Italian newspapers have reported that Nasr, 42, said in the wiretapped calls that he was tortured with electric shocks.

... Nasr was tortured after refusing to work in Italy as an informer. According to the testimony, he was hanged upside down and subjected to extreme temperatures and loud noise that damaged his hearing ...

The article implies that the Italian authorities were already tracking Nasr when the U.S. kidnapped him. In addition to orders for the arrests of the CIA agents, Judge Chiara Nobile also issued a separate arrest warrant for Nasr on terrorism charges.