Rome
Top Italian intelligence officials were arrested last week on charges of collaborating with the CIAs extraordinary rendition program. Marco Mancini, operations chief of Italys military security and intelligence service, and Gustavo Pignero, his deputy for northern Italy, are accused of helping the CIA kidnap a radical Egyptian cleric, Abu Omar, in Milan in 2003. According to Italian media, 22 CIA agents and several Italian agents were involved in grabbing the imam, allegedly torturing him before shipping him back to Egypt. Mancini and Pignero deny any wrongdoing. I never kidnapped anyone, and I never participated in the kidnapping of anyone, Mancini said. Last year, Italy issued arrest warrants for the 22 Americans, but all had already left the country.
