A Kidnapping in Milan: The CIA on Trial

by Hendricks, Steve

  For the growth of Islamic terrorism in Milan: Lorenzo Vidino, Al Qaeda in Europe: The New Battleground of Jihad, Prometheus, 2006, and, “Islam, Islamism, and Jihadism in Italy,” Current Trends in Islamist Ideology, vol. 7, Aug. 4, 2008; Alison Pargeter, The New Frontiers of Jihad: Radical Islam in Europe, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008; Stefano Dambruoso with Guido Olimpio, Milano-Bagdad: Diario di un magistrato in prima linea nella lotta al terrorismo islamico in Italia, Mondadori, 2004; Guido Olimpio, La rete del terrore, Sperling & Kupfer Editori, 2002; and many reports by Paolo Biondani of Corriere della Sera.

  The U.S. Treasury Department declared Idris Ahmed Nasreddin, the Eritrean businessman who staked the mosque on Viale Jenner, a financier of terrorists in 2002. In 2007, after Nasreddin changed some of his business practices, the Treasury Department said he was no longer financing terrorists.

  For links between Islamists in Milan (particularly Anwar Shaaban) and the Islamic Brigade of the Bosnian War: the several works, supra, on the growth of Islamic terrorism in Milan; Evan F. Kohlmann, Al Qaeda’s Jihad in Europe: The Afghan-Bosnian Network, Berg, 2004; John R. Schindler, Unholy Terror: Bosnia, al-Qa’ida, and the Rise of the Global Jihad, Zenith, 2007.

  The terrorist who described the elaborate arms purchases for the Islamic Brigade was Sekseka Habib Waddani. See Lucy Komisar, “Police spoke to U.S. terror suspect,” Sept. 16, 2002, http://thekomisarscoop.com/2002/09/police-spoke-to-us-terror-suspect/. Waddani said he was being blackmailed. He wanted the Italian police to protect him, but they seem to have turned him away. He later (see Chapter 4, “Beloved by God”) became a martyr in Iraq.

  For the butchery of the Islamic Brigade in the Bosnian War: John-Thor Dahlburg, “ ‘Holy Warriors’ Brought Bosnians Ferocity and Zeal,” Los Angeles Times, Aug. 6, 1996; and Kohlmann, supra, citing, among others, Suzana Andjelic, “ ‘Uragan 95’ and Mujahedeen,” Slobodna Bosna, Sept. 13, 2001.

  For the number of phones tapped in Italy and elsewhere: Arik Hesseldahl, “Big Brother Isn’t Here Yet,” Forbes.com, Digital Life section, May 6, 2005.

  For the traffic in stolen passports by Serbian gangs: Craig Pyes, Sebastian Rotella, and David Zucchino, “Fraudulent Passports Key Weapon for Terrorists,” Los Angeles Times, Dec. 16, 2001.

  For L’Houssaine Kherchtou: Sean O’Neill, “The terrorist trained to fly bin Laden’s plane,” Daily Telegraph, Sept. 21, 2001.

  For Operation Sphinx: Vidino (both), supra; Kohlmann, supra.

  For Fateh Kamel and Karim Said Atmani: Kohlmann, supra; Schindler, supra; Marc Sageman, Understanding Terror Networks, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004; “Mustapha the terrorist,” National Post (Toronto), Feb. 24, 2001; Stewart Bell, “Terrorist Returns: Tory urges Ottawa to consider revoking citizenship,” National Post (Toronto), Feb. 26, 2005.

  For Abu Talal (Talaat Fuad Qassim): Michael Taarnby Jensen, “Jihad in Denmark: An Overview and Analysis of Jihadi Activity in Denmark, 1990–2006,” DIIS Working Paper 2006/35, Danish Institute for International Studies, 2006, http://www.diis.dk/sw30537.asp; untitled, undated articles from the Danish newspaper Politiken, translated by Center for Human Rights and Global Justice of New York University School of Law, http://www.chrgj.org/press/docs/Politiken.pdf; Youssef M. Ibrahim, “Egypt Says Militant Muslim Is Seized in Croatia,” New York Times, Sept. 25, 1995; “Islamists Hit Back,” Intelligence Newsletter, no. 276, Indigo Publications, Nov. 23, 1995.

  For Abu Talal’s statement “The Muslim has a duty to be a terrorist …”: Vidino, Al Qaeda in Europe.

  For Denmark’s grant of asylum to Abu Talal’s colleagues: “NYC bomb suspects get asylum in Denmark,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, June 29, 1995.

  For the history of U.S. renditions, ordinary and extraordinary: Margaret L. Satterthwaite and Angelina Fisher, “Tortured Logic: Renditions to Justice, Extraordinary Rendition, and Human Rights Law,” The Long Term View (Massachusetts School of Law), vol. 6, no. 4, 2006, http://www.mslaw.edu/MSLMedia/LTV/6.4.pdf; D. Cameron Findlay, “Abducting Terrorists Overseas for Trial in the United States: Issues of International and Domestic Law,” Texas International Law Journal, vol. 23, no. 1, 1988; Joseph F. C. DiMento and Gilbert Geis, “The Extraordinary Condition of Extraordinary Rendition: The C.I.A., the D.E.A., Kidnaping, Torture, and the Law,” War Crimes, Genocide & Crimes against Humanity, vol. 2, 2006; “Torture by Proxy: International and Domestic Law Applicable to ‘Extraordinary Renditions,’ ” Committee on International and Human Rights of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and Center for Human Rights and Global Justice of New York University School of Law, June 2006.

  For the U.S. Supreme Court cases on renditions: Ker v. Illinois, 119 U.S. 436 (1836); Frisbie v. Collins, 342 U.S. 519 (1952); United States v. Alvarez-Machain, 504 U.S. 655 (1992).

  For the appellate court’s statement “conduct of a most shocking …”: United States ex rel. Lujan v. Gengler, 510 F.2d 62 (2d Cir. 1975), cert. denied, 421 U.S. 1001 (1975); the court was clarifying its earlier decision in United States v. Toscanino, 500 F.2d 267 (2d Cir. 1974), petition for rehearing en banc denied, 504 F.2d 1380 (1974).

  For the Achille Lauro and TWA hijackings: Philip B. Heymann, Terrorism and America: A Commonsense Strategy for a Democratic Society, MIT Press, 1998.

  For Reagan’s National Security Decision Directive 207: John Walcott and Andy Pasztor, “Reagan Ruling to Let CIA Kidnap Terrorists Overseas Is Disclosed,” Wall Street Journal, Feb. 20, 1987 (the number of the directive was not known at the time of the Journal’s article).

  For the rendition of Fawaz Yunis: Findlay, supra; Duane Clarridge with Digby Diehl, A Spy for All Seasons: My Life in the CIA, Scribner, 1997 (Clarridge says the female FBI agents on the yacht were wearing bikinis, not halter tops); “A Byte Out of History: The Case of the Yachted Terrorist,” Headline Archives, FBI, Sept. 15, 2004, http://www.fbi.gov/page2/sept04/yachted091504.htm.

  For William Webster’s views on renditions: Walcott and Pasztor, supra; David B. Ottaway and Don Oberdorfer, “Administration Alters Assassination Ban: In Interview, Webster Reveals Interpretation,” Washington Post, Nov. 4, 1989.

  For the opinion of the first President Bush’s Justice Department on FBI renditions: “Authority of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to Override International Law in Extraterritorial Law Enforcement Activities,” 13 Op. Off. Legal Counsel 163 (1989).

  For Richard Clarke’s statement “The first time I proposed a snatch …”: Richard A. Clarke, Against All Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terror, Free Press, 2004. It seems that in this case Clarke was proposing an ordinary, rather than an extraordinary, rendition, but it is not clear because he uses the imprecise term “snatch” and because he himself is confused about (or unaware of) the difference between ordinary and extraordinary renditions—he calls them all “extraordinary renditions,” erroneously citing for example the capture of Ramzi Yousef.

  For the Rijeka car-bombing: Fabrizio Gatti, “1995: da Milano parte un’ autobomba per Fiume,” Corriere della Sera, Nov. 11, 2001; Kohlmann, supra. Sometimes the bomber’s name is listed as Jon (rather than John) Fawzan.

  For the statement of Abu Saleh (Mahmoud Abdelkader Es Sayed) “I told them … that my three brothers were in prison … ”: “Egiziano sfuggito alla cattura: ‘L’Italia è un paese terrorista,’ ” La Repubblica, Nov. 29, 2001. The Syrian minister of defense who supposedly helped Abu Saleh was Mustafa Tlass.

  For the statement of the instructor from Munich “Do you see this?”: Vidino, Al Qaeda in Europe, supra.

  The young Tunisian who scouted potential terrorist targets in Italy was a thirty-four-year-old whom Magistrate Stefano Dambruoso refers to as Yasir: Dambruoso, supra.

  When Abu Imad asked, “Is it alright to kill a person … ,” he was repeating a question from a member of an audience at a conference. It was an accurate reflection of his own views, which, presumably, is why he repeated rather than repudiated the noxious question. The speaker who said “Between us and the unbelievers there is hatred” was Mohamme
d al-Fizazi, who had preached, among other places, in Hamburg’s Al-Quds Mosque, which later became notorious as the radicalizing sanctum of Mohamed Atta and other hijackers. See Fausto Biloslavo, “Così gli imam predicano l’odio in Italia,” Il Giornale, Feb. 12, 2006, http://www.ilgiornale.it/esteri/cosi_imam_predicano_odio_italia/12-02-2006/articolo-id=64426-page=0-comments=1.

  For Abu Saleh’s statement “If the brothers want to hide …” and his subsequent statements: Sandro Contenta, “Catching terror on tape: Milan wiretaps offer sensational glimpse into alleged terrorists’ life,” Toronto Star, Dec. 1, 2002; Sebastian Rotella, “Chilling ‘Chatter’ of Jihad,” Los Angeles Times, Sept. 23, 2002.

  For Abdulsalam Ali Abdulrahman al-Hilal (sometimes Abd al-Salam Ali al-Hila): Human Rights Watch, “Black Hole: The Fate of Islamists Rendered to Egypt,” May 9, 2005, http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2005/05/09/black-hole.

  For Abdulrahman and Abu Saleh’s betrayal of the al-Qaeda turncoat: Andrew Higgins and Alan Cullison, “Friend or Foe: The Story of a Traitor to al Qaeda: Murky Loyalties in Yemen Undo the Betrayer, Who Finds Himself Betrayed: Ominous Words Before 9/11,” Wall Street Journal, Dec. 20, 2002.

  For Abu Saleh’s conversation with Abdulrahman after the latter’s arrival in Bologna: Vidino, Al Qaeda in Europe. Because of the noise of Abu Saleh’s car, DIGOS needed some months to transcribe the conversation, but the FBI apparently received it months before the Sept. 11 attacks.

  For Egypt’s warning that al-Qaeda intended to attack the G8 summit in Genoa: Daniel McGrory and Dominic Kennedy, “Raids Crush Terrorist Cells and Foil Plot to Kill Bush,” Times (London), Sept. 27, 2001.

  For the steganographic images on the computers of the Via Quaranta mosque: Alexandra Salomon, “Coded Porn Found in Terror Cell: Coded Pornography, WTC Pictures Found on Terror Cell Computers,” ABC News, May 8, 2003; Stefano Dambruoso with Guido Olimpio, Milano-Bagdad: Diario di un magistrato in prima linea nella lotta al terrorismo islamico in Italia, Mondadori, 2004; Vidino, Al Qaeda in Europe.

  For Father Jean-Marie Benjamin’s advance warning of the attacks of September 11: “Days Before, Priest Predicted Plane Attacks on U.S.: Says Organization of Terrorist Groups Has Changed,” Zenit, Sept. 16, 2001, http://www.zenit.org/article-2377?l=english.

  Chapter 4: Beloved by God

  For Abu Omar’s life in Milan, including the many tapped conversations of and about him: Guido Salvini, “Ordinanza di applicazione della misura dell custodia cautelare in carcere,” N.5236/02 R.G.N.R., N.1511/02 R.G.GIP (NASR Osama Mostafa Hassan), Tribunale Ordinario di Milano, Ufficio del Giudice per le indagini preliminari, June 24, 2005 (this document is derived largely from Armando Spataro, “Richiesta per l’applicazione di misure cautelari,” N. 5236/02.21 (NASR Osama Mostafa Hassan), Procura della Repubblica presso il Tribunale Ordinario di Milano, Apr. 4, 2005); author interviews of Abu Omar, Alexandria, Egypt, Apr. 2007. The terrorist who told police, “I and all the other people in the group …” was Riadh Jelassi. Abu Omar’s interlocutor Hammadi was Bouyahia Hammadi Ben Abdelaziz.

  For Kamal Morchidi and the Tunisian suicide whose family was to be rewarded with €8,000: Salvini, supra; Paolo Biondani, “ ‘Festeggio il martirio di mio figlio,’ ” Corriere della Sera, Dec. 2, 2003; Magdi Allam, Kamikaze Made in Europe: Riuscirá l’Occidente a sconfiggere i terroristi islamici?, Mondadori, 2004. There are competing claims about whether Morchidi died as a suicide or was killed by American troops. The Tunisian was Sekseka Habib Waddani, the same who told police about the elaborate arms shipments from Russia to Italy to Bosnia in the early 1990s.

  For the jailhouse conversation of Ciise and Merai: Gianni Cipriani, “ ‘Sarò un martire,’ così parlano gli islamici in manette,” Il Nuovo, Dec. 5, 2003; Lorenzo Vidino, Al Qaeda in Europe: The New Battleground of Jihad, Prometheus, 2006.

  For the initial investigation, in 2003, into the disappearance of Abu Omar: Chiara Nobili, “Ordinanza di applicazione della misura dell custodia cautelare in carcere,” N. 10838/05 R.G.N.R., N. 1966/05 R.G.GIP (ADLER Monica Courtney et al.), Tribunale di Milano, Sezione Giudice per le indagini preliminari, June 22, 2005 (English translation, Nov. 5, 2005); author interviews of Armando Spataro, Milan, Italy, 2007 to 2009; author interview of Stefano Dambruoso, Milan, Italy, Nov. 2007.

  For Merfat Rezk’s story: REZK Merfat, Verbale di sommarie informazioni testimoniali rese, Questura di Milano, Divisione Investigazioni Generali Operazioni Speciali (DIGOS), Feb. 26, 2003; REZK Merfat, Verbale di assunzione informazioni, Nr. 20287/03 R.G.N.R. Mod. 44, Nr. 12 Reg. int. P.M., Procura della Repubblica presso il Tribunale Ordinario di Milano, Mar. 4, 2003.

  For Hayam Hassanein’s story: HASSANEIN Hayam Abdelmoneim Mohamed, Verbale di sommarie informazioni testimoniali rese, Questura di Milano, Divisione Investigazioni Generali Operazioni Speciali (DIGOS), Feb. 15, 2005.

  For Shawki Salem’s story: SALEM Shawki Bakry, Verbale di assunzione informazioni, N. 20287/03 Mod. 44, Procura della Repubblica presso il Tribunale Ordinario di Milano, Mar. 15, 2005; SALEM Shawki Bakry, Verbale di assunzione informazioni, N. 20287/03 R.G.N.R. Mod. 44, Procura della Repubblica presso il Tribunale Ordinario di Milano, Mar. 18, 2005.

  For Stefano Dambruoso: Author interview of Dambruoso, supra; Jeff Israeli, “Cracking Down on al-Qaeda: Stefano Dambruoso, Italy,” Time Europe, Apr. 20, 2003.

  The administrator at Via Quaranta who said that Abu Omar’s wife had said he was being followed was Sherif Hafez El Ashmawi. See Nobili, supra.

  Chapter 5: Torment

  For the transport of Abu Omar from Milan to Cairo: Chiara Nobili, “Ordinanza di applicazione della misura dell custodia cautelare in carcere,” N. 10838/05 R.G.N.R., N. 1966/05 R.G.GIP (ADLER Monica Courtney et al.), Tribunale di Milano, Sezione Giudice per le indagini preliminari, June 22, 2005 (an English translation of this order was made Nov. 5, 2005); author interviews of Abu Omar, Alexandria, Egypt, Apr. 2007; Abu Omar, “The Account of an Islamist Kidnapped from the Streets of Milan,” undated, reproduced (in a rough English translation) as “My CIA rendition,” Stephen Grey’s Ghost Plane (Web site), http://www.ghostplane.net/abuomar, and excerpted in Paolo Biondani and Gianni Santucci, “Il memoriale di Abu Omar: ‘Rapito e picchiato da italiani,’ ” Corriere della Sera, Nov. 9, 2006. There are several accounts by reporters who interviewed Abu Omar about his ordeal. One of the better is a series by Matthias Gebauer: “Rendition Victim Speaks Out,” “Abu Omar’s Abduction in Milan,” “Abu Omar’s Arrival in Cairo,” “Before the Trial,” “CIA Activities in Italy,” Der Spiegel, Mar. 19, 2007, http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,657431,00.html.

  My description of certain tortures generally and of Abu Omar’s tortures particularly was enlightened by the accounts of survivors, including several in Egypt, who prefer to remain anonymous. Cairo’s El Nadim Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence has documented and made public the stories of other survivors. Other helpful accounts were Munú Actis et al., That Inferno: Conversations of Five Women Survivors of an Argentine Torture Camp, Vanderbilt University Press, 2006; Henri Alleg, The Question, George Braziller, 1958; Jean Améry, At the Mind’s Limits: Contemplations by a Survivor of Auschwitz and its Realities, Indiana University Press, 1998; William F. Schulz, ed., The Phenomenon of Torture: Readings and Commentary, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007; Eric Lomax, The Railway Man, W. W. Norton, 1980; John Conroy, Unspeakable Acts, Ordinary People: The Dynamics of Torture, Knopf, 2000; Edward Peters, Torture, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996; Kate Millett, The Politics of Cruelty: An Essay on the Literature of Political Imprisonment, W. W. Norton, 1994; Lawrence Weschler, A Miracle, a Universe: Settling Accounts with Torturers, Pantheon, 1990; Elaine Scarry, The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World, Oxford University Press, 1985; and others cited below.

  For the history of torture: John H. Langbein, Torture and the Law of Proof: Europe and England in the Ancien Régime, University of Chicago Press, 1977; Peters, supra; Conroy, supra; Millett, supra; Weschler, supra; Schulz, supra.


  For the possibly fatal experiments on captured spies in Germany, Japan, and the Panama Canal Zone: Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA, Doubleday, 2007.

  For the study and practice of torture by the CIA and Department of Defense throughout this chapter, including the experiments at McGill and the Phoenix program: Alfred W. McCoy, A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, from the Cold War to the War on Terror, Metropolitan Books, 2006; Conroy, supra; Schulz, supra. See also John Marks, The Search for the “Manchurian Candidate”: The CIA and Mind Control, Times Books, 1978.

  For the statement of the Defense researchers “Any fixed position which is maintained …”: Lawrence Hinkle and Harold Wolff, “Communist Interrogation and Indoctrination of ‘Enemies of the State,’ ” Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry, vol. 76, no. 2, Aug. 1956.

  For Menachem Begin’s statement “to sleep, to sleep just a little …”: Menachem Begin, White Nights, Harper & Row, 1979. On sleep deprivation, see also Artur London, The Confession, William Morrow, 1970.

  For Frank Olson’s death: The Frank Olson Legacy Project, “Family Statement on the Murder of Frank Olson,” Frederick, Maryland, Aug. 8, 2002, http://www.frankolsonproject.org/Statements/FamilyStatement2002.html.

  For the CIA’s statement “when his mental and physical resistance is at its lowest”: CIA, Kubark Counterintelligence Interrogation, July 1963, subsequently amended as CIA, Human Resource Exploitation Training Manual, 1983.

  The Army’s statement “Use of torture is not only illegal …” is stated in slightly varying forms in different field manuals, beginning (at least) with: Army Intelligence Center’s FM 34–52: Intelligence Interrogation, Sept. 1992. A more recent version is FM2-22.3 (FM 34-52): Human Intelligence Collector Operations, 2006.

  For Major Sherwood Moran’s manual: Stephen Budiansky, “Truth Extraction,” The Atlantic, June 2005.

  The CIA commander who told McCoy, “The truth is that never in the history of our work in Vietnam …” was Ralph W. McGehee.