Berlusconi testifies in Abu Omar rendition case
Heard of him? Here’s a quiz:
Abu Omar, also known as Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, was:
A– An Egyptian imam whose abduction by the CIA and rendition to Egypt in 2003 led to an ongoing trial in Italy and an outcry in the world press, or
B– An Egyptian imam suspected of recruiting terrorists to fight America in Iraq when he was kidnapped from Milan in February 2003, a month before we invaded Iraq, suggesting yet another connection between Saddam Hussein and terrorists.
You don’t have to pick one. They’re both correct, though you wouldn’t know it. As I wrote here a year ago, the worldwide news media is incessantly framing this as a debate about rendition. They rarely mention the most interesting aspect of the case, which is that this guy was one of those Saddam-terror links that polite society likes to pooh-pooh.
Today’s NYT piece, for example, sums up the reason for Abu Omar’s CIA snatch in one sentence:
At the time of his disappearance, Nasr was also under investigation in Italy for suspicion of involvement in international terrorism.
True? Yeah. Descriptive of the actual significance of Abu Omar? No.
The CIA is keeping quiet about the case, but I’m really surprised that no one in government wants to get this story out.* Or maybe they do, and the press doesn’t want to help them? Fortunately, there is one MSM reporter who keeps letting the cat out of the bag about Abu Omar, and I’m very grateful for her doing so.
A year ago I relied on an old Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article that mentioned Abu Omar’s Iraqi activities, which has since disappeared from the web. But googling around, I’m starting to think that text originated with Los Angeles Times reporter Tracy Wilkinson on June 25, 2005. That article is archived here, and here’s the text about Abu Omar:
Italian authorities suspected Abu Omar of helping to build a terrorist network in Europe, of recruiting volunteers to fight in Iraq on the eve of the U.S. invasion, and of possibly plotting a bombing. He was a veteran of wars in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Afghanistan and was using his pulpit in Milan to raise money for the jihadist cause, Italian officials said, citing information from wiretaps, including one at a mosque where he preached.
According to court papers, he was recorded in numerous conversations with other terror suspects who have since been prosecuted. In one, he is heard praising a man later accused of recruiting suicide bombers for his success in reaching out to “the youth.”
The article points out that Abu Omar was nabbed on February 17, 2003–more than a month before we invaded.
Tracy Wilkinson mentions the Abu Omar-Iraq connection again in a Dec 30, 2005 article (archived at the moonbat site CommonDreams):
Abu Omar had received political asylum in Italy because of his claims of being persecuted in Egypt. But Italian investigators who were trailing him in Milan suspected the bearded cleric of helping to build a terrorist network in Europe and of recruiting volunteers to fight in Iraq. He was a veteran of wars in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Afghanistan and was using his position as imam in Milan to raise money for the “holy war” against the West, according to prosecutors who cite wiretaps of Abu Omar’s telephone conversations.
Again, not just the CIA but also the Italians believed Omar was recruiting terrorists to fight for Saddam. And here’s something I haven’t seen before about that. Abu Omar had a connection to Al-Qaeda bigshot Abu Musab al-Zarqawi before the war started. This is from the Observer, the weekly magazine of that neo-con Zionist warmonger rag, the Guardian:
Zarqawi is believed to be in Iran or Iraq. However European investigators have discovered that one of his key lieutenants is an Iraqi Kurd known only as Fouad, a cleric based in Syria, who handles the volunteer suicide bombers sent from Europe to launch attacks in Iraq.
Italian investigators made the first breakthrough in the hunt for Zarqawi’s operatives. Just after 10pm on the evening of 15 June, 2002, an unidentified Arab visitor from Germany - believed to be a senior figure in the militants’ network - arrived at a mosque in the Via Quaranta, Milan. He began by warning the mosque’s Egyptian imam, Abu Omar, about increased surveillance. He was unaware that Italian police were listening to his every word.
Transcripts obtained by The Observer reveal that the visitor spoke of a project needing ‘intelligent and highly educated people’. Already, the visitor said, that ‘where the jihad part is concerned there was a battalion of 25 to 26 units’. It is these ‘units’, believed by investigators to mean potential suicide bombers, that the authorities knew they had to find.
The visitor then began a review of recent developments. He stressed that ‘the thread begins in Saudi Arabia’, where the bulk of funds apparently still comes from. ‘Don’t ever worry about money, because Saudi Arabia’s money is your money,’ the visitor says. He then refers to recent ‘confidential’ meetings in Eastern Europe with Islamic militant leaders.
Rendition is an ugly, illegal, and desperate thing. But so is war, and with the invasion scheduled for a month away, we didn’t have time to wait for the wheels of Italian justice to work. We needed to know what Abu Omar knew about the terrorist network in Iraq. The Bush administration gets knocked for underestimating the strength of the Iraqi insurgency. Well, they certainly did their homework on Abu Omar. Whatever you think of rendition, whatever you think of the war, and whatever you think of the CIA, that’s an important perspective right there, and it’s one the MSM keeps missing.
When you hear about the Abu Omar trial and only about the shocking, shocking rendition of an Egyptian cleric, remember you’re only getting half the story.
*This Chicago Tribune story (where I got the front page photo of AO) might suggest a reason for some official reluctance–the CIA had allegedly worked with Abu Omar before.
_____________________
{Post by See-Dubya}
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Good story, Michelle. The trolls are going to come out in force, so best to get started on this early.
Yes, redition is not a positive thing. But neither is having planes rammed into our buildings. Neither are car bombs, or what happened to the USS Cole (lest we forget that).
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
I guess, where this is concerned, its all about Exitus Acta Probat. Latin, translated as generally “The end justifies the means.”
I wont lose sleep over this man’s redition. It has most likely saved a great many lives.
I’ll be waiting for the fallout on the thread.
Sending missles into an African country to destroy a hut with a known terrorist leader of AQ isn’t exactly politically correct either, but that doesn’t mean we are going to stop doing it so long as we have good generals on the ground willing to take the fight to the terrorist’s house rather than waiting till they are in our back yard with an explosive device.
May Omar rot in hell, he deserves no less.
C-Dub, you gotta put a big picture on the top of these posts, with your picture on it, and in letters a mile high, “By see-dubya”. Still no respect!
BTW - are you and Michelle playing tag team? She handles the domestic stuff, and you go for the international beat?
Just asking …
I apologize see-dub…wasnt looking, thought Michelle did it…d@mn work LOL.
Another case of damned if you do and damned if you don’t. Had he not been captured, and he did succeed in committing more acts of terror against the USA and her citizens, the cry would have been “foul” because he was not captured. Since he was captured, we can now never prove to the left any of his “intent” even though they can prove the “intent” of any conservative with their simple emotion based (il)logic.
No matter how horrible his capture and even treatment may seem to some, it may serve them well to remember that he still has his head planted squarely on his shoulders. That is something that most Westerners captured in the middle east cannot claim … were they still able to talk sans heads.
cpodug–
Nah, we both just write whatever we want. Sometimes we’ve beat each other to the same story by a few minutes, especially on border security stuff.
I’ve been following Abu Omar for a long time, though, and I’m really frickin’ tired of the way the media handles the story.
Look,
The security of America is at stake. Capture, extract information from, try, convict, and kill these terrorist [fill-in-the-blanks] and be done with it.
Go back to the mall, leftist America. Your next Michael Moore crock-u-mentary is due out soon, I am sure. The Marines are on the job. No need to fret.
S/D The msm doens’t seem to like America and tries daily to down grade us in favor of terrorists. I’m tired of it also.
L
From see-dubya”I’ve been following Abu Omar for a long time, though, and I’m really frickin’ tired of the way the media handles the story.
Sorry,hit the submit button too soon,the media will never give the president any credit for anything right,the next generation will be taught that he was the new Hitler.
I’m tired of they way they handle just about every story.
Ahh - MSM - the unspeakable sounds of a wounded dinosaur just before going under!
They’re the 21st Century equivalent of buggy-whip manufacturers.
“We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.”
George Orwell
We’ll keep visiting violence, as long as it takes.
I hope.
Once the military is completely converted to International Meals On Wheels and led by Jimmy Carter all will be well.
At least now we know where they got the term “YOUTHS” from, as an alternative/synonym to terrorists.
Abstact is right about our resident trolls. No matter which Abu Mostapha Whatever it is, they rise up en masse to defend them from US ! Why don’t they all have a big group hug. And somebody’s vest blows up………………
see-dubya….
The CIA is keeping quiet about the case, but I’m really surprised that no one in government wants to get this story out…………
The State Department is government–those at State are not on the side of the U.S. citizen nor - and I hate to say this—- on the side of the U. S.
but my prediction was wrong..they avoided this one like the plague…and here i thought i had them figured out…maybe it just needs time?