Security - new material (22)
01 March 2006
"CIA chiama, ROS esegue" and "Proposte indecenti", by Fabrizio Gatti & Peter Gomez, L’Espresso, 18.5.06, pp. 60-65. Interesting article about the involvement of a carabiniere from the Milan ROS unit (special operations) in the kidnapping of Abu Omar, a terrorist suspect who was transferred to Egypt by the CIA in an "extraordinary rendition". Recruited by a CIA operative for the operation, he used his carabinieri badge to order Abu Omar to stop and identify himself, thus leading the way for the kidnapping, during which he heard the men who came out of a van "cursing in Italian, without an accent". The second article notes how the head of the Italian military intelligence service, Nicolò Pollari, admitted to the European Parliament investigating committee that requests had been received to carry out kidnappings, adding that "My answer was no, and if someone had ordered me to do it, I would also have resigned". Pollari also claimed that he had refused an offer for Italy to be unlawfully handed a fugitive from abroad.
Report into the London Terrorist Attacks on 7 July 2005. Intelligence and Security Committee (Cm 6785), May 2006, pp45.
Report of the Official Account of the Bombings in London on 7 July 2005. Home Office (HC 1087), May 2006, pp. 38. In most European countries some sort of public inquiry would have been expected following the events of 7 July 2005 - but all we get is an official list of the events.
Informationen. Komitee für Grundrechte und Demokratie, German, 2/2006, March, pp 4. This monthly newsletter of the German civil liberties watchdog includes news articles on security measures implemented around the world cup, the start of a campaign against the threat of war against Iran, the internal security service's involvement in the Iraq war, data protection violations around electronic health cards, amongst others. All newsletters can be downloaded from www.grundrechtekomitee.de/index.php?typ=Rundbriefe
Errata: In Statewatch, Vol. 16 no 1, on page 12, in the article "Electoral alliance between governing coalition and far right", we mistakenly reported that the Nuovo MSI Destra Nazionale party would be running alongside the outgoing governing coalition in the general elections held on 9 and 10 April 2006. In the event, MSI-DN ran separately, obtaining 1,086 votes for the parliament in the Abruzzi region.