After a long delay of CIA operatives and former Italian intelligence officials, a judge ruled that Prime Minster Silvio Berlusconi could be called to testify about the abduction of a radical Muslim cleric, in Italy, in 2003. Testimony began Wednesday with the cleric’s wife, Ghali Nabila, who said that her husband was taken from Italy and transferred to a prison in Egypt, where he was repeatedly tortured. I found him wasted, skinny – so skinny – his hair had turned white, he had a hearing aid, Ms. Nabila said. While the Bush administration has admitted to programs of extraordinary rendition and abducting terrorism suspects outside of the United States, the administration has denied that persons are sent to nations that torture. Last year, and Italian prosecutor brought charges against 26 Americans, including 25 CIA agent operatives, citing a train of incriminating evidence prior to the cleric’s kidnapping.
