Nicolò Pollari (born 3 March 1943 in

Caltanissetta Caltanissetta (Sicilian language, Sicilian: ''Cartanissètta)'' is an Italian comune with a population of 58,012 inhabitants, serving as the capital of the Province of Caltanissetta, free municipal consortium of Caltanissetta in Sicily. The earl ...

) is a general of the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

Guardia di Finanza The Guardia di Finanza (; G. di F. or GdF; or ) is an Italian militarised law enforcement agency under the Ministry of Economy and Finance (Italy), Ministry of Economy and Finance, instead of the Ministry of Defence (Italy), Ministry of Defence ...

, who was the former head of Italy's national military intelligence agency, or

SISMI (; , ) was the military intelligence agency of Italy from 1977 to 2007. With the reform of the Italian Intelligence Services approved on 1 August 2007, SISMI was replaced by Agenzia Informazioni e Sicurezza Esterna (AISE).Legislative Act n.12 ...

, from 1 October 2001 until his resignation on 20 November 2006. He assisted in the CIA kidnapping of a cleric to be sent to Egypt for torture - for which he was convicted in 2013 to a 10-year jail sentence, that was overturned in 2014 upon appeal to the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation. He is claimed to have earlier supported the US efforts to justify the

invasion of Iraq An invasion is a military offensive of combatants of one geopolitical entity, usually in large numbers, entering territory controlled by another similar entity, often involving acts of aggression. Generally, invasions have objectives ...

by providing false documents.

Niger uranium forgeries

In a 2005 article in the newspaper ''

La Repubblica (; English: "the Republic") is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper with an average circulation of 151,309 copies in May 2023. It was founded in 1976 in Rome by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso (now known as GEDI Gruppo Editoriale) and l ...

'' he was identified by investigative reporters Giuseppe D'Avanzo and Carlo Bonini, as having brought the discredited documents at the centre of the Yellowcake forgery scandal directly to Vice-President

Dick Cheney Richard Bruce Cheney ( ; born January 30, 1941) is an American former politician and businessman who served as the 46th vice president of the United States from 2001 to 2009 under President George W. Bush. He has been called vice presidency o ...

Office of Special Plans The Office of Special Plans (OSP), which existed from September 2002 to June 2003, was a Pentagon unit created by Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith, and headed by Feith, as charged by then–United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, to su ...

, bypassing the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

, who knew the documents were forgeries.

Abu Omar case

On 5 December 2006, his

indictment An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offense is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use that concept often use that of an ind ...

was sought for his role in the abduction of Egyptian cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr from the streets of

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

on 17 February 2003.

Marco Mancini Marco Mancini (born 3 October 1960) was an Italian secret agent who was a member of the Carabinieri and the Dipartimento delle Informazioni per la Sicurezza (DIS). He was also the second-highest-ranking officer of SISMI, the military intelligenc ...

, number two of the SISMI, as well as number three, General Gustavo Pignero, were also indicted, and arrested, in July 2006, for their role in the

Abu Omar case The Abu Omar Case was the abduction and transfer to Egypt of the Imam of Milan Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar. The case was picked by the international media as one of the better-documented cases of extraordinary rendition ca ...

, as well as 26 American citizens. On 12 February 2013 Pollari was sentenced to ten years in prison by the Appeals Court of

. The sentence was overturned on 24 February 2014.

Mitrokhin Commission

According to the Italian public prosecutor Pietro Salvitti, cited by ''

'', Nicolò Pollari, as well as Marco Mancini, were some of the informers, alongside

Mario Scaramella Mario Scaramella (born 23 April 1970) is a lawyer and security consultant. He came to international prominence in 2006 in connection with the poisoning of the ex-Federal Security Service (FSB) agent Alexander Litvinenko. As responsible for intel ...

, of senator

Paolo Guzzanti Paolo Guzzanti (born 1 August 1940) is an Italian journalist and politician. Early life Born in Rome, Guzzanti is the nephew of Elio Guzzanti and father to actors Corrado, Sabina, and Caterina. As a journalist, he worked for '' Avanti!'', '' ...

, in charge of the controversial

Mitrokhin Commission The Mitrokhin Commission was an Italian parliamentary commission set up in 2002 to investigate alleged KGB ties of some Italian politicians. Set up by the Italian Parliament, then led by Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right coalition, the House of F ...

. Scaramella was arrested at the end of December 2006 on charges of defamation and arms trade. The Mitrokhin Commission falsely claimed that former Italian prime minister,

Romano Prodi Romano Prodi (; born 9 August 1939) is an Italian politician who served as President of the European Commission from 1999 to 2004 and twice as Prime Minister of Italy, from 1996 to 1998, and again from 2006 to 2008. Prodi is considered the fo ...

, had been the "KGB's man in Italy" during the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

. Beside targeting Romano Prodi and his staff, this "network", according to Pietro Salvitti's words, also aimed at defaming General Giuseppe Cucchi (current director of the

CESIS Comitato Esecutivo per i Servizi di Informazione e Sicurezza () was an Italian government committee whose mission was the coordination of all the intelligence sector, and specifically between the two civilian and military intelligence agencies (r ...

), Milan's judges Armando Spataro, in charge of the Abu Omar case, and Guido Salvini, as well as ''La Repubblica'' reporters Carlo Bonini and Giuseppe D'Avanzo.

References

External links

*
Nicolò Pollari
at

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pollari, Nicolo 1943 births Living people People from Caltanissetta Italian generals SISMI Italy in the Iraq War