New Italian spy boss

ITALY: The Italian government replaced the heads of the country's embattled secret services yesterday, including one at the …

ITALY: The Italian government replaced the heads of the country's embattled secret services yesterday, including one at the centre of allegations of involvement in a CIA kidnap of a terrorism suspect.

Political sources said the government named Admiral Bruno Branciforte to head the Sismi military secret services, replacing Nicolo Pollari.

Mr Pollari and Sismi are at the centre of several scandals, including allegations they helped the CIA kidnap a terrorism suspect in Milan in 2003. Prosecutors say Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr was grabbed off a Milan street, driven to a US airbase in north Italy and flown to Egypt, where he claims he was tortured.

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