Ex-US Spy Mysteriously Flees Italy For Safety Reasons After Mike Pompeo And Gina Haspel Visit Rome

Sabrina de Sousa, a former American spy, has fled Italy due to safety concerns, Italian media reported Sunday.

De Sousa, a dual Portuguese-U.S. citizen, was connected to a 2003 Milan kidnapping of Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, an Egyptian terrorism suspect and imam, who was abducted as part of the CIA's extraordinary rendition program.

De Sousa was convicted in Italy for her supposed involvement with the kidnapping, with the Italian president commuting her four-year prison sentence last year. After U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and CIA head Gina Haspel visited Italy this month, de Sousa fled the country.

De Sousa told the Italian newspaper Il Corrierre De Sera that "I was terrified of the consequences that I could face." On Oct. 9, Haspel met with heads of the Italian secret service, with De Sousa saying that the visit was an attempt by the U.S. administration to "wash its hands of my case."

Her lawyer, Andrea Saccucci, confirmed that De Sousa is in the U.S.

De Sousa has previously acted as a whistleblower in the 2003 kidnapping case, alleging in 2014 that the U.S. conducted the kidnapping of Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, without any credible evidence. De Sousa claims that the CIA Station Chief in Rome, Jeffrey Castelli, had wanted Abu Omar to face extraordinary rendition as it would earn him a promotion to a higher CIA job in New York City.

De Sousa alleges that "the CIA scapegoated me to deflect attention from those who authorized the rendition and also to prevent further investigations into the operation."

With the Trump administration trying to crack down on whistleblowers, there is speculation that De Sousa may have felt that she is a target when Haspel and Pompeo went to Italy earlier this month.

After the Sept.11 terrorist attacks, the U.S. government worked with other countries to find terrorism suspects as part of the extraordinary rendition policy.

Another famous rendition case was when German national Khaled El-Masri was detained in Macedonia in 2003 and transferred to a secret CIA facility in Afghanistan. The arrest and torture of El-Masri turned out to be a mistake, and he then filed a lawsuit over the matter.

More than 50 countries have reportedly assisted the U.S. in the extraordinary rendition program.