Italians Detail Lavish CIA Operation

[The Sushi Bandit]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/25/AR2005062501127.html

MILAN, June 25 -- For 19 American intelligence operatives assigned to apprehend a radical Islamic preacher in Milan two years ago, the mission was equal parts James Bond and taxpayer-financed Italian holiday, according to an Italian investigation of the man's disappearance.

The Americans stayed at some of the finest hotels in Milan, sometimes for as long as six weeks, ringing up tabs of as much as $500 a day on Diners Club accounts created to match their recently forged identities, according to Italian court documents and other records. Then, after abducting their target and flying him to Cairo under the noses of Italian police, some of them rounded out their European trip with long weekends in Venice and Florence before leaving the country, the records show.

[AngryAmish]

1. Umm, cost aside

They were trying to look like tourists. That is why they spent a lot of money. CIA put a bunch of non-trained folks in the field because they did not have enough real operators to pull the job and not get caught. The real operators were in the middle east.

The field craft of these folks were quite poor. I suspect the arrest warrants have the real names of at least half the folks. US gov't will of course that there are not any Americans that go by the names on the warrants, therefore the US Marshall cannot serve the warrants.

But thereafter the folks named will have to go into a form of a witness relocation program. Try to tell a kid "Your last name is not Burke, it is now Howard." Man, this is a colossal f up.

[thebigidea]

2. yeah, lets get upset about that instead of rendition/torture

[Frances]

3. I don't understand your post but

this is a big story on many different levels.

One level concerns how the Italian government will respond to the story. Another concerns how Italian voters will repsond to it. Will these revelations help defeat Berlusconi (sp?) who is such a staunch supporter of Bush?

[thebigidea]

4. sure.

my comment was in response to "But thereafter the folks named will have to go into a form of a witness relocation program."

as if that was the issue here, not a secret program to kidnap people and torture them in more hospitable environments.

[Frances]

5. I thought that the fact that we have been

sending suspects to countries that torture the suspects was "old news." That's why I went on to other aspects of the story. Sad, isn't it?

[nolabels]

6. You don't understand the US Government using OUR taxpayer dollars.........

sending people over to Europe to go and have a LAVISH time and in the end to justify their time there by kidnapping some dude which they then send off to torture without a trial. These vacationeers would surly try to paint up this fella as worse than the next Satan to make their time there seem legit.

I feel no need to defend anybody here but is there any accountability left in the world? Maybe you haven't checked out the mindset of some these folks. One thing I can guarantee you is they don't all have that wholesome and good little angel disposition you would be anticipating.

[dArKeR]

7. Like father like son

[saigon68]

11. Nice One dArKeR

That photo says it all

[NashVegas]

8. The Precursor to the CIA - OSS

Was often referred to as "oh so social." What does that tell you?

[bemildred]

9. Payback for the Calipari affair? nt

[nolabels]

12. Seeing how propaganda works almost first hand in the latest debacles

It wouldn't seem too much of stretch to assume they might of been a little apprehensive before that

Operation Gladio
from the book
The CIAs Greatest Hits
by Mark Zepezauer


The CIA was created by the National Security Act of 1947. The ink was barely dry on it before an army of spooks began marching through the law's major loophole: the CIA could "perform such other functions and duties...as the National Security Council may from time to time direct." This deliberately vague clause opened the door to a half-century of criminal activity in the name of "national security."

One of the first duties the NSC deemed necessary was the subversion of Italian democracy...in the name of democracy, of course. Italy seemed likely to elect a leftist government in the 1948 election. To make sure Italians voted instead for the candidates Washington favored-leftover brownshirt thugs from Mussolini's party and other Nazi collaborators-millions of dollars were spent on propaganda and payoffs. It was also intimated that food aid would be cut off if the election results were inconsistent with US desires.

The US got its way in 1948 without having to resort to violence but-as was discovered in 1990- the CIA had organized a secret paramilitary army in postwar Italy, with hidden stockpiles of weapons and explosives dotting the map. Called Operation Gladio (gladius is Latin for sword), the ostensible excuse for it was laughable-the threat of a Soviet invasion. But the real purpose wasn't so funny-Operation Gladio's 15,000 troops were trained to overthrow the Italian government should it stray from the straight and narrow.

Similar secret armies were formed in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and West Germany- often directed, quite naturally, by former SS officers. They didn't just wait around for the Russians to come marching in; they assembled huge arms caches (many of which remain unaccounted for), compiled blacklists of leftists and, in France, participated in plots to assassinate President DeGaulle.
(snip)
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/CIA%20Hits/Gladio_CIAHits.html

[emad]

10. Italians hunt covert CIA snatch squad

Barbara McMahon in Rome
Sunday June 26, 2005
The Observer

Italy and the United States were embroiled in a growing diplomatic row today over the CIA's alleged kidnapping of a terror suspect, as other countries also began investigations into America's role in the disappearance of their citizens.

Egyptian cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, known as Abu Omar, was seized two years ago on the streets of Milan. Italian investigators claim he was bundled into the back of a van, driven to a US airbase in the north of Italy and secretly flown to Egypt, where he was interrogated and tortured.

The abduction is alleged to be part of America's 'rendition programme', in which terrorist suspects are forcibly removed to their home countries or to a third nation, where they can be interrogated without legal protection.

Earlier last week, an Italian judge issued arrest warrants for 13 people said to be CIA operatives involved in Omar's abduction. Another six people - all Americans - are also under investigation. It is the first time a foreign government has filed criminal charges against US citizens involved in counter-terrorism work abroad.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1514909,00.html