Date: June 25, 2005 5:49:57 AM PDT
Subject: [CTRL] CIA Kidnappers Enjoy Italian Luxury
-Caveat Lector-
washingtonpost.com
Italians Detail Lavish CIA Operation
13 Charged in '03 Abduction Allegedly Stayed in Finest Hotels
By Craig Whitlock
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, June 26, 2005; A18
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.
Milan prosecutors and police spent the last two years documenting Americans'
role in the Feb. 17, 2003 disappearance of Hussan Mustafa Omar Nasr, 42, an
Egyptian cleric. On Thursday, a Milan judge ruled that there was enough
evidence to warrant the arrest of 13 suspected CIA operatives on kidnapping
charges.
The Americans' whereabouts are unknown, and Italian authorities acknowledged
that the odds were slim that they would ever be taken into custody. The CIA
has declined to comment.
While most of the operatives apparently used false identities, they left a
long trail of paper and electronic records that enabled Italian
investigators to retrace their movements in detail. Posing as tourists and
business travelers, the Americans often stayed in the same five-star hotels,
rarely paid in cash, gave their frequent traveler account numbers to desk
clerks and made dozens of calls from unsecure phones in their rooms.
During January 2003, they were regular patrons at the Hotel Principe di
Savoia in Milan, which bills itself as "one of the world's most luxuriously
appointed hotels" and features a marble-lined spa and minibar Cokes that
cost about $10. Seven of the Americans stayed at the 80-year-old hotel for
periods ranging from three days to three weeks at nightly rates of about
$450, racking up total expenses of more than $42,000 there.
The first operative came to Milan on Dec. 7, 2002 and stayed for 11 days at
the Milan Westin Palace, according to the court documents. The others
started arriving in early January and by Feb. 1 almost all of them were in
place. They eschewed safe houses and private homes, bunking instead at
places such as the Milan Hilton ($340 a night) and the Star Hotel Rosa ($325
a night).
In early February, most of the operatives gathered for a rendezvous in La
Spezia, an Italian seaside resort town on the Ligurian coast, almost a
three-hour drive from Milan. Hotel records show that they checked into two
hotels in La Spezia but stayed for only a few hours before departing. Some
of them then drove to Florence for an overnight trip, but the rest returned
to Milan.
According to Milan investigators, there were two distinct groups. One crew
of six was in charge of planning and surveillance, checking out possible
escape routes and procuring cell phones. Each of those people left the
country about a week before Nasr was reported missing.
The other group -- which included almost all of those whose arrests are now
being sought -- was in charge of the kidnapping operation itself, according
to court documents.
On Feb. 17, shortly after noon, Nasr walked down the Via Guerzoni toward a
mosque to attend daily prayers. He was being watched by a crew of eight
operatives, who accosted him on the sidewalk, sprayed chemicals in his face
and shoved him into the back of a white van, according to an eyewitness
statement given to investigators.
The Americans, who between them were carrying 17 cell phones, immediately
started dialing numbers in Italy and the United States, according to
investigators, who reported that by piecing together records of those
phones' electronic signals they were able to trace the route of the van as
it headed toward Aviano Air Base, a joint U.S.-Italian military
installation.
The van entered the base without being stopped at the regular security
checkpoints, Milan investigators found. Court documents show that a U.S.
colonel at the air base in charge of security received three phone calls
from the operatives as they drove toward Aviano.
Milan prosecutors said they would ask the U.S. government for permission to
interrogate the colonel, concluding that "it reasonably appears that he was
involved with the execution of this kidnapping and safekeeping of the
hostage." The colonel now works at the Pentagon, according to a report
Saturday in Corriere della Sera, an Italian newspaper.
A few hours after his arrival at Aviano, Nasr was put aboard a Learjet and
taken to Ramstein Air Base, a U.S. military installation in Germany. There,
he was transferred to another plane, which flew him to Cairo, Italian court
records show.
Most of the CIA operatives apparently did not accompany Nasr on his flights.
Hotel records show that all but one of the Americans allegedly involved in
the abduction stayed in Italy for a few days afterward. Four of them checked
into luxury hotels in Venice. Two others spent a couple of days in the
Italian Alps before leaving the country.
Milan investigators determined, however, that the operative they described
as the leader and organizer of the kidnapping -- a CIA officer based in
Milan whose identity was well known to Italian counterterrorism officials --
showed up in Cairo five days after Nasr disappeared, according to the court
records.
One remaining mystery in the case is whether Italian intelligence officials
knew about the operation beforehand.
Opposition politicians in Rome have asked the parliamentary intelligence
oversight committee to question Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu and
Defense Minister Antonio Martino about whether they were aware of and had
approved the operation, known in CIA parlance as an "extraordinary
rendition." Cases that have come to light in the past have generally
proceeded with the cooperation of local officials.
Marco Minniti, a member of the Democratic Left opposition party, said the
request was made "to ascertain if members of Italian intelligence
participated in the operation and, if so, what role they had."
Paolo Cento, a Green Party member, said: "The alternatives are only two.
Either our authorities knew, or the American 007s had full freedom of action
on our territory."
Correspondent Daniel Williams in Rome contributed to this report.
© 2005 The Washington Post Company
www.ctrl.org
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