The Italian Job

Michael Young | June 26, 2005

How many agents does it take to capture an Egyptian cleric living in Italy? 19. How much does it cost? Around $42,000, in one Milan hotel alone, followed by soujourns in Italian cities, or the Alps, once the job is done. Now we know why morale in the CIA has hit rock bottom.

Comments

|6.26.05 @ 2:43PM|#

But who will be fired?

|6.26.05 @ 2:50PM|#

That is very embarassing. But I don't know if you can say from that story that you know why morale has hitten rock bottom. I mean, it appears that the agents were having a grand old time at taxpayers expense.

Jim Henley|6.26.05 @ 2:54PM|#

It's like goldy and bronzey, only made of iron.

tros|6.26.05 @ 3:05PM|#

I mean, it appears that the agents were having a grand old time at taxpayers expense.

Except it's in the Washington Post now, so they are obligated to feel guilty about it. Also, I this gives us a working definition for "Key Ally In The War On Terror".

|6.26.05 @ 3:48PM|#

feel guilty about this incident, maybe...
do it again, certainly...

|6.26.05 @ 4:27PM|#

I had eight cops on me the last time I was pulled over for running a red light, plus the aid of a dispatcher. That they would need 19 agents to yank this guy off the street in Italian with some sort of stealth and ship him off to the ME isn't very shocking at all. And the pricetag of $42,000 doesn't even seem that high for govt work. How much should something like that cost? Anybody have a more reasonable estimate? Care to explain how you came up with it?

Sure, whole deal may have been of questionable legality, but this would only mean it would likely take more manpower and money to do. When the govt makes something illegal, like foreign agents kidnapping and extradicting a religious leader, it tends to artificially run up the cost. Jesus, I thought this was a libertarian board, that's basic 101 right there.

Dicker about the legality if you like, but crying about the price in money and manpower seems like you're missing the point.

|6.26.05 @ 5:24PM|#

$42,000 doesn't even seem that high for govt work.

Reread the post again that was the bill for one hotel. The point here is that when you are spending money that is not yours on things for yourself what is gained by being frugal?

Adam|6.26.05 @ 7:37PM|#

It was $42,000 for seven people...I'd like to know more about why the identities they assumed necessitated a lavish lifestyle, but how can anyone flat-out reject the possibility with the information provided in the article? The details are sketchy at best.

|6.26.05 @ 7:54PM|#

$42,000? That's a lot of donuts, even in Italy. Oh, for seven agents. That explains it.

tros|6.26.05 @ 9:22PM|#

The point here is that when you are spending money that is not yours on things for yourself what is gained by being frugal?

Yeah! That's the sort of thing that turns upper middle class "liberal" children into "hippies" when their parents pay them for good grades. In college they find themselves unable to get a job, and everyone thinks their killing their brain with all those "drugs".

|6.26.05 @ 9:36PM|#

More interesting is which reporter will be put before Pat Fitgerald''s grand jury. After all
how many '51 year Honduran born station chief's under political or consular cover, have served
in Rome. They didn't name him, but they did every
thing but; they burned yet another source; will
Cannistraro and Johnson, McGovern et al; cry foul;
how about Krugman, Kristoff and co. These folks
are starting to make Linda Foley's and Sra. Guilena suggestion, seem probable

Jim Henley|6.26.05 @ 10:50PM|#

They didn't name him, but they did every
thing but; they burned yet another source; will
Cannistraro and Johnson, McGovern et al; cry foul;
how about Krugman, Kristoff and co.

Corriere Della Serra already named the CIA station chief and the other dozen indictees. The American papers are complying with the letter of the Agee Law, but to no purpose: that cat is now a formerly bagged cat.

|6.26.05 @ 11:33PM|#

"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."

I'm curious as to what extent, if any, Berlusconi was complicit in this.

wlpeak|6.27.05 @ 5:30AM|#

What a crock.
The entire story is sourced from the Italian Court and everyone just assumes it must be true.
They must be CIA because....well....The Italians said so!

And Oriana Fallaci must be a racist! 'cause, well, she said mean things about Islam.

I hate to break it to you all but this evidence is not. Oh, and FYI, just because it might seem to be advantagous to the US to capture this thug, doesn't mean the US did the grab. We have plenty of allies out there. And even if the US did it, the CIA isn't the only organization that does this sort of thing.

Anyway it begs the question, the CIA they can find but terrorists...

|6.27.05 @ 10:41AM|#

I don't know why this is an issue. Bentlys retrofitted with secret technology don't come cheap, you know, and Q is always pissed off that they aren't returned in one piece, if at all.

R C Dean|6.27.05 @ 11:16AM|#

I thought "extraordinary rendition" was when we use clandestine means to dump terrorists on other countries, not when we use clandestine means to grab terrorists from other countries.

|6.27.05 @ 12:10PM|#

i tend to believe that the italians are full of shit by default.

anyway kwais, i think he was being sarcastic about the morale thing...

|6.27.05 @ 12:21PM|#

also, as jealous as i am about the use of my tax dollars, i would rather they be spent on something like this than given to terrorists as ransom.

gaius marius|6.27.05 @ 4:08PM|#

I thought "extraordinary rendition" was when we use clandestine means to dump terrorists on other countries, not when we use clandestine means to grab terrorists from other countries.

usually, mr dean, the grabbing is part 1, the dumping part 2.

mr wlpeak, the cia makes no bones about extraordinary rendition -- which is no longer extraordinary, by some measures. it's a post-9/11 strategy. it's up to the reader, i suppose, to judge whether or not america should be disappearing people a la the good old totalitarian fear states of old.

|6.27.05 @ 4:12PM|#

since we never, ever did it during the cold war.

Peter K.|6.28.05 @ 2:37PM|#

i tend to believe that the italians are full of shit by default.

I see no reason not to trust the Italians on this.

(Although for some reason, the mere mention of Italians always bring to mind a guy riding around on a scooter saying "Ciao".)

Opponent of the Iraq War, former CIA employee, and author of Imperial Hubris, Michael "Anonymous" Scheuer thinks renditions are a great idea and work wonderfully. He's wrong on both accounts.

I believe it was Justice Louis Brandeis who said governments that break laws breed contempt for law.