A Kidnapping in Milan: The CIA on Trial (35 page)

For Sogno’s statement “When FIAT stopped financing us . . .”: Ferraresi,
Threats to Democracy
,
supra
(the quotation, however, is my translation from the original Italian version of the book).

For Sogno’s statement “I told him that I was informing him . . .”: Philip Willan, “Terrorists ‘helped by CIA’ to stop rise of left in Italy,”
The Guardian
, Mar. 26, 2001,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/mar/26/terrorism
.

For the bombing of Piazza Fontana: Ferraresi,
Threats to Democracy
,
supra
; Carlo Lucarelli,
Piazza Fontana
(transcript of RAI [Radiotelevisione Itali-ana] TV program of the same name), Giulio Einaudi, 2007.

For the count of 491 dead and 1,181 wounded in the Years of Lead: Ganser,
supra
. The numbers vary, depending on one’s definition of a political attack, and assigning blame for some attacks to leftists or rightists is still more complicated.

For Vincenzo Vinciguerra’s statement “There exists in Italy a secret parallel . . . ”: Ferraresi,
Threats to Democracy
,
supra
.

For Vinciguerra’s statement “ . . .in the absence of a Soviet military invasion . . . ”: Ed Vulliamy, “Secret agents, freemasons, fascists . . . and a top-level campaign of political ‘destabilisation’ ” (ellipsis in original),
The Guardian
, Dec. 5, 1990.

For Gerardo Serravalle’s statement “ . . . the subject of internal control . . .”: Francovich,
supra
. This claim corresponds to that of General Antonio Podda, vice-director of SIFAR from 1966 to 1970, and of a Gladio document from 1958. See Ferraresi, “A secret structure codenamed Gladio,”
supra
. Another Gladio document, on a 1972 meeting between Gladio chiefs and the CIA’s Stone, reported that Stone warned of a possible insurrection in southern Italy. Were it to occur, he said, Gladio would have to operate in “exactly the same way” that the CIA had in Vietnam. See Paul Ginsborg,
Italy and Its Discontents: Family, Civil Society, State: 1980–2001
, Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.

For Paolo Taviani’s statement “It seems to me certain . . .”: Philip Willan, “Paolo Emilio Taviani” (obituary),
The Guardian
, June 21, 2001,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2001/jun/21/guardianobituaries.philipwillan
.

For Giandelio Maletti, including his statement “ . . . the CIA, following the directives . . .”: Philip Willan, “Terrorists ‘helped by CIA’ to stop rise of left in Italy,”
The Guardian
, Mar. 26, 2001,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/mar/26/terrorism
; Daniele Mastrogiacomo, “Maletti, la spia latitante La Cia dietro quelle bombe,”
La Repubblica
, Aug. 4, 2000.

For other claims implicating the United States and/or NATO in foreknowledge of or participation in the bombings of Piazza Fontana, Brescia, and Bologna: Philip Willan, “US ‘supported anti-left terror in Italy,’ ”
The Guardian
, June 24, 2000; Ed Vulliamy, title of article unknown,
The Guardian
, Jan. 16, 1991, cited in Statewatch, “Operation Gladio,” Statewatch Archive,
http://database.statewatch.org/searchdisplay.asp?grpid=39
.

Chapter 9: In Absentia

For Armando Spataro: Author interviews of Armando Spataro, Milan, Italy, 2007 to 2009; personal papers of Armando Spataro provided to author.

For the
Wall Street Journal
’s statement “a rogue”: “The Italian Job,”
Wall Street Journal
, Feb. 26, 2007,
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117245796674319001.html?mod=opinion_main_review_and_outlooks
.

For Luciano Peroni, alias Ludwig: PIRONI Luciano, Verbale di interrogatorio di persona sottoposta ad indagini, N. 10838/05 R.G.N.R. mod. 21, Procura della Repubblica presso il Tribunale Ordinario di Milano, Apr. 14, 2006; Untitled deposition of Luciano Pironi, Proc. Pen. N. 1966/05 R.G.G.I.P., Sept. 30, 2006.

For Stefano D’Ambrosio: D’AMBROSIO Stefano, Verbale di assunzione informazioni, N. 10838/05 R.G.N.R. mod. 21, Procura della Repubblica presso il Tribunale Ordinario di Milano, Apr. 20, 2006; D’AMBROSIO Stefano, Verbale di assunzione informazioni, N. 10838/05 R.G.N.R. mod. 21, Procura della Repubblica presso il Tribunale Ordinario di Milano, Jul. 12, 2006.

For Bob Lady’s denial of D’Ambrosio’s claims about their conversation: Luca Fazzo, “L’ex capo Cia: ‘Così rapimmo Abu Omar,’ ”
Il Giornale
, June 30, 2009.

For the bugged conversations of Gustavo Pignero and Marco Mancini: Enrico Manzi, “Decree for the Application of Coercive Measures,” N. 10838/05 R.G.N.R., N. 1966/05 R.G.GIP (CASTELLI Jeffrey et al
.
), Tribunale di Milano, Sezione Giudice per le indagini preliminari, Jul. 7, 2006; “Secret Agents Spilling Secrets,”
Washington Post
, Dec. 8, 2006.

For SISMI’s offer to help the CIA with the kidnapping of Abu Omar: Manzi,
supra
; PIGNERO Gustavo, Interrogatorio Indagato, Proc. Pen. N. 10838/05 Mod. 21 R.G.N.R., Procura della Repubblica presso il Tribunale Ordinario di Milano (but the statement was taken in Rome), July 13, 2006.

For Renato Farina and Pio Pompa: Author interviews of Spataro,
supra
; Manzi,
supra
; FARINA Renato, Interrogatorio Indagato, Proc. Pen. N. 10838/05, Procura della Repubblica presso il Tribunale Ordinario di Milano, July 7, 2006; John Foot, “The Rendition of Abu Omar,”
London Review of Books
, Aug. 2, 2007; John Hooper, “The editor who spooked Italy,”
The Guardian
, Jan. 29, 2007,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/jan/29/mondaymediasection.italy
; Statewatch, “Italy: Renditions: Judge notifies defendants of the state of play in investigations into Abu Omar rendition: High-level SISMI and CIA officials involved,” Statewatch News,
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2006/oct/10italy-omar-case.htm
.

For Farina’s article trying to blame the Yellowcake Affair on France: Renato Farina, “A caccia dell’italiano d’America regista del trappolone anti-Bush,”
Libero
, Aug. 10, 2004.

For Farina’s confession: FARINA Renato,
supra
.

For Pignero’s confession: PIGNERO Gustavo,
supra
.

For Farina’s statement “fighting the fourth world war . . .” and Silvio Berlusconi’s statement that Farina was “a guerrilla fighter for liberty”: Foot,
supra
.

For Pompa’s minimal response to Spataro’s inquiry: Pio Pompa, letter to Armando Spataro and Ferdinando Pomarici, Procura della Repubblica presso il Tribunale Ordinario di Milano, July 7, 2006.

For the Telecom shop allegedly run by Mancini and others: Elizabeth Filippouli, “Italy Gate,”
People & Power
program, Al Jazeera TV network, Aug. 1, 2007.

For the statement of Pollari’s lawyer (Titto Maddia) “Evidently. It wasn’t the doorman”: Ian Fisher and Elisabetta Povoledo, “Italy Braces for Legal Fight Over Secret C.I.A. Program,”
New York Times
, June 8, 2007.

For Gianfranco Battelli’s statement that he would have told the prime minister: Ammiraglio Gianfranco BATTELLI, Verbale di assunzione informazioni, N. 10838/05 R.G.N.R. mod. 21, Procura della Repubblica presso il Tribunale Ordinario di Milano, July 18, 2006.

For Silvio Berlusconi’s statement “There has not been, I repeat . . .”: “Berlusconi: ‘Smentisco per l’ennesima volta.’ ”
Corriere della Sera
, Dec. 7, 2005,
http://www.corriere.it/Primo_Piano/Politica/2005/12_Dicembre/07/berlu_smentita.html
.

For Vincent Cannistraro’s statement “Are you kidding?”: Claudio Fava,
Quelli Bravi Ragazzi
, Sperling & Kupfer, 2007.

For Spataro’s charges against Castelli, De Sousa, and Romano: Manzi,
supra
.

For Abu Omar’s statement “My name is Osama Mustafa Hassan Nasr . . .”: Abu Omar, “The Account of an Islamist Kidnapped from the Streets of Milan,” undated, reproduced (in a rough English translation) as “My CIA rendition,” Stephen Grey’s
Ghost Plane
(Web site), http://www.ghostplane.net/abuomar, and excerpted in Paolo Biondani and Gianni Santucci, “Il memoriale di Abu Omar: ‘Rapito e picchiato da italiani,’ ”
Corriere della Sera
, Nov. 9, 2006.

For the account of Abu Omar’s journey from prison to prison between 2004 and 2007 and of Nabila Ghali’s visits with him: Manzi,
supra
; author interviews of Abu Omar, Alexandria, Egypt, Apr. 2007

For the CIA’s near offer of hush money to Khaled El-Masri: Jane Mayer,
The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals
, Doubleday, 2008.

For the length of Italian trials: Alexander Stille, “Italy Against Itself,”
New York Review of Books
, Dec. 4, 2008. Furthermore: “Claims for damage done by Garibaldi and his Redshirts to property in Sicily in 1860 . . . were still being paid in 1954, ninety-six years later, in lire which had lost all value and meaning, to heirs who barely remembered the reason why they were entitled to receive such pitifully small sums of money” (Luigi Barzini,
The Italians
, Touchstone, 1964).

For the chronology of the kidnappers’ trial and for the appeals: Armando Spataro, “Abu Omar trial: Updating” nos. 1 through 30, e-mails to reporters, Mar. 2008 to Nov. 2009.

Chapter 10: Martyrs

For the report that Abu Omar informed for Albania’s SHIK: John Crewdson and Tom Hundley, “Abducted imam aided CIA ally,”
Chicago Tribune
, July 3, 2005; Tom Hundley and John Crewdson, “Wife was left behind with Children,”
Chicago Tribune
, July 3, 2005.

For Sali Barisha’s statement “They worked in Albania . . .” and for CIA operations in post–Cold War Albania generally: Andrew Higgins and Christopher Cooper, “Cloak and Dagger: A CIA-Backed Team Used Brutal Means to Crack Terror Cell,”
Wall Street Journal
, Nov. 20, 2001. See also “How ‘Albanian’ Egyptians Operate,”
Intelligence Newsletter
, Indigo Publications, no. 347, Nov. 26, 1998.

For Bob Lady’s claim that he did not know Abu Omar had informed in Albania: Luca Fazzo, “L’ex capo Cia: ‘Così rapimmo Abu Omar,’ ”
Il Giornale
, June 30, 2009.

For Montasser El-Zayat: Author interview of Montasser El-Zayat, Cairo, Egypt, Apr. 2007.

One of the fruits of the $1,100 paid by the
Wall Street Journal
to a Kabul looter was the story of how Abdulrahman and Abu Saleh betrayed an al-Qaeda turncoat in Yemen (see Chapter 3, “The Enemy Within”). See Andrew Higgins and Alan Cullison, “Friend or Foe: The Story of a Traitor to al Qaeda: Murky Loyalties in Yemen Undo the Betrayer, Who Finds Himself Betrayed: Ominous Words Before 9/11,”
Wall Street Journal
, Dec. 20, 2002. See also Andrew Higgins and Alan Cullison, “Computer in Kabul Holds Chilling Memos,”
Wall Street Journal
, Dec. 31, 2001.

For Abu Omar’s statement “What are the German mother and son . . .”: Deutsche Presse-Agentur, “Egyptian Islamist Urges Militants to Free German Hostages in Iraq,”
EarthTimes
, Mar. 11, 2007,
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/38956.html
.

For Abu Omar in Alexandria: Author interviews of Abu Omar, Alexandria, Egypt, Apr. 2007. For the report in
GQ
that CIA officers watched part of Abu Omar’s interrogation on a video feed: Matthew Cole, “Blowback,”
GQ
, Mar. 2007.

For Jean Améry’s statement “Twenty-two years later . . .”: Jean Améry,
At Mind’s Limits: Contemplations by a Survivor of Auschwitz and its Realities
, Indiana University Press, 1998.

Jessica Easto and I interviewed the U.S. spies in 2007 and 2008.

For the cause and consequence of the flap over exposure of CIA officers in the 1970s: Philip Agee,
Inside the Company: CIA Diary
, Bantam, 1984; Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982, 50 U.S.C. § 421-26 (2006).

The CIA chief who said the snatch teams would be out robbing banks if they weren’t doing renditions was Tyler Drumheller. See Tyler Drumheller with Elaine Monaghan,
On the Brink: An Insider’s Account of How the White House Compromised American Intelligence
, Carroll & Graf, 2006.

For an account of another reporter who phoned “Washburn and Company”: Greg Miller, “Shades of Cover,”
Los Angeles Times,
July 16, 2005.

For Sabrina De Sousa’s statement “You can keep hammering . . .”: Jeff Stein, “CIA Woman Outraged by Belated U.S. Legal Help,” CQ Politics: SpyTalk (blog), Aug. 28, 2009,
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/spytalk/2009/08/cia-woman-outraged-by-belated.html
.

For Jeff Castelli’s life after the rendition of Abu Omar: Jeff Stein, “CIA Officer in Italy Rendition Flap Enters New Phase,” CQ Politics: SpyTalk (blog), Sept. 17, 2009,
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/spytalk/2009/09/cia-officer-in-italy-rendition.html
.

For one report that Castelli supposedly misled CIA headquarters about the danger posed by Abu Omar: John Crewdson, “Italy says CIA may have had distorted view of cleric,”
Chicago Tribune
, Jan. 8, 2007.

For Matthew Cole’s interview with Bob Lady: Cole,
supra
.

For Lady’s visit to Geneva in 2006: “Rest and Recuperation for CIA,”
Intelligence Online
no. 525, Indigo Publications, June 9, 2006,
http://www.intelligenceonline.com/archives/p_som_archives.asp?num=525&year=2006&rub=archives
.

For the essay that was all but certainly written by Lady under the nom de plume of his father: William Lady, “Coyotes From the Same Hill,”
Dead Mule
(online), Oct. 1, 2005,
http://www.deadmule.com/content/2005/10/01/coyotes-from-the-same-hill/
.

For Lady’s interview with Fazzo: Fazzo,
supra
.

For Joseph Romano’s statement “should be an embarrassment to Italy . . .”: Matthew Cole, Avni Patel, and Brian Ross, “Convicted CIA Spy Says ‘We Broke the Law,’ ” ABC News, Nov. 4, 2009,
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/exclusive-convicted-cia-spy-broke-law/story?id=8995107
.