Italy knew about the planned CIA abduction of Egyptian radical Ansar al-Islam cleric Abu Omar from Milan in February 2003, the WaPo's Dana Priest reports, but which Italian officials exactly were briefed? Priest reports that three former CIA operatives knowledgeable about the operation and a fourth who reviewed the case afterwards indicate the CIA Rome station chief organized the snatch with several CTU officials and informed "a tiny number" of his counterparts in the Italian military intelligence organization Sismi. They also had a plan should the story ever come out:

Before a CIA paramilitary team was deployed to snatch a radical Islamic cleric off the streets of Milan in February 2003, the CIA station chief in Rome briefed and sought approval from his counterpart in Italy, according to three CIA veterans with knowledge of the operation and a fourth who reviewed the matter after it took place...

In fact, former and current CIA officials said, both the CIA and the Italian service agreed beforehand that if the unusual operation was to become public, as it has, neither side would confirm its involvement, a standard agreement the CIA makes with foreign intelligence services over covert operations...

The CIA "told a tiny number of people" about the action, said one intelligence veteran in the management chain of the operation when it took place. "Certainly not the magistrate, not the Milan police."

Priest further reports that it's unusual that the case was not coordinated between the top officials of Sismi and the CIA, which apprarently it was not. So deny, deny, deny seems to be the order of the day for a prime minister Berlusconi soon facing reelection. What's more, Priest reports that Swedish and Canadian officials cooperated rather extensively with similar CIA snatch operations from those countries. So as the domestic political costs of covertly cooperating with the US on its extraordinary renditions to countries that practice torture rises for Washington's allies as these operations get exposed, will they stop cooperating, or just continue to try to keep such cooperation below the radar?

Update: Italy denies knowing about the Milan rendition plan!

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Carlo Giovanardi specifically denied a report in Thursday's Washington Post that quoted four CIA veterans as saying that the agency's station chief in Rome briefed and sought approval from his counterpart in Italy before the abduction took place.

Responding to questions about the article from lawmakers in the Italian Senate, Giovanardi said simply, "it's false." Later, in the Chamber of Deputies, he called the Post article "a report without any foundation, a false report, which the Italian government is able to deny with great calm." ...

While the government has said in the past that it was not involved in Nasr's exit from the country, some opposition lawmakers said they were unconvinced by Thursday's denial and said evidence was mounting that Italian intelligence agencies were complicit in the operation...

Meantime, the Italian government said that it had asked U.S. Ambassador Mel Sendler meet with Berlusconi on Friday to respond to charges that the CIA was responsible for Nasr's disappearance. Katherine Sharp, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Rome, said she could not confirm the meeting and declined to comment.

I'm sure you're as shocked as I am about this latest development. One has to concede that the only job worse than being say the Berlusconi spokesman this week would be to be the spokeswoman for the US embassy in Rome.

Posted by Laura at June 30, 2005 04:51 AM