The leader of the team who appeared with the "kidnapee" in Cairo was the head of the US CIA office in Milan, well known of course to his Italian counterparts with whom he worked daily, and living in Milan (presumably no longer) in "open" dipolomatic status. The kidnap team did not secretly "exfiltrate" the "kidnapee" - he was simply driven to Aviano, the US Air Force Base outside Milan; three "open" phone calls were made from the kidnap car to the Colonel in charge of security at the Base. Several other "open" international calls were made from the car, starting at the place and time of the kidnap, to officials (unnamed) in the U.S. and officials (no names or nationalities) in Italy. The kidnap team then went on vacation in Italy (four went to luxury hotels in Venice; two went to the Italian Alps), using the same credit cards, identities etc used for the kidnap.
Don't you agree this *seems* to go beyond "bungling"? [One should also add that Milan is Berlusoni's hometown, identified with him in the same way Texas is with Bush (Milan AC football, etc). It is a bit hard to believe that the CIA would risk a kidnapping that he did not at least tacitly permit.]
One has to wonder where this is leading... Paul
Doug, citing me, writes:
>>This article really does miss the point. The Italian press has pointed
>>out that the flagrant "openness" in their actions implies that the US had
>>some level of acquiescence from the Italian authorities
>
>How do you know the Italian press is right? It could be, but who knows?