"Italian police say CIA operatives involved in the 2003 abduction of Abu Omar, an Egyptian imam, racked up thousands of dollars in expenses at Milan hotels in the weeks leading up to the operation."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi- 0512250424dec25,1,7168647.story?coll=chi-news-hed TRIBUNE INVESTIGATION CIA team traveled Italy in style By John Crewdson, Tribune senior correspondent. Drew Crosby and Samuel Loewenberg contributed to this report from Madrid December 25, 2005 MILAN, Italy -- When the CIA decides to "render" a terrorism suspect living abroad for interrogation in Egypt or another friendly Middle East nation, it spares no expense. Italian prosecutors wrote in court papers that the CIA spent "enormous amounts of money" during the six weeks it took the agency to figure out how to grab a 39-year-old Muslim preacher called Abu Omar off the streets of Milan, throw him into a van and drive him to the airport. First to arrive in Milan was the surveillance team, and the hotels they chose were among the best Europe has to offer. Especially popular was the gilt-and-crystal Principe di Savoia, with acres of burnished wood paneling and plush carpets, where a single room costs $588 a night, a club sandwich goes for $28.75 and a Diet Coke adds another $9.35. According to hotel records obtained by the Milan police investigating Abu Omar's disappearance, two CIA operatives managed to ring up more than $9,000 in room charges alone. The CIA's bill at the Principe for seven operatives came to $39,995, not counting meals, parking and other hotel services. Another group of seven operatives spent $40,098 on room charges at the Westin Palace, a five-star hotel across the Piazza della Repubblica from the Principe, where a club sandwich is only $20. A former CIA officer who has worked undercover abroad said those prices were "way over" the CIA's allowed rates for foreign travel. "But you can get away with it if you claim you needed the hotel `to maintain your cover,'" he said. "They would have had to pose as highflying businessmen." Judging from the photographs on the passports they displayed when checking into their hotels and the international driver's licenses they used to rent cars, not many of the Milan operatives could have passed as "highflying businessmen." In all, records show, the CIA paid 10 Milan hotels at least $158,000 in room charges. Although the Milan police obtained the hotel bills of 22 alleged CIA operatives, they say at least 59 cell phones were used in the weeks leading up to the abduction. Even allowing for the possibility that some operatives used more than one phone, prosecutors believe that a significant number of operatives remain unidentified. Operatives out in force A senior U.S. official said the agency's deployment in Milan was "about usual for that kind of operation." But in December 2001, when the CIA arrived in Stockholm to transport two suspected Islamic militants to Cairo, it sent eight rendition experts to do the job, according to a Swedish TV documentary. When a rendition team showed up in Macedonia in January 2004 to collect a Kuwait-born German citizen, Khalid el-Masri, and fly him to Afghanistan, there were only 11 operatives on the plane, according to a Spanish police report. At the beginning of February 2003, with the abduction still three weeks away, 10 of the operatives, who presumably had been spending their days charting Abu Omar's movements in Milan, left the city to spend the weekend in a hotel overlooking the harbor at La Spezia, on Italy's Mediterranean coast. Some male and female operatives shared the same hotel rooms, records show. Before heading back to Milan, five members of the group detoured to Florence, where they checked into the renowned Grand Hotel Baglioni. Once Abu Omar was safely behind bars in Cairo, some of the operatives who had helped put him there split up into twos and threes and headed for luxury resort hotels in the Italian Alps, Tuscany and Venice. Asked if there had been some operational or other official reason for the ultra-expensive hotels and side trips, the senior U.S. official shrugged. "They work hard," he said. One expense the CIA did spare the U.S. taxpayers was the dozen traffic tickets generated when the agency's rented cars were photographed by police cameras driving illegally in the city's bus and taxi lanes. Because the cars had been rented using false names and addresses, the $500 in fines was paid by the car rental agencies. Since Sept. 11, 2001, Congress has increased the U.S. intelligence budget to an estimated $40 billion a year, an all-time record. In their travels across Europe, some of the CIA's rendition teams gravitated to another vacation resort spot, the Mediterranean island of Palma de Mallorca, according to a recent report by a Spanish police agency, the Guardia Civil. At least three planes believed to be owned or operated by the CIA-- including a Boeing 737 that rendered el-Masri to Afghanistan and the Gulfstream executive jet that Italian prosecutors say flew Abu Omar to Cairo--made at least 10 stops on Mallorca during 2004. The Spanish government says it has been assured by the Bush administration that none of the CIA planes stopping on Spanish soil had prisoners on board or otherwise infringed Spanish law. At least some of the Mallorcan stopovers were used to take on fuel after arriving from, or before departing for, the U.S. Spain cites extended stay But according to the Guardia's report, the 737 spent five days on Mallorca in April 2004 before departing for Libya--more time than needed to refuel. Another of the Mallorcan stopovers lasted three days. There were five two-day visits, and three others that lasted a single day and night. Police say most of the passengers on those flights spent the layovers at two of Palma's most exclusive hotels, the Mallorca Marriott and the Gran Melia Victoria. The five-star Gran Melia charges $1,018 a for a suite during the month of September, when several of the stopovers occurred, although it is not known whether operatives rented a suite. At the Marriott, a junior suite goes for $300 a night, and an executive suite for $325. Access to the hotel's golf course is $65. According to the local newspaper, the Diario de Mallorca, the hotel bills incurred during some of those layovers included greens fees, massages and $78 bottles of Pesquera red wine. - - - Operatives traced to some of Milan's finer hotels Italian police say CIA operatives involved in the 2003 abduction of Abu Omar, an Egyptian imam, racked up thousands of dollars in expenses at Milan hotels in the weeks leading up to the operation. Number of operatives tracked: 20 Length of stay: From 5 to 42 days Total room charges: $158,096.56 WHERE POLICE SAY CIA OPERATIVES STAYED >From Jan. 8-Feb. 19, 2003; amount spent at each for room charges* Westin Palace $40,098.81 Principe di Savoia $39,995.36 Milan Hilton $21,266.67 Milan Marriott $17,089.29 Star Hotel Rosa $15,280.95 Excelsior Hotel Gallia $5,595.24 ATA Hotel Executive $4,951.19 Four Points Sheraton $4,928.57 Others $8,890.48 * Not including food and other services Source: Hotel records obtained by Milan police; ESRI; TeleAtlas Copyright © 2005, Chicago Tribune ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> AIDS in India: A "lurking bomb." Click and help stop AIDS now. http://us.click.yahoo.com/VpTY2A/lzNLAA/yQLSAA/TySplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
