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The Spies Who Came In from the Hot Tub

By Tom Engelhardt, Tomdispatch.com. Posted July 25, 2005.


The massive footprints left by spies in Italy have given us a glimpse into the Bush administration's "shadow war" being conducted -- on our behalf -- through the CIA.

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Like so much else in our moment, it contravened laws the U.S. had once signed onto, pretzeled the English language, went directly to the darkside, was connected to various administration lies and manipulations that preceded the invasion of Iraq, and was based on taking the American taxpayer to the cleaners.

I'm talking about a now-notorious Bush administration "extraordinary rendition" in Italy, the secret kidnapping of a radical Muslim cleric off the streets of Milan in early 2003, his transport via U.S. airbases in Italy and Germany to Egypt, and there, evidently with the CIA station chief for Italy riding shotgun, directly into the hands of Egyptian torturers. This was but one of an unknown number of extraordinary-rendition operations -- the estimate is more than 100 since September 11, 2001, but no one really knows -- that have been conducted all over the world and have delivered terror suspects into the custody of Uzbeki, Syrian, Egyptian, and other hands notorious for their use of torture. It just so happens that this operation took place on the democratic soil of an ally that possessed an independent judiciary, and that the team of 19 or more participants, some speaking fluent Italian, passed through that country not like the undercover agents of our imagination, but, as former CIA clandestine officer Melissa Boyle Mahle told Reuters, "like elephants stampeding through Milan. They left huge footprints."

Those gargantuan footprints -- and some good detective work by the Italian police based on unsecured cell phones (evidently from a batch issued to the U.S. diplomatic mission in Rome), hotel bills, credit card receipts, and the like -- have given us a glimpse into the unexpectedly extravagant "shadow war" being conducted on our behalf by the Bush administration through the Central Intelligence Agency. So let me skip the normal discussions of kidnappings, torture, or whether we violated Italian sovereignty, and just concentrate on what those footprints revealed. If the President's Global War on Terror has been saddled with the inelegant acronym GWOT, the Italian rendition operation should perhaps be given the acronym LDVWOT or La Dolce Vita War on Terror.

Of course, if Vice President Dick Cheney could say of administration tax cuts, "We won the [2002] midterms. This is our due"; if House Majority Leader Tom DeLay could charge his transatlantic airfare to Great Britain on an American Express card issued to lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and food and phone calls at a Scottish golf-course hotel on a credit card issued to Washington lobbyist, Edwin A. Buckham; if Halliburton could slip a reputed $813 million extra in "costs" into a contract to provide logistical support for U.S. troops (including "$152,000 in 'movie library costs' [and] a $1.5 million tailoring bill"); then why shouldn't the Spartan warriors of the intelligence community capture a few taxpayer bucks while preparing a kidnapping in Italy?

Here's what we know at present about this particular version of La Dolce Vita:

  • The CIA agents took rooms in Milan's 5-star hotels, including the Principe di Savoia ("one of the world's most luxuriously appointed hotels") where they rang up $42,000 in expenses; the Westin Palace, the Milan Hilton, and the Star Hotel Rosa as well as similar places in the seaside resort of La Spezia and in Florence, running up cumulative hotel bills of $144,984.
  • They ate in the equivalent of 5-star restaurants in Milan and elsewhere, evidently fancying themselves gourmet undercover agents.

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Tom Engelhardt, editor of Tomdispatch.com, is co-founder of the American Empire Project and author of "The End of Victory Culture."

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Muslim Radicals
Posted by: diversaint on Jul 25, 2005 4:36 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
If a radical Muslim cleric was handed to the Egyptians on a plate and was tortured as a result, that is good news as far as I'm concerned. If we had adopted the same tactics a few years back, with the disgusting Abu Hamza and Omar Bakri, we wouldn't be in the mess we are now. Unfortuately, as usual, the bleeding hearts and the likes of the odious Ken(I love extremists)Livingstone, shouted the loudest.

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» RE: Muslim Radicals Posted by: taxidave
» RE: Muslim Radicals Posted by: Pepper
» RE: Muslim Radicals Posted by: sd333trop
» RE: Muslim Radicals Posted by: trurel
» RE: Muslim Radicals Posted by: monkeywrench
» RE: Muslim Radicals Posted by: AlterNug
» RE: Muslim Radicals Posted by: fjames
» RE: Muslim Radicals Posted by: userjeff
» RE: Muslim Radicals Posted by: fjames
» WWJT? Posted by: rickslatton
gramps
Posted by: gramps on Jul 25, 2005 7:48 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
This is investigative reporting at its best. The criticism posted is the mean and stupid blathering of one who probably enjoys pulling the wings off of flies. Outsourcing torture by an American governmet should be viewed with horror by any decent American and the loss of American tax money by the prolifigates who are doing the dirty job is an added insult.

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OUtrageous tax payer expense !
Posted by: cobrajet on Jul 25, 2005 7:55 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
So ,my hard earned tax dollars are for undercover agents going to 5 star hotels, and gorging themselves on food, $10 cokes ? And the Govt has the nerve to chase after the lower class in the US for non-payment of a $500 tax bill ?!!
THis is not a democracy , this ia a aristocracy ! How long will Americans stand for this ? The time for revolt is now !
Lets work with BRazilans and COlumbians to revolt the US govt.

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» RE: OUtrageous tax payer expense ! Posted by: Lincoln fan
Shades of James Bond, "I Spy"
Posted by: sausage on Jul 25, 2005 12:11 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Shouldn't come as any surprize that federal employees on an agency expense account are living high-on-the hog. The federal agency I'm most familar with, the Postal Service, fetes mangement like pashas while seeking to not cut the fat out of the budget but the muscle, from the workroom floor in mail processing facilities to door-to-door delivery.

These CIA operatives, involved in the above described imbroglio, obviously are themselves among the raified elite of government mangerial types; expense accounts are an open wallet, the taxpayer be damned. I'm sure that one or more of them is also a good, fiscally responsible, "get-big-government-off-out-back" Republican. After all, James Bond won't have been as effective had he taken the pose of a working-class hero.

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Calling all government waste watchdogs!
Posted by: sedrik39 on Jul 25, 2005 3:51 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Hello? Taxpayers for Common Sense? Club for Growth?

Anyone?

You would think they would be up in arms about wasting this much of our money; imagine if a Democrat were the commander -in-cheif.

This isn't just wrong, it's stupid (pay without leaving a trace, idiots), undiplomatic (as if we needed a reason for Italy to be pissed at us after we shot their bodyguards), and supremely immoral (two words: TORTURE). Speaking of which, where is the Christian right on this?

By the way, I am a Christian, and all of this crap just makes me sick. I can't wait until this storm over lies and political outings and revelations of torture cause all Christians to realize that being partisan is a bad idea. Dobson, if you're reading this, remember that Jesus had some words for anyone causing His little ones to be led astray (does the word millstone ring a bell?).

Pray for this country. Pray that we will once again be a land of moral standards.

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SICK WORLD
Posted by: spitviper on Jul 25, 2005 9:04 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
here's something to dwell on. i was raised in the US gov't (just like sarah daugherty). when we'd get in trouble as kids, there was an on-post agency called the CID... central intelligence division. They were kind of the army CIA and they'd "survaille" us when we'd hang out. WE got good at spotting 'em, but it was easy. they'd always drive baby blue ford fairmonts, stand too close to us in line at the PX or commissary, act very very tall and rigid around us. I think the point was to intimidate the "kiddies." Problem was, we were army brats and used to it. Ok, so noticing this growing up, when we were teenagers, it got a little wierder. Minor shoplifting incidents led to us being "tailed" by actual FBI agents who also strived to intimidate, but were more low key & a tad more affable. They'd usually drive a late model fords or even Rabbits & were smart enough to change car model every now and again. They also varied in size and race. But very serious stuff.

Later, we Brats became familiar with CIA tails... It wasn't our people we knew and we do know people in CIA and their kids... but strange tails watching us being an army brat punks and visiting sarah at her parent's house where a Congressman also lived.

and glower like they will kill you,soon. So, TODAY, i come home from work, & stop at SavOn's for milk and cigarettes. I pick up my items, stand in-line behind one of those fat ladies who insist on giving exact change without actually HAVING it. she was digging around in her purse, i was standing in line with my guart of milk. Then, some guy with a greying crew cut who seemed 7 feet tall, wearing his "casual white guy" disguise of starched tan chinos & sporty green golf shirt with a gold money clip, steps in a leeetle too close behind. I glare, as is standard, but he did not back off. I keep shifting from side to side so he pauses & shifts behind me. HA!

So, i finally get my cigarettes, go out to my battered car,& shore enough, parked beside mine, is a shiny black Cadillac with a thick mysterious antennae on top. I laugh from recognition. THen i wait in my car & before i could even light a cig, Mr. Crew-Cut-Giant-in-Golf-Shirt comes rushing up to his caddy. Sarah laughed with me. we grew up with this & can spot & guess what car they're driving from about 5 miles & 6 years away. It's creepy tho, esp because we're really not up to anything. AT ALL.

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» RE: SICK WORLD Posted by: spitviper
pullin leg.
Posted by: spitviper on Jul 25, 2005 10:37 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Bwahahahahaha. just kidding. the fact are fact... that's how eachof those agencies act and the kinds of cars they drive. but no bodies really following me or my friend. Bwhahahaha. i'm playin' on yer paranoia... then i read that stupid blog about penguins and decided you readers have suffered enuf pain herein....

FYI: penguins are mean... like geese. and the CIA dye their hair before it turns grey...

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