CIA's Bungled Italy Job

Chicago Tribune ^ | December 25, 2005 | John Crewdson

[shezza]

CIA's BUNGLED ITALY JOB:
Sloppy use of cell phones, other missteps help police unravel cleric's 2003 abduction

By John Crewdson
Tribune senior correspondent
Published December 25, 2005

MILAN, Italy -- The trick is known to just about every two-bit crook in the cellular age: If you don't want the cops to know where you are, take the battery out of your cell phone when it's not in use.

Had that trick been taught at the CIA's rural Virginia training school for covert operatives, the Bush administration might have avoided much of the current crisis in Europe ....

(usual Trib copyright restrictions...click here to read article)

[sure_fine]

Code Names: Chris Farley and Dave Spade

[Casloy]

It takes 5 years to turn a new recruit into a good ops officer, and at least 7 to 10 to turn him into a skilled ops officers. Considering the damage Clinton did to the intelligence community through budget cuts, shift in targeting, and crude attempts to bring "diversity" as quickly as possible none of this should be a surprise. Attrition of skilled Operations Officers was very high in the 90s. Clinton's first DCI, Wolsey, met with him only once during his entire tenure, and that speaks volumes about why the intelligence community was deteriorating in the 90's. Furthermore, one needs to ask the question, why did Italy wait so long to go after these CIA officers? If you know the answer to that question you understand this is less about a failed operation and more about internal Italian politics.

[shezza]

Cell phones have never been secure, so why they thought they could chat away with impunity is unfathomable. Cellphone calls and cordless home phone calls can easily be monitored by any Joe Schmoe with a scanner. Shoot, I think we've picked up cellphone calls on a CB radio.

It's almost as if this Mission Impossible squad was the second string, called in at the last minute. "Hey, Mom! Guess what? I'm on a super-secret mission in Italy! But don't tell anybody, 'cause it's supposed to be some big secret. Hey, can I bring you anything from here?"

[albee]

How about approaching Vladimer Putin to take the job?

He has had years of experience running a very successful KGB and might enjoy a change of scenery.

[epow]

The amateurish blunders by our Keystone Kop operatives are almost unbelievable.

But what bothers me almost as much is this. Why is, or was, one of our most loyal European allies Italy protecting an Islamic extremist who is hell bent on destroying both Italy and the US? IIRC, a few years ago Italy also freed several Islamic skyjackers our people had captured on Italian soil and allowed them to return to their business of terrorizing and murdering Israelis and Americans.

What's going on with the Italian government anyway? They seem to be our friends on one hand and send troops to Iraq, but then they turn around and give aid and comfort to our sworn enemies. With friends like the Ities we don't need enemies.

[shezza]

Spot on. Italy grants asylum to and investigates the kidnapping of a known murderous terrorist who has declared war on the west -- and yet demands prosecution of the agents who tracked down and captured the bad guy. It does seem like Italy is trying to placate the Islamic population within its borders (thanks to the media who publicized all these events). I hope they took notes during France's crisis.

[Perdogg]

I hate to sound like I read too many Tom Clancy novels or listen to Coast-to-Coast too much, but maybe this guys intentionally wanted to get caught to embarrass Bush in Italy.

[Jordi]

I don't think those arrest warrants will ever be executed. All the thing will be archived and forgotten. But after the press had publicized CIA's operation in Italy, local magistrates had to show they exists and do prosecute illegal activities on their territory.

[Perdogg]

Unless Patrick Fitzgerald is the prosecutor.

[epow]

I don't think those arrest warrants will ever be executed.

I hope you're right for the nation's sake, but not for the sake of the clowns who bungled the operation.

[TC Rider]

Think the senior Bush would be amenable to coming back to run the CIA again until it can get cleared out of the incompetent and the untrustworthy?

Only if he can do it with his new best buddy, William Jefferson "Slick" Clinton.

[July 4th]

Cell phones have never been secure, so why they thought they could chat away with impunity is unfathomable. Cellphone calls and cordless home phone calls can easily be monitored by any Joe Schmoe with a scanner. Shoot, I think we've picked up cellphone calls on a CB radio.

GSM is secure from the public and their scanners. Intelligence services and national governments have the keys necessary to decrypt conversations, however, and some hacking groups have claimed an occasional decrypting of a single call. This, in and of itself, is not that big of a deal if the government doing the listening has no idea about the identity of the parties making the calls. When practicing good phone use - as was not done here - the use of a cellphone is an acceptable activity. But that doesn't mean only removing the battery to hide movement. It means regular recycling of phones!!

In Italy, a nation with a widely available pre-paid GSM service, this should have taken a good operative virtually no effort to implement. You act like a tourist, use a fake ID, and buy a pre-paid SIM card with phone in the corner tabac. Use it for a week (or less), dump the phone and card, and buy a new one on another identity.

Furthermore, the Italians have a ton of payphones all over the country. You can walk into most any general retailer and buy a fist-full of phonecards that will work country-wide. Mix that in with good phone technique, and you're good to go.

And re: the hotel - stupid again! There are private apartment rentals available all over Italy for vacationers. Pay in cash - no credit cards. No trace.

It seems to me that this was just lazy work by people who weren't necessarily all connected to the CIA. It probably took valuable time out of their Italian vacation to properly cover their tracks. It wouldn't surprise me if there were a bunch of State Dept. or other foreign service hacks in on this as well, since it just seems way too sloppy, even for a neutered CIA.

[TC Rider]

By the standards shown by these agents, I'm ready to believe that Valerie Plame really is a covert agent.

[Daus]

but maybe this guys intentionally wanted to get caught to embarrass Bush in Italy.

My guess is that they were sloppy due to two things, bad training and a belief they were operating in a sympathetic country.

[shezza]

...and a belief they were operating in a sympathetic country.

Yikes! That's gonna leave a mark.

[Daus]

Yikes! That's gonna leave a mark.

Well... these agents don't get that stupid that quickly. In the past, the type of data mined in this case would have disappered before any of this would have come to light. Someone is apparently still pretty hacked off at us.

[BeHoldAPaleHorse]

"Sloppy use of cell phones, other missteps help police unravel cleric's 2003 abduction"

Besides, they left the cannoli and took the gun.

[BeHoldAPaleHorse]

"I hate to sound like I read too many Tom Clancy novels or listen to Coast-to-Coast too much, but maybe this guys intentionally wanted to get caught to embarrass Bush in Italy."

Given what we've seen out of Langley since 9/11/01, I'm not going to accuse you of tinfolish thought here.