Italy Knew About Plan To Grab Suspect

The CIA and a spokesman for the Italian Embassy in Washington yesterday declined to comment on the Milan case or this article.

Officials involved in the Milan operation at the time said it was conceived by the Rome CIA station chief, organized by the CIA's Counterterrorism Center, and approved by the CIA leadership and by at least one person at the National Security Council. The station chief has since retired but remains undercover.

The Italian operation was highly unusual even in the context of 100 renditions.

In most, if not all, other post-Sept. 11 renditions, the security service of the foreign country has apprehended the suspect, then transferred him into CIA custody. In the Italian case, operatives from the CIA's paramilitary branch, the Special Activities Division, were dispatched, making the risk of disclosure much higher.

Two of the CIA veterans said the operatives became directly involved because, by 2003, counterterrorism operations had become the main thing the agency's leadership and the White House cared about. "Everyone wanted into the game," a CIA officer said. "The CIA chief in Italy wanted to have a notch in his belt."

Current and former CIA officials offered conflicting accounts of whether anyone outside the Rome station chief's counterpart at Sismi, as Italy's military intelligence unit is known, was informed.

One U.S. government official involved with the operation said the Italians approved it "at the national level, among senior people."

But another CIA officer who reviewed the operation after it took place said it was highly unusual because "it should have been the head of service to the head of service" -- meaning then-CIA Director George J. Tenet speaking directly to his counterpart, Gen. Nicolo Pollari. "There's none of that . . . this is pretty abnormal."

Sometime after his apprehension on the night of Feb. 17, 2003, Nasr was secretly transported to Egypt, where he was detained on terrorism-related charges. When Egyptian authorities released him and placed him under house arrest, he called his wife in Italy, asserting that he had been tortured and describing his abduction. Nasr's whereabouts are unknown. People familiar with the case believe he is likely back in custody.

According to court records, the CIA operatives left paper and electronic trails that allowed Italian prosecutors and police to track their movements and associations as if they were pursuing an organized crime network, and to identify at least one CIA officer, the base chief in Milan, by his real name.

The chief left the country shortly after the operation was discovered, according to several CIA veterans. The paramilitary team and other CIA operatives who participated are also long gone, and it is highly unlikely the U.S. government would confirm their identities or extradite them for trial.

"They just won't be able to go back to Europe," quipped one CIA veteran.

Researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.