CIA kidnappers in Italy had lavish expense accounts.

[JohnyCanuck]

From WashingtonPost.com

MILAN, June 25 -- For 19 American intelligence operatives assigned to apprehend a radical Islamic preacher in Milan two years ago, the mission was equal parts James Bond and taxpayer-financed Italian holiday, according to an Italian investigation of the man's disappearance.

The Americans stayed at some of the finest hotels in Milan, sometimes for as long as six weeks, ringing up tabs of as much as $500 a day on Diners Club accounts created to match their recently forged identities, according to Italian court documents and other records. Then, after abducting their target and flying him to Cairo under the noses of Italian police, some of them rounded out their European trip with long weekends in Venice and Florence before leaving the country, the records show.

Milan prosecutors and police spent the last two years documenting Americans' role in the Feb. 17, 2003 disappearance of Hussan Mustafa Omar Nasr, 42, an Egyptian cleric. On Thursday, a Milan judge ruled that there was enough evidence to warrant the arrest of 13 suspected CIA operatives on kidnapping charges.

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During January 2003, they were regular patrons at the Hotel Principe di Savoia in Milan, which bills itself as "one of the world's most luxuriously appointed hotels" and features a marble-lined spa and minibar Cokes that cost about $10. Seven of the Americans stayed at the 80-year-old hotel for periods ranging from three days to three weeks at nightly rates of about $450, racking up total expenses of more than $42,000 there.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=post&forum=104

[KoKo]

1. Do you have the WaPo link? Your link goes to a blank DU post.

:D Thanks!

[JohnyCanuck]

2. Sorry about that. Here's the correct. link

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/25/AR2005062501127.html