Former CIA Milan station chief Robert Seldon Lady, convicted in Italy of kidnapping an Egyptian Muslim cleric, has been arrested in Panama, Italian and Panamanian officials said on Thursday.That's the problem with doing a black op in another country: They might take umbrage at it. The Italians did and the CIA, probably expecting that the Italians, our allies, would have have their back, got a little sloppy.*
Tough break for Mr. Lady, who planned to retire in Italy, but not in a prison cell.
Object lesson for CIA spooks in this: If you screw up in the field, you're on your own.**
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* Feel free to snark on the folly of relying on Italy to be an ally. It's late and I'm tired.
** Sort of like being allied with the Italians, when you think of it.
Also a lesson: If a) you have been convicted of a crime in Europe, and b) your nation recently got a lot of allies in Europe to detain a Latin American ruler's aircraft and got all of Latin America in an uproar, c) don't go on vacation in Latin America. You're likely to be arrested and handed over to the nation that convicted you.
ReplyDeleteJust sayin ;).
- Badtux the Geopolitics Penguin
You gotta wonder about the whole plausible deniability thing in today's politics. Does anyone think the CIA fucking around in some other country would reflect poorly on America? Hurt its reputation?
ReplyDeleteAt this point, the CIA should be speaking in public on such things, and saying, "Give us our guy back. Or else."