Skip to content or view screen version

Wanted Poster: Robert Lady of CIA (case will blow CIA wide open)

Angelo Frole | 30.03.2007 07:29 | Anti-militarism | Repression | Terror War

WANTED: Robert Seldon Lady (Bob Lady), an ex-CIA agent (see PHOTO), for overseeing the abduction-for-torture (extraordinary rendition, as the CIA calls it) of Muslim cleric Osama Mustafa Hassan Nasr, aka Abu Omar.

Robert Lady (left): Wanted for kidnapping/torture (CIA rendition)
Robert Lady (left): Wanted for kidnapping/torture (CIA rendition)

Cell-phone record proves Lady was in Egypt, where Abu Omar was tortured.
Cell-phone record proves Lady was in Egypt, where Abu Omar was tortured.

USAF Col Joseph Romano arranged the victim's transport to torture.
USAF Col Joseph Romano arranged the victim's transport to torture.


Nasr was abducted by the CIA on February 17, 2003, in Milan, Italy, and transported via the USAF Aviano base to Egypt. Prosecutors in Milan have charged Bob Lady, the Milan station chief of the CIA; Jeffrey Castelli, the Rome station chief and ranking CIA man in Italy; Joseph Romano (see PHOTO), a US Air Force colonel who was in charge of security at Aviano; 24 other CIA operatives; and 8 Italian security men, including Luciano Pironi (in PHOTO with Lady).  http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070409/bazzi

The Americans are long gone from Italy. However, they will be tried in absentia by a Milan court (the Milan Tribunal). Judge Caterina Interlandi has ordered the trial to start on June 8, 2007. This case, known in Italy as the Imam Rapito (cleric abduction), will dominate the news there.

All suspects named here (except two Italians who have plea-bargained) are subject to arrest in any jurisdiction of the European Union. Anyone knowing their whereabouts should contact their national police or Interpol [go to  http://www.interpol.int and email the General Secretariat or send a fax to Interpol in France at (33) 4 72 44 71 63].

Robert Seldon Lady, a neocon ex-CIA officer (retired January 2004), will be tried for overseeing the abduction ("rapito") of Abu Omar/Nasr and his subsequent transportation to Egypt, where Nasr was tortured. Lady also is charged with conspiracy in the matter. The warrant under which Lady is charged, issued by the Milan Tribunal, is No. 10838/05.  http://www.statewatch.org/cia/documents/milan-tribunal-19-us-citizens-sought.pdf

WHERE'S ROBERT?

Since fleeing Italy in about January 2005, Robert Lady has lived at his father's old addresses in Valle de Angeles, Honduras, and Punta Gorda, Florida. He has visited Spain and Switzerland as well as Honduras. Lady has been spotted in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC (on monthly visits to the CIA headquarters) and in Italian restaurants in the East Village section of Manhattan.  http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,472537,00.html

The PHOTO of Lady was taken after September 2003. Lady is reported to be a big man (height and girth) and to have a gray or graying beard and mustache. He is supposedly affable and outgoing. He speaks fluent Italian and Spanish (his mother was a Honduran and he was raised in Honduras) and may seek to blend into a Latino community.

He may dye his hair, shave facial hair, or effect other disguises. The PHOTO of Lady was taken early in 2004.

Do not attempt to apprehend: Lady was trained in firearms use and hand-to-hand combat as a New York City policeman (in the 1970s) and by the CIA (beginning about 1980).

Lady was born in Tegucigalpa (Honduras) on May 21, 1954, to WIlliam (Billy, Bill) Seldon and Maria Lady. He is a US citizen. His last address in Italy was via Don Bosco n. 40, in Penango (AT).

POSSIBLE U.S. CHARGES
The Bush Administration will refuse to extradite the American fugitives in the Imam Rapito (and the national government of Italy, showing very little respect for itself or the national sovereignty, has not asked them to). However, the torture aspect of the crime is punishable under U.S. federal law, even by death if the victim (Nasr) dies as a result.

U.S. Code: 18 USC Section 2340A: "Whoever outside the United States commits or attempts to commit torture shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both, and if death results to any person from conduct prohibited by this subsection, shall be punished by death or imprisoned for any term of years or for life." (The current Italian charges are worth only up to 4 years' imprisonment.)

Charges under this law will not be brought by the Bush Administration, but the political climate in the United States has changed considerably just since the November 2004 elections, and Bush will leave office by the expiration of his term in January 2009 (if not before, by impeachment).

SEE PROOF: LADY VISITED EGYPT RIGHT AFTER NASR WAS ABDUCTED AND WHILE HE WAS BEING TORTURED

There is plenty of evidence of all kinds in this case. There are witnesses and even one eye witness. The depositions given by witnesses match electronic evidence such as that in the yellow/green cell-call TABLE, computer disks confiscated from Lady's home, documentary evidence obtained from hotel records and Lady's home, and much more. The witnesses have been proved reliable.

The telephone number of the cell phone Bob Lady used to talk with the conspirators under his command was 3480614737. As the charges made by prosecutors state: "On February 23rd 2003 the user of the appliance [380614737] moves to the province of Gorizia, and from that day no calls are made/received by the said number until 03/03/2003 when it receives two calls from an unidentified number, *while occupying a radio “cell” in Egypt*." In the TABLE of call records the prosecutors obtained from the cellular carrier, the calling number is in the first column and the called number is in the second column.

From this [TABLE information] the prosecutors infer that: "One can comfortably assume that the user of the said Vodafone card stayed in Egypt from February 22nd to March 15th 2003, i.e. during the first days of Abu Omar’s unlawful detention in Egypt, and when he was most likely being subject to the first spate of “treatment” [torture, described later]. These circumstances have been confirmed by the witness account made by Elbadry Mohamed Reda, according to whom Abu Omar (who had informed him) had already been transferred to Egypt in those days."

SIMILAR TABLES CORROBORATE WITNESS TESTIMONY AND SUPPORT ALL OF THE CHARGES IN IMAM RAPITO

There is extensive witness testimony of how the CIA carried out Imam Rapito, and the many tables in the warrant at  http://www.statewatch.org/cia/documents/milan-tribunal-19-us-citizens-sought.pdf and other warrants prove the testimony to be true.

"IT'S NOT 'MAH' FAULT!"

Mr. Lady's original response to the charges against him was that he had diplomatic immunity (he was a spy using the U.S. embassy as a cover) and that the prosecutors couldn't touch him and had no right to raid his home and garage.

"I WAS JUST FOLLOWING ORDERS."

This was Mr. Lady's second defense, and the one he uses now. He says -- and most media, mainstream and other, take this at face value -- that he was opposed to the abduction of Mr. Nasr because it would damage intelligence work of the Italians, who were investigating Nasr as a Muslim militant, and would damage the relationship between Italian and American intelligence. The truth is, he is a neocon who worked with leading neocons like John Negroponte and Michael Ledeen in Latin America way back in the 1980s.

Of course the media swallow the "just following orders line" because they are in basically the same business as the CIA: propaganda. The truth is that the CIA is ineffective and should be disbanded and replaced. It did not provide intelligence to prevent 9/11. The agency is useless because no one -- probably not even the president -- knows when to believe them. (They could even be a physical threat to the president if he opposed their operations.) Their stock in trade is lies, not useful truths.

The "just following orders from higher up"/good soldier defense was used by the Nazis in the Nuremberg trials, and it is as meaningless now as it was then. Lady uses it because, as he admitted in a recent interview, he is resigned to being convicted if tried.

Bob Lady's present hope -- and the hope of the U.S. and Italian governments -- is that the constitutional court of Italy will stop the trial by citing the interests of state security, as Italy's attorney general asked it to do in February and as some in the Italian parliament are urging. However, the "secrets" presented here are already open-source information. The rapito from Italian soil by a foreign power is a breach of Italy's national security and sovereignty. Thus, it would be very interesting to see what creative writing the constitutional court must use to justify stopping the trial.


FATHER OF LIES AND MASTERS OF BETRAYAL

The light-haired man whom Robert Lady is so friendly with in the PHOTO shows how unreliable intelligence agencies are. The guy later betrayed Lady and will testify against him. He is Luciano Pironi, another defendant and a member of the Italian military police (the Carabinieri, a uniformed police unit that serves a dual civilian-military function such as President Bush is instituting in the U.S.).

According to court documents which formed part of the initial investigation, Luciano Pironi stopped Abu Omar to ask for his identity papers, and while checking them he led Abu Omar to a white van, into which he was pulled by two American agents. As part of a plea bargain, Pironi admitted to participating in the Imam Rapito, ratted out his friend Robert Seldon Lady, and received a 21-month prison sentence,

ELECTRODES TO THE BALLS, A CRIPPLED LEG, A "WRECK" OF A MAN -- BUT THE ONLY REAL MAN OF THE LOT

 http://www.serendipity.li/hr/torture.htm
Unlike Pironi, Abu Omar resisted the temptation to rat out his friends or to return to Italy to spy on them in return for freedom as promised by the CIA. One would like to see how many CIA operators could do as well as he did. (In fact, one would like to see U.S. Attorney General Albert Gonzales subjected to the CIA "heavy interrogation" technique called "waterboarding" and see if he still feels that it does not qualify as torture.)

The torture of imam Abu Omar included:

In the white van, he was beaten by the CIA goons until foam poured out of his mouth. The goons detected a cardiac event and, worried that Nasr might die before he could be tortured in Egypt into cooperating, began administering chest compression.

Once he was in the hands of the Gypsy intelligence service, they hung him upside down and administered many electric shocks, especially in the head area.

They applied electric shocks to his balls.

Gypsy perverts played with his genitals a la Abu Ghraib and threatened him with rape (as CIA voyeurs watched?).

He was exposed to incredibly loud music that caused him to lose hearing in one ear.

He was crippled in one leg by beatings and has difficulty walking.

He was kept in a dank cell in darkness; and rats and roaches crawled over his body day and night.

He was made to lie on a wet mattress to which electricity was applied.
Abu Omar calls himself "wreck of a human being" and has evidence on and in his body to prove that and torture, but he did not yield to the CIA's demand that he return to Italy to spy on his friends.

The Egyptians released Abu Omar from prison on February 11, 2007, and he is staying with his family in Alexandria. Security forces are monitoring him, but he hopes that he will not be rearrested and that he can go to Italy to present evidence at the trial of the CIA and Italian intelligence agents. Before his recent release, he was released and rearrested eight or nine times.

ROBERT LADY AND U.S. CHIEF SPY JOSE A. RODRIGUEZ -- PARALLEL CAREERS, DIFFERENT ENDINGS

Lady is right in one of his defensive claims: he was betrayed, and by Americans as well as Italians. In a recent interview with Matthew Cole for the March 2007 issue of Gentlemen's Quarterly (basically a sympathy plea for Lady), Lady said, "Leaders [of the CIA] used to protect those below, from the top as they went up.... Now they protect the top. They manage down and step on anyone below."

This is an obvious slap at Stephen R. Kappes, the head of the Operations Directorate at the time of the Abu Omar abduction. Kappes was the highest ranking CIA official who had to sign off on renditions. It also is a slap at Jose A. Rodriguez Jr, the current director of the National Clandestine Service, the successor to the Operations Directorate. The nonsupport complaint is probably directed more at Rodriguez, a Puerto Rican, whose CIA career, like Lady's, was mostly in Latin America. In fact, Rodriguez was Chief of the Latin America Division of the CIA at the time Lady left the division to begin his ill-fated Italian tour in September 2000.

(Lady goes back farther with the CIA in Latin America than Rodriguez, having started there in 1980 and having served during the CIA's successful and illegal [against U.S. and international law] war to overthrow the elected Nicaraguan government in the CIA's most historic affair: Iran-contra. Lady is a Honduras-born American; and his father, Billy Seldon Lady, a native-born citizen of the U.S., was officially a gold miner operating in Honduras and Nicaragua and unofficially a gun runner by airplane in the 1980s.)

Now consider the differing fates of Lady and his former bosses. Lady is exiled from his million-dollar-plus retirement estate in Italy, separated from his wife by Imam Rapito legal hassles, a laughing stock in the CIA, and a wanted man. Rodriguez, on the other hand, bought an almost $1-million house in the Cascades subdivision of Potomac Falls, VA, with his businesswoman wife after he was promoted in late 2004 to head the clandestine service He is prepared to pass through the revolving door from the CIA to the Blackwater USA mercenary (soldiers of fortune) company -- the Great Watering Hole in the Sky for CIA diehards, where he will reap his final reward for service to the U.S. taxpayers.  http://www.harpers.org/sb-revolving-door-blackwater-1158094722.html

Kappes, the man at the top who approved the Imam Rapito rendition, has been promoted in mid 2006 to the No. 2 position at the CIA (Deputy Director) and also lives in a fine, big house in Upper Marlboro, MD, which Omar's attorney would no doubt like to place a lien on. According to his lawyer in Egypt, Montasser al-Zayat, Nasr plans to sue the U.S. and Italian governments for damages -- and former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi personally -- for damages.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2007/02/12/AR2007021201448.html

DEFENDANTS IN THE RENDTION OF OSAMA MUSTAFA HASSAN NASR (ABU OMAR)

24 CIA DEFENDANTS

1) ADLER Monica Courtney [Adler is real name, alias Maria Luana Baetz, also involved in
thwarted rendition of Mullah Krekar in Norway later in 2003 and in the actual rendition of Khaled el-Masri in January 2004. Apparently there is a full-time traveling snatch team, and Baetz/Adler is or was part of it. By some reports, during the Clinton administration Baetz/Adler was professionally involved with banker Jorge Castro Barredo, a Cuban-born Venezuelan who contributed financially to Democratic Party election campaign funds and was involved in cases of fraud and money-laundering/]
Born in Seattle (Washington - USA) on 02/02/1973, US
citizen with US passport n. 017017139 (issued on 07.25.01), international driver’s
license n. 66605387, issued by US Authority in Heatrow (Florida) on
04.03.2002, Diners Club credit card n. 38541798540000 (expiry date May/2004),
resident at 2001 N.Adams, Arlington - VIRGINIA - 22201.


2) ASHERLEIGH Gregory, born in Hyattsville - Maryland (USA) on 12/23/1955,
Coachmen Enterprises Washington, DC P.O. Box 91228 Washington DC (USA) or STS
Inc. P.O. Box 1606 Hyattsville (Maryland) 20788 (USA), telephone number
3015953823; US citizen with US passport n. 015135635, issued on 06.04.96; US
driver’s licence n. 66605685; Visa Card credit card n. 4118160311575248 (expiry date
June/2005)

3) CARRERA Lorenzo Gabriel, born in Texas (USA) il 01.29.71, US citizen with US
passport n. 016422583, issued on 02.12.95, or n. 016422583, issued on 01.28.00; Visa
Card credit card n. 4118160306976955 (expiry date October/2005) and Diners Club
credit card n. 38502203140000 (expiry date October/2004)

4) CASTALDO Eliana, born in Florida (USA) on 11/14/1969, P.O. Box 1041
Norristown 19404 PA (USA), telephone number 6102786893. US citizen with US
passport n. 026138038 issued on 11.02.98; Visa Card credit card n. 4118165006438370
(expiry date February/2005);

5) CASTELLANO Victor, born in Texas (USA) on 05/01/1968, P.O. Box 41471
Arlington VA 22204, US citizen with US passport n. 015914097 (issued on 07.14.97),
Diners Club credit card n. 38184636950006 (expiry date December/2004) and Visa Card
credit card n. 4118160152726694 (expiry date March/2005);

6) Jeffrey CASTELLI, the head of CIA in Italy at the time (chief of station in Rome), now believed to be working at CIA headquarters in Virginia;

7) CHANNING Drew Carlyle, born in New York (USA) on 04/26/1965, US citizen
with US passport n. 017121103, issued on 06.10.02; Diners Club credit
card n. 385030097360001 (expiry date April/2005)

8) Sabrina DE SOUSA, State Department diplomat, helped make false documents to mislead investigators;

9) DUFFIN John Kevin, born in Illinois (USA) on 05/03/1952, P.O. Box 60031 19406
King of Prussia PA (USA) or 649 South Henderson Rd, King of Prussia - 19406 PA or
at Krauss Nannette 329 Prince Frederick St - King of Prussia, PA 19406 (tel.
6102650563); US citizen with US passport n. 016434535 issued on 09.15.99 (copy
acquired), Diners Club credit card n. 38650098880006 (expiry date April/2005), Visa
Card credit card n. 4118165007626908 (expiry date March/2005);

10) FALDO VINCENT, d.o.b. 11.1.1950 in Massachussetts (USA), US passport nr 102026001 issued in Boston on 6.7.2000;

11) GURLEY John Thomas, born in Los Angeles (USA) on 07/10/1969, 2783 Lb
Mcloud Rd 32805 Orlando (USA), US citizen with US passport n. 045029843, issued on
12.10.99; Visa Card credit card n. 4118160151941278 (expiry date December/2004)

12) HARBAUGH Raymond, born in Alaska (USA) on 06.09.39, Box 73 Newington
22122 VA (USA), US citizen with US passport n. 016136600, issued on 03.17.99; Visa
Card credit cards n. 4486025001058371 (expiry date June/2005), n. 4316440000154988
(expiry date March/2003);

13) HARBISON James Thomas, d.o.b. 12.15.1948 in the USA

14) HARTY Ben Amar, born in Iowa (USA) on 10.20.44, Box 73 Newington 22122 VA
(USA), US citizen with US passport n. 017120164, issued on 11.09.2001 and valid until
11.09.07; Visa Card credit cards n. 4486029500095512 (expiry date June 2003) and 4316440000221555 (expiry date March/2003), SPG card (Special Preferred Guest Westin Palace), type “A”, n. 50426336577

15) IBANEZ Brenda Liliana, born in New York (USA) on 01.07.60, Coachmen
Enterprises Washington, DC P.O. Box 91228 Washington DC (USA). Telephone number
in Washington DC. 2026823098; US citizen with US passport n. 017018953; Visa Card
credit card n. 4118165007635784 (expiry date aprile/2003) and Delta Airlines Frequent
flyer card n. 2349251336;

16) JENKINS Anne Lidia, born in Florida on 09/24/1946, US citizen with US passport
n. 016698784 (copy acquired), issued on 06.28.01 by the Passport Agency in
Washington, and valid until 06.27.2011;

17) KIRKLAND James Robert, born in Tennessee (USA) on 07.13.42, US citizen with
US passport n. 045032045, issued on 10.01.1998 by the Passport Agency in Miami,
expiry date 30.9.2008; Diners Club credit card n. 38541799470009 (expiry date
gennaio/2004) [This person]

18) LADY Robert Seldon (see PHOTO), born in Tegucigalpa (Honduras) on 21.05.54, US citizen,
domiciled or resident in via Don Bosco n. 40, in Penango (AT), Italy; since fled to Tegucigalpa,
Honduras, and Punta Gorda, Florida, USA, and New York City, USA.
Robert Seldon Lady was listed as a General Consul of the USA in Milan from Sep. 1, 2000 until Jan. 1, 2004, during which time he was a spy for the CIA, retiring from the CIA on the latter date.

19) LOGAN Cyntia Dame, born in Maryland (USA) on 05/01/1960; Coachmen
Enterprises Washington, DC P.O. Box 91228 Washington DC (USA). US citizen with
US passport n. 016430730 (copy acqured), issued on 01.03.2000 by the Passport Agency
in Washington, Visa Card credit card n. 4118165007635768 (expiry date April/2003),
SPG card (Special Preferred Guest Westin Hotel), type “A”, n. 50556297010, United
Airlines Frequent flyer card n. 01394828870;

20) MEDERO-NAVEDO Betnie, d.o.b 3.29.1967 in the USA, US passport nr 016051676 issued on 4.27.1988; Second Secretary at the U.S. embassy in Italy at the time of the kindapping; now First Secretary at the U.S. embassy in Mexico


21) PURVIS L. George, born in China on 05.29.59, 21008 Matchlock Ct 20147
Ashburn - Virginia (USA), US citizen with US passport n. 015645726, issued on
05.20.97; Master Card credit card n. 5466160067501849 (expiry date March/2003); email
address “ loiep53@aol.com”; United Airlines Frequent flyer card n. 01208942316;
Hilton Honors card n. 441369809

22) RUEDA Pilar Maria, born in California (USA) on 05.08.61, P.O.Box 80027 Washington
D.C. 20618 (USA); US citizen with US passport n. 016518173, issued on 02.27.01; Visa
Card credit card n. 4118165007854492 (expiry date September/2003); SPG card
(Special Preferred Guest Westin Hotel), type “A”, n. 50426336887,

23) Ralph Henry RUSSOMANDO; helped make false documents to mislead investigators;

24) SOFIN Joseph, born in Moldova on 02/13/1953, P.O. 4173 Arlington 22203 VA
(USA), telephone number 7032185346, or Blake Lane Fairfax Virginia; US citizen with US passport n. 016138217 issued on 11.18.99; Diners Club credit card n.
38643304300000; SPG card (Special Preferred Guest Westin Hotel), type “A”, n.
716587012;

25) VASILIOU Michalis born in Greece on 11.05.62, US citizen with US passport n. 015456173, issued on 10.11.1995.

U.S. AIR FORCE DEFENDANT

1) Col. Joseph L. ROMANO III (see PHOTO), Commander of the 31st Security Police Squadron at the Aviano Air Base at the time, now working at Section 31P of the Pentagon or at Maxwell AFB in Alabama.

ITALIAN DEFENDANTS (Only first seven are currently charged. The last two plea-bargained.)

1) General Nicolò Pollari, former director of the Italian secret service, SISMI
2) Marco Mancini, SISMI, director of operations under Gen. Pollari
3) Raffaele Ditroia, SISMI station chief: direct role in abduction
4) Luciano Di Gregorio, SISMI station chief: direct role in abduction
5) Giuseppe Corra, SISMI station chief: direct role in abduction
6) Pio Pompa, SISMI: aiding and abetting abduction
7) Luciano Seno, SISMI: aiding and abetting abduction
8) Renato Farina, former reporter: Plea bargained and received 21-month sentence.
9) Luciano Pironi, marshall of the Carabinieri (paramilitary) police: Plea-bargained and received reduced sentence.

Angelo Frole

Comments

Hide the following 4 comments

?

30.03.2007 08:21

"Gypsy perverts played with his genitals a la Abu Ghraib and threatened him with rape (as CIA voyeurs watched?)."

What the hell is a "gypsy pervert"? What a dubious turn of phrase.

?


They must be caught!

30.03.2007 15:18

I do not care how long this takes they must all be impeached, they must all go to jail.
If they don't then the world has a huge problem.
Jail..Jail..Jail..
That is the only way the war mongerers in the US will stop being war mongerers, they must suffer humiliation.
I would love to set up a fake torture episode with someone and go to court and say that I thought he was a terrorist and that I was simply doing my duty....doing what all the media and goverments sanction...would be nice to see what the courts say...But it would have to be a setup, I can't torture anyone...
What would the courts say?
Arse holes, the only way to deal with them is to humiliate them.

sb


"Gypsy" and Why not rendition these.

30.03.2007 17:04

"Mock" torture might be a good idea, to bring these to justice. However, U.S. law does provide for death and the Americans exact this penalty regularly.

"Gypsy" is an old term sometimes used for "Egyption," now considered deprecatory and perhaps justified in the case of those who torture.

William Bennett


William Bennett

31.03.2007 09:09

Mock execution is never a good idea because you always get what you are fishing for and the series of half-arsed raids in the uk in the last 12 months shows that the quality of intel gained sux.

If you threatened to withhold my statutory 2 cups of coffee every morning I'd tell you that Shergar was buried in that back garden of the "main man" of the guy that down the road that looked at me funny once.

I'm not even being tortured yet and I have a motivation to lie.

Strangely it was 50% of the reason to sign up to a torture ban in the first place.

Stick a Black & Decker in my scapula and I'll forget about the milk & two sugars!

?