If it did, it would constitute a vere severe violation of the constitution and this gives the governemtnt an obvious incentive to deny its involvement.

It was definetely messed up badly on both sides, but then so was "caso Calipari."

My impression is that there was a good deal of brashness and cock-sure arrogance in handling the kidnapping. When la Repubblica first carried this story in February there was a lengthy account of Abu Omar's telephone calls to his wife and a friend when he was briefly under house arrest in Egypt. He told his friend that the primary interest of his captors was to convince him to become a double agent for the Egyptians and the CIA. According to his account- and we have no reason to doubt it since it was an intercepted private conversation- his captors said that they would put him on the next plane back to Milan if he had accepted. He didn't and spent the next fourteen months on a steady regime of torture.

Now, one might conclude from this that since Abu Omar had been soft with the ShIK, his captors might have been gambling on a round-trip ticket. Hence their brashness in carrying out the operation. (I think WP carried this version, too.)

There is another possible scenario hinted to in various Unità and la Repubblica articles that are, well, not on line. You'll just have to trust me. According to the investigating authorities, there is evidence that the operation was run by the Rome case officer, Jeff Castelli, who has been characterized by some reporters as being overbearing. According to this scenario, Seldon Lady was against the operation but obeyed as a good soldier should. Castelli was "recalled" to Washington by Tenet in the summer of 2003 apparently for maverick behavior both in the Niger caper and the Abu Omar case. However, in an interview, Scheuer defends both Jeff Castelli, and Jim Pavett, whom he indicates as the Langley officer in charge of the Abu Omar operation.

The actual ground work for the operation was allegedly done by CIA operative, Victor Castellano.

There are plenty of cases of CIA operations within allied territories that contradict Scheuer and Bauer. Now that they're on the talk-show celeb circuit maybe they're chipping in with a little damage control. I'm sure Langley silently approves.