Robert Seldon Lady

Robert Seldon Lady (b. February 2, 1954 in Tegucigalpa, Honduras; nicknamed "Mister Bob") is a noted member of the U.S. intelligence community. The former Central Intelligence Agency station chief in Milan, Lady is now is a fugitive from Italian police, who wish to question him about the kidnapping of Egyptian cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr in February 2003, in what the Italian press are referring to as the "Imam Rapito" (or "kidnapped imam") affair.

Background

Lady grew up in Honduras and became a NOPD police officer in the 1970s. [ [http://www.corriere.it/Primo_Piano/Cronache/2005/06_Giugno/24/olimpio.shtml Bob, 007 senza limiti. Chi lo ha coperto?] ]

Photos of Lady have been placed on the Web. [ [http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2007/03/30/robert_lady_cia_imam_rapito.jpgRobert Lady photo] . "Indymedia", March 30, 2007.]

The "Imam Rapito" affair

Italian authorities believe that in 2003, Lady helped a team of CIA agents kidnap Nasr (see extraordinary rendition) as he walked to his mosque in Milan for noon prayers. Lady is said to have travelled to Egypt soon after the operation, where Nasr alleges he was interrogated and tortured.

Lady initially claimed diplomatic immunity in an effort to avoid judicial proceedings against him in Italy, but in November 2005 an Italian judge rejected this request, stating that Lady had forfeited his immunity when he retired from the CIA, and also that the alleged abduction was in any case a crime serious enough to disqualify him from immunity. [Wilkinson, T. (2005). [http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/947807361.html?dids=947807361:947807361&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Dec+24%2C+2005&author=Tracy+Wilkinson&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&edition=&startpage=A.3&desc=THE+WORLD "Court Widens Net for 22 CIA Agents to EU"] . "The Los Angeles Times", December 24, 2005.]

Lady, and his wife Martha, retired to northern Italy, near Asti, in September 2003. When the Italian police raided his home in June 2005, Lady was not there. Since that time there are reports that he is living in Honduras or the United States. [ [http://dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/128060/index.php CIA Fugitive From Italian Justice is Located] ]

2007 indictment

In January 2007, an Italian court ordered Lady's home in the Piedmont region of Northern Italy seized to cover court costs. [Reuters. (2007). [http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2007-01-26T192254Z_01_L26863483_RTRUKOC_0_US-ITALY-CIA.xml&WTmodLoc=IntNewsHome_C2_worldNews-7 "Italian judge orders seizure of CIA agent's villa"] . "Reuters.com", January 26, 2007.]

On 16 February 2007 an arrest warrant was issued for Lady for the kidnapping of Abu Omar. An Italian prosecutor, Armando Spataro, was scheduled to begin trying the case in June 2007. Lady's Italian lawyer, Daria Pesce, withdrew from the case shortly after the beginning of legal proceedings [ [http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2007/CIA-Case-Italyjan07.htm Italian Lawyer in CIA Case Withdraws COLLEEN BARRY / AP 9jan2007 ] ] , saying her client refused to cooperate with the court proceedings because he believed the matter should be settled through a political, rather than legal solution. [ [http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2007-02-16T143625Z_01_L14454708_RTRUKOC_0_US-ITALY-USA-KIDNAP.xml&src=rss&rpc=22] Dead link|date=March 2008] Lady dismissed his attorney soon afterwards, although the court in Milan has appointed a public defense attorney for him. The trial against Lady and the other US defendants began "in absentia" later that month, although it was quickly adjourned until October 2007.

In an interview with GQ Magazine in March 2007, Lady said of his superiors at the CIA that "the agency has told me to keep quiet and let this blow over." [http://www.matthewacole.com/pdfs/Blowback-GQ.pdf "Blowback"] ; see also Wilkinson, Tracy. (2007). [http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/europe/la-fg-abuomar9jun09,1,4133784.story?page=2&coll=la-europe "In Italy, Trial of CIA Agents Begins"] . "The Los Angeles Times". Retrieved June 24, 2007.]

The Mitrokhin Affair

Investigations carried out by Rome prosecutor Pietro Salvitti, concerning Mario Scaramella who has been charged with defamation against Prime Minister Romano Prodi, as well as his staff, in the Mitrokhin Commission affair, show that the network informing senator Paolo Guzzanti, in charge of the Mitrokhin Commission, included Nicolò Pollari, head of SISMI and Marco Mancini, no. 2 of SISMI, both indicted for the "Imam Rapito" affair. This "network", according to Pietro Salvitti's words, also targeted General Giuseppe Cucchi (current director of the CESIS), Milan's judges Armando Spataro, in charge of the Imam Rapito case, and Guido Salvini, as well as "La Reppublica" reporters Carlo Bonini and Giuseppe D'Avanzo, who broke the Yellowcake forgery affair [ [http://www.repubblica.it/2007/01/sezioni/cronaca/caso-scaramella/caso-scaramella/caso-scaramella.html Il falso dossier di Scaramella - "Così la Russia manipola Prodi"] , "La Repubblica", 11 January 2007 it icon] . But they also showed connections between Mario Scaramella and the CIA, in particular through Filippo Marino, one of Scaramella's closest partners since the 1990s and co-founder Scarmella's Environmental Crime Prevention Program organization, who lives today in the US. Marino has acknowledged in an interview an association with former and active CIA officers, including Robert Seldon Lady [ "International Herald Tribune", 9 January 2007, "How one man insinuated himself into poisoning case". [http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/09/news/mario.php see here] en icon] .

ee also

*Eliana Castaldo
*Joseph L. Romano

References