[LINK] CIA Arrest Warrants Strain US-German Ties

[Kim Holburn]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,490514,00.html

> CIA Arrest Warrants Strain US-German Ties
>
> By John Goetz, Marcel Rosenbach and Holger Stark
>
> The arrest warrants German authorities have issued against 10 CIA  
> agents have strained German-American relations. Now, prosecutors in  
> Munich want the agents extradited to Germany so they can stand  
> trial for their alleged roles in the illegal kidnapping of terror  
> suspects.

> Tracking the Agents
>
> Initially the effort seemed almost pointless for the Germans  
> because, with the exception of Lyle L., the names on all of the  
> arrest warrants were aliases. At Langley, false identities are seen  
> as an effective intelligence tool that normally puts a stop to any  
> investigation.

> In its database of registered pilots, the FAA keeps careful track  
> of who registers, under what names and when they register. The  
> database includes the names of anyone who ever acquired a pilot's  
> license in the United States. It even includes Mohammed Atta, one  
> of the suicide pilots of the Sept. 11 attacks.
>
> Munich district attorneys knew the captain of the Boeing 737 which  
> carried Khaled el-Masri to Afghanistan after a stopover in Palma de  
> Mallorca had the fictional name of "Fairing." Discovering his real  
> identity became a matter of simple detective work. All a researcher  
> had to do was enter the name "Fairing," along with other details --  
> such as his licenses to fly certain aircraft models, or special  
> personal characteristics -- into the FAA database. The system soon  
> produced the pilot's real name.
>
> That was how the German investigators discovered that Captain James  
> Fairing's real name is James K. And because K., 53, called his wife  
> in North Carolina from a hotel in Mallorca, the investigators  
> managed to track down his address. The captain lives in Johnston  
> County, in a nice single-family home with a huge patio and garden.
>
> A look at another database reveals that he drives a Toyota and has  
> a college degree in biology. But anyone driving through the North  
> Carolina tobacco fields to Johnston County to ask James K. about  
> his work as a CIA pilot will encounter a man in a straw hat who  
> threatens, furiously: "Get off my property or I'll call the police!"
>
> The example of Eric Fain also demonstrates what a lousy job the CIA  
> did in attempting to cover up the identity of its agents. Fain's  
> fake flight instructor's license is dated March 13, 1999. His real  
> one is dated March 31, 1999, a simple transposition of numbers. A  
> similar approach was taken to construct the supposed covers of a  
> number of the CIA pilots.

> Potential Investigative Targets
>
> The modern world of databases, which stores information about  
> everyone and everything, especially in the United States -- and  
> which the intelligence agencies use all too often themselves -- is  
> proving to be the undoing of agents who are no longer as secret as  
> they would like to be. CIA employees at all levels are increasingly  
> nervous about the fact that their involvement in the so-called war  
> on terrorism has made them potential targets. At CIA headquarters  
> in Langley, most are now familiar with the details of the case of  
> Robert Lady (more...), the former CIA station chief in Milan.
>
> Lady is one of the 26 Americans charged by Italian courts with  
> involvement in the abduction of Imam Abu Omar (more...) in Milan in  
> February 2003. Lady was officially accredited as a diplomat at the  
> US consulate in Milan, but in fact he was in charge of the Abu Omar  
> operation. In 2003 he was on the verge of retirement and had  
> already bought a country house in Italy's Piedmont region.
>
> When Italian prosecutors learned about the kidnapping and even  
> traced it to the nights the CIA agents spent in Milan luxury  
> hotels, Lady became the fall guy. He was forced to disappear from  
> Italy and go into retirement, and he is unlikely to ever see his  
> country house in the Piedmont again, for which he is still paying  
> the mortgage. The house was seized by the authorities. If Lady is  
> found guilty, it will be confiscated.
>
> Robert Lady is now pinning his hopes on the Italian courts. A Milan  
> judge has temporarily suspended the case because it deals with  
> state secrets. Now the Italian constitutional court will have to  
> decide whether the indictment may contain state secrets. If Lady is  
> found guilty, he could be sentenced to up to four years in prison.
>
> Lady's fate is now believed to have set a precedent in Langley. A  
> number of agents who are stationed in Europe or took part in the  
> kidnappings have since obtained private insurance policies to  
> protect them against their victims' claims for damages.
>
> Those who, unlike Lady, are not old enough to retire, face another  
> problem. Because global warrants have been issued for their arrest,  
> the affected CIA agents face the risk of detention upon crossing  
> almost any border outside the United States.
>
> For Lyle L., a.k.a. "Uncle Bud," who has been stationed in Bavaria  
> and Brussels and served in special units in Bosnia and Afghanistan,  
> there will be only one safe way to reach international hot spots in  
> the future: He can travel with the US Air Force, whose passenger  
> lists are generally not checked.
>
> Ironically, this mode of travel will tend to take him through the  
> US Air Force base in Ramstein, Germany -- where "Uncle Bud,"  
> because of his involvement in the Masri kidnapping, is currently  
> the most wanted.
>


--
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
Ph: +39 06 855 4294  M: +39 3494957443
mailto:kim at holburn.net  aim://kimholburn
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Democracy imposed from without is the severest form of tyranny.
                           -- Lloyd Biggle, Jr. Analog, Apr 1961