(cross-posted at Daily Kos and Euro Tribune)

This morning when I went out to buy a newspaper, I found that “La Repubblica” has already printed the names of the American CIA agents who allegedly kidnapped Abu Omar on February 17, 2003, shipping him off to Egypt for an impromptu exotic vacation. They sure didn’t waste time.

They say they are “three women and ten men: two “over 60’s”, an Arab, a Moldavian, and one who speaks Italian.” The names have been published in full, but for the time being I will use just their initials in my translation of the article, even though they have now officially entered the public domain, at least here in Italy.

They are ten men and three women. And their scanty biography is in the traces left by their passports, driver’s licenses, and credit cards used for the operation. At the top of the list is R.S.L., 51 years old, born in the Honduras and, for four years, head of the CIA station in Milan. He has left the Agency, but not Italy. Thursday, DIGOS agents knocked at his farmhouse in the Asti hills, where he lives with his children and wife. It was she who opened the door. “My husband is out at work.” The woman allowed the house to be searched, and a few boxes of documents in English were taken away. Moreover, “of little usefulness”, according to investigation sources. For 48 hours they have been searching for R.S.L. all over Europe, where he works as a consultant for important insurance groups and law offices with head offices in the United States. He remained in his farmhouse up until a short time ago. He knew his day would have arrived, and he had given signs of not wanting to flee. “We’ll see, he might come back home,” explains an investigation source, “perhaps after having found out what his ex-CIA bosses have decided to do.”

Those who will not show their faces in Italy again are the other 12. The “team” that the CIA had put together and that R.S.L. had run before, during, and after the kidnapping of Abu Omar. Starting with the women.

M.A., 32 years old, born in Seattle and resident in Virginia; C.L., 45 years old, born in Maryland and with an improbable domicile in a mailbox in Washington, D.C.; P.R., 44 years old, born in California, of Mexican origin, and residing, like C.L., in an anonymous mailbox in Washington.

“Perhaps they are real names,” observes an investigation source, “and perhaps only aliases. In both cases they correspond, even if not in all cases, to the photographs we have. And therefore these are people who, as of today, have been definitively ruined.” At least if they are not people who had been called back from retirement. Which is what comes to mind if you read some of the names and birth dates of the other nine men.

G.A., 50 years old, born in Maryland and resident in Washington, D.C.; L.C. (my note: it’s an Italian name), 34 years old, born in Texas and sent to Milan because he was able to speak Italian and Spanish; D.C., 40 years old, from New York; J. D., 53 years old, born in Illinois and resident in a mailbox in Pennsylvania; R.H., 66 years old, born in Alaska, domiciled in a mailbox in Virginia; B.A.H., 61 years old, of Arab origin and language, but born in Iowa; G.L.P., born in China and resident in Virginia; J.S., 52 years old, born in Moldavia and resident in Virginia; M.V., 43 years old, born in Greece and residing who knows where.

“It is truly a curious company,” suggests an investigation source. “Seeing them all together, judging by the ages and assortment, they seem to be people assembled for a comfortable mission in Italy.” A mission so comfortable that the question again arises. On February 17th, did they do everything by themselves?”

As for whether they are real names or aliases, I did a quick search for some of them on US Search, and they all turned up. I even found a Virginia residence for the last name (the “who knows where” one). So they might just be real. Or else maybe a case of identity theft, an activity so in vogue these days. Interesting, in any case.

I wonder what will come up next?