March 2007: CIA Kidnapper Gives Interview to GQ Magazine

Robert Seldon Lady, a CIA officer involved in the rendition from Italy to Egypt of Islamist extremist Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr (a.k.a. Abu Omar—see Noon February 17, 2003), grants an interview to GQ magazine. In addition to discussing the rendition and the surveillance of Nasr that preceded it, Lady comments on his life afterwards, saying he feels he is constantly watched and that his wife has left him because of the stress following his outing as a covert operative. Furthermore, his home in Italy will probably be confiscated if he is convicted in legal proceedings against the kidnappers in Italy, although he is still making mortgage payments of $4,000 a month on it. “I’ll probably be convicted, but I won’t go to the trial, and I’ll never see Italy again,” he says. The CIA apparently told him to “keep quiet and let this blow over,” and he has to report to headquarters every month for update meetings. “No one’s called me for support. No one has helped. I keep thinking, ‘F_ck it, I’ve got nothing to lose,’” he adds. “Leaders used to protect those below from the top as they went up. It’s a way of harnessing the loyalty of those they led. Now they protect the top. They manage down and step on anyone below. What happened to me—and it happened to many good people—is that I worked too hard. I was decent. Even bureaucracies must die.” [GQ, 3/2007 ]