June 30, 2009: Abu Omar Kidnapper: ‘I Was a Soldier’

Robert Seldon Lady, one of the more senior CIA figures charged in Italy over the kidnap of Islamist extremist Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr (a.k.a. Abu Omar—see Noon February 17, 2003), breaks his silence in a rare interview with the Italian daily Il Giornale. Lady acknowledges a role in the abduction, but says the plan was not his idea: “I’m not guilty. I’m only responsible for carrying out orders that I received from my superiors.” He adds that he committed no crime because the kidnapping was a “state matter,” and, “I console myself by reminding myself that I was a soldier, that I was in a war against terrorism, that I couldn’t discuss orders given to me.” He also says, “I wasn’t at the scene and I didn’t organize the thing, the rendition, the arrest, the kidnapping, however we want to call it.” He claims only one Italian, a police officer who has already confessed, was at the scene. Lady also comments on why the operation was so sloppy that Italian prosecutors could uncover it: “How could we have been so unprofessional? The answer I’ve given is that there were too many people involved. In these operations, there should be few.” [Reuters, 6/30/2009]