For Release 2000/08/07
: C IA
whose
family
had
underworld
connec-
tions,
might
give
valuable
information
to
Lombino,
but
she
claimed
only
to
know that Dozier was being held some-
where in Padua.
It was now time to see Restelli. On the
night of Jan. 26, Lombino climbed into a
white Alfa Romeo with four Italian po-
licemen and headed
for Milan.
Behind
them
was: a second
car carrying Cam-
pione and other SISMI officers. It was only
part of the odd caravan that raced along
the highway that night. The Italians were
tailed by
at
least two Mercedes sedans
filled with Mafia soldiers armed with ma-
chine
guns.
Their
instructions:
protect
Lombino. When the improbable parade
of motorists reached Milan, a cia agent
joined up as well.
The lawyer and sismi agents then met
with Restelli, who was brought out of jail
especially for the conference, which took
place in a police office in the Palace of
Justice.
“It
is very important to America
that we find the general,” Lombino said to
the Mafia leader. “Can you help us?”
T
he question did not exactly
surprise
Restelli. Lombino had already been in
touch with him
through
intermediaries,
and from
his
jail
cell
Restelli had
dis-
patched
his troops
to track down leads.
Restelli had also ordered the supply line of
heroin to parts of the underworld cut off in
order to encourage tips from addicts sud-
denly
deprived
of drugs.
Resteffi’s
pre-
sumption:
in exchange for giving the au-
thorities information on Dozier, he would
receive more favorable treatment from the
Italians. On Jan. 27, according to a partici-
pant at the meeting, Restelli gave the SISMI
agents the address of the apartment build-
ing in which Dozier was being held.
His mission accomplished, Lombino
returned to Rome. Next morning, Jan. 28,
he was sitting in his room at the Hotel Bos-
ton with “M” when the word came: James
Dozier had just been rescued in a daring
raid at 2 Via Pindemonte, in the heart of
Padua.
“M”
turned
to
Lombino
and
thanked him profusely for his help.
Since
the
rescue,
U.S.
officials have
been
careful
to
give
full
credit to the Italians. Both
Rome
and
Washington
have
forcefully
claimed
that the success of the op-
eration was
the
result of
dogged
police work
and
the
confessions
of
Red
Brigades
members
who
had been captured during
the
six-week
search
for
Dozier.
When
first questioned
by Time
two weeks
ago
about CIA and Mafia
in-
volvement
in
the
rescue,
Ambassador Rabb
heat-
edly denied
it. “I swear to
God that nothing like this
ever happened,”
the am-
bassador
said. In
fact, he
insisted,
he
had
spent
,
much of his time fending
Hearing the news, the CIA agent turned to Lombino and thanked him ,,rofu7ely.
time.
I EBRUARApppoved For Release 2000/08/07
: ClA-RDP96-00788R000100270003
HL.
Pup tent in which Dozier was held captive
i ne Key aadress: 2 Via Pindemonte, after the successful raid
off help from Washington, which kept try-
ing to send to Italy a swarm ofexperts rang-
ing from FBI agents to Pentagon tacticians.
Some of the American aid was bizarre at
best: during the last week of the search,
Time has
learned,
U.S.
military
officials
brought to Rome a psychic who sent the ca-
rabinieri chasing after a futile lead. “They
were coming through the windows, coming
through the doors,” recalled Rabb. “Every-
body in the intelligence agencies wanted
in, but this was a job for the Italians.”
When presented with evidence of Ma-
fia involvement, Rabb
offered
to check
with the embassy’s CIA station chieff’The
ambassador
returned
minutes
later,
looking embarrassed. He confirmed that
SISMI had indeed made a
: deal with Lom-
bino and that, after the U.S. had offered
Lombino protection and a guarantee that
he could return to the U.S., the Mafia law-
yer had gone to Italy and met with “M.”
Rabb insisted that nothing had come of
Lombino’s aid. “It was a big fizz,” the am-
bassador
said. The FBI and
the
Justice
Department refuse to confirm or deny the
story,
while
the
cia
offers
a
terse
“no comment.”
It may never be known just how valu-
able the Mafia’s help was in finding Dozi-
er. Rabb’s explanation, which minimizes
the Mafia’s
role, may be
accurate. The
Italian police did indeed make a series of
key arrests just before the raid, and law-
enforcement officials in Rome insist that
these suspects helped lead them to Dozier,
In the days just before the rescue, the trail
was growing so hot that the police might
have found the general without help from
Restelli. On the other hand, Italian mag-
istrates
acknowledged
that
on
Jan.
Restelli was secretly released from prison
at the request of SISMI and the CIA to meet
with officials in Milan. U.S. embassy per-
sonnel
in Rome
confirm
that
Dozier’s
whereabouts
was
not known
until
the
night before the raid, which
is when the
Mafia leader reportedly gave the address
to the Italians.
Today General Dozier
is stationed at
the U.S. Army base in Fort Knox, Ky. Mar-
cello Campione, who clashed with the head
of
SISMI,
has
been
dis-
patched to the Italian em-
bassy in far-off Khartoum,
the capital of Sudan. Fran-
chino
Restelli
has
been
transferred from his Milan
prison to a more hospitable
jail
in
Parma.
Dominic
Lombino
is back
in New
York,
reportedly
waiting
for the Justice Department
to approve
the
residency
papers
requested
by
the
2IA.
In
Italy,
trouble
is
newing within sismi about
he sum of money, which
urned out to be $500,000,
hat was promised to Lom-
rino but that has apparent-
y
disappeared.
And,
oh
yes,
the Fat Man
is
still
in
Brooklyn,
making
ar-
rangements for friends.