Before his disappearance, Abu Omar, whose full name is Hassan Osama Nasr, was being investigated by Megale's office for possible ties to radical groups sending Islamic militants to Iraq. As part of that inquiry, police bugged the phones in Abu Omar's home and mosque. When he called, the police listened, and jumped into action.
Megale obtained records of all cellphone traffic from the transmission tower nearest the spot where Abu Omar was abducted, for a 2 1/2 -hour period around the time he disappeared. There were 2,000 calls.
Then, using a computer program, Megale was able to narrow down the pool by tracing the phones that had called each other, in other words, an indication of a group of people working together. Seventeen phone numbers, which showed intensifying use around the time of the abduction, were pinpointed. By following all other calls made from those phones, the investigators ultimately identified 60 numbers, including that of a CIA officer working undercover at the U.S. Embassy in Rome.
In his testimony, Megale revealed that one telephone number he recognized was that of Robert Seldon Lady, then-CIA station chief in Milan. Lady and Megale had worked together in counter-terrorism investigations. It was a number, Megale said somberly, that he and his team knew.
Megale and his agents then set about establishing that all the names to which the phones were registered were fictitious. Most of the phones were activated about four months before the abduction and went out of service a few days after it.
Ultimately, with layer upon layer of cross-referencing, Megale identified 26 American suspects, although many of the names in the indictment are thought to be aliases. Most of the details of Megale's testimony have already been reported in The Times and other newspapers. But the blow-by-blow account represents the meat of the prosecution's case and was delivered by, arguably, its star witness, an unlikely figure destined to take down a major CIA operation.
In security circles, Megale is widely known as a prominent expert on Islamic terrorism, a field he has specialized in for a decade. Yet he shuns the spotlight, is rarely quoted in news accounts and his public appearances are generally limited to courtrooms, where, as a lead investigator on numerous terrorism cases, he is often called to testify.
"He knows all the names, all the connections," senior prosecutor Armando Spataro said. "Counter-terrorism officials all over the world want to know about him."
An owl-faced man with heavy brows who comes from Italy's poor south, Megale is discreet and fiercely serious. He rarely smiles, or shows much emotion of any kind.
Senior Italian police officials in Milan have expressed resentment that the CIA nabbed Abu Omar without informing them and before their investigation of his activities had been completed.
If the prosecution's allegations are true, it would appear the American operatives informed not the police but the Italian military intelligence branch, a more politicized agency close to the prime minister's office and whose former head is among the Americans' codefendants in the trial.
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wilkinson@latimes.com
