ARTICLE FROM TIME MAGAZINE, FEBRUARY 28, 1983. WORLD. TERRORISM. FAT MAN, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY

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 Approved For Release 2000/08/07: CIA-FW&Iff88R000100270003-0
 Fat Man, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
 How the U.S. and Italy got the Mafia to-help find General Dozier
 O n the evening of Dec. 17, 1981, Red
 Brigades terrorists kidnaped Briga-
 dier General James Dozier, 50, the high-
 est-ranking U.S. officer in NATO's south-
 ern Europe command, from his home in
 Verona. The abduction triggered the larg-
 est man hunt in Italy's history. Forty-two
 days later, Italian commandos stormed an
 apartment in. Padua and freed the
 American general. It was a stunning
 piece of police work that won praise
 from around the world; it also marked
 the beginning of the end for the noto-
 rious terrorist group. But the full story
 of how the authorities found Dozier
 has never been revealed. American
 and Italian intelligence agencies,
 TIME has learned, turned to the Mafia
 for help in locating the general.
 What occurred was a remarkable
 tale of triumphs and bungles, of
 Brooklyn consiglieri and Milan Mafi-
 osi, of chases along New York City's
 Fifth Avenue and gun-toting crimi-
 nals tailing intelligence agents along
 Italian autostrade. So secret was the
 sador to Italy Maxwell Rabb was
 aware of it until TIME Correspondent
 Jonathan Beaty, accompanied by
 Rome Correspondent Barry Kalb,
 questioned the diplomat two weeks
 ago. Beaty's report: -
 I t took only two days for top offi-
 cials at SISMI, the Italian intelli-
 gence agency, to decide that it might
 be useful to turn to the Mafia for help
 in finding General Dozier. Although
 the Mafia had long detested the Red
 Brigades, SISMI knew that there
 would be a public outcry if it was ever
 discovered that an, Italian govern-
 ment agency had contacted the Ma-
 U.S. in-July 1981 when Italian authorities
 suddenly seized his passport, a signal that
 they were preparing to indict him. The
 Italian military attachd told Lombino
 that he could make a lot of money if he
 would help with the Dozier case. On Dec.
 22, only five days after Dozier had been
 abducted, Lombino-phoned the Fat Man
 cial had to concoct a new identity for him.
 With the Fat Man's aid, Lombino -ac-
 quired the Social Security number of an
 unwitting high school driver's education
 instructor from Brooklyn, while a cooper-
 ative priest in Manhattan provided him
 with false baptism records.
 On Dec. 27, dressed in dark glasses,
 Levi's and running shoes, Lombino head-
 ed for the U.S. passport office on Manhat-
 tan's Fifth Avenue. Though he had been
 assured that there would be no problems,
 Lombino, now joined by Campione, ner-
 vously showed up an hour early to check
 out the area. They quickly spotted too
 many men wearing trench coats and
 reading newspapers. Sensing a trap,
 Lombino ran down the up escalators
 to the street and jumped into a cab be-
 fore he could be captured. The star-
 tled Campione simply disappeared
 into the crowd.
 The pursuers turned out to be FBI
 agents who had learned that an Ital-
 ian Mafia associate living illegally in
 New York was -trying to obtain a
 false passport to return to Italy.
 Within hours, FBI agents were grill-
 ing both the Fat Man and Campione,
 demanding to know why the Italians
 were helping a fugitive Mafioso
 like Lombino. A panicky Campione
 called Sportelli in Rome to find out if
 he should tell the FBI the truth. The
 SISMI foreign-intelligence boss imme-
 diately called "M," the CIA agent in
 Rome who was serving as the agen-
 cy's liaison in the Dozier case and ex-
 plained the entire ploy.      -
 The CIA was intrigued. It quickly
 called the FBI off the case and began
 negotiating directly with Lombino by
 phone.. Lombino, however, no longer
 trusted SISMI. - He insisted on U.S.
 protection as well as a pledge that he
 could legally return to the U.S. if he
 went to Italy and saw Restelli. The
 Justice Department approved the
 residency deal, and as a result, in
 early January 1982 Lombino made
 the first of two trips to the Washing-
 ton, D.C? area to meet with CIA
 agents.
 fia directly. Consequently, a more The jubilant and still unshaven victim after his rescue
 subtle plan was devised. An ap- Triumphs and bunglesfrom-Brooklyn to Milan.
 proach would be made to Mafiosi in
 the U.S., who would be asked to get in
 touch with their counterparts in Italy.
 Marcello Campione, then military at-
 tache to the Italian mission at the United
 Nations, began making inquiries in New
 York Mafia circles. Working under a code
 name, "the Tailor," Campione was led to
 an influential Mafia consigliere in Brook-
 lyn who makes his living by helping Ital-
 ians move to the U.S. "The Fat Man," as
 the arranger is known in the underworld,
 agreed to put Campione in touch with a
 fugitive Mafioso from Italy who was hid-
 ing out in New York.
 That contact turned out to be Domi-
 nic Lombino, 40, a lawyer from Milan
 whose clients had included Franchino
 R.estelli, the northern Italian city's lead-
 ing Mafioso. Jailed briefly in 1978 for his
 Mafia associations, Lombino Red to the
 and then Armando Sportelli, chief of
 SISMI's foreign operations in Rome. The
 word: Dozier was being held somewhere
 inside the triangle formed by the cities of
 Verona, Padua and Bologna. The next
 day, after more phone conversations with
 associates in Italy, Lombino was able to
 tell SISMI that the American general was
 definitely in Padua. Lombino did not
 know the precise location, but suggested
 that his old client Restelli, then impris-
 oned in Milan's notorious San Vitlore
 prison for Mafia activities, might be able
 to come up with the address.
 Attache Campione quickly agreed.
 Over the Christmas holiday he developed
 a plan to sneak Lombino out of the U.S.
 and into Italy so that Lombino could talk
 with Restelli. Since Lombino was still a
 fugitive with no passport, the Italian offi-
 For unknown reasons, Lombino's trip
 to Italy was delayed. According to Italian
 intelligence sources, the problem was a ri-
 valry between Campione and General
 Ninetto Lugaresi, the head of SISMI.
 Finally, on Jan. 23, Lombino boarded an
 Alitalia flight from New York's Kennedy
 Airport to Rome. Accompanied by Cam-
 pione and wearing a wig as a disguise, he
 carried CIA-supplied. papers in the name
 of Andrew Dimanso, the alias he was sup-
 posed to use in Italy. When the pair land-
 ed in Rome, they were met by the CIA's
 "M" and a cadre of American and Italian
 intelligence agents. Lombino was hustled
 away to a hotel a block from the U.S. em-
 bassy. Twice during the next day, he met
 with Franca Musi, a Red Brigades courier
 who had been captured two weeks earlier'
 in Rome. The Italians thought that Musi,
 TIME,
 Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788R000100270003-0                 FEBRUARY 28, 1983
 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
 CIA. In Italy, trouble is
 brewing within SISMI about
 the sum of money, which
 turned out to be $500,000,
 that was promised to Lom-
 bino but that has apparent-
 ly disappeared. And, oh
 yes, the Fat Man is still
 much of his time fending Hearing the news, the CIA agent turned to Lombino and thanked him p ofusely. rangemena ts for- friends. arm
 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-
 pion 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 stid-
 denly deprived of drugs. Restelli'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
 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 The key address: 2 Via Pindemonte, after the successful raid
 TIME. FEIIRUARApp   ed For Release 2000/08                     R 0001V0270003-0---
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 off help from Washington, which kept try-
 ing to send to Italy a swarm of experts 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 chief.-,The
 -ambassador returned 40 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. 26
 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