Pio Pompa

Press officer at the Italian SISMI intelligence Agency.

First paragraphs - a lot of filler about [Sismi director Nicolo Pollari's press advisor] Pio Pompa’s background. The key point that the journalists want to establish is that he was Nicolo Pollari’s man. Pollari had brought him into SISMI proper (he had previously been a consultant and a contract professor at the university of Teramo, which I’ve never heard of). The only person who he spoke to on a daily basis in Fort Braschi was Pollari. While he had taken orders at one point from [arrested Sismi #2 Marco] Mancini, after Mancini’s disgrace he reported solely to the Director (Pollari) and on a regular basis. He reported to Pollari on May 23 that Betulla [the Sismi code name for Libero deputy director Renato Farina] had gone to Milan to be interviewed by the magistrates Monarici and Spataro who were working on the Abu Omar case.

In July 2006 an office used by Pompa was raided by Italian police:

Documents found in the office recorded payments to a journalist who had been employed as a propagandist. Renato Farina was a fervent Catholic and deputy director of Libero, one of the few right-wing daily newspapers in Italy not owned by the Berlusconi family. Recruited by Pompa, Farina had started to plant bogus stories about the Abu Omar case. In June 2006, he published an extraordinary scoop. Romano Prodi – the piece claimed – had authorised rendition flights when he was president of the European Commission. It was a great story, and a total invention. Farina had copied – word for word – the story Pompa had given to him. The original was found in the office on the Via Nazionale.