This Italian Imam was kidnapped from Milan—but the Italian government wasn't too happy about it! What happened next?

A team of CIA operatives had been sent to Italy to capture a radical Islamic cleric named Abu Omar. He had been brought to the attention of U.S. and Italian officials for his suspected radical activity.

Once the cleric had been sent to Egypt, you might have been forgiven for thinking that the mission was successfully accomplished. As far as everyone in this case was concerned, things were far from over. The cleric claimed to have suffered torture in Egyptian prison, and the Americans involved were facing kidnapping charges.

The operatives made one ill-advised move after another until they found themselves in a heap of trouble. For example, they spoke on commercial cellphones, used traceable toll scanners to travel on highways, visited fancy hotels using the addresses of post office boxes located near CIA headquarters, and gave the hotels frequent flier numbers so they could earn miles during their stay in Milan.

Unfortunately for this group of Americans, Italian officials had plenty of evidence to work with. If they had used a little discretion, they may have escaped trouble.

As it happened, 23 Americans were ultimately convicted of kidnapping charges after having been tried in absentia for their activities. This embarrassing incident became known as “The Italian Job.”

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