Qaeda operatives, including Abu Ali al-Harithi, suspected mastermind of the 2000 attack on the USS Cole, with such a drone, sent from the French military base in Djibouti. Alliance Base In Paris, the Alliance Base is run by a General of the DGSE French intelligence agency, and gathers the CIA, the MI6, the BND, and Australian and Canadian intelligence agencies. It took part in the arrest of the German convert to Islam Christian Ganczarski, imprisoned in Fresnes Prison in Paris in June 2003. Investigative journalist Dana Priest referred to the Alliance Base in a July 3, 2005 article, and its existence was confirmed on 8 September 2006 by Christophe Chaboud, chief of the UCLAT ("Unité de Coordination de la Lutte contre le Terrorisme", "Fight against Terrorism Coordination Unit"), in an interview to RFI. Italy Italy was not invited to participate in Alliance Base, allegedly because of jealousies between the SISMI and the SID. However, in the current Imam Rapito affair, the Milan magistrates have spoken of a "concerted CIA-SISMI operation." Former CIA responsible in Italy, Jeffrey W. Castelli, Milan station chief Robert Seldon Lady, as well as 24 others CIA officers, and head of SISMI Nicolò Pollari and his second Marco Mancini have been indicted in 2006 by the Italian justice for this affair. See also Alliance Base, a CTIC in Paris, France. References Central Intelligence Agency Counterterrorist organizations