Terrorism in Italy

Terrorism in Italy is related with political and subversive terrorism activities, carried out by various groups and organizations with different and sometimes counterposed methods, motivations and interests.

The end of the 1960s is approximately the historical period in which terrorism became a more serious issue in Italy; at the beginning it was known as "opposed extremisms", later renamed "Years of Lead" by the media, getting inspiration from the Venice Film Festival winning film. The "Years of Lead" period came to an end at the end of the 1980s.

At the end of the 1990s a fresh wave of political terrorism, consisting in impressive yet sporadic episodes, struck Italy again until the early 2000s.

In addition to political terrorism, which was widespread during the Cold War in order to contribute to the "Strategy of Tension", Mafia-linked terrorism should not be forgotten. The main criminal organizations that operated in that period were Cosa Nostra, Camorra, 'Ndrangheta and Sacra Corona Unita.

The Years of Lead

The length of the Italian terrorism period grabbed the attention grabbed the eye of several academics who tried to analyze and understand its causes. Italy seems to be the only European country where terrorism had such a long duration, with the exception of Northern Ireland and the Basque Country. Recently political scientist Ernesto Galli della Loggia analyzed the issue of the Italian peculiarity, coming to the conclusion that Italian society is characterized by a trace of violence. This interpretation gave rise to agreements and disapprovals.[1]

The issue was treated by Giovanni Fassanella and Giovanni Pellegrino in a book titled "La Guerra civile" which focuses its attention on the fact that Italy has been threatened by the burst of a civil war for more than fifty years. This precarious situation prevented the normal development of Italy.[2]

Moreover, there was the widespread suspect that part of the Italian 1970s history was influenced by the activity of members of Secret Services and extra Parliamentary political groups, which aimed to the destabilization of the Italian political system and to influence political choices.[3]

The various kind of terrorisms all failed in reaching their objectives, the Marxist-Leninist extreme Left groups were defeated and the possibility to subvert the Italian system through armed struggle faded away.

At the same time, extreme Right groups, the same who wanted to change the political formula of the previous twenty five years,[4] the same who terrorized the public opinion in order to underline the incapacity of the democratic system to guarantee the public order and in order to underline the need of an authoritarian regime, were defeated too.

The analysis and the debate of this complex historical period are still open, part of the community associate those years with "Left terrorism", others with "Right Terrorism", others with "State terrorism"; part of the community believe instead that "there is only a partial, confused and often contradictory legal truth".[5]

Most Relevant Episodes

  • 25 April 1969 Bombing: on April 25, 1969, a bomb exploded at the FIAT pavilion of Milan fair (six wounded, no losses) and a second bomb was found unexploded at the Central Station Currency Exchange Office. This episode is considered by some scientist to be the beginning of the so called "Strategy of Tension".
  • Piazza Fontana bombing: on December 12, 1969, a bomb exploded in Milan, causing the death of seventeen people and eighty-eight wounded; a second unexploded bomb was found at Piazza della Scala the same day, while other three bombs exploded in Rome in different locations, causing some wounded.
  • Gioia Tauro massacre: on July 22, 1970, a train went off the rails due to a previous bomb sabotage, killing six people.
  • Peteano massacre: on May 31, 1972, the explosion of a car bomb prepared by some Ordine Nuovo militants kills three Carabinieri.
  • Milano central police station massacre: on May 17, 1973, an attack organized by the anarchist Gianfranco Bertoli causes the death of four people and fifty-two wounded.
  • Piazza della Loggia bombing: on May 28, 1974, a bomb explodes in Brescia, killing eight people.
  • Padova MSI headquarter attack: on June 17, 1974, the Brigate Rosse kill two missini supporter.
  • Italicus massacre: on August 4, 1974, a bomb explode on the Italicus train, causing twelve dead and forty-eight wounded.
  • Via Fani massacre: on March 16, 1978, Aldo Moro is kidnapped by the Brigate Rosse and five body guards are killed.
  • Aldo Moro assassination: on May 9, 1978, the Brigate Rosse kill Aldo Moro.
  • Guido Rossa assassination: on January 24, 1979, the Brigate Rosse kill the union official Guido Rossa in Genova.
  • Bologna massacre: on August 2, 1980, a bomb explodes at the Bologna central station, killing eighty-five people and wounding more than two hundred people.

Political terrorism in the 1980s

The end of the "Years of Lead" is conventionally associated with the liberation of the United States General James Lee Dozier through a bloodless NOCS operation that took place in Padua on 28 January 1982. Actually, in 1988, the tenth anniversary of the kidnapping of Aldo Moro, there was the assassination of the Christian Democrat senator Roberto Ruffini, who is considered by the Brigate Rosse the successor of Aldo Moro.

Over the decade, the number of violent episodes waned, partially due to the loss of support of the Brigate Rosse as a result of the assassination of the communist worker Guido Rossa in 1979.

The idea that the armed struggle could lead to the changing of the constitutional order progressively became weak, and, according to some scientists, at the same time, there was the growth of the capitalist wave which transformed productivity and economic competition into values, considering them as the only progress indexes.[6]

The following political terrorism, in particular the "Red" one, restricted its objectives, trying to condition social and political processes and to maintain a certain pressure on the democratic freedom of decision. This third wave of political terrorism, despite being extremely irregular and uneven, reaped victims until the beginning of the 21st century.

One of these episodes was the 1988 Naples bombing, when American servicemen were targeted by Japanese far-left terrorists.

Separatist terrorism in the 1980s

During the Years of Lead, a Palestinian terrorist commando attacked Fiumicino airport killing 30 people. The attackers were thought to be members of the group Black September.

In 1982, a commando of five Palestinian terrorists, part of the revolutionary council Abu Nidal Organization, caused the death of Stefano Gaj Tachè (2 years old) and the injury of 37 more people at the synagogue of Rome.

Terrorism in South Tyrol

The terrorism period in South Tyrol begins in the second half of the 1950s. Aim of the terrorists was the independence from Italy or the annexation to Austria. The first attacks can be ascribable to the Stieler group, but the most important illegal organization was the Committee for the Liberation of South Tyrol (Befreiungsausschuss Südtirol). Its first remarkable action was the so called "Night of the Fires", in 1961, when terrorists blew up several trellis using 350 explosive devices, with the intention of drawing international attention on the South Tyrol question.[7] In the following years, there was the radicalization of this kind of terrorism and it started targeting Italian police forces.

The bloodiest attack was the Cima Vallona massacre in 1967. Among the most wanted member of South Tyrol terrorism there are Sepp Kerschbaumer, Georg Klotz, whose daughter Eva Klots is considered the current leader of the South Tyrol independence movement.

Although the 1970s were relatively a "soft" period, the 1980s were characterized by the reappearance of the South Tyrol terrorism as a Neo-nazi criminal organization, Ein Tirol, which was responsible for several dynamite attacks.

As regard the analysis of the South Tyrol terrorism from the 20 September 1956 to the 30 October 1988, there were 361 attacks, 21 dead, 15 police officers, two civilians and four terrorists, killed by their own explosive devices, 57 wounded, 24 police officers and 33 civilians.

Political terrorism in Sardinia

The season of political terrorism, initiated in Italy at the beginning of the post-war period, spread across Sardinia in the second half of the 1960s and it came to an end in the 1980s, as it happened in Italy. Contacts between local outlaws and militants belonging to extreme Left subversive organizations, such as Brigate Rosse and Nuclei Armati Proletari, were partially facilitated by the detention of extreme Left supporters in the maximum security prisons of the island, as it happened with the southern Mafioso who were kept in prison in the North of Italy, conditioning the birth of "Mala del Brenta".

The most famous terrorist and paramilitary groups in Italy were Barbagia Rossa, Movimento Armato Sardo e Comitato di Solidarietà con il Proletariato Prigioniero Sardo Deportato, most of them were loyal to the communist and secessionist ideology; within a decade, they claimed several attacks, assassinations and kidnappings.

Among the main supporters of the subversive and secessionist cause, there was Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, who tried several times to make contact with numerous organizations in order to make Sardinia independent from Italy, helped by secessionists, and in order to establish a communist government, helped by Left subversive, based on the model proposed by Fidel Castro in Cuba.

The election of Graziano Mesina as the leader of the rebels, the most famous outlaw of the Sardinian criminal organization, were supported by both the Left subversives, as shown by several contacts with them, and the deviate secret services.

A recent subversive action was the attempted dynamite attack in August 2004, in Porto Rotondo, Sardinia, to the Chairman of the Italian Council Silvio Berlusconi during the visit of the English Prime Minister Tony Blair; the attack was claimed by the so called secessionist movements Organizzazione Indipendentista Rivoluzionaria (Oir) and Nuclei Proletari per il Comunismo (Npc).

Present political terrorism

Towards the end of the 1990s, few years later the politically-motivated assassinations, there was the reappearance on the extra-parliamentary environment of the so called Left insurgent terrorism, which led to the reconstruction of subversive organisms dissolved at the end of the "Years of Lead", such as "Nuove BR".

According to this perspective, there was the assassinations of Massimo D'Antona, consultant for the Ministry of Employment, on 20 March 1999, and Marco Biagi, on 19 March 2002, both claimed by the reborn Brigate Rosse, with the aim to put pressure on the socio-political scenario, like the "Years of Lead". The last victim, Emanuele Petri, agent of the Polfer, killed on 2 March 2003 during a fire fight on a train on which the new leaders of the subversive organization, Nadia Desdemona Lioce and Mario Galesi, was travelling.

In 2003, the group was officially dissolved as consequence of the arrest of Nadia Lioce, the death of Mario Galesi and the arrests of the other members of the group. In 2005, Nadia Lioce is sentenced to spend the rest of her life in prison.

Deportation of foreign suspects have been the cornerstone of Italy's counter-terrorism strategy and from January 2015 to April 2018, 300 individuals were expulsed from Italian soil.[8]

Anarcho terrorism

Towards the end of the 1990s and for all the 2000s, a permanent subversive activity related to insurgency anarchist terrorism has been carried out. Those anarchist terrorist actions were characterized by the usage of explosives. The FAI (Anarchic Informal Federation), was the organization that claimed most part of those attacks.

An anarchic organization known as "Solidarietà Internazionale" led a series of attacks from 1998 to 2000 in Milan. In summer 1998 several letter-bombs were send to different politicians, journalists, magistrates and police officers, subsequently the death of the anarchist Maria Soledad Rosas and Edoardo Massari. These activists, known as "Sun and Flash", died by suicide in a detention facility where they were imprisoned for eco-terrorism.[9] It was later discovered that the charge that accused them of being responsible of these actions, was a jurisdictional stunt.

In October 1998 an attack took place in the police station. In Summer 1999 two bombs were found, but for a fluke they did not burst. The foiled attack was claimed by "Solidarietà Internazionale" . On June 28th, 2000; incendiary bottles were thrown in Sant'Ambrogio basilica by the members of the same group, during the ceremony for the penitentiary police, but they did not explode.

In September 2001 the investigations of 14 different inter-regional prosecutors, led to a maxi raid at national level, that investigated about 60 people linked to the organization and charged with "criminal conspiracy with intent to commit a terrorist attacks and a subversion of democracy". The group had several contacts with subversive associations in Greek and England, and their aim was the fight for anarchic prisoners in Spain who were under strict regime prison.[10]

On the 18th of December 2000 a worker noticed a bag hidden between the fourth and the third steeple of Milan's dome. The bomb was defused but it was programmed to explode at 3 a.m. of the following night, loaded with more than one kg of explosive.[11][12]

In the night of the 16 December 2009, an improvised explosive device partially exploded inside the Bocconi University of Milan. The bomb was placed in order to demand for the closure of the Identification and Expulsion Centers, and it was claimed by the FAI in a flier signed by "Nucleo Maurizio Morales" delivered to the newspaper office of Libero.[13] About that, the FAI declared that it wasn't its responsibility and reported a defamatory usage of the acronym.[14]

Islamic terrorism

After the attacks of the 9/11, the talk about Islamic terrorism came back into the public debate. The reports written by Italian and foreign security agencies, showed that several Islamic cells were placed in Italy; they were related to each other and waiting for calls and tasks. In 2001 the American embassy in Rome closed during New Year's Eve, for fear of possible attacks.[15]

In December 2008, Rachid Ilhami and Albdelkader Ghafir, two Moroccan citizens, were arrested in Giussano, on the charge of planning attacks in their home town. The two men had planned three attacks in areas nearby Giussano: in the Esselunga Supermarket in Seregno, in the big parking close to the supermarket and at the local police station.[16]

On October 12, 2009, the first suicide attack, with the high potential of causing a massacre, was carried out by a Libyan man in Milan, against a police station. The level of explosive used by the perpetrator was not high enough to cause extensive damages, and the bomber himself did not die, but he was injured together with a soldier who tried to stop him. A report to the Parliament about this event, formulated the hypothesis that the perpetrator was not connected to proper extremist organizations, but he was just a "lone wolf".[17]

Despite Italy having several factors which could have made it a hub of jihadist activity such as proximity to the Middle East and North Africa, reatively porous borders and a large influx migrants from Muslim majority countries, Italy has not experienced the same surge in radicalization as other European countries. While 125 individuals with "ties" to Italy, a minority of whom are Italian citizens, left Italy to join the civil war in Iraq and Syria, this is a small number considering that Belgium had 470 and Sweden had 300 such individuals despite both having much smaller populations. Since the September 11 attacks in 2001, there have been a small number of plots either thwarted or failed. Two individuals born in Italy have been involved in 2010s terrorist attacks, Youssef Zaghba one of the trio of attackers in the June 2017 London Bridge attack while ISIS sympathizer Tomasso Hosni attacked soldiers at Milan's Central station in May 2017.[18]

In July 2018, a 31-year-old Tunisian was deported from Naples due to ties to extremists. He was the 300th deportee due to extremism and the 63rd since the start of 2018.[19][20]

Fugitive terrorists

At the beginning of 2007, during a Parliamentary question, the Minister of Justice Clemente Mastella and the Interior Minister Giuliano Amato made public a list of fugitive terrorists "wanted for terrorist organization, armed gang or subversive organization", in which are stated "113 suspects, 59 belong to Left terrorist groups, 11 to Right terrorist group, 43 to international terrorist groups".[21] Over the last few years, European arrest warrant has made extradition and processes for terrorists living abroad easier.

Omissis and State secrecy

On November 7, 1977, Law 801 came into force and it imposed secrecy on "acts, documents, news, activities and anything else whose circulation might result in damages to the integrity of the democratic State[22]". In April 2008, a government decree stated that classified documents cannot be kept secret for more than 30 years, giving accessibility to documents that had been made secret more than 30 years before.[23] The end of the State secrecy "does not automatically lead to the revocation or disclosure of classified documents"

Use of State secrecy

  • During the investigation on White coup d'ètat, the State secrecy was imposed by the Government, but, according to Edoardo Sogno, the secrecy was not on the coup d'ètat, it was instead on a Hungarian revolution memorandum and other documents concerning Mario Scelba.[24]
  • In 1985, the Chairman of the Italian Council Bettino Craxi imposed secrecy on documents about Augusto Cauchi, black terrorist exiled by the SID in 1974, during the Italicus attack process.[25]
  • In 1988, State secrecy was imposed to the judge Carlo Mastelloni who was investigating on the fall of a Sismi military airplane, Argo 16, exploded in 1973, killing the whole plane crew.[26]

Terrorism of Mafia associations

Cosa Nostra

The Italian mafia's association Cosa Nostra tried to influence the political and judiciary events also by resorting to violence, through the usage of explosives in order to spread terror. On December 23, 1984, mafia boss Giuseppe Calò organized the "Rapido 904 massacre", together with some members of Camorra and with members of Neo-fascist groups. This massacre caused the death of 17 people and injured 267, for the purpose of catching the eye of authorities and distracting them from the investigations of anti-mafia pools and from the declarations of the cooperating witnesses Tommaso Buscetta and Salvatore Contorno.[27]

In 1992-93 Cosa Nostra returned to terrorist activities, as a consequence of several life sentences pronounced during the "Maxi trial", and of the new anti-mafia measures launched by the government. In 1992 two major dynamite attack killed the judge Giovanni Falcone (23 May) and Paolo Borsellino (19 July).

One year later (May–July 1993) some car bombs caused several victims and injured, as well as damages to the Italian artistic heritage[28][29]

References

  1. ↑ Corriere della Sera, April 27th 2009.
  2. ↑ Fasanella Giovanni, Pellegrino Giovanni (2005). La guerra Civile (L'Italia dal 1943 al 2005). Bur.
  3. ↑ Strategia della tensione. Dizionario di storia Treccani.
  4. ↑ Golpe Borghese declaration.
  5. ↑ Provvisionato, Sandro. Anni di piombo: parte male il dibattito sul superamento Archiviato il 27 aprile 2014 in Internet Archive. in Misteri d'Italia 97. 2005.
  6. ↑ Berardi, Franco "Bifo" (2004). Il sapiente, il mercante, il guerriero. Derive Approdi.
  7. ↑ Stasera su Raistoria le bombe in Alto Adige e l'utopia di Langer su Alto Adige.
  8. ↑ Vidino; et al. (2018). DE-RADICALIZATION IN THE MEDITERRANEAN - Comparing Challenges and Approaches (PDF). Milano: ISPI. pp. 13–15, 24, 26, 35–36. ISBN 9788867058198.
  9. ↑ Fabio Balocco, Tav: in ricordo di Sole e Baleno, articolo dell'edizione online de Il Fatto Quotidiano, del 28 novembre 2011.
  10. ↑ la Repubblica/cronaca: Maxi-retata in tutta Italia per gli attentati di Milano.
  11. ↑ la Repubblica/cronaca: Milano, la bomba in Duomo e ora è allarme terrorismo.
  12. ↑ la Repubblica/cronaca: Bomba al Duomo 'Seguiamo una pista spagnola'.
  13. ↑ Pacco bomba, paura alla Bocconi Rivendicazione anarchica - Milano.
  14. ↑ "Federazione Anarchica Italiana - Comunicati".
  15. ↑ "la Repubblica/cronaca: 'Preparavano un attentato' quattro fermati a Roma".
  16. ↑ "Il Giorno - Monza - Le bombe da piazzare a 2 passi da casa Scoperti estremisti pronti a colpire". Archived from the original on 2012-07-12.
  17. ↑ "Bomba contro una caserma a Milano Gravemente ferito l'attentatore libico - LASTAMPA.it". Archived from the original on 2010-01-10.
  18. ↑ Vidino; et al. (2018). DE-RADICALIZATION IN THE MEDITERRANEAN - Comparing Challenges and Approaches (PDF). Milano: ISPI. pp. 13–15, 24, 26, 35–36. ISBN 9788867058198.
  19. ↑ "Terrorismo, contatti con estremisti: tunisino rintracciato a Napoli e rimpatriato". Repubblica.it (in Italian). 2018-07-12. Retrieved 2018-07-18.
  20. ↑ "ISPI Terrorism on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 2018-07-18.
  21. ↑ Resoconto stenografico dell'Assemblea Seduta n.136 del 28/3/2007
  22. ↑ "legge 24 ottobre 1977, n. 801 denominata "Istituzione e ordinamento dei servizi per le informazioni e la sicurezza e disciplina del segreto di Stato"".
  23. ↑ "Articolo del Corriere della Sera del 13 aprile 2008".
  24. ↑ "Articolo del Corriere della Sera del 5 agosto 2005".
  25. ↑ "Ibidem".
  26. ↑ "Articolo della Repubblica del 3 agosto 1998" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-10-25.
  27. ↑ ""I boss dietro la strage Rapido 904" Chiesto il rinvio a giudizio per Riina La Stampa.it".
  28. ↑ "Sentenza del processo di 1º grado a Francesco Tagliavia per le stragi del 1993" (PDF).
  29. ↑ "Audizione del procuratore Sergio Lari dinanzi alla Commissione Parlamentare Antimafia - XVI LEGISLATURA (PDF)" (PDF).
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