History of Italy (1970s-1980s)
Encyclopedia
The Years of Lead was a period of socio-political turmoil in Italy
that lasted from the late 1960s into the early 1980s. This period was marked by a wave of terrorism
, initially called "Opposing Extremisms" (Opposti Estremismi) and later renamed as the "Years of Lead" (Anni di piombo). Among the possible origins of the name are a reference to the vast number of bullets fired, or the 1981 film Marianne and Juliane
by Margarethe von Trotta, of which Italian title is Anni di piombo.
There was widespread social conflict and unprecedented acts of terrorism carried out by both right- and left-wing paramilitary groups. An attempt to integrate the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement
(MSI) into the Tambroni
government led to rioting and was short-lived. The Christian Democrats
(DC) were instrumental in the Socialist party
gaining power in the 1960s and they created a coalition. The assassination
of the Christian Democratic
(DC) leader Aldo Moro
in 1978 ended the strategy of historic compromise
between the DC and the Italian Communist Party
(PCI). The assassination was carried out by the Red Brigades
, then led by Mario Moretti
. Between 1969 and 1981, nearly 2,000 murders were attributed to political violence in the form of bombings, assassinations, and street warfare between rival militant factions. Although political violence has decreased substantially in Italy since that time, instances of sporadic violent crimes continue because of the re-emergence of anti-immigrant, neo-fascist, and militant
communist
groups.
The left-wing autonomist movement lasted from 1968 until the end of the 1970s. The "years of lead" began with the shooting death of Antonio Annarumma in 1969 and the Piazza Fontana bombing
. These events are attributed to the far-right, the far-left, and the secret services, depending on the source.
(strategia della tensione). According to this theory, occult and foreign forces were involved in creating a "strategy of tension". Identified organizations included: Gladio, a NATO secret anti-communist structure; the P2 masonic lodge
, discovered in 1981 following the arrest of its leader Licio Gelli
; fascist "black terrorism" organizations such as Ordine Nuovo
or Avanguardia Nazionale
; Italian secret service
; and the United States.
Despite repeated denials of its authenticity the existence of several copies of US Army Field Manual 30-31B
, some of them found in possession of key figure of pro-U.S. and far-right eversive figures (such as Licio Gelli
), are hard to discount as fabrications.
This theory re-emerged in the 1990s, following Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti
's recognition of the existence of Gladio before the Parliamentary assembly on 24 October 1990. Juridical investigations into the Piazza Fontana bombing and the Bologna massacre and several parliamentary reports pointed towards such a deliberate strategy of tension. Milan prosecutor Guido Salvini
indicted a U.S. Navy officer, David Carrett, for his role in the Piazza Fontana bombing. He also surprised Carlo Rocchi, a CIA operative in Italy, in 1995 while searching for information concerning the case in the mid-1990s.
In 2000, a Parliamentary Commission report from the Olive Tree
, a left-of-center coalition, concluded that the strategy of tension had been supported by the United States to "stop the PCI, and to a certain degree also the PSI, from reaching executive power in the country".
On May 4, 2007 the Italian Parliament declared May 9 as a memorial day dedicated to the victims of terrorism.
, which was established in 1985 by François Mitterrand
, stated that Italian far-left terrorists who fled to France and who were convicted of violent acts in Italy, excluding "active, actual, bloody terrorism" during the "Years of Lead", would receive asylum and would not be subject to extradition to Italy. They would be integrated into French society.
The act was announce on April 21, 1985, at the 65th Congress of the Human Rights League (LDH), stating that Italian criminals who had given up their violent pasts and had fled to France would be protected from extradition to Italy:
, including Alessio Casimirri
, who took part in the kidnapping of Aldo Moro.
automobile factory in Milan
. Mario Capanna
of the New Left
movement, was prominent at the time, along with members of Potere Operaio
and Autonomia Operaia
(Antonio Negri
, Oreste Scalzone
, Franco Piperno
), and Lotta Continua
(Adriano Sofri
).
, a Milanese policeman, was assassinated during a riot of far-left demonstrators. He was the first public official to die in the ensuing wave of violence referred to as "The Years of Bullets".
in Rome and the Banca Commerciale Italiana
and the Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura
in Milan
were bombed in December.
Local police arrested 80 or so suspects from left-wing groups, including Giuseppe Pinelli
, an anarchist initially blamed for the bombing, and Pietro Valpreda
. Their guilt was denied by left-wing members, especially by members of the student movement, then prominent in Milan's universities, as they believed that the bombing was carried out by fascists. Following the death of Giuseppe Pinelli, who "accidentally fell out of a window" on December 15 while in police custody, the radical left-wing newspaper Lotta Continua started a campaign accusing police officer Luigi Calabresi
of Pinelli's murder. The accusation of wrongful death at the hands of the police was eventually determined to be false by the state, but only after many years of investigation.
Meanwhile, the anarchist Valpreda and five others were convicted and jailed for the bombing. They were later released after three years of preventive detention
. Over a 36-year period, numerous suspects were investigated, with no convictions. The identity of the perpetrators remains unknown to this day.
The Red Brigades
, the most prominent far-left terrorist organization, conducted a secret internal investigation that paralleled the official inquiry. They ordered that the inquiry remain secret, because of the unfavorable light that it could shed on other terrorist organizations. The inquiry was discovered after a fire-fight between Red Brigade forces and Italian police
(carabinieri) at Robbiano di Mediglia in October 1974. The cover-up was exposed in 2000, by President Giovanni Pellegrino.
, was planned by several far-right leaders and supported by members of the Corpo Forestale dello Stato
, along with the right-aligned entrepreneurs and industrialists. The "Black Prince", Junio Valerio Borghese
, took part in it. The coup, called off at the last moment, was discovered by the press, and publicly released a few months later.
The Red Brigade considered the group Gruppo XXII Ottobre its predecessor and in April 1974, it kidnapped Judge Mario Sossi in an effort to free the arrested member. The effort was unsuccessful. Years later, the Red Brigade killed the judge Francesco Coco
on June 8, 1976 out of revenge, along with his two police escorts, Giovanni Saponara and Antioco Deiana.
Gudrun Kiess, in 1974. They were ultimately released. Sixteen years later, Adriano Sofri
, Giorgio Petrostefani, Ovidio Bompressi, and Leonardo Marino were arrested in Milan for confessing to the murder by Leonardo Marin. Their highly controversial trial finally established their guilt in the organizing and carrying out the murder.
as the culprit who had planted the Peteano bomb.
The neo-fascist terrorist Vincenzo Vinciguerra, arrested in the 1980s for the bombing in Peteano, declared to magistrate Felice Casson
that this false flag
attack had been intended to force the Italian state to declare a state of emergency
and to become more authoritarian. Vinciguerra explained how the SISMI
military intelligence agency had protected him, allowing him to escape to Franquist Spain.
Casson's investigation revealed that the right-wing organization Ordine Nuovo had collaborated with the Italian Military Secret Service, SID (Servizio Informazioni Difesa). Together, they had engineered the Peteano terror and then wrongly blamed the militant extreme Italian left, the Red Brigades. He confessed and testified that he had been covered by an entire network of sympathizers in Italy and abroad who had ensured that after the attack he could escape. "A whole mechanism came into action", Vinciguerra recalled, "that is, the Carabinieri, the Minister of the Interior, the customs services and the military and civilian intelligence services accepted the ideological reasoning behind the attack."
on the house of neo-fascist MSI militant Mario Mattei resulted in his two sons, ages 20 and 8, being burned alive.
In 1990, it was discovered that Bertoli, who had been convicted of the bombing, was an SID informant and member of Gladio. The secret services claimed that this was only a coincidence. A magistrate investigating the assassination attempt of Mariano Rumor found that Bertoli's files were incomplete. General Gianadelio Maletti
, killing eight and wounding over 90. In 2005, the Court of Cessation issued an arrest warrant against Delfo Zorzi
, a former Ordine Nuovo member currently living in Japan.
revealed in his memoirs that in July 1974, he visited the Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) station chief in Rome to inform him of preparations for a neo-fascist coup. Asking what the United States (US) government would do in case of such a coup, Sogno wrote that he was told, "the United States would have supported any initiative tending to keep the communists out of government." General Maletti declared, in 2001, that he had not known about Sogno's relationship with the CIA and had not been informed about the coup, known as Golpe bianco (White Coup), led by Randolfo Pacciardi
.
, chief of the SIOS
military intelligence agency in 1969, and head of the SID
from 1970 to 1974, was arrested in 1974 on charges of "conspiracy against the state." Following his arrest, the Italian secret services were reorganized by a 24 October 1977 law in an attempt to reassert civilian control over the intelligence agencies. The SID was divided into the current SISMI
, the SISDE
, and the CESIS
, which was to directly coordinate with the Prime Minister of Italy
. An Italian Parliamentary Committee on Secret services control (Copaco) was created at the same time.
and Alberto Franceschini, were arrested, but new leadership continued the war against the Italian right-wing establishment with increased fervor.
The year before, Potere Operaio
had disbanded, although Autonomia Operaia
carried on in its wake. Lotta Continua also dissolved in 1976, although the magazine struggled on for several years. From remnants of Lotta Continua and similar groups, the terror organization Prima Linea
emerged.
. This was the first assassination conducted by Prima Linea.
.
On May 14, in Milan, some activists from a far-left organization pulled out their pistols and began to fire on the police, killing policeman Antonio Custra. A photographer took a photo of an activist shooting at the police. This year was called the time of the "P38", referring to the Walther P38 pistol.
, and five of his bodyguards killed. The Red Brigades were a militant leftist group, then led by Mario Moretti
. Aldo Moro was a left-leaning Christian Democrat who served several times as Prime Minister. Before his murder he was trying to include the Italian Communist Party
(PCI), headed by Enrico Berlinguer
, in the government through a deal called the Historic Compromise
. The PCI was the largest communist party in western Europe. This was largely because of its non-extremist and pragmatic stance, its growing independence from Moscow and its new eurocommunist
doctrine. The PCI was especially strong in areas such as Emilia Romagna, where it had stable government positions and mature practical experience, which may have contributed to a more pragmatic approach to politics. The Red Brigades were fiercely opposed by the Communist Party and trade union
s, a few left-wing politicians even used the condescending expression "comrades who do wrong" (Compagni che sbagliano). The circumstances surrounding Aldo Moro's murder have never been made clear, but the consequences included that fact that PCI did not gain executive power.
Investigative journalist Carmine Pecorelli
was assassinated on March 20, 1979. In a May 1978 article, he had drawn connections between Aldo Moro's kidnapping and Gladio.
Moro's assassination was followed by a large clampdown on the social movement, including the arrest of many members of Autonomia Operaia
, including , Oreste Scalzone
and political philosopher Toni Negri.
On January 19, Turin policeman Giuseppe Lorusso was killed by the Prima Linea organization.
On January 29, Emilio Alesandrini was killed in Milan by Prima Linea.
On March 9, university student Emanuele Iurilli was killed in Turin by Prima Linea.
On July 13, in Druento
(a town near Turin), policeman Bartolomeo Mana was killed by Prima Linea.
On July 18, Carmine Civitate was killed in Turin, by Prima Linea.
On September 21, Carlo Ghiglieno was killed in Turin by a group of Prima Linea.
On February 12, in Rome, at the "La Sapienza" University, Vittorio Bachelet, vice-president of the Superior Council of Magistrates and former president of the Roman Catholic association Azione Cattolica
, was killed by the Red Brigades.
On March 19, in Milan, Judge Guido Galli was killed by a group of Prima Linea.
On April 10, in Turin, Giuseppe Pisciuneri a Mondialpol guard, was killed by Ronde Proletarie.
On August 2, a bomb killed 85 people and wounded more than 200 in Bologna. Known as the Bologna massacre
, the blast destroyed a large portion of the city's railway station. This was found to be a fascist bombing, mainly organized by the NAR
, who had ties with the Roman criminal organization Banda della Magliana
.
, an American general and the deputy commander of NATO's South European forces based in Verona, was kidnapped by Red Brigades. He was freed in Padua
on January 28, 1982 by the Nucleo Operativo Centrale di Sicurezza
(NOCS), an Italian police anti-terrorist task force.
On August 26, 1982, a group of Red Brigade terrorists attacked a military troop convoy, in Salerno
. In the attack, Corporal Antonio Palumbo and policemen Antonio Bandiera and Mario De Marco
were killed. The terrorists escaped.
and four others defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment for the bombing. According to prosecutors, the far-right organizations conspired with the mafia and the Camorra
to carry out the attack.
, a general in the Italian Air Force, was assassinated by the Red Brigades in Rome.
.
On May 20, 1999, Massimo D'Antona, consultant of the Work Ministry, was assassinated in an attack by a group of terrorists of the Red Brigade, group BR-PCC, in Rome.
On March 19, 2002, Marco Biagi
, consultant of the Work Ministry, was assassinated in an attack by a group of terrorists of the Red Brigade, in Bologna.
On March 2, 2003, Emanuele Petri, state policeman, was assassinated by a group of terrorists of the Red Brigade, near Castiglion Fiorentino
.
In 2005 some suspected terrorists were arrested, known as the New Red Brigade (Nuove Brigate Rosse). On 13 June the court in Milan (corte d'Assise) condemned 14 terrorists. The leader was sentenced to 15 years in jail. Three suspected terrorists were found not guilty.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
that lasted from the late 1960s into the early 1980s. This period was marked by a wave of terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
, initially called "Opposing Extremisms" (Opposti Estremismi) and later renamed as the "Years of Lead" (Anni di piombo). Among the possible origins of the name are a reference to the vast number of bullets fired, or the 1981 film Marianne and Juliane
Marianne and Juliane
Marianne and Juliane is a 1981 West German film directed by Margarethe von Trotta. Its original German title is Die bleierne Zeit, an idiomatic expression which can be translated as "the leaden times" and refers to a complex mixture of feelings that were shared by many people of the 1970s political...
by Margarethe von Trotta, of which Italian title is Anni di piombo.
There was widespread social conflict and unprecedented acts of terrorism carried out by both right- and left-wing paramilitary groups. An attempt to integrate the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement
Italian Social Movement
The Italian Social Movement , and later the Italian Social Movement–National Right , was a neo-fascist and post-fascist political party in Italy. Formed in 1946 by supporters of former Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, the party became the fourth largest party in Italy by the early 1960s...
(MSI) into the Tambroni
Fernando Tambroni
Fernando Tambroni Armaroli was an Italian politician of the Christian Democratic Party. He was a lawyer, a prominent supporter of law and order policies, and for a brief time in 1960, the 37th Prime Minister of Italy...
government led to rioting and was short-lived. The Christian Democrats
Christian Democracy (Italy)
Christian Democracy was a Christian democratic party in Italy. It was founded in 1943 as the ideological successor of the historical Italian People's Party, which had the same symbol, a crossed shield ....
(DC) were instrumental in the Socialist party
Italian Socialist Party
The Italian Socialist Party was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy founded in Genoa in 1892.Once the dominant leftist party in Italy, it was eclipsed in status by the Italian Communist Party following World War II...
gaining power in the 1960s and they created a coalition. The assassination
Kidnapping of Aldo Moro
The kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro was a seminal event in Italian political history.On the morning of 16 March 1978, the day in which the new cabinet led by Giulio Andreotti would undergo the confidence vote at the Italian Parliament, the car of Aldo Moro, former prime minister and then...
of the Christian Democratic
Christian Democracy (Italy)
Christian Democracy was a Christian democratic party in Italy. It was founded in 1943 as the ideological successor of the historical Italian People's Party, which had the same symbol, a crossed shield ....
(DC) leader Aldo Moro
Aldo Moro
Aldo Moro was an Italian politician and the 39th Prime Minister of Italy, from 1963 to 1968, and then from 1974 to 1976. He was one of Italy's longest-serving post-war Prime Ministers, holding power for a combined total of more than six years....
in 1978 ended the strategy of historic compromise
Historic Compromise
In Italian history, the Historic Compromise was an accommodation between the Christian Democrats and the Italian Communist Party in the 1970s, after the latter embraced eurocommunism under Enrico Berlinguer. The 1978 assassination of DC leader Aldo Moro put an end to the Compromesso storico...
between the DC and the Italian Communist Party
Italian Communist Party
The Italian Communist Party was a communist political party in Italy.The PCI was founded as Communist Party of Italy on 21 January 1921 in Livorno, by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party . Amadeo Bordiga and Antonio Gramsci led the split. Outlawed during the Fascist regime, the party played...
(PCI). The assassination was carried out by the Red Brigades
Red Brigades
The Red Brigades was a Marxist-Leninist terrorist organisation, based in Italy, which was responsible for numerous violent incidents, assassinations, and robberies during the so-called "Years of Lead"...
, then led by Mario Moretti
Mario Moretti
Mario Moretti is an Italian former terrorist. A leading member of the Red Brigades in the late 1970s, he was one of the kidnappers of Aldo Moro, president of Italy's largest party, Democrazia Cristiana, and several times premier, in 1978; he later confessed to have been the one who killed the...
. Between 1969 and 1981, nearly 2,000 murders were attributed to political violence in the form of bombings, assassinations, and street warfare between rival militant factions. Although political violence has decreased substantially in Italy since that time, instances of sporadic violent crimes continue because of the re-emergence of anti-immigrant, neo-fascist, and militant
Militant
The word militant, which is both an adjective and a noun, usually is used to mean vigorously active, combative and aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in 'militant reformers'. It comes from the 15th century Latin "militare" meaning "to serve as a soldier"...
communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
groups.
The left-wing autonomist movement lasted from 1968 until the end of the 1970s. The "years of lead" began with the shooting death of Antonio Annarumma in 1969 and the Piazza Fontana bombing
Piazza Fontana bombing
The Piazza Fontana Bombing was a terrorist attack that occurred on December 12, 1969 at 16:37, when a bomb exploded at the headquarters of Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura in Piazza Fontana in Milan, Italy, killing 17 people and wounding 88...
. These events are attributed to the far-right, the far-left, and the secret services, depending on the source.
The "Strategy of Tension" theory
Many aspects of the "years of lead" are still shrouded in mystery and debate about them continues. There were many, especially on the left, who spoke of the existence in those years of a strategy of tensionStrategy of tension
The strategy of tension is a theory that describes how to divide, manipulate, and control public opinion using fear, propaganda, disinformation, psychological warfare, agents provocateurs, and false flag terrorist actions....
(strategia della tensione). According to this theory, occult and foreign forces were involved in creating a "strategy of tension". Identified organizations included: Gladio, a NATO secret anti-communist structure; the P2 masonic lodge
Propaganda Due
Propaganda Due , or P2, was a Masonic lodge operating under the jurisdiction of the Grand Orient of Italy from 1945 to 1976 , and a pseudo-Masonic or "black" or "covert" lodge operating illegally from 1976 to...
, discovered in 1981 following the arrest of its leader Licio Gelli
Licio Gelli
Licio Gelli is an Italian financier, chiefly known for his role in the Banco Ambrosiano scandal. He was revealed in 1981 as being the Venerable Master of the clandestine Masonic lodge Propaganda Due...
; fascist "black terrorism" organizations such as Ordine Nuovo
Ordine Nuovo
Ordine Nuovo , full name Centro Studi Ordine Nuovo, "New Order Scholarship Center") was an Italian far right cultural and extra-parliamentary political and terrorist organization founded by Pino Rauti in 1956...
or Avanguardia Nazionale
National Vanguard (Italy)
The National Vanguard is a name that has been used for at least two neo-fascist groups in Italy.-Original group:The original National Vanguard was an extra-parliamentary movement formed as a breakaway group from the Italian Social Movement by Stefano Delle Chiaie in 1960, initially based around a...
; Italian secret service
SISMI
Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Militare was the military intelligence agency of Italy from 1977-2007....
; and the United States.
Despite repeated denials of its authenticity the existence of several copies of US Army Field Manual 30-31B
US Army Field Manual 30-31B
The US Army Field Manual 30-31B is an alleged classified appendix to a US Army Field Manual that describes top-secret counter insurgency tactics. In particular, it identifies a strategy of tension involving violent attacks which are then blamed on radical left-wing groups in order to convince...
, some of them found in possession of key figure of pro-U.S. and far-right eversive figures (such as Licio Gelli
Licio Gelli
Licio Gelli is an Italian financier, chiefly known for his role in the Banco Ambrosiano scandal. He was revealed in 1981 as being the Venerable Master of the clandestine Masonic lodge Propaganda Due...
), are hard to discount as fabrications.
This theory re-emerged in the 1990s, following Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti
Giulio Andreotti
Giulio Andreotti is an Italian politician of the now dissolved centrist Christian Democracy party. He served as the 42nd Prime Minister of Italy from 1972 to 1973, from 1976 to 1979 and from 1989 to 1992. He also served as Minister of the Interior , Defense Minister and Foreign Minister and he...
's recognition of the existence of Gladio before the Parliamentary assembly on 24 October 1990. Juridical investigations into the Piazza Fontana bombing and the Bologna massacre and several parliamentary reports pointed towards such a deliberate strategy of tension. Milan prosecutor Guido Salvini
Guido Salvini
Guido Salvini is an Italian judge, based in Milan. He issued European arrest warrants in 2005 against approximatively 20 CIA agents accused of having taken part in the abduction of Abu Omar, the Egyptian cleric in Milan in 2003. The case is known in Italy as the Imam Rapito affair...
indicted a U.S. Navy officer, David Carrett, for his role in the Piazza Fontana bombing. He also surprised Carlo Rocchi, a CIA operative in Italy, in 1995 while searching for information concerning the case in the mid-1990s.
In 2000, a Parliamentary Commission report from the Olive Tree
Olive Tree
The Olive Tree was a denomination used for several successive centre-left Italian political coalitions from 1995 to 2007.The historical leader and ideologue of these coalitions was Romano Prodi, Professor of Economics and former leftist Christian Democrat, who invented the name and the symbol of...
, a left-of-center coalition, concluded that the strategy of tension had been supported by the United States to "stop the PCI, and to a certain degree also the PSI, from reaching executive power in the country".
On May 4, 2007 the Italian Parliament declared May 9 as a memorial day dedicated to the victims of terrorism.
France
The Mitterrand doctrineMitterrand doctrine
The Mitterrand doctrine was a policy established in 1985 by French president François Mitterrand concerning Italian far-left terrorists who fled to France: those convicted for violent acts in Italy, but excluding "active, actual, bloody terrorism" during the "Years of Lead" would not be extradited...
, which was established in 1985 by François Mitterrand
François Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...
, stated that Italian far-left terrorists who fled to France and who were convicted of violent acts in Italy, excluding "active, actual, bloody terrorism" during the "Years of Lead", would receive asylum and would not be subject to extradition to Italy. They would be integrated into French society.
The act was announce on April 21, 1985, at the 65th Congress of the Human Rights League (LDH), stating that Italian criminals who had given up their violent pasts and had fled to France would be protected from extradition to Italy:
Nicaragua
Some Italian far left activists found political asylum in NicaraguaNicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
, including Alessio Casimirri
Alessio Casimirri
Alessio Casimirri is an Italian terrorist and member of the Red Brigades , currently fugitive.Casimirri was born in Rome. His mother was a Vatican City citizen, and his father had worked for the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano and as the public relations man for three Popes.After a...
, who took part in the kidnapping of Aldo Moro.
Public protests
Public protests shook Italy during 1969, with the autonomist student movement particularly active, leading to the occupation of the FiatFiat
FIAT, an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial, and industrial group based in Turin in the Italian region of Piedmont. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli...
automobile factory in Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
. Mario Capanna
Mario Capanna
Mario Capanna is an Italian politician and writer.-Biography:Born in Città di Castello, he studied Philosophy at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, and was the leader of the Italian students' movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s...
of the New Left
New Left
The New Left was a term used mainly in the United Kingdom and United States in reference to activists, educators, agitators and others in the 1960s and 1970s who sought to implement a broad range of reforms, in contrast to earlier leftist or Marxist movements that had taken a more vanguardist...
movement, was prominent at the time, along with members of Potere Operaio
Potere Operaio
Potere Operaio was a radical left-wing Italian political group, active between 1968 and 1973. Among the group's leaders were Antonio Negri, Franco Piperno, Oreste Scalzone and Valerio Morucci, who led its clandestine...
and Autonomia Operaia
Autonomia Operaia
Autonomia Operaia was an Italian extra-parliamentary leftist movement particularly active from 1976 to 1978. It emerged in 1972 not as a party but rather as a place of encounter among various extra-parliamentary and revolutionary left-wing tendencies opposed to reformism...
(Antonio Negri
Antonio Negri
Antonio Negri is an Italian Marxist sociologist and political philosopher.Negri is best-known for his co-authorship of Empire, and secondarily for his work on Spinoza. Born in Padua, he became a political philosophy professor in his hometown university...
, Oreste Scalzone
Oreste Scalzone
Oreste Scalzone is an Italian Marxist intellectual and one of the founders of the communist organization Potere Operaio....
, Franco Piperno
Franco Piperno
Franco Piperno is an Italian former communist militant. He is currently an associated professor of Condensed Matter Physics in the University of Calabria..-Biography:Piperno was born at Catanzaro....
), and Lotta Continua
Lotta Continua
Lotta Continua was a far left extra-parliamentary organization in Italy. It was founded in autumn 1969 by a split in the student-worker movement of Turin, which had started militant activity at the universities and factories such as Fiat...
(Adriano Sofri
Adriano Sofri
Adriano Sofri is an Italian intellectual, a journalist and a writer.Former leader of the autonomist movement Lotta Continua in the 1960s, he was arrested in 1988 and convicted to 22 years of prison, having been found guilty of being the instigator of the murder of Luigi Calabresi, a police...
).
Death of Antonio Annarumma
On November 19, 1969, Antonio AnnarummaAntonio Annarumma
Antonio Annarumma was an Italian policeman. History asserts that he was the first victim of years of lead....
, a Milanese policeman, was assassinated during a riot of far-left demonstrators. He was the first public official to die in the ensuing wave of violence referred to as "The Years of Bullets".
Piazza Fontana bombing
The Monument to Victor Emmanuel II, the Banca Nazionale del LavoroBanca Nazionale del Lavoro
Banca Nazionale del Lavoro SpA is an Italian banking firm. Founded in 1913 as Istituto di Credito per la Cooperazione, it was nationalized in 1929. It was re-privatized and listed on the Milan Stock Exchange in 1998, before being acquired by French banking group BNP Paribas in 2006...
in Rome and the Banca Commerciale Italiana
Banca Commerciale Italiana
Banca Commerciale Italiana, founded in 1894, was once one of the largest banks in Italy. In 1999 it merged with a banking group consisting of Cassa di Risparmio delle Provincie Lombarde and Banco Ambroveneto, the former Banco Ambrosiano, which had merged in 1998. On 1 January 2003, the group's...
and the Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura
Piazza Fontana bombing
The Piazza Fontana Bombing was a terrorist attack that occurred on December 12, 1969 at 16:37, when a bomb exploded at the headquarters of Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura in Piazza Fontana in Milan, Italy, killing 17 people and wounding 88...
in Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
were bombed in December.
Local police arrested 80 or so suspects from left-wing groups, including Giuseppe Pinelli
Giuseppe Pinelli
Giuseppe "Pino" Pinelli was an Italian railway worker and anarchist activist, who died in the custody of Italian police in 1969 after being arrested. Pinelli was a member of the Milan Circle "Ponte della Ghisolfa". He was also the secretary of the Italian branch of the Anarchist Black Cross...
, an anarchist initially blamed for the bombing, and Pietro Valpreda
Pietro Valpreda
Pietro Valpreda was an Italian anarchist, dancer and novelist. He was victim of a miscarriage of justice, sentenced to prison on charges of being responsible of the December 1969 Piazza Fontana bombing, before being cleared sixteen years later.Valpreda came from a poor working-class family in...
. Their guilt was denied by left-wing members, especially by members of the student movement, then prominent in Milan's universities, as they believed that the bombing was carried out by fascists. Following the death of Giuseppe Pinelli, who "accidentally fell out of a window" on December 15 while in police custody, the radical left-wing newspaper Lotta Continua started a campaign accusing police officer Luigi Calabresi
Luigi Calabresi
Luigi Calabresi , recipient of a gold medal of the Italian Republic for civil valor, was a commissioner of Italian police in Milan....
of Pinelli's murder. The accusation of wrongful death at the hands of the police was eventually determined to be false by the state, but only after many years of investigation.
Meanwhile, the anarchist Valpreda and five others were convicted and jailed for the bombing. They were later released after three years of preventive detention
Preventive detention
Preventive detention is an imprisonment that is not imposed as the punishment for a crime, but in order to prevent a person from committing a crime, if that person is deemed likely to commit a crime....
. Over a 36-year period, numerous suspects were investigated, with no convictions. The identity of the perpetrators remains unknown to this day.
The Red Brigades
Red Brigades
The Red Brigades was a Marxist-Leninist terrorist organisation, based in Italy, which was responsible for numerous violent incidents, assassinations, and robberies during the so-called "Years of Lead"...
, the most prominent far-left terrorist organization, conducted a secret internal investigation that paralleled the official inquiry. They ordered that the inquiry remain secret, because of the unfavorable light that it could shed on other terrorist organizations. The inquiry was discovered after a fire-fight between Red Brigade forces and Italian police
Carabinieri
The Carabinieri is the national gendarmerie of Italy, policing both military and civilian populations, and is a branch of the armed forces.-Early history:...
(carabinieri) at Robbiano di Mediglia in October 1974. The cover-up was exposed in 2000, by President Giovanni Pellegrino.
The Golpe Borghese
In December, a neo-fascist coup, dubbed the Golpe BorgheseGolpe Borghese
The Golpe Borghese was a failed Italian coup d'état allegedly planned for the night of 7 or 8 December 1970. It was named after Junio Valerio Borghese, an Italian World War II commander of the notorious Xª MAS unit, the "Black Prince", convicted of war crimes, but still a hero in the eyes of many...
, was planned by several far-right leaders and supported by members of the Corpo Forestale dello Stato
Corpo Forestale dello Stato
The State Forestry Corps is a national police agency in Italy.It was established on 15 October 1822 by Charles Felix of Sardinia as "Amministrazione forestale per la custodia e la vigilanza dei boschi".An agency under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, the CFS acts...
, along with the right-aligned entrepreneurs and industrialists. The "Black Prince", Junio Valerio Borghese
Junio Valerio Borghese
Prince Junio Valerio Scipione Borghese was an Italian Navy commander during the regime of Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party and was a prominent hard-line fascist politician in post-war Italy.-Early career:Junio Valerio Borghese was born in Artena, Province of Rome, Kingdom of Italy...
, took part in it. The coup, called off at the last moment, was discovered by the press, and publicly released a few months later.
Assassination of Alessandro Floris
On March 26, 1971 Alessandro Floris was assassinated in Genoa, by a unit of the Gruppo XXII Ottobre, a far-left terrorist organization. An amateur photographer had taken a photo of the killer that enabled police to identify the terrorists. The group was investigated and more members arrested. Some fled to Milan and joined the "Gruppi di Azione Partigiana” (GAP) and later the Red Brigades.The Red Brigade considered the group Gruppo XXII Ottobre its predecessor and in April 1974, it kidnapped Judge Mario Sossi in an effort to free the arrested member. The effort was unsuccessful. Years later, the Red Brigade killed the judge Francesco Coco
Francesco Coco
Francesco Coco is a retired Italian football defender.-Club:Coco spent the majority of his club career with the Milan clubs; first with A.C. Milan between 1993 and 2002 and later with F.C. Internazionale between 2002 and 2007. He also had several loan spells with Vicenza Calcio, Torino F.C. and...
on June 8, 1976 out of revenge, along with his two police escorts, Giovanni Saponara and Antioco Deiana.
Assassination of Luigi Calabresi
On May 17, 1972, police officer Luigi Calabresi, recipient of the gold medal of the Italian Republic for civil valor, was assassinated in Milan. Authorities initially focused on suspects in Lotta Continua, before detaining two neo-fascist activists, Gianni Nardi and Bruno Stefano, along with the GermanGermans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
Gudrun Kiess, in 1974. They were ultimately released. Sixteen years later, Adriano Sofri
Adriano Sofri
Adriano Sofri is an Italian intellectual, a journalist and a writer.Former leader of the autonomist movement Lotta Continua in the 1960s, he was arrested in 1988 and convicted to 22 years of prison, having been found guilty of being the instigator of the murder of Luigi Calabresi, a police...
, Giorgio Petrostefani, Ovidio Bompressi, and Leonardo Marino were arrested in Milan for confessing to the murder by Leonardo Marin. Their highly controversial trial finally established their guilt in the organizing and carrying out the murder.
Peteano bombing
On May 31, 1972, three Italian police were killed in Peteano in a bombing, blamed on Lotta Continua. Officers of the carabinieri were later indicted and convicted for manipulating the investigation in false directions. Judge Casson identified Ordine Nuovo member Vincenzo VinciguerraVincenzo Vinciguerra
Vincenzo Vinciguerra is an Italian neo-fascist activist, a former member of the Avanguardia Nazionale and Ordine Nuovo . He is currently serving a life-sentence for the murder of three policemen by a car bomb in Peteano in 1972...
as the culprit who had planted the Peteano bomb.
The neo-fascist terrorist Vincenzo Vinciguerra, arrested in the 1980s for the bombing in Peteano, declared to magistrate Felice Casson
Felice Casson
Felice Casson is an Italian magistrate and politician, who discovered the existence of Operation Gladio, a "stay-behind" NATO anti-communist army during the Cold War, while investigating an attack on three Carabinieri in 1972, for which two neo-fascists were convicted; the explosives used in the...
that this false flag
False flag
False flag operations are covert operations designed to deceive the public in such a way that the operations appear as though they are being carried out by other entities. The name is derived from the military concept of flying false colors; that is flying the flag of a country other than one's own...
attack had been intended to force the Italian state to declare a state of emergency
State of emergency
A state of emergency is a governmental declaration that may suspend some normal functions of the executive, legislative and judicial powers, alert citizens to change their normal behaviours, or order government agencies to implement emergency preparedness plans. It can also be used as a rationale...
and to become more authoritarian. Vinciguerra explained how the SISMI
SISMI
Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Militare was the military intelligence agency of Italy from 1977-2007....
military intelligence agency had protected him, allowing him to escape to Franquist Spain.
Casson's investigation revealed that the right-wing organization Ordine Nuovo had collaborated with the Italian Military Secret Service, SID (Servizio Informazioni Difesa). Together, they had engineered the Peteano terror and then wrongly blamed the militant extreme Italian left, the Red Brigades. He confessed and testified that he had been covered by an entire network of sympathizers in Italy and abroad who had ensured that after the attack he could escape. "A whole mechanism came into action", Vinciguerra recalled, "that is, the Carabinieri, the Minister of the Interior, the customs services and the military and civilian intelligence services accepted the ideological reasoning behind the attack."
The Primavalle Fire
An April 16, 1973 attack by members of Potere OperaioPotere Operaio
Potere Operaio was a radical left-wing Italian political group, active between 1968 and 1973. Among the group's leaders were Antonio Negri, Franco Piperno, Oreste Scalzone and Valerio Morucci, who led its clandestine...
on the house of neo-fascist MSI militant Mario Mattei resulted in his two sons, ages 20 and 8, being burned alive.
Milan Police command (Questura di Milano) bombing
During a 17 May 1973 ceremony honoring Luigi Calabresi, in which the Interior Minister was present, Gianfranco Bertoli, an anarchist, threw a bomb that killed four and injured 45.In 1990, it was discovered that Bertoli, who had been convicted of the bombing, was an SID informant and member of Gladio. The secret services claimed that this was only a coincidence. A magistrate investigating the assassination attempt of Mariano Rumor found that Bertoli's files were incomplete. General Gianadelio Maletti
Piazza della Loggia bombing
In May 1974, a bomb exploded during an anti-fascist demonstration in BresciaBrescia
Brescia is a city and comune in the region of Lombardy in northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, between the Mella and the Naviglio, with a population of around 197,000. It is the second largest city in Lombardy, after the capital, Milan...
, killing eight and wounding over 90. In 2005, the Court of Cessation issued an arrest warrant against Delfo Zorzi
Delfo Zorzi
Delfo Zorzi, presently known as , is an Italian-born Japanese citizen accused of terrorism in his country of origin.-Biography:Delfo Zorzi/Roi Hagen was born in Arzignano, near Vicenza, Italy, on July 3, 1947, joined neo-fascist organization Ordine Nuovo in 1966, and later became head of the...
, a former Ordine Nuovo member currently living in Japan.
Attempted neo-fascist coup
Count Edgardo SognoEdgardo Sogno
Edgardo Sogno Rata del Vallino was an Italian diplomat, partisan and political figure. He was born in an aristocratic family from Piedmont.- Under Fascism :...
revealed in his memoirs that in July 1974, he visited the Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
(CIA) station chief in Rome to inform him of preparations for a neo-fascist coup. Asking what the United States (US) government would do in case of such a coup, Sogno wrote that he was told, "the United States would have supported any initiative tending to keep the communists out of government." General Maletti declared, in 2001, that he had not known about Sogno's relationship with the CIA and had not been informed about the coup, known as Golpe bianco (White Coup), led by Randolfo Pacciardi
Randolfo Pacciardi
Randolfo Pacciardi was an Italian politician, a member of the Italian Republican Party . He was also an officer who fought during World War I and in the Spanish Civil War.-Biography:...
.
Bombing of Italicus train
On August 4, 1974, 12 died and 105 were injured in the bombing of the train Italicus Roma-Brennero express at San Benedetto Val di Sambro.Arrest of Vito Miceli
General Vito MiceliVito Miceli
Vito Miceli was an Italian general and politician. He was chief of the SIOS , Italian Army Intelligence's Service from 1969 and SID's head from October 18, 1970 to 1974...
, chief of the SIOS
SIOS
Servizio Informazioni Operative e Situazione , was an Italian military intelligence and security service. Its main duty was safeguarding the internal security of military bases and its personnel and military intelligence activities against enemy and foreign forces, especially through SIGINT...
military intelligence agency in 1969, and head of the SID
SISMI
Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Militare was the military intelligence agency of Italy from 1977-2007....
from 1970 to 1974, was arrested in 1974 on charges of "conspiracy against the state." Following his arrest, the Italian secret services were reorganized by a 24 October 1977 law in an attempt to reassert civilian control over the intelligence agencies. The SID was divided into the current SISMI
SISMI
Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Militare was the military intelligence agency of Italy from 1977-2007....
, the SISDE
SISDE
Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Democratica , was the domestic intelligence agency of Italy.With the reform of the Italian Intelligence Services approved on 1 August 2007, SISDE was replaced by AISI....
, and the CESIS
CESIS
Comitato Esecutivo per i Servizi di Informazione e Sicurezza was an Italian government committee whose mission was the coordination of all the intelligence sector, and specifically between the two civilian and military intelligence agencies , with the aim to report all the relevant information...
, which was to directly coordinate with the Prime Minister of Italy
Prime minister of Italy
The Prime Minister of Italy is the head of government of the Italian Republic...
. An Italian Parliamentary Committee on Secret services control (Copaco) was created at the same time.
Arrest of Red Brigade leaders
In 1974, some leaders of the Red Brigades, including Renato CurcioRenato Curcio
Renato Curcio is the former leader of the Italian left-wing militant organization, the Red Brigades .-Background:...
and Alberto Franceschini, were arrested, but new leadership continued the war against the Italian right-wing establishment with increased fervor.
The year before, Potere Operaio
Potere Operaio
Potere Operaio was a radical left-wing Italian political group, active between 1968 and 1973. Among the group's leaders were Antonio Negri, Franco Piperno, Oreste Scalzone and Valerio Morucci, who led its clandestine...
had disbanded, although Autonomia Operaia
Autonomia Operaia
Autonomia Operaia was an Italian extra-parliamentary leftist movement particularly active from 1976 to 1978. It emerged in 1972 not as a party but rather as a place of encounter among various extra-parliamentary and revolutionary left-wing tendencies opposed to reformism...
carried on in its wake. Lotta Continua also dissolved in 1976, although the magazine struggled on for several years. From remnants of Lotta Continua and similar groups, the terror organization Prima Linea
Prima Linea
Prima Linea was an Italian Marxist-Leninist terrorist group of the 1970s. It was formed in 1976 by members of hard-line factions within the far left, extra-parliamentary organization Lotta Continua, which disbanded that year, together with members of Potere Operaio and of other far left groups...
emerged.
Prima Linea: an emerging terrorist organization
On April 29, 1976, Enrico Pedenovi was killed in Milan by the organization Prima LineaPrima Linea
Prima Linea was an Italian Marxist-Leninist terrorist group of the 1970s. It was formed in 1976 by members of hard-line factions within the far left, extra-parliamentary organization Lotta Continua, which disbanded that year, together with members of Potere Operaio and of other far left groups...
. This was the first assassination conducted by Prima Linea.
1977
On March 12, a Turin policeman Giuseppe Ciotta was killed by far-left terrorist organization, Prima LineaPrima Linea
Prima Linea was an Italian Marxist-Leninist terrorist group of the 1970s. It was formed in 1976 by members of hard-line factions within the far left, extra-parliamentary organization Lotta Continua, which disbanded that year, together with members of Potere Operaio and of other far left groups...
.
On May 14, in Milan, some activists from a far-left organization pulled out their pistols and began to fire on the police, killing policeman Antonio Custra. A photographer took a photo of an activist shooting at the police. This year was called the time of the "P38", referring to the Walther P38 pistol.
Kidnapping and assassination of Aldo Moro
On March 16, Aldo Moro was kidnapped by the Red BrigadesRed Brigades
The Red Brigades was a Marxist-Leninist terrorist organisation, based in Italy, which was responsible for numerous violent incidents, assassinations, and robberies during the so-called "Years of Lead"...
, and five of his bodyguards killed. The Red Brigades were a militant leftist group, then led by Mario Moretti
Mario Moretti
Mario Moretti is an Italian former terrorist. A leading member of the Red Brigades in the late 1970s, he was one of the kidnappers of Aldo Moro, president of Italy's largest party, Democrazia Cristiana, and several times premier, in 1978; he later confessed to have been the one who killed the...
. Aldo Moro was a left-leaning Christian Democrat who served several times as Prime Minister. Before his murder he was trying to include the Italian Communist Party
Italian Communist Party
The Italian Communist Party was a communist political party in Italy.The PCI was founded as Communist Party of Italy on 21 January 1921 in Livorno, by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party . Amadeo Bordiga and Antonio Gramsci led the split. Outlawed during the Fascist regime, the party played...
(PCI), headed by Enrico Berlinguer
Enrico Berlinguer
Enrico Berlinguer was an Italian politician; he was national secretary of the Italian Communist Party from 1972 until his death.-Early career:...
, in the government through a deal called the Historic Compromise
Historic Compromise
In Italian history, the Historic Compromise was an accommodation between the Christian Democrats and the Italian Communist Party in the 1970s, after the latter embraced eurocommunism under Enrico Berlinguer. The 1978 assassination of DC leader Aldo Moro put an end to the Compromesso storico...
. The PCI was the largest communist party in western Europe. This was largely because of its non-extremist and pragmatic stance, its growing independence from Moscow and its new eurocommunist
Eurocommunism
Eurocommunism was a trend in the 1970s and 1980s within various Western European communist parties to develop a theory and practice of social transformation that was more relevant in a Western European democracy and less aligned to the influence or control of the Communist Party of the Soviet...
doctrine. The PCI was especially strong in areas such as Emilia Romagna, where it had stable government positions and mature practical experience, which may have contributed to a more pragmatic approach to politics. The Red Brigades were fiercely opposed by the Communist Party and trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
s, a few left-wing politicians even used the condescending expression "comrades who do wrong" (Compagni che sbagliano). The circumstances surrounding Aldo Moro's murder have never been made clear, but the consequences included that fact that PCI did not gain executive power.
Investigative journalist Carmine Pecorelli
Carmine Pecorelli
Carmine Pecorelli known as Mino, was an Italian journalist, shot dead in Rome a year after former prime minister Aldo Moro's 1978 kidnapping and subsequent killing...
was assassinated on March 20, 1979. In a May 1978 article, he had drawn connections between Aldo Moro's kidnapping and Gladio.
Moro's assassination was followed by a large clampdown on the social movement, including the arrest of many members of Autonomia Operaia
Autonomia Operaia
Autonomia Operaia was an Italian extra-parliamentary leftist movement particularly active from 1976 to 1978. It emerged in 1972 not as a party but rather as a place of encounter among various extra-parliamentary and revolutionary left-wing tendencies opposed to reformism...
, including , Oreste Scalzone
Oreste Scalzone
Oreste Scalzone is an Italian Marxist intellectual and one of the founders of the communist organization Potere Operaio....
and political philosopher Toni Negri.
1979
A year with more assassinationsOn January 19, Turin policeman Giuseppe Lorusso was killed by the Prima Linea organization.
On January 29, Emilio Alesandrini was killed in Milan by Prima Linea.
On March 9, university student Emanuele Iurilli was killed in Turin by Prima Linea.
On July 13, in Druento
Druento
Druento is a comune in the Province of Turin in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 12 km northwest of Turin.Druento is located in a hilly-plain territory, between the Givoletto mountains and the Turin's plain. Attractions include La Mandria Regional Park, housing a former house of...
(a town near Turin), policeman Bartolomeo Mana was killed by Prima Linea.
On July 18, Carmine Civitate was killed in Turin, by Prima Linea.
On September 21, Carlo Ghiglieno was killed in Turin by a group of Prima Linea.
More assassinations
On February 5, in Monza, Paolo Paoletti was killed by Prima Linea.On February 12, in Rome, at the "La Sapienza" University, Vittorio Bachelet, vice-president of the Superior Council of Magistrates and former president of the Roman Catholic association Azione Cattolica
Azione Cattolica
The Azione Cattolica Italiana, or Azione Cattolica for short, is a widespread lay Roman Catholic association in Italy.-History:...
, was killed by the Red Brigades.
On March 19, in Milan, Judge Guido Galli was killed by a group of Prima Linea.
On April 10, in Turin, Giuseppe Pisciuneri a Mondialpol guard, was killed by Ronde Proletarie.
On August 2, a bomb killed 85 people and wounded more than 200 in Bologna. Known as the Bologna massacre
Bologna massacre
The Bologna massacre was a terrorist bombing of the Central Station at Bologna, Italy, on the morning of Saturday, 2 August 1980, which killed 85 people and wounded more than 200. The attack has been materially attributed to the neo-fascist terrorist organization Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari...
, the blast destroyed a large portion of the city's railway station. This was found to be a fascist bombing, mainly organized by the NAR
NAR
-Places:* Nar Jaffar Khan, a town and union council in Bannu District of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan* Nar, Nepal, a village development committee in Manang District in the Gandaki Zone of northern Nepal...
, who had ties with the Roman criminal organization Banda della Magliana
Banda della Magliana
The Banda della Magliana was an Italian criminal organization based in Rome, particularly active throughout the late 1970s until the early 1990s. Given by the media, the name refers to the original neighborhood, the Magliana, of most of its members....
.
1981
On December 17, 1981 James L. DozierJames L. Dozier
James Lee Dozier is a retired US Army general officer. In December 1981, he was kidnapped by the leftist Italian Red Brigades Marxist terrorist group. He was rescued by Italian anti-terrorist forces after 42 days of captivity. General Dozier was the deputy Chief of Staff at NATO's Southern...
, an American general and the deputy commander of NATO's South European forces based in Verona, was kidnapped by Red Brigades. He was freed in Padua
Padua
Padua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...
on January 28, 1982 by the Nucleo Operativo Centrale di Sicurezza
Nucleo Operativo Centrale di Sicurezza
The Nucleo Operativo Centrale di Sicurezza is a special operations division of the Italian state police.-History:In 1974 the Chief of the Polizia di Stato Anti-Terrorism Bureau, Emilio Santillo, announced the necessity to establish a tactical unit with the capability to arrest known terrorists and...
(NOCS), an Italian police anti-terrorist task force.
The Salerno Massacre
On October 21, 1982, a group of Red Brigade terrorists attacked a bank in Turin, killing two guards, Antonio Pedio and Sebastiano d'Alleo.On August 26, 1982, a group of Red Brigade terrorists attacked a military troop convoy, in Salerno
Salerno
Salerno is a city and comune in Campania and is the capital of the province of the same name. It is located on the Gulf of Salerno on the Tyrrhenian Sea....
. In the attack, Corporal Antonio Palumbo and policemen Antonio Bandiera and Mario De Marco
Mario de Marco
Mario de Marco is a Maltese politician and academic. He is the son of former President Guido de Marco.-Academic career:...
were killed. The terrorists escaped.
1984
On December 23, 1984, a bomb in a train between Florence and Rome killed 16 and wounded more than 200. In 1989 , the mafiosi Giuseppe CaloGiuseppe Calò
Giuseppe 'Pippo' Calò is a member of the Sicilian Mafia. He was referred to as the "Mafia's Cashier" because he was heavily involved in the financial side of organized crime, primarily money laundering....
and four others defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment for the bombing. According to prosecutors, the far-right organizations conspired with the mafia and the Camorra
Camorra
The Camorra is a Mafia-type criminal organization, or secret society, originating in the region of Campania and its capital Naples in Italy. It is one of the oldest and largest criminal organizations in Italy, dating to the 18th century.-Background:...
to carry out the attack.
1987
On March 20, 1987, Licio GiorgieriLicio Giorgieri
Licio Giorgieri was an Italian air force general, who was killed by a faction the far-left terrorist organization Red Brigades.-Biography:Giorgieri was born in Trieste....
, a general in the Italian Air Force, was assassinated by the Red Brigades in Rome.
1988
On April 16, Senator Roberto Ruffilli was assassinated in an attack by a group of Red Brigades in Forlì.Continued violence
In the late 1990s - early 2000s, a resurgence of Red Brigade terrorism led to the assassination of labour law consultants and experts, Massimo D'Antona and Marco BiagiMarco Biagi
Marco Biagi was an Italian jurist. A native of Bologna, he was professor of labour law and industrial relations at the University of Modena....
.
On May 20, 1999, Massimo D'Antona, consultant of the Work Ministry, was assassinated in an attack by a group of terrorists of the Red Brigade, group BR-PCC, in Rome.
On March 19, 2002, Marco Biagi
Marco Biagi
Marco Biagi was an Italian jurist. A native of Bologna, he was professor of labour law and industrial relations at the University of Modena....
, consultant of the Work Ministry, was assassinated in an attack by a group of terrorists of the Red Brigade, in Bologna.
On March 2, 2003, Emanuele Petri, state policeman, was assassinated by a group of terrorists of the Red Brigade, near Castiglion Fiorentino
Castiglion Fiorentino
Castiglion Fiorentino is a small, walled city in eastern Tuscany, Italy, in the province of Arezzo, between the cities of Arezzo and Cortona. It is well known for its annual festivals and Etruscan archeological site.-Geography:...
.
In 2005 some suspected terrorists were arrested, known as the New Red Brigade (Nuove Brigate Rosse). On 13 June the court in Milan (corte d'Assise) condemned 14 terrorists. The leader was sentenced to 15 years in jail. Three suspected terrorists were found not guilty.
Terrorist organizations in Italy (incomplete list)
- Red BrigadesRed BrigadesThe Red Brigades was a Marxist-Leninist terrorist organisation, based in Italy, which was responsible for numerous violent incidents, assassinations, and robberies during the so-called "Years of Lead"...
- Prima LineaPrima LineaPrima Linea was an Italian Marxist-Leninist terrorist group of the 1970s. It was formed in 1976 by members of hard-line factions within the far left, extra-parliamentary organization Lotta Continua, which disbanded that year, together with members of Potere Operaio and of other far left groups...
- Gruppo XXII OttobreOctober 22 GroupThe October 22 Group was an Italian terrorist grouping, instituted on October 22, 1969.It was led by Mario Rossi, who received a life sentence in 1973 for killing a messenger in September 1971....
- Ordine NuovoOrdine NuovoOrdine Nuovo , full name Centro Studi Ordine Nuovo, "New Order Scholarship Center") was an Italian far right cultural and extra-parliamentary political and terrorist organization founded by Pino Rauti in 1956...
- National Vanguard (Italy)National Vanguard (Italy)The National Vanguard is a name that has been used for at least two neo-fascist groups in Italy.-Original group:The original National Vanguard was an extra-parliamentary movement formed as a breakaway group from the Italian Social Movement by Stefano Delle Chiaie in 1960, initially based around a...
- Nuclei Armati RivoluzionariNuclei Armati RivoluzionariThe Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari was an Italian neofascist terrorist organization active from 1977 to November 1981. It committed 33 murders in four years, and had planned to assassinate Francesco Cossiga, Gianfranco Fini and Adolfo Urso...
External links
- a very helpful font of chronological notices about terrorism in Italy with a lot of chronological information
- Italy's Invisible Government, Rosella Dossi, CERC (Contemporary Europe Research Centre, University of MelbourneUniversity of MelbourneThe University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria...
)