CIA activities in Italy
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The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been involved in Italian politics since the end of World War II. The CIA helped swing the 1948 general election in favor of the centrist Christian Democrats and would continue to intervene in Italian politics until at least the early 1960s.
1948
The
The CIA has acknowledged giving $1 million to Italian
"We had bags of money that we delivered to selected politicians, to defray their political expenses, their campaign expenses, for posters, for pamphlets," according to CIA operative
Overall, the US funneled $10 million to $20 million into the country for specifically anti-PCI purposes. Additionally, millions of dollars from the Economic Cooperation Administration affiliated with the Marshall Plan were spent on anti-communist "information activities."[7]
The CIA claims that the PCI was being funded by the Soviet Union.[8] According to Wyatt: "The Communist Party of Italy was funded ... by black bags of money directly out of the Soviet compound in Rome; and the Italian services were aware of this. As the elections approached, the amounts grew, and the estimates [are] that $8 million to $10 million a month actually went into the coffers of communism. Not necessarily completely to the party: Mr. Di Vittorio and labor was powerful, and certainly a lot went to him," according to the former CIA operative.[3] Although the numbers are disputed, there is evidence of some financial aid, described as occasional and modest,[9] from the Kremlin.[10] PCI official Pietro Secchia and Stalin discussed financial support.[11]
The Christian Democrats eventually won the 1948 election with 48% of the vote, and the
Cold War
The CIA provided an average of $5 million annually in covert aid to Italy from the late 1940s to the early 1960s. This aid went towards financially supporting centrist Italian governments and using the awarding of contracts to weaken the Italian Communist Party's hold on labor unions.[13]
1990
Covert paramilitary action
Italian government officials agree that a stay-behind network called Operation Gladio had been formed against the contingency of a Warsaw Pact invasion of Italy, but not terminated until 1990. It is disputed, however, if this network was involved in a series of "false flag" fascist terrorist actions in Italy that were blamed on the "Red Brigades" and other Left-wing political groups in an attempt to politically discredit the Italian Left wing.[14]
Venetian magistrate
The US state department has denied involvement in terrorism and stated that some of the claims have been influenced by an alleged Soviet forgery,
2003
Covert action and international law aspects
The Abu Omar Case (or Imam Rapito affair - "Kidnapped Imam affair") refers to the abduction and transfer to Egypt of the Imam of Milan
On 23 December 2005, a judge issued a European arrest warrant against 22 CIA agents for allegedly abducting an Egyptian terrorist suspect. On 22 January 2006, the Italian Foreign Minister forwarded to the US authorities a request for legal assistance.[19]
References
- ^ Brogi, Confronting America, pp. 101-110
- ^ CIA memorandum to the Forty Committee (National Security Council), presented to the Select Committee on Intelligence, United States House of Representatives (the Pike Committee) during closed hearings held in 1975. The bulk of the committee's report that contained the memorandum was leaked to the press in February 1976 and first appeared in book form as CIA – The Pike Report (Nottingham, England, 1977). The memorandum appears on pp. 204-5 of this book.
- ^ a b "CNN Cold War Episode 3: Marshall Plan. Interview with F. Mark Wyatt, former CIA operative in Italy during the election". CNN.com. 1998–1999. Archived from the original on August 31, 2001. Retrieved 2006-07-17.
- ^ a b F. Mark Wyatt, 86, C.I.A. Officer, Is Dead, The New York Times, July 6, 2006
- ^ Johnson, Loch K. The Third Option: Covert Action and American Foreign Policy, p. 23
- ^ "How to Hang On"[permanent dead link], TIME Magazine, April 19, 1948
- ISBN 9781134104130.
- ^ Brogi, Confronting America, p. 109
- ^ Ventresca, From Fascism to Democracy, p. 269
- ^ Callanan, Covert Action in the Cold War, pp. 41-45
- ^ Pons, Silvio (2001), Stalin, Togliatti, and the Origins of the Cold War in Europe Archived 2021-08-03 at the Wayback Machine, Journal of Cold War Studies, Volume 3, Number 2, Spring 2001, pp. 3-27
- ^ "N.A.T.O. Gladio, and the strategy of tension". Chapter from "NATO's Secret Armies. Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe", by daniele Ganser. October 2005. Retrieved 2006-07-21.
- ^ "DOD draft historical study on US operations in Italy in 1950s". nsarchive.gwu.edu. Retrieved 2017-02-08.
- ^ Charles Richards and Simon Jones (16 November 1990), "Skeletons start emerging from Europe's closet", The Independent: 11.
- ^ "Clarion: Gladio terrorism Italian parliamentary committees, Indep 1 Dec 1990". www.cambridgeclarion.org. Retrieved 2019-10-21.
- ^ "World Notes ITALY", Time, 19 November 1990
- ^ Richards, Charles (1 December 1990), "Gladio is still opening wounds", Independent: 12
- ^ "Misinformation about "Gladio/Stay Behind" Networks Resurfaces". United States Department of State. Archived from the original on 2008-07-10.
- ^ International Commission of Jurists (February 2006), "National Inquiries into allegations of secret CIA flights and detention centres", E-Bulletin on Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-02-27, retrieved 2008-04-28