Thread by @NickWhithorn

[Thread] My summary of Monday's RAI3 programme 'Report' begins with the murder of Piersanti Mattarella by Cosa Nostra in Palermo on this day in 1980. Letizia Battaglia's iconic photo shows current President of Italy, Sergio Mattarella, holding his dying brother in his arms >> 1

Piersanti Mattarella was killed because of his perseverance, as President of the Sicilian Region, in institutional reforms & fighting corruption in Sicilian government. For more detailed information see my thread linked below >> 2

https://twitter.com/NickWhithorn/status/1214232801706434561?s=19

Members of Cosa Nostra's Commission, or 'cupola', Totò Riina, Michele Greco, Bernardo Provenzano, Pippo Calò, Bernardo Brusca, Francesco Madonia & Nené Geraci were convicted of ordering Mattarella's murder but nobody has ever been convicted for materially carrying it out >> 3

Giovanni Falcone's investigation concluded that the gunmen who shot Matterella in front of his wife, two children & mother-in-law on the morning of 6 January 1980 were Valerio Fioravanti & Gilberto Cavallini, members of neo-fascist terror group 'Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari' >> 4

Though the presence of Fioravanti in Palermo on the day in question was ascertained & Mattarella's wife identified him as one of the gunmen, he & Cavallini were found 'not guilty' at trial in 1995, due to insufficient evidence. Nobody else has ever been charged for the crime >> 5

Although the hypothesis of links between mafia & neo-fascist groups was not proved in this case, it shows Falcone's acumen & perspicacity, as later cases, including the bomb attack on 'Rapido 904', brought such cases to light (see thread linked below) >> 6

https://twitter.com/NickWhithorn/status/1341695943012442112?s=19

While the tie between neo-fascists & mafia would take a little longer to emerge, the one between neo-fascists & elements of the state & P2 masonic lodge emerged in the aftermath of the Bologna Station bombing of 2 August 1980 (see thread linked below) >> 7

https://twitter.com/NickWhithorn/status/1289967174753251328?s=19

The appalling toll of the Bologna Station bomb attack, 85 killed & 200 wounded, made it the worst terrorist attack in Italian postwar history. Those convicted of planting the bomb include Valerio Fioravanti (photo with Francesca Mambro, also convicted, during the trial) >> 8

Just days before the attack, Fioravanti & Mambro were in Sicily, staying at the house of fellow neo-fascist Ciccio Mangiameli (photo), the same man Falcone had suspected of hosting Fioravanti & Cavallini on the occasion of Piersanti Mattarella's murder >> 9

Mangiameli was then killed by Fioravanti, Mambro & Fioravanti's brother, Cristiano, near Rome on 9 September 1980 & his body thrown into a lake. The murder was partly for a question of money & partly because Mangiameli wanted to disassociate himself from the Bologna bomb >> 10

When he is arrested in 1986, Cristiano Fioravanti (photo) recounts that Valerio wanted to travel to Sicily to kill Mangiameli's wife & daughter before the body was found. When Cristiano asks why, Valerio tells him they "killed a Sicilian politician" in return for favours >> 11

This indicates that Valerio Fioravanti really was one of the gunmen that murdered Piersanti Mattarella but both he and Gilberto Cavallini continue to deny their involvement to this day, even though they cannot be retried for the same offence under the law of double jeopardy >> 12

Returning to the Bologna Station bombing, Valerio Fioravanti & Francesca Mambro were convicted of carrying out the attack, while Gilberto Cavallini (photo) & another NAR member were acquitted of participating but convicted of belonging to an armed group >> 13

There are, however, other people & factors to consider. Reading the thread linked in Tweet 7 above, you'll see how members of Italian Secret Service SISMI attempted to deviate inquiries, three of them being convicted of defamation for falsely accusing others of the crime >> 14

Then, there is the role played by Licio Gelli (photo), Venerable Master of the clandestine P2 masonic lodge. He, too, was convicted of defamation (10 years) but new evidence has now emerged, as recounted by 'Report', after magistrates in Bologna re-opened their inquiries >> 15

Gelli was arrested in Switzerland in September 1982 & extradited to Italy, where magistrates in Milan were investigating the collapse of the 'Banco Ambrosiano'. Numerous banking documents were handed to investigators, but now one has emerged that never reached them >> 16

On the folder is the word "Bologna" and the number of a UBS bank account in Zurich. According to the son of Roberto Calvi, President of Banco Ambrosiano, whose body was found hanging under Blackfriars Bridge in London in June 1982, this account was used to pay NAR members >> 17

Calvi's son says on 'Report' that, following the Bologna Station bombing, members of NAR went into hiding in London and Gelli transferred money to them from the Swiss account through a network of antique dealers in the UK capital >> 18

According to magistrates, at least $5 million passed through that account to pay the terrorists who carried out the attack and to pay the head of the Italian Secret Service, Federico Umberto D'Amato (photo), and other agents to 'allow' the attack to go ahead >> 19

Before moving on, we need to mention that, apart from Fioravanti & Mambro, Gilberto Cavallini & another member of NAR, Luigi Ciavardini (photo), have since been convicted of participating directly in the attack & sentenced to life imprisonment >> 20

Attention is now centred on a fifth suspect, Paolo Bellini (photo, left). Bellini was recognised by his ex-wife in a still taken from a camera at Bologna Station just a few minutes before the explosion (photo, right). Bellini leads us directly to the bombs of 1992-94 >> 21 t.b.c.

Paolo Bellini underwent military training in Portugal in the early 1970s & then carried out political murders in Italy. He seemed to benefit from some form of protection and was able to hide in South America until he returned to Italy in 1977 >> 22

Two days after the bombing, on 4 August 1980, police raided a hotel owned by Bellini's father near Reggio Emilia, as part of their search for known neo-fascist activists. They did not find Paolo Bellini but they did find somebody else who should not have been there >> 23

It was Ugo Sisti (photo), Chief Public Prosecutor at the Bologna Court. On a Monday morning, two days after a devastating terrorist attack in his jurisdiction, instead of co-ordinating inquiries from his office or on the spot, he was staying in a luxury hotel 50 miles away >> 24

Nor was it just any luxury hotel, but one belonging to the father of a possible suspect for the terror attack, known to benefit from kind of cover for his activity. Sisti would suffer disciplinary consequences for his behaviour but a criminal trial ended with his acquittal >> 25

Paolo Bellini was then arrested in February 1981 for theft (he was a renowned thief of valuable art works, as well as a killer). While in prison he became friendly with Cosa Nostra boss Antonino Gioè and, after his release, in 1991, he was asked to infiltrate Cosa Nostra >> 26

The request to infiltrate Cosa Nostra, exploiting his friendship with Gioè, came from Col. Mario Mori (photo) of the Carabinieri Raggruppamento Operativo Speciale (ROS). Mori is currently appealing a 12-year prison sentence for conducting secret negotiations with Cosa Nostra >>27

We will return to these secret negotiations later in the thread. When Bellini infiltrates Cosa Nostra in 1991, the organisation is about to start a dramatic bombing campaign against the state. Indeed, it is planning not only to fight the state, but to 'become' a state >> 28

As early as 1989, with the founding of 'Lega Meridionale', then in 1990/91 other parties such as 'Sicilia Libera', Cosa Nostra agitates political waters campaigning for greater Sicilian autonomy. Graviano was tapped saying 'Sicilia Libera' would have made Sicily a tax haven >> 29

Looking at 'Lega Meridionale', for example, we see the same mixture of P2 (Gelli), neo-fascism (Adriano Tilgher, Mario Mambro) & Cosa Nostra (Vito Ciancimino). There was, however, another promoter of these parties behind the scenes: Gianfranco Miglio of Lega Nord (photo) >> 30

Miglio was considered the founding father and leading ideologist of Lega Nord. He supported extreme federalism and had a strange attitude to the mafia, even arguing that autonomous southern regions should "maintain" the mafia, 'ndrangheta etc. & "institutionalise" them >> 31

Significantly, these small parties supported abolition of Art. 416-bis Italian Criminal Code introduced in 1982. This punished membership of a "mafia-type organisation" with minimum 10 years' imprisonment & increased sentences for crimes committed to benefit the organisation >>32

Art. 416-bis allowed the Antimafia Pool of magistrates in Palermo, led by Antonino Caponnetto (photo) & including Giovanni Falcone & Paolo Borsellino, to hold the maxi-trial against 475 mafiosi in 1986-87. It fundamentally changed the balance of power between state & mafia >> 33

The maxi-trial was historic because it was the first trial to demonstrate the existence of Cosa Nostra as an organisation with a centralised command & control structure. You can read more about it in my (long!) thread on Giovanni Falcone linked below >> 34

https://twitter.com/NickWhithorn/status/1262099458877243392?s=19

Now, Cosa Nostra is about to exhibit the power & effectiveness of its command & control structure by literally going to war with the Italian state, already in political turmoil. Politically, the added tension & unrest will benefit one person in particular: Silvio Berlusconi >> 35

A first attempt to intimidate Giovanni Falcone was carried out as early as June 1989, when an explosive device was found in a bag hidden among the rocks by the sea, where he habitually went swimming, at his summer house in Addaura, near Palermo >> 36

Some politicians & elements in the press went so far as to accuse Falcone himself of staging the whole episode to extract sympathy or play up his importance. In reality it was probably an attempt to intimidate Falcone and, on 'Report', this is confirmed by Francesco Di Carlo >>37

Francesco Di Carlo (photo) had fled the mafia wars in Palermo and set up business drug trafficking in the UK covered by 'legitimate' businesses in the hotel, travel agency & import-export sectors, while living in Woking, Surrey >> 38

In 1985, Di Carlo was arrested (you can read about the operation to arrest him at the link below), convicted & sentenced to 25 years for drug trafficking. He served his sentence in Brixton Prison where, in 1988, he received 'important' visitors >> 39
nickdavies.net/1987/03/11/how…

The three men who came to visit him said they were Italian Secret Service members & wanted Di Carlo to help convince Cosa Nostra to intimidate Giovanni Falcone & demonstrate how exposed he was, so that either he'd request a transfer or the state would decide to transfer him >> 40

Di Carlo obliged and later identified one of the agents that came to visit him from a photograph he saw in a newspaper. It was the Head of the Palermo Flying Squad, Arnaldo La Barbera (photo), who will come up again, later in the thread, because of his 'ambiguous' role >> 41

Given that attempts to force/obtain Falcone's transfer failed and political attempts to get Art. 416-bis of the criminal code abolished or softened were getting nowhere, Cosa Nostra, commanded by Totò Riina decided all out war on the Italian state to achieve their aims >> 42

The first act of this war would be the assassination of Giovanni Falcone; not just any assassination but a spectacular & shocking one. I will not deal with the Capaci attack here, as you can read the details in the final part of my thread linked below>> 43

https://twitter.com/NickWhithorn/status/1264106451183771648?s=19

Just days after Falcone's death, Gioacchino Genchi, a police officer who worked with Falcone, was asked to check the contents of the judge's computers at the Ministry of Justice in Rome. The memories had been wiped clean >> 44

When, in March 1993, the police arrested Antonino Gioè and Gioacchino La Barbera for participating in the Capaci attack, Genchi was given the task of checking their phones & obtained the call records >> 45

When checking in whose name the numbers called were registered, he was informed that two numbers repeatedly called by Gioè & La Barbera had never been activated. So, how was this possible? It turned out the numbers had been assigned to members of the Secret Service >> 46