Red Brigades Say They 'Executed' Italy Official (Murdered Capitalist Intellectual Marco Biagi)

The New York Times ^ | 3/21/02 | Reuters

[xm177e2]

 

March 21, 2002

Red Brigades Say They 'Executed' Italy Official

By REUTERS

Filed at 3:35 p.m. ET

ROME (Reuters) - An offshoot of Italy's Red Brigades urban guerrilla movement published a 26-page Internet message on Thursday saying it had ``executed'' a top government adviser and reviving fears of a new era in political killings.

Marco Biagi, 52, was shot dead on Tuesday night in the northern city of Bologna with the same pistol that the Red Brigades for the Construction of the Fighting Communist Party had used to kill another government aide in 1999.

Police pored over video material collected from security cameras around Bologna and focused on the testimony of a witness who according to Italian media saw a member of the group in the northern city on the day of the assassination.

The original Red Brigades were responsible for a slew of murders of politicians, businessmen and policemen in the late 1970s and 1980s.

Their most notorious act -- the 1978 kidnapping and killing of former prime minister Aldo Moro -- aimed to bring down the Italian state but in effect strengthened it by alienating even their sympathizers. A series of crackdowns followed and the group was believed defeated by the mid 1980s.

Police believe some of the jailed guerrillas who have not rejected the past still have contacts with the new group and searched their cells on Wednesday evening and on Thursday.

In a diatribe against modern capitalism, the new group declared on the Web that ``an armed nucleus of our organization executed Marco Biagi.'' It accused the Labour Ministry adviser of ``exploiting'' workers with the labor reforms he had co-authored.

In a lengthy passage, the group said it approved the September 11 attacks on the United States, calling them ``a concrete move to contrast imperialist strategies.''

Police said they believed the message was authentic.

Biagi's killing came amid tension in Italy over plans to change employment laws that have prompted unions to call a general strike.

President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi called for unity and dialogue on Thursday to combat the renewed threat of politically motivated violence.

``The horror and anguish over the barbaric assassination of Marco Biagi cannot and must not weaken our confidence in the force of democracy,'' he said.

Labour groups have said they refuse to bow to violence and will go ahead with the strike in April but they also called for a mass demonstration next Wednesday to denounce terrorism.

In a gesture toward the unions, Labour Minister Roberto Maroni called a meeting with them on Monday or Tuesday.

FEARS OF MORE VIOLENCE

The claim of responsibility of Biagi's murder, sent to labor unions and posted on the Web site www.caserta24ore.it, vowed to continue fighting Italy's ``anti-proletariat project'' and threatened to create the ``political-military'' conditions necessary for a lasting class war.

Biagi's murder raised fears of a resurgence in guerrilla violence after officials identified the pistol as the one used to kill another Labour Ministry adviser, Massimo D'Antona, under a different, center-left government in 1999.

Some government members suggested the unions and the center-left opposition were partly to blame for creating tension over the labor reforms.

``These groups come out when one tries to reform something because they fear the new...but also when the political debate becomes too harsh,'' said Industry Minister Antonio Marzano.

Biagi, who has also worked with center-left governments in the past, had received a series of telephone threats after a police escort was deemed unnecessary and suspended last year. ''They have abandoned you,'' one caller told him.

His widow told reporters: ``I was scared. I could feel it.''

The Biagi family announced on Thursday it will hold a private funeral on Friday morning despite government offers for a state funeral and asked the media to respect their suffering.

News of the cancellation of the bodyguard has sparked uproar and prompted angry accusations from Maroni who said he had requested protection for Biagi while some opposition politicians have urged Interior Minister Claudio Scajola to resign.

[WOSG]

VOA, a tought: Ted Kazinski of unabomber fame was caught due to his own verbose writings being so recognizable. ... maybe someone can trace the writings in this case too. one can at least hope they find the perp(s) somehow.

[sneakypete]

I thought the Red Brigaders all either died or went to prison after they screwed-up and kidnapped that NATO General who had the nuke codes. Remember that? They nabbed this guy and then tried to hold him for ransom,thinking they could get away with it. Within a couple of days they were all either dead or in jail,and the General was back in Brussels.

[nopardons]

I think that THE BLACK HAND has already raised it's head again.

[Commander8]

I'm really curious why the Bush administration is concentrating on Islamist terrorists and virtually ignoring the Marxists.

[Catspaw]

You can practically see the buckling of the chain as they play crack the whip on the West.

You betcha. I think this is just the start of a wave of terror across the world, all directed at the West & Western interests, primarily us--aka The Great Satan.

I have a good guess whose hand is cracking the whip (or providing the funding).

[willyone]

How long before the Aztlan Nation and Meacha feel confident enough to start causing incidents. A few million more new residents and we will be running for our lives. Keep those half million dollar mortgages current suckers.

[Askel5]

And I have a good guess as to who saw it coming and mebbe figured out how best to "co-exist" and maybe profit a little on the crisis ...

But I raised it in the context, and I don't want to delay all of this, but I raised it in the context -- I came back from a conference on terrorism back in 1980. I was over in, not Berlin, I was in Bonn, and I went to a conference on terrorism and I spoke there, Henry Kissinger was there, Helmut Schmidt was there, and as I came out of the hotel I saw the hotel was surrounded by APCs, armored personnel carriers. And all the soldiers or policemen had automatic weapons.

I looked at that and I said, I wonder, would any American city allow VIPs to be protected by virtual tanks in the street? And it had been just after a guy named Schleier, a banker, had been assassinated, stuffed in his trunk of a Mercedes car, so there was real tension over there, and there was some real protection underway. I said no, it will never happen in the United States.

Then I said well wait a minute. What happens if the terrorists come to the United States and the bombs start going off, the killing starts here?

Would we as the American people, say protect our liberties or protect our lives? We've never had to have that debate at this point.

And so when you have an Oklahoma City bombing that's taken place, and you have others who may not be domestic but international, what will be the reaction of the American people?

Will they say the government's responsibility is to protect us, and we say absolutely <licking chops>, but how do we do that?

Do we do it through the local police? The National Guard? The Guard and Reserve? Or do we call upon the military in extremists to provide protection and to help with what they call consequence management?

DefenseLink -- Cohen Breakfast Meeting with Reporters in Washington, D.C. (1/11/2001)

The Message They're Sending is Essentially the Same

[Askel5]

A New Security System for the "Common European Home" and Soviet Access to Western Technology

It's all-human, all the time.

In October 1991, just before he was reappointed Soviet foreign minister, Eduard Shevardnadze suggested in the Soviet weekly New Times (issue number 40, 1991) that the United States share with the USSR the technology it had developed for the Strategic Defense Initiative, ostensibly for the purpose of improving "early warning of natural calamities" and other benign, "all-human" purposes. Shevardnadze wrote:

We are no longer adversaries. We have exchanged statements to this effect. ...Who is going to object that to the fact that the superpowers share the common interest of preventing terrorist attacks against them coming from a third party? That means that we can and must cooperate, share technologies and scientific achievements.

[fnord]

bump ... gonna be an interesting summer vacation

[Catspaw]

Good post. Thanks for pointing out this thread:

---

To: Askel5

Shame on you. I've put up with your bizarre theories for a long time - but to plant this on Henry and the Bushes goes beyond the pale.

Can't you wait until the bodies are cold?

22 Posted on 09/11/2001 19:28:17 PDT by Senator Pardek
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | Top | Last ]

[Askel5]

I guess, to my way of thinking, we had plenty of cold bodies by then ... and all from the same car wreck we were watching.

[Anamensis]

Wahabbism and marxism are merely two sides of the same psychotic coin and it is entirely predictable that they are undertaking a congruence of method.

Oh, do I agree. I've been saying this for years. The link they have is the hatred of "usury" which allows them to join together in their mutual hatred of Jews and capitalism... and we all know of the former Nazi-Izlam link in WWII.

[rmlew]

Execute he Red Brigades!

[GeronL]

It must have something to do with that stupid word 'dialectic'

[The Great Satan]

9-11 set the new baseline for terrorist attacks. From now on, anything smaller will be piss-ant. It's open season on civilization, folks. Robert A. Heinlein's "Crazy Years" are coming up, and the world is going to look very different before they're over, for good or ill.

[xm177e2]

Oops, I have to correct something. The quote from Libertarian Samizdata was posted Posted by David Carr not Perry de Haviland.

[dread78645]

They've always been there.

True. It's taken them six months ( since Sep 11 ) to break 'em out of ideological rehab.
& note the gov. of IT was very pro-US after the WTC attack.

[csvset]

...after they screwed-up and kidnapped that NATO General who had the nuke codes. Remember that?

I remember that. Here's a snip from a page I stumbled across...

In January, 1982, NOCS executed what is probably it's best known, and most publicized operation. US Army Brigadier General James Dozier was kidnapped by Italian Red Brigades terrorists, while on his way to work.

The terrorist held him hostage in a small apartment in Padua, and planned to execute him if their demands were not met.

Using information gained by US special intelligence units (NSA), aggressive interrogation of suspects in Italian custody, and help form Mafioso informants, Italian law enforcement officials were able to narrow Gen. Dozier's location to a small apartment.

Using the noise of near by construction site to mask their movements, a 10-man team of NOCS operators, dressed in civilian clothing, and operating under the command of Capt. Edoardo stormed into the apartment freeing Dozier before his captors could kill him.

One account of the raid I read said the Italian spec-ops guy broke the neck of the first terrorist they encountered with a karate chop. They wanted to minimize gun play as they were concerned that gunfire would alert the RB and they'd kill Dozier.

FWIW, Italy in the early 80's was a crazy place.

[sneakypete]

I remember that.

I do,too. I remember watching a live news feed right outside the apartment where all the terrorists lay dead,and the reporters wonderment at how this kidnapping only lasted a day or two,and ALL the kidnappers ended up dead while the guy they kidnapped made it out without a scratch.It was common back then for the Red Brigades to kidnapp people and hold them for months before murdering them. They crossed the wrong boys this time. I laughed my ass off when I recogonized a guy who had started to leave the apartment and obviously didn't realize there were tv cameras right outside the door. His eyes got big,and he blinked and dove back inside the apartment as quick as he could.

One other thing I know is that nobody heard squat from the Red Brigades for about 20 years afterwards.