Strategy of tension
The
strategy of tension (
Italian:
strategia della tensione) is a way to control and manipulate
public opinion using
fear,
propaganda,
disinformation,
psychological warfare,
agents provocateurs,
false flag terrorism actions and even terroristic actions.
The term was coined in
Italy during the trials that followed the
1970s and
1980s terror attacks and murders committed by
neofascist terrorists (such as
Ordine Nuovo,
Avanguardia Nazionale or
Fronte Nazionale). The terrorists were backed by
intelligence agencies,
P2 masonic lodge and
Gladio, a
NATO secret "
stay-behind" army set up to perform guerilla and resistance activities should Italy be successfully invaded by the Soviet bloc (there were equivalent armies in most Western states), which due to its clandestine nature was largely unmonitored and so unchecked by civilian agencies and began to pursue its own right wing, anti-communist agenda using the rather violent means at its disposal, including false flag terrorist attacks.
The suspected aim of these crimes was to make the public believe that the bombings were committed by a communist insurgency, to promote the formation of an authoritarian government, and to prevent the growing
Italian Communist Party (PCI) from joining the ruling
Democrazia Cristiana (DC) in a government of national reconciliation ("
historical compromise").
Piazza Fontana's bombing, in December
1969, marks the beginning of the
"strategia della tensione", which ends with the
Bologna railway station bombing in
1980 or soon afterwards. In 2000, a Parliamentary report from the
Olive Tree coalition concluded that the strategy of tension followed by Gladio had been supported by the United States to "stop the PCI, and to a certain degree also the
PSI [Italian Socialist Party], from reaching executive power in the country".
On
December 12,
1969, a bomb exploded in the National Agrarian Bank in Piazza Fontana, in
Milan's centre, killing almost twenty people.
Giuseppe Pinelli, a young
anarchist, was first accused of the crime. After his suspicious death, that was claimed to be
suicide by the authorities, investigator
Luigi Calabresi—accused of being the murderer—came under violent criticism from the left; eventually, he would be murdered a few years later.
Nobel prize laureate
Dario Fo wrote a piece on Pinelli's death,
Accidental Death of an Anarchist.
After Pinelli, the police investigated another anarchist,
Pietro Valpreda. He quickly became an hero to the left, who perceived him to be a victim of a plot to attribute a fascist bombing to the left. The leftist environment produced an investigative book,
La strage di Stato ("The state massacre") [
1], in which they claimed the state was attacking anarchists because they (by definition) could not have a political party to defend them, as communists would have had. As it would turn out through years of painstaking investigation, the bombing was indeed a work of the extreme right, even though the connection of the state to these acts is not yet clear.
Neo-fascist terrorist
Stefano Delle Chiaie was then arrested in
Caracas,
Venezuela in
1989 and
rendered to
Italy to stand trial for his role. Delle Chiaie was however acquitted by the Assise Court in
Catanzaro in
1989, along with fellow accused Massimiliano Fachini.
In 1998, David Carrett, officer of the
U.S. Navy, was put under investigations on charge of political and military espionage and his participation in the 1969 Piazza Fontana bombing, among other events. Judge Guido Salvini also opened a case against Sergio Minetto, Italian official for the US-NATO intelligence network, and
pentito Carlo Digilio.
La Repubblica underlined that Carlo Rocchi, the CIA's man in Milan, was surprised in 1995 searching for information concerning Operation Gladio, thus demonstrating that all was not over
[ (With original documents, including juridical sentences and the report of the Italian Commission on Terrorism ].
A
June 20,
2001 conviction of Italian
Neo-fascists Doctor
Carlo Maria Maggi,
Delfo Zorzi and
Giancarlo Rognoni was overturned in
March 2004.
Carlo Digilio, a suspected
CIA informant, received immunity from prosecution by becoming a
witness for the state (in agreement with the
pentiti laws).
According to
Avanguardia Nazionale member
Vincenzo Vinciguerra: "The December 1969 explosion was supposed to be the detonator which would have convinced the political and military authorities to declare a
state of emergency."
August 4th, 1974, 12 died and 105 were injured in the bombing of the train
Italicus Roma-Brennero express at San Benedetto Val di Sambro.
Bologna railway bombing killed 85 persons and injured 200. A long, troubled and controversial court case and political issue ensued. The relatives of the victims formed an association (
Associazione tra i famigliari delle vittime della strage alla stazione di Bologna del 2 agosto 1980) to raise and maintain civil awareness on the Bologna massacre. On
23 November 1995 the Italian Supreme Court (
Corte di Cassazione) issued the final sentence:
* confirmation of
life imprisonment to the
Neo-Fascist terrorists Valerio Fioravanti and Francesca Mambro — who have always pleaded innocent — as executors of the attack
* sentence for investigation diversion to
Licio Gelli (headmaster of
Propaganda Due - aka P2), Francesco Pazienza and to
SISMI officers Pietro Musumeci and Giuseppe Belmonte.
*
Stefano Delle Chiaie, friend of Licio Gelli and member of the
Armed Revolutionary Nuclei (ARN), an off-shoot of
Ordine Nuovo, also has been accused of having taken part in it.
General
Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa's murder, in
1982, by the
mafia in
Palermo is allegedly part of the strategy of tension. Alberto Dalla Chiesa had arrested
Red Brigades founders Renato Curcio and Alberto Franceschini in September, 1974, and was later charged of investigation concerning
Christian democrat leader Aldo Moro, assassinated in
1978.
In 1974,
Vito Miceli,
P2 member, chief of the SIOS (Servizio Informazioni), Army Intelligence's Service from 1969 and
SID's head from 1970 to 1974, was arrested on charges of "conspiration against the state" concerning investigations about
Rosa dei venti, a state-infiltrated group involved in terrorist acts. In 1977, the secret services were reorganized in a democratic attempt. With law #801 of 24/10/1977,
SID was divided into
SISMI (
Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Militare),
SISDE (
Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Democratica) and
CESIS (
Comitato Esecutivo per i Servizi di Informazione e Sicurezza). The CESIS has a coordination role, led by the
President of Council.
Other examples include the Turkish branch of Gladio,
Counter-Guerrilla, who followed a similar strategy in Turkey, leading to the
1980 military coup.
Operation Condor in South America and events in
Algeria during the
1990s.
Stefano Delle Chiaie apparently had a hand in both what was happening in Italy and with Operation Condor, as he as met with
Michael Townley (a US expatriate,
DINA agent). It has been claimed that Delle Chiaie was involved in the murder of General
Carlos Prats in Buenos Aires, Argentina on
September 30th 1974. Delle Chiaie, along with fellow extremist
Vincenzo Vinciguerra, also testified in
Rome in December
1995 before judge
Servini de Cubria that Enrique Arancibia Clavel (a former Chilean secret police agent prosecuted for
crimes against humanity in
2004 [
2]) and Michael Townley were directly involved in this assassination.[
3].
*
Dario Fo,
Morte accidentale di un anarchico, on
anarchist Giuseppe Pinelli's death.
*
Cadaveri eccellenti (movie), 1976, political thriller about a coup d'état by a powerful élite in Italy in the 70s.
*
Mario Monicelli,
Un borghese piccolo piccolo (film), 1977
*
Margarethe Von Trotta,
Anni di piombo, 1981
*
Silvio Bandinelli,
Anni di piombo, 1999
*
Guido Chiesa,
Lavorare con lentezza - Radio Alice 100.6 MHz, 2004
*
Philip Willan,
Puppetmasters: The Political Use of Terrorism in Italy, London: Constable and Company, 1991. 375 pages (ISBN 0-09-470590-9)
*
Stuart Christie,
Stefano Delle Chiaie: Portrait of a Black Terrorist, London: Anarchy Magazine/Refract Publications, 1984. 182 pages (ISBN 0-946222-09-6)
* Chernyavsky, V., ed.
The CIA in the Dock: Soviet Journalists on International Terrorism, Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1983. 176 pages.
*
Operation Gladio*
Enrico Mattei's 1962 death
*
Aldo Moro's 1978 murder
*
"Italy's strategy of tension", by Vittorio Longhi, July 27, 2001 article on the
Genoa Group of Eight Summit protest from
The Guardian*[https://www.rdb.ethz.ch/projects/project_pdf.php?proj_id=8960 Daniele Ganser research project on Gladio]
*
Moro's letters and +
