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Special Report
A major spy scandal is brewing in Italy
By Wayne Madsen
Online Journal Contributing Writer
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WASHINGTON & ROME, July 6, 2005 (waynemadsenreport.com)—Genoa police have arrested the two leaders of a
neo-fascist unofficial intelligence and "anti-terrorism" police network in Italy and have conducted searches of homes throughout the country in a major crackdown on a group that recruited
police and intelligence agents to their cause.
The two neo-fascist leaders—Gaetano Saya and Riccardo Sindoca—who reportedly have close ties to both the P-2 (Propaganda Due)
Masonic lodge and a secret Cold War network known as Gladio, were arrested. Some 25 members of the regular state police, the Carabinieri, the Frontier police, and the Prison police were placed under
official investigation. Tens of searches, including two houses in Genoa, were conducted by police in nine Italian regions: Liguria, Piedmont, Lombardy, Emilia Romagna, Tuscany, Lazio, Molise, Sicily and
Sardinia. The investigation may soon extend to members of the Italian intelligence service SISMI.
In 2004, Saya and Sindoca established the Department of Strategic Anti-Terrorism Studies, which reportedly had links to both
the Bush administration and Ariel Sharon's Likud government in Israel.
Some Italian police were tricked into assisting the organization because they thought it was legitimate. Saya and Sindoca
were leaders of the Destra Nazionale-Nuovo MSI (an offshoot of the neo-fascist MSI Pparty represented in the government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi). The group is also unofficially known as the
Fiamma Tricolore (Tri Color Flame). Police temporarily shut down the web site of Destra Nazionale-Nuovo MSI. The web sitewas back up on July 3.
There is now a suspicion by prosecutors in Genoa and Milan that the neo-fascist intelligence group may have been involved
with American covert operators in the kidnaping of Imam Abu Omar (Moustapha Hassan Nasr) from a street in Milan in 2003. Omar, a political refugee in Italy, was spirited out of Italy to Egypt by a covert
team of U.S. Defense Department Special Forces, mercenaries, and intelligence agents who are now the subject of international arrest warrants (see more articles). There is now mounting evidence that the U.S. team was working with the parallel Italian intelligence network.
Former Italian President Francesco Cossiga has quickly distanced the parallel intelligence network from official intelligence
and police networks by claiming the two men arrested are just criminals and not tied to the Italian Gladio, which a number of intelligence experts believe Cossiga once headed. Cossiga also defended the
secret U.S. intelligence operation in Italy that is presently under attack by Milan prosecutors. Cossiga said that by not telling the Italian government of the operation, the U.S. avoided having its
secret plans spread throughout the Middle East.
By mentioning both the Milan and Genoa cases, Cossiga may have unintentionally linked the two. The parallel intelligence
network is reportedly the outgrowth of a Gladio network consisting of six divisions that operated in Italy, North Africa, and the Middle East during the Cold War. The P-2 Lodge, headed by fascist leader
Licio Gelli, reportedly maintained close links to former Secretary of State Alexander Haig and his one-time foreign affairs adviser, Michael Ledeen.
A number of SISMI agents and assets have also been tied to the group, including Francesco Pazienza, an SISMI agent, and Rocco
Martino, who said he was the source of the faked Niger yellowcake uranium documents that were laundered through Rome and used as proof by the Bush White House that Saddam Hussein was shopping for uranium
in Niger. That charge prompted the CIA to send Ambassador Joseph Wilson to Niger, resulting in a retaliatory outing of Wilson's wife as a covert CIA operative and exposure by the White House of the CIA's
covert weapons of mass destruction counter-proliferation network.
Italian sources report that the Milan case against the Americans and the Genoa case against the private Italian network may
be linked in another way. The reported CIA station chief in Milan, Honduran-born Robert Seldon Lady (whose name may be an alias and whose CIA connections may be incorrect or overstated) was, prior to his
assignment in Milan, in charge of a covert American unit in Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua charged with penetrating anti-American groups and taking them over. It is now believed that Lady was in
charge of a similar operation to turn Abu Omar and others into intelligence assets for the Americans. Abu Omar, according to Albanian intelligence sources, assisted the U.S. with intelligence on Islamic
militants in Albania.
It is also believed that the late deputy SISMI chief, Nicola Calipari, became aware of information in Iraq that linked the
control of terrorists in Iraq and elsewhere to a "third level" in "an anti-terrorism country." Calipari was shot to death by U.S. troops while transporting freed Italian hostage and
journalist Giuliana Sgrena to Baghdad International Airport. The U.S. ruled the shooting an "accident."
Abu Omar may have become a hot potato for the Americans after Calipari discovered links between the Americans and terrorist
groups in Iraq and elsewhere—and a decision was made to conduct a "rendition" of the imam to Egypt to get him out of circulation. Abu Omar, also said to have been a credible intelligence
source, may have also become aware of U.S. connections to terrorist groups.
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is author of the
forthcoming book, "Jaded Tasks: Big Oil, Black Ops & Brass Plates." He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report
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