An example of provocative operations in the 70s Italy

The action of CIA's secret army, Gladio

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In 1984, a young Italian judge, Felice Casson, decided to investigate from the start a case of 1972, as he believed that there were many mistakes and omissions in the initial investigation. This was a case about a bombing attack outside the village Peteano.

Four police officers had been called to investigate a suspicious car in the woods. When they arrived, the car exploded and three of them killed. After two days, an unknown man called the police and claimed that the bomb was put by the far-left guerrilla group, Red Brigades. This had resulted in arrests' pogrom of Leftists in Italy.

In February 1972, the Carabinieri accidentally found a crypt in Trieste, containing military material. The police considered the crypt as being used by criminal groups and hidden this discovery. Casson, however, managed to conclude that the military material belonged to NATO, but not to the official military armament of NATO in Italy. The explosives found in the crypt were American C-4. Casson also found that the material used in Peteano bombing was also C-4 type. These findings were hidden by the police during the investigations.

Casson's investigation led to the conclusion that the far-Right organization, Ordine Nuovo, was actually responsible for the bombing attack at Peteano. The organization had also connections with the Greek junta at that time.

The real bomber of Peteano was an Ordine Nuovo executive, Vincenzo Vinciguerra, who revealed during the questioning that Ordine Nuovo worked with the secret services and a secret network to cover his tracks. Vinciguerra and other witnesses also revealed that this network was responsible for a series of murderous actions, which would be used to stop the rising of the Left by blaming it as being responsible for these actions.

According to the worst scenario, they would succeed in creating tension which would make Italian citizens to choose the Italian Right in the national elections as the only political power to guarantee "order and security" for the country.

From 1969 to 1987, Italy suffered by 14,591 actions of political violence. 491 people killed and 1,181 wounded. Gladio was a significant parameter in this cycle of violence which kept the Italian democracy under hostage and prevented the Italian Left to take the power. The Red Brigades proceeded in a series of attacks in response to the fascists.

Gladio's network tried three times to take the power by coup d'état in Italy, of which one was similar to the Greek coup d'état by George Papadopoulos. In 1974, the Italian judge, Giovanni Tamburino, led to trial the head of secret services and member of Gladio, Vito Miceli, under accusations of an attempt to throw the Italian government. Miceli "attacked" the judges claiming that he was doing what was necessary and that the US and NATO asked him to create that service.

Information from the research for the CIA's secret army in Greece by Kostas Vaxevanis, HotDoc magazine, Issue 58, Aug. 2014.
(translated by SCH)

See also:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felice_Casson#cite_note-1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Years_of_Lead_%28Italy%29#Peteano_bombing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladio_in_Italy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordine_Nuovo