2003-08-10

Anarchists to be targeted as "terrorists" alongside Al Qaeda

One new category added in 2001 was "eco-terrorism" on which the report gives no examples. The report simply says in total that: "Radical environmentalists and animal rights movements have maintained a limited campaign. Nevertheless, the material damage they caused was extensive". No definition of "eco-terrorism" is given nor is one planned in the proposed extension of Europol's role (see Statewatch's The activities and development of Europol pamphlet). It is thus hard to see the distinction between activity which might be termed a criminal offence as distinct from a "terrorist" offence.

Another new category which is even more problematic is that of "anarchist terrorism". In February 2001 a Europol seminar on counter-terrorism held in Madrid agreed on a proposal by Spain, Portugal, Greece and Italy to set up a joint investigation team on "anarchist terrorism". It appears that after Genoa in July 2001 Europol may have set up an "analysis file" on "anarchist terrorism" which in turn fed through into this Situation report. Interviewed by a German newspaper in August Jurgen Storbeck, Europol's Director, said the so-called "Black Block" of anarchists could be seen as "terrorist or pre-terrorist".

The following analysis looks at the many questions that arise from the inclusion of "anarchist terrorism" which relies almost totally on examples from Italy and at the attempt to extend terrorism in Spain to legitimate political groups.

Analysis

The report says that "anarchist terrorism" could be a symptom of the possible "resurrection of left wing terrorism" and refers to a series of terrorist attacks "in the southern part of the Union". In fact all the incidents referred to are in Italy, and the report claims that these examples could spark the return of EU-wide "left wing and anarchist terrorism".

This is claimed, by some tortuous logic, to be an EU-wide problem as:

"left wing and anarchist websites in northern European countries cover this [Italian] situation in depth, the possibility of the resurrection of the left wing and anarchist terrorist groups is existent, in which the southern terrorist activity might function as an example"

The report is drawn up by Europol which appears to have rubber-stamped "intelligence" passed to it by member states seeking support for their internal agendas, on the basis of on-going judicial proceedings.

Italy has been investigating numerous anarchists accused of "subversive association" following the G8 summit in Genoa while Spain has been criminalising a number of Basque nationalist groups and left-wing activists by claiming that they are "part of ETA". This led to the inclusion of several Basque groups in the EU list of proscribed organisations and now this situation report.

Italy

Anarchists in Italy have been blamed for a spate of minor bomb attacks over the last few years, with links to groups in Spain, Portugal and Greece alleged by the Italian Interior Ministry. In particular, investigating magistrates have been linking investigations into actions attributed to anarchists to the struggle against the dispersal, isolation and hard prison regime for political prisoners (FIES) in Spain.

After the G8 summit in Genoa, anarchists were blamed by Italian authorities for violent clashes between police and protestors, and a backlash followed against the anarchist movement which led to nation-wide raids involving detentions, searches and a number of persons being placed under investigation.

The threat assessment report expresses concern over the "first signs of the possible resurrection of left wing terrorism", due to episodes of anarchist terrorism "in the second half of 2001". These are attributed to "International Solidarity" (Solidarieta Internazionale), an umbrella name for an organisation carrying out attacks in southern Europe, with examples listed from Italy. The examples provided are inaccurate in a number of respects and the problem has probably been highlighted beyond its actual significance.

Firstly, the document mistakenly states that the sixty alleged Solidarieta Internazionale members detained in September were "allegedly preparing terrorist attacks against Milan's cathedral and other objectives in the same city". The attacks referred to actually ocurred on 26 October 1999 (a carabinieri station), 28 June 2000 (Sant'Ambrogio church) and 18 December 2000 (the Duomo, Milan's cathedral), and were claimed by the group. Sixty people were detained on 18 September for allegedly being members of Solidarieta Internazionale, believed to be involved in attempted bombings in Milan (none of the bombs exploded) (see Statewatch vol 11 no 5). They have been released and are currently under investigation.

Secondly, investigations into another device that exploded in July 2001 outside the Palazzo di giustizia in Venice after the G8 summit, also included under the heading "anarchist terrorism", are still ongoing. Although anarchists or left-wingers were originally blamed, investigating magistrate Felice Casson ordered the arrest of a 26-year-old right-winger, Cristiano Rifani, in January 2001 and a second suspect is also a right- winger. A number of the cases included in the report are still unresolved, including an explosion in Rome on 11 May 2000 that targeted the Institute for International Affairs and the Council for US-Italian relations. It was claimed by the Nuclei di Iniziativa Proletaria in a 36-page e-mail document. Raul Terilli, Fabrizio Sante Antonini and Roberta Ripaldi, three activists, are under arrest in connection with this and other minor bombing incidents. In a letter from prison to anarchist magazine Croce Nera Anarchica, Fabrizio Sante Antonini claimed that " … on the night between July 15 and 16 2001" numerous searches were carried out in which "nothing was found". He adds that "after over two years of interceptions, surveillance … the normal personal relationships of a person written into police records adquire suspicious and perverse traits, the source for who knows what criminal conspiracy". He called on all activists and organisation to become active to "deconstruct this sandcastle based on falsehood and lies, with the aim of shutting up any voice expressing dissent or struggle".

A device that exploded outside the Northern League's headquarters in Vigonza (Padua) on 24 August 2001 is also included in the list of anarchist terrorist attacks although investigators said in August that it was just as likely that it was planted by ordinary organised crime.

There is an extensive history in Italy of anarchists or "left-wingers" appearing as suspects in the early stages of investigations, being arrested and later being shown to be innocent. In 2000 and 2001 two trials concerning explosions during the so-called "years of lead" originally blamed on anarchists resulted in convictions for right-wingers acting with state collusion (see Statewatch bulletin vol 10 no 2 & vol 11 no 3/4). Three members of Ordine Nuovo, a neo-fascist group with alleged links to Italian and US secret services, received life sentences on 30 June 2001 for planting a bomb in Milan's Banca dell'agricoltura in 1969, killing sixteen people. Two anarchists, Giuseppe Pinelli and Pietro Valpreda, were the original suspects. Pinelli died after falling out of a window when he was being questioned in custody, and Valpreda spent three years in prison. Gianfranco Bertoli was found guilty on 11 March 2000 for a 1973 bombing outside Milan's police station in which four people were killed - despite his claims that he was an anarchist, he was found to have been employed by the Italian secret service, SIFAR, and to have links with far-right groups, particularly Ordine Nuovo.

Massimo Cacciari, the former centre-left mayor of Venice, has criticised attempts by centre-right politicians to assume that bombings are left-wing before investigations are carried out. Alluding to the "years of lead", he claimed that "only in Italy, we pretend that the world hasn't changed", adding that "in the seventies, there was the actual threat of a civil war, there were coups d 'etat . .. there was a risk for democracy", which is no longer the case.

Luca Giannasi, an informer for the Italian military secret service (SISMI) received an eight-month prison sentence on 14 February 2001 for possession of explosives and was acquitted on the more serious charges of organising and carrying out two bombings in Milan. Based on a statement given to the police by Giuseppe Fregosi, an associate who was arrested for arms trafficking, Giannasi was arrested in connection with a bomb that exploded on 22 September 1998 in front of a Guardia di Finanza office and an unexploded device planted in the Bocconi University on 21 April 1999. Fregosi claimed that he provided Giannasi with explosive that the latter said would be used for making explosive devices. This evidence was not allowed in court because Fregosi refused to repeat his allegations in the trial. Giannasi allegedly told SISMI that attacks by anarchists were imminent between June and September 1998 and blamed the attack on the Guardia di Finanza office on Milan anarchists. A leaflet from a quite unknown group, the Nuclei di Guerriglia Antirazzista (Anti-Racist Guerrilla Units) was conveniently found with the device in a university classroom.

The inclusion of "anarchist terrorism", solely on the basis of evidence from Italy, begs the question about the proven role of right-wingers who have caused explosions in Italy. In one case a known right-winger was caught red-handed when he injured himself in an attempt to bomb the Rome headquarters of communist daily newspaper II manifesto on 22 December 2000. Andrea Insabato, a right-winger with links to Forza Nuova leader Roberto Fiore, was arrested after the attack against Il manifesto and received a 12-year prison sentence in February 2001. In recent years a museum on the Resistance movement (against nazism and fascism) and a cinema where a film on nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann was being screened were also attacked with explosive devices. [...]

Source: http://www.statewatch.org/news/2002/feb/10anarch.htm