Com­ment: Ital­ian prime min­is­ter Sil­vio Berlusconi’s Mafia ties are becom­ing more vis­i­ble. A mem­ber of the fas­cist P-2 lodge, Berlus­coni has “more con­nec­tions than a switch­board.” Suc­ces­sor to Mussolini’s fascisti, the P-2 has been a major focal point of these broad­casts for decades. (Berlus­coni is pic­tured at right.)

Berlus­coni and his Ital­ian fas­cist milieu also have inti­mate ties to the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood and the Al Taqwa com­plex. Youssef Nada’s lawyer Pier Felici Barchi­han­dled the Swiss invest­ments for Berlusconi.

“Sil­vio Berlus­coni in ‘Pro­tec­tion Deal’ with Mafia” by Mark Franchetti; Times Online; 3/14/2010.

HE bil­lion­aire Ital­ian prime min­is­ter, Sil­vio Berlus­coni, once met a lead­ing mafia god­fa­ther to ask for pro­tec­tion, accord­ing to tes­ti­mony gath­ered over sev­eral years by crime prosecutors.

Mafia infor­mants claim the meet­ing took place in Milan in 1974, when Berlus­coni was already a wealthy entre­pre­neur, at the offices of his prop­erty com­pany. The inform­ers say Berlus­coni met Ste­fano Bon­tade, then one of the mafia’s most pow­er­ful bosses, because he feared for his family’s safety at a time when Italy was plagued by a wave of high-profile kidnappings.

Francesco Di Carlo, one of Bontade’s hench­men who is now in jail, told pros­e­cu­tors that he was at the meet­ing. He claims Berlus­coni asked for help to ensure that nei­ther he nor his chil­dren would be abducted by other mafia clans.

Accord­ing to the henchman’s tes­ti­mony, Bon­tade gave his word that he would per­son­ally ensure Berlusconi’s safety. In return Berlus­coni told the mafia god­fa­ther that he was “at his dis­posal, for anything”.

Accord­ing to anti-mafia pros­e­cu­tors, the meet­ing was arranged by Mar­cello Dell’Utri, a close friend and busi­ness part­ner of Berlus­coni. Dell’Utri later played an impor­tant role in found­ing the tycoon’s first polit­i­cal party, Forza Italia, which won the 1994 elec­tion and took Berlus­coni to power. . . .