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More about Silvio Berlusconi’s Mafia Ties

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. . . .

Discussion

One comment for “More about Silvio Berlusconi’s Mafia Ties”

  1. Berlus­coni coali­tion is actu­al­ly polling with­in 5% of the lead­ing cen­ter-left coali­tion. Yep:

    Berlus­coni defends Mus­soli­ni at Holo­caust event
    Italy’s for­mer prime min­is­ter, who is cam­paign­ing to return to pol­i­tics, also defends the fas­cist dic­ta­tor’s deci­sion to ally with Adolf Hitler
    .
    Jan­u­ary 27, 2013|By Tom King­ton, Los Ange­les Times

    ROME — For­mer Ital­ian Prime Min­is­ter Sil­vio Berlus­coni has been con­demned by Jew­ish groups after he defend­ed fas­cist dic­ta­tor Ben­i­to Mus­soli­ni at an event com­mem­o­rat­ing vic­tims of the Nazi Holo­caust.

    Speak­ing on Sun­day on the side­lines of an event in Milan mark­ing Inter­na­tion­al Holo­caust Remem­brance Day, Berlus­coni also defend­ed the Ital­ian wartime dic­ta­tor’s deci­sion to ally with Adolf Hitler.

    “It’s dif­fi­cult now to put your­self in the shoes of peo­ple who were mak­ing deci­sions at that time,” said Berlus­coni, 76, who is cam­paign­ing ahead of elec­tions in Feb­ru­ary.

    “Obvi­ous­ly the gov­ern­ment of that time, out of fear that Ger­man pow­er might lead to com­plete vic­to­ry, pre­ferred to ally itself with Hitler’s Ger­many rather than oppos­ing it,” he said. “As part of this alliance, there were impo­si­tions, includ­ing com­bat­ing and exter­mi­nat­ing Jews. The racial laws were the worst fault of Mus­soli­ni as a leader, who in so many oth­er ways did well.”

    In 1938, Mus­soli­ni passed laws bar­ring Jews from acad­e­mia and many pro­fes­sions. After 1943, when Ger­many occu­pied parts of the coun­try, more than 7,000 Jews were deport­ed to Nazi con­cen­tra­tion camps, with many per­ish­ing at Auschwitz.

    Angela Merkel, the Ger­man chan­cel­lor, said Sat­ur­day that Ger­many had an “ever­last­ing respon­si­bil­i­ty” for Nazi crimes, but Berlus­coni said Italy “did not have the same respon­si­bil­i­ty,” adding that the coun­try’s col­lu­sion in the Holo­caust was ini­tial­ly “part­ly unwit­ting.”

    ...

    But his com­ments call atten­tion to the num­ber of politi­cians in his coali­tion with far-right back­grounds, not least the dic­ta­tor’s grand­daugh­ter, Alessan­dra Mus­soli­ni.

    His defense of Mus­soli­ni may also have been aimed at the many Ital­ians today who defend the dic­ta­tor’s record on infra­struc­ture pro­grams and over­look his racial laws.

    ...

    Note that Allessan­dra Mus­soli­ni may not be the only grand­daugh­ter of Musoli­ni elect­ed to office:

    Anoth­er Mus­soli­ni grand­daugh­ter runs for seat in Par­lia­ment; like Berlus­coni, defends grand­dad

    By Asso­ci­at­ed Press, Pub­lished: Jan­u­ary 30

    ROME — A grand­daugh­ter of Ben­i­to Mus­soli­ni is run­ning for Italy’s Par­lia­ment and defend­ing the late fas­cist leader much like Sil­vio Berlus­coni recent­ly did.

    Edda Negri Mus­soli­ni said in com­ments in Cor­riere del­la Sera Wednes­day she is run­ning on a tick­et head­ed by Gian­fran­co Fini, a for­mer neo­fas­cist ally of Berlus­coni who is now a mod­er­ate back­ing Pre­mier Mario Mon­ti in Feb­ru­ary elec­tions.

    Negri Mus­soli­ni says she is proud of her grand­fa­ther for his doing “many good things,” includ­ing clean­ing up malar­ia-plagued swamps near Rome. But she denounced as “mon­strous errors” her grandfather’s anti-Jew­ish laws, dic­ta­tor­ship and vio­lence. Berlus­coni on Sun­day pro­voked out­rage when, attend­ing a Holo­caust com­mem­o­ra­tion, he said Ben­i­to Mus­soli­ni did much good despite the crack­down on Italy’s Jews.

    Anoth­er grand­daugh­ter of the dic­ta­tor, Alessan­dra Mus­soli­ni, already serves in Par­lia­ment

    Yes, for­mer neo-fas­cist Gian­fran­co Fini is no longer allied with Belus­coni and is now back­ing for­mer troi­ka-installed tech­no­crat Mario Mon­ti. There’s been no short­age of shift­ing alliances:

    Busi­ness Recorder
    Berlus­coni gives up on mafia-taint­ed vote-get­ter
    Jan­u­ary 24, 2013
    ALVISE ARMELLIN

    Engaged in a uphill strug­gle to close the gap on front-run­ning cen­tre-left rivals ahead of next mon­th’s elec­tions, for­mer Ital­ian prime min­is­ter Sil­vio Berlus­coni has sac­ri­ficed a pow­er­ful but scan­dal-prone ally to court a dis­af­fect­ed elec­torate.

    The Feb­ru­ary 24–25 vote comes against the back­drop of a deep reces­sion, soar­ing unem­ploy­ment and a string of cor­rup­tion and mafia-col­lu­sion scan­dals, which have fuelled anger against the so-called “caste” of pro­fes­sion­al politi­cians.

    Sens­ing the pub­lic mood, Berlus­coni exclud­ed from the list of can­di­dates that his Peo­ple of Free­dom (PDL) par­ty sub­mit­ted late on Mon­day Nico­la Cosenti­no, a man accused of being in cahoots with the Camor­ra, the Neapoli­tan branch of the Ital­ian mafia.

    “It was a very painful deci­sion,” Berlus­coni told one of his TV chan­nels on Tues­day.

    Cosenti­no, known as “Nick o’mer­i­cano” (Nick the Amer­i­can), was said to be worth 30,000 votes in Cam­pa­nia, one of the swing regions that the PDL is tar­get­ing in the hope of at least deny­ing rivals the chance of an over­all major­i­ty in the Sen­ate.

    Ear­li­er this year, par­lia­ment reject­ed a judi­cial request for his arrest. But Cosenti­no — who was first elect­ed for Berlus­coni’s par­ty in 1996 and was one of his junior min­is­ters in 2008–2010 — risks going to jail as soon as his par­lia­men­tary immu­ni­ty expires.

    ...

    Mon­ti’s list, Civic Choice, is sup­posed to be free of politi­cians or scan­dal-taint­ed can­di­dates. But among stars like fenc­ing gold medal­list Valenti­na Vez­za­li and a string of busi­ness­men and jour­nal­ists, it includes some defec­tors from the PDL and the PD.

    The out­go­ing pre­mier has also sided with two old-hand politi­cians and for­mer Berlus­coni allies like Pier Fer­di­nan­do Casi­ni, a Chris­t­ian Demo­c­rat, and Gian­fran­co Fini, a con­ser­v­a­tive who used to be a neo-fas­cist.

    ...

    Posted by Pterrafractyl | January 31, 2013, 11:26 am

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