Nur al-Cubicle

A blog on the current crises in the Middle East and news accounts unpublished by the US press. Daily timeline of events in Iraq as collected from stories and dispatches in the French and Italian media: Le Monde (Paris), Il Corriere della Sera (Milan), La Repubblica (Rome), L'Orient-Le Jour (Beirut) and occasionally from El Mundo (Madrid).

Friday, July 01, 2005

Italian Fascist Secret Police Network Uncovered

Update: Italian History X. Gaetano Saya not a lunatic. He is for real!

Profile: Saya's grandfather joined Mussolini's March on Rome. Saya is estimed by shadowy fascist figure Licio Gelli.

Saya was born in Messina in 1956 and was raised by his grandfather, Matteo Francesco Gesuino, a member of the pre-WWII Royal Army and a participant in Mussolini's March on Rome. From the time he was a child Saya felt attracted by the Movimento Sociale Italiano - Destra Nazionale [fascist] and at the age of 18 enrolled in the now defunct Guardians of Public Safety. Later, he was hired by the NATO Secret Services as an expert in ISPEG (Information, Sabotage, Propaganda and Guerrilla Warfare) and specializing in counterespionaage and anti-terrorism.

Having rose to senior rank, Saya retired in 1997. In 1995 he was recruited into an exclusive Masonic Lodge by SISMI General Giuseppe Santovito and achieved the rank of Venerable Master in Lodge No. 1 (International). In November 1997, Saya served as state's witness for the Italian Republic in the trial of statesman Giulio Andreotti. After retirement, Saya decided to launch a fascist political movement, MSI-National Right, where he became the unchallenged chairman. Saya holds a university degree in Criminal Justice and Political Science and is a Knight of the International Order of Peace. In December 2002, he was named Honorary President of the National Law Enforcement Union, the first labor union representing inter-agency national police. He was recently given the post of Director-General, Interagency Anti-Islamic Terrorism Police, Department of Strategic Studies on Terrorism -

In November 2004, he was charged with disseminating literature promoting white supremacy and racial hatred. The trial has been postponed until October 2005.

Negroponte. Ledeen. Boykin. North. These figures have always made me queasy because nothing stands between them and their goals, especially values and the law. The murder of Il Diario reporter Endo Baldoni and the hit on Giuliana Sgrena which killed Niccola Calipari smell of the involvment of shadowy organizations operating on the margins.

An Italian investigation has uncovered an underground, parallel police network with possible links to the CIA which may be involved in the slaying of Niccola Calipari and Il Diario reporter Enzo Baldoni, the extraordiary rendition of Abu Omar and Nigergate.

The investigation is ongoing. On the surface, it looks like a scam. But somehow, it has the same perfume of the deliberate quasi-legality we saw in Iran-Contra.

From Il Corriere della Sera:

Underground police network discovered in Italy. Investigation by the Genoa Public Prosecutor's Office reveals anti-terror police staffed by Freemasons and shadowy CIA operatives. Two are arrested. Dozens of police and security force personnel involved.
The network is discovered amidst an investigation into an Italian security contractor slain in Iraq.


A parallel, covert antiterrorism police force has been uncovered inside the Department of Strategic Studies on Anti-terrorism. This is the conclusion of the DIGOS [Divisione Investigazione Generali e Operazioni Speciali, or Department of General and Special Operations, a police investigative unit] of the Genoa Public Prosecutor's Office. So far two individuals have been arrested and 25 warrants have been issued in ten regions across the country. Another 24 are being investigated, including 12 members of the police. Gaetano Saya and Riccardo Sindoca, both Freemasons and DSSA directors with links to the extreme right and intelligence organizations beyond the oversight of Italian Parliament have been placed under house arrest. Saya resides in Florence and Sindoca in Pavia.

Officials uncovered the network while investigating the death of Fabrizio Quattrocchi, an Italian private security contractor slain in Iraq in 2004. Chief Public Prosecutor Giuseppe Lalla, Inspector Salvatore Presenti and DIGOS-Genoa chief Giuseppe Gonan have excluded any involvement of Quattrocchi with DSSA, despite a claim in an Italian magazine last May. Connection to any Italian political figure is also excluded. It is likely that the name of Quattrocchi was used by the organization to credential itself as a parallel intelligence outfit. While investigating private security contractors working overseas, agents on Gonan's investigation team crossed paths with a secret, illegal investigation by the DSSA using shadowing, investigations, illegal use of badges and insignia carried by legitimate police.

So far, no subversive activity on the part of the DSSA in the strictest sense of the word has emerged but the impression is that the aims of the investigation launched by the Genoa Public Prosecutors Office is to prevent further wrongful conduct by the organization and to identify persons involved from law enforcement acting as secret agents who even might have joined in good faith. Saya and Sindoca have been charged with conspiracy to commit crime and usurpation of public office in law enforcement. In substance, the investigation team believes that DSSA (an organization which does not exist legally) intended to finance its operations by using funds from domestic and international agencies.

Four rifles, tasers, a knife, a sabers, machetes, dozens of outdoor suvivial kits, ID cards, badges and insignia were found by the Florence branch of DIGOS during separate searches of the residences of seven suspected DSSA members in the Florentine capital after a search warrants were received from the Genoa Public Prosecutor's office. The residence of Gaetano Saya, placed under house arrest, was used for meetings of the network. Among other suspects are a junior officer with the Fiscal Police in Florence, two prison police and three civilians, including a construction company owner and a businessman.

Before the arrests, the DSSA ran a website (taken down after the arrests) where it described itself as follows: The Department of Strategic Studies on Antiterrorism, a institute recognized by Republic of Italy interagency law enforcement and police, offers highly-specialized investigation and research support to the personnel of organizations under a potential terrorist threat.

Gaetano Saya and Riccardo Sindoca are founders of a political organization called Destra Nazionale - Nuovo Msi [The National Right - Italian Socialist Movement] and claim to be ex-members of Gladio. This is a right-wing terrorist outfit once funded by the CIA and thought to be responsible for 1980 Bologna Railway Station bombing which killed 87 and wounded 177, including several US students on holiday].

From the website: The evil which has descended upon us finds in men like George Bush in America and Gaetano Saya in Italy, an impregnable bulwark: God-fearing men, harded and pure individuals who, enlightend by God, have descended into the valley of the shadow of death to defend the Judeo-Christian faith and the West. The righteousness which these men represent will defeat the anti-Christ. God is on their side. On the website, Saya affirms that his a member of the exclusive P-2 Masonic Lodge and that in November 1997 he was state's witness for the Public Prosecutor of Palermo in the trial of Giulio Andreotti [Andreotti was an Italian statesman accused of links to the Mafia] in which Andreotti was accused of ordering the murder of anti-Mafia investigator General Dalla Chiesa. Saya testified that he was told that this was so by fraternal [Masonic] companion and friend Giusseppe Santovito, a former P-2 Lodge member, who at the time was Director-General of SISMI [Servizio Informazioni Sicurezza Militare, or Military Intelligence Service].

From La Repubblica


The Department of Strategy Studies on Antiterrorism. This is what the organization, which represented itself as a parallel law enforcement agency combatting terrorism, called itself. According to investigators, the aims of the organization was to credential itself with major domestic and international agencies, including foreign intelligence, for funding.

In the early hours of this morning, the DIGOS of Genoa carried out 28 searches in nine Italian regions (Liguria, Piedmont, Lombardy, Emilia Romagna, Tuscany, Lazio, Molise, Sicily and Sardinia). 21 persons belonging to the National Police, the Carabinieri, Fiscal Police and the Prison Police are under investigation. Two individuals who are not members of law enforcement but who are know to be part of the organization have been arrested: Gaetano Saya and Roberto Sindoca, both well-known leaders of the National Right, which is the present-day incarnation of the organization MIUS. [Movimento italiano di unità sociale, or Italian Movement for Social Unity, a fascist organization] founded by Giorgio Almirante [a notorious racist and anti-semite, member of Mussolini's infamous Republic of Salò under Nazi tutelage]. Saya, an former Freemason, was state's witness in the trial of Giulio Andreotti. Considered a figure close to Italian intelligence, he often boasted of his ties to SISMI. Saya and Sindoca have been placed under house arrest in Florence and Pavia, respectively.

Several members from law enforcement joined the secret network in good faith. The DSSA carried out surveillance and searches in airports with few results. Some of the members had direct access to the Ministry of Interior data banks.

The charges: So far there have been 20 separate investigations. The crime in question is criminal conspiracy using money from domestic and foreign agencies.

The unconfirmed aim of the organization, explains Genoa Chief Public Prosecutor Giuseppe Lalla, was to credential DSSA and to run a network which would obtain financing from foreign nations such as the United States and Israel or organizations such as NATO. Among their boasted activities was the tracking down of fugitive Italian terrorists living abroad, ex-Red Brigades, or members of other organizations such as the example of Cesare Battisti.

Several members may have joined the secret network in good faith. The DSSA carried out surveillance and searches in airports with little result. Some of the members had direct access to the Ministry of Interior data banks.

Name of Fabrizio Quattrocchi is mentioned. The Weekly News had recently run a story saying mercinary Fabrizio Quattrocchi, slain in Iraq, was a member but investigators believe that this was not the case. While looking into Italian mercenaries working abroad, Deputy Chief Investigator, Giuseppe Gonan crossed paths with an illegal investigation run by DSSA employing shadowing, background investigation, and illegal use of badges and insignia belonging to legitimate law enforcement. Thanks to the complicity of several of its members, the organization was able to retrieve confidential information directly from Ministry of the Interior databanks.

Weapons stash in Florence. Seven searches were carried in the Florentine capital, among theme Saya's. Four rifles, some tasers, a Rambo knife, sabres and machetes, dozens of outdoor survival kits, IDs, badges, insignia and police hats. It was at Saya's residenc that DSSA held its monthly meetings. The homes of a junior officer of the Fiscal Police, two Prison Police and three civilians were also searched.

Searches in Rome. The Rome DIGOS are carrying out five searches of homes belonging to two law enforcement officers, two private security workers and a physician.

Searches in Milan. Seven searches were conducted in a parallel investigation. Milan DIGOS personnel worked together with those of Genoa and found material documents implicating Police and Carabinieri. The persons investigated were a Deputy Superintendant and two assistants working for the National Police, a retired Carabinieri, a retired police officer, a Carabinieri Marshal and one civilian.

The Milan Public Prosecutor's office is following a line of investigation slightly different from that in Genoa. DSSA members impersonated police, displayed DSSA badges very similar to that of law enforcement, and used police insignia and automobile lights.

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