Italy arrests G8 attack suspects
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8095033.stm
11 June 2009
Italian police have arrested at least four people on suspicion of
planning an attack on the G8 summit of rich countries next month.
The suspects were detained in several cities and accused of criminal
association for the purposes of terrorism and possessing weapons.
At least one is said to have links to the Red Brigades, a left-wing
group that carried out attacks in the 1970s.
Italy will host G8 leaders on 8-10 July in L'Aquila, Abruzzo region.
The city was badly damaged in an earthquake that shook the central
region in April, leaving some 60,000 people homeless.
The meeting of the industrialised nations was first planned to be
held on the Sardinian island of La Maddalena.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi shifted the venue weeks
after the earthquake to focus attention and government resources on
the disaster-hit territory.
Among those arrested was Ernesto Morlacchi, son of one of the
founders of the Red Brigades, the French news agency AFP reported.
Material seized included a bomb in searches carried out in Rome,
Milan and Genoa following a two-year investigation, local media reports said.
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Italy arrests six over suspected plot to attack G8
June 11, 2009
Six people have been arrested on suspicion of planning an attack on
the Group of Eight summit next month in Italy after a marathon
two-year investigation, police said on Thursday.
The six -- said to be members of an extreme leftwing cell -- were
arrested Wednesday and Thursday, one month ahead of the July 8-10
summit of leading industrialised nations, said anti-terrorism police
chief Lamberto Giannini.
The probe began two years ago when the summit was set to be held at
the Sardinian island of La Maddalena, he told a news conference.
Citing wiretaps, Giannini said the gang did not "strictly speaking"
have an attack plan but "were discussing how they could get close to
strategic points at the summit."
They had maps of the summit's closed-circuit surveillance system and
"were trying to figure out how to bypass the security systems," Giannini said.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi made the surprise decision to move
the G8 summit to the central Italian city of L'Aquila three weeks
after the April 6 earthquake that claimed 299 lives to "show
solidarity" with the victims.
Berlusconi argued that millions of euros could be saved by moving the
venue to a modest site on the outskirts of L'Aquila, and that
anti-globalisation activists would think twice before staging
protests in a disaster zone.
Giannini did not confirm Italian press reports that the gang had
shifted their target to the new venue.
In Rome and northwestern Genoa, five people were arrested and a sixth
placed under house arrest, accused of criminal association for
purposes of terrorism and arms possession, Giannini said.
They "tried to reconstitute a formation similar to the Red Brigades,
inspired by Marxism-Leninism, to commit armed action," he said,
referring to the militant group active in Italy during the 1970s.
Among those arrested was Luigi Fallico, 57, a former member of the
Red Brigades, Giannini said, adding that another, Gianfranco Zoia,
had been arrested in the 1990s for membership of an armed gang.
The probe "was very difficult because with their experience of armed
struggle this network used very careful methods to avoid detection," he said.
News of the arrests was hailed by a senior ruling party senator, who
called it proof that "red terror in Italy continues to smoulder under
the ashes."
"The brilliant results achieved with the arrests... reassures us of
the constant attentiveness of public security chiefs dedicated to the
fight against domestic and international terrorism," said Maurizio
Gasparri, head of the centre-right People of Freedom party's group in
the Senate.
The Red Brigades, accused of the 1978 murder of Italian former prime
minister Aldo Moro, killed some 415 people during the so-called
"Years of Lead" in Italy when they carried out some 15,000 attacks.
Their stated aim was to get Italy to withdraw from NATO.
A "new" Red Brigades linked to a group of communist militants killed
two government labour rights consultants in 1999 and 2002.
About 15 people were arrested in Milan in February 2007 on suspicion
of belonging to a far-left group associated with the Red Brigades.
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Six arrested over plot to attack G-8 summit
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/06/11/italy.red.brigades/
June 11, 2009
ROME, Italy (CNN) -- An investigation into the Italian left-wing
terrorist group the Red Brigades has led to the arrest of six people
who Rome police say were plotting an attack on next month's G-8 summit.
One of those arrested is Luigi Fallico, a former member of the
Italian left-wing terrorist group the Red Brigades, police said Thursday.
The arrests happened after raids throughout the country as part of an
investigation into the group.
Italian investigators uncovered the plot through phone interceptions,
police said. The alleged terrorists had initially planned to attack
the town of La Maddalena, the original location of the summit.
The suspects face charges of terrorist activities and weapon possession.
The Red Brigades carried out a wave of bloody attacks in the 1970s in
Italy, including the kidnapping and murder in 1978 of former Prime
Minister Aldo Moro. He was also secretary of the Christian Democrats,
the biggest Italian political party at the time.
The group has not been as active in the past decade as previously,
but it still wages attacks. It was responsible for the killing in
2002 of government official Marco Biagi, a champion of labor reform.
The group that claimed responsibility for his killing called itself
the New Red Brigades.
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Italian police arrest four people suspected of G8 summit plot
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/274011
By Bob Ewing.
Published Jun 11, 2009
The Italian police have arrested four people who are suspected of
planning an attack during the upcoming G8 summit meeting.
Apparently, of the four, two are connected to the communist-inspired
Red Brigades. The Red Brigades are responsible for conducting attacks
in Italy in the 1970s and 1980s, kidnapping several public figures
and assassinating politicians.
A fifth person was detained, however, not formally charged, and 15
others were under investigation.
Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said "The people arrested, in fact,
were about to rebuild the operational structure of the Red Brigades,
ready to make an extraordinary strike.
Police also confiscated three pistols, a hand grenade, machine guns
and electronic devices in their investigations.
Luigi Fallico, 57, was among three suspects arrested in Rome. Fallico
was identified as the head of the group and a friend of a former
leader of the "new Red Brigades", Nadia Desdemona Lioce.
The G8 Summit will be held in Italy on July 8-10 in the city of
L'Aquila, which was badly damaged in the earthquake that shook the
central region of Abruzzo in April, leaving some 60,000 people homeless.
The meeting had originally been scheduled to take place on the
Sardinian island of La Maddalena, but was moved to focus attention
and government resources on the aftermath of the disaster.
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