ABSTRACT: The DC's obstructionism against the ascertainement of the truth on the Cirillo (2) case was justified by the DC itself by blaming the P2 and the secret services of a conspiracy against it. Today, to cover the scandal of the Lit. 65.000 billion for the reconstruction of the Campania region, the under-secretary Sanza appeals to the "secret services connected to the Masonic Right", despite the fact that all the responsibles of the sector claim that the services are void of any criminal infiltrations and that the P2 is inoperative.

(Il Giornale, 13 December 1988)

Since 1981, the most important exponents of the DC have opposed a fierce and obstinate obstructionism against the ascertainment of the truth on the Cirillo case, despite the guaranties given by the institutional organs on the possible inquiry. This entirely Christian Democratic affair, during which exponents of that party negotiated with the Red Brigades and the mafia by means of the secret services, represented the "mortal sin" of a party which did not do all it could for Moro and which had, on the contrary, deemed it wise to expose itself so much for an apparently secondary boss such as Ciro Cirillo. Such abnormal behaviour is incomprehensible unless it is interpreted as the crucial episode of the division of the funds allotted for the earthquake. Questioned on the Cirillo case, the Committee of Inspection on the secret services in October 1984 provided a justification of the scandalous events, and accused the P2 and the secret services of plotting against the DC.

The same story now. The scandal to be covered is the same, that is, not so much a family banquet, but the more general business of the L. 65.000 billion for the reconstruction of the Campania region, which were for the most part gobbled by the parties and by the mafia, and which Irpinia is but one chapter of.

There is only one detail which the under-secretary Sanza omitted to consider when he ludicrously blamed the "secret services connected to the Masonic Right". That is, that all the responsibles of the field state that the secret services are void of any criminal infiltrations, that the P2 is inoperative and that there is no evidence of any kind of such activity. This is supported by the statement given by the Chief of the Police Parisi in Parliament on 6 December, by the latest report on security services, by the inquiry of the Chamber constitutional affairs with its report in March 1988, and by Ciriaco De Mita (3) himself. The latter, on 23 November 1988 stated before the Committee of Inquiry on terrorism that "he had no elements to confirm information of this kind" concerning a possible reprise of the P2s activity.

The truth about this last lie invented by Sanza is that the story of the corrupt secret services has always served the purpose - and should serve it in this case too - of covering the regime's dirty business. Whenever important political representatives conduct operations which are partly or completely illegal, they use meddlers or parts of the services for their convenience, but they also accuse them when they are not involved - as in this case - to blame then of disinformation activity.

With a sort of Freudian projection, the wrongdoings of the authority are blamed on the secret services and on the P2. At the time of the Cirillo case, the men of the services were used as the connection between the high ranks of the DC, the mafia headed by Cutolo and the Red Brigades headed by Senzani. Today, the naive under-secretary or De Mita's cunning press assistant are trying to repeat the trick, confident in the success of the Cirillo operation, when the P2 was blamed for the anti-DC conspiracy. But this time, the story of the secret services and of the P2 will not be able to occult the true nature of the matter, that is, who managed the money, how it was managed, and who benefited of the L. 65.000 billion for the earthquake.

The book of the reconstruction of the entire Campania region should be opened in all its different chapters. Citizens are not interested in revenges between the mafia bosses and the DC, and the warnings they send each other. The main problem lies in the fact that in 1981 and in the following years De Mita and Gava (4) made a pact - consolidated on the Cirillo case - for the division of mutual areas of influence, with the involvement of sectors of other parties, in order to put their hands on the stream of public money allotted in Rome by the lobby representing Campania and Irpinia which dominated in the government and in Parliament.

The time has come to open all the pages of this national shame, and to stop it once and for all with the story of the P2, which someone wants to use as the cover of Cirillo at the Banca Popolare dell'Irpinia.

Translator's notes

(1) Licio Gelli (1919): Head of the Masonic lodge Propaganda 2 (P2), involved in a major scandal in 1981 and arrested in 1982.

(2) Ciro Cirillo: Exponent of the Christian Democrat Party in Campania, was kidnapped by the Red Brigades in 1982. The Party allegedly paid a large ransom and had contacts with the camorra to favour his release.

(3) Ciriaco De Mita: Member of the Christian Democrat Party. Vice Secretary of the DC. Minister of Industry and Trade during the 4th and 5th Rumor government. Minister of Foreign Trade during the 4th and 5th Moro government. Minister for extraordinary interventions in Southern Italy at the time of the earthquake in Irpinia.

(4) Antonio Gava: Exponent of the DC.