Aldo Moro

Aldo Moro (Maglie, Lecce Province, September 23, 1916 - Rome, May 9, 1978) was twice Prime Minister of Italy. He was one of Italy's longest-serving post war Prime Ministers, holding power for a combined total of more than six years.

Kidnapping and Death

On March 16, 1978 Moro was kidnapped in via Fani in Rome by a commando of left-wing terrorists, known as the Red Brigades and led by Mario Moretti, after they killed all of the 5 escort agents ordered to protect Moro. After 55 days of detention, Moro was murdered in or near Rome on May 9. His body was found that day in a parked car, left between the headquarters of the Christian Democracy and the Italian Communist Party, with a clear symbolism.

Related Topics:
March 16 - 1978 - Rome - Terrorist - Red Brigades - Mario Moretti - May 9 - Christian Democracy - Italian Communist Party

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Moro was kidnapped on his way to a session of the house of representatives, where a discussion was supposed to take place regarding the vote of confidence to a new government led by Giulio Andreotti, for the first time with the support of the communist party. It was the first implementation of Moro's strategic vision defined by the Compromesso storico.

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The Red Brigades proposed to exchange Moro's life for the freedom of several imprisoned terrorists. During the detention, it has been conjectured that many knew where he was detained (an apartment in Rome), and even Romano Prodi (who would later become Prime Minister of Italy and president of the European Commission) was involved in a strange story of indications of the street where Moro was detained: in a séance held by several university professors in Bologna, the ghost of Giorgio La Pira would have revealed that Moro was kept in via Gradoli in Rome, where indeed the Red Brigades had a hideout that was discovered on April 18. The séance story was likely a cover-up for a tip from the far-left extraparlamentarian environment in Bologna.

Related Topics:
Rome - Romano Prodi - European Commission - Séance - Bologna - Ghost - Giorgio La Pira - April 18

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During this period, Moro wrote several letters to the principal leaders of DC and to Pope Paul VI (who later personally celebrated his solemn Funeral Mass). In his letters, Moro advocated that the state's primary objective should be of saving people's lives, and that the government should strive to comply with his kidnappers' requests. Most of the leaders of the Christian Democrats argued that the letters did not express truthfully Moro's intentions, and refused to attempt any negotiation, in stark contrast with Moro's family's requests. In his appeal to the terrorists, Pope Paul VI asked them to release Moro "without conditions".

Related Topics:
Pope Paul VI - Funeral Mass

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When the Red Brigades decided to execute Moro, they placed him in a car and told him to cover himself with a blanket, that they were going to transport him to another location. After Moro was covered, they emptied ten rounds into him, killing him. Moro's body was left in the trunk of a car in Via Caetani, a site between head offices of both DC and PCI, as a last symbolic challenge to the police, who were keeping the entire nation, and Rome in particular, under strict and severe surveillance.

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Moro's capture and the causes of his elimination still are not clearly identifiable, despite several trials and dozens of separate investigations, as well as general internal and international attention. Much of what surrounds Moro's death is a mystery. It has been conjectured that Moro used these letters to send cryptic messages to his family and colleagues. Doubts have been advanced about the completeness of these letters; Carabinieri's general Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa (later killed by mafia) found copies of the letters in a house that terrorists had in Milan, and for some reason this retrieval was not publicly known until many years later.

Related Topics:
Carabinieri - Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa - Mafia - Milan

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Some suggested that Moro's murder could have been orchestrated by the Italian Masonic lodge, P2, and that the Red Brigades had been deeply infiltrated by US intelligence (CIA). Much of this theory is predicated on the hypothesis that the hard work that Moro had done to admit members of the Italian Communist Party into a coalition cabinet was deeply disturbing to those interests. Some believe that in reality the Red Brigades were instruments of hidden powers, but no concrete proof of this hypothesis has ever been found. However, Moro's widow later recounted his meeting with Henry Kissinger and an unidentified American intelligence official, who warned him to abandon the strategy of bringing the Communist Party into his cabinet, telling him "You must abandon your policy of bringing all the political forces in your country into direct collaboration...or you will pay dearly for it." Moro was allegedly so shaken by the threat that he became ill and threatened to quit politics. http://www.mega.nu:8080/ampp/gladio.html

Related Topics:
Masonic - P2 - CIA

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