The massacre on 2 August 1980 at Bologna railway station when a bomb planted by fascists killed 85 people, including two British students, Catherine Mitchell and John Andrew Kolpinski, will be remembered on this 45th anniversary with the usual ceremony under the clock with frozen arms at 10.25, the moment of the explosion.
But a significant step towards justice has occurred following the announcement on 1 July by the Supreme Court of Cassation that confirms conviction and life sentence for Paolo Bellini, guilty of the atrocity alongside Francesca Mambro, Valerio Fioravanti, Gilberto Cavallini and Luigi Ciavardini.
Masonic lodge
The five were acting on instructions received by members and associates of the P2 Masonic Lodge led by Licio Gelli who in turn were working for the clandestine NATO-sponsored operation code named ‘Gladio’ and ‘Stay Behind’.
Its original purpose was to provide armed underground resistance in the event of a Soviet invasion of Europe..
Government institutions in Italy, including the secret service, had in effect become subordinate to foreign military actors determined to keep Italy within the Western sphere of influence.
A possible Communist participation in government could not be allowed in a country that was a member of NATO. The strategy of tension was adopted to keep Italy paralyzed with fear and disorientation while the threat of a military coup was hovering in the air leading the left-wing trend to lose momentum.
People in high places
Bellini was a member of Gladio. He spoke in his defence during the trial hinting that he was known to people in high places. One was Francesco Cossiga who served as Prime minister and then President of Italy.
Cossiga played a part in Gladio which he described as having headquarters in the UK, in Cornwall. Bellini’s son, Guido, remembers a telegram that his father sent to Cossiga addressing him in brotherly
terms.
A self-confessed killer of a least eleven men, Bellini was trained as a pilot, including a period spent in California with a false passport. Not an insignificant place if one considers that Gelli was in excellent
terms with the White House.
He could pick up the phone and seek Alexander Haig, Secretary of State. He was invited at the inauguration of two presidents and was in contacts with the staff of Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Regan. He arranged payments for some involved in the Bologna bombing.
Brought the explosives
While relatively satisfied that Bellini has been nailed as the one who probably brought the explosive at the station, Paolo Bolognesi, the outgoing president of the Association of the Families of the Victims who
persistently called for justice to be served, is preparing to stand once more under the clock outside the station.
He made it known what he will say “Andiamo avanti!”, let’s keep going “until light is shed on the highest levels of those who planned the strategy of tension with the killing of innocent people.”
