Piazza Fontana bombing

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The Piazza Fontana bombing (strage di Piazza Fontana) refers to the terrorist bombing on December 12 1969 in the offices of Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura ("National Agrarian Bank") in Piazza Fontana, Milan, Italy, carried out by far-right terrorists. In total, 16 people were killed and 58 wounded. The aim of the attack was to make the public believe that the bombings were part of a communist insurgency, in order to "push the Italian state to proclaim the state of emergency", according to neofascist terrorist Vincenzo Vinciguerra's confessions. This has been called in Italy strategia della tensione.

Giuseppe Pinelli and 4 000 arrests

The terrorist act was initially attributed to anarchist bombers. Over 4,000 arrests were made in the aftermath of the bombings and one of the suspects, Giuseppe Pinelli, died after falling out of the fourth floor window of the police station where he was being held. Anarchist Pietro Valpreda was also arrested and later released.

Ordine Nuovo and David Carrett, officer of the U.S. Navy

Far-right terrorist organization Ordine Nuovo was then suspected. In 1989, Stefano Delle Chiaie was arrested in Caracas, Venezuela and rendered to Italy to stand trial for his role in this bombing. Despite his reputation, Delle Chiaie was acquitted by the Assise Court in Catanzaro in 1989, along with fellow accused Massimiliano Fachini. In 1998, David Carrett, officer of the U.S. Navy, was put under investigation on charges of political and military espionage and his participation to the Piazza Fontana bombing, among other events. Judge Guido Salvini also opened up a case against Sergio Minetto, Italian official for the US-NATO intelligence network, and pentito Carlo Digilio, who was suspected as a CIA informant. La Repubblica underlined that Carlo Rocchi, CIA's man at Milan, was surprised in 1995 searching for information concerning Operation Gladio, thus demonstrating that all was not over. ("A US agent appears in the Piazza Fontana bombing")

A June 20 2001 conviction of Italian Neo-fascists Doctor Carlo Maria Maggi, Delfo Zorzi and Giancarlo Rognoni was overturned in March 2004. Pentito Carlo Di Giglio received immunity from prosecution in exchange of his informations, as the pentito status allows.

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