GDPR: ITALIAN BASING FOR SOF IN ITALIAN PRESS -

S E C R E T ROME 001633

SIPDIS


DEPT. FOR PM, EUR/RPM AND EUR/WE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/09/2014
TAGS: PREL MOPS MARR IT NATO
SUBJECT: GDPR: ITALIAN BASING FOR SOF IN ITALIAN PRESS -
DEFMIN SUPPORTS, PRESS SUGGESTS IT WOULD MAKE ITALY A
TARGET

REF: ROME 36

Classified By: DCM Emil Skodon. Reasons 1.4 b and d.


1. (S) Summary. In early May, Italian papers picked up the
March Stars and Stripes story citing SACEUR General Jones'
comment that US European Special Forces (SOF) would be
consolidated in Sigonella, Italy or in Rota, Spain. The
press coverage led opposition Parliamentarians to demand an
explanation of the story from the GOI. DefMin Martino
responded with a May 5 press release describing the possible
consolidation in Sigonella as a "good idea" that would bring
jobs to Sicily. The front page of the May 6 Palermo edition
of La Repubblica predicted that with SOF there, Sigonella
would be used for "adventures decided outside the UN and NATO
by a (US) government that has made preventative war into a
dangerous emblem," and that Sicily would become a prime
target for terrorist attacks. This press play takes place
against a backdrop of PM Berlusconi smarting from a poor
showing in April's regional elections (and having been forced
to resign and reconstitute his government),Italian headlines
covering the Calipari friendly-fire shooting every day for
the last two months, and national elections looming in spring

2006. The environment for making progress on sensitive
pol-mil issues like SOF consolidation is becoming more
challenging, and will get more so as national elections
approach, with the opposition using visible changes in GOI
cooperation with the US military as a campaign tool against
Berlusconi. We will report on this broader dynamic septel.
End Summary.


2. (S) SOF consolidation in Sicily: Italy has been waiting
for resumption of discussions on the possibility of
stationing SOF in Sigonella, all mention of which before
March had been classified Secret. The matter was last
officially addressed in December at the US-Italy working
group meeting (Reftel) and in January when a SOCEUR Rep
passed IDGS questions about SOF training requirements (IDGS
said they would have answers for us by end February, but have
not gotten back to us). As DefMin Martino told A/S
Bloomfield in October 2004, consolidating US SOF at Sigonella
was not insoluble but needed to be worked carefully. Italy,
Martino stressed at the time, did not want there to be much
visibility around the issue. There has been sensitivity in
the GOI that public discussion of SOF moving to Sigonella
would rapidly be exploited by the Italian opposition for
electoral gain. Some Italian officials expressed to us their
discomfort with the March Stars and Stripes article in which
SACEUR Gen. Jones named Sigonella, Italy as among the
candidates to host consolidated US SOF in Europe. Our
Italian contacts were unhappily surprised that we went public
on this without first consulting Italy, and were concerned
about taking lumps in Italian press and public opinion
without having laid any groundwork for such an announcement.
They were relieved that no Italian press picked up the story
until the first week of May.


3. (S) MFA NATO Office Director Giovanni Brauzzi told us
after the Stars and Stripes article was published that before
more public statements, and indeed before putting the issue
to Italian politicians for decision, we needed to use the
working group to build a solid basis for understanding, and
that we were still quite far from the decision-making stage.
He stressed that the Italian side needed to see the promised
US paper on legal issues and freedom of action requirements
(Reftel) at least one week prior to the next meeting of the
working group - which Brauzzi had hoped would be in January
or February and most recently asked us about in late April.


4. (U) When the Italian press picked up the story from a
Spanish daily the first days of May, Italian Senator and
Palermo city councilman Constantino Garraffa (of the
opposition Democratic Left Party) and other opposition
parliamentarians demanded an explanation from the government.
DefMin Martino responded on May 5 with a press release that
described the possibility of SOF consolidation at Sigonella
as "a good idea" that would bring more jobs to Sicily. A
breathless editorial then appeared on May 6 on the front page
of the Palermo edition of La Repubblica predicting that the
base would be used for "adventures decided outside the UN and
NATO by a (US) government that has made preventative war into
a dangerous emblem." The editorial complained that SOF

consolidation would make Sicily a prime target for terrorist
attacks and compared it to the controversial installation of
medium-range nuclear missiles in Comiso, Sicily during the
1980s.


5. (S) COMMENT: These press stories come at a time when
Berlusconi is already in national election campaign mode,
weakened by his poor showing in April's regional elections to
the point that he had to resign and reconstitute his
government, and is under intense scrutiny in the aftermath of
the March 4 friendly-fire incident in which Italian
intelligence officer Nicola Calipari was killed by US forces
in Iraq. The opposition will try to use any visible new
cooperation with the US military as a campaign tool to
demonstrate that Berlusconi lets the US push Italy around and
lets the Americans do whatever they want to in Italy and
elsewhere. We expect our challenges on SOF and other
pol-mil issues to continue to grow as the national elections,
scheduled for spring 2006, approach. As the MFA's Brauzzi
told us this week, "it's only going to get more difficult
from here on out."

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2005ROME01633 - Classification: SECRET