Falange Armata

The Falange Armata (English: Armed Phalanx) was an alleged terrorist organisation that was active in Italy the early 1990s. While the name has been used to claim several murders and bombing attacks its membership or existence are disputed.

History

The first claim under the name Falange Armata was made with a call to the ANSA switchboard in Bologna on 27 October 1990, concerning the murder of Umberto Mormile, an educator at Opera prison who had been killed on 11 April 1990.^[1]

Over the following years anonymous calls supposedly made on behalf of the organisation claimed a wide number of attacks later attributed to the White Uno Gang,^[2] Cosa Nostra, 'Ndrangheta,^[3] Camorra, and Sacra Corona Unita,^[4][5] including the Pilastro killings, the murders of Antonino Scopelliti,^[6] Salvo Lima, Giuliano Guazzelli, the Capaci and Via D'Amelio bombings,^[7] the derailment of the Lecce-Zurich train near Surbo,^[8] and other killings or bombings.^[9][10][11] In addition, the name was used to sign death threats against Presidents Francesco Cossiga and Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, Interior Minister Nicola Mancino, and high-profile prosecutors,^[12] journalists, businesspeople and politicians of various parties.

The wide scope of these claims (about 1,200 between 1990 and 1995) led investigators to suggest that the group was fictitious and that it was used to mislead inquiries into organised crime, or possibly that the calls were the work of a compulsive liar.^[13]

After thirteen years of inactivity Falange Armata resurfaced in February 2014 in a threatening letter sent to jailed Mafia boss Totò Riina.^[13]

Theories over the organisation's nature and origins

In 2015, while called as a witness in the trial on the alleged State-Mafia Pact, Francesco Paolo Fulci, diplomat and former chairperson of the Executive Committee on Intelligence and Security Services, claimed that phone calls related to Falange Armata were found to originate from the peripheral offices of SISMI, Italy's military intelligence agency at the time:

"There was this case of the Falange Armata and so I appointed this SISDE analyst, his name was Davide De Luca, [...] I asked him to work on the claims. [...] After some days De Luca came to me and told me: this is the map of the places where the phone calls come from, and this is the map of the SISMI peripheral offices in Italy, the two maps coincided perfectly, and in addition De Luca told me that the calls occurred always during the working time".

— Giuseppe Pipitone, Il Fatto Quotidiano^[14]

Some Mafia pentiti, such as Filippo Malvagna,^[15] Maurizio Avola^[13] and Salvatore Grigoli^[16] have testified that the name Falange Armata was used to claim every terrorist-type action carried out by Cosa Nostra, originally on suggestion from military intelligence officials.^[17] However, higher-profile mafiosi such as Giovanni Brusca and Antonino Giuffrè have denied any knowledge of this practice.^[15]

Judge Piergiorgio Morosini in 2013 suggested that the attacks claimed by Falange Armata were part of a subversive strategy pursued by the Mafia with the support from far-right groups and officials within the intelligence services,^[18] a common line of inquiry.

See also

• Armed, far-right organizations in Italy

References

1. (in Italian) Falange armata, mix d'eversione e criminalità archiviostorico.corriere.it
2. Pedrelli, Luciano (3 September 1991). "Il dossier 'Uno bianca' è sul tavolo di De Sica". la Repubblica. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
3. Piervincenzi, Emilio (13 February 1992). "Agguato nella notte, uccisi due Carabinieri". la Repubblica. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
4. "L'ira di Pippo Baudo: 'Non ho amici mafiosi'". la Repubblica. 5 November 1991. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
5. Cometti, Marcello (20 December 1991). "Puglia, notte delle bombe". la Repubblica. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
6. Sergi, Pantaleone (15 August 1991). "La Calabria è terra di nessuno, qui lo Stato non combatte più". la Repubblica. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
7. "In 3 anni ha rivendicato tutto". la Repubblica. 27 October 1993. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
8. "Attentato Lecce: si indaga sulla Sacra Corona Unita". Adnkronos. 7 January 1992. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
9. Bolzoni, Attilio (6 November 1991). "La Mafia aveva avvertito Baudo". la Repubblica. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
10. "Via dei Sabini, bomba beffa". la Repubblica. 19 October 1993. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
11. Bonerandi, Enrico (23 October 1993). "Una bomba contro i giudici, Padova nel mirino del terrore". la Repubblica. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
12. Bellu, Gianni Maria (30 January 1997). "Di Pietro: hanno fatto morire mia madre". la Repubblica. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
13. (in Italian) Falange Armata: ‘Riina chiudi la bocca’. Dopo 20 anni ricompare la sigla del terrore ilfattoquotidiano.it
14. (in Italian) , Trattativa, l’ex capo dei Servizi Fulci: “la Falange chiamava dalle sedi Sismi, alcuni 007 usavano esplosivi”, 25 June 2015.
15. Bolzoni, Attilio. "La misteriosissima Falange Armata". la Repubblica. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
16. Bellavia, Enrico (2016). Sbirri e padreterni: Storie di morti e fantasmi, di patti e ricatti, di trame e misteri (1st ed.). ISBN 9788858126097. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
17. Musolino, Lucio (26 July 2017). "Gli attentati ai carabinieri, i servizi segreti e la Falange armata: così la 'ndrangheta partecipò alla stagione stragista". Il Fatto Quotidiano. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
18. Galullo, Roberto (26 February 2014). "Falange Armata si rifà viva con la lettera a Totò Riina ma la sua presenza borderline è vecchia: le indagini dei pm di Palermo". Il Sole 24 Ore. Retrieved 6 December 2021.