Federico Umberto D'Amato
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Born | 1919 Marseille, France |
Died | 1 July 1996 (Age 76) |
Nationality | Italian |
Member of | Office of Strategic Services, Propaganda Due/Member |
Career
During World War II D'Amato worked for the US Office of Strategic Services. At the close of WWII was at the head of the North Atlantic Treaty Special Office, a link between NATO and the United States and assisted US intelligence in recruiting large numbers of officials from the Republic of Salò and from the Italian Special Forces, Decima MAS to operate in the newly founded Italian state. This recruitment program was heavily influenced by the desire to employ people with an unwavering anti-communist inclination. It included various figures such as Prince Valerio Borghese, Pino Rauti and Licio Gelli all of whom were involved in the spate of terrorist attacks in Cold War Italy which exposed Operation Gladio.[1]
D'Amato's later contact with the CIA was James Jesus Angleton, whom he described as "a truly extraordinary man , even to the point of being slightly crazy."[2]
D'Amato entered the Office for Reserved Affairs of the Italian of the Minister of Interior in 1957.[3] In 1974, two days after the Piazza della Loggia bombing, he was removed from the position and assigned to the boundary police, although he kept a strong influence on the office until the 1980s.[3] For his activity as the office's director (1969-1974) he has been accused of sidetracking numerous investigations about the massacres occurred in that period.[4]
D'Amato was a member of Propaganda 2 (P2), a secret masonic lodge which as a deep political milieu was implicated in numerous deep events in the 1970s.
Founding the Club de Berne
Allan Francovich's 1992 film about Operation Gladio includes an admission by Umberto that "We did a lot in the field of security, especially on a European scale after the French 'evenements' or the revolution of '68. There was a real threat posed by subversive elements in Europe so I proposed we set up a permanent committee, a European committee. One which even Switzerland joined. Indeed this committee is even called the Berne Club... The club still exists and brings together the secret services of Europe together. Every time they meet because I was the founder they send a greeting to the 'godfather'. That's me."
Other activities
An acknowledged gastronome, he held a column in the weekly L'espresso, under the pseudonym of 'Federico Godio'.[5]
Fedricio Umberto D'Amato
References
- ↑ Document:Democratic State v Deep State, Ola Tundander
- ↑ Operation Gladio (film)
- ↑ a b Cite error: Invalid
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- ↑ Marcello Veneziani, Controinformazione
- ↑ Stella, Gian Antonio (4 April 1997). "D' Amato, lo 'sbirro grand gourmet' che tirava le fila dell' esercito di infiltrati". Il Corriere della Sera.Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto").