Argo 16
| Date | 23 November 1973 |
|---|---|
| Location | Venice, Italy |
| Deaths | 4 |
Argo 16 was the codename of an Italian Air Force C-47 Dakota aircraft, registration MM61832, used by the Italian intelligence agency SID and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in covert operations.
The crash
On 23 November 1973, at 7:30 Argo 16 took off from the airport of Venice, arrived at the altitude of 2,500 feet, then fell and crashed into the Montefibre plant of Marghera, located in an industrial park close the airport. The disaster caused four deaths, including Commander Borreo, an experienced and highly decorated pilot who flew during the Second World War.
Official narrative
In 1999 the Court of Assize of the Court of Venice ruled that the fall of the plane must be attributed to an accident, excluding the intervention of Mossad.[1]
Gladio - or more probably Mossad
In 1990, during an episode of a television show dedicated to the case, General Geraldo Serravalle, head of Gladio from 1971 to 1974, declared that, despite the widespread opinion that the plane was sabotaged by the Israeli Mossad intelligence services, it is likely that the explosion was attributable to Gladio members who refused to surrender their clandestine weapons[2][3].
Of the same opinion is the president of the commission on the Years of Lead, Giovanni Pellegrino, who believed that the explanation of the accident should be sought in the use that Gladio made of the plane[4]. Until then it was widely believed the sabotage was carried out by Mossad, the Israeli foreign spy agency, in retaliation for the pro-Libyan Italian government's decision to expel, rather than try, five Arabs who had tried to blow up an Israeli air-liner. The Arabs had been spirited out of the country on board the Argo 16.
In 2000 Gianadelio Maletti told the journalist of La Repubblica Daniele Mastrogiacomo that the plane was returning from Libya where he had just left the 5 Palestinians taken in Ostia and that an "unhappy stop" in Malta had definitively confirmed to the agents of the Israeli secret agencies what was happening. He also stated that he had been contacted by the then head of the Israeli intelligence station in Rome, Asa Leven, before the operation and that he, aware of the intentions of the Italian government, proposed to him to collaborate to kidnap the five and extradite them to Jerusalem but "nothing was done" and "Argo 16 crashed".
Italian President Francesco Cossiga also gave a public interview in which he declares that the downing of Argo 16 was due to a"revenge of the Israeli secret services".[5]
References
- ↑ https://messaggeroveneto.gelocal.it/udine/cronaca/2016/01/06/news/addio-al-generale-cismondi-fu-a-capo-di-gladio-nel-nordest-1.12731358
- ↑ https://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/1990/11/29/ombra-dei-gladiatori-sull-attentato-ad.html
- ↑ http://www.cambridgeclarion.org/press_cuttings/gladio.parliamentary.committee_indep_1dec1990.html
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20070808084652/http://www.almanaccodeimisteri.info/argo162002.htm
- ↑ Giovanni Minoli, La storia siamo noi, Rai Education 2, Hotbird, 20 novembre, 2008.
