ROME (Dispatches) -- A veteran investigative journalist has revealed the role of Israel’s Mossad in the 1978 abduction and murder of Italy’s then pro-Palestinian prime minister Aldo Moro by the far-left terrorist group, the Red Brigades. 
In an interview with The Grayzone, Eric Salerno cited statements from Red Brigades member Alberto Franceschini, who claimed Mossad was “in contact from the very beginning” with the group. 
Franceschini said Mossad routinely engaged with various “subversive organizations” across Europe and even offered weapons and assistance to the Red Brigades to destabilize Italy.
On March 16, 1978, Moro was kidnapped in Rome in an attack that killed all but one of his bodyguards. After nearly two months in captivity, during which government officials refused negotiations, Moro was killed. Salerno referred to well-placed sources blaming Mossad for the killing.
Giuseppe De Gori, a lawyer for Moro’s Christian Democrat party, testified in 1998 that Mossad “had always controlled” the Red Brigades without formal infiltration. 
He suggested the group’s decision to kill Moro was influenced by indirect Israeli intervention, as Mossad sought to smuggle information to the terrorists. De Gori noted that a Mossad colonel had promised the Red Brigades “weapons and whatever they wanted” in exchange for pursuing a policy favorable to Israel. 
In 2002, De Gori told author Philip Willan that Mossad fabricated a letter falsely claiming Moro was already dead, sealing his fate.
In 2007, Giovanni Galloni, former vice president of Italy’s High Council of Judiciary, suggested Moro’s killers were hired by Washington and/or Tel Aviv. Moro himself had reportedly feared U.S. and Israeli secret service infiltration within the Red Brigades.
Former magistrate Luigi Carli testified in 2017 that Mossad “co-financed” the Red Brigades, with the aim of weakening Italy internally and enhancing Israel’s influence in the Mediterranean.
Salerno’s 2010 book, Mossad Base Italy, details a secret Israeli-Italian alliance predating Israel’s 1948 founding, with Italy aiding Zionist militias and carrying out classified missions on Israel’s behalf. Israeli intelligence agents reportedly regard Italy’s intelligence services as among their closest allies.
Today, Salerno describes Italy as a continuation of its old fascist regime, with little trace of past pro-Palestinian sympathies. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni shows little support for Palestinians, despite revelations that Mossad employed a private Italian intelligence firm to spy on her government in 2024.
Regarding recent pro-Palestinian protests in Italy amid Israel’s war on Gaza, Salerno lamented that Italy’s people and government have historically done little to aid Palestinians, with little public awareness or discourse about their plight.