Capriccio Siciliano
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Click here for Full Issue of EIR Volume 5, Number 42, October 31, 1978 Capriccio Siciliano Part two of the Soviets' explosive investigation of the JFK assassination The words of my American acquaintances about "a foreign hand with a well-known signature" are easily In this section deciphered: "the well-known hand" is the Mafia. "the foreign signature" is Peking's foreign services. This week continues Executive Intelligence In order to understand the Mafia-CIA-Peking Review's exclusive translation of "Cappricio triangle. which rests on an invisible base called Siciliano" ("Sicilian Caprice"). a four-part "narcotics." it was necessary to visit Sicily. (. .. ) series of articles on the links between political .. : Syracuse knocked me out with its quiet assassinations and the drug trade by Julian provinciality. its cart drivers. the African heat. and Semyonov which appeared recently in the Soviet the prickly sandy dry wind: past greatness is youth organization's weekly magazine Ogonyok. somehow always accompanied by heat and the dry The series is important not only for the new light wind from the desert. So it was in Babylon, and in it sheds on such matters as the Kennedy Lebanon, and in Peru there was the same kind of assassination. the Mafia. and the activities of the dryness although not the sandy dry wind - the cold Maoist Chinese intelligence apparatus. but also mountains loomed on all sides and the sun was dry, because it sets forth a new sophisticated Soviet blinding. lifeless. perception of the inner workings of British and ... In the basement car rental office, it was dark and Knights of Malta linked intelligence networks. cool. It was 12: 00. leaving half an hour or at the most Part one of our serialization last week dealt an hour before siesta. the obligatory after-lunch rest. with the links between Lee Harvey Oswald. the The dispatcher listened to my request, went into the purported assassin of President John F. garage. and brought out a luxurious Jaguar. Kennedy. and Jack Ruby. the man who killed "How much is it?" .. , Oswald; the links between Ruby and the Mafia "Peanuts," answered the dispatcher and showed and drug-running; and presented evidence me a price list. 25.000 lire a day and 200 lire per linking Chinese intelligence to both. Semyonov kilometer. How many kilometers are you going?" showed that Oswald's brief "asylum" in the "400. " Soviet Union was due to no love on Oswald's part "90.000. Plus gas. It's full. That's another 50,000. for the USSR. but rather conformed to an That's." he touched the keys of his calculator. "160.000 intelligence "laundering" profile that cohered or so ... " closely with Maoist foreign policy interests of the "But don't you have a cheap little Fiat?" early 1960s period. As late as 1969. he revealed. "They're broken down. You don't drive a broken the Chinese had an extensive dossier on Oswald. down car. do you?" He noted that President Kennedy's moves to "No ... I flew here from a long ways off, and I would strengthen detente in the period just before his like to see your island ... " death had drawn fire from the Chinese. and set "All Americans want to see our island. " forth a compelling pattern of circumstantial "I'm a Russian." evidence that Oswald and Ruby were involved in "A Ru ... What?! Russian?!" The dispatcher opened a conspiracy prior to the Kennedy murder and his eyes wide and cried, "Paolo, come here, there's a that Ruby was actively deployed from the mom Russian! A real Russian?" ent of the assassination in an effort to cover up I showed him my passport. Paolo and the dispatcher that conspiracy. Finally. Semyonov showed that inspected it like a wild thing. then got me out a little Ruby was an important figure in Mafia drug Fiat. figured out the price. and in parting said: running in Dallas. "We'll tell Messina you may be three hours late or so, and they won't charge you. You're pretty hard up Oct. 31-Nov. 6.; 1978 EXECUTIVE INTELLIGENCE REVIEW COUNTERINTELLIGENCE 41 © 1978 EIR News Service Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission strictly prohibited. for lire. Buon giorno, camerata, arrividerci !" associations. What can you do, it's a prestige-minded I drove through the streets of new Syracuse, nation. faceless, with the architecture of boxes. Then I came "Now, as for fascism and the Mafia ... There exists into the old city and saw the huge port, the glassy the opinion that Benito Mussolini acted against the surface of the Mediterranean, and I understood why Mafia, because it was a serious - and, more the Carthaginians tried so hard to take this city. importantly, organized - force, a true state within a state. There exists the opinion that Mussolini did not want to tolerate anyone in Italy who was bound by The Mafia and fascism: Italy some unity other than 'the unity of fascism.' In a word, it is asserted that the illegal law of Mussolini acted against 'righteous' illegality (I have in mind thieves' Peking's sidling up to the Mafia, however, did not jargon, 'the righteous thief'), against the Mafia. I, begin here. To explain how that happened, we have to however, do not altogether agree with that sort of look into the past ... opinion." "The Mafia and fascism!" asked my companion, "What is the evidence?" letting me into his office. "A highly interesting theme. Let's go out on the balcony, where it's not so stuffy. "I will give you my version. You have the right not What will you drink: whisky, wine, gin!" to agree with it. Here it's not very much agreed with. "I'm behind the wheel." But first some history. Two years after seizing power, "Then you can drink anything," he laughed. "Under II Duce went to Sicily. He was a fine orator - perhaps the new laws a driver can drink one aperitiff - a glass the best in the 20th century. He came from the workers of whisky with water, a bottle of wine, and cognac with and had had relations with the socialists at the a cup of coffee." beginning of his political career. He picked up a We sat on the balcony in the shade of a striped smattering of knowledge, learned to use the umbrella. The large, noisy east coast city of Catania phraseology, and knew what to talk about and what to was below us. The similarity with Naples, united with offer the people. Sicily for many years, was apparent: the many colors "Cesare Mori organized the dictator's security of laundry on sticks overhanging the street, the during the visit to Sicily. After II Duce's triumph in unbelievable noise, and the monotonous color of the Palermo, he was named prefect of the Sicilian capital. houses - gray. People in the sunny countries tend to During the ceremonial banquet, Mussolini turned to somber colors, although it would be pretty and Mori: "I would like to hear some Albanian tunes.' Not cheerful if the walls were white, yellow, green .... far from Palermo was the Piana dei Grei commune. "And where would the money come from," asked There lived Albanians who had fled from the Turks. my companion when I mentioned this. "The landlord Their songs and dances were striking and strange, and has no wish to spend lire on the outside of the house. we Sicilians are a strange breed. We mingled with the It's enough that the apartment brings in the money. Greeks and the Arabs, and we love everything The apartment, not its facade. And the city? It's strange. Since II Duce's wish was expressed suddenly, poor." Mori of course could not organize security on the spot, My companion was a professor of history. He was and it was necessary without delay. Mussolini was as already old, retired on pension. He had moved back impatient as a woman. Mori went to Piana and called from Rome to his homeland, under the Sicilian sun. the mayor, Don Cuccio. 'You answer for order and "Fascism and the Mafia," he repeated and reached security.' Don Cuccio was the head of the Mafia in for a cigarette. "That is highly interesting, you know. Piana. This was known to the initiated, and of course Even more interesting than the problem of the real to the police ace Cesare Mori. 'I wish to greet the translation of the word 'mafia.' Some say that mafia commune residents, true sons of the new Italy,' said II is 'death to the French,' 'morte ai francesi,' and place Duce. Mori pushed Don Cuccio up to Mussolini's car: its establishment in the 13th century, the time of the 'Sit next to him.' Don Cuccio blinked at the Sicilian Vespers, when the people defeated Charles of photographers, laid his hand on the dictator's Anjou's occupiers. Others think that mafia was born in shoulder, and said, 'Duce, as long as I am beside you, the middle of the last century and applied to the not a single hair will fall from your head - "leader of followers of Mazzini who used the slogan: 'Mazzini the people" and my friend. Italy is yours, Piana is Authorizza Furti, Incendi, A velenamenti.' The first mine.' letters spell 'MAFIA'. What does it mean? 'Mazzini "A few weeks later, Don Cuccio arrived in Rome. he authorizes kidnappings, arson, and poisoning.' An wanted a reward from II Duce for the tour of Piana. engaging interpretation of Mazzini, no? The dictator's office, however, refused him a meeting "Let us put aside the question of where the Mafia with Mussolini.