US embassy cable - 05ROME1633

S E C R E T  ROME 001633 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
DEPT. FOR PM, EUR/RPM AND EUR/WE 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/09/2014 
TAGS: PREL, MOPS, MARR, IT, NATO 
SUBJECT: GDPR: ITALIAN BASING FOR SOF IN ITALIAN PRESS - 
DEFMIN SUPPORTS, PRESS SUGGESTS IT WOULD MAKE ITALY A 
TARGET 
 
REF: ROME 36 
 
Classified By: DCM Emil Skodon. Reasons 1.4 b and d. 
 
1. (S) Summary. In early May, Italian papers picked up the 
March Stars and Stripes story citing SACEUR General Jones' 
comment that US European Special Forces (SOF) would be 
consolidated in Sigonella, Italy or in Rota, Spain.  The 
press coverage led opposition Parliamentarians to demand an 
explanation of the story from the GOI.  DefMin Martino 
responded with a May 5 press release describing the possible 
consolidation in Sigonella as a "good idea" that would bring 
jobs to Sicily.  The front page of the May 6 Palermo edition 
of La Repubblica predicted that with SOF there, Sigonella 
would be used for "adventures decided outside the UN and NATO 
by a (US) government that has made preventative war into a 
dangerous emblem," and that Sicily would become a prime 
target for terrorist attacks.  This press play takes place 
against a backdrop of PM Berlusconi smarting from a poor 
showing in April's regional elections (and having been forced 
to resign and reconstitute his government), Italian headlines 
covering the Calipari friendly-fire shooting every day for 
the last two months, and national elections looming in spring 
2006.  The environment for making progress on sensitive 
pol-mil issues like SOF consolidation is becoming more 
challenging, and will get more so as national elections 
approach, with the opposition using visible changes in GOI 
cooperation with the US military as a campaign tool against 
Berlusconi.  We will report on this broader dynamic septel. 
End Summary. 
 
2. (S) SOF consolidation in Sicily:  Italy has been waiting 
for resumption of discussions on the possibility of 
stationing SOF in Sigonella, all mention of which before 
March had been classified Secret.  The matter was last 
officially addressed in December at the US-Italy working 
group meeting (Reftel) and in January when a SOCEUR Rep 
passed IDGS questions about SOF training requirements (IDGS 
said they would have answers for us by end February, but have 
not gotten back to us).  As DefMin Martino told A/S 
Bloomfield in October 2004, consolidating US SOF at Sigonella 
was not insoluble but needed to be worked carefully.  Italy, 
Martino stressed at the time, did not want there to be much 
visibility around the issue.  There has been sensitivity in 
the GOI that public discussion of SOF moving to Sigonella 
would rapidly be exploited by the Italian opposition for 
electoral gain.  Some Italian officials expressed to us their 
discomfort with the March Stars and Stripes article in which 
SACEUR Gen. Jones named Sigonella, Italy as among the 
candidates to host consolidated US SOF in Europe.  Our 
Italian contacts were unhappily surprised that we went public 
on this without first consulting Italy, and were concerned 
about taking lumps in Italian press and public opinion 
without having laid any groundwork for such an announcement. 
They were relieved that no Italian press picked up the story 
until the first week of May. 
 
3. (S) MFA NATO Office Director Giovanni Brauzzi told us 
after the Stars and Stripes article was published that before 
more public statements, and indeed before putting the issue 
to Italian politicians for decision, we needed to use the 
working group to build a solid basis for understanding, and 
that we were still quite far from the decision-making stage. 
He stressed that the Italian side needed to see the promised 
US paper on legal issues and freedom of action requirements 
(Reftel) at least one week prior to the next meeting of the 
working group - which Brauzzi had hoped would be in January 
or February and most recently asked us  about in late April. 
 
4. (U) When the Italian press picked up the story from a 
Spanish daily the first days of May, Italian Senator and 
Palermo city councilman Constantino Garraffa (of the 
opposition Democratic Left Party) and other opposition 
parliamentarians demanded an explanation from the government. 
 DefMin Martino responded on May 5 with a press release that 
described the possibility of SOF consolidation at Sigonella 
as "a good idea" that would bring more jobs to Sicily.  A 
breathless editorial then appeared on May 6 on the front page 
of the Palermo edition of La Repubblica predicting that the 
base would be used for "adventures decided outside the UN and 
NATO by a (US) government that has made preventative war into 
a dangerous emblem."  The editorial complained that SOF 
 
consolidation would make Sicily a prime target for terrorist 
attacks and compared it to the controversial installation of 
medium-range nuclear missiles in Comiso, Sicily during the 
1980s. 
 
5. (S) COMMENT: These press stories come at a time when 
Berlusconi is already in national election campaign mode, 
weakened by his poor showing in April's regional elections to 
the point that he had to resign and reconstitute his 
government, and is under intense scrutiny in the aftermath of 
the March 4 friendly-fire incident in which Italian 
intelligence officer Nicola Calipari was killed by US forces 
in Iraq.  The opposition will try to use any visible new 
cooperation with the US military as a campaign tool to 
demonstrate that Berlusconi lets the US push Italy around and 
lets the Americans do whatever they want to in Italy and 
elsewhere.  We expect our challenges on SOF  and other 
pol-mil issues to continue to grow as the national elections, 
scheduled for spring 2006, approach.  As the MFA's Brauzzi 
told us this week, "it's only going to get more difficult 
from here on out." 
 
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 2005ROME01633 - Classification: SECRET