NCJ Number
102991
Date Published
1985
Length
41 pages
Annotation
This report to the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Security and Terrorism updates the operations of various terrorist groups in Italy for 1983-1985.
Abstract
The study rev1ews the 1983-85 activities of the Red Brigades, Front Line, Organized Comrades for Proletarian Liberation, and separatist groups. Trends examined are the internationalization of Italian terrorism and transnational terrorism in Italy. There has been a steady decline in the aggregate number of annual terrorist attacks and the overall quality of terrorist operations in Italy during 1983-85. Dissidence within and among terrorist groups has kept them from operating as a force capable of uprooting or paralyzing Italy's democratic institutions. Systematic law enforcement operations, timely intelligence collection, and terrorists' confessions have prevented terrorist groups from overcoming significant setbacks in 1982. Government statistics indicate there are 295 leftist terrorists at large and 68 rightist terrorists. There is a trend toward terrorists' combining political objectives with common crimes, and there is evidence of terrorist efforts to infiltrate ideological groups such as the pacifist movement. There is an internationalization of leftist terrorist operations, and transnational terrorist operations with anti-Western designs are also operating in Italy. 69 footnotes.