Mossad’s secret role in Aldo Moro’s 1978 murder exposed
4 Min Read
Journalist Eric Salerno tells The Grayzone about decades of covert Mossad operations in Italy, revealing deep ties between Israeli intelligence and political violence during the Cold War.
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Aldo Moro's car after an attack had ended in his kidnapping, and the slaying of five bodyguards (AP)
A veteran investigative journalist has revealed the involvement of "Israel’s" Mossad spy agency in the 1978 abduction and murder of Italy’s Prime Minister Aldo Moro, described as pro-Palestinian, by the far-left Red Brigades.
Speaking to the independent news website The Grayzone, Eric Salerno cited Red Brigades member Alberto Franceschini, who said the Mossad had been “in contact from the very beginning” with the terror group.
Franceschini described such interactions as “very normal in the way the Mossad acted with all kinds of, let’s call them subversive organizations, all over Europe.” He also stressed that "Israel" had “offered weapons and assistance” to the Red Brigades in their efforts to "destabilize Italy".
Wider context
On March 16, 1978, Moro was kidnapped in Rome, leaving all but one of his bodyguards dead. He was killed after nearly two months in captivity, during which the government refused to negotiate with his captors.
Salerno also referenced sources blaming Mossad for Moro’s killing. In 1998, Giuseppe De Gori, a lawyer representing Moro’s Christian Democrat Party, asserted that Mossad “had always controlled” the Red Brigades without formally infiltrating the group. He suggested the decision to kill Moro stemmed from indirect Israeli meddling.
"Israel" “hated” the “anti-Zionist” Moro and used its ability to “smuggle” information to the Red Brigades to influence their actions, De Gori added. A Mossad colonel had offered the group “weapons and whatever they wanted as long as they pursued a different policy.”
In 2002, De Gori told author Philip Willan that Mossad effectively ensured Moro’s execution by fabricating a letter from the Red Brigades claiming the statesman was already dead. “After that… Moro could no longer be saved,” he said.
Dive deeper
Giovanni Galloni, former vice president of Italy’s High Council of the Judiciary, later said that Moro’s killers were hired by Washington and/or Tel Aviv. He noted that Moro had confided months before his abduction that he feared US and Israeli secret services had infiltrated the Red Brigades and that not all abductors were actual members of the group, citing their professional shooting skills.
Former magistrate Luigi Carli added in 2017 that the Red Brigades had been “co-financed” by Mossad, with collaborators stating that any actions “weakening, or helping to weaken, Italy’s internal situation” would “enhance Israel’s prestige and authority” in the Mediterranean.
In his 2010 book "Mossad Base Italy," Salerno argued that the Italian-Israeli alliance predates the "creation of Israel" in May 1948. He noted that every Italian administration since World War II had secretly assisted Mossad, while Tel Aviv entrusted Italian intelligence with “extremely classified missions.”
“Israeli espionage agents confirm that Italy’s intelligence services are among the friendliest in the world toward their Israeli counterparts,” wrote Haaretz correspondent Yossi Melman in a review of the book.
'An extension of the old fascist regime'
Salerno also criticized Italy’s current government, calling it “a continuation, even an extension, of the old fascist regime.” He said mainstream Italian politics now shows little pro-Arab sentiment, and the US and "Israel" no longer need to destabilize the country.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, he said, has little sympathy for Palestinians and little intention of recognizing a Palestinian state, even after revelations in November 2024 that Mossad had used a private Italian intelligence firm to target her and cabinet ministers. “I think that basically, the government that we have here in Italy at the moment is a government that would like to criticize many things that are happening,” he said, “but it can’t criticize Israel too much.”
Salerno also commented on recent pro-Palestine demonstrations in Italy, which left around 10 people injured when police used water cannon and tear gas. “What is happening today in Palestine in Gaza is something exceptional,” he said. However, he added, “nothing has been taught or spoken about” in Italy regarding the plight of Palestinians over the years.
