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Formed in 1970, the Brigate Rosse (Red Brigades) sought to create a revolutionary state through armed struggle and to separate Italy from the Western Alliance (NATO). The Red Brigades’ main aim was the overthrow of the Italian government, the weakening of NATO and the creation of a Marxist state. On 16 March 1978, the former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro was kidnapped in a violent ambush, which left five men dead at the scene. Two days later, his kidnappers revealed themselves as the Red Brigades, a notorious terrorist group which had bombed and shot its way across Italy since the early 1970s. Eight weeks later, Moro’s dead body was dumped in downtown Rome. In December 1981, the Red Brigades kidnapped another high profile victim: a senior NATO staff officer, US Brigadier-General James Dozier. He was freed 42 days later in a daring raid by Italian commandos.
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00:00March the 16th 1978 Rome former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro is being driven
00:11through the busy Russia traffic to Parliament suddenly a car ahead slams on its brakes and
00:18comes to an abrupt halt a man and a woman jump out and start spraying Moro's car with
00:23machine gun bullets Moro is then dragged out and thrown into the back of another car which
00:29now races off but who was seized him and why
00:59March the 16th 1978 Rome Aldo Moro the former Prime Minister of Italy has just been kidnapped in a
01:19violent ambush four men his driver personal bodyguard and two security agents are left dead
01:26at the scene riddled with machine gun bullets a third agent will die later within an hour 3,000
01:36police are out on the streets looking for Moro roadblocks are set up all over the city and every
01:43exit point is watched closely helicopters hover overhead their cameras scouring the ground for
01:50any unusual activity over the next 24 hours police search literally every inch of Rome but there's no
02:01trace of the missing politician then on March the 18th the newspaper receives a call it's from the red
02:11brigades one of Europe's most notorious and violent terrorist organizations the brigades say they're
02:19holding moral and that he will be put on trial for his life in a people's court unless the Italian
02:25government suspends a trial of a number of terrorists which had started a short time earlier in Turin
02:30among them is the red brigades founder Renato could you Moro's kidnappers now release a picture of him
02:41with the red brigades flag in the background although the authorities are relieved that Moro is still alive
02:48they refuse to give way to the terrorists demands instead they redouble their efforts to find him
02:56extending the search well beyond Rome concentrating in particular on ports airports and border crossings
03:05they know that Moro's life is in the balance he's in the hands of a ruthless group of terrorists who are
03:11already responsible for a great many deaths throughout it the red brigades was founded in November 1970 by
03:21Renato Curcio a committed Marxist and revolutionary he's dedicated to the violent overthrow of the
03:30Italian government and the establishment of a Marxist state the red brigades also wanted Italy to sever all ties
03:41with the Western European Defense Union the North Atlantic Treaty Organization or NATO as it's more commonly known
03:51the red brigades began its war terror by attacking large companies such as Pirelli and Fiat breaking into their factories and
03:59sabotaging machinery and office equipment this is swiftly followed by kidnapping planting bombs maiming people by
04:09shooting them in the legs and finally murder by 1974 the red brigades is operating throughout Italy although concentrating its main
04:20activities in large urban areas such as Milan Genoa Turin Rome Venice and the ancient university town of Bologna
04:29as the violence escalates the Italian public become more and more concerned about the apparent inability of the police and the
04:36security services to bring the perpetrators to justice but in September 1974 there's a breakthrough when an informer at the heart of the red brigades gives away
04:47Cocio's whereabouts and he's arrested
04:49Cocio's whereabouts and he's arrested
04:54five months later however following a daring red brigades commando raid on his surprisingly lightly guarded prison
05:00led by his wife Margarita Cagall Cocio is out again
05:07but his freedom doesn't last long and in January 1976 he's once more in captivity
05:13this time the authorities are determined that Cocio will not escape
05:20so now while preparations for one of the most important trials in Italian criminal history go ahead
05:28he's incarcerated on the remote island of Asenara a few miles northwest of Sardinia
05:33the trial is scheduled to begin in Turin in May 1976 when Cocio and a number of his associates will face
05:40charges of armed insurrection
05:43the red brigades now start bringing pressure to bear on prospective members of the jury
05:47one after another the terrified men and women cry off
05:51producing medical certificates excusing them from serving
05:55others involved in the case including police, lawyers, witnesses and judges
05:59are also threatened and in several instances physically attacked
06:11faced with such problems the authorities have no alternative but to postpone the trial
06:18it will not be until early 1978 that it finally gets underway
06:23the red brigades now threaten to strike hard at the Italian state
06:30and a short time after Cocio's trial starts
06:34it commits an act of terrorism that stuns the world
06:39March the 16th 1978 Rome
06:45Aldo Moro a former prime minister and tipped to become Italy's next president
06:54is snatched from his car in a violent ambush which leaves five men dead
07:00two days later the red brigades admits responsibility
07:05saying Moro will face a people's court unless Cocio's trial is suspended in Turin
07:10but the government led by President Giulio Andriotti refused to listen
07:16and instead launches a massive search for the kidnappers and their victim
07:22during the third week in April
07:26Pope Paul the sixth a personal friend of Moro
07:29takes the unprecedented step of writing an open and widely publicized letter to the terrorists
07:35he pleads for the politicians safe return saying
07:38I beg you on my knees to free Mr. Moro
07:42simply without condition
07:46but his appeal falls on deaf ears
07:48the red brigades refuse to respond
07:52then the authorities receive an anonymous phone call claiming Moro had committed suicide
07:56and they would find his body in a remote part of the Abruzzo mountains northeast of Rome
08:00a search of the area immediately gets underway but it turns up nothing
08:07but now as police continue to concentrate on Rome
08:13there's an apparent breakthrough
08:15following a tip-off they raid an apartment just four miles from where Moro was seized
08:19there's no one there
08:22however in making an obviously hasty departure
08:27the occupants have left behind masks wire cutters and stolen police radios
08:32but there's no clue as to their present whereabouts
08:35meanwhile despite the immense pressure they're under
08:41the judges continue with Curcio's trial in Turin
08:44they refuse to bow to terrorists
08:47in response the red brigades issue a chilling new communique on April the 24th
08:54they demand the immediate release of Curcio and his fellow defendants
08:58otherwise Moro will be executed
09:0011 days of silence follows
09:06then on May the 5th there's another communique from the red brigades
09:12it's the news everyone's been dreading for weeks
09:19the red brigades state that they have concluded the battle begun on March the 16th
09:25by carrying out the sentence to which elder Moro has been condemned
09:29then on May the 9th 54 days after he was kidnapped
09:34Moro's crumpled body is found in the back of a small car parked near his party's headquarters
09:39he'd been shot in the chest with a burst of machine gun fire
09:46now as Italy reels in shock
09:51there are mass protests throughout the country
09:54and a hundred thousand people pouring to St. John Lateran Square, Rome
09:58chanting Moro lives
10:00as they listen to passionate speeches from trade union leaders calling for a united front against terrorism
10:06the crowd brandishes anti red brigades banners with the word murderers on them
10:12as well as black boarded pictures of Moro
10:17the Pope expresses his grief and outrage at the murder describing it as a stain of blood that dishonors our country
10:24meanwhile the terrorist trial continues in Turin
10:31it comes to an end on June the 25th
10:33when Cochillo and his co-defendants are found guilty
10:36and given prison terms of up to 15 years
10:39but now even with the founder and leader locked away in a high security prison
10:45the red brigades doesn't let up on the violence killing 16 people and maiming another 25 in 1978 alone
10:57their reign of terror is supported with arms and explosives from similar organizations elsewhere
11:02such as the PLO
11:04which also provided training facilities in remote camps in North Africa and Syria
11:08August the 2nd 1980 Bologna mid-morning
11:15a massive bomb rips through the city's main railway station
11:20killing around 85 people and injuring more than 200
11:24it's one of the deadliest terrorist outrages in Italian history
11:29and becomes known throughout the country as a strategy Bologna or Bologna massacre
11:35most of the victims are Italians but a number of foreign tourists are also caught up in the blast
11:43troops are rushed in to cordon off the area as more than a thousand rescue workers
11:50pick through the rubble searching for survivors
11:53three hours later a Rome newspaper receives a call
11:59stating that the bomb had been planted by a neo-fascist group
12:02at the same time however the red brigades also claim responsibility
12:08and the government is more inclined to blame the red brigades
12:14which has a long record of violence than the neo-fascists
12:18however it would transpire later that the neo-fascists were behind the outrage
12:24but this doesn't stop the police and the security services cracking down harder than ever on the red brigades
12:31arresting a great many known members and forcing others to free abroad
12:35and there's no let-up in the relentless hunt for Aldo Moro's killers
12:41in August 1981 there's an important breakthrough when police arrest Mario Moretti
12:51Cocio's successor as leader of the red brigades
12:54Moretti is soon identified as the mastermind behind Moro's kidnap and murder
12:58but despite the intense police activity
13:03the red brigades are about to pull off one of their most daring crimes today
13:09December the 17th 1981 Verona early evening
13:15four red brigades terrorists disguised as plumbers
13:19force their way into a sixth-floor apartment
13:21and kidnap U.S. Brigadier General James L. Dozier
13:26the senior NATO staff officer
13:28he's the first non-italian to be taken by the red brigades
13:35as the news breaks
13:36more than 1200 police set up roadblocks around Verona
13:40while hundreds of others search the neighboring cities of Padua, Bolzano and Mestri
13:45US President Ronald Reagan is outraged
13:52and in the time-honored American Armed Services tradition
13:55of never abandoning one of their own
13:57he's determined to rescue the kidnapped general
14:00it's a most frustrating situation
14:02because I would like to be able to stand sometime
14:04I'm sure we all would and say to the people that do these things
14:07they are cowardly bums
14:10they aren't heroes or they don't have a cause that justifies what they're doing
14:14they're cowards
14:16they wouldn't have the guts to stand up
14:18to anyone individually in any kind of a fair contest
14:23however, because the U.S. cannot be seen to be intervening in what many regard as an internal Italian security matter
14:32everything has to be done in the utmost secrecy
14:35even though Italy is a member of NATO
14:38many of its citizens are left-wing sympathizers
14:41and would bitterly resent any overt U.S. action on their soil
14:46but this doesn't stop the Americans
14:50they immediately dispatch a team of anti-terrorism and communication experts
14:55in a high-tech surveillance plane to a U.S. airbase in Italy
14:59they will now play a vital, if unsung, role behind the scenes
15:05by the end of the first week
15:09despite mounting the biggest manhunt since the search for Aldo Moro three years earlier
15:13there's no sign of the missing general
15:17but everyone knows he's in the hands of the Red Brigades
15:23an anonymous phone call led police to a refuse bin in Rome
15:29there they find a note from the Red Brigades
15:32in admitting that they hold Dozier
15:36the Red Brigades make no ransom demands
15:39instead the note states that Dozier
15:41who is described as the Yankee pig of the American occupying forces
15:45has been captured and is being held in a people's prison
15:48as both the U.S. and Italian authorities refuse to negotiate
15:56NATO headquarters in Brussels responds by saying
15:59that the Red Brigades has made a serious mistake in seizing Dozier
16:03they point out that as a logistics and support expert
16:07Dozier was not privy to any top-secret defense plans
16:11the authorities are determined that the kidnapping will not end
16:17in the same tragic way as that of Moro
16:20now General Dozier's wife Judith
16:24supported by their daughter Chero
16:26makes an emotional appeal for his release
16:28we hope that you will return him safe and sound
16:36and sound
16:39honey
16:40honey
16:41if you
16:43if you see this
16:45please know
16:47that we are safe
16:49we love you
16:51please
16:52please
16:53come
16:54home
17:02Verona police chief Pasquale Zapponi
17:04said he believed eight or nine people
17:07all Italian
17:08took part in the kidnap
17:09and that they had no link with terrorist organizations elsewhere
17:17the police hope that publishing a photo fit image of the man who'd rented the kidnappers getaway car
17:22will lead to someone identifying him
17:27meanwhile
17:28Italian government officials are in constant contact with the U.S. Embassy in Rome
17:33as well as with officials in Washington
17:35but there's still no news of General Dozier
17:40as a search on the ground intensifies
17:47the U.S. surveillance plane is criss-crossing the skies over Italy
17:51watching and listening out for any unusual radio or telephone activity
17:55by now the Italian police are busy interrogating a young Red Brigade's member
18:01Ruggiero Volina
18:02whom they'd arrested in Verona
18:04and in an extraordinary breakthrough
18:08as he tries to cut a deal
18:09he gives them the address of an apartment block in Padua
18:12saying it's where Dozier is being held
18:14the U.S. communications experts who are liaising covertly with the Italians
18:21had already earmarked the block as worth a further look
18:25on an earlier flight over Padua
18:29their state-of-the-art eavesdropping equipment had detected an upsurge in telephone activity in one of the apartments
18:35then when anti-terrorism experts checked the electricity consumption records for the same apartment
18:45they found it had jumped considerably since the day of the kidnap
18:50a team of Italian commanders are on their way to Padua from their base in Sardinia
18:58highly skilled and trained in anti-terrorist warfare
19:04the commanders are part of the Nucleo Operativo Centrale di Sicurezza
19:08better known as NOX
19:11they go into surveillance mode as soon as they arrive
19:18January the 28th, 1982, Padua
19:23after watching the block for three days
19:25the Italian commandos have pinpointed the second floor apartment
19:28where Dozier is being held
19:30now dressed in flak jackets and ski masks
19:35they're stealthily making their way up the stairs
19:38they know they're dealing with five terrorists
19:42when they reach the door of the apartment
19:46two commandos attach an explosive device to the handle
19:49then stepping back they set it off
19:53the door is blown in
19:57and thick smoke fills the air as the commanders burst into the apartment
20:03they're confronted with four dazed terrorists
20:06one of whom is a woman
20:07the commandos immediately knock them to the ground
20:10but there's one left
20:12and he's standing in the entrance to a tent
20:14in a back room
20:15leveling a pistol at Dozier's head
20:17however before he can get off a shot
20:20three commandos pile in and overpower him
20:23Dozier is then brought out to safety
20:29he'd been held prisoner for 42 days
20:32a search of the apartment reveals a cache of hand grenades
20:37machine pistols and plastic explosive
20:40as well as detailed files on various prominent Italian citizens
20:44they are all obviously potential kidnap targets
20:53as Dozier is reunited with his family
20:56the US president Ronald Reagan salutes his courage
20:59saying that his rescue was the happy ending for which millions of Americans had been praying
21:03I was
21:05I was
21:06I was overjoyed
21:08and
21:09one of the finest things that
21:11that
21:12I felt at the time
21:13was the
21:14I grabbed a hold of a policeman
21:16and he had his flak jacket on
21:18and
21:19and
21:20that felt pretty good
21:22when the captured terrorists are interrogated
21:27it transpires that two of them
21:29are linked to the Moro kidnapping
21:31in order to try and break up the terrorist gangs
21:35the Italian authorities had recently introduced a form of plea bargaining
21:39this is now used to full effect
21:42as the captured Red Brigade's members now implicate dozens of their fellow terrorists
21:47leading to more than 140 arrests
21:49in March 1982
21:54Dozier's kidnappers appear in court
21:56they will eventually receive prison terms ranging from 2 to 27 years
22:04the following month sees the opening of the trial for which the whole of Italy has been waiting
22:0963 Red Brigade's members appear in court in Rome
22:13they're accused of a great many crimes
22:15including at least 17 murders
22:18one of which was that of Aldo Moro
22:21amid scenes of total chaos
22:24and watched by Moro's son and daughter
22:26the terrorists penned in cages
22:28scream defiance at the judges
22:30and sing noisy protest songs
22:33the trial lasts for 2 years
22:35and ends with 55 of the terrorists being sentenced to a total of 500 years in prison
22:40with so many of the members of the organization now behind bars
22:46the authorities are convinced that the Red Brigade's is a spent force
22:52and their confidence seems to be confirmed when in April 1984
22:56four leading Red Brigade's members issue a communique from prison
23:02the communique states that because the international conditions that made the struggle possible no longer exist
23:08any further armed combat is futile
23:11however not all Red Brigade's members still at liberty agree
23:19angered by the tone of the communique from prison
23:23they now form two splinter groups under the umbrella title of the new Red Brigade's
23:29they vow to carry on the campaign of violence against the state
23:33in May 1999 they shoot dead Massimo D'Antona
23:38a senior advisor to the Italian government
23:41three years later in March 2002
23:44one of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's most trusted advisors
23:49Professor Marco Biaggi is killed with the same gun
23:55in May 2003 in what seems a long overdue gesture
23:59the Red Brigade's is added to a European Union list of suspected terrorist organizations
24:05this enables member states to freeze Red Brigade's bank accounts
24:09and share intelligence on the organization's activity
24:17seven months later, following the earlier arrest of nine Red Brigade's members
24:22police seize a huge cache of weapons, explosives and documents
24:26from the basement of an apartment block in an East Rome suburb
24:35with this the Italian police feel confident that they're on the brink of closing down the Red Brigade's altogether
24:44at its height, during the late 1970s and early 1980s
24:47the Red Brigade's became one of the deadliest terrorist groups the world has ever known
24:52as they shot and bombed their way across Italy
24:57this period is remembered as the years of lead
24:59because of the enormous number of bullets expended by the Red Brigade's
25:03and the forces ranged against them
25:08but like other similar organizations before and since
25:11the Red Brigade's relentless campaign of violence
25:14eventually turned public opinion against them
25:19they were never regarded as heroes
25:21and they never stood a chance of overthrowing the Italian state
25:24no matter how many people they killed, kidnapped or maimed
25:29and this is the biggest issue of being a one-year-old
25:35the American people in the South
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