In an interview published on Saturday, former Italian Prime Minister Giuliano Amato has alleged that a French missile accidentally shot down a passenger jet over the Mediterranean Sea in 1980 in a failed attempt to assassinate then-Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
Italian Prime minister Giuliano Amato-Image Source: Toronto Sun
Amato, who was prime minister from 1992 to 1996, said he is convinced that France struck the plane while targeting a Libyan military aircraft. While he acknowledged that he does not have any concrete evidence, Amato also confirmed that Italy had warned Gaddafi, so the Libyan leader, who was returning to Tripoli from a meeting in Yugoslavia, did not board the Libyan military aircraft.
The cause of the crash is one of the most enduring mysteries in modern Italy. Some have said that a bomb exploded on board the Itavia flight while it was en route from Bologna to Sicily, while others have said that an examination of the wreckage, which was recovered from the bottom of the sea after years, suggests it was struck by a missile.
Radar signals point to a flurry of aircraft activity in that part of the sky when the plane went down.
In the interview, Amato is quoted as saying, “The most credible version is the responsibility of the French Air Force in collusion with the Americans who were involved in a war in the sky on the evening of June 27.”
Amato also said that NATO was planning “a simulation of a maneuver, with the participation of many aircraft, during which the launch of a missile” was supposed to take place against Gaddafi’s plane as a target.
In the aftermath of the crash, French, American, and NATO officials all denied any military activity in the sky that night.
According to Amato, he alleges that a missile was fired from a French fighter jet that took off from an aircraft carrier, perhaps off the southern coast of Corsica.
Macron, 45, was a young child when the Italian passenger jet crashed into the sea near the small Italian island of Ustica.
Amato told La Repubblica, “I ask myself why a young president like Macron, even though he has nothing to do with the Ustica tragedy, does not want to remove the shame that weighs on France and can delete it in only two ways – either by proving that this thesis is unfounded or as soon as its foundation is verified (the thesis), with the deepest apologies to Italy and to the families of the victims on behalf of his government?”
Silence:
Amato, 85, said that in 2000, when he was prime minister, he sent a letter to then-US and French presidents Bill Clinton and Jacques Chirac, respectively, to pressure them to shed light on what happened. But Amato said that those appeals ultimately resulted in “total silence.”
When the Associated Press contacted Macron’s office on Saturday, it said it would not comment on Amato’s statements.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has called on Amato to clarify whether he has any concrete evidence to support his claims so that her government can pursue any further investigation.
In a statement from her office, Meloni said Amato’s words “deserve attention,” noting that the former prime minister has specified that his claims are “the fruit of personal conclusions.”
Allegations of French involvement are not new. In a 2008 television interview, former Italian President Francesco Cossiga, who was prime minister when the crash occurred, blamed the incident on a French missile that was targeting a Libyan military aircraft, saying he knew that the Italian military intelligence branch had warned Gaddafi.
Gaddafi was killed during the Libyan civil war in 2011.
