Berlusconi 'to be charged'

[cal04]

ITALIAN prosecutors are set to lay corruption charges against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and the lawyer husband of a British Cabinet minister, the Italian press reported today. Several newspapers said the Milan prosecutor's office had yesterday rejected requests by lawyers for the two men for more information on the probe.

If accepted, the requests would have delayed any charges. They relate to an alleged bribe to David Mills, the British lawyer, in return for him providing favourable testimony at corruption trials involving Berlusconi. "They didn't accept anything, which means they want to bring it to court at all costs," the daily Corriere della Sera quoted Niccolo Ghedini, a laywer for Mr Berlusconi, as saying.

Newspapers including Corriere, La Repubblica and La Stampa said the charges could be laid "within days, perhaps even today." Prosecutors concluded their investigation on February 16 and in theory have 20 days in which to send the case to a tribunal. According to the dailies, prosecutors believe they have enough evidence to show that in 1997 a payment of $US600,000 from a Berlusconi company to a Mills bank account was in return for the latter testifying on behalf of the Italian tycoon.

Both Mr Berlusconi and Mr Mills deny the allegations, but the case has caused a political scandal in Britain because Mr Mills is the husband of Tessa Jowell, who sits in Cabinet as culture secretary and is a key ally of Prime Minister Tony Blair. The funds, which Mr Mills says came from a shipowner, were used to pay off a mortgage on a house that Mr Mills and Ms Jowell shared in north London after passing through a number of bank accounts. Ms Jowell and Mr Mills announced their separation last weekend. A judge would then decide whether to endorse sending the case to court.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,18419320%255E1702,00.html


http://www.sundaytimes.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,7034,18419320%255E1702,00.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Your link didn't work. Maybe this one will, from your source:

The Times March 10, 2006


Judge is ready to charge Mills and Berlusconi
From Richard Owen in Rome

The Culture Secretary's estranged husband faces indictments on bribery and perjury charges


DAVID MILLS, Tessa Jowell’s estranged husband, and Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, face indictments on bribery and perjury charges after prosecutors in Milan brushed aside attempts by defence lawyers to delay legal proceedings yesterday.

The prosecutors are expected today to ask Fabio Paparella, the judge who will preside over a preliminary hearing, to lay charges. He will then issue indictments and set a trial date. Court sources said that Signor Berlusconi and Mr Mills could be charged next week, after the judge had studied the 15,000-page prosecution dossier.

The refusal to grant a delay means that Signor Berlusconi faces the embarrassment of corruption charges on the eve of the Italian election on April 9-10. This week the Italian leader again accused “left-wing” magistrates of “inventing stories during an election period”.

Defence lawyers for Mr Mills and Signor Berlusconi had asked the Milan prosecutors to postpone the trial for two months to allow time for further inquiries into Mr Mills’s claim that a $600,000 (£345,000) “gift” at the heart of the case came not from Signor Berlusconi but from Diego Attanasio, a Neapolitan shipowner.
(snip/...)

http://www.sundaytimes.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,7034,18419320%255E1702,00.html

[cal04]

2. Thanks Judi Lynn. I hope you don't mind

that I put your link in the post.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Not at all. Thanks for the article on Berlusconi. n/t

[0007]

4. How come all of junior's friends are crooks and facing prison terms?

Perhaps Berlusconi worked with Negroponte to murder the Italian journalist?

[malaise]

5. Had the same thought

the planet is run by criminals.

[Binka]

11. They Didn't Murder The Journalist They Murdered Nicola Calipari

Here ia an interview with his wife and some great information (I think Calipari was the intended target all along but that is for another thread.)

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=BOH20050925&articleId=1003

[0007]

14. My error. Sorry, I knew better.

It was attempted murder

[Binka]

15. I Think They Murdered Who They Wanted To Murder..... Calipari

Segrena was a red herring. They wanted to assassinate Calipari and they did.

[0007]

17. She just got wounded. It was her body guard that was killed.

[Binka]

22. He Was No Body Guard

He was a high ranking Italian SIMSI (CIA) official. They killed him, he was their target.

[0007]

23. I don't think so!

[Binka]

24. I usually agree with you but not today Calipari was the target

I live here in Italy and the consensus is Calipari was murdered. Read what his wife says.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=BOH20050925&articleId=1003

[WhiteTara]

25. that he was the target or that he was

a high ranking intelligence officer (which he was) :shrug:

[0007]

28. I don't think he was the target, I believe Clipari was.

She was the one that was doing the damage to this administration by writing the truth about the Iraq war. Also the Americans didn't Italy to paid a ransom to have her released.

[Binka]

35. Calipari Is The SIMSI Fascist & Mafia Hating Good Guy Guiliana Segrena

The journalist. He was a much more powerful figure than Segrena. His wife worked with Berlusconi, his bother is a biological disease specialist who is also a priest at the Vatican, and he himself was an absolute rebel toward the creeping fascism of the US and Italy under Berlusconi. They sent him to Iraq to get Segrena so they could kill HIM!

It was a hit.

[Pachamama]

36. Maybe they were both targets and only one successful assasination?

:shrug:

Maybe there is no point to argue here...maybe you both are right? :shrug:

[Binka]

37. Could Be But Segrena Was An Avowed Communist and "Enemy of The State"

For years. Nicola on the other hand was a big problem for the fascists. He was shot in the back of the head. The US claims the car was sprayed from the front passenger side. He did not die throwing his body on top of hers, he died from a hit to the back of his head and fell on top of her DEAD. Sorry no links now because they need to be translated and I am going out. Ciao!

I do not see this as an argument per se with 0007 but I live here and the story has been covered much more extensively in Italy.

[Pachamama]

38. That's why I think you both are right -I believe both of them were targets

and that Nicola managed to save her life (whether intentional or not) even though both were intended targets.... I think they both were trouble and future trouble for a lot of people and needed to be eliminated.

[wordpix2]

19. because Junior's one of the crime family himself

[rooboy]

6. "some say" if Tessa Jowell has to resign Blair is finished, too. n/t

[leveymg]

7. Al Capone continued to run the Mob from jail. So will this bunch.

But, it beats letting them run around loose.

Investigate, Indict, Imprison Bush-Blair-Berlusconi

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. Prosecutors Call for Berlusconi Indictment

Prosecutors in Milan said Friday they have requested that Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi be indicted on charges of corruption.

The premier is accused of ordering a payment of at least $600,000 to British lawyer David Mills in 1997 in exchange for the lawyer's false testimony in two trials against Berlusconi.

Prosecutors are also seeking Mills' indictment.

Both men deny the allegations.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5675940,00.html

[Binka]

12. We Will Be Dancing In The Streets Of Catania If Berlu Goes Down

Malignant narcissistic little fucker. The dude should have stayed a lounge singer.

[NYC]

29. Berlusconi was a lounge singer?

Some excerpts from your Calipari link:

...In spite of the Italian Communist Party's official separation from Moscow and recognition of Italy's participation in NATO, the idea of a multi-party sovereignty for Italy was anathema to the George H.W. Bush's CIA (the senior Bush was head of the CIA in 1976 for one year), to then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and to then Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, General Alexander Haig...

...The decade of false-flag terrorism in Italy in the1970s, clearly documented through various trials and parliamentary investigations, is attributed by most Italians to planned interference by foreign powers (mainly American) in tandem with opportunistic pro-American, home-grown national elements and various parties' that sold out to create a state of civil war and terror whereby the population would consent to a loss of civil rights and welcome the "shadow government" of powerful corporate, right-wing forces, friendly to American interests. Call it a rebirth of fascism...

...Recent events in Basra confirm the average Italian citizen's suspicions. The two Britons, held by Iraqi police, were SAS, British special forces. Dressed as civilians but wearing tribal Arab headgear, they were seen planting bombs in a Basra street and perhaps instantly pursued. Had they succeeded, who do you think would have been blamed?

...the contingent within SISMI dedicated to national sovereignty and the security and safety of Italian citizens is being dubbed the "Caliparist" faction, and it is heavily under attack by forces loyal to Washington...

Please explain more about Calipari. Thanks in advance.

[Catrina]

30. Wow ~ 'false flag terrorism' for a purpose!! just like here! With fascist

admirer, Michael Ledeen in charge of getting out the false info on the reasons to go to war with Iraq.

From your post:

...The decade of false-flag terrorism in Italy in the1970s, clearly documented through various trials and parliamentary investigations, is attributed by most Italians to planned interference by foreign powers (mainly American) in tandem with opportunistic pro-American, home-grown national elements and various parties' that sold out to create a state of civil war and terror whereby the population would consent to a loss of civil rights and welcome the "shadow government" of powerful corporate, right-wing forces, friendly to American interests. Call it a rebirth of fascism...

I remember reading at the time of the killing of the Italian agent that Berlusconi was on the phone with him when the shots were fired at the car ~

When you put all the pieces together together ~ the neocons, (Ledeen, has spent a lot of time Italy, and was at the now infamous meeting that took place when the forged Niger documents surfaced), 9/11, the Patriot Act all ready to go right after 9/11, the argument that Americans needed to be willing to give up rights to 'fight terror' etc. etc. it's hard to believe it took this long for people to open their eyes.

I hope they get Berlusconi, it's interesting the way all these people who were involved in the Iraq war, are being indicted and/or convicted, one by one ~ maybe there is hope after all ~

[Binka]

34. Berlu Was A Singer on Cruise Ships!

About half way down in this article..
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/11/06/wscala06.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/11/06/ixworld.html

As far as Calipari I will write you a PM about what I think happened to him and why. Peace!

[NYC]

39. Thank you very much.

Re the singer on cruise ships, I'll have to ask my friend, a pianist on cruise ships, what he knows. I think that is hilarious.

Thanks in advance for the PM. I'm very curious. I have bookmarked the Calipari article you posted yesterday.

Going to read the UK Telegraph now. :hi:

[Just Me]

9. Good. Now, it's our turn. We have a whole cabal that needs to be,...

,...charged with a whole array of crimes. Let's go. Let's do it. Let's do it NOW!

[wordpix2]

20. that's what I'm thinking, if the Italians can do it, so can WE

[rodeodance]

10. this, we just gotta see!

[Judi Lynn]

13. Berlusconi and Mills face charges

Fri 10 Mar 2006
Berlusconi and Mills face charges

Prosecutors in Milan have requested that Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi and British lawyer David Mills, estranged husband of Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell, be indicted on charges of corruption.

The premier is accused of ordering the payment of at least £345,000 to Mills, in 1997 in exchange for the lawyer's false testimony in two trials against Berlusconi.Both men deny the allegations. Berlusconi's lawyer did not immediately return calls to his mobile phone.

Prosecutor Fabio De Pasquale has said Mills, who is formally separated from his wife Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell, is accused of giving false testimony in two hearings, in 1997 and 1998.

Prosecutors have declined to release details, but according to news reports, Mills is accused of failing to mention a 1995 phone call with Berlusconi in which the two discussed alleged illicit payments from Berlusconi to former Socialist Premier Bettino Craxi. He also is accused of failing to tell a court that two offshore companies involved in buying US film rights were linked to Berlusconi.

The accusations surrounding Mills' testimony stem from a separate case in which Berlusconi, Mill and 12 others are accused of tax fraud and embezzlement over the purchase of US movie rights by Mediaset, Berlusconi's media empire. All the defendants deny wrongdoing
(snip/...)

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=364242006

[Wilms]

16. K&R n/t

[AndyTiedye]

18. 2-For-1 Sale on Scandals Today. Will This Take Down Silvio AND Tony?

[wordpix2]

21. Berlusconi, Norton, Halliburton might take over ports--must be Friday

news dump

[phoebe]

26. Italian Election April 9 - Romano Prodi is up for election

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romano_Prodi

Romano Prodi (born in Reggio Emilia on August 9, 1939) is an Italian politician and a former President of the European Commission. He earned a degree in law from the Catholic University of Milan and later studied at the London School of Economics.(this is a red flag) This began a career in Italy's academia as a professor and researcher in Economics, which included brief visiting appointments at Stanford and Harvard universities in the United States. He was for many years a professor of economics at the University of Bologna (1971 – 1999). He and his family still live in Bologna.

During the mid-1970s, he began to enter Italian politics, and was appointed Minister of Industry in 1978 during Giulio Andreotti's government; he held posts on various commissions through the 1980s and early 1990s. He served as chairman of the powerful state-owned industrial holding company IRI - from 1982 to 1989 and again from 1993 to 1994. However he twice came under investigation for alleged corruption while he was head of IRI. He was accused of conflict of interest first in connection with contracts awarded to his own economic research company, and secondly over the sale of the loss making state owned food conglomerate SME to the multinational Unilever - for which he had for a time been a paid consultant; but, for both accusations, he obtained a full acquittal. In 1995 he became Chairman of the centre-left Ulivo coalition, and in 1996 Prime Minister. His government fell in 1998 when the Communist Refoundation Party withdrew support, allowing the formation of a new government under Massimo D'Alema. This happened by only one vote in the Chamber of Deputies (it is required the support of the majority of the members of both the chambers), however the disappointment was not due to a formal withdrawal of support, rather to a contrary vote on a subject matter declared fundamental for the Government and that would have caused the resignation in case of a negative parliamentary outcome of the voting (questione di fiducia, as opposite to fiducia delle Camere that a Government needs for the initial appointment and that can be withdrawn under a specifically called agenda under a procedure that has never been used in the Italian parliamentary history).

snip

From September 1999 until November 18, 2004, he was the President of the European Commission.

As leader of Italy's coalition The Union, Prodi currently leads the opposition to Silvio Berlusconi's House of Freedoms right-wing government. Prodi will lead the Union in the 2006 general election campaign (due to his success in the Union's primary elections, held on October 16, 2005).

more on Prodi..http://www.time.com/time/europe/magazine/1999/1227/prodi.html

In June, recalcitrant European Parliamentarians suggested that they would elect his team only on probation until the end of the year. Prodi's firm response--grant a full term or look for someone else--forced a parliamentary climb-down. He proved equally resolute in late September when the Commission announced it would no longer allow member states to "flag" key positions at the top of the Commission's bureaucracy. His fellow commissioners now occupy the same buildings as their bureaucrats, and all have pledged to tender their resignations upon Prodi's demand. He has also shouldered aside the common practice of allowing commissioners to people their powerful cabinets with compatriots: Prodi's own private office of nine draws from seven different countries.

On the policy front, too, Prodi's aim seems loftier than Santer's. At the recent European Council meeting of heads of government in Finland, member states signed off on Prodi's promise to have the Union ready by 2002 to accept new members--providing they meet the highly detailed and far-reaching criteria for membership. Turkey is now formally on the list as a candidate, assuaging a slight delivered two years ago when it was spurned. And though the Commission has scant power in the realm of military affairs, it has helped lead the member states toward developing a security capability that could allow the E.U. to ease away from its increasingly uncomfortable dependence on the United States.

In Kosovo, it is still uncertain whether the E.U. can meet the challenge of reconstructing the province, and indeed the entire Balkan region. Major battles with national governments over a European food safety agency have already been prefigured in the French-British spat over British beef. And as loudly as every member state intones the mantra that Europe needs a strong and efficient Commission, next year's Intergovernmental Conference on recasting the E.U.'s institutions to prepare for much broader membership is sure to be marked by the fierce defense of national interests.

The Commission is still far from being the "European government" Prodi would like to claim it is. But under Prodi, the Commission seems likely to regain some of the panache--if not the overweening ambition--it had under the presidency of Jacques Delors, who launched the single market and set the course for monetary union. If Prodi can succeed by the end of his term in 2005 in bringing Central and Eastern Europe into the Union, he'll earn a place on the roster of historic Europeans. He is not there yet, but he has a golden chance.

and more..
http://www.guardian.co.uk/eurofraud/Story/0,2763,209907,00.html

[gorgan]

27. won't stick

Berlusconi is the original Uomo di Teflon--he'll find a way to beat the rap the way he's already beaten all the other things they've thrown at him. Sad but true.

[Odin2005]

31. Berlusconi looks like a mafia don.

[lala_rawraw]

32. The timing is really interesting...

Ledeen denies P2 involvement, Silvio previously found guilty for lying under oath about his involvment with P2, Pollari/Niger forgeries, and so forth.

Hmmm... interesting indeed.

[rocktivity]

33. What's Italian for

IMPEACH HIS MORAN ASS!!!

:headbang:
rocknation