Berlusconi ble medlem av P-2 losjen i 1978 og anklages for å ha fått en
formue
via disse kanalene. P-2 losjen har stått bak høyreekstreme kupplaner mot det
italienske demokrati og antas å ha forbindelse til flere store fascistiske
attentater og muligens kidnappingen og mordet på Aldo Moro.
"Investigative books written by Italian journalists, quoting private Bank of
Italy reports, claim that much of the capital Mr Berlusconi used to build up
his businesses came from sources in Switzerland. The books say money was
also paid into the company through holdings from unknown sources, via a
trust company with ties to the P2 masonic lodge. Mr Berlusconi joined P2 in
1978."
(Fra den første av nedenstående artikler fra Daily Telegraph, en konservativ
engelsk avis som ikke kan mistenkes for venstresympatier av noen art). Fra
samme avis, tredje artikkel gjengitt i utdrag under:
"A centre-Left parliamentarian stepped up the attack on Mr Berlusconi, saying
he posed a threat to the rule of law. Tana De Zulueta, The Economist's
former Rome correspondent, said: "This is no longer a struggle between Right
or Left. What is at stake is the future of Italian democracy."
De Zulueta sier videre at Berlusconi vil endre forfatningens første del
hvor den italienske republikks sentrale verdier er nedfelt. I artikkel nr.
2 angis at Berlusconis høyre finans-hånd, en sicilianer (Marcello Dell'Utri)
som har organisert Forza Italia, nå undersøkes for forbindelser til mafiaen.
Karsten Johansen
http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac1601715957616&rtmo=gGkVZNVu&atmo=99999
999&pg=/et/01/5/12/wberl112.html
Nagging questions that threaten media chief's latest push for power By Bruce
Johnston in Rome and Anton La Guardia
WHEN he burst on to Italy's jaded political scene and stormed to victory at
the head of a new party in 1994, Silvio Berlusconi dazzled voters by billing
himself as a breath of fresh air.
The country's old political class lay shamed by a national bribes scandal.
Mr Berlusconi was a household name, the owner of a television, construction
and financial empire. Egocentric and inexperienced in the Byzantine ways of
Italian politics, he was nevertheless what many Italians wanted: a self-made
man, who had risen against the odds in a country where you had to have
friends to get ahead.
Immaculately dressed and perpetually tanned, he had a pretty, former actress
wife Veronica Lario, mansions, a private jet, holiday homes and a winning
football club - AC Milan. His fortune is estimated at £9 billion. But there
are many troubling questions over exactly how Mr Berlusconi made his money.
He has been found guilty three times on corruption-related charges, but the
convictions have either been quashed or lapsed in Italy's tortuous appeals
system. Several more cases - on charges ranging from false accounting to
bribery and tax fraud - are pending. Magistrates' inquiries into claims by a
Mafia supergrass that Mr Berlusconi was linked to the Cosa Nostra, and to
the bombing that killed a judge in 1992, were dropped for lack of evidence.
Mr Berlusconi denies all these accusations as politically motivated. The son
of a Milanese bank clerk, Silvio Berlusconi took a law degree with a thesis
on advertising contracts. By his own account, his early jobs included
singing on cruise ships to the piano accompaniment of the man who is now his
chief financial lieutenant, Fedele Confalonieri.
Mr Berlusconi says he set out on the road to fortune by investing his
father's modest savings in a small construction project in Milan in 1961, at
the start of Italy's boom years. He is said to have raised part of the
finance from the sale of vacuum cleaners, and the rest as a loan from his
father's obscure Milan bank, the Banca Rasini.
His first project was the construction of a few dozen flats, followed two
years later by a residential complex for 4,000 people. Between 1968 and
1979, Mr Berlusconi embarked on his vast Milano 2 project, Italy's first
suburban satellite town, with 2,500 homes, schools, creches, supermarkets,
sports facilities and cable television. The flight path to Linate airport,
which passed over the complex, was changed.
The cable service, called Telemilano 58, was the foundation for Canale 5,
the television channel which became the flagship of his three-channel media
empire. Private nationwide television was banned in Italy until 1990. Mr
Berlusconi got around the restrictions by broadcasting pre-recorded
programmes at the same time on several different local channels.
When judges tried to stop him, they were overruled by the Rome government
headed by Bettino Craxi, the late socialist leader convicted in absentia of
corruption.
Investigative books written by Italian journalists, quoting private Bank of
Italy reports, claim that much of the capital Mr Berlusconi used to build up
his businesses came from sources in Switzerland. The books say money was
also paid into the company through holdings from unknown sources, via a
trust company with ties to the P2 masonic lodge. Mr Berlusconi joined P2 in
1978.
In 1979 Mr Berlusconi set up Publitalia with three billion lire in paid up
share capital. The company, whose purpose was to sell media advertising,
became the empire's driving force and was headed by Mr Berlusconi's friend,
Marcello Dell'Utri.
Mr Dell'Utri has since been convicted at supreme court level of tax fraud in
his role as the company's former managing director. He is now on trial in
Palermo for alleged Mafia links, and Mr Berlusconi will be called to give
evidence after the elections.
Mr Berlusconi often claims that he has been persecuted by investigations
because of his decision to enter politcs. He was first investigated in 1979,
when the Bank of Italy - looking at the origins of Swiss funding - ordered a
report by the finance police.
Questioned by Massimo Maria Berruti, a young captain in the force, Mr
Berlusconi explained that he was a "consultant" in the company, for which he
had been paid one billion lire between 1974 and 1977. The captain made his
report, signed by a finance police general who became a P2 member the next
year. Nothing more happened, except that Capt Berruti subsequently went to
work for Mr Berlusconi.
Mr Berlusconi's rise to riches kept pace with Mr Craxi's emergence on the
political scene. The late politician is said to have had a strong influence
over the town planning department of Milan when Mr Berlusconi developed his
properties. Italy's banks, most of which were state controlled, freely lent
money to Mr Craxi's friends.
In 1993, Mr Berlusconi launched his political party, called Forza Italia!,
or Go Italy! after the cry of Italian football fans. The party filled the
vacuum left by the collapse of the old political order. Mr Berlusconi was
swept to power in 1994. But his fall was equally spectacular.
The prime minister was publicly embarrassed when, hosting a United Nations
conference on organised crime, he was served a writ claiming that he was
suspected of corruption. A month later, in December 1994, his government was
brought down.
After his downfall he began to be overrun by a succession of corruption
probes, and he increased attacks against the "communist" magistrates who
were "persecuting" him. The debate over his past rages on.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac1601715957616&rtmo=LStdixld&atmo=99999
999&pg=/et/01/4/28/wital28.html
Berlusconi urged to answer charges By Bruce Johnston in Rome
SILVIO BERLUSCONI, the centre-Right leader favoured to win elections next
month, came under fire from Italy's leading conservative newspaper yesterday
as questions grew over his judicial problems and alleged conflicts of
interest.
Corriere della Sera urged Berlusconi to: "Respond any way you like, but
respond, and let public opinion judge your replies."
The article referred to the cover story in The Economist which queried Mr
Berlusconi's right to govern, or even to run for office. Mr Berlusconi, the
media tycoon and former premier, called The Economist report "rubbish, pure
rubbish". Rocco Buttiglione, an ally who heads the small Democratic Union
party, said: "The Economist is notoriously hostile to Italy, and Europe."
Mr Berlusconi has been investigated on a string of corruption charges,
including attempts to influence the judiciary. He has been convicted a
number of times on fraud and corruption charges, mainly in lower courts. He
is appealing against all the convictions. More than a dozen other
allegations are still under investigation.
The article in The Economist moved to the centre of Italy's bitter election
campaign yesterday. Leaders of the centre-Left alliance, which is trailing
in the opinion polls by at least four points, seized on the article as proof
that if Mr Berlusconi took office, Italy would lose credibility abroad,
while the centre-Right dismissed it.
Nicola Rossi, an economic adviser at the Treasury Ministry, said The
Economist article should "cause all Italians to reflect". Mr Berlusconi's
right-hand man in business, a Sicilian, Marcello Dell'Utri, who oversaw the
creation of Mr Berlusconi's purpose-built Forza Italia party in 1994, is now
being tried for alleged Mafia links.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac1601715957616&rtmo=axHpwNxL&atmo=99999
999&pg=/et/01/5/2/wberl02.html
(utdrag)
A centre-Left parliamentarian stepped up the attack on Mr Berlusconi, saying
he posed a threat to the rule of law. Tana De Zulueta, The Economist's
former Rome correspondent, said: "This is no longer a struggle between Right
or Left. What is at stake is the future of Italian democracy."
The Cambridge-educated Ms De Zulueta, 49, now an Italian senator, was
addressing the launch of the latest investigative book into Mr Berlusconi's
background. She said: "Mr Berlusconi is flaunting election funding laws. He
has said he will rewrite the first half of the constitution, containing the
values on which Italy's republic is based."
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