Letter bombs? Did you hear anything about letter bombs?

Well, it was there. I don't know what I was doing that was so exciting I missed it.

Four letter bombs have been sent to various European Union dignitaries throughout the Europe in the last week, all of them, according to government officials, originating from the Italian city of Bologna. A group calling itself the Informal Anarchist Front ("F.A.I.") has claimed responsibility in a letter printed by an Italian newspaper. Although no known Italian anarchist groups have ever heard of this association, the acronym matches exactly that of another above-ground, revolutionary organization in Bologna: the Italian Anarchist Federation (F.A.I.) The F.A.I. has denounced these attacks, and consider the Informal Anarchist Front "imaginary," invented to justify the repression of anarchists in Bologna and throughout Italy.

...The Commission for the Correspondence with the Italian Anarchist Federation has issued a communique in which they suggest that, far from promoting revolutionary consciousness, "letterbombs are more useful for provokation and the criminalization of dissent." The arsenal of the F.A.I., on the other hand, includes the weapons of social organizing, local autonomy, trade unions, opposition to state terrorism and the creation of a new and free society.

...This suspicion harkens back to similar incidents in the recent past, such as 1997 in Milan when a series of letterbombs were used as a justification to raid squats, social centers, and make sweeping arrests. Anti-globalization activists may also recall the letter bomb scare in the days leading up to the 2001 G8 summit in Genoa, Italy. In fact, the use of such a tactic by fascist forces in Italy has been historically documented. During the 1970's, when electoral support for communists was at an all time high, Fascists engaged in a deadly bombing campagin they described as part of a "strategy of tension." By blaming the bombings on the communists, the Fascists hoped to incite a breakdown of public order to justify the imposition of military rule.   article

A group pretending to be an opposition group? Never! It doesn't happen. A government campaign to lay blame on an activist group? Never! Doesn't happen.

Well, maybe in Europe. But it would never happen here! No anthrax letters. No federal building bombings. No airplane bombs. No way. No faction of our government would do anything like that. Don't even suggest it. Why do you even think it? Why do you hate America?

The history of Fascism in Italy has demonstrated that the "strategy of tension" is served equally well by the brash actions of "useful idiots," whether their ideology is purported to come from the extreme Left or the extreme Right.

The strategy of tension.

Works for fascists everywhere, not just Italy (which is, by the way, counted amongst our "New Europe" friends, isn't it?).

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.