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Page 6 WORLD & NATION Mar. 30, 2007 www.gmlfordian.com Greensboro. N.C. Life imitating art, Italian mystery writer arrested for murders Amanda Pressley | Staff Writer Italian sectors of Interpol began follow ing a young female supporter of Battisti The celebrated writer of police thrill- months ago. She was en route to give ers, Cesare Battisti, was arrested March money to the accused and led Brazilian 18 in Rio de Janeiro. police to him. A writer of over 24 mystery novels, "Brazilian police have been follow- Battisti is accused of aiding in and com- ing him for several months," said fed- mitting four murders. eral police spokesman, Bruno Ramos, to Battisti was found at in a hotel near The Associated Press. Copacabana Beach in Brazil. Immediately after the arrest, Italian Investigators from the French and Prime Minister Romano Prodi declared the event a "brilliant Italian Social Movement, Lino Sabbadin, On March 19 of this year, Battisti was and a prison guard in the late 1970s. transferred to a jail in Brasilia, the coun- He is also implicated in the murders try's capital, but extradition is proving of a policeman and a jeweler, Luigi Tor- to be problematic, regiani. Ramos explains that Brazil does not After being imprisoned for two years, support any punishments that are Ion- operation" extradition MISERABILI.COM Battisti, an alleged communist and successful author, has been ' CHARGED WITH MURDER. and began proceed ings. This most recent arrest is just another chapter in the thrilling, event-filled life of Bat tisti. In 1976, Battisti founded the organiza tion Armed Proletar ians for Communism in south Milan in response to the tense political cli mate. At the time, Italy was politically torn between extremist socialist and communist groups and bombings ensued by the various parties. During Italy's "anni di pombo," a decade of politically driven ter rorism, Battisti's orga nization was respon sible for armed acts including kidnappings, murders and robberies. They targeted members of right-wing political organizations and those who supported the po lice. Battisti is accused of murdering a butcher and supporter of the Battisti escaped from a Frosinone prison in 1981 and fled to France in the early 1990s. In reaction to the influx of left ist activists flee ing Italy, France created safeguards for them. Socialist French president, Francois Mitter rand, sponsored a program to allow Italian militants asylum if they abandoned their violent ways. Battisti lived in France for over a decade, during which his trial continued in Italy. In 1990, he was convicted in absentia, a ruling confirmed by high court in 1993, of the murders of Sabbadin and the guard. Battisti received the sentence of life in prison. "Not to say that he should be, but if he were to be extradited back to Italy, it seems there needs to be a new trial where he can defend himself in person," said first-year Hannah Johnston. In 2004, in response to criticisms of being too lenient on terrorism, France rescinded its policy of allowing politi cal asylum. Italy and France immediately began a joint effort to extradite Battisti back to Italy. However, Battisti did not attend his judicial meeting and fled the country with the aid of a French-based "support committee" made up of his followers. All writers write about their lives because it comes from their subconscious Caroline McAlister Visiting Instructor of English ger than 30 years in prison and of ten won't extradite fugitives if their impending punish ment is longer than that or involves death. Brazilian poli ticians, including Representative Fernando Gabeira, are speaking out against Battisti's capture. "Battisti is a man dedicated to his in tellectual work ... [and] deserves our help," said Gabeira via his Web site, www.gabeira.com, ac cording to CNN. Other groups are reaching out to help the alleged murderer. Parisian artists and writers are also supporting him, claiming he is a writer of crime novels, not an actual criminal. "All writers write about their lives because it comes from their subcon scious," said Visiting Instructor of Eng lish Caroline McAlister. The relationship between his writing and his life has been further complicat ed by pleas of innocence in his books. "I am guilty, as I have often said, of having participated in an armed group with a subversive aim and of having carried weapons. But I never shot any one," said Battisti in his novel, "Ma Cavale (My Escape)." The Brazilian courts will now have to decide the fate of this acclaimed author and fugitive. Iraq What $411 billion can buy death, terrorism and instability bought at great cost Continued from page I the Near East and South Asia, to ForeignAffairs.org. Instead of listening to intelligence reports, politicians used raw data to make their own conclusions. According to Pillar, the Bush administration was told that Niger ura nium-sale evidence was suspect prior to its use in Bush's State of the Union address. The war in Iraq has not helped reduce the levels of in ternational terrorism. International terrorism was on the rise after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. After the Iraq War, the number of terrorist attacks per year rose even more. According to a study by Mother Jones magazine, us ing statistics from the MIPT-RAND terrorism database. the number of lethal terrorist attacks has increased by 607 percent worldwide since before the Iraq War. Osama Bin-Laden said in a 2006 audio tape, "Iraq has become a source and attraction and recruitment of qualified peo ple." Recruits are joining terrorist organizations in re sponse to the Iraq invasion. "(Terrorism's growth) accelerated; Iraq is a training ground for techniques. If we had stayed the course after Sept. 11 and brought peace and security to Afghanistan, it would have been much better," said Robert Duncan, assistant professor of political science. Afghanistan was attacked before Iraq and was thought to have held Osama Bin-Laden. The Taliban were allies of Al-Qaeda and were harboring its members. With greater focus on the Iraq war, soldiers are being pulled away from Afghanistan, and the Taliban is coming back into power. Instead of a functioning, unified democracy, Iraq has gone into a state of civil war. More then 100 civilians are killed a day. Almost half of all civilian deaths during the Iraq war have occurred in the past 12 months. News organizations have documented at least 59,800 Iraqi civil ian deaths. As factional violence has increased so has the use of mortars, heavy explosives and car bombs. Attacks using chlorine gas have also begun this month. "Look at the history of the region; borders were drawn after the World Wars based upon European spheres of influence, the whole area mistreated by Western powers. It's naive to think we can transpose (den^ocracy)," said Duncan.
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