Possible U.S. involvement in Ustica disaster, says Judge

(AGI) Rome, Jan 29 - There could be a U.S. involvement in the crash of an Itavia DC-9 into the Tyrrhenian Sea near the island of Ustica on June 27 1980, Judge Rosario Priore, former head of the inquiry, told the Siamo Noi current events programme. "I left the inquiry some years ago," he said, "but my successors are working hard. The means at the disposal of the United States at that time were a great deal better than those available to Italy or France. One or two Libyan planes were identified on our radar as enemy planes, and two of our planes took off from Grosseto in pursuit, with the intention of bringing them down. The French undoubtedly joined in, wanting to carry out the mission in their waters against the enemy Gaddafi, but at a certain point planes from the American aircraft carrier Saratoga also joined in. We know this because we found a life raft from the Saratoga at the crash site. This point needs clarification. We need to find out whether one or two U.S. planes urged the French to 'get out' but the French also told the Italians to 'get out'. The radar data needs to be gone through to see whether a U.S. plane did go down at the crash site and whether the pilot got into the life raft and was taken to safety. This, according to me, is what some people are working on." Also taking part in the Siamo Noi broadcast, the journalist and writer Andrea Purgatori - who covered the disaster - said: "Priore has not said something insignificant, because the few remaining radar read-outs clearly show the traces of a helicopter flying over the sea in that particular area, which then disappears. Clearly helicopters cannot land on water, it must have landed on an aircraft carrier. The problem is that the helicopter arrived at the crash site several hours before the Italian rescuers. If it is true that two Libyan fighter plans were hiding underneath the Itavia DC-9, they must have done so with the complicity of Italy. This would mean that we would also be responsible for what happened next. If it is true, as several witnesses and President Cossiga said, that it was the French who shot down the Itavia plane, then they are guilty of carrying out an act of war in peacetime in another country's air space to try and kill a political leader [Gaddafi, Ed.]. The U.S. cannot have failed to see what was happening because the 6th Fleet was in the Gulf of Naples at the time, and at that time of extremely heightened tension, saying that the radar was switched off so as not to interfere with television broadcasts in Naples is a ridiculous lie, which we have somehow come to accept. France, Italy, Libya and the U.S. failed to tell the truth for 'reasons of state', because reciprocal blackmail was going on, around which silence then built up," he added. (AGI). .