This has been touched on in the CIA kidnapping thread but it deserves a thread of its own as it is a massive developing story that will soon go ballistic and also it may be useful to look at it from a different angle in light of the issues it raises.

Basically the situation is that the CIA kidnapped an Imam in Italy and shipped off secretly to be tortured. So far, so routine, but it turns out that the Imam was in fact a CIA asset.

Following on from this, in a separate investigation Italian police discovered that a secret fascist group (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4640247.stm) existed within the Italian Police force and this group effectively constituted an extreme right-wing force within a force - but one with links to Likud, Bush, P2 and the CIA.

This extreme right-wing project was known as 'Operation Gladio' and according to Chris Floyd (http://www.rense.com/general63/sword.htm) of the Moscow Times was

a tool for political repression and manipulation, directed by NATO and Washington.

Using right-wing militias, underworld figures, government provocateurs and secret military units, Gladio not only carried out widespread terrorism, assassinations and electoral subversion in democratic states such as Italy, France and West Germany, but also bolstered fascist tyrannies in Spain and Portugal, abetted the military coup in Greece and aided Turkeys repression of the Kurds.

Basically the point of all this illegal activity was to foster a climate of fear that:

a) demonised specific groups
b) caused widespread panic with the result that the pubic demanded 'strong' (ie repressive) leaders.

One of the major 'hits' of Gladio was the 'terrorist bombing' at Bologna in 1972 which was blamed on the left-wing Red Brigade. On eof the participants in this outrage, Vincenzo Vinciguerra, has confessed to involvement in the bombing and also given a sworn testimony that

"The terrorist line was followed by camouflaged people, people belonging to the security apparatus, or those linked to the state apparatus through rapport or collaboration.

Right-wing organizations across Western Europe were being mobilized into the battle as part of an anti-communist strategy originating not with organizations deviant from the institutions of power, but from the state itself specifically NATO."

Link (http://www.isn.ethz.ch/php/documents/collection_gladio/synopsis.htm)

More here (http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/CIA%20Hits/Gladio_CIAHits.html)

So basically we have here an extreme right-wing secret outfit that specializes in committing terrorist atrocities and blaming them on the 'enemy'. And which has links to the US and Israel Intelligence services.

The MO is, perhaps unsurprisingly, chillingly similar to what has been reported in Iraq with the alleged planting of car bombs that has been claimed by numerous witnesses and also to the known methodology of Mossad.

For example, the 11 'Muslim Preachers' from al Qaeda caught 'hijacking' a plane in Delhi in Feb 2000 who were released when they were found to have Israeli passports and of course, the notorious Palestinian al-Qaeda cell that we hear nothing of anymore since they turned out to be a Mossad black-op.

I guess we are at the point now where we can no longer trust that a terrorist act alleged to be committed by Group X was not in fact committed by a group with the exact opposite ideology.

We can trust no-one. They are all liars. We do not even know who the terrorists are but merely that the overwhelming likelihood is that there are no real terrorists other than those in right-wing repressive governments around the world.