Fascisme Rules Italian Court in Favor of US Base

U.S. Military Base in Vicenza, Italy Gets Final Approval

At a press conference on Friday, February 20, Italian Special Commissioner Paola Costa and U.S. Consul General from Milan, Daniel Weygandt, announced final approval for a new U.S. military base in Vicenza, Italy. The project, approved by a joint Italian-US Military Construction Committee working under the still-classified 1954 Bilateral Infrastructure Agreement (pdf), includes 25 new buildings with lodging for 1200 soldiers and multi-story car parks for over 800 vehicles.

Weygandt noted his satisfaction “that the entire process had been developed in full compliance and that we were able to arrive at this final result.” Costa said that while no environmental impact assessment would be carried out, he assured everyone that “this project is the best possible and based on the most stringent regulations in effect in Italy and the United States.”

These words rang hollow for the thousands of local residents who have kept up constant protests against this second U.S. Military base – Vicenza is already home to Camp Ederle dating back to the 1950s – since word of the project, initially denied, first leaked out in May 2006.

● Italians Occupy Site of Proposed U.S. Military Base in Vicenza

For more information on the No Dal Molin movement, see the official site of the Presidio permanente (in Italian), as well as a collection of articles and videos in English.

Representatives of the movement will be at the Security Without Empire conference next weekend in Washington, D.C.  (h/t Progressive Democrats of America)  

Costa’s aversion to an environmental impact assessment certainly came as no surprise. Just last year a July 2007 letter from Costa to then Defense Minister Parisi surfaced, in which the Special Commissioner reiterated that an environmental impact assessment “represents an obvious risk to the possibilities of proceeding while respecting deadlines; and it is possible that it could even put the final decision in jeopardy.” An important groundwater source, supplying water to the cities of Vicenza, Padua and Rovigo, lies directly below the base.

US Military Interests Reign Supreme in Italy

On July 29 in 2008,  the Council of State, Italy’s highest administrative court, overturned the June 20 decision by the regional court of Veneto to suspend work on a second U.S. Military base in the northeastern city of Vicenza. In contrast to the regional court’s methodical examination of each of the points brought forth in the case filed by the consumer and environmental advocacy group Codacons, the appeals court summarily dismissed the case – in record time for Italy’s normally sluggish judicial system – stating that the administrative courts had no jurisdiction in what was a purely political matter. In upholding the appeal filed by the center-right Berlusconi government, a staunch ally of the Bush Administration, much of the high court’s ruling was based on the infamous 1954 Bilateral Infrastructure Agreement between Italy and the U.S., which remains classified to this day, as well as an Italian law from 1924 – when Italy was still a monarchy and under Mussolini’s fascist regime!