20 March 2002

Excerpt: State Department Daily Press Briefing, March 20, 2002 - Italy

Briefer: Richard Boucher, Spokesman

[...]

QUESTION: Do you have any comment or reaction to the assassination of the labor reform economist in Bologna?

MR. BOUCHER: In Bologna, yes. We condemn this outrageous terrorist act. We express our sincere condolences to Mr. Biagi's family, friends and colleagues. Reports have quoted Italian officials as saying this murder bears the hallmark of the terrorist organization Red Brigades. Once again, we condemn this senseless and violent act. We will support the Italian Government's effort to combat terrorism and bring the perpetrators of the attack to justice.

QUESTION: Richard, are the Red Brigades -- I was under the impression they were considered pretty much defunct, with the exception of this assassination that they claimed two years ago, prior to this. They're no longer even listed in the Patterns of Global Terrorism Report, except for that mention of this, what happened two years ago.

MR. BOUCHER: They're discussed in the commentary. They're not listed as one of the Foreign Terrorist Organizations. But remember, the financial controls, for example, under the Patriot Acts Exclusion List, include not only the Foreign Terrorist Organizations, but others as well, and they are included on that list for the financial controls.

QUESTION: Okay, but what I was trying to get at was that -- I mean, are you at all -- by the way, they also have -- or at least they claimed someone claiming to be with the Red Brigade has claimed responsibility for this assassination. Are you guys at all concerned that we might be seeing a resurgence of this kind of activity in Italy?

MR. BOUCHER: We're always concerned about terrorist activity, and particularly friends and allies. We work very closely with them and we will continue to do that.

QUESTION: I was talking specifically of the reformation of the Red Brigade.

MR. BOUCHER: I don't want to speculate on that at this point. As you know, as you mentioned yourself, there was one attack a couple of years ago that was reported on in last year's terrorism report that was also attributed to factions or groups associated with the Red Brigades.

[...]