November 19, 2007 (LPAC)--A consultant to attorney Carlo Palermo escaped a murder attempt on Nov. 18, as he was working on a major investigation involving the role of U.S. military ships in a disaster that killed 140 civilians in Livorno in 1991. EIR has helped Palermo in this investigation. Under Palermo's initiative, prosecutors in Livorno have re-opened the investigation centered on illegal military movements in the port of Livorno, in the context of the Desert Storm and Restore Hope operations. New elements suggest that the collision between the Moby Prince ferry and an oil tanker that caused the fire on board of the Moby Prince on April 9, 1991, leading to the death of all passengers and crew, was caused by the presence of U.S. military ships in the port of Livorno, illegally involved in cargo operations. Furthermore, Palermo has collected evidence showing that the commanders of the U.S. military base in Camp Darby, Livorno, lied about the presence of those ships, and that there was a coverup on the Italian side in the first investigation that provided the official "accident" version.

On Sunday, Nov. 18, a consultant to Carlo Palermo in the Moby Prince case was supposed to meet a witness near Pisa, when he was assaulted by masked men, knocked down and dazed with a spray. He was then locked in his car and the car was set on fire. Only when the smoke filled his throat, the man woke up and somehow found the energy to get out of the car. He was expected to report about his meeting to Carlo Palermo, who was waiting in a hotel in Pisa.

The attempted murder was preceeded by a 4-page article in the magazine Panorama on Nov. 8, which published contents leaked from the prosecution office in Livorno. Reliable sources told EIR that prosecutors were quite disappointed in the article, which suddenly gave unwanted publicity to their work. The article reported, among other things, that prosecutor Antonio Giaconi interrogated former Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, who was head of the Italian government in 1991, to find out about possible special military agreements between the Italian government and the U.S. Department of Defense related to the use of the Livorno port facilities during the Gulf War.

"The prosecution office has never published anything", said Carlo Palermo to EIR. "The publication of such records is strange." This, and the attempted murder of Palermo's collaborator, indicate that "there are evidently well-placed persons who are following the Prosecution office on one side, and who are following us on the other side."

The implications of the Moby Prince case could be devastating for Dick Cheney, the U.S. Secretary of Defense at that time. The dimensions of the "accident" were so large, that only the higher levels of the U.S. Defense Department could have ordered a coverup. The Moby Prince collision occurred after the official end of Desert Storm, but three days after the beginning of the Provide Comfort operation, which involved transport of U.S. personnel and material from U.S. bases in Italy to northern Iraq.