The memory of Aldo Moro's kidnapping, which took place exactly 46 years ago, on 16 March 1978, still remains an unresolved knot in Italian history. The intricate events surrounding this event continue to provoke questions and reflections. Among the many revelations and little-known details, one crucial episode emerges: the moment when the Navy raiders approached the alleged kidnappers' hideout.
On a tension-filled night, news spread that the location of Aldo Moro's whereabouts might have been found, the then president of the Christian Democratic Party kidnapped by the Red Brigades in Rome's Via Mario Fani. A rare act of heroism also emerged: a doctor from COMSUBIN, the Navy's raid unit, volunteered to protect Moro with his own body if necessary.
The revelations about this operation came on 10 June 1991, thanks to the words of President Francesco Cossiga. The latter, during the 50th anniversary of the assaults carried out by underwater raiders against the British navy during the Second World War, revealed the existence of Operation Emerald. It was the activation of COMSUBIN special forces to free Moro, based on information indicating the location of his abduction.
Documents filed with the Chamber of Deputies (click here, page 19) confirm that on 21 March, 5 days after the kidnapping, an inter-force operation was held between Cerenova, Sasso and Furbara, on the Roman coast. Parachutist Carabinieri and officers from Rome Police Headquarters, supported by helicopters, tried to verify the reliability of information from confidential sources. The outcome was negative and the intervention of COMSUBIN, the best-equipped unit Italy had for the liberation of hostages, was not mentioned by Cossiga until thirteen years later. However, the doubts, as we shall see later, are many.
COMBSUBIN had been put on alert from the beginning of the seizure, ready to intervene in several areas, as recalled in the hearing of 11 April 2014 (click here, page 4) by retired Admiral Oreste Tombolini (then a very young officer) "...we were taken to different areas, a forest, a cottage, but we did not know where we really were and whether it was an exercise or a real operation'. "The order would come, we would take our weapons and leave from Varignano," he explained to investigators. "It must have happened at least seven to eight times that we got on board, even in the middle of the night. Despite its proximity to the kidnappers' presumed hideout, the operation did not go ahead and the raid was cancelled. When the chairman of the second Moro Commission, Giuseppe Fioroni, asked him to clarify whether the 21 March operation seemed to him to be a real anti-terrorist operation, he glossed over the details. Yet Cossiga thanked COMSUBIN with an enigmatic phrase: 'We were not lucky, but our misfortune in no way detracts from your generosity and preparation'.
Investigations following Moro's assassination revealed traces of sand compatible with those on the coast between Ladispoli, Palo Laziale and Fregene, on the clothing and on the car used to transport the corpse. Who and why then called for the COMSUBIN operation of 21 March 1978 to be cancelled?
The kidnapping of Aldo Moro remains a dark chapter in Italian history, marked by unsolved mysteries and unanswered questions. The events linked to the Navy raiders, ready to break into the kidnappers' hideout, are only part of a complex picture that continues to arouse interest and debate after 46 years.
