BOMBS NEAR BLAIR'S VILLA

[Xen]

BOMBS NEAR BLAIR'S VILLA Italian police have found two bombs near the Sardinian holiday villa of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi just hours after a visit by Tony Blair. Police launched a hunt for the devices after a local left-wing group said it had planted them. Blair and his wife Cherie had left Sardinia a few hours earlier after a brief stay at Berlusconi's luxury retreat. The island was under heightened security patrols. A warning was made in a phone call to Sardinian newspaper L'Unione Sarda late last night by someone claiming to be from the radical NPC group which is active on the island. According to Italian newpsaper Corriere della Sera, the NPC is an "anarcho-separatist" group. It said the group had given the location of one bomb, in a large bin near the centre of the tourist town Portorotondo, one kilometre from Berlusconi's Villa Certosa, and said it had planted another. "The other one - we're not telling you, go and find it. It's for Berlusconi," the voice said, according to the Corriere. The Corriere said the one bomb discovered had been set to explode at 2 a.m. Police said it was found some 10 minutes after the warning was received. The second bomb was discovered soon afterwards. The NPC group has claimed responsibility for about 20 attacks since 2000 against political party headquarters, trade unions and night clubs popular with VIPs. In August 2003, it also claimed to have set a hoax bomb at Porto Cervo, another village near Berlusconi's villa.

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0...148025,00.html

[Aerich]

Looks like that group just wanted some attention. Why else would they call up to tip off the newspaper? Of course, maybe someone got cold feet.

Minor quibble: how is a "left-wing group" the same as anarchic separatists? Seems counter-intuitive. The article could have explained that a little better.

[Barry the Sprout]

Well, you do get left wing nationalists, and therefore left wing regionalists. Its a bit of a contradiction in terms, however, to consider any nationalist properly left wing - Stalin is a good example of an apparently left wing nationalist who in reality wasn't very left at all. Also Anarchism is a left wing doctrine - however much I may disagree with it I'll give it that! But the combo of left wing nationalism and anarchism is a bit weird, as the reference to Stalin probably implies. The nationalists tend to be quite authoritarian and the anarchists quite the opposite.

[Timber Loftis]

What's weird from my perspective is that on your side of the pond these terrorist acts spark a roll of the eyes, a sigh that these people want attention, and a discussion of their political view. Over here, the first order of business would be having them tortured for info and then drawn and quartered.

[Magness]

Originally posted by Timber Loftis: What's weird from my perspective is that on your side of the pond these terrorist acts spark a roll of the eyes, a sigh that these people want attention, and a discussion of their political view. Over here, the first order of business would be having them tortured for info and then drawn and quartered.

And when the CIA or FBI is intensely questioning them, they're getting more "attention" that they ever imagined.

[Yorick]

Originally posted by Barry the Sprout: Well, you do get left wing nationalists, and therefore left wing regionalists. Its a bit of a contradiction in terms, however, to consider any nationalist properly left wing - Stalin is a good example of an apparently left wing nationalist who in reality wasn't very left at all. Also Anarchism is a left wing doctrine - however much I may disagree with it I'll give it that! But the combo of left wing nationalism and anarchism is a bit weird, as the reference to Stalin probably implies. The nationalists tend to be quite authoritarian and the anarchists quite the opposite.

If conservatism is left wing, and radical reformism left wing, then I suppose Anarchism is by defenition left wing, but as an ideal, wouldn't Anarchism be OUTSIDE the wings of politics?

[Yorick]

Originally posted by Timber Loftis: Over here, the first order of business would be having them tortured for info and then drawn and quartered.

And photographed naked. And held for two years without trial. Charming presentation of American justice you have there Timber.

[Timber Loftis]

Apples and Oranges, Yorick -- that's not what I said. It's a fine straw man, though, so if you want to blindly beat the shit out of it with your pinata stick, be my guest.