Fabrizio Quattrocchi, who was murdered by his kidnappers in Iraq two years ago, has been awarded the medaglia d’oro al valor civile by Italy’s President Ciampi, on the suggestion of Interior Minister Pisanu.
Posthumous medals are as much about creating potent symbols for the living, as paying respect to the dead. As such, it’s worth taking a closer look at Quattrocchi’s medal, and the controversy it has generated in Italy.
Quattrocchi was not the first Italian to die in Iraq, nor sadly the last. Only one other Italian killed in Iraq has thus far received the medaglia d’oro, Nicola Calipari. It’s not a macabre contest, but it’s worth pointing out those who have not received the medal of honour.
Firstly the military who died when the Italian base in Nassirya was attacked by a suicide bomber. Maria Cimino, the mother of Emanuele Ferraro, one of the victims of the Nassirya bomb blast, openly questioned President Ciampi in the press: “Why haven’t our boys received a medal yet? In contrast to Quattrocchi, my son died wearing the Italian uniform”[1].
The other glaring ommission from the medal list is Enzo Baldoni, a journalist and peace activist who, like Quattrocchi, was kidnapped and murdered in Iraq.
What differentiates Quattrocchi from the soldiers in Nassirya, or murdered civilians like Baldoni? Two things – 1) Quattrocchi’s business in Iraq, and 2) his dying words, videotaped by his murderers and now widely available online for those with a propensity for snuff movies.
Investigating Quattrocchi’s role in Iraq
Quattrocchi, a former baker, was working in Iraq as a private security contractor. He was recruited by the Italian branch of Ibsa, a security firm specialising in work in high-risk areas. Recruited via email, Quattrocchi passed from being a bouncer in Genova, to mission work in Iraq, where, along with fellow Italians Steffio, Agliana e Cupertino (working for Steffio’s firm Presidium), he worked protecting designated persons or structures (the precise nature of the mission at the time of his kidnapping remains vague)[2].
Ignazio La Russa, head of post-Fascist party Alleanza Nazionale’s parliamentary group, commented on the medal giving with a somewhat flawed logic that “now all Italians know that Fabrizio Quattrocchi was a hero and not a mercenary”. Leaving aside the emotive connotations that the word may have, Quattrocchi worked in a para-military capacity (according to another Italian ‘security consultant’, Paolo Casti “we were armed with pistols and rifles, we had the power to stop and search people and, if necessary, open fire”[3]) for payment.
To call him a mercenary is not to assign a moral value, simply to state the facts. There’s no evidence that Quattrocchi harmed anyone in the course of his work, and his main motive in going to work in Iraq was not related to geo-political concerns, peace missions, or imperial hubris, but rather the simple wish to earn money to pay for his wedding.
While this Monkey is quick not to ascribe any moral judgement on Quattrocchi’s work in Iraq, it seems to be work that is expressly forbidden by Italian Law (art.288). A subsequent investigation was opened into how and why the four Italians came to be working in Iraq; an investigation that uncovered a shadowy organisation, the Dssa was uncovered, running parallel alongside official Italian state security services. The Dssa was set up, in the wake of the Madrid bombings, to provide security services in the fight against terrorism – for payment. An unofficial (and probably illegal – the investigation continues) outsourcing body for ex-military, secret services, police. Two of the men behind the Dssa belong to the extreme-right wing, and connections have already been suggested to Gladio, the NATO backed organisation implicated in two attempted coups and various terrorist attacks in Italy (it’s important to point out that Quattrocchi was not found to have had any connection with the Dssa).
Whatever the value of Quattrocchi’s work, we can safely assume that there was no intrinsic heroism involved that merits the recognition of the State.
To die like an Italian
Which brings us to the more likely reason for Quattrocchi’s medal. In a gruesome videotape of the body guard’s murder, released to Al-Jazeera, Quattrocchi rips off his hood before being murdered, and shouts to his captors “Now I’ll show you how an Italian dies”.
Brave words from a man facing death, and not to be belittled. The question though remains, do Quattrocchi’s final words merit a medal while the soldiers of Nassirya, surprised by a brutal bomb blast, forced to remain silent, remain uncommemorated? Does Enzo Baldoni’s death have a lesser importance because he was bookish-looking and left behind no traces of defiant patriotism?
Quattrocchi’s words don’t deserve to be belittled, but neither do they deserve to be hijacked.
Alleanza Nazionale, the party that emerged from the fascist M.S.I. (formed by Giorgio Almirante, one of Mussolini’s ministers in the Republic of Sal