Francesco Cossiga - Controversial Statements

Controversial Statements

In 2007, in a statement published by the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Cossiga commented on the 11 September attacks and on a video attributed to Osama Bin Laden 2001. He wrote that "all of the democratic circles of America and of Europe, especially those of the Italian centre-left, now know well that the disastrous attack was planned and realized by the American CIA and Mossad with the help of the Zionist world to place the blame on Arabic countries and to persuade the Western powers to intervene in Iraq and Afghanistan". However, the previous year Cossiga had stated that he rejects theoretical conspiracies and that it "seems unlikely that the rather impossible September 11 was the result of an American plot."

In the same statement, Cossiga claimed that a video tape circulated by Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda and containing threats against Silvio Berlusconi was "produced in the studios of Mediaset in Milan" and forwarded to the "Islamist Al-Jazeera television network." The purpose of that video tape (which was actually an audio tape) was to raise "a wave of solidarity to Berlusconi" who was, at the time, facing political difficulties.

In 2008, Francesco Cossiga told about Mario Draghi: "He is a craven moneyman".