Ustica and the "dictionary of a massacre" of Alegi

Historical, journalist, professor at the Luiss of the history and politics of the USA, former Teacher of History of Air Force at the Air Force Academy (among his students Samantha
Cristoforetti) and author of numerous books and monographs on the subject, Gregory Alegi had already written – four hands with Leonardo Tricarico – of the best known air disaster
in the history of our country in its ‘Ustica: a civil injustice’ published in 2021.

Now, with ‘get out of the labyrinth. Ustica from A to Z ‘(Logisma Editore), he edited and coordinated, with the contribution of 25 experts, a true ‘dictionary’ useful to synthesize 45 years of documentssentences and hypotheses on the dramatic flight interrupted forever on June 27, 1980 on the skies of Sicily of the DC 9 I – Tigi Itavia. The agi met him to find out more.

How did this volume arise and how is it structured?
A story that does not find a certain explanation for over 40 years becomes very difficult to reconstruct, for overlapping over time of names, hypotheses, fake news, e
In the present case, also of hearings and sentences. Instead of trying to reconstruct everything from the end of any request for information, over the years we have prepared cards of
Summary, useful to put information on a common factor and make it so available to everyone. It is now almost impossible to keep in mind the succession of the events followed to
massacre of Ustica, but the controversial points are repeated to every attempt at reconstruction, they always are the same. In making each card pay a specific item
of the ‘Ustica’ case ‘we realized that this historical simplification work could become a book, but with a variant compared to the many written texts
On the subject: the specialization. It is not a journalistic work, in fact, but a set of contributions from specialists from different subjects. In the book, for example,
Voices of the legal world appear, such as that of Professor Maurizio Bellacosa, owner of a chair of criminal law at Luiss, or of the judge Gianandrea Bussi.
The reliability of the contents was born from the fact that they are produced by experts, not as commentators or everything.
The publication was commissioned by the truth of Ustica’s air disaster, how important for the family members of the 81 victims this kind of
publications?
Getting to the truth about the massacre is important for all Italians: 45 years after the tragedy we know neither authors nor principals. In these days Sky broadcasts a series on
Lockerbie case, of which we know everything, while on Ustica we are still hanging on the hypotheses. Instead there is a need for answers. And somehow the book is a push to
Look for them. In almost half a century we have reached up to a certain point in lifting the veil of the mystery, but many dark aspects still remain on which to shed light.
In your opinion, what is the most interesting letter of the dictionary proposed by the book?
They are certainly more than one. The ‘B’ of bomb, of course, but also the ‘m’ of missile, the ‘p’ of Palestinians, the ‘l’ of Libya. We have not neglected anything. In the letter ‘u’ there is
Ufo, to the submarine. If it were not a drama, it would make the quantity of responses laugh that over time have gone to the destruction of that flight, but theirs
Number also makes the measure of how much it is appropriate to bring order to the reconstruction of a tragedy of national value.
As an expert, who were the actual responsibilities of the massacre in his opinion?
We counted between 30 and 40 different versions, none accepted as definitive. Certainly the idea that the flight was involved in an aerial battle has found less
feedback in criminalise; The slopes of the Libyan or Palestinian terrorist act therefore remain alive – and in this regard in the book it is remembered how the first bomb of the OLP
On a plane he was put in Rome in 1968. But ‘to leave the labyrinth’ does not want to add scenarios, just take stock of those proposed so far.

Why did the truth remain so long hidden?
There are two orders of reasons. One is of an objective type: the wreck has been recovered almost entirely over 10 years after the tragedy and in this period of time – the second order of reasons – the version of the aerial battle took hold, which however did not find concrete feedback, because on remains of the plane do not appear for the missile holes. Some investigative slopes then cooled, while versions not supported by real findings entered the collective imagination. And it is more difficult to go back than to start from scratch. Certainly, what characterizes the case is the difference between the criminal and civil res judicata. In the first, all the suspects were acquitted or saw their positions archived: 96 people involved and 0 convictions in every degree of judgment. The civil res judicata instead found responsibility for the Italian state for not having been able to guarantee flight security. The book gives an account of how this difference has occurred, but it is not built as a yellow, it is a collection of all the useful elements that leaves the reader the reasoning on the proposed ideas. We do not want to force opinions, but to expose facts for how they are objectively; Get out the rumors diluted the controversy, but at the same time allows each to pull their conclusions with all the elements available. The effort to which the text wants to push is to think and then perhaps discuss civilly without letting go of extremism. He wants to be a compass, an instrument of reflection, not the answer.