Hor met Monica Maggioni on a plane that took us to Columbus, Ohio on November 3, 2004, a state that still appeared in the balance on the Wednesday morning after the vote. As we boarded the plane from Washington, news arrived that Democratic candidate John Kerry had conceded victory to President George W. Bush; and so going to Ohio didn’t make the slightest sense, other than to go to a place where no one ever goes.
A quick tour of Columbus was enough to decide to quickly return to the airport and take the first flight to New York, from where they could return to Italy. The presidential elections were over, and it was time to go home.
In reality Monica never returned home. In recent years I have followed her from a distance (her broadcast is perhaps the only one on Rai that I have never been to). I admired the courage in which she went to the frontin the difficult wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria.
Aldo Cazzullo (photo by Carlo Furgeri Gilbert).
Obviously you go to war with American troops, not with those who cut Westerners’ throats; however this did not stop Maggioni from writing The end of the trutha very harsh book on the US strategy which was supposed to fight terrorism and ended up fueling it.
“Spectres” by Monica Maggioni (Longanesi).
In his new book, Ghostspublished by Longanesi, Monica returns to terrorism, in the wake of October 7th. He tells breathtaking stories, such as the arrest of his informant in Iranthe tearful phone calls received from Tehran, where his name is on the blacklist of unwelcome journalists.
It explains how, although the West has celebrated many victories – the death of Osama Bin Laden, the defeat of Al Qaeda, the reduction of ISIS – in reality anti-Western terrorism is more alive than ever.
Islamic fundamentalists have reconquered Afghanistan and taken control of Iraqwhere Saddam was certainly a dictator but not a Shiite fundamentalist like those who are in power now. And on the other side of the fence there are women, who are denied every right again.
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All articles by Aldo Cazzullo.
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