Star magistrate to take on terrorists

Antonio Di Pietro is not a man who should have difficulty finding work. Until he resigned two months ago he was Italy's star anti-corruption magistrate, the gravedigger of the old political order and a national hero. The offers - good, bad and ind ifferent - have been pouring in ever since. But, as Mr Di Pietro is finding out, it is one thing to have a perfect CV, quite another to find the perfect job.

This week the 44-year-old ex-policeman yielded to pressure and accepted what sounds like a great challenge: co-ordinating investigations into Italy's many unsolved terrorist attacks - including the 1993 attacks on tourist sites in Florence and Rome - andworking to prevent more in the future.

The job has its drawbacks, however. First, it runs only until the end of the year. That is when the country's parliamentary commission on terrorism, which Mr Di Pietro will now join, winds up after more than 25 years in continuous session.

However good his investigating skills, that does not give Mr Di Pietro much time. Terrorism in Italy is a notoriously slippery subject, spawning every possible conspiracy theory, including the likely existence of a "strategy of tension" co-ordinated by the intelligence services.

And however incorruptible Mr Di Pietro may be, he will have a tough time breaking through the wall of official cover-ups that has hampered investigators before. Many documents relating to terrorist attacks have disappeared from state files, and many key political figures involved in such dramas as the kidnap and murder of Aldo Moro in 1978 have kept their lips firmly sealed.

It does not help that the man who proposed Mr Di Pietro for the job, the former president Francesco Cossiga, was interior minister during the Moro affair. There is no reason for him to be more open with Mr Di Pietro now than he has been in the past.

The appointment has raised eyebrows, not least within the anti-terrorism commission itself, where some believe Mr Di Pietro lacks experience in the field. Others fear he is being used for propaganda purposes by the politicians.