Reject Mafia, FBI Chief Tells Sicilians

Declaring that Sicily stands at the verge of breaking the Mafia’s centuries-old grip, FBI Director Louis J. Freeh on Sunday urged Sicilians to cast out the criminals from their towns and churches.

In an emotional and religious speech at a memorial Mass for his assassinated friend, former Mafia prosecutor Giovanni Falcone, and a score of other Sicilian officials slain by the organization in recent years, Freeh pledged full U.S. cooperation in the expanded anti-mob effort here.

“No more should the Mafia hang as a millstone around the neck of freedom,” Freeh said under extremely tight security at the Mass in the 12th-Century Palatine Chapel of the Palace of the Normans. “Turn them out from your towns and churches where they can be exposed to the light of the law, which will sear and destroy them.”

His comments--unprecedented from a high U.S. law enforcement official on Sicilian soil--came as revulsion over the 1992 bombings that killed Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, his successor as the leading Mafia prosecutor, has produced public protests against the feared group. Allegations of ties between the Mafia and Italian politicians have helped fuel political upheaval here and elsewhere in Italy.

Freeh’s offer of expanded U.S. assistance was backed up by a statement Sunday from President Clinton directing the departments of Justice and Treasury “to do all they can to strengthen the cooperation between American and Italian law enforcement.”

In unusually strong language, Freeh spoke directly to “those men who are sworn falsely to the Mafia . . . and other proponents of evil. Your power is waning. You are not men of honor, but cowardly assassins of children, thieves who move in the night and greedy merchants of drugs, terrorists and bullies.”

Freeh’s focus on the Mafia follows a series of successful U.S. prosecutions of top mob leaders in recent years. It is a signal that the FBI will not reduce its priority on fighting organized crime despite calls to also step up attacks on street violence and on other crimes, such as health care fraud.

The FBI director rejected any suggestion that his trip here seemed out of place. “The heroin trade that comes out of that city (Palermo) does more with respect to violence and death in our cities than all the random shootings in America,” Freeh told reporters traveling with him.

Before speaking at the Mass, Freeh, with a police helicopter circling overhead, stopped his high-speed motorcade from the airport to leave flowers at the site where Falcone, his wife and three bodyguards were killed by an explosion so powerful that it left a 1,500-foot crater in the highway. That incident occurred on May 23, 1992.

In his speech, Freeh noted that 12 years ago, when he was a young prosecutor, he “sat down with a young Sicilian prosecutor and shared the same dream. Judge Falcone and I dreamed that someday our two countries could be free from the tyranny of the Mafia and its cohorts.”

In 1987, both men led successful major Mafia prosecutions in their countries, sharing witnesses and evidence, Freeh recalled.

Freeh’s stand drew appreciative reactions from two Palermo officials.

Giorgio Musio, prefect (a post like that of a provincial governor), said Freeh’s support is needed by “the people of Palermo, especially the young people, who are becoming increasingly anti-Mafia.”

Gianni Aldo, the local police chief, hailed Freeh’s remarks but said he feared they could draw a violent reaction from the Mafia.

There was no sign of that Sunday, however. While heavy security was visible--uniformed rooftop guards carried semiautomatic weapons equipped with scopes, and highway traffic was shut off at all feeder roads--Freeh’s convoy raced by on the highway. Freeh said he had heard of no threats.