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See our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy For travel to the United States on a temporary basis For foreign citizens who want to live permanently in the United States The Visa Waiver Program (VWP) allows citizens of participating countries* to travel to the United States without a visa for stays of 90 days or less Learn more about quality higher-education opportunities in the U.S that you will not find anywhere else in the world Find the closest American Space in Italy where you can connect with the U.S the Vice Mayor of the City of Palermo Fabio Giambrone the Vice President of the Sicilian Region and Councilor for Economy Gaetano Armao and the Vice President of the Sicilian Regional Assembly Giancarlo Cancelleri The Consul General took the opportunity to say goodbye the Sicilian friends: “Although my time as Consul General has almost come to an end what I am feeling the most is not nostalgia for the end of my experience but rather a sense of pride in seeing that the historic friendship between Sicilians and Americans is now stronger than before.” We use cookies to make our website work better and improve your experience a global network of grassroots antimilitarist and pacifist groups an estimated 5,000 people marched to protest against a new United States satellite communications base under construction in Niscemi a lot of them invaded the base to free eleven peace activists who had climbed antennas inside the day before This was the latest popular initiative against the US Navy’s project to deploy in Sicily one of the four ground stations for their Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) The Niscemi US military base (NRTF) is located in a nature reserve (a site of communitarian interest – sic- from 2000) called Sughereta In order to protect this natural oasis and the surrounding population’s right to a healthy environment and in order to denounce the increasing militarisation of Sicilian land by the US Army thousands of people have been protesting for two years against the MUOS project Sicilian civil society does not want the MUOS and doesn’t want the use of their land for military purposes including women who are fiercely opposed to the plan to build the new military system blocked the road leading to the military base and cut off soldiers and construction workers' access to the site protesters have been brutalised by the Italian police on several occasions and under the pressure of the US command and of the US government the Italian government is insisting on supporting the project in 2005 during Silvio Berlusconi’s government but was supported by the later premiers (Prodi The multibillion-dollar MUOS system is a next-generation narrowband military satellite communication programme designed to significantly improve ground communication for US forces on the move and to facilitate the employment of “mobile user” warfighters (especially drones) worldwide video and data capability by leveraging 3G mobile communications technology It’ll provide 10 times greater communications capacity than the legacy system The MUOS spacecraft is the first in a satellite communications system that will replace the Ultra High Frequency Follow-On system The system consists of five geostationary earth orbit satellites—one an on-orbit spare—and a terrestrial network connecting the ground stations around the world (NRTF Niscemi and the three other US military bases in Virginia The station in Niscemi will be equipped with three parabolic 18.4-metre diameter antennas which transmit in the microwave range and two 149-metre high helical antennas in the UHF spectrum According to a study conducted by physicists Massimo Zucchetti and Massimo Coraddu of the Polytechnic University of Turin the electromagnetic waves emanating from MUOS will spread out over 135 kilometres with serious risk of causing severe degenerative diseases such as leukemia and cancer in the surrounding population is already polluted since 1991 by the 41 antennas already housed by the NRTF facility the main beam of microwaves emitted by the MUOS antennas would significantly increase the risk of accidental irradiation of aircraft and could cause accidents tens of kilometres away All these risks have been openly recognised in a decision by the Sicilian Administrative Court which ratified a provisional halt to the project The new regional government led by Rosario Crocetta (member of the Democratic party and former communist leader) initially supported the struggle of No Muos Movement and blocked the authorisations to the work inside the ecological reserve At the end of July Crocetta changed his decision and become a supporter of the project He also accused the peace movement of being sponsored by the mafia members of anti-mafia grassroots organisations The truth is that the NO MUOS people denounced a company from Niscemi which was to carry out most of the field work inside the base preparing the platform for the MUOS antennas: this company has no anti-mafia certificate (which in Italy is compulsory The same company had been working all along without any intervention by either the civil or military autorities the Senator Giuseppe Lumia (Pd) – politically near to Sicilian President Crocetta - even presented a point of order in the Italian Parliament about this legality problem: the Government never gave an answer The Member of Parliament Lumia wrote: “by the DDA (Antimafia District Directory) investigations was linked to the well-known boss of the Giugno-Arcerito clan politicians and local administrators denounced some heavy mafia threats towards NO MUOS people The regular presence that the No MUOS activists continue to maintain in the small town of Niscemi (30,000 inhabitants) is the only way to try to stop the works Thanks to all the citizens who have answered the call we are continuing the protest of the base US-Navy-8 but the repressive action against people that simply want to regain their sovereignty is strong On 6 March the NO MUOS mothers were at the base: some of them have been dragged forcibly by the police in order to allow some Americans soldiers to cross one of the mothers has even been hospitalised It was a similar scene to the one that happened on 11 January when some activists blocking the access to the base were attacked and injured by almost 100 policemen cut the fence of the US base and they climbed on the giant antennas that were in operation military and firefighters went there to persuade them to get down Two of them were arrested and accused of aggravated damage and being disruptively present on a military site etc) signed a public appeal to ask the Obama administration to immediately stop the installation of the MUOS station in Niscemi They also firmly condemned the brutalisation of the protesters and expressed their solidarity with Sicilian civil society protesting against the MUOS Stay up to date with our international antimilitarist activism Sign up to our email lists here This post is also available in: Italian spread out over a vast stretch of Sicilian countryside protected by tall fences and hedges of razor-sharp concertina wire three enormous satellite dishes receive and transmit communications that direct US military drones and fighter jets across the Mediterranean is one of the most sensitive footholds of the US military-industrial complex The NO MUOS movement quickly grew from a local protest to a nationwide grassroots effort and on multiple occasions the base was swarmed by thousands of activists forcing the infrastructure to be temporarily suspended as protesters attempted to stop the satellite dishes from being built The mobilisation also involved local elected representatives this did not stop construction works from going ahead and the satellite dishes were completed in 2015 in the years since the MUOS has continued to remain a target of opposition seen as a powerfully visible example of how the global military industrial complex can have profoundly harmful effects on local environments and communities As we come to the edge of the ancient grove we stop in front of the so-called grande quercia Italian for “great oak,” a majestic 450-year-old cork oak that is still surviving a strong testament to the natural will to live in spite of adversity highly resistant to drought and extreme heat even to wildfires when they are not too intense or too frequent The ancient cork forest that was decimated by the arrival of the US military in the 1990s was the only forest of cork oaks in the whole island but if the wildfires continue to ravage the island as they have done this year even this small part that has survived risks being lost some local people have started attempting to buck the trend by reforesting another part of the Niscemi countryside A reminder that the war does not only kill and maim those caught up in actual conflicts but is also a threat to the communities and environments that find their livelihoods turned inside out for the sake of a worldwide escalation it is from within these communities that a real sense of an alternative can begin to take hold Enter your e-mail address to subscribe to our daily news service Support our Peace and Nonviolence journalism with your donation PressenzaAn international news agency dedicated to news about peace and nonviolence with offices in Athens We use cookies to analyse our traffic and to embed third party content Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker Get quality reporting directly into your inbox from Gela in the southern Italian province of Caltanissetta 22 as a result of “Operation Phoenix” coordinated by the Caltanissetta Public Prosecutor He was detained along with five others from the Sicilian town of Niscemi and Crema in Lombardy Barberi is linked to Giuseppe “Piddu" Madonia a Mafia boss arrested in 1992 and convicted in the murder of Prosecuting Magistrate Giovanni Falcone was already under surveillance before “Operation Phoenix” He is considered by investigators to be the current capo-mandamento Gela and Mazzarino belong to the same mandamento a Mafia [term describing an]… area of influence which is led by the Madonias clan.” The operation “beheaded one of the summits of Cosa Nostra.” And just like the phoenix - the mythical bird that cyclically gains new life from the ashes of its predecessor – police say the Niscemi family has been “re-born,” reorganizing after the February 2013 arrest of its previous boss Police say that Giugno’s place was taken by Alberto Musto The four others arrested are Luciano Albanelli They are all charged with being part of an armed Mafia organization The police operation followed complaints by two businessmen who say they were being extorted by the gang Giustolisi said the clan’s main activity is asking for protection money or “pizzo.” “The area has been besieged by money requests and there have been several intimidating acts against those who did not pay,” she said Prosecutors believe the detainees were planning to kill the men who reported them and the accused remained in custody to protect the businessmen In a surveillance ideo released by police after the operation  “Let's put him into the car’s (trunk) and suffocate him.” Special to OCCRP by Investigative Reporting Project Italy Support from readers like you helps OCCRP expose organized crime and corruption around the world you’ll be directly supporting investigative journalism as a public good You’ll also gain access to exclusive insights and benefits Where did the organized crime group come from vice-chairman of the Italian banking group UniCredit is being investigated by Florence’s anti-Mafia.. Italian police rounded up over 100 suspects who they believed to be affiliated with the..