Wag the Dog, Italy edition (from AFP)…
A security alert for American citizens in Italy issued by the US State Department has angered Italian opposition leader Romano Prodi, who accused Washington of causing “unnecessary fear and anxiety” ahead of next month’s bitterly-contested polls.
Prodi, a former EU Commission president, said he had been shocked by the alert and had demanded an explanation from US Ambassador Ronald Spogli.
“He explained that it was accepted practice, but I am still shocked, because a move like that, with elections so close, can cause an unnecessary sense of fear and anxiety,” Prodi said in a radio interview.
But his comments drew a sharp rebuke from Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who has previously accused Prodi’s disparate centre-left — which runs the full gamut of the political spectrum from Catholic to communist parties — of harbouring “shock troops” bent on violently breaking up government election rallies.
“The US has every right” to alert its own citizens about Italian demonstrations, protested Berlusconi, a staunch ally of US President George W. Bush.
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