Italian military motives in Iraq explained...?

Iraq. In nome del petrolio. Un'inchiesta di Rainews24 sulla presenza italiana a Nassiriya
“Un dossier commissionato dal Ministero delle attività produttive sei mesi prima della guerra. Vi si indica il luogo migliore per una presenza italiana: è proprio Nassiriya. E si parla dell'oro nero e di un affare da 300 miliardi di dollari……..” with link to video dowload of whole report.

In November 2003 in a suicide bombing against Italy’s base in Nasiriyah 19 Italians, mostly soldiers died..

RAI News 24, the all-news channel of the Italian state-owned network, have broadcast a 20 minute program report (13/5) by Sigfrido Ranucci ,that claims, on the basis of interviews and official government documents, that the Silvio Berlusconi administartion chose the Nasiriyah area to safeguard a 1997 deal signed by Italy’s largest energy producer, ENI, (23 year project AGIP and repsol) and former dictator Saddam Hussein. Previously unseen film and photos show Italian soldiers busy protecting a refinery and a local pipeline in Nasiriyah. Benito Livigni a Director of ENU is interviewed and confirms the details of the story.

A government report compiled months before the war broke out is said to recommend that Italy, (if Iraq is invaded), should secure the region of Nasiriyah and the nearby area of Halfaya, south of Baghdad, so as to secure “a deal worth 300 billion dollars”.

The Italian government has always said that the 3,000 troops sent to Iraq were for “purely humanitarian reasons.”

From a BBC News report 15/11/03

"The bodies of 18 Italian soldiers and policemen killed in a bomb blast in southern Iraq have been brought back
to the capital Rome.

Military sources said the men were due to leave as part of normal rotation plans, but their departure confirmed the government's intention to maintain a full Italian presence in Iraq despite the attack.

Some 2,400 Italian soldiers are carrying out mine-clearing,policing and humanitarian work in southern Iraq which is under the overall military control of the British.

Italians form the third largest force within the Iraq coalition, after the Americans and the British."