no wonder the black bloc infiltrators were identified in prague autumn 2000. its always the same strategy against vital political movements to denounce them. in italy they call it strategy of tension - attacks of the extreme right disguised often as left wing. the british journalist philip willan living in rome calls it "destabilize in order to stabilize" in his remarkable book "puppetmasters - the political use of terrorism in italy". i met philip three month ago in lissabon where we both visited a former cia officer. the cia veteran was responsible for operations in the stay behind framework of gladio and told us how operations like kidnapping and killing aldo moro in the seventies were carried out. he presided the weekly meetings of the allied clandestine committee, the gladio co-ordination at nato headquarters in brussels. he said that he had not much to do with "guys at that level" - meaning those persons who f.e. carried out kidnapping or murder. he was not astonished about the events of genua and also not about gotheborg where a protester was shot in the back but survived.
of course its false to say that every disguised person is infiltrator or neo-nazi. there are of course many masked people who throw stones because they think it's good to act that way. but it is easy to utilise them and to provoke their reactions. f.e. if some infiltrators or neo-nazis begin with destruction then some "real" black blockers may do the same. the question is: what would be the real violence without infiltration and neo-nazis, without police forces who concentrate on peaceful protesters, without the psychological disinformation campaign against all demonstrants in italy weeks before the summit?
i'm an austrian journalist who was formerly political active and has some experience with facing infiltration and defamation by intelligence services. from that point of experience i must say that a few people and actions are enough to direct a whole movement and its media presence into the direction wanted. the movement has to consider that and to develope some kind of "counter intelligence" tactics.