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Italy and PM Silvio Berlusconi's tattered reputations really don't need more challenges.
But it appears that Berlusconi often went out of his way to court brutal dictator Gadhafi even agreeing to pay $5 billion usd over 25 years for reparations and treat his visits like royalty.
In return, Libya invested in Italian companies including Fiat SpA, UniCredit SpA and the Juventus soccer team, while oil company Eni SpA got free rein there leaving Italy reliant on Libya for a quarter of its crude oil.
“With hindsight, the more slavish manifestations of deference could have been avoided,” said Italian professor Franco Pavoncello. “He(Berlusconi) went out of his way, more than others, to be best friends with Qaddafi. He can’t exactly take it all back now.”
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Now, apparently, the pigeons are coming home to roost...and poop... on Silvio and Italy.
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LATEST UPDATE: On the booming arms trade between Italy and Libya. Some believe that Italy is the main supplier of military products to the Libyan regime and those weapons and equipment are now being used to kill citizens. "We can conclude that the Gadhafi government has been using helicopters to suppress the protests. And we know that since 2006 Italy has been selling dozens of military helicopters to Libya. Arguably, it's those that are being used.”
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/italy/110223/libya-protests-weapons?page=full
