Letter to the Editor
| DOI | 10.1177/004711789101000307 |
| Published date | 01 May 1991 |
| Date | 01 May 1991 |
| Author | Richard Clutterbuck |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
279
LETTER
TO
THE
EDITOR
Dear Editor,
As
Donald
Sassoon
has
included
me
in
his
review
(vol.
X
no.
2)
of
Alison
Jamieson’s
book,
The
Heart
Attacked,
I
hope
you
will
allow
me
to
comment.
He
says
that
he
is
surprised
at
my
supporting
statement
in
the
foreword:
’I
have
never
read
anything
from which
I
have
learned
so
much
about
why
terrorists
do
what
they
do.’
Ms
Jamieson’s
main
sources
are
personal
interviews
with
former
terrorists
(some
in
prison),
judges,
attorneys,
politicians,
police
officers,
industrialists,
their
families
and
others
directly
involved;
and
reports,
interviews
and
comments
in
contemporary
Italian
journals.
Indeed,
amongst
her
140
references
I
can
find
only
seven
from
sources
written
in
English;
all
the
rest
are
from
Italian
sources,
usually
first-
or
very
close
second-hand.
Dr
Sassoon
sneers
that
it
is
’based
on
newspaper
clippings
and
interviews’
but
I
myself
have
found
that
such
sources
are
often
more
reliable
than
the
digested
comments
of
an
analyst
grinding
his
axes
a
year
or
two
after
the
events.
As
I
wrote
14
years
ago
in
the
preface
to
my
book
Britain
in
Agony:
I
must
pay
a
tribute
to
our
much
maligned
press.
In
reports
compiled
against
the
clock
and
printed
overnight,
the
facts
reported
by
journalists
on
the
spot
have
generally
proved
accurate
and
their
interpretations
have
stood
the
test
of
time.
Looking
back
at
the
morning
papers
as
a
source
of
information
three
years
later,
I
am
filled
with
wonder
and
admiration.
Dr
Sassoon
complains
that
’As
she
quotes
other
people’s
views
so
often
and
these
contradict
each
other,
it
is
very
difficult
to
know
where
she
stands.’
But
she
is
not
trying
to
tell
us
where
she
stands,
but
to
find
out
why
terrorists,
policemen
and
others
did
what
they
did.
Apart
from
the
regular
quotations
and
paraphrases
in
her
text,
64
of
her
300
pages
are
in
Appendices
giving
their
opinions
in
their
own
words.
The
most
vivid
of
these
is
her
interview
with
Adriana
Faranda
in
prison.
As
Ms Jamieson
says
in
her
preface:
Adriana
Faranda
is
a
sensitive,
intelligent
and
attractive
woman
of
38,
the
mother
of
a
17-year-old
daughter ...
The
Rome
column
of
the
Red
Brigades,
of
which
she
was
a
founder
member,
was
responsible
for
seventeen
murders,
eleven
attempted
murders,
four
woundings,
four
kidnaps
and
four
robberies.
She
and
her
companion
of
thirteen
years,
Valerio
Morucci,
freely
admit
their
roles
in
the
planning
and
execution
of Aldo
Moro’s
kidnap
and
of the
murder
of his
bodyguards ...
What
were
the
beliefs
that
were
so
strong,
so
passionate,
that
Adriana
Faranda
could
risk
her
life
and
abandon
a
child
she loved
to
commit
these
acts
of
violence?
The
author
finds
the
answers
in
her
6000-word
transcript
of
their
taped
discussion
in
prison,
translated
and
edited
in
the
form
of
40
question
and
answers.
The
sincerity
of
both
sides
in
the
discussion
comes
through
very
strongly.
Dr.
Sassoon
has
written
a
number
of
books
about
Italian
politics
(though
not
much
about
terrorism).
He
makes
it
clear
that
his
interest
is
in
’the
social
and
cultural
context’
and
admits
that
he
is
more
interested
in
the
sea
than
the
fish;
he
complains
that
’it
is
the
fish
which
get
all
the
attention’.
But
it
is
the
fish
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