ROME: Italy’s Parliament is poised to open a bicameral commission of inquiry into the disappearance of the teenage daughter of a Vatican employee, the third new investigation launched in the four decades since Emanuela Orlandi vanished on the streets of Rome.
The Senate’s Constitutional Affairs Committee on Tuesday unanimously approved setting up the inquest, and full Senate approval is now expected. The Chamber of Deputies, the Italian Parliament’s lower house, gave it’s go ahead earlier.
Separately, Vatican and Rome prosecutors both recently reopened their investigations in the case.
Orlandi vanished 40 years ago last week, on June 22, 1983, after leaving her family’s Vatican City apartment to go to a music lesson in Rome. Her father was a lay employee of the Holy See. Theories over the years have linked her disappearance at age 15 to everything from the plot to kill St. John Paul II, a financial scandal involving the Vatican bank and Rome’s criminal underworld.
The family and their supporters marked the anniversary with a protest and a march to St. Peter’s Square on Sunday, calling for the truth about what happened to Orlandi to finally emerge. Pope Francis observed the passage of time during his Sunday noon blessing., issuing a rare papal acknowledgment of the family’s enduring pain.
“These days mark the 40th anniversary of the disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi,” Francis said from his studio overlooking St. Peter’s Square to Orlandi’s supporters below. “I wish on this occasion to express once again my closeness to the family, especially to the mother, and to assure them of my prayers”.
The lawyer for the Orlandi family, Laura Sgro, applauded Tuesday’s Senate committee action as a good sign and called for speedy approval by the full Senate.
“The search for truth and justice belongs to all people of good will, and today the Senate showed it wants clarity and transparency on the Emanuela case,” she said.
Sgro earlier praised Francis’ decision to speak publicly about the case and to express his solidarity with the family.
“A taboo has fallen,” she said. “It wasn’t a given, and we are grateful to Pope Francis for this gesture.”
Popular interest in the case was renewed last year with the four-part Netflix documentary “Vatican Girl,” which explored the various scenarios suspected in Orlandi’s disappearance. The documentary included new testimony from a friend who said Orlandi told her a week before she vanished that a high-ranking Vatican cleric had made sexual advances toward her.
After the documentary aired and with the 40th anniversary of her disappearance nearing, Orlandi’s family, with backing from some Italian lawmakers, pressed for a parliamentary commission of inquiry.
The Vatican prosecutor recently revealed that he had uncovered while delving into the cold case files new leads “worthy of further investigation.” The prosecutor urged the lawmakers to butt out and let law enforcement do its work, but both houses of Parliament nevertheless pressed ahead with their own inquest.
The parliamentary inquiry will look into the disappearances of other young women around the same time as Orlandi went missing. The Italian Constitution allows lawmakers and senators to conduct investigations “on matters of public interest.”
They used such inquests in the past to dig deeply into unresolved Mafia crimes and terrorist attacks, The inquiries are not meant to replace police investigations, but participating members of the Italian Parliament have the same powers and restrictions as members of law enforcement.
Parliamentary inquest into ‘Vatican Girl’ mystery moves forward as pope acknowledges family’s pain
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Parliamentary inquest into ‘Vatican Girl’ mystery moves forward as pope acknowledges family’s pain
- Emanuela Orlandi vanished 40 years ago last week, on June 22, 1983, after leaving her family’s Vatican City apartment to go to a music lesson in Rome
- Theories over the years have linked her disappearance at age 15 to everything from the plot to kill St. John Paul II, a financial scandal involving the Vatican bank and Rome’s criminal underworld
US intel did not suggest a preemptive strike from Iran before US-Israeli attacks, AP sources say
- The official said a variety of factors created a golden opportunity to take out much of Iran’s leadership
WASHINGTON: Trump administration officials told congressional staff in private briefings Sunday that US intelligence did not suggest Iran was preparing to launch a preemptive strike against the US, three people familiar with the briefings said.
The administration officials instead acknowledged there was a more general threat in the region from Iran’s missiles and proxy forces, two of the people said. The third person, however, said the administration emphasized that Iran’s missiles and proxy forces posed an imminent threat to US personnel and allies in the region.
The officials did not provide any clarity about what would happen next in Iran after the joint US-Israeli operation, the two people said. All three people insisted on anonymity to discuss details that have not been made public.
The information conveyed to the congressional staff contrasts with the message from President Donald Trump. “Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime. A vicious group of very hard, terrible people,” he said in a video message after launching strikes on Iran.
Senior Trump administration officials, who like others were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, had told reporters Saturday that there were indicators that the Iranians could launch a preemptive attack.
The White House and Pentagon did not immediately reply to requests for comment on Sunday night. Details of the briefing were first reported by Politico.
On Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will brief the full membership of Congress on the US military operation against Iran, the White House said Sunday. Rubio also was slated to brief Hill leadership Monday, the same day Hegseth and Caine are planning a press conference about the operation.
Three strikes, three locations, within a single minute
The military operation came after authorities from Israel and the US spent weeks tracking the movements of senior Iranian leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and shared information that allowed the strikes to be carried out in a surprise daylight attack, according to an Israeli military official and another person familiar with the operation.
The eventual barrage of US-Israeli attacks on Iran came so quickly that they were nearly simultaneous — with three strikes in three locations hitting within a single minute — killing Khamenei and some 40 senior figures, including the head of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and the country’s defense minister, the Israeli military official said Sunday.
The official said a variety of factors created a golden opportunity to take out much of Iran’s leadership, like weeks of training and monitoring the movements of senior figures as well as intelligence in real-time before the attack began that key targets were gathered together.
Striking by day also gave an additional element of surprise, said the official, who said so many major, rapid-fire strikes were critical to keep key officials from fleeing after the first strike. The official said Israel closely cooperated with its US counterparts and had used a similar tactic at the beginning of last June’s war — which resulted in the killing of several senior Iranian figures.
The official also noted Khamenei having posted defiant tweets taunting President Donald Trump in the days before the attack.
The details about the strikes came as the conflict entered its second day, with Trump saying in a video message Sunday that he expected it would continue until “all of our objectives are achieved.” He did not spell out what those objectives were.
The Republican president also said the US military and its partners hit hundreds of targets in Iran, including Revolutionary Guard facilities, Iranian air defense systems and nine warships, “all in a matter of literally minutes.”
CIA had long tracked top Iranian leaders
Before the attacks, the CIA had for months tracked the movements of senior Iranian leaders, including Khamenei.
The intelligence was shared with Israeli officials, and the timing of the strikes was adjusted in part because of that information about the Iranian leaders’ location, according to the person familiar with the planning.
The intelligence-sharing between US and Israel reflects the preparation that went into the strikes, which threw the future of the Islamic Republic into uncertainty and raised the risk of escalating regional conflict.
The US regularly shares intelligence with allies including Israel. Those partnerships, and the accuracy of the intelligence they yield, is often critical not only to the success of a military operation but also to the public’s support for it.
Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the senior Democrat on the committee, told The Associated Press that, historically, “our working relationship with the Mossad and Israel is really strong.” Mossad is the Israeli spy agency.
Warner said he has serious concerns about the justification for the strikes, Trump’s long-term plans for the conflict and the risks that US service members will face. The military announced Sunday that three American troops had been killed in the Iran operation.
“No tears will be shed over their leadership being eliminated, but always the question is: OK, what next?” Warner said.
Iran has signaled it’s open to talks with the US
A senior White House official said Iran’s “new potential leadership” has suggested it is open to talks with the United States. That official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal administration deliberations, said Trump has indicated he’s “eventually” willing to talk but that for now the military operation “continues unabated.”
The official did not say who the potential new Iranian leaders are or how they made their alleged willingness to talk known. Separately, Trump told The Atlantic that he planned to speak with Iran’s new leadership.
“They want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them,” he said Sunday, declining comment on the timing.
