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YouTube video claiming attack on Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi was staged is hit on Internet (video)
by Open-Publishing - Tuesday 22 December 2009
By Ethan Sacks
A video suggesting that the attack on Silvio Berlusconi was staged has hit the Internet with enough force to be an embarrassing blow to the wounded Italian premier.
An eight-minute YouTube video in Italian — "Was the attack on Berlusconi a montage?" and consisting of stills and video clips from the Milan incident — notched 500,000 hits in the first few hours after it was posted, London’s Daily Mail reported.
Berlusconi was hospitalized with a broken nose, two broken teeth and major blood loss after the Dec. 13 attack during a rally in Milan in which a mentally disturbed man smashed the 73-year-old politician in the face with a marble statuette of a cathedral.
"I can’t believe people are questioning the attack just because they think Berlusconi wasn’t bleeding properly or enough," party supporter Daniele Capezzone told the Daily Mail.
Among the assertions leveled by the video:
* A photo still suggests bodyguards handed Berlusconi an object in the aftermath of the attack — possibly an aerosol can filled with fake blood.
* Berlusconi’s approval rating has jumped 20% in the aftermath of the attack, a much-needed leap for an unpopular prime minister reeling from corruption trials and scandals involving trysts with show girls and escorts.
Capezzone called the conspiracy theory video an example of "microterrorism" and told The London Times it was produced by "cowards, falsifiers and dreamers."