(ANSA) - ROME, MAY 6 - A close aide of Defence Minister Guido
Crosetto said Monday that suspended army general Robero
Vannucci, now a League candidate in next month's European
elections, had damaged the army's image and reputation with his
bestselling book The World Back To Front slamming gays, Blacks,
feminists, Jews and other minorities.
Lieutenant-Colonel Gianfranco Paglia, a Crosetto advisor, said
the former paratroop commander's book "has tarnished the
uniform, and we military cannot afford it.
"My duty,' Paglia added, "is to explain to the whole of Italy
that Vannacci's thinking is not the thinking of the Defence
establishment." (ANSA).