(Reuters) Mussolini diaries are fakes, says Italian magazine

[Eugene]

Mussolini diaries are fakes, says Italian magazine

By Robin Pomeroy

Thu Feb 15, 12:49 PM ET

ROME (Reuters) - Newly discovered diaries supposedly written by fascist dictator
Benito Mussolini in the run up to World War Two are fakes, according to an Italian
magazine.

L'Espresso magazine said it was offered the diaries -- which a prominent Italian
politician had said were authentic and would soon be published -- in November 2004
but turned them down because they were bogus.

"Wrong names, grammatical errors, chronological discrepancies, inconsistencies and
inaccuracies," said Emilio Gentile, a prominent historian whom the magazine
commissioned to verify the diaries.

-snip-

Senator Marcello Dell'Utri stood by his assertion that the books were real. When
published, probably within the next six to 12 months, they would show the world the
human face of the man who ruled from 1922 and took Italy into a disastrous alliance
with Adolf Hitler, he said.

-snip-

Dell'Utri, a close business associate of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, said
among the publishers interested in the diaries was Mondadori which is controlled by
Berlusconi's family.

-snip-

Full article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070215/wl_nm/italy_mussolini_dc

[Richard Steele]

1. "According to L'Espresso, many parts of the diaries appear to have been copied, word-for-word..."

"According to L'Espresso, many parts of the diaries
appear to have been copied, word-for-word, from newspaper
accounts of Mussolini's engagements. The author also seems
to make several elementary spelling mistakes and mixes up
the identities of key contemporary and historical figures."