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Interview With Claire Sterling
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17498 |
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Section : |
BOOK WORLD
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7 / 1990 |
1,329 Words |
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WORLD & I: In your earlier books, The Terror Network and Time of the Assassins, you have written about international terrorism. Why did you decide to write about the Sicilian Mafia?
Claire Sterling: The Mafia is the supreme example of terrorism and the art of terrorism. Terrorism is the base on which Mafia power rests: "Kill one, frighten ten thousand" is the principle they follow. Only if the Mafia is seen as being capable of killing anytime, anywhere, can they, as a small group with a few thousand members, retain their power and continue as one of the richer "nations" - drugs alone make them the twentieth richest "nation" in the world.
It only became possible to write about the Sicilian Mafia after 1984-85, when the Mafia wars for control of the heroin trade resulted in defectors, the pentiti, who revealed the Sicilian Mafia's inner workings. Before that, you couldn't get information from eyewitnesses and had to write based on speculation.
WORLD & I: Where has Octopus been published so far?
Claire Sterling: The book appeared simultaneously in Italy, France, Germany, the United States, Britain, and Canada. It has become a best-seller in Europe.
WORLD & I: Beyond being a bestseller, how has the book been received?
Claire Sterling: Octopus has been very well received in Italy. Sicily's celebrated anti-Mafia judge Giovanni Falcone came to Milan
... (1998 of 7653 Characters)
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