Following the September 11 attack against the United States, GRAPO publicly supported the airplane attacks in New York and Washington, D.C.  GRAPO has appeared increasingly weak over the past decade.  In July 2003, GRAPO's long-time leader was sentenced to ten years in prison.

Cooperative of Hand-Made Fire & Related Items -- Ally

Cell against Capital's Jail and its Jailers and Cells, Cell against the Capital, Jails, Prisoners, and Cells, Cellule contro il Capitale, il Carcere, i Carcerieri, le Celle, Cinque C

The Five C's is an alias for the Italian anarchist group, Cell against Capital's Jail and its Jailers and Cells [in Italian, Jail and Jailers begin with 'C'].  As the name suggests, the group has a vendetta against prisons and the penitentiary system.  The question is why is this mysterious group against prisons, and is this part of a bigger goal?  Another mystery is why this Italy-based group is targeting businesses and people in Spain.<p><p>In their own words, the Five C's intends to "broaden the struggle on behalf of all prison detainees" and expresses solidarity "with the prisoners on hunger strike in the Spanish jails" ("Counterterrorism's Fear," Fiorena Sarzanini; "Spanish Police Assist in Italian Parcel Bomb Investigation," Silvano Rubino).  The question remains, why has the group targeted attacks in Spain to protest the status of prisoners?  The group is based in Italy, and it would seem that Italy has prisons that could just as easily be protested.

What the Five C's does not state explicitly is that there is an alternative reason to protesting Spanish prisons.  Spain is holding three members of Italy's anarchist terrorist network, namely Giovanni Barcia, Michele Pontolillo, and Claudio Lavazza.  While these terrorists await trial, they are being treated as political prisoners under Spain's FIES system.  FIES is a special designation reserved for "Inmates of Particular Relevance," often political prisoners.  Somehow the Five C's, through the apparent reasoning of an anarchist, have decided to protest this prison system by attacking the following: Spanish newspaper offices, Spanish schools inside Italy, Spanish airlines, and a Spanish motorcycle racing champion.  According to the Five C's, all of these targets are to be blamed for either the prison system or the capitalist conditions which lead to their creation.  While the Five C's are anti-capitalistic, they are not part of the Marxist-Leninist terrorist movement in Italy.<br /><p><br />Recent analysis suggests that the Five C's group is now acting as a faction of the Informal Anarchist Federation, a conglomeration of Italian anarchist terrorist groups.