Provenzano is the boss of bosses, at large for 43 years, responsible for hundreds of assassinations of judges, police, upright citizens as well as the brutal mafia wars of the seventies and eighties. Together with Totò Riina they launched a war against the state in the 80's and 90's. They were behind indiscriminate terror bombings throughout Italy. The judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino were massacred along with their escorts.

Known as "the tractor" Provenzano gained notoriety with the Viale Lazio massacre in 1969 (Palermo.) Under the boss Luciano Liggio the Corleonese launched an all-out war on the rival clans and after thousands of dead became the absolute rulers of the mafia, an empire that embraced three continents.

After the capture of Riina in 1993, Provenzano became the boss and adopted a far more subtle strategy of the silent, educated, white collar mafia that concentrated its extraordinary wealth in international finance. There has never been a mystery about the collusion of high finance, Masonry, and politicians with the mafia. It was the courageous work of isolated and incorruptible judges, reporters, politicians and cops that triggered the war against the state in the 80's. So long as civil society bothered with the mafia's military branch, everything was acceptable.

The capture of Provenzano the day after the elections is highly symbolic. It means that he was no longer protected by his allies. It means that the forces of law had managed to weed out the informants and spies in their midst.

The most recent case is the story of Kissy-kiss Cuffaro, the president of Sicily, now on trial for external support of the mafia and Rightwing candidate for the upcoming presidential elections in Sicily. His entire entourage has been incriminated for revealing the progress of the investigations against the mafia with the crime of association with the mafia.

Two alleged mafia bosses, Doctor Giuseppe Guttadauro and Doctor Michele Aiello, were informed of the investigators' progress throughout. Yet what was a mystery is how Cuffaro's entourage learnt of the investigations. It now appears that it is part of the great wire-taping scandal that directly implicates Pollari's Sismi not only in spying on the Procura of Palermo but also on the Procura of Milan in the David Mill's bribery case.

The alleged private use of the Italian Secret Services by the Berlusconi entourage to keep abreast of investigations that involve him and his clique is only at the first stage.

The capture of Provenzano sends a strong message to those parties and their leaders that they are not invulnerable despite their popular base.