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P2 : Propaganda DueP2 is the common name for the Italian Freemasonic lodge Propaganda Due (Italian: Propaganda Two). P2 came to public light with Michele Sindona's inculpation and the Banco Ambrosiano scandal, in which the Vatican Bank had many shares. P2 has been involved in Gladio's strategy of tension - Gladio was the name of the secret "stay-behind" NATO paramilitary organizations. Between 1965 and 1981, it tried to condition the Italian political process through the penetration of persons of confidence to the inside of the magistracy, the Parliament, the army and the press. Beside Italy, P2 was also active in Uruguay, Brazil and especially in Argentina's "Dirty War".Foundation Discovery Criminal organization? Parliamentary commission directed by Tina Anselmi New Italian law prohibiting "secret lodges" Banco Ambrosiano scandal Aldo Moro and the strategy of tension Iran-Contra and assassination of Swedish prime minister Olof Palme Licio Gelli's list of P2 members found in 1981 See also The lodge was founded in 1877, under the Grand Orient of Italy, as a Lodge for visiting members unable to attend their own Lodges. In the mid 1960s it only had 14 permanent members, but when Licio Gelli took over in the 1960s and 1970s, he rapidly expanded the membership to over 1000 (most of whom were prominent and elite Italians) within a year. The expansion was almost certainly illegal, as Italian civil servants are generally forbidden from joining secret societies. "Banker of God" Roberto Calvi's connections with the Worshipful Master Licio Gelli became a particular focus of press and police attention, and caused the lodge (then secret) to be discovered. A list of adherents was found by the police in Gelli's house in Arezzo in March 1981, containing over 900 names, among which were very important state officers, a few politicians (4 ministers or former ministers, and 44 deputies), and a number of military officers, many of them enrolled in the Italian secret services. Notably, the current Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi was on the list, although he had not yet entered elective politics at the time. Another famous member was Victor Emmanuel, Prince of Naples, the current head of the House of Savoy. A document was also found in the possession of Licio Gelli titled "Piano di Rinascita Democratica" (Democratic Rebirth Plan) which amounted to a declaration of the lodge's intent; essentially, Gelli's goal was to form a new political and economical elite to lead Italy towards a more authoritarian form of democracy, in an anti-communist perspective. "The objective of the division of the trade-union must be a priority", the Plan stated, in order to re-unify it with members sensitive to the Plan's objectives. Then-prime minister Arnaldo Forlani was forced to resign- causing the fall of the Italian government. Giovanni Spadolini of the Republican Party (PRI) was then appointed, leading a center-left coalition. Spadolini was the first Italian prime minister not belonging to the Democrazia Cristiana ("Christian Democrats") party. All the secret services' heads, among whom Vito Miceli, had to resign. The lodge was then examined by a special commission of the Italian Parliament, directed by Tina Anselmi of the Democrazia Cristiana. The conclusion of the commission was that it was a secret criminal organization, even if no proof was found of specific crimes committed. Allegations of surreptitious international relationships, mainly with Argentina (Gelli repeatedly suggested he was a close friend of Juan Perón) and with some people suspected of belonging to the American Central Intelligence Agency were also partly confirmed; but soon a political debate overtook the legal level of the analysis. Even though outlawed by Mussolini in 1925, masonic institutions have been tolerated in Italy, but a special law was issued that prohibited secret lodges. The Grande Oriente d'Italia ("Grand Orient of Italy"), after taking disciplinary action against members with P2 connections, distanced itself from Gelli's lodge and claimed to have respect only for honest Freemasons. Other laws introduced a prohibition on membership in such organizations for some categories of state officers (especially military officers). Such laws have been recently questioned by the European Court of Human Rights. P2 became the target of considerable attention in the wake of the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano (one of Milan's principal banks, owned in part by the Vatican Bank), and the suspicious 1982 death of its president Roberto Calvi in London, initially ruled a suicide but later prosecuted as a murder. It was suspected by many that some of the plundered funds went to P2 or its members. It has been repeatedly alleged that P2 was involved in the assassination of Prime Minister Aldo Moro, murdered by the Red Brigades, after the Italian Security Services refused to strike a deal with the abductors, but no concrete proof was ever found. It has also been suspected that P2 was involved in the 1980 Bologna massacre as part of the strategia della tensione followed by Gladio "stay-behind" secret NATO clandestine structure, which led to the opening of investigations, in the 1990s, by the Italian Chamber of Deputies. According to an interview given by formal CIA agent Richard Brenneke and Ibrahim Razin to RAI journalist Ennio Remondino, P2 received funds from the CIA and has been involved in the Iran-Contra affair as well as in the strategy of tension; apparently the CIA supported it because of its determination to stage a coup should the Communist party take power. Due to the importance of the matters discussed, this interview gave rised to a letter from Italian president Francesco Cossiga to prime minister Giulio Andreotti. Extracts: "Q: Excuse me, but your statements are very serious. You say that the P-2 was a creation, the financial and organizational arm of the CIA to destabilize, to run cover operations in Europe? Richard
Brenneke: There is no doubt. The P-2 since the beginning of the
1970s was used for the dope traffic, for destabilization in a covert
way. It was done secretly to keep people from knowing about the
involvement of the U.S. government. In many cases it was done directly
through the offices of the CIA in Rome and in some other cases through
CIA centers in other countries."
Richard
Brenneke: "The P-2 was involved in the operation for which I
ended up in court, that is the delay in the liberation of the American
hostages in Iran in 1980" (known as "October surprise").
Richard Brenneke claims to have met Licio Gelli in Paris in October 1980, in relationship to the "October surprise". According to him, William Casey, who would later become head of the CIA but was at that time manager of the Reagan-Bush campaign, was present, as well as Donald Gregg, who became ambassador to South Korea but at that time worked for the CIA and the National Security Council. Also interviewed, agent Ibrahim Razin claimed that three days before Swedish prime minister's Olaf Palme's assassination, in 1986, Philip Guarino, a member of the Republican circle around George H.W. Bush, received a telegram signed by Licio Gelli and sent by one of his men, Ortolani, from "one of the southernmost regions of Brazil". The telegram said: "Tell our friend that the Swedish palm will be felled." As yet, Olaf Palme's murder has not been solved. According to Ibrahim Razin, "P-2 was at the center, one of the main participants in the illegal arms traffic, which was connected to the drug traffic from the outset. P-2 also made a substantial contribution to the recycling of large amounts of money used for this arms and drugs traffic from one country to another." Answering to a question on CIA-P2 relations, Razin says: "Suffice it to see how the P-2 was involved with Banco Ambrosiano and with Michele Sindona and how the CIA was involved with them in several financial manipulations. For example, in the United States the big scandal involving the S&L banks is big news. The Texas state prosecutor has found evidence of CIA involvement in the bankruptcy of many of these banks which used illegal funds for their operations. The man who knows a lot about this is Richard Brenneke, a former CIA agent from Oregon." Over 900 names; it has been said that at least a thousand names are still secret. It included 30 generals, 38 members of parliament, 4 cabinet ministers, former prime ministers, intelligence chiefs, newspaper editors, TV executives, businessmen, bankers, 19 judges, and 58 university professors. Several piduisti (members of P2) were also members of the Opus Dei Romanian General Nicolae Plesita, chief of Securitate and state secretary of Nicolae Ceausescu, alleged that the stalinist dictator "had his hands tied up to the freemasons through Propaganda Due"
See also: Silvio Berlusconi Nearer to home Speculative Society The Speculative Society membership list |
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