Propaganda Due: Encyclopedia II - Propaganda Due - Criminal organization?

Propaganda Due - Criminal organization?

Propaganda Due - Parliamentary commission directed by Tina Anselmi

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.

Propaganda Due - New Italian law prohibiting secret lodges

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.

Propaganda Due - Banco Ambrosiano scandal

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.

Propaganda Due - Aldo Moro and the strategy of tension

Main articles: Aldo Moro and strategy of tension

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.

Propaganda Due - Iran-Contra & assassination of Swedish prime minister Olof Palme

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. 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 Olof 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, Olof 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." [2]

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Criminal organization?", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki