* Subject: P-2 * From: Louis P.
________________________________ From Luigi DiFonzo's "St. Peter's Banker: Michele Sindona" (I referred to this incorrectly yesterday as "God's Banker") Freemasonry first appeared in Europe in the seventeenth century. The Masonic lodges as an organized group remained politically neutral; members, however, were bound by oath to fight for the abolition of censorship, for religious choice, freedom from arbitrary arrest and imprisonment without trial, and the destruction of authority that refused to grant representation. Freemasons have throughout history been involved in revolutions. Voltaire and Diderot, writers who influenced the French Revolution, were both members of the order. Some historians have credited the Freemasons with the success of the Russian Revolution of 1917. The Masons have also been credited with, or blamed for, the Spanish civil war and the start of World War I (the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand). The ideals behind Freemasonry were the foundation of the American Revolution: Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Paul Revere, and John Paul Jones were all Masons. And under the direction of Grand Master Giuseppe Garibaldi, the Masonic Order played a leading role in the unification of Italy. Only in Italy have the Freemasons as a group been actively involved in politics. During World War II a large number of Masons were jailed and tortured by Mussolini for opposing his dictatorship. Yet, for some unexplainable reason, the Masonic Order accepted Licio Gelli as a member. As a result, with the support of the Grande Oriente, the Anti-Fascist Commission cleared Gelli of war crimes with which the partisan commission had charged him. With the backing and support of the Masonic Order and the government of Argentina, Gelli soon prospered. He traveled frequently to Hungary, Rumania, and Libya to negotiate multimillion-dollar contracts for Argentina and for himself. Within a few years he had purchased several magnificent villas in northern Italy, Monaco, and Argentina, and he threw lavish parties to display his wealth. In Rome, however, Gelli operated secretly out of room 127 of the Excelsior Hotel. In 1964, when the communists and other leftists were gaining influence in Italy, Michele Sindona's preaching of pro-Western philosophy roused Gelli's political beliefs. Eventually, as grand master of Propaganda Due, Licio Gelli declared himself "a lifelong anti-communist." Propaganda Due originated in the early nineteenth century with the birth of the secret society known as the Carbonari. The lodges were similar to Masonic lodges. Carbonari membership however, included Freemasons, mafiosi, and military officers who were more serious about their political beliefs than other Masons. They opposed Napoleonic rule,- recruited members in Spain, Greece, France, and Russia; won constitutions in Spain and a few Italian states,- and led Greece in its fight for independence. The success of the Carbonari was due to the dedication of its individual members and to the initiation ceremony, which threatened "certain and violent death" for any member who violated the society's secrets. The presence of mafiosi among the Carbonari guaranteed that violators of omerta, the Sicilian code of silence, would meet death by mutilation. As grand master of P-2, Licio Gelli turned the lodge into the most powerful, political, and violent secret organization in Italy. Important Italian generals, magistrates, and businessmen became members of P-2, which Gelli severed from the hierarchy of Freemasonry. According to a former U.S. intelligence officer who until recently was stationed in Italy where he became friendly with Gelli, P-2 under Gelli's command became "an underground state within a state." Determined to destroy Italy's parliamentary system of government in order to form a presidential dictatorship, Gelli recruited members who swore allegiance to him rather than to the nation of Italy. A distinguished-looking man of medium height and build, with silver hair and a charismatic personality, Licio Gelli recruited powerful bankers, industrialists, generals and colonels of the Italian army, and agents of Italy's highly secret Service of Defense Information (SID). His greatest single recruiting victory, however, was the membership of Carmelo Spagnuolo, who was at the time chief public prosecutor in Milan and who later became president of a division of the Italian supreme court. Gelli was not brilliant so much as shrewd and devious. He had money and power, but he realized that wealth and position meant little without the weapon of fear. Gelli believed that fear was the instrument by which real power could be masterfully employed, and he believed fear was most useful when cloaked in silence. So Grand Master Gelli divided members of P-2 into divisions and forbade them to disclose their membership. Secret societies are illegal in Italy. Freemasonry is allowed to exist only if each lodge agrees to disclose the names of its members. Gelli, however, would not do this. His connections were strong enough and high enough that no one dared to challenge P-2's dark existence. Gelli had made it impossible for anyone outside the order to learn the identity of P-2 Masons, and even within P-2, members of one group could not learn the identity of any member of another group. As the only person to know every member's name, Licio Gelli had ensured his position and power. He used contacts in government and business to gather secrets about members and nonmembers alike, and he used their dossiers to increase his wealth and influence. A leather folder containing details of embarrassing and criminal acts committed by an individual would be delivered to that person's house or office. A calling card that read simply "P-2" identified the sender. Contact would be made and a deal struck for either money or favors. By his consistent and ruthless use of blackmail, political favors, bribes, and the purchase of important government positions for members of the secret Mafia-Masonry-style society, Gelli, an Italian journalist says, "was king and pope. Many hated him for his bad character and fascist past, but no one dared cross him." Like a public relations expert, Gelli manipulated people and situations. At parties he boasted of his friendship with judges, military leaders, and powerful businessmen like Michele Sindona. Gelli's activities, of course, did not go unnoticed. Italians began to refer to P-2 as "a state within the state." Rumors of pagan rituals filled the imagination of the public. Even some of Gelli's confidants called him "Naja Hannah" (King Cobra), and Naja Hannah was said to be a magician who cut through red tape and produced results. So, in traditional Italian style, nonmembers seeking promotions in government or business offered suitcases stuffed with lire or, if their position allowed, political favors. In Italy Propaganda Due exists, like the Mafia, as an accepted fact of life, because Italians have learned to treat corruption not as an evil but as an art. They believe not in the state but in the power of those who are feared - the creators of intrigue and chaos. This conspiratorial chaos permeates every level of Italian society from the peasantry to the nobility, with an attitude that says, in effect, "To survive, one must have the protection of friends who have friends." Such a belief has fed the cancer of corruption, undermined the foundation of social ethics, and distorted the individual Italian's concept of morality. Desensitized to crime and scandal, Italians have come to the devastating- yet for them practical - conclusion that parties change faces but the system remains the same. What is truly important is not changing the system but instead simply making it work for oneself. A Mafia complex has spread throughout northern Italy, especially Rome and Milan, where political parties serve special interest groups like the Vatican by manipulating a degenerate system for personal gain. In summary, as a result of the morbid realism that pervades Italy, beneath the structure of that nation's official government there exists another more potent government, which serves the special interests of its members and financial supporters. Still deeper below, another government operates in complete darkness. It has been called the Mafia, the High Mafia, and Propaganda Due. Italians have surrendered to it, some by watching without opposition, others by not caring, and still others by using it. So for Licio Gelli to have recruited important military and judicial figures, to have organized P-2 as a secret power, even as "a state within the state," may not have been such an extraordinary accomplishment. Michele Sindona and Licio Gelli became allies. The web that they would weave would seriously threaten the economy of Italy and eventually bring about the collapse of Italy's fortieth government since World War II. Before that would happen, however, they would weave a network of deals that would include two attempted coups. Yet their personal differences were extreme. Licio Gelli proudly fought for Mussolini; Sindona refused to wear the fascist uniform in school. Gelli was anti-Semitic; Sindona in 1973 raised $2 million for Israel. Gelli believed in a dictatorship; Sindona wanted for Italy, he says, an American form of democracy. But they were both capitalists, they were both anti-communists and anti-leftists, and they both believed that some men, the truly gifted, were above the morals and laws that applied to the rest of society. That Gelli wanted a dictatorship was not important to Sindona. By the time Gelli approached him, Michele had become hard, cunning, and scornful of the motives of the Italian government. That P-2 operated illegally was also not important to Sindona, because Italians, especially super-Italians, do not respect the law. All that was important was that P-2 was powerful and would create opportunity and protect capital. In other words, Michele Sindona did not join forces with Licio Gelli because he was a valiant defender of democracy and human rights. Sindona was not a martyr. He became a P-2 Freemason for the clearest of all reasons, the very same reason for which men who are driven by success have always done things -for profit. _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [email protected] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
