Here's an article about the P3
http://www.economist.com/node/16646064 The latest Italian scandal
Out of the shadows
The return of secret-society scandal to Italian public lifeJul 22nd 2010 | ROME
SECRET societies run through the tapestry of Italy’s history like a half-hidden thread: from the 19th-century proto-nationalists known as Carbonari to Propaganda Due (P2), a rogue Masonic lodge with a mission to infiltrate the organs of state and a membership that included politicians, soldiers, spooks and the current prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi.
The discovery of the P2 in 1981 prompted a law outlawing secret societies.
It is back in use. In recent weeks prosecutors have cautioned seven people they suspect of belonging to an illegal cabal. (All deny wrongdoing.) Some are close to the prime minister. Senator Marcello Dell’Utri, who is already fighting a conviction for mafia links, created the party with which Mr Berlusconi entered politics. Denis Verdini is a national organiser of his current political vehicle, the People of Freedom movement (PdL). Nicola Cosentino was a junior economy minister until he resigned on July 14th.
Another alleged member of what the press have dubbed “P3” is Flavio Carboni, a businessman tried for murder in the still-mysterious death, in 1982, of Roberto Calvi, a prominent banker (and P2 initiate). Mr Carboni’s 2007 acquittal was upheld on appeal in May. But on July 8th he was jailed in connection with the P3 inquiry.
His return to the headlines gives the affair a retro feel. But the prosecutors’ concerns are contemporary. They suspect the group of conspiring to further Mr Berlusconi’s interests with a mix of dubious blandishments and dirty tricks. They say they have evidence it dug into the sex life of an opposition candidate, plotted to influence a politically sensitive corruption inquiry, and tried to get at judges before they ruled on a measure to grant the prime minister and others immunity from prosecution.
Much has yet to be proved, not least that the P3 was anything more than a circle of acquaintances. Mr Berlusconi says the prosecutors are wasting time on “no-hopers”. Some of those questioned by prosecutors have said the suspects acted on their own initiative. But in leaked wiretaps members of the group cite an authority figure code-named “Caesar”. The prime minister’s lawyer has denied they were talking about his client, noting “Caesar” was said to be in Sicily when Mr Berlusconi was not.
The affair is nevertheless uncomfortable for the prime minister. His critics in the PdL, under its co-founder Gianfranco Fini, have a new cause—the resignation of Mr Verdini (already a suspect in two corruption investigations). And by defending the P3 suspects, rather than just letting the prosecutors do their work, Mr Berlusconi leaves himself open to the charge of being indifferent to sleaze. Already this year, he has backed two ministers accused of shady dealings, both of whom subsequently resigned. Those were political miscalculations. He can ill afford a third.
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