Propaganda Due: A Strange and Terrible Journey Into the Heart of the Deep State Part I
The Internet is awash with a host of Byzantine conspiracy theories concerning Freemasonry. The legitimacy of these claims varies widely and an individual can easily dedicate a considerable amount of time (and money) researching claims that are utterly baseless. And the diligent research will come to find that many of these claims are baseless or at least highly embellished, be assured. An overview of the vast litany of material claiming to reveal the nefarious aims of Freemasonry is well beyond the scope of this blog --indeed, several books could be written on this subject.
While the subject at hand --the notorious Propaganda Due lodge (generally referred to as P2) of Italy --is certainly a staple of Masonic conspiracy literature, much of said literature is of little value in understanding the true aims and masters of P2. P2 was many things, but a conventional Masonic lodge it was not. It has been described as a parallel or shadow government of Italy and during its heyday there was much merit to this claim. But P2's activities were not restricted to Italy --it was an international organization with branches all across Europe and the Americas. And its contacts were impeccable --the intelligence services of the US, USSR and various other European governments as well as various politicians and organized crime figures spanning either Bloc.
the so-called "Black Friars" of P2
During its peak years of activity --from roughly 1969 to 1982 --Propaganda Due's presence in a host of scandals that rocked both Italy and the international scene always seemed to be vaguely discernable like lipstick traces on a cigarette. In one form or another the organization has been linked to the notorious "Operation Gladio" (of which much more will be written on in a future installment), the Vatican banking scandal, the bizarre death of Pope John Paul I, the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II, Italy's "Years of Lead" (a prolonged period of indiscriminate terrorism that destabilized the nation throughout the 1970s), various Latin American death squads and international drug trafficking. As to the latter, regular readers of this blog where given a glimpse of P2's drug dealings during my examination of the legendary LSD baron Ronald Hadley Stark.
Stark
Be assured dear reader that this is only scratching the surface of P2's shadowy deeds. Indeed, one of the most daunting tasks that comes with chronicling P2 is determining an appropriate place to start for the lodge's history is quite "epic." The best I could come up with is with is the lodge's alleged master, the infamous Licio Gelli. Gelli was likely little more than a puppet himself, but his history and that of P2 are so closely entwined that one can not be understood one without addressing the other. So, let us get on with it.
Gelli became involved with deep intrigues at a very young age."... At the age of seventeen, Gelli enrolled as a volunteer in the 735th Black Shirts Battalion and went to fight in Spain, where his brother Raffaele was killed at Malaga in April 1938. After returning to Italy Gelli enlisted in an infantry regiment in 1940. A year later he volunteered to join the parachute regiment but was invalided out after an accident in training. In 1942 he was sent to the small port of Cattaro in Yugoslavia as a aide-de-camp to a Fascist Party official. There he is reported to work for SIM, the wartime secret service, and come into contact with representatives of the British and Soviet secret services. At the time the Italians were holding the Yugoslav nation gold reserves in the town before transporting them to Rome and were warding off attempts by the British, Germans and Yugoslav Resistance to 'liberate' the gold. The fact is sometimes cited as a possible explanation for Gelli's subsequent wealth. His boss, Piero Parini, was reportedly involved in putting out secret feelers on behalf of Mussolini to both Soviet and Western representatives. If Gelli was involved in these negotiations it may have given him his first opportunity to enter into contact with secret services from both sides of the future Iron Curtain.
"In 1943 he returned to Italy to become liaison officer for the German forces in his home town of Pistoia, with the rank of sergeant-major in the Herman Goring Division of the German SS. It was during the closing stages of the war that he began to show the talent for deviousness and double-dealing for which he would later be renowned and which would make it so difficult to identify him and his true political colours. Overtly committed to the fascist Salo regime but facing the certainty of an imminent Allied victory, Gelli had to resolve a further dilemma: with which partisan camp should he throw in his lot? Given hostility between the Communists and the other anti-fascist forces, having collaborated with one group would not necessarily guarantee protection from the other. As a natural survivor, Gelli appears to have hedged his bets. His biographers cite descriptions of him as a ferocious torturer of Italian partisans and deserters. But other accounts have him leading German troops on fruitless searches of the Italian countryside having first tipped off the Resistance about their plans."
(Puppetmasters, Philip Willan, pgs. 50-51)
Gelli during his youth
Continues at: http://visupview.blogspot.com/2015/05/p ... rible.html
