"In other words, it may be that part of Ledeen's strategy of tension (I'm sure both he and Angleton believed in a strategy of tension) to call for support for moderates in Iran while at the same time dealing with the hardliners. Don't know how that keeps Israel safe, but I'm trying to figure out what they hell he's thinking.I'd never really looked into P2 (heck, I hardly have a clue about iran-contra) - but P2 was also a focal point of part 2 of Larisa's interview with Ledeen the other day. I've had a closer look, and P2 sure was some crazy shit! The evil triumverate of P2, Gladio and Iran-Contra looks a helluva lot like the same stuff that we are seeing today - with many of the same players. Heck, even the same rule book.
There are, of course, rumors that Ledeen/P2 were involved in whatever October Surprise Reagan/Bush pulled off in 1980. And all narratives of the October surprise argue Israel brokered the deal in an attempt to keep its alliance with the periphery (the non-Arab periphery of its sphere of influence) strong."
The other day I quoted Theodore Draper from his book, A Very Thin Line (again via emptywheel):
""I shared some of my concerns with a civilian who had been remotely acquainted with the Luti-Feith-Perle political clan in his previous work for one of the senior Pentagon witnesses during the Iran-Contra hearings. He told me these guys were engaged in something worse than Iran-Contra. I was curious but he wouldn't tell me anything more. I figured he knew what he was talking about. I thought of him when I read much later about the 2002 and 2003 meetings between Michael Ledeen, Reuel Marc Gerecht and Iranian arms dealer Manucher Ghorbanifar -- all Iran-Contra figures.""and here's some more Draper (again from EW):
The unfinished business of Iran-contra affairs will not go away. The Iran-contra affairs amounted to more than good plans gone wrong or even bad plans gone wildly wrong. They were symptomatic of a far deeper disorder in the American body politic. They were made possible by an interpretation of the Constitution which Poindexter and North thought gave them a license to carry on their secret operations in the name of the president, in defiance of the law and without the knowledge of any other branch of the government. We have barely begun to face the issue which this constitutional perversion presents, with the result that some Iran-contra variant could, sooner or later, recur.yeah, no shit. redux, redux, redux.
[snip]
Another issue was whether funds were appropriated solely by Congress. In this case, Poindexter admitted, "you probably have to have, as we do have, a very detailed accounting system to make sure the money is all spent for its intended purpose." But there was an escape hatch. If unappropriated money were used, Poindexter held, no accounting would be necessary. In the case of Secord's operation, Poindexter said, "we are talking about private funds, third-country funds that really are outside of the purview of the U.S.government."
[snip]
Congress was an easy, almost willing, victim of the administration's machinations. After passing the critical Boland Amendment in 1984, the intelligence committees barely paid attention to their responsibility for "oversight" over the way it was carried out.
[snip]
The best in our history is based on the premise that the dangers of arbitrary power are vastly greater than the disadvantages of shared power. If we give up this premise, we must become a very different country, with very different constitutional foundation.
The Iran-contra affairs showed where arbitrary power can lead us. They were made possible by a breakdown in the American system of government. The most important thing that we can learn from them is what broke down and why. If the lesson is not learned we can expect similar trouble every time a president takes some critical action in foreign policy on his own and overreaches himself. The bifurcated presidency has not been put behind us, nor is there any reason to believe that the three branches of government have risen to their responsibilities. Until they do, the Iran-contra affairs will be unfinished business.
But it's more than Iran-Contra. I can't really do the story justice in this post. I'll try to give you a taste - but i recommend that you read, for starters, the wikipedia entries for P2, Gladio and 'Strategy of Tension', for starters. Basically, P2 was a neo-fascist organisation funded by the CIA, Gladio was a false-flag gig, and the strategy of tension is basically the idea that you can create your desired outcome by pitting one group against another by using flase-flag ops.
This from the wikipedia entry for P2 (and remember, this is the stuff that Larisa was pointing to in the latest instalment of the Ledeen interview):
P2 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.Does any of that sound familiar? arms and drug trafficking? recycling money? infiltrating the media and the courts and the legislature and the army?
[snip]
A document was also found in the possession of Licio Gelli (Boss of P2) 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.
[snip]
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.
[snip]
According to an interview given by former 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 rise 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").
[snip]
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."
Then there's this from the wikipedia entry on 'strategy of tension':
The strategy of tension (Italian: strategia della tensione) is a way to control and manipulate public opinion using fear, propaganda, disinformation, psychological warfare, agents provocateurs and threats of terrorism.does any of that sound familiar?
The term was coined in Italy during the trials that followed the 1970s and 1980s terror attacks and murders committed by neofascist terrorists (such as Ordine Nuovo, Avanguardia Nazionale or Fronte Nazionale). The terrorists were backed by intelligence agencies, P2 masonic lodge and Gladio, a NATO secret army set up to perform guerilla and resistance activites should Italy be successfully invaded by the Soviet bloc (there were equivalent armies in most Western states), which due to its clandestine nature was largely unmonitored and so unchecked by civilian agencies and began to persue its own right wing, anti-communist agenda using the rather violent means at its disposal.
The suspected aim of these crimes was to make the public believe that the bombings were committed by a communist insurgency, to promote the formation of an authoritarian government
One of P2's main gigs was the Bologna railway bombing, August 2, 1980, which "killed 85 persons and injured 200." The final sentence didn't occur till 1995 - implicating Licio Gelli, Francesco Pazienza and a couple of SISMI officers.
After the madrid train bombing, Billmon was tempted to draw the same link:
But the Bologna bombing, coupled with the collapse two years later of the well-connected and highly corrupt Banco Ambrosiano, eventually led to the exposure of P-2 and Italy's neofascist secret government.
This, in turn, uncovered Operation Gladio -- a long-standing CIA program designed to sabotage Italy's large and well-organized Communist Party by any means necessary, up to and including a right-wing coup, if the Communists succeeded in forming or joining a coalition government.
This from Larisa's latest:
"Michael Ledeen: There’s no truth to the P2 charges. In fact I didn’t believe in its existence, even though various Italians, including Pazienza, were pushing me to interview Licio Gelli, who was the head of (P2)."the same people... the same game. (we can't trust any denials that fall out of Ledeen's mouth)
then there's this, from wikipedia's entry on Gelli:
"According to a November 18, 1990 article by The Observer, quoted by Statewatch, "Declassified secret service papers reveal that Ted Shackleton, deputy chief of the CIA station in Rome in the 1970’s introduced the notorious Licio Gelli – head of the neo-fascist P2 masonic lodge and for years a fugitive in Argentina – to General Alexander Haig, then Nixon's chief of staff, and later, from 1974 to 1979, NATO Supreme Commander. P2 was a right-wing shadow government, ready to take over Italy, that included four Cabinet Ministers, all three intelligence chiefs, 48 MPs, 160 military officers, bankers, industrialists, top dipomats and the Army Chief of Staff. After meetings between Gelli, Italian military brass and CIA men in the embassy, Gladio was given renewed blessing – and more money – by Haig and the then head of the National Security Council, Henry Kissinger."and this:
"The P-2 Lodge, headed by fascist leader Licio Gelli, reportedly maintained close links to former Secretary of State Alexander Haig and his one-time foreign affairs adviser, Michael Ledeen.I've said before that there are only two things worth reading in the Larisa/Ledeen interviews: 1) the questions (it's famously impossible trying to believe anything that falls out of Ledeen's mouth)
A number of SISMI agents and assets have also been tied to the group, including Francesco Pazienza, an SISMI agent, and Rocco Martino, who said he was the source of the faked Niger yellowcake uranium documents"
2) watching the dance
Look at this:
Raw Story's Larisa Alexandrovna: Looking back at your career and over the many controversies, the allegations that you were tied to P2 were the most intriguing. Is there any truth to this? Did you know Francesco Pazienza?larisa knows her shit and is very well prepared. i've spent many hours dissecting every word that she has written - she doesn't jump from Pazienza to Pollari in an instant by accident.
Michael Ledeen: There’s no truth to the P2 charges. In fact I didn’t believe in its existence, even though various Italians, including Pazienza, were pushing me to interview Licio Gelli, who was the head of it. I was New Republic correspondent at the time, and it probably would have been a good story, but I thought it was just another of the endless conspiracy theories that one ran into every day. Probably I should have talked to Gelli, then you’d have another suspicious connection…
Raw Story: I am not accusing you or attempting to locate suspicious connections. I am simply asking about allegations. How did you meet current SISMI chief Nicollo Pollari? You are good friends, no?
Pollari was involved with the Rome meetings, and was also a member of P2, and was involved in the creation of the Niger documents - and famously met with Hadley and Rice to disseminate. These people know how to create dodgy intelligence and how to slipstream it into officialdom. In fact, I'd venture to say that their main expertise is knowing what people want to hear - once you know that, you could finger-paint the information in gravy on the back of an napkin and people will buy it. That's their genius.
I must admit, i've never been really very interested in the Rome/Paris meetings - and/or the genesis of the Niger forgeries - I never really got it. till now.
jeebus. all i needed to do to understand all this stuff was to look at the playbook from half a generation ago.
what's the sound of one penny dropping?
apologies if this post is a bit randomish (ed: yeah, like that's unusual!). so much to understand, so little time. and so many new questions! and answers!
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