Licio Gelli



Licio Gelli
Born April 21, 1919 (1919-04-21) (age 89)
Pistoia, Italy
Nationality Italian
Occupation Financier
Worshipful Master
Licio Gelli (born in Pistoia, Tuscany, April 21, 1919) is an Italian financier, chiefly known for his role in the Banco Ambrosiano scandal. He was revealed in 1981 as being the Worshipful Master of the clandestine Masonic lodge Propaganda Due (P2).

Contents
1 A Fascist volunteer
2 After World War II
2.1 The 1981 raid & the P2 list
2.2 Extradition to Italy and trials
2.3 Connections to Argentina's military junta
2.4 Nomination for Nobel Prize in Literature
2.5 2003 interview
2.6 Film
3 References
4 See also
5 External links



A Fascist volunteer
During the 1930s, Licio Gelli volunteered for the "Black Shirts" expeditionary forces sent by Mussolini to Spain in support to Francisco Franco[1], and subsequently became a liaison officer between the Italian blackshirts government and the Third Reich, with contacts including Hermann Göring. He participated in the Italian Social Republic with Giorgio Almirante, founder of the neofascist Italian Social Movement (MSI).[2][3].

After a sales job with the Italian mattress factory Permaflex, Gelli founded his own textile and importing company.[1][3]


After World War II
Gelli collaborated with American and British intelligence agencies after World War II. Gelli also joined the neofascist MSI, which gave him parliamentary immunity. In 1970, he planned the arrest the President during the failed Golpe Borghese.[citation needed] As headmaster of Propaganda Due (P2) masonesque lodge, Gelli had ties with very high level personalities in Italy and abroad, in particular in Argentina. The Argentine Chancellor Alberto Vignes drafted with Juan Perón, who had returned from exile in 1973, a decree granting Gelli the Gran Cruz de la Orden del Libertador in August 1974, as well as the honorary office of economic counselor in the embassy of Argentina in Italy [4].

According to a letter sent by Gelli to César de la Vega, a P2 member and Argentine ambassador to the UNESCO, Gelli commissioned P2 member Federico Carlos Barttfeld to be transferred from the consulate of Hamburg to the Argentine embassy in Rome [4]. Licio Gelli was also named plenipotentiary minister for cultural affairs in the Argentine embassy in Italy, thus providing him with diplomatic immunity [4]. He had four diplomatic passports issued by Argentina, and has been charged in Argentina of falsification of official documents [4].

During the 70's, Gelli brokered three-way oil and arms deals among Libya, Italy and Argentina through the Agency for Economic Development, which he and Umberto Ortolani owned.[5]

As headmaster of Propaganda Due, Gelli allegedly assumed a major role in Gladio's "strategy of tension" in Italy, starting with the 1969 Piazza Fontana bombing. Gladio was a clandestine "stay-behind" operation sponsored by the CIA and NATO to counter communist influence in Western European countries, which has been involved in terrorist false flags operations in Italy.[6][7][8][9]

In 1990, a report on RAI Television alleged that the CIA had paid Licio Gelli to foment terrorist activities in Italy [10]. Following this report, which also claimed that the CIA had been involved in the assassination of the Swedish Prime minister Olaf Palme, then President Francesco Cossiga requested the opening of investigations, while the CIA itself officially denied these allegations [11]. Critics have dismissed the RAI report as a fraud because of the inclusion of testimonies from controversial Richard Brenneke, who claimed to be a former CIA agent and made several declarations concerning the October surprise conspiracy.

Brenneke's background was also investigated by a U.S. Senate subcommittee, which dismissed Brenneke's claims of CIA employment.[12]. On November 23, 1995, the Court of Cassation (Corte di Cassazione) issued a sentence for investigation diversion to Licio Gelli (headmaster of P2), Francesco Pazienza and to SISMI officers Pietro Musumeci and Giuseppe Belmonte, in relation to the Bologna Massacre.


The 1981 raid & the P2 list
Licio Gelli's downfall started with the Banco Ambrosiano scandal, which led to a 1981 police raid on his villa and the discovery of the P2 covert lodge. On March 17, 1981, a police raid on his villa in Arezzo, led to the discovery of a famous list of 962 persons, composed of Italian military officers and civil servants involved in Propaganda Due (aka "P2"), a clandestine lodge expelled from the Grande Oriente d'Italia Masonic organization [13].

The list also included all the heads of all three secret intelligence services, 48 MPs, industrialists, journalists and wealthy people such as the current premier Silvio Berlusconi (at the time not yet in politics) and Vittorio Emanuele, the Savoy pretender to the Italian throne. Police also discovered a "piano di rinascita democratica" ("plan of democratic rebirth"), which detailed a strategy to install an authoritarian government in Italy.

The national scandal that ensued was quite thrilling, given that most of the most delicate charges of the Republic were ruled by Gelli's affiliates. A Parliamentary Commission, directed by Tina Anselmi (of the Christian Democratic party), found no evidence of crimes, but in 1981, the Parliament issued a law banning secret associations in Italy. Gelli was expelled from the GOI freemasonry in October 31, 1981, while the P2 scandal provoked the fall of Arnaldo Forlani's cabinet in June 1981 [14]

The P2 lodge did undoubtedly have some form of power in Italy, given the public prominence of its members, and many observers still now consider it to be extremely strong. Several famous people in Italy today (starting from the top TV anchor-man Maurizio Costanzo) were affiliated with P2. Among these, Michele Sindona, a banker with clear connections to the Mafia, has been clearly associated with P2. In 1972, Sindona purchased controlling interest in Long Island's Franklin National Bank. Two years later, the bank collapsed.[15]. Convicted in 1980 in the US, "mysterious Michele" was extradited to Italy. Two years later, he was poisoned in his cell while serving a life sentence.[16][17]. The P2 membership list was authenticated, with a few exceptions, by a 1984 Parliamentary Report [18].

On the run, Licio Gelli escaped to Switzerland, where he was arrested on September 13, 1982, trying to withdraw tens of millions of dollars in Geneva [14]. Detained in the modern Champ-Dollon Prison near Geneva, he managed to escape[19] and then fled to South America for four years. In 1984, Jorge Vargas, the secretary general of the Union Nacionalista de Chile (UNACH, Nationalist Union of Chile, a short-lived National Socialist party [20]) and former member of the Movimiento Revolucionario Nacional Sindicalista (National-Syndicalist Revolutionary Movement [20]) declared to La Tercera de la Hora that Gelli was then in Chile [21].


Finally, he surrended himself in 1987 in Switzerland to investigative judge Jean-Pierre Trembley [22]. He was wanted in connection with the 1982 collapse of the Banco Ambrosiano [23], and on charges of subversive association in connection with the 1980 Bologna railway station bombing, which killed 85 people [23][24].

He was sentenced to two months in prison in Switzerland [25], while an Italian court in Florence sentenced him on December 15, 1987, in absentia, to 8 years in prison on charges of financing right-wing terrorist activity in Tuscany in the 1970s [26]. Gelli had already been sentenced in absentia to 14 months in jail by a court in San Remo for illegally exporting money from Italy [26].


Extradition to Italy and trials


Switzerland eventually agreed to extradite him to Italy, but only on financial charges stemming from the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano.

Gelli's extradition in February 1988 requested a high-level security apparatus, including 100 sharpshooters, decoy cars, a train, roadblocks and two armored cars to transfer him to Italy [27]. In July 1988, he was absolved by a Bologna court on charges of subversive association, but was presented with a 5-year prison term for slander, having side-tracked the investigation into the 1980 bombing of the Bologna train station. Stipulations from his extradition prevented him from serving time however.[28][29] Two years later, an appeals court threw out Gelli's slander conviction.[30] A retrial was ordered in October 1993.[31].

Licio Gelli was sentenced in 1992 to 18 years and 6 months of prison after being found guilty of fraud concerning the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano in 1982 (a "black hole" of $1.4 billion was found). Vatican's bank, the Istituto per le Opere di Religione, main share-holder of the Banco Ambrosiano, had in return a "black hole" of $250 million. This sentence was reduced by the Court of Appeal to 12 years.

1992 also saw the beginning of the trial against 16 members of the P2 Masonic Lodge, which included charges of conspiracy against the state, espionage, and the revelation of state secrets[32]. In April 1994, Gelli received a 17-year sentence for divulging state secrets and slandering the investigation, while the court threw out that charge that P2 members conspired against the state[33]; Gelli's sentence was reduced, and he was placed under house arrest two years later.[34]

In April 1998, the Court of Cassation confirmed a 12 year sentence for the Ambrosiano crash [35]. He then disappeared on the eve of being imprisoned, in May 1998, while being under house arrest in his mansion near Arezzo [35]. His disappearance was strongly suspected to be the result of being forewarned. Then, finally he was arrested at the French Riviera in Cannes.

Two motions of no confidence were deposed by the right-wing opposition (the Northern League and the ex-Christian Democratic splinter groups CDU-CDR), against the Justice Minister, Giovanni Maria Flick, and the Interior Minister, Giorgio Napolitano, stating that Gelli had benefited from accomplices helping him in his escape. It also made references to secret negotiations which would have allowed him to reappear without going to prison. But the two ministers won the confidence vote [36]

Police found in his villa $2M worth in gold ingots.[37][38]

A few years after the Ambrosiano scandal, many suspects pointed toward Gelli with reference to his possible involvement in the murder of the Milanese banker Roberto Calvi, aka "God's banker", who had been jailed in the wake of the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano. On July 19, 2005, Gelli was formally indicted by Roman Magistrates for the murder of Roberto Calvi, along with former Mafia boss Giuseppe Calò (aka "Pippo Calò"), businessmen Ernesto Diotallevi and Flavio Carboni, and the latter's girlfriend, Manuela Kleinszig. Gelli, in his statement before the court, blamed people connected with Calvi's work in financing the Polish Solidarity movement, allegedly on behalf of the Vatican. He is accused of having provoked Calvi's death in order to punish him for having embezzled money owed to him and the Mafia. The Mafia also wanted to prevent Calvi from revealing how the bank had been used for money laundering.

Gelli has been implicated in Aldo Moro's murder, since the Italian chief of intelligence, accused of negligence, was a piduista (P2 member).


Connections to Argentina's military junta
A fugitive to Argentina for various years, Licio Gelli publicly declared, on repeated occasions, that he was a close friend of Argentina's leader Juan Peron; although no confirmation ever came from South America; and often affirmed, without ever explicitly explaining why, that this friendship was of real importance for Italy. Several members of the Argentine military junta have been found to be P2 members, such as Raúl Alberto Lastiri, Argentina's interim president from July 13, 1973 until October 12, 1973, Emilio Massera, part of Jorge Videla's military junta from 1976 to 1978, or José López Rega, the infamous founder of the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance ("Triple A"). In the year 2007, authors David Cox and Damian Nabot published a book called Peron's Second Death in which they investigated Gelli's links to the Argentine military dictatorship. The book published by Planeta established that Gelli was involved in the cutting of Peron's hands. The book uncovers sophisticated masonic codes which were reportedly used by Gelli, and ritual practiced on the embalmed body of Juan Peron.


[edit] Nomination for Nobel Prize in Literature
In 1996, Gelli was nominated as a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature.[2]


[edit] 2003 interview
In 2003, Gelli declared to La Repubblica, in reference to the P2 "democratic rebirth plan", that it seemed it was being implemented by Silvio Berlusconi:

“ Every morning I speak to my conscience and the dialogue calms me down. I look at the country, read the newspaper, and think:
"All is becoming a reality little by little, piece by piece. To be truthful, I should have had the copyright to it. Justice, TV, public order. I wrote about this thirty years ago... Berlusconi is an extraordinary man, a man of action. This is what Italy needs: not a man of words, but a man of action.
”

He talked of many Italian politicians, among whom Fabrizio Cicchitto ("I know him well: è bravo, preparato - he's good and accomplished"); the "program of reform of justice? that was my plan!"; the reorganization of the TV network, "that's good"...[2]


Film
In December 2007 Licio Gelli signed a life rights agreement with New York based producer Gabor Harrach. The movie (working title 'Conspirator') is in development.


References
^ a b "The Suitcase Scandalo". Newsweek. 1981-06-08.
^ a b c ""Giustizia, tv, ordine pubblico è finita proprio come dicevo io"". La Repubblica. September 28, 2003. http://www.repubblica.it/2003/i/sezioni/politica/gelli/gelli/gelli.html. (Italian)
^ a b "n.a.". Associated Press. 1982-09-14.
^ a b c d Susana Viau and Eduardo Tagliaferro, Carlos Bartffeld, Mason y Amigo de Massera, Fue Embajador en Yugoslavia Cuando Se Vendieron Armas a Croacia - En el mismo barco, Pagina 12, December 14, 1998 (Spanish)
^ Hot Money and the Politics of Debt By R. T. Naylor
^ Daniele Ganser, NATO's Secret Armies: Operation GLADIO and Terrorism in Western Europe Frank Cass Publishers, 2004. ISBN 0-7146-8500-3 (a quick resume available here)
^ Gianni Flamini, Il partito del golpe: Le strategie della tensione e del terrore dal primo centrosinistra organico al sequestro Moro, Italo Bovolenta Editore (1981-84), four tomes, 1,882 pages
^ René Monzat, Enquêtes sur la droite extrême, Le Monde-éditions, 1992 (in particular chapter VII, titled "Gladio, OTAN et loge P2 – La stratégie de la tension")
^ Arthur E. Rowse, "Gladio: The Secret U.S. War to Subvert Italian Democracy" in Covert Action #49, Summer of 1994.[1]
^ "CIA backed Italy terrorism during '70s, report claims," Daily Breeze, July 23, 1990 (English)
^ "CIA Denies Report", The Washington Post, July 24, 1990 (English)
^ "Zero-One's spy tale sends Italy spinning in ever decreasing circles". The Sunday Times. 1990-07-29.
^ Boston Globe, June 14, 1981
^ a b "Leader of Italian Scandal Arrested Trying to Get Cash in Swiss Bank," The Miami Herald, September 15, 1982 (English)
^ "Sindona guilty of bank fraud". Time magazine. April 7, 1980. http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,921970,00.html. (English)
^ "Who killed Calvi?". The Guardian. December 9, 2003. http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4813656-111093,00.html. (English)
^ "El poder en el mundo después de la "tangente"". Clarín. May 23, 1996. http://www.clarin.com/diario/96/05/23/turr.html. (Spanish)
^ "Italian Panel Reports on Secret Lodge," The Boston Globe, July 4, 1984 (English)
^ "Scandal Figure Fled With Help of Warden". The Miami Herald. 1983-08-13.
^ a b Franz Pfeiifer R., Memorias de treinta años II. (written by a former MNRS member) (Spanish)
^ "Gelli en Chile, dice diario", El Nuevo Herald (Miami), July 30, 1984 (Spanish)
^ "Ex-head of Secret Masonic Lodge, Licio Gelli, Surrenders to Judge", The Seattle Times, 21 September 1987 (English)
^ a b "Italian Bank Scam Fugitive Surrenders in Switzerland", Philadelphia Daily News, September 21, 1987 (English)
^ "Gelli, Fugitive Italian Financier, Gives Himself Up in Switzerland," The Philadelphia Inquirer, September 22, 1987 (English)
^ "Swiss Court Jails Italian Financier", The Washington Post, December 23, 1987 (English)
^ a b "Terrorism Conviction," Newsday (Melville, NY), December 16, 1987 (English)
^ "Conspiracy suspect extradited Gelli shipped to Italy amid tight security," The Orange County Register, February 18, 1988 (English)
^ "Four Convicted Of Mass Murder In Italian Bombing That Killed 85". Associated Press. 1988-07-11.
^ "Court issues sentences in Bologna train bombing". United Press International. 1988-07-11.
^ "Appeals Court Throws Out Bologna Bombing Convictions". Associated Press. 1990-07-19.
^ "Second Appeals Trial Begins for Train Station Bombing". Associated Press. 1993-10-11.
^ "P2 masonic lodge goes on trial for conspiracy". The Independent. 1992-10-13.
^ "Berlusconi gets speakers elected". The Guardian. 1994-04-18.
^ "Grandmaster of Italian P2 lodge arrested". Agence France Press. 1998-09-10.
^ a b "Top Italian fugitive Licio Gelli arrested in France," Associated Press, September 10, 1998 (English)
^ "Italian justice and interior ministers win confidence vote," ANSA, May 29, 1998 (English)
^ "Pots of Gold". BBC News. September 14, 1998. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/170679.stm. (English)
^ "Gelli deported back to Italy". BBC News. October 16, 1998. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/195136.stm. (English)