Reply #84: Bush Sr, the P2 Lodge and Italian fascists

[Minstrel Boy]

There's much talk of the Bush's Nazi links, but perhaps even more relevant today are their links to Italian fascism. It goes all the way back to Project Paperclip.

Here's a little bit of the story:

In February 2000, according to The Guardian, Bush may be called to give evidence in a terrorism trial, amid claims that the "CIA knew of a rightwing bombing campaign in Italy 30 years ago". Four neo-fascist suspects are accused of planting a bomb in Milan on December 12th 1969, killing 16 people. It is widely accepted that this bombing, and subsequent attacks (like the Bologna railway massacre in 1980), were part of a "strategy of tension" to destabilse the country and "reduce electoral support for the Communist party". One of the suspects, Carlo Digilio is alleged, like his father, to have been a CIA informant. An investigating judge, Guido Salvini said that:

American agents were responsible for promoting the strategy of tension, even though they did not intervene directly but through orgainsations whose actions could not be traced to them.
Apparently, a key issue in the trial is whether US agents were aware of preparations for the bombing and "did nothing", or worse, as the newspaper noted, "they promoted it". Thus, the court is to decide whether to call all the CIA heads from 1960 to the present, including Bush, to testify. According to Puppet Masters: The Political Use of Terrorism in Italy by Philip Willan (Constable, London, 1993), Bush is alleged to had a close relationship with Lucio Gelli, the infamous head of the P2 masonic lodge. Gelli said in an interview, in which he was careful to claim that he had only met Bush in 1981, not when he was CIA director in 1976, that he once spent a whole week with George Bush at the time of his inauguration as Vice President in 1981. Willan wonders:

"What could the two men, who had only just met, have discussed for an entire week?"

http://www.fantompowa.net/Flame/bush_war_criminal.htm

Okay, now about Gelli:

LICIO GELLI; Head of a 2400 member secret Masonic Lodge, P2, a neo-fascist organization, in Italy that catered to only the elite, Gelli had high connections in the Vatican, even though he was not a Catholic. P2's membership is totally secret and not even available to its Mother Lodge in England. Gelli was responsible for providing Argentina with the Exocet missile. He was a double agent for the CIA and the KGB. He assisted many former Nazi high officials in their escape from Europe to Central America. He had close ties with the Italian Mafia. Gelli was a close associate of Benito Mussolini. He was also closely affiliated with Roberto Calvi, head of the scandal-ridden Vatican Bank. Calvi was murdered. Gelli's secret lodge consisted of extremely important people, including armed forces commanders, secret service chiefs, head of Italy's financial police, 30 generals, eight admirals, newspaper editors, television and top business executives and key bankers - including Calvi. Licio Gelli and others in P2 were behind the assasination of Pope John Paul 1.

The central figure in Europe and South America that linked the CIA, Masonic Lodge, Vatican, ex-Nazis and several South American governments, the Italian government and several international banks was Licio Gelli. He, with Klaus Barbie and Heinrich Rupp, met with Ronald R. Rewald in Uruguay to arrange for the Argentine purchase of the French-made Exocet missile, used in the Falkland Island attack to kill british soldiers.

...

Gelli was well connected with the Vatican from the days of the Rat Line and he worked for American intelligence, as well. Gelli formed the P-2 Masonic Lodge-which did not follow the direction of any Grand Lodge-and it was supplied with a sum of $10 million a month by the CIA. Its membership was a Who's Who in the intelligence, military and Italian community. So prominent was Gelli's influence, that he was even a guest of honor at the 1981 inauguration of President Ronald Reagan.

...

Gelli and his P-2 lodge had staggering connections to banking, intelligence and diplomatic passports. The CIA poured hundreds of millions of dollars into Italy in the form of secret subsidies for political parties, labor unions and communications businesses. At the same time the Agency continued its relationship with far- right and violent elements as a back-up should a coup be needed to oust a possible Communist government. This covert financing was exposed by the Prime Minister of Italy in a speech to Parliament. He indicates that more than 600 people in Italy still remain on the payroll of the CIA. Licio Gelli was an ardent Nazi and a perfect asset of the CIA. As part of Reinhard Gehlen's intelligence team, he had excellent contacts. Licio was the go between for the CIA and the Vatican through his P2 Lodge.
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Fascism/Operation_Paperclip_file.html