On the morning of June 17, 1982, in London, under the Blackfriars Bridge, the body of the Italian banker Roberto Calvi was found hanging in a noose. And four years before that, two of the most influential people of the then Italy died almost simultaneously: Pope John Paul I, who died under unexplained circumstances on September 29, 1978, and Prime Minister Aldo Moro, who was killed by terrorists a few months earlier. The death of each of the three high-ranking Italians was widely discussed in the world, but only in the early 90s did the facts begin to emerge that made it possible to connect these three deaths.
How and why did "Gladio" appear?
In 1990, the Italian government became interested in the CIA's actions against the coming of the communists to power in Italy. A two-year investigation revealed the existence in the country of the far-right underground organization Gladio (as the ancient Roman short sword was called), created in 1965 by the Italian intelligence service CIFAR (SIFAR) and receiving financial support from the American special services, which actually directed the activities of the underground. The organization was based on over 600 agents trained on the island of Sardinia under the guidance of American and British specialists. Clandestine weapons depots "Gladio" were located throughout Italy, up to 150 thousand volunteers were ready for action thanks to the recruitment of agents.
One of the first actions of "Gladio" - codenamed "Plan Solo" - involved the implementation of a coup and the assassination of Prime Minister, Christian Democrat Aldo Moro. He became disagreeable to the organization because he was going to invite the communists to the government (they received over 25% of the votes in the 1963 elections).
True, the "Solo Plan" was not implemented, but the right-wing forces behind "Gladio" did not intend to admit defeat. When in 1974 Moreau, as foreign minister, met with US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, he warned the interlocutor that the intentions to admit communists to power would be viewed in the US as "erroneous and dangerous." And after Moro's meeting with an American intelligence officer, according to the minister's wife, he began to fear for his life. He was warned that certain forces in the special services could be put on alert if he "did not change his position." This signal clearly came from Gladio. Moreau did not change his position, which ended tragically for him.
Who “ordered” the premiere?
In early 1978, fighters from the left-wing extremist terrorist organization Red Brigades kidnapped Aldo Moro, and 55 days later, during which he repeatedly asked the government to fulfill the terrorists' demands, he was killed. Moro's body, stitched with an automatic burst, was found on March 16, 1978 in the trunk of a car.
There is reason to believe that a large share of the responsibility for this death lies with the right-wing Masonic lodge P-2 (Propaganda Due), which was headed by Grand Master Licho Jelly. His "work biography" is very motley. During the fascist dictatorship, Gelli was in the ranks of the "black shirts" in the rank of an officer responsible for relations with the organization of the SS in Nazi Germany. However, at the end of World War II, he went over to the side of the Allies. In the 1950s, he made a fortune selling weapons to Argentina, where he became friends with General Juan Perón, the country's dictator. In the early 1980s, during the war between England and Argentina over the Falkland Islands, he organized the delivery of Exocet rockets to Argentina. In 1981, Jelly attended the inauguration of US President Ronald Reagan,and soon thereafter ended up in a Swiss prison, from which he fled to Uruguay in 1983. In 1987 he returned to Italy, where he was brought to trial in a bankruptcy case.
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Status and activities of the P-2 lodge
The power of the P-2 lodge, which was not without reason called the shadow government, "is evidenced by the fact that, according to 1974 data, it included four ministers, three high-ranking intelligence chiefs, a chief of the general staff and 160 senior officers, many members parliament, diplomats, bankers, big industrialists and press tycoons. All in all, there were more than a thousand people in P-2. And, as it became known, it was through the leadership of the lodge that the "shadow army of the shadow government" - the "Gladio" organization, was financed.
In April 1972, a bomb explosion near Venice killed three police officers. Several communists were arrested on suspicion of a terrorist attack, but soon it was proved that they were not involved in the explosion. And only 10 years later it turned out that the attempt was carried out by members of the right-wing extremist group "New Order". Likewise, other acts of sabotage - the bombing on board the Argo-16 plane in 1973, the bombing at the Bologna train station in 1980, attributed to leftist terrorists, turned out to be the work of right-wing extremists. And there is a lot of evidence that these attacks were part of the P-2 strategy, which had the goal of shifting all Italian politics to the right. This strategy was also supported by the US leadership. In 1974, during a meeting with a member of the Nixon administration, Jelly received confirmation that the financial support for his brainchild, Gladio, would be increased.
The death of the pope and the banker
But American money was not enough, and Gelli turned for help to Roberto Calvi, a member of the P2 Lodge, director of the largest private bank, Banco Ambrosiano. Gelli had something to blackmail the banker, since in 1967, after joining P-2, the former head of the Italian special services. The Grand Master got access to 150 thousand files on high-ranking officials of the then Italy, including Calvi. In 1971 Banco Ambrosiano entered into a financial agreement with the Vatican Bank Instituto per Opere di Religione. After that, Calvi was even called "God's banker." Due to blackmail, and possibly in connection with his political views, Calvi agreed to illegally transfer large sums from his bank through the Vatican bank to the P2 accounts.
A few months after the assassination of Aldo Moro, 66-year-old Albino Luciani was elected to the papal throne, who took the name of John Paul I. Most people who knew Luciani respected him for his honesty, tact and wisdom, but not everyone liked these qualities. And some especially did not like the private investigation launched by the new pope in the Vatican bank, which disposed of assets worth over three billion dollars. And in the ultra-right circles, they were very unhappy with the fact that the new pope did not make attacks against communism. All this predetermined the fate of John Paul I. 33 days after accession to the throne, the “smiling pope,” as the people called him, suddenly died.
By that time, the bank of "God's banker" had a deficit of $ 250 million, and Calvi, who laundered huge amounts of drug dollars for the Corleone mafia family, began to hide some of the money, trying to save the bank from collapse. But these sums were not enough to reassure Ambrosiano investors who demanded a report and to suspend the investigation launched by the Central Bank.
Threatened by impending disaster, Calvi traveled to London in 1982 hoping to negotiate a loan with the leadership of Opus Dei, an influential organization within the Catholic Church. This agreement would have saved the Calvi bank from collapse, and, if successful, the banker intended to talk about P-2's ties with the mafia upon returning to Italy, believing that then he could hope for the leniency of the authorities.
But this turn of events did not suit either P-2 or the mafia. A week after Calvi's arrival, on the eve of the signing of the contract, the body of the director of Banco Ambrosiano was found under the Blackfriars Bridge. Investigators ruled suicide, but in 1992 Francesco Mannino Mannoya, a mafioso who surrendered to the authorities, revealed that the execution of Calvi's death sentence was orchestrated by Francesco Di Carlo, a mafia emissary in charge of heroin distribution in London. The order came from Pippo Calio, the Mafia's treasurer. Di Carlo, who later fell into the hands of the police, admitted that at first the liquidation of Calvi was indeed entrusted to him, but then another person, now deceased, was appointed the executor. In April 1997, on charges of organizing the murder of Calvi, the keeper of the bandit "common fund" Kalio was arrested.
After the investigation into Gladio's activities was completed, a parliamentary commission report released on January 29, 1992, disclosed an illegal armed organization seeking to seize political power in Italy. However, the report did not say a word about the involvement of this organization in the violent death of a pope who sympathized with the left views of the Pope and a prominent statesman, as well as a banker who intended to tell about the deals of right-wing politicians with bandits.
Magazine: Secrets of the 20th century №7. Author: Vadim Ilyin