Propaganda Due: A Strange and Terrible Journey Into the Heart of the Deep State Part XI

Welcome the eleventh installment in my epic examination of Propaganda Due (P2), the notorious Masonic lodge linked to a host of outrages in Italy and far beyond. Over the course of this series it has been revealed that there was far more to the saga of P2 than the numerous Masonic conspiracy fever dreams could possibly comprehend. For those of you just joining me or trying to catch up, here is a brief run down of what has already been addressed:

With the first installment I briefly gave an overview of P2 as well as the background of its Venerable Grand Master, former Blackshirt and SS man Licio Gelli. With the second installment I considered P2's ties to a host of terrorist bombings that rocked Italy during a period known as the "Years of Lead" as well as it ties to the international fascist terror network known as Aginter Press.

Part three began to examine the role P2 played in what is commonly referred to as "the Great Vatican Banking Scandal" or the "Banco Ambrosiano affair" by considering the backgrounds of three of its key players: Bishop Paul Marcinkus (long suspected of being a P2 initiate) and financiers Michele Sindona and Roberto Calvi (both of whom were P2 members as well as having extensive ties to the Mafia). The five installment wrapped up the Great Vatican Banking Scandal by considering the role the Rothschild banking dynasty played in it, as well as series of bizarre robberies that occurred in the mid-1980s usually involving Brinks armored cars potentially linked to it as well as the ritualistic death of Calvi.

Calvi's body

With the sixth installment I began to consider the role P2 played in various political assassinations, beginning with the kidnapping and subsequent murder of famed Italian statesman Aldo Moro as well as the mysterious and sudden death of Pope John Paul I after only thirty-three days as the supreme pontiff. Parts seven and eight dealt with the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II, with a special emphasis in its ties to the arms-and-drug trafficking that ran through Communist-controlled Bulgaria and extensively involving Italy and Turkey (and orders such as P2 and the Grey Wolves). The ninth installment began to consider the forces behind P2, beginning with the support given to it by the US intelligence community and Pentagon via Operation Gladio. The tenth (!) and most recent installment considered the extensive control the Catholic secret society (or cult, as some have suggested) Opus Dei wielded over P2.

the seal of Opus Dei

Presently I would like to pick up with another mysterious Catholic secret society extensively linked to P2: the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), more commonly referred to as the Knights of Malta. First let us begin with a bit of background about the Order.

As is well known in conspiracy circles, the SMOM traces its origins back to the Crusades-era Knights Hospitallers, contemporaries of the even more notorious Knights Templar. These two military orders rubbed shoulders frequently in the Holy Land and this has led to much speculation within conspiracy circles that they were linked. But in point of fact, there is ample evidence that the Hospitallers and the Templars had quite an intense rivalry, as shall be addressed in a moment. For now, here's a more conventional rundown of the matter at hand:

"The Knights of Malta are understandably a rather misty concept. They inspire comparisons with Dan Brown's mystical fantasies of Vatican conspiracies bordering on black magic. The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (an abbreviated title from a previously far grander and longer one) is an extremely ancient Catholic lay order of chivalry, dating from the First Crusade (1096-99). The Order's former territories (Rhodes and Malta) have long since melted away. To compensate, there is a world-wide network of medical missions operating in 120 countries. According to Wikipedia, the Knights are supported by some 12,000 active members who oversee and support 20,000 medical personnel. So much for the worthy field of good endeavors. However, the charitable functions are far overshadowed by the Order's status as a recognized sovereign state, complete with an observer seat at the UN, and the full kit bag of diplomatic privileges. These include the precious facility of couriers passing borders without hindrance, which any espionage organization is bound to prize. But surely, even a subliminal state with exactly three registered citizens need some kind of government? The Sovereign Order has one, an inner council of the Knights, which in turn response to the absolute authority of the Vatican.

"The American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has argued that behind the cover of charitable functions, the Knights are waging a cultural war on behalf of Christianity. He claims their fertile recruiting grounds include the highest levels of the American state and related friendly powers, the secret services and the Pentagon. Speaking in Washington DC at Georgetown University's Foreign Policy School in January 2011, he said: 'They do see what they're doing... it's a crusade, literally. They see themselves as the protectors of the Christians. They're protecting them from the Muslims [as in] the 13th century. And this is their function.' Of course Hersh got the full Dan Brown treatment for the eye-rolling US media. But Hersh's central theme is absolutely correct. The Vatican, aided by the sovereign Maltese Knights and secretive inner cults like Opus Dei, is an essential component of the totemic pathology that we recognize as the war on terror."

(Gladio: NATO's Dagger at the Heart of Europe, Richard Cottrell, pgs. 267-268)

the flag of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta

Among Hersh's claims, according to the contemptuous Foreign Policy, were:

"He then alleged that Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who headed JSOC before briefly becoming the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, and his successor, Vice Adm. William McRaven, as well as many within JSOC, 'are all members of, or at least supporters of, Knights of Malta.' ”

While the Establishment tried desperately to ridicule Hersh's claims, the reality is that the Knights of Malta have enjoyed a close relationship with the US intelligence community since practically the latter's inception. Salon notes:

"Keating’s use of “alleged” here is curious, given that the membership of Reagan-era CIA director Bill Casey in the Knights of Malta has been a fact widely reported in the press and never denied by Casey himself. Historian Joseph E. Persico, a former Republican speechwriter for Vice President Nelson Rockefeller and the co-author of Colin Powell’s autobiography, includes Casey’s membership in a routine list of charitable accomplishments, in his sympathetic biography Casey: from the OSS to the CIA (Penguin 1990). (Casey’s membership is asserted on Page 105 of the paperback.)...

"In addition to Casey and McCone, the Knights of Malta also counted among their members former CIA counterintelligence chief James Jesus Angleton — a fortuitous alliance as Angleton led the postwar intelligence efforts to subvert Italy’s 1948 elections. His success partnering with organized crime, right-leaning former fascists and the Vatican not only marginalized Italy’s homegrown Communist Party, it also encouraged Congress in the creation of the Central Intelligence Agency.

"Conservative luminary and National Review founder William F. Buckley — who spent two years after college as a CIA 'political action specialist' in Mexico City — was also a Knight, as was none other than William 'Wild Bill' Donovan, the head of the CIA’s precursor organization, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). From 1970 to 1981, France’s intelligence agency was also headed by a member of the Order, Alexandre de Marenches. De Marenches would go on to be a co-founder of the Saudi-funded private intelligence group the Safari Club — one of George H. W. Bush’s many end-runs around congressional oversight of the American intelligence establishment and the locus of many of the worst features of the mammoth BCCI scandal."

Knight of Malta Alexandre de Marenches, whom we first encountered in part seven

In addition to official intelligence networks, the SMOM has also penetrated deep into the even larger pool of private groups. At least one senior official for the private contractor previously known as Blackwater was a member of SMOM:

".., Joseph Schmitz, like Erik Prince and other executives of Blackwater, was a Catholic and a Christian fundamentalist. Some would go so far as to say he was a religious fanatic obsessed with implementing 'the rule of law under God.' In numerous speeches given during his time as Pentagon Inspector General, Schmitz articulated his vision and understanding of the global war on terror, employing the rhetoric of Christian supremacy. 'No America today should ever doubt that we hold ourselves accountable to the rule of law under God. Here lies these fundamental difference between us and the terrorists,' Schmidt said in June 2004 speech, just after returning from trips to Iraq and Afghanistan. 'It all comes down to this – we pride ourselves on our strict observance to the rule of law under God.' On his official biography, Schmitz proudly lists his membership in the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, a Christian militia formed in the eleventh century, before the first Crusades, with the mission of defending 'territories that the Crusades had conquered from the Moslems.' The Order today boasts of being 'a sovereign subject of international law, with its own constitution, passports, stamps, and public institutions' and 'diplomatic relations with 94 countries...'

(Blackwater, Jeremy Scahill, pg. 367)

Schmitz

Now let us return to P2. Multiple influential figures within P2 were also initiates in the Maltese knights. One such figure was the lawyer and businessman Umberto Ortolani.

"One of Gelli's closest P2 associates was Italian lawyer and businessmen Umberto Ortolani. Like 'The Puppet Master,' Ortolani learned early in life the value of secret information. During the Second World War he became head of two large operational units of SISMI, the military intelligence agency in Italy. His specialty was counterespionage. A Roman Catholic, he appreciated while still a young man that one of the real centres of power was across the Tiber within Vatican City. Consequently his penetration of the Vatican and its quarters of influence was total..

"...  He subsequently received many more Vatican honours and awards. He even succeeded in affiliating Licio Gelli, a non-Catholic, to the Knights of Malta and the Holy Sepulchre. A close friend of Casaroli, the man usually referred to as Vatican's Kissinger because of his major involvement in foreign policy, lawyer Ortolani provided his P2 master with an unrivalled access to any Vatican dignitary. Like his master, Ortolani is a man who, on paper at least, is the citizen of many countries. Born in Vierbo in Italy, he has since become a Brazilian national. A useful byproduct of that arrangement is that no extradition treaty exists between Italy and Brazil."

(In God's Name, David Yallop, pgs. 107-108)

"Count" Umberto Ortolani

Both Gelli and Ortolani have been widely sited as members of the Sovereign Order of Malta by credible researchers. What's more, there have been indications that it was actually Ortolani who was the master of Gelli.

"... Clara Calvi, widow of Banko Ambrosiano chairman Roberto Calvi, that the real head of P2 had been Giulio Andreotti, followed at the top of the organization by Francesco Cosentino, secretary-general of the Chamber of Deputies, and businessman Umberto Ortolani: according to this hierarchy, Gelli was only fourth in the pecking order of the Lodge?"

(Puppetmasters, Philip Willan, pgs. 57)

Thus, the potential number three and four individuals in P2 were Maltese knights. According to the Wall Street Journal, former Italian prime minster Giulio Andreotti was also a member of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Potentially, then, the bulk of the movers and shakers in P2 were members of SMOM. As was noted in part eight, another powerful P2 initiate, General Giuseppe Santovito (the head of SISMI, for many years Italy's most powerful intelligence service) was also a SMOM member.

Andreotti

Beyond these P2 initiates and affiliates, numerous individuals we have encountered over the course of this series were SMOM members. They include:

• General Alexander Haig: The SMOM member who green lighted Gelli's involvement in P2 (noted in part one)
• General William "Wild Bill" Donovan: the founder of the OSS, the predecessor of the CIA who, as noted in part eight, helped establish an underground network of financial institutions engaged in the laundering of drug money and arms transactions that included the banking empires of Sindona and Calvi
• Alexandre de Marenches: long time director of SDECE (France's primary external intelligence service from 1944 until 1982) and co-founder of the Safari Club; played a key role in falsely linking the Soviet Union to the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II, as noted in part seven
• Reinhard Gehlen: head of the Gehlen Org, a collection of veterans of Nazi Germany's Eastern intelligence network enlisted by the CIA and who later established the BND (Germany's primary intelligence service) as was as playing a key role in coordinating the German wing of Gladio; the BND seems to have played an extensive role in the attempted assassination of John Paul II, as noted in part eight and nine
• William Colby: the CIA director also closely linked to Opus Dei who played a key role in establishing Gladio (noted in part ten)

Maltese Knights Haig (top), Donovan (top middle), Gehlen (bottom middle) and Colby (bottom)

Besides Operation Gladio (which involved both P2 and SMOM extensively), numerous Maltese knights turn up in the Iran-Contra affair which, as noted in part four and five, heavily involved P2. They include:

• William Casey: CIA director who "encouraged" (potentially via the attempted assassination) Pope John Paul II to back the Polish Solidarity movement as well as the Contras
• General Vernon Walters: a close Reagan affiliate who made dozens of trips to the Vatican during the peak of its involvement with the Contras
• Colonel Albert Carone: an SMOM member who served as Oliver North's bagman during Iran-Contra as well as a go between with the Mafia
• J. Peter Grace: the wealthy industrialist whose various "charitable" activities in Central America helped fund the Contras and like organizations

Casey (top), Walters (top middle), Calone (middle bottom), and Grace (bottom)

The presence of so many Maltese knights within P2's hierarchy as well as surrounding one of the lodge's chief projects (namely, the arming of the Contras and like organization in Central America) is highly suggestive. Clearly the SMOM seems to have provided, in part, the infrastructure necessary for an organization like P2 to thrive in. Naturally, the bulk of conspiracy theorists who have addressed this peculiarity have continued to echo the baseless yet longstanding claims that SMOM is totally under the thumb of Freemasonry.

Such notions are the product of speculation history surrounding Freemasonry, much of it total quackery. And yet, one of the most compelling speculative histories of Freemasonry that has received some acknowledge from mainstream historians takes a much different view of the relationship between SMOM and Freemasonry.

In Born in Blood amateur historian John J. Robinson compellingly argued that Masonry had its origins with the Knights Templar and that the Templars in turn had a running feud with the Knights Hospitallers (from which SMOM traces its roots) that was later taken up by Freemasonry. He even goes so far as to suggest that the Knights Hospitallers were one of the three "ruffians" --Jubela, Jubelo, and Jubelum --responsible for the murder of Hiram Abiff, Masonry's mythological founder. Hiram in turn is widely believed to be a stand in for Jacques de Molay, the final Grand Master of the Knights Templar at the time of the Order's brutal suppression.

"As we search British history to find an unfinished temple as a basis for an exclusively British secret society, we find just one answer, in the religious order that often called itself by that simple name alone: the Temple. Jacques de Molay and his predecessors signed documents over the title Magister Templi, Master of the Temple. And that temple, taking its name from the Temple of Solomon, certainly was left unfinished upon the murder of its masters, who also had been tortured to reveal their secrets by three assassins who ultimately destroy them. Not Jubela, Jubelo, and Jubelum, but Philip the Fair of France, Pope Clement V, and the Order of the Knights of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem. Many who have read only the Catholic Church's summations of the Templar suppression may object, stating that only the King of France could be considered the 'assassin' of the Knights Templar, having done all the dirty work and having coerced a weak pope to help him. True, that is the church's usual version to this very day, but the historical facts speak somewhat to the contrary, if we look again at events described earlier in this book.

"When Edward II of England declined to torture the Templars, the Pope could have thrown the problem back to Edward's father-in-law, the king of France: no one forced Clement V to dispatched ten church torture specialist to London. The Pope could have lived with the acquittal of the Templars on Cyprus: No one forced him to demand a new trial, or to dispatch a torture team with the power to draw upon the local Dominicans and Franciscans if extra help was required. Nor did the king of France prevail in his desire that only one of his family be made the head of a combined Hospitaller/Templar order, with full access to their combined wealth. And if Clement V had been merely a timorous puppet pope with Philip pulling the strings, as church historians would have us believe, the king of France would have been the new owners of the Templar properties in France, not the Hospitallers. The pope was much tougher, or at least much more obstinate, than we had been led to believe and it would appear that he had contrived a plan of his own in concert with the Hospitallers.

"That order has managed to escape any criticism in the matter of the Templar suppression, but apparently only because it had kept a low profile throughout, probably for the very good reason that its role and its reward had been worked out in advance. It is well known that the papacy was in favor of the union of the Templars and Hospitallers and had already determined that Foulques de Villaret, Master of the Hospitallers, would be the Grand Master of the combined orders. The Templars, at their headquarters on Cyprus, had heard of the serious intent to combine the orders and had taken the time to prepare a written rebuttal. The Hospitallers, at their own headquarters on that same island, must have received the same information, yet they prepared no rebuttal, written or verbal. In fact, de Villaret managed to stay away from the meeting in France altogether, with no recorded papal criticism for his absence. That was undoubtedly because his presence wasn't needed and because there was no point in chancing a confrontation between the two orders, especially since the pope was already dedicated to looking after the interests of the Hospitallers. Not only did the Hospitallers offer no objection to the concept of the merger, but they made no attempt whatever to speak up for their brother warrior-monks as they were arrested and tortured. They simply stayed out of it and bided their time, until Clement V, much to the anger of King Philip, declared that all of the confiscated Templar property would go to the Knights Hospitaller and that all released Templars could be taken into the Hospitaller order, thereby achieving de facto the union he had been planning all along, with full Hospitaller approval and cooperation. If one looks for motive, the Hospitaller order was the major beneficiary of the suppression of the Templars, as had probably been planned from the beginning. The pope and Hospitallers together thwarted the aims of Philip of France, and there should be no doubt that the Hospitallers rank as one of the three assassins of the Order of the Temple."

(Born in Blood, John J. Robinson, pgs. 271-273)

Again, this is all highly, highly speculative. But so are most things concerning P2 and it has frequently been sited by conspiracy theorists as the smoking gun of a Masonic takeover of the Vatican. And yet, as we have seen in these past two installments, there are very strong indications that P2 was in fact a tool of SMOM and Opus Dei, two of the most right wing factions within Catholicism.

Along these lines, it is also interesting to note (as addressed in part five) that P2 donned black robes modeled after those of the Dominicans and referred to themselves as "black friars" within their meetings. Roberto Calvi's body was found dangling from Blackfriars Bridge in London, which derived its name from a Blackfriars Monastery, a Dominican priory once located nearby. The Dominicans assisted in the torture of the Templars and also played a key role in the suppression of the Cathars (a Medieval Gnostic sect also long linked to the traditions of Freemasonry).

The various allusion to the Dominicans combined with presence of so many Opusians and Maltese knights behind P2 seem indicate that it is far more likely conservative factions within the Vatican had co opted Freemasonry (an alleged centuries old enemy of the Church) and were actively using it as a tool for their own aims. Certainly mainstream Masonic lodges deserted P2 in droves, yet the waning movement took yet another blow with the revelations concerning P2. P2 is one of the last instances when a Masonic lodge wielded real political power and it is likely that the movers and shakers behind  it hoped for such an outcome.

The waters are further muddied by allegations that Opus Dei and SMOM have had an ongoing rivalry as well, one that traced back to a plot involving Opus Dei founder Escriva de Balaguer. Robert Hutchison, one of the few researchers to extensively chronicle Opus Dei, notes:

"Another hypothesis that tickled the imaginations of some was that Opus Dei's directorate in Rome had considered attempting a takeover of the Sovereign Military Order of the Knights Hospitaller of Saint John of Jerusalem, called of Rhodes, called of Malta, as it was the only church institution to hold the status of an independent state. Some titled Opusian gentleman were already members of the Order and its sovereign council in Rome feared a coup d'etat. As Marquise of Peralta, Escriva de Balaguer might have thought he was eligible for the highest rank of the Maltese Cross as the Order's regulations permit only celibate knights of noblesse to become Grand Master. In addition to being recognized as a sovereign head of state, the Grand Master holds a rank in the church that is equivalent to a cardinal and this, too, would have appealed to the newly titled prelate. But when it was learned that the Grand Master had been a secular person, this plan was dropped."

(Their Kingdom Come, Robert Hutchison, pgs. 152-153)

de Balaguer

This researcher finds it difficult to believe that this takeover bid, if it in fact happened, was very serious. Certainly it does not seem to have hindered the working relationship of these two orders, who frequently appear together in any number of intrigues. But the possibility that there were separate factions for Opus Dei and SMOM within P2 can not be totally discounted.

Certainly though it seems that the actual leadership of P2 was far more Catholic and conservative leaning rather than the prophets of some absurd Masonic-Judaic-Communistic New World Order that the conspiracy theorists frequently allege. And with that I shall wrap up for now. Having addressed most of the players behind P2, I shall next move along some fringe groups and the possible influence on the ideology of P2 that they had. Stay tuned.

Sirius Rising and the Soldier of the Apocalyspe

On July 20, 2012, James Eagan Holmes entered a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, and opened fired during a midnight showing of the then-current Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises.  This event unfolded approximately three days before what has been widely cited as the beginning of a period the ancient world referred to as the "Dog Days of Summer." Of the date, Fortean philosopher Robert Anton Wilson noted: "Celebrations of the Dog Star, Sirius, beginning on July 23, are the origin of the expression 'dog days,' meaning the days from July 23 to September 8, when the last rituals to Sirius were performed" (Cosmic Trigger Volume I, pg. 87).

This period gained reputation for its intensity in the ancient world:

"...  Throughout Latin literature there are many references to 'the Dog Days' which followed the helical rising of Sirius in the summer. These hot, parched days were thought by that time to derive some of the ferocity and dryness from the 'searing' of Sirius. Traditions arose of Sirius being red because it was in fact red at its helical rising, just as any other body at the horizon is red. When marking rhetorical allusions to the Dog Days, the Latins would often speak of Sirius being red at that time, which it was."

(The Sirius Mystery, Robert Temple, pg. 86) 

The extreme heat often associated with the helical rising of Sirius was frequently blamed for the chaos that had a way of unfolding during this period. Certainly the notorious Aurora shooting would have been viewed as an apt event for this time frame in the ancient world.

Aurora shooter James Eagan Holmes, who has been in the news of late after being found guilt of the shooting spree and is now facing the death penalty

The Aurora shooting was followed just a little over two weeks later by the Sikh temple shooting in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. This shooting spree was carried out by Wade Michael Page, a former military man and white nationalist whose victims included the father of Sirius filmmaker Armardeep Kaleka.

While Aurora shooter James Eagan Holmes didn't have such an extreme background, his stock piling of firearms and obsession with Heath Ledger's Joker (a meme of which became closely associated with the Patriot movement via Alex Jones, as I noted before here) indicate that he had some familiarity with Patriot ideology. Page certainly did and this underlining factor was addressed before by this researcher here.

Alex Jones in Joker makeup

Let us now return to the present. On July 23, 2015 (the actual start date for the Dog Days of Summer in many accounts), a 58 year old "drifter" known as John Russell Houser entered a movie theater in Lafayette, Louisiana, and opened fired during a showing of the film Trainwreck at roughly 7:30 PM. This shooting unfolded just a little over a month after the Charleston church shooting, an assault carried out by a would-be white nationalist known as Dylann Roof. This shooting unfolded on June 17, 2015. The numbers 17 and 23 have much esoteric significance and have been closely linked together by Robert Anton Wilson, who dubbed their pairing "the 23/17 phenomenon." The great Tek-Gnostic gave a great rundown of this curiosity before here:

"The 23/17 enigma, simply stated, refers to the belief that many incidents of synchronicity are directly connected to the numbers 23… 17… or some combination or modification of these numbers. Uncle Bob Wilson (aka: Robert Anton Wilson) credits William S. Burroughs as being the first person to identify the 23 enigma. Wilson, in his book The Cosmic Trigger, related the following story:

" 'More important to our narrative, William S. Burroughs (author of ‘Naked Lunch’) introduced me to the 23 Enigma while I was at Playboy... In the early '60s in Tangier, Burroughs knew a certain Captain Clark who ran a ferry from Tangier to Spain. One day, Clark said to Burroughs that he'd been running the ferry 23 years without an accident. That very day, the ferry sank, killing Clark and everybody aboard. In the evening, Burroughs was thinking about this when he turned on the radio. The first newscast told about the crash of an Eastern Airlines plane on the New York-Miami route. The pilot was another Captain Clark and the flight was listed as Flight 23... Burroughs began keeping records of odd coincidences. To his astonishment, 23s appeared in a lot of them.'

"Burroughs wrote a short story in 1967 called '23 Skidoo.' The term '23 skidoo' was popularized in the early 1920s and means 'it's time to leave while the getting is good.' This expression appeared in newspapers as early as 1906.

"Wilson, along with co-author Robert Shea of “Illuminatus!” fame, more clearly identifies the 23/17 phenomenon, in that both numbers are tied to the Discordian Law of Fives. The Discordian holybook, the Principia Discordia states that: All things happen in fives, or are divisible by or are multiples of five, or are somehow directly or indirectly appropriate to 5. To Discordians, 23, a corollary of the law of fives, is considered either lucky, unlucky, sacred to their goddess Eris, sinister, sacred to the unholy gods of the Cthulhu Mythos, or significantly strange. 

"In Illuminatus!, the character Simon Moon illustrates this rational using the following mathematical-numerological-magical formula… in 23: 2 + 3 = 5, and in 17: 1 + 7 = 8 = 2³ ...clear as mud, right? To clarify, Moon pulls in another enigmatic number… 40. In the following excerpt from Illuminatus!, Moon further clarifies…

" 'That brings me to the 40 enigma. As pointed out, 1 + 7 = 8, the number of letters in Kallisti. 8 x 5 = 40.'

"'More interestingly, without invoking the mystic 5, we still arrive at 40 by adding 17 + 23. What, then, is the significance of 40? I've run through various associations… Jesus had his 40 days in the desert, Ali Baba had his 40 thieves, Buddhists have their 40 meditations, the solar system is almost exactly 40 astronomical units in radius (Pluto yo-yos a bit)—but I have no definite theory…  yet.'" 

I've already dealt with the appearance of 17 (and also 23) in the Charleston church shooting before here and the deep political implications of it here.

Needless to say, the overlap between the 2012 and 2015 shootings noted above is curious. The similarities between the Sikh temple and Charleston church shootings are especially striking: In both cases white nationalists shot up holy places associated with minorities. And of course, the same applies to the location of the Holmes and Houser shooting sprees: a theater.

What's more, early reports indicate the Houser was himself interested in white nationalist and Patriot ideology. Raw Story reports:

"Houser signed up for an account with Tea Party Nation in June 2013, but he was not an active commenter.

"Posts on other forums reveal Houser’s belief that the U.S. was racist against white people, sterilization should be mandatory for welfare recipients and former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke was a more historically significant figure than the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

" 'Hitler accomplished far more than any other through "pragmatically forming,” ' Houser posted in January 2015. 

"He wrote something of a manifesto in March 2013, when he asked for help channeling his anger and frustration as a white Christian man living under President Barack Obama...

"Houser argued in a January 2014 forum post that the United States needed a right-wing party like Greece’s neo-Nazi 'Golden Dawn' faction to restore its greatness..." 

Houser

Ah yes, praise for Adolf Hitler and Greece's Golden Dawn. Early indications then seem to point toward Houser being yet another in the ever growing list of right wing extremist responsible for terrorist attacks in the US since the early 00s. The mainstream media will inevitably shift debate to gun control or the Confederate flag while the alternative media will not touch the implications of these attacks with a ten foot pole. And be assured, all will rejoice at the next Islamic terror attack as it will shift debate to a much more comfortable topic.

because who wants to talk about what effects this will have on Greece, for instance?

Propaganda Due: A Strange and Terrible Journey Into the Heart of the Deep State Part X

Welcome to the tenth installment in my epic examination of the notorious Propaganda Due (P2) Masonic lodge. For those of you just joining me or trying to catch up, here is a brief run down of what has been previously covered: With the first installment I briefly outlined the legacy of P2 as well as the background of its Venerable Grand Master, former Blackshirt and SS man Licio Gelli. Part two addressed P2's potential ties to a series of terror bombings that rocked Italy during a period known as the "Years of Lead" as well as its links to the Lisbon-based, European wide terror network known as Aginter Press.

The third installment I moved along to P2's role in what is often referred to as the "Great Vatican Banking Scandal" or the "Banco Ambrosiano affair" by addressing the backgrounds of three of its key players, Bishop Paul Marcinkus (a suspected P2 initiate) and financiers Michele Sindona and Roberto Calvi (both of which were known P2 initiates). Part four addressed the possibility that at the core of the scandal was illegal arms trafficking that contributed enormously to what is known as the Iran-Contra affair. The fifth installment addressed the Rothschild bank dynasty's role in this scandal as well as a series of armed robberies that unfolded in Europe possibly linked to the scandal and the bizarre, ritualistic death of Calvi.

Paul Marcinkus (top), MIchele Sindona (middle) and Roberto Calvi (bottom), the key figures in the Great Vatican Banking Scandal

The sixth installment moved along to the alleged assassinations and attempted assassinations linked to P2, beginning with the kidnapping and subsequent murder of legendary Italian statesman Aldo Moro and concluding with a run down of the curious and sudden death of Pope John Paul I (who sat on the throne of Peter for all of thirty-three days). The seventh and eighth installments addressed the lodge's likely ties to the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II, its possible ties to the Turkish terror network known as the Grey Wolves and the role that both played in the vast Bulgarian arms and drug trafficking nexus that brought together intelligence assets from both the US and Soviet Union.

With part nine, the most recent installment, I began to address the backers of P2, beginning with its ties to what is commonly referred to as Operation Gladio (Gladio was only the name of the Italian component, however), a "stay-behind" network spanning the whole of Western Europe that the CIA and British intelligence established at the onset of the Cold War. In theory this network's sole purpose was to wage a guerrilla war against the Soviet Union should it invade Europe but its extensive linkage to arms and drug trafficking, numerous acts of terrorism, and its ties to numerous Nazi and fascist war criminals has led many researchers to doubt Gladio's official purpose.

a patch used by the "legionaries" of Gladio

With this installment I would like to continue addressing the forces behind P2. Now that the US intelligence community's role via Gladio has been noted I shall now turn my attention to the secret societies linked to P2. The first is one briefly addressed in part one, the far right Catholic network (some would say cult) known as Opus Dei.

Opus Dei is a difficult subject to broach due to the use of the order in Dan Brown's infamous novel. In said work the organization has largely been reduced to the status of super villains, but the influence of the real life institute has been both vast and subtle. To this day the role Opus Dei played in the Great Vatican banking scandal and its ties to P2 had largely been ignored. Before addressing these ties, however, a bit should be said about the organization to separate the reality from Brown's fever dreams.

"Opus Dei is a Roman Catholic organization of international dimensions. Though its actual membership is relatively small (estimates vary between 60,000 and 80,000), its influence is vast. It is a secret society, something which is strictly forbidden by the Church. Opus Dei denies that it is a secret organization but refuses to make the membership list available. It was founded by a Spanish priest, Monsignor Josemaria Escriva, in 1928. It is to the extreme right wing of the Catholic Church, a political fact that has ensured that the organization has attracted enemies as well as members. Its members are composed of a small percentage of priests, about 5 per cent, and lay persons of either sex. Though people from many walks of life can be found among its members, it seeks to attract those from the upper reaches of the professional classes, including students and graduates who are aspiring to executive status. Dr. John Roche, an Oxford University lecturer and former member opus Dai, described it as 'sinister, secretive and Orwellian.' It may be that its members' preoccupation with self mortification is the cause for much of the news media hostility that has been directed towards the sect. Certainly the idea of flogging yourself on your bare back and wearing strips of metal with inward-pointing prongs around the thigh for the greater glory of God might prove difficult for the majority of people in the latter part of the twentieth century to accept. No one, however, should doubt the total sincerity of the Opus Dei membership. The are are equally devoted to a task of wider significance: the takeover of the Roman Catholic Church. That should be cause for the greatest concern not only to Roman Catholics but everybody...

"This organization has, according to its own claims, members working in over 600 newspapers, reviews and scientific publications, scattered around the world. It has members in over 50 radio and television stations. In the 1960s three of its members were in the Spanish dictator Franco's cabinet, crating Spain's 'economic miracle.' The head of the huge Rumasa conglomerate in Spain, Jose Mateos, is a member Opus Dei; he is also currently on the run after building a network of corruption similar to that of the Calvi empire, as recently revealed. Opus Dei is massively wealthy. Until recently, when it changed hands, anyone walking into an Augustus Barnett wine store in England was putting money into Opus Dei."

(In God's Name, David Yallop, pgs. 250-251)

Escriva, Opus Dei's founder

Opus Dei's encouragement of self mortification strong resembles time honored techniques of brainwashing. Certainly the regiment thrust upon members is quite rigorous:

"Penitential practices fall under paragraph 260 of the 1950 Constitution:

The pious custom of chastising the body and reducing it to servitude by wearing a small cilice for at least two hours a day, by taking the discipline at least once a week, and by sleeping on the ground, will be faithfully maintained, taking into account only a person's health.

"The 'instruments of mortification' are given to members in little brown sacks. One former member alleged they had been given to children only fifteen years of age. The same young man was told that the amount of mortification he undertook could be increased with the approval of his spiritual director. He was also told how Escriva's blood spattered the walls of the bathroom from the ferocity with which he beat himself.

"A report in the Liverpool Catholic newspaper, the Catholic Pictorial, for 29 November 1981 described the introduction of young girls into the organization. They were introduced gradually to 'the "mortifications" practiced by Opus Dei members. They were encouraged to kiss the floor upon rising instantly to the morning door knock.' They had 'cold showers and long periods of silence.' They wore the cilis (sic) – a spiked chain – around the thigh for a two-hour period each day (not on Sundays and Feast days) 'and applied a rope whip to their buttocks once a week.'

"Some of these practices still exist within Opus. They are an integral part of the spiritual formation of its members. The way Escriva beat himself with the discipline is obviously a matter of pride to the members. And it is also the case that, with the increasing understanding of the unhealthy psychology of these basically masochistic acts, they have quietly been dropped from the customary behavior of other religious orders."

(Opus Dei, Michael Walsh, pgs. 110-111)

a cilis

Contemplation of a barren cross is also an integral part of Escriva's "pious customs."

"One pious practiced urged upon readers of Camino is the very impressive, if somewhat morbid and theologically doubtful, suggestion that they are to put themselves before a plain wooden cross and to imagine themselves upon it... The first requirement of the section of the 1950 Constitution devoted to 'The observance of pious customs' requires that: 'Where three or four members live together as a family there should be set up in an appropriate place a black cross without the figure of the crucified. On the feast day of the Invention and Exaltation of the Cross it should be adorned with crowns of flowers from morning to night' (paragraph 234). 'From morning to night' should more strictly be translated 'from Prime to Vespers,' the first and next to last 'hours' or divisions of the divine office. The feasts of the 'Invention' (commemorating the finding by St. Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine, of the cross) and the 'Exaltation,' 13 May and 14 September, respectively, are major feasts in the Opus calendar."

(Opus Dei, Michael Walsh, pgs. 107-108)

Ultimately, these accounts of self-mortification are some of the most tame charges lobbied against the Opusians. This researcher has stumbled upon several compelling accounts of ritualistic sexual abuse committed by members of Opus Dei against minors. These allegations are most commonly made by researchers investigating Belgium's notorious "Dutroux Affair," a scandal that implicated the Christian Social Party (PSC, Belgium's equivalent of Italy's P2-linked Christian Democrat Party) as well as the same milieu of extreme right wing networks (some of them affiliated with Gladio) that have been noted throughout this series. The great Institute for the Study of Globalization and Covert Politics notes:

"... In Belgium this milieu has largely been represented by the Vatican and US intelligence-linked right wing of the PSC, and coincidentally, besides numerous accusations of child abuse against PSC members, some have also been accused of ritual abuse and Satanism, albeit largely through Opus Dei. 

"First up are the claims of Jacques Thoma, who once was a treasurer of the PSC youth division. His boss was the notorious CEPIC member Jean-Paul Dumont, the alleged child abuser..:

Jacques Thoma was at a restaurant with Sara de Wachter (01/10/55) when he broke down in tears. He participated in 1985-86 in several satanic sessions close to Charleroi. 

He is very afraid. He was a treasurer of the youth section of the PSC. He often met with Michel Dewolf, Philippe Sala and Jean-Paul Dumont. They tried to direct Thoma toward Opus Dei what they considered Nec Plus Ultra [Latin for 'nothing further beyond']. 

Under the pretext of initiation tests for Opus Dei he was brought to a Black Mass with sexual acts. He mentions the presence of girls from a country in the East (13-14 years)... He was drugged before being taken into a room with masked people who had dressed in black robes. The participants drank blood. He was placed in the presence of a naked little girl laying down on an altar - she had died.

He encountered the grand master, Francois-Joseph, who told him that he was a police informant and that he had to be careful... Francois-Joseph is a notary implicated in the trafficking of girls for prostitution from the East.

He wanted to leave but was drugged again. He woke up the following day in his car. He left the party [PSC] and made a declaration to the BSR [Special Investigations Unit of the gendarmerie] in Charleroi. 

"X4, who also claimed to have been taken to Satanist black masses, fingered Paul Vanden Boeynants, Dumont's boss, as a violent abuser and added that Opus Dei members (like these) had belonged to her most sadistic clique.."

Paul Vanden Boeynants

Again, I would like to emphasize that the above allegations are all highly, highly speculative. What is far less so is the likely involvement the Opusians had with Operation Gladio. In 1990, following the revelation of Operation Gladio in Italy, a Danish newspaper (Berlingske Tidende), published an account of Denmark's Gladio network. Therein it alleged that former CIA director William Colby had played a key role in establishing the Gladio networks of Scandinavia. It also alleged that Colby was greatly assisted in this endeavor by Opus Dei.

" 'Berlingske Tidende can reveal that Absalon is the Danish branch of the international Gladio network. This has been confirmed by a member of Absalon to Berlingske Tidende who wishes at present to remain unnamed,' a Danish daily newspaper sensationally headlined its discoveries in 1990. The source, named Q by the newspaper, confirmed what Colby had revealed in his book. 'Colby's story is absolutely correct. Absalon was created in the early 1950s,' the source Q related. The network, according to Q, was composed of right-wing men in order to guarantee staunch anti-Communism. 'Colby was member of the world spanning laymen catholic organization Opus Dei, which , using a modern term, could be called right-wing. Opus Dei played a central role in the setting up of Gladio in the whole of Europe and also in Denmark,' Q claimed. 'The leader of Gladio was Harder who was probably not a Catholic. But there are not many Catholics in Denmark and the basic elements making up the Danish Gladio were former [World War II] resistance people – former prisoners of Tysk, Vestre Faengsel, Froslevlejren, Neuengamme and also of the Danish Brigade.' "

(NATO's Secret Armies, Daniele Ganser, pgs. 169-170)

Colby

In addition to Gladio, there can be little doubt that there were ties between Opus Dei and P2. The most obvious ones are the financial links, especially via the banking empire of Roberto Calvi.

"The sense of all this was that Opus Dei's methodology consisted of using, if necessary, unclean hands to achieve certain of its secular aims and that Calvi, Gelli, Ortolani and the Propaganda network, having similar political aims, where appropriate assets to be exploited and then abandon. As far as pouring resources into the battle against Marxist subversion in Latin America was concerned, Opus Dei allegedly decided that a secondary Spanish bank would make a good partner for Calvi's Banco Ambrosiano.

"In the mid-1970s, Calvi started to show an interest in Banco Occidental of Madrid. Its shares were listed on the Madrid stock exchange. A block of 100,000 shares, representing 10 per cent of its capital, was held privately by Swiss company, Zenith Finance S.A. Dr Arthur Wiederkehr was not one Zenith board at the time but would become a director in 1980. Calvi acquired the shares for 80 million Swiss francs, ten times more than the going market price which was an unusual thing for an astute banker to do. He placed them in a company owned by United Trading.

"Banco Occidental belonged to Gregorio de Diego, an enterprising freebooters originally from Salamanca. Diego represented everything that Opus Dei admired in the free enterprise ethic. He was clever, aggressively inquisitive and obviously someone gifted for attracting capital...

"Diego died of a heart attack in the arms of his mistress. Though not a point in his favor, it could hardly be held against the son, also called Gregorio de Diego, who inherited the family empire. Although he had no banking experience Diego II became Occidental's managing director, appointing as chairman of the Conde Tomas de Marsal, a Spanish grandee who, like Ortolani, was a secret knight of the papal household.

"Under Conde de Marsal, Banco Occidental moved into the investment banking field, taking positions in industrial concerns, such as cement works which fitted well with Diego's property development activities. In the early 1970s, the bank opened a representative office in Rome, primarily for Tomas de Marsal's convenience as frequently he visited the Vatican.

"In 1976, Banco Ambrosiano made a loan to Occidental which it used to purchase 1 per cent of Ambrosiano stock. At the same time, Banco Ambrosiano increased its holding in Banco Occidental to 510,000 shares, for which it paid another 40 million Swiss Francs (roughly $18 million), and Calvi went on Banco Occidental's board of directors. In addition to Conde de Marsal, who insiders described as a religious fanatic, other directors included Pio Cabanillas, the Venerable P3 Master. Like his P2 counterpart, Cabanillas kept secret files on most of Spain's important people...

"Diego surrounded himself with Opus Dei members. In this respect his bank was to all intents an Opus Dei bank. His aide-de-camp was supernumerary Eloy Ramirez, for many years the representative in Mexico for Banco Espanol de Credito (Banesto), Spain's largest commercial bank. Diego hired him for his Latin American contacts. He always accompanied Diego on foreign trips. When they arrived in the country for the first time, Ramirez would pay a visit to his brothers in the faith and they opened all the necessary doors. But the real eminenve grise was Diego's brother-in-law, Fernando Perez Minguez, an art connoisseur and antiques dealer who kept an office in the bank although he was not officially on the payroll. Like the Ramirez couple, Fernando Perez and his wife were Opus Dei supernumeraries.

"Banco Occidental concentrated on developing outlets in Latin America and Florida by acquiring participations in small commercial banks and buying hotels. A member of Occidental's legal department also suspected that Calvi used Banco Occidental as the hinge for arms transactions with Latin American dictatorships. These transactions required Calvi's frequent presence in Madrid. But to stay overnight in the Spanish capital would have attracted attention, so United Trading purchased an executive jet to carry him to and from Madrid in the same day. Instructions were given to Occidental staff never to mention the Learjet when talking on the telephone with the Ambrosiano offices in Milan, suggesting that the staff in Millan was not supposed to know of the aircraft's existence.

"In Madrid, Calvi  met frequently with Cabanillas to discuss the possibility of bidding for control of El Pais, because it was feared that Madrid's largest circulation newspaper was leaning too far to the left. The project fitted in well with Opus Dei's Apostolate of Public Opinion and also the P2 and/or Vatican plans to take control of Corriere della Sera, Italy's leading newspaper. Matias Cortes Domingues, a top Madrid lawyer who acted as Banco Occidental's independent counsel, was said to be advising Cabanillas on the takeover plans. Matias' brother, Antonio, also lawyer, was an Opus Dei numerary."

(Their Kingdom Come, Robert Hutchison, pgs. 264-266)

Venerable P3 Grand Master Pio Cabanillas

P3 was briefly noted in the second installment of this series as wel as P2's ties to Spain via Aginter Press. Calvi's efforts to transfer arms to various Latin American dictatorships were noted in the fourth installment while his bid to take over Corriere della Sera (with the assistance of Rothschild money) was noted in that installment as well as part five. It would seem that Opus Dei was a shadowy presence behind these various events.

Lucien Gregoire has compellingly argued that Opus Dei's ties to P2 were even more extensive than this. As was noted in part one, Venerable Grand Master Licio Gelli was allegedly befriended by Opus Dei founder Jose Maria Escriva when Gelli was fighting in the Spanish Civil War as a volunteer. Later on the two men became involved in the Ratlines together. Gregoire alleges that the links between the two men and their organizations went even further than this.

"How these right-wing organizations operated in harmony is best demonstrated by the interrelationships of some of the players.

"Agostio Casaroli was a longtime friend of Licio Gelli, founder of the clandestine Masonic Lodge, Propaganda Due (P2), and José Maria Escriva, founder of Opus Dei. An Opus Dei member since the world war, Agostino Casaroli was inducted into the Zürich branch of P2 Lodge No. 041-076 on September 28, 1957.

"As Foreign Minister with a focus on communism, Casaroli spent much time at the front in Poland. It was he who served as the link between the Polish Cardinal of Krakow –Karol Wojtyla– and Opus Dei which eventually made possible Wojtyla's rise to the papacy.

"He also introduced Karol Wojtyla to Licio Gelli. It was that Wojtyla and Gelli were avid skiers which molded their friendship. According to Wojtyla's secretary –Stanislaw Dzwisz – John Paul II took more than one hundred ski vacations during his papacy, most of them to ski lodges in the Abruzzo region owned by Gelli.

"Opus Dei established a substantial treasury after the war when in its alliance with Franco it was paid handsomely for arranging the escape of Nazi war criminals through Madrid to Argentina. By 1950 it had emerged as a major investment house in Europe.

"The Opus Dei-P2 coalition went back to before the world war when Jose Maria Escriva– founder of Opus Dei – and Licio Gelli – founder of P2 – were partners in the Franco regime cabinet.

"In addition to the commonality of Escriva and Gelli, the key operating officers of Opus Dei held the corresponding jobs in P2. For example, José Mateos as treasurer of both organizations pulled the purse strings of the Opus Dei-P2 coalition; both organizations dealing with the same commodities in the same markets with the same bank – Ambrosiano; the reason the Opus Dei-P2-Ambrosiano coalition emerged as the largest foreign investor in Central America.

"This clandestine union was defined by the courts that tried both the terrorist activities and the bank scandal many times.

"For example, in connection with their convictions involving the Bologna bombing and other terrorist activities, in April 1998 Licio Gelli and Jose Mateos were brought to trial in connection with the Vatican bank scandal. The prosecution proved they had conspired with the Vatican and factions in the CIA in the scandal. Sentenced to twelve years, Gelli disappeared on the eve of his imprisonment.

"Yet some officers of Opus Dei – believed to be – not proved to be – officers of P2 escaped trial; immunized from the Italian courts by John Paul II's authorization of the Prelature of Opus Dei retroactive to the day before Banco Ambrosiano went under."

(Murder in the Vatican, Lucien Gregoire, pgs. 319-320)

Gelli

Gregoire's claims should be taken with a grain of salt. As was noted in parts eight and nine, it is very likely P2 was one of the key organizations behind the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II, so how chummy the Polish pontiff truly was with Gelli is highly debatable. However, there can be little doubt that John Paul II was deeply indebted to Opus Dei, which played a major role in his rise to the papacy. His decision to grant a prelature to Opus Dei occurred roughly a year after the attempted assassination and was instrumental in providing legal cover for figures involved in the banking scandal, as shall be noted in a moment.

This researcher has found no link between Agostio Casaroli and Opus Dei, but there can be little dispute that Jose Mateos had key dealings with either organization. David Yallop noted:

"Jose Mateos, known as Spain's richest man, funneled millions into Opus Dei. A considerable amount of this money came from illegal deals with Calvi, perpetuated in both Spain and Argentina. P2 paymaster and Opus Dei paymaster: could this be what the Church means when it talks of God moving in mysterious ways?"

"In God's Name, David Yallop, pg. 251)

Mateos

But back to the Prelature bestowed upon Opus Dei. Of it, Gregoire remarks:

"On August 23, 1982, the Vatican announced John Paul II had 'authorized Opus Dei a Prelature of the Holy See' effective August 5, 1982 immunizing its officers from Italian courts. The timing of the Prelature retroactive to the precise day before the bank's collapse is compelling evidence the Pope knew officers of Opus Dei had been involved in the fraudulent deception of European investors – The Great Vatican Banking Scandal – and the murders surrounding it.

"The Pope was attempting to immunize those outside the Vatican namely Opus Dei Primate Alvaro Portillo and its Treasurer Jose Mateos and its wealthiest member Licio Gelli. He was not trying to protect those inside the Vatican including himself, Casaroli, Caprio or Marcinkus as they were already immunized by the sovereignty of the Vatican afforded under the Lateran Treaty."

(Murder in the Vatican, Lucien Gregoire, pgs. 373-374)

Pope John Paul II

As was noted in part nine, two events played out in rapid succession of one another in 1981: the exposure of Propaganda Due and the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II, Roughly a year later a Prelature bestowed upon Opus Dei, granting them a great degree of legal immunity. As noted in part nine, this researcher believes these events were part of a power struggle playing out between various players involved with Operation Gladio: the Anglo-American Establishment and their "allies" in the United States military-industrial complex, right wing elements in the Vatican and the Fascist International (outlined before here).

The Anglo-American Establishment needed organizations such as P2 and Opus Dei to maintain its hegemony over Europe but the agendas of these groups had little in common other than their anti-Communism. The Anglo-American Establishment has long struggled to maintain control over these elements and the exposure of P2 seems to have been a bid to reign in the P2-Opus network.

The attempted assassination of John Paul II (who may have favored the objectives of the Anglo- American Establishment more so than that of his backers in Opus Dei) was the response of the P2-Opusian nexus and the Prelature of Opus Dei was the capitulation. P2, a lower level organization, was taken down but its power brokers in Opus Dei were kept both hidden and protected. While the P2-Opus Dei faction did not get a more robust confrontation with the Soviets in Europe, they did receive numerous conflicts in Central America (as well as Afghanistan) to profit off of.

And with that I shall wrap up for now. In the next installment I shall consider an even older secret order closely linked to P2. Stay tuned.