CHAPTER 17
A RAID AND REDIRECTION
What we do has nothing to do with preserving a country's integrity. It's just business,
and Third World countries see their destiny as defeating borders and expanding. The
more of this mentality we can provide, the greater our wealth. We train and we arm:
that's our job. And in return we get a product far more valuable than money for a gun.
We're paid with product and we credit top value for product [drugs]. Look, one gun
and 3,000 rounds of ammo is $1,200. A kilo of product [in Nicaragua] is about $1,000.
We credit the Contras $1,500 for every kilo. That's top dollar for a kilo of cocaine. It's
equivalent to the American K-Mart special: buy four, get one free. On our side we
spend $1,200 for a kilo and sell it for $12,000 to $15,000. Now that's a profit
incentive. It's just good business sense. Understand?
Michael Harari to Gene “Chip” Tatum,
CIA helicopter pilot, 1985.
Six months before the attempted assassination of John Paul II, Italian judge Carlo Palermo launched
an investigation into the smuggling of heroin within northern Italy. After arresting and interrogating
local drug king Herbert Hoberhofer and members of his gang, Palermo became aware that the heroin
was arriving in police cars that were provided by Karah Mehmet Ali, an agent of the Turkish Mafia.
The leading importer of the smack was Karl Kofler, a key figure in a kidnapping ring. Palermo's team
of detectives tailed Kofler to Sicily, where Kofler met with Gerlando Albertini, a member of the
Sicilian Mafia. Albertini operated a laboratory that produced one hundred kilograms of choice brown
No. 4 heroin a week. He was in league with Stefano Bontade, who had helped to arrange the fake
kidnapping of Michele Sindona.1
In January 1981, Kofler was taken into custody and began to provide details about the Balkan
route, the babas, the Sicilian Men of Honor, and Stibam International, which had become the hub of
the drug trade. He said that Huseyn Cil, one of the leading babas, was responsible for transporting the
heroin to the United States on ships owned by Bekir Çelenk. He spoke of the arms from the NATO
bases that were being supplied in exchange for the drugs. The weapons, Kofler testified, included
tanks, helicopter gunships, aircraft, and three freighters.2
On March 7, 1981, Kofler was found
murdered in his cell within a prison in Trento. He had been placed in solitary confinement and was
under twenty-four hour surveillance. Kofler's throat had been slit and his heart pierced by a very fine
needle. No one was ever charged with the crime.3
THE RAID ON STIBAM
But the damage had been done. Palermo and his investigators now turned their attention to Stibam and
the day-to-day activities of Henri Arsan. They began to receive reports from Uğur Mumcu that served
to confirm their suspicions. The Stibam pipeline flowed from Bulgaria to Sicily and it remained
protected by some very powerful individuals, including SISMI and NATO officials.
By keeping Stibam under his watchful eye throughout 1981, Palermo could verify that the
seemingly innocuous shipping company had shipped more than four thousand kilos of pure heroin to
markets throughout Europe and the United States. The net worth of these shipments was $400 billion.4
Making inquiries to the CIA, Palermo was told that Arsan should not be taken into custody, since he
worked undercover for the US Drug Enforcement Administration.5
The magistrate opted to ignore this
disinformation and ordered a raid on Stibam's headquarters in Milan on November 23, 1982. The
raid resulted in the arrest of Arsan and two hundred of his leading accomplices in arms trafficking:
Glauco Partel, the director of a research center in Rome and an agent of the US National
Security Agency, worked with P2 in providing Exocet missiles to the Argentine government
during the Falklands War. Even more alarming was the finding that Partel was involved in the
sale of three atomic bombs to an unnamed Arab country.6
Colonel Massimo Pugliese, a former SID official, negotiated the sale of weapons to the Middle
East with SISMI head Santovito. A prominent P2 member, the colonel worked with the CIA in
developing and selling a secret superweapon called the “death ray.” Stibam records showed that
Pugliese kept in close contact with the Reagan Administration through actor Rossano Brazzi.7
Enzo Giovanelli, a key supplier of ammunition and goods to the US base of La Maddalena in
Sardinia, had sold aircraft, freighters, and flight simulators, with the assistance of NATO
officials, to Libya and other Arab nations. He worked in partnership with two fellow members
of P2, Flavio Carboni and Francesco Pazienza.8
Angelo De Feo, a black-market arms dealer had been involved in the sale of Leopard tanks and
a fleet of ships to Libya, along with missiles to Mauritania. The missiles, he testified, were
delivered on CIA cargo planes that departed from the Ciampiro military base. De Feo further
said that all of Stibam's trafficking in arms was controlled by SISMI. 9
THE PIZZA CONNECTION
Palermo was just getting started with the probe. Leading Sicilian Mafiosi were also collared,
including Giuseppe Albertini (brother of Gerlando), Mario Cappiello, and Edmondo Pagnoni. The
three Men of Honor were involved with the drug smuggling side of Stibam's operations.10 With the
arrests, Palermo learned that Arsan had imported twenty kilos of morphine base every month for
processing by the Sicilians in their laboratories.11 The refined heroin, Palermo realized, was being
shipped to Miami, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and other US ports of call, where it was
combined with other drug deliveries, to create the Gambino crime family's “Pizza Connection.”
Palermo further discovered that a great deal of the arms had been sent by Stibam to Skandaron, a
small Syrian enclave that was occupied by Turkey.12
JAILHOUSE DEATH
Based on the testimony of the suspects in custody, Palermo issued an arrest warrant for General
Santovito, the head of SISMI. Santovito was not only the key figure in protecting the Stibam pipeline,
but also a principal player in the strategy of tension and the attempted murder of the pope. At the
direction of Licio Gelli and his CIA overlords, the SISMI general had planted false leads in the
Bologna bombing case and had washed away vital evidence from St. Peter's Square on the day of the
shooting.13 Santovito appeared in court, posted bail, and fled to the United States. Coaxed by the CIA
to return and face charges, the general returned to Italy, no doubt believing that no harm could befall
him since he was a steadfast military official who had devoted his life to the fight against
Communism. Santovito was placed in a holding cell, where he was found dead under mysterious
circumstances.14 He had dropped dead immediately before his scheduled interrogation by Italian
detectives. No autopsy was conducted.
In 1983, the same strange jail house fate befell Henri Arsan. The Stibam executive was discovered
on the floor of his cell in the prison of San Vittore. His eyes were bulging from their sockets, his lips
bright purple, and his skin was an ashen shade of gray. No autopsy was conducted. His jailers merely
announced that he had died of a heart attack.15
SCARE TACTICS
After the mysterious deaths of Arsan and Santovito, Palermo relocated to Sicily in order to continue
his probe into the relationship of the Sicilian Mafia to the arms for drugs network. Shortly after
opening his office within the House of Justice in Trapani, a car loaded with TNT exploded along the
side of the highway through Pizzolungo. It was set to detonate just as the judge passed by, traveling
from his house in Bonagia to Trapani in an armored Fiat 132. The explosion toppled the car, severely
injuring Palermo and several of his bodyguards. The blast also blew apart a Volkswagen Sirocco,
killing Barbara Rizzo Asta, 30, and her twin sons. In the wake of this incident, Palermo resigned from
the judiciary.16
Despite his retirement, Palermo continued to pore over the confiscated documents from Stibam,
looking for missing clues that might explain the creation of the shipping company that specialized in
arms and drugs and the mysterious deaths of those who could provide telling details about its
operation. He noticed that the initials “tgs,” signifying a major figure in the arms and drugs network,
kept appearing again and again. Years later, the judge finally realized that the reoccurring initials
stood for Theodore G. Shackley, the former deputy director of the CIA who had been in charge of all
covert operations.17
NEW UNDERTAKINGS
After the raid on Stibam, the CIA created new shipping companies to perpetuate the drugs-for-arms
trade. Allivane and Allivane International were set up in Scotland and Israel by Terence Charles
Byrne, an American arms dealer, at the request of CIA Director William Casey.18 One of the first
shipments from these firms was made to the Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran as part of the October
Surprise promise. The shipment contained long-range artillery, as well as electronics that the mullah
used in his war against Iraq. Another shipment contained three large flasks of radioactive cesium,
which were sent to Denmark, and from there exported to Portugal and onward, via Cyprus and Israel,
to Iran.19 Within three years of the raid, one hundred and twenty additional shipping operations had
been set up in coastal cities throughout Europe.20
In addition to the refineries in Sicily, hundreds of “heroin kitchens” were set up throughout Turkey,
including Başkale, half an hour from the border with Iraq.21 New routes were opened throughout the
Balkans, along with hotels, restaurants, and brothels to accommodate the smugglers. Rural hovels
such as Lice, Van, and Gaziantep gave rise to smugglers’ nests and sudden prosperity.22
Heroin had become a $400 billion business, with two hundred million users throughout the
world.23 The CIA's share of this business was used to finance the mujahideen in Afghanistan, the
guerrilla forces in Angola, the Contras in Nicaragua, the puppet regimes in South America, and the
death squads in El Salvador.24 Paul E. Helliwell's brainstorm had produced an intelligence agency
with seemingly limitless funds for seemingly endless operations.
DRUG BOOM
The Golden Triangle was now producing 80 percent of the world's opium supply. At the end of 1982,
the DEA had evidence of over forty heroin syndicates and two hundred heroin laboratories operating
in Pakistan.25 The CIA deposited a large share of its profits from these operations in the Shakarchi
Trading Company in Lebanon, which served not only as a convenient laundry but also as a shipping
firm that delivered 8.5 ton shipments of choice brown product to the Gambino crime syndicate in
New York.26
In keeping with the policy of false flags, the sharp rise in heroin production was blamed on the
Soviet generals in Kabul. “The regime maintains an absolute indifference to any measures to control
poppy,” Edwin Meese, President Reagan's attorney general, said during a visit to Islamabad. “We
strongly believe that there is actually encouragement, at least tactically, over growing poppy.”27
The increased flow of heroin impacted all regions of the world, including Pakistan. Before the CIA
program, there were fewer than five thousand heroin users in Pakistan. At the end of the Soviet/Afghanistan
war, there were 1.6 million heroin addicts.28
ARKANSAS NARCO-BANK
But the principal laundry for the new heroin network remained the BCCI, which continued to retain its
primary offices in London and Karachi. James R. Bath, a CIA associate and the business partner of
George W. Bush, remained a primary director.29 Bert Lance, an American businessman who served as
the director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Carter, emerged in 1981 as a
key BCCI consultant, along with Arkansas-based power broker Jackson Stephens.30 In accordance
with the wishes of William Casey, the CIA director under President Reagan, the BCCI stood alone,
financially independent, and free from congressional scrutiny.31
Thanks to Lance and Stephens, Western Arkansas suddenly became a hub of international drug
smuggling. Cocaine was being smuggled into the small airport in Mena by CIA assets, including pilot
Barry Seal. These assets also transported to Mena huge bails of cash, which was laundered by
BCCI's First American Bank. First American was a Washington, DC financial institution that had been
acquired for BCCI by former secretary of defense Clark M. Clifford.32 The cash came from the
Gambino crime family, which was shelling out $50 million for each shipment.33
BLOCKED BY NATIONAL SECURITY
The laundering at First American was conducted in conjunction with Worthern Bank (a financial
institution owned by Jackson Stephens) and the Arkansas Development Finance Authority, a state
agency that had been set up by Governor Bill Clinton.34 Stephens had been a major donor to Clinton's
1982 gubernatorial campaign, and Worthern had provided the candidate with a $3.5 million line of
credit.35 The BCCI's front in the DC bank was Kamal Adham, who, according to the Kerry Committee
report, operated as “the CIA's principal liaison for the entire Middle East from the mid-1960's
through 1979.”36
In his attempt to probe First American, CBS correspondent Bill Plante complained there was “a
trail of tens of millions of dollars in cocaine profits [from Mena, Arkansas] and we don't know where
it leads. It is a trail blocked by the National Security Council.”37
HOLY SEE SECRETS
By 1985, BCCI had become an international $23 billion operation. Through it, the CIA had shelled
out more than $83 million to Licio Gelli for Operation Gladio and the October Surprise. From it, the
Agency provided infusions of “discretionary cash” to the Vatican shell companies, including Erin SA.
Strange to say, some of this money ended up in the coffers of the Irish Republican Army (IRA).38
Mysteries surrounding BCCI began to abound. Millions of dollars in cash transfers arrived each
day from the various branches of this notorious bank, flowing into Manlon, a firm with offices in
London, Bombay, and Luxembourg about which scant information exists. Additional funds came from
Banco Ambrosiano and the Atlanta branch of Banca Nazionale del Lavoro. Manlon's corporate
purpose, according to documents filed with England's Companies House, was “to act as confirming
agents in the sale of goods of all kinds.” The existing records of this shadowy organization show that
it was used to post large financial credits to the IOR and an association of Catholic priests in
Chicago, the hometown of Archbishop Marcinkus.39
SPECIAL DELIVERY
Arthur Hartmann, another director of BCCI, was an old hat in the spy game, having worked for
decades with British and Saudi intelligence. Hartmann also served as the president of the Rothschild
Bank of Zurich. In June 1982, Hartmann's bank in Zurich received a morning delivery from BCCI—a
suitcase stuffed with $21 million in cash. The money was to be used for the murder of Roberto
Calvi.40
CHAPTER 18
BLACKFRIARS BRIDGE
The priests will be the end of us. They believe in any case that if someone dies their
soul lives on, so it's not such a bad thing.
Roberto Calvi to his daughter Anna, April 1982
(quoted in Rupert Cornwell's God's Banker)
The decision to kill Calvi was not taken lightly. The CIA had tried to resolve the Ambrosiano affair
by providing Francesco Pazienza as the banker's new “international consultant.” The move displayed
the Agency's determination to resolve the Ambrosiano imbroglio. Few individuals were of more vital
importance to Gladio than Pazienza. And no one was more wired to the operation's power brokers.
A trained physician, Pazienza had abandoned his medical profession to serve Operation Gladio.
He was dispatched to serve SISMI general Santovito by former NATO commander and Secretary of
State Alexander Haig; and former secretary of state Henry Kissinger. A leading member of P2, he met
regularly with Licio Gelli and was later named as a co-conspirator in the Bologna bombing.1
Since
1978, he had worked closely with Henri Arsan at Stibam, arranging the sale of a fleet of warships to
Saddam Hussein in Iraq.2
Pazienza was also a Man of Honor, with filial ties to Pippo Calò and
Salvatore Inzerillo and, by extension, to the Gambino family in the United States.
Thanks to his friendship with Michael Ledeen, Pazienza became deeply involved in US political
affairs, including the implementation of “Billygate,” a plot connecting President Carter's brother with
the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a group that sought the destruction of Israel.3
President Reagan was duly impressed with Pazienza's talents. In the diplomatic interregnum created
by Reagan's removal of Richard Gardner as the US Ambassador to Italy, Pazienza and Ledeen
received the federal fiat to handle relations between the US and Italian governments.4
In March 1981, Pazienza began to devise a plan to plug the gaping $1.75 billion hole within Banco
Ambrosiano that had been created by “loans” to the Vatican's shell companies. Through his CIA
contacts, he arranged for two American investors (presumably David Rockefeller and Robert
Armao), three Saudi businessmen, and two banks to pay $1.2 billion for the nine shell companies that
now held nearly 16 percent of Ambrosiano's stock.5
CALVI CAGED
Seven days after John Paul II was shot, Calvi was arrested for the illegal transfer of funds out of the
country and locked up in Lodi prison, twenty minutes south of Milan. As soon as this happened,
Calvi's family contacted Archbishop Marcinkus to seek his help in springing the banker from his cell.
Marcinkus responded to their pleas by saying, “If the IOR accepts any responsibility, it will not only
be the Vatican's image that will suffer. You'll lose as well, for our problems are your problems, too.”6
Prison was the worst experience of Calvi's life. Painfully introverted, he was obsessive in his
behavior and fastidious in his personal care. His cellmates passed their time playing cards and
listening to rock and roll on the radio. Calvi could neither sleep nor use the toilet in full view of the
others. A visitor found him “bloated” and “completely submissive,” meekly obeying the taunting
prison guards, and at the brink of physical and mental exhaustion.7
On July 3, when questioned by
Milanese magistrates, Calvi broke into tears. “I am just the lowest of the low,” he sobbed. “I am just
a dog who serves others.” The magistrates asked, “Then who commands you? Who is the proprietary
of the bank?” Collecting himself, Calvi said, “I can't tell you anymore.”8
On July 7, when the Italian government charged Sindona with the murder of Giorgio Ambrosoli,
Calvi swallowed a quantity of barbiturates and slashed his wrist. Coming to consciousness in the
prison infirmary, he said that he had acted in a moment of “lucid depression.”9
On July 29, Calvi was
sentenced to four years imprisonment and a fine of sixteen billion lire. His lawyer filed an appeal and
he was freed on bail. Within a week, he returned to his position as Ambrosiano's chairman.10
A LETTER OF PATRONAGE
Calvi was becoming increasingly desperate. The shareholders kept insisting on some proof that the
eight shell companies that had been established in Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, and Panama were
properties of the Holy See. By August 1, Calvi had no choice save to appear before Archbishop
Marcinkus with hat in hand. The affair was about to explode unless he could present some assurance
to the Guardia di Finanza that the eight companies, which had drained Banco Ambrosiano of all its
cash reserves, were, in fact, legitimate Vatican concerns. Marcinkus realized that some action had to
be taken to ward off financial disaster, and he came up with a course of action that represented one of
the greatest acts of fraud in ecclesiastical history. He issued a “letter of patronage” stating that the
dummy firms were legitimate financial organizations whose purposes and financial obligations were
known, secured, and approved by Holy Mother Church. The letter, dated September 1, 1981, was
written on Vatican letterhead. It read as follows:
Gentlemen:
This is to confirm that we directly or indirectly control the following entries:
Manic SA, Luxembourg
Astrolfine SA, Panama
Nordeurop Establishment, Liechtenstein
United Trading Corporation, Panama
Erin SA, Panama
Bellatrix SA, Panama
Belrose SA, Panama
Starfield SA Panama
We also confirm our awareness of their indebtedness toward yourselves as of June 10, 1981, as per the attached statement of
accounts.11
The attached accounts showed “indebtedness” to the Lima branch of Banco Ambrosiano alone for
$907 million. The letter was signed by Archbishop Marcinkus, along with his administrative
assistants Luigi Mennini and Pellegrino de Stroebel.12 To compound the fraud, Calvi presented
Marcinkus with a letter of his own—this one stating that the Vatican Bank “would entail no
liabilities” or “suffer no future damage or loss” from its involvement with the eight companies.13
PAPAL PIPE DREAM
For several months, the letter served to quiet the concerns of the Ambrosiano shareholders, while
Pazienza gained the necessary backing for his plan. The bailout of $1.2 billion was in place, with the
group agreeing to accept the 16 percent of Ambrosiano stock held by the shell companies as equity.
The investors intended to purchase more shares at an inflated rate from interested sellers in order to
obtain a 20 percent holding.14 This would grant them ownership of one of Italy's most prestigious
banks. The matter seemed settled. Calvi uttered a sigh of relief.
No one expected John Paul II's reaction. The pope opposed the plan, according to Pazienza, for the
sake of a “pipe-dream.” In a 1986 interview with the news magazine L'Espresso, Pazienza explained:
“The Ambrosiano [in the pope's eyes] was to represent the modern, secular arm of the church in the
world. The new temporal power was seen as the penetration and control of financial and publishing
activities [including the acquisition of Corriere della Sera, Italy's leading daily newspaper] to
counterbalance the secular and Marxist influences that were becoming ever more preponderant in
Italy.”15
The pope's belief that the Church could weather the crisis and take ownership of Ambrosiano was
reflected by optimistic statements from Archbishop Marcinkus. In March 1982, as the storm clouds
gathered around the Holy See, the Archbishop, in an interview with the Italian magazine Panorama,
said, “Calvi merits our trust. I have no reason to doubt. We have no intention of ceding the Banco
Ambrosiano shares in our possession.”16
BOTCHED JOB
While Marcinkus was making this pronouncement of trust, Robert Rosone, the general manager of
Ambrosiano, was making a new demand for Calvi's dismissal as director and for a “call” on all loans
that had been made to the Vatican. Rosone was causing unnecessary agita (agitation) Pazienza
responded to the demands of the troublesome chiacchierone (“chatterbox”) by contacting Flavio
Carboni, who was connected to Banda della Magliana. Carboni issued the contract. On April 27,
Rosone was shot by an assailant with a pistol as he left his apartment for work. Several Milanese
police officers heard the shots and killed the gunman. The hit had been entirely botched. Rosone
managed to survive the attack and the gunman turned out to be no ordinary Magliana street thug but
Danilo Abbruciati, the leader of the notorious gang.17
Why would Abbruciati attempt to conduct such a hit by himself? The Magliana boss had dozens of
cugines (lackeys) at his beck and call. He had amassed hundreds of millions from the gang's
involvement in robbery, kidnapping, prostitution, gambling, and drug trafficking.18 Why would a
criminal of his stature accept a contract for the killing of a man of no obvious significance? Such
questions were raised by journalists throughout Italy, and Banco Ambrosiano came under increased
scrutiny.
On May 31, 1982, the Bank of Italy wrote to Calvi and his board of directors in Milan, requesting a
full accounting of the lending to the Vatican's eight shell companies. The board, under increased
pressure, voted eleven to three to comply, despite Calvi's protests.19
A PAPAL PETITION
Knowing the shell game had been lost, Calvi turned to the Holy Father with a last request for
deliverance. In the letter dated June 5, 1982, he wrote, “I have thought a lot, Holiness, and have
concluded that you are my last hope…. I have been offered help by many people on condition that I
talk about my activities for the Church. Many would like to know from me whether I supplied arms
and other equipment to certain South American regimes to help them fight our common enemies, and
whether I supplied funds to Solidarity or arms and funds to other organizations of Eastern countries. I
will not reveal it. I will not submit to nor do I want to blackmail; I have always chosen the path of
coherence and loyalty.” He added, “The Vatican has betrayed and abandoned me.”20
After documenting in writing the Holy See's involvement in arming guerrillas, engaging in bloody
war, and misappropriating funds, Calvi continued, “Summing up, I ask that all the money that I gave to
the projects of serving the political and economic expansion of the Church, that the thousands of
millions of dollars that I gave to Solidarity with the express will of the Vatican, and that the sums
which I provided to organize the financial centers and political power in five South American
countries will be returned to me. These sums would amount to $1.75 billion.” He concluded the letter
by saying that he was “seeking serenity” and “to live in peace.”21
LAPSI LINGUAE
Writing such a letter to the Vatican at this point would not result in Calvi's living in peace and only
produced increased concern that the banker was becoming unhinged and might attempt to make
disclosures that would place the CIA's major covert operation in certain jeopardy. This concern
became intensified as Calvi began to pack away documents in his black leather briefcase and to
confide in friends, including Prime Minister Andreotti, about the IOR's involvement in money
laundering and wholesale fraud. “If things go a certain way,” he now told Flavio Carboni, his new
best friend, “the Vatican will have to rent a building in Washington behind the Pentagon. A far cry
from St. Peter's!”22
Calvi, when he was making these remarks, was not aware that he was being taped. A few days
before his departure from Milan, Calvi again complained to Carboni about the Vatican's refusal to pay
its debts. “The Vatican,” he said, “should honor its commitments by selling the wealth controlled by
the IOR. It is an enormous patrimony. I estimate it to be $10 billion. To help the Ambrosiano, the IOR
could start to sell it [its patrimony] in chunks of a billion at a time.”23
FINANCIAL DOOMSDAY
On Thursday, June 17 came the coup de grâce. Il Sole 24 Ore, Italy's cautious and conservative
financial newspaper, published the complete text of the Bank of Italy's letter to Calvi and the
Ambrosiano directors. Ambrosiano stock went into a free fall that resulted in complete collapse.
Rosone and two other directors appeared before Luigi Mennini, deputy director of the I.O.R, and
Pellegrino De Stroebel, the I.O.R's chief accountant, and demanded payment on the loans that the Holy
See had received for its offshore holdings.24 They presented the two IOR officials with the letter of
patronage that they, along with Archbishop Marcinkus, had signed and sealed. By any banking
standard, they insisted, the letter represented a statement of financial obligation. Marcinkus was
contacted by telephone. He was accompanying the pope on a trip to Switzerland. He responded to the
demands of the Ambrosiano directors by saying, “We just don't have that kind of money.”25 When
warned that his response would be reported to the Bank of Italy, the Archbishop said, “I know. I did
all this to help a friend and look where we are.”26 Rosone later recalled his reaction, “I became as
angry as a buffalo. I told them [Mennini and De Stroebel] this was a criminal conspiracy. They had
committed fraud. The letter [of patronage] was from the IOR and it was a guarantee. All that was
missing was the signature of Jesus Christ.”27
An emergency meeting was held on the fourth floor of Ambrosiano's headquarters. Panic reigned.
Accusations were exchanged. Threats were made. Lawyers were summoned. When a degree of order
was restored, Calvi, by unanimous vote, was removed from his position at the bank. The board was
dissolved and the bank was placed in the hands of a commissioner from the Bank of Italy.28 A new
warrant was issued for Calvi's arrest. But the cause of so much turmoil was nowhere to be found. The
previous week, Calvi had made his escape from Milan. He was now one of the world's most wanted
fugitives.
The day after he vanished, Graziella Corrocher, the banker's fifty-five-year-old personal secretary,
fell or was hurled from the fifth floor of Ambrosiano. The body landed with a thump on the ramp
leading to the bank's underground garage. No arrests were made and the cause of her death remains
undetermined.29
TELL-TALE DOCUMENTS
On June 11, while packing his bags, Calvi told his son Nino, “I shall reveal things, which once
known, will rock the Vatican. The pope will have to resign.”30 He stuffed several documents in his
black briefcase, which came to light in 1987. One was a note concerning Gelli, which read, “He had
convinced me that all political and financial power really depended on him and that no deal of any
importance could go ahead without his consent.” The note further stated that Calvi had never made a
decision regarding the transfer of funds to the shell companies or weapons for the Latin American
dictators and guerrilla armies without conferring with his Worshipful Master.31
In a letter, Calvi said that the Vatican needed him to launch “an effective politico-religious
penetration into secular society by securing control over banking institutions. The enormous
importance of what I have just said induced me to incur debts in foreign currency in order to buy
Banco Ambrosiano shares in sufficient quantity to guarantee IOR control over the institution.”
Working for the Vatican, he added, meant providing financial assistance to guerrilla units and strong arm
regimes. He wrote, “On more than one occasion, I believed that my life was at risk as I rushed
from one Latin American country to another, seeking to oppose the ferment of anticlerical ideologies.
I did my utmost in every sense even to the point of concerning myself with the supply of warships and
other war material to support those capable of contrasting the advance of well-organized communist
forces.” These efforts, he maintained, ensured that the Vatican would have an authoritative presence
in countries such as Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Paraguay, and Nicaragua.32
Nearly four years after Calvi made his escape from Milan, Bishop Pavol Hnilica of
Czechoslovakia paid Flavio Carboni $6 million on behalf of the Vatican for the contents of the black
briefcase. On April 1, 1987, an Italian television news program opened the briefcase before its
viewing public with great flourish. The contents had been depleted, but the remaining documents
showed that Calvi had been pushed beyond the breaking point and was ready to employ blackmail in
order to obtain reparation for the Ambrosiano's losses. Seven years after the program was aired, a
Roman court convicted Carboni and Bishop Hnilica of being in receipt of stolen property.33
ESCAPE TO LONDON
Leaving Milan, Calvi made his way to the seaport city of Trieste, where he boarded the Outrango, a
launch that had been used by Stibam for drug smuggling, and sailed to the small fishing village of
Muggia in Yugoslavia.34 He was met by Carboni, who drove him to a safe house in Austria where he
received a passport that was genuine in all respects except the name of its bearer. “Roberto Calvi”
had been crudely but simply adjusted to “Gian Roberto Calvini.”35
On June 14, he was flown to London on a plane that had been chartered by Hans Kunz, who had
been a player in Stibam's guns-for-drugs operation.36 The Austrian businessman had been involved in
providing Exocet missiles for use by the Argentine military junta in the Falklands War. The order had
been placed by Gelli. The funding had been provided by Ambrosiano through a Vatican dummy
corporation in Panama.37
THE BROTHEL AND THE BRIDGE
In London Calvi was placed in an eighth floor flat of a seedy apartment building off King's Row that
served as a brothel for a louche clientèle.38 The hiding place had been secured for him by Carboni,
who booked lodgings for himself at a luxurious London Hilton. Calvi, growing increasingly morose
and frightened, spent the next two days in a squalid bedroom stretched out on a cot, staring at the
television and making telephone calls. He spoke several times with his daughter Anna in Zurich,
telling her of the danger she faced and imploring her to leave Europe for the United States.
“Something really important is happening,” he said, “and today or tomorrow all hell is going to break
loose.”39
On June 17, the body of Roberto Calvi was found hanging from an orange noose under Blackfriars
Bridge in London, his feet dangling in the muddy waters of the Thames. He was wearing a lightweight
gray suit, an expensive Patek Phillipe watch remained on his wrist, and $20,000 was stuffed in his
wallet. In his pockets were four pairs of eyeglasses and his doctored Italian passport; five bricks had
been stuffed in his trousers.40
MASONIC SYMBOLISM
The site of Calvi's demise immediately aroused suspicion. Members of various Masonic lodges in
Italy wear black robes and address each other as “friar.” “Black friars”—fratelli neri—is an Italian
nickname for Freemasons. There is even a Blackfriars lodge, number 3,722 in the “List of Lodges
Masonic,” the official register of European masonry.41 The fact that masonry in the form of bricks was
found on the body was deemed significant, as well as the fact that the Masonic oath stipulated that
traitors should be “roped down” in the proximity of the rising tide.
NEXT
Killings and Kidnapping
footnotes:
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: A RAID AND REDIRECTION
1. Alexander Stille, Excellent Cadavers: The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic (New York: Vintage, 1995), pp.
37–42.
2. Luigi Cipriani, “Armi e Droga Nell'Inchiesta de Giudice Palermo,” Democrazia Proletaria, March 1985,
http://www.fondazionecipriani.it/Scritti/palermo.html (accessed May 22, 2014).
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Richard Cottrell, Gladio: NATO's Dagger at the Heart of Europe (Palm Desert, CA: Progressive Press, 2012), p. 278.
6. Franco Vernice, “La Caccia All'Oro di Bankitalia,” La Repubblica, November 11, 1984,
http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/1984/11/29/la-caccia-all-oro-di-bankitalia.html (accessed May 22, 2014).
7. Cipriani, “Armi e Droga Nell'Inchiesta de Giudice Palermo.”
. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. Vivian Freyre Zoakos, “Colossal East-West Arms and Drug Ring Cracked,” EIR News Service, December 14, 1982.
\11. Roger Lewis, “Henry Arsan,” Prison Planet Intelligence, 1984, http://ppia.wikia.com/wiki/Henri_Arsan (accessed May 22,
2014).
12. Ibid.
13. Antonella Beccaria, “Santovito: Gli Anni delle Stragi All'Ombra Dei Generali P-2,” Domani (Rome), January 3, 2010,
http://domani.arcoiris.tv/santovito-gli-anni-delle-stragi-all%E2%80%99ombra-dei-generali-p2/ (accessed May 22, 2014).
14. Cottrell, Gladio, p. 277.
15. Franco Vernice, “Quelle Spie Dell'Est e Dell Ovest,” La Repubblica, August 22, 1985,
http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/1985/08/22/quelle-spie-dell-est-dell-ovest.html (accessed May 22, 2014).
16. Stille, Excellent Cadavers, p. 204.
17. Saez, El Dia de la Cuenta: Juan Pablo II, a Examen (Madrid: Meral Ediciones – Comunidad de Ayala, 2005),
http://www.comayala.es/index.php/en/libros-es/el-dia-de-la-cuenta-ingles-texto (accessed May 22, 2014).
18. Terence Charles Byrne, Witness Statement, Form 991A, Department of Justice, March 18, 1991,
http://jancom.org/DocumentsPDF/Witness%20Statement%20-%20ByrneSnr.pdf (accessed May 22, 2014).
19. Philip Willan, The Vatican at War: From Blackfriars Bridge to Buenos Aires (Bloomington, IN: iUniverse LLC, 2003), Kindle
edition.
20. Ibid.
21. Frank Bovenkerk and Yucel Yesilgoz, The Turkish Mafia: A History of the Heroin Godfathers (London: Milo Books, 2007),
Kindle edition.
22. Ibid.
23. Ibid.
24. John Stockwell, “The Secret Wars of the CIA,” lecture, October 1987, http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4068.htm
(accessed May 22, 2014).
25. Cockburn and St. Clair, Whiteout, p. 265.
26. Ibid., p. 265.
27. Ibid., p. 265.
28. Ibid., p. 269.
2
29. Jonathan Beaty, “A Mysterious Mover of Money and Planes,” Time, June 24, 2001,
http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101911028-155760,00.html (accessed May 22, 2014).
30. John Kerry and Hank Brown, “BCCI in the United States: Initial Entry and FGB and NBG Takeovers,” US Senate
Subcommittee Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, 1992, http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/03hist.htm (accessed
May 22, 2014).
31. David Livingston and Sahib Mustaqim Bleher, Surrendering Islam: The Subversion of Muslim Politics throughout History
until the Present Day (Karachi, Pakistan: Mustaqim Ltd., 2010), p. 121.
32. Ibid.
33. Willan, Vatican at War, Kindle edition.
34. Cockburn and St. Clair, Whiteout, p. 320. See also, Andrew W. Griffith, “Jackson Stephens, BCCI and Drug Laundering,” Red
Dirt Report, January 22, 2012, http://www.reddirtreport.com/red-dirt-grit/jackson-stephens-bcci-and-drug-money-laundering.
35. Ibid.
36. Kerry and Brown, “BCCI in the United States.”
37. Livingston and Bleher's Surrendering Islam, p. 125.
38. Willan, The Vatican at War, Kindle edition.
39. Ibid.
40. Michael Yockel, “Rothschild Bank AG Zurich Tied to Calvi Murder and P-2 Masonic Lodge,” Hard Truth, March 7, 2001,
http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/calvi_murder.htm (accessed May 22, 2014).
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: BLACKFRIARS BRIDGE
1. Mae Brussell, “Broadcast #787,” World Watchers International, June 5, 1987,
http://www.maebrussell.com/Transcriptions/787.html (accessed May 22, 2014).
2. Roberto Cocciomessere, “Weapons to Iraq: A State Bribe,” Radio Radicale It., October 30, 1987,
http://www.radioradicale.it/exagora/weapons-to-iraq-a-state-bribe (accessed May 22, 2014).
3. Philip Willan, The Vatican at War: From Blackfriars Bridge to Buenos Aires (Bloomington, IN: iUniverse LLC, 2003), Kindle
edition.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. David Yallop, The Power and the Glory: Inside the Dark Heart of John Paul II's Vatican (New York: Carroll and Graf,
2007), p. 133.
7. Rupert Cornwell, God's Banker: An Account of the Life and Death of Roberto Calvi (London: Victor Gollancz, 1984), p.140.
8. Jesus Lopez Saez, El Dia de la Cuenta: Juan Pablo II, a Examen (Madrid: Meral Ediciones—Comunidad de Ayala, 2005),
http://www.comayala.es/index.php/en/libros-es/el-dia-de-la-cuenta-ingles-texto (accessed May 22, 2014).
9. Yallop, Power and the Glory, p. 134.
10. Ibid.
11. Cornwell, God's Banker, p. 250.
12. Ibid.
13. Nick Tosches, Power on Earth: Michele Sindona's Explosive Story (New York: Arbor House, 1986), pp. 247–48.
14. Willan, Vatican at War, Kindle edition.
15. Ibid.
16. Yallop, Power and the Glory, p. 139.
17. Cornwell, God's Banker, p. 175.
18. Paolo Biondani, “Condannati: Carboni e un Boss della Magliana. Sono I Mandanti del Tentato Omicidio di Rosone,” Corriere
della Sera, January 15, 1994,
http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/1994/gennaio/15/condannati_Carboni_boss_della_Magliana_co_0_940115795.shtml (accessed May 24,
2014).
19. Cornwell, God's Banker, pp. 179–80.
20. Yallop, Power and the Glory, pp. 141–42.
21. Cottrell, Gladio: NATO's Dagger at the Heart of Europe (Palm Desert, CA: Progressive Press, 2012), p. 228.
22. Yallop, Power and the Glory, p. 138.
23. Ibid.
24. Willan, Vatican at War, Kindle edition.
25. Cornwell's God's Banker, p. 189.
26. Ibid.
27. Willan, Vatican at War, Kindle edition.
28. Cornwell, God's Banker, p. 190.
29. Jennifer Parmelee, “Deaths of 2 Crooked Bankers Create a Mystery in Italy,” Milwaukee Journal, May 18, 1986,
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19860518&id=M2MaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=bSoEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7046,1009303
(accessed May 24, 2014).
30. Avro Manhattan, Murder in the Vatican (Springfield, MO: Ozark Books, 1985), p. 259.
31. Willan, Vatican at War.
32. Ibid.
33. Ibid.
34. Penny Lernoux, In Banks We Trust (New York: Penguin Books, 1986), p. 192.
35. Cornwell, God's Banker, p. 183.
36. Lernoux, In Banks We Trust, p. 192.
37. Luigi Cipriani, “Armi e Droga Nell'Inchiesta de Giudice Palermo,” Democrazia Proletaria, March 1985,
http://www.fondazionecipriani.it/Scritti/palermo.html (accessed May 24, 2014).
38. Willan, Vatican at War.
39. Cornwell, God's Banker, p. 196.
40. Ibid., p. 198.
41. Ibid., p. 199.
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