There are many conspiracy theories about cabals of powerful people running governments from the shadows. They are mostly that, though: conspiracies, untrue and unfounded.
Except one.
A thread about the P2, the secret masonic lodge that shaped Italian politics for years 🧵 https://t.co/leD0AMr6Ly
A disclaimer: the P2 is a complex subject that touches many milestones of Italian recent history. I will not delve into details, because I don't have the time nor the expertise to do that. I want this thread only to offer a general idea of what the P2 was, and its ramifications.
Italy, 1981. Two magistrates are investigating the murder of an attorney, Giorgio Ambrosoli, whose killing was ordered by powerful mafia banker Michele Sindona. The investigation led them to a certain Lucio Gelli, who they believed was covering Sindona's traces.
The magistrates order a search of Gelli's premises, hoping to find documents that would incriminate Sindona. They discover something much, much bigger instead. In Lucio Gelli's offices, in a safe, are documents related to a secret masonic lodge...and the names of its 962 members.
Nothing *too* weird, right? Secret masonic lodges can exist. Except the members of this one, called Propaganda 2 (or P2), are very, very important people. 59 members of parliament, 8 newspaper editors, and 119 high military officials and members of the Italian secret services
Among the names there was also that of Silvio Berlusconi, then yet to enter politics. But keep this in mind. https://t.co/79vUTcVDeB
The implications of this discovery were dire. The P2 looked, to the magistrates, like a secret government within the government. Remember that, in the 70s, Italy was theater of the bloody strategy of tension, promoted by the CIA and the Italian secret services.
Far right groups conducted several terror attacks to destabilize the Italian democracy, and even attempted a coup. And, as uncovered during the parliamentary question on the P2 and its grand master, Licio Gelli, had a hand in many, many of those terrible events.
But who was Licio Gelli? Born in 1919, he was extremely active in the fascist party and climbed its ranks. During the nazi occupation, he even became a coordinating officials between nazis and the RSI. Except...when the Allied victory became inevitable, he switched boats easily
He collaborated with American intelligence services. He was investigated for his role as a high ranking fascist, but "somehow" never faced any consequences. After he entered the masonic italian organization, he climbed the ranks and became leader of the P2.
Under his oversee, the P2 became, as described by Tina Anselmi - the woman who conducted the parliamentary inquiry on the lodge - a criminal organization that was the socio-political instigators of terror attacks such as the Italicus and Bologna massacre.
After all, among the documents retrieved from Gelli, one stands out: the declaration of intent of the P2. The so-called "Plan of democratic rebirth", sometimes simply referred to as "Il Piano", the plan.
The plan aimed to absorb the Italian democratic system into a sort of "legal dictatorship" by means of controlling the media and destroying the judiciary. Sounds familiar? If you know what Berlusconi did, during his government, you may recognize a couple of similarities. https://t.co/jQ8q4aKTfg
Indeed, you can see how the Plan was conducted by Gelli during his time as leader of the P2. Some, but absolutely not all, events in which the lodge was involved:
- buying Italy's main newspaper Corriere della Sera, and other newspapers of the Rizzoli group, to control the which information reached the Italian public
- designing a fascist coup (the Golpe Borghese). Gelli himself should have been the one capturing the Italian president.
- financing the fasicst terrorist groups responsible for many terror attacks on trains such as the aforementioned Italicus bombing
- ties with the Moro kidnapping and killing (ALL the people involved in the investigation were P2 members)
In 1995, Gelli was also convicted for having mislead the investigation on the Bologna massacre, the bombing at the Bologna train station that killed 80+ people. The magistrates also believe Gelli was among the principal instigators.
The P2's web didn't destabilize only Italy, though. Gelli had ties with key figures in the rise of fascist dictatorships in South America, like admiral Emilio Eduardo Massera, minister José López Rega and general Guillermo Suarez Mason. All three were *members* of the P2.
It's not too difficult to see the threads. Here we have a fascist collaborating with the CIA since even before the war ended. The fascist rules a secret society with a plan to change Italy into a dictatorship, during the years in which the CIA was conducting Gladio and Condor
So much of the P2's involvement in the strategy of tension has been proven, and yet so little study has been done, systematically, on the ramification of the lodge both nationally and internationally. And how much the P2's "philosophy" has shaped Berlusconi's line of government.
Licio Gelli didn't get nearly enough of what he deserved. And Berlusconi was free to turn The Plan into a reality. Controlling the media, attacking the judiciary non-stop, cozying up with dictators and mafiosi, the G8 crackdown...his government followed The Plan step by step
indeed, it's not surprising that, during an interview with Licio Gelli, the journalist joked about how the ex-grand master should ask copyright money to his ex-subordinate! Everyone with eyes can see how the P2 survived much, much longer than its disbandment in 1982.
As I said, the P2 is a very complex subject. There's a lot I haven't covered: its ties with the mafia, the Vatican, the IOR. A nice and accessible documentary, if you want to learn more (only in IT): https://www.raiplay.it/video/2009/10/Lombra-oscura-della-P2-8e0cdeb3-a16a-495e-8d3d-333a97a322b4.html
Comprehensive documents on the parliamentary inquiry: https://www.archivioantimafia.org/p2.php
on P2 and South American dictatorships: https://www.antimafiaduemila.com/home/mafie-news/309-topnews/95039-gelli-burattinaio-delle-dittature-sudamericane-spinse-i-golpe-e-fu-capo-dei-servizi-argentini.html
Today, it's Berlusconi's funeral. Gelli died in 2015. I wonder if they'll meet down in hell, and celebrate: they did manage, after all, to ruin Italy according to The Plan. /end