Propaganda Due: "a state within a state"

The shadowy world of the rogue masonic lodge "Propaganda Due" or "P2".

A secret world of political collusion, murder, fraud and mafia connections in Italy's corrupt 1970's.

Originally a masonic lodge formed in 1877 in Turin (north west Italy). The lodge was frequented by politicians and government officials from across Italy who were unable to attend their own lodges, it wasn't until until 1982 that the murky world of political conspiracy and criminal actions would be uncovered.

Enter Licio Gelli.

Licio Gelli was an Italian financier, and liaison officer between the Italian government and Nazi Germany during the war. Chiefly known for his role in the Banco Ambrosiano scandal (Banco Ambrosiano was an Italian bank that collapsed in 1982. The banks chairman was Roberto Calvi, a member of the illegal Masonic Lodge Propaganda Due, who died that same year, initially ruled as a suicide but later prosecuted as a murder..)

Licio Gelli was revealed in 1981 as being the Venerable Master of the clandestine lodge Propaganda Due.

The activities of the P2 lodge were discovered by prosecutors while investigating banker Michele Sindona (Michele Sindona was an Italian banker and convicted felon. Known in banking circles as "The Shark", Sindona was a member of Propaganda Due, and had clear connections to the Sicilian Mafia. He was fatally poisoned in prison while serving a life sentence for the murder of lawyer Giorgio Ambrosoli).

In 1981 police found a list of alleged "P2" members in Gelli's house in Arezzo. The political collusion spread far and wide. The list contained 962 names, among which were important state officials, important politicians and a number of military officers, including the heads of the three Italian secret services. Future Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi was on the list, along with Victor Emmanuel, the son of the last Italian king. Prime Minister Arnaldo Forlani (whose chef de cabinet was a P2 member as well) later resigned, and the P2 scandal caused the fall of the government at that time.
It has been claimed that at least a thousand names may still be secret, as the membership numbers begin with number 1,600, which suggests that the complete list has not yet been found.

In 1977 the P2 took control of the Corriere della Sera newspaper, a leading paper in Italy. The paper published an interview with Gelli in 1980. The interview was carried out by the television talk show host Maurizio Costanzo, who would also be exposed as a member of P2. Gelli said he was in favour of rewriting the Italian constitution, and when asked what he always wanted to be, he replied: "A puppet master".

In 1992 Gelli was supposed to be sentenced to 18 years and six months of prison after being found guilty of fraud concerning the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano in 1982 (a "black hole" of $1.4 billion was found). The year 1992 also saw the beginning of the trial of 16 members of the P2 Masonic Lodge, which included charges of conspiracy against the state, espionage, and the revelation of state secrets. In April 1998 the Court of Cassation confirmed a 12-year sentence for the Ambrosiano crash. Gelli then disappeared on the eve of being imprisoned, in May 1998, while being under house arrest in his mansion.

Gelli was also suspected of being involved in multiple murders from mafia associates, to bankers, and even "propaganda due" P2 members, but avoided any indictment, as there was a lack of evidence during the trials.

So there we have it, an extremely brief and short snippet of history from the world of dirty politics. Not many people know about the true conspiracy's, as they tend to get hidden away and replaced by outlandish and extreme fictions and fairy-tale imaginations instead! (Reptilains)

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For those that found it interesting, there is plenty of documentation for "propaganda due" and "P2" out there (I've only scraped the surface with this story).