A CIA lucky break? How the death of the 'Smiling Pope' helped Washington win the Cold War

Talk about some CT! This is like something from a Robert Ludlum novel. (I used to read his books just to see how outrageous his plots could get although my favorite ‘spy’ novelist is and always has been John Le Carre.) But this isn’t the first time someone wrote about nefarious doings surrounding the death of JP I.

A CIA lucky break? How the death of the 'Smiling Pope' helped Washington win the Cold War

The sudden death of Pope John Paul I, exactly 40 years ago today, stunned the world. The 'Smiling Pope' had only served for 33 days. His demise and replacement by John Paul II marked an important turning point in the old Cold War.
The year 1978, as I argued in a previous op-ed, was the year today's world was made.

There was nothing inevitable about the ascendancy of Reagan and Thatcher, the rise of groups like Al-Qaeda and IS, and the downfall of the Soviet Union. The neoliberal, neoconservative world order and its associated violence came about because of key events and decisions which took place 40 years ago. The Vatican was at the heart of these events.

Cardinal Albino Luciani, the working-class son of a bricklayer (and staunch socialist), from a small town in northern Italy, was a Pope like no other. He refused a coronation and detested being carried on the sedia gestatoria – the Papal chair. He hated pomp and circumstance and pretentiousness. His speeches were down to earth and full of homely observations, with regular references to popular fiction. He possessed a gentle humor and always had a twinkle in his eye. He was by all accounts an incredibly sweet man.

But there was steel there, too. Luciani was determined to root out corruption, and to investigate the complex financial affairs of the Vatican's own bank, and its connection to the scandal-hit Banco Ambrosiano.

*

David Yallop revealed that on the day of his death, the Pope had discussed a reshuffle of Vatican staff with Secretary of State Cardinal Jean Villot, who was also to be replaced. Yallop claimed that the Pope had a list of a number of clerics who belonged to the Freemasons, membership of which was strictly prohibited by the Church. The most sinister of these Masonic lodges was the fiercely anti-communist Propaganda Due (P2), which held great influence in Italy at this time, being referred to as a "state within a state." The murky world of P2, and its leaders' links with organized crime, the Mafia and the CIA is discussed in 'In God's Name'.

Another writer, Lucien Gregoire, author of 'Murder by the Grace of God', points the finger of blame squarely at the CIA. He notes a seemingly strange coincidence, namely that on September 3, 1978, just 25 days before the Pope himself died, Metropolitan Nikodim, the visiting leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, who was later revealed to have been a KGB agent, fell dead at John Paul's feet in the Vatican after sipping coffee. He was only 48. Gregoire says that the CIA dubbed John Paul I 'the Bolshevik Pope' and was keen to eliminate him before he presided over a conference the Puebla Conference in Mexico. "Had he lived another week, the United States would have been looking at a half a dozen mini-Cubas in its back yard," he writes.

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/439831-john-paul-smiling-pope/

The Catholic Church has ALWAYS been instrumental in the politics of the world. It may have lost a lot of its ‘luster’ here in the US, but it still has substantial influence in many countries. But back then it still had power to influence millions. A message from the Vicar of Christ regarding corruption in the Church would have had serious ramifications, particularly in poor Catholic nations.

The Church has always been a bastion of political intrigue. It’s a business. Any ‘religion’ that makes it past the cult stage is a business (IMO) and the Roman Catholic Church used to be the biggest in the world. It has the most cutthroat history of any organization ever formed. It’s a fascinating study.

Share
up
0 users have voted.

Comments

G.W. Bush was likely following his fathers suggestions in paving the way for a new world order outlined by PNAC through the creation of “new realities” in attacking Iraq for their involvement in 9/11.

That is precisely what that Whitepouse person told Ron Suskind when he spoke of people inhabitating the reality-based community, who believe that solutions emerge from judicious study of discernible reality. He suggested that things have changed and that now the empire acts and creates its own reality - and while we're studying that reality -- judiciously -- they'll act again, creating other new realities, which will be studied too, and that's how things will sort out.

Link

It’s hard to believe the level of depravity some humans stoop to in their thirst for money and power, isn’t it?

up
0 users have voted.

Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

snoopydawg's picture

@ovals49

This is a very long and detailed article about the Bush family's Project Hammer program that started in 1991 and a very probable reason for the 9/11 event. As you mentioned he was the head of the CIA. His father had a important role in the events leading up to WWII and it's possible that IF Hitler didn't have all the support he had he might have just stayed a two bit hoodlum. Of course ole Prescott Bush wasn't alone in that. Look at all the players who have filtered in and out of government going back decades. People who have that much power don't give a rat's ass about any of us lesser plebes. If a few million people have to die so that they can achieve their objectives so be it.

Bush Family's Project Hammer

Hammering the USSR’s Economy

In 1989 President George H. W. Bush began the multi-billion dollar Project Hammer program using an investment strategy to bring about the economic destruction of the Soviet Union including the theft of the Soviet treasury, the destabilization of the ruble, funding a KGB coup against Gorbachev in August 1991 and the seizure of major energy and munitions industries in the Soviet Union. Those resources would subsequently be turned over to international bankers and corporations. On November 1, 2001, the second operative in the Bush regime, President George W. Bush, issued Executive Order 13233 on the basis of “national security” and concealed the records of past presidents, especially his father’s spurious activities during 1990 and 1991. Consequently, those records are no longer accessible to the public. [1] The Russian coup plot was discussed in June 1991 when Yeltsin visited with Bush in conjunction with his visit to the United States. On that same visit, Yeltsin met discreetly with Gerald Corrigan, the chairman of the New York Federal Reserve. [2]

Because of numerous Presidential Executive Orders, the ethically questionable Project Hammer was deemed legal. Of course, even Hitler’s acts were “lawful,” as he had manipulated the laws to accommodate his actions. Many of Reagan’s executive orders were actually authored by Vice President Bush or his legal associates, and it is possible that Project Hammer was created by Reagan’s CIA Director, William Casey, who had directed OSS operations through Alan Dulles in Europe during World War II. Prior to his OSS affiliation, Casey worked for the Board of Economic Warfare which allegedly targeted “Hitler’s economic jugular.” [3] Allen Dulles, brother of John Foster Dulles, was the Director of the CIA from 1953 to 1961. He was a senior partner at the Wall Street firm of Sullivan and Cromwell, which represented the Rockefeller Empire and other mammoth trusts, corporations and cartels.

Project Hammer was staffed with CIA operatives and others associated with the National Security apparatus. Covert channels were already in place as a result of other illegal Bush activities. Thus, it was a given (1) that the project would use secret, illegal funds for unapproved covert operations, and (2) that the American public and Congress would not be informed about the illegal actions perpetrated in foreign countries. The first objective was allegedly to crush Communism, a growing political philosophy and social movement that was initially funded by the usual group of international bankers who now supported their demise. To this end, the “Vulcans,” under George H. W. Bush, waged war against the Soviet Union. [4]

****
The September 11 attacks related to the financial improprieties during the preceding ten years which spurred at least nine federal investigations which were initiated in 1997-1998, about the same time that Osama bin Laden, after twenty years as a CIA asset, announced a fatwa against the U.S. The records of many of those investigations were held in the Buildings Six and Seven and on the 23rd floor of the North Tower. Those investigations were sure to reveal the black Eagle Trust shenanigans. [33] Building Seven, not hit by a plane, collapsed at 5:20:33 p.m. but was vacated as early as 9:00 when evacuees claimed to see dead bodies and sporadic fires within the building.

Certain National Security officials who had participated in the Cold War victory in 1991 thus comprised the collateral damage of the Cold War. They, along with hundreds of innocent people were in the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon. Their deaths were presumably required to conceal the existence of the Black Eagle Trust, along with the numerous illegal activities it had funded for over 50 years. This massive destruction, and the lost lives, constitutes a massive cover-up and continued lawlessness by the brotherhood of death, Skull and Bones, and their accomplices, the Enterprise. [41] The Enterprise was established in the 1980s as a covert fascist Cold Warriors faction working with other groups like Halliburton’s private security forces and the Moonies. Citibank is connected to the Enterprise, along with all the CIA front banks, Nugen Hand and BCCI.

up
0 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg @snoopydawg @snoopydawg
and reprobates. I also used to believe what I saw and heard on the TV and what I read in my history books. That was a very long time ago.

Now I believe that if you do not question everything you read and hear, especially that which is promulgated by mainstream sources, politicians and the uber-wealthy, you are swallowing unknown quantities of complete and utter bullshit.

The “checks and balances” of our Constitution, are no longer functional, neither is the “Fourth Estate” or the “Representative” or “Democracy” parts of our government. The situation is dire.

And now, we have Iran and misssles in the air and the nearly complete PNAC plot to establish their New World Order.

But fuck all that, let’s go shopping!

[Edit: Fourth Estate (What was I thinking?)]

up
0 users have voted.

Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

gulfgal98's picture

@ovals49 You nailed it!

Everything we were taught, everything we see and hear is all a lie. We are living in a world of unreality because the true reality is far more evil than any of us could have ever imagined and we are disposable pawns in the game that they are playing.

Now I believe that if you do not question everything you read and hear, especially that which is promulgated by mainstream sources, politicians and the uber-wealthy, you are swallowing unknown quantities of complete and utter bullshit.

And when you say this, you are totally correct.

The situation is dire.

I have never felt as helpless and hopeless about the state of the world as I have in recent months because the evil behind it is unfathomable and there is nothing any of us can do about it.

up
0 users have voted.

Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

dervish's picture

@snoopydawg but the connection to 9/11 is just CT. We definitely sabotaged the Soviet and Warsaw Pact economies, but I'm sure that 9/11 happened for other reasons.

up
0 users have voted.

"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."

arendt's picture

@snoopydawg

I mean, I knew about Yamashita's Gold. Hell, Neal Stephenson wrote an entire novel based around it (Cryptonomicon). Everyone with an ounce of historical awareness knows that Imelda Marcos paid for those shoes with Imperial Japanese loot.

And every CT-er knows who Edward Lansdale was. Still, it had slipped though the cracks for me that Lansdale, who spent a lot of time in SE Asia, would be in charge of disbursing Yamashita's Gold for the CIA. So that's one new CT fact to add to my scrapbook.

But this whole Project Hammer thing is complete news to me. I always thought the Russian oligarchs did all their looting with paper stock certificates that were handed out to clueless Russians in lieu of money. The idea that someone needed to spend $240 Billion to loot a country that was absolutely powerless - down for the count, rife with oligarch swindlers - had never crossed my mind. In fact, I do not accept it simply because someone says its true.

This wanttoknow.info site has a large amount of details that I need to research before I buy into any of this.

The 9/11 Attacks and the Black Eagle Trust Fund

So many things that sound incriminating, but might turn out to be coincidental or even fabricated. For example, two firms with offices in the WTC - Cantor Fitzgerald and Eurobrokers - were the two largest brokers of government securities; and that the plane crashes were on floors adjacent to both firms in two different towers. For example, that the Federal Reserve suspended normal rules, thereby allowing hundreds of billions of dollars of questionable trades to go through in the days after 911.

Of course, I have heard of Buzz Krongard. His name was heavily floated immediately after 911, especially in regard to front-running stock trades.

In short, as a CT-er, I am intrigued by this massive pile of new information. But, also as a CT-er, I doubt anything compelling will ever come of it.

They are locking the internet down tighter than ever. They have enough black budget to spin up a hundred fake CT/disinfo sites to further muddy the waters.

Not to mention the fact that the architects and scientists providing scientific evidence are still being mocked and suppressed (Amazon disappeared all copies of a new book about 911).

Thanks for a most interesting post. And curse you for showing me this rabbit hole. Smile

up
0 users have voted.
arendt's picture

@arendt

Collateral Damage: U.S. Covert Operations and the Terrorist Attacks on September 11, 2001

Well, there goes several evenings.

up
0 users have voted.
Wink's picture

the Catholic Church in particular are in their waning days. The recent pedo stuff is a yuuuge blow to the Church, but the evidence is everywhere that the Church has seen better days, likely on its last legs. Not that death is imminent, but it looms. Catholic schools and churches consolidating even as the population grows. But it's mostly that '60s "dawning of the Age of Aquarius" that has more people "woke," and many of those no longer buying that old time religion. We do indeed live in interesting times.

up
0 users have voted.

the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

of the "Smiling Pope." The article you quote contains a couple of errors. Although its origin was as a Masonic lodge following WWI, by the time P2 was Italy's "shadow government" it no longer had connections to world-wide Freemasonry. When the list of members was finally revealed years later, the names of many Church hierarchs were included. Also, the Puebla Conference was held as scheduled in January 1979, not "a week" after Luciani's death. I also think the freedom movements in Latin America would have happened regardless of the Church and John Paul II partnered with Reagan in crushing them. However, the connection between JPII and the CIA is true. The best account is "Their Will Be Done:
Let the pope keep the kingdom and the glory — the CIA wants the power." https://www.motherjones.com/politics/1983/07/their-will-be-done/

up
0 users have voted.

Betty Clermont

Amanda Matthews's picture

@Betty Clermont
Victor Emmanuel.

up
0 users have voted.

I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa