Operation Gladio

by Paul L. Williams

  But the story was unraveling almost as soon as it was being spun. Ağca had been able to describe every small mole and blemish of the Bulgarians he wished to implicate in the crime, but he remained unable to estimate their height. This proved telling since two of the alleged co-conspirators who worked at the Bulgarian Embassy in Rome resembled Mutt and Jeff from the comic strip. Their disparity in stature was almost comic.40

  Another problem came from Ağca's description of Antonov's apartment. The distinctive features he described, including an ornate room divider between the living and dining areas, were not found in the Bulgarian's living quarters. They were unique to the flat one floor below, which was occupied by Fr. Morlion. Ağca also mentioned meeting Antonov's wife and children during the planning sessions in April. But the Bulgarian's family was not in Rome at that time. They had returned to Bulgaria.41

  A REPORTER'S DISCOVERIES

  Despite these discrepancies, the Bulgarian thesis might have remained credible save for the work of Uğur Mumcu, one of Turkey's leading journalists. Digging into Ağca's background, he uncovered the fact that the would-be assassin was a lackey for Bekir Çelenk. He discovered that Çelenk was engaged in the smuggling of arms and drugs through his fleet of cargo ships, which sailed under a Panamanian flag. Interviewing workers and crew members of the Vasoula, he obtained testimony that the ship had carried 495 rocket launchers and 10,000 missiles from the Bulgarian port of Burgos to Istanbul, where it was received by leading figures from the Turkish underworld, including Abuzer Uğurlu.42

  Mumcu, working with the Turkish police, established Ağca's ties to the Grey Wolves and right-wing terrorists. He realized that the would-be assassin had performed executions, including the murder of İpekçi, with Abdullah Çatlı and Oral Çelik. What's more, he was able to identify Çelik as the gunman who was running from St. Peter's Square with pistol in hand.43

  The Turkish journalist made more discoveries, including the ties of Ağca, the Grey Wolves, and the babas to Stibam International and the CIA. He pinpointed Henri Arsan as a key figure in the massive smuggling operation and the Hotel Vitosha as the center of mob gatherings. He also established that Sergei Ivanov Antonov was neither an agent nor double agent. He was simply a dupe.44

  Uğur Mumcu would pay for making these revelations. He was killed when a car bomb exploded outside his home on January 24, 1993. No arrests were made. When Mumcu launched his probe into the attack on John Paul II, Paul Henze tried to convince him that the would-be assassins were agents of the Soviet Union. The reporter refused to follow the information trail provided by the CIA station chief, opting instead to investigate the ties between Ağca and the babas. Henze advised him to abandon the probe, reportedly saying, “If you do not, you might find a nice surprise in store.”45

  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, wh
ere 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 jailhouse 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 grey. No autopsy was conducted. His jailors 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

  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.