Local residents have complained of the sounds of gunfire coming from the Gülen property—including fully automatic weapons—and speak of a low-flying helicopter that circles the area in search of intruders.46 The FBI has been called to the scene, but no action has been taken to curtail what neighbors allege to be “paramilitary activity.”47 The compound reportedly remains under CIA protection.
HIDDEN AGENDA
In his public statements, Gülen continues to espouse a liberal version of Sunni/Hanafi Islam, and the notion of Hizmet. He has condemned terrorism and called for interfaith dialogue. Prominent US officials have lavished praise on the Turkish pasha, claiming that he is a leading voice of moderation in the Islamic world. On September 25, 2008, former president Bill Clinton greeted an audience of Gülen's disciples at the third-annual Friendship Dinner of the Turkish Cultural Center (one of Gülen's non-profit organizations) by saying, “You're contributing to the promotion of the ideals of tolerance and interfaith dialogue inspired by Fethullah Gülen and his transnational social movement.”48
In private, Gülen has said that “in order to reach the ideal Muslim society every method and path is acceptable, [including] lying to people.”49 In a sermon aired on Turkish television, he announced to his legion of followers his plan to create a New Islamic World Order:
You must move in the arteries of the system without anyone noticing your existence until you reach all the power centers…until the conditions are ripe, they [the followers] must continue like this. If they do something prematurely, the world will crush our heads, and Muslims will suffer everywhere, like in the tragedies in Algeria, like in 1982 [in] Syria…like in the yearly disasters and tragedies in Egypt. The time is not yet right. You must wait for the time when you are complete and conditions are ripe, until we can shoulder the entire world and carry it…. You must wait until such time as you have gotten all the state power, until you have brought to your side all the power of the constitutional institutions in Turkey…. Until that time, any step taken would be too early—like breaking an egg without waiting the full forty days for it to hatch. It would be like killing the chick inside. The work to be done is [in] confronting the world. Now, I have expressed my feelings and thoughts to you all—in confidence…trusting your loyalty and secrecy. I know that when you leave here—[just] as you discard your empty juice boxes, you must discard the thoughts and the feelings that I expressed here.50
He continued:
When everything was closed and all doors were locked, our houses of isik [light] assumed a mission greater than that of older times. In the past, some of the duties of these houses were carried out by madrassahs [Islamic schools], some by schools, some by tekkes [Islamist lodges]…. These isik homes had to be the schools, had to be madrasahs, [had to be] tekkes all at the same time. The permission did not come from the state, or the state's laws, or the people who govern us. The permission was given by God…who wanted His name learned and talked about, studied, and discussed in those houses, as it used to be in the mosques.51
In another sermon, Gülen proclaimed:
Now it is a painful spring that we live in. A nation is being born again. A nation of millions [is] being born—one that will live for long centuries, God willing…. It is being born with its own culture, its own civilization. If giving birth to one person is so painful, the birth of millions cannot be pain-free. Naturally we will suffer pain. It won't be easy for a nation that has accepted atheism, has accepted materialism, a nation accustomed to running away from itself, to come back riding on its horse. It will not be easy, but it is worth all our suffering and the sacrifices.52
And in yet another sermon, he told his followers:
The philosophy of our service is that we open a house somewhere and, with the patience of a spider, we lay our web to wait for people to get caught in the web; and we teach those who do. We don't lay the web to eat or consume them but to show them the way to their resurrection, to blow life into their dead bodies and souls, to give them a life.53
Assessing such statements, Ariel Cohen, a Middle East analyst with the Heritage Foundation, said, “It's not just a religious movement; it's the Fethullah Gülen movement. They call themselves that. So it is, you can say, a cult. It is a highly personalized movement.” Cohen, who spent years tracking the Gülen movement, added, “This is clearly the world according to the Koran, the world according to Islam, the world according to Fethullah Gülen. But what he's talking about is not the caliphate, is not the sharia state he calls it the New World Islamic Order.”54
TURKEY TRANSFORMED
Upon his arrival in Pennsylvania, Gülen, with the aid of CIA advisors, helped to create the Justice and Democratic Party (Adalet ve Kalkinma, AKP), which now controls the Turkish government.55 Abdullah Gül, Turkey's first Islamist president, was a Gülen disciple, along with former Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Yusuf Ziya Özcan, the head of Turkey's Council of Higher Education.56 Conflict between Prime Minister Erdoğan and Gülen arose over Erdogan's use of the Marmara Flotilla to break-up the Gaza blockade in defiance of Gülen's wishes. The situation between the two men worsened when Erdoğan became Turkey's new president. In 2014, Erdoğan issued a request for Gülen's extradition from the United States on the grounds that the controversial preacher was using his influence to undermine Turkey's police and state bureaucracy along with the judiciary.
Under Gülen's influence, Turkey has transformed from a secular state into a nation with eighty-five thousand active mosques—one for every 350 citizens, the highest number per capita in the world—ninety thousand imams—more imams than teachers and physicians—and thousands of state-run Islamic schools. 57 In recent years, Turkey has also witnessed a reign of terror, with the random arrests of AKP opponents , including a dozen middle-aged liberal women who worked for the Society for Contemporary Life, an organization that provided educational services and scholarships to poor teenage girls. Hundreds of others were taken into custody during midnight raids, including army officers, renowned journalists, and artists. According to Newsweek, the arrests illustrate the power of Gülen's tarikat (Islamic order) which now controls the government.58
THE GÜLEN SCHOOLS
According to Bayram Balci, one of Gülen's leading proponents and a spokesman for the movement, the Gülen schools have been established throughout the world to expand “the Islamization of Turkish nationality and the Turkification of Islam” in order to bring about a universal caliphate ruled by Islamic law.59 Such a caliphate, Balci maintains, cannot be created without the cultivation of an educated elite who will advance Turkish and Islamic interests in their native countries. This task, he adds, may be accomplished only by the adoption of stealthy techniques since the open promotion of religion is prohibited in the public schools of many countries, including the United States. Such techniques, Balci contends, mandates that the teachers and administrators of the Gülen schools indoctrinate students in the tenets of militant Islam by temsel (becoming role models) rather than teblig (open proselytism).60
The schools throughout Central Asia contain CIA operatives who function under the guise of “American teachers, teaching English.” Since English is a mandatory subject, these madrassahs provide the Agency with an even better cover than Fr. Morlion's Pro Deo. Several countries, including Russia and Uzbekistan, have outlawed the Gülen schools and cemaats (communities) within their borders, realizing that they serve to advance the CIA master plan. Even the Netherlands, a nation that embraces pluralism and tolerance, has opted to cut funding to the Gülen schools because of their threat to the social order.61
Over 140 “Gülen-inspired” schools have been established throughout the United States. They are staffed with Turkish administrators and Turkish educators, who come to the United States with “H-1B” visas—visas reserved for highly skilled foreign workers who fill a need in the US workforce. 62 In the schools, students are immersed in Turkish culture, customs, religion, history, and language. They are taught that the Ottoman Empire repre
sented the golden age of global civilization and that the Armenian Holocaust never occurred. The crème de la crème of the students are sent to Turkey each year to compete for prizes in the Turkish Olympiad by singing Turkish songs and reciting Turkish poetry. The event, which is sponsored by the Gülen Movement, has been established to promote Turkish as a new international language.63 By the time of their high school graduation, the students of these charter schools, which are fully funded by US taxpayers, will be groomed to play a part in the advancement of the master plan called Gladio II.
HELLIWELL'S GHOST
The funding for the Gülen movement and Gladio II continued to flow from the heroin trade. After the upheavals within the Sicilian Mafia, the CIA and the babas established sophisticated laboratories in Turkey and various republics within Central Asia for the refinement of morphine paste into heroin. The narcotics continued to flow along the Balkan route to Sicily for shipment to America. Other routes were established, including a main line that ran from Bulgaria to Brussels, the location of NATO's headquarters.64
With the drug trade booming, new means were adopted for smuggling the dope into the United States. This development was evidenced by the case of Yaşar Öz, who worked for Abdullah Çatlı. During his many trips between Turkey and the United States, Öz and a score of additional Turkish mules smuggled hundreds of kilos of heroin past the security guards at the New York airports. In 1997, he was arrested in New Jersey during a drug bust. Öz managed to escape from the custody of FBI agents and made his way to the JFK airport for a first-class flight to Turkey. Asked why Öz hadn't been arrested before boarding the plane, US State Department officials said that the drug smuggler possessed diplomatic immunity, along with special NATO clearance.65
To make the smuggling even easier, NATO cargo planes transported heroin from Turkey to Brussels, where it was loaded on US military planes and flown to the Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.66 From Andrews, the drugs were delivered to distribution outlets in Chicago and Paterson, New Jersey.67
TALIBAN TROUBLE
Heroin by the turn of the twenty-first century had become one of the world's most valuable resources—a resource that could generate over $100,000 billion a year in revenue. Without the white powder, there would be no black ops—no means of obtaining control of Eurasia—no way of molding the global economy and political relations.
On January 27, 2000, a catastrophe occurred for covert activity when Mullah Omar and the other leaders of the Taliban announced their plans to ban poppy production within the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.68 This decision sent shock waves through the US intelligence community. From 1976 to 2000, the Afghan opium poppy harvest had grown nearly tenfold, climbing from 250 to 2,000 tons during the covert war of the 1980s, and then from 2,000 to 4,600 tons during the civil war of the 1990s. The country's economy had transformed from a diverse agricultural system based on herding, orchards, and sixty-two varieties of field crops into the world's first opium monocrop.69
Thanks to the Taliban prohibition, the opium poppy harvest fell from 4,600 tons in 1999 to 81 tons in 2001. The situation had to be addressed by the military-industrial complex in a forceful way. With the outbreak of the “war on terror” and the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001, the ban came to an immediate end. Within a year, the UN reported that the poppy crop had rebounded to 3,400 tons.70 By October 2013, thanks to the US occupation, the opium harvest had climbed to an all-time high of 5,500 tons.71
The days when heroin money could be laundered through a small circle of banks, including the IOR, were long past. By 2014, $500 billion to $1 trillion in proceeds from criminal activity and black ops were laundered through the world's leading banks—half of which were located in the United States. Narcodollars became the lifeblood of the nation's economy.72
The US banks developed an incredibly complex system for transferring illicit funds into the country for investments in real estate, corporations, industries, and government bonds. The financial institutions that participated in this process, according to Canadian commentator Asad Ismi, included the Bank of Boston, Republic National Bank of New York, Landmark First National Bank, the Great American Bank, People's Liberty Bank and Trust Company of Kentucky, Riggs National Bank of Washington, Citibank, and American Express International of Beverly Hills.73 Manufacturers Bank, Chase Manhattan, Chemical Bank, and Irving Trust have admitted not reporting transfers of substantial amounts of money to the US government as required by the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970, and the Bank of America has been fined $4.75 million for refusing to provide documentation for transfers of more than $12 billion.74
In an attempt to address this problem, the US Congress has passed several laws, including the Money Laundering Control Act of 1986, which call for stiffer enforcement by public regulators. All of this legislation was to no avail. The banks continued their laundering and the sum of dirty money circulated throughout the country grew exponentially. No decisive action by government officials was ever adopted, since the high profits of the drug trade served as one of the main components of the US economy. Indeed, Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Organized Crime, has argued that the United States was saved from total economic collapse in 2008 by the billions which flowed through American banks from the drug trade. These funds, Costa argues, represented the “only liquid investment capital” available to financial institutions.75 And so it came to pass that the land of the free and the home of the brave, thanks to Operation Gladio, became a narcocapitalistic country.
What does it mean for a Catholic to be a professional journalist? A journalist must have the courage to search for and tell the truth, even when the truth is uncomfortable or not considered politically correct.
Pope John Paul II, speaking to a gathering
of Catholic journalists, December 2002
Pope John Paul II never censured, let alone excommunicated, any ecclesiastical official who belonged to P2, despite the canon law mandating immediate excommunication of anyone who joins a Masonic lodge. Cardinal Agostino Casaroli remained the Vatican secretary of state until his death in 1989, Cardinal Ugo Poletti held his position as president of the Preservation of the Faith and of the Liturgical Academy, and Cardinal Leo Suenens stayed on as protector of the Church of St. Peter in Chains (outside Rome). Other clerics who were members of Gelli's lodge were elevated in rank and dignity:
Cardinal Sebastiano Baggio rose from his position as President of the Vatican City State to become Camerlengo (treasurer) of the Holy See.
Bishop Fiorenzo Angelini left the diocese of Messene in Greece to become a member of the College of Cardinals and the President of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Health Workers.
Bishop Cleto Bellucci climbed in rank from Coadjutor Bishop of Ferme to Archbishop of Ferme.
Bishop Gaetano Bonicelli relinquished his position as the presiding cleric of Albano to become Archbishop of Siena-Colle di Val d'Elsa-Montalcino.
Archbishop Giuseppe Ferraioli, who was a member of the Second Congregation of Public Affairs, became a leading official of the Vatican Secretariat of State.
Fr. Pio Laghi, the papal nuncio to Argentina, received his red hat to become a Cardinal and the head of the Congregation for Catholic Education.
Fr. Giovanni Lajolo, a member of the Council of Public Affairs of the Church, became a Cardinal and President of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State.
Fr. Virgilio Levi was promoted from assistant director of the official Vatican newspaper to executive director of Vatican radio.
Fr. Pasquale Macchi, the private secretary to Paul VI, rose in rank to become the Archbishop to the Roman Catholic Territorial Prelature of Loreto.
Fr. Francesco Marchisano ascended from his post as Prelate of Honor of the Pope to become a Cardinal and President of the Permanent Commission for the Care of the Historic and Artistic Monuments of the Holy See.
Fr. Dino Monduzzi, the regent of the Pontifical House, emerged from the scandal to join the
College of Cardinals as Prefect of the Papal Household.
Fr. Virgilio Noè, the Undersecretary for the Congregation for Divine Worship, was also elevated to the Cardinalate as President of the Fabric of St. Peter.
Fr. Pio Vito Pinto, an attaché to the Vatican Secretary of State, became a Monsignor and Dean of the Apostolic Tribunal of the Roman Rota (the highest appellate court of the Church).
Msgr. Mario Rizzi, prelate bishop of the Honor of the Holy Father, ascended in dignity to serve as Archbishop of Bagnoregio and apostolic nuncio to Bulgaria.
Fr. Pietro Rossano, rector of the Pontifical Lateran University, became consecrated as the Auxiliary Bishop of Rome/
Fr. Roberto Tucci, director-general of Vatican radio, climbed the ecclesiastical ladder to emerge as Cardinal-Priest of Sant’ Ignazio di Loyola a Campo Marzio.
Fr. Pietro Vergari, protocol officer of the Vatican Office Segnatura, became rector of the St. Apollinaire Palace, the institution from which Emanuela Orlandi had been kidnapped.
VATICAN, INC.
Throughout his long pontificate, John Paul II allowed the relationship between the Sicilian Mafia and the Holy See to remain intact. His reign resulted neither in the progressive reforms of John XXIII and Paul VI nor a return to traditional Catholic worship and teachings. It rather resulted in the stabilization of Vatican, Inc., as a financial and political institution. The primary goal of this institution was not the quest and dissemination of spiritual truths in an age of uncertainty, but the perpetuation of its own corporate interests through intrigue, mendacity, theft, and, when the situation demanded, bloodshed.
CURSES AND BLESSINGS
During his visit to Sicily on November 6, 1994, John Paul II blessed the memory of Fr. Giuseppe Puglisi, an ardent opponent of the Mafia, who was gunned down and killed in front of his parish in Palermo. The pope also condemned the organized crime families by saying, “Those who are responsible for violence and arrogance stained by human blood will have to answer before the justice of God. Today, there is a strong yearning in Sicily to be redeemed and liberated, especially from the power of the Mafia.”1
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