Books
St. Peter’s Banker, Michele Sindona
Luigi Di Fonzo (Mainstream, Edinburgh, 1984)
This is an important publication from a new Scottish publishing house, Mainstream. It runs through Sindona’s life, showing how he came to be in such a strong financial position that he could buy the Franklin National, one of the largest banks in the USA.
Inevitably, all the usual ingredients of Italian politics – finance and corruption (the terms are virtually synonymous) – feature in this story. Equally inevitably, much of the information cannot be verified in printed sources, having come from interviews with people whose lives would be at risk if it became known that they had betrayed the Mafia ‘omerta’ – no idle threat, as many of the participants in this drama found to their cost.
Of particular interest to parapoliticians (sic) is Di Fonzo’s explication of the Strategy of Tension which has plagued Italian society for the past twenty years. Although the puppetmasters of Licio Gelli have been explicitly named, Di Fonzo credits Gelli with explaining to Sindona the outline of the strategy and the part he (Sindona) was expected to play in it.
“Il Momento di Passare all Azione” (The Time for Real Action) was a multi-phase operation. The first part was to enlist the support of military leaders. (Many of them would be expected to be sympathetic, but equally as many had got into positions of power through fighting Fascism and could be expected to be hostile?).
The second part was a three-phase operation: 1) Smuggle lira out of Italy and convert them to a stable currency, preferably dollars or Swiss francs; 2) Reinvest the hidden capital in businesses inside Italy, thereby taking control of important industries; and 3) funnel profits out of Italy, completing the cycle that would disrupt the country’s balance of payments and ultimately cripple the economy. (There appears to be an element of contradiction here as phase 3 could only operate in the very short term as it would bankrupt the very companies that had been taken over, even allowing for the creative accounting of their bankers, Sindona and Calvi.)
The final part of the plan was for Gelli to foment the use of political violence – bombings, murder and kidnappings – and then, when he had created sufficient chaos, make use of propaganda designed to prepare Italians psychologically for the new era of Fascism. (All this 20 years ago! I couldn’t think of a more effective explanation of what has happened in Italy since then, or, more sinisterly, a more convenient one!)
Focusing more narrowly on Sindona, the book reveals the vast sums of money that he laundered for his friends and allies, including the equivalent of hundreds of millions of dollars for the Christian Democrats (some of which was provided by the CIA), and similar sums for the Mafia – in the main, profits from the heroin trade.
As expected, the Vatican, the SID (Italian secret police), generals, judges and politicians also feature in this book (including some interesting Nixon connections).
Another very interesting claim that Di Fonzo repeats is that made by Aldo Moro’s widow to the effect that the CIA were behind the Red Brigades’ kidnapping and killing of Moro (anything to keep the PCI out of government!).
In short, this is a valuable contribution to the Italian conspiracies collection.
Richard Alexander