-Caveat Lector- Subject: Knights of Malta and the CIA From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Lisa Pease) Date: Mon, 2 Jan 1995 07:28:09 GMT Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Thought I'd share some of this from THE MESSIANIC LEGACY, by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, & Henry Lincoln. About half the sources for the footnotes in this section refer to a Mother Jones article. Other notes reference other sources. I'm skipping the notes - it's a book worth a second look anyway. Just wanted to show a portion about the commonality between secret societies and intelligence agencies, using a notable example which has ties to this case I'll expound upon after... Quote on: In international law, the current status of the Knights of Malta is that of an independent sovereign principality... The Order maintains formal diplomatic relations with a number of countries its ministers enjoy standard diplomatic privileges. The upper grades of the Order are still fastidiously aristocratic. The highest Knights must be able to display a coat of arms dating back at least three hundred years, in unbroken succession from father to son. The twentieth-century Order of Malta is, needless to say, ideally placed for intelligence work. It's network of membership is international and at the same time well organised. Its hospital and medical services often place it strategically at points of crisis... Its membership extends from medical staff and ambluance drivers to important figures in politics, business and finance who have access to spheres that ordinary priests would not. In consequence, the Knights of Malta became closely associated with the Vatican's own intelligence department. The Order... seems to have welcomed the opportunity to resume, on a clandestine level, the role it had first begun to perform during the twelfth centruy - that of spearheading a crusade. Today, the Order of Malta is believed to be one of the primary channels of communication between the Vatican and the CIA. There is ample evidence for such an assertion. In 1946, James Angelton - former OSS and then CIA station chief in Rome, who filtered millions of dollars from his agency to the Italian Christian Democrats - received a decoration from the Order of Malta for counter-intelligence work. So, too, did Dr. Luigi Gedda, the head of the group called Catholic Action, who served as liaison between the CIA, Joseph Retinger's European Movement and the future Pope Paul VI. In 1948, the Knights awarded their highest decoration, the Grand Cross of Merit, to General Reinhard Gehlen, head of the West German secret service, which at that time was little more than a department of the CIA. ... As early as the late 1940s, then, the Order of Malta was becoming involved in the secret war against Communism beginning to escalate across Europe. The Order's work in intelligence would naturally have been facilitated by the number of highly placed American officials in its ranks. As the 'Cold War' gained momentum, the American contingent of the Order increased substantially. The most influential figure in this contingent was, again, Cardinal Francis Spellman [**REMEMBER THAT NAME] of New York - who had worked for the CIA in Guatemala and whose network of personal associates led directly to P2. Spellman became 'Protector and Spiritual Advisor' of the American Knights. He also became their effective de facto head. In this capacity, he raised immense sums of money, each of the many nights created annually having to pay tens of thousands of dollars as an enrollment fee. It has been alleged that only a portion of this revenue ever found its way back to the Order in Rome, the bulk of it being deployed for other purposes. Spellman was also in league with a cardinal who, during the 1950, made an attempt to hijack the Order and use it for his own political ends. ...John McCone...was a Kinght. ... William Casey, is also a Kinght. Former [CIA] Director William Colby was reportedly offered membership in the Order but is said to have declined with the words 'I'm a little lower key.' Quote off. Other notable Knights were Clare Booth Luce, Alexander Haig, Licio Gelli - Grand Master of P2, and other similar characters from the far right. The authors links the aid organisation AMERICARES with the Knights, and by association with AMERICARES also the World Anti-Communist League (WACL). I just wanted to point out something about Cardinal Spellman. When Oswald returned to the United States from the Soviet Union, he was met by Professor Spas T. Raikin of the Travelers Aid Society, himself already linked to the CIA. But guess who was prominently listed at the top of the Travelers Aid Society letterhead [CE 2655] as an Honorary Vice President? Yep. The Knight-spook Cardinal Spellman. ===== Om K <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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