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Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Roberto Calvi's death and the War on Terror: the parallels

From Adnkronos:
 
Italy: Murder of 'God's banker' echoes war on terror says author
 
Rome, 28 Sept. (AKI) - By Alison Dickens - The mysterious death of Italian banker Roberto Calvi at the height of the Cold War presents parallels with the modern day 'war on terror' the author of a new book on the Calvi case, Rome based journalist Philip Willan, told Adnkronos International (AKI).

He believes that Calvi, found hanged beneath a London bridge in 1982, was murdered, and argues that his killing "opens up a vast panorama on the true nature of recent history and how the Cold War was fought."

Willan argues that Calvi played a key role in an ‘unholy alliance’ against communism in Italy involving senior political and intelligence figures, as well as shady associates and highly questionable practices.

That web of intrigue, spawned by the Cold War, raised similar dilemmas to those posed by the current battle being fought by western nations against Islamist terrorism, Willan said.

"To what extent do you form alliances with warlords and suppress civil liberties to fight a 'common enemy?'" he asked.

The Cold War context to Calvi’s killing a quarter of a century ago involved "people in power in an emergency situation turning to organised crime and using very unusual and unscrupulous tactics to prevail, causing serious harm to Italian society in the process, " Willan stated.

Calvi was chairman of the Banco Ambrosiano – then Italy’s largest private bank which went bust soon after his death - and a member of the Italian secret P2 masonic lodge.

He was known as "God's banker" because of the illicit financial dealings that connected him to the Vatican's then-bank the Istituto per le Opere di Religione (IOR).

Calvi joined the P2 in 1975 to obtain vital political protection for the Banco Ambrosiano, Willan said.

The banker shifted money around the world to fund illegal arms purchases for anti-communist movements from South America to Poland, Willan argues in his book ‘The Last Supper: The Mafia, the Masons and the Killing of Roberto Calvi.'

In the process, Calvi became a ‘nerve centre’ for secret services and other forces combating Soviet influence in Italy, which had the largest communist party of any western nation.

Calvi was found hanged beneath Blackfriar's Bridge in the City of London on 18 June, 1982, his pockets weighed down with bricks and stones, and with over £7,000 in cash on him...
 

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