Operation Gladio: The Unholy Alliance Between the Vatican, the Cia, and the Mafia

by Paul L. Williams

After Andreotti broke his silence regarding Gladio, he was dragged in front of two Italian courts for cooperating with Toto Riina and the Sicilian Mafia in criminal activities and for issuing the orders for the assassination of journalist Mino Pecorelli.34 In the midst of these trials, Pope John Paul II took time in the Vatican to clasp Andreotti’s hands and to offer the beleaguered prime minister what appeared to be an “embrace.” Following this incident, the Holy Father was challenged as he spoke from the pulpit of St. Peter’s Cathedral by an irate student who was offended by the “endorsement.” It was the first time a Vicar of Christ had been challenged within the confines of his own church in seven hundred years.35 Eventually, Andreotti was exonerated on both charges. But in 2002 an appeals court in Perugia ruled that the former prime minister was guilty of complicity in the murder and sentenced him to twenty-four years in prison. Hearing the verdict, Silvio Berlusconi, the present prime minister, called it an example of “justice gone mad.”36 Berlusconi’s outcry was, for many, only to be expected. Like Andreotti, he had been an active member of P2 during the years of lead.