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

by Paul L. Williams

Phony bonds from companies such as American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T), General Electric, Chrysler, and Pan American World Airways were delivered in July 1971 to the IOR. In order to ensure that the bonds would be accepted as genuine, Archbishop Marcinkus made trial deposits at the Handelsbanken in Zurich and at Banca di Roma. The securities were examined and certified as authentic.15 The problem arose when officials of both banks went with samples of the bonds to examiners at the Bankers Association in New York, who found that the securities were counterfeit. Word went out to Interpol. The Organized Crime and Racketeering Division of the US Department of Justice sought an interview with Cardinal Tisserant, only to learn that the Vatican official had died of natural causes. After questioning Marcinkus, US officials sought an indictment for his arrest. But the Nixon administration called a halt to the probe, and the case against the Archbishop was placed among the dead files of the FBI.