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

by Paul L. Williams

Almost overnight, the eight phony firms became multimillion dollar businesses that had been established without capital expenditure. It was a mind-boggling accomplishment. The Ponzi scam served a threefold purpose. The first was to provide a new source of arms revenue for “gladiators” involved in the strategy of tension and right-wing regimes, even the regimes at war with America's closest allies. Bellatrix, for example, used $200 million of its assets to purchase French-made Exocet AM-39 missiles for Argentina's military junta in its struggle with England over the Falkland Islands.10 Other offshore companies engaged in obtaining Libyan arms supplies for the Argentine troops and for Nicaragua's Anastasio Somoza Debayle, whose regime was threatened by left-wing Sandinista National Liberation Front.11 Since the Vatican owned the companies, Holy Mother Church was becoming a principal source of murder and violence throughout Italy and Latin America.