If you Google “conspiracy theories” you’ll find a whole lot of them. No one ever wonders whether any one of it is true. Oh, you do? Well some of them are. We have proof. A powerful politician kneeling before a salesman and the same salesman walking away from a prison in 1973. Bolivian government being overthrown in 1980 and a laptop being stolen after years. How are all these incidents connected? These are the links to a secret organization called Propaganda Due (P2). This was not some newspaper scoop but a real Italy based secret organization who had influences in the US too.
Licio Gelli’s Rise To Power
It is not known exactly how Gelli rose to power but apparently he was a ferocious anti-communist from a young age. He served as a liaison officer to German SS during World War II. He was also responsible for many wanted Nazis’ escapes. During the 1950s, Gelli was involved in politics but soon lost interest and moved back to his native Tuscany. Here he became a moderately successful matters salesman and later started his own clothing factory. To an outsider, his life may 
seem pretty dull but in secret, he was rising in ranks of Italian Free Masons. He was granted permission to start his own lodge in 1967. He named it Propaganda Due (P2). With some assistance, he was able to gain intelligence on prominent Italian citizens. He would then blackmail them into giving him more power. He pointed out the faults of secret services by clicking nude pictures of then Pope John Paul II.
Using blackmail Gelli spread the tentacles of P2 into politics, business, and media. The appeal of power and successful route to wealth and influence was also an attraction for many members. By the 1980s, Gelli was powerful enough to order meetings of Italy’s top military leaders at his private villa.
How Was P2 Discovered?
Michele Sindona, a shady banker rose to fame in 1979. He was a financial adviser to the Vatican. He tried to crack American market by overpaying to take control of Franklin National Bank, which promptly collapsed amid accusations of financial irregularities and outright theft. As the authorities closed in, Sindona tried to buy time by staging his own kidnapping. After this failed attempt, everything went south for him. His liquidator was shot and he started hinting that he will name names and the Italian authorities should bail him out. But instead of being rescued he was poisoned in his prison cell in 1986.
Sindona’s death did not go vain. Italian authorities were led to Joseph Crimi, a Sicilian doctor who had assisted with his bogus kidnapping. The police had a particular interest in his sudden trip to Tuscany, to meet a businessman Licio Gelli. When a warrant was obtained to search Gelli’s villa in 1981, the authorities found much more than that. In a locked safe, the police found the records of a clandestineMasonic lodge known as Propaganda Due. Its members included three cabinet ministers, the son of the last Italian king, and 43 members of parliament. Heads of all 3 Italian intelligence agencies, 213 senior military officers and numerous other media and business figures. It was a state within in a state with Licio Gelli as its leader.
Was Gelli’s claim that he wanted to stop communism in its track true? Or like a member of P2 observed, he was just a pragmatist without ideals. May be he never desired a strong government because in a strong government mediators have no role.
Well now you know why there are so many conspiracy theories floating around. You never know which of them might be true. Stay curious, you may be able to uncover a theory yourself.
