Documentation

President Cossiga's letter

{What follows is a translation of the letter sent
on July 3 by Italian President Francesco Cossiga to the
head of the government, Giulio Andreotti, as it appeared in
all major Italian press on July 26:}

   I believe that it is my duty to call your
attention to the reports broadcast on TG1 June 28 and 30,
and on July 1 and 2, following advance releases put out by
the RAI through ANSA [news service]. In these
broadcasts, produced by a TG1 journalist, a number of
persons have been interviewed, including persons who
asserted they had been agents of the Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA). The information broadcast in these programs
requires, in my judgment, careful evaluation by the
Italian government, particularly in consideration of the
particular ``credibility'' that such information has for
public opinion in our country and foreign countries, with
possible involvement of the responsibility of our
government, because it is not credible outside of our
country, although true, that a public radio and television
service can exist which is not directly responsible to the
government or to the parliament. The gravity of the
information put in circulation, consists above all in the
statement that the terrorism of the 1970s was ``ignited''
in Italy by the CIA through the P-2 Masonic lodge.
   Second, in the asserted participation of the P-2
Masonic lodge, and thus, of Italian citizens, in the
``plot'' which would have been planned by the CIA to
assassinate Olof Palme, then prime minister of the Swedish
kingdom. Third, also very serious, is the attribution of
responsibility for these criminal actions, in which the
P-2 Masonic lodge would have participated, to high level
personalities of North American political and
institutional life, including the then-representative of
the Republican Party, and today the President of an allied
and friendly country, the United States of America, George
Bush.
      If the government should think that such information
had any foundation, I believe that it must inform the
judiciary authorities and the parliamentary commission on
atrocities, and on the level of bilateral relations, the
competent authorities in the U.S.A. and the Kingdom of
Sweden.
   If, on the other hand, the government, after careful
evaluation, were to conclude that the information
broadcast by the RAI-TV is false or even recklessly
provocatory, I think that the government should inform the
judiciary authorities of possible penal law violations and
undertake necessary measures to find out the managers and
personnel of the national TV center responsible.
   I would be grateful if you could keep me informed on
the initiatives undertaken by the government.


             ***   ***   ***


What Brenneke said

{Excerpts from the TG1 interview with ex-CIA
agent Richard Brenneke, translated from the Italian
transcript. The interviewer is Ennio Remondino.}

Q: Do you know the P-2 directly?
   Breneke: Naturally I have known the P-2 since
1969 and I had deals with the P-2 in Europe since that
time and I had contact with it also recently, till the
beginning of the 1980s. The U.S. government sent money to
P-2. In some periods the sum was about Breneke0 million a
month.

Q: For what purpose?
   Breneke: The CIA money for the P-2 had several
aims. One of them was terrorism. Another aim was to get
P-2's help to smuggle dope into the U.S.A. from other
countries. We used them to create situations favorable to
the explosion of terrorism in Italy and in other European
countries at the beginning of the 1970s.

Q: Excuse me, but your statements are very
serious. You say that the P-2 was a creation, the financial
and organizational arm of the CIA to destabilize, to
run cover operations in Europe?
   Breneke: There is no doubt. The P-2 since the
beginning of the 1970s was used for the dope traffic, for
destabilization in a covert way. It was done secretly to
keep people from knowing about the involvement of the U.S.
government. In many cases it was done directly through the
offices of the CIA in Rome and in some other cases through
CIA centers in other countries.

Q: In what operations was the P-2 (as an extension
of the CIA) involved?
   Breneke: The P-2 was involved in the operation
for which I ended up in court, that is the delay in
the liberation of the American hostages in Iran in 1980.
Members of P-2 participated in the operation and even
attended meetings in Paris and other European cities. The
same people were involved in the arms smuggling into Iran
which took place after these meetings while there was
still an embargo against Iran. The P-2 collaborated with
agencies of the American government in sending weapons to
Iran after the meeting of 1980.

Q: Do you know Gelli personally?
   Breneke: I met him for the first time in 1969-70
and the subject of the discussion was the financing of his
organization. I met him several times in the 1970s. I met
him in Paris in October 1980 on an important occasion:
There was a meeting....

Q: ``October Surprise''...
   Breneke: ``October surprise.'' The aim of the
meeting was to organize the freedom of the hostages after,
not before, the elections. The meeting was important
because there were Mr. Casey, who later became the
head of the CIA, at that time manager of the
Reagan-Bush electoral campaign and Donald Gregg, who
became ambasssador to South Korea and at that time worked
for the CIA and the National Security Council. At the
meeting I attended Bush was not there, but Bush was...

Q: President Bush?
   Breneke: The present President Bush was at that
time a vice presidential candidate. From the information I
had, I know that Bush was in Paris in the same days for
meetings dealing with the freedom of the hostages and the
payment of a ransom for their freedom. Gelli took part in
these meetings. I do not know if he attended the same
meetings with Bush but he definitely attended the same
meetings I attended.

Q: Do you have documentation to prove these very
serious accusations?
   Breneke: My accusations are very serious and I
would not do it without evidence.... Some of these
documents were given to the court on the occasion of the
trial against me. They are still in the trial record. Some
documents I gave to members of the inquiry commission of
the U.S. Congress....


                       ***   ***   ***


Razin's TV statements

{Excerpts of the interchange between Ibrahim Razin
and RAI journalist Ennio Remondino, as translated from the
Italian transcript:}

Q: Can you give us more details on the telegram from
the P-2 announcing the assassination of the Swedish leader
Olof Palme?
   Razin:  During summer 1985 I interrogated a very
important leader of the American mafia, whose name I
cannot mention, who told me that such a telegram was sent
from Gelli to Philip Guarino, at that time one of the
most outstanding members of the Republican circle around Bush.

Q: Do you have any precise indication about the
existence of the telegram?
   Razin:  At present the FBI has opened an inquiry
on this story. The existence of the telegram is also
indicated by the archives of the National Security Agency.

Q: From where was this telegram sent precisely and
who got it?
   Razin:  It left with the signature of Licio Gelli
and was addressed to Philip Guarino. It was sent from
South America, from one of the southernmost regions of
Brazil. According to the most reliable information it
was sent by a man called Ortolani on behalf of Licio
Gelli or in any case on Gelli's instructions.

Q: What was the exact text of the telegram?
   Razin:  The telegram said: ``Tell our friend that
the Swedish palm will be felled.''

Q: Why would the Italian P-2 have been involved,
interested in the assassination of Palme?
   Razin:  Sweden was one of the main protagonists of
the illegal weapons traffic at the time of the Iran-Iraq
war when Palme was prime minister and thus Palme was
surely aware of what was happening.

Q: And P-2 was part of this operation?
   Razin:  Yes, P-2 was at the center, one of the
main participants in the illegal arms traffic, which
was connected to the drug traffic from the
outset. P-2 also made a substantial contribution to the
recycling of large amounts of money used for this arms
and drugs traffic from one country to another.

Q: And what about the CIA-P-2 relations?
   Razin:  Suffice it to see how the P-2 was involved
with Banco Ambrosiano and with Michele Sindona and how the
CIA was involved with them in several financial
manipulations. For example, in the United States the big
scandal involving the S&L banks is big news. The Texas
state prosecutor has found evidence of CIA involvement in
the bankruptcy of many of these banks which used illegal
funds for their operations. The man who knows a lot about
this is Richard Brenneke, a former CIA agent from Oregon.

Q: Do you have more details which could help to
clarify why Palme was assassinated?
   Razin:  I am sure that there are documents on this
but it is a different story to see if they are going to
come out into the open. I can give you some other
collateral details. For example, a week before Palme's
death, an agent named Michael Townley was in Stockholm.
Townley was involved in the assassination of the Chilean
Orlando Letelier, some years ago in Washington. Townley
was a political dirty tricks specialist.... It is a
definite fact that the weapons traffic had a lot to do
[with Palme's death.]