FTR-289 Miscellaneous Articles and Updates (One 30-minute segment) (Sources are noted in parentheses.)

1. In RFA-21 and in FTR-98, Mr. Emory discussed the powerful Vatican order called Opus Dei. Deeply involved in the elevation of Pope John Paul II, the organization has roots going back to Francisco Franco’s fascist dictatorship in Spain. Following the arrest of a key FBI counterintelligence agent for allegedly spying on behalf of Russia and the former Soviet Union, it emerged that the official (Robert Hanssen) was a member of Opus Dei. ("Was FBI Agent’s True ‘Loyalty’ to Opus Dei?" by Yoichi Clark Shimatsu; Jinn Magazine; accessed from their web site at www.pacificnews.org/jinn/.)

2. “The search for a motive [for Hanssen’s alleged actions] is complicated by the fact that his colleagues say that Hanssen was fiercely anticommunist and a devout member of Opus Dei, an ultraconservative Catholic organization. He was a regular parishioner of St. Catherine of Siena Church, in a Virginia suburb of the capital, where an elite congregation, which includes Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia, attend traditional Latin masses.” (Ibid.; p. 1.)

3. Discussing the order and its history, Shimatsu relates its fascist antecedents, and also discusses evidence of a 1980’s rapprochement between Moscow and the Vatican. (This rapprochement is discussed in RFA-21, and may have been a motive for the shooting of the Pope by Mehmet Ali Agca.) “Opus Dei, Latin for ‘Work of God,’ is a secretive lay group within the body of the Catholic Church, with more than 80,000 members worldwide. As the only personal prelature in the Church, it is an entity unto itself, separate from the diocesan structure. Founded in the late 1920’s by Spanish priest Jose Maria Escriva, Opus Dei assumed a political role from the start, openly siding with the Franco dictatorship. Its members served in cabinets while Spain was allied with Hitler and Mussolini. Opus Dei foundered in the wake of World War II, but regained impetus under Pope John Paul II, after providing crucial support for his papal candidacy. In the Polish pope, the group found a champion willing to back its harsh stance against abortion, birth control, its crusade against communism, the push for Catholicism as a state religion, and war on left-leaning liberation theologians within the Church. . . .Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, a powerful Opus Dei supporter, pursued a policy of reaching out toward Moscow with the aim of gaining Poland’s release from the Warsaw Pact. . . . Rivers of money, much of it provided by Bill Casey’s CIA, poured into Warsaw and Moscow, and the Vatican found ready support from the U.S. because the security establishment under President Ronald Reagan was packed with conservative Catholics, including Casey, Richard Allen and William Clark.” (Ibid.; p. 2.)

4. Shimatsu then speculates about a possible motive for Hanssen’s alleged activities. “Hanssen’s most damaging activities in FBI counterintelligence coincided with these years, 1985-89. Secrets from America’s intelligence vaults could well have been part of the quid pro quo in the late Cardinal’s dance with Moscow. Certainly, the Vatican has had no qualms about violating American sensitivities. Indeed, it seems to reflect a Eurocentric triumphalism. The papal encyclical on labor rights slapped rampant materialism—that is, the immoral United States—as the ‘other’ great evil afoot in the world.” (Ibid.; p. 2.)

5. The article also notes that FBI director Louis Freeh is also a member of the order. “Did Hanssen clear the path to the FBI directorate for his fellow Opus Dei member Louis Freeh? This possibility cannot be dismissed, nor should reluctance to interfere with a religious organization prevent a probe into Hanssen’s ties within Opus Dei.” (Ibid.; p. 3.) (For more information about the complex relationship between the Vatican, the intelligence community and international fascism, see also: RFA #’s 17-21, 36 as well as FTR #’s 2, 3, 5, 42, 43, 53, 59, 64, 98, 103, 266, 285.)

6. Following discussion of Hanssen’s relationship to Opus Dei, the program highlights a “legal” organization called the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy. An extreme right-wing consortium with enormous sway within the Bush administration, the organization has already made its influence felt. (“Judgment Daze” by Julian Borger; The Guardian; 3/26/2001; accessed at www.guardian.co.uk.)

7. “Founded in 1982, the group set as its goals the ideological conquest of the nation’s law schools. Two decades on it has achieved an extraordinary degree of success. The Federalists’ law school chapters now offer graduates a faster route to the top, through clerkships in high-profile chambers and a powerful career network, than the mainstream professional body, the American Bar Association (ABA). They scored their greatest triumph last week, when President Bush stripped the ABA of its role as a vetting agency in the appointment of federal judges. The ABA had first been assigned the task by President Eisenhower as a means of setting minimum professional standards for the judiciary around the country. . . . The Federalists have now taken the ABA’s place in all but name. In President Bush’s first week, a task force was set up in the White house to rush through nominations for the 100 (out of a total of 862) federal judgeships in appeals and circuit courts.” (Ibid.; pp. 1-2.)

8. Borger discusses the Federalists’ impact on the Bush administration and the Republican Party. “Many are veterans of earlier campaigns, such as Brett Kavanaugh, the young lawyer who served as chief investigator for Kenneth Starr, President Clinton’s inquisitor and nemesis and another key member of the Federalist Society. Mr. Starr, in turn, got the job of independent counsel from David Sentelle, a conservative circuit judge and early Federalist member. The lawyers acting for Paula Jones in her sexual harassment suit against the president and for Linda Tripp, who handed over secret tapes of Monica Lewinsky, were both Federalists.” (Ibid.; p. 2.) (For more on the impeachment of Clinton, see also: L-8, FTR #’s 107, 139.)

9. The article also sets forth the role of Federalists in the manipulation of the Florida vote count. “The Bush cause was argued by Ted Olson, the head of the Washington head of the Washington chapter of the Federalist Society, who is now Solicitor General. It was supported most fiercely on the Supreme Court by Antonin Scalia, one of the moving spirits behind the formation of the Federalists and a regular attraction at the society’s seminars and retreats for ambitious lawyers.” (Ibid.; pp. 2-3.)

10. Borger also points out that Federalists occupy key cabinet positions in the Bush administration. “The fact that the energy and interior secretaries, Spencer Abraham and Gale Norton are both senior Federalists no doubt played a role. [In guiding Bush environmental policies.] James Bopp, another Florida veteran, is leading the legal fight against campaign finance reform.” (Ibid.; p. 3.)

11. In discussing the radical right-wing nature of the Bush administration, the program underscores the fact that the Florida “recount” constituted a coup d état. (For more on the stealing of Florida, see also: L-9, FTR #’s 259, 265, 268, 285.) “This is the most radical administration in living American memory. I use the word deliberately. Today’s right calls itself ‘conservative,’ but it is not that.” ("The Feeling of a Coup" by Anthony Lewis; New York Times; 3/31/2001; p. A27.)

12. The broadcast concludes with examination of an influential, but little known European business consortium. The European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT) wields decisive influence within the EU. (“The Quiet Knights of Europe’s Round Table” by Paul Betts; Financial Times; 3/20/2001; p. 10.)

13. “You would not imagine that this place saw the conception of a strategy that is set to be assessed by Thursday’s European Council meeting in Stockholm. That strategy, adopted by European governments and the European Commission at a council last year in Lisbon, drew largely on broad ERT recommendations. It exhorted the European Union to become ‘the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion.’” (Idem.)

14. The article also discusses the group’s extreme secrecy. “Secrecy has merely strengthened its critics’ conviction that the ERT is ‘a shadowy lobby group that has, for the past 15 years, exerted an iron grip on policymaking in Brussels,’ as The Guardian newspaper described it in a 1999 report. A particularly critical study, entitled ‘Misshaping Europe,’ which was published seven years ago, even suggested that ‘the political agenda of the EC [as the EU was then known] has to a large extent been dominated by the ERT.’” (Idem.)

15. “Founded in 1983, it grew out of the groupe des presidents formed in the 1960’s by a very select and small number of European business tycoons led by Giovanni Agnelli of Fiat.” (Idem.) (Recorded on 4/8/2001.)