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By CARL BLOICE

“Regardless of the quality of the evidence, the Italian
and U.S. press have shown little interest in awaiting the
Tesults of formal investigations,”’ the pair wrote in The
New Republic, Feb. 28, 1976. They referred to the probe
by the Italian government into charges made by a U.S.
Congressional committee that high Italian government
Officials had received bribes from Lockheed Cor-
Poration. Ironically, the same two writers, irate at trial-
by-press then, are the leading figures in a concerted
Media effort to convict without even formal charges the
80vernments of Bulgaria and the Soviet Union for the
attempt on the life of Pope John Paul II May 13, 1981.

The practitioners of this journalistic double standard
are writer and historian Michael Ledeen and interna-
tonal terrorism expert Claire Sterling. :

Ledeen and Sterling have long histories of involve-
Ment in Italian politics, their major concentration being
discrediting Communists, the Italian Communist Party
(PCI) in particular. Their names have been linked
through the years to some of the leading figures involved
in the economic and political scandals that have now
thrown Italian politics into turmoil. Some of what they
Were involved in that year was graphically described by
Writer Fred Landis in an article titled ‘‘Georgetown Ss
Ivory Tower for Spooks” in the Sept. 30 edition of
Inquiry Magazine. .

€ months before the 1976 Italian elections, the
ashington-based Georgetown Center for Strategic and
International Studies (CSIS) sponsored a conference on
Italy. Panelists included William Colby, a leading func-
Honary of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and
Mastermind of the Phoenix political assassination pro-

_ amin Vietnam; Ray Cline, former CIA station chief in
Taiwan and ‘director of world power studies’ at the

Georgetown think tank; former U.S. Treasury secretary
and Texas oil spokesperson John Connally; former US.
Ambassador Clare Booth Luce, a leading figure in the
Pro-Chiang Kai-shek ‘‘China lobby’’ and plotter with
Cuban counter-revolutionaries. Luce had been ambas-
Sador to Italy when Colby was CIA station chief in
me. One panelist had no record of government service
hor evident ties to the CIA: Claire Sterling, little known
Correspondent in Rome for Reporter magazine. _
_“*All the panelists agreed on the need for U.S. action to

Prevent a Communist victory in Italy, frequently citing :

the Chilean example as a ‘successful’ precedent. They
discussed the Italian Communist Party (PCI) not so
much in its indigenous political context, but rather as a
‘national security’ threat to the United States and all of
NATO.”’ :

In his book, My Life in the CIA, Colby gave a glimpse
into CIA operations in Italy following World War II. He
wrote that one favorite propaganda ploy of the agency
was to circulate stories that the PCI was receiving fund-

ing from the USSR through the activities of import-

export businesses dealing with socialist countries.

The day after the CSIS conference on Italy, The New
Republic headlined the artice “‘Italy’s Russian Sugar
Daddies,”’ by who else? Sterling and Ledeen.

Sterling and Ledeen made no bones about the reasons
for the Sugar Daddies story. It was to try and refute the
suggestion that the Italian Communist Party was free
from the scandal that had damaged others. The story
itself followed the pattern found in the later ‘‘exposes’’
of the pair. Quoted are people like an unnamed ‘‘highly
placed observor in Italy’s Ministry of Interior’’ and other
equally untraceable and clearly compromised sources.
They openly complained that the Italian media refused to
take up the attack on the PCI because it is run by parties
whose hands are so unclean.

The New Republic was published at the time by

Robert J. Myers, former CIA officer in Indonesia and
close associate of both Cline and Colby.

What followed was a scenario that has emerged as a
common modus operandi for these CIA-linked media
propagandists. It involves articles appearing in U.S. pub-
lications about other countries which are then ,repub-
lished in that country. In the case of the Sugar Daddies
stories, they wound up in two papers funded by the CIA,
the Rome Daily American and the fascist Il Borghese.

U.S. officials in Italy at the time of the 1976 election
have admitted that one chief means of trying to affect the
voting was the use of television in the neighboring prin-
cipality of Monte Carlo. On June 21, ‘‘the polls were still
open when two obscure Americans appeared on Chan-
nel One to warn of the danger of a Communist victory,”’
wrote Landis.

**Michael Ledeem and Claire Sterling were members
of a panel of commentators that remained on the air from
4 p.m. until 2 a.m. the next morning. Channel One is
controlled by the Christian Democratic Party, which
from 1948 to 1976 received the bulk of the $7 million in
covert funds the CIA sent to Italy, not including the $6
million spent specifically for the 1976 elections.”’

Given the past record of involvement in Italian politics
by operatives like Sterling, Ledeen, Cline and Kis-
singer, it should not be surprising to see them pop up
once again, this time on the eve of what most certainly
are upcoming, critical elections in that country.

At whatever point one starts to unravel the hatching of
the ‘‘Bulgarian Connection’’ or the blatant efforts to
determine Italy’s political future in Washington, the
threads lead back to the fashionable Washington
suburbs.

“In the wake of recent Congressional investigations,
the CIA has been forced to back off from its regular
practice of recruiting agents from within the working
press,”’ wrote Landis back in 1979. ‘‘But its version of
history is today as widely aired as ever, thanks in good
measure to the Cold War intellectual elite at the
Georgetown centre. These articulate and sophisticated
anti-Communists, many of them former ‘national se-
curity’ officials, are the vanguard of a conservative
movement to bury detente and revive the worldwide
struggle against the Soviet Union.”’

Carl Bloice is executive editor of People’s World, Ber-
keley, California.

The Church in the capitalist system

This week we follow up our previous
Comment on the bishops’ report, ‘‘Ethi-
cal Reflections on the Economic Crisis”’,
by taking a brief look at the Catholic
Church’s place (as an institution) in the
System of capitalism. Such a look is es-
Sential if politically advanced workers
are to avoid falling into pitfalls of anar-
Chistic cynicism or capitalist illusion.

* * *

Catholic Church holds spiritual and ideo-

NI

re Marxism-Leninism Today

| Alfred Dewhurst

* * *

- of man by man and nation by nation.

category are openly rebelling against the
most brutal forms of capitalist ex-
ploitation and oppression as practiced in
capitalism’s client countries. Still a larger
part are demanding rectification of the.
most glaring economic faults, social in-
equalities and injustices that mark the
capitalist system.

The power base of the Church resides
in the ranks of these hundreds of mem-
bers and supporters. Without this base it
would be just another church. However,

The Catholic Church is not just
another church. It is at once a world
church and an independent state, albeit
the world’s smallest. The ruling oligar-
Chy of both the Church and the State of

atican, are one and the same for all
Practical, spiritual, political, social,
financial, and diplomatic purposes. The
Vatican state is the site of the state capi-
tal, Vatican City, which in tun houses
the government and state, papal and
Church administrative offices and
Machinery. And this state is physically
Confined to just over 100 acres of land in
Rome. The Vatican is a state without

territory, natural resources, industry and -

People.

Nevertheless, this unique formation of
Church and state enjoys the status of an
Important world power. Some 60 coun-
tries maintain diplomatic relations on an
ambassadorial level with the Vatican.
Other countries, including Canada,
maintain diplomatic relations on a lower
level. Such a high level of international
Telations corresponds to big power
Status. In reality, though, it is the Church
which enjoys that status and not the
State. This came about because the

logical sway over 585 million followers

out of one billion Christians. The Church

regards these followers as its subjects

regardless of individual citizenship.

Herein lies the big power status of the

Catholic Church. _
* * *

The Catholic Church is a product of
feudal society and, as such was molded
in the image of the feudal state. It is an
authoritarian institution headed by the
Pope who, when speaking in the name of
the Church, claims infallibility. The Pope
is the supreme authority in Church and
Vatican State affairs.

With the emergence of capitalism dur-
ing the 17th century, the Church went
through a period of adaptation to the new
economic and social system. It grew and
developed in step with the growth and
development of world capitalism. As it

- did under feudalism, the Church estab-

lished itself as the main spiritual and
ideological bulwark of the capitalist sys-
tem. The transition from feudalism to
capitalism was relatively easy for the
Church, for the basis of both systems
was, and is, private ownership of the
means of production and the exploitation

The Church as an institution is an in-
tegral part of modern capitalism. As
such, it enjoys a privileged position.
However, in the early years of this cen-
tury a more advanced and humane,
socio-economic system emerged out of
capitalism onto the world scene — social-
ism. This new system is based on the
social ownership of the means of pro-
duction and the abolition of the exploit-
ation of man by man and nation by na-
tion.

Where socialism has won out, it has
put an end to the possibility of any sec-
tion of the population — class, group,
individual or institution — occupying a
privileged position in society. All enjoy
equal rights and share a common respon-
sibility to society.as a whole.

* * *

However, the Church prefers capital-
ism to socialism. But, there are many
millions within its ranks who prefer
socialism. In addition, there are many
millions more, who question the capabil-
ity of modern capitalism to meet their
material needs and wants, not to speak of
cultural wants. A sizable part of the latter

it is not a homogeneous body. Part of the
Church’s members and supporters are
enormously wealthy, as is the Church
itself. Members are to be found in the top
layers of the corporate elite; others are a
large part of the middle strata; the bulk
are in the ranks of the workers and the
working people generally. In short, the
social make-up of the Church mirrors the
social make-up of the given country.
* * *

Herein lies the sharpest social contra-
diction facing the Mother Church. It does
not want to see capitalism replaced by
socialism. This is why some layers of the
Church clergy which are closest to the
working people (such as the 8-bishop
commission) are calling for reforms to
mitigate or eliminate the worst features
of capitalist exploitation, while maintain-
ing the capitalist system. On this basis
there are sufficient grounds for a meeting
of minds and actions between the labor
and democratic movement and those
parts of the Church urging reforms,
which while serving the interests of the
Church, also: serve the immediate in-
terests of the working people.

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEBRUARY 18, 1983—Page 5

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