Rumors and Rumors of Rumors: B16, NSA, SWIFT
Rumor: a currently circulating story or report of uncertain or doubtful truth. (Google dictionary)
Maike Hickson, Ph.D. wrote an article for Lifesitenews called “Italian general: US official bragged Benedict would be `forced’ to resign weeks after 2005 election” and it ran January 5, or the same day Benedict’s body was lowered into the tomb. It came on the heels of another article that ran about two days earlier concerning the “Italian general’s” comments, and other chatterers quickly picked up the story and ran with it. Hickson prudently concluded “Perhaps only future historians will be able to put together a fuller picture as to why a pope would resign….” Yeah, I agree.
Many people are jumping to conclusions or making sensationalist hay when such may not be warranted, if sensationalism ever is. Let me offer you my view of things on short notice, and with limited information. It may not be as “sexy” or as sensational as others, but we should not be interested in sensationalism. We should be interested in accuracy and truth. By its nature, sensationalism emphasizes some things altering their proper relation to other things thereby creating inaccuracy and distorting the perception of reality. Accuracy and truth, as dull or shocking as these things may be, should be the goal of every producer of content for social media. In many cases, a proper understanding of the full truth of a situation may not become clear for some time, and so judgment should be withheld.
The enemy’s greatest and most diabolical work is done in broad daylight with all the trappings of legitimacy. This is the essence of political warfare as CD Jackson explained, though many call it psychological warfare. The media on a daily basis tells us what is acceptable and what is not when it comes to values and how to view situations. They do this by what they cover and how they cover it – tone of voice, words used, visuals employed. They also do this by not covering some things.
The most obvious, yet effective, means of fundamental social re-engineering was the establishment of Liberalism or the Liberal Order with the First Amendment and all of its freedoms of press and speech. These two doctrines permit all manner of discussion, speculation and chattering which in turn oftentimes confuses the issues. When chatterers need to keep themselves in front of a microphone and camera to sell books, articles and themselves, they will often speak without having all the facts, or properly contemplating the matters at hand, thereby confusing the matter. I have often advocated for implementation of Inter Mirifica (heck, I’d be glad if people would just read it) and so my criticism of the professional media is not unexpected. Haste makes waste we were always told, and so my article on this matter, touching the theme Hickson touches as I mentioned above, cautions caution.
Hickson’s article begins from the position that an NSA official more than 17 years ago bragged about forcing Benedict to resign “soon.” Then the article goes into the Sankt Gallen group which is a bogeyman among many Catholics because of its promotion of policies and positions contrary to the Faith, which they appear to be trying to change with some success. There is a basis for this view held by Catholics because of various articles and books discussing this group and the current attacks on Catholic doctrine on human sexuality; however, like mentioning other culprits for the ills of the world, mentioning one group or another for all the ills of the day effectively shuts down any further discussion of a topic. That can be dangerous because oftentimes we are dealing with structures of sin[1], something recognized by the Catechism, and something that has to be eradicated by right ordering of society so as to assist in the right ordering of hearts and minds.
Second, while doing an internet search, across my computer screen flashed the message “It looks like the results below are changing quickly.” Before I even had the chance to download some material, websites disappeared. So now I am interested. All I could gather before this strange development was that the Italian general was a retired brigadier by the name of Piero Laporta, who was a columnist for a number of different periodicals: “three magazines – `Limes’(geopolitics), `Monsieur’ (cultural) and `Corriere delle Comunicazioni’ (hitech) – and of an authoritative Italian newspaper, `ITALIA OGGi’”.[2] Laporta apparently specializes in political and economic commentary. Other than that, nothing else was available: no vital statistics, no education background, no summary of a service record, no wiki entry. Nothing.
Third, the NSA is the National Security Agency which formally came into existence in 1952. Its mission as I recall and as reminded by its website, was to gather and understand what is known as signals intelligence or SIGINT. In the words of the NSA itself, this means that it “collects, processes, analyzes, produces, and disseminates signals intelligence (SIGINT) information for foreign intelligence and counterintelligence purposes as part of NSA’s role as a combat support agency in the Department of Defense. NSA SIGINT develops insights on our adversaries to provide the nation a decisive information advantage in competition, crisis, or conflict.”[3] The NSA also has a mission of cyber-security which means it “prevents and eradicates threats to U.S. national security systems with a focus on the Defense Industrial Base and the improvement of U.S. weapons’ security.”[4]
The NSA’s mandate is limited and it is hard to understand how a “figure in the highest ranks” of the NSA was bragging about bringing Benedict to resign, with any degree of credibility. The NSA was not in the business of removing leaders to begin with, and the mention of bringing about Benedict’s downfall “soon” was made about eight years before he actually resigned. These things coupled with the anonymity of this “leading delegate of the US Government” cast serious doubt on the veracity of the statements and the credibility of the author who supposedly brought them to light.
Fourth, the “leading delegate of the US Government” which is the source of the information is unnamed because a Catholic journalist named Maurzio Blondet said it was wise to “not disclose” the official’s name. Anonymous sources are always problematic because, well, because we really don’t know if they even exist.
Fifth, Hickson writes that this entire scenario first surfaced in 2015 with an article by Blondet entitled “Ratzinger could neither sell nor buy.”[5] Blondet claimed “IOR [the Vatican’s bank] had been excluded from SWIFT” by the time of Benedict’s resignation (February 11, 2013). Blondet did not provide any authority for that position and a search of the SWIFT website did not reveal any such suspensions though this was nearly ten years ago now. According to the BBC, DeutscheBank stopped dealing with the IOR on January 1, 2013 due to the failure of the IOR to comply with certain regulations pertaining to anti-money-laundering which came into vogue after 9-11.[6] Blondet claimed that the IOR was granted access to the SWIFT after Benedict’s resignation and before the election of Francis and the proof for that was the Media Presse from Belgium. Generally, SWIFT posts suspensions on its website, but as of the drafting of this article, there do not appear to be any further records on its website of that suspension and the removal of the suspension, if it ever occurred.
Sixth, on Thursday, January 12, Archbishop George Ganswein’s book, Nothing But the Truth hit the bookstands. The memoir by Benedict’s personal secretary dealt with a variety of topics to include the resignation of Benedict. According to the Archbishop, Benedict stepped down because he was genuinely worn out. He indicated after a trip to Cuba in the Spring of 2012 that he was tiring, and his discussions on the topic seemed to become more earnest by September, 2012. There is no indication from the most in-depth review published so far[7] that Benedict resigned because of any plots by the NSA. It seems that the Archbishop would be privy to such threats given his position with Benedict. It also seems that such an important event would include a discussion of an NSA threat if the threat was real.
Finally, Americans and the plutocrats just “don’t roll that way.” Blondet and company have taken the view that the global elites operate through the use of naked threats. Not so. They are more subtle, and tend to offer carrots to get collaboration. The plutocrats, and the American leadership, are not so heavy-handed as suggested by the current rumors.
At this point I re-echo what Hickson said, “Perhaps only future historians will be able to put together a fuller picture as to why a pope would resign….” Yeah, I agree. Let’s be cautious.
[1] Catechism of the Catholic Church, Section 1869: “Thus sin makes men accomplices of one another and causes concupiscence, violence, and injustice to reign among them. Sins give rise to social situations and institutions that are contrary to the divine goodness. `Structures of sin’ are the expression and effects of personal sins. They lead their victims to do evil in their turn. In an analogous sence, they constitute a `social sin.’” (Emphasis added)
[2] Author biography, Piero Laporta, from https://www.worldsecuritynetwork.com/author_bio/Laporta-Piero as accessed January 9, 2023.
[3] National Security Agency, https://www.nsa.gov/Signals-Intelligence/ as accessed January 9, 2023.
[4] National Security Agency, https://www.nsa.gov/Cybersecurity/ as accessed January 9, 2023.
[5] Maurice Blondet, “Ratzinger could neither sell nor buy,” September 28, 2015, Blondet and Friends.
[6] “Italy Suspends Vatican Bank Card Payments,” January 3, 2013, BBC.
[7] Luke Coppen, “‘Nothing but the Truth’: A reader’s guide to Archbishop Gänswein’s memoir,” January 12, 2023, The Pillar.