What Brenneke said {Excerpts from the TG1 interview with ex-CIA agent Richard Brenneke, tr

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....