Comparatively few know the name “Stibam.” Obscure, even in the annals of the guns-for-drugs business, this arms and drug-smuggling outfit figured prominently in the world of 1980’s covert operations. With connections to intelligence agencies of many countries (including the United States) and overlapping the P‑2 lodge, Stibam was reportedly involved with the attempt on the Pope’s life. Run by Syrian-born Henri Arsan (a DEA informant), Stibam was connected to many prominent individuals, and was implicated in numerous scandals, including the Iran-Contra and Iraqgate affairs. One of the principal figures in Stibam was a Turkish national named Bekir Celenk, described as being very close to the fascist Grey Wolves and heavily involved with Stibam’s narcotics business. (For more about the Grey Wolves, see AFA #‘s 14, 21.) Mehmet Ali Agca identified Celenk as the paymaster of the plot to shoot Pope John Paul II. This program examines the operations of Stibam, its component elements and its political connections. Masquerading as a “construction company,” the Milan-based firm was headquartered right above the Banco Ambrosiano’s headquarters. (For more on Banco Ambrosiano and its P‑2 chairman, Roberto Calvi, see AFA-18.) Elements associated with the P‑2 figure prominently in Stibam’s affairs. Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon and actor Rossano Brazzi were involved with Stibam deals, in the company of veteran intelligence officer and P‑2 member Giuseppe Santovito. Another Stibam operation involved the sale of AK-47 rifles for the Nicaraguan Contras. Other gambits involved the sale of American arms to the Khomeini regime in Iran, to use against the Iraqis in the Iran-Iraq war. Other Stibam programs constituted part of what has popularly-termed “Iraqgate,” the arming of Saddam Hussein by the West. One of the most spectacular and dangerous of the Stibam undertakings involved the sale of thermonuclear weapons to an Arab nation (believed to have been either Syria or Saudi Arabia.) This operation involved an individual named Glauco Partel, described in the Italian press as being a “missile expert” and working for “the NSA.” One of Partel’s companions was a U.S. intelligence veteran named Eugene Bartholomeus, whose curriculum included work with the much-traveled “ex-” CIA agent Ed Wilson, as well as for the Nugan Hand Bank in Australia. (For more on Ed Wilson, see AFA‑4, and for information about the Nugan Hand, see AFA-25.) Associated with numerous intelligence services (including and especially American) Stibam had, as Mr. Emory says “more connections than a switch-board.” When investigations into the operation produced a massive series of arrests in November of 1982, people involved with the investigation began to die. Program higlights include: Details about Sutas, Stibam’s Los Angeles Branch; the story of the Broggi Izzar arms operation of Renato Gamba, partly financed by the Banco Ambrosiano; analysis of the Stibam network as an extension of the “Balkan Route” heroin connection of Corsican gangster Auguste Ricord; Ricord’s World War II Nazi collaboration, including the beginning of his life-long associate with Gestapo officer and Gehlen agent Klaus Barbie; Stibam deals involving arms captured by Israel in numerous conflicts; the untimely deaths of Stibam-connected figures Henry Arsan, Giuseppe Santovito and Bekir Celenk (among others); the bomb attack on Judge Carlo Parlermo, whose investigation of Stibam on behalf of the Italian authorities has yielded devastating disclosures; connections between Palermo’s investigation and Nazi Gold from World II; evidentiary tributaries running in the direction of Colonia Dignidad, an emigre Nazi conclave in Chile.

Examines evidence that the unsolved murders of California’s “Zodiac Killer” were committed by a team of individuals, some connected to the national security establishment. The killings terrorized California during the late ’60s and early ’70s and may have been intended as provocations or justification for an increased police state. In addition the murders appear to have been covered up by law enforcement officials who were involved in drug trading. Most significantly, elements of the Manson cult were involved in many of the killings.