According to news reports and former members, the national (UK) and international leadership of the Baha’i branch of Islam were solidly behind the removal of Saddam in Iraq, but for their own reasons. Islamic religionists were frozen out of Saddam’s secular Baath socialist government. The Baha’i leadership saw the removal of Saddam as an opportunity to expand their worldwide membership of over three million. It is not clear what the Baha’i attitude is toward the occupation of Iraq now that Saddam is gone and the Baath Party has been outlawed.

One of the minor controversies raised during the course of the Hutton inquiry was the allegation that Kelly had made disparaging remarks about the “dossier” at a private meeting in the home of a fellow member of the Baha’i, Roger Kingdon. About thirty invited members of the Baha’i were present. Kelly had given a slide presentation on Iraq WMD, but the alleged remarks were made during a question and answer portion of the meeting.

However, potentially the most controversial item to come out of the Hutton inquiry is a little noted piece of “evidence” submitted by the Thames Valley Police (TCP). Listed among the items submitted by the TVP is an exhibit titled “TVP Tactical Support Major Incident Policy Book.” The name given to the effort is Operation Mason.

In 1997, Tony Blair’s election manifesto promised to compile a register of freemasons in public life. In February 1998 Blair’s new government (put out by then Home Secretary Jack Straw) required all new appointments to the judiciary, police, legally qualified staff of the Crown Prosecution Service and probation and prison services to declare membership in Masonic organizations. Existing government employees in those categories were encouraged to voluntarily announce such membership. Few have come forward.

The government’s action was the culmination of anti-Masonic fervor dating back as far as 1869 when Rev. C.G. Finney in his book, “The Character, Claims and Practical Workings of Freemasonry” inveighed against the Masons with the following:

“Can a man who has taken and still adheres to the oath of the Royal Arch degree be trusted in office? He swears to espouse the cause of a companion of this degree when involved in any difficulty, so far as to extricate him from the same, whether he be right or wrong. He swears to conceal his crimes, murder and treason not excepted. He swears to give a companion of this degree timely notice of any approaching danger that may be known to him. Now is a man bound fast by such an oath to be entrusted with office? Ought he to be accepted as a witness, a juror--when a Freemason is a party, in any case--a sheriff, constable, or marshal; ought he to be trusted with the office of judge or justice of the peace? Gentlemen, you know he ought not, and you would despise me should I not be faithful in warning the public against entrusting such men with office.”

Another author, Anthony Beevor, was told by a leading Mason that all thirteen members of the Army Management Board were Masons (in 1991). The board comprises a mix of politicians and top army officers. It exercises authority over all forms of appointments, ranking and promotion in the army.

The chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Committee, Chris Mullin, is said to have been considering legislation to mandate that members of the criminal justice system be required to reveal if they are freemasons.

However, that proposal was dropped (at least temporarily) after 5,000 Masons from London’s 1,585 lodges met to establish a new central organization. They were led by Prince Edward George Nicholas Paul Patrick Windsor, Duke of Kent. He and his wife present the trophies at Wimbledon every year and is less well known in his position as head of the English Freemasonry movement. The Duke and Duchess, after selling their own home in Coppins, now live in two residences supplied by the Queen at Anmer Hall and St. James Palace.

At the meeting, the Masons protested the contemplated mandatory declarations as a violation of the 1998 Human Rights Act. There are an estimated 300,000 Masons in England and Wales.

An Italian government was brought down following a 1981 investigation of the (former) P2 Masonic lodge. Consecrated in 1895, the P2 lodge included elite members from the Italian government, military and intelligence services and bankers serving the Vatican and mafia. The P2 Grand Master, an Italian named Licio Gelli joined the CIA and worked in league with mafia banker Michele Sindona and president Roberto Calvi of the Banco Ambrosiano, which collapsed in the Vatican banking scandal. Gelli himself was expelled from Masonry in 1976. As a result of the scandal, the Italian government banned secret societies.

Calvi, twenty years ago, was found hanging from a bridge over the Thames River in what was thought to be a suicide. However British authorities have reopened the case and are now calling it murder and may prosecute three men and a woman for the crime. The motives conjectured include his mishandling of mafia money and/or potentially blackmailing P2 members.

The timing of the reopening of the Calvi case could be more than a coincidence considering the civil trial due to begin next month against the Bank of England for its role in the supervision and closing of BCCI. The mafia, CIA, British intelligence, the Mossad an assorted terrorist and drug trafficking organizations used BCCI for laundering money.

However, Lord Hutton’s report on his inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death of microbiologist David Kelly is due out in the same time frame. It undoubtedly will dominate news coverage as BBC and politicians try to blame each other for the supposed “suicide” of Kelly and the debate over the “dossier” justifying the war against Iraq. The capture yesterday of Saddam Hussein and its attendant publicity may be a wild card in the public relations battle.

It is not clear why the TVP named its tactical support Operation Mason. It could be a red herring or just a taunt to the anti-Masonic movement. It possibly could be a straightforward reference to support of a Masonic operation. But what was that operation?

One thing this writer can confidently predict, the Hutton report will label Kelly’s death a suicide giving no credence to any of the evidence that points conclusively to murder.

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|| Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 ||

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Source: Correspondence with Rowena Thursby

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Friday, August 11, 2006 08:42:03 PM

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