Dispatches

Particularly Significant

October 12, 2026

The membership lists of the Propaganda Due lodge seized at Castiglion Fibocchi in March 1981 were published by the Italian government on May 21, 1981. Among the names is "Dott. Alberto Ferrari."¹ The parliamentary commission of inquiry on P2, chaired by Tina Anselmi, counted sixty-seven members drawn from the Treasury, the banks and finance, and singled out a few banks where the presences were "particolarmente significative per qualità e rappresentatività." The first it named was the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro: four members of the board of directors, the director general, and three central directors, one of them secretary of the board.²

Luigi Sardelli, who ran BNL's North American operations from 1987, later answered written questions from Henry B. Gonzalez. He wrote that Professor A. Ferrari, then BNL's managing director, "had to resign in shame in 1981 because of his affiliation with Lodge P2." He wrote that on December 25, 1975 Ferrari had asked him to go to the Gulf to explore a BNL merchant bank "with a group of BNL friends," and that the people he met there were Pakistani nationals connected to BCCI. He wrote that Ferrari was a close friend of Roberto Calvi of Banco Ambrosiano, and that the bank's relationship with BCCI, Ghaith Pharaon and Marc Rich was the exclusive domain of Ferrari, A. Florio and A. Conzara. Ferrari had handpicked Florio to head the International Division.³

The FBI searched BNL's Atlanta branch on August 4, 1989. The indictment returned on February 28, 1991 charged the branch manager Christopher Drogoul, two other branch officers, a Turkish trading company and its executive, the Iraqi state Rafidain Bank and four Iraqi officials.⁴ Angelo Florio was one of seven Italian nationals who in 1993 declared they would not come to the United States to testify. Drogoul named him, with Giacomo Pedde and Teodoro Monaco, as the officials who gave the authorizations he relied on.⁵

The Italian Senate commission of inquiry under Senator Gianuario Carta approved its preliminary report on December 21, 1991. It recorded that no official of BNL in New York or Rome was among the defendants. It found that the thesis of a fraud by a group of unfaithful officials had proved inconsistent, and that the Atlanta operations could not have been unknown in Rome and New York and were instead "tollerata se non incoraggiata." It also recorded that the Department of Justice had denied the commission access to documents and witnesses, citing grand jury secrecy and national security.⁶ On October 5, 1992 Judge Marvin Shoob wrote: "The Court concludes that officials at BNL-Rome were aware of and approved Mr. Drogoul's activities."⁷

See Appendix A

October 12, 2026

In February 2021 the State Department published Foreign Relations of the United States, 1981-1988, Volume IV, Soviet Union, January 1983-March 1985. Its preface stated that the volume "presents selective documentation related to the 1983 Soviet 'War Scare' and the November 1983 NATO nuclear exercise, Able Archer (see Appendix A)." Appendix A, an editorial note running from page 1420, described the 1990 President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board report "The Soviet 'War Scare'" and then printed the January 1989 "End of Tour Report Addendum" of Lieutenant General Leonard Perroots, who had been the Air Force's intelligence chief in Europe during Able Archer 83. Perroots wrote that the exercise began on the morning of November 3, 1983, and that at 2100Z on November 4 the NSA issued report G/00/3083-83, "Soviet Air Forces, GSFG, Placed on Heightened Readiness, 2 November 1983." The appendix also printed a CIA memorandum answering him and the PFIAB's finding that the officers in charge "acted correctly out of instinct, not informed guidance." The volume ran to 1,493 pages.¹

Six months later the National Security Archive asked the CIA for the memorandum under FOIA, and in October 2021 it sued. The CIA released a completely redacted copy. The district court granted the CIA summary judgment on October 4, 2022, and the D.C. Circuit affirmed on June 7, 2024, holding that the publication in the State Department volume had not waived the CIA's exemptions.²

The copy of the volume on the State Department's site captured on February 2, 2025 runs to 1,479 pages and does not contain the name Perroots. Its preface reads "the November 1983 NATO nuclear exercise, Able Archer (see Document 135)." The current copy is the same.³

The Creation of an Incident

October 12, 2026

On April 26, 1961, nine days after the landing at the Bay of Pigs, the Joint Chiefs of Staff sent Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara memorandum JCSM-278-61, "Cuba." It recommended a military plan to overthrow the Castro government and pointed to Operation Plan 312-61, "which has previously been reviewed and approved by the Joint Chiefs of Staff." It continued: "One action that is recommended is the creation of an incident which will provide justification for the overthrow of the Castro government by the United States. Such an incident must be carefully planned and handled, to insure that it is plausible and that it occurs prior to any indication that the United States has decided to take military action against Cuba. Premature exposure of the fact that the incident was created by the United States could cause a shift in sentiment by the Cuban people against the United States." Earle G. Wheeler signed for the Joint Chiefs above the typed name of Arleigh Burke.¹

On March 5, 1962 the Chief of Operations of the Cuba Project under Edward Lansdale asked the Joint Chiefs for pretexts. On March 8 the chief of naval operations sent the chairman a memorandum titled "Instances to Provoke Military Actions in Cuba."² On March 13 Lyman Lemnitzer signed the reply, "Justification for US Military Intervention in Cuba," which became known as Northwoods. Its annex listed incidents around Guantanamo, a "Remember the Maine" incident, and a chartered airliner to be replaced at Eglin Air Force Base by a duplicate drone. The Joint Chiefs recommended that responsibility "for both overt and covert military operations be assigned the Joint Chiefs of Staff."³

Your Policy Preference

October 12, 2026

On May 29, 1990, prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney's office in Atlanta briefed C. Nicholas Rostow, legal adviser to the National Security Council, at the State Department on their investigation of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro branch there. Rostow's memorandum of the meeting to Robert Gates recorded that the U.S. Attorney planned to indict six Iraqi officials and that, "whether or not Iraqi officials are defendants," the prosecution "would generate embarrassing information about the CCC program and Iraq's involvement in bank fraud, misrepresentations to U.S. Government agencies, and corruption." Gates chaired the NSC Deputies Committee on Iraq later that day.¹

On February 8, 1991, Rostow wrote to National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft about the BNL indictment: "I have informed Robert Mueller ... of your reluctance to seek an indictment of Iraqi government officials whom we are unlikely to take into custody. Bill Barr may call you to discuss this matter. ... In the event Barr calls you about this matter, I recommend that, as part of the defense of your policy preference not to go forward, you carefully question him with respect to the [DOJ's] ..." Robert Mueller then headed the Justice Department's Criminal Division; William Barr was Deputy Attorney General.²

The indictment was returned on February 28, 1991. It named the Iraqi state Rafidain Bank and four Iraqi officials, and did not charge the Central Bank of Iraq, which had been named as a potential defendant. Mueller testified to the independent counsel Frederick B. Lacey that the decision not to indict the Central Bank was based on foreign policy considerations raised by the State and Treasury Departments.³

Neither Cleared Nor Witting

October 9, 2026

Klara G. Roman, a Budapest-born graphologist and clinical psychologist, taught graphology at the New School for Social Research in New York City from 1948. From 1959 she worked on a lexicon of handwriting.¹²

A CIA memorandum of August 24, 1961 opened MKULTRA Subproject 137 "to support the work of Dr." [redacted] "in completing a psycholexicon on handwriting." It states that she "has an international reputation for her work in graphology and speech," that "She is advanced in years and her health is failing," and that the manuscript was "now eighty percent complete." The memorandum cites the Technical Services Division's "general requirement to further the Agency's capability for the indirect assessment of personality," states that the project "will be funded through the" [redacted] "for security and cover purposes," and records that the investigator was "neither cleared nor witting of Agency sponsorship." The curriculum vitae attached to the proposal lists a 1928 diploma, the invention of the Graphodyne for measuring writing speed and pressure, a 1948 research appointment in conjunction with an "Institute for Psychoanalysis," and a faculty membership beginning in 1948; each entry matches Roman's record.³¹ The copy of this memorandum that the CIA sent the New School on September 7, 1977 carries a red insertion, "New School for Social Research, New York City," in the redacted line naming the investigator's institution; the covering letter states that "the name of the School has been reinserted wherever it appears in the original documents." The memorandum of May 29, 1961 for Subproject 134, a body-type study, carries the same insertion and the line "Mr." [redacted] "is neither cleared nor witting of true Sponsor."⁸ A 1964 paper on body type by A. Arthur Sugerman and Frank Haronian in the Journal of Personality states that the study "was partly supported by a grant to Frank Haronian from the Human Ecology Fund."¹⁰ Haronian, a school psychologist in Somerville, New Jersey from 1950, received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the New School in 1963.¹¹

A treasurer's check for $2,000 was issued on September 11, 1961. Roman died on August 9, 1962.²³ An accounting memorandum of February 1963 states that she "died in 1962 and did not send in an accounting," that the file held "a letter from her brother stating that the manuscript is almost finished," and that "The Fund will receive its usual acknowledgement in the publication of the manuscript." An unsigned, undated certification form in the file states that the recipient "died in 1962 without rendering an accounting" and that "a manuscript has been published and value received." The accounting form was approved on March 10, 1964 over the signature of Sidney Gottlieb, "DC/TSD."³

The Encyclopedia of the Written Word was published by F. Ungar Publishing Company in 1968. Its acknowledgments thank "The Handwriting Institute and The Human Ecology Fund," and Dr. Walter P. Pasternak "of the Human Ecology Fund."⁴² Pasternak appears as technical writer in the 1957 annual report of the Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology, renamed the Human Ecology Fund in 1961.⁵ The Fund's 1963 report, as tabulated by the anthropologist David H. Price, lists $2,000 to "Roman, Klara G." for "Book: The Psychology of Writing."⁶

The records of New School president John R. Everett hold a file labeled "Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 1977-1978." Its description refers to "two projects conducted at the New School in 1962 that received funding through MKUltra," the second of which "concerned graphology and psychopathologies."⁷ A decade earlier the school's Propaganda Research Center, whose research was performed in large part with assistance from the Office of Naval Research, kept a project file titled "Graphology in Political Intelligence," dated 1952.⁹