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Santorum, Opus Dei, Freeh, Terrorism, and Organized Crime
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[TD]February 21-22, 2012 -- Santorum, Opus Dei, Freeh, Terrorism, and Organized Crime

publication date: Feb 20, 2012
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February 21-22, 2012 -- Santorum, Opus Dei, Freeh, Terrorism, and Organized Crime

While legitimate questions have arisen over Mitt Romney's Mormon religious beliefs and his commitment to the separation of church and state, surging GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum's links to the secretive and ultra right-wing Roman Catholic Opus Dei sect have also raised questions. Santorum's extreme Catholic beliefs are in contrast to then-Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy's promise that his Catholicism did not mean he took orders from the Pope in Rome. While Kennedy was able to fend off attacks by his enemies that he was beholden to the Vatican, Santorum is in no such position.

In fact, in 2002, after Santorum attended the Vatican's 100th anniversary ceremony of the birth of Opus Dei founder St. Josemaria Escriva, who was the spiritual adviser to Spain's fascist dictator Francisco Franco, the junior senator from Pennsylvania told the National Catholic Reporter that Kennedy's separation of his personal religious beliefs from his public duties as president resulted in "great harm to America."

Santorum is a congregant of the Opus Dei-linked St. Catherine of Siena Roman Catholic Church in upscale Great Falls, Virginia, not far from the CIA headquarters in Langley. St. Catherine is noted for its Latin masses. The congregation counts other Catholic notables among its members, including Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia and jailed-for-life FBI Russian spy Robert Hanssen.

However, it is the association of St. Catherine member, former FBI director Louis Freeh, to Santorum and their Opus Dei links that has many Americans who believe in the separation of church and state concerned about Santorum's views. WMR has learned from Catholic sources that Hanssen, who was arrested as a Soviet and Russian spy, was forced to accept a plea bargain deal with government prosecutors whereby his wife would continue to receive Hanssen's FBI pension while Hanssen pleaded guilty and remained in prison for the rest of his life. Otherwise, in a full-blown trial with discovery motions and cross-examination, Hanssen's ties to Freeh and Opus Dei could have been easily exposed. Opus Dei thrives in secrecy and the exposure of the fact that one of Freeh's sons and and Hanssen's three sons attended The Heights private males-only preparatory school in Potomac, Maryland would have brought unwanted attention to the Catholic organization deemed a cult by many of its critics.

In 2004, Santorum and his wife became Knight and Dame of Magistral Grace of the Knights of Malta at a ceremony at St. Patrick's Church in New York. The Sovereign Military Order of Malta, headquartered in Rome, enjoys, as does Vatican City, independent diplomatic status and representation at the UN by an observer mission. Although the Catholic military order has diplomatic relations with 104 nations, it is not recognized by the United States. It appears clear that a Santorum administration would reverse that long-standing policy.

Santorum's Opus Dei conflicts-of-interest do not end with the Knights of Malta. In September 2002, the accused pedophile former assistant Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky, who has been charged with using his Second Mile Foundation charity to pimp out underage teen boys to wealthy donors to the fund, received the
Congressional Angels in Adoption award. The sponsor for Sandusky's award was Santorum, an avid alumnus and supporter of Penn State. Santorum told The Philadelphia Inquirer last November that he does not personally know Sandusky. However, Sandusky's Second Mile Foundation counted a number of Pennsylvania politicos among its supporters.

Moreover, Penn State hired as its chief in-house investigator of the child sex abuse allegations surrounding Sandusky and their cover-up by senior Penn State officials Santorum's fellow St. Catherine's congregant Louis Freeh.

Freeh, who heads his own private investigative firm, Freeh Group International Solutions, LLC, is also the
trustee for MF Global Holdings' Chapter 11 bankruptcy case. Freeh is investigating the disposition of $1.6 billion in MF Global Holdings' assets that disappeared after MF chairman, Santorum's neighboring New Jersey Senate colleague Jon Corzine, invested $6.3 billion in a risky bet on European sovereign debt.

After leaving the FBI just weeks before the 9/11 attacks and after spending years investigating President Bill Clinton's sex life, Freeh became general counsel for MBNA America Bank in Delaware and negotiated its sale to the scandal-ridden Bank of America. Freeh was subsequently hired by Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan, who was the Saudi ambassador to the United States on 9/11, to represent him in an arms scandal involving the payment to Bandar of $2 billion bribes by Britain's BAE Systems
. Last year, Freeh was hired by the ethics committee of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) to investigate the bribery scandal surrounding FIFA board member and Asia Football Confederation head Mohammad bin Hammam from Qatar who was banned for life from all football activities. Freeh's job had more to due with cleaning up Qatar's tarnished sports image before it hosts the 2022 World Cup.

Freeh also spoke in favor of de-listing the Iranian terrorist group, Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), as a State Department-designated foreign terrorist group. The MEK has been linked to the Israeli Mossad's assassinations of Iranian scientists in Iran by using magnetic car bombs that have now been traced to a bomb-making facility in Bangkok, Thailand.

Freeh is also at the center of a major schism in among casino tycoons. Freeh was hired by Las Vegas' Wynn Resorts, headed by Steve Wynn, to investigate charges that his erstwhile friend and business partner, Hong Kong resident and reputed Yakuza-linked Kazuo Okada, head of Universal Entertainment. Wynn, using Freeh as his mouthpiece, has uncovered "evidence" that Okada, who is reportedly of North Korean descent, gained the permission of the Philippines government to build a casino in that country by paying bribes in violation of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), a law that is now rarely enforced by the Justice Department except in politically-motivated cases. Okada, who launched his business by running Japanese pachinko parlors and is Wynn Resort's largest shareholder, charges that Wynn refused to account for a $135 million grant Wynn Resorts made to the University of Macau. Freeh said his investigation confirmed pay-offs in contravention of the FCPA by Okada to Philippines gaming regulators in return for a license to build the casino in the Philippines.

While Santorum quarters have pointed fingers at Newt Gingrich's donations from billionaire Las Vegas casino tycoon Sheldon Adelson, Santorum's friend and fellow Opus Dei member Freeh has his own dubious deals with the casino industry, including the typical casino operations like those of Wynn or the international business "casino" like that of Corzine.

A Santorum administration may see a place for Freeh as Attorney General or, in a worst case scenario, on the U.S. Supreme Court, alongside other such "notables" as Opus Dei member Scalia, and Sammy "the Snake" Alito, Clarence "Slappy" Thomas, Elena Kagan, and Chief Justice John Roberts.



http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/articles/20120220_1


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Santorum, Opus Dei, Freeh, Terrorism, and Organized Crime - by Ed Jewett - 24-02-2012, 06:08 AM

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