dChan - Q Origins Project Archive

Spies Inside The Holy See': Report Reveals US Espionage Campaign Targeting Pope Leo

The administration of US President Donald Trump has been "spying" on Pope Leo XIV as part of a years-long intelligence campaign by Washington against the Vatican, US investigative journalist Ken Klippenstein said in a report released Friday.

Klippenstein – an independent, Washington-based investigative journalist who formerly wrote for The Intercept – cited sources as saying that Trump's recent comments on the new Pope were taken by the intelligence community as "a directive to prioritize spying on the Vatican."

Trump had said earlier this month that Pope Leo was "terrible on foreign policy" and "weak on crime." According to Klippenstein’s sources, Washington has "for years" been spying on the Vatican.

"The CIA has human spies working inside the Holy See bureaucracy. The NSA and CIA seek to intercept telecommunications, emails, and texts. The FBI investigates crimes committed against and by the Vatican. The State Department closely follows the ins and outs of Papal diplomacy and politics. All of these agencies liaise with the Vatican’s own foreign policy, intelligence, and law enforcement agencies," the report stated.

Klippenstein pointed to a "longstanding – and quietly extensive – relationship between the US national security apparatus and the Vatican" involving diplomatic, law enforcement, and cybersecurity cooperation.

Much of it is "genuine" but also serves as a "convenient cover for collecting intelligence."

The first Trump administration sought to beef up its coordination with Italian intelligence agencies and Vatican officials on things like cybersecurity, white collar crime, human trafficking, art theft, and other issues. One particular project was to help the Vatican actively thwart cyber intrusions into its networks. The FBI also regularly provides threat intelligence to the Pope during his travels," Klippenstein cited FBI documents as saying.

"The State Department, meanwhile, maintains a daily Vatican-centric news digest circulated to diplomats worldwide… The department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research has analysts dedicated to producing classified assessments on Vatican affairs," he added, referring to other documents he obtained.

"Even the US military has a Vatican-specific language code on its books as a distinct linguistic capability. ‘QLE’ designates Ecclesiastical Latin – the Vatican’s preferred liturgical register – as distinct from classical Latin."

The report follows recent tensions between Trump and the Holy See. Trump said earlier this month:

"Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy. I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear weapon. I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s terrible that America attacked Venezuela, a Country that was sending massive amounts of Drugs into the US … And I don’t want a Pope who criticizes the President of the US."

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/spies-inside-holy-see-report-reveals-us-espionage-campaign-targeting-pope-leo