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Report Alleges US Espionage Campaign Targeting Pope Leo XIV
The report says the CIA, NSA and State Department have built a long-running Vatican spying apparatus that now focuses on Pope Leo XIV.
- Journalist Ken Klippenstein published a report confirming U.S. intelligence agencies have long monitored the Vatican, with President Donald Trump's recent criticism of Pope Leo XIV transforming that surveillance into an operational priority.
- Eighty years of cooperation beginning with Pius XII and William Donovan evolved into extensive monitoring; the CIA and NSA now seek to intercept Vatican telecommunications, emails, and texts.
- In December, Pope Leo XIV addressed Italian intelligence officials directly, warning the Church is a victim of agencies acting for "nefarious purposes" and calling for strict vigilance against blackmail.
- President Trump declared the Pope "WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy" on April 12, citing criticism of Iran and Venezuela to frame the leader of 1.4 billion Catholics as a geopolitical opponent.
- The U.S. military maintains a distinct linguistic capability code, "QLE," for Ecclesiastical Latin, illustrating the deep institutionalization of the national security state's long-standing interest in Vatican affairs.
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According to one investigation, when Trump attacked Leon XIV, intelligence services "interpreted" presidential statements as a guideline to intensify surveillance of the Vatican.
US Spies on the Vatican - The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity
When Trump declared Pope Leo “terrible for foreign policy,” the US intelligence community took the president’s remarks as a directive to prioritize spying on the Vatican. It has for years, sources tell me. 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 th…
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Total News Sources8
Leaning Left6Leaning Right1Center0Last UpdatedBias Distribution86% Left
Bias Distribution
- 86% of the sources lean Left
86% Left
L 86%
14%
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