Knight of the long knives (updated)

S.M.O.M.
The Sovereign Military Order of Malta.

Coat of arms.

The flag.

Hearkens back to a more famous church order.  The one founded by this man.

Saint Bernard de Clairvaux

Who was the patron of the Knights Templar.  There is much of Templar history which is shrouded in mystery as well as much that has been spun into wild stories and wacky speculation.

One of the best explanations for the final disposition of the Templars is that they ended up insinuating themselves into other orders of the church and, perhaps, into what would later become initiatic Masonic orders.

Christopher Knowles on his blog the Secret Sun has also posited a connection between The Normans/Vikings and the Phoenicians/Venetians/Templars.  One of the settlements of the Norman people in their expansion from Scandinavia is Malta.  This from Chris' blog post:

"The Normans too were intrepid sailors and almost certainly financed their military adventures in part through piracy. From icy Norway they settled in the rainy northwest of France, before establishing island kingdoms in England, Sicily and Malta, in addition to their conquests of Antioch and northern Africa."

But we are not here to talk about the Templars.  The SMOM was created in 1050 in Jerusalem under the name of the Knights Hospitaler.  In 1099 it became a military order.  It operated from Rhodes for over 200 years and Malta for over 200 years until being ejected by Napolean after which they settled in Rome, after a brief sojourn in Russia which may, or may not, have led to a split in the group, more on that later.  The Order is recognized as a sovereign state under international law and has permanent observer status at the UN.

Both the Templars and the Knights of Malta were direct tools of the Roman Church.  The grandmaster of the Order holds the status of Cardinal within the Church, and during the Holy Roman Empire held the title of Prince.  This was and is a hugely influential order in international affairs.  Ultimately the Order, at least on paper, answers to this man.

Emperor Palpatine Pope Benedict (note the Templar crosses...)

The Order is probably best known for the people who are and have been members, as well as the history of those folks.

In 1927 the Order established a branch in the United States.  Among the first members were industrial magnates and tycoons, in other words the American aristocracy.  John J. Raskob, Chairman of GM, and named a conspirator in an attempted coup against Roosevelt, was one of these first members.  Some others included John Farrell President of US Steel, Joseph Grace of W.R. Grace Co., Joseph Kennedy, and Cardinal Spellman.  All of them very powerful and influential people, and most involved with some kind of illegal, immoral or unethical activity.  In Spellman's case it was a financial hold over the Church, his homosexuality (immoral only in the sense that he was an official in the Church which viewed this as immoral) and his sledgehammer tactics toward Latin America as well as encouraging the US to enter the Vietnam war to prop up the Roman Catholic ruling class there.

Spellman

Bootlegger and family patriarch Joseph Kennedy, SMOM

Most of the membership of the SMOM comes from European aristocracy.  Franz Von Papen was a member that paved the way for Hitler to come to power in Germany.

He was prominent in the early Nazi government until marginalized and finally forced out after Nacht der Langen Messer (Night of the long knives).  In relation to the Nazis it is well established history that the Church was largely silent in the face of the atrocities they committed.  Also one needs to remember that the Vatican, and also the SMOM, were implicated in helping wanted war criminals escape from Europe after the war.

Klaus Barbie

Mengele

I think you can see where this is going.  In the twentieth century SMOM was involved in a lot of intrigue and nefarious activity.  One might come to the conclusion that SMOM serves as a dirty tricks department of the Vatican.  This included Project Paperclip which led to many strident Nazis coming to the US to work for us after the war.  Italian aristocrat and SMOM member Baron Luigi Parilli served as a go between in some of these negotiations.

Baron Parilli would surface again after the war working again with the OSS/CIA in Italy to prevent a communist government.  James Jesus Angleton (SMOM) was a key player in this affair as well.  He had been sent into Italy to collect and protect Prince Valerio Borghese, a SMOM member, who would survive he war to be an integral part of the rightist/fascist element in Italy and also connected to the notorious P-2 lodge.

These connections would place SMOM in the middle of Operation Gladio which served to destabilize Italy for decades after WWII.
There are many members of the US intelligence establishment that have connections to the SMOM.  Many of these folks coalesced around the JFK assassination and continued to be prominent on up to today.

When one talks about the Kennedy assassination you are confronted by a curious group known as the Shickshinny Knights of Malta.  Which is an alleged splinter group from a time that the Knights had been centered in Russia after their expulsion from Malta by Napolean.  If possible this group was even more hard right and fascistic than the SMOM itself.  It also does not have a definitive standing in the Church which could just be a way of distancing the Church from their activities.  Some of the members of this organization are Phillip J. Corso, which obviously brings to mind..

as well as Charles Willoughby, General MacArthur's chief of intelligence.  This group was the single most active group of people to promote the idea of a deeply embedded mole within the CIA.  That, of course, led to the witch hunt of James Angleton.

  Which brings us to the current crop of presidential candidates.  It is not easy to confirm that Newt Gingrich is a member of the Order but Rick Santorum definitely is a member.

Note the crazy eyes to go along with the lunatic mind.
Santorum certainly makes waves and a name for himself by his ridiculous stance on many issues that are so far right that he'd hit the wall, if there was one.  Hi early career had him as a lawyer for the firm Kirkpatrick and Lockhart, which became K&L Gates which happened to make the headlines in recent years in Pittsburgh when an employee, George Sodini, shot up an LA Fitness center.
His career in politics started in the House of Representatives, where, apparently he still was more or less human because he did vote against NAFTA as well as voting in favor of a bill that would prevent employers from permanently replacing striking workers.  Once he made it to the Senate all semblance of humanity left him and he made a concerted march to the hard right and has kept moving ever since.  SMOM has always been affiliated with the hard right, particularly fascism and extremism of the right.  Santorum fits right in.  He added an amendment to the No Child Left Behind act that would have allowed schools to teach intelligent design as a science in their schools.  That provision was later removed before passage.
He was involved in some ethical problems involving the National Weather Service and a private weather company Accu-Weather, which seems to have "donated" money to Santorum to propose legislation that would have prohibited the NWS from releasing weather data for free if there was a private company (presumably Accu-weather) that could provide the service.  That bill did not pass but it did earn him points on the corruption meter.

Where the real pay dirt is to be found in an analysis of Santorum is in his regard to women's issues, reproduction ,abortion and foreign policy.
Santorum has stated that rape victims that conceive as a result of the brutal act should view the child as a broken gift from God, and apparently opposes abortion on any grounds.  (Even though before running for congress he described himself as pro-choice.)  He has been highly critical of one's "right to privacy" saying that it is his belief that the constitution does not guarantee that right.  This is the basis for his stance on contraception (a no-no) and apparently abortion.  He radically opposes same sex marriage and has been decidedly vehement in his opposition to anything related to homosexuality.  It is my experience that the more vehemently one comes out against homosexuality the more it is a repressed feeling that the person has.  It would not surprise me in the least if Santorum were gay.  One must keep this in mind in light of the huge scandal of molestation in the Church, mostly of the same sex variety and the allegations that homosexuality is rampant in the Church and Church orders.  Interestingly Santorum wrote on the Church scandal and attempted to blame "liberalism" rather than the priest pederasts and rapists.
One of the more grotesque displays put on by Santorum was the handling of the unfortunate death of one of his children, which happened shortly after birth.  The corpse was brought home and introduced to the family prior to funeral and burial.

Santorum is firmly in the Neo-Con camp in foreign policy and is gung ho for war with Iran.  He has stated that Iranian scientists being murdered is a good thing and that there should be more of them being killed.  He is a solid tool of imperialism and military adventurism.
Santorum is part of the dirty tricks team of the Vatican, the Sovereign Military Order of the Knights of Malta.  Having a title of a foreign nation is proscribed by the constitution (accept if approved by Congress) for any public officer but lacking penalty it seems to be largely unenforceable.
Santorum is another avenue to far right theocratic governance that would seek to outlaw or spurn any deviance from accepted Church doctrine.

  Are we ready for a Knight of the long knives in the US?  I rather think not.  And this does not even attempt to delve into the Opus Dei of which Santorum is also a member.....

And Lo, did I spy the Danites and Willard did lead them. (updated)

The Mormon Church has a picturesque history.  The "dime store" summary is that Joseph Smith, a treasure hunter, who used "seer stones" to locate buried or hidden treasure came across buried golden plates which comprised additional historical material that added to the Bible and told the story of the Americas and how the Gospel came to this land.  It was written in a form or hieroglyphic writing that could only be translated with seer stones one symbol at a time.  The translated material became what is known today as the Book of Mormon.  The religion, like the country in which it was formed was tailor made for white men, as other races were noted to be inferior in the eyes of the Lord and men could take multiple wives.

It is not the purpose of this post to critique the religion as a whole but some material should be noted to put things in context.
Joseph Smith was a Freemason and helped to establish a lodge in Illinois.  Many of the rituals that are enshrined as sacerdotal in the LDS church are adaptations of Masonic ritual.
Many have alleged that the Freemasons were responsible for the death of Joseph Smith because he had stolen much of their secret material and incorporated it into his church.
It is also widely known that the church in it's early years suffered from a certain level of persecution and had to move repeatedly.  It is probably in the cauldrons of this persecution that Smith would found the Danites as a means of protection for the Mormons but regardless of intent the Danites quickly became much more than an instrument of protection but one of inflicting murder and mayhem at the behest of Smith and his successor Brigham Young.

 The Danites were formed in 1838 as a paramilitary, underground organization to fight the "enemies" of the church.  Their activities were sanctioned by church leaders.  They were also known as the "Daughters of Zion" and "Avenging Angels".
For a note of historical importance it should be noted that Sherlock Holmes inventor Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a story in which the Danites featured entitled "A Study in Scarlet".
David Whitmer, one of the three witnesses to the Book of Mormon tells of the founding of this group and his persecution for trying to tell the leaders of the church of their folly in going ahead with this scheme.  He eventually left the church and you can read about that here.
The original Mormon leader of the underground sect was Sampson Avard.
The sect was sanctioned to commit any treacherous act in defense of the Church including violence, lying and theft.  The violence would also include murder as history would show.
There is much hand wringing over the issue of the Danites both within the church and without.  Some claim the group was only briefly in existence and their activities were largely overblown.  Others have it that this group continued on beyond 1838.
I find it hard to believe, as some do, that Avard could make up the inner workings of this group and it's purposes with such precision merely to keep himself out of trouble and cause consternation to the Church.
Eventually the Church would split into two distinct groups.  One of which eventually would find their way to Utah under Brigham Young.  There was a lot of friction between the Mormons and state and federal authorities as well as persecution on some level from the people as well.
In 1857 we had the infamous Mountain Meadows massacre, (which occurred on September 11 FYI) largely carried out by the still extant Danites.  Some question whether Church leadership and specifically Brigham Young had a direct hand in what happened.  It seems clear to me that Young was intimately involved in the massacre.
There was a period of intense pressure being placed upon the Church by federal authorities especially in regards to the polygamous practices of the sect and to the virtual fiefdom ruled by Young in Utah.  It is at this point that we see the emigration of some to Mexico including the grandfather of Willard Mitt Romney.

The Church was forced to evolve over time because of the friction between them and the authorities.  One of the biggest changes was the end to polygamy.  Polygamy would be reinterpreted as a spiritual thing and not an Earthly manifestation.  The Church would also seek to maintain a lower profile and it is in this context that the Danites could continue as a sub Rosa group that would morph, as many lawless groups would do, into a more "respectable" form but still adhering to it's original intent of defending the church and attacking it's enemies.
One of the first inclinations of the Mormons to move into the financial realm was with the Kirtland Safety Society Anti-banking Society in Ohio.  Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon sought to get a charter for the bank but were turned down.  This was an "anti-bank" that ran as a bank issuing it's own currency, even though it had no legal sanction to function as a bank.

This 3 dollar bill is believed by many to be the origin of the term; "Phony as a three dollar bill".  The "anti-bank" issued currency in exchange for gold and silver.  It folded and a large group of suckers were left holding the bag.  This also was a blow to the church as most of the victims of the scam were Church members and many would leave the Church, disillusioned, over the fiasco.  It seems that Smith had land speculation in mind when he started the "anti-bank".  He and Rigdon fled Kirtland by night to avoid angry mobs of the defrauded.
The Mormon church would become one of the richest religious bodies with an incredible amount of land. In this TWENTY YEAR OLD STORY the amount of land and property owned by the Church was well over a billion dollars, and that was a less than thorough investigation.  In that article you will notice that this is an issue of great secrecy in the Church as they do not reveal what they own or where, even to Church members.  It is my contention that the "Avenging Angels" morphed into the financial wizards of the Church.  It is because of the transition to acquisition that much of the real power in the LDS church would be focused in the financial sector.  When we move forward in time we have the curious case of Howard Hughes.

  Wildly successful businessman, ladies man, and bon vivant that would later degenerate into a paranoid recluse.  There are many conspiracy theories related to Hughes.  This post would be way too long to go into any of them in detail.  But some flavor might be appropriate.  Aristotle Onassis was alleged to be involved in his death.  The US government was alleged to be involved.  And so were the Mormons.
It is established history that later in life, after he had become a recluse, Howard Hughes had a "Mormon mafia" surrounding him and carrying on his affairs.  Most of these people would have to engage in high level finance and law and would most likely be of the new Danite persuasion.
In this somewhat lackadaisical blog post the question is posed; did the Mormons plot to kill Howard Hughes?
In the structure of the short post you can see this as an operation.  It would serve more than one purpose for the Mormons.
But we see a firmer and more concrete story in this post by Paul Drockton on the people connected to Hughes that also connect to Bain Capital, which brings us back to Willard Mitt Romney.
In the Drockton piece, which I urge you to read, one can see how Bain Capital may have served as a means to bleed the legacy of Howard Hughes and how this was accomplished by Mormons both close to Hughes and at Bain.
It seems that this operation would involve theft, lying, and violence.  And what were the hallmarks of the Danites in the furtherance of the LDS church?
Even the Italian Mafia and other illegal groups would move into "respectable" business and continue their illegal activities but in a new "white collar" way.
Could Willard Mitt Romney be a modern Danite?  If so will he put this to work for him in running for president?  I believe the answer to both is yes.
I have alleged in a post at my website that Mitt is a psychopath.  This is admittedly a layman's interpretation as I am not a clinician.  But when one examines the actions of a predator in the financial industry and his clear inability to be pinned down on any issue it seems a small leap to make.  When you add in his glibness and charm and his casual dismissal of the very poor, his support of corporate entities over living people, his love of firing people and much more that leap is smaller and smaller to make.
The Danites would have served as a magnet for sociopathic and psychopathic personalities both in it's grosser form as seen in the Mountain Meadows massacre and in the ruthless financial sector of today.
Romney is well entrenched in Church leadership by birth and by association.  He is very influential in the Church and would be privy to much of what the church plans to do and with what it was involved.  It is likely he would have known of the Hughes connection and might have been drawn to that operation.
Let us see how this story plays out.