Lifting the Veil
An Investigative History of the United States Pathocracy
Researched and Written by Timothy M. Silver
Lifting the Veil is being constantly updated thanks to continuous
reader feedback and further research. This copy was released on:
March 12, 2014
If more than a month has passed, please check my website
“I know the capacity that is there to make tyranny total in
America, and we must see to it that this agency [CIA] and all
agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and
under proper supervision, so that we never cross over that abyss.
That is the abyss from which there is no return.”
- Senator Frank Church, 19751
1
i
Preface
It has been a little over a year since I first read about the Central Intelligence Agency
program known as MK-ULTRA, which was dedicated to exploring the vast possibilities of
'biological behavioral engineering', also known as mind control. I was stunned by the depth
of the horror unleashed on the unwitting victims of the program, less than a decade
removed from the Nuremberg Trials which concluded that never again should scientists
experiment on subjects without their willing consent. I was impressed that the Agency
deftly avoided any significant reform, even after multiple congressional inquiries into their
illegal, unconstitutional activities which the disclosure of MK-ULTRA prompted, and was
disturbed by the complete lack of information regarding the program in the general public.
Most shocking, despite Agency insistence to the contrary, was the documented evidence
that their mission of controlling the human mind bore significant fruit.
As an aspiring Historian, I set off to work on turning over every stone related to
covert intelligence activities and other suppressed history, created the pen name Morgan
Martell and began publishing my research on a blog titled 'The Peoples History'. Since
then, I have read dozens of books and thousands of mainstream media articles, interviews,
scientific studies and primary documents in my quest for knowledge. Before long I came to
the understanding that I was not just learning about a series of unrelated clandestine
agency abuses and financial crimes, but rather was researching various disclosures of an
organized subversive network working behind the scenes. A bold statement like this
requires bold evidence, of course, and I invite you to investigate the nearly 500 citations of
publicly available, mainstream sources yourself and come to your own conclusions.
I used the name Morgan Martell for a brief period because I was worried that my
work would attract the wrong kind of attention. In fact, when I first wrote about the MK-
ii
ULTRA project, I deliberately omitted some information, not because I thought it was
unimportant or that it lacked sufficient documentation, but because some of the
documented history is so shocking that I was afraid to write about it. The revelations of
Edward Snowden, beginning on June 6, 2013, changed my mind about the secrecy. The
NSA knows exactly who I am and what I am researching, so you might as well too. I
promise that nothing I have learned which can be corroborated has been left out of this
book, even when facing the depths of depravity unleashed by certain psychopaths in
position of power.
Whether you are approaching this work from a vantage point of exploring new
ideas, learning more about topics that already interest you, or if you are antagonistic to the
idea that something is 'not quite right' with the United States today, I urge you to have an
open mind and to be prepared to synthesize new information into your worldview. In
return, I am willing to do the same from you. Every day I strive to learn new things and
explore new ideas, a fact which has delayed the release of this book for some months as I
continuously refined and expanded the thesis. If you have alternative ideas you would like
to share, criticism to offer, or have additional research that would augment this work,
please do not hesitate to contact me. I thoroughly enjoy the correspondence.
'Lifting the Veil' is structured in a way that discusses two startling problems with the
current political system in the United States today, and then jumps to 1946 and works
forward in time to shed light on how these problems came about. Woven in is information
on psychopathy and its relationship to politics and power, my own conclusions drawn from
the information, and 'food for thought' questions. The final portion of the book ties
together the pieces of the puzzle and presents potential, non-partisan solutions we can take
to affect change.
I ask one thing from you, the reader, before embarking on this journey. Once you
finish, if you believe that this work is important, please resolve yourself to share it with at
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least two people, whether they are someone you know in real life, online acquaintances or
anonymous recipients. I have released this book free for a reason. It is the only way this
information will spread to a point where it will reach a 'critical mass'. Once it does, change
will be inevitable. Lets endeavor to make this happen as soon as possible.
Thanks for reading,
Timothy M. Silver
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Index
Chapter I: The War on Terror is a Fraud
Chapter II: The One Party State
Chapter III: Psychopathy, Power and Politics
Chapter IV: Operation Paperclip
Chapter V: MK-ULTRA
Chapter VI: Operation Gladio
Chapter VII: Operation Mockingbird
Chapter VIII: COINTELPRO
Chapter IX: The Phoenix Program
Chapter X: Iran/Contra
Chapter XI: Continuity of Government
Chapter XII: The Pedophocracy
Chapter XIII: Cults and Child Abuse
Chapter XIV: Trauma-Based Mind Control
Chapter XV: The Pathocracy
Chapter XVI: Solutions
Chapter XVII: The Awakening
1
The War on Terror is a Fraud
"In the mid-'80s, if you remember... Saudi Arabia and the United
States were supporting the Mujahideen to liberate Afghanistan
from the Soviets. He [Osama bin Laden] came to thank me for
my efforts to bring the Americans, our friends, to help us against
the atheists, he said the communists. Isn't it ironic?" - Prince
Bandar bin Sultan of Saudi Arabia, on Larry King Live2
President Reagan meets with members of the Mujahideen in the Oval
Office, 1985
In 2009, a series of events occurred that ought to have raised questions in the press.
First, the United States began a troop surge in Afghanistan designed to deliver the final
2
2
blow to the Taliban insurgency.3 Then the United States provided a $7.5 billion aid
package to Pakistan.4 Around the same time, the Carnegie Foundation published a study
which revealed a majority of Pakistan aid goes to the intelligence agency ISI and the
military.5 The problem with these three events is that earlier in the year, U.S. officials
revealed to the New York Times that the ISI was funding the Taliban, and was responsible
for providing direct assistance and helping with some of their strategic strikes.6
The press did cover these stories, but independent of one another. Not one media
institution connected the dots that the United States was actively funding the harm that its
armed forces were simultaneously fighting. Following the official narrative of the war, it
certainly doesn't make any sense that the United States was indirectly prolonging the
quagmire. Perhaps such mistakes are the inevitability of a bloated war bureaucracy, or that
U.S. officials simply didn't realize the connection. Unfortunately, a collection of evidence
points to a more sinister explanation: the United States and its allies have been
deliberately proliferating radical Islam for decades, only to later spend trillions fighting the
enemy they created.
Just days after the July 7, 2005 London terror attack, and less than a month before
his untimely death, the Right Honorable Robin Cook, former UK Foreign Secretary, wrote
a scathing and emotional review of the War on Terror in The Guardian.
“Bin Laden was, though, a product of a monumental
miscalculation by western security agencies. Throughout the '80s
he was armed by the CIA and funded by the Saudis to wage jihad
against the Russian occupation of Afghanistan. Al-Qaida,
3
of 30,000 troops in Afghanistan to fight the War on Terror.
4
Newsweek, “About Those Billions ”, October 20, 2009. The $7.5 Billion in aid to Pakistan tripled previous
agreements, and locked in the economic alliance for another 5 years.
5
6
3
literally "the database", was originally the computer file of the
thousands of mujahideen who were recruited and trained with
help from the CIA to defeat the Russians. Inexplicably, and with
disastrous consequences, it never appears to have occurred to
Washington that once Russia was out of the way, Bin Laden's
organization would turn its attention to the west.”7
While Cook's remarks were downplayed and ridiculed by the mainstream media and
the United Kingdom establishment at the time, available evidence shows his assertions to
be largely correct.
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Operation Cyclone
"They [the CIA] told me these people were fanatical, and the
more fierce they were the more fiercely they would fight the
Soviets... I warned them that we were creating a monster." -
Scholar Selig Harrison8
The story begins in 1978 shortly after the Saur Revolution, which resulted in the
communist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan gaining control of the Afghanistan
government. The CIA immediately initiated a program known as Operation Cyclone and
7
written by Robert Cook, whose life was tragically cut short within a year of its publication from a heart attack worth
reading in its entirety.
8
4
began funding militant Islamic groups favored by the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI, to
the tune of 7.5 billion.9 The money went to producing, training, and arming militant
Islamic radicals who be directed towards fighting the secular communist government. At
the time, the Mujahideen was composed of many different, loosely organized groups
encompassing a broad spectrum of ideologies, with widely varying perspectives on religion,
society and state . Seven major Afghan factions began receiving aid, three of them Islamic
moderates and four of them Islamic fundamentalists as defined by the military, and in
addition to native Afghans they were composed of many foreigners who traveled to fight
the invasion, such as Osama bin Laden himself.10
To understand the scope of the funding, the BBC stated that the CIA provided
enough arms to equip a 240,000 man army, and Saudi Arabia matched them dollar for
dollar.11 The weapons given to these fighters were not just AK-47s and other simple arms.
Many were high tech, such as Stinger Anti-Aircraft missiles12, provided with the intention
of demoralizing Soviet commanders and soldiers.13
The majority of the funding was funneled through the ISI, which acted as an arm of
CIA interests and began setting up religious schools known as Madrassas in Pakistan cities
and frontier areas, churning out tens of thousands of students who would join the
Mujahideen.14 (Note: Madrassas are not inherently negative institutions, however the ones
who received funding from the CIA were particularly radical).
All of this began before the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. A full 6 months, according
to Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter's National Security Advisor, who recalled his
involvement to a French news magazine in 1998:
9
Figure taken from Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency, in a briefing to the Pakistan
parliament.
10 The major factions who received aid are detailed in an article published in the Journal of Slavic Military Studies,
written by Retired Army Col. Lester W. Grau.
5
"We didn't push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly
increased the probability that they would... That secret operation
was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Soviets into
the Afghan trap. The day that the Soviets officially crossed the
border I wrote to President Carter, 'We now have the opportunity
of giving the Soviet Union its Vietnam War.'"15
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Early Years of Osama Bin Laden
15 Bilveer Singh, “The Talibanization of Southeast Asia,” Excerpt available here .
6
When Osama bin Laden arrived in Afghanistan from Saudi Arabia, he created a
group called Maktab al-Khidamat, abbreviated as MAK, a precursor to Al-Qaeda. It is
frequently claimed that the CIA directly funded this group, though top CIA officers say
that this is not the case. It has been confirmed, at least, that the MAK did receive funding
from the ISI,16 the CIA's primary conduit for conducting their covert war against Russia.
CIA Station Chief in Afghanistan Milt Bearden has stated that he was well aware of
Bin Laden in the Mujahideen, and welcomed his efforts in funding, though he never met
with him personally.17 Bin Laden also brought in construction equipment from his fathers
company Saudi Binladen Group, considered the largest construction firm in the world, to
build training camps, in collaboration with the ISI and CIA.18
In 1986, Osama used his construction assets to build a CIA financed tunnel complex
to serve as a training facility. It was also a major arms and medical depot for the
Mujahideen in the Peshawar mountains near Pakistan which was later used by Al-Qaeda.19
15 years later, the Western Media would describe Al-Qaeda as hiding out in caves, but the
truth is a little more complex: there were intricate tunnels connecting hundreds of
different caves, a majority of them man-made, equipped with irrigation systems,
accommodation for trucks and even tanks, hotels, mosques, arms depots, medical and
radio centers, and kitchens.20 In short, it is more accurate to call them mountain fortresses.
Al-Qaeda was formed sometime between 1987-88, with the radical elements of
MAK joining after the group split.
Written by respected investigative journalist and Middle-East insider Ahmed Rashid
7
It is apparent that the CIA had no plan to deal with the tunnel complex after the
conclusion of Operation Cyclone, though surely that must have been aware that the cadre
of radicals they were instrumental in producing would not simply disappear or de-
radicalize. Perhaps long term destabilization of the country was their plan all along.
*
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The Taliban
Evidence suggests that the Taliban is actively involved with Al-Qaeda. For example,
one 1998 State Department cable claimed that: "Taliban Leader Mullah Omar lashed out at
the U.S., asserting that the Taliban will continue providing a safe haven for Bin Laden."21
There is plenty of evidence that Pakistan's ISI currently actively funds the Taliban
and other terrorist cells as well, while barring the U.S. military from operating in the tribal
areas. A 2010 BBC article stated that the ISI was giving “funding, training and sanctuary
to the Afghan Taliban on a scale much larger than previously thought,” going as far as to
say that support for the Taliban was “official ISI policy.” Since 9/11, the United States has
given Pakistan over $15 billion, much of which goes to the ISI and military.22
Current Vice President Joe Biden said himself in 2003 that the ISI was either
turning a blind eye or cooperating with the Taliban. In addition, some members of the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee "contend that the intelligence service may have
provided money, weapons and broadcast equipment to Taliban fighters now in Pakistan to
transmit anti-Karzai, anti-American messages into Afghanistan."23 BBC has reported on a
secret NATO document which notes: "Pakistan's manipulation of the Taliban senior
8
leadership continues unabated."24
A report published by the London School of Economics gave 9 in depth interviews
with Taliban insurgent commanders. They suggest that the ISI has members on the
Taliban leadership council, though they expressed fear of assassination if they went into to
much depth on this topic.25
It's not hard to establish that the United States has allied itself with one of the
biggest funders of terrorism in the Middle East, a fact which blatantly clashes with the
official narrative of Western involvement in the region. It makes much more sense when
understood in the context that the goal of the United States in the Middle East is not the
prevention of terrorism, but rather for political, military and economic hegemony.
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Osama Runs Wild
“I do not profess a broad expertise in international affairs, but
between January 1996 and June 1999 I was in charge of running
operations against Al-Qaeda from Washington. When it comes to
this small slice of the large U.S. national security pie, I speak
with firsthand experience (and for several score of CIA officers)
when I state categorically that during this time senior White
House officials repeatedly refused to act on sound intelligence
that provided multiple chances to eliminate Osama bin Laden --
either by capture or by U.S. military attack. I witnessed and
documented, along with dozens of other CIA officers, instances
9
where life-risking intelligence-gathering work of the agency's
men and women in the field was wasted.” - Michael Scheuer, 22
year veteran of the CIA26
A 2001 Washington Post article states that in 1996 the government of Sudan offered
to keep tabs on Osama, or if that did not suffice, arrest him and hand him over to either the
United States or Saudi custody.27
"The Sudanese security services, he said, would happily keep
close watch on bin Laden for the United States. But if that would
not suffice, the government was prepared to place him in custody
and hand him over, though to whom was ambiguous. In one
formulation, Erwa said Sudan would consider any legitimate
proffer of criminal charges against the accused terrorist." Their
negotiations concluded as such: ""We said he will go to
Afghanistan, and they [U.S. officials] said, 'Let him.'"
The Clinton administration claimed that they lacked criminal charges to pin on Bin
Laden, though this explanation is a farce, as within a year ago previous they had named
him as a co-conspirator in the World Trade Center bombing, among other terrorist
activities.28 Just a year later, the Clinton administration would commit the egregious war
crime of the bombing of the Sudanese Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory, which provided
50% of the medicine for Sudan.29 The destruction of the factory was estimated to be
3, 2001
10
responsible for the deaths of “several tens of thousands” of people according to the
German ambassador to Sudan, on a much flimsier pretext.30 Interestingly, the pretext of
the Al-Shifa bombing is that the factory had ties to Bin Laden, in the very country that had
proposed to extradite him, by the very people who declined to accept his arrest.
A 2002 article in The Guardian reveals that the first INTERPOL arrest warrant for
Bin Laden came from Libya's Muammar Gaddafi in 1998.31 It also uncovered that the MI6
paid large sums of money to an Al-Qaeda cell in Libya in a failed attempt to assassinate
Gaddafi. Perhaps this is why U.S. and U.K. intelligence agencies apparently buried the fact
that Libya had issued the warrant for Bin Laden's arrest and downplayed the threat he
posed. 5 months after the arrest warrant was issued, Al-Qaeda killed over 200 people in
bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.32 These actions are consistent with the
trend of working with Al-Qaeda when they shared the same goals, and fighting them when
war in the region was a strategic geopolitical move.
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US Trained Terrorists
It has been widely reported, thanks to revelations by ABC reporter John Cooley, that
some Islamic fundamentalists were trained in the United States in the 1980's, by way of
Camp Peary, the CIA spy base in Virginia, being flown in from places such as Jordan,
Egypt and even Africa.33 It raises the question of how many such camps existed beyond the
United States. Regardless, there have been some astonishing revelations of terrorists
trained within the US borders.
11
One specifically alarming case is that of Egyptian Ali Muhammed. He was a part of
the fundamentalist military unit that assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in
1981. In 1984, he was hired by the CIA, though they claim that the relationship was short-
lived.34 He would soon join the military and become a member of the Green Berets, and
serve as a drill sergeant at Fort Bragg while providing clandestine training to jihadists such
as Mahmud Abaouhalima, convicted perpetrator of the 1993 World Trade Center
bombings.35
He would take a short leave from his military duties and travel to Afghanistan in
1988 to assist the Mujahideen, returning just months later.36 Such an act is completely
unheard of, entirely unprecedented and raises all sorts of red flags. Who was allowing
Muhammed to circumvent the law and what type of special privileges and protections was
he receiving?
In the early 1990's he would return to Afghanistan and began training jihadists with
the skills he had learned at Fort Bragg. According to former FBI special agent Jack
Cloonan, in an interview with PBS, his first training session included Osama bin Laden, as
well as Ayman al-Zawahiri, the current leader of Al-Qaeda.37
Former Directors of Counter-terrorism at the National Security Council have alleged
that Muhammed took maps and training materials from Fort Bragg and used them to write
the Al-Qaeda terrorist training manual.38
Muhammed's superior at Fort Bragg, Lt. Col. Robert Anderson, has stated:
“I think you or I would have a better chance of winning the
Powerball lottery, than an Egyptian major in the unit that
November 4, 2001
38 Daniel Benjamin and Steve Simon, “Age of Sacred Terror,” no excerpt available.
12
assassinated Sadat would have getting a visa, getting to
California, getting into the Army and getting assigned to a
Special Forces unit. That just doesn’t happen.”39
Elsewhere he stated: "It was unthinkable that an ordinary American GI would go
unpunished after fighting in a foreign war," and that he assumed that Muhammed was
sponsored by the CIA.40
In the year 2000, Muhammed plead guilty to involvement in the 1998 embassy
bombings that killed 224 people including 12 Americans.41 He admitted during the trial
that he was a part of a broader plot to attack any Western target in the Middle East, as well
as admitting that he helped transfer Osama bin Laden from Pakistan to Sudan.
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United States and Al-Qaeda Have The Same Agenda
In 2011, NATO, led by Barack Obama and the United States, initiated military action
against Libya by enforcing a No Fly Zone and carried out numerous air strikes, including
one against Libyan state TV which killed 3 journalists.42 Downplayed in Western media
was the fact that the 'rebels' consisted of various factions of radical Islamists, many who
had been fighting Gaddafi for decades and had their roots in the Mujahideen in
Afghanistan, such as the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, whose goal is to implement an
Islamic state.43 CNN has reported on widespread abuses against civilians from these
39 Article written by 5 time Emmy Award recipient Peter Lance, hosted at BoilingFrogsPost.com, available here .
groups after Gaddafi was ousted from power, including the use of landmines and other
deadly equipment.44 Many of the rebels have admitted links to Al-Qaeda45, whom had
declared support for the rebels in Libya.46
The Washington Post has reported that a former Al-Qaeda member has estimated
there to be 1000 'freelance jihadists' that have traveled to Libya to support the rebels,
many affiliated with Al-Qaeda, and also that Libya has one of the highest domestic Al-
Qaeda populations in the Middle East, quoting a 2007 West Point study on the subject.47
In 1999, the United States decided to support the Kosovo Liberation Army, allies of
Al-Qaeda. Bill Clinton framed the intervention in humanitarian terms despite the fact that
staggering atrocities were being committed on both sides.48 French News Agency AFP
reported that members of the KLA had been trained by Bin Laden49, and the Washington
Times reported that the KLA bankrolled their operations with funds from the heroin trade
in Afghanistan and had accepted money from Bin Laden himself.50
The Mujahideen, many specifically members of Al-Qaeda, were also instrumental in
Bosnia during the NATO intervention in 1993. Their presence is still a factor of instability
today.51 It is of significance that all of these associations occurred after the 1993 World
Trade Center bombing, when Al-Qaeda first became widespread in the American lexicon.
Barack Obama has been arming rebels in Syria, beginning secretly with CIA arms
airlifts in 201252, citing many of the same reasons for intervention that Clinton did in 1999,
despite domestic and foreign ally opposition.53 54Once again, many of the rebels have been
14
associated with Al-Qaeda and labeled terrorist organizations by the US.55
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The Source of Radicalism
Earlier I mentioned CIA funded madrassas being a source of Islamic radicalism in
the 1980's. They have been an important factor in the radicalization of Islam ever since. As
of 2008, there are ~750 madrassas in Pakistan that teach jihad and radicalism, about 10%
of all madrassas in the country (and I want to emphasize that this section is referring to
specific radical iterations of Madrassas, not simply applying a blanket generalization to the
religious style of education).56 U.S. diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks revealed that
the funding for these radical schools now comes from Saudi Arabia, the United States'
biggest ally in the region.57 The radical madrassa network exploits impoverished areas by
recruiting children for what essentially amounts to indoctrination camps. In exchange,
families receive upwards of $6,500 per son for their 'sacrifice to Islam', and during
schooling, contact with families is forbidden. After graduation, many are funneled into
terrorist training camps in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, the cables stated.
PBS Frontline did a story on a 16 year old who was recruited to a Pakistan Wahhabi
Islam madrassa from an impoverished area in East Africa.58 A few years later, he was
instrumental in a terror plot, blowing up the US Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. The PBS
website hosts a letter he wrote to his brother, in which he says he spent two years on a
military base learning warfare, including the usage of Israeli arms.59
56
(PDF Warning) Naval Postgraduate Thesis, by Paul Bell, titled “Pakistan's Madrassas: Weapons of Mass
15
Is the CIA still involved? The House of Saud has given at least $1.474 billion dollars
to the Bush family60, and the United States sold Saudi Arabia $60 billion worth of arms in
2010, the biggest arms sale in American history.61 Before he was president, George H.W.
Bush was the Director of the CIA. As recently as June 25th, 2013, Secretary of State John
Kerry announced that Saudi Arabia is 'one of our closest partners'.62 At the very least we
can establish complicity.
Regardless, the United States' relationship with Saudi Arabia ought to raise a lot of
important questions. On November 4th, 2013, Secretary of State John Kerry hailed Saudi
Arabia as a very important ally to the United States.63 How can we reconcile this stance
with the 2010 cable leaks revealing that former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton said that
donors in the kingdom “constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist
groups worldwide,” and that “it has been an ongoing challenge to persuade Saudi officials
to treat terrorist financing emanating from Saudi Arabia as a strategic priority”?64 It is
clear that the United States views their geopolitical relationship with Saudi Arabia to be
much more important than combating terrorism, despite U.S. Involvement in the Middle
East being saturated with rhetoric about the War on Terror. The same statement can be
applied to the relationship with Pakistan, who is instrumental in the operations of the
Taliban.
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Double Agents
62 John Kerry transcripts from the US Department of State website, available here .
16
The assassination of high-profile Pakistan tribal leader Qari Zainuddin was widely
reported in the Western media.65 Only days before his assassination he had renounced his
support of the Taliban, claiming that their actions were un-Islamic. What the Western
media neglected to report but was widely reported in Pakistan and other countries was
Zainuddin had previously claimed that Baitullah Mehsud, the man who ended up ordering
his assassination, was an American agent.66
The claim that American agents operate in the Taliban sounds far-fetched but there
have been some eye-opening reports that confirm the possibility. For example, a 2004
article in the UK publication Times Online reported that a high ranking Al-Qaeda member
had been revealed to be a double agent working for MI5.
“Abu Qatada boasted to MI5 that he could prevent terrorist
attacks and offered to expose dangerous extremists, while all
along he was setting up a haven for his terror organisation in
Britain."67
Abu Qatada has been imprisoned multiple times in Britain but has not been charged
with any crimes. During his career he has issued fatwahs justifying the killing of converts
from Islam, advocated the killing of Jews, praised attacks on America, and convicted of
charges of terrorism in Jordan, all while working in association with MI5.68
A 2002 article published by French news organization AFP states that Palestine
security forces had arrested a group of Palestinians who had confessed to collaborating
with Israel and posing as operatives of Al-Qaeda.69
link is to a re-hosting at Whale.to
17
“He [Palestinian Authority Official] said the alleged
collaborators sought to "discredit the Palestinian people, justify
every Israeli crime and provide reasons to carry out a new
(military) aggression in the Gaza Strip."
The arrest came just two days after Ariel Sharon claimed that Al-Qaeda militants
were operating in Gaza and Lebanon, likely in an attempt to justify future military action.
BBC has also reported on this story.70
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“The Official Story”
The official story is that Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda found new enemies in the U.S.
after the Cold War when the United States began occupying military bases in Saudi Arabia.
It sounds plausible, but does not stand up to deeper scrutiny.
In 1993, Scott Armstrong, at the time the top investigative reporter for the
Washington Post, gave some tremendously revealing interviews with PBS Frontline. In an
episode titled "The Arming of Saudi Arabia", he stated that the United States and Saudi
Arabia had jointly conspired to covertly build $200 billion worth of military installations
between the years 1979 and 1992.71 Steve Coll, eminent Bin Laden biographer, states that
18
the Binladen group received a multitude of these contracts, with the knowing intent to
support and house US military personal during wars that may threaten Saudi territory.72
This occurred during the same time that Osama bin Laden was actively using
Binladen Group assets to build extensive infrastructure in Afghanistan. Surely he was
aware of the construction of the military bases and who intended to occupy them, yet he
did not have a problem then with the prospect then.
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Money
During the peak of World War II, military and defense spending reached a rate of
over 40% of the United States Gross Domestic Product.73 Even after a massive
demobilization, the military-industrial complex had grown to a behemoth, averaging over
7% of GDP throughout the Cold War. According to the Cato Institute, the United States
spent a total of $6 trillion on military and intelligence in just 4 decades during the Cold
War, a staggering sum.
After the Soviet Union was defeated, the Military Industrial Complex experienced a
steady decline, accounting for just 3.7% of GDP in the year 2000. This changed on 9/11,
when the MIC found that they could turn their old friends into new enemies to fight, and
their percentage of GDP has more than doubled in the last decade.74
Congress has officially authorized more than 1.3 trillion dollars to fight the war on
terror, and a Brown University study says this is just the tip of the iceberg: Even if the War
72 Steven Coll', “The Bin Ladens,” No excerpt available.
19
on Terror were to begin de-escalating now, it would end up costing a total of 3.9 trillion
between domestic spending, veterans costs, and interest.75 The money comes from the
taxpayers of the United States, whether directly or indirectly, and goes to the pockets of
defense contractors and banks.
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Al-Qaeda Today
In 2003, Donald Rumsfeld wrote a memo to the Joint Chiefs of Staff where he
stated that “We need to stop populating Guantanamo Bay with low-level enemy
combatants.”76 The memo was uncovered in 2011. Over 750 prisoners have gone through
Guantanamo, most being released without charges.77 Of the ~160 prisoners in Guantanamo
Bay today, half have been cleared for release but are still being detained.78 Former CIA
Director Leon Panetta said in 2010 that there were less than 100 Al-Qaeda in
Afghanistan.79
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Conclusion
After trillions of dollars spent, hundreds of thousands of deaths, repeated domestic
rights infringements, we are left with only a handful of proven Al-Qaeda members, with a
20
majority of prisoners simply being held without charges. The organization purported to be
a sprawling monster after the September 11th attacks has been revealed to be a shell of an
operation, financed by wealthy US allies. The result is endless war: Politicians, military
and media shine the light just right to make the shadow of the mouse look huge and
monstrous to justify endless profits. The media is not even connecting the most basic of
dots to reveal the tremendous deception.
The evidence is a repeated policy of the destabilization of Central Asia and the
development of Islamic radicals that spans decades. The result is a new global enemy
without borders or diplomatic representation that can be fought indefinitely. Unless
significant changes are made, we are looking at a future with an endless war on 'terrorism'
where more terrorists are created daily by the very policies that are meant to be fighting
them, and a foreign policy dictated by the whims of war profiteering.
And what kind of influence are we having in the Middle East? The rhetoric of
'bringing Democracy to the peoples of Iraq and Afghanistan' would be laughable were it
not such a grandiose and destructive lie. The impact of American intervention in these two
countries has been disastrous.
“The biggest source of corruption in Afghanistan,” one American
official said, “was the United States.” - New York Times80
The New York Times article describes how the CIA routinely funneled millions of
dollars without oversight in unmarked bags to the offices of President Hamid Karzai, while
salient quote from the article is worth sharing: “No one mentions the agency’s money at cabinet meetings. It is
handled by a small clique at the National Security Council, including its administrative chief, Mohammed Zia
Salehi, Afghan officials said. Mr. Salehi, though, is better known for being arrested in 2010 in connection with a
sprawling, American-led investigation that tied together Afghan cash smuggling, Taliban finances and the opium
trade. Mr. Karzai had him released within hours, and the C.I.A. then helped persuade the Obama administration to
back off its anticorruption push, American officials said.”
21
simultaneously denouncing the Iranian policy of doing the exact same thing. U.S. officials
are quoted as saying that instead of buying the loyalty of the Afghan President, the
payments instead proliferated into a vast web of corruption while Karzai became
increasingly defiant of U.S. interests.
In Iraq, the country has devolved into near anarchy with monthly death tolls from
terrorism sometimes reaching the 1000's. In 2004, the New York Times reported that
there was a massive assassination campaign targeting intellectuals and professionals, with
between 500 and 1,000 urban professionals killed in just a 9 month span.81 From drive by
shootings to stealth murders in the victims home, officials in Iraq agree that there is a
massive campaign to silence the capable and educated.
“'They are going after our brains,' said Lt. Col. Jabbar Abu
Natiha, head of the organized crime unit of the Baghdad police.
'It is a big operation. Maybe even a movement.' These white-
collar killings, American and Iraqi officials say, are separate
from -- and in some ways more insidious than -- the settling of
scores with former Baath Party officials, or the singling-out of
police officers and others thought to be collaborating with the
occupation. Hundreds of them have been attacked as well in an
effort to sow insecurity and chaos. But by silencing urban
professionals, said Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, a spokesman for
the occupation forces, the guerrillas are waging war on Iraq's
fledgling institutions and progress itself. The dead include
doctors, lawyers and judges.”
February 7, 2004.
22
In other words, Iraq is being left without the very people who could have been
future leaders of democracy, and whom could have established a functioning society.
Shortly afterwords, a corporate friendly government was established.
Furthermore, it is not empty rhetoric to say that the Iraq invasion was based on lies.
In 2012, the Iraqi defector responsible for the 'evidence' of chemical weapon production in
Iraq which was presented to the United Nations by Colin Powell, who portrayed it is “facts
and conclusions based on solid intelligence”, confessed to BBC that his claims were entirely
fabricated.82 Clearly there is an agenda that does not mesh with the rhetoric!
Will the War on Terror ever end? Who truly has the incentive to scale back the
operation? Not clandestine agencies or the military, who are seeing their budgets increase
year by year. Certainly not any of the major influences in politics, banks and corporations,
who are seeing massive profits from government contracts and resource exploitation. And
most certainly not any politician in Washington, who virtually rely on the lobbying of these
organizations to keep their jobs.
Journalist Glenn Greenwald put it succinctly:
“But what one can say for certain is that there is zero reason for
US officials to want an end to the war on terror, and numerous
and significant reasons why they would want it to continue. It's
always been the case that the power of political officials is at its
greatest, its most unrestrained, in a state of war. Cicero, two
thousand years ago, warned that "In times of war, the law falls
silent" (Inter arma enim silent leges). John Jay, in Federalist No.
4, warned that as a result of that truth, "nations in general will
make war whenever they have a prospect of getting anything by
23
it . . . for the purposes and objects merely personal, such as thirst
for military glory, revenge for personal affronts, ambition, or
private compacts to aggrandize or support their particular
families or partisans." If you were a US leader, or an official of
the National Security State, or a beneficiary of the private
military and surveillance industries, why would you possibly
want the war on terror to end? That would be the worst thing
that could happen. It's that war that generates limitless power,
impenetrable secrecy, an unquestioning citizenry, and massive
profit.” - Glenn Greenwald, writing for The Guardian83
Greenwald also notes the hopelessness of combating terrorism with further violence.
“Indeed, virtually every person accused of plotting to target the
US with terrorist attacks in last several years has expressly cited
increasing US violence, aggression and militarism in the Muslim
world as the cause. There's no question that this "war" will
continue indefinitely. There is no question that US actions are
the cause of that, the gasoline that fuels the fire.
But the notion that the US government is even entertaining
putting an end to any of this is a pipe dream, and the belief that
they even want to is fantasy. They're preparing for more endless
war; their actions are fueling that war; and they continue to reap
untold benefits from its continuation. Only outside compulsion,
24
from citizens, can make an end to all of this possible.”
Food for Thought:
1. How close of a relationship did the CIA maintain with Osama bin Laden after
Operation Cyclone?
2. Why does the United States consider Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, the two largest
funders of terrorism, our biggest allies in the region?
3. How closely does the CIA work with the intelligence agencies of these countries?
4. How many agents does the United States have operating in Al-Qaeda and the
Taliban, and how many atrocities are they responsible for?
5. Why have Al-Qaeda and the United States fought on the same side of multiple wars?
6. Why have so few Al-Qaeda been apprehended after over a decade of fighting the
War on Terror and millions of dollars spent?
7. Who has a monetary stake in the proliferation of terrorism, and how much influence
do they hold in official U.S. Policy?
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The One-Party State
Perhaps the most widely proliferated truism of American patriotism is that the the
two-party system is a beacon of democracy. Surely, our system is better than that of Iran,
where presidential candidates must be approved by a religious council, or perhaps that of
Venezuela, where the majority of the media is state-owned and disseminates propaganda
in each election.
Democrats and Republicans are widely different, it seems. At least that is what their
hyper-partisan bickering would imply. Bill Clinton and Barack Obama must have be
unabashed liberals, otherwise why would the Republicans despise them so much? The
divide between party faithfuls of different colors runs deep, with each side blaming the
entirety of the countries problems on the other, often resulting in a state of pure hatred
and disgust among citizens. One only needs to turn on cable news to see this as a fact.
However, the reality is that Republican and Democrat presidents have closely
followed the same agenda for half a century. The idea that American governance alternates
as a sort of give-and-take between liberalism and conservatism is nothing more than a
fantasy. I do not discount that there may be serious and significant differences between
democrat and republican individuals, many of them Congressmen, and certainly in state
legislatures. Yet at the top of the pyramid, where the power to set agendas resides, there is
only the Agenda, and the primary difference between the two parties is the speed at which
'the Agenda' is advanced.
It is fascinating how Bill Clinton began his presidential campaign with playing a
Saxophone on live television, talking about his foray into Marijuana, reminiscing about his
protest of the Vietnam war, and ended up with perhaps the most reactionary (e.g.
maintaining the status quo) administration of any president in modern history. Later,
26
Obama entered the stage as a candidate of change, only to accelerate and consolidate the
hegemony of the political elite faster than any predecessor. But lets go beyond rhetoric and
examine the records of the last 5 Presidents, and see exactly how similar their platforms
were.
*
*
*
*
Crime
“The United States has less than 5 percent of the world's
population. But it has almost a quarter of the world's prisoners.
Indeed, the United States leads the world in producing
prisoners, a reflection of a relatively recent and now entirely
distinctive American approach to crime and punishment.
Americans are locked up for crimes — from writing bad checks to
using drugs — that would rarely produce prison sentences in
other countries. And in particular they are kept incarcerated far
longer than prisoners in other nations.” - New York Times84
At the end of Reagan's administration, the incarceration rate was 247 per 100,000
citizens. The demand for prison space had been steadily increasing since the War on Drugs
began. Under George H.W. Bush the incarceration rate had increased to 332 per 100,000.
It is a common misconception that it is Republicans have the more punitive crime policies.
27
Under Clinton, the incarceration rate skyrocketing to 476 per 100,000 over the next 8
years.85 The Clinton administration gave 30 billion dollars to states to fund and expand
their prisons86, and championed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act
added 100,000 new police officers.87 The bill was written by current Vice President Joe
Biden. The act also expanded the death penalty to be applicable 60 more offenses including
drug trafficking, and eliminated funding for inmate education.
Private prisons flourished under Bill Clinton. The ACLU in 2011 published a
fascinating review of the private prison system and found that since 1990, the private
prison population has increased by 1600%.88 The number of private prison systems
actually peaked in the year 2000 with 153 facilities.89
The policy that began under Reagan and has been flourishing through both Bushes,
Clinton and Obama can only be referred to as 'mass incarceration'. As of 2013, the United
States holds more prisoners than any other country in the world, including China, as well
as a larger percentage of prisoners per population than any other country. For an even
more sobering comparison, consider that the United States has more people imprisoned
today, as a whole and per capita, than Stalin had under his archipelago of gulags.90
Louisiana is perhaps the best example of how corrupted the prison system can
become when privatization runs amok. Louisiana has a largely private prison system, and
currently has 1 in 86 adults incarcerated, twice the national average and three times that of
Iran. Nearly two-thirds of these prisoners are serving time for non-violent offenses.91
Lobbying, along with an incentive of job creation, has resulted in some of the toughest
penalties in the country, such as a potential 10 years in prison for writing a bad check. Over
86 Ibid.
88
28
half of the prison population returns to the system in 5 years, without having received any
rehabilitation and being returned to communities devastated largely in part by the
continued extraction of the population into prison for non-violent offenses.
*
*
*
*
Arms Sales
On the campaign trail, Bill Clinton made this promise: “I expect to review our arms
sales policy and to take it up with the other major arms sellers of the world as a part of a
long-term effort to reduce the proliferation of weapons.”92 And then, in some astounding
turn of events (or predictable, for those who have been watching closely), United States
arms sales doubled in Clinton's first year in office alone.93
In 2006, the United Nations convened in order to create a 'comprehensive, legally
binding instrument establishing common international standards for the import, export
and transfer of conventional arms.' The United States was the only country to vote against
the measure.94 In 2008, Obama signaled that he would change the course from the Bush
administration and take steps to limit arms sales internationally. And similar to nearly 2
decades earlier, United States arms sales tripled in 2011.95 By 2012, Obama had ended
negotiations on the U.N. treaty.96 Is it any surprise, considering Obama received more
campaign donations from the Defense Industry than McCain?97
One particularly shocking revelation was a program known as 'Fast and Furious',
where Barack Obama oversaw the initiation and operation of a gun running scheme where
29
arms were sent over the Mexican border and directly into the hands of criminals.98
“Fast and Furious was an operation so cloak-and-dagger
Mexican authorities weren’t even notified that thousands of
semi-automatic firearms were being sold to people in Arizona
thought to have links to Mexican drug cartels. According to ATF
whistleblowers, in 2009 the U.S. government began instructing
gun store owners to break the law by selling firearms to
suspected criminals. ATF agents then, again according to
testimony by ATF agents turned whistleblowers, were ordered
not to intercept the smugglers but rather to let the guns “walk”
across the U.S.-Mexican border and into the hands of Mexican
drug-trafficking organizations.” - Forbes
Senior ATF Agent John Dodson, who broke the Fast and Furious story, was alarmed
when he noted that the crime rates and violence in Mexico and at the border increased
significantly after he began allowing, under order, massive amounts of guns to cross the
border into the hands of criminals and cartels.99
“Dodson said they never did take down a drug cartels. However,
he said thousands of Fast and Furious weapons are still out there
and will be claiming victims on both sides of the border for years
to come.” - CBS
On December 14, 2010, Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed on duty, with a
30
gun given to criminals by the ATF.100
*
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*
Domestic Spying
A 1999 BBC article titled “Echelon Spy Network Revealed” began with the
paragraph: “Imagine a global spying network that can eavesdrop on every single phone
call, fax or e-mail, anywhere on the planet. It sounds like science fiction, but it's true.” The
network, known as Echelon, traces its roots all the way back to the John F. Kennedy
presidency, and had been expanding ever since.101 In 1992, the Director of the NSA
described the goal of the program in simple terms: 'Global Access'.102 The agenda for mass
surveillance was institutionalized long before most Americans recognize.
Then there was George Bush's illegal warrantless wiretapping. Began in 2001, the
program allowed the NSA to monitor communications between United States citizens and
those abroad without appropriate checks and balances.103 Interestingly, the groundwork for
warrantless wiretapping had actually been laid out by Bill Clinton.104 During his
presidency, he slowly expanded the reach of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
(FISA) and the capability of the NSA to classify and withhold information about their
activities. When the revelations about the program were made in 2006 they were
controversial, but Congress repeatedly renewed the NSA's license without much of an
uproar from the public.
104The history of Warrantless Wiretapping is laid out thoroughly at the Daily Kos Wikipedia . Each event on their
timeline has a link to a primary document or an accurate source.
31
By the 2008 election, citizens were growing weary of the spying program and Barack
Obama capitalized on this sentiment. He vowed to end warrantless wiretapping and during
his primary campaign he went as far as to say he would filibuster the extension of the FISA
legislation, responsible for allowing the expanded spying capabilities.105
“When I'm president, one of the first things I'm going to do is
call in my attorney general and say to him or her, I want you to
review every executive order that was issued by George Bush,
whether it relates to warrantless wiretaps or detaining people or
reading e- mails, or whatever it is. I want you to go through every
single one of them and if they are unconstitutional, if they're
encroaching on civil liberties unnecessarily, we are going to
overturn them. We're going to change them.” - Barack Obama,
2007106
He first broke this promise after winning the primary campaign, in July 2008, when
he was one of 68 Senators who voted to renew the NSA capabilities.107 Less than a year
later, Barack Obama would vastly broaden the legal argument the Executive branch used to
justify the spying, and exempted the Government from the possibility of being sued thanks
to a liberal interpretation of a clause in the Patriot Act.108
"In other words, beyond even the outrageously broad 'state
secrets' privilege invented by the Bush administration and now
7, 2009
32
embraced fully by the Obama administration, the Obama DOJ
has now invented a brand new claim of government immunity,
one which literally asserts that the U.S. Government is free to
intercept all of your communications (calls, emails and the like)
and -- even if what they're doing is blatantly illegal and they
know it's illegal -- you are barred from suing them unless they
'willfully disclose' to the public what they have learned," - Glenn
Greenwald
On June 6th 2013, it was revealed that Barack Obama oversaw the largest
infringement of the Fourth Amendment in the history of the United States with the
construction of a veritable surveillance state, capable of tracking the movements and
communications of every American citizen. We now know that the NSA and United
Kingdom counterpart GHCQ:
• Collect the domestic meta-data of both parties in a phone-call.109
• Set up fake internet cafes to steal data.110
• Has intercepted the phone calls of at least 35 world leaders, including allies such as
German Chancellor Angela Merkel.111
• Can tap into the underwater fiber-optic cables that carry a majority of the world's
internet traffic.112
• Tracks communications within media institutions such as Al Jazeera.113
33
• Has 'bugged' the United Nations headquarters.114
• Has set up a financial database to track international banking and credit card
transactions.115
• Collects and stores over 200 million domestic and foreign text messages each day.116
• Collects and has real-time access to browsing history, email, and social media
activity. To gain access, an analyst simply needs to fill out an on-screen form with a
broad justification for the search that is not reviewed by any court or NSA
personnel.117
"I, sitting at my desk, could wiretap anyone, from you or your
accountant, to a federal judge or even the president, if I had a
personal email". - Edward Snowden
• Creates maps of the social networks of United States citizens.118
• Has access to smartphone app data.119
• Uses spies in embassies to collect data, often by setting up 'listening stations' on the
roofs of buildings.120
• Uses fake LinkedIn profiles and other doctored web pages to secretly install
surveillance software in unwitting companies and individuals.121
• Tracks reservations at upscale hotels.122
34
•
Has intercepted the talking-points of world leaders before meetings with Barack
Obama.123
•
Can crack encryption codes on cellphones.124
•
Has implanted software on over 100,000 computers worldwide allowing them to
hack data without internet connection, using radio waves.125
•
Has access to computers through fake wireless connections.126
•
Monitors communications in online games such as World of Warcraft.127
•
Intercepts shipping deliveries and install back-door devices allowing access.128
•
Has direct access to the data centers of Google, Yahoo and other major
companies.129
•
Covertly and overtly infiltrate United States and foreign IT industries to weaken or
gain access to encryption, often by collaborating with software companies and
internet service providers themselves. They are also, according to an internal
document, "responsible for identifying, recruiting and running covert agents in the
global telecommunications industry."130
•
The use of “honey traps”, luring targets into compromising positions using sex.131
•
The sharing of raw intelligence data with Israel. Only official U.S. communications
are affected, and there are no legal limits on the use of the data from Israel.132
•
Spies on porn habits of activists to discredit them.133
13, 2013
October 30, 2013.
35
Possibly the most shocking revelation was made on February 24, 2014. Internal
documents show that the NSA is attempting to manipulate and control online discourse
with “extreme tactics of deception and reputation-destruction.”134 The documents revealed
a top-secret unit known as the Joint Threat Research Intelligence Unit, or JTRIG. Two of
the core self-identified purposes of JTRIG are to inject all sorts of false material onto the
internet in an effort to discredit a target, and to use social sciences such as psychology to
manipulate online discourse and activism in order to generate a desirable outcome. The
unit posts false information on the internet and falsely attributes it to someone else,
pretend to be a 'victim' of a target they want to discredit, and posts negative information
on various forums. In some instances, to discredit a target, JTRIG sends out 'false flag'
emails to family and friends.
February 24, 2014
36
One slide describes the methods to discredit a company: Leak confidential
information to the press, post negative information on forums, interfere with business
deals and ruin business relationships.
The use of psychological techniques to fracture activist groups and to 'game' online
discourse is very interesting. One document describes creating tension in a group by
exploiting personal power, pre-existing cleavages and minor ideological differences. In
online discourse, another document describes how to use 'mirroring' of language cues,
expressions and emotions, and the adjustment of speech, patterns and language to
manipulate opinion.
Consider the words of former NSA employee turned whistleblower Russ Tice:
“Okay. They went after-and I know this because I had
my hands literally on the paperwork for these sort of
things-they went after high-ranking military officers;
they went after members of Congress, both Senate and
the House, especially on the intelligence committees
and on the armed services committees and some of
the-and judicial.
But they went after other ones, too. They went after lawyers and
law firms. All kinds of-heaps of lawyers and law firms. They
went after judges. One of the judges is now sitting on the
Supreme Court that I had his wiretap information in my hand.
Two are former FISA court judges. They went after State
Department officials.
37
They went after people in the executive service that were
part of the White House-their own people. They went after
antiwar groups. They went after U.S. international-U.S.
companies that that do international business, you know,
business around the world. They went after U.S. banking firms
and financial firms that do international business. They went
after NGOs that-like the Red Cross, people like that that go
overseas and do humanitarian work. They went after a few
antiwar civil rights groups.
So, you know, don’t tell me that there’s no abuse, because I’ve
had this stuff in my hand and looked at it. And in some cases, I
literally was involved in the technology that was going after this
stuff. And you know, when I said to [former MSNBC show host
Keith] Olbermann, I said, my particular thing is high tech and
you know, what’s going on is the other thing, which is the
dragnet. The dragnet is what Mark Klein is talking about, the
terrestrial dragnet. Well my specialty is outer space. I deal with
satellites, and everything that goes in and out of space. I did my
spying via space. So that’s how I found out about this... And
remember we talked about that before, that I was worried that
the intelligence community now has sway over what is going on.
Now here’s the big one. I haven’t given you any names. This was
is summer of 2004. One of the papers that I held in my hand was
to wiretap a bunch of numbers associated with, with a 40-
38
something-year-old wannabe senator from Illinois. You wouldn’t
happen to know where that guy lives right now, would you? It’s a
big white house in Washington, DC. That’s who they went after.
And that’s the president of the United States now.” Russ
Tice, NSA Whistleblower135 (Emphasis added)
On March 5, 2014, it was revealed that the CIA, with the knowledge of Barack
Obama, spied on members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, the group tasked with
overseeing clandestine agency activities and preventing abuses.136 The implications are
complete subversion of oversight on domestic spying. Collectively, the evidence of the
burgeoning security state under Barack Obama reveals a global information grid with real
time access that targets both domestic citizens and lawmakers in addition to foreign people
and governments.
*
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*
*
War
It is another common misconception that during Republican presidencies we have
periods of war, and during Democratic presidencies we have periods of peace. Of 'official'
wars it is certainly the case that the Gulf War, Afghanistan and Iraq war were begun by
H.W. and W. Bush. Though it is important to quantify 'official' because there has not been
a true declaration of war since World War II. After all, Bill Clinton dropped bombs on no
less than four sovereign countries: Iraq, Serbia, Afghanistan, and Sudan.
And Clinton was able to get away with maintaining one of the darkest stains on
39
America's soiled history, the full-force economic sanctions against Iraq that began with the
first Gulf war and ended after Saddam's fall in 2003. The sanctions killed 567,000 children
according to the British Medical Societies Lancet.137 (Later studies have argued the number
350,000 children to be more accurate). The total number of deaths including adults is
thought to be much higher. United Nations ambassador Madeline Albright, when asked
about these numbers, coldly stated “The price is worth it.” This statement truly illuminates
the attitude of those who set the agenda: Cold indifference to life on the grand chessboard
of geopolitics.
Obama's first major act of war was a no-fly zone over Libya which resulted in the
removal of Muammar Gaddafi. The media had a well orchestrated propaganda campaign
that garnered significant public support.
His second major act of war was the arming of Syrian rebels, undoubtedly
prolonging the horrific civil war. Some of the groups that form the opposition are terrorist
organizations, which mirrors the policies of Carter and Reagan arming terrorist groups in
Afghanistan under Operation Cyclone.138
But the true depths of Obama's war mongering resides in his constant and silent
drone war. A policy that started under W. Bush, Obama has expanded the use of drones
extensively. He has allowed the usage of Signature Strikes, whereby drone operators bomb
people they do not know, based on movements they find suspicious.139 Worst of all is the
policy of double tapping, bombing the same scene twice after rescuers have come to try
and help their fellow citizens.140 Obama's drones have even bombed funerals.141 While the
death toll of the Drone war may not be as high as the conventional wars of the Bush family,
the moral depravity certainly gives them a run for their money. The argument that drones
40
are an alternative method to direct personnel involvement leaves out these cold facts.
It is important to note the presence of 'blowback': the concept that bombing
funerals and responders to attacks will create a whole new generation of terrorists. It is
almost a forbidden word in the mainstream media. For example, Ron Paul was ridiculed
by pundits across the political spectrum on cable television when he insisted that blowback
was a reality. While they deny it in public, many groups secretly relish the idea that their
intangible enemy will only grow stronger while their profits grow larger. Drones are
helping usher in the era of endless war.
Another aspect of Barack Obama's capacity to wage war lies in his secretive 'kill list',
which is a collection of singled out individuals deemed to pose a threat to the United States
and have been selected for targeted killing.142 The list is known to include American
citizens such as Anwar Al Alwaki, raising serious questions regarding human rights and
legality.143
*
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*
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Private Military and Intelligence Contractors
It has always been hard to tell exactly how many private contractors are employed
by the Federal government, and how many of those are under the umbrella of the Defense
Industry. It was under Reagan that the Pentagon's privatization agenda began, and it has
continued ever since. An NYU study on the size of government shows that the use of
private contractors increased under the Clinton administration by about 25%.144 It is
known that Clinton hired KBR, at the time owned by Halliburton, to build military bases
41
and support troops in Kosovo.145
It was under the administration of George W. Bush, with the Iraq war, when the use
of private contractors skyrocketed. By 2008, the number of private contractors in use in
Iraq was 155,000, more than the number of troops, a degree of privatization
unprecedented in modern warfare.146 The public became acquainted with the likes of
Blackwater under the Bush administration, with events such as the unprovoked massacres
in Baghdad and Fallujah.147
During his campaign, Obama promised to cut federal spending on private
contractors.148 It soon became clear, however, that much of the stimulus money would go
straight to their pockets. His Afghanistan surge was primarily accomplished through
contractors, which made up half of the military forces in the country by 2009.149 The total
number of contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan quickly reached 250,000.150 Security
contractors (e.g. private military forces) increased by over 400% under Obama and
represent a quarter of all contractors employed by the Pentagon.151
The most shocking use of contractors has only recently been revealed. It turns out
that they represent a significant amount of the NSA workforce. 483,000 people are
employed by private contractors that work with the NSA and have 'Top Secret' access.152
The potential for illicit spying and extortion represented by these numbers is so high as to
reach certainty.
*
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*
*
2013
2009
June 1, 2009, written by Jeremy Scahill
42
Renditions
The CIA has an official policy of 'rendition', where they send suspected terrorists to
be interrogated in foreign countries, bypassing United States torture laws. The process was
used extensively during George W. Bush's administration.
But did you know that the process began under Clinton? This PBS Frontline report
confirms that the rendition process began in 1995.153
In 2007, Obama wrote an article in the Foreign Affairs journal stating:
“To build a better, freer world, we must first behave in ways that
reflect the decency and aspirations of the American people… This
means ending the practices of shipping away prisoners in the
dead of night to be tortured in far-off countries, of detaining
thousands without charge or trial, of maintaining a network of
secret prisons to jail people beyond the reach of the law.”154
Yet by 2013 it has become clear that the process of rendition has continued. The
Washington Post has reported that the Obama administration has “embraced rendition”
and has consistently resisted lawmakers efforts to reform the policy.155
*
*
*
*
43
Police Militarization
Under President Bill Clinton, a provision was added to the Defense Appropriations
Bill that allowed the Pentagon to transfer unused military assets to local police
departments around the country.156 The program continued through President Bush and
has been expanding throughout the Obama presidency.
“[Fiscal Year] 11 has been a historic year for the program. We
reutilized more than $500M, that is million with an M, worth of
property in FY 11. This passes the previous mark by several
hundred million dollars.” - Disposition Services157
The equipment gifted to police departments range from assault rifles and bayonets
to massive vehicles such as the MRAP, which stands for Mine-Resistant Ambush
Protected, of which 500 municipalities received for free from the Department of Defense in
2013.158
There is also the troubling trend of the growth of asset forfeiture, the process by
which, having granted itself the power to do so, the Government seizes any cash, cars,
property and more it can reasonably connect to a crime. This ability incentives sending out
specialized, militarized police such as SWAT teams to serve drug warrants, as the teams
themselves are expensive to maintain. This program started long before the Obama
presidency, but recently it has swelled, with the Justice Department Forfeiture fund
reaching $1.8 billion in 2011, with nearly half of a billion being returned to the local police
departments that led the raid.159
157(PDF Warning) Disposition Services, “October 2011 Newsletter”
44
*
*
*
*
Globalization
A key process in globalization involves removing national sovereignty in favor of
trade agreements that favor the rights of corporations. Bill Clinton championed the NAFTA
agreement, which among other issues superseded articles in the Mexican constitution,
water rights in Canada, and allows corporations to sue nations when they are in violation
of the trade act.160
Regardless of your opinion on NAFTA and other trade agreements, Obama has
taken the concept of corporate power over national sovereignty to a whole new mind-
blowing level with the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, a trade proposal that only
recently became public knowledge when the documents were leaked (Check the footnote to
read the whole document).161 Why the secrecy? The TPP agreement would bestow radical
new powers on corporations, including establishing an international tribunal that would
override domestic law and would have the power to issue sanctions against governments
for failing to abide by their ruling.
The TPP runs contrary to Obama's statement during his 2008 presidential
campaign:
"We will not negotiate bilateral trade agreements that stop the
government from protecting the environment, food safety, or the
health of its citizens; give greater rights to foreign investors than
to U.S. investors; require the privatization of our vital public
45
services; or prevent developing country governments from
adopting humanitarian licensing policies to improve access to
life-saving medications.”162
Congressman Alan Grayson summed it up nicely: “It's all about tying the hands of
democratically elected governments, and shunting authority over to the non-elected for the
benefit of multinational corporations. It's an assault on democratic government.”163
The TPP has what is called an 'investor-state dispute settlement mechanism' which
allow companies and investors to sue governments for losses of profits due to the
government's policies.164 The deliberations would be undertaken by an international group
of corporate lawyers and threatens to overrule democracies and threaten our legal rights.
It is not an exaggeration to say that in many instances this agreement gives more power to
corporations than governments.
*
*
*
*
Conclusion
The One-Party State is the result of special interests, economic and military-
intelligence having gained a strong enough foothold in Washington to subvert the political
process. The saying that power is in guns and money has never been truer. The corruption
has been heavily and cleverly obfuscated behind a wall of relentless partisan rhetoric that
magnify the small differences between Presidential candidates.
Consider the major initiatives of the Obama presidency. His Affordable Care Act has
162(PDF Warning) 2008 DNCC Platform, available here.
46
been championed as a bastion of liberal reform, but in reality it is simply forcing
Americans to purchase health plans from private corporations. His raising of the top tax
bracket is proffered as proof of a liberal agenda, however the tax burden is still squarely on
the middle class. In addition, the wealthiest Americans are virtually unaffected, as their
wealth resides in assets and investments, not income. We are left with a platform that is
nearly indistinguishable from his predecessors, from which Obama promised significant
change.
When George Bush bombs a foreign country, liberals cry foul and protest in droves.
When Obama does the same thing, the previous protestors become supporters of the
policy. The same phenomenon can be seen on the other side of the aisle. Conservatives are
quick to criticize the expansion of programs under Democratic presidents, but stand silent
while Reagan and the Bush family oversaw many of the largest expansions of the Federal
government and budget in the history of the United States.
It should be clear after even a cursory inspection of the legacies of Presidencies from
the last 30 years that there is very little tangible differences between the two parties. The
shockingly establishment-oriented agenda of Barack Obama ought to be waking up
millions of people to this truth.
Can we work within the system to change the One Party State? How do we
approach the 2016 elections knowing that there are no real alternatives to be found within
the two parties? Even candidates with exceptionally favorable rhetoric cannot be trusted to
translate their platform into actual policies.
It is possible to dismiss the previous two chapters as a result of 'market forces', that
endless war and the One-Party state are the result of uncoordinated actors in a free
market. Even if this was the case, the implications and subsequent need for reform would
be tremendous. The result can accurately be described as the dirty 'F' word: Fascism. I
understand that there will be a lot who disagree with this designation; I argue that the term
47
has many different meanings and many prominent people have used it in different ways. If
you feel that another term best describes the phenomenon, that is OK, ultimately it is not
important what semantics we apply.
Fascism (Or whichever term you prefer) is appropriate because the system has
evolved into collusion between the military and economic entities to mutually ensure each
others entrenchment. It has grown out of control, and perhaps no evidence is stronger
than the fact that the media absolutely refuses to indicate something might be wrong, as
they have been enveloped by the system.
Food for Thought:
1. What is responsible for the massive disconnect between lack of differences between
Presidential candidates and the vitriolic rhetoric in the media and on Capitol Hill?
2. Why has Barack Obama reversed his position on so much of his campaign platform?
3. What forces are the driving factors in the constant overseas military and economic
hegemony?
4. Who is driving the creation of agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership and
where does the order of secrecy come from?
5. Which covert institutions could be influencing the policy of elected officials?
48
Psychopathy, Power and Politics
“There is no such thing, in the psychopathic universe, as the
'merely weak'. Whoever is weak is also a sucker; that is, someone
who demands to be exploited”- Psychologist Robert Rieber165
Psychopathy
What exactly does the word mean? Entertainment media bombards us with a
particular version of the psychopath, one that is irrational, dangerous and violent.
Someone who doesn't fit in, who 'just doesn't seem right'. Is this an accurate description?
Dr. Robert D. Hare, an eminent Psychologist on the subject of psychopathy,
portrays the disorder in a drastically different light. In his book Without Conscience, he
describes psychopaths as being conscienceless yet rational, not suffering from any insanity
or debilitation; instead they are logical, manipulative, predisposed to crime, selfish and
without guilt, shame, remorse or empathy.166 In other words, these men and women are
not mentally ill in the sense that we traditionally imagine. Psychopathy is surely an illness,
but it is not a neurosis that will manifest symptoms others can easily perceive. Often, the
psychopath will be aware of his condition and completely conceal his aberrant traits.
In Without Conscience, Dr. Hare presents numerous case studies and statistics to
available here , taken from his book The Individual, Communication and Society: Essays in Memory
166When discussing books, I will try my best to find a publicly available PDF; For Without Conscience, I was unable
to. You can view the details of the book on Amazon.com here .
49
illuminate the world of the psychopath; the evidence points towards a world full of people
programmed for evil. Dr. Hare stresses multiple times that the psychopath is someone who
has a strong desire for power and the need to manipulate others, not for personal gain but
simply for the sake of manipulation. While some psychopaths are erratic, others have the
ability to completely conceal their condition behind a carefully constructed social persona.
Dr. Hare's list of psychopathic personality traits include:
• Displaying glibness and superficial charm
• Being in constant need of stimulation and prone to excessive boredom
• Acting in a conning or manipulative way
• Showing shallow emotional responses
• Acting out promiscuous sexual behavior
• Behaving irresponsibly
• Avoiding long term relationships
• Feeling a grandiose sense of self worth
• Lying repeatedly without remorse
• Lacking any remorse or guilt
50
• Lacking empathy for others
• Having poor behavioral controls
• Displaying behavioral problems early on in life
• Behaving impulsively
• Failing to accept responsibility for actions
•
Displaying signs criminal diversity
Dr. Hare's predecessor Harvey Cleckly, perhaps the first psychologist to study the
psychopathic phenomenon decades earlier, compiled a similar list:
• Superficial charm and average intelligence.
• Absence of delusions and other signs of irrational thinking.
• Absence of nervousness or neurotic manifestations.
• Unreliability.
• Untruthfulness and insincerity.
• Lack of remorse or shame.
• Antisocial behavior without apparent compunction.
51
• Poor judgment and failure to learn from experience.
• Pathological egocentricity and incapacity to love.
• General poverty in major affective reactions.
• Specific loss of insight.
• Unresponsiveness in general interpersonal relations.
• Fantastic and uninviting behavior with drink, and sometimes without.
•
Sex life impersonal, trivial, and poorly integrated.
Most of the case studies Dr. Hare presents in his book are from the prison
population and anecdotal accounts from those who have been abused. This is a natural,
structural problem in the study of psychopathy: the study is limited for the most part to the
'Unsuccessful Psychopath', those who could not conceal their traits or whose social
circumstances led to blue-collar crime.
Yet Dr. Hare also spends some significant time devoted to the 'Subdeviant
Criminal', the psychopath who has control over his deviance and the ability to hide it from
the populace. Instead of the petty criminal, these men and women occupy positions in
business, government, industry, and law. Their condition goes entirely unnoticed by the
populace; their employers, peers, even their family and those who love them are fooled.
How can such deception be possible? Consider that psychopathy is not an 'acquired'
52
illness. Instead, it has strong genetic components and manifests itself in early childhood.167
168 169 170 From an early age, the psychopath recognizes that to fit into society in any manner
they need to develop to ability to lie extensively. Over time, they become exceptionally
good at it. Their entire public persona becomes one complex act, a web of lies to hide their
deviant personality.
*
*
*
*
Sadism
A recent series of studies published in Psychological Science highlights the pleasure
that persons with psychopathic tendencies derive from abusing others, by revealing that
certain people will often take great pleasure in sadistic behavior, suggesting that in these
subjects there is an “intrinsic motivation to inflict suffering on innocent others, even at a
personal cost.”171 In one experiment, researcher Erin Buckels, from the University of
British Columbia, found that there is a certain subset of people who chose to intensify the
discomfort of others through directed white noise once they found that there would be no
consequences for their actions. They were also willing to expend extra time and energy to
be able to amplify the discomfort they were causing their 'opponent'.
Warnng)
Psychiatry Research
53
“Some find it hard to reconcile sadism with the concept of
‘normal’ psychological functioning, but our findings show that
sadistic tendencies among otherwise well-adjusted
people must be acknowledged,” - Erin Buckels (Emphasis
added)
“The researchers hope that these new findings will help to
broaden people’s view of sadism as an aspect of personality that
manifests in everyday life, helping to dispel the notion that
sadism is limited to sexual deviants and criminals,” - Association
for Psychological Science
Erin Buckels concludes that her research may offer valuable insights into domestic
abuse, animal abuse, and military & police brutality, through the understanding that
disposition to sadism and abuse is a personality trait that manifests itself in every day life.
The true insights which can be derived from her work and those of other psychopathy
researchers go much deeper than police brutality; they shed much needed light on the
widespread relationship between evil and power.
*
*
*
*
Secondary Psychopathy
54
Understanding the nature of psychopathy does not reveal the full picture. Numerous
researchers have differentiated between 'primary psychopathy', that which is genetic, and
'secondary psychopathy', that which is acquired through environment.172 173 174 Unlike the
primary psychopath, who is born with their condition and lacks entirely the capacity for
empathy and other higher human emotions, the secondary psychopath occasionally
manifests these traits.
In other words, non-psychopathic individuals can exhibit psychopathic behaviors
through the conditioning of their environment. Two well known studies in psychology
underscore this.
The first is the Milgrim Experiment. A volunteer would be placed at a booth with an
apparatus that sends an electric shock to a person in another room. The volunteer believes
the man in the other room is a fellow volunteer; in reality he is an actor that is not actually
receiving electric shocks. The volunteer asks the actor a series of questions, a wrong
answer means the use of an increasingly high voltage of shocking. The volunteer would be
prompted by a man in a lab coat to continue administering the shocks long after it had
become unsafe. The verbal prodding would range between 'Please continue' and 'You have
no other choice, you must continue'. After the shock reached 300 volts, the actor would
stop answering, but the man in the lab coat would continue insisting on shocks. Dr. Stanley
Milgrim repeatedly found that nearly 2/3rds of people would continue to the maximum
voltage of 450, long after they had believed their peer to be incapacitated.
Regarding the experiment, Milgrim wrote:
55
“Ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any
particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible
destructive process. Moreover, even when the destructive effects
of their work become patently clear, and they are asked to carry
out actions incompatible with fundamental standards of
morality, relatively few people have the resources needed to
resist authority."
The second experiment is the Stanford Prison Experiment. Volunteers were asked to
simulate a prison in Stanford's psychology hall; half of the participants simulated prisoners
and the other half guards. The guards were told to make the prisoners feel powerless
though not resort to violence. Zimbardo, the lead experimenter, found that many of the
guards stepped far beyond the boundaries of what had been predicted, leading to
dangerous and psychologically damaging situations. A third of the guards had displayed
'genuine sadistic tendencies'. Some prisoners were emotionally traumatized and had to
leave the experiment early. Zimbardo argued that his experiment shows that people
internalize authority and submission.
Though the nature of the Stanford Prison experiment does not lend itself to
empiricism, it does give some credence to the idea that 'power corrupts' and changes
people. Furthermore, an experiment published in August 2012 by the Journal of
Experimental Psychology showed definite psychological changes associated with power. It
found that people who considered themselves in positions of power literally perceived the
world around them differently.175
The Journal of Experimental Psychology.(PDF Warning)
56
We would like to think that humanity has evolved since these experiments took
place, and since the atrocities that were revealed after World War II. Unfortunately, this is
not the case. In 2008, the Stanley Milgram study was reproduced, with only slight
alterations to conform to modern ethical standards, and found the exact same results: A
vast majority of participants were willing to inflict significant pain on another human if
pressured to do so by perceived authority.176
We do not need to rely on psychological studies to see the power of perceived
authority causing abuses: we have tangible evidence of the relationship emerging
frequently from the War on Terror. Most recently, it was revealed that the CIA made
doctors and psychologists working at various Department of Defense institutions violate
the ethical codes of their profession in order to become involved with the torture and
degrading treatment of terror suspects.177
“Medical professionals were in effect told that their ethical
mantra "first do no harm" did not apply, because they were not
treating people who were ill.” - The Guardian
The report, compiled by the Taskforce on Preserving Medical Professionalism in
National Security Detention Centers, supported by the Institute on Medicine as a
Profession (IMAP), found that doctors working with the Department of Defense and CIA
routinely participated in waterboarding, sleep deprivation and force-feeding, the latter
being against the rules of World Medical Association and the American Medical
Association, while gathering and sharing intelligence.
"The American public has a right to know that the covenant with
57
its physicians to follow professional ethical expectations is firm
regardless of where they serve. It's clear that in the name of
national security the military trumped that covenant, and
physicians were transformed into agents of the military and
performed acts that were contrary to medical ethics and practice.
We have a responsibility to make sure this never happens again."
- Dr Gerald Thomson, professor of medicine emeritus at
Columbia University and member of the taskforce.
While participation in waterboarding and force-feeding may not be shocking to the
desensitized public's sensibilities, it is still very revealing that physicians and psychologists
who would otherwise balk at the suggestion that they would violate their professions
ethical codes, do so without hesitation when it is done in the name of War. And after all,
the United States did sentence Japanese war criminals to death for the act of
waterboarding during the International Military Tribunal for the Far East following World
War II.178
Armed with this context, it is easy to understand the ease with which psychopaths
can manipulate institutions and societies. A majority of people do not even have the
psychological capacity to refuse authority, at least under situations of pressure. Putting the
average citizen in positions of minor authority such as a police officer can cause behavioral
and physiological changes in that person, disposing them to abuse. Therefore a psychopath
in a position of power essentially has a vast pool of tools at their disposal to act out their
twisted desires of manipulation and control.
*
*
*
*
178Huffington Post, “Yes, National Review , We Did Execute Japanese for Waterboarding,” April 24, 2009
58
The Pathocracy
Psychopathy is not a rare phenomenon: Dr. Hare estimates that psychopaths consist
of 1% of the population, other psychologists have estimates as high as 4%.179 That
represents between 3 and 12 million Americans, millions of which are the 'Subdeviant
Criminals' of Dr. Hare's lexicon, residing in positions of power with a psychological need to
control and manipulate others. They are drawn to certain occupations that allow them to
wield power over others, such as police, military, intelligence, and finance. Over time, they
begin to saturate important institutions, being more ruthless and willing to cause more
destruction in their rise up the ladder of power than their competition. In the exact same
manner that you and I naturally exclude deviants from our social groups, psychopaths
naturally exclude those of us who allow conscience and morality to influence our decisions
and perceptions. The result is a web of mutual conditioning of 'evil', where goals and
actions become increasingly removed from the institutions original intention. This process
has been occurring for centuries in banks, clandestine agencies, military, police
departments, and governments, in nearly every instance hiding behind rhetoric and
ideology that masks their true nature.
The rise of this process over decades results in a phenomenon known as
Pathocracy.
pathocracy (n). A system of government created by a small
pathological minority that takes control over a society.180
180Definition taken from Andrew Lobaczewski, a Polish Psychologist who dedicated his life to studying the
Pathocratic phenomenon of the Soviet Bloc. His book Political Ponerology is dense but immensely important, you
59
Pathocracies have existed throughout history and many exist in the present.
Unfortunately, there is a considerable amount of evidence that the United States has
evolved into such a system of government, where clandestine and financial institutions
saturated with psychopaths have gained enough influence to subvert the democratic
process. Their rise to power coincided with the draping of a veil over their existence,
through powerful propaganda and subtlety in action. This book is the history of the
modern American psychopath in a position of power, and the goal is to lift the veil.
60
Operation Paperclip
"What you were made to feel was that the country was in
desperate peril and we had to do whatever it took to save it." -
Hugh Cunningham, CIA Official181
As the Western Theater of World War II came to a close, there was a mad rush
between the Soviet Union and the United States to be the first army to enter and secure
Germany. It was not for consideration of land; that would be meted out later during the
Yalta and Potsdam conferences. Nor was it to capture the Nazi leadership and bring them
to trial for their heinous crimes against humanity.
In fact, the goal was the opposite. The rush to secure Germany was much more
about securing Germany's infrastructure: their leadership and the best minds in
intelligence, science and industry. NationalArchives.gov hosts a list of over 1,500 Nazis
that were transferred into America, many of them rampant war criminals.182 It has been
released to the public only recently thanks to the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act. The
project that oversaw this endeavor is known as Operation Paperclip and was undertaken
by the Office Of Strategic Services, the precursor to the CIA.
President Harry Truman formally ordered the Operation in August 1945, but it had
covertly began months earlier, in May. Truman's orders expressly forbid the transfer of
any person known "to have been a member of the Nazi Party, and more than a nominal
181John Marks, “The Search for the Manchurian Candidate: The CIA and Mind Control” 1979. Despite the
sensationalist title, John Marks' book is a model of academic integrity and a treasure trove of information. The book
is derived from information taken from 16,000 CIA files received through the Freedom of Information Act, and
61
participant in its activities, or an active supporter of Nazi militarism".183
This directive was not followed, for it would have prevented the acquisition of a lot
of prominent Nazis such as Arthur Rudolph, who endorsed the usage of slave labor from
concentration camps for the building of the V2 rocket184 and later became a prominent
figure in NASA.185 More people would die building the V2 rocket- a number estimated at
60,000- than were killed by it in combat.186
The dossiers of prominent Nazis brought into the United States such as Wernher
von Braun cannot be found on the National Archives sheet; we can conclude that either
identities were faked and whitewashed during the process, or the 1,500 names is an
incomplete tally. Regardless, we can conclude that the order of Truman was not heeded,
and many former Nazis became entrenched within the United States science, intelligence
and industrial industries, undoubtedly contributing to a web of psychopathic conditioning.
There are many interesting profiles of war criminals who found employment in the
United States after the war. Krunoslav Draganovic, for example, was a Franciscan priest
who actively served the Nazi satellite regime in Croatia, where they were responsible for
over 350,000 deaths. He also facilitated the escape of numerous Croatian war criminals
through the assets of the clergy. After the war, he was hired as a U.S. spy.187
Kurt Blome was the director of the Nazi Biological Warfare program and former SS
officer. He oversaw Nerve Gas experimentation on prisoners at Auschwitz, and established
the bioweapons research center for Heinrich Himmler. One of his experiments involved
building of the Saturn 5 rocket that carried the Apollo astronauts to the moon and managed other space and missile
programs... He was awarded the Exceptional Service Medal in 1968 and the Distinguished Service Medal, the
agency's highest honor, the following year.”
187From the Federation of American Scientists, information uncovered from the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act.
62
inoculating prisoners with the plague and recording its progression.188 He was hired by the
US Army Chemical Corps in 1951 to work on chemical warfare research.189
The most interesting case study is that of Reinhard Gehlen, a Major General in the
German Wehrmacht, close confidant of Hitler, and head of the German Army Intelligence
on the Eastern Front. The OSS found that Gehlen's knowledge of the Soviets that he had
gained during World War II was so important that not only did they let him keep his job,
he was able to maintain a vast majority of his infrastructure. What became known as the
Gehlen organization functioned as a semi-autonomous intelligence unit for the United
States and West Berlin, and employed over 100 former Gestapo and SS officers.190
“The Gehlen Organization was the one group that did have
networks inside Eastern Europe, and that is why we hired them...
Hiring Gehlen was the biggest mistake the US ever made. Our allies
said, 'You are putting Nazis at the senior levels of your intelligence',
and they were right. The Gehlen organization was the primary
source of intelligence that claimed that, 'The Soviets were about to
attack West Germany' …that was the biggest bunch of baloney then
and it is still a bunch of baloney today. Gehlen had to make his
money by creating a threat that we were afraid of, so we would give
him more money to tell us about it. In my opinion, the Gehlen
Organization provided nothing worthwhile for understanding or
190This information comes from the National Security Archives, a fantastic resource run by George Washington
University. They are a leader in hosting important documents and declassifying more through Freedom of
63
estimating Soviet military or political capabilities in Eastern
Europe or anywhere else. The Gehlen organization had been
penetrated by Soviet intelligence and many of the US Nazi assets
were now double agents, taking CIA wages and turning around and
selling information to the enemy.” - Victor Marchetti, CIA Veteran
and former Chief of Soviet Strategic War Plans191
The lack of internal security in the Gehlen Organization was egregious. One former
Army Counter-Intelligence Corps officer lamented:
“Recruiting methods then employed were so loose that former
German Officers and noncoms were blindly being approached to
work for American Intelligence in espionage activity directed
against the USSR.”192
Not only did this mean that the Gehlen Organization became saturated with radical
Nazis and other fascist elements, it also served as an easy entry of infiltration by the Soviet
Union. The organization functioned semi-autonomously so strict controls over their
operations was impossible.
The Soviet press did not hesitate to use the Gehlen Organization as an effective
propaganda tool, pointing out that the West had maintained the very intelligence unit that
(PDF Warning)
64
was responsible for a long series of crimes against humanity along the Eastern Front of the
War. Future Director of Central Intelligence Richard Helms stated that:
“The reports in the Soviet-dominated press in Germany
concerning the use of former German staff and intelligence is
such that there is no question that the Russians know this
operation is going on even though they got some of the details
wrong... Certainly the fact that so much publicity has been given
to this indicates serious flaws in the Operation.”193
One official CIA document titled “Forging an Intelligence Partnership: The CIA and
the Origins of the BND, 1945-49”, noted that the Gehlen Organization would take CIA
assets that they received and then sell them on the black market for more funds.194 The
reference is vague but likely refers to selling arms and ammunition to various underground
right wing elements.
Consider this: At the end of the War, the Office of Strategic Services was a small
organization of 13,000 members195, and the Gehlen organization consisted of at least 4,000
members by the year 1949.196 Can we accurately say that United States intelligence
absorbed the Nazi infrastructure without considering how much of an influence it had on
the beginnings of these clandestine institutions?
193Ibid.
194Ibid.
196CIA History Staff
65
*
*
*
*
Further Complicity
Although the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act has been a wealth of information
regarding the early relationships between the CIA and former Nazi's, there is still a lot that
we do not know.
“The Central Intelligence Agency is refusing to provide hundreds
of thousands of pages of documents sought by a government
working group under a 1998 law that requires full disclosure of
classified records related to Nazi war criminals, say
Congressional officials from both parties.” - New York Times197
The New York Times article goes on to describe how the CIA has interpreted the
Nazi War Crimes Act in an exceptionally narrow fashion, refusing to release many more
documents.
“Historians who have studied the documents made public so far
have said that at least five associates of the Nazi leader Adolf
Eichmann, the architect of Hitler's campaign to exterminate Jews,
had worked for the CIA.”
66
Though we can only speculate, it is possible that some of these suppressed files
contain collaboration with other elements who assisted in protecting Nazis during and
after the fall of the Third Reich. For example, the Red Cross and the Vatican collaborated
to smuggle thousands of war criminals to safety immediately after the fall of Nazi
Germany.198 They used underground passages known as 'ratlines' to keep the men out of
sight. The Red Cross issued legitimate travel documents to many Nazi members: it is
estimated that over 8,000 SS members ended up in Britain and Canada alone. These
revelations shed light on how prominent Nazis such as Adolf Eichmann and Dr. Josef
Mengele were able to escape from Germany and hide from Allied authorities and hide out
for decades.
Food for Thought:
1. What effect did the influx of Nazis have on the agenda of the CIA and other
institutions that they inhabited?
2. Why was OSS leadership so interested in providing safety for high profile Nazi's,
despite the wishes of the President?
3. Is it possible that the friendly post-war relationship between the Gehlen
Organization and the CIA indicates a form of relationship during and before the war
as well?
67
4. What type of influence has the Gehlen Organization had on the development of
Western Germany?
68
MK-ULTRA
“In the 1950's and early 1960's, the agency gave mind-altering
drugs to hundreds of unsuspecting Americans in an effort to
explore the possibilities of controlling human consciousness.
Many of the human guinea pigs were mental patients, prisoners,
drug addicts and prostitutes -- ''people who could not fight back,''
as one agency officer put it. In one case, a mental patient in
Kentucky was dosed with LSD continuously for 174 days.” - New
York Times199
MK-ULTRA is the codename given to a CIA research operation into biological
behavioral engineering, also known as mind control. Many people are familiar with the
operation but incorrectly assume that it was limited to LSD research. While there were
plenty of resources devoted to LSD research, it was only one area of a vast field of mind
control operations. MK-ULTRA researcher Ike Feldman said himself that:
“The LSD... that was just the tip of the iceberg... Espionage.
Assassinations. Dirty tricks. Drug experiments. Sexual
encounters and the study of prostitutes for clandestine use. That
is what I was doing when I worked for George White and the
CIA.”200
200Interview excerpt provided by Historian Dick Russell, available here .
69
MK-ULTRA had several precursors. There was Project Chatter in 1947, which tested
drugs such as the infamous Scopalmine during interrogations.201 There was Project
Bluebird in 1949, which began studies into hypnosis.202 The document describing the
initiation of Project Bluebird outlines these special problems, among many others, that
they were hoping to address:
•
Can we in a matter of an hour, two hours, one day, etc.,
induce an hypnotic condition in an unwilling subject to such an
extent that he will perform an act for our benefit?
•
Can we create by post-hypnotic control an action contrary
to an individual's basic moral principles?
•
Can we guarantee total amnesia under any and all
conditions?
•
Can we "alter" a person's personality? How long will it
hold?
•
Can we devise a system for making unwilling subjects into
willing agents and then transfer that control to untrained agency
agents in the field by use of codes or identifying signs or
credentials?203
70
Project Artichoke began in 1951, with a scope of ... “Can we get control of an
individual to the point where he will do our bidding against his will and even against
fundamental laws of nature, such as self-preservation?”204 All of the above projects were
shuttled into MK-ULTRA in 1953, under the Technical Services Division, combining over
150 sub-projects205, undertaken at over 80 institutions206 such as universities, hospitals,
prisons and pharmaceutical companies. Many of the projects were covertly ran through
front organizations without the knowledge of the institution that hosted them.
The experiments and operations under MK-ULTRA have been shrouded in extreme
secrecy. When it was enacted, then-CIA Director Allen Dulles exempted the program from
normal financial controls, allowed the Technical Services Staff to begin experiments
without contracts or written agreements with leadership, and ordered the financial office
to pay any cost blindly on the signature of Sidney Gottlieb.207 CIA Document 17748 states
that:
“There are just two individuals in TSD who have full substantial
knowledge of the program and most of that knowledge is
unrecorded. Both are highly skilled, highly motivated,
professionally competent individuals. Part of their competence
lies in their command of intelligence tradecraft. In protecting the
sensitive nature of the American intelligence capability to
manipulate human behavior, they apply “need to know” doctrine
207John Marks, “The Search for the Manchurian Candidate: The CIA and Mind Control” 1979. Despite the
sensationalist title, John Marks' book is a model of academic integrity and a treasure trove of information. The book
is derived from information taken from 16,000 CIA files received through the Freedom of Information Act, and
71
to their professional associates and their clerical assistants to a
maximum degree...
TSD has pursued a policy of minimum documentation in keeping
with the high sensitivity of some of the projects... The lack of
consistent records precludes use of routine inspection procedures
and raised a variety of questions regarding management and
fiscal controls.”208
The two individuals the document refers to are likely Sidney Gottleib, the director of
MK-ULTRA, and Richard Helms, the Deputy Director of the CIA. In 1973, when Richard
Helms became the Director of the CIA, he ordered all of the available MK-ULTRA files to
be destroyed.209 Thanks to a clerical error, about 20,000 files survived the destruction
order. However, not only were most of the files destroyed, but many experiments were so
sensitive that they were never recorded in the first place, so we must understand that as
brutal and astonishing as the recorded experimentation is, we are only seeing the tip of the
iceberg.
Another file, MK-ULTRA document 87624, states:
“6% of the projects are of such an ultra-sensitive nature that they
cannot and should not be handled by means of contracts which
would associate CIA or the Government with the work in
72
question. This 6% of the current research effort now lies entirely
within two well-defined fields of endeavor... As present this
results in ridiculous contracts, often with cut-outs, which do not
spell out the scope or intent of the work.”210
The first 'well-defined field of endeavor' described by the document is developing
the capability of biological and chemical weapons for the purpose of mind control. The
second field of endeavor is entirely redacted from the document.
*
*
*
*
Ewan Cameron
Dr. Ewan Cameron was a Scottish-born Psychiatrist who worked in the United
States since World War II and subsequently accepted an invitation to contract for the CIA.
He would commute to the McGill University system in Canada to conduct experiments on
brainwashing, 'psychic driving' and other forms of psychological torture. Cameron had a
theory that a person with a psychological illness such as schizophrenia would benefit from
having their brain essentially wiped clean, presuming the patient would redevelop their
cognitive functions without the disorder. The CIA felt that brainwashing had obvious
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intelligence applications.211
Dr. Cameron had a 'depattering' program he used to erase the minds of his patients
that began with 15 - 30 days of 'sleep therapy' (sometimes lasting as long as 65 days),
where the patient would sleep all day and night, with the exception of three brief periods
where a sleep-inducing drug cocktail and electroshock therapy would be administered.
Cameron's electroshock therapy has been documented to be between 20 - 40 times more
intense than the professional standard at the time. Instead of 110 volts at a fraction of a
second, Cameron used 150 volts for an initial shock lasting 1 full second, and then between
5 and 9 additional shocks during the convulsions of the patient, using a muscle relaxant to
prevent permanent damage. The next step was to play taped messages to a patient 16 hours
a day for multiple months in an attempt to program the desired behavior.212
Over half of his patients have suffered permanent amnesia of their lives before their
'depattering'. They were not told that they would be participating in experiments prior to
their admittance. A large group of Cameron's victims brought a lawsuit against the CIA in
1988 which was settled out of court, so the agency would not have to admit any official
wrongdoing.
Why the interest in electroshock? CIA Document 190885 reveals that the CIA was
interested in the “guaranteed amnesia” that electric shock often resulted in.213
*
*
*
*
211John Marks
212Ibid
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'Front' Organizations
“The C.I.A. used a front organization called the Society for the
Investigation of Human Ecology to help pay for the work of Dr.
Cameron, a psychiatrist who directed the Allan Memorial
Institute in Montreal. Dr. Cameron died in 1967.
The money was provided to Dr. Cameron as part of the C.I.A.'s
effort in the 1950's and 60's to develop drugs or techniques that
could control human behavior.
Patients of Dr. Cameron were subjected to a regimen that
included heavy doses of LSD and barbiturates, the application of
powerful electric shocks two or three times a day, and prolonged
periods of drug-induced sleep. According to Government
records, the patients and their relatives were not told they were
taking part in experiments.
Joseph Rauh, another lawyer for the plaintiffs, said many of Dr.
Cameron's patients 'were very greatly damaged by the
experiments.'” - New York Times214
The use of 'fronts', meaning a private enterprise secretly owned by the CIA to
conceal affiliations with the agency, is standard practice and widespread through MK-
ULTRA. The Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology was nominally associated
75
with Stanford and considered to be relatively prestigious in the field. It would often award
'cover grants' to conceal that the bulk of its research had military intelligence
applications.215
*
*
*
*
Unwitting Testing
The CIA had an official policy of 'terminal experiments', which essentially meant
surreptitious administration of drugs to discover how subjects would react when they were
not aware they were being experimented on. The justification was that it was the only way
to truly discover the reactions of the mind under stress and exposed to various mind
control chemicals. The policy was upheld even after it led to deaths. One high profile
fatality was that of Dr. Frank Olson, a scientist from the Army Chemical Corps' Special
Operations Division. During a joint Army-CIA gathering at Deep Creek Lodge in the woods
of Northern Maryland, Sidney Gottlieb added LSD to the drinks of the few men in
attendance, and did not inform them until the effects started to begin.
Dr. Frank Olson was one of these men, and unlike his peers, he was not able to
handle the effects of the psychedelic. His colleagues described his reaction as 'psychotic'.
He survived the trip, but entered a deep depression and ended up jumping out a window of
the window of a New York hotel a week later.
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The death of Dr. Olsen prompted an internal review by the CIA of surreptitious
testing, but the policy was resumed just a few months later. One CIA document, issued
nearly a decade after Olsen's death, affirmed the internal consensus of unwitting
administration of drugs: “(Officers) argued for the continuation of unwitting testing, using
as the principal point that controlled testing cannot be depended upon for accurate results.
General Carter, Mr. Kirkpatrick, and I do not disagree with this point.”216
Another aspect of unwitting testing involves experimentation of children. Although
most of MK-ULTRA experiments on minors has been covered up, a New York Times
article from 1995 reveals a disturbing glimpse, stating that:
“About 9000 Americans, including children and
newborns,were used in 154 radiation tests sponsored by the
Atomic Energy Commission, the Energy Department's Cold War
predecessor, Government officials said today... Some
participated with little or no knowledge of risks they faced.”217
*
*
*
*
Entrapment
216Document text available at Cryptome.org here .
77
One program uncovered during the internal CIA review by centered around George
White, a CIA associate who formally worked for the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. The CIA
considered White's position ideal, as it gave him unrestricted access to a variety of drugs
without suspicion. Under CIA auspices, George White set up 'safehouses' in New York and
later San Francisco, fully equipped with covert video and audio surveillance equipment.
The goal was to study the use of prostitutes for covert intelligence.218
“TSS officials wanted to find out everything they could about how
to apply sex to spying, and the prostitute project became a
general learning and then training ground for CIA carnal
operations. After all, states one TSS official, "We did quite a
study of prostitutes and their behavior
At first nobody really
knew how to use them. How do you train them? How do you
work them? How do you take a woman who is willing to use her
body to get money out of a guy to get things which are much
more important, like state secrets. I don't care how beautiful she
is—educating the ordinary prostitute up to that level is not a
simple task.” - John Marks
In addition to studying the use of prostitutes for clandestine use, the safehouses
were used to administer drugs to the unwitting solicitors, after which the various effects
would be recorded. At least a couple CIA veterans were willing to discuss the use of these
safehouses for a more sinister operation: entrapment. John Marks' research of the over
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20,000 declassified documents into MK-ULTRA shortly after their release in the mid 70's
revealed the following shocking information:
“Gottlieb did not limit his interest to drugs. He and other TSS
officials wanted to try out surveillance equipment. CIA
technicians quickly installed see-through mirrors and
microphones through which eavesdroppers could film,
photograph, and record the action. "Things go wrong with
listening devices and two-way mirrors, so you build these things
to find out what works and what doesn't," says a TSS source. "If
you are going to entrap, you've got to give the guy pictures
[flagrante delicto] and voice recordings. Once you learn how to
do it so that the whole thing looks comfortable, cozy, and safe,
then you can transport the technology overseas and use it." This
TSS man notes that the Agency put to work in the bedrooms of
Europe some of the techniques developed in the George White
safehouse operation.”219
James Keehner, a former CIA psychologist, recalled his involvement in one
entrapment case, in which he analyzed a nurse who had 'offered her body' for her country:
"We wanted her to sleep with this Russian... Either the Russian
219John Marks
79
would fall in love with her and defect, or we'd blackmail him. I
had to see if she could sleep with him over a period of time and
not get involved emotionally. Boy, was she tough!"220
Keehner noted that he became disillusioned with entrapment cases, but that other
officers 'got their jollies' from this type of work. Regarding his typical assignment, Keehner
stated:
"I was sent to deal with the most negative aspects of the human
condition. It was planned destructiveness. First, you'd check to
see if you could destroy a man's marriage. If you could, then that
would be enough to put a lot of stress on the individual, to break
him down. Then you might start a minor rumor campaign
against him. Harass him constantly. Bump his car in traffic. A lot
of it is ridiculous, but it may have a cumulative effect."
Knowing that some officers got their 'jollies' from entrapment operations, and that
safehouses were installed in the United States, the question “Were entrapment techniques
ever used against United States officials or other domestic people of importance?” is
logically raised.
220John Marks
80
*
*
*
*
Personality Assessment
Although MK-ULTRA was originally devoted to biological mind control, it quickly
evolved into a program dedicated to understanding all aspects of the human psyche.
George White's experiments tested how people reacted to entrapment, and other
experiments tested how different types of people responded to alcohol. It is with this
context that the CIA contacted Psychologist John Gittinger to become an instrumental part
of MK-ULTRA.
Gittinger had developed the Personality Assessment System, a test which would be
administered to give fascinating insights into a person's personality and had distinct
variables that separated his work from other known personality tests at the time such as
the famous Weschler exam. Like Ewan Cameron, Gittinger received funding through the
Human Ecology Society to research what type of personality would be likely to defect from
their country, both to target foreign agents and to weed out domestic ones.
At one point, Gittinger traveled to work with George White to use his test on
prostitutes and homosexuals to refine his assessment test to figure out what type of sexual
orientation someone likely had, and to figure out who had sexually deviant tendencies.
One of Gittinger's colleagues stated that he knew of cases where the Personality
Assessment System was used to identify targets for entrapment, both heterosexual and
homosexual.221
221John Marks
81
One particularly useful application of the Personality Assessment System was to
identify people who would be easily hypnotized. It has likely been used extensively to
hand-pick subjects and employees on sensitive projects within and beyond MK-ULTRA,
assessing peoples personalities to discover who would retain secrecy and loyalty.
Interestingly, Gittinger was familiar enough with his test that he was able to observe
someones behavior and then retroactively apply the attributes to determine their
personality type. By observing how a man held his cigarette, handled his alcohol, or
interacted with women, Gittinger could profile that person and determine their
weaknesses and propensity for exploitation through entrapment or other means.
One logical application of the Personality Assessment System is the ability to assign
certain people to a program that required secrecy, by determining how loyal an agent or
asset would be to the Agency.
*
*
*
*
Hypnotism
In mainstream culture, hypnotism is viewed as a type of 'science fiction', confined to
the realm of magic tricks and entertainment. The truth is that hypnotism is very real and
used both in mainstream psychology and in military intelligence.
Hypnotism was used by the United States military before the creation of the CIA,
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during World War II. Psychologist Dr. George H. Estabrooks recalled his involvement in
the clandestine program to Science Digest in 1971, in an article titled “Hypnotism Comes
of Age”.
“One of the most fascinating but dangerous applications of
hypnosis is its use in military intelligence. This is a field with
which I am familiar through formulating guidelines for the
techniques used by the United States in two world wars.
Communication in war is always a headache. Codes can be
broken. A professional spy may or may not stay bought. Your
own man may have unquestionable loyalty but his judgment is
always open to question.
The “hypnotic courier,” on the other hand, provides a unique
solution. I was involved in preparing many subjects for this work
during World War II. One successful case involved an Army
Service Corps Captain whom we’ll call George Smith. Captain
Smith had undergone months of training. He was an excellent
subject but did not realize it. I had removed from him, by post
hypnotic suggestion, all recollection of ever having been
hypnotized.
First I had the Service Corps call the captain to Washington and
tell him they needed a report on the mechanical equipment of
Division X headquartered in Tokyo. Smith was ordered to leave
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by jet next morning, pick up the report and return at once. These
orders were given him in the waking state. Consciously, that was
all he knew, and it was the story he gave his wife and friends.
Then I put him under deep hypnosis, and gave him—orally—a
vital message to be delivered directly on his arrival in Japan to a
certain colonel—let’s say his name was Brown—of military
intelligence. Outside of myself, Colonel Brown was the only
person who could hypnotize Captain Smith. This is “locking.” I
performed it by saying to the hypnotized Captain: “Until further
orders from me, only Colonel Brown and I can hypnotize you.
We will use the signal phrase ‘the moon is clear.’ Whenever you
hear this phrase from Brown or myself you will pass instantly
into deep hypnosis.” When Captain Smith re-awakened, he had
no conscious memory of what happened in trance. All that he
was aware of was that he must head for Tokyo to pick up the
division report.
On arrival there, Smith reported to Brown, who hypnotized him
with the signal phrase. Under hypnosis, Smith delivered my
message and received one to bring back. Awakened, he was given
the division report and returned home by jet. There I hypnotized
him once more with the signal phrase, and he spieled off Brown’s
answer that had been dutifully tucked away in his unconscious
mind.
The system is virtually foolproof. As exemplified by the case, the
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information literally was “locked” in Smith’s unconscious for
retrieval by the only two people who knew the combination. The
subject had no conscious memory of what happened, so couldn’t
spill the beans. No one else could hypnotize him even if they
might know the signal phrase...”
“The potential for military intelligence has been nightmarish.
During World War II, I worked this technique with a vulnerable
Marine lieutenant I’ll call Jones. Under the watchful eye of
Marine intelligence I split his personality into Jones A and Jones
B. Jones A, once a “normal” working Marine, became entirely
different. He talked communist doctrine and meant it. He was
welcomed enthusiastically by communist cells, and was
deliberately given a dishonorable discharge by the Corps (which
was in on the plot) and became a card-carrying party member.
The joker was Jones B, the second personality, formerly apparent
in the conscious Marine. Under hypnosis, this Jones had been
carefully coached by suggestion. Jones B was the deeper
personality, knew all the thoughts of Jones A, was a loyal
American and was “imprinted” to say nothing during conscious
phases.
All I had to do was hypnotize the whole man, get in touch with
Jones B, the loyal American, and I had a pipeline straight into
the Communist camp. It worked beautifully for months with this
subject, but the technique backfired. While there was no way for
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an enemy to expose Jones’ dual personality, they suspected it
and played the same trick on us later.” - Science Digest, April
1971222
It is pretty shocking to see that Estabrooks was willing to completely destroy the life
of a marine by relegating his primary personality to an 'alternate' that would only appear
when accessed through hypnosis. It is more shocking that such an application of
hypnotism is even possible. He noted that the potential for military intelligence was
nightmarish but felt content that his knowledge was being used for the United States
instead of the Nazis or the Russians. Unfortunately, corrupt elements in the United States,
namely the CIA, would capitalize on this knowledge for illicit means in the near future.
There are a variety of CIA documents released through the Freedom of Information
Act that shed light on their hypnotism activities. One particularly disturbing example is
MK-ULTRA document 190691. It describes an experiment where an unnamed CIA official
hypnotized two subjects, both 19 year old women. In an awakened state, they expressed
deep disgust in the idea of holding a gun, yet when hypnotized, one was willing to grab it
and fire at her peer (the gun was unloaded and no one was hurt.) It states:223
“[Redacted] was then instructed (having previously expressed a
fear of firearms in any fashion) that she would use every method
at her disposal to awaken [redacted] (now in a deep hypnotic
sleep) and failing in this, she would pick up a pistol nearby and
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fire it at [redacted]. She was instructed that her rage would be so
great she would not hesitate to “kill” [redacted] for failing to
awake. [Redacted] carried out these suggestions to the letter,
including firing the (unloaded pneumatic) pistol at [redacted]
and then proceeding to fall into a deep sleep. After proper
suggestions were made, both were awakened and expressed
complete amnesia for the entire sequence.”
Not only was the CIA officer able to coerce otherwise peaceful subjects into violence,
he was able to remove any memories of the event after they 'woke up' from the hypnotism.
MK-ULTRA Document 190619
87
MK-ULTRA Document 190527
MK-ULTRA Document 190527 reveals that through hypnotic suggestion, one
subject was coerced into setting up an incendiary bomb and leaving the device in a
bathroom.224 The document states that even with unforeseen problems in location
availability during the hypnotic state, the experiment was:
88
“...carried off without any difficulty or hesitation on the part of
either of the girls... Throughout, their movements were easy and
natural, and (bystanders) were, to all intents and purposes,
completely unaware of what was taking place although they could
clearly observe the movements of [redacted] and [redacted].”
Dr. Estabrooks once noted that only 1 in 5 people were susceptible to hypnotism in
this manner. True to form, the CIA researched ways to improve to hypnotic susceptibility
in their subjects, and found some success by combining techniques with administering
drugs. A document titled Continuation of Studies on Hypnosis and Suggestibility states:
“Preliminary clinical research during 1955-56 has yielded
promising leads in terms of knowledge of how hypnotizability
can be influenced by pharmacological means. Several drugs have
been identified that apparently are effective in speeding the
induction of a hypnotic state...”225
The two cited CIA documents describe the unwitting hypnosis of two young women
for the use of experimentation. What is the possibility that psychopaths would use this
knowledge to exploit women sexually? Perhaps the most disturbing CIA document I have
come across is numbered 140393 and details a CIA interview with a professional hypnotist
who was asked to give an instructional course in hypnotism to CIA agents. It states:
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“On July 2 1951 approximately 1:00 pm the instruction began
with [redacted] relating to the student some of his sexual
experiences. [Redacted] stated that he constantly used
hypnotism as a means of inducing young girls to engage in sexual
intercourse with him. [Redacted], a performer in [redacted]
orchestra was forced to engage in sexual intercourse with
[redacted] while under the influence of hypnotism. [Redacted]
stated that he first put her into a hypnotic trance and then
suggested to her that he was her husband and she desired sexual
intercourse with him. [Redacted] further stated that many times
while going home he would use hypnotic suggestion to have a girl
turn around and talk to him and suggest sexual intercourse to
him and that as a result of these suggestions he spent
approximately five nights a week away from his home engaging
in sexual intercourse.”226
It is nothing short of terrifying to read how interested the CIA was in methods of
rape. The fact that this was beyond any application to intelligence is an afterthought. The
document finishes by describing how the student of the hypnotism instructor was able to
successfully use his newly-learned techniques on new subjects, indicating that hypnotism
was able to spread throughout the ranks of the CIA relatively effortlessly.
When Operation Bluebird first began, marking the beginnings of research into
90
hypnosis, one early document revealed a surprising goal:
“Can we "condition" by post-hypnotic suggestion agency
employees (or persons of interest to this agency) to prevent them
from giving information to any unauthorized source or for
committing any act on behalf of a foreign or domestic enemy?”227
This raises the distinct and disturbing possibility that the act of hypnotizing agency
members for the purpose of altering their behavior became a common practice at the CIA
under MK-ULTRA, with the power of what suggestions to induce at the hands of only two
psychopathic men.
*
*
*
*
Conclusion
Upon MK-ULTRA becoming public knowledge in 1971, the CIA was quick to claim
that the program was halted due to a lack of production. The available evidence clearly
shows that this is a lie. From the documents that survived Director Helm's destruction
order, we can already see the potential for a 'Manchurian candidate': a mind controlled
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assassin.
So what happened to MK-ULTRA? 14 year CIA veteran Victor Marchetti has stated
in numerous interviews that the claim MK-ULTRA was halted was merely a cover-story,
and that the operation went completely black, in other words, research continued at the
highest level of secrecy.228
Is it possible that academic research into hypnosis and other organic forms of mind
control have been deliberately marginalized from mainstream entertainment, media and
academics in order to keep its potential use within a military-industrial complex a secret?
After all, MK-ULTRA researcher Dr. Ewan Cameron became the president of the World
Psychiatric Association in 1961 and also served as presidents of the Canadian and
American Psychiatric Associations.229
It is important to reiterate that not only does the available evidence of MK-ULTRA
comprise a portion of the documents that were created, but many of the experiments were
never recorded in the first place. The operation was presided over by only two individuals
who had a complete knowledge of the operations. Not even the Director of the CIA had full
access. When John F. Kennedy appointed John McCone as the new director in the wake of
the Bay of Pigs fiasco, Richard Helms declined to inform him about the more sensitive MK-
ULTRA operations, such as George White's safehouses.230
Ultimately, the goal of MK-ULTRA was not to find the 'holy grail' of mind control
but to map out a complete knowledge of human nature and the human mind, and then find
ways to exploit it. This was done on both individual and group levels. We have no idea how
much was accomplished towards this goal, or how much more developed the mind control
230Church Committee's Assassination report, pp. 102-3
92
research has gotten in the 50 years that have passed since the available documents were
last issued. After all, if this is what the CIA was able to accomplish in the 1950's, what are
they capable of today?
Food for Thought:
1. What kind of experiments were detailed in the documents that were destroyed after
Director Helm's orders?
2. What kind of experiments were never recorded and why did they require such a
high level of secrecy?
3. Do any recent instances of terrorism or assassinations sound similar to the
documented instances of hypnotically induced susceptibility to carry out acts of
violence?
4. What kind of power does mind control represent in the hands of a psychopath?
5. How widespread was the entrapment program and is it possible that it ended up
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targeting U.S. Politicians? Military leaders? Businessmen?
6. What is responsible for the complete lack of knowledge of MK-ULTRA among the
public?
7. What was the purpose of associating trauma through electro-shock and other means
with mind control?
8. What new means of mind control have emerged with new technology?
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Operation Gladio
“In Europe's new order, they are the spies who never quite came
in from the cold, foot soldiers in an underground guerrilla
network with one stated mission: To fight an enemy that most
Europeans believe no longer exists.
Theirs is a tale of secret arms caches and exotic code names, of
military stratagems and political intrigues.
At best, their tale is no more than a curious footnote to the cold
war. The question is if, at worst, it could be the key to unsolved
terrorism dating back two decades...
The focus of the inquiry is a clandestine operation code-named
Gladio, created decades ago to arm and train resistance fighters
in case the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies invaded.
All this week, there have been disclosures of similar
organizations in virtually all Western European countries,
including those that do not belong to the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization.” New York Times231
95
How far would the United States go to prevent the spread of communism in
Western Europe? Especially considering the constant false information provided by
Reinhard Gehlen and his Organization indicating that a Soviet invasion was imminent?
The answer is Operation Gladio: The CIA and NATO campaign to create, arm and fund
radical right wing 'stay behind' organizations that would fight communism to the death.
When the Soviet invasion never happened, these organizations created networks with
politicians and within the black market, and turned their goals towards preventing the rise
of leftist political movements, often resorting to terrorism to create domestic tension,
causing citizens to turn towards increasingly fascist governments to provide protection.
Today, this process is known as the 'Strategy of Tension'.
*
*
*
*
Italy
It was Judge Felice Casson who first dredged up the evidence for state sponsored
terrorism, while browsing the archives of the Italian military secret service.232 In a BBC
documentary on Operation Gladio, Casson described the operations as an effort...
“To create tension within the country to promote conservative,
reactionary social and political tendencies. While this strategy
was being implemented, it was necessary to protect those behind
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it because evidence implicating them was being discovered.
Witnesses withheld information to cover right-wing
extremists.”233
Casson points to a 1972 car bombing in Peteano,that killed three paramilitary police
and was blamed on leftists, after which 200 Communists were immediately arrested. He
found that there were no police investigations of the scene, and the official report was a
forgery234. In fact, it was perpetrated by a right-wing terrorist named Vincenzo
Vinciguerra235, operating under Gladio orders, who later confessed to the crime.
Vinciguerra's testimony reveals that it was easy to escape and remain hidden because
everyone in the Italian security apparatus shared his anti-Communist convictions.236 His
testimony further revealed “a secret organisation, a super-organisation with a network of
communications, arms, and explosives, and men trained to use them.”237 Years later, in
prison, he would claim “I say that every single outrage that followed from 1969 fitted into a
single organised matrix.”238 Nearly 2,000 people would die from political murder or acts of
terrorism over this period of time.
When ex-Prime Minister Andreotti finally testified in 1990, he revealed that arms
and equipment were provided by the CIA and placed in 139 underground caches across the
country. General Giandelio Maletti, a former head of Italian counterintelligence, in March
2001 confirmed the CIA involvement. He stated that after the Piazza Fontana bombing in
1969, pieces of a bomb were planted in a leftist editors villa in order to blame the
234Historian Daniel Ganser, eminent Gladio researcher, in his book NATO's Secret Armies, page 3, available in PDF
here . Ganser is the eminent authority on Operation Gladio and has done tremendous work in synthesizing the
various evidence from nearly a dozen different languages into one source. This book is a must-read to gain a full
understanding of Operation Gladio.
236Daniel Ganser, in a paper published in the Whitehead Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, page 72,
237Ibid.
238Ganser's NATOs Secret Armies page 8.
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communists. He stated:
"The CIA, following the directives of its government, wanted to
create an Italian nationalism capable of halting what it saw as a
slide to the left, and, for this purpose, it may have made use of
right-wing terrorism.”239
*
*
*
*
Turkey
Another Gladio hotspot was Turkey. During the Cold War, Turkey shared a third of
the total borders with the Soviet bloc and maintained the largest standing army in Europe,
and the second in NATO after the United States. In 1952, a stay-behind army was
organized under the codename 'Counter-Guerrilla'.
“On November 3 (1996), a truck crashed into a Mercedes Benz in
Susurluk, ninety miles south of Istanbul, and killed three Turkish
passengers: a fugitive heroin smuggler and hitman, a former
high-ranking police officer, and a former "Miss Cinema." The
lone survivor was a right-wing member of parliament. In the
car's trunk, police found a forged passport, police identification
239Ganser's Whitehead Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations page 73.
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papers, ammunition, silencers, and machine guns.
Abdullah Catli, the fugitive heroin smuggler, had escaped from a
Swiss prison. The dead beauty queen, Gonca Uz, was his
girlfriend.
The police officer was Huseyin Kocadag, head of a Turkish police
academy and a former Istanbul deputy police chief who
reportedly organized hit squads in the southeast that kill Kurdish
guerrillas and their supporters.
The survivor, Sedat Bucak, a member of parliament from the
conservative True Path Party, is reportedly in charge of 2,000
Kurdish mercenaries paid by the government to fight Kurdish
guerrillas.
The car crash has created a sensation in Turkey and has led
parliament to hold hearings on the ties linking the True Path
Party, the police, and thugs like Abdullah Catli. Newspapers in
Turkey are making connections between what they are calling
the "state gang" and a secret paramilitary force that for decades
has attacked the left...
The United States funded these stay-behind groups for decades.
Even though there was no Soviet occupation, some of the groups
did take up arms-- against left-wing dissidents in their own
countries. Some descendants of these groups are still at it,
especially in Turkey.
99
Abdullah Catli was one of those.
"The accident unveiled the dark liaisons within the state," former
prime minister Bulent Ecevit told parliament in December. Now
leader of a small opposition social-democratic party, Ecevit
knows a lot about those liaisons. He first told me about them --
and the American connection -- back in 1990, when I interviewed
him in his Ankara office.” - The Progressive240
Bulent Ecevit, five time Turkish prime minister, who is cited in the above quote,
declared that the Taksim Square massacre was a Gladio operation, where half a million
citizens had rallied. It was organized by trade unions, and the shooting lasted for 20
minutes while a thousand policemen in attendance did not intervene. About 40 people
were killed, and though none of the perpetrators were caught, 500 demonstrators were
detained. The massacre occurred during a broader wave of political violence.241
The U.S. State Department in its 1995 Human Rights report noted that:
“Prominent credible human rights organizations, Kurdish
leaders, and local Kurds asserted that the government acquiesces
in, or even carries out, the murder of civilians... Human rights
groups reported the widespread and credible belief that a
Counter-Guerrilla group associated with the security forces had
241Ganser´s Whitehead Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, page 73
100
carried out at least some 'mystery killings'".242
American journalist Lucy Komisar, when asking U.S. officials about investigating
the human rights reports, was told “That's classified.” The Turkish military would likewise
block all investigations in their country.243
There is evidence of Gladio operatives extensively operating torture campaigns for
political purposes. For example, Talhat Turhan, former Turkey General, survived torture at
the hands of special forces. He was told “...I was now ‘in the hands of a Counter Guerrilla
unit operating under the high command of the Army outside the constitution and the laws.’
They told me that they ‘considered me as their prisoner of war and that I was sentenced to
death.”244
Much of the violence was directed at the Kurdish minority. In 1984 the Counter-
Guerrillas were behind the brutal crackdown that would kill and torture thousands over
the next 5 years. Among other operations, Counter-Guerrillas would dress up as PKK
members (A Kurdish political party) and attacked villages, raping and executing people
randomly.245
The political violence in Turkey, with Gladio operatives responsible to at least a
moderate extent, paved the way for the series of military coups that have occurred in the
country. A 1996 New York Times article notes that:
242Ganser's NATO's Secret Army, page 20
243Ibid.
244Ganser´s Whitehead Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, page 74
245Ganser's NATO's Secret Army, page 240
101
“evidence suggests that officially sanctioned criminality may
have reached levels that few had imagined...
One of Turkey's most prominent pro-Kurdish politicians, Guven
Ozata, said the car crash and its aftermath had convinced him
that state-sponsored death squads were behind many of the
estimated 3,500 unsolved killings that have been committed in
the southeastern part of the country in the last decade. Most of
the victims had been suspected of sympathizing with separatist
Kurdish causes.
''These gangs have a direct link with mystery killings,'' Mr. Ozata
said at a news conference. ''This is no longer a hypothesis or a
guess. It is a reality acknowledged by Government officials.''
Several politicians and others who are calling for investigations
into the Government's relationship with criminal gangs believe
that the gangs used their official ties as cover for involvement in
Turkey's lucrative heroin-smuggling trade. They suspect that
senior officials were engaged in the trade or tolerated it as a way
of repaying gangs that killed at their behest.” - New York
Times246
The evidence of Gladio operations in Turkey reveal another important link: The
collusion between paramilitary forces and drug traffickers. At the time (and to this day),
Turkey served as a major hub in the smuggling of drugs into Western Europe, from the
102
Southeast Asian 'Golden Triangle' and later the Middle East. It is likely that drugs served
as a significant source of funding for these decentralized operations and was the catalyst
for a bond between the state and the criminal underworld that ensured massive corruption
in the country that exists to this day. After all, we know that the Gehlen Organization was
involved in the black market in the area to raise extra funds for their intelligence
operations. It seems that this practice spread throughout the web of 'stay-behind' armies
financed and armed by the CIA and NATO.
*
*
*
*
Greece
One of the countries that suffered the most from the Cold War terrorism groups was
Greece, the country with perhaps the most significant propensity for the rise of a natural
leftist coalition. Former CIA agent and Gladio whistleblower Philip Agee claimed that:
“The Greek-American CIA officer recruited several groups of
Greek citizens for what the CIA called ‘a nucleus for rallying a
citizen army against the threat of a leftist coup’ … Each of the
several groups was trained and equipped to act as an
autonomous guerrilla unit, capable of mobilizing and carrying on
guerrilla warfare with minimal or no outside direction.”247
103
These groups were equipped with automatic weapons and small mountain mortars
stashed in underground caches throughout the country.248
The group was involved with the 1967 coup, where leftists were widely reported to
have large leads in the polls. As NATO orders were to prevent any type of leftist
'insurgency', the group took over the Greece Defense Ministry, rolled into Athens, took
control of communications centers, Parliament, the Royal Palace, and arrested over
10,000 people, many of whom were tortured.249
*
*
*
*
Conclusion
Although the CIA and NATO have steadfastly refused to acknowledge the existence
of Gladio, giving them deniability from ever having to disclose documents related to the
operation, the existence of these fascist and violent underground networks has been
acknowledged by the governments of nearly every NATO country. Furthermore, official
documents in German, Dutch, French and Italian confirming the network, its organization
and practices have been declassified.250
Operation Gladio is not just some ancient history. Italian Prime Minister Giulio
Andreotti confirmed that the last coordination meeting he was aware of was held in
1990.251 It has to be noted that this was a period of time where terrorism was evolving,
moving towards the widespread radical Islamic terror that bombards our television
248Ganser´s Whitehead Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, page 77
249Ibid.
251Ganser's NATO's Secret Army, page 1
104
screens daily, just 3 years before the first World Trade Center bombing and two years after
the creation of Al-Qaeda. At the same time the geopolitical strategies of the United States
were moving away from Europe and towards the Middle East. Unfortunately, the available
information on Operation Gladio raises more questions than it answers.
Food for Thought:
1. Knowing that the last Gladio meeting was in 1990, can we say with any certainty
that the program ever ended?
2. How many people involved with Gladio are still operating in the CIA and other
agencies?
3. Seeing that the 'Strategy of Tension' proved to be an effective tool, in what other
instances has it been implemented?
4. Is there currently a 'Gladio B' in operation in the Middle East, as former FBI agent
Sybel Edmonds asserts?
5. Are the criminal alliances that formed during Gladio in places such as Turkey still in
effect today?
6. How did the 'stay-behind' organizations affect domestic politics in ways other than
105
terrorism?
7. Is the ongoing assassination campaign in Iraq, discussed in the chapter 'The War on
Terror is a Fraud', a part of an evolved Gladio campaign?
106
Operation Mockingbird
"About a third of the whole CIA budget went to media
propaganda operations... We're talking about hundreds of
millions of dollars a year just for that
close to a billion dollars
are being spent every year by the United States on secret
propaganda." Testimony of William Schapp to Congress252
In 1948, the United States began the Marshall Plan, an initiative to help the
devastated Europe recover from the War. The CIA decided to siphon funds to create the
Office of Policy Coordination, which would become the covert action branch of the
Agency.253 It was under this program that Operation Mockingbird, a domestic propaganda
campaign aimed at promoting the views of the CIA within the media, began. From the
onset, Operation Mockingbird was one of the most sensitive of the CIA's operations, with
recruitment of journalists and training of intelligence officers for propaganda purposes
usually undertaken by Director Allen Dulles himself or his direct peers.254
It is a false belief that the CIA 'infiltrated' unwitting media institutions. The
recruitment of journalists was frequently done with complicity from top management and
ownership. Former CIA Director William Colby claimed during the Church Committee
investigative hearings, "Lets go to the managements. They were witting." Among the
organizations that would lend their help to the propaganda efforts was the New York
107
Times, Newsweek, Associated Press, and the Miami Herald. Providing cover to CIA agents
was a part of the New York Times policy, set by their late publisher, Arthur Hays
Salzberger.255
The investigative committee of Frank Church, officially titled “Select Committee to
Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities”, uncovered a lot of
evidence concerning Operation Mockingbird and came to the conclusion that:
"The CIA currently maintains a network of several hundred
foreign individuals around the world who provide intelligence for
the CIA and at times attempt to influence opinion through the
use of covert propaganda. These individuals provide the CIA with
direct access to a large number of newspapers and periodicals,
scores of press services and news agencies, radio and television
stations, commercial book publishers, and other foreign media
outlets."256
Carl Bernstein, the reporter famous for his excellent investigation into the
Watergate scandal, wrote that:
“(Joseph) Alsop is one of more than 400 American journalists
who in the past twenty-five years have secretly carried out
255Ibid.
1976.
108
assignments for the Central Intelligence Agency, according to
documents on file at CIA headquarters. Some of these
journalists’ relationships with the Agency were tacit; some were
explicit. There was cooperation, accommodation and overlap.
Journalists provided a full range of clandestine services—from
simple intelligence gathering to serving as go betweens with
spies in Communist countries. Reporters shared their notebooks
with the CIA. Editors shared their staffs. Some of the journalists
were Pulitzer Prize winners, distinguished reporters who
considered themselves ambassadors without portfolio for their
country. Most were less exalted: foreign correspondents who
found that their association with the Agency helped their work;
stringers and freelancers who were as interested in the derring-
do of the spy business as in filing articles; and, the smallest
category, full-time CIA employees masquerading as journalists
abroad. In many instances, CIA documents show, journalists
were engaged to perform tasks for the CIA with the consent of
the managements of America’s leading news organizations.”257
While a majority of Mockingbird operations were overseas, the goal was to have
important, hard-hitting stories to be circulated in the American press. Relationships with
major United States media institutions certainly helped with this goal. Bernstein lists The
New York Times, CBS and Time inc. as the most productive relationships the agency
cultivated. They also created front organizations overseas who publicly maintained an
257Rolling Stone Magazine, “The CIA and the Media,” October 20, 1977
109
appearance of free press but privately were operated by the agency. An example of this is
the Rome Daily American, which was 40% owned by the CIA for three decades.258
Another strategy was developing relationships with major media owners who were
known to harbor right-wing views, such as William Paley of CBS, and then passing on
information of journalists, actors and screenwriters who harbored left-wing views.
Information was also passed on to friendly congressmen such as Joseph McCarthy. These
men and women would then be blacklisted from the industry. Lee J. Cobb was one such
actor who was blacklisted, and recalled his experience:
“When the facilities of the government of the United States are
drawn on an individual it can be terrifying. The blacklist is just
the opening gambit - being deprived of work. Your passport is
confiscated. That's minor. But not being able to move without
being tailed is something else. After a certain point it grows to
implied as well as articulated threats, and people succumb. My
wife did, and she was institutionalized. In 1953 the HCUA (House
UnAmerican Activities Committee) did a deal with me. I was
pretty much worn down. I had no money. I couldn't borrow. I
had the expenses of taking care of the children. Why am I
subjecting my loved ones to this? If it's worth dying for, and I am
just as idealistic as the next fellow. But I decided it wasn't worth
dying for, and if this gesture was the way of getting out of the
penitentiary I'd do it. I had to be employable again.”259
258Wikipedia article on the Rome Daily American
110
The CIA went as far as to write scripts for Hollywood. One interesting example is
the funding of the movie version of Animal Farm in 1954, a book written just less than a
decade earlier by George Orwell which enjoyed large commercial success. The problem for
the CIA was that Orwell was a socialist, and his book attacked both capitalism and
communism. To avoid this conflict, the CIA changed the ending of the Hollywood version
to portray capitalism in a more positive light.260
Domestic surveillance was also used on journalists who had published classified
material. In one example, a physical surveillance post was set up at a Hilton Hotel in view
of the office of Washington Post writer Michael Getler.261 The operation defied the CIA's
charter, which specifically prohibits domestic spying. The operation was directed towards
numerous members of the Washington press corp, and was signed off by John F. Kennedy
himself, in coordination with CIA director John McCone.262
One CIA document states: “Get books published or distributed abroad without
revealing any U.S. Influence, by covertly subsidizing foreign publicans or booksellers... Get
books published for operational reasons, regardless of commercial viability”. The Church
Committee concluded that over 1000 books were published under this directive.263
Some investigative journalists have claimed that Operation Mockingbird did not
end in 1976 as the CIA claims. For example, in 1998, researcher Steve Kangas claimed that
conservative billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife, who ran 'Forum World Features', a foreign
news organization, was a CIA asset and used the organization to disseminate propaganda
262Ibid.
1976.
111
for circulation in the United States.264 Kangas ended up dead with a bullet hole in his head,
in the office of Richard Scaife. It was ruled a suicide, although there were discrepancies in
the police report and the autopsy.265
The Church Committee's conclusion accurately reflects the problems associated
with Operation Mockingbird:
“In examining the CIA’s past and present use of the U.S. media,
the Committee finds two reasons for concern. The first is the
potential, inherent in covert media operations, for manipulating
or incidentally misleading the American public. The second is the
damage to the credibility and independence of a free press which
may be caused by covert relationships with the U.S. journalists
and media organizations.”266
While it is deplorable for citizens of countries to be subjected to a state-owned
media, at least they can be aware of the biases and filter information accordingly. We have
been taught the lie from birth that the U.S. press is free from government meddling. In a
situation where the manipulation is completely covert, the American public has been left
unaware of the propaganda they have been ingesting for decades.
April 1976.
112
Food for Thought:
1. Why were the owners and management of large media institutions so willing to
participate in a program that violated their journalistic integrity?
2. Has the increasingly consolidated media industry made it easier for news to be
manipulated to fit 'the agenda' discussed in the One Party State?
3. Have MK-ULTRA entrapment or mind control techniques ever been used to target
the press?
113
COINTELPRO
"Between 1965 and 1975, the FBI opened more than 500,000
intelligence files on more than one million Americans, according
to a Congressional report
Among the Bureau's targets: Martin
Luther King and the civil rights movement, anti-Vietnam War
Groups, and the underground press." - Center for Investigative
Reporting267
"Purpose of counterintelligence action is to disrupt the BPP
[Black Panther Party] and it is immaterial whether facts exist to
substantiate the charge." - J. Edgar Hoover268
J. Edgar Hoover issued directives for COINTELPRO, a codename for Counter
Intelligence Program, in 1956. The original intent was to monitor the Communist Party
USA but quickly expanded its scope to infiltrate and marginalize a variety of groups such
as the American Indian Movement, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and
the Black Panthers, as well as targeting high profile individuals such as Martin Luther
King, Jr.
The FBI's stated motivation was "protecting national security, preventing violence,
and maintaining the existing social and political order."269 (Emphasis added).
114
They used harassment, wiretapping, psychological warfare, propaganda, and
assassinations among other techniques to achieve their goals.
*
*
*
*
Fred Hampton
On December 4th, 1969, the Chicago Police Department and FBI raided an
apartment housing members of the Black Panther Party. At 4:45 am, the heavily armed
police stormed the apartment, killing Panther member Mark Clark immediately, who was
serving a security duty. Clark fired his shotgun, the only shot fired by the Panthers that
day, while the police and FBI would end up shooting over 98 times.270 Forensics and
firearms experts determined that Clark's shot was fired from very near the floor, indicating
that Clark had already sustained grave injuries.
The raid team would then assault the room of Fred Hampton, a rising leader in the
Panther movement. Police would fire twice at Hampton, who was lying next to his
pregnant girlfriend, hitting his shoulder. Court transcripts revealed the following
conversation took place:271
"That's Fred Hampton."
270Ward Churchill, “COINTELPRO Papers,” page 140. PDF available here . A truly astounding book that draws
heavily on official documents provided by the FBI. A 'must read'.
115
"Is he dead?... Bring him out."
"He's barely alive.
"He'll make it.
Two more shots were fired, point blank at Hampton's head.
"He's good and dead now."
Crime Scene from Fred Hampton's Bedroom
Over a dozen more Panthers residing in the apartment would be wounded, beaten,
116
and then charged with attempted murder of police officers. The next day, the media largely
defended the FBI's actions. The Chicago Tribune published photos showing holes
purported to be from bullets fired by the Panthers, but forensics would later reveal these
holes to have been made by nails.272
Documents released by the Freedom of Information Act include a sketch of
Hampton's apartment drawn by an FBI informant, used by police and FBI in the
assassination. The informant received $300 from the FBI for providing the information.273
The FBI had tried other methods before resorting to assassination, including
sending a bogus letter to a rival Chicago gang leader in hopes of provoking a violent
retaliation which read:
273“Cointelpro Papers” page 160
117
“Brother Jeff: I've spent some time with some Panther friends on
the west side lately and I know whats been going on. The
brothers that run the Panthers blame you for blocking their thing
and there's supposed to be a hit out for you. I'm not a Panther, or
a Ranger, just black. From what I see these Panthers are out for
themselves, not black people. I think you ought to know what
their (sic) up to, I know what I'd do if I was you. You might here
from me again. Signed, A Black Brother You Don't Know.”274
The use of bogus letters for sabotage and attempting to provoke violence was widely
used by the FBI throughout COINTELPRO.
Why was Fred Hampton targeted? He was a rising leader in the Black Panther Party
and was in the process of uniting various gang, including the Puerto Rican 'Young Lords'
and the Caucasian 'Young Patriots' into a political coalition. He had the potential to
drastically change the political landscape of Chicago by channeling the youth unrest that
had previously been directed against other gangs and instead direct it at the political
establishment to fight against police corruption and to generate socially constructive
energies.
This type of action was directly antagonistic to one of the primary directives of
COINTELPRO put forth by J. Edgar Hoover himself, which read:275
274“Cointelpro Papers,” page 159
275Ibid.
118
“1. Prevent the coalition of militant black nationalist groups.”
The same document also contained another relevant directive:276
“Prevent the rise of a 'messiah'”
Fred Hampton had the charisma to unite large groups of young men and the
attitude of social welfare and community development that had the potential to gain the
support of the broader progressive community. His assassination prevented his career
from escalating to these heights.
*
*
*
*
Subverting the Black Panther Party
The FBI waged a wildly successful campaign against the Black Panther Party
throughout the '60s and '70s. By the late '60s, the Black Panther Party was the most
prominent African American political force in the United States. They advocated a 10 point
socialist program for black self-determination, provided free food and healthcare to
communities, fought against hard drugs, and formed legal armed street patrols to deter
violence from the KKK and other antagonistic organizations. They also advocated for
community control of police, schools and other institutions. Today, these points are largely
ignored in favor of the racist caricature promoted by the Bureau. The operations the FBI
took to subvert the Panthers is truly astounding.
For example, there is the Black Panther coloring book, created by the FBI and
119
distributed by Bureau informants to black children in an attempt to marginalize the Party
within the black community.277 It is directly related to Hoover's directive:
"4. Prevent militant black nationalist groups and leaders from gaining respectability"
The goal was not to influence the children of these communities, but to marginalize
the Panthers within the white community. The coloring book aimed to do just that, and
would certainly be shocking to anyone who saw it. Once marginalized, the public would
support increasingly repressive policies against the Panthers and their leadership, such as
the Fred Hampton assassination.
277The Coloring Book is hosted in various places, it is available here at NotreDame.edu
121
To J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI, it did not matter what the activities of the Black
Panther Party consisted of. In 1969, an FBI special agent sent Hoover a memo detailing
how his investigation of the Panthers has only turned up pacifist activities such as feeding
breakfast to children.278 Hoover shot back a memo saying that the Agent's career ambitions
were directly related to supplying Hoover with information supporting his view that the
Panthers were "... a violence prone organization seeking to overthrow the government by
revolutionary means."279
To prevent the unification of the Black Panther Party and the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee, popularly known as SNCC, the FBI resorted to fostering splits
between the leadership of the two organizations. The FBI targeted Stokely Carmichael by
using a technique known as 'bad jacket': they forged documents indicating that Carmichael
was a CIA informant.280 It worked.
The FBI also had the policy of arresting Panther members for any reason, even just
on suspicion of crime without evidence, for the purpose of exhausting the Party's funds to
pay bonds. The Panther's attorney said in 1970:
“In a period of two years — December, 1967 to December, 1969 —
the Black Panther Party has expended in bail-bond premiums
alone— just the premiums, that is, money that will never be
returned — a sum in excess of $200,000! How many breakfasts
or lunches for hungry children, how much medical attention
sorely needed in the ghetto communities would that $200,000
279Ibid.
280“COINTELPRO Papers,” page 147
122
have furnished?...In the same two-year period, twenty-eight
Panthers were killed.”281
In instances where dozens of Panthers were arrested, the bond requirements were
too high to pay and members sat in jail for weeks, or even months, a common
COUNTELPRO tactic used against other groups as well. By 1974, the Black Panther Party
had essentially collapsed under the weight of ruthless harassment.
*
*
*
*
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
In 1957, the FBI targeted the Southern Christian Leadership Conference as a “likely
target for communist infiltration”.282 The nature of the group was entirely non-violent and
focused on organizing the southern black vote. It was founded by Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr. and several other southern black ministers. By 1964, Dr. King had given his 'I have a
dream speech' and had emerged as a preeminent civil rights leader and had also began to
address social change that transcended racial issues. At this point, the FBI had marked
King as a clear threat to the 'established order'. Agent William C. Sullivan committed to
writing:
“We must mark [King] now, if we have not before, as the most
dangerous Negro in the future of this Nation from the standpoint
of communism, the Negro, and national security...it maybe
unrealistic to limit [our actions against King] to legalistic proofs
281Ibid, page 164
282“COINTELPRO Papers,” Page 116
123
that would stand up in court or before Congressional
Committees.”283
When it was announced that King would win the Nobel Prize, the FBI compiled an
audio tape consisting of various fragments of conversations from King's tapped phones,
bugged offices and hotel rooms. It was purported to demonstrate that King was a sexual
deviant. It was sent to King with an anonymous note stating that it would be released to
the press unless he committed suicide prior to receiving the award.284 When King failed to
reply, FBI Associate Director Cartha DeLoach offered the contents of the tape to various
news institutions, including Newsweek, but the reporters nearly universally declined to
report on the story.
283Ibid. Page 118
124
On April 24, 1968, Dr. King was assassinated. Although public memory has largely
forgotten, King was in the process of organizing the 'Poor Peoples Campaign', aimed at
uniting poor people of all races to rally for social change. It is likely that if King had not
died, the campaign would have been wildly successful. The campaign also represented
everything that COINTELPRO had been dedicated to prevent. Although there is no
complete proof that the FBI was involved with the assassination, the jury of a 1999
Memphis civil trial came to the conclusion that James Earl Ray did not kill King, and that
the real culprit was 'government agencies'.285
*
*
*
*
American Indian Movement
“They [the Indians] are a conquered nation, and when you are
conquered, the people you are conquered by dictate your future.
This is a basic philosophy of mine. If I'm part of a conquered
nation, I've got to yield to authority... [The FBI must function as]
a colonial police force.” - Assistant Special Agent in Charge
Norman Zigrossi286
AIM, the American Indian Movement, began in the '60s as activism focused on
preventing the further depredation of Indian lands and resources. As the movement rose
125
to prominence, the FBI marked them as an 'extremist organization' to target.287 One
document released under the Freedom of Information Act advocates that: "local police put
[AIM] leaders under dose scrutiny, and arrest them on every possible charge until they
could no longer make bail.”288
During a presentation by members of the Congressional Black Caucus to the UN
Human Rights Commissioner, it was alleged that virtually every known leader of AIM has
been imprisoned in state or federal prisons, some repeatedly. Russell Means, for example,
was charged with 37 counts but not one has held up in court.289 It was later revealed that
the FBI had infiltrated Mean's defense team but was still unable to pin their charges
against him.
In 1973, thousands of Native Americans from reservations across the West had
gathered at Wounded Knee at the Pine Ridge reservation to simultaneously commemorate
the 1890 massacre and protest the political corruption of tribal president Dick Wilson, who
had received $62,000 from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and was using it to fund a private
force that suppressed opposition and often resorted to murder.290 The force designated
themselves "Guardians of the Oglala Nation", abbreviated as GOONS. Attempts to
impeach Wilson, who was responsible for years of political violence, had failed. The FBI
considered the occupation an act of treason and began a siege of AIM members, in
coordination with US Marshalls, agents from the BIA and the GOONS of Dick Wilson.
Wilson bluntly declared in a speech that "AIM will die at Wounded Knee".291
According to Historian Rex Weyler, who obtained documents subpoenaed from the
Pentagon, the U.S. Marshall Service:
288“The COINTEPRO Papers,” page 280
290A Presentation to the United Nations Human Rights Committee by members of the Congressional Black Caucus,
126
“...directed the employment of 17 APCs [armored personnel
carriers], 130,000 rounds of M-16 ammunition, 41,000 rounds
of M-40 high explosive, as well as helicopters, Phantom jets, and
personnel. Military officers, supply sergeants, maintenance
technicians, chemical officers, and medical teams remained on
duty throughout the 71 day siege, all working in civilian clothes
[to conceal their unconstitutional involvement in this "civil
disorder"]”292
All of this was on site at Pine Ridge during the 71 day standoff, during which AIM
demanded the removal of Wilson from office, the GOONs disbanded, and the military
presence removed. By the end, hundreds of thousands of rounds were fired at AIM
positions , 2 AIM members were killed, 14 seriously injured, and 8 'disappeared'. In the 36
months that proceeded the end of the Pine Ridge standoff, more than 60 AIM members
died violently on or near Pine Ridge.293
The Civil Rights Commission revealed that AIM was right to feel aggrieved during
the occupation of Pine Ridge: The FBI had been complicit in rigging the 1974 Pine Ridge
elections against AIM members.294
*
*
*
*
Conclusion
The Church Committee investigated COINTELPRO and concluded:
292Weyler, Rex “Blood on the Land,” page 54
293“COINTELPRO Papers,” Page 270
294Ibid.
127
“Too many people have been spied upon by too many
Government agencies and too much information has been
collected. The Government has often undertaken the secret
surveillance of citizens on the basis of their political beliefs, even
when those beliefs posed no threat of violence or illegal acts on
behalf of a hostile foreign power. The Government, operating
primarily through secret informants, but also using other
intrusive techniques such as wiretaps, microphone "bugs",
surreptitious mail opening, and break-ins, has swept in vast
amounts of information about the personal lives, views, and
associations of American citizens. Investigations of groups
deemed potentially dangerous -- and even of groups suspected of
associating with potentially dangerous organizations -- have
continued for decades, despite the fact that those groups did not
engage in unlawful activity...
The Constitutional system of checks and balances has not
adequately controlled intelligence activities. Until recently the
Executive branch has neither delineated the scope of permissible
activities nor established procedures for supervising intelligence
agencies. Congress has failed to exercise sufficient oversight,
seldom questioning the use to which its appropriations were
being put.”
128
Simply put, the committee's conclusions are correct but fall short. It is clear that for
a period of nearly 3 decades, the FBI waged a literal domestic war on largely peaceful
activists who sought to bring about social and political change. During the time of the
Vietnam war, MK-ULTRA, the struggles of various civil rights movements, Watergate and
other criminal acts in the executive branch, the United States drastically needed effective
leaders and organizations to affect change yet the FBI successfully suppressed any serious
movements that arose.
Food for thought:
1. How responsible is COINTELPRO for the fall of the American left in the 1970's?
2. How likely is it that other high profile assassinations similar to Fred Hampton, such
as Martin Luther King Jr., actions undertake by the FBI under COINTELPRO
orders?
3. What movements are currently being subverted by the FBI today?
4. Did J. Edgar Hoover leave a corrupt infrastructure when he retired in 1972, after 37
years of being the FBI Director?
129
The Phoenix Program
Thanks to the New York Times and 60 Minutes, most people are now aware that
former Senator and Presidential candidate Bob Kerrey once led a raid on the peasant
village of Thanh Phong during his service in Vietnam, and murdered nearly two dozen
villagers in cold blood. His team disemboweled women, children and infants and shot
dead whole families.
What most people don't know, is that Kerrey was operating on orders from a CIA
program known as Operation Phoenix, the program that oversaw some of the most horrific
war crimes ever unleashed on Earth.295
It was in 1964, under CIA station chief Peer DeSilva, that the Phoenix Program was
initiated. DeSilva was a proponent of the belief of 'counter-terrorism', CIA doublespeak for
the idea that terror was a legitimate tactic in unconventional warfare.296
Historian Douglas Valentine summarizes the concept of Operation Phoenix as follows:
"Central to Phoenix is the fact that it targeted civilians, not
soldiers... Under Phoenix, due process was totally non-existent.
South Vietnamese civilians whose names appeared on blacklists
could be kidnapped, tortured, detained for two years without
295Counterpunch, “Fragging Bob ,” May 17, 2001, written by Historian Douglas Valentine
130
trial, or even murdered simply on the word of an anonymous
informer. At its height, Phoenix managers imposed a quota of
eighteen hundred neutralizations per month on the people
running the program in the field, opening up the program to
abuses by corrupt security officers, policemen, politicians, and
racketeers, all of whom extorted innocent civilians as well as VCI
[Viet Cong Infrastructure]. Legendary CIA officer Lucien Conein
described Phoenix as, "A very good blackmail scheme for the
central government: 'If you don't do what I want, you're VC.'”
“Indeed, Phoenix was, among other things, an instrument of
counter-terror - the psychological warfare tactic in which
members of the VCI were brutally murdered along with their
families or neighbors as a means of terrorizing the entire
population into a state of submission. Such horrendous acts
were, for propaganda purposes, often made to look as if they had
been committed by the enemy.”297
This is the intellectual context under which Bob Kerrey massacred the hamlet of
civilians, for which he was subsequently awarded the Bronze Star.
Peer DeSilva quickly expanded Phoenix to cover all 40 provinces in South Vietnam,
each equipped with an Intelligence Coordinating Committee and its own prison. Torture
techniques such as electric shock, beatings and rape were commonplace.298
297From Douglas Valentine's Website .
131
The Central Intelligence Agency originally had trouble finding Americans who were
willing to murder and mutilate, so the 'counter-terror' squads were composed of ex-
convicts, VietCong defectors, and mercenaries.299 They then employed Special Forces, Navy
SEALS and other highly trained Americans such as Bob Kerrey, who had essentially been
indoctrinated by the military into killing machines, to oversee the program.
Former Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Herbert, who was involved in Operation
Phoenix, described his experience in his autobiography Soldier: “They wanted me to take
charge of execution teams that wiped out entire families and tried to make it look as
though the VC themselves had done the killing.”300
Former CIA agent Ralph McGee, speaking to PBS's Bill Moyers for the fantastic
documentary 'The Secret Government', stated that:
"We were murdering these people, incinerating them... My
efforts had resulted in the deaths of many people, and I just - for
me it was a period when I guess I was - I considered myself
nearly insane - I just couldn't reconcile what I had been and
what I was at the time becoming."301
McGee was operating under Phoenix helping to set up the South Vietnam secret
police, and has since become one of the most outspoken critics on the CIA. He recalls that
the program cost billions of dollars, and CIA Director William Colby refused an
investigative audit before a Congressional Committee.302
299Ibid, Valentine
132
The Agency's website describes how the entire South Vietnamese population was
mapped out with Census Grievance teams in conjunction with national data.303 They
determined which villages were more likely to be friendly to the VietCong through
interviews, and color coded maps based on that information, specifically noting that
"These maps would often contain the names of family members who were VCI members or
sympathetic to the communists."
“I think it’s common knowledge what goes on at the
interrogation center... It was common knowledge that when
someone was picked up their lives were about at an end because
the Americans most likely felt that, if they were to turn someone
like that back into the countryside it would just be like
multiplying NLF followers.” -Jeff Stein, Author and Former
Military Intelligence, Vietnam Veteran304
The 1971 Congressional Inquiry revealed that the blacklists created by these maps
and census data was not thoroughly vetted, as opposed to claims by Agency officials. One
member of the Phoenix Program described to Congress that:
"It was my experience that the majority of people classified as VC
were “captured” as a result of sweeping tactical operations. In
effect, a huge dragnet was cast out in our area of operation (AR)
and whatever looked good in the catch, regardless of evidence,
133
was classified as VCI."305
Lieutenant Vincent Okamoto, Army Combat Officer and recipient of the
Distinguished Service Cross, testified on his experiences with using blacklists as a means of
'neutralizing' Viet Cong:
"The problem was, how do you find the people on the blacklist?
It's not like you had their address and telephone number. The
normal procedure would be to go into a village and just grab
someone and say, 'Where's Nguyen so-and-so?' Half the time the
people were so afraid they would say anything. Then a Phoenix
team would take the informant, put a sandbag over his head,
poke out two holes so he could see, put commo wire around his
neck like a long leash, and walk him through the village and say,
'When we go by Nguyen's house scratch your head.' Then that
night Phoenix would come back, knock on the door, and say,
'April Fool, motherfucker.' Whoever answered the door would get
wasted. As far as they were concerned whoever answered was a
Communist, including family members. Sometimes they'd come
back to camp with ears to prove that they killed people."
Psychological warfare against civilians was an integral part of Phoenix. Soldiers
would leave pamphlets on dead bodies, or on doors indicating that recipients were marked
134
for death.
“Attention Villagers: 1.Your village was bombed because you
harbored Vietcong in your village. 2. Your village was bombed
because you gave help to the Vietcong in your area. 3. Your
village was bombed because you gave food to the Vietcong.”
-USMC Leaflet306
Phoenix officer Bart Osbourne testified before Congress in 1971:
"I never knew in the course of all those operations any detainee
to live through his interrogation. They all died. There was never
any reasonable establishment of the fact that any one of those
individuals was, in fact, cooperating with the VC, but they all
died and the majority were either tortured to death or things like
thrown out of helicopters. It became a sterile depersonalized
murder program."307
Throwing victims out of a helicopter, for example, served a psychological warfare
purpose as well, terrorizing those on the ground.
The intelligence that the CIA received was often flawed. Anyone in the South
Vietnam infrastructure could report intelligence, and it was often not verified, which led to
135
abuses such as South Vietnam politicians feeding intelligence to kill their political rivals.308
"We had no way of determining the background of these sources,
nor their motivation for providing American units with
information.
No American in the team spoke or understood Vietnamese well
enough to independently debrief any “contact.” None of us were
sufficiently sensitive to nor knowledgeable of the law, the
culture, the customs, the history, etc.
Our paid sources could easily have been either provocateurs or
opportunists with a score to settle. Every information report (IR)
we wrote based on our sources’ information was classified as (1)
unverifiable and (2) usually reliable source. As to the first, it
speaks for itself; the second, in most cases was pure rationale for
the existence of the program." - Michael J Uhr, First Lieutenant
involved with Phoenix.309
Historian Marvin Gettleman described in his book Vietnam and America: A
Documented History, how "Intelligence gathered during interrogation was often used to
direct 'search and destroy' missions aimed at wiping out whole villages or groups of
villages."310
All told, documents show that Phoenix led to the 'neutralizing' of over 80,000
308Ibid.
136
people, about a third of them killed, between the years of 1968 and 1972.311
One Pentagon contract-study of Phoenix's operations found that only 3% of those
'neutralized' were full party members above the district level between 1970 and 1971, and
that over half "...were not even party members."312
A Saigon government document lists the number of assassinated at over 40,000,
nearly double that of other documents, highlighting potential disparity between record
keeping and reality.313 The program supposedly ended in 1972, though it has been revealed
that at least certain aspects continued until the fall of Saigon in 1975. Understanding that
official documents don't cover the full scope of Phoenix, and the history of records
destruction by the Agency, it is unlikely that the full extent of Phoenix will ever be known.
So what about the infamous My Lai massacre that resulted in the rape and
mutilation of around 400 civilians? Historian Daniel Valentine argues it was most
certainly a Phoenix operation. He cites a known 'blacklist' of names to be 'neutralized' in
My Lai, multiple accounts of military personnel referring to the entire village as Viet Cong
sympathizers, using the logic that only sympathizers could survive in the area, and a
Vietnamese Colonel who said himself that My Lai was a Phoenix operation, among other
evidence.314
Marvin Gettleman concurrs:
"By late 1967, before the Tet offensive, 70% of the villages in
Quang Ngai province had already been destroyed.
313“Fiscal Year 1975 Foreign Assistance Request,” excerpt available here .
137
In response to Tet, this slaughter was intensified literally with a
vengeance. In mid-March on 1968, Quang Ngai province was the
scene of what was to become the most notorious example: the
massacre of villagers in My Lai 4. There the killing of hundreds of
villagers, almost all unarmed women and children, and old men,
so successfully swelled the body count that General
Westmoreland sent a personal message of 'Congratulations to
officers and men of Charlie Company for outstanding action' that
'dealt the enemy a heavy blow'.
When the carnage finally came to light, evidence poured in
showing that this massacre was not an aberration but just an
especially appalling instance of a systematic strategy."
-Gettleman, page 411315
Project Phoenix would first come to the public in 1971 with a congressional inquiry.
William Colby, CIA chief and director of the Phoenix program, testified that the agency
didn't distinguish between VietCong members and civilians.316 Colby would later defend
the program, citing it as 'the toughest opposition the Viet Cong faced'.317
Food for Thought:
1. In what other wars has terrorism been used as a tactic?
316Congressional Testimony, “U.S: Assistance Programs in Vietnam,” excerpt available here .
138
2. Is it possible that the multitude of abuses in Latin America in the decades that
proceeded the Vietnam War were 'Phoenix' offshoots?
3. Why has there been such little discussion about the 'Phoenix Program' both in the
mainstream media and in academia after its revelations came to light?
139
Iran/Contra
“The common ingredients of the Iran and Contra policies were
secrecy, deception, and disdain for the law...the United States
simultaneously pursued two contradictory foreign policies — a
public one and a secret one”- Report of the Congressional
Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair318
“In spite of the wildly speculative and false stories of arms for
hostages and alleged ransom payments, we did not—repeat, did
not—trade weapons or anything else for hostages, nor will we.”
-Ronald Reagan, November 1986
“A few months ago, I told the American people I did not trade
arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions still tell me
that's true, but the facts and evidence tell me it is not." -Ronald
Reagan, March 1987
Iran/Contra isn't one singular historical conspiracy, but rather comprised of various
illicit activities which revolved around a core group of subversive actors and a covert war in
140
Nicaragua.
The 'core of subversive actors' consisted of members and associates of the National
Security Council, created under the National Security Act of July 26, 1947. Since the act
was passed, the NSC has steadily grown in power and scope under various presidencies.
During Dwight D. Eisenhower's administration in the '50s, the NSC became a 'virtual
adjunct of the president', and started reporting directly to the executive branch. John F.
Kennedy, skeptical of the CIA and other agencies after the Bay of Pigs fiasco, allowed the
NSC to begin functioning operationally, evolving from its traditional role as a planning
committee.319 Under Ronald Reagan, the NSC expanded with increased staff and scope of
operations. Under Eisenhower, it had been tasked with creating a:
“...virtual Cold War machine against Communism,” and to
“create and exploit troublesome problems for international
Communism… reduce international Communist control over any
areas of the world,” and “develop underground resistance and
facilitate covert and guerilla operations.”320
This directive would be the rational and motivation for the group conducting
subversive actions in Nicaragua under the Reagan administration.
*
*
*
*
Nicaragua
319Draper, Theodore. “A Very Thin Line: the Iran-Contra Affairs”, 1991, p. 4
320Draper, p. 6
141
United States intervention in Nicaragua is nothing new. The U.S. had landed troops
numerous times in the country during the 19th century and as recently as 1912, during a
period known as the 'banana wars', used military force to directly quell rebellions against
American-supported leadership. In 1936 the American-trained head of the Nicaraguan
National Guard, Samoza Garcia, forcefully took power in the country by murdering and
disposing the former leader Augusto César Sandino, marking the beginning of a lengthy
U.S. Supported dictatorship.321
Trouble arose in the 1970's, when a revolutionary communist party called 'The
Sandanistas', named after the disposed Sandino, began mounting a series of attacks and
sabotage against the right wing Samoza dynasty, including the high-profile kidnapping of
Nicaraguan elite at a Christmas party in 1974. The Sandanistas enjoyed wide support from
much of the disenfranchised Nicaraguan population, who had become tired of the heavy-
handed Samoza rule. One striking example is the 1972 earthquake that struck the
Nicaraguan capital Manuga, where Anastasia Debayle, son of Samoza Garcia, exercised
emergency powers that allowed him to confiscate most of the international aid that had
been directed towards rebuilding the city, instead ending enriching Debayle's personal
coffers.322
In 1979, the Sandanista uprising culminated in their gaining full power in
Nicaragua. They were helped by the policies of Jimmy Carter, who had withdrawn aid to
the Samoza regime after a series of revelations of human rights abuses. Carter originally
hoped to remain on good terms with the Sandanistas, who had constructed a defacto
socialist government in Nicaragua, and responded by sending them $99 million in aid.
After they solidified a pact with the Soviet Bloc in 1980, Carter changed his tune and
322Ibid.
142
authorized the CIA to begin subversive acts in the country including propaganda efforts
but prohibiting direct conflict.323
In 1980, right wing elements in Nicaragua created the Nicaraguan Democratic
Force, FDN, which would become the largest and most organized member of the group
that would become known as the 'Contras'. When Reagan was inaugurated in 1981, he
stepped up support of the group and expanded the scope of covert action in the country,
allowing the CIA to directly arm, fund and train the Contras. In 1983, he signed the
National Security Decision Directive 77, entitled “Management of Public Diplomacy
Relative to National Security,” institutionalizing public diplomacy. In effect, it was a
special planning group within the NSC to coordinate public diplomacy campaigns, the
most institutionalized 'public propaganda ministry' in United States history.324 The group
used extensive media propaganda and control efforts, with one 14 page memorandum
written by Oliver North detailing over 80 specific 'publicity stunts' designed to influence
congressional and public opinion before upcoming Contra aid votes.325
When the covert war in Nicaragua became public knowledge in 1982, a group of
congressmen led by Massachusetts representative Edward P. Boland tried to end all covert
efforts in the country. This was with good reason, as news of the human rights abuses of
the Contras became public knowledge. For example, a 1987 Chicago Tribune article noted
that the Contras “engaged repeatedly in kidnappings, torture and murder of unarmed
civilians.”326 The Guardian would delve deeper into the atrocities of the Contras,
describing a particular attack where “Rosa had her breasts cut off. Then they cut into her
chest and took out her heart. The men had their arms broken, their testicles cut off. They
were killed by slitting their throats and pulling the tongue out through the slit."327
323Ibid.
325Foreign Policy, "Iran-Contra's Untold Story." 1988
327ISLA, excerpt available here . The book contains clippings of Latin American political, social and economic news
143
Americas Watch, a humans rights group, accused the Contras of328:
• targeting health care clinics and health care workers for assassination
• kidnapping civilians
• torturing civilians
• executing civilians, including children, who were captured in combat
• raping women
• indiscriminately attacking civilians and civilian houses
• seizing civilian property
• burning civilian houses in captured towns.
These were the principle means of waging war. Meanwhile, Reagan called the
Contras the “moral equivalent of the founding fathers”.329
The terrorism of the Contras was not simply 'collateral damage' of supporting
subversive groups. Rather, evidence shows that it was a deliberate campaign led by the CIA
in the vein of Phoenix. In fact, the CIA wrote the training manual for the Contras titled
“Psychological Operations in Guerrilla Warfare” which, among other activities, advocated
for assassinating judges and priests, blackmailing citizens, blowing up public buildings,
and firing on dissenting citizens.330
from various English language newspapers. This particular quote is cited as coming from The Guardian.
144
Congressman Boland submitted legislation on December 21, 1982 which would
become known as the Boland Amendment. It specifically barred “the use of funds ‘for the
purpose of’ overthrowing the government of Nicaragua or provoking a war between
Nicaragua and Honduras.”331 Open defiance was impossible, but the CIA, NSC and the
Reagan Administration were dedicated to supporting the Contras at all costs, so they chose
various methods of covert defiance by exploiting loopholes in the amendment. As long as
the funds going to the Contras were not tagged as being used for overthrowing the
Sandanista government, then they could be delivered under the guise of international aid.
The use of soliciting third party funding was also left out of the Boland Amendment.
Ultimately, the Boland Amendment had no tangible impact on the covert war in
Nicaragua.
During the period proceeding the Boland Amendment, the CIA directly assisted the
Contra's subversive efforts. One example is the use of air strikes against an airport near
Managua. They also placed mines in Nicaraguan harbors in 1984, damaging several ships.
The Wall Street Journal, which exposed these covert actions, also revealed the role of
Oliver North, a Marine Colonel working on assignment with the NSC, in coordinating the
actions, one of the first mentions of a name which would become notorious to the public
just a few years later.332
Congress soon realized the ineffectiveness of the Boland Amendment and
responded with new legislation that toughened the restrictions on funding the support,
known as the Boland Amendment II. It read:
“During fiscal year 1985, no funds available to the Central
Intelligence Agency, the Department of Defense, or any other
331Brown University
332Brown University
145
agency or entity of the United States involved in intelligence
activities may be obligated or expended for the purpose or which
would have the effect of supporting directly or indirectly, military
or paramilitary operations in Nicaragua by any nation, group,
organization, movement or individual.”333
This legislation left two loopholes: first, was the use of third party funds to fund the
contras, and the second was that the text explicitly referred to the actions of the CIA, but
failed to mention the NSC, using the logic that it was not an intelligence agency, under the
Department of Defense, or even covered under the provision of “any... entity of the United
States.” This was based on the idea that the NSC was: “the President's principal forum for
considering national security and foreign policy matters with his senior national security
advisers and cabinet officials” and thus exempt.334
This transition of techniques led Oliver North to take on a primary role in Contra
assistance.
*
*
*
*
Israel and Iran
Barred from using direct Agency funds for the Contra operations, Oliver North and
the NSC began to get creative. One result is the infamous 'Diversion Memo', written by
North, detailing a plan to sell arms to Iran, overcharge the country and funnel excess funds
334Brown University
146
to the Contras. This plan was blatantly illegal under Operation Staunch, a U.S. led arms
embargo against Iran during the Iran-Iraq war which lasted from '80 to '90. At the outset
of the war, the US began arming Iraq, first with 200 million dollars in helicopters, and later
escalating to several billion dollars worth of economic aid, the sale of dual-use technology,
non-U.S. origin weaponry, military intelligence, Special Operations training, and direct
involvement in warfare against Iran.335
The 'Diversion Memo' detailed a plan to work with a retired Air Force General and
an Iranian businessman to sell arms to Iran, through the cover of Israel, in exchange for
the release of American hostages held by Lebanese militants. Initially, the plan worked
relatively well: Israel provided Iran with hundreds of TOW anti-tank missiles and multiple
American hostages were released.336 The deal was completed just months after Ronald
Reagan famously said: “The United States gives terrorists no rewards. We make no
concessions, we make no deals.”337 Although North estimated that $12 million would be
raised for the Contras in this manner, only $2 million ever made it to the group, likely
because the private actors involved in the Operation were acting with a motivation of
profit. As is thematic with American covert operations, the funds were funneled through a
'front organization' called Stanford Technology Trading Group International, as well as
using 'proprietary' airlines to transfer the missiles: aircraft owned by the CIA and used in
normal operations until needed by the Agency for covert operations.338
The story unraveled in 1986 when two Lebanon reporters broke the story of the
secret arms transfer. The revelations sparked the widely publicized hearings in the United
States to find the 'truth' of the operations. In 1987 hearings, Oliver North was given
immunization from self-incrimination before Congress. Regarding the destruction of
336Brown University
338Brown University
147
documents, he humorously noted: “I would prefer to say that I shredded documents that
day like I did on all other days, but perhaps with increased intensity; that's correct.”339
The hearings’ Majority Report concluded that:
“North’s testimony demonstrates that he also lied to members of
the Executive branch, including the Attorney General, and
officials of the State Department, CIA and NSC.” And also that...
“other officials lied repeatedly to Congress and to the American
people about the Contra covert action and Iran arms sales, and
that he altered and destroyed official documents.”
*
*
*
*
Rex 84
The most shocking revelation of the Contra hearings, which the mainstream media
nearly universally failed to report on, was the existence of an emergency preparedness
plan known as Rex 84. The only public mention of the plan, known officially as 'Readiness
Exercise 1984', was as follows:
Congressman Jack Brooks: Colonel North, in your work at the
N.S.C. were you not assigned, at one time, to work on plans for
the continuity of government in the event of a major disaster?
339Ibid.
148
Brendan Sullivan [North's lawyer, agitatedly]: Mr. Chairman?
Senator Daniel Inouye: I believe that question touches upon a
highly sensitive and classified area so may I request that you not
touch upon that?
Brooks: I was particularly concerned, Mr. Chairman, because I
read in Miami papers, and several others, that there had been a
plan developed, by that same agency, a contingency plan in the
event of emergency, that would suspend the American
constitution. And I was deeply concerned about it and wondered
if that was an area in which he had worked. I believe that it was
and I wanted to get his confirmation.
Inouye: May I most respectfully request that that matter not be
touched upon at this stage. If we wish to get into this, I'm certain
arrangements can be made for an executive session.
Luckily, the media was able to get more details on the program which was too
sensitive to discuss in a public forum. The Miami Herald, in a July 5, 1987 exposé,
published the following:
“Some of President Reagan's top advisers have operated a
virtual parallel government outside the traditional cabinet
departments and agencies almost from the day Reagan took
149
office, congressional investigators and administration officials
have concluded.
Investigators believe that the advisers' activities extended well
beyond the secret arms sales to Iran and aid to the Contras now
under investigation.
Lt. Col. Oliver North, for example, helped draw up a
controversial plan to suspend the Constitution in the
event of a national crisis, such as a nuclear war, violent and
widespread internal dissent or national opposition to a U.S.
military invasion abroad.” The Miami Herald340 (Emphasis
added).
Implementation of Rex 84 would have turned control over the United States to
FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which would act as an 'emergency
czar', and turn control of state and local governments to appointed Military commanders,
and also included mention of 'assembly centers and relocation camps' to house dissidents.
Attorney General William Smith correctly protested that the plan “exceeded its proper
function as a coordinating agency for emergency preparedness.”341
It doesn't take reading between the lines to see the immediate intent of Rex 84. The
NSA, CIA and other U.S. institutions believed that an invasion of Nicaragua might have
been necessary to prevent the spread of communism so close to their borders. Such an idea
isn't farfetched: Sandanista policies and their agreements with the Soviet Union indicate
reading in its entirety.
341Miami Herald
150
that they believed an American invasion was imminent.342 Being just a decade removed
from the massively unpopular Vietnam War, an invasion would have prompted
widespread dissent, and Rex 84 was the NSC's plan to deal with a domestic anti-war
movement.
The investigation described by the Miami Herald had interesting revelations of
other activities. For example, it revealed that the 'secret government' stole President
Carter's briefing book used in campaign speeches and presidential debates with Reagan,
indicating that the structure was in existence before Reagan's inauguration. It noted
meetings with Iranian officials to discuss the release the delay of the release of U.S.
Embassy hostages until after the election. Lastly, it discussed how certain officials
orchestrated leaks to paint Reagan in a positive light, such as the November 4, 1984
election day announcement that Soviet Jet Fighters were on their way to Nicaragua,
orchestrated by Oliver North himself.343
*
*
*
*
Conclusions
Chief Counsel of the investigative Senate committee, Arthur Liman, wrote in a
memo to panel leader Senator Daniel Inoyue:
“This is the part of the story that reveals the whole secret
342Brown University
343Miami Herald
151
'government-within-a-government' operated from the [Executive
Office Building] by a Lt. Col. with its own army, airforce,
diplomatic agents, intelligence operatives appropriations
capacity.”344
As the 'Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra
Affair' noted, the United States had an actual foreign policy that vastly differed from their
public discourse, and was executed in secret without checks and balances. When Congress
tried to stop the covert operations, the agencies involved simply found loopholes to subvert
their legislation, going as far as to arm two sides fighting against each other in a war, and
to use private actors to conduct illicit activities. Furthermore, Rex 84 shows just how
serious the 'secret government' was in exerting hegemony in Latin America.
The term 'secret government' is not an exaggeration. Various investigations, public
and private, noted that Ronald Reagan himself may not have been aware of many activities
the group undertook. These facts were all revealed in the mainstream media in a short
period proceeding the Iran arms sales revelations, yet the public was never able to fully
inform itself of the depths of the scandal.
Food for Thought:
1. Why was the American public so complacent when the facts of a veritable shadow
government were thoroughly revealed in the media?
2. Why was there no significant drive for reform of the CIA originating from within
Congress?
344Miami Herald
152
3. How often does the CIA disregard domestic and international law when it interferes
with their agenda?
4. Why did the CIA find hegemony in Nicaragua to be so important? What threat, if
any, did the country pose to the United States?
5. Does a modern version of Rex 84 exist today?
6. How far will the United States go to suppress domestic dissent the next time they
deem a foreign invasion necessary?
153
Continuity of Government
The definition of 'Continuity of Government' is a set of contingency plans to ensure
that essential government functions remain in place after a disaster such as nuclear war. In
the United States, Continuity of Government plans have been on the books since at least
the Eisenhower administration. The plans involved building intricate hidden command
centers such as the Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center built in 1959, nestled
away in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
While the Government officially classifies Mt. Weather as a 'bunker', many sources
claim that it is essentially a full blown city. According to GlobalSecurity.org, a respected
institution in the intelligence community, Mount Weather contains a hospital, sewer
treatment system, reservoirs, a power plant, an emergency television studio, and a
thorough system of dormitories & office buildings.345
None of this is out of the ordinary, so to speak. It is reasonable for the government
to have such plans in place. However, on September 11, 2001, the Continuity of Operations
plan was officially activated and has been live ever since, meaning that Mt. Weather and
similar installations are likely in operation today.
“A national emergency exists by reason of the terrorist attacks at
the World Trade Center, New York, New York, and the Pentagon,
and the continuing and immediate threat of further attacks on
the United States,” President George W. Bush proclaimed on
September 14, 2001.
154
Dick Cheney officially enacted the “Continuation of Government” plans shortly after
the World Trade Center attacks, although the Bush Administration would not confirm that
this took place until March, 2002.346 A simultaneous 'State of Emergency' was declared and
is also in effect today, extended each year by George Bush and then Barack Obama.347
CBS reported:
“A 'shadow government' consisting of 75 or more senior officials
has been living and working secretly outside Washington since
Sept. 11 in case the nation's capital is crippled by terrorist attack.
"This is serious business," President Bush said of plans to ensure
the continuity of government.
Such an operation was conceived as a Cold War precaution
against nuclear attack during the Eisenhower administration but
never used until now. It went into effect in the first hours after
the terror attacks and has evolved over time, said senior
government officials who provided details of the plan.
Under the classified "Continuity of Operations Plan," which was
first reported by The Washington Post in its Friday editions,
high-ranking officials representing their departments have begun
rotating in and out of the assignment at one of two fortified
155
locations along the East Coast.
The Post said the first rotations were made in late October or
early November, a fact confirmed by a senior government official
late Thursday.
Officials who are activated for the duty live and work
underground 24 hours a day, away from their families, according
to the Post. The shadow government has sent home most of the
first wave of deployed personnel, replacing them most commonly
at 90-day intervals.
The government-in-waiting is an extension of a policy that has
kept Vice President Dick Cheney in secure, undisclosed locations
away from Washington. Cheney has moved in and out of public
view as threat levels have fluctuated.”348
Serious business indeed. There have been instances where Congressmen have been
stonewalled when trying to learn more about the secret operations. One example is Oregon
Congressman Peter DeFazio, a key member of the Homeland Security Committee, pushed
to review the classified portion of the Continuity plan in a secure setting in 2007 but his
access was denied.349
What can we know about the Continuity of Operations plan currently in effect?
Patrick Thronson, editor-in-chief of the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform,
has put together the most comprehensive publicly available paper detailing the states of
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emergencies and powers granted to the executive branch.350 Available knowledge is
naturally incomplete because many powers and documents are still classified. Some
highlights include:
• Congress is required by statue to vote on the continuation of a state of National
Emergency every six months. Since September 11th, 2001, it has only happened
once.
• There are currently thirty simultaneous declared states of emergency.
• The Executive Branch can freeze the assets and prevent financial transactions of
individuals. This extends to even basic life necessities. They can go as far as to
prohibit donations of food to said person.
• The president can unilaterally order the inspection and seizure of commercial
vessels.
• The president is authorized to suspend or alter rules for broadcast stations, or
authorize control of said station.
• Provisions to suspend or control internet traffic.
"Thus, the only apparent legal obstacle standing between present
conditions and this degree of government control over mass
media and telecommunications is a presidential order. " -
Thronson
• The ability to seize property
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• The delegation of 'maintaining law and order' to the department of defense.
• Extend military tours of duty beyond contractually agreed termination dates.
"A nation under thirty states of national emergency can hardly
claim that emergency laws are the exception to—rather than the
rule of—normal governance. "- Thronson
Like every other case study of covert activities highlighted in this book, 'Continuity
of Operations' has a friendly face but the actual workings of the secret government are
strictly secret. Suffice it to say that the powers behind the Iran/Contra activities have
become fully institutionalized. The implications are that the workings of Congress, the
Justice Department and other institutions have become merely a show to distract from the
reality that a secret government which does not respond to civilian rule and has granted
itself sweeping, unchecked powers and is certainly directly operating in the realm of
foreign policy, covert activities and likely domestic espionage, among other potential
activities.
Food for Thought:
1. Is there any limit to the powers that the shadow government has granted itself?
2. Why has there been nearly zero coverage of the Continuity of Government in the
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media? Why have only one or two congressman openly questioned its existence?
3. Who is in control of the Continuity of Government operations? What is their
agenda?
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The Pedophocracy
Authors Note: The next three chapters contain triggers
for those who have suffered sexual abuse.
“Laura Lederer, a senior State Department adviser on
trafficking, told me, ''We're not finding victims in the United
States because we're not looking for them.'' - New York Times351
"What you have to understand, John [DeCamp], is that
sometimes there are forces and events too big, too powerful,
with so much at stake for other people or institutions, that you
cannot do anything about them, not matter how evil or wrong
they are and no matter how dedicated or sincere you are or how
much evidence you have. That is simply one of the hard facts of
life you have to face. You have done your part. You have tried to
expose the evil and wrongdoing. It has hurt you terribly. But it
has not killed you up to this point. I am telling you, get out of
this before it does. Sometimes things are just too big for us to
deal with, and we have to step aside and let history take its
course. For you, John, this is one of those times.” - Former CIA
Director William Colby352
352John DeCamp, “The Franklin Coverup ”. You may remember William Colby from the 'Phoenix Program' chapter, the
CIA operation which he presided over. The book is fascinating and is a 'must read'. (PDF Warning).
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From Washington, D.C...
“Homosexual Prostitution Inquiry Ensnares VIPs with Reagan, Bush”.353 This
article was published in the Washington Times and was written by award-winning,
353Full text can be read here.
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Pulitzer Prize nominated journalist Paul Rodriguez. After years of research, Rodriguez had
compiled the radical evidence necessary to publish such claims. He had uncovered a
homosexual prostitution ring tied to the White House. One central figure, Craig Spence, a
Republican powerbroker, had the political clout to bring prostitutes on midnight tours of
the White House. The report names multiple White House insiders, military personnel and
members of major media institutions as clients, based on credit card records procured by
Rodriguez.
“Among the client names contained in the vouchers - and identified
by prostitutes and escort operators - are government officials,
locally based US military officers, businessmen, lawyers, bankers,
congressional aides and other professionals...
Although the confiscated material was turned over to District police
on the scene, witnesses and law enforcement agents say the Secret
Service kept one box containing names and other information about
high-level government officials who were clients of the male escort
business.
District police officials say that, to their knowledge, this is the first
time the Secret Service has ever become involved in such a raid in
this area.” - Washington Times
Craig Spence would throw extravagant parties for the Washington D.C. elite, with
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'call boys' freely available for interested party-goers. Various associates, including multiple
of Spence's body guards, came forward and admitted that his house, where the parties
were located, was thoroughly bugged with audio and video recording equipment, with the
intent of extortion and blackmail of those who ended up in compromising positions.354
Spence was somewhat of a mystery man. What type of employment did he have? No
one knew for sure, though Spence himself would often boast of his important connections.
One of his associates told the Times:
“He described Mr. Spence as 'strange', saying he often boasted that
he was working for the CIA, and on one occasion said he was going
to disappear for a while 'because he had an important CIA
assignment'. According to the businessman, Mr. Spence told him
that the 'CIA might double-cross him', however, and kill him
instead and then 'make it look like a suicide.'” Washington Times355
