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@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ After retirement, Stubblebine became involved in alternative health movements an
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He was prominently featured in Jon Ronson's *The Men Who Stare at Goats* (2004) and the 2009 film adaptation, which used him and the Grill Flame culture as the central subjects of its examination of psychic warfare research within the U.S. military.
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Stubblebine died February 6, 2017 - his 87th birthday - at his home in New Mexico.
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Stubblebine died February 6, 2017 - his 87th birthday - at his home in [[New Mexico]].
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### Footnotes
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@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ Rafsanjani is implicated in the [[October Surprise]] allegations by multiple acc
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### Presidency and Later Career
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Rafsanjani served as President of Iran from August 1989 to August 1997, following Khomeini's death in June 1989. His presidency was characterized by post-war reconstruction and a more pragmatic economic approach. He continued to serve in senior positions, including the [[Expediency Council]] of which he was chairman from 1989 until his death. In 1994, Argentine investigators implicated Iranian officials including Rafsanjani in the bombing of the [[AMIA]] Jewish community center in Buenos Aires; Interpol issued a notice for his arrest in connection with the attack.[^1]
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Rafsanjani served as President of Iran from August 1989 to August 1997, following Khomeini's death in June 1989. His presidency was characterized by post-war reconstruction and a more pragmatic economic approach. He continued to serve in senior positions, including the [[Expediency Council]] of which he was chairman from 1989 until his death. In 1994, Argentine investigators implicated Iranian officials including Rafsanjani in the bombing of the [[AMIA]] Jewish community center in [[Buenos Aires]]; Interpol issued a notice for his arrest in connection with the attack.[^1]
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### Footnotes
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@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ location: "Chicago, Illinois"
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---
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Henry Karel "Andrija" Puharich (1918–1995) was a prominent American physician, research scientist, and parapsychologist who became a central figure in the U.S. government's investigations into [[Extrasensory Perception|ESP]] and [[Psychokinesis|PK]] during the [[Cold War]]. His lifelong quest to understand the nature of consciousness and anomalous mental phenomena led him to explore the intersection of science, mysticism, and the supernatural[^1].
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Born in Chicago on February 19, 1918, to poor Yugoslavian immigrants, Puharich had an early experience that shaped his future. As a milk delivery boy, he claimed to have calmed a vicious dog by sending "feelings of calmness and peace," leading him to believe in [[Telepathy|mind-to-mind telepathy]] and inspiring him to pursue medicine to understand the biological basis of such phenomena[^1]. He excelled academically, attending Northwestern University for philosophy and premedical studies before entering medical school. During his studies, he deeply contemplated the nature of the mind and consciousness, stating, "Understanding the nature of man’s consciousness... is my lifelong quest"[^1].
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Born in Chicago on February 19, 1918, to poor Yugoslavian immigrants, Puharich had an early experience that shaped his future. As a milk delivery boy, he claimed to have calmed a vicious dog by sending "feelings of calmness and peace," leading him to believe in [[Telepathy|mind-to-mind telepathy]] and inspiring him to pursue medicine to understand the biological basis of such phenomena[^1]. He excelled academically, attending [[Northwestern University]] for philosophy and premedical studies before entering medical school. During his studies, he deeply contemplated the nature of the mind and consciousness, stating, "Understanding the nature of man’s consciousness... is my lifelong quest"[^1].
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After completing his medical degree in 1947, Puharich worked with leading physicians, including his mentor, Dr. Andrew C. Ivy. During his residency at the Permanente Research Foundation, he formulated the Puharich Theory, which posited an unknown energy force linking the brain and nervous system to cells, with instructions flowing between them as "dynamics." He believed this energy radiated on the [[Electromagnetic Spectrum|electromagnetic spectrum]] but was beyond current measurement technology. His theory gained traction when [[Lloyd H. Beck]] and [[Walter S. Miles]] of Yale University reported that the olfactory nerve of a bee radiated energy in the infrared spectrum[^1].
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@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ Inspired by microbiologist [[Paul De Kruif]], who warned him to "Beware the Esta
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The Warrenton Estate, Puharich's home and laboratory, became the center of his research. Here, he conducted experiments on audio waves and human hearing, collaborating with ear surgeon [[Samuel Rosen]], whose accidental discovery of the "Rosen stapes" operation brought prestige and grants to the foundation[^1]. Puharich's mystical beliefs deepened through his mentorship with [[John Hays Hammond Jr.]], a wealthy inventor and ESP advocate. Hammond, influenced by [[Nikola Tesla]], believed scientific inspiration could come from an unknown energy force in dreams. Together, they built a [[Faraday Cage]] to test ESP on [[Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) Waves|ELF waves]]. Their "Project I" involved psychics like [[Eileen Garrett]], whose ESP abilities reportedly increased inside the cage[^1].
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Puharich also investigated audio aberrations, collaborating with [[Warren S. McCulloch]], a cybernetics founder and [[Central Intelligence Agency]] asset. They discovered that a machinist hearing voices was actually picking up radio signals due to carborundum dust on his dental fillings, a finding that garnered attention from *The New York Times* and the [[U.S. Navy]][^1].
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Puharich also investigated audio aberrations, collaborating with [[Warren S. McCulloch]], a cybernetics founder and [[Central Intelligence Agency]] asset. They discovered that a machinist hearing voices was actually picking up radio signals due to carborundum dust on his dental fillings, a finding that garnered attention from *[[The New York Times]]* and the [[U.S. Navy]][^1].
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Puharich's work caught the attention of the [[Pentagon]]. In 1952, Lieutenant Colonel [[John B. Stanley]] of the [[U.S. Army]]'s Office of the Chief of Psychological Warfare, who also served as an Army liaison to the CIA, met with Puharich. This led to Puharich delivering classified briefings and being recalled to military service in March 1953, where he worked at the [[U.S. Army Chemical Center]] in Edgewood, Maryland[^1]. His task was to find a drug that could enhance ESP, mirroring the [[Central Intelligence Agency]]'s quest for a truth serum[^1].
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@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ When Russo briefed Westmoreland's scientific advisor on his finding that for eve
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### Pentagon Papers
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Russo met Ellsberg at Rand's Santa Monica offices. Ellsberg had returned from Vietnam in mid-1967, having concluded the war was unwinnable, and was working on the classified Pentagon Papers study that Secretary McNamara had commissioned. It was Russo who first proposed copying the Papers and distributing them. Beginning October 1, 1969, Russo and Ellsberg copied the documents at the Los Angeles advertising agency of Russo's girlfriend, Lynda Sinay. Russo was indicted alongside Ellsberg; charges against both were dismissed in May 1973 due to government misconduct including illegal wiretapping and the Watergate-related break-in at Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office by the White House "plumbers."[^1]
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Russo met Ellsberg at Rand's Santa Monica offices. Ellsberg had returned from Vietnam in mid-1967, having concluded the war was unwinnable, and was working on the classified Pentagon Papers study that Secretary McNamara had commissioned. It was Russo who first proposed copying the Papers and distributing them. Beginning October 1, 1969, Russo and Ellsberg copied the documents at the Los Angeles advertising agency of Russo's girlfriend, Lynda Sinay. Russo was indicted alongside Ellsberg; charges against both were dismissed in May 1973 due to government misconduct including illegal wiretapping and the Watergate-related break-in at Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office by the [[White House]] "plumbers."[^1]
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### After Rand
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@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ location: "Kfar Malal, British Mandate Palestine"
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---
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Ariel Sharon was an Israeli General. In the summer of 1970, he was photographed at a function speaking with [[Uri Geller]] (Jacobsen, Chapter Six). This occurred during a period when Geller's popularity was rising in [[Israel]], and he was also seen having lunch with [[Moshe Dayan]] at the White Elephant Restaurant in Zahala (Jacobsen, Chapter Six).[^1]
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In August 1981, [[Ariel Sharon]] was named defense minister by the newly reelected [[Menachem Begin]] government. In September of the same year, he was in [[Washington, D.C.]] with Begin to lobby the White House in support of a far-reaching Israeli plan for [[United States]]-Israeli strategic cooperation against the [[Soviet Union]]. Sharon pushed for a downlink for [[KH-11]] satellite imagery to be located in [[Tel Aviv]], insisting it be "dedicated" so that only [[Israel]] could read the encoded signals. This suggestion was deemed preposterous by [[Richard V. Allen]], then National Security Advisor, who privately told Sharon so.[^2]
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In August 1981, [[Ariel Sharon]] was named defense minister by the newly reelected [[Menachem Begin]] government. In September of the same year, he was in [[Washington, D.C.]] with Begin to lobby the [[White House]] in support of a far-reaching Israeli plan for [[United States]]-Israeli strategic cooperation against the [[Soviet Union]]. Sharon pushed for a downlink for [[KH-11]] satellite imagery to be located in [[Tel Aviv]], insisting it be "dedicated" so that only [[Israel]] could read the encoded signals. This suggestion was deemed preposterous by [[Richard V. Allen]], then National Security Advisor, who privately told Sharon so.[^2]
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The bombing of the Iraqi nuclear reactor at [[Osirak bombing]] in June 1981, which [[Ariel Sharon]] had supported, led him to conclude that the [[United States]] was not a reliable strategic ally. Following this, he turned to a clandestine Israeli intelligence agency under his defense ministry, which then intercepted intelligence on the [[Middle East]] and [[Soviet Union]] from sensitive American agencies. This included intelligence that [[Israel]] had been told it would no longer receive. An American Jew working in the U.S. intelligence community had volunteered his services to this agency years prior and would soon be tasked with spying on his country for [[Israel]].[^2]
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@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ Augusto Jose Ramon Pinochet Ugarte was born on November 25, 1915, in Valparaiso,
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The [[Central Intelligence Agency]]'s involvement in Chilean politics preceded the coup by years. Following Allende's election in September 1970, President [[Richard Nixon]] ordered CIA Director [[Richard Helms]] to prevent Allende from taking office ("make the economy scream"). The CIA funded opposition media and political parties, supported business strikes, and made contact with military officers. CIA Station Chief [[Henry Hecksher]] and other operatives were in contact with coup plotters including Pinochet and General [[Gustavo Leigh]].
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On September 11, 1973, the Chilean military - led by Pinochet, Leigh, and Admiral [[Jose Merino]] - launched a coordinated coup. The presidential palace, [[La Moneda]], was bombed by Chilean Air Force jets. Allende died during the assault, either by suicide or homicide. The military junta established a dictatorship with Pinochet emerging as the dominant figure and head of state by June 1974.[^1]
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On September 11, 1973, the Chilean military - led by Pinochet, Leigh, and Admiral [[Jose Merino]] - launched a coordinated coup. The presidential palace, [[La Moneda]], was bombed by [[Chilean Air Force]] jets. Allende died during the assault, either by suicide or homicide. The military junta established a dictatorship with Pinochet emerging as the dominant figure and head of state by June 1974.[^1]
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The 2000 [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence|Church Committee]] successor investigation and subsequent declassified documents confirmed the CIA's extensive involvement in destabilizing the Allende government, though the CIA disputed direct operational involvement in the coup itself. Secretary of State [[Henry Kissinger]] was documented as aware of and approving the coup conspiracy; the "[[Track II]]" operation to prevent Allende from assuming the presidency in 1970 was a CIA operation authorized by Nixon and Kissinger.[^2]
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@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ born: 1939-07-16
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died: 1986-02-19
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location: "Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA"
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---
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Adler Berriman "Barry" Seal was born July 16, 1939, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He became a licensed pilot in his teens and joined [[Trans World Airlines|TWA]] in 1964 as a flight engineer, rising to one of the youngest Boeing 747 captains in the fleet. He was fired in July 1972 after being implicated in a conspiracy to smuggle plastic explosives to anti-Castro Cubans in Mexico using a DC-4. He was killed February 19, 1986, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana -- shot six times with a MAC-10 submachine gun by a contract killer while sitting in his Cadillac outside a Salvation Army rehabilitation center where he was required to report under the terms of a criminal sentence.[^1]
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Adler Berriman "Barry" Seal was born July 16, 1939, in [[Baton Rouge]], Louisiana. He became a licensed pilot in his teens and joined [[Trans World Airlines|TWA]] in 1964 as a flight engineer, rising to one of the youngest Boeing 747 captains in the fleet. He was fired in July 1972 after being implicated in a conspiracy to smuggle plastic explosives to anti-Castro Cubans in Mexico using a DC-4. He was killed February 19, 1986, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana -- shot six times with a MAC-10 submachine gun by a contract killer while sitting in his Cadillac outside a Salvation Army rehabilitation center where he was required to report under the terms of a criminal sentence.[^1]
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### Drug Trafficking Career
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@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ In March 1984, Seal was arrested with 462 pounds of Medellín cocaine aboard his
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The [[Central Intelligence Agency]] installed concealed cameras in Seal's cargo aircraft. On June 25, 1984, at the Los Brasiles airfield outside Managua, Nicaragua, the cameras photographed Pablo Escobar, José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha, and Federico Vaughan - an official of the Nicaraguan Sandinista government - loading cocaine onto Seal's plane for transport to the United States. This photographic evidence was used by the Reagan administration in its anti-Sandinista campaign; President [[Ronald Reagan]] displayed a copy of the image in a nationally televised address on March 16, 1986.[^2]
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On July 17, 1984, the *Washington Times* published details of Seal's infiltration operation, including the photograph, effectively burning him as an undercover source. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee's 1988 investigation, chaired by Senator [[John Kerry]], concluded this leak originated with [[Oliver North]].[^3]
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On July 17, 1984, the *Washington Times* published details of Seal's infiltration operation, including the photograph, effectively burning him as an undercover source. The [[Senate Foreign Relations Committee]]'s 1988 investigation, chaired by Senator [[John Kerry]], concluded this leak originated with [[Oliver North]].[^3]
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### Assassination
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@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ summary: "Ristau had a long career with the DOJ, serving in the Internal Securit
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[[Bruno Ristau]] was a partner with [[Michael Abbell]] in the law firm [[Ristau and Abbell]] in Washington D.C. He was also formerly with the law firm of [[Kaplan, Russin and Becchi]], where [[Michael Abbell]] worked after leaving the [[Department of Justice|DOJ]].[^1]
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Ristau had a long career with the [[Department of Justice|DOJ]], serving in the Internal Security Division and Civil Division from 1958 to 1963, and as Director of the Office of Foreign Litigation from 1963 to 1981. He was described as a "heavyweight in the field of international law," speaking German, Polish, Spanish, and French. He was Chairman of the Division of International Law of the Washington D.C. Bar from 1971 to 1973, and Chairman of the Committee of Private International Law Practice in the American Bar Association from 1981 to 1984. He is also a member of the American Society of International Law.[^1]
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Ristau had a long career with the [[Department of Justice|DOJ]], serving in the Internal Security Division and Civil Division from 1958 to 1963, and as Director of the Office of Foreign Litigation from 1963 to 1981. He was described as a "heavyweight in the field of international law," speaking German, Polish, Spanish, and French. He was Chairman of the Division of International Law of the Washington D.C. Bar from 1971 to 1973, and Chairman of the Committee of Private International Law Practice in the [[American Bar Association]] from 1981 to 1984. He is also a member of the American Society of International Law.[^1]
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### Footnotes
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@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ Chamath Palihapitiya (born September 3, 1976) is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian-Amer
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Palihapitiya was born in Sri Lanka and raised in Ottawa, Canada, after his family emigrated when he was a small child and remained in Canada following his father's posting to the Sri Lankan diplomatic mission. He has described a financially precarious childhood and work at a Burger King from the age of fourteen. He took a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Waterloo in 1999 and began his career as an associate at the Canadian bank BMO Nesbitt Burns.[^2]
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He moved to Silicon Valley and held roles at the music-software maker Winamp and at AOL, where he ran the instant-messaging division, before joining Facebook in 2007. At Facebook he led the user-growth organization, the team credited with the data-driven acquisition and retention methods that carried the service toward one billion users. He left Facebook in 2011. His compensation at Facebook was paid substantially in equity, and the stake became the basis of the fortune he carried into venture investing, though no reputable source has published a specific figure for its size at his departure.[^2][^3]
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He moved to [[Silicon Valley]] and held roles at the music-software maker Winamp and at AOL, where he ran the instant-messaging division, before joining Facebook in 2007. At Facebook he led the user-growth organization, the team credited with the data-driven acquisition and retention methods that carried the service toward one billion users. He left Facebook in 2011. His compensation at Facebook was paid substantially in equity, and the stake became the basis of the fortune he carried into venture investing, though no reputable source has published a specific figure for its size at his departure.[^2][^3]
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### The 2017 Stanford Remarks
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The All-In Podcast launched on March 19, 2020, with Palihapitiya, Calacanis, Sacks, and Friedberg as the rotating cohosts known as "the besties." The program became a media channel for the cohort's positions on technology regulation, cryptocurrency, and defense procurement. Palihapitiya had been a Democratic donor in earlier election cycles before moving toward the technology-right alignment that the podcast came to represent.[^16]
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In 2024 Palihapitiya cohosted a San Francisco fundraiser for [[Donald Trump|Trump]] with Sacks that reporting described as raising roughly 12 million dollars, and the All-In cohosts interviewed Trump on the podcast on June 20, 2024. Federal Election Commission records show Palihapitiya contributed to the 2024 effort to elect Trump. He had earlier held a passive minority stake in the Golden State Warriors, acquired around 2010 to 2011 for roughly 25 million dollars and sold in tranches in December 2021 and July 2022.[^16][^17][^18]
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In 2024 Palihapitiya cohosted a San Francisco fundraiser for [[Donald Trump|Trump]] with Sacks that reporting described as raising roughly 12 million dollars, and the All-In cohosts interviewed Trump on the podcast on June 20, 2024. [[Federal Election Commission]] records show Palihapitiya contributed to the 2024 effort to elect Trump. He had earlier held a passive minority stake in the Golden State Warriors, acquired around 2010 to 2011 for roughly 25 million dollars and sold in tranches in December 2021 and July 2022.[^16][^17][^18]
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### Footnotes
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summary: "Charles Grandison Rose III (1939-2012) was a Democratic congressman from North Carolina who chaired the House Intelligence Committee's Evaluation Subcommittee, publicly championed the Grill Flame remote viewing program in the late 1970s, and later applied congressional pressure that helped reopen the DOJ inquiry into The Finders."
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---
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Charles Grandison Rose III (August 10, 1939 - September 4, 2012) was a Democratic congressman who represented North Carolina's 7th congressional district for twenty-four years, from 1973 to 1997. He became a vocal public advocate for the [[STARGATE PROJECT|Grill Flame]] remote viewing program and later, alongside Rep. [[Tom Lewis]] (R-FL), applied congressional pressure that contributed to the Department of Justice reopening its inquiry into [[The Finders]] case.[^1][^2]
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Charles Grandison Rose III (August 10, 1939 - September 4, 2012) was a Democratic congressman who represented [[North Carolina]]'s 7th congressional district for twenty-four years, from 1973 to 1997. He became a vocal public advocate for the [[STARGATE PROJECT|Grill Flame]] remote viewing program and later, alongside Rep. [[Tom Lewis]] (R-FL), applied congressional pressure that contributed to the Department of Justice reopening its inquiry into [[The Finders]] case.[^1][^2]
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### Background
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location: "New York City, USA"
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---
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Claiborne Pell (1918–2009) was a powerful Democratic Senator from Rhode Island and a ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. A former [[Foreign Service]] officer who had worked behind enemy lines in Nazi-occupied Hungary, Pell was a firm supporter and proponent of [[Extrasensory Perception|extrasensory perception]] and the [[Remote Viewing]] program[^1].
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Claiborne Pell (1918–2009) was a powerful Democratic Senator from Rhode Island and a ranking member of the [[Senate Foreign Relations Committee]]. A former [[Foreign Service]] officer who had worked behind enemy lines in Nazi-occupied Hungary, Pell was a firm supporter and proponent of [[Extrasensory Perception|extrasensory perception]] and the [[Remote Viewing]] program[^1].
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Pell actively lobbied for the program's survival, reaching out personally to [[Dale Graff]] to offer his support. His interest stemmed from a belief in the potential operational value of psychic abilities for military intelligence[^1].
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### The Disclosure
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Narut's disclosure did not occur during his formal presentation but in a private conversation during a break, primarily with Watson and a New Jersey psychologist, Dr. Alfred Zitani, who was present throughout and later corroborated the account. Watson described the conversation as lasting approximately ninety minutes without interruption while Narut prepared for dinner. A third line of corroboration came from conference co-organizer Sarason himself, who confirmed to Watson after publication that the Navy had previously solicited his participation in related research, independently establishing that the Navy had approached the conference's own organizers for work in the same methodological area Narut described. Narut's official paper subject, the use of filmed stimuli and verbal intervention to reduce stress responses measured through heart rate and skin conductance, was the published research version of the techniques he then described in operational terms.[^1]
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Narut's disclosure did not occur during his formal presentation but in a private conversation during a break, primarily with Watson and a [[New Jersey]] psychologist, Dr. Alfred Zitani, who was present throughout and later corroborated the account. Watson described the conversation as lasting approximately ninety minutes without interruption while Narut prepared for dinner. A third line of corroboration came from conference co-organizer Sarason himself, who confirmed to Watson after publication that the Navy had previously solicited his participation in related research, independently establishing that the Navy had approached the conference's own organizers for work in the same methodological area Narut described. Narut's official paper subject, the use of filmed stimuli and verbal intervention to reduce stress responses measured through heart rate and skin conductance, was the published research version of the techniques he then described in operational terms.[^1]
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### The Conditioning Program
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### Absence of Congressional Investigation
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No congressional investigation specifically addressed Narut's claims. The [[Church Committee]] was active in 1975 and in November of that year issued its interim report on CIA assassination plots, documenting programs targeting Fidel Castro, Patrice Lumumba, Rafael Trujillo, Ngo Dinh Diem, and René Schneider, but the committee's focus was on CIA operations rather than Navy psychological conditioning programs. In January 1976 the committee did examine a CIA assassination unit designated PB/7, a parallel to Narut's claims involving a different agency. President Ford issued Executive Order 11905 in February 1976 banning US government-sanctioned assassinations of foreign leaders. The absence of specific congressional pursuit of Narut's disclosures, despite their timing during the Church Committee investigation, remains one of the unresolved gaps in the record.[^1]
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No congressional investigation specifically addressed Narut's claims. The [[Church Committee]] was active in 1975 and in November of that year issued its interim report on CIA assassination plots, documenting programs targeting Fidel Castro, Patrice Lumumba, Rafael Trujillo, Ngo Dinh Diem, and [[Rene Schneider|René Schneider]], but the committee's focus was on CIA operations rather than Navy psychological conditioning programs. In January 1976 the committee did examine a CIA assassination unit designated PB/7, a parallel to Narut's claims involving a different agency. President Ford issued Executive Order 11905 in February 1976 banning US government-sanctioned assassinations of foreign leaders. The absence of specific congressional pursuit of Narut's disclosures, despite their timing during the Church Committee investigation, remains one of the unresolved gaps in the record.[^1]
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### Footnotes
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location: "Washington, D.C."
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---
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Craig Spence was a Washington D.C. lobbyist, social figure, and self-described Japan specialist who maintained unusual access to senior government officials and the White House during the 1980s. He was identified in June 1989 as a major client of a homosexual escort service under investigation. His activities were documented in extensive contemporaneous reporting by the Washington Times and Washington Post, independent of victim testimony in the [[Franklin Credit Union Scandal]]. He was found dead at the Boston Ritz Carlton on November 10, 1989.[^1]
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Craig Spence was a Washington D.C. lobbyist, social figure, and self-described Japan specialist who maintained unusual access to senior government officials and the [[White House]] during the 1980s. He was identified in June 1989 as a major client of a homosexual escort service under investigation. His activities were documented in extensive contemporaneous reporting by the Washington Times and Washington Post, independent of victim testimony in the [[Franklin Credit Union Scandal]]. He was found dead at the Boston Ritz Carlton on November 10, 1989.[^1]
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### Career and Washington Connections
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Spence described himself as a consultant on Japan and East Asia and had cultivated a reputation as a highly connected Washington social host whose parties attracted senior government officials, journalists, and foreign policy figures. The specific nature and institutional basis of his access was never fully established publicly. The Washington Post's July 1989 reporting described an unusual ability to arrange access in Washington circles that exceeded what his formal consulting work would typically support.[^1]
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Spence described himself as a consultant on Japan and East Asia and had cultivated a reputation as a highly connected Washington social host whose parties attracted senior government officials, journalists, and foreign policy figures. The specific nature and institutional basis of his access was never fully established publicly. [[The Washington Post]]'s July 1989 reporting described an unusual ability to arrange access in Washington circles that exceeded what his formal consulting work would typically support.[^1]
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### Escort Service Investigation and White House Tours
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@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ On October 16 headquarters cabled the [[Santiago]] station: "It is firm and cont
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On October 18 the station asked for "three .45 calibre machine guns (grease guns) with 500 rounds of ammo each" within 48 hours. Broe and Phillips approved the request, and in the same exchange raised and dropped the idea of "bomb drops in areas not likely to cause casualties." They instructed the station chief, [[Henry Hecksher]], to tell neither the army attaché nor Ambassador [[Edward Korry]] of the "impending coup," and if it came to "appear surprised and stonewall any and all queries." General [[Rene Schneider|René Schneider]], the army commander, was shot on October 22 and died on October 25. The Senate committee's 1975 report on the episode quotes the task force's officers without naming Phillips or Hecksher, and their names were attached to the cables only when the documents were declassified.[^3][^5]
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Phillips was chief of the Western Hemisphere Division when Allende was overthrown on September 11, 1973.
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As head of the task force Phillips cabled the station on September 21, 1970, that "the first and fundamental task is to induce Frei to take action which will produce desired results," and on October 7 instructed the station chief, Henry Hecksher, who had argued against a coup, that his cables "should not contain analysis and argumentation but simply report on action taken." After Schneider was shot he and Broe cabled that if the agency's part were exposed "absolute denial will be the order of the day even with Ambassador and other embassy colleagues." He returned to Chilean operations as chief of the Western Hemisphere Division in June 1973. On September 11, as the coup was under way, he sent Kissinger a memorandum reporting that an officer of the group planning it had asked "if the U.S. government would come to the aid of the Chilean military if the situation became difficult." On October 3 he cabled Santiago that "Agency operational activities in Chile are now prime target for Congressional investigations" and that the agency "cannot assist Junta." He also described the financing of a "small network" of media outlets "instrumental in mounting a propaganda campaign to popularize the Junta's programs."[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Maurice Bishop Controversy
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -73,9 +73,9 @@ HSCA chief counsel Robert Blakey stated the committee was "less than satisfied w
|
|||
Phillips retired from the CIA in 1975 as head of the Western Hemisphere Division at GS-18 rank, the highest CIA position not requiring executive appointment. That year he founded the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO), which became a platform for publicly defending the CIA against the reform pressures generated by the [[Church Committee]] investigations.
|
||||
|
||||
### The Libel Suits
|
||||
The writers [[Donald Freed]] and [[Fred Landis]], authors of *Death in Washington*, on the murder of [[Orlando Letelier]], held a press conference in Washington in 1980 with the journalist [[John Cummings]]. They alleged that Phillips and the [[Association of Former Intelligence Officers]] had been involved in the killing, and that Phillips had been Lee Harvey Oswald's case officer under the name Maurice Bishop. Phillips sued them, the publisher [[Lawrence Hill]], and [[William Pepper]] in the federal court in Washington (Civil Actions 81-1407 and 81-2578), asking more than 90 million dollars. The litigation was paid for in part by [[Challenge, Inc.]], "An Intelligence Officers' Legal Action Fund," which also supported the libel suit brought by three former embassy officials in Santiago against the makers of the film [[Missing (film)|Missing]], on the death of [[Charles Horman]].[^6]
|
||||
The writers [[Donald Freed]] and [[Fred Landis]], authors of *Death in Washington*, on the murder of [[Orlando Letelier]], held a press conference in Washington in 1980 with the journalist [[John Cummings]]. They alleged that Phillips and the [[Association of Former Intelligence Officers]] had been involved in the killing, and that Phillips had been Lee Harvey Oswald's case officer under the name Maurice Bishop. Phillips sued them, the publisher [[Lawrence Hill]], and [[William Pepper]] in the federal court in Washington (Civil Actions 81-1407 and 81-2578), asking more than 90 million dollars. The litigation was paid for in part by [[Challenge, Inc.]], "An Intelligence Officers' Legal Action Fund," which also supported the libel suit brought by three former embassy officials in Santiago against the makers of the film [[Missing (film)|Missing]], on the death of [[Charles Horman]].[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
After almost five years four of the five defendants settled in February 1986 for an undisclosed sum. Pepper could not be found. The retraction filed with the court said the authors and publisher "had no intention of charging or suggesting that Mr. Phillips played any role in the assassination of Orlando Letelier, that he was an accessory before or after the fact of that murder, or that he had any connection with Lee Harvey Oswald." Phillips said: "I certainly am satisfied because I believe it is a vindication." Of his former employer he said: "I have a feeling that the reaction of the CIA to former agents who file lawsuits is that they consider them something, perhaps, a cut above a gun smuggler or a narcotics smuggler." At the same press conference he said he had examined photocopies of papers from Letelier's briefcase showing that Letelier "had been cooperating with the [[Dirección General de Inteligencia|Cuban DGI]] intelligence service." "They existed," he said, though the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] "has claimed none exist."[^6]
|
||||
After almost five years four of the five defendants settled in February 1986 for an undisclosed sum. Pepper could not be found. The retraction filed with the court said the authors and publisher "had no intention of charging or suggesting that Mr. Phillips played any role in the assassination of Orlando Letelier, that he was an accessory before or after the fact of that murder, or that he had any connection with Lee Harvey Oswald." Phillips said: "I certainly am satisfied because I believe it is a vindication." Of his former employer he said: "I have a feeling that the reaction of the CIA to former agents who file lawsuits is that they consider them something, perhaps, a cut above a gun smuggler or a narcotics smuggler." At the same press conference he said he had examined photocopies of papers from Letelier's briefcase showing that Letelier "had been cooperating with the [[Dirección General de Inteligencia|Cuban DGI]] intelligence service." "They existed," he said, though the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] "has claimed none exist."[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
### Later Statements and Death
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -94,4 +94,5 @@ In his 2017 memoir *Trained to Kill* (co-written with journalist Carlos Harrison
|
|||
[^3]: Kornbluh, Peter, ed. "The CIA and Chile: Anatomy of an Assassination," National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 728, October 22, 2020. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2020-10-22/cia-chile-anatomy-assassination
|
||||
[^4]: Central Intelligence Agency, cable to Santiago station, October 16, 1970, Secret, Eyes Only. National Security Archive document 23596. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/media/23596/ocr
|
||||
[^5]: Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders,* S. Rept. 94-465, 1975, and staff report, *Covert Action in Chile, 1963-1973,* 1975.
|
||||
[^6]: Challenge, Inc., press release, February 14, 1986, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP90-00806R000100200056-7; Bruske, Ed. "Libel Suit Settled," *The Washington Post,* February 17, 1986, CIA-RDP91-00587R000200890014-0; "CIA agent winner in Letelier case," *The Washington Times,* February 1986, CIA-RDP90-00552R000403680003-9.
|
||||
[^6]: Kornbluh, Peter. *The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability*. New Press, 2003, pp. 13, 31, 107, 112, 206-207, and note 14 at p. 510.
|
||||
[^7]: Challenge, Inc., press release, February 14, 1986, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP90-00806R000100200056-7; Bruske, Ed. "Libel Suit Settled," *The Washington Post,* February 17, 1986, CIA-RDP91-00587R000200890014-0; "CIA agent winner in Letelier case," *The Washington Times,* February 1986, CIA-RDP90-00552R000403680003-9.
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -15,13 +15,13 @@ created: 2026-06-05
|
|||
updated: 2026-06-05
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
David Rockefeller (1915-2017), the youngest of the five sons of [[John D. Rockefeller Jr.]], built [[Chase Manhattan Bank]] into the dominant US financial institution in Latin America and, through that platform, extended the Rockefeller family's economic influence deeper into the hemisphere than any other single vehicle. Where his brother [[Nelson Rockefeller]] operated through government appointments, private development corporations ([[IBEC]], [[AIA]]), and intelligence-community connections, David's instrument was the bank, which held major commercial loans across Latin America, manipulated credit conditions in Brazil in the run-up to the 1964 coup, and financed the corporate penetration of the Amazon basin that followed.
|
||||
David Rockefeller (1915-2017), the youngest of the five sons of [[John D. Rockefeller Jr.]], built [[Chase Manhattan Bank]] into the dominant US financial institution in [[Latin America]] and, through that platform, extended the Rockefeller family's economic influence deeper into the hemisphere than any other single vehicle. Where his brother [[Nelson Rockefeller]] operated through government appointments, private development corporations ([[IBEC]], [[AIA]]), and intelligence-community connections, David's instrument was the bank, which held major commercial loans across Latin America, manipulated credit conditions in Brazil in the run-up to the 1964 coup, and financed the corporate penetration of the Amazon basin that followed.
|
||||
|
||||
### Chase Manhattan and Latin America
|
||||
|
||||
Chase Manhattan Bank, which David joined in 1946 and led as president from 1961 and chairman from 1969 to 1981, was deeply invested in the Brazilian economy through commercial loans, trade finance, and correspondent banking relationships with Brazilian industrial firms. In the period before the April 1964 coup deposing President [[Joao Goulart]], Chase's management of credit conditions contributed to the economic instability the coup required. David's willingness to use the bank's leverage as a political instrument was documented in reporting by Gerard Colby and Charlotte Dennett, who cited Rockefeller family sources for the coordination between Chase's Brazil operations and the broader destabilization campaign.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
After the 1964 coup, the new [[Humberto Castelo Branco]] military government reversed Goulart's restrictions on profit remittances and foreign investment, immediately improving Chase's operating environment in Brazil. Chase moved aggressively into the Brazilian market in the post-coup years, as did Standard Oil of New Jersey's Esso subsidiary and other US corporations whose interests had been constrained under Goulart.
|
||||
After the 1964 coup, the new [[Humberto Castelo Branco]] military government reversed Goulart's restrictions on profit remittances and foreign investment, immediately improving Chase's operating environment in Brazil. Chase moved aggressively into the Brazilian market in the post-coup years, as did Standard Oil of [[New Jersey]]'s Esso subsidiary and other US corporations whose interests had been constrained under Goulart.
|
||||
|
||||
### Amazon Holdings
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ created: 2026-06-12
|
|||
updated: 2026-06-12
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
David Dean Rusk (1909-1994) was [[Secretary of State]] under Presidents [[John F. Kennedy]] and [[Lyndon Johnson|Lyndon B. Johnson]] from 1961 to 1969, and before that the president of the [[Rockefeller Foundation]] for most of the 1950s. His career embodied the revolving door between the Foundation's board and the upper reaches of US foreign policy, and as Secretary of State he handled the diplomacy of the Cold War interventions that run through the Rockefeller network's history in Latin America, including the 1964 overthrow of Brazil's [[Joao Goulart]] and the 1967 hunt for [[Che Guevara]] in Bolivia.[^1]
|
||||
David Dean Rusk (1909-1994) was [[Secretary of State]] under Presidents [[John F. Kennedy]] and [[Lyndon Johnson|Lyndon B. Johnson]] from 1961 to 1969, and before that the president of the [[Rockefeller Foundation]] for most of the 1950s. His career embodied the revolving door between the Foundation's board and the upper reaches of US foreign policy, and as Secretary of State he handled the diplomacy of the Cold War interventions that run through the Rockefeller network's history in [[Latin America]], including the 1964 overthrow of Brazil's [[Joao Goulart]] and the 1967 hunt for [[Che Guevara]] in Bolivia.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Rockefeller Foundation Years
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ When Kennedy assembled his cabinet in December 1960, Foundation trustee [[Robert
|
|||
|
||||
During the April 1961 [[Bay of Pigs invasion]], Rusk counseled caution. After the first air strike from Nicaragua failed and the cover story unraveled at the United Nations, CIA deputy director [[Charles Cabell]] channeled the Agency's protests over inadequate air support through Rusk, who telephoned Kennedy at his Virginia estate, Glen Ora, and recommended canceling the second strike. In the 1964 Brazilian coup, Rusk received Ambassador [[Lincoln Gordon]]'s March 27 cable warning that Goulart was moving "to seize dictatorial power"; after the coup succeeded, Rusk ordered the US Embassy in Montevideo to insist that Goulart had voluntarily abandoned Brazil's presidency, hoping to deny him the refugee status that would have let him organize politically.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
In April 1967 Rusk convened a secret strategy session at the Pentagon on Bolivia with [[Walt Rostow]], William Bowdler, CIA Director [[Richard Helms]], and Southern Command chief General Robert Porter; that September, at the Punta del Este conference, he denounced Guevara's presence in Bolivia as a foreign invasion. A veteran of the [[Rockefeller Brothers Fund]]'s Special Studies Project, Rusk was a consistent advocate of counterinsurgency and of escalation in the [[Vietnam War]], a stance that drew him into a televised 1966 confrontation with Senator [[William Fulbright]] at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.[^5]
|
||||
In April 1967 Rusk convened a secret strategy session at the Pentagon on Bolivia with [[Walt Rostow]], William Bowdler, CIA Director [[Richard Helms]], and Southern Command chief General Robert Porter; that September, at the Punta del Este conference, he denounced Guevara's presence in Bolivia as a foreign invasion. A veteran of the [[Rockefeller Brothers Fund]]'s Special Studies Project, Rusk was a consistent advocate of counterinsurgency and of escalation in the [[Vietnam War]], a stance that drew him into a televised 1966 confrontation with Senator [[William Fulbright]] at the [[Senate Foreign Relations Committee]].[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ summary: "Naumov's claims, along with other 'wild stories' from Soviet psi resea
|
|||
|
||||
[[Eduard Naumov]] was a [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] parapsychologist. At a conference in Moscow in 1968, Naumov announced to Western researchers that the Red Navy had successfully replicated the entire [[The Nautilus (Telepathy Project)|Nautilus experiment]] using one of its own submarines. He further claimed that Soviet military researchers had developed a method for telepathically tapping into other people's psychic communications.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
Naumov's claims, along with other "wild stories" from Soviet psi research, were later featured in the 1970 book *Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain* by [[Sheila Ostrander]] and [[Lynn Schroeder]]. While some of his assertions were met with skepticism, his work contributed to the growing concern within the U.S. intelligence community about a potential "psi gap" between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Naumov was also interested in "Kirlian photography" of human "biofields" and believed in the influence of sunspots on destiny, which led some at the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] to view his work as influenced by mystical beliefs.[^1]
|
||||
Naumov's claims, along with other "wild stories" from Soviet psi research, were later featured in the 1970 book *Psychic Discoveries Behind the [[Iron Curtain]]* by [[Sheila Ostrander]] and [[Lynn Schroeder]]. While some of his assertions were met with skepticism, his work contributed to the growing concern within the U.S. intelligence community about a potential "psi gap" between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Naumov was also interested in "Kirlian photography" of human "biofields" and believed in the influence of sunspots on destiny, which led some at the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] to view his work as influenced by mystical beliefs.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ born: 1983-06-21
|
|||
location: "Elizabeth City, North Carolina"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Edward Joseph Snowden was born June 21, 1983, in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and grew up in the Washington D.C. area. He joined the CIA in 2006 and later worked as a contractor for the National Security Agency through Dell Inc. and then Booz Allen Hamilton. In May 2013 he traveled to Hong Kong with a cache of classified NSA documents. Beginning June 5, 2013, he authorized the publication of a series of disclosures through journalists Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, and Barton Gellman of the Washington Post that revealed the existence and scope of NSA's mass surveillance programs operating under the authority of the USA PATRIOT Act and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.[^1]
|
||||
Edward Joseph Snowden was born June 21, 1983, in Elizabeth City, [[North Carolina]], and grew up in the Washington D.C. area. He joined the CIA in 2006 and later worked as a contractor for the National Security Agency through Dell Inc. and then Booz Allen Hamilton. In May 2013 he traveled to [[Hong Kong]] with a cache of classified NSA documents. Beginning June 5, 2013, he authorized the publication of a series of disclosures through journalists Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, and Barton Gellman of the Washington Post that revealed the existence and scope of NSA's mass surveillance programs operating under the authority of the USA PATRIOT Act and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Disclosures
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ born: 1920-07-20
|
|||
died: 1999-12-31
|
||||
location: "Boston, Massachusetts, USA"
|
||||
---
|
||||
Elliot Lee Richardson was born on July 20, 1920, in Boston, Massachusetts. He attended Harvard University (BA, 1941) and Harvard Law School (LLB, 1947, magna cum laude), then clerked for Judge [[Learned Hand]] on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and for Justice [[Felix Frankfurter]] on the U.S. Supreme Court. He served in the U.S. Army in World War II, participating in the Normandy landings, and was wounded at Omaha Beach. He died on December 31, 1999.[^1]
|
||||
Elliot Lee Richardson was born on July 20, 1920, in Boston, Massachusetts. He attended Harvard University (BA, 1941) and [[Harvard Law School]] (LLB, 1947, magna cum laude), then clerked for Judge [[Learned Hand]] on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and for Justice [[Felix Frankfurter]] on the U.S. Supreme Court. He served in the U.S. Army in World War II, participating in the Normandy landings, and was wounded at Omaha Beach. He died on December 31, 1999.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Government Career
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ The bulk of Schmidt's wealth derives from his roughly one-percent economic inter
|
|||
|
||||
### The Pentagon Advisory Boards
|
||||
|
||||
In March 2016 Defense Secretary [[Ash Carter]] appointed Schmidt to chair the newly created Defense Innovation Board, an advisory body bringing Silicon Valley figures to the Pentagon; he led it until 2020. The board's recommendations preceded the creation of the Pentagon's Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, the department's adoption of agile software practices, and a set of AI ethical principles for the military. Schmidt remained a major holder of Alphabet stock throughout, and the [[Tech Transparency Project]] reported that his suggesting of technologies and vendors to the Pentagon stirred the concern of at least one government ethics official.[^3]
|
||||
In March 2016 Defense Secretary [[Ash Carter]] appointed Schmidt to chair the newly created Defense Innovation Board, an advisory body bringing [[Silicon Valley]] figures to the Pentagon; he led it until 2020. The board's recommendations preceded the creation of the Pentagon's Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, the department's adoption of agile software practices, and a set of AI ethical principles for the military. Schmidt remained a major holder of Alphabet stock throughout, and the [[Tech Transparency Project]] reported that his suggesting of technologies and vendors to the Pentagon stirred the concern of at least one government ethics official.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
In 2018 Schmidt was named chairman of the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, a congressionally chartered body cochaired with the former deputy defense secretary [[Robert Work]], which ran until 2021. Its March 2021 final report concluded that the United States was not prepared to defend against or compete with [[China]] in AI and urged that the Defense Department and intelligence community become "AI-ready" by 2025. CNBC reported in October 2022 that roughly five months after his appointment Schmidt made a seed investment in an AI logistics startup named Beacon, the first of several direct investments in AI companies he made during his commission tenure, while continuing to hold billions of dollars in Alphabet stock; government ethics advisers told the network the arrangement presented a significant conflict of interest, though there was no indication he broke any rule.[^4][^5]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ In 2018 Schmidt was named chairman of the National Security Commission on Artifi
|
|||
|
||||
Schmidt invests through several entities: the venture firm Innovation Endeavors, the earlier Tomorrow Ventures, and his family office Hillspire LLC, which manages his fortune and from which his AI startup investments have been tracked. CNBC reported in January 2025 that his family-office apparatus had backed 22 private AI firms since 2019. Among his national-security holdings is [[Rebellion Defense]], an AI defense-software company launched in 2019 with backing that included Innovation Endeavors.[^2][^3]
|
||||
|
||||
His firms also hold positions in companies that profit from the emerging technologies he advocated to the government, including 5G and quantum computing, and he is executive chairman of the AI investment firm Steel Perlot. In 2021 Schmidt's foundation money helped seed America's Frontier Fund, a public-private investment vehicle modeled on the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] arm [[In-Q-Tel]] of the kind his own commission had recommended, run by the former In-Q-Tel chief executive Gilman Louie and staffed partly by former Schmidt Futures personnel. His charitable money also flowed toward China: while chairing the AI commission, his private foundation put nearly 17 million dollars into a fund feeding the Chinese private-equity group Hillhouse Capital, which holds an extensive portfolio of Chinese AI companies.[^3][^4]
|
||||
His firms also hold positions in companies that profit from the emerging technologies he advocated to the government, including 5G and quantum computing, and he is executive chairman of the AI investment firm Steel Perlot. In 2021 Schmidt's foundation money helped seed America's Frontier Fund, a public-private investment vehicle modeled on the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] arm [[In-Q-Tel]] of the kind his own commission had recommended, run by the former In-Q-Tel chief executive [[Gilman Louie]] and staffed partly by former Schmidt Futures personnel. His charitable money also flowed toward China: while chairing the AI commission, his private foundation put nearly 17 million dollars into a fund feeding the Chinese private-equity group Hillhouse Capital, which holds an extensive portfolio of Chinese AI companies.[^3][^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Anthropic Investment
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ The Series A was a small fraction of Schmidt's broader AI footprint. Through Hil
|
|||
|
||||
### The OSTP Salary Controversy
|
||||
|
||||
A March 2022 Politico investigation by Alex Thompson reported that Schmidt Futures had quietly paid the salaries of staff working inside the White House [[Office of Science and Technology Policy]] under its director [[Eric Lander]], President [[Joe Biden]]'s science adviser. Schmidt Futures' chief innovation officer [[Tom Kalil]] remained on Schmidt's payroll for four months while serving ostensibly as an unpaid consultant at the office, and the philanthropy indirectly paid the salary of the office's chief of staff Marc Aidinoff for about six weeks. More than a dozen people in the roughly 140-person office had ties to Schmidt.[^6][^7]
|
||||
A March 2022 Politico investigation by Alex Thompson reported that Schmidt Futures had quietly paid the salaries of staff working inside the [[White House]] [[Office of Science and Technology Policy]] under its director [[Eric Lander]], President [[Joe Biden]]'s science adviser. Schmidt Futures' chief innovation officer [[Tom Kalil]] remained on Schmidt's payroll for four months while serving ostensibly as an unpaid consultant at the office, and the philanthropy indirectly paid the salary of the office's chief of staff Marc Aidinoff for about six weeks. More than a dozen people in the roughly 140-person office had ties to Schmidt.[^6][^7]
|
||||
|
||||
The arrangement alarmed the office's general counsel Rachel Wallace, who raised what reporting described as significant ethical concerns given Schmidt's financial interests in AI and other areas overlapping the office's work. Lander resigned in February 2022 after a separate Politico report found credible evidence he had bullied Wallace and violated workplace standards. Schmidt called the salary story "largely false," saying its thesis of undue influence over the office was "unsubstantiated."[^6][^7]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ summary: "Francis Duffield Shelden belonged to an old-money establishment family
|
|||
start: 1976
|
||||
location: North Fox Island, Michigan
|
||||
---
|
||||
Francis Duffield Shelden belonged to an old-money establishment family in Michigan, with lineage tracing back to a governor, senator, and United States Secretary of War. Endowed with a trust fund, Shelden pursued a life of philanthropy that took a particular interest in youth charity. He served on the board of the [[Cranbrook Institute]] and [[Boys Republic]], volunteered for [[Big Brother]] programs, and worked part-time as a geology professor at Wayne State University. Behind this respectable facade, Shelden owned a private island in Lake Michigan called [[North Fox Island]], where in 1976 he established a summer camp called [[Brother Paul's Children's Mission]]. The camp, incorporated through [[Adam Starchild]] and linked to a sham New Jersey church called [[The Church of New Revelation]], was in reality an international child pornography and prostitution operation. When Michigan police arrested a gym teacher named [[Gerald Richards]] in July 1976, Richards confessed and implicated Shelden as a principal figure in a nationwide child exploitation network. Shelden fled Michigan before an arrest warrant could be authorised, transferring his assets into offshore trusts and escaping to [[Amsterdam]].
|
||||
Francis Duffield Shelden belonged to an old-money establishment family in Michigan, with lineage tracing back to a governor, senator, and United States Secretary of War. Endowed with a trust fund, Shelden pursued a life of philanthropy that took a particular interest in youth charity. He served on the board of the [[Cranbrook Institute]] and [[Boys Republic]], volunteered for [[Big Brother]] programs, and worked part-time as a geology professor at Wayne State University. Behind this respectable facade, Shelden owned a private island in Lake Michigan called [[North Fox Island]], where in 1976 he established a summer camp called [[Brother Paul's Children's Mission]]. The camp, incorporated through [[Adam Starchild]] and linked to a sham [[New Jersey]] church called [[The Church of New Revelation]], was in reality an international child pornography and prostitution operation. When Michigan police arrested a gym teacher named [[Gerald Richards]] in July 1976, Richards confessed and implicated Shelden as a principal figure in a nationwide child exploitation network. Shelden fled Michigan before an arrest warrant could be authorised, transferring his assets into offshore trusts and escaping to [[Amsterdam]].
|
||||
|
||||
### From PAN to Spartacus International
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ location: "Wayne County, Michigan, USA"
|
|||
Francis Duffield Shelden, born September 5, 1928, in Wayne County, Michigan, was a member of an old money establishment family; his great-grandfather on his father's side was Michigan governor and U.S. Senator [[Russell A. Alger]], who served as Secretary of War from 1897-1899, and on his mother's side were the Duffields, an industrial dynasty. As such, Shelden was endowed with a trust fund that supported a leisurely life of philanthropy focused on youth charities. He worked part-time as a geology professor at Wayne State University, served on the board of the private Cranbrook Institute arts academy and boarding school, and volunteered with Big Brother programs. He owned commercial properties and had a net worth allowing him to pursue interests in sea-steading and offshore banking. Shelden fled Michigan in late 1976 amid investigations into his child pornography operations and was granted Dutch citizenship, protecting him from extradition. He died on July 9, 1996, in Amsterdam, at age 67.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Criminal Operations
|
||||
Shelden financed and operated child pornography and prostitution networks, using fronts like [[Brother Paul's Children's Mission]] on [[North Fox Island]], a private island he owned 17 miles off Michigan's Leelanau Peninsula, incorporated via the [[The Church of New Revelation]] in New Jersey. The camp, established as a non-profit subsidiary for juvenile delinquents, facilitated sex acts and photography; in July 1976, Shelden flew four boys aged 8-14 from Port Huron to the island for a weekend of abuse. He sponsored The Educational Foundation for Youth in Illinois, deriving tax-exempt status from the offshore [[The Church of New Revelation]], soliciting "sponsors" via mail for pornography produced at the camp, with boys advertised in newsletters like [[Better Life Monthly]] and [[Hermes]]. Shelden used an airstrip in Charlevoix, Michigan, for transporting boys, and another in St. Clair County for trips like the July 12, 1976, flight. He corresponded with pedophiles like [[Gerald Richards]], providing boys for sex and films, and was linked to [[Father Bud's Boys Farm]] in Tennessee, where he appeared on a sponsor list seized in November 1976. Richards' September 1976 network diagram placed Shelden centrally in a nationwide child porn operation spanning states and Europe. Shelden wrote for Better Life Monthly under the name Frank Torey and financed [[Hermes]], distributed by F&S in California. In Amsterdam, post-1976, he published PAN ([[PAN Magazine]]) from 1979 under Frank Torey, platforming [[Spartacus International]]'s child sex tourism and brothels. He transferred assets to [[The Trust Company]] of the Virgin Islands in 1976, appointing [[Edward Brongersma]] as trustee in 1978. Shelden's operations involved grooming via magic shows, foster homes, and Big Brother programs; he was implicated in 8mm films, including a snuff film of [[Timothy King]], per [[Richard Lawson]]'s 1988 and 2005 statements, verified by Dutch police linking Shelden and Kim Tam Ang to 1993 Amsterdam investigations.[^1]
|
||||
Shelden financed and operated child pornography and prostitution networks, using fronts like [[Brother Paul's Children's Mission]] on [[North Fox Island]], a private island he owned 17 miles off Michigan's Leelanau Peninsula, incorporated via the [[The Church of New Revelation]] in [[New Jersey]]. The camp, established as a non-profit subsidiary for juvenile delinquents, facilitated sex acts and photography; in July 1976, Shelden flew four boys aged 8-14 from Port Huron to the island for a weekend of abuse. He sponsored The Educational Foundation for Youth in Illinois, deriving tax-exempt status from the offshore [[The Church of New Revelation]], soliciting "sponsors" via mail for pornography produced at the camp, with boys advertised in newsletters like [[Better Life Monthly]] and [[Hermes]]. Shelden used an airstrip in Charlevoix, Michigan, for transporting boys, and another in St. Clair County for trips like the July 12, 1976, flight. He corresponded with pedophiles like [[Gerald Richards]], providing boys for sex and films, and was linked to [[Father Bud's Boys Farm]] in Tennessee, where he appeared on a sponsor list seized in November 1976. Richards' September 1976 network diagram placed Shelden centrally in a nationwide child porn operation spanning states and Europe. Shelden wrote for Better Life Monthly under the name Frank Torey and financed [[Hermes]], distributed by F&S in California. In Amsterdam, post-1976, he published PAN ([[PAN Magazine]]) from 1979 under Frank Torey, platforming [[Spartacus International]]'s child sex tourism and brothels. He transferred assets to [[The Trust Company]] of the Virgin Islands in 1976, appointing [[Edward Brongersma]] as trustee in 1978. Shelden's operations involved grooming via magic shows, foster homes, and Big Brother programs; he was implicated in 8mm films, including a snuff film of [[Timothy King]], per [[Richard Lawson]]'s 1988 and 2005 statements, verified by Dutch police linking Shelden and Kim Tam Ang to 1993 Amsterdam investigations.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Connections
|
||||
Shelden connected to [[John David Norman]] via Better Life Monthly and [[Hermes]], funding their [[Delta Project]]/[[Odyssey Network]] for boy prostitution. [[Gerald Richards]] met Shelden through a magic show ad in Better Life Monthly, exchanging boys and producing porn at Shelden's Ann Arbor estate and [[North Fox Island]]; Richards processed films from [[Father Bud's Boys Farm]] for Shelden's network. [[Dyer Grossman]], a science teacher, co-drafted [[Brother Paul's Children's Mission]] charter and corresponded with Shelden on foster homes and procuring boys via Big Brother programs. [[Adam Starchild]] ([[Malcolm Willis McConahy]]) incorporated [[Brother Paul's Children's Mission]] and The [[Ocean Living Institute]], fronts for Shelden's operations; Starchild faked his death in 1975. Shelden linked to [[Troop 137]] in [[New Orleans]], via [[Cladius Vermilye]] of [[Father Bud's Boys Farm]], with [[Richard Halvorsen]] and [[Raymond Woodall]]; Halvorsen invited to the farm, and [[John Reed Campbell]]'s case connected to [[Harry Connick]].
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ The circumstances Lashbrook described to investigators over subsequent years shi
|
|||
|
||||
### Disclosure and Forensic Investigation
|
||||
|
||||
In 1975, the Church Committee's investigation into CIA domestic activities surfaced a reference to an employee who had died after being unknowingly dosed with LSD. President [[Gerald Ford]] acknowledged the episode and the Olson family was invited to the White House. The CIA disclosed that Frank Olson was the unnamed employee and that he had been dosed with LSD nine days before his death. Congress passed a private bill compensating the family for $750,000 in 1976.
|
||||
In 1975, the Church Committee's investigation into CIA domestic activities surfaced a reference to an employee who had died after being unknowingly dosed with LSD. President [[Gerald Ford]] acknowledged the episode and the Olson family was invited to the [[White House]]. The CIA disclosed that Frank Olson was the unnamed employee and that he had been dosed with LSD nine days before his death. Congress passed a private bill compensating the family for $750,000 in 1976.
|
||||
|
||||
The family's subsequent private investigation, led by Olson's son Eric, raised the question of whether the death was suicide or murder. Eric Olson's theory was that his father had been murdered because his knowledge of CIA biological weapons programs and interrogation methods made him a security risk in his deteriorating psychological state.
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ On the [[Rio Protocol of 1942]], Plaza's record was more complicated than a simp
|
|||
|
||||
The banana boom dominated Plaza's economic legacy. When he took office in 1948, Ecuador was exporting approximately 3.8 million banana clusters annually; by 1952, exports had reached 16.7 million clusters, a 421 percent increase, driven in part by diseases devastating Central American plantations and redirecting United States market demand to Ecuador. Plaza promoted this expansion actively, with [[IBEC]] (International Basic Economy Corporation), a [[Rockefeller Brothers]] venture, advising on development programs. The [[Standard Fruit and Steamship Company]], whose stock [[Chase Manhattan Bank]] transferred, expanded its Ecuadorian operations as a result.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
Plaza's connection to the banana industry extended beyond his presidency. In 1958, alongside [[National Planning Association]] researcher [[Stacy May]], he co-authored "The United Fruit Company in Latin America," a study published by the National Planning Association that drew on access to United Fruit's internal records. May had run the Statistics Division of the U.S. War Production Board during World War II. The book covered United Fruit's operations in Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador, and Colombia, and was regarded as relatively factual rather than promotional in character.[^6]
|
||||
Plaza's connection to the banana industry extended beyond his presidency. In 1958, alongside [[National Planning Association]] researcher [[Stacy May]], he co-authored "The United Fruit Company in [[Latin America]]," a study published by the National Planning Association that drew on access to United Fruit's internal records. May had run the Statistics Division of the U.S. War Production Board during World War II. The book covered United Fruit's operations in Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador, and Colombia, and was regarded as relatively factual rather than promotional in character.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
### Summer Institute of Linguistics
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ Nasser emerged as premier in 1954 after the 1952 coup. His promotion of Pan-Arab
|
|||
|
||||
### Shift Toward Soviet Alliance
|
||||
|
||||
After an Israeli military strike on an Egyptian military camp at [[Gaza]] in February 1955, Nasser began seeking arms outside Western channels. At the Bandung Conference of African and Asian nations in April 1955, he secured a promise of arms from Chinese premier Chou En-lai. Soviet delegations arrived in [[Cairo]] in July 1955, and by September Nasser announced Egypt would receive 200 Soviet bombers, 230 tanks, 200 troop carriers, and over 500 artillery pieces along with Soviet advisers - a deal that fundamentally altered the military balance in the Middle East and accelerated Egypt's move into the Soviet orbit.[^2]
|
||||
After an Israeli military strike on an Egyptian military camp at [[Gaza]] in February 1955, Nasser began seeking arms outside Western channels. At the Bandung Conference of African and Asian nations in April 1955, he secured a promise of arms from Chinese premier Chou En-lai. Soviet delegations arrived in [[Cairo]] in July 1955, and by September Nasser announced Egypt would receive 200 Soviet bombers, 230 tanks, 200 troop carriers, and over 500 artillery pieces along with Soviet advisers - a deal that fundamentally altered the military balance in the [[Middle East]] and accelerated Egypt's move into the Soviet orbit.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Suez Crisis
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -14,11 +14,11 @@ location: USA
|
|||
---
|
||||
Gary Sick is a retired U.S. Navy captain who served as the principal staff member of the [[National Security Council]] responsible for [[Iran]] during the administrations of Presidents [[Gerald R. Ford|Ford]], [[Jimmy Carter|Carter]], and [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]]. He was the NSC's primary Iran analyst throughout the 444-day hostage crisis of 1979-1981, serving at the nexus of all diplomatic and intelligence information regarding the hostage situation as it developed.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
After his government service, Sick became a Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University's Middle East Institute within the School of International and Public Affairs. He also wrote *All Fall Down: America's Tragic Encounter with Iran* (1985), a detailed account of Carter's handling of the Islamic Revolution and the hostage crisis drawn from his direct participation.[^1]
|
||||
After his government service, Sick became a Senior Research Scholar at [[Columbia University]]'s Middle East Institute within the School of International and Public Affairs. He also wrote *All Fall Down: America's Tragic Encounter with Iran* (1985), a detailed account of Carter's handling of the Islamic Revolution and the hostage crisis drawn from his direct participation.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### October Surprise Investigation
|
||||
|
||||
In an April 1991 op-ed in the New York Times, Sick publicly alleged that the Reagan 1980 presidential campaign had secretly negotiated with Iranian representatives to delay the release of the 52 American hostages past Election Day in exchange for arms and unfrozen assets. The op-ed drew on three years of interviews conducted in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East, and triggered immediate congressional attention. The resulting book, *October Surprise: America's Hostages in Iran and the Election of Ronald Reagan* (Times Books, 1991), provided the most systematic case for the allegation and served as the primary evidentiary foundation for both congressional investigations.[^1][^2]
|
||||
In an April 1991 op-ed in the New York Times, Sick publicly alleged that the Reagan 1980 presidential campaign had secretly negotiated with Iranian representatives to delay the release of the 52 American hostages past Election Day in exchange for arms and unfrozen assets. The op-ed drew on three years of interviews conducted in the United States, Europe, and the [[Middle East]], and triggered immediate congressional attention. The resulting book, *October Surprise: America's Hostages in Iran and the Election of Ronald Reagan* (Times Books, 1991), provided the most systematic case for the allegation and served as the primary evidentiary foundation for both congressional investigations.[^1][^2]
|
||||
|
||||
Sick identified [[William J. Casey]], Reagan's campaign manager, as the principal American negotiator, and the [[Hashemi brothers]] (Cyrus and Jamshid) as the key Iranian intermediaries who arranged meetings in Spain in July 1980. He placed a final meeting in Paris in October 1980 at which the deal was sealed. He acknowledged that his principal witness, [[Ari Ben-Menashe]], was subsequently found not credible by congressional investigators.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ The House [[October Surprise]] Task Force (1992-1993) found "no credible evidenc
|
|||
|
||||
### Post-Investigation Reassessment
|
||||
|
||||
In a March 2023 essay in *The New Republic* titled "It's All but Settled: The Reagan Campaign Delayed the Release of the Iranian Hostages," Sick wrote that the [[Ben Barnes]]/[[John Connally]] revelation - documenting a parallel Reagan-campaign effort to delay the hostage release via Middle East intermediaries, confirmed by travel records in the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library - had convinced him the core allegation was "all but settled." He cited this development as independent corroboration that had emerged decades after his original research.[^1]
|
||||
In a March 2023 essay in *[[The New Republic]]* titled "It's All but Settled: The Reagan Campaign Delayed the Release of the Iranian Hostages," Sick wrote that the [[Ben Barnes]]/[[John Connally]] revelation - documenting a parallel Reagan-campaign effort to delay the hostage release via Middle East intermediaries, confirmed by travel records in the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library - had convinced him the core allegation was "all but settled." He cited this development as independent corroboration that had emerged decades after his original research.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ Pender played a significant role in [[First Intercontinental Development Corpora
|
|||
|
||||
Pender's letter to President Gamayel also notably listed [[Robert Booth Nichols]]' telex number (652483 RBN ASSOCS LSA) for responses, indicating a close operational link between Pender and Nichols. The Arab Bank Limited in Amman, [[Jordan]], responded positively to a potential financial transaction of "US$ three billion or more" for the reconstruction of [[Lebanon]], though the text suggests it is unlikely such reconstruction fully materialized.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Michael Riconosciuto]] claimed to have worked directly under [[Maurice Ghanem]] and [[George K. Pender]] in [[Lebanon]], further linking Pender to the alleged drug/intelligence operations in the region. Riconosciuto also stated that [[First Intercontinental Development Corporation|FIDCO]] had a companion company called Euramae Trading, which operated throughout the Middle East and was involved in the drug trade, allegedly as a [[National Security Council|NSC]]-directed operation.[^1]
|
||||
[[Michael Riconosciuto]] claimed to have worked directly under [[Maurice Ghanem]] and [[George K. Pender]] in [[Lebanon]], further linking Pender to the alleged drug/intelligence operations in the region. Riconosciuto also stated that [[First Intercontinental Development Corporation|FIDCO]] had a companion company called Euramae Trading, which operated throughout the [[Middle East]] and was involved in the drug trade, allegedly as a [[National Security Council|NSC]]-directed operation.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ born: 1917-04-20
|
|||
died: 2007-07-22
|
||||
location: "Payne, Ohio, USA"
|
||||
---
|
||||
[[George Otis]] (April 20, 1917 – July 22, 2007) was a former Lear executive and a member of [[Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International|FGBMFI]]. He was a significant figure in Christian broadcasting and evangelism, particularly in the Middle East, and had notable connections within political circles.[^1][^2]
|
||||
[[George Otis]] (April 20, 1917 – July 22, 2007) was a former Lear executive and a member of [[Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International|FGBMFI]]. He was a significant figure in Christian broadcasting and evangelism, particularly in the [[Middle East]], and had notable connections within political circles.[^1][^2]
|
||||
|
||||
In 1970, Otis, along with [[Pat Boone]], [[Shirley Boone]], and [[Harold Bredesen]], prayed with then-California Governor [[Ronald Reagan]] at his home in Sacramento. Otis was reportedly "overcome with the Spirit" and began to speak in the voice of God, comparing Reagan to a king and prophesying that Reagan would "reside at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue" if he continued to walk in God's way. Reagan reportedly took the prophecy very seriously. A Reagan Aide who later worked on [[Pat Robertson]]'s presidential campaign invited [[Nita Scoggan]], the wife of an FGBMFI member, to form a prayer group in the [[White House]]. [[Oliver North]] reportedly attended these prayer meetings.[^1][^2]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ tags:
|
|||
- Israel
|
||||
summary: "Aide to National Security Advisor Brzezinski present at the White House situation room meeting responding to the 1979 Vela satellite nuclear test detection."
|
||||
---
|
||||
Gerald G. Oplinger was an aide to [[Zbigniew Brzezinski]] for global issues. He had retired from the Foreign Service and worked at the [[Nuclear Regulatory Commission|NRC]] before joining Brzezinski's staff. Oplinger was summoned back to an urgent meeting in the White House situation room after a [[VELA Satellite]] recorded two distinctive bright flashes of light over the South Indian Ocean on September 22, 1979, probable evidence of a nuclear explosion. He recalled that [[Zbigniew Brzezinski|Brzezinski]] was present at the meeting, where the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] and [[Defense Intelligence Agency|DIA]] stated that the odds were at least ninety percent that it had been a nuclear explosion. Oplinger personally had no doubt that it was a nuclear event.[^1]
|
||||
Gerald G. Oplinger was an aide to [[Zbigniew Brzezinski]] for global issues. He had retired from the Foreign Service and worked at the [[Nuclear Regulatory Commission|NRC]] before joining Brzezinski's staff. Oplinger was summoned back to an urgent meeting in the [[White House]] situation room after a [[VELA Satellite]] recorded two distinctive bright flashes of light over the South Indian Ocean on September 22, 1979, probable evidence of a nuclear explosion. He recalled that [[Zbigniew Brzezinski|Brzezinski]] was present at the meeting, where the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] and [[Defense Intelligence Agency|DIA]] stated that the odds were at least ninety percent that it had been a nuclear explosion. Oplinger personally had no doubt that it was a nuclear event.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -7,10 +7,10 @@ summary: "Gerald Richards, full name Gerald Stewart Richards, was a high school
|
|||
Gerald Richards, full name Gerald Stewart Richards, was a high school gym teacher in Port Huron, Michigan, who also worked as a masseuse, magician, hypnotist, and Republican candidate for local government. He operated a naturopathy clinic in a commercial basement where he molested boys during massage therapy sessions, including a 12-year-old neighbor he used as an assistant in his magic shows. Richards drove an orange Pinto marked "Jerry the Magician" and had previously set up Brother Paul’s Educational Entertainment Missions in 1970 as a non-profit for safety instruction and religious education through magic and arts. In 1975, he placed an advertisement for his magic show in the pedophile newsletter Better Life Monthly, leading to his contact with [[Francis Shelden]]. Richards described himself as peripheral to a nationwide child pornography operation but confessed to extensive involvement after his arrest.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Criminal Activities
|
||||
On July 12, 1976, Richards took four students aged 8 to 14 to a private airstrip where [[Francis Shelden]] flew them to [[North Fox Island]] for two nights at [[Brother Paul's Children's Mission]], where Shelden performed sex acts on at least one boy and photographed him naked. Upon return, the boy reported the abuse, leading to Richards's arrest on July 23, 1976, after police found naked photos of boys and a letter to Shelden in his glove compartment warning him to move files to [[North Fox Island]]. Richards confessed to molesting boys in exchange for partial immunity and provided details on producing and distributing child pornography, including processing films from [[Father Bud's Boys Farm]] in Monteagle, Tennessee, and mailing them via Mail-O-Matic in North Carolina to F&S Distributors in California. In August 1976, he handed over a letter from [[Dyer Grossman]] dated July 19, 1976, outlining plans for foster homes in Michigan to house runaways for government payments and mentioning a 12-year-old boy procured through a Big Brother program for camping trips. Richards was sentenced on September 13, 1976, to 2 to 20 years in Southern Michigan Prison in Jackson after pleading guilty to criminal sexual conduct in the first degree, and from prison he sketched a network diagram in September 1976 detailing a coast-to-coast child pornography operation.[^1]
|
||||
On July 12, 1976, Richards took four students aged 8 to 14 to a private airstrip where [[Francis Shelden]] flew them to [[North Fox Island]] for two nights at [[Brother Paul's Children's Mission]], where Shelden performed sex acts on at least one boy and photographed him naked. Upon return, the boy reported the abuse, leading to Richards's arrest on July 23, 1976, after police found naked photos of boys and a letter to Shelden in his glove compartment warning him to move files to [[North Fox Island]]. Richards confessed to molesting boys in exchange for partial immunity and provided details on producing and distributing child pornography, including processing films from [[Father Bud's Boys Farm]] in Monteagle, Tennessee, and mailing them via Mail-O-Matic in [[North Carolina]] to F&S Distributors in California. In August 1976, he handed over a letter from [[Dyer Grossman]] dated July 19, 1976, outlining plans for foster homes in Michigan to house runaways for government payments and mentioning a 12-year-old boy procured through a Big Brother program for camping trips. Richards was sentenced on September 13, 1976, to 2 to 20 years in Southern Michigan Prison in Jackson after pleading guilty to criminal sexual conduct in the first degree, and from prison he sketched a network diagram in September 1976 detailing a coast-to-coast child pornography operation.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Connections
|
||||
Richards met [[Francis Shelden]] in 1975 through Better Life Monthly, corresponded by mail, met at hotels and Shelden's Ann Arbor estate to abuse boys together, and Shelden recruited him to direct a summer camp on [[North Fox Island]] for child pornography production. Shelden connected Richards to [[Dyer Grossman]] of The [[The Church of New Revelation]] in New Jersey, a fake church used to incorporate [[Brother Paul's Children's Mission]] as a non-profit subsidiary for tax-exempt status, allowing the camp to receive court-ordered juvenile delinquents for abuse and filming. Grossman, a science teacher from a wealthy Long Island family working at an exclusive New York boys’ boarding school, traveled to Michigan to draft the charter and planned foster homes for runaways, with a letter mentioning a 12-year-old boy for sexual use. [[Adam Starchild]] ([[Malcolm Willis McConahy]]) incorporated [[Brother Paul's Children's Mission]] and The [[Ocean Living Institute]], fronts for Shelden's operations; Starchild faked his death in 1975. Richards identified [[Cladius Vermilye]], an Episcopal priest running [[Father Bud's Boys Farm]] in Tennessee, as sending child pornography films for processing, where juveniles were drugged, filmed in orgies, and offered to sponsors for visits, with the farm raided in November 1976 and linked to The [[The Church of New Revelation]]. He named [[Richard Halvorsen]], a New Orleans scoutmaster arrested in September 1976 for a boy prostitution ring using [[Troop 137]], whose files connected to Vermilye's farm and [[John David Norman]]'s [[Delta Project]] via index cards on boys’ sexual preferences. Richards linked the operation to [[John David Norman]]’s [[Odyssey Network]], referring to boy exchanges as a "Cadet racket" and "fellows" supplied to sponsors, with Norman’s [[Delta Project]] using newsletters like [[Hermes]] for prostitution and pornography distribution.[^1]
|
||||
Richards met [[Francis Shelden]] in 1975 through Better Life Monthly, corresponded by mail, met at hotels and Shelden's Ann Arbor estate to abuse boys together, and Shelden recruited him to direct a summer camp on [[North Fox Island]] for child pornography production. Shelden connected Richards to [[Dyer Grossman]] of The [[The Church of New Revelation]] in [[New Jersey]], a fake church used to incorporate [[Brother Paul's Children's Mission]] as a non-profit subsidiary for tax-exempt status, allowing the camp to receive court-ordered juvenile delinquents for abuse and filming. Grossman, a science teacher from a wealthy Long Island family working at an exclusive New York boys’ boarding school, traveled to Michigan to draft the charter and planned foster homes for runaways, with a letter mentioning a 12-year-old boy for sexual use. [[Adam Starchild]] ([[Malcolm Willis McConahy]]) incorporated [[Brother Paul's Children's Mission]] and The [[Ocean Living Institute]], fronts for Shelden's operations; Starchild faked his death in 1975. Richards identified [[Cladius Vermilye]], an Episcopal priest running [[Father Bud's Boys Farm]] in Tennessee, as sending child pornography films for processing, where juveniles were drugged, filmed in orgies, and offered to sponsors for visits, with the farm raided in November 1976 and linked to The [[The Church of New Revelation]]. He named [[Richard Halvorsen]], a New Orleans scoutmaster arrested in September 1976 for a boy prostitution ring using [[Troop 137]], whose files connected to Vermilye's farm and [[John David Norman]]'s [[Delta Project]] via index cards on boys’ sexual preferences. Richards linked the operation to [[John David Norman]]’s [[Odyssey Network]], referring to boy exchanges as a "Cadet racket" and "fellows" supplied to sponsors, with Norman’s [[Delta Project]] using newsletters like [[Hermes]] for prostitution and pornography distribution.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
[^1]: Dovey, S. (2023). Eye of the Chickenhawk. United States: Thehotstar.
|
||||
|
|
@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ location: "United Kingdom"
|
|||
|
||||
However, news reports, specifically from the *Oceanside Blade-Citizen*, noted that documents and [[United States|U.S.]] intelligence sources implicated Spiro in the [[Iran-Contra Affair]] and an alleged [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]] conspiracy to pirate software from a private company and sell it to foreign intelligence agencies. Spiro's name also appeared in [[Oliver North]]'s personal notebooks documenting the [[Iran-Contra Affair]], according to the [[National Security Archives]] in Washington D.C.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
Former hostage [[David Jacobsen]] stated that Spiro helped negotiate the release of hostages in the Middle East. Spiro lived in Beirut, [[Lebanon]], during the 1970s and 1980s, where he made contacts with Lebanese religious leaders and the Islamic Jihad. His brother-in-law, [[Greg Quarton]], confirmed that Spiro maintained communication with Lebanese business associates until his death.[^1]
|
||||
Former hostage [[David Jacobsen]] stated that Spiro helped negotiate the release of hostages in the [[Middle East]]. Spiro lived in Beirut, [[Lebanon]], during the 1970s and 1980s, where he made contacts with Lebanese religious leaders and the Islamic Jihad. His brother-in-law, [[Greg Quarton]], confirmed that Spiro maintained communication with Lebanese business associates until his death.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Michael Riconosciuto]] claimed that [[Marshall Riconosciuto]] (Michael's father) shipped documents to [[Ian Stuart Spiro]] for safekeeping. The week of the Spiro family's death, [[Robert Corson]], a business associate of Spiro's indicted in a savings and loan scam and reportedly a [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] operative, was found dead in an El Paso, Texas, motel room, with officials stating he died of a heart attack. Corson was also alleged to have associated with California investor [[Wayne Reeder]], who was seen at a [[Wackenhut Corporation]]/[[Contras|Contra]] meeting in Riverside County.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -34,15 +34,15 @@ The Suzuki debate took place before a packed hall at the University of Western O
|
|||
|
||||
### Pioneer Fund Presidency
|
||||
|
||||
Rushton received more than a million dollars in Pioneer Fund grants over his career, money he used in part to buy out his teaching duties, and in 2002 he became president of the fund, the [[Wickliffe Draper|Draper]]-founded foundation that has financed race-and-intelligence research since 1937. He served until shortly before his death, when he nominated the psychologist [[Richard Lynn]] as his successor. His r/K framework and his collaborations with Lynn appeared in the journal [[Mankind Quarterly]], and his work supplied citations for [[Charles Murray]] and [[Richard Herrnstein]]'s *The Bell Curve* and for the [[Human Biodiversity|human-biodiversity]] network associated with [[Steve Sailer]].[^1][^5]
|
||||
Rushton received more than a million dollars in Pioneer Fund grants over his career, money he used in part to buy out his teaching duties, and in 2002 he became president of the fund, the [[Wickliffe Draper|Draper]]-founded foundation that has financed race-and-intelligence research since 1937. He served until shortly before his death, when he nominated the psychologist [[Richard Lynn]] as his successor. His r/K framework and his collaborations with Lynn appeared in the journal [[Mankind Quarterly]], and his work supplied citations for [[Charles Murray]] and [[Richard Herrnstein]]'s *[[The Bell Curve]]* and for the [[Human Biodiversity|human-biodiversity]] network associated with [[Steve Sailer]].[^1][^5]
|
||||
|
||||
Born in Bournemouth, England in 1943, Rushton took a doctorate from the [[London School of Economics]] in 1973, taught at [[York University]] and the [[University of Toronto]], and moved to Western Ontario, where he was made full professor in 1985. After Harry Weyher's death he became Pioneer Fund president in 2002 and channeled much of the fund's money to his own Charles Darwin Research Institute in Port Huron, [[Michigan]]; tax records show that the institute received $473,835 in 2002, roughly 73 percent of the fund's grants that year. He died of cancer in London, Ontario, on October 2, 2012.[^1][^9]
|
||||
Born in Bournemouth, England in 1943, Rushton took a doctorate from the [[London School of Economics]] in 1973, taught at [[York University]] and the [[University of Toronto]], and moved to Western Ontario, where he was made full professor in 1985. After [[Harry Weyher]]'s death he became Pioneer Fund president in 2002 and channeled much of the fund's money to his own Charles Darwin Research Institute in Port Huron, [[Michigan]]; tax records show that the institute received $473,835 in 2002, roughly 73 percent of the fund's grants that year. He died of cancer in London, Ontario, on October 2, 2012.[^1][^9]
|
||||
|
||||
### Scientific Condemnation
|
||||
|
||||
Reviewers across psychology and biology dismissed *Race, Evolution, and Behavior*. The University of Washington psychologist [[David Barash]] wrote that "bad science and virulent racial prejudice drip like pus from nearly every page" of the book. In 2020 the psychology department at the University of Western Ontario issued a statement saying much of Rushton's research "was racist," was "deeply flawed from a scientific standpoint," and showed how "the impact of flawed science lingers on." By 2021 several of his articles had been retracted as scientifically flawed, unethical, and not replicable.[^2][^6]
|
||||
|
||||
In June 2020 the journal *[[Personality and Individual Differences]]* retracted a 2012 paper Rushton coauthored with [[Donald Templer]] that linked skin pigmentation to aggression and sexuality, and in December 2020 the journal *Psychological Reports* retracted two further Rushton papers from 1990 and 1991 on race and brain size, with the notice citing a misunderstanding of human genetic variation, the inappropriate application of ecological theory to human populations, the misuse of heritability, and the failure to replicate his findings. The wave of retractions reflected a broader reckoning across psychology with hereditarian work funded by the Pioneer Fund.[^6][^10]
|
||||
In June 2020 the journal *[[Personality and Individual Differences]]* retracted a 2012 paper Rushton coauthored with [[Donald Templer]] that linked skin pigmentation to aggression and sexuality, and in December 2020 the journal *[[Psychological Reports]]* retracted two further Rushton papers from 1990 and 1991 on race and brain size, with the notice citing a misunderstanding of human genetic variation, the inappropriate application of ecological theory to human populations, the misuse of heritability, and the failure to replicate his findings. The wave of retractions reflected a broader reckoning across psychology with hereditarian work funded by the Pioneer Fund.[^6][^10]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ The HSCA documented that in the weeks before the Kennedy assassination, Ruby mad
|
|||
|
||||
On November 24, 1963, at 11:21 AM, Ruby was in the Dallas Police headquarters basement with a crowd of journalists waiting to see Oswald transferred to the county jail. As Oswald was brought out in handcuffs, Ruby stepped forward and shot him once in the abdomen at close range. The event was broadcast live on national television. Oswald died ninety minutes later at Parkland Memorial Hospital.
|
||||
|
||||
Ruby was immediately arrested. He claimed he acted spontaneously out of grief for Kennedy and a desire to spare [[Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis|Jacqueline Kennedy]] the trauma of a trial. He was tried for murder in March 1964 and convicted; the jury sentenced him to death. His trial attorney was Melvin Belli.[^1]
|
||||
Ruby was immediately arrested. He claimed he acted spontaneously out of grief for Kennedy and a desire to spare [[Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis|Jacqueline Kennedy]] the trauma of a trial. He was tried for murder in March 1964 and convicted; the jury sentenced him to death. His trial attorney was [[Melvin Belli]].[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
Ruby's conviction was reversed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in October 1966 on grounds that the original trial should have been moved from Dallas due to pretrial publicity. A retrial was ordered in a different Texas venue. Before the retrial could begin, Ruby died of lung cancer on January 3, 1967. He had reportedly told his family and attorneys that he knew more than he had said, and had requested to be taken to Washington for questioning by the Warren Commission under conditions where he felt safe - a request that Warren Commission Chairman [[Earl Warren]] declined.
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ In 1977 Stephens Inc. held 268,400 shares, 4.9 percent, of [[Financial General B
|
|||
|
||||
Abedi retained Metzger at a Hilton hotel in Washington on November 30. The purchases for the bank's clients were run from day to day by [[George H. Davis]], "an officer of Stephens, Inc.," who was authorized to buy up to 10,000 shares a day so as not to move the price. The stock was placed in an account at Stephens Inc. opened under the name "Eugene J. Metzger, Agent," in the court's words "to shield the identity of the BCCI principals." On January 6, 1978, Stephens Inc. sold 70,000 of its own shares into the accumulation, which by the end of the month held nearly 20 percent of the votes. When the bank's officers were first asked, they "flatly denied making any purchases."[^2][^3]
|
||||
|
||||
Financial General sued on February 17, 1978, naming Lance, the bank, Abedi, Metzger, Stephens, Stephens Inc., and Systematics. The investors added in March were [[Kamal Adham]], described by the court as a minister of the Saudi government, [[Faisal Saud al-Fulaij|Faisal Saud]] al-Fulaij of [[Kuwait]], the crown prince of [[Abu Dhabi]], his younger brother, and the financial adviser to their family. Systematics was dismissed on March 22. [[Hillary Clinton|Hillary Rodham]] of the [[Rose Law Firm]] did legal work for it in the case. On March 18 Stephens and the other defendants consented to permanent injunctions in a separate suit by the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]], No. 78-0469. The court granted Stephens summary judgment on July 20, 1978. The remaining defendants settled in 1980, and the tender offer went through. "The [[Middle East|Middle Eastern]] investors are in control of Financial General Bankshares," the court of appeals noted in 1982. The company was renamed [[First American Bankshares]].[^2][^3]
|
||||
Financial General sued on February 17, 1978, naming Lance, the bank, Abedi, Metzger, Stephens, Stephens Inc., and [[Systematics]]. The investors added in March were [[Kamal Adham]], described by the court as a minister of the Saudi government, [[Faisal Saud al-Fulaij|Faisal Saud]] al-Fulaij of [[Kuwait]], the crown prince of [[Abu Dhabi]], his younger brother, and the financial adviser to their family. Systematics was dismissed on March 22. [[Hillary Clinton|Hillary Rodham]] of the [[Rose Law Firm]] did legal work for it in the case. On March 18 Stephens and the other defendants consented to permanent injunctions in a separate suit by the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]], No. 78-0469. The court granted Stephens summary judgment on July 20, 1978. The remaining defendants settled in 1980, and the tender offer went through. "The [[Middle East|Middle Eastern]] investors are in control of Financial General Bankshares," the court of appeals noted in 1982. The company was renamed [[First American Bankshares]].[^2][^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Worthen and Lippo
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ The rifle had been purchased in [[Birmingham]] on March 29 under the alias "Harv
|
|||
|
||||
### Guilty Plea and Recantation
|
||||
|
||||
Ray was extradited to the United States and represented by attorney Percy Foreman, who advised him that proceeding to trial would likely result in the electric chair. On March 10, 1969, Ray pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in a proceeding before Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Preston Battle. He was sentenced to ninety-nine years. Under Tennessee law at the time, he was not eligible for parole.
|
||||
Ray was extradited to the United States and represented by attorney [[Percy Foreman]], who advised him that proceeding to trial would likely result in the electric chair. On March 10, 1969, Ray pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in a proceeding before Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Preston Battle. He was sentenced to ninety-nine years. Under Tennessee law at the time, he was not eligible for parole.
|
||||
|
||||
On March 13 - three days after his plea - Ray sent a letter to Judge Battle asserting that his attorney had pressured him into the plea and that he maintained his innocence. He petitioned for a trial numerous times over the following decades; every petition was denied.
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ James Edward Staley is an American banker who spent more than three decades at [
|
|||
|
||||
### JPMorgan Career
|
||||
|
||||
Staley joined Morgan Guaranty Trust Company of New York in 1979 after graduating from Bowdoin College, and spent the 1980s in the bank's Latin America division, including as head of corporate finance for Brazil and as general manager of the firm's Brazilian brokerage.[^4] He led [[JPMorgan Asset Management]] from 2001 to 2009 and then ran the corporate and investment bank from 2009 to 2013.[^5] At the height of his JPMorgan career he was discussed as a potential successor to chief executive [[Jamie Dimon]].[^4]
|
||||
Staley joined Morgan Guaranty Trust Company of New York in 1979 after graduating from Bowdoin College, and spent the 1980s in the bank's [[Latin America]] division, including as head of corporate finance for Brazil and as general manager of the firm's Brazilian brokerage.[^4] He led [[JPMorgan Asset Management]] from 2001 to 2009 and then ran the corporate and investment bank from 2009 to 2013.[^5] At the height of his JPMorgan career he was discussed as a potential successor to chief executive [[Jamie Dimon]].[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
Staley managed the private-banking relationship between JPMorgan and Epstein, who became a client of the bank's private bank in 1998.[^6] In a July 2011 email, JPMorgan general counsel [[Stephen Cutler]] wrote to Staley and asset-and-wealth-management head [[Mary Erdoes]] that Epstein was "not an honorable person in any way" and "should not be a client," and Cutler later testified that Staley and Erdoes made the decision to keep Epstein.[^6] Epstein also functioned as a source of referrals and introductions for Staley and the bank, including to wealthy potential clients.[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ Philby's assignment was long-term penetration of the British intelligence and fo
|
|||
|
||||
### MI6 Career
|
||||
|
||||
Philby joined MI6 (the Secret Intelligence Service) in 1940, recruited partly through personal connections. He rose with unusual speed: by 1941 he headed Section V (counterintelligence), and by 1944 he had been appointed head of the newly created Section IX, tasked specifically with anti-Soviet operations. This position gave him visibility into MI6's entire intelligence collection effort against the USSR and its assets in Eastern Europe.
|
||||
Philby joined MI6 (the [[Secret Intelligence Service]]) in 1940, recruited partly through personal connections. He rose with unusual speed: by 1941 he headed Section V (counterintelligence), and by 1944 he had been appointed head of the newly created Section IX, tasked specifically with anti-Soviet operations. This position gave him visibility into MI6's entire intelligence collection effort against the USSR and its assets in Eastern Europe.
|
||||
|
||||
The damage Philby inflicted from this position was systematic. He reported to his KGB handlers the identities of MI6 agents and networks, the methods and communications infrastructure MI6 used for Soviet-related operations, assessments of Soviet capabilities and MI6's knowledge of them, and plans for post-war operations against Soviet influence.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ After Oswald's return from the Soviet Union in June 1962, he settled in the Dall
|
|||
|
||||
Oswald's intelligence background accumulated overlapping anomalies that no official investigation fully explained: his Atsugi assignment at a U-2 base; his defection during a period when CIA was exploring the use of "dangles" sent to the Soviet Union as counterintelligence assets; the repatriation loan rather than prosecution; the CI/SIG file opened under a wrong name two and a half years before the assassination; the HT/LINGUAL mail intercept connection; the October 10 bifurcated cable with Jane Roman's documented statement about signing off on false information; the Mexico City photograph and voice recording discrepancies; and the de Mohrenschildt relationship with a CIA Domestic Contacts officer.
|
||||
|
||||
The HSCA found that the CIA had not been fully cooperative in disclosing Oswald's file and that some CIA handling of the Mexico City surveillance evidence was unexplained. The committee concluded that neither the CIA nor any other U.S. government agency had conspired with Oswald to kill Kennedy, but acknowledged that significant gaps in the record remained. HSCA chief counsel G. Robert Blakey subsequently stated that the committee had been "misled by the CIA" and described the agency as having a culture of "prevarication and dissimulation."
|
||||
The HSCA found that the CIA had not been fully cooperative in disclosing Oswald's file and that some CIA handling of the Mexico City surveillance evidence was unexplained. The committee concluded that neither the CIA nor any other U.S. government agency had conspired with Oswald to kill Kennedy, but acknowledged that significant gaps in the record remained. HSCA chief counsel [[G. Robert Blakey]] subsequently stated that the committee had been "misled by the CIA" and described the agency as having a culture of "prevarication and dissimulation."
|
||||
|
||||
The [[Assassination Records Review Board]] (ARRB), operating under the JFK Records Collection Act of 1992, declassified millions of pages of previously withheld records between 1994 and 1998. These releases confirmed the existence of the CI/SIG 201 file, the HT/LINGUAL connection, and the bifurcated cable structure around Oswald's Mexico City visit, while leaving the core questions of what the CIA knew about Oswald before the assassination, and why that information was handled as it was, without definitive resolution.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ born: 1918-09-09
|
|||
died: 1991-09-15
|
||||
location: "United States"
|
||||
---
|
||||
Louis H. Roddis, Jr. played a major role in [[America]]'s postwar nuclear weapons development. He was a member of the Nuclear Intelligence Panel (NIP). Roddis concluded that the 1979 [[South Africa]]n-Israeli nuclear test had taken place on a barge or on one of the islands in the South Indian Ocean archipelago. He expressed anger at [[Frank Press]] and the White House for what he saw as a deliberate effort to downplay and manipulate the facts surrounding the event.[^1]
|
||||
Louis H. Roddis, Jr. played a major role in [[America]]'s postwar nuclear weapons development. He was a member of the Nuclear Intelligence Panel (NIP). Roddis concluded that the 1979 [[South Africa]]n-Israeli nuclear test had taken place on a barge or on one of the islands in the South Indian Ocean archipelago. He expressed anger at [[Frank Press]] and the [[White House]] for what he saw as a deliberate effort to downplay and manipulate the facts surrounding the event.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ tags:
|
|||
- Soviet
|
||||
summary: "Schroeder and Ostrander's work, which included accounts from figures like Eduard Naumov, contributed to the growing awareness and concern within the U.S."
|
||||
---
|
||||
[[Lynn Schroeder]] is an American author who, along with [[Sheila Ostrander]], co-authored the 1970 book *Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain*. This book played a significant role in popularizing Soviet and Eastern European [[Parapsychology|psi]] research in the West. The book portrayed a "veritable frenzy of psychic research" going on in the [[Soviet Union|USSR]], with investigators uncovering powerful natural clairvoyants, psychokinetic prodigies, and dowsers whose talents could potentially be employed against the West.[^1]
|
||||
[[Lynn Schroeder]] is an American author who, along with [[Sheila Ostrander]], co-authored the 1970 book *Psychic Discoveries Behind the [[Iron Curtain]]*. This book played a significant role in popularizing Soviet and Eastern European [[Parapsychology|psi]] research in the West. The book portrayed a "veritable frenzy of psychic research" going on in the [[Soviet Union|USSR]], with investigators uncovering powerful natural clairvoyants, psychokinetic prodigies, and dowsers whose talents could potentially be employed against the West.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
Schroeder and Ostrander's work, which included accounts from figures like [[Eduard Naumov]], contributed to the growing awareness and concern within the U.S. intelligence community about a potential "psi gap" with the Soviet Union, ultimately influencing the decision to fund and initiate programs like the [[STARGATE PROJECT|Stargate Project]].[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ location: "Miami, Florida"
|
|||
|
||||
### Support for UAP Legislation
|
||||
|
||||
Senator Rubio was the chief sponsor of the bill that mandated the Director of National Intelligence to produce an unclassified report on UAP, which led to the landmark June 2021 "Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena." He has been a vocal advocate for taking the UAP issue seriously, stating that "There is a lot we still don’t know about these UAP and that is a big problem. We’ve taken some important steps over the last few years to increase transparency and reduce stigmas, but more needs to be done."[^1]
|
||||
Senator Rubio was the chief sponsor of the bill that mandated the [[Director of National Intelligence]] to produce an unclassified report on UAP, which led to the landmark June 2021 "Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena." He has been a vocal advocate for taking the UAP issue seriously, stating that "There is a lot we still don’t know about these UAP and that is a big problem. We’ve taken some important steps over the last few years to increase transparency and reduce stigmas, but more needs to be done."[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
He has worked closely with a bipartisan group of senators, including [[Kirsten Gillibrand]] and [[Chuck Schumer]], as well as with [[Christopher Mellon]] and [[Luis Elizondo]], to draft and pass legislation that has established a permanent UAP office ([[All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office|AARO]]) and created a secure process for whistleblowers to report UAP-related information to Congress. His leadership on this issue has been a critical factor in the recent progress of the UAP disclosure movement.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ Marion David Pettie (1920-2003) was the founder and leader of [[The Finders]], a
|
|||
|
||||
Pettie was born in 1920 in Culpeper, Virginia, where his family had lived for what he described as ten generations. He dropped out of school after ninth grade. He served in the [[U.S. Army]] before and during World War II, later transitioning to or serving within the U.S. Air Force, where he attained the rank of Master Sergeant. He retired from the Air Force in 1956.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
From at least the 1940s, Pettie hosted open-house gatherings at his Washington D.C. residence. He described these as self-financed social events that drew intelligence figures, diplomats, journalists, and others. Pettie stated in a 1996 interview with the Washington City Paper that he had studied intelligence agencies since the 1930s, tracking the evolution from the Office of Naval Intelligence through the [[Office of Strategic Services|OSS]] to the CIA.[^2]
|
||||
From at least the 1940s, Pettie hosted open-house gatherings at his Washington D.C. residence. He described these as self-financed social events that drew intelligence figures, diplomats, journalists, and others. Pettie stated in a 1996 interview with the Washington City Paper that he had studied intelligence agencies since the 1930s, tracking the evolution from the [[Office of Naval Intelligence]] through the [[Office of Strategic Services|OSS]] to the CIA.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Alleged Intelligence Connections
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ Mark Stebbins was a 12-year-old boy from Ferndale, Michigan, identified as the f
|
|||
Mark Stebbins went missing on February 15, 1976, after leaving a local bowling alley in Ferndale. His body was discovered four days later on February 19, 1976, dumped in the corner of a parking lot behind an Embers restaurant in Southfield, Michigan. The body showed signs of being bound with rope around the neck, arms, and legs, with ligature marks consistent with restraint during the assault. Stebbins had been sexually abused with a foreign object, and his cause of death was determined to be suffocation.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Investigation and Connections
|
||||
The investigation into Stebbins' murder became part of the broader [[Oakland County Child Killer]] case, which included victims such as 12-year-old [[Jill Robinson]], abducted December 22, 1976, and found shot in a highway ditch; 10-year-old [[Kristine Mihelich]], missing January 2, 1977, and found suffocated roadside; and 11-year-old [[Timothy King]], abducted March 16, 1977, and discovered sexually assaulted and suffocated in a ditch. Pedophile [[Gregory Greene]], arrested in January 1977 for assaulting boys, implicated [[Christopher Busch]] in Stebbins' murder, stating Busch had killed a boy on a cabin trip and identifying Stebbins as the victim. Busch, son of a General Motors executive, was arrested shortly after and found with child pornography films depicting bound boys in wooded areas, but he was cleared via polygraph despite later evidence suggesting otherwise.[^1]
|
||||
The investigation into Stebbins' murder became part of the broader [[Oakland County Child Killer]] case, which included victims such as 12-year-old [[Jill Robinson]], abducted December 22, 1976, and found shot in a highway ditch; 10-year-old [[Kristine Mihelich]], missing January 2, 1977, and found suffocated roadside; and 11-year-old [[Timothy King]], abducted March 16, 1977, and discovered sexually assaulted and suffocated in a ditch. Pedophile [[Gregory Greene]], arrested in January 1977 for assaulting boys, implicated [[Christopher Busch]] in Stebbins' murder, stating Busch had killed a boy on a cabin trip and identifying Stebbins as the victim. Busch, son of a [[General Motors]] executive, was arrested shortly after and found with child pornography films depicting bound boys in wooded areas, but he was cleared via polygraph despite later evidence suggesting otherwise.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
[^1]: Dovey, S. (2023). Eye of the Chickenhawk. United States: Thehotstar.
|
||||
|
|
@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ Beyond PROMIS, Riconosciuto was involved in advanced technological projects, inc
|
|||
|
||||
### Legal Troubles and Witness Protection Attempts
|
||||
|
||||
Following his arrest, Riconosciuto attempted multiple times to trade information with federal authorities, including the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] and [[Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives|BATF]], in exchange for entry into a Witness Protection Program. He offered to expose high-level corruption, drug trafficking, and money laundering operations, including those involving [[Robert Booth Nichols]], [[Michael Abbell]], and the [[Cali Drug Cartel]]. However, these attempts were largely unsuccessful, with authorities often expressing skepticism or facing internal resistance to his claims.[^1]
|
||||
Following his arrest, Riconosciuto attempted multiple times to trade information with federal authorities, including the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] and [[Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives|BATF]], in exchange for entry into a [[Witness Protection Program]]. He offered to expose high-level corruption, drug trafficking, and money laundering operations, including those involving [[Robert Booth Nichols]], [[Michael Abbell]], and the [[Cali Drug Cartel]]. However, these attempts were largely unsuccessful, with authorities often expressing skepticism or facing internal resistance to his claims.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Relationship with Danny Casolaro
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ He was a member of [[Propaganda Due|P2]], [[Licio Gelli]]'s clandestine Masonic
|
|||
|
||||
In 1972, Sindona acquired a controlling interest in [[Franklin National Bank]], one of the twenty largest American banks at the time, paying approximately $40 million for the stake. The acquisition brought him into a community of American financiers and provided a vehicle for moving funds between Italian and American banking systems.
|
||||
|
||||
Franklin National Bank collapsed on October 8, 1974, in what was at the time the largest bank failure in American history. Federal regulators found that the bank had been systematically looted, with losses exceeding $1.7 billion, through unauthorized foreign exchange speculation and fraudulent transactions that disguised the bank's true financial condition. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Federal Reserve coordinated an orderly resolution; depositors were protected, but investors lost the entire value of their shares.[^1]
|
||||
Franklin National Bank collapsed on October 8, 1974, in what was at the time the largest bank failure in American history. Federal regulators found that the bank had been systematically looted, with losses exceeding $1.7 billion, through unauthorized foreign exchange speculation and fraudulent transactions that disguised the bank's true financial condition. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the [[Federal Reserve]] coordinated an orderly resolution; depositors were protected, but investors lost the entire value of their shares.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### American Criminal Proceedings
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ created: 2026-06-05
|
|||
updated: 2026-06-05
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller (July 8, 1908 - January 26, 1979), named after his maternal grandfather and US Senator [[Nelson Aldrich]], was the dominant figure in US-Latin American relations from World War II through the mid-1970s. As coordinator of inter-American affairs (1940-1944), assistant secretary of state for American republic affairs (1944-1945), and later as President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]]'s special assistant for national security, he built the institutional architecture that governed American policy toward Latin America and shaped the intelligence community's covert operations in the Western Hemisphere. His private vehicles, the [[IBEC]] (International Basic Economy Corporation) and the [[AIA]] (American International Association), extended Rockefeller family commercial interests into the Brazilian Amazon and beyond.
|
||||
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller (July 8, 1908 - January 26, 1979), named after his maternal grandfather and US Senator [[Nelson Aldrich]], was the dominant figure in US-Latin American relations from World War II through the mid-1970s. As coordinator of inter-American affairs (1940-1944), assistant secretary of state for American republic affairs (1944-1945), and later as President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]]'s special assistant for national security, he built the institutional architecture that governed American policy toward [[Latin America]] and shaped the intelligence community's covert operations in the Western Hemisphere. His private vehicles, the [[IBEC]] (International Basic Economy Corporation) and the [[AIA]] (American International Association), extended Rockefeller family commercial interests into the Brazilian Amazon and beyond.
|
||||
|
||||
### Early Formation
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -26,11 +26,11 @@ Born at [[Bar Harbor]], Maine, Nelson was the second son of [[John D. Rockefelle
|
|||
|
||||
A childhood trip to the American Southwest in 1924 exposed him to Taos Pueblo Indians and Navajo reservation lands, trips organized partly by the [[Colorado Fuel and Iron Company]] (CF&I), a Rockefeller-owned mining firm. The experience introduced him to how Standard Oil subsidiaries and Christian missionaries together operated on lands being stripped of Indian tenure.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
Nelson suffered from dyslexia, which his father treated punitively, and compensated by developing exceptional interpersonal skills and a domineering confidence his siblings lacked. He attended the Lincoln School of Teachers College at Columbia University, graduating in 1926, then enrolled at [[Dartmouth College]], where he graduated cum laude in 1930 as a Phi Beta Kappa member with an A.B. in economics. His senior economics thesis defended Standard Oil, flattering his father while revealing his political instincts. He made two failed runs for class president and settled for vice president, a pattern he would repeat on the national stage.[^3]
|
||||
Nelson suffered from dyslexia, which his father treated punitively, and compensated by developing exceptional interpersonal skills and a domineering confidence his siblings lacked. He attended the Lincoln School of Teachers College at [[Columbia University]], graduating in 1926, then enrolled at [[Dartmouth College]], where he graduated cum laude in 1930 as a Phi Beta Kappa member with an A.B. in economics. His senior economics thesis defended Standard Oil, flattering his father while revealing his political instincts. He made two failed runs for class president and settled for vice president, a pattern he would repeat on the national stage.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Road to Washington
|
||||
|
||||
After Dartmouth, Nelson worked briefly at [[Chase National Bank]] under his uncle [[Winthrop Aldrich]], then moved into the management of [[Rockefeller Center]], where he served as president beginning in 1938. There he oversaw the building's politics and learned, through the Diego Rivera mural controversy, the limits of his instincts. From 1935 onward he served as a director of [[Creole Petroleum Company]], a [[Standard Oil of New Jersey]] subsidiary operating in Venezuela, which grounded his understanding of Latin American extractive economics. His tour of Latin America in the mid-1930s, combined with the family's existing oil investments through Standard Oil of New Jersey in Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia, convinced him that the hemisphere required a coordinated American strategy.[^4]
|
||||
After Dartmouth, Nelson worked briefly at [[Chase National Bank]] under his uncle [[Winthrop Aldrich]], then moved into the management of [[Rockefeller Center]], where he served as president beginning in 1938. There he oversaw the building's politics and learned, through the Diego Rivera mural controversy, the limits of his instincts. From 1935 onward he served as a director of [[Creole Petroleum Company]], a [[Standard Oil of New Jersey]] subsidiary operating in Venezuela, which grounded his understanding of Latin American extractive economics. His tour of Latin America in the mid-1930s, combined with the family's existing oil investments through Standard Oil of [[New Jersey]] in Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia, convinced him that the hemisphere required a coordinated American strategy.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
In 1936-1940, Nelson assembled a coterie of trusted advisers he called "the Junta," including [[Frank Jamieson]] (journalist and future campaign manager), [[John Lockwood]] (lawyer), [[Wallace Harrison]] (architect and planner), and [[Berent Friele]] (a Brazilian coffee importer). These men became the core of his wartime and postwar operations.[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ Rockefeller "attempted to head off inclusion of the subject" of CIA assassinatio
|
|||
|
||||
Despite the Commission's vote to include the assassination material, the Ford White House suppressed it. An entire 86-page section, "Summary of Facts: Investigation of CIA Involvement in Plans to Assassinate Foreign Leaders" (dated June 5, 1975), covering plots against [[Fidel Castro]], [[Rafael Trujillo]], and references to [[Patrice Lumumba]] and [[Sukarno]], was removed from the final report before public release. Then-Deputy White House Chief of Staff [[Richard Cheney]] made handwritten edits throughout the draft on or around June 1, 1975, altering language describing CIA activities from "unlawful" to merely "improper" in most instances, while drug experiments on US citizens retained the characterization "illegal." White House Counsel [[Philip Buchen]] coordinated the suppression. Commission public affairs director Peter Clapper warned that deleting the section would "cast doubt on the rest of the report" and be perceived as a cover-up; his objection was overridden. Senator [[Frank Church]] personally visited Rockefeller in early May 1975, alleging that CIA documents were being withheld from the Church Committee by the Rockefeller Commission. President Ford wrote to Church on October 31, 1975, urging suppression of assassination findings; Church rejected the request, stating that "the national interest is better served by letting the American people know the true and complete story." These internal documents are collected in National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 543, published February 29, 2016, edited by John Prados and Arturo Jimenez-Bacardi.[^23]
|
||||
|
||||
Rockefeller's chairmanship of the commission investigating the agency he had supervised under Eisenhower was widely considered a conflict of interest. Key findings were withheld or classified. The Commission also added Recommendations 29 (civilian oversight committee) and 20 (periodic declassification reviews) to the report without a Commission vote, under White House direction.[^24]
|
||||
Rockefeller's chairmanship of the commission investigating the agency he had supervised under Eisenhower was widely considered a conflict of interest. Key findings were withheld or classified. The Commission also added Recommendations 29 (civilian oversight committee) and 20 (periodic declassification reviews) to the report without a Commission vote, under [[White House]] direction.[^24]
|
||||
|
||||
### New York Politics and the Vice Presidency
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ summary: "Marine lieutenant colonel and National Security Council staff member w
|
|||
born: 1943-10-07
|
||||
location: "San Antonio, Texas"
|
||||
---
|
||||
Oliver North was a Marine lieutenant colonel and National Security Council staff member who ran the [[Central Intelligence Agency]]'s illegal Contra resupply operation from the White House during the 1980s, making him a central figure in the [[Iran-Contra Affair]].[^1][^2] North oversaw the covert arms and funding pipeline to the [[Contras]] during periods when Congress had prohibited such assistance, operating what became known as "the Enterprise."
|
||||
Oliver North was a Marine lieutenant colonel and National Security Council staff member who ran the [[Central Intelligence Agency]]'s illegal Contra resupply operation from the [[White House]] during the 1980s, making him a central figure in the [[Iran-Contra Affair]].[^1][^2] North oversaw the covert arms and funding pipeline to the [[Contras]] during periods when Congress had prohibited such assistance, operating what became known as "the Enterprise."
|
||||
|
||||
### Iran-Contra and the Octopus
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ Peter Singer (born July 6, 1946) is an Australian moral philosopher, long the Ir
|
|||
|
||||
Singer was born in [[Melbourne]] to Austrian Jewish refugees who had fled Vienna after the 1938 Nazi annexation of [[Austria]]; three of his grandparents died in the Holocaust, and his maternal grandfather, the classicist David Ernst Oppenheim, was murdered at Theresienstadt. He took a BA in 1967 and an MA in 1969 at the [[University of Melbourne]], the latter on the thesis "Why Should I Be Moral?", then a BPhil at [[University of Oxford|Oxford]] in 1971 under R. M. Hare. He held a Radcliffe lectureship at University College, Oxford, and a visiting post at New York University before returning to Australia.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
At Monash University he twice chaired the philosophy department and founded the Centre for Human Bioethics. In 1999 he was appointed the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton's University Center for Human Values, a post he held until his final lecture in 2023. His applied work in *Practical Ethics* (1979) extended utilitarian reasoning to abortion, euthanasia, severe infant disability, and the treatment of animals, and his stated positions on infanticide in cases of severe disability drew organized protests in Germany and Switzerland in 1989 and 1990 and a public campaign against his Princeton appointment, with the publisher Steve Forbes withdrawing donations to the university.[^3][^4]
|
||||
At Monash University he twice chaired the philosophy department and founded the Centre for Human Bioethics. In 1999 he was appointed the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton's University Center for Human Values, a post he held until his final lecture in 2023. His applied work in *Practical Ethics* (1979) extended utilitarian reasoning to abortion, euthanasia, severe infant disability, and the treatment of animals, and his stated positions on infanticide in cases of severe disability drew organized protests in Germany and Switzerland in 1989 and 1990 and a public campaign against his Princeton appointment, with the publisher [[Steve Forbes]] withdrawing donations to the university.[^3][^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### Famine, Affluence, and Morality
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ On May 13, 1981, in St. Peter's Square, Turkish gunman [[Mehmet Ali Ağca]] shot
|
|||
|
||||
### Later Pontificate
|
||||
|
||||
John Paul II's active resistance to liberation theology in Latin America, his support for conservative Catholic movements, his theological conservatism on questions of gender and sexuality, and his sustained commitment to anti-communist politics all characterized the later pontificate. He visited Poland twice more during the communist period, in 1983 and 1987. His return to Poland in June 1987, meeting with Wałęsa and massive crowds while martial law's legacy was still present, helped sustain the underground movement through the final years before the 1989 Round Table negotiations.[^1]
|
||||
John Paul II's active resistance to liberation theology in [[Latin America]], his support for conservative Catholic movements, his theological conservatism on questions of gender and sexuality, and his sustained commitment to anti-communist politics all characterized the later pontificate. He visited Poland twice more during the communist period, in 1983 and 1987. His return to Poland in June 1987, meeting with Wałęsa and massive crowds while martial law's legacy was still present, helped sustain the underground movement through the final years before the 1989 Round Table negotiations.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ location: "High Point, North Carolina"
|
|||
|
||||
Nepal and Varagiannis co-led 764 Inferno's operations using [[The Com]] ecosystem's coercive methods: grooming vulnerable young people through encrypted applications, coercing victims into producing explicit and degrading material through psychological manipulation and threats, ordering self-harm documentation ("cut signs" and "blood signs" - photographs of victims cutting symbols into their own skin), and building "Lorebooks" - curated collections of victim abuse content that functioned as internal currency and status markers within the [[764 Network]]. DOJ documents confirmed at least 8 minor victims, some as young as 13, across multiple jurisdictions.
|
||||
|
||||
As a U.S. resident arrested in North Carolina, Nepal faces direct federal prosecution in the District of Columbia with no extradition complications, in contrast to Varagiannis, who was contesting extradition from Greece before the Greek Court of Appeals as of mid-2025.[^1]
|
||||
As a U.S. resident arrested in [[North Carolina]], Nepal faces direct federal prosecution in the District of Columbia with no extradition complications, in contrast to Varagiannis, who was contesting extradition from Greece before the Greek Court of Appeals as of mid-2025.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ tags:
|
|||
summary: "After the Iranian Revolution, Samghabadi was arrested by the Mullahs, accused of being a CIA spy and a Tudeh Party member."
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
[[Raji Samghabadi]] was an Iranian-born journalist who worked as a Middle East correspondent for *Time* magazine. He was initially hired as a stringer for *Time* by [[Bruce van Voorst]], who had been a [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] officer. Prior to this, in the early 1970s, Samghabadi worked for *Keyhan International*, an English-language daily newspaper in [[Tehran]], and was secretly a member of the pro-Soviet [[Tudeh Party]].[^1]
|
||||
[[Raji Samghabadi]] was an Iranian-born journalist who worked as a [[Middle East]] correspondent for *Time* magazine. He was initially hired as a stringer for *Time* by [[Bruce van Voorst]], who had been a [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] officer. Prior to this, in the early 1970s, Samghabadi worked for *Keyhan International*, an English-language daily newspaper in [[Tehran]], and was secretly a member of the pro-Soviet [[Tudeh Party]].[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
After the [[Iranian Revolution]], Samghabadi was arrested by the Mullahs, accused of being a [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] spy and a [[Tudeh Party]] member. He was later released and sought political asylum in the [[United States|U.S.]], eventually becoming an [[United States|American]] citizen and a Middle East correspondent for *Time*.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ The program expanded significantly under the Nixon administration from 1969. At
|
|||
|
||||
- The HYDRA computerized database, which ultimately indexed approximately 7,200 American citizens with individual files and cross-referenced approximately 300,000 names and 1,000 domestic organizations
|
||||
- More than 5,000 reports disseminated to the FBI over seven years of operation (the Church Committee documented 4,400 memoranda and approximately 1,000 cable disseminations)
|
||||
- Six reports compiled directly for the White House; 34 disseminated to Cabinet-level officials
|
||||
- Six reports compiled directly for the [[White House]]; 34 disseminated to Cabinet-level officials
|
||||
|
||||
Two subprograms fed directly into MHCHAOS: [[Project MERRIMAC]], which placed CIA infiltrators in domestic antiwar and civil rights organizations in Washington D.C., and Project RESISTANCE, which compiled dossiers on radical groups near CIA facilities through coordination with campus administrators and local police. Both subprograms were run through the CIA's Office of Security rather than directly through the Counterintelligence Staff.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ died: 2024-10-15
|
|||
location: "LaRue, Ohio"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Richard Vernon Secord was born July 6, 1932, in LaRue, Ohio. He died October 15, 2024. He served as a United States Air Force officer, rising to Major General, before retiring under a cloud of controversy and becoming the operational director of the private covert network known as the Enterprise that was at the center of the [[Iran-Contra Affair]].[^1]
|
||||
Richard Vernon Secord was born July 6, 1932, in LaRue, Ohio. He died October 15, 2024. He served as a [[United States Air Force]] officer, rising to Major General, before retiring under a cloud of controversy and becoming the operational director of the private covert network known as the Enterprise that was at the center of the [[Iran-Contra Affair]].[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Military Career and Edwin Wilson
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -126,7 +126,7 @@ Ross did not limit himself to Cincinnati. His dope turned up in Toledo, Clevelan
|
|||
|
||||
### The Greyhound Bust
|
||||
|
||||
In September 1988, a drug-sniffing dog in New Mexico alerted on an eastbound Greyhound luggage compartment. Inside was a suitcase carrying nine kilos of cocaine worth $100,000, tagged for Cincinnati. The DEA let it through and staked out the bus station. A young L.A. Crip named Alphonso Jeffries claimed the suitcase and sprang the trap. Ross promised to pay all legal bills if Jeffries kept quiet. Jeffries did, and received a twenty-year federal sentence with no parole.[^9]
|
||||
In September 1988, a drug-sniffing dog in [[New Mexico]] alerted on an eastbound Greyhound luggage compartment. Inside was a suitcase carrying nine kilos of cocaine worth $100,000, tagged for Cincinnati. The DEA let it through and staked out the bus station. A young L.A. Crip named Alphonso Jeffries claimed the suitcase and sprang the trap. Ross promised to pay all legal bills if Jeffries kept quiet. Jeffries did, and received a twenty-year federal sentence with no parole.[^9]
|
||||
|
||||
The bust led the FBI and DEA to investigate whether the Crips were flooding Cincinnati with inexpensive cocaine. Ross knew it was only a matter of time. He sold what he had and returned to L.A. in the fall of 1988, going into the home improvement business, spraying acoustic ceilings and painting.[^9]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ tags:
|
|||
- contra-war
|
||||
summary: Rob Owen was Oliver North's courier and liaison to the Contra leadership who reported on drug trafficking by Contra supply companies.
|
||||
---
|
||||
Rob Owen was [[Oliver North]]'s courier and liaison to the Contra leadership who reported on drug trafficking by Contra supply companies. Owen served as North's eyes and ears on the ground in [[Central America]], carrying messages and funds between the White House and the Contra commanders.[^1]
|
||||
Rob Owen was [[Oliver North]]'s courier and liaison to the Contra leadership who reported on drug trafficking by Contra supply companies. Owen served as North's eyes and ears on the ground in [[Central America]], carrying messages and funds between the [[White House]] and the Contra commanders.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Reports on Drug Trafficking
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ summary: "Iraqi Jewish researcher in New York and distant relative of Yaacov Nim
|
|||
|
||||
[[Rosie Nimrodi]] was an Iraqi Jew working in [[New York City]] for the Council on Economic Priorities, a think tank. She was a distant relative of [[Yaacov Nimrodi]].[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Rosie Nimrodi|Nimrodi]] had an affair with [[Raji Samghabadi]], a *Time* magazine correspondent, and introduced him to [[Ari Ben-Menashe]]. She typed notes of the [[Oliver North|North]] story from [[Ari Ben-Menashe|Ben-Menashe]] and gave them to other journalists, including [[Stephen Engelberg]] of *The New York Times*.[^1]
|
||||
[[Rosie Nimrodi|Nimrodi]] had an affair with [[Raji Samghabadi]], a *Time* magazine correspondent, and introduced him to [[Ari Ben-Menashe]]. She typed notes of the [[Oliver North|North]] story from [[Ari Ben-Menashe|Ben-Menashe]] and gave them to other journalists, including [[Stephen Engelberg]] of *[[The New York Times]]*.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 1992.
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ tags:
|
|||
summary: "Ruth Sinai was a Washington correspondent for the Associated Press."
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Ruth Sinai was a Washington correspondent for the Associated Press. In November 1991, she broke the story about [[Psi]], a private firm run by retired military intelligence officers, being enlisted by the [[United Nations]] to find [[Saddam Hussein]]'s weapon sites. Her article, titled "U.N. Enlists Psychic Firm to Find Iraqi’s Weapon Sites," marked the beginning of the end for the U.S. government's twenty-three-year history in [[Extrasensory Perception|ESP]] and [[Psychokinesis|PK]] research[^1].
|
||||
Ruth Sinai was a Washington correspondent for the [[Associated Press]]. In November 1991, she broke the story about [[Psi]], a private firm run by retired military intelligence officers, being enlisted by the [[United Nations]] to find [[Saddam Hussein]]'s weapon sites. Her article, titled "U.N. Enlists Psychic Firm to Find Iraqi’s Weapon Sites," marked the beginning of the end for the U.S. government's twenty-three-year history in [[Extrasensory Perception|ESP]] and [[Psychokinesis|PK]] research[^1].
|
||||
|
||||
Sinai's report focused on the work of [[Karen Jansen]], a UN inspector and Army major, who allegedly carried sketches of Iraqi biological weapons sites provided by PSI Tech president [[Ed Dames]]. Dames told Sinai that he and his associates drew the sketches through [[Remote Viewing]], which he described as a learned technique that doesn't require psychic powers but rather suppressing imagination and concentrating on a target[^1].
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ created: 2026-06-05
|
|||
updated: 2026-06-05
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Serafino Romualdi (November 18, 1900 - November 1967) was the [[AFL-CIO]]'s Inter-American representative for over two decades and the founding executive director of the [[AIFLD]] (American Institute for Free Labor Development), which he built into the CIA's principal labor-movement instrument in Latin America. Born in [[Bastia Umbra]], Perugia, Italy, Romualdi fled fascism in 1923 and built his anti-communist credentials through the [[ILGWU]], wartime service in the [[CIAA]] and [[OSS]], and nearly two decades as the AFL's roving labor ambassador to the hemisphere. The CIA assigned him the pseudonym "Charles Guymers" and the cryptonym [[ZRSIGN]]; [[Philip Agee]] identified him in print as "the principal CIA agent for labor operations in Latin America." His receipt in autumn 1963 of advance information about São Paulo Governor [[Adhemar de Barros]]'s coup plans against [[Joao Goulart]] led directly to AIFLD's crash training of thirty-three Brazilian unionists whose subsequent role in the 1964 coup was publicly acknowledged by his successor, [[William Doherty Jr.]]
|
||||
Serafino Romualdi (November 18, 1900 - November 1967) was the [[AFL-CIO]]'s Inter-American representative for over two decades and the founding executive director of the [[AIFLD]] (American Institute for Free Labor Development), which he built into the CIA's principal labor-movement instrument in [[Latin America]]. Born in [[Bastia Umbra]], Perugia, Italy, Romualdi fled fascism in 1923 and built his anti-communist credentials through the [[ILGWU]], wartime service in the [[CIAA]] and [[OSS]], and nearly two decades as the AFL's roving labor ambassador to the hemisphere. The CIA assigned him the pseudonym "Charles Guymers" and the cryptonym [[ZRSIGN]]; [[Philip Agee]] identified him in print as "the principal CIA agent for labor operations in Latin America." His receipt in autumn 1963 of advance information about São Paulo Governor [[Adhemar de Barros]]'s coup plans against [[Joao Goulart]] led directly to AIFLD's crash training of thirty-three Brazilian unionists whose subsequent role in the 1964 coup was publicly acknowledged by his successor, [[William Doherty Jr.]]
|
||||
|
||||
### Early Life and Anti-Fascist Formation
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ CIA funding for the British Guiana operations was channeled through the AFL-CIO
|
|||
|
||||
### AIFLD and Brazil
|
||||
|
||||
Romualdi became AIFLD's first executive director when the organization was formally established in 1961-1962, with a board that included Meany, [[J. Peter Grace]] of W.R. Grace and Company, and executives from major corporations with Latin American interests. AIFLD received approximately 92 percent of its budget from the U.S. government through the [[Agency for International Development]] (AID).
|
||||
Romualdi became AIFLD's first executive director when the organization was formally established in 1961-1962, with a board that included Meany, [[J. Peter Grace]] of [[W.R. Grace and Company]], and executives from major corporations with Latin American interests. AIFLD received approximately 92 percent of its budget from the U.S. government through the [[Agency for International Development]] (AID).
|
||||
|
||||
As early as 1960, Romualdi had cultivated [[Carlos Lacerda]], the right-wing governor of Guanabara (Rio de Janeiro), as a political contact against the Goulart-aligned labor confederation. In early 1962, an ORIT delegation including Romualdi met with Goulart in Brasília; in parallel, AIFLD, ORIT, and the U.S. Embassy worked to break up the left-dominated [[CGT]] (Comando Geral dos Trabalhadores), Brazil's largest progressive labor body.
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ Seth Rosenfeld was an investigative reporter for the San Francisco Examiner whos
|
|||
|
||||
### The Frogman Case Expose
|
||||
|
||||
In spring 1986, Rosenfeld broke the story of the [[Frogman Case|Frogman drug case]], exposing the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]]'s handling of the $36,000 found in [[Julio Zavala]]'s nightstand in 1983. Rosenfeld reported Zavala's claim from prison that he had personally delivered about $500,000 in drug profits to the [[Contras]] in [[Costa Rica]]. Rosenfeld also unearthed [[Carlos Cabezas]]'s long-buried testimony about selling [[Horacio Pereira|Horacio Pereira's]] cocaine to raise money for the Contra revolution. Coming on the heels of Associated Press reports about Contra cocaine trafficking, Rosenfeld's story provided the first hard evidence of a Contra drug ring operating in the United States.[^1]
|
||||
In spring 1986, Rosenfeld broke the story of the [[Frogman Case|Frogman drug case]], exposing the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]]'s handling of the $36,000 found in [[Julio Zavala]]'s nightstand in 1983. Rosenfeld reported Zavala's claim from prison that he had personally delivered about $500,000 in drug profits to the [[Contras]] in [[Costa Rica]]. Rosenfeld also unearthed [[Carlos Cabezas]]'s long-buried testimony about selling [[Horacio Pereira|Horacio Pereira's]] cocaine to raise money for the Contra revolution. Coming on the heels of [[Associated Press]] reports about Contra cocaine trafficking, Rosenfeld's story provided the first hard evidence of a Contra drug ring operating in the United States.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Meneses Expose
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ tags:
|
|||
- PublicUtilities
|
||||
alias:
|
||||
- Edward Sheffield Nelson
|
||||
summary: "Protégé of Witt Stephens who became president of Arkla at thirty-two, broke with the Stephens family in 1975, sold gas leases to Jerry Jones that the utility bought back at a large markup, and lost to Bill Clinton in 1990."
|
||||
summary: "Witt Stephens's successor at Arkla, who broke with the Stephens family in 1975, sold gas leases to Jerry Jones that the utility bought back at a large markup, and lost to Bill Clinton in 1990."
|
||||
born: 1941
|
||||
location: "Little Rock, Arkansas"
|
||||
created: 2026-09-21
|
||||
|
|
@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ Sheffield Nelson was hired by [[Witt Stephens]] as his executive assistant at [[
|
|||
|
||||
"A major split occurred between Nelson and his predecessor when, in 1975, Nelson refused to renegotiate old gas contracts with [[Stephens Production|Stephens Production Company]]." He also lobbied against a bill that would have made Arkla carry gas from Stephens wells for a rival utility. "Witt Stephens never got over his resentment."[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
In the early 1980s Arkla sold a half interest in its leases in the [[Arkoma Basin]] to [[Jerry Jones]], whose Arkoma Production Company was to supply the utility's industrial customers. The property "was bought back by Arkla for far more than it was sold to Jones." [[Arkansas Business]] put the sale to Jones at 15 million dollars and the repurchase in 1986 at 175 million, under a contract that obliged Arkla to take three quarters of Arkoma's gas. It reported that the old contracts on the Stephens family's own Cecil and Aetna fields, at 16 and 55 cents per thousand cubic feet, were broken on April 28, 1983, and that Arkoma and Stephens then shared in gas sold to Arkla at three dollars. Nelson retired on December 31, 1984, and named [[Mack McLarty]] as his successor.[^1][^2]
|
||||
In 1982 Arkla sold [[Jerry Jones]], whose Arkoma Production Company had been formed the April before, half of its interest in 28,500 acres of the Cecil and Aetna gas fields in the [[Arkoma Basin]] for 15 million dollars, with an undertaking to buy three quarters of all the gas he could find. The property "was bought back by Arkla for far more than it was sold to Jones." The family of Witt Stephens held acreage in the same fields under long contracts that paid 16 and 55 cents per thousand cubic feet. "After negotiating with Jones, the old contracts were broken on April 28, 1983, and Arkoma and Stephens began sharing in gas now being sold to Arkla under new Jones-negotiated agreements," at three dollars. "Arkla ratepayers would pay the difference." The [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] made an informal inquiry in 1983 and took no action, and the state's [[Arkansas Public Service Commission|Public Service Commission]] found no clear wrongdoing that year. It opened a second investigation in the fall of 1989 on learning that Arkla had paid Arkoma 174.8 million dollars to be released from the contract. Nelson retired on December 31, 1984, and named [[Mack McLarty]] as his successor.[^1][^2]
|
||||
|
||||
Nelson joined the Republican Party in 1989 and ran for governor of [[Arkansas]] in 1990. He won the primary with 54 percent against Representative [[Tommy Robinson]], whom the Stephens family supported. "Arkoma continued to dominate the fall campaign, and [[Bill Clinton|Clinton]] won his fifth term with fifty-seven percent of the vote." McLarty became Clinton's first [[White House Chief of Staff|White House chief of staff]].[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ tags:
|
|||
- Soviet
|
||||
summary: "Ostrander and Schroeder's work, which included accounts from figures like Eduard Naumov, contributed to the growing awareness and concern within the U.S."
|
||||
---
|
||||
[[Sheila Ostrander]] is an American author who, along with [[Lynn Schroeder]], co-authored the 1970 book *Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain*. This book played a significant role in popularizing Soviet and Eastern European [[Parapsychology|psi]] research in the West. The book portrayed a "veritable frenzy of psychic research" going on in the [[Soviet Union|USSR]], with investigators uncovering powerful natural clairvoyants, psychokinetic prodigies, and dowsers whose talents could potentially be employed against the West.[^1]
|
||||
[[Sheila Ostrander]] is an American author who, along with [[Lynn Schroeder]], co-authored the 1970 book *Psychic Discoveries Behind the [[Iron Curtain]]*. This book played a significant role in popularizing Soviet and Eastern European [[Parapsychology|psi]] research in the West. The book portrayed a "veritable frenzy of psychic research" going on in the [[Soviet Union|USSR]], with investigators uncovering powerful natural clairvoyants, psychokinetic prodigies, and dowsers whose talents could potentially be employed against the West.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
Ostrander and Schroeder's work, which included accounts from figures like [[Eduard Naumov]], contributed to the growing awareness and concern within the U.S. intelligence community about a potential "psi gap" with the Soviet Union, ultimately influencing the decision to fund and initiate programs like the [[STARGATE PROJECT|Stargate Project]].[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ Steve Sailer (born December 20, 1958) is an American journalist and blogger who
|
|||
|
||||
### Human Biodiversity and the Sailer Strategy
|
||||
|
||||
Sailer organized an invitation-only Human Biodiversity Discussion Group around 1998 and built an audience for hereditarian arguments through his columns and blog. He drew on the race-and-IQ framework of [[Charles Murray]] and [[Richard Herrnstein]]'s *The Bell Curve* and presented average group differences in intelligence as genetically grounded, a position mainstream science rejects as scientific racism. In 2000 he advanced what became known as the "Sailer Strategy," the argument that the Republican Party should win national elections by maximizing turnout among white voters rather than courting minorities, a thesis later echoed in the [[Steve Bannon|Bannon]]-era nationalist politics.[^1][^3]
|
||||
Sailer organized an invitation-only Human Biodiversity Discussion Group around 1998 and built an audience for hereditarian arguments through his columns and blog. He drew on the race-and-IQ framework of [[Charles Murray]] and [[Richard Herrnstein]]'s *[[The Bell Curve]]* and presented average group differences in intelligence as genetically grounded, a position mainstream science rejects as scientific racism. In 2000 he advanced what became known as the "Sailer Strategy," the argument that the Republican Party should win national elections by maximizing turnout among white voters rather than courting minorities, a thesis later echoed in the [[Steve Bannon|Bannon]]-era nationalist politics.[^1][^3]
|
||||
|
||||
Sailer created a "Roster of Human Biodiversity Discussion Group Members" dated March 3, 1999, and later styled the listserv the Human Biodiversity Institute. The invitation-only group drew academics in race-and-IQ and sex-difference research along with sympathetic journalists, among them the science writer [[Razib Khan]] and the anthropologist [[Gregory Cochran]]. After the 2016 election the columnist [[Michael Barone]] credited Sailer with having mapped in 2001 the white-turnout electoral route that Trump later followed, and the writer's racial-realignment thesis circulated in nationalist circles around Bannon.[^5][^6]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ Stuart Miles Silverstone, who operated under the alias Steve Learner, was an act
|
|||
|
||||
When U.S. Customs and Metropolitan Police investigators executed search warrants on The Finders' Glover Park duplex at 3918-3920 W Street NW on February 5-6, 1987, Silverstone was found inside a room containing multiple computers, printers, and satellite communications equipment. Large plastic bags filled with color slides, photographs, and photographic contact sheets including images of children were also seized from the same area.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
The room Silverstone occupied at the duplex appears to correspond to the communications hub through which the group's telex messages were generated. Martinez's reports identified telex communications found at the warehouse and duplex -- transmitted through MCI accounts to terminals across the United States and in foreign locations -- including what Martinez described as a purchase order for two children in Hong Kong through a contact at the Chinese Embassy.[^1]
|
||||
The room Silverstone occupied at the duplex appears to correspond to the communications hub through which the group's telex messages were generated. Martinez's reports identified telex communications found at the warehouse and duplex -- transmitted through MCI accounts to terminals across the United States and in foreign locations -- including what Martinez described as a purchase order for two children in [[Hong Kong]] through a contact at the Chinese Embassy.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Membership and Aliases
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ Shackley was transferred to serve as Saigon station chief in 1968, the year of t
|
|||
|
||||
### Western Hemisphere Division and Deputy Directorate
|
||||
|
||||
After Saigon, Shackley was assigned to the Western Hemisphere Division chief position (1972-1976), responsible for CIA operations throughout Latin America including the covert support for the September 11, 1973, Chilean coup that overthrew Salvador Allende. He subsequently served as Associate Deputy Director for Operations (ADDO) from 1976 to 1979, the number-two position in the Directorate of Operations, under Deputy Director for Operations William Wells.[^1]
|
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After Saigon, Shackley was assigned to the Western Hemisphere Division chief position (1972-1976), responsible for CIA operations throughout [[Latin America]] including the covert support for the September 11, 1973, Chilean coup that overthrew [[Salvador Allende]]. He subsequently served as Associate Deputy Director for Operations (ADDO) from 1976 to 1979, the number-two position in the Directorate of Operations, under Deputy Director for Operations William Wells.[^1]
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### Forced Departure and Turner
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@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ summary: "Olmstead questioned Peter Videnieks during the trial about his knowled
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Olmstead questioned [[Peter Videnieks]] during the trial about his knowledge of the [[Wackenhut Corporation]]-[[Cabazon Indian Reservation]] joint venture, his relationship with [[Earl Brian]], and his involvement with Hadron Company. He also pressed Videnieks on "Modification No. 12" of the [[PROMIS]] software and the bankruptcy court's ruling that the [[Department of Justice|DOJ]] had "stolen" [[PROMIS]] from [[INSLAW]] through Videnieks' handling of it.[^1]
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[[Michael Riconosciuto]] communicated with [[Cheri Seymour]] and [[J.H.]] (an [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] agent) to convey information that Olmstead could use in his defense, including details about "[[The Company]]" and Riconosciuto's attempts to enter the Witness Protection Program.[^1]
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[[Michael Riconosciuto]] communicated with [[Cheri Seymour]] and [[J.H.]] (an [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] agent) to convey information that Olmstead could use in his defense, including details about "[[The Company]]" and Riconosciuto's attempts to enter the [[Witness Protection Program]].[^1]
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---
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### Footnotes
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@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ tags:
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summary: "Middle East correspondent for Newsday who received early details of the Iran-Contra story from Ari Ben-Menashe."
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---
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[[Timothy Phelps]] was the Middle East correspondent for *Newsday*, based in [[Cairo]]. He visited [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] several times in [[Jerusalem]], where [[Ari Ben-Menashe|Ben-Menashe]] provided him with details about the [[Oliver North|North]] story, which later became known as the [[Iran-Contra Affair]]. However, *Newsday* did not print the story.[^1]
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[[Timothy Phelps]] was the [[Middle East]] correspondent for *Newsday*, based in [[Cairo]]. He visited [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] several times in [[Jerusalem]], where [[Ari Ben-Menashe|Ben-Menashe]] provided him with details about the [[Oliver North|North]] story, which later became known as the [[Iran-Contra Affair]]. However, *Newsday* did not print the story.[^1]
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### Footnotes
|
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[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 1992.
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@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ updated: 2026-05-22
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summary: "Vasillios George Pistolis was a U.S. Marine Lance Corporal and Atomwaffen Division member who participated in the 2017 Charlottesville rally, was found guilty at a summary court-martial in June 2018, and was administratively separated from the Marine Corps in July 2018."
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---
|
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Vasillios George Pistolis was a Lance Corporal in the [[United States Marine Corps]], assigned to [[Combat Logistics Battalion 8]], Combat Logistics Regiment 2, [[2nd Marine Logistics Group]], based at [[Camp Lejeune]], North Carolina, and a documented member of [[Atomwaffen Division]]. He participated in the August 12, 2017 [[Unite the Right rally]] in [[Charlottesville, Virginia]], where he was photographed striking a protester with a wooden flagpole, and later bragged in online communications about assaulting another protester. [[ProPublica]] identified him as an AWD member in May 2018, triggering a Marine Corps investigation that resulted in a summary court-martial and administrative separation.[^1]
|
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Vasillios George Pistolis was a Lance Corporal in the [[United States Marine Corps]], assigned to [[Combat Logistics Battalion 8]], Combat Logistics Regiment 2, [[2nd Marine Logistics Group]], based at [[Camp Lejeune]], [[North Carolina]], and a documented member of [[Atomwaffen Division]]. He participated in the August 12, 2017 [[Unite the Right rally]] in [[Charlottesville, Virginia]], where he was photographed striking a protester with a wooden flagpole, and later bragged in online communications about assaulting another protester. [[ProPublica]] identified him as an AWD member in May 2018, triggering a Marine Corps investigation that resulted in a summary court-martial and administrative separation.[^1]
|
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|
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### Military Assignment and AWD Membership
|
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@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ died: 1995
|
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---
|
||||
William Earl Nelson served as a [[Central Intelligence Agency]] officer from 1948, operating under military and [[State Department]] covers, primarily in the Far East. Japanese newspapers exposed his intelligence identity after discovering he was asking travelers to the Soviet Union to collect soil samples near Russian missile bases.[^1]
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|
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As deputy director of operations (the head of all CIA covert operations worldwide) Nelson oversaw the agency's controversial destabilization program in [[Chile]], which culminated in the overthrow and murder of Chile's elected president Salvador Allende. He later commanded Operation Feature, a covert plan to install a pro-American government in Angola following the former Portuguese colony's independence in 1975. Nelson was named as a defendant in a civil suit filed by the widow of an American mercenary the CIA recruited for the Angolan operation; the widow alleged the CIA misled her husband about the hopelessness of his mission and then smeared his reputation after he was killed. The suit was eventually dismissed.[^1]
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As deputy director of operations (the head of all CIA covert operations worldwide) Nelson oversaw the agency's controversial destabilization program in [[Chile]], which culminated in the overthrow and murder of Chile's elected president [[Salvador Allende]]. He later commanded Operation Feature, a covert plan to install a pro-American government in Angola following the former Portuguese colony's independence in 1975. Nelson was named as a defendant in a civil suit filed by the widow of an American mercenary the CIA recruited for the Angolan operation; the widow alleged the CIA misled her husband about the hopelessness of his mission and then smeared his reputation after he was killed. The suit was eventually dismissed.[^1]
|
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|
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Nelson was a protégé of former CIA director [[William Colby]].[^1]
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|
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@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ Sir William Samuel Stephenson (January 23, 1897 - January 31, 1989) was a Canadi
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|
||||
### Early Life and World War I
|
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|
||||
Stephenson was born on January 23, 1897, in Point Douglas, Manitoba, Canada. He served as a fighter pilot in World War I, achieving multiple aerial victories and being shot down and briefly held as a prisoner of war. After the war he became a successful industrialist and businessman, with interests in radio communications and wire transmission technology that later proved valuable in intelligence work.[^1]
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Stephenson was born on January 23, 1897, in Point Douglas, Manitoba, Canada. He served as a fighter pilot in [[World War I]], achieving multiple aerial victories and being shot down and briefly held as a prisoner of war. After the war he became a successful industrialist and businessman, with interests in radio communications and wire transmission technology that later proved valuable in intelligence work.[^1]
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### British Security Coordination
|
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@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ Witt Stephens (September 14, 1907 to December 2, 1991) was the founder of the fi
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|
||||
Stephens paid 1.2 million dollars for the [[Fort Smith Gas Company]] in 1945 and 6.5 million for the Oklahoma Producing Company in 1953, renamed [[Stephens Production]], which has paid the family an estimated billion dollars in dividends. In 1954 he bought [[Arkla|Arkansas Louisiana Gas]] from [[Cities Service]]. Its earnings rose from 1.8 million dollars in 1954 to 7.2 million in 1956, when he became president and chairman. In 1957 the [[Arkansas Supreme Court]] rejected the formula by which the utility passed its gas costs to customers. A replacement bill went through both houses of the legislature and was signed in four days. "Well, hell, we'll just change the law," he is reported to have said. He was elected to the [[Arkansas House of Representatives]] in 1961 and served two terms while running the utility it regulated. By the late 1960s seventeen of the thirty-five state senators drew salaries or retainers from the company.[^1][^2][^3]
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||||
He retired from Arkla in 1973 in favor of his executive assistant, [[Sheffield Nelson]], then thirty-two. In 1975 Nelson refused to renegotiate the old contracts under which Stephens Production sold gas to the utility, and lobbied against a bill that would have made Arkla carry gas from Stephens wells for a rival. "Witt Stephens never got over his resentment." In the early 1980s Nelson sold a half interest in Arkla leases in the [[Arkoma Basin|Arkoma basin]] to [[Jerry Jones]], who joined the utility's board, with a commitment that Arkla would buy the gas at the highest lawful price. Nelson retired on December 31, 1984, naming [[Mack McLarty]] to succeed him, and under McLarty Arkla bought the properties back in 1986 "for far more than it was sold to Jones." The final cost was put at 174.8 million dollars. A ratepayers' class action filed in January 1990 called it an insiders' arrangement that had overcharged Arkansas gas customers 80 million dollars. Nelson called it the "best deal" the utility ever made. His opponent in the Republican primary, Representative [[Tommy Robinson]], by then a protégé of the Stephens family, said Nelson had tried to "stuff his pockets so full of money his pants fell down." Nelson became a Republican in 1989 and ran for governor in 1990 against [[Bill Clinton]]. The Arkoma transaction was the main issue of the campaign, and Clinton won a fifth term with 57 percent. McLarty became his [[White House]] chief of staff.[^4][^5]
|
||||
He retired from Arkla in 1973 in favor of his executive assistant, [[Sheffield Nelson]], then thirty-two. In 1975 Nelson refused to renegotiate the old contracts under which Stephens Production sold gas to the utility, and lobbied against a bill that would have made Arkla carry gas from Stephens wells for a rival. "Witt Stephens never got over his resentment." In the early 1980s Nelson sold a half interest in Arkla leases in the [[Arkoma Basin|Arkoma basin]] to [[Jerry Jones]], who joined the utility's board, with a commitment that Arkla would buy the gas at the highest lawful price. The Stephens family's own wells in the Cecil and Aetna fields were tied to Arkla by old contracts at 16 and 55 cents per thousand cubic feet. "After negotiating with Jones, the old contracts were broken on April 28, 1983, and Arkoma and Stephens began sharing in gas now being sold to Arkla under new Jones-negotiated agreements," at three dollars. Nelson retired on December 31, 1984, naming [[Mack McLarty]] to succeed him, and under McLarty Arkla bought the properties back in 1986 "for far more than it was sold to Jones." The final cost was put at 174.8 million dollars. A ratepayers' class action filed in January 1990 called it an insiders' arrangement that had overcharged Arkansas gas customers 80 million dollars. Nelson called it the "best deal" the utility ever made. His opponent in the Republican primary, Representative [[Tommy Robinson]], by then a protégé of the Stephens family, said Nelson had tried to "stuff his pockets so full of money his pants fell down." Nelson became a Republican in 1989 and ran for governor in 1990 against [[Bill Clinton]]. The Arkoma transaction was the main issue of the campaign, and Clinton won a fifth term with 57 percent. McLarty became his [[White House]] chief of staff.[^4][^5]
|
||||
|
||||
### Politics
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -37,5 +37,5 @@ For thirty years after the [[World War II|Second World War]] Stephens was called
|
|||
[^2]: "Stephens Inc.," *Encyclopedia of Arkansas.* https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/stephens-inc-6985/
|
||||
[^3]: Morris, Roger. *Partners in Power: The Clintons and Their America*. Henry Holt, 1996.
|
||||
[^4]: "Sheffield Nelson," *Encyclopedia of Arkansas.* https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/edward-sheffield-nelson-2479/
|
||||
[^5]: "Oily Deals: Pattern Emerging in Questionable Arkoma Gas Transactions," *Arkansas Business,* April 9, 1990, republished March 31, 2014 (opening section; remainder behind a subscription wall).
|
||||
[^5]: "Oily Deals: Pattern Emerging in Questionable Arkoma Gas Transactions," *Arkansas Business,* April 9, 1990, republished March 31, 2014.
|
||||
[^6]: House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, H. Rept. 105-829, 1998, vol. 2; "Following the Money," *Arkansas Times,* September 7, 2001.
|
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