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@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ aliases:
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- Central Intelligence Agency
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- CIA
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created: 2025-07-22
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updated: 2026-05-17
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updated: 2026-10-08
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tags:
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- Organization
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- Intelligence
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@ -65,6 +65,10 @@ The CIA sent the [[Inter-Services Intelligence|Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)
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In 1980, Jimmy Carter signed a presidential "finding" authorizing the CIA to aid the Afghan rebels in "harassment" of the Soviet occupying forces through secret supplies of light weapons and limited funds.[^13] This became the largest covert-action program since [[World War Two]].[^13]
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### Senior Review Panel
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The Senior Review Panel was an advisory body within the Director's area that reviewed draft national intelligence estimates and commented on them to the Director of Central Intelligence, the Chairman of the National Intelligence Council and the relevant National Intelligence Officer. In a 1991 letter printed in the Senate report on the nomination of [[Robert Gates]], Gates wrote that "The SRP's sole function was to review draft national estimates and offer comments as a group to the DCI, the Chairman/NIC and the relevant NIO."[^14] The Senate report records that [[James D. Theberge]] served on the panel from January 1986 until his death in January 1988, and that he had been hired on a three-days-per-week basis.[^14] Panel memoranda in the CIA reading room carry his name among the signers of comments dated September 1, September 8, September 24, October 22 and December 1, 1987, alongside [[William Leonhart]], B. McPherson and, on some, [[Richard L. Walker]] or [[Courtland D. Perkins]].[^15]
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### UAP Research and Secrecy
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The CIA has a long and complex history with the [[Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena]] (UAP) issue. The agency has been a key player in the government's long-standing policy of secrecy and denial on the UAP topic. The Robertson Panel, a CIA-sponsored committee in 1953, recommended a policy of debunking UAP reports and using the mass media to ridicule the topic. This policy was highly effective in creating the stigma that has surrounded the UAP issue for decades.[^3]
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@ -75,29 +79,29 @@ In recent years, the CIA has been more involved in the official UAP investigatio
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### Dark Alliance Investigation
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The CIA's covert action division, the Directorate of Operations, created and managed the Contra project during the 1980s, with its Latin American Division headed by [[Dewey Clarridge]] from 1981 to 1984. The agency recruited Contra leaders including [[Enrique Bermudez|Enrique Bermúdez]] in 1980 and [[Eden Pastora]] in 1981. The CIA maintained station chiefs in [[Costa Rica]], notably [[Joseph Fernandez|Joseph Fernández]] from 1984 to 1986, who were integral to Oliver North's illegal Contra resupply operation.[^14]
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The CIA's covert action division, the Directorate of Operations, created and managed the Contra project during the 1980s, with its Latin American Division headed by [[Dewey Clarridge]] from 1981 to 1984. The agency recruited Contra leaders including [[Enrique Bermudez|Enrique Bermúdez]] in 1980 and [[Eden Pastora]] in 1981. The CIA maintained station chiefs in [[Costa Rica]], notably [[Joseph Fernandez|Joseph Fernández]] from 1984 to 1986, who were integral to Oliver North's illegal Contra resupply operation.[^16]
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### Contra Drug Trafficking and the Frogman Case
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Federal law enforcement records and congressional testimony established that the CIA had reports of [[Cocaine]] being transshipped through Contra-linked facilities, including [[Ilopango Airbase]] in [[El Salvador]]. When defense attorneys in the [[Frogman Case]] obtained letters from CIA assets claiming seized drug money belonged to the Contras, the CIA's Costa Rican station cabled Langley that both men were assets of an organization that had "unwittingly received CIA support." CIA lawyer Lee Strickland flew to [[San Francisco]] and asked the prosecutor to ensure depositions did not go forward. The government returned $36,020 in seized drug money and a CIA cable declared: "CIA equities are fully protected."[^15]
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Federal law enforcement records and congressional testimony established that the CIA had reports of [[Cocaine]] being transshipped through Contra-linked facilities, including [[Ilopango Airbase]] in [[El Salvador]]. When defense attorneys in the [[Frogman Case]] obtained letters from CIA assets claiming seized drug money belonged to the Contras, the CIA's Costa Rican station cabled Langley that both men were assets of an organization that had "unwittingly received CIA support." CIA lawyer Lee Strickland flew to [[San Francisco]] and asked the prosecutor to ensure depositions did not go forward. The government returned $36,020 in seized drug money and a CIA cable declared: "CIA equities are fully protected."[^17]
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The pseudonymous agent [[Ivan Gomez|Iván Gómez]], assigned to Costa Rica in 1982 as the CIA's liaison to the Contra armies, admitted during polygraph tests that he had laundered drug money. He was fired in 1989 for repeated polygraph failures concerning drug dealing.[^15]
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The pseudonymous agent [[Ivan Gomez|Iván Gómez]], assigned to Costa Rica in 1982 as the CIA's liaison to the Contra armies, admitted during polygraph tests that he had laundered drug money. He was fired in 1989 for repeated polygraph failures concerning drug dealing.[^17]
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### The Secret 1982 Agreement with the Justice Department
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In early 1982, CIA director William J. Casey and Attorney General [[William French Smith]] signed a formal Memorandum of Understanding that exempted the CIA from reporting drug crimes committed by its non-employees - a category including agents, assets, and non-staff employees. Drug offenses were specifically removed from the list of crimes the CIA was required to report. The agreement remained in effect from 1982 to 1995.[^16]
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In early 1982, CIA director William J. Casey and Attorney General [[William French Smith]] signed a formal Memorandum of Understanding that exempted the CIA from reporting drug crimes committed by its non-employees - a category including agents, assets, and non-staff employees. Drug offenses were specifically removed from the list of crimes the CIA was required to report. The agreement remained in effect from 1982 to 1995.[^18]
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### Ilopango Obstruction
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When [[DEA]] agent [[Celerino Castillo]] began investigating Contra drug trafficking at Ilopango, the CIA intervened directly. In April 1986 the El Salvador station sent a cable asking the Costa Rica station to persuade the DEA to back off: "El Salvador Station would appreciate Costa Rica Station advising DEA not to make any inquiries into anyone re: Hangar No. 4 at Ilopango since only legitimate CIA supported operations were conducted from this facility."[^17]
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When [[DEA]] agent [[Celerino Castillo]] began investigating Contra drug trafficking at Ilopango, the CIA intervened directly. In April 1986 the El Salvador station sent a cable asking the Costa Rica station to persuade the DEA to back off: "El Salvador Station would appreciate Costa Rica Station advising DEA not to make any inquiries into anyone re: Hangar No. 4 at Ilopango since only legitimate CIA supported operations were conducted from this facility."[^19]
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### Inspector General Investigation
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CIA Inspector General [[Fred Hitz]] testified before the [[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence|House Intelligence Committee]] in March 1998 that the CIA "did not, in an expeditious or consistent fashion, cut off relationships with individuals supporting the Contra program who were alleged to have engaged in drug trafficking activity," including trafficking within the United States. His 400-page report documented CIA relationships with more than 50 suspected drug traffickers during the Contra war.[^16]
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CIA Inspector General [[Fred Hitz]] testified before the [[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence|House Intelligence Committee]] in March 1998 that the CIA "did not, in an expeditious or consistent fashion, cut off relationships with individuals supporting the Contra program who were alleged to have engaged in drug trafficking activity," including trafficking within the United States. His 400-page report documented CIA relationships with more than 50 suspected drug traffickers during the Contra war.[^18]
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### Iran-Contra Indictments
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Multiple CIA officials were indicted during the Iran-Contra investigation. Clarridge was indicted on seven counts of perjury. Fernández was indicted on four counts. [[Alan Fiers]] pleaded guilty to withholding information from Congress. All were pardoned by former CIA director [[George H.W. Bush]].[^14]
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Multiple CIA officials were indicted during the Iran-Contra investigation. Clarridge was indicted on seven counts of perjury. Fernández was indicted on four counts. [[Alan Fiers]] pleaded guilty to withholding information from Congress. All were pardoned by former CIA director [[George H.W. Bush]].[^16]
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### Footnotes
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@ -114,7 +118,9 @@ Multiple CIA officials were indicted during the Iran-Contra investigation. Clarr
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[^11]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 11, "BCCI, the CIA and Foreign Intelligence." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/11intel.htm
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[^12]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 334.
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[^13]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 341.
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[^14]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Prologue and Chapter 5: "God, Fatherland and Freedom"
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[^15]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 5: "God, Fatherland and Freedom"
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[^16]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Epilogue: "The damage that has been done"
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[^17]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 13: "The wrong kind of friends"
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[^14]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee on Intelligence, *Nomination of Robert M. Gates to be Director of Central Intelligence*, S. Exec. Rept. 102-19, 102d Cong., 1st sess., October 24, 1991, section 5, PDF pages 186 to 188. https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/sites-default-filesations-10219.pdf
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[^15]: CREST Senior Review Panel memoranda CIA-RDP93T00837R000400110005-3 (NIC-03024-87, September 1, 1987), CIA-RDP93T01222R000100010013-9 (NIC-03595-87, September 8, 1987), CIA-RDP92T00306R000300090020-0 (September 24, 1987), CIA-RDP93T00451R000300080006-5 (NIC-04228-87, October 22, 1987) and CIA-RDP93T00451R000400110014-1 (December 1, 1987). https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp93t00837r000400110005-3, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp93t01222r000100010013-9, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp92t00306r000300090020-0, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp93t00451r000300080006-5, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp93t00451r000400110014-1
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[^16]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Prologue and Chapter 5: "God, Fatherland and Freedom"
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[^17]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 5: "God, Fatherland and Freedom"
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[^18]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Epilogue: "The damage that has been done"
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[^19]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 13: "The wrong kind of friends"
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@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
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---
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created: 2025-07-22
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updated: 2025-07-22
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updated: 2026-10-08
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title: Defense Intelligence Agency
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tags:
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- Organization
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@ -19,23 +19,31 @@ The [[Defense Intelligence Agency]] (DIA) is a major intelligence agency of the
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In March 1979, when [[Jimmy Carter]] decided to provide [[Israel]] with KH-11 satellite photographs, the images were picked up by Israeli military attachés at a special Pentagon office controlled by the DIA. Following the Israeli bombing of [[Osirak bombing]] in June 1981, a review found that Israel had significantly expanded the agreement, leading to anger within the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] and DIA over the "very lax" management of the liaison agreement.[^2]
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### Director Daniel O. Graham
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[[Daniel O. Graham]] directed the agency from September 1974. He declared his intention to retire on November 3, 1975, when the dismissal of Secretary of Defense [[James R. Schlesinger]] and Director of Central Intelligence [[William Colby|William E. Colby]] was announced, and retired on January 1, 1976.[^3] He told the Senate Select Committee in 1987 that the DIA "coordinates all military intelligence activities."[^4] On June 23, 1975 he submitted a written statement to the House Appropriations Military Construction Subcommittee asking for $86.1 million in the fiscal 1976 budget for a new DIA building.[^5] The DIA report "Soviet and Czechoslovakian Parapsychology Research" was issued in September 1975, during his directorship, under the task number PT-1810-12-75.[^6]
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### Involvement in Psi Research
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The DIA's interest in psi research was driven by concerns over perceived Soviet advancements. A 1972 DIA report, *Controlled Offensive Behavior - USSR*, highlighted the potential threat of Soviet psi capabilities.[^1] [[Jack Vorona]], head of the DIA's Scientific and Technical Intelligence Directorate, was the overall manager of the Grill Flame program. The DIA continued to oversee the program even after the Army's funding was initially terminated in 1985.[^1]
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### Dark Alliance Investigation
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Historian [[Roger Morris]] wrote that [[Barry Seal]] worked for the DIA "where coded records reportedly showed him on the payroll beginning in 1982." Arms manufacturer [[Tim LaFrance]] told journalist [[Nick Schou]] that the DIA was involved in [[Ronald Lister]]'s weapons manufacturing plant in [[El Salvador]], and that meetings Lister had with death squad commander [[Roberto D'Aubuisson]] "happened because the DIA wanted them to happen." Records found in Lister's house in the 1986 raid disclosed connections between Lister and "a DIA subcontractor."[^3]
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Historian [[Roger Morris]] wrote that [[Barry Seal]] worked for the DIA "where coded records reportedly showed him on the payroll beginning in 1982." Arms manufacturer [[Tim LaFrance]] told journalist [[Nick Schou]] that the DIA was involved in [[Ronald Lister]]'s weapons manufacturing plant in [[El Salvador]], and that meetings Lister had with death squad commander [[Roberto D'Aubuisson]] "happened because the DIA wanted them to happen." Records found in Lister's house in the 1986 raid disclosed connections between Lister and "a DIA subcontractor."[^7]
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### Role in Modern UAP Investigation
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The DIA was the original home of the [[Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program]] (AAWSAP), the precursor to the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP). The program was led by [[James Lacatski]] and initially enjoyed the support of DIA leadership. According to [[Luis Elizondo]], new leadership was hostile to the investigation of paranormal aspects of the UAP phenomenon.[^4]
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The DIA was the original home of the [[Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program]] (AAWSAP), the precursor to the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP). The program was led by [[James Lacatski]] and initially enjoyed the support of DIA leadership. According to [[Luis Elizondo]], new leadership was hostile to the investigation of paranormal aspects of the UAP phenomenon.[^8]
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The DIA is also central to the events described in the [[Wilson-Davis Memo]], in which Admiral Thomas R. Wilson, then Director of the DIA, described his discovery of and subsequent denial of access to a secret UAP reverse-engineering program.[^4]
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The DIA is also central to the events described in the [[Wilson-Davis Memo]], in which Admiral Thomas R. Wilson, then Director of the DIA, described his discovery of and subsequent denial of access to a secret UAP reverse-engineering program.[^8]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Schnabel, Jim. *Remote Viewers*. Dell, 1997.
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[^2]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991.
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[^3]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 6: "They were doing their patriotic duty"
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[^4]: Elizondo, Luis. *Imminent*. William Morrow, 2024.
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[^3]: Daniel O. Graham, "U.S. Intelligence at the Crossroads," United States Strategic Institute, USSI Report 76-1 (1976), author note, CIA-RDP91M00696R000900060007-5.
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[^4]: Deposition of Daniel O. Graham, May 26, 1987, Senate Select Committee on Secret Military Assistance to Iran and the Nicaraguan Opposition, Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair, Appendix B, vol. 12 (Internet Archive item micro_IA41152840_0234), pp. 976-978.
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[^5]: Statement of Lieutenant General Daniel O. Graham, Director, Defense Intelligence Agency, before the Military Construction Subcommittee of the House Committee on Appropriations, June 1975, CIA-RDP80B01495R000300020008-2. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp80b01495r000300020008-2
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[^6]: Louis F. Maire III and J. D. LaMothe, "Soviet and Czechoslovakian Parapsychology Research," Defense Intelligence Agency, DST-1810S-387-75, September 1975, CIA-RDP96-00792R000600350001-3, cover page.
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[^7]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 6: "They were doing their patriotic duty"
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[^8]: Elizondo, Luis. *Imminent*. William Morrow, 2024.
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@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
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aliases:
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- "United States Department of Defense"
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created: 2025-07-23
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updated: 2025-07-23
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updated: 2026-10-08
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title: Department of Defense
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tags:
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- Organization
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@ -23,18 +23,26 @@ In the context of psychic research, the DoD played a significant role, particula
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The DoD's interest in [[Psi|psi]] phenomena was often driven by concerns about perceived advancements in [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] and [[China|Chinese]] psychic research, leading to programs aimed at understanding and potentially weaponizing these abilities. This included research into [[Psychotronic Weapons]] and the biological effects of electromagnetic radiation, as seen in [[Project Pandora]] and the work of scientists like [[Allan H. Frey]] and [[Robert O. Becker]].[^1]
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### Intelligence Panel Appointments, 1972
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A letter of July 26, 1972, from Assistant Secretary of Defense [[Albert C. Hall]] to Director of Central Intelligence [[Richard Helms]] states that Hall had appointed "my Deputy, Dr. M. S. Malkin, to represent ASD (I)" on an ad hoc panel that would study [[SIGINT_COMINT|SIGINT]] issues before the September [[EXCOM]] meeting. The letter names [[Dale Hamilton]] as Malkin's alternate.[^2] The Final Report of the COINS Review Group (February 1, 1973) lists "OASD(I), Chairman Dr. Myron S. Malkin Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Technical Evaluation)" as head of its working group.[^3] The obituary of [[Myron S. Malkin]] states that in 1972 he was named the first Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Technical Evaluation, a post he held until he joined [[NASA]].[^4]
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### Role in UAP Investigation and Modern Programs
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The DoD has been the primary government entity responsible for the investigation of [[Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena]] (UAP) for over seventy years. The DoD's involvement with the UAP issue dates back to at least the [[Roswell Incident]] in 1947. Since then, it has been responsible for a series of official and unofficial programs to investigate the phenomenon, including [[Project Blue Book]], the [[Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program]] (AATIP), the [[UAP Task Force]], and the current [[All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office]] (AARO).[^2]
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The DoD has been the primary government entity responsible for the investigation of [[Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena]] (UAP) for over seventy years. The DoD's involvement with the UAP issue dates back to at least the [[Roswell Incident]] in 1947. Since then, it has been responsible for a series of official and unofficial programs to investigate the phenomenon, including [[Project Blue Book]], the [[Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program]] (AATIP), the [[UAP Task Force]], and the current [[All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office]] (AARO).[^5]
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However, the DoD has also been the primary source of the official secrecy and denial that has surrounded the UAP topic for decades. According to [[Luis Elizondo]] and other whistleblowers, the DoD has actively worked to suppress information about UAP, create a stigma around the topic, and mislead the public and Congress. This has been driven by a desire to protect national security, to prevent public panic, and to allow for the secret reverse-engineering of recovered UAP technology by the "Legacy Program."[^2]
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However, the DoD has also been the primary source of the official secrecy and denial that has surrounded the UAP topic for decades. According to [[Luis Elizondo]] and other whistleblowers, the DoD has actively worked to suppress information about UAP, create a stigma around the topic, and mislead the public and Congress. This has been driven by a desire to protect national security, to prevent public panic, and to allow for the secret reverse-engineering of recovered UAP technology by the "Legacy Program."[^5]
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### Internal Conflict and Recent Developments
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The DoD has been the site of significant internal conflict over the UAP issue. The efforts of individuals like Luis Elizondo, [[Christopher Mellon]], and [[Jay Stratton]] to bring the issue to the attention of senior leadership have been met with resistance from within the department, including from the alleged "[[Collins Elite]]" and the powerful forces behind the "Legacy Program."[^2]
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The DoD has been the site of significant internal conflict over the UAP issue. The efforts of individuals like Luis Elizondo, [[Christopher Mellon]], and [[Jay Stratton]] to bring the issue to the attention of senior leadership have been met with resistance from within the department, including from the alleged "[[Collins Elite]]" and the powerful forces behind the "Legacy Program."[^5]
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In recent years, however, the DoD has been forced to take the UAP issue more seriously due to pressure from Congress and the public. The department has officially released UAP videos, produced public reports on the phenomenon, and established the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) to standardize the collection and analysis of UAP data. Despite these steps towards transparency, the DoD continues to be criticized for its lack of openness and its failure to provide a full accounting of its historical involvement with the UAP issue.[^2]
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In recent years, however, the DoD has been forced to take the UAP issue more seriously due to pressure from Congress and the public. The department has officially released UAP videos, produced public reports on the phenomenon, and established the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) to standardize the collection and analysis of UAP data. Despite these steps towards transparency, the DoD continues to be criticized for its lack of openness and its failure to provide a full accounting of its historical involvement with the UAP issue.[^5]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.
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[^2]: Elizondo, Luis. *Imminent*. William Morrow, 2024.
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[^2]: Letter, Albert C. Hall to Honorable Richard Helms, July 26, 1972 (DD/S&T# 2 6 JUL 1972). CIA CREST, CIA-RDP75B00514R000200220004-7. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp75b00514r000200220004-7
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[^3]: "Final Report of the COINS Review Group," February 1, 1973, CIA-RDP79M00096A000300010003-7. CIA CREST. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp79m00096a000300010003-7
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[^4]: Warren E. Leary, "Myron S. Malkin Is Dead at 70; Designed Space Shuttle Program," *New York Times*, October 26, 1994, Section B, page 13. https://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/26/obituaries/myron-s-malkin-is-dead-at-70-designed-space-shuttle-program.html
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[^5]: Elizondo, Luis. *Imminent*. William Morrow, 2024.
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---
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created: 2026-05-15
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updated: 2026-10-07
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updated: 2026-10-08
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title: NASA
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aliases:
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- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
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@ -110,21 +110,25 @@ On January 16, 2013, NASA announced a $17.8 million contract to [[Bigelow Aerosp
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In 1989 Rudolph applied at the U.S. Consulate in Hamburg for a visa to reenter the United States, and was denied. In 1990 he flew to Canada, where the Canadian authorities, alerted by OSI, briefly detained him and released him on bond pending deportation proceedings; Ohio Congressman James Traficant championed his cause. The Canadian court concluded that Rudolph "called for, made use of and directed" slave laborers at Mittelwerk. He was sent back to Germany in 1992, and then sued the Department of Justice, the Attorney General, the Secretary of State and four OSI attorneys, claiming that the government had misled him into believing it had sufficient evidence to file a denaturalization suit when a key witness had exculpated him in a sworn declaration. The OSI report states that the suit was dismissed on the ground that it was barred by sovereign immunity, and that he died in Germany in 1996.[^29] A Jewish Telegraphic Agency report carried by the Detroit Jewish News on February 26, 1993 dates the agreement to 1983 and reports that a federal judge in San Jose dismissed Rudolph's suit, in which he argued that the agreement was made under duress and contained elements of fraud, and that a Canadian court had found that he directed forced labor by foreign prisoners at Mittelwerk during 1943 to 1945.[^31]
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### Space Shuttle Program Leadership, 1973 to 1980
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"Myron (Mike) Malkin was the Headquarters Shuttle Program Director from 1973 to 1980," according to NASA's biography of the STS-1 program personnel.[^32] The New York Times obituary of [[Myron S. Malkin]] describes him as the first director of the shuttle program, a physicist who led the effort to bring the orbiter, external tank and solid rocket boosters together as one system, and who left the agency before the first flight in April 1981.[^33] A [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] Office of Training schedule for a nine-week Senior Seminar (forwarded August 4, 1978) lists "Dr. Myron S. Malkin Space Shuttle Program Director, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)" as the speaker on the shuttle program.[^34] Under the author name "Malkin, M. S.," NASA's Technical Reports Server holds his papers on the program from 1974 to 1979, among them "The Space Shuttle - Key considerations" (1975) and "Planning Space Shuttle's maiden voyage" (1979, with R. F. Freitag).[^35]
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### Jack Parsons and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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|
||||
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory grew from GALCIT Project No. 1 in Pasadena. The FBI's file on [[Jack Parsons]] records a letter of December 29, 1950 from the laboratory on the classification of seven Jet Propulsion Laboratory reports under GALCIT Project No. 1 that were in Parsons' possession at the end of his employment at Hughes Aircraft.[^32]
|
||||
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory grew from GALCIT Project No. 1 in Pasadena. The FBI's file on [[Jack Parsons]] records a letter of December 29, 1950 from the laboratory on the classification of seven Jet Propulsion Laboratory reports under GALCIT Project No. 1 that were in Parsons' possession at the end of his employment at Hughes Aircraft.[^36]
|
||||
|
||||
### Brookings Institution 1960 Report
|
||||
|
||||
The report "Proposed Studies on the Implications of Peaceful Space Activities for Human Affairs," prepared by [[Donald N. Michael]] with the collaboration of Jack Baranson, Raymond A. Bauer, Richard L. Meier, Aaron B. Nadel, Herbert A. Shepard, Herbert E. Striner and Christopher Wright for NASA's Committee on Long-Range Studies, was issued by the [[Brookings Institution]] in December 1960. It states that "the discovery of intelligent life in other parts of the universe is not likely in the immediate future, it could nevertheless happen at any time," and that "Whenever it does occur its consequences for earth attitudes and values may be profound." It then recommends that a long-term research effort begin with "A continuing determination of emotional and intellectual understanding and attitudes regarding the possibility and consequences of discovering intelligent extraterrestrial life."[^33]
|
||||
The report "Proposed Studies on the Implications of Peaceful Space Activities for Human Affairs," prepared by [[Donald N. Michael]] with the collaboration of Jack Baranson, Raymond A. Bauer, Richard L. Meier, Aaron B. Nadel, Herbert A. Shepard, Herbert E. Striner and Christopher Wright for NASA's Committee on Long-Range Studies, was issued by the [[Brookings Institution]] in December 1960. It states that "the discovery of intelligent life in other parts of the universe is not likely in the immediate future, it could nevertheless happen at any time," and that "Whenever it does occur its consequences for earth attitudes and values may be profound." It then recommends that a long-term research effort begin with "A continuing determination of emotional and intellectual understanding and attitudes regarding the possibility and consequences of discovering intelligent extraterrestrial life."[^37]
|
||||
|
||||
A later section of the report on the implications of a discovery of extraterrestrial life states that "face-to-face meetings with it will not occur within the next twenty years (unless its technology is more advanced than ours, qualifying it to visit earth)," that "artifacts left at some point in time by these life forms might possibly be discovered through our space activities on the Moon, Mars, or Venus," and that if there is any contact in the next twenty years "it would most likely be by radio."[^33]
|
||||
A later section of the report on the implications of a discovery of extraterrestrial life states that "face-to-face meetings with it will not occur within the next twenty years (unless its technology is more advanced than ours, qualifying it to visit earth)," that "artifacts left at some point in time by these life forms might possibly be discovered through our space activities on the Moon, Mars, or Venus," and that if there is any contact in the next twenty years "it would most likely be by radio."[^37]
|
||||
|
||||
### NASA Response to the 1977 White House UFO Inquiry
|
||||
|
||||
In July 1977, [[Frank Press]], the director of science and technology policy in the [[Executive Office of the President]], wrote to NASA Administrator [[Robert Frosch]] suggesting that NASA answer UFO-related mail and consider whether it should conduct an active research program on UFOs. In a letter dated December 21, 1977, Frosch agreed that NASA would continue to answer UFO mail, and he wrote that "I would therefore propose that NASA take no steps to establish research in this area or to convene a symposium on this subject."[^34] Frosch wrote that "There is an absence of tangible or physical evidence available for thorough laboratory analysis," that "we stand ready to respond to any bona fide physical evidence from credible sources," and that "institutionally, we retain an open mind, a keen sense of scientific curiosity and a willingness to analyze technical problems within our competence."[^34]
|
||||
In July 1977, [[Frank Press]], the director of science and technology policy in the [[Executive Office of the President]], wrote to NASA Administrator [[Robert Frosch]] suggesting that NASA answer UFO-related mail and consider whether it should conduct an active research program on UFOs. In a letter dated December 21, 1977, Frosch agreed that NASA would continue to answer UFO mail, and he wrote that "I would therefore propose that NASA take no steps to establish research in this area or to convene a symposium on this subject."[^38] Frosch wrote that "There is an absence of tangible or physical evidence available for thorough laboratory analysis," that "we stand ready to respond to any bona fide physical evidence from credible sources," and that "institutionally, we retain an open mind, a keen sense of scientific curiosity and a willingness to analyze technical problems within our competence."[^38]
|
||||
|
||||
NASA's 1978 information sheet on unidentified flying objects states that "NASA is not engaged in a research program involving these phenomena, nor is any other government agency."[^34]
|
||||
NASA's 1978 information sheet on unidentified flying objects states that "NASA is not engaged in a research program involving these phenomena, nor is any other government agency."[^38]
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: NASA, "NASA History" (nasa.gov/history/: "Since October 1, 1958, when NASA opened for business"; NASA "was built on the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA)"); National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958, signed by the President July 29, 1958, NASA History Office, history.nasa.gov/spaceact.html (National Archives Record Group 255).
|
||||
[^2]: Targ, Russell, Phyllis Cole and Harold Puthoff, "Development of Techniques to Enhance Man/Machine Communication," Final Report, Stanford Research Institute, Menlo Park, August 1974, NASA CR-157886, contract 953653 under NAS7-100, SRI project 2613; foreword by NASA and JPL; abstract on the NASA Technical Reports Server, ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19790003559 (accession N79-11730; full text at ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19790003559/downloads/19790003559.pdf).
|
||||
|
|
@ -132,8 +136,8 @@ NASA's 1978 information sheet on unidentified flying objects states that "NASA i
|
|||
[^4]: Puthoff, H. E., and R. Targ, "A Perceptual Channel for Information Transfer over Kilometer Distances: Historical Perspective and Recent Research," Proceedings of the IEEE, March 1976, NTRS 19760042112 (funding NAS7-100), ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19760042112.
|
||||
[^5]: NASA, "Edgar Dean Mitchell (Captain, USN, Ret.) NASA Astronaut (Former)," biographical data, nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/mitchell_edgar.pdf (Group 5, April 1966; lunar module pilot, launch January 31, 1971, return February 9, 1971; "founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences in 1973, one year after retiring from government service").
|
||||
[^6]: Mitchell, Edgar D., "Introduction: From Outer Space to Inner Space," in Mitchell, ed. John White, *Psychic Exploration: A Challenge for Science*, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1974, pp. 32-34 (archive.org lending copy psychicexplorati0000unse).
|
||||
[^8]: Mitchell, Edgar, with Dwight Williams, *The Way of the Explorer: An Apollo Astronaut's Journey Through the Material and Mystical Worlds*, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1996, pp. 48-49 and 60-61, with a footnote on p. 61 stating that "The results of the experiment were published in the June 1971 issue of the Journal of Parapsychology" (archive.org lending copy wayofexplorer00mitc).
|
||||
[^7]: "Boom Times on the Psychic Frontier," article catalogued March 4, 1974, CIA reading room, CIA-RDP96-00787R000700030001-3 (a second copy is CIA-RDP96-00787R000100030002-8).
|
||||
[^8]: Mitchell, Edgar, with Dwight Williams, *The Way of the Explorer: An Apollo Astronaut's Journey Through the Material and Mystical Worlds*, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1996, pp. 48-49 and 60-61, with a footnote on p. 61 stating that "The results of the experiment were published in the June 1971 issue of the Journal of Parapsychology" (archive.org lending copy wayofexplorer00mitc).
|
||||
[^9]: Mitchell, Edgar D., "An ESP Test From Apollo 14," Journal of Parapsychology, vol. 35, no. 2 (June 1971), pp. 89-107; the page range is confirmed in the journal's 1971 index, archive.org/details/sim_journal-of-parapsychology_1971_35_index.
|
||||
[^10]: Puharich, Andrija, ed., proposal on "direct brain action" based on a submission by Captain Edgar D. Mitchell, undated (c. 1972), CIA reading room, CIA-RDP96-00787R000100190001-2, section on the Apollo 14 experiment.
|
||||
[^11]: Medical Intelligence Office, Office of the Surgeon General, report with date of publication July 1972, CIA reading room, CIA-RDP96-00788R001300010001-7, footnote 82 citing "An ESP Test from Appollo 14, Journal of Parapsychology, Volume 35, Number 2, June 1971." Sole source for the 150 attempts figure.
|
||||
|
|
@ -157,6 +161,10 @@ NASA's 1978 information sheet on unidentified flying objects states that "NASA i
|
|||
[^29]: U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division, *Striving for Accountability in the Aftermath of the Holocaust: The Office of Special Investigations*, chapter "Arthur Rudolph - An Honored Rocket Scientist," pp. 331-340 and notes 4-6, 10, 13-15 (note 6: von Braun, "first Director of the Marshall Space Flight Center, serving from 1960 to 1970"; note 13: "Dec. 2, 1983 memo to DAAG Richard from Director Sher re 'Agreement in Rudolph Case'"; note 15: "NASA Refuses to Rescind Award," Washington Post, February 12, 1985), justice.gov/sites/default/files/criminal/legacy/2011/03/14/12-2008osu-accountability.pdf.
|
||||
[^30]: Filreis, Alan, "NASA's Nazis," Literature of the Holocaust, writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/Holocaust/nasa-nazis.html (the essay's date is not on the page; it refers to a CNN documentary broadcast "in March of last year"). Sole source for the von Braun reception and the Rosenbaum statement.
|
||||
[^31]: "U.S. Court Dismisses Ex-Nazi's Suit," Jewish Telegraphic Agency report, Detroit Jewish News, February 26, 1993, Bentley Historical Library copy, digital.bentley.umich.edu/djnews/djn.1993.02.26.001/52/download_text (retrieved from the Wayback Machine). Sole source for the San Jose dismissal.
|
||||
[^32]: FBI, "John Whiteside Parsons," file 65-59589, Part 2, report on a December 29, 1950 letter from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, archive.org/details/JohnParsons.
|
||||
[^33]: Michael, Donald N., with Jack Baranson, Raymond A. Bauer, Richard L. Meier, Aaron B. Nadel, Herbert A. Shepard, Herbert E. Striner and Christopher Wright, *Proposed Studies on the Implications of Peaceful Space Activities for Human Affairs*, Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C., December 1960, NASA NTRS 19640053196, ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19640053196 (PDF page 58 for the summary passage; PDF pages 242-243, printed pp. 182-183, for the section on the discovery of extraterrestrial life).
|
||||
[^34]: NASA Headquarters, Office of External Relations, Information Sheet 78-1, "Unidentified Flying Objects," 1978, quoting Frosch's letter of December 21, 1977 to Frank Press; copy from the Department of Defense reading room as archived by the Wayback Machine (snapshot 2022-11-13) of www.esd.whs.mil/Portals/54/Documents/FOID/Reading%20Room/UFOsandUAPs/nasa_u1.pdf.
|
||||
[^32]: NASA, biographies page for the STS-1 flight of April 12-14, 1981, entry for Myron (Mike) Malkin. https://www.nasa.gov/history/sts1/pages/bios.html
|
||||
[^33]: Warren E. Leary, "Myron S. Malkin Is Dead at 70; Designed Space Shuttle Program," *New York Times*, October 26, 1994, Section B, page 13. https://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/26/obituaries/myron-s-malkin-is-dead-at-70-designed-space-shuttle-program.html
|
||||
[^34]: Memorandum, OTR 78-8495, August 4, 1978, CIA-RDP81M00980R001000050045-7. CIA CREST. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp81m00980r001000050045-7
|
||||
[^35]: NASA Technical Reports Server, citations 75A13711 (https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19750029639) and 79A44248 (https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19790060235), author "Malkin, M. S."
|
||||
[^36]: FBI, "John Whiteside Parsons," file 65-59589, Part 2, report on a December 29, 1950 letter from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, archive.org/details/JohnParsons.
|
||||
[^37]: Michael, Donald N., with Jack Baranson, Raymond A. Bauer, Richard L. Meier, Aaron B. Nadel, Herbert A. Shepard, Herbert E. Striner and Christopher Wright, *Proposed Studies on the Implications of Peaceful Space Activities for Human Affairs*, Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C., December 1960, NASA NTRS 19640053196, ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19640053196 (PDF page 58 for the summary passage; PDF pages 242-243, printed pp. 182-183, for the section on the discovery of extraterrestrial life).
|
||||
[^38]: NASA Headquarters, Office of External Relations, Information Sheet 78-1, "Unidentified Flying Objects," 1978, quoting Frosch's letter of December 21, 1977 to Frank Press; copy from the Department of Defense reading room as archived by the Wayback Machine (snapshot 2022-11-13) of www.esd.whs.mil/Portals/54/Documents/FOID/Reading%20Room/UFOsandUAPs/nasa_u1.pdf.
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
created: 2025-03-05
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-05
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-08
|
||||
title: NSA
|
||||
aliases:
|
||||
- NSA
|
||||
|
|
@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ The Church Committee's statement of November 6, 1975 described SHAMROCK as a mes
|
|||
|
||||
SRI's final report for the period January 1974 through February 1975 describes experiments "under the control of the sponsor," in which an SRI experimenter requested geographical coordinates of a site unknown to the experimenters and subjects from "the sponsor's group responsible for threat analysis." The coordinates received were 38 degrees 23 minutes 45 seconds to 48 seconds north, 79 degrees 25 minutes west, described only as being in West Virginia. On May 29, 1973 [[Puthoff]] relayed them by telephone to a first subject, designated S3 in the final report and named as [[Ingo Swann]] in SRI's October 1, 1973 proposal, whose sessions of May 29 and 30 described rolling hills, lawns like those around a military base, and "either some old bunkers around, or maybe this is a covered reservoir." On June 1, 1973 Puthoff gave the coordinates to a second subject, designated S1 and named as [[Pat Price]] in the proposal, whose written response of June 2 reported a peak in a mountain chain, a concealed road, a "former missile site" where underground rooms held records, microfilm and file cabinets under "Army 5th Corps Engineers," and, beyond them, bays "with computers, communication equipment, large maps" staffed by the Army Signal Corps. The report states that both West Virginia reports and the report on a Urals site that Price volunteered were "verified by personnel in the sponsor organization as being substantially correct."[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
On a later date, the report says, S1 was asked to return to the site "with the goal of obtaining information on code words," and supplied the following: top of desk with papers labeled "Flytrap" and "Minerva"; a file cabinet labeled "Operation Pool"; folders labeled "Cueball," "14 Ball," "4 Ball," "8 Ball" and "Rackup"; a site name that "vaguely seems like Hayfork or Haystack"; and the personnel "Col. R. J. Hamilton, Maj. Gen. George R. Nash, Major John C. Calhoun (??)."[^3] The name Sugar Grove does not appear in the SRI report. An article by the former [[Time]] science correspondent John L. Wilhelm in [[The Washington Post]] (c. 1977) wrote that the coordinates were encoded and passed through an NSA monitor in the Washington area to a [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] scientist at [[Menlo Park]], that the site was a satellite interrogation station which "eavesdrops on Soviet space vehicles," that an officer exclaimed "Hell, there's no security left," and that a security investigation was launched to determine whether the information had leaked to Price. Wilhelm, who also names Sugar Grove in listing the explanations later offered, quoted a source as saying the security men "wouldn't buy the idea of remote viewing."[^4] An Army briefing script on the Grill Flame program, describing the same episode without naming the site, states that the viewer "actually entered the place, calling out names of people who were working there," that he "read" classified codewords on folders, some locked inside security containers, and that "the CIA later confirmed with NSA the validity of much of the subject's information."[^5]
|
||||
On a later date, the report says, S1 was asked to return to the site "with the goal of obtaining information on code words," and supplied the following: top of desk with papers labeled "Flytrap" and "Minerva"; a file cabinet labeled "Operation Pool"; folders labeled "Cueball," "14 Ball," "4 Ball," "8 Ball" and "Rackup"; a site name that "vaguely seems like Hayfork or Haystack"; and the personnel "Col. R. J. Hamilton, Maj. Gen. George R. Nash, Major John C. Calhoun (??)."[^3] The name Sugar Grove does not appear in the SRI report. An article by the former [[Time]] science correspondent John L. Wilhelm in [[The Washington Post]] (c. 1977) wrote that the coordinates were encoded and passed through an NSA monitor in the Washington area to a CIA scientist at [[Menlo Park]], that the site was a satellite interrogation station which "eavesdrops on Soviet space vehicles," that an officer exclaimed "Hell, there's no security left," and that a security investigation was launched to determine whether the information had leaked to Price. Wilhelm, who also names Sugar Grove in listing the explanations later offered, quoted a source as saying the security men "wouldn't buy the idea of remote viewing."[^4] An Army briefing script on the Grill Flame program, describing the same episode without naming the site, states that the viewer "actually entered the place, calling out names of people who were working there," that he "read" classified codewords on folders, some locked inside security containers, and that "the CIA later confirmed with NSA the validity of much of the subject's information."[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
### NSA and the Army remote viewing program
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -78,7 +78,12 @@ In [[Ground Saucer Watch]] v. CIA (D.D.C., Civil Action 78-859) the Central Inte
|
|||
|
||||
[[Seymour Hersh]] wrote in *The Samson Option* that a former NSA official told him the KH-11 satellite, launched in December 1976, was considered the most important advance of its time in reconnaissance photography, that every military and civilian intelligence agency had an urgent requirement for its imagery, and that the NSA, responsible for all communications intelligence, had a role in scheduling the satellite to maximize collection. Hersh wrote that [[Jimmy Carter]]'s decision in March 1979 to give [[Israel]] direct access to KH-11 photographs disrupted that scheduling and was unpopular within the NSA and other agencies, and that during the [[Ronald Reagan]] administration it was learned that Israeli military officers were permitted to attend Pentagon meetings where future KH-11 missions and orbital paths were discussed, which dismayed some NSA officials.[^13]
|
||||
|
||||
### USS Liberty intercepts, 2003 to 2007
|
||||
|
||||
The NSA released transcripts of intercepts made after the June 8, 1967, attack on the [[USS Liberty Incident|USS Liberty]] in July 2003, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by [[A. Jay Cristol]] filed April 26, 2001. The letter of July 2, 2003, enclosed three recordings of Israeli communications in Hebrew, three transcripts and two summary reports, and states that "No communications of the attacking aircraft or torpedo boats were available" and that an EC-121 aircraft had collected conversations between two Israeli helicopter pilots and the control tower at Hazor Airfield; it states that portions were withheld under Executive Order 12958 and under statutes including 18 U.S.C. 798 and Section 6 of Public Law 86-36.[^14] In January 2004 the agency's historian, [[David Hatch]], said the new material "doesn't settle much," according to the Financial Times, and that his reading of the air controller's conversations with two helicopter pilots "suggested strongly" that the Israelis did not know at first that the ship was American.[^15] On June 8, 2007, the NSA announced that it had finished its review of all material relating to the attack and had posted additional documents, stating: "It is not NSA's intention to prove or disprove any one set of conclusions, many of which can be drawn from a thorough review of this material."[^16] [[Oliver Kirby]], the NSA deputy director for operations/production in 1967, said in an interview of February 14, 2003 that within weeks of the attack he read transcripts of the Israeli pilots' conversations that made it "absolutely certain" the Israelis knew the ship was American.[^17] The Chicago Tribune reported on October 2, 2007 that the NSA's position was that it never intercepted the communications of the attacking Israeli pilots; quoted Kirby as saying "I'm willing to swear on a stack of Bibles that we knew they knew"; quoted Michael Prostinak, a Hebrew linguist aboard the EC-121, as saying "there were more tapes than just the three on the Internet"; and reported that the posted tape designated A1104/A-02 begins at 2:29 p.m. local time and that a preceding tape designated A1104/A-01 is absent. An NSA media adviser did not respond to the Tribune's question about the difference.[^18]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Intelligence Activities, Senate Resolution 21*, Hearings, vol. 5, "The National Security Agency and Fourth Amendment Rights," 94th Cong., 1st sess., October 29 and November 6, 1975 (testimony of Lt. Gen. Lew Allen, Jr.; committee statement on SHAMROCK read November 6), https://archive.org/details/Church-Committee-Hearings-Volume5-National-Security-Agency (text at https://archive.org/download/Church-Committee-Hearings-Volume5-National-Security-Agency/Vol5-NSA_djvu.txt).
|
||||
[^2]: "Proposed Grill Flame Protocol: Proposed SRI International Applied Remote Viewing Protocol," SRI 9-4107, March 23, 1979, CIA-RDP96-00788R001300070001-1, biography of Harold E. Puthoff, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r001300070001-1.
|
||||
[^3]: Harold E. Puthoff and Russell Targ, "Perceptual Augmentation Techniques, Part Two: Research Report," final report covering January 1974 through February 1975, SRI International, December 1, 1975, section on "West Virginia Site (S3)," "West Virginia Site (S1)" and "Urals Site," CIA-RDP96-00788R001300030001-5, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r001300030001-5; and SRI Proposal for Research ISH 73-146, "Perceptual Augmentation Techniques, Part One," October 1, 1973, CIA-RDP96-00787R000700100001-5, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00787r000700100001-5, which names Price in the same passage.
|
||||
|
|
@ -92,3 +97,8 @@ In [[Ground Saucer Watch]] v. CIA (D.D.C., Civil Action 78-859) the Central Inte
|
|||
[^11]: U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, *The INSLAW Affair*, H. Rept. 102-857, September 10, 1992, pp. 67 to 68, https://archive.org/details/InslawAffairInvestigativeReport. Aviv is the sole source for these statements, which the report records as his account to committee investigators.
|
||||
[^12]: Affidavit of Eugene F. Yeates, Chief, Office of Policy, National Security Agency, *Citizens Against Unidentified Flying Objects Secrecy v. National Security Agency*, Civil Action No. 80-1562 (D.D.C. 1980), https://www.nsa.gov/news-features/declassified-documents/ufo/assets/files/affadavit_yeates.pdf (archived copy: https://web.archive.org/web/2020/https://www.nsa.gov/news-features/declassified-documents/ufo/assets/files/affadavit_yeates.pdf).
|
||||
[^13]: Seymour M. Hersh, *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy* (Random House, 1991). Hersh attributes the account of the KH-11 scheduling to an unnamed former NSA official.
|
||||
[^14]: National Security Agency, letter from Louis F. Giles, Director of Policy, to A. Jay Cristol, FOIA Case 40039A, July 2, 2003. https://irp.fas.org/nsa/liberty.html
|
||||
[^15]: Guy Dinmore, *Financial Times*, January 13, 2004, reprinted by the History News Network. https://www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/3027
|
||||
[^16]: National Security Agency, "U.S.S. Liberty," release page (Wayback Machine 2007 capture). http://web.archive.org/web/2007/http://www.nsa.gov/liberty
|
||||
[^17]: David C. Walsh, "Former NSA Officials Agree," *U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings*, June 2003. https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2003/june/former-nsa-officials-agree
|
||||
[^18]: "New revelations in attack on American spy ship," *Chicago Tribune*, October 2, 2007. https://www.chicagotribune.com/2007/10/02/new-revelations-in-attack-on-american-spy-ship/
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ aliases:
|
|||
- National Guard
|
||||
- Guardia Nacional de Nicaragua
|
||||
created: 2026-05-17
|
||||
updated: 2026-05-17
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-08
|
||||
category: "Paramilitary"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Organization
|
||||
|
|
@ -20,23 +20,28 @@ start: 1925-01-01
|
|||
end: 1979-07-17
|
||||
location: "Managua, Nicaragua"
|
||||
---
|
||||
Guardia Nacional de Nicaragua (National Guard) was the military, police, and intelligence service of [[Nicaragua]] under the [[Anastasio Somoza|Somoza]] dynasty.[^2] Created by the [[United States|U.S.]] in the 1930s, the Guard served as the power base of the Somoza family's forty-six-year rule. Its officers formed the leadership core of the [[Contras]] after the [[Sandinistas|Sandinista]] revolution.[^1]
|
||||
Guardia Nacional de Nicaragua (National Guard) was the military, police, and intelligence service of [[Nicaragua]] under the [[Anastasio Somoza|Somoza]] dynasty.[^1] Created by the [[United States|U.S.]] in the 1930s, the Guard served as the power base of the Somoza family's forty-six-year rule. Its officers formed the leadership core of the [[Contras]] after the [[Sandinistas|Sandinista]] revolution.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Creation and U.S. Training
|
||||
|
||||
The U.S. created the National Guard in the 1930s and spent millions of dollars a year supplying weapons and training its officers in anticommunist counterinsurgency.[^1] Training took place at [[Fort Gulick]], [[Fort Benning]], and [[Fort Leavenworth|Leavenworth]]. Anastasio Somoza told U.S. ambassador [[Lawrence Pezzullo]] in 1979 that of approximately nine hundred Guard officers, "eight hundred or so belong to your schools."
|
||||
The U.S. created the National Guard in the 1930s and spent millions of dollars a year supplying weapons and training its officers in anticommunist counterinsurgency.[^2] Training took place at [[Fort Gulick]], [[Fort Benning]], and [[Fort Leavenworth|Leavenworth]]. Anastasio Somoza told U.S. ambassador [[Lawrence Pezzullo]] in 1979 that of approximately nine hundred Guard officers, "eight hundred or so belong to your schools."
|
||||
|
||||
The Guard also encompassed the [[OSN|Oficina Seguridad Nacional (OSN)]], Somoza's secret police unit that monitored political dissidents. It managed the national police, state security and intelligence services, the postal service, and customs agency.
|
||||
|
||||
### Capuchin allegations, March 1977
|
||||
|
||||
In a March 3, 1977 telegram, the embassy in Managua under [[James D. Theberge]] reported a March 2 meeting with Somoza at which Theberge raised new charges by American Capuchin priests of recent National Guard massacres of 86 campesinos in two incidents northeast of Matagalpa. The telegram records that Somoza denied the charges and admitted that innocent bystanders, including women and children, sometimes had been killed in crossfire between the National Guard and FSLN guerrillas, especially in early 1976.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Collapse
|
||||
|
||||
When Somoza fled Nicaragua on July 17, 1979, the vaunted National Guard collapsed within hours.[^1] Officers who could escape poured across the borders into [[El Salvador]], [[Honduras]], and [[Costa Rica]], or sought refuge in the Colombian embassy in [[Managua]]. Those who could not escape were imprisoned or faced firing squads.
|
||||
When Somoza fled Nicaragua on July 17, 1979, the vaunted National Guard collapsed within hours.[^2] Officers who could escape poured across the borders into [[El Salvador]], [[Honduras]], and [[Costa Rica]], or sought refuge in the Colombian embassy in [[Managua]]. Those who could not escape were imprisoned or faced firing squads.
|
||||
|
||||
### Reconstitution as the Contras
|
||||
|
||||
The [[Central Intelligence Agency]] began reassembling the scattered National Guard brigades in 1980 under [[Enrique Bermudez|Enrique Bermúdez]], a former military attaché in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] who had been hired by the agency specifically for this purpose.[^1] The Legion of September 15, an early Contra group made up primarily of ex-National Guardsmen, was based in [[Guatemala]] and commanded by [[Ricardo Lau]] and Bermúdez. This group later became the core of the [[FDN]], the largest and most powerful Contra faction.[^2]
|
||||
The [[Central Intelligence Agency]] began reassembling the scattered National Guard brigades in 1980 under [[Enrique Bermudez|Enrique Bermúdez]], a former military attaché in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] who had been hired by the agency specifically for this purpose.[^2] The Legion of September 15, an early Contra group made up primarily of ex-National Guardsmen, was based in [[Guatemala]] and commanded by [[Ricardo Lau]] and Bermúdez. This group later became the core of the [[FDN]], the largest and most powerful Contra faction.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 1: "A Pretty secret kind of thing"
|
||||
[^2]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Glossary of Organizations and Locations
|
||||
[^1]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Glossary of Organizations and Locations
|
||||
[^2]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 1: "A Pretty secret kind of thing"
|
||||
[^3]: Telegram 1032, Embassy in Nicaragua to Department of State, Managua, March 3, 1977, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1977-1980*, vol. XV, doc. 60. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1977-80v15/d60
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-08
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Organization
|
||||
- Private
|
||||
|
|
@ -11,15 +12,31 @@ location: "Pretoria, South Africa"
|
|||
---
|
||||
[[ARMSCOR]] (South African Arms Corporation) is the government weapons manufacturer of [[South Africa]]. It played a significant role in the international arms trade, particularly in its dealings with [[Carlos Cardoen]] and [[Gerald Bull]], and its involvement in supplying [[Iraq]].[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
In 1979, [[Carlos Cardoen]] obtained a brokering license from [[ARMSCOR]] after being rejected by [[Israel]]. This allowed him to begin his work as an arms producer and broker.[^1]
|
||||
In 1979, Carlos Cardoen obtained a brokering license from ARMSCOR after being rejected by [[Israel]]. This allowed him to begin his work as an arms producer and broker.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
[[ARMSCOR]] collaborated with [[Carlos Cardoen|Cardoen]] in selling arms to [[Iraq]]. [[Alan Sanders]] of [[ITICO]] provided technology for cluster bombs to Cardoen, which were then produced with a covert [[United States|U.S.]] license.[^1]
|
||||
ARMSCOR collaborated with Cardoen in selling arms to Iraq. [[Alan Sanders]] of [[ITICO]] provided technology for cluster bombs to Cardoen, which were then produced with a covert [[United States|U.S.]] license.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
In 1983, [[ARMSCOR]] contracted [[Gerald Bull]] for his "supergun" artillery project, following an introduction by [[Mark Thatcher]] and [[Pieter Van Der Westhuizen|Gen. Pieter Van Der Westhuizen]], chief of [[South African Defense Force]].[^1]
|
||||
In 1983, ARMSCOR contracted Gerald Bull for his "supergun" artillery project, following an introduction by [[Mark Thatcher]] and [[Pieter Van Der Westhuizen|Gen. Pieter Van Der Westhuizen]], chief of [[South African Defense Force]].[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
[[ARMSCOR]] was represented at a meeting in [[Santiago]], [[Chile]], in late 1986, where [[United States|U.S.]] officials, including [[Robert Gates]], reaffirmed their intention to maintain arms channels to [[Iraq]] through [[South Africa]] and [[Chile]].[^1]
|
||||
ARMSCOR was represented at a meeting in [[Santiago]], [[Chile]], in late 1986, where U.S. officials, including [[Robert Gates]], reaffirmed their intention to maintain arms channels to Iraq through South Africa and Chile.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
In late 1988, [[Pieter Van Der Westhuizen|Gen. Pieter Van Der Westhuizen]] informed [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] that [[South Africa]] had stopped the flow of technology to [[Iraq]], claiming it was due to a decision to resume nuclear cooperation with [[Israel]]. However, [[Israel|Israeli]] intelligence later confirmed that while [[South Africa]] was not directly dealing with [[Iraq]], it was involved with [[Chile]], which continued to supply [[Iraq]] through the [[Carlos Cardoen|Cardoen]] network. The [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] reportedly used [[ARMSCOR]] to facilitate the transfer of nuclear technology to [[Iraq]].[^1]
|
||||
In late 1988, Gen. Pieter Van Der Westhuizen informed [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] that South Africa had stopped the flow of technology to Iraq, claiming it was due to a decision to resume nuclear cooperation with Israel. However, Israeli intelligence later confirmed that while South Africa was not directly dealing with Iraq, it was involved with Chile, which continued to supply Iraq through the Cardoen network. The [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] reportedly used ARMSCOR to facilitate the transfer of nuclear technology to Iraq.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Shipments from International Signal and Control
|
||||
|
||||
ARMSCOR was named as a defendant in *United States v. Armaments Corporation of South Africa Ltd., et al.*, Crim. No. 91-602 (E.D. Pa.), announced on October 31, 1991 together with the indictment of [[James Guerin]] of [[International Signal and Control]].[^2] The [[United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit|Third Circuit]] later described the 67-count indictment as charging that ISC and Armscor conspired to export American arms, munitions and weapons technology to Armscor to enhance its inventory and enable it to market weapons systems to other countries, and to import South African missile components into the United States for testing to facilitate the sale of Striker missiles to China.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
Three South African firms were indicted in 1991 for cooperating with ISC to smuggle munitions, restricted commodities and technology to South Africa from 1978 to 1989, and seven American defendants, including ISC's chief executive, entered guilty pleas. In February 1997 Armscor and [[Kentron]] settled in federal court in Philadelphia, Armscor with a fine of one million dollars and Kentron with 500,000 dollars, and [[Fuchs Electronics]] pleaded guilty to 11 related charges and was fined ten million dollars. The plea agreement records that Armscor and Kentron had obtained shipments from ISC by routing them through front companies.[^4] The [[State Department]] had imposed a policy of denial on Fuchs in June 1994 after an indictment in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and Fuchs pleaded guilty to violating the Arms Export Control Act on February 27, 1997.[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
When [[Nelson Mandela]] became president in 1994, the United States declined to drop the charges. The South African government argued that a state-owned company was not subject to United States prosecution and refused to forward United States court papers to Armscor, citing sovereignty, and the United States responded by imposing an embargo on Armscor and banning it from doing business in the United States. Mandela asked President Clinton personally to drop the case in 1995 and Clinton declined, saying the matter was in the hands of the Department of Justice. A compromise of July 1996 provided that Armscor would pay a fine and accept some form of international supervision, and that the United States would drop its embargo.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
An Open Secrets report of October 2017, based on South African military documents, states that in March 1990 the head of Armscor's security department wrote to his counterpart in South African Defense Force counterintelligence, enclosing a memorandum from an internal Armscor investigation of ISC. The report says the purchase and resale of ISC missile technology ran through Kentron and an ISC cut-out, ISC Technology, with communications routed through covert Armscor offices in [[Italy]] and [[Hong Kong]], and that the resale was to the People's Republic of China. It also states that senior Armscor officials were worried the American investigations of ISC threatened other Armscor operations.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 1992.
|
||||
[^2]: SEC Digest, November 7, 1991, Litigation Release LR-13077. https://www.sec.gov/news/digest/1991/dig110791.pdf
|
||||
[^3]: *United States v. Jasin*, 280 F.3d 355 (3d Cir. 2002). https://static.case.law/f3d/280/cases/0355-01.json
|
||||
[^4]: "South African Firms Settle Arms Smuggling Case," Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control (undated). https://www.wisconsinproject.org/south-african-firms-settle-arms-smuggling-case/
|
||||
[^5]: Department of State, Office of Defense Trade Controls, Public Notice 2522, *Federal Register* 62, no. 56 (March 24, 1997), p. 13933. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-1997-03-24/html/97-7273.htm
|
||||
[^6]: Open Secrets, "Declassified: Apartheid Profits," *Daily Maverick*, October 9, 2017. Sole source for the 1990 memorandum and the China resale. https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2017-10-09-declassified-apartheid-profits-american-guns/
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -32,12 +32,30 @@ relations:
|
|||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "consultant"
|
||||
start: 1986
|
||||
fn: 8
|
||||
fn: 16
|
||||
- type: participant_in
|
||||
with: "[[Iran-Contra Affair]]"
|
||||
start: 1985
|
||||
end: 1987
|
||||
fn: 12
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Barbara Studley]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "president"
|
||||
start: 1983
|
||||
fn: 7
|
||||
- type: owned
|
||||
with: "[[Barbara Studley]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 1985
|
||||
fn: 13
|
||||
- type: funded
|
||||
with: "[[Louis Petrillo]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 1986
|
||||
end: 1987
|
||||
role: "Bayshore Bank of Florida funds transferred to GeoMiliTech"
|
||||
fn: 21
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
GeoMiliTech Consultants Corp. (abbreviated GMT) was a Washington arms-trading company, with offices at 1919 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 300, that [[Barbara Studley]] created after moving to the capital as a radio broadcaster; [[John Singlaub]] signed its correspondence as "Consultant." It handled a 1985 shipment of Soviet-bloc arms to the [[Contras]], proposed a conduit for such weapons to [[Oliver North]] and [[William J. Casey]], and is named in the 1987 deposition record of the congressional Iran-Contra committees.[^1][^2]
|
||||
|
|
@ -46,9 +64,17 @@ GeoMiliTech Consultants Corp. (abbreviated GMT) was a Washington arms-trading co
|
|||
|
||||
The Hartford Courant wrote in 1992 that Studley, a former conservative radio talk-show host, created GeoMiliTech "to break into the arms business."[^1] [[Daniel O. Graham]], a retired Army lieutenant general and head of the [[High Frontier]] campaign, testified on May 26, 1987 that he met Studley around 1977 when she was a broadcaster in [[Miami]] and invited him onto her radio talk show, that she later came to Washington (committee counsel dated her arrival to about June 1984), and that all he knew of GeoMiliTech was that she ran it and that it was "an international trading firm in high-tech items."[^2] Graham said he took no part in forming the firm, received no money from it and held no title in it.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
The Delaware Division of Corporations lists GeoMiliTech Consultants Corp. under file number 2015058, with a formation date of August 15, 1983 and Corporation Guarantee and Trust Company in Wilmington as registered agent.[^3] [[Christopher Byron]] wrote in 1991 that court records show the company was incorporated in July 1983.[^4] [[Mark Phythian]] gives August 15, 1983 as the date on which an ostensibly private company was formed in [[Delaware]] to sell or exchange weapons.[^5] The United States attorney's office in Miami described Studley in 1995 as an acquaintance of [[Louis Petrillo]] from her days as a conservative radio talk-show host in Miami in the 1970s.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
### Officers and advisers
|
||||
|
||||
Studley was president of the company.[^7] Byron wrote that GeoMiliTech's "board of advisers" in the mid-1980s included Singlaub and Graham, whom he described as onetime deputy director of the CIA and former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency; Graham testified in 1987 that he was never an adviser or director of the company and had no function with it.[^2][^4] Byron named retired Lt. Gen. [[Robert Schweitzer]] as executive vice president, and [[John E. Carbaugh Jr.]], a member of the 1980 transition team and a former staff aide to Senator [[Jesse Helms]], as a consultant whom a company brochure described as possessing "direct contact to the political and military structure of foreign governments."[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
Byron reported a July 29, 1984 memorandum from Carbaugh to Studley about a cannon-shell export order from [[South Korea]]; in Byron's account a South Korean official seemed to suspect the shipment was bound for [[Iran]], and the memorandum suggested the company's representative in [[Israel]] could approach the South Koreans directly.[^4] Byron also cited a court-appointed investigator working on [[Arif Durrani]]'s case who had found what appeared to be internal 1984 company documents and telex traffic showing negotiations with South Korean military officials in July 1984 for 6,000 tons of explosives and 300,000 M107/155mm cannon shells and projectiles, and a further telex about F-4 Phantom parts, one of them a QK410B oscillator assembly that the investigator said is a component of certain [[Raytheon]]-made Hawk missile systems.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### The June to July 1985 shipment
|
||||
|
||||
The Hartford Courant reported that Singlaub and Studley arranged a private shipment of Soviet-bloc rifles, machine guns and grenade launchers to the contras in the summer of 1985, which it put at $5 million.[^1] Studley's memorandum to North dated October 30, 1985 refers to a shipment that left on June 20, 1985.[^3] Graham's questioner stated that the Studley and Werner Glatt arms transaction was consummated in May 1985 with delivery in July, and Graham agreed that it was early in 1985.[^2] The congressional report states that a purchase Singlaub arranged for [[Adolfo Calero]] and the FDN through a European arms dealer arrived in Central America on July 8, 1985, and the Washington Post reported in 1987 that Singlaub helped the contras buy $5.3 million of East Bloc weapons shipped through [[Honduras]].[^4][^5] Singlaub testified in 1987 that the delivery went from [[Poland]] to Honduras and that Swiss banks handled the transfers.[^1]
|
||||
The Hartford Courant reported that Singlaub and Studley arranged a private shipment of Soviet-bloc rifles, machine guns and grenade launchers to the contras in the summer of 1985, which it put at $5 million.[^1] Studley's memorandum to North dated October 30, 1985 refers to a shipment that left on June 20, 1985.[^8] Graham's questioner stated that the Studley and Werner Glatt arms transaction was consummated in May 1985 with delivery in July, and Graham agreed that it was early in 1985.[^2] The congressional report states that a purchase Singlaub arranged for [[Adolfo Calero]] and the FDN through a European arms dealer arrived in Central America on July 8, 1985, and the Washington Post reported in 1987 that Singlaub helped the contras buy $5.3 million of East Bloc weapons shipped through [[Honduras]].[^9][^10] Singlaub testified in 1987 that the delivery went from [[Poland]] to Honduras and that Swiss banks handled the transfers.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Barcella opinion
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -62,39 +88,68 @@ Graham testified that Studley told him after the delivery that people who were n
|
|||
|
||||
### The October 30, 1985 memorandum, Ron Martin and Mario Dellamico
|
||||
|
||||
Graham Exhibit 1 is a memorandum from Studley to North dated October 30, 1985, which opens with a telephone call received at 4:00 a.m. on October 29 from her source, identified only as "W." It states that "W" was questioned about a shipment that went out on June 20, 1985 and denied that his ship was intended for the contras; that a man named Mario Dellamico, described as working for the arms dealer Ron Martin, had walked in two weeks earlier asking for help in selling Martin's company's arms to the contras and was told absolutely not because it would be against "their law"; that Dellamico then handed over a copy of GeoMiliTech's packing list showing the receipt of the shipment, an itemized inventory, the ship's name and date of departure, and the signature of its representative; that "W" said to tell North the ship was the first of five he was expecting, and that the ship later sailed; and that "Martin's company still has copies of our documents." It asks North to stop Martin and Dellamico and closes: "General John K. Singlaub has been advised of this information."[^3]
|
||||
Graham Exhibit 1 is a memorandum from Studley to North dated October 30, 1985, which opens with a telephone call received at 4:00 a.m. on October 29 from her source, identified only as "W." It states that "W" was questioned about a shipment that went out on June 20, 1985 and denied that his ship was intended for the contras; that a man named Mario Dellamico, described as working for the arms dealer Ron Martin, had walked in two weeks earlier asking for help in selling Martin's company's arms to the contras and was told absolutely not because it would be against "their law"; that Dellamico then handed over a copy of GeoMiliTech's packing list showing the receipt of the shipment, an itemized inventory, the ship's name and date of departure, and the signature of its representative; that "W" said to tell North the ship was the first of five he was expecting, and that the ship later sailed; and that "Martin's company still has copies of our documents." It asks North to stop Martin and Dellamico and closes: "General John K. Singlaub has been advised of this information."[^8]
|
||||
|
||||
Graham said he had heard Martin's name in connection with "the discrepancies or problems involved in the landing of that cargo," that friends in Miami told him Martin was an arms dealer, and that he had not heard of threats made against Singlaub by Dellamico on Martin's behalf. Asked whether Martin or Dellamico had a relationship with the [[Central Intelligence Agency]], he answered that he had heard "nothing but speculation."[^2] The Independent Counsel's report describes Ron Martin as a Miami-based dealer accused of consorting with drug-runners; the congressional report quotes North that Martin was "setting up [a] munitions 'supermarket'" in Central America and that Casey told North there should be no further transactions with the broker until the source of the money for the stockpile was resolved.[^4][^6]
|
||||
Graham said he had heard Martin's name in connection with "the discrepancies or problems involved in the landing of that cargo," that friends in Miami told him Martin was an arms dealer, and that he had not heard of threats made against Singlaub by Dellamico on Martin's behalf. Asked whether Martin or Dellamico had a relationship with the [[Central Intelligence Agency]], he answered that he had heard "nothing but speculation."[^2] The Independent Counsel's report describes Ron Martin as a Miami-based dealer accused of consorting with drug-runners; the congressional report quotes North that Martin was "setting up [a] munitions 'supermarket'" in Central America and that Casey told North there should be no further transactions with the broker until the source of the money for the stockpile was resolved.[^9][^11]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Singlaub-Studley conduit memorandum
|
||||
|
||||
A memorandum prepared by Studley and found in North's safe proposed a "conduit" for a "continuous flow of Soviet weapons and technology" in support of "Freedom Fighters" in Nicaragua, Angola, Cambodia, Ethiopia and elsewhere, through a three-way trade that would let the United States dispense arms without "the consent or awareness of the Department of State or Congress." The congressional report calls it the Singlaub-Studley plan, states that Singlaub presented it to North and Casey in 1985, and records North acknowledging receipt and dismissing it; [[George Shultz]] called it "a piece of junk."[^7] Graham testified that he had never seen the document and had never discussed the concept with Studley or Singlaub.[^2]
|
||||
A memorandum prepared by Studley and found in North's safe proposed a "conduit" for a "continuous flow of Soviet weapons and technology" in support of "Freedom Fighters" in Nicaragua, Angola, Cambodia, Ethiopia and elsewhere, through a three-way trade that would let the United States dispense arms without "the consent or awareness of the Department of State or Congress." The congressional report calls it the Singlaub-Studley plan, states that Singlaub presented it to North and Casey in 1985, and records North acknowledging receipt and dismissing it; [[George Shultz]] called it "a piece of junk."[^12] Graham testified that he had never seen the document and had never discussed the concept with Studley or Singlaub.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Torpedo sale, 1985 to 1987
|
||||
|
||||
The congressional report states that during the summer of 1985 Singlaub worked without success through GeoMiliTech Consultants, "owned by Barbara Studley," on diverting part of a $75 million proposed sale of torpedoes to a buyer the report calls "Country 3." The majority says the Singlaub-Studley plan was not implemented; the minority views respond that the first diverted funds, from Israeli arms sales to Iran, arrived before the plan was tabled in December 1985.[^13][^14]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Benjamin Weiser]] reported in the [[Washington Post]] in March 1987 that Singlaub had a specific deal in mind in the case of [[Taiwan]]: a Washington-based consulting company, for which he served as an unpaid adviser, was trying to broker the sale of 40 American-built MK 37 torpedoes from Israel to Taiwan at a price Israel set at $72 million to $75 million, with about $10 million above that price to go to the contras after the broker's commission. Sources familiar with the deal told the Post that Israel had authorized the broker and notified the United States government; Israeli sources said the United States government would not allow the sale. The article does not name the company. The report's torpedo sale and the Post's concern the same subject and price range and GeoMiliTech listed Singlaub as an adviser in 1987; the report does not name Taiwan as Country 3 and the Post does not name the company, so the accounts are joined only by that match.[^15]
|
||||
|
||||
### The 1986 quotation and the Casey letter
|
||||
|
||||
Graham Exhibit 2 contains a letter on GeoMiliTech letterhead, addressed "Dear Bill" to Casey and signed by Singlaub as "Major General, U.S. Army (RET)" and "Consultant," which committee counsel dated to August 1986. It encloses a list "Quoted 28 July 1986" including SA-7 sets, 60 12.7mm machine guns at 9,380 each, 20 twin-mount 14.5mm machine guns at 34,000 each, 300 RPK rifles, 60mm and 82mm mortars, RPG-7 launchers and 10,000 AKMS rifles at 185 each, and the list is marked "NO EUC REQUIRED." The letter says the items were developed in conjunction with a member of the NSC aware of the needs of the United Nicaraguan Opposition, that congressional funds would not be available until after September, and that a Swiss bank would lend for six to twelve months against a letter of credit from Casey's bank.[^8] Graham said he had no knowledge of the matter and had not discussed it with Casey.[^2]
|
||||
Graham Exhibit 2 contains a letter on GeoMiliTech letterhead, addressed "Dear Bill" to Casey and signed by Singlaub as "Major General, U.S. Army (RET)" and "Consultant," which committee counsel dated to August 1986. It encloses a list "Quoted 28 July 1986" including SA-7 sets, 60 12.7mm machine guns at 9,380 each, 20 twin-mount 14.5mm machine guns at 34,000 each, 300 RPK rifles, 60mm and 82mm mortars, RPG-7 launchers and 10,000 AKMS rifles at 185 each, and the list is marked "NO EUC REQUIRED." The letter says the items were developed in conjunction with a member of the NSC aware of the needs of the United Nicaraguan Opposition, that congressional funds would not be available until after September, and that a Swiss bank would lend for six to twelve months against a letter of credit from Casey's bank.[^16] Graham said he had no knowledge of the matter and had not discussed it with Casey.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Robert Schweitzer and 1986-1987 contracts
|
||||
|
||||
Committee counsel stated in the Graham deposition that Lieutenant General [[Robert Schweitzer]] was hired by GeoMiliTech in late August or early September 1986, was interviewed by Singlaub, met North with Singlaub on or about December 2, 1986 on company matters, and left in early 1987; Graham said he had no role in the hiring and that Studley had come to have little confidence in Schweitzer's advice. Counsel also asked Graham about efforts by [[Ray Cline]] in 1987 to obtain CIA contracts for the company, which Graham said he knew nothing of.[^2] [[Charles Allen]], who became National Intelligence Officer for Counterterrorism in October 1986, was asked whether he discussed with Schweitzer his employment with "Geomilitech Consultants Corporation" or Schweitzer's efforts to obtain covert procurement contracts for it; he answered no to both.[^9]
|
||||
Committee counsel stated in the Graham deposition that Lieutenant General Robert Schweitzer was hired by GeoMiliTech in late August or early September 1986, was interviewed by Singlaub, met North with Singlaub on or about December 2, 1986 on company matters, and left in early 1987; Graham said he had no role in the hiring and that Studley had come to have little confidence in Schweitzer's advice. Counsel also asked Graham about efforts by [[Ray Cline]] in 1987 to obtain CIA contracts for the company, which Graham said he knew nothing of.[^2] [[Charles Allen]], who became National Intelligence Officer for Counterterrorism in October 1986, was asked whether he discussed with Schweitzer his employment with "Geomilitech Consultants Corporation" or Schweitzer's efforts to obtain covert procurement contracts for it; he answered no to both.[^17]
|
||||
|
||||
Graham Exhibit 3 holds Studley's papers on the Pia Vesta, a vessel loaded with arms and seized at the [[Panama Canal]] in 1986, including notes of conversations with Dan Cummings and David Duncan; the notes state that Duncan had been to the White House and met a person named Vince at the NSC, and that General [[Manuel Noriega]] had agreed to release the shipment.[^10] A letter to the House committee's assistant counsel [[Kenneth Ballen]] dated April 28, 1987, from the Washington firm of [[Finley, Kumble, Wagner, Heine, Underberg, Manley, Myerson & Casey|Finley, Kumble]] on the "Barbara F. Studley/GMT" matter, refers to a telephone conference between Ballen and [[Paul L. Perito]] and encloses Studley's memorandum on North.[^11]
|
||||
Graham Exhibit 3 holds Studley's papers on the Pia Vesta, a vessel loaded with arms and seized at the [[Panama Canal]] in 1986, including notes of conversations with Dan Cummings and David Duncan; the notes state that Duncan had been to the White House and met a person named Vince at the NSC, and that General [[Manuel Noriega]] had agreed to release the shipment.[^18] A letter to the House committee's assistant counsel [[Kenneth Ballen]] dated April 28, 1987, from the Washington firm of [[Finley, Kumble, Wagner, Heine, Underberg, Manley, Myerson & Casey|Finley, Kumble]] on the "Barbara F. Studley/GMT" matter, refers to a telephone conference between Ballen and [[Paul L. Perito]] and encloses Studley's memorandum on North.[^19] The Courant reported that Barcella left the United States attorney's office in June 1986 and went into private practice in Washington initially at the same firm where Koszorus worked.[^1] The April 28, 1987 letter on the Finley Kumble letterhead closes with Koszorus's name above the enclosure notation.[^20]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Miami bank transfers, 1986 and 1987
|
||||
|
||||
The [[Miami Herald]] reported in June 1987 that Louis Petrillo, president of [[Bayshore Bank of Florida]], had resigned, that the bank was being sold, and that he had transferred a total of $2 million of bank funds on behalf of GeoMiliTech during 1986. The debts were unsecured, were supposed to be repaid within weeks, and remained outstanding; the newspaper said the sum was nearly all of the bank's net worth that year, that federal authorities including Iran-Contra independent counsel [[Lawrence Walsh]] had begun investigating, and that the company acknowledged helping arrange arms supplies for the rebels. Studley told the newspaper the case involved private banking matters and refused to discuss details; Petrillo said he had no knowledge of any arms deals and left because the bank was changing hands.[^21]
|
||||
|
||||
The [[Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation]]'s news release of August 7, 1987 states that Bayshore Bank of Florida, with total assets of $40.4 million, was closed that day by Florida State Comptroller [[Gerald Lewis]], that the FDIC was named receiver, and that its insured deposits were transferred to [[Eagle National Bank of Miami]].[^22] Petrillo pleaded guilty in September 1994 to misapplication of funds and bank fraud and in March 1995 was sentenced to one year in prison, five years' probation and $2 million in restitution; American Banker reported that he had issued letters of credit of more than $2 million in 1986 and 1987 to GeoMiliTech without his bank's knowledge, that he asserted in court that he acted in conjunction with the Central Intelligence Agency, and that the United States attorney's office in Miami said the claims were "discounted in court."[^6] [[Frank Bovenkerk]] and [[Michael Levi]] write that the $2 million covered two bad checks written by Studley and that she tried and failed to sell about 20 percent of the company's stock to raise it.[^23]
|
||||
|
||||
### Durrani-case depositions, 1991
|
||||
|
||||
In its September 9, 1991 objection to Arif Durrani's second request for documents, the United States Attorney's Office in Bridgeport stated that defense counsel had taken the depositions of Studley and Singlaub in Washington in August 1991 and that "Neither witness had any knowledge of Arif Durrani or his claims."[^24] Byron wrote that Studley denied in the August 1991 deposition that she knew Durrani and that she had shipped weapons to Iran, and that prosecutor [[Holly Fitzsimmons]] said she had seen nothing to indicate Studley was not telling the truth.[^4] Byron also reported that an unnamed former top official of GeoMiliTech said the company had tried to export arms to Iran with the help of Israel's then defense minister [[Ariel Sharon]]; Studley's lawyer Koszorus denied that Studley or the company had any involvement with Iran, and the company was still doing business in 1991 but was not listed in the Washington telephone directory.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### Claims from Ari Ben-Menashe
|
||||
|
||||
[[Ari Ben-Menashe]] writes that a 1985 contra deal brokered through GeoMiliTech was itemized at $3,242,000 paid to the [[Ora Group]], against $5 million that he says the company's books showed received from the American side, a difference of about $1.76 million.[^12]
|
||||
[[Ari Ben-Menashe]] writes that a 1985 contra deal brokered through GeoMiliTech was itemized at $3,242,000 paid to the [[Ora Group]], against $5 million that he says the company's books showed received from the American side, a difference of about $1.76 million.[^25]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Hartford Courant, "Head of Iran Hostage Probe Linked to Arms Deal," May 29, 1992. https://www.courant.com/1992/05/29/head-of-iran-hostage-probe-linked-to-arms-deal/
|
||||
[^2]: Deposition of Daniel O. Graham, May 26, 1987 (Senate Select Committee, Hart Senate Office Building; examined by Charles Kerr), Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair (H. Rept. 100-433, S. Rept. 100-216), Appendix B, vol. 12 (Internet Archive item micro_IA41152840_0234).
|
||||
[^3]: Graham Exhibit 1 (memorandum from B. F. Studley to Lt. Col. Oliver North, October 30, 1985, with an attached report of Studley's agent), in the Graham deposition, Appendix B, vol. 12 (Internet Archive item micro_IA41152840_0234).
|
||||
[^4]: Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair, ch. 2, pp. 50-51 (HathiTrust full view, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=txu.059173017837367&seq=74).
|
||||
[^5]: Benjamin Weiser, "Singlaub Suggested an Earlier Fund Diversion," Washington Post, March 20, 1987 (date as printed on the clipping); CIA CREST CIA-RDP90-00965R000707040014-2, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp90-00965r000707040014-2
|
||||
[^6]: Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters, vol. I, Part I, "The Underlying Facts" (Ron Martin passage). https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/part_i.htm
|
||||
[^7]: Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair, ch. 15, "The Diversion," p. 269 and note (HathiTrust full view, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=txu.059173017837367&seq=293).
|
||||
[^8]: Graham Exhibit 2 (cover memorandum from Studley to North and a letter from John K. Singlaub to William Casey with enclosed list quoted July 28, 1986, bearing the GeoMiliTech letterhead, 1919 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 300), in the Graham deposition, Appendix B, vol. 12 (Internet Archive item micro_IA41152840_0234; the scan is partly illegible).
|
||||
[^9]: Deposition of Charles E. Allen, Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair, Appendix B, vol. 1 (Internet Archive item micro_IA41152840_0228), examination on Robert L. Schweitzer and "Geomilitech Consultants Corporation."
|
||||
[^10]: Graham Exhibit 3 (Studley papers on the Pia Vesta, with notes of conversations with [[Dan Cummings]] and [[David Duncan]]), in the Graham deposition, Appendix B, vol. 12 (Internet Archive item micro_IA41152840_0234).
|
||||
[^11]: Letter from the firm of Finley, Kumble, Wagner, Heine, Underberg, Manley, Myerson & Casey, Washington, to Kenneth Ballen, Assistant Counsel, House Select Committee, April 28, 1987, "Re: Barbara F. Studley/GMT," in the Graham deposition exhibits, Appendix B, vol. 12 (Internet Archive item micro_IA41152840_0234).
|
||||
[^12]: Ari Ben-Menashe, Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network (Sheridan Square, 1992). Sole source for the itemization; the figures are as reported on the Ora Group page of this vault.
|
||||
[^3]: State of Delaware, Division of Corporations, Entity Details, GeoMiliTech Consultants Corp., File Number 2015058, formation date 8/15/1983, registered agent Corporation Guarantee and Trust Company, Rodney Square, 1000 North King Street, Wilmington. https://icis.corp.delaware.gov/Ecorp/EntitySearch/NameSearch.aspx
|
||||
[^4]: Christopher Byron, "Did Convict Arif Durrani Help Set the Stage for Iran/Contra?," *New York*, December 16, 1991, pp. 42, 44. https://books.google.com/books?id=6ugCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA42 Sole source for the unnamed former official's statement and the Carbaugh memorandum.
|
||||
[^5]: Mark Phythian, ed., *Under the Counter and Over the Border* (Springer, 2013), p. 65.
|
||||
[^6]: "Former Miami Banker Gets Prison Term for Diverting Funds to Contras," *American Banker*, March 31, 1995. https://www.americanbanker.com/news/former-miami-banker-gets-prison-term-for-diverting-funds-to-contras
|
||||
[^7]: *Secret Military Assistance to Iran and the Contras* (National Security Archive, 1987), p. 444.
|
||||
[^8]: Graham Exhibit 1 (memorandum from B. F. Studley to Lt. Col. Oliver North, October 30, 1985, with an attached report of Studley's agent), in the Graham deposition, Appendix B, vol. 12 (Internet Archive item micro_IA41152840_0234).
|
||||
[^9]: Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair, ch. 2, pp. 50-51 (HathiTrust full view, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=txu.059173017837367&seq=74).
|
||||
[^10]: Benjamin Weiser, "Singlaub Suggested an Earlier Fund Diversion," Washington Post, March 20, 1987 (date as printed on the clipping); CIA CREST CIA-RDP90-00965R000707040014-2, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp90-00965r000707040014-2
|
||||
[^11]: Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters, vol. I, Part I, "The Underlying Facts" (Ron Martin passage). https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/part_i.htm
|
||||
[^12]: Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair, ch. 15, "The Diversion," p. 269 and note (HathiTrust full view, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=txu.059173017837367&seq=293).
|
||||
[^13]: Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair, ch. 3, p. 64. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/ssd?id=txu.059173017837367;seq=88
|
||||
[^14]: Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair, minority views, p. 550. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/ssd?id=txu.059173017837367;seq=574
|
||||
[^15]: Benjamin Weiser, "Singlaub Suggested an Earlier Fund Diversion," *Washington Post*, March 20, 1987 (date as printed on the clipping). CIA CREST CIA-RDP90-00965R000707040014-2. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp90-00965r000707040014-2
|
||||
[^16]: Graham Exhibit 2 (cover memorandum from Studley to North and a letter from John K. Singlaub to William Casey with enclosed list quoted July 28, 1986, bearing the GeoMiliTech letterhead, 1919 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 300), in the Graham deposition, Appendix B, vol. 12 (Internet Archive item micro_IA41152840_0234; the scan is partly illegible).
|
||||
[^17]: Deposition of Charles E. Allen, Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair, Appendix B, vol. 1 (Internet Archive item micro_IA41152840_0228), examination on Robert L. Schweitzer and "Geomilitech Consultants Corporation."
|
||||
[^18]: Graham Exhibit 3 (Studley papers on the Pia Vesta, with notes of conversations with [[Dan Cummings]] and [[David Duncan]]), in the Graham deposition, Appendix B, vol. 12 (Internet Archive item micro_IA41152840_0234).
|
||||
[^19]: Letter from the firm of Finley, Kumble, Wagner, Heine, Underberg, Manley, Myerson & Casey, Washington, to Kenneth Ballen, Assistant Counsel, House Select Committee, April 28, 1987, "Re: Barbara F. Studley/GMT," in the Graham deposition exhibits, Appendix B, vol. 12 (Internet Archive item micro_IA41152840_0234).
|
||||
[^20]: Letter of April 28, 1987 on the Finley Kumble letterhead; signature block as indexed in the 1988 published volume of the report, p. 1040.
|
||||
[^21]: "Newspaper says banker involved in loans for Contra arms," United Press International, June 10, 1987, reporting the Miami Herald. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1987/06/10/Newspaper-says-banker-involved-in-loans-for-Contra-arms/9700550296000/
|
||||
[^22]: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, news release PR-139-87, August 7, 1987. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/press-releases-federal-deposit-insurance-corporation-7031/fdic-transfers-insured-deposits-bayshore-bank-florida-miami-florida-641646
|
||||
[^23]: Frank Bovenkerk and Michael Levi, eds., *The Organized Crime Community* (Springer, 2007), p. 22.
|
||||
[^24]: Government's Objection to Arif Durrani's Second Request for Production of Documents, *United States v. Durrani*, D. Conn., September 9, 1991, p. 7. CIA CREST 0001474388. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/0001474388
|
||||
[^25]: Ari Ben-Menashe, Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network (Sheridan Square, 1992). Sole source for the itemization; the figures are as reported on the Ora Group page of this vault.
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -34,13 +34,13 @@ relations:
|
|||
- type: owned
|
||||
with: "[[Swissco Management Group]]"
|
||||
role: "described by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence as a subsidiary of Cardoen Industries"
|
||||
fn: 7
|
||||
fn: 11
|
||||
- type: contractor_to
|
||||
with: "[[Iraq]]"
|
||||
start: 1984
|
||||
end: 1988
|
||||
role: "cluster bombs sold to Iraq, as found by the Eleventh Circuit"
|
||||
fn: 10
|
||||
fn: 15
|
||||
---
|
||||
[[Industrias Cardoen]] is a Chilean manufacturer of munitions, mines, and armored vehicles owned by [[Carlos Cardoen]]. Its sales sheet dates its military manufacture to 1978, and the company was named in a twenty-one count indictment returned in [[Miami]] on May 26, 1993, over zirconium and fuze components exported to [[Chile]] for cluster bombs sold to [[Iraq]].[^1][^2]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -52,71 +52,79 @@ The product list includes demolition charges, Bangalore torpedo charges, hand gr
|
|||
|
||||
### Miami arrest, 1983
|
||||
|
||||
[[Kenneth R. Timmerman]] wrote that on August 2, 1983, [[U.S. Customs]] officers arrested Cardoen in Miami over night-vision goggles bound for Chile, and that the case ended in a plea bargain with a fine of 100,000 dollars on his company. In the same account, [[James Guerin]] of [[International Signals Corporation]] and Cardoen reached an agreement "to split the world cluster bomb market in two."[^3] A sworn declaration by [[Howard Teicher]], a former [[National Security Council]] staff member, dates the arrest to 1983 in Miami in a sting operation concerning the smuggling of night-vision goggles to Cuba and Libya, and states that the highest levels of the U.S. government, including the NSC staff and the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]], were well aware of it.[^4]
|
||||
[[Kenneth R. Timmerman]] wrote that on August 2, 1983, [[U.S. Customs]] officers arrested Cardoen in Miami over night-vision goggles bound for Chile, and that the case ended in a plea bargain with a fine of 100,000 dollars on his company.[^3] Timmerman quoted Thomas L. Flannery, who investigated [[James Guerin]] for the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal, as saying that by the time fuzes for cluster bombs made by [[International Signal and Control]] were shipped to Iraq in 1984, Guerin and Cardoen were old friends who had made a sweeping agreement "to split the world cluster bomb market in two," with Cardoen taking Latin America and "special" countries such as Iraq and Guerin the rest of the Gulf, Pakistan and South Africa.[^4] A sworn declaration by [[Howard Teicher]], a former [[National Security Council]] staff member, dates the arrest to 1983 in Miami in a sting operation concerning the smuggling of night-vision goggles to Cuba and Libya, and states that the highest levels of the U.S. government, including the NSC staff and the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]], were well aware of it.[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
### Iraqi sales and the Israeli approach
|
||||
|
||||
According to [[Ari Ben-Menashe]], whose book is the sole source for the passages so cited, Cardoen obtained a brokering license from [[ARMSCOR]], the South African state arms maker, after an application to [[SIBAT]], the [[Israel|Israeli]] foreign defense sales office, was refused in 1979. By 1985 Cardoen was selling arms to Iraq with the help of Armscor and of individuals connected to the CIA, among them [[Alan Sanders]] of [[ITICO]], who supplied cluster-bomb blueprints.[^5]
|
||||
According to [[Ari Ben-Menashe]], whose book is the sole source for the passages so cited, Cardoen obtained a brokering license from [[ARMSCOR]], the South African state arms maker, after an application to [[SIBAT]], the [[Israel|Israeli]] foreign defense sales office, was refused in 1979. By 1985 Cardoen was selling arms to Iraq with the help of Armscor and of individuals connected to the CIA, among them [[Alan Sanders]] of [[ITICO]], who supplied cluster-bomb blueprints.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
Ben-Menashe also wrote that in 1985 he approached Sanders to buy cluster bombs for Israel and was told that Cardoen would sell to anyone who paid. He wrote that in September 1988 he was sent to Chile to offer Cardoen a license to produce [[Uzi]]s and [[Galil assault rifles]] in exchange for ending the Iraq trade, and that Cardoen introduced him to [[Mark Thatcher]] during the visit.[^5]
|
||||
Ben-Menashe also wrote that in 1985 he approached Sanders to buy cluster bombs for Israel and was told that Cardoen would sell to anyone who paid. He wrote that in September 1988 he was sent to Chile to offer Cardoen a license to produce [[Uzi]]s and [[Galil assault rifles]] in exchange for ending the Iraq trade, and that Cardoen introduced him to [[Mark Thatcher]] during the visit.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Alan Friedman]] described the same network in *Spider's Web*. In Friedman's account, Cardoen's [[Iquique]] plant turned out about a thousand cluster bombs a month, the first Iraq shipment worth 21 million dollars reached Iraq early in 1984, and Iraq took about three quarters of the company's arms exports of 100 million dollars a year. A former Cardoen agent for Iraq, [[Nasser Beydoun]], later sued for 30 million dollars in commissions. Friedman quotes a Cardoen statement: "I'll have to build [[Jimmy Carter]] a statue," and a Cardoen associate, Robert Johnson, who said that he saw [[Robert Gates]] arrive at Cardoen's house near Miami in the summer of 1986. The White House said in July 1991: "The whole story is unfounded. There never were any sales, overt or covert, to Iraq or Iran through a third country. Mr. Gates never met with Carlos Cardoen."[^6]
|
||||
[[Alan Friedman]] described the same network in *Spider's Web*. In Friedman's account, Cardoen's [[Iquique]] plant turned out about a thousand cluster bombs a month, the first Iraq shipment worth 21 million dollars reached Iraq early in 1984, and Iraq took about three quarters of the company's arms exports of 100 million dollars a year. A former Cardoen agent for Iraq, [[Nasser Beydoun]], later sued for 30 million dollars in commissions. Friedman quotes a Cardoen statement: "I'll have to build [[Jimmy Carter]] a statue," and a Cardoen associate, Robert Johnson, who said that he saw [[Robert Gates]] arrive at Cardoen's house near Miami in the summer of 1986. The White House said in July 1991: "The whole story is unfounded. There never were any sales, overt or covert, to Iraq or Iran through a third country. Mr. Gates never met with Carlos Cardoen."[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
Timmerman wrote that Beydoun offered [[Saddam Hussein]] the Chilean cluster bomb in March 1984 at about 7,100 dollars apiece, that Cardoen made eighteen deliveries to Iraq during the summer of 1984, and that the cluster bomb sales earned Cardoen a total of 467 million dollars.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Matrix Churchill and the Congressional record, 1993
|
||||
|
||||
In January 1993 Representative [[Henry B. Gonzalez]] had reprinted in the Congressional Record a press report on the British trial of three [[Matrix Churchill]] executives, which says the jury had heard testimony about a 1988 Matrix Churchill sale to Industries Cardoen, "a Chilean arms manufacturer believed to have acted as a conduit for Iraq's military buildup," and that an official in the department that issued export credit guarantees said the agency agreed to assist the Cardoen deal despite suspicions that the equipment might eventually be put to military use.[^8] In an earlier reprinted report, David Byars, a senior principal with the Export Credits Guarantee Department, agreed that the department had known that Industries Cardoen, "the Chilean intermediary in an earlier transaction, was an arms manufacturer."[^9]
|
||||
|
||||
In the same statement Gonzalez said that Rexon Corp., a New Jersey firm, was under criminal investigation for shipments of artillery fuse parts to Iraq, that the investigation involved Cardoen's activities in Iraq, and that Rexon refused to talk to the committee.[^10]
|
||||
|
||||
### Swissco Management Group and James D. Theberge
|
||||
|
||||
The [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]], in its October 24, 1991 report on the nomination of Robert Gates as director of central intelligence, recorded that during its inquiry into alleged relationships between the nominee and Cardoen it received information about a relationship between Cardoen Industries and a former part-time senior CIA employee, which "may have constituted a conflict of interest and security concerns at worst, or an awkward appearance at best." The report states that the CIA employed [[James D. Theberge]] as a member of its Senior Review Panel from January 1986 to January 1988, that during much of that period he was a consultant to [[Swissco Management Group]], "a subsidiary of Cardoen Industries of Chile," and that he had been U.S. ambassador to [[Nicaragua]] in the 1970s and ambassador to Chile from 1982 to 1985.[^7]
|
||||
The [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]], in its October 24, 1991 report on the nomination of Robert Gates as director of central intelligence, recorded that during its inquiry into alleged relationships between the nominee and Cardoen it received information about a relationship between Cardoen Industries and a former part-time senior CIA employee, which "may have constituted a conflict of interest and security concerns at worst, or an awkward appearance at best." The report states that the CIA employed [[James D. Theberge]] as a member of its Senior Review Panel from January 1986 to January 1988, that during much of that period he was a consultant to [[Swissco Management Group]], "a subsidiary of Cardoen Industries of Chile," and that he had been U.S. ambassador to [[Nicaragua]] in the 1970s and ambassador to Chile from 1982 to 1985.[^11]
|
||||
|
||||
The report continues: "Between 1984 and 1988, Cardoen Industries was of significant intelligence interest to CIA, which believed Cardoen was the primary supplier of cluster bombs to the Iraqi government, and an important supplier of other categories of ordnance to Iraq and other Middle Eastern states." It names [[William J. Casey]], Deputy Director [[John McMahon]] and Executive Director [[James Taylor]] as the officials involved in Theberge's recruitment, states that there was no evidence that Gates took part in it, and records that Theberge disclosed the Swissco consulting and its Cardoen parentage in the personal history statement he submitted to the CIA in December 1985. It also states that Theberge served until his death in January 1988 and that the committee found no evidence the CIA identified or acted upon the potential conflict.[^7]
|
||||
The report continues: "Between 1984 and 1988, Cardoen Industries was of significant intelligence interest to CIA, which believed Cardoen was the primary supplier of cluster bombs to the Iraqi government, and an important supplier of other categories of ordnance to Iraq and other Middle Eastern states." It names [[William J. Casey]], Deputy Director [[John McMahon]] and Executive Director [[James Taylor]] as the officials involved in Theberge's recruitment, states that there was no evidence that Gates took part in it, and records that Theberge disclosed the Swissco consulting and its Cardoen parentage in the personal history statement he submitted to the CIA in December 1985. It also states that Theberge served until his death in January 1988 and that the committee found no evidence the CIA identified or acted upon the potential conflict.[^11]
|
||||
|
||||
In the same section the report records that [[Richard Babayan|Richard H. Babayan]] had alleged that Gates sought to transfer cluster bomb technology to Cardoen, that Cardoen denied meeting the nominee in a letter of July 16, 1991 to the U.S. ambassador in Chile, and that the committee had been presented with no credible evidence to support the allegations after the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] and the CIA inspector general reviewed them. Swissco Management Group, Inc. was one of the eight defendants named in the 1993 indictment.[^7][^2]
|
||||
The report also states that "The Committee found no evidence that Mr. Theberge wittingly or unwittingly provided intelligence information to Carlos Cardoen or any other unauthorized person," and that the committee was "continuing to develop information about this matter."[^11] A Florida Division of Corporations record for document number H19133 shows a corporation filed August 31, 1984 as Swissco Investing, Inc., renamed Swissco Management Group, Inc. by amendment of October 3, 1984, and renamed Westfield Holdings, Inc. by amendment of October 5, 1990, administratively dissolved on October 11, 1991. Its Miami Lakes address dates from July 1, 1985, its officers are Augusto Giangrandi (president) and Jorge Ondarza (vice-secretary), and Giangrandi is also an officer, with Anthony Mijares Jr., of Swissco Leasing, Inc. and Swissco Yachting, Inc. at the same address. The registry records found do not name Cardoen, and do not establish whether this corporation is the Swissco of the Senate report and the indictment.[^12]
|
||||
|
||||
In the same section the report records that [[Richard Babayan|Richard H. Babayan]] had alleged that Gates sought to transfer cluster bomb technology to Cardoen, that Cardoen denied meeting the nominee in a letter of July 16, 1991 to the U.S. ambassador in Chile, and that the committee had been presented with no credible evidence to support the allegations after the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] and the CIA inspector general reviewed them. Swissco Management Group, Inc. was one of the eight defendants named in the 1993 indictment.[^2][^11]
|
||||
|
||||
Timmerman quotes a CIA statement of July 16, 1991 that "the CIA has never had a relationship of any type with Carlos Cardoen."[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Helicopter project and Moyle
|
||||
|
||||
Friedman also wrote that the British journalist [[Jonathan Moyle]], who was inquiring into Cardoen's helicopter project, was found dead in a Santiago hotel on March 31, 1990.[^6]
|
||||
Friedman also wrote that the British journalist [[Jonathan Moyle]], who was inquiring into Cardoen's helicopter project, was found dead in a Santiago hotel on March 31, 1990.[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
### PROMIS software and the Ben-Menashe affidavit
|
||||
|
||||
The report of Special Counsel [[Nicholas J. Bua]] to the Attorney General (March 1993) records that [[INSLAW]] submitted two affidavits by Ben-Menashe to the bankruptcy court, the first dated February 17, 1991, and that in the first Ben-Menashe claimed that in 1989, in Chile, he was told by Carlos Cardoen that Cardoen had brokered a sale of [[PROMIS]] by [[Earl Brian]] to a representative of Iraqi military intelligence. The report spells the name "Carduen" and states that Ben-Menashe made "a number of extraordinary claims, most of which are not subject to corroboration."[^8]
|
||||
The report of Special Counsel [[Nicholas J. Bua]] to the Attorney General (March 1993) records that [[INSLAW]] submitted two affidavits by Ben-Menashe to the bankruptcy court, the first dated February 17, 1991, and that in the first Ben-Menashe claimed that in 1989, in Chile, he was told by Carlos Cardoen that Cardoen had brokered a sale of [[PROMIS]] by [[Earl Brian]] to a representative of Iraqi military intelligence. The report spells the name "Carduen" and states that Ben-Menashe made "a number of extraordinary claims, most of which are not subject to corroboration."[^13]
|
||||
|
||||
Among the newspaper clippings in the INSLAW folder of the Casolaro papers is a *St. Louis Post-Dispatch* report of February 19, 1991 on documents filed the day before in the bankruptcy litigation. It states that Ben-Menashe's affidavit said that in January 1989, while serving as a special consultant for intelligence affairs in the Israeli prime minister's office, he was told by Cardoen that Cardoen had brokered a deal between Brian and an Iraqi military intelligence representative for the use of PROMIS. The article reports that the sale was consummated in [[Santiago]], where Industrias Cardoen S.A. had its headquarters, and that "Until recently, Iraq was that company's biggest customer." In a separate item of the same report, Ben-Menashe is described as saying that one of his last assignments in 1989 was to try to stop Cardoen's company from selling chemical arms to Iraq, and that he failed.[^9]
|
||||
Among the newspaper clippings in the INSLAW folder of the Casolaro papers is a *St. Louis Post-Dispatch* report of February 19, 1991 on documents filed the day before in the bankruptcy litigation. It states that Ben-Menashe's affidavit said that in January 1989, while serving as a special consultant for intelligence affairs in the Israeli prime minister's office, he was told by Cardoen that Cardoen had brokered a deal between Brian and an Iraqi military intelligence representative for the use of PROMIS. The article reports that the sale was consummated in [[Santiago]], where Industrias Cardoen S.A. had its headquarters, and that "Until recently, Iraq was that company's biggest customer." In a separate item of the same report, Ben-Menashe is described as saying that one of his last assignments in 1989 was to try to stop Cardoen's company from selling chemical arms to Iraq, and that he failed.[^14]
|
||||
|
||||
The article reports Brian's answer. Brian called the allegations "nonsense," said he had never been to Santiago or [[Tel Aviv]], did not know of Cardoen or Ben-Menashe, and had never heard of INSLAW or PROMIS before press accounts. The same article describes Brian's position that he had acquired the property rights to the software and sold it to Israel in 1987.[^9]
|
||||
The article reports Brian's answer. Brian called the allegations "nonsense," said he had never been to Santiago or [[Tel Aviv]], did not know of Cardoen or Ben-Menashe, and had never heard of INSLAW or PROMIS before press accounts. The same article describes Brian's position that he had acquired the property rights to the software and sold it to Israel in 1987.[^14]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Miami indictment
|
||||
|
||||
On May 26, 1993, a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida returned a twenty-one count indictment. The court's order describes the charges as arising "from the exportation of zirconium and fuze components to Chile, which were allegedly destined for the manufacture of cluster bombs later sold to Iraq." The eight defendants were Carlos Cardoen, [[Franco Saffa]], [[Jorge Burr]], Industrias Cardoen Limitada (also called INCAR), Swissco Management Group, [[Edward A. Johnson]], [[Ronald W. Griffin]], and [[Teledyne Wah Chang Albany]] (Teledyne Industries, Inc.).[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
The court record places the indictment on May 26, 1993. A Ben-Menashe account places the charges in April 1992, filed by the United States Customs Service.[^5][^2] The court's order also records that the five defendants who had not appeared (Cardoen, Saffa, Burr, INCAR and Swissco) were not before the court, and that the court noted Cardoen's "present fugitive status."[^2]
|
||||
The court record places the indictment on May 26, 1993. A Ben-Menashe account places the charges in April 1992, filed by the United States Customs Service.[^2][^6] The court's order also records that the five defendants who had not appeared (Cardoen, Saffa, Burr, INCAR and Swissco) were not before the court, and that the court noted Cardoen's "present fugitive status."[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
On March 22, 1994, the court dismissed Counts II through VI against Teledyne on statute-of-limitations grounds. On April 25, 1994, it severed the ten zirconium counts from the eleven fuze-component counts. The zirconium counts were set for trial in February 1995, with Count I charging conspiracy under 18 U.S.C. section 371 against Cardoen, INCAR, Swissco, Johnson and Teledyne.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Zirconium and Teledyne Wah Chang Albany
|
||||
|
||||
The [[United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit]] described the export chain in its 1998 opinion in the case of Edward A. Johnson. Between 1983 and 1988 the Albany unit of Teledyne Wah Chang exported over 3.5 million dollars worth of zirconium to Chile. The court wrote: "The zirconium was sold to Carlos Cardoen, an international arms merchant based in that country. The zirconium was used as an incendiary agent in cluster bombs that Cardoen was selling to Iraq for use in the [[Iran-Iraq War|Iran-Iraq war]]." The opinion adds that Cardoen supplied the exporter with false end-use statements describing the zirconium as a booster material in industrial explosives for the mining industry.[^10]
|
||||
The [[United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit]] described the export chain in its 1998 opinion in the case of Edward A. Johnson. Between 1983 and 1988 the Albany unit of Teledyne Wah Chang exported over 3.5 million dollars worth of zirconium to Chile. The court wrote: "The zirconium was sold to Carlos Cardoen, an international arms merchant based in that country. The zirconium was used as an incendiary agent in cluster bombs that Cardoen was selling to Iraq for use in the [[Iran-Iraq War|Iran-Iraq war]]." The opinion adds that Cardoen supplied the exporter with false end-use statements describing the zirconium as a booster material in industrial explosives for the mining industry.[^15]
|
||||
|
||||
Johnson, a Teledyne sales manager, was convicted by a jury on four counts: criminal conspiracy, false statements, and two counts of exporting zirconium compacts under the Arms Export Control Act. The appeals court wrote that Johnson had visited Cardoen's cluster-bomb factory in Chile in 1987 and witnessed burn testing of zirconium compacts supplied for the MK 83 and MK 84 bombs. The court affirmed the verdict.[^10]
|
||||
Johnson, a Teledyne sales manager, was convicted by a jury on four counts: criminal conspiracy, false statements, and two counts of exporting zirconium compacts under the Arms Export Control Act. The appeals court wrote that Johnson had visited Cardoen's cluster-bomb factory in Chile in 1987 and witnessed burn testing of zirconium compacts supplied for the MK 83 and MK 84 bombs. The court affirmed the verdict.[^15]
|
||||
|
||||
On January 26, 1995, according to a [[State Department]] notice published in the Federal Register, Teledyne Industries "entered a guilty plea to conspiring to violate and violating the AECA" in the Southern District of Florida, and on January 27, 1995 it entered a second guilty plea in the District of Columbia on a separate indictment concerning zirconium compacts exported to [[Greece]] for reexport to [[Jordan]]. The notice describes the Florida indictment as charging an illegal export of "United States origin ordnance-grade zirconium to Chile, for use in cluster bombs and other munitions for Iraq."[^11]
|
||||
On January 26, 1995, according to a [[State Department]] notice published in the Federal Register, Teledyne Industries "entered a guilty plea to conspiring to violate and violating the AECA" in the Southern District of Florida, and on January 27, 1995 it entered a second guilty plea in the District of Columbia on a separate indictment concerning zirconium compacts exported to [[Greece]] for reexport to [[Jordan]]. The notice describes the Florida indictment as charging an illegal export of "United States origin ordnance-grade zirconium to Chile, for use in cluster bombs and other munitions for Iraq."[^16]
|
||||
|
||||
### The CIA question in the trial record
|
||||
|
||||
Defendants Johnson and Griffin asserted four defenses before trial, among them CIA actual authority and the claim that Cardoen was an alleged agent of the United States government. The court held a hearing under the Classified Information Procedures Act in November 1994 (an order issued December 28, 1994 and reissued in unclassified form in 1995). Its order records that a witness identified as "Linda C." of the CIA Directorate of Operations, who had reviewed the agency file on Cardoen covering 1984 to 1993, testified that Cardoen "was not an agent or source of intelligence for the United States government; on the contrary, Cardoen was a target; that is, an individual of intelligence interest to the government."[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
The court also admitted into evidence the defendants' proffer of a portion of the Senate Executive Report on the Gates nomination, which the court quotes. The court wrote that the report "corroborates Witness Linda C.'s assessment" that Cardoen was a target of intelligence interest, and adopted her conclusion for purposes of the hearing, limited to whether the defendants had met their burden of showing the agent theory as a predicate for introducing classified information.[^2][^7]
|
||||
The court also admitted into evidence the defendants' proffer of a portion of the Senate Executive Report on the Gates nomination, which the court quotes. The court wrote that the report "corroborates Witness Linda C.'s assessment" that Cardoen was a target of intelligence interest, and adopted her conclusion for purposes of the hearing, limited to whether the defendants had met their burden of showing the agent theory as a predicate for introducing classified information.[^2][^11]
|
||||
|
||||
The district court found no evidence supporting the theory that the CIA had secretly arranged to supply Cardoen with zirconium. The appeals court, after its own review of the classified materials, agreed that the government had not withheld evidence supporting that theory.[^10]
|
||||
The district court found no evidence supporting the theory that the CIA had secretly arranged to supply Cardoen with zirconium. The appeals court, after its own review of the classified materials, agreed that the government had not withheld evidence supporting that theory.[^15]
|
||||
|
||||
On January 31, 1995, Howard Teicher signed a declaration under penalty of perjury in case No. 93-241-CR, captioned for Judge Highsmith. It states that he was on the NSC staff from 1982 to 1987, that "the CIA authorized, approved and assisted Cardoen in the manufacture and sale of cluster bombs," and that CIA Director Casey directed the secretaries of State and Commerce on the necessary licenses. The declaration opens by stating that nothing in it is classified. [[Robert Parry]] reported that Teicher named Casey and his deputy Gates as having "authorized, approved and assisted" the delivery of cluster bombs to Iraq, that the defense attorney [[Gerald Houlihan]] angered prosecutors by publicly filing it, that the government sealed it as a state secret while attacking Teicher's credibility, and that Teicher was blocked from testifying and his statements kept from the jury on grounds of relevance. [[Consortium News]] added that a federal grand jury had begun hearing testimony on a related complaint over the submission of a defense affidavit.[^4][^12][^13]
|
||||
On January 31, 1995, Howard Teicher signed a declaration under penalty of perjury in case No. 93-241-CR, captioned for Judge Highsmith. It states that he was on the NSC staff from 1982 to 1987, that "the CIA authorized, approved and assisted Cardoen in the manufacture and sale of cluster bombs," and that CIA Director Casey directed the secretaries of State and Commerce on the necessary licenses. The declaration opens by stating that nothing in it is classified. [[Robert Parry]] reported that Teicher named Casey and his deputy Gates as having "authorized, approved and assisted" the delivery of cluster bombs to Iraq, that the defense attorney [[Gerald Houlihan]] angered prosecutors by publicly filing it, that the government sealed it as a state secret while attacking Teicher's credibility, and that Teicher was blocked from testifying and his statements kept from the jury on grounds of relevance. [[Consortium News]] added that a federal grand jury had begun hearing testimony on a related complaint over the submission of a defense affidavit.[^5][^17][^18]
|
||||
|
||||
### Extradition, 2019 and 2020
|
||||
|
||||
The [[International Consortium of Investigative Journalists]] reports that the United States did not formally request extradition until March 2019, 26 years after the indictment, and that the [[Chilean Supreme Court]] rejected the request in March 2020 on the grounds that too many years had passed since the charges and that the alleged conduct had no equivalent offense under Chilean law. The same report quotes Cardoen as saying that he was made a scapegoat after Iraq invaded neighboring [[Kuwait]].[^14]
|
||||
The [[International Consortium of Investigative Journalists]] reports that the United States did not formally request extradition until March 2019, 26 years after the indictment, and that the [[Chilean Supreme Court]] rejected the request in March 2020 on the grounds that too many years had passed since the charges and that the alleged conduct had no equivalent offense under Chilean law. The same report quotes Cardoen as saying that he was made a scapegoat after Iraq invaded neighboring [[Kuwait]].[^19]
|
||||
|
||||
A Chilean press report of August 24, 2020 gives a different account of the court action: the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court unanimously rejected the extradition on August 24, 2020, confirming a first rejection in March 2020 by the instructing minister Carlos Aranguiz, on the grounds of dual criminality and prescription. It reports that Cardoen's lawyers argued the company's activities were known and supported by the United States and that the United States had repeatedly said it would not pursue the case (translated from the Spanish).[^15]
|
||||
A Chilean press report of August 24, 2020 gives a different account of the court action: the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court unanimously rejected the extradition on August 24, 2020, confirming a first rejection in March 2020 by the instructing minister Carlos Aranguiz, on the grounds of dual criminality and prescription. It reports that Cardoen's lawyers argued the company's activities were known and supported by the United States and that the United States had repeatedly said it would not pursue the case (translated from the Spanish).[^20]
|
||||
|
||||
### Casolaro papers
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -126,16 +134,21 @@ The sales sheet is one of five items in the "Promotional Material" folder, a sin
|
|||
|
||||
[^1]: Industrias CARDOEN, "Division Defensa," bilingual sales sheet, undated, hand-marked "BD|AI|PM-04," in "Promotional Material," Danny Casolaro papers, photographs published as casolaro-notebooks, Internet Archive, https://archive.org/download/casolaro-notebooks/PromotionalMaterial.pdf (PDF pages 1 and 2 of 21; the order of items checked against all 21 pages).
|
||||
[^2]: *United States v. Cardoen*, 898 F. Supp. 1563 (S.D. Fla. 1995) (Highsmith, J.), reissued order on hearing under section 6 of the Classified Information Procedures Act, No. 93-241-CR, decided August 29, 1995 (original order December 28, 1994; hearing November 18 and 23, 1994), https://static.case.law/f-supp/898/cases/1563-01.json.
|
||||
[^3]: Kenneth R. Timmerman, *The Death Lobby: How the West Armed Iraq* (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991), pp. 166-170. Sole source for the passages so cited (1983 arrest and plea, Guerin agreement, Beydoun's 1984 offer, 1984 deliveries and earnings, the CIA statement of July 16, 1991).
|
||||
[^4]: Declaration of Howard Teicher, executed January 31, 1995, *United States v. Cardoen*, No. 93-241-CR-HIGHSMITH (S.D. Fla.), paragraphs 14 to 18, as transcribed at http://spikethenews.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-teicher-affidavit.html (January 2016). Sole source for the wording; the transcription has not been checked against the court file, where the declaration was reported sealed.
|
||||
[^5]: Ari Ben-Menashe, *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network* (New York: TrineDay, 1992). Sole source for the passages so cited, including the 1979 SIBAT refusal, the 1985 Sanders contacts, the 1988 Chile visit and the April 1992 charge date.
|
||||
[^6]: Alan Friedman, *Spider's Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq* (New York: Bantam, 1993), pp. 46-54, 64. Sole source for the Beydoun, Johnson and Moyle passages and the quoted White House statement.
|
||||
[^7]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee on Intelligence, *Nomination of Robert M. Gates to be Director of Central Intelligence*, S. Exec. Rept. 102-19, 102d Cong., 1st sess., October 24, 1991, section 5, "Allegations Relating to CIA's Relationship with Carlos Cardoen," https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/sites-default-filesations-10219.pdf (PDF pages 186 to 188).
|
||||
[^8]: Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States regarding the allegations of INSLAW, Inc. (March 1993), pp. 73-74 (the affidavit of February 17, 1991).
|
||||
[^9]: *St. Louis Post-Dispatch*, February 19, 1991, "Stolen Software Scattered: Affidavits Allege Sales To Iraqis And Israelis" and the sidebar "Colorful Characters, Prized Product Lend Spice To Case," clipping in the INSLAW folder of the Casolaro papers, https://archive.org/download/casolaro-notebooks/InslawIi_djvu.txt. Sole source for the affidavit's contents as reported there.
|
||||
[^10]: *United States v. Edward A. Johnson*, No. 95-5021 (11th Cir. Apr. 28, 1998) (published opinion, Tjoflat, Birch and Roney, JJ.), on appeal from No. 93-241-CR (S.D. Fla.), https://media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/files/19955021.OPN.pdf.
|
||||
[^11]: Department of State, Office of Defense Trade Controls, Public Notice 2206, "Rescission of Suspended Exports Regarding Teledyne Wah Chang Albany," 60 Fed. Reg. 30151 (June 7, 1995), https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-1995-06-07/pdf/95-13834.pdf; Public Notice 2207, 60 Fed. Reg. 30150, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-1995-06-07/pdf/95-13835.pdf.
|
||||
[^12]: Robert Parry, "Iraqgate: Confession and Cover-up," *Extra!* (FAIR), 1995, as reposted at https://scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0212/S00074.htm.
|
||||
[^13]: Consortium News, "Iraqgate Cover-Up Goes After Defense Lawyers," undated, https://consortiumnews.com/archive/story1.html. Sole source for the grand jury passage and for Houlihan's filing as reported.
|
||||
[^14]: International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, "Most wanted Chilean arms dealer concealed ties to companies with help from Panama's offshore industry," September 2022, https://www.icij.org/inside-icij/2022/09/most-wanted-chilean-arms-dealer-concealed-ties-to-companies-with-help-from-panamas-offshore-industry/.
|
||||
[^15]: "Suprema rechaza extradición Cardoen," Emol, August 24, 2020, https://www.emol.com/noticias/Nacional/2020/08/24/995884/Suprema-rechaza-extradicion-Cardoen.html.
|
||||
[^3]: Kenneth R. Timmerman, *The Death Lobby: How the West Armed Iraq* (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991), pp. 166-170. Sole source for the passages so cited (1983 arrest and plea, Beydoun's 1984 offer, 1984 deliveries and earnings, the CIA statement of July 16, 1991).
|
||||
[^4]: Kenneth R. Timmerman, *The Death Lobby: How the West Armed Iraq* (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991), pp. 168-169. Sole source for the agreement; the quotation is Timmerman's quotation of Thomas L. Flannery.
|
||||
[^5]: Declaration of Howard Teicher, executed January 31, 1995, *United States v. Cardoen*, No. 93-241-CR-HIGHSMITH (S.D. Fla.), paragraphs 14 to 18, as transcribed at http://spikethenews.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-teicher-affidavit.html (January 2016). The declaration was reported sealed in the court file.
|
||||
[^6]: Ari Ben-Menashe, *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network* (New York: TrineDay, 1992). Sole source for the passages so cited, including the 1979 SIBAT refusal, the 1985 Sanders contacts, the 1988 Chile visit and the April 1992 charge date.
|
||||
[^7]: Alan Friedman, *Spider's Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq* (New York: Bantam, 1993), pp. 46-54, 64. Sole source for the Beydoun, Johnson and Moyle passages and the quoted White House statement.
|
||||
[^8]: Rep. Henry B. Gonzalez, "Update on BNL Investigation," *Congressional Record*, House of Representatives, January 21, 1993, p. H140 (reprinted article by William Tuohy and Douglas Frantz, "Three British Executives Cleared in Iraq Arms Sale Case"). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1993_cr/h930121-bnl.htm
|
||||
[^9]: Rep. Henry B. Gonzalez, "Update on BNL Investigation," *Congressional Record*, January 21, 1993, immediately preceding the page marker H140 (an unattributed reprinted report on testimony in the Matrix Churchill trial). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1993_cr/h930121-bnl.htm
|
||||
[^10]: Rep. Henry B. Gonzalez, "Update on BNL Investigation," *Congressional Record*, House of Representatives, January 21, 1993, p. H132. https://irp.fas.org/congress/1993_cr/h930121-bnl.htm
|
||||
[^11]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee on Intelligence, *Nomination of Robert M. Gates to be Director of Central Intelligence*, S. Exec. Rept. 102-19, 102d Cong., 1st sess., October 24, 1991, section 5, "Allegations Relating to CIA's Relationship with Carlos Cardoen," https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/sites-default-filesations-10219.pdf (PDF pages 186 to 188).
|
||||
[^12]: Florida Department of State, Division of Corporations, entity name search "Swissco Management Group," document H19133, detail record and name history, https://search.sunbiz.org/Inquiry/CorporationSearch/ByName; officer search "Giangrandi Augusto," https://search.sunbiz.org/Inquiry/CorporationSearch/ByOfficerOrRegisteredAgent.
|
||||
[^13]: Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States regarding the allegations of INSLAW, Inc. (March 1993), pp. 73-74 (the affidavit of February 17, 1991).
|
||||
[^14]: *St. Louis Post-Dispatch*, February 19, 1991, "Stolen Software Scattered: Affidavits Allege Sales To Iraqis And Israelis" and the sidebar "Colorful Characters, Prized Product Lend Spice To Case," clipping in the INSLAW folder of the Casolaro papers, https://archive.org/download/casolaro-notebooks/InslawIi_djvu.txt. Sole source for the affidavit's contents as reported there.
|
||||
[^15]: *United States v. Edward A. Johnson*, No. 95-5021 (11th Cir. Apr. 28, 1998) (published opinion, Tjoflat, Birch and Roney, JJ.), on appeal from No. 93-241-CR (S.D. Fla.), https://media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/files/19955021.OPN.pdf.
|
||||
[^16]: Department of State, Office of Defense Trade Controls, Public Notice 2206, "Rescission of Suspended Exports Regarding Teledyne Wah Chang Albany," 60 Fed. Reg. 30151 (June 7, 1995), https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-1995-06-07/pdf/95-13834.pdf; Public Notice 2207, 60 Fed. Reg. 30150, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-1995-06-07/pdf/95-13835.pdf.
|
||||
[^17]: Robert Parry, "Iraqgate: Confession and Cover-up," *Extra!* (FAIR), 1995, as reposted at https://scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0212/S00074.htm.
|
||||
[^18]: Consortium News, "Iraqgate Cover-Up Goes After Defense Lawyers," undated, https://consortiumnews.com/archive/story1.html. Sole source for the grand jury passage and for Houlihan's filing as reported.
|
||||
[^19]: International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, "Most wanted Chilean arms dealer concealed ties to companies with help from Panama's offshore industry," September 2022, https://www.icij.org/inside-icij/2022/09/most-wanted-chilean-arms-dealer-concealed-ties-to-companies-with-help-from-panamas-offshore-industry/.
|
||||
[^20]: "Suprema rechaza extradición Cardoen," Emol, August 24, 2020, https://www.emol.com/noticias/Nacional/2020/08/24/995884/Suprema-rechaza-extradicion-Cardoen.html.
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
164
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/International Signal and Control.md
Normal file
164
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/International Signal and Control.md
Normal file
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,164 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
title: International Signal and Control
|
||||
aliases:
|
||||
- International Signal and Control
|
||||
- International Signal & Control
|
||||
- International Signal and Control Group
|
||||
- International Signal & Control Group
|
||||
- International Signal and Control Group PLC
|
||||
- International Signal & Control Group PLC
|
||||
- International Signal & Control Inc.
|
||||
- International Signal and Control Corporation
|
||||
- International Signals Corporation
|
||||
- International Signal Control
|
||||
- ISC
|
||||
- ISC Technologies
|
||||
- ISC Technologies Ltd
|
||||
- ISC Technologies Limited
|
||||
- ISC Technology
|
||||
- Ferranti International Signal
|
||||
- Ferranti International Signal plc
|
||||
category: "Private Organization"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Organization
|
||||
- Private
|
||||
- DefenseContractor
|
||||
- Ferranti
|
||||
- ArmsDealers
|
||||
- SouthAfrica
|
||||
- Armscor
|
||||
- Iraq
|
||||
- Fraud
|
||||
- InmanProxyBoard
|
||||
summary: "Lancaster defense contractor merged into Ferranti in 1987, whose fictitious contracts cost Ferranti 215 million pounds and whose South African shipments led to the 1991 indictments and a 1997 Armscor plea."
|
||||
location: "Lancaster, Pennsylvania"
|
||||
created: 2026-10-08
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-08
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: owned
|
||||
with: "[[James Guerin]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 1971
|
||||
end: 1987
|
||||
role: "founder who held the company until the merger with Ferranti"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: owned
|
||||
with: "[[Ferranti]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 1987-11
|
||||
role: "acquired through the merger completed in November 1987"
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
- type: director_of
|
||||
with: "[[Bobby Ray Inman]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "member of the special proxy board set up so the company could handle classified defense work"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: director_of
|
||||
with: "[[John Guthrie]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "member of the special proxy board, identified as a retired Army general"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: director_of
|
||||
with: "[[Barry Shillito]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "member of the special proxy board, identified as a former assistant secretary of the Navy"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: contractor_to
|
||||
with: "[[ARMSCOR]]"
|
||||
role: "shipments to Armscor and Kentron routed through front companies, as acknowledged in the 1997 plea agreement"
|
||||
fn: 17
|
||||
- type: prosecuted
|
||||
with: "[[Department of Justice]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 1991-10
|
||||
role: "company named in the indictment of October 31, 1991, Crim. Nos. 91-601 and 91-602, Eastern District of Pennsylvania"
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
---
|
||||
[[International Signal and Control]] (ISC) was a defense contractor in [[Lancaster, Pennsylvania]] that its founder, [[James Guerin]], built into a company reporting about 600 million dollars in annual revenue. Its shares were listed in London, and in 1987 it was merged into the British defense firm [[Ferranti]]. Ferranti's restated accounts of 1989 charged 215 million pounds against the group for the carrying value of fraudulent contracts. The company appears in the primary records under several names, among them International Signal and Control Group PLC, International Signal & Control Inc., ISC Technologies Ltd and ISC Technology, and [[Kenneth R. Timmerman]] called it "International Signals Corporation."[^1][^2][^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Founding and products, 1971 to 1987
|
||||
|
||||
Guerin founded the company in 1971 in the basement of his home, and its first assembly line was in a converted chicken coop.[^1] Its products included space-vehicle rocket engines, electronic artillery fuzes, cluster bombs, electronic battlefield sensors and build-to-print circuit boards, and it also made bomb and missile fuels and managed defense projects for overseas clients.[^1][^4] By 1987 it reported 600 million dollars in annual revenue, with about 1,800 employees in Lancaster County and 5,500 worldwide. Its corporate campus off Donnerville Road in West Hempfield Township was built in the mid-1980s.[^4] The company went public in 1982.[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
Timmerman wrote that ISC had developed the fuze for the Rockeye cluster bomb on a second-source contract for the U.S. Navy, and that its biggest customers were [[Carlos Cardoen]] and the South African Armaments Corporation.[^3] [[Robert Clyde Ivy]] served ISC from 1980 to 1989 as an officer and director, including as president of ISC and chairman of the board of ISC Technologies.[^5] Timmerman wrote that Ivy, whom he called Claude Ivy, had moved to Pretoria in the mid-1970s to help set up a rocket industry for the state-owned [[ARMSCOR|Armaments Corporation]], whose new rocket company was incorporated on April 1, 1978 as Kentron, and that ISC funneled technology to South African weapons programs through front companies in the United States and abroad.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### The proxy board and Haig, 1985 to 1987
|
||||
|
||||
[[Bobby Ray Inman]], a former deputy director of the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] and director of the [[National Security Agency]], retired Army general [[John Guthrie]] and former assistant secretary of the Navy [[Barry Shillito]] served on a special proxy board set up so that ISC could handle classified American defense work although it was foreign-listed.[^1] The consulting firm of former secretary of state [[Alexander M. Haig, Jr.|Alexander Haig]], [[Worldwide Associates]], did consulting work for ISC between 1985 and 1987, according to a filing Haig made when running for president in 1988.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### London listing and the Ferranti merger, 1987 to 1989
|
||||
|
||||
Guerin listed the company in London rather than on the New York Stock Exchange. British investors never warmed to the stock, and after it fell in 1987 he merged the company with Ferranti.[^1] The merger was announced in September 1987, and Ferranti acquired ISC in November 1987.[^6][^7] The Lancaster newspaper reports a price of 670 million dollars in its 2005 account and a 1.5 billion dollar deal in its 2022 account.[^4][^8] Ferranti's chairman [[Derek Alun-Jones]] remained chairman and Guerin became deputy chairman.[^1] [[Peat Marwick]], ISC's accountants during the merger, and the London merchant bank [[Robert Fleming & Co.|Robert Fleming]], financial adviser to the company, were expected in 1989 to be asked how they failed to detect any phantom contracts.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
A Ministry of Defence letter of September 12, 1989 told the Prime Minister's office that when the merger was announced, Sir [[Clive Whitmore]] and Sir [[Peter Levene]] sought an explanation from Alun-Jones, whose account was "sufficiently unconvincing" for the [[Ministry of Defence]] to order secret enquiries. The enquiries showed that ISC and Guerin "had close contacts with the South African government," and that ISC had been involved in "a certain amount of two-way trade in missile equipment and technology." The [[Department of Trade and Industry]] was told in May 1988, and Alun-Jones was told of the ministry's concerns in July 1988. The letter states that the divestment of ISC Technologies by Ferranti and Guerin's resignation were, in the ministry's belief, partly a result of that warning, that Ferranti had expected ISC Technologies to take its overseas contracts with it, and that Guerin was unable to raise the funds to finance the acquisition. It records "an alleged connection between ISC and a UK company involved in the European network of companies providing technology for the CONDOR missile programme."[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
### Ferranti's discovery, 1989
|
||||
|
||||
Guerin resigned in May 1989 after seeking unsuccessfully to buy back ISC.[^1] Ferranti suspended trading in its shares on September 11, 1989, and told shareholders that its board had come to "suspect significant irregularities" in overseas contracts of ISC Technologies, appointing [[Coopers & Lybrand]] to investigate.[^6][^9] The Ministry of Defence letter records that Alun-Jones put the sums at issue at about 200 million pounds, enough to put Ferranti's loan agreement with its bankers in default, and that the contract was supposed to be with Pakistan for "missile know-how," through a series of intermediaries, with the work supposed to have been done in South Africa. The letter describes the nature and substance of the contract as "in considerable doubt," and states that the ministry's Secretary of State regarded it as a matter of considerable concern that a major British company might have links with South Africa in the defense field.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
According to British press reports, [[Pakistan]] officials claimed the contract never existed, while Guerin's longtime associate [[Clyde Ivy]] claimed it did. A former Pakistani official said ISC had held a contract with the Pakistani Air Force for cluster bombs or cluster-bomb technology in 1985 and 1986 that was completed.[^1] A Prime Minister's private office note of October 2, 1989 on a meeting of ministers records that the [[Serious Fraud Office]] was awaiting the Coopers & Lybrand findings, that Ferranti would probably have to write off about 215 million pounds, some of which might be recovered from Peat Marwick, who had advised Ferranti on ISC's financial position before the merger, and that "there were allegations that ISC had been involved in supplying defence equipment to South Africa, China and [[Iran]] among others, although it seemed likely that these activities were confined to the US."[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
Ferranti's restated accounts of November 1989 charged the fraudulent contracts against the group at 215 million pounds, and recorded that ISC had negative net assets of 15.3 million pounds when Ferranti acquired it in November 1987.[^7] The [[Science Museum Group]] describes "three sets of bogus contracts, created in order to make the company more attractive to perspective buyers."[^10] A James Shinehouse led Ferranti's internal investigation and directed the litigation to recover money.[^8]
|
||||
|
||||
### Parent Industries and the phantom contracts
|
||||
|
||||
[[Parent Industries]], a company of which Guerin was then sole shareholder, was reported in September 1990 to have pleaded guilty to the fraudulent diversion of more than 700 million dollars from International Signal & Control Inc. Parent set up holding companies and bank accounts abroad, awarded the company non-existent Third World contracts and recycled the payments through subcontractors back to the company as staged payments. It agreed to pay 4.4 million dollars to settle the charges.[^11] The money was looped through 42 front companies in [[Panama]], 53 bank accounts in [[Switzerland]] and at least 10 in the United States, and ISC rented warehouses and filled them with crates of phony inventory for outside auditors.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
Ferranti reached a litigation settlement with Peat Marwick, which had assisted the acquisition, under which Peat Marwick paid Ferranti 40 million pounds. Ferranti also issued proceedings in the United Kingdom against Stuart Pindell, a former director of ISC, who filed in the United States for Chapter 11 protection.[^12] The Lancaster newspaper reports that Ferranti collapsed in 1993 and closed its Lancaster office in 2003.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### Indictments and convictions, 1991 to 2002
|
||||
|
||||
The [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] and the United States Attorney for the [[United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania|Eastern District of Pennsylvania]] announced on October 31, 1991 the indictment of Guerin and twenty others in "a billion dollars in phony contracts," with "smuggling of weapons and restricted commodities to South Africa and Iraq." The release lists Crim. No. 91-601 against Guerin and Crim. No. 91-602 against Armscor and others.[^2] The Third Circuit describes the second case as a 67-count indictment against 19 codefendants, among them Ivy, covering an 11-year conspiracy to evade the arms embargo on South Africa through front companies, and charging that ISC and Armscor conspired to export American arms and technology to Armscor and to import South African missile components for testing to facilitate the sale of Striker missiles to China.[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
Guerin pleaded guilty in December 1991 and was sentenced to 15 years in June 1992.[^8][^13] [[Thomas P. Jasin]], president of ISC Technologies from March 1986 to March 1987, was convicted on December 10, 1992 and sentenced on July 16, 1998 to 24 months.[^5][^14] Ivy later pleaded guilty and served six months in 1997.[^5] In 2002 Judge [[Jan E. DuBois]] vacated Jasin's conviction for ineffective assistance of counsel, and the National Registry of Exonerations reports that prosecutors then dismissed the charges.[^15][^16]
|
||||
|
||||
### South African shipments and Armscor, 1978 to 1997
|
||||
|
||||
The [[Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control|Wisconsin Project]] reports that the three South African firms were indicted in 1991 for cooperating with ISC to smuggle munitions, restricted commodities and technology to South Africa from 1978 to 1989. It states that ARMSCOR and its subsidiary [[Kentron]] acknowledged in the plea agreement that they had obtained shipments from ISC by routing them through front companies, and that Armscor was fined one million dollars and Kentron 500,000 dollars.[^17] The [[Federal Register]] notice of March 24, 1997 records that the State Department had imposed a policy of denial on [[Fuchs Electronics]] in June 1994 after an indictment in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and that Fuchs pleaded guilty on February 27, 1997.[^18]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Open Secrets]], which published South African military documents in 2017, reported that in March 1990 the head of Armscor's security department wrote to his counterpart in [[South African Defense Force|South African Defence Force]] counterintelligence with a memorandum from an internal Armscor investigation of ISC. The parties to the purchase and resale of ISC missile technology were Kentron and ISC Technology, which the article calls an ISC cut-out, with communications routed through covert Armscor offices in [[Italy]] and [[Hong Kong]], and the resale was to the [[China|People's Republic of China]].[^19]
|
||||
|
||||
### Intelligence ties
|
||||
|
||||
Inman acknowledged in 1993 that he had worked secretly with Guerin. He had served on the proxy board, and in an April 27, 1992 letter to Chief Judge [[Louis Bechtle]] he called Guerin a patriot and said he had worked in the mid-1970s with U.S. intelligence agencies.[^20] Inman withdrew his nomination as secretary of defense on January 18, 1994, saying in a letter that he could not take the attacks on his reputation that had accompanied the nomination process.[^21]
|
||||
|
||||
At Jasin's 1992 trial his lawyer told the jury that Haig and officials of the CIA and the Army knew of the plans to import the Striker components and none objected, and the prosecutor, [[Robert E. Goldman]], replied: "Haig was never told they were bringing in missile parts from South Africa."[^22] Jasin testified that Guerin told him ISC had "Washington approval,"[^14] and Ivy stated in a December 7, 1999 affidavit that Guerin had told him ISC's exports to South Africa "had Washington's approval."[^5] A defense witness, James Shinehouse, testified that Guerin "would state that the CIA is knowledgeable about ISC's activities and that it backs certain activities that ISC had."[^15] Guerin's own letter to the court stated that he "implied" ISC had Washington's "blessings," that he "interfaced a lot with Washington contacts and fed them a lot of information," and that he did not have their approval in writing. The government told the jury that Jasin should not have relied on Guerin's statements.[^15]
|
||||
|
||||
Open Secrets asked whether the CIA knew of the ISC trade, and stated that "James Guerin himself used to be a CIA agent." It gives no cited document for that claim.[^19] Timmerman wrote that Guerin "knew how to ship American weaponry and technology anywhere in the world, claiming he had received quiet approval from the CIA."[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Iraq and the cluster-bomb trade
|
||||
|
||||
A federal grand jury in Philadelphia was reported in September 1989 to be investigating ISC's companies over reportedly illegal sales of arms and weapons technology to Iran, Iraq and South Africa. ISC's lawyer denied that the company had sold to Iran or Iraq during their war, and denied that it had sold cluster bombs or chemical weapons.[^1] The SEC's 1991 release named Iraq among the destinations of the smuggling.[^2] The Lancaster newspaper reported in 2022 that federal officials said ISC did not necessarily know that components sold to South Africa would reach Iraq and that there was no evidence ISC sold directly to Iraq.[^8]
|
||||
|
||||
Timmerman wrote that Cardoen bought fuzes for cluster bombs from ISC despite the United Nations embargo on Chile, and quoted Thomas L. Flannery, who investigated Guerin for the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal, saying that Guerin and Cardoen made a sweeping agreement "to split the world cluster bomb market in two," Cardoen taking Latin America and "special" countries such as Iraq and Guerin the rest of the Gulf, Pakistan and South Africa.[^3] In January 1993 Representative [[Henry B. Gonzalez]] told the House that [[Terry Byrne]], an American who set up and ran the British firm [[Allivane]], whose two former directors had been convicted in Britain in early 1992 of illegal arms shipments related to Iraqi fuse deals, had worked for ISC after working for Rexon Corp. He said that ISC's founder was "serving time in jail after being convicted of, among other things, illegally shipping military technology to Iraq."[^23] [[Paul Foot]] wrote in 1996 that ISC "had been formed chiefly to supply arms to embargoed South Africa and, later, Iraq."[^24]
|
||||
|
||||
### Later history
|
||||
|
||||
Paul Foot wrote that ISC went bust in 1989 and that Ferranti went bust too, "with the loss of 30,000 jobs."[^24] The Lancaster newspaper reported in 2005 that ISC was defunct, its 1,800 local jobs all long gone, and that its former campus was home to a magazine and other firms.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Glenn Frankel, "British Firm Claims It Was Duped by Pa. Arms Maker," *Washington Post*, September 29, 1989, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1989/09/29/british-firm-claims-it-was-duped-by-pa-arms-maker/5b675f69-e5e0-4c25-9aee-ced8b8e07efa/.
|
||||
[^2]: SEC Digest, November 7, 1991, "James Guerin and Twenty Others Indicted" (Litigation Release LR-13077, announced October 31, 1991, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Crim. Nos. 91-601 and 91-602), https://www.sec.gov/news/digest/1991/dig110791.pdf.
|
||||
[^3]: Kenneth R. Timmerman, *The Death Lobby: How the West Armed Iraq* (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991), pp. 168 to 169. Sole source for the Rockeye fuze, the Ivy and Kentron passage, the CIA-approval statement and the cluster-bomb agreement; the market-division quotation is Timmerman's quotation of Thomas L. Flannery.
|
||||
[^4]: "Guerin 'home' to complete sentence," *LNP* (LancasterOnline), January 3, 2005, https://lancasteronline.com/news/guerin-home-to-complete-sentence/article_ab95d10d-7b72-511a-8c23-a388df496dfb.html.
|
||||
[^5]: *United States v. Jasin*, 280 F.3d 355 (3d Cir. 2002) (Greenberg, J.), https://static.case.law/f3d/280/cases/0355-01.json. The opinion gives the 67-count indictment, Ivy's positions, plea and affidavit, the 1982 public offering, and the dates of verdict, sentence, affirmance (August 12, 1999) and certiorari denial (January 24, 2000). It dates the indictment October 30, 1991; the district court's 2002 opinion in note 15 dates it October 31, 1991.
|
||||
[^6]: Ministry of Defence letter of 12 September 1989 to Charles Powell, 10 Downing Street, Powell's reply of 13 September 1989, and a Prime Minister's private office note of 2 October 1989 on the meeting about Ferranti, in Prime Minister's papers (file PO-CH-NL 0500 PART A), Margaret Thatcher Foundation archive, https://archive.margaretthatcher.org/HMTPO/PO-CH-NL%200500%20PART%20A.pdf. The Ministry of Defence letter is marked "secret" and "commercial in confidence." Its account of the Pakistan contract is the Ministry's own understanding, which it describes as in "considerable doubt."
|
||||
[^7]: "Ferranti reveals the horrible carnage wreaked on its balance sheet by Signal & Control," *Computer Business Review* (Tech Monitor), article metadata dated November 19, 1989, https://www.techmonitor.ai/?p=231988.
|
||||
[^8]: Dan Nephin, "James Guerin, who died Feb. 10, masterminded Lancaster County's largest fraud at $1B-plus," *LNP* (LancasterOnline), February 20, 2022, https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/james-guerin-who-died-feb-10-masterminded-lancaster-countys-largest-fraud-at-1b-plus/article_28d01f02-9102-11ec-a536-0f7e5967191d.html.
|
||||
[^9]: "Ferranti calls in Coopers & Lybrand to investigate ISC contracts," *Computer Business Review* (Tech Monitor), September 17, 1989, https://www.techmonitor.ai/?p=208120.
|
||||
[^10]: Science Museum Group Collection, "Ferranti International Signal plc" (record for the company), https://collection.sciencemuseum.org.uk/people/ap9749/ferranti-international-signal-plc.
|
||||
[^11]: "Guerin's company pleads guilty to $700m International Signal fraud," *Computer Business Review* (Tech Monitor), article metadata dated September 25, 1990, https://www.techmonitor.ai/?p=222346. Sole source for the Parent Industries plea and the $4.4 million settlement.
|
||||
[^12]: "Ferranti gets losses under control but it will be a long, hard climb out of the pit," *Computer Business Review* (Tech Monitor), article metadata dated June 23, 1992, https://www.techmonitor.ai/?p=184616.
|
||||
[^13]: "James Guerin has finally admitted fraud and tax evasion," *Computer Business Review* (Tech Monitor), article metadata dated December 9, 1991, https://techmonitor.ai/?p=184145.
|
||||
[^14]: *United States v. Jasin*, 25 F. Supp. 2d 551 (E.D. Pa. 1998) (DuBois, J.), No. Crim. 91-602-08, decided August 12, 1998, https://static.case.law/f-supp-2d/25/cases/0551-01.json. The memorandum describes the jury verdict of December 10, 1992, the Striker missile part of the conspiracy, Jasin's position as president of ISC Technology, and his testimony about "Washington approval" (N.T. November 24, 1992, at 70). Sole source for the 1998 sentencing findings.
|
||||
[^15]: *United States v. Jasin*, 215 F. Supp. 2d 552 (E.D. Pa. 2002) (DuBois, J.), memorandum and order of August 8, 2002, https://static.case.law/f-supp-2d/215/cases/0552-01.json. The opinion quotes Guerin's letter (Def.'s Ex. 14 at 52), Shinehouse's testimony (T. Nov. 30, 1992, at 149), and the government's closing and 2001 reply, and vacates the December 10, 1992 conviction and the July 16, 1998 judgment.
|
||||
[^16]: Maurice Possley, "Thomas Jasin," National Registry of Exonerations, posted January 10, 2013, https://exonerationregistry.org/cases/11260. Sole source for the dismissal of charges after the 2002 ruling.
|
||||
[^17]: "South African Firms Settle Arms Smuggling Case," Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, https://www.wisconsinproject.org/south-african-firms-settle-arms-smuggling-case/ (undated).
|
||||
[^18]: Department of State, Office of Defense Trade Controls, Public Notice 2522, "Statutory Debarment Under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations," *Federal Register* 62, no. 56 (March 24, 1997), p. 13933, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-1997-03-24/html/97-7273.htm.
|
||||
[^19]: Open Secrets, "Declassified: Apartheid Profits," *Daily Maverick*, October 9, 2017, https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2017-10-09-declassified-apartheid-profits-american-guns/. Sole source for the SADF correspondence, the Italy and Hong Kong channels, the resale to China and the CIA claims.
|
||||
[^20]: "Ties to convict could be questioned," *Tampa Bay Times*, December 17, 1993, https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1993/12/17/ties-to-convict-could-be-questioned/. Sole source for Inman's April 27, 1992 letter and his acknowledgment of secret work with Guerin.
|
||||
[^21]: "Inman withdraws from nomination," *Christian Science Monitor*, January 19, 1994, https://csmonitor.com/1994/0119/19242.html.
|
||||
[^22]: "Weapons-smuggling plot tied to Pa. executive on trial for trade violations," *Baltimore Sun*, November 10, 1992, https://www.baltimoresun.com/1992/11/10/weapons-smuggling-plot-tied-to-pa-executive-on-trial-for-trade-violations/.
|
||||
[^23]: Rep. Henry B. Gonzalez, "Update on BNL Investigation," *Congressional Record*, House of Representatives, January 21, 1993, p. H132, https://irp.fas.org/congress/1993_cr/h930121-bnl.htm. Sole source for the Byrne and Allivane passage and for the statement about Guerin's conviction.
|
||||
[^24]: Paul Foot, "Per Ardua," *London Review of Books* 18, no. 3 (1996), https://www.lrb.co.uk/v18/n03/paul-foot/per-ardua. Sole source for the characterization of ISC's purpose and the 30,000-job figure.
|
||||
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