vault backup: 2026-05-13 21:30:09

40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Golpe Borghese.md

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+---
+tags:
+  - Event
+  - Fascism
+  - Italy
+  - Coup
+  - Operation_Gladio
+  - CIA
+category: "Intelligence Scandal"
+summary: "Fascist coup attempt in Italy in 1970 orchestrated by Junio Valerio Borghese with links to Operation Gladio and intelligence services."
+---
+The Golpe Borghese was a fascist coup attempt orchestrated in Italy in 1970 by [[Junio Valerio Borghese]], an aristocrat known as the Black Prince of the Borghese family. The plot represented a direct effort to overthrow the Italian Republic and install an authoritarian regime, carried out by a figure whose postwar career had been carefully nurtured by American intelligence. Its failure did not prevent the ideological and organizational currents behind it from resurfacing throughout the following decades, culminating in the exposure of the P2 Masonic lodge and infiltrating the networks of elite criminality later documented across Europe.
+
+### The Black Prince and Operation Gladio
+
+Junio Borghese had commanded the [[Decima Flottiglia MAS]], a naval regiment that fought for Mussolini's Nazi puppet state, the Republic of Salo, in northern Italy until the end of the Second World War. Unlike other fascist collaborators who were executed at Piazzale Loreto alongside Mussolini, Borghese was chaperoned to the sanctuary of Vatican City by [[OSS]] operative [[James Angleton]]. He subsequently became the primary OSS and later [[Central Intelligence Agency]] asset in establishing the Italian branch of [[Operation Gladio]], a stay-behind network designed to suppress left-leaning political movements through sabotage, propaganda, and terrorism. This intelligence protection allowed Borghese to live on as a figurehead of Italy's postwar fascist movement, giving him the resources and connections necessary to attempt an open seizure of power in 1970.
+
+### The 1970 Coup Attempt
+
+The Golpe Borghese coup was carried out in Borghese's name by armed fascists with the apparent intention of destabilizing the Italian state and creating the pretext for a military takeover. When the attempt failed, Borghese fled to Spain, where he died in 1974, possibly by poisoning. The director Pier Paolo Pasolini made his film Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom, explicitly in response to the Golpe Borghese, using the structure of the Marquis de Sade's novel to depict the torture and murder of kidnapped youths by fascist leaders. Pasolini dressed the guards in the uniforms of Borghese's Decima Flottiglia MAS, making clear that he viewed the coup not as an aberration but as an expression of enduring elite depravity. A year after the failed coup, and shortly before Salo's premiere, Pasolini was himself murdered in horrific circumstances, his body found burned and broken on a beach outside Rome.
+
+### P2 and Continued Influence
+
+In 1981 a fascist secret society known as [[P2]], or Propaganda 2, was uncovered after a membership list fell into police hands during a raid on the villa of the financier Licio Gelli. The list included cabinet ministers, military officers, magistrates, industrialists, and journalists, including the future Prime Minister [[Silvio Berlusconi]]. P2 was directly linked to the Golpe Borghese coup attempt a decade earlier, demonstrating that the networks behind the plot had simply moved underground rather than disappeared. One P2 member, [[Alessandro Moncini]], was arrested in the United States in 1988 after attempting to purchase a ten-year-old Mexican girl for a weekend of sadistic torture, telling an undercover officer that he possessed a snuff videotape of the real murder of a young girl after sex. The same currents of fascist elitism, protected by intelligence services and expressed through ritualistic violence against children, reappear in the Belgian [[Marc Dutroux|Dutroux]] affair, where witness testimonies describe orgies and murders attended by politicians, magistrates, and nobility reminiscent of the world Pasolini depicted.
+
+[^1]: Dovey, S. (2023). *Eye of the Chickenhawk*. United States: Thehotstar.

40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Iran-Contra Affair.md

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+---
+tags:
+  - Event
+  - Political
+  - United_States
+  - 1980s
+  - Contra_War
+  - Iran
+  - Nicaragua
+  - Dark_Alliance_Investigation
+category: "Intelligence Scandal"
+created: 2024-04-25
+updated: 2026-05-01
+summary: "Political scandal involving the secret sale of arms to Iran to fund the Nicaraguan Contras in violation of the Boland Amendment, leading to indictments of multiple CIA and NSC officials."
+---
+The [[Iran-Contra Affair]] was a political scandal in the [[United States]] that came to light between 1985 and 1987, involving the secret sale of arms to [[Iran]] by the [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]] administration in exchange for American hostages held in [[Lebanon]], with the profits illegally diverted to fund the [[Contras]] in [[Nicaragua]] in violation of congressional prohibitions. The scandal exposed the agency's direct management of the Contra war and the National Security Council's transformation into an operational intelligence agency based inside the White House.[^1][^2]
+
+### Congressional Prohibitions
+
+Between 1982 and 1986, Congress passed a series of amendments (known as the Boland Amendments) prohibiting the [[Central Intelligence Agency]], the National Security Council, or any other U.S. government agency from providing military aid to the Contras. The Reagan administration circumvented these prohibitions through a network of private operatives and foreign governments.[^2]
+
+### Key Figures
+
+#### Oliver North and the Enterprise
+
+[[Oliver North]], a Lieutenant Colonel in the [[United States Marine Corps]] serving on the National Security Council staff, ran an illegal Contra resupply operation from the White House. He was alleged to have received drug profits from [[Monzer Al-Kassar]], a Syrian kingpin and arms dealer, which were then used to purchase arms for the Contras. The [[United States]] Tower Commission probe into Iran-gate specifically revealed that Al-Kassar had been paid $1.2 million by North's co-conspirator, General [[Richard Secord]], to facilitate the movement of weapons from [[Israel]] to the Contras.[^1][^3]
+
+North's "Enterprise" used [[Ilopango Airbase]] in [[El Salvador]] to funnel weapons to the Contras and reportedly brought [[cocaine]] back on return flights.[^4]
+
+#### Arms-for-Hostages Middlemen
+
+[[Adnan Khashoggi]], an international arms merchant, and [[Manucher Ghorbanifar]], an Iranian arms dealer, served as crucial middlemen in the arms-for-hostages exchange. Khashoggi was found to have borrowed money for these arms purchases from the now-bankrupt [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]], with financial backing from Saudi and U.S. sources. [[Ari Ben-Menashe]], a self-proclaimed Israeli military intelligence officer, played a role in exposing the scandal by tipping off an obscure Lebanese magazine. [[Barbara Honegger]], a former Reagan White House aide, alleged in her book *October Surprise* that [[Monzer Al-Kassar]]'s heroin smuggling network in [[Italy]] was utilized to launder [[North Atlantic Treaty Organization|NATO]] arms stocks, diverting them to Iran with the assistance of corrupt Italian intelligence officials linked to the secretive fascist Masonic lodge, P2.[^1]
+
+#### Indictments and Pardons
+
+[[Dewey Clarridge]], former chief of the CIA's Latin American Division, was indicted on seven counts of perjury. [[Joseph Fernandez|Joseph Fernández]], CIA station chief in [[Costa Rica]], was indicted on four counts. [[Alan Fiers]], who took over the Contra project in 1984, pleaded guilty to withholding information from Congress. All were pardoned by former CIA director [[George H.W. Bush]].[^2]
+
+### Connection to Drug Trafficking
+
+The [[John Kerry|Kerry]] Committee investigation found evidence of drug trafficking within the Contra supply network, but the Iran-Contra investigating committee refused to examine those connections. Kerry investigation director [[Jack Blum]] told [[Gary Webb]]: "We were even dumped on by the Iran-Contra Committee. They wouldn't touch this issue with a ten-foot pole."[^2]
+
+During Oliver North's congressional testimony in July 1987, two men from Baltimore jumped up in the audience with a banner reading "Ask about the cocaine smuggling" and shouted questions about drug dealing before being dragged out by police.[^2]
+
+### The Shootdown That Broke the Scandal
+
+The scandal broke open when [[Barry Seal]]'s drug-hauling airplane, a Fairchild C-123K called The Fat Lady, was shot down over Nicaragua by a Sandinista soldier with a SAM-7 missile in 1986. [[Eugene Hasenfus]], a former [[Air America]] cargo handler, survived the shootdown. The plane had been based at [[Mena, Arkansas]] before Seal sold it and it began flying weapons-hauling missions for North and the [[FDN]]. Congressional records show North was being regularly briefed by the CIA on Seal's joint CIA-DEA sting operation against the Sandinistas and allegedly leaked the information to the press shortly before a critical vote on Contra aid.[^5]
+
+### The Octopus Connection
+
+The Iran-Contra Affair was a significant component of [[Danny Casolaro]]'s broader "[[The Octopus]]" investigation. Casolaro believed that this scandal was deeply interconnected with the [[PROMIS Software Scandal]] and the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]] scandal. He obtained documents related to Iran-Contra arms deals, including photocopies of checks drawn on [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]] accounts for [[Adnan Khashoggi]] and [[Manucher Ghorbanifar]], from his confidante [[Bob Bickel]]. Bickel, in turn, had acquired these documents from [[October Surprise]] source [[Richard Brenneke]]. The name of [[Ian Stuart Spiro]] also appeared in [[Oliver North]]'s personal notebooks documenting the Iran-Contra Affair, and Spiro's death was subsequently linked to a spy network and the affair itself.[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal.* TrineDay, 2010.
+[^2]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Prologue: "It was like they didn't want to know."
+[^3]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 4: "I never sent cash."
+[^4]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Cast of Characters.
+[^5]: 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."

40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Lavon Affair.md

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+---
+tags:
+  - Event
+  - Israel
+  - Egypt
+  - Scandal
+category: "Intelligence Scandal"
+summary: "Covert 1954 Israeli operation in Egypt involving bombings of American, British, and Egyptian targets designed to damage Western-Egyptian relations."
+---
+The Lavon Affair was a covert Israeli operation in [[Egypt]] in mid-1954, involving an Israeli spy ring that bombed and sabotaged American, British, and Egyptian targets. The goal of these bombings was to derail pending British and American negotiations and possible rapprochement with the [[Gamal Abdel Nasser|Nasser]] government, aiming to keep [[Egypt]] isolated from Western powers.[^1]
+
+An internal Israeli investigation was unable to determine who had given the order for the sabotage activities. [[Moshe Sharett]], who had not known of the operation, accepted [[Pinhas Lavon]]'s resignation in January 1955. The affair resurfaced as a major scandal in the early 1960s, with new revelations suggesting that low-level officials in the defense ministry might have falsified documents and given misleading testimony to accuse Lavon of authorizing the operation. Lavon, then head of the [[Histadrut]], publicly charged that [[David Ben-Gurion]], [[Shimon Peres]], and [[Moshe Dayan]] had undermined civilian authority over the military, leaking his allegations to the press and breaking cardinal rules of Israeli politics.[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 3, 9.

40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Lockheed bribe scandal.md

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+---
+tags:
+  - Event
+  - Scandal
+  - Israel
+  - USA
+category: "Intelligence Scandal"
+summary: "1976 scandal involving bribes paid by Lockheed Aircraft Company to Israeli Defense Minister Shimon Peres and other international figures."
+---
+The [[Lockheed bribe scandal]] refers to a series of bribery incidents involving the [[Lockheed Aircraft Company]]. In [[Israel]], a specific instance of this scandal came to light in 1976 through an intercepted telegram.[^1]
+
+[[Ari Ben-Menashe]], while serving as a duty officer in [[Unit 8200]], intercepted a telegram from the [[Iran|Iranian]] Embassy in [[Ramat Gan]] to [[Tehran]]. This telegram detailed a meeting between an [[Lockheed Aircraft Company|Lockheed]] representative in [[Israel]] and [[Shimon Peres]], then Defense Minister, revealing a bribe of $3.5 million deposited into one of [[Shimon Peres|Peres's]] brother's business accounts in [[Europe]].[^1]
+
+Despite the explosive nature of this information, it was covered up by [[Israel|Israeli]] military intelligence superiors, including [[Yoel Ben-Porat|Col. Yoel Ben-Porat]] and [[Sasson Yishaek|Lt. Col. Sasson Yishaek]]. The original telegram, its translation, and related logs were ordered to be erased, and the young woman working with [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] was transferred to another unit. No public disclosure or inquiry was ever made regarding [[Israel|Israel's]] involvement in the scandal.[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 1992.

40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Moscow Signal.md

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+---
+created: 2025-07-23
+updated: 2025-07-23
+title: Moscow Signal
+tags:
+  - event
+  - ColdWar
+  - technology
+  - intelligence
+description: The Moscow Signal was a microwave beam directed at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow by the Soviet Union, suspected of being an electromagnetic weapon.
+category: "Intelligence Scandal"
+summary: "Microwave beam directed at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow by the Soviet Union (1956-1976), suspected of being an electromagnetic weapon that spurred U.S. research into psychotronics."
+---
+
+The [[Moscow Signal]] refers to a microwave beam directed at the [[U.S. Embassy in Moscow]] by the [[Soviet Union]] from 1956 to 1976. Discovered in 1962 by American military engineers, the signal was aimed primarily at the upper floors of the embassy, where the ambassador and top intelligence officials had their offices.[^1]
+
+Initially suspected as a new means of eavesdropping, further investigation revealed that the Soviets were using multiple frequencies to transmit widely fluctuating and irregularly patterned microwave beams. The signal, with a power density between 2.5 and 4.0 GHz, was code-named MUTS (Moscow Unidentified Technical Signal) and later MUTS-2 when a more powerful signal was detected in 1973.[^1]
+
+The [[United States]] suspected the Moscow Signal was an electromagnetic weapon designed to adversely affect the behavior and health of embassy personnel. This led to classified U.S. research programs, such as [[Project Pandora]], aimed at duplicating its effects and developing countermeasures. Studies on primates and later unwitting sailors exposed to similar microwave beams raised concerns about potential health hazards, including chromosomal damage and the development of Alzheimer's disease.[^1]
+
+Despite official denials and attempts to downplay its effects, the Moscow Signal became a public controversy in the mid-1970s, leading to lawsuits from embassy employees and further debate among scientists about the reality and dangers of electromagnetic weapons.[^1]
+
+---
+
+[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.

40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/October Surprise.md

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+---
+category: "Intelligence Scandal"
+created: 2024-04-26
+updated: 2026-05-01
+tags:
+  - Event
+  - Iran
+  - October Surprise
+  - CIA
+  - Israel
+  - Reagan
+  - PROMIS
+  - INSLAW
+summary: "The October Surprise allegation holds that William J. Casey and other figures in Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign secretly negotiated with Iranian representatives to delay the release of 52 American hostages past Election Day in exchange for promises of arms and release of frozen Iranian assets, with the hostages released minutes after Reagan was sworn in on January 20, 1981."
+---
+The **October Surprise** refers to the allegation that senior figures in [[Ronald Reagan]]'s 1980 presidential campaign secretly negotiated with representatives of the Iranian government to delay the release of 52 American hostages held since November 4, 1979, until after Election Day, November 4, 1980. The goal was to deny President [[Jimmy Carter]] a diplomatic triumph -- the freeing of the hostages -- that could have swung the election in Carter's favor. In exchange, the Reagan camp allegedly promised [[Iran]] the release of its frozen assets (approximately $8 billion frozen by Carter) and arms sales via [[Israel]] once Reagan took office. The hostages were released January 20, 1981, minutes after Reagan was sworn in.[^1]
+
+The allegation was brought to public prominence in 1991 by [[Gary Sick]], a former Carter administration National Security Council adviser on Iran, who published *October Surprise* (1991) following three years of interviews conducted in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. Congressional investigations in 1992-1993 found no credible evidence to sustain the allegation, but those investigations have been contested as incomplete.[^2]
+
+### Key Figures
+
+[[William J. Casey]], Reagan's 1980 campaign manager and subsequent CIA Director (1981-1987), is the central alleged American negotiator. Multiple sources placed him at meetings with Iranian representatives in Spain and France in 1980. Casey died of a brain tumor in May 1987, days after being subpoenaed to testify about Iran-Contra.
+
+Mehdi Karrubi, an Iranian cleric close to Khomeini who later served as Speaker of the Iranian Majlis, is identified in Gary Sick's account and by the Hashemi brothers as Iran's principal representative at the Madrid meeting or meetings. Karrubi has denied any such contact.
+
+Abol Hassan Bani-Sadr, the first President of the Islamic Republic (February 1980 -- June 1981), who fled Iran in 1981 after falling out with Khomeini, told the New York Times that Iranian officials [[Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani|Rafsanjani]] and Beheshti deliberately delayed the hostage release and met with a Reagan campaign representative in Paris. He later clarified he was not personally present and retracted the specific claim that [[George H.W. Bush]] attended.[^1]
+
+Cyrus Hashemi and his brother Jamshid Hashemi, Iranian-American bankers with CIA connections, claimed they helped arrange two consecutive days of meetings at a Madrid hotel in late July 1980 between Casey and Karrubi. Cyrus Hashemi died in July 1986, three months after cooperating in a U.S. Customs arms sting -- a timing that has fueled speculation about his death.[^1]
+
+[[George H.W. Bush]], Reagan's running mate, was alleged by [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] and the Russian intelligence report submitted to Congress to have personally attended the Paris meeting. The House October Surprise Task Force found Secret Service records placing Bush in the United States on the alleged Paris date.[^2]
+
+### Alleged Meetings
+
+**Madrid, July 1980**: The Hashemi brothers placed a meeting at a Madrid hotel in late July 1980 at which Karrubi allegedly met Casey. The House Task Force cited Casey's verified conference attendance records for July 27-29 to challenge the specific Hashemi timeline. However, journalist [[Robert Parry]] obtained a reference to a U.S. Embassy Madrid cable -- withheld from the Task Force by Bush administration officials -- indicating Casey was in Madrid during this period "for purposes unknown." A 1991 internal memo by Deputy White House counsel Chester Paul Beach Jr. recorded that a State Department legal adviser had informed him of this cable; the cable was never provided to the Hamilton investigation.[^6]
+
+**Paris, October 1980**: Multiple sources, including arms dealer Richard Brenneke and the Russian intelligence report submitted to Congress in January 1993, placed a multi-party meeting at the Hotel Raphael in Paris on or around October 19-20, 1980. Casey's personal calendar and telephone logs showed an 8 a.m. appointment at the Metropolitan Club in Washington on October 20, which the Task Force cited as an alibi. The Russian intelligence report arrived after the Task Force had already closed its investigation and was buried in raw files until Parry's subsequent discovery; it stated that "William Casey, in 1980, met three times with representatives of the Iranian leadership. The meetings took place in Madrid and Paris," and that Bush participated in the Paris meeting.[^2][^6]
+
+Former French intelligence chief Alexandre de Marenches, through sworn testimony provided by his biographer, indicated that he had arranged meetings between Casey and Iranians in Paris in October 1980.[^1]
+
+### The Alleged Quid Pro Quo
+
+Under the alleged arrangement, Iran agreed to hold the hostages past Election Day, ensuring Carter received no pre-election diplomatic benefit. The Reagan campaign allegedly promised that once in office the administration would release the frozen Iranian assets, permit arms sales to Iran via Israel, and provide generally more favorable terms than Carter had offered.[^1]
+
+Following Reagan's inauguration, covert arms flows to Iran from Israel began in 1981. Israeli arms dealer Ya'acov Nimrodi sold the Iranian Defense Ministry $135,842,000 worth of Hawk anti-aircraft missiles that year. Israel acknowledged arms transfers to Iran beginning in 1980-1981, including tires for Phantom jets and ammunition. These 1981 flows -- occurring well before the Iran-Contra deals documented by the Tower Commission in 1985-1986 -- have been cited by Sick and others as circumstantial evidence that commitments had been made in 1980.[^1]
+
+### Congressional Investigations
+
+**House October Surprise Task Force**: In 1992, the House established an October Surprise Task Force co-chaired by Rep. [[Lee Hamilton]] (D-Indiana) and Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Illinois), with [[E. Lawrence Barcella, Jr.]] as chief counsel. The probe involved over 250 interviews and produced a report in January 1993 concluding there was "no credible evidence" of a secret deal. The Task Force found nearly all key sources "turned out to be wholesale fabricators or were impeached by documentary evidence."[^2]
+
+The investigation has been contested on several grounds. Chief counsel Barcella reportedly asked Hamilton to extend the investigation by three months after substantial new evidence arrived in the final weeks; Hamilton declined, reportedly citing anticipated Republican backlash in an election year. The Madrid cable was withheld by Bush administration officials and never provided to the Task Force. The Russian intelligence report arrived after the Task Force had already closed and was only discovered in the raw files years later by Parry. The Task Force's June 30, 1992 interim report cleared Bush of the Paris allegation after the panel had interviewed approximately 50 of some 150 potential witnesses.[^2][^6]
+
+**[[Senate Foreign Relations Committee]]**: A parallel Senate subcommittee investigation reached a narrower but significant conclusion: that Casey had engaged in "potentially dangerous" unauthorized efforts to collect intelligence on the Carter administration's hostage-release negotiations. The Senate investigation stopped short of finding a formal deal but confirmed that the Reagan campaign had directed intelligence operations against Carter's Iran policy.[^2]
+
+### Ben Barnes and John Connally (2023)
+
+In March 2023, Ben Barnes -- former Texas Speaker of the House -- publicly stated that in summer 1980 he had accompanied former Texas Governor [[John Connally]] on a Middle East tour during which Connally carried a message to regional Arab leaders: Iran would receive a better deal from Reagan than from Carter, so they should counsel the Iranians to wait. Barnes and Connally departed Houston on July 18, 1980, and returned August 11, visiting Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Israel. Travel records at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library confirm the trip and list Barnes as a participating member.[^5]
+
+This account is considered independent of and parallel to the alleged Casey-Iran direct meetings: Connally acted as a message-carrier to Arab intermediaries while Casey allegedly negotiated directly with Iranian officials. Barnes stated he had carried the secret for more than forty years. Craig Unger's *Den of Spies* (2024) synthesized the Barnes testimony, the Madrid cable, and the Russian intelligence report into the most comprehensive recent case for the allegation's credibility.[^5]
+
+### Ari Ben-Menashe's Account
+
+[[Ari Ben-Menashe]], a self-proclaimed Israeli military intelligence officer, claimed in *Profits of War* (1992) and in testimony to investigators that he personally witnessed meetings including the October 1980 Paris conference, at which Bush was present. He alleged that $56 million was paid in [[Guatemala]] from a Saudi ambassador, with $4 million designated for [[Earl Brian]] and $52 million for a Kashani intermediary.[^3]
+
+The House Task Force found Ben-Menashe's testimony "totally lacking in credibility" and "fabricated." The Task Force determined that his principal Iranian intermediary "Mehdi Kashani," described at length in *Profits of War*, did not exist as a single individual but appeared to be a composite of two real persons blended into a fictional character. Ben-Menashe's travel records showed civilian passport entries inconsistent with his claimed senior intelligence officer status, and Bani-Sadr later retracted the corroboration of Bush's presence he had initially provided.[^2][^3]
+
+### Barbara Honegger's Account
+
+[[Barbara Honegger]], a former Reagan White House policy analyst, authored *October Surprise* (1989), alleging that [[Monzer Al-Kassar|Monzer al-Kassar's]] heroin-smuggling network in [[Italy]] was used to launder [[North Atlantic Treaty Organization|NATO]] arms stocks for diversion to Iran, with the involvement of corrupt Italian intelligence officers connected to the [[P2|Propaganda Due (P2)]] Masonic lodge.[^4]
+
+### Connection to PROMIS Software
+
+[[Danny Casolaro]] was investigating the October Surprise as a central strand of his "[[The Octopus]]" thesis, which held that the same covert network ran through the 1980 deal, the theft of [[INSLAW]]'s [[PROMIS]] software, and the [[Iran-Contra Affair]]. In his framework, figures rewarded for their role in the hostage delay -- particularly [[Earl Brian]] -- later received access to PROMIS as part of a compensation arrangement flowing from the same covert channels.[^4]
+
+[[Michael Riconosciuto]] claimed that he and [[Earl Brian]] traveled to [[Iran]] in 1980 and paid $40 million to Iranian officials to delay the hostage release past Reagan's inauguration, directly linking the PROMIS theft to the 1980 deal.[^4]
+
+[[Ari Ben-Menashe]] stated after Danny Casolaro's death in August 1991 that two FBI agents from Lexington, Kentucky -- including one named E.B. Cartinhour -- were en route to Martinsburg, West Virginia, to deliver evidence that the FBI was illegally using PROMIS, and that one agent was disaffected because his superiors had refused to indict senior Reagan officials for their October Surprise role.[^3]
+
+### Connection to Iran-Contra
+
+The October Surprise allegation, if substantiated, represents the founding transaction of the network that became the [[Iran-Contra Affair]]: the same Israeli arms dealers (Ya'acov Nimrodi, Al Schwimmer), Iranian intermediaries ([[Manucher Ghorbanifar]]), and CIA-connected arms brokers that characterized the 1985-1986 Iran-Contra deals documented by the Tower Commission and the Walsh Independent Counsel investigation. The basic mechanism -- Israel ships U.S.-approved arms to Iran -- appears in both episodes. Robert Parry, Gary Sick, and Craig Unger have each argued that Iran-Contra was not a discrete 1985 initiative but the continuation of a covert U.S.-Israel-Iran relationship established in 1980.[^1][^6]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Sick, Gary. *October Surprise: America's Hostages in Iran and the Election of Ronald Reagan*. Times Books, 1991.
+[^2]: U.S. House of Representatives, October Surprise Task Force. *Joint Report of the Task Force to Investigate Certain Allegations Concerning the Holding of American Hostages by Iran in 1980*. 102nd Congress, 2nd Session, January 1993.
+[^3]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 1992.
+[^4]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. TrineDay, 2010.
+[^5]: Unger, Craig. *Den of Spies*. 2024; Barnes, Ben, interview. *The New York Times*, March 2023.
+[^6]: Parry, Robert. "October Surprise Evidence Surfaces." *Consortium News*, July 14, 2011.

40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/U-2 Incident.md

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+---
+tags:
+  - Event
+  - Cold War
+  - Espionage
+category: "Intelligence Scandal"
+summary: "1960 shooting down of an American U-2 spy plane over the Soviet Union, causing a major diplomatic crisis and collapse of the Paris Summit."
+---
+The [[U-2 Spy Plane|U-2]] Incident refers to the shooting down of an American U-2 spy plane over the [[Soviet Union]] on May 1, 1960. The incident, involving pilot [[Gary Francis Powers]], caused a major international crisis and led to the ruin of [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower]]'s Paris summit meeting scheduled for a few weeks later. It also prompted Eisenhower to order an end to all reconnaissance flights over [[Russia]].[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 4, 6.