diff --git a/00 - META/CHANGELOG.md b/00 - META/CHANGELOG.md index d9d448e2..e43dcc3f 100644 --- a/00 - META/CHANGELOG.md +++ b/00 - META/CHANGELOG.md @@ -1,100 +1,100 @@ -- 2026-09-21T1807 · [[_NOTES_Garrison_cluster]] -- 2026-09-21T1806 · [[Paul Wimert]] -- 2026-09-21T1806 · [[George Landau]] -- 2026-09-21T1806 · [[Vernon Walters]] -- 2026-09-21T1805 · [[David Atlee Phillips]] -- 2026-09-21T1805 · [[Edward Korry]] -- 2026-09-21T1805 · [[Charles Horman]] -- 2026-09-21T1805 · [[El Mercurio]] -- 2026-09-21T1805 · [[Manuel Contreras]] -- 2026-09-21T1805 · [[Michael Townley]] -- 2026-09-21T1805 · [[_NOTES_Book_Night_Watch]] -- 2026-09-21T1804 · [[William Broe]] -- 2026-09-21T1804 · [[_manifest]] -- 2026-09-21T1804 · [[Henry Hecksher]] -- 2026-09-21T1804 · [[Thomas Karamessines]] -- 2026-09-21T1802 · [[Webster Hubbell]] -- 2026-09-21T1802 · [[Rose Law Firm]] -- 2026-09-21T1802 · [[Mack McLarty]] -- 2026-09-21T1802 · [[_NOTES_Book_Death_Lobby]] -- 2026-09-21T1802 · [[_NOTES_Castle_Bank_Hunt_cronies]] -- 2026-09-21T1800 · [[Claude Kirk]] -- 2026-09-21T1800 · [[Wackenhut Corporation]] -- 2026-09-21T1800 · [[La Cosa Nostra]] -- 2026-09-21T1800 · [[Kerry Thornley]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Hussein Kamel]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[John Birch Society]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Jesse Helms]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Coral Gables, Florida]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Armando Fernandez Larios]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Shreveport, Louisiana]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Marvin Shoob]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Eugene Propper]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Arkansas]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Cabazon Indian Reservation]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Los Alamos]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[JM-WAVE]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Ilopango Airbase]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Camp X]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Camp King]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Zorro Ranch]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[358 El Brillo Way]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Uruguay]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[United Kingdom]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Syria]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Palestine]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Netherlands]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Libya]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Lebanon]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Kuwait]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Jordan]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Italy]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Israel]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Iraq]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Hungary]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Canada]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Belgium]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Austria]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Argentina]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Zandvoort]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Washington, D.C.]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[San Jose]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Rotterdam]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Rome]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Paris]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[New York City]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Moscow]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Miami]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[London]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Jerusalem]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Cairo]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Baton Rouge, Louisiana]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Abu Dhabi]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Satoshi Nakamoto]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Pretty Good Privacy]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Personality Assessment System]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Clairvoyance]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[VELA Satellite]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[JIS]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Russian Cosmism]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Fascism]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Antichrist]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[LSD]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Crack Cocaine]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[The Californian Ideology]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Special Access Programs]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Rationalist Community]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Human Biodiversity]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[FISA Section 702]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Eugenics]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Cypherpunks]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Cuban Missile Crisis]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Berlin Wall]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Watergate]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Scott Inquiry]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Rockefeller Commission 1975]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[October Surprise]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Media FBI Office Break-In]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[Iran-Contra Affair]] -- 2026-09-21T1759 · [[HSCA]] +- 2026-09-21T1916 · [[_NOTES_Cuban_exile_network]] +- 2026-09-21T1910 · [[Donald Regan]] +- 2026-09-21T1910 · [[_manifest]] +- 2026-09-21T1910 · [[Donald M. Kerr]] +- 2026-09-21T1910 · [[Robert Owen]] +- 2026-09-21T1910 · [[William Colby]] +- 2026-09-21T1910 · [[Ronald Lister]] +- 2026-09-21T1910 · [[Richard V. Allen]] +- 2026-09-21T1910 · [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] +- 2026-09-21T1910 · [[Johnny Roselli]] +- 2026-09-21T1910 · [[John McCone]] +- 2026-09-21T1910 · [[John LaMothe]] +- 2026-09-21T1910 · [[Caspar Weinberger]] +- 2026-09-21T1910 · [[Richard Helms]] +- 2026-09-21T1910 · [[Lowell Jensen]] +- 2026-09-21T1910 · [[William Harvey]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[Iran]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[Newport Beach, California]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[Berlin]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[Gulf of Tonkin Incident]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[Cuban Missile Crisis]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[Warren Commission]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[Operation Gold]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[Alliance for Progress]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[Fluor Corporation]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[NSC Special Group]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[Laguna Beach Police Department]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[Rafael Trujillo]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[Algie A. Wells]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[Nick Schou]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[Joan Quigley]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[Dean Rusk]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[Dagoberto Nunez]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[William Richard Higgins]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[Myron B. Kratzer]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[Martin Luther King Jr]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[John F. Kennedy]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[J. Edgar Hoover]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[Henry R. Myers]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[Henry Murray]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[Clint W. Murchison, Jr.]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[Clint Murchison, Sr.]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[Charles Lucet]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[Arthur Krock]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[Oliver J. Caldwell]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[Marlin Fitzwater]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[Lincoln Gordon]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[John W. Finney]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[Fidel Castro]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[Bobby Baker]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[Allen Dulles]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[Adolfo Chamorro]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[MOC - Uncategorized]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[MOC - Psychics & Remote Viewers]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[MOC - PROMIS Scandal]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[MOC - Nuclear Scientists & Programs]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[MOC - Military]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[MOC - Key Figures]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[MOC - Iran-Contra]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[MOC - Intelligence & Government]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[KEY INDIVIDUALS]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[The Samson Option Narrative]] +- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[_NOTES_Condor_Europe_DINA]] +- 2026-09-21T1908 · [[_NOTES_Watergate_CIA_security]] +- 2026-09-21T1902 · [[Ronni Moffitt]] +- 2026-09-21T1902 · [[Edward Gerrity]] +- 2026-09-21T1902 · [[Lawrence Houston]] +- 2026-09-21T1902 · [[William Broe]] +- 2026-09-21T1902 · [[James Eastland]] +- 2026-09-21T1855 · [[Timothy Leary]] +- 2026-09-21T1855 · [[Count Leopold Lippens]] +- 2026-09-21T1855 · [[Robert Berrellez]] +- 2026-09-21T1855 · [[Percy Foreman]] +- 2026-09-21T1855 · [[Ronni Moffitt]] +- 2026-09-21T1855 · [[Percy Foreman]] +- 2026-09-21T1855 · [[James Eastland]] +- 2026-09-21T1855 · [[Edward Gerrity]] +- 2026-09-21T1855 · [[Robert Berrellez]] +- 2026-09-21T1852 · [[Bay of Pigs]] +- 2026-09-21T1852 · [[Operation Condor]] +- 2026-09-21T1852 · [[Edward Wegmann]] +- 2026-09-21T1852 · [[Sam Papich]] +- 2026-09-21T1852 · [[Robert Scherrer]] +- 2026-09-21T1852 · [[Clay Shaw]] +- 2026-09-21T1852 · [[Jim Garrison]] +- 2026-09-21T1852 · [[Church Committee]] +- 2026-09-21T1852 · [[Richard Ober]] +- 2026-09-21T1852 · [[Renato Pena]] +- 2026-09-21T1852 · [[KEEP_Richard Helms]] +- 2026-09-21T1852 · [[Project RESISTANCE]] +- 2026-09-21T1852 · [[Howard Osborn]] +- 2026-09-21T1852 · [[Domestic Contact Service]] +- 2026-09-21T1852 · [[Bruce Solie]] +- 2026-09-21T1852 · [[Project RESISTANCE]] +- 2026-09-21T1852 · [[Lawrence Houston]] +- 2026-09-21T1852 · [[Howard Osborn]] +- 2026-09-21T1852 · [[Domestic Contact Service]] +- 2026-09-21T1851 · [[Garrison Group]] +- 2026-09-21T1851 · [[CIA Office of Security]] diff --git a/00 - META/NARRATIVES/The Samson Option Narrative.md b/00 - META/NARRATIVES/The Samson Option Narrative.md index 2daa6e6b..56b7704a 100644 --- a/00 - META/NARRATIVES/The Samson Option Narrative.md +++ b/00 - META/NARRATIVES/The Samson Option Narrative.md @@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ Despite these challenges, [[David Ben-Gurion]], [[Shimon Peres]], and [[Ernst Da ## Going Public -The secrecy around [[Dimona]] was broken in December 1960 by a leak to the New York Times. Washington correspondent [[John W. Finney]] received the tip from [[John A. McCone]], then chairman of the [[United States]] [[Atomic Energy Commission]] (AEC). McCone, reportedly "mad, sputtering mad" over Israeli deception ("They told us it was a textile plant"), intended to expose the French-built reactor. The orchestrated leak allowed the outgoing [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower]] administration to pressure [[Israel]] for an official acknowledgment without direct confrontation. +The secrecy around [[Dimona]] was broken in December 1960 by a leak to the New York Times. Washington correspondent [[John W. Finney]] received the tip from [[John McCone|John A. McCone]], then chairman of the [[United States]] [[Atomic Energy Commission]] (AEC). McCone, reportedly "mad, sputtering mad" over Israeli deception ("They told us it was a textile plant"), intended to expose the French-built reactor. The orchestrated leak allowed the outgoing [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower]] administration to pressure [[Israel]] for an official acknowledgment without direct confrontation. In response, [[David Ben-Gurion]] addressed the Knesset on December 21, stating that the [[Dimona]] reactor was "dedicated entirely to peaceful purposes" and would be open to international scholars upon completion. This statement, a deliberate falsehood crafted by [[Shimon Peres]] and his aides, became [[Israel]]'s official public position. Although [[Ernst David Bergmann]]'s connection to a weapons program was widely known, the [[United States]] government formally accepted [[Israel]]'s assurances. A private State Department circular instructed American embassies to "still the atmosphere," institutionalizing the policy of ambiguity. @@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ Concerns about dual loyalty led to discriminatory practices within U.S. intellig The [[John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]] administration engaged in an intense but ultimately futile struggle with [[Israel]] over its nuclear program. President Kennedy, a committed nonproliferation advocate, was opposed by [[David Ben-Gurion]], who was determined to build a nuclear deterrent. [[Abraham Feinberg]], a major Democratic Party fund-raiser, used his political influence to obstruct American inspection efforts at [[Dimona]]. Feinberg advocated for [[Israel]]'s weapons program in direct appeals to senior officials like [[Robert S. McNamara]] and [[Paul H. Nitze]]. -Despite Kennedy's pressure, including formal letters to [[David Ben-Gurion|Ben-Gurion]] and the dispatch of an inspection team led by nuclear reprocessing expert [[Floyd L. Culler, Jr.]], [[Israel]] successfully obstructed meaningful oversight. The Israelis constructed a "Potemkin Village" at [[Dimona]], with a false control room and staged language barriers, to mislead inspectors. Israeli technicians feigned ignorance of Hebrew to avoid answering questions. The American teams were denied full access to critical areas, such as the reactor core, "for safety reasons." This deception allowed [[Israel]]'s program to proceed. Kennedy's appointment of the staunch anti-proliferator [[John A. McCone]] as [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] director was a counter-move, but McCone's efforts to gather intelligence on [[Dimona]] also failed. +Despite Kennedy's pressure, including formal letters to [[David Ben-Gurion|Ben-Gurion]] and the dispatch of an inspection team led by nuclear reprocessing expert [[Floyd L. Culler, Jr.]], [[Israel]] successfully obstructed meaningful oversight. The Israelis constructed a "Potemkin Village" at [[Dimona]], with a false control room and staged language barriers, to mislead inspectors. Israeli technicians feigned ignorance of Hebrew to avoid answering questions. The American teams were denied full access to critical areas, such as the reactor core, "for safety reasons." This deception allowed [[Israel]]'s program to proceed. Kennedy's appointment of the staunch anti-proliferator [[John McCone|John A. McCone]] as [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] director was a counter-move, but McCone's efforts to gather intelligence on [[Dimona]] also failed. ## Years of Pressure diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Adolfo Chamorro.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Adolfo Chamorro.md index 794bcc9f..05ff8fa4 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Adolfo Chamorro.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Adolfo Chamorro.md @@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ tags: - contra-war summary: Adolfo Chamorro was a Contra leader who attended weapons sales presentations arranged by Ron Lister and Danilo Blandón as part of the Contra supply network. --- -Adolfo Chamorro was a [[Contras|Contra]] leader who attended weapons sales presentations arranged by [[Ron Lister]] and [[Danilo Blandon|Danilo Blandón]] as part of the Contra supply network. Chamorro appeared alongside other top Contra figures including [[Eden Pastora]] and Mariano Montealgre at Lister's weapons demonstrations.[^1] +Adolfo Chamorro was a [[Contras|Contra]] leader who attended weapons sales presentations arranged by [[Ronald Lister|Ron Lister]] and [[Danilo Blandon|Danilo Blandón]] as part of the Contra supply network. Chamorro appeared alongside other top Contra figures including [[Eden Pastora]] and Mariano Montealgre at Lister's weapons demonstrations.[^1] ### Weapons Procurement diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Alexander Acosta.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Alexander Acosta.md index 08a32579..a1a88290 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Alexander Acosta.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Alexander Acosta.md @@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ created: 2026-06-20 updated: 2026-06-20 --- -Alexander Acosta (born January 16, 1969) is an American lawyer who served as United States Attorney for the [[United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida|Southern District of Florida]] from 2005 to 2009 and as United States Secretary of Labor from 2017 to 2019. As US Attorney he supervised the office that negotiated the 2008 non-prosecution agreement with [[Jeffrey Epstein|Jeffrey Epstein]], an arrangement under which Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges in Florida, served a 13-month jail term with work release, and obtained federal immunity for himself and named co-conspirators. A federal judge later ruled that prosecutors violated the [[Crime Victims' Rights Act|Crime Victims' Rights Act]] by concealing the deal from victims, and Acosta resigned as Secretary of Labor in July 2019 amid renewed scrutiny of the agreement.[^1][^2] +Alexander Acosta (born January 16, 1969) is an American lawyer who served as [[United States Attorney]] for the [[United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida|Southern District of Florida]] from 2005 to 2009 and as United States Secretary of Labor from 2017 to 2019. As US Attorney he supervised the office that negotiated the 2008 non-prosecution agreement with [[Jeffrey Epstein|Jeffrey Epstein]], an arrangement under which Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges in Florida, served a 13-month jail term with work release, and obtained federal immunity for himself and named co-conspirators. A federal judge later ruled that prosecutors violated the [[Crime Victims' Rights Act|Crime Victims' Rights Act]] by concealing the deal from victims, and Acosta resigned as Secretary of Labor in July 2019 amid renewed scrutiny of the agreement.[^1][^2] ### The 2008 Non-Prosecution Agreement diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Allen Dulles.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Allen Dulles.md index a596513a..102e1806 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Allen Dulles.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Allen Dulles.md @@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ Dulles submitted his resignation in September 1961; it was formally accepted Nov ### The Warren Commission -On November 29, 1963 - exactly two years after Dulles's forced resignation - President [[Lyndon Johnson]] appointed the Warren Commission to investigate Kennedy's assassination. Among the seven commissioners Johnson named was Allen Dulles despite Kennedy’s firing of Dulles. +On November 29, 1963 - exactly two years after Dulles's forced resignation - President [[Lyndon B. Johnson|Lyndon Johnson]] appointed the Warren Commission to investigate Kennedy's assassination. Among the seven commissioners Johnson named was Allen Dulles despite Kennedy’s firing of Dulles. The investigation was examining whether CIA-connected parties (specifically the anti-Castro exile networks and organized crime figures that Dulles had directly overseen) had any role in the assassination. He was now in a position to shape what evidence the Commission sought, what witnesses it called, and what conclusions it reached regarding the CIA programs he had run. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Alvin Ash.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Alvin Ash.md index da93ff77..9247898c 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Alvin Ash.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Alvin Ash.md @@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ Alvin Wilson Ash was born July 30, 1921, in New York City. He attended Nicholas After graduation, Ash was assigned to the Field Artillery School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and then sent on a first tour of duty to Yokohama, Japan, where he served as a second lieutenant of artillery and came to know Prince and Princess Mikasa personally. He subsequently attended parachute jump school at Fort Benning and was assigned to the 11th Airborne Division. In 1951, he jumped behind Communist lines with the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team as Public Information Officer during the Korean War, managing embedded correspondents and controlling published messaging; his unit was among the first to jump into North Korea.[^1] -After Korea, Ash served in the 504th Field Artillery Battalion in the Panama Canal Zone, as Assistant Professor of Military Science and Tactics at Louisiana State University, and following Air Ground Operations School was stationed at Fort Bragg for Special Warfare School training. He attended the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College and Civil Affairs School, then deployed to [[Vietnam]] in 1962, where he was attached to the U.S. Embassy in Saigon's Special Warfare Branch and received a Medal of Commendation for Meritorious Service. After Vietnam, he was stationed at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, assigned to the Advanced Tactics Projects (Intelligence Division). In December 1964, Ash retired as a Lieutenant Colonel after 24 years of service. +After Korea, Ash served in the 504th Field Artillery Battalion in the Panama Canal Zone, as Assistant Professor of Military Science and Tactics at Louisiana State University, and following Air Ground Operations School was stationed at Fort Bragg for Special Warfare School training. He attended the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College and Civil Affairs School, then deployed to [[Vietnam]] in 1962, where he was attached to the U.S. Embassy in Saigon's Special Warfare Branch and received a Medal of Commendation for Meritorious Service. After Vietnam, he was stationed at [[Fort Belvoir]], Virginia, assigned to the Advanced Tactics Projects (Intelligence Division). In December 1964, Ash retired as a Lieutenant Colonel after 24 years of service. ### Role in PROMIS Development diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Amir al-Saadi.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Amir al-Saadi.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..a9af4574 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Amir al-Saadi.md @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +tags: + - Person + - AmirAlSaadi + - Iraq + - ChemicalWeapons + - MilitaryIndustrialization + - BNLScandal + - HusseinKamel +alias: + - Amer Hamoudi al-Saadi + - Amir Hamudi Hasan al-Sadi + - Amer al-Saadi +summary: "German-trained chemist with an honorary general's rank who ran Iraq's state war industries from 1975, its chemical weapons and missile programs under Hussein Kamel, and was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the BNL case." +location: "Baghdad, Iraq" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Amir Hamudi al-Saadi was a chemist trained in [[Germany]] who in 1975 took over [[Iraq]]'s State Organization for Technical Industries, formerly the State Organization for War Industries. "It was run by a general, Dr. Amer Hamoudi al-Saadi, who had never spent a day in uniform. His rank was honorary, a way of showing the military that the Baath party was the sole dispenser of military merit."[^1] + +### Chemical Weapons + +An East German specialist in chemical warfare, [[Karl Heinz Lohs]], recalled al-Saadi saying to him: "You Germans have great expertise in the killing of Jews with gas. This interests us in the same way. How can this knowledge be used to destroy [[Israel]]?" The phosphate mine at Akashat and the fertilizer complex at Al Qaim were built by Belgian contractors. "We'll build a railroad," al-Saadi said when they asked how the ore would reach the plant. The West German firm [[Thyssen Rheinstahl Technology]] built the "Diyala Chemical Laboratory" at [[Salman Pak]], described as a university project, which made phosphorus pentachloride, "a starting chemical for organic phosphorus chemical agents." During the war with [[Iran]] he was given more resources and told "to accelerate the poison gas programs," to bury the plants where possible, and to scatter new ones across the country. With General [[Amer Rashid]] he worked for nearly a decade on missiles, among them the [[Condor II]] project with [[Argentina]]. "Long enough to hit [[Tehran]]," Rashid said of its range. "Or [[Tel Aviv]]," al-Saadi added.[^1] + +### The Ministry and the Bank + +In the late 1980s he served under [[Hussein Kamel]] in the [[Ministry of Industry and Military Industrialization]]. "Al Saadi was himself a dual operative," the head of the chemicals industry, proud of the petrochemical complex PC2, whose "other job was as the head of Saddam's ballistic missile and chemical weapons programs, reporting to Hussein Kamel and his father-in-law." The ministry's purchases in the West were financed by the [[Atlanta]] branch of the [[Banca Nazionale del Lavoro]]. When the branch manager, [[Christopher Drogoul]], was indicted in February 1991, the government's list of co-conspirators who were not charged named Amir H. al-Saadi of the ministry.[^2][^3] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Timmerman, Kenneth R. *The Death Lobby: How the West Armed Iraq*. Houghton Mifflin, 1991, pp. 36, 49, 51, 105-106, 154. +[^2]: Friedman, Alan. *Spider's Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq*. Bantam, 1993, p. 117. +[^3]: "Government's Response to Defense Motions for List of Unindicted Co-Conspirators," United States v. Drogoul, No. 1:91-CR-078 (N.D. Ga. September 12, 1991), reproduced in House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, Serial No. 103-95. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Barbara Durr.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Barbara Durr.md index 97d73717..f03accdf 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Barbara Durr.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Barbara Durr.md @@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ tags: summary: "Financial Times stringer in Peru who became involved in Ari Ben-Menashe's mission to secure rare minerals for Israel's nuclear program." --- -[[Barbara Durr]] was a stringer for the *Financial Times* of [[London]] in [[Peru]]. She was also a correspondent for [[CBS]] radio.[^1] +[[Barbara Durr]] was a stringer for the *[[Financial Times]]* of [[London]] in [[Peru]]. She was also a correspondent for [[CBS]] radio.[^1] [[Barbara Durr|Durr]] met [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] through [[Peter Jordan]], a photographer. She became involved in [[Ari Ben-Menashe|Ben-Menashe's]] mission to secure rare minerals from [[Peru]] for [[Israel|Israel's]] nuclear program. [[Ari Ben-Menashe|Ben-Menashe]] used her as a journalist to provide protection and to create public proof of [[Abimael Guzman Reynoso|Guzmán's]] existence, as there were rumors of his death.[^1] diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Bill Clinton.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Bill Clinton.md index f79e4359..4bd4a49a 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Bill Clinton.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Bill Clinton.md @@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ Bill Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III on August 19, 1946) is an Americ ### Governor of Arkansas and the Mena Drug Operations -As Governor of Arkansas, Clinton presided over the period when [[Barry Seal]] operated his [[Central Intelligence Agency]]-connected [[cocaine]] smuggling operation at Mena airport. Clinton's close friend [[Danny Ray Lasater]] was convicted as part of a major drug ring in Little Rock, raising questions about what the governor knew about the activities at [[Mena, Arkansas|Mena]].[^16] +As Governor of Arkansas, Clinton presided over the period when [[Barry Seal]] operated his [[Central Intelligence Agency]]-connected [[cocaine]] smuggling operation at Mena airport. Clinton's close friend [[Danny Ray Lasater]] was convicted as part of a major drug ring in [[Little Rock, Arkansas|Little Rock]], raising questions about what the governor knew about the activities at [[Mena, Arkansas|Mena]].[^16] Arkansas state trooper Larry Patterson testified that troopers were aware "that there was large quantities of drugs being flown into the Mena airport" and that "it was a CIA operation." Despite the scale of Seal's operations, which a letter from the Arkansas attorney general to U.S. Attorney General [[Ed Meese]] valued at 3 billion to 5 billion dollars in smuggled drugs, the state government took no action to shut down the operation. Clinton's administration in Arkansas presided over the period when the Mena airport served as a hub for both drug trafficking and Contra supply operations.[^16] diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Bo Gritz.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Bo Gritz.md index fbec1791..6694e73b 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Bo Gritz.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Bo Gritz.md @@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ location: "Enid, Oklahoma" [[Danny Casolaro]] was investigating Gritz's expose of [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] drug trafficking in the [[Golden Triangle]]. Casolaro had requested to meet with a former police officer who had information on Laotian warlord [[Kuhn Sa]]'s Golden Triangle drug trade proposal to the [[United States]].[^1] -Gritz was indicted in May 1987 for using a false passport in the name of Patrick Richard Clark from Vancouver, [[Canada]]. However, at his arraignment in Las Vegas, he claimed to have "proper authorization" for his travels and was subsequently acquitted of the charges.[^1] +Gritz was indicted in May 1987 for using a false passport in the name of Patrick Richard Clark from Vancouver, [[Canada]]. However, at his arraignment in [[Las Vegas]], he claimed to have "proper authorization" for his travels and was subsequently acquitted of the charges.[^1] [[Patrick Moriarty]], the Red Devil fireworks magnate, was subpoenaed to testify on behalf of Gritz at his trial. Moriarty's lawyer, [[Jan Lawrence Handzlik]], stated that Moriarty had paid Gritz to make business trips to [[China]], [[Singapore]], and other parts of [[Asia]]. Gritz claimed his July 1989 trip to [[Asia]] was to negotiate an oil interest he and Moriarty had set up between the [[People's Republic of China]] and [[Indonesia]].[^1] diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Bobby Baker.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Bobby Baker.md index b029c6bc..327b154d 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Bobby Baker.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Bobby Baker.md @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ ---- +--- category: "Intelligence Scandal" tags: - Person @@ -9,9 +9,9 @@ born: 1928-11-12 died: 2017-11-12 location: "Easley, South Carolina" --- -[[Bobby Baker]] was a key figure in a major scandal that emerged in the autumn of 1963. He was made secretary of the Senate Democrats in 1955 by then-Vice President [[Lyndon Johnson]], who referred to Baker as "my strong right arm, the last man I see at night, the first I see in the morning."[^1] +[[Bobby Baker]] was a key figure in a major scandal that emerged in the autumn of 1963. He was made secretary of the Senate Democrats in 1955 by then-Vice President [[Lyndon B. Johnson|Lyndon Johnson]], who referred to Baker as "my strong right arm, the last man I see at night, the first I see in the morning."[^1] -On October 8, 1963, Baker was forced to resign as a Senate investigation into his outside business activities began to reveal numerous questionable deals. Baker's dealings were tightly interwoven with the [[Clint Murchison, Sr.|Murchison family]] and organized crime figures. The Senate investigation was initially prompted by a lawsuit against Baker in 1963 by his associates in a vending company, who alleged that he failed to uphold certain agreements. These associates were primarily Las Vegas gamblers, including [[Edward Levinson]], a lieutenant of Florida mobster [[Meyer Lansky]], whose Fremont Hotel in Vegas was financed through a [[Jimmy Hoffa|Hoffa]] loan.[^1] +On October 8, 1963, Baker was forced to resign as a Senate investigation into his outside business activities began to reveal numerous questionable deals. Baker's dealings were tightly interwoven with the [[Clint Murchison, Sr.|Murchison family]] and organized crime figures. The Senate investigation was initially prompted by a lawsuit against Baker in 1963 by his associates in a vending company, who alleged that he failed to uphold certain agreements. These associates were primarily [[Las Vegas]] gamblers, including [[Edward Levinson]], a lieutenant of Florida mobster [[Meyer Lansky]], whose Fremont Hotel in Vegas was financed through a [[Jimmy Hoffa|Hoffa]] loan.[^1] Baker conducted considerable business with the Mob in Las Vegas, Chicago, Louisiana, and the Caribbean. Through Baker, [[Edward Levinson]] also became acquainted with [[Clint Murchison, Sr.]]. [[Clint W. Murchison, Jr.]] attempted to persuade the Senate Rules Committee in 1964 that his real estate dealings with [[Jimmy Hoffa]] in Florida were " hardly relevant" to the Baker investigation.[^1] diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Carlos Cardoen.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Carlos Cardoen.md index 40c7a2f2..f0948faa 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Carlos Cardoen.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Carlos Cardoen.md @@ -10,25 +10,33 @@ location: "Santa Cruz, Chile" --- [[Carlos Cardoen]] is a Chilean businessman and arms producer, owner of [[Cardoen Industries]]. He comes from an upper-class Chilean family of Italian descent. After attending university in the [[United States|U.S.]] and receiving a degree as a mining engineer, he returned to [[Santiago]], [[Chile]], after [[Augusto Pinochet|General Augusto Pinochet's]] 1973 coup d'état to work for the government-owned [[Chilean Mining Corporation]]. His job involved procuring explosives for mining, which became a lucrative business for him personally due to kickbacks.[^1] -Cardoen later resigned and became a private contractor, securing a deal to supply all blasting equipment to the Chilean Mining Corporation. He then ventured into arms brokering, though initially without success. In 1979, he applied to [[SIBAT]], the Foreign Defense Sales Office of the [[Israel|Israeli]] Ministry of Defense, for a license to sell [[Israel|Israeli]] arms in [[South America]]. His request was denied due to his lack of experience and established political connections.[^1] +Cardoen later resigned and became a private contractor, securing a deal to supply all blasting equipment to the Chilean Mining Corporation. He then ventured into arms brokering, though initially without success. In 1979, he applied to [[SIBAT]], the Foreign Defense Sales Office of the [[Israel|Israeli]] Ministry of Defense, for a license to sell Israeli arms in [[South America]]. His request was denied due to his lack of experience and established political connections.[^1] -After being rejected by [[Israel]], Cardoen obtained a brokering license from the [[Armscor|ARMSCOR]] (South Africa's government weapons manufacturer) with the help of the Chilean ambassador to [[South Africa]]. He then secured loans from Chilean banks and began operating as an arms producer and broker.[^1] +After being rejected by Israel, Cardoen obtained a brokering license from the [[Armscor|ARMSCOR]] (South Africa's government weapons manufacturer) with the help of the Chilean ambassador to [[South Africa]]. He then secured loans from Chilean banks and began operating as an arms producer and broker.[^1] -By 1985, Cardoen was selling arms to [[Iraq]], with the help of [[Armscor|ARMSCOR]] and support from individuals connected to the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]], such as [[Alan Sanders]] of [[ITICO]]. He received blueprints for cluster bombs from Sanders and, despite a [[United Nations]] arms embargo against [[Chile]], produced these bombs with a covert [[United States|U.S.]] license. [[Israel]] was interested in acquiring these bombs.[^1] +By 1985, Cardoen was selling arms to [[Iraq]], with the help of ARMSCOR and support from individuals connected to the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]], such as [[Alan Sanders]] of [[ITICO]]. He received blueprints for cluster bombs from Sanders and, despite a [[United Nations]] arms embargo against Chile, produced these bombs with a covert U.S. license. Israel was interested in acquiring these bombs.[^1] -In 1985, [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] approached [[Alan Sanders]] to purchase cluster bombs for [[Israel]], and was informed that Cardoen would sell to anyone who paid him. A few weeks later, [[Israel]] received cluster bombs from [[Santiago]] via diplomatic crate.[^1] +In 1985, [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] approached Alan Sanders to purchase cluster bombs for Israel, and was informed that Cardoen would sell to anyone who paid him. A few weeks later, Israel received cluster bombs from Santiago via diplomatic crate.[^1] -[[Robert Gates]], then [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] deputy director for intelligence, was approached by [[Nachum Admoni]] ([[Mossad]] director) regarding [[United States|U.S.]] support for Cardoen. Admoni expressed [[Israel|Israeli]] concerns about the support for [[Iraq]], especially through [[Chile]] and [[South Africa]]. By this time, Cardoen owned two chemical weapons plants in [[Santiago]], a cluster bomb factory in cooperation with [[Chile]]'s military, and a third chemical weapons plant in [[Paraguay]]. He was also building a chemical weapons plant outside [[Baghdad]].[^1] +[[Robert Gates]], then CIA deputy director for intelligence, was approached by [[Nachum Admoni]] ([[Mossad]] director) regarding U.S. support for Cardoen. Admoni expressed Israeli concerns about the support for Iraq, especially through Chile and South Africa. By this time, Cardoen owned two chemical weapons plants in Santiago, a cluster bomb factory in cooperation with Chile's military, and a third chemical weapons plant in [[Paraguay]]. He was also building a chemical weapons plant outside [[Baghdad]].[^1] -Cardoen's [[Santiago]]-produced chemical weapons and those from [[Paraguay]] used artillery cups from [[West Germany]], procured by [[Ihsan Barbouti]]. These materials were shipped to [[Baghdad]] by [[Iraqi Airways]] cargo planes. Cardoen used [[United States|U.S.]] banks, such as the [[Valley National Bank of Arizona]], to finance his sales and obtained raw materials for chemical manufacturing from a factory in [[Boca Raton]], [[Florida]]. The [[Gamma Corporation]], a [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] cut-out, sold fuses for the cluster bombs to Cardoen.[^1] +Cardoen's Santiago-produced chemical weapons and those from Paraguay used artillery cups from [[West Germany]], procured by [[Ihsan Barbouti]]. These materials were shipped to Baghdad by [[Iraqi Airways]] cargo planes. Cardoen used U.S. banks, such as the [[Valley National Bank of Arizona]], to finance his sales and obtained raw materials for chemical manufacturing from a factory in [[Boca Raton]], [[Florida]]. The [[Gamma Corporation]], a CIA cut-out, sold fuses for the cluster bombs to Cardoen.[^1] -In late 1986, [[Israel]] expressed concern about arms shipments to [[Iraq]], with [[Yitzhak Shamir]] threatening to go to [[United States|Congress]]. [[Robert Gates]] called a meeting in [[Santiago]] to calm the [[Israel|Israelis]]. Attendees included Cardoen, Gates, Senator [[John Tower]], [[Pieter Van Der Westhuizen|Gen. Pieter Van Der Westhuizen]] (South African Military Intelligence), and [[Rodolfo Stange|Gen. Rodolfo Stange]] (Chilean Carabineros). At this meeting, [[United States|U.S.]] officials made it clear they intended to maintain the arms channel to [[Iraq]] to bring [[Iraq]] into their sphere of influence, assuring [[Israel]] it would not be harmed. Cardoen continued to supply chemical weapons and cluster bombs to [[Iraq]] despite [[Israel|Israeli]] concerns.[^1] +In late 1986, Israel expressed concern about arms shipments to Iraq, with [[Yitzhak Shamir]] threatening to go to Congress. Robert Gates called a meeting in Santiago to calm the Israelis. Attendees included Cardoen, Gates, Senator [[John Tower]], [[Pieter Van Der Westhuizen|Gen. Pieter Van Der Westhuizen]] (South African Military Intelligence), and [[Rodolfo Stange|Gen. Rodolfo Stange]] (Chilean Carabineros). At this meeting, U.S. officials made it clear they intended to maintain the arms channel to Iraq to bring Iraq into their sphere of influence, assuring Israel it would not be harmed. Cardoen continued to supply chemical weapons and cluster bombs to Iraq despite Israeli concerns.[^1] -In September 1988, [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] was sent to [[Chile]] to confront Cardoen. Ben-Menashe offered Cardoen a deal: [[Israel]] would license him to produce [[Uzi]]s, [[Galil assault rifles]], artillery shells, and mortars, and exclusively sell these materials throughout [[South America]], in exchange for stopping his chemical trade with [[Iraq]]. Cardoen was given two weeks to consider the offer. During this visit, Cardoen introduced Ben-Menashe to [[Mark Thatcher]], implying Thatcher was involved in his business.[^1] +In September 1988, Ari Ben-Menashe was sent to Chile to confront Cardoen. Ben-Menashe offered Cardoen a deal: Israel would license him to produce [[Uzi]]s, [[Galil assault rifles]], artillery shells, and mortars, and exclusively sell these materials throughout South America, in exchange for stopping his chemical trade with Iraq. Cardoen was given two weeks to consider the offer. During this visit, Cardoen introduced Ben-Menashe to [[Mark Thatcher]], implying Thatcher was involved in his business.[^1] -Cardoen was furious about [[Ari Ben-Menashe|Ben-Menashe's]] visit to his plant in [[Paraguay]] and his attempts to stop the trade. He claimed to have the backing of the [[United States|Americans]] and the Chilean government, and threatened [[Israel]] if they interfered. He also revealed that [[Robert Gates|Gates]]'s office provided technology directly from the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]], and that [[Ihsan Barbouti]] was a key link in his operations. He mentioned [[Alan Bond]] and British investors as backers.[^1] +Cardoen was furious about Ben-Menashe's visit to his plant in Paraguay and his attempts to stop the trade. He claimed to have the backing of the Americans and the Chilean government, and threatened Israel if they interfered. He also revealed that Gates's office provided technology directly from the CIA, and that Ihsan Barbouti was a key link in his operations. He mentioned [[Alan Bond]] and British investors as backers.[^1] -In February 1989, [[Carlos Cardoen|Cardoen]]'s plant in [[Paraguay]] was not closed down, thanks to [[Andres Rodriguez|President Andres Rodriguez]], who continued to rule the country with [[United States|U.S.]] blessing. Charges were filed against Cardoen in [[Miami]] in April 1992 by the [[United States|U.S.]] Customs Service following newspaper exposés of his involvement with [[Iraq]].[^1] +In February 1989, Cardoen's plant in Paraguay was not closed down, thanks to [[Andres Rodriguez|President Andres Rodriguez]], who continued to rule the country with U.S. blessing. Charges were filed against Cardoen in [[Miami]] in April 1992 by the U.S. Customs Service following newspaper exposés of his involvement with Iraq.[^1] + +### Iquique and Baghdad + +Cardoen's plant at [[Iquique]] turned out about a thousand cluster bombs a month with labor paid the equivalent of ninety dollars a month, and he priced them at about 7,000 dollars each, some 19,000 dollars below his European competitors. "I'll have to build [[Jimmy Carter]] a statue," he said. "If it hadn't been for the U.S. embargo we would never have invested in arms production here." His agent for Iraq, [[Nasser Beydoun]], who later sued him for 30 million dollars in commissions, carried his offer to Baghdad: "We can provide you with our cluster bombs at the lowest possible price." The first shipment, worth 21 million dollars, reached Iraq early in 1984, and Iraq came to supply about three quarters of his arms exports of 100 million dollars a year. Two American munitions plants were classified by American officials as scrap metal so that they could be exported to Chile. His Washington representative, Lieutenant Colonel Carlos Rickertson, said: "It should have been quite evident to them that this was U.S. equipment because the placards on the bomb-making presses identified them."[^2] + +A former contractor for the CIA described Cardoen as "an all-purpose asset, designed to be one of those offshore stockpilers of military equipment who could be used by the CIA to ship arms to the Afghan rebels, to the boys in Angola, or anywhere the U.S. needed some help." [[Howard Teicher]] of the [[National Security Council]] staff said of Robert Gates: "He was tight with Casey and with the [[White House]]. He was one of those who helped get things done." An associate of Cardoen, Robert Johnson, said he saw Gates arrive at Cardoen's house near Miami in the summer of 1986: "He and Cardoen had a series of meetings in 1986 and 1987. We needed an offshore supplier, and the Chileans were very cooperative." 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." A subcontractor of his bought 330,000 power supplies from [[International Signal and Control|ISC]] and sent them on to a proximity fuse factory near Baghdad. The British journalist [[Jonathan Moyle]], who was inquiring into Cardoen's helicopter project, was found dead in a Santiago hotel on March 31, 1990.[^2] ### Footnotes + [^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 1992. +[^2]: Friedman, Alan. *Spider's Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq*. Bantam, 1993, pp. 46-54, 64. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Cindy Hanin Bentov.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Cindy Hanin Bentov.md index c5a78707..fbe247e9 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Cindy Hanin Bentov.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Cindy Hanin Bentov.md @@ -2,12 +2,28 @@ category: "Intelligence & Government" tags: - Person + - CherylBentov + - Mossad + - MordechaiVanunu - Israel -summary: "Cindy Hanin Bentov (a pseudonym) was a Mossad agent." + - Florida +alias: + - Cheryl Bentov + - Cheryl Hanin + - Cindy +summary: "Florida-born Mossad agent Cheryl Hanin Bentov, who under the name Cindy lured Mordechai Vanunu from London to Rome in September 1986, identified by the Sunday Times through a London hotel register." +updated: 2026-09-21 --- -Cindy Hanin Bentov (a pseudonym) was a [[Mossad]] agent. She enticed [[Mordecai Vanunu]] to leave [[London]] for [[Rome]] a few days before the publication of his story in the *London Sunday Times*. Once in [[Rome]], Vanunu was drugged and returned to [[Israel]] by ship to stand trial.[^1] +Cheryl Hanin Bentov, who used the name Cindy, was a [[Mossad]] agent. She enticed [[Mordecai Vanunu]] to leave [[London]] for [[Rome]] a few days before the publication of his story in the *London Sunday Times*. Once in Rome, Vanunu was drugged and returned to [[Israel]] by ship to stand trial.[^1] + +### Identification + +The passenger list of the flight to Rome on September 30, 1986, showed Vanunu in seat 6F and "a Miss C. Hanin" beside him. A Cynthia Hanin of Longwood, [[Florida]], was found and proved to be a different woman, who had married a Randy Hanin a month after the abduction. [[Peter Hounam]] of [[The Sunday Times]] then found that "a Cheryl Hanin had stayed at the Eccleston Hotel in London just before [[Oscar Guerrero]] had checked in," giving the Hanin family address and American nationality. "The woman who lured Vanunu to Rome used a false identity, that of her sister-in-law."[^2] + +Cheryl Hanin, Randy's sister, was the daughter of Stanley Hanin, owner of Allied District Tire Stores, who later sold the business for 32 million dollars. She "returned to Israel in 1978 and enlisted for the Israeli Army," joined a kibbutz in [[Galilee]], and in March 1985 married [[Ofer Bentov]], "a former major in Israeli military intelligence" who "had been active in West Africa." A family acquaintance said: "Presumably, she was recruited into Mossad from the army." Asked about his service, Bentov said: "It is not true. I was a chauffeur in the army." Her father told the newspaper: "I haven't seen her for years. Where is she, what's she doing?" Vanunu petitioned Israel's High Court to have investigated "the possibility that Cindy was an American citizen working for the CIA." People close to the case in Israel held that one reason for the secrecy around it was "the fear that an American involvement in the abduction might be exposed." She has not returned to [[United Kingdom|Britain]], where she could be charged with conspiracy to kidnap.[^2] ### Footnotes -[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 15. \ No newline at end of file +[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 15. +[^2]: Hounam, Peter. *The Woman from Mossad: The Story of Mordechai Vanunu and the Israeli Nuclear Program*. Vision Paperbacks, 1999, pp. 88-98, 127-129. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Conor Climo.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Conor Climo.md index 1d380f36..da018309 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Conor Climo.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Conor Climo.md @@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ updated: 2026-05-22 summary: "Conor Climo was a Las Vegas white supremacist and Feuerkrieg Division member sentenced to two years in federal prison in 2020 for possessing bomb-making components after an FBI undercover operation documented his plans to attack a Las Vegas synagogue and LGBTQ bar." --- -Conor Climo was a resident of [[Las Vegas, Nevada]] who communicated with members of [[Feuerkrieg Division]] beginning in late 2017 and developed plans to conduct arson and explosive attacks against Jewish and LGBTQ targets in the Las Vegas area. He was arrested on 8 August 2019 by the [[FBI]]'s [[Las Vegas Joint Terrorism Task Force]] and pleaded guilty in February 2020 to federal charges in the [[District of Nevada]]. He was sentenced to two years in federal prison on 13 November 2020 by U.S. District Judge [[James Mahan]].[^1] +Conor Climo was a resident of [[Las Vegas, Nevada]] who communicated with members of [[Feuerkrieg Division]] beginning in late 2017 and developed plans to conduct arson and explosive attacks against Jewish and LGBTQ targets in the [[Las Vegas]] area. He was arrested on 8 August 2019 by the [[FBI]]'s [[Las Vegas Joint Terrorism Task Force]] and pleaded guilty in February 2020 to federal charges in the [[District of Nevada]]. He was sentenced to two years in federal prison on 13 November 2020 by U.S. District Judge [[James Mahan]].[^1] ### Background and FKD Contact diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Danny Casolaro.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Danny Casolaro.md index 789f4e8e..be1bdabc 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Danny Casolaro.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Danny Casolaro.md @@ -66,11 +66,11 @@ The Bua Report, completed in March 1993, concluded that the physical evidence "s FBI task force members assigned to examine Casolaro's death privately "questioned the conclusion of suicide" and recommended further investigation; expressing doubt about the ruling reportedly "risked one's career" within the Bureau as of December 1992. FBI documents related to Casolaro remain partially withheld from public release under national security exemptions, while the Bureau simultaneously claims the files are missing - a contradiction noted by MuckRock journalists who filed FOIA requests.[^1] -In early 1994, the Department of Justice announced it was opening "a nationwide investigation" into Casolaro's death, ordered by associate attorney general [[Webb Hubbell]]. Shortly thereafter, Hubbell pleaded guilty to crimes committed while an Arkansas lawyer and resigned from DOJ. Whether the Casolaro investigation proceeded or produced findings was never made public.[^3] +In early 1994, the Department of Justice announced it was opening "a nationwide investigation" into Casolaro's death, ordered by associate attorney general [[Webster Hubbell|Webb Hubbell]]. Shortly thereafter, Hubbell pleaded guilty to crimes committed while an Arkansas lawyer and resigned from DOJ. Whether the Casolaro investigation proceeded or produced findings was never made public.[^3] ### Dark Alliance Investigation -Casolaro's investigation intersected with the drug-trafficking networks documented by journalist Gary Webb. He was investigating connections between the Cabazon Indian tribe, Wackenhut International, and weapons manufacturing for Third World armies including the [[Contras]] in Nicaragua. He had told friends he was convinced that "spies, arms merchants and others were using the reservation as a low-profile site on which to develop weapons for Third World armies, including the Nicaraguan Contras." The [[San Francisco]] Chronicle reported that Contra leader [[Eden Pastora]] had visited a firing range near the reservation for a weapons demonstration in 1981. Casolaro's notebooks also contained the name of former CIA officer [[John Vandewerker]] in connection with activities at the Cabazon reservation.[^3] +Casolaro's investigation intersected with the drug-trafficking networks documented by journalist Gary Webb. He was investigating connections between the Cabazon Indian tribe, [[Wackenhut International]], and weapons manufacturing for Third World armies including the [[Contras]] in Nicaragua. He had told friends he was convinced that "spies, arms merchants and others were using the reservation as a low-profile site on which to develop weapons for Third World armies, including the Nicaraguan Contras." The [[San Francisco]] Chronicle reported that Contra leader [[Eden Pastora]] had visited a firing range near the reservation for a weapons demonstration in 1981. Casolaro's notebooks also contained the name of former CIA officer [[John Vandewerker]] in connection with activities at the Cabazon reservation.[^3] ### Bibliography diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/E. Lawrence Barcella, Jr..md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/E. Lawrence Barcella, Jr..md index 2b034ca7..86730bee 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/E. Lawrence Barcella, Jr..md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/E. Lawrence Barcella, Jr..md @@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ tags: - Lawyer summary: "E. Lawrence Barcella, Jr. served as chief counsel for the House October Surprise Task Force from 1992 to 1993, reportedly urging a three-month extension of the investigation when substantial new evidence arrived in the final weeks, a request that Task Force co-chair Lee Hamilton declined." --- -E. Lawrence Barcella, Jr. is a Washington, D.C. attorney and former federal prosecutor. He served as chief counsel for the House [[October Surprise]] Task Force, the bipartisan investigative panel co-chaired by Rep. [[Lee Hamilton]] (D-Indiana) and Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Illinois) that investigated allegations that the [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]] campaign had secretly negotiated with [[Iran]] to delay the 1980 hostage release. +[[E. Lawrence Barcella]], Jr. is a Washington, D.C. attorney and former federal prosecutor. He served as chief counsel for the House [[October Surprise]] Task Force, the bipartisan investigative panel co-chaired by Rep. [[Lee Hamilton]] (D-Indiana) and Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Illinois) that investigated allegations that the [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]] campaign had secretly negotiated with [[Iran]] to delay the 1980 hostage release. ### October Surprise Task Force diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Edward Gerrity.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Edward Gerrity.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..fbc87e7d --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Edward Gerrity.md @@ -0,0 +1,38 @@ +--- +category: "Other" +tags: + - Person + - EdwardGerrity + - ITT + - Chile + - CIA + - WilliamBroe + - Graymail +alias: + - Edward J. Gerrity + - Ned Gerrity + - E.J. Gerrity +summary: "ITT senior vice president to whom the CIA's William Broe proposed economic pressure on Chile in September 1970, charged in 1978 with lying to the Senate in a case dropped on national security grounds." +location: "New York City" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Edward J. Gerrity Jr. of [[Larchmont, New York]], was senior vice president of the [[ITT Corporation|International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation]] for corporate relations and advertising and its chief lobbyist.[^1] + +### The Meeting of September 29, 1970 + +[[William Broe]], chief of the Western Hemisphere Division of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]], testified in 1973 that he called on Gerrity in [[New York City|New York]] on the instruction of Director [[Richard Helms]]. "I explored with Mr. Gerrity the feasibility of possible actions to apply some economic pressure on Chile." The measures were banks "not renewing credits or delaying in doing so," companies "dragging their feet in spending money and making deliveries and in shipping spare parts," "creating pressure on savings and loan institutions in Chile so that they would have to shut their doors," and "withdrawing all technical help." Broe gave him a list of companies that could "participate." The purpose, he said, was to sway Christian Democratic congressmen about to vote for [[Salvador Allende]]. "There was a thesis that additional deterioration in the economic situation could influence a number of Christian Democratic Congressmen." Asked whether the object was unrest that would bring in the military, he answered: "No." He said Gerrity was negative about the plan. "I told Mr. Gerrity that ITT was the only company that contacted the Agency and expressed an interest in the current situation in Chile."[^2] + +Gerrity cabled [[Harold Geneen]] the same day that [[John Guilfoyle]] of ITT had sounded other companies, which "had been given advice which is directly contrary to the suggestions I received." Guilfoyle testified that he had called William Quigley of [[Anaconda Copper|Anaconda]]. Quigley swore he had been in Missouri with his mother and was never called. [[John McCone]], the former director then on ITT's board, testified that such ideas were "never approved by Mr. Helms" and said of Broe: "I think he was exploring." Gerrity had earlier reported to Geneen that the recommendations of [[Hal Hendrix]] and [[Robert Berrellez]] had "been confirmed." The agency's review of the hearings named him and [[William Merriam]] "the two most evasive and stumbling witnesses."[^2][^3] + +### United States v. Gerrity + +On March 20, 1978, at 54, he was charged with six counts of perjury, obstruction, and false statements. Geneen was not. In August the government declined to pursue three of the counts, one of them inducing another ITT officer to lie, because "the protection of the information is vital to safeguard national security and U.S. foreign intelligence interests." The rest were dropped on March 7, 1979, a month after the case against Berrellez.[^1][^4] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Volz, Joseph. "2 Top ITT Aides Charged With Perjury on Chile Acts," *New York Daily News,* March 21, 1978. CIA Reading Room, CIA-RDP09T00207R001000030068-8. +[^2]: U.S. Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, Subcommittee on Multinational Corporations. *Multinational Corporations and United States Foreign Policy,* part 1, The International Telephone and Telegraph Company and Chile, 1970-71. 93rd Cong., 1st sess., 1973, pp. 250-252 and testimony of March 27, 1973. +[^3]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum for Chief, Western Hemisphere Division, "Text of Senate ITT Hearings: 20, 21 and 22 March 1973," March 26, 1973. +[^4]: "3 Charges Dropped Against ITT Executive," *Washington Star,* August 9, 1978. CIA Reading Room, CIA-RDP09T00207R001000030079-6; Babcock, Charles R. "ITT Indictment Is Cut Back," *Washington Post,* August 19, 1978; "U.S. Drops ITT Official's Perjury Case," *Washington Post,* March 8, 1979. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Enrique Bermudez.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Enrique Bermudez.md index 17b48d39..8d6b24a4 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Enrique Bermudez.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Enrique Bermudez.md @@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ Bermúdez commanded the FDN throughout the Contra war and was a close friend of Before the revolution, Bermúdez served in the Nicaraguan National Guard under Somoza.[^4] In 1965 he was deputy commander of an infantry company Somoza sent to support a [[United States|U.S.]]-led invasion of the [[Dominican Republic]] to suppress a leftist political movement. -Bermúdez had been in the U.S. since 1975, first as a student attending courses on subversion and counterinsurgency at the Inter-American Defense College in Washington and later as the Nicaraguan government's liaison to the American military. The Americans considered him one of six Guardia officers they recommended to head the National Guard during the final days of the Somoza regime. The [[State Department]] considered Bermúdez a safe choice because he had spent most of the revolution in Washington and could not be held responsible for the Guardia's human rights violations. Somoza picked someone else. When the Somoza government collapsed, Bermúdez began a new career as a truck driver, delivering Newsweek magazines.[^4] +Bermúdez had been in the U.S. since 1975, first as a student attending courses on subversion and counterinsurgency at the [[Inter-American Defense College]] in Washington and later as the Nicaraguan government's liaison to the American military. The Americans considered him one of six Guardia officers they recommended to head the National Guard during the final days of the Somoza regime. The [[State Department]] considered Bermúdez a safe choice because he had spent most of the revolution in Washington and could not be held responsible for the Guardia's human rights violations. Somoza picked someone else. When the Somoza government collapsed, Bermúdez began a new career as a truck driver, delivering Newsweek magazines.[^4] ### Recruitment by the CIA diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Fidel Castro.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Fidel Castro.md index faf8c985..5e74c366 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Fidel Castro.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Fidel Castro.md @@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ born: 1926-08-13 died: 2016-11-25 location: "Birán, Oriente, Cuba" --- -Fidel Castro was the leader of [[Cuba]]. In 1960, the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] initiated a series of assassination attempts against him. These operations involved [[Robert Maheu]] as a "cut-out," who contacted organized-crime leaders [[Sam Giancana]], [[Johnny Rosselli]], and [[Santos Trafficante, Jr.]]. These individuals, in turn, enlisted the direct assistance of Cuban exiles in the assassination plots.[^1] +Fidel Castro was the leader of [[Cuba]]. In 1960, the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] initiated a series of assassination attempts against him. These operations involved [[Robert Maheu]] as a "cut-out," who contacted organized-crime leaders [[Sam Giancana]], [[Johnny Roselli|Johnny Rosselli]], and [[Santos Trafficante, Jr.]]. These individuals, in turn, enlisted the direct assistance of Cuban exiles in the assassination plots.[^1] ### Dark Alliance Investigation diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Gerald Bull.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Gerald Bull.md index 9a497882..9bd8ba9b 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Gerald Bull.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Gerald Bull.md @@ -14,11 +14,11 @@ location: "North Bay, Ontario, Canada" ### Israeli Artillery Contracts -[[Israel]] had contracted with Dr. Gerald Bull for the supply of specially configured artillery shells whose range was extended as much as 25 percent. American weapons experts understood that given the inaccuracy of an artillery shell fired at such long range, [[Israel]]'s real goal had to be the use of nuclear weapons. One American expert noted that if a shell is going forty-five miles and precision is three percent of range, it would hit nothing much with a high explosive shell, implying the need for a nuclear weapon. This information, including suggestions that [[Israel]] had targeted [[Damascus]] with these special cannons during the [[Yom Kippur War]], was reported to U.S. intelligence.[^2] +[[Israel]] had contracted with Dr. Gerald Bull for the supply of specially configured artillery shells whose range was extended as much as 25 percent. American weapons experts understood that given the inaccuracy of an artillery shell fired at such long range, Israel's real goal had to be the use of nuclear weapons. One American expert noted that if a shell is going forty-five miles and precision is three percent of range, it would hit nothing much with a high explosive shell, implying the need for a nuclear weapon. This information, including suggestions that Israel had targeted [[Damascus]] with these special cannons during the [[Yom Kippur War]], was reported to U.S. intelligence.[^2] ### South African Connections -In 1981, Bull approached [[Israel Military Industries]] in [[Israel]] hoping to sell his project, but they were more interested in missile technology. In 1983, [[Mark Thatcher]], son of British Prime Minister [[Margaret Thatcher]], introduced Bull to [[Pieter Van Der Westhuizen|Gen. Pieter Van Der Westhuizen]], chief of [[South African Defense Force]], who in turn connected him with [[Armscor|ARMSCOR]]. ARMSCOR contracted Bull for his artillery project.[^1] +In 1981, Bull approached [[Israel Military Industries]] in Israel hoping to sell his project, but they were more interested in missile technology. In 1983, [[Mark Thatcher]], son of British Prime Minister [[Margaret Thatcher]], introduced Bull to [[Pieter Van Der Westhuizen|Gen. Pieter Van Der Westhuizen]], chief of [[South African Defense Force]], who in turn connected him with [[Armscor|ARMSCOR]]. ARMSCOR contracted Bull for his artillery project.[^1] ### Arrest and Relocation @@ -26,14 +26,25 @@ Bull was later arrested by the [[United States|U.S.]] Attorney for the Southern ### Iraqi Supergun Project -He was commissioned to develop his supergun for [[Iraq]], with funding channeled through [[Carlos Cardoen|Carlos Cardoen's]] financial network. Bull believed his supergun would work and would bring peace by creating a balance of terror, arguing that [[Iraq]] only sought to defend itself against potential attacks from the [[United States|Americans]] and [[Israel|Israelis]].[^1] +He was commissioned to develop his supergun for [[Iraq]], with funding channeled through [[Carlos Cardoen|Carlos Cardoen's]] financial network. Bull believed his supergun would work and would bring peace by creating a balance of terror, arguing that Iraq only sought to defend itself against potential attacks from the Americans and Israelis.[^1] + +### Space Research and Baghdad + +After working for the Pentagon in the 1960s on a gun-launch project Bull set up the [[Space Research Corporation]] in northern [[Vermont]] to sell a long-range "base-bleed" artillery shell. According to one account the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] "contacted Bull and asked him to sell advanced weaponry to South Africa in order to preserve Western strategic interests," and he took a development contract with Armscor. "As the CIA came under greater Congressional scrutiny in the late 1970s, however, it appears that they abandoned Bull. He was arrested for breaking the UN arms embargo on South Africa and sentenced to six months in jail."[^3] + +His first contact with Iraq was in 1982, when the arms dealer [[Sarkis Soghanalian]] took him to [[Baghdad]]. He came to know Lieutenant General [[Amir al-Saadi]], and put his idea to al-Saadi's superior, [[Hussein Kamel]]. "For just $10 million, Bull told Hussein Kamil, the gun could be built right in his own country." Kamel signed for four. The large version had a bore of 1,000 millimeters and a barrel over 107 meters long and needed ten tons of propellant for a shot. Bull said he had the drawings of the German "Paris Gun" of 1918 "from the daughter of one of the German engineers who designed it." He set up branches of his company in Brussels, [[Geneva]], and [[Montreal]], a shell called the Advanced Technology Institute, and sold 45 percent of SRC International to the Belgian explosives maker [[Poudreries Réunies de Belgique]].[^3] + +The Iraqi holding company in [[London]], the [[Technology Development Group]], which owned [[Matrix Churchill]], "had a partnership with Dr. Gerald Bull's Space Research Corporation, and it financed purchases for Bull thanks to loans from BNL Atlanta." An executive of Matrix Churchill, [[Mark Gutteridge]], "first told [[MI5]] about Bull and his supergun in May 1988," and his reports "had been passed straight to the CIA." A plan agreed between Bull and the British fuse maker [[Allivane]] was "replete with references to detonators, fuses, and artillery projectiles." "We informed the Defence Ministry of exactly what we were doing," a former Allivane manager said. "Somebody up there in the government loved us." On February 6, 1990, the [[Central Bank of Iraq]] opened a credit of 2.9 million dollars through Space Research to an American fuse maker. Bull was shot dead at his door in Brussels the next month.[^4] ### Israeli Intervention and Assassination -In late November 1988, [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] met with Bull in his [[Brussels]] apartment to persuade him to stop his supergun project. Ben-Menashe offered Bull $5 million to scrap the project, but Bull refused. Ben-Menashe warned him about the "terrible accidents" happening to various people involved in similar activities.[^1] +In late November 1988, [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] met with Bull in his Brussels apartment to persuade him to stop his supergun project. Ben-Menashe offered Bull $5 million to scrap the project, but Bull refused. Ben-Menashe warned him about the "terrible accidents" happening to various people involved in similar activities.[^1] -[[Gerald Bull]] was named as an enemy of the state by an [[Israel|Israeli]] intelligence committee and was placed on an execution list, along with [[Ihsan Barbouti]] and 12 other scientists. He was killed in March 1990 in his [[Brussels]] apartment, an act attributed to [[Israel|Israeli]] intelligence.[^1] +Gerald Bull was named as an enemy of the state by an Israeli intelligence committee and was placed on an execution list, along with [[Ihsan Barbouti]] and 12 other scientists. He was killed in March 1990 in his Brussels apartment, an act attributed to Israeli intelligence.[^1] ### Footnotes -[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. _Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network_. TrineDay, 1992. [^2]: Hersh, Seymour M. _The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy_. Random House, 1991. Chapter 16. \ No newline at end of file +[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. _Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network_. TrineDay, 1992. +[^2]: Hersh, Seymour M. _The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy_. Random House, 1991. Chapter 16. +[^3]: Timmerman, Kenneth R. *The Death Lobby: How the West Armed Iraq*. Houghton Mifflin, 1991, pp. 96-97, 283-284, 298-299. +[^4]: Friedman, Alan. *Spider's Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq*. Bantam, 1993, pp. 78-79, 116, 250. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Henry B. Gonzalez.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Henry B. Gonzalez.md index 921978e5..c420ff35 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Henry B. Gonzalez.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Henry B. Gonzalez.md @@ -44,9 +44,11 @@ On May 18, 1992, he said: "When the BNL offices were raided in Atlanta in August On September 25 he described a brass factory worth 40 million dollars sold to Iraq by [[SerVaas Inc.]] of [[Indianapolis]] under a contract negotiated with [[Safa al-Habobi]] and financed by the Atlanta branch. Its owner had told the committee in April 1991 that the brass was "solely for commercial uses." Gonzalez produced a memorandum of July 31, 1988, showing that the Iraqi purchaser meant it for cartridge cases and artillery fuses, and quoted the owner's remark to the [[Indianapolis Star]] in August 1992: "Probably the only thing they are doing is melting the brass down." President [[George H.W. Bush]]'s report to Congress of September 1991 had stated that "United States suppliers did not contribute directly to Iraq's conventional or nonconventional weapons capability."[^5] +In the White House he was dismissed as a "flake." He told the House: "We are obstructed blatantly, premeditatedly and coldly, and in defiance of the plain constitutional prerogative of the Congress to know." When he learned that lawyers from the National Security Council staff and other agencies were meeting under [[C. Nicholas Rostow|Nicholas Rostow]] to coordinate what Congress would be given, he named them "the Rostow gang." "It used to be that cover-ups were sort of ad hoc events, a mad scramble to provide damage control for the moment. The Rostow gang advances the notion that cover-up mechanisms have become an integral cog in the machinery of this administration." His chief investigator, [[Dennis Kane]], recalled Rostow telling him "it would be a cold day in hell before Congress got NSD 26 or any of those documents."[^6] + ### The Ethics Resolution -His statement of July 7, 1992, drew on a [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] document titled "Iraq-[[Italy]], Repercussions of the BNL-Atlanta Scandal." Director [[Robert Gates]] wrote to him that it "included information from a TOP SECRET compartmented and particularly sensitive document" of September 4, 1989, and that "because of the sources and methods underlying that information, I will ask for a damage assessment to determine the impact of the disclosure." Admiral [[William Studeman]] wrote that the statements of July 21 and 27 were drawn from similar material. Attorney General [[William Barr]] told the committee that the executive branch would stop supplying classified documents without guarantees. On August 4 the minority leader, [[Bob Michel]], introduced a resolution calling for an ethics investigation, arguing that the proper course was a vote in secret session. "I believe that Mr. Gonzalez' conduct does not reflect creditably on the House," he said. He was not censured, and he continued the statements into 1993.[^6] +His statement of July 7, 1992, drew on a [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] document titled "Iraq-[[Italy]], Repercussions of the BNL-Atlanta Scandal." Director [[Robert Gates]] wrote to him that it "included information from a TOP SECRET compartmented and particularly sensitive document" of September 4, 1989, and that "because of the sources and methods underlying that information, I will ask for a damage assessment to determine the impact of the disclosure." Admiral [[William Studeman]] wrote that the statements of July 21 and 27 were drawn from similar material. Attorney General [[William Barr]] told the committee that the executive branch would stop supplying classified documents without guarantees. On August 4 the minority leader, [[Bob Michel]], introduced a resolution calling for an ethics investigation, arguing that the proper course was a vote in secret session. "I believe that Mr. Gonzalez' conduct does not reflect creditably on the House," he said. He was not censured, and he continued the statements into 1993.[^7] The Kennedy Library gave him its Profile in Courage Award on September 11, 1994, for investigating, "regardless of the attempts to strip him of his committee chairmanship, the involvement of high-level officials in the Reagan and Bush Administrations in the sale of U.S. arms to Iraq." Of the war of 1991 he had said: "Not only did our own service men and women face military material that had been exported from the U.S., the U.S. military itself relied on these Iraqi front companies for some of the military goods they used." He lost the chairmanship to [[Jim Leach|James Leach]] in 1995 and did not run in 1998. His son Charles succeeded him.[^1][^2] @@ -57,4 +59,5 @@ The Kennedy Library gave him its Profile in Courage Award on September 11, 1994, [^3]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Continuing Saga of Attempts to Thwart BNL Investigation," *Congressional Record,* House, May 18, 1992; index of statements, 102nd Congress, second session, February 24 to September 28, 1992. [^4]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "United States Policy to Arm Iraq," *Congressional Record,* House, July 21, 1992. [^5]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Brass Factory in Iraq," *Congressional Record,* House, September 25, 1992, p. H9502. -[^6]: "Resolution Calling for an Ethics Probe of Chairman Gonzalez," *Congressional Record,* House, August 4, 1992, p. H7366. https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_cr/h920804-gonzales.htm +[^6]: Friedman, Alan. *Spider's Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq*. Bantam, 1993, pp. 206, 216, 221. +[^7]: "Resolution Calling for an Ethics Probe of Chairman Gonzalez," *Congressional Record,* House, August 4, 1992, p. H7366. https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_cr/h920804-gonzales.htm diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Ihsan Barbouti.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Ihsan Barbouti.md index cf2a12d0..95dd3666 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Ihsan Barbouti.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Ihsan Barbouti.md @@ -34,12 +34,19 @@ The family owned two retail centers in [[Houston]]. On February 21, 1992, the [[ On March 6, 1992, the paper reported that a Houston jury had found Haidar Barbouti and three family companies liable for more than 12 million dollars to Munden, whose pipe-coating technology, with "military and nuclear as well as industrial uses," had been taken and exported. Judge [[Scott Brister]] did not allow the jury to be told that the destinations were Libya and Iraq. Munden was described as a grand jury witness in a federal investigation of father and son. Haidar Barbouti, then 24, sued the newspaper for libel, swearing that he had promised no assistance to the pesticide enterprise. The Texas court of appeals, sitting en banc in 1996, held both articles substantially true.[^2] +### Homs and Boca Raton + +Barbouti "had made a fortune in Libya and Iraq, supplying industrial complexes through an international network called IBI Industries." He told Moshe Tal, whose rocket fuel company he was trying to buy, "that IBI stood for Ihsan Barbouti International and that he generally modeled his logo after IBM," and that his many companies existed "merely to hold ostensible ownership of individual investment properties," while "the real ownership of the investment property always went into the Barbouti family trust." Tal said that Barbouti, drunk, told him that "Colonel Qaddafi wanted a plant to produce heavy water in order to be able to construct an atom bomb," and was "considering a scheme whereby Qaddafi would smuggle an atomic device into United States waters aboard a commercial shipping vessel and blow up an American port city with a nuclear blast, in retaliation for the United States' raid on Tripoli." Barbouti was working on a heavy water plant at [[Homs, Libya|Homs]] and had put together the Rabta plant with [[Jürgen Hippenstiel-Imhausen]] of [[West Germany]]. Among those at his London meetings in the fall of 1987 was [[Sabawi Ibrahim al-Tikriti]], a half-brother of [[Saddam Hussein]]. Tal's account went to the attorney general of [[Arizona]], then to Senator [[Dennis DeConcini]], who passed it to William Webster. The Belgian shipper Josef Gedopt was arrested in January 1989.[^3] + +At [[Boca Raton, Florida|Boca Raton]] Barbouti put 5.3 million dollars into Product Ingredient Technology, a company of [[Louis Champon]]. A byproduct of his process was ferric ferrocyanide, which can be converted to hydrogen cyanide. "Dr. Barbouti kept insisting that we take the byproduct and ship it to West Germany," Champon said. "I kept refusing, and then the money stopped."[^3] + ### Ben-Menashe -The former Israeli intelligence officer [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] is the only source for the following. He wrote that Barbouti obtained artillery casings in [[West Germany]] for chemical munitions made in [[Santiago]] by [[Carlos Cardoen]]; that he had an interest in Cardoen's chemical plant in [[Paraguay]], which drew materials from [[Florida]] and [[Texas]]; that in the 1950s he had arranged for former Nazi scientists to work on missiles in [[Egypt]]; that he staged his death to escape [[Mossad]], reappeared in the United States, and made an arrangement with the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]; and that an Israeli intelligence committee put him on a list for execution, which [[Yitzhak Shamir]] suspended.[^3] +The former Israeli intelligence officer [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] is the only source for the following. He wrote that Barbouti obtained artillery casings in West Germany for chemical munitions made in [[Santiago]] by [[Carlos Cardoen]]; that he had an interest in Cardoen's chemical plant in [[Paraguay]], which drew materials from [[Florida]] and [[Texas]]; that in the 1950s he had arranged for former Nazi scientists to work on missiles in [[Egypt]]; that he staged his death to escape [[Mossad]], reappeared in the United States, and made an arrangement with the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]; and that an Israeli intelligence committee put him on a list for execution, which [[Yitzhak Shamir]] suspended.[^4] ### Footnotes [^1]: TK-7 Corp. v. Estate of Barbouti, 993 F.2d 722 (10th Cir. 1993). [^2]: Barbouti v. Hearst Corp., 927 S.W.2d 37 (Tex. App. 1996), reproducing Urban, Jerry. "Letter triggers new probe of Barbouti," *Houston Chronicle,* February 21, 1992, and "Barbouti's son found liable in technology theft scheme," *Houston Chronicle,* March 6, 1992. -[^3]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 1992. +[^3]: Timmerman, Kenneth R. *The Death Lobby: How the West Armed Iraq*. Houghton Mifflin, 1991, pp. 264-273, 296, and note at p. 412. +[^4]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 1992. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/James Eastland.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/James Eastland.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..4c10cc16 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/James Eastland.md @@ -0,0 +1,53 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +tags: + - Person + - JamesEastland + - USSenate + - Mississippi + - SenateInternalSecuritySubcommittee + - Segregation + - JohnBirchSociety + - HuntFamily +alias: + - James O. Eastland + - James Oliver Eastland +summary: "Mississippi senator from 1941 to 1978 and Delta planter who chaired the Internal Security Subcommittee and the Judiciary Committee, buried over a hundred civil rights bills, and drew 100,000 dollars a year in farm subsidies." +born: 1904-11-28 +died: 1986-02-19 +location: "Doddsville, Mississippi" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +James Oliver Eastland (November 28, 1904 to February 19, 1986) was born at [[Doddsville, Mississippi]], "only months after his father had orchestrated the gruesome lynching of a Black woman and her lover, who was accused of murdering Woods's twenty-one-year-old brother, James, in whose memory the newborn was named." His grandfather had bought more than 2,000 acres of [[Sunflower County, Mississippi|Sunflower County]] "for speculative purposes," and his father, Woods Eastland, a personal injury lawyer, made it a plantation. He studied at the [[University of Mississippi]], [[Vanderbilt University|Vanderbilt]], and the [[University of Alabama]], was admitted to the bar in 1927, and sat in the state legislature as a supporter of Governor [[Theodore G. Bilbo]]. When Senator [[Pat Harrison]] died in 1941, Woods Eastland declined the appointment and suggested his son. "The boy'll do it," said Governor [[Paul B. Johnson Sr.|Paul Johnson]].[^1][^2] + +### The Plantation + +On the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry he "zealously guarded the interests of southern farmers, especially the planters of his native Delta, who reaped millions of dollars in annual subsidies. His own plantation, which eventually grew to nearly 6,000 acres, consistently received more than $100,000 a year in price supports until Congress capped the payments at $50,000."[^2] + +### The Committees + +He left the Democratic ticket for the [[Dixiecrats]] in 1948. In 1953 he became chairman of the [[Senate Internal Security Subcommittee]], "a forum from which to hound suspected domestic subversives, especially those involved in civil rights activities and the labor movement," and in 1956 chairman of the [[United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary|Judiciary Committee]], which he made the "graveyard of civil rights legislation," blocking "more than one hundred civil rights measures." He told white audiences "that he once had special pockets sewn into his trousers so he could carry civil rights bills around with him to make sure no one called them up for consideration in his absence." Senator [[Herbert Lehman]] called him "a symbol of racism in America." The Episcopal Diocese of New York charged him with "subversion just as real and, because it comes from a U.S. Senator, far more dangerous than any perpetrated by the Communist Party." Senator [[Ted Kennedy]] praised the "scrupulously fair and even-handed manner in which he presided." [[Aaron Henry]] told him: "You have a master-servant philosophy with regard to blacks."[^1][^2] + +### Welch + +On March 31, 1961, [[Robert Welch]] of the [[John Birch Society]] telegraphed Eastland asking the subcommittee to investigate the society. "None of our members will plead the Fifth Amendment." On July 3, 1962, Welch wrote that the society had spent "several thousand dollars" to send its members Eastland's speech "Is the Supreme Court Pro-Communist?" and closed "with admiration for both your patriotism and your courage."[^3] + +[[Wickliffe Draper]]'s money for the campaign against the Civil Rights Act went through the [[Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission]] of Eastland's state.[^4] + +### The Hunts + +"[[Nelson Bunker Hunt|Nelson Bunker]] and his father met President Nixon at the celebrated barbecue at [[John Connally]]'s Floresville ranch in the autumn of 1972. Soon after, Nelson Bunker huddled with [[Richard Kleindienst]], then the new boss of the Justice Department, at the plantation of Mississippi Senator James Eastland." The account came from Hunt sources. The wiretapping indictments of the [[Hunt brothers]] followed regardless.[^5] + +### The Succession + +Eastland became president pro tempore of the Senate in 1972 and "twice came within a heartbeat of the oval office," when [[Spiro Agnew]] resigned in 1973 and when [[Gerald Ford]] succeeded [[Richard Nixon]] in 1974. He resigned on December 27, 1978, days before his term ended, so that the Republican senator-elect, [[Thad Cochran]], could be appointed early and gain seniority. "I voted my convictions on everything," he said. In 1991 he entered the Mississippi Hall of Fame on the same day as [[Medgar Evers]].[^1][^2] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: "James Oliver Eastland," *Mississippi Encyclopedia*. Center for Study of Southern Culture, University of Mississippi. +[^2]: Morgan, Chester M. "James O. Eastland," *Mississippi History Now,* Mississippi Department of Archives and History, April 2011. +[^3]: Welch, Robert. Telegram to James O. Eastland, March 31, 1961, and letter, July 3, 1962, in Federal Bureau of Investigation files on the John Birch Society, compiled by Ernie Lazar from Freedom of Information Act releases. +[^4]: Blackmon, Douglas A. "Silent Partner: How the South's Fight to Uphold Segregation Was Funded Up North," *The Wall Street Journal,* June 11, 1999, p. A1. +[^5]: Porterfield, Bill. "H.L. Hunt's Long Goodbye," *Texas Monthly,* March 1975. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Jim Garrison.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Jim Garrison.md index 59492482..f5c92b3e 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Jim Garrison.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Jim Garrison.md @@ -30,13 +30,13 @@ He was a large man - six foot six - and a skilled public speaker, qualities that Garrison's Kennedy assassination investigation began in November 1966, triggered by his encounter with Senator [[Russell Long]], who expressed skepticism about the [[Warren Commission]]'s lone-gunman conclusion. Garrison began reviewing materials available in the public record and became interested in the New Orleans network of anti-Castro Cuban exile operatives, intelligence figures, and associated individuals who had been active in the city in 1963. -His investigation focused on three figures: [[David Ferrie]], [[Guy Banister]], and eventually [[Clay Shaw]]. Garrison believed this network had organized Kennedy's assassination using [[Lee Harvey Oswald]] as the designated patsy. Ferrie died on February 22, 1967, days after Garrison's investigation became public. Banister had died in June 1964. Shaw became the only remaining figure Garrison could charge. +His investigation focused on three figures: [[David Ferrie]], [[Guy Banister]], and eventually Clay Shaw. Garrison believed this network had organized Kennedy's assassination using [[Lee Harvey Oswald]] as the designated patsy. Ferrie died on February 22, 1967, days after Garrison's investigation became public. Banister had died in June 1964. Shaw became the only remaining figure Garrison could charge. The investigation attracted controversy from its earliest stages. Garrison's methods - which included granting immunity to questionable witnesses, using sodium pentothal (truth serum) in interrogations, and making claims he could not prove - were criticized by mainstream journalists and legal observers. He also alleged, and produced evidence for, active obstruction of his investigation by the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]].[^1] ### The Shaw Trial -Garrison arrested Clay Shaw on March 1, 1967, charging him with conspiracy to assassinate President Kennedy. Shaw - a prominent New Orleans businessman, founder of the International Trade Mart, and pillar of the city's cultural establishment - denied any connection to the alleged conspiracy. +Garrison arrested Clay Shaw on March 1, 1967, charging him with conspiracy to assassinate President Kennedy. Shaw - a prominent New Orleans businessman, founder of the [[International Trade Mart]], and pillar of the city's cultural establishment - denied any connection to the alleged conspiracy. The trial began in January 1969. Garrison's central witnesses included [[Perry Russo]], who testified he had attended a meeting at which Shaw, Ferrie, and Oswald discussed killing Kennedy, and a hypnosis patient whose testimony about Shaw was later challenged on the grounds that it had been shaped by hypnotic suggestion. The defense demolished much of the prosecution's witness testimony. @@ -44,6 +44,10 @@ The jury acquitted Shaw on March 1, 1969, after less than an hour of deliberatio Post-trial, documents released through the [[Assassination Records Review Board|JFK Assassination Records Collection]] confirmed that Shaw had been a CIA domestic contact - a fact denied by CIA Director [[Richard Helms]] under oath during the trial. The documents also showed CIA active involvement in monitoring Garrison's investigation and, according to some researchers, working to undermine it.[^2] +### The Federal Court + +Two days after Shaw's acquittal Garrison charged him with perjury. Shaw's lawyers sued in federal court, and after a three-day hearing in January 1971 Judge [[Herbert Christenberry]] enjoined the prosecution as brought in bad faith. The [[United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit|Fifth Circuit]] affirmed in 1972. The court found that the investigation had been paid for in large part by a private fund, [[Truth or Consequences (New Orleans)|Truth or Consequences]], formed by three businessmen in February 1967, whose money passed through an unaudited account on which Garrison drew at will. "When Shaw was arrested the money came in; when he was acquitted, it stopped." It credited the testimony of the detective [[William Gurvich]], who had worked on the investigation for six months and resigned on June 27, 1967, calling it a "fraudulent, criminal act." It found that the chief witness, Perry Russo, had been given sodium pentothal and hypnotized before he implicated Shaw, that he had told a police polygraph examiner in June 1967 that "if pressed" he would say Shaw was not present, and that the examiner's report was withheld from the defense. It found that Garrison had a contract for three books. In July 1967 Garrison had charged the [[NBC]] reporter [[Walter Sheridan]] with bribing a witness after the network's critical broadcast, and Sheridan, it later emerged, had been passing information from inside Garrison's office to the general counsel of the CIA.[^3] + ### Legacy Garrison's investigation was widely dismissed as a conspiracy fantasy at the time of the Shaw acquittal. The 1991 Oliver Stone film *JFK*, based on Garrison's memoirs *On the Trail of the Assassins* (1988) and Jim Marrs's *Crossfire*, brought the investigation back to public attention and contributed to the political pressure that produced the [[JFK Records Act]] of 1992, which mandated declassification of assassination-related government records. @@ -53,4 +57,5 @@ Garrison served as a Louisiana appeals court judge from 1978 until shortly befor ### Footnotes [^1]: Garrison, Jim. *On the Trail of the Assassins.* Sheridan Square Press, 1988. Davy, William. *Let Justice Be Done: New Light on the Jim Garrison Investigation.* Jordan Publishing, 1999. -[^2]: DiEugenio, James. *Destiny Betrayed: JFK, Cuba, and the Garrison Case.* Sheridan Square Press, 1992. Melanson, Philip H. *Spy Saga: Lee Harvey Oswald and U.S. Intelligence.* Praeger, 1990. \ No newline at end of file +[^2]: DiEugenio, James. *Destiny Betrayed: JFK, Cuba, and the Garrison Case.* Sheridan Square Press, 1992. Melanson, Philip H. *Spy Saga: Lee Harvey Oswald and U.S. Intelligence.* Praeger, 1990. +[^3]: Shaw v. Garrison, 328 F. Supp. 390 (E.D. La. 1971), affirmed, 467 F.2d 113 (5th Cir. 1972); Sheridan v. Garrison, 415 F.2d 699 (5th Cir. 1969); Holland, Max. "The Lie That Linked CIA to the Kennedy Assassination," *Studies in Intelligence,* vol. 45, no. 5, 2001. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/John W. Finney.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/John W. Finney.md index d0b5df1a..a3f5ce4c 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/John W. Finney.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/John W. Finney.md @@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ born: 1924 died: 2004-10-29 location: "Massachusetts" --- -John W. Finney was a reporter for the *New York Times*, covering nuclear issues and the [[Atomic Energy Commission|AEC]]. In December 1960, he broke a major story revealing that [[Israel]], with French help, had secretly built a nuclear reactor in the [[Negev Desert|Negev]] to produce plutonium. This information was leaked to him by [[John A. McCone]], then chairman of the AEC, who was angered by [[Israel]]'s and [[France]]'s secrecy.[^1] +John W. Finney was a reporter for the *New York Times*, covering nuclear issues and the [[Atomic Energy Commission|AEC]]. In December 1960, he broke a major story revealing that [[Israel]], with French help, had secretly built a nuclear reactor in the [[Negev Desert|Negev]] to produce plutonium. This information was leaked to him by [[John McCone|John A. McCone]], then chairman of the AEC, who was angered by [[Israel]]'s and [[France]]'s secrecy.[^1] Finney's article, published on December 19, 1960, on the front page of the *Times*, informed the American public about what [[Arthur C. Lundahl]] and [[Dino A. Brugioni]] had been reporting to the [[White House]] for over two years. He was used by the [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower]] administration to publicly address the issue of [[Dimona]], which senior officials were apprehensive about doing themselves.[^1] diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Lawrence Eagleburger.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Lawrence Eagleburger.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..61fe8807 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Lawrence Eagleburger.md @@ -0,0 +1,37 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +tags: + - Person + - LawrenceEagleburger + - KissingerAssociates + - StateDepartment + - BNLScandal + - Iraq + - Yugoslavia + - MatrixChurchill +summary: "President of Kissinger Associates while Banca Nazionale del Lavoro was its client, director of a Yugoslav bank that did a fifth of its business with BNL, and deputy secretary of state during the Iraq loans." +location: "Washington, D.C." +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Lawrence Eagleburger was president of [[Kissinger Associates]] from 1984 to 1989 and deputy secretary of state under [[James Baker]] from 1989. He was secretary of state in the last weeks of the administration of [[George H.W. Bush]].[^1] + +### BNL and LBS + +The [[Banca Nazionale del Lavoro]] was a client of Kissinger Associates while he was its president. In 1986 he helped establish LBS, the [[New York City|New York]] subsidiary of [[Ljubljanska Banka]] of [[Yugoslavia]], and sat on its board until he returned to government. Representative [[Henry B. Gonzalez]] quoted a [[Federal Reserve]] inspection report showing that from 1986 to 1989 the Italian bank supplied more than 20 percent of LBS's New York business. At a meeting in New York in 1987 [[Henry A. Kissinger|Henry Kissinger]], [[Brent Scowcroft]], Eagleburger, and the firm's economist [[Alan Stoga]] advised the bank's officers. Between 1985 and 1989 its [[Atlanta]] branch lent [[Iraq]] some five billion dollars off its books.[^1][^2] + +### The State Department + +As acting secretary on May 10, 1989, Eagleburger signed the certificate that allowed the Iraqi-owned [[Matrix Churchill]] Corporation of [[Ohio]] to open a branch in [[Baghdad]]. That fall, when the [[United States Department of the Treasury|Treasury]] and the [[Office of Management and Budget]] opposed a further billion dollars in [[Commodity Credit Corporation Iraq Program|agricultural credit guarantees]] for Iraq, he "made phone calls and sent letters to his counterparts" to overcome them.[^2][^3] + +### Testimony + +Before the [[House Banking Committee]] in 1992 he said: "Quite frankly, the selective disclosure, out of context, of classified documents has led, knowingly or otherwise, to distortions of the record, half-truths, and outright falsehoods, all combined into spurious conspiracy theories and charges of a cover-up." Of the bank he said: "Although the records at Kissinger Associates indicate that I may have attended one luncheon in 1986 at which two representatives of BNL Rome were present, I do not recall this luncheon nor any substantive meetings, conversations, or other contacts with anyone from BNL." Representative [[Bernie Sanders]] asked him about a transfer of American bombs from [[Saudi Arabia]] to Iraq in 1986. He answered "No, I am not aware of anything," conferred with an aide, and said he would reply in writing. "The answer, when it was eventually supplied in writing, confirmed the Saudi transfer." The special counsel [[Frederick Lacey]] reported in December 1992 that Scowcroft and Eagleburger "came into contact with BNL management" at the firm and that he had seen nothing to suggest they knew of the Atlanta loans.[^2][^4] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Kissinger Associates, Scowcroft, Eagleburger, Stoga, Iraq, and BNL," *Congressional Record,* House, April 28, 1992, pp. H2694-H2701. +[^2]: Friedman, Alan. *Spider's Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq*. Bantam, 1993, pp. 145, 223-225. +[^3]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Details on Iraq's Procurement Network," *Congressional Record,* House, August 10, 1992. +[^4]: Lacey, Frederick B. "The Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Investigation: Report of the Independent Counsel," reproduced in House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, Serial No. 103-95, pp. 514-15. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Leonid Brezhnev.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Leonid Brezhnev.md index b1be3b6f..baed9a16 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Leonid Brezhnev.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Leonid Brezhnev.md @@ -26,4 +26,5 @@ During the 1973 [[Yom Kippur War]], as the continued encirclement of the Egyptia ### Footnotes -[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. _Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network_. TrineDay, 1992. [^2]: Hersh, Seymour M. _The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy_. Random House, 1991. Chapter 17. \ No newline at end of file +[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. _Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network_. TrineDay, 1992. +[^2]: Hersh, Seymour M. _The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy_. Random House, 1991. Chapter 17. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Lincoln Gordon.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Lincoln Gordon.md index 5ae5a856..9ea46987 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Lincoln Gordon.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Lincoln Gordon.md @@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ Earlier that year, on March 7, 1963, Gordon had sent a memorandum to [[McGeorge Gordon was the central U.S. Embassy figure in the intelligence and diplomatic preparation for the April 1964 military coup against President Joao Goulart. His role included: -As early as March 16, 1964, he was approached by Army Chief of Staff [[Humberto Castelo Branco]] with a "white paper" rationale for a military uprising. Gordon allegedly replied that President [[Lyndon Johnson]] was prepared to recognize any rebel government on Brazilian territory that proclaimed itself in opposition to Goulart and communism and could hold out for forty-eight hours. He suggested Minas Gerais, home of the Fourth Army, as the best locale from which to launch such a rebellion.[^4] +As early as March 16, 1964, he was approached by Army Chief of Staff [[Humberto Castelo Branco]] with a "white paper" rationale for a military uprising. Gordon allegedly replied that President [[Lyndon B. Johnson|Lyndon Johnson]] was prepared to recognize any rebel government on Brazilian territory that proclaimed itself in opposition to Goulart and communism and could hold out for forty-eight hours. He suggested Minas Gerais, home of the Fourth Army, as the best locale from which to launch such a rebellion.[^4] On March 27, 1964, Gordon sent a top-secret cable (received in the Department that evening; logged in FRUS as Document 187 with a dateline of March 28) to Secretary of State [[Dean Rusk]], Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, CIA Director [[John McCone]], and General [[Maxwell Taylor]]. In it he assessed that Goulart was "definitely engaged on campaign to seize dictatorial power, accepting the active collaboration of the [[Brazilian Communist Party]]," and characterized Castelo Branco as leading organized democratic resistance "with strong loyalty to legal and constitutional principles." He warned that without U.S. backing, Brazil might become "the China of the 1960s" and urged that "no loss of time can be afforded in preparing for such action." Gordon recommended "that measures be taken soonest to prepare for a clandestine delivery of arms of non-US origin, to be made available to Castello Branco supporters in Sao Paulo," with delivery via "unmarked submarine to be off-loaded at night in isolated shore spots in the state of Sao Paulo south of Santos." He also recommended positioning a US naval task force off the Brazilian coast and arranging petroleum supplies for rebel military units.[^5] diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Manuel Contreras.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Manuel Contreras.md index 535a95b5..4a1c16cb 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Manuel Contreras.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Manuel Contreras.md @@ -30,20 +30,27 @@ The agency told Contreras at the outset that it would not support activities of General Vernon Walters came to Santiago to confer with Pinochet on the agency's help, and Pinochet told him he had "hand-picked Contreras." The CIA gave Contreras a long lunch with Walters and officers of the Western Hemisphere Division. The State Department's Chile desk noted that "Colonel Manuel Contreras considers himself a bosom buddy of the general." On Saturday, July 5, 1975, the two met secretly at a CIA office at [[Fort Myer]], where Contreras asked how Chile might get American arms despite the congressional ban: "Wonder if there is any way they could get it indirectly via [[Spain]], [[Brazil]], or the Republic of Korea." They lunched again at Langley on August 25. On November 4, 1977, Pinochet removed him, with promotion to brigadier general, in favor of General [[Odlanier Mena]]. A CIA source said he was "completely shocked," like "a cuckolded husband who is the last to realize his wife was being unfaithful." In 1978 the agency reported that he planned to defend himself by claiming "that Michael Townley and the Cuban exiles implicated were all under CIA control, and that the Agency ordered Letelier's assassination to throw blame on Pinochet," and to implicate Ambassador [[George Landau]]. "While this defense is of course fabricated completely of whole cloth, it could cause us embarrassment."[^2] +Contreras gave his own account of the beginning. "In the year 1974, in the month of March, the president sent me to the United States. I met with Vernon Walters about how to do national intelligence. So the CIA promised to help us," he said, and "he sent us eight high-level CIA agents to organize courses or seminars here in Chile, which lasted until the middle of August of 1974." He named [[Stewart Burton]], the station chief, as the officer he dealt with. The disappeared numbered seventeen in June of that year, forty-six in July, forty-nine in August, and forty in September. On May 20, 1974, the agency ordered a "covert name trace" on him, a step that precedes a close and often paid relationship with a source. The agency's statement was that it "made clear to Contreras that no training or support which could aid internal repression could be given," but did "brief Contreras on the fundamentals of intelligence organization and management." A former DINA agent said: "I thought Contreras was some kind of genius to have built up such a large, complicated apparatus in such a short time."[^3] + +Of the 1975 visit he told a Chilean reporter: "Vernon Walters proposed that we take on a lobby of North American senators, to get them to stop harassing Chile in the international arena," five senators of both parties "who would be paid $2 million a year so that they will act in favor of Chile." The memorandum of the August 25 conversation says only that Walters "took the opportunity to express concern over the human rights situation in Chile." Contreras said he had refused an offer from Walters to station CIA officers inside DINA. He testified in court that [[Robert Scherrer]] of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] was in "permanent contact" with Condor's representative in [[Buenos Aires]] "and received the information that he asked for." Scherrer said he learned that the CIA had provided DINA with the computer systems and training he presumed were used for the Condor data bank.[^3] + +An American intelligence officer described him: "Contreras is mild-mannered and polite. When you talk to him he seems gentle and disarming." As a young officer he was known as a beato. His military specialty was engineering.[^3] + ### Condor Within a year of the coup the agency knew of cooperation among the security services of the region "to track the activities of and, in at least a few cases, kill political opponents." [[Operation Condor]], the formal arrangement among [[Chile]], [[Argentina]], Brazil, [[Paraguay]], and [[Uruguay]], was established in 1975. "By October 1976 there was sufficient information that the CIA decided to approach Contreras on the matter. Contreras confirmed Condor's existence as an intelligence-sharing network but denied that it had a role in extra-judicial killings."[^1] ### Letelier -In the summer of 1976 two DINA officers obtained American visas in [[Asuncion]] on Paraguayan passports, telling Ambassador [[George W. Landau]] that their trip was known to the CIA. Landau sent photographs of the passports to Washington. Walters replied that the agency had no connection with the men. The bomb that killed Letelier and [[Ronni Moffitt]] was placed by the DINA agent [[Michael Townley]], an American.[^3][^4] +In the summer of 1976 two DINA officers obtained American visas in [[Asuncion]] on Paraguayan passports, telling Ambassador [[George W. Landau]] that their trip was known to the CIA. Landau sent photographs of the passports to Washington. Walters replied that the agency had no connection with the men. The bomb that killed Letelier and [[Ronni Moffitt]] was placed by the DINA agent [[Michael Townley]], an American.[^4][^5] -The agency's first report naming Contreras in connection with the murder is dated October 6, 1976. "During 1977, CIA met with Contreras about half a dozen times; three of those contacts were to request information on the Letelier assassination. On 3 November 1977, Contreras was transferred to a function unrelated to intelligence so CIA severed all contact with him." Chile refused to extradite him. A [[State Department]] cable of January 22, 1987, quotes him as saying he "authorized the assassination of Letelier on orders from Pinochet." The CIA's assessment of May 1, 1987, concluded that Augusto Pinochet personally ordered the killing and afterward considered having Contreras eliminated to keep him silent.[^1][^5] +The agency's first report naming Contreras in connection with the murder is dated October 6, 1976. "During 1977, CIA met with Contreras about half a dozen times; three of those contacts were to request information on the Letelier assassination. On 3 November 1977, Contreras was transferred to a function unrelated to intelligence so CIA severed all contact with him." Chile refused to extradite him. A [[State Department]] cable of January 22, 1987, quotes him as saying he "authorized the assassination of Letelier on orders from Pinochet." The CIA's assessment of May 1, 1987, concluded that Augusto Pinochet personally ordered the killing and afterward considered having Contreras eliminated to keep him silent.[^1][^6] ### Footnotes [^1]: Central Intelligence Agency, "CIA Activities in Chile," report to Congress (Hinchey Report), September 18, 2000. [^2]: Kornbluh, Peter. *The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability*. New Press, 2003, pp. 158-167, 172, 213-215, 401-402. -[^3]: Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, "'The First Terrorist Attack in the U.S.': The Letelier-Moffitt Assassinations," oral history of Ambassador George W. Landau. https://adst.org/2014/02/the-first-terrorist-attack-in-the-u-s-the-letelier-moffitt-assassinations/ -[^4]: "Interview with Dinges and Landau," Radio TV Reports transcript, June 30, 1980, CIA Reading Room document 05535911. -[^5]: Kornbluh, Peter, ed. "CIA: 'Pinochet personally ordered' Letelier bombing," National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 560, September 23, 2016; "The Pinochet File: U.S. Declassifies Missing Documents in the Letelier-Moffitt Case," Electronic Briefing Book No. 532, October 8, 2015. +[^3]: Dinges, John. *The Condor Years: How Pinochet and His Allies Brought Terrorism to Three Continents*. New Press, 2004, pp. 63-70, 103-104, 121-124. +[^4]: Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, "'The First Terrorist Attack in the U.S.': The Letelier-Moffitt Assassinations," oral history of Ambassador George W. Landau. https://adst.org/2014/02/the-first-terrorist-attack-in-the-u-s-the-letelier-moffitt-assassinations/ +[^5]: "Interview with Dinges and Landau," Radio TV Reports transcript, June 30, 1980, CIA Reading Room document 05535911. +[^6]: Kornbluh, Peter, ed. "CIA: 'Pinochet personally ordered' Letelier bombing," National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 560, September 23, 2016; "The Pinochet File: U.S. Declassifies Missing Documents in the Letelier-Moffitt Case," Electronic Briefing Book No. 532, October 8, 2015. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Mariana Callejas.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Mariana Callejas.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..a10d4df9 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Mariana Callejas.md @@ -0,0 +1,31 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +tags: + - Person + - MarianaCallejas + - DINA + - MichaelTownley + - Chile + - CarlosPrats + - PatriaYLibertad +alias: + - Ines Callejas + - Inés Callejas + - Ines Townley +summary: "Chilean wife of Michael Townley, hired with him by DINA in 1974, who travelled as an equal member of his assassination team to Buenos Aires, Mexico, and Rome." +location: "Santiago, Chile" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Inés Callejas, called Mariana, was the daughter of the registrar of births and deaths of Rapel, in [[Coquimbo]] province. In July 1961 she married the American [[Michael Townley]] against his father's wishes. A friend said of Townley's politics in the Allende years that he "sounded like a regurgitation of Ines Callejas repeating [[Pablo Rodriguez Grez|Pablo Rodriguez]]," the leader of [[Patria y Libertad]].[^1] + +At seventeen, in 1950, she left school in secret after her favorite teachers, Jewish refugees from Europe, were dismissed, and married. Her father "banished her instantly from the family" on learning of the marriage and her "conversion to Zionist socialism." The marriage was annulled after three months. She sailed for [[Israel]] and joined a kibbutz in the [[Negev]], where she "carried a Sten gun on regular night patrols before her eighteenth birthday." She had three children by a later marriage when Townley, then seventeen, met her in 1960.[^2] + +In 1974 Colonel [[Pedro Espinoza]] of [[DINA]] "hired both Michael Townley and Ines Callejas for a combined salary of about $600 a month." She went with Townley to [[Buenos Aires]] that September to kill General [[Carlos Prats]]. Her attempt to fire the bomb failed, and a second attempt killed Prats and his wife. In 1975 she, Townley, and [[Virgilio Paz]] "set off on a nine-month, eight-country DINA mission to terrorize targeted Chilean exiles and the enemies of the [[Cuban Nationalist Movement]]," in which she "participated as an equal member of the DINA team." They prepared six detonators for an attempt in [[Mexico]], stopped at [[Munich]], "where DINA had cultivated contacts with former Nazi sympathizers associated with [[Christian Social Union]] leader [[Franz Josef Strauss]]," and in [[Rome]] engaged the Italian fascists who shot [[Bernardo Leighton]]. In September 1976, from [[National Airport]] in Washington, Townley telephoned her "a coded message to pass on to DINA: the bomb was in place."[^1][^3] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Dinges, John, and Saul Landau. *Assassination on Embassy Row*. McGraw-Hill, 1980, pp. 21, 95-96, 106, 130, 152-157. +[^2]: Branch, Taylor, and Eugene M. Propper. *Labyrinth*. Viking, 1982, pp. 483-486. +[^3]: National Security Archive, "The Pinochet Regime at 50: The Assassination of General Carlos Prats and Sofia Cuthbert," October 1, 2024. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Marlin Fitzwater.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Marlin Fitzwater.md index d65f30cc..921566b6 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Marlin Fitzwater.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Marlin Fitzwater.md @@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ summary: "Marlin Fitzwater was the White House press secretary under President R born: 1942-11-24 location: "Salina, Kansas" --- -Marlin Fitzwater was the [[White House]] press secretary under President [[Ronald Reagan]]. In May 1988, he confirmed the revelation made by [[Donald T. Regan]], former White House chief of staff, that President Reagan had sought the advice of a private astrologer during his tenure[^1]. +Marlin Fitzwater was the [[White House]] press secretary under President [[Ronald Reagan]]. In May 1988, he confirmed the revelation made by [[Donald Regan|Donald T. Regan]], former White House chief of staff, that President Reagan had sought the advice of a private astrologer during his tenure[^1]. Fitzwater stated that "President Reagan and his wife, Nancy, are both deeply interested in astrology," thereby publicly acknowledging the role of [[Joan Quigley]], the San Francisco socialite and astrologer, in the President's decision-making process[^1]. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Norman Casper.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Norman Casper.md index d9207885..99b42730 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Norman Casper.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Norman Casper.md @@ -22,6 +22,15 @@ Norman Casper was a private detective in [[Miami]], formerly an agent of the [[W Casper was used for his "good contacts in the Miami and [[Caribbean]] areas." In October 1972 he met [[Samuel Pierson]], president of the [[Castle Bank and Trust|Castle Bank]], at the Miami airport while posing as a federal narcotics agent. The Castle Bank had been organized by the Miami lawyer [[Paul Helliwell]].[^1] +### The Briefcase Caper + +In late October 1972 Special Agent [[Richard Jaffe]] of the revenue service's Jacksonville office asked Casper for the names of the depositors of the Castle Bank. Casper cultivated the bank's officer [[Michael Wolstencroft]] and introduced him to a private investigator, Sybol Kennedy, whom he later called a member of his "spy network." Learning that Wolstencroft would be in Miami on January 15, 1973, he planned what he called "the briefcase caper," clearing each step with Jaffe, who cleared it with the chief of IRS intelligence in Jacksonville and supplied a "trusted" locksmith. While Wolstencroft and Kennedy dined at Key Biscayne, Casper entered her apartment with her key, took the briefcase to the house of an IRS agent, had some 400 documents photographed, and replaced it. "The entire 'caper' lasted approximately one and one-half hours." Two weeks later Kennedy stole a Rolodex from Wolstencroft's office in the Bahamas. Jaffe testified "that he had not cared how the rolodex file had been obtained." "The IRS paid Casper $8,000 in cash," of which about 1,000 went to Kennedy. His standing fee was put at 5,000 dollars on every million recovered.[^2][^3] + +A federal judge found in 1977 that "the activities of the Government agents Jaffe and Casper were outrageous," and that they had probably committed a felony under [[Florida]] law. The government did not call Kennedy as a witness. Casper said that a name on the depositor printout was Richard M. Nixon: "There's no way to know if that's the Richard M. Nixon. I can't believe he'd be so stupid as to use his own name on an account like that." After the cases were dropped he said: "Now, I'm just trying to pay my bills (the IRS is dunning me for eight hundred dollars in back taxes). And trying not to get killed." [[CBS]] reported in 1980 that he was "out of a job, broke, yet sure of what he's done."[^2][^3][^4] + ### Footnotes [^1]: Hougan, Jim. *Spooks: The Haunting of America: The Private Use of Secret Agents*. William Morrow, 1978, p. 383 and the chapter on Intertel. +[^2]: United States v. Payner, 447 U.S. 727 (1980), including the dissent of Marshall, J.; United States v. Payner, 434 F. Supp. 113 (N.D. Ohio 1977). +[^3]: Hougan, Jim. *Spooks: The Haunting of America: The Private Use of Secret Agents*. William Morrow, 1978, pp. 237-242. +[^4]: "Castle Bank: Update," *60 Minutes,* CBS, August 3, 1980, transcript, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP90-00806R000100200021-5. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Oliver J. Caldwell.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Oliver J. Caldwell.md index 8a700959..5877c59e 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Oliver J. Caldwell.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Oliver J. Caldwell.md @@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ tags: summary: "Caldwell expressed significant concern about the Soviet advancements in parapsychology and psychic warfare." --- -Oliver J. Caldwell was a former [[Office of Strategic Services|OSS]] officer who was known to run operations for the [[Central Intelligence Agency]]. He is cited in [[John L. LaMothe]]'s 1972 report, *Controlled Offensive Behavior - USSR*, regarding the perceived [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] psychoenergetic threat[^1]. +Oliver J. Caldwell was a former [[Office of Strategic Services|OSS]] officer who was known to run operations for the [[Central Intelligence Agency]]. He is cited in [[John LaMothe|John L. LaMothe]]'s 1972 report, *Controlled Offensive Behavior - USSR*, regarding the perceived [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] psychoenergetic threat[^1]. Caldwell expressed significant concern about the Soviet advancements in [[Parapsychology|parapsychology]] and psychic warfare. He told LaMothe, "I am really disturbed... because if the [[United States]] does not make a serious effort to move forward on this new frontier, in another ten years it may be too late"[^1]. His statement underscored the urgency felt by some within the U.S. intelligence community to counter perceived Soviet capabilities in [[Extrasensory Perception|ESP]] and [[Psychokinesis|PK]][^1]. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Orlando Bosch.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Orlando Bosch.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..f486e225 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Orlando Bosch.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +--- +category: "Extremism & Violent Networks" +tags: + - Person + - OrlandoBosch + - CubanExiles + - CORU + - CIA + - Chile + - Terrorism + - LuisPosadaCarriles +summary: "Cuban exile pediatrician trained by the CIA in 1960 who turned to bombing, lived under the protection of Pinochet's Chile, founded CORU in 1976, and was named that October in the Cubana airliner bombing." +location: "Miami, Florida" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Orlando Bosch was a Cuban pediatrician, trained in [[Toledo, Ohio]], who fought briefly against [[Fulgencio Batista]] in the Escambray and then left [[Cuba]]. "In 1960 the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] had placed him and his followers in the [[Everglades]] for training." After the [[Bay of Pigs Invasion|Bay of Pigs]] he denounced the agency. "We have a right to work for Cuba here or anywhere in the world," he said in 1966. "If the CIA breaks the laws, and Kennedy broke the laws, why can't we do the same?"[^1] + +### Miami and Caracas + +In the summer of 1967 federal officers caught Bosch and his men firing a bazooka at a Polish freighter in [[Miami]] harbor. He served four years and was paroled in 1972. His next organization, Cuban Action, set out to raise ten million dollars, three of them for the killing of [[Fidel Castro]]. Arrested in [[Caracas]] in November 1974 and linked to two bombings, he was offered to the [[United States]], which "declined [[Venezuela]]'s offer to expel him to serve the rest of his sentence." The Venezuelan secret police, [[DISIP]], was then headed by his friend Orlando Garcia, with [[Rafael Rivas Vasquez]] as deputy and [[Luis Posada Carriles]] as chief of operations. "All had received CIA training."[^1] + +### Chile + +In December 1974 Bosch entered [[Chile]] with [[Guillermo Novo]] and [[Jose Dionisio Suarez]] of the [[Cuban Nationalist Movement]], who had come "to pay homage to Pinochet." He lived there for more than a year, and was reported to have met General [[Augusto Pinochet]]. In February 1976 he was arrested in [[Costa Rica]] on "a false Chilean official passport in the name of Hector Davanzo Cintolesi," with a mission to kill [[Andres Pascal Allende|Andrés Pascal Allende]] of the Chilean [[Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria|MIR]]. That June he and [[Frank Castro]] brought some twenty men to Bonao in the [[Dominican Republic]] and formed the Commando of United Revolutionary Organizations, [[CORU]]. "We were conspiring there. Planning bombings and killings," he told an interviewer from prison. "Everything was planned there."[^1] + +### October 1976 + +Two Venezuelans arrested after the bombing of a [[Cubana Flight 455|Cubana airliner]] off [[Barbados]] on October 6, 1976, "named Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carrilles as part of the conspiracy," and DISIP arrested both. On October 11 the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]] asked Venezuela to make Bosch available for questioning in the murder of [[Orlando Letelier]], committed three weeks earlier by [[DINA]] with members of the Cuban Nationalist Movement. Cuban exiles had complained that Chile gave haven to Bosch and [[Rolando Otero]], "both fugitives from the FBI, only to betray them."[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Dinges, John, and Saul Landau. *Assassination on Embassy Row*. McGraw-Hill, 1980, pp. 9, 148, 246-250, quoting Bosch's interview with Blake Fleetwood, *New Times,* May 13, 1977. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Pastor Coronel.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Pastor Coronel.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..d8f90b7e --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Pastor Coronel.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +tags: + - Person + - PastorCoronel + - Paraguay + - AlfredoStroessner + - OperationCondor + - Narcotics + - Torture +summary: "Chief of detectives of Stroessner's Paraguay, classed by the Drug Enforcement Administration as a Class I narcotics violator, whose interrogations of captured revolutionaries were attended by foreign military attachés." +location: "Asunción, Paraguay" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Pastor Coronel was chief of detectives of the police of [[Paraguay]] under President [[Alfredo Stroessner]].[^1] + +"He has acquired, for example, an informal title as the patron of all heroin and cocaine smugglers moving through Paraguay, and he protects them tenaciously as long as they pay him." The [[Drug Enforcement Administration]] classified him as a Class I narcotics violator. Ambassador [[George Landau]] "has forbidden any official of the American embassy to have any contact whatsoever with Coronel," and worked against him through Stroessner's chief of protocol, [[Conrado Pappalardo]].[^1] + +### The Tribunals + +Coronel interrogated arrested members of the [[Junta Coordinadora Revolucionaria]] before an audience. "High officials from Stroessner's government and foreign military attaches were invited to attend the secret sessions. Dark-suited waiters serving coffee and snacks circulated among the dozen or so officers seated in semicircle rows around the prison." One prisoner "was convinced that Stroessner himself was in the room for his interrogation." [[Robert Scherrer]], the legal attaché of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] in [[Buenos Aires]], wrote to his principal police source in [[Chile]], General [[Ernesto Baeza]], about the arrests, in what has been called "the first documented case of U.S. official participation in the multicountry operations against the JCR." When the letter came to light the bureau called it a "routine and traditional form of cooperation." By Scherrer's account the Paraguayan interrogations led French agents to a [[Paris]] apartment where they expected an Argentine using the alias Carlos and found [[Carlos the Jackal]], who shot his way out.[^2] + +A group of former members of the [[Colorado Party (Paraguay)|Colorado Party]], students, and Marxists trained in [[Argentina]], led by [[Agustín Goiburú]], twice parked a van holding a bomb built by the [[Montoneros]] on the president's route, and twice it failed to go off. The CIA called it "the most sophisticated of many attempts to oust the President since he came to power twenty years ago."[^2] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Branch, Taylor, and Eugene M. Propper. *Labyrinth*. Viking, 1982, p. 4. +[^2]: Dinges, John. *The Condor Years: How Pinochet and His Allies Brought Terrorism to Three Continents*. New Press, 2004, pp. 84-85, 90-94, 97. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Patricia Cloherty.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Patricia Cloherty.md index 42ae1e8e..358c9d97 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Patricia Cloherty.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Patricia Cloherty.md @@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ tags: summary: "Patricia Cloherty worked for Patricof and Company in New York from about 1970 until 1977, when she was appointed by President Carter to be Deputy Administrator of the Small Business Administration (SBA)." --- -Patricia Cloherty worked for [[Patricof and Company]] in New York from about 1970 until 1977, when she was appointed by President [[Jimmy Carter|Carter]] to be Deputy Administrator of the Small Business Administration (SBA). After leaving the SBA around 1980, she worked at Tessler & Cloherty, Inc., an investment management company she ran with her husband, [[Daniel Tessler]]. In February 1988, Cloherty returned to Patricof and Company. +Patricia Cloherty worked for [[Patricof and Company]] in New York from about 1970 until 1977, when she was appointed by President [[Jimmy Carter|Carter]] to be Deputy Administrator of the [[Small Business Administration]] (SBA). After leaving the SBA around 1980, she worked at Tessler & Cloherty, Inc., an investment management company she ran with her husband, [[Daniel Tessler]]. In February 1988, Cloherty returned to Patricof and Company. Cloherty's involvement with [[INSLAW|Inslaw]] began in 1984 when she and her husband took over management of 53rd Street Ventures, which had a small investment in [[INSLAW|Inslaw]]. [[Bill Hamilton]]'s affidavit alleged that Cloherty told [[Richard D'Amore]] that she "knew all about" [[Earl Brian]]'s role in the Inslaw matter. However, Cloherty denied ever making such a statement to D'Amore or anyone else. She maintained that she knows nothing about Earl Brian's connection, if any, to Inslaw. She stated that she knows Earl Brian, having met him in the 1980s when they both served on the board of the National Association of Small Business Investment Companies. In 1990, Brian contacted Patricof and Company with a deal proposal regarding UPI, but Cloherty did not meet with him directly, and the firm decided not to pursue the deal. Cloherty stated she has never heard of and has had no involvement with Hadron or Simeon, and does not know [[Dominic Laiti]], [[Edwin Meese]], or [[Lowell Jensen]]. She denied discussing 53rd Street Ventures' investment in Inslaw with Brian, Jensen, Meese, Laiti, or any officials from the DOJ or the Reagan or Bush administrations. The Special Counsel's investigation found no credible evidence to support Hamilton's claims regarding Cloherty's knowledge of a conspiracy.[^1] diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Percy Foreman.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Percy Foreman.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..56551476 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Percy Foreman.md @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +--- +category: "Law Enforcement & Legal" +tags: + - Person + - PercyForeman + - JamesEarlRay + - MartinLutherKing + - HuntFamily + - JackRuby + - Houston +summary: "Houston defense lawyer who took James Earl Ray's literary rights as his fee and delivered his guilty plea in 1969, briefly represented Jack Ruby, and was indicted with the Hunt brothers in 1975." +born: 1902-06-21 +died: 1988-08-25 +location: "Houston, Texas" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Percy Foreman (June 21, 1902 to August 25, 1988) was born in a log cabin near [[Livingston, Texas]], the son of the sheriff of [[Polk County, Texas|Polk County]]. After some years as an assistant district attorney he practiced criminal defense in [[Houston]] for six decades. He claimed as many as 2,000 murder cases and one client executed. He often took "diamonds, cars and houses in lieu of cash payments." "I'd rather try a murder case than any other type criminal case," he said. "There's one less witness." In 1963 he won for Cecil Blaffer Hudson what was then the largest divorce settlement on record, 6.5 million dollars in cash and 3 million in property, from [[E.J. Hudson]], chairman of Hudson Engineering Corporation. He represented [[Jack Ruby]] for a few days and withdrew "because of a dispute with the Ruby family over fees."[^1] + +### Ray + +[[James Earl Ray]]'s first lawyer, [[Arthur Hanes]], had contracted on July 8, 1968, with the writer [[William Bradford Huie]] for a book on Ray and the murder of [[Martin Luther King Jr.|Martin Luther King]], Huie to pay Ray and Hanes each 30 percent of his receipts. Ray dismissed Hanes for Foreman, and "on February 3, 1969, Ray assigned all his rights under the various contracts to Foreman as the latter's fee." On February 13 Foreman wrote Ray that there was "a little more than a 99 per cent chance" of a death sentence and a "100 per cent chance of a guilty verdict." On March 9, the day before the plea, he wrote: "If the plea is entered and the sentence accepted and no embarrassing circumstances take place in the court room, I am willing to assign to any bank, trust company or individual selected by you all my receipts under the above agreement in excess of $165,000.00." A second letter advanced 500 dollars to Ray's brother on condition that the plea go through "without any unseemly conduct on your part in court." Huie's magazine contract was amended in anticipation of the plea and paid Foreman 1,000 dollars for an article, "Against Conspiracy."[^2][^3] + +At the hearing in [[Memphis, Tennessee|Memphis]] on March 10, 1969, Ray interrupted: "The only thing I have to say is that I can't agree with Mr. Clark." Foreman supplied: "[[Ramsey Clark]]." Ray went on: "Mr. [[J. Edgar Hoover]]. I agree with all these stipulations, and I am not trying to change anything." The court asked whose theories he rejected. "Mr. Canale's, Mr. Clark's and Mr. J. Edgar Hoover's about the conspiracy." Foreman told the judge: "I think that what he said is that he doesn't agree with Ramsey Clark that Ramsey Clark is right or that J. Edgar Hoover is right. I didn't argue that as evidence in this case." Ray received 99 years and within days repudiated the plea. His suit against Foreman, Huie, and Hanes was dismissed, and the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit|Sixth Circuit]] affirmed in 1971, leaving open the question whether such contracts "are void as a matter of public policy." In 1976 the same court found "a potential conflict of interest" in the arrangement, and a district court finding that the fee "would be unreasonable if there were money to pay it," and upheld the plea.[^2][^3] + +### The Hunts + +On July 21, 1975, a federal grand jury charged [[Nelson Bunker Hunt]], [[William Herbert Hunt|Herbert Hunt]], Foreman, three other lawyers, and "a retired Texas industrialist," [[Edward J. Hudson]] of Houston, with obstruction of justice. "The indictment charged that the seven men had conspired to pay witnesses to go to prison to hush testimony about the wiretapping" of [[H.L. Hunt]]'s aides [[Paul Rothermel]] and [[John Curington]], who were Foreman's clients. The Hunts answered the same day that the charges were "a further result of an attempt by the C.I.A. to discredit the Hunt oil empire." In April 1976 Bunker Hunt pleaded nolo contendere and paid a fine of 1,000 dollars, and the charges against Foreman and Hudson were dropped. Neither of the wire service obituaries of 1988 mentioned the indictment.[^1][^4] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: "Famed trial lawyer Percy Foreman, who defended James Earl Ray," United Press International, August 25, 1988; "Outspoken lawyer Percy Foreman called legal 'warrior,'" United Press International, August 26, 1988. +[^2]: *Ray v. Foreman,* 441 F.2d 1266 (6th Cir. 1971). +[^3]: *Ray v. Rose,* 535 F.2d 966 (6th Cir. 1976). +[^4]: "Hunt Sons Charge C.I.A. Used Agents To Embezzle Funds," *New York Times,* July 22, 1975; Hurt, Harry, III. *Texas Rich: The Hunt Dynasty from the Early Oil Days through the Silver Crash*. W.W. Norton, 1981, pp. 356-359. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Richard Allen.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Richard Allen.md deleted file mode 100644 index 53b0a5ed..00000000 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Richard Allen.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,14 +0,0 @@ ---- -category: "Other" -tags: - - Person -summary: "National security figure connected to the Carter and Reagan administrations who attended the October 1980 Washington meeting on Iran." -born: 1936-01-01 -died: 2024-11-16 -location: "Collingswood, New Jersey" ---- - -[[Richard Allen]] was a figure with connections to the [[Jimmy Carter|Carter]] administration. He was part of the [[United States|American]] delegation at the [[Washington meeting (October, 1980)|Washington meeting]] in October 1980, which included [[Robert McFarlane]] and [[Lawrence Silberman]]. [[Richard Allen|Allen]] had a deal with the [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]] camp that assured him the position of national security adviser for [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]].[^1] - -### Footnotes -[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 1992. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Richard V. Allen.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Richard V. Allen.md index 4ac8a7f5..8633d194 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Richard V. Allen.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Richard V. Allen.md @@ -8,12 +8,19 @@ summary: "Allen personally relayed the message to Ariel Sharon in the fall of 19 born: 1936-01-01 died: 2024-11-16 location: "Collingswood, New Jersey" +alias: + - Richard Allen --- Richard V. Allen was the National Security Advisor to President [[Ronald Reagan]]. He was informed of the Israeli bombing of the Iraqi nuclear reactor at [[Osirak bombing]] in June 1981. Allen immediately telephoned Reagan, who privately expressed delight at the attack. Allen was present at a meeting of Reagan's high command where [[Caspar Weinberger]] proposed canceling F-16 aircraft sales to [[Israel]], but Reagan had no intention of taking such a step.[^1] -Allen personally relayed the message to [[Ariel Sharon]] in the fall of 1981 that the [[United States]] would no longer permit [[Israel]] to get [[KH-11]] imagery of the [[Soviet Union]] or any other country outside the hundred-mile limit, re-enforcing the initial 1979 restrictions. Allen was not intimidated by Sharon's bellowing about American aid being "Band-Aids and mustard plaster."[^1] +Allen personally relayed the message to [[Ariel Sharon]] in the fall of 1981 that the [[United States]] would no longer permit Israel to get [[KH-11]] imagery of the [[Soviet Union]] or any other country outside the hundred-mile limit, re-enforcing the initial 1979 restrictions. Allen was not intimidated by Sharon's bellowing about American aid being "Band-Aids and mustard plaster."[^1] + +### October 1980 + +Richard Allen was a figure with connections to the [[Jimmy Carter|Carter]] administration. He was part of the American delegation at the [[Washington meeting (October, 1980)|Washington meeting]] in October 1980, which included [[Robert McFarlane]] and [[Lawrence Silberman]]. Allen had a deal with the Reagan camp that assured him the position of national security adviser for Reagan.[^2] ### Footnotes -[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 1, 21. \ No newline at end of file +[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 1, 21. +[^2]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 1992. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Robert Berrellez.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Robert Berrellez.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..154247a0 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Robert Berrellez.md @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +--- +category: "Other" +tags: + - Person + - RobertBerrellez + - ITT + - Chile + - AssociatedPress + - CIA + - Graymail +summary: "Associated Press correspondent turned ITT public relations man in Latin America, coauthor of the September 1970 memorandum against Allende, charged in 1978 with lying to the Senate in a case dropped to protect CIA secrets." +location: "Buenos Aires, Argentina" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Robert Berrellez was born at [[Nogales, Arizona|Nogales]] and educated in [[Arizona]]. He joined the [[Associated Press]] in [[Phoenix, Arizona|Phoenix]] and became its roving correspondent for [[Latin America]], based in [[Mexico City]]. "He was in Cuba when Fidel Castro came to power, and spent six months in jail for the crime of being an American newsman." He went to the [[ITT Corporation|International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation]] as its public relations man for Latin America, working from [[Buenos Aires]].[^1] + +### September 1970 + +With [[Hal Hendrix]] he sent headquarters the memorandum of September 17, 1970, which recommended that ITT and other firms "pump some advertising into *[[El Mercurio|Mercurio]]*," revive some twenty radio and television propagandists formerly paid by "the Matte and Edwards groups," and relocate the families of "key persons involved in the fight" to [[Argentina]]. He had told [[Arturo Matte]], of the camp of [[Jorge Alessandri]], that ITT was "ready to contribute with what was necessary" to keep [[Salvador Allende]] from office. Before the Senate subcommittee on multinational corporations in March 1973 he explained the phrase as "essentially a courteous expression of concern." A [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] officer, [[Jonathan Hanke]], wrote the next day: "Berrellez apparently got safely over the question of his discussion with Arturo Matte reported in 17 September message." The agency's own review of the hearings found him "crisper and more solid in his answers" than his superiors.[^2][^3] + +### United States v. Berrellez + +On March 20, 1978, the last day before the statute of limitations ran, the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]] charged Berrellez, then 58, of [[Chatsworth, California|Chatsworth]], and ITT's southwest regional public relations director, and [[Edward Gerrity]] with perjury, obstruction, and false statements. [[Harold Geneen]] was not charged. [[Benjamin Civiletti]] said the plea bargain given [[Richard Helms]] for the same offense had been accepted "because of fear that national security secrets might be disclosed if a trial were held," and that the two ITT men "did not have the same access to the nation's secrets." Attorney General [[Griffin Bell]] said: "You cannot decide never to prosecute these cases that might involve national security. To do so gives people a license."[^4][^5] + +The prosecutors struck from the charge a reference to [[Hernán Cubillos]], formerly of *El Mercurio* and by then foreign minister of [[Chile]]. Berrellez's lawyer, Patrick Wall, protested that the CIA had censored his own notes. "The government said there was no national security in this case." Judge [[Aubrey Robinson]] said: "The government plays games at its peril." He refused an order confining the testimony, and the jury was dismissed the day after it was sworn. The government dropped the case on February 8, 1979. Sealed transcripts of a closed hearing of October 1978, sent anonymously to *[[The Nation]]*, recorded the allegation that Berrellez had "lied at the behest and with the aid of the C.I.A." One reporter wrote that the Hanke memorandum raised "the question of whether the CIA helped organize the effort to mislead the subcommittee."[^3][^5][^6] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: "Bad Deal For Berrellez," *Phoenix Republic,* April 2, 1978. CIA Reading Room, CIA-RDP09T00207R001000030015-6. +[^2]: U.S. Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, Subcommittee on Multinational Corporations. *Multinational Corporations and United States Foreign Policy,* part 1, The International Telephone and Telegraph Company and Chile, 1970-71. 93rd Cong., 1st sess., 1973. +[^3]: Ignatius, David. *Wall Street Journal,* 1978. CIA Reading Room, CIA-RDP09T00207R001000030007-5; Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum for Chief, Western Hemisphere Division, "Text of Senate ITT Hearings," March 26, 1973. +[^4]: Volz, Joseph. "2 Top ITT Aides Charged With Perjury on Chile Acts," *New York Daily News,* March 21, 1978. CIA Reading Room, CIA-RDP09T00207R001000030068-8. +[^5]: Kaplan, Carl, and Randall Rothenberg. "The Black Art of Graymail: The Berrellez Case," *The Nation,* February 24, 1979. +[^6]: Babcock, Charles R. "ITT Indictment Is Cut Back," *Washington Post,* August 19, 1978; "Trial of Berrellez Is Delayed as U.S. Fears Disclosures," *Wall Street Journal,* 1978. CIA Reading Room, CIA-RDP09T00207R001000030002-0. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Robert Chasen.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Robert Chasen.md index 3ff41e9a..0975fdea 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Robert Chasen.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Robert Chasen.md @@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ summary: "Chasen supervised the Wackenhut Corporation's Indio facility from Cora ### Involvement with Wackenhut and Controversies -Chasen supervised the [[Wackenhut Corporation]]'s Indio facility from Coral Gables, Florida. He confirmed the "horrendous properties" of a "virus" he encountered at the Indio facility, stating that [[Wackenhut Corporation]] was "running amuck." He claimed that [[Robert Booth Nichols]] and [[Peter Zokosky]] attempted to sell biological warfare technology (developed in cow uteri) through [[Wackenhut Corporation]], using [[Robert Frye]] as a front man. Chasen alleged that Frye went behind his back in facilitating this project, and when Chasen learned of it, he shut it down. Due to the projects underway at the [[Cabazon Indian Reservation]], Chasen chose not to visit the property directly, instead meeting with Indio executives in Palm Springs.[^1] +Chasen supervised the [[Wackenhut Corporation]]'s Indio facility from [[Coral Gables, Florida]]. He confirmed the "horrendous properties" of a "virus" he encountered at the Indio facility, stating that [[Wackenhut Corporation]] was "running amuck." He claimed that [[Robert Booth Nichols]] and [[Peter Zokosky]] attempted to sell biological warfare technology (developed in cow uteri) through [[Wackenhut Corporation]], using [[Robert Frye]] as a front man. Chasen alleged that Frye went behind his back in facilitating this project, and when Chasen learned of it, he shut it down. Due to the projects underway at the [[Cabazon Indian Reservation]], Chasen chose not to visit the property directly, instead meeting with Indio executives in Palm Springs.[^1] Chasen was evasive on the subject of [[PROMIS]], despite his background suggesting he would be knowledgeable about it. He had worked in the same department as [[Peter Videnieks]] at [[U.S. Customs|Customs]] for at least three years, yet claimed not to know him. He also stated that [[Wackenhut Corporation]] had "run a check" on [[Robert Booth Nichols]] and could not learn anything about his background, which bothered Chasen. He believed Nichols worked for the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] and was a "slippery guy," expressing surprise that Frye and [[Dick Wilson]] were "dazzled" by Nichols for so long.[^1] diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Safa al-Habobi.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Safa al-Habobi.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..13eb1960 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Safa al-Habobi.md @@ -0,0 +1,31 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +tags: + - Person + - SafaAlHabobi + - Iraq + - MatrixChurchill + - TechnologyDevelopmentGroup + - BNLScandal + - HusseinKamel + - ArmsToIraq +alias: + - Safa Haji al-Habobi + - Safa Al-Habobi + - Dr. Safa al-Habobi +summary: "Iraqi official who ran the London front companies of Hussein Kamel's military industry ministry, chaired Matrix Churchill, was indicted in Atlanta in 1991 with Christopher Drogoul, and was named Iraq's oil minister in 1993." +location: "Baghdad, Iraq" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Safa Haji al-Habobi was the director general of one of the weapons plants of [[Iraq]]'s [[Ministry of Industry and Military Industrialization]], the [[Nassr State Enterprise]], and "a director at several Iraqi front companies, including TDG and the British and U.S. branches of [[Matrix Churchill]]." Representative [[Henry B. Gonzalez]] described the ministry's buying organization, the [[Al-Arabi Trading Company]] of [[Baghdad]], as nominally private and in fact run from day to day by al-Habobi, "one of [[Hussein Kamel|Hussein Kamil]]'s former [[Special Security Organization (Iraq)|Secret Security Organization]] cronies." Its [[London]] holding company, the [[Technology Development Group]], bought Matrix Churchill in 1987, and its [[Paris]] arm, [[Babil International]], was listed in his name.[^1][^2] + +On June 14, 1989, his network contracted with [[SerVaas Inc.]] of [[Indianapolis]] for a brass recovery plant, financed like its other American purchases by the [[Atlanta]] branch of the [[Banca Nazionale del Lavoro]]. The indictment returned in Atlanta on February 28, 1991, against the branch manager, [[Christopher Drogoul]], named al-Habobi as a defendant with [[Sadik Taha]] and Abdul Munim Rasheed of the [[Central Bank of Iraq]] and [[Raja Hassan Ali]] of the ministry.[^1][^2] + +Al-Habobi told [[Paul Henderson]], the managing director of Matrix Churchill, who was reporting to British intelligence, "not only that [[Rome]] was fully aware of the Atlanta loans but that these were an extension of a government-to-government agreement between [[Italy]] and Iraq." [[Saddam Hussein]] named him oil minister in the summer of 1993.[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Friedman, Alan. *Spider's Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq*. Bantam, 1993, pp. 185, 281. +[^2]: Gonzalez, Henry B. Floor statements of August 10 and September 25, 1992, *Congressional Record,* House; United States v. Drogoul, No. 1:91-CR-078 (N.D. Ga.), indictment. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Wafai Dajani.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Wafai Dajani.md index 91fb8c55..9c8c70af 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Wafai Dajani.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Wafai Dajani.md @@ -19,7 +19,16 @@ Wafai Dajani is a businessman of [[Amman]], owner of Amman Resources, Wafai Daja The Atlanta prosecutors' draft of the indictment in the [[BNL Scandal|BNL case]] named him as a defendant. On February 28, 1991, the day the indictment was returned, a [[Department of State|State Department]] memorandum said the department had "no objections" to the indictment of anyone on the list and recorded "reservations about proceeding against him in light of his connections." He and [[Hussein Kamel]], the son-in-law of [[Saddam Hussein]], appeared in the indictment as unindicted co-conspirators. Gonzalez told the House on March 30, 1992, that the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]] had discouraged the indictment of the [[Central Bank of Iraq]] and of "a prominent Jordanian with close ties to the King of Jordan" on grounds of foreign policy. The branch manager, [[Christopher Drogoul]], testified that a "Mr. Dejani" had told him of [[Henry A. Kissinger|Henry Kissinger]]: "Kissinger, of course, he said, is the architect of foreign policy in the [[United States]]. You know that."[^1][^2] +### The Grain Trade and the Agency + +During the 1980s Dajani's companies "unloaded, stored, often packaged or repackaged, and then trucked nearly 80 percent of all the U.S. agricultural commodities that were destined for Iraq and financed with U.S. government loan guarantees," about four billion dollars' worth. His Amman Resources kept a 60,000-ton ship, the Tanga, at [[Aqaba]] as a floating Iraqi silo. With the Iraqi official [[Sadik Taha]] he advised Drogoul "and sometimes steered him." Of the commissions he said: "If you wanted the business, you had to provide after-sales services. Otherwise you would get no business." Accused of dealing in arms, he answered: "I couldn't be involved in arms. I am too big and easy to watch."[^3] + +An American intelligence officer described him as "the intermediary for German, Italian, and French companies that were selling into Iraq's nuclear and missile programs. He was everywhere, he dealt with everybody." [[Paul Von Wedel]] of the Atlanta branch said: "We knew that Dajani was doing work for the CIA, for The Company. He told us in Washington during one of his visits." [[Howard Teicher]], formerly of the [[National Security Council]] staff, said: "Dajani was involved in our dirty policy. He performed services for the CIA and was involved in the CCC program." Dajani said: "I don't work for anybody. I work for myself."[^3] + +The State Department under [[James Baker]] advised the prosecutors that "Wafai Dajani is a Jordanian businessman, not a government official. His brother is a former Minister of the Interior, and Wafai himself is considered well connected to the King and to U.S. grain exporters. His indictment would be seen as a further U.S. attempt to punish Jordan." Drogoul's lawyers later complained that "the Government failed to interview Wafai Dajani, despite evidence of his substantial involvement with the scheme, when he was in Atlanta and had agreed to meet with the prosecution." Within weeks of the end of the [[Gulf War]], according to one account, he and others close to King [[Hussein of Jordan|Hussein]] were again shipping goods into Iraq.[^3] + ### Footnotes [^1]: Gonzalez, Henry B. Floor statements on the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, *Congressional Record,* House, March 30 and August 10, 1992. [^2]: "Bush's embarrassing Lavoro scandal," *The Baltimore Sun,* April 28, 1992; House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, hearing, Serial No. 103-95, testimony of Christopher Drogoul. +[^3]: Friedman, Alan. *Spider's Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq*. Bantam, 1993, pp. 112-114, 196-200, 217, 294. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/William Broe.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/William Broe.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..6eed1da5 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/William Broe.md @@ -0,0 +1,44 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +tags: + - Person + - WilliamBroe + - CIA + - WesternHemisphereDivision + - Chile + - ProjectFUBELT + - ITT + - 40Committee +alias: + - William V. Broe +summary: "Chief of the CIA's Western Hemisphere Division who supervised the 1970 task force against Allende, put to ITT a plan to induce economic collapse in Chile, and ordered a stonewall after Schneider was shot." +location: "Washington, D.C." +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +William V. Broe was chief of the Western Hemisphere Division of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] in 1970. With the deputy director for plans, [[Thomas Karamessines]], he supervised the task force formed that September to keep [[Salvador Allende]] from the presidency of [[Chile]], whose military unit was headed by [[David Atlee Phillips]]. The operation was [[Project FUBELT]].[^1] + +### The Program + +On September 9, six days before President [[Richard Nixon]]'s order, Broe cabled the [[Santiago]] station chief, [[Henry Hecksher]]: "The only prospect with any chance of success whatsoever is a military golpe either before or immediately after Allende's assumption of power." On September 28 he and Phillips told the station: "We conclude that it is our task to create such a climate climaxing with a solid pretext that will force the military and the president to take some action in the desired direction." The program had three parts, economic, political, and psychological warfare, and was meant to "(a) force Frei to act or go; (b) create an atmosphere in which he or others can act successfully; (c) assist in creating the flashpoint for action." On October 7 they directed the station to "begin at once a rumor campaign, based whenever possible on tangible peg, which will help create this climate."[^1] + +On September 29 Broe met [[Edward Gerrity]], senior vice president of [[ITT Corporation|ITT]], to "explore the feasibility of possible actions to apply some economic pressure on Chile." Gerrity reported to [[Harold Geneen]] that the CIA man had presented a plan "aimed at inducing economic collapse."[^1] + +### Testimony + +Under oath before Senator [[Frank Church]] in 1973, Broe said he had called on Gerrity on the instruction of Director [[Richard Helms]] and "in full knowledge" of his superiors. He confirmed each measure discussed: banks "not renewing credits or delaying in doing so," companies "dragging their feet in spending money and making deliveries and in shipping spare parts," "creating pressure on savings and loan institutions in Chile so that they would have to shut their doors," and "withdrawing all technical help." He gave Gerrity a list of companies that could "participate." Asked whether the object was unrest that would lead the military to stop Allende, he answered: "No." The purpose, he said, was the Christian Democratic vote in Congress. "There was a thesis that additional deterioration in the economic situation could influence a number of Christian Democratic Congressmen who were planning to vote for Allende." He had not told Gerrity of "other steps the Agency might be taking." + +The subcommittee summarized his evidence in four points. On July 16, 1970, at the [[Sheraton-Carlton Hotel]], Geneen "offered to assemble a substantial election fund" for [[Jorge Alessandri]], "controlled and channeled through the C.I.A.," which Broe refused. The contacts "derived from an initiative taken by Mr. McCone with Mr. Helms." Broe proposed to Gerrity "a plan of action designed to create or accelerate economic instability in Chile." And throughout he "was acting with the knowledge and in accordance with instructions given him by his superiors at the C.I.A., specifically including Mr. Helms." [[John McCone]], a director of ITT and still a consultant to the agency, testified that such ideas were "never approved by Mr. Helms" and that Broe "was exploring."[^2] + +### Schneider + +Broe and Phillips asked Hecksher whether there was "anything we or Station can do to effect the removal of Schneider," the army commander, and on October 18 approved the station's request for three submachine guns. They ordered Hecksher "not, repeat not," to tell Ambassador [[Edward Korry]] of the "impending coup" and, "should it occur," to "appear surprised and stonewall any and all queries." General [[Rene Schneider|René Schneider]] was shot on October 22. After briefing Director Richard Helms they cabled: "The Station has done excellent job of guiding Chileans to point today where a military solution is at least an option for them." If any "points of compromise" reached the press, "absolute denial will be the order of the day even with Ambassador and other embassy colleagues," and the agency's "position will be stonewall all the way." On November 5 Broe cabled his concern that the American "hardware could ultimately be discovered."[^1] + +On November 19, 1970, he presented the agency's new covert program against Allende's government to the [[40 Committee]]. Before testifying to the Senate's multinationals subcommittee in 1973 on his dealings with ITT, he met Senator Frank Church and the staff on March 15 to settle the scope of his testimony.[^1][^3] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Kornbluh, Peter. *The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability*. New Press, 2003, pp. 2, 10, 17-19, 22, 29-31, 87, and notes at p. 511. +[^2]: U.S. Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, Subcommittee on Multinational Corporations. *Multinational Corporations and United States Foreign Policy,* part 1, The International Telephone and Telegraph Company and Chile, 1970-71. 93rd Cong., 1st sess., 1973, pp. 250-252; Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum for Chief, Western Hemisphere Division, "Text of Senate ITT Hearings: 20, 21 and 22 March 1973," March 26, 1973. +[^3]: Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Subcommittee on Multinational Corporations, *The International Telephone and Telegraph Company and Chile, 1970-71,* 1973. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/William Colby.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/William Colby.md index b73d7a59..7b1e9dd1 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/William Colby.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/William Colby.md @@ -1,11 +1,11 @@ --- created: 2026-05-17 -updated: 2026-05-17 +updated: 2026-09-21 title: William Colby aliases: - - William Colby - William Egan Colby - Bill Colby + - William E. Colby category: "Intelligence & Government" tags: - Person @@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ tags: - PhoenixProgram - 1960s - 1970s + - Stargate summary: "William Egan Colby served as Director of Central Intelligence from 1973 to 1976, dismissing James Angleton, cooperating with the Church Committee, and revealing the Family Jewels, having earlier directed the Vietnam-era Phoenix Program under the CORDS framework." born: 1920-01-04 died: 1996-04-27 @@ -46,9 +47,14 @@ Colby's tenure established institutional patterns in deniable covert operations On April 27, 1996, Colby disappeared from his weekend home in Rock Point, Maryland, on the Wicomico River. His canoe was found overturned. His body was recovered nine days later. The death was ruled an accidental drowning. DeCamp, whose personal relationship with Colby was extensive and who described Colby as having indicated he was preparing to reveal further information about the Franklin case and other matters, publicly questioned the official ruling. No physical evidence was found to contradict the accidental drowning determination. Colby was 76 years old at the time of his death and had been known to canoe alone on the river frequently.[^1] +### Israel + +William E. Colby served as the Director of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] from 1973 to 1976. He shared the assumption that [[Israel]] had a few nuclear weapons and that if there was a collapse during the 1973 [[Yom Kippur War]], there was a possibility that Israel would use them. Colby believed that nuclear weapons would be used "only in an extreme situation."[^5] + ### Footnotes [^1]: Powers, Thomas. *The Man Who Kept the Secrets: Richard Helms and the CIA*. Knopf, 1979. Hersh, Seymour M. "Huge C.I.A. Operation Reported in U.S. Against Antiwar Forces." New York Times, December 22, 1974. [^2]: Church Committee, S. Rept. 94-755, April 26, 1976. [^3]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 17. [^4]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion*. Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 9. +[^5]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 17. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/William E. Colby.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/William E. Colby.md deleted file mode 100644 index 6e68195f..00000000 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/William E. Colby.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,17 +0,0 @@ ---- -category: "Key Figures" -tags: - - Person - - Stargate - - CIA -summary: "Director of the CIA from 1973 to 1976 who believed Israel possessed nuclear weapons and might use them in an extreme situation." -born: 1920-01-04 -died: 1996-04-27 -location: "Saint Paul, Minnesota" ---- - -William E. Colby served as the Director of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] from 1973 to 1976. He shared the assumption that [[Israel]] had a few nuclear weapons and that if there was a collapse during the 1973 [[Yom Kippur War]], there was a possibility that [[Israel]] would use them. Colby believed that nuclear weapons would be used "only in an extreme situation."[^1] - -### Footnotes - -[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 17. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/William Gurvich.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/William Gurvich.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..1ac1d1df --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/William Gurvich.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +category: "JFK Assassination" +tags: + - Person + - WilliamGurvich + - JimGarrison + - ClayShaw + - PrivateInvestigators + - NewOrleans +alias: + - Bill Gurvich +summary: "New Orleans private detective who joined Jim Garrison's Kennedy investigation in December 1966, resigned in June 1967 calling it a fraudulent, criminal act, and took two boxes of its files to Clay Shaw's lawyers." +location: "New Orleans, Louisiana" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +William Gurvich was "Executive Director of an established detective agency in [[New Orleans]]." District Attorney [[Jim Garrison]] asked for his help in the Kennedy assassination investigation "on or about December 23, 1966." He worked on it for about six months and resigned on June 27, 1967, stating his belief that "the investigation was a 'fraudulent, criminal act.'" A federal judge who heard him in 1971 called him "an experienced investigator whom this court believed."[^1] + +After leaving Garrison he turned his files over to the lawyers of the defendant, [[Clay Shaw]]. About two boxes of the papers of Shaw's attorney [[Edward Wegmann]], now in the Kennedy collection at the [[National Archives and Records Administration|National Archives]], are described as "Investigative Files of William Gurvich, Investigator for the District Attorney of the City of New Orleans." They include a stenographic record of his interviews with the defense in the summer of 1967. [[Joseph Oster]], who had worked for [[Guy Banister]], named Gurvich in 1996 among those who might have taken Banister's files after his death.[^2][^3] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Shaw v. Garrison, 328 F. Supp. 390 (E.D. La. 1971), affirmed, 467 F.2d 113 (5th Cir. 1972). +[^2]: National Archives and Records Administration, finding aid to the Papers of Edward F. Wegmann, John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection; DiEugenio, James. "The Wegmann Files," *Probe,* vol. 4, no. 4, May-June 1997. +[^3]: Golrick, Philip D. Memorandum to David G. Marwell, "Phone Conversation with Joseph Oster," January 19, 1996, Assassination Records Review Board electronic files. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Yasser Arafat.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Yasser Arafat.md index 1259804d..d48716de 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Yasser Arafat.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Yasser Arafat.md @@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ The PLO under Arafat developed a quasi-state presence in [[Jordan]]'s Palestinia In [[Lebanon]], Arafat navigated the tensions between PLO military necessity and Lebanese political stability, a balance that ultimately failed as Lebanon descended into civil war in 1975. PLO factions were involved in and contributed to the Lebanese Civil War's escalation. Arafat's strategy sought to maintain PLO political and diplomatic relevance while managing the military activities of constituent factions he could not fully control, including the PFLP and the breakaway [[Abu Nidal]] organization, which Arafat formally expelled from the PLO in 1974. -The 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon forced the PLO out of its Lebanese positions. After negotiation mediated by U.S. diplomat Philip Habib, Arafat and approximately 15,000 PLO personnel evacuated Beirut by sea in August 1982 to Tunis and other Arab capitals.[^1] +The 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon forced the PLO out of its Lebanese positions. After negotiation mediated by U.S. diplomat [[Philip Habib]], Arafat and approximately 15,000 PLO personnel evacuated Beirut by sea in August 1982 to Tunis and other Arab capitals.[^1] ### Tunis and the Oslo Process diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Armando Fernandez Larios.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Armando Fernandez Larios.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..4d500d6c --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Armando Fernandez Larios.md @@ -0,0 +1,40 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +tags: + - Person + - ArmandoFernandezLarios + - DINA + - Chile + - OrlandoLetelier + - CaravanOfDeath + - PleaBargain + - ImmigrationAndCustomsEnforcement +alias: + - Armando Fernández Larios + - Alejandro Romeral +summary: "Chilean army officer of the 1973 Caravan of Death and DINA's advance man in the Letelier murder, who defected to the United States in 1987, served five months, and was detained by ICE in 2025." +location: "Florida, United States" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Armando Fernández Larios was an officer of the [[Chile|Chilean]] army and of [[DINA]]. He left the army in January 1987 with the rank of major and has lived since in the [[United States]].[^1] + +### The Caravan of Death + +In October 1973 he was one of the squad of General [[Sergio Arellano Stark]] that toured provincial garrisons removing prisoners for execution. A federal appeals court recorded that on October 17 at [[Copiapó]] the squad chose thirteen prisoners, "drove the thirteen prisoners ten minutes outside of Copiapo toward the City of La Serena, ordered the prisoners out of the truck, and executed each by gunfire or by stabbing." The economist [[Winston Cabello]] "refused to leave the truck and was stabbed to death by Fernandez who slashed Cabello with a corvo, a short, curved knife that is designed to inflict fatal wounds while causing a prolonged and painful death." Fernández denied at trial that he had been present. In 2003 a federal jury awarded Cabello's family four million dollars under the [[Alien Tort Claims Act]] and the [[Torture Victim Protection Act]], and the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit|Eleventh Circuit]] affirmed in 2005.[^1] + +### Letelier + +In July 1976 Fernández and [[Michael Townley]] went to [[Paraguay]] for false passports in the names Alejandro Romeral and Juan Williams, which Ambassador [[George Landau]] photographed. That September he went ahead of Townley to Washington to watch [[Orlando Letelier]], and met Townley at [[John F. Kennedy International Airport|Kennedy Airport]] on September 9. Letelier and [[Ronni Moffitt]] were killed on September 21. A Washington grand jury indicted Fernández in 1978 with [[Manuel Contreras]] and [[Pedro Espinoza]], and Chile refused to extradite them.[^2] + +### The 1987 Arrangement + +In mid-January 1987 he met American officials secretly in [[Santiago]] for ten hours. He left for [[Brazil]] on January 22, was questioned there by officers of the [[Department of State|State Department]] and the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]], and was brought to the United States. Polygraph examinations found "consistent signs of deception" in his denial that he had known the purpose of the mission. A [[State Department]] memorandum of January 26 declared that "Fernandez is not a murderer" and that "the foreign policy benefits are substantial." On February 4 he pleaded guilty before Judge [[Barrington Parker]] to being an accessory after the fact. The government promised that it "would neither seek to deport [him] to Chile nor to cooperate in his extradition to Chile." Parker sentenced him on May 6 to up to seven years. In July the State Department's lawyer [[Michael Kozak]] wrote to the parole commission: "I personally have come to know Mr. Fernandez Larios and his character well." He was paroled on September 11, 1987, after five months.[^1][^2] + +In 2005 he applied without success for the visa given to foreign informants. On October 27, 2025, agents of [[Immigration and Customs Enforcement]] detained him in [[Florida]] and held him at the [[Krome Detention Center]], and in January 2026 the [[Department of Homeland Security]] put him on a published list of the "worst of the worst." He petitioned for habeas corpus on February 20, pleading the promise of 1987. Chief Judge [[Cecilia Altonaga]] ordered the government to answer by March 19. It released him that day instead, and she dismissed the case as moot on March 30.[^2] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Cabello v. Fernandez-Larios, 402 F.3d 1148 (11th Cir. 2005). +[^2]: Kornbluh, Peter, and Sebastian Santana. "'Worst of the Worst': ICE and the Case of Chilean Intelligence Operative Armando Fernandez Larios," National Security Archive, July 10, 2026. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2026-07-10/worst-worst-ice-and-case-chilean-intelligence-operative-armando diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Arthur Krock.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Arthur Krock.md index 69fedde1..72e40d80 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Arthur Krock.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Arthur Krock.md @@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ died: 1974-04-12 location: "Glasgow, Kentucky" --- -Arthur Krock was a prominent Washington columnist for the *New York Times*. In December 1960, he served as an intermediary, directing [[John W. Finney]] to [[John A. McCone]], then chairman of the [[Atomic Energy Commission]], to get a story about [[Israel]]'s secret nuclear reactor at [[Dimona]]. Krock's role indicated that the administration was looking to plant the story publicly.[^1] +Arthur Krock was a prominent Washington columnist for the *New York Times*. In December 1960, he served as an intermediary, directing [[John W. Finney]] to [[John McCone|John A. McCone]], then chairman of the [[Atomic Energy Commission]], to get a story about [[Israel]]'s secret nuclear reactor at [[Dimona]]. Krock's role indicated that the administration was looking to plant the story publicly.[^1] ### Footnotes diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/August Kreis III.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/August Kreis III.md index a518655f..e08e9c5a 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/August Kreis III.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/August Kreis III.md @@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ August B. Kreis III was a white supremacist activist and self-appointed director ### Background and Aryan Nations Leadership -Kreis had a long history in the white supremacist movement before his South Carolina period. He served as "minister of information" for the main Aryan Nations under [[Richard Butler]] before Butler's death in 2004, and subsequently assumed leadership of a splinter faction that continued under the Aryan Nations name from [[Lexington County, South Carolina]]. In this role he operated out of the same geographic and social environment as Sutter. +Kreis had a long history in the white supremacist movement before his [[South Carolina]] period. He served as "minister of information" for the main Aryan Nations under [[Richard Butler]] before Butler's death in 2004, and subsequently assumed leadership of a splinter faction that continued under the Aryan Nations name from [[Lexington County, South Carolina]]. In this role he operated out of the same geographic and social environment as Sutter. ### The Al-Qaeda Statements and FBI Investigation diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Bernardo Leighton.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Bernardo Leighton.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..187b8a96 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Bernardo Leighton.md @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ +--- +category: "Political Figure" +tags: + - Person + - BernardoLeighton + - Chile + - ChristianDemocraticParty + - DINA + - OperationCondor + - Rome + - MichaelTownley +summary: "Founder of Chile's Christian Democratic Party and former interior minister, exiled in Rome, who was shot with his wife on October 6, 1975, by Italian fascists engaged by DINA's agent Michael Townley." +location: "Rome, Italy" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Bernardo Leighton was a founder of the [[Christian Democratic Party (Chile)|Christian Democratic Party]] of [[Chile]] and minister of the interior under President [[Eduardo Frei Montalva]]. After the coup of 1973 the Italian [[Democrazia Cristiana|Christian Democrats]] invited him to live in [[Rome]], where he worked for an understanding between his party and the exiled left.[^1] + +In the fall of 1975 [[Michael Townley]], his wife [[Mariana Callejas]], and [[Virgilio Paz]] of the [[Cuban Nationalist Movement]] were in Europe on a mission for [[DINA]] that Townley called "Operation Open Season." To the Italian fascists he put the case this way: "In Rome, right now, there lives a Chilean exile who embodies that threat of left-center alliance. Behind this incipient Christian Democratic-leftist alliance is Bernardo Leighton. His elimination would prove of immeasureable benefit to anticommunist movements all over the world." Paz proposed the cover: "The Italians would kill the Chilean target, and the Cuban exile movement would claim credit."[^1] + +On October 6, 1975, a gunman shot Leighton in the back of the head with a 9mm Beretta. The bullet came out above his left ear. A second shot passed through his wife at the shoulder and grazed her spine, and she did not recover the full use of her legs. Both lived. On November 4 a Cuban exile group calling itself Zero sent the [[Associated Press]] in [[Miami]] a communiqué naming the weapon. "The FBI gave credence to the Zero communique about Leighton because it provided details of the attack that only the assassins could know." Its agents "reasoned that the Leighton attack had been a 'contract' from the Chilean military government and that Zero had served as Chile's hired gun." The members of Zero included [[Guillermo Novo]], his brother Ignacio, and [[Jose Dionisio Suarez]], three of the men later charged in the murder of [[Orlando Letelier]].[^1] + +The name had been added to Townley's list by Major [[Raúl Iturriaga Neumann|Raúl Iturriaga]] of DINA, who ordered him to enlist the organization of [[Stefano Delle Chiaie]]. Delle Chiaie advised against exiles such as [[Carlos Altamirano]], who were too well protected. "Leighton was a better, and easier target." The gunman was [[Pierluigi Concutelli]]. "Townley and the Italians celebrated with dinner at Delle Chiaie's apartment, thinking that the Leightons were dead." A few weeks later General [[Augusto Pinochet]] flew to [[Madrid]] for the funeral of [[Francisco Franco]]. "Delle Chiaie was given a private audience with Pinochet in his hotel room. Contreras also presented Delle Chiaie with the $5,000 payment."[^2] + +An Italian court convicted Townley in his absence in 1993.[^3] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Dinges, John, and Saul Landau. *Assassination on Embassy Row*. McGraw-Hill, 1980, pp. 152, 158-162, 240. +[^2]: Dinges, John. *The Condor Years: How Pinochet and His Allies Brought Terrorism to Three Continents*. New Press, 2004, pp. 130-133. +[^3]: Kornbluh, Peter, ed. "The Pinochet Dictatorship Declassified: Confessions of a DINA Hit Man," National Security Archive, November 22, 2023. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Bill Harvey.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Bill Harvey.md deleted file mode 100644 index dcb5423a..00000000 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Bill Harvey.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,19 +0,0 @@ ---- -created: 2026-05-17 -updated: 2026-05-17 -title: Bill Harvey -aliases: - - Bill Harvey - - William Harvey - - William King Harvey -tags: - - Person - - CIA -category: "Intelligence & Government" -summary: "Redirect - see William Harvey." -born: 1915-09-13 -died: 1976-06-09 -location: "Indianapolis, Indiana" ---- - -See [[William Harvey]]. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Bill Moser.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Bill Moser.md index 2e5a1b82..7a5bce2c 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Bill Moser.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Bill Moser.md @@ -17,13 +17,13 @@ Bill Moser is an [[FBI]] Special Agent assigned to the [[FBI Columbia Field Offi ### Identification in Trial Testimony -Moser was identified by name through Sutter's own testimony at the September 2021 trial of [[Kaleb Cole]] in [[United States v. Shea et al.]], 2:20-cr-00032 ([[Western District of Washington|W.D. Wash.]], Judge [[John C. Coughenour]]). Sutter testified that "on the direction of his FBI handler, Special Agent Bill Moser of the Columbia, South Carolina, field office, Sutter became part of the underground militant group," referring to [[Atomwaffen Division]].[^1] This testimony was corroborated in the reporting of journalist [[Ali Winston]], drawing on trial transcripts.[^1] +Moser was identified by name through Sutter's own testimony at the September 2021 trial of [[Kaleb Cole]] in [[United States v. Shea et al.]], 2:20-cr-00032 ([[Western District of Washington|W.D. Wash.]], Judge [[John C. Coughenour]]). Sutter testified that "on the direction of his FBI handler, Special Agent Bill Moser of the Columbia, [[South Carolina]], field office, Sutter became part of the underground militant group," referring to [[Atomwaffen Division]].[^1] This testimony was corroborated in the reporting of journalist [[Ali Winston]], drawing on trial transcripts.[^1] No additional information about Moser, his rank, tenure, other cases, or supervisory chain within the Columbia office, has been confirmed in publicly available sources. Former and current FBI agents from the Columbia field office either did not recall Sutter or declined comment when asked by journalists.[^2] ### Operational Direction -According to Sutter's trial testimony, Moser directed Sutter to join Atomwaffen Division from his existing position within [[Tempel ov Blood]] and the [[Order of Nine Angles]] (O9A) network. Moser's direction encompassed Sutter attending the [[2018 AWD Death Valley Hate Camp]] (February 2018) and the [[2019 AWD Nuclear Congress]] in [[Las Vegas, Nevada]] (September 2019). Rolling Stone reported that FBI funds were used to cover member travel and lodging for the Las Vegas gathering.[^1] +According to Sutter's trial testimony, Moser directed Sutter to join Atomwaffen Division from his existing position within [[Tempel ov Blood]] and the [[Order of Nine Angles]] (O9A) network. Moser's direction encompassed Sutter attending the [[2018 AWD Death Valley Hate Camp]] (February 2018) and the [[2019 AWD Nuclear Congress]] in [[Las Vegas, Nevada]] (September 2019). Rolling Stone reported that FBI funds were used to cover member travel and lodging for the [[Las Vegas]] gathering.[^1] Moser's field office began an intensified payment period to Sutter specifically from February 7, 2018, the start of the documented $78,133.20 payment tranche that "almost entirely coincides with his work on the investigation into Mr. Cole" per the Cole defense motion.[^3] This payment timeline places Moser's direction of the AWD infiltration operation within a window bookended by the February 2018 Hate Camp and the September 2019 Nuclear Congress. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Charles Lucet.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Charles Lucet.md index 153e098c..e5927063 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Charles Lucet.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Charles Lucet.md @@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ tags: summary: "Charles Lucet was a senior French foreign ministry official who served as deputy ambassador in Washington D.C." --- -Charles Lucet was a senior French foreign ministry official who served as deputy ambassador in [[Washington, D.C.]] in the late 1950s and later became ambassador in 1965. At a 1962 Washington dinner party, he was publicly reprimanded by [[John A. McCone]], then [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] director, for [[France]]'s role in the Israeli bomb. When McCone asked if [[France]] was building a reprocessing plant for the Israelis, Lucet replied with [[France]]'s public position: "No, we are building a reactor." McCone then turned his back on Lucet and did not speak to him for the rest of the evening, a pointed rebuff given [[France]]'s high standing with President [[John F. Kennedy]] and his wife.[^1] +Charles Lucet was a senior French foreign ministry official who served as deputy ambassador in [[Washington, D.C.]] in the late 1950s and later became ambassador in 1965. At a 1962 Washington dinner party, he was publicly reprimanded by [[John McCone|John A. McCone]], then [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] director, for [[France]]'s role in the Israeli bomb. When McCone asked if [[France]] was building a reprocessing plant for the Israelis, Lucet replied with [[France]]'s public position: "No, we are building a reactor." McCone then turned his back on Lucet and did not speak to him for the rest of the evening, a pointed rebuff given [[France]]'s high standing with President [[John F. Kennedy]] and his wife.[^1] ### Footnotes diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Claude Kirk.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Claude Kirk.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..1bcd3af9 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Claude Kirk.md @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ +--- +category: "Political Figure" +tags: + - Person + - ClaudeKirk + - Florida + - Wackenhut + - PrivatePolice + - OrganizedCrime + - RepublicanParty +alias: + - Claude R. Kirk Jr. + - Governor Kirk +summary: "Governor of Florida from 1967 to 1971 who put George Wackenhut and his company's detectives in charge of a war on crime paid for by private donors, which the FBI refused to recognize." +location: "Tallahassee, Florida" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Claude R. Kirk Jr. was the governor of [[Florida]] from January 1967 to January 1971, the first Republican to hold the office since Reconstruction.[^1] + +### The War on Crime + +In his inaugural address of January 3, 1967, Kirk announced a "war on crime" and named [[George R. Wackenhut]] its director at a dollar a year. The detectives and offices were supplied by the [[Wackenhut Corporation]] of [[Coral Gables, Florida|Coral Gables]] under a contract reported at 500,000 dollars, to be paid not by the state but by the donations of citizens. Against what [[Time (magazine)|Time]] called "anguished cries of 'Nazism!' and 'Dictatorship!'" the experiment, the magazine wrote, "succeeded to the extent of pointing up the need for a regular state police force and led to formation of the first statewide law-enforcement bureau." It produced more than eighty indictments, some of them of local officials. Time put the unpaid bill owed to the company at more than 300,000 dollars.[^1] + +On January 13, 1967, headquarters of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] instructed its Florida offices to give Kirk's men nothing: "The Bureau does not recognize the Wackenhut Corporation as a properly constituted law enforcement agency." The order was repeated on April 3, after Kirk had called on the attorney general. That month the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]], which had used Wackenhut's company since 1961 to give cover to its officers in [[Miami]], withdrew his covert security approval "due to the notoriety that Mr. Wackenhut had received in connection with his activities in Florida." The crime reporter [[Hank Messick]], hired from the [[Miami Herald]], resigned from the company after six weeks, calling the campaign "a cruel hoax" and objecting that Wackenhut kept as a client a former Bahamian minister with gambling interests. The company told the legislature that the "overlord of the whole state's criminal syndicates" was [[Santos Trafficante, Jr.|Santo Trafficante]].[^2][^3] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: "Florida: I, Claudius," *Time,* 1967. https://time.com/archive/6631431/florida-i-claudius/ +[^2]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, airtel to SAC Jacksonville, January 13, 1967, and memorandum recording the instruction of April 3, 1967, with press clippings, headquarters, Miami, and Tampa files on the Wackenhut Corporation. https://archive.org/details/WackenhutCorporation +[^3]: Central Intelligence Agency, "Wackenhut Corporation, SF# 493 364," memorandum for the record, July 28, 1975, JFK record 104-10130-10454. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Clint Murchison, Sr..md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Clint Murchison, Sr..md index 2b41ea46..355f3e7b 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Clint Murchison, Sr..md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Clint Murchison, Sr..md @@ -11,9 +11,9 @@ location: "Tyler, Texas" [[Clint Murchison, Sr.]] was a powerful Texas oilman and a significant political figure, described as being cut from the same cloth as [[H.L. Hunt]]. He was the father of [[Clint W. Murchison, Jr.]], a director of [[First Intercontinental Development Corporation|FIDCO]]. Murchison, Sr. was a key organizer of pro-[[Douglas MacArthur|MacArthur]] forces in Texas and an ardent supporter of Senator [[Joseph McCarthy]]'s anti-communist crusade.[^1] -Murchison, Sr. cultivated relationships with influential figures across the political spectrum, including [[J. Edgar Hoover]], [[Richard Nixon]], and [[Lyndon Johnson]]. The Murchison family's rise to power was closely tied to their connections in Texas oil. He was known for his hospitality, often hosting [[J. Edgar Hoover]] at his exclusive Hotel Del Charro in La Jolla, California, and covering Hoover's expenses, which amounted to approximately $19,000 in free vacations between 1953 and 1959.[^1] +Murchison, Sr. cultivated relationships with influential figures across the political spectrum, including [[J. Edgar Hoover]], [[Richard Nixon]], and [[Lyndon B. Johnson|Lyndon Johnson]]. The Murchison family's rise to power was closely tied to their connections in Texas oil. He was known for his hospitality, often hosting [[J. Edgar Hoover]] at his exclusive Hotel Del Charro in La Jolla, California, and covering Hoover's expenses, which amounted to approximately $19,000 in free vacations between 1953 and 1959.[^1] -His business dealings also intersected with organized crime. Nearly 20 percent of the Murchison Oil Lease Company in Oklahoma was owned by [[Gerardo Catena]], a chief lieutenant to the [[Genovese Crime Family]]. Furthermore, the Murchison family's affairs were tightly interwoven with the scandal surrounding [[Bobby Baker]], a close associate of [[Lyndon Johnson]], which involved numerous questionable deals with organized crime figures in Las Vegas, Chicago, Louisiana, and the Caribbean.[^1] +His business dealings also intersected with organized crime. Nearly 20 percent of the Murchison Oil Lease Company in Oklahoma was owned by [[Gerardo Catena]], a chief lieutenant to the [[Genovese Crime Family]]. Furthermore, the Murchison family's affairs were tightly interwoven with the scandal surrounding [[Bobby Baker]], a close associate of [[Lyndon B. Johnson|Lyndon Johnson]], which involved numerous questionable deals with organized crime figures in [[Las Vegas]], Chicago, Louisiana, and the Caribbean.[^1] ### Footnotes diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Clint W. Murchison, Jr..md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Clint W. Murchison, Jr..md index 8a0cb91f..1b9137df 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Clint W. Murchison, Jr..md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Clint W. Murchison, Jr..md @@ -11,11 +11,11 @@ location: "Dallas, Texas" [[Clint W. Murchison, Jr.]] was a Director of [[First Intercontinental Development Corporation|FIDCO]] and the owner of the Dallas Cowboys NFL football team. He was the son of [[Clint Murchison, Sr.]], a figure described as being cut from the same political cloth as [[H.L. Hunt]], both known for their significant influence and connections.[^1] -His family cultivated relationships not only with powerful figures on the far right but also with individuals such as [[J. Edgar Hoover]], [[Richard Nixon]], organized crime figures, and [[Lyndon Johnson]]. The Murchison family's rise to power was closely tied to their connections in Texas oil.[^1] +His family cultivated relationships not only with powerful figures on the far right but also with individuals such as [[J. Edgar Hoover]], [[Richard Nixon]], organized crime figures, and [[Lyndon B. Johnson|Lyndon Johnson]]. The Murchison family's rise to power was closely tied to their connections in Texas oil.[^1] [[Clint W. Murchison, Jr.]]'s father, [[Clint Murchison, Sr.]], was an ardent supporter of Senator [[Joseph McCarthy]]'s anti-communist crusade. McCarthy, [[Richard Nixon]], and [[J. Edgar Hoover]] were frequent visitors to the exclusive Hotel Del Charro in La Jolla, California, which Murchison, Sr. opened in the early 1950s. [[J. Edgar Hoover]]'s vacations at the hotel were often covered by Murchison, Sr.[^1] -The Murchison family's business dealings also intersected with organized crime. A significant portion of the Murchison Oil Lease Company in Oklahoma was owned by [[Gerardo Catena]], a chief lieutenant to the [[Genovese Crime Family]]. Furthermore, [[Clint W. Murchison, Jr.]] was involved in real estate dealings with [[Jimmy Hoffa]] in Florida, and his family's affairs were tightly interwoven with the scandal surrounding [[Bobby Baker]], a close associate of [[Lyndon Johnson]], which involved numerous questionable deals with organized crime figures in Las Vegas, Chicago, Louisiana, and the Caribbean.[^1] +The Murchison family's business dealings also intersected with organized crime. A significant portion of the Murchison Oil Lease Company in Oklahoma was owned by [[Gerardo Catena]], a chief lieutenant to the [[Genovese Crime Family]]. Furthermore, [[Clint W. Murchison, Jr.]] was involved in real estate dealings with [[Jimmy Hoffa]] in Florida, and his family's affairs were tightly interwoven with the scandal surrounding [[Bobby Baker]], a close associate of [[Lyndon B. Johnson|Lyndon Johnson]], which involved numerous questionable deals with organized crime figures in [[Las Vegas]], Chicago, Louisiana, and the Caribbean.[^1] His involvement with [[First Intercontinental Development Corporation|FIDCO]] placed him among a group of influential individuals with ties to government and intelligence, including [[Robert Maheu]], [[Michael A. McManus]], [[Robert Booth Nichols]], and [[George K. Pender]].[^1] diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Count Leopold Lippens.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Count Leopold Lippens.md index 4e23571f..ad2d3127 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Count Leopold Lippens.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Count Leopold Lippens.md @@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ location: "Knokke-Heist, Belgium" --- Leopold Raymond Maurice Francois Marie Ghislain Lippens was born on October 20, 1941, in Knokke, Belgium, into a prominent family with deep roots in the region's political and colonial history. His grandfather had served as governor-general of the Belgian Congo, and his father held the mayoral office of Knokke before him. His brother [[Count Maurice Auguste Lippens]] became a leading Belgian banker and businessman.[^1] -Lippens served as mayor of Knokke-Heist for over forty years, from 1979 until his death in February 2021. He cultivated a public profile centered on the coastal resort's golf culture, claiming friendships with international figures including Jackie Kennedy, Ted Kennedy, and Donald Trump. He died on February 19, 2021, from leukemia, aged 79.[^1] +Lippens served as mayor of Knokke-Heist for over forty years, from 1979 until his death in February 2021. He cultivated a public profile centered on the coastal resort's golf culture, claiming friendships with international figures including Jackie Kennedy, [[Ted Kennedy]], and Donald Trump. He died on February 19, 2021, from leukemia, aged 79.[^1] ### X-Dossier Allegations diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/D. Lowell Jensen.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/D. Lowell Jensen.md deleted file mode 100644 index ccb604f9..00000000 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/D. Lowell Jensen.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,13 +0,0 @@ ---- -category: "PROMIS Scandal" -created: 2024-04-25 -updated: 2026-05-01 -tags: - - Person - - PROMIS - - DoJ - - Lawyer - - INSLAW -summary: "See Lowell Jensen." ---- -See [[Lowell Jensen]]. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Danny Ray Lasater.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Danny Ray Lasater.md index c53c6fab..e5938249 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Danny Ray Lasater.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Danny Ray Lasater.md @@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ tags: - Dark_Alliance_Investigation summary: Little Rock bond broker and Clinton associate convicted of drug trafficking, connected to Barry Seal's operations at Mena, Arkansas. --- -Danny Ray Lasater was a Little Rock, [[Arkansas]] bond broker and close friend and campaign contributor of Governor [[Bill Clinton]].[^1] Lasater was a major figure in the drug trafficking nexus surrounding [[Barry Seal]]'s operations at [[Mena, Arkansas]]. +Danny Ray Lasater was a [[Little Rock, Arkansas|Little Rock]], [[Arkansas]] bond broker and close friend and campaign contributor of Governor [[Bill Clinton]].[^1] Lasater was a major figure in the drug trafficking nexus surrounding [[Barry Seal]]'s operations at [[Mena, Arkansas]]. ### Drug Trafficking and Conviction diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Donald Kendall.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Donald Kendall.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..febbf6d8 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Donald Kendall.md @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +--- +category: "Other" +tags: + - Person + - DonaldKendall + - PepsiCo + - RichardNixon + - Chile + - AgustinEdwards + - ProjectFUBELT +alias: + - Donald M. Kendall + - Don Kendall +summary: "Chairman of PepsiCo and benefactor of Richard Nixon who in September 1970 brought the Chilean publisher Agustín Edwards to the president's men the day before Nixon ordered a coup, and was later investigated for perjury." +location: "New York" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Donald M. Kendall was chairman and chief executive of [[PepsiCo]], "which had extensive business activities in [[Latin America]]," and sat on the executive committee of the [[Business Group for Latin America]], organized in 1963 by [[David Rockefeller]] "at the express request of President Kennedy." He was one of those described as the "corporate benefactors" of [[Richard Nixon]].[^1] + +### September 1970 + +After [[Salvador Allende]]'s plurality on September 4, 1970, the publisher of [[El Mercurio]], [[Agustin Edwards|Agustín Edwards]], "flew within days to see Donald Kendall in Washington, who immediately hired him as a PepsiCo vice president and invited him to be a house guest." On September 14, by [[Henry A. Kissinger|Henry Kissinger]]'s account, Kendall saw Nixon privately, "a meeting that, like many others, did not appear on Nixon's daily log." The next morning Kissinger and Attorney General [[John Mitchell]], "at Nixon's direction, had breakfast with Kendall and Edwards." [[Richard Helms]] met the two at a Washington hotel, where they "appealed passionately for CIA help in blocking Allende." That afternoon Nixon ordered Helms to prevent Allende from taking office. Helms testified: "I have this impression that the President called this meeting where I have my handwritten notes because of Edwards' presence in Washington and what he heard from Kendall about what Edwards was saying about conditions in Chile."[^1][^2] + +### The Perjury Inquiry + +"As late as December 1977, according to [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]] documents made public under the [[Freedom of Information Act]], potential defendants in the case included not only [[Harold Geneen]] but two other corporate leaders, [[C. Jay Parkinson]] and Donald Kendall," each "under investigation on felony charges for perjury, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy" over their statements on [[Chile]]. "Parkinson and Kendall also escaped indictment."[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House*. Summit Books, 1983, pp. 260, 268, 270, 273. +[^2]: Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders,* interim report, S. Rept. 94-465, November 20, 1975, quoting Helms's testimony of July 15, 1975. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Donald M. Kerr, Jr..md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Donald M. Kerr, Jr..md deleted file mode 100644 index 084cac1e..00000000 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Donald M. Kerr, Jr..md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,14 +0,0 @@ ---- -category: "Nuclear Scientists & Programs" -tags: - - Person - - Nuclear - - Israel -summary: "Acting director of defense programs at the Department of Energy who directed the Nuclear Intelligence Panel study of the 1979 Vela satellite flash, concluding it was a nuclear bomb." ---- - -Donald M. Kerr, Jr. served in the [[Jimmy Carter|Carter]] administration as acting director of the defense programs at the [[Department of Energy]], making him responsible for [[America]]'s nuclear bombs. He directed the secret Nuclear Intelligence Panel (NIP) study into the 1979 [[VELA Satellite]] sighting. Kerr stated that the NIP had no doubt it was a nuclear bomb and believed the [[Jack P. Ruina|Ruina]] panel's mandate was driven by politics "to find a different explanation."[^1] - -### Footnotes - -[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 20. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Donald M. Kerr.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Donald M. Kerr.md index 4ba565c1..37fd9a71 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Donald M. Kerr.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Donald M. Kerr.md @@ -1,15 +1,23 @@ --- aliases: -- Donald M. Kerr + - Donald M. Kerr, Jr. category: "Psychics & Remote Viewers" tags: - Person - RemoteViewer - Stargate -summary: "Director of Los Alamos National Laboratory who served on the science panel for the CIA's Sun Streak/Stargate remote viewing program." + - Nuclear + - Israel +summary: "Acting director of defense programs at the Department of Energy who directed the Nuclear Intelligence Panel study of the 1979 Vela satellite flash, concluding it was a nuclear bomb." --- -Donald M. Kerr was the director of [[Los Alamos National Laboratory]] in [[New Mexico]]. He was a member of the new science panel for the [[STARGATE PROJECT|Sun Streak]] program, which was established on January 31, 1986[^1]. +Donald M. Kerr, Jr. served in the [[Jimmy Carter|Carter]] administration as acting director of the defense programs at the [[Department of Energy]], making him responsible for [[America]]'s nuclear bombs. He directed the secret Nuclear Intelligence Panel (NIP) study into the 1979 [[VELA Satellite]] sighting. Kerr stated that the NIP had no doubt it was a nuclear bomb and believed the [[Jack P. Ruina|Ruina]] panel's mandate was driven by politics "to find a different explanation."[^1] + +### Sun Streak + +Donald M. Kerr was the director of [[Los Alamos National Laboratory]] in [[New Mexico]]. He was a member of the new science panel for the [[STARGATE PROJECT|Sun Streak]] program, which was established on January 31, 1986[^2]. ### Footnotes -[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017. + +[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 20. +[^2]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Edward Levinson.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Edward Levinson.md index b9fac96f..e4a3f7a4 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Edward Levinson.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Edward Levinson.md @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ tags: - OrganizedCrime summary: "Las Vegas gambler and lieutenant of Meyer Lansky whose Fremont Hotel was financed through a Jimmy Hoffa loan, connecting Bobby Baker networks to organized crime." --- -[[Edward Levinson]] was a Las Vegas gambler and a lieutenant of Florida mobster [[Meyer Lansky]]. His Fremont Hotel in Las Vegas was financed through a [[Jimmy Hoffa|Hoffa]] loan. Levinson was one of the associates who brought a lawsuit against [[Bobby Baker]] in 1963, alleging that Baker failed to live up to certain bargains. Through Baker, Levinson also became acquainted with [[Clint Murchison, Sr.]].[^1] +[[Edward Levinson]] was a [[Las Vegas]] gambler and a lieutenant of Florida mobster [[Meyer Lansky]]. His Fremont Hotel in Las Vegas was financed through a [[Jimmy Hoffa|Hoffa]] loan. Levinson was one of the associates who brought a lawsuit against [[Bobby Baker]] in 1963, alleging that Baker failed to live up to certain bargains. Through Baker, Levinson also became acquainted with [[Clint Murchison, Sr.]].[^1] --- ### Footnotes diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/George de Mohrenschildt.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/George de Mohrenschildt.md index b48e9de5..42fb7267 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/George de Mohrenschildt.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/George de Mohrenschildt.md @@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ died: 1977-03-29 location: "Manalapan, Florida" --- -George Sergius de Mohrenschildt (April 17, 1911 - March 29, 1977) was a Russian-born petroleum geologist and Texas academic who befriended [[Lee Harvey Oswald]] in [[Dallas, Texas|Dallas]] in the summer of 1962 and remained his closest social contact until April 1963. De Mohrenschildt maintained a documented relationship with [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] Domestic Contact Service officer [[J. Walton Moore]] in Dallas spanning at least 1957 to 1961. Based on de Mohrenschildt's own statements to journalist [[Edward Jay Epstein]] shortly before his death, Moore had asked him to befriend Oswald and report on his experiences in the [[Soviet Union]], with CIA assistance on a [[Haiti|Haitian]] oil contract as the reciprocal arrangement. De Mohrenschildt obtained that Haitian oil exploration contract in March 1963 - immediately after his period of closest contact with Oswald - and moved to Haiti in June 1963. He was found dead of a shotgun wound on March 29, 1977, the same day that [[House Select Committee on Assassinations]] (HSCA) investigator [[Gaeton Fonzi]] made his first attempt to contact him.[^1] +George Sergius de Mohrenschildt (April 17, 1911 - March 29, 1977) was a Russian-born petroleum geologist and Texas academic who befriended [[Lee Harvey Oswald]] in [[Dallas, Texas|Dallas]] in the summer of 1962 and remained his closest social contact until April 1963. De Mohrenschildt maintained a documented relationship with [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] [[Domestic Contact Service]] officer [[J. Walton Moore]] in Dallas spanning at least 1957 to 1961. Based on de Mohrenschildt's own statements to journalist [[Edward Jay Epstein]] shortly before his death, Moore had asked him to befriend Oswald and report on his experiences in the [[Soviet Union]], with CIA assistance on a [[Haiti|Haitian]] oil contract as the reciprocal arrangement. De Mohrenschildt obtained that Haitian oil exploration contract in March 1963 - immediately after his period of closest contact with Oswald - and moved to Haiti in June 1963. He was found dead of a shotgun wound on March 29, 1977, the same day that [[House Select Committee on Assassinations]] (HSCA) investigator [[Gaeton Fonzi]] made his first attempt to contact him.[^1] ### Background diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/H.L. Hunt.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/H.L. Hunt.md index 8349f535..650e586a 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/H.L. Hunt.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/H.L. Hunt.md @@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ Haroldson Lafayette Hunt Jr. (February 17, 1889 to November 29, 1974) was a [[Da Hunt was born near [[Vandalia, Illinois]], the youngest of eight children, and was taught at home. He ran a cotton plantation in [[Arkansas]] until floods ended it in 1917, and in 1921 joined the oil boom at [[El Dorado, Arkansas]], as a lease broker. He claimed a fortune of 600,000 dollars by 1925, lost money in the Smackover field and the Florida land boom, and was reportedly broke again by 1930. An internal FBI memorandum of February 26, 1964, summarized the Bureau's file on these years: Hunt "was reportedly a professional gambler years ago, won an oil lease in a card game, and is also alleged to have operated prostitution activities in Arkansas several years ago." The same memorandum recorded an allegation that in 1943 he ran "a private horse race and gambling bookie establishment within his office in Dallas."[^1][^4] -On November 26, 1930, Hunt bought the discovery well and surrounding leases of the 70-year-old wildcatter [[Columbus Marion Joiner|Columbus Marion "Dad" Joiner]], whose [[Daisy Bradford No. 3]] had opened the [[East Texas Oil Field]] seven weeks earlier. Hunt had watched the drill-stem test at the well in September. He paid 50,000 dollars in cash, 45,000 dollars in notes, and a guarantee of 1.3 million dollars out of future production, and the first payment came from 30,000 dollars belonging to [[P.G. Lake]], an El Dorado clothier. The field proved to be 43 miles long and as much as nine miles wide, and Hunt's share of it eventually exceeded 100 million dollars. His [[Panola Pipe Line]] was carrying oil by December 1, 1930, and by 1932 [[Hunt Production Company]] operated 900 wells in East Texas. In 1935 H.L. Hunt, Inc., became Placid Oil, and its shares went into trusts for his six children by his first wife.[^1][^5] +On November 26, 1930, Hunt bought the discovery well and surrounding leases of the 70-year-old wildcatter [[Columbus Marion Joiner|Columbus Marion "Dad" Joiner]], whose [[Daisy Bradford No. 3]] had opened the [[East Texas Oil Field]] seven weeks earlier. Hunt had watched the drill-stem test at the well in September. He paid 50,000 dollars in cash, 45,000 dollars in notes, and a guarantee of 1.3 million dollars out of future production, and the first payment came from 30,000 dollars belonging to [[P.G. Lake]], an El Dorado clothier. The field proved to be 43 miles long and as much as nine miles wide, and Hunt's share of it eventually exceeded 100 million dollars. His [[Panola Pipe Line]] was carrying oil by December 1, 1930, and by 1932 [[Hunt Production Company]] operated 900 wells in [[East Texas]]. In 1935 H.L. Hunt, Inc., became Placid Oil, and its shares went into trusts for his six children by his first wife.[^1][^5] In late 1936 Hunt bought the [[Excelsior Refining Company]] in [[Rusk County, Texas|Rusk County]] and renamed it [[Parade Refining Company|Parade Refining]]. Residue gas from the Parade plant was piped into the [[New London School explosion|New London school]], which exploded on March 18, 1937. Most of the families involved worked for Hunt.[^1] diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Hassie Hunt.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Hassie Hunt.md index 7bc2d94f..2d248dd1 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Hassie Hunt.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Hassie Hunt.md @@ -30,18 +30,21 @@ Hunt would not seek a medical deferment for him. He had two employees move Hassi Hunt sent him to a psychiatric institution near [[Andover, Massachusetts]], where he was given electric shock. Back in [[Texas]] he did not know his relations. "You see that woman at the head of the table?" he said of his mother at dinner. "She's married to that fellow Hunt that you hear about." He threw a piece of fruit at her and broke her glasses, and challenged his father to fights. Hunt's aides hired women as companions for him and paid off those he injured. Hunt telephoned [[Clare Boothe Luce]] about new procedures, consulted Dr. [[Alton Ochsner]] of [[New Orleans]], and contacted or sent his son to [[Duke University]], the [[Menninger Clinic]], and the [[Institute of Living]] in [[Hartford, Connecticut|Hartford]]. One doctor offered an operation. "He said the operation would either be a success or Hassie would never be the same," Kirkpatrick recalled. The prefrontal lobotomy "was performed by a doctor up East" in the late 1940s. The surgeon is not named. The violence stopped. Hassie "did not 'get well,'" needed supervision at all hours, and was placed in an institution in [[New York]] State. Hunt kept an empty office for him next to his own.[^3] +His brother [[Nelson Bunker Hunt|Bunker]] recalled: "I had just gotten out of the navy. I went with my dad to visit Hassie in a hospital in Hartford. We met a doctor there whose son had had a prefrontal lobotomy. That was, at the time, the treatment for schizophrenia." He added: "My father felt that it wasn't a success. Thought it was a bad mistake, later on. He told me that. He said it was a shame that the lobotomy had been done." Another account places the operation at the hospital near Andover.[^4] + ### Return -In early 1965, at the suggestion of Hunt's second wife, [[Ruth Ray Hunt]], Hassie was brought home to [[Mount Vernon (Dallas)|Mount Vernon]], the family house on [[White Rock Lake]], and lived with nurses in the pool house and later in a neighboring mansion bought by his trust. "The lobotomy had muted Hassie's violence, but it had also left him a middle-aged man with a childlike mentality." He and his father, who looked alike and dressed alike, walked together along the lake. He did not attend the 1978 trial of [[Frania Tye Lee]]'s suit, "because of the mental illness that had prevented him from appearing in public for over thirty years."[^4] +In early 1965, at the suggestion of Hunt's second wife, [[Ruth Ray Hunt]], Hassie was brought home to [[Mount Vernon (Dallas)|Mount Vernon]], the family house on [[White Rock Lake]], and lived with nurses in the pool house and later in a neighboring mansion bought by his trust. "The lobotomy had muted Hassie's violence, but it had also left him a middle-aged man with a childlike mentality." He and his father, who looked alike and dressed alike, walked together along the lake. He did not attend the 1978 trial of [[Frania Tye Lee]]'s suit, "because of the mental illness that had prevented him from appearing in public for over thirty years."[^5] ### The Trusts -Two trusts and a production company went on drilling in his name throughout his illness, and by the time of his return had built up production worth more than 200 million dollars, more than any of his brothers had found apart from [[Nelson Bunker Hunt]]'s Libyan field. By 1978 the Hassie entities were worth more than 500 million dollars, including 8 percent of [[Placid Oil Company]] and 12 percent of [[Hunt Petroleum]]. The trustees were [[Margaret Hunt Hill]], [[Caroline Rose Hunt|Caroline Hunt Schoellkopf]], [[Al Hill Sr.]], [[William Herbert Hunt|Herbert Hunt]], [[Lamar Hunt]], and the family's financial man John Goodson. "On occasion, such as in their takeover bid for [[Great Western United]], the first family had provided itself with loans from Hassie's trusts." In settling the Lee case the first family obtained from Ruth Hunt's children and from the Lees an undertaking not to challenge Hassie's will.[^5] +Two trusts and a production company went on drilling in his name throughout his illness, and by the time of his return had built up production worth more than 200 million dollars, more than any of his brothers had found apart from Nelson Bunker Hunt's Libyan field. By 1978 the Hassie entities were worth more than 500 million dollars, including 8 percent of [[Placid Oil Company]] and 12 percent of [[Hunt Petroleum]]. The trustees were [[Margaret Hunt Hill]], [[Caroline Rose Hunt|Caroline Hunt Schoellkopf]], [[Al Hill Sr.]], [[William Herbert Hunt|Herbert Hunt]], [[Lamar Hunt]], and the family's financial man John Goodson. "On occasion, such as in their takeover bid for [[Great Western United]], the first family had provided itself with loans from Hassie's trusts." In settling the Lee case the first family obtained from Ruth Hunt's children and from the Lees an undertaking not to challenge Hassie's will.[^6] ### Footnotes [^1]: Hurt, Harry, III. *Texas Rich: The Hunt Dynasty from the Early Oil Days through the Silver Crash*. W.W. Norton, 1981, pp. 47, 124-125, 134-135. [^2]: Hurt, Harry, III. *Texas Rich: The Hunt Dynasty from the Early Oil Days through the Silver Crash*. W.W. Norton, 1981, p. 135. [^3]: Hurt, Harry, III. *Texas Rich: The Hunt Dynasty from the Early Oil Days through the Silver Crash*. W.W. Norton, 1981, pp. 135-137. -[^4]: Hurt, Harry, III. *Texas Rich: The Hunt Dynasty from the Early Oil Days through the Silver Crash*. W.W. Norton, 1981, pp. 17, 259-261. -[^5]: Hurt, Harry, III. *Texas Rich: The Hunt Dynasty from the Early Oil Days through the Silver Crash*. W.W. Norton, 1981, pp. 260, 391. +[^4]: Hill, Margaret Hunt. *H.L. and Lyda*. August House, 1994, p. 227; Tuccille, Jerome. *Kingdom: The Story of the Hunt Family of Texas*. Jameson Books, 1984, p. 218. +[^5]: Hurt, Harry, III. *Texas Rich: The Hunt Dynasty from the Early Oil Days through the Silver Crash*. W.W. Norton, 1981, pp. 17, 259-261. +[^6]: Hurt, Harry, III. *Texas Rich: The Hunt Dynasty from the Early Oil Days through the Silver Crash*. W.W. Norton, 1981, pp. 260, 391. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Hella Hammid.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Hella Hammid.md index 734e9bf1..d3d4be91 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Hella Hammid.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Hella Hammid.md @@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ The SRI protocol for Hammid and other subjects involved an outbound experimenter ### Project Deep Quest -Hammid participated in [[Project Deep Quest]] in the summer of 1977, a unique experiment testing whether remote viewing could be performed under extreme environmental conditions. The experiment, conducted in the Pacific Ocean near Catalina Island, used the deep-sea research submersible *Taurus I*. +Hammid participated in [[Project Deep Quest]] in the summer of 1977, a unique experiment testing whether remote viewing could be performed under extreme environmental conditions. The experiment, conducted in the [[Pacific Ocean]] near Catalina Island, used the deep-sea research submersible *Taurus I*. In one part of the experiment, Hammid worked with [[Ingo Swann]] to attempt to identify the locations of previously unidentified seafloor shipwrecks, using maps and dowsing-style intuitive technique. Both subjects independently marked a single location; when the *Taurus I* investigated, the submersible found an uncharted wreck. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Henry Hecksher.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Henry Hecksher.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..87e478fc --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Henry Hecksher.md @@ -0,0 +1,39 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +tags: + - Person + - HenryHecksher + - CIA + - Chile + - ProjectFUBELT + - ReneSchneider + - EdwardKorry + - StationChief +alias: + - Felix +summary: "CIA station chief in Santiago in 1970 who advised against a coup, was recalled to Langley and told to stop objecting, ran the contacts with Chilean officers, and on instructions deceived his ambassador about them." +location: "Santiago, Chile" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Henry Hecksher was the chief of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] station in [[Santiago]] during the agency's attempt in the fall of 1970 to keep [[Salvador Allende]] from the presidency of [[Chile]]. His cables were signed "Felix."[^1] + +### Objection + +On September 9, 1970, [[William Broe]], chief of the Western Hemisphere Division, cabled him that "the only prospect with any chance of success whatsoever is a military golpe either before or immediately after Allende's assumption of power." Hecksher answered on September 23: "Forget about black operations and propagandistic conditioning of Armed Forces. They barely read," and warned that the "parameter of action is exceedingly narrow." He later testified in secret to the Senate: "I had left no doubt in the minds of my colleagues and superiors that I did not consider any kind of intervention in those constitutional processes desirable." In late September he was recalled to headquarters and told to cease his objections. On October 7 the head of the task force, [[David Atlee Phillips]], instructed him that the station's cables "should not contain analysis and argumentation but simply report on action taken."[^1] + +### The Operation + +With the army attaché, Colonel [[Paul Wimert]], and officers sent in under false nationalities, Hecksher made some two dozen approaches to Chilean military and police officers between late September and late October. The message was that the [[United States]] would cut off military aid unless they moved. On October 8 he and a senior officer of the [[Carabineros de Chile|Carabineros]] went over the "available means to remove" the army commander, General [[Rene Schneider|René Schneider]]. "Abduction attempt might lead to bloodshed," they concluded, and "Schneider's accidental death would rally army firmly behind flag of constitutionalism." He told a police official that "the U.S.G. did not really care as long as resulting chaos denied Allende the presidency." Broe and Phillips asked him: "anything we or Station can do to effect the removal of Schneider? We know this [is a] rhetorical question but want to inspire thought on both ends on this matter."[^1] + +Ambassador [[Edward Korry]], who had not been told of the operation, learned of coup plotting from his own sources and ordered Hecksher and Wimert to keep away from the Chilean military. "I am appalled to discover that there is liaison for coup plotting," he cabled [[Henry A. Kissinger|Henry Kissinger]]. When Hecksher proposed using Korry to carry a message to President [[Eduardo Frei Montalva|Frei]], headquarters replied that this "would be tantamount to having Korry act as unwitting agent in implementing [[Project FUBELT|Track II]] of which he is not aware and is not to be made aware." Broe and Phillips ordered him "not, repeat not," to tell Wimert or Korry of the "impending coup," and "should it occur, COS Hecksher should appear surprised and stonewall any and all queries."[^1] + +Schneider was shot on October 22. Headquarters cabled: "The Station has done excellent job of guiding Chileans to point today where a military solution is at least an option for them. COS [and others involved] are commended." Korry asked Hecksher directly whether the agency had been "engaged in activities of any kind" that would support charges that Wimert was involved. Hecksher "replied that 'charges could obviously be made. Since Station not involved, COS doubted that charges could be substantiated.'" He and Wimert drove seventy miles to [[Viña del Mar]] and threw the submachine guns into the [[Pacific Ocean]]. In December 1970 he was recalled to Langley to plan work with elements of the [[Christian Democratic Party (Chile)|Christian Democratic Party]].[^1] + +Wimert recalled that when [[Augusto Pinochet]], then at the military college, wanted a geography of Chile printed, "we went to CIA old Henry Hecksler and he just had 100 copies made."[^2] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Kornbluh, Peter. *The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability*. New Press, 2003, pp. 10, 15, 20, 22, 24, 29, 30, 33, 89, and notes at pp. 510-512. +[^2]: "Interview with Paul Wimert," *Cold War,* episode 18, Cable News Network, transcript at the National Security Archive. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/coldwar/interviews/episode-18/wimert2.html diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Henry Murray.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Henry Murray.md index 165459b2..698a9bb8 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Henry Murray.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Henry Murray.md @@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ Donovan gave Murray and a distinguished group of colleagues only 15 days before ### Wartime Results -More than 30 years after the war, Murray remained modest in his claims for the assessment system, saying that it was only an aid in weeding out the "horrors" among OSS candidates. Nevertheless, the secret agency's leaders believed in its results, and Murray's system became a fixture in the OSS, testing Americans and foreign agents alike. Some of Murray's young behavioral scientists went on to become prominent in public affairs, including [[John Gardner]], a psychologist teaching at [[Mount Holyoke College]] who helped Murray set up the original program, went on to open the West Coast OSS assessment site at a converted beach club in [[San Juan Capistrano]], and would later become Secretary of HEW in the [[Lyndon Johnson|Johnson]] administration and founder of [[Common Cause]].[^1] +More than 30 years after the war, Murray remained modest in his claims for the assessment system, saying that it was only an aid in weeding out the "horrors" among OSS candidates. Nevertheless, the secret agency's leaders believed in its results, and Murray's system became a fixture in the OSS, testing Americans and foreign agents alike. Some of Murray's young behavioral scientists went on to become prominent in public affairs, including [[John Gardner]], a psychologist teaching at [[Mount Holyoke College]] who helped Murray set up the original program, went on to open the West Coast OSS assessment site at a converted beach club in [[San Juan Capistrano]], and would later become Secretary of HEW in the [[Lyndon B. Johnson|Johnson]] administration and founder of [[Common Cause]].[^1] ### Postwar Influence diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Henry R. Myers.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Henry R. Myers.md index 14f0deba..20ca1eea 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Henry R. Myers.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Henry R. Myers.md @@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ tags: summary: "House Subcommittee on Energy specialist who spent nearly fifteen years promoting intelligence claims about Israeli nuclear diversion via NUMEC." --- -Henry R. Myers was a specialist on energy issues for the House Subcommittee on Energy. He, along with [[Peter D. Stockton]], spent nearly fifteen years relaying the suspicions of [[Carl E. Duckett]] and [[John L. Hadden]] to journalists as the views of knowledgeable intelligence sources, leading many reporters to publish these beliefs as "facts." Myers believed that [[Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation|NUMEC]] had been set up solely for the diversion of uranium, and alleged reports of a secure telephone or teletype between NUMEC and the Israeli embassy. He also claimed that [[Richard M. Helms]] believed [[Zalman Mordecai Shapiro]] was the head of a group collecting information for [[Israel]].[^1] +Henry R. Myers was a specialist on energy issues for the House Subcommittee on Energy. He, along with [[Peter D. Stockton]], spent nearly fifteen years relaying the suspicions of [[Carl E. Duckett]] and [[John L. Hadden]] to journalists as the views of knowledgeable intelligence sources, leading many reporters to publish these beliefs as "facts." Myers believed that [[Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation|NUMEC]] had been set up solely for the diversion of uranium, and alleged reports of a secure telephone or teletype between NUMEC and the Israeli embassy. He also claimed that [[Richard Helms|Richard M. Helms]] believed [[Zalman Mordecai Shapiro]] was the head of a group collecting information for [[Israel]].[^1] ### Footnotes diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Howard Hunt.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Howard Hunt.md index e116c528..23cc31d0 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Howard Hunt.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Howard Hunt.md @@ -40,6 +40,8 @@ Hunt was assigned to Operation PBSUCCESS in 1953-1954 as chief of political acti Hunt also managed the political exile leadership, working to maintain cohesion among the Guatemalan exile groups that would form the successor government. The experience gave Hunt a model he would attempt to apply in Cuba seven years later.[^1] +[[David Atlee Phillips]], who worked under Hunt on the Guatemalan operation, found him "friendly, anxious to help me, and considerate," with credentials that "seemed impeccable: Brown University, O.S.S. in China, a successful and prolific writer," and "unusually conservative for a CIA officer." A colleague advised him: "Listen to the music when he sings, but don't pay any attention to his lyrics." Hunt described to him the suicide of the father of President Jacobo Arbenz, who had filled his mouth with water before firing a pistol into it: "Like a bomb. It's the water that does it. Really effective. Whole head is blown off."[^2] + ### Bay of Pigs Hunt was assigned as the CIA's political officer for the Bay of Pigs invasion, responsible for the Cuban Revolutionary Council - the exile political organization that would form a provisional government after the expected overthrow of [[Fidel Castro]]. He worked with the exile leadership in [[Miami]] and later in [[New York]], managing their political expectations and organizational disputes. @@ -47,14 +49,14 @@ Hunt was assigned as the CIA's political officer for the Bay of Pigs invasion, r The Bay of Pigs was a catastrophic failure, and Hunt's political operation collapsed along with the military operation. The exile political leadership was not told the operation was under way until it had already failed, and Hunt's management of their expectations was blamed by exile leaders for contributing to the political disorder. His role in the operation was not publicly acknowledged.[^1] ### Domestic Operations Division -A CIA security memorandum of 1972 gives Hunt's periods of overt employment as November 1949 to December 1950, November 1953 to January 1954, October 1956 to January 1957, and July 1960 to September 1966. His assistant [[Elizabeth McIntosh]] recorded in 1973 that when she returned from an overseas post "[[Tracy Barnes]] was setting up the [[Domestic Operations Division]] and Mr. Hunt was assigned Chief" of its covert action section, that she worked for him for three years, and that after his tour in [[Spain]] he came back as chief of covert action for the Europe division. [[Thomas Karamessines]] later distinguished for Senate investigators between the division's concept before and after his own appointment as deputy director for plans.[^2] +A CIA security memorandum of 1972 gives Hunt's periods of overt employment as November 1949 to December 1950, November 1953 to January 1954, October 1956 to January 1957, and July 1960 to September 1966. His assistant [[Elizabeth McIntosh]] recorded in 1973 that when she returned from an overseas post "[[Tracy Barnes]] was setting up the [[Domestic Operations Division]] and Mr. Hunt was assigned Chief" of its covert action section, that she worked for him for three years, and that after his tour in [[Spain]] he came back as chief of covert action for the Europe division. [[Thomas Karamessines]] later distinguished for Senate investigators between the division's concept before and after his own appointment as deputy director for plans.[^3] -The Philadelphia filmmaker [[R.C. Horsch]] said in a recorded interview published in 2026 that between 1961 and 1965 he tapped telephones and committed burglaries as a freelance for the [[Wackenhut Corporation]], and that a regular client introduced as "Mr. Smith" was Hunt. The CIA had granted [[George R. Wackenhut|George Wackenhut]] a covert security approval on November 21, 1961.[^3] +The Philadelphia filmmaker [[R.C. Horsch]] said in a recorded interview published in 2026 that between 1961 and 1965 he tapped telephones and committed burglaries as a freelance for the [[Wackenhut Corporation]], and that a regular client introduced as "Mr. Smith" was Hunt. The CIA had granted [[George R. Wackenhut|George Wackenhut]] a covert security approval on November 21, 1961.[^4] ### The Mullen Company and ITT -Hunt retired on April 30, 1970, and went to work for the [[Robert R. Mullen Company]], a Washington public relations firm that had given cover to agency officers abroad since 1963. The agency's retirement office arranged the introduction and Director [[Richard Helms]] wrote a recommendation. Mullen told him of the cover arrangement without authorization, and the [[Central Cover Staff]] had him cleared as witting in June 1970. He told the staff in July 1971 that he had been assigned to the [[White House]].[^4] +Hunt retired on April 30, 1970, and went to work for the [[Robert R. Mullen Company]], a Washington public relations firm that had given cover to agency officers abroad since 1963. The agency's retirement office arranged the introduction and Director [[Richard Helms]] wrote a recommendation. Mullen told him of the cover arrangement without authorization, and the [[Central Cover Staff]] had him cleared as witting in June 1970. He told the staff in July 1971 that he had been assigned to the [[White House]].[^5] -In March 1972, at the direction of [[Charles Colson]], he flew to [[Denver]] in a wig and with alias documents supplied by the agency to question the [[ITT Corporation|ITT]] lobbyist [[Dita Beard]] in her hospital room. The House subcommittee that examined the agency's part in Watergate listed the visit among the misuses of its assistance. On July 26, 1973, the Watergate special prosecutor's office asked the agency whether it knew of "any intelligence or undercover activities performed by Howard Hunt and/or [[G. Gordon Liddy|Gordon Liddy]] for ITT," of arrangements between ITT and the Mullen firm, or of any employment of the ITT publicist [[Hal Hendrix]]. The released reply addresses only the Mullen firm and an ITT office in [[Coral Gables, Florida|Coral Gables]].[^5] +In March 1972, at the direction of [[Charles Colson]], he flew to [[Denver]] in a wig and with alias documents supplied by the agency to question the [[ITT Corporation|ITT]] lobbyist [[Dita Beard]] in her hospital room. The House subcommittee that examined the agency's part in Watergate listed the visit among the misuses of its assistance. On July 26, 1973, the Watergate special prosecutor's office asked the agency whether it knew of "any intelligence or undercover activities performed by Howard Hunt and/or [[G. Gordon Liddy|Gordon Liddy]] for ITT," of arrangements between ITT and the Mullen firm, or of any employment of the ITT publicist [[Hal Hendrix]]. The released reply addresses only the Mullen firm and an ITT office in [[Coral Gables, Florida|Coral Gables]].[^6] ### Watergate @@ -62,7 +64,7 @@ By 1971, Hunt had been nominally retired from the CIA and was working as a consu On the night of June 17, 1972, Hunt organized and directed the team that broke into the [[Democratic National Committee]] headquarters at the [[Watergate complex]] in Washington - the burglary that produced five arrests, triggered the Senate investigation and Special Prosecutor investigation, and ultimately led to Nixon's resignation in August 1974. -Hunt was convicted of conspiracy, burglary, and wiretapping and sentenced to 35 years, subsequently reduced. He served approximately 33 months in federal prison. His wife Dorothy died in a plane crash in December 1972, with some researchers suggesting the crash was not accidental; the official ruling was that it was an accident.[^6] +Hunt was convicted of conspiracy, burglary, and wiretapping and sentenced to 35 years, subsequently reduced. He served approximately 33 months in federal prison. His wife Dorothy died in a plane crash in December 1972, with some researchers suggesting the crash was not accidental; the official ruling was that it was an accident.[^7] ### Kennedy Assassination Statements @@ -75,8 +77,9 @@ Hunt died of pneumonia on January 23, 2007, in [[Miami, Florida|Miami]].[^1] ### Footnotes [^1]: Hunt, E. Howard. *American Spy: My Secret History in the CIA, Watergate, and Beyond.* Wiley, 2007. Thomas, Evan. *The Very Best Men: Four Who Dared: The Early Years of the CIA.* Simon & Schuster, 1995. -[^2]: McIntosh, Elizabeth, memorandum for the record, May 25, 1973, CIA Reading Room document C00609301; Central Cover Staff, "CIA Utilization of the Robert R. Mullen Company," June 20, 1972, C00573275; "Select Committee Testimony of 5 February 1974," C01474422. -[^3]: West, Ashley. "Unknowing Ray Horsch, Episode 1: Youth," *The Rialto Report,* Podcast 171, September 13, 2026, audio at 18:34 to 22:49; Central Intelligence Agency, "Wackenhut Corporation, SF# 493 364," memorandum for the record, July 28, 1975, JFK Assassination Records Collection, record 104-10130-10454. -[^4]: "E. Howard Hunt: Utilization by Central Cover Staff," 1970, CIA Reading Room document C00660613; Gahagen, Robert D., "Request for CSA concerning E. Howard Hunt," June 3, 1970, C00297384; "Letter of Recommendation Written by Mr. Helms," July 20, 1973, C00609297. -[^5]: House Committee on Armed Services, Special Subcommittee on Intelligence, *Inquiry into the Alleged Involvement of the Central Intelligence Agency in the Watergate and Ellsberg Matters,* 93rd Cong., 1973; Ruth, Henry S., Jr., letter to John S. Warner, July 26, 1973, C01482382; "Inquiry Regarding Possible ITT Association with CIA and Robert R. Mullen and Company," August 7, 1973, C01367838. -[^6]: Summers, Anthony. *The Arrogance of Power: The Secret World of Richard Nixon.* Viking, 2000. Hougan, Jim. *Secret Agenda: Watergate, Deep Throat, and the CIA.* Random House, 1984. +[^2]: Phillips, David Atlee. *The Night Watch: 25 Years of Peculiar Service*. Atheneum, 1977, pp. 35-38. +[^3]: McIntosh, Elizabeth, memorandum for the record, May 25, 1973, CIA Reading Room document C00609301; Central Cover Staff, "CIA Utilization of the Robert R. Mullen Company," June 20, 1972, C00573275; "Select Committee Testimony of 5 February 1974," C01474422. +[^4]: West, Ashley. "Unknowing Ray Horsch, Episode 1: Youth," *The Rialto Report,* Podcast 171, September 13, 2026, audio at 18:34 to 22:49; Central Intelligence Agency, "Wackenhut Corporation, SF# 493 364," memorandum for the record, July 28, 1975, JFK Assassination Records Collection, record 104-10130-10454. +[^5]: "E. Howard Hunt: Utilization by Central Cover Staff," 1970, CIA Reading Room document C00660613; Gahagen, Robert D., "Request for CSA concerning E. Howard Hunt," June 3, 1970, C00297384; "Letter of Recommendation Written by Mr. Helms," July 20, 1973, C00609297. +[^6]: House Committee on Armed Services, Special Subcommittee on Intelligence, *Inquiry into the Alleged Involvement of the Central Intelligence Agency in the Watergate and Ellsberg Matters,* 93rd Cong., 1973; Ruth, Henry S., Jr., letter to John S. Warner, July 26, 1973, C01482382; "Inquiry Regarding Possible ITT Association with CIA and Robert R. Mullen and Company," August 7, 1973, C01367838. +[^7]: Summers, Anthony. *The Arrogance of Power: The Secret World of Richard Nixon.* Viking, 2000. Hougan, Jim. *Secret Agenda: Watergate, Deep Throat, and the CIA.* Random House, 1984. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Hussein Kamel.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Hussein Kamel.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..e8dfd121 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Hussein Kamel.md @@ -0,0 +1,47 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +tags: + - Person + - HusseinKamel + - Iraq + - SaddamHussein + - MilitaryIndustrialization + - BNLScandal + - UNSCOM + - WeaponsOfMassDestruction +alias: + - Hussein Kamel al-Majid + - Hussein Kamil + - Hussein Kamel Hassan +summary: "Son-in-law of Saddam Hussein who ran Iraq's military industries and their Western procurement network, went unindicted in the BNL case, defected in 1995, and told United Nations inspectors that all the weapons had been destroyed." +died: 1996-02-23 +location: "Baghdad, Iraq" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Hussein Kamel al-Majid was a son-in-law of [[Saddam Hussein]] and the head of [[Iraq]]'s [[Ministry of Industry and Military Industrialization]], which directed its missile, chemical, biological, and nuclear programs in the 1980s.[^1] + +### Procurement + +The ministry bought machine tools and technology in Europe and the [[United States]] through a network of front companies run from [[London]] by [[Safa al-Habobi]], whom Representative [[Henry B. Gonzalez]] described as "one of Hussein Kamil's former [[Special Security Organization (Iraq)|Secret Security Organization]] cronies." Its holding company, the [[Technology Development Group]], bought the British toolmaker [[Matrix Churchill]] in 1987. The purchases were financed by the [[Atlanta]] branch of the [[Banca Nazionale del Lavoro]]. When the branch manager, [[Christopher Drogoul]], was indicted on February 28, 1991, with al-Habobi and three other Iraqi officials, Kamel and the Jordanian trader [[Wafai Dajani]] were named as co-conspirators and not charged.[^1] + +Kamel held the nominal rank of lieutenant. "After Saddam Hussein himself, Hussein Kamel was regarded as the most powerful man in Iraq," and "the word was that Saddam trusted Hussein Kamel more than his own son." He controlled the [[Al-Arabi Trading Company]] of Baghdad, the owner of the London holding companies, which had a partnership with [[Gerald Bull]]'s [[Space Research Corporation]] and paid for Bull's purchases with the Atlanta loans. The head of the chemical industry and of the missile and chemical weapons programs, Lieutenant General [[Amir al-Saadi]], reported to him. In 1989 he received Drogoul in Baghdad, "offering him pomegranate juice and his gratitude for all that BNL was doing." When the [[Financial Times]] began printing articles on the bank he reprimanded the British ambassador.[^2] + +### Defection + +On the night of August 7, 1995, Kamel drove to [[Jordan]] with his brother Colonel [[Saddam Kamel]] and crates of documents. On August 20 the Iraqi government handed the [[United Nations Special Commission]] a store of papers, said to have been found on Kamel's chicken farm, that showed a crash program to build a nuclear weapon. On August 22 he was questioned in [[Amman]] by the commission's chairman, [[Rolf Ekeus]], with Maurizio Zifferero of the [[International Atomic Energy Agency]] and Nikita Smidovich. The record of the interview, marked sensitive, was not published.[^3] + +"I ordered destruction of all chemical weapons," he told them. "All weapons, biological, chemical, missile, nuclear were destroyed." Asked by Smidovich whether weapons and agents had been destroyed, he said: "nothing remained." The destruction had followed the inspectors' visits: "You have important role in Iraq with this. You should not underestimate yourself. You are very effective in Iraq." Of the missiles: "not a single missile left but they had blueprints and molds for production." Of the nerve agent VX: "they put it in bombs during last days of the Iran-Iraq war. They were not used and the programme was terminated." He said of the government: "I can state publicly I will work against the regime."[^3] + +He returned to [[Baghdad]] with his brother in February 1996 and both were killed on February 23.[^3] + +### 2002 and 2003 + +Vice President [[Dick Cheney]] said on August 26, 2002, that Kamel's case "should serve as a reminder to all that we often learned more as the result of defections than we learned from the inspection regime itself." President [[George W. Bush]] said on October 7 that the defection had forced Iraq to admit producing more than 30,000 liters of anthrax. Secretary of State [[Colin Powell]] cited it before the [[United Nations Security Council|Security Council]] on February 5, 2003, as the source of Iraq's admission of four tons of VX, and Prime Minister [[Tony Blair]] cited it in the [[House of Commons]] on February 25. The transcript of the Amman interview was obtained by [[Glen Rangwala]] of [[Cambridge University]] and reported by [[Newsweek]] in its issue of March 3.[^3] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Gonzalez, Henry B. Floor statement of August 10, 1992, *Congressional Record,* House; "Government's Response to Defense Motions for List of Unindicted Co-Conspirators," United States v. Drogoul, No. 1:91-CR-078 (N.D. Ga. September 12, 1991), reproduced in House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, Serial No. 103-95. +[^2]: Friedman, Alan. *Spider's Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq*. Bantam, 1993, pp. 9, 114-117, 158. +[^3]: Rangwala, Glen. "The interview with Hussein Kamel," briefing of February 2003, quoting the United Nations Special Commission and International Atomic Energy Agency note of the meeting of August 22, 1995, by page; Barry, John. "Exclusive: The Defector's Secrets," *Newsweek,* March 3, 2003. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Igor Kurganov.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Igor Kurganov.md index 7c41d91b..684e7ef7 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Igor Kurganov.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Igor Kurganov.md @@ -1,53 +1,53 @@ ---- +--- category: "AI & Effective Altruism" -tags: - - Person - - IgorKurganov - - ElonMusk - - Russia - - FBI - - ForeignInterference - - Philanthropy - - Counterintelligence -alias: - - Igor Kurganov -summary: "Igor Kurganov is a Russian-born former professional poker player who gained operational influence over Elon Musk's charitable giving during the COVID-19 pandemic, slept in Musk's Austin home, and was the subject of FBI preliminary inquiries into foreign interference before being removed from Musk's inner circle by wealth manager Jared Birchall in May 2022." -location: "Russia (born); Austin, Texas (Musk period)" -created: 2026-06-18 -updated: 2026-06-18 ---- - -Igor Kurganov is a Russian-born former professional poker player who gained operational influence over [[Elon Musk|Elon Musk]]'s charitable giving during the COVID-19 pandemic. Kurganov was sleeping in Musk's [[Austin, Texas|Austin]] home during the pandemic period, advising Musk on philanthropic strategy, and became the subject of FBI preliminary inquiries into whether his access constituted a foreign-interference channel. [[Jared Birchall|Jared Birchall]], Musk's wealth manager and the head of Musk's family office, confronted Musk and removed Kurganov from the inner circle in May 2022.[^1] - -### The Poker Career and the Musk Access - -Kurganov built a public profile as a high-stakes professional poker player, accumulating over 18 million dollars in live tournament winnings across a career that placed him among the top German and Russian tournament players. His poker network overlaps with the high-roller gambling circuit whose principals move across national borders and whose venues (Macau, Las Vegas, Monte Carlo, the online high-stakes sites) are documented intelligence-collection environments.[^1][^2] - -The documented path to Musk ran through Kurganov's effective-altruism and philanthropic-strategy work. Kurganov entered Musk's circle during the pandemic period and gained influence over Musk's charitable giving, which had become a substantial operation as Musk's wealth grew through the [[Tesla|Tesla]] stock run-up and the [[SpaceX|SpaceX]] private valuations. Kurganov's access included sleeping in Musk's Austin home, placing him inside Musk's residential security perimeter rather than at arm's length as a professional advisor.[^1] - -### The FBI Preliminary Inquiry - -The FBI's Los Angeles field office opened preliminary inquiries into whether Kurganov's access to Musk constituted a foreign-interference channel, per *The Guardian*'s reporting on the disclosures of former FBI agent [[Jonathan Buma]]. The inquiry ran under the counterintelligence portfolio that handles Russian foreign-influence operations targeting U.S. technology principals. Buma described the broader pattern of Russian targeting of Musk as "intense," and the [[Kyiv Post|Kyiv Post]] / [[ZDF|ZDF]] reporting on Buma's interview characterized the operation as [[GRU|GRU]]-run and Putin-approved, exploiting vulnerabilities including drug use, sexual entrapment, and luxury access.[^1][^3] - -The question of what Kurganov did with the access during the period he had it (advising on philanthropic strategy, residential access, proximity to Musk's decision-making on charitable and potentially other matters) is not fully resolved in the public record. The FBI inquiry was preliminary, meaning it was an assessment-stage investigation to determine whether full counterintelligence investigation was warranted.[^1] - -### The Birchall Removal (May 2022) - -Jared Birchall is the wealth manager who runs Musk's family office and who functions as Musk's gatekeeper on financial and security matters. *The Guardian* reported that Birchall confronted Musk about Kurganov's access and removed Kurganov from the inner circle in May 2022.[^1] - -What Kurganov did with his access during the period he had it, what he took with him when he was removed, and whether the access produced intelligence value for any Russian service are not documented in the public record.[^1] - -### The Broader Targeting Pattern - -Buma disclosed that the Kurganov case was one of multiple Russian targeting efforts directed at Musk and at [[Peter Thiel|Thiel]]. The [[The Guardian|Guardian]] reported Buma's May 2025 interview in which he characterized the efforts as "intense," and the Kyiv Post reporting on Buma's ZDF interview described the operation as GRU-run, Putin-approved, and exploiting vulnerabilities including drug use, sexual entrapment, and luxury access.[^1][^4] - -The Buma handling of Thiel as an FBI CHS from summer 2021 overlaps chronologically with the Kurganov-Musk access period (2020-2022). Buma told the Guardian he briefed Thiel on "what a targeting looks like" and that Thiel provided "helpful information to help us identify the nodes through which these outreaches have occurred." The overlap means the FBI's counterintelligence handling of the Thiel CHS relationship and the FBI's preliminary inquiry into Kurganov's access to Musk ran in the same Los Angeles field office during the same period.[^1][^4] - -The [[Wall Street Journal|Wall Street Journal]] reported on October 25, 2024 that Musk had been in regular contact with [[Vladimir Putin|Putin]] since late 2022, after [[Starlink|Starlink]] became operationally significant in the Russia-Ukraine war. The Putin contact channel, the Buma-documented GRU targeting, the Kurganov infiltration, and the [[NLRB Data Exfiltration|NLRB data exfiltration]] with Russian IP access through [[Department of Government Efficiency|DOGE]] together form the evidentiary set on the Russian-influence question around the PayPal Mafia principals.[^1][^4] - -### Footnotes - -[^1]: "FBI whistleblower claims he tried to get to Musk to warn him he was being targeted by Russia." *The Guardian,* May 22, 2025. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/may/22/fbi-whistleblower-musk-russia -[^2]: For Kurganov's poker career earnings and ranking, see the [[Hendon Mob|Hendon Mob]] poker database and the live-tournament record. -[^3]: "Russian Intelligence Used Sex, Drugs to Target Elon Musk." *Kyiv Post,* 2025. https://www.kyivpost.com/post/52742 -[^4]: Schwartz, Mattathias. "Exclusive: Tech billionaire Peter Thiel was an FBI informant." *Business Insider,* October 2023, on Thiel providing information to FBI agent Johnathan Buma as a confidential human source codenamed "Philosopher" beginning summer 2021, focused on foreign-influence approaches. https://www.businessinsider.com/peter-thiel-fbi-informant-2023-10 +tags: + - Person + - IgorKurganov + - ElonMusk + - Russia + - FBI + - ForeignInterference + - Philanthropy + - Counterintelligence +alias: + - Igor Kurganov +summary: "Igor Kurganov is a Russian-born former professional poker player who gained operational influence over Elon Musk's charitable giving during the COVID-19 pandemic, slept in Musk's Austin home, and was the subject of FBI preliminary inquiries into foreign interference before being removed from Musk's inner circle by wealth manager Jared Birchall in May 2022." +location: "Russia (born); Austin, Texas (Musk period)" +created: 2026-06-18 +updated: 2026-06-18 +--- + +Igor Kurganov is a Russian-born former professional poker player who gained operational influence over [[Elon Musk|Elon Musk]]'s charitable giving during the COVID-19 pandemic. Kurganov was sleeping in Musk's [[Austin, Texas|Austin]] home during the pandemic period, advising Musk on philanthropic strategy, and became the subject of FBI preliminary inquiries into whether his access constituted a foreign-interference channel. [[Jared Birchall|Jared Birchall]], Musk's wealth manager and the head of Musk's family office, confronted Musk and removed Kurganov from the inner circle in May 2022.[^1] + +### The Poker Career and the Musk Access + +Kurganov built a public profile as a high-stakes professional poker player, accumulating over 18 million dollars in live tournament winnings across a career that placed him among the top German and Russian tournament players. His poker network overlaps with the high-roller gambling circuit whose principals move across national borders and whose venues (Macau, [[Las Vegas]], Monte Carlo, the online high-stakes sites) are documented intelligence-collection environments.[^1][^2] + +The documented path to Musk ran through Kurganov's effective-altruism and philanthropic-strategy work. Kurganov entered Musk's circle during the pandemic period and gained influence over Musk's charitable giving, which had become a substantial operation as Musk's wealth grew through the [[Tesla|Tesla]] stock run-up and the [[SpaceX|SpaceX]] private valuations. Kurganov's access included sleeping in Musk's Austin home, placing him inside Musk's residential security perimeter rather than at arm's length as a professional advisor.[^1] + +### The FBI Preliminary Inquiry + +The FBI's Los Angeles field office opened preliminary inquiries into whether Kurganov's access to Musk constituted a foreign-interference channel, per *The Guardian*'s reporting on the disclosures of former FBI agent [[Jonathan Buma]]. The inquiry ran under the counterintelligence portfolio that handles Russian foreign-influence operations targeting U.S. technology principals. Buma described the broader pattern of Russian targeting of Musk as "intense," and the [[Kyiv Post|Kyiv Post]] / [[ZDF|ZDF]] reporting on Buma's interview characterized the operation as [[GRU|GRU]]-run and Putin-approved, exploiting vulnerabilities including drug use, sexual entrapment, and luxury access.[^1][^3] + +The question of what Kurganov did with the access during the period he had it (advising on philanthropic strategy, residential access, proximity to Musk's decision-making on charitable and potentially other matters) is not fully resolved in the public record. The FBI inquiry was preliminary, meaning it was an assessment-stage investigation to determine whether full counterintelligence investigation was warranted.[^1] + +### The Birchall Removal (May 2022) + +Jared Birchall is the wealth manager who runs Musk's family office and who functions as Musk's gatekeeper on financial and security matters. *The Guardian* reported that Birchall confronted Musk about Kurganov's access and removed Kurganov from the inner circle in May 2022.[^1] + +What Kurganov did with his access during the period he had it, what he took with him when he was removed, and whether the access produced intelligence value for any Russian service are not documented in the public record.[^1] + +### The Broader Targeting Pattern + +Buma disclosed that the Kurganov case was one of multiple Russian targeting efforts directed at Musk and at [[Peter Thiel|Thiel]]. The [[The Guardian|Guardian]] reported Buma's May 2025 interview in which he characterized the efforts as "intense," and the Kyiv Post reporting on Buma's ZDF interview described the operation as GRU-run, Putin-approved, and exploiting vulnerabilities including drug use, sexual entrapment, and luxury access.[^1][^4] + +The Buma handling of Thiel as an FBI CHS from summer 2021 overlaps chronologically with the Kurganov-Musk access period (2020-2022). Buma told the Guardian he briefed Thiel on "what a targeting looks like" and that Thiel provided "helpful information to help us identify the nodes through which these outreaches have occurred." The overlap means the FBI's counterintelligence handling of the Thiel CHS relationship and the FBI's preliminary inquiry into Kurganov's access to Musk ran in the same Los Angeles field office during the same period.[^1][^4] + +The [[Wall Street Journal|Wall Street Journal]] reported on October 25, 2024 that Musk had been in regular contact with [[Vladimir Putin|Putin]] since late 2022, after [[Starlink|Starlink]] became operationally significant in the Russia-Ukraine war. The Putin contact channel, the Buma-documented GRU targeting, the Kurganov infiltration, and the [[NLRB Data Exfiltration|NLRB data exfiltration]] with Russian IP access through [[Department of Government Efficiency|DOGE]] together form the evidentiary set on the Russian-influence question around the PayPal Mafia principals.[^1][^4] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: "FBI whistleblower claims he tried to get to Musk to warn him he was being targeted by Russia." *The Guardian,* May 22, 2025. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/may/22/fbi-whistleblower-musk-russia +[^2]: For Kurganov's poker career earnings and ranking, see the [[Hendon Mob|Hendon Mob]] poker database and the live-tournament record. +[^3]: "Russian Intelligence Used Sex, Drugs to Target Elon Musk." *Kyiv Post,* 2025. https://www.kyivpost.com/post/52742 +[^4]: Schwartz, Mattathias. "Exclusive: Tech billionaire Peter Thiel was an FBI informant." *Business Insider,* October 2023, on Thiel providing information to FBI agent Johnathan Buma as a confidential human source codenamed "Philosopher" beginning summer 2021, focused on foreign-influence approaches. https://www.businessinsider.com/peter-thiel-fbi-informant-2023-10 diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/J. Edgar Hoover.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/J. Edgar Hoover.md index b36d6c5c..89dbd094 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/J. Edgar Hoover.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/J. Edgar Hoover.md @@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ Hoover was a frequent visitor to the Hotel Del Charro in La Jolla, California, a ### NUMEC Investigation and CIA Conflicts -In October 1965, the [[Atomic Energy Commission|AEC]] referred the [[Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation|NUMEC]] losses to the FBI. However, Hoover saw no basis for an investigation, concluding that the situation was an administrative matter. He was in the midst of a bitter dispute with [[James Jesus Angleton]]'s counterintelligence shop over the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]'s handling of defectors and illegal spying inside the [[United States]]. Hoover chose to spar with [[Richard M. Helms|Helms]] over the [[Zalman Mordecai Shapiro|Shapiro]] issue, telling the CIA to go to [[Israel]] and get inside [[Dimona]] to find evidence of the alleged uranium diversion.[^2] +In October 1965, the [[Atomic Energy Commission|AEC]] referred the [[Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation|NUMEC]] losses to the FBI. However, Hoover saw no basis for an investigation, concluding that the situation was an administrative matter. He was in the midst of a bitter dispute with [[James Jesus Angleton]]'s counterintelligence shop over the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]'s handling of defectors and illegal spying inside the [[United States]]. Hoover chose to spar with [[Richard Helms|Helms]] over the [[Zalman Mordecai Shapiro|Shapiro]] issue, telling the CIA to go to [[Israel]] and get inside [[Dimona]] to find evidence of the alleged uranium diversion.[^2] ### Footnotes diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/J.C. King.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/J.C. King.md index 64dc13ef..d50bc8ca 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/J.C. King.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/J.C. King.md @@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ King died January 27, 1977, in Washington, D.C. He was buried with his third wif [^8]: Spartacus Educational, "Joseph Caldwell King"; Colby and Dennett, Ch. 23. [^9]: CIA Cable, "Instructions to Arrange Accident," TOP SECRET RYBAT OPERATIONAL IMMEDIATE, July 21, 1960, co-signed Tracy Barnes and J.C. King. In National Security Archive, NSAEBB No. 757, "CIA Assassination Plot Targeted Cuba's Raul Castro," April 16, 2021. nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/cuba/2021-04-16/documents-cia-assassination-plot-targeted-raul-castro. [^10]: Ibid., citing Esterline statement. -[^11]: National Security Archive, "Cuba: The Bay of Pigs Invasion 65 Years Later," April 16, 2026, describing CIA Task Force meeting March 9, 1960. nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/cuba-cuban-missile-crisis/2026-04-16/cuba-bay-pigs-invasion-65-years-later. +[^11]: National Security Archive, "Cuba: The [[Bay of Pigs Invasion]] 65 Years Later," April 16, 2026, describing CIA Task Force meeting March 9, 1960. nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/cuba-cuban-missile-crisis/2026-04-16/cuba-bay-pigs-invasion-65-years-later. [^12]: FRUS 1961-63, Vol. X, Document 174, Memorandum for the Record, "Second Meeting of the Green Study Group," April 24, 1961. history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v10/d174. [^13]: On Operation 40 post-Bay of Pigs wind-down: Church Committee, *Interim Report*, pp. 74-84. On JMWAVE station: NSA Electronic Briefing Book No. 355, "The CIA and the Cuban Missile Crisis," October 4, 2012, nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB355/. [^14]: National Security Archive, NSAEBB No. 434, "CIA Covert Operations: The 1964 Overthrow of Cheddi Jagan in British Guiana," April 6, 2020. nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/intelligence/2020-04-06/cia-covert-operations-overthrow-cheddi-jagan-british-guiana-1964. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/James Mason.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/James Mason.md index 8dbb3864..cc926c6f 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/James Mason.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/James Mason.md @@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ After years of failed attempts to find a publisher, [[Michael J. Moynihan]] form The book's second life began in 2015, when [[Iron March]] members began promoting it aggressively. The forum's global neo-Nazi and neo-fascist membership proved receptive in ways that the American white nationalist movement of the 1990s had not been. [[Brandon Russell]] announced [[Atomwaffen Division]] on Iron March in October 2015, and the new organization adopted *Siege* as its ideological foundation. AWD's activities, aesthetics, and strategic orientation all drew directly on Mason's writings.[^2] -Mason was personally drawn into the AWD orbit. He attended the [[2019 AWD Nuclear Congress]] in Las Vegas, AWD's internal leadership gathering organized by [[Joshua Caleb Sutter]] of [[Tempel ov Blood]], delivering speeches calling for murder and lone-wolf attacks and making his first documented in-person appearance with the organization.[^3] +Mason was personally drawn into the AWD orbit. He attended the [[2019 AWD Nuclear Congress]] in [[Las Vegas]], AWD's internal leadership gathering organized by [[Joshua Caleb Sutter]] of [[Tempel ov Blood]], delivering speeches calling for murder and lone-wolf attacks and making his first documented in-person appearance with the organization.[^3] ### Documented Influence diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Jesse Helms.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Jesse Helms.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..dde5d615 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Jesse Helms.md @@ -0,0 +1,43 @@ +--- +category: "New Right" +tags: + - Person + - JesseHelms + - UnitedStatesSenate + - NationalCongressionalClub + - PioneerFund + - Chile + - NelsonBunkerHunt + - FairnessInMedia +alias: + - Jesse A. Helms + - Senator Helms +summary: "North Carolina broadcaster and senator whose direct-mail organization was built by two Pioneer Fund directors, took Nelson Bunker Hunt's money, tried to buy CBS, and was investigated in 1986 for a leak to Pinochet's government." +location: "Raleigh, North Carolina" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Jesse Helms was a [[United States Senate|United States senator]] from [[North Carolina]] from 1973 to 2003. He worked for [[Raleigh, North Carolina|Raleigh]] newspapers and radio, went to Washington in 1951 as assistant to Senator [[Willis Smith]], and from 1953 to 1960 was executive director of the North Carolina Bankers Association. In 1960 he became executive vice president of the [[Capitol Broadcasting Company]], owner of the television station WRAL. His "Viewpoint" editorials closed its evening news from November 21, 1960, and were carried by the Tobacco Radio Network across the eastern half of the state. A study of his finances summarized them as "12 years railing against deadbeats, socialized medicine, the UN, 'shiftless Negroes,' and the 'moral degenerates' led by [[Martin Luther King Jr.]]" He changed his party registration to Republican in 1970 and was elected to the Senate in 1972.[^1] + +### Ellis and the Congressional Club + +His 1972 campaign was managed by the Raleigh lawyer [[Thomas F. Ellis]], who in the late 1950s had "led a propaganda campaign to undermine the state's school desegregation plan," and who joined the board of the [[Pioneer Fund]] in 1973 with [[Marion Parrott]]. The club formed to pay the campaign's debt became the [[National Congressional Club]], and with its sister company, Jefferson Marketing Inc., it employed nearly 200 people by the middle 1980s. An insider called Ellis "the brains behind all the things that we do." The club spent 4.5 million dollars as an independent committee on behalf of [[Ronald Reagan]] in 1980. Helms raised 8.1 million dollars for his reelection in 1978 and 15.9 million in 1984, when he and Governor [[Jim Hunt]] together spent 25.6 million, then the record for a Senate race and more than the presidential campaigns spent that year. Nearly two thirds of his money came in gifts under 200 dollars. The Pioneer Fund gave Ellis's [[Coalition for Freedom]] 195,000 dollars between 1983 and 1989.[^1][^2] + +[[Nelson Bunker Hunt]] "heads the list of [[Texas]] oil moneymen giving to Helms," the same study found. "While his family gave $4,000 to Helms, he also dropped $90,000 into the Helms-related [[Institute for American Relations]]." Hunt said: "We're not as smart as other people, so we need every advantage." Other donors included [[Joseph Coors]] and [[Roger Milliken]].[^1] + +### CBS + +On November 13, 1984, Ellis, [[Carter Wrenn]], and [[James Palmer Cain]] formed [[Fairness in Media]], and in January 1985 about a million letters over Helms's signature asked conservatives to buy stock in [[CBS]]. The lawyer was [[Harry Weyher]], president of the Pioneer Fund. CBS sued on February 15, alleging an attempt "to manipulate the market in CBS stock." Wrenn called the suit "an act of intimidation." [[Ted Turner]], who made his own offer for the network in April, testified that he had held "extensive discussions with Sen. Helms" and the group. CBS ended both campaigns that July by buying back a fifth of its own shares.[^2][^3] + +### Chile + +In July 1976 Helms spent three days in [[Chile]] as the guest of the Institute for American Relations, the first senator to visit in twelve years, and met General [[Augusto Pinochet]]. [[Orlando Letelier]] was killed in Washington that September. In the Senate Helms defended the Chilean government against suspicion and advanced the "far more plausible" theory that Letelier had been killed by his own allies. "Terrorism is most often an organized tool of the Left, used coldbloodedly for political aims. Leftist terrorists do not hesitate to use terrorism against the Left." Representative [[Larry McDonald]] of [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] denounced the dead man as a supporter of terrorism.[^4] Helms went again in July 1986. After a member of his staff was briefed by the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] on the burning of [[Rodrigo Rojas]] by Chilean soldiers, the Chilean government learned of an American intelligence operation, and the [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]] asked the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]] to investigate whether Helms or an aide had disclosed it. "The CIA was angry about the release because it created a threat to the agency's ability to gather information in Chile," a wire report said. Helms answered: "The [[State Department]] and the Central Intelligence Agency are constantly trying to discredit me and they're not going to be able to do it. The real need is for the State Department and the CIA to clean up their acts."[^5] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Hall, Bob. "Jesse Helms: The Meaning of His Money," *Southern Exposure,* vol. 13, no. 1, 1985, republished by Facing South, Institute for Southern Studies. +[^2]: Mehler, Barry, comp. "Pioneer Fund Grants, 1971-1996," Institute for the Study of Academic Racism; Tucker, William H. *The Funding of Scientific Racism: Wickliffe Draper and the Pioneer Fund.* University of Illinois Press, 2002. +[^3]: "CBS sues Fairness in Media," United Press International, February 15, 1985; "Turner Discussed CBS Bid With Sen. Helms," *The Washington Post,* March 20, 1985; Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. v. CBS, Inc., 627 F. Supp. 901 (N.D. Ga. 1985). +[^4]: Branch, Taylor, and Eugene M. Propper. *Labyrinth*. Viking, 1982, p. 55. +[^5]: United Press International, report on the Justice Department inquiry into Senator Helms, August 2, 1986. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Jimmy Hoffa.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Jimmy Hoffa.md index caa6fc2e..3049eddb 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Jimmy Hoffa.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Jimmy Hoffa.md @@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ born: 1913-02-14 died: 1975 location: "Brazil, Indiana" --- -[[Jimmy Hoffa]] was a prominent American labor union leader. A lot in Beverly Hills sold by [[Clint Murchison, Sr.]] to [[Richard Nixon]] was financed through a Hoffa loan. [[Meyer Lansky]]'s Fremont Hotel in Las Vegas was also financed through a Hoffa loan.[^1] +[[Jimmy Hoffa]] was a prominent American labor union leader. A lot in Beverly Hills sold by [[Clint Murchison, Sr.]] to [[Richard Nixon]] was financed through a Hoffa loan. [[Meyer Lansky]]'s Fremont Hotel in [[Las Vegas]] was also financed through a Hoffa loan.[^1] [[Clint W. Murchison, Jr.]] attempted to persuade the Senate Rules Committee in 1964 that his real estate dealings with Hoffa in Florida were "hardly relevant" to the [[Bobby Baker]] investigation.[^1] diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/John A. McCone.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/John A. McCone.md deleted file mode 100644 index af319b50..00000000 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/John A. McCone.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,21 +0,0 @@ ---- -category: "Nuclear Scientists & Programs" -tags: - - Person - - Nuclear - - Israel -summary: "McCone's leak was his parting shot as AEC commissioner, as he announced his resignation shortly after." -born: 1902-01-04 -died: 1991-02-14 -location: "San Francisco, California" ---- - -John A. McCone was a wealthy Republican businessman from [[California]] who served as chairman of the [[Atomic Energy Commission]] (AEC) and later as Director of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]. In December 1960, he leaked information to *New York Times* reporter [[John W. Finney]] about [[Israel]]'s secret nuclear reactor at [[Dimona]], expressing anger that [[Israel]] and [[France]] had "lied to us" about its purpose.[^1] - -McCone's leak was his parting shot as AEC commissioner, as he announced his resignation shortly after. He was committed to nuclear nonproliferation and was aware that the [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower]] administration was nearing its end, making it an opportune time to act. He was also frustrated by the constant Israeli lying about [[Dimona]].[^1] - -McCone was regularly briefed on the Israeli nuclear program after replacing [[Lewis L. Strauss]] as AEC commissioner in July 1958. As AEC chairman, he was a member of the U.S. Intelligence Advisory Committee, the top-level group at the time. He was labeled by some as anti-Semitic due to his actions, but there was no known basis for such allegations; he was simply dead set against any nuclear proliferation and offended by the Israeli and French deception.[^1] - -### Footnotes - -[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 6, 7. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/John F. Kennedy.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/John F. Kennedy.md index 2d65924f..c008db06 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/John F. Kennedy.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/John F. Kennedy.md @@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ Kennedy continued to pressure [[David Ben-Gurion]] throughout 1962 about interna Despite his tough stance, Kennedy's political needs, particularly the significant Jewish vote that contributed to his narrow victory in 1960, complicated his approach to Israeli issues. He appointed [[Myer Feldman]] as his presidential point man for Jewish and Israeli affairs, a position that created bureaucratic chaos due to Feldman's strong pro-Israel bias.[^1] -Kennedy's relationship with [[David Ben-Gurion]] became increasingly strained due to the ongoing correspondence about [[Israel]]'s bomb program. Ben-Gurion's responses were often perceived as evasive and even rude by Kennedy. The President's apprehension about the Israeli bomb was a factor in his surprising appointment of [[John A. McCone]] as [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] director, who shared Kennedy's strong views on nonproliferation.[^1] +Kennedy's relationship with [[David Ben-Gurion]] became increasingly strained due to the ongoing correspondence about [[Israel]]'s bomb program. Ben-Gurion's responses were often perceived as evasive and even rude by Kennedy. The President's apprehension about the Israeli bomb was a factor in his surprising appointment of [[John McCone|John A. McCone]] as [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] director, who shared Kennedy's strong views on nonproliferation.[^1] In mid-1962, Kennedy's administration authorized the sale of Hawk surface-to-air missiles to [[Israel]], a major departure from past policy of selling no weaponry to [[Israel]]. This decision was linked to [[Israel]]'s agreement to permit American inspection teams into [[Dimona]], though these inspections were largely a whitewash, with [[Israel]] controlling the visits and concealing the true nature of the facility.[^1] diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/John L. LaMothe.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/John L. LaMothe.md deleted file mode 100644 index c65ba77b..00000000 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/John L. LaMothe.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,41 +0,0 @@ ---- -created: 2026-05-15 -updated: 2026-05-17 -title: John L. LaMothe -aliases: - - John LaMothe - - Captain John LaMothe - - John L. LaMothe -category: "Military" -tags: - - Person - - Military - - PSI - - DIA - - Soviet - - 1970s -summary: "John L. LaMothe was a U.S. Army Medical Intelligence Office captain who authored the 1972 classified report Controlled Offensive Behavior - USSR, warning of Soviet psychoenergetics research capabilities and spurring U.S. government concerns about a psi gap." ---- - -Captain John L. LaMothe was an author and military intelligence officer with the Medical Intelligence Office of the [[U.S. Army]], Office of the Surgeon General. He was tasked with conducting a joint intelligence assessment of the "Soviet psychoenergetic threat," a term coined by the [[Pentagon]] to include all matters related to Soviet anomalous mental phenomena research and [[Electromagnetic Weapons|electromagnetic weapons]] programs[^1]. - -His two-year effort resulted in a 174-page classified report titled *Controlled Offensive Behavior - USSR*, published in 1972. The report aimed to aid in the development of countermeasures for the protection of U.S. or allied personnel, concluding that the [[Soviet Union|Soviets]] were rapidly developing "methods of controlling or manipulating human behavior through subtle, non-identifiable means," including psychopharmacology, subliminal messaging, and electromagnetic weapons[^1]. - -LaMothe's report highlighted the "unusual, disproportionate interest" of Communist state authorities, the military, and the [[KGB]] in [[Parapsychology|parapsychology]], confirming military involvement in [[Psi]] research. He broke down the danger into four categories of existential threat posed by Soviet agents with psychoenergetic abilities[^1]: - -1. "Disable, at a distance, US military equipment of all types, including space craft." -2. "Know the contents of top secret US documents, the movements of our troops and ships and the location and nature of our military installations." -3. "Mold the thoughts of key US military and civilian leaders, at a distance." -4. "Cause the instant death of any US official, at a distance." - -In essence, LaMothe argued that a Soviet agent could disrupt military technology, access state secrets, influence national leaders, and assassinate U.S. officials through targeted [[Extrasensory Perception|ESP]] and [[Psychokinesis|PK]][^1]. - -Citing scientists and experts like [[Oliver J. Caldwell]] and [[Sybil Leek]], LaMothe saw an immediate need for the U.S. to create a program to mirror the Soviets' psychic warfare undertakings. However, the alarmist nature of his text limited its distribution, and those in the know considered LaMothe's sources biased in favor of ESP research programs[^1]. - -Despite the controversy, LaMothe's report circulated through the military and intelligence communities, prompting the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] to take action and escalate its own psychic research programs[^1]. - -### Publications -* *Controlled Offensive Behavior - USSR* (1972) - -### Footnotes -[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/John LaMothe.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/John LaMothe.md index 9840482f..ec814614 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/John LaMothe.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/John LaMothe.md @@ -5,12 +5,42 @@ tags: - RemoteViewer - Military - Soviet -summary: "LaMothe's report highlighted the perceived threat of Soviet ESP and Psychokinesis capabilities, suggesting they could be used to disable U.S." + - PSI + - DIA + - 1970s +summary: "John L. LaMothe was a U.S. Army Medical Intelligence Office captain who authored the 1972 classified report Controlled Offensive Behavior - USSR, warning of Soviet psychoenergetics research capabilities and spurring U.S. government concerns about a psi gap." +alias: + - John L. LaMothe + - Captain John LaMothe --- -[[John LaMothe]] was a [[U.S. Army]] Captain and the author of the 1972 [[Defense Intelligence Agency|DIA]] report, "[[Controlled Offensive Behavior - USSR]]." This 174-page classified report reviewed and evaluated Soviet research in the field of "revolutionary methods of influencing behavior," with a particular focus on [[Parapsychology|psi]] phenomena and its potential military applications.[^1] -LaMothe's report highlighted the perceived threat of Soviet [[Extrasensory Perception|ESP]] and [[Psychokinesis]] capabilities, suggesting they could be used to disable U.S. military equipment, access top-secret documents, influence leaders, and even cause instant death. While some of his sources were considered biased in favor of psi research, the report contributed significantly to the U.S. intelligence community's concern about a "[[Psi Gap|psi gap]]" and spurred further U.S. investment in psychic research programs.[^1] +Captain John L. LaMothe was an author and military intelligence officer with the Medical Intelligence Office of the [[U.S. Army]], Office of the Surgeon General. He was tasked with conducting a joint intelligence assessment of the "Soviet psychoenergetic threat," a term coined by the [[Pentagon]] to include all matters related to Soviet anomalous mental phenomena research and [[Electromagnetic Weapons|electromagnetic weapons]] programs[^1]. ---- +His two-year effort resulted in a 174-page classified report titled *Controlled Offensive Behavior - USSR*, published in 1972. The report aimed to aid in the development of countermeasures for the protection of U.S. or allied personnel, concluding that the [[Soviet Union|Soviets]] were rapidly developing "methods of controlling or manipulating human behavior through subtle, non-identifiable means," including psychopharmacology, subliminal messaging, and electromagnetic weapons[^1]. + +LaMothe's report highlighted the "unusual, disproportionate interest" of Communist state authorities, the military, and the [[KGB]] in [[Parapsychology|parapsychology]], confirming military involvement in [[Psi]] research. He broke down the danger into four categories of existential threat posed by Soviet agents with psychoenergetic abilities[^1]: + +1. "Disable, at a distance, US military equipment of all types, including space craft." +2. "Know the contents of top secret US documents, the movements of our troops and ships and the location and nature of our military installations." +3. "Mold the thoughts of key US military and civilian leaders, at a distance." +4. "Cause the instant death of any US official, at a distance." + +In essence, LaMothe argued that a Soviet agent could disrupt military technology, access state secrets, influence national leaders, and assassinate U.S. officials through targeted [[Extrasensory Perception|ESP]] and [[Psychokinesis|PK]][^1]. + +Citing scientists and experts like [[Oliver J. Caldwell]] and [[Sybil Leek]], LaMothe saw an immediate need for the U.S. to create a program to mirror the Soviets' psychic warfare undertakings. However, the alarmist nature of his text limited its distribution, and those in the know considered LaMothe's sources biased in favor of ESP research programs[^1]. + +Despite the controversy, LaMothe's report circulated through the military and intelligence communities, prompting the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] to take action and escalate its own psychic research programs[^1]. + +### Publications +* *Controlled Offensive Behavior - USSR* (1972) + +### The 1972 Report + +John LaMothe was a U.S. Army Captain and the author of the 1972 [[Defense Intelligence Agency|DIA]] report, "[[Controlled Offensive Behavior - USSR]]." This 174-page classified report reviewed and evaluated Soviet research in the field of "revolutionary methods of influencing behavior," with a particular focus on psi phenomena and its potential military applications.[^2] + +LaMothe's report highlighted the perceived threat of Soviet ESP and Psychokinesis capabilities, suggesting they could be used to disable U.S. military equipment, access top-secret documents, influence leaders, and even cause instant death. While some of his sources were considered biased in favor of psi research, the report contributed significantly to the U.S. intelligence community's concern about a "[[Psi Gap|psi gap]]" and spurred further U.S. investment in psychic research programs.[^2] + +### Footnotes [^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017. +[^2]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/John McCone.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/John McCone.md index 9d9ba47a..0739af90 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/John McCone.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/John McCone.md @@ -6,16 +6,19 @@ tags: - ColdWar - StandardOil - LatinAmerica -alias: John A. McCone + - Nuclear + - Israel summary: "Industrialist and former director of Standard Oil of California who served as CIA Director from 1961 to 1965, clashed with President Kennedy over the test-ban treaty and covert-operations control, shaped Johnson's Latin America team around Rockefeller allies, and later, as an ITT director, financed the effort to block Salvador Allende." born: 1902-01-04 died: 1991-02-14 location: San Francisco, California created: 2026-06-12 -updated: 2026-06-12 +updated: 2026-09-21 +alias: + - John A. McCone --- -John A. McCone (1902-1991) was an American industrialist who served as Director of the [[CIA]] from 1961 to 1965, appointed by President [[John F. Kennedy]] after the [[Bay of Pigs invasion]] and retained into the [[Lyndon Johnson|Johnson]] administration. A former director of [[Standard Oil|Standard Oil of California]] and a wealthy engineering contractor, he brought a corporate and oil-industry orientation to the Agency that repeatedly set him at odds with Kennedy and aligned him with the [[Nelson Rockefeller|Rockefeller]] network's interests in [[Latin America]].[^1] +John A. McCone (1902-1991) was an American industrialist who served as Director of the [[CIA]] from 1961 to 1965, appointed by President [[John F. Kennedy]] after the [[Bay of Pigs invasion]] and retained into the [[Lyndon B. Johnson|Johnson]] administration. A former director of [[Standard Oil|Standard Oil of California]] and a wealthy engineering contractor, he brought a corporate and oil-industry orientation to the Agency that repeatedly set him at odds with Kennedy and aligned him with the [[Nelson Rockefeller|Rockefeller]] network's interests in [[Latin America]].[^1] ### Conflicts with Kennedy @@ -31,9 +34,18 @@ Under Johnson, McCone helped reorient US policy toward the hemisphere around fig After leaving the CIA in 1965, McCone joined the board of the [[International Telephone and Telegraph|International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation]] (ITT). In 1970, working to prevent the election of [[Salvador Allende]] in Chile, McCone offered the CIA $2 million to finance an effort to stop him, connecting the corporate and intelligence campaigns against the Chilean left that the [[Rockefeller Brothers Fund]]'s earlier rural-education programs in Chile had been designed to undercut.[^4] +### Atomic Energy Commission + +John A. McCone was a wealthy Republican businessman from [[California]] who served as chairman of the [[Atomic Energy Commission]] (AEC) and later as Director of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]. In December 1960, he leaked information to *New York Times* reporter [[John W. Finney]] about [[Israel]]'s secret nuclear reactor at [[Dimona]], expressing anger that Israel and [[France]] had "lied to us" about its purpose.[^5] + +McCone's leak was his parting shot as AEC commissioner, as he announced his resignation shortly after. He was committed to nuclear nonproliferation and was aware that the [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower]] administration was nearing its end, making it an opportune time to act. He was also frustrated by the constant Israeli lying about Dimona.[^5] + +McCone was regularly briefed on the Israeli nuclear program after replacing [[Lewis L. Strauss]] as AEC commissioner in July 1958. As AEC chairman, he was a member of the U.S. Intelligence Advisory Committee, the top-level group at the time. He was labeled by some as anti-Semitic due to his actions, but there was no known basis for such allegations; he was simply dead set against any nuclear proliferation and offended by the Israeli and French deception.[^5] + ### Footnotes [^1]: Central Intelligence Agency, "John A. McCone," Directors of Central Intelligence. https://www.cia.gov/legacy/headquarters/directors-of-central-intelligence/; Gerard Colby and Charlotte Dennett, *Thy Will Be Done: The Conquest of the Amazon*. HarperCollins, 1995. Ch. 27. [^2]: Colby and Dennett, Ch. 27. [^3]: Colby and Dennett, Ch. 27; Ch. 28. [^4]: Colby and Dennett, Ch. 41. +[^5]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 6, 7. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Lawrence Houston.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Lawrence Houston.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..a300635b --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Lawrence Houston.md @@ -0,0 +1,45 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +tags: + - Person + - LawrenceHouston + - CIA + - GeneralCounsel + - AssassinationPlots + - RobertKennedy + - GarrisonInvestigation +alias: + - Lawrence R. Houston + - Larry Houston +summary: "General counsel of the CIA from 1947 to 1973, who briefed Robert Kennedy on the Mafia plots in 1962 and in whose tenure the Justice Department let the agency decide which crimes to report." +born: 1913 +died: 1995-08-15 +location: "Washington, D.C." +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Lawrence Houston (1913 to August 15, 1995) "helped draft legislation that created and shaped the CIA, then served as the spy agency's general counsel from its founding in 1947 until his retirement in 1973." Director [[John Deutch]] said he had served "longer than the combined tenures of his eight successors" and "played a central role in virtually every significant Agency undertaking." He supervised the legal work of the exchange of [[Rudolf Abel]] for [[Francis Gary Powers]] and of the ransom of the [[Bay of Pigs Invasion|Bay of Pigs]] prisoners. He held the [[National Security Medal]]. He died at [[Westport, Massachusetts]].[^1] + +### The Agreement of 1954 + +"In 1954, the CIA pointed out to the [[Department of Justice]] that, in many cases involving CIA, prosecution would require public disclosure of sensitive Agency operations and procedures." The department answered that the agency should investigate such allegations itself. "If, after investigation, it appeared that prosecution would be precluded by the need to reveal sensitive information, then the Agency should so indicate in its files and not refer the case to the Department of Justice." The presidential commission of 1975 found that the department had "abdicated its statutory duties and placed on the Director of Central Intelligence the responsibility for investigating criminal conduct and making the prosecutorial decision." The arrangement lasted until January 1975.[^2] + +### Kennedy + +On May 7, 1962, Houston and the director of security, [[Sheffield Edwards]], briefed Attorney General [[Robert F. Kennedy|Robert Kennedy]] on the agency's use of [[Johnny Roselli]] and [[Sam Giancana]] against [[Fidel Castro]]. The occasion was the prosecution of [[Robert Maheu]]'s wiretappers in [[Las Vegas]], which the agency wished dropped. "If you have seen Mr. Kennedy's eyes get steely and his jaw set and his voice get low and precise you get a definite feeling of unhappiness," Houston testified. He recalled the instruction: "If we were going to get involved with Mafia personnel again he wanted to be informed first." [[J. Edgar Hoover]] recorded Kennedy's "great astonishment" two days later. The inspector general concluded in 1967 that "the Attorney General was not told that the gambling syndicate operation had already been reactivated." Houston sent Edwards's memorandum of record to Kennedy on May 15. On the agency's copy of his covering note [[Richard Helms]] wrote: "Sen. Kennedy read this on 8 March '67." Helms told Director [[John McCone]] on August 16, 1963, that Edwards's memorandum was the only written record of the agency's relationship with Giancana.[^3][^4] + +### Nosenko and Garrison + +The agency's own account of the confinement of [[Yuri Nosenko]] states that the [[CIA Office of Security|Office of Security]] "together with the Office of General Counsel became increasingly concerned with the illegality of the Agency's position," and that their representations to Helms ended it in October 1967.[^5] + +On March 3, 1967, two days after [[Jim Garrison]] arrested [[Clay Shaw]], the chief of the [[Domestic Contact Service]] in [[New Orleans]], [[Lloyd Ray]], recommended that Houston be briefed on Shaw's past reporting "to be on the safe side." On May 1 [[Herbert J. Miller Jr.|Jack Miller]], a former assistant attorney general, telephoned Houston with information "from within Garrison's office" supplied by [[Walter Sheridan]] of [[NBC]]. His memorandum of October 2, written as the agency's [[Garrison Group]] considered its response, recommended doing nothing beyond resisting subpoenas.[^6] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Central Intelligence Agency, "Statement by the Director on the Death of CIA's First General Counsel Lawrence R. Houston," August 16, 1995; "Lawrence Houston, helped create CIA," *Baltimore Sun,* August 18, 1995. +[^2]: Commission on CIA Activities Within the United States. *Report to the President*. Government Printing Office, June 1975, pp. 15-16, 76-77. +[^3]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities. *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders: An Interim Report*. S. Rept. 94-465, 1975, pp. 133-134. +[^4]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963,* vol. X, Cuba, document 337, memorandum for the record by Sheffield Edwards, May 14, 1962, with source note. +[^5]: Central Intelligence Agency, "Family Jewels," memorandum of Howard J. Osborn, Director of Security, to the Executive Secretary, CIA Management Committee, May 16, 1973, with attachments, p. 00023. +[^6]: Holland, Max. "The Lie That Linked CIA to the Kennedy Assassination," *Studies in Intelligence,* vol. 45, no. 5, 2001. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Lowell Jensen.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Lowell Jensen.md index c58f03e1..8e654d87 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Lowell Jensen.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Lowell Jensen.md @@ -1,7 +1,7 @@ --- category: "PROMIS Scandal" created: 2024-04-25 -updated: 2026-05-01 +updated: 2026-09-21 tags: - Person - PROMIS @@ -11,7 +11,10 @@ tags: summary: "D. Lowell Jensen served as Alameda County District Attorney, then as Associate Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General under Edwin Meese, and was named by INSLAW and the House Judiciary Committee as a key figure in the alleged conspiracy to steal and suppress the PROMIS software." born: 1928-06-03 location: "Brigham City, Utah" +alias: + - D. Lowell Jensen --- + Delwen Lowell Jensen was born June 3, 1928, in Brigham City, Utah. He earned a BA from UC Berkeley in 1949 and a JD from UC Berkeley School of Law in 1952, then served as an Army Corporal from 1952 to 1954. He entered the Alameda County District Attorney's office in 1955 as a deputy, rising to Assistant District Attorney by 1966 and District Attorney by 1969, a position he held until 1981. Among his significant prosecutions as Alameda County DA were members of the Black Panthers and the Patty Hearst case.[^1] In 1981, Jensen was appointed Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division under Attorney General [[William French Smith]], then elevated to Associate Attorney General in 1983 and Deputy Attorney General in 1985 under [[Edwin Meese]]. He was appointed to the federal bench as a U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of California in June 1986, a position he held until senior status in 1997.[^1] @@ -26,7 +29,7 @@ As Associate Attorney General and subsequently Deputy Attorney General, Jensen o [[George Francis Bason, Jr.|Bankruptcy Judge Bason]] concluded in his September 1987 findings that Jensen's "biased attitude toward Inslaw contributed to the situation in which Inslaw's complaints about Brewer and the administration of the PROMIS implementation contract went unheeded."[^3] -The [[Edwin Meese|Meese]] recusal added further significance to Jensen's role: Meese reportedly recused himself from PROMIS matters upon becoming Attorney General in February 1985, given his association with [[Earl Brian]] from the Reagan California cabinet years. Jensen therefore handled all DOJ decision-making on PROMIS from February 1985 onward.[^4] It was Jensen's secretary who brought a letter to [[William Bradford Reynolds]] for signature during a period when Jensen was out of the building - a letter advising that PROMIS software was being provided to an Arab sheik for resale and general distribution, which Reynolds signed under the impression it required a signature from someone in Meese's inner circle.[^4] +The Meese recusal added further significance to Jensen's role: Meese reportedly recused himself from PROMIS matters upon becoming Attorney General in February 1985, given his association with [[Earl Brian]] from the Reagan California cabinet years. Jensen therefore handled all DOJ decision-making on PROMIS from February 1985 onward.[^4] It was Jensen's secretary who brought a letter to [[William Bradford Reynolds]] for signature during a period when Jensen was out of the building - a letter advising that PROMIS software was being provided to an Arab sheik for resale and general distribution, which Reynolds signed under the impression it required a signature from someone in Meese's inner circle.[^4] ### House Judiciary Committee Findings diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Lyndon B. Johnson.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Lyndon B. Johnson.md index 6064216a..19221ca4 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Lyndon B. Johnson.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Lyndon B. Johnson.md @@ -4,18 +4,28 @@ tags: - Person - WW2 - Nazi + - Politician summary: "Johnson's ties to Israel were strong, influenced by his close advisers like Abe Fortas and Edwin L." born: 1908-08-27 died: 1973-01-22 location: "Stonewall, Texas" +alias: + - Lyndon Johnson --- Lyndon B. Johnson was the 36th President of the [[United States]], serving from 1963 to 1969. He was initially left in the dark on sensitive national security issues by President [[John F. Kennedy]] and his top aides, and reportedly went "berserk" upon being briefed in by the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] after Kennedy's assassination.[^1] Johnson's ties to [[Israel]] were strong, influenced by his close advisers like [[Abe Fortas]] and [[Edwin L. Weisl, Sr.]], and his knowledge of [[Abraham Feinberg]]'s fundraising skills. A deeper link stemmed from his visit to the Nazi concentration camp at [[Dachau]] at the end of World War II, which left him profoundly shaken. His sensitivity to the plight of European Jews began even before the war, when as a young congressman, he helped German refugees gain asylum in [[America]], circumventing red tape and preventing deportations.[^1] -Johnson's strong emotional ties to [[Israel]] and his belief that Soviet arms were altering the balance of power in the [[Middle East]] drove him to become the first American President to supply [[Israel]] with offensive weapons and the first publicly to commit [[America]] to its defense. In the early years of his presidency, he echoed Kennedy's policy by urging [[Israel]] to submit [[Dimona]] to [[International Atomic Energy Agency|IAEA]] inspection, motivated by his belief that a nuclear [[Israel]] could lead to a nuclear [[Egypt]], increased Soviet involvement, and potentially war.[^1] +Johnson's strong emotional ties to Israel and his belief that Soviet arms were altering the balance of power in the [[Middle East]] drove him to become the first American President to supply Israel with offensive weapons and the first publicly to commit America to its defense. In the early years of his presidency, he echoed Kennedy's policy by urging Israel to submit [[Dimona]] to [[International Atomic Energy Agency|IAEA]] inspection, motivated by his belief that a nuclear Israel could lead to a nuclear [[Egypt]], increased Soviet involvement, and potentially war.[^1] + +### Bobby Baker + +Lyndon B. Johnson served as the 36th President of the United States. His rise to power emanated directly from his friends in Texas oil, including the [[Clint Murchison, Sr.|Murchison family]].[^2] + +As Senate Majority Leader, Johnson made [[Bobby Baker]] his secretary of the Senate Democrats in 1955, referring to Baker as "my strong right arm, the last man I see at night, the first I see in the morning." A major scandal brewed around Baker in the autumn of 1963, involving numerous questionable deals that were tightly interwoven with the Murchison family and organized crime figures.[^2] ### Footnotes -[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 9. \ No newline at end of file +[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 9. +[^2]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Lyndon Johnson.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Lyndon Johnson.md deleted file mode 100644 index ed241b32..00000000 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Lyndon Johnson.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,18 +0,0 @@ ---- -category: "Intelligence & Government" -tags: - - Person - - Politician -summary: "As Senate Majority Leader, Johnson made Bobby Baker his secretary of the Senate Democrats in 1955, referring to Baker as 'my strong right arm, the last man I see at night, the first I see in the morning.' A major scandal brewed around Baker in the autumn of 1963, involving numerous questionable deal" -born: 1908-08-27 -died: 1973-01-22 -location: "Stonewall, Texas" ---- -[[Lyndon B. Johnson]] served as the 36th President of the [[United States]]. His rise to power emanated directly from his friends in Texas oil, including the [[Clint Murchison, Sr.|Murchison family]].[^1] - -As Senate Majority Leader, Johnson made [[Bobby Baker]] his secretary of the Senate Democrats in 1955, referring to Baker as "my strong right arm, the last man I see at night, the first I see in the morning." A major scandal brewed around Baker in the autumn of 1963, involving numerous questionable deals that were tightly interwoven with the [[Clint Murchison, Sr.|Murchison family]] and organized crime figures.[^1] - ---- -### Footnotes - -[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Mack McLarty.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Mack McLarty.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..bb08e597 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Mack McLarty.md @@ -0,0 +1,38 @@ +--- +category: "Political Figure" +tags: + - Person + - MackMcLarty + - Arkla + - BillClinton + - WhiteHouse + - WebsterHubbell + - KissingerAssociates + - Arkansas +alias: + - Thomas F. McLarty III + - Thomas "Mack" McLarty +summary: "Kindergarten classmate of Bill Clinton who succeeded Sheffield Nelson at the Arkla gas utility, became Clinton's first White House chief of staff, solicited consulting clients for Webster Hubbell, and went into business with Henry Kissinger." +born: 1946-06-14 +location: "Little Rock, Arkansas" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Thomas Franklin McLarty III was born on June 14, 1946, at [[Hope, Arkansas]], where his family had an automobile dealership and where he attended Miss Mary Purkins's kindergarten with [[Bill Clinton]]. He was president of the student body at the [[University of Arkansas]], graduated in 1968, and was elected to the [[Arkansas House of Representatives]] at twenty-three for a single term.[^1] + +### Arkla + +He rose in the management of [[Arkla|Arkansas Louisiana Gas]] under [[Sheffield Nelson]], who on retiring on December 31, 1984, named him his successor, and he headed the company until 1992. Nelson had in 1982 bound the utility to buy three quarters of the gas of [[Jerry Jones]]'s Arkoma Production Company. In 1989 the state's [[Arkansas Public Service Commission|Public Service Commission]] opened an investigation on learning that Arkla had paid Arkoma 174.8 million dollars to be released from it. With [[Curt Bradbury]] of [[Worthen Bank]] he organized the [[Little Rock, Arkansas|Little Rock]] fundraisers for Clinton's presidential campaign in 1992.[^1][^2] + +### The White House + +McLarty was chief of staff in 1993 and 1994, and then counselor to the president and special envoy for the Americas. On March 13, 1994, the day before [[Webster Hubbell]] announced his resignation as associate attorney general, McLarty attended the [[White House]] meeting on Hubbell's difficulties and told the first lady: "We're going to be supportive of Webb." He and his staff director "telephoned Hubbell about once a week, telling him he still had friends in the White House," and he was one of those who "made calls on Hubbell's behalf" to prospective clients. Seventeen supporters of the president paid Hubbell more than 500,000 dollars in the following months.[^1][^3] + +After leaving the administration in 1998 he formed [[Kissinger McLarty Associates]] with [[Henry A. Kissinger|Henry Kissinger]].[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: "Mack McLarty (1946-)," *Encyclopedia of Arkansas.* https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/mack-mclarty-3707/ ; "Sheffield Nelson (1941-)," *Encyclopedia of Arkansas.* +[^2]: "Oily Deals: Pattern Emerging in Questionable Arkoma Gas Transactions," *Arkansas Business,* April 9, 1990; "Meet The Family That Bankrolled Clinton," *The Seattle Times,* January 31, 1993. +[^3]: Office of the Independent Counsel, *Final Report of the Independent Counsel In Re: Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan Association,* vol. 3, part C, "Webster L. Hubbell's Billing Practices and Tax Filings." https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON/pdf/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON-3-2.pdf diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Martin Luther King Jr.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Martin Luther King Jr.md index eb5199c6..086cf6c1 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Martin Luther King Jr.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Martin Luther King Jr.md @@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ The Birmingham Campaign of spring 1963 was the turning point of the civil rights The March on Washington on August 28, 1963 drew approximately 250,000 people to the National Mall. King's address, improvising past his prepared remarks into the "I Have a Dream" sequence, became one of the defining speeches in American political history. -The [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]] and the [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]], signed by President [[Lyndon Johnson]], represented the legislative achievement of the movement's core demands - though King continued organizing for economic justice, fair housing, and against [[Vietnam War|Vietnam War]] escalation in the remaining years of his life.[^1] +The [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]] and the [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]], signed by President [[Lyndon B. Johnson|Lyndon Johnson]], represented the legislative achievement of the movement's core demands - though King continued organizing for economic justice, fair housing, and against [[Vietnam War|Vietnam War]] escalation in the remaining years of his life.[^1] ### FBI Surveillance and COINTELPRO @@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ King received the anonymous suicide letter and recognized its origin. He continu ### Vietnam and the Poor People's Campaign -King's public opposition to the Vietnam War, which he articulated comprehensively in his "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" speech at [[Riverside Church]] on April 4, 1967 - exactly one year before his assassination - deepened the conflict with the [[Lyndon Johnson|Johnson]] administration and with mainstream civil rights organizations that feared alienating the president. King framed Vietnam as inseparable from the struggle for economic justice at home, arguing that the war consumed resources needed for the antipoverty programs of the Great Society while disproportionately drafting Black men to fight. +King's public opposition to the Vietnam War, which he articulated comprehensively in his "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" speech at [[Riverside Church]] on April 4, 1967 - exactly one year before his assassination - deepened the conflict with the [[Lyndon B. Johnson|Johnson]] administration and with mainstream civil rights organizations that feared alienating the president. King framed Vietnam as inseparable from the struggle for economic justice at home, arguing that the war consumed resources needed for the antipoverty programs of the Great Society while disproportionately drafting Black men to fight. In 1968, King was organizing the Poor People's Campaign - a planned encampment of impoverished Americans in [[Washington, D.C.]] demanding economic legislation - when he traveled to Memphis to support a strike by Black sanitation workers against the city government. He had spoken in Memphis on March 18 and returned on April 3. His April 3 speech at the Mason Temple, in which he said "I've been to the mountaintop," was delivered under threat of assassination; King was aware of specific threats against his life.[^1] diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Matthew Livelsberger.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Matthew Livelsberger.md index b39f8607..70e0a67a 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Matthew Livelsberger.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Matthew Livelsberger.md @@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ There were social media posts made that suggested he was helping to connect sold ### Personal Life Livelsberger was married twice (first divorced in 2018) and had a young daughter from his most recent merger. His latest wife allegedly broke up with him in the days preceding the explosion over Matthew’s adultery.[^2] -On the drive to Las Vegas, he was texting [[Alicia Arritt]], an old girlfriend, about the cyber truck. +On the drive to [[Las Vegas]], he was texting [[Alicia Arritt]], an old girlfriend, about the cyber truck. > “I rented a Tesla Cybertruck. It’s the shit” > "I feel like Batman or halo” > “I'm building drones in my new position”[^3] diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Meyer Lansky.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Meyer Lansky.md index 60ea7c51..2f7e03e8 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Meyer Lansky.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Meyer Lansky.md @@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ born: 1902 died: 1983 location: "Grodno, Russian Empire (now Belarus)" --- -[[Meyer Lansky]] was a prominent Florida mobster. His Fremont Hotel in Las Vegas was financed through a [[Jimmy Hoffa|Hoffa]] loan. [[Edward Levinson]], a Las Vegas gambler, was a lieutenant of Lansky. Through [[Bobby Baker]], Levinson became acquainted with [[Clint Murchison, Sr.]].[^1] +[[Meyer Lansky]] was a prominent Florida mobster. His Fremont Hotel in [[Las Vegas]] was financed through a [[Jimmy Hoffa|Hoffa]] loan. [[Edward Levinson]], a Las Vegas gambler, was a lieutenant of Lansky. Through [[Bobby Baker]], Levinson became acquainted with [[Clint Murchison, Sr.]].[^1] --- ### Footnotes diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Myron B. Kratzer.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Myron B. Kratzer.md index 25ce57cd..76ea2d6f 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Myron B. Kratzer.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Myron B. Kratzer.md @@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ born: 1925 location: "New York City, New York, USA" --- -Myron B. Kratzer was the director of international affairs for the [[Atomic Energy Commission|AEC]] in December 1960. He recalled being telephoned a few hours before [[John A. McCone]]'s farewell appearance on *Meet the Press* by a [[State Department]] colleague, who urged him to ask McCone to downplay the Israeli nuclear issue. McCone, however, refused, stating he would not "tell anything less than the truth."[^1] +Myron B. Kratzer was the director of international affairs for the [[Atomic Energy Commission|AEC]] in December 1960. He recalled being telephoned a few hours before [[John McCone|John A. McCone]]'s farewell appearance on *Meet the Press* by a [[State Department]] colleague, who urged him to ask McCone to downplay the Israeli nuclear issue. McCone, however, refused, stating he would not "tell anything less than the truth."[^1] ### Footnotes diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Patrick Moriarty.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Patrick Moriarty.md index 69f4e236..3bae0760 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Patrick Moriarty.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Patrick Moriarty.md @@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ By 1983, Moriarty faced legal troubles. The *Los Angeles Times* reported that he In 1985, Moriarty pleaded guilty to mail fraud in what became the biggest political scandal in California in 30 years, leading to the indictment of over 10 prominent politicians for taking bribes from him.[^1] -Moriarty was subpoenaed to testify on behalf of [[Bo Gritz]] at his trial in Las Vegas. Moriarty's lawyer, [[Jan Lawrence Handzlik]], stated that Moriarty had paid Gritz to make business trips to [[China]], [[Singapore]], and other parts of [[Asia]]. Gritz claimed his July 1989 trip to [[Asia]] was to negotiate an oil interest he and Moriarty had set up between the [[People's Republic of China]] and [[Indonesia]].[^1] +Moriarty was subpoenaed to testify on behalf of [[Bo Gritz]] at his trial in [[Las Vegas]]. Moriarty's lawyer, [[Jan Lawrence Handzlik]], stated that Moriarty had paid Gritz to make business trips to [[China]], [[Singapore]], and other parts of [[Asia]]. Gritz claimed his July 1989 trip to [[Asia]] was to negotiate an oil interest he and Moriarty had set up between the [[People's Republic of China]] and [[Indonesia]].[^1] --- ### Footnotes diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Paul Helliwell.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Paul Helliwell.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..e1fca410 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Paul Helliwell.md @@ -0,0 +1,40 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +tags: + - Person + - PaulHelliwell + - OSS + - CIA + - CastleBank + - SeaSupply + - Proprietaries + - Miami +alias: + - Paul L.E. Helliwell + - Paul Lionel Edward Helliwell +summary: "Miami lawyer and wartime OSS intelligence chief in China who set up the CIA front Sea Supply in 1951 and the Castle Bank in the Bahamas, and held Walt Disney's Florida land options." +died: 1976-12-24 +location: "Miami, Florida" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Paul Lionel Edward Helliwell was a [[Miami]] lawyer who died on December 24, 1976, at 62. "During [[World War II]], he was chief of special intelligence in [[China]] for the [[Office of Strategic Services]]," [[The Wall Street Journal]] reported in 1980. Former colleagues told the paper that Helliwell, then a colonel, "regularly used to buy information with five-pound shipments of opium."[^1] + +### Sea Supply + +"In 1951 Mr. Helliwell helped set up and run [[Sea Supply Corporation|Sea Supply Corp.]], a concern controlled by the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] as a front. For almost 10 years, Sea Supply was used to supply huge amounts of weapons and equipment to 10,000 Nationalist Chinese troops in [[Burma]] as well as to [[Thailand]]'s police." The newspaper described him as "instrumental in helping to direct a network of CIA undercover operations and 'proprietaries.'" A former federal official told it that Helliwell "reputedly was one of the paymasters" for the [[Bay of Pigs Invasion|Bay of Pigs]] invasion and was "deeply involved" in financing raids on [[Cuba]] from [[Andros Island]] between 1963 and 1975.[^1] + +### Disney + +In the middle 1960s a lawyer for [[Walt Disney Productions]], Robert Price Foster, came to the firm of Helliwell, Melrose and DeWolf to arrange the secret purchase of land in central [[Florida]]. "All of the options we had taken on larger tracts were in Helliwell's name," Foster recalled. "And so to relieve him as the prolific generator of rumors that he had become, we created a family of corporations as repositories of titles to our purchases." They were Reedy Creek Ranch Lands, Bay Lake Properties, Ayefour Corporation, [[Latin America|Latin American]] Development and Management Corporation, and Tomahawk Properties.[^2] + +### Castle Bank + +"[[Castle Bank and Trust|Castle Bank]] was set up and principally controlled by the late Paul Lionel Edward Helliwell." The foreign companies on its 1973 list of depositors traced back to concerns "mostly formed or controlled by Paul Helliwell and his associates." The bank, the paper reported, "was the conduit for millions of dollars earmarked by the CIA for the funding of clandestine operations against Cuba and for other covert intelligence operations directed at countries in Latin America and the [[Far East]]," and "pressure from the Central Intelligence Agency, rather than a legal problem, was what caused the Justice Department to drop what could have been the biggest tax-evasion case of all." The agency, the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]], and Helliwell's firm declined to comment. The [[Miami Herald]] reported the next day that "Helliwell may have used his CIA contacts to force an abrupt end to the investigation." Neither federal court that ruled on the case mentions the agency or Helliwell.[^1][^3] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Drinkhall, Jim. "IRS vs. CIA: Big Tax Investigation Was Quietly Scuttled by Intelligence Agency," *The Wall Street Journal,* April 18, 1980, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP90-01208R000100100061-5. +[^2]: Walt Disney Archives, "We Say It's Disney," D23. https://d23.com/we-say-its-disney/ +[^3]: "CIA May Have Ended Nassau Bank Probe," *The Miami Herald,* April 19, 1980, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP90-00806R000100200024-2; United States v. Payner, 447 U.S. 727 (1980); United States v. Payner, 434 F. Supp. 113 (N.D. Ohio 1977). diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Peter Hurkos.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Peter Hurkos.md index 47d96730..abec049a 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Peter Hurkos.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Peter Hurkos.md @@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ Hurkos's psychometric talents were observed by [[Bep Hermans]], Puharich's au pa After the death of [[Alice Astor Bouverie]], Puharich and Hurkos traveled to Mexico in search of more *God's flesh* mushrooms. Despite the turmoil, the [[Round Table Foundation]] continued its activities, with Hurkos participating in experiments involving [[Telepathy]], [[Dowsing]], palmistry, and [[Eyeless Sight]][^1]. -In the 1960s, Puharich and Hurkos traveled to the Sixth Naval District Personnel Conference in Charleston, South Carolina, to demonstrate [[Extrasensory Perception|ESP]] and psychometry to submariners[^1]. +In the 1960s, Puharich and Hurkos traveled to the Sixth Naval District Personnel Conference in Charleston, [[South Carolina]], to demonstrate [[Extrasensory Perception|ESP]] and psychometry to submariners[^1]. ### Footnotes [^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Richard Helms.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Richard Helms.md index a537dc92..9d1a4d55 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Richard Helms.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Richard Helms.md @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@ --- created: 2026-05-15 -updated: 2026-05-17 +updated: 2026-09-21 title: Richard Helms aliases: - Richard McGarrah Helms @@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ born: 1913-03-30 died: 2002-10-22 location: "St. Davids, Pennsylvania" --- + Richard McGarrah Helms (March 30, 1913 - October 22, 2002) served as [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] [[Director of Central Intelligence]] from June 30, 1966, to February 2, 1973 - the only career CIA clandestine officer ever to hold that position, and the only DCI ever convicted of a criminal offense related to his service. A professional intelligence officer who entered the [[Office of Strategic Services|OSS]] during [[World War II]] and spent thirty years in the CIA, Helms authorized [[Operation CHAOS]] domestic surveillance, approved continuation of the [[MKULTRA]] human experimentation program, ordered the destruction of both programs' records before congressional investigators could access them, and in 1977 pleaded no contest to making false statements to Congress about CIA operations against Chilean President [[Salvador Allende]]. He simultaneously held the personal conviction, disclosed to his deputies, that [[Israel]] was using American intelligence as "an open pipeline for pumping intelligence to [[Moscow]]" - a view he never officially reported.[^1] ### OSS and Early CIA Career @@ -39,13 +40,13 @@ When the Warren Commission was established in November 1963 to investigate Kenne ### Operation CHAOS Authorization and Records Destruction -In August 1967, Helms received President Johnson's instruction to determine whether foreign powers were directing the American antiwar movement. He tasked [[James Jesus Angleton|James Angleton]]'s Counterintelligence Staff with establishing the Special Operations Group that became MHCHAOS. He subsequently expanded the program under President Nixon's administration, approving Project MERRIMAC (domestic infiltration of antiwar organizations) and Project RESISTANCE (coordination with campus administrators and local police to compile dossiers on student organizations). +In August 1967, Helms received President Johnson's instruction to determine whether foreign powers were directing the American antiwar movement. He tasked [[James Jesus Angleton|James Angleton]]'s Counterintelligence Staff with establishing the Special Operations Group that became MHCHAOS. He subsequently expanded the program under President Nixon's administration, approving Project MERRIMAC (domestic infiltration of antiwar organizations) and [[Project RESISTANCE]] (coordination with campus administrators and local police to compile dossiers on student organizations). In December 1972, knowing that Watergate-related congressional investigations were expanding, Helms ordered the operational records of MHCHAOS destroyed. A partial cache of budget and administrative documents survived only because it had been misfiled in a different location. In the same period, he ordered the destruction of records related to MKULTRA, the CIA's two-decade human experimentation program using LSD and other substances on unwitting subjects. The Church Committee found that these records destructions had permanently deprived investigators of a complete documentary record of both programs.[^1] ### Proposing and Protecting MKULTRA -Helms was the program's originator as much as its protector. On April 3, 1953 he formally proposed to Director [[Allen Dulles]] a program under [[Sidney Gottlieb]] for the "covert use of biological and chemical materials," arguing that "the development of a comprehensive capability in this field gives us a thorough knowledge of the enemy's theoretical potential" against "a foe who might not be as restrained ... as we are"; Dulles approved it as MKULTRA ten days later. Helms nurtured Gottlieb as his personal specialist and, bypassing the layers of command between them, dealt with him directly, embodying the conviction he later voiced in Senate testimony, that a clandestine operator "can't count on the honesty of your agent ... unless you own him body and soul." When the program needed a new charter in 1964 he agreed to rename it [[MKSEARCH]] on the condition that its substance remain the same.[^4] +Helms was the program's originator as much as its protector. On April 3, 1953 he formally proposed to Director [[Allen Dulles]] a program under [[Sidney Gottlieb]] for the "covert use of biological and chemical materials," arguing that "the development of a comprehensive capability in this field gives us a thorough knowledge of the enemy's theoretical potential" against "a foe who might not be as restrained ... as we are"; Dulles approved it as MKULTRA ten days later. Helms nurtured Gottlieb as his personal specialist and, bypassing the layers of command between them, dealt with him directly, embodying the conviction he later voiced in Senate testimony, that a clandestine operator "can't count on the honesty of your agent ... unless you own him body and soul." When the program needed a new charter in 1964 he agreed to rename it [[MKSEARCH]] on the condition that its substance remain the same.[^3] ### MKULTRA Continuation and Psychic Research @@ -65,7 +66,7 @@ In February 1973, when Helms testified before the [[Senate Foreign Relations Com Helms developed a personal conviction, disclosed to his deputies, that Israel was providing American satellite intelligence to the [[Soviet Union]] as part of an undisclosed intelligence exchange - characterizing Israel as "an open pipeline for pumping intelligence to Moscow." He never officially reported this assessment or commissioned a formal investigation, and he took no documented action on it. His reluctance reflected both the sensitivity of accusing an ally and the particular weight of any assessment that ran against the interests managed by Angleton's [[KK MOUNTAIN]] Israeli liaison program. -When President Johnson sought an intelligence assessment of whether Israel had manufactured nuclear weapons, Helms provided the estimate (four warheads) and then obeyed Johnson's instruction that the finding be buried rather than formally reported. Johnson did not want intelligence conclusions that would require him to act on them politically. Helms's willingness to suppress an accurate intelligence product at presidential direction exemplified the institutional failure the Church Committee later documented.[^3] +When President Johnson sought an intelligence assessment of whether Israel had manufactured nuclear weapons, Helms provided the estimate (four warheads) and then obeyed Johnson's instruction that the finding be buried rather than formally reported. Johnson did not want intelligence conclusions that would require him to act on them politically. Helms's willingness to suppress an accurate intelligence product at presidential direction exemplified the institutional failure the Church Committee later documented.[^4] ### Iran, Retirement, and Memoirs @@ -77,5 +78,5 @@ He published his memoirs, *A Look Over My Shoulder: A Life in the Central Intell [^1]: Powers, Thomas. *The Man Who Kept the Secrets: Richard Helms and the CIA.* Knopf, 1979 (the essential biography, based on extensive interviews). Church Committee (Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities). Final Report, S. Rept. 94-755, April 26, 1976. [^2]: Church Committee. "Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders." Senate Report No. 94-465, 1975 (documents ZR/RIFLE and the failure to disclose to Warren Commission). Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis.* Little, Brown, 2017. -[^3]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy.* Random House, 1991. Chapters 11, 14, 16. -[^4]: John D. Marks, *The Search for the Manchurian Candidate*. Times Books, 1979, Chapters 1, 4, 12. \ No newline at end of file +[^3]: John D. Marks, *The Search for the Manchurian Candidate*. Times Books, 1979, Chapters 1, 4, 12. +[^4]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy.* Random House, 1991. Chapters 11, 14, 16. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Richard M. Helms.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Richard M. Helms.md deleted file mode 100644 index 5a684970..00000000 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Richard M. Helms.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,14 +0,0 @@ ---- -created: 2026-05-15 -updated: 2026-05-17 -title: Richard M. Helms -aliases: - - Richard M. Helms -tags: - - Person - - CIA -category: "Intelligence & Government" -summary: "Redirect page - see [[Richard Helms]] for full content." ---- - -See [[Richard Helms]]. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Robert Lashbrook.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Robert Lashbrook.md index bdba79e5..5ac64112 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Robert Lashbrook.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Robert Lashbrook.md @@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ Robert Lashbrook was [[Sidney Gottlieb]]'s deputy in the [[CIA]]'s [[TSS]] Chemi ### The Olson Case -After Olson's condition worsened, Lashbrook accompanied him and [[Vincent Ruwet]] to [[New York]] to see [[Harold Abramson]], the CIA-cleared allergist Gottlieb chose to treat Olson rather than following CIA regulations requiring notification of the Office of Security. Lashbrook thought a visit to [[John Mulholland]], a magician under TSS contract to develop ways of slipping drugs into drinks, might amuse Olson, but Olson became "highly suspicious." That night, Olson became upset during a performance of *Me and Juliet* and told Ruwet people were waiting outside the theater to arrest him. After Olson wandered the streets tearing up his money, Lashbrook and Ruwet found him in the hotel lobby at 5:30 A.M.[^1] +After Olson's condition worsened, Lashbrook accompanied him and [[Vincent Ruwet]] to [[New York]] to see [[Harold Abramson]], the CIA-cleared allergist Gottlieb chose to treat Olson rather than following CIA regulations requiring notification of the [[CIA Office of Security|Office of Security]]. Lashbrook thought a visit to [[John Mulholland]], a magician under TSS contract to develop ways of slipping drugs into drinks, might amuse Olson, but Olson became "highly suspicious." That night, Olson became upset during a performance of *Me and Juliet* and told Ruwet people were waiting outside the theater to arrest him. After Olson wandered the streets tearing up his money, Lashbrook and Ruwet found him in the hotel lobby at 5:30 A.M.[^1] ### The Death diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Robert Maheu.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Robert Maheu.md index f7e250bb..c4a1b696 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Robert Maheu.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Robert Maheu.md @@ -39,9 +39,9 @@ Before the Castro assassination operation, Maheu had conducted several sensitive ### CIA-Mafia Anti-Castro Operation -In August 1960, [[Sheffield Edwards]], the CIA's Director of Security, and his deputy James O'Connell briefed Maheu on the CIA's desire to recruit organized crime figures for an operation to assassinate Castro. Edwards and O'Connell's rationale for approaching Maheu was explicit: they needed someone with organized crime connections who could make an approach that would not be traceable to the CIA. +In August 1960, [[Sheffield Edwards]], the CIA's Director of Security, and his deputy [[James O'Connell]] briefed Maheu on the CIA's desire to recruit organized crime figures for an operation to assassinate Castro. Edwards and O'Connell's rationale for approaching Maheu was explicit: they needed someone with organized crime connections who could make an approach that would not be traceable to the CIA. -Maheu approached [[Johnny Roselli]], whom he had known through Las Vegas gambling circles, in September 1960. Roselli agreed to participate and arranged a meeting with [[Sam Giancana]] and [[Santos Trafficante, Jr.|Santo Trafficante Jr.]] Maheu handled the initial negotiations, communicating the CIA's operational requirements and providing the poison pills developed by the CIA's [[Technical Services Division]] for introduction into Castro's food or drink. +Maheu approached [[Johnny Roselli]], whom he had known through [[Las Vegas]] gambling circles, in September 1960. Roselli agreed to participate and arranged a meeting with [[Sam Giancana]] and [[Santos Trafficante, Jr.|Santo Trafficante Jr.]] Maheu handled the initial negotiations, communicating the CIA's operational requirements and providing the poison pills developed by the CIA's [[Technical Services Division]] for introduction into Castro's food or drink. Maheu's role was that of a first-stage intermediary. Once the CIA-organized crime relationship was established, [[William Harvey]] replaced him as the agency's primary handler, working directly with Roselli rather than through Maheu. Maheu retained awareness of the program and some ongoing relationship with its participants but was no longer the operational manager after 1961. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Roger Morris.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Roger Morris.md index de8bd01c..c3e4a5d7 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Roger Morris.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Roger Morris.md @@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ Morris wrote that Seal's "personal records showed him to be a contract CIA opera ### Danny Ray Lasater and Organized Crime -Morris wrote that "whatever the limits or extent of [[Danny Ray Lasater]]'s cocaine trafficking or the nature of his other dealings, most believed that beyond him the larger corruption in Little Rock and elsewhere pointed unmistakably to organized crime, not to mention the vast crimes of Mena - none of which would be pursued." Morris also described an investigation into Lasater that was shut down prematurely.[^1] +Morris wrote that "whatever the limits or extent of [[Danny Ray Lasater]]'s cocaine trafficking or the nature of his other dealings, most believed that beyond him the larger corruption in [[Little Rock, Arkansas|Little Rock]] and elsewhere pointed unmistakably to organized crime, not to mention the vast crimes of Mena - none of which would be pursued." Morris also described an investigation into Lasater that was shut down prematurely.[^1] ### Shredding of Mena Files diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Ron Lister.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Ron Lister.md deleted file mode 100644 index 39a635d8..00000000 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Ron Lister.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,23 +0,0 @@ ---- -category: "Iran-Contra" -tags: - - person - - nicaraguan - - contra-war -summary: Ron Lister was a former Laguna Beach police officer who became Danilo Blandón's partner in drug trafficking and weapons procurement, claiming high-level CIA connections. ---- -Ron Lister was a former [[Laguna Beach Police Department|Laguna Beach]] police officer who became [[Danilo Blandon|Danilo Blandón]]'s partner in drug trafficking and weapons procurement, claiming high-level [[Central Intelligence Agency]] connections. Lister's activities illustrated the overlap between law enforcement, the drug trade, and intelligence operations in [[California]] during the 1980s.[^1] - -### Drug Trafficking Partnership - -The Torres brothers told investigators that "Blandón is working with an ex-Laguna Beach police officer by the name of Ronnie, who lives in an expensive house in Mission Viejo and drives a new Mercedes automobile. Ronnie transported 100 kilos of [[cocaine]] to the Black market and has transported millions of dollars to [[Miami]] for Danilo Blandón." Lister operated Mundy Security Group Inc., incorporated in Laguna Beach in mid-1983, which provided cover for his weapons procurement activities. He arranged weapons sales presentations to Contra leaders, with attendees including Eden Pastora and other top [[Contras|Contra]] figures.[^2] - -### CIA Claims and Arrest - -When arrested, Lister told detectives: "I know why you're here, but why are you here? Mr. Weekly knows what I'm doing and you're not supposed to be here." Lister told Detective Juarez "that he had dealings in [[South America]] and worked with the CIA and added that his friends in Washington weren't going to like what was going on." He claimed his CIA contact was the former Deputy Director of Operations working at [[Fluor Corporation]]. After the arrest, a CIA cable marked "Immediate Director" reported that individuals claiming CIA affiliation had been detained. Nearly all seized evidence was returned to Lister and Blandón within days.[^3] - -### Footnotes - -[^1]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 9. -[^2]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 9, Ch. 8. -[^3]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 9. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Ronald Lister.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Ronald Lister.md index 8b713a41..c5a2d1ea 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Ronald Lister.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Ronald Lister.md @@ -1,11 +1,10 @@ --- title: Ronald Lister aliases: - - Ronald Lister - Ronald Jay Lister - Ron Lister created: 2026-05-17 -updated: 2026-05-17 +updated: 2026-09-21 category: "Intelligence & Government" tags: - Person @@ -16,8 +15,11 @@ tags: - 1980s - ContraWar - DarkAllianceInvestigation + - nicaraguan + - contra-war summary: "Former police officer who became Danilo Blandón's partner in cocaine trafficking and weapons dealing through Pyramid International Security Consultants, with suspected CIA connections." --- + Ronald Jay Lister was a former southern California police officer who became [[Danilo Blandon|Danilo Blandón]]'s partner in cocaine trafficking and weapons dealing during the 1980s, operating through his company [[Pyramid International Security Consultants]].[^1] Lister worked alongside Blandón for seven years and introduced a weapons and sophisticated electronics dimension to Blandón's drug ring that bore the hallmarks of [[Central Intelligence Agency|U.S. intelligence community]] involvement. The CIA has publicly denied any relationship with him. ### Law Enforcement Career @@ -106,8 +108,23 @@ On October 27, 1986, the [[LASD Major Violators]] raided Lister's former Mission Deputies found papers showing Lister had "regular meeting with DIA subcontractor Scott Weekly," handwritten weapons lists including antiaircraft weapons, 1,000 AR-15 rifles, and napalm bombs, and a list of names including William Nelson, Roberto D'Aubuisson, and Scott Weekly. Federal agents copied over 1,000 pages of seized documents, then nearly all copies disappeared. The CIA's Los Angeles office sent an "Immediate Director" cable asking for traces on Lister, Blandón, and Meneses. Lister denied the CIA claims, but Sergeant Art Fransen said Lister erupted in a "tirade": "You guys don't know what you are doing. I deal with the CIA. I got power!"[^3] +### Blandón + +Ron Lister was a former Laguna Beach police officer who became Danilo Blandón's partner in drug trafficking and weapons procurement, claiming high-level Central Intelligence Agency connections. Lister's activities illustrated the overlap between law enforcement, the drug trade, and intelligence operations in [[California]] during the 1980s.[^4] + +### Drug Trafficking Partnership + +The Torres brothers told investigators that "Blandón is working with an ex-Laguna Beach police officer by the name of Ronnie, who lives in an expensive house in Mission Viejo and drives a new Mercedes automobile. Ronnie transported 100 kilos of [[cocaine]] to the Black market and has transported millions of dollars to [[Miami]] for Danilo Blandón." Lister operated Mundy Security Group Inc., incorporated in Laguna Beach in mid-1983, which provided cover for his weapons procurement activities. He arranged weapons sales presentations to Contra leaders, with attendees including Eden Pastora and other top Contra figures.[^5] + +### CIA Claims and Arrest + +When arrested, Lister told detectives: "I know why you're here, but why are you here? Mr. Weekly knows what I'm doing and you're not supposed to be here." Lister told Detective Juarez "that he had dealings in [[South America]] and worked with the CIA and added that his friends in Washington weren't going to like what was going on." He claimed his CIA contact was the former Deputy Director of Operations working at Fluor Corporation. After the arrest, a CIA cable marked "Immediate Director" reported that individuals claiming CIA affiliation had been detained. Nearly all seized evidence was returned to Lister and Blandón within days.[^6] + ### Footnotes [^1]: 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" [^2]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 10: "Teach a man a craft and he's liable to practice it" [^3]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 18: "We bust our ass and the government's involved" +[^4]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 9. +[^5]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 9, Ch. 8. +[^6]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 9. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Ronni Moffitt.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Ronni Moffitt.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..09985ab5 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Ronni Moffitt.md @@ -0,0 +1,39 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +tags: + - Person + - RonniMoffitt + - InstituteForPolicyStudies + - OrlandoLetelier + - DINA + - OperationCondor + - SheridanCircle +alias: + - Ronni Karpen Moffitt +summary: "Institute for Policy Studies fundraiser, aged 25, killed with Orlando Letelier by DINA's car bomb in Washington on September 21, 1976, for whose death a Chilean judge convicted three DINA officers in June 2026." +died: 1976-09-21 +location: "Washington, D.C." +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Ronni Karpen Moffitt was the daughter of Murray and Hilda Karpen, who kept a delicatessen in [[Passaic, New Jersey]]. She taught, ran a "Music Carryout" program that lent instruments, and in 1976 had just been promoted to a fundraising post at the [[Institute for Policy Studies]] in Washington under [[Marcus Raskin]] and [[Richard Barnet]]. She was 25 and newly married to a colleague, [[Michael Moffitt]].[^1][^2] + +### Sheridan Circle + +On the morning of September 21, 1976, she rode to work in the front seat of [[Orlando Letelier]]'s car with her husband behind her. A bomb placed under the car by [[Michael Townley]] of [[DINA]], who had come to Washington with [[Virgilio Paz]] and [[Jose Dionisio Suarez]] of the [[Cuban Nationalist Movement]], went off at [[Sheridan Circle]]. A fragment cut her throat. Michael Moffitt testified in 1981: "There was a huge hole in the floor of the car with the part from the seat to the gas pedal missing. He was turned around facing the back of the car. His eyes were a little open, but not for very long. He was trying to mumble, trying to say something." His wife "was bleeding profusely from the mouth," and he did not see her alive again. The night before, he said, he and Letelier had talked of more security "simply because the Chileans have never hesitated to kill anyone who opposed the regime." When the agent [[Carter Cornick]] reached the scene, "Mike Moffitt was still there. He was in a daze, shouting DINA, DINA. I didn't know what DINA was."[^3][^4] + +Two months later [[Manuel Contreras]] offered the bureau's [[Robert Scherrer]] "confidential information" that she had been Letelier's lover and that her husband was the likeliest suspect.[^4] + +### Judgment + +The [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] later found "convincing evidence that President Pinochet personally ordered his intelligence chief to carry out the murder." [[Augusto Pinochet]] blocked the extradition of Contreras and [[Pedro Espinoza]]. In 1990 the administration of [[George H.W. Bush]] agreed to lift sanctions if the new civilian government prosecuted the two, who received seven and six years, served at [[Punta Peuco]], a prison built for them. In June 2011 a Chilean association of families filed complaints for more than a thousand victims whose deaths had not been tried, hers among them. On June 15, 2026, Judge [[Paola Plaza]] convicted Espinoza, [[Raúl Iturriaga Neumann|Raúl Iturriaga]], and [[José Zara]] of her killing and sentenced each to fifteen years. Zara had been released in August 2025 after fifteen years for the murder of [[Carlos Prats]] and was rearrested within a day.[^1] + +The institute has given the Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award since 1978. In 1989 it gave special recognition to Scherrer.[^2] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Kornbluh, Peter. "A Modicum of Justice for Ronni Karpen Moffitt," *The Nation,* September 2026. +[^2]: Institute for Policy Studies, "Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Awards," ips-dc.org; "Remembering Ronni," *OtherWords,* Institute for Policy Studies. +[^3]: "Michael Moffitt, who survived a car bomb that killed his wife," United Press International, May 13, 1981. +[^4]: Dinges, John, and Saul Landau. *Assassination on Embassy Row*. McGraw-Hill, 1980, pp. 211, 276-277. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Sanford McDonnell.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Sanford McDonnell.md index 06147879..1aca18b9 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Sanford McDonnell.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Sanford McDonnell.md @@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ location: "Little Rock, Arkansas" --- [[Sanford N. McDonnell]] (October 12, 1922 – March 19, 2012) was an American engineer, businessman, and philanthropist. He was a member of [[Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International|FGBMFI]] and was associated with [[McDonnell Douglas Corporation]].[^1] -Born in Little Rock, Arkansas,[^2] McDonnell attended [[Princeton University]], the [[University of Colorado Boulder]], and [[Washington University in St. Louis]], earning bachelor's degrees in economics (1945) and mechanical engineering (1948), and a master's degree in applied mechanics (1954).[^3] +Born in [[Little Rock, Arkansas]],[^2] McDonnell attended [[Princeton University]], the [[University of Colorado Boulder]], and [[Washington University in St. Louis]], earning bachelor's degrees in economics (1945) and mechanical engineering (1948), and a master's degree in applied mechanics (1954).[^3] In 1948, McDonnell joined [[McDonnell Aircraft Corporation]], a company founded by his uncle, [[James S. McDonnell]], as a stress engineer. He participated in the development of the F-101 Voodoo and the F-4 Phantom II jet fighters. In 1962, he was named vice president-general manager of all combat aircraft. He became the president of the company, by then [[McDonnell Douglas Corporation]], in 1971, and chief executive officer the following year. Upon the death of [[James S. McDonnell]] in 1980, Sanford McDonnell succeeded him as chairman of the board, a role he retained until 1988. He also served as chairman of the board of governors of the [[Aerospace Industries Association]].[^3] diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Thomas Karamessines.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Thomas Karamessines.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..62179296 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Thomas Karamessines.md @@ -0,0 +1,43 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +tags: + - Person + - ThomasKaramessines + - CIA + - DeputyDirectorForPlans + - ProjectFUBELT + - Chile + - Greece + - OSS +alias: + - Thomas H. Karamessines + - Tom Karamessines +summary: "OSS officer who helped organize Greece's intelligence service, ran the CIA's clandestine service from 1967 to 1973, and chaired the 1970 task force formed to keep Salvador Allende from office." +born: 1917 +died: 1978-09-04 +location: "Washington, D.C." +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Thomas Hercules Karamessines was the deputy director for plans of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]], the head of its clandestine service, from July 1967 to February 1973. He was born in [[New York City]], of Greek descent, graduated from [[Columbia University]] in 1938 and from its law school in 1940, and served under [[Thomas E. Dewey]] as a deputy assistant district attorney for New York County in 1941 and 1942.[^1] + +### Greece and Europe + +Commissioned in the field artillery, he was picked for the [[Office of Strategic Services]] and served in [[London]] and [[Cairo]]. "Because of his knowledge of the Greek language and [[Greece]]" he was sent to that country and stayed until 1947, returned briefly to civilian life, and rejoined federal intelligence work the same year, when the CIA was formed. "In the late 1940s, he was sent back to Greece to manage U.S. intelligence activities during the civil war there. He also helped organize the CIA's counterpart organization in Greece." He was afterward "chief of several stations in Europe."[^1] + +### The Clandestine Service + +Karamessines was assistant to [[Desmond FitzGerald]] and succeeded him on FitzGerald's death in July 1967, with [[Cord Meyer]] as his own assistant. In September 1970 he took the chair of the task force formed on President [[Richard Nixon]]'s order to keep [[Salvador Allende]] from office in [[Chile]], the operation known as [[Project FUBELT]]. On October 15 he briefed [[Henry A. Kissinger|Henry Kissinger]] and [[Alexander Haig]] on the plans of General [[Roberto Viaux]], and the cable of the next day to the [[Santiago]] station, "It is firm and continuing policy that Allende be overthrown by a coup," went out under his authority. On October 13, between 10:59 and 11:09 in the morning, he was in the [[Oval Office]] with Nixon and Kissinger. The "president went out of his way to impress all of those there with his conviction that it was absolutely essential that the election of Mr. Allende to the presidency be thwarted," he testified, and as they left "the president took [me] aside to reiterate the message." Senate investigators in 1975 were denied the president's logs, and the date of the meeting was established only later. He described the pressure from the [[White House]] as "constant, constant, just constant." He testified in 1975: "Track II never really ended. What we were told to do was to continue our efforts. Stay alert, and to do what we could to contribute to the eventual achievements and of the objectives and purposes of Track II. I am sure that the seeds that were laid in that effort in 1970 had their impact in 1973. I do not have any question about that in my mind."[^1][^2][^3] + +He retired in February 1973, the month in which Nixon replaced [[Richard Helms]] as director. His obituary called the retirement "voluntary and believed brought on, in part, by a severe back ailment." Kissinger said at the time: "He handled the most delicate missions with the utmost discretion." [[David Atlee Phillips]], who had run the Chile task force under him, said: "He was energetic, quiet and efficient and widely respected by those who worked for him."[^1] + +### After the Agency + +He sat on the board of the Central Intelligence Retirees Association and belonged to Phillips's [[Association of Former Intelligence Officers]]. In April 1978 he appeared before the [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]] to oppose its draft charter for the agency, calling the investigations of the preceding years "an inexcusable exercise in political sensationalism." He asked Congress for better cover for officers abroad, prison terms for the "unauthorized revelation or compromise" of the agency's secrets, and protection of its employees from all congressional committees but the two intelligence panels. He died of a heart attack at his vacation house at Grand Lake, [[Quebec]], on September 4, 1978, at sixty-one.[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Hailey, Jean R. "T. H. Karamessines, Ex-Chief of CIA Covert Work, Dies," *The Washington Post,* September 9, 1978, p. B4. https://archive.org/details/nsia-KaramessinesThomasHCIA +[^2]: Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders,* interim report, S. Rept. 94-465, November 20, 1975; Kornbluh, Peter, ed. "The CIA and Chile: Anatomy of an Assassination," National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 728, October 22, 2020. +[^3]: Kornbluh, Peter. *The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability*. New Press, 2003, pp. 14, 24-26, 114, and note 32 at p. 511. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Timothy Leary.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Timothy Leary.md index b8dc3def..fe267551 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Timothy Leary.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Timothy Leary.md @@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ Timothy Francis Leary (October 22, 1920 to May 31, 1996) was an American psychol ### From Personality Psychology to Harvard -Leary was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, the only child of a Catholic family, attended the College of the Holy Cross, was expelled from the United States Military Academy at West Point after a cheating-and-honor dispute, and finished his bachelor's degree at the University of Alabama. He took a doctorate in psychology at the [[University of California, Berkeley]], in 1950, and his early academic work was conventional and well regarded: he directed clinical research at the Kaiser Foundation Hospital in [[Oakland]] from 1954 to 1959 and published *The Interpersonal Diagnosis of Personality* (1957), whose circular model of personality, the "interpersonal circumplex," remained influential in clinical assessment and became the basis for personality-assessment tools later used by the CIA and the military. He joined the faculty of [[Harvard University]]'s Center for Research in Personality in 1959.[^1][^3][^11] +Leary was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, the only child of a Catholic family, attended the College of the Holy Cross, was expelled from the United States Military Academy at West Point after a cheating-and-honor dispute, and finished his bachelor's degree at the [[University of Alabama]]. He took a doctorate in psychology at the [[University of California, Berkeley]], in 1950, and his early academic work was conventional and well regarded: he directed clinical research at the Kaiser Foundation Hospital in [[Oakland]] from 1954 to 1959 and published *The Interpersonal Diagnosis of Personality* (1957), whose circular model of personality, the "interpersonal circumplex," remained influential in clinical assessment and became the basis for personality-assessment tools later used by the CIA and the military. He joined the faculty of [[Harvard University]]'s Center for Research in Personality in 1959.[^1][^3][^11] The turn came in the summer of 1960, when Leary ate psilocybin mushrooms in Cuernavaca, Mexico, an experience he later called more profound than anything in his prior training. Back at Harvard he and his colleague [[Richard Alpert]], later known as Ram Dass, founded a research program to study the psychological effects of psilocybin, which the Swiss firm [[Sandoz]] supplied in synthesized form.[^3][^4] diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Webb Hubbell.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Webb Hubbell.md deleted file mode 100644 index 0387d8a4..00000000 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Webb Hubbell.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,30 +0,0 @@ ---- -category: "Law Enforcement & Legal" -tags: - - Person - - Person/Politician - - Person/Law_Enforcement - - United_States - - Arkansas - - 1980s - - 1990s - - Dark_Alliance_Investigation -summary: Arkansas lawyer and associate attorney general under Clinton with connections to weapons manufacturing for the Contras and the Mena, Arkansas drug investigation. -born: 1948-01-18 -location: "Little Rock, Arkansas, USA" ---- -Webb Hubbell was a former Arkansas lawyer who served as associate attorney general in the Clinton administration and had connections to both the [[Mena, Arkansas]] drug trafficking investigation and weapons manufacturing for the [[Contras]].[^1] - -### Park On Meter Connection - -Hubbell was the former secretary and corporate lawyer of [[Park On Meter]] Inc., a small manufacturer of parking meters in Russellville, [[Arkansas]], and the brother-in-law of the company's owner. Former Air Force intelligence officer [[Terry Reed]] claimed that Park On Meter was secretly manufacturing parts for M-16 rifles as a subcontractor on a CIA weapons project to supply the Contras. Hubbell admitted to a *Time* magazine reporter that POM was also making rocket launchers.[^1] - -### Danny Casolaro Investigation - -In early 1994 Hubbell, as associate attorney general, ordered "a nationwide investigation" into the suspicious death of investigative reporter [[Danny Casolaro]], who had been investigating connections between the [[Cabazon Indian Reservation|Cabazon Indian tribe]], [[Wackenhut International]], and weapons manufacturing for the Contras. Hubbell's interest in the journalist's death may have been more than passing curiosity, given his own connections to a company making weapons parts for the Contras.[^1] - -Not long after ordering the investigation, Hubbell pleaded guilty to crimes he'd committed while an Arkansas lawyer and resigned from the Justice Department. What resulted from the Casolaro investigation, or even whether it ever went forward, has not been made public.[^1] - -### Footnotes - -[^1]: 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" diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Webster Hubbell.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Webster Hubbell.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..cd031357 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Webster Hubbell.md @@ -0,0 +1,55 @@ +--- +category: "Law Enforcement & Legal" +tags: + - Person + - WebsterHubbell + - RoseLawFirm + - DepartmentOfJustice + - LippoGroup + - JamesRiady + - BillClinton + - Whitewater + - DannyCasolaro + - MenaArkansas + - Contras +alias: + - Webb Hubbell + - Webster L. Hubbell +summary: "Rose Law Firm partner and associate attorney general who resigned in 1994 over his billings, was paid over 500,000 dollars by seventeen supporters of the president, among them the Lippo Group, and went to prison." +location: "Little Rock, Arkansas" +born: 1948-01-18 +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Webster L. Hubbell was a partner of [[Hillary Rodham Clinton]] and [[Vince Foster]] in the [[Rose Law Firm]] of [[Little Rock, Arkansas|Little Rock]] and became associate attorney general of the [[United States]] in the [[Department of Justice]] in January 1993.[^1] + +### Park On Meter + +Hubbell was the former secretary and corporate lawyer of [[Park On Meter]] Inc., a small manufacturer of parking meters in Russellville, [[Arkansas]], and the brother-in-law of the company's owner. Former Air Force intelligence officer [[Terry Reed]] claimed that Park On Meter was secretly manufacturing parts for M-16 rifles as a subcontractor on a CIA weapons project to supply the Contras. Hubbell admitted to a *Time* magazine reporter that POM was also making rocket launchers.[^2] + +### The Casolaro Inquiry + +In early 1994 Hubbell, as associate attorney general, ordered "a nationwide investigation" into the suspicious death of investigative reporter [[Danny Casolaro]], who had been investigating connections between the [[Cabazon Indian Reservation|Cabazon Indian tribe]], [[Wackenhut International]], and weapons manufacturing for the Contras.[^2] + +He resigned that March. What resulted from the Casolaro investigation, or even whether it ever went forward, has not been made public.[^2] + +### Resignation + +"Shortly after their former partner Webster L. Hubbell became Associate Attorney General," the independent counsel reported, "Rose Law Firm members in Little Rock found irregularities in Hubbell's billings for 1989-92." He announced his resignation on March 14, 1994. The day before, a meeting at the [[White House]] attended by the president, the first lady, and the chief of staff had discussed his difficulties. "Afterwards, one or more individuals suggested that efforts should be made to help Hubbell find work," and the chief of staff, [[Mack McLarty]], told Mrs. Clinton: "We're going to be supportive of Webb."[^1] + +### The Consulting Contracts + +McLarty and his staff director, William Burton, "telephoned Hubbell about once a week, telling him he still had friends in the White House." McLarty, [[Erskine Bowles]] of the [[Small Business Administration]], [[Truman Arnold]], and [[Vernon Jordan]] "made calls on Hubbell's behalf." "As a result, seventeen people and companies who were supporters of the President hired Hubbell to do consulting work, paying him in excess of $500,000 over a period of less than a year." He reported 376,075 dollars of it on his tax return for 1994 and paid no tax on it.[^1] + +One of the seventeen was the [[Lippo Group]]. On June 23, 1994, [[James Riady]] had breakfast with Hubbell at the [[Hay-Adams Hotel]], met President [[Bill Clinton|Clinton]] at ten with [[John Huang]], and had lunch with Hubbell. On June 27 Hubbell wrote to a director of [[Hong Kong China Limited]], a Lippo company, offering his services for 100,000 dollars a year, and the money was in his account by that day. "Both Riady and Hubbell refuse to describe what services, if any, Hubbell performed," a House committee reported. Lippo also paid for a trip to [[Jakarta]] and [[Bali]] for Hubbell and his wife. Before the committee Hubbell invoked the [[Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fifth Amendment]]. He wrote in his memoir: "it wasn't hush money."[^3] + +### Plea + +On December 6, 1994, he pleaded guilty in the federal court at Little Rock to one count of mail fraud and one of tax evasion, "admitting that he defrauded his former partners and clients out of at least $394,000." His lawyer later agreed that he had obtained 482,410 dollars and 83 cents. On June 28, 1995, Judge George Howard sentenced him to twenty-one months.[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Office of the Independent Counsel, *Final Report of the Independent Counsel In Re: Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan Association,* vol. 3, part C, "Webster L. Hubbell's Billing Practices and Tax Filings." https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON/pdf/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON-3-2.pdf +[^2]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998, chapter 6. +[^3]: House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, *Investigation of Political Fundraising Improprieties and Possible Violations of Law,* H. Rept. 105-829, 1998, vol. 2. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRPT-105hrpt829/html/CRPT-105hrpt829-vol2.htm ; Hubbell, Webster. *Friends in High Places*. William Morrow, 1997. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/William Harvey.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/William Harvey.md index 0c5e1ca4..b985ae55 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/William Harvey.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/William Harvey.md @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@ --- created: 2026-05-15 -updated: 2026-05-15 +updated: 2026-09-21 title: William Harvey aliases: - Bill Harvey diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/William Richard Higgins.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/William Richard Higgins.md index d688dea0..36b8c375 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/William Richard Higgins.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/William Richard Higgins.md @@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ location: "Danville, Kentucky, USA" --- William Richard Higgins was a [[U.S. Marine Corps|Marine]] Lieutenant Colonel who served as chief of the [[United Nations Military Observer Group Lebanon]]. On February 17, 1988, he was abducted in [[Lebanon]] after meeting with the [[Amal Militia]] in the coastal city of Tyre[^1]. -Higgins's abduction became an international incident, generating a crisis at the [[Pentagon]]. Prior to joining the UN team, he had served as a military aide to Secretary of Defense [[Caspar W. Weinberger]], giving him in-depth knowledge of classified military matters and making him a high-value hostage[^1]. +Higgins's abduction became an international incident, generating a crisis at the [[Pentagon]]. Prior to joining the UN team, he had served as a military aide to Secretary of Defense [[Caspar Weinberger|Caspar W. Weinberger]], giving him in-depth knowledge of classified military matters and making him a high-value hostage[^1]. It was feared that Higgins would be tortured to death by [[Hezbollah]] terrorists in their effort to extract classified information. The [[Defense Intelligence Agency|DIA]] believed his abduction had been carefully orchestrated by [[Imad Mughniyah]], the leader of Hezbollah's terrorist operations[^1]. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Brent Scowcroft.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Brent Scowcroft.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..c81baf69 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Brent Scowcroft.md @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +tags: + - Person + - BrentScowcroft + - KissingerAssociates + - NationalSecurityCouncil + - BNLScandal + - Iraq + - GeorgeHWBush +summary: "Vice chairman of Kissinger Associates, where he advised Banca Nazionale del Lavoro for fees, who as national security adviser kept agricultural credits flowing to Iraq in 1990 while his staff resisted measures singling Iraq out." +location: "Washington, D.C." +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Brent Scowcroft, a retired [[United States Air Force|Air Force]] lieutenant general, was vice chairman of [[Kissinger Associates]] until January 1989, when he became national security adviser to President [[George H.W. Bush]].[^1] + +### The Bank + +"BNL was a client of Mr. Scowcroft's while he was the vice-chairman of Kissinger Associates," Representative [[Henry B. Gonzalez]] told the House on April 28, 1992. "Mr. Scowcroft regularly provided advice to BNL's management and received hefty fees in return." At a meeting in [[New York City|New York]] in 1987 he, [[Henry A. Kissinger|Henry Kissinger]], [[Lawrence Eagleburger]], and [[Alan Stoga]] advised officers of the [[Banca Nazionale del Lavoro]], and he and Stoga took them to lunch. The special counsel [[Frederick Lacey]] found that the two men "came into contact with BNL management" and saw nothing to suggest they knew of the lending to [[Iraq]] by the bank's [[Atlanta]] branch.[^1][^2] + +### The White House + +[[Bryan Siebert]] of the [[United States Department of Energy|Energy Department]] "had been waging a lonely and unsuccessful battle to get [[James Baker]] and National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft to do something about the steady flow of U.S. exports that were materially assisting Iraq's nuclear weapons program." [[Matrix Churchill]] "was not discussed at the cabinet meeting, even though the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] had reported its activities to both the [[White House]] and the [[State Department]] in November 1989." Scowcroft's aides "objected to any measures 'that singled out Iraq.'" On May 18, 1990, he telephoned Secretary of Agriculture [[Clayton Yeutter]] and asked him "not to put out any press release today saying we are terminating the program" of [[Commodity Credit Corporation Iraq Program|credit guarantees]]. "We would be shooting ourselves in the foot," his staff said of cancelling the second 500 million dollars. Iraq invaded [[Kuwait]] on August 2.[^3] + +Lawyers of his staff under [[C. Nicholas Rostow|Nicholas Rostow]] met with those of other agencies to coordinate replies to congressional requests for documents on Iraq. Gonzalez called them "the Rostow gang." His investigator was told by Rostow that "it would be a cold day in hell before Congress got NSD 26."[^3] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Kissinger Associates, Scowcroft, Eagleburger, Stoga, Iraq, and BNL," *Congressional Record,* House, April 28, 1992, pp. H2694-H2701. +[^2]: Lacey, Frederick B. "The Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Investigation: Report of the Independent Counsel," reproduced in House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, Serial No. 103-95, pp. 514-15. +[^3]: Friedman, Alan. *Spider's Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq*. Bantam, 1993, pp. 153-156, 162, 192, 216, 221. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Bruce Solie.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Bruce Solie.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..20628331 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Bruce Solie.md @@ -0,0 +1,38 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +tags: + - Person + - BruceSolie + - CIA + - CIAOfficeOfSecurity + - YuriNosenko + - LeeHarveyOswald + - HSCA +alias: + - Bruce L. Solie +summary: "CIA Office of Security counterintelligence officer who took over the confined defector Yuri Nosenko in 1967, found him genuine in 1968, and told the House assassinations committee he had never tested Nosenko's account of Oswald." +location: "Langley, Virginia" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Bruce Solie testified in 1978: "I have been employed by CIA since August 1st, 1951. Throughout much of that time, I have been with the [[CIA Office of Security|Office of Security]]. During my career, I have been involved in counterintelligence matters for the Office of Security." He went to [[Geneva]] in June 1962, the year [[Yuri Nosenko]] of the [[KGB]] first contacted the agency.[^1] + +### Nosenko + +From August 13, 1965, to October 27, 1967, the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] held Nosenko in a cell built for the purpose. On the latter date he was transferred to the Office of Security, moved to a safehouse, "and was interviewed under friendly, sympathetic conditions by his Security Case Officer, Mr. Bruce Solie, for more than a year. It soon became apparent that Nosenko was bona fide." Solie wrote his report through 1968 and had Nosenko polygraphed that August by the Office of Security. Nosenko testified: "Mr. Bruce Solie talking with me every day for a period from the end of '67, the whole '68, 1968, '69, every conversation he was recording. But he never has come and showed his notes, transcriptions or anything. He was returning to every case, to every aspect by 20, 25, 30 times."[^1][^2][^3] + +### Testimony + +To the [[House Select Committee on Assassinations]] on June 1, 1978, Solie rejected the theory that Nosenko had been sent. "I concluded that he was under his own power when he contacted us in 1962. He did it without the knowledge of the KGB, and he went back to the Soviet Union. If he had been dispatched out, it would have been quite logical that there would have been contact with him in the Soviet Union." On Nosenko's statements about [[Lee Harvey Oswald]]: "The record reflects on 3 January 1968, I asked Nosenko to give me an account of everything he did in the Oswald investigation." Asked whether he had questioned Nosenko on what he wrote or compared it with other material, he said: "No, because I had no reason to disbelieve him." Asked whether he believed Nosenko had told the truth about Oswald: "Yes, I have no reason to disbelieve him."[^1] + +### Wackenhut + +On July 18, 1978, Solie certified that the committee's staff had reviewed the Office of Security's file on the [[Wackenhut Corporation]] "in conjunction with the HSCA's investigation into the deaths of President [[John F. Kennedy]] and Dr. [[Martin Luther King Jr.|Martin Luther King, Jr.]]"[^4] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: House Select Committee on Assassinations, security classified testimony of Bruce L. Solie, June 1, 1978, record 180-10110-10010. National Archives, JFK Assassination Records Collection, pp. 5-6, 59, 65-66. +[^2]: Central Intelligence Agency, "Family Jewels," memorandum of Howard J. Osborn, Director of Security, to the Executive Secretary, CIA Management Committee, May 16, 1973, with attachments, p. 00023. +[^3]: House Select Committee on Assassinations, security classified testimony of Yuri Nosenko, June 20, 1978. National Archives, JFK Assassination Records Collection, pp. 44, 110-111. +[^4]: Solie, Bruce L. Memorandum, July 18, 1978, JFK record 104-10130-10450. National Archives, JFK Assassination Records Collection. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Carlos Prats.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Carlos Prats.md index f4b90494..7c8ef5ca 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Carlos Prats.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Carlos Prats.md @@ -30,6 +30,10 @@ In June 1974 Pinochet met Colonel [[Manuel Contreras]], director of [[DINA]], an The DINA station chief in [[Argentina]], [[Enrique Arancibia Clavel]], had been told to have Argentine paramilitaries do the killing. When that did not advance, Contreras's deputy, Colonel [[Pedro Espinoza]], gave the job to [[Michael Townley]], an American recently recruited by the service, who arrived with his wife, [[Mariana Callejas]], on September 10. Townley fixed two cartridges of C4 under the general's Fiat 125 in the garage of his building on September 29 and detonated them by remote control from a car across the street when the couple came home just after midnight. The CIA's weekly terrorism summary repeated a police report that a bomb had been thrown at the car. Ambassador [[David Popper]] cabled from [[Santiago]] that a [[Radio Moscow]] report that DINA had killed Prats because the junta feared he would draw the loyalty of disaffected officers "makes no sense to us. Nor do we see significant interest in killing Prats of any other Chilean group with capacity of doing so."[^1] +Major [[Raúl Iturriaga Neumann|Raúl Iturriaga]] of DINA had gone to Buenos Aires in late July "with a bag of cash to hire assassins and to coordinate the operation with the Argentine service, [[Secretaría de Inteligencia del Estado|SIDE]]." Arancibia distributed 20,000 dollars. The men kept the money. "The Argentines didn't have the guts to kill them," Townley testified. He built the bomb "from a CB radio transmitter, primacord blasting caps, and what he called 'a tone device buzzer thing,'" hid his passport inside a pipe railing in the garage, slid under the car, and "tied the bomb to a bar supporting the transmission, almost exactly in the middle of the car." "The car turned, it came around, it slowed at the intersection and then sped on to enter the garage. All I could see was the back of the car." After the blast he heard Arancibia shout "Asi mueren los traidores." Of his reasons he said: "It was, I'll get jumped on for this, but it was a patriotic request, if you will, and I did it." Investigators noted "multiple phoned death threats to Prats; withdrawal of police from the street outside Prats's home; darkening of street lights near the Prats's apartment in the hours prior to the assassination."[^2] + +Chilean sources of DINA and its successor told [[Eugene Propper]] in 1981 "that President Pinochet approved the Prats murder in advance, at the instigation of Contreras." After the killing Contreras received Townley, pronounced "the operation in Buenos Aires a complete success," and said he "has earned the gratitude of all patriotic Chileans."[^3] + Weeks later a friend told the Prats daughters that the regime planned to "celebrate the coup" each September by eliminating a person it considered a threat. [[Bernardo Leighton]] was shot in [[Rome]] the following year and [[Orlando Letelier]] was killed in Washington on September 21, 1976.[^1] ### Prosecution @@ -39,3 +43,5 @@ In 1983 Sofía and Angélica Prats went to Washington with Argentine lawyers to ### Footnotes [^1]: Kornbluh, Peter, ed. "The Pinochet Regime at 50: The Assassination of General Carlos Prats and Sofía Cuthbert," National Security Archive, October 1, 2024, with CIA and DINA documents and the 1999 deposition of Michael Townley. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2024-10-01/pinochet-regime-50-assassination-general-carlos-prats-and-sofia +[^2]: Dinges, John. *The Condor Years: How Pinochet and His Allies Brought Terrorism to Three Continents*. New Press, 2004, pp. 63, 74-78. +[^3]: Branch, Taylor, and Eugene M. Propper. *Labyrinth*. Viking, 1982, pp. 67-69. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Clay Shaw.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Clay Shaw.md index 5be328e2..5521a38e 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Clay Shaw.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Clay Shaw.md @@ -11,13 +11,13 @@ tags: - CIA - 1960s category: "Historical Figure" -summary: "Clay Shaw was a prominent New Orleans businessman and founder of the International Trade Mart who was arrested by District Attorney Jim Garrison in 1967 on conspiracy charges related to the Kennedy assassination, acquitted in 1969, and posthumously confirmed by declassified documents to have been a CIA domestic contact - a fact CIA Director Richard Helms denied under oath at the trial." +summary: "New Orleans businessman and Trade Mart founder, arrested by Jim Garrison in 1967 for conspiracy in the Kennedy assassination and acquitted in 1969, who reported to the CIA's Domestic Contact Service from 1948 to 1956." born: 1913-03-17 died: 1974-08-14 location: "New Orleans, Louisiana" --- -Clay Lavergne Shaw (March 17, 1913 - August 14, 1974) was a prominent [[New Orleans, Louisiana|New Orleans]] businessman, civic figure, and founder of the International Trade Mart who became the only person ever tried for conspiracy in the assassination of President [[John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]]. [[District Attorney]] [[Jim Garrison]] arrested Shaw in March 1967; he was acquitted after a brief jury deliberation in March 1969. Documents declassified after his death confirmed that Shaw had served as a CIA domestic contact - a connection CIA Director [[Richard Helms]] denied under oath during the trial.[^1] +Clay Lavergne Shaw (March 17, 1913 - August 14, 1974) was a prominent [[New Orleans, Louisiana|New Orleans]] businessman, civic figure, and founder of the [[International Trade Mart]] who became the only person ever tried for conspiracy in the assassination of President [[John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]]. [[District Attorney]] [[Jim Garrison]] arrested Shaw in March 1967; he was acquitted after a brief jury deliberation in March 1969. Documents declassified after his death showed that Shaw had reported to the CIA's domestic contact office from 1948 to 1956.[^1] ### Background @@ -29,21 +29,22 @@ Shaw's personal life was private; he was gay in an era when homosexuality was cr ### CIA Connection -The central factual question that emerged after Shaw's acquittal and death was his relationship to the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]. Shaw denied any CIA connection during the trial. CIA Director Helms testified under oath that Shaw had no relationship with the agency. +Shaw was a source of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]'s [[Domestic Contact Service]], the office that interviewed Americans returning from abroad. His first report, in December 1948, concerned trade with [[Czechoslovakia]] through the Trade Mart. He reported "on 33 separate occasions" through 1956, on matters such as a Peruvian devaluation, a highway in [[Nicaragua]], and European trade with the Soviet bloc, and was not paid. The service's contact division closed the case on June 4, 1956, and he was never passed to the clandestine directorate. On March 3, 1967, two days after his arrest, the chief of the service's [[New Orleans]] office, [[Lloyd Ray]], cabled headquarters recommending that the general counsel be briefed "to be on the safe side."[^2] -Documents released by the [[Assassination Records Review Board|JFK Records Act]] declassification process in the 1990s confirmed that Shaw had been registered as a CIA domestic contact under the name "Clay Bertrand" - a name that appeared in Garrison's investigation from an early stage. Shaw had used the alias "Clay Bertrand" in the New Orleans gay community, and Garrison's investigation had connected "Bertrand" to the anti-Castro network. +Director Richard Helms formed a committee of six senior officers, the [[Garrison Group]], which first met on September 20, 1967. The general counsel, [[Lawrence Houston]], wrote on October 2 that if Shaw were to "be convicted on information that could be refuted by CIA," then "we may be in for some difficult decisions." That September Shaw's lawyers, [[Edward Wegmann]] and his colleagues, had asked the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]] for guidance on Garrison's claims about the agency and were refused, and the department learned that Shaw had not told them of his reporting. At the trial his lawyer [[Irvin Dymond]] asked whether he had ever worked for the agency. "No, I have not," Shaw answered.[^2] -The CIA's use of "Clay Bertrand" as Shaw's contact name and Helms's denial under oath that Shaw had any CIA connection represented, at minimum, perjury by Helms and concealment by the agency of a relevant relationship during a criminal trial. Whether Shaw's CIA contact role had any connection to Kennedy's assassination remained unproven.[^1] +Garrison and later writers held that "Clay Bertrand," the name given by the lawyer [[Dean Andrews]] for the man who asked him to represent [[Lee Harvey Oswald]], was an alias of Shaw's. Shaw denied it.[^1] ### Trial -Garrison announced Shaw's arrest on March 1, 1967. The charges were based primarily on the testimony of [[Perry Russo]], who claimed to have attended a meeting at which Shaw (identified as "Clay Bertrand"), [[David Ferrie]], and [[Lee Harvey Oswald]] discussed killing Kennedy. Russo's testimony was obtained in part through hypnosis, which the defense successfully challenged as potentially shaping the witness's recollections. +Garrison announced Shaw's arrest on March 1, 1967. The charges were based primarily on the testimony of [[Perry Russo]], who claimed to have attended a meeting at which Shaw (identified as "Clay Bertrand"), [[David Ferrie]], and Lee Harvey Oswald discussed killing Kennedy. Russo's testimony was obtained in part through hypnosis, which the defense successfully challenged as potentially shaping the witness's recollections. The trial lasted approximately five weeks in January-February 1969. The defense presented evidence of Shaw's respected civic record and attacked Garrison's witnesses. The jury deliberated for less than an hour before acquitting Shaw. -Shaw subsequently filed a civil malicious prosecution suit against Garrison. He was in the early stages of this litigation when he died of lung cancer on August 14, 1974, at age sixty-one.[^2] +Shaw subsequently filed a civil malicious prosecution suit against Garrison. He was in the early stages of this litigation when he died of lung cancer on August 14, 1974, at age sixty-one.[^3] ### Footnotes [^1]: Garrison, Jim. *On the Trail of the Assassins.* Sheridan Square Press, 1988. DiEugenio, James. *Destiny Betrayed: JFK, Cuba, and the Garrison Case.* Sheridan Square Press, 1992. -[^2]: Davy, William. *Let Justice Be Done: New Light on the Jim Garrison Investigation.* Jordan Publishing, 1999. Melanson, Philip H. *Spy Saga: Lee Harvey Oswald and U.S. Intelligence.* Praeger, 1990. \ No newline at end of file +[^2]: Holland, Max. "The Lie That Linked CIA to the Kennedy Assassination," *Studies in Intelligence,* vol. 45, no. 5, 2001, citing the Russell Holmes Papers and the HSCA Segregated CIA Collection, National Archives. https://www.cia.gov/resources/csi/static/Lie-That-Linked-CIA.pdf +[^3]: Davy, William. *Let Justice Be Done: New Light on the Jim Garrison Investigation.* Jordan Publishing, 1999. Melanson, Philip H. *Spy Saga: Lee Harvey Oswald and U.S. Intelligence.* Praeger, 1990. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Conrado Pappalardo.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Conrado Pappalardo.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..c1f838af --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Conrado Pappalardo.md @@ -0,0 +1,40 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +tags: + - Person + - ConradoPappalardo + - Paraguay + - AlfredoStroessner + - OperationCondor + - OrlandoLetelier + - VernonWalters +summary: "Chief of protocol and fixer to Alfredo Stroessner who in July 1976 pressed the American ambassador for visas on Paraguayan passports for two DINA agents, saying they would report to Vernon Walters of the CIA." +location: "Asunción, Paraguay" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Conrado Pappalardo was chief of protocol to President [[Alfredo Stroessner]] of [[Paraguay]], "the President's all-purpose fixer, factotum, and chief of protocol."[^1] + +### Walters in Asunción + +In June 1976 General [[Vernon Walters]], deputy director of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]], flew to [[Asunción]]. The agency's station chief had deceived Ambassador [[George Landau]], who had then denied to the Paraguayan government that a certain Paraguayan was a CIA agent and been proved wrong. The agent had been arrested, accused of a plot against Stroessner, and tortured. Walters came to remove the station chief and to persuade the Paraguayans not to kill the agent. Pappalardo received him and arranged his interviews, including one with Stroessner. "At the general's airport farewell, he and Pappalardo exchanged private phone numbers and parted with vigorous abrazos." The agent was still in prison when Walters left in the last week of June.[^1][^2] + +### The Passports + +The next month Pappalardo told Landau that President [[Augusto Pinochet]] of [[Chile]] had asked Stroessner for Paraguayan passports for two officers of [[DINA]], "Captain Juan Williams and First Lieutenant Alejandro Romeral," that "the Chilean mission had been arranged in [[Santiago]] with the CIA and that the two men were to contact General Walters on arrival in Washington." Their stated errand was to investigate companies dealing in Chilean minerals. Stroessner, he said, could not bring himself to refuse Pinochet a favor. Landau gave way "only after repeated phone calls and face-to-face cajoling." He wondered: "Does Pappalardo have some sort of private arrangement worked out with General Walters?" He had the passports photographed page by page and sent the photographs to Walters, and he told Walters that the request appeared to be "the quid pro quo that Paraguay was demanding in exchange for sparing the CIA agent's life." Juan Williams was [[Michael Townley]] and Romeral was [[Armando Fernandez Larios|Armando Fernández Larios]].[^1][^2][^3] + +Walters replied on August 4 that he "had not made any arrangements with Pappalardo." Assistant Secretary of State [[Harry Shlaudeman]] cabled Landau: "If there is still time, and if there is a possibility of turning off this harebrained scheme, you are authorized to go back through Pappalardo to urge that the Chileans be persuaded not, repeat, not to travel." "Over the next few weeks, Landau called Pappalardo ten times, until finally in mid-September the unused passports were delivered." [[Orlando Letelier]] was killed in Washington on September 21.[^2][^4] + +Pappalardo told Landau that the request had come in a telephone call from Pinochet to Stroessner. American investigators later obtained the telegram in which "Condor One," [[Manuel Contreras]], asked for Paraguayan cooperation, and "concluded, after interviewing Pappalardo, that no such call was made."[^4] + +### Pastor Coronel + +The Americans "knew that Stroessner was the only one powerful enough to throttle" the chief of detectives, [[Pastor Coronel]], "and that the way to reach Stroessner was through Pappalardo. Accordingly, Pappalardo kept hearing that the chief of detectives had gone too far and was an affront to the dignity of Paraguay."[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Branch, Taylor, and Eugene M. Propper. *Labyrinth*. Viking, 1982, pp. 1-8. +[^2]: Dinges, John, and Saul Landau. *Assassination on Embassy Row*. McGraw-Hill, 1980, pp. 309-311. +[^3]: Kornbluh, Peter. *The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability*. New Press, 2003, p. 343. +[^4]: Dinges, John. *The Condor Years: How Pinochet and His Allies Brought Terrorism to Three Continents*. New Press, 2004, pp. 180, 298-299. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Dagoberto Nunez.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Dagoberto Nunez.md index 7cf9a1d0..03ac8c50 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Dagoberto Nunez.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Dagoberto Nunez.md @@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ Dagoberto Nuñez was a Cuban [[Bay of Pigs|Bay of Pigs]] veteran and [[Central ### CIA and NSC Connections -Nuñez obtained a contract with H&M Corp. to cover an intelligence-gathering operation aimed at Nicaraguan president [[Daniel Ortega]]. According to a 1986 memo from CIA operative [[Rob Owen]] to North, Nuñez was preparing to sign an agreement for shrimping rights off the Pacific Coast of [[Nicaragua]]. "Nuñez is doing this so he can help us. He will cooperate and do anything we ask," Owen told North. When questioned about his activities, Nuñez revealed that since 1985 he had engaged in a clandestine relationship with the [[National Security Council]], but refused to elaborate on his involvement in narcotics trafficking because of the specific tasks he had performed at the NSC's direction. CIA headquarters ordered an immediate halt to his questioning.[^2] +Nuñez obtained a contract with H&M Corp. to cover an intelligence-gathering operation aimed at Nicaraguan president [[Daniel Ortega]]. According to a 1986 memo from CIA operative [[Robert Owen|Rob Owen]] to North, Nuñez was preparing to sign an agreement for shrimping rights off the Pacific Coast of [[Nicaragua]]. "Nuñez is doing this so he can help us. He will cooperate and do anything we ask," Owen told North. When questioned about his activities, Nuñez revealed that since 1985 he had engaged in a clandestine relationship with the [[National Security Council]], but refused to elaborate on his involvement in narcotics trafficking because of the specific tasks he had performed at the NSC's direction. CIA headquarters ordered an immediate halt to his questioning.[^2] ### Drug Trafficking Connections diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/David Atlee Phillips.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/David Atlee Phillips.md index a2e839d5..31f28d32 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/David Atlee Phillips.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/David Atlee Phillips.md @@ -52,6 +52,8 @@ On October 18 the station asked for "three .45 calibre machine guns (grease guns As head of the task force Phillips cabled the station on September 21, 1970, that "the first and fundamental task is to induce Frei to take action which will produce desired results," and on October 7 instructed the station chief, Henry Hecksher, who had argued against a coup, that his cables "should not contain analysis and argumentation but simply report on action taken." After Schneider was shot he and Broe cabled that if the agency's part were exposed "absolute denial will be the order of the day even with Ambassador and other embassy colleagues." He returned to Chilean operations as chief of the Western Hemisphere Division in June 1973. On September 11, as the coup was under way, he sent Kissinger a memorandum reporting that an officer of the group planning it had asked "if the U.S. government would come to the aid of the Chilean military if the situation became difficult." On October 3 he cabled Santiago that "Agency operational activities in Chile are now prime target for Congressional investigations" and that the agency "cannot assist Junta." He also described the financing of a "small network" of media outlets "instrumental in mounting a propaganda campaign to popularize the Junta's programs."[^6] +Phillips gave his own account in 1977. "Early on the morning of October 22 a cable flashed into Langley from Santiago. General Rene Schneider, Allende's military chief and a strict constitutionalist, had been killed. I immediately assumed that CIA was involved somehow with the assassination, because the Santiago station had passed three machine guns the night before to a cabal of military officers who considered Schneider the principal stumbling block." When later reports said the killers had carried handguns and belonged to a group the agency had contacted and then dropped, he wrote: "Thank God, I said to myself, for at least that small favor." He went with Karamessines to tell Helms "that it was all over." He added: "when CIA backed a foreign group plotting against an incumbent regime, as in the case of the Dominican Republic when Trujillo was killed, or in Chile when General Schneider died, it was not always possible to put limits or on and off buttons on the cabal being dealt with."[^7] + ### The Maurice Bishop Controversy Antonio Veciana founded Alpha 66, an aggressive anti-Castro exile organization, in 1962 at the direction of a CIA case officer he knew only as "Maurice Bishop." Veciana met with Bishop more than 100 times over approximately 13 years, from mid-1960 through mid-1973, at the conclusion of which Bishop paid Veciana $253,000 in cash. Bishop had directed Alpha 66's provocative attacks on Soviet ships in Cuban ports in 1963 - attacks Veciana understood were designed to prevent any diplomatic accommodation between Kennedy and the [[Soviet Union]]. @@ -73,9 +75,9 @@ HSCA chief counsel Robert Blakey stated the committee was "less than satisfied w Phillips retired from the CIA in 1975 as head of the Western Hemisphere Division at GS-18 rank, the highest CIA position not requiring executive appointment. That year he founded the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO), which became a platform for publicly defending the CIA against the reform pressures generated by the [[Church Committee]] investigations. ### The Libel Suits -The writers [[Donald Freed]] and [[Fred Landis]], authors of *Death in Washington*, on the murder of [[Orlando Letelier]], held a press conference in Washington in 1980 with the journalist [[John Cummings]]. They alleged that Phillips and the [[Association of Former Intelligence Officers]] had been involved in the killing, and that Phillips had been Lee Harvey Oswald's case officer under the name Maurice Bishop. Phillips sued them, the publisher [[Lawrence Hill]], and [[William Pepper]] in the federal court in Washington (Civil Actions 81-1407 and 81-2578), asking more than 90 million dollars. The litigation was paid for in part by [[Challenge, Inc.]], "An Intelligence Officers' Legal Action Fund," which also supported the libel suit brought by three former embassy officials in Santiago against the makers of the film [[Missing (film)|Missing]], on the death of [[Charles Horman]].[^7] +The writers [[Donald Freed]] and [[Fred Landis]], authors of *Death in Washington*, on the murder of [[Orlando Letelier]], held a press conference in Washington in 1980 with the journalist [[John Cummings]]. They alleged that Phillips and the [[Association of Former Intelligence Officers]] had been involved in the killing, and that Phillips had been Lee Harvey Oswald's case officer under the name Maurice Bishop. Phillips sued them, the publisher [[Lawrence Hill]], and [[William Pepper]] in the federal court in Washington (Civil Actions 81-1407 and 81-2578), asking more than 90 million dollars. The litigation was paid for in part by [[Challenge, Inc.]], "An Intelligence Officers' Legal Action Fund," which also supported the libel suit brought by three former embassy officials in Santiago against the makers of the film [[Missing (film)|Missing]], on the death of [[Charles Horman]].[^8] -After almost five years four of the five defendants settled in February 1986 for an undisclosed sum. Pepper could not be found. The retraction filed with the court said the authors and publisher "had no intention of charging or suggesting that Mr. Phillips played any role in the assassination of Orlando Letelier, that he was an accessory before or after the fact of that murder, or that he had any connection with Lee Harvey Oswald." Phillips said: "I certainly am satisfied because I believe it is a vindication." Of his former employer he said: "I have a feeling that the reaction of the CIA to former agents who file lawsuits is that they consider them something, perhaps, a cut above a gun smuggler or a narcotics smuggler." At the same press conference he said he had examined photocopies of papers from Letelier's briefcase showing that Letelier "had been cooperating with the [[Dirección General de Inteligencia|Cuban DGI]] intelligence service." "They existed," he said, though the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] "has claimed none exist."[^7] +After almost five years four of the five defendants settled in February 1986 for an undisclosed sum. Pepper could not be found. The retraction filed with the court said the authors and publisher "had no intention of charging or suggesting that Mr. Phillips played any role in the assassination of Orlando Letelier, that he was an accessory before or after the fact of that murder, or that he had any connection with Lee Harvey Oswald." Phillips said: "I certainly am satisfied because I believe it is a vindication." Of his former employer he said: "I have a feeling that the reaction of the CIA to former agents who file lawsuits is that they consider them something, perhaps, a cut above a gun smuggler or a narcotics smuggler." At the same press conference he said he had examined photocopies of papers from Letelier's briefcase showing that Letelier "had been cooperating with the [[Dirección General de Inteligencia|Cuban DGI]] intelligence service." "They existed," he said, though the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] "has claimed none exist."[^8] ### Later Statements and Death @@ -95,4 +97,5 @@ In his 2017 memoir *Trained to Kill* (co-written with journalist Carlos Harrison [^4]: Central Intelligence Agency, cable to Santiago station, October 16, 1970, Secret, Eyes Only. National Security Archive document 23596. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/media/23596/ocr [^5]: Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders,* S. Rept. 94-465, 1975, and staff report, *Covert Action in Chile, 1963-1973,* 1975. [^6]: Kornbluh, Peter. *The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability*. New Press, 2003, pp. 13, 31, 107, 112, 206-207, and note 14 at p. 510. -[^7]: Challenge, Inc., press release, February 14, 1986, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP90-00806R000100200056-7; Bruske, Ed. "Libel Suit Settled," *The Washington Post,* February 17, 1986, CIA-RDP91-00587R000200890014-0; "CIA agent winner in Letelier case," *The Washington Times,* February 1986, CIA-RDP90-00552R000403680003-9. +[^7]: Phillips, David Atlee. *The Night Watch: 25 Years of Peculiar Service*. Atheneum, 1977, pp. 223, 272. +[^8]: Challenge, Inc., press release, February 14, 1986, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP90-00806R000100200056-7; Bruske, Ed. "Libel Suit Settled," *The Washington Post,* February 17, 1986, CIA-RDP91-00587R000200890014-0; "CIA agent winner in Letelier case," *The Washington Times,* February 1986, CIA-RDP90-00552R000403680003-9. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Dean Rusk.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Dean Rusk.md index a5d75eca..8e7cbfc7 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Dean Rusk.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Dean Rusk.md @@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ created: 2026-06-12 updated: 2026-06-12 --- -David Dean Rusk (1909-1994) was [[Secretary of State]] under Presidents [[John F. Kennedy]] and [[Lyndon Johnson|Lyndon B. Johnson]] from 1961 to 1969, and before that the president of the [[Rockefeller Foundation]] for most of the 1950s. His career embodied the revolving door between the Foundation's board and the upper reaches of US foreign policy, and as Secretary of State he handled the diplomacy of the Cold War interventions that run through the Rockefeller network's history in [[Latin America]], including the 1964 overthrow of Brazil's [[Joao Goulart]] and the 1967 hunt for [[Che Guevara]] in Bolivia.[^1] +David Dean Rusk (1909-1994) was [[Secretary of State]] under Presidents [[John F. Kennedy]] and [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] from 1961 to 1969, and before that the president of the [[Rockefeller Foundation]] for most of the 1950s. His career embodied the revolving door between the Foundation's board and the upper reaches of US foreign policy, and as Secretary of State he handled the diplomacy of the Cold War interventions that run through the Rockefeller network's history in [[Latin America]], including the 1964 overthrow of Brazil's [[Joao Goulart]] and the 1967 hunt for [[Che Guevara]] in Bolivia.[^1] ### Rockefeller Foundation Years diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Donald Regan.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Donald Regan.md index 2bb92ce5..199789ff 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Donald Regan.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Donald Regan.md @@ -4,18 +4,33 @@ tags: - Person - BCCI - CIA -summary: "Donald Regan served as the Treasury Secretary during the Reagan Administration." + - RemoteViewer +summary: "Regan stated that 'Virtually every major move and decision the Reagans made during my time as White House chief of staff was cleared by a woman in San Francisco who drew up horoscopes to make certain that the planets were in favorable alignment for the enterprise.' This revelation was confirmed by W" +born: 1918-12-21 +died: 2003-06-10 +location: "Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA" +alias: + - Donald T. Regan --- -Donald Regan served as the [[Treasury Department|Treasury Secretary]] during the [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan Administration]].[^1] +Donald T. Regan (1918-2003) was an American government official who served as the [[White House]] Chief of Staff under President [[Ronald Reagan]]. In May 1988, Regan revealed in his memoir that President Reagan had sought the advice of a private astrologer during his tenure at the White House[^1]. + +Regan stated that "Virtually every major move and decision the Reagans made during my time as White House chief of staff was cleared by a woman in San Francisco who drew up horoscopes to make certain that the planets were in favorable alignment for the enterprise." This revelation was confirmed by White House press secretary [[Marlin Fitzwater]], who stated that President Reagan and his wife, Nancy, were both deeply interested in astrology[^1]. + +The astrologer in question was [[Joan Quigley]]. Regan's disclosure brought the association of divination with national security into the news, sparking public interest and debate[^1]. + +### Treasury + +Donald Regan served as the [[Treasury Department|Treasury Secretary]] during the Reagan Administration.[^2] ### Role in BCCI Scandal -In January 1985, Regan received a [[Central Intelligence Agency]] report on the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]]'s secret ownership of [[First American Bank]] through [[Douglas Mulholland]], the intelligence liaison at the Treasury Department.[^2] Despite receiving this information, Regan did not take action.[^3] +In January 1985, Regan received a [[Central Intelligence Agency]] report on the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]]'s secret ownership of [[First American Bank]] through [[Douglas Mulholland]], the intelligence liaison at the Treasury Department.[^3] Despite receiving this information, Regan did not take action.[^4] -Regan later refused to be interviewed by [[Jonathan Beaty]] in early 1992, stating that his memory about the BCCI affair was not good.[^2] +Regan later refused to be interviewed by [[Jonathan Beaty]] in early 1992, stating that his memory about the BCCI affair was not good.[^3] ### Footnotes -[^1]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 12. -[^2]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 364-366. -[^3]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 388. +[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017. +[^2]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 12. +[^3]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 364-366. +[^4]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 388. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Donald T. Regan.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Donald T. Regan.md deleted file mode 100644 index 1fc95a84..00000000 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Donald T. Regan.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,20 +0,0 @@ ---- -aliases: -- Donald T. Regan -category: "Psychics & Remote Viewers" -tags: - - Person - - RemoteViewer -summary: "Regan stated that 'Virtually every major move and decision the Reagans made during my time as White House chief of staff was cleared by a woman in San Francisco who drew up horoscopes to make certain that the planets were in favorable alignment for the enterprise.' This revelation was confirmed by W" -born: 1918-12-21 -died: 2003-06-10 -location: "Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA" ---- -Donald T. Regan (1918–2003) was an American government official who served as the [[White House]] Chief of Staff under President [[Ronald Reagan]]. In May 1988, Regan revealed in his memoir that President Reagan had sought the advice of a private astrologer during his tenure at the White House[^1]. - -Regan stated that "Virtually every major move and decision the Reagans made during my time as White House chief of staff was cleared by a woman in San Francisco who drew up horoscopes to make certain that the planets were in favorable alignment for the enterprise." This revelation was confirmed by White House press secretary [[Marlin Fitzwater]], who stated that President Reagan and his wife, Nancy, were both deeply interested in astrology[^1]. - -The astrologer in question was [[Joan Quigley]]. Regan's disclosure brought the association of divination with national security into the news, sparking public interest and debate[^1]. - -### Footnotes -[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Dylann Roof.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Dylann Roof.md index c36846c5..219451e1 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Dylann Roof.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Dylann Roof.md @@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ summary: "Dylann Roof killed nine Black parishioners at Emanuel AME Church in Ch ### The Charleston Attack -On June 17, 2015, Roof drove to Emanuel AME Church, one of the oldest and most historically prominent Black churches in the American South, and joined the mid-week Bible study group. After approximately an hour, he opened fire. The nine people killed were [[Clementa C. Pinckney]] (the church's senior pastor and a South Carolina state senator), [[Cynthia Marie Graham Hurd]], [[Susie Jackson]], [[Ethel Lee Lance]], [[Depayne Middleton Doctor]], [[Tywanza Sanders]], [[Daniel Simmons]], [[Sharonda Coleman-Singleton]], and [[Myra Thompson]]. +On June 17, 2015, Roof drove to Emanuel AME Church, one of the oldest and most historically prominent Black churches in the American South, and joined the mid-week Bible study group. After approximately an hour, he opened fire. The nine people killed were [[Clementa C. Pinckney]] (the church's senior pastor and a [[South Carolina]] state senator), [[Cynthia Marie Graham Hurd]], [[Susie Jackson]], [[Ethel Lee Lance]], [[Depayne Middleton Doctor]], [[Tywanza Sanders]], [[Daniel Simmons]], [[Sharonda Coleman-Singleton]], and [[Myra Thompson]]. Roof stated to several survivors that he intended to start a race war and that Black people "were taking over the country." He allowed some individuals to survive the shooting explicitly so they could describe what happened. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Eugene Propper.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Eugene Propper.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..87f8bed9 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Eugene Propper.md @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ +--- +category: "Law Enforcement & Legal" +tags: + - Person + - EugenePropper + - OrlandoLetelier + - DepartmentOfJustice + - DINA + - MichaelTownley + - PrivateSecurity +alias: + - Eugene M. Propper +summary: "Federal prosecutor of the Letelier murder, from whom the CIA withheld its 1976 knowledge of the Chilean agents' passports, and who in 1988 formed a counterterrorism consultancy with the FBI men from the case." +location: "Washington, D.C." +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Eugene M. Propper was the assistant [[United States Attorney]] in Washington assigned in September 1976 to the murder of [[Orlando Letelier]] and [[Ronni Moffitt]]. His deputy was [[E. Lawrence Barcella]], and the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] agents were [[Carter Cornick|C. Carter Cornick]] in Washington and [[Robert Scherrer]], the bureau's representative in [[Buenos Aires]].[^1] + +### The Investigation + +The [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] began sending him classified files, most of them on Chilean leftists. It "withheld from Propper the information that Deputy Director [[Vernon Walters]], a few weeks before the assassination, had learned about a covert mission to Washington by two Chilean intelligence officers using the names Juan Williams and [[Armando Fernandez Larios|Alejandro Romeral]]," the subject of Ambassador [[George Landau]]'s cable from [[Paraguay]], which Director [[George H.W. Bush|George Bush]] "had personally handled." A source with personal knowledge said that Bush, meeting Propper, "made no mention of the mysterious Chilean agents or of his discussions with Walters." On October 21, 1976, Propper sat beside Attorney General [[Edward Levi]] when Letelier's widow and her lawyer asked that the CIA be subpoenaed, which Levi declined. The photographs from the Paraguayan passports, which the [[Department of State|State Department]] had given him in the fall of 1976, were first shown to a witness on July 12, 1977, and identified [[Michael Townley]]. Propper obtained Townley's expulsion from [[Chile]] in April 1978 and his guilty plea that August.[^2] + +### Afterward + +With the journalist [[Taylor Branch]] he wrote *Labyrinth* (1982), an account of the case. By 1988 he was with the Washington law firm of Lane and Edson and a partner, without title, in [[Counter Terrorism Consultants, Inc.]], formed with Cornick, Scherrer, who had "recently retired from the FBI as its records chief," and Barcella. The firm offered governments, airlines, shipping companies, and the sponsors of events such as the Olympic Games "pro-active" plans against attack, the management of kidnappings and hijackings, "in-depth intelligence files," and "liaison programs with national and international law enforcement and intelligence agencies."[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: "A group of top former FBI agents and federal prosecutors," United Press International, August 2, 1988. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1988/08/02/A-group-of-top-former-FBI-agents-and-federal/9684730900658/ +[^2]: Dinges, John, and Saul Landau. *Assassination on Embassy Row*. McGraw-Hill, 1980, pp. 242-243, 252, 297, 309-311. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/George K. Pender.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/George K. Pender.md index f1468a3e..e6ff362f 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/George K. Pender.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/George K. Pender.md @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ tags: - Politician summary: "Pender played a significant role in FIDCO's activities in Lebanon." --- -[[George K. Pender]] was a Director of [[First Intercontinental Development Corporation|FIDCO]] and a former Director of the Pacific Ocean area for Burns & Roe, Inc., an international engineering and construction corporation. He also served as a Senior Engineer Consultant to Burns & Roe, Inc.[^1] +[[George K. Pender]] was a Director of [[First Intercontinental Development Corporation|FIDCO]] and a former Director of the [[Pacific Ocean]] area for Burns & Roe, Inc., an international engineering and construction corporation. He also served as a Senior Engineer Consultant to Burns & Roe, Inc.[^1] Pender played a significant role in [[First Intercontinental Development Corporation|FIDCO]]'s activities in [[Lebanon]]. A letter dated July 12, 1983, from Pender to [[Amin Gamayel]], the president of [[Lebanon]], indicated [[First Intercontinental Development Corporation|FIDCO]]'s interest in arranging financing for the redevelopment of [[Lebanon]], specifically mentioning the rebuilding of Damour and Alkhyam. This letter also noted that Pender had previously visited Beirut in February and May 1983 to discuss [[First Intercontinental Development Corporation|FIDCO]]'s participation, with meetings held with the Chamouns, [[Maurice Ghanem]], and Mourad Baroudy.[^1] diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Guillermo Novo.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Guillermo Novo.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..070bf9cd --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Guillermo Novo.md @@ -0,0 +1,39 @@ +--- +category: "Extremism & Violent Networks" +tags: + - Person + - GuillermoNovo + - CubanNationalistMovement + - CubanExiles + - OrlandoLetelier + - DINA + - Terrorism +alias: + - Guillermo Novo Sampol + - Bill Novo +summary: "Head of the northern zone of the Cuban Nationalist Movement who fired a bazooka at the United Nations in 1964, visited Pinochet's Chile in 1974, and supplied Michael Townley with explosives for the Letelier bomb." +location: "Union City, New Jersey" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Guillermo Novo led the northern zone of the [[Cuban Nationalist Movement]] from [[Union City, New Jersey]]. He "was not a refugee from the Castro government, having left Cuba in 1952, seven years before Castro took power. Also, he had never worked for the CIA." Investigators met "a rather dapper man, given to three-piece pinstripe suits." An agent of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]]'s [[Newark, New Jersey|Newark]] office knew him as "an accomplished fund raiser and public speaker, a man of considerable philosophical knowledge, who would blow out a store window or dent the hull of a Russian ship, but who was not a killer."[^1] + +### The Bazooka + +In December 1964 Novo fired a bazooka at the [[United Nations]] building while [[Che Guevara]] was speaking inside. The shell "had been a semidud, aimed poorly, and had plopped harmlessly into the East River."[^1][^2] + +### Chile + +In December 1974 the movement's leader, [[Felipe Rivero]], sent Novo and [[Jose Dionisio Suarez]] to [[Chile]] "to pay homage to Pinochet." They entered the country with [[Orlando Bosch]]. When [[Michael Townley]] of [[DINA]] and his wife, [[Mariana Callejas]], first came to a Union City motel, Novo, Suarez, and Armando Santana "drew guns and ordered the couple to sit down," searched the luggage, and found an American passport in the name Kenneth Enyart and a Chilean identity card in the name Andres Wilson. "Finally, Novo put away his pistol and extended his hand to Townley." The movement lent Townley [[Virgilio Paz]] for a DINA mission to [[Mexico]] and Europe. A communique in the name of "Zero," a label used by Novo, his brother [[Ignacio Novo|Ignacio]], and Suarez, claimed the shooting of [[Bernardo Leighton]] in [[Rome]] in October 1975. The FBI credited it "because it provided details of the attack that only the assassins could know."[^2] + +### Letelier + +On September 10, 1976, at Union City, Townley "outlined my DINA mission to assassinate Letelier and requested the assistance of the Cuban Nationalist Movement." Novo demanded a full explanation and argued that "DINA should have killed Otero rather than turn him over to the FBI," a reference to the surrender of [[Rolando Otero]] to [[Robert Scherrer]]. After a meeting at the Chateau Renaissance Motel he sent formal word that the movement would help. He introduced Townley to [[Alvin Ross]], once a blackjack dealer at the [[Tropicana Club|Tropicana]] in [[Havana]]. On September 15 "Novo handed Townley a paper bag" holding detonating cord, C-4, and TNT. Paz and Suarez went with Townley to [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]], where [[Orlando Letelier]] and [[Ronni Moffitt]] were killed on September 21.[^2] + +Asked by the prosecutor [[Eugene Propper]] and the agent [[Carter Cornick]] where he had been the night before the bombing, Novo said: "That is my trump card. That is the ace up my sleeve." The informant [[Ricardo Morales Navarrete|Ricardo Morales]], then an officer of the Venezuelan [[DISIP]], had planted a story that Bosch was telling associates the "Novo brothers" had killed Letelier. "Bosch is a liar and a traitor to freedom," Novo said.[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Branch, Taylor, and Eugene M. Propper. *Labyrinth*. Viking, 1982, pp. 101-108. +[^2]: Dinges, John, and Saul Landau. *Assassination on Embassy Row*. McGraw-Hill, 1980, pp. 9-21, 147-152, 240. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Hal Puthoff.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Hal Puthoff.md index 8ea84c33..cddba66c 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Hal Puthoff.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Hal Puthoff.md @@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ Swann's suggestion to use geographic coordinates rather than outbound experiment Pat Price, a retired Burbank police commissioner introduced to the program in 1973, produced what Puthoff considered the most operationally significant results of the SRI period. Price's remote viewing of the Soviet URDF-3 facility near [[Semipalatinsk]] - describing a large gantry crane, spherical metal objects estimated at 60 feet in diameter under construction, and a novel welding technique - was subsequently evaluated against classified satellite photography and assessed as substantially accurate. Price and Swann's subsequent remote viewing of the [[National Security Agency|NSA]] signals intelligence facility at Sugar Grove, West Virginia, triggered an NSA security investigation into whether remote viewing, if genuine, represented a vulnerability for classified installations. -Price died of a reported heart attack in Las Vegas in July 1975, under circumstances Puthoff considered potentially suspicious. His suitcase of remote viewing notes and CIA materials disappeared before Puthoff arrived in Las Vegas. No evidence of foul play was established. +Price died of a reported heart attack in [[Las Vegas]] in July 1975, under circumstances Puthoff considered potentially suspicious. His suitcase of remote viewing notes and CIA materials disappeared before Puthoff arrived in Las Vegas. No evidence of foul play was established. ### Published Research diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Harry Shlaudeman.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Harry Shlaudeman.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..35093ab8 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Harry Shlaudeman.md @@ -0,0 +1,37 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +tags: + - Person + - HarryShlaudeman + - StateDepartment + - OperationCondor + - HenryKissinger + - Chile + - OrlandoLetelier +alias: + - Harry W. Shlaudeman +summary: "Assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs who warned Kissinger of Operation Condor's assassination plans on August 3, 1976, received Landau's cable on the DINA passports, and saw no warning delivered before Letelier died." +location: "Washington, D.C." +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Harry Shlaudeman was assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs under [[Henry A. Kissinger|Henry Kissinger]] in 1976.[^1] + +### The Third World War + +An intelligence memorandum of June 4, 1976, the day the exiled Bolivian president [[Juan José Torres]] was found murdered in [[Buenos Aires]], considered the possible "existence of an intergovernmental assassination program" and concluded that "there is no evidence to support a contention that [[Southern Cone]] governments are cooperating in some sort of international Murder Inc." Four days later Kissinger met General [[Augusto Pinochet]] in [[Santiago]]. On August 3 Shlaudeman sent Kissinger a paper titled "The Third World War and South America," which described the plans of [[Operation Condor]] to kill opponents abroad. He and [[William Luers]] enlisted the under secretary, [[Philip Habib]], to persuade Kissinger to tell the military governments that the [[United States]] knew of the plans. Kissinger's cable to the ambassadors said the new reports put "Prats in Buenos Aires and Leighton in Rome, in a new and more ominous context." The plan had not been carried through when [[Orlando Letelier]] was killed in Washington on September 21.[^1] + +### The Paraguayan Caper + +Ambassador [[George Landau]]'s cable of July 28 on the Paraguayan passports issued to two [[DINA]] officers reached Shlaudeman's office by way of Kissinger's. After General [[Vernon Walters]] disowned the mission on August 4, Landau wrote to Shlaudeman of "the so-called 'Paraguayan caper'" which "in my view has troublesome aspects." Shlaudeman answered: "If there is still time, and if there is a possibility of turning off this harebrained scheme, you are authorized to go back through [[Conrado Pappalardo|Pappalardo]] to urge that the Chileans be persuaded not, repeat, not to travel." On November 11 [[Robert Driscoll]] of the Chile desk reported to him that two Chileans using the same names had entered the country in August "after Ambassador Landau had ordered the visas revoked and lookouts placed."[^1][^2][^3] + +### Horman + +A memorandum to Shlaudeman of August 25, 1976, on the death of [[Charles Horman]] in [[Chile]] in 1973, read: "This case remains bothersome. The connotations for the Executive are not good." It concluded that "U.S. intelligence may have played an unfortunate part in Horman's death. At best, it was limited to providing or confirming information that helped motivate his murder by the GOC."[^3] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Dinges, John. *The Condor Years: How Pinochet and His Allies Brought Terrorism to Three Continents*. New Press, 2004, pp. 159-166, 171-174, 180, 183. +[^2]: Dinges, John, and Saul Landau. *Assassination on Embassy Row*. McGraw-Hill, 1980, pp. 260-261, 383. +[^3]: Kornbluh, Peter. *The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability*. New Press, 2003, pp. 269, 343. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Howard Osborn.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Howard Osborn.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..7134caea --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Howard Osborn.md @@ -0,0 +1,42 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +tags: + - Person + - HowardOsborn + - CIA + - CIAOfficeOfSecurity + - FamilyJewels + - Watergate + - DomesticSurveillance +alias: + - Howard J. Osborn +summary: "CIA director of security from 1964 who compiled his office's share of the Family Jewels and was retired in 1974 after a memorandum on papers burned at James McCord's house was withheld from the FBI." +location: "Langley, Virginia" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Howard Osborn became director of the [[CIA Office of Security|Office of Security]] of the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] on July 1, 1964. In April 1974 he was 56 and had served the agency 26 years.[^1][^2] + +### Programs + +Under Osborn the office took custody of the defector [[Yuri Nosenko]] in October 1967 and assigned him to [[Bruce Solie]]. It ran [[Project MERRIMAC]] against dissident groups in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]]. "There is no record of MERRIMAC having been authorized at the outset by Director Helms," the Senate committee found. Osborn testified that [[Richard Helms]] "had indicated his concern about the security of the CIA facilities." Its companion, [[Project RESISTANCE]], indexed between 12,000 and 16,000 names. By late 1970 Osborn "felt that some of the field offices might be going too far in developing information from cooperating confidential sources," and on January 6, 1971, the field was told that "no attempts should be made to recruit new informants or sources such as campus or police officials for the express purpose of obtaining information regarding dissident groups." At the direction of Helms the office kept the reporters [[Michael Getler]] and [[Jack Anderson]] under surveillance in 1971 and 1972.[^1][^3] + +Of the mail opening in [[New York City|New York]], [[HTLINGUAL]], he testified: "We got no benefit from it at all. The product was worthless." At a meeting of May 19, 1971, he "stated that he thought the operation served mainly a Bureau requirement." He recalled Helms asking [[James Jesus Angleton]]: "If this project is so important to the FBI, why don't they take it over."[^3] + +On November 8, 1967, he recorded that [[William Harvey]], about to leave the agency, had asked the bureau's liaison, [[Sam Papich]], for reputable private investigators, and that "Mr. Papich suggested [[Wackenhut Corporation]] or the [[Fidelifax]] Company as having a good reputation in the trade."[^4] + +### The Jewels + +On May 16, 1973, Osborn forwarded to the management committee "summaries of activities conducted either by or under the sponsorship of the Office of Security in the past which in my opinion conflict with the provisions of the [[National Security Act of 1947]]." He dated the survey from March 1959 "because I believe that the activities occurring since that time still have a viable 'flap potential' in that many of the people involved, both Agency and non-Agency are still alive." The first item was [[Johnny Roselli]]. His memorandum became the opening pages of the [[CIA Family Jewels|Family Jewels]].[^1] + +### Pennington + +After [[James McCord]], "an ex-CIA agent," was arrested at the [[Watergate scandal|Watergate]] in June 1972, [[Lee Pennington]], a former inspector of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] then paid by the agency as a consultant and "an old family friend of the McCords," visited Mrs. McCord. "He found her burning papers and documents. Earlier, she had burned typewriter ribbons." He reported it, and the agency wrote it up. "For more than a year and a half, it lay in the CIA files like a paper bomb," while the bureau's agents "were getting persistent denials from the CIA." When Senator [[Howard Baker]] began to inquire into the agency's part in the cover-up, "a middle-level CIA employee who knew of the hidden memo threatened to blow the whistle." Director [[William Colby]] took it to Representative [[Lucien Nedzi]], who held hearings and concluded that the agency had not sent Pennington to burn the papers, "as the memo seemed to suggest." Osborn said he had not known of the memorandum. "It led to the early retirement of Osborn," Nedzi said. Osborn said: "I had planned for over a year to retire in June."[^2] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Central Intelligence Agency, "Family Jewels," memorandum of Howard J. Osborn, Director of Security, to the Executive Secretary, CIA Management Committee, May 16, 1973, with attachments, pp. 00002-00006, 00023, 00026-00030. +[^2]: Anderson, Jack. "Washington Merry-Go-Round," *Washington Post,* April 2, 1974, p. B15. CIA Reading Room, CIA-RDP84-00499R000200010002-2. +[^3]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities. *Final Report, Book III*. S. Rept. 94-755, 1976, pp. 579, 600-602, 723-724. +[^4]: Osborn, Howard J. Memorandum for the record, November 8, 1967, JFK record 104-10133-10076. National Archives, JFK Assassination Records Collection. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Joan Quigley.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Joan Quigley.md index 5a175c2c..91e1983d 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Joan Quigley.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Joan Quigley.md @@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ died: 2014-10-21 location: "Kansas City, Missouri" --- -Joan Quigley was a San Francisco socialite and astrologer who advised President [[Ronald Reagan]] during his tenure at the [[White House]]. Her role was revealed in May 1988 by [[Donald T. Regan]], former White House chief of staff, and confirmed by press secretary [[Marlin Fitzwater]][^1]. +Joan Quigley was a San Francisco socialite and astrologer who advised President [[Ronald Reagan]] during his tenure at the [[White House]]. Her role was revealed in May 1988 by [[Donald Regan|Donald T. Regan]], former White House chief of staff, and confirmed by press secretary [[Marlin Fitzwater]][^1]. Regan stated that "Virtually every major move and decision the Reagans made during my time as White House chief of staff was cleared by a woman in San Francisco who drew up horoscopes to make certain that the planets were in favorable alignment for the enterprise." Quigley became the subject of considerable public interest following this revelation[^1]. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Johnny Roselli.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Johnny Roselli.md index 9989f020..91979e0f 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Johnny Roselli.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Johnny Roselli.md @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@ --- created: 2026-05-15 -updated: 2026-05-15 +updated: 2026-09-21 title: Johnny Roselli aliases: - Filippo Sacco @@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ tags: - AntiCastro - JFKAssassination - LasCosas + - PROMIS category: "Organized Crime" summary: "Johnny Roselli was a senior Chicago Outfit figure operating in Las Vegas and Hollywood who was recruited by the CIA in 1960 as the primary organized crime conduit for assassination plots against Fidel Castro, testified before the Church Committee in 1975-1976, and was murdered and stuffed in an oil drum in Dumfoundling Bay, Florida, shortly after his second Senate appearance." born: 1905-07-04 @@ -24,7 +25,7 @@ Johnny Roselli (born Filippo Sacco, July 4, 1905, Esperia, Caserta, Italy - died ### Organized Crime Career -Roselli entered organized crime in Chicago in the 1920s, working within the Capone organization. By the 1930s he had moved to Los Angeles and become the Chicago Outfit's principal representative on the West Coast, overseeing gambling operations and cultivating connections to Hollywood studios and labor unions. He subsequently became the Outfit's primary presence in Las Vegas, managing interests in the Stardust and other casinos and coordinating with other organized crime families sharing Nevada gambling operations.[^1] +Roselli entered organized crime in Chicago in the 1920s, working within the Capone organization. By the 1930s he had moved to Los Angeles and become the Chicago Outfit's principal representative on the West Coast, overseeing gambling operations and cultivating connections to Hollywood studios and labor unions. He subsequently became the Outfit's primary presence in [[Las Vegas]], managing interests in the Stardust and other casinos and coordinating with other organized crime families sharing Nevada gambling operations.[^1] Roselli was meticulous about maintaining a legitimate surface appearance. He socialized extensively with Hollywood figures, lawyers, and businessmen, and cultivated a persona more polished than many organized crime contemporaries. This social facility was precisely what the CIA sought when approaching organized crime for anti-Castro operations. @@ -38,7 +39,7 @@ When [[William Harvey]] replaced Maheu as the CIA's primary handler for the mob ### Church Committee Testimony -When the [[Church Committee]] investigated CIA assassination plots in 1975, Roselli was subpoenaed to testify. He appeared before the committee in June 1975 and again in April 1976. His testimony was taken in closed session. +When the Church Committee investigated CIA assassination plots in 1975, Roselli was subpoenaed to testify. He appeared before the committee in June 1975 and again in April 1976. His testimony was taken in closed session. During his second appearance, Roselli elaborated on a theory he had been advancing since 1967 through journalist Jack Anderson - that the CIA-organized crime anti-Castro network had been "turned around" by Cuban or pro-Castro operatives and used to kill President [[John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]] in November 1963. This theory was not corroborated by physical evidence but attracted attention because of Roselli's direct participation in the anti-Castro infrastructure. @@ -50,7 +51,12 @@ The CIA-Roselli relationship was among the most extensively documented findings Roselli's murder, coming immediately after his Senate testimony, reinforced the narrative that witnesses to the deepest level of CIA-organized crime cooperation did not survive to tell the full story.[^2] +### Maheu + +Johnny Rosselli was an organized-crime leader who was contacted by Robert Maheu in 1960 as part of CIA operations to assassinate Fidel Castro. Rosselli, along with Sam Giancana and Santos Trafficante, Jr., was enlisted to assist in these efforts, which involved Cuban exiles.[^3] + ### Footnotes [^1]: Church Committee (U.S. Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities). *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders.* Senate Report No. 94-465, 1975. Rappleye, Charles, and Ed Becker. *All American Mafioso: The Johnny Roselli Story.* Doubleday, 1991. [^2]: Thomas, Evan. *The Very Best Men: Four Who Dared: The Early Years of the CIA.* Simon & Schuster, 1995. +[^3]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Johnny Rosselli.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Johnny Rosselli.md deleted file mode 100644 index 13682fcc..00000000 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Johnny Rosselli.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,17 +0,0 @@ ---- -category: "PROMIS Scandal" -tags: - - Person - - PROMIS - - CIA -summary: "Organized crime leader enlisted by the CIA through Robert Maheu in 1960 to assist in assassination plots against Fidel Castro." -born: 1905-07-04 -died: 1976-08-07 -location: "Esperia, Lazio, Italy" ---- -[[Johnny Rosselli]] was an organized-crime leader who was contacted by [[Robert Maheu]] in 1960 as part of [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] operations to assassinate [[Fidel Castro]]. Rosselli, along with [[Sam Giancana]] and [[Santos Trafficante, Jr.]], was enlisted to assist in these efforts, which involved Cuban exiles.[^1] - ---- -### Footnotes - -[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Joshua Caleb Sutter.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Joshua Caleb Sutter.md index 9c6a4ebc..a2da520e 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Joshua Caleb Sutter.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Joshua Caleb Sutter.md @@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ Whether the FBI explicitly authorized founding Tempel ov Blood and operating Mar Sutter joined Atomwaffen Division in the spring of 2017, operating under the online alias "swissdiscipline." His entry into AWD came after AWD's Texas leader Denton, fascinated by Tempel ov Blood's combination of National Socialism and Satanic occultism, invited ToB members into the group. Sutter rapidly became an important figure within AWD's leadership structure, and through him, at least nine Tempel ov Blood members held key positions in the organization at the peak of this relationship.[^5] -Sutter attended AWD's "Hate Camp" paramilitary training sessions in 2017 and 2018. These camps combined firearms training, physical conditioning, and ideological instruction. He organized the [[2019 AWD Nuclear Congress]] in Las Vegas, Nevada in September 2019, AWD's national leadership gathering, using his FBI-provided funds to cover member travel and lodging. [[James Mason]], the author of *[[Siege]]*, made his first documented in-person appearance with AWD at the Nuclear Congress, delivering speeches calling for murder and lone-wolf attacks.[^5] +Sutter attended AWD's "Hate Camp" paramilitary training sessions in 2017 and 2018. These camps combined firearms training, physical conditioning, and ideological instruction. He organized the [[2019 AWD Nuclear Congress]] in [[Las Vegas]], Nevada in September 2019, AWD's national leadership gathering, using his FBI-provided funds to cover member travel and lodging. [[James Mason]], the author of *[[Siege]]*, made his first documented in-person appearance with AWD at the Nuclear Congress, delivering speeches calling for murder and lone-wolf attacks.[^5] Denton made Sutter's books (*Iron Gates*, *Liber 333*, *Bluebird*) required or approved reading for AWD members. The ideological shift provoked substantial internal controversy: members who had joined AWD as National Socialists objected to the incorporation of Satanism, and several left the group. Those who remained were exposed to the O9A framework in which murder was construed as spiritual service and transgressive violence as a form of initiatory development. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Marvin Shoob.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Marvin Shoob.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..c0e28bb9 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Marvin Shoob.md @@ -0,0 +1,38 @@ +--- +category: "Law Enforcement & Legal" +tags: + - Person + - MarvinShoob + - BNLScandal + - ChristopherDrogoul + - FederalJudiciary + - Atlanta + - DepartmentOfJustice +alias: + - Marvin H. Shoob + - Judge Shoob +summary: "Federal judge in Atlanta who in 1992 let Christopher Drogoul withdraw his guilty plea, removed himself from the BNL case saying the bank's Rome officers had approved the Iraqi loans, and called the defendants pawns." +born: 1923-02-23 +died: 2017-06-12 +location: "Atlanta, Georgia" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Marvin Herman Shoob (February 23, 1923 to June 12, 2017) was a judge of the [[United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia]]. He was born at Walterboro, [[South Carolina]], raised in [[Savannah, Georgia|Savannah]], served in Europe with the Third Army, and graduated from the [[University of Georgia]] law school in 1948. In the early 1960s he and the state senator [[Jimmy Carter]] redrafted the rules of the [[Georgia]] [[Democratic Party]]. President Carter appointed him to the bench in 1979. He took senior status on September 30, 1991.[^1] + +### The BNL Case + +The indictment of [[Christopher Drogoul]], manager of the [[Atlanta]] branch of the [[Banca Nazionale del Lavoro]], for lending some five billion dollars to [[Iraq]] without the knowledge of his superiors, came before Shoob in 1991. Drogoul pleaded guilty to 60 counts in June 1992. At the sentencing hearing that September he testified that the branch had been "a tool of the U.S. and Italian governments." On September 14 Representative [[Henry B. Gonzalez]] announced that the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] had told his committee it had good evidence that the bank's officers in [[Rome]] knew of the lending, contrary to what its general counsel had told the prosecutors. On October 1, 1992, Shoob allowed Drogoul to withdraw the plea and removed himself from the case, recording his conclusion "that officials at BNL-Rome were aware of and approved Mr. Drogoul's activities." He called Drogoul and his Atlanta colleagues "pawns and bit-players in a far more wide-ranging conspiracy."[^2][^3] + +Drogoul's public defender, [[Sheila Tyler]], told the court: "It is clear to me that my client was merely a small fish in a larger operation." Shoob said to Drogoul in open court: "I don't believe for a minute that you were able to do all of this on your own." "You're right," Drogoul answered. "I do not want to be in a position where I have to sentence Mr. Drogoul, where he takes the fall when there are other people involved who are equally culpable," the judge said. "A special prosecutor ought to get into this entire matter." During the hearings a federal marshal came to his chambers concerned for the prisoner's safety. Shoob asked who might threaten him. "Would you believe the CIA?" the marshal said. The judge said he would not. That night the Shoobs slept with their floodlights on. Their house had been vandalized in the early 1980s after he ordered the release of Cuban detainees from the [[Mariel boatlift]], when Attorney General [[Edwin Meese]] told him "we think it would be a good idea to just put them all on C-5 cargo aircraft and drop them over [[Cuba]] with parachutes."[^4] + +Attorney General [[William Barr]] declined to seek an independent counsel and named a retired judge, [[Frederick Lacey]], who reported after 54 days: "I find Judge Shoob's specific charges against the USAO to be inaccurate." A second [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]] review, the Hogan report of August 1993, found that an officer of the bank in Rome might have known of the lending but that the evidence would not support a prosecution. Officials of the CIA said that the head of the department's fraud section, [[Lawrence Urgenson]], had urged the agency to withhold information on Drogoul, which Urgenson denied. Drogoul pleaded guilty to three counts before another judge in September 1993.[^3][^5] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Federal Judicial Center, *Biographical Directory of Federal Judges,* "Shoob, Marvin Herman"; obituary, *The Atlanta Journal-Constitution,* June 2017. +[^2]: United States v. Drogoul, 1 F.3d 1546 (11th Cir. 1993); Gonzalez, Henry B. "Update on BNL Investigation," *Congressional Record,* House, January 21, 1993. +[^3]: "Justice probe finds no 'Iraqgate' conspiracy," Associated Press, in the *San Francisco Chronicle* archive. https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/justice-probe-finds-no-iraqgate-conspiracy-3160242.php +[^4]: Friedman, Alan. *Spider's Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq*. Bantam, 1993, pp. 228-231. +[^5]: Lacey, Frederick B. "The Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Investigation: Report of the Independent Counsel," reproduced in House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, Serial No. 103-95. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Nick Schou.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Nick Schou.md index b6432c2b..23ecadca 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Nick Schou.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Nick Schou.md @@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ Nick Schou was a journalist who uncovered documentary evidence of former [[Centr ### Exposing the Nelson-Fluor Connection -A Fluor spokeswoman initially denied that Nelson had been affiliated with the company until Schou presented documentary evidence proving otherwise. Nelson had been the CIA's deputy director of operations, the head of all covert operations worldwide, from 1973 to 1976 before becoming Fluor's vice president for security and administration. The connection between Nelson and [[Ron Lister]], the former [[Laguna Beach Police Department|Laguna Beach]] police officer who claimed high-level CIA contacts while partnering with [[Danilo Blandon|Danilo Blandón]] in drug trafficking, suggested that Lister's claims of intelligence connections were more than empty boasting. Schou's reporting helped establish the factual basis for the [[Dark Alliance]] narrative.[^2] +A Fluor spokeswoman initially denied that Nelson had been affiliated with the company until Schou presented documentary evidence proving otherwise. Nelson had been the CIA's deputy director of operations, the head of all covert operations worldwide, from 1973 to 1976 before becoming Fluor's vice president for security and administration. The connection between Nelson and [[Ronald Lister|Ron Lister]], the former [[Laguna Beach Police Department|Laguna Beach]] police officer who claimed high-level CIA contacts while partnering with [[Danilo Blandon|Danilo Blandón]] in drug trafficking, suggested that Lister's claims of intelligence connections were more than empty boasting. Schou's reporting helped establish the factual basis for the [[Dark Alliance]] narrative.[^2] ### Footnotes diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Pat Price.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Pat Price.md index 90918587..0e4036db 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Pat Price.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Pat Price.md @@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ died: 1975-07-14 location: "Burbank, California" --- -Pat Price (December 8, 1918 - July 14, 1975) was a retired law enforcement official from Burbank, California, who joined the [[Stanford Research Institute]] remote viewing program in 1973 and produced results that the program's principal investigators, [[Hal Puthoff]] and [[Russell Targ]], considered the most operationally significant of the SRI period. His remote viewing sessions targeting a classified Soviet research facility at [[Semipalatinsk]] and a classified [[National Security Agency|NSA]] signals intelligence installation at Sugar Grove, West Virginia, were assessed as substantially accurate against independent intelligence sources and contributed substantially to congressional and agency briefings used to justify continued program funding. He died in Las Vegas in July 1975 at age 56 of a reported heart attack, under circumstances that some program participants considered suspicious. +Pat Price (December 8, 1918 - July 14, 1975) was a retired law enforcement official from Burbank, California, who joined the [[Stanford Research Institute]] remote viewing program in 1973 and produced results that the program's principal investigators, [[Hal Puthoff]] and [[Russell Targ]], considered the most operationally significant of the SRI period. His remote viewing sessions targeting a classified Soviet research facility at [[Semipalatinsk]] and a classified [[National Security Agency|NSA]] signals intelligence installation at Sugar Grove, West Virginia, were assessed as substantially accurate against independent intelligence sources and contributed substantially to congressional and agency briefings used to justify continued program funding. He died in [[Las Vegas]] in July 1975 at age 56 of a reported heart attack, under circumstances that some program participants considered suspicious. ### Background and Law Enforcement Career diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Renato Pena.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Renato Pena.md index 25159d4c..c7d642c2 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Renato Pena.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Renato Pena.md @@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ Peña told CIA investigators that Meneses introduced him to his nephew, Jairo Me ### CIA Awareness -Partly declassified [[Central Intelligence Agency]] records show the agency had evidence as early as October 1982 of links between Meneses's drug ring, the FDN, and an unnamed U.S. religious organization involving an exchange of narcotics for arms. A CIA cable identified Peña as one of four persons who would represent the FDN at a meeting in [[Costa Rica]] regarding this exchange. CIA headquarters ordered the Domestic Collection Division to halt further investigation, then had second thoughts, cabling a Latin American station that "the information was surfaced by another [U.S. government] agency and may return to haunt us."[^3] +Partly declassified [[Central Intelligence Agency]] records show the agency had evidence as early as October 1982 of links between Meneses's drug ring, the FDN, and an unnamed U.S. religious organization involving an exchange of narcotics for arms. A CIA cable identified Peña as one of four persons who would represent the FDN at a meeting in [[Costa Rica]] regarding this exchange. CIA headquarters ordered the [[Domestic Contact Service|Domestic Collection Division]] to halt further investigation, then had second thoughts, cabling a Latin American station that "the information was surfaced by another [U.S. government] agency and may return to haunt us."[^3] ### Arrest and DEA Debriefing diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Rene Schneider.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Rene Schneider.md index 6e70b810..7bc52d3d 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Rene Schneider.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Rene Schneider.md @@ -33,13 +33,23 @@ On October 18 the station asked headquarters for "three 45 calibre machine guns Six hours after the delivery Schneider's car was blocked on his way to work. He drew his pistol and was shot with handguns. A Chilean military court found that two groups of officers, active and retired, had conspired to kidnap him and bring about a coup, and "that the two Generals had been in contact throughout the coup plotting." Viaux was sentenced to twenty years as "intellectual author" of the attempt. Valenzuela was sentenced to three years in exile. Martial law was declared on the day of the shooting and Valenzuela was given command of Santiago province. The CIA's task force log recorded: "The attack on General Schneider has produced developments which closely follow Valenzuela's plan." Director [[Richard Helms]] concluded the next day that "a maximum effort has been achieved." The agency later paid 35,000 dollars to members of the group that had attacked Schneider. Wimert retrieved the machine guns and threw them into the Pacific. General [[Carlos Prats]] succeeded to the command.[^1][^3] +### The Police Report + +The report of the military police officer who investigated the shooting, Major Carlos Donoso Perez, makes no mention of a drawn pistol. It states that the car was "surrounded by five individuals, one of whom, making use of a blunt instrument similar to a sledgehammer, broke the rear window and then fired at General Schneider, striking him in the region of the spleen, in the left shoulder, and in the left wrist." The Senate committee reasoned that since none of the machine guns passed to Valenzuela had been used, there was "no evidence of a plan to kill Schneider." [[John Court]], an aide on the [[National Security Council]] staff, recalled Haig telling him that "if we have to take care of somebody, we could do it."[^4] + +On February 16, 1971, a headquarters officer, John C. Murray, reported to [[William Broe]] that the false flag officer [[Bruce MacMaster]] had confessed that he and [[Henry Sloman]] "had met with General Viaux and were involved in the plotting against Schneider." MacMaster, travelling on a falsified Colombian passport, had presented himself as the agent of "American business interests such as the [[Ford Foundation]], the [[Rockefeller Foundation]] and other unidentified business groups." Murray warned that Viaux's jailed associates might "implicate CIA in the action taken against Schneider" and were "seeking a large amount of money." Wimert said he recovered the 50,000 dollars from Valenzuela by striking him. "There is no apparent record in the CIA files of these financial transactions, which Wimert insists he reported to Hecksher."[^4] + +Congress ratified Allende on October 24 by 153 votes to 37.[^5] + ### Schneider v. Kissinger -René and Raúl Schneider and other members of the family sued Kissinger and the [[United States]] in the federal court in Washington on November 12, 2002. The complaint alleged that on September 15, 1970, Nixon ordered that the CIA "play a direct role in organizing a military coup d'etat in [[Chile]]," said he was "not concerned" about the risks, authorized ten million dollars, and required a plan within 48 hours. The district court dismissed the case in 2004, and the [[United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit|court of appeals]] affirmed in 2005, holding that the decision to support a coup in a foreign country was a political question that courts could not review.[^4] +René and Raúl Schneider and other members of the family sued Kissinger and the [[United States]] in the federal court in Washington on November 12, 2002. The complaint alleged that on September 15, 1970, Nixon ordered that the CIA "play a direct role in organizing a military coup d'etat in [[Chile]]," said he was "not concerned" about the risks, authorized ten million dollars, and required a plan within 48 hours. The district court dismissed the case in 2004, and the [[United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit|court of appeals]] affirmed in 2005, holding that the decision to support a coup in a foreign country was a political question that courts could not review.[^6] ### Footnotes [^1]: Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders,* interim report, S. Rept. 94-465, November 20, 1975, part III.F. [^2]: Kornbluh, Peter, ed. "The CIA and Chile: Anatomy of an Assassination," National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 728, October 22, 2020, documents 23595 (memorandum of conversation, October 15, 1970), 23596 (cable, October 16, 1970), and 23598 (cable, October 18, 1970). https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2020-10-22/cia-chile-anatomy-assassination [^3]: Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Covert Action in Chile 1963-1973,* staff report, 1975. -[^4]: Schneider v. Kissinger, 310 F. Supp. 2d 251 (D.D.C. 2004), affirmed, 412 F.3d 190 (D.C. Cir. 2005); complaint, November 12, 2002, National Security Archive document 23606. +[^4]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House*. Summit Books, 1983, pp. 275, 289-290. +[^5]: Kornbluh, Peter. *The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability*. New Press, 2003, p. 29. +[^6]: Schneider v. Kissinger, 310 F. Supp. 2d 251 (D.D.C. 2004), affirmed, 412 F.3d 190 (D.C. Cir. 2005); complaint, November 12, 2002, National Security Archive document 23606. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Richard Nixon.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Richard Nixon.md index 895510e3..e7c66cf5 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Richard Nixon.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Richard Nixon.md @@ -38,4 +38,6 @@ Later, [[Alan Michael May]], who had served as a former Northern California fiel ### Footnotes -[^1]: Schnabel, Jim. _Remote Viewers_. Dell, 1997. [^2]: Hersh, Seymour M. _The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy_. Random House, 1991. Chapter 16. [^3]: Seymour, Cheri. _The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal_. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010. \ No newline at end of file +[^1]: Schnabel, Jim. _Remote Viewers_. Dell, 1997. +[^2]: Hersh, Seymour M. _The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy_. Random House, 1991. Chapter 16. +[^3]: Seymour, Cheri. _The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal_. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Richard Ober.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Richard Ober.md index c87a4edb..28c14fab 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Richard Ober.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Richard Ober.md @@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ The program expanded significantly under the Nixon administration from 1969. At - More than 5,000 reports disseminated to the FBI over seven years of operation (the Church Committee documented 4,400 memoranda and approximately 1,000 cable disseminations) - Six reports compiled directly for the [[White House]]; 34 disseminated to Cabinet-level officials -Two subprograms fed directly into MHCHAOS: [[Project MERRIMAC]], which placed CIA infiltrators in domestic antiwar and civil rights organizations in Washington D.C., and Project RESISTANCE, which compiled dossiers on radical groups near CIA facilities through coordination with campus administrators and local police. Both subprograms were run through the CIA's Office of Security rather than directly through the Counterintelligence Staff.[^2] +Two subprograms fed directly into MHCHAOS: [[Project MERRIMAC]], which placed CIA infiltrators in domestic antiwar and civil rights organizations in Washington D.C., and [[Project RESISTANCE]], which compiled dossiers on radical groups near CIA facilities through coordination with campus administrators and local police. Both subprograms were run through the CIA's Office of Security rather than directly through the Counterintelligence Staff.[^2] ### White House Access @@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ One of the most operationally significant aspects of Ober's role was a covert of ### Church Committee Investigation -CHAOS was exposed on December 22, 1974 by Seymour Hersh's front-page New York Times article "Huge C.I.A. Operation Reported in U.S. Against Antiwar Forces." DCI [[William Colby]] had already dismissed Angleton on December 17, 1974, before the article appeared, having been warned it was imminent. The Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities (the Church Committee) subsequently investigated CHAOS in detail. Ober testified before the committee on October 28, 1975. The committee's findings are documented in Book III of its final report, "CIA Intelligence Collection About Americans: CHAOS and the Office of Security" (S. Rept. 94-755, April 26, 1976), available at aarclibrary.org/publib/church/reports/book3/pdf/ChurchB3_9_CHAOS.pdf. The Rockefeller Commission also examined CHAOS in its Chapter 11, available at aarclibrary.org/publib/church/rockcomm/pdf/RockComm_Chap11_CHAOS.pdf.[^2] +CHAOS was exposed on December 22, 1974 by Seymour Hersh's front-page New York Times article "Huge C.I.A. Operation Reported in U.S. Against Antiwar Forces." DCI [[William Colby]] had already dismissed Angleton on December 17, 1974, before the article appeared, having been warned it was imminent. The Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities (the Church Committee) subsequently investigated CHAOS in detail. Ober testified before the committee on October 28, 1975. The committee's findings are documented in Book III of its final report, "CIA Intelligence Collection About Americans: CHAOS and the [[CIA Office of Security|Office of Security]]" (S. Rept. 94-755, April 26, 1976), available at aarclibrary.org/publib/church/reports/book3/pdf/ChurchB3_9_CHAOS.pdf. The Rockefeller Commission also examined CHAOS in its Chapter 11, available at aarclibrary.org/publib/church/rockcomm/pdf/RockComm_Chap11_CHAOS.pdf.[^2] The committee found that CHAOS violated the CIA's legislative charter prohibiting domestic operations and characterized it as "unlawful." Richard Helms's destruction of CHAOS records in 1973 (before the Hersh exposé) deprived the investigation of a complete documentary record; a cache of files survived only because it had been misfiled.[^2] diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Rob Owen.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Rob Owen.md deleted file mode 100644 index 3b3d0237..00000000 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Rob Owen.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,18 +0,0 @@ ---- -category: "Iran-Contra" -tags: - - person - - u.s.-government - - contra-war -summary: Rob Owen was Oliver North's courier and liaison to the Contra leadership who reported on drug trafficking by Contra supply companies. ---- -Rob Owen was [[Oliver North]]'s courier and liaison to the Contra leadership who reported on drug trafficking by Contra supply companies. Owen served as North's eyes and ears on the ground in [[Central America]], carrying messages and funds between the [[White House]] and the Contra commanders.[^1] - -### Reports on Drug Trafficking - -Owen reported to North that a DC-6 owned by [[Mario Calero]], brother of [[FDN]] leader [[Adolfo Calero]], which was being used for runs out of [[New Orleans]], "is probably being used for drug runs into U.S." Owen also relayed information about [[Dagoberto Nunez|Dagoberto Nuñez]]'s intelligence-gathering operations against the Sandinistas. His memos to North documented the overlap between drug trafficking and the Contra supply chain, providing some of the most direct evidence that the [[National Security Council]] operation knowingly used drug-connected companies like [[SETCO]] and Hondu Carib Cargo for logistical operations.[^2] - -### Footnotes - -[^1]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 15. -[^2]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 15, Ch. 7. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Robert Owen.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Robert Owen.md index 30d04066..db361994 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Robert Owen.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Robert Owen.md @@ -8,8 +8,13 @@ tags: - Iran-Contra - 1980s - Dark_Alliance_Investigation + - u.s.-government + - contra-war summary: Oliver North's courier in Central America whose phone number was found aboard a drug-seized Contra supply plane. +alias: + - Rob Owen --- + Robert Owen was [[Oliver North]]'s courier in [[Central America]] during the Contra war, serving as a key link in North's illegal resupply operation.[^1] ### Drug Trafficking Evidence @@ -26,8 +31,18 @@ In August 1986, Owen was in [[Costa Rica]] when [[Joseph Kelso]], a CIA and [[U. Back in Washington, U.S. Customs enforcement chief William Rosenblatt called North about Kelso's evidence tapes. North sent Owen to collect them. Owen listened to tapes of Costa Rican officials accusing DEA agents of corruption, confirmed the content, and then threw the tapes away when the [[Iran-Contra Affair]] broke in October 1986. "They were thrown out, along with a bunch of other stuff, when I moved," Owen testified. The tapes were never seen again. The congressional Iran-Contra panel noted Owen "did not tell Rosenblatt he worked for North or the CIA. He told him he worked for a private organization. Not surprisingly, Owen never returned the tape recordings."[^3] +### Contra Supply + +Rob Owen was Oliver North's courier and liaison to the Contra leadership who reported on drug trafficking by Contra supply companies. Owen served as North's eyes and ears on the ground in Central America, carrying messages and funds between the [[White House]] and the Contra commanders.[^4] + +### Reports on Drug Trafficking + +Owen reported to North that a DC-6 owned by [[Mario Calero]], brother of [[FDN]] leader Adolfo Calero, which was being used for runs out of New Orleans, "is probably being used for drug runs into U.S." Owen also relayed information about [[Dagoberto Nunez|Dagoberto Nuñez]]'s intelligence-gathering operations against the Sandinistas. His memos to North documented the overlap between drug trafficking and the Contra supply chain, providing some of the most direct evidence that the [[National Security Council]] operation knowingly used drug-connected companies like [[SETCO]] and Hondu Carib Cargo for logistical operations.[^5] + ### Footnotes [^1]: 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" [^2]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 13: "The wrong kind of friends" [^3]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 17: "We're going to blow your fucking head off" +[^4]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 15. +[^5]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 15, Ch. 7. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Robert Scherrer.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Robert Scherrer.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..3b4098e6 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Robert Scherrer.md @@ -0,0 +1,38 @@ +--- +category: "Law Enforcement & Legal" +tags: + - Person + - RobertScherrer + - FBI + - OperationCondor + - OrlandoLetelier + - ManuelContreras + - BuenosAires +alias: + - Robert W. Scherrer + - Bob Scherrer +summary: "FBI legal attaché in Buenos Aires who after the Letelier murder cabled Washington the first description of Operation Condor and its assassination phase, and later sold counterterrorism advice with the case's prosecutors." +location: "Buenos Aires, Argentina" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Robert Scherrer was the legal attaché of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] at the embassy in [[Buenos Aires]], responsible from 1972 for the southern cone of [[South America]]. The bureau "recruited him when he was eighteen, gave him a job as a filing clerk, and sent him to [[Fordham University]] to get a law degree." In the middle 1960s he served on the [[New York City|New York]] squad that watched Cuban exiles. "He had made it his business to get to know Chile's [[Manuel Contreras]]," on whom he called "on each trip to Chile."[^1] + +"In fact, he was a one-man intelligence station whose sources in all of the [[Southern Cone]] countries were the envy of the CIA and U.S. military intelligence." He had gone abroad with the first wave of legal attachés after [[J. Edgar Hoover]] persuaded President [[Richard Nixon]] in 1970 to approve the program. After arrests of members of the [[Junta Coordinadora Revolucionaria]] in [[Paraguay]], "Scherrer sent a letter informing his main police source in Chile, General [[Ernesto Baeza]]," which has been called "the first documented case of U.S. official participation in the multicountry operations against the JCR." The bureau called it a "routine and traditional form of cooperation." "They should be rounded up," Scherrer said of the revolutionaries in 1979. "But they should be tried, not slaughtered." He said the military governments in 1975 formally proposed that the bureau have a "more open exchange of information with them" about people in the [[United States]] they considered terrorists. Contreras later testified that Scherrer was in "permanent contact" with Condor's representative in Buenos Aires "and received the information that he asked for." Scherrer said he learned that the CIA had provided DINA with the computer systems he presumed were used in the Condor data bank.[^2] + +### The Condor Cable + +After [[Orlando Letelier]] was killed in Washington on September 21, 1976, a source told Scherrer the murder was "a 'wild Condor operation.'" His cable to headquarters read: "[[Operation Condor]] is the code name for the collection, exchange and storage of intelligence data concerning leftists, communists and Marxists which was recently established between the cooperating services in South America in order to eliminate Marxist terrorists and their activities in the area. In addition Operation Condor provides for joint operations against terrorist targets in member countries. Chile is the center for Operation Condor, and in addition it includes [[Argentina]], [[Bolivia]], Paraguay and [[Uruguay]]. [[Brazil]] has also tentatively agreed to supply input." It went on: "A third and more secret phase of Operation Condor involves the formation of special teams from member countries to travel anywhere in the world to non-member countries to carry out sanctions, [including] assassinations, against terrorists or supporters of terrorist organizations." He learned that Contreras, "Condor One," had "personally provided the inspiration and organizational impetus," and that Chile had paid much of the early cost.[^1] + +### Santiago + +In 1976 Scherrer obtained the surrender of the Cuban exile fugitive [[Rolando Otero]] from [[Chile]]. "The Chilean government first denied having Otero, then offered to turn him over in a coffin." The embassy warned that Secretary of State [[Henry A. Kissinger|Henry Kissinger]] would cancel his visit of that June. At their first meeting after the Letelier murder, in late November 1976, Contreras offered him "confidential information" that [[Ronni Moffitt]] had been Letelier's lover and that her husband was the likeliest suspect. With [[Carter Cornick]] he questioned [[Michael Townley]] on April 17, 1978.[^1] + +He retired as chief of the bureau's records. In 1988 he joined the prosecutors of the case, [[Eugene Propper]] and [[E. Lawrence Barcella]], and Cornick in [[Counter Terrorism Consultants, Inc.]][^3] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Dinges, John, and Saul Landau. *Assassination on Embassy Row*. McGraw-Hill, 1980, pp. 130, 237-239, 263-266, 276-277. +[^2]: Dinges, John. *The Condor Years: How Pinochet and His Allies Brought Terrorism to Three Continents*. New Press, 2004, pp. 90-94, 121-122; Branch, Taylor, and Eugene M. Propper. *Labyrinth*. Viking, 1982, p. 124. +[^3]: "A group of top former FBI agents and federal prosecutors," United Press International, August 2, 1988. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Sam Papich.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Sam Papich.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..65f1a765 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Sam Papich.md @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +--- +category: "Law Enforcement & Legal" +tags: + - Person + - SamPapich + - FBI + - CIA + - HTLINGUAL + - JamesAngleton + - WackenhutCorporation +alias: + - Sam J. Papich +summary: "FBI liaison officer to the CIA whom James Angleton told of the agency's New York mail opening in 1958, and who in 1967 recommended Wackenhut to William Harvey as a reputable private investigator." +location: "Washington, D.C." +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Sam Papich was the liaison officer of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] to the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] until 1970.[^1] + +### The Mail + +In January 1958 the bureau's inquiries at the New York post office about a mail cover of its own ran into the agency's existing project, [[HTLINGUAL]]. [[James Jesus Angleton]] then told Papich "on a personal basis" of the opening of mail, saying "the sole purpose for the coverage was to identify persons behind the [[Iron Curtain]] who might have some ties in the U.S. and who could be approached in their countries as contacts and sources for the CIA." [[Alan Belmont]] wrote: "It would appear that our inquiries of the Post Office officials in New York have flushed out a most secret operation of the CIA." Papich testified that the bureau was "greatly concerned" at the intrusion on its jurisdiction and that he "anticipated all hell was going to break loose." The bureau chose instead "to capitalize on the situation by receiving the benefits of the program without the expense and manpower requirements which would accompany a more active role in its operation."[^1] + +### Roselli and Wackenhut + +[[Sheffield Edwards]] of the [[CIA Office of Security|Office of Security]] informed Papich of the agency's contacts with [[Sam Giancana]] and [[Johnny Roselli]]. In November 1967 [[William Harvey]], who had run Roselli and was leaving the agency to practice law, asked Papich for reputable private investigators. [[Howard Osborn]] recorded: "Mr. Papich suggested [[Wackenhut Corporation]] or the [[Fidelifax]] Company as having a good reputation in the trade."[^2][^3] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities. *Final Report, Book III*. S. Rept. 94-755, 1976, pp. 578, 613, 626-627. +[^2]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities. *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders: An Interim Report*. S. Rept. 94-465, 1975. +[^3]: Osborn, Howard J. Memorandum for the record, November 8, 1967, JFK record 104-10133-10076. National Archives, JFK Assassination Records Collection. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Stafford Sands.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Stafford Sands.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..fe3595e3 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Stafford Sands.md @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +--- +category: "Political Figure" +tags: + - Person + - StaffordSands + - Bahamas + - Casinos + - MeyerLansky + - Wackenhut + - ResortsInternational +alias: + - Sir Stafford Sands +summary: "Bahamian minister and lawyer who arranged casino exemptions for clients tied to Meyer Lansky, was disgraced by a 1967 royal commission, and was kept as a client by Wackenhut during its Florida war on crime." +location: "Nassau, Bahamas" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Sir Stafford Sands was a lawyer and minister in the government of the [[Bahamas]] before 1967. He acted for [[Wallace Groves]] at Freeport, and when [[James Crosby]]'s [[Mary Carter Paint Company]] bought [[Paradise Island]] it acquired "the legal services of Sir Stafford Sands." Crosby called him "a very impressive intellectual." In the middle of 1965 Sands "arranged permission for the construction of the desired bridge connecting Paradise to [[Nassau]], and obtained transfer of the Bahamian Club's certificate of exemption" from the gambling laws to the new casino.[^1] + +After the election of [[Lynden Pindling]]'s government in 1967 a royal commission under Sir [[Ranulph Bacon]] examined the casinos. "Sir Stafford Sands, disgraced by revelations of the millions that he'd made drafting legislation for Mob-connected entrepreneurs, retired to his castle in [[Spain]]."[^1] + +In February 1967 the crime reporter [[Hank Messick]] resigned from the [[Wackenhut Corporation]], which Governor [[Claude Kirk]] had hired to fight organized crime in [[Florida]], because the company kept Sands as a private client while it was supposed to be pursuing [[Meyer Lansky]]. "I quit the Wackenhut Corp. because I have reluctantly concluded a cruel hoax is being perpetrated upon the people of Florida," he said.[^2] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Hougan, Jim. *Spooks: The Haunting of America: The Private Use of Secret Agents*. William Morrow, 1978, pp. 381-382, 392-393. +[^2]: "Wackenhut Aide Quits; 'Cruel Hoax,'" *The Tampa Tribune,* February 17, 1967, and *St. Petersburg Times* clipping, in the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Tampa file on the Wackenhut Corporation. https://archive.org/details/WackenhutCorporation diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Terry Reed.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Terry Reed.md index a2e28853..1339a20c 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Terry Reed.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Terry Reed.md @@ -21,11 +21,11 @@ In his memoirs, *Compromised*, Reed wrote that he scouted locations and provided One of the companies Reed worked with in Arkansas was a small manufacturer of parking meters called [[Park On Meter]] Inc., located in the town of Russellville. Reed claimed that the company was secretly manufacturing parts for M-16 rifles as a subcontractor on a CIA weapons project to supply the Contras.[^1] -Park On Meter's former secretary and corporate lawyer was [[Webb Hubbell|Webb Hubbell]], who also happened to be the brother-in-law of the company's owner. Hubbell admitted to a *Time* magazine reporter that POM was also making rocket launchers.[^1] +Park On Meter's former secretary and corporate lawyer was [[Webster Hubbell|Webb Hubbell]], who also happened to be the brother-in-law of the company's owner. Hubbell admitted to a *Time* magazine reporter that POM was also making rocket launchers.[^1] ### Washington Post Investigation -The *Washington Post* sent a reporter to Arkansas in 1994 to investigate Reed's story. While the resultant article was a snide attempt to portray Reed as a crackpot conspiracy theorist, it nonetheless confirmed many of the basic elements of his story. "Some of the key relationships described in the book did exist in some form," the Post grudgingly admitted. "The Iver Johnson arms company near Little Rock, which the book portrays as being at the center of the gun-manufacturing effort, did ship a load of weapons to [[Nicaragua]] through a Mexican distributor, according to former plant engineer J. A. Matejko." Moreover, the Post found, the parking meter company Reed named "did make some gun parts for Iver Johnson, another relationship characterized in the book as part of the CIA weapons scheme." But the Post scoffed that the parts were "firing pins, not M-16 bolts as the book contends."[^1] +The *Washington Post* sent a reporter to Arkansas in 1994 to investigate Reed's story. While the resultant article was a snide attempt to portray Reed as a crackpot conspiracy theorist, it nonetheless confirmed many of the basic elements of his story. "Some of the key relationships described in the book did exist in some form," the Post grudgingly admitted. "The Iver Johnson arms company near [[Little Rock, Arkansas|Little Rock]], which the book portrays as being at the center of the gun-manufacturing effort, did ship a load of weapons to [[Nicaragua]] through a Mexican distributor, according to former plant engineer J. A. Matejko." Moreover, the Post found, the parking meter company Reed named "did make some gun parts for Iver Johnson, another relationship characterized in the book as part of the CIA weapons scheme." But the Post scoffed that the parts were "firing pins, not M-16 bolts as the book contends."[^1] ### Connection to Oliver North and Barry Seal diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Virgilio Paz.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Virgilio Paz.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..93407685 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Virgilio Paz.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +--- +category: "Extremism & Violent Networks" +tags: + - Person + - VirgilioPaz + - CubanNationalistMovement + - CubanExiles + - DINA + - OrlandoLetelier + - MichaelTownley +alias: + - Virgilio Paz Romero +summary: "Cuban Nationalist Movement member lent to DINA in 1975, who travelled with Michael Townley through Mexico and Europe, proposed the false Cuban claim for the Leighton shooting, and accompanied him to kill Orlando Letelier." +location: "Union City, New Jersey" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Virgilio Paz was a member of the [[Cuban Nationalist Movement]], "an unemployed sometime used-car salesman." His father, expelled from the Cuban army after the revolution, died of pneumonia in [[Mexico City]] on the way to the [[United States]]. "Paz blames Castro, Mexican doctors, and the American bureaucracy."[^1][^2] + +### Open Season + +In 1975 Paz joined [[Michael Townley]] and [[Mariana Callejas]] of [[DINA]] for what Townley called "Operation Open Season," "a nine-month, eight-country DINA mission to terrorize targeted Chilean exiles and the enemies of the Cuban Nationalist Movement." Major [[Raúl Iturriaga Neumann|Eduardo Iturriaga]], head of DINA's foreign operations, approved his inclusion. In the Mexican desert a mixture of explosives Townley was preparing in their camper began to hiss and smoke, and Paz fled. Of a hostel for Chilean exiles he said: "It is a symbol. A nest of Marxism. Cubans believe in symbolism." He and Callejas stole a dentist's rotary file for its list of exiles' addresses.[^1][^2] + +In [[Rome]], where Townley was arranging with the followers of [[Stefano Delle Chiaie]] the killing of [[Bernardo Leighton]], "Paz offered a unique cover-up plan to throw the subsequent investigation off the trail of both DINA and the Italians. The Italians would kill the Chilean target, and the Cuban exile movement would claim credit." Leighton and his wife were shot on October 6, 1975.[^1] + +### Washington + +In September 1976 Paz gave Townley the remote-control detonator used against [[Orlando Letelier]], one Townley "himself had constructed months before in Santiago by modifying a radio paging device." Paz and [[Jose Dionisio Suarez]] drove with Townley to Letelier's house. "I was informed by Paz and Suarez that they expected me to place the device on the car," Townley stated, "as they wished to have a DINA agent, namely myself, directly tied to the placing of the device."[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Dinges, John, and Saul Landau. *Assassination on Embassy Row*. McGraw-Hill, 1980, pp. 16-19, 152-160. +[^2]: Branch, Taylor, and Eugene M. Propper. *Labyrinth*. Viking, 1982, pp. 243-246, 303. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Walter Sheridan.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Walter Sheridan.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..2a23eb75 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Walter Sheridan.md @@ -0,0 +1,31 @@ +--- +category: "JFK Assassination" +tags: + - Person + - WalterSheridan + - NBC + - JimGarrison + - RobertKennedy + - CIA + - ClayShaw +summary: "Former aide to Robert Kennedy who as an NBC reporter produced the network's 1967 attack on Jim Garrison, was charged by Garrison with bribery, and passed information from Garrison's office to the CIA's general counsel." +location: "Washington, D.C." +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Walter Sheridan was a senior aide to Attorney General [[Robert F. Kennedy]] at the [[Department of Justice]] and in 1967 a reporter for [[NBC]] News assigned to the investigation of the Kennedy assassination by the [[New Orleans]] district attorney, [[Jim Garrison]].[^1] + +### The Broadcast and the Charges + +NBC broadcast a program critical of Garrison's conduct on June 19, 1967. On July 7 Garrison filed an information charging Sheridan with bribing a witness, and on July 11 three more charging [[Rick Townley|Richard Townley]] of the New Orleans station [[WDSU]] with bribing and intimidating witnesses. Townley had reported to the lawyers of the defendant, [[Clay Shaw]], that April in company with agents of the [[Wackenhut Corporation]]. On August 10 the two newsmen sued in federal court to stop the prosecutions. They alleged that the charges were "totally lacking in substance," part of "a broad plan to intimidate those who disagree with the District Attorney's conduct as a public official," that Garrison had "threatened to 'get'" Sheridan and "attempted to have appellants physically beaten," and that he had "suppressed evidence tending to show the charges false." Their lawyers included [[Herbert J. Miller Jr.]], who had headed the Criminal Division under [[Robert Kennedy]]. The [[United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit|Fifth Circuit]] reversed a summary judgment for Garrison in August 1969 and ordered a hearing, observing that the investigation "casts doubt on the integrity of such important persons and agencies as the former Chief Justice of the [[United States]], the [[Central Intelligence Agency]], and the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]."[^2][^3] + +### The Channel to Langley + +"On 1 May, Jack Miller, a former assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department's Criminal Division, called the CIA's general counsel to offer some intelligence that had come to Miller 'from within Garrison's office,'" the agency's own journal recorded in 2001. "Miller's source was Walter Sheridan." The general counsel was [[Lawrence Houston]], and the call is recorded in a memorandum of May 1, 1967, headed "Report Concerning Garrison-Kennedy-CIA." Miller was the same lawyer who represented Sheridan against Garrison two years later.[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Holland, Max. "The Lie That Linked CIA to the Kennedy Assassination," *Studies in Intelligence,* vol. 45, no. 5, 2001. https://www.cia.gov/resources/csi/static/Lie-That-Linked-CIA.pdf +[^2]: Sheridan v. Garrison, 415 F.2d 699 (5th Cir. 1969). +[^3]: DiEugenio, James. "The Wegmann Files," *Probe,* vol. 4, no. 4, May-June 1997, pp. 8-9. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Algie A. Wells.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Algie A. Wells.md index 9a2b050d..b4802423 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Algie A. Wells.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Algie A. Wells.md @@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ tags: summary: "Director of international affairs for the AEC in 1958 who believed U.S. officials could have learned about Israel's Dimona reactor earlier." --- -Algie A. Wells was the director of international affairs for the [[Atomic Energy Commission|AEC]] in mid-1958. He suggested that [[Lewis L. Strauss]] might have ignored his statutory responsibility as AEC chairman for trivial reasons, rather than his Jewishness, when it came to informing [[John A. McCone]] about [[Dimona]]. Wells believed that if McCone was surprised to learn about the reactor in late 1960, "he shouldn't have been," as any government official who chose to do so could have learned about [[Israel]]'s nuclear reactor.[^1] +Algie A. Wells was the director of international affairs for the [[Atomic Energy Commission|AEC]] in mid-1958. He suggested that [[Lewis L. Strauss]] might have ignored his statutory responsibility as AEC chairman for trivial reasons, rather than his Jewishness, when it came to informing [[John McCone|John A. McCone]] about [[Dimona]]. Wells believed that if McCone was surprised to learn about the reactor in late 1960, "he shouldn't have been," as any government official who chose to do so could have learned about [[Israel]]'s nuclear reactor.[^1] ### Footnotes diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Camilo Valenzuela.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Camilo Valenzuela.md index a66b16d1..f923d9e5 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Camilo Valenzuela.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Camilo Valenzuela.md @@ -18,6 +18,8 @@ Camilo Valenzuela was a brigadier general on active duty in the [[Chile|Chilean] The [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] dealt with him through the American army attaché, [[Paul Wimert]]. On October 18 the [[Santiago]] station asked headquarters for "three .45 calibre machine guns (grease guns) with 500 rounds of ammo each." Headquarters, shipping them by diplomatic pouch, cabled: "Will continue make effort provide them but find our credulity stretched by Navy officer leading his troops with sterile guns. What is special purpose for these guns? We will try send them whether you can provide explanation or not." Tear gas grenades first meant for Viaux were given to the officers instead, because it was "important that the attache credibility with Armed Forces officers be strengthened." A cable of October 19 set out the plan to abduct Schneider and fly him to [[Argentina]] and recorded 50,000 dollars pledged to the group. The station reported: "Military will not admit involvement in Schneider's abduction which is to be blamed on leftists." Headquarters had written three days earlier of "great and continuing interest in the activities of Tirado, Canales, Valenzuela, et al, and we wish them optimum good fortune."[^1][^2][^3] +Ambassador [[Edward Korry]] had earlier met Valenzuela to promote a plan under which Congress would ratify the runner-up, [[Jorge Alessandri]], who would form a military cabinet and resign, leaving the army to oversee a new election. On October 14 Wimert was instructed: "High authority in Washington has authorized you to offer material support short of armed intervention to Chilean Armed Forces in any endeavors they may undertake to prevent the election of Allende on October 24." Under the plan of October 19, Schneider was to be seized leaving an army dinner, President [[Eduardo Frei Montalva|Eduardo Frei]] would resign, and one of Valenzuela's aides would head a military government and dissolve Congress. Viaux was to carry out the abduction "using a small group of extreme right-wing civilians so that the crime could not be traced to the Chilean armed forces." When the second attempt failed on October 20, Hecksher reported: "We know that Gen. Valenzuela was involved" but "cannot prove or disprove that execution of attempt against Schneider was entrusted to elements linked with [Viaux]." After the shooting the agency's log recorded that "the die has been cast" and that "General Valenzuela has assumed control of Santiago Province." Kissinger wrote in his memoirs that the agency's men in Chile "felt they were free to continue with the second plotters, of whom the [[White House]] was unaware."[^4][^5] + Schneider was shot on October 22 by Viaux's men with their own handguns. Wimert recovered the guns and the money and dropped the guns in the sea at [[Viña del Mar]]. A Chilean military court found that Valenzuela and Viaux "had been in contact throughout the coup plotting" and sentenced Valenzuela to three years in exile "for taking part in the conspiracy."[^1][^2] ### Footnotes @@ -25,3 +27,5 @@ Schneider was shot on October 22 by Viaux's men with their own handguns. Wimert [^1]: Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders,* interim report, S. Rept. 94-465, November 20, 1975. [^2]: Kornbluh, Peter, ed. "The CIA and Chile: Anatomy of an Assassination," National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 728, October 22, 2020. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2020-10-22/cia-chile-anatomy-assassination [^3]: Central Intelligence Agency, cable to Santiago station, October 16, 1970. National Security Archive document 23596. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/media/23596/ocr +[^4]: Kornbluh, Peter. *The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability*. New Press, 2003, pp. 12, 27-29, 33. +[^5]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House*. Summit Books, 1983, pp. 286-288. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Caspar W. Weinberger.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Caspar W. Weinberger.md deleted file mode 100644 index 1f92f78e..00000000 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Caspar W. Weinberger.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,19 +0,0 @@ ---- -aliases: -- Caspar W. Weinberger -category: "Psychics & Remote Viewers" -tags: - - Person - - RemoteViewer - - Military -summary: "Secretary of Defense under Reagan whose military aide Lieutenant Colonel Higgins was abducted in Lebanon in 1988 with deep knowledge of classified matters." -born: 1917-08-18 -location: "San Francisco, California" ---- - -Caspar W. Weinberger (1917–1990) was an American politician and businessman who served as the Secretary of Defense under President [[Ronald Reagan]] from 1981 to 1987. He was a key figure in the Reagan administration's military buildup during the [[Cold War]][^1]. - -[[William Richard Higgins]], a Marine Lieutenant Colonel who was abducted in [[Lebanon]] in 1988, had served as a military aide to Weinberger from June 1985 until he went to Lebanon in June 1987. Higgins's in-depth knowledge of classified military matters, gained during his time with Weinberger, made him a high-value hostage[^1]. - -### Footnotes -[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Caspar Weinberger.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Caspar Weinberger.md index 38137329..4a690f9e 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Caspar Weinberger.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Caspar Weinberger.md @@ -4,15 +4,25 @@ tags: - Person - Nuclear - Israel -summary: "Caspar Weinberger served as the Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan." + - RemoteViewer + - Military +summary: "Secretary of Defense under Reagan whose military aide Lieutenant Colonel Higgins was abducted in Lebanon in 1988 with deep knowledge of classified matters." born: 1917-08-18 died: 2006-03-28 location: "San Francisco, California" +alias: + - Caspar W. Weinberger --- -Caspar Weinberger served as the Secretary of Defense under President [[Ronald Reagan]]. Following the Israeli bombing of the Iraqi nuclear reactor at [[Osirak bombing]] in June 1981, Weinberger proposed canceling the F-16 aircraft sale to [[Israel]] as a sanction. However, President Reagan privately disagreed with this course of action.[^1] +Caspar W. Weinberger (1917-2006) was an American politician and businessman who served as the Secretary of Defense under President [[Ronald Reagan]] from 1981 to 1987. He was a key figure in the Reagan administration's military buildup during the [[Cold War]][^1]. +[[William Richard Higgins]], a Marine Lieutenant Colonel who was abducted in [[Lebanon]] in 1988, had served as a military aide to Weinberger from June 1985 until he went to Lebanon in June 1987. Higgins's in-depth knowledge of classified military matters, gained during his time with Weinberger, made him a high-value hostage[^1]. + +### Osirak + +Caspar Weinberger served as the Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan. Following the Israeli bombing of the Iraqi nuclear reactor at [[Osirak bombing]] in June 1981, Weinberger proposed canceling the F-16 aircraft sale to [[Israel]] as a sanction. However, President Reagan privately disagreed with this course of action.[^2] ### Footnotes -[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. +[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017. +[^2]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Don Walsh.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Don Walsh.md index 9a23cdc8..e377c31a 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Don Walsh.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Don Walsh.md @@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ died: 2023-11-12 location: "Berkeley, California" --- -Don Walsh is a renowned deep-sea explorer and former naval officer, known for achieving the deepest dive ever undertaken. In 1960, along with a crewmate, he descended to the bottom of the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean, a feat that would not be replicated for another fifty-two years[^1]. +Don Walsh is a renowned deep-sea explorer and former naval officer, known for achieving the deepest dive ever undertaken. In 1960, along with a crewmate, he descended to the bottom of the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench in the western [[Pacific Ocean]], a feat that would not be replicated for another fifty-two years[^1]. In the fall of 1976, Walsh, along with fellow deep-sea explorer [[Don Keach]], was running the Institute for Marine and Coastal Studies at the [[University of Southern California]]. They provided [[Stephan Schwartz]] with access to the *Taurus I*, a state-of-the-art submersible, for three days of sea trials. This access was crucial for Schwartz's [[Project Deep Quest]], which aimed to use [[Remote Viewing]] to locate a previously unknown shipwreck on the seafloor[^1]. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Edward Wegmann.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Edward Wegmann.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..42c84017 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Edward Wegmann.md @@ -0,0 +1,38 @@ +--- +category: "JFK Assassination" +tags: + - Person + - EdwardWegmann + - ClayShaw + - JimGarrison + - NewOrleans + - Wackenhut + - SouthernResearchCompany +alias: + - Edward F. Wegmann + - William Wegmann + - William J. Wegmann +summary: "New Orleans lawyer who with his brother William defended Clay Shaw against Jim Garrison, engaged Wackenhut and other firms of former federal agents, and sought guidance from the Justice Department on the CIA." +location: "New Orleans, Louisiana" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Edward F. Wegmann was the civil lawyer of [[Clay Shaw]], director of the [[New Orleans]] [[International Trade Mart]], and with his brother [[William Wegmann|William J. Wegmann]], [[Irvin Dymond|F. Irvin Dymond]], and Salvadore Panzeca defended him after District Attorney [[Jim Garrison]] arrested him on March 1, 1967, for conspiring to kill President [[John F. Kennedy]]. Shaw was acquitted on March 1, 1969. The Wegmanns then obtained a federal injunction against Garrison's second prosecution, for perjury, which the court found had been brought in bad faith.[^1] + +### Investigators + +The defense "hired not one, but two top-notch private detective services," the [[Wackenhut Corporation]] and [[Holloway Associates]] of [[Texas]], "Former FBI Agents," which "were filing reports for a period of at least two years." A third, the International Security Bureau of [[New York City|New York]], reported on a prosecution witness in February 1969. Wackenhut men reported to the defense with the television reporter [[Rick Townley]] on April 19, 1967. A Wackenhut investigator, [[Charles R. Carson (Wackenhut)|Charles R. Carson]], was making inquiries of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] in New Orleans that month with [[Dean Andrews]]. The [[Assassination Records Review Board]] found that Wegmann's records "indicate that the Shaw defense team had retained [[Southern Research Company]] as of mid-1967," the [[Shreveport, Louisiana|Shreveport]] firm whose New Orleans office had investigated [[David Ferrie]]. After [[William Gurvich]] left Garrison's staff in June 1967 he gave the defense about two boxes of the district attorney's investigative files. The researcher who first went through the papers wrote that Wackenhut "was getting a lot of cooperation from the Bureau for Shaw's defense."[^2][^3] + +### Washington + +In September 1967 the defense, "confused by the smoke-screen Garrison was raising" about the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]], asked the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]] for someone "who could steer them as to the true facts and circumstances." The agency and the department declined, since "if Garrison learned of federal assistance to Shaw's lawyers, he'd play it to the hilt." Through the contact the department learned that Shaw had not told his own lawyers that from 1948 to 1956 he had reported to the agency's [[Domestic Contact Service]] on 33 occasions. The agency's general counsel, [[Lawrence Houston]], wrote on October 2, 1967, that if Shaw were to "be convicted on information that could be refuted by CIA," then "we may be in for some difficult decisions." At the trial Dymond asked Shaw whether he had ever worked for the agency, and Shaw answered: "No, I have not."[^4] + +Wegmann's daughter gave his files to the review board in 1995. They include the diary of [[Tom Bethell]], a member of Garrison's staff.[^2][^4] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Shaw v. Garrison, 328 F. Supp. 390 (E.D. La. 1971), affirmed, 467 F.2d 113 (5th Cir. 1972). +[^2]: DiEugenio, James. "The Wegmann Files," *Probe,* vol. 4, no. 4, May-June 1997, pp. 8-9; National Archives and Records Administration, finding aid to the Papers of Edward F. Wegmann. +[^3]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Domestic Intelligence Division, informative note, April 14, 1967, JFK record 124-10369-10048; Assassination Records Review Board, letters to Southern Research Company, electronic files of Philip G. Golrick. +[^4]: Holland, Max. "The Lie That Linked CIA to the Kennedy Assassination," *Studies in Intelligence,* vol. 45, no. 5, 2001. https://www.cia.gov/resources/csi/static/Lie-That-Linked-CIA.pdf diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Edwin Wilson.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Edwin Wilson.md index 119088e9..41f49300 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Edwin Wilson.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Edwin Wilson.md @@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ Edwin P. Wilson was born May 3, 1928, in Rockland, Idaho. He died September 10, ### CIA Career and Shackley Connection -Wilson's CIA career included work in the Office of Security and Operations, with assignments involving maritime surveillance and logistics. He developed professional relationships with [[Ted Shackley]], [[Tom Clines]], and other senior CIA operations officers who formed the core of the network that later became involved in the [[Safari Club]] and Iran-Contra private operations. Wilson's logistical and administrative skills made him useful to this network, and he worked on the fringes of large-scale operations without occupying the senior positions held by Shackley or Clines.[^1] +Wilson's CIA career included work in the [[CIA Office of Security|Office of Security]] and Operations, with assignments involving maritime surveillance and logistics. He developed professional relationships with [[Ted Shackley]], [[Tom Clines]], and other senior CIA operations officers who formed the core of the network that later became involved in the [[Safari Club]] and Iran-Contra private operations. Wilson's logistical and administrative skills made him useful to this network, and he worked on the fringes of large-scale operations without occupying the senior positions held by Shackley or Clines.[^1] In the mid-1970s, Wilson moved from CIA to Task Force 157, a Navy and DIA intelligence-gathering operation that used commercial cover - specifically, a shipping and offshore oil services company - to collect intelligence and run agents in international ports. Task Force 157 provided Wilson with a business infrastructure that he used for his own commercial arms and services activities.[^1] diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/General William P. Yarborough.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/General William P. Yarborough.md index 0cf687f3..4df3b0ab 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/General William P. Yarborough.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/General William P. Yarborough.md @@ -95,4 +95,4 @@ Yarborough authored two books: *Bail Out Over North Africa* and *So You Want A V [^7]: Colby and Dennett, *Thy Will Be Done*, Ch. 24-25. [^8]: U.S. Army, "LTG William Yarborough, Assistant Chief of Staff, Intelligence, December 1966-July 1968," https://www.army.mil/article/139473. [^9]: Colby and Dennett, *Thy Will Be Done*, Ch. 25; Human Rights Watch, *Colombia's Killer Networks*, 1996. -[^10]: Arlington National Cemetery, "William Pelham Yarborough - Lieutenant General, United States Army," https://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/wpyarborough.htm. +[^10]: Arlington National Cemetery, "William Pelham Yarborough - Lieutenant General, [[United States Army]]," https://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/wpyarborough.htm. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Michael Townley.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Michael Townley.md index a7aaf10f..3c3ba5ea 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Michael Townley.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Michael Townley.md @@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ Michael Vernon Townley is an American electronics specialist who worked from 197 Townley had collaborated with the paramilitary [[Patria y Libertad]] in operations against the government of [[Salvador Allende]]. By his own written account he was recruited by senior DINA officers in 1974, given a mansion in the [[Lo Curro]] district of [[Santiago]], told to build a chemical laboratory in its basement, and put in charge of the [[Agrupación Avispa]], the Wasp Group, a unit of DINA's [[Mulchén Brigade]] "dedicated to elimination." He used the names Juan Andres Wilson, Hans Petersen Silva, Kenneth William Enyart, and Pablo Andres Simpon Valle. His wife, [[Mariana Callejas]], was also a DINA agent.[^1][^2] -He was born in Waterloo, [[Iowa]], first worked in Chile in the early 1960s as an encyclopedia salesman, and lived from 1967 in [[Miami]], where he came to know the Cuban exiles. In December 1970 he offered himself to the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] as an agent against the Allende government. The operations directorate asked for "preliminary security approval to use Mr. Townley in an operational capacity," and on December 21, 1971, told the Office of Security that the station had cancelled its interest. In March 1973, during a raid by Patria y Libertad on a jamming station at [[Concepción]], he gagged and bound a homeless man sheltering there, who was found dead of asphyxiation the next day. The American consul in Santiago, [[Frederick Purdy]], later gave him a new passport in his own name. An embassy officer, [[Jeffrey Davidow]], wrote in June 1974 that Townley was an "AMCIT with rather unsavory past with crypto-fascist Chilean groups" and suggested "keeping him at arms length."[^3] +He was born in Waterloo, [[Iowa]], first worked in Chile in the early 1960s as an encyclopedia salesman, and lived from 1967 in [[Miami]], where he came to know the Cuban exiles. In December 1970 he offered himself to the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] as an agent against the Allende government. The operations directorate asked for "preliminary security approval to use Mr. Townley in an operational capacity," and on December 21, 1971, told the [[CIA Office of Security|Office of Security]] that the station had cancelled its interest. In March 1973, during a raid by Patria y Libertad on a jamming station at [[Concepción]], he gagged and bound a homeless man sheltering there, who was found dead of asphyxiation the next day. The American consul in Santiago, [[Frederick Purdy]], later gave him a new passport in his own name. An embassy officer, [[Jeffrey Davidow]], wrote in June 1974 that Townley was an "AMCIT with rather unsavory past with crypto-fascist Chilean groups" and suggested "keeping him at arms length."[^3] ### Prats diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Mordecai Vanunu.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Mordecai Vanunu.md index 053da8a9..e4c3e660 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Mordecai Vanunu.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Mordecai Vanunu.md @@ -70,10 +70,10 @@ On September 21, 1986, after a meeting with [[Yitzhak Shamir]] and [[Yitzhak Rab In the Commons the Conservative members [[Dennis Walters]] and [[Anthony Beaumont-Dark]] called for an inquiry. Asked by [[Dale Campbell-Savours]] whether she had discussed Vanunu with Peres or any Israeli official before his departure, Thatcher answered: "No." Asked whether any Israeli official had communicated with her office to procure his return, she answered: "No, he was not returned to Israel from [[United Kingdom|Britain]]; he was returned from another country." Before the full debate Peres telephoned her again, and said afterward: "It was a very friendly conversation and I think that our misunderstanding has been cleared up." The British ambassador to Israel, [[Clifford Squire]], was told by Peres's aide [[Yossi Beilin]] that Israel had nothing to add. No British inquiry was held.[^4] ### Rome -The Roman magistrate [[Domenico Sica]] traced a van hired by the Israeli embassy on the day of the abduction whose mileage matched a journey to [[La Spezia]], and an Israeli cargo ship that had declared a false itinerary. Vanunu's brother [[Meir Vanunu|Meir]], who had learned the details by speaking Moroccan Arabic to him in prison, testified twice. An Israeli court issued a warrant for Meir's arrest, and the [[Home Office|British Home Office]] refused him asylum on the ground that he "faced prosecution, not persecution." An official of the Israeli foreign ministry said: "If Dr. Sica comes it would be very, very embarrassing for our government." Sica closed the inquiry in June 1988 with the finding that Vanunu had been working with the Mossad and that "the whole affair had been a disinformation exercise." He reasoned that no one could be found who had seen Vanunu arrive in Rome, that professionals would not have used a flat in a crowded district, that the message Vanunu wrote on his palm was in better English than he commanded, and that the photographs showed no staff. Meir Vanunu replied: "If this is a disinformation exercise, release my brother."[^4] +The Roman magistrate [[Domenico Sica]] traced a van hired by the Israeli embassy on the day of the abduction whose mileage matched a journey to [[La Spezia]], and an Israeli cargo ship that had declared a false itinerary. Vanunu's brother [[Meir Vanunu|Meir]], who had learned the details by speaking Moroccan Arabic to him in prison, testified twice. An Israeli court issued a warrant for Meir's arrest, and the [[Home Office|British Home Office]] refused him asylum on the ground that he "faced prosecution, not persecution." An official of the Israeli foreign ministry said: "If Dr. Sica comes it would be very, very embarrassing for our government." Sica closed the inquiry in June 1988 with the finding that Vanunu had been working with the Mossad and that "the whole affair had been a disinformation exercise." He reasoned that no one could be found who had seen Vanunu arrive in Rome, that professionals would not have used a flat in a crowded district, that the message Vanunu wrote on his palm was in better English than he commanded, and that the photographs showed no staff. Meir Vanunu replied: "If this is a disinformation exercise, release my brother." Peter Hounam of The Sunday Times wrote: "I made six visits to Rome to brief Sica and provide him with every scrap of evidence of the abduction. He never once advanced the view that The Sunday Times was the victim of a hoax, as his report intimates." The woman, he pointed out, had not used her real name, as Sica supposed, but that of her sister-in-law.[^4][^5] ### Bentov -[[Cheryl Hanin]] was born in [[Orlando, Florida]], in 1960, went to Israel in the late 1970s, served in a [[Nahal]] unit, and in March 1985 married [[Ofer Bentov]], a major in military intelligence and a general's son. Hounam and [[David Connett]], who had seen her with Vanunu in London, found her at an address in [[Netanya]] in July 1987. She asked, "Are you going to publish this?" and then said: "I deny this, I deny everything." A family friend recalled her telling her mother that "there were other things that I did for the Israeli government which were even more pertinent and involved than this." The CIA and the FBI examined her records at [[Edgewater High School]] in Orlando, and the CIA's London station asked the British services whether Israel had given warning of the operation. The Sunday Times photographed her in [[Florida]] in January 1998.[^4] +[[Cindy Hanin Bentov|Cheryl Hanin]] was born in [[Orlando, Florida]], in 1960, went to Israel in the late 1970s, served in a [[Nahal]] unit, and in March 1985 married [[Ofer Bentov]], a major in military intelligence and a general's son. Hounam and [[David Connett]], who had seen her with Vanunu in London, found her at an address in [[Netanya]] in July 1987. She asked, "Are you going to publish this?" and then said: "I deny this, I deny everything." A family friend recalled her telling her mother that "there were other things that I did for the Israeli government which were even more pertinent and involved than this." The CIA and the FBI examined her records at [[Edgewater High School]] in Orlando, and the CIA's London station asked the British services whether Israel had given warning of the operation. The Sunday Times photographed her in [[Florida]] in January 1998.[^4] ### The 1988 Expulsions In April 1987 British police found an arms cache kept by [[Ismail Sowan]], a Palestinian working for Israeli intelligence inside the [[Palestine Liberation Organization]] in Britain. The Mossad had known of it for a month and had not told the British. Thatcher wrote personally to Shamir. After Sowan was sentenced to eleven years in June 1988, the government expelled [[Arie Regev]], the Mossad's liaison with [[MI5]] and [[MI6]], and other Israeli officers, on the initiative of the [[Foreign and Commonwealth Office|Foreign Office]] and MI5 and over the objection of MI6. [[Abba Eban]] came secretly to London to see Thatcher for forty-five minutes. Intelligence sharing resumed by December.[^4] @@ -84,3 +84,4 @@ In April 1987 British police found an arms cache kept by [[Ismail Sowan]], a Pal [^2]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Faber and Faber, 1991, pp. 313-314. [^3]: United Press International, report on the dismissal of Nicholas Davies, October 29, 1991. [^4]: Cohen, Yoel. *The Whistleblower of Dimona: Israel, Vanunu, and the Bomb*. 2003. https://archive.org/details/the-whistleblower-of-dimona-israel-vanunu-and-the-bomb +[^5]: Hounam, Peter. *The Woman from Mossad: The Story of Mordechai Vanunu and the Israeli Nuclear Program*. Vision Paperbacks, 1999, pp. 74, 127. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Paul Wimert.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Paul Wimert.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..764b8d56 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Paul Wimert.md @@ -0,0 +1,47 @@ +--- +category: "Military" +tags: + - Person + - PaulWimert + - Chile + - ProjectFUBELT + - ReneSchneider + - DefenseIntelligenceAgency + - AugustoPinochet +alias: + - Paul M. Wimert + - Paul M. Wimert Jr. + - Colonel Wimert +summary: "American army attaché in Santiago who in October 1970 carried the CIA's guns and money to the Chilean officers plotting against General Schneider, and afterward threw the weapons into the sea." +location: "Santiago, Chile" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Paul Wimert was the [[United States Army]] attaché at the embassy in [[Santiago]] in 1970. When President [[Richard Nixon]] ordered the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] that September to keep [[Salvador Allende]] from office, the agency used him, outside the knowledge of Ambassador [[Edward Korry]], as its channel to serving Chilean officers, among them General [[Camilo Valenzuela]]. The operation was [[Project FUBELT]].[^1] + +### October 1970 + +The station was told on October 5 that the attaché should not deal with General [[Roberto Viaux]] himself "because of the high risk involved." On October 18 it gave him tear gas grenades for Valenzuela's officers, since it was "important that the attache credibility with Armed Forces officers be strengthened," and asked headquarters for "three .45 calibre machine guns (grease guns)," which came by diplomatic pouch. He delivered them in the early hours of October 22. General [[Rene Schneider|René Schneider]] was shot a few hours later by Viaux's men, with other weapons. Wimert recovered the guns and the 50,000 dollars paid to Valenzuela's group.[^1] + +"I gave the CIA everything," he told a television interviewer. "I gave them the money, I took the 12 grease guns that had the serial numbers filed off, the ammunition, the tear gas, the gas masks, went to [[Valparaíso]], which is supposed to be the deepest harbor in that part of the world and I dumped it all into there." The cables speak of three guns.[^2] + +A task force report said that Wimert "enjoyed unusually close, frank, and confidential relationships" with the likely plotters. The acting director of the [[Defense Intelligence Agency]], Lieutenant General Jamie Philpott, ordered him to "work closely with the CIA chief" in "contacting and advising the principal military figures who might play a decisive role in any move which might, eventually, deny the presidency to Allende. Do not, repeat not, advise the Ambassador." On October 17 Valenzuela's deputies asked him for tear gas grenades and "three 45-caliber machine guns (grease guns) with 500 rounds ammo each," and Valenzuela said the plotters would need 50,000 dollars for a team of abductors, which the station authorized. Six submachine guns arrived by diplomatic pouch, "specially wrapped and falsely labeled to disguise what they were from [[State Department]] officials." "At 2:00 a.m. on October 22, Colonel Wimert drove to a desolate spot in Santiago to deliver the weapons to a Chilean army officer waiting in his vehicle." On October 29 headquarters asked that he "manage to regain possession of material." He told [[Seymour Hersh]] that when Valenzuela refused to return the money he drew his pistol and "just hit him once and he went and got it."[^3] + +Colonel Paul M. Wimert Jr. "had served in intelligence in [[Latin America]] since the 1950s." He "had been granted the privilege of stabling his horses at the Chilean Military Academy," and "his access to and influence with the military in Chile were unmatched by that of any CIA operative." Of General Viaux he said: "I always operated on the assumption that there's no substitute for brains and Viaux didn't have any." He asked for and was shown a cable from the Defense Intelligence Agency confirming the arrangement, which "was so secure, Wimert was told, that he could not keep it in his files," and another from [[Richard Helms]] assuring him "that his family and horses would be provided for in case he was killed while at work for the Agency." "Nothing I sent went to the DIA; it went to Haig and Kissinger directly," he said. "I was filing for three months and I thought everything I sent over there was going to the DIA and it wasn't, it was going over to the [[White House]]." He was authorized to pay out 100,000 dollars. "I kept it in my riding boots in the trunk of my car." He gave 50,000 each to Valenzuela and to an admiral. The admiral returned his share without comment. In 1971 he obtained a post at the [[Inter-American Defense College]] in Washington, and in 1973 he retired, "a disappointed colonel, to a horse farm in [[Virginia]]."[^4] + +### His Account + +Asked whether he had seen evidence of Cuban involvement with Allende before the election, Wimert answered: "No." Of the operation he said: "it was simply screwed up to start with and why I let myself get into it I really couldn't figure out, because it wasn't run with brains." An officer to whom he offered money told him: "I love my country I do this for my country not because of the [[United States]], you keep the money I don't want it." He said he was glad the kidnapping had failed and "ashamed of myself that I was dumb to get roped into something like that because it was stupid from the word go." On his return he went to the chaplain at [[Fort Myer]], who advised him to work with young people in a pony club, "and I did." Of [[Henry A. Kissinger|Kissinger]] and [[Alexander Haig|Haig]] he said "they just didn't ever want to hear the word [[Chile]] mentioned again."[^2] + +He had known [[Augusto Pinochet]], then at the military college, who had written a geography of Chile's roads, railways, and shipping lanes. Wimert helped him to have it printed: "we went to CIA old Henry Hecksler and he just had 100 copies made." [[Henry Hecksher]] was the agency's station chief. Wimert said Pinochet had no part in the Schneider plot.[^2] + +The journalist Seymour Hersh reported in 1982 that Wimert told him he had supposed the CIA officers sent to Santiago in 1970 were there "to arrange for Allende's death," which was "always something everybody hoped would happen."[^5] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders,* interim report, S. Rept. 94-465, November 20, 1975, where he is referred to only as the attaché; Kornbluh, Peter, ed. "The CIA and Chile: Anatomy of an Assassination," National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 728, October 22, 2020. +[^2]: "Interview with Paul Wimert," *Cold War,* episode 18, "Backyard," Cable News Network, transcript at the National Security Archive. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/coldwar/interviews/episode-18/wimert2.html +[^3]: Kornbluh, Peter. *The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability*. New Press, 2003, pp. 15, 27-28, 30, and note 40 at p. 512. +[^4]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House*. Summit Books, 1983, pp. 280-282, 289. +[^5]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House*. Summit Books, 1983, as reported by United Press International, November 22, 1982. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Phil Zimmermann.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Phil Zimmermann.md index 306b89b2..15f82798 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Phil Zimmermann.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Phil Zimmermann.md @@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ He wrote that he was prompted to release the software by Senate Bill 266 of 1991 ### The Criminal Investigation -Because PGP traveled overseas almost immediately, it fell under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, which classified strong cryptographic software as a munition that could not be exported without a license. The [[United States Customs Service]] opened a criminal investigation in 1993, run out of the office of the United States Attorney for the Northern District of California, into whether Zimmermann had violated the export controls when PGP appeared abroad. The case made him the most prominent individual target of what became known as the crypto wars, and for three years he faced the possibility of indictment for exporting a weapon.[^1][^2] +Because PGP traveled overseas almost immediately, it fell under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, which classified strong cryptographic software as a munition that could not be exported without a license. The [[United States Customs Service]] opened a criminal investigation in 1993, run out of the office of the [[United States Attorney]] for the Northern District of California, into whether Zimmermann had violated the export controls when PGP appeared abroad. The case made him the most prominent individual target of what became known as the crypto wars, and for three years he faced the possibility of indictment for exporting a weapon.[^1][^2] Zimmermann and his supporters answered with a First Amendment argument that source code is constitutionally protected speech. In 1995 the MIT Press published the complete PGP source code as a printed book set in an optical-character-recognition font, so that it could be exported legally as a book, scanned abroad, and recompiled, a maneuver designed to test whether the government would treat the printed word as a munition. The United States Attorney's office declined to prosecute and the investigation closed in January 1996. Zimmermann received the Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award and the Chrysler Award for Innovation in Design in 1995, and the Louis Brandeis Award from Privacy International in 1999.[^5][^2] diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Rafael Trujillo.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Rafael Trujillo.md index b4266942..17cd7eab 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Rafael Trujillo.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Rafael Trujillo.md @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ ---- +--- created: 2026-05-15 updated: 2026-05-16 title: Rafael Trujillo @@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ On the evening of May 30, 1961, Trujillo was ambushed on a highway while being d The transition that followed was turbulent. Trujillo's family initially retained power but was eventually forced to leave the country under U.S. pressure. The country moved toward elections, which produced President Juan Bosch in December 1962 - a democratic government that lasted only seven months before a military coup, with tacit American acquiescence, overthrew it in September 1963. -The Dominican Republic's subsequent history included the 1965 civil war and American military intervention - a conflict in which approximately 30,000 U.S. troops landed in April 1965 under President [[Lyndon Johnson]] to prevent what the Johnson administration characterized as a communist takeover.[^2] +The Dominican Republic's subsequent history included the 1965 civil war and American military intervention - a conflict in which approximately 30,000 U.S. troops landed in April 1965 under President [[Lyndon B. Johnson|Lyndon Johnson]] to prevent what the Johnson administration characterized as a communist takeover.[^2] ### Church Committee Findings diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Richard Thornburgh.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Richard Thornburgh.md index 1c9e470c..0c270f02 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Richard Thornburgh.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Richard Thornburgh.md @@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ born: 1932-07-16 died: 2020-12-31 location: "Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania" --- -Richard Lewis Thornburgh was born July 16, 1932, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He earned a B.S. in engineering from Yale University in 1954 and an LL.B. from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 1957. He served as United States Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania from 1969 to 1975, appointed by President Nixon, and as Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division under President Ford from 1975 to 1977. He was elected Governor of Pennsylvania in 1978, serving two successive terms from January 16, 1979 to January 20, 1987 -- the first Republican to serve consecutive terms as Pennsylvania governor -- managing the March 1979 [[Three Mile Island]] nuclear incident during his first term. Richard Thornburgh died December 31, 2020, in Oakmont, Pennsylvania, at age 88.[^1] +Richard Lewis Thornburgh was born July 16, 1932, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He earned a B.S. in engineering from Yale University in 1954 and an LL.B. from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 1957. He served as [[United States Attorney]] for the Western District of Pennsylvania from 1969 to 1975, appointed by President Nixon, and as Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division under President Ford from 1975 to 1977. He was elected Governor of Pennsylvania in 1978, serving two successive terms from January 16, 1979 to January 20, 1987 -- the first Republican to serve consecutive terms as Pennsylvania governor -- managing the March 1979 [[Three Mile Island]] nuclear incident during his first term. Richard Thornburgh died December 31, 2020, in Oakmont, Pennsylvania, at age 88.[^1] ### Attorney General @@ -26,6 +26,12 @@ The two court findings at issue were Bankruptcy Judge [[George Francis Bason Jr. Thornburgh declined to reverse Meese's May 1988 denial of [[Bill Hamilton]] and [[Nancy Hamilton|INSLAW]]'s petition for appointment of an independent counsel under the Ethics in Government Act. [[Elliott Richardson]], INSLAW's attorney and himself a former Attorney General, wrote Thornburgh directly requesting the appointment; Thornburgh did not respond. When the House Judiciary Committee requested Thornburgh's personal testimony on the matter, he declined to appear. When the committee issued subpoenas for hundreds of DOJ internal documents -- including documents from the files of DOJ counsel Sandra Spooner that the committee alleged had been "mysteriously disappeared" -- Thornburgh's DOJ failed to produce all subpoenaed documents, asserting some had been mislaid or accidentally destroyed and claiming the remainder were protected by litigation privilege as part of DOJ's ongoing civil dispute with INSLAW.[^2][^3] +### The BNL Indictment + +A memorandum of February 6, 1990, by a lawyer of the [[Federal Reserve Bank of New York]] records that "a trip to Istanbul was put off at the request of Attorney General Thornburgh" in the investigation of the [[Banca Nazionale del Lavoro]]'s loans to [[Iraq]], and that criticism of the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]] case had "motivated the Attorney General to have the BNL matter reviewed by main Justice." His legislative aide [[Lee Rawls]] advised him: "Our best attempt to thwart any further congressional inquiry by the [[House Banking Committee]] into this case is to have you contact Chairman Gonzalez directly." Representative [[Henry B. Gonzalez]] declined the call. Thornburgh wrote to him on September 26, 1990, of his "profound disappointment in your decision to ignore the strong objections of this Department. As you should be aware, this is a sensitive case with national security concerns."[^4] + +The department's draft press releases described first a 316-count indictment of twelve defendants and then a 423-count indictment of eleven. On February 28, 1991, the day after the [[Gulf War]] ceasefire, Thornburgh announced 347 counts against ten. A press aide handed them out as "the Mother of all Indictments." The [[Central Bank of Iraq]] and the Jordanian trader [[Wafai Dajani]] were no longer among the accused. Thornburgh did not name the principal defendant, [[Christopher Drogoul]], leaving that to [[Robert Mueller]]. Asked what the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] had known, he said: "Our business is to prosecute criminal cases, and that's as far as I can go."[^4] + ### Later Career After leaving the Senate race, Thornburgh was appointed UN Under-Secretary General for Administration and Management by President Bush in 1992, serving through 1993. He returned to private practice at K&L Gates in Pittsburgh. In 2002, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York appointed him examiner in the WorldCom bankruptcy; his report included findings on the conduct of Arthur Andersen and Citigroup. In 2004, he co-chaired the independent panel investigating CBS News's *60 Minutes Wednesday* report on President [[George W. Bush]]'s National Guard service.[^1] @@ -35,3 +41,4 @@ After leaving the Senate race, Thornburgh was appointed UN Under-Secretary Gener [^1]: "Richard Lewis Thornburgh." Office of the Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice, *Attorneys General of the United States*; "Richard Thornburgh," Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia. [^2]: U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary. *The INSLAW Affair: Investigative Report.* House Report 102-857, 102nd Congress, 2nd Session, September 10, 1992. [^3]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal.* TrineDay, 2010. +[^4]: Friedman, Alan. *Spider's Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq*. Bantam, 1993, pp. 183-189, 194, 198. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Roberto Viaux.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Roberto Viaux.md index 30d07ea3..94ca5c7c 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Roberto Viaux.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Roberto Viaux.md @@ -24,6 +24,10 @@ The [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] station in [[Santiago]] told the America On October 15 [[Thomas Karamessines]] described Viaux's plans to [[Henry A. Kissinger|Henry Kissinger]] and [[Alexander Haig]]. They put his chances at no more than "one chance in twenty" and decided to send him a warning against acting alone. Kissinger later testified that he had turned the plotting off at this meeting. The cable that went to Santiago the next day said it was "firm and continuing policy that Allende be overthrown by a coup." A CIA officer identified in the Senate's report as "[[Sarno (CIA)|Mr. Sarno]]" testified that Viaux's people told him of the first kidnapping attempt in advance: "They indicated it was going to be at some sort of a banquet which the General (Schneider) would be attending." After that attempt failed on October 19 the station reported: "General Viaux knowledgeable of above operation but not directly involved."[^1][^2] +The officers who posed as third country nationals included [[Anthony Sforza]] and [[Bruce MacMaster]]. MacMaster told Viaux's group that he represented "American business interests such as the [[Ford Foundation]], the [[Rockefeller Foundation]], and other unidentified business groups." The station's first situation report, on September 16, had proposed to "determine whether General Viaux [could be] induced to take action which would cause Communist reaction and in turn force military hand." Its log for October 10 recorded that Viaux "intends to increase the level of terrorism in Santiago over the weekend. The objective of this activity is to provoke the UP into retaliatory violence and public disorder." That day he asked for "five blank policies up to $50,000 U.S. currency and twenty other policies up to $25,000." The station chief, [[Henry Hecksher]], cabled: "You have asked us to provoke chaos in Chile. Thru Viaux solution, we provide you with formula for chaos which is unlikely to be bloodless."[^3] + +Ambassador [[Edward Korry]] told Kissinger that "only an insane person would deal with a man like Viaux," whose faction, he said, had been penetrated by Socialists close to Allende. On October 17 the station reported that the [[White House]] warning had been delivered and that Viaux had answered that he and his associates would proceed with or without American support.[^4] + ### The Shooting General [[Rene Schneider|René Schneider]] was shot on the morning of October 22 by Viaux's men, who used handguns. The submachine guns the agency had sent by diplomatic pouch had gone to the group of General [[Camilo Valenzuela]]. A Chilean military court found that the two generals "had been in contact throughout the coup plotting." It sentenced Viaux to twenty years as "intellectual author" of the kidnapping and Valenzuela to three years of exile. The agency later paid Viaux's representatives 35,000 dollars, in the words of its report to the [[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence|House Intelligence Committee]], "in an effort to keep previous contact secret, maintain the good will of the group and for humanitarian reasons." They had asked for 250,000.[^1][^2] @@ -32,3 +36,5 @@ General [[Rene Schneider|René Schneider]] was shot on the morning of October 22 [^1]: Kornbluh, Peter, ed. "The CIA and Chile: Anatomy of an Assassination," National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 728, October 22, 2020. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2020-10-22/cia-chile-anatomy-assassination [^2]: Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders,* interim report, S. Rept. 94-465, November 20, 1975. +[^3]: Kornbluh, Peter. *The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability*. New Press, 2003, pp. 20-23. +[^4]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House*. Summit Books, 1983, pp. 279, 282-283, 288. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Scott Weekly.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Scott Weekly.md index 9eda5470..de4ddcae 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Scott Weekly.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Scott Weekly.md @@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ Weekly was identified by Ronald Lister during the October 1986 [[LASD Major Viol ### Afghan Training and C-4 Case -In early 1986, Weekly and Gritz were recruited to train Afghan Mujahedeen fighters. They obtained approval from State Department officials William Bode and Colonel Nestor Pino Marina, who worked with Oliver North on the Contra project. The training was funded by Stanford Technology, one of North's "Enterprise" front companies. In late 1986, Weekly shipped 200 pounds of C-4 plastic explosives aboard commercial passenger flights to Las Vegas. An ATF report found in the CIA's files "indicated that Weekly claimed he had done this for CIA."[^1] +In early 1986, Weekly and Gritz were recruited to train Afghan Mujahedeen fighters. They obtained approval from State Department officials William Bode and Colonel Nestor Pino Marina, who worked with Oliver North on the Contra project. The training was funded by Stanford Technology, one of North's "Enterprise" front companies. In late 1986, Weekly shipped 200 pounds of C-4 plastic explosives aboard commercial passenger flights to [[Las Vegas]]. An ATF report found in the CIA's files "indicated that Weekly claimed he had done this for CIA."[^1] ### The Tapes and Bush Connection diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/KEY INDIVIDUALS.md b/10 - PEOPLE/KEY INDIVIDUALS.md index 82fe0eea..2c156f26 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/KEY INDIVIDUALS.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/KEY INDIVIDUALS.md @@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ Central figures in the U.S. government's investigations into psychic phenomena a | [[Sidney Gottlieb]] | Sidney Gottlieb was a CIA chemist and spymaster, notorious for his involvement in controversial programs like Project MKUltra, which explored mind control and chemical interrogation. | | [[Stansfield Turner]] | Stansfield Turner (1923–2018) was an American admiral who served as the DCI under President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981. | | [[Uri Geller]] | When Geller was ten, his parents separated, and he moved with his mother to Cyprus. | -| [[William E. Colby]] | Director of the CIA from 1973 to 1976 who believed Israel possessed nuclear weapons and might use them in an extreme situation. | +| [[William Colby|William E. Colby]] | Director of the CIA from 1973 to 1976 who believed Israel possessed nuclear weapons and might use them in an extreme situation. | | [[William Odom]] | U.S. Army Major General who succeeded Edmund Thompson as ACSI and was skeptical of the Grill Flame remote viewing program. | | [[William Perry]] | William Perry served as the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. | | [[William Rolya]] | INSCOM commander who provided tacit support for the military's remote viewing program during the early years of the Stargate Project. | @@ -87,7 +87,7 @@ Individuals known for psychic abilities, remote viewing, or participation in psi | [[Brad Veek]] | Brad Veek was a cartographer and career submariner who played a role in Project Deep Quest. | | [[Brian D. Josephson]] | His work on the Josephson junction, a configuration of two layers of superconducting material sandwiching a thin layer of non-superconducting material, was part of the quark detector used in Hal Puthoff and Ingo Swann's psychokinesis experiment at SRI. | | [[Bud Duncan]] | Army civilian photo-interpreter and early member of the Gondola Wish (later Grill Flame) remote viewing unit. | -| [[Caspar W. Weinberger]] | Secretary of Defense under Reagan whose military aide Lieutenant Colonel Higgins was abducted in Lebanon in 1988 with deep knowledge of classified matters. | +| [[Caspar Weinberger|Caspar W. Weinberger]] | Secretary of Defense under Reagan whose military aide Lieutenant Colonel Higgins was abducted in Lebanon in 1988 with deep knowledge of classified matters. | | [[Charlene Cavanaugh Shufelt]] | Charlene Cavanaugh Shufelt was one of the five remote viewers from INSCOM who remained in the program when the DIA took over the psychoenergetics program. | | [[Charles Bohlen]] | Charles Bohlen (1904–1974) was a distinguished American diplomat who served as the U.S. | | [[Charles Frank Jordan]] | Charles Frank Jordan was a former special agent for the U.S. | @@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ Individuals known for psychic abilities, remote viewing, or participation in psi | [[Donald A. Myers]] | Myers's deployment came two years after a new and more powerful set of Soviet microwave beams (MUTS-2) were picked up by the CIA in Moscow. | | [[Donald C. Latham]] | Assistant Secretary of Defense who served as chairman of the oversight panel for the Sun Streak program, the renamed Stargate Project. | | [[Donald M. Kerr]] | Director of Los Alamos National Laboratory who served on the science panel for the CIA's Sun Streak/Stargate remote viewing program. | -| [[Donald T. Regan]] | Regan stated that 'Virtually every major move and decision the Reagans made during my time as White House chief of staff was cleared by a woman in San Francisco who drew up horoscopes to make certain that the planets were in favorable alignment for the enterprise.' This revelation was confirmed by W | +| [[Donald Regan|Donald T. Regan]] | Regan stated that 'Virtually every major move and decision the Reagans made during my time as White House chief of staff was cleared by a woman in San Francisco who drew up horoscopes to make certain that the planets were in favorable alignment for the enterprise.' This revelation was confirmed by W | | [[Doug Henning]] | Doug Henning (1947–2000) was a renowned Canadian magician and illusionist. | | [[Douglas B. Hudson]] | This commendation highlights the high regard in which Morehouse was held by his superiors, despite later controversies surrounding his conduct and the eventual downfall of the psychic research program. | | [[Dr. D. G. Vinod]] | Puharich brought Vinod to the Round Table Foundation, where Vinod allegedly went into a trance and channeled a group of entities called 'the Nine Principles and Forces.' This event had a profound impact on Puharich, solidifying his belief in an external, possibly extraterrestrial, source for psychic | @@ -346,7 +346,7 @@ CIA, DIA, NSA officials, politicians, diplomats, arms dealers, and intelligence | [[Leon Brittan]] | Leon Brittan was the Secretary of the Home Office under Margaret Thatcher who received a dossier from MP Geoffrey Dickens in 1983 containing allegations about members of parliament and the Queen's royal staff being part of a VIP pedophile ring with ties to the Pedophile Information Exchange (PIE). | | [[Leonid Brezhnev]] | In 1972, Brezhnev met with Golda Meir, then Prime Minister of Israel, in Finland. | | [[Luis Posada Carriles]] | Veteran CIA agent and terrorist with a documented history of drug trafficking who ran day-to-day Contra resupply operations at Ilopango Air Force Base under the alias Ramon Medina. | -| [[Lyndon Johnson]] | As Senate Majority Leader, Johnson made Bobby Baker his secretary of the Senate Democrats in 1955, referring to Baker as 'my strong right arm, the last man I see at night, the first I see in the morning.' A major scandal brewed around Baker in the autumn of 1963, involving numerous questionable deal | +| [[Lyndon B. Johnson|Lyndon Johnson]] | As Senate Majority Leader, Johnson made Bobby Baker his secretary of the Senate Democrats in 1955, referring to Baker as 'my strong right arm, the last man I see at night, the first I see in the morning.' A major scandal brewed around Baker in the autumn of 1963, involving numerous questionable deal | | [[Manuel Noriega]] | Military dictator of Panama who simultaneously served as a CIA asset and facilitated Colombian drug trafficking, was ousted by U.S. invasion in 1989, and had his 40-year sentence reduced to 10 years after former CIA officials testified on his behalf. | | [[Manuel Zelaya]] | Zelaya was ousted by a coup allegedly designed by General Daniel Lopez Carballo and Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, both friends of Jimmy Hughes. | | [[Marcos Aguado]] | CIA-trained Nicaraguan pilot who managed drug trafficking logistics for Norwin Meneses and Eden Pastora, later became a colonel in the Salvadoran Air Force at Ilopango. | @@ -380,7 +380,7 @@ CIA, DIA, NSA officials, politicians, diplomats, arms dealers, and intelligence | [[Rafael Eitan]] | Rafael Eitan, also known as 'Rafi the stinker,' was an ambitious Israeli clandestine operative and a crony of Ariel Sharon. | | [[Reuben Yirador]] | Colonel Reuben Yirador was a department commander in Unit 8200, an Israeli Signals Intelligence (Sigint) unit. | | [[Reuven Yerdor]] | Reuven Yerdor, also known as Rudi, was an accomplished linguist and a senior officer in Israel's Detachment 515 (later redesignated Detachment 8200), which is in charge of signals intelligence and code-breaking. | -| [[Richard M. Helms]] | Helms also came to a personal conclusion that Israel was funneling American satellite information to the Soviet Union, repeatedly telling his deputies and aides that he was convinced Israel was an 'open pipeline for pumping intelligence to Moscow. | +| [[Richard Helms|Richard M. Helms]] | Helms also came to a personal conclusion that Israel was funneling American satellite information to the Soviet Union, repeatedly telling his deputies and aides that he was convinced Israel was an 'open pipeline for pumping intelligence to Moscow. | | [[Richard Nixon]] | Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. | | [[Richard Wilker]] | Former CIA agent who served as technical director for Pyramid International Security Consultants' weapons operations in El Salvador. | | [[Robert Chasen]] | Chasen supervised the Wackenhut Corporation's Indio facility from Coral Gables, Florida. | @@ -439,7 +439,7 @@ Military officers and defense officials. | [[General Rios Montt]] | Montt's military regime (1982–1983) was involved in some of the worst atrocities of Guatemala's 36-year civil war. | | [[Gustavo Medina]] | Former National Guard major general under Anastasio Somoza who served as the regime's counterinsurgency expert and later co-founded La Parrilla restaurant in Miami, a gathering place for Contra leaders. | | [[John Carrette]] | Carrette later became the Executive Vice President of FGBMFI (Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International) and helped set up Jimmy Hughes in Honduras. | -| [[John L. LaMothe]] | U.S. Army intelligence officer who authored the 1972 DIA report on Soviet psi research, spurring U.S. concerns about a 'psi gap'. | +| [[John LaMothe|John L. LaMothe]] | U.S. Army intelligence officer who authored the 1972 DIA report on Soviet psi research, spurring U.S. concerns about a 'psi gap'. | | [[Jonathan Pollard]] | Pollard was an unhappy child in South Bend, Indiana, tormented and beaten in grade school for being Jewish. | | [[Jose Rodriguez]] | Colonel Jose Rodriguez was a pilot in Paraguay, serving as the pilot for Ari Ben-Menashe during his inspection of Cardoen Industries' chemical plant. | | [[Pesah Melowany]] | Colonel Pesah Melowany was an officer in the Israeli Defense Forces' External Relations Department. | @@ -475,7 +475,7 @@ Central figures in the PROMIS/INSLAW software scandal. | [[Cheri Seymour]] | Cheri Seymour is an investigative journalist and author. | | [[Cornelius Blackshear]] | Cornelius Blackshear was a U.S. | | [[Craig Olson]] | FBI agent from the D.C. Metropolitan Office present at Paul Wilcher's apartment after his mysterious death. | -| [[D. Lowell Jensen]] | Inslaw alleged that Jensen had a 'previously developed negative attitude about PROMIS and INSLAW' and that he consciously ignored Inslaw's complaints about C. | +| [[Lowell Jensen|D. Lowell Jensen]] | Inslaw alleged that Jensen had a 'previously developed negative attitude about PROMIS and INSLAW' and that he consciously ignored Inslaw's complaints about C. | | [[Daniel Magano]] | Alleged mobster observed meeting with Cabazon tribal administrator Dr. John Philip Nichols alongside La Cosa Nostra figures per Indio Police surveillance. | | [[Daniel Murphy]] | In early 1991, INSLAW Counsel Elliot Richardson asked Murphy to review the plausibility of claims about the covert dissemination of PROMIS for intelligence-tracking applications and to give his opinion on whether the claimed intelligence uses could explain Richard Thornburgh's inexplicable failure t | | [[Daniel Tessler]] | Daniel Tessler managed a venture capital fund called 53rd Street Ventures, Inc., which was formed around 1976 as an investment company. | @@ -526,7 +526,7 @@ Central figures in the PROMIS/INSLAW software scandal. | [[John Keeney]] | John Keeney was a career Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Criminal Division of the DOJ. | | [[John Otto]] | John Otto was the former Acting Director of the FBI. | | [[John Paul Nichols]] | John Paul Nichols was the 'Project Manager' for the Cabazon/Wackenhut Corporation Joint Venture, also known as Cabazon Arms. | -| [[Johnny Rosselli]] | Organized crime leader enlisted by the CIA through Robert Maheu in 1960 to assist in assassination plots against Fidel Castro. | +| [[Johnny Roselli|Johnny Rosselli]] | Organized crime leader enlisted by the CIA through Robert Maheu in 1960 to assist in assassination plots against Fidel Castro. | | [[Jonathan Ben Cnaan]] | Jonathan Ben Cnaan was an account executive with 53rd Street Ventures, a New York City venture capital firm that held a small equity investment in Inslaw. | | [[Joseph Coors]] | Prominent right-wing activist, Heritage Foundation associate, and FGBMFI member connected to the PROMIS/Cabazon network. | | [[Joseph R. (Mike) Benitez]] | Former Cabazon Tribal Council Chairman who wrote to President Reagan requesting investigation of non-Indian investors at Cabazon Casino. | @@ -669,10 +669,10 @@ Central figures in the Iran-Contra affair and October Surprise. | [[Pablo Escobar]] | Pablo Escobar was the leader of the Medellín Cartel who allegedly made a deal with Vice President George Bush's administration and whose cocaine empire supplied Contra-connected trafficking networks. | | [[Reza Hashemi]] | Iranian arms dealer and one of the Hashemi brothers involved in secret arms sales and hostage negotiations related to Iran-Contra. | | [[Ricardo Lau]] | Ricardo Lau was a former Nicaraguan National Guard intelligence officer who co-founded the FDN Contra army and served as its death squad leader and chief torturer. | -| [[Rob Owen]] | Rob Owen was Oliver North's courier and liaison to the Contra leadership who reported on drug trafficking by Contra supply companies. | +| [[Robert Owen|Rob Owen]] | Rob Owen was Oliver North's courier and liaison to the Contra leadership who reported on drug trafficking by Contra supply companies. | | [[Robert Parry]] | American investigative journalist who broke early stories on Contra drug trafficking, produced Frontline documentaries on Iran-Contra, and argued the CIA's secret agreement with Justice was designed to protect narcotics traffickers. | | [[Roger Mayorga]] | Roger Mayorga was a former Sandinista intelligence officer who headed criminal investigations for the Nicaraguan National Police narcotics unit and monitored Norwin Meneses for years. | -| [[Ron Lister]] | Ron Lister was a former Laguna Beach police officer who became Danilo Blandón's partner in drug trafficking and weapons procurement, claiming high-level CIA connections. | +| [[Ronald Lister|Ron Lister]] | Ron Lister was a former Laguna Beach police officer who became Danilo Blandón's partner in drug trafficking and weapons procurement, claiming high-level CIA connections. | | [[Sandra Smith]] | Sandra Smith was a DEA agent who filed an affidavit in 1981 documenting Norwin Meneses's involvement in cocaine trafficking, years before the Frogman Case. | | [[Socrates Sofi-Perez]] | Socrates Sofi-Perez was a Cuban Bay of Pigs veteran and DEA informant who described the Contra drug trafficking scheme at Ilopango Air Base to Celerino Castillo. | | [[Spencer Oliver]] | Chief counsel for the House Foreign Relations Committee involved in Iran-Contra hearings, later admitting the hearings were a cover-up. | @@ -946,7 +946,7 @@ Police, detectives, prosecutors, lawyers, and judges. | [[Thomas Gordon]] | LASD Major Violators detective who led the investigation into the Blandon-Ross cocaine network after receiving Jerry Guzzetta's Project Sahara reports. | | [[Tony Coelho]] | Coelho purchased property in partnership with one member of the Mariposa Board of Supervisors. | | [[Vivian L. Wagner]] | Her letter detailed the alleged corruption within the Mariposa County local government, including unlawful and corrupt activities by officials and departments, and the failure of the State Attorney General John Van de Kamp and federal agencies to investigate these allegations. | -| [[Webb Hubbell]] | Arkansas lawyer and associate attorney general under Clinton with connections to weapons manufacturing for the Contras and the Mena, Arkansas drug investigation. | +| [[Webster Hubbell|Webb Hubbell]] | Arkansas lawyer and associate attorney general under Clinton with connections to weapons manufacturing for the Contras and the Mena, Arkansas drug investigation. | | [[William Hundley]] | Hundley had recently joined Strauss's firm, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. | | [[Yitzhak Kahan]] | As a result of the commission's findings, Maj. | | [[Yitzhak Tunic]] | Israeli lawyer who defended Michael Dennis Rohan in the 1969 El Aqsa Mosque arson case, later became Israel's state comptroller. | @@ -1011,7 +1011,7 @@ Scientists and officials central to nuclear weapons development and policy. | [[David Ben-Gurion]] | David Ben-Gurion, often referred to as the 'Old Man,' was a central figure in the establishment of Israel and served as its first Prime Minister and Defense Minister from 1948 to 1963, with one brief interlude. | | [[David E. Long]] | State Department Middle East expert who revealed that Israeli nuclear intelligence was treated as a strictly taboo subject within the U.S. bureaucracy. | | [[David Lowenthal]] | David Lowenthal was one of the initial stockholders in the Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation (NUMEC). | -| [[Donald M. Kerr, Jr.]] | Acting director of defense programs at the Department of Energy who directed the Nuclear Intelligence Panel study of the 1979 Vela satellite flash, concluding it was a nuclear bomb. | +| [[Donald M. Kerr|Donald M. Kerr, Jr.]] | Acting director of defense programs at the Department of Energy who directed the Nuclear Intelligence Panel study of the 1979 Vela satellite flash, concluding it was a nuclear bomb. | | [[Edward Teller]] | Edward Teller was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist who is widely known as the 'father of the hydrogen bomb.' He and other American nuclear weapons designers understood well before the end of World War II that a far more powerful nuclear device, with fission as merely a first step, was theo | | [[Eugene M. Braderman]] | Deputy assistant secretary of state for commercial affairs who was pressured by Israelis to help the U.S. accept Israel's nuclear weapons. | | [[Eugene Wigner]] | Eugene Wigner was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate. | @@ -1041,7 +1041,7 @@ Scientists and officials central to nuclear weapons development and policy. | [[Jens C. Hauge]] | Norwegian official who conducted Norway's only inspection of heavy water sold to Israel, accepting Bergmann's claims uncritically. | | [[Jerome B. Wiesner]] | President Kennedy's science adviser who was deliberately excluded from intelligence about Israel's Dimona nuclear reactor at David Ben-Gurion's request. | | [[Jody Powell]] | Jody Powell was President Jimmy Carter's press secretary. | -| [[John A. McCone]] | McCone's leak was his parting shot as AEC commissioner, as he announced his resignation shortly after. | +| [[John McCone|John A. McCone]] | McCone's leak was his parting shot as AEC commissioner, as he announced his resignation shortly after. | | [[John F. Kennedy]] | Kennedy's presidency was marked by a struggle with Israel over its nuclear ambitions, particularly concerning the Dimona reactor. | | [[John Foster Dulles]] | John Foster Dulles served as the Secretary of State under President Dwight D. | | [[John L. Hadden]] | Hadden sent Colonel Carmelo V. | @@ -1286,7 +1286,7 @@ People needing further categorization. | [[Raymond Lavas]] | Lavas also turned some of Michael Riconosciuto's disks over to the Jack Brooks investigative committee (House Judiciary Committee on INSLAW). | | [[Regina Zokosky]] | Wife of Peter Zokosky who contradicted her husband's assertion that Danny Casolaro committed suicide. | | [[Rhonda Louise Williams]] | Rhonda Louise Williams was a 15-year-old resident of Houston, Texas, in 1973. | -| [[Richard Allen]] | National security figure connected to the Carter and Reagan administrations who attended the October 1980 Washington meeting on Iran. | +| [[Richard V. Allen|Richard Allen]] | National security figure connected to the Carter and Reagan administrations who attended the October 1980 Washington meeting on Iran. | | [[Richard Arnold]] | His Navy research career began in 1999 when he was commissioned as a US Naval Aerospace Experimental Psychologist. | | [[Richard St. Francis]] | Connecticut businessman and TransCapital employee involved in C-130 aircraft sales to Iran and indicted alongside Ari Ben-Menashe. | | [[Robert Barnes]] | Barnes was involved in a 'reverse sting' operation where methamphetamine precursors were reportedly supplied to Ben Kalka. | diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/MOC - Intelligence & Government.md b/10 - PEOPLE/MOC - Intelligence & Government.md index 16ccdd05..755fac8f 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/MOC - Intelligence & Government.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/MOC - Intelligence & Government.md @@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ CIA, DIA, NSA officials, politicians, diplomats, arms dealers, and intelligence | [[Leon Brittan]] | Leon Brittan was the Secretary of the Home Office under Margaret Thatcher who received a dossier from MP Geoffrey Dickens in 1983 containing allegations about members of parliament and the Queen's royal staff being part of a VIP pedophile ring with ties to the Pedophile Information Exchange (PIE). | | [[Leonid Brezhnev]] | In 1972, Brezhnev met with Golda Meir, then Prime Minister of Israel, in Finland. | | [[Luis Posada Carriles]] | Veteran CIA agent and terrorist with a documented history of drug trafficking who ran day-to-day Contra resupply operations at Ilopango Air Force Base under the alias Ramon Medina. | -| [[Lyndon Johnson]] | As Senate Majority Leader, Johnson made Bobby Baker his secretary of the Senate Democrats in 1955, referring to Baker as 'my strong right arm, the last man I see at night, the first I see in the morning.' A major scandal brewed around Baker in the autumn of 1963, involving numerous questionable deal | +| [[Lyndon B. Johnson|Lyndon Johnson]] | As Senate Majority Leader, Johnson made Bobby Baker his secretary of the Senate Democrats in 1955, referring to Baker as 'my strong right arm, the last man I see at night, the first I see in the morning.' A major scandal brewed around Baker in the autumn of 1963, involving numerous questionable deal | | [[Manuel Noriega]] | Military dictator of Panama who simultaneously served as a CIA asset and facilitated Colombian drug trafficking, was ousted by U.S. invasion in 1989, and had his 40-year sentence reduced to 10 years after former CIA officials testified on his behalf. | | [[Manuel Zelaya]] | Zelaya was ousted by a coup allegedly designed by General Daniel Lopez Carballo and Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, both friends of Jimmy Hughes. | | [[Marcos Aguado]] | CIA-trained Nicaraguan pilot who managed drug trafficking logistics for Norwin Meneses and Eden Pastora, later became a colonel in the Salvadoran Air Force at Ilopango. | @@ -114,7 +114,7 @@ CIA, DIA, NSA officials, politicians, diplomats, arms dealers, and intelligence | [[Rafael Eitan]] | Rafael Eitan, also known as 'Rafi the stinker,' was an ambitious Israeli clandestine operative and a crony of Ariel Sharon. | | [[Reuben Yirador]] | Colonel Reuben Yirador was a department commander in Unit 8200, an Israeli Signals Intelligence (Sigint) unit. | | [[Reuven Yerdor]] | Reuven Yerdor, also known as Rudi, was an accomplished linguist and a senior officer in Israel's Detachment 515 (later redesignated Detachment 8200), which is in charge of signals intelligence and code-breaking. | -| [[Richard M. Helms]] | Helms also came to a personal conclusion that Israel was funneling American satellite information to the Soviet Union, repeatedly telling his deputies and aides that he was convinced Israel was an 'open pipeline for pumping intelligence to Moscow. | +| [[Richard Helms|Richard M. Helms]] | Helms also came to a personal conclusion that Israel was funneling American satellite information to the Soviet Union, repeatedly telling his deputies and aides that he was convinced Israel was an 'open pipeline for pumping intelligence to Moscow. | | [[Richard Nixon]] | Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. | | [[Richard Wilker]] | Former CIA agent who served as technical director for Pyramid International Security Consultants' weapons operations in El Salvador. | | [[Robert Chasen]] | Chasen supervised the Wackenhut Corporation's Indio facility from Coral Gables, Florida. | diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/MOC - Iran-Contra.md b/10 - PEOPLE/MOC - Iran-Contra.md index f9bcb461..b5fbc1fa 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/MOC - Iran-Contra.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/MOC - Iran-Contra.md @@ -63,10 +63,10 @@ Central figures in the Iran-Contra affair and October Surprise. | [[Pablo Escobar]] | Pablo Escobar was the leader of the Medellín Cartel who allegedly made a deal with Vice President George Bush's administration and whose cocaine empire supplied Contra-connected trafficking networks. | | [[Reza Hashemi]] | Iranian arms dealer and one of the Hashemi brothers involved in secret arms sales and hostage negotiations related to Iran-Contra. | | [[Ricardo Lau]] | Ricardo Lau was a former Nicaraguan National Guard intelligence officer who co-founded the FDN Contra army and served as its death squad leader and chief torturer. | -| [[Rob Owen]] | Rob Owen was Oliver North's courier and liaison to the Contra leadership who reported on drug trafficking by Contra supply companies. | +| [[Robert Owen|Rob Owen]] | Rob Owen was Oliver North's courier and liaison to the Contra leadership who reported on drug trafficking by Contra supply companies. | | [[Robert Parry]] | American investigative journalist who broke early stories on Contra drug trafficking, produced Frontline documentaries on Iran-Contra, and argued the CIA's secret agreement with Justice was designed to protect narcotics traffickers. | | [[Roger Mayorga]] | Roger Mayorga was a former Sandinista intelligence officer who headed criminal investigations for the Nicaraguan National Police narcotics unit and monitored Norwin Meneses for years. | -| [[Ron Lister]] | Ron Lister was a former Laguna Beach police officer who became Danilo Blandón's partner in drug trafficking and weapons procurement, claiming high-level CIA connections. | +| [[Ronald Lister|Ron Lister]] | Ron Lister was a former Laguna Beach police officer who became Danilo Blandón's partner in drug trafficking and weapons procurement, claiming high-level CIA connections. | | [[Sandra Smith]] | Sandra Smith was a DEA agent who filed an affidavit in 1981 documenting Norwin Meneses's involvement in cocaine trafficking, years before the Frogman Case. | | [[Socrates Sofi-Perez]] | Socrates Sofi-Perez was a Cuban Bay of Pigs veteran and DEA informant who described the Contra drug trafficking scheme at Ilopango Air Base to Celerino Castillo. | | [[Spencer Oliver]] | Chief counsel for the House Foreign Relations Committee involved in Iran-Contra hearings, later admitting the hearings were a cover-up. | diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/MOC - Key Figures.md b/10 - PEOPLE/MOC - Key Figures.md index fde54ed3..dac0104b 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/MOC - Key Figures.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/MOC - Key Figures.md @@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ Central figures in the U.S. government's investigations into psychic phenomena a | [[Sidney Gottlieb]] | Sidney Gottlieb was a CIA chemist and spymaster, notorious for his involvement in controversial programs like Project MKUltra, which explored mind control and chemical interrogation. | | [[Stansfield Turner]] | Stansfield Turner (1923–2018) was an American admiral who served as the DCI under President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981. | | [[Uri Geller]] | When Geller was ten, his parents separated, and he moved with his mother to Cyprus. | -| [[William E. Colby]] | Director of the CIA from 1973 to 1976 who believed Israel possessed nuclear weapons and might use them in an extreme situation. | +| [[William Colby|William E. Colby]] | Director of the CIA from 1973 to 1976 who believed Israel possessed nuclear weapons and might use them in an extreme situation. | | [[William Odom]] | U.S. Army Major General who succeeded Edmund Thompson as ACSI and was skeptical of the Grill Flame remote viewing program. | | [[William Perry]] | William Perry served as the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. | | [[William Rolya]] | INSCOM commander who provided tacit support for the military's remote viewing program during the early years of the Stargate Project. | diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/MOC - Law Enforcement & Legal.md b/10 - PEOPLE/MOC - Law Enforcement & Legal.md index 516d7f48..b2ef3b81 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/MOC - Law Enforcement & Legal.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/MOC - Law Enforcement & Legal.md @@ -76,7 +76,7 @@ Police, detectives, prosecutors, lawyers, and judges involved in related cases. | [[Thomas Gordon]] | LASD Major Violators detective who led the investigation into the Blandon-Ross cocaine network after receiving Jerry Guzzetta's Project Sahara reports. | | [[Tony Coelho]] | Coelho purchased property in partnership with one member of the Mariposa Board of Supervisors. | | [[Vivian L. Wagner]] | Her letter detailed the alleged corruption within the Mariposa County local government, including unlawful and corrupt activities by officials and departments, and the failure of the State Attorney General John Van de Kamp and federal agencies to investigate these allegations. | -| [[Webb Hubbell]] | Arkansas lawyer and associate attorney general under Clinton with connections to weapons manufacturing for the Contras and the Mena, Arkansas drug investigation. | +| [[Webster Hubbell|Webb Hubbell]] | Arkansas lawyer and associate attorney general under Clinton with connections to weapons manufacturing for the Contras and the Mena, Arkansas drug investigation. | | [[William Hundley]] | Hundley had recently joined Strauss's firm, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. | | [[Yitzhak Kahan]] | As a result of the commission's findings, Maj. | | [[Yitzhak Tunic]] | Israeli lawyer who defended Michael Dennis Rohan in the 1969 El Aqsa Mosque arson case, later became Israel's state comptroller. | diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/MOC - Military.md b/10 - PEOPLE/MOC - Military.md index eb6481cc..d4981be8 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/MOC - Military.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/MOC - Military.md @@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ Military officers and defense officials. | [[General Rios Montt]] | Montt's military regime (1982–1983) was involved in some of the worst atrocities of Guatemala's 36-year civil war. | | [[Gustavo Medina]] | Former National Guard major general under Anastasio Somoza who served as the regime's counterinsurgency expert and later co-founded La Parrilla restaurant in Miami, a gathering place for Contra leaders. | | [[John Carrette]] | Carrette later became the Executive Vice President of FGBMFI (Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International) and helped set up Jimmy Hughes in Honduras. | -| [[John L. LaMothe]] | U.S. Army intelligence officer who authored the 1972 DIA report on Soviet psi research, spurring U.S. concerns about a 'psi gap'. | +| [[John LaMothe|John L. LaMothe]] | U.S. Army intelligence officer who authored the 1972 DIA report on Soviet psi research, spurring U.S. concerns about a 'psi gap'. | | [[Jonathan Pollard]] | Pollard was an unhappy child in South Bend, Indiana, tormented and beaten in grade school for being Jewish. | | [[Jose Rodriguez]] | Colonel Jose Rodriguez was a pilot in Paraguay, serving as the pilot for Ari Ben-Menashe during his inspection of Cardoen Industries' chemical plant. | | [[Pesah Melowany]] | Colonel Pesah Melowany was an officer in the Israeli Defense Forces' External Relations Department. | diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/MOC - Nuclear Scientists & Programs.md b/10 - PEOPLE/MOC - Nuclear Scientists & Programs.md index 82dc327b..1a3f20e1 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/MOC - Nuclear Scientists & Programs.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/MOC - Nuclear Scientists & Programs.md @@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ Scientists and officials central to nuclear weapons development, proliferation, | [[David Ben-Gurion]] | David Ben-Gurion, often referred to as the 'Old Man,' was a central figure in the establishment of Israel and served as its first Prime Minister and Defense Minister from 1948 to 1963, with one brief interlude. | | [[David E. Long]] | State Department Middle East expert who revealed that Israeli nuclear intelligence was treated as a strictly taboo subject within the U.S. bureaucracy. | | [[David Lowenthal]] | David Lowenthal was one of the initial stockholders in the Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation (NUMEC). | -| [[Donald M. Kerr, Jr.]] | Acting director of defense programs at the Department of Energy who directed the Nuclear Intelligence Panel study of the 1979 Vela satellite flash, concluding it was a nuclear bomb. | +| [[Donald M. Kerr|Donald M. Kerr, Jr.]] | Acting director of defense programs at the Department of Energy who directed the Nuclear Intelligence Panel study of the 1979 Vela satellite flash, concluding it was a nuclear bomb. | | [[Edward Teller]] | Edward Teller was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist who is widely known as the 'father of the hydrogen bomb.' He and other American nuclear weapons designers understood well before the end of World War II that a far more powerful nuclear device, with fission as merely a first step, was theo | | [[Eugene M. Braderman]] | Deputy assistant secretary of state for commercial affairs who was pressured by Israelis to help the U.S. accept Israel's nuclear weapons. | | [[Eugene Wigner]] | Eugene Wigner was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate. | @@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ Scientists and officials central to nuclear weapons development, proliferation, | [[Jens C. Hauge]] | Norwegian official who conducted Norway's only inspection of heavy water sold to Israel, accepting Bergmann's claims uncritically. | | [[Jerome B. Wiesner]] | President Kennedy's science adviser who was deliberately excluded from intelligence about Israel's Dimona nuclear reactor at David Ben-Gurion's request. | | [[Jody Powell]] | Jody Powell was President Jimmy Carter's press secretary. | -| [[John A. McCone]] | McCone's leak was his parting shot as AEC commissioner, as he announced his resignation shortly after. | +| [[John McCone|John A. McCone]] | McCone's leak was his parting shot as AEC commissioner, as he announced his resignation shortly after. | | [[John F. Kennedy]] | Kennedy's presidency was marked by a struggle with Israel over its nuclear ambitions, particularly concerning the Dimona reactor. | | [[John Foster Dulles]] | John Foster Dulles served as the Secretary of State under President Dwight D. | | [[John L. Hadden]] | Hadden sent Colonel Carmelo V. | diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/MOC - PROMIS Scandal.md b/10 - PEOPLE/MOC - PROMIS Scandal.md index 4b64daa0..8f45fd3b 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/MOC - PROMIS Scandal.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/MOC - PROMIS Scandal.md @@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ Central figures in the PROMIS/INSLAW software scandal and related investigations | [[Cheri Seymour]] | Cheri Seymour is an investigative journalist and author. | | [[Cornelius Blackshear]] | Cornelius Blackshear was a U.S. | | [[Craig Olson]] | FBI agent from the D.C. Metropolitan Office present at Paul Wilcher's apartment after his mysterious death. | -| [[D. Lowell Jensen]] | Inslaw alleged that Jensen had a 'previously developed negative attitude about PROMIS and INSLAW' and that he consciously ignored Inslaw's complaints about C. | +| [[Lowell Jensen|D. Lowell Jensen]] | Inslaw alleged that Jensen had a 'previously developed negative attitude about PROMIS and INSLAW' and that he consciously ignored Inslaw's complaints about C. | | [[Daniel Magano]] | Alleged mobster observed meeting with Cabazon tribal administrator Dr. John Philip Nichols alongside La Cosa Nostra figures per Indio Police surveillance. | | [[Daniel Murphy]] | In early 1991, INSLAW Counsel Elliot Richardson asked Murphy to review the plausibility of claims about the covert dissemination of PROMIS for intelligence-tracking applications and to give his opinion on whether the claimed intelligence uses could explain Richard Thornburgh's inexplicable failure t | | [[Daniel Tessler]] | Daniel Tessler managed a venture capital fund called 53rd Street Ventures, Inc., which was formed around 1976 as an investment company. | @@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ Central figures in the PROMIS/INSLAW software scandal and related investigations | [[John Keeney]] | John Keeney was a career Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Criminal Division of the DOJ. | | [[John Otto]] | John Otto was the former Acting Director of the FBI. | | [[John Paul Nichols]] | John Paul Nichols was the 'Project Manager' for the Cabazon/Wackenhut Corporation Joint Venture, also known as Cabazon Arms. | -| [[Johnny Rosselli]] | Organized crime leader enlisted by the CIA through Robert Maheu in 1960 to assist in assassination plots against Fidel Castro. | +| [[Johnny Roselli|Johnny Rosselli]] | Organized crime leader enlisted by the CIA through Robert Maheu in 1960 to assist in assassination plots against Fidel Castro. | | [[Jonathan Ben Cnaan]] | Jonathan Ben Cnaan was an account executive with 53rd Street Ventures, a New York City venture capital firm that held a small equity investment in Inslaw. | | [[Joseph Coors]] | Prominent right-wing activist, Heritage Foundation associate, and FGBMFI member connected to the PROMIS/Cabazon network. | | [[Joseph R. (Mike) Benitez]] | Former Cabazon Tribal Council Chairman who wrote to President Reagan requesting investigation of non-Indian investors at Cabazon Casino. | diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/MOC - Psychics & Remote Viewers.md b/10 - PEOPLE/MOC - Psychics & Remote Viewers.md index 6dd28f1f..ecfc3fb3 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/MOC - Psychics & Remote Viewers.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/MOC - Psychics & Remote Viewers.md @@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ Individuals known for psychic abilities, remote viewing, or participation in psi | [[Brad Veek]] | Brad Veek was a cartographer and career submariner who played a role in Project Deep Quest. | | [[Brian D. Josephson]] | His work on the Josephson junction, a configuration of two layers of superconducting material sandwiching a thin layer of non-superconducting material, was part of the quark detector used in Hal Puthoff and Ingo Swann's psychokinesis experiment at SRI. | | [[Bud Duncan]] | Army civilian photo-interpreter and early member of the Gondola Wish (later Grill Flame) remote viewing unit. | -| [[Caspar W. Weinberger]] | Secretary of Defense under Reagan whose military aide Lieutenant Colonel Higgins was abducted in Lebanon in 1988 with deep knowledge of classified matters. | +| [[Caspar Weinberger|Caspar W. Weinberger]] | Secretary of Defense under Reagan whose military aide Lieutenant Colonel Higgins was abducted in Lebanon in 1988 with deep knowledge of classified matters. | | [[Charlene Cavanaugh Shufelt]] | Charlene Cavanaugh Shufelt was one of the five remote viewers from INSCOM who remained in the program when the DIA took over the psychoenergetics program. | | [[Charles Bohlen]] | Charles Bohlen (1904–1974) was a distinguished American diplomat who served as the U.S. | | [[Charles Frank Jordan]] | Charles Frank Jordan was a former special agent for the U.S. | @@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ Individuals known for psychic abilities, remote viewing, or participation in psi | [[Donald A. Myers]] | Myers's deployment came two years after a new and more powerful set of Soviet microwave beams (MUTS-2) were picked up by the CIA in Moscow. | | [[Donald C. Latham]] | Assistant Secretary of Defense who served as chairman of the oversight panel for the Sun Streak program, the renamed Stargate Project. | | [[Donald M. Kerr]] | Director of Los Alamos National Laboratory who served on the science panel for the CIA's Sun Streak/Stargate remote viewing program. | -| [[Donald T. Regan]] | Regan stated that 'Virtually every major move and decision the Reagans made during my time as White House chief of staff was cleared by a woman in San Francisco who drew up horoscopes to make certain that the planets were in favorable alignment for the enterprise.' This revelation was confirmed by W | +| [[Donald Regan|Donald T. Regan]] | Regan stated that 'Virtually every major move and decision the Reagans made during my time as White House chief of staff was cleared by a woman in San Francisco who drew up horoscopes to make certain that the planets were in favorable alignment for the enterprise.' This revelation was confirmed by W | | [[Doug Henning]] | Doug Henning (1947–2000) was a renowned Canadian magician and illusionist. | | [[Douglas B. Hudson]] | This commendation highlights the high regard in which Morehouse was held by his superiors, despite later controversies surrounding his conduct and the eventual downfall of the psychic research program. | | [[Dr. D. G. Vinod]] | Puharich brought Vinod to the Round Table Foundation, where Vinod allegedly went into a trance and channeled a group of entities called 'the Nine Principles and Forces.' This event had a profound impact on Puharich, solidifying his belief in an external, possibly extraterrestrial, source for psychic | diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/MOC - Uncategorized.md b/10 - PEOPLE/MOC - Uncategorized.md index 727616d1..dfa3c813 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/MOC - Uncategorized.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/MOC - Uncategorized.md @@ -116,7 +116,7 @@ People who need further categorization. | [[Raymond Lavas]] | Lavas also turned some of Michael Riconosciuto's disks over to the Jack Brooks investigative committee (House Judiciary Committee on INSLAW). | | [[Regina Zokosky]] | Wife of Peter Zokosky who contradicted her husband's assertion that Danny Casolaro committed suicide. | | [[Rhonda Louise Williams]] | Rhonda Louise Williams was a 15-year-old resident of Houston, Texas, in 1973. | -| [[Richard Allen]] | National security figure connected to the Carter and Reagan administrations who attended the October 1980 Washington meeting on Iran. | +| [[Richard V. Allen|Richard Allen]] | National security figure connected to the Carter and Reagan administrations who attended the October 1980 Washington meeting on Iran. | | [[Richard Arnold]] | His Navy research career began in 1999 when he was commissioned as a US Naval Aerospace Experimental Psychologist. | | [[Richard St. Francis]] | Connecticut businessman and TransCapital employee involved in C-130 aircraft sales to Iran and indicted alongside Ari Ben-Menashe. | | [[Robert Barnes]] | Barnes was involved in a 'reverse sting' operation where methamphetamine precursors were reportedly supplied to Ben Kalka. | diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/Atomwaffen Division.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/Atomwaffen Division.md index a98ce026..e48c8da6 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/Atomwaffen Division.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/Atomwaffen Division.md @@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ In September 2017, Russell pleaded guilty in federal court to possessing an unre Shortly before the Tampa murders, AWD's Texas leader [[John Cameron Denton]] had begun cultivating a relationship with [[Tempel ov Blood]], the American nexion of the [[Order of Nine Angles]], and its leader [[Joshua Caleb Sutter]]. Denton was attracted to ToB's synthesis of National Socialism and Satanic occultism. He invited ToB members into AWD in the spring of 2017, and Sutter joined under the alias "swissdiscipline." -Sutter attended AWD's Hate Camps in 2017 and 2018 and organized the [[2019 AWD Nuclear Congress]] in Las Vegas in September 2019, using FBI-provided funds to cover member travel and lodging. [[James Mason]], author of *Siege* and the ideological godfather of the AWD milieu, made his first documented in-person appearance with AWD at the Nuclear Congress, delivering speeches calling for murder and lone-wolf attacks against the government. At least nine O9A/ToB members came to hold key positions within AWD. Denton made the Martinet Press publications (*[[Iron Gates]]*, *Liber 333*, *Bluebird*) required or approved reading for AWD members, and AWD's online presence began promoting O9A aesthetics and texts alongside the existing *Siege* culture.[^3] +Sutter attended AWD's Hate Camps in 2017 and 2018 and organized the [[2019 AWD Nuclear Congress]] in [[Las Vegas]] in September 2019, using FBI-provided funds to cover member travel and lodging. [[James Mason]], author of *Siege* and the ideological godfather of the AWD milieu, made his first documented in-person appearance with AWD at the Nuclear Congress, delivering speeches calling for murder and lone-wolf attacks against the government. At least nine O9A/ToB members came to hold key positions within AWD. Denton made the Martinet Press publications (*[[Iron Gates]]*, *Liber 333*, *Bluebird*) required or approved reading for AWD members, and AWD's online presence began promoting O9A aesthetics and texts alongside the existing *Siege* culture.[^3] The merger was controversial within AWD. Members who had joined as straightforward National Socialists objected to Satanism as ideological contamination. Several left. Those who remained were exposed to a framework that construed murder as spiritual practice and the group's violence as evidence of O9A-style initiatory transgression. diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/Feuerkrieg Division.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/Feuerkrieg Division.md index 05962bef..83bfe54d 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/Feuerkrieg Division.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/Feuerkrieg Division.md @@ -119,7 +119,7 @@ No documentary evidence yet confirms named individuals who were members of both Documented agency involvement in FKD investigations: - [[KAPO]] (Estonian Internal Security Service): intervened with the Commander's parents in January 2020, described in press reporting as acting on "suspicion of danger." KAPO has not publicly disclosed the Commander's legal name. No criminal referral was made because the Commander was below Estonia's minimum criminal liability age of 14.[^6] -- [[FBI]] Las Vegas [[JTTF]]: initiated investigation of Conor Climo in April 2019; used undercover agents and at least one informant; arrested Climo in August 2019.[^14] +- [[FBI]] [[Las Vegas]] [[JTTF]]: initiated investigation of Conor Climo in April 2019; used undercover agents and at least one informant; arrested Climo in August 2019.[^14] - FBI undercover operation, District of Kansas: involved in the Smith investigation (covered in the [[Jarrett William Smith]] page).[^3] - [[Counter Terrorism Policing South West]] (UK): arrested the Cornwall teenager in July 2019. - Counter Terrorism Policing (UK, broader): coordinated the investigations of Luke Hunter, Paul Dunleavy, and Luca Benincasa; recommended FKD for proscription. diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/CIA Office of Security.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/CIA Office of Security.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..adc9dc95 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/CIA Office of Security.md @@ -0,0 +1,54 @@ +--- +category: "U.S. Government" +tags: + - Organization + - CIAOfficeOfSecurity + - CIA + - FamilyJewels + - DomesticSurveillance + - AssassinationPlots + - YuriNosenko + - MailOpening +alias: + - Office of Security + - CIA Office of Security +summary: "CIA support component that cleared employees and contractors and, by its own 1973 accounting, hired the Mafia against Castro, tapped newsmen, opened Soviet mail, penetrated Washington dissident groups, and watched reporters for the director." +location: "Langley, Virginia" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +The Office of Security was the component of the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] that investigated prospective employees, contractors, and consultants. An agency paper of 1973 described the work as "neighborhood inquiries, checks with other Government agencies, review of credit reports, and interviews with former employers and business associates," and said of the product: "The resulting files are held separately by the Office of Security and are not merged with other Agency files." Colonel [[Sheffield Edwards]] directed it in the early 1960s. [[Howard Osborn]] became director on July 1, 1964.[^1] + +### The Osborn Memorandum + +On May 16, 1973, in answer to the order of Director [[James Schlesinger]] that produced the [[CIA Family Jewels|Family Jewels]], Osborn sent the agency's management committee "summaries of activities conducted either by or under the sponsorship of the Office of Security in the past which in my opinion conflict with the provisions of the [[National Security Act of 1947]]." He began the survey at March 1959, "because I believe that the activities occurring since that time still have a viable 'flap potential' in that many of the people involved, both Agency and non-Agency are still alive." Each activity, he wrote, "was approved by higher authority." His list opened with [[Johnny Roselli]]: "The use of a member of the Mafia in an attempt to assassinate [[Fidel Castro]]." It went on to [[Project MOCKINGBIRD]], telephone taps installed on two [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] newsmen from March 12 to June 15, 1963, to the confinement of [[Yuri Nosenko]], to "Equipment Support to Local Police," and to a "Test of Specialized Equipment in [[Miami]] Immediately Prior to the Political Convention."[^1] + +### The Syndicate + +In August 1960 [[Richard Bissell]] asked Edwards whether the office had assets for "a sensitive mission requiring gangster-type action" against Castro. The director was briefed and approved. [[J.C. King]], chief of the Western Hemisphere Division, was told, and the [[JMWAVE]] station was not. [[Robert Maheu]], "a cleared source of the Office of Security," produced Roselli, who brought in "Sam Gold" and "Joe," who were [[Sam Giancana]] and [[Santos Trafficante, Jr.|Santos Trafficante]]. [[James O'Connell]] of the office was Roselli's case officer from September 14, 1960, until May 1962, when [[William Harvey]] took him over. Poison pills from the [[Technical Services Division]] went to [[Cuba]] through [[Juan Orta]] and then through [[Tony Varona]].[^1] + +When Maheu's men were arrested for a wiretap in [[Las Vegas]], Edwards briefed Attorney General [[Robert F. Kennedy|Robert Kennedy]]. "At our request, prosecution was dropped." On May 7, 1962, Edwards and the general counsel, [[Lawrence Houston]], briefed Kennedy on the operation itself. "If you have seen Mr. Kennedy's eyes get steely and his jaw set and his voice get low and precise you get a definite feeling of unhappiness," Houston testified. The inspector general concluded in 1967 that "the Attorney General was not told that the gambling syndicate operation had already been reactivated nor as far as we know was he ever told that CIA had a continuing involvement with U.S. gangster elements."[^1][^2] + +### Nosenko + +The [[KGB]] defector Yuri Nosenko was held from August 13, 1965, to October 27, 1967, in a specially built cell, "literally confined in a room with nothing but a cot in it." The compilation records that "this Office together with the Office of General Counsel became increasingly concerned with the illegality of the Agency's position." On the second date he was transferred to the Office of Security under Admiral [[Rufus Taylor]], the deputy director, moved to a safehouse, "and was interviewed under friendly, sympathetic conditions by his Security Case Officer, Mr. [[Bruce Solie]], for more than a year. It soon became apparent that Nosenko was bona fide." The paper called him "the most valuable and economical defector this Agency has ever had."[^1] + +### Mail, Dissidents, and Reporters + +"Since 1953, this office has operated a mail intercept program of incoming and outgoing Russian mail" at [[John F. Kennedy International Airport|Kennedy Airport]] in [[New York City|New York]], [[SRPOINTER]], which "included not only the photographing of envelopes but also surreptitious opening and photographing of selected items of mail. The bulk of the take involved matters of internal security interest which was disseminated to the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]." Of the agency's New York mail-opening project, [[HTLINGUAL]], which [[James Jesus Angleton]] defended as "foreign surveillance," Osborn testified in 1975: "We got no benefit from it at all. The product was worthless." At a meeting on May 19, 1971, [[Thomas Karamessines]] argued that "any flap would cause the CIA the worst possible publicity," and Osborn "stated that he thought the operation served mainly a Bureau requirement." [[Richard Helms]] continued it.[^1][^3] + +From February 1967 to November 1971 an Office of Security proprietary, [[Project MERRIMAC]], "recruited and handled several Agents for the purpose of covertly monitoring dissident groups in the Washington area considered to be potential threats to Agency personnel and installations. One of these Agents so successfully penetrated one dissident group that she was turned over to the FBI for handling." The office gave equipment and training to the police of [[Fairfax County, Virginia|Fairfax]] and [[Arlington County, Virginia|Arlington]] counties and to the intelligence division of the [[Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia|Metropolitan Police Department]].[^1] + +"At the direction of the DCI," it kept [[Michael Getler]] of the *[[Washington Post]]* under physical surveillance in late 1971 and January 1972, [[CELOTEX]] I, and then [[Jack Anderson]] and his assistants [[Brit Hume]], [[Les Whitten]], and [[Joseph Spear]] from February to April 1972, CELOTEX II. An observation post was taken in the [[Statler Hilton]] opposite the reporters' offices, "to attempt to determine" their sources. In March and April 1972, as [[BUTANE]], it watched [[Victor Marchetti]], who was writing a book.[^1] + +### Private Security Firms + +In November 1967 Harvey, leaving the agency for a law practice, asked the bureau's liaison, [[Sam Papich]], for reputable private investigators. Osborn recorded that Papich suggested the [[Wackenhut Corporation]] or the [[Fidelifax]] company. In July 1978 Solie certified that the staff of the [[House Select Committee on Assassinations]] had reviewed the office's Wackenhut file.[^4] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Central Intelligence Agency, "Family Jewels," memorandum of Howard J. Osborn, Director of Security, to the Executive Secretary, CIA Management Committee, May 16, 1973, with attachments, pp. 00002-00006, 00012-00014, 00023, 00026-00030, 00448. Released June 25, 2007. +[^2]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities. *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders: An Interim Report*. S. Rept. 94-465, 1975, pp. 133-134. +[^3]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities. *Final Report, Book III*. S. Rept. 94-755, 1976, pp. 579, 600-602. +[^4]: Osborn, Howard J. Memorandum for the record, November 8, 1967, JFK record 104-10133-10076; Solie, Bruce L. Memorandum, July 18, 1978, JFK record 104-10130-10450. National Archives, JFK Assassination Records Collection. diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Domestic Contact Service.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Domestic Contact Service.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..6c1067c5 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Domestic Contact Service.md @@ -0,0 +1,38 @@ +--- +category: "U.S. Government" +tags: + - Organization + - DomesticContactService + - CIA + - ClayShaw + - DomesticCollection + - ChurchCommittee +alias: + - Domestic Contacts Division + - Domestic Collection Division + - DCS +summary: "Overt CIA office that interviewed American businessmen, academics, and travellers for foreign intelligence from 1946, moved in 1973 into the clandestine directorate, where its contacts served to open doors for recruitment operations." +start: 1946 +location: "Washington, D.C." +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +The Domestic Contact Service was one of two overt collection components of the [[Central Intelligence Group]] of 1946 and of the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] after it. It "solicited domestic sources including travellers and businessmen for foreign intelligence information on a voluntary basis." An agency paper of 1973 described it: "The Domestic Contact Service establishes discreet but overt relationships with American private citizens, commercial, academic and other organizations and resident aliens for the purposes of collecting on a voluntary basis foreign intelligence information or soliciting their cooperation in assisting the Agency to perform its mission overseas. Records of the individuals and organizations cooperating with the Agency are maintained as a necessary practical element of this process."[^1][^2] + +### Transfer to Operations + +"Until 1973 the Domestic Contact Service was part of the Directorate of Intelligence. It was placed under the Directorate of Operations to enable the CIA to provide better support for the Foreign Resources Division. Because the Domestic Contact Service has contacts with leaders in all walks of life it possesses a unique capability to open the door for the clandestine services." Renamed the Domestic Collection Division, it "now has many clandestine services officers assigned to it." In 1976 it "maintains contact with tens of thousands of American citizens" and "operates from 38 offices around the [[United States]] and lists itself in local telephone directories, although it conducts its business as discretely as possible." The [[Church Committee]] recommended that Congress consider returning it to the intelligence directorate and that "DCD's overt contacts be informed when they are to be used for operational support of clandestine activities."[^1] + +### Contacts + +[[Clay Shaw]] of the [[International Trade Mart]] reported to the [[New Orleans]] office "on 33 separate occasions" between 1948 and 1956, without pay. After his arrest by [[Jim Garrison]] in 1967 the office's chief, [[Lloyd Ray]], advised that the general counsel, [[Lawrence Houston]], be told.[^3] + +In [[Dallas, Texas|Dallas]] the service's officer [[J. Walton Moore]] was in contact with [[George de Mohrenschildt]], the friend of [[Lee Harvey Oswald]].[^4] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities. *Final Report, Book I*. S. Rept. 94-755, 1976, pp. 101, 438-442. +[^2]: Central Intelligence Agency, "Family Jewels," memorandum of Howard J. Osborn, Director of Security, to the Executive Secretary, CIA Management Committee, May 16, 1973, with attachments, p. 00448. +[^3]: Holland, Max. "The Lie That Linked CIA to the Kennedy Assassination," *Studies in Intelligence,* vol. 45, no. 5, 2001. +[^4]: House Select Committee on Assassinations. *Appendix to Hearings,* vol. XII, staff report on George de Mohrenschildt. Government Printing Office, 1979. diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Laguna Beach Police Department.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Laguna Beach Police Department.md index e0cb2b72..4296c229 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Laguna Beach Police Department.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Laguna Beach Police Department.md @@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ tags: summary: The Laguna Beach Police Department employed Ron Lister, a former officer who became Danilo Blandón's partner in drug trafficking and weapons procurement with claimed CIA connections. location: "Laguna Beach, California" --- -The Laguna Beach Police Department employed [[Ron Lister]], a former officer who became [[Danilo Blandon|Danilo Blandón]]'s partner in drug trafficking and weapons procurement with claimed [[Central Intelligence Agency]] connections. When investigators later sought Lister's personnel files, they discovered the records had been purged.[^1] +The Laguna Beach Police Department employed [[Ronald Lister|Ron Lister]], a former officer who became [[Danilo Blandon|Danilo Blandón]]'s partner in drug trafficking and weapons procurement with claimed [[Central Intelligence Agency]] connections. When investigators later sought Lister's personnel files, they discovered the records had been purged.[^1] ### Ron Lister's Background diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office.md index 69b21250..21988d0b 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office.md @@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ When the Torres brothers began revealing details about Blandón's connections to ### The CIA Intervention -A cable from the CIA's [[Los Angeles]] office marked "Immediate Director" stated that "Three individuals claiming CIA affiliation have been arrested by Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department on narcotics related charges." After the raid, the investigation was shut down from above. Seized evidence was returned to Blandón and [[Ron Lister]] within days. Documents disappeared. Blandón was released without charges. The LASD's investigation was effectively quashed by CIA intervention, preventing the exposure of Contra-connected drug trafficking on the West Coast.[^3] +A cable from the CIA's [[Los Angeles]] office marked "Immediate Director" stated that "Three individuals claiming CIA affiliation have been arrested by Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department on narcotics related charges." After the raid, the investigation was shut down from above. Seized evidence was returned to Blandón and [[Ronald Lister|Ron Lister]] within days. Documents disappeared. Blandón was released without charges. The LASD's investigation was effectively quashed by CIA intervention, preventing the exposure of Contra-connected drug trafficking on the West Coast.[^3] ### Footnotes diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/NSC Special Group.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/NSC Special Group.md index 06382815..89244b20 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/NSC Special Group.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/NSC Special Group.md @@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ The Special Group mechanism persisted through subsequent administrations under v The Kennedy administration retained the NSC 5412/2 Special Group structure but significantly expanded its operational scope. Following the Bay of Pigs failure in April 1961, General [[Maxwell Taylor]] submitted a review recommending stronger oversight, and in November 1961, President Kennedy authorized [[Operation Mongoose]], a major covert program aimed at overthrowing [[Fidel Castro|Castro]]. Operational control was entrusted to a Special Group (Augmented), which consisted of the standard Special Group membership plus [[Attorney General]] [[Robert Kennedy]] and General Taylor as chairman. The Special Group (Augmented) functioned from November 1961 to October 1962, with Robert Kennedy serving as the "principal motive force" and informal link between the group and the President.[^11] The formal Kennedy-era Special Group was chaired by McGeorge Bundy as the President's Special Assistant for National Security Affairs, with members including Deputy Under Secretary of State U. Alexis Johnson, Deputy Secretary of Defense Roswell Gilpatric, DCI Allen Dulles, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Lyman Lemnitzer. -President Kennedy also established a separate Special Group (Counterinsurgency) by NSAM No. 124 on January 18, 1962, to coordinate military and police aid, anti-guerrilla operations, and security programs distinct from the NSC 5412/2 covert operations mechanism. This body included Agency for International Development officials, [[United States Information Agency]] representatives, and Robert Kennedy; when Taylor moved to the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairmanship on October 1, 1962, Robert Kennedy sought to assume the chairmanship of the Special Group (CI) but was instead succeeded in the chair by U. Alexis Johnson, with Michael Forrestal taking over as White House representative. The Special Group (CI) was abolished by President [[Lyndon Johnson]] in 1965.[^12] +President Kennedy also established a separate Special Group (Counterinsurgency) by NSAM No. 124 on January 18, 1962, to coordinate military and police aid, anti-guerrilla operations, and security programs distinct from the NSC 5412/2 covert operations mechanism. This body included Agency for International Development officials, [[United States Information Agency]] representatives, and Robert Kennedy; when Taylor moved to the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairmanship on October 1, 1962, Robert Kennedy sought to assume the chairmanship of the Special Group (CI) but was instead succeeded in the chair by U. Alexis Johnson, with Michael Forrestal taking over as White House representative. The Special Group (CI) was abolished by President [[Lyndon B. Johnson|Lyndon Johnson]] in 1965.[^12] The NSC 5412/2 Special Group was renamed the [[303 Committee]] by NSAM No. 303, issued June 2, 1964. The name change was initiated after the publication of David Wise and Thomas B. Ross's book "The Invisible Government" made the "Special Group" designation public; an NSC staffer recommended the replacement name be "something utterly drab and innocuous" to deflect attention. The NSAM 303 change in name did not alter the committee's composition, functions, or responsibilities. Between January 1967 and June 1968, the 303 Committee considered 23 projects for Africa, 33 for [[Latin America]], 15 for Europe, 14 for Asia, and 2 for the [[Middle East]].[^13] diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Office of Strategic Services.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Office of Strategic Services.md index fc680e5e..2fc827fe 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Office of Strategic Services.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Office of Strategic Services.md @@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ end: 1945-10-01 location: "Washington, D.C." --- -The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the United States wartime intelligence and covert operations agency established by Executive Order 9621 on June 13, 1942, under the direction of General William J. "Wild Bill" Donovan. It replaced the earlier Coordinator of Information (COI) office established July 11, 1941. The OSS coordinated intelligence gathering, ran covert operations behind enemy lines, conducted psychological warfare, and analyzed foreign intelligence. President Truman dissolved it by Executive Order 9621 on September 20, 1945, effective October 1, 1945. Much of its personnel, methodology, and organizational culture transferred directly into the [[Central Intelligence Agency]], created by the National Security Act of 1947.[^1] +The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the United States wartime intelligence and covert operations agency established by Executive Order 9621 on June 13, 1942, under the direction of General William J. "Wild Bill" Donovan. It replaced the earlier Coordinator of Information (COI) office established July 11, 1941. The OSS coordinated intelligence gathering, ran covert operations behind enemy lines, conducted psychological warfare, and analyzed foreign intelligence. President Truman dissolved it by Executive Order 9621 on September 20, 1945, effective October 1, 1945. Much of its personnel, methodology, and organizational culture transferred directly into the [[Central Intelligence Agency]], created by the [[National Security Act of 1947]].[^1] Figures like [[Oliver J. Caldwell]] were former OSS officers who later became involved in intelligence activities related to psychic research, illustrating the continuity of personnel and interests across successive intelligence organizations.[^2] diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/United States Army Intelligence Support Activity.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/United States Army Intelligence Support Activity.md index cfa1f6e1..24d85fef 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/United States Army Intelligence Support Activity.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/United States Army Intelligence Support Activity.md @@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ ISA specializes in clandestine intelligence gathering and operational support, f 2. SIGINT Squadron 3. Mission Support Squadron -Headquarters located at Fort Belvoir, VA; squadrons scattered across Maryland/D.C./Virginia area. +Headquarters located at [[Fort Belvoir]], VA; squadrons scattered across Maryland/D.C./Virginia area. ### Connections to Other Organizations - Operates as a tactical arm of the [[NSA|National Security Agency]] (NSA) - Works closely with JSOC, SOCOM, and other intelligence agencies diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PARAMILITARY/Cuban Nationalist Movement.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PARAMILITARY/Cuban Nationalist Movement.md index 8e0e98d6..68207aa4 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PARAMILITARY/Cuban Nationalist Movement.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PARAMILITARY/Cuban Nationalist Movement.md @@ -19,18 +19,21 @@ updated: 2026-09-21 The Cuban Nationalist Movement was an anti-Castro exile organization based in [[New Jersey]], whose leaders in the 1970s included [[Guillermo Novo]]. The Chilean secret police, [[DINA]], used it as the "Cuban group" in the assassination of [[Orlando Letelier]] and [[Ronni Moffitt]] on September 21, 1976.[^1][^2] +In December 1964 Guillermo Novo fired a bazooka at the [[United Nations]] building while [[Che Guevara]] was speaking there. In December 1974 the movement's leader, [[Felipe Rivero]], sent Novo and [[Jose Dionisio Suarez]] to [[Chile]] "to pay homage to Pinochet," and they entered the country with [[Orlando Bosch]]. Suarez, a former officer of the revolutionary army, was called "Charco de Sangre," pool of blood, for his part in its executions. When [[Michael Townley]] first approached them at a [[Union City, New Jersey|Union City]] motel, Novo, Suarez, and Armando Santana "drew guns and ordered the couple to sit down," searched the luggage, and found an American passport in the name Kenneth Enyart and a Chilean identity card in the name Andres Wilson. "Finally, Novo put away his pistol and extended his hand."[^3] + ### The Letelier Operation -[[Michael Townley]] testified that in the summer of 1976 DINA assigned him to go to the [[United States]] and arrange the murder, and told him to get in touch with the movement. The orders of Colonel [[Pedro Espinoza]], as Townley recorded them in 1978, were to "contact the Cuban group to eliminate him, or use SARIN gas, or orchestrate an accident." He arrived on September 9 and the next day met Novo, [[Alvin Ross Díaz|Alvin Ross]], [[Virgilio Paz]], [[José Dionisio Suárez]], and other members in a hotel room in New Jersey. Novo told him the following day that the movement would cooperate but insisted that Townley take part himself. Townley, Paz, and Suárez went to Washington and built the bomb, and Townley fixed it under the driver's seat at midnight on September 18. It was set off by remote control at [[Sheridan Circle]].[^1][^2] +Michael Townley testified that in the summer of 1976 DINA assigned him to go to the [[United States]] and arrange the murder, and told him to get in touch with the movement. The orders of Colonel [[Pedro Espinoza]], as Townley recorded them in 1978, were to "contact the Cuban group to eliminate him, or use SARIN gas, or orchestrate an accident." He arrived on September 9 and the next day met Novo, [[Alvin Ross Díaz|Alvin Ross]], [[Virgilio Paz]], [[José Dionisio Suárez]], and other members in a hotel room in New Jersey. Novo told him the following day that the movement would cooperate but insisted that Townley take part himself. Townley, Paz, and Suárez went to Washington and built the bomb, and Townley fixed it under the driver's seat at midnight on September 18. It was set off by remote control at [[Sheridan Circle]].[^1][^2] ### Trials Novo and Ross were convicted in 1979 of murder, murder of a foreign official, and conspiracy, and Novo's brother [[Ignacio Novo]] of lying to the grand jury. Part of the evidence came from jailhouse informants working with the government. One of them, [[Sherman Kaminsky]], testified that Ross "told me that he was involved in the murder of Orlando Letelier together with generals in DINA, Sepulveda, Michael Townley, and other members of the Cuban Nationalist Movement in this country." In 1980 the Supreme Court held such testimony inadmissible in United States v. Henry, and the [[United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit|court of appeals]] reversed the convictions of Novo and Ross and ordered a new trial. It reversed Ignacio Novo's for the failure to try him separately.[^1] -At the retrial in May 1981 the defense undertook to prove "that Townley and DINA alone plotted to kill Letelier." Townley, the government's witness, admitted that he had lied to a Chilean military investigator and had given [[El Mercurio]] a false statement that he had nothing to do with the killing. Paz and Suárez were not tried with them.[^3] +At the retrial in May 1981 the defense undertook to prove "that Townley and DINA alone plotted to kill Letelier." Townley, the government's witness, admitted that he had lied to a Chilean military investigator and had given [[El Mercurio]] a false statement that he had nothing to do with the killing. Paz and Suárez were not tried with them.[^4] ### Footnotes [^1]: United States v. Novo Sampol, 636 F.2d 621 (D.C. Cir. 1980). [^2]: Kornbluh, Peter, ed. "The Pinochet Dictatorship Declassified: Confessions of a DINA Hit Man," National Security Archive, November 22, 2023. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2023-11-22/pinochet-dictatorship-declassified-confessions-dina-hit-man -[^3]: Kiernan, Laura A. "Townley Admits Lying to Chilean Questioners," *The Washington Post,* May 17, 1981, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP90-00552R000606730006-5. +[^3]: Dinges, John, and Saul Landau. *Assassination on Embassy Row*. McGraw-Hill, 1980, pp. 147-151, 240. +[^4]: Kiernan, Laura A. "Townley Admits Lying to Chilean Questioners," *The Washington Post,* May 17, 1981, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP90-00552R000606730006-5. diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PARAMILITARY/Palestine Liberation Organization.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PARAMILITARY/Palestine Liberation Organization.md index 7189ada1..29124003 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PARAMILITARY/Palestine Liberation Organization.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PARAMILITARY/Palestine Liberation Organization.md @@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ The Black September Organization, a clandestine PLO-affiliated group created aft The PLO rebuilt its infrastructure in Lebanon, using the Palestinian refugee camps of southern Lebanon and Beirut as a base for guerrilla operations, diplomatic activity, and financial management. PLO institutions in Beirut included banks, hospitals, schools, and military headquarters. The PLO developed significant relationships with Lebanese leftist and Muslim political factions, contributing to the destabilization of Lebanon's fragile confessional political system and the onset of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975.[^1] -Israeli military operations against PLO positions in southern Lebanon escalated through the 1970s. The June 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon (Operation Peace for Galilee), directed by Defense Minister [[Ariel Sharon]], drove PLO forces out of their Lebanese positions and laid siege to Beirut. After negotiations mediated by American diplomat Philip Habib, the PLO agreed to evacuate Beirut in August 1982; Arafat and approximately 15,000 PLO fighters and personnel were transported by sea to Tunis and other countries.[^2] +Israeli military operations against PLO positions in southern Lebanon escalated through the 1970s. The June 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon (Operation Peace for Galilee), directed by Defense Minister [[Ariel Sharon]], drove PLO forces out of their Lebanese positions and laid siege to Beirut. After negotiations mediated by American diplomat [[Philip Habib]], the PLO agreed to evacuate Beirut in August 1982; Arafat and approximately 15,000 PLO fighters and personnel were transported by sea to Tunis and other countries.[^2] The Sabra and Shatila massacres (September 16-18, 1982) were carried out by Lebanese Christian Phalangist militias in Palestinian refugee camps in Israeli-controlled Beirut after the PLO's evacuation, killing between 800 and 3,500 civilians. Israeli forces commanded by Sharon surrounded the camps and allowed the Phalangists access; the Israeli Kahan Commission found Sharon personally responsible, resulting in his resignation as Defense Minister.[^2] diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies.md index 63ac6ec5..b216e970 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies.md @@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) was a subsidiary of [[Robert Bi ### Background: Robert Bigelow -Robert T. Bigelow was born in 1944 in Las Vegas, Nevada. He built a significant fortune through Budget Suites of America, a chain of extended-stay apartment hotels, and through Bigelow Aerospace, a commercial space company focused on the development of expandable habitat modules for space stations. Bigelow had maintained a longstanding personal interest in UAP and anomalous phenomena, influenced by his family's reported UAP encounter and by his relationship with Nevada Senator Harry Reid, who shared his interest in the subject.[^1] +Robert T. Bigelow was born in 1944 in [[Las Vegas]], Nevada. He built a significant fortune through Budget Suites of America, a chain of extended-stay apartment hotels, and through Bigelow Aerospace, a commercial space company focused on the development of expandable habitat modules for space stations. Bigelow had maintained a longstanding personal interest in UAP and anomalous phenomena, influenced by his family's reported UAP encounter and by his relationship with Nevada Senator Harry Reid, who shared his interest in the subject.[^1] In 1996, Bigelow purchased the Sherman family's ranch in northeastern Utah - known as the Skinwalker Ranch - for $200,000. The property had been the site of reported anomalous events including cattle mutilations, apparitions, unusual craft sightings, and other phenomena reported by the Sherman family and documented in local press. Bigelow established the National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS) in 1995 to conduct systematic investigation of anomalous phenomena, and NIDS researchers conducted observation at Skinwalker Ranch from 1996 through the early 2000s.[^1] diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Burns & Roe, Inc..md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Burns & Roe, Inc..md index 0a22a607..e332c44f 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Burns & Roe, Inc..md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Burns & Roe, Inc..md @@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ tags: category: "Private Organization" summary: "Burns & Roe, Inc. was an international engineering and construction firm owned by the Roe family whose Pacific director George K. Pender appears in connections to nuclear facility construction and intelligence-adjacent contracting." --- -Burns & Roe, Inc. was an international engineering and construction corporation. It was a family corporation owned by [[Kenneth A. Roe]] and his family. [[George K. Pender]] was a former Director of the Pacific Ocean area for Burns & Roe, Inc., and also served as a Senior Engineer Consultant to the company.[^1] +Burns & Roe, Inc. was an international engineering and construction corporation. It was a family corporation owned by [[Kenneth A. Roe]] and his family. [[George K. Pender]] was a former Director of the [[Pacific Ocean]] area for Burns & Roe, Inc., and also served as a Senior Engineer Consultant to the company.[^1] Under [[Kenneth A. Roe]]'s leadership, Burns & Roe, Inc. was involved in major projects, including the engineering design and construction of the [[United States|U.S.A.]] Fast Breeder Nuclear Reactor Plant in conjunction with [[Westinghouse Electric Corporation]], which was responsible for the nuclear system supply of steam. At the time, the construction value of Burns & Roe, Inc.'s business backlog exceeded six billion U.S. dollars.[^1] diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Castle Bank and Trust.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Castle Bank and Trust.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..81c97151 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Castle Bank and Trust.md @@ -0,0 +1,40 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - CastleBank + - Bahamas + - PaulHelliwell + - InternalRevenueService + - OperationTradewinds + - TaxHavens + - CIA +alias: + - Castle Bank + - Castle Bank and Trust Company +summary: "Bahamian and Cayman bank set up by the Miami lawyer Paul Helliwell, whose depositor list the IRS obtained in 1973 by stealing a briefcase, and whose prosecution the CIA was reported to have stopped." +location: "Nassau, Bahamas" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Castle Bank and Trust Company of [[Nassau]], with an office in the [[Cayman Islands]], was "set up and principally controlled" by the [[Miami]] lawyer [[Paul Helliwell]]. "Castle had no guards, no tellers, and no vaults." It kept "virtually all of its assets" on deposit with banks in the [[United States]] and held about a quarter of a billion dollars for some 300 customers, among them, by one account, the actor [[Tony Curtis]], the band Creedence Clearwater Revival, and the [[Pritzker family]]. A memorandum found among the effects of [[Howard Hughes]] reads: "Chester called and wants to discuss the accounts at Castle Bank and Trust. He thinks these will be under investigation sooner than anticipated." The bank closed its Bahamian and Cayman offices in 1977.[^1][^2] + +### The Briefcase + +The [[Internal Revenue Service]] turned to the bank in 1972 in the course of [[Operation Tradewinds]], when it learned that a suspected narcotics trafficker had an account. Special Agent [[Richard Jaffe]] of Jacksonville asked the private detective [[Norman Casper]] to find out what he could. In October 1972 Casper met the bank's president, [[Samuel Pierson]], at the Miami airport and came away with a card reading "HMW: give this man anything he wants." HMW was the resident manager, [[Michael Wolstencroft]]. On January 15, 1973, while Wolstencroft dined at Key Biscayne with a woman Casper had introduced to him, Casper entered her apartment with her key, took Wolstencroft's briefcase to the house of an IRS agent, where some 400 documents were photographed, and returned it within an hour and a half. Jaffe had supplied a locksmith and cleared each step with his superior. Two weeks later the woman, Sybol Kennedy, stole a Rolodex from Wolstencroft's office in the Bahamas. The service paid Casper 8,000 dollars.[^3] + +### The Courts + +One of the depositors, Jack Payner of [[Cleveland, Ohio|Cleveland]], was indicted in 1976. Judge [[Frank Manos]] suppressed the evidence. "The activities of the Government agents Jaffe and Casper were outrageous. They plotted, schemed and ultimately acted in contravention of the United States Constitution and laws of [[Florida]], knowing that their conduct was illegal." He found that "the Government affirmatively counsels its agents that the Fourth Amendment standing limitation permits them to purposefully conduct an unconstitutional search and seizure of one individual in order to obtain evidence against third parties." The [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] reversed in 1980 by five votes to three, holding that Payner had no standing to complain of a search of another man's briefcase. Chief Justice [[Warren Burger]] wrote that this "should not be read as condoning the conduct of the IRS 'private investigators.'" Justice [[Thurgood Marshall]], dissenting, wrote that the government "made a conscious decision to forgo any opportunity to prosecute Wolstencroft in order to obtain illegally the evidence against Payner and others." After congressional hearings in 1975 the commissioner, [[Donald Alexander]], had called off Operation Tradewinds.[^3] + +### The Agency + +[[The Wall Street Journal]] reported on April 18, 1980, that "pressure from the [[Central Intelligence Agency]], rather than a legal problem, was what caused the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]] to drop what could have been the biggest tax-evasion case of all," that "the government already had in its possession the same list, legally obtained," and that the bank "was the conduit for millions of dollars earmarked by the CIA for the funding of clandestine operations against [[Cuba]]." A former federal official said: "Castle was one of the CIA's finance channels for operations against Cuba." [[CBS]] said that August: "it seems that Castle Bank was a CIA bank in the [[Bahamas]]. And when it began to look as though U.S. investigators from the IRS were getting too close for comfort to some CIA secrets down there, the CIA told them to lay off, and they did." The agency declined to comment, and neither court opinion mentions it. An earlier account had attributed the collapse of the inquiry to Commissioner Alexander, whose former law firm had represented a company managed by the bank. The Chicago tax lawyer [[Burton Kanter]], indicted as the designer of many of the bank's arrangements, was acquitted.[^1][^2][^4] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Drinkhall, Jim. "IRS vs. CIA: Big Tax Investigation Was Quietly Scuttled by Intelligence Agency," *The Wall Street Journal,* April 18, 1980, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP90-01208R000100100061-5. +[^2]: Hougan, Jim. *Spooks: The Haunting of America: The Private Use of Secret Agents*. William Morrow, 1978, pp. 237-242. +[^3]: United States v. Payner, 447 U.S. 727 (1980); United States v. Payner, 434 F. Supp. 113 (N.D. Ohio 1977). +[^4]: "Castle Bank: Update," *60 Minutes,* CBS, August 3, 1980, transcript, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP90-00806R000100200021-5; Epstein, Aaron. *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* June 24, 1980, CIA-RDP90-00806R000100200022-4. diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/First Intercontinental Development Corporation.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/First Intercontinental Development Corporation.md index 100781e2..ec73f13c 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/First Intercontinental Development Corporation.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/First Intercontinental Development Corporation.md @@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ The Board of Directors of [[First Intercontinental Development Corporation|FIDCO * [[Robert Maheu]], Sr.: Vice President, Director; former [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] agent and former CEO of Howard Hughes Operations.[1] * [[Michael A. McManus]]: Director, Vice President, and General Counsel to [[First Intercontinental Development Corporation|FIDCO]]; former Assistant to President [[Ronald Reagan]] at the [[White House]].[1] * [[Robert Booth Nichols]]: Director, Senior Vice President, and Chairman of Investment Committee; CEO of R.B.N. Companies, International, involved in high technology electronics, real estate, construction, and international finance.[1] -* [[George K. Pender]]: Director; former Director of Pacific Ocean area of Burns & Roe, Inc., an international engineering and construction corporation.[1] +* [[George K. Pender]]: Director; former Director of [[Pacific Ocean]] area of Burns & Roe, Inc., an international engineering and construction corporation.[1] * [[Kenneth A. Roe]]: Director; Chairman and President of Burns & Roe, Inc., involved in major projects like the [[United States|U.S.A.]] Fast Breeder Nuclear Reactor Plant.[1] * [[Frances T. Fox]]: Vice President and Director; former General Manager of L.A. International Airport and Director of Aviation for Howard Hughes Nevada operations (now Summa Corporation).[1] * [[Clint W. Murchison, Jr.]]: Director; owner of the Dallas Cowboys NFL football team, with family ties to powerful political and organized crime figures.[1] diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Fluor Corporation.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Fluor Corporation.md index dbceb285..d086ec90 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Fluor Corporation.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Fluor Corporation.md @@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ Fluor Corporation, a major engineering and construction firm, employed former [[ ### Connection to the Contra Supply Chain -[[Ron Lister]], the former [[Laguna Beach Police Department|Laguna Beach]] police officer who partnered with [[Danilo Blandon|Danilo Blandón]] in drug trafficking and weapons procurement, claimed to have high-level CIA contacts. [[Chris Moore]], who worked in Lister's office, recounted that "Ron said the guy was the former Deputy Director of Operations or something, real high up there. All I know is that this supposed contact of his was working at the Fluor Corporation." Lister's notes chronicled meetings at the Fairmont Hotel in [[San Jose|San Jose, California]] with a customer named "Ivan," who was uninterested in Lister's scrambler phones but asked him to procure "Varo night vision equipment." Lister told drug dealers he dealt with that his "friends in Washington" could make their legal problems disappear.[^2] +[[Ronald Lister|Ron Lister]], the former [[Laguna Beach Police Department|Laguna Beach]] police officer who partnered with [[Danilo Blandon|Danilo Blandón]] in drug trafficking and weapons procurement, claimed to have high-level CIA contacts. [[Chris Moore]], who worked in Lister's office, recounted that "Ron said the guy was the former Deputy Director of Operations or something, real high up there. All I know is that this supposed contact of his was working at the Fluor Corporation." Lister's notes chronicled meetings at the Fairmont Hotel in [[San Jose|San Jose, California]] with a customer named "Ivan," who was uninterested in Lister's scrambler phones but asked him to procure "Varo night vision equipment." Lister told drug dealers he dealt with that his "friends in Washington" could make their legal problems disappear.[^2] ### Footnotes diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Intertel.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Intertel.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..3ce17df2 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Intertel.md @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - Intertel + - ResortsInternational + - RobertPeloquin + - PrivateIntelligence + - Bahamas + - HowardHughes + - OrganizedCrime +alias: + - International Intelligence Inc. + - International Intelligence, Inc. +summary: "Private intelligence company formed by Justice Department organized crime lawyers Robert Peloquin and William Hundley as a subsidiary of the Bahamian casino operator Resorts International, staffed from the IRS operation that had investigated the islands." +location: "Washington, D.C." +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +International Intelligence, Inc., called Intertel, was a private investigative company owned by [[Resorts International]], formerly the [[Mary Carter Paint Company]], the operator of the casino on [[Paradise Island]] in the [[Bahamas]].[^1] + +### Paradise Island + +[[James Crosby]]'s Mary Carter Paint bought three quarters of Paradise Island from [[Huntington Hartford]] for 3.5 million dollars and with it "the legal services of Sir [[Stafford Sands]]," the Bahamian minister and lawyer, who advised that the casino be run by the group of [[Wallace Groves]] at Freeport. Crosby gave a Groves company four ninths of the casino. [[Robert Peloquin]], a lawyer in the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]]'s organized crime section who worked with the revenue service's [[Operation Tradewinds]], wrote in a January memorandum that "the atmosphere looks right for a Lansky skim." A royal commission sat in 1967 under Sir [[Ranulph Bacon]], formerly of Scotland Yard and later a director of Intertel, with Peloquin as "an 'unofficial,' but influential, observer." It exposed [[Meyer Lansky]]'s interest in the Lucayan Beach casino and the fees Sands had taken, and Sands "retired to his castle in [[Spain]]." It did not examine Crosby's company, whose casino had not yet opened.[^1] + +### The Firm + +Peloquin left the government in 1967 with [[William Hundley]], and within weeks the two were vice presidents of the Resorts subsidiary responsible for the new casino. "Many of those involved in Tradewinds," among them the IRS intelligence chief [[William Kolar]], "would all find jobs with Intertel." Hundley later defended [[Tongsun Park]], [[John Mitchell]], and [[Richard Kleindienst]]. A few weeks before the casino opened on January 1, 1968, Crosby wrote 34 checks to campaign committees of [[Richard Nixon]], all but one for 3,000 dollars, and raised another hundred thousand from friends. Nixon, [[Bebe Rebozo]], and [[Robert Abplanalp]] attended the opening. The casino's manager was [[Eddie Cellini]], brother of Lansky's associate [[Dino Cellini]]. Crosby later ordered Peloquin to dismiss him.[^1] + +One of Tradewinds's informants, the former [[Wackenhut Corporation|Wackenhut]] detective [[Norman Casper]], later obtained the depositor list of the [[Castle Bank and Trust]], one of whose customers, [[William Mellon Hitchcock|Billy Mellon Hitchcock]], an early financier of the Paradise Island development, was then suing the bank over its voting of his Resorts stock.[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Hougan, Jim. *Spooks: The Haunting of America: The Private Use of Secret Agents*. William Morrow, 1978, pp. 237-242, 380-394. diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/John Birch Society.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/John Birch Society.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..3c36d353 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/John Birch Society.md @@ -0,0 +1,39 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - JohnBirchSociety + - Anticommunism + - RobertWelch + - NelsonBunkerHunt + - FredKoch + - JamesEastland + - Segregation +alias: + - JBS + - Birch Society +summary: "Anticommunist membership society founded by the candy manufacturer Robert Welch at Indianapolis in December 1958, whose first council included Fred Koch and the Wackenhut director Ralph E. Davis, and which circulated Senator Eastland's speeches." +start: 1958-12-09 +location: "Massachusetts" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +The John Birch Society was founded by [[Robert Welch]], a retired candy manufacturer of [[Massachusetts]], who on December 8 and 9, 1958, addressed eleven invited men for two days at the [[Indianapolis]] house of Marguerite Dice, national vice chairman of the Minute Women of the U.S.A. The talk was published as the society's *Blue Book*. The society took its name from an American missionary and army intelligence officer killed by Chinese Communist troops in August 1945.[^1] + +### The Council + +The first national council, as listed in the files of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]], included [[T. Coleman Andrews]]; [[Spruille Braden]]; Colonel [[Laurence Bunker]]; [[Ralph E. Davis]], later a director of the [[Wackenhut Corporation]]; [[Fred Koch|Fred C. Koch]], founder of what became [[Koch Industries]]; [[Alfred Kohlberg]]; [[Clarence Manion]]; [[Adolphe Menjou]]; [[Revilo P. Oliver]]; and Lieutenant General Charles B. Stone III. Koch wrote to Welch on April 2, 1962: "We have been on the defensive too long." Braden, Menjou, and Oliver later left.[^1] + +Welch reported to the council in confidence that the society's direct income for 1959 was 71,225 dollars and 80 cents, and that in its first year it had grown from about 75 chapters and 1,400 members to about 150 chapters and 2,800 members.[^1] + +### Eastland and the Hunts + +On March 31, 1961, Welch telegraphed Senator [[James Eastland]], chairman of the [[Senate Internal Security Subcommittee]], asking that the subcommittee investigate the society: "None of our members will plead the [[Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fifth Amendment]]." On July 3, 1962, he wrote Eastland that the society had spent "several thousand dollars" to send every member a copy of the senator's speech "Is The Supreme Court Pro-Communist?" and that "I agreed one hundred percent." A council memorandum of May 7, 1962, lists among those invited to its meeting at the Union League Club in [[Chicago]] the [[Dallas, Texas|Dallas]] oil man [[H.L. Hunt]], Captain [[Eddie Rickenbacker]], [[Ezra Taft Benson]], and Senator [[Strom Thurmond]]. Hunt's son [[Nelson Bunker Hunt]] later sat on the council. The man who collected the money for the black-bordered advertisement "Welcome Mr. Kennedy to Dallas" of November 22, 1963, to which Bunker Hunt contributed, was the society's Dallas coordinator, [[Joseph P. Grinnan]].[^1][^2] + +An informant of the FBI inside the [[White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan]] of [[Mississippi]], the Reverend [[Delmar Dennis]], who testified against the Klansmen tried for the murders of three civil rights workers in 1964, was a member of the society and was afterward employed by it as a coordinator and speaker.[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Federal Bureau of Investigation files on the John Birch Society and correspondence of its council, compiled by Ernie Lazar from Freedom of Information Act releases. https://archive.org/details/foia_JBS_Report--combined +[^2]: Bellant, Russ. *The Coors Connection: How Coors Family Philanthropy Undermines Democratic Pluralism*. South End Press, 1991; Testimony of Bernard William Weissman, *Hearings Before the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy,* vol. 5; Weissman Exhibit No. 1, vol. 21, p. 722. diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Park On Meter.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Park On Meter.md index 84facdcb..52c2b9f3 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Park On Meter.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Park On Meter.md @@ -20,9 +20,9 @@ Former Air Force intelligence officer [[Terry Reed]] claimed that Park On Meter ### Key Personnel -Park On Meter's former secretary and corporate lawyer was [[Webb Hubbell]], who was also the brother-in-law of the company's owner. Hubbell admitted to a *Time* magazine reporter that POM was also making rocket launchers.[^1] +Park On Meter's former secretary and corporate lawyer was [[Webster Hubbell|Webb Hubbell]], who was also the brother-in-law of the company's owner. Hubbell admitted to a *Time* magazine reporter that POM was also making rocket launchers.[^1] -Iver Johnson, the arms company near Little Rock that POM supplied, "did ship a load of weapons to Nicaragua through a Mexican distributor, according to former plant engineer J. A. Matejko," the *Washington Post* confirmed.[^1] +Iver Johnson, the arms company near [[Little Rock, Arkansas|Little Rock]] that POM supplied, "did ship a load of weapons to Nicaragua through a Mexican distributor, according to former plant engineer J. A. Matejko," the *Washington Post* confirmed.[^1] ### Footnotes diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co.md index 3583e564..ff97c72d 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co.md @@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. (variously abbreviated PMM, PM&M, PMMC, and PMM&C ### Role in PROMIS Development -In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. held federal contracts developing computerized management systems for multiple government departments including the [[Department of Defense]], [[Department of Transportation]], and the Small Business Administration, in addition to the [[LEAA|Law Enforcement Assistance Administration]].[^2] +In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. held federal contracts developing computerized management systems for multiple government departments including the [[Department of Defense]], [[Department of Transportation]], and the [[Small Business Administration]], in addition to the [[LEAA|Law Enforcement Assistance Administration]].[^2] In 1969, the [[Office of Crime Analysis of the District of Columbia]] administered a $60,000 LEAA grant (70-DF-047) to the firm to design a computer-based case management system for the [[U.S. Attorney's office|DC U.S. Attorney's Office]], at the direction of U.S. Attorney [[Thomas A. Flannery]]. The project team was co-directed by [[Joan E. Jacoby]] (Director of the Office of Crime Analysis) and [[Charles R. Work]] (Deputy Chief of the Superior Court Division of the DC U.S. Attorney's Office), with [[Bill Hamilton]] serving as project manager. Hamilton was then a senior consultant at the firm and a former [[NSA]] analyst. The resulting system -- the Prosecutor's Management Information System ([[PROMIS]]) - was deployed January 1, 1971.[^1][^2] diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Rose Law Firm.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Rose Law Firm.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..e5b6ed5b --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Rose Law Firm.md @@ -0,0 +1,37 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - RoseLawFirm + - Arkansas + - HillaryClinton + - VinceFoster + - WebsterHubbell + - StephensInc + - Systematics +summary: "Little Rock law firm dating from 1820, counsel to the Stephens interests, Worthen Bank, and Systematics, whose partners Hillary Rodham Clinton, Vince Foster, and Webster Hubbell went to Washington in 1993." +start: 1820-11-01 +location: "Little Rock, Arkansas" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +The Rose Law Firm of [[Little Rock, Arkansas|Little Rock]] traces its origin to a partnership formed on November 1, 1820, by [[Robert Crittenden]], secretary of [[Arkansas]] Territory, and the land speculator [[Chester Ashley]]. It took its present name in 1980 from Uriah Rose, a president of the [[American Bar Association]]. The state's reference encyclopedia lists among its alumni "one first lady of the [[United States]]," whom it does not name.[^1] + +### Partners and Clients + +[[C. Joseph Giroir]], a securities lawyer who had worked at the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]], practiced at the firm from 1965 to 1988 and was its managing partner. [[Hillary Rodham Clinton]], [[Vince Foster]], and [[Webster Hubbell]] were partners. In 1978, when [[Financial General Bankshares]] sued [[Jackson Stephens]], [[Stephens Inc.]], and the bank data processor [[Systematics]] over the purchase of its stock for clients of the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]], the firm appeared for Systematics. "Mrs. Clinton even represented one of Stephens's companies in a case related to BCCI," two reporters wrote in 1992. Foster later handled the Systematics account.[^2][^3] + +Giroir sat on the board of [[Worthen Bank]] with [[Mochtar Riady]] after the Riady and Stephens families took control of it in 1983. In April 1993 he incorporated the [[Arkansas International Development Corporation]] with capital from the [[Lippo Group]], and a House committee reported that the Riadys paid him between 350,000 and 600,000 dollars a year. [[Newsweek]] reported that "through his Riady contacts" he "got involved in deals with prominent Indonesian businessmen, including Bambang Trihatmodjo, the second son of President [[Suharto]]."[^2][^4] + +### 1993 and After + +Hubbell became associate attorney general in January 1993, and Foster also went to Washington. Foster was found dead in [[Fort Marcy Park]] on July 20, 1993. The firm's members then "found irregularities in Hubbell's billings for 1989-92." He resigned in March 1994 and pleaded guilty that December, "admitting that he defrauded his former partners and clients out of at least $394,000."[^5] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: "Rose Law Firm," *Encyclopedia of Arkansas.* https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/rose-law-firm-2241/ +[^2]: Obituary of C. Joseph Giroir Jr., *Arkansas Democrat-Gazette,* February 17, 2021; House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, *Investigation of Political Fundraising Improprieties and Possible Violations of Law,* H. Rept. 105-829, 1998, vol. 2. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRPT-105hrpt829/html/CRPT-105hrpt829-vol2.htm +[^3]: Truell, Peter, and Larry Gurwin. *False Profits: The Inside Story of BCCI, the World's Most Corrupt Financial Empire*. Houghton Mifflin, 1992, p. 428; Financial General Bankshares, Inc. v. Metzger, 523 F. Supp. 744 (D.D.C. 1981). +[^4]: "The Asian Connection," *Newsweek,* circa 1996. +[^5]: Office of the Independent Counsel, *Final Report of the Independent Counsel In Re: Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan Association,* vol. 3, part C, "Webster L. Hubbell's Billing Practices and Tax Filings." https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON/pdf/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON-3-2.pdf diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Truth or Consequences (New Orleans).md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Truth or Consequences (New Orleans).md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..cc847ff6 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Truth or Consequences (New Orleans).md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - TruthOrConsequences + - JimGarrison + - ClayShaw + - NewOrleans + - PrivateFunding +alias: + - Truth or Consequences + - Truth and Consequences +summary: "Private fund formed by three New Orleans businessmen in February 1967 to pay for Jim Garrison's Kennedy investigation, whose money a federal court found came in on Shaw's arrest and stopped on his acquittal." +start: 1967-02 +location: "New Orleans, Louisiana" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Truth or Consequences was a private fund formed in late February 1967, shortly before the arrest of [[Clay Shaw]], by the [[New Orleans]] businessmen [[Willard E. Robertson]], [[Joseph M. Rault Jr.]], and [[Cecil M. Shilstone]] to pay for District Attorney [[Jim Garrison]]'s investigation of the assassination of President [[John F. Kennedy]].[^1] + +A federal court found in 1971 that Garrison's office spent more than 99,000 dollars on the Shaw case. About 25,000 came from the office's audited fines and fees account. About 70,000 came from an unaudited "J.G. Safi Account" that Garrison had opened at the Bank of [[Louisiana]]. The fund's money was transferred at Robertson's request into a "Garrison Fund" on which Garrison could draw at will. Rault "managed the fund and wrote numerous checks payable to Garrison and members of Garrison's staff at their request." Robertson borrowed 30,000 dollars on two notes, dated November 9, 1967, and January 17, 1968, to contribute, and testified that he and Garrison were "close personal friends" and that he understood Garrison would repay him. During the trial Robertson employed the prosecution witness [[Roger Craig]] at his automobile business. No money was given or spent after the trial. "When Shaw was arrested the money came in; when he was acquitted, it stopped," Judge [[Herbert Christenberry]] wrote. He found also that Garrison had a contract for three books and that continued prosecution of Shaw would promote their sale.[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Shaw v. Garrison, 328 F. Supp. 390, 394-400 (E.D. La. 1971), affirmed, 467 F.2d 113 (5th Cir. 1972). diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Wackenhut Corporation.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Wackenhut Corporation.md index 54d2877c..b9e30a2c 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Wackenhut Corporation.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Wackenhut Corporation.md @@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ summary: "Florida security company founded in 1954 by former FBI agents, which g start: 1954-01-01 location: "Coral Gables, Florida" --- -Wackenhut Corporation is a security and investigative firm founded in 1954 by [[George R. Wackenhut]] and three other former [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] Special Agents. Initially named [[Special Agent Investigators]], it expanded to physical security and was renamed Wackenhut Corporation in 1958. Headquartered in [[Coral Gables]], [[Florida]], Wackenhut grew to become one of the world's largest security and investigative firms, with operations across the United States and internationally. The [[San Francisco]] Chronicle described it as being "led by former officials of the [[Central Intelligence Agency]], the Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Security Agency, Defense Department and federal law enforcement."[^1][^2] +Wackenhut Corporation is a security and investigative firm founded in 1954 by [[George R. Wackenhut]] and three other former [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] Special Agents. Initially named [[Special Agent Investigators]], it expanded to physical security and was renamed Wackenhut Corporation in 1958. Headquartered in [[Coral Gables, Florida|Coral Gables]], [[Florida]], Wackenhut grew to become one of the world's largest security and investigative firms, with operations across the United States and internationally. The [[San Francisco]] Chronicle described it as being "led by former officials of the [[Central Intelligence Agency]], the Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Security Agency, Defense Department and federal law enforcement."[^1][^2] ### Operations and Services @@ -105,7 +105,7 @@ It was here that the "trap door" was built into the U.S. version of PROMIS, base ### Danny Casolaro Investigation -Investigative reporter [[Danny Casolaro]] was investigating the Wackenhut/Cabazon weapons projects as part of his "[[The Octopus]]" investigation when he was found dead in a West Virginia motel room in 1991. The probe into his death was ordered by associate attorney general [[Webb Hubbell]], who had his own connections to weapons manufacturing for the Contras through [[Park On Meter]] in [[Arkansas]].[^2] +Investigative reporter [[Danny Casolaro]] was investigating the Wackenhut/Cabazon weapons projects as part of his "[[The Octopus]]" investigation when he was found dead in a West Virginia motel room in 1991. The probe into his death was ordered by associate attorney general [[Webster Hubbell|Webb Hubbell]], who had his own connections to weapons manufacturing for the Contras through [[Park On Meter]] in [[Arkansas]].[^2] ### Other Allegations diff --git a/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/HISTORICAL_PROGRAMS/Alliance for Progress.md b/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/HISTORICAL_PROGRAMS/Alliance for Progress.md index 8bf6018e..fc56985c 100644 --- a/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/HISTORICAL_PROGRAMS/Alliance for Progress.md +++ b/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/HISTORICAL_PROGRAMS/Alliance for Progress.md @@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ The Alliance's democratic ideology suffered a series of blows from military coup The business community was never satisfied with Kennedy's approach to Latin American development. David Rockefeller's Commerce Department subcommittee on the Alliance explicitly demanded that Kennedy abandon government-to-government lending in favor of policies that improved "the general business climate." The subcommittee, which David chaired, wanted aid tied to conditions favorable to private investment rather than to social reform programs.[^6] -After Kennedy's assassination, [[Lyndon Johnson]] moved to replace the Alliance's leadership. On December 9, 1963, Johnson telephoned [[Thomas Mann]] in Mexico City to offer him the position. Mann's appointment was publicly announced December 14, 1963. Mann assumed his new responsibilities on January 3, 1964, holding three coordinated titles: Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, Special Assistant to the President, and U.S. Coordinator of the Alliance for Progress. Johnson announced that Mann would "undertake the coordination and direction of all policies and programs of the U.S. government, economic, social, and cultural, relating to Latin America." Moscoso was reassigned as U.S. Representative to the Inter-American Committee on the Alliance for Progress (CIAP).[^7] +After Kennedy's assassination, [[Lyndon B. Johnson|Lyndon Johnson]] moved to replace the Alliance's leadership. On December 9, 1963, Johnson telephoned [[Thomas Mann]] in Mexico City to offer him the position. Mann's appointment was publicly announced December 14, 1963. Mann assumed his new responsibilities on January 3, 1964, holding three coordinated titles: Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, Special Assistant to the President, and U.S. Coordinator of the Alliance for Progress. Johnson announced that Mann would "undertake the coordination and direction of all policies and programs of the U.S. government, economic, social, and cultural, relating to Latin America." Moscoso was reassigned as U.S. Representative to the Inter-American Committee on the Alliance for Progress (CIAP).[^7] Mann, a veteran of U.S. business interests in Latin America who had helped the CIA's 1954 Guatemala operation, was universally understood as a signal that social reforms would be deprioritized and military governments tolerated. On March 18, 1964, Mann gave a secret speech to senior U.S. officials laying out the administration's policy for the region, which moved away from the political centrism of Kennedy's Alliance by emphasizing economic growth, U.S. business interests, and anti-communism over opposition to authoritarian governments. A New York Times article by Tad Szulc published March 19, 1964, reported the content of Mann's speech and the resulting policy shift became known as the Mann Doctrine. The State Department issued a formal rebuttal, but did not reverse the policy.[^8] diff --git a/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/Garrison Group.md b/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/Garrison Group.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..8d63dcde --- /dev/null +++ b/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/Garrison Group.md @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence Operation" +tags: + - Project + - GarrisonGroup + - CIA + - JimGarrison + - ClayShaw + - RichardHelms + - Counterintelligence +summary: "Committee of six senior CIA officers that Richard Helms convened in September 1967 to manage the agency's response to Jim Garrison's prosecution of Clay Shaw, who had been a source of its Domestic Contact Service." +start: 1967-09-20 +location: "Langley, Virginia" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +The Garrison Group was an ad hoc committee of "six of CIA's highest officials" that Director [[Richard Helms]] formed in 1967 "to formulate a strategy" toward the investigation of the Kennedy assassination by the [[New Orleans]] district attorney, [[Jim Garrison]]. Its first meeting is recorded in a memorandum of September 20, 1967.[^1] + +### Shaw and the Agency + +Garrison's defendant, [[Clay Shaw]], had been a source of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]'s [[Domestic Contact Service]]. His first report, of December 1948, concerned trade with [[Czechoslovakia]], and he reported "on 33 separate occasions" through 1956 on economic matters in [[Latin America]] and Europe, unpaid. The contact division closed the case on June 4, 1956. Two days after Shaw's arrest the chief of the service's New Orleans office, [[Lloyd Ray]], cabled headquarters recommending that the general counsel be briefed "to be on the safe side."[^1] + +### Rocca and Houston + +Helms assigned the matter to [[Raymond Rocca]], chief of research and analysis on the [[CIA Counterintelligence Staff|Counterintelligence Staff]]. Rocca wrote on April 26, 1967, that it would be "unwise to dismiss as trivial any attempts by Garrison to link the Agency to his plot," whose effect "will not depend principally upon their veracity" but on "their timeliness and extent of press coverage." On May 1 the former assistant attorney general [[Herbert J. Miller Jr.|Jack Miller]] telephoned the general counsel, [[Lawrence Houston]], with information "from within Garrison's office" supplied by the NBC reporter [[Walter Sheridan]]. In September Shaw's lawyers asked the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]] for guidance on Garrison's claims about the agency and were refused. Houston's memorandum of October 2, 1967, set out each allegation and the facts, recommended doing nothing beyond resisting subpoenas, and warned that if Shaw were to "be convicted on information that could be refuted by CIA," then "we may be in for some difficult decisions." Rocca wrote on March 1, 1968, that Garrison's new charge of a plot by the agency and the military-industrial complex "is by and large the [[Moscow]] line."[^1] + +After a federal court enjoined Garrison's last prosecution of Shaw in 1971 the director of the Domestic Contact Service wrote to his [[Dallas, Texas|Dallas]] office: "Looks like Mr. Garrison is on the ropes and will have all he can do to keep the hornets away."[^1] + +The [[House Select Committee on Assassinations]] asked the agency in January 1978 for its files on "Jim Garrison aka Wackenhut Corp." and on the "Garrison 1967 investigation."[^2] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Holland, Max. "The Lie That Linked CIA to the Kennedy Assassination," *Studies in Intelligence,* vol. 45, no. 5, 2001. https://www.cia.gov/resources/csi/static/Lie-That-Linked-CIA.pdf The documents are cited there to the Russell Holmes Papers and the HSCA Segregated CIA Collection, John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection, National Archives. +[^2]: Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Legislative Counsel, HSCA request OLC 78-0070/1, January 12, 1978, CIA Reading Room document 00491180. diff --git a/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/Operation Condor.md b/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/Operation Condor.md index 0b88edff..c18be997 100644 --- a/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/Operation Condor.md +++ b/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/Operation Condor.md @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@ --- created: 2026-05-14 -updated: 2026-05-17 +updated: 2026-09-21 title: Operation Condor aliases: - Operation Condor @@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ Operation Condor (Spanish: Operacion Condor) was a clandestine program of politi The founding meeting occurred in [[Santiago]], Chile, in November 1975, organized by Chilean DINA chief [[Manuel Contreras]] under CIA Station Chief [[Ted Shackley|Theodore Shackley]]'s authority. Representatives of the intelligence services of all six founding members attended. The operational structure was divided into three phases: - Phase I (Condor I): Exchange of intelligence on political opponents among member states -- Phase II (Condor II): Cross-border kidnapping and assassination operations to eliminate opponents who had fled to other member states +- Phase II ([[Condor II]]): Cross-border kidnapping and assassination operations to eliminate opponents who had fled to other member states - Phase III (Condor III): Operations in Europe and North America against high-profile political figures and exiles The communications network (called Condortel) was established through a secure telex system connected through U.S. military telecommunications infrastructure in the [[Panama Canal Zone]] and later through equipment provided directly by the CIA.[^2] @@ -49,11 +49,26 @@ Documented Condor operations include: The "Caravan of Death" - DINA special army unit executions across Chile in October 1973 - predated Condor's formal establishment but represented the same operational logic.[^1] +### Santiago, November 1975 + +At the founding conference on November 26, 1975, Manuel Contreras "outlined his proposal for three phases of what he called 'effective coordination.'" The first was a coordinating center in Chile "similar to that which [[Interpol]] has in Paris, but dedicated to subversion." His paper went on: "We recommend the utilization of liaison resources outside the countries of the System, especially those that are outside the continent, to obtain information on Subversion." Contreras "would later say publicly that both the CIA and the FBI knew about this intelligence data bank, contributed information to it, and sought information from it." The third phase, "surveillance and assassination outside [[Latin America]]," "stunned even some of this group of hardened intelligence veterans."[^3] + +### Washington, 1976 + +A memorandum of June 4, 1976, the day [[Juan José Torres]] was found dead in Buenos Aires, weighed the "existence of an intergovernmental assassination program" and found "no evidence to support a contention that [[Southern Cone]] governments are cooperating in some sort of international Murder Inc." On June 8 [[Henry A. Kissinger|Henry Kissinger]] met Pinochet in his office in Santiago. The transcript was withheld until 1998. Pinochet's aide summarized: "He asked a lot, but offered little." When Ambassador [[David Popper]] had raised human rights with the junta, Kissinger wrote on the cable: "Tell Popper to cut out the political science lectures." On August 3 Assistant Secretary [[Harry Shlaudeman]] sent Kissinger "The Third World War and South America," on the assassination plans. The warning to the governments that followed had not been carried through when Letelier was killed seven weeks later.[^4] + +### The Scherrer Cable + +The first description of the system to reach Washington in writing came from the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]]'s legal attaché in Buenos Aires, [[Robert Scherrer]], soon after the murder of Orlando Letelier. "Operation Condor is the code name for the collection, exchange and storage of intelligence data concerning leftists, communists and Marxists which was recently established between the cooperating services in South America," he cabled. "Chile is the center for Operation Condor." It continued: "A third and more secret phase of Operation Condor involves the formation of special teams from member countries to travel anywhere in the world to non-member countries to carry out sanctions, [including] assassinations." His source had heard that operations of the third phase were under consideration for [[Portugal]] and [[France]], and "had reason to believe Letelier may have been the first victim." Scherrer learned that Manuel Contreras, "Condor One," had "personally provided the inspiration and organizational impetus," that the system had begun to function late in 1975, and that Chile had provided much of the money.[^5] + ### Discovery and Documentation -The "Condor Archive" - approximately 700,000 documents from [[Paraguay]]'s secret police found in a police station in Lambare in December 1992 by human rights lawyer Martin Almada - provided the most comprehensive documentary proof of Condor's operations and the detailed records of cross-border intelligence sharing. The documents were preserved as the "Archive of Terror" and are recognized by UNESCO.[^2] +The "Condor Archive" - approximately 700,000 documents from Paraguay's secret police found in a police station in Lambare in December 1992 by human rights lawyer Martin Almada - provided the most comprehensive documentary proof of Condor's operations and the detailed records of cross-border intelligence sharing. The documents were preserved as the "Archive of Terror" and are recognized by UNESCO.[^2] ### Footnotes [^1]: McSherry, J. Patrice. *Predatory States: Operation Condor and Covert War in Latin America.* Rowman & Littlefield, 2005. [^2]: Kornbluh, Peter. *The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability.* The New Press, 2003. +[^3]: Dinges, John. *The Condor Years: How Pinochet and His Allies Brought Terrorism to Three Continents*. New Press, 2004, pp. 12-15. +[^4]: Dinges, John. *The Condor Years: How Pinochet and His Allies Brought Terrorism to Three Continents*. New Press, 2004, pp. 156-166, 171-174. +[^5]: Dinges, John, and Saul Landau. *Assassination on Embassy Row*. McGraw-Hill, 1980, pp. 237-239. diff --git a/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/Operation Gold.md b/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/Operation Gold.md index 019f85f6..67a429d0 100644 --- a/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/Operation Gold.md +++ b/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/Operation Gold.md @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ ---- +--- created: 2026-05-17 updated: 2026-05-17 title: Operation Gold @@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ Operation Gold (known in British planning as Operation Stopwatch) was a joint [[ ### Planning and Construction -The operation was planned jointly by the CIA's [[Berlin]] Base, led by [[Bill Harvey|William "Bill" Harvey]], and MI6 officers including [[George Blake]]. The technical challenge was substantial: a shaft had to be dug beginning from a warehouse in the American sector, extending approximately 450 meters under the sector boundary, beneath Schönefelder Chaussee (the main road connecting [[East Germany|East Berlin]] to the Soviet military compound at Karlshorst), and connecting to a tap chamber beneath the Soviet-operated cables. The Soviet cables carried communications between Soviet military headquarters and field units throughout East Germany and the Soviet bloc. +The operation was planned jointly by the CIA's [[Berlin]] Base, led by [[William Harvey|William "Bill" Harvey]], and MI6 officers including [[George Blake]]. The technical challenge was substantial: a shaft had to be dug beginning from a warehouse in the American sector, extending approximately 450 meters under the sector boundary, beneath Schönefelder Chaussee (the main road connecting [[East Germany|East Berlin]] to the Soviet military compound at Karlshorst), and connecting to a tap chamber beneath the Soviet-operated cables. The Soviet cables carried communications between Soviet military headquarters and field units throughout East Germany and the Soviet bloc. The Americans built the warehouse cover facility and excavated the main tunnel; the British contributed their signals interception expertise in tapping cables and processing the take. Harvey served as the CIA operational director. MI6 sent its own signals specialists to assist with the interception technology.[^1] diff --git a/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/Operation Tradewinds.md b/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/Operation Tradewinds.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..757cb5f9 --- /dev/null +++ b/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/Operation Tradewinds.md @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +--- +category: "Law Enforcement Operation" +tags: + - Project + - OperationTradewinds + - InternalRevenueService + - Bahamas + - TaxHavens + - OrganizedCrime + - CastleBank + - Intertel +alias: + - Operation Trade Winds +summary: "IRS intelligence operation run from Jacksonville from 1965 against American money in Bahamian banks, which used paid informants in violation of Bahamian law and was called off after the Castle Bank briefcase theft." +start: 1965 +end: 1975 +location: "Jacksonville, Florida" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +"In 1965, the [[Internal Revenue Service]] launched an investigation into the financial activities of American citizens in the [[Bahamas]]. The project, known as 'Operation Trade Winds,' was headquartered in [[Jacksonville, Florida|Jacksonville]]," the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] recorded in 1980.[^1] + +### Method + +In 1966 senior officers of IRS intelligence met [[Henry Petersen]], chief of the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]]'s organized crime section, to arrange "special handling" of the evidence, which was being obtained in ways that "violated Bahamian laws." Informants such as "former [[Wackenhut Corporation|Wackenhut]] agent [[Norman Casper]], a/k/a 'TW-24'" could gather material to be used only "for lead purposes," and it was handed to the service on American soil by a different agent from the one who had gone to the islands "for normal liaison purposes." The operation is said to have recruited [[Lynden Pindling]], later prime minister, as an informant. A Justice Department lawyer who worked with it, [[Robert Peloquin]], wrote in a January memorandum on the casino planned for [[Paradise Island]] that "the atmosphere looks right for a Lansky skim." Peloquin, his colleague [[William Hundley]], the IRS intelligence chief [[William Kolar]], and several agents afterward went to work for [[Intertel]], a subsidiary of the company that owned that casino.[^2] + +### Castle Bank + +In 1972 the operation turned to the [[Castle Bank and Trust]]. On January 15, 1973, Casper, working for Special Agent [[Richard Jaffe]], took the briefcase of a bank officer from a [[Miami]] apartment and had its contents photographed at an IRS agent's house. The list of some 300 depositors produced a project of several hundred tax cases. A federal judge called the conduct "outrageous" in 1977. The Supreme Court noted that "in 1976 Congress investigated the improprieties revealed in this record," and that "as a result, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue 'called off' Operation Trade Winds." [[The Wall Street Journal]] reported in 1980 that the cases had been dropped at the request of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]], for which the bank's founder, [[Paul Helliwell]], had moved money.[^1][^3] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: United States v. Payner, 447 U.S. 727 (1980); United States v. Payner, 434 F. Supp. 113 (N.D. Ohio 1977); House Committee on Government Operations, *Oversight Hearings into the Operations of the IRS (Operation Tradewinds, Project Haven, and Narcotics Traffickers Tax Program),* 94th Cong., 1st Sess., 1975. +[^2]: Hougan, Jim. *Spooks: The Haunting of America: The Private Use of Secret Agents*. William Morrow, 1978, pp. 382-383. +[^3]: Drinkhall, Jim. "IRS vs. CIA: Big Tax Investigation Was Quietly Scuttled by Intelligence Agency," *The Wall Street Journal,* April 18, 1980, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP90-01208R000100100061-5. diff --git a/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/Project MERRIMAC.md b/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/Project MERRIMAC.md index 092150d0..fe4ce89b 100644 --- a/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/Project MERRIMAC.md +++ b/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/Project MERRIMAC.md @@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ end: 1974-03-01 location: "Washington, D.C." --- -Project MERRIMAC was a [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] domestic espionage program run by the CIA's Office of Security that placed undercover infiltrators inside antiwar and civil rights organizations in the Washington D.C. area beginning approximately February 1967. It operated in parallel with the larger [[Operation CHAOS]] (MHCHAOS) counterintelligence program, feeding collected intelligence upward through an interagency pipeline codenamed [[CACTUS]] to both CHAOS and the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]]'s [[COINTELPRO]]. Unlike Operation CHAOS, which was run through [[James Jesus Angleton]]'s Counterintelligence Staff, MERRIMAC and its companion program Project RESISTANCE were administered by the Office of Security - a structural distinction that the Church Committee noted in its documentation of the programs.[^1] +Project MERRIMAC was a [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] domestic espionage program run by the CIA's Office of Security that placed undercover infiltrators inside antiwar and civil rights organizations in the Washington D.C. area beginning approximately February 1967. It operated in parallel with the larger [[Operation CHAOS]] (MHCHAOS) counterintelligence program, feeding collected intelligence upward through an interagency pipeline codenamed [[CACTUS]] to both CHAOS and the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]]'s [[COINTELPRO]]. Unlike Operation CHAOS, which was run through [[James Jesus Angleton]]'s Counterintelligence Staff, MERRIMAC and its companion program Project RESISTANCE were administered by the [[CIA Office of Security|Office of Security]] - a structural distinction that the Church Committee noted in its documentation of the programs.[^1] ### Origins and Rationale diff --git a/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/Project RESISTANCE.md b/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/Project RESISTANCE.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..02500897 --- /dev/null +++ b/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/Project RESISTANCE.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence Operation" +tags: + - Program + - ProjectRESISTANCE + - CIA + - CIAOfficeOfSecurity + - DomesticSurveillance + - CampusSurveillance + - ChurchCommittee +alias: + - RESISTANCE +summary: "CIA Office of Security program of 1967 to 1973 that began as protection for campus recruiters and grew into an index of 12,000 to 16,000 names drawn from campus officials, police, and the underground press." +start: 1967-02-01 +end: 1973-06-30 +location: "Langley, Virginia" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Project RESISTANCE was run by the [[CIA Office of Security|Office of Security]] of the [[Central Intelligence Agency]], the companion of [[Project MERRIMAC]]. The Senate committee described it as "a broad effort to obtain general background information for predicting violence which might create threats to CIA installations, recruiters, or contractors, and for security evaluation of CIA applicants. From 1967 until 1973 the program compiled information about radical groups around the country, particularly on campuses."[^1] + +### Growth + +"In February 1967 the Office of Security had directed its field offices to report on the possibilities of violence or harassment at those schools which CIA recruiters planned to visit." The wider program "was initiated by the Deputy Director of the CIA for Support, whose directorate included the Office of Security, and who previously had been a Director of Security himself. In December 1967 he requested the Office of Security to study campus dissidence on a systematic basis." A Targets Analysis Branch of four or five persons was set up in May 1968. It read the [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]], [[New York City|New York]], and [[Chicago]] dailies, "underground newspapers such as the *[[Los Angeles Free Press]]* and the *[[Berkeley Barb]]*," the Communist press, and college papers, and issued weekly situation reports. "Eventually the project developed an estimated 600-700 files and indexed an estimated 12,000 to 16,000 names."[^1][^2] + +### Restraint and End + +By late 1970 the director of security, [[Howard Osborn]], "felt that some of the field offices might be going too far in developing information from cooperating confidential sources." A headquarters memorandum of January 6, 1971, instructed: "No attempts should be made to recruit new informants or sources such as campus or police officials for the express purpose of obtaining information regarding dissident groups, individuals, or activities." The project was terminated at the end of June 1973, six weeks after Osborn's report to the management committee for the [[CIA Family Jewels|Family Jewels]].[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities. *Final Report, Book III*. S. Rept. 94-755, 1976, pp. 681-683, 721-724. +[^2]: Commission on CIA Activities Within the United States. *Report to the President*. Government Printing Office, June 1975, pp. 151-156. diff --git a/40 - EVENTS/2015 Charleston Church Shooting.md b/40 - EVENTS/2015 Charleston Church Shooting.md index f375fada..ac993494 100644 --- a/40 - EVENTS/2015 Charleston Church Shooting.md +++ b/40 - EVENTS/2015 Charleston Church Shooting.md @@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ On June 17, 2015, [[Dylann Roof]] (21) entered [[Emanuel African Methodist Episc Roof arrived at Emanuel AME Church, one of the oldest and most historically prominent Black churches in the American South, during Wednesday evening Bible study. He sat with the group for roughly an hour. He then opened fire on the worshippers. -The nine people killed were the church's senior pastor and South Carolina state senator [[Clementa C. Pinckney]], [[Cynthia Marie Graham Hurd]], [[Susie Jackson]], [[Ethel Lee Lance]], [[Depayne Middleton Doctor]], [[Tywanza Sanders]], [[Daniel Simmons]], [[Sharonda Coleman-Singleton]], and [[Myra Thompson]]. +The nine people killed were the church's senior pastor and [[South Carolina]] state senator [[Clementa C. Pinckney]], [[Cynthia Marie Graham Hurd]], [[Susie Jackson]], [[Ethel Lee Lance]], [[Depayne Middleton Doctor]], [[Tywanza Sanders]], [[Daniel Simmons]], [[Sharonda Coleman-Singleton]], and [[Myra Thompson]]. After the attack Roof drove out of state. A motorist in Shelby, [[North Carolina]] recognized him from surveillance footage broadcast in the immediate aftermath and called police. He was arrested the following morning without resistance.[^1] diff --git a/40 - EVENTS/CONTRA_WAR/Bay of Pigs.md b/40 - EVENTS/CONTRA_WAR/Bay of Pigs.md index ab85ac6a..6497c8e1 100644 --- a/40 - EVENTS/CONTRA_WAR/Bay of Pigs.md +++ b/40 - EVENTS/CONTRA_WAR/Bay of Pigs.md @@ -95,13 +95,13 @@ The Taylor Commission attributed failure to "a mistaken belief that this large o The Taylor Commission's findings led directly to [[Operation Mongoose]], approved in November 1961, as the successor anti-Castro covert program under [[Edward Lansdale]] and Robert Kennedy's Special Group (Augmented). -Personnel consequences: Allen Dulles was forced to resign, replaced by John McCone; Bissell resigned in February 1962, receiving the National Security Medal before his departure; C.P. Cabell was forced to resign January 31, 1962. Kennedy privately told aide Richard Goodwin regarding the captured brigade: "They trusted me, and they're in prison now because I fucked up. I have to get them out."[^1] +Personnel consequences: Allen Dulles was forced to resign, replaced by John McCone; Bissell resigned in February 1962, receiving the [[National Security Medal]] before his departure; C.P. Cabell was forced to resign January 31, 1962. Kennedy privately told aide Richard Goodwin regarding the captured brigade: "They trusted me, and they're in prison now because I fucked up. I have to get them out."[^1] ### The Prisoner Exchange Of approximately 1,400 Brigade members: 114 were killed in battle; approximately 1,179 were captured; 1,113 survived to the eventual exchange. Castro announced in April 1962 that the prisoners faced trial as "war criminals," with sentences of 30 years or payment of $62 million in indemnification. -Robert Kennedy secretly recruited [[New York]] attorney James B. Donovan - who had negotiated the Rudolf Abel spy exchange - to reopen prisoner talks in June 1962. Donovan worked pro bono. Negotiations were disrupted by the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]] in October 1962 but resumed. On December 21, 1962, Donovan and Castro signed an agreement: 1,113 surviving prisoners were exchanged for $53 million in food, medicines, and other humanitarian supplies, raised through private donations from pharmaceutical companies and other sources. +Robert Kennedy secretly recruited [[New York]] attorney James B. Donovan - who had negotiated the [[Rudolf Abel]] spy exchange - to reopen prisoner talks in June 1962. Donovan worked pro bono. Negotiations were disrupted by the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]] in October 1962 but resumed. On December 21, 1962, Donovan and Castro signed an agreement: 1,113 surviving prisoners were exchanged for $53 million in food, medicines, and other humanitarian supplies, raised through private donations from pharmaceutical companies and other sources. Kennedy welcomed the released prisoners at the Orange Bowl in Miami on December 29, 1962. Brigade 2506 presented Kennedy with their battle flag; Kennedy stated he would return it "to a free Havana." He never did.[^2] diff --git a/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Church Committee.md b/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Church Committee.md index 408a6ffb..e2b70e2b 100644 --- a/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Church Committee.md +++ b/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Church Committee.md @@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ Earlier contributory revelations included: the discovery of the "Family Jewels" The committee's investigations covered all major U.S. intelligence agencies: the CIA, FBI, NSA, Army intelligence, and IRS. Its principal documented findings included: -Operation CHAOS (CIA): The CIA's Operation CHAOS (MHCHAOS), directed by [[Richard Ober]] under James Angleton's Counterintelligence Staff, was documented as "unlawful" domestic surveillance violating the CIA's legislative charter. The HYDRA index of 7,200 American citizens and 300,000 names was documented. The committee also documented Project MERRIMAC and Project RESISTANCE as subprograms feeding CHAOS. The findings are in Book III of the final report: "CIA Intelligence Collection About Americans: CHAOS and the Office of Security."[^1] +Operation CHAOS (CIA): The CIA's Operation CHAOS (MHCHAOS), directed by [[Richard Ober]] under James Angleton's Counterintelligence Staff, was documented as "unlawful" domestic surveillance violating the CIA's legislative charter. The HYDRA index of 7,200 American citizens and 300,000 names was documented. The committee also documented Project MERRIMAC and [[Project RESISTANCE]] as subprograms feeding CHAOS. The findings are in Book III of the final report: "CIA Intelligence Collection About Americans: CHAOS and the [[CIA Office of Security|Office of Security]]."[^1] COINTELPRO (FBI): The FBI's COINTELPRO programs were documented as having used infiltration, psychological warfare, fabricated communications, wrongful prosecution referrals, and coordination with local law enforcement in ways the committee found constituted a systematic campaign against legal political activity. The committee found that the FBI had opened more than 500,000 domestic intelligence files since 1960 and that many targeted individuals had never engaged in any illegal activity.[^1] diff --git a/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Project Babylon.md b/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Project Babylon.md index 56350864..b8a8023c 100644 --- a/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Project Babylon.md +++ b/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Project Babylon.md @@ -33,6 +33,8 @@ Prime Minister [[Margaret Thatcher]], [[The Washington Post]] reported, "has att Asked on April 24 when ministers in the [[Department of Trade and Industry]] first learned of the Walter Somers order, the trade minister [[Alan Clark]] answered: "Earlier this month." On April 27 [[Gordon Brown]] asked the secretary of state, [[Nicholas Ridley]], when the department first saw the Sheffield Forgemasters contract, what checks were made of "the 44 items of piping now sent to Iraq," how often Walter Somers had itself come to the department about the order, and what was done when the firm reported that it had been approached "about aiming equipment." To each Ridley replied: "In the light of charges laid against an individual on 25 April, and in the light of the continuing investigation by [[HM Customs and Excise|Customs and Excise]], it would be inappropriate to give any further information." Thatcher, asked which departments had considered the order, said: "Export controls are administered by the Department of Trade and Industry who seek advice from the [[Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Defence]] and other Departments as necessary." The [[Foreign and Commonwealth Office|Foreign Office]] minister [[William Waldegrave]] said on April 30: "We first became aware of Iraq's involvement with advanced ballistic missiles in 1987." The [[Trade and Industry Select Committee]] opened an inquiry.[^3] +At the trial of the [[Matrix Churchill]] directors in 1992 an officer of [[MI5]] confirmed that one of the firm's executives, [[Mark Gutteridge]], had reported to the service on Bull's company, and that "Gutteridge first told MI5 about Bull and his supergun in May 1988." The information "had been passed straight to the CIA." Matrix Churchill's Iraqi owner, the [[Technology Development Group]], "had a partnership with Dr. Gerald Bull's Space Research Corporation, and it financed purchases for Bull thanks to loans from BNL Atlanta." On February 6, 1990, six weeks before Bull was shot, the [[Central Bank of Iraq]] opened a credit of 2.9 million dollars through Space Research to a [[New Jersey]] fuse maker, Rexon. A customs investigator who had followed Bull and his British partner Allivane for three years said: "none of this could have been done without government approval."[^4] + The freelance journalist [[Jonathan Moyle]], who had been looking into Iraqi arms purchases in [[Chile]], was found dead in a [[Santiago]] hotel on March 31, 1990, nine days after Bull.[^2] ### Footnotes @@ -40,3 +42,4 @@ The freelance journalist [[Jonathan Moyle]], who had been looking into Iraqi arm [^1]: "Briton Charged in Alleged Iraqi 'Super Gun' Project," *The Washington Post,* April 25, 1990. [^2]: "Britain confirms pipes were for supergun," United Press International, April 18, 1990; "Two linked to Iraq gun affair freed on bail," United Press International, May 3, 1990; GlobalSecurity.org, "Space Research Corporation." On Moyle see the sources cited at [[Jonathan Moyle]]. [^3]: House of Commons, written answers, April 24, 27, and 30, 1990, *Hansard.* https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/written_answers/1990/apr/27/iraq-arms-component-exports +[^4]: Friedman, Alan. *Spider's Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq*. Bantam, 1993, pp. 78-79, 116, 250. diff --git a/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Warren Commission.md b/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Warren Commission.md index 1c3e128f..2639aadd 100644 --- a/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Warren Commission.md +++ b/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Warren Commission.md @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ ---- +--- created: 2026-05-15 updated: 2026-05-17 title: Warren Commission @@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ end: 1964-09-24 location: "Washington, D.C." --- -The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy - universally known as the Warren Commission after its chairman, Chief Justice Earl Warren - was an investigative body established by President [[Lyndon Johnson|Lyndon B. Johnson]] by executive order on November 29, 1963, one week after the Kennedy assassination. It issued its report on September 24, 1964, concluding that [[Lee Harvey Oswald]] had acted alone in killing President Kennedy and that [[Jack Ruby]] had acted alone in killing Oswald.[^1] +The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy - universally known as the Warren Commission after its chairman, Chief Justice Earl Warren - was an investigative body established by President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] by executive order on November 29, 1963, one week after the Kennedy assassination. It issued its report on September 24, 1964, concluding that [[Lee Harvey Oswald]] had acted alone in killing President Kennedy and that [[Jack Ruby]] had acted alone in killing Oswald.[^1] ### Composition diff --git a/40 - EVENTS/MAJOR_CONFLICTS/Cuban Missile Crisis.md b/40 - EVENTS/MAJOR_CONFLICTS/Cuban Missile Crisis.md index ee7871db..3ec1c8d6 100644 --- a/40 - EVENTS/MAJOR_CONFLICTS/Cuban Missile Crisis.md +++ b/40 - EVENTS/MAJOR_CONFLICTS/Cuban Missile Crisis.md @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ ---- +--- aliases: - Cuban Missile Crisis - Caribbean Crisis @@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ Kennedy's inner circle, the Executive Committee of the National Security Council The most dangerous days came when U-2 reconnaissance aircraft were shot down over Cuba and Soviet submarines were depth-charged by American forces. Back-channel negotiations, including communication through Soviet intelligence officer Aleksandr Feklisov, helped establish the terms of resolution. The final agreement involved the public Soviet pledge to remove missiles, the American public pledge not to invade Cuba, and a secret American undertaking - revealed only decades later - to remove Jupiter missiles from Turkey within several months.[^1] -The CIA's role during the crisis included the aerial reconnaissance that discovered the missiles and operational planning for responses including an air strike that ExComm ultimately rejected. CIA officer [[Bill Harvey]] controversially dispatched infiltration teams to Cuba during the crisis without authorization from CIA Director [[John McCone]], an action that triggered a furious confrontation and led to Harvey's reassignment.[^1] +The CIA's role during the crisis included the aerial reconnaissance that discovered the missiles and operational planning for responses including an air strike that ExComm ultimately rejected. CIA officer [[William Harvey|Bill Harvey]] controversially dispatched infiltration teams to Cuba during the crisis without authorization from CIA Director [[John McCone]], an action that triggered a furious confrontation and led to Harvey's reassignment.[^1] ### Aftermath diff --git a/40 - EVENTS/MAJOR_CONFLICTS/Gulf of Tonkin Incident.md b/40 - EVENTS/MAJOR_CONFLICTS/Gulf of Tonkin Incident.md index db98b36d..228bc36e 100644 --- a/40 - EVENTS/MAJOR_CONFLICTS/Gulf of Tonkin Incident.md +++ b/40 - EVENTS/MAJOR_CONFLICTS/Gulf of Tonkin Incident.md @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ ---- +--- created: 2026-05-15 updated: 2026-05-17 title: Gulf of Tonkin Incident @@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ start: 1964-08-04 location: "Gulf of Tonkin, off North Vietnam" --- -The Gulf of Tonkin Incident refers to two separate events on August 2 and August 4, 1964, in the Gulf of Tonkin off the coast of North Vietnam, the second of which was used by the [[Lyndon Johnson|Johnson]] administration to obtain congressional authorization for the dramatic escalation of American involvement in [[Vietnam|the Vietnam War]]. Subsequent declassification - principally of [[NSA]] documents released in 2005 - confirmed what internal doubts at the time suggested: the August 4 "attack" almost certainly did not occur.[^1] +The Gulf of Tonkin Incident refers to two separate events on August 2 and August 4, 1964, in the Gulf of Tonkin off the coast of North Vietnam, the second of which was used by the [[Lyndon B. Johnson|Johnson]] administration to obtain congressional authorization for the dramatic escalation of American involvement in [[Vietnam|the Vietnam War]]. Subsequent declassification - principally of [[NSA]] documents released in 2005 - confirmed what internal doubts at the time suggested: the August 4 "attack" almost certainly did not occur.[^1] ### August 2: The Real Attack diff --git a/40 - EVENTS/MAJOR_CONFLICTS/Sabra and Shatila massacres.md b/40 - EVENTS/MAJOR_CONFLICTS/Sabra and Shatila massacres.md index 294e8ad1..3f686bbd 100644 --- a/40 - EVENTS/MAJOR_CONFLICTS/Sabra and Shatila massacres.md +++ b/40 - EVENTS/MAJOR_CONFLICTS/Sabra and Shatila massacres.md @@ -30,4 +30,5 @@ As a result of the inquiry, [[Yehoshua Sagi|Maj. Gen. Sagi]] was removed from hi ### Footnotes -[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. _Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network_. TrineDay, 1992. [^2]: Hersh, Seymour M. _The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy_. Random House, 1991. Chapter 21. \ No newline at end of file +[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. _Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network_. TrineDay, 1992. +[^2]: Hersh, Seymour M. _The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy_. Random House, 1991. Chapter 21. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/40 - EVENTS/MODERN_INCIDENTS/Cybertruck Trump Hotel Bombing.md b/40 - EVENTS/MODERN_INCIDENTS/Cybertruck Trump Hotel Bombing.md index 050968e8..bd64581b 100644 --- a/40 - EVENTS/MODERN_INCIDENTS/Cybertruck Trump Hotel Bombing.md +++ b/40 - EVENTS/MODERN_INCIDENTS/Cybertruck Trump Hotel Bombing.md @@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ On January 1, 2025, active duty [[U.S. Army]] [[Special Operations Group|Special ### Detailed Timeline - The truck was rented in Colorado using [[Turo]] on December 28[^2]. Livelsberger texted a girlfriend that he felt like batman or “halo.” - December 30, Livelsberger drove to Monument, Colorado and purchased two handguns -- December 31, Livelsberger drove through and charged at Trinidad, CO; Las Vegas, NM; Albuquerque, NM; and Gallup, NM. +- December 31, Livelsberger drove through and charged at Trinidad, CO; [[Las Vegas]], NM; Albuquerque, NM; and Gallup, NM. - January 1, the truck is charged in Holbrook, Flagstaff, and Kingman, AZ (the last charge at 5:33 AM). - 7:29 AM The Cybertruck is first spotted in Las Vegas - 7:34 AM The Cybertruck is seen turning on to Fashion Show Drive, the location of the Trump International Hotel. diff --git a/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/Cold War.md b/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/Cold War.md index d15e1f5e..5cf31c8b 100644 --- a/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/Cold War.md +++ b/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/Cold War.md @@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ The Cold War was the period of geopolitical competition, ideological conflict, a The Cold War emerged from the wartime alliance between the United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union that had defeated [[Nazi Germany]] in [[World War II]]. Fundamental disagreements over the post-war order in [[Europe]] - particularly over the status of [[Germany]], [[Poland]], and Eastern Europe - quickly developed into systemic antagonism. The United States' development and use of nuclear weapons in 1945, and the Soviet Union's successful nuclear test in 1949, established the strategic logic of mutually assured destruction that defined the conflict's fundamental deterrence structure.[^1] -The [[Central Intelligence Agency]] was created by the National Security Act of 1947 to centralize American foreign intelligence collection and covert action. The CIA's founding personnel came largely from the wartime [[Office of Strategic Services]]. Soviet intelligence, consolidated in the [[KGB]] (Committee for State Security) in 1954, had been conducting aggressive intelligence operations in the United States since the 1930s through networks that included the Cambridge Five in Britain and atomic spy rings that provided the Soviet Union with classified nuclear weapons data.[^2] +The [[Central Intelligence Agency]] was created by the [[National Security Act of 1947]] to centralize American foreign intelligence collection and covert action. The CIA's founding personnel came largely from the wartime [[Office of Strategic Services]]. Soviet intelligence, consolidated in the [[KGB]] (Committee for State Security) in 1954, had been conducting aggressive intelligence operations in the United States since the 1930s through networks that included the Cambridge Five in Britain and atomic spy rings that provided the Soviet Union with classified nuclear weapons data.[^2] ### Covert Operations Framework diff --git a/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/SCIENTIFIC_THEORIES_&_TECHNOLOGIES/Pretty Good Privacy.md b/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/SCIENTIFIC_THEORIES_&_TECHNOLOGIES/Pretty Good Privacy.md index acc38578..b83801cd 100644 --- a/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/SCIENTIFIC_THEORIES_&_TECHNOLOGIES/Pretty Good Privacy.md +++ b/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/SCIENTIFIC_THEORIES_&_TECHNOLOGIES/Pretty Good Privacy.md @@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ PGP used a hybrid scheme: it generated a random session key to encrypt the messa ### The Criminal Investigation -Within hours of its release, PGP spread over the internet and reached users outside the United States, which placed it under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), the export-control regime that classified strong cryptographic software as a munition requiring a license to export. In February 1993 federal investigators visited Zimmermann, and after questions about RSA patent infringement they turned to the more serious charge of exporting a weapon without a license. The [[United States Customs Service]] opened a criminal investigation in 1993, run out of the office of the United States Attorney for the Northern District of California, into whether Zimmermann had violated the export rules when PGP traveled abroad.[^1][^2] +Within hours of its release, PGP spread over the internet and reached users outside the United States, which placed it under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), the export-control regime that classified strong cryptographic software as a munition requiring a license to export. In February 1993 federal investigators visited Zimmermann, and after questions about RSA patent infringement they turned to the more serious charge of exporting a weapon without a license. The [[United States Customs Service]] opened a criminal investigation in 1993, run out of the office of the [[United States Attorney]] for the Northern District of California, into whether Zimmermann had violated the export rules when PGP traveled abroad.[^1][^2] Zimmermann and his supporters answered with a First Amendment argument that source code is protected speech. In 1995 the MIT Press published "PGP: Source Code and Internals," a roughly 900-page book containing the complete formatted source code of PGP 2.6.2, printed in a font designed for optical character recognition so that the code could be exported legally as a printed book, scanned abroad, and recompiled. The tactic tested whether the government would treat the printed word as a munition. The investigation closed without charges in January 1996, when United States Attorney Michael J. Yamaguchi for the Northern District of California announced that his office had declined to prosecute anyone in connection with the 1991 USENET posting of PGP.[^5][^6] diff --git a/60 - PLACES/CITIES/Berlin.md b/60 - PLACES/CITIES/Berlin.md index d5fd092b..af2dbb37 100644 --- a/60 - PLACES/CITIES/Berlin.md +++ b/60 - PLACES/CITIES/Berlin.md @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ ---- +--- category: "City" tags: - City @@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ Berlin is the capital of [[Germany]], a city of approximately 3.7 million people ### CIA Berlin Base -The CIA's Berlin Base, operating from the American sector, was one of the agency's largest and most important Cold War stations. In the early 1950s, [[Bill Harvey]], one of the CIA's most aggressive Cold War operators, ran Berlin Base and managed [[Operation Gold]] (1955-1956) - the CIA-MI6 project to dig a tunnel from West Berlin into East Berlin to tap Soviet military communication cables. The tunnel operated for approximately eleven months before the KGB, which had been tipped off by British mole [[George Blake]], allowed it to be discovered in April 1956 in a manner designed to protect Blake's identity.[^2] +The CIA's Berlin Base, operating from the American sector, was one of the agency's largest and most important Cold War stations. In the early 1950s, [[William Harvey|Bill Harvey]], one of the CIA's most aggressive Cold War operators, ran Berlin Base and managed [[Operation Gold]] (1955-1956) - the CIA-MI6 project to dig a tunnel from West Berlin into East Berlin to tap Soviet military communication cables. The tunnel operated for approximately eleven months before the KGB, which had been tipped off by British mole [[George Blake]], allowed it to be discovered in April 1956 in a manner designed to protect Blake's identity.[^2] Berlin Base also managed defector operations, agent recruitment along the East-West border, and analysis of Soviet military movements. The base's access to East-West border crossing points made it uniquely positioned for human intelligence collection and defector handling. [[James Angleton]], the CIA's counterintelligence chief, used Berlin as a key location in his obsessive mole-hunting operations.[^1] diff --git a/60 - PLACES/CITIES/Coral Gables, Florida.md b/60 - PLACES/CITIES/Coral Gables, Florida.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..a9e43a81 --- /dev/null +++ b/60 - PLACES/CITIES/Coral Gables, Florida.md @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +--- +category: "City" +tags: + - Place + - CoralGables + - Florida + - Wackenhut + - ITT + - MullenCompany +alias: + - Coral Gables +summary: "City adjoining Miami that was the headquarters of the Wackenhut Corporation and the site of an ITT public relations office about which the Watergate special prosecutor questioned the CIA in 1973." +location: "Florida, United States" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Coral Gables is a city in [[Dade County, Florida]], adjoining [[Miami]]. + +The [[Wackenhut Corporation]], founded in 1954 by [[George R. Wackenhut]] and three other former agents of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]], had its headquarters there until it moved to [[Palm Beach Gardens, Florida|Palm Beach Gardens]]. The [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] used the company from 1961 to 1967 to give cover to officers of its Western Hemisphere Division stationed in the Miami area. On May 3, 1967, [[George Walker (Wackenhut)|George Walker]] of the Coral Gables office handed the FBI a letter from a Miami man who said that before the assassination of President [[John F. Kennedy]] a Cuban in his boarding house had remarked that to kill Kennedy one had only to excite a Cuban with a high-powered rifle.[^1][^2] + +On July 26, 1973, the office of the [[Watergate Special Prosecution Force|Watergate special prosecutor]] asked the CIA whether it had any working relationship with "the ITT Public Relations Office located at 495 Biltmore Way, Coral Gables, [[Florida]]," and whether [[Howard Hunt]] or [[G. Gordon Liddy]] had done undercover work for [[ITT Corporation|ITT]]. The agency's Cover and Commercial Staff answered on August 7 that it had no relationship with or information on the Coral Gables office and had never discussed ITT with the [[Robert R. Mullen Company]]. ITT's public relations man for [[Latin America]], [[Hal Hendrix]], a former Miami journalist, pleaded guilty in 1976 to withholding information from a Senate subcommittee about his CIA contacts.[^3] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Central Intelligence Agency, "Wackenhut Corporation, SF# 493 364," memorandum for the record, July 28, 1975, JFK record 104-10130-10454; The Wackenhut Corporation, annual reports and Forms 10-K, Securities and Exchange Commission. +[^2]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami, memorandum of May 10, 1967, headquarters file 62-109060, section 129, p. 166. +[^3]: Ruth, Henry S., Jr., Watergate Special Prosecution Force, letter to John S. Warner, July 26, 1973, with the reply of August 7, 1973, CIA Reading Room document C01367838; House Committee on Armed Services, Special Subcommittee on Intelligence, *Inquiry into the Alleged Involvement of the Central Intelligence Agency in the Watergate and Ellsberg Matters,* 1973. diff --git a/60 - PLACES/CITIES/Little Rock, Arkansas.md b/60 - PLACES/CITIES/Little Rock, Arkansas.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..ccfcb0b1 --- /dev/null +++ b/60 - PLACES/CITIES/Little Rock, Arkansas.md @@ -0,0 +1,42 @@ +--- +category: "City" +tags: + - Place + - LittleRock + - Arkansas + - StephensInc + - WorthenBank + - RoseLawFirm + - BCCI + - LippoGroup +alias: + - Little Rock +summary: "Capital of Arkansas and seat of Stephens Inc., Worthen Bank, Systematics, and the Rose Law Firm, where BCCI's emissary met Jackson Stephens and Bert Lance in 1977 and the Riady family entered American banking." +location: "Arkansas, United States" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Little Rock is the capital of [[Arkansas]]. + +### The Stephens Interests + +[[Witt Stephens]] began trading municipal bonds in the city in 1932 and founded the firm that became [[Stephens Inc.]] the next year. His brother [[Jackson Stephens]] ran it from 1957. The bank data processor [[Systematics]], the telephone company [[ALLTEL]], and the [[Worthen Bank|Worthen Banking Corporation]] had their headquarters there, as does the [[Rose Law Firm]], which traces its origin to 1820.[^1] + +On November 9, 1977, Jackson Stephens, his officer [[Curt Bradbury]], and [[Bert Lance]] met [[Abdus Sami]] of the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] in Little Rock. Within two months four of that bank's clients had bought into [[Financial General Bankshares]] of Washington through an account at Stephens Inc.[^2] + +### The Riadys + +[[Mochtar Riady]] of [[Indonesia]] met the Stephens brothers in 1976, and the two families took control of Worthen together in 1983. [[James Riady]], who had been an intern at Stephens Inc., moved to the city to run the bank's international division, with [[John Huang]] as his [[Far East]] manager from February 1985. "One of them even lived in Little Rock for a few years," two reporters wrote of the Riadys in 1992. Huang, Riady, and the Little Rock lawyer [[Mark Grobmyer]] called on President [[Bill Clinton]] at the [[White House]] on June 23, 1994.[^2][^3] + +### 1992 and After + +In 1992 Worthen, under Bradbury, gave the Clinton campaign a line of credit of 3.5 million dollars, and Bradbury and [[Mack McLarty]] of [[Arkla]] organized Little Rock dinners that raised two million. After the election the Rose partners [[Hillary Rodham Clinton]], [[Vince Foster]], and [[Webster Hubbell]] went to Washington. The firm's remaining members "found irregularities in Hubbell's billings for 1989-92," and on December 6, 1994, he pleaded guilty in the federal court at Little Rock.[^4][^5] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: "Witt Stephens (1907-1991)," "Stephens Inc.," and "Rose Law Firm," *Encyclopedia of Arkansas.* +[^2]: Truell, Peter, and Larry Gurwin. *False Profits: The Inside Story of BCCI, the World's Most Corrupt Financial Empire*. Houghton Mifflin, 1992; Financial General Bankshares, Inc. v. Metzger, 523 F. Supp. 744 (D.D.C. 1981). +[^3]: House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, *Investigation of Political Fundraising Improprieties and Possible Violations of Law,* H. Rept. 105-829, 1998, vol. 2. +[^4]: "Meet The Family That Bankrolled Clinton," *The Seattle Times,* January 31, 1993. +[^5]: Office of the Independent Counsel, *Final Report of the Independent Counsel In Re: Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan Association,* vol. 3, part C. diff --git a/60 - PLACES/CITIES/Newport Beach, California.md b/60 - PLACES/CITIES/Newport Beach, California.md index a0f1d901..3133b426 100644 --- a/60 - PLACES/CITIES/Newport Beach, California.md +++ b/60 - PLACES/CITIES/Newport Beach, California.md @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ ---- +--- category: "City" tags: - geography @@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ tags: summary: Newport Beach, California was where Ron Lister lived and operated his security business that was connected to Danilo Blandón's cocaine trafficking and weapons procurement network. --- -Newport Beach, [[California]] was where [[Ron Lister]] maintained connections and operated in the Orange County area near his Laguna Beach base. The affluent coastal community was part of the geography of Lister's drug trafficking and weapons procurement activities with [[Danilo Blandon|Danilo Blandón]].[^1] +Newport Beach, [[California]] was where [[Ronald Lister|Ron Lister]] maintained connections and operated in the Orange County area near his Laguna Beach base. The affluent coastal community was part of the geography of Lister's drug trafficking and weapons procurement activities with [[Danilo Blandon|Danilo Blandón]].[^1] ### Lister's Operations diff --git a/60 - PLACES/CITIES/Shreveport, Louisiana.md b/60 - PLACES/CITIES/Shreveport, Louisiana.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..817d41fb --- /dev/null +++ b/60 - PLACES/CITIES/Shreveport, Louisiana.md @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +--- +category: "City" +tags: + - Place + - Shreveport + - Louisiana + - HuntOil + - HLHunt + - SouthernResearchCompany + - PrivateInvestigators +alias: + - Shreveport +summary: "Louisiana city where H.L. Hunt kept his second household and met his third wife, where Frania Tye Lee's suit was tried in 1978, and where the Southern Research detective firm was chartered in 1958." +location: "Louisiana, United States" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Shreveport is a city in northwestern [[Louisiana]], the commercial center of the oil country that runs into [[East Texas]] and southern [[Arkansas]]. + +### The Hunts + +[[H.L. Hunt]] married [[Frania Tye Lee|Frania Tye]] in [[Florida]] in 1925 under the name [[Franklin Hunt]], while married to [[Lyda Bunker Hunt]]. They lived in Shreveport and then in [[Dallas, Texas|Dallas]] and had four children. [[Hunt Oil Company]] kept an office in the city. In 1940 [[Ruth Ray Hunt|Ruth Ray]], of [[Idabel, Oklahoma]], came to Shreveport to find work, became a legal secretary at Blanchard, Goldstein, Walker and O'Quinn, and went to Hunt Oil when the partner Claude O'Quinn did. Hunt said he first noticed her waiting for a bus outside the office. She left in the fall of 1942 and bore his son [[Ray Hunt|Ray]] in [[New York City|New York]] the next April. In the first years of the [[World War II|Second World War]] Hunt had two employees move his son [[Hassie Hunt|Hassie]] from Dallas to Shreveport to [[Jackson, Mississippi]], "changing draft boards with each move."[^1][^2] + +On November 11, 1975, the fiftieth anniversary of the Florida wedding, Frania Tye Lee sued Hunt's estate in the federal court in Shreveport, claiming a wife's share. At the trial in January 1978 Ray Hunt, as executor, acknowledged from the witness stand that his father was the father of her children. [[Margaret Hunt Hill]] waited in a motel, and Ruth Hunt stayed in Dallas on the advice of lawyers who feared she would be asked about the birth of her own children.[^1][^3] + +### Southern Research + +The [[Southern Research Company]], Inc., a private detective firm, was chartered in Shreveport on December 2, 1958, and still operates there. A credit report of 1960 in a [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] security file describes its [[New Orleans]] branch, managed by [[Joseph Oster]], a former associate of [[Guy Banister]], as the office of a firm "whose home office is in Shreveport." That branch investigated [[David Ferrie]] for [[Eastern Air Lines]] in 1962 and 1963. In 1996 the Shreveport company's president, [[Thomas Ostendorff]], gave its Ferrie file, number 11-N-224, to the [[Assassination Records Review Board]].[^4] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Hurt, Harry, III. *Texas Rich: The Hunt Dynasty from the Early Oil Days through the Silver Crash*. W.W. Norton, 1981, pp. 16-17, 131-133, 135. +[^2]: Hurt, Harry, III. "Daddy's Money," *Texas Monthly,* April 1978. https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/daddys-money/ +[^3]: Lee v. Hunt, 431 F. Supp. 371 (W.D. La. 1977); Lee v. Hunt, 631 F.2d 1171 (5th Cir. 1979). +[^4]: Louisiana Secretary of State, business filings, charter 24407110D; Central Intelligence Agency, report of investigation, September 13, 1960, JFK record 104-10109-10379, p. 14; Golrick, Philip D. Memorandum to David G. Marwell, "Phone Conversation with Joseph Oster," January 19, 1996, Assassination Records Review Board electronic files. diff --git a/60 - PLACES/COUNTRIES/Fiji.md b/60 - PLACES/COUNTRIES/Fiji.md index 5fd985d6..667f2b39 100644 --- a/60 - PLACES/COUNTRIES/Fiji.md +++ b/60 - PLACES/COUNTRIES/Fiji.md @@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ tags: category: "Country" summary: "Fiji is a Pacific island nation that served as the first destination for Michael Hand's June 14, 1980 flight out of Australia under a false identity after Nugan Hand Bank's collapse." --- -[[Fiji]] is an island nation in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the Pacific Ocean. [[Michael Hand]] reportedly fled [[Australia]] under a false identity on June 14, 1980, on a flight to [[Fiji]]. He was allegedly helped to escape by an American code-named "Charlie," identified as a former member of the [[United States Army Special Forces|U.S. Special Forces]] and ex-[[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] operative.[^1] +[[Fiji]] is an island nation in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the [[Pacific Ocean]]. [[Michael Hand]] reportedly fled [[Australia]] under a false identity on June 14, 1980, on a flight to [[Fiji]]. He was allegedly helped to escape by an American code-named "Charlie," identified as a former member of the [[United States Army Special Forces|U.S. Special Forces]] and ex-[[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] operative.[^1] --- ### Footnotes diff --git a/60 - PLACES/COUNTRIES/Iran.md b/60 - PLACES/COUNTRIES/Iran.md index 20ab7f87..102e42b4 100644 --- a/60 - PLACES/COUNTRIES/Iran.md +++ b/60 - PLACES/COUNTRIES/Iran.md @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ ---- +--- category: "Country" tags: - event @@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ The [[Iran-Contra Affair|Iran-Contra scandal]] erupted in November 1986 when it ### The Scandal Breaks -The same morning that [[Ricky Ross]]'s money launderer was writing to the IRS about Blandón's drug operations, President Ronald Reagan and Attorney General Edwin Meese were announcing to reporters that millions of dollars from missile sales to the Iranian government had been illegally diverted to the Contras. The Iran-Contra scandal was "bursting open at the seams," and suddenly the strange papers found in [[Danilo Blandon|Blandón]]'s and [[Ron Lister]]'s houses during earlier raids took on new significance. The crash of a C-123K cargo plane over [[Nicaragua]] in October 1986, which had been based at Ilopango Air Base in [[San Salvador]], broke the scandal wide open.[^2] +The same morning that [[Ricky Ross]]'s money launderer was writing to the IRS about Blandón's drug operations, President Ronald Reagan and Attorney General Edwin Meese were announcing to reporters that millions of dollars from missile sales to the Iranian government had been illegally diverted to the Contras. The Iran-Contra scandal was "bursting open at the seams," and suddenly the strange papers found in [[Danilo Blandon|Blandón]]'s and [[Ronald Lister|Ron Lister]]'s houses during earlier raids took on new significance. The crash of a C-123K cargo plane over [[Nicaragua]] in October 1986, which had been based at Ilopango Air Base in [[San Salvador]], broke the scandal wide open.[^2] ### Footnotes diff --git a/60 - PLACES/COUNTRIES/Russia.md b/60 - PLACES/COUNTRIES/Russia.md index 0662b1f6..a9b84f40 100644 --- a/60 - PLACES/COUNTRIES/Russia.md +++ b/60 - PLACES/COUNTRIES/Russia.md @@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ updated: 2026-05-17 location: "Moscow, Russia" --- -Russia (the Russian Federation) is the world's largest country by area, spanning eleven time zones across northern Eurasia from the Baltic to the Pacific. The Russian Federation emerged from the dissolution of the [[Soviet Union]] on December 25, 1991, when the Soviet flag was lowered over the Kremlin in [[Moscow]] for the last time. Russia inherited the Soviet Union's permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, its nuclear arsenal (under START treaty limitations), and the bulk of Soviet institutional infrastructure - including its intelligence agencies.[^1] +Russia (the Russian Federation) is the world's largest country by area, spanning eleven time zones across northern Eurasia from the Baltic to the Pacific. The Russian Federation emerged from the dissolution of the [[Soviet Union]] on December 25, 1991, when the Soviet flag was lowered over the Kremlin in [[Moscow]] for the last time. Russia inherited the Soviet Union's permanent seat on the [[United Nations Security Council]], its nuclear arsenal (under START treaty limitations), and the bulk of Soviet institutional infrastructure - including its intelligence agencies.[^1] ### Post-Soviet Intelligence Agencies diff --git a/60 - PLACES/MILITARY_INSTALLATIONS/Fort Meade.md b/60 - PLACES/MILITARY_INSTALLATIONS/Fort Meade.md index aebfca6e..1ccd338d 100644 --- a/60 - PLACES/MILITARY_INSTALLATIONS/Fort Meade.md +++ b/60 - PLACES/MILITARY_INSTALLATIONS/Fort Meade.md @@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ description: Fort George G. Meade is a United States Army installation in Maryla category: "Military Installation" summary: "Fort Meade is a sprawling U.S. Army installation in Maryland that houses the NSA, INSCOM, and was the home base for the STARGATE remote viewing unit from 1977 to 1995." --- -[[Fort Meade]] (officially Fort George G. Meade) is a United States Army installation located in Maryland, approximately twenty-five miles northeast of Washington, D.C. It is a sprawling, town-like base that houses, among other things, the [[NSA]], the U.S. First Army, and a part of the Army's [[United States Army Intelligence and Security Command|Intelligence and Security Command]] (INSCOM).[^1] +[[Fort Meade]] (officially Fort George G. Meade) is a [[United States Army]] installation located in Maryland, approximately twenty-five miles northeast of Washington, D.C. It is a sprawling, town-like base that houses, among other things, the [[NSA]], the U.S. First Army, and a part of the Army's [[United States Army Intelligence and Security Command|Intelligence and Security Command]] (INSCOM).[^1] Fort Meade served as a primary location for the [[STARGATE PROJECT]], the U.S. Army's secret psychic research program. The remote viewing unit, initially codenamed [[STARGATE PROJECT|Gondola Wish]] and later [[STARGATE PROJECT|Grill Flame]], was established here in 1977. The unit's offices were initially located in building 4554, and later moved to buildings 2560 and 2561 on Llewellyn Street, which were refurbished by the remote viewers themselves to create quiet, secure spaces for their sessions.[^1] diff --git a/60 - PLACES/US_STATES/Arkansas.md b/60 - PLACES/US_STATES/Arkansas.md index f2eb5aef..e188f838 100644 --- a/60 - PLACES/US_STATES/Arkansas.md +++ b/60 - PLACES/US_STATES/Arkansas.md @@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ Seal moved in 1982 from [[Baton Rouge, Louisiana]] to a tiny airfield at isolate ### Protection from Prosecution -A Senate subcommittee later concluded that despite the availability of evidence sufficient for an indictment on money laundering charges, and over the strong protests of state and federal law enforcement officials, the cases against Seal were dropped. The apparent reason was that prosecution might have revealed national security information. Arkansas state trooper Larry Patterson testified that troopers were aware that large quantities of drugs were being flown into the Mena airport and that it was a [[Central Intelligence Agency]] operation. Bill Clinton's close friend Danny Lasater was convicted as part of a major drug ring in Little Rock.[^3] +A Senate subcommittee later concluded that despite the availability of evidence sufficient for an indictment on money laundering charges, and over the strong protests of state and federal law enforcement officials, the cases against Seal were dropped. The apparent reason was that prosecution might have revealed national security information. Arkansas state trooper Larry Patterson testified that troopers were aware that large quantities of drugs were being flown into the Mena airport and that it was a [[Central Intelligence Agency]] operation. Bill Clinton's close friend Danny Lasater was convicted as part of a major drug ring in [[Little Rock, Arkansas|Little Rock]].[^3] ### Iran-Contra Connection