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84
00 - META/CHANGELOG.md
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@ -1,7 +1,46 @@
- 2026-10-12T1559 · [[James Moore]]
- 2026-10-12T1558 · [[Lawrence Eagleburger]]
- 2026-10-12T1558 · [[Kissinger Associates]]
- 2026-10-12T1558 · [[BNL Scandal]]
- 2026-10-12T1558 · [[Banca Nazionale del Lavoro]]
- 2026-10-12T1557 · [[R. Gordon Wasson]]
- 2026-10-12T1557 · [[Frank Wisner]]
- 2026-10-12T1557 · [[Time]]
- 2026-10-12T1556 · [[Harry S. Truman]]
- 2026-10-12T1556 · [[Stephen Kosslyn]]
- 2026-10-12T1556 · [[Martin Nowak]]
- 2026-10-12T1555 · [[Harvard University]]
- 2026-10-12T1522 · [[William J. Casey]]
- 2026-10-12T1522 · [[Gulf of Tonkin Incident]]
- 2026-10-12T1522 · [[Timothy Leary]]
- 2026-10-12T1520 · [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]]
- 2026-10-12T1520 · [[Clark Clifford]]
- 2026-10-12T1520 · [[Securities and Exchange Commission]]
- 2026-10-12T1520 · [[Radio Free Europe]]
- 2026-10-12T1519 · [[Jonathan Beaty]]
- 2026-10-12T1519 · [[Dark Alliance]]
- 2026-10-12T1518 · [[Marvin Shoob]]
- 2026-10-12T1518 · [[Frederick Lacey]]
- 2026-10-12T1518 · [[Commodity Credit Corporation Iraq Program]]
- 2026-10-12T1517 · [[Christopher Drogoul]]
- 2026-10-12T1515 · [[Operation NORTHWOODS]]
- 2026-10-12T1515 · [[Rockefeller Commission 1975]]
- 2026-10-12T1515 · [[William Harvey]]
- 2026-10-12T1513 · [[NSA]]
- 2026-10-12T1513 · [[Robertson Panel]]
- 2026-10-12T1513 · [[Operation Paperclip]]
- 2026-10-12T1513 · [[Abraham Feinberg]]
- 2026-10-12T1512 · [[Project MKUltra]]
- 2026-10-12T1511 · [[Bert Lance]]
- 2026-10-12T1511 · [[Richard Helms]]
- 2026-10-12T1511 · [[Lockheed Aircraft Company]]
- 2026-10-12T1511 · [[Kamal Adham]]
- 2026-10-12T1510 · [[Financial General Bankshares]]
- 2026-10-12T1510 · [[Faisal Saud al-Fulaij]]
- 2026-10-12T1508 · [[Mohammed Rahim Motaghi Irvani]]
- 2026-10-12T1505 · [[Robert S. McNamara]]
- 2026-10-09T2351 · [[West Virginia]]
- 2026-10-09T2351 · [[Rockefeller Commission 1975]]
- 2026-10-09T2351 · [[Operation Gold]]
- 2026-10-09T2351 · [[William Harvey]]
- 2026-10-09T2351 · [[Uri Geller]]
- 2026-10-09T2351 · [[Gerald R. Ford]]
- 2026-10-09T2351 · [[George H.W. Bush]]
@ -17,8 +56,8 @@
- 2026-10-09T2348 · [[Fair Play for Cuba Committee]]
- 2026-10-09T2348 · [[Santos Trafficante, Jr.]]
- 2026-10-09T2348 · [[James Earl Ray]]
- 2026-10-09T2348 · [[Jack Ruby]]
- 2026-10-09T2348 · [[Carlos Marcello]]
- 2026-10-09T2348 · [[Jack Ruby]]
- 2026-10-09T2348 · [[Sam Giancana]]
- 2026-10-09T2347 · [[Allen Dulles]]
- 2026-10-09T2347 · [[Robert Maheu]]
@ -59,42 +98,3 @@
- 2026-10-09T2332 · [[Robert Byrd]]
- 2026-10-09T2331 · [[Michael Riconosciuto]]
- 2026-10-09T2331 · [[Joseph Cuellar]]
- 2026-10-09T2331 · [[Jack Rugh]]
- 2026-10-09T2330 · [[Martin Luther King Jr]]
- 2026-10-09T2330 · [[Internal Revenue Service]]
- 2026-10-09T2330 · [[Danny Casolaro]]
- 2026-10-09T2329 · [[Henry B. Gonzalez]]
- 2026-10-09T2329 · [[Edgar Mitchell]]
- 2026-10-09T2329 · [[Peter Videnieks]]
- 2026-10-09T2329 · [[Wilson-Davis Memo]]
- 2026-10-09T2329 · [[United States v. Rane et al. (2-25-cr-00040)]]
- 2026-10-09T2328 · [[Mind-to-Mind Telepathy]]
- 2026-10-09T2328 · [[Camp Peary]]
- 2026-10-09T2328 · [[Olaf Johnson]]
- 2026-10-09T2328 · [[Institute of Noetic Science]]
- 2026-10-09T2328 · [[Richard Helms]]
- 2026-10-09T2328 · [[764 Inferno]]
- 2026-10-09T2327 · [[Warren Commission]]
- 2026-10-09T2327 · [[Leonidas Varagiannis]]
- 2026-10-09T2327 · [[Grill Flame]]
- 2026-10-09T2326 · [[Gondola Wish]]
- 2026-10-09T2326 · [[Jim Schnabel]]
- 2026-10-09T2326 · [[Mel Riley]]
- 2026-10-09T2325 · [[Music Corporation of America]]
- 2026-10-09T2325 · [[Parapsychology]]
- 2026-10-09T2319 · [[HSCA]]
- 2026-10-09T2309 · [[Seymour Hersh]]
- 2026-10-09T2307 · [[Anthony Moscato]]
- 2026-10-09T2307 · [[Royce Lamberth]]
- 2026-10-09T2306 · [[Project MERRIMAC]]
- 2026-10-09T2306 · [[COINTELPRO]]
- 2026-10-09T2306 · [[Commander Narut]]
- 2026-10-09T2306 · [[Victor Marchetti]]
- 2026-10-09T2306 · [[Stanley Levison]]
- 2026-10-09T2306 · [[Sidney Gottlieb]]
- 2026-10-09T2306 · [[Monzer Al-Kassar]]
- 2026-10-09T2306 · [[Larry Devlin]]
- 2026-10-09T2306 · [[Frank Church]]
- 2026-10-09T2306 · [[David Brandwein]]
- 2026-10-09T2305 · [[Operation CHAOS]]
- 2026-10-09T2305 · [[John L. Wilhelm]]

11
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Abraham Feinberg.md
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@ -10,13 +10,18 @@ died: 1998
location: "New York City, New York"
---
Abraham Feinberg was a wealthy New York businessman and ardent advocate of statehood for [[Israel]]. By 1947, he played a major and discreet role in fundraising and [[White House]] lobbying for [[Israel]] and the Democratic Party. He would operate at the highest levels between [[Washington, D.C.]] and [[Jerusalem]] for two decades.[^1]
Abraham Feinberg was a wealthy New York businessman and ardent advocate of statehood for [[Israel]]. By 1947, he played a major and discreet role in fundraising and [[White House]] lobbying for Israel and the Democratic Party. He would operate at the highest levels between [[Washington, D.C.]] and [[Jerusalem]] for two decades.[^1]
Feinberg was a close friend of [[Ernst David Bergmann]], and in the fall of 1947, Bergmann indiscreetly revealed to Feinberg that there was uranium in the [[Negev Desert|Negev]] desert, implying a path for [[Israel]] to develop the atomic bomb. Feinberg was astonished by this talk and "shushed him up."[^1]
Feinberg was a close friend of [[Ernst David Bergmann]], and in the fall of 1947, Bergmann indiscreetly revealed to Feinberg that there was uranium in the [[Negev Desert|Negev]] desert, implying a path for Israel to develop the atomic bomb. Feinberg was astonished by this talk and "shushed him up."[^1]
Feinberg was recruited by [[David Ben-Gurion]] in 1945 to help raise money for guerrilla operations against the British mandatory power in [[Palestine]]. He recalled that the kibbutz's administrative building, constructed near a large British military base, was a "fraud," serving as a cover for a secret underground plant producing bullets for the Hagannah. The facility was "scooped out" in twenty-seven days, with workers alternating between farming and arms production to maintain the deception.[^2]
### Truman Library oral history
Feinberg gave an oral history interview to the [[Harry S. Truman Library]], conducted by [[Richard D. McKinzie]] on August 23, 1973. He was a business executive and philanthropist active in the cause of immigration to Palestine and in the creation of the State of Israel, 1945 to 1948, and a friend of President [[Harry S. Truman]].[^3]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 2.
[^2]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 15.
[^2]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 15.
[^3]: Harry S. Truman Library, "Abraham Feinberg Oral History Interview," interview of August 23, 1973 by Richard D. McKinzie, biographical note. https://trumanlibrary.gov/oralhist/feinberg.htm

52
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Christopher Drogoul.md
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@ -10,46 +10,60 @@ tags:
- Banking
- Atlanta
- KissingerAssociates
summary: "Manager of the Atlanta branch of Banca Nazionale del Lavoro who extended more than four billion dollars in unreported credit to Iraq and testified that his superiors in Rome and Kissinger Associates knew of the business."
summary: "Manager of the Atlanta branch of Banca Nazionale del Lavoro who extended billions of dollars in unreported credit to Iraq; Judge Shoob recorded his plea testimony that his superiors should have known of it."
location: "Atlanta, Georgia"
created: 2026-09-21
updated: 2026-09-21
relations:
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Banca Nazionale del Lavoro]]"
role: "manager of the Atlanta branch"
start: 1985
end: 1989
fn: 2
---
Christopher P. Drogoul managed the [[Atlanta]] branch of the Italian state-owned [[Banca Nazionale del Lavoro]], which between 1985 and 1989 extended more than four billion dollars in unreported loans and credits to [[Iraq]], a portion of them backed by the [[Commodity Credit Corporation]] of the [[United States Department of Agriculture|Department of Agriculture]]. The FBI and the [[Federal Reserve]] raided the branch on August 4, 1989. Drogoul was indicted on February 28, 1991, the day after President [[George H.W. Bush]] ordered the ceasefire in the [[Gulf War]]. He pleaded guilty, withdrew the plea, pleaded guilty again to three counts, and was sentenced in December 1993 to 37 months. The government's position throughout was that he acted without the knowledge of the bank's headquarters. The first judge assigned to the case concluded otherwise.[^1][^2][^3]
Christopher P. Drogoul managed the [[Atlanta]] branch of the Italian state-owned [[Banca Nazionale del Lavoro]], which between 1985 and 1989 extended more than four billion dollars in unreported loans and credits to [[Iraq]], a portion of them backed by the [[Commodity Credit Corporation]] of the [[United States Department of Agriculture|Department of Agriculture]]. FBI agents raided the branch on August 4, 1989 and seized its records.[^1] Drogoul was indicted on February 28, 1991, the day after President [[George H.W. Bush]] ordered the ceasefire in the [[Gulf War]]. He pleaded guilty, withdrew the plea, pleaded guilty again to three counts, and was sentenced in December 1993 to 37 months. A Central Intelligence Agency memorandum of November 6, 1989 put the branch's unauthorized letters of credit for Iraq at $3.2 billion in 2,500 letters between February 1988 and July 1989.[^2] The government's position throughout was that he acted without the knowledge of the bank's headquarters. The first judge assigned to the case concluded otherwise.[^3][^4][^5]
### The Indictment
The indictment, No. 1:91-CR-078 in the [[United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia|Northern District of Georgia]], charged Drogoul on 347 counts together with two branch officers, [[Therese Barden]] and [[Amedeo DeCarolis]]; the [[New York City|New York]] trading company [[Entrade International]] and its manager, [[Yavuz Tezeller]]; the Iraqi state [[Rafidain Bank]]; and four Iraqi officials, among them [[Safa al-Habobi]], who ran Iraq's front companies in [[London]]. The government's list of unindicted co-conspirators, filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney [[Gale McKenzie]] on September 12, 1991, named an employee of the [[Central Bank of Iraq]] and [[Amir al-Saadi]] of the [[Ministry of Industry and Military Industrialization]]. [[United States Attorney General|Attorney General]] [[Richard Thornburgh]] said the defendants had been able "to silently pick the pockets of a major Italian bank of more than $4 billion in loans and credits, almost by the push of a button."[^1][^4]
The indictment, No. 1:91-CR-078 in the [[United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia|Northern District of Georgia]], charged Drogoul on 347 counts together with two branch officers, [[Therese Barden]] and [[Amedeo DeCarolis]]; the [[New York City|New York]] trading company [[Entrade International]] and its manager, [[Yavuz Tezeller]]; the Iraqi state [[Rafidain Bank]]; and four Iraqi officials, among them [[Safa al-Habobi]], who ran Iraq's front companies in [[London]]. The government's list of unindicted co-conspirators, filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney [[Gale McKenzie]] on September 12, 1991, named an employee of the [[Central Bank of Iraq]] and [[Amir al-Saadi]] of the [[Ministry of Industry and Military Industrialization]]. [[United States Attorney General|Attorney General]] [[Richard Thornburgh]] said the defendants had been able "to silently pick the pockets of a major Italian bank of more than $4 billion in loans and credits, almost by the push of a button."[^3][^6]
Tezeller left for [[Turkey]] after the raid and did not return. A [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]] letter of January 9, 1990, said he could "provide information regarding after sales services (a fancy word for bribes, kickbacks), unearned consulting fees, and other payments to Iraqis as well as kickbacks paid by [[United States]] and multinational companies to obtain Iraqi contracts." Entrade was an affiliate of the Turkish conglomerate [[Enka]] and had handled 52 guaranteed transactions for Iraq. An Agriculture Department inquiry found no evidence that the commodities in those transactions reached Iraq. Representative [[Henry Gonzalez]], chairman of the [[House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs|House Banking Committee]], said on the House floor that the [[State Department]] had kept the Atlanta investigators from traveling to Turkey to question Tezeller, and that the Justice Department had discouraged the indictment of the Central Bank of Iraq and of [[Wafai Dajani]], a Jordanian businessman close to King [[Hussein of Jordan|Hussein]], on grounds of foreign policy.[^5]
Tezeller left for [[Turkey]] after the raid and did not return. A [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]] letter of January 9, 1990, said he could "provide information regarding after sales services (a fancy word for bribes, kickbacks), unearned consulting fees, and other payments to Iraqis as well as kickbacks paid by [[United States]] and multinational companies to obtain Iraqi contracts." Entrade was an affiliate of the Turkish conglomerate [[Enka]] and had handled 52 guaranteed transactions for Iraq. An Agriculture Department inquiry found no evidence that the commodities in those transactions reached Iraq. Representative [[Henry Gonzalez]], chairman of the [[House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs|House Banking Committee]], said on the House floor that the [[State Department]] had kept the Atlanta investigators from traveling to Turkey to question Tezeller, and that the Justice Department had discouraged the indictment of the Central Bank of Iraq and of [[Wafai Dajani]], a Jordanian businessman close to King [[Hussein of Jordan|Hussein]], on grounds of foreign policy.[^7]
[[Joseph D. Whitley]] became acting United States attorney in Atlanta on June 1, 1990, and recused himself from the case the same day because his former law firm had represented [[Matrix Churchill]], the Iraqi-owned machine tool company that the branch had financed.[^6]
[[Joseph D. Whitley]] became acting United States attorney in Atlanta on June 1, 1990, and recused himself from the case the same day because his former law firm had represented [[Matrix Churchill]], the Iraqi-owned machine tool company that the branch had financed.[^8]
### Shoob
Drogoul pleaded guilty to 60 counts in June 1992. At the sentencing hearing before Judge [[Marvin Shoob]] he testified that the branch had been "a tool of the U.S. and Italian governments" and that "one has to consider it a foreign policy matter and not a banking matter." On September 14, 1992, Gonzalez announced that the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] had told his committee it had good evidence that officials of the bank in [[Rome]] knew of the Atlanta lending, which contradicted what the agency's general counsel had told the prosecutors. On October 1 Shoob allowed Drogoul to withdraw the plea and removed himself from the case, stating his conclusion "that officials at BNL-Rome were aware of and approved Mr. Drogoul's activities."[^1][^2][^7]
Drogoul pleaded guilty to 60 counts in June 1992. At the sentencing hearing before Judge [[Marvin Shoob]] he testified that the branch had been "a tool of the U.S. and Italian governments" and that "one has to consider it a foreign policy matter and not a banking matter." On September 14, 1992, Gonzalez announced that the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] had told his committee it had good evidence that officials of the bank in [[Rome]] knew of the Atlanta lending, which contradicted what the agency's general counsel had told the prosecutors. On October 1 Shoob allowed Drogoul to withdraw the plea and removed himself from the case, stating his conclusion "that officials at BNL-Rome were aware of and approved Mr. Drogoul's activities." The written order of October 5 records that Drogoul "testified only that his superiors should have known."[^3][^4][^9][^10]
Attorney General [[William Barr]] declined to seek an independent counsel and on October 16, 1992, appointed a retired federal judge, [[Frederick Lacey]], as special counsel. Lacey reported after 54 days. "I find Judge Shoob's specific charges against the USAO to be inaccurate," he wrote. Of the national security adviser and the deputy secretary of state, both formerly of [[Kissinger Associates]], he wrote: "It is clear that, while at Kissinger Associates, Scowcroft and Eagleburger came into contact with BNL management. I have seen nothing, however, to suggest that they knew of BNL-Atlanta's wrongful loans to Iraq or influenced the prosecution of this matter." The second part of his report was classified top secret. Gonzalez called it "the Lacey Job" and said: "At best Lacey's probe was a whitewash." In December 1992 prosecutors in [[Venice]] indicted 59 people, including executives of the bank, for financing arms sales to [[Iran]].[^6][^7]
Attorney General [[William Barr]] declined to seek an independent counsel under the statute and on October 16, 1992, appointed a retired federal judge, [[Frederick Lacey]], as "independent counsel" under Justice Department regulations. Lacey's report states that on October 27 Barr authorized a preliminary investigation and asked for a report by December 8, 1992; the Senate staff record that Lacey submitted it on December 9.[^1] "I find Judge Shoob's specific charges against the USAO, and his concern about the interference of other agencies, to be inaccurate," he wrote. Of the national security adviser and the deputy secretary of state, both formerly of [[Kissinger Associates]], he wrote: "It is clear that, while at Kissinger Associates, Scowcroft and Eagleburger came into contact with BNL management. I have seen nothing, however, to suggest that they knew of BNL-Atlanta's wrongful loans to Iraq or influenced the prosecution of this matter." The second part of his report was classified top secret. Gonzalez called it "the Lacey Job" and said: "At best Lacey's probe was a whitewash." In December 1992 prosecutors in [[Venice]] indicted 59 people, including executives of the bank, for financing arms sales to [[Iran]].[^8][^9]
The staff of the [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]] reported in February 1993 that the intelligence agencies and the Justice Department had coordinated poorly and that the CIA's reasoning for withholding its reports from the prosecutors had "no legal support." It did not find that information had been concealed to protect senior officials.[^8]
In written answers submitted to the House committee, Drogoul stated that his attorney, [[Robert M. Simels]], had been in contact with [[Ross Perot]], that Perot told Simels he thought Drogoul's pretrial detention was "un-American" and that if bail were set he was prepared to aid in his release, and that although bail was set after these discussions, Perot offered no assistance.[^11]
The staff of the [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]] reported in February 1993 that the intelligence agencies and the Justice Department had coordinated poorly and that the CIA's reasoning for withholding its reports from the prosecutors had "no legal support." It did not find that information had been concealed to protect senior officials.[^12]
### The Italian Witnesses
Drogoul's lawyer, [[Bobby Lee Cook]], named three officials in Rome, [[Giacomo Pedde]], [[Teodoro Monaco]], and [[Angelo Florio]], as the men who had authorized the loans. The government sought to depose thirteen Italian bank officers in Rome. Seven, including Pedde, Florio, and [[Nerio Nesi]], refused to testify in the United States. The defense told the court of appeals that "the testimony of these thirteen witnesses lies at the very core of the charges in the indictment, and its refutation the heart of the defense." The [[United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit|Eleventh Circuit]] ordered the depositions on September 2, 1993, six days before the trial date. Drogoul then pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and two of making false statements to the Federal Reserve. A Justice Department review filed with the court on August 23 had found that six employees in Atlanta were responsible and that neither Rome nor Washington knew. "The evidence never gets on the books," Gonzalez said, "and the public will never know for certain what the Bush administration did for [[Saddam Hussein]] before the war."[^1][^2]
Drogoul's lawyer, [[Bobby Lee Cook]], named three officials in Rome, [[Giacomo Pedde]], [[Teodoro Monaco]], and [[Angelo Florio]], as the men who had authorized the loans. The government sought to depose thirteen Italian bank officers in Rome. Seven, including Pedde, Florio, and [[Nerio Nesi]], refused to testify in the United States.[^13] The defense told the court of appeals that "the testimony of these thirteen witnesses lies at the very core of the charges in the indictment, and its refutation the heart of the defense." The [[United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit|Eleventh Circuit]] ordered the depositions on September 2, 1993, six days before the trial date. Drogoul then pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and two of making false statements to the Federal Reserve. A Justice Department review filed with the court on August 23 had found that six employees in Atlanta were responsible and that neither Rome nor Washington knew. "The evidence never gets on the books," Gonzalez said, "and the public will never know for certain what the Bush administration did for [[Saddam Hussein]] before the war."[^3][^4]
### Testimony on Kissinger Associates
Drogoul testified under oath to the [[House Banking Committee]] on November 9, 1993, with five other former employees of the bank. He said he learned at a business meeting in [[Italy]] in 1987 that [[Henry A. Kissinger|Henry Kissinger]] sat on the bank's international advisory board. "As we became involved in the medium-term lending," he said, "it became clear to us that the people at Kissinger and Associates were somehow assisting clients of Iraq in further developing business." He added: "By the time we moved into the 1988 period or early 1989 period, it was fairly clear to me that Kissinger and Associates' people were involved in some way in trying to enhance and develop a relationship between Iraq and the United States. I really shouldn't go farther than that, because the rest is probably speculation."[^9]
Drogoul testified under oath to the [[House Banking Committee]] on November 9, 1993, with five other former employees of the bank. He said he learned at a business meeting in [[Italy]] in 1987 that [[Henry A. Kissinger|Henry Kissinger]] sat on the bank's international advisory board. "As we became involved in the medium-term lending," he said, "it became clear to us that the people at Kissinger and Associates were somehow assisting clients of Iraq in further developing business." He added: "By the time we moved into the 1988 period or early 1989 period, it was fairly clear to me that Kissinger and Associates' people were involved in some way in trying to enhance and develop a relationship between Iraq and the United States. I really shouldn't go farther than that, because the rest is probably speculation."[^14]
### Footnotes
[^1]: "Drogoul gets 37 months in BNL bank scandal," *United Press International,* December 9, 1993; "Was Banker Just Fall Guy in Loans to Iraq?" *Deseret News,* December 5, 1993.
[^2]: United States v. Drogoul, 1 F.3d 1546 (11th Cir. 1993).
[^3]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Kissinger Associates, Scowcroft, Eagleburger, Stoga, Iraq, and BNL," *Congressional Record,* House, April 28, 1992, pp. H2694-H2701. https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/congress/1992_cr/h920428g.htm
[^4]: "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, *Testimony of Former Employees of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro,* Serial No. 103-95, November 9, 1993.
[^5]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Efforts to Thwart Investigation of the BNL Scandal," *Congressional Record,* House, March 30, 1992. https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/congress/1992_cr/h920330g.htm
[^6]: 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. https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit
[^7]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Update on BNL Investigation," *Congressional Record,* House, January 21, 1993.
[^8]: Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, *The Intelligence Community's Involvement in the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL) Affair,* staff report, S. Prt. 103-12, February 1993.
[^9]: Testimony of Christopher P. Drogoul, House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, *Testimony of Former Employees of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro,* Serial No. 103-95, November 9, 1993.
[^1]: Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, *The Intelligence Community's Involvement in the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL) Affair,* Committee Print S. Prt. 103-12, February 1993, pp. 4-5, 10; Lacey, Report of the Independent Counsel, Serial No. 103-95, pp. 344-345. https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/publications/10312.pdf
[^2]: Central Intelligence Agency, Directorate of Intelligence, "Iraq-Italy: Repercussions of the BNL-Atlanta Scandal," November 6, 1989, printed in Serial No. 103-95, pp. 194-195 (the branch's letters of credit and its debt limits). https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit
[^3]: "Drogoul gets 37 months in BNL bank scandal," *United Press International,* December 9, 1993; "Was Banker Just Fall Guy in Loans to Iraq?" *Deseret News,* December 5, 1993.
[^4]: United States v. Drogoul, 1 F.3d 1546 (11th Cir. 1993).
[^5]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Kissinger Associates, Scowcroft, Eagleburger, Stoga, Iraq, and BNL," *Congressional Record,* House, April 28, 1992, pp. H2694-H2701. https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/congress/1992_cr/h920428g.htm
[^6]: "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, *Testimony of Former Employees of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro,* Serial No. 103-95, November 9, 1993.
[^7]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Efforts to Thwart Investigation of the BNL Scandal," *Congressional Record,* House, March 30, 1992. https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/congress/1992_cr/h920330g.htm
[^8]: 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. https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit
[^9]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Update on BNL Investigation," *Congressional Record,* House, January 21, 1993.
[^10]: Order of Judge Marvin H. Shoob, October 1, 1992 (dated October 5, 1992), United States v. Drogoul, printed in House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, *Testimony of Former Employees of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro,* Serial No. 103-95 (1994), pp. 205-206. https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit
[^11]: Answers submitted by Mr. Drogoul in response to questions on pages 20, 21 and 24 of the hearing text, printed insert in Serial No. 103-95, p. 153. https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit
[^12]: Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, *The Intelligence Community's Involvement in the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL) Affair,* staff report, S. Prt. 103-12, February 1993.
[^13]: United States v. Drogoul, 1 F.3d 1546 (11th Cir. 1993), listing the seven who would not testify (Angelo Florio, Nerio Nesi, Giacomo Pedde, Giovanni D'Ercole, Marco Lunazzi, Francesco Bignardi and Gerardo Ruggero; the opinion spells the second name "Nero Nesi") and noting that Pedde and Florio were among them, and recording Drogoul's assertion that Pedde, Teodoro Monaco and Florio gave the authorizations. https://static.case.law/f3d/1/cases/1546-01.json
[^14]: Testimony of Christopher P. Drogoul, House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, *Testimony of Former Employees of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro,* Serial No. 103-95, November 9, 1993.

58
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Clark Clifford.md
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@ -16,30 +16,30 @@ relations:
with: "[[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]"
start: 1978
role: "American counsel"
fn: 10
fn: 12
- type: director_of
with: "[[Credit and Commerce American Holdings]]"
fn: 8
fn: 10
- type: head_of
with: "[[First American Bank]]"
role: "chairman"
fn: 10
fn: 12
- type: partner_of
with: "[[Robert Altman]]"
role: "law partner"
fn: 10
fn: 12
- type: prosecuted
with: "[[Robert Morgenthau]]"
reverse: true
start: 1992-07-29
end: 1993-11-30
fn: 4
fn: 6
- type: investigated
with: "[[Federal Reserve Board]]"
reverse: true
start: 1992-07-29
end: 1998-02
fn: 8
fn: 10
---
Clark McAdams Clifford was born December 25, 1906, in Fort Scott, Kansas. He earned a B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis in 1927 and an LL.B. from Washington University School of Law in 1928, after which he practiced law in St. Louis through [[World War II]]. He served in the Navy during the war, rising to captain, and arrived at the [[White House]] in 1946 as naval aide to President Harry S. Truman. He died October 10, 1997, in Bethesda, Maryland, at age 90.[^1]
@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ In 1950, Clifford left government and founded the Washington law firm Clifford &
### Later Government Service
Clifford served as an informal advisor to President [[John F. Kennedy]] following the [[Bay of Pigs Invasion|Bay of Pigs]] failure in April 1961. President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] appointed him Secretary of Defense in January 1968, replacing [[Robert S. McNamara|Robert McNamara]]. In what became his most consequential decision in public life, Clifford convened a private reassessment of Vietnam strategy and concluded the war was unwinnable at any politically acceptable cost. His recommendations shaped Johnson's March 1968 decision to seek negotiations and decline to seek re-election. Clifford later served President [[Jimmy Carter]] as a diplomatic troubleshooter, negotiating the [[Panama Canal]] Treaties and serving as special envoy to Cyprus, Greece, Turkey, and India.[^1]
Clifford served as an informal advisor to President [[John F. Kennedy]] following the [[Bay of Pigs Invasion|Bay of Pigs]] failure in April 1961. President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] announced on January 19, 1968 that Clifford had accepted the post of Secretary of Defense,[^3] and Clifford was sworn in on March 1, 1968, replacing [[Robert S. McNamara|Robert McNamara]].[^4] In what became his most consequential decision in public life, Clifford convened a private reassessment of Vietnam strategy and concluded the war was unwinnable at any politically acceptable cost. His recommendations shaped Johnson's March 1968 decision to seek negotiations and decline to seek re-election. Clifford later served President [[Jimmy Carter]] as a diplomatic troubleshooter, negotiating the [[Panama Canal]] Treaties and serving as special envoy to Cyprus, Greece, Turkey, and India.[^1]
### BCCI and First American Bank
@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ In 1978, BCCI orchestrated a hostile bid for Financial General Bankshares using
The bank was subsequently renamed [[First American Bank|First American Bankshares]], Inc. Clifford became chairman of the board; Altman became president. Both men received substantial legal fees for their continued representation of BCCI's interests. In 1986, the Central Intelligence Agency issued an internal report stating that BCCI had in fact owned First American since 1982, a report that was not acted on.[^2]
In February 1988, Clifford and Altman sold a large portion of their First American stock to [[Mohammed Hammoud]], a BCCI front man, for substantial profits.[^3]
In February 1988, Clifford and Altman sold a large portion of their First American stock to [[Mohammed Hammoud]], a BCCI front man, for substantial profits.[^5]
### Indictment and Resolution
@ -71,46 +71,48 @@ In 1989, Senate investigator [[Jack Blum]] brought evidence of BCCI's operations
In July 1992, a New York state grand jury convened by Morgenthau indicted Clifford and Altman on charges of bribery, fraud, and receiving benefits from BCCI in exchange for allowing BCCI to secretly own and control First American while representing to regulators that it did not. The Federal Reserve Board simultaneously brought civil charges.
Clifford, then 85 and suffering from serious heart disease, asserted that he had been deceived by Abedi and the other BCCI principals and had no knowledge of BCCI's actual ownership of First American. New York courts severed his case from Altman's on health grounds; Clifford was never tried. Altman was acquitted by a Manhattan jury on August 14, 1993, and the charges against Clifford were dismissed on November 30, 1993.[^4][^5] In 1992, BCCI's liquidators had pleaded guilty and agreed to forfeit $550 million to settle criminal charges; the BCCI settlement fund ultimately recovered approximately $880 million, including the $225 million settlement by [[Khalid bin Mahfouz]] in December 1993.[^6][^7]
Clifford, then 85 and suffering from serious heart disease, asserted that he had been deceived by Abedi and the other BCCI principals and had no knowledge of BCCI's actual ownership of First American. New York courts severed his case from Altman's on health grounds; Clifford was never tried. Altman was acquitted by a Manhattan jury on August 14, 1993, and the charges against Clifford were dismissed on November 30, 1993.[^6][^7] In 1992, BCCI's liquidators had pleaded guilty and agreed to forfeit $550 million to settle criminal charges; the BCCI settlement fund ultimately recovered approximately $880 million, including the $225 million settlement by [[Khalid bin Mahfouz]] in December 1993.[^8][^9]
Clifford died October 10, 1997. He maintained his innocence to the end. The Federal Reserve's civil proceeding against him and Altman was settled by a consent order dated February 1998.[^8]
Clifford died October 10, 1997. He maintained his innocence to the end. The Federal Reserve's civil proceeding against him and Altman was settled by a consent order dated February 1998.[^10]
### The Sami Memo and the Legal Bills
Clifford told the [[Federal Reserve Board|Federal Reserve]] in 1981, and the Senate on October 24, 1991, that [[Kamal Adham]]'s interest in Financial General had come "from a friend who was associated with the Saudi Arabian embassy," a man who, he testified, "looked into [FGB] in more detail and concluded that it might be an attractive acquisition. Apparently, that was one of his functions in the Saudi Arabian Embassy, to pass information of that kind back to [[Saudi Arabia]]." He and Altman told the Senate that they had not advised BCCI or its investors until the litigation with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Middendorf group began in mid-February 1978.[^9][^10] The [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]] found this account contradicted by the memo of the BCCI officer [[Abdus Sami]] to Agha Hasan Abedi of January 30, 1978, found by the Federal Reserve in BCCI's files in [[Abu Dhabi]], which reported that Bert Lance had suggested retaining Clifford as chief counsel "in view of the possibility of this [takeover] contest and also for presentation of the holding company application to Fed[eral Reserve]," and that Sami had "met Clark Clifford and explained to him our strategy and goal. He was happy to know the details and has blessed the acquisition." A bill from Clifford's firm to BCCI dated May 24, 1978, dated its services from January 1978.[^9][^10]
Clifford told the [[Federal Reserve Board|Federal Reserve]] in 1981, and the Senate on October 24, 1991, that [[Kamal Adham]]'s interest in Financial General had come "from a friend who was associated with the Saudi Arabian embassy," a man who, he testified, "looked into [FGB] in more detail and concluded that it might be an attractive acquisition. Apparently, that was one of his functions in the Saudi Arabian Embassy, to pass information of that kind back to [[Saudi Arabia]]." He and Altman told the Senate that they had not advised BCCI or its investors until the litigation with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Middendorf group began in mid-February 1978.[^11][^12] The [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]] found this account contradicted by the memo of the BCCI officer [[Abdus Sami]] to Agha Hasan Abedi of January 30, 1978, found by the Federal Reserve in BCCI's files in [[Abu Dhabi]], which reported that Bert Lance had suggested retaining Clifford as chief counsel "in view of the possibility of this [takeover] contest and also for presentation of the holding company application to Fed[eral Reserve]," and that Sami had "met Clark Clifford and explained to him our strategy and goal. He was happy to know the details and has blessed the acquisition." A bill from Clifford's firm to BCCI dated May 24, 1978, dated its services from January 1978.[^11][^12]
At the Federal Reserve hearing of April 23, 1981, on the application of [[Credit and Commerce American Holdings]] (CCAH), Clifford described BCCI's role as: "None. There is no function of any kind on the part of BCCI . . . I know of no present relationship. I know of no planned future relationship that exists." The Federal Reserve approved the application on August 25, 1981.[^9][^10]
At the Federal Reserve hearing of April 23, 1981, on the application of [[Credit and Commerce American Holdings]] (CCAH), Clifford described BCCI's role as: "None. There is no function of any kind on the part of BCCI . . . I know of no present relationship. I know of no planned future relationship that exists." The Federal Reserve approved the application on August 25, 1981.[^11][^12]
### Fees and Stock
Clifford testified that his firm received "maybe $1 million a year" from First American. The Senate report found that Clifford & Warnke had billed First American and related entities about 11 million dollars over about eight years and BCCI about 6 million dollars over twelve years, 17 million dollars in all; the firm also led the defense of the BCCI officers indicted in [[Tampa, Florida|Tampa]] in 1988. As chairman of First American, Clifford said, he was paid 50,000 dollars a year.[^10] In a rights offering, the BCCI nominee Masriq waived its rights so that Clifford and Altman could buy CCAH shares at book value, 2,216 dollars a share, one day after Masriq had bought other shares at 4,044.20 dollars. In 1988 the two men sold their CCAH stock to the BCCI nominee Mohammed Hammoud at 6,800 dollars a share, "the highest price ever paid for CCAH stock," for a combined gross profit of 9.5 million dollars; the Senate report found that the price "was set not by Hammoud, and not even by BCCI, but by Clifford and Altman, who told Naqvi the amount of net profit they wanted on the sale, after all taxes had been paid."[^10]
Clifford testified that his firm received "maybe $1 million a year" from First American. The Senate report found that Clifford & Warnke had billed First American and related entities about 11 million dollars over about eight years and BCCI about 6 million dollars over twelve years, 17 million dollars in all; the firm also led the defense of the BCCI officers indicted in [[Tampa, Florida|Tampa]] in 1988. As chairman of First American, Clifford said, he was paid 50,000 dollars a year.[^12] In a rights offering, the BCCI nominee Masriq waived its rights so that Clifford and Altman could buy CCAH shares at book value, 2,216 dollars a share, one day after Masriq had bought other shares at 4,044.20 dollars. In 1988 the two men sold their CCAH stock to the BCCI nominee Mohammed Hammoud at 6,800 dollars a share, "the highest price ever paid for CCAH stock," for a combined gross profit of 9.5 million dollars; the Senate report found that the price "was set not by Hammoud, and not even by BCCI, but by Clifford and Altman, who told Naqvi the amount of net profit they wanted on the sale, after all taxes had been paid."[^12]
### Indictment and Dismissal
On July 29, 1992, a federal grand jury in Washington and a New York State grand jury indicted Clifford and Altman simultaneously, one year after Morgenthau opened his BCCI investigation. "We said then that BCCI was the largest bank fraud in world history," Morgenthau said. "Now we know it is also one of the biggest criminal enterprises in world history." The state indictment, which also named Abedi, [[Swaleh Naqvi]], [[Ghaith R. Pharaon]] and [[Faisal Saud al-Fulaij]], charged Clifford and Altman with receiving millions of dollars in bribes through their affiliation with BCCI, including about 10 million dollars in profits on stock they had not paid for and about 17 million dollars in legal fees; Clifford faced a maximum of eight years. The three-count federal indictment charged them with conspiring to defraud the Federal Reserve and concealing facts from investigators. Clifford's lawyer, Carl Rauh, had met Morgenthau the day before to argue that Clifford "would not be able to survive a prosecution" and that "it would kill him," according to the *New York Post* as quoted by United Press International. At his arraignment Clifford stood and said, "I plead not guilty, your honor," and Justice John Bradley released both men without bail.[^11]
On July 29, 1992, a federal grand jury in Washington and a New York State grand jury indicted Clifford and Altman simultaneously, one year after Morgenthau opened his BCCI investigation. "We said then that BCCI was the largest bank fraud in world history," Morgenthau said. "Now we know it is also one of the biggest criminal enterprises in world history." The state indictment, which also named Abedi, [[Swaleh Naqvi]], [[Ghaith R. Pharaon]] and [[Faisal Saud al-Fulaij]], charged Clifford and Altman with receiving millions of dollars in bribes through their affiliation with BCCI, including about 10 million dollars in profits on stock they had not paid for and about 17 million dollars in legal fees; Clifford faced a maximum of eight years. The three-count federal indictment charged them with conspiring to defraud the Federal Reserve and concealing facts from investigators. Clifford's lawyer, Carl Rauh, had met Morgenthau the day before to argue that Clifford "would not be able to survive a prosecution" and that "it would kill him," according to the *New York Post* as quoted by United Press International. At his arraignment Clifford stood and said, "I plead not guilty, your honor," and Justice John Bradley released both men without bail.[^13]
Clifford was too ill to stand trial with Altman, who was acquitted in Manhattan on August 14, 1993. On November 30, 1993, on a motion made jointly by Morgenthau and Clifford's lawyer, Charles Stillman, Justice Bradley dismissed the indictment against Clifford, finding that "Clifford's age and ill health prevent his being brought to trial on this indictment and will likely always do so." "In a sense, today's dismissal is the ultimate anti-climax," Stillman said.[^4][^5]
Clifford was too ill to stand trial with Altman, who was acquitted in Manhattan on August 14, 1993. On November 30, 1993, on a motion made jointly by Morgenthau and Clifford's lawyer, Charles Stillman, Justice Bradley dismissed the indictment against Clifford, finding that "Clifford's age and ill health prevent his being brought to trial on this indictment and will likely always do so." "In a sense, today's dismissal is the ultimate anti-climax," Stillman said.[^6][^7]
### Federal Reserve Consent Order
The Federal Reserve's civil proceeding, opened on July 29, 1992, continued after the criminal cases ended. Its Second Amended Notice of Intent to Prohibit of January 14, 1997, charged that Clifford and Altman, as directors of CCAH and First American, had caused CCAH to borrow from BCCI beyond the acquisition debt allowed by the 1981 order, and had breached their fiduciary duties by accepting preferential loans and stock profits from BCCI and by failing to disclose BCCI's role in the purchase of the [[National Bank of Georgia]]. The settlement recited that "Clifford has submitted medical opinions to the Board of Governors indicating that because of his advanced age and ill health, there is no reasonable prospect that he will ever participate in any manner in the conduct of the affairs of a bank holding company or insured depository institution," and the two men relinquished 1,802 (Clifford) and 895 (Altman) CCAH shares to the court-appointed trustee of First American or the fiduciaries of BCCI; the payments, the order stated, "are not fines or civil money penalties." The order is dated effective February 1998, four months after Clifford's death, and carries a signature block in his name; the document does not state when he signed it.[^8][^11]
The Federal Reserve's civil proceeding, opened on July 29, 1992, continued after the criminal cases ended. Its Second Amended Notice of Intent to Prohibit of January 14, 1997, charged that Clifford and Altman, as directors of CCAH and First American, had caused CCAH to borrow from BCCI beyond the acquisition debt allowed by the 1981 order, and had breached their fiduciary duties by accepting preferential loans and stock profits from BCCI and by failing to disclose BCCI's role in the purchase of the [[National Bank of Georgia]]. The settlement recited that "Clifford has submitted medical opinions to the Board of Governors indicating that because of his advanced age and ill health, there is no reasonable prospect that he will ever participate in any manner in the conduct of the affairs of a bank holding company or insured depository institution," and the two men relinquished 1,802 (Clifford) and 895 (Altman) CCAH shares to the court-appointed trustee of First American or the fiduciaries of BCCI; the payments, the order stated, "are not fines or civil money penalties." The order is dated effective February 1998, four months after Clifford's death, and carries a signature block in his name; the document does not state when he signed it.[^10][^13]
### USS Liberty, June 1967
Notes of the National Security Council Special Committee meeting of June 9, 1967 record Clifford saying of the attack on the [[USS Liberty Incident|USS Liberty]]: "My concern is that we're not tough enough. Handle as if Arabs or USSR had done it. Manner egregious. Inconceivable that it was accident. 3 strafing passes, 3 torpedo boats. Set forth facts. Punish Israelis responsible." The note-taker, [[Harold H. Saunders]], wrote in the margin next to Clifford's remarks: "President subscribed 100%."[^12][^13]
Notes of the National Security Council Special Committee meeting of June 9, 1967 record Clifford saying of the attack on the [[USS Liberty Incident|USS Liberty]]: "My concern is that we're not tough enough. Handle as if Arabs or USSR had done it. Manner egregious. Inconceivable that it was accident. 3 strafing passes, 3 torpedo boats. Set forth facts. Punish Israelis responsible." The note-taker, [[Harold H. Saunders]], wrote in the margin next to Clifford's remarks: "President subscribed 100%."[^14][^15]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Clifford, Clark, with Richard Holbrooke. *Counsel to the President: A Memoir.* Random House, 1991.
[^2]: Beaty, Jonathan, and S.C. Gwynne. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI.* Random House, 1993.
[^3]: Beaty, Jonathan, and S.C. Gwynne. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI.* Random House, 1993, p. 215.
[^4]: "Charges dropped against Clark Clifford in BCCI case," United Press International, November 30, 1993. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1993/11/30/Charges-dropped-against-Clark-Clifford-in-BCCI-case/6641754635600/
[^5]: "Altman Acquitted on BCCI Counts," *The Washington Post,* August 15, 1993. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1993/08/15/altman-acquitted-on-bcci-counts/33f3090f-0a02-4934-9c81-37f843aaead7/
[^6]: U.S. Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations.* 102nd Congress, 2nd Session, December 1992. (Kerry-Brown Report.)
[^7]: "Saudi to Pay $225 Million in BCCI Settlement," *The Washington Post,* December 24, 1993.
[^8]: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, *In the Matter of Clark M. Clifford and Robert A. Altman, Institution-Affiliated Parties of Credit and Commerce American Holdings, N.V.,* Docket Nos. 92-080-E-I1, 92-080-B-I1, 92-080-CMP-I1, 92-080-E-I2, 92-080-B-I2, 92-080-CMP-I2, consent order, "effective this [day, illegible in the scan] day of February, 1998," with the Second Amended Notice of Intent to Prohibit of January 14, 1997 (Federal Reserve press release of February 3, 1998). https://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/press/enforcement/1998/19980203/Attachment.pdf
[^9]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 6, "BCCI in the United States: Initial Entry." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/06early.htm
[^10]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 13, "Clark Clifford and Robert Altman." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/13clifford.htm
[^11]: "Clifford, Altman indicted in BCCI bank fraud," United Press International, July 29, 1992. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1992/07/29/Clifford-Altman-indicted-in-BCCI-bank-fraud/5122712382400/
[^12]: Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968, vol. XIX, Document 236, Notes of a Meeting of the Special Committee of the National Security Council, June 9, 1967 (Saunders's handwritten notes). https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v19/d236
[^13]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 12, p. 168, footnote, quoting the same notes from the LBJ Library.
[^3]: Lyndon B. Johnson, "The President's News Conference," January 19, 1968 ("I asked Mr. Clark Clifford to serve as Secretary of Defense this morning, and he has accepted"), The American Presidency Project. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/the-presidents-news-conference-1201
[^4]: Lyndon B. Johnson, "Remarks at the Swearing In of Clark Clifford as Secretary of Defense," March 1, 1968, The American Presidency Project. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-the-swearing-clark-clifford-secretary-defense
[^5]: Beaty, Jonathan, and S.C. Gwynne. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI.* Random House, 1993, p. 215.
[^6]: "Charges dropped against Clark Clifford in BCCI case," United Press International, November 30, 1993. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1993/11/30/Charges-dropped-against-Clark-Clifford-in-BCCI-case/6641754635600/
[^7]: "Altman Acquitted on BCCI Counts," *The Washington Post,* August 15, 1993. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1993/08/15/altman-acquitted-on-bcci-counts/33f3090f-0a02-4934-9c81-37f843aaead7/
[^8]: U.S. Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations.* 102nd Congress, 2nd Session, December 1992. (Kerry-Brown Report.)
[^9]: "Saudi to Pay $225 Million in BCCI Settlement," *The Washington Post,* December 24, 1993.
[^10]: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, *In the Matter of Clark M. Clifford and Robert A. Altman, Institution-Affiliated Parties of Credit and Commerce American Holdings, N.V.,* Docket Nos. 92-080-E-I1, 92-080-B-I1, 92-080-CMP-I1, 92-080-E-I2, 92-080-B-I2, 92-080-CMP-I2, consent order, "effective this [day] day of February, 1998," with the Second Amended Notice of Intent to Prohibit of January 14, 1997 (Federal Reserve press release of February 3, 1998). https://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/press/enforcement/1998/19980203/Attachment.pdf
[^11]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 6, "BCCI in the United States: Initial Entry." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/06early.htm
[^12]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 13, "Clark Clifford and Robert Altman." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/13clifford.htm
[^13]: "Clifford, Altman indicted in BCCI bank fraud," United Press International, July 29, 1992. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1992/07/29/Clifford-Altman-indicted-in-BCCI-bank-fraud/5122712382400/
[^14]: Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968, vol. XIX, Document 236, Notes of a Meeting of the Special Committee of the National Security Council, June 9, 1967 (Saunders's handwritten notes). https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v19/d236
[^15]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 12, p. 168, footnote, quoting the same notes from the LBJ Library.

13
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Faisal Saud al-Fulaij.md
View file

@ -38,15 +38,15 @@ Faisal Saud al-Fulaij was a Kuwaiti businessman who acted as a nominee for the [
### Nominee
In his memo to Abedi of January 30, 1978, Sami wrote: "We have already given the names of Sheikh Kamal Adham and Mr. Fulaig [sic]. We want two other names immediately." Part of the money for Fulaij's share purchases was borrowed from the [[Kuwait International Finance Company]] (KIFCO), which, according to the [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]], BCCI "purportedly had a 49 percent interest in, but actually owned and controlled through its nominee, Faisal al-Fulaij." Clifford's firm represented him, with [[Bert Lance]], Abedi, BCCI and members of the [[Abu Dhabi]] ruling family, in the litigation brought by Financial General in 1978.[^1] A [[Price Waterhouse]] report to the [[Bank of England]] of June 1991 listed him among "the four investors" used "to keep individual ownership below 5% and to ensure that BCCI's name did not appear."[^3]
In his memo to Abedi of January 30, 1978, Sami wrote: "We have already given the names of Sheikh Kamal Adham and Mr. Fulaig [sic]. We want two other names immediately." Part of the money for Fulaij's share purchases was borrowed from the [[Kuwait International Finance Company]] (KIFCO), which, according to the [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]], BCCI "purportedly had a 49 percent interest in, but actually owned and controlled through its nominee, Faisal al-Fulaij." Clifford's firm represented him, with [[Bert Lance]], Abedi, BCCI and members of the [[Abu Dhabi]] ruling family, in the litigation brought by Financial General in 1978.[^1] A [[Price Waterhouse]] report to the [[Bank of England]] of June 1991 listed him among "the four investors" used "to keep individual ownership below 5% and to ensure that BCCI's name did not appear."[^3] Clark Clifford's written testimony to the Senate listed Fulaij among the defendants his firm was retained to represent, and Clifford testified that the representation began in February 1978.[^4]
### The 1981 Hearing
At the Federal Reserve hearing of April 23, 1981, Fulaij followed [[Kamal Adham]] in assuring the regulators that future relations with BCCI would be for the new management to decide. According to Robert Altman, Fulaij had asked his representatives to find investments in the [[United States]] and BCCI had brought Financial General to their attention. When the Federal Reserve's counsel, Robert Mannion, asked whether it was a coincidence that BCCI had first analysed Financial General for Adham and then advised "several of their investment clients" to invest in it, the transcript records "MR. FULAIJ: (Nods in the affirmative.)" and Adham's reply, "That is very possible. Such things happen in our parts of the world." Adham told the Federal Reserve that he had not met Fulaij for ten years; the Senate report called this false and said the two had acted together as BCCI nominees in dealings in the shares of BCCI's oil company, [[Attock Oil]].[^1]
The Federal Reserve found in 1991 that Adham, Fulaij, [[A. R. (Abdul Raouf) Khalil|Khalil]] and the other Middle Eastern nominees "had secretly done precisely what the Federal Reserve had sought to assure they would not do." After the acquisition BCCI added capital to First American partly through loans to its nominees Fulaij, Khalil and Shorafa, and in later planning for the purchase of the Eagle Bank in Florida, Naqvi and BCCI's New York manager [[Abdur Sakhia]] discussed using Fulaij as the nominee in place of Pharaon, in Altman's presence.[^1][^4][^5]
The Federal Reserve found in 1991 that Adham, Fulaij, [[A. R. (Abdul Raouf) Khalil|Khalil]] and the other Middle Eastern nominees "had secretly done precisely what the Federal Reserve had sought to assure they would not do." After the acquisition BCCI added capital to First American partly through loans to its nominees Fulaij, Khalil and Shorafa, and in later planning for the purchase of the Eagle Bank in Florida, Naqvi and BCCI's New York manager [[Abdur Sakhia]] discussed using Fulaij as the nominee in place of Pharaon, in Altman's presence.[^1][^5][^6]
The Senate report also recorded that the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] did not tell the Federal Reserve that Adham and Fulaij had been the subjects of a [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] inquiry under the [[Foreign Corrupt Practices Act]] into arms sales to [[Saudi Arabia]] by [[Boeing]] and [[Lockheed Corporation|Lockheed]].[^6]
The Senate report also recorded that the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] did not tell the Federal Reserve that Adham and Fulaij had been the subjects of a [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] inquiry under the [[Foreign Corrupt Practices Act]] into arms sales to [[Saudi Arabia]] by [[Boeing]] and [[Lockheed Corporation|Lockheed]].[^7]
### Indictment
@ -57,6 +57,7 @@ On July 29, 1992, the New York County District Attorney, [[Robert Morgenthau]],
[^1]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 6, "BCCI in the United States: Initial Entry." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/06early.htm
[^2]: "Clifford, Altman indicted in BCCI bank fraud," United Press International, July 29, 1992. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1992/07/29/Clifford-Altman-indicted-in-BCCI-bank-fraud/5122712382400/
[^3]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 14, "Abu Dhabi: BCCI's Founding and Majority Stockholders." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/14abudhabi.htm
[^4]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 7, "BCCI in the United States: Later Acquisitions." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/07later.htm
[^5]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 13, "Clark Clifford and Robert Altman." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/13clifford.htm
[^6]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 11, "BCCI, the CIA and Foreign Intelligence." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/11intel.htm
[^4]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 6, "BCCI in the United States: Initial Entry" (Clifford's written testimony listing Faisal al Fulaij among the defendants his firm was retained to represent, note 44; Clifford's testimony that the representation began in February 1978, note 43). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/06early.htm
[^5]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 7, "BCCI in the United States: Later Acquisitions." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/07later.htm
[^6]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 13, "Clark Clifford and Robert Altman." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/13clifford.htm
[^7]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 11, "BCCI, the CIA and Foreign Intelligence." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/11intel.htm

13
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Jonathan Beaty.md
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@ -30,15 +30,17 @@ Jonathan Beaty is an American journalist who, with [[S. C. Gwynne]], wrote the *
### "The Dirtiest Bank of All"
The archived copy of the article on the Time website carries the byline "TIME Staff" and the date July 29, 1991.[^3]
The article carried the byline "Jonathan Beaty and S.C. Gwynne/New York" and a deck describing "How B.C.C.I. and its black network became a financial supermarket for crooks and spies" and "how the U.S. is trying to cover up its role." It opened with two unnamed sources. A former senior officer of the bank said: "I could tell you what you want to know, but I must worry about my wife and family," adding that "they could be killed." A Manhattan investigator said: "We better not talk about this over the phone. We've found some bugs in offices that haven't been put there by law enforcement."[^1]
The story called BCCI "the $20 billion rogue empire that regulators in 62 countries shut down early this month," and stated that "From interviews with sources close to B.C.C.I., TIME has pieced together a portrait of a clandestine division of the bank called the 'black network,'" which it described as a 1,500-employee unit "operating primarily out of the bank's offices in [[Karachi]], [[Pakistan]]," that used "sophisticated spy equipment and techniques, along with bribery, extortion, kidnapping and even, by some accounts, murder." It reported, citing its own earlier reporting that month, that the [[National Security Council]] had used BCCI "to funnel money for the Iran-contra deals" and that the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] "maintained accounts in B.C.C.I. for covert operations," and that investigators had said the [[Defense Intelligence Agency]] kept "a slush-fund account" at the bank.[^1]
A self-described former operative, given the pseudonym "Mustafa," told the magazine: "I was recruited by the black network in the early 1980s." He described training in Pakistan and an operation of April 1989 in which crates from a Colombian container ship were unloaded at Karachi and flown out aboard an unmarked 707 to [[Czechoslovakia]] and then to the [[United States]], supervised by an American the operatives believed to be a CIA agent. The article quoted the Manhattan district attorney, [[Robert Morgenthau]]: "We have had no cooperation from the Justice Department since we first asked for records in March 1990. In fact they are impeding our investigation, and Justice Department representatives are asking witnesses not to cooperate with us." It also stated that the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]]'s main probe of BCCI was "being handled by a sole Assistant U.S. Attorney in [[Tampa, Florida|Tampa]], who has recently been assigned another major case," and that "one of B.C.C.I.'s Washington representatives distributed millions of dollars in payoffs to U.S. officials during the past decade."[^1][^3]
A self-described former operative, given the pseudonym "Mustafa," told the magazine: "I was recruited by the black network in the early 1980s." He described training in Pakistan and an operation of April 1989 in which crates from a Colombian container ship were unloaded at Karachi and flown out aboard an unmarked 707 to [[Czechoslovakia]] and then to the [[United States]], supervised by an American the operatives believed to be a CIA agent. The article quoted the Manhattan district attorney, [[Robert Morgenthau]]: "We have had no cooperation from the Justice Department since we first asked for records in March 1990. In fact they are impeding our investigation, and Justice Department representatives are asking witnesses not to cooperate with us." It also stated that the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]]'s main probe of BCCI was "being handled by a sole Assistant U.S. Attorney in [[Tampa, Florida|Tampa]], who has recently been assigned another major case," and that "one of B.C.C.I.'s Washington representatives distributed millions of dollars in payoffs to U.S. officials during the past decade."[^1][^4]
### The Senate Response
The report of Senators [[John Kerry]] and [[Hank Brown]] to the [[Senate Foreign Relations Committee]] addressed the story directly, dating it "a Time magazine cover-story on BCCI on August 15, 1991." The report stated that "None of the BCCI officers interviewed by the Senate claimed to have knowledge of a 'black network' of intelligence operatives, arms dealers, drug traffickers, burglars, or assassins employed by BCCI," and that "They declared, to a person, that they did not believe such a network existed at the bank," though several suggested that a smaller team "carrying out Abedi's most secret missions" could have existed.[^4] The former United States Attorney in Miami, [[Dexter Lehtinen]], whose request to bring BCCI-related indictments in Miami was held back by the Justice Department until November 1991, told the subcommittee, implying that the reversal was the result of Congressional and media pressure: "There had been significant, Time Magazine and New York Times articles, very critical of the Department."[^5] See [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report]].
The report of Senators [[John Kerry]] and [[Hank Brown]] to the [[Senate Foreign Relations Committee]] addressed the story directly, dating it "a Time magazine cover-story on BCCI on August 15, 1991." The archived article is dated July 29, 1991.[^3] The report stated that "None of the BCCI officers interviewed by the Senate claimed to have knowledge of a 'black network' of intelligence operatives, arms dealers, drug traffickers, burglars, or assassins employed by BCCI," and that "They declared, to a person, that they did not believe such a network existed at the bank," though several suggested that a smaller team "carrying out Abedi's most secret missions" could have existed.[^5] The former United States Attorney in Miami, [[Dexter Lehtinen]], whose request to bring BCCI-related indictments in Miami was held back by the Justice Department until November 1991, told the subcommittee, implying that the reversal was the result of Congressional and media pressure: "There had been significant, Time Magazine and New York Times articles, very critical of the Department."[^6] See [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report]].
### The Outlaw Bank
@ -48,6 +50,7 @@ The report of Senators [[John Kerry]] and [[Hank Brown]] to the [[Senate Foreign
[^1]: Beaty, Jonathan, and S. C. Gwynne. "B.C.C.I.: The Dirtiest Bank of All," *Time,* July 29, 1991. https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,973481,00.html ; archive copy https://time.com/archive/6718229/b-c-c-i-the-dirtiest-bank-of-all/
[^2]: Beaty, Jonathan, and S. C. Gwynne. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI.* New York: Random House, 1993. Internet Archive catalogue record, identifier outlawbank00jona. https://archive.org/details/outlawbank00jona
[^3]: Beaty, Jonathan, and S. C. Gwynne. "B.C.C.I.: The Dirtiest Bank of All," *Time,* July 29, 1991, p. 8 of the online edition. https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,973481-8,00.html
[^4]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 4, "BCCI's Criminality." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/04crime.htm
[^5]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 8, "BCCI and Law Enforcement: The Justice Department and the US Customs Service." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/08just.htm
[^3]: "B.C.C.I.: The Dirtiest Bank of All," *Time*, July 29, 1991. Archive copy, time.com/archive/6718229, byline "TIME Staff." https://time.com/archive/6718229/b-c-c-i-the-dirtiest-bank-of-all/
[^4]: Beaty, Jonathan, and S. C. Gwynne. "B.C.C.I.: The Dirtiest Bank of All," *Time,* July 29, 1991, p. 8 of the online edition. https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,973481-8,00.html
[^5]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 4, "BCCI's Criminality." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/04crime.htm
[^6]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 8, "BCCI and Law Enforcement: The Justice Department and the US Customs Service." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/08just.htm

18
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Kamal Adham.md
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@ -24,7 +24,12 @@ relations:
with: "[[United States Department of Justice]]"
reverse: true
end: 1992-07-29
fn: 16
fn: 17
- type: investigated
with: "[[Securities and Exchange Commission]]"
reverse: true
role: "probe under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act into Boeing and Lockheed arms sales to Saudi Arabia; Federal Reserve staff learned of it in 1981"
fn: 15
---
Kamal Adham was the former head of [[Saudi Arabian intelligence]] and brother-in-law of the late [[King Faisal]]. He was a significant shareholder in [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]] and [[First American Bank]]. Adham was a shrewd and jovial figure who straddled the worlds of Middle Eastern business and politics for decades. He was considered one of the true inside power players of the [[Middle East]].[^1]
@ -54,13 +59,15 @@ Adham was one of four original investors, with [[Faisal Saud al-Fulaij]], Sheikh
In a letter to the Federal Reserve of April 10, 1991, Adham gave another account of the investment's origin: a friend, Hasan Yassin, had told him Financial General would be a good investment, and he had brought it to BCCI "as his business agent." The Senate report called this "completely inconsistent" with the accounts of [[Bert Lance]], the *[[The Washington Post|Washington Post]]* and Robert Altman, and noted that Lance had never heard of Yassin.[^12]
The Senate report states that the Federal Reserve asked the Central Intelligence Agency in 1981 whether it held derogatory information on the Middle Eastern shareholders of CCAH. The CIA replied that it had none, and did not tell the Federal Reserve that Adham and [[A. R. (Abdul Raouf) Khalil|Abdul Raouf Khalil]] were intelligence liaisons of the United States. Adham had also been the subject of a [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] probe under the [[Foreign Corrupt Practices Act]] into [[Boeing]] and Lockheed arms sales to Saudi Arabia. The report states that Federal Reserve staff learned of the intelligence contacts and of the commission's probe into Adham's and Faisal al-Fulaij's alleged receipt of bribes in 1981.[^15]
### Intelligence Background
The Senate report recorded that the CIA, asked about the CCAH shareholders, told the Federal Reserve it had no derogatory information on them, without telling it that Adham and [[A. R. (Abdul Raouf) Khalil|Abdul Raouf Khalil]] were "the past and then-current Saudi intelligence liaisons to the United States," or that Adham and Fulaij had been the subject of a [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] inquiry under the [[Foreign Corrupt Practices Act]] into arms sales to Saudi Arabia by [[Boeing]] and [[Lockheed Corporation|Lockheed]]. Paul Volcker, who as chairman of the Federal Reserve signed the 1981 approval, testified in 1991 that he "wasn't aware" of Adham's intelligence background and that it "might send an eyebrow or two up." The Virginia bank regulator Sidney Bailey asked the [[State Department]] and the CIA for information on the shareholders and received none; "at the time," the report found, "the CIA knew precisely who Adham was."[^12][^15]
The Senate report recorded that the CIA, asked about the CCAH shareholders, told the Federal Reserve it had no derogatory information on them, without telling it that Adham and Abdul Raouf Khalil were "the past and then-current Saudi intelligence liaisons to the United States," or that Adham and Fulaij had been the subject of a Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act into arms sales to Saudi Arabia by Boeing and [[Lockheed Corporation|Lockheed]]. Paul Volcker, who as chairman of the Federal Reserve signed the 1981 approval, testified in 1991 that he "wasn't aware" of Adham's intelligence background and that it "might send an eyebrow or two up." The Virginia bank regulator Sidney Bailey asked the [[State Department]] and the CIA for information on the shareholders and received none; "at the time," the report found, "the CIA knew precisely who Adham was."[^12][^16]
### Plea
On July 29, 1992, the [[United States Department of Justice|Justice Department]] announced that Adham and his accountant, Sayed Jawhary, had pleaded guilty to charges arising from the BCCI case, and that Adham had agreed to cooperate with investigators and to pay 105 million dollars in reparations and fines.[^16]
On July 29, 1992, the [[United States Department of Justice|Justice Department]] announced that Adham and his accountant, Sayed Jawhary, had pleaded guilty to charges arising from the BCCI case, and that Adham had agreed to cooperate with investigators and to pay 105 million dollars in reparations and fines.[^17]
### Footnotes
@ -78,5 +85,6 @@ On July 29, 1992, the [[United States Department of Justice|Justice Department]]
[^12]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 6, "BCCI in the United States: Initial Entry." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/06early.htm
[^13]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 14, "Abu Dhabi: BCCI's Founding and Majority Stockholders." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/14abudhabi.htm
[^14]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 13, "Clark Clifford and Robert Altman." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/13clifford.htm
[^15]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 11, "BCCI, the CIA and Foreign Intelligence." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/11intel.htm
[^16]: "Clifford, Altman indicted in BCCI bank fraud," United Press International, July 29, 1992. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1992/07/29/Clifford-Altman-indicted-in-BCCI-bank-fraud/5122712382400/
[^15]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 11, "BCCI, the CIA and Foreign Intelligence" (the CIA's reply to the Federal Reserve; the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act probe; text following notes 10 to 12). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/11intel.htm
[^16]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 11, "BCCI, the CIA and Foreign Intelligence." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/11intel.htm
[^17]: "Clifford, Altman indicted in BCCI bank fraud," United Press International, July 29, 1992. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1992/07/29/Clifford-Altman-indicted-in-BCCI-bank-fraud/5122712382400/

11
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Lawrence Eagleburger.md
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@ -21,17 +21,20 @@ Lawrence Eagleburger was president of [[Kissinger Associates]] from 1984 to 1989
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 Italian Senate commission of inquiry's final report of April 22, 1992 described Eagleburger as an adviser to the Ljubljanska Banka, and named Scowcroft and Kissinger as BNL consultants.[^3]
### 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]
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][^4]
### 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]
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][^5]
### 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.
[^3]: Senato della Repubblica, X Legislatura, Doc. XXII-bis n. 4 (Relazione conclusiva, relatore Carta), April 22, 1992, p. 23. https://www.senato.it/documenti/repository/relazioni/archiviostorico/commissioni/X%20LEG_BNL.ATLANTA_DOC_RELAZ/X_%20LEG_BNL-ATLANTA_DOC%20XXIIBIS_4_22.4.92.pdf
[^4]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Details on Iraq's Procurement Network," *Congressional Record,* House, August 10, 1992.
[^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, pp. 514-15.

18
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/William J. Casey.md
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@ -17,10 +17,17 @@ tags:
- OctoberSurprise
- IranContra
- DarkAllianceInvestigation
summary: "William J. Casey was Reagan's 1980 campaign manager and CIA Director from 1981 to 1987 who, among other disputed roles, is alleged to have secretly negotiated with Iranian representatives in Madrid and Paris in 1980 to delay the release of American hostages past Election Day -- the core allegation of the October Surprise -- and who died of a brain tumor in May 1987 as the Iran-Contra scandal unfolded."
summary: "Reagan's 1980 campaign manager and CIA Director from 1981 to 1987, alleged to have negotiated with Iranian representatives in 1980 to delay the release of American hostages; died in May 1987 as Iran-Contra unfolded."
born: 1913-03-13
died: 1987-05-06
location: "Elmhurst, Queens, New York"
relations:
- type: head_of
with: "[[Securities and Exchange Commission]]"
role: "chairman"
start: 1971-04-14
end: 1973-02-02
fn: 16
---
William Joseph Casey was born March 13, 1913, in Elmhurst, Queens, New York. He attended [[St. John's University]] and Fordham Law School, becoming a corporate and tax attorney. During World War II he served in the [[Office of Strategic Services]] (OSS) under [[William J. Donovan|William "Wild Bill" Donovan]], rising to head the OSS's Secret Intelligence operations in Europe and coordinating the infiltration of agents into Nazi-controlled territory. After the war he became a wealthy lawyer and author of tax shelter guides. President [[Richard Nixon|Nixon]] appointed him Chairman of the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] in 1971, a post he held through 1973. He managed [[Ronald Reagan]]'s 1980 presidential campaign. Reagan appointed him [[Director of Central Intelligence]] in January 1981, and he served as DCI until resigning due to illness in January 1987. He died May 6, 1987, at a hospital in Glen Cove, New York, having suffered a seizure in December 1986 and subsequently undergone brain surgery. He was subpoenaed to testify before the Senate [[Iran-Contra Affair|Iran-Contra]] investigating committee but died before he could appear.[^1]
@ -64,6 +71,12 @@ Casey is listed on the advisory board of the [[National Intelligence Study Cente
The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, in its October 24, 1991 report on the nomination of Gates, named Casey as one of three CIA officials involved in the recruitment and selection of [[James D. Theberge]] for the Senior Review Panel, with Deputy Director [[John McMahon]] and Executive Director [[James Taylor]].[^12] The report states that "the Committee's documentary evidence makes clear that Director Casey was the CIA official most instrumental in recruiting Mr. Theberge."[^12] The report records that Theberge disclosed his consulting work for a Cardoen subsidiary in the personal history statement he submitted to the CIA in December 1985, and that he was hired on a three-days-per-week basis.[^12] CIA visitor records held in the reading room list Theberge as meeting the director at headquarters in November 1984 and, as "Ambassador Theberge," calling on the director on September 23, 1985.[^13] A routing sheet of August 12, 1985 confirms a courtesy call on the director at 1100 hours on August 14, 1985, twelve days after Theberge left his post in Chile, stating that he "has completed his tour in Chile and has no particular items to discuss."[^14] In a memorandum of August 19, 1985 titled "Soviet Game Plan," Casey told the Vice Chairman of the [[National Intelligence Council]]: "You will get in touch with Theberge, talk about the project generally, see what he has to contribute and perhaps have him do some work on the Latin America phase of it."[^15]
### Securities and Exchange Commission, 1971 to 1973
Casey served as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission from April 14, 1971 to February 2, 1973.[^16] During his chairmanship the commission was investigating the 1970 takeover of [[Investors Overseas Services]] by [[International Controls Corporation]]. The complaint filed in November 1972 described transfers of International Controls assets to entities controlled by [[Robert Vesco]].[^17]
The New Jersey Supreme Court's disciplinary opinion on [[Harry L. Sears]], a former majority leader of the New Jersey Senate, records that Sears conveyed Vesco's requests to [[John N. Mitchell]], then attorney general, in two letters and three meetings, and that Vesco hoped Mitchell could induce Casey "to monitor and limit the investigation." The opinion records that Mitchell telephoned Casey and arranged a meeting between Sears and the chairman. At that meeting Casey gave assurances that International Controls could respond to the investigation, and that he would personally review its claims of SEC harassment.[^18]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Persico, Joseph E. *Casey: From the OSS to the CIA*. Viking, 1990.
@ -81,3 +94,6 @@ The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, in its October 24, 1991 report on t
[^13]: Central Intelligence Agency, "American Ambassadors" visitor log, November 1984 (1045), CREST document CIA-RDP93-00415R000100040012-4, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp93-00415r000100040012-4; visitor record, September 23, 1985 (1645), CREST document CIA-RDP93-00415R000200230005-0, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp93-00415r000200230005-0.
[^14]: Central Intelligence Agency, "DCI 14 August 1985 Meeting with Mr. James D. Theberge, Former U.S. Ambassador to Chile," August 12, 1985, CREST document CIA-RDP87M00539R000801050023-0. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp87m00539r000801050023-0
[^15]: Central Intelligence Agency, "Soviet Game Plan," memorandum from the Director of Central Intelligence to the Vice Chairman, National Intelligence Council, August 19, 1985, signed William J. Casey, CREST document CIA-RDP97M00248R000500220030-9. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp97m00248r000500220030-9
[^16]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, "Historical Summary of Chairmen and Commissioners" (William Casey, Chairman, April 14, 1971 to February 2, 1973). https://www.sec.gov/about/sec-commissioners/sec-historical-summary-chairmen-commissioners
[^17]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, News Digest, November 28, 1972 (complaint of November 27, 1972 against Robert L. Vesco and 41 other defendants; transfers from International Controls Corp.; purchase in early 1971 of 6,000,000 shares of Investors Overseas Services). https://www.sec.gov/news/digest/1972/dig112872.pdf
[^18]: In re Sears, 71 N.J. 175 (1976) (Supreme Court of New Jersey, disciplinary opinion; the requests conveyed by Sears to Mitchell, and the meeting Mitchell arranged between Sears and Casey). https://static.case.law/nj/71/cases/0175-01.json

4
10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Bert Lance.md
View file

@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ In 1976 [[Mochtar Riady]] of the [[Lippo Group]] met Jackson and [[Witt Stephens
Sami's memo to Abedi of January 30, 1978, referred to "our friend" in the Financial General negotiations; Lance acknowledged to the subcommittee that the reference was to him, but testified that "the acquisition of shares were basically handled by Mr. Sami, and he was the man who was responsible. I was not involved in that." He testified that in 1978, at Abedi's suggestion, he met [[Kamal Adham]] and Sheikh [[Zayed bin Sultan AL-Nahayan|Zayed]], the latter in [[Lahore]] in "February or March, 1978," and the *[[Washington Post]]* reported that he had recently been in [[Karachi]] in connection with his dealings with Abedi; he made the trip on an official diplomatic passport although he no longer worked for the government.[^13] Of Abedi's relationship with Zayed he told the subcommittee that Abedi had "been kind and attentive to Sheikh Zayed when he was still wandering around in the desert and he had all his assets in his tent somewhere."[^14]
According to the [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]], a federal judge on April 27, 1978, "permanently enjoined Lance and ten other defendants" from violating the securities laws in connection with the Financial General takeover.[^12]
According to the [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]], a federal judge on April 27, 1978, "permanently enjoined Lance and ten other defendants" from violating the securities laws in connection with the Financial General takeover.[^12] The Securities and Exchange Commission's News Digest of March 20, 1978, headed "Lance, Others Enjoined," reported that on March 18 the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia had entered permanent injunctions, by consent, against eleven defendants including Lance (Civil Action 78-0469).[^15] On April 26, 1978 the commission and the Comptroller of the Currency filed a separate civil action in the Northern District of Georgia against The National Bank of Georgia, The Calhoun First National Bank and Lance, which ended the same day in consent judgments of permanent injunction (Civil Action 78-758).[^16]
### Footnotes
@ -61,3 +61,5 @@ According to the [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]], a
[^12]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 6, "BCCI in the United States: Initial Entry." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/06early.htm
[^13]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 16, "BCCI and Georgia Politicians." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/16ga.htm
[^14]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 14, "Abu Dhabi: BCCI's Founding and Majority Stockholders." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/14abudhabi.htm
[^15]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, News Digest, March 20, 1978, "Lance, Others Enjoined" (SEC v. Bank of Credit and Commerce International S.A., et al., U.S.D.C. D.C., Civil Action No. 78-0469, LR-8336). https://www.sec.gov/news/digest/1978/dig032078.pdf
[^16]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, News Digest, April 28, 1978 (SEC and Comptroller of the Currency v. The National Bank of Georgia, The Calhoun First National Bank, Bertram Lance, U.S.D.C. N.D. Ga., Atlanta Division, Civil Action No. 78-758). https://www.sec.gov/news/digest/1978/dig042878.pdf

15
10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Frederick Lacey.md
View file

@ -23,11 +23,11 @@ relations:
- type: investigated
with: "[[Brent Scowcroft]]"
start: 1992
fn: 3
fn: 5
- type: investigated
with: "[[Lawrence Eagleburger]]"
start: 1992
fn: 3
fn: 5
- type: prosecuted
with: "[[Albert Anastasia]]"
start: 1954
@ -40,12 +40,15 @@ Frederick Bernard Lacey was born in Newark, [[New Jersey]], on September 9, 1920
### The BNL Investigation
Attorney General [[William Barr]] declined to seek an independent counsel in the [[BNL Scandal|Banca Nazionale del Lavoro]] affair and on October 16, 1992, appointed Lacey special counsel; he reported 54 days later. He wrote: "I find Judge Shoob's specific charges against the USAO to be inaccurate," rejecting the criticisms of Judge [[Marvin Shoob]]. Of [[Brent Scowcroft]] and [[Lawrence Eagleburger]], he wrote: "It is clear that, while at [[Kissinger Associates]], Scowcroft and Eagleburger came into contact with [[Banca Nazionale del Lavoro|BNL]] management. I have seen nothing, however, to suggest that they knew of BNL-Atlanta's wrongful loans to Iraq or influenced the prosecution of this matter." The second part of the report was classified.[^3] According to *The Village Voice,* the report dismissed the allegations as "arrogant nonsense," while Lacey acknowledged that he could not determine "who at Justice saw what and when" and was "unable to penetrate with any precision where responsibility lay."[^4] Representative [[Henry B. Gonzalez]], chairman of the [[House Banking Committee]], told the House on January 21, 1993, that "from the start it was apparent that Judge Lacey was nothing more than a lackey," called the report "the Lacey Job," and said that "at best" it was a whitewash.[^5]
Attorney General [[William Barr]] declined to seek an independent counsel in the [[BNL Scandal|Banca Nazionale del Lavoro]] affair and on October 16, 1992, appointed Lacey as "independent counsel" under Justice Department regulations rather than under the statute. Lacey's report states that on October 27 Barr authorized a preliminary investigation and asked for a report by December 8, 1992; the Senate staff record that Lacey submitted it on December 9, 1992.[^3] He wrote: "I find Judge Shoob's specific charges against the USAO, and his concern about the interference of other agencies, to be inaccurate,"[^4] rejecting the criticisms of Judge [[Marvin Shoob]]. Of [[Brent Scowcroft]] and [[Lawrence Eagleburger]], he wrote: "It is clear that, while at [[Kissinger Associates]], Scowcroft and Eagleburger came into contact with [[Banca Nazionale del Lavoro|BNL]] management. I have seen nothing, however, to suggest that they knew of BNL-Atlanta's wrongful loans to Iraq or influenced the prosecution of this matter." The second part of the report was classified.[^5] Lacey also addressed the appointment of Joseph D. Whitley, writing that Whitley became acting United States attorney on June 1, 1990, and verbally recused himself from the BNL case the same day, a recusal confirmed in writing a week later.[^6] According to *The Village Voice,* the report dismissed the allegations as "arrogant nonsense," while Lacey acknowledged that he could not determine "who at Justice saw what and when" and was "unable to penetrate with any precision where responsibility lay."[^7] Representative [[Henry B. Gonzalez]], chairman of the [[House Banking Committee]], told the House on January 21, 1993, that "from the start it was apparent that Judge Lacey was nothing more than a lackey," called the report "the Lacey Job," and said that "at best" it was a whitewash.[^8]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Federal Judicial Center, "Lacey, Frederick Bernard," Biographical Directory of Article III Federal Judges. https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/lacey-frederick-bernard
[^2]: Historical Society of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, "Frederick Bernard Lacey." https://www.historynjdc.org/judges/judicial-biographies/frederick-bernard-lacey ; "'French Connection' Judge Dies at 96," Associated Press, via *Governing,* April 2017.
[^3]: 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, 1993, pp. 514-15. https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit
[^4]: "Will We Ever Learn the Truth About Iraqgate?" *The Village Voice,* reprinted November 2, 2020.
[^5]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Update on BNL Investigation," *Congressional Record,* House, January 21, 1993. https://irp.fas.org/congress/1993_cr/h930121-bnl.htm
[^3]: Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, *The Intelligence Community's Involvement in the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL) Affair,* Committee Print S. Prt. 103-12, February 1993, pp. 4-5; Lacey, "The Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Investigation: Report of the Independent Counsel," printed in Serial No. 103-95, pp. 344-345. https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/publications/10312.pdf
[^4]: Lacey, Report of the Independent Counsel, printed in House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, *Testimony of Former Employees of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro,* Serial No. 103-95 (1994), p. 473. https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit
[^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, 1993, pp. 514-15. https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit
[^6]: Lacey, "The Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Investigation: Report of the Independent Counsel," printed in House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, *Testimony of Former Employees of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro,* Serial No. 103-95 (1994), pp. 514-515. https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit
[^7]: "Will We Ever Learn the Truth About Iraqgate?" *The Village Voice,* reprinted November 2, 2020.
[^8]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Update on BNL Investigation," *Congressional Record,* House, January 21, 1993. https://irp.fas.org/congress/1993_cr/h930121-bnl.htm

4
10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/James Moore.md
View file

@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ tags:
- MKULTRA
- Chemistry
- 1950s
summary: "James Moore was a CIA-employed chemist who ran MKULTRA Subproject 58, infiltrating East Coast mycology circles under the cover of a Geschickter Fund professor to locate and obtain psilocybin mushrooms, accompanying R. Gordon Wasson's 1956 Mexico expedition before Wasson's Life magazine article inadvertently publicized the hallucinogen."
summary: "James Moore was a CIA-employed chemist who ran MKULTRA Subproject 58, seeking psilocybin mushrooms under a Geschickter Fund cover and accompanying R. Gordon Wasson's 1956 Mexico expedition."
---
James Moore was a chemist who worked for the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] on [[Project MKUltra|MKULTRA Subproject 58]], a classified effort to locate and mass-produce the hallucinogenic mushroom *teonanáctl* (God's flesh) for intelligence use[^1].
@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ In 1956, after two years of unsuccessful efforts, Moore finally persuaded [[R. G
The mission proved traumatic for Moore, who reportedly got sick and disliked the experience. At one point, he was left roadside in Mexico in the care of local Indians when the group's small airplane had to lighten its load. Despite the difficulties, Moore fulfilled his CIA mandate, returning with *teonanáctl* mushrooms for the Agency to analyze[^1].
However, the CIA's desire to keep the drug a secret psychic weapon was undermined when Wasson published a twelve-page account of his experience in *Life* magazine, highlighting the mushroom's alleged ability to access and enhance [[Extrasensory Perception|ESP]]. This article caused a sensation and led to pleasure seekers flocking to Mexico to consume *God's flesh*[^1].
However, the CIA's desire to keep the drug a secret psychic weapon was undermined when Wasson published an account of his experience on pages 100 to 102 and 109 to 120 of *Life* magazine, highlighting the mushroom's alleged ability to access and enhance [[Extrasensory Perception|ESP]]. This article caused a sensation and led to pleasure seekers flocking to Mexico to consume *God's flesh*[^1].
### Chemical Procurement for TSS

83
10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Mohammed Rahim Motaghi Irvani.md Normal file
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@ -0,0 +1,83 @@
---
aliases:
- Rahim Irvani
- Mohammed Rahim Irvani
- Mohammed Irvani
- Irvani
category: "Business & Finance"
tags:
- Person
- BCCI
- FinancialGeneralBankshares
- RichardHelms
- Iran
- Safeer
- FrontMan
summary: "Iranian industrialist listed in 1978 as a 5 percent shareholder of Credit and Commerce American Holdings, described by a Senate subcommittee as BCCI's lead front man and as financier of Richard Helms's firm Safeer."
created: 2026-10-12
updated: 2026-10-12
relations:
- type: founded
with: "[[Melli Industrial Group]]"
start: 1949
role: "manufacturer of footwear and leather goods in Iran; 23 operating companies by 1978"
fn: 1
- type: partner_of
with: "[[Richard Helms]]"
role: "principal partner and chief financier in Safeer, Helms's international consulting firm; owned 80 percent of its capital per corporate records filed in Georgia litigation"
fn: 1
- type: participant_in
with: "[[Credit and Commerce American Holdings]]"
start: 1978
role: "listed in the original SEC filing as a 5 percent shareholder; described as BCCI's lead front man in the first takeover attempt"
fn: 3
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Roy P. M. Carlson]]"
reverse: true
role: "manager of the Melli group; later vice president of Safeer"
fn: 2
- type: funded
with: "[[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]"
reverse: true
start: 1989
role: "BCCI financed Irvani investments in the United Kingdom and United States, including a 38 million dollar purchase of a New York office building"
fn: 8
---
Mohammed Rahim Motaghi Irvani was an Iranian industrialist who founded the Melli Industrial Group in 1949. The 1992 Senate subcommittee report on [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]] names him as BCCI's lead front man in the unsuccessful 1978 bid for [[Financial General Bankshares]] and as the principal partner and financier of former CIA director [[Richard Helms]] in the consulting firm Safeer.[^1]
### Melli Industrial Group and Alwand
Irvani founded the Melli Industrial Group in Iran in 1949 to manufacture footwear and leather goods and developed close ties to the government of the Shah of Iran. By 1978 the group owned 23 operating companies and had joint ventures with foreign firms including Goodyear and United Chemical. He also owned the Alwand Industrial Co., which held interests in the Iran Arab Bank. Financial documents estimated his personal net worth at over 50 million dollars and the value of his business holdings at as much as 800 million dollars.[^1] [[Agha Hasan Abedi]]'s involvement with Irvani arose from the Iran Arab Bank, according to a memorandum of BCCI's lawyers recording a November 1990 meeting with [[Roy P. M. Carlson]]. Carlson, who had advised Abedi on the formation of BCCI in 1972 while at [[Bank of America]], was introduced by Abedi to Irvani and hired by him to manage the Melli group.[^1][^2]
### Safeer and Richard Helms
Richard Helms was dismissed as director of central intelligence by President [[Richard Nixon]] in February 1973 and was ambassador to [[Iran]] until 1977, where he met Irvani. On October 31, 1977 Helms pleaded no contest to two charges in return for a recommendation that he not be sentenced to prison. In the fall of 1977 [[Clark Clifford]] visited a senior Justice Department official to argue against an indictment of Helms, saying that such charges could damage the intelligence community. The federal judge in the case described Helms as "in disgrace and shame."[^1]
Irvani financed Safeer, an international consulting firm named for the Iranian word for "Ambassador," whose initial business was mostly supplied by Irvani and his contacts. Safeer corporate records and documents filed in civil litigation, *G&H Montage GmbH v. Irvani*, Superior Court of Gwinnett County, Georgia, No. 88-A-03571-6, show that Irvani capitalized and owned 80 percent of the company. Carlson, Irvani's former chief U.S. assistant, became its vice president and handled much of its early business. A company named North West Investment, created by Carlson, invested 120,000 dollars in Safeer in its first year and a year later sold its shares to Brockton Leather Company, which sold them to Helms for one dollar.[^1]
The report records that Helms introduced Irvani to Walter J. Stoessel, Jr., the United States ambassador to Germany, in January 1979; wrote to Vice President [[George H. W. Bush]] on Irvani's behalf on October 29, 1987, forwarding a letter from Irvani; and forwarded Irvani's letters of congratulations to President-elect Bush and Secretary of State [[James A. Baker III|James Baker]] on November 28, 1988. The Irvani letters to Bush have not been located; Irvani's cover letter to Helms refers to his wish to give Bush advice on his presidential campaign. Helms also introduced a member of Irvani's family to Ambassador [[Paul Nitze]] and another to [[Raymond Close]], a former CIA station chief for Saudi Arabia who had worked for [[Kamal Adham]].[^1]
### Financial General Bankshares, 1978
Abedi solicited Irvani in early 1978 to serve as a nominee shareholder in the takeover of Financial General Bankshares, together with Sheikh [[Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan]] and Abdullah Darwaish. Irvani was listed in the original [[Securities and Exchange Commission|SEC]] filing in the 1978 takeover attempt as a 5 percent shareholder of [[Credit and Commerce American Holdings]] (CCAH). The report states that several documents introduced in the Georgia civil litigation describe his recruitment by Abedi.[^3] The BCCI lawyers' memorandum quotes Carlson as saying that Abedi had invited Irvani in the mid-1970s to take a 5 percent stake, that Irvani had applied to Credit and Commerce America for a loan to buy the stake, and that he "had never been keen to make the investment at all" but had been persuaded he could do so on the basis of a loan to be made to him.[^1]
Irvani's son told the [[Atlanta Constitution]] in 1992 that his father "lent his name to the 1978 takeover bid at the request of BCCI founder Agha Hasan Abedi."[^4] Helms denied the allegation in the Atlanta Constitution on February 18, 1992, calling it "totally untrue . . . absolute nonsense."[^5]
An October 20, 1978 telex from Helms to Irvani, quoted in the report, states that Carlson had asked on October 19 that Helms have an independent attorney review seven documents he had telexed, and sets out the text of a letter agreement under which the undersigned would "indemnify you from any liability, loss, or damage" arising from Irvani's granting a power of attorney to any partner of the Washington law firm Clifford, Glass, McIlwain and Finney in the Financial General transaction. The report states that [[Robert Altman]] listed Irvani, within days of the telex, as an intended principal shareholder in the application filed with the Federal Reserve for CCAH, along with representatives of the Abu Dhabi royal family and [[Faisal Saud al-Fulaij]]. It states that Clifford and Altman received Irvani's power of attorney in the same period.[^1][^6]
The report states that Irvani's role in the first bid ended with the Iranian revolution in January 1979, when he became an unnecessary nominee, and that Kamal Adham succeeded him as BCCI's lead front man in the First American takeover.[^1] The report's executive summary lists the relationships among former CIA personnel and the BCCI front men and nominees Adham, [[A. R. (Abdul Raouf) Khalil|Abdul Khalil]] and Irvani as requiring further investigation.[^7]
### BCCI financing and the National Bank of Georgia
BCCI documents show that the bank financed Irvani investments in the United Kingdom and the United States, which in 1989 amounted to 38 million dollars in a single transaction to buy a New York office building at 140 East 58th Street. The documents also show loans, typically of millions of dollars at a time, to the Irvani family, and that the family received substantial loans from the [[National Bank of Georgia]], both while [[Ghaith R. Pharaon]] owned it on behalf of BCCI and after [[First American Bankshares]] replaced him as nominal owner. After Pharaon bought the bank from [[Bert Lance]], Abedi personally selected Carlson as its head.[^1][^8]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate. December 1992, ch. 11, "BCCI, the CIA and Foreign Intelligence," section "Former CIA Director Richard Helms and BCCI Front Man Mohammed Irvani" (notes 49 to 63, citing S. Hrg. 102-350, Pt. 4, pp. 236-316). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/11intel.htm
[^2]: Kerry and Brown, The BCCI Affair, ch. 11 (Carlson's career and his role at Safeer; note 52, staff interview with Roy Carlson, July 16, 1991; note 56). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/11intel.htm
[^3]: Kerry and Brown, The BCCI Affair, ch. 6, "BCCI in the United States: Initial Entry" (Abedi's solicitation of Irvani; the original SEC filing; note 49). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/06early.htm
[^4]: Peter Mantias, "BCCI: Case reveals former CIA chief's ties to bank," Atlanta Constitution, February 15, 1992, p. A1, as quoted in Kerry and Brown, The BCCI Affair, ch. 6, note 57. https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/06early.htm
[^5]: "Ex-CIA chief Helms denies helping BCCI," Atlanta Constitution, February 18, 1992, as quoted in Kerry and Brown, The BCCI Affair, ch. 11, note 60 (S. Hrg. 102-350, Pt. 4, p. 236). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/11intel.htm
[^6]: Kerry and Brown, The BCCI Affair, ch. 13, "Clark Clifford and Robert Altman" (the October 1978 Helms telex and indemnification language; Irvani's listing in the application filed with the Federal Reserve; notes 23 and 24). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/13clifford.htm
[^7]: Kerry and Brown, The BCCI Affair, ch. 1, "Executive Summary." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/01exec.htm
[^8]: Kerry and Brown, The BCCI Affair, ch. 11 (BCCI financing of Irvani investments, including 140 East 58th Street, and loans from the National Bank of Georgia). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/11intel.htm

16
10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Richard Helms.md
View file

@ -23,6 +23,11 @@ summary: "Richard Helms served as Director of Central Intelligence from 1966 to
born: 1913-03-30
died: 2002-10-22
location: "St. Davids, Pennsylvania"
relations:
- type: partner_of
with: "[[Mohammed Rahim Motaghi Irvani]]"
role: "principal partner in Safeer, the consulting firm Helms founded; Irvani was also its chief financier"
fn: 22
---
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]
@ -91,6 +96,14 @@ Nixon appointed Helms U.S. Ambassador to Iran in February 1973, effectively remo
He published his memoirs, *A Look Over My Shoulder: A Life in the Central Intelligence Agency*, posthumously in 2003. The book was notably reticent about the most significant controversial episodes of his career, consistent with his lifelong orientation toward institutional protection over personal disclosure. He died in Washington on October 22, 2002.[^1]
### Irvani, Safeer and the 1978 Financial General Bid
Helms was dismissed as director of central intelligence by President Richard Nixon in February 1973 and was then appointed ambassador to Iran until 1977, where he met [[Mohammed Rahim Motaghi Irvani]], an Iranian industrialist who had founded the Melli Industrial Group in 1949.[^21] On October 31, 1977 Helms pleaded no contest to two charges, in return for a government recommendation that he not be sentenced to prison. In the fall of 1977 [[Clark Clifford]] visited a senior Justice Department official to argue against an indictment, saying that such charges could damage the U.S. intelligence community.[^21]
Helms ran an international consulting firm, Safeer, which the Senate report says was named for the Iranian word for "Ambassador." Irvani financed the firm at the time the presiding federal judge described Helms as "in disgrace and shame." According to corporate records and documents filed in civil litigation in Gwinnett County, Georgia, Irvani capitalized and owned 80 percent of Safeer, and [[Roy P. M. Carlson]], a former Bank of America officer whom [[Agha Hasan Abedi]] had introduced to Irvani, became its vice president and handled much of its early business.[^22]
The original 1978 filing with the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] listed Irvani as a 5 percent shareholder of [[Credit and Commerce American Holdings]] (CCAH), and the Senate report describes him as BCCI's lead front man in the early 1978 takeover attempt against [[Financial General Bankshares]]. The report says that Helms advised Irvani on how to be protected from any liability in that role, and that several documents introduced in litigation in Georgia describe Abedi recruiting Irvani in early 1978 to act as a front man.[^23]
### Footnotes
[^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.
@ -113,3 +126,6 @@ He published his memoirs, *A Look Over My Shoulder: A Life in the Central Intell
[^18]: Robarge, David S. "Getting it Right: CIA Analysis of the 1967 Arab-Israeli War." *Studies in Intelligence* 49, no. 1 (March 2005). https://www.cia.gov/resources/csi/static/CIA-Analysis-1967-War.pdf For the June 1 to 2 meeting Robarge relies on published accounts, among them Michael B. Oren's, which rest on Amit's interviews and writings.
[^19]: National Security Archive, "The NUMEC Affair: Did Highly Enriched Uranium from the U.S. Aid Israel's Nuclear Weapons Program?" (November 2, 2016), Document 8, Letter from Richard Helms to Ramsey Clark, April 2, 1968 (ISCAP Appeal No. 2013-062). https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/nuclear-vault/2016-11-02/numec-affair-did-highly-enriched-uranium-us-aid-israels-nuclear-weapons-program
[^20]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy.* Random House, 1991. Chapters 11, 14, 16.
[^21]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 11, "BCCI, the CIA and Foreign Intelligence" (the section on Richard Helms and Mohammed Irvani; text preceding notes 49 to 51). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/11intel.htm
[^22]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 11 (Safeer's name, its capitalization and the Carlson passages; text following note 51 through note 57; *G&H Montage GmbH v. Irvani*, Superior Court of Gwinnett County, Georgia, 88-A-03571-6). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/11intel.htm
[^23]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 6, "BCCI in the United States: Initial Entry" (Irvani listed in the original SEC filing as a 5 percent shareholder of CCAH; recruitment by Abedi in early 1978, note 49); ch. 11 (Helms's advice to Irvani on liability). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/06early.htm

191
10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Robert S. McNamara.md
View file

@ -1,27 +1,200 @@
---
updated: 2026-10-08
updated: 2026-10-12
aliases:
- Robert McNamara
- Robert Strange McNamara
- McNamara
category: "Intelligence & Government"
tags:
- Person
- Nuclear
- DefenseSecretary
- Vietnam
- Cuba
- Israel
summary: "Secretary of Defense under Kennedy and Johnson who was pressured by pro-Israel fundraiser Abraham Feinberg not to interfere with Israel's nuclear activities."
- WorldBank
- Nuclear
- FordMotorCompany
summary: "Secretary of Defense under Kennedy and Johnson whose tenure includes Operation Mongoose, the Northwoods memorandum, the Gulf of Tonkin incidents and the Pentagon Papers task force, followed by the World Bank presidency."
born: 1916-06-09
died: 2009-07-06
location: "San Francisco, California, USA"
relations:
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Ford Motor Company]]"
start: 1946
end: 1961-01
role: "member of the postwar management group nicknamed the Whiz Kids; named president in November 1960"
fn: 1
- type: appointed
with: "[[Department of Defense]]"
start: 1961-01
end: 1968-02-29
role: "Secretary of Defense"
fn: 3
- type: head_of
with: "[[World Bank]]"
start: 1968-04-01
end: 1981-06-30
fn: 1
- type: participant_in
with: "[[Operation Mongoose]]"
start: 1962-08-10
role: "attended the August 10, 1962 Special Group (Augmented) meeting"
fn: 8
- type: participant_in
with: "[[Operation NORTHWOODS]]"
start: 1962-03-13
role: "addressee of the Joint Chiefs of Staff memorandum forwarding the pretexts paper"
fn: 13
- type: participant_in
with: "[[Gulf of Tonkin Incident]]"
start: 1964-08-03
role: "Secretary of Defense; briefed congressional leaders on the destroyer attacks"
fn: 22
- type: participant_in
with: "[[Pentagon Papers]]"
start: 1967-06-17
role: "directed the formation of the OSD Vietnam Task Force"
fn: 28
- type: participant_in
with: "[[Six-Day War]]"
start: 1967-06-01
role: "met Israeli intelligence chief Meir Amit"
fn: 32
---
Robert S. McNamara served as the Secretary of Defense under President [[John F. Kennedy]] and later under President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]. He was involved in discussions regarding [[Israel]]'s nuclear program and the sale of advanced U.S. fighter aircraft to Israel. [[Abraham Feinberg]] directly intervened with McNamara, insisting that the [[United States]] should not interfere with Israel's nuclear activities. McNamara cryptically acknowledged the basic problem of Israel's existence as a question mark in history, which he understood as a reason for Israel's desire for a nuclear bomb.[^1]
Robert S. McNamara (June 9, 1916 to July 6, 2009) was [[United States]] Secretary of Defense under President [[John F. Kennedy]] and then under President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]], and from April 1, 1968 to June 30, 1981 president of the [[World Bank]].[^1] Before 1961 he was an Army Air Forces statistician and then an executive of the [[Ford Motor Company]].[^2] In 1967 he directed the study of [[Vietnam War]] decision-making that became the [[Pentagon Papers]], and he is named in accounts of the 1967 attack on the [[USS Liberty Incident|USS Liberty]] and in Hersh's account of Israel's nuclear program.
### Statistical Control, LeMay and Ford
In the 2003 film The Fog of War, McNamara said that as a Harvard Business School assistant professor during World War II he worked on a government contract to establish an officer candidate school for what the Air Force called "Statistical Control," selecting candidates by sorting a punch card for every person brought into the Air Corps through IBM machines. He said that a study of daylight bombing in Europe found that the 20 percent abort rate reflected fear of a 4 percent loss rate per sortie, and that [[Curtis LeMay]], then a colonel commanding a B-24 group, answered the report by ordering that any plane that took off would go over the target or the crew would be court-martialed. McNamara said that in March 1945 he was on Guam in LeMay's command when "we burned to death 100,000 Japanese civilians in Tokyo," that he "was part of a mechanism that in a sense recommended it" by analyzing the efficiency of B-29 operations, and quoted LeMay as saying, "If we'd lost the war, we'd all have been prosecuted as war criminals." McNamara added: "He, and I'd say I, were behaving as war criminals."[^2]
After the war McNamara joined a group of former Air Forces officers at Ford, which he said had just barely broken even from 1926 to 1946. The World Bank's history records that the management techniques of McNamara and his colleagues earned them the nickname "Whiz Kids," and that in November 1960 he was named president of Ford. After about one month in that position he was called to the Kennedy administration as Secretary of Defense.[^1][^2]
### The Defense Department, 1961
A Joint Chiefs of Staff memorandum dated January 27, 1961 was addressed to him as Secretary of Defense.[^3]
### Defense Intelligence Agency
In February 1961 McNamara advised the [[Joint Chiefs of Staff]] of his decision to establish a [[Defense Intelligence Agency]], acting on the recommendations of the Joint Study Group that [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] had appointed in 1960. The Joint Chiefs completed the concept plan by July. DoD Directive 5105.21, "Defense Intelligence Agency," was published on August 1, 1961, effective October 1, 1961.[^4] The [[Advanced Research Projects Agency]] initiated Project Agile in 1961, a portfolio of counterinsurgency research programs in Southeast Asia that ran through 1974 and included work on small arms, communications, surveillance and vegetation-clearing chemicals.[^5]
### Operation Mongoose and the Special Group (Augmented)
After the [[Bay of Pigs Invasion]], the Kennedy administration assigned the covert campaign against the government of [[Cuba]] to [[Operation Mongoose]]. Overall control of the operation was entrusted to a new group established for the purpose, called the Special Group (Augmented), a slightly expanded version of the NSC 5412 Special Group.[^6] The [[Church Committee]] recorded that McNamara was not a formal member of that group.[^7]
At the Special Group (Augmented) meeting of August 10, 1962, which [[Dean Rusk]] chaired, McNamara questioned whether building up agents in Cuba would lead to actions that "would hurt the U.S. in the eyes of world opinion." The minutes state that this concern "led to the suggestion by General Taylor that we should consider changing the overall objective" of the operation, from overthrowing the [[Fidel Castro]] regime to causing its failure.[^8]
The question of assassination is where the record divides. [[William Harvey]], the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] officer whose Task Force W ran the Mongoose operation, testified in 1975 that McNamara raised the subject at the August 10 meeting with the words "shouldn't we consider the elimination or assassination of Fidel?" Asked whether he was guessing about the speaker, Harvey said, "No, I am not guessing . . . to the best of my recollection, it was surfaced by Robert McNamara." Harvey also testified that his recollection agreed with his memorandum of August 14, written shortly after the meeting.[^9] McNamara testified that although he did not recall assassination being discussed at the meeting, he did remember opposing any assassination attempt or plan when he spoke with [[John McCone]] several days later.[^10] McCone testified that McNamara agreed [[Edward Lansdale]]'s August 13 memorandum to Harvey should be withdrawn, and that, with no independent recollection, he could reconstruct from the documents that it was McNamara who made the suggestion.[^9][^10] The Church Committee also recorded a 1975 account by Goodwin, a White House aide, of a task force meeting at which McNamara said that "Castro's assassination was the only productive way of dealing with Cuba." Goodwin testified that he had been misquoted and did not say "it was definitely McNamara."[^11]
### Operation Northwoods
On March 6, 1962 Lansdale, chief of operations of Mongoose, wrote that "in response to direction" he was asking the Defense representative, General Craig, "to give me a brief but precise description of pretexts which the JCS believes desirable if a decision is ultimately made to use direct military intervention," and asked the State Department's Goodwin for a companion statement of the pretexts State considered desirable.[^12]
The Joint Chiefs of Staff sent McNamara a memorandum dated March 13, 1962, signed by [[Lyman Lemnitzer]] as chairman, with the subject "Justification for US Military Intervention in Cuba (TS)." It stated that the Joint Chiefs had considered the attached memorandum for the Chief of Operations, Cuba Project, which responded to that office's request, and recommended that it be forwarded "as a preliminary submission suitable for planning purposes." The memorandum added that "it is assumed that a single agency will be given the primary responsibility for developing military and para-military aspects of the basic plan," and recommended that this responsibility "for both overt and covert military operations be assigned the Joint Chiefs of Staff."[^13] The paper is the Joint Chiefs document known as [[Operation NORTHWOODS]].
The attached paper (JCS 1969/321, Top Secret, Special Handling, Noforn) stated that its suggested courses of action rested on the premise that intervention "will result from a period of heightened US-Cuban tensions which place the United States in the position of suffering justifiable grievances," and that "world opinion, and the United Nations forum should be favorably affected by developing the international image of the Cuban government as rash and irresponsible, and as an alarming and unpredictable threat to the peace of the Western Hemisphere." It stated that the premise would hold only so long as there could be reasonable certainty that intervention would not directly involve the Soviet Union, and that "all projects are suggested within the time frame of the next few months." Its recommendations were that the paper not be forwarded to commanders of unified or specified commands, to U.S. officers assigned to NATO activities, or to the chairman of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations Military Staff Committee. A draft memorandum for the Chief of Operations, Cuba Project, appended to it, stated that a plan built from the suggestions "would enable a logical build-up of incidents to be combined with other seemingly unrelated events to camouflage the ultimate objective and create the necessary impression of Cuban rashness and irresponsibility on a large scale, directed at other countries as well as the United States," and that "inasmuch as the ultimate objective is overt military intervention," primary responsibility for the military and para-military aspects should go to the Joint Chiefs.[^13]
The annex, "Pretexts to Justify US Military Intervention in Cuba," listed the proposed courses of action. They included a series of "well coordinated incidents" at Guantanamo (among them rumors spread by clandestine radio, friendly Cubans in uniform landed "over-the-fence" to stage an attack, "Blow up ammunition inside the base; start fires," and "Sink ship near harbor entrance. Conduct funerals for mock-victims"); a "Remember the Maine" incident in which "We could blow up a US ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba" or blow up an unmanned vessel near Havana or Santiago; and a "Communist Cuban terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida cities and even in Washington," including "sink[ing] a boatload of Cubans enroute to Florida (real or simulated)." Others were a simulated "Cuban-based, Castro-supported" filibuster against a neighboring Caribbean nation; harassment of civil aircraft by U.S. pilots flying MIG-type aircraft, including "An F-86 properly painted"; and a staged shoot-down of a chartered civil airliner, in which an aircraft at Eglin Air Force Base painted as a duplicate of a registered aircraft belonging to a CIA proprietary in the Miami area would be substituted for the real one, loaded with passengers "all boarded under carefully prepared aliases," while the real aircraft, converted to a drone, flew the filed route and transmitted a "MAY DAY" message on the international distress frequency before being destroyed by radio signal. A further scenario had four or five F-101 aircraft flown toward Cuba so that a pre-briefed pilot could broadcast that he had been jumped by MIGs, after which a submarine or small surface craft would disburse F-101 parts and a parachute off the Cuban coast. A second enclosure recorded the Joint Chiefs' statement of March 7, 1962 that "determination that a credible internal revolt is impossible of attainment during the next 9-10 months will require a decision by the United States to develop a Cuban 'provocation' as justification for positive US military action."[^13]
A Joint Secretariat decision note on the paper records that the Joint Chiefs approved the recommendations in its paragraph 8 and that, because the Commandant of the Marine Corps had expressed direct concern, the provisions of Title 10, U.S. Code, section 141(b) applied.[^13] The National Security Archive posted the fifteen-page document on April 30, 2001, after James Bamford described it in his book Body of Secrets.[^14]
On March 16, 1962, three days after the memorandum, President Kennedy met with McCone, General [[Maxwell Taylor]], [[Roswell Gilpatric]], Attorney General [[Robert F. Kennedy]], [[McGeorge Bundy]] and Lemnitzer to discuss the Mongoose guidelines. [[U. Alexis Johnson]]'s handwritten note records that "The President also expressed skepticism that in so far as can now be foreseen circumstances will arise that would justify and make desirable the use of American forces for overt military action," and that "no decision was expressed or implied approving the use of such forces although contingency planning would proceed."[^15] At the April 11, 1962 meeting of the Special Group (Augmented), according to McCone's notes, the "JCS paper on pretext or provocative actions was discussed" and McCone wrote that "We should have and review this paper as it is considered to be a very thoughtful and useful document." The question of manufacturing MIG-type planes was raised at the same meeting.[^16]
### Cuban Missile Crisis
On October 27, 1962, at the [[Executive Committee of the National Security Council]], McNamara reported on that day's daylight reconnaissance missions, one of which had aborted for mechanical reasons, with one plane overdue and several reported to have met ground fire. He again recommended night reconnaissance missions. The President delayed a decision on night flights pending a full report on the daylight mission.[^17] In The Fog of War McNamara said that LeMay, whom he had served under in World War II, was saying "Let's go in, let's totally destroy Cuba," and that after the crisis LeMay told Kennedy, "Won? Hell, we lost. We should go in and wipe 'em out today."[^2]
### Diem and the 1963 Coup
On October 2, 1963 McNamara and General Taylor reported to Kennedy on the military campaign and the political situation in [[Saigon]]. Their conclusions included that "there is no solid evidence of the possibility of a successful coup, although assassination of [[Ngo Dinh Diem|Diem]] or [[Ngo Dinh Nhu|Nhu]] is always a possibility."[^18]
### Gulf of Tonkin
On August 3, 1964 the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, [[Peter Solbert]], sent McNamara a memorandum on the aftermath of the [[USS Maddox]] engagement. It listed as possible further actions the aerial mining of North Vietnamese naval bases or harbors, further covert [[Operation 34-A]] missions against those bases, and, on the suggestion of Ambassador Maxwell Taylor in Saigon, the destruction of Swatow boats on the high seas.[^19]
On the telephone at 10:30 a.m. on August 3, Johnson and McNamara discussed the congressional briefing. McNamara proposed explaining the covert naval operations to Congress: "And we're going to, and I think I should also, or we should also at that time, Mr. President, explain this Op Plan 34-A, these covert operations. There's no question but what that had bearing on."[^20] [[John Prados]] wrote that McNamara took the position in later public hearings that he was unaware of any such link.[^21]
At a meeting of congressional leaders on August 4, 1964, McNamara began his briefing: "The first indication we had of another attack on the destroyers, the Maddox and Turner Joy, was received at 7:30 A.M. today."[^22] In a telephone call at 9:43 a.m. that day, Johnson and McNamara discussed retaliation. McNamara said of the destroyer: "this ship is allegedly, uh, to be attacked tonight."[^21]
In February 1968 McNamara was still Secretary of Defense and again served as the administration's lead witness before the [[Senate Foreign Relations Committee]] on the 1964 incidents. He told the committee that the question of provocation had been "fully explored" at the 1964 hearings. Prados wrote that McNamara cited [[Naval Security Group]] intercepts made aboard the Maddox, described them in general terms, and declined to leave copies with the committee.[^21]
### Infiltration, the Jason study and the barrier
On January 24, 1966 McNamara sent Johnson a memorandum on the military outlook in [[South Vietnam]]. It estimated that the enemy could generate in the North and infiltrate to the South "an average of 200 tons of supplies a day depending on the season," despite anti-infiltration efforts.[^23]
From June 13 to June 22, 1966 more than forty scientists met in Wellesley, Massachusetts for briefings on the war organized by the JASON Division of the [[Institute for Defense Analyses]] under a Defense Department contract. In a letter to McNamara of June 23, 1966, [[George Kistiakowsky]] reported that the group had reached "a large measure of consensus on several tentative inferences." In late August the four study groups submitted reports to McNamara that, according to the editors of the Foreign Relations volume, concluded that the bombing of North Vietnam was ineffective and recommended construction of a barrier as an alternative means of checking infiltration.[^24] On September 15, 1966 McNamara wrote to the Director of the Defense Communications Agency, General Starbird, that an infiltration interdiction system "is to be designed, produced, and put in place in South Vietnam and Laos as a matter of highest priority," named him Director of Joint Task Force 728 with the objective of having the system in operation by September 15, 1967, and said that the concept came from the study "Air-Supported Anti-Infiltration Barrier" (August 1966) by the Jason Division. He told Starbird to use an advisory group of non-governmental experts, including Kistiakowsky.[^25] On November 14, 1966 he told Johnson that the ground portions of the barrier, fences, wire, mines and sensors supported by artillery, aircraft and mobile troops, would run about 30 kilometers west from the South China Sea, with intermittent ground barriers to the west and an air barrier beyond whose character had not been decided.[^26]
In late 1967 McNamara sent Johnson a memorandum on pacification that set out a "five-pronged" strategy. One prong was a barrier "across the trails of [[Laos]]."[^27]
### Pentagon Papers
On June 17, 1967 McNamara directed that a task force be formed to study the history of United States involvement in Vietnam from World War II to the present. His guidance to the task force was that the studies be "encyclopedic and objective." Its chairman, [[Leslie Gelb]], wrote in the final report that with six full-time professionals the task force was to finish in three months, and that a year and a half later, with six times six professionals, it was done with thirty-seven studies and fifteen collections of documents in forty-three volumes. McNamara gave the task force access to Office of the Secretary of Defense files; it had access to CIA materials and some State Department cables, no access to White House files, and guidance that prohibited personal interviews with principal participants.[^28] The report was commissioned by McNamara in 1967, and portions were leaked to the press in June 1971. On the 40th anniversary of the leak the [[National Archives and Records Administration]], with the Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon presidential libraries, released the complete report without redactions, about 7,000 pages in 48 boxes, in the form in which Gelb presented it to Secretary of Defense [[Clark Clifford]] on January 15, 1969.[^29]
### Departure from the Defense Department
Johnson spoke at a farewell ceremony for McNamara at the Pentagon on February 29, 1968, and on March 1, 1968 swore in Clifford as Secretary of Defense.[^30][^31] The World Bank's history states that McNamara's thinking on the war gradually diverged from Johnson's and that Johnson nominated him as the next World Bank president.[^1]
### Six-Day War
On June 1, 1967 McNamara met Israeli intelligence chief [[Meir Amit]], the director of [[Mossad]], who was in Washington from May 31 to June 2. A memorandum for the record, written by [[Rufus Taylor]], records that Amit told McNamara he was personally going to recommend that Israel act, that Israel's mobilization could not be sustained for long, and that the Israelis could take the Sinai with about 4,000 casualties if they had air superiority. The memorandum records McNamara asking how many casualties Israel would take, and assuring Amit that the information would go no further than the top officials who needed it.[^32]
In 1992 Amit recalled that the meeting lasted 40 minutes, that McNamara asked how long a war would last, and that he replied "Seven days." Amit also quoted McNamara as saying that "the president knows that you are here and I have a direct line to the president."[^32]
### Israel and Abraham Feinberg
[[Abraham Feinberg]], a pro-Israel fundraiser, is recorded by [[Seymour Hersh]] as intervening directly with McNamara to insist that the United States should not interfere with [[Israel]]'s nuclear activities. In Hersh's account McNamara cryptically acknowledged the basic problem of Israel's existence as a question mark in history, which Hersh read as a reason for Israel's desire for a nuclear bomb.[^33] Hersh placed McNamara in the discussions of Israel's nuclear program and of the sale of advanced U.S. fighter aircraft to Israel.[^33]
Foreign Relations volumes show Feinberg as a channel in later Israeli aid business. In June 1966 [[Walt Rostow]] told Johnson that Feinberg had brought in [[Shimon Peres]], the former Israeli defense minister, and that McNamara had given formal concurrence in a June 27 memorandum to Rostow on a related loan.[^34] In April 1967 Rostow's covering memorandum on an Israeli aid package bore Johnson's handwritten note asking that it be put on his desk for when the Feinberg appointment was ready. The editorial note for the same period records that Secretaries Rusk and McNamara were asked for their views on the Israeli policy paper.[^35]
### The USS Liberty attack
In an affidavit released in October 2003, [[Ward Boston]] states that the president of the Navy's 1967 Court of Inquiry into the attack on the [[USS Liberty Incident|USS Liberty]], Admiral [[Isaac C. Kidd Jr.]], told him that McNamara and President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered the court to conclude that the attack was a case of mistaken identity.[^2] [[A. Jay Cristol]] quotes McNamara's July 1967 statement to the [[Senate Foreign Relations Committee]] that "it was the conclusion of the investigatory body headed by an Admiral of the Navy [Isaac C. Kidd, Jr.] in whom we have great confidence that the attack was not intentional. I read the record of investigation and I support that conclusion."[^3] The Chicago Tribune reported in 2007 that J. Q. Hart, a chief petty officer at a Navy relay station in Morocco, recalled hearing McNamara order Rear Admiral Lawrence Geis to recall the carrier aircraft sent toward the Liberty, and quoted Hart as recalling McNamara's words: "President [Lyndon] Johnson is not going to go to war or embarrass an American ally over a few sailors." McNamara, then 91, told the Tribune he had "absolutely no recollection of what I did that day."[^4]
In an affidavit released in October 2003, [[Ward Boston]] states that the president of the Navy's 1967 Court of Inquiry into the attack on the USS Liberty, Admiral [[Isaac C. Kidd Jr.]], told him that McNamara and President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered the court to conclude that the attack was a case of mistaken identity.[^36] [[A. Jay Cristol]] quotes McNamara's July 1967 statement to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: "it was the conclusion of the investigatory body headed by an Admiral of the Navy [Isaac C. Kidd, Jr.] in whom we have great confidence that the attack was not intentional. I read the record of investigation and I support that conclusion."[^37]
The [[Chicago Tribune]] reported in 2007 that J. Q. Hart, a chief petty officer at a Navy relay station in [[Morocco]], recalled hearing McNamara order Rear Admiral [[Lawrence Geis]] to recall the carrier aircraft sent toward the Liberty. Hart quoted McNamara as saying: "President [Lyndon] Johnson is not going to go to war or embarrass an American ally over a few sailors." McNamara, then 91, told the Tribune he had "absolutely no recollection of what I did that day."[^38]
### World Bank presidency
McNamara took office as president of the World Bank on April 1, 1968. Commitments rose from about $1 billion in 1968 to more than $13 billion in fiscal 1981.[^1] McNamara coined the term "absolute poverty" in his 1973 Annual Meeting speech, and the Bank's history credits him with first setting out its twin goals of accelerating economic growth and reducing poverty.[^39]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 8.
[^2]: Ward Boston Jr., affidavit as printed in the Congressional Record, Extensions of Remarks, October 11, 2004, pp. E1886-E1889, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CREC-2004-10-11/html/CREC-2004-10-11-pt1-PgE1886-3.htm; the same sentence is paragraph 16 of the declaration dated January 8, 2004, https://archive.org/download/boston-declaration/BostonDeclaration.pdf.
[^3]: A. Jay Cristol, History News Network, June 12, 2007. Cristol quotes the testimony with ellipses and cites it as released by the U.S. Government Printing Office in 1967. https://www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/why-you-shouldnt-pay-attention-to-the-claims-that-
[^4]: "New revelations in attack on American spy ship," *Chicago Tribune*, October 2, 2007. Hart's and McNamara's statements are as the Tribune reported them. https://www.chicagotribune.com/2007/10/02/new-revelations-in-attack-on-american-spy-ship/
[^1]: World Bank Group Archives, "Robert Strange McNamara, 1916-2009," Past Presidents (Ford, "Whiz Kids," November 1960; president of the World Bank Group April 1, 1968 to June 30, 1981; commitment figures). https://www.worldbank.org/en/archive/history/past-presidents/robert-strange-mcnamara
[^2]: Errol Morris, The Fog of War (2003), transcript, Errol Morris website (McNamara on Statistical Control, LeMay, the March 1945 Tokyo raid, Ford and the Cuban Missile Crisis, in his own words). https://www.errolmorris.com/film/fow_transcript.html
[^3]: Joint Chiefs of Staff, memorandum to Secretary of Defense McNamara, January 27, 1961, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963, Vol. X, Document 28. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v10/d28
[^4]: Defense Intelligence Agency, "Defense Intelligence Agency: A Brief History," pp. 1-2 (announcement August 2, 1961; DoD Directive 5105.21 issued August 1, effective October 1, 1961). https://irp.fas.org/dia/dia_history.pdf
[^5]: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, "Project Agile," innovation timeline. https://www.darpa.mil/about/innovation-timeline/project-agile
[^6]: Office of the Historian, editorial note preceding Document 270, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963, Vol. X. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v10/d270
[^7]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders, S. Rept. 94-465 (1975), p. 140. https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94465.pdf
[^8]: Alleged Assassination Plots, S. Rept. 94-465, pp. 162-163, quoting the Special Group (Augmented) minutes of August 10, 1962, p. 2.
[^9]: Alleged Assassination Plots, S. Rept. 94-465, p. 164 (Harvey and McCone testimony) and the Additional Views of Senator Howard H. Baker Jr., pp. 320-321, quoting Harvey, July 11, 1975, pp. 29-30 and 86, and McCone, June 6, 1975, pp. 33 and 38-39.
[^10]: Alleged Assassination Plots, S. Rept. 94-465, pp. 164-165, citing McNamara testimony, July 11, 1975, pp. 7-8, and McCone testimony, June 6, 1975, p. 39.
[^11]: Alleged Assassination Plots, S. Rept. 94-465, Additional Views of Senator Baker, p. 322, citing Goodwin testimony, July 18, 1975, pp. 33 and 35, and the 1975 article by Taylor Branch and George Crile III in which Goodwin is quoted.
[^12]: Lansdale to Goodwin, March 6, 1962 (Top Secret; Sensitive), Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963, Vol. X, Document 310. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v10/d310
[^13]: Joint Chiefs of Staff, memorandum for the Secretary of Defense, "Justification for US Military Intervention in Cuba (TS)," March 13, 1962, signed by L. L. Lemnitzer, Chairman, with Enclosure A, its appendix and annex, Enclosure B, and the Joint Secretariat decision note, from JCS 1969/321 (Top Secret, Special Handling, Noforn; declassified 1997), pp. 1-15 of the National Security Archive copy; Enclosure A appendix paras. 3 and 5 and the annex at pp. 5-11, Enclosure B para. 2 at p. 12. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/news/20010430/northwoods.pdf
[^14]: National Security Archive, "Pentagon Proposed Pretexts for Cuba Invasion in 1962," April 30, 2001. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/news/20010430/
[^15]: Guidelines for Operation Mongoose and editorial note quoting U. Alexis Johnson's handwritten covering memorandum of March 16, 1962, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963, Vol. X, Document 314. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v10/d314
[^16]: Memorandum by Director of Central Intelligence McCone on the April 11, 1962 meeting of the Special Group (Augmented), Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963, Vol. X, Document 325. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v10/d325
[^17]: Office of the Historian, Document 94, Summary Record of the Eighth Meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Security Council, October 27, 1962, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963, Vol. XI. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v11/d94
[^18]: Memorandum from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Taylor) and the Secretary of Defense (McNamara) to President Kennedy, October 2, 1963, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963, Vol. IV, Document 167. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d167
[^19]: Peter Solbert, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, memorandum to Secretary of Defense McNamara, August 3, 1964 (Top Secret; Sensitive), Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968, Vol. I, Document 268. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v01/d268
[^20]: Telephone conversation, Lyndon B. Johnson and Robert S. McNamara, August 3, 1964, 10:30 a.m., transcript, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book 132. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB132/tapes.htm
[^21]: John Prados, "The Gulf of Tonkin Incident, 40 Years Later," National Security Archive, posted August 4, 2004, citing the telephone conversation of August 4, 1964, 9:43 a.m. (Prados, ed., The White House Tapes, p. 193) and the McNamara testimony excerpts of February 20, 1968 (Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, National Security File, NSC Histories, box 39). https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB132/essay.htm
[^22]: Notes of the Leadership Meeting, White House, August 4, 1964, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968, Vol. I, Document 280 (notes by Walter Jenkins). https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v01/d280
[^23]: Memorandum from Secretary of Defense McNamara to President Johnson, "The Military Outlook in South Vietnam," January 24, 1966, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968, Vol. IV, Document 36. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v04/d36
[^24]: Letter from George B. Kistiakowsky to Secretary of Defense McNamara, June 23, 1966, with the editors' note on the JASON study groups, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968, Vol. IV, Document 163. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v04/d163
[^25]: Memorandum from Secretary of Defense McNamara to the Director of the Defense Communications Agency (Starbird), "Infiltration Interdiction System for Vietnam," September 15, 1966, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968, Vol. IV, Document 233. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v04/d233
[^26]: Memorandum from Secretary of Defense McNamara to President Johnson, "Anti-infiltration barrier between North and South Vietnam," November 14, 1966, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968, Vol. IV, Document 307. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v04/d307
[^27]: "Pacification" study, Pentagon Papers, Part IV.C.8, printed page 99. https://nara-media-001.s3.amazonaws.com/arcmedia/research/pentagon-papers/Pentagon-Papers-Part-IV-C-8.pdf
[^28]: Leslie H. Gelb, Final Report, OSD Vietnam Task Force (transmittal text; June 17, 1967 directive; "encyclopedic and objective"; thirty-seven studies, fifteen collections of documents in forty-three volumes), in the Pentagon Papers index volume. https://nara-media-001.s3.amazonaws.com/arcmedia/research/pentagon-papers/Pentagon-Papers-Index.pdf
[^29]: National Archives and Records Administration, "The Pentagon Papers." https://www.archives.gov/research/pentagon-papers
[^30]: Lyndon B. Johnson, "Remarks at a Farewell Ceremony at the Pentagon Honoring Secretary McNamara," February 29, 1968, The American Presidency Project. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-farewell-ceremony-the-pentagon-honoring-secretary-mcnamara
[^31]: Lyndon B. Johnson, "Remarks at the Swearing In of Clark Clifford as Secretary of Defense," March 1, 1968, The American Presidency Project. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-the-swearing-clark-clifford-secretary-defense
[^32]: Memorandum for the Record by Rufus Taylor, conversation between Major General Meir Amit and Secretary McNamara, June 1, 1967, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968, Vol. XIX, Document 124, including the source note quoting Amit's 1992 remarks (Richard B. Parker, ed., The Six-Day War: A Retrospective, University Press of Florida, 1996, pp. 139-140). https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v19/d124
[^33]: Seymour M. Hersh, The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy (Random House, 1991), chapter 8.
[^34]: Walt W. Rostow, memorandum to President Johnson, June 21, 1966, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968, Vol. XVIII, Document 304. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v18/d304
[^35]: Rostow to Johnson, April 18, 1967 (Document 406), and editorial note on the Israeli aid agenda (Document 410), Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968, Vol. XVIII. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v18/d410
[^36]: Ward Boston Jr., affidavit as printed in the Congressional Record, Extensions of Remarks, October 11, 2004, pp. E1886-E1889, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CREC-2004-10-11/html/CREC-2004-10-11-pt1-PgE1886-3.htm; the same sentence is paragraph 16 of the declaration dated January 8, 2004, https://archive.org/download/boston-declaration/BostonDeclaration.pdf.
[^37]: A. Jay Cristol, History News Network, June 12, 2007. Cristol quotes the testimony with ellipses and cites it as released by the U.S. Government Printing Office in 1967. https://www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/why-you-shouldnt-pay-attention-to-the-claims-that-
[^38]: "New revelations in attack on American spy ship," Chicago Tribune, October 2, 2007. Hart's and McNamara's statements are as the Tribune reported them. https://www.chicagotribune.com/2007/10/02/new-revelations-in-attack-on-american-spy-ship/
[^39]: World Bank, "History," statement on the 1973 Annual Meeting speech and the Bank's twin goals. https://www.worldbank.org/en/about/history

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@ -137,7 +137,7 @@ A December 1988 [[Stanford Research Institute|SRI International]] final report o
Harvard's Office of the General Counsel found that Epstein gave Harvard two gifts, in 1998 and 2002, totaling $200,000, "to support Kosslyn's research." Its May 2020 report, [[Report Concerning Jeffrey E. Epstein's Connections to Harvard University]], states that Epstein first provided support for Harvard faculty members in 1998, and that between 1998 and 2002 he had given $200,000 "to support Kosslyn's work."[^26]
The report found that Epstein applied on September 1, 2005 to be admitted as a Visiting Fellow, that his application stated he had learned of the status from Kosslyn, and that Kosslyn recommended him in a letter dated September 2, 2005. The letter reads "I have known Jeffrey for about nine years" and "He has been my only collaborator on this project (for some five years now, I believe)." Harvard admitted Epstein for the 2005 to 2006 academic year on September 3, 2005, with tuition and fees of $10,072, and approved a second year on April 21, 2006.[^26] The report says that Kosslyn acknowledged Epstein was not qualified to conduct aspects of his proposed research, particularly the MRI testing, and that in Kosslyn's recollection Epstein "was barely ever around."[^26] The report also states that the Visiting Fellow application form did not require Kosslyn to disclose Epstein's financial support when he endorsed him, and that because Kosslyn was a department chair, his recommendation "proved sufficient to carry the day."[^26] In a November 2008 email, Kosslyn, then divisional dean, noted that he had discussed "Martin [Nowak]'s situation" with [[Benedict Gross]], the chair of the mathematics department, according to the report.[^26]
The report found that Epstein applied on September 1, 2005 to be admitted as a Visiting Fellow, that his application stated he had learned of the status from Kosslyn, and that Kosslyn recommended him in a letter dated September 2, 2005. The letter reads "I have known Jeffrey for about nine years" and "He has been my only collaborator on this project (for some five years now, I believe)." Harvard admitted Epstein for the 2005 to 2006 academic year on September 3, 2005, with tuition and fees of $10,072, and approved a second year on April 21, 2006.[^26] The report says that Kosslyn acknowledged Epstein was not qualified to conduct aspects of his proposed research, particularly the MRI testing, and that in Kosslyn's recollection Epstein "was barely ever around."[^26] The report also states that the Visiting Fellow application form did not require Kosslyn to disclose Epstein's financial support when he endorsed him, and that because Kosslyn was a department chair, his recommendation "proved sufficient to carry the day."[^26] In a November 2008 email, Kosslyn, then divisional dean, noted that he had discussed "Martin [Nowak]'s situation" with [[Benedict Gross]], the chair of the mathematics department, according to the report. The email, which the report quotes, continues: "If [President] Drew [Faust] weren't opposed to taking JEE's money, there wouldn't be a problem . . . but she is." The report states that Epstein was readmitted in February 2006 for 2006 to 2007 and withdrew in September 2006 after his arrest.[^26]
### Palm Beach County Jail visits
@ -174,7 +174,7 @@ The Stanford spokesperson told the Daily that the university "[does] not have ad
[^1]: Minerva Project, "Minerva Project Names Dr. Stephen M. Kosslyn as Founding Dean," March 12, 2013. https://s3.minervaproject.com/press-releases/Minerva_Project_Annouces_Stephen_M._Kosslyn.pdf
[^2]: National Science Foundation award records 7616987 (Johns Hopkins University, September 1, 1976 to February 28, 1978), 7721782 (Harvard University, 1977 to 1980), 8240259 (Brandeis University, October 13, 1981 to August 31, 1983) and 8318452 (Harvard University, December 1, 1983 to May 31, 1985), "Visual Images As Memory Structures." https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=8240259
[^3]: Aadi Kucheria and Ashton Dolce, "Former Stanford academic Stephen Kosslyn Ph.D. '74 visited Epstein in jail, faced allegation of sexual assault," The Stanford Daily, February 5, 2026. https://stanforddaily.com/2026/02/05/sexual-assault-epstein-kosslyn/
[^4]: Diane E. Lopez, Ara B. Gershengorn and Martin F. Murphy, Report Concerning Jeffrey E. Epstein's Connections to Harvard University, Harvard University Office of the General Counsel and Foley Hoag LLP, May 2020, pp. 3 and 5. https://ogc.harvard.edu/files/ogc/files/report_concerning_jeffrey_e._epsteins_connections_to_harvard_university.pdf
[^4]: Diane E. Lopez, Ara B. Gershengorn and Martin F. Murphy, Report Concerning Jeffrey E. Epstein's Connections to Harvard University, Harvard University Office of the General Counsel and Foley Hoag LLP, May 2020, pp. 3 and 5. https://ogc.harvard.edu/file_url/208
[^5]: "Stephen Kosslyn named divisional dean for the social sciences," Harvard Gazette, April 24, 2008. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2008/04/stephen-kosslyn-named-divisional-dean-for-the-social-sciences
[^6]: "Kosslyn appointed director of CASBS," The Stanford Daily, July 29, 2010. https://stanforddaily.com/2010/07/29/kosslyn-appointed-director-of-casbs/
[^7]: Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, "Leadership History," listing Stephen M. Kosslyn as Director, 2011 to 2013. https://casbs.stanford.edu/about/leadership-history
@ -196,7 +196,7 @@ The Stanford spokesperson told the Daily that the university "[does] not have ad
[^23]: National Science Foundation award search, awards 7616987, 7712345, 7721782, 8240259, 8318452, 9009619, 0106760, 0322611 and 0411725, retrieved through the NSF awards API. https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0411725 and https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0322611
[^24]: National Institutes of Health RePORTER, project search for principal investigator Stephen M. Kosslyn, including projects R01MH039478, R01AG012675, P01NS017778, P01NS027950, 1F06TW002247, R01MH060734 and T32MH070328. https://reporter.nih.gov/
[^25]: Edwin C. May and Virginia V. Trask, "Forced-Choice Remote Viewing," Final Report, Objective E, Task 4, SRI Project 1291, December 1988, CIA-RDP96-00787R000300010001-9, CIA-RDP96-00789R002200290001-6 and CIA-RDP96-00789R002200280001-7 (the last a copy marked SECRET), and the same report within the "Cognitive Sciences Laboratory, Volume 2 of 2" compilation, CIA-RDP96-00789R003200160001-9. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00789r002200290001-6
[^26]: Lopez, Gershengorn and Murphy, Report Concerning Jeffrey E. Epstein's Connections to Harvard University, May 2020, pp. 3 and 5 (the gifts), 5 to 8 (the Visiting Fellow application, the September 2, 2005 letter, the approvals and Kosslyn's account), 10 (the November 2008 email) and 26 (the recommendation). https://ogc.harvard.edu/files/ogc/files/report_concerning_jeffrey_e._epsteins_connections_to_harvard_university.pdf
[^26]: Lopez, Gershengorn and Murphy, Report Concerning Jeffrey E. Epstein's Connections to Harvard University, May 2020, pp. 3 and 5 (the gifts), 5 to 8 (the Visiting Fellow application, the September 2, 2005 letter, the approvals and Kosslyn's account), 10 (the November 2008 email) and 26 (the recommendation). https://ogc.harvard.edu/file_url/208
[^27]: Kucheria and Dolce, "Former Stanford academic Stephen Kosslyn Ph.D. '74 visited Epstein in jail, faced allegation of sexual assault," The Stanford Daily, February 5, 2026, reporting the Palm Beach County Jail visitor log (page 45, September 20 and 21, 2008), the 2,145 mentions, the 2003 birthday book and the 2004 to 2005 contact book. https://stanforddaily.com/2026/02/05/sexual-assault-epstein-kosslyn/
[^28]: Plaintiff Doe's witness list, Doe v. Epstein, No. 08-CV-80893-CIV-MARRA/JOHNSON (S.D. Fla.), entry 102, EFTA00725731 (witness list continuation, page stamped EFTA00725736), U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, Data Set 9. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00725731.pdf
[^29]: Jeffrey Epstein and Stephen Kosslyn emails, July 22, 2009, EFTA01816448, U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, Data Set 10; the Daily reports the exchange in Kucheria and Dolce, The Stanford Daily, February 5 and February 18, 2026. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01816448.pdf

63
10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Timothy Leary.md
View file

@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ tags:
- Counterculture
- Cyberculture
- Transhumanism
summary: "Timothy Leary was the Harvard psychologist turned psychedelic evangelist who ran the Harvard Psilocybin Project, coined 'turn on, tune in, drop out,' operated under documented CIA surveillance while drawing on research networks whose funding traced to MKULTRA, and in his final decades became a champion of personal computers, space migration, and life extension."
summary: "Harvard psychologist who ran the Harvard Psilocybin Project, coined 'turn on, tune in, drop out,' was under documented CIA surveillance, and later promoted personal computers, space migration and life extension."
born: 1920-10-22
died: 1996-05-31
location: "Springfield, Massachusetts; Beverly Hills, California"
@ -23,75 +23,76 @@ created: 2026-06-03
updated: 2026-06-20
---
Timothy Francis Leary (October 22, 1920 to May 31, 1996) was an American psychologist who became the most prominent public advocate of psychedelic drugs in the 1960s and, in his final decades, a promoter of personal computers, space colonization, and radical life extension. Trained as a research psychologist and briefly a respected figure in personality theory, he ran the [[Harvard Psilocybin Project]] from 1960 until his dismissal in 1963, popularized the slogan "turn on, tune in, drop out," and was described by [[Richard Nixon]], according to widely repeated accounts, as "the most dangerous man in America." He drew, often unknowingly, on drug-research networks whose funding traced back to the CIA's [[MKULTRA]] program, and was himself placed under documented [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] surveillance. In his final decades he promoted the personal computer as a tool of consciousness expansion and became a celebrated figure in the [[Transhumanism|transhumanist]] and cyberculture scenes of the 1980s and 1990s.[^1][^2][^12]
Timothy Francis Leary (October 22, 1920 to May 31, 1996) was an American psychologist who became the most prominent public advocate of psychedelic drugs in the 1960s and, in his final decades, a promoter of personal computers, space colonization, and radical life extension. Trained as a research psychologist and briefly a respected figure in personality theory, he ran the [[Harvard Psilocybin Project]] from 1960 until his dismissal in 1963, popularized the slogan "turn on, tune in, drop out," and was described by [[Richard Nixon]], according to widely repeated accounts, as "the most dangerous man in America." He drew, often unknowingly, on drug-research networks whose funding traced back to the CIA's [[MKULTRA]] program, and was himself placed under documented [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] surveillance. In his final decades he promoted the personal computer as a tool of consciousness expansion and became a celebrated figure in the [[Transhumanism|transhumanist]] and cyberculture scenes of the 1980s and 1990s.[^1][^2][^3]
### 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][^4][^5]
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]
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.[^4][^6]
### The Harvard Psilocybin Project
Leary established the project in the fall of 1960, obtaining psilocybin free from Sandoz and running sessions in both formal research settings and informal apartment gatherings with music and candlelight. The studies, by later methodological standards, blurred the line between researcher and subject, with the experimenters frequently taking the drugs alongside their volunteers. [[The Concord Prison Experiment]] (1961 to 1963) administered psilocybin to inmates to test whether the experience reduced recidivism, and the [[Marsh Chapel Experiment]], or "Good Friday Experiment," run by the graduate student [[Walter Pahnke]] in 1962, tested whether the drug could induce genuine mystical experience.[^4][^5]
Leary established the project in the fall of 1960, obtaining psilocybin free from Sandoz and running sessions in both formal research settings and informal apartment gatherings with music and candlelight. The studies, by later methodological standards, blurred the line between researcher and subject, with the experimenters frequently taking the drugs alongside their volunteers. [[The Concord Prison Experiment]] (1961 to 1963) administered psilocybin to inmates to test whether the experience reduced recidivism, and the [[Marsh Chapel Experiment]], or "Good Friday Experiment," run by the graduate student [[Walter Pahnke]] in 1962, tested whether the drug could induce genuine mystical experience.[^6][^7]
The project's advisers and broader circle traced, in several cases, to networks the CIA had funded. [[Aldous Huxley]], then a visiting lecturer at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]], urged Leary to offer the experience to "talented, well-born, intelligent rich" people and to work discreetly within institutions rather than provoke public controversy; the poet [[Allen Ginsberg]] and [[Peter Orlovsky]], who visited Leary's house in Newton, Massachusetts in December 1960, pressed the opposite case, that the drugs should be distributed as widely as possible. [[Henry Murray]], chairman of Harvard's Department of Social Relations, who had run the personality-assessment section of the [[Office of Strategic Services|OSS]] during World War II, approved the project and volunteered for it. Leary's own interest had been stimulated by [[R. Gordon Wasson|Gordon Wasson]]'s 1957 *Life* article on Mexican psilocybin mushrooms, an expedition partly facilitated by the CIA contractor [[James Moore]], and he cited in his published work the research of the CIA contractor [[Harold Abramson]] and others brought together for drug conferences by the [[Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation]], a sometime Agency conduit.[^11][^12]
The project's advisers and broader circle traced, in several cases, to networks the CIA had funded. [[Aldous Huxley]], then a visiting lecturer at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]], urged Leary to offer the experience to "talented, well-born, intelligent rich" people and to work discreetly within institutions rather than provoke public controversy; the poet [[Allen Ginsberg]] and [[Peter Orlovsky]], who visited Leary's house in Newton, Massachusetts in December 1960, pressed the opposite case, that the drugs should be distributed as widely as possible. [[Henry Murray]], chairman of Harvard's Department of Social Relations, who had run the personality-assessment section of the [[Office of Strategic Services|OSS]] during World War II, approved the project and volunteered for it. Leary's own interest had been stimulated by [[R. Gordon Wasson|Gordon Wasson]]'s 1957 *Life* article on Mexican psilocybin mushrooms, an expedition partly facilitated by the CIA contractor [[James Moore]], and he cited in his published work the research of the CIA contractor [[Harold Abramson]] and others brought together for drug conferences by the [[Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation]], a sometime Agency conduit.[^3][^5]
### The Good Friday Experiment
In collaboration with the doctoral candidate Walter Pahnke, Leary administered psilocybin double-blind to ten theology students and professors during a Good Friday service at Marsh Chapel at [[Boston University]] in 1962, with ten others receiving a placebo. Nine of the ten psilocybin recipients reported intense religious experiences, and Pahnke's dissertation concluded that the experiences were "indistinguishable from, if not identical with," classical mystical experience.[^5][^11]
In collaboration with the doctoral candidate Walter Pahnke, Leary administered psilocybin double-blind to ten theology students and professors during a Good Friday service at Marsh Chapel at [[Boston University]] in 1962, with ten others receiving a placebo. Nine of the ten psilocybin recipients reported intense religious experiences, and Pahnke's dissertation concluded that the experiences were "indistinguishable from, if not identical with," classical mystical experience.[^5][^7]
The experiment became one of the most cited studies in the psychology of religion, and a long-term follow-up decades later found that most of the original subjects still regarded it as among the most meaningful experiences of their lives. It also exemplified the methodological looseness that alarmed Harvard, since the researchers themselves participated and the setting was a working religious service rather than a laboratory.[^5]
The experiment became one of the most cited studies in the psychology of religion, and a long-term follow-up decades later found that most of the original subjects still regarded it as among the most meaningful experiences of their lives. It also exemplified the methodological looseness that alarmed Harvard, since the researchers themselves participated and the setting was a working religious service rather than a laboratory.[^7]
### The Harvard Firing
Tension with Harvard administrators escalated through 1962, triggered in part by a sensationalized *Harvard Crimson* account of a faculty meeting that prompted a [[Food and Drug Administration]] investigation. On May 6, 1963, the Harvard Corporation voted to relieve Leary of his teaching duties and terminate his salary on the grounds that he had failed to keep classroom appointments. Alpert was separately dismissed on May 27, 1963, for giving psilocybin to an undergraduate in an off-campus apartment, making the two the first Harvard faculty fired in the twentieth century for such reasons. By then federal regulators were tightening control of the drugs, and Leary's work moved outside the university entirely.[^1][^4][^11]
Faculty concern began in March 1962, when members of the [[Center for Research in Personality]] charged at a closed meeting that the drug experiments were being conducted in an unscientific and irresponsible manner.[^8] Tension with Harvard administrators escalated through 1962, triggered in part by a sensationalized *Harvard Crimson* account of a faculty meeting that prompted a [[Food and Drug Administration]] investigation. On May 6, 1963, the Harvard Corporation voted to relieve Leary of his teaching duties and terminate his salary. One account gives the ground as a failure to keep classroom appointments.[^1][^5][^6] The Crimson reported on July 9, 1963 that the Corporation relieved Leary of his teaching duties and suspended his salary for absenting himself from the University without permission.[^8] Alpert was separately dismissed on May 27, 1963, for giving psilocybin to an undergraduate in an off-campus apartment, making the two the first Harvard faculty fired in the twentieth century for such reasons. By then federal regulators were tightening control of the drugs, and Leary's work moved outside the university entirely.[^1][^5][^6]
### IFIF, Millbrook, and the League for Spiritual Discovery
After leaving Harvard, Leary and Alpert founded the International Federation for Internal Freedom (IFIF), which attracted roughly 3,000 dues-paying members, and attempted a summer session in Zihuatanejo, Mexico, that the Mexican government shut down after about six weeks following negative press. The community then settled at a large estate in Millbrook, New York, lent by Billy Hitchcock, an heir to the Mellon and Gulf Oil fortune, who provided the roughly 4,000-acre property in Dutchess County for about 500 dollars a month. There Leary ran the [[Castalia Foundation]], named for the intellectual colony in Hermann Hesse's *The Glass Bead Game*, published *The Psychedelic Review*, hosted high-dose group sessions and a wide circle of visitors including Charles Mingus, [[Alan Watts]], R.D. Laing, and the journalist Paul Krassner, and in 1966 founded a quasi-religion, the [[League for Spiritual Discovery]], whose initials spelled [[LSD]] and which he used to argue for the sacramental, constitutionally protected use of psychedelics.[^3][^11]
After leaving Harvard, Leary and Alpert founded the International Federation for Internal Freedom (IFIF), which attracted roughly 3,000 dues-paying members, and attempted a summer session in Zihuatanejo, Mexico, that the Mexican government shut down after about six weeks following negative press. The community then settled at a large estate in Millbrook, New York, lent by Billy Hitchcock, an heir to the Mellon and Gulf Oil fortune, who provided the roughly 4,000-acre property in Dutchess County for about 500 dollars a month. There Leary ran the [[Castalia Foundation]], named for the intellectual colony in Hermann Hesse's *The Glass Bead Game*, published *The Psychedelic Review*, hosted high-dose group sessions and a wide circle of visitors including Charles Mingus, [[Alan Watts]], R.D. Laing, and the journalist Paul Krassner, and in 1966 founded a quasi-religion, the [[League for Spiritual Discovery]], whose initials spelled [[LSD]] and which he used to argue for the sacramental, constitutionally protected use of psychedelics.[^4][^5]
With [[Ralph Metzner]] and Alpert he adapted the *Tibetan Book of the Dead* into *The Psychedelic Experience* (1964), a manual for guiding drug sessions that [[John Lennon]] later cited as the source for the song "Tomorrow Never Knows." The Millbrook period coincided with the criminalization of LSD, banned in California in 1966 and federally soon after, and with mounting legal pressure: in April 1966 the Dutchess County assistant district attorney [[G. Gordon Liddy]], later of [[Watergate]], led an early-morning raid on the estate that turned up only a small amount of marijuana, a charge later dismissed. Leary's public role hardened into that of a movement figurehead, the "high priest" of the psychedelic movement, a role he both cultivated and was assigned by a hostile press.[^6][^11]
With [[Ralph Metzner]] and Alpert he adapted the *Tibetan Book of the Dead* into *The Psychedelic Experience* (1964), a manual for guiding drug sessions that [[John Lennon]] later cited as the source for the song "Tomorrow Never Knows." The Millbrook period coincided with the criminalization of LSD, banned in California in 1966 and federally soon after, and with mounting legal pressure: in April 1966 the Dutchess County assistant district attorney [[G. Gordon Liddy]], later of [[Watergate]], led an early-morning raid on the estate that turned up only a small amount of marijuana, a charge later dismissed. Leary's public role hardened into that of a movement figurehead, the "high priest" of the psychedelic movement, a role he both cultivated and was assigned by a hostile press.[^5][^9]
### Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out
Leary gave the counterculture its best-known slogan at the Human Be-In held in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on January 14, 1967, where he told a crowd of tens of thousands to "turn on, tune in, drop out." He later complained that the phrase was widely misunderstood as a call to passive disengagement, explaining that he meant by it to activate one's neural equipment, to interact harmoniously with the world, and to detach from involuntary commitments, not to drop out of school or society. The line nonetheless became a shorthand for the era and fixed Leary's image as an apostle of dropping out.[^2][^7]
Leary gave the counterculture its best-known slogan at the Human Be-In held in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on January 14, 1967, where he told a crowd of tens of thousands to "turn on, tune in, drop out." He later complained that the phrase was widely misunderstood as a call to passive disengagement, explaining that he meant by it to activate one's neural equipment, to interact harmoniously with the world, and to detach from involuntary commitments, not to drop out of school or society. The line nonetheless became a shorthand for the era and fixed Leary's image as an apostle of dropping out.[^2][^10]
### Legal Troubles, Prison, Escape, and Exile
Leary was first arrested in December 1965 at the Laredo, Texas border crossing on a marijuana charge that carried a potential thirty-year sentence; he fought it to the Supreme Court, which in *Leary v. United States* (1969) struck down the Marihuana Tax Act on self-incrimination grounds. A second arrest followed in Laguna Beach, California, in December 1968, and in February 1970 he was convicted on both the Laredo and California charges and given a combined twenty-year term at the California Men's Colony near San Luis Obispo. On September 12, 1970, he escaped over a highwire across the prison fence in an extraction arranged through the radical [[Weather Underground]], who were paid by the psychedelic-dealing [[Brotherhood of Eternal Love]].[^1][^11]
Leary was first arrested in December 1965 at the Laredo, Texas border crossing on a marijuana charge that carried a potential thirty-year sentence; he fought it to the Supreme Court, which in *Leary v. United States* (1969) struck down the Marihuana Tax Act on self-incrimination grounds. A second arrest followed in Laguna Beach, California, in December 1968, and in February 1970 he was convicted on both the Laredo and California charges and given a combined twenty-year term at the California Men's Colony near San Luis Obispo. On September 12, 1970, he escaped over a highwire across the prison fence in an extraction arranged through the radical [[Weather Underground]], who were paid by the psychedelic-dealing [[Brotherhood of Eternal Love]].[^1][^5]
He fled abroad, first to [[Algeria]], where the exiled [[Black Panther]] leader [[Eldridge Cleaver]] briefly held him under a kind of house arrest over his LSD advocacy, then to [[Switzerland]], [[Austria]], and [[Afghanistan]], where American agents seized him in Kabul in 1973 and returned him to Los Angeles, where bail was set at five million dollars, then the highest ever set for an American citizen. Facing decades of confinement, he provided information to federal investigators about the radicals and lawyers who had aided his escape, a cooperation that drew lasting bitterness from former allies, though prosecutors said it led to no convictions. He was paroled in 1976 by Governor [[Jerry Brown]]. The prison years produced a body of idiosyncratic writing in which Leary recast his ideas in the language of neurology and futurism, most notably the "eight-circuit model of consciousness," set out in *Exo-Psychology* (1977, later revised as *Info-Psychology*).[^1][^3][^8]
He fled abroad, first to [[Algeria]], where the exiled [[Black Panther]] leader [[Eldridge Cleaver]] briefly held him under a kind of house arrest over his LSD advocacy, then to [[Switzerland]], [[Austria]], and [[Afghanistan]], where American agents seized him in Kabul in 1973 and returned him to Los Angeles, where bail was set at five million dollars, then the highest ever set for an American citizen. Facing decades of confinement, he provided information to federal investigators about the radicals and lawyers who had aided his escape, a cooperation that drew lasting bitterness from former allies, though prosecutors said it led to no convictions. He was paroled in 1976 by Governor [[Jerry Brown]]. The prison years produced a body of idiosyncratic writing in which Leary recast his ideas in the language of neurology and futurism, most notably the "eight-circuit model of consciousness," set out in *Exo-Psychology* (1977, later revised as *Info-Psychology*).[^1][^4][^11]
### CIA Surveillance
On November 1, 1963, the CIA issued a memorandum ordering all domestic field offices to report immediately on any involvement with Leary, Alpert, or the International Federation for Internal Freedom. The monitoring preceded Leary's public emergence as an LSD spokesman by several years, covering the period when his research was still primarily academic. Neither the specific content of any CIA reporting on Leary nor any operational use of surveillance findings has been declassified.[^12][^13]
On November 1, 1963, the CIA issued a memorandum ordering all domestic field offices to report immediately on any involvement with Leary, Alpert, or the International Federation for Internal Freedom. The monitoring preceded Leary's public emergence as an LSD spokesman by several years, covering the period when his research was still primarily academic. Neither the specific content of any CIA reporting on Leary nor any operational use of surveillance findings has been declassified.[^3][^12]
Leary's research network traced back to CIA-funded programs in ways he likely did not know at the time. The anthropologist [[Gregory Bateson]], introduced to LSD by Harold Abramson, arranged Ginsberg's first LSD experience through a federally funded research program, and Ginsberg carried that experience to Leary's house. The Macy Foundation, which had served as a CIA conduit for behavioral-research conferences, hosted the scholars whose published work Leary cited, and the Geschickter Fund, another CIA front, financed related research at overlapping institutions.[^12]
Leary's research network traced back to CIA-funded programs in ways he likely did not know at the time. The anthropologist [[Gregory Bateson]], introduced to LSD by Harold Abramson, arranged Ginsberg's first LSD experience through a federally funded research program, and Ginsberg carried that experience to Leary's house. The Macy Foundation, which had served as a CIA conduit for behavioral-research conferences, hosted the scholars whose published work Leary cited, and the Geschickter Fund, another CIA front, financed related research at overlapping institutions.[^3]
### The Cyberdelic Turn
From the late 1970s Leary promoted a futurist program he summarized with the acronym SMI2LE, for Space Migration, Intelligence Increase, and Life Extension, holding that humanity's next evolutionary step lay in leaving the planet, raising intelligence by technological means, and defeating death. In the 1980s and 1990s he recast the personal computer as the successor to the psychedelic drug, telling interviewers that "the PC is the LSD of the 1990s" and adopting "think for yourself, question authority" as a personal motto. He designed early interactive software, performed spoken-word and multimedia shows, appeared at technology conferences, and became a fixture of the "cyberdelic" scene around *Mondo 2000* magazine and the emerging digital culture of the San Francisco Bay Area.[^2][^9]
From the late 1970s Leary promoted a futurist program he summarized with the acronym SMI2LE, for Space Migration, Intelligence Increase, and Life Extension, holding that humanity's next evolutionary step lay in leaving the planet, raising intelligence by technological means, and defeating death. In the 1980s and 1990s he recast the personal computer as the successor to the psychedelic drug, telling interviewers that "the PC is the LSD of the 1990s" and adopting "think for yourself, question authority" as a personal motto. He designed early interactive software, performed spoken-word and multimedia shows, appeared at technology conferences, and became a fixture of the "cyberdelic" scene around *Mondo 2000* magazine and the emerging digital culture of the San Francisco Bay Area.[^2][^13]
Leary was associated with the [[Extropianism|extropian]] movement around [[Max More]], shared its interest in cryonics and human enhancement, and at one point planned to have his body or head cryonically preserved. Diagnosed with inoperable prostate cancer, he made his dying a public performance, documenting his decline on an early website and declaring his intent to script his own death; he ultimately decided against cryonic suspension after a falling-out with the provider, and after his death on May 31, 1996, a portion of his ashes was launched into orbit in April 1997 aboard a Celestis rocket that also carried remains of the *Star Trek* creator Gene Roddenberry.[^9][^10]
Leary was associated with the [[Extropianism|extropian]] movement around [[Max More]], shared its interest in cryonics and human enhancement, and at one point planned to have his body or head cryonically preserved. Diagnosed with inoperable prostate cancer, he made his dying a public performance, documenting his decline on an early website and declaring his intent to script his own death; he ultimately decided against cryonic suspension after a falling-out with the provider, and after his death on May 31, 1996, a portion of his ashes was launched into orbit in April 1997 aboard a Celestis rocket that also carried remains of the *Star Trek* creator Gene Roddenberry.[^13][^14]
### The Finders
[[Marion David Pettie]], the founder of [[The Finders]], stated that he and Leary had a close connection during the 1960s. According to Pettie, when Leary was based in New York he would send people down to Pettie's communal property in [[Virginia]], and when people at Pettie's place grew tired of something they would go up to Leary's. Leary gave Pettie LSD, which Pettie claimed he never took, keeping it in his refrigerator until a person connected with Leary accidentally burned down a house on the property while installing a sauna, destroying the LSD in the process.[^14]
[[Marion David Pettie]], the founder of [[The Finders]], stated that he and Leary had a close connection during the 1960s. According to Pettie, when Leary was based in New York he would send people down to Pettie's communal property in [[Virginia]], and when people at Pettie's place grew tired of something they would go up to Leary's. Leary gave Pettie LSD, which Pettie claimed he never took, keeping it in his refrigerator until a person connected with Leary accidentally burned down a house on the property while installing a sauna, destroying the LSD in the process.[^15]
### Footnotes
[^1]: "Timothy Leary," *Encyclopædia Britannica,* on the 1920 birth, the Berkeley doctorate, the Harvard appointment and 1963 dismissal, the legal battles, and the death. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Timothy-Leary
[^2]: "Timothy Leary, Pied Piper Of Psychedelic 60's, Dies at 75," *The New York Times,* June 1, 1996, on "turn on, tune in, drop out," the Nixon characterization, and the later computer advocacy. https://www.nytimes.com/1996/06/01/us/timothy-leary-pied-piper-of-psychedelic-60-s-dies-at-75.html
[^3]: Greenfield, Robert. *Timothy Leary: A Biography.* Harcourt, 2006, on the early life, the Millbrook years, the escape and exile, and the cooperation with investigators.
[^4]: "The Harvard Psilocybin Project," on the 1960 to 1963 studies, the Concord Prison and Marsh Chapel experiments, and the 1963 firings; see also Leary, Timothy. *High Priest.* World Publishing, 1968.
[^5]: Pahnke, Walter N. "Drugs and Mysticism: An Analysis of the Relationship between Psychedelic Drugs and the Mystical Consciousness," doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, 1963, on the Good Friday Experiment.
[^6]: Leary, Timothy, Ralph Metzner, and Richard Alpert. *The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead.* University Books, 1964.
[^7]: *Leary v. United States,* 395 U.S. 6 (1969); and Leary, Timothy. *Flashbacks: A Personal and Cultural History of an Era.* Tarcher, 1983, on the Human Be-In and the meaning of the slogan.
[^8]: Leary, Timothy. *Exo-Psychology: A Manual on the Use of the Human Nervous System According to the Instructions of the Manufacturers* (1977), revised as *Info-Psychology* (1987), on the eight-circuit model.
[^9]: "Timothy Leary's Last Trip," *Wired,* and Leary, Timothy. *Chaos and Cyber Culture.* Ronin Publishing, 1994, on SMI2LE, "the PC is the LSD of the 1990s," and the cyberdelic period. https://www.wired.com/1996/05/leary-2/
[^10]: "A Send-Off Into Space for Leary and Others," *The New York Times,* April 22, 1997, on the Celestis launch carrying the ashes of Leary and Gene Roddenberry. https://www.nytimes.com/1997/04/22/us/a-send-off-into-space-for-leary-and-others.html
[^11]: Lee, Martin A., and Bruce Shlain. *Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD: The CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond.* Grove Press, 1985, chapters 3 and 4, on the Kaiser research and personality tools, Huxley's advice, Henry Murray's OSS role, IFIF and the Zihuatanejo session, the Millbrook estate, the visitors, and the Liddy raid.
[^12]: Marks, John D. *The Search for the Manchurian Candidate: The CIA and Mind Control.* Times Books, 1979, chapter 7, on the Wasson and James Moore expedition, Harold Abramson and the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, the CIA surveillance of Leary, Bateson and Ginsberg's first LSD experience, and the Geschickter Fund.
[^13]: CIA memorandum, "International Federation for Internal Freedom (IFIF), ALPERT, Richard, LEARY, Timothy," November 1, 1963, obtained via FOIA by John Marks, August 1977.
[^14]: Thomas, Kenn, and Len Bracken. "The Finders' Keeper," *Steamshovel Press* no. 16, 1998, on Marion David Pettie's account of his connection with Leary.
[^3]: Marks, John D. *The Search for the Manchurian Candidate: The CIA and Mind Control.* Times Books, 1979, chapter 7, on the Wasson and James Moore expedition, Harold Abramson and the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, the CIA surveillance of Leary, Bateson and Ginsberg's first LSD experience, and the Geschickter Fund.
[^4]: Greenfield, Robert. *Timothy Leary: A Biography.* Harcourt, 2006, on the early life, the Millbrook years, the escape and exile, and the cooperation with investigators.
[^5]: Lee, Martin A., and Bruce Shlain. *Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD: The CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond.* Grove Press, 1985, chapters 3 and 4, on the Kaiser research and personality tools, Huxley's advice, Henry Murray's OSS role, IFIF and the Zihuatanejo session, the Millbrook estate, the visitors, and the Liddy raid.
[^6]: "The Harvard Psilocybin Project," on the 1960 to 1963 studies, the Concord Prison and Marsh Chapel experiments, and the 1963 firings; see also Leary, Timothy. *High Priest.* World Publishing, 1968.
[^7]: Pahnke, Walter N. "Drugs and Mysticism: An Analysis of the Relationship between Psychedelic Drugs and the Mystical Consciousness," doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, 1963, on the Good Friday Experiment.
[^8]: "Psilocybin, Senate Race Highlight Harvard Year," *The Harvard Crimson*, July 9, 1963. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1963/7/9/psilocybin-senate-race-highlight-harvard-year/
[^9]: Leary, Timothy, Ralph Metzner, and Richard Alpert. *The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead.* University Books, 1964.
[^10]: *Leary v. United States,* 395 U.S. 6 (1969); and Leary, Timothy. *Flashbacks: A Personal and Cultural History of an Era.* Tarcher, 1983, on the Human Be-In and the meaning of the slogan.
[^11]: Leary, Timothy. *Exo-Psychology: A Manual on the Use of the Human Nervous System According to the Instructions of the Manufacturers* (1977), revised as *Info-Psychology* (1987), on the eight-circuit model.
[^12]: CIA memorandum, "International Federation for Internal Freedom (IFIF), ALPERT, Richard, LEARY, Timothy," November 1, 1963, obtained via FOIA by John Marks, August 1977.
[^13]: "Timothy Leary's Last Trip," *Wired,* and Leary, Timothy. *Chaos and Cyber Culture.* Ronin Publishing, 1994, on SMI2LE, "the PC is the LSD of the 1990s," and the cyberdelic period. https://www.wired.com/1996/05/leary-2/
[^14]: "A Send-Off Into Space for Leary and Others," *The New York Times,* April 22, 1997, on the Celestis launch carrying the ashes of Leary and Gene Roddenberry. https://www.nytimes.com/1997/04/22/us/a-send-off-into-space-for-leary-and-others.html
[^15]: Thomas, Kenn, and Len Bracken. "The Finders' Keeper," *Steamshovel Press* no. 16, 1998, on Marion David Pettie's account of his connection with Leary.

79
10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/William Harvey.md
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@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ relations:
with: "[[CIA Rome Station]]"
role: "chief of station"
start: 1963
fn: 35
fn: 36
- type: participant_in
with: "[[Operation Gold]]"
role: "Berlin base chief running the tunnel with MI6"
@ -136,61 +136,61 @@ In a memorandum of July 24, 1962 written as the CIA operations officer for Mongo
On October 8, 1962, Harvey, as CIA project officer for Mongoose, asked Edward Lansdale to put before the Special Group a request for policy approval to sabotage Cuban-owned vessels "wherever and whenever secure access to them can be attained," normally in non-Bloc ports, as "targets of opportunity."[^23]
Martin wrote that Lansdale told the Senate committee that [[John F. Kennedy]] had remarked to him that he was the American James Bond, that Lansdale suggested the real 007 was Harvey, and that Harvey and Lansdale then waited outside the Oval Office; Harvey testified that the conversation with the President was brief and contained no mention of assassination.[^5] At the August 10, 1962 meeting of the Special Group, Harvey recalled that [[Robert McNamara]] had raised the question of assassination, and that "the consensus of the Group was to sweep that particular proposal or suggestion or question or consideration off the record and under the rug as rapidly as possible."[^24]
Martin wrote that Lansdale told the Senate committee that [[John F. Kennedy]] had remarked to him that he was the American James Bond, that Lansdale suggested the real 007 was Harvey, and that Harvey and Lansdale then waited outside the Oval Office; Harvey testified that the conversation with the President was brief and contained no mention of assassination.[^5] At the August 10, 1962 meeting of the Special Group, Harvey recalled that [[Robert McNamara]] had raised the question of assassination, and that "the consensus of the Group was to sweep that particular proposal or suggestion or question or consideration off the record and under the rug as rapidly as possible."[^24] Harvey testified that McNamara raised the subject with the words "shouldn't we consider the elimination or assassination of Fidel?" Asked whether he was guessing, Harvey said "it was surfaced by Robert McNamara," and that his recollection matched his memorandum of August 14.[^25] McNamara testified that he did not recall assassination being discussed at the meeting but remembered opposing any such plan when he spoke with McCone several days later.[^24]
On August 13, 1962 Lansdale directed Harvey to include an option for the "liquidation of leaders" in a proposed Phase II plan for Mongoose.[^24] Harvey's memorandum of August 14 to Richard Helms attached Lansdale's memorandum with the words excised, and stated that the Special Group (Augmented) "is not expecting any written comments or study on this point."[^24] McCone said that McNamara agreed Lansdale's memorandum should be withdrawn.[^24] Harvey's August 14 memorandum to Helms recorded: "It was the obvious consensus at that meeting, in answer to a comment by Mr. Ed Murrow, that this is not a subject which has been made a matter of official record." McCone's April 14, 1967 memorandum to Helms states that McCone took immediate exception to a suggestion to liquidate top people in the Castro regime, including Castro.[^25] [[Walter Elder]], McCone's executive assistant, testified that he had personally told Helms of McCone's opposition to assassination after the August 10 meeting.[^26]
On August 13, 1962 Lansdale directed Harvey to include an option for the "liquidation of leaders" in a proposed Phase II plan for Mongoose.[^24] Harvey's memorandum of August 14 to Richard Helms attached Lansdale's memorandum with the words excised, and stated that the Special Group (Augmented) "is not expecting any written comments or study on this point."[^24] McCone said that McNamara agreed Lansdale's memorandum should be withdrawn.[^24] Harvey's August 14 memorandum to Helms recorded: "It was the obvious consensus at that meeting, in answer to a comment by Mr. Ed Murrow, that this is not a subject which has been made a matter of official record." McCone's April 14, 1967 memorandum to Helms states that McCone took immediate exception to a suggestion to liquidate top people in the Castro regime, including Castro.[^26] [[Walter Elder]], McCone's executive assistant, testified that he had personally told Helms of McCone's opposition to assassination after the August 10 meeting.[^27]
### Roselli and the Poison Pills
On November 16, 1961, Bissell asked Harvey to take over the gambling-syndicate operation from [[Sheffield Edwards]], and they discussed the "application of ZR/RIFLE program to Cuba."[^27] Bissell testified that the operation was not reactivated until after he left the agency in February 1962.[^27]
On November 16, 1961, Bissell asked Harvey to take over the gambling-syndicate operation from [[Sheffield Edwards]], and they discussed the "application of ZR/RIFLE program to Cuba."[^28] Bissell testified that the operation was not reactivated until after he left the agency in February 1962.[^28]
In early April 1962 Harvey, who testified that he was acting on "explicit orders" from Helms, asked Edwards to put him in touch with [[Johnny Roselli]]. A 1976 CIA memorandum dates Harvey's taking over as case officer to May 1962.[^28] Harvey told Roselli to stop dealing with [[Robert Maheu]] and [[Sam Giancana]], whom Harvey had decided were "untrustworthy" and "surplus."[^27]
In early April 1962 Harvey, who testified that he was acting on "explicit orders" from Helms, asked Edwards to put him in touch with [[Johnny Roselli]]. A 1976 CIA memorandum dates Harvey's taking over as case officer to May 1962.[^29] Harvey told Roselli to stop dealing with [[Robert Maheu]] and [[Sam Giancana]], whom Harvey had decided were "untrustworthy" and "surplus."[^28]
Four poison pills were given to the support chief on April 18, 1962. Harvey arrived in [[Miami]] on April 21 and gave them to Roselli, who was already in touch with the same Cuban who had been involved in the pill passage before the [[Bay of Pigs invasion|Bay of Pigs]].[^27] Harvey procured explosives, detonators, rifles, handguns, radios and boat radar costing about $5,000. Harvey and the chief of the JM/WAVE station rented a truck under an assumed name and delivered the equipment to a parking lot, where the keys were given to Roselli.[^27]
Four poison pills were given to the support chief on April 18, 1962. Harvey arrived in [[Miami]] on April 21 and gave them to Roselli, who was already in touch with the same Cuban who had been involved in the pill passage before the [[Bay of Pigs invasion|Bay of Pigs]].[^28] Harvey procured explosives, detonators, rifles, handguns, radios and boat radar costing about $5,000. Harvey and the chief of the JM/WAVE station rented a truck under an assumed name and delivered the equipment to a parking lot, where the keys were given to Roselli.[^28]
Harvey met Roselli in Miami on September 7 and 11, 1962. Harvey testified that by then he had grave doubts that the operation would take place. In early January 1963 he paid Roselli $2,700 to defray the Cuban's expenses. The second three-man team never left for Cuba, the reason given being that "conditions" in Cuba were not right.[^27] Harvey ended the operation in mid-February 1963 at a meeting with Roselli in [[Los Angeles]].[^27]
Harvey met Roselli in Miami on September 7 and 11, 1962. Harvey testified that by then he had grave doubts that the operation would take place. In early January 1963 he paid Roselli $2,700 to defray the Cuban's expenses. The second three-man team never left for Cuba, the reason given being that "conditions" in Cuba were not right.[^28] Harvey ended the operation in mid-February 1963 at a meeting with Roselli in [[Los Angeles]].[^28]
In early 1963 Harvey told his underworld contacts that the CIA was no longer interested in assassinating Castro. The FBI learned of this in June 1963.[^29]
In early 1963 Harvey told his underworld contacts that the CIA was no longer interested in assassinating Castro. The FBI learned of this in June 1963.[^30]
Harvey's operations involving Roselli began in early 1962 and ended in February 1963. Harvey, and to a lesser extent [[James O'Connell]], remained in contact with Roselli from 1964 to about 1970.[^28]
Harvey's operations involving Roselli began in early 1962 and ended in February 1963. Harvey, and to a lesser extent [[James O'Connell]], remained in contact with Roselli from 1964 to about 1970.[^29]
In June 1963, before Harvey went on another assignment, he and Roselli had a farewell dinner. The FBI observed the meeting, and [[Sam Papich]], the FBI liaison with the CIA, told Harvey that Hoover would be informed. Harvey told Helms of the incident, and Helms agreed that McCone need not be briefed unless a call from Hoover was expected.[^30]
In June 1963, before Harvey went on another assignment, he and Roselli had a farewell dinner. The FBI observed the meeting, and [[Sam Papich]], the FBI liaison with the CIA, told Harvey that Hoover would be informed. Harvey told Helms of the incident, and Helms agreed that McCone need not be briefed unless a call from Hoover was expected.[^31]
The [[House Select Committee on Assassinations]], which described Harvey in June 1963 as "chief of the CIA's Cuban Task Force," found it "unable to accept" the conclusion that the CIA-Mafia plots were irrelevant because they ended in February 1963, and reported that CIA files show Roselli continued to maintain direct contact with Harvey at least until 1967.[^31]
The [[House Select Committee on Assassinations]], which described Harvey in June 1963 as "chief of the CIA's Cuban Task Force," found it "unable to accept" the conclusion that the CIA-Mafia plots were irrelevant because they ended in February 1963, and reported that CIA files show Roselli continued to maintain direct contact with Harvey at least until 1967.[^32]
In 1967 Roselli was arrested for fraudulent gambling at the [[Friars Club]] in [[Beverly Hills, California|Beverly Hills]]. He asked Harvey, who had left the agency, to represent him. Harvey contacted the agency and suggested that it prevent the prosecution, according to a December 11, 1967 memorandum by [[Howard Osborn]].[^32]
In 1967 Roselli was arrested for fraudulent gambling at the [[Friars Club]] in [[Beverly Hills, California|Beverly Hills]]. He asked Harvey, who had left the agency, to represent him. Harvey contacted the agency and suggested that it prevent the prosecution, according to a December 11, 1967 memorandum by [[Howard Osborn]].[^33]
### The Clash with Robert Kennedy and the Missile Crisis
Harvey and [[Robert Kennedy]] were openly at odds over Mongoose. Thomas wrote that Harvey regarded Kennedy's micromanagement of the operations as incompetent and dangerous, and that Kennedy regarded Harvey as insubordinate and unreliable.[^1] Harvey testified that during the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]] he gave an order sending agent teams into Cuba to support any conventional U.S. military operation that might occur. He said that Robert Kennedy "took a great deal of exception" to the order, and that McCone then ordered the agent operations stopped.[^33] Walter Elder, McCone's assistant at the time, described the episode as Harvey having "earned another black mark as not being fully under control," and said that Harvey had attempted to get guidance from top officials during the crisis.[^33]
Harvey and [[Robert Kennedy]] were openly at odds over Mongoose. Thomas wrote that Harvey regarded Kennedy's micromanagement of the operations as incompetent and dangerous, and that Kennedy regarded Harvey as insubordinate and unreliable.[^1] Harvey testified that during the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]] he gave an order sending agent teams into Cuba to support any conventional U.S. military operation that might occur. He said that Robert Kennedy "took a great deal of exception" to the order, and that McCone then ordered the agent operations stopped.[^34] Walter Elder, McCone's assistant at the time, described the episode as Harvey having "earned another black mark as not being fully under control," and said that Harvey had attempted to get guidance from top officials during the crisis.[^34]
Martin wrote that Kennedy tied off a series of questions to Harvey with "and I've got 10 minutes to hear the answer," and that when Harvey exceeded his time limit Kennedy walked out and Harvey kept talking.[^5] Martin quoted McCone: "When you take a plant supervisor and make him president of the company, it doesn't always work out," and wrote that Dulles is said to have remarked, "That fellow Harvey is a conspiratorial cop."[^5] Thomas wrote that Robert Kennedy demanded Harvey's removal.[^1]
### Rome and the End of Task Force W
[[Desmond FitzGerald]] replaced Harvey as chief of Task Force W in January 1963.[^34] It is unclear whether Harvey or FitzGerald conceived the plan to present Fidel Castro with a contaminated diving suit.[^34]
[[Desmond FitzGerald]] replaced Harvey as chief of Task Force W in January 1963.[^35] It is unclear whether Harvey or FitzGerald conceived the plan to present Fidel Castro with a contaminated diving suit.[^35]
Harvey was appointed chief of station at Rome, effective on or about June 30, 1963, to replace [[Francis I. G. Coleman]], who was scheduled to attend the [[National War College]].[^35] He took up the Rome post before the November 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy. Thomas wrote that Robert Kennedy had exiled Harvey to Rome.[^1] Martin wrote in The Washington Post that some attributed the appointment to a wish to keep Harvey out of the country and others to the Rome station's need of a shakeup, that Harvey was hospitalized, that Desmond FitzGerald cabled a report to Helms, that Helms ordered Harvey relieved, that an aide sent to carry out the order sat seven hours across from Harvey, who held a loaded revolver in his lap, and that Harvey was then placed in a unit studying countermeasures against electronic surveillance.[^5]
Harvey was appointed chief of station at Rome, effective on or about June 30, 1963, to replace [[Francis I. G. Coleman]], who was scheduled to attend the [[National War College]].[^36] He took up the Rome post before the November 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy. Thomas wrote that Robert Kennedy had exiled Harvey to Rome.[^1] Martin wrote in The Washington Post that some attributed the appointment to a wish to keep Harvey out of the country and others to the Rome station's need of a shakeup, that Harvey was hospitalized, that Desmond FitzGerald cabled a report to Helms, that Helms ordered Harvey relieved, that an aide sent to carry out the order sat seven hours across from Harvey, who held a loaded revolver in his lap, and that Harvey was then placed in a unit studying countermeasures against electronic surveillance.[^5]
### Testimony Before the Senate
Harvey testified before the Church Committee in executive session on June 25, 1975 and again on July 11, 1975. He signed an affidavit dated September 14, 1975.[^27] He told the committee that he had acted on explicit orders from Helms, and that he believed the 1962 assassination activity carried over from the period when Allen Dulles was Director, a belief he based on what Bissell had told him.[^18]
Harvey testified before the Church Committee in executive session on June 25, 1975 and again on July 11, 1975. He signed an affidavit dated September 14, 1975.[^28] He told the committee that he had acted on explicit orders from Helms, and that he believed the 1962 assassination activity carried over from the period when Allen Dulles was Director, a belief he based on what Bissell had told him.[^18]
Harvey said he had not informed the Special Group, or anyone outside the agency, that he had given the poison pills to Roselli. He said he did not brief McCone on the pills because he did not believe it was necessary.[^18]
### Retirement, Death and Aftermath
In April 1967 Harvey was to be transferred from the [[European Division]] to the Office of Personnel, where he would be carried in casual status until his final retirement, and his sick leave required a physician's monthly certification.[^36] By October 30, 1967 he had not yet set a retirement date, and retirement was expected on November 30.[^37] He retired from the agency in 1967.[^28]
In April 1967 Harvey was to be transferred from the [[European Division]] to the Office of Personnel, where he would be carried in casual status until his final retirement, and his sick leave required a physician's monthly certification.[^37] By October 30, 1967 he had not yet set a retirement date, and retirement was expected on November 30.[^38] He retired from the agency in 1967.[^29]
In November 1967, while leaving the agency to practice law, Harvey asked Sam Papich for reputable private investigators. Papich suggested [[Wackenhut Corporation]] or the [[Fidelifax]] Company, as Howard Osborn recorded in a memorandum of November 8, 1967.[^38]
In November 1967, while leaving the agency to practice law, Harvey asked Sam Papich for reputable private investigators. Papich suggested [[Wackenhut Corporation]] or the [[Fidelifax]] Company, as Howard Osborn recorded in a memorandum of November 8, 1967.[^39]
Roselli died in August 1976. On August 11, 1976 [[George H. W. Bush|George Bush]], then Director of Central Intelligence, wrote that calls to Senators had suggested that the CIA was involved in the murder, and that he had asked [[Edward Levi]] to bring the FBI into the case.[^39]
Roselli died in August 1976. On August 11, 1976 [[George H. W. Bush|George Bush]], then Director of Central Intelligence, wrote that calls to Senators had suggested that the CIA was involved in the murder, and that he had asked [[Edward Levi]] to bring the FBI into the case.[^40]
According to the 1976 obituary, Harvey moved to [[Indianapolis, Indiana|Indianapolis]] in 1969 after leaving the agency, and was law editor for [[Bobbs-Merrill]] at the time of his death.[^3]
Harvey died of a heart attack at an Indianapolis hospital on June 9, 1976, at the age of 60. He was buried at South Cemetery in Danville, Indiana, and was survived by his wife, Clara Grace, a daughter and a son.[^3] A CIA memorandum of August 9, 1976 gives the same date, "9 June 1976."[^28] Martin wrote that surgeons had worked four hours to implant an artificial valve and that Harvey died, holding his wife's hand, at ten minutes past two in the afternoon of June 9.[^2] A June 1976 press report named Harvey among ten agents whose identities the Senate committee had disclosed, and said that [[William Colby]] had argued that disclosure endangered agents.[^3] A CIA routing memorandum of June 16, 1976 records that the agency's information on his death came from the press reports.[^40] Martin wrote that Harvey's wife told him reporters were trying to link his death to Roselli's murder, that there had been two attempted break-ins, and that people were "after his papers," to which she said she had "burned everything."[^5]
Harvey died of a heart attack at an Indianapolis hospital on June 9, 1976, at the age of 60. He was buried at South Cemetery in Danville, Indiana, and was survived by his wife, Clara Grace, a daughter and a son.[^3] A CIA memorandum of August 9, 1976 gives the same date, "9 June 1976."[^29] Martin wrote that surgeons had worked four hours to implant an artificial valve and that Harvey died, holding his wife's hand, at ten minutes past two in the afternoon of June 9.[^2] A June 1976 press report named Harvey among ten agents whose identities the Senate committee had disclosed, and said that [[William Colby]] had argued that disclosure endangered agents.[^3] A CIA routing memorandum of June 16, 1976 records that the agency's information on his death came from the press reports.[^41] Martin wrote that Harvey's wife told him reporters were trying to link his death to Roselli's murder, that there had been two attempted break-ins, and that people were "after his papers," to which she said she had "burned everything."[^5]
In June 1977 Martin, an [[Associated Press]] correspondent, asked a retired agency employee for cooperation with a book about Harvey. The employee was irritated and believed that a retired CIA officer had given Martin his name.[^41]
In June 1977 Martin, an [[Associated Press]] correspondent, asked a retired agency employee for cooperation with a book about Harvey. The employee was irritated and believed that a retired CIA officer had given Martin his name.[^42]
### Footnotes
@ -217,21 +217,22 @@ In June 1977 Martin, an [[Associated Press]] correspondent, asked a retired agen
[^21]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. X, doc. 365, Memorandum From the Central Intelligence Agency Operations Officer for Operation Mongoose (Harvey) to the Chief of Operations, Operation Mongoose (Lansdale), August 6, 1962, "Gusano Libre, Symbol of Cuban Resistance." https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v10/d365
[^22]: National Security Archive, document 14, William K. Harvey, "Covert Activities," CIA memorandum, August 7, 1962. https://archive.org/details/6434690-National-Security-Archive-Doc-14-CIA-William
[^23]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. XI, doc. 10, Memorandum From the Central Intelligence Agency Project Officer for Operation Mongoose (Harvey) to the Chief of Operations, Operation Mongoose (Lansdale), October 8, 1962, "Sabotage of Cuban-Owned Ship." https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v11/d10
[^24]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, S. Rept. 94-465, pp. 161-167 (the August 10, 1962 meeting; Lansdale memorandum of August 13; Harvey memorandum to Helms of August 14; McCone's account of McNamara; Elder's recollection of the meeting), and pp. 165-166 for Harvey's recollection of the meeting, citing Harvey testimony of July 11, 1975, p. 30. https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
[^25]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. X, doc. 371, Editorial Note on the August 10, 1962 meeting of the Special Group (Augmented), quoting Harvey's memorandum of August 14, 1962 and McCone's memorandum of April 14, 1967. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v10/d371
[^26]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, S. Rept. 94-465, p. 107 (Walter Elder, McCone's Executive Assistant, on telling Helms of McCone's opposition after the August 10 meeting). https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
[^27]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, S. Rept. 94-465, pp. 83-85 (the 1961 assignment and the November 16, 1961 notes; the April 1962 reactivation and "explicit orders"; the poison pills of April 18 and 21, 1962; the $5,000 equipment and the rented truck; the September 1962 meetings; the $2,700 payment; the second team; the February 1963 termination), citing Harvey testimony of June 25 and July 11, 1975, and the affidavit of September 14, 1975. https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
[^28]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum "Johnny Roselli," August 9, 1976. Reading room document 00508811, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-00508811 (Harvey's operations from early 1962 to February 1963; Harvey as case officer from May 1962; Harvey and O'Connell in contact from 1964 to about 1970; Harvey retired in 1967).
[^29]: Church Committee, *The Investigation of the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy: Performance of the Intelligence Agencies*, Final Report Book V, S. Rept. 94-755, April 23, 1976, pp. 69, 72. https://archive.org/details/ChurchCommittee
[^30]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, S. Rept. 94-465, p. 105, citing Inspector General's report p. 54 (the June 1963 farewell dinner; FBI observation; Papich's notice to Harvey; Harvey's report to Helms). https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
[^31]: House Select Committee on Assassinations, *Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations*, H. Rept. 95-1828, 1979, p. 117 (the committee's finding that the plots were not shown to be irrelevant; CIA files on contact with Harvey until 1967). https://archive.org/details/reportofselectco1979unit
[^32]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, S. Rept. 94-465, pp. 86-87 (Osborn memorandum for the record, December 11, 1967). https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
[^33]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, S. Rept. 94-465, p. 149 n. 1, citing Harvey testimony of July 11, 1975, pp. 80-81, and Walter Elder testimony of August 13, 1975, pp. 34-35. https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
[^34]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, S. Rept. 94-465, pp. 86-87 (FitzGerald replacing Harvey in January 1963; the diving-suit plan), citing Inspector General's report p. 75. https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
[^35]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum "Appointment of Mr. William K. Harvey Chief of Station, Rome, Italy," June 12, 1963. Reading room document 01228805, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-01228805
[^36]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum for the record "William K. Harvey," April 5, 1967. Reading room document 0001228917, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-0001228917
[^37]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum for the record "William K. Harvey," October 30, 1967. Reading room document 0001228965, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-0001228965
[^38]: Osborn, Howard J. Memorandum for the record, November 8, 1967, JFK record 104-10133-10076. National Archives, JFK Assassination Records Collection.
[^39]: Bush, George, memorandum "The Death of Roselli," August 11, 1976. Reading room document 00508811, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-00508811
[^40]: Central Intelligence Agency, routing and record memorandum, June 16, 1976, filed with the reading room copy of the June 1976 press report, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp79-00498a000600020001-2
[^41]: Central Intelligence Agency, routing and record sheet, "Mr. David Martin, Associated Press Correspondent's Interest in Writing a Book About Mr. William King Harvey," June 27, 1977. Reading room document 0001229025, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-0001229025
[^24]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, S. Rept. 94-465, pp. 161-167 (the August 10, 1962 meeting; Lansdale memorandum of August 13; Harvey memorandum to Helms of August 14; McCone's account of McNamara; Elder's recollection of the meeting), and pp. 164-165 for Harvey's recollection of the meeting and McNamara's testimony of July 11, 1975, pp. 7-8, citing Harvey testimony of July 11, 1975, p. 30. https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
[^25]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, S. Rept. 94-465, p. 164, and Additional Views of Senator Howard H. Baker Jr., p. 321, quoting Harvey testimony of July 11, 1975, pp. 29-30 and 86. https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94465.pdf
[^26]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. X, doc. 371, Editorial Note on the August 10, 1962 meeting of the Special Group (Augmented), quoting Harvey's memorandum of August 14, 1962 and McCone's memorandum of April 14, 1967. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v10/d371
[^27]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, S. Rept. 94-465, p. 107 (Walter Elder, McCone's Executive Assistant, on telling Helms of McCone's opposition after the August 10 meeting). https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
[^28]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, S. Rept. 94-465, pp. 83-85 (the 1961 assignment and the November 16, 1961 notes; the April 1962 reactivation and "explicit orders"; the poison pills of April 18 and 21, 1962; the $5,000 equipment and the rented truck; the September 1962 meetings; the $2,700 payment; the second team; the February 1963 termination), citing Harvey testimony of June 25 and July 11, 1975, and the affidavit of September 14, 1975. https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
[^29]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum "Johnny Roselli," August 9, 1976. Reading room document 00508811, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-00508811 (Harvey's operations from early 1962 to February 1963; Harvey as case officer from May 1962; Harvey and O'Connell in contact from 1964 to about 1970; Harvey retired in 1967).
[^30]: Church Committee, *The Investigation of the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy: Performance of the Intelligence Agencies*, Final Report Book V, S. Rept. 94-755, April 23, 1976, pp. 69, 72. https://archive.org/details/ChurchCommittee
[^31]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, S. Rept. 94-465, p. 105, citing Inspector General's report p. 54 (the June 1963 farewell dinner; FBI observation; Papich's notice to Harvey; Harvey's report to Helms). https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
[^32]: House Select Committee on Assassinations, *Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations*, H. Rept. 95-1828, 1979, p. 117 (the committee's finding that the plots were not shown to be irrelevant; CIA files on contact with Harvey until 1967). https://archive.org/details/reportofselectco1979unit
[^33]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, S. Rept. 94-465, pp. 86-87 (Osborn memorandum for the record, December 11, 1967). https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
[^34]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, S. Rept. 94-465, p. 149 n. 1, citing Harvey testimony of July 11, 1975, pp. 80-81, and Walter Elder testimony of August 13, 1975, pp. 34-35. https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
[^35]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, S. Rept. 94-465, pp. 86-87 (FitzGerald replacing Harvey in January 1963; the diving-suit plan), citing Inspector General's report p. 75. https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
[^36]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum "Appointment of Mr. William K. Harvey Chief of Station, Rome, Italy," June 12, 1963. Reading room document 01228805, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-01228805
[^37]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum for the record "William K. Harvey," April 5, 1967. Reading room document 0001228917, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-0001228917
[^38]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum for the record "William K. Harvey," October 30, 1967. Reading room document 0001228965, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-0001228965
[^39]: Osborn, Howard J. Memorandum for the record, November 8, 1967, JFK record 104-10133-10076. National Archives, JFK Assassination Records Collection.
[^40]: Bush, George, memorandum "The Death of Roselli," August 11, 1976. Reading room document 00508811, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-00508811
[^41]: Central Intelligence Agency, routing and record memorandum, June 16, 1976, filed with the reading room copy of the June 1976 press report, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp79-00498a000600020001-2
[^42]: Central Intelligence Agency, routing and record sheet, "Mr. David Martin, Associated Press Correspondent's Interest in Writing a Book About Mr. William King Harvey," June 27, 1977. Reading room document 0001229025, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-0001229025

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10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Martin Nowak.md
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@ -24,22 +24,22 @@ relations:
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Institute for Advanced Study]]"
end: 2003
fn: 9
fn: 10
- type: investigated
with: "[[Harvard University]]"
reverse: true
role: "OGC review, 2021 sanctions, 2026 leave"
start: 2019-09
end: 2026-02-25
fn: 10
fn: 11
- type: member_of
with: "[[John Templeton Foundation]]"
role: "Board of Advisors"
fn: 9
fn: 10
- type: member_of
with: "[[Austrian Academy of Sciences]]"
end: 2026-04
fn: 14
fn: 15
---
Martin A. Nowak (born April 7, 1965) is an Austrian-born mathematical biologist at [[Harvard University]] who directed the [[Program for Evolutionary Dynamics]] (PED) from its founding in 2003. The program was established with help from a $6.5 million gift from [[Jeffrey Epstein]], the largest single donation Epstein made to Harvard, and a 2020 university report found that Nowak gave Epstein an office and campus access used for more than forty visits after Epstein's 2008 sex-crimes conviction. Harvard sanctioned Nowak in 2021.[^1][^2]
@ -54,55 +54,55 @@ The Program for Evolutionary Dynamics was created in 2003 under Harvard Presiden
### Epstein's Donations and Campus Access
A review of Harvard's ties to Epstein, commissioned by President [[Lawrence Bacow]] in September 2019 and released on May 1, 2020, found that Epstein gave Harvard $9,179,000 across 22 gifts between 1998 and 2008, of which the $6.5 million for the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics in 2003 was the largest. The review was conducted by the Office of the General Counsel under [[Diane Lopez]] with the law firm [[Foley Hoag]], drew on more than 250,000 pages of documents, and interviewed over forty people. It found that Harvard stopped accepting Epstein gifts after his 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor for prostitution, with the decision to halt gifts made under President [[Drew Faust]] between 2007 and 2008, though Epstein gave $736,000 after his 2006 arrest but before the conviction.[^2][^7]
A review of Harvard's ties to Epstein, commissioned by President [[Lawrence Bacow]] in September 2019 and released on May 1, 2020, found that Epstein gave Harvard $9,179,000 across 22 gifts between 1998 and 2007, of which the $6.5 million for the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics in 2003 was the largest. The review was conducted by the Office of the General Counsel under [[Diane Lopez]] with the law firm [[Foley Hoag]], drew on more than 250,000 pages of documents, and interviewed over forty people. It found that Harvard stopped accepting Epstein gifts after his 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor for prostitution, with the decision to halt gifts made under President [[Drew Faust]] between 2007 and 2008, though Epstein gave $736,000 after his 2006 arrest but before the conviction.[^2][^7]
Epstein held a formal Harvard appointment as a visiting fellow in the psychology department for the 2005 to 2006 academic year, secured through department chair [[Stephen Kosslyn]] despite Epstein's lacking the doctoral degree the position normally required; Epstein reapplied for 2006 to 2007 but withdrew after his September 2006 arrest. The report found that Epstein retained a dedicated office at PED, identified as Office 610 and known internally as "Jeffrey's Office," to which he brought his own rug and hung his own photographs, with keycard and passcode access and a Harvard telephone line that remained until 2017.[^2][^7]
Epstein held a formal Harvard appointment as a visiting fellow in the psychology department for the 2005 to 2006 academic year, recommended by department chair [[Stephen Kosslyn]], to whom he had given $200,000 between 1998 and 2002, and paid $10,072 in tuition and fees; the report found no evidence that he engaged with Harvard students as a visiting fellow. The appointment was made despite Epstein's lacking the doctoral degree the position normally required; Epstein reapplied for 2006 to 2007 but withdrew after his September 2006 arrest. The report found that Epstein retained a dedicated office at PED, identified as Office 610 and known internally as "Jeffrey's Office," to which he brought his own rug and hung his own photographs, with keycard and passcode access and a Harvard telephone line that remained until 2017.[^2][^7]
The report found that Epstein visited the program more than forty times between 2010 and 2018, including six visits in 2018, often accompanied by young women in their twenties described as assistants. It found that Nowak approved posting on the PED website in 2014 a webpage featuring Epstein's photograph, biography, and charitable links under a tab labeled "Friends," on which Epstein was the only entry, and that the review described the program's account of Epstein's support as "flattering and false." Summers, former Faculty of Arts and Sciences dean [[Henry Rosovsky]], and law professor [[Alan Dershowitz]] were among those recorded as attending PED events.[^2][^8]
The report found that Epstein visited the program more than forty times between 2010 and 2018, including six visits in 2018 (the report's table of visits by year for 2010 through 2018 reads 4, 5, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 5 and 6, 46 in all), often accompanied by young women in their twenties described as assistants. It found that Nowak approved posting on the PED website in 2014 a webpage featuring Epstein's photograph, biography, and charitable links under a tab labeled "Friends," on which Epstein was the only entry, and that the review described the program's account of Epstein's support as "flattering and false." The report found that Epstein attended one of Nowak's undergraduate mathematics classes, that the program kept an office for his use with keycard and passcode access, and that his visits ended after a number of program researchers complained to Nowak.[^7] Summers, former Faculty of Arts and Sciences dean [[Henry Rosovsky]], and law professor [[Alan Dershowitz]] were among those recorded as attending PED events.[^2][^8]
### Sanctions and Aftermath
On March 26, 2021, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences [[Claudine Gay]] announced that Nowak had violated several university policies and imposed sanctions: he was barred for two years from serving as principal investigator on new grants, prohibited for two years from taking on new undergraduate, graduate, or doctoral advisees, and allowed to continue teaching undergraduate courses. Harvard announced that the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics would be closed and that Nowak's research would move into the mathematics department. Nowak had been placed on paid administrative leave in May 2020.[^1][^8] The closure followed the review's finding that PED's administrator, "with Professor Nowak on notice," had sent Epstein's assistant unassigned access cards in 2017 so that Epstein could avoid the photograph and attestation required for a guest identification.[^9]
On March 26, 2021, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences [[Claudine Gay]] announced that Nowak had violated several university policies and imposed sanctions: he was barred for two years from serving as principal investigator on new grants, prohibited for two years from taking on new undergraduate, graduate, or doctoral advisees, and allowed to continue teaching undergraduate courses. Harvard announced that the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics would be closed and that Nowak's research would move into the mathematics department. Nowak had been placed on paid administrative leave in May 2020.[^1][^8] The leave began on May 1, 2020, the day the Harvard review of the University's ties to Epstein was released. The review found that Nowak approved the posting of flattering and false descriptions of Epstein's philanthropy and support of Harvard on the program's website. Gay's email of the same day said the Faculty of Arts and Sciences "fully supports" the recommendations of the General Counsel's report.[^9] The closure followed the review's finding that PED's administrator, "with Professor Nowak on notice," had sent Epstein's assistant unassigned access cards in 2017 so that Epstein could avoid the photograph and attestation required for a guest identification.[^10]
Harvard reported that it had identified $200,937 in unspent Epstein funds, which it pledged to direct to organizations supporting victims of human trafficking, and stated it would not accept future gifts from Epstein or his estate. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences lifted the sanctions in 2023, restoring Nowak's research and advising privileges in March of that year.[^2][^10]
Harvard reported that it had identified $200,937 in unspent Epstein funds, which it pledged to direct to organizations supporting victims of human trafficking, and stated it would not accept future gifts from Epstein or his estate. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences lifted the sanctions in 2023, restoring Nowak's research and advising privileges in March of that year.[^2][^11]
### The 2026 Files and Renewed Leave
In February 2026 the journal *Nature* reported, drawing on [[Department of Justice|U.S. Department of Justice]] files, that Epstein's involvement with Nowak's work ran deeper than the 2020 review had described, including that Epstein reviewed page proofs of the 2010 eusociality paper and gave advice on responding to its critics. Nowak's name appears more than 8,000 times in the released files. *Nature* also reported that in 2009 Epstein routed scholarship money through Corina Tarnita, then Nowak's PhD student, to two young women studying mathematics at the University of Iași in Romania; Tarnita, by then at [[Princeton University]], told *Nature* the payments were legitimate scholarships and that she wished she had never known Epstein.[^11][^12]
In February 2026 the journal *Nature* reported, drawing on [[Department of Justice|U.S. Department of Justice]] files, that Epstein's involvement with Nowak's work ran deeper than the 2020 review had described, including that Epstein reviewed page proofs of the 2010 eusociality paper and gave advice on responding to its critics. Nowak's name appears more than 8,000 times in the released files. *Nature* also reported that in 2009 Epstein routed scholarship money through Corina Tarnita, then Nowak's PhD student, to two young women studying mathematics at the University of Iași in Romania; Tarnita, by then at [[Princeton University]], told *Nature* the payments were legitimate scholarships and that she wished she had never known Epstein.[^12][^13]
A March 10, 2014 email chain published from the files showed Nowak writing to Epstein that "our spy was captured after completing her mission," to which Epstein replied "did you torture her." Nowak later said on his website that the line came from the video game *Civilization II*, where the response signals a successful operation. The files also showed that an Epstein assistant arranged 2014 travel for Nowak and a female Harvard graduate student to Epstein's Caribbean island.[^12][^13]
A March 10, 2014 email chain published from the files showed Nowak writing to Epstein that "our spy was captured after completing her mission," to which Epstein replied "did you torture her." Nowak later said on his website that the line came from the video game *Civilization II*, where the response signals a successful operation. The files also showed that an Epstein assistant arranged 2014 travel for Nowak and a female Harvard graduate student to Epstein's Caribbean island.[^13][^14]
On February 25, 2026, Harvard placed Nowak on paid administrative leave a second time, with FAS Dean [[Hopi Hoekstra]] citing new information from the released Department of Justice documents. In April 2026 Nowak resigned from the [[Austrian Academy of Sciences]] amid the renewed scrutiny.[^10][^14]
On February 25, 2026, Harvard placed Nowak on paid administrative leave a second time, with FAS Dean [[Hopi Hoekstra]] citing new information from the released Department of Justice documents. In April 2026 Nowak resigned from the [[Austrian Academy of Sciences]] amid the renewed scrutiny.[^11][^15]
### Before Harvard
Nowak's relationship with Epstein began in the late 1990s, while Nowak was at the Institute for Advanced Study and lecturing at Princeton, and Epstein supported his work at the institute before Harvard recruited him. Emails released in 2026 show that Nowak had use of Epstein's New York apartments and his Jaguar and made frequent trips to Epstein's homes in [[New Mexico]] and the Virgin Islands. After a 2002 trip Nowak wrote to [[Ghislaine Maxwell]]: "I would love to ride out with you for a whole day. Just you and me. both of us dressed as cowboys." Maxwell replied, "Riding off into the sunset w/ you sounds very dangerous - we might not come back," and signed off, "Be bad." A 2002 *[[New York (magazine)|New York]]* magazine profile reported that Nowak spoke with Epstein weekly and was flown to his homes to lecture, and quoted him: "Jeffrey has the mind of a physicist. It's like talking to a colleague in your field. . . . He has changed my life. Because of his support, I feel I can do anything I want." In September 2004 the photographer Rick Friedman photographed a Harvard dinner hosted by Epstein at which Nowak appeared with Epstein, Summers, Alan Dershowitz and the evolutionary biologist [[Robert Trivers]].[^7][^15][^16]
Nowak's relationship with Epstein began in the late 1990s, while Nowak was at the Institute for Advanced Study and lecturing at Princeton, and Epstein supported his work at the institute before Harvard recruited him. Emails released in 2026 show that Nowak had use of Epstein's New York apartments and his Jaguar and made frequent trips to Epstein's homes in [[New Mexico]] and the Virgin Islands. After a 2002 trip Nowak wrote to [[Ghislaine Maxwell]]: "I would love to ride out with you for a whole day. Just you and me. both of us dressed as cowboys." Maxwell replied, "Riding off into the sunset w/ you sounds very dangerous - we might not come back," and signed off, "Be bad." A 2002 *[[New York (magazine)|New York]]* magazine profile reported that Nowak spoke with Epstein weekly and was flown to his homes to lecture, and quoted him: "Jeffrey has the mind of a physicist. It's like talking to a colleague in your field. . . . He has changed my life. Because of his support, I feel I can do anything I want." In September 2004 the photographer Rick Friedman photographed a Harvard dinner hosted by Epstein at which Nowak appeared with Epstein, Summers, Alan Dershowitz and the evolutionary biologist [[Robert Trivers]].[^7][^16][^17]
### After the Conviction
Soon after Epstein's 2009 release from the Palm Beach County jail, Nowak and his graduate student Corina Tarnita traveled to visit him. Nowak later told *[[The Boston Globe]]* that a spiritual adviser had told him he was "morally obligated to forgive someone who has served a prison sentence." Harvard's review found that Nowak understood from 2008 that President Drew Faust opposed taking Epstein's money but regarded the question as "unclear"; a January 2010 email described him as "trying to figure out a way to have Epstein give PED funds," and in December 2014 he asked the mathematics chair "confidentially" whether there was "an update concerning Jeffrey being an acceptable donor for Harvard?" Meanwhile donors Epstein introduced, [[Leon Black]] and the [[Falconwood Foundation]], paid 7.5 million dollars toward the program's rent, and Nowak, who sat on the [[John Templeton Foundation]]'s Board of Advisors, approved a 2015 letter falsely telling Templeton that an Epstein foundation had "established a gift" to the program in 2003. The review found that Nowak "knowingly approved PED's supplying false information" and that he "had no explanation" for it.[^9][^15]
Soon after Epstein's 2009 release from the Palm Beach County jail, Nowak and his graduate student Corina Tarnita traveled to visit him. Nowak later told *[[The Boston Globe]]* that a spiritual adviser had told him he was "morally obligated to forgive someone who has served a prison sentence." Harvard's review found that Nowak understood from 2008 that President Drew Faust opposed taking Epstein's money but regarded the question as "unclear" (a November 2008 email from Kosslyn, then Divisional Dean for Social Sciences, put the position as "If [President] Drew [Faust] weren't opposed to taking JEE's money, there wouldn't be a problem . . . but she is"); a January 2010 email described him as "trying to figure out a way to have Epstein give PED funds," and in December 2014 he asked the mathematics chair "confidentially" whether there was "an update concerning Jeffrey being an acceptable donor for Harvard?" Meanwhile donors Epstein introduced, [[Leon Black]] and the [[Falconwood Foundation]], gave 7.5 million dollars, itemized in the report's table of unrestricted gifts Nowak said Epstein helped obtain as $500,000 from the Falconwood Foundation on September 10, 2010, $2,000,000 from Leon and Debra Black on November 22, 2011, $4,000,000 from Leon and Debra Black on December 29, 2014 and $1,000,000 from the [[Black Family Foundation]] on October 30, 2015, with Nowak acknowledging that Epstein "played a role in helping" obtain them, and Nowak, who sat on the [[John Templeton Foundation]]'s Board of Advisors, approved a 2015 letter falsely telling Templeton that an Epstein foundation had "established a gift" to the program in 2003. The review found that Nowak "knowingly approved PED's supplying false information" and that he "had no explanation" for it.[^10][^16]
When *[[Newsweek]]* prepared a 2011 story on Epstein, Epstein asked Nowak and another Harvard friend for character references, explaining that the story's focus was "on why do so many people want to talk to me and seem to ignore . . . their words . . . my crime." Nowak thanked Epstein for financial support in *SuperCooperators* (2011) and in at least six papers published between 2009 and 2012 on subjects including the spread of cancer and the evolution of HIV. In July 2019 he told *[[BuzzFeed News]]*: "The only donation from Epstein was received in 2003. The money was spent by about 2007," adding that "most research projects take many years from first idea until publication." Harvard's review, a year later, recorded Epstein's more than forty visits to Nowak's program between 2010 and 2018, his office and keycards, and the 2010 to 2015 gifts from donors he introduced.[^2][^15][^16][^17]
When *[[Newsweek]]* prepared a 2011 story on Epstein, Epstein asked Nowak and another Harvard friend for character references, explaining that the story's focus was "on why do so many people want to talk to me and seem to ignore . . . their words . . . my crime." Nowak thanked Epstein for financial support in *SuperCooperators* (2011) and in at least six papers published between 2009 and 2012 on subjects including the spread of cancer and the evolution of HIV. In July 2019 he told *[[BuzzFeed News]]*: "The only donation from Epstein was received in 2003. The money was spent by about 2007," adding that "most research projects take many years from first idea until publication." Harvard's review, a year later, recorded Epstein's more than forty visits to Nowak's program between 2010 and 2018, his office and keycards, and the 2010 to 2015 gifts from donors he introduced.[^2][^16][^17][^18]
Nowak's lab administrator arranged Epstein's visits, food and building access. In 2010, when her sister was job-hunting in New York, Nowak suggested Epstein hire her, listing among her credentials that she had provided "legal advice on how to fire models who became fat"; Epstein arranged an interview. Tarnita, who thanked Epstein in her 2009 dissertation "for allowing me to participate in his tireless pursuit of knowledge," later had an Epstein assistant arrange a salon appointment for her, was offered payment for a medical procedure, and in 2011 was referred by Epstein to a lawyer who resolved a visa problem; when she told him of her Princeton job talks, he wrote, "i only wish you well." Tarnita told the *Globe*: "I never saw Epstein behave inappropriately. I am revolted by his depravity and wish I had never met him." The Harvard lecturer [[Moshe Hoffman]], who met Epstein at Nowak's lab in 2013, was taken to a Broadway show by an Epstein assistant at Epstein's expense and in February 2019 asked to stay at one of Epstein's apartments.[^15]
Nowak's lab administrator arranged Epstein's visits, food and building access. In 2010, when her sister was job-hunting in New York, Nowak suggested Epstein hire her, listing among her credentials that she had provided "legal advice on how to fire models who became fat"; Epstein arranged an interview. Tarnita, who thanked Epstein in her 2009 dissertation "for allowing me to participate in his tireless pursuit of knowledge," later had an Epstein assistant arrange a salon appointment for her, was offered payment for a medical procedure, and in 2011 was referred by Epstein to a lawyer who resolved a visa problem; when she told him of her Princeton job talks, he wrote, "i only wish you well." Tarnita told the *Globe*: "I never saw Epstein behave inappropriately. I am revolted by his depravity and wish I had never met him." The Harvard lecturer [[Moshe Hoffman]], who met Epstein at Nowak's lab in 2013, was taken to a Broadway show by an Epstein assistant at Epstein's expense and in February 2019 asked to stay at one of Epstein's apartments.[^16]
### Chomsky, Hillis, and Bin Sulayem
On October 28, 2015, Epstein wrote jointly to Nowak, the linguist [[Noam Chomsky]], and the computer scientist [[Danny Hillis]]: "would sat the 14th work? cambridge."[^18] On December 23, 2015, he wrote to Nowak and Chomsky together: "animals dream . the mouse is not really there when the cat is chasing it in its dream. if dreams represent a language with no memory or grammar, they could be the precursor to language."[^19]
On October 28, 2015, Epstein wrote jointly to Nowak, the linguist [[Noam Chomsky]], and the computer scientist [[Danny Hillis]]: "would sat the 14th work? cambridge."[^19] On December 23, 2015, he wrote to Nowak and Chomsky together: "animals dream . the mouse is not really there when the cat is chasing it in its dream. if dreams represent a language with no memory or grammar, they could be the precursor to language."[^20]
In November 2016 Epstein arranged for [[Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem]], chairman of [[DP World]], to visit the [[MIT Media Lab]] and then Nowak's office. On November 29 Epstein's assistant [[Lesley Groff]] asked [[Joi Ito]] about his timing for meeting Epstein on November 30 "up at Harvard," adding, "Also, this will be at Martin Nowak's office at 1 Brattle Square?" Ito replied that bin Sulayem would be with him at the Media Lab and "I can take Sultan to Martin's place," and that Epstein had planned to "leave the Lab or Martin's at 11:30AM."[^20]
In November 2016 Epstein arranged for [[Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem]], chairman of [[DP World]], to visit the [[MIT Media Lab]] and then Nowak's office. On November 29 Epstein's assistant [[Lesley Groff]] asked [[Joi Ito]] about his timing for meeting Epstein on November 30 "up at Harvard," adding, "Also, this will be at Martin Nowak's office at 1 Brattle Square?" Ito replied that bin Sulayem would be with him at the Media Lab and "I can take Sultan to Martin's place," and that Epstein had planned to "leave the Lab or Martin's at 11:30AM."[^21]
### The Island and the Women
Nowak, who was married, twice asked Epstein by email about bringing women to Epstein's island, and at least once Epstein paid for Nowak and a guest to fly in premium seats and stay two nights. In January 2014 Epstein arranged for Nowak to speak by telephone with a woman; Nowak wrote that he was "nervous like a schoolboy" and added: "I love life! she sounds really nice on the phone. did you ever bring her to harvard? do i know her?" Nowak told the *Globe* he never had a "relationship" with anyone Epstein introduced him to. A photograph released by the Justice Department purports to show Nowak and [[George Church]] on Epstein's island.[^15][^21]
Nowak, who was married, twice asked Epstein by email about bringing women to Epstein's island, and at least once Epstein paid for Nowak and a guest to fly in premium seats and stay two nights. In January 2014 Epstein arranged for Nowak to speak by telephone with a woman; Nowak wrote that he was "nervous like a schoolboy" and added: "I love life! she sounds really nice on the phone. did you ever bring her to harvard? do i know her?" Nowak told the *Globe* he never had a "relationship" with anyone Epstein introduced him to. A photograph released by the Justice Department purports to show Nowak and [[George Church]] on Epstein's island.[^16][^22]
The *Globe* documented Nowak's contact with two young Eastern European women whom Epstein groomed and exploited and whose names the Justice Department redacted as victims; the newspaper identified them only as "the musician" and "the artist." In 2015 Epstein asked Nowak, who was traveling in Austria, to meet the musician there and advance her tuition for a music program; Nowak wrote that he was "investigating how to help her," their schedules did not overlap, and Epstein reimbursed her. Nowak told the *Globe* he never met her and does not recall her. Epstein introduced Nowak to the artist in 2018. In spring 2019, while the *[[Miami Herald]]* series was prompting renewed scrutiny, Nowak sent Epstein photographs of her with her artwork and wrote that she was working on her "master piece"; when Epstein paid for her to travel to New York, he texted her, "I understand you are going to see martin?" She replied, "Martin sayed [sic] that I can come to see him in Boston." Nowak and the artist, through her lawyer, said the visit did not happen; her lawyer said their contact, several emails and one call at Nowak's prompting, which she believes came at Epstein's suggestion, was not sexual. Nowak said he did not know she was being exploited and believed he was "merely supporting her career."[^15]
The *Globe* documented Nowak's contact with two young Eastern European women whom Epstein groomed and exploited and whose names the Justice Department redacted as victims; the newspaper identified them only as "the musician" and "the artist." In 2015 Epstein asked Nowak, who was traveling in Austria, to meet the musician there and advance her tuition for a music program; Nowak wrote that he was "investigating how to help her," their schedules did not overlap, and Epstein reimbursed her. Nowak told the *Globe* he never met her and does not recall her. Epstein introduced Nowak to the artist in 2018. In spring 2019, while the *[[Miami Herald]]* series was prompting renewed scrutiny, Nowak sent Epstein photographs of her with her artwork and wrote that she was working on her "master piece"; when Epstein paid for her to travel to New York, he texted her, "I understand you are going to see martin?" She replied, "Martin sayed [sic] that I can come to see him in Boston." Nowak and the artist, through her lawyer, said the visit did not happen; her lawyer said their contact, several emails and one call at Nowak's prompting, which she believes came at Epstein's suggestion, was not sexual. Nowak said he did not know she was being exploited and believed he was "merely supporting her career."[^16]
In May 2019 Nowak asked Epstein's assistant to remove all references to his lab from Epstein's website: "The sooner the better please. . . . Things are getting very strange here."[^15]
In May 2019 Nowak asked Epstein's assistant to remove all references to his lab from Epstein's website: "The sooner the better please. . . . Things are getting very strange here."[^16]
### The Bequest
Epstein's will, dated August 8, 2019, two days before his death, left Nowak 5 million dollars. Nowak said the bequest "came as a surprise" and that he has received no payment. In February 2026 he told the *Globe*: "I had no knowledge of his crimes. I was urged to cultivate Mr. Epstein to continue his financial support of academic endeavors." The *Globe* sent Harvard its questions on February 24, 2026; the next day Harvard announced that Summers had resigned and placed Nowak on leave.[^15][^21]
Epstein's will, dated August 8, 2019, two days before his death, left Nowak 5 million dollars. Nowak said the bequest "came as a surprise" and that he has received no payment. In February 2026 he told the *Globe*: "I had no knowledge of his crimes. I was urged to cultivate Mr. Epstein to continue his financial support of academic endeavors." The *Globe* sent Harvard its questions on February 24, 2026; the next day Harvard announced that Summers had resigned and placed Nowak on leave.[^16][^22]
### Footnotes
@ -112,18 +112,19 @@ Epstein's will, dated August 8, 2019, two days before his death, left Nowak 5 mi
[^4]: Nowak, Martin A. "Five Rules for the Evolution of Cooperation," *Science* 314, no. 5805 (2006): 1560-1563, on kin selection, direct and indirect reciprocity, network reciprocity, and group selection. https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.1133755
[^5]: Nowak, Martin A., Corina E. Tarnita, and Edward O. Wilson. "The Evolution of Eusociality," *Nature* 466 (2010): 1057-1062, the paper that drew a rebuttal signed by more than 130 biologists.
[^6]: "Why did Jeffrey Epstein cultivate famous scientists?," *Scientific American,* 2019, on the establishment of PED under Summers and Epstein's account to Vanity Fair. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-did-jeffrey-epstein-cultivate-famous-scientists/
[^7]: "Report Concerning Jeffrey E. Epstein's Connections to Harvard University," Harvard University Office of the General Counsel, May 2020, on the donation totals, the establishment of PED, and the gift policy. https://ogc.harvard.edu/files/ogc/files/report_concerning_jeffrey_e._epsteins_connections_to_harvard_university.pdf
[^7]: "Report Concerning Jeffrey E. Epstein's Connections to Harvard University," Harvard University Office of the General Counsel, May 2020, on the donation totals, the establishment of PED, and the gift policy. https://ogc.harvard.edu/file_url/208
[^8]: "Martin Nowak Sanctioned for Jeffrey Epstein Involvement," *Harvard Magazine,* March 2021, on the policy violations, the website descriptions, and the terms of the sanctions. https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2021/03/martin-nowak-sanctioned-for-jeffrey-epstein-involvement
[^9]: Lopez, Diane E., Ara B. Gershengorn, and Martin F. Murphy. *Report Concerning Jeffrey E. Epstein's Connections to Harvard University.* Harvard OGC and Foley Hoag LLP, May 2020, pp. 5, 10-17, 26-27, on Nowak's prior support at the Institute for Advanced Study, his understanding of Faust's decision, the 2010 and 2014 emails, the Black and Falconwood gifts, his Templeton advisory role, and the false-information finding. https://ogc.harvard.edu/files/ogc/files/report_concerning_jeffrey_e._epsteins_connections_to_harvard_university.pdf ; mirror: https://archive.org/download/epstein-docs_20240108/1.%20Harvard%20Epstein%20Report.pdf
[^10]: "Harvard Places Math Professor Martin Nowak on Paid Administrative Leave Over Epstein Ties," *The Harvard Crimson,* February 25, 2026, on the 2023 restoration and the renewed leave. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/2/25/nowak-leave-epstein/
[^11]: "Martin Nowak Placed on Leave a Second Time," *Harvard Magazine,* February 2026, on the Nature reporting, the page-proof advice on the eusociality paper, the 2014 island travel, and the second leave announced February 27, 2026. https://www.harvardmagazine.com/university-news/martin-nowak-harvard-administrative-leave-epstein
[^12]: "Professor Corina Tarnita on the Epstein Files: 'I Wish I Had Never Known Him'," *Princeton Alumni Weekly,* 2026, on the March 10, 2014 "spy"/"torture" email exchange, Nowak's Civilization II explanation, and Tarnita's account of the scholarships. https://paw.princeton.edu/article/professor-corina-tarnita-epstein-files-i-wish-i-had-never-known-him
[^13]: Fernandes, Deirdre, and Tricia L. Nadolny. "Introductions to women. Free flights. Business deals," *The Boston Globe,* February 25, 2026, on Epstein's payment for premium travel and two nights' stay for Nowak and a guest; see also "Did you torture her?: Emails of Jeffrey Epstein and Martin Nowak reveal shocking details," *WION,* February 2026. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/02/25/metro/jeffrey-epstein-harvard-spotlight-report/
[^14]: "Harvard Professor Martin Nowak Resigns From Austrian Academy Amid Epstein Scrutiny," *The Harvard Crimson,* April 2, 2026, on Nowak's resignation from the Austrian Academy of Sciences. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/4/2/nowak-austrian-academy-resignation/
[^15]: Fernandes, Deirdre, and Tricia L. Nadolny. "Introductions to women. Free flights. Business deals. Jeffrey Epstein's ties to Harvard run deeper than previously known," *The Boston Globe,* February 25, 2026, on the late-1990s origins, the apartments and car, the Maxwell messages, the 2004 dinner photograph, the 2009 visit, the Newsweek references, the lab administrator, Tarnita, Hoffman, the island travel, the January 2014 introduction, the musician and the artist, the May 2019 email, the bequest, and Nowak's statements. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/02/25/metro/jeffrey-epstein-harvard-spotlight-report/
[^16]: Aldhous, Peter. "Jeffrey Epstein Called Himself A 'Science Philanthropist' And Donated Millions To These Researchers," *BuzzFeed News,* July 11, 2019, quoting the 2002 *New York* magazine profile. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/peteraldhous/jeffrey-epstein-sex-trafficking-science-donations
[^17]: Aldhous, Peter. "Jeffrey Epstein's Links To Scientists Are Even More Extensive Than We Thought," *BuzzFeed News,* August 27, 2019, on Nowak's statement, the *SuperCooperators* and journal acknowledgments, and the 2012 lunch at his institute. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/peteraldhous/jeffrey-epstein-science-donations-apologies-statements
[^18]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA00842252, DataSet 9, email from Jeffrey Epstein to Noam Chomsky, Martin Nowak and Danny Hillis, October 28, 2015. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00842252.pdf
[^19]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA00838191, DataSet 9, email from Jeffrey Epstein to Noam Chomsky and Martin Nowak, December 23, 2015. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00838191.pdf
[^20]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA00439714, DataSet 9, email chain among Lesley Groff, Joichi Ito, the MIT Media Lab director's office and DP World staff, "Re: Jeffrey Epstein," November 29, 2016. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00439714.pdf
[^21]: Owermohle, Sarah, and Austin Culpepper. "How Epstein enlisted Harvard scientists to burnish his reputation, and try to make a profit," *CNN,* February 19, 2026, on the island photograph and the will dated August 8, 2019. https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/19/politics/harvard-epstein-donations-influence-exclusive
[^9]: "FAS Places Prof. Nowak On Leave After Report Finds Epstein Used His Program to Rehabilitate Image," *The Harvard Crimson*, May 2, 2020. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2020/5/2/epstein-review-nowak-leave/
[^10]: Lopez, Diane E., Ara B. Gershengorn, and Martin F. Murphy. *Report Concerning Jeffrey E. Epstein's Connections to Harvard University.* Harvard OGC and Foley Hoag LLP, May 2020, pp. 5, 10-17, 26-27, on Nowak's prior support at the Institute for Advanced Study, his understanding of Faust's decision, the 2010 and 2014 emails, the Black and Falconwood gifts, his Templeton advisory role, and the false-information finding. https://ogc.harvard.edu/file_url/208 ; also at https://archive.org/download/epstein-docs_20240108/1.%20Harvard%20Epstein%20Report.pdf
[^11]: "Harvard Places Math Professor Martin Nowak on Paid Administrative Leave Over Epstein Ties," *The Harvard Crimson,* February 25, 2026, on the 2023 restoration and the renewed leave. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/2/25/nowak-leave-epstein/
[^12]: "Martin Nowak Placed on Leave a Second Time," *Harvard Magazine,* February 2026, on the Nature reporting, the page-proof advice on the eusociality paper, the 2014 island travel, and the second leave announced February 27, 2026. https://www.harvardmagazine.com/university-news/martin-nowak-harvard-administrative-leave-epstein
[^13]: "Professor Corina Tarnita on the Epstein Files: 'I Wish I Had Never Known Him'," *Princeton Alumni Weekly,* 2026, on the March 10, 2014 "spy"/"torture" email exchange, Nowak's Civilization II explanation, and Tarnita's account of the scholarships. https://paw.princeton.edu/article/professor-corina-tarnita-epstein-files-i-wish-i-had-never-known-him
[^14]: Fernandes, Deirdre, and Tricia L. Nadolny. "Introductions to women. Free flights. Business deals," *The Boston Globe,* February 25, 2026, on Epstein's payment for premium travel and two nights' stay for Nowak and a guest; see also "Did you torture her?: Emails of Jeffrey Epstein and Martin Nowak reveal shocking details," *WION,* February 2026. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/02/25/metro/jeffrey-epstein-harvard-spotlight-report/
[^15]: "Harvard Professor Martin Nowak Resigns From Austrian Academy Amid Epstein Scrutiny," *The Harvard Crimson,* April 2, 2026, on Nowak's resignation from the Austrian Academy of Sciences. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/4/2/nowak-austrian-academy-resignation/
[^16]: Fernandes, Deirdre, and Tricia L. Nadolny. "Introductions to women. Free flights. Business deals. Jeffrey Epstein's ties to Harvard run deeper than previously known," *The Boston Globe,* February 25, 2026, on the late-1990s origins, the apartments and car, the Maxwell messages, the 2004 dinner photograph, the 2009 visit, the Newsweek references, the lab administrator, Tarnita, Hoffman, the island travel, the January 2014 introduction, the musician and the artist, the May 2019 email, the bequest, and Nowak's statements. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/02/25/metro/jeffrey-epstein-harvard-spotlight-report/
[^17]: Aldhous, Peter. "Jeffrey Epstein Called Himself A 'Science Philanthropist' And Donated Millions To These Researchers," *BuzzFeed News,* July 11, 2019, quoting the 2002 *New York* magazine profile. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/peteraldhous/jeffrey-epstein-sex-trafficking-science-donations
[^18]: Aldhous, Peter. "Jeffrey Epstein's Links To Scientists Are Even More Extensive Than We Thought," *BuzzFeed News,* August 27, 2019, on Nowak's statement, the *SuperCooperators* and journal acknowledgments, and the 2012 lunch at his institute. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/peteraldhous/jeffrey-epstein-science-donations-apologies-statements
[^19]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA00842252, DataSet 9, email from Jeffrey Epstein to Noam Chomsky, Martin Nowak and Danny Hillis, October 28, 2015. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00842252.pdf
[^20]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA00838191, DataSet 9, email from Jeffrey Epstein to Noam Chomsky and Martin Nowak, December 23, 2015. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00838191.pdf
[^21]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA00439714, DataSet 9, email chain among Lesley Groff, Joichi Ito, the MIT Media Lab director's office and DP World staff, "Re: Jeffrey Epstein," November 29, 2016. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00439714.pdf
[^22]: Owermohle, Sarah, and Austin Culpepper. "How Epstein enlisted Harvard scientists to burnish his reputation, and try to make a profit," *CNN,* February 19, 2026, on the island photograph and the will dated August 8, 2019. https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/19/politics/harvard-epstein-donations-influence-exclusive

15
10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Marvin Shoob.md
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@ -23,16 +23,21 @@ Marvin Herman Shoob (February 23, 1923 to June 12, 2017) was a judge of the [[Un
### 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]
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] In the written order dated October 5, 1992 (the plea withdrawal and recusal were announced orally on October 1), Shoob wrote: "The Court concludes that officials at BNL-Rome were aware of and approved Mr. Drogoul's activities. At the very least, BNL-Rome chose to ignore what were obvious signs of Mr. Drogoul's extraordinary relationship with Iraq and his unusual lending practices." The order also recorded that Drogoul "testified only that his superiors should have known."[^4]
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]
On September 23, 1992, at the sentencing hearing, Shoob asked to see the intelligence underlying the Gonzalez summary of CIA reporting. Gerrilyn Brill, the acting United States attorney in Atlanta, offered to discuss the material with him ex parte; Shoob declined and asked that the documents be brought to his chambers. He took them home intending to read them and read one that evening, concluding that the report did not support the analytical comment in the Gonzalez summary.[^5]
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]
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."[^6]
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, and his concern about the interference of other agencies, to be inaccurate."[^7] 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][^8]
### 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.
[^4]: Order of Judge Marvin H. Shoob, dated October 5, 1992 (the text refers to the October 1 oral ruling), United States v. Drogoul, printed in House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, *Testimony of Former Employees of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro,* Serial No. 103-95 (1994), pp. 205-206. https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit
[^5]: Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, *The Intelligence Community's Involvement in the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL) Affair,* Committee Print S. Prt. 103-12, February 1993, p. 24. https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/publications/10312.pdf
[^6]: Friedman, Alan. *Spider's Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq*. Bantam, 1993, pp. 228-231.
[^7]: Lacey, Report of the Independent Counsel, Serial No. 103-95, p. 473. https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit
[^8]: 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.

7
10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Frank Wisner.md
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@ -40,13 +40,15 @@ Political action: In Italy and France, the OPC organized substantial programs to
In 1950 Wisner approved a 50,000-dollar project for a Berlin conference of non-Communist intellectuals, the event that became the [[Congress for Cultural Freedom]]. The project outline, which essentially reiterated a December proposal by [[Michael Josselson]], was approved on April 7, 1950 on the condition, in Wisner's words, "that Lasky would not be permitted to figure publicly in this operation": he wanted the project's initiator, the former Army historian [[Melvin J. Lasky|Melvin Lasky]], and [[James Burnham]] kept out of sight in Berlin.[^2] Josselson defended Lasky when the request reached him, cabling that "No other person here, certainly no German, could have achieved such success."[^3] On August 4, 1950 a memorandum from Louis Glaser to Frank Lindsay recorded Lasky's activities in connection with the congress under the project name PDQUICK.[^4] On August 8, 1950 Wisner wrote to C. D. G. Breckinridge that he remained "very disturbed" at the non-observance of his April memorandum, called Lasky's conduct "a major blunder," and stated: "unless means can be found to sanitize this operation by the removal of Lasky, Burnham and other persons of known or traceable official significance from overt roles in the proposed continuing organization, then I am unwilling to have OPC continue its backing." A postscript recorded that General Magruder had shown a report on the congress to Secretary Johnson, who showed it to the President, "who expressed himself as being very well pleased."[^5] The CIA history states that Burnham was happy to step aside, that Wisner described Lasky's visibility as "a major blunder," recognized as such "by our best friends in the Department of State," and that "Lasky had to go, and OPC contrived to have him removed from the project and canceled his operational clearance." The steering committee made the congress a permanent body on November 27, 1950.[^6]
The minutes of the CIA Deputies' Meeting of July 21, 1952 record Wisner as having "Noted that we were prepared to talk to Mr. Luce's representative any time he came to Washington and that we had sufficient material on hand which would allow TIME and/or LIFE to publish an exclusive story on the Duclos affair over and above the information already made public." In response to a query from the Director, [[Walter Bedell Smith]], on authenticity, Wisner stated that "(1) we were 90% positive that the information in question was authentic; (2) he would, however, pass this along to the TIME and/or LIFE representative; (3) we now have in our possession a photostat copy of Duclos' diary which was written in longhand; (4) he believed we were on safe ground in our '90% estimate' since the Communists had already vociferously decried publicity given so far to the Duclos papers."[^7]
### Hungary and Breakdown
The Hungarian Revolution of October-November 1956 was the defining catastrophe of Wisner's career. Radio Free Europe, which the OPC had established and which operated under CIA direction, had broadcast material encouraging Hungarian resistance with language that could reasonably have been interpreted as implying the United States would provide military support if Hungarians revolted. When Soviet tanks crushed the revolution in November 1956, the United States did not intervene.
Wisner had traveled to Europe to observe the situation and was in Budapest as the uprising was crushed. The experience - watching Soviet armor destroy a popular uprising that American broadcasts had encouraged while the United States did nothing - produced a psychological breakdown from which he never fully recovered. He was diagnosed with manic-depressive illness (bipolar disorder) and hospitalized. He returned to the CIA but never regained his operational authority.
He was assigned as London station chief in 1959, a posting that reflected his diminished status within the agency hierarchy. He resigned in 1962.[^7]
He was assigned as London station chief in 1959, a posting that reflected his diminished status within the agency hierarchy. He resigned in 1962.[^8]
### Death
@ -62,4 +64,5 @@ Evan Thomas's 1995 account *The Very Best Men* placed Wisner alongside [[Richard
[^4]: Louis Glaser to Frank Lindsay, "Activities of Mr. Melvin Lasky in connection with Congress for Cultural Freedom (Project PDQUICK)," August 4, 1950, Political and Psychological Staff Job 78-016R, box 1, folder 4, as cited in ISCAP 2014-090, Doc. 1, pt. 3.
[^5]: Memorandum for Mr. Breckinridge, "Berlin Congress for Cultural Freedom; activities of Melvin Lasky," signed F.G.W., August 8, 1950, with postscript, CIA reading room copy. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-0001318530
[^6]: ISCAP 2014-090, Doc. 1, pt. 3 of 12 (Burnham stepping aside, the August memorandum, "Lasky had to go," the November 27, 1950 establishment of the congress). https://www.archives.gov/files/declassification/iscap/pdf/2014-090-doc-1-part-3.pdf
[^7]: Thomas, Evan. *The Very Best Men: Four Who Dared: The Early Years of the CIA.* Simon & Schuster, 1995. Pisani, Sallie. *The CIA and the Marshall Plan.* University Press of Kansas, 1991.
[^7]: Central Intelligence Agency, Deputies' Meeting, July 21, 1952, p. 1. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/1952-07-21.pdf
[^8]: Thomas, Evan. *The Very Best Men: Four Who Dared: The Early Years of the CIA.* Simon & Schuster, 1995. Pisani, Sallie. *The CIA and the Marshall Plan.* University Press of Kansas, 1991.

187
10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Harry S. Truman.md
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@ -1,25 +1,198 @@
---
aliases:
- Harry Truman
- Harry S Truman
- President Truman
category: "Political Figure"
tags:
- Person
- Politician
- President
- Israel
summary: "33rd U.S. President who declined Israeli military offers during the Korean War, reportedly fearing a binding security arrangement with Israel."
- Pendergast
- NationalSecurityAct
- CentralIntelligenceAgency
- PsychologicalStrategyBoard
- OperationPaperclip
- KoreanWar
- CampaignOfTruth
- ColdWar
- UAP
born: 1884-05-08
died: 1972-12-26
summary: "33rd U.S. President who recognized Israel on May 14, 1948, approved the National Security Act of 1947 that created the Central Intelligence Agency, and relieved General Douglas MacArthur in April 1951."
location: "Lamar, Missouri"
created: 2026-05-27
updated: 2026-10-12
relations:
- type: partner_of
with: "[[Eddie Jacobson]]"
start: 1919
role: "haberdashery partner, Kansas City"
fn: 5
- type: founded
with: "[[Central Intelligence Group]]"
start: 1946-01-22
fn: 17
- type: appointed
with: "[[Sidney W. Souers]]"
start: 1946-01
role: "first Director of Central Intelligence"
fn: 18
- type: appointed
with: "[[Hoyt Vandenberg]]"
start: 1946
role: "Director of Central Intelligence"
fn: 19
- type: founded
with: "[[Psychological Strategy Board]]"
start: 1951-04-04
fn: 22
- type: founded
with: "[[NSA]]"
start: 1952-10-24
role: "memorandum on communications intelligence; NSA established November 4, 1952"
fn: 36
- type: appointed
with: "[[Matthew B. Ridgway]]"
start: 1951-04-11
role: "successor to Douglas MacArthur as Far East commander"
fn: 29
---
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the [[United States]], serving from 1945 to 1953. He declined [[David Ben-Gurion]]'s offer to send Israeli troops to fight alongside [[United Nations]] forces in South Korea, reportedly fearing it would back him into a security arrangement with [[Israel]].[^1]
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the [[United States]], serving from 1945 to 1953. He entered public office in [[Jackson County, Missouri|Jackson County]], as a candidate of the [[Thomas Pendergast|Pendergast]] machine in Kansas City. His administration approved the [[National Security Act of 1947]], which created the [[Central Intelligence Agency]], established the [[Psychological Strategy Board]] and the [[NSA|National Security Agency]], and recognized [[Israel]].[^1]
### Sarnoff committee and the Campaign of Truth, 1950
### Pendergast machine and the Jackson County court
On March 1, 1950 Truman wrote to Secretary of State [[Dean Acheson]] after a conversation with [[David Sarnoff]], chairman of the Radio Corporation of America, who had suggested a committee to examine the [[Voice of America]]. Truman asked Acheson to consider the proposal, adding "I wish you would consider that, and we will discuss it when you come over tomorrow."[^2] Barrett's memorandum of March 6 proposed a new high-level committee of Sarnoff and others to look for added means of getting the truth behind the Iron Curtain, and said that the committee should not confine itself to radio.[^2] Barrett later claimed that he had helped Truman prepare the Campaign of Truth speech of April 20, 1950, partly with reference to the conclusions of the April 1950 symposium. In that speech Truman framed the Cold War as "a struggle, above all else, for the minds of men."[^3]
In 1922 Truman won election as eastern Jackson County judge as a candidate of the Pendergast faction of the Democratic party. He lost his reelection bid in 1924. In 1926 he won the presiding judgeship, a post he held for eight years, dividing his time between the county courthouses in [[Independence, Missouri|Independence]] and [[Kansas City, Missouri|Kansas City]].[^1]
Pendergast was found guilty of income tax evasion in 1939. The court commitment record in his [[Leavenworth Penitentiary|Leavenworth]] inmate file (No. 55295) is dated May 29, 1939 and records a sentence of 15 months and an early release in May 1940.[^2] [[Otto P. Higgins]], the former director of the Kansas City Police Department, entered a plea of guilty to counts 3 and 4 of an income tax indictment and was sentenced to two years at Leavenworth on count 3 and five years probation on count 4.[^3]
In the Democratic primary of August 1946 for Missouri's Fifth Congressional District, Truman backed [[Enos Axtell]] against the incumbent [[Roger C. Slaughter]], a critic of the administration. A [[Tampa Daily Times]] article of July 17, 1947, inserted in the Congressional Record, reported that Truman entered the campaign personally, that the revived Pendergast machine lined up behind Axtell, that four Kansas City wards gave Axtell 12,104 votes to 2,072 for Slaughter, that a grand jury indicted 71 persons for election irregularities and stated that Slaughter was deprived of the nomination by a fraudulent miscount of votes and other types of fraud, and that the vault holding the ballots was blown open on May 28 and the ballots removed. The same insertion quoted Senator [[James P. Kem]] of Missouri as charging that Attorney General [[Tom C. Clark]] "limited the scope of the (original FBI) inquiry to a field in which no evidence of conspiracy could be detected, and then closed the files because no evidence of conspiracy was found," and recorded that Clark had written Kem on January 27 that the FBI had "conducted a full investigation into the charges of fraud in this primary."[^4]
### Eddie Jacobson and the recognition of Israel
Truman's friendship with [[Eddie Jacobson]] began in Kansas City when both were young men. The two served together in the 129th Field Artillery during [[World War I]] and ran the regimental canteen at [[Camp Doniphan]] in [[Oklahoma]]. After returning from Europe following the Armistice, they decided to go into business together, and opened a haberdashery in Kansas City under the name Truman & Jacobson. The business failed. The Truman Library's finding aid to Jacobson's papers describes the friendship as surviving the failure and continuing through the 1930s and 1940s, and records that Truman once wrote that Jacobson was "as fine a man as ever walked."[^5]
The papers describe Jacobson as a Kansas City haberdasher who lobbied the President to support a Jewish homeland in [[Palestine]] as a refuge for survivors of the Nazi Holocaust in Europe.[^6] A handwritten chronology in his personal file describes his role in events surrounding the recognition of Israel. Jacobson visited the new state in 1949.[^7] [[A. J. Granoff]], a Kansas City lawyer, worked with Jacobson in the effort to persuade Truman to support the partition of Palestine and to recognize Israel. The Truman Library holds an oral history interview with Granoff, conducted in 1969.[^8]
On May 14, 1948 Truman issued a statement on recognition. It reads in full: "THIS GOVERNMENT has been informed that a Jewish state has been proclaimed in Palestine, and recognition has been requested by the provisional government thereof. The United States recognizes the provisional government as the de facto authority of the new State of Israel."[^9] The Library's online recognition collection covers documents from 1943 through 1974. It includes a January 31, 1949 item filed under the [[Department of State]] file Palestine, Israel - Jewish State, 1948-1949, OF 204-D.[^10]
[[Abraham Feinberg]], a business executive and philanthropist, is described in the Truman Library's catalogue of his 1973 oral history interview as active in immigration to Palestine and in the creation of the State of Israel, 1945 to 1948, and as a friend of the President. The interview was conducted by [[Richard D. McKinzie]] on August 23, 1973.[^11]
[[Seymour Hersh]] wrote that [[David Ben-Gurion]] secretly offered to send Israeli troops to fight alongside [[United Nations]] forces in [[South Korea]], and that Truman declined the offer, reportedly fearing it would back him into a security arrangement with Israel.[^12] A State Department telegram of December 8, 1951 to the embassy in France reported that the Israeli ambassador [[Abba Eban]], calling on [[John D. Hickerson]] of the State Department on December 6, referred to the representations of the American ambassador, Davis, to the Israeli foreign office on a possible offer of troops for Korea, listed Israel's difficulties (hostile surrounding Arab states, delicate relations with the [[Soviet Union]], and the economic cost of sustaining such a contingent) and said Israel had not decided whether to make an offer. The telegram added that [[Teddy Kollek]], counselor at the Israeli embassy, had indicated informally on December 5 that Ben-Gurion was disposed to consider an offer of troops providing a number of other countries also offered troops and the United Nations made a public appeal, and that Hickerson told Eban that troops were definitely needed for a long time to come and that the Department hoped other countries would contribute.[^13]
### Office of Strategic Services, Central Intelligence Group and the Directors of Central Intelligence
On September 19, 1945 the [[Joint Chiefs of Staff]] asked the Secretaries of War and the Navy to forward to the President a memorandum on the establishment of a central intelligence service upon the liquidation of the [[Office of Strategic Services]].[^14] Truman's Executive Order 9621 of September 20, 1945 transferred the functions of the Research and Analysis Branch and the Presentation Branch of the OSS to an [[Interim Research and Intelligence Service]] in the Department of State, to be abolished at the close of business December 31, 1945. All other OSS functions, personnel, records and funds went to the Department of War, and the Office, including the Office of the Director of Strategic Services, was terminated. The order took effect October 1, 1945.[^15] A Bureau of the Budget memorandum to Truman of October 31, 1945 described the readjustment of the Government's intelligence activities to a post-war basis.[^16]
On January 22, 1946 Truman addressed a directive to the Secretaries of State, War and the Navy designating them, with a personal representative of the President, as the [[National Intelligence Authority]]. Under it the departments assigned persons and facilities to form a [[Central Intelligence Group]] under a [[Director of Central Intelligence]], who was to be designated by the President, to be responsible to the Authority and to sit as a non-voting member. Paragraph 4 reads: "No police, law enforcement or internal security functions shall be exercised under this directive."[^17]
[[Sidney W. Souers]], the first Director of Central Intelligence, wrote Truman on April 17, 1946 that a three million dollar item in the Federal Bureau of Investigation appropriation had been eliminated because the congressional committee believed it did not meet the President's desire that the FBI not engage in activities beyond the continental limits.[^18] [[Hoyt Vandenberg]] was Director by July 3, 1946, when he wrote to [[J. Edgar Hoover]] on cooperation; on August 12, 1946 Truman's chief of staff [[William D. Leahy]] sent Vandenberg a memorandum on relieving FBI agents then serving in Latin America, recording that the Attorney General wished the provision of replacements expedited and that the President wished the Group to comply.[^19]
Truman approved the National Security Act of 1947 on July 26, 1947, as Public Law 80-253. Section 101 established the [[National Security Council]]. Section 102 established the Central Intelligence Agency under the council, headed by a Director of Central Intelligence.[^20]
On December 17, 1947 the National Security Council issued NSC 4-A, directing the Director of Central Intelligence, then [[Roscoe Hillenkoetter]], to conduct covert psychological operations within available funds against Soviet and Soviet-inspired activities.[^21]
### Psychological Strategy Board
On April 4, 1951 Truman addressed a directive to the Secretaries of State and Defense and to the Director of Central Intelligence establishing the Psychological Strategy Board. The directive's stated goal was "more effective" planning, coordination and conduct of psychological operations within approved national policies. [[Gordon Gray]] served as the board's first director.[^22]
### Campaign of Truth, 1950
On March 1, 1950 Truman wrote to [[Dean Acheson]] after a conversation with [[David Sarnoff]], chairman of the [[Radio Corporation of America]], who had suggested a committee to examine the [[Voice of America]]. Truman asked Acheson to consider the proposal: "I wish you would consider that, and we will discuss it when you come over tomorrow."[^23]
On March 6 [[Edward W. Barrett]] proposed "a new high-level committee of Sarnoff, etc., to look for added means of getting the truth behind the Iron Curtain." His memorandum added that the committee "would not confine itself to radio but would look into such proposals as the hardy perennial of utilizing balloons to drop leaflets."[^24] [[Daniel Bessner]] wrote that Barrett later claimed to have helped Truman prepare the speech of April 20, 1950 that became known as the Campaign of Truth, drawing in part on the conclusions of an April 1950 symposium.[^25]
In the April 20 address to the [[American Society of Newspaper Editors]], Truman described the challenge posed by "imperialistic communism" as "a struggle, above all else, for the minds of men." He called for "a great campaign of truth" to make the United States heard around the world.[^26]
### Point Four and NSC 68
In his inaugural address of January 20, 1949 Truman set out as his fourth point: "we must embark on a bold new program for making the benefits of our scientific advances and industrial progress available for the improvement and growth of underdeveloped areas." The program became known as [[Point Four Program|Point Four]].[^27]
On January 31, 1950 Truman directed the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense to undertake a reexamination of the objectives of the United States in peace and war and their effect on strategic plans, in light of the probable fission bomb capability and possible thermonuclear bomb capability of the Soviet Union. The resulting report to the President, dated April 7, 1950, was transmitted to the National Security Council on April 14, 1950 as [[NSC-68]], with a covering letter from Truman stating his desire that no publicity be given to the report or its contents without his approval.[^28]
### Korean War and the relief of MacArthur
On April 11, 1951 Truman relieved General [[Douglas MacArthur]] of his commands in the Far East. The statement issued with the order read in part: "With deep regret I have concluded that General of the Army Douglas MacArthur is unable to give his wholehearted support to the policies of the United States Government and of the United Nations in matters pertaining to his official duties."[^29] The order named [[Matthew B. Ridgway]] as his successor: "You will turn over your commands, effective at once, to Lt. Gen. Matthew B. Ridgway."[^29]
The White House released the same day a Presidential memorandum dated December 5, 1950, transmitted to MacArthur by a Joint Chiefs message of December 6. The memorandum directed that no speech, press release or other public statement concerning foreign or military policy be released until cleared by the [[State Department]] or the [[Department of Defense]]. A Joint Chiefs message of March 20, 1951, also released that day, told MacArthur that the President was about to announce that the United Nations was prepared to discuss conditions of settlement in Korea.[^29]
### Hiroshima and the Soviet test
On August 6, 1945 Truman's statement opened: "SIXTEEN HOURS AGO an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima, an important Japanese Army base." It described the atomic bomb as "a harnessing of the basic power of the universe."[^30] On September 23, 1949 he announced: "We have evidence that within recent weeks an atomic explosion occurred in the U.S.S.R."[^31]
### Operation Paperclip
On August 30, 1946 Acting Secretary of State Acheson sent Truman a memorandum, "Interim Exploitation of German and Austrian Specialists in the United States," presenting a statement of policy on the exploitation of selected German and Austrian specialists. It stated that since shortly after V-E Day the War Department had operated a project known as "Paperclip," under which selected German scientists had been brought to the United States under military custody, and that the statement provided for expanding Paperclip to include up to 1,000 specialists. It stated: "The War Department would be responsible for custody and for excluding from the program persons with Nazi or militaristic records." Truman initialed the memorandum with the notation "approved 9/3/46."[^32] A War Department memorandum to the President dated September 4, 1946 urged approval of the policy, citing contracts of specialists already in the United States that were expiring that month.[^33]
The set of Truman Library documents released in 2009 also includes the screening terms of [[State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee|SWNCC]] 257/22, Appendix B, under which German specialists were to be brought to the United States. The commanding general of the [[United States Forces European Theater]] was to screen candidates on the basis of available records. A person found to have been a member of the [[Nazi Party]] and more than a nominal participant in its activities, or an active supporter of Nazism or militarism, could not be brought over under the terms. Position or honors awarded under the Nazi regime solely on account of scientific or technical ability did not by themselves disqualify a specialist. In doubtful cases the commanding general could transport the specialist to the United States for further interrogation and screening.[^34]
[[Annie Jacobsen]] wrote in 2014 that the [[Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency]] altered the records of scientists whose backgrounds disqualified them, including Nazi Party or SS membership and wartime conduct, before the State Department and other agencies reviewed them for clearance. Jacobsen also wrote that Truman's initial directive barred the recruitment of ardent Nazis.[^35]
### National Security Agency
On October 24, 1952 Truman sent a memorandum to the Secretaries of State and Defense under the subject "Communications Intelligence Activities."[^36] It designated the two secretaries as a special committee of the National Security Council for communications intelligence, and designated the Department of Defense as executive agent of the government for producing communications intelligence information. It replaced the provisions of National Security Council Intelligence Directive No. 9 on the composition, responsibilities and procedures of the [[United States Communications Intelligence Board]] and reconstituted the board as a body acting for the special committee. The board's membership included the Director of the National Security Agency and a representative of the Central Intelligence Agency.[^36] The National Security Archive's index to the memorandum states that it, together with a Department of Defense directive, established NSA and that a revised NSCID 9 implementing it is dated December 29, 1952.[^37] The National Security Agency's history of its origins states that the President and the National Security Council issued a revised version of NSCID 9 on October 24, 1952 and that Major General [[Ralph J. Canine]] became the first Director of NSA on November 4, 1952.[^38]
### Washington sightings, July 1952
[[Gerald K. Haines]], a CIA historian, wrote that a buildup of sightings over the United States in 1952, especially in July, "alarmed the Truman administration." Radar scopes at [[Washington National Airport]] and [[Andrews Air Force Base]] tracked unidentified blips on July 19 and 20, and the blips reappeared on July 27, when interceptor aircraft were scrambled and found nothing.[^39] Haines wrote: "The White House wanted to know what was happening, and the Air Force quickly offered the explanation that the radar blips might be the result of "temperature inversions."" He added that a later Civil Aeronautics Administration investigation confirmed that such radar blips were quite common and were caused by temperature inversions.[^39]
[[Edward J. Ruppelt]], the head of the Air Force's [[Project Blue Book]], wrote that after the first Washington sighting he flew to Washington and that on the following day, about 10:00 A.M., the President's air aide, Brigadier General [[Robert B. Landry]], called Air Force intelligence at President Truman's request to find out what was going on. Ruppelt took the call and told Landry that the radar target could have been caused by weather but that there was no proof.[^40][^41] Ruppelt wrote that on Tuesday, July 29, Major General [[John A. Samford]], Director of Air Force Intelligence, held a press conference at 4:00 P.M., the largest and longest the Air Force had held since World War II; that a captain's answers on the possibility of temperature inversions were construed by the press as the Air Force's answer "even though today the twin sightings are still carried as unknowns"; and that on each night of a Washington sighting there was a temperature inversion, "but it was never strong enough to affect the radar the way inversions normally do."[^39][^42]
Haines recorded that the Central Intelligence Agency formed a special study group within its [[Office of Scientific Intelligence]] and [[Office of Current Intelligence]] in response, and that [[H. Marshall Chadwell]] briefed [[Walter Bedell Smith]], the Director of Central Intelligence, in December 1952.[^39] The sequence led to the [[Robertson Panel]] of January 1953.
Haines also addressed documents that surfaced around 1984 and that some UFOlogists said proved Truman created a top secret committee in 1947, [[Majestic-12]]. He wrote: "Most if not all of these documents have proved to be fabrications." He added: "Yet the controversy persists."[^43]
### Limit CIA Role to Intelligence, 1963
On December 22, 1963 the [[Washington Post]] published "Limit CIA Role to Intelligence," an article by Truman datelined Independence, Missouri, December 21; the syndicated article also appeared in [[The Detroit News]] on December 22, 1963 and in the Lafayette, Indiana, *Journal and Courier* on December 21, 1963.[^44] In it Truman wrote: "For some time I have been disturbed by the way the CIA has been diverted from its original assignment. It has become an operational and at times a policy-making arm of the government." He wrote: "I never had any thought when I set up the CIA that it would be injected into peacetime cloak and dagger operations." He asked that the agency "be restored to its original assignment as the intelligence arm of the President" and that "its operational duties be terminated or properly used elsewhere."[^44]
The former CIA analyst [[Ray McGovern]] wrote in 2013 that the article named "the first temporary director of the CIA, Adm. Souers, and the later permanent directors of the CIA, Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg and Allen Dulles" as men of "the highest character, patriotism and integrity"; he also wrote that the Post ran the article in its early edition of December 22 and removed it from later editions; that Truman's handwritten notes in the Truman Library, made nine days after the assassination of [[John F. Kennedy]], recorded that the CIA had worked as he intended only "when I had control"; and that on December 27, 1963 Souers sent Truman a "Dear Boss" letter blaming [[Allen Dulles]] for making the CIA "a different animal than the one I tried to set up for you" and criticizing the invasion of Cuba at the [[Bay of Pigs]]. McGovern also wrote that Dulles visited Truman in Independence on the afternoon of April 17, 1964 and asked him to retract the article; that Dulles's memorandum of the conversation, written four days later for CIA general counsel [[Lawrence Houston]], recorded Truman as saying the Post article was "all wrong" and that he "seemed quite astounded at it"; and that Truman's letter of June 10, 1964 to the managing editor of [[Look]] magazine restated his criticism, saying he never intended the CIA to be involved in "strange activities."[^45]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 2.
[^2]: FRUS 1950, volume IV, Document 127 (Truman to Acheson, March 1, 1950) and Document 131 (Barrett to Acheson, March 6, 1950). https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1950v04/d127
[^3]: Bessner, "The Night Watchman," p. 229 (Truman's address to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 20, 1950), and p. 237 and note 38 (Barrett's later claim).
[^1]: Harry S. Truman Library, "Jackson County Courthouse, Independence," place record. https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/places/in21-22.htm
[^2]: National Archives at College Park, "Tom Pendergast Inmate File: Record of Court Commitment" (Notorious Offenders Files, NARA ID 580698, Leavenworth inmate no. 55295, created May 29, 1939), Pendergast Years collection, Kansas City Public Library. https://pendergastkc.org/collection/national-archives-college-park-maryland/naracp-580698-0004-0003/tom-pendergast-inmate-file-record-court-commitment
[^3]: National Archives at College Park, "U.S. vs. Otto P. Higgins: Judgment and Commitment," Criminal Case No. 14653, Pendergast Years collection, Kansas City Public Library. https://pendergastkc.org/owning-organization/national-archives-college-park-maryland
[^4]: Congressional Record, July 21, 1947, p. 9516, reprinting "Justice Department's Kansas City Brush White?," Tampa (Fla.) Daily Times, July 17, 1947, and remarks on the charges of Senator Kem. https://www.congress.gov/80/crecb/1947/07/21/GPO-CRECB-1947-pt8-1-2.pdf
[^5]: Harry S. Truman Library, "Jacobson, Edward Papers," finding aid, summary and Correspondence File description. https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/hstpaper/jacobson.htm
[^6]: Harry S. Truman Library, "Jacobson, Edward Papers," finding aid, summary. https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/hstpaper/jacobson.htm
[^7]: Harry S. Truman Library, "Jacobson, Edward Papers," finding aid, Personal File series description (autobiographical sketch and handwritten chronology of Jacobson's role in the recognition of Israel). https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/hstpaper/jacobson.htm
[^8]: Harry S. Truman Library, "Granoff, A. J. Papers," finding aid, including the reference to the Granoff oral history, OH #68, conducted in 1969. https://trumanlibrary.gov/granoff.htm
[^9]: Harry S. Truman, "Statement by the President Announcing Recognition of the State of Israel," May 14, 1948, Public Papers, Harry S. Truman Library. https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/public-papers/100/statement-president-announcing-recognition-state-israel
[^10]: Harry S. Truman Library, "Recognition of the State of Israel," online collection, document listing for Palestine, Israel - Jewish State, 1948-1949, OF 204-D (item dated January 31, 1949). https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/online-collections/recognition-of-state-of-israel
[^11]: Harry S. Truman Library, "Abraham Feinberg Oral History Interview," interview of August 23, 1973 by Richard D. McKinzie, biographical note. https://trumanlibrary.gov/oralhist/feinberg.htm
[^12]: Seymour M. Hersh, *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy* (Random House, 1991), chapter 2.
[^13]: Telegram from the Acting Secretary of State to the Embassy in France (Gadel 391), December 8, 1951, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1951*, volume V, The Near East and Africa, document 546 (file 320/12-851). https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1951v05/d546
[^14]: Memorandum from the Joint Chiefs of Staff to Secretary of War Stimson and Secretary of the Navy Forrestal, September 19, 1945, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1945-1950, Emergence of the Intelligence Establishment*, document 13. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1945-50Intel/d13
[^15]: Executive Order 9621, "Termination of the Office of Strategic Services and Disposition of Its Functions," September 20, 1945, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1945-1950, Emergence of the Intelligence Establishment*, document 14, paragraphs 1, 2, 3 and 6. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1945-50Intel/d14
[^16]: Memorandum from the Director of the Bureau of the Budget (Smith) to President Truman, October 31, 1945, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1945-1950, Emergence of the Intelligence Establishment*, document 38. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1945-50Intel/d38
[^17]: Presidential Directive on Coordination of Foreign Intelligence Activities, January 22, 1946, paragraphs 1, 2 and 4, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1945-1950, Emergence of the Intelligence Establishment*, document 71 (printed from *Public Papers of the Presidents: Harry S. Truman, 1946*, pp. 88-89). https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1945-50Intel/d71
[^18]: Memorandum from the Director of Central Intelligence (Souers) to President Truman, April 17, 1946, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1945-1950, Emergence of the Intelligence Establishment*, document 109. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1945-50Intel/d109
[^19]: Letter from the Director of Central Intelligence (Vandenberg) to the Director of the FBI (Hoover), July 3, 1946, document 113; Memorandum from the President's Chief of Staff (Leahy) to the Director of Central Intelligence (Vandenberg), August 12, 1946, document 125, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1945-1950, Emergence of the Intelligence Establishment*. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1945-50Intel/d125
[^20]: National Security Act of July 26, 1947, Public Law 80-253, 61 Stat. 495, sections 101 and 102. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-61/pdf/STATUTE-61-Pg495.pdf
[^21]: Memorandum from the Executive Secretary of the National Security Council (Souers) to Director of Central Intelligence Hillenkoetter, December 17, 1947 (editorial note on NSC 4-A), *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1945-1950, Emergence of the Intelligence Establishment*, document 257. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1945-50Intel/d257
[^22]: Editorial note on the directive of April 4, 1951 establishing the Psychological Strategy Board, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1950-1955, The Intelligence Community*, document 60. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1950-55Intel/d60
[^23]: Truman to Acheson, March 1, 1950, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1950*, volume IV, document 127. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1950v04/d127
[^24]: Barrett to Acheson, March 6, 1950, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1950*, volume IV, document 131. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1950v04/d131
[^25]: Daniel Bessner, "The Night Watchman," pp. 229 and 237 with note 38 (Barrett's later claim).
[^26]: Harry S. Truman, "Address on Foreign Policy at a Luncheon of the American Society of Newspaper Editors," April 20, 1950, Public Papers, Harry S. Truman Library. https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/public-papers/92/address-foreign-policy-luncheon-american-society-newspaper-editors
[^27]: Harry S. Truman, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1949, Public Papers, Harry S. Truman Library. https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/public-papers/19/inaugural-address
[^28]: Report to the National Security Council by the Executive Secretary (Lay), NSC 68, April 14, 1950, enclosing the President's letter and the Report to the President pursuant to the Presidential directive of January 31, 1950 (April 7, 1950), *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1950*, volume I, document 85. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1950v01/d85
[^29]: Harry S. Truman, "Statement and Order by the President on Relieving General MacArthur of His Commands," April 11, 1951, Public Papers, Harry S. Truman Library, including the note listing the Presidential memorandum of December 5, 1950 and the Joint Chiefs message of March 20, 1951. https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/public-papers/77/statement-and-order-president-relieving-general-macarthur-his-commands
[^30]: Harry S. Truman, "Statement by the President Announcing the Use of the A-Bomb at Hiroshima," August 6, 1945, American Presidency Project. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/231158
[^31]: Harry S. Truman, "Statement by the President Announcing the First Atomic Explosion in the U.S.S.R.," September 23, 1949, Public Papers, Harry S. Truman Library. https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/public-papers/216/statement-president-announcing-first-atomic-explosion-ussr
[^32]: Memorandum for the President from Acting Secretary of State Dean Acheson, "Interim Exploitation of German and Austrian Specialists in the United States," received August 30, 1946, with the notation "approved 9/3/46," Harry S. Truman Library document set on Operation Paperclip (FOIA release printed April 21, 2009), page 6 of 10 of the second group. https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/trumanlibrary-paperclip.pdf
[^33]: Memorandum for the President, War Department, September 4, 1946, Harry S. Truman Library document set on Operation Paperclip (FOIA release printed April 21, 2009), page 5 of 10 of the second group. https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/trumanlibrary-paperclip.pdf
[^34]: Harry S. Truman Library document set on Operation Paperclip (FOIA release printed April 21, 2009), SWNCC 257/22, Appendix B, paragraph 5, copy hosted by The Black Vault. https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/trumanlibrary-paperclip.pdf
[^35]: Annie Jacobsen, *Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program That Brought Nazi Scientists to America* (Little, Brown, 2014).
[^36]: Memorandum to the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense, "Communications Intelligence Activities," October 24, 1952, National Security Agency declassified documents, National Security Archive copy. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB23/docs/doc02.pdf
[^37]: National Security Archive, "Declassified - The National Security Agency," Electronic Briefing Book 23, entries for Documents 2a (Truman memorandum, October 24, 1952) and 2b (NSCID No. 9, December 29, 1952). https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB23/
[^38]: National Security Agency, "Origins of NSA" (history adapted from the Senate Select Committee on Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Foreign and Military Intelligence*, Book I, 94th Congress, 2nd Session, April 26, 1976). https://irp.fas.org/nsa/oldind.html
[^39]: Gerald K. Haines, "CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947-90," *Studies in Intelligence* (1997), sections "Early CIA Concerns, 1947-52" and "The Robertson Panel, 1952-53." https://sgp.fas.org/library/ciaufo.html
[^40]: Edward J. Ruppelt, *The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects* (Doubleday, 1956), chapter 12, "The Washington Merry-Go-Round." https://nicap.org/rufo/rufo-12.htm
[^41]: Harry S. Truman Library, "Landry, Robert B. Papers," finding aid (Landry as Air Force Aide to the President, 1948-1953). https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/personal-papers/robert-b-landry-papers
[^42]: Edward J. Ruppelt, *The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects* (Doubleday, 1956), chapter 12. https://nicap.org/rufo/rufo-12.htm
[^43]: Gerald K. Haines, "CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947-90," *Studies in Intelligence* (1997), section "The 1980s." https://sgp.fas.org/library/ciaufo.html
[^44]: Harry S. Truman, "Limit CIA Role to Intelligence," *Washington Post*, December 22, 1963, datelined Independence, Missouri, December 21. The syndicated article was printed in *The Detroit News*, December 22, 1963, p. 16, under the subhead "CIA Diverted" (https://www.newspapers.com/image/1382512360/), and in the *Journal and Courier* (Lafayette, Indiana), December 21, 1963, p. 8.
[^45]: Ray McGovern, "Truman's True Warning on the CIA," *Consortium News*, December 22, 2013. https://consortiumnews.com/2013/12/22/trumans-true-warning-on-the-cia/

10
10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/R. Gordon Wasson.md
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@ -20,16 +20,18 @@ In August 1954, Wasson shared his information with Puharich, who then briefed hi
In June 1955, Wasson, accompanied by photographer Allan Richardson, arrived in Huautla de Jiménez, Oaxaca, and became the first white men in recorded history to eat the divine mushrooms. Wasson reported intense hallucinations but no divinatory powers. Upon his return, he sent a cache of mushrooms to Puharich for chemical analysis[^1].
Wasson's work gained widespread public attention when he struck a publishing deal with *Life* magazine and authored a twelve-page account of his experience titled "Seeking the Magic Mushroom." While he omitted any mention of the CIA's involvement, he highlighted the mushroom's alleged ability to access and enhance [[Extrasensory Perception|ESP]]. The article caused a sensation, effectively undermining the CIA's desire to keep the drug a secret psychic weapon under military intelligence control, as pleasure seekers flocked to Mexico to consume *God's flesh*[^1].
Wasson's work gained widespread public attention when he struck a publishing deal with *Life* magazine and authored an account of his experience titled "Seeking the Magic Mushroom," published on pages 100 to 102 and 109 to 120 of the May 13, 1957 issue.[^2] While he omitted any mention of the CIA's involvement, he highlighted the mushroom's alleged ability to access and enhance [[Extrasensory Perception|ESP]]. The article caused a sensation, effectively undermining the CIA's desire to keep the drug a secret psychic weapon under military intelligence control, as pleasure seekers flocked to Mexico to consume *God's flesh*[^1].
### Mushrooms, Russia and History
Decades before the Mexican expeditions, Wasson and Valentina had become fascinated by how different societies treat mushrooms, finding whole nationalities (Russians, Catalans) to be mycophiles and others (Anglo-Saxons) mycophobes; their limited-edition *Mushrooms, Russia and History* (1957, $125 new) catalogued the legends and photographs of nearly every known species.[^2]
Decades before the Mexican expeditions, Wasson and Valentina had become fascinated by how different societies treat mushrooms, finding whole nationalities (Russians, Catalans) to be mycophiles and others (Anglo-Saxons) mycophobes; their limited-edition *Mushrooms, Russia and History* (1957, $125 new) catalogued the legends and photographs of nearly every known species.[^3]
### The 1955 Velada and the 1956 Expedition
On June 29, 1955 Wasson and photographer Allan Richardson reached the town hall at Huautla de Jiménez and were led to [[Maria Sabina|María Sabina]], a curandera Wasson called a *señora sin mancha*; that night the two men each ate twelve mushrooms, and Wasson recorded "a fission of the spirit, a split in the person." On the 1956 return trip, joined by James Moore and the French mycologist [[Roger Heim]] with a $2,000 contribution from the [[Geschickter Fund for Medical Research|Geschickter Fund]], Heim later grew the mushrooms from spore prints in [[Paris]] and sent samples to [[Albert Hofmann]] at [[Sandoz]], who isolated the active compound and named it [[Psilocybin]], beating the CIA to "God's flesh." Wasson's 1957 *Life* account ran 17 pages and lured waves of Americans to Mexico, among them a young Harvard psychologist named [[Timothy Leary]], who ate his first mushrooms in 1959.[^2]
On June 29, 1955 Wasson and photographer Allan Richardson reached the town hall at Huautla de Jiménez and were led to [[Maria Sabina|María Sabina]], a curandera Wasson called a *señora sin mancha*; that night the two men each ate twelve mushrooms, and Wasson recorded "a fission of the spirit, a split in the person." On the 1956 return trip, joined by James Moore and the French mycologist [[Roger Heim]] with a $2,000 contribution from the [[Geschickter Fund for Medical Research|Geschickter Fund]], Heim later grew the mushrooms from spore prints in [[Paris]] and sent samples to [[Albert Hofmann]] at [[Sandoz]], who isolated the active compound and named it [[Psilocybin]], beating the CIA to "God's flesh." Wasson's 1957 *Life* account ran 17 pages and lured waves of Americans to Mexico, among them a young Harvard psychologist named [[Timothy Leary]], who ate his first mushrooms in 1959.[^3]
### 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]: John D. Marks, *The Search for the Manchurian Candidate*, Chapter 7.
[^2]: Wasson, R. Gordon. "Seeking the Magic Mushroom," *Life*, vol. 42, no. 19, May 13, 1957, pp. 100-102, 109-120. https://archive.org/details/Life-1957-05-13-Vol-42-No-19
[^3]: John D. Marks, *The Search for the Manchurian Candidate*, Chapter 7.

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20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/NSA.md
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@ -28,19 +28,19 @@ relations:
role: "Navy officer assigned to a research billet; Project LIGHTNING (ultra-high-speed computers)"
start: 1960
end: 1963
fn: 5
fn: 6
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Bill Hamilton]]"
reverse: true
role: "worked for NSA in the 1960s according to NSA's statement to the Bua inquiry; personnel records purged"
fn: 13
fn: 14
- type: investigated
with: "[[Church Committee]]"
reverse: true
role: "hearings on SHAMROCK and the watch list activity, October 29 and November 6, 1975"
start: 1975
end: 1975
fn: 1
fn: 2
---
- type: head_of
with: "[[Bobby Ray Inman]]"
@ -48,75 +48,76 @@ relations:
role: "director"
start: 1977-07-05
end: 1981-02
fn: 2
The National Security Agency (NSA) was established by a presidential memorandum of October 1952, which directed the creation of the agency, designated the Secretary of Defense as the President's executive agent for communications intelligence, and set out the agency's missions. The agency's director, Lieutenant General [[Lew Allen]], described it in that form to the [[Church Committee]] on October 29, 1975.[^1] Its headquarters are at [[Fort Meade]], Maryland, where the Army's [[United States Army Intelligence and Security Command]] (INSCOM) also kept its remote viewing unit.
fn: 3
The National Security Agency (NSA) was established in 1952. President [[Harry S. Truman]] sent a memorandum on communications intelligence activities to the Secretaries of State and Defense on October 24, 1952; Major General [[Ralph J. Canine]] became the agency's first director on November 4, 1952; and a revised National Security Council Intelligence Directive No. 9 is dated December 29, 1952.[^1] The agency's director, Lieutenant General [[Lew Allen]], described the founding to the [[Church Committee]] on October 29, 1975 as a presidential memorandum of October 1952 that directed the creation of the agency, designated the Secretary of Defense as the President's executive agent for communications intelligence, and set out the agency's missions.[^2] Its headquarters are at [[Fort Meade]], Maryland, where the Army's [[United States Army Intelligence and Security Command]] (INSCOM) also kept its remote viewing unit.
### Director Bobby Ray Inman, 1977 to 1981
Bobby Ray Inman became director on July 5, 1977. In February 1981 he told the [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]] that he had served as director "since 5 July 1977."[^2] He told the committee that during his four years at the agency "this committee constantly pressed on the administration the question of the adequacy of the intelligence assets."[^2]
Bobby Ray Inman became director on July 5, 1977. In February 1981 he told the [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]] that he had served as director "since 5 July 1977."[^3] He told the committee that during his four years at the agency "this committee constantly pressed on the administration the question of the adequacy of the intelligence assets."[^3]
The BBC's Tim Harford wrote in 2017 that the agency's head "was genuinely puzzled about the academics' motives" in the public-key cryptography episode, and that he "soon accepted that the professor had a point and no prosecutions followed."[^3]
The BBC's Tim Harford wrote in 2017 that the agency's head "was genuinely puzzled about the academics' motives" in the public-key cryptography episode, and that he "soon accepted that the professor had a point and no prosecutions followed."[^4]
A Senate executive summary of January 1993 records that Inman testified that the NSA's signals intelligence collection in Southeast Asia was dismantled after the war and was not resumed until at least 1978.[^4]
A Senate executive summary of January 1993 records that Inman testified that the NSA's signals intelligence collection in Southeast Asia was dismantled after the war and was not resumed until at least 1978.[^5]
### SHAMROCK and the watch list activity
The Church Committee's statement of November 6, 1975 described SHAMROCK as a message collection program in which the government persuaded three international telegraph companies, [[RCA Global]], [[ITT World Communications]] and [[Western Union International]], to make their international telegraph traffic available, so that "for almost 30 years, copies of most international telegrams originating in or forwarded through the United States were turned over to the National Security Agency and its predecessor agencies." The committee found that the [[Army Security Agency]], later folded into INSCOM, was the first agency with operational responsibility for SHAMROCK; the [[Armed Forces Security Agency]] inherited it in 1949 and NSA assumed operational control when it was created in 1952. The committee added that no documents at NSA or the Department of Defense reflected the operational arrangements between the government and the companies.[^1] In his own testimony Allen separately described a "watch list activity" conducted by NSA between 1967 and 1973 in response to requirements levied by other government agencies, and the committee chairman's opening statement noted that NSA, like the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] and the [[Internal Revenue Service]], had maintained a watch list containing the names of United States citizens.[^1]
The Church Committee's statement of November 6, 1975 described SHAMROCK as a message collection program in which the government persuaded three international telegraph companies, [[RCA Global]], [[ITT World Communications]] and [[Western Union International]], to make their international telegraph traffic available, so that "for almost 30 years, copies of most international telegrams originating in or forwarded through the United States were turned over to the National Security Agency and its predecessor agencies." The committee found that the [[Army Security Agency]], later folded into INSCOM, was the first agency with operational responsibility for SHAMROCK; the [[Armed Forces Security Agency]] inherited it in 1949 and NSA assumed operational control when it was created in 1952. The committee added that no documents at NSA or the Department of Defense reflected the operational arrangements between the government and the companies.[^2] In his own testimony Allen separately described a "watch list activity" conducted by NSA between 1967 and 1973 in response to requirements levied by other government agencies, and the committee chairman's opening statement noted that NSA, like the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] and the [[Internal Revenue Service]], had maintained a watch list containing the names of United States citizens.[^2]
### Hal Puthoff at the NSA
[[Hal Puthoff]], later the principal investigator of the [[Stanford Research Institute]] remote viewing work, reported to active duty as a [[U.S. Navy|Navy]] officer in 1960 after taking a master's degree at the [[University of Florida]] and was assigned to a research billet at the NSA at Fort Meade. According to the biography SRI filed with its 1979 Grill Flame protocol, he pursued research and monitored contracts on the development of ultra-high-speed computers under Project LIGHTNING, started a program on the potential of lasers, fiber optics and related devices for optical computers, received a Department of Defense Certificate of Commendation, and won second prize for outstanding paper of the year in the NSA Technical Journal in 1963. He left active duty in February 1963 and remained a civilian (GS-13) until September 1963, when he entered [[Stanford University]].[^5]
[[Hal Puthoff]], later the principal investigator of the [[Stanford Research Institute]] remote viewing work, reported to active duty as a [[U.S. Navy|Navy]] officer in 1960 after taking a master's degree at the [[University of Florida]] and was assigned to a research billet at the NSA at Fort Meade. According to the biography SRI filed with its 1979 Grill Flame protocol, he pursued research and monitored contracts on the development of ultra-high-speed computers under Project LIGHTNING, started a program on the potential of lasers, fiber optics and related devices for optical computers, received a Department of Defense Certificate of Commendation, and won second prize for outstanding paper of the year in the NSA Technical Journal in 1963. He left active duty in February 1963 and remained a civilian (GS-13) until September 1963, when he entered [[Stanford University]].[^6]
### The 1973 West Virginia target
SRI's final report for the period January 1974 through February 1975 describes experiments "under the control of the sponsor," in which an SRI experimenter requested geographical coordinates of a site unknown to the experimenters and subjects from "the sponsor's group responsible for threat analysis." The coordinates received were 38 degrees 23 minutes 45 seconds to 48 seconds north, 79 degrees 25 minutes west, described only as being in West Virginia. On May 29, 1973 [[Puthoff]] relayed them by telephone to a first subject, designated S3 in the final report and named as [[Ingo Swann]] in SRI's October 1, 1973 proposal, whose sessions of May 29 and 30 described rolling hills, lawns like those around a military base, and "either some old bunkers around, or maybe this is a covered reservoir." On June 1, 1973 Puthoff gave the coordinates to a second subject, designated S1 and named as [[Pat Price]] in the proposal, whose written response of June 2 reported a peak in a mountain chain, a concealed road, a "former missile site" where underground rooms held records, microfilm and file cabinets under "Army 5th Corps Engineers," and, beyond them, bays "with computers, communication equipment, large maps" staffed by the Army Signal Corps. The report states that both West Virginia reports and the report on a Urals site that Price volunteered were "verified by personnel in the sponsor organization as being substantially correct."[^6]
SRI's final report for the period January 1974 through February 1975 describes experiments "under the control of the sponsor," in which an SRI experimenter requested geographical coordinates of a site unknown to the experimenters and subjects from "the sponsor's group responsible for threat analysis." The coordinates received were 38 degrees 23 minutes 45 seconds to 48 seconds north, 79 degrees 25 minutes west, described only as being in West Virginia. On May 29, 1973 [[Puthoff]] relayed them by telephone to a first subject, designated S3 in the final report and named as [[Ingo Swann]] in SRI's October 1, 1973 proposal, whose sessions of May 29 and 30 described rolling hills, lawns like those around a military base, and "either some old bunkers around, or maybe this is a covered reservoir." On June 1, 1973 Puthoff gave the coordinates to a second subject, designated S1 and named as [[Pat Price]] in the proposal, whose written response of June 2 reported a peak in a mountain chain, a concealed road, a "former missile site" where underground rooms held records, microfilm and file cabinets under "Army 5th Corps Engineers," and, beyond them, bays "with computers, communication equipment, large maps" staffed by the Army Signal Corps. The report states that both West Virginia reports and the report on a Urals site that Price volunteered were "verified by personnel in the sponsor organization as being substantially correct."[^7]
On a later date, the report says, S1 was asked to return to the site "with the goal of obtaining information on code words," and supplied the following: top of desk with papers labeled "Flytrap" and "Minerva"; a file cabinet labeled "Operation Pool"; folders labeled "Cueball," "14 Ball," "4 Ball," "8 Ball" and "Rackup"; a site name that "vaguely seems like Hayfork or Haystack"; and the personnel "Col. R. J. Hamilton, Maj. Gen. George R. Nash, Major John C. Calhoun (??)."[^6] The name Sugar Grove does not appear in the SRI report. An article by the former [[Time]] science correspondent John L. Wilhelm in [[The Washington Post]] (c. 1977) wrote that the coordinates were encoded and passed through an NSA monitor in the Washington area to a CIA scientist at [[Menlo Park]], that the site was a satellite interrogation station which "eavesdrops on Soviet space vehicles," that an officer exclaimed "Hell, there's no security left," and that a security investigation was launched to determine whether the information had leaked to Price. Wilhelm, who also names Sugar Grove in listing the explanations later offered, quoted a source as saying the security men "wouldn't buy the idea of remote viewing."[^7] An Army briefing script on the Grill Flame program, describing the same episode without naming the site, states that the viewer "actually entered the place, calling out names of people who were working there," that he "read" classified codewords on folders, some locked inside security containers, and that "the CIA later confirmed with NSA the validity of much of the subject's information."[^8]
On a later date, the report says, S1 was asked to return to the site "with the goal of obtaining information on code words," and supplied the following: top of desk with papers labeled "Flytrap" and "Minerva"; a file cabinet labeled "Operation Pool"; folders labeled "Cueball," "14 Ball," "4 Ball," "8 Ball" and "Rackup"; a site name that "vaguely seems like Hayfork or Haystack"; and the personnel "Col. R. J. Hamilton, Maj. Gen. George R. Nash, Major John C. Calhoun (??)."[^7] The name Sugar Grove does not appear in the SRI report. An article by the former [[Time]] science correspondent John L. Wilhelm in [[The Washington Post]] (c. 1977) wrote that the coordinates were encoded and passed through an NSA monitor in the Washington area to a CIA scientist at [[Menlo Park]], that the site was a satellite interrogation station which "eavesdrops on Soviet space vehicles," that an officer exclaimed "Hell, there's no security left," and that a security investigation was launched to determine whether the information had leaked to Price. Wilhelm, who also names Sugar Grove in listing the explanations later offered, quoted a source as saying the security men "wouldn't buy the idea of remote viewing."[^8] An Army briefing script on the Grill Flame program, describing the same episode without naming the site, states that the viewer "actually entered the place, calling out names of people who were working there," that he "read" classified codewords on folders, some locked inside security containers, and that "the CIA later confirmed with NSA the validity of much of the subject's information."[^9]
### NSA and the Army remote viewing program
An INSCOM staff paper of 1982, written when [[Congress]] was ending National Foreign Intelligence Program funding for the Army's Grill Flame project, listed among the options for its future a determination "if the Director, NSA would integrate the current INSCOM GRILL FLAME project into any NSA program."[^9] A September 22, 1982 memorandum from the 902d Military Intelligence Group set out the mechanics of NSA sponsorship: the psi personnel could be carried on the rolls of the CONUS MI Group, the housekeeping organization for Army personnel working at NSA, under a "Strategic Systems Planning Detachment" with funding provided by the NSA sponsor and tasking exercised by the INSCOM commander through an INSCOM liaison officer at the NSA.[^10] INSCOM's chronology records that Lieutenant General [[Lincoln D. Faurer]], director of the NSA, was briefed on the program on August 2, 1982.[^9]
An INSCOM staff paper of 1982, written when [[Congress]] was ending National Foreign Intelligence Program funding for the Army's Grill Flame project, listed among the options for its future a determination "if the Director, NSA would integrate the current INSCOM GRILL FLAME project into any NSA program."[^10] A September 22, 1982 memorandum from the 902d Military Intelligence Group set out the mechanics of NSA sponsorship: the psi personnel could be carried on the rolls of the CONUS MI Group, the housekeeping organization for Army personnel working at NSA, under a "Strategic Systems Planning Detachment" with funding provided by the NSA sponsor and tasking exercised by the INSCOM commander through an INSCOM liaison officer at the NSA.[^11] INSCOM's chronology records that Lieutenant General [[Lincoln D. Faurer]], director of the NSA, was briefed on the program on August 2, 1982.[^10]
On August 27, 1982 the Grill Flame project manager, Lieutenant Colonel [[Robert Jachim]], recorded a conversation with NSA personnel. The NSA people said the agency had "no active remote viewers," asked INSCOM how remote viewers were selected, what psychological battery was used, whether a screening questionnaire could be provided and what training SRI had offered, and were given copies of articles from Signal, [[Omni]] and an [[IEEE]] article by [[Robert Jahn]] of Princeton. Jachim wrote that Puthoff had telephoned an NSA contact to say that some of SRI's funding had not materialized and to invite NSA into the program, and that the NSA contact "was noncommittal." The memorandum gives an internal NSA designation for the agency's own parapsychology activity, which is redacted in the released copy.[^11] A 1984 INSCOM commanding general's memorandum lists the NSA among the agencies that had tasked remote viewing and says an evaluation from the NSA, with one from the CIA, was attached to it.[^12]
On August 27, 1982 the Grill Flame project manager, Lieutenant Colonel [[Robert Jachim]], recorded a conversation with NSA personnel. The NSA people said the agency had "no active remote viewers," asked INSCOM how remote viewers were selected, what psychological battery was used, whether a screening questionnaire could be provided and what training SRI had offered, and were given copies of articles from Signal, [[Omni]] and an [[IEEE]] article by [[Robert Jahn]] of Princeton. Jachim wrote that Puthoff had telephoned an NSA contact to say that some of SRI's funding had not materialized and to invite NSA into the program, and that the NSA contact "was noncommittal." The memorandum gives an internal NSA designation for the agency's own parapsychology activity, which is redacted in the released copy.[^12] A 1984 INSCOM commanding general's memorandum lists the NSA among the agencies that had tasked remote viewing and says an evaluation from the NSA, with one from the CIA, was attached to it.[^13]
### PROMIS
An NSA database named PROMIS appears in the [[Department of Justice]] inquiry into the INSLAW matter. The 1993 report of Special Counsel [[Nicholas J. Bua]] records that [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] told Bua's team that the "PROMIS" software [[Earl Brian]] distributed to the Israelis was an NSA program and not INSLAW's, that the NSA had developed it to translate Vietnamese into English, and that [[Bill Hamilton]] had worked on it while employed at the NSA before INSLAW existed. Ben-Menashe had earlier sworn affidavits for INSLAW stating that Brian told a 1987 Israeli meeting that the CIA, the NSA, the Department of Justice and Israeli intelligence had been allowed to use PROMIS since 1982; he told Bua that he had let the Hamiltons "assume" he meant INSLAW's product. The Bua report states that the NSA told the investigators Hamilton had worked for the NSA in the 1960s but that, because his personnel records had been purged, it could not say whether he had worked on such a program. The NSA also told them it used a commercial software package from [[Computer Corporation of America]] and that in 1974 and 1975, six years before INSLAW was incorporated, it had developed a database in the M204 language called PROMIS, an acronym for Product Related On-line Management Information System ("product" being the agency's term for its intelligence reports), which it said had no relationship to INSLAW's product and shared the name coincidentally. The NSA general counsel's office told the investigators that many NSA personnel knew of its PROMIS and that many had since moved to other agencies and private employers. The Bua report declined to credit the rest of Ben-Menashe's account.[^13]
An NSA database named PROMIS appears in the [[Department of Justice]] inquiry into the INSLAW matter. The 1993 report of Special Counsel [[Nicholas J. Bua]] records that [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] told Bua's team that the "PROMIS" software [[Earl Brian]] distributed to the Israelis was an NSA program and not INSLAW's, that the NSA had developed it to translate Vietnamese into English, and that [[Bill Hamilton]] had worked on it while employed at the NSA before INSLAW existed. Ben-Menashe had earlier sworn affidavits for INSLAW stating that Brian told a 1987 Israeli meeting that the CIA, the NSA, the Department of Justice and Israeli intelligence had been allowed to use PROMIS since 1982; he told Bua that he had let the Hamiltons "assume" he meant INSLAW's product. The Bua report states that the NSA told the investigators Hamilton had worked for the NSA in the 1960s but that, because his personnel records had been purged, it could not say whether he had worked on such a program. The NSA also told them it used a commercial software package from [[Computer Corporation of America]] and that in 1974 and 1975, six years before INSLAW was incorporated, it had developed a database in the M204 language called PROMIS, an acronym for Product Related On-line Management Information System ("product" being the agency's term for its intelligence reports), which it said had no relationship to INSLAW's product and shared the name coincidentally. The NSA general counsel's office told the investigators that many NSA personnel knew of its PROMIS and that many had since moved to other agencies and private employers. The Bua report declined to credit the rest of Ben-Menashe's account.[^14]
The House Judiciary Committee's 1992 report on the INSLAW affair had recorded a different claim: [[Juval Aviv]], a former Israeli intelligence officer and head of the investigative firm [[Interfor]], told committee investigators in January 1991 that Brian had sold INSLAW's Enhanced PROMIS to United States agencies outside the Department of Justice, including the CIA, the NSA, [[NASA]] and the [[National Security Council]], and to [[Interpol]], the [[Mossad]], the Israeli Air Force and the Egyptian government.[^14]
The House Judiciary Committee's 1992 report on the INSLAW affair had recorded a different claim: [[Juval Aviv]], a former Israeli intelligence officer and head of the investigative firm [[Interfor]], told committee investigators in January 1991 that Brian had sold INSLAW's Enhanced PROMIS to United States agencies outside the Department of Justice, including the CIA, the NSA, [[NASA]] and the [[National Security Council]], and to [[Interpol]], the [[Mossad]], the Israeli Air Force and the Egyptian government.[^15]
### UFO records and Citizens Against UFO Secrecy v. NSA
In [[Ground Saucer Watch]] v. CIA (D.D.C., Civil Action 78-859) the Central Intelligence Agency located documents that originated with the NSA and referred them to that agency in four separate referrals, the last on July 27, 1979. The attorney for the plaintiff, [[Peter A. Gersten]], then requested the documents from the NSA; by letters of January 9, 1979 and December 19, 1979 the NSA's policy staff chief, [[Roy R. Banner]], told him the records were classified in their entirety and exempt under 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(1) and (b)(3), the latter on the strength of 18 U.S.C. 798, 50 U.S.C. 403(d)(3) and Public Law 86-36. The NSA appeals authority affirmed on March 24, 1980, and in Citizens Against Unidentified Flying Objects Secrecy v. National Security Agency (D.D.C., Civil Action 80-1562) the agency's Chief of the Office of Policy, [[Eugene F. Yeates]], swore an affidavit that the withheld material consisted of communications intelligence reports that were "all based on intercepted foreign communications," whose disclosure would identify communications "successfully intercepted and processed," together with four non-COMINT records, and that he would supply a second affidavit classified Top Secret for the court's in camera consideration. A portion of one responsive document was declassified and released to plaintiff's counsel on September 15, 1980.[^15]
In [[Ground Saucer Watch]] v. CIA (D.D.C., Civil Action 78-859) the Central Intelligence Agency located documents that originated with the NSA and referred them to that agency in four separate referrals, the last on July 27, 1979. The attorney for the plaintiff, [[Peter A. Gersten]], then requested the documents from the NSA; by letters of January 9, 1979 and December 19, 1979 the NSA's policy staff chief, [[Roy R. Banner]], told him the records were classified in their entirety and exempt under 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(1) and (b)(3), the latter on the strength of 18 U.S.C. 798, 50 U.S.C. 403(d)(3) and Public Law 86-36. The NSA appeals authority affirmed on March 24, 1980, and in Citizens Against Unidentified Flying Objects Secrecy v. National Security Agency (D.D.C., Civil Action 80-1562) the agency's Chief of the Office of Policy, [[Eugene F. Yeates]], swore an affidavit that the withheld material consisted of communications intelligence reports that were "all based on intercepted foreign communications," whose disclosure would identify communications "successfully intercepted and processed," together with four non-COMINT records, and that he would supply a second affidavit classified Top Secret for the court's in camera consideration. A portion of one responsive document was declassified and released to plaintiff's counsel on September 15, 1980.[^16]
### The KH-11 and the Israeli access dispute
[[Seymour Hersh]] wrote in *The Samson Option* that a former NSA official told him the KH-11 satellite, launched in December 1976, was considered the most important advance of its time in reconnaissance photography, that every military and civilian intelligence agency had an urgent requirement for its imagery, and that the NSA, responsible for all communications intelligence, had a role in scheduling the satellite to maximize collection. Hersh wrote that [[Jimmy Carter]]'s decision in March 1979 to give [[Israel]] direct access to KH-11 photographs disrupted that scheduling and was unpopular within the NSA and other agencies, and that during the [[Ronald Reagan]] administration it was learned that Israeli military officers were permitted to attend Pentagon meetings where future KH-11 missions and orbital paths were discussed, which dismayed some NSA officials.[^16]
[[Seymour Hersh]] wrote in *The Samson Option* that a former NSA official told him the KH-11 satellite, launched in December 1976, was considered the most important advance of its time in reconnaissance photography, that every military and civilian intelligence agency had an urgent requirement for its imagery, and that the NSA, responsible for all communications intelligence, had a role in scheduling the satellite to maximize collection. Hersh wrote that [[Jimmy Carter]]'s decision in March 1979 to give [[Israel]] direct access to KH-11 photographs disrupted that scheduling and was unpopular within the NSA and other agencies, and that during the [[Ronald Reagan]] administration it was learned that Israeli military officers were permitted to attend Pentagon meetings where future KH-11 missions and orbital paths were discussed, which dismayed some NSA officials.[^17]
### USS Liberty intercepts, 2003 to 2007
The NSA released transcripts of intercepts made after the June 8, 1967, attack on the [[USS Liberty Incident|USS Liberty]] in July 2003, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by [[A. Jay Cristol]] filed April 26, 2001. The letter of July 2, 2003, enclosed three recordings of Israeli communications in Hebrew, three transcripts and two summary reports, and states that "No communications of the attacking aircraft or torpedo boats were available" and that an EC-121 aircraft had collected conversations between two Israeli helicopter pilots and the control tower at Hazor Airfield; it states that portions were withheld under Executive Order 12958 and under statutes including 18 U.S.C. 798 and Section 6 of Public Law 86-36.[^17] In January 2004 the agency's historian, [[David Hatch]], said the new material "doesn't settle much," according to the Financial Times, and that his reading of the air controller's conversations with two helicopter pilots "suggested strongly" that the Israelis did not know at first that the ship was American.[^18] On June 8, 2007, the NSA announced that it had finished its review of all material relating to the attack and had posted additional documents, stating: "It is not NSA's intention to prove or disprove any one set of conclusions, many of which can be drawn from a thorough review of this material."[^19] [[Oliver Kirby]], the NSA deputy director for operations/production in 1967, said in an interview of February 14, 2003 that within weeks of the attack he read transcripts of the Israeli pilots' conversations that made it "absolutely certain" the Israelis knew the ship was American.[^20] The Chicago Tribune reported on October 2, 2007 that the NSA's position was that it never intercepted the communications of the attacking Israeli pilots; quoted Kirby as saying "I'm willing to swear on a stack of Bibles that we knew they knew"; quoted Michael Prostinak, a Hebrew linguist aboard the EC-121, as saying "there were more tapes than just the three on the Internet"; and reported that the posted tape designated A1104/A-02 begins at 2:29 p.m. local time and that a preceding tape designated A1104/A-01 is absent. An NSA media adviser did not respond to the Tribune's question about the difference.[^21]
The NSA released transcripts of intercepts made after the June 8, 1967, attack on the [[USS Liberty Incident|USS Liberty]] in July 2003, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by [[A. Jay Cristol]] filed April 26, 2001. The letter of July 2, 2003, enclosed three recordings of Israeli communications in Hebrew, three transcripts and two summary reports, and states that "No communications of the attacking aircraft or torpedo boats were available" and that an EC-121 aircraft had collected conversations between two Israeli helicopter pilots and the control tower at Hazor Airfield; it states that portions were withheld under Executive Order 12958 and under statutes including 18 U.S.C. 798 and Section 6 of Public Law 86-36.[^18] In January 2004 the agency's historian, [[David Hatch]], said the new material "doesn't settle much," according to the Financial Times, and that his reading of the air controller's conversations with two helicopter pilots "suggested strongly" that the Israelis did not know at first that the ship was American.[^19] On June 8, 2007, the NSA announced that it had finished its review of all material relating to the attack and had posted additional documents, stating: "It is not NSA's intention to prove or disprove any one set of conclusions, many of which can be drawn from a thorough review of this material."[^20] [[Oliver Kirby]], the NSA deputy director for operations/production in 1967, said in an interview of February 14, 2003 that within weeks of the attack he read transcripts of the Israeli pilots' conversations that made it "absolutely certain" the Israelis knew the ship was American.[^21] The Chicago Tribune reported on October 2, 2007 that the NSA's position was that it never intercepted the communications of the attacking Israeli pilots; quoted Kirby as saying "I'm willing to swear on a stack of Bibles that we knew they knew"; quoted Michael Prostinak, a Hebrew linguist aboard the EC-121, as saying "there were more tapes than just the three on the Internet"; and reported that the posted tape designated A1104/A-02 begins at 2:29 p.m. local time and that a preceding tape designated A1104/A-01 is absent. An NSA media adviser did not respond to the Tribune's question about the difference.[^22]
### Footnotes
[^1]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Intelligence Activities, Senate Resolution 21*, Hearings, vol. 5, "The National Security Agency and Fourth Amendment Rights," 94th Cong., 1st sess., October 29 and November 6, 1975 (testimony of Lt. Gen. Lew Allen, Jr.; committee statement on SHAMROCK read November 6), https://archive.org/details/Church-Committee-Hearings-Volume5-National-Security-Agency (text at https://archive.org/download/Church-Committee-Hearings-Volume5-National-Security-Agency/Vol5-NSA_djvu.txt).
[^2]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee on Intelligence, Nomination of Admiral B. R. Inman to Be Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, hearing of February 3, 1981 (Washington: GPO, 1981). https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/hearings/97inman.pdf
[^3]: Tim Harford, "Geeks v government: The battle over public key cryptography," BBC News, April 24, 2017. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39341663
[^4]: U.S. Senate, Report of the Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs, S. Rept. 103-1, Executive Summary, January 13, 1993. https://irp.fas.org/congress/1993_rpt/pow-exec.html
[^5]: "Proposed Grill Flame Protocol: Proposed SRI International Applied Remote Viewing Protocol," SRI 9-4107, March 23, 1979, CIA-RDP96-00788R001300070001-1, biography of Harold E. Puthoff, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r001300070001-1.
[^6]: Harold E. Puthoff and Russell Targ, "Perceptual Augmentation Techniques, Part Two: Research Report," final report covering January 1974 through February 1975, SRI International, December 1, 1975, section on "West Virginia Site (S3)," "West Virginia Site (S1)" and "Urals Site," CIA-RDP96-00788R001300030001-5, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r001300030001-5; and SRI Proposal for Research ISH 73-146, "Perceptual Augmentation Techniques, Part One," October 1, 1973, CIA-RDP96-00787R000700100001-5, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00787r000700100001-5, which names Price in the same passage.
[^7]: John L. Wilhelm, "The CIA, the Pentagon and the Russians: The Military Potential of Parapsychology," *The Washington Post* (c. 1977), as reproduced in CIA-RDP96-00788R001700360003-3, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r001700360003-3.
[^8]: "Army's Role in a Sensitive, Close-Hold DoD Project," Army briefing script on psychoenergetics (undated), CIA-RDP96-00787R000200020023-5, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00787r000200020023-5.
[^9]: Staff paper on termination of the Army Grill Flame program, 1982, and "Center Lane Historical Overview," CIA-RDP96-00788R001500180001-7, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r001500180001-7 and CIA-RDP96-00788R000400060001-2.
[^10]: Memorandum, "Detachment G Reorganization," 902d Military Intelligence Group Security Support Detachment, September 22, 1982, CIA-RDP96-00788R001700350013-3, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r001700350013-3.
[^11]: Memorandum for the record, "NSA Involvement in GRILL FLAME," Lt. Col. Robert J. Jachim, August 1982, CIA-RDP96-00788R001700230009-1, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r001700230009-1.
[^12]: INSCOM commanding general's memorandum and talking paper, May 4, 1984, CIA-RDP96-00788R001500180001-7.
[^13]: Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of Inslaw, Inc. (1993), pp. 73 to 80, released by the Department of Justice Office of Information Policy on September 30, 2013 (AG/13-00675 (F)), https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/nsa/DOJ-OIP-INSLAW_1993.pdf.
[^14]: U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, *The INSLAW Affair*, H. Rept. 102-857, September 10, 1992, pp. 67 to 68, https://archive.org/details/InslawAffairInvestigativeReport. The report records these statements as Aviv's account to committee investigators.
[^15]: Affidavit of Eugene F. Yeates, Chief, Office of Policy, National Security Agency, *Citizens Against Unidentified Flying Objects Secrecy v. National Security Agency*, Civil Action No. 80-1562 (D.D.C. 1980), https://www.nsa.gov/news-features/declassified-documents/ufo/assets/files/affadavit_yeates.pdf (archived copy: https://web.archive.org/web/2020/https://www.nsa.gov/news-features/declassified-documents/ufo/assets/files/affadavit_yeates.pdf).
[^16]: Seymour M. Hersh, *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy* (Random House, 1991). Hersh attributes the account of the KH-11 scheduling to an unnamed former NSA official.
[^17]: National Security Agency, letter from Louis F. Giles, Director of Policy, to A. Jay Cristol, FOIA Case 40039A, July 2, 2003. https://irp.fas.org/nsa/liberty.html
[^18]: Guy Dinmore, *Financial Times*, January 13, 2004, reprinted by the History News Network. https://www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/3027
[^19]: National Security Agency, "U.S.S. Liberty," release page (Wayback Machine 2007 capture). http://web.archive.org/web/2007/http://www.nsa.gov/liberty
[^20]: David C. Walsh, "Former NSA Officials Agree," *U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings*, June 2003. https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2003/june/former-nsa-officials-agree
[^21]: "New revelations in attack on American spy ship," *Chicago Tribune*, October 2, 2007. https://www.chicagotribune.com/2007/10/02/new-revelations-in-attack-on-american-spy-ship/
[^1]: Memorandum to the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense, "Communications Intelligence Activities," October 24, 1952, and NSCID No. 9, December 29, 1952, National Security Archive, Electronic Briefing Book 23, Documents 2a and 2b. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB23/ ; National Security Agency, "Origins of NSA" (Major General Ralph J. Canine first Director, November 4, 1952). https://irp.fas.org/nsa/oldind.html
[^2]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Intelligence Activities, Senate Resolution 21*, Hearings, vol. 5, "The National Security Agency and Fourth Amendment Rights," 94th Cong., 1st sess., October 29 and November 6, 1975 (testimony of Lt. Gen. Lew Allen, Jr.; committee statement on SHAMROCK read November 6), https://archive.org/details/Church-Committee-Hearings-Volume5-National-Security-Agency (text at https://archive.org/download/Church-Committee-Hearings-Volume5-National-Security-Agency/Vol5-NSA_djvu.txt).
[^3]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee on Intelligence, Nomination of Admiral B. R. Inman to Be Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, hearing of February 3, 1981 (Washington: GPO, 1981). https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/hearings/97inman.pdf
[^4]: Tim Harford, "Geeks v government: The battle over public key cryptography," BBC News, April 24, 2017. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39341663
[^5]: U.S. Senate, Report of the Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs, S. Rept. 103-1, Executive Summary, January 13, 1993. https://irp.fas.org/congress/1993_rpt/pow-exec.html
[^6]: "Proposed Grill Flame Protocol: Proposed SRI International Applied Remote Viewing Protocol," SRI 9-4107, March 23, 1979, CIA-RDP96-00788R001300070001-1, biography of Harold E. Puthoff, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r001300070001-1.
[^7]: Harold E. Puthoff and Russell Targ, "Perceptual Augmentation Techniques, Part Two: Research Report," final report covering January 1974 through February 1975, SRI International, December 1, 1975, section on "West Virginia Site (S3)," "West Virginia Site (S1)" and "Urals Site," CIA-RDP96-00788R001300030001-5, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r001300030001-5; and SRI Proposal for Research ISH 73-146, "Perceptual Augmentation Techniques, Part One," October 1, 1973, CIA-RDP96-00787R000700100001-5, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00787r000700100001-5, which names Price in the same passage.
[^8]: John L. Wilhelm, "The CIA, the Pentagon and the Russians: The Military Potential of Parapsychology," *The Washington Post* (c. 1977), as reproduced in CIA-RDP96-00788R001700360003-3, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r001700360003-3.
[^9]: "Army's Role in a Sensitive, Close-Hold DoD Project," Army briefing script on psychoenergetics (undated), CIA-RDP96-00787R000200020023-5, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00787r000200020023-5.
[^10]: Staff paper on termination of the Army Grill Flame program, 1982, and "Center Lane Historical Overview," CIA-RDP96-00788R001500180001-7, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r001500180001-7 and CIA-RDP96-00788R000400060001-2.
[^11]: Memorandum, "Detachment G Reorganization," 902d Military Intelligence Group Security Support Detachment, September 22, 1982, CIA-RDP96-00788R001700350013-3, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r001700350013-3.
[^12]: Memorandum for the record, "NSA Involvement in GRILL FLAME," Lt. Col. Robert J. Jachim, August 1982, CIA-RDP96-00788R001700230009-1, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r001700230009-1.
[^13]: INSCOM commanding general's memorandum and talking paper, May 4, 1984, CIA-RDP96-00788R001500180001-7.
[^14]: Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of Inslaw, Inc. (1993), pp. 73 to 80, released by the Department of Justice Office of Information Policy on September 30, 2013 (AG/13-00675 (F)), https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/nsa/DOJ-OIP-INSLAW_1993.pdf.
[^15]: U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, *The INSLAW Affair*, H. Rept. 102-857, September 10, 1992, pp. 67 to 68, https://archive.org/details/InslawAffairInvestigativeReport. The report records these statements as Aviv's account to committee investigators.
[^16]: Affidavit of Eugene F. Yeates, Chief, Office of Policy, National Security Agency, *Citizens Against Unidentified Flying Objects Secrecy v. National Security Agency*, Civil Action No. 80-1562 (D.D.C. 1980), https://www.nsa.gov/news-features/declassified-documents/ufo/assets/files/affadavit_yeates.pdf (archived copy: https://web.archive.org/web/2020/https://www.nsa.gov/news-features/declassified-documents/ufo/assets/files/affadavit_yeates.pdf).
[^17]: Seymour M. Hersh, *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy* (Random House, 1991). Hersh attributes the account of the KH-11 scheduling to an unnamed former NSA official.
[^18]: National Security Agency, letter from Louis F. Giles, Director of Policy, to A. Jay Cristol, FOIA Case 40039A, July 2, 2003. https://irp.fas.org/nsa/liberty.html
[^19]: Guy Dinmore, *Financial Times*, January 13, 2004, reprinted by the History News Network. https://www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/3027
[^20]: National Security Agency, "U.S.S. Liberty," release page (Wayback Machine 2007 capture). http://web.archive.org/web/2007/http://www.nsa.gov/liberty
[^21]: David C. Walsh, "Former NSA Officials Agree," *U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings*, June 2003. https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2003/june/former-nsa-officials-agree
[^22]: "New revelations in attack on American spy ship," *Chicago Tribune*, October 2, 2007. https://www.chicagotribune.com/2007/10/02/new-revelations-in-attack-on-american-spy-ship/

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@ -1,23 +1,336 @@
---
updated: 2026-10-03
tags: ["Organization", "Government", "USA"]
aliases:
- SEC
- U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
category: "U.S. Government"
summary: "The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is a U.S. government agency responsible for regulating the securities markets and protecting investors.[^1]"
tags:
- Organization
- Government
- USA
- Regulator
- SecuritiesEnforcement
- FCPA
- BCCI
- Vesco
- EDGAR
- JeffreyEpstein
- CryptoFraud
summary: "The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is a U.S. government agency responsible for regulating the securities markets and protecting investors."
start: 1934
location: "Washington, D.C."
updated: 2026-10-12
relations:
- type: head_of
with: "[[William J. Casey]]"
reverse: true
role: "chairman"
start: 1971-04-14
end: 1973-02-02
fn: 3
- type: head_of
with: "[[Jay Clayton]]"
reverse: true
role: "chairman"
start: 2017-05-04
end: 2020-12-23
fn: 3
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Stephen Cutler]]"
reverse: true
role: "director of the Division of Enforcement, October 2001 to April 2005"
start: 2001-10
end: 2005-04
fn: 27
- type: investigated
with: "[[International Controls Corporation]]"
role: "investigation of the 1970 purchase of control of Investors Overseas Services; injunctive action filed November 27, 1972"
start: 1972-11-27
fn: 2
- type: prosecuted
with: "[[Robert Vesco]]"
role: "civil injunctive action, Southern District of New York, November 27, 1972"
start: 1972-11-27
fn: 2
- type: investigated
with: "[[Jeffrey Epstein]]"
role: "insider-trading inquiry into St. Joe Minerals trading at Bear Stearns; testimony taken April 1, 1981"
start: 1981-04-01
fn: 16
- type: investigated
with: "[[Kamal Adham]]"
role: "inquiry under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act into Boeing and Lockheed arms sales to Saudi Arabia"
fn: 15
- type: investigated
with: "[[Faisal Saud al-Fulaij]]"
role: "inquiry under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act into Boeing and Lockheed arms sales to Saudi Arabia"
fn: 15
- type: prosecuted
with: "[[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]"
role: "SEC v. Bank of Credit and Commerce International, Civil Action No. 78-0469 (D.D.C.), consent injunctions"
start: 1978-03-18
fn: 12
- type: prosecuted
with: "[[Bert Lance]]"
role: "civil action over the Financial General Bankshares stock purchases (permanent injunction March 18, 1978, per the News Digest; April 27, 1978, per the Senate report); separate N.D. Ga. action with the Comptroller of the Currency, April 26, 1978"
start: 1978-03-18
fn: 13
- type: investigated
with: "[[Lockheed Aircraft Company]]"
role: "review of Lockheed's disclosure of questionable overseas payments and sales commissions"
start: 1975
fn: 7
- type: investigated
with: "[[Ghaith R. Pharaon]]"
role: "ownership filings for CenTrust Savings, August 1987"
start: 1987-08-12
fn: 17
- type: investigated
with: "[[George W. Bush]]"
role: "late Form 4 filings for Harken Energy stock; investigation terminated October 1993"
start: 1991-04-09
end: 1993-10
fn: 21
- type: prosecuted
with: "[[James Guerin]]"
role: "joint announcement with the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania of an indictment of Guerin and twenty others, October 31, 1991"
start: 1991-10-31
fn: 22
- type: prosecuted
with: "[[Towers Financial Corporation]]"
role: "SEC v. Towers Financial Corporation, 93 Civ. 0744 (S.D.N.Y.), February 1993"
start: 1993-02
fn: 25
- type: prosecuted
with: "[[Steven Hoffenberg]]"
role: "SEC v. Towers Financial Corporation, 93 Civ. 0744 (S.D.N.Y.), February 1993"
start: 1993-02
fn: 25
- type: prosecuted
with: "[[Michael Rosoff]]"
role: "civil complaint, 96 Civ. 7064 (S.D.N.Y.), September 17, 1996"
start: 1996-09-17
fn: 25
- type: prosecuted
with: "[[Earl Brian]]"
role: "charged with inflating revenue and earnings of Financial News Network; settled without admitting or denying, July 1993"
start: 1993-07
fn: 26
- type: prosecuted
with: "[[Ralph Cioffi]]"
role: "SEC v. Cioffi and Tannin, Civil Action No. 08 2457 (E.D.N.Y.)"
start: 2008-06-19
fn: 31
- type: prosecuted
with: "[[Matthew Tannin]]"
role: "SEC v. Cioffi and Tannin, Civil Action No. 08 2457 (E.D.N.Y.)"
start: 2008-06-19
fn: 31
- type: prosecuted
with: "[[JPMorgan Chase]]"
role: "Enron-related charges settled; $135 million disgorgement, penalty and interest"
start: 2003-07-28
fn: 28
- type: prosecuted
with: "[[Citigroup]]"
role: "Enron and Dynegy-related charges settled; $120 million"
start: 2003-07-28
fn: 28
- type: prosecuted
with: "[[Goldman Sachs]]"
role: "SEC v. Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Fabrice Tourre, synthetic CDO; $550 million settlement in 2010"
start: 2010-04-16
fn: 33
- type: prosecuted
with: "[[Goldman Sachs]]"
role: "FCPA order over 1MDB bond deals; $606.3 million disgorgement and $400 million penalty"
start: 2020-10-22
fn: 35
- type: prosecuted
with: "[[Cantor Fitzgerald]]"
role: "blue sheet data order, $3.2 million"
start: 2020-04-06
fn: 38
- type: prosecuted
with: "[[Cantor Fitzgerald]]"
role: "SPAC disclosure order, $6.75 million civil penalty"
start: 2024-12-12
fn: 39
- type: prosecuted
with: "[[Samuel Bankman-Fried]]"
role: "civil complaint, December 13, 2022"
start: 2022-12-13
fn: 40
- type: prosecuted
with: "[[Caroline Ellison]]"
role: "civil complaint, December 21, 2022; bifurcated consent to judgment"
start: 2022-12-21
fn: 41
- type: contractor_to
with: "[[BDM Corporation]]"
reverse: true
role: "EDGAR system contract awarded January 3, 1989, estimated cost $52 million over eight years"
start: 1989-01-03
fn: 18
---
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is a U.S. government agency responsible for regulating the securities markets and protecting investors.[^1]
### Involvement in BCCI Scandal
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is a U.S. government agency responsible for regulating the securities markets and protecting investors. It was founded in 1934 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.[^1] It brings civil actions in federal court and administrative proceedings, receives registration statements and periodic reports from public companies through the EDGAR system, and receives exempt-offering notices from private issuers.
The SEC filed suit against [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]], [[Agha Hasan Abedi]], [[Bert Lance]], and others in connection with the purchase of [[Financial General Bankshares]] stock.[^1] The nominees used by BCCI to secretly acquire Financial General Bankshares were summarily sued by the SEC for failing to declare that they were acting as a group.[^2]
### Vesco and International Controls, 1972 to 1974
### EDGAR contract
On November 27, 1972 the commission filed an injunctive action in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against [[Robert Vesco]] and 41 other corporate and individual defendants for violations of the antifraud, filing and proxy provisions of the federal securities laws.[^2] The complaint alleged that Vesco caused [[International Controls Corporation]] to transfer its investments in foreign companies to entities he controlled, and it described the early 1971 purchase of 6,000,000 shares of [[Investors Overseas Services]] (IOS) from [[Bernard Cornfeld]] for approximately 5,500,000 dollars.[^2]
The Baltimore Sun of January 5, 1989 reported that on Tuesday, January 3, 1989, after a delay of more than two years, the SEC awarded a 52 million dollar contract to build its electronic data gathering, analysis and retrieval system, EDGAR, to a consortium led by [[BDM Corporation|BDM Corp.]] of [[McLean, Virginia]], which the paper called "a subsidiary of the Ford Motor Co." The other members were [[Mead Data Central]], [[Sorg, Inc.]] and [[Bechtel Information Systems]]. The eight-year contract provided for BDM to design and install a computer to accept and disseminate all SEC filings by more than 11,000 publicly traded companies and 2,700 investment firms, and the SEC said EDGAR should provide more than 170 million dollars in savings.[^3]
The commission's chairman during the investigation was [[William J. Casey]], who held the post from April 14, 1971 to February 2, 1973.[^3] The [[Supreme Court of New Jersey|New Jersey Supreme Court]]'s disciplinary opinion on [[Harry L. Sears]], a former majority leader of the New Jersey Senate, records that Sears conveyed the requests of Robert Vesco, on behalf of International Controls, to [[John N. Mitchell]], then attorney general, in two letters and three meetings, and that Vesco hoped Mitchell could induce Casey "to monitor and limit the investigation." The opinion records that Mitchell telephoned Casey and arranged a meeting between Sears and the chairman, at which Sears received assurances that International Controls could respond to the investigation and that Casey would personally review its allegations of SEC harassment.[^4] Mitchell was acquitted in April 1974 of the charges arising from a secret cash contribution by Vesco.[^5]
### Corporate payments and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, 1976 to 1977
On May 12, 1976 the commission, under Chairman [[Roderick M. Hills]], submitted a report on questionable and illegal corporate payments and practices to the [[Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs]], in response to a March 18, 1976 letter to Chairman [[William Proxmire]]. The report stated that the commission's staff had analyzed the public disclosures of 89 corporations as of April 21, 1976, and that, with six companies that had submitted special reports as a result of enforcement actions, 95 companies had made disclosures; sixty-six of them were manufacturing companies. It stated that fourteen enforcement cases had been filed as of May 10, 1976, each ending in a consent to a permanent injunction without admitting or denying the allegations, and that in thirteen the consent decree required an independent special review committee of the company's board. It stated that about 25 formal, private investigations had not yet resulted in public enforcement actions.[^6]
The report described a voluntary disclosure program under which a company that might have a disclosure problem was to authorize an investigation by persons not involved in the activities in question, preferably reporting to outside directors, and to discuss the matter with the commission's staff before filing documents.[^6] In its summary of the enforcement action against Lockheed, the report stated that the commission had alleged secret payments of at least 25 million dollars to foreign government officials, 750,000 dollars deposited in a secret Swiss bank account, and over 200 million dollars disbursed to consultants and commission agents without adequate records.[^6] Testifying before the House Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Finance in April 1977, [[Gordon Adams]] of the [[Council on Economic Priorities]] said that more than 350 companies had made such disclosures under the SEC program. He said that [[Lockheed Aircraft Company|Lockheed]] had disclosed about 25 million dollars in questionable overseas payments, while the SEC had raised questions about nearly 200 million dollars in Lockheed sales commissions.[^7]
The same hearing record contains a statement by Representative [[Michael J. Harrington]]. Harrington wrote, "One day it is Lockheed. Another day it is Gulf. A third day it is General Tire," describing a run of American corporations that had disclosed bribery or other payments to foreign officials. He wrote that allegations that [[Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands|Prince Bernhard]] had received 1.1 million dollars in Lockheed payments had led to his resignation from his official posts.[^7]
Harrington's statement also placed corporate payments beside [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] funding. It cited the final report of the House Select Committee on Intelligence for a finding that the CIA passed 75 million dollars to Italian parties and politicians between 1948 and 1972. It reported that the [[The Wall Street Journal|Wall Street Journal]] had said government investigators were assembling "strong indications" that the CIA may have encouraged corporations to pay under-the-table cash to buy intelligence information for the U.S. government. Harrington wrote that after the disclosure of Exxon payments in [[Italy]] there was widespread press speculation that the payments were a covert mechanism for CIA funding. He quoted the same article's statement that the relationship between the intelligence community and corporate funding "has never been thoroughly examined."[^7]
Congress enacted the [[Foreign Corrupt Practices Act]] on December 19, 1977 as Title I of Public Law 95-213. The act amended the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to make it unlawful for issuers of registered securities to make certain payments to foreign officials, and required such issuers to keep accurate books and records.[^8]
### Financial General Bankshares and BCCI, 1978
In February 1978, [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]] orchestrated a hostile bid for [[Financial General Bankshares]] with the help of [[Bert Lance]].[^9] The SEC filed suit against BCCI, [[Agha Hasan Abedi]], Bert Lance, and others in connection with the purchase of Financial General Bankshares stock.[^9] The nominees used by BCCI to secretly acquire Financial General Bankshares were summarily sued by the SEC for failing to declare that they were acting as a group.[^10]
The Senate report on BCCI, by Senators [[John Kerry]] and [[Hank Brown]], states that on February 7, 1978 Lance told a meeting of Financial General shareholders that the BCCI group controlled 20 percent of the stock, and that the Middendorf group of shareholders immediately complained to the SEC and the [[Federal Reserve Board|Federal Reserve]]. The Middendorf group sued on February 17, 1978. The report dates the SEC's own complaint to March 17, 1978 (its note 12 prints the year as "1078").[^11]
The report quotes a January 30, 1978 memorandum by [[Abdus Sami]], in which he wrote: "We have already given the names of Sheikh Kamal Adham and Mr. Fulaig [sic]. We want two other names immediately."[^12] The report states that the SEC was "not looking for punitive action, merely corrective action." The report states that on April 27, 1978 a federal judge permanently enjoined Lance and ten other defendants from violating the securities laws.[^12]
The commission's News Digest of March 20, 1978, under the heading "Lance, others enjoined," reported that on March 18 the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia had entered permanent injunctions against eleven defendants for violations of Section 13(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the associated Schedule 13D rules, with the defendants consenting without admitting or denying the allegations. The complaint alleged that defendants acting together had acquired approximately 20 percent of the common stock of Financial General Bankshares through open market and privately negotiated purchases structured to avoid public disclosure, and that with other shares they held the defendants controlled approximately 28 percent. The defendants named included BCCI, Agha Hasan Abedi, Kamal Adham, Faisal Saud al-Fulaij, Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abdullah Darwaish, Eugene Metzger, J. W. Middendorf II, Stephens Inc. and Jackson T. Stephens. The digest cited the case as SEC v. Bank of Credit and Commerce International S.A., et al., Civil Action No. 78-0469 (D.D.C.), Litigation Release 8336, and reported that certain defendants represented that they intended to make a tender offer for all outstanding Financial General common stock at 15 dollars a share in cash.[^13]
On April 26, 1978 the commission and the Comptroller of the Currency announced a separate civil injunctive action in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia against The National Bank of Georgia, The Calhoun First National Bank and Bertram Lance, alleging violations of the antifraud, reporting and proxy provisions of the securities laws. The court simultaneously entered final judgments of permanent injunction against the three defendants, who consented without admitting or denying the allegations (Civil Action No. 78-758). The digest of April 28, 1978 reported that Lance submitted a letter dated April 26 on his future plans in banking.[^14]
[[Clark Clifford]] wrote in written testimony to the Senate that four of the investors had bought stock in Financial General Bankshares "without filing certain disclosures with the Securities and Exchange Commission," and that his firm was retained to represent Lance, Abedi, BCCI, [[Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan|Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan]], [[Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan|Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan]], [[Faisal Saud al-Fulaij]] and Abdullah Darwaish.[^11]
The original 1978 filing with the commission listed [[Mohammed Rahim Motaghi Irvani]] as a 5 percent shareholder of [[Credit and Commerce American Holdings]] (CCAH), the holding company through which the BCCI group bought Financial General shares.[^15] The Senate report describes Irvani as the principal partner of [[Richard Helms]], the former CIA director, in Helms's consulting firm Safeer, and as that firm's chief financier. It says that Helms advised Irvani on how to be protected from any liability in his role as BCCI's lead front man.[^15]
The report also states that the CIA, asked by the Federal Reserve in 1981 about the Middle Eastern shareholders of CCAH, reported no derogatory information on them. The shareholders included [[Kamal Adham]] and [[A. R. (Abdul Raouf) Khalil|Abdul Raouf Khalil]], the past and then-current Saudi intelligence liaisons to the United States. The CIA did not tell the Federal Reserve that Adham and Khalil were intelligence liaisons of the United States, and did not advise it that Adham and Faisal Saud al-Fulaij, a third FGB shareholder, had been the subject of a Securities and Exchange Commission probe under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act into violations by [[Boeing]] and Lockheed for arms sales to [[Saudi Arabia]]. The report states that Federal Reserve staff did learn of the intelligence contacts and of the probe in 1981.[^15]
### Bear Stearns and Jeffrey Epstein, 1981
[[Jeffrey Epstein]] resigned from [[Bear Stearns]] on March 12, 1981, the day after [[Seagram Company|Seagram]] announced a tender offer for [[St. Joe Minerals]]. The commission was investigating trading in St. Joe at Bear Stearns and other firms, had been told that Epstein had information about insider trading at Bear Stearns, and took his testimony on April 1, 1981 through staff attorneys [[Jonathan Harris]] and [[Robert Blackburn]]. The journalist [[Vicky Ward]] wrote in 2003 that Epstein told the commission he had found management's handling of a possible "Reg D" violation "offensive."[^16]
### Ghaith Pharaon and CenTrust, 1987
On August 12, 1987 [[Ghaith R. Pharaon]] filed disclosure statements with the commission stating that he had bought 16.9 percent of the common stock of [[CenTrust Savings]] and 24.4 percent of its Series One participating preferred stock. The Senate report describes the holding as just under the 25 percent that would constitute legal control of CenTrust, and concludes that "at the very time that BCCI was under indictment in Tampa, Florida for money laundering, it had secretly acquired and controlled the largest S&L in Florida, CenTrust."[^17]
### EDGAR contract, 1989
The commission's News Digest for January 4, 1989 announced that on January 3 it had awarded a contract to build the electronic data gathering, analysis and retrieval system to the [[BDM Corporation]], bidding with [[Mead Data Central]], [[Sorg, Inc.]] and [[Bechtel Information Systems]]. The digest gave an expected term of eight years and an estimated total cost to the government of about 52 million dollars.[^18] The [[Baltimore Sun]] of January 5, 1989 reported that, after a delay of more than two years, the commission awarded a 52 million dollar contract to a consortium led by BDM Corp. of [[McLean, Virginia]], which the paper called "a subsidiary of the Ford Motor Co." The eight-year contract provided for BDM to design and install a computer to accept and disseminate all SEC filings by more than 11,000 publicly traded companies and 2,700 investment firms, and the paper reported the commission's estimate of more than 170 million dollars in savings.[^19]
### Harken Energy and George W. Bush, 1990 to 1993
A commission memorandum drafted for the files on April 9, 1991, as the [[Center for Public Integrity]] reported it, noted that [[George W. Bush]] had on four occasions filed late Form 4 reports for [[Harken Energy]] stock transactions worth more than one million dollars. The tardiest, 34 weeks late, reported his June 22, 1990 sale of 212,140 shares.[^20] [[Salon]] reported that the commission did not receive the Form 4 for that sale until March 4, 1991.[^21] In an October 1993 memorandum the commission stated that the investigation had been terminated as to Bush's conduct and that no enforcement action was contemplated at that time, adding that the termination "must in no way be construed as indicating that the party has been exonerated or that no action may ultimately result."[^21]
### International Signal and Control and James Guerin, 1991
On October 31, 1991 the commission and the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania announced the indictment of [[James Guerin]] and twenty others in "a billion dollars in phony contracts," with laundering of 700,000,000 dollars and smuggling of weapons and restricted commodities.[^22] Guerin ran [[International Signal and Control]], whose special proxy board included [[Bobby Ray Inman]], a former CIA deputy director, according to a 1989 report in [[The Washington Post|Washington Post]].[^23] [[Kenneth R. Timmerman]] wrote that Guerin "claimed he had received quiet approval from the CIA."[^24]
### Towers Financial and Steven Hoffenberg, 1993 to 1996
In February 1993 the commission sued [[Towers Financial Corporation]], [[Steven Hoffenberg]], [[Mitchell Brater]] and [[Arthur J. Ferro]] before Judge [[Whitman Knapp]]. Towers filed for protection under Chapter 11 that March.[^25] On September 17, 1996 the commission sued Michael Rosoff, Towers' former chief legal officer, for participating in offering documents that described promissory notes as insured and fully collateralized. The commission described the Towers operation as a huge Ponzi scheme that ran for five years.[^25]
### Earl Brian and Financial News Network, 1993
In July 1993 the commission charged [[Earl Brian]] and three others with fraudulently inflating the revenue and earnings of the [[Financial News Network]], the [[Los Angeles]] cable channel controlled with [[United Press International]] by his holding company Infotechnology, Inc. He settled without admitting or denying the charges and consented to a permanent injunction.[^26]
### September 11 attacks, 2001
On September 19, 2001 the acting director of enforcement, [[Stephen Cutler]], stated that the commission had received reports that those associated with the [[September 11 attacks]] "may have sought to exploit our securities markets to profit from those activities," that it had "drawn no conclusions," and that speculation about its conclusions "has absolutely no foundation in fact."[^27]
### Enron settlements, 2003
On July 28, 2003 the commission settled with [[JPMorgan Chase]] and [[Citigroup]] over their roles in the manipulation of [[Enron Corporation|Enron]]'s financial statements. The commission stated that each institution had characterized what were essentially loan proceeds as cash from operating activities. JPMorgan Chase consented to a final judgment in a civil action in [[Texas]] requiring 135 million dollars in disgorgement, penalty and interest. Citigroup consented to an administrative order requiring 120 million dollars, of which 101 million related to Enron and 19 million to [[Dynegy]].[^28]
The commission announced on April 14, 2005 that Stephen Cutler would leave.[^29] He joined [[WilmerHale]] in October 2005 and was named general counsel of JPMorgan Chase in December 2006, effective February 2007.[^30]
### Bear Stearns hedge funds, 2008
On June 19, 2008 the commission charged two former [[Bear Stearns Asset Management]] portfolio managers, [[Ralph Cioffi]] and [[Matthew Tannin]], with fraudulently misleading investors about the financial state of the firm's two largest hedge funds before the funds collapsed in June 2007. The same day the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York announced their indictment on conspiracy and fraud charges.[^31] [[Fox Business]] reported in 2019 that Epstein had put about 60 million dollars into the Bear Stearns High-Grade Structured Credit Strategies Enhanced Leverage Fund, "making him one of its largest investors."[^32]
### Goldman Sachs, 2010 and 2020
On April 16, 2010 the commission sued [[Goldman Sachs]] and [[Fabrice Tourre]] over the structuring and marketing of a synthetic collateralized debt obligation.[^33] In July 2010 Goldman Sachs agreed to pay a record 550 million dollars to settle charges related to a subprime mortgage CDO.[^34]
On October 22, 2020 the commission ordered Goldman Sachs to disgorge 606.3 million dollars, deemed satisfied by a payment to the government of [[Malaysia]] and [[1Malaysia Development Berhad|1MDB]], and to pay a civil penalty of 400 million dollars. The order found that former senior Goldman employees had paid bribes and kickbacks to officials in Malaysia and the [[Abu Dhabi|Emirate of Abu Dhabi]], in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, in connection with the 2012 and 2013 bond deals.[^35]
### Jed Rakoff and the Citigroup settlement, 2011
On October 19, 2011 the commission sued Citigroup Global Markets Inc. in the Southern District of New York (No. 11 Civ. 7387) over a roughly billion-dollar collateralized debt obligation, Class V Funding III, and presented a proposed consent judgment at the same time. The complaint charged negligence under Sections 17(a)(2) and (3) of the Securities Act. The proposed judgment required Citigroup to disgorge 160 million dollars in profits plus 30 million dollars in interest and to pay a 95 million dollar civil penalty, without admitting or denying the allegations. On November 28, 2011 Judge [[Jed Rakoff]] refused to approve it. The opinion stated that investors had lost more than 700 million dollars, called the civil penalty "pocket change to any entity as large as Citigroup," noted that the commission's own account described Citigroup as a recidivist, and concluded that the court had not been provided with "any proven or admitted facts upon which to exercise even a modest degree of independent judgment."[^36]
### Apollo Global Management and the Dechert memorandum, 2020 to 2021
The conflicts committee of the board of [[Apollo Global Management]] retained [[Dechert]] as outside counsel to conduct an independent review of information concerning [[Leon Black]]. The Dechert report was attached to a Form 8-K filed with the commission on January 25, 2021.[^37]
### Cantor Fitzgerald, 2020 and 2024
On April 6, 2020 the commission announced that [[Cantor Fitzgerald]] & Co. had agreed to pay 3.2 million dollars over deficient "blue sheet" trading data. According to the order, for almost five years the firm's submissions contained missing or inaccurate data for approximately 35 million transactions.[^38] On December 12, 2024 the commission announced that Cantor Fitzgerald, L.P. had agreed to pay a 6.75 million dollar civil penalty. The order found that negotiations with View and Satellogic had already commenced at the time of the disclosures concerning the Cantor-sponsored [[special-purpose acquisition company|SPACs]] CF Finance II and CF V.[^39]
### FTX and Alameda Research, 2022
On December 13, 2022 the commission charged [[Samuel Bankman-Fried]] with orchestrating a scheme to defraud equity investors in [[FTX]], which it said had raised more than 1.8 billion dollars from equity investors since at least May 2019.[^40] On December 21, 2022 it charged [[Caroline Ellison]], the former chief executive of [[Alameda Research]], and Zixiao "Gary" Wang, FTX's former chief technology officer, for their roles in manipulating the price of the FTT token and in the undisclosed loans of customer assets to Alameda.[^41]
### Commission leadership and the Epstein matters, 2017 to 2025
[[Jay Clayton]] chaired the commission from May 4, 2017 to December 23, 2020.[^3] The Senate confirmed Clayton as a member of the commission on May 2, 2017 by a vote of 61 to 37 (nomination PN47).[^42] In June 2020 Attorney General [[William Barr]] announced that [[Geoffrey Berman]], the U.S. attorney for the [[U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York|Southern District of New York]], was stepping down and that the president would nominate Clayton to replace him. Berman said he had no intention of resigning, and Barr then told him in a letter that he had asked the president to remove him, and the president had done so. New York Senators [[Chuck Schumer]] and [[Kirsten Gillibrand]] called on Clayton to withdraw his name from the nomination. CNBC reported these events on June 20, 2020.[^43] On November 14, 2025 The Washington Times reported that Attorney General [[Pam Bondi]] had tapped Clayton, then acting U.S. attorney, to probe Democrats' ties to Epstein.[^44]
### Regulation A and Form D filings
[[To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science]] filed an offering statement on Form 1-A with the commission on August 15, 2017, amended it on September 1 and September 18, 2017, and filed a Form 253G2 offering circular on September 29, 2017.[^45] The circular listed [[Tom DeLonge]] as president, chief executive officer and director; [[Jim Semivan|James Semivan]] as vice president of operations and director; [[Hal Puthoff|Harold Puthoff]] as vice president of science and technology and director; Louis Tommasino as chief financial officer; Kari DeLonge as chief content officer; and Lisa Clifford as secretary. It named an advisory board of [[Christopher Mellon]], Adele Gilpin, Norman Kahn, [[Colm Kelleher]], [[Garry Nolan]] and Paul Rapp, and stated that in May 2017 the company issued 12,500,000 shares of Class A common stock and 5,400 shares of Class B common stock to Gravity Holdings, LLC, JimSemI, LLC and Harold Puthoff.[^46] The company later filed further Regulation A offering statements on Form 1-A (February 12, 2019; June 23, 2020; March 16, 2022) and annual reports on Form 1-K, the latest on April 29, 2026. Its most recent filing in its EDGAR submissions is a semiannual Form 1-SA filed September 18, 2026.[^45]
Private issuers also file Form D notices of exempt offerings. Minerva Project, Inc. filed one on April 6, 2012 that listed [[Ben Nelson]] as an executive officer and director.[^47]
### 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. 183.
[^3]: "SEC awards data pact," Business Briefly, Baltimore Sun (Baltimore), January 5, 1989, p. 1D, https://www.newspapers.com/image/378257935/
[^1]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, "What We Do," https://www.sec.gov/about/what-we-do (founding in 1934 and mission statement).
[^2]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, News Digest, November 28, 1972 (announcement of the November 27, 1972 complaint against Robert L. Vesco and 41 other defendants; transfers from International Controls Corp.; purchase of 6,000,000 shares of Investors Overseas Services from Bernard Cornfeld for approximately $5,500,000 in early 1971). https://www.sec.gov/news/digest/1972/dig112872.pdf
[^3]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, "Historical Summary of Chairmen and Commissioners" (William Casey, Chairman, April 14, 1971 to February 2, 1973; Jay Clayton, Chairman, May 4, 2017 to December 23, 2020). https://www.sec.gov/about/sec-commissioners/sec-historical-summary-chairmen-commissioners
[^4]: In re Sears, 71 N.J. 175 (1976) (Supreme Court of New Jersey disciplinary opinion; the request that Mitchell induce Casey "to monitor and limit the investigation"; the meeting Mitchell arranged between Sears and Casey). https://static.case.law/nj/71/cases/0175-01.json
[^5]: Associated Press, "Jury acquits Mitchell, Stans," State News (Michigan State University), April 29, 1974, p. 1. https://archive.lib.msu.edu/DMC/state_news/1974/state_news_19740429.pdf
[^6]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Report of the Securities and Exchange Commission on Questionable and Illegal Corporate Payments and Practices to the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, May 12, 1976, reproduced in Securities Regulation and Law Report No. 353 (Bureau of National Affairs), May 19, 1976, Special Supplement, pp. 1 to 45 (introduction; Part I, "The Voluntary Disclosure Program"; Exhibit B, Lockheed Aircraft Corporation). https://sechistorical.org/wp-content/uploads/1976_0512_SECQuestionable.pdf
[^7]: Unlawful Corporate Payments Act of 1977, Hearings on H.R. 3815 and H.R. 1602 before the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Finance of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, House of Representatives, 95th Congress, 1st session, April 20 and 21, 1977 (Serial No. 95-11). Statement of Gordon Adams, Director of Military Research, Council on Economic Priorities (beginning p. 26, including the passages on the voluntary disclosure program and Lockheed); statement of Rep. Michael J. Harrington (pp. 168-173, including the passages on Lockheed, Prince Bernhard, the House Select Committee on Intelligence, the Exxon payments and the Wall Street Journal report). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-95hhrg91391O/pdf/CHRG-95hhrg91391O.pdf
[^8]: Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, Pub. L. 95-213, Title I, 91 Stat. 1494 (December 19, 1977). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-91/pdf/STATUTE-91-Pg1494.pdf
[^9]: 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.
[^10]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 183.
[^11]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate. December 1992, ch. 6, "BCCI in the United States: Initial Entry" (February 7, 1978 shareholder meeting; Middendorf group complaints and suit of February 17, 1978; the SEC civil complaint, which the report's note 12 dates to March 17, 1978; Clifford's written testimony). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/06early.htm
[^12]: Kerry and Brown, The BCCI Affair, ch. 6 (January 30, 1978 Sami memorandum and its description of the strategy to circumvent SEC disclosure rules; the SEC's "not looking for punitive action, merely corrective action" passage; the April 27, 1978 order enjoining Lance and ten other defendants and the consent decree issued with it). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/06early.htm
[^13]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, News Digest, Issue 78-54, March 20, 1978, "Lance, Others Enjoined" (SEC v. Bank of Credit and Commerce International S.A., et al., U.S.D.C. D.C., Civil Action No. 78-0469, LR-8336). https://www.sec.gov/news/digest/1978/dig032078.pdf
[^14]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, News Digest, April 28, 1978 (SEC and Comptroller of the Currency v. The National Bank of Georgia, The Calhoun First National Bank, Bertram Lance, U.S.D.C. N.D. Ga., Atlanta Division, Civil Action No. 78-758). https://www.sec.gov/news/digest/1978/dig042878.pdf
[^15]: Kerry and Brown, The BCCI Affair, ch. 11, "BCCI, the CIA and Foreign Intelligence" (Irvani and Helms; the CIA's reply to the Federal Reserve; the Adham and Fulaij Foreign Corrupt Practices Act probe; note 11: staff interview, Virgil Mattingly, Federal Reserve, June 1991, and review of Federal Reserve documents). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/11intel.htm
[^16]: Vicky Ward, "The Talented Mr. Epstein," Vanity Fair, March 2003 (the March 12, 1981 resignation, the April 1, 1981 SEC testimony taken by Jonathan Harris and Robert Blackburn, and Epstein's description of management's handling of a possible "Reg D" violation as "offensive"). https://vickyward.com/article/the-talented-mr-epstein/
[^17]: Kerry and Brown, The BCCI Affair, ch. 7, "BCCI in the United States: Later Acquisitions" (Pharaon's disclosure statements to the SEC of 16.9 percent of CenTrust common stock and 24.4 percent of its Series One preferred; the conclusion quoted on BCCI's control of CenTrust). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/07later.htm
[^18]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, News Digest, January 4, 1989, "SEC Names Contractor for EDGAR System" (Press Release 89-1): contract awarded January 3, 1989 to BDM Corporation, bidding with Mead Data Central, Inc., Sorg, Inc., and Bechtel Information Systems; expected term of eight years; estimated total cost to the government of approximately $52 million. https://sec.gov/news/digest/1989/dig010489.pdf
[^19]: "SEC awards data pact," Business Briefly, Baltimore Sun (Baltimore), January 5, 1989, p. 1D, https://www.newspapers.com/image/378257935/
[^20]: Knut Royce, "Bush violated security laws four times, SEC report says," Center for Public Integrity, October 4, 2000 (describing the April 9, 1991 SEC memorandum). https://publicintegrity.org/politics/bush-violated-security-laws-four-times-sec-report-says/
[^21]: Salon, "Harken," July 13, 2002 (the March 4, 1991 receipt of the Form 4 and the October 1993 SEC memorandum, including the statement that termination "must in no way be construed as indicating that the party has been exonerated or that no action may ultimately result"). https://www.salon.com/2002/07/13/harken/
[^22]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, News Digest, November 7, 1991 (Litigation Release LR-13077, announced October 31, 1991, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Crim. Nos. 91-601 and 91-602). https://www.sec.gov/news/digest/1991/dig110791.pdf
[^23]: Glenn Frankel, "British Firm Claims It Was Duped by Pa. Arms Maker," Washington Post, September 29, 1989 (the special proxy board including Bobby Ray Inman). https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1989/09/29/british-firm-claims-it-was-duped-by-pa-arms-maker/5b675f69-e5e0-4c25-9aee-ced8b8e07efa/
[^24]: Kenneth R. Timmerman, The Death Lobby: How the West Armed Iraq (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991), pp. 168 to 169.
[^25]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Litigation Release No. 15053, SEC v. Michael Rosoff, 96 Civ. 7064 (WK) (S.D.N.Y.), September 17, 1996 (describing the Towers scheme and cross-referencing Litigation Release No. 13514, SEC v. Towers Financial Corporation, Steven Hoffenberg, Mitchell Brater, and Arthur J. Ferro, 93 Civ. 0744 (WK) (S.D.N.Y.), February 1993). https://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/lr15053.txt
[^26]: Debra Gersh, "SEC Accuses Former UPI Chief of Fraud," Editor & Publisher, July 10, 1993; "Former UPI execs charged with fraud," United Press International, September 6, 1995. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1995/09/06/Former-UPI-execs-charged-with-fraud/3824810360000/
[^27]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, "Statement by Acting Director of Enforcement Stephen Cutler," Press Release 2001-96, September 19, 2001. https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2001-96-statement-acting-director-enforcement-stephen-cutler
[^28]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, "SEC Settles Enforcement Proceedings against J.P. Morgan Chase and Citigroup," Press Release 2003-87, July 28, 2003. https://www.sec.gov/news/press/2003-87.htm
[^29]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, "Enforcement Director Stephen M. Cutler to Leave SEC," Press Release 2005-56, April 14, 2005. https://www.sec.gov/news/press/2005-56.htm
[^30]: JPMorgan Chase & Co., Form 10-K for fiscal year 2006, "Executive officers of the registrant" (Stephen M. Cutler: General Counsel since February 2007; partner and co-chair of the Securities Department at WilmerHale since October 2005).
[^31]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Litigation Release No. 20625, SEC v. Ralph R. Cioffi and Matthew M. Tannin, Civil Action No. 08 2457 (FB) (E.D.N.Y.), June 19, 2008. https://www.sec.gov/files/litigation/litreleases/2008/lr20625.htm
[^32]: Charles Gasparino and Lydia Moynihan, "The woes of Jeffrey Epstein: How he maintained Wall Street connections while downplaying child sex accusations," Fox Business, August 10, 2019. https://www.foxbusiness.com/features/jeffrey-epstein-wall-street-connections-child-sex-trafficking
[^33]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Litigation Release No. 21489, April 16, 2010, SEC v. Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Fabrice Tourre, 10 Civ. 3229 (S.D.N.Y.). https://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2010/lr21489.htm
[^34]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Press Release 2010-123, "Goldman Sachs to Pay Record $550 Million to Settle SEC Charges Related to Subprime Mortgage CDO," July 15, 2010. https://www.sec.gov/news/press/2010/2010-123.htm
[^35]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, In the Matter of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Release No. 90243, Administrative Proceeding File No. 3-20132, October 22, 2020 (disgorgement of $606,300,000 deemed satisfied by the payment to the Government of Malaysia and 1MDB; civil money penalty of $400,000,000). https://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/2020/34-90243.pdf
[^36]: SEC v. Citigroup Global Markets Inc., No. 11 Civ. 7387 (JSR), 827 F. Supp. 2d 328 (S.D.N.Y. Nov. 28, 2011) (Rakoff, J.). https://static.case.law/f-supp-2d/827/cases/0328-01.json ; https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/8710930/us-securities-exchange-commission-v-citigroup-global-markets-inc/
[^37]: Apollo Global Management, Inc., Current Report on Form 8-K, filed January 25, 2021, accession 0001193125-21-016405, Exhibit 99.1 (report of Dechert LLP provided to the Conflicts Committee). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1411494/000119312521016405/d118102d8k.htm
[^38]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, "Cantor Fitzgerald Agrees to Pay $3.2 Million to Settle Charges for Providing Deficient Blue Sheet Data," Press Release 2020-81, April 6, 2020. https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2020-81
[^39]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, "SEC Charges Cantor Fitzgerald Over Misleading SPAC Disclosures," Press Release 2024-199, December 12, 2024 ($6.75 million civil penalty; order finding that Cantor personnel had already commenced negotiations with View and Satellogic). https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2024-199
[^40]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, "SEC Charges Samuel Bankman-Fried with Defrauding Investors in Crypto Asset Trading Platform FTX," Press Release 2022-219, December 13, 2022. https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2022-219
[^41]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, "SEC Charges Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang with Defrauding Investors in Crypto Asset Trading Platform FTX," Press Release 2022-234, December 21, 2022. https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2022-234
[^42]: United States Senate, Roll Call Vote 115th Congress, 1st Session, Vote No. 118, May 2, 2017 (PN47, Jay Clayton, of New York, to be a Member of the Securities and Exchange Commission for a term expiring June 5, 2021; Nomination Confirmed, 61 to 37; cloture agreed to May 1, 2017, Vote No. 117, 60 to 36). https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1151/vote_115_1_00118.htm
[^43]: Spencer Kimball, "Attorney General Barr tells top Manhattan prosecutor Berman he is fired amid power struggle," CNBC, June 20, 2020. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/20/attorney-general-barr-tells-manhattan-us-attorney-berman-he-is-fired-amid-power-struggle.html
[^44]: "Bondi taps acting U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton to probe Democrats' ties to Epstein," The Washington Times, November 14, 2025. https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/nov/14/bondi-taps-acting-us-attorney-jay-clayton-probe-democrats-ties/
[^45]: To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science Inc., EDGAR, CIK 1710274: Form 1-A filed August 15, 2017 (qualified September 29, 2017); Form 1-SA filed September 18, 2026. https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=1710274&type=1-A ; https://data.sec.gov/submissions/CIK0001710274.json
[^46]: To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science Inc., Form 253G2 (offering circular), filed September 29, 2017, accession 0001144204-17-050693, sections "Directors, Executive Officers and Significant Employees" and "Interest of Management and Others in Certain Transactions." https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1710274/000114420417050693/v476177_253g2.htm
[^47]: Form D, Minerva Project, Inc., filed April 6, 2012, accession 0001546672-12-000001, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, EDGAR. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1546672/000154667212000001/primary_doc.xml

29
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.md
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@ -17,11 +17,11 @@ relations:
with: "[[Malcolm Wallop]]"
reverse: true
role: "chairman of the budget subcommittee"
fn: 4
fn: 5
- type: investigated
with: "[[BNL Scandal]]"
end: 1993-02
fn: 7
fn: 11
created: 2026-09-22
updated: 2026-09-22
---
@ -30,27 +30,30 @@ The Senate created the Select Committee on Intelligence in 1976 "to oversee and
### Letelier and the Charter
On September 29, 1976, eight days after the assassination of [[Orlando Letelier]] in Washington, Senator [[Daniel Inouye]] of the committee wrote to Director [[George H.W. Bush|George Bush]] asking what the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] knew of a reported high-level meeting in the Chilean government at which Letelier had been discussed.[^3] In April 1978 the former deputy director for plans [[Thomas Karamessines]] appeared before the committee to oppose its draft charter for the CIA, calling the investigations of the preceding years "an inexcusable exercise in political sensationalism."[^8]
On September 29, 1976, eight days after the assassination of [[Orlando Letelier]] in Washington, Senator [[Daniel Inouye]] of the committee wrote to Director [[George H.W. Bush|George Bush]] asking what the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] knew of a reported high-level meeting in the Chilean government at which Letelier had been discussed.[^3] In April 1978 the former deputy director for plans [[Thomas Karamessines]] appeared before the committee to oppose its draft charter for the CIA, calling the investigations of the preceding years "an inexcusable exercise in political sensationalism."[^4]
### Remote Viewing
At the end of fiscal 1982, according to the Army's Intelligence and Security Command, "the budget subcommittee of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (Senator Wallop) curtailed all psychoenergetic operational activities conducted by the Army in the National Foreign Intelligence Program"; its chronology records that on October 1, 1982, "NFIP funding terminated for Army GRILL FLAME collection operations project by Congressional directive," and the program continued under other funding as [[Center Lane]].[^4][^5] Senator [[Claiborne Pell]] invited eight members of the committee to a GRILL FLAME briefing in his Capitol office on September 29, 1982; "none were present."[^6] After a briefing of [[Malcolm Wallop]] on October 5, 1983, the Army's record states that "the Senator replied that he is only one person, and that perhaps the briefing should be presented to the entire SSCI Budget Subcommittee."[^4] Committee staff received status reports on the [[Stargate Project|Star Gate]] program in March and April 1995 and a briefing on June 1, attended by seven staff members, during its [[1995 transfer of Star Gate to the CIA|transfer to the CIA]].[^9]
At the end of fiscal 1982, according to the Army's Intelligence and Security Command, "the budget subcommittee of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (Senator Wallop) curtailed all psychoenergetic operational activities conducted by the Army in the National Foreign Intelligence Program"; its chronology records that on October 1, 1982, "NFIP funding terminated for Army GRILL FLAME collection operations project by Congressional directive," and the program continued under other funding as [[Center Lane]].[^5][^6] Senator [[Claiborne Pell]] invited eight members of the committee to a GRILL FLAME briefing in his Capitol office on September 29, 1982; "none were present."[^7] After a briefing of [[Malcolm Wallop]] on October 5, 1983, the Army's record states that "the Senator replied that he is only one person, and that perhaps the briefing should be presented to the entire SSCI Budget Subcommittee."[^5] Committee staff received status reports on the [[Stargate Project|Star Gate]] program in March and April 1995 and a briefing on June 1, attended by seven staff members, during its [[1995 transfer of Star Gate to the CIA|transfer to the CIA]].[^8]
### Later Inquiries
The CIA told the committee in April 1984 that it "was unable to confirm reports implicating high-level Sandinistas in drug trafficking."[^10] In 1986, after a member of Senator [[Jesse Helms]]'s staff was briefed by the CIA on the burning of Rodrigo Rojas by Chilean soldiers and the Chilean government learned of an American intelligence operation, the committee asked the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]] to investigate whether Helms or an aide had disclosed it.[^11] Its staff reported in February 1993 on the [[BNL Scandal]] that the intelligence agencies and the Justice Department had coordinated poorly and that the CIA's grounds for withholding its reports from prosecutors had "no legal support," without finding deliberate concealment.[^7] Its study of the CIA's detention and interrogation program, released in summary on December 9, 2014, concluded that the program had produced little intelligence not available by other means and that the agency had misled Congress, the [[White House]] and the public about it.[^12]
The CIA told the committee in April 1984 that it "was unable to confirm reports implicating high-level Sandinistas in drug trafficking."[^9] In 1986, after a member of Senator [[Jesse Helms]]'s staff was briefed by the CIA on the burning of Rodrigo Rojas by Chilean soldiers and the Chilean government learned of an American intelligence operation, the committee asked the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]] to investigate whether Helms or an aide had disclosed it.[^10] Its staff reported in February 1993 on the [[BNL Scandal]] that the intelligence agencies and the Justice Department had coordinated poorly and that the CIA's grounds for withholding its reports from prosecutors had "no legal support," without finding deliberate concealment.[^11] Its study of the CIA's detention and interrogation program, released in summary on December 9, 2014, concluded that the program had produced little intelligence not available by other means and that the agency had misled Congress, the [[White House]] and the public about it.[^12]
The staff report on the intelligence community's involvement in the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro affair, Committee Print S. Prt. 103-12 of February 1993, was prepared after the sentencing hearing of Judge [[Marvin Shoob]] in Atlanta. The staff recorded that CIA analysts concluded in January 1990 that "managers at BNL headquarters in Rome were involved in the scandal," and that CIA reports of November 1991 "confirmed press allegations that more senior BNL officials in Rome had been witting of BNL-Atlanta's activities." The staff found that "the evidence does not show that this failure was a deliberate attempt to withhold information from the Department of Justice," and that it "could find no legal support" for the CIA's guidance that unsent reports would not be discoverable.[^13]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, "About the Committee." https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/about-the-committee/
[^2]: Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities. *Final Report,* S. Rept. 94-755, 1976, as cited on the Church Committee page.
[^3]: Inouye, Daniel K., letter to George Bush, September 29, 1976, CIA Reading Room, as cited on the Orlando Letelier page.
[^4]: Buzby, Brian, memorandum "Briefing to Senator Wallop, 5 October 1983," October 14, 1983, CIA-RDP96-00788R001700270015-0. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^5]: US Army Intelligence and Security Command, "Briefing - Project Center Lane," c. 1984, CIA-RDP96-00789R002100180002-8, and "List of Events from September 1977 to January 1986," CIA-RDP96-00788R001100020001-8. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^6]: Jachim, Robert J., memorandum "Information Briefing for Senator Clairborne Pell," October 6, 1982, CIA-RDP96-00788R001100320001-5.
[^7]: Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. *The Intelligence Community's Involvement in the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL) Affair,* staff report, S. Prt. 103-12, February 1993.
[^8]: Hailey, Jean R. "T. H. Karamessines, Ex-Chief of CIA Covert Work, Dies." *The Washington Post,* September 9, 1978, p. B4.
[^9]: "Star Gate Transfer Chronology: 1995," memorandum for the record, CIA-RDP96-00791R000200190017-9; Director of Research and Development, ORD-0520-95, memorandum for the Executive Director, "Star Gate - Final Response," September 27, 1995.
[^10]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998, as cited on the Sandinistas page.
[^11]: United Press International, report on the Justice Department inquiry into Senator Helms, August 2, 1986.
[^4]: Hailey, Jean R. "T. H. Karamessines, Ex-Chief of CIA Covert Work, Dies." *The Washington Post,* September 9, 1978, p. B4.
[^5]: Buzby, Brian, memorandum "Briefing to Senator Wallop, 5 October 1983," October 14, 1983, CIA-RDP96-00788R001700270015-0. Read in the archive.org copy of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^6]: US Army Intelligence and Security Command, "Briefing - Project Center Lane," c. 1984, CIA-RDP96-00789R002100180002-8, and "List of Events from September 1977 to January 1986," CIA-RDP96-00788R001100020001-8. Read in the archive.org copy of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^7]: Jachim, Robert J., memorandum "Information Briefing for Senator Clairborne Pell," October 6, 1982, CIA-RDP96-00788R001100320001-5.
[^8]: "Star Gate Transfer Chronology: 1995," memorandum for the record, CIA-RDP96-00791R000200190017-9; Director of Research and Development, ORD-0520-95, memorandum for the Executive Director, "Star Gate - Final Response," September 27, 1995.
[^9]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998, as cited on the Sandinistas page.
[^10]: United Press International, report on the Justice Department inquiry into Senator Helms, August 2, 1986.
[^11]: Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. *The Intelligence Community's Involvement in the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL) Affair,* staff report, S. Prt. 103-12, February 1993.
[^12]: Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. *Committee Study of the Central Intelligence Agency's Detention and Interrogation Program,* S. Rept. 113-288, December 9, 2014.
[^13]: Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, *The Intelligence Community's Involvement in the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL) Affair,* Committee Print S. Prt. 103-12, February 1993, pp. 4-5, 26, 28, 34. https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/publications/10312.pdf

19
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/INTERNATIONAL/Radio Free Europe.md
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@ -20,6 +20,14 @@ category: "Intelligence Operation"
summary: "Radio Free Europe was a CIA-funded broadcaster to the Soviet bloc, founded in 1949 and presented as privately funded until the CIA financing was revealed in 1967."
start: 1949
location: "Munich, West Germany"
relations:
- type: employed_by
with: "[[C. D. Jackson]]"
reverse: true
start: 1951
end: 1952
role: "president, Free Europe Committee"
fn: 2
---
Radio Free Europe (RFE) was an American radio broadcasting service directed at audiences in Soviet-controlled [[Eastern Europe]], established in 1949 and funded covertly by the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] through a series of front organizations until its CIA financing was publicly revealed in 1967. Paired with [[Radio Liberty]] (RL), which broadcast to the [[Soviet Union]] itself, the two services operated as [[RFE/RL]] and represented one of the CIA's most sustained and ultimately most transparent Cold War propaganda operations.[^1]
@ -28,6 +36,8 @@ Radio Free Europe (RFE) was an American radio broadcasting service directed at a
RFE was established under the auspices of the [[National Committee for a Free Europe]] (NCFE), a nominally private organization created in 1949 with initial support from [[Allen Dulles]], [[Frank Wisner]], and the CIA's [[Office of Policy Coordination]]. The NCFE conducted public fundraising through the "Crusade for Freedom" campaign, which solicited American citizens for small donations - creating the appearance of private funding while the CIA provided the actual operational budget.
The papers of [[C. D. Jackson]], a Time Inc. vice president who was later publisher of Life, record that he served as president of the [[Free Europe Committee]] from 1951 to 1952. The Eisenhower Library finding aid for those papers states that the Free Europe Committee directed Radio Free Europe, and the collection includes a folder on the Crusade for Freedom.[^2]
The concealment served both operational and legal purposes: the CIA's domestic authority was limited, and an organization explicitly labeled as a CIA propaganda arm would have been diplomatically and politically more complicated than one appearing to represent the voice of emigre communities and private American citizens concerned about Soviet domination of Eastern Europe.
RFE's Munich headquarters employed thousands of emigre journalists from the target countries - Poles, Czechs, Hungarians, Romanians, Bulgarians, and others - who produced programming in their native languages. The editorial content was supervised by American CIA officers, but the actual broadcasts were produced by people with direct personal knowledge of the societies they addressed.[^1]
@ -36,7 +46,7 @@ RFE's Munich headquarters employed thousands of emigre journalists from the targ
The pivotal controversy in RFE's history occurred during the [[Hungarian Revolution]] of October-November 1956. RFE's Hungarian-language broadcasts during the uprising included material that, by later analysis, could have been reasonably interpreted by Hungarian listeners as implying that American military support would follow if they fought the Soviet occupation. No such support was contemplated by the [[Dwight Eisenhower|Eisenhower administration]], which had decided not to risk nuclear confrontation over Hungary.
When Soviet tanks crushed the revolution in November 1956, the gap between RFE's broadcast messages and American non-intervention was acute. The [[CIA]]'s Covert Action Staff reviewed the tapes of the entire Hungarian-language broadcasts in early 1957. A CIA memorandum for the Director of Central Intelligence catalogued under March 4, 1962 and signed by [[Cord Meyer]] reports that the review found the broadcasts "generally consistent with U.S. policy," that RFE "did not incite the Hungarian people to revolt," and that RFE did not "directly or by implication offer hope that outside military assistance would be forthcoming to the Hungarian patriots, with one possible exception": portions of speeches by the U.S. Representative to the United Nations "which might have been interpreted as indicating some Western support for the Hungarian patriots."[^2] The same memorandum states that the UN Special Committee on Hungary found in June 1957 that "certain broadcasts by RFE helped to create an impression that support might be forthcoming for the Hungarians," while describing the revolt as a "spontaneous national uprising."[^2] In a book published in 1980, Meyer wrote that the tone of the RFE broadcast tapes was "more exuberant and optimistic than the situation warranted" and that the content of one script "clearly violated the basic policy guidelines and should never have been broadcast."[^3] Frank Wisner, whose Office of Policy Coordination was the organizational parent of RFE's CIA relationship, was in Europe during the Hungarian crisis and was deeply affected by the experience. The Hungarian Revolution's failure was a direct cause of his subsequent psychological breakdown.[^4]
When Soviet tanks crushed the revolution in November 1956, the gap between RFE's broadcast messages and American non-intervention was acute. The [[CIA]]'s Covert Action Staff reviewed the tapes of the entire Hungarian-language broadcasts in early 1957. A CIA memorandum for the Director of Central Intelligence catalogued under March 4, 1962 and signed by [[Cord Meyer]] reports that the review found the broadcasts "generally consistent with U.S. policy," that RFE "did not incite the Hungarian people to revolt," and that RFE did not "directly or by implication offer hope that outside military assistance would be forthcoming to the Hungarian patriots, with one possible exception": portions of speeches by the U.S. Representative to the United Nations "which might have been interpreted as indicating some Western support for the Hungarian patriots."[^3] The same memorandum states that the UN Special Committee on Hungary found in June 1957 that "certain broadcasts by RFE helped to create an impression that support might be forthcoming for the Hungarians," while describing the revolt as a "spontaneous national uprising."[^3] In a book published in 1980, Meyer wrote that the tone of the RFE broadcast tapes was "more exuberant and optimistic than the situation warranted" and that the content of one script "clearly violated the basic policy guidelines and should never have been broadcast."[^4] Frank Wisner, whose Office of Policy Coordination was the organizational parent of RFE's CIA relationship, was in Europe during the Hungarian crisis and was deeply affected by the experience. The Hungarian Revolution's failure was a direct cause of his subsequent psychological breakdown.[^5]
### Disclosure and Transition
@ -51,6 +61,7 @@ RFE represented the largest sustained CIA propaganda operation of the Cold War p
### Footnotes
[^1]: Puddington, Arch. *Broadcasting Freedom: The Cold War Triumph of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty.* University Press of Kentucky, 2000. Lucas, W. Scott. *Freedom's War: The American Crusade Against the Soviet Union.* New York University Press, 1999.
[^2]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum for the Director of Central Intelligence, "Radio Free Europe (RFE) and the Hungarian Revolution," Cord Meyer, Jr., Chief, Covert Action Staff (catalogued 1962-03-04). CIA reading room document 0001409017. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-0001409017
[^3]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum "Re: Radio Free Europe and the 1956 Hungarian Uprising," April 20, 1990 (PAO 90-0152), quoting Cord Meyer, Facing Reality (1980), pp. 125-130. CIA reading room copy, CIA-RDP99-01448R000401630009-6. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp99-01448r000401630009-6
[^4]: Thomas, Evan. *The Very Best Men: Four Who Dared: The Early Years of the CIA.* Simon & Schuster, 1995. Mitrovich, Gregory. *Undermining the Kremlin: America's Strategy to Subvert the Soviet Bloc, 1947-1956.* Cornell University Press, 2000.
[^2]: Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, finding aid, "Jackson, C. D.: Papers, 1931-1967," A72-26, processed July 1973, biographical sketch and chronology. https://www.eisenhowerlibrary.gov/sites/default/files/finding-aids/pdf/jackson-cd-papers.pdf
[^3]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum for the Director of Central Intelligence, "Radio Free Europe (RFE) and the Hungarian Revolution," Cord Meyer, Jr., Chief, Covert Action Staff (catalogued 1962-03-04). CIA reading room document 0001409017. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-0001409017
[^4]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum "Re: Radio Free Europe and the 1956 Hungarian Uprising," April 20, 1990 (PAO 90-0152), quoting Cord Meyer, Facing Reality (1980), pp. 125-130. CIA reading room copy, CIA-RDP99-01448R000401630009-6. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp99-01448r000401630009-6
[^5]: Thomas, Evan. *The Very Best Men: Four Who Dared: The Early Years of the CIA.* Simon & Schuster, 1995. Mitrovich, Gregory. *Undermining the Kremlin: America's Strategy to Subvert the Soviet Bloc, 1947-1956.* Cornell University Press, 2000.

239
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Banca Nazionale del Lavoro.md
View file

@ -2,11 +2,19 @@
aliases:
- BNL
- Banca Nazionale del Lavoro S.p.A.
- Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL)
- BNL-Rome
- BNL-Atlanta
category: "Private Organization"
tags:
- Organization
- BancaNazionaleDelLavoro
- BNLScandal
- Iraqgate
- CommodityCreditCorporation
- KissingerAssociates
- PropagandaDue
- MatrixChurchill
- Italy
- Iraq
- ItalianSocialistParty
@ -15,22 +23,239 @@ summary: "Italian state bank whose Atlanta branch lent Iraq billions off the boo
start: 1913
location: "Rome, Italy"
created: 2026-09-21
updated: 2026-09-21
updated: 2026-10-12
relations:
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Christopher Drogoul]]"
reverse: true
start: 1985
end: 1989
fn: 3
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Luigi Sardelli]]"
reverse: true
start: 1987
end: 1989
fn: 8
- type: head_of
with: "[[Giacomo Pedde]]"
reverse: true
end: 1989
fn: 8
- type: head_of
with: "[[Nerio Nesi]]"
reverse: true
end: 1989
fn: 1
- type: head_of
with: "[[Giampiero Cantoni]]"
reverse: true
start: 1989
fn: 1
- type: funded
with: "[[Nassr State Enterprise]]"
start: 1989
end: 1989
role: "Danieli steel rolling mill loan booked through Atlanta"
fn: 8
- type: funded
with: "[[Matrix Churchill]]"
start: 1987
end: 1989
role: "Matrix Churchill Corporation among the beneficiaries of Atlanta financing; its Iraqi chairman Safa al-Habobi indicted"
fn: 21
- type: participant_in
with: "[[Commodity Credit Corporation Iraq Program]]"
start: 1983
end: 1990
role: "largest participant in the guarantee program used for Iraqi purchases"
fn: 35
- type: represented
with: "[[Kissinger Associates]]"
reverse: true
start: 1986
end: 1989
role: "consulting client; Scowcroft briefed the bank board three times 1986 to 1989"
fn: 33
- type: investigated
with: "[[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]]"
reverse: true
start: 1992
end: 1993
fn: 2
- type: investigated
with: "[[House Banking Committee]]"
reverse: true
start: 1992
end: 1993
fn: 31
- type: investigated
with: "[[Italian Senate]]"
reverse: true
start: 1991
end: 1994
role: "two commissions of inquiry into the Atlanta branch (Carta 1991 to 1992; Mora 1993 to 1994)"
fn: 6
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Therese Barden]]"
reverse: true
end: 1989
role: "Atlanta branch vice president and operations officer; indicted February 28, 1991"
fn: 20
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Amedeo DeCarolis]]"
reverse: true
end: 1989
role: "Atlanta branch operations assistant; indicted February 28, 1991"
fn: 20
- type: investigated
with: "[[Frederick Lacey]]"
reverse: true
start: 1992
end: 1992
role: "special review of the Justice Department's handling of the case"
fn: 29
---
Banca Nazionale del Lavoro is a bank in [[Rome]] that in 1989 belonged to the Italian state. A cable from the [[United States]] embassy described it as "an upstart bank by Italian standards, dating only to 1913 and owing its growth to its role as the key bank for the government in the 1920s and 30s," with the treasury as majority shareholder. Its branch in [[Atlanta]] was raided by the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] on August 4, 1989, in the affair described at [[BNL Scandal]].[^1]
Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL) is a bank headquartered in [[Rome]] whose majority shareholder was the [[Italy|Italian]] treasury. A cable from the [[United States]] embassy in Rome, quoted on the House floor in 1992 by [[Henry B. Gonzalez]], described it as "an upstart bank by Italian standards, dating only to 1913 and owing its growth to its role as the key bank for the government in the 1920s and 30s."[^1] Its branch in [[Atlanta]] was searched by agents of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] on August 4, 1989, and the records they seized showed the loans that became the [[BNL Scandal|BNL affair]].[^2]
### The Atlanta Branch
The Atlanta branch was managed by [[Christopher Drogoul]]. A [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] memorandum of November 6, 1989 recorded that the branch had issued 2,500 unauthorized letters of credit for [[Iraq]] totaling $3.2 billion between February 1988 and July 1989, and that about $1.85 billion of that amount had been disbursed, including at least $800 million in letters of credit guaranteed by the [[Commodity Credit Corporation]] of the [[United States Department of Agriculture|Department of Agriculture]].[^3] The memorandum recorded that the branch had exceeded its allowable debt of $500,000 per customer, that it charged Baghdad an average commission of 0.2 percent where the usual rate for a poor credit risk was 15 percent, and that it funded the credits by borrowing from other banks for 90 to 180 days while allowing Iraq up to five years to repay.[^3] The same memorandum stated that BNL's North American headquarters in New York and the bank's directors in Rome publicly denied knowing about the letters of credit, "although a BNL official in Chicago claims he notified New York and Rome several times about the unusual activity in Atlanta, according to press reports," and that Rome "appears satisfied to date with the cooperation of the US investigating agencies and appreciates the low-key manner in which Washington has reacted."[^3] In the [[Los Angeles Times]] of November 13, 1992, Douglas Frantz described the investigation as concerning "$5 billion in secret loans to Iraq by the Atlanta branch."[^4]
Gonzalez put the total at $4 billion and said that $2.2 billion of the loans had gone to the Iraqi military technology procurement network.[^5] The [[Italian Senate]] commission of inquiry, in a preliminary report approved on December 21, 1991, put the exposures at about 4,000 billion lire, roughly a third of the bank's net worth, and recorded that facilities outside the official books, found after August 4, 1989, totaled $2,867.6 million against $991 million in credits registered at July 31, 1989.[^6] Two BNL-Atlanta employees went to federal authorities in July 1989 and reported the unauthorized loans. FBI agents raided the branch on August 4, 1989 and seized its records.[^7]
### What Rome Knew
The bank's internal auditor, [[Luigi Sardelli]], reported problems in the Atlanta branch in the fall of 1988. The director general, [[Giacomo Pedde]], told him that October that it was premature to discipline the branch manager, [[Christopher Drogoul]], and the report went unread in Rome until the raid. Pedde also telephoned the head of his financial division to say that a contract of the steel maker [[Danieli]] should get personal attention. Two days later Danieli signed to supply a rolling mill worth 140 million marks to the [[Nassr State Enterprise|Nassr enterprise]] in [[Iraq]]. The loan was originated by the bank's branch in [[Udine]] and booked through Atlanta. "Why not [[New York City|New York]]," Representative [[Henry B. Gonzalez]] asked, "especially since Sardelli had already reported problems in Atlanta to his superiors?" The chairman, [[Nerio Nesi]], and Pedde were forced to resign soon after the disclosure. Both refused to testify in the United States. By September 1992 Pedde had been indicted in [[Italy]] over transactions with [[Iran]].[^1][^2]
[[Luigi Sardelli]] was appointed executive vice president and managing director of BNL's North American operations in July 1987. Gonzalez reported that Sardelli audited the bank's American operations and found major problems in Los Angeles, Chicago and Atlanta. In August 1988 he found a poorly collateralized loan to [[Entrade International]], which Gonzalez described as one of Iraq's key procurement agents, and reported it to Rome. Two months later his superior praised the Atlanta manager, Drogoul, despite Sardelli's criticisms. In October 1988, according to Gonzalez, [[Giacomo Pedde]], the director general in Rome, told Sardelli that it was premature to chastise the Atlanta manager. A critical audit report that Sardelli sent to Rome in late December 1988 was in English and was not translated into Italian until July 10, 1989, less than a month before the raid.[^8]
At about the time that report was sent, the management of the [[Udine]] branch received a request to finance a steel plant in Iraq for the Italian steelmaker [[Danieli]]. On January 26, according to Gonzalez, Pedde telephoned the head of his financial division and told him that the Danieli deal should get personal attention. Two days later Danieli signed a contract for 140 million German marks, about $70 million, to supply a rolling mill to the [[Nassr State Enterprise]] in Iraq. The loan was originated at Udine but handled through Atlanta.[^8] "Why not [[New York City|New York]]," Gonzalez asked, "especially since Sardelli had already reported problems in Atlanta to his superiors in Rome?"[^8] Gonzalez reported that the Italian Senate believed the deal was routed through Atlanta to keep other Italian companies with claims against Iraq from freezing the account.[^8] The Senate commission's own report recorded that the offices of the central direction in Rome worked to have the DM 140 million operation carried out through the Atlanta agency, and that the Danieli operation had been moved from Udine to Atlanta "anche per dirette pressioni esercitate dalla Direzione centrale" (also through direct pressure exercised by the central direction).[^6]
The commission also recorded the history of the audit report prepared by the bank's auditor Messere after the inspection that Sardelli ordered in September 1988: the report was filed away by the competent office of the inspectorate in Rome instead of being forwarded, and when Sardelli later sent all the area's inspection reports to Rome, the Messere report, written in English, was translated only after August 4, 1989.[^6] No inspection of the Atlanta branch had been ordered directly by the central inspectorate in Rome before the raid.[^6] Sardelli wrote that when he directed a Rome chief inspector then working in New York to audit the Atlanta agency, the inspector answered that Pedde, then managing director, had instructed him to audit Sardelli's expense account instead.[^9]
The [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]] staff recorded that CIA analysts concluded in January 1990 that "managers at BNL headquarters in Rome were involved in the scandal," and that in November 1991 CIA reports "confirmed press allegations that more senior BNL officials in Rome had been witting of BNL-Atlanta's activities."[^10] The staff wrote that "the evidence does not show that this failure was a deliberate attempt to withhold information from the Department of Justice."[^11] The staff also reported that it "could find no legal support" for the CIA guidance that a report not formally disseminated outside the agency would not be subject to discovery in a criminal case.[^12]
Gonzalez stated that the scandal forced the chairman, [[Nerio Nesi]], and Pedde, whom he there called vice chairman, to resign soon after the disclosure.[^13] Pedde was indicted in Italy by 1992 over transactions with [[Iran]].[^8] The Italian Senate commission recorded that no official of BNL in New York or Rome was among the defendants in the Atlanta prosecution, and that the thesis of a fraud by disloyal employees had proved "inconsistente" in light of the evidence the commission had gathered, which included confessions, testimony and documents.[^6] Of the thirteen Italian nationals whose depositions the government sought in Rome in 1993, six declared that they would testify in the United States and seven that they would not. The Eleventh Circuit's opinion lists the seven as Angelo Florio, "Nero Nesi" (the bank's chairman in 1989 was Nerio Nesi), Giacomo Pedde, Giovanni D'Ercole, Marco Lunazzi, Francesco Bignardi and Gerardo Ruggero, and records that Drogoul asserted that Pedde, Teodoro Monaco and Angelo Florio were the BNL officials who provided the authorizations he relied on.[^14]
### Cantoni and Secchia
Nesi's successor was [[Giampiero Cantoni]], whose ties to the [[Italian Socialist Party]] and to the former prime minister [[Bettino Craxi]] were, in the words of a [[State Department]] cable, a prerequisite for the appointment. The new director general, [[Paolo Savona]], was close to President [[Francesco Cossiga]] and to [[Guido Carli]]. A recapitalization begun under Nesi brought in the state insurer INA and the state pension system INPS and cut the treasury's direct holding from 75 to 56 percent.[^1]
Nesi's successor was [[Giampiero Cantoni]], whose ties to the [[Italian Socialist Party]] and to the former prime minister [[Bettino Craxi]] were, in the words of a [[State Department]] cable, a prerequisite for the appointment.[^1] The director general, [[Paolo Savona]], was close to President [[Francesco Cossiga]] and to [[Guido Carli]], the treasury minister. A capital increase already in preparation would bring in the state insurer INA and the state pension system INPS and reduce the treasury's holding from 75 percent to 56 percent.[^15]
Cantoni and Savona called on Ambassador [[Peter Secchia]] in October, having arranged the meeting on the flight home from Cossiga's visit to the United States. Cantoni said that his American lawyers were urging him to raise the matter to a "political" level, and that racketeering charges might be brought and assets frozen. On March 16, 1990, an executive vice president named DeVito told the embassy's economic officer that the bank might soon be indicted, that "the matter was urgent," and that he believed the [[Department of Justice]] had taken the investigation out of the hands of the United States attorney in Atlanta. On July 25, 1990, a week before the invasion of [[Kuwait]], Cantoni again "made a pitch for the U.S. government to go slowly before making indictments." Gonzalez told the House that "on numerous occasions Mr. Cantoni approached United States Ambassador to Italy, Peter Secchia, about achieving damage control," and that less than ten days after one such request the [[White House]] telephoned the prosecutor in Atlanta.[^1]
Cantoni and Savona called on Ambassador [[Peter Secchia]] on October 19, 1989, at Cantoni's request, made on the return flight from the United States with President Cossiga.[^16] Savona was concerned about losing the Commodity Credit Corporation guarantee on roughly $1 billion of the bank's three billion dollar exposure in Atlanta. Cantoni said that his American lawyers were urging him to raise the matter to a "political" level, and that they thought charges would be filed under the Rico Act and that BNL or Iraqi assets could be frozen.[^15] The cable reported that the two men wanted to achieve "some kind of damage control." Gonzalez told the House that "on numerous occasions Mr. Cantoni approached United States Ambassador to Italy, Peter Secchia, about achieving damage control," and that less than ten days after one such request the [[White House]] called the Atlanta prosecutor in charge of the case.[^17]
On March 16, 1990, an executive vice president named DeVito told the embassy's economic officer that the bank might soon be indicted in the United States, that "matter was urgent," and that he believed the [[Department of Justice]] had taken the investigation out of the hands of the United States attorney in Atlanta.[^18] On July 25, 1990, eight days before the invasion of [[Kuwait]], Cantoni again "made a pitch for the U.S. government to go slowly before making indictments."[^17] Frantz wrote in November 1992 that a White House lawyer had telephoned the prosecutor early in the inquiry.[^4] On October 24, 1989, Carli responded negatively to a request by opposition senators to conduct an investigation of the affair.[^15]
### The Indictment and Entrade
The indictment, No. 1:91-CR-078 in the [[United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia|Northern District of Georgia]], was returned on February 28, 1991, the day after President [[George H.W. Bush]] ordered the ceasefire in the [[Gulf War]]. It charged Drogoul on 347 counts with nine other defendants: two other branch officers, [[Therese Barden]] (vice president and operations officer) and [[Amedeo DeCarolis]] (operations assistant); Entrade International and its executive vice president, [[Yavuz Tezeller]]; the Iraqi state [[Rafidain Bank]]; and four Iraqi officials, [[Sadik Taha]], Abdul Rasheed, Raja Hassan Ali and [[Safa al-Habobi]].[^19] Two other Atlanta officers, Thomas Fiebelkorn and Leigh Ann New, were not carried into the indictment because they had negotiated plea agreements (New pleaded guilty on March 6, 1991 and Fiebelkorn on April 3, 1991), and the trade officer [[Paul Von Wedel]] pleaded guilty as a cooperating defendant; the five Atlanta employees were sentenced on August 24, 1993.[^20] Al-Habobi, described in the independent counsel's report as director general of the Al-Nasser Complex of the Iraqi Ministry of Industry and Military Industrialization, was also chairman, president, director or vice president of Iraqi-controlled corporations in England and the United States, including the [[Matrix Churchill|Matrix-Churchill]] entities, and returned to Baghdad after the search of the Atlanta office.[^21]
Entrade was an affiliate of the Turkish conglomerate [[Enka]]. A January 9, 1990 Justice Department letter described Tezeller as someone who could "provide information regarding after sales services (a fancy word for bribes, kickbacks), unearned consulting fees, and other payments to Iraqis."[^22] Tezeller refused to return from [[Turkey]] after the raid. Gonzalez reported that the State Department would not allow the Atlanta investigators to travel to Turkey to question him, and that Entrade had been involved in 52 CCC-guaranteed transactions with Iraq and BNL, in which, he said, a Department of Agriculture investigation found no evidence that the commodities arrived in Iraq.[^22]
Gonzalez also reported that the Justice Department had placed the Jordanian businessman [[Wafai Dajani]] on its list of proposed indictments, and that a February 1991 State Department memorandum said it had "no objections to indictment of any individual on the list" but added a disclaimer on Dajani, describing him as "a Jordanian businessman, not a government official" and noting that he was "considered well connected" and that his brother had been a minister.[^23] [[Joseph D. Whitley]], acting United States attorney in Atlanta from June 1, 1990, recused himself from the case the same day, because his former law firm had represented Matrix Churchill, the Iraqi-owned machine tool company that the branch had financed.[^24]
### Judge Shoob, the Plea and the Lacey Review
Drogoul pleaded guilty to 60 counts in June 1992. At a sentencing hearing on September 23, 1992, [[Marvin Shoob|Judge Marvin Shoob]] asked to see the intelligence underlying Gonzalez's summary of CIA reporting. Shoob took the documents home and concluded from one of them that it did not support the summary's analytical comment.[^25] On October 1, 1992, Shoob orally allowed Drogoul to withdraw the plea and, on the government's motion, recused himself; the written order is dated October 5, 1992. The order stated: "The Court concludes that officials at BNL-Rome were aware of and approved Mr. Drogoul's activities." The order noted that Drogoul had testified "only that his superiors should have known."[^26]
A CIA statement of February 5, 1993 announcing the release of the Inspector General's BNL report said: "The CIA's Inspector General found no evidence of deliberate withholding of information or wrongdoing by any Agency employee in connection with the BNL case." The statement attached a memorandum of January 19, 1993 from the Director of Central Intelligence, [[Robert Gates]], to the Inspector General. Gates wrote that Gonzalez "was given summaries of CIA intelligence reports accompanied by analytical comments that led him to conclude that CIA had information confirming that BNL-Rome knew of illegal lending activity by BNL-Atlanta," and that "the intelligence reporting on which this analysis was based does not support such a definitive conclusion." In the same memorandum Gates wrote two sentences about the CIA reports: "None of the information available to CIA establishes that BNL-Rome did know of the activities of BNL-Atlanta that later became the subject of DoJ's investigation and prosecution." and "Nonetheless, several of the CIA reports clearly contain indications that BNL-Rome may have been aware of BNL-Atlanta's actions." He also wrote that "In retrospect, mistakes clearly were made by Agency officers in their handling of events related to the BNL matter, and there was carelessness and a number of instances of poor judgment."[^27]
On October 16, 1992, [[William Barr|Attorney General William Barr]] appointed the retired judge [[Frederick Lacey]] as an "independent counsel" under Justice Department regulations, rather than under the independent counsel statute.[^28] Lacey's own report gives October 27 as the date on which Barr authorized a preliminary investigation and asked for a report by December 8, 1992. The Senate staff recorded that Lacey submitted his report on December 9.[^28][^29] Lacey wrote that "I find Judge Shoob's specific charges against the USAO, and his concern about the interference of other agencies, to be inaccurate."[^30] Gonzalez called the review "the Lacey Job" and said that "at best Lacey's probe was a whitewash."[^31]
Lacey wrote of the national security adviser and the deputy secretary of state: "It is clear that, while at [[Kissinger Associates]], [[Brent Scowcroft|Scowcroft]] and [[Lawrence Eagleburger|Eagleburger]] came into contact with BNL management. I have seen nothing, however, to suggest that they knew of BNL-Atlanta's wrongful loans to Iraq or influenced the prosecution of this matter."[^32]
On November 13, 1992, the Los Angeles Times reported that Lacey had sent Barr preliminary findings sufficient to proceed to a second phase. Senator [[David Boren]], chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that the committee was trying to determine "whether a decision was made at some level of government that the gathering of information took precedence over the prosecution of any individuals."[^4]
### Kissinger Associates
According to Gonzalez, Kissinger Associates was set up in 1982 when [[Henry A. Kissinger]] and Scowcroft joined in founding it.[^33] Lacey recorded that Scowcroft had served as vice president of the firm and headed its Washington office, and that Eagleburger had served as its president, before each joined the government.[^32] Gonzalez said that Scowcroft worked on the BNL account, met BNL management on numerous occasions, and briefed the BNL board on three occasions between 1986 and 1989.[^33] He also reported that a former head of BNL's American operations attended a 1987 meeting in New York with [[Alan Stoga]], the head of BNL's Rome headquarters, and Kissinger, Scowcroft and Eagleburger, held to give BNL advice on doing business in several countries including India, after which Stoga and Scowcroft took the BNL officers to lunch.[^34] Gonzalez said that "Kissinger, Scowcroft, and Eagleburger maintain that they were unaware of the BNL loans to Iraq," and added: "I offer no definitive proof that they were aware of the BNL loans."[^35]
Drogoul testified before the [[House Banking Committee]] on November 9, 1993, with other former employees of the bank. He said that he was made aware of Kissinger's membership on the bank's international advisory board at a business meeting in Italy. "As we became involved in the medium-term lending," he said, "it became clear to us that the people at Kissinger and Associates were somehow assisting clients of Iraq in further developing business." He added: "By the time we moved into the 1988 period or early 1989 period, it was fairly clear to me that Kissinger and Associates' people were involved in some way in trying to enhance and develop a relationship between Iraq and the United States. I really shouldn't go farther than that, because the rest is probably speculation."[^36]
Gonzalez reported that the White House had intervened in late 1989 to make sure that Iraq received a $1 billion allocation of Commodity Credit Corporation credits, and that the NSC staff contacted the Department of Agriculture about a delayed second installment of $500 million after the Iraqi ambassador complained to Scowcroft.[^33]
### Commodity Credit Corporation Credits
The Commodity Credit Corporation guaranteed repayment to American banks that financed exports of farm products through its GSM-102 and GSM-103 programs. Gonzalez said that BNL was the largest participant in the program that Iraq used to purchase about $5 billion in American agricultural commodities between 1983 and 1990.[^35] The General Accounting Office reported in October 1990 that the CCC had paid out about $3 billion in claims, was at risk for approximately $2 billion in guarantees on loans that Iraq had stopped paying, and that the Justice Department was investigating irregularities at one bank that had made more than $2 billion in loans to Iraq, only a fraction of them properly authorized.[^37] A March 1991 GAO report found that export credit guarantees approved for Iraq rose from about $400 million in fiscal 1983 to about $1.1 billion in fiscal 1988 and fiscal 1989, and that the Department of Agriculture rated Iraq a high-risk market in fiscal 1989 and 1990 while continuing to approve guarantees.[^38]
On January 21, 1993, Gonzalez told the House that BNL had sued on December 15, 1992 in the United States Court of Federal Claims to recover over $340 million on defaulted Iraqi loans guaranteed under the program.[^39]
### Matrix Churchill and the Arms Network
In a January 1993 floor statement Gonzalez asked whether the British government had informed the United States that the exports of Matrix Churchill to Iran were being financed by the Atlanta branch of BNL.[^40] He said that as early as 1987 Matrix Churchill sources had told British intelligence that machine tools shipped to the Nassr and Hutteen state establishments in Iraq were used in armaments production, and that British officials approved export licenses for the company well into 1990.[^40] Gonzalez called the appointment of [[Scott Inquiry|Lord Justice Scott]] to review the matter "akin to the U.S. Government appointing Judge Lacey to investigate the BNL scandal."[^41]
### Italian Senate Commissions and the P2 Lists
The Italian Senate created a special commission and then, by resolution of February 19, 1991, a commission of inquiry under Article 82 of the constitution into the Atlanta branch and its connections, chaired by Senator [[Gianuario Carta]]. Its preliminary report, approved on December 21, 1991, stated that the thesis limiting the affair to a fraud by a group of unfaithful officials had proved inconsistent, that the Atlanta operations could not have been unknown in Rome and New York and were instead tolerated if not encouraged ("tollerata se non incoraggiata"), and that the Department of Justice had denied the commission access to documents and witnesses, invoking grand jury secrecy and national security.[^6] The commission took testimony in New York in June 1991. Its final report was approved on April 22, 1992 as Doc. XXII-bis n. 4.[^42] The final report stated that the severest of BNL's early-1980s crises was connected to "la accertata partecipazione di gran parte dei suoi alti dirigenti alla loggia massonica P2" (p. 6) and declined to fix the degree to which "Drogoul, i suoi complici e le stesse strutture superiori della BNL" knew of Iraq's military design (p. 8). It recorded that credits to Rafidain Bank before June 1987 had been reported to the Rome head office under an internal circular of June 23, 1983 (p. 20); that dissent existed inside the US administration over licenses and refinancing decisions taken "con il consenso del Consiglio per la Sicurezza Nazionale"; that President Bush had expressly admitted support initiatives for Iraq extending from the start of the Reagan presidency to shortly before the Gulf War; and that Lawrence Eagleburger (adviser to the Ljubljanska Banka), Brent Scowcroft and Henry Kissinger (both BNL consultants) were among those connected to the bank (p. 23). The report asked whether the development of Atlanta as the center for financing Iraq was "casuale e indipendente, anziché organicamente strumentale" to US policy toward Iraq (p. 25). It noted the coming House Banking Committee interim report on the intelligence services and the National Security Council, and the consultancy given to BNL by Kissinger Associates and by Scowcroft "anche diversi mesi dopo il 4 agosto 1989" (p. 34). On the coming Atlanta trial, the report stated that Drogoul could confirm what he had told the commission, "la consapevolezza e la tolleranza dei vertici di Roma della BNL e delle autorità federali a fronte della macchina finanziaria attivata a favore dell'Iraq" (pp. 34-35). A second commission, chaired by Senator [[Giampaolo Mora]], was created by resolution of November 17, 1992, was constituted on February 11, 1993, and approved its final report on February 23, 1994 as Doc. XXII-bis n. 1.[^43] Gonzalez told the House in January 1993 that the second commission's mandate was to probe whether Italian government bodies, possibly acting in concert with foreign governments, had aided Iraq's military industrialization.[^44]
[[Rinaldo Petrignani]], the Italian ambassador in Washington from 1981 to 1991, answered Gonzalez's questions in writing on January 31, 1994 and listed his meetings in 1990: with [[Robert Ross]], assistant to the Attorney General, on March 21, at which he expressed the Italian government's concern about a possible indictment of BNL as an institution and said it seemed possible that Drogoul and his associates would try to place part of the responsibility on BNL; with the State Department legal adviser [[Abraham Sofaer]]; and, briefly, with Attorney General [[Richard Thornburgh]] at a White House reception. Petrignani named the director general for economic affairs at the Italian foreign ministry and the ministry's director of cabinet as the officials who directed him to attend.[^45] The independent counsel's report recorded that on September 21, 1990 Urgenson, the prosecutor [[Gale McKenzie]] and others from the Justice Department met Petrignani, Senator Carta and Professor Zanelli, counsel to the Italian committee, and that Petrignani was reported to have asserted that "BNL was the victim of a terrible fraud" and that the "reputation of BNL was of great importance as the Italian State is a majority owner." A Justice Department memorandum of January 1, 1991 recorded that Carta expressed skepticism that only BNL-Atlanta was involved in the scheme.[^46] In his written answers Petrignani said he had no knowledge of the Italian government's use of BNL-Atlanta to finance the sale of military hardware such as Sidewinder missiles and attack helicopters.[^45]
Sardelli's written responses quoted testimony of the Italian foreign ministry's secretary general, B. Bottai, before the second Senate commission on September 23, 1993: "the behavior of the Embassy was the one suggested also by the Ministry of Treasury, guardian angel of BNL's," and "it was in the interest of Italy that the responsibilities remained circumscribed to the Atlanta Agency." Sardelli also quoted a hearing of August 4, 1993 at which the former foreign minister [[Gianni De Michelis]] said that only one loan to Iraq "had characteristics of irregularity."[^47]
Luigi Sardelli wrote that Professor A. Ferrari, then BNL's managing director, "had to resign in shame in 1981 because of his affiliation with Lodge P2," which he called an illegal lodge in Italy, and that on December 25, 1975 Ferrari had asked him to go to the Gulf area to explore a BNL merchant bank in partnership "with a group of BNL friends." Sardelli wrote that on his return he told Ferrari that the people he had met, Pakistani nationals connected to [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]], were Ferrari's friends and that he was the wrong man to lead the joint venture. He wrote that Ferrari and A. Florio, whom Ferrari had handpicked to head the International Division, organized a BNL financial affiliate in Luxembourg; that Ferrari was a close friend of [[Roberto Calvi]] of [[Banco Ambrosiano]]; that Ferrari, assisted by Florio, put deals that lost money on the books of the BNL affiliate Capitalfin; and that the relationship with BCCI, [[Ghaith Pharaon]] and [[Marc Rich]] was the exclusive domain of Ferrari, Florio and A. Conzara.[^48]
The membership lists of the Propaganda Due ([[Propaganda Due|P2]]) lodge seized at Castiglion Fibocchi in March 1981 and made public by the Italian government on May 21, 1981 include "dott. Alberto Ferrari (Roma, 520)," annotated "ex direttore generale BNL."[^49] The parliamentary commission of inquiry on P2 chaired by [[Tina Anselmi]] reported that among the banks represented in the lists the Banca nazionale del lavoro was one for which the presences were particularly significant for quality and representativeness: four members of the board of directors, the director general, and three central directors, one of them the board's secretary.[^50]
### Venice and Iran
Gonzalez reported in January 1993 that prosecutors in [[Venice]] had filed, in December 1992, a 523-page indictment, after three years of investigation, implicating former top-level BNL officers and Italian export licensing officials in a scheme to send arms secretly to Iran in the latter half of the 1980s, in violation of an Italian government ban on arms sales to either side in the Iran-Iraq war.[^44] He said the indictment charged that senior BNL executives in Rome, and BNL branch officials in Paris and Turin, provided over $100 million in financial support for the shipments, that it also implicated BNL employees together with Italian secret service agents and Ministry of Defense officials who helped disguise the shipments, and that in total 59 persons had been indicted.[^51] Gonzalez noted that some of the BNL Rome executives implicated in the Venice indictment were at the center of the Atlanta loans.[^51] He quoted the Venice prosecutor: "I'm not a politician, I'm a Judge. But my main impression is that it was all greed * * *. Nobody had a straight policy."[^51]
### Drogoul's Sentence
On September 2, 1993 the Eleventh Circuit reversed the district court's refusal to allow depositions of the Italian witnesses in Rome.[^52] Drogoul then pleaded guilty in September 1993 to three counts and was sentenced in December 1993 to 37 months in federal prison.[^53] Alan Friedman wrote that the loans were used by Iraq's government to finance purchases of weapons, weapons components and dual-use industrial equipment.[^54]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "The Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Scandal: High-Level Politics Try to Hide the Evidence," *Congressional Record,* House, September 14, 1992, p. H8349, reproducing State Department cables from Rome.
[^2]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "The BNL Case: Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil," *Congressional Record,* House, September 28, 1992, p. H9589.
[^1]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "The Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Scandal: High-Level Politics Try to Hide the Evidence," *Congressional Record,* House, September 14, 1992, pp. H8349-H8356, reproducing State Department cables from Rome, including the October 1989 cable at p. H8355. https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/congress/1992_cr/h920914g.htm
[^2]: Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, *The Intelligence Community's Involvement in the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL) Affair,* Committee Print S. Prt. 103-12, February 1993, p. 9. https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/publications/10312.pdf
[^3]: Central Intelligence Agency, Directorate of Intelligence, "Iraq-Italy: Repercussions of the BNL-Atlanta Scandal," November 6, 1989, printed in House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, *Testimony of Former Employees of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro,* Serial No. 103-95 (Washington, 1994), pp. 194-195; CIA reading room document 0000491425 (NESA M# 89-20119, EURA M# 89-2002), pp. 2, 6, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/0000491425 ; also https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit
[^4]: Frantz, Douglas, "Probe of U.S. Aid to Iraqis Is Stepped Up," *Los Angeles Times,* November 13, 1992 (copy in the American Cybercasting archive). https://stuff.mit.edu/afs/net/user/tytso/usenet/americast/latimes/news/282
[^5]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Efforts to Thwart Investigation of the BNL Scandal," *Congressional Record,* House, March 30, 1992, p. H2010 (in a passage stating $4 billion in unauthorized loans to Iraq, of which $2.2 billion went to the Iraqi military technology procurement network). https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/congress/1992_cr/h920330g.htm
[^6]: Senato della Repubblica, X Legislatura, Commissione parlamentare d'inchiesta sul caso della filiale di Atlanta della Banca nazionale del lavoro e sue connessioni (established by resolution of February 19, 1991; Carta, President), *Rapporto preliminare,* approved December 21, 1991, Doc. XXII-bis n. 3, pp. 2-9 (no BNL New York or Rome official among the defendants, p. 2; testimony in New York in June 1991, p. 3; exposures of about 4,000 billion lire, p. 4; Messere audit report and translation, p. 6; $991 million and $2,867.6 million, Danieli routing and Matrix Churchill Corporation among the beneficiaries, p. 7; DM 140 million operation through Atlanta, p. 8; conclusions on the fraud thesis, Department of Justice denial of access, and operations "tollerata se non incoraggiata," pp. 8-9). https://www.parlamento.it/service/PDF/PDFServer/BGT/914635.pdf
[^7]: Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, S. Prt. 103-12, February 1993, p. 9. https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/publications/10312.pdf
[^8]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "The BNL Case: Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil," *Congressional Record,* House, September 28, 1992, pp. H9589-H9598; the Sardelli audit history, the Pedde call, the Danieli contract, the Udine origination, the Italian Senate's view and Pedde's indictment appear at pp. H9594-H9595. https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/congress/1992_cr/h920928g.htm
[^9]: Sardelli, Luigi, "Written Responses to Chairman Gonzalez's Questions," printed in Serial No. 103-95, p. 159 (answer to question 2: the Constantini inspection instruction). https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit
[^10]: Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, S. Prt. 103-12, February 1993, p. 28 (CIA analysis of January 1990 and November 1991); the transmittal letter of January 31, 1990 is quoted at p. 47. https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/publications/10312.pdf
[^11]: Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, S. Prt. 103-12, February 1993, p. 34. https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/publications/10312.pdf
[^12]: Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, S. Prt. 103-12, February 1993, p. 26. https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/publications/10312.pdf
[^13]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "The Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Scandal: High-Level Politics Try to Hide the Evidence," *Congressional Record,* House, September 14, 1992, p. H8351 ("The scandal forced BNL Chairman Nerio Nesi and Vice Chairman Giacomo Pedde to resign soon after public disclosure of the debacle"); Gonzalez, "The BNL Case: Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil," September 28, 1992, p. H9595 (Pedde, "the director general of BNL in Rome resigned in the wake of the scandal"). https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/congress/1992_cr/h920914g.htm
[^14]: United States v. Drogoul, No. 93-8964, 1 F.3d 1546 (11th Cir. 1993) (the government's motion to depose thirteen Italian nationals in Rome; six declared they would testify in the United States, seven that they would not; the footnotes to the opinion name the seven and state that Pedde and Florio were among them, and that Drogoul asserted that Pedde, Monaco and Florio provided the authorizations). https://static.case.law/f3d/1/cases/1546-01.json
[^15]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "The Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Scandal," *Congressional Record,* House, September 14, 1992, p. H8355 (Cantoni and Savona's concerns, the Commodity Credit Corporation exposure, the Rico Act, the capital increase reducing the treasury's holding from 75 to 56 percent, and the October 24 response of Treasury Minister Carli). https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/congress/1992_cr/h920914g.htm
[^16]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "The Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Scandal," *Congressional Record,* House, September 14, 1992, p. H8351 (cable reporting the October 19 meeting at Cantoni's request during the return flight with President Cossiga). https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/congress/1992_cr/h920914g.htm
[^17]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "The Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Scandal," *Congressional Record,* House, September 14, 1992, p. H8351 (cable of October 26, 1989; White House call "less than 10 days" after Cantoni's request; cable of July 25, 1990). https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/congress/1992_cr/h920914g.htm
[^18]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "The Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Scandal," *Congressional Record,* House, September 14, 1992, p. H8353 (cable of March 19, 1990 reporting DeVito's March 16 call). https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/congress/1992_cr/h920914g.htm
[^19]: Lacey, Frederick B., Part I of the report of the Independent Counsel, printed in Serial No. 103-95, pp. 361-366 (defendants and cooperating individuals) and p. 413 (the February 28, 1991 indictment returned against Drogoul, Barden, DeCarolis, Entrade, Tezeller, Taha, Rasheed, Ali, Al-Habobi and Rafidain Bank); United States v. Drogoul, 1 F.3d 1546 (11th Cir. 1993) (347-count original indictment); General Accounting Office, T-NSIAD-91-13, March 14, 1991 (347-count indictment of 10 defendants); the criminal action number 1:91-cr-078 is cited in S. Prt. 103-12, February 1993. https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit
[^20]: Lacey, Frederick B., Part I of the report of the Independent Counsel, printed in Serial No. 103-95, pp. 362-363 (Barden and DeCarolis), p. 366 (Von Wedel as cooperating individual), and p. 411, note (Fiebelkorn and New "were dropped because they had negotiated plea agreements"; New pleaded guilty March 6, 1991; Fiebelkorn April 3, 1991); Judge Shoob's sentencing order of August 24, 1993 for five BNL-Atlanta employees (DeCarolis, Barden, New, Von Wedel, Fiebelkorn), printed in the same volume at pp. 200-201 (index) and 215 ff. https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit
[^21]: Lacey, Frederick B., Part I of the report of the Independent Counsel, printed in Serial No. 103-95, pp. 365-366 (Al-Habobi); Senato della Repubblica, Doc. XXII-bis n. 3, December 21, 1991, p. 7 (Matrix Churchill Corporation, $16.2 million, among the beneficiaries of the financing). https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit
[^22]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Efforts to Thwart Investigation of the BNL Scandal," *Congressional Record,* House, March 30, 1992, p. H2009 (Justice Department letter of January 9, 1990; Entrade as an affiliate of Enka; State Department refusal of Turkey travel). https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/congress/1992_cr/h920330g.htm
[^23]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Efforts to Thwart Investigation of the BNL Scandal," *Congressional Record,* House, March 30, 1992, pp. H2009-H2010 (February 1991 State Department memorandum and disclaimer on Dajani). https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/congress/1992_cr/h920330g.htm
[^24]: Lacey, Frederick B. "The Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Investigation: Report of the Independent Counsel," printed in *Testimony of Former Employees of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro,* Serial No. 103-95, pp. 514-515 (Whitley acting from June 1, 1990, recused the same day; his former firm had represented Matrix-Churchill). https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit
[^25]: Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, S. Prt. 103-12, February 1993, p. 24 (Shoob opened the September 23 sentencing hearing and asked for the intelligence underlying the Gonzalez summary; Brill offered to discuss the reports ex parte, Shoob declined and asked that she bring them to chambers; he took them home and read one that evening). https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/publications/10312.pdf
[^26]: United States v. Drogoul, Order of Judge Marvin H. Shoob, October 1, 1992, printed in *Testimony of Former Employees of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro,* Serial No. 103-95, pp. 205-206. https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit
[^27]: Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Public and Agency Information, "CIA Statement: Release of BNL-related Report," February 5, 1993, with Memorandum for the Inspector General from the Director of Central Intelligence, "BNL Investigation," January 19, 1993, pp. 1-2 (reading room document 0005617864). https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/0005617864
[^28]: Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, S. Prt. 103-12, February 1993, p. 4 (Attorney General's appointment of Lacey on Friday, October 16, 1992 as an "independent counsel" under Justice Department regulations). https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/publications/10312.pdf
[^29]: Lacey, Frederick B., report of the Independent Counsel, printed in Serial No. 103-95, pp. 344-345 (Barr's October 27 authorization of a preliminary investigation and request for a report by December 8, 1992); Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, S. Prt. 103-12, February 1993, p. 5 (report submitted December 9, 1992). https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit
[^30]: Lacey, Frederick B., remarks on the Shoob charges, printed in Serial No. 103-95, p. 473. https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit
[^31]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Update on BNL Investigation," *Congressional Record,* House, January 21, 1993, pp. H132-H133 ("the Lacey Job"; "At best Lacey's probe was a whitewash"). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1993_cr/h930121-bnl.htm
[^32]: Lacey, Frederick B., Part I of the report of the Independent Counsel, printed in Serial No. 103-95, p. 514 (Kissinger Associates section). https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit
[^33]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Kissinger Associates, Scowcroft, Eagleburger, Stoga, Iraq, and BNL," *Congressional Record,* House, April 28, 1992, pp. H2696-H2697 (Scowcroft's briefings of the BNL board; the late 1989 $1 billion allocation; NSC contact about the second $500 million installment). https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/congress/1992_cr/h920428g.htm
[^34]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Kissinger Associates, Scowcroft, Eagleburger, Stoga, Iraq, and BNL," *Congressional Record,* House, April 28, 1992, p. H2698 (1987 New York meeting as reported by Gonzalez from the former head of BNL's American operations). https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/congress/1992_cr/h920428g.htm
[^35]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Kissinger Associates, Scowcroft, Eagleburger, Stoga, Iraq, and BNL," *Congressional Record,* House, April 28, 1992, pp. H2694-H2695 (the three maintained they were unaware; "I offer no definitive proof"; BNL as largest participant in the program used for about $5 billion in purchases, 1983 to 1990). https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/congress/1992_cr/h920428g.htm
[^36]: Testimony of Christopher P. Drogoul, House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, *Testimony of Former Employees of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro,* Serial No. 103-95, hearing of November 9, 1993, p. 14. https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit
[^37]: General Accounting Office, *Report on the Commodity Credit Corporation's GSM-102/103 Export Credit Guarantee Programs and Iraq's Participation in the Programs,* T-NSIAD-91-1, testimony of October 16, 1990 (summary of findings on CCC claims paid and exposure). https://gao.justia.com/department-of-agriculture/1990/10/report-on-the-commodity-credit-corporation-s-gsm-102-103-export-credit-guarantee-programs-and-iraq-s-participation-in-the-programs-t-nsiad-91-1
[^38]: General Accounting Office, *Iraq's Participation in the Commodity Credit Corporation's GSM-102/103 Export Credit Guarantee Programs,* T-NSIAD-91-13, March 14, 1991 (summary of findings on guarantees approved for Iraq). https://gao.justia.com/department-of-justice/1991/3/iraq-s-participation-in-the-commodity-credit-corporation-s-gsm-102-103-export-credit-guarantee-programs-t-nsiad-91-13
[^39]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Update on BNL Investigation," *Congressional Record,* House, January 21, 1993, p. H134 (suit filed December 15, 1992 in the Court of Federal Claims for over $340 million in defaulted Iraqi loans). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1993_cr/h930121-bnl.htm
[^40]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Update on BNL Investigation," *Congressional Record,* House, January 21, 1993, pp. H132 (question whether the British government informed the United States that Matrix-Churchill's exports to Iran were financed by BNL Atlanta) and H134 (1987 British intelligence sources on Nassr and Hutteen; export licenses approved into 1990). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1993_cr/h930121-bnl.htm
[^41]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Update on BNL Investigation," *Congressional Record,* House, January 21, 1993, p. H135 (Lord Justice Scott appointment). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1993_cr/h930121-bnl.htm
[^42]: Senato della Repubblica, X Legislatura, Commissione parlamentare d'inchiesta sul caso della filiale di Atlanta della Banca Nazionale del Lavoro e sue connessioni, Doc. XXII-bis n. 4 (Relazione conclusiva, relatore Carta), April 22, 1992, pp. 6, 8, 20, 23, 25, 34-35. https://www.senato.it/documenti/repository/relazioni/archiviostorico/commissioni/X%20LEG_BNL.ATLANTA_DOC_RELAZ/X_%20LEG_BNL-ATLANTA_DOC%20XXIIBIS_4_22.4.92.pdf
[^43]: Senato della Repubblica, Archivio storico, repertorio of commissions, "Bnl Atlanta (monocamerale d'inchiesta)": X Legislature commission established February 19, 1991, constituted March 6, 1991, President Gianuario Carta, final report Doc. XXII-bis n. 4 approved April 22, 1992; XI Legislature commission established November 17, 1992, constituted February 11, 1993, President Giampaolo Mora, final report Doc. XXII-bis n. 1 approved February 23, 1994. https://patrimonio.archivio.senato.it/repertorio-commissioni/commissione/IT-SEN-COM001-000161/bnl-atlanta-monocamerale-d-inchiesta?t=sintesi
[^44]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Update on BNL Investigation," *Congressional Record,* House, January 21, 1993, p. H133 (second Italian Senate commission; 523-page Venice indictment filed in December 1992). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1993_cr/h930121-bnl.htm
[^45]: Petrignani, Rinaldo, written response of January 31, 1994 to Chairman Gonzalez's questions, printed in Serial No. 103-95, pp. 154-157 (meetings with Ross, Sofaer and Thornburgh; the foreign ministry officials who directed his attendance; answer on Sidewinder missiles and attack helicopters). https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit; Italian embassy in Washington, list of previous ambassadors (Petrignani, ambassador from June 15, 1981; successor from August 31, 1991). https://ambwashingtondc.esteri.it/en/chi-siamo/lambasciatore/ambasciatori-precedenti/
[^46]: Lacey, Frederick B., Part I of the report of the Independent Counsel, printed in Serial No. 103-95, p. 400 (September 21, 1990 meeting with Petrignani, Carta and Zanelli; Lippman memorandum of September 21, 1990) and p. 407 (Lippman memorandum of January 1, 1991 on Carta's skepticism). https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit
[^47]: Sardelli, Luigi, "Written Responses to Chairman Gonzalez's Questions," printed in Serial No. 103-95, p. 162 (answer to question 4, quoting the August 4, 1993 and September 23, 1993 hearings of the Italian Senate committee). https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit
[^48]: Sardelli, Luigi, "Written Responses to Chairman Gonzalez's Questions," printed in Serial No. 103-95, p. 176 (answer on BNL's relationship with BCCI: Ferrari, Florio, Capitalfin, Calvi). https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit
[^49]: Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri, "Elenco degli iscritti alla loggia P2," published May 21, 1981 (list of names as reproduced at https://www.stragi.it/archivio/doc/66.pdf, which includes "Dott. Alberto Ferrari"); entry "dott. Alberto Ferrari (Roma, 520) (ex direttore generale BNL)" as transcribed at https://unita2.org/lista-appartenenti-alla-p2/
[^50]: Camera dei deputati and Senato della Repubblica, IX Legislatura, Commissione parlamentare d'inchiesta sulla loggia massonica P2 (Anselmi, President), *Relazione,* Doc. XXIII n. 2, p. 116 (banks represented in the lists: Banca nazionale del lavoro, four members of the board, the director general, three central directors). https://www.archivioantimafia.org/p2/commissione_parlamentare/01.%20Relazioni%20Minoranza%20(0-005)/000-relazione-anselmi.pdf
[^51]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Update on BNL Investigation," *Congressional Record,* House, January 21, 1993, pp. H133-H134 (indictment charges, $100 million in support, "In total 59 persons have been indicted," quotation of the Venice prosecutor). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1993_cr/h930121-bnl.htm
[^52]: United States v. Drogoul, 1 F.3d 1546 (11th Cir. 1993), decided September 2, 1993. https://static.case.law/f3d/1/cases/1546-01.json
[^53]: "Drogoul gets 37 months in BNL bank scandal," *United Press International,* December 9, 1993; "Was Banker Just Fall Guy in Loans to Iraq?" *Deseret News,* December 5, 1993.
[^54]: Friedman, Alan. *Spider's Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq.* Bantam Books, 1993.

8
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Financial General Bankshares.md
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@ -38,9 +38,9 @@ The [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]] set out mutuall
### Litigation and Approval
Financial General sued on February 17, 1978, after learning that Middle Eastern investors had acquired twenty percent of its shares; the Securities and Exchange Commission filed and settled its own action on March 18, 1978. The Senate report states that on April 27, 1978, a federal judge "permanently enjoined Lance and ten other defendants" from violating the securities laws and found that the BCCI clients had relied "heavily, if not exclusively" on Abedi and BCCI; the later opinion of the [[United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit|D.C. Circuit]] describes the order of that date as a preliminary injunction on the company's disclosure claim. On May 21, 1980, all the defendants except Metzger settled with the company, which agreed not to oppose the takeover in return for a premium price.[^4][^5]
Financial General sued on February 17, 1978, after learning that Middle Eastern investors had acquired twenty percent of its shares; the Securities and Exchange Commission filed and settled its own action on March 18, 1978. The Senate report dates the commission's complaint to March 17, 1978 (printed in the report's note 12 as "1078").[^4] The commission's News Digest of March 20, 1978 reported that on March 18 the court entered permanent injunctions, by consent, against eleven defendants including Lance (Civil Action 78-0469, D.D.C.), for failing to file Schedule 13D statements while acquiring about 20 percent of Financial General's common stock, with the group controlling about 28 percent.[^6] A separate civil action by the commission and the Comptroller of the Currency against The National Bank of Georgia, The Calhoun First National Bank and Bertram Lance, filed April 26, 1978 in the Northern District of Georgia, ended the same day in consent judgments of permanent injunction.[^7] The Senate report states that on April 27, 1978, a federal judge "permanently enjoined Lance and ten other defendants" from violating the securities laws and found that the BCCI clients had relied "heavily, if not exclusively" on Abedi and BCCI; the later opinion of the [[United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit|D.C. Circuit]] describes the order of that date as a preliminary injunction on the company's disclosure claim. On May 21, 1980, all the defendants except Metzger settled with the company, which agreed not to oppose the takeover in return for a premium price.[^4][^5]
The Virginia bank regulator Sidney A. Bailey objected that the acquisition "will be inimical to the convenience and needs of the community." After a hearing convened on April 23, 1981, the Federal Reserve approved the application of [[Credit and Commerce American Holdings]] (CCAH) on August 25, 1981, and at Altman's request sealed parts of the transcript. A year later the company changed the name of its banks to First American and of its holding company to First American Corporation; the holding company above the banks was later known as First American Bankshares, Inc.[^4][^6] The Federal Reserve found in 1991 that all four Middle Easterners who had appeared at the 1981 hearing had been BCCI nominees.[^4]
The Virginia bank regulator Sidney A. Bailey objected that the acquisition "will be inimical to the convenience and needs of the community." After a hearing convened on April 23, 1981, the Federal Reserve approved the application of [[Credit and Commerce American Holdings]] (CCAH) on August 25, 1981, and at Altman's request sealed parts of the transcript. A year later the company changed the name of its banks to First American and of its holding company to First American Corporation; the holding company above the banks was later known as First American Bankshares, Inc.[^4][^8] The Federal Reserve found in 1991 that all four Middle Easterners who had appeared at the 1981 hearing had been BCCI nominees.[^4]
### Footnotes
@ -49,4 +49,6 @@ The Virginia bank regulator Sidney A. Bailey objected that the acquisition "will
[^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. 183.
[^4]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 6, "BCCI in the United States: Initial Entry." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/06early.htm
[^5]: *Financial General Bankshares, Inc. v. Metzger,* 680 F.2d 768 (D.C. Cir. 1982). https://openjurist.org/680/f2d/768
[^6]: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, consent order, *In the Matter of Clark M. Clifford and Robert A. Altman,* Docket Nos. 92-080, effective February 1998. https://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/press/enforcement/1998/19980203/Attachment.pdf
[^6]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, News Digest, March 20, 1978, "Lance, Others Enjoined" (SEC v. Bank of Credit and Commerce International S.A., et al., U.S.D.C. D.C., Civil Action No. 78-0469, LR-8336). https://www.sec.gov/news/digest/1978/dig032078.pdf
[^7]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, News Digest, April 28, 1978 (SEC and Comptroller of the Currency v. The National Bank of Georgia, The Calhoun First National Bank, Bertram Lance, U.S.D.C. N.D. Ga., Civil Action No. 78-758). https://www.sec.gov/news/digest/1978/dig042878.pdf
[^8]: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, consent order, *In the Matter of Clark M. Clifford and Robert A. Altman,* Docket Nos. 92-080, effective February 1998. https://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/press/enforcement/1998/19980203/Attachment.pdf

194
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Harvard University.md
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@ -1,32 +1,202 @@
---
created: 2026-06-13
updated: 2026-06-13
updated: 2026-10-12
title: Harvard University
aliases:
- Harvard
- Harvard College
tags:
- Organization
- Academic
- USA
- AcademicInstitution
- CIA
- MKULTRA
- ColdWar
- TimothyLeary
- HenryMurray
- CenterForInternationalAffairs
- HarvardInternationalSeminar
- JeffreyEpstein
- ProgramForEvolutionaryDynamics
category: "Private Organization"
summary: "Harvard University is a Cambridge research university whose psychologist Henry Murray ran stress-interrogation experiments on undergraduates and whose lecturer Timothy Leary launched the Harvard Psilocybin Project, both entangled with the era's CIA interest in drugs and behavioral control."
summary: "Harvard University is a Cambridge research university whose psychologists, centers and programs appear in the record of CIA conduit funding, MKULTRA research and the Jeffrey Epstein donations."
start: 1636
location: "Cambridge, Massachusetts"
relations:
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Henry Murray]]"
reverse: true
role: "professor of psychology"
fn: 1
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Timothy Leary]]"
reverse: true
role: "lecturer on clinical psychology, Center for Research in Personality"
start: 1959
end: 1963
fn: 6
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Richard Alpert]]"
reverse: true
role: "assistant professor of clinical psychology and of education, appointment terminated"
end: 1963-05-27
fn: 7
- type: employed_by
with: "[[William Yandell Elliott]]"
reverse: true
role: "professor of government"
fn: 26
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Martin Nowak]]"
reverse: true
role: "professor of mathematics and biology, director of the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics"
fn: 34
- type: funded
with: "[[Jeffrey Epstein]]"
reverse: true
role: "gifts of about 9.1 million dollars, 1998 to 2008, per the 2020 Harvard review"
start: 1998
end: 2008
fn: 32
- type: funded
with: "[[Central Intelligence Agency]]"
reverse: true
role: "CIA conduit foundations channeled 456,000 dollars into the University, 1960 to 1966, per the Doermann faculty report"
start: 1960
end: 1966
fn: 22
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Clyde Kluckhohn]]"
reverse: true
role: "director of the Russian Research Center and of the Project on the Soviet Social System"
start: 1949
fn: 18
- type: funded
with: "[[Carnegie Corporation of New York]]"
reverse: true
role: "seed money for the Russian Research Center"
start: 1948
fn: 16
- type: contractor_to
with: "[[Human Resources Research Institute]]"
role: "Russian Research Center contract AF 33(038)-12909 for the Project on the Soviet Social System"
start: 1950
fn: 19
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Martin Orne]]"
reverse: true
role: "Medical School researcher, Studies in Hypnosis Project funded through the CIA's Human Ecology Fund"
fn: 12
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Stephen Kosslyn]]"
reverse: true
role: "chair of the Psychology Department, 2005, recommended Epstein's Visiting Fellow appointment"
start: 2005
fn: 32
- type: participant_in
with: "[[Project MKUltra]]"
role: "two research projects with Harvard involvement, disclosed by the University in October 1977"
start: 1977-10
fn: 10
---
Harvard University is a private research university in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]], founded in 1636 and the oldest institution of higher education in the United States. Several of its mid-twentieth-century psychologists and their projects intersected with the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] research into drugs, personality, and behavioral control.[^1]
Harvard University is a private research university in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]], founded in 1636 and the oldest institution of higher education in the United States. Its psychologists, research centers and visiting programs recur in the documented record of [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] behavioral research, CIA conduit funding and the donations of [[Jeffrey Epstein]].
### Henry Murray and the Stress Experiments
### Henry Murray and the OSS Assessment
The Harvard psychologist [[Henry Murray]], who had screened agents for the [[Office of Strategic Services|OSS]] during [[World War II]], conducted experiments between 1959 and 1962 in which undergraduates were subjected to intense, deliberately abusive interrogations designed to measure their responses to stress. One subject was the seventeen-year-old [[Ted Kaczynski]], later the Unabomber. Murray's wartime assessment methods fed directly into the personality-screening interests of postwar American intelligence.[^1][^2]
The Harvard psychologist [[Henry Murray]] served as a lieutenant colonel in the [[Office of Strategic Services]]. The assessment staff of the OSS wrote that the idea of a psychological-psychiatric assessment unit was presented at an executive staff meeting of [[William J. Donovan|General William Donovan]] in October 1943, that Murray and Donald K. Adams were invited as consultants to a two-day conference at a secluded intelligence briefing area known as The Farm, and that Murray was one of the six-member task force that received the first group of assessees at Station S, a country estate forty minutes outside Washington equipped to set up stressful situations to test the candidates. Harvard faculty on the assessment staff list included Murray, O. H. Mowrer, James G. Miller and Harvey A. Robinson. In the spring of 1945 Murray took part in the assessment of about 800 Chinese recruits for paratroop-commando units at Kunming.[^1]
### Timothy Leary and the Psilocybin Project
[[John Marks]] wrote that Donovan called in Murray to devise a system for testing the suitability of applicants to the OSS.[^2] [[Alston Chase]] added that Murray, according to [[Timothy Leary]], also monitored military brainwashing experiments during the war.[^2]
In 1960 the lecturer [[Timothy Leary]] founded the Harvard Psilocybin Project, administering [[Psilocybin]] and later [[LSD]] to graduate students, prisoners, and volunteers. Leary and [[Richard Alpert]] were dismissed in 1963 amid controversy over the experiments. The project unfolded against the backdrop of the CIA's [[Project MKUltra|MKULTRA]] program, which had been seeding psychedelic research across American universities through cut-out foundations for nearly a decade.[^2][^3]
### The Murray Stress Experiments and Ted Kaczynski
Chase wrote in The Atlantic in June 2000 that from the fall of 1959 through the spring of 1962 Harvard psychologists led by Murray conducted an experiment on twenty-two undergraduates in a house known as the Annex, then used by the Department of Social Relations as a laboratory for research on human subjects. The subjects were identified by code name. According to Chase, one of them, code-named "Lawful," was [[Ted Kaczynski]], who had entered Harvard College in the fall of 1958 at the age of sixteen and later became the Unabomber.[^2]
Chase described the procedure as a staged debate: each student was told he would debate his philosophy of life with another student, was seated in a brightly lit room before a one-way mirror with a motion-picture camera recording his expressions, and had electrodes attached to record heart and respiratory rates, while the opponent was a prepared confederate who attacked him. Chase quoted the participants' later recollections, including one code-named Cringle, who described "getting hit real hard" under the lights. Chase wrote that he first learned of the experiment from Kaczynski, with whom he corresponded from July 1998, that he found no evidence that [[LSD]] was used in the research, and that whether the research had a defense connection of some kind remained an open question.[^2][^3]
### Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert and the Psilocybin Project
The lecturer Timothy Leary and the assistant professor [[Richard Alpert]] worked at the [[Center for Research in Personality]]. Marks and Lee and Shlain each describe the project Leary founded in 1960 to give [[Psilocybin]] and later LSD to graduate students, prisoners and volunteers, set against the CIA's search for drugs that could be used in interrogation and behavioral work.[^4][^5] Chase, citing Lee and Shlain, wrote that Leary established the psilocybin project with the approval of Murray, then chairman of the Department of Social Relations, and that Murray took a psilocybin session himself.[^2]
Faculty concern about the program began in March 1962, when members of the Center for Research in Personality charged at a closed meeting that the drug experiments were being conducted in an unscientific and irresponsible manner. The [[Harvard Crimson]] reported in February 1963 that Leary had left the University for Mexico to establish a headquarters there.[^6][^7] On May 27, 1963 [[Nathan Pusey]], the University president, announced that the Corporation had terminated Alpert's appointment for giving hallucinogenic drugs to an undergraduate. Leary was relieved of his teaching duties and his salary was suspended for absenting himself from the University without permission.[^7] In March 1963 Leary told a radio audience that consciousness-expanding drugs should be available to anyone who seriously wanted to study them, citing experiments with more than 400 individuals, over 66 per cent of whom in his account recorded positive changes.[^8] Undergraduates signed a letter to President Pusey and the Corporation protesting the dismissal.[^9]
### The Two MKULTRA Projects
In October 1977 University officials disclosed that CIA financial records showed Harvard involvement in two research projects conducted under [[Project MKUltra]].[^10] The University's general counsel, [[Daniel Steiner]], said the two projects involved no drug experimentation and declined to name the individuals who took part or the nature of their relationship to the University.[^10] The Crimson noted that the disclosure came the week after [[Stanford University]] made its own extensive disclosure of MKULTRA connections.[^11]
In late January 1978 a University statement outlined Harvard's involvement in the CIA funding of an unidentified investigator. On February 1, 1978 [[Martin Orne]], then professor of psychiatry at the [[University of Pennsylvania]], identified himself as that investigator. Orne said the members of his Studies in Hypnosis Project at the [[Massachusetts Mental Health Center]] had unwittingly received approximately $30,000 from the CIA in the early 1960s through the [[Human Ecology Fund]], a foundation established by the CIA; the project also received funds from the [[United States Air Force|Air Force]] and the [[National Institute of Mental Health]]. Steiner said the University had no record of the second project mentioned in the CIA document. He had concluded in January that Orne's right to privacy outweighed the University's interest in full disclosure and the public's right to know, and asked in February whether the University would now release the CIA documents, he said he would like to think the situation over. The Crimson editorialized that the University should release the documents relating to its involvement in the MKULTRA projects.[^12][^13]
Earlier in 1977 the University had issued guidelines, the first of their kind in the country by the Crimson's account, regulating faculty dealings with intelligence agencies. Steiner was a member of the committee that drafted them, and he had not released particulars of the two projects by mid-November.[^14] In June 1977 CIA Director [[Stansfield Turner]] wrote to President [[Derek Bok]] that the guidelines could violate faculty members' rights to privacy and free association.[^15]
### The Russian Research Center, the Carnegie Corporation and the CIA
The [[Russian Research Center]] was founded at Harvard in 1948; the [[Carnegie Corporation of New York]] describes its own role as providing seed money that year.[^16] [[Sigmund Diamond]] wrote in his 1992 book Compromised Campus that Harvard's research for the Center was reported in a December 1947 newspaper account to be going to the State Department and other agencies, including the Central Intelligence Group, before publication.[^17]
Diamond wrote in 1994 that on June 13, 1949 [[Clyde Kluckhohn]], the Center's director, wrote to Provost [[Paul H. Buck]] that "in accord with previous conversations with you and Mr. Conant" he had arranged with Harrison Williams, "the head of CIA for the New England area," that a directive would be prepared requiring representatives of government agencies to clear through the Boston office of the CIA before requesting assistance from the Center. [[Louis Menand]], replying, wrote that he did not dispute the claim of Diamond and [[James G. Hershberg]] that President [[James B. Conant]] agreed to let the CIA vet members of the Center.[^18]
In the spring of 1950 the Center undertook the Project on the Soviet Social System under contract AF 33(038)-12909 with the [[Human Resources Research Institute]] of Air University at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, with Kluckhohn as project director. Interviews with Soviet refugees were conducted in displaced persons camps in West Germany in 1950, and the digitized collection holds summary transcripts of 705 interviews.[^19]
[[Marshall D. Shulman]] was an associate director of the Russian Research Center from 1954 to 1962 before he was named head of the [[Russian Institute]] at [[Columbia University]].[^20]
### The Center for International Affairs and the Conduit Foundations
Robert R. Bowie organized the [[Center for International Affairs]] in 1958. The Crimson reported in February 1967 that the Center was then spending $761,000 on research, against $29,000 in its first year, 1958 to 1959. Foundation grants and government contracts accounted for more than 90 per cent of the funds in 1955 to 1956, when the University provided office space but no budget money.[^21]
In April 1967 [[Humphrey Doermann]], assigned by dean [[Franklin L. Ford]] to examine possible CIA influence, told the Faculty that CIA "conduit" foundations had channeled $456,000 into the University between 1960 and 1966. The Crimson wrote that conduit foundations, unlike "dummy" organizations, do not receive all their money from the CIA, so there was no proof that the agency's dollars reached the University, and that the aid carried no strings attached, so the government could not directly influence research or prevent publication.[^22]
In March 1967 [[Edwin O. Reischauer]], a trustee of the [[Asia Foundation]], affirmed his support for the foundation after it disclosed that it had indirectly accepted money from the CIA.[^23] The same spring the Crimson reported that [[Paul Sigmund]], Allston Burr Senior Tutor in [[Quincy House]] and instructor in government from 1959 to 1962, had organized in 1959 the Independent Service for Information on the Vienna Youth Festival, renamed the Independent Research Service, and directed it from the House. The Crimson, citing Congressional Quarterly, reported that the Service received $145,000 from a CIA front, the Independent Foundation. Sigmund had also taught an International Student Relations Seminar in the [[Harvard Summer School]] in 1954, which the Crimson described as supported by CIA money that Harvard apparently did not know about, and he had worked on his Harvard doctoral thesis on a grant from the Catherwood Foundation, which Congressional Quarterly listed as a CIA "cooperator."[^24]
### Henry Kissinger and the Harvard International Seminar
[[Henry A. Kissinger]] directed the [[Harvard International Seminar]], a summer program that brought foreign policy figures from Europe and Asia to Cambridge. [[Frank Donner]] wrote in 1980 that the seminar received funding from at least three CIA cutouts, among them the Asia Foundation, the [[Fairfield Foundation]] and [[American Friends of the Middle East]], the last of which channeled about $243,000 to the program.[^25]
### William Yandell Elliott and the National Security Council
[[William Yandell Elliott]] was a professor of government at Harvard. The list of persons in the [[Foreign Relations of the United States]] gives his posts as Assistant Director of the [[Office of Defense Mobilization]], 1952 to 1953, and Office of Defense Mobilization representative on the Planning Board of the [[National Security Council]], 1953 to 1954.[^26] The minutes of the 146th meeting of the Council, May 27, 1953, list "W. Y. Elliott, ODM Planning Board Member," and the minutes of the 155th meeting, July 16, 1953, name William Y. Elliott as Director of the Office of Defense Mobilization.[^27][^28] In July 1959 the Crimson reported that Elliott, as Director of the Harvard Summer School, had left for Moscow with Vice President [[Richard Nixon]] and had been a member of the National Security Council planning board since 1953.[^29]
[[Kenn Thomas]] and [[Len Bracken]] wrote in 1998 in the [[Steamshovel Press]] that [[Charles Marsh]] facilitated [[Marion Pettie]]'s tie to Elliott, whom they described as a Harvard professor on the National Security Council planning board and a [[Radio Liberty]] trustee.[^30]
### Jeffrey Epstein and the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics
Harvard's [[Office of the General Counsel]], with the firm [[Foley Hoag]], reviewed the University's ties to Epstein; the 27-page report was released on May 1, 2020, with a letter from the vice president and general counsel, [[Diane Lopez]]. The report found that before his 2008 conviction Epstein donated $9,179,000 to support Harvard faculty and programs, in gifts made between 1998 and 2007 that typically ranged from $10,000 to $200,000, and that the University accepted no gifts from him afterward; the Crimson and [[Harvard Magazine]] gave the total as about $9.1 million. Four gifts totaling $736,000 came after his 2006 arrest. [[Lawrence Bacow]], the University president, announced new donor guidelines in response.[^31][^32][^33]
Epstein's single largest gift, $6.5 million in 2003, created the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, directed by [[Martin Nowak]]. The report found that Epstein made more than 40 visits to the program's offices at [[One Brattle Square]] between 2010 and 2018, that Nowak had authorized proximity cards, a keypad code and a key to Office 610, which the program called "Jeffrey's Office," and that Nowak approved the posting on the program's website of flattering and false descriptions of Epstein's philanthropy. The [[Faculty of Arts and Sciences]] placed Nowak on paid administrative leave the day the report was issued.[^32][^33][^34]
The report found that Epstein held an appointment as a Visiting Fellow in the Psychology Department for 2005 to 2006, recommended by the department chair [[Stephen Kosslyn]], to whom Epstein had donated $200,000 between 1998 and 2002 for his work; Epstein paid $10,072 in tuition and fees, the report found no evidence that he engaged with Harvard students as a Visiting Fellow, and he was readmitted in February 2006 for 2006 to 2007 and withdrew in September 2006, after his arrest, at the University's request.[^32][^36] A November 2008 email from Kosslyn, then Divisional Dean for Social Sciences, written after he spoke with the Mathematics Department chair [[Benedict Gross]], stated: "If [President] Drew [Faust] weren't opposed to taking JEE's money, there wouldn't be a problem . . . but she is," a reference to President [[Drew Faust]].[^36] After 2008 Epstein helped steer money to Harvard faculty: WBUR reported that the report found he "facilitated" $7 million in gifts from [[Leon Black]] to Nowak and, in 2015, a $2 million gift from Black for [[George Church]]; the Globe reported that donors Epstein introduced to Nowak and Church provided $7.5 million and $2 million between 2010 and 2015, and the donors denied that Epstein directed their gifts.[^33][^35] The report's table of unrestricted gifts to Nowak that he said Epstein helped him obtain lists $500,000 from the [[Falconwood Foundation]] on September 10, 2010, $2,000,000 from Leon and Debra Black on November 22, 2011, $4,000,000 from Leon and Debra Black on December 29, 2014, and $1,000,000 from the [[Black Family Foundation]] on October 30, 2015, and the report states that Nowak "acknowledged that Epstein played a role in helping" obtain them. The report found it likely that Epstein visited the program's offices more than 40 times between 2010 and 2018, and its table of visits by year for 2010 through 2018 reads 4, 5, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 5 and 6 (46 in all); the visits ended after program researchers complained to Nowak.[^36]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Chase, Alston. *Harvard and the Unabomber: The Education of an American Terrorist*. W.W. Norton, 2003.
[^2]: John D. Marks, *The Search for the Manchurian Candidate: The CIA and Mind Control*. Times Books, 1979.
[^3]: Lee, Martin A., and Bruce Shlain. *Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD: The CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond*. Grove Press, 1985.
[^1]: OSS Assessment Staff, *Assessment of Men: Selection of Personnel for the Office of Strategic Services* (New York: Rinehart, 1948), staff list and chapters on the origin and organization of the program and on the Station S and overseas assessments. https://wellcomecollection.org/works/z9va5p3c
[^2]: Chase, Alston, "Harvard and the Making of the Unabomber," *The Atlantic Monthly*, June 2000, quoting Marks, *The Search for the Manchurian Candidate* (1979), and Lee and Shlain, *Acid Dreams* (1985). https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2000/06/harvard-and-the-making-of-the-unabomber/378239/
[^3]: Chase, Alston. *Harvard and the Unabomber: The Education of an American Terrorist*. W. W. Norton, 2003.
[^4]: Marks, John. *The Search for the Manchurian Candidate: The CIA and Mind Control*. Times Books, 1979.
[^5]: Lee, Martin A., and Bruce Shlain. *Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD: The CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond*. Grove Press, 1985.
[^6]: "Drugs and the University," *The Harvard Crimson*, February 14, 1963. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1963/2/14/drugs-and-the-university-pthe-experiments/
[^7]: "Psilocybin, Senate Race Highlight Harvard Year," *The Harvard Crimson*, July 9, 1963. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1963/7/9/psilocybin-senate-race-highlight-harvard-year/
[^8]: "Leary Advocates Wide Availability Of Consciousness-Expanding Drugs," *The Harvard Crimson*, March 19, 1963. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1963/3/19/leary-advocates-wide-availability-of-consciousness-expanding/
[^9]: "Undergraduates Protest Decision to Fire Alpert," *The Harvard Crimson*, May 31, 1963. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1963/5/31/undergraduates-protest-decision-to-fire-alpert/
[^10]: "A CIA Test Tube," *The Harvard Crimson*, October 1, 1977. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1977/10/1/a-cia-test-tube-padd-harvard/
[^11]: "Harvard and the CIA," *The Harvard Crimson*, October 5, 1977. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1977/10/5/harvard-and-the-cia-peach-year/
[^12]: "CIA Grants Funded Hypnosis Research," *The Harvard Crimson*, February 2, 1978. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1978/2/2/cia-grants-funded-hypnosis-research-pthe/
[^13]: "Harvard And the CIA Continued," *The Harvard Crimson*, February 11, 1978. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1978/2/11/harvard-and-the-cia-continued-pbabnother/
[^14]: "Harvard and the CIA," *The Harvard Crimson*, November 17, 1977. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1977/11/17/harvard-and-the-cia-pbwbhen-the/
[^15]: "Harvard: A Threat To Privacy," *The Harvard Crimson*, December 3, 1977. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1977/12/3/harvard-a-threat-to-privacy-pcia/
[^16]: "Throwback Thursday: Back in the USSR," Carnegie Corporation of New York. https://www.carnegie.org/article/throwback-thursday-back-in-the-ussr/
[^17]: Diamond, Sigmund. *Compromised Campus: The Collaboration of Universities with the Intelligence Community, 1945-1955*. Oxford University Press, 1992, chapter "The Russian Research Center, 2: Scholarship and Intelligence." https://academic.oup.com/book/47341/chapter/422336543
[^18]: Diamond, Sigmund, letter in "Conant & the FBI," with reply by Louis Menand, *The New York Review of Books*, October 20, 1994, quoting Kluckhohn to Buck, June 13, 1949. https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1994/10/20/conant-the-fbi/
[^19]: "Harvard Project on the Soviet Social System," Harvard Library research guide (705 interviews). https://library.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/static/collections/hpsss/about.html ; Harvard Project on the Soviet Social System schedules, project director C. Kluckhohn, contract AF 33(038)-12909. https://sites.harvard.edu/martin11/the-harvard-project-on-the-soviet-social-system
[^20]: "Shulman Named Head Of Russian Institute," *The Harvard Crimson*, April 15, 1967. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1967/4/15/shulman-named-head-of-russian-institute/
[^21]: "Harvard's International Affairs Center: New Emphasis Towards Research Projects," *The Harvard Crimson*, February 6, 1967. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1967/2/6/harvards-international-affairs-center-new-emphasis/
[^22]: "CIA Financial Links," *The Harvard Crimson*, April 15, 1967. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1967/4/15/cia-financial-links-phumphrey-doermanns-report/
[^23]: "Reischauer Calls Asia Fund Valid," *The Harvard Crimson*, March 25, 1967. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1967/3/25/reischauer-calls-asia-fund-valid-pedwin/
[^24]: "Former Quincy Senior Tutor Directed CIA-Supported Group from House," *The Harvard Crimson*, March 15, 1967. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1967/3/15/former-quincy-senior-tutor-directed-cia-supported/
[^25]: Donner, Frank. *The Age of Surveillance: The Aims and Methods of America's Political Intelligence System*. Alfred A. Knopf, 1980, pp. 312 to 315.
[^26]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952-1954*, vol. II, part 1, list of persons, entry "Elliott, William Y." https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1952-54v02p1
[^27]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952-1954*, vol. II, part 2, doc. 90, minutes of the 146th meeting of the National Security Council, May 27, 1953. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1952-54v02p2/d90
[^28]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952-1954*, vol. II, part 1, doc. 79, minutes of the 155th meeting of the National Security Council, July 16, 1953. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1952-54v02p1/d79
[^29]: "Elliott Flies to Moscow With Nixon's Mission," *The Harvard Crimson*, July 23, 1959. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1959/7/23/elliott-flies-to-moscow-with-nixons/
[^30]: Thomas, Kenn, and Len Bracken, "The Finders' Keeper," *Steamshovel Press* no. 16, 1998.
[^31]: "Harvard Asked Its Lawyers to Review the University's Ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Here's What They Found," *The Harvard Crimson*, May 2, 2020. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2020/5/2/harvard-concludes-epstein-review/
[^32]: Rosenberg, John S., "Harvard Reports Jeffrey Epstein Gifts," *Harvard Magazine*, May 1, 2020, quoting the Office of the General Counsel report and the Lopez letter to President Bacow. https://www.harvardmagazine.com/print/71335
[^33]: "7 things to know about the report on Jeffrey Epstein's ties to Harvard," *The Boston Globe*, May 1, 2020. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/05/01/metro/7-things-know-about-report-jeffrey-epsteins-ties-harvard
[^34]: "FAS Places Prof. Nowak On Leave After Report Finds Epstein Used His Program to Rehabilitate Image," *The Harvard Crimson*, May 2, 2020. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2020/5/2/epstein-review-nowak-leave/
[^35]: Larkin, Max, "Even On Black List, Epstein Maintained A Presence At Harvard, Investigation Finds," WBUR, May 1, 2020. https://www.wbur.org/news/2020/05/01/epstein-harvard-report
[^36]: Office of the General Counsel, Harvard University (Diane E. Lopez, Ara B. Gershengorn and Martin F. Murphy, Foley Hoag), "Report Concerning Jeffrey E. Epstein's Connections to Harvard University," May 2020, pp. 3-4, 10-11, 13, 18. https://ogc.harvard.edu/file_url/208

25
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Kissinger Associates.md
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@ -16,6 +16,13 @@ start: 1982
location: "New York, New York"
created: 2026-09-21
updated: 2026-09-21
relations:
- type: represented
with: "[[Banca Nazionale del Lavoro]]"
start: 1986
end: 1989
role: "consulting client; Scowcroft briefed the bank board three times 1986 to 1989"
fn: 3
---
Kissinger Associates is an international consulting firm founded in [[New York City|New York]] in 1982 by former [[United States Secretary of State|Secretary of State]] [[Henry A. Kissinger]]. Two of its officers, [[Brent Scowcroft]] and [[Lawrence Eagleburger]], left it in 1989 to become national security adviser and deputy secretary of state under [[George H.W. Bush]]. Between 1985 and 1989 the [[Atlanta]] branch of [[Banca Nazionale del Lavoro]], a firm client, lent [[Iraq]] more than four billion dollars that did not appear on the bank's books.[^1]
@ -26,15 +33,19 @@ Kissinger sat on the bank's international advisory board from 1985 until June 19
"Several Kissinger Associates clients had extensive dealings with Iraq," Gonzalez said, "including Volvo, [[Midland Bank]], [[Chase Manhattan Bank]], Fiat, and [[Asea Brown Boveri|Asea Braun Boveri]] and those same companies also were the beneficiaries of BNL loans to Iraq or were involved in some way with BNL-Atlanta." He added: "Kissinger, Scowcroft, and Eagleburger maintain that they were unaware of the BNL loans to Iraq. I offer no definitive proof that they were aware of the BNL loans." Kissinger replied to the committee in writing that he had no knowledge of the Atlanta lending.[^1]
Gonzalez reported that Scowcroft, while at the firm, worked on the BNL account, met BNL management on numerous occasions, and on three occasions between 1986 and 1989 briefed the BNL board.[^3] After Scowcroft joined the government, Gonzalez said, the White House intervened in late 1989 to make sure that Iraq received a $1 billion allocation of Commodity Credit Corporation credits, and the National Security Council staff contacted the Department of Agriculture about the delayed second installment of $500 million after the Iraqi ambassador complained to Scowcroft.[^3]
The Italian Senate commission of inquiry's final report of April 22, 1992 stated that the House Banking Committee's coming interim report would address "la collaborazione prestata per alcuni anni alla BNL dall'ex segretario di Stato Kissinger e attraverso la Ljublianska Bank dal sottosegretario Eagleburger," and the consultancy given "anche diversi mesi dopo il 4 agosto 1989" by Kissinger Associates and by the national security adviser, Scowcroft.[^4]
### Stoga in Baghdad
In June 1989 Stoga traveled to [[Baghdad]] with a delegation of the [[U.S.-Iraq Business Forum]] led by its chairman, the banker [[A. Robert Abboud]], and the group met [[Saddam Hussein]]. The forum's president, [[Marshall Wiley]], said on the television program 60 Minutes that Stoga went to advise the Iraqi government on restructuring its debt. Stoga told the Banking Committee he went "to get to know the country better." He spoke at the forum's symposium on American commercial and strategic interests in Iraq that November.[^1]
The manager of the Atlanta branch, [[Christopher Drogoul]], testified in 1993 that "it became clear to us that the people at Kissinger and Associates were somehow assisting clients of Iraq in further developing business." The special counsel appointed by [[United States Attorney General|Attorney General]] [[William Barr]], [[Frederick Lacey]], reported in December 1992 that Scowcroft and Eagleburger "came into contact with BNL management" while at the firm and that he had seen nothing to suggest they knew of the loans or influenced the prosecution.[^3][^4]
The manager of the Atlanta branch, [[Christopher Drogoul]], testified in 1993 that "it became clear to us that the people at Kissinger and Associates were somehow assisting clients of Iraq in further developing business." Drogoul added: "By the time we moved into the 1988 period or early 1989 period, it was fairly clear to me that Kissinger and Associates' people were involved in some way in trying to enhance and develop a relationship between Iraq and the United States. I really shouldn't go farther than that, because the rest is probably speculation." He also described a Kissinger Associates member who went to Iraq with a member of the Iraqi-American Business Forum to discuss business ties.[^5] The special counsel appointed by [[United States Attorney General|Attorney General]] [[William Barr]], [[Frederick Lacey]], reported in December 1992 that Scowcroft and Eagleburger "came into contact with BNL management" while at the firm and that he had seen nothing to suggest they knew of the loans or influenced the prosecution.[^6][^7] The exact text of Lacey's conclusion on the two former officers reads: "It is clear that, while at Kissinger Associates, Scowcroft and Eagleburger came into contact with BNL management. I have seen nothing, however, to suggest that they knew of BNL-Atlanta's wrongful loans to Iraq or influenced the prosecution of this matter."[^8]
### The State Department Certificates
On March 14, 1989, Secretary of State [[James Baker]] signed the documents certifying [[Matrix Churchill]] Corporation of [[Ohio]] as a validly chartered American company so that it could open a branch in Baghdad. Eagleburger, as acting secretary, signed a second set on May 10. Matrix Churchill was owned through [[London]] holding companies by the Iraqi military procurement organization and was financed by the Atlanta branch. "Unwittingly, in 1989 both James Baker and Lawrence Eagleburger helped Matrix-Churchill establish its Baghdad branch," Gonzalez said. "Pretty good."[^5]
On March 14, 1989, Secretary of State [[James Baker]] signed the documents certifying [[Matrix Churchill]] Corporation of [[Ohio]] as a validly chartered American company so that it could open a branch in Baghdad. Eagleburger, as acting secretary, signed a second set on May 10. Matrix Churchill was owned through [[London]] holding companies by the Iraqi military procurement organization and was financed by the Atlanta branch. "Unwittingly, in 1989 both James Baker and Lawrence Eagleburger helped Matrix-Churchill establish its Baghdad branch," Gonzalez said. "Pretty good."[^9]
### BCCI and the National Bank of Georgia
@ -44,6 +55,10 @@ The day after the [[Tampa, Florida|Tampa]] branch of the [[Bank of Credit and Co
[^1]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Kissinger Associates, Scowcroft, Eagleburger, Stoga, Iraq, and BNL," *Congressional Record,* House, April 28, 1992, pp. H2694-H2701. https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/congress/1992_cr/h920428g.htm
[^2]: "The Scourge of 'Iraqgate,'" *The Christian Science Monitor,* October 26, 1992.
[^3]: Testimony of Christopher P. Drogoul, House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, *Testimony of Former Employees of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro,* Serial No. 103-95, November 9, 1993. https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit
[^4]: Lacey, Frederick B. "The Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Investigation: Report of the Independent Counsel," reproduced in Serial No. 103-95, pp. 514-15.
[^5]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Details on Iraq's Procurement Network," *Congressional Record,* House, August 10, 1992. https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/congress/1992_cr/h920810g.htm
[^3]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Kissinger Associates, Scowcroft, Eagleburger, Stoga, Iraq, and BNL," *Congressional Record,* House, April 28, 1992, pp. H2694-H2698. https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/congress/1992_cr/h920428g.htm
[^4]: Senato della Repubblica, X Legislatura, Doc. XXII-bis n. 4 (Relazione conclusiva, relatore Carta), April 22, 1992, pp. 23, 34. https://www.senato.it/documenti/repository/relazioni/archiviostorico/commissioni/X%20LEG_BNL.ATLANTA_DOC_RELAZ/X_%20LEG_BNL-ATLANTA_DOC%20XXIIBIS_4_22.4.92.pdf
[^5]: Testimony of Christopher P. Drogoul, hearing of November 9, 1993, Serial No. 103-95, p. 14. https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit
[^6]: Testimony of Christopher P. Drogoul, House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, *Testimony of Former Employees of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro,* Serial No. 103-95, November 9, 1993. https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit
[^7]: Lacey, Frederick B. "The Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Investigation: Report of the Independent Counsel," reproduced in Serial No. 103-95, pp. 514-15.
[^8]: Lacey, Part I of the report of the Independent Counsel, printed in Serial No. 103-95, p. 514. https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit
[^9]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Details on Iraq's Procurement Network," *Congressional Record,* House, August 10, 1992. https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/congress/1992_cr/h920810g.htm

25
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Lockheed Aircraft Company.md
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@ -9,18 +9,35 @@ summary: "The Lockheed Aircraft Company is an USA aerospace manufacturer that de
start: 1926
end: 1995
location: "Burbank, California, USA"
relations:
- type: investigated
with: "[[Securities and Exchange Commission]]"
reverse: true
role: "review of the company's disclosures of questionable overseas payments and sales commissions; about 200 million dollars in commissions questioned, per 1977 testimony"
start: 1975
fn: 3
---
The [[Lockheed Aircraft Company]] is an [[United States|American]] aerospace manufacturer that developed advanced military aircraft and became involved in a bribe scandal affecting [[Israel|Israeli]] politics.
### U-2 Spy Plane Development
Lockheed built the revolutionary [[U-2 Spy Plane]] under cover in Burbank, California. This aircraft was capable of flying and gliding for almost eleven hours at heights greater than 65,000 feet, covering more than five thousand miles, while utilizing only one thousand gallons of fuel. Special lenses, cameras, and thin film were developed for the U-2, enabling it to photograph a path from [[Moscow]] to [[Tashkent]] in one take.[^2]
Lockheed built the revolutionary [[U-2 Spy Plane]] under cover in Burbank, California. This aircraft was capable of flying and gliding for almost eleven hours at heights greater than 65,000 feet, covering more than five thousand miles, while utilizing only one thousand gallons of fuel. Special lenses, cameras, and thin film were developed for the U-2, enabling it to photograph a path from [[Moscow]] to [[Tashkent]] in one take.[^1]
### Israeli Bribery Scandal
In 1976, a telegram intercepted by [[Unit 8200]] revealed details of bribes paid by a [[Lockheed Aircraft Company|Lockheed]] representative in [[Israel]] to Defense Minister [[Shimon Peres]]. The sum involved was $3.5 million, deposited in one of [[Shimon Peres|Peres's]] brother's business accounts in [[Europe]]. This information, discovered by [[Ari Ben-Menashe]], was subsequently covered up by [[Israel|Israeli]] military intelligence superiors, including [[Yoel Ben-Porat|Col. Ben-Porat]] and [[Sasson Yishaek|Lt. Col. Yishaek]].[^1]
In 1976, a telegram intercepted by [[Unit 8200]] revealed details of bribes paid by a Lockheed representative in Israel to Defense Minister [[Shimon Peres]]. The sum involved was $3.5 million, deposited in one of Peres's brother's business accounts in [[Europe]]. This information, discovered by [[Ari Ben-Menashe]], was subsequently covered up by Israeli military intelligence superiors, including [[Yoel Ben-Porat|Col. Ben-Porat]] and [[Sasson Yishaek|Lt. Col. Yishaek]].[^2]
### Disclosures to the Securities and Exchange Commission, 1975 to 1977
In testimony to the House Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Finance in April 1977, [[Gordon Adams]] of the [[Council on Economic Priorities]] said that Lockheed had disclosed about 25 million dollars in questionable overseas payments, while the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] had raised questions about nearly 200 million dollars in Lockheed sales commissions.[^3]
The subcommittee's record also contains a statement by Representative [[Michael J. Harrington]], who wrote: "One day it is Lockheed. Another day it is Gulf. A third day it is General Tire." He wrote that allegations that [[Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands|Prince Bernhard]] had received 1.1 million dollars in Lockheed payments had led to his resignation from his official posts.[^3]
The commission's May 12, 1976 report to the Senate Banking Committee on questionable and illegal corporate payments and practices summarized its enforcement action against Lockheed: it alleged secret payments of at least 25 million dollars to foreign government officials, at least 750,000 dollars deposited in a secret Swiss bank account, and over 200 million dollars disbursed to consultants and commission agents without adequate records.[^4]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. _Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network_. Sheridan Square Press, 1992 (TrineDay reprint, 2015).
[^2]: Hersh, Seymour M. _The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy_. Random House, 1991. Chapter 4.
[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. _The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy_. Random House, 1991. Chapter 4.
[^2]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. _Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network_. Sheridan Square Press, 1992 (TrineDay reprint, 2015).
[^3]: Unlawful Corporate Payments Act of 1977, Hearings on H.R. 3815 and H.R. 1602 before the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Finance of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, House of Representatives, 95th Congress, 1st session, April 20 and 21, 1977 (Serial No. 95-11). Statement of Gordon Adams (beginning p. 26); statement of Rep. Michael J. Harrington (pp. 168-173). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-95hhrg91391O/pdf/CHRG-95hhrg91391O.pdf
[^4]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Report of the Securities and Exchange Commission on Questionable and Illegal Corporate Payments and Practices to the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, May 12, 1976, Securities Regulation and Law Report No. 353 (BNA), May 19, 1976, Special Supplement, Exhibit B (Lockheed Aircraft Corporation). https://sechistorical.org/wp-content/uploads/1976_0512_SECQuestionable.pdf

227
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Time.md
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@ -2,43 +2,240 @@
aliases:
- "Time (magazine)"
- "TIME"
- "Time magazine"
- "TIME magazine"
- "Time Inc."
- "Time, Inc."
- "Time Incorporated"
- "Time-Life"
- "Time Life"
category: "Private Organization"
tags:
- Organization
- Media
- ContraWar
summary: "American news magazine, first published in 1923, which ran Beaty and Gwynne's 1991 BCCI exposé and was sold by Meredith to Marc and Lynne Benioff in 2018 for 190 million dollars."
- CIAMedia
- Stargate
- BCCI
- Zapruder
- LSD
- MKUltra
summary: "American news magazine, first published in 1923, whose 1991 cover story on the Bank of Credit and Commerce International was later disputed in a Senate subcommittee report."
updated: 2026-10-12
start: 1923
location: "New York City, New York"
relations:
- type: founded
with: "[[Henry Luce]]"
reverse: true
start: 1923
fn: 1
- type: founded
with: "[[Briton Hadden]]"
reverse: true
start: 1923
fn: 1
- type: employed_by
with: "[[C. D. Jackson]]"
reverse: true
start: 1940
end: 1964
role: "vice president, publisher of Life from 1960 until his death"
fn: 9
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Hedley Donovan]]"
reverse: true
start: 1959
role: "editorial director of all Time Inc. publications, later editor-in-chief"
fn: 4
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Raji Samghabadi]]"
reverse: true
role: "Middle East correspondent; first hired as a stringer"
fn: 38
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Henry Grunwald]]"
reverse: true
role: "editor-in-chief when the May 1986 Samghabadi material was declined, per Ben-Menashe"
fn: 37
- type: owned
with: "[[Marc Benioff]]"
reverse: true
start: 2018
fn: 3
fn: 58
- type: owned
with: "[[Lynne Benioff]]"
reverse: true
start: 2018
fn: 3
fn: 58
---
Time magazine covered the [[Dark Alliance]] story, calling it "the hottest topic in black America" during the height of the public reaction in 1996. The magazine's coverage was part of the initial wave of media attention that preceded the establishment media counterattack.[^1]
Time is an American weekly news magazine whose first issue carries a cover date of March 3, 1923. It was founded by [[Henry Luce]] and [[Briton Hadden]], and it became the flagship of [[Time Inc.]], which also published [[Life (magazine)|Life]] and [[Fortune (magazine)|Fortune]]. In 2018 [[Meredith Corporation]] sold the brand to [[Marc Benioff]] and [[Lynne Benioff]].[^1]
### Coverage of Dark Alliance
### Covert relationships with the Central Intelligence Agency
Time's characterization of the Dark Alliance series reflected the genuine public interest and outrage that the story generated in African American communities across the [[United States]]. The magazine's coverage came during the brief window between the series' publication in August 1996 and the October 1996 counterattack by the [[New York Times]], [[Washington Post]], and [[Los Angeles Times]]. After the establishment papers attacked [[Gary Webb]]'s reporting, coverage of the story's substance largely disappeared from mainstream media outlets including Time.[^2]
In "The CIA and the Media," a 25,000-word cover story published in [[Rolling Stone]] on October 20, 1977, [[Carl Bernstein]] listed the executives who lent their cooperation to the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]. The list included [[William S. Paley]] of the [[Columbia Broadcasting System]], Henry Luce of Time Inc., and [[Arthur Hays Sulzberger]] of the [[New York Times]]. Bernstein wrote that, according to CIA officials, the most valuable of these associations had been with the New York Times, CBS and Time Inc.[^2]
Bernstein wrote that [[Allen Dulles]] "often interceded with his good friend, the late Henry Luce, founder of Time and Life magazines, who readily allowed certain members of his staff to work for the Agency and agreed to provide jobs and credentials for other CIA operatives who lacked journalistic experience." He wrote that Luce "made it a regular practice to brief Dulles or other high Agency officials" after his trips abroad, and that Time's foreign correspondents attended CIA "briefing" dinners in the 1950s and early 1960s.[^3]
Bernstein described [[C. D. Jackson]] as "Luce's personal emissary to the CIA." He wrote that Jackson "approved specific arrangements for providing CIA employees with Time-Life cover," and that some of these arrangements were made with the knowledge of [[Clare Boothe Luce]]. [[Hedley Donovan]], who took over editorial direction of all Time Inc. publications in 1959, denied in a telephone interview that he knew of any such arrangements. Bernstein wrote that, according to CIA officials including those who dealt with Luce, other arrangements for Time cover were made with Donovan's knowledge. Bernstein also wrote that Jackson, while a Time executive, coauthored a CIA-sponsored study recommending the reorganization of the American intelligence services in the early 1950s. "I was never approached and I'd be amazed if Luce approved such arrangements," Donovan said. "Luce had a very scrupulous regard for the difference between journalism and government."[^4]
The [[Church Committee]] took up the same subject in Book I of its final report. The committee recorded that on February 11, 1976 the CIA announced: "Effective immediately, CIA will not enter into any paid or contractual relationship with any full-time or part-time news correspondent accredited by any U.S. news service, newspaper, periodical, radio or television network or station." The committee counted approximately 50 CIA relationships with U.S. journalists or media employees at the time of that announcement, of which fewer than one-half would be terminated under the new guidelines. It found that more than a dozen U.S. news organizations and publishing houses had provided cover for CIA agents abroad. The committee wrote that the use of American journalists and media organizations for clandestine operations "is a threat to the integrity of the press."[^5]
The minutes of the CIA Deputies' Meeting of July 21, 1952 record [[Frank Wisner]] as having "Noted that we were prepared to talk to Mr. Luce's representative any time he came to Washington and that we had sufficient material on hand which would allow TIME and/or LIFE to publish an exclusive story on the Duclos affair over and above the information already made public." In response to a query from the Director, [[Walter Bedell Smith]], on authenticity, Wisner stated that "(1) we were 90% positive that the information in question was authentic; (2) he would, however, pass this along to the TIME and/or LIFE representative; (3) we now have in our possession a photostat copy of Duclos' diary which was written in longhand; (4) he believed we were on safe ground in our '90% estimate' since the Communists had already vociferously decried publicity given so far to the Duclos papers."[^6]
A 2024 article by [[Simon Willmetts]], "The CIA and Time Magazine: Journalistic Ethics and Newsroom Dissent," is listed in the research output of [[Leiden University]]. The listing states that the article provides evidence of a systematic policy of direct collusion between Time Inc. and the CIA, including access by the agency to Time Inc.'s foreign dispatches and to the photographic archive of Life.[^7]
### C. D. Jackson and the psychological warfare apparatus
Jackson's papers at the [[Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library]] list him as a Time Inc. vice president from 1940, as president of the [[Free Europe Committee]] from 1951 to 1952, as a special assistant to President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] for international affairs from 1953 to 1954, and as publisher of Life from 1960. A Central Intelligence Agency biographical sheet on Jackson states that he joined Time Incorporated in 1931 as Assistant to the President, became General Manager of Life in 1937 and Vice President of Time Incorporated in 1940, became Publisher of Fortune in February 1949, went on leave in February 1951 to become President of the [[Free Europe Committee|National Committee for a Free Europe]], returned to Time Inc. in February 1952, and in October 1952 was on leave to head the Eisenhower headquarters speech-writer group.[^8] The finding aid states that the Free Europe Committee directed [[Radio Free Europe]]. Jackson died in New York City on September 18, 1964. The papers include a folder on [[Crusade for Freedom]].[^9]
The finding aid sets a condition on use. It records that "Permission of Time Incorporated is required to cite or quote materials originated by any individual in his capacity as an official of Time Incorporated," which applies to the Time Inc. file covering Jackson's career from 1931 to 1964.[^10]
Jackson was one of eleven members of the Quantico Vulnerabilities Panel, which met at [[Quantico, Virginia|Quantico]] from June 5 to 10, 1955. [[Walt Rostow]] of [[MIT]] chaired the panel, which was convened to explore methods of exploiting Communist bloc vulnerabilities. Its other members included [[Frederick Dunn]], [[Ellis A. Johnson]], [[Max Millikan]] and [[Hans Speier]].[^11] The Eisenhower Library holds a folder titled "Quantico Vulnerabilities Panel 1955," and Jackson's papers include a 1955 log entry titled "From Quantico to Geneva."[^12]
The [[Center for International Studies]] at MIT, which had emerged from [[Project Troy]], appears in the Time record for February 24, 1967. That issue reported "$300,000 to finance M.I.T.'s topflight Center for International Studies," and quoted Millikan, then the center's director, as saying that "the number of my friends around here who have swallowed this 'invisible government' line is disturbing."[^13]
### Clare Boothe Luce and Roald Dahl
[[Jennet Conant]] documents that [[Roald Dahl]] received explicit assignments to cultivate well-connected women for political intelligence during the Second World War. Dahl was assigned to romance the Republican congresswoman Clare Boothe Luce, the wife of Time-Life publisher Henry Luce. Dahl later described the assignment as the worst of the war, reportedly saying that Luce "talked too much both before and after."[^14]
### Life and the Zapruder film
After the assassination of [[John F. Kennedy]], [[Abraham Zapruder]] took his camera film to a Dallas processing plant, had three copies made, gave two to representatives of the [[United States Secret Service|Secret Service]], and kept the original and one copy.[^15] [[Richard Stolley]], Life's Los Angeles bureau chief, was the first journalist to reach him. Life obtained the print rights on November 23, 1963 for $50,000. On November 25, 1963 Time-Life bought all rights, including the motion picture rights, for $150,000 in total, paid in six installments. Accounts of the purchase credit C. D. Jackson with approving the purchase of the motion picture rights and with limiting what Life's mass-market magazines would show.[^16] Zapruder told the [[Warren Commission]] that he had received $25,000, which he gave to the family of [[J. D. Tippit]]. The Assassination Records Review Board staff noted that this $25,000 apparently was the first of six payments for the film and its copy, and reported the sale price as $150,000.[^17]
At the commission's request a representative of Life brought the original to the commission's offices and screened it several times, because "the original had considerably more detail and more there to study than any of the copies, since in the photographic process each time you copy you lose some detail." The board's letter of April 21, 1995 to the general counsel of Time Warner records that the commission's report shows Life cooperating closely with the commission's investigation.[^18]
In October 1974 [[Lawrence Layburne]], a vice president of Time Inc., informed the [[National Archives and Records Administration|National Archives]] that transfer of the original film to the government was proposed. On April 9, 1975 Time Inc. assigned the copyright to Mrs. Zapruder for "$1 and other valuable consideration," and on the same date deeded first and second generation copies of the film to the federal government. The original was placed at the archives at the Zapruders' request for storage, and no deed of gift transferring the original was ever executed. In 1978 Henry Zapruder asked the archives to hold and administer the original.[^15][^18]
The review board's letter of May 1, 1995 to [[E. Gabriel Perle]], a former general counsel of Time Inc., reports that from Time Inc.'s files "it appears that the Zapruders do have legal title to the original film as well as ownership of the copyright." The letter adds that, according to the documents, Time Inc. was constrained by terms in the original contract.[^19] Under the 1992 JFK Records Collection Act the original film was transferred to the JFK Records Collection at the National Archives on August 1, 1998. On August 3, 1999 the Justice Department announced that an arbitration panel, chaired by the former Third Circuit judge Arlin M. Adams, had voted two to one to award the heirs of Abraham Zapruder $16 million for the film. The LMH Company, the film's former owner, had asked for $30 million, and the arbitrator Walter Dellinger dissented, writing that $3 to $5 million would have been enough. The company kept the copyright.[^20]
The review board's executive director, [[T. Jeremy Gunn]], wrote to Time Inc. asking for early reproductions of frames from the film, for any further documentation of the film's chain of custody, and for information from Life's inquiry of 1966 and 1967. The letter states that during the autumn of 1966 Life and [[Bernard Geis Associates]] had jointly retained [[Josiah Thompson]] to research the assassination.[^21]
### LSD and the Luce magazines
Time's first article on LSD, "Dream Stuff," appeared in 1954. It reported that "LSD 25, while it has no direct curative powers, can be of great benefit to mental patients." The historian [[Stephen Siff]] wrote that Time covered the drug earlier and more often than other magazines, and that its stories were longer and largely sympathetic. His examples include the 1960 Time piece "The Psyche in 3-D," on celebrities who took LSD under medical supervision, and the 1966 Life editorial urging regulation rather than prohibition.[^22]
Siff also wrote that both Luces reviewed the 1963 Life article "The Chemical Mind-Changers" before publication, and that Clare Boothe Luce's papers at the [[Library of Congress]] contain letters and acid-trip journals. Time's 1966 article "An Epidemic of Acid Heads" blamed a wave of psychotic illness on recreational LSD use.[^22]
[[Alan Brinkley]], in his biography of Henry Luce, describes Henry's first trip, taken at Clare's urging. He read Lionel Trilling's biography of Matthew Arnold while the drug took effect, and Brinkley's account gives Henry one or perhaps two doses against Clare's repeated trips. Clare later said that LSD "saved our marriage."[^23]
[[Andrew Heiskell]], a former Life publisher and Time Inc. chairman, recalled in a Columbia University oral history that Luce announced at a New York hotel banquet, "Without any preamble," that he and Clare "were taking LSD!"[^24] The writer [[Abbie Hoffman]] wrote in his 1980 memoir that Henry Luce "did much more to popularize acid than Timothy Leary."[^25]
[[Martin A. Lee]] and [[Bruce Shlain]] wrote in Acid Dreams that Henry Luce took LSD about half a dozen times in the late 1950s and early 1960s under the supervision of the Los Angeles psychiatrist [[Sidney Cohen]], and that Cohen also gave the drug to Clare Boothe Luce. They quoted Clare Boothe Luce on The Dick Cavett Show on April 9, 1982: "Oh, sure, we all took acid. It was a creative group, my husband and I and Huxley and Isherwood." They cited [[W. A. Swanberg]]'s Luce and His Empire and [[Wilfrid Sheed]]'s Clare Boothe Luce for the number of Luce's sessions.[^26]
Life published [[R. Gordon Wasson]]'s account of a 1955 mushroom ceremony in [[Huautla de Jimenez]], Mexico, as "Seeking the Magic Mushroom" in its issue of May 13, 1957, as part of its Great Adventure series.[^27] [[Annie Jacobsen]] wrote that the [[Geschickter Fund for Medical Research]] gave Wasson $2,000 for his 1956 return expedition, designated MKUltra Subproject 58, and that Wasson did not mention the CIA in the article.[^28]
### Flying saucers
Life published "Have We Visitors from Outer Space?" by [[H. B. Darrach Jr.]] and [[Robert Ginna]] in its issue of April 7, 1952. The article reviewed the [[United States Air Force|Air Force]]'s handling of sightings under [[Project Saucer]], and it described a series of green fireball sightings over the southwestern United States.[^29]
### Psychic research coverage
Time's March 12, 1973 article "The Magician and the Think Tank" reported that the [[Stanford Research Institute]] "has been seriously investigating the so-called psychic powers of a questionable nightclub magician," meaning [[Uri Geller]]. The article described [[Ray Hyman]] as "a psychology professor from the University of Oregon who is used frequently by DOD as a consultant." It reported that [[George Lawrence]], a Department of Defense projects manager for the [[Advanced Research Projects Agency]], was accompanied to the institute by [[Robert Van de Castle]], and that "neither Lawrence nor Hyman was impressed."[^30]
The March 4, 1974 cover story, "Boom Times on the Psychic Frontier," described [[Hal Puthoff]] as a promoter of "the bizarre and controversial cult of Scientology."[^31] A letter to the editor published on March 25, 1974 responded to the piece.[^32] John L. Wilhelm, a former Time national science correspondent, later wrote in The Washington Post on the military potential of parapsychology.[^33]
In January 1984 Time reported that the Pentagon denied any interest in parapsychology and quoted the retired lieutenant general [[Daniel O. Graham]].[^34] Time's August 26, 1974 report on [[Walter Levy]] said that [[J. B. Rhine]] had hired him as a full-time researcher after he graduated from the Medical College of Georgia.[^35]
### Remote viewing and the Iran hostage crisis
On November 23, 1979, according to a memorandum by [[Murray Watt]], the INSCOM officer [[Jackie Keith]] gave Watt "a set of coordinates and a copy of TIME magazine (dated 19 Nov 79)" with a picture of two hostages, and the unit held its first two sessions that day.[^36]
### Iran-Contra and the spiked story
[[Ari Ben-Menashe]] wrote in his 1992 book Profits of War that in May 1986 he gave the Time correspondent [[Raji Samghabadi]] detailed information about the [[Oliver North|North]]-[[Amiram Nir|Nir]] operation, which became known as the [[Iran-Contra Affair]]. Ben-Menashe wrote that Samghabadi considered it a major scoop, and that Time declined to print it, a decision attributed to editor-in-chief [[Henry Grunwald]].[^37] Samghabadi had first been hired as a stringer for Time by [[Bruce van Voorst]], a former CIA officer.[^38] Ben-Menashe described the decision as an example of media control in the United States.[^37]
### BCCI and the 1991 cover story
On July 29, 1991, Time published "B.C.C.I.: The Dirtiest Bank of All" by [[Jonathan Beaty]] and [[S. C. Gwynne]] on the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]], which regulators in 62 countries had shut down earlier that month. The article called BCCI "the $20 billion rogue empire" and stated that "never has a single scandal involved so much money, so many nations or so many prominent people." The archived copy carries the byline "TIME Staff."[^39]
The article stated: "But the CIA may have used B.C.C.I. as more than an undercover banker: U.S. agents collaborated with the black network in several operations, according to a B.C.C.I. black-network 'officer' who is now a secret U.S. government witness." It reported that the bank had bought clandestine control of three American banks through loans, including [[First American Bankshares]] in Washington, and that the latter two were bought officially by [[Ghaith Pharaon]], whom Time called Abedi's front man.[^39] It reported that Guatemalan officials suspected that part of a $30 million loan from the bank had gone to pay bribes to stifle an investigation of the coffee smuggler and arms merchant [[Munther Ismael Bilheisi|Munther Bilbeisi]].[^39] Time also reported that "the department's main probe of B.C.C.I. itself is being handled by a sole Assistant U.S. Attorney in [[Tampa, Florida|Tampa]]."[^39]
In September 1991 Time quoted the imprisoned arms dealer [[Arif Durrani]] as saying that "Asaf is B.C.C.I.'s man in the weapons business," referring to [[Asaf Ali]].[^40] Time also described a reclusive Saudi, [[Abdullah Taha Bakhsh]], who bought an 11 percent stake in [[Harken Energy]], and it reported that [[James R. Bath]] said in 1991 that his friendship with [[George H. W. Bush|George H. W. Bush]] dated from their service in the Guard.[^41]
The Senate subcommittee report on BCCI, issued in December 1992 by [[John Kerry]] and [[Hank Brown]], responded to the article. It stated that "none of the BCCI officers interviewed by the Senate claimed to have knowledge of a 'black network' of intelligence operatives, arms dealers, drug traffickers, burglars, or assassins employed by BCCI, as described in a Time magazine cover-story on BCCI on August 15, 1991." The officers, the report said, "declared, to a person, that they did not believe such a network existed at the bank." Several suggested that if the black network were recharacterized as a team of officials carrying out Abedi's most secret missions, it could exist on a smaller scale than Time had described.[^42]
Beaty and Gwynne's 1993 book, The Outlaw Bank, records that Bill White, whom Beaty had flown in for debriefing during his research for the Time story, alleged that his former business partner Bath "was a CIA agent with strange ties to both BCCI and President George Bush."[^43]
### The Octopus and Danny Casolaro
[[Danny Casolaro]] was investigating what he called the Octopus, an alleged network linking the [[PROMIS Software Scandal|PROMIS]] affair, BCCI and other matters, when he died in Martinsburg, West Virginia on August 10, 1991. On August 5, 1991 he told a retired Army CID officer that Time had assigned him a story on the Octopus and that [[Little, Brown and Company]] had made him an offer.[^44]
### Dark Alliance and later coverage
On September 30, 1996, Time published "Dividing Line: Crack, Contras and Cyberspace" by [[Jack E. White]], written after the San Jose Mercury News ran its three-part [[Dark Alliance]] series by [[Gary Webb]]. The column ran on September 30, 1996, in the weeks before the October articles on the series in the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. It stated that "the hottest topic in black America, bar none, is whether the CIA was responsible for introducing crack cocaine to the ghetto."[^45] Webb described the response of the three newspapers to his series in chapter 27 of Dark Alliance.[^46]
### Other coverage
Time described the response to [[Claude Kirk]]'s experiment as "anguished cries of 'Nazism!' and 'Dictatorship!'"[^47] Time reported in 1929 that a witness named Stewart had testified before the Senate on the [[Continental Trading Company]] bonds that "I never had anything to do with the distribution of any bonds."[^48] Time described the decision of Israeli Chief Justice [[Shimon Agranat]] in the case of [[Meyer Lansky]] as unanimous and precedent-setting.[^49] In March 1988 Time reported that the [[Alcor Life Extension Foundation]] coroner had classified a death as a homicide.[^50] In July 1977 Time reported that [[Ernst Kuhrmeier]], manager of the [[Credit Suisse]] branch at Chiasso, was in jail awaiting trial.[^51] In 1939 Time called the London bank whose American subsidiary, the J. Henry Schroder Bank, had Allen Dulles on its board "an economic booster of the Rome-Berlin Axis."[^52]
In a letter to Time in January 1982, [[John H. Holdridge]], Assistant Secretary of State, wrote that George H. W. Bush had confirmed during a visit to Australia that there had been no CIA involvement in the [[Nugan Hand Bank]].[^53]
Time reported in 1974 that at the trial John Dean testified that beginning about July 14, 1972 he made eight to twelve telephone calls to Casey at [[John N. Mitchell]]'s behest.[^54] Time Inc. also appears in the record of the Khrushchev memoirs. [[Terence Smith]] noted that Time Inc., which acquired the material, had refused to shed light on how it reached the West.[^55] The columnist [[Stewart Alsop]] wrote in December 1970 that the Moscow correspondent [[Victor Louis]] negotiated the sale to Time-Life for about $600,000, and that the deal was concluded with the Life executive [[Murray Gart]].[^56]
In December 2025 the Semafor media reporter [[Max Tani]] wrote that Time had had four fellows from the [[Tarbell Center for AI Journalism]] on staff.[^57]
### Ownership
On September 16, 2018, the [[Meredith Corporation]], which had acquired Time Inc., announced that it would sell the Time brand to [[Marc Benioff]] and [[Lynne Benioff]] for 190 million dollars in cash. The purchase was personal to the Benioffs and "unrelated to Salesforce.com," and the couple were not to be "involved in the day-to-day operations or journalistic decisions," which remained with the editor-in-chief, Edward Felsenthal. Citigroup and Cooley advised Meredith; BDT & Company and [[Goodwin Procter]] advised the Benioffs. Meredith applied the proceeds to reducing its debt. "TIME has always been a trusted reflection of the state of the world," the Benioffs said.[^3]
### BCCI Reporting
On July 29, 1991, Time published "B.C.C.I.: The Dirtiest Bank of All," by [[Jonathan Beaty]] and [[S. C. Gwynne]], which the two reporters later expanded into *The Outlaw Bank* (1993).[^4]
On September 16, 2018, the Meredith Corporation, which had acquired Time Inc., announced that it would sell the Time brand to Marc Benioff and Lynne Benioff for 190 million dollars in cash. The purchase was personal to the Benioffs and "unrelated to Salesforce.com," and the couple were not to be "involved in the day-to-day operations or journalistic decisions," which remained with the editor-in-chief, [[Edward Felsenthal]]. [[Citigroup]] and [[Cooley]] advised Meredith; BDT & Company and [[Goodwin Procter]] advised the Benioffs. Meredith applied the proceeds to reducing its debt. "TIME has always been a trusted reflection of the state of the world," the Benioffs said.[^58]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 27.
[^2]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 27.
[^3]: Meredith Corporation, "Meredith Corporation To Sell TIME Media Brand To Marc And Lynne Benioff," PR Newswire, September 16, 2018. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/meredith-corporation-to-sell-time-media-brand-to-marc-and-lynne-benioff-300713440.html
[^4]: "B.C.C.I.: The Dirtiest Bank of All," *Time,* July 29, 1991. https://time.com/archive/6718229/b-c-c-i-the-dirtiest-bank-of-all/
[^1]: Time, "The First Issue of TIME Magazine: Read It Here," time.com. https://time.com/4684747/first-issue-vault/ (cover dated March 3, 1923).
[^2]: Carl Bernstein, "The CIA and the Media," *Rolling Stone*, October 20, 1977. Reprint at carlbernstein.com, http://www.carlbernstein.com/magazine_cia_and_media.php (passage on the cooperating executives and the New York Times, CBS and Time Inc.).
[^3]: Bernstein, "The CIA and the Media," reprint (passage on Allen Dulles, Luce's briefings of the Agency, and Time's correspondents at CIA briefing dinners).
[^4]: Bernstein, "The CIA and the Media," reprint (passage on C. D. Jackson, Time-Life cover, and Hedley Donovan's denial).
[^5]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Final Report, Book I: Foreign and Military Intelligence*, S. Rep. No. 94-755 (1976), Chapter X.B, "Covert Relationships with the United States Media," pp. 191-201. https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94755_I.pdf
[^6]: Central Intelligence Agency, Deputies' Meeting, July 21, 1952, p. 1. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/1952-07-21.pdf
[^7]: Simon Willmetts, "The CIA and Time Magazine: Journalistic Ethics and Newsroom Dissent," Universiteit Leiden, research output listing, August 19, 2024. https://universiteitleiden.nl/en/research/research-output/governance-and-global-affairs/the-cia-and-time-magazine-journalistic-ethics-and-newsroom-dissent
[^8]: Central Intelligence Agency, "Charles D. Jackson," biographical sheet, CIA-RDP75-00001R000200140002-9, p. 1. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp75-00001r000200140002-9
[^9]: Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, finding aid, "Jackson, C. D.: Papers, 1931-1967," A72-26, processed July 1973, biographical sketch and chronology. https://www.eisenhowerlibrary.gov/sites/default/files/finding-aids/pdf/jackson-cd-papers.pdf
[^10]: Eisenhower Library, "Jackson, C. D.: Papers," A72-26, special restriction note: "Special Restriction: Permission of Time Incorporated is required to cite or quote materials originated by any individual in his capacity as an official of Time Incorporated."
[^11]: Eisenhower Presidential Library, finding aid, "Richard M. Bissell Jr. Papers, Walt and Eugene Rostow Series," Boxes 1-3. https://eisenhower.archives.gov/sites/default/files/finding-aids/pdf/bissell-richard-m-jr-papers/walt-and-eugene-rostow-series.pdf
[^12]: Eisenhower Presidential Library, subject guide, "The Cold War in the Early Fifties: 'Open Skies' and the 1955 Geneva Summit," listing the C. D. Jackson Papers, Box 56 ("From Quantico to Geneva") and the Miscellaneous Series folder "Quantico Vulnerabilities Panel 1955." https://www.eisenhowerlibrary.gov/sites/default/files/research/subject-guides/pdf/cold-war-open-skies-1955-geneva-conference.pdf
[^13]: Time, February 24, 1967, vol. 89, no. 8, passage on the Center for International Studies, CIA reading room document CIA-RDP84-00161R000400210135-8. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp84-00161r000400210135-8
[^14]: Jennet Conant, *The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington* (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008).
[^15]: Assassination Records Review Board, Sheryl Walter, memorandum, "Zapruder film update," April 6, 1995, NARA JFK Collection, ARRB file ZP45MT. https://documents3.theblackvault.com/documents/jfkfiles/NARA-Oct2017/ARRB/SWALTER/WP-DOCS/ZAPRUDER/ZP45MT.WPD.pdf
[^16]: Richard Stolley's purchase of the Zapruder film for Life, as described in "The Zapruder Film Comes to Home Video," kennedysandking.com, October 15, 1998. https://www.kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/333
[^17]: Walter memorandum, April 6, 1995, note 1 (Zapruder's Warren Commission testimony and the $25,000 payment).
[^18]: Assassination Records Review Board, letter to Harry M. Johnston III, general counsel, Time Warner Inc., April 21, 1995, ARRB file TMLF421. https://documents3.theblackvault.com/documents/jfkfiles/NARA-Oct2017/ARRB/SWALTER/WP-DOCS/ZAPRUDER/TMLF421.WPD.pdf
[^19]: Assassination Records Review Board, letter to E. Gabriel Perle, May 1, 1995, ARRB file ZPTHXGP. https://documents3.theblackvault.com/documents/jfkfiles/NARA-Oct2017/ARRB/SWALTER/WP-DOCS/ZAPRUDER/ZPTHXGP.WPD.pdf
[^20]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, press release on the Zapruder film arbitration award, August 3, 1999. https://www.justice.gov/archive/opa/pr/1999/August/339civ.htm
[^21]: T. Jeremy Gunn, letter to Laury M. Frieber, Time Inc., ARRB file FRIEBER.E29, National Archives JFK Collection. https://documents3.theblackvault.com/documents/jfkfiles/NARA-Oct2017/ARRB/SWALTER/WP-DOCS/ZAPRUDER/FRIEBER.E29.pdf
[^22]: Time, "Dream Stuff," 1954, as quoted in Jack Shafer, "The Time and Life Acid Trip," *Slate*, June 2010. https://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/press_box/2010/06/the_time_and_life_acid_trip.html ; Stephen Siff, "Henry Luce's Strange Trip: Coverage of LSD in Time and Life, 1954-68," *Journalism History* (2008), as summarized in Shafer.
[^23]: Alan Brinkley, *The Publisher: Henry Luce and His American Century* (2010), as summarized in Shafer, "The Time and Life Acid Trip," *Slate*, June 2010.
[^24]: Andrew Heiskell, oral history, Columbia University Oral History Research Office, as quoted in Shafer, "The Time and Life Acid Trip," *Slate*, June 2010.
[^25]: Abbie Hoffman, *Soon To Be a Major Motion Picture* (1980), as quoted in Siff, "Henry Luce's Strange Trip," as summarized in Shafer, *Slate*, June 2010.
[^26]: Martin A. Lee and Bruce Shlain, *Acid Dreams: The CIA, LSD, and the Sixties Rebellion* (New York: Grove Press, 1985), ch. 3, "Under the Mushroom, Over the Rainbow," section "Manna from Harvard," and chapter notes citing W. A. Swanberg, *Luce and His Empire*, p. 463, Wilfrid Sheed, *Clare Boothe Luce*, p. 125, and Clare Boothe Luce on *The Dick Cavett Show*, April 9, 1982.
[^27]: R. Gordon Wasson, "Seeking the Magic Mushroom," *Life*, vol. 42, no. 19, May 13, 1957, pp. 100-102, 109-120. https://archive.org/details/Life-1957-05-13-Vol-42-No-19
[^28]: Annie Jacobsen, *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis* (Little, Brown, 2017).
[^29]: H. B. Darrach Jr. and Robert Ginna, "Have We Visitors from Outer Space?" *Life*, April 7, 1952.
[^30]: "The Magician and the Think Tank," *Time*, March 12, 1973. CIA reading room STARGATE collection, CIA-RDP96-00787R000400100023-4.
[^31]: "Boom Times on the Psychic Frontier," *Time*, March 4, 1974, cover story. CIA-RDP96-00787R000100030002-8. https://documents3.theblackvault.com/documents/stargate/pdfs/CIA-RDP96-00787R000100030002-8.pdf
[^32]: Letters to the editor, *Time*, March 25, 1974, responding to "Boom Times on the Psychic Frontier."
[^33]: John L. Wilhelm, "Psychic Spying?" *The Washington Post*, c. 1977, identifying the author as a former national science correspondent for Time.
[^34]: "An E.S.P. Gap: Exploring psychic weapons," *Time*, January 23, 1984, p. 17, CIA reading room CIA-RDP96-00791R000200230025-5.
[^35]: "Science: The Psychic Scandal," *Time*, August 26, 1974. https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,944971,00.html
[^36]: Murray B. Watt, memorandum, "INSCOM GRILL FLAME Involvement in Iran," December 3, 1979.
[^37]: Ari Ben-Menashe, *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network* (Sheridan Square Press, 1992).
[^38]: Ben-Menashe, *Profits of War* (1992), account of the Samghabadi material and of Bruce van Voorst's hiring of Samghabadi as a stringer.
[^39]: Jonathan Beaty and S. C. Gwynne, "B.C.C.I.: The Dirtiest Bank of All," *Time*, July 29, 1991, archive copy, byline "TIME Staff." https://time.com/archive/6718229/b-c-c-i-the-dirtiest-bank-of-all/
[^40]: "Scandals: Not Just a Bank," *Time*, September 2, 1991. https://time.com/archive/6718475/scandals-not-just-a-bank/
[^41]: Richard Behar, "Global Intrigue: The Wackiest Rig in Texas," *Time*, October 28, 1991. https://time.com/archive/6718865/global-intrigue-the-wackiest-rig-in-texas/ ; Jonathan Beaty, "A Mysterious Mover of Money and Planes," *Time*, October 28, 1991. https://time.com/archive/6718843/a-mysterious-mover-of-money-and-planes/
[^42]: John Kerry and Hank Brown, *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate* (December 1992), ch. 4, "BCCI's Criminality." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/04crime.htm
[^43]: Jonathan Beaty and S. C. Gwynne, *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI* (New York: Random House, 1993). Internet Archive catalogue record, https://archive.org/details/outlawbank00jona.
[^44]: James Ridgeway and Doug Vaughan, "The Last Days of Danny Casolaro," *Village Voice*, October 15, 1991.
[^45]: Jack E. White, "Dividing Line: Crack, Contras and Cyberspace," *Time*, September 30, 1996. https://time.com/archive/6729685/dividing-line-crack-contras-and-cyberspace/
[^46]: Gary Webb, *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion* (New York: Seven Stories Press, 1998), ch. 27.
[^47]: "Florida: I, Claudius," *Time*, 1967. https://time.com/archive/6631431/florida-i-claudius/
[^48]: "Rockefeller v. Stewart," *Time*, January 28, 1929. https://time.com/archive/6656828/rockefeller-v-stewart/
[^49]: "The World: Non-Returnable Lansky," *Time*, September 25, 1972. https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0%2C33009%2C903591%2C00.html
[^50]: "California: How Mama Lost Her Head," *Time*, March 7, 1988. https://time.com/archive/6711741/california-how-mama-lost-her-head/
[^51]: "Banking: Less Go-Go in Switzerland," *Time*, July 18, 1977. https://time.com/archive/6848888/banking-less-go-go-in-switzerland/
[^52]: *Time*, 1939, on the J. Henry Schroder banking house.
[^53]: John H. Holdridge, letter, "Australian Intrigue," *Time*, January 3, 1982, CIA reading room CIA-RDP90-00806R000200820017-1. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00806r000200820017-1
[^54]: "Trials: What, Never? No, Never, Never," *Time*, April 8, 1974. https://time.com/archive/6842371/trials-what-never-no-never-never/
[^55]: Terence Smith, "U.S. Experts on Soviet Find Khrushchev Memoirs," Washington dispatch, January 20, 1971, CIA reading room CIA-RDP88-01314R000300180017-6.
[^56]: Stewart Alsop, "Who Is Moscow's Mr. X?," column, late December 1970, CIA reading room CIA-RDP88-01314R000300180018-5.
[^57]: Max Tani, "AI critics funded AI coverage at top newsrooms," *Semafor*, December 7, 2025. https://www.semafor.com/article/12/07/2025/ai-critics-funded-ai-coverage-at-top-newsrooms
[^58]: Meredith Corporation, "Meredith Corporation To Sell TIME Media Brand To Marc And Lynne Benioff," PR Newswire, September 16, 2018. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/meredith-corporation-to-sell-time-media-brand-to-marc-and-lynne-benioff-300713440.html

24
30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/HISTORICAL_PROGRAMS/Commodity Credit Corporation Iraq Program.md
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@ -21,6 +21,8 @@ updated: 2026-09-21
Under its [[GSM-102]] and [[GSM-103]] programs the [[Commodity Credit Corporation]] of the [[United States Department of Agriculture|Department of Agriculture]] guarantees repayment to American banks that finance foreign purchases of American farm products. [[Iraq]] became eligible after the administration of [[Ronald Reagan]] removed it from the list of state sponsors of terrorism in 1982. The Atlanta branch of [[Banca Nazionale del Lavoro]] became the principal lender under the guarantees.[^1]
Representative [[Henry B. Gonzalez]] said in the Congressional Record that BNL was the largest participant in the program that Iraq used to purchase about $5 billion in American agricultural commodities between 1983 and 1990.[^2]
### Growth
Iraq bought less than 135 million dollars of American farm goods in fiscal 1982, without guarantees. In fiscal 1983 the department approved 401.9 million dollars in guarantees. Iraq's share of the whole program rose from 8 percent that year to 26 percent in fiscal 1988, when it received more than a billion dollars and was the second largest recipient. The department approved 1.1 billion again for fiscal 1989, "despite growing concerns over Iraq's creditworthiness." The total from 1983 to 1990 came to about five billion dollars. Under the separate [[Export Enhancement Program]] American exporters also received an estimated 157.2 million dollars in bonuses on Iraqi purchases of 509.8 million.[^1]
@ -29,19 +31,27 @@ In September 1988, after the gassing of Kurdish civilians, Congress considered s
### After the Raid
The [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] raided the [[Atlanta]] branch on August 4, 1989. President [[George H.W. Bush]] signed [[National Security Directive 26]] that October, directing the government to "pursue economic and political incentives for Iraq to moderate its behavior," with "particular emphasis on expanding United States-Iraq oil industry related trade." On October 6 [[United States Secretary of State|Secretary of State]] [[James Baker]] assured [[Tariq Aziz]] that American concern over proliferation was worldwide and not directed at Iraq. Iraq asked for more than a billion dollars in guarantees for fiscal 1990. The department, citing creditworthiness and its "apprehension about findings of possible program irregularities surfacing in ongoing investigations," offered 400 million, which Iraq refused "because it wants the full amount approved and does not want to be tied to the BNL investigation unless concrete evidence of complicity is found." The department then offered 500 million, with a second 500 million to follow "after successful conclusion of the BNL investigation." Iraq took the first and rejected the condition.[^1][^2][^3]
The [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] raided the [[Atlanta]] branch on August 4, 1989. President [[George H.W. Bush]] signed [[National Security Directive 26]] that October, directing the government to "pursue economic and political incentives for Iraq to moderate its behavior," with "particular emphasis on expanding United States-Iraq oil industry related trade." On October 6 [[United States Secretary of State|Secretary of State]] [[James Baker]] assured [[Tariq Aziz]] that American concern over proliferation was worldwide and not directed at Iraq. Iraq asked for more than a billion dollars in guarantees for fiscal 1990. The department, citing creditworthiness and its "apprehension about findings of possible program irregularities surfacing in ongoing investigations," offered 400 million, which Iraq refused "because it wants the full amount approved and does not want to be tied to the BNL investigation unless concrete evidence of complicity is found." The department then offered 500 million, with a second 500 million to follow "after successful conclusion of the BNL investigation." Iraq took the first and rejected the condition.[^1][^3][^4]
Representative [[Henry B. Gonzalez]] told the House on May 18, 1992: "When the BNL offices were raided in Atlanta in August 1989, investigators uncovered massive fraud, placing the entire CCC Program for Iraq in jeopardy. So the [[White House]] and NSC, armed with National Security Directive 26, sprang into action in order to save the CCC Program for Iraq." His committee's document requests named [[Brent Scowcroft]], the president's counsel [[C. Boyden Gray]], Gray's deputy [[John Schmitz]], [[Richard Haass]] of the [[National Security Council]] staff, and [[Clayton Yeutter]], the secretary of agriculture. A department memorandum of April 2, 1990, recorded that the second tranche was being withheld. By that month, Gonzalez said, "it was apparent the BNL indictment was being delayed." The indictment came on February 28, 1991, the day the ground war ended.[^2]
Representative Henry B. Gonzalez told the House on May 18, 1992: "When the BNL offices were raided in Atlanta in August 1989, investigators uncovered massive fraud, placing the entire CCC Program for Iraq in jeopardy. So the [[White House]] and NSC, armed with National Security Directive 26, sprang into action in order to save the CCC Program for Iraq." His committee's document requests named [[Brent Scowcroft]], the president's counsel [[C. Boyden Gray]], Gray's deputy [[John Schmitz]], [[Richard Haass]] of the [[National Security Council]] staff, and [[Clayton Yeutter]], the secretary of agriculture. A department memorandum of April 2, 1990, recorded that the second tranche was being withheld. By that month, Gonzalez said, "it was apparent the BNL indictment was being delayed." The indictment came on February 28, 1991, the day the ground war ended.[^3]
The General Accounting Office reported in testimony of October 16, 1990 that the CCC had paid out about $3 billion in claims and was at risk for approximately $2 billion in guarantees on loans on which Iraq had stopped payment, and that the Justice Department was investigating irregularities at one bank that had made more than $2 billion in loans to Iraq, only a fraction of which were properly authorized.[^5] A March 14, 1991 GAO report found that export credit guarantees approved for Iraq rose from about $400 million in fiscal 1983 to about $1.1 billion in fiscal 1988 and fiscal 1989, and $500 million in fiscal 1990, and that USDA risk analysis documents for fiscal 1989 and 1990 rated Iraq a high-risk market while USDA continued to approve guarantees.[^6]
On December 15, 1992, BNL sued in the United States Court of Federal Claims to recover more than $340 million in defaulted Iraqi loans guaranteed under the program. Gonzalez told the House on January 21, 1993 that the Department had refused to pay the claims because of unanswered questions about BNL's role.[^7]
### Diversion
On July 21, 1992, Gonzalez quoted an intelligence report of July 1990, "Iraq's Growing Arsenal," which identified Iraq's State Establishment for Oil Refining and Gas Processing as "a dedicated front for procuring chemical weapons related components."[^4]
On July 21, 1992, Gonzalez quoted an intelligence report of July 1990, "Iraq's Growing Arsenal," which identified Iraq's State Establishment for Oil Refining and Gas Processing as "a dedicated front for procuring chemical weapons related components."[^8]
The trade embargo of August 2, 1990, ended the program. The corporation then had about two billion dollars at risk on Iraqi guarantees. Gonzalez called the Italian bank "a bank that cost the taxpayers two billion-plus dollars."[^1][^2]
The trade embargo of August 2, 1990, ended the program. The corporation then had about two billion dollars at risk on Iraqi guarantees. Gonzalez called the Italian bank "a bank that cost the taxpayers two billion-plus dollars."[^1][^3]
### Footnotes
[^1]: General Accounting Office, report on Iraq's participation in the Commodity Credit Corporation's GSM-102 and GSM-103 export credit guarantee programs, GAO/NSIAD-91-76, November 1990, with chronology at appendix I.
[^2]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Continuing Saga of Attempts to Thwart BNL Investigation," *Congressional Record,* House, May 18, 1992, pp. H3370-H3373.
[^3]: "Bush's embarrassing Lavoro scandal," *The Baltimore Sun,* April 28, 1992.
[^4]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "United States Policy to Arm Iraq," *Congressional Record,* House, July 21, 1992.
[^2]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Kissinger Associates, Scowcroft, Eagleburger, Stoga, Iraq, and BNL," *Congressional Record,* House, April 28, 1992, pp. H2694-H2695. https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/congress/1992_cr/h920428g.htm
[^3]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Continuing Saga of Attempts to Thwart BNL Investigation," *Congressional Record,* House, May 18, 1992, pp. H3370-H3373.
[^4]: "Bush's embarrassing Lavoro scandal," *The Baltimore Sun,* April 28, 1992.
[^5]: General Accounting Office, *Report on the Commodity Credit Corporation's GSM-102/103 Export Credit Guarantee Programs and Iraq's Participation in the Programs,* T-NSIAD-91-1, October 16, 1990. https://gao.justia.com/department-of-agriculture/1990/10/report-on-the-commodity-credit-corporation-s-gsm-102-103-export-credit-guarantee-programs-and-iraq-s-participation-in-the-programs-t-nsiad-91-1
[^6]: General Accounting Office, *Iraq's Participation in the Commodity Credit Corporation's GSM-102/103 Export Credit Guarantee Programs,* T-NSIAD-91-13, March 14, 1991. https://gao.justia.com/department-of-justice/1991/3/iraq-s-participation-in-the-commodity-credit-corporation-s-gsm-102-103-export-credit-guarantee-programs-t-nsiad-91-13
[^7]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Update on BNL Investigation," *Congressional Record,* House, January 21, 1993, p. H134. https://irp.fas.org/congress/1993_cr/h930121-bnl.htm
[^8]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "United States Policy to Arm Iraq," *Congressional Record,* House, July 21, 1992.

14
30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/HISTORICAL_PROGRAMS/Project MKUltra.md
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@ -36,6 +36,12 @@ relations:
end: 1962-08
role: "investigator, Subproject 134, cost $22,000.00"
fn: 6
- type: participant_in
with: "[[Harvard University]]"
reverse: true
role: "two research projects with Harvard involvement, disclosed by the University in October 1977"
start: 1977-10
fn: 26
---
Project MKUltra was a classified research and operational program of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] authorized on April 13, 1953, by Director [[Allen Dulles]] and directed by [[Sidney Gottlieb]], chief of the agency's [[Technical Services Division]]. The program systematically administered [[LSD]] and other drugs, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, electroconvulsive therapy, and psychological coercion to human subjects who had not consented to the experiments - including psychiatric patients, prisoners, drug addicts, sex workers, military personnel, and ordinary members of the public. It ran across approximately 150 subprojects funded through [[Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology|cut-out foundations]] and direct institutional contracts, and it killed at least one CIA officer. [[Richard Helms]] ordered the destruction of nearly all MKULTRA records in December 1972-January 1973; approximately 20,000 surviving documents, discovered misfiled in a financial records annex during a 1977 FOIA search, form the primary documentary record of the program.[^1]
@ -147,6 +153,10 @@ General Counsel [[Anthony A. Lapham]] wrote to each notified institution in Augu
The New York Times reported on October 9, 1977 that the Senate Health Subcommittee had invited the presidents of 20 institutions to testify on September 20 and 21, and that only one accepted, without a scheduled appearance because the others declined.[^25]
In October 1977 [[Harvard University]] disclosed that CIA financial records showed Harvard involvement in two research projects conducted under MKULTRA.[^26] The University's general counsel, [[Daniel Steiner]], said the two projects involved no drug experimentation and declined to name the individuals who took part or the nature of their relationship to the University.[^26] The Harvard Crimson noted that the disclosure came the week after [[Stanford University]] made an extensive disclosure of its own MKULTRA connections.[^27] The University had issued guidelines in May 1977 regulating faculty dealings with intelligence agencies; in June 1977 CIA Director Stansfield Turner wrote to President [[Derek Bok]] that the guidelines could violate faculty members' constitutional rights to privacy and free association.[^28]
In February 1978 [[Martin Orne]] identified himself as the unidentified investigator in a January 1978 Harvard statement on CIA funding; his Studies in Hypnosis Project at the [[Massachusetts Mental Health Center]] had received about $30,000 in the early 1960s through the [[Human Ecology Fund]]. Steiner said the University had no record of the second project mentioned in the CIA document.[^29]
### Lawsuits and Settlements
MKULTRA generated litigation in multiple jurisdictions:
@ -182,3 +192,7 @@ MKULTRA generated litigation in multiple jurisdictions:
[^23]: Lapham, Anthony A., General Counsel, Central Intelligence Agency, letter to John R. Everett, August 1977 (stamped August 15, 1977), in NS010102_000027, PDF pp. 94-95. The quoted passage refers to "page 8 of the statement by the Director."
[^24]: Lapham, Anthony A., General Counsel, letter to John R. Everett, November 7, 1977 (PDF p. 3), and Cinquegrana, A. R., Assistant General Counsel, letter to John R. Everett, March 17, 1978 (PDF p. 1), Central Intelligence Agency, in NS010102_000027.
[^25]: Thomas, Jo, "Extent of University Work for C.I.A. Is Hard to Pin Down," New York Times, October 9, 1977, CIA reading room clipping CIA-RDP88-01315R000300390007-3.
[^26]: "A CIA Test Tube," *The Harvard Crimson*, October 1, 1977. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1977/10/1/a-cia-test-tube-padd-harvard/
[^27]: "Harvard and the CIA," *The Harvard Crimson*, October 5, 1977. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1977/10/5/harvard-and-the-cia-peach-year/
[^28]: "Harvard: A Threat To Privacy," *The Harvard Crimson*, December 3, 1977. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1977/12/3/harvard-a-threat-to-privacy-pcia/
[^29]: "CIA Grants Funded Hypnosis Research," *The Harvard Crimson*, February 2, 1978. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1978/2/2/cia-grants-funded-hypnosis-research-pthe/

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@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ relations:
reverse: true
start: 1950-04-15
role: "Fort Bliss group relocated to Redstone Arsenal"
fn: 4
fn: 6
---
Operation Paperclip was a classified U.S. government program that systematically recruited German and Austrian scientists, engineers, physicians, and technical specialists from the defeated Third Reich beginning in the summer and fall of 1945. Operated by the [[Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency]] (JIOA), which reported to the [[Joint Chiefs of Staff]] and worked closely with the [[Office of Strategic Services|OSS]] and later the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]], the program brought over 1,600 technical specialists to the United States to work for American military, intelligence, and civilian agencies during the critical period of the emerging [[Cold War]] and the American aerospace and weapons development programs.[^1]
@ -40,13 +40,17 @@ American forces operating under [[Operation Alsos]] raced German-held scientific
### Authorization and the Nazi Problem
President [[Harry S. Truman|Truman]]'s initial directive specifically prohibited the recruitment of "ardent Nazis." In practice, the JIOA systematically circumvented this prohibition: the records and backgrounds of scientists with disqualifying Nazi party membership, [[SS]] membership, or wartime conduct were altered before they were reviewed by the State Department and other agencies for security clearances. This process - which amounted to the systematic falsification of government records - was documented in Annie Jacobsen's 2014 investigation and in declassified JIOA files.
[[Annie Jacobsen]] wrote that President [[Harry S. Truman|Truman]]'s initial directive specifically prohibited the recruitment of "ardent Nazis."[^1] In practice, the JIOA systematically circumvented this prohibition: the records and backgrounds of scientists with disqualifying Nazi party membership, [[SS]] membership, or wartime conduct were altered before they were reviewed by the State Department and other agencies for security clearances. This process - which amounted to the systematic falsification of government records - was documented in Annie Jacobsen's 2014 investigation and in declassified JIOA files.
Von Braun, who was an SS officer and member of the Nazi party, had his records altered to enable his employment. [[Arthur Rudolph]], who had used slave labor from the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp in V-2 production - where approximately 20,000 prisoners died - was recruited and later directed the Saturn V rocket program for [[NASA]] before his Nazi-era conduct was investigated in the 1980s and he agreed to renounce U.S. citizenship and return to Germany. [[Hubertus Strughold]], the Luftwaffe aviation medicine physician who became "the father of U.S. space medicine," had participated in or overseen human experiments at the Dachau concentration camp; his records were altered before his recruitment.[^1]
Acting Secretary of State [[Dean Acheson]]'s memorandum to President Truman of August 30, 1946, "Interim Exploitation of German and Austrian Specialists in the United States," described the War Department project "Paperclip" and provided for expanding it to up to 1,000 specialists. It stated: "The War Department would be responsible for custody and for excluding from the program persons with Nazi or militaristic records." Truman's notation on it reads "approved 9/3/46."[^2]
A set of Truman Library documents released in 2009 includes the screening terms of [[State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee|SWNCC]] 257/22, Appendix B, under which German specialists were to be brought to the United States. The commanding general of the [[United States Forces European Theater]] was to screen candidates on the basis of available records. A person found to have been a member of the [[Nazi Party]] and more than a nominal participant in its activities, or an active supporter of Nazism or militarism, could not be brought over under the terms. Position or honors awarded under the Nazi regime solely on account of scientific or technical ability did not by themselves disqualify a specialist. In doubtful cases the commanding general could transport the specialist to the United States for further interrogation and screening.[^3]
### Key Personnel
Von Braun was the most prominent Paperclip recruit. An SS officer and the technical director of the V-2 program, he was brought to [[Fort Bliss]], Texas, along with more than 100 German rocket engineers, who arrived there near the end of 1945,[^2] and eventually directed the [[Marshall Space Flight Center]] and led the development of the Saturn V rocket that carried the [[Apollo program]] to the moon. The Army chronology states that von Braun's team had come to the United States under Operation Paperclip during 1945 and 1946.[^3] In April 1950 the team moved from Fort Bliss to [[Redstone Arsenal]] in [[Huntsville, Alabama]]. The Army chronology records a staff of Army officers and about 120 German scientists arriving at Redstone from Fort Bliss beginning on April 15, 1950, and the Ordnance Research and Development Division Sub-Office (Rocket) was redesignated the Ordnance Guided Missile Center on that date.[^4] The first missile work at the post was the Redstone missile, first flight tested on August 20, 1953.[^5] His wartime record, including his use of slave labor, was publicly documented during his lifetime but did not prevent his celebrated American career.
Von Braun was the most prominent Paperclip recruit. An SS officer and the technical director of the V-2 program, he was brought to [[Fort Bliss]], Texas, along with more than 100 German rocket engineers, who arrived there near the end of 1945,[^4] and eventually directed the [[Marshall Space Flight Center]] and led the development of the Saturn V rocket that carried the [[Apollo program]] to the moon. The Army chronology states that von Braun's team had come to the United States under Operation Paperclip during 1945 and 1946.[^5] In April 1950 the team moved from Fort Bliss to [[Redstone Arsenal]] in [[Huntsville, Alabama]]. The Army chronology records a staff of Army officers and about 120 German scientists arriving at Redstone from Fort Bliss beginning on April 15, 1950, and the Ordnance Research and Development Division Sub-Office (Rocket) was redesignated the Ordnance Guided Missile Center on that date.[^6] The first missile work at the post was the Redstone missile, first flight tested on August 20, 1953.[^7] His wartime record, including his use of slave labor, was publicly documented during his lifetime but did not prevent his celebrated American career.
[[Walter Dornberger]], who had commanded the Peenemünde facility, was also recruited, eventually working for [[Bell Aircraft]] on space plane concepts. Arthur Rudolph, who had managed V-2 production at Mittelwerk using Mittelbau-Dora camp labor, directed the Pershing missile and Saturn V programs before his wartime record was investigated by the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]]'s Office of Special Investigations in 1984; he renounced citizenship and departed rather than face proceedings.[^1]
@ -54,20 +58,22 @@ In 1945, before the program was fully formalized, [[Qian Xuesen|H.S. Tsien]] - t
### Nazi Doctors and the CIA Behavioral Programs
Beyond the aerospace recruits, Paperclip transferred Nazi medical expertise that fed directly into the CIA's behavioral-control work. [[Kurt Blome]], the Reich's deputy surgeon general and director of its biological-weapons program (including weaponized plague), was acquitted at the [[Nuremberg Doctors' Trial]] in August 1947 and within two months was consulting U.S. Army biological-warfare researchers in Maryland. [[Walter Schreiber]], the Reich surgeon general who had assigned concentration-camp prisoners to experimental doctors, was given a post at the [[Air Force School of Medicine]] at [[Randolph Field]], Texas. [[Kurt Plotner]] had conducted mescaline experiments on prisoners at [[Dachau]] for the SS in search of a truth drug, work of direct interest to the CIA's postwar truth-drug research. [[Camp King]], the clandestine CIA-Army interrogation center in occupied Germany, served as the operational hub where this knowledge was applied; Schreiber and then Blome served as its chief medical officer, and the interrogation techniques developed there fed into [[Project Bluebird and Project Artichoke|ARTICHOKE]] and the [[Project MKUltra|MKULTRA]] programs. The chemist Friedrich "Fritz" Hoffmann, who had synthesized poison gases for the Luftwaffe, was likewise brought over.[^6]
Beyond the aerospace recruits, Paperclip transferred Nazi medical expertise that fed directly into the CIA's behavioral-control work. [[Kurt Blome]], the Reich's deputy surgeon general and director of its biological-weapons program (including weaponized plague), was acquitted at the [[Nuremberg Doctors' Trial]] in August 1947 and within two months was consulting U.S. Army biological-warfare researchers in Maryland. [[Walter Schreiber]], the Reich surgeon general who had assigned concentration-camp prisoners to experimental doctors, was given a post at the [[Air Force School of Medicine]] at [[Randolph Field]], Texas. [[Kurt Plotner]] had conducted mescaline experiments on prisoners at [[Dachau]] for the SS in search of a truth drug, work of direct interest to the CIA's postwar truth-drug research. [[Camp King]], the clandestine CIA-Army interrogation center in occupied Germany, served as the operational hub where this knowledge was applied; Schreiber and then Blome served as its chief medical officer, and the interrogation techniques developed there fed into [[Project Bluebird and Project Artichoke|ARTICHOKE]] and the [[Project MKUltra|MKULTRA]] programs. The chemist Friedrich "Fritz" Hoffmann, who had synthesized poison gases for the Luftwaffe, was likewise brought over.[^8]
### Legacy and Controversy
The German scientists brought through Paperclip made foundational contributions to the U.S. space program, missile development, aviation medicine, and chemical and biological research. Their technical contributions were real and in some cases irreplaceable. The ethical dimensions of the program - the employment of individuals with serious Nazi records, the systematic falsification of government records to circumvent legal prohibitions, and the implicit decision that American competitive advantage in the Cold War took priority over accountability for wartime crimes - remained subjects of historical and moral assessment.
The Soviet Union's parallel program produced the Soviet space and missile programs that competed directly with American programs developed from German expertise, creating a Cold War technological competition shaped on both sides by the same cohort of German scientists.[^7]
The Soviet Union's parallel program produced the Soviet space and missile programs that competed directly with American programs developed from German expertise, creating a Cold War technological competition shaped on both sides by the same cohort of German scientists.[^9]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program That Brought Nazi Scientists to America.* Little, Brown and Company, 2014 (the primary English-language investigation, based on declassified JIOA files and other government records). Hunt, Linda. *Secret Agenda: The United States Government, Nazi Scientists, and Project Paperclip, 1945 to 1990.* St. Martin's Press, 1991.
[^2]: NASA Marshall Space Flight Center History Office, "Notes on Project Paperclip," https://history.msfc.nasa.gov/german/paperclip.html
[^3]: U.S. Army, Redstone Arsenal Historical Information, "1948 and 1949," entry for 28 October 1949. https://history.redstone.army.mil/ihist-1948.html
[^4]: U.S. Army, Redstone Arsenal Historical Information, "1950 - 1952," entry "April 50" (about 120 German scientists from Fort Bliss) and introductory paragraph (arrival of the Fort Bliss group beginning April 15, 1950). https://history.redstone.army.mil/ihist-1950.html
[^5]: U.S. Army, Redstone Arsenal Historical Information, "1953," entry for 20 August 1953. https://history.redstone.army.mil/ihist-1953.html
[^6]: Annie Jacobsen, *Operation Paperclip*. Little, Brown, 2014; "What Cold War CIA Interrogators Learned from the Nazis," *The Daily Beast*, 2014; Curt Rowlett, "Project Mind Kontrol," *Steamshovel Press* #16, 1998.
[^7]: Lasby, Clarence G. *Project Paperclip: German Scientists and the Cold War.* Atheneum, 1971.
[^2]: Memorandum for the President from Acting Secretary of State Dean Acheson, "Interim Exploitation of German and Austrian Specialists in the United States," received August 30, 1946, with the notation "approved 9/3/46," Harry S. Truman Library document set on Operation Paperclip (FOIA release printed April 21, 2009). https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/trumanlibrary-paperclip.pdf
[^3]: Harry S. Truman Library document set on Operation Paperclip (FOIA release printed April 21, 2009), SWNCC 257/22, Appendix B, paragraph 5. https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/trumanlibrary-paperclip.pdf
[^4]: NASA Marshall Space Flight Center History Office, "Notes on Project Paperclip," https://history.msfc.nasa.gov/german/paperclip.html
[^5]: U.S. Army, Redstone Arsenal Historical Information, "1948 and 1949," entry for 28 October 1949. https://history.redstone.army.mil/ihist-1948.html
[^6]: U.S. Army, Redstone Arsenal Historical Information, "1950 - 1952," entry "April 50" (about 120 German scientists from Fort Bliss) and introductory paragraph (arrival of the Fort Bliss group beginning April 15, 1950). https://history.redstone.army.mil/ihist-1950.html
[^7]: U.S. Army, Redstone Arsenal Historical Information, "1953," entry for 20 August 1953. https://history.redstone.army.mil/ihist-1953.html
[^8]: Annie Jacobsen, *Operation Paperclip*. Little, Brown, 2014; "What Cold War CIA Interrogators Learned from the Nazis," *The Daily Beast*, 2014; Curt Rowlett, "Project Mind Kontrol," *Steamshovel Press* #16, 1998.
[^9]: Lasby, Clarence G. *Project Paperclip: German Scientists and the Cold War.* Atheneum, 1971.

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40 - EVENTS/CONTRA_WAR/Dark Alliance.md
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@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
---
---
title: Dark Alliance
aliases:
- Dark Alliance
@ -24,23 +24,24 @@ The series opened the first pipeline between [[Colombia]]'s cocaine cartels and
### Public Reaction
Initially published during the week between the Republican and Democratic national conventions, the series gained traction through talk radio and the Internet. The Web site recorded over one million hits in a single day. The Los Angeles City Council unanimously called for a federal investigation. Both [[California]] senators and a half-dozen congressmen demanded inquiries. CIA Director John Deutch ordered an internal investigation. [[Time]] magazine called it "the hottest topic in black America." Webb appeared on CNN, C-SPAN, MSNBC, and Dateline NBC.[^3]
Initially published during the week between the Republican and Democratic national conventions, the series gained traction through talk radio and the Internet. The Web site recorded over one million hits in a single day. The Los Angeles City Council unanimously called for a federal investigation. Both [[California]] senators and a half-dozen congressmen demanded inquiries. CIA Director John Deutch ordered an internal investigation. [[Time]] magazine wrote that "the hottest topic in black America, bar none, is whether the CIA was responsible for introducing crack cocaine to the ghetto."[^3] Webb appeared on CNN, C-SPAN, MSNBC, and Dateline NBC.[^4]
### Media Counterattack
The [[Washington Post]] struck first on October 4, 1996, under the headline "The CIA and Crack: Evidence is Lacking of Alleged Plot." On October 20, 1996, both the [[New York Times]] and [[Los Angeles Times]] launched multi-day attack series, admitting the basic facts were true while arguing they did not prove CIA complicity. Webb discovered the Post's lead attacker, [[Walter Pincus]], had been a former CIA operative. The attacks alarmed Mercury News editors. [[Jerry Ceppos]] ordered Webb to stop advancing the story.[^4]
The [[Washington Post]] struck first on October 4, 1996, under the headline "The CIA and Crack: Evidence is Lacking of Alleged Plot." On October 20, 1996, both the [[New York Times]] and [[Los Angeles Times]] launched multi-day attack series, admitting the basic facts were true while arguing they did not prove CIA complicity. Webb discovered the Post's lead attacker, [[Walter Pincus]], had been a former CIA operative. The attacks alarmed Mercury News editors. [[Jerry Ceppos]] ordered Webb to stop advancing the story.[^5]
### Aftermath
On May 11, 1997, Ceppos published a column acknowledging "shortcomings" in the series, a move the New York Times splashed on its front page. Ceppos killed all follow-up stories and transferred Webb to a suburban bureau. Webb resigned from the newspaper in November 1997. In March 1998, CIA Inspector General [[Fred Hitz]] testified before Congress that the CIA had maintained relationships with dozens of suspected drug traffickers during the Contra war and had failed to cut off those relationships. [[The New York Times]] reported on July 17, 1998, that CIA higher-ups knew about the drug connections, confirming central elements of the series.[^5]
On May 11, 1997, Ceppos published a column acknowledging "shortcomings" in the series, a move the New York Times splashed on its front page. Ceppos killed all follow-up stories and transferred Webb to a suburban bureau. Webb resigned from the newspaper in November 1997. In March 1998, CIA Inspector General [[Fred Hitz]] testified before Congress that the CIA had maintained relationships with dozens of suspected drug traffickers during the Contra war and had failed to cut off those relationships. [[The New York Times]] reported on July 17, 1998, that CIA higher-ups knew about the drug connections, confirming central elements of the series.[^6]
On May 11, 2000, the [[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence]] released a unanimously adopted report, having reviewed the CIA and [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]] inspector general reports and raw CIA files and held two town hall meetings in South Central Los Angeles, which concluded that the evidence did not support the implication "that the CIA was responsible for the crack epidemic in Los Angeles or anywhere else in the [[United States]] to further the cause of the Contra war in [[Central America]]."[^6]
On May 11, 2000, the [[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence]] released a unanimously adopted report, having reviewed the CIA and [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]] inspector general reports and raw CIA files and held two town hall meetings in South Central Los Angeles, which concluded that the evidence did not support the implication "that the CIA was responsible for the crack epidemic in Los Angeles or anywhere else in the [[United States]] to further the cause of the Contra war in [[Central America]]."[^7]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Prologue.
[^2]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Prologue, Ch. 27.
[^3]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 27.
[^3]: Jack E. White, "Dividing Line: Crack, Contras and Cyberspace," *Time*, September 30, 1996. https://time.com/archive/6729685/dividing-line-crack-contras-and-cyberspace/
[^4]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 27.
[^5]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Epilogue.
[^6]: U.S. House of Representatives, Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. *Report on the Central Intelligence Agency's Alleged Involvement in Crack Cocaine Trafficking in the Los Angeles Area,* committee print, 106th Cong., February 2000; HPSCI press statement, May 11, 2000, quoted in *Survey of Activities of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence During the 106th Congress,* H. Rept. 106-1054, 2001. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRPT-106hrpt1054/html/CRPT-106hrpt1054.htm
[^5]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 27.
[^6]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Epilogue.
[^7]: U.S. House of Representatives, Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. *Report on the Central Intelligence Agency's Alleged Involvement in Crack Cocaine Trafficking in the Los Angeles Area,* committee print, 106th Cong., February 2000; HPSCI press statement, May 11, 2000, quoted in *Survey of Activities of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence During the 106th Congress,* H. Rept. 106-1054, 2001. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRPT-106hrpt1054/html/CRPT-106hrpt1054.htm

65
40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/BNL Scandal.md
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@ -20,47 +20,84 @@ updated: 2026-10-08
start: 1985-01-01
end: 1993-12-31
location: "Atlanta, Georgia"
relations:
- type: investigated
with: "[[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]]"
reverse: true
start: 1992
end: 1993
fn: 4
- type: investigated
with: "[[Frederick Lacey]]"
reverse: true
start: 1992-10-16
end: 1992-12-09
role: "special review of the Justice Department's handling of the case"
fn: 15
---
The BNL scandal (Banca Nazionale del Lavoro scandal) grew from the discovery that the [[Atlanta|Atlanta, Georgia]] branch of [[Banca Nazionale del Lavoro]] - Italy's largest state-owned bank - had illegally extended approximately $5 billion in unauthorized loans to [[Iraq]] between 1985 and 1989. The loans were used by [[Saddam Hussein]]'s government to finance purchases of weapons, weapons components, and dual-use industrial equipment. The FBI discovered the scheme on August 4, 1989, when agents raided the Atlanta branch and seized documents showing undisclosed credit facilities to Iraqi state enterprises.[^1]
### The Atlanta Loans
Branch manager Christopher Drogoul claimed to have acted alone, without authorization from BNL's Rome headquarters or his own supervisors in Atlanta. He subsequently recanted this claim, asserting that his superiors and U.S. government officials were aware of the transactions and that the loans were part of an authorized policy of providing financial cover for arms sales to Iraq. Drogoul was convicted in 1993 and sentenced to 37 months in federal prison.[^1]
Branch manager Christopher Drogoul claimed to have acted alone, without authorization from BNL's Rome headquarters or his own supervisors in Atlanta. He subsequently recanted this claim, asserting that his superiors and U.S. government officials were aware of the transactions and that the loans were part of an authorized policy of providing financial cover for arms sales to Iraq. Drogoul was convicted in 1993 and sentenced to 37 months in federal prison.[^1] The Central Intelligence Agency memorandum of November 6, 1989, "Iraq-Italy: Repercussions of the BNL-Atlanta Scandal," put the branch's unauthorized letters of credit for Iraq at $3.2 billion in 2,500 letters between February 1988 and July 1989, of which about $1.85 billion had been disbursed, including at least $800 million guaranteed by the Commodity Credit Corporation.[^2] The memorandum also stated that BNL's New York headquarters and its directors in Rome publicly denied knowing about the letters of credit, "although a BNL official in Chicago claims he notified New York and Rome several times about the unusual activity in Atlanta, according to press reports," and that Rome "appears satisfied to date with the cooperation of the US investigating agencies and appreciates the low-key manner in which Washington has reacted."[^2]
The Iraqi entities that received the loans included the [[Nassr State Enterprise for Mechanical Industries]] and other procurement agencies that were simultaneously purchasing weapons components from Western suppliers. The loans were guaranteed in part by the U.S. [[Commodity Credit Corporation]] (CCC), a [[Department of Agriculture]] entity whose agricultural export guarantees to Iraq had been used to free up Iraqi hard currency for arms purchases - a mechanism separately documented in congressional investigations of the Iraq relationship.[^2]
The Iraqi entities that received the loans included the [[Nassr State Enterprise for Mechanical Industries]] and other procurement agencies that were simultaneously purchasing weapons components from Western suppliers. The loans were guaranteed in part by the U.S. [[Commodity Credit Corporation]] (CCC), a [[Department of Agriculture]] entity whose agricultural export guarantees to Iraq had been used to free up Iraqi hard currency for arms purchases - a mechanism separately documented in congressional investigations of the Iraq relationship.[^3]
### CIA Knowledge and Obstruction
The key contested question in the BNL scandal was whether the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] knew about the BNL loans and used them as a conduit for authorized assistance to Iraq under the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations' policy of supporting Baghdad during the [[Iran-Iraq War]]. Evidence assembled by journalists, congressional staff, and House Banking Committee investigators suggested that CIA reports specifically identifying Iraq's use of BNL-Atlanta funding for weapons procurement had been available as early as 1988 and had been circulated within the intelligence community.
Federal Judge [[Marvin Shoob]] in Atlanta became the focal point of the scandal when he publicly criticized the [[Department of Justice]]'s handling of the case. Shoob accused the DOJ of directing prosecution away from the central question of whether the loans had been authorized at high levels of the U.S. government. He recused himself from the case on October 1, 1992.[^2]
The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence staff report of February 1993 recorded that CIA analysts concluded in January 1990 that "managers at BNL headquarters in Rome were involved in the scandal," and that in November 1991 CIA reports "confirmed press allegations that more senior BNL officials in Rome had been witting of BNL-Atlanta's activities." The staff wrote that "the evidence does not show that this failure was a deliberate attempt to withhold information from the Department of Justice," and that it "could find no legal support" for the CIA guidance that a report not formally disseminated outside the agency would not be discoverable in a criminal case.[^4]
A CIA statement of February 5, 1993 said: "The CIA's Inspector General found no evidence of deliberate withholding of information or wrongdoing by any Agency employee in connection with the BNL case." In the attached memorandum of January 19, 1993 to the Inspector General, the Director of Central Intelligence, [[Robert Gates]], wrote: "None of the information available to CIA establishes that BNL-Rome did know of the activities of BNL-Atlanta that later became the subject of DoJ's investigation and prosecution." and, in the same paragraph, "Nonetheless, several of the CIA reports clearly contain indications that BNL-Rome may have been aware of BNL-Atlanta's actions." He also wrote that "In retrospect, mistakes clearly were made by Agency officers in their handling of events related to the BNL matter, and there was carelessness and a number of instances of poor judgment."[^5]
Federal Judge [[Marvin Shoob]] in Atlanta became the focal point of the scandal when he publicly criticized the [[Department of Justice]]'s handling of the case. Shoob accused the DOJ of directing prosecution away from the central question of whether the loans had been authorized at high levels of the U.S. government. He recused himself from the case on October 1, 1992.[^3]
### Congressional Investigation
The [[House Banking Committee]] under Chairman [[Henry Gonzalez]] conducted the most sustained congressional investigation of the BNL scandal. Gonzalez publicly released thousands of pages of classified documents relating to the U.S.-Iraq relationship, including CIA reports on Iraq's use of BNL funds. The investigation documented the [[Reagan administration]] and early [[George H.W. Bush]] administration's consistent support for Iraq's weapons procurement networks, including knowledge of chemical weapons use, and revealed the internal government debate over whether to continue agricultural credit programs.[^1]
### Sentencing Hearing and Recusal
On September 23, 1992, at the sentencing hearing, Judge Marvin Shoob asked to see the intelligence underlying the Gonzalez summary of CIA reporting. He took the documents home and concluded that one of them did not support the summary's analytical comment. On October 1, 1992 he orally allowed [[Christopher Drogoul]] to withdraw his guilty plea and recused himself on the government's motion; the written order is dated October 5, 1992. His order stated: "The Court concludes that officials at BNL-Rome were aware of and approved Mr. Drogoul's activities."[^6]
### Italian Senate Commissions
The Italian Senate's commission of inquiry on the Atlanta branch (established February 19, 1991; Senator Gianuario Carta, president) approved a preliminary report on December 21, 1991 that put the exposures at about 4,000 billion lire, recorded $2,867.6 million in facilities outside the official books against $991 million registered at July 31, 1989, stated that the fraud-by-employees thesis had proved inconsistent with the evidence, and recorded that the Department of Justice had denied it access to documents and witnesses.[^7] The first commission's final report, presented April 22, 1992 as Doc. XXII-bis n. 4, stated that the severest of BNL's early-1980s crises was connected to "la accertata partecipazione di gran parte dei suoi alti dirigenti alla loggia massonica P2" (p. 6), recorded that credits to Rafidain Bank before June 1987 had been reported to the Rome head office under an internal circular of June 23, 1983 (p. 20), and named [[Lawrence Eagleburger]], [[Brent Scowcroft]] and [[Henry A. Kissinger|Henry Kissinger]] among those who had worked for BNL or its Yugoslav bank partner (pp. 23, 34). It stated that Drogoul could confirm what he had told the commission, "la consapevolezza e la tolleranza dei vertici di Roma della BNL e delle autorità federali a fronte della macchina finanziaria attivata a favore dell'Iraq" (pp. 34-35).[^8] A second commission under Senator Giampaolo Mora was constituted on February 11, 1993 and approved its final report on February 23, 1994.[^9]
### Connection to Broader Networks
The BNL scandal intersected with other subjects documented in this vault. [[Carlos Cardoen]], the Chilean arms manufacturer who supplied cluster munitions to Iraq through CIA-connected channels, received financing through mechanisms connected to the BNL funding stream. [[Matrix Churchill]], the British machine-tool company at the center of the [[Arms-to-Iraq]] affair, exported equipment to the same Iraqi procurement entities that received BNL funding. The [[PROMIS]] software distribution to Iraqi intelligence is separately alleged by [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] and others.[^2]
The BNL scandal intersected with other subjects documented in this vault. [[Carlos Cardoen]], the Chilean arms manufacturer who supplied cluster munitions to Iraq through CIA-connected channels, received financing through mechanisms connected to the BNL funding stream. [[Matrix Churchill]], the British machine-tool company at the center of the [[Arms-to-Iraq]] affair, exported equipment to the same Iraqi procurement entities that received BNL funding. The [[PROMIS]] software distribution to Iraqi intelligence is separately alleged by [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] and others.[^3]
### Indictment and Pleas
The indictment, No. 1:91-CR-078 in the [[United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia|Northern District of Georgia]], was returned on February 28, 1991, the day after the [[Gulf War]] ceasefire, and charged [[Christopher Drogoul]] on 347 counts with two branch officers, [[Entrade International]] and its manager [[Yavuz Tezeller]], [[Rafidain Bank]], and four Iraqi officials including [[Safa al-Habobi]]. Two branch employees, [[Leigh Ann New]] and [[Paul Von Wedel]], pleaded guilty to separate informations. Drogoul pleaded guilty to 60 counts in June 1992 and withdrew the plea on October 1, when Judge Marvin Shoob recused himself with the stated conclusion "that officials at BNL-[[Rome]] were aware of and approved Mr. Drogoul's activities." The [[United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit|Eleventh Circuit]] ordered the depositions of thirteen Italian bank officers on September 2, 1993. Drogoul pleaded guilty to three counts and was sentenced in December 1993 to 37 months.[^3][^4]
The indictment, No. 1:91-CR-078 in the [[United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia|Northern District of Georgia]], was returned on February 28, 1991, the day after the [[Gulf War]] ceasefire, and charged Christopher Drogoul on 347 counts with two branch officers, [[Entrade International]] and its manager [[Yavuz Tezeller]], [[Rafidain Bank]], and four Iraqi officials including [[Safa al-Habobi]]. Two branch employees, [[Leigh Ann New]] and Thomas Fiebelkorn, were dropped from the indictment after negotiating plea agreements (New pleaded guilty on March 6, 1991 and Fiebelkorn on April 3, 1991), and [[Paul Von Wedel]] pleaded guilty as a cooperating individual; the five Atlanta employees were sentenced by an order of August 24, 1993.[^10] Drogoul pleaded guilty to 60 counts in June 1992 and withdrew the plea on October 1, when Judge Marvin Shoob recused himself with the stated conclusion "that officials at BNL-[[Rome]] were aware of and approved Mr. Drogoul's activities." On September 2, 1993 the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit|Eleventh Circuit]] held that the district court had abused its discretion in refusing depositions of thirteen Italian nationals in Rome, seven of whom had declared they would not testify in the United States.[^11] Drogoul pleaded guilty to three counts and was sentenced in December 1993 to 37 months.[^12][^13]
### Court of Federal Claims suit
On December 15, 1992, BNL filed suit in the United States Court of Federal Claims in Washington to recover over 340 million dollars in principal on defaulted Iraqi loans guaranteed under the Commodity Credit Corporation program of the Department of Agriculture. [[Henry B. Gonzalez]] told the House on January 21, 1993 that the suit followed the Department's refusal to pay the claims because of unanswered questions about BNL's role, that he had repeatedly asked the Department to withhold payment until it could be determined whether BNL had defrauded the program, and that the Department's administrative review, which was not assigned to its inspector general, was "a complete whitewash."[^5]
On December 15, 1992, BNL filed suit in the United States Court of Federal Claims in Washington to recover over 340 million dollars in principal on defaulted Iraqi loans guaranteed under the Commodity Credit Corporation program of the Department of Agriculture. [[Henry B. Gonzalez]] told the House on January 21, 1993 that the suit followed the Department's refusal to pay the claims because of unanswered questions about BNL's role, that he had repeatedly asked the Department to withhold payment until it could be determined whether BNL had defrauded the program, and that the Department's administrative review, which was not assigned to its inspector general, was "a complete whitewash."[^14]
### Lacey and the Senate Staff Report
[[United States Attorney General|Attorney General]] [[William Barr]] appointed the retired judge [[Frederick Lacey]] as special counsel on October 16, 1992. Lacey reported on December 8 that there were no grounds for an independent counsel and that he had "seen nothing" to suggest that [[Brent Scowcroft]] and [[Lawrence Eagleburger]] knew of the loans. Part of the report was classified. Representative Henry Gonzalez called it a whitewash. Acting [[United States Attorney]] [[Joseph D. Whitley]] had recused himself on June 1, 1990, because his former firm represented Matrix Churchill. The staff of the [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]] found in February 1993 that the CIA's grounds for withholding reports from prosecutors had "no legal support" and did not find deliberate concealment. In December 1992 prosecutors in [[Venice]] indicted 59 people, including executives of the bank, for financing arms sales to [[Iran]].[^6][^7][^8]
[[United States Attorney General|Attorney General]] [[William Barr]] appointed the retired judge [[Frederick Lacey]] as special counsel on October 16, 1992. Lacey reported on December 9, 1992 that there were no grounds for an independent counsel and that he had "seen nothing" to suggest that Brent Scowcroft and Lawrence Eagleburger knew of the loans. Part of the report was classified.[^15] Representative Henry Gonzalez called it a whitewash. Acting [[United States Attorney]] [[Joseph D. Whitley]] had recused himself on June 1, 1990, because his former firm represented Matrix Churchill. The staff of the [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]] found in February 1993 that the CIA's grounds for withholding reports from prosecutors had "no legal support" and did not find deliberate concealment. In December 1992 prosecutors in [[Venice]] indicted 59 people, including executives of the bank, for financing arms sales to [[Iran]].[^16][^17][^18] Gonzalez told the House on January 21, 1993 that the 523-page Venice indictment charged senior BNL executives in Rome and branch officials in Paris and Turin with providing over $100 million in support for secret arms shipments to Iran, and that in total 59 persons had been indicted.[^19]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Friedman, Alan. *Spider's Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq.* Bantam Books, 1993.
[^2]: Gonzalez, Henry. Congressional Record, selected statements 1992-1993. https://www.congress.gov/member/henry-gonzalez/G000272
[^3]: United States v. Drogoul, 1 F.3d 1546 (11th Cir. 1993).
[^4]: "Drogoul gets 37 months in BNL bank scandal," *United Press International,* December 9, 1993.
[^5]: Rep. Henry B. Gonzalez, "Update on BNL Investigation," *Congressional Record*, House of Representatives, January 21, 1993, p. H132. https://irp.fas.org/congress/1993_cr/h930121-bnl.htm
[^6]: Lacey, Frederick B. "The Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Investigation: Report of the Independent Counsel," reproduced in House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, *Testimony of Former Employees of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro,* Serial No. 103-95, November 9, 1993. https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit
[^7]: Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, *The Intelligence Community's Involvement in the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL) Affair,* staff report, S. Prt. 103-12, February 1993.
[^8]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Update on BNL Investigation," *Congressional Record,* House, January 21, 1993.
[^2]: Central Intelligence Agency, Directorate of Intelligence, "Iraq-Italy: Repercussions of the BNL-Atlanta Scandal," November 6, 1989, printed in House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, *Testimony of Former Employees of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro,* Serial No. 103-95 (1994), pp. 194-195; CIA reading room document 0000491425, pp. 2, 6. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/0000491425 ; also https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit
[^3]: Gonzalez, Henry. Congressional Record, selected statements 1992-1993. https://www.congress.gov/member/henry-gonzalez/G000272
[^4]: Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, *The Intelligence Community's Involvement in the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL) Affair,* Committee Print S. Prt. 103-12, February 1993, pp. 26, 28, 34. https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/publications/10312.pdf
[^5]: Central Intelligence Agency, "CIA Statement: Release of BNL-related Report," February 5, 1993, with Memorandum for the Inspector General from the Director of Central Intelligence, "BNL Investigation," January 19, 1993, pp. 1-2 (reading room document 0005617864). https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/0005617864
[^6]: Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, *The Intelligence Community's Involvement in the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL) Affair,* Committee Print S. Prt. 103-12, February 1993, p. 24; Order of Judge Marvin H. Shoob, orally entered October 1, 1992 and dated October 5, 1992, printed in Serial No. 103-95, pp. 205-206. https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit
[^7]: Senato della Repubblica, X Legislatura, Commissione parlamentare d'inchiesta sul caso della filiale di Atlanta della Banca nazionale del lavoro e sue connessioni, Rapporto preliminare, December 21, 1991, Doc. XXII-bis n. 3, pp. 2-9. https://www.parlamento.it/service/PDF/PDFServer/BGT/914635.pdf
[^8]: Senato della Repubblica, X Legislatura, Doc. XXII-bis n. 4 (Relazione conclusiva, relatore Carta), April 22, 1992, pp. 6, 20, 23, 34-35. https://www.senato.it/documenti/repository/relazioni/archiviostorico/commissioni/X%20LEG_BNL.ATLANTA_DOC_RELAZ/X_%20LEG_BNL-ATLANTA_DOC%20XXIIBIS_4_22.4.92.pdf
[^9]: Senato della Repubblica, Archivio storico, repertorio of commissions, "Bnl Atlanta (monocamerale d'inchiesta)." https://patrimonio.archivio.senato.it/repertorio-commissioni/commissione/IT-SEN-COM001-000161/bnl-atlanta-monocamerale-d-inchiesta?t=sintesi
[^10]: Lacey, "The Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Investigation: Report of the Independent Counsel," printed in Serial No. 103-95, pp. 362-366, 411, 413; hearing record, Serial No. 103-95, p. 200 (order of August 24, 1993 sentencing the Atlanta employees); General Accounting Office, T-NSIAD-91-13, March 14, 1991. https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit
[^11]: United States v. Drogoul, No. 93-8964, 1 F.3d 1546 (11th Cir. September 2, 1993). https://static.case.law/f3d/1/cases/1546-01.json
[^12]: United States v. Drogoul, 1 F.3d 1546 (11th Cir. 1993).
[^13]: "Drogoul gets 37 months in BNL bank scandal," *United Press International,* December 9, 1993.
[^14]: Rep. Henry B. Gonzalez, "Update on BNL Investigation," *Congressional Record*, House of Representatives, January 21, 1993, p. H132. https://irp.fas.org/congress/1993_cr/h930121-bnl.htm
[^15]: Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, *The Intelligence Community's Involvement in the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL) Affair,* Committee Print S. Prt. 103-12, February 1993, pp. 4-5; Lacey, "The Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Investigation: Report of the Independent Counsel," printed in Serial No. 103-95, pp. 344-345. https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/publications/10312.pdf
[^16]: Lacey, Frederick B. "The Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Investigation: Report of the Independent Counsel," reproduced in House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, *Testimony of Former Employees of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro,* Serial No. 103-95, November 9, 1993. https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit
[^17]: Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, *The Intelligence Community's Involvement in the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL) Affair,* staff report, S. Prt. 103-12, February 1993.
[^18]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Update on BNL Investigation," *Congressional Record,* House, January 21, 1993.
[^19]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Update on BNL Investigation," *Congressional Record,* House, January 21, 1993, pp. H133-H134. https://irp.fas.org/congress/1993_cr/h930121-bnl.htm

18
40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Operation NORTHWOODS.md
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@ -14,12 +14,12 @@ tags:
- ColdWar
- 1960s
category: "Intelligence Scandal"
summary: "Operation NORTHWOODS was a March 13, 1962 document signed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff proposing a series of staged false-flag attacks against American citizens and military assets that could be blamed on Cuba to justify a U.S. invasion, rejected by Secretary of Defense McNamara and President Kennedy, and declassified in 1997 through the JFK Records Act as one of the most significant disclosures of Cold War government deception planning."
summary: "Joint Chiefs of Staff paper of March 13, 1962 proposing staged incidents, blamed on Cuba, as pretexts for a U.S. invasion; declassified in 1997 and publicized by James Bamford in 2001."
start: 1962-03-13
location: "Washington, D.C."
---
Operation NORTHWOODS was a set of proposals developed by the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff under General [[Lyman Lemnitzer]] and formally submitted to Secretary of Defense [[Robert McNamara]] on March 13, 1962. The document, titled "Justification for U.S. Military Intervention in Cuba," proposed creating or staging a series of violent incidents - including attacks on American citizens - that could be attributed to [[Cuba]] and used as a pretext for a U.S. military invasion. The proposals were rejected by McNamara and President [[John F. Kennedy]]; the document was declassified in 1997 through the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act and brought to wide public attention by journalist James Bamford.[^1]
Operation NORTHWOODS was a set of proposals developed by the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff under General [[Lyman Lemnitzer]] and formally submitted to Secretary of Defense [[Robert McNamara]] on March 13, 1962. The document, titled "Justification for U.S. Military Intervention in Cuba," proposed creating or staging a series of violent incidents - including attacks on American citizens - that could be attributed to [[Cuba]] and used as a pretext for a U.S. military invasion. [[James Bamford]] wrote that the proposals were rejected by McNamara and President [[John F. Kennedy]].[^1] The document was declassified in 1997 through the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act and brought to wide public attention by journalist James Bamford.[^1]
### Context
@ -43,15 +43,23 @@ Killing of Americans: The document explicitly contemplated staging incidents in
### Rejection
McNamara rejected the proposals and Kennedy, meeting with Lemnitzer shortly after receiving the document, left no doubt about his reaction. In July 1962, Kennedy declined to reappoint Lemnitzer as JCS Chairman when his term expired; Lemnitzer was transferred to command [[NATO]] forces in Europe. The direct connection between NORTHWOODS and Lemnitzer's removal was not confirmed at the time but became a subject of historical interpretation after declassification.[^1]
On March 6, 1962 [[Edward Lansdale]], chief of operations of Operation Mongoose, wrote that he was asking the Defense representative, General Craig, "to give me a brief but precise description of pretexts which the JCS believes desirable if a decision is ultimately made to use direct military intervention."[^2] The Joint Chiefs' memorandum of March 13 recommended that the paper be forwarded "as a preliminary submission suitable for planning purposes." The paper (JCS 1969/321) rested on the premise that intervention "will result from a period of heightened US-Cuban tensions which place the United States in the position of suffering justifiable grievances," and a draft memorandum appended to it stated that a plan built from the suggestions "would enable a logical build-up of incidents to be combined with other seemingly unrelated events to camouflage the ultimate objective and create the necessary impression of Cuban rashness and irresponsibility on a large scale."[^3]
On March 16, 1962 President Kennedy met with [[John A. McCone]], General [[Maxwell Taylor]], [[Roswell Gilpatric]], Attorney General [[Robert F. Kennedy]], [[McGeorge Bundy]] and Lemnitzer to discuss the Mongoose guidelines. [[U. Alexis Johnson]]'s handwritten note records that "The President also expressed skepticism that in so far as can now be foreseen circumstances will arise that would justify and make desirable the use of American forces for overt military action," and that "no decision was expressed or implied approving the use of such forces although contingency planning would proceed."[^4] At the April 11, 1962 meeting of the Special Group (Augmented), according to McCone's notes, the "JCS paper on pretext or provocative actions was discussed," and McCone wrote that "We should have and review this paper as it is considered to be a very thoughtful and useful document."[^5]
Bamford wrote that McNamara rejected the proposals and that Kennedy, meeting with Lemnitzer shortly after receiving the document, left no doubt about his reaction.[^1] In July 1962, Kennedy declined to reappoint Lemnitzer as JCS Chairman when his term expired; Lemnitzer was transferred to command [[NATO]] forces in Europe. The direct connection between NORTHWOODS and Lemnitzer's removal was not confirmed at the time but became a subject of historical interpretation after declassification.[^1]
### Declassification and Significance
The document remained classified for thirty-five years and was among the records released in 1997 under the JFK Assassination Records Collection Act, which required declassification of documents relating to the Kennedy assassination regardless of their original security designation. NORTHWOODS was included because it was part of the operational planning environment in which Kennedy and the Joint Chiefs were operating in 1962-1963.
James Bamford brought the document to wide public attention in his 2001 book *Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency*. The NORTHWOODS document became one of the most frequently cited pieces of evidence in discussions of false-flag operations, government deception, and conspiracy theory - used both by legitimate researchers documenting Cold War operational planning and by conspiracy theorists arguing that subsequent events (the [[Gulf of Tonkin Incident|Gulf of Tonkin incident]], 9/11) followed the template NORTHWOODS had proposed.[^2]
James Bamford brought the document to wide public attention in his 2001 book *Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency*. The NORTHWOODS document became one of the most frequently cited pieces of evidence in discussions of false-flag operations, government deception, and conspiracy theory - used both by legitimate researchers documenting Cold War operational planning and by conspiracy theorists arguing that subsequent events (the [[Gulf of Tonkin Incident|Gulf of Tonkin incident]], 9/11) followed the template NORTHWOODS had proposed.[^6]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Bamford, James. *Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency.* Doubleday, 2001. Original document: "Justification for U.S. Military Intervention in Cuba" (TS), JCS files, March 13, 1962; declassified 1997. Available at nsarchive.gwu.edu.
[^2]: Weiner, Tim. *Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA.* Doubleday, 2007.
[^2]: Lansdale to Goodwin, March 6, 1962 (Top Secret; Sensitive), Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963, Vol. X, Document 310. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v10/d310
[^3]: Joint Chiefs of Staff, memorandum for the Secretary of Defense, "Justification for US Military Intervention in Cuba (TS)," March 13, 1962, signed by L. L. Lemnitzer, Chairman, with Enclosure A, its appendix and annex, and Enclosure B, from JCS 1969/321 (Top Secret, Special Handling, Noforn; declassified 1997). https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/news/20010430/northwoods.pdf
[^4]: Guidelines for Operation Mongoose and editorial note quoting U. Alexis Johnson's handwritten covering memorandum of March 16, 1962, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963, Vol. X, Document 314. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v10/d314
[^5]: Memorandum by Director of Central Intelligence McCone on the April 11, 1962 meeting of the Special Group (Augmented), Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963, Vol. X, Document 325. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v10/d325
[^6]: Weiner, Tim. *Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA.* Doubleday, 2007.

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40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Robertson Panel.md
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@ -105,7 +105,9 @@ The Robertson Panel was a group of five scientists convened by the [[Office of S
### Origin in the Office of Scientific Intelligence
In the summer of 1952 the Office of Scientific Intelligence and the Office of Current Intelligence formed a study group on the flying saucer reports. [[Edward Tauss]], acting chief of the Office's Weapons and Equipment Division, reported that most sightings could be easily explained, recommended continued monitoring in coordination with the Air Technical Intelligence Center, and urged that the Agency conceal its interest from the press and public, "in view of their probable alarmist tendencies" to read it as confirmation. [[Robert Amory]], the Deputy Director for Intelligence, passed the matter to the Office's Physics and Electronics Division on the concerns of the [[Director of Central Intelligence]], [[Walter Bedell Smith]], who according to a memorandum of 20 August 1952 summarized by [[Gerald K. Haines]] of the Agency's history staff wanted to know whether the Air Force investigation was sufficiently objective, thought there was "only one chance in 10,000" that the phenomenon posed a threat but that "even that chance could not be taken," and asked what use could be made of the phenomenon in psychological warfare. The study group's members searched the Soviet press, found no flying saucer reports, and concluded that the absence resulted from Soviet Government policy.[^2]
The 1952 sightings in the Washington area alarmed the Truman administration. Radar scopes at [[Washington National Airport]] and [[Andrews Air Force Base]] tracked unidentified blips on July 19 and 20, 1952, and the blips reappeared on July 27, when the Air Force scrambled interceptors that found nothing. [[Gerald K. Haines]] wrote that the White House wanted to know what was happening, and that the Air Force quickly offered the explanation that the radar blips might be the result of "temperature inversions."[^2]
In the summer of 1952 the Office of Scientific Intelligence and the Office of Current Intelligence formed a study group on the flying saucer reports. [[Edward Tauss]], acting chief of the Office's Weapons and Equipment Division, reported that most sightings could be easily explained, recommended continued monitoring in coordination with the Air Technical Intelligence Center, and urged that the Agency conceal its interest from the press and public, "in view of their probable alarmist tendencies" to read it as confirmation. [[Robert Amory]], the Deputy Director for Intelligence, passed the matter to the Office's Physics and Electronics Division on the concerns of the [[Director of Central Intelligence]], [[Walter Bedell Smith]], who according to a memorandum of 20 August 1952 summarized by Gerald K. Haines of the Agency's history staff wanted to know whether the Air Force investigation was sufficiently objective, thought there was "only one chance in 10,000" that the phenomenon posed a threat but that "even that chance could not be taken," and asked what use could be made of the phenomenon in psychological warfare. The study group's members searched the Soviet press, found no flying saucer reports, and concluded that the absence resulted from Soviet Government policy.[^2]
The Durant memorandum lists an "O/SI Study Group of August 1952" of [[Philip G. Strong]], a colleague named Eng and [[Frederick C. Durant]], which led to the briefing of the Director, an Air Technical Intelligence Center briefing on 21 November, consideration by the [[Intelligence Advisory Committee]] on 4 December, and a visit to the Center by Chadwell, [[H. P. Robertson]] and Durant.[^1] The Intelligence Advisory Committee, according to Haines, agreed that the Director should "enlist the services of selected scientists to review and appraise the available evidence in the light of pertinent scientific theories" and draft a National Security Council Intelligence Directive on the subject.[^2]

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@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ The composition of the commission drew criticism for the conflicts of interest a
[[C. Douglas Dillon]]: Nelson Rockefeller's confidant, Kennedy's treasury secretary, and chairman of the [[Rockefeller Foundation]] board of trustees. As undersecretary of state in the Eisenhower administration from June 1959 through January 1961, Dillon attended NSC meetings at which discussions of foreign leaders including [[Patrice Lumumba]] took place. In an affidavit submitted to the commission, Dillon stated that he had heard no discussion of assassination attempts against any foreign leader during his tenure, though he acknowledged to investigators that it was "perfectly possible" that [[Allen Dulles]] might have translated strong presidential language into operational orders.[^6]
[[General Lyman Lemnitzer]]: Former chairman of the [[Joint Chiefs of Staff]], 1960-1962. Lemnitzer had actively supported the CIA's call for direct U.S. military intervention during the [[Bay of Pigs invasion]], only to be overruled by Kennedy. He also signed Operation Northwoods in March 1962, a Joint Chiefs proposal for staged false-flag terrorism on U.S. soil to justify military action against Cuba, which Kennedy rejected. Kennedy subsequently denied Lemnitzer another term as chairman, transferring him to command of U.S. [[European Command]] and NATO.[^7]
[[General Lyman Lemnitzer]]: Former chairman of the [[Joint Chiefs of Staff]], 1960-1962. Lemnitzer had actively supported the CIA's call for direct U.S. military intervention during the [[Bay of Pigs invasion]], only to be overruled by Kennedy. He also signed Operation Northwoods in March 1962, a Joint Chiefs proposal for staged false-flag terrorism on U.S. soil to justify military action against Cuba. Kennedy subsequently denied Lemnitzer another term as chairman, transferring him to command of U.S. [[European Command]] and NATO.[^7]
[[Lane Kirkland]]: AFL-CIO researcher who had been a director of the CIA-funded [[AIFLD]] (American Institute for Free Labor Development) during the Kennedy-Johnson years. Kirkland had served on a Johnson administration commission that recommended continuing CIA-backed labor programs under overt funding as a workaround when CIA involvement was exposed. He was also a member of Nelson Rockefeller's Commission on Critical Choices. Kirkland was elected president of the AFL-CIO in November 1979.[^8]
@ -94,7 +94,7 @@ The commission's records, totaling approximately 41 cubic feet (82,000 pages), a
[^4]: FRUS 1969-76, Vol. XXXVIII, Part 2, Document 17, Editorial Note, covering the period December 20-22, 1974, including Colby's meeting with Hersh on December 20, 1974 and the Ford administration's response strategy coordinated by Kissinger and Rumsfeld.
[^5]: Gerard Colby and Charlotte Dennett, *Thy Will Be Done: The Conquest of the Amazon*. HarperCollins, 1995. Appendix B.
[^6]: Church Committee, "Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders," November 20, 1975, pp. 14-15. Dillon testified that while present at NSC meetings in summer 1960, he had no memory of a direct presidential order for Lumumba's assassination, but acknowledged it was "perfectly possible" that Dulles had translated strong language into operational direction.
[^7]: Lyman Lemnitzer, Operation Northwoods memorandum, Joint Chiefs of Staff, March 13, 1962, presented to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. Kennedy rejected the proposal on March 16, 1962 and denied Lemnitzer another term as chairman.
[^7]: Lyman Lemnitzer, Operation Northwoods memorandum, Joint Chiefs of Staff, March 13, 1962, presented to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. At a March 16, 1962 meeting on the Mongoose guidelines, Kennedy expressed skepticism that circumstances would arise that would justify overt military action, and no decision approving the use of such forces was expressed or implied (Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963, Vol. X, Document 314). Kennedy denied Lemnitzer another term as chairman.
[^8]: Colby and Dennett, Appendix B. Kirkland was elected AFL-CIO president on November 19, 1979.
[^9]: Colby and Dennett, Appendix B.
[^10]: [[National Security Archive]], "Gerald Ford White House Altered Rockefeller Commission Report in 1975," NSAEBB, February 29, 2016. Griswold's footnote recommending CIA budget disclosure was among the items suppressed by the White House.

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40 - EVENTS/MAJOR_CONFLICTS/Gulf of Tonkin Incident.md
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@ -14,9 +14,16 @@ tags:
- 1960s
- NSA
category: "Major Conflict"
summary: "The Gulf of Tonkin Incident refers to the August 2 and 4, 1964 incidents in which a genuine North Vietnamese attack on the USS Maddox was followed by a second 'attack' on August 4 that almost certainly never occurred, yet was used by the Johnson administration to obtain the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution authorizing open-ended military escalation in Vietnam - a deception confirmed by NSA declassified documents released in 2005."
summary: "August 1964 incidents: a genuine North Vietnamese attack on the USS Maddox, then a second reported attack that NSA documents released in 2005 showed did not occur, used to obtain the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution."
start: 1964-08-04
location: "Gulf of Tonkin, off North Vietnam"
relations:
- type: participant_in
with: "[[Robert S. McNamara]]"
reverse: true
start: 1964-08-03
role: "Secretary of Defense; briefed congressional leaders"
fn: 4
---
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 War|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]
@ -27,6 +34,14 @@ On August 2, 1964, the USS Maddox, a destroyer conducting electronic intelligenc
The Maddox was conducting DESOTO patrols - intelligence-gathering missions that collected electronic signals from North Vietnamese radar and communications installations. The patrols ran in coordination with South Vietnamese commando raids against North Vietnamese coastal targets. North Vietnam apparently attacked the Maddox in response to those raids, believing American vessels were directly supporting the attacks.
### Secretary of Defense briefings, August 3 and 4, 1964
On August 3, 1964 the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, [[Peter Solbert]], sent [[Robert S. McNamara]] a memorandum on the aftermath of the Maddox engagement. Among the actions it listed were the aerial mining of North Vietnamese naval bases or harbors and further covert [[Operation 34-A]] missions against those bases.[^2]
In a telephone call at 10:30 a.m. on August 3, McNamara proposed explaining the covert naval operations to Congress: "And we're going to, and I think I should also, or we should also at that time, Mr. President, explain this Op Plan 34-A, these covert operations. There's no question but what that had bearing on."[^3]
At the meeting of congressional leaders on August 4, McNamara began his briefing: "The first indication we had of another attack on the destroyers, the Maddox and Turner Joy, was received at 7:30 A.M. today."[^4] In a 9:43 a.m. call that day, McNamara said of the destroyer: "this ship is allegedly, uh, to be attacked tonight." [[John Prados]] wrote that McNamara's later public statements on the 34-A link were made against this record.[^5]
### August 4: The Fabricated Attack
On August 4, 1964, the Maddox and USS Turner Joy reported that they were under attack in the Gulf of Tonkin at night in rough weather. Sonar operators reported torpedo sounds; the ships took evasive action and returned fire at targets that appeared on radar. No visual contact with attacking vessels was ever made. The ship commanders themselves were uncertain what had happened.
@ -39,7 +54,7 @@ Despite these doubts, Johnson and McNamara presented the August 4 incident to Co
On August 7, 1964, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (formally the Southeast Asia Resolution) with 98-2 votes in the Senate and unanimously in the House. The resolution authorized the President to take "all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression." Only Senators Wayne Morse and Ernest Gruening voted against.
The resolution became the legal basis for the Johnson and [[Richard Nixon|Nixon]] administrations' escalation of the [[Vietnam War]], including the introduction of ground combat troops in 1965 and the sustained bombing campaigns against North Vietnam. By 1968, over 500,000 American troops were deployed in Vietnam.[^1]
The resolution became the legal basis for the Johnson and [[Richard Nixon|Nixon]] administrations' escalation of the Vietnam War, including the introduction of ground combat troops in 1965 and the sustained bombing campaigns against North Vietnam. By 1968, over 500,000 American troops were deployed in Vietnam.[^1]
### Subsequent Disclosure
@ -51,9 +66,13 @@ In 2005, the NSA released previously classified documents including a 2001 inter
The Gulf of Tonkin Incident is significant both as a historical event - the manufactured pretext for the most costly American military engagement of the Cold War - and as a paradigm case in discussions of false-flag operations and government deception. Read alongside the declassified [[Operation NORTHWOODS]] document proposing staged incidents to justify Cuba intervention (1962), Tonkin demonstrated that American officials were not only willing to plan such fabrications but to execute them.
The incident also illustrated the institutional dynamics of intelligence assessment under political pressure: the NSA analysis that confirmed the August 4 attack reflected what policymakers wanted to hear rather than what the evidence showed - a pattern subsequently analyzed in discussions of intelligence and policy.[^2]
The incident also illustrated the institutional dynamics of intelligence assessment under political pressure: the NSA analysis that confirmed the August 4 attack reflected what policymakers wanted to hear rather than what the evidence showed - a pattern subsequently analyzed in discussions of intelligence and policy.[^6]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Hanyok, Robert J. "Skunks, Bogies, Silent Hounds, and the Flying Fish: The Gulf of Tonkin Mystery, 2-4 August 1964." *Cryptologic Quarterly.* NSA. Declassified 2005; available at nsarchive.gwu.edu. Moise, Edwin E. *Tonkin Gulf and the Escalation of the Vietnam War.* University of North Carolina Press, 1996.
[^2]: The Pentagon Papers (Senator Gravel edition). Beacon Press, 1971. Mann, Robert. *A Grand Delusion: America's Descent into Vietnam.* Basic Books, 2001.
[^2]: Peter Solbert, memorandum to Secretary of Defense McNamara, August 3, 1964 (Top Secret; Sensitive), Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968, Vol. I, Document 268. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v01/d268
[^3]: Telephone conversation, Lyndon B. Johnson and Robert S. McNamara, August 3, 1964, 10:30 a.m., National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book 132. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB132/tapes.htm
[^4]: Notes of the Leadership Meeting, White House, August 4, 1964, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968, Vol. I, Document 280. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v01/d280
[^5]: John Prados, "The Gulf of Tonkin Incident, 40 Years Later," National Security Archive, August 4, 2004 (telephone conversation of August 4, 1964, 9:43 a.m.). https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB132/essay.htm
[^6]: The Pentagon Papers (Senator Gravel edition). Beacon Press, 1971. Mann, Robert. *A Grand Delusion: America's Descent into Vietnam.* Basic Books, 2001.

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70 - DISPATCHES/2026-10-12 Particularly Significant.md Normal file
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@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
---
title: "Particularly Significant"
date: 2026-10-12
status: published
summary: "The P2 lists seized in 1981 held BNL's director general and four of its directors; ten years later an Italian Senate commission found the Atlanta loans tolerated if not encouraged from above."
entities:
- "[[Banca Nazionale del Lavoro]]"
- "[[Propaganda Due]]"
- "[[Tina Anselmi]]"
- "[[Luigi Sardelli]]"
- "[[Roberto Calvi]]"
- "[[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]"
- "[[Gianuario Carta]]"
- "[[Christopher Drogoul]]"
- "[[Marvin Shoob]]"
- "[[BNL Scandal]]"
tags:
- BNL
- P2
- Iraqgate
- BCCI
---
# Particularly Significant
The membership lists of the [[Propaganda Due]] lodge seized at Castiglion Fibocchi in March 1981 were published by the Italian government on May 21, 1981. Among the names is "Dott. Alberto Ferrari."[^1] The parliamentary commission of inquiry on P2, chaired by [[Tina Anselmi]], counted sixty-seven members drawn from the Treasury, the banks and finance, and singled out a few banks where the presences were "particolarmente significative per qualità e rappresentatività." The first it named was the [[Banca Nazionale del Lavoro]]: four members of the board of directors, the director general, and three central directors, one of them secretary of the board.[^2]
[[Luigi Sardelli]], who ran BNL's North American operations from 1987, later answered written questions from [[Henry B. Gonzalez]]. He wrote that Professor A. Ferrari, then BNL's managing director, "had to resign in shame in 1981 because of his affiliation with Lodge P2." He wrote that on December 25, 1975 Ferrari had asked him to go to the Gulf to explore a BNL merchant bank "with a group of BNL friends," and that the people he met there were Pakistani nationals connected to [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]]. He wrote that Ferrari was a close friend of [[Roberto Calvi]] of [[Banco Ambrosiano]], and that the bank's relationship with BCCI, [[Ghaith Pharaon]] and [[Marc Rich]] was the exclusive domain of Ferrari, A. Florio and A. Conzara. Ferrari had handpicked Florio to head the International Division.[^3]
The FBI searched BNL's [[Atlanta]] branch on August 4, 1989. The indictment returned on February 28, 1991 charged the branch manager [[Christopher Drogoul]], two other branch officers, a Turkish trading company and its executive, the Iraqi state [[Rafidain Bank]] and four Iraqi officials.[^4] Angelo Florio was one of seven Italian nationals who in 1993 declared they would not come to the United States to testify. Drogoul named him, with [[Giacomo Pedde]] and Teodoro Monaco, as the officials who gave the authorizations he relied on.[^5]
The Italian Senate commission of inquiry under Senator [[Gianuario Carta]] approved its preliminary report on December 21, 1991. It recorded that no official of BNL in New York or Rome was among the defendants. It found that the thesis of a fraud by a group of unfaithful officials had proved inconsistent, and that the Atlanta operations could not have been unknown in Rome and New York and were instead "tollerata se non incoraggiata." It also recorded that the [[Department of Justice]] had denied the commission access to documents and witnesses, citing grand jury secrecy and national security.[^6] On October 5, 1992 Judge [[Marvin Shoob]] wrote: "The Court concludes that officials at BNL-Rome were aware of and approved Mr. Drogoul's activities."[^7]
[^1]: Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri, "Elenco degli iscritti alla loggia P2," published May 21, 1981. https://www.stragi.it/archivio/doc/66.pdf
[^2]: Commissione parlamentare d'inchiesta sulla loggia massonica P2 (Anselmi, President), *Relazione,* Doc. XXIII n. 2, IX Legislatura, p. 116. https://www.archivioantimafia.org/p2/commissione_parlamentare/01.%20Relazioni%20Minoranza%20(0-005)/000-relazione-anselmi.pdf
[^3]: Luigi Sardelli, "Written Responses to Chairman Gonzalez's Questions," in House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, *Testimony of Former Employees of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro,* Serial No. 103-95 (1994), p. 176. https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit
[^4]: Frederick B. Lacey, Part I of the report of the Independent Counsel, in Serial No. 103-95, pp. 361-366 and 413; General Accounting Office, T-NSIAD-91-13, March 14, 1991. https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit
[^5]: United States v. Drogoul, 1 F.3d 1546 (11th Cir. 1993).
[^6]: Senato della Repubblica, X Legislatura, Commissione parlamentare d'inchiesta sul caso della filiale di Atlanta della Banca nazionale del lavoro e sue connessioni, *Rapporto preliminare,* Doc. XXII-bis n. 3, December 21, 1991, pp. 2, 8-9. https://www.parlamento.it/service/PDF/PDFServer/BGT/914635.pdf
[^7]: United States v. Drogoul, Order of Judge Marvin H. Shoob, dated October 5, 1992, in Serial No. 103-95, pp. 205-206. https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit