diff --git a/00 - META/CHANGELOG.md b/00 - META/CHANGELOG.md index 1c51d6b3..d19e4933 100644 --- a/00 - META/CHANGELOG.md +++ b/00 - META/CHANGELOG.md @@ -1,4 +1,76 @@ -- 2026-09-22T1843 · [[_manifest]] +- 2026-09-22T1929 · [[_manifest]] +- 2026-09-22T1929 · [[Harry Vaughan]] +- 2026-09-22T1928 · [[Rockefeller family]] +- 2026-09-22T1928 · [[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence]] +- 2026-09-22T1928 · [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]] +- 2026-09-22T1928 · [[House Committee on the Judiciary]] +- 2026-09-22T1928 · [[National Security Archive]] +- 2026-09-22T1928 · [[Brigade 2506]] +- 2026-09-22T1928 · [[Siege]] +- 2026-09-22T1928 · [[Senate Foreign Relations Committee]] +- 2026-09-22T1928 · [[Hunt Oil Company]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Sonnenkrieg Division]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Senate Judiciary Committee]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[House Banking Committee]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Assassination Records Review Board]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Middle East]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Los Alamos]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Thailand]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[The Octopus]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Cybertruck Trump Hotel Bombing]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Watergate]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[PROMIS Software Scandal]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Boland Amendment]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[PROMIS]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[COINTELPRO]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[SERE]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Simeon]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Patricof and Company]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[INSLAW]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Dialog]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Allen and Company]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Sandinistas]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Order of Nine Angles]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[National Action]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[U.S. Attorney's office]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Central Intelligence Agency]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Richard Thornburgh]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Peter Thiel]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Hassan Yassin]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Federico Vaughn]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[William Bradford Reynolds]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Robert Booth Nichols]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Oliver North]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Michael Szewczuk]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Marco Rubio]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Jackson Stephens]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Elliot Richardson]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Robert Hanssen]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Raymond Lavas]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Lowell Jensen]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Lee Hamilton]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Fred Hitz]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Edwin Meese]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Christopher Mellon]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Bill Hamilton]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Andrew McLellan]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Oskar Dunn-Koczorowski]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Manucher Ghorbanifar]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Jonathan Buma]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Jack Brooks]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Edward P. Boland]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Earl Brian]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Danny Casolaro]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Danilo Blandon]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[C. Madison Brewer]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Arnold Burns]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Andrew Dymock]] +- 2026-09-22T1922 · [[Alexus Grynkewich]] +- 2026-09-22T1912 · [[_REDLINKS_2026-09-21_v2]] - 2026-09-22T1843 · [[North Carolina]] - 2026-09-22T1843 · [[Las Vegas]] - 2026-09-22T1843 · [[X-Dossier]] @@ -10,7 +82,6 @@ - 2026-09-22T1833 · [[_NOTES_R1_committees]] - 2026-09-22T1832 · [[_NOTES_R2_groups]] - 2026-09-22T1830 · [[_NOTES_C_belgium_norman]] -- 2026-09-22T1829 · [[Cybertruck Trump Hotel Bombing]] - 2026-09-22T1828 · [[New Mexico]] - 2026-09-22T1826 · [[West Virginia]] - 2026-09-22T1824 · [[United States]] @@ -24,77 +95,6 @@ - 2026-09-22T1823 · [[Israel]] - 2026-09-22T1823 · [[Danny Ray Lasater]] - 2026-09-22T1822 · [[Contras]] -- 2026-09-22T1822 · [[Robert Booth Nichols]] - 2026-09-22T1820 · [[_NOTES_C_part_A_nihoul]] - 2026-09-22T1819 · [[_NOTES_C_part_C_norman_shelden]] - 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Texas]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Florida]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[California]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Arkansas]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[South Central Los Angeles]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[South America]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Negev Desert]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Central America]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Caribbean]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Wright-Patterson Air Force Base]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Opa Locka]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Homestead Air Force Base]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Fort Meade]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[U.S. Embassy in Moscow]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Soviet Union]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Saudi Arabia]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Russia]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Peru]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Mexico]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Libya]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Iran]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Haiti]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Ecuador]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Costa Rica]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Colombia]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[China]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Bolivia]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Bahamas]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Washington, D.C.]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[San Salvador]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[San Jose]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[San Francisco]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[San Bernardino]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Panama City]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Pacifica, California]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[New Orleans]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Moscow]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Miami]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Mexico City]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Medellin]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Managua]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Los Angeles]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Lima]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Houston]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Compton]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Chicago]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Cali, Colombia]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Bogota]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Baton Rouge, Louisiana]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Outbounder-Beacon Experiment]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Extended Remote Viewing]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Eight-Martini Results]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Coordinate Remote Viewing]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Associative Remote Viewing]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Analytical Overlay]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Synchronicity]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Telepathy]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Remote Viewing]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Psychoenergetics]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Psi]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Precognition]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Clairvoyance]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[KEY CONCEPTS AND TECH]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Psychic Spying]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Psi Gap]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[PSI-INT]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Human Use Experimentation]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Ground Truth]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Giggle Factor]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[Extrasensory Perception]] -- 2026-09-22T1817 · [[The Phenomenon]] diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Alexus Grynkewich.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Alexus Grynkewich.md index 942f7f85..e664269d 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Alexus Grynkewich.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Alexus Grynkewich.md @@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ Grynkewich's SACEUR command and his continuing Dialog attendance place an active The SACEUR/EUCOM command is a major consumer of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) platforms, of data-fusion software, and of autonomous systems, which are the product categories supplied by the Thiel-network defense-tech cluster (Palantir's data-fusion platforms, Anduril's autonomous systems, the broader 8VC portfolio). The Dialog convening places the commander who consumes those platforms in a recurring, off-the-record setting with the principals of the firms that supply them. Whether any specific procurement decision was discussed at Dialog is not alleged; the 2026 leak is the first primary record of the cross-attendance.[^1] -The 2026 Dialog registrants named by *WIRED* include [[Jim Himes|Representative Jim Himes]] (the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee), [[Cory Booker|Senator Cory Booker]] (Democrat, [[New Jersey]]), and [[Ted Cruz|Senator Ted Cruz]] (Republican, Texas), alongside Grynkewich, whose military command is formally nonpartisan but whose appointment was made by the Trump administration. The cross-party roster shows the convening network reaches across the oversight, legislative, and operational-military tiers of the U.S. national-security apparatus rather than filtering by party.[^1] +The 2026 Dialog registrants named by *WIRED* include [[Jim Himes|Representative Jim Himes]] (the ranking Democrat on the [[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence|House Intelligence Committee]]), [[Cory Booker|Senator Cory Booker]] (Democrat, [[New Jersey]]), and [[Ted Cruz|Senator Ted Cruz]] (Republican, Texas), alongside Grynkewich, whose military command is formally nonpartisan but whose appointment was made by the Trump administration. The cross-party roster shows the convening network reaches across the oversight, legislative, and operational-military tiers of the U.S. national-security apparatus rather than filtering by party.[^1] ### Footnotes diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Andrew Dymock.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Andrew Dymock.md index 3119d8b5..e32456a4 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Andrew Dymock.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Andrew Dymock.md @@ -16,11 +16,11 @@ updated: 2026-05-21 summary: "Andrew Dymock is a British neo-Nazi who founded the System Resistance Network and Sonnenkrieg Division after National Action's proscription, convicted on 15 terrorism and hate crime counts at the Old Bailey in 2021 and sentenced to 7 years." --- -[[Andrew Dymock]] (born May 14, 1997, [[Bath]], Somerset, England) founded the [[System Resistance Network]] (SRN) and subsequently the [[Sonnenkrieg Division]] (SKD), the two most significant organizational successors to [[National Action]] after its proscription in December 2016. SRN was itself proscribed in 2017 and SKD in 2019. Dymock was arrested in December 2018 at Gatwick Airport and tried at the Central Criminal Court ([[Old Bailey]]) in London. A jury found him guilty on all 15 counts in June 2021 and on July 21, 2021, Judge [[Mark Dennis QC]] sentenced him to 7 years imprisonment plus 3 years extended licence, describing him as "dangerous" and posing "a significant risk of serious harm" to the public.[^1] +[[Andrew Dymock]] (born May 14, 1997, [[Bath]], Somerset, England) founded the [[System Resistance Network]] (SRN) and subsequently the [[Sonnenkrieg Division]] (SKD), the two most significant organizational successors to [[National Action]] after its proscription in December 2016. SRN was itself proscribed in 2017, and SKD on February 28, 2020. Dymock was arrested in December 2018 at Gatwick Airport and tried at the Central Criminal Court ([[Old Bailey]]) in London. A jury found him guilty on all 15 counts in June 2021 and on July 21, 2021, Judge [[Mark Dennis QC]] sentenced him to 7 years imprisonment plus 3 years extended licence, describing him as "dangerous" and posing "a significant risk of serious harm" to the public.[^1] ### SRN and Sonnenkrieg Division -After National Action's proscription Dymock founded SRN as a successor organization. Following internal disputes within SRN over the degree of [[Order of Nine Angles]] (O9A)-affiliated occultism to incorporate into the ideology, he founded the Sonnenkrieg Division in 2018. SKD was explicitly modeled on [[Atomwaffen Division]], incorporating O9A philosophy heavily, making it one of the most O9A-proximate proscribed organizations in the UK ecosystem. The Home Secretary proscribed SKD in 2019. +After National Action's proscription Dymock founded SRN as a successor organization. Following internal disputes within SRN over the degree of [[Order of Nine Angles]] (O9A)-affiliated occultism to incorporate into the ideology, he founded the Sonnenkrieg Division in 2018. SKD was explicitly modeled on [[Atomwaffen Division]], incorporating O9A philosophy heavily, making it one of the most O9A-proximate proscribed organizations in the UK ecosystem. The Home Secretary proscribed SKD on February 28, 2020. Dymock operated SRN's website and its associated [[Twitter]] account, using both to disseminate terrorism content including calls for the extermination of Jewish people and encouragement of lone-actor attacks.[^2] diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Ari Ben-Menashe.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Ari Ben-Menashe.md index 5191c4c9..115f29d5 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Ari Ben-Menashe.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Ari Ben-Menashe.md @@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ No official body endorsed this account. The [[House October Surprise Task Force] After the journalist [[Danny Casolaro]]'s death in August 1991, Ben-Menashe called [[Bill Hamilton]], president of [[INSLAW|Inslaw]], and claimed that two FBI agents from Lexington, Kentucky, had been en route to Martinsburg to give Casolaro evidence that the FBI was illegally using PROMIS software, one of them disaffected because his superiors had refused to indict senior Reagan officials over the October Surprise.[^19] In affidavits submitted to the bankruptcy court in February and March 1991, he claimed personal knowledge of Earl Brian's involvement in international PROMIS distribution, alleging that Brian made a 1987 presentation to Israeli Military Intelligence claiming ownership of PROMIS rights, that [[Rafael Eitan]] received PROMIS from Brian and McFarlane in 1982 for Israeli signals intelligence, and that enhanced PROMIS was sold to the Israeli intelligence community, the Singapore Armed Forces, the Soviet Union, and Canada.[^20] These PROMIS-distribution claims were later amplified by [[Seymour Hersh]] in [[The Samson Option]] and [[Gordon Thomas]] in [[Gideon's Spies]].[^8][^9] -The special counsel [[Nicholas Bua]], in his 1993 report on the Inslaw affair, rejected these claims. When interviewed, Ben-Menashe gave a substantially different account, stating that he had no knowledge of the transfer of Inslaw's proprietary software, and that the "PROMIS" in his affidavits referred not to Inslaw's product but to an NSA program he called "Milon," a dictionary-compilation tool developed independently before Inslaw existed; he admitted he had allowed the Hamiltons and others to assume he meant Inslaw's PROMIS "to promote his book."[^20] The NSA confirmed that its own internal Product Related On-line Management Information System, also called PROMIS, was written in M204 rather than COBOL and was wholly unrelated to Inslaw's software. The House October Surprise Task Force, the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and the special counsel all found his testimony fabricated and unsupported.[^10][^20] +The special counsel [[Nicholas Bua]], in his 1993 report on the Inslaw affair, rejected these claims. When interviewed, Ben-Menashe gave a substantially different account, stating that he had no knowledge of the transfer of Inslaw's proprietary software, and that the "PROMIS" in his affidavits referred not to Inslaw's product but to an NSA program he called "Milon," a dictionary-compilation tool developed independently before Inslaw existed; he admitted he had allowed the Hamiltons and others to assume he meant Inslaw's PROMIS "to promote his book."[^20] The NSA confirmed that its own internal Product Related On-line Management Information System, also called PROMIS, was written in M204 rather than COBOL and was wholly unrelated to Inslaw's software. The House October Surprise Task Force, the [[Senate Foreign Relations Committee|Senate Committee on Foreign Relations]], and the special counsel all found his testimony fabricated and unsupported.[^10][^20] ### Claims about Robert Maxwell diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Arnold Burns.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Arnold Burns.md index 459f79bb..124d11ef 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Arnold Burns.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Arnold Burns.md @@ -19,13 +19,13 @@ Arnold Burns served as Deputy [[United States Attorney General|Attorney General] Burns was among the senior DOJ officials interviewed by the Department's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) investigators in 1986 in connection with the [[INSLAW]] contract dispute. He told OPR that INSLAW's proprietary rights claim to the enhanced version of [[PROMIS]] was "legitimate" and that the DOJ "would probably lose the case in court on this issue." His statement was made during a period when DOJ was continuing to litigate aggressively against INSLAW despite internal recognition of the weakness of its legal position.[^1] -The House Judiciary Committee's September 1992 report (House Report 102-857) cited Burns's admission as pivotal evidence. The committee found it "incredible that the Department, having made this determination, would continue to pursue its litigation of these matters." The committee concluded that DOJ attorneys had "proceeded to challenge INSLAW's claims in court even though it knew that these claims were valid and that the Department would most likely lose in court on this issue."[^1] +The [[House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]]'s September 1992 report (House Report 102-857) cited Burns's admission as pivotal evidence. The committee found it "incredible that the Department, having made this determination, would continue to pursue its litigation of these matters." The committee concluded that DOJ attorneys had "proceeded to challenge INSLAW's claims in court even though it knew that these claims were valid and that the Department would most likely lose in court on this issue."[^1] The Bua Report (1993) interpreted Burns's OPR statement differently, arguing that his comments reflected concern about the difficulty of litigating the proprietary rights issue rather than an admission of wrongdoing. The Bua Report concluded that Burns's statements had been "entirely unwarranted" in the interpretation placed on them by the House Judiciary Committee.[^2] ### Resignation from DOJ -Burns and [[William F. Weld]], the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, submitted their resignations to President [[Ronald Reagan]] on March 29, 1988, after separately meeting with [[White House Chief of Staff]] [[Howard Baker]] to raise concerns about [[Edwin Meese]]'s conduct. Both men had reportedly grown frustrated by being sidestepped in Meese's office and by DOJ decisions made without their knowledge regarding investigations into Meese's associates. Their simultaneous resignations were characterized as an unprecedented vote of no confidence in a sitting Attorney General. Senator [[Robert Byrd]] called Meese "the crown jewel of Reagan's sleaze factor" and demanded his resignation.[^3] +Burns and [[William F. Weld]], the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, submitted their resignations to President [[Ronald Reagan]] on March 29, 1988, after separately meeting with [[White House Chief of Staff]] [[Howard Baker]] to raise concerns about Edwin Meese's conduct. Both men had reportedly grown frustrated by being sidestepped in Meese's office and by DOJ decisions made without their knowledge regarding investigations into Meese's associates. Their simultaneous resignations were characterized as an unprecedented vote of no confidence in a sitting Attorney General. Senator [[Robert Byrd]] called Meese "the crown jewel of Reagan's sleaze factor" and demanded his resignation.[^3] ### Footnotes diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/C. Madison Brewer.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/C. Madison Brewer.md index 241bdc43..5042d902 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/C. Madison Brewer.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/C. Madison Brewer.md @@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ Bason also found that Brewer had originated a plan to convert INSLAW's Chapter 1 ### House Judiciary Committee Findings -The House Judiciary Committee's September 1992 report cited Brewer as a central figure in the DOJ's misappropriation of PROMIS. The committee found that high-level DOJ officials had "deliberately ignored INSLAW's proprietary rights" and misappropriated the software, and that Brewer's documented adversarial conduct was a key mechanism through which this occurred. The report raised the question of whether Brewer's actions were independent or directed from above - specifically, whether [[Lowell Jensen]] had knowingly allowed Brewer's campaign to proceed as part of a broader conspiracy with [[Earl Brian]].[^3] +The [[House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]]'s September 1992 report cited Brewer as a central figure in the DOJ's misappropriation of PROMIS. The committee found that high-level DOJ officials had "deliberately ignored INSLAW's proprietary rights" and misappropriated the software, and that Brewer's documented adversarial conduct was a key mechanism through which this occurred. The report raised the question of whether Brewer's actions were independent or directed from above - specifically, whether [[Lowell Jensen]] had knowingly allowed Brewer's campaign to proceed as part of a broader conspiracy with [[Earl Brian]].[^3] ### Bua Report Findings diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Danilo Blandon.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Danilo Blandon.md index 00dc75dd..d404158e 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Danilo Blandon.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Danilo Blandon.md @@ -216,7 +216,7 @@ The Justice Department went to considerable lengths to protect Blandón's status At Ross's 1996 trial in San Diego, Blandón testified for the prosecution wearing tinted aviator glasses and a dark suit, escorted by U.S. marshals. Prosecutor LJ Oneale led Blandón through testimony in which he admitted Meneses had recruited him to sell cocaine for the Contras but progressively shifted the date he claimed to have stopped. O'Neale had initially said the split occurred in 1986, then revised it to 1984 before trial, and by the end of his testimony Blandón was insisting he quit in 1982, before he had met Ross. Government documents showed Blandón was still selling cocaine for the Contras through 1986.[^15] -When defense attorney [[Alan Fenster]] cross-examined Blandón about his Contra fundraising, Blandón began to say: "When we raise money for the Contra revolution, we received orders from the," then paused, looked at O'Neale, and said "from another people." Because of the court order prohibiting CIA testimony, Fenster was unable to pursue the admission. Blandón also confessed under cross-examination that he did not know whether the Contras had received $19 million in CIA aid, contradicting his claim that he quit because the organization had sufficient funds. After the trial, Blandón admitted to the Senate Intelligence Committee and the CIA Inspector General that his Contra contributions continued through 1985.[^15] +When defense attorney [[Alan Fenster]] cross-examined Blandón about his Contra fundraising, Blandón began to say: "When we raise money for the Contra revolution, we received orders from the," then paused, looked at O'Neale, and said "from another people." Because of the court order prohibiting CIA testimony, Fenster was unable to pursue the admission. Blandón also confessed under cross-examination that he did not know whether the Contras had received $19 million in CIA aid, contradicting his claim that he quit because the organization had sufficient funds. After the trial, Blandón admitted to the [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence|Senate Intelligence Committee]] and the CIA Inspector General that his Contra contributions continued through 1985.[^15] ### Footnotes diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Danny Casolaro.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Danny Casolaro.md index bedbe8a5..ceb032a3 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Danny Casolaro.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Danny Casolaro.md @@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ In 2024, Martinsburg police released records under a Freedom of Information Act ### Congressional and Official Findings -The House Judiciary Committee's September 1992 report noted that Casolaro had "encountered dangerous individuals associated with organized crime and the world of covert intelligence operations" and recommended further investigation into the circumstances of his death. The committee found no evidence that DOJ had sought to influence the local West Virginia investigation.[^2] +The [[House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]]'s September 1992 report noted that Casolaro had "encountered dangerous individuals associated with organized crime and the world of covert intelligence operations" and recommended further investigation into the circumstances of his death. The committee found no evidence that DOJ had sought to influence the local West Virginia investigation.[^2] The Bua Report, completed in March 1993, concluded that the physical evidence "strongly supported" the suicide finding, that DOJ had not influenced the local investigation, and that Casolaro had possessed "ample reason to commit suicide," being unemployed, financially dependent on family, facing a balloon mortgage, and unable to sell his book.[^4] diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Earl Brian.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Earl Brian.md index 2d12bd2d..ef8d11dd 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Earl Brian.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Earl Brian.md @@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ The scale of the alleged scheme: $6 million worth of software stolen from the Ha [[Michael Riconosciuto]] claimed in a March 1991 affidavit that Brian made a copy of the PROMIS software available to him at the [[Wackenhut Corporation|Wackenhut]]-[[Cabazon Indian Reservation|Cabazon]] joint venture in Indio, California, after acquiring it from Videnieks. Riconosciuto stated he subsequently modified PROMIS for global implementation in law enforcement and intelligence agencies, including specific adaptations for Canada's [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police]] (RCMP) and [[Canadian Security Intelligence Service]] (CSIS), and that it was his understanding Brian had sold the modified version to the Canadian government.[^3] -[[Ari Ben-Menashe]], in affidavits submitted to the House Judiciary Committee in 1991, alleged that Brian brought PROMIS versions to [[Israel]], and that Brian received several million dollars for selling enhanced PROMIS to Israeli intelligence and to the Singapore Armed Forces. Ben-Menashe also stated that Brian sold public-domain versions of PROMIS to [[Iraq]] and [[Jordan]].[^1] +[[Ari Ben-Menashe]], in affidavits submitted to the [[House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]] in 1991, alleged that Brian brought PROMIS versions to [[Israel]], and that Brian received several million dollars for selling enhanced PROMIS to Israeli intelligence and to the Singapore Armed Forces. Ben-Menashe also stated that Brian sold public-domain versions of PROMIS to [[Iraq]] and [[Jordan]].[^1] The House Judiciary Committee's September 1992 report (House Report 102-857) described Brian's alleged role as "intriguing...but without the requisite degree of causation," raising concerns while stopping short of the direct evidentiary finding it reached regarding DOJ's treatment of INSLAW. The committee found that Brian and Meese's long association, Meese's wife's stock purchase, and Brian's position to profit from INSLAW's destruction constituted circumstantial grounds for concern.[^1] diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Edward P. Boland.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Edward P. Boland.md index ecc7c88a..2188bdd1 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Edward P. Boland.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Edward P. Boland.md @@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ born: 1911-10-01 died: 2001-11-04 location: "Springfield, Massachusetts" --- -Edward P. Boland was the Massachusetts Democratic congressman who sponsored the [[Boland Amendment|Boland Amendments]], the series of congressional provisions that prohibited the use of taxpayer funds for covert military operations against [[Nicaragua]]. The amendments, passed between 1982 and 1984, were named after Boland as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.[^1] +Edward P. Boland was the Massachusetts Democratic congressman who sponsored the [[Boland Amendment|Boland Amendments]], the series of congressional provisions that prohibited the use of taxpayer funds for covert military operations against [[Nicaragua]]. The amendments, passed between 1982 and 1984, were named after Boland as chairman of the [[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence|House Intelligence Committee]].[^1] ### The Boland Amendments diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Jack Brooks.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Jack Brooks.md index 6c13fe3f..aae099ed 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Jack Brooks.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Jack Brooks.md @@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ Jack Bascom Brooks was born December 18, 1922, in Crowley, Louisiana. His family ### Congressional Career -Brooks served 42 years in the House of Representatives, one of the longest tenures in Texas congressional history. He chaired the House Committee on Government Operations from 1975 to 1988, during which he authored the Brooks Act governing federal government procurement of information technology -- earning an informal designation as "father of federal IT procurement." He chaired the House Judiciary Committee from 1989 until his defeat in 1994.[^1] +Brooks served 42 years in the House of Representatives, one of the longest tenures in Texas congressional history. He chaired the House Committee on Government Operations from 1975 to 1988, during which he authored the Brooks Act governing federal government procurement of information technology -- earning an informal designation as "father of federal IT procurement." He chaired the [[House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]] from 1989 until his defeat in 1994.[^1] Brooks was present aboard Air Force One on November 22, 1963, when Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as President following the assassination of [[John F. Kennedy]]. He is visible in the Cecil Stoughton photograph of the ceremony, standing to the upper right of Jacqueline Kennedy.[^1] diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Jonathan Buma.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Jonathan Buma.md index 2f790382..1c3feb3c 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Jonathan Buma.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Jonathan Buma.md @@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ The Hunter Biden tip ran alongside Buma's work on the Giuliani investigation int ### The Thiel Confidential Human Source Relationship (Summer 2021) -[[Business Insider]] reported in October 2023 that Peter Thiel began providing information to the FBI as a confidential human source (CHS) in summer 2021, with Buma as his handling agent. Buma told *The Guardian* that he had briefed Thiel on "what a targeting looks like," and that Thiel was "receptive to collaboration and threat briefings," confirming the targeting pattern and providing "helpful information to help us identify the nodes through which these outreaches have occurred." The CHS relationship ran while Thiel simultaneously chaired [[Palantir Technologies]] (a major CIA and FBI contractor), cofounded the [[Dialog]] convening network, funded the [[JD Vance]] and [[Blake Masters]] Senate campaigns, and maintained the documented [[Jeffrey Epstein]] relationship that ran through 2019. The congressional record references Thiel's CHS role in a House Judiciary Committee document submitted January 22, 2026.[^2][^5] +[[Business Insider]] reported in October 2023 that Peter Thiel began providing information to the FBI as a confidential human source (CHS) in summer 2021, with Buma as his handling agent. Buma told *The Guardian* that he had briefed Thiel on "what a targeting looks like," and that Thiel was "receptive to collaboration and threat briefings," confirming the targeting pattern and providing "helpful information to help us identify the nodes through which these outreaches have occurred." The CHS relationship ran while Thiel simultaneously chaired [[Palantir Technologies]] (a major CIA and FBI contractor), cofounded the [[Dialog]] convening network, funded the [[JD Vance]] and [[Blake Masters]] Senate campaigns, and maintained the documented [[Jeffrey Epstein]] relationship that ran through 2019. The congressional record references Thiel's CHS role in a [[House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]] document submitted January 22, 2026.[^2][^5] The FBI's [[Confidential Human Source Policy Guide]] governs the handling of sources. The CHS status entails a reporting obligation on the source's part and a protection obligation on the Bureau's part. The contents of Thiel's reporting to Buma are not public beyond Buma's own description of the briefings.[^2] diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Manucher Ghorbanifar.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Manucher Ghorbanifar.md index 0bffdaeb..5bdaafe0 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Manucher Ghorbanifar.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Manucher Ghorbanifar.md @@ -30,13 +30,13 @@ The Tower Commission Report (1987) characterized Ghorbanifar as a commercially m ### PROMIS Software Connection -A letter dated May 16, 1985, signed by [[William Bradford Reynolds]] and addressed to U.S. Attorney [[William F. Weld]], named Ghorbanifar alongside [[Adnan Khashoggi]] and [[Richard Armitage]] as brokers for a transaction distributing [[PROMIS]] software equipped with a surveillance back door to a Saudi sheikh for "resale and general distribution as gifts in his region." [[William Bradford Reynolds]] independently confirmed remembering Ghorbanifar, Khashoggi, and Armitage working together on PROMIS when shown the letter in 2005.[^3] +A letter dated May 16, 1985, signed by [[William Bradford Reynolds]] and addressed to U.S. Attorney [[William F. Weld]], named Ghorbanifar alongside [[Adnan Khashoggi]] and [[Richard Armitage]] as brokers for a transaction distributing [[PROMIS]] software equipped with a surveillance back door to a Saudi sheikh for "resale and general distribution as gifts in his region." William Bradford Reynolds independently confirmed remembering Ghorbanifar, Khashoggi, and Armitage working together on PROMIS when shown the letter in 2005.[^3] The letter was signed in May 1985, just months before Ghorbanifar was introduced to the Reagan NSC as the Iran-Contra arms intermediary -- a timing that suggests overlap between the PROMIS distribution network and the network that produced Iran-Contra. ### Post-Iran-Contra Activity -In the early 2000s, Ghorbanifar resurfaced as a source for claims about alleged Iraqi connections to al-Qaeda and about Iranian internal politics. The Office of the Vice President under [[Dick Cheney]] reportedly showed interest in his claims. The CIA, citing his established record as a fabricator, consistently objected to any operational engagement with him. Two meetings between Ghorbanifar and Pentagon officials in Rome and Paris in 2001 and 2003 were later investigated by the Senate Intelligence Committee as potentially unauthorized intelligence activities bypassing normal CIA channels.[^2] +In the early 2000s, Ghorbanifar resurfaced as a source for claims about alleged Iraqi connections to al-Qaeda and about Iranian internal politics. The Office of the Vice President under [[Dick Cheney]] reportedly showed interest in his claims. The CIA, citing his established record as a fabricator, consistently objected to any operational engagement with him. Two meetings between Ghorbanifar and Pentagon officials in Rome and Paris in 2001 and 2003 were later investigated by the [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence|Senate Intelligence Committee]] as potentially unauthorized intelligence activities bypassing normal CIA channels.[^2] ### Footnotes diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Oskar Dunn-Koczorowski.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Oskar Dunn-Koczorowski.md index 090e34bf..73eca16d 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Oskar Dunn-Koczorowski.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Oskar Dunn-Koczorowski.md @@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ updated: 2026-05-22 summary: "Oskar Dunn-Koczorowski was an 18-year-old from West London who was a Sonnenkrieg Division member sentenced in June 2019 to an 18-month Detention and Training Order at the Old Bailey for two counts of encouraging terrorism via Gab posts supporting Anders Breivik and calling for ethnic cleansing." --- -Oskar Dunn-Koczorowski, 18, of West London, was a member of [[Sonnenkrieg Division]] (SKD), the British neo-Nazi accelerationist organisation proscribed in 2019. He was sentenced at the [[Old Bailey]] on 18 June 2019 by Judge [[Rebecca Poulet QC]] to an 18-month Detention and Training Order after pleading guilty to two counts of encouraging terrorism under section 1 of the [[Terrorism Act 2006]].[^1] +Oskar Dunn-Koczorowski, 18, of West London, was a member of [[Sonnenkrieg Division]] (SKD), the British neo-Nazi accelerationist organisation proscribed in February 2020. He was sentenced at the [[Old Bailey]] on 18 June 2019 by Judge [[Rebecca Poulet QC]] to an 18-month Detention and Training Order after pleading guilty to two counts of encouraging terrorism under section 1 of the [[Terrorism Act 2006]].[^1] ### Offences @@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ Judge Rebecca Poulet QC described the content produced by both Dunn-Koczorowski ### Sonnenkrieg Division and O9A -Sonnenkrieg Division was founded by [[Andrew Dymock]] following his departure from the [[System Resistance Network]] and incorporated [[Order of Nine Angles]] (O9A) philosophy heavily into its ideology, distinguishing it from its National Action-successor predecessor. Dunn-Koczorowski and Szewczuk were the first SKD members to face prosecution; their sentences preceded SKD's formal proscription, which followed later in 2019. +Sonnenkrieg Division was founded by [[Andrew Dymock]] following his departure from the [[System Resistance Network]] and incorporated [[Order of Nine Angles]] (O9A) philosophy heavily into its ideology, distinguishing it from its National Action-successor predecessor. Dunn-Koczorowski and Szewczuk were the first SKD members to face prosecution; their sentences preceded SKD's formal proscription, which followed in February 2020. ### Footnotes diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Andrew McLellan.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Andrew McLellan.md index a34e47f5..a309b152 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Andrew McLellan.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Andrew McLellan.md @@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ McLellan publicly defended the Castelo Branco government's practice of interveni ### Senate Foreign Relations Committee Testimony -The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations held a hearing on the American Institute for Free Labor Development on August 1, 1969, during the 91st Congress, 1st Session (Senate Hearing CHRG-91shrg33948). The hearing examined AIFLD's allegedly ineffective programs to promote trade unionism in Latin America and scrutinized the relationship between AFL-CIO support for US [[Vietnam War]] policy and the USAID financing of AIFLD's operations. The hearing's primary witness was AFL-CIO president [[George Meany]]. The hearing took place against a backdrop of growing public criticism of AIFLD's role in the 1964 Brazilian coup and its broader function as a CIA-adjacent instrument in hemispheric labor politics.[^10] +The [[Senate Foreign Relations Committee|Senate Committee on Foreign Relations]] held a hearing on the American Institute for Free Labor Development on August 1, 1969, during the 91st Congress, 1st Session (Senate Hearing CHRG-91shrg33948). The hearing examined AIFLD's allegedly ineffective programs to promote trade unionism in Latin America and scrutinized the relationship between AFL-CIO support for US [[Vietnam War]] policy and the USAID financing of AIFLD's operations. The hearing's primary witness was AFL-CIO president [[George Meany]]. The hearing took place against a backdrop of growing public criticism of AIFLD's role in the 1964 Brazilian coup and its broader function as a CIA-adjacent instrument in hemispheric labor politics.[^10] ### 1969 Rockefeller Mission diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Bill Hamilton.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Bill Hamilton.md index d051bae1..c5313517 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Bill Hamilton.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Bill Hamilton.md @@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ Hamilton also described to investigators his belief that the main purpose of the ### Congressional Testimony and Final Legal Proceedings -Hamilton and INSLAW participated in all major investigations of the affair, including the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations inquiry (1989), the House Judiciary Committee investigation led by Representative Jack Brooks (1989-1992), and the Special Counsel investigation conducted by [[Nicholas J. Bua]] (1991-1993). In 1995, the U.S. Senate referred INSLAW's remaining claims to the Court of Federal Claims; the court ruled in 1997-1998 that all versions of PROMIS were in the public domain and that the government had always been free to use the software. INSLAW received no compensation.[^2] +Hamilton and INSLAW participated in all major investigations of the affair, including the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations inquiry (1989), the [[House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]] investigation led by Representative Jack Brooks (1989-1992), and the Special Counsel investigation conducted by [[Nicholas J. Bua]] (1991-1993). In 1995, the U.S. Senate referred INSLAW's remaining claims to the Court of Federal Claims; the court ruled in 1997-1998 that all versions of PROMIS were in the public domain and that the government had always been free to use the software. INSLAW received no compensation.[^2] Hamilton continued to assert that PROMIS was fraudulently stolen and distributed internationally. He maintained a public website documenting INSLAW's claims long after the formal legal proceedings concluded. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Christopher Mellon.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Christopher Mellon.md index 02ba3b75..1c9ed003 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Christopher Mellon.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Christopher Mellon.md @@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ location: "Topeka, Kansas" ### Government Career -Christopher Mellon served for nearly two decades in the federal government, holding high-level positions in both the executive and legislative branches. He was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence during the [[Bill Clinton|Clinton]] and [[George W. Bush]] administrations, a role that gave him oversight of the entire Department of Defense intelligence apparatus and its most sensitive [[Special Access Programs]] (SAPs). Prior to this, he served for over a decade on the staff of the Senate Intelligence Committee, eventually becoming the Minority Staff Director for Senator [[William S. Cohen]]. His deep understanding of the inner workings of the intelligence community and the legislative process would later prove invaluable to the UAP disclosure effort.[^1] +Christopher Mellon served for nearly two decades in the federal government, holding high-level positions in both the executive and legislative branches. He was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence during the [[Bill Clinton|Clinton]] and [[George W. Bush]] administrations, a role that gave him oversight of the entire Department of Defense intelligence apparatus and its most sensitive [[Special Access Programs]] (SAPs). Prior to this, he served for over a decade on the staff of the [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence|Senate Intelligence Committee]], eventually becoming the Minority Staff Director for Senator [[William S. Cohen]]. His deep understanding of the inner workings of the intelligence community and the legislative process would later prove invaluable to the UAP disclosure effort.[^1] ### Involvement with AATIP and Luis Elizondo @@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ Mellon was profoundly disturbed by these revelations, viewing the government's f ### The Legislative Strategy for Disclosure -Following Elizondo's resignation, Mellon became the primary architect of a multi-pronged strategy to force the UAP issue into the open. Recognizing that direct confrontation with the Pentagon was futile, he devised a plan to leverage Congress and the media. He personally facilitated the transfer of three declassified UAP videos - later known as "FLIR" ([[Tic Tac]]), "[[GIMBAL]]," and "[[GoFast]]" - to the New York Times, which resulted in a landmark front-page story in December 2017 that officially broke the news of AATIP's existence.[^1] +Following Elizondo's resignation, Mellon became the primary architect of a multi-pronged strategy to force the UAP issue into the open. Recognizing that direct confrontation with the Pentagon was futile, he devised a plan to leverage Congress and the media. He personally facilitated the transfer of three declassified UAP videos - later known as "FLIR" (Tic Tac), "[[GIMBAL]]," and "[[GoFast]]" - to the New York Times, which resulted in a landmark front-page story in December 2017 that officially broke the news of AATIP's existence.[^1] Mellon then focused on a legislative approach, using his deep knowledge of Capitol Hill to engage with key staffers on the Senate Intelligence and Armed Services Committees. He and Elizondo worked to educate lawmakers and arrange for them to be briefed directly by credible military eyewitnesses like Commander [[Dave Fravor]] and Lieutenant [[Alex Dietrich]]. Mellon's key strategic insight was to draft specific legislative language that would compel the [[Director of National Intelligence]] to produce an unclassified report on UAP. This language, which he championed through op-eds and private meetings, was eventually included in the committee report accompanying the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, signed into law in December 2020. This led to the landmark June 2021 "Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena."[^1] diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Edwin Meese.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Edwin Meese.md index f0de49d3..565ee4ae 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Edwin Meese.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Edwin Meese.md @@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ Edwin Meese III served as Counselor to President [[Ronald Reagan]] from 1981 to ### Role in the PROMIS Software Scandal -The House Judiciary Committee's September 1992 investigation (House Report 102-857) placed Meese at the center of its conspiracy theory. The committee found that Meese and Lowell Jensen had "consciously ignored INSLAW's proprietary rights" and that Attorney Generals Meese and [[Richard Thornburgh]] had "blocked or restricted congressional inquiries into the matter, ignored the findings of two courts and refused to ask for the appointment of an independent counsel."[^1] +The [[House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]]'s September 1992 investigation (House Report 102-857) placed Meese at the center of its conspiracy theory. The committee found that Meese and Lowell Jensen had "consciously ignored INSLAW's proprietary rights" and that Attorney Generals Meese and [[Richard Thornburgh]] had "blocked or restricted congressional inquiries into the matter, ignored the findings of two courts and refused to ask for the appointment of an independent counsel."[^1] Meese's connection to Earl Brian was the committee's primary circumstantial evidence of motive. Both men had served together in Reagan's Sacramento cabinet; in 1985, Meese's wife purchased stock in a Brian-controlled company.[^1] INSLAW alleged that Meese had arranged for the DOJ to steal PROMIS and funnel its distribution rights to Brian as a reward for Brian's alleged role in the [[October Surprise]] negotiations - a theory that, if true, would make the PROMIS theft a product of a political debt going back to 1980.[^2] diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Fred Hitz.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Fred Hitz.md index c3b35714..bd255925 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Fred Hitz.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Fred Hitz.md @@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ Fred P. Hitz was the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] Inspector General who condu ### Congressional Testimony -Appearing before the House Intelligence Committee in March 1998, Hitz delivered some of the most damaging admissions in the agency's history. "Let me be frank about what we are finding," Hitz testified. "There are instances where CIA did not, in an expeditious or consistent fashion, cut off relationships with individuals supporting the Contra program who were alleged to have engaged in drug trafficking activity." When Congressman Norman Dicks asked whether any of these allegations involved trafficking in the [[United States]], Hitz answered: "Yes."[^1] +Appearing before the [[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence|House Intelligence Committee]] in March 1998, Hitz delivered some of the most damaging admissions in the agency's history. "Let me be frank about what we are finding," Hitz testified. "There are instances where CIA did not, in an expeditious or consistent fashion, cut off relationships with individuals supporting the Contra program who were alleged to have engaged in drug trafficking activity." When Congressman Norman Dicks asked whether any of these allegations involved trafficking in the [[United States]], Hitz answered: "Yes."[^1] ### The Secret 1982 Agreement diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Lee Hamilton.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Lee Hamilton.md index 0b76835e..9a4c0e23 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Lee Hamilton.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Lee Hamilton.md @@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ born: 1931-04-20 died: 2026-02-03 location: "Daytona Beach, Florida" --- -Lee Herbert Hamilton was born April 20, 1931, in Daytona Beach, Florida. He served as a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Indiana's 9th congressional district from 1965 to 1999, a tenure of 34 years. During that period he served on the House Intelligence Committee, including as chairman, and was a central figure in congressional oversight of intelligence affairs. After leaving Congress he became President and CEO of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and Director of the Center on Congress at Indiana University.[^1] +Lee Herbert Hamilton was born April 20, 1931, in Daytona Beach, Florida. He served as a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Indiana's 9th congressional district from 1965 to 1999, a tenure of 34 years. During that period he served on the [[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence|House Intelligence Committee]], including as chairman, and was a central figure in congressional oversight of intelligence affairs. After leaving Congress he became President and CEO of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and Director of the Center on Congress at Indiana University.[^1] ### House October Surprise Task Force diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Lowell Jensen.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Lowell Jensen.md index 857e2617..bf2bb2d1 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Lowell Jensen.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Lowell Jensen.md @@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ The Meese recusal added further significance to Jensen's role: Meese reportedly ### House Judiciary Committee Findings -The House Judiciary Committee's September 1992 report (House Report 102-857), produced after a three-year investigation chaired by Representative [[Jack Brooks]], named Jensen as among those who "consciously ignored INSLAW's proprietary rights." The committee found it "incredible that the Department, having made this determination [that INSLAW's claim was legitimate], would continue to pursue its litigation."[^3] The report noted that INSLAW alleged Jensen had been induced by Brian's political influence - routed through Meese - to engineer disputes with INSLAW and drive the company into bankruptcy, with Brian positioned to acquire the company and its software assets through his vehicle [[Hadron]].[^3] +The [[House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]]'s September 1992 report (House Report 102-857), produced after a three-year investigation chaired by Representative [[Jack Brooks]], named Jensen as among those who "consciously ignored INSLAW's proprietary rights." The committee found it "incredible that the Department, having made this determination [that INSLAW's claim was legitimate], would continue to pursue its litigation."[^3] The report noted that INSLAW alleged Jensen had been induced by Brian's political influence - routed through Meese - to engineer disputes with INSLAW and drive the company into bankruptcy, with Brian positioned to acquire the company and its software assets through his vehicle [[Hadron]].[^3] ### Bua Report Findings diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Raymond Lavas.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Raymond Lavas.md index 458b5025..2ba7b972 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Raymond Lavas.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Raymond Lavas.md @@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ summary: "Lavas also turned some of Michael Riconosciuto's disks over to the Jac --- [[Raymond Lavas]] was a former associate of [[Ted Gunderson]] and, according to [[Michael Riconosciuto]], a former protégé of [[Robert Maheu]]. He is noted for expressing his professional opinion about the death of [[Alan Michael May]] in a letter. In this letter, Lavas suggested that certain chemical assassination methods could have been employed, which would cause toxins to evaporate from the body, making the death appear natural. He emphasized that unless a body is immediately refrigerated, such toxins quickly evaporate, leaving minimal traces that would be difficult for a forensic expert to detect without prior suspicion.[^1] -Lavas also turned some of [[Michael Riconosciuto]]'s disks over to the Jack Brooks investigative committee (House Judiciary Committee on [[INSLAW]]). Riconosciuto claimed there was no data on these disks, as they contained a sub-set of VAX VMS routines modified to activate a one-time pad encryption scheme, requiring specific hardware and instructions to unravel.[^1] +Lavas also turned some of Michael Riconosciuto's disks over to the Jack Brooks investigative committee ([[House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]] on [[INSLAW]]). Riconosciuto claimed there was no data on these disks, as they contained a sub-set of VAX VMS routines modified to activate a one-time pad encryption scheme, requiring specific hardware and instructions to unravel.[^1] --- ### Footnotes diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Robert Hanssen.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Robert Hanssen.md index a17fe4d4..c67d3e8a 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Robert Hanssen.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Robert Hanssen.md @@ -43,11 +43,11 @@ In 1999, Hanssen resumed contact with the [[SVR]] (successor to the KGB), provid The formal charging documents against Hanssen - the criminal complaint affidavit, the indictment, and the plea agreement - do not mention [[PROMIS]] or [[INSLAW]]. The 2003 [[Department of Justice]] Inspector General special report (OIG Special Report 03-08, August 2003), a 674-page review of the FBI's performance in detecting and investigating Hanssen's activities, similarly makes no connection between Hanssen and PROMIS.[^3] -However, reporting in the Washington Times and other outlets in 2001, citing unnamed government sources, alleged that the FBI's [[Automated Case Support]] (ACS) system - the internal case management and intelligence tracking database that Hanssen exploited throughout his espionage to monitor the Bureau's search for a mole - was itself a derivative of [[INSLAW]]'s PROMIS software. Under this theory, Hanssen's unauthorized access to and repeated exploitation of the ACS system constituted, in effect, the delivery of a PROMIS-derived intelligence management tool to Soviet and Russian handlers.[^4] +However, reporting in the Washington Times and other outlets in 2001, citing unnamed government sources, alleged that the FBI's [[Automated Case Support]] (ACS) system - the internal case management and intelligence tracking database that Hanssen exploited throughout his espionage to monitor the Bureau's search for a mole - was itself a derivative of INSLAW's PROMIS software. Under this theory, Hanssen's unauthorized access to and repeated exploitation of the ACS system constituted, in effect, the delivery of a PROMIS-derived intelligence management tool to Soviet and Russian handlers.[^4] The allegation gained additional circulation in October 2001 when post-September 11 reporting emerged that PROMIS-derived software provided to the Soviet Union via Hanssen had reportedly made its way to [[Osama bin Laden]] and [[al-Qaeda]], enabling the network to monitor U.S. counterterrorism database activity and move funds between banks undetected. These claims were not confirmed by any official investigation.[^4] -The 1992 House Judiciary Committee report on the INSLAW affair established the broader context in which this allegation arose, finding that the [[Department of Justice]] had "taken, converted and stolen" INSLAW's Enhanced PROMIS and that the software was distributed without authorization across federal agencies and to foreign governments.[^4] The DOJ's own Special Counsel, [[Nicholas J. Bua]], found "no credible basis" for the INSLAW theft claims in his 1994 report, placing the two official investigations in direct conflict.[^5] +The 1992 [[House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]] report on the INSLAW affair established the broader context in which this allegation arose, finding that the Department of Justice had "taken, converted and stolen" INSLAW's Enhanced PROMIS and that the software was distributed without authorization across federal agencies and to foreign governments.[^4] The DOJ's own Special Counsel, [[Nicholas J. Bua]], found "no credible basis" for the INSLAW theft claims in his 1994 report, placing the two official investigations in direct conflict.[^5] The charging documents confirm that Hanssen used the ACS system to conduct unauthorized database searches for his own name and related counterintelligence identifiers, monitoring the FBI's internal mole hunt in real time.[^2] diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Elliot Richardson.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Elliot Richardson.md index 305a2d2c..969785e9 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Elliot Richardson.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Elliot Richardson.md @@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ Under President [[Gerald R. Ford|Ford]], Richardson served as U.S. Ambassador to ### INSLAW Representation -Richardson was retained as outside counsel by [[INSLAW]] and [[Bill Hamilton|Bill]] and [[Nancy Hamilton]] following the September 1987 bankruptcy court ruling in which Judge [[George Francis Bason, Jr.|George Bason]] found that the [[Department of Justice]] had "taken, converted, stole" INSLAW's enhanced [[PROMIS]] software "by trickery, fraud, and deceit." By March 1989, Richardson was writing to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman [[Joe Biden]] requesting assurances that DOJ whistleblowers who cooperated with congressional investigators would face no reprisals; Biden responded through an aide, and Richardson challenged the dismissal. Richardson subsequently championed the House Judiciary Committee investigation led by Representative Jack Brooks, which ran from 1989 through September 1992 and produced House Report 102-857.[^2][^3] +Richardson was retained as outside counsel by [[INSLAW]] and [[Bill Hamilton|Bill]] and [[Nancy Hamilton]] following the September 1987 bankruptcy court ruling in which Judge [[George Francis Bason, Jr.|George Bason]] found that the [[Department of Justice]] had "taken, converted, stole" INSLAW's enhanced [[PROMIS]] software "by trickery, fraud, and deceit." By March 1989, Richardson was writing to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman [[Joe Biden]] requesting assurances that DOJ whistleblowers who cooperated with congressional investigators would face no reprisals; Biden responded through an aide, and Richardson challenged the dismissal. Richardson subsequently championed the [[House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]] investigation led by Representative Jack Brooks, which ran from 1989 through September 1992 and produced House Report 102-857.[^2][^3] In congressional testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, Richardson stated: diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Jackson Stephens.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Jackson Stephens.md index a3d61afc..75b0d9bc 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Jackson Stephens.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Jackson Stephens.md @@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ Stephens Inc. was the investment banker to [[Harken Energy]], of which [[George ### Systematics -[[Walter Smiley]] founded Systematics in 1968 with Stephens holding 80 percent. It ran the data processing of banks and was sold to [[ALLTEL|Alltel]] in 1990 for 528 million dollars.[^8] In 1995 a Forbes editor, [[James Norman]], wrote in an article his magazine declined to print that Systematics had been a conduit for the [[National Security Agency]]'s surveillance of bank transfers using [[PROMIS]] software and that [[Vince Foster]] had overseen the relationship for the Rose firm. Systematics and Alltel denied it. Representative [[Jim Leach]], chairman of the [[House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs|House Banking Committee]], asked the CIA. The agency's briefing paper stated: "We have found no record of any CIA contact or contracts with Systematics, Inc. of Arkansas." Its inspector general's staff and the inspector general of the [[NSA|National Security Agency]] briefed Leach in person on July 21, 1995. The search terms recorded in the memorandum were Systematics, [[Mena, Arkansas|Mena]], and [[Hadron]]. Director [[John Deutch]] ordered an inspector general's investigation on March 13, 1996, a report was completed that November, and Leach was still sending questions in 1998. Neither the House Judiciary Committee's 1992 report on the [[INSLAW]] affair nor INSLAW's own 1994 addendum on the distribution of PROMIS mentions Systematics, Stephens, or Arkansas.[^9][^10][^11] +[[Walter Smiley]] founded Systematics in 1968 with Stephens holding 80 percent. It ran the data processing of banks and was sold to [[ALLTEL|Alltel]] in 1990 for 528 million dollars.[^8] In 1995 a Forbes editor, [[James Norman]], wrote in an article his magazine declined to print that Systematics had been a conduit for the [[National Security Agency]]'s surveillance of bank transfers using [[PROMIS]] software and that [[Vince Foster]] had overseen the relationship for the Rose firm. Systematics and Alltel denied it. Representative [[Jim Leach]], chairman of the [[House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs|House Banking Committee]], asked the CIA. The agency's briefing paper stated: "We have found no record of any CIA contact or contracts with Systematics, Inc. of Arkansas." Its inspector general's staff and the inspector general of the [[NSA|National Security Agency]] briefed Leach in person on July 21, 1995. The search terms recorded in the memorandum were Systematics, [[Mena, Arkansas|Mena]], and [[Hadron]]. Director [[John Deutch]] ordered an inspector general's investigation on March 13, 1996, a report was completed that November, and Leach was still sending questions in 1998. Neither the [[House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]]'s 1992 report on the [[INSLAW]] affair nor INSLAW's own 1994 addendum on the distribution of PROMIS mentions Systematics, Stephens, or Arkansas.[^9][^10][^11] ### Arkansas diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Marco Rubio.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Marco Rubio.md index 606bb5ec..d5d958a2 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Marco Rubio.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Marco Rubio.md @@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ summary: "Senator Rubio was the chief sponsor of the bill that mandated the Dire born: 1971-05-28 location: "Miami, Florida" --- -[[Marco Rubio]] is a United States Senator from Florida who has played a crucial role in the recent legislative efforts to increase transparency and oversight of the [[Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena]] (UAP) issue. As the acting chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, he was a key figure in the passage of the historic UAP legislation in the 2021 and 2022 National Defense Authorization Acts (NDAAs).[^1] +[[Marco Rubio]] is a United States Senator from Florida who has played a crucial role in the recent legislative efforts to increase transparency and oversight of the [[Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena]] (UAP) issue. As the acting chairman of the [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence|Senate Intelligence Committee]], he was a key figure in the passage of the historic UAP legislation in the 2021 and 2022 National Defense Authorization Acts (NDAAs).[^1] ### Support for UAP Legislation diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Michael Szewczuk.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Michael Szewczuk.md index 092e717d..7f1b14f0 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Michael Szewczuk.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Michael Szewczuk.md @@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ Judge Rebecca Poulet QC, sentencing both Szewczuk and [[Oskar Dunn-Koczorowski]] ### Sonnenkrieg Division and O9A -Sonnenkrieg Division was founded by [[Andrew Dymock]] after his departure from the [[System Resistance Network]] (SRN), incorporating O9A philosophy heavily into SKD's ideological framework. Szewczuk's role was as a co-founder and Gab operator. The Home Secretary proscribed SKD under the Terrorism Act 2000 in 2019, after Szewczuk and Dunn-Koczorowski had been charged but before their sentencing. +Sonnenkrieg Division was founded by [[Andrew Dymock]] after his departure from the [[System Resistance Network]] (SRN), incorporating O9A philosophy heavily into SKD's ideological framework. Szewczuk's role was as a co-founder and Gab operator. The Home Secretary proscribed SKD under the Terrorism Act 2000 on February 28, 2020, after Szewczuk and Dunn-Koczorowski had been sentenced. ### Footnotes diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Oliver North.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Oliver North.md index aa0c61d0..dee73b3f 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Oliver North.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Oliver North.md @@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ North "hijacked" the State Department's Nicaraguan Humanitarian Assistance Offic North wrote to [[Felix Rodriguez]] in September 1985 asking him to use his influence with Salvadoran Air Force commander [[Juan Rafael Bustillo]] to secure hangar space at [[Ilopango Airbase|Ilopango Air Force Base]] for Contra supply flights. CIA records show Hangar No. 4 at Ilopango was used by the Agency for covert Contra operations until it was turned over to the National Security Council and North's "Enterprise" in 1985. The adjoining Hangar No. 5 remained CIA-run.[^6] -North's daily diaries contained several references to "Freddy Vaughn" - [[Federico Vaughn]], the alleged Sandinista aide shown by President [[Ronald Reagan]] loading drugs onto an aircraft - including a July 6, 1984, entry: "Freddy coming in late July." A 1988 House Judiciary Committee investigation produced evidence that the Seal sting was stage-managed by North and the CIA as a domestic disinformation operation. Four DEA officials testified they received pressure from North and the CIA to leak Vaughn's involvement with drugs to the press. On October 15, 1986, North noted in his diary: "46 boxes of transcripts of SF [[Frogman Case|Frogman]] case. Justice never provided."[^6] +North's daily diaries contained several references to "Freddy Vaughn" - [[Federico Vaughn]], the alleged Sandinista aide shown by President [[Ronald Reagan]] loading drugs onto an aircraft - including a July 6, 1984, entry: "Freddy coming in late July." A 1988 [[House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]] investigation produced evidence that the Seal sting was stage-managed by North and the CIA as a domestic disinformation operation. Four DEA officials testified they received pressure from North and the CIA to leak Vaughn's involvement with drugs to the press. On October 15, 1986, North noted in his diary: "46 boxes of transcripts of SF [[Frogman Case|Frogman]] case. Justice never provided."[^6] ### Dagoberto Nunez and H&M Corp diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Robert Booth Nichols.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Robert Booth Nichols.md index 5059c625..fdb94d09 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Robert Booth Nichols.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Robert Booth Nichols.md @@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ Robert Booth Nichols was born in the [[United States]] on March 3, 1943.[^5] He In September 1987 the FBI's [[Los Angeles]] division opened an investigation of Nichols, who, "acting through Meridian, was suspected of being involved in organized crime"; it was led by Special Agent [[Thomas Gates]], who learned that Nichols "had potential illegal contacts with individuals in both Japan and Australia" and pursued them through the FBI's legal attachés there. On June 16, 1989, Nichols's company, [[Meridian International Logistics]], sued Gates in California state court for eleven million dollars for libel, slander and interference with contracts, alleging that he had told the Australian Federal Police and others that Meridian was involved in organized crime and fraud; the former FBI agent [[Ted Gunderson]] filed a declaration that such foreign contacts "would never, under FBI policies, be initiated by an agent assigned to the Los Angeles field office." The government substituted itself for Gates, and on July 19, 1991, the Ninth Circuit reversed the dismissal of the suit.[^2] -According to [[Cheri Seymour]], the FBI investigated Meridian as "a source of funding for the purchasing of narcotics/controlled substances"; [[Eugene Giaquinto]], president of the home entertainment division of [[Music Corporation of America|MCA]], sat on its board, and FBI wiretaps on MCA recorded his calls with Nichols.[^1] Gates swore in a 72-page affidavit to a federal court on an FBI wiretap of figures in the entertainment industry suspected of organized-crime ties; the House Judiciary Committee, which heard from Gates that the threads of Casolaro's inquiry led to "a single individual, Robert Booth Nichols," took "no position on any of Gates' assertions or suppositions vis-a-vis Nichols, except to note again that they were duly sworn statements."[^3] +According to [[Cheri Seymour]], the FBI investigated Meridian as "a source of funding for the purchasing of narcotics/controlled substances"; [[Eugene Giaquinto]], president of the home entertainment division of [[Music Corporation of America|MCA]], sat on its board, and FBI wiretaps on MCA recorded his calls with Nichols.[^1] Gates swore in a 72-page affidavit to a federal court on an FBI wiretap of figures in the entertainment industry suspected of organized-crime ties; the [[House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]], which heard from Gates that the threads of Casolaro's inquiry led to "a single individual, Robert Booth Nichols," took "no position on any of Gates' assertions or suppositions vis-a-vis Nichols, except to note again that they were duly sworn statements."[^3] ### Allegations diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Rockefeller family.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Rockefeller family.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..e5d1b0aa --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Rockefeller family.md @@ -0,0 +1,59 @@ +--- +category: "Business & Finance" +aliases: + - "Rockefellers" + - "the Rockefellers" +tags: + - Person + - Family + - StandardOil + - Philanthropy + - LatinAmerica + - Banking +summary: "American family whose Standard Oil fortune endowed the Rockefeller Foundation and Chase, and whose sons Nelson and David ran wartime propaganda, covert-action coordination and hemispheric banking." +location: "New York, New York" +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[Standard Oil]]" + start: 1870 + role: "John D. Rockefeller and associates" + fn: 1 + - type: funded + with: "[[Rockefeller Foundation]]" + start: 1913 + fn: 2 + - type: founded + with: "[[Rockefeller Brothers Fund]]" + start: 1940 + role: "the five sons of John D. Rockefeller Jr." + fn: 3 + - type: owned + with: "[[Chase Manhattan Bank]]" + role: "family control of Chase National from the 1920s" + fn: 4 +created: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-22 +--- + +The Rockefeller family's fortune came from [[Standard Oil]]. In 1870 [[John D. Rockefeller]] and his associates formed the Standard Oil Company (Ohio), with the largest refining capacity of any firm in the world; in 1882 the Standard Oil Trust took in Standard Oil of New Jersey and Standard Oil of New York, with headquarters at 26 Broadway in New York; after a Supreme Court decision in 1911 it was broken up into 34 companies.[^1] The family's philanthropies followed: the [[General Education Board]], the [[Rockefeller Sanitary Commission]] and, chartered in 1913, the [[Rockefeller Foundation]], which by the 1920s owned stock in thirteen oil companies and nine pipelines. When [[Charles Evans Hughes]], a Standard Oil counsel and Foundation trustee, became secretary of state, the British Foreign Office complained that "Washington officials begin to think, talk, and write like Standard Oil officials."[^2] + +### The Five Brothers + +[[John D. Rockefeller Jr.]] and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller had five sons, John D. III, [[Nelson Rockefeller]], [[Laurance Rockefeller]], Winthrop and [[David Rockefeller]], who in 1940 set up the [[Rockefeller Brothers Fund]] to coordinate their giving.[^3][^5] The family had controlled the Chase National Bank since the 1920s; merged with the Bank of the Manhattan Company in 1955 as [[Chase Manhattan Bank]], it was run by David, president from 1961 and chairman from 1969 to 1981.[^4] + +Nelson, a director of Standard Oil of New Jersey's Venezuelan subsidiary, Creole Petroleum, in the 1930s, was named on August 16, 1940, to head the office that became the [[CIAA|Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs]], which subsidized 1,200 Latin American newspaper publishers dependent on its newsprint shipments.[^5][^6] After the war he set up two private development companies, the [[IBEC|International Basic Economy Corporation]] and the [[AIA|American International Association]].[^5] In 1955, as special assistant to President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]], he chaired the Planning Coordination Group, set up within the framework of [[National Security Council|NSC]] 5412, which governed covert operations; its members were the under secretary of state, the deputy secretary of defense and the director of central intelligence.[^7] The Brothers Fund's Special Studies Project of 1956 to 1961, which Nelson convened, had [[Henry A. Kissinger|Henry Kissinger]] as its director, and Nelson kept him on afterward as his foreign policy consultant; Laurance sat on Kissinger's panel.[^3][^8] As vice president, Nelson chaired the [[Rockefeller Commission 1975|commission]] that [[Gerald Ford]] set up on January 4, 1975, to investigate the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]'s domestic activities.[^9] + +The Foundation paid for the founding in 1943 of the [[Allan Memorial Institute]] in Montreal, where [[D. Ewen Cameron]] later conducted the depatterning experiments funded under [[Project MKUltra|MKULTRA]].[^10] David founded the Council of the Americas in 1963 and in 1973, with [[Zbigniew Brzezinski]], the [[Trilateral Commission]].[^5] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: ExxonMobil, "Our History," corporate history timeline, entries for 1870, 1882 and the 1911 dissolution. https://corporate.exxonmobil.com/company/who-we-are/our-history +[^2]: Colby, Gerard, and Charlotte Dennett. *Thy Will Be Done: The Conquest of the Amazon.* HarperCollins, 1995, chs. 2-3. +[^3]: Colby and Dennett, ch. 25, as cited on the Rockefeller Brothers Fund page. +[^4]: Colby and Dennett, ch. 13, as cited on the Chase Manhattan Bank page. +[^5]: Colby and Dennett, chs. 1, 5, 8, 13, as cited on the Nelson Rockefeller and David Rockefeller pages. +[^6]: Council of National Defense order establishing the Office for Coordination of Commercial and Cultural Relations Between the American Republics, August 16, 1940; Executive Order 8840, July 30, 1941. +[^7]: Hughes, Rowland, memorandum to the President, March 3, 1955, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1950-1955, The Intelligence Community,* doc. 210. +[^8]: Colby and Dennett, Introduction (2017) and ch. 23, as cited on the Henry A. Kissinger page. +[^9]: Executive Order 11828, January 4, 1975. +[^10]: Marks, John. *The Search for the Manchurian Candidate: The CIA and Mind Control.* Times Books, 1979, ch. 8. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/William Bradford Reynolds.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/William Bradford Reynolds.md index 66cf6ff9..f1f21873 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/William Bradford Reynolds.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/William Bradford Reynolds.md @@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ In 2005, attorney Donald Carr showed the letter to Reynolds. Reynolds authentica ### House Judiciary Committee and Bua Report -The House Judiciary Committee's September 1992 investigative report on the INSLAW affair - produced before INSLAW obtained the May 1985 letter - found "strong evidence" that the Department of Justice had "taken, converted and stolen" INSLAW's Enhanced PROMIS through "trickery, fraud and deceit" under the direction of high-level DOJ officials, and recommended appointment of a Special Counsel to investigate further.[^2] Special Counsel [[Nicholas J. Bua]], appointed in 1993, issued a March 1994 report finding "no credible basis" for the INSLAW theft claims, placing the executive and legislative branches in direct conflict on the underlying allegation.[^3] +The [[House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]]'s September 1992 investigative report on the INSLAW affair - produced before INSLAW obtained the May 1985 letter - found "strong evidence" that the Department of Justice had "taken, converted and stolen" INSLAW's Enhanced PROMIS through "trickery, fraud and deceit" under the direction of high-level DOJ officials, and recommended appointment of a Special Counsel to investigate further.[^2] Special Counsel [[Nicholas J. Bua]], appointed in 1993, issued a March 1994 report finding "no credible basis" for the INSLAW theft claims, placing the executive and legislative branches in direct conflict on the underlying allegation.[^3] Reynolds died September 14, 2019, without ever being subjected to formal questioning about the letter in a legal proceeding. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Federico Vaughn.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Federico Vaughn.md index 95201425..c380ea22 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Federico Vaughn.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Federico Vaughn.md @@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ The night before a crucial vote in Congress on Contra aid, Reagan displayed a gr ### Evidence of U.S. Government Ties -A 1988 House Judiciary Committee investigation produced evidence suggesting the entire Seal sting was stage-managed by [[Oliver North]] and the CIA as a domestic disinformation operation. Committee chairman William Hughes of [[New Jersey]] told reporters that "subcommittee staff recently called Vaughn's number in Managua, Nicaragua, and spoke to a 'domestic employee' who said the house belonged to a U.S. Embassy employee," and that the house had been "continuously rented" by the United States since 1981.[^1] +A 1988 [[House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]] investigation produced evidence suggesting the entire Seal sting was stage-managed by [[Oliver North]] and the CIA as a domestic disinformation operation. Committee chairman William Hughes of [[New Jersey]] told reporters that "subcommittee staff recently called Vaughn's number in Managua, Nicaragua, and spoke to a 'domestic employee' who said the house belonged to a U.S. Embassy employee," and that the house had been "continuously rented" by the United States since 1981.[^1] Declassified CIA cables supported the idea that Vaughn was a U.S. double agent. In March 1985 the CIA reported that Vaughn "was said to be an associate of Nicaraguan narcotics trafficker Norwing [sic] Meneses Cantarero." [[Norwin Meneses]] at that time was working with the DEA in [[Costa Rica]], assisting the [[Contras]]. Oliver North's daily diaries contained several references to "Freddy Vaughn," including a July 6, 1984, entry: "Freddy coming in late July."[^1] diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Harry Vaughan.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Harry Vaughan.md index 3b4a927b..53162474 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Harry Vaughan.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Harry Vaughan.md @@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ Twelve counts of possessing documents useful to a terrorist under section 58 of Two counts of possessing indecent images of children under the [[Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008]]. -Vaughan had designed and uploaded his own propaganda images to a neo-Nazi website promoting the then-proscribed [[Sonnenkrieg Division]] (SKD). The documents on his devices included SKD propaganda of his own creation, bomb-making manuals, and a guide to killing. O9A connections run through SKD's ideological framework, which incorporated [[Order of Nine Angles]] (O9A) philosophy; the prosecution did not cite direct O9A membership. +Vaughan had designed and uploaded his own propaganda images to a neo-Nazi website promoting the [[Sonnenkrieg Division]] (SKD), which was proscribed in February 2020. The documents on his devices included SKD propaganda of his own creation, bomb-making manuals, and a guide to killing. O9A connections run through SKD's ideological framework, which incorporated [[Order of Nine Angles]] (O9A) philosophy; the prosecution did not cite direct O9A membership. ### Sentencing and Controversy diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Hassan Yassin.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Hassan Yassin.md index 008d112c..9e372950 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Hassan Yassin.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Hassan Yassin.md @@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ updated: 2026-09-22 Hassan Yassin (Mecca, to May 17, 2026) was the son of Sheikh Youssef Yassin, political adviser to King Abdulaziz, the founder of [[Saudi Arabia]], and grew up, in the words of his obituary, "immersed in the details and inner workings of Saudi politics from an early age." Educated in Mecca and Taif and at Victoria College in Alexandria, he studied in the United States in the 1950s and worked under the oil ministers Abdullah Tariki and [[Ahmed Zaki Yamani]] from 1959 to 1967. From 1972 to 1981 he headed the Saudi Information Office in [[Washington, D.C.]], the kingdom's public diplomacy post in the capital during the oil embargo, the Yamani years and the first arms sales fights in Congress; he then served with the Arab League's observer delegation at the United Nations from 1981 to 1983, later advised a Saudi ambassador in Washington, and wrote a column for Arab News. Saudi officials mourning him called him "a national memory and a cultural treasure trove that accompanied our kings."[^1] -He was a cousin of the arms dealer [[Adnan Khashoggi]] and was described, in the account of the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]] affair by Beaty and Gwynne, as a close business associate of [[Kamal Adham]], the head of Saudi intelligence and the bank's front man. No documented transaction connects him to [[Earl Brian]]'s [[Hadron]] or [[United Press International]] ventures; he does not appear in the House Judiciary Committee's report, the Bua report or [[Ari Ben-Menashe]]'s book.[^2] +He was a cousin of the arms dealer [[Adnan Khashoggi]] and was described, in the account of the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]] affair by Beaty and Gwynne, as a close business associate of [[Kamal Adham]], the head of Saudi intelligence and the bank's front man. No documented transaction connects him to [[Earl Brian]]'s [[Hadron]] or [[United Press International]] ventures; he does not appear in the [[House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]]'s report, the Bua report or [[Ari Ben-Menashe]]'s book.[^2] ### Footnotes diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Peter Thiel.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Peter Thiel.md index 15b8c067..fa3652ee 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Peter Thiel.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Peter Thiel.md @@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ The thesis is set out in the 2014 book *Zero to One*, coauthored by Thiel and Ma In 2006 Thiel cofounded the invitation-only secret society Dialog with Hoffman, which convenes U.S. officials, foreign government figures, and Silicon Valley executives at off-the-record annual retreats. The organization operated without a public website and with a deliberately concealed membership until June 2026, when the hacktivist crimew published a membership directory embedded in the Dialog website's source code and a source separately provided *WIRED* with the 222-name registration list for the 2026 retreat. The 2026 registrants included Musk, Harris, Representative Himes, Senator Booker, Senator Cruz, Governor Polis, Levin of Stanford University, and the NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe General Grynkewich.[^1] -Dialog's function in the Thiel network is convening: it places the commercial principals (the PayPal Mafia core), the ideological principals (the neoreactionary and adjacent intellectuals), and the government principals (sitting senators, the House Intelligence Committee ranking member, an active four-star NATO commander) in a single off-the-record room. The registration fee of more than 16,000 dollars, the no-press rule, and the matchmaking app together constitute the design of a private institution optimized for sustained, repeated, unrecorded contact across the three networks. A 2013 Dialog retreat invitation surfaced in the Department of Justice Epstein document release, forwarded to Epstein in November 2012, which establishes that Dialog's circulation list overlapped with the Epstein contact network in Thiel's orbit.[^1][^4] +Dialog's function in the Thiel network is convening: it places the commercial principals (the PayPal Mafia core), the ideological principals (the neoreactionary and adjacent intellectuals), and the government principals (sitting senators, the [[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence|House Intelligence Committee]] ranking member, an active four-star NATO commander) in a single off-the-record room. The registration fee of more than 16,000 dollars, the no-press rule, and the matchmaking app together constitute the design of a private institution optimized for sustained, repeated, unrecorded contact across the three networks. A 2013 Dialog retreat invitation surfaced in the Department of Justice Epstein document release, forwarded to Epstein in November 2012, which establishes that Dialog's circulation list overlapped with the Epstein contact network in Thiel's orbit.[^1][^4] ### René Girard and Mimetic Theory diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Richard Thornburgh.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Richard Thornburgh.md index 9b59f45f..03b9155d 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Richard Thornburgh.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Richard Thornburgh.md @@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ On August 12, 1988, Thornburgh was sworn in as Attorney General of the United St ### Role in the INSLAW/PROMIS Affair -The House Judiciary Committee's September 1992 investigation (House Report 102-857) named both Meese and Thornburgh as the two Attorneys General who had "blocked or restricted congressional inquiries into the matter, ignored the findings of two courts and refused to ask for the appointment of an independent counsel" in connection with the alleged theft of [[INSLAW]]'s [[PROMIS]] software.[^2] +The [[House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]]'s September 1992 investigation (House Report 102-857) named both Meese and Thornburgh as the two Attorneys General who had "blocked or restricted congressional inquiries into the matter, ignored the findings of two courts and refused to ask for the appointment of an independent counsel" in connection with the alleged theft of [[INSLAW]]'s [[PROMIS]] software.[^2] The two court findings at issue were Bankruptcy Judge [[George Francis Bason Jr.]]'s 1987 ruling that the [[Department of Justice]] had stolen PROMIS from INSLAW "tainted by fraud, deceit and overreaching," and the District Court's 1988 affirmance of that ruling on appeal. diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Assassination Records Review Board.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Assassination Records Review Board.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..5a0d4a41 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Assassination Records Review Board.md @@ -0,0 +1,44 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +aliases: + - "ARRB" + - "JFK Assassination Records Review Board" +tags: + - Organization + - Government + - JFKAssassination + - Declassification +summary: "Independent federal agency created by the JFK Records Act of 1992 that released over four million pages from 1994 to 1998 and recorded agency destruction of assassination records." +start: 1994-04-11 +end: 1998-09-30 +location: "Washington, D.C." +created: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-22 +--- + +The Assassination Records Review Board was an independent agency created by the President [[John F. Kennedy]] Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, Public Law 102-526, to re-examine for release the assassination records that federal agencies still held too sensitive to open. Representative Louis Stokes and Senator David Boren introduced the legislation on March 26, 1992; President [[George H.W. Bush]] signed it on October 26, 1992, and left the appointments to [[Bill Clinton]], whose five nominees were sworn in on April 11, 1994: John R. Tunheim, chairman, Henry F. Graff, Kermit L. Hall, William L. Joyce and Anna K. Nelson. The act provided that "No assassination record shall be destroyed, altered, or mutilated in any way." Extended by Congress in 1994 and 1997, the board finished on September 30, 1998, leaving "more than four million pages of records" in the National Archives.[^1] + +### Releases + +Among the records released through the board were the [[Joint Chiefs of Staff]] proposals of 1962 known as [[Operation NORTHWOODS|Operation Northwoods]], made public in 1997.[^2] The files of [[Edward Wegmann]], lawyer for [[Clay Shaw]], given to the board by his daughter in 1995, showed "that the Shaw defense team had retained [[Southern Research Company]] as of mid-1967," the Shreveport firm whose [[New Orleans]] office had investigated [[David Ferrie]], and recorded [[Wackenhut Corporation|Wackenhut]] men reporting to the defense.[^3] On January 18, 1996, the board's lawyer Philip Golrick telephoned the former [[Guy Banister]] partner [[Joseph Oster]] in search of Banister's files, the Ferrie investigation and the Shaw defense.[^4] The board classed four [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] headquarters records on the family of [[H.L. Hunt]] as assassination records.[^5] + +### Records Destroyed + +The board's final report recorded what it could not recover: + +- The [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] "destroyed most of its formal [[HTLINGUAL]] records," the files of its 1952-1973 mail-opening program, "in 1990 at the direction of CIA's Office of General Counsel."[^1] +- The CIA "destroyed tape[s] containing Oswald's voice and other related calls as a matter of routine procedure," although its [[Mexico City]] station had transcribed the calls and reported them to headquarters in an October 8, 1963, cable.[^1] +- Among the papers of Director [[John McCone]], a record of a dinner of May 19, 1964, with [[John J. McCloy]] "Re: Oswald" is annotated "Destroyed 1-28-72"; a record of a meeting with [[McGeorge Bundy]] on November 26, 1963, about the assassination is missing.[^1] +- [[Richard Helms]] directed that the notes and source material for the 1967 Inspector General's report on the plots against [[Fidel Castro]] be destroyed; no "operational diaries" of [[William Harvey]] were found.[^1] +- After [[J. Edgar Hoover]]'s death his secretary, Helen Gandy, destroyed many of his "Personal and Confidential" files.[^1] +- The Army destroyed its intelligence dossier on [[Lee Harvey Oswald]] in 1973 "as part of a program to purge domestic surveillance files."[^1] +- In 1974 the Secretary of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ordered the destruction of the minutes and transcripts of the chiefs' meetings from 1947 to 1978.[^1] +- In January 1995, with the act in force, the [[United States Secret Service|Secret Service]] destroyed protection survey reports for some of Kennedy's trips in the fall of 1963; the board learned of it about a week later.[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Assassination Records Review Board. *Final Report of the Assassination Records Review Board,* September 1998. https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/review-board/report/arrb-final-report.txt +[^2]: Bamford, James. *Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency.* Doubleday, 2001, ch. 2, reproducing JCS memorandum 1969/321, March 13, 1962. +[^3]: DiEugenio, James. "The Wegmann Files," *Probe,* vol. 4, no. 4, May-June 1997, pp. 8-9; National Archives and Records Administration, finding aid to the Papers of Edward F. Wegmann. +[^4]: Golrick, Philip D. Memorandum to David G. Marwell, "Phone Conversation with Joseph Oster," January 19, 1996, Assassination Records Review Board electronic files (OSTER.WPD), Mary Ferrell Foundation archive. +[^5]: Fagnant, Marie (Assassination Records Review Board staff). "Summary of Dallas Figures: H.L. Hunt, N.B. Hunt, R.L. Hunt, Clint Murchison Jr. and Clint Murchison Sr.," memorandum, July 31, 1997. diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Central Intelligence Agency.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Central Intelligence Agency.md index 5942d38c..1dc3e633 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Central Intelligence Agency.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Central Intelligence Agency.md @@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ When [[DEA]] agent [[Celerino Castillo]] began investigating Contra drug traffic ### Inspector General Investigation -CIA Inspector General [[Fred Hitz]] testified before the House Intelligence Committee in March 1998 that the CIA "did not, in an expeditious or consistent fashion, cut off relationships with individuals supporting the Contra program who were alleged to have engaged in drug trafficking activity," including trafficking within the United States. His 400-page report documented CIA relationships with more than 50 suspected drug traffickers during the Contra war.[^14] +CIA Inspector General [[Fred Hitz]] testified before the [[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence|House Intelligence Committee]] in March 1998 that the CIA "did not, in an expeditious or consistent fashion, cut off relationships with individuals supporting the Contra program who were alleged to have engaged in drug trafficking activity," including trafficking within the United States. His 400-page report documented CIA relationships with more than 50 suspected drug traffickers during the Contra war.[^14] ### Iran-Contra Indictments diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/House Banking Committee.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/House Banking Committee.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..92971b6b --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/House Banking Committee.md @@ -0,0 +1,67 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +aliases: + - "House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs" + - "Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs" + - "House Committee on Banking" + - "House Financial Services Committee" +tags: + - Organization + - Government + - Congress + - BNL + - Iraqgate +summary: "House committee created in 1865 as Banking and Currency; under Henry Gonzalez it investigated the BNL loans to Iraq over executive-branch resistance, and under Jim Leach the Systematics allegations." +start: 1865 +location: "Washington, D.C." +relations: + - type: head_of + with: "[[Henry B. Gonzalez]]" + reverse: true + start: 1989 + end: 1995 + role: "chairman" + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Jim Leach]]" + reverse: true + start: 1995 + end: 2001 + role: "chairman" + fn: 1 + - type: investigated + with: "[[BNL Scandal]]" + start: 1990 + end: 1993 + fn: 3 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Systematics]]" + start: 1995 + fn: 8 +created: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-22 +--- + +The House committee that became the Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, and since 2001 the Financial Services Committee, was created in 1865 as the Committee on Banking and Currency. [[Henry B. Gonzalez]] of San Antonio chaired it in the 101st to 103rd Congresses and [[Jim Leach]] of Iowa in the 104th to 106th.[^1] + +### Gonzalez and BNL + +Gonzalez became chairman in January 1989, and his hearings on [[Charles Keating]] and [[Lincoln Savings and Loan]] produced the evidence against the five senators who had intervened with regulators for Keating.[^2] After the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] raided the Atlanta branch of the [[Banca Nazionale del Lavoro]] in August 1989 and found billions of dollars in off-book loans to Iraq, Gonzalez proposed hearings; the attorney general's legislative aide, [[Lee Rawls]], advised [[Richard Thornburgh]] in 1990 that "our best attempt to thwart any further congressional inquiry by the House Banking Committee into this case is to have you contact Chairman Gonzalez directly." Gonzalez declined the call, and Thornburgh wrote to him on September 26, 1990, that a hearing and staff interviews raised "the prospect that culpable parties will elude prosecution."[^3][^4] The committee issued subpoenas, and from February 1992 Gonzalez read classified documents into the *Congressional Record* in some twenty special order speeches.[^4] + +The committee took testimony from [[SerVaas Inc.]] on April 9, 1991, that the brass factory it sold to Iraq was for commercial products; on September 25, 1992, Gonzalez produced a memorandum of July 31, 1988, showing the Iraqi buyer meant it for cartridge cases and artillery fuses.[^5] On April 28, 1992, he told the House that "BNL was a client of Mr. Scowcroft's while he was the vice-chairman of [[Kissinger Associates]]."[^6] [[Lawrence Eagleburger]] told the committee that year: "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."[^3] Director [[Robert Gates]] ordered a damage assessment of one of Gonzalez's disclosures, and on August 4, 1992, the minority leader, [[Bob Michel]], introduced a resolution calling for an ethics investigation; Gonzalez was not censured.[^7] He called the report of the special counsel [[Frederick Lacey]], who in December 1992 found no grounds for an independent counsel, a whitewash.[^9] On November 9, 1993, [[Christopher Drogoul]], the former manager of the Atlanta branch, testified under oath before the committee with five other former employees.[^9] + +### Leach and Systematics + +At Leach's written request, officers of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]'s inspector general and the inspector general of the [[National Security Agency]] briefed him in the Rayburn Building on July 21, 1995, on published allegations about [[Systematics]], the Arkansas bank-software company of [[Jackson Stephens]], [[PROMIS]] and Mena. The CIA's memorandum of the meeting records Leach as saying that "most of the allegations contained within the articles were probably false," but that "as information goes out to the American public in non-traditional ways, it becomes more believable." The agency told him it had "not found any records related to Systematics of Arkansas." Director [[John Deutch]] ordered an inspector general's investigation on March 13, 1996, and Leach was still sending questions in 1998.[^8] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: House Committee on Financial Services, "Committee History." https://financialservices.house.gov/about/history.htm +[^2]: Kohout, Martin Donell. "González, Henry Barbosa," *Handbook of Texas,* Texas State Historical Association. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/gonzalez-henry-barbosa +[^3]: Friedman, Alan. *Spider's Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq.* Bantam, 1993, pp. 145, 183-194. +[^4]: John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, "Henry González," Profile in Courage Award, 1994; Gonzalez, Henry B., "Continuing Saga of Attempts to Thwart BNL Investigation," *Congressional Record,* House, May 18, 1992. +[^5]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Brass Factory in Iraq." *Congressional Record,* House, September 25, 1992, p. H9502. +[^6]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Kissinger Associates, Scowcroft, Eagleburger, Stoga, Iraq, and BNL." *Congressional Record,* House, April 28, 1992. +[^7]: "Resolution Calling for an Ethics Probe of Chairman Gonzalez." *Congressional Record,* House, August 4, 1992, p. H7366. https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_cr/h920804-gonzales.htm +[^8]: Central Intelligence Agency, "Briefing for Chairman Leach, House Banking Committee," undated, and "Memorandum for the Record," briefing of July 21, 1995, approved for release September 28, 2009, CIA Reading Room documents 0001289820 and 0001289686; Deutch, John, memorandum to the Inspector General, March 13, 1996, as cited on the Jackson Stephens page. +[^9]: Lacey, Frederick B., "The Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Investigation: Report of the Independent Counsel," and testimony of Christopher P. Drogoul, 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 ; Gonzalez, Henry B., "Update on BNL Investigation," *Congressional Record,* House, January 21, 1993. diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/House Committee on the Judiciary.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/House Committee on the Judiciary.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..c7e41ef9 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/House Committee on the Judiciary.md @@ -0,0 +1,45 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +aliases: + - "House Judiciary Committee" +tags: + - Organization + - Government + - Congress + - PROMIS + - INSLAW +summary: "Standing committee of the House since 1813, overseeing the Justice Department, whose 1992 report under Jack Brooks found strong evidence the department stole INSLAW's PROMIS and sought an independent counsel." +start: 1813-06-03 +location: "Washington, D.C." +relations: + - type: head_of + with: "[[Jack Brooks]]" + reverse: true + role: "chairman during the INSLAW investigation" + fn: 2 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Department of Justice]]" + end: 1992-09-10 + role: "the INSLAW affair" + fn: 2 +created: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-22 +--- + +The House of Representatives established a standing committee on the judiciary on June 3, 1813; its jurisdiction includes oversight of the [[Department of Justice]].[^1] + +### The INSLAW Investigation + +Under its chairman, [[Jack Brooks]] of Texas, the committee investigated whether high officials of the Justice Department had stolen [[INSLAW]]'s Enhanced [[PROMIS]] software, the matter known as the [[PROMIS Software Scandal]], and tried to put the company out of business, and whether Attorney General [[Edwin Meese]], Deputy Attorney General [[Lowell Jensen]] and others had conspired to distribute it to other agencies and foreign governments. The Hamiltons of INSLAW and [[Elliot Richardson]] testified before its subcommittee on December 5, 1990, at a hearing on the department's refusal to give the committee its documents.[^3] On July 25, 1991, the Subcommittee on Economic and Commercial Law voted 10 to 6 to subpoena the department; when it produced the INSLAW files on July 31, it said that 51 documents or files were missing and could not be found.[^2] The department's liaison in the dispute was [[Lee Rawls]].[^4] The committee also pursued the claim that Canadian agencies were running PROMIS; it called a letter of December 4, 1991, from the Canadian ambassador "conclusory" and wrote that "without direct access to RCMP, CSIS and other Canadian officials, the committee has been effectively thwarted."[^2] + +After the Martinsburg police concluded in January 1992 that [[Danny Casolaro]] had killed himself, Brooks had committee investigators take sworn statements from the former [[Los Angeles]] strike force prosecutors [[Richard Stavin]] and [[Marvin Rudnick]] on March 13 and 14, 1992, and, "after initial resistance from the Bureau," from [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] Special Agent [[Thomas Gates]] on March 25 and 26.[^2] + +The committee adopted its report, *The INSLAW Affair,* on August 11, 1992, over the dissent of ten Republican members. It found "strong evidence, as indicated by the findings in two Federal court proceedings as well as by the committee investigation, that the Department of Justice 'acted willfully and fraudulently' and 'took, converted and stole' INSLAW's Enhanced PROMIS by 'trickery, fraud and deceit.'" It recommended that Attorney General [[William Barr]] settle INSLAW's claims at once and "strongly" recommended an independent counsel to investigate "a high level conspiracy within the Department to steal Enhanced PROMIS software to benefit friends and associates of former Attorney General Meese, including Dr. [[Earl Brian]]," the death of Casolaro, possible perjury and obstruction by department officials, and whether the missing documents "were stolen or illegally destroyed."[^2] Barr had appointed [[Nicholas J. Bua]] special counsel in November 1991; the committee noted that at the time Bua had not been empowered to subpoena witnesses, convene a grand jury or compel the department to produce key documents.[^2][^5] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: House Committee on the Judiciary, "About the Committee." https://judiciary.house.gov/about +[^2]: U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary. *The INSLAW Affair: Investigative Report,* H. Rept. 102-857, September 10, 1992, summary, section II and recommendations. https://archive.org/details/InslawAffairInvestigativeReport +[^3]: As cited on the Nancy Hamilton page: H. Rept. 102-857; U.S. Department of Justice, *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua,* March 1993. +[^4]: Friedman, Alan. *Spider's Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq.* Bantam, 1993, pp. 193-194, as cited on the Lee Rawls page. +[^5]: U.S. Department of Justice. *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of INSLAW, Inc.,* March 1993. diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..c75273fe --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.md @@ -0,0 +1,51 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +aliases: + - "HPSCI" + - "House Intelligence Committee" +tags: + - Organization + - Government + - Congress + - IntelligenceOversight + - RemoteViewing +summary: "House committee created in 1977 to oversee the intelligence community, whose staff were briefed on the CIA's psychic research that year and whose evaluation subcommittee under Charlie Rose pressed the Pentagon to study remote viewing." +start: 1977 +location: "Washington, D.C." +relations: + - type: head_of + with: "[[Larry Combest]]" + reverse: true + start: 1995 + end: 1997 + role: "chairman, 104th Congress" + fn: 5 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Charlie Rose]]" + reverse: true + role: "chairman of the evaluation subcommittee" + fn: 4 +created: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-22 +--- + +The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence was "created in 1977" and "is charged with oversight of the [[United States]] Intelligence Community," now eighteen elements, and the Military Intelligence Program.[^1] It and the [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]] grew out of the findings of the [[Church Committee]].[^2] + +### Psychic Research + +After *Parade* published "[[Psychic Spying]]" on August 7, 1977, the committee asked the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] for a briefing. [[David Brandwein]], director of the [[Office of Technical Service]], gave three staff members "a short oral history of OTS efforts in the field, dating back to 1961" on November 16, 1977, and left them a written outline of the work classified SECRET, the unclassified article on the research at [[Stanford Research Institute]] and "a brief article on Mr. [[Pat Price]]." He handled most of the office's briefing of Representative [[Charlie Rose]] on February 9, 1978.[^3] On October 25, 1978, Rose, as chairman of the committee's evaluation subcommittee, wrote to [[Ruth Davis]] of the Defense Department that "we have a strong obligation also to learn what Soviet research is underway" and that he would "like to see the [[Department of Defense]] undertake those efforts deemed necessary and appropriate to investigate remote viewing and other related phenomena."[^4] On March 28, 1995, the CIA sent its status responses on the [[Stargate Project|Star Gate]] program to the committee's chairman, [[Larry Combest]], during the [[1995 transfer of Star Gate to the CIA]].[^6] + +### Other Records + +In 2021 classified versions of the intelligence community's assessment of domestic violent extremism were briefed to the House and Senate intelligence committees.[^7] [[Jim Himes]], its ranking member in 2026, appeared that year on a leaked membership list of [[Peter Thiel]]'s Dialog society.[^8] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, "History and Jurisdiction." https://intelligence.house.gov/history-jurisdiction/ +[^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]: Brandwein, David S., memorandum for the record, "Briefing for House Permanent Select Committee re OTS Involvement in ESP Research," OTS memo 287-77, November 17, 1977, CIA-RDP96-00787R000200020020-8; Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Legislative Counsel, "Briefing of Representative Charles Rose," February 9, 1978, OLC 78-0576, CIA-RDP81M00980R000600250087-4. +[^4]: Davis, Ruth M., memorandum for Dr. Jack Vorona, "'Remote Viewing' Project," November 20, 1978, with the letter of Charlie Rose, Chairman, Subcommittee on Evaluation, Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, October 25, 1978. +[^5]: "COMBEST, Larry Ed," History, Art and Archives, U.S. House of Representatives. https://history.house.gov/People/Listing/C/COMBEST,-Larry-Ed-(C000653)/ +[^6]: Executive Director for Intelligence Community Affairs to Larry Combest, Chairman, Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, March 28, 1995, CIA-RDP96-00791R000100040002-2. +[^7]: Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security. "Domestic Violent Extremism Poses Heightened Threat in 2021." Unclassified summary, March 17, 2021. +[^8]: Cameron, Dell, and Yulia Almazova. "Leak Exposes Members of Peter Thiel's Secretive 'Dialog' Society." *WIRED,* June 16, 2026. diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Senate Foreign Relations Committee.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Senate Foreign Relations Committee.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..48f70ff5 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Senate Foreign Relations Committee.md @@ -0,0 +1,68 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +aliases: + - "Senate Committee on Foreign Relations" + - "Kerry subcommittee" + - "Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations" +tags: + - Organization + - Government + - Congress + - Contras + - BCCI +summary: "Senate standing committee since 1816, hearing diplomatic nominations and CIA testimony on Chile, whose Kerry subcommittee reported in 1988 that the State Department had selected companies owned by drug traffickers to supply the Contras." +start: 1816 +location: "Washington, D.C." +relations: + - type: head_of + with: "[[Frank Church]]" + reverse: true + start: 1979 + end: 1981 + role: "chairman" + fn: 2 + - type: member_of + with: "[[John Kerry]]" + reverse: true + role: "chairman, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations" + fn: 8 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Jack Blum]]" + reverse: true + role: "special counsel to the Kerry subcommittee" + fn: 8 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Contras]]" + end: 1988-12 + fn: 9 +created: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-22 +--- + +The Senate established the Committee on Foreign Relations in 1816 as one of its original ten standing committees; it considers treaties and all diplomatic nominations.[^1] [[Frank Church]] chaired it from 1979 to 1981.[^2] + +### Hearings + +On January 6, 1961, Secretary of State [[Christian A. Herter]] gave his farewell briefing to a closed session of the committee and spoke of a "disturbing" new element in the [[Middle East]], the reactor at [[Dimona]].[^3] At his confirmation hearing of 1966 as assistant secretary for inter-American affairs, [[Lincoln Gordon]] testified that "Neither the American Embassy nor I personally played any part" in the 1964 coup in Brazil.[^4] The committee held hearings on the [[AIFLD|American Institute for Free Labor Development]] on August 1, 1969.[^5] On February 7 and March 6, 1973, [[Richard Helms]], newly ambassador to Iran, testified to it about Chile and [[ITT Corporation|ITT]], stating under oath that the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] had not "tried to overthrow the government of Chile" and had not "passed money to the opponents of Allende"; in 1977 he pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor counts of misleading Congress.[^6][^13] At the hearing of July 26, 1983, on [[Thomas F. Ellis]], nominated to the Board for International Broadcasting, Senators Paul Tsongas and [[Joe Biden|Joseph Biden]] questioned him about his service on the board of the [[Pioneer Fund]]; he withdrew.[^7] It confirmed [[Donald Gregg]]'s ambassadorial nomination in June 1989 after hearings in which Kerry pressed him on what he had known of Contra operations.[^10] + +### The Kerry Subcommittee + +The Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations under [[John Kerry]], with [[Jack Blum]] as special counsel, took testimony in 1987 and 1988 from traffickers, pilots and officials, among them [[Ramon Milian Rodriguez]] and, in February 1988, José Blandón.[^8] Its report of December 1988, *Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy,* stated: "The Subcommittee did not find that the Contra leaders personally were involved in drug trafficking. There was substantial evidence of drug smuggling through the war zones on the part of individual Contras, Contra suppliers, Contra pilots, mercenaries who worked with the Contras, and Contra supporters throughout the region." It found that "senior U.S. policy makers were not immune to the idea that drug money was a perfect solution to the Contra's funding problems," citing [[Oliver North]]'s suggestion to the [[DEA]] in June 1985 that 1.5 million dollars from [[Barry Seal]]'s sting be given to the Contras, and that "the [[State Department]] selected four companies owned and operated by narcotics traffickers to supply humanitarian assistance to the Contras," among them [[SETCO]] Air, set up by [[Juan Matta Ballesteros|Ramón Matta Ballesteros]], and [[DIACSA]].[^9] The subcommittee's investigation of the [[BCCI|Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] led to *[[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|The BCCI Affair]],* the report of Kerry and Senator [[Hank Brown]] of December 1992.[^11] + +In 1992 a subcommittee of the committee investigated the [[October Surprise]] allegations and found that [[William J. Casey]] had made "potentially dangerous" unauthorized efforts to collect intelligence on the Carter administration's negotiations for the release of the hostages in Iran, without finding a deal.[^12] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, "History." https://www.foreign.senate.gov/about/history +[^2]: As cited on the Frank Church page. +[^3]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy.* Random House, 1991. +[^4]: Senate Foreign Relations Committee, hearing on the nomination of Lincoln Gordon as Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, 1966, as quoted on the Lincoln Gordon page. +[^5]: University of Maryland Special Collections, finding aid, "Senate Foreign Relations Committee, American Institute for Free Labor Development hearings," as cited on the AIFLD page. +[^6]: Powers, Thomas. *The Man Who Kept the Secrets: Richard Helms and the CIA.* Knopf, 1979; Department of Justice, Office of Legal Counsel, "Richard Helms' Eligibility Under 5 U.S.C. Section 8314 To Receive an Annuity," as cited on the Project FUBELT page. +[^7]: United Press International, dispatch on the withdrawal of Thomas Ellis, Washington, July 28, 1983; United States Senate, nomination PN59-1, 98th Congress. +[^8]: Beaty, Jonathan, and S. C. Gwynne. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI.* Random House, 1993; as cited on the John Kerry, Ramon Milian Rodriguez and Mike Harari pages. +[^9]: U.S. Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations. *Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy,* S. Prt. 100-165, December 1988. https://archive.org/details/Kerry-Report-Drugs-Contras +[^10]: As cited on the Donald Gregg page. +[^11]: Kerry, John, and Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate,* December 1992, as cited on the BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report page. +[^13]: Powers, Thomas, *The Man Who Kept the Secrets,* as cited on the Richard Helms page. +[^12]: U.S. House of Representatives, October Surprise Task Force, *Joint Report of the Task Force to Investigate Certain Allegations Concerning the Holding of American Hostages by Iran in 1980,* 1993, as cited on the October Surprise page. diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Senate Judiciary Committee.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Senate Judiciary Committee.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..03e745df --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Senate Judiciary Committee.md @@ -0,0 +1,46 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +aliases: + - "Senate Committee on the Judiciary" +tags: + - Organization + - Government + - Congress + - INSLAW +summary: "Standing Senate committee since 1816, overseeing the Justice Department and FBI and judicial nominations, whose chief investigator relayed a career official's INSLAW allegations to the company in 1988." +start: 1816-12-10 +location: "Washington, D.C." +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Ronald LeGrand]]" + reverse: true + role: "chief investigator" + fn: 3 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Leonard Leo]]" + start: 2023 + role: "sought records and testimony on his donor network; he declined" + fn: 7 +created: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-22 +--- + +The Senate established its Committee on the Judiciary on December 10, 1816, among its original standing committees. It oversees the [[Department of Justice]], including the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]], and the Department of Homeland Security, and considers judicial and Justice Department nominations.[^1] + +### INSLAW + +In mid-1979, when the FBI sought approval to buy a new front-end processor, the committee commissioned technical analyses from the [[OTA|Office of Technology Assessment]] and from [[INSLAW]].[^2] In May 1988 its chief investigator, [[Ronald LeGrand]], passed to [[Bill Hamilton]] of INSLAW what a senior career official of the department's Criminal Division had told him: "What you think happened, did happen," and that the division had been the center of the effort to drive the company out of business. According to Hamilton's 1989 affidavit, the source also believed "that documents relating to [[Project Eagle]] were shredded inside DOJ." The special counsel [[Nicholas J. Bua]] later interviewed the source, who said he had no first-hand knowledge of misconduct concerning INSLAW or [[PROMIS]] and had heard no credible rumors of it; LeGrand told House investigators and Bua that, as far as he knew, none of the information was first-hand.[^3][^4] + +### Nominations and Later Inquiries + +On June 27, 1985, the committee voted 10 to 8 to reject President [[Ronald Reagan]]'s nomination of [[William Bradford Reynolds]] as associate attorney general.[^5] On May 16, 2018, [[Christopher Wylie]] testified to it that [[Steve Bannon]] had engaged [[SCL Group|SCL]], "a foreign military contractor," to build "an arsenal of informational weapons."[^6] Under Chairman [[Dick Durbin]] it sought the records and testimony of [[Leonard Leo]] on his network of conservative donor groups; on July 25, 2023, Leo's counsel declined to provide them.[^7] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Senate Committee on the Judiciary, "About the Committee." https://www.judiciary.senate.gov +[^2]: U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment. *An Assessment of Alternatives for a National Computerized Criminal History System.* OTA-CIS-161, October 1982, as cited on the INSLAW page. +[^3]: U.S. Department of Justice. *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of INSLAW, Inc.,* March 1993, and *Report on the Review of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua's Report,* September 27, 1994, quoting Hamilton's affidavit of 1989. +[^4]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal.* TrineDay, 2010. +[^5]: *The Washington Post,* June 28, 1985, as cited on the William Bradford Reynolds page. +[^6]: "Christopher Wylie: Bannon wanted 'weapons' to fight a 'culture war' at Cambridge Analytica," testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, May 16, 2018. *CBS News.* https://www.cbsnews.com/live-news/senate-cambridge-analytica-whistleblower-christopher-wylie-live-stream-updates-today-2018-05-16 +[^7]: Leo counsel's letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, July 25, 2023. https://levin-center.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/2023-7-25-Leo-counsels-ltr-to-Senate-Judiciary-declining-to-produce-requested-information.pdf ; "Inside the 'Private and Confidential' Conservative Group That Promises to 'Crush Liberal Dominance.'" *ProPublica,* March 15, 2023. diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..61325b00 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.md @@ -0,0 +1,56 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +aliases: + - "SSCI" + - "Senate Intelligence Committee" +tags: + - Organization + - Government + - Congress + - IntelligenceOversight + - RemoteViewing +summary: "Permanent Senate committee created in 1976 after the Church Committee to oversee intelligence; its budget subcommittee ended Army remote-viewing funding in 1982, and its 2014 study documented the CIA's interrogation program." +start: 1976 +location: "Washington, D.C." +relations: + - type: member_of + with: "[[Malcolm Wallop]]" + reverse: true + role: "chairman of the budget subcommittee" + fn: 4 + - type: investigated + with: "[[BNL Scandal]]" + end: 1993-02 + fn: 7 +created: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-22 +--- + +The Senate created the Select Committee on Intelligence in 1976 "to oversee and make continuing studies of the intelligence activities and programs of the [[United States]] Government" and "to provide vigilant legislative oversight over the intelligence activities of the United States to assure that such activities are in conformity with the Constitution and laws of the United States." It has seventeen members, nine from the majority and eight from the minority, including members drawn from the Appropriations, Armed Services, Foreign Relations and Judiciary committees.[^1] It and its House counterpart grew out of the findings of the [[Church Committee]].[^2] + +### 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] + +### 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] + +### 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] + +### 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. +[^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. diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/U.S. Attorney's office.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/U.S. Attorney's office.md index f50535ed..04693ddb 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/U.S. Attorney's office.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/U.S. Attorney's office.md @@ -10,13 +10,13 @@ tags: summary: "The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia was the original client for the PROMIS case management software, commissioning the system in 1969 under U.S. Attorney Thomas A. Flannery and deploying it January 1, 1971; the EOUSA later signed the March 1982 implementation contract with INSLAW that became the central dispute in the PROMIS Software Scandal." location: "Washington, D.C." --- -The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia is the federal prosecutor's office responsible for both local criminal matters (unique among U.S. Attorneys' offices due to DC's non-state status) and federal crimes within the District. As used throughout the INSLAW files and the House Judiciary Committee's PROMIS investigation, "the U.S. Attorney's Office" refers to this DC office unless otherwise specified. +The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia is the federal prosecutor's office responsible for both local criminal matters (unique among U.S. Attorneys' offices due to DC's non-state status) and federal crimes within the District. As used throughout the INSLAW files and the [[House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]]'s PROMIS investigation, "the U.S. Attorney's Office" refers to this DC office unless otherwise specified. ### Role in PROMIS Development In 1969, U.S. Attorney [[Thomas A. Flannery]] perceived an urgent need for improved case management tools to handle the volume of cases flowing through the DC office. He directed the [[Office of Crime Analysis of the District of Columbia]] to commission a computerized case tracking system, funded by a $60,000 [[LEAA]] grant (70-DF-047) administered through [[Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co]]. The design team was co-directed by [[Joan E. Jacoby]] and [[Charles R. Work]] (then Deputy Chief of the office's Superior Court Division), with [[Bill Hamilton]] of Peat Marwick as project manager. The resulting system, the Prosecutor's Management Information System ([[PROMIS]]), was deployed January 1, 1971.[^1] -The DC office became the first PROMIS site and served as the demonstration platform for the system's national expansion. [[LEAA]] subsequently funded [[INSLAW]] to adapt PROMIS for adoption by other jurisdictions, and provided grants to municipalities converting to the system.[^1] +The DC office became the first PROMIS site and served as the demonstration platform for the system's national expansion. LEAA subsequently funded [[INSLAW]] to adapt PROMIS for adoption by other jurisdictions, and provided grants to municipalities converting to the system.[^1] ### EOUSA Implementation Contract diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/National Action.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/National Action.md index 66f8d742..1141470a 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/National Action.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/National Action.md @@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ Davies and Raymond founded National Action in late 2013. Raymond was an active a The primary catalysts for proscription were National Action's public celebration of the June 2016 murder of Labour MP Jo Cox by [[Thomas Mair]] and subsequent explicit death threats to other MPs. Earlier incidents had already drawn police attention: member [[Garron Helm]] was sentenced in October 2014 to four weeks in prison for sending an antisemitic tweet to MP [[Luciana Berger]]. Zack Davies, identified by police as a National Action member, was convicted in September 2015 of the attempted murder of Sikh dental student [[Sarandev Bhambra]] in Mold, Flintshire and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum 14 years. -On December 16, 2016, Rudd described National Action as "a racist, antisemitic and homophobic organisation which stirs up hatred, glorifies violence and promotes a vile ideology." Successor organizations [[System Resistance Network]] (SRN) and [[Scottish Dawn]] were separately proscribed in 2017; the [[Sonnenkrieg Division]] (SKD), founded by former SRN leader [[Andrew Dymock]], was proscribed in 2019.[^1] +On December 16, 2016, Rudd described National Action as "a racist, antisemitic and homophobic organisation which stirs up hatred, glorifies violence and promotes a vile ideology." Successor organizations [[System Resistance Network]] (SRN) and [[Scottish Dawn]] were separately proscribed in 2017; the [[Sonnenkrieg Division]] (SKD), founded by former SRN leader [[Andrew Dymock]], was proscribed in February 2020.[^1] ### Prosecutions @@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ Hannam had attended his first National Action meeting on 6 March 2016 at a pub i He was identified by [[Counter Terrorism Command]] in February 2020 through the November 2019 Iron March database leak, and arrested on 5 March 2020. The prosecution described him as an "active recruiter" for National Action's London branch.[^5] #### Wave 5 (Winchester Crown Court, May 2022) -[[Alex Davies]], co-founder (Swansea): found guilty on May 17, 2022 of membership between December 17, 2016 and September 27, 2017, sentenced to 8 years 6 months.[^4] +Alex Davies, co-founder (Swansea): found guilty on May 17, 2022 of membership between December 17, 2016 and September 27, 2017, sentenced to 8 years 6 months.[^4] ### O9A Integration via Ryan Fleming diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/Order of Nine Angles.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/Order of Nine Angles.md index a4ab30bc..fb0e2ce5 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/Order of Nine Angles.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/Order of Nine Angles.md @@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ The identity of "Anton Long" is the central contested question in O9A studies. M The case for the Myatt-Long attribution rests on: shared philosophical concepts (the "acausal" realm, the division of history into distinct aeons, support for space colonization, the "[[Star Game]]"); stylistic overlap between Myatt's neo-Nazi writings and O9A texts; historical proximity (Myatt was active in the same West Midlands neo-Nazi milieu in the 1970s where O9A emerged); and an identification published as early as 1998 in the anti-fascist magazine [[Searchlight Magazine]]. That 1998 identification predates any O9A interest in constructing a counter-narrative, giving it some evidentiary weight.[^3] -Dissenting scholars, including [[Jeffrey Kaplan]], have argued the attribution remains circumstantial and that Myatt and Long may be separate individuals. The full biographical entry for [[David Myatt]] documents his parallel career and provides additional context for the attribution debate. +Dissenting scholars, including [[Jeffrey Kaplan]], have argued the attribution remains circumstantial and that Myatt and Long may be separate individuals. The full biographical entry for David Myatt documents his parallel career and provides additional context for the attribution debate. ### Ideology: The Seven Fold Way @@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ O9A's core initiatory framework is the [[Seven Fold Way]] (or Septenary System), The most operationally significant element of the Seven Fold Way for law enforcement purposes is the [[Insight Roles]] concept. O9A doctrine holds that initiates at certain stages must undertake "insight roles," periods typically lasting three to six months in which they adopt and fully live out a specified lifestyle or role that is alien to their normal existence and forces transgressive personal experience. O9A published "Insight Roles: A Guide" in 1989, subsequently collected in *[[Hostia]]: Secret Teachings of the O.N.A.* Volume I (1992), O9A's second major text.[^4] -The roles enumerated in O9A texts are criminal in ordinary-language terms. Practitioners are encouraged to live as a street criminal, a drug dealer, a hired killer, a soldier or mercenary, a practitioner of Satanic rituals, or, in materials distributed through American affiliate [[Tempel ov Blood]], to commit acts of violence against targeted victims described as "culling." O9A frames this not as crime but as a method of confronting personal limitation, developing genuine knowledge of the "sinister" aspects of existence, and accumulating "esoteric experience." The practical consequence is that O9A doctrine explicitly authorizes and encourages criminal violence as a spiritual practice, which distinguishes it structurally from other extremist ideologies that arrive at violence through political argument.[^1] +The roles enumerated in O9A texts are criminal in ordinary-language terms. Practitioners are encouraged to live as a street criminal, a drug dealer, a hired killer, a soldier or mercenary, a practitioner of Satanic rituals, or, in materials distributed through American affiliate Tempel ov Blood, to commit acts of violence against targeted victims described as "culling." O9A frames this not as crime but as a method of confronting personal limitation, developing genuine knowledge of the "sinister" aspects of existence, and accumulating "esoteric experience." The practical consequence is that O9A doctrine explicitly authorizes and encourages criminal violence as a spiritual practice, which distinguishes it structurally from other extremist ideologies that arrive at violence through political argument.[^1] ### Acausality and the Sinister Dialectic @@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ The eschatological figure at the center of this project is [[Vindex]], described ### Structure: Nexions -O9A deliberately avoids centralized organizational structure. The basic unit is the [[nexion]] (O9A's term for a local cell or working group), intended to be autonomous and self-directing. Nexions are connected by shared texts, aesthetics, and doctrine rather than by formal hierarchical command. This decentralization makes O9A resistant to decapitation by law enforcement and allows it to absorb and influence other organizations without formal merger, as it did with [[Atomwaffen Division]] through the Tempel ov Blood nexion beginning in 2017.[^1] +O9A deliberately avoids centralized organizational structure. The basic unit is the [[nexion]] (O9A's term for a local cell or working group), intended to be autonomous and self-directing. Nexions are connected by shared texts, aesthetics, and doctrine rather than by formal hierarchical command. This decentralization makes O9A resistant to decapitation by law enforcement and allows it to absorb and influence other organizations without formal merger, as it did with Atomwaffen Division through the Tempel ov Blood nexion beginning in 2017.[^1] O9A's American publishing arm, [[Martinet Press]], operated under the direction of [[Joshua Caleb Sutter]] and his wife [[Jillian Hoy]] and distributed O9A texts internationally. The most significant Martinet Press publication in terms of documented radicalization impact is *Iron Gates* (2014), a 312-page novel set in a post-nuclear-war America centered on a gang of Satanists committing acts of extreme violence including infanticide, cannibalism, rape, and torture. The book was written as "spiritual instruction" for O9A adherents and became required reading for Atomwaffen Division new members under [[John Cameron Denton]].[^5] Sutter, the publisher, was simultaneously a paid FBI informant who received $78,133.20 from the FBI specifically in connection with his Atomwaffen Division work, in addition to prior payments totaling more than $140,000 since 2003.[^6] @@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ The Deofel Quintet (novels, 1976-1992): Five O9A novels functioning as esoteric ### Atomwaffen Division and O9A Integration -The most consequential real-world application of O9A doctrine in the United States came through Tempel ov Blood's infiltration of Atomwaffen Division beginning in 2017. Sutter joined AWD in the spring of 2017 under the alias "swissdiscipline," after AWD leader [[John Cameron Denton]] invited ToB members into the group. Sutter attended AWD "Hate Camp" paramilitary trainings in 2017 and 2018 and the [[2019 AWD Nuclear Congress]], which also drew [[James Mason]], the author of *[[Siege]]*. At least nine O9A/ToB members held key leadership positions in Atomwaffen Division at the peak of this relationship.[^5] +The most consequential real-world application of O9A doctrine in the United States came through Tempel ov Blood's infiltration of Atomwaffen Division beginning in 2017. Sutter joined AWD in the spring of 2017 under the alias "swissdiscipline," after AWD leader John Cameron Denton invited ToB members into the group. Sutter attended AWD "Hate Camp" paramilitary trainings in 2017 and 2018 and the [[2019 AWD Nuclear Congress]], which also drew [[James Mason]], the author of *[[Siege]]*. At least nine O9A/ToB members held key leadership positions in Atomwaffen Division at the peak of this relationship.[^5] Denton made Sutter's books (*Iron Gates*, *Liber 333*, and *Bluebird*) required or approved reading for AWD members. This ideological shift provoked internal controversy and drove out members who rejected Satanism as a contamination of their National Socialist politics, but it also deepened AWD's capacity for violence by giving members a framework in which murder was construed as spiritual service.[^1] @@ -88,19 +88,19 @@ Between April 2019 and April 2021, [[HOPE not hate]] documented eight individual [[Harry Vaughan]], 18, of Kingston-upon-Thames, a grammar school student at [[Tiffin School]] who had achieved A-grade A-levels in maths, further maths, physics, and history, was arrested on 19 June 2019 in a Counter Terrorism Policing investigation into [[Fascist Forge]], an online extremist forum. He was charged with one count of encouraging terrorism (section 1, Terrorism Act 2006), one count of disseminating a terrorist publication (section 2, Terrorism Act 2006), 12 counts of possessing documents useful to a terrorist (section 58, Terrorism Act 2000), and two counts of possessing indecent images. He pleaded guilty on all counts. The documents on his devices included Sonnenkrieg Division propaganda of his own creation, bomb-making manuals, and a guide to killing people. Sentenced at the Old Bailey in November 2020 by Mr Justice Sweeney, who described him as "a dangerous offender," he received a two-year detention sentence suspended for two years, a result that drew criticism from counter-extremism researchers.[^26] -The cases of the unnamed Cornish teenager ([[Feuerkrieg Division]] UK leader, sentenced February 2021) and [[Benjamin Hannam]] (Metropolitan Police constable, sentenced May 2021) are documented in the existing page and in the [[National Action]] vault entry respectively. The unnamed Cornish defendant received a 24-month youth rehabilitation order; the [[Crown Prosecution Service]] press release confirmed that a copy of [[Iron Gates]], the O9A-affiliated novel published by [[Martinet Press]], was found during the 2019 police search of his home.[^27] +The cases of the unnamed Cornish teenager ([[Feuerkrieg Division]] UK leader, sentenced February 2021) and [[Benjamin Hannam]] (Metropolitan Police constable, sentenced May 2021) are documented in the existing page and in the [[National Action]] vault entry respectively. The unnamed Cornish defendant received a 24-month youth rehabilitation order; the [[Crown Prosecution Service]] press release confirmed that a copy of Iron Gates, the O9A-affiliated novel published by Martinet Press, was found during the 2019 police search of his home.[^27] -[[Danyal Hussein]], an 18-year-old Iraqi Kurd from [[Wembley]], was convicted on 6 July 2021 at the [[Old Bailey]] of the murders of sisters [[Bibaa Henry]] (46) and [[Nicole Smallman]] (27) in [[Fryent Country Park]], London, on 6 June 2020. Hussein had signed a handwritten contract in his own blood addressed to the demon [[Lucifuge Rofocale]], pledging to kill six women every six months in exchange for lottery winnings. He was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 35 years. Investigators found that he had been in contact with an individual closely associated with the Order of Nine Angles. The case was cited by [[Stephanie Peacock MP]] in October 2021 in renewed calls for O9A's proscription.[^11] +[[Danyal Hussein]], an 18-year-old Iraqi Kurd from [[Wembley]], was convicted on 6 July 2021 at the Old Bailey of the murders of sisters [[Bibaa Henry]] (46) and [[Nicole Smallman]] (27) in [[Fryent Country Park]], London, on 6 June 2020. Hussein had signed a handwritten contract in his own blood addressed to the demon [[Lucifuge Rofocale]], pledging to kill six women every six months in exchange for lottery winnings. He was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 35 years. Investigators found that he had been in contact with an individual closely associated with the Order of Nine Angles. The case was cited by [[Stephanie Peacock MP]] in October 2021 in renewed calls for O9A's proscription.[^11] [[Ben John]], 21, of Lincoln, a criminology student at [[De Montfort University]] Leicester, was convicted at Leicester Crown Court on 12 August 2021 of one count of possessing a document useful to a terrorist under section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000. Officers from Counter Terrorism Policing's East Midlands unit found a hard drive containing the Anarchy Cookbook, alongside white supremacist and antisemitic literature and material relating to O9A. Judge [[Timothy Spencer QC]] sentenced John on 31 August 2021 to two years' imprisonment suspended for two years, ordering him to read works of classic literature including Dickens and Austen, a direction that attracted widespread press criticism. Solicitor General [[Alex Chalk QC MP]] referred the sentence to the Court of Appeal under section 36 of the [[Criminal Justice Act 1988]] as unduly lenient. On 19 January 2022, the Court of Appeal increased the sentence to two years' immediate custody plus one year on licence.[^28] [[Luca Benincasa]], 20, of Cardiff, was sentenced at Winchester Crown Court on 26 January 2023 by Judge [[Jane Miller KC]] to five years and seven months for terrorism charges and an additional consecutive eight months for child images offences, with a three-year extended licence on the terrorism counts, for a total custodial term of approximately nine years and three months. He had pleaded guilty at Winchester Crown Court on 15 July 2022 to one count of membership of the proscribed organisation Feuerkrieg Division under section 11 of the Terrorism Act 2000 and four counts of possessing documents useful to a terrorist under section 58, including improvised explosive device and pipe-bomb manuals. Benincasa was the first person convicted of FKD membership since that group's proscription in July 2020. He had described himself as the "UK cell leader" of FKD and one of its key recruiters; Judge Miller KC found him to be "a prominent member." Press coverage described him as a "prominent ONA member," though the published sentencing remarks' specific language on O9A has not been independently verified and constitutes an open thread.[^29] -[[Ashley Podsiad-Sharp]], 42, a prison officer at [[HMP Armley]] in Leeds, was convicted at Sheffield Crown Court of one count of possessing terrorist material under section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000 (acquitted of a second count of dissemination). He was sentenced on 31 August 2023 by Judge [[Jeremy Richardson KC]] to eight years' imprisonment plus five years' extended licence. His devices contained the White Resistance Manual, a 200-page publication containing sections on arson, poisoning, infrastructure sabotage, bomb-making, and evading police capture. He had been a former member of [[National Action]] before its proscription and had subsequently founded the [[White Stag Athletics Club]], which required members to hold white-supremacist and antisemitic views. Podsiad-Sharp showed, in the judge's assessment, "not one iota of remorse." The sentencing remarks are published on the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary website.[^30] +[[Ashley Podsiad-Sharp]], 42, a prison officer at [[HMP Armley]] in Leeds, was convicted at Sheffield Crown Court of one count of possessing terrorist material under section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000 (acquitted of a second count of dissemination). He was sentenced on 31 August 2023 by Judge [[Jeremy Richardson KC]] to eight years' imprisonment plus five years' extended licence. His devices contained the White Resistance Manual, a 200-page publication containing sections on arson, poisoning, infrastructure sabotage, bomb-making, and evading police capture. He had been a former member of National Action before its proscription and had subsequently founded the [[White Stag Athletics Club]], which required members to hold white-supremacist and antisemitic views. Podsiad-Sharp showed, in the judge's assessment, "not one iota of remorse." The sentencing remarks are published on the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary website.[^30] [[Declan George-Candiani]], 26, of Streatham, was stopped at [[Stansted Airport]] on 13 August 2024 by Counter Terrorism Command officers using Schedule 7 powers. His phone was analysed and he was arrested; an iPad was also seized from his home. He was convicted at the Old Bailey on 3 October 2024 of two counts of collecting material likely useful to a terrorist under section 58(1) of the Terrorism Act 2000 (acquitted of two further counts), and sentenced on 28 November 2024 to 23 months' imprisonment plus one year on licence, plus a 10-year terrorism notification requirement. Devices contained extreme right-wing manifestos, mass killer writings, and lone-wolf attack guides. In police interview, George-Candiani told officers he had developed an interest in O9A's "traditional Satanism," attributing his downloading of the material to that interest.[^31] -[[Cameron Finnigan]], 19, of Horsham, West Sussex, joined the [[764 Network|764]] online extremist group in late 2023. Counter Terrorism Policing became aware of him in March 2024. He pleaded guilty on 4 October 2024 to five counts: one count of possessing a document for terrorist purposes under section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000 (an 11-page PDF outlining truck, knife, and firearm mass-casualty attack planning), one count of doing an act capable of encouraging or assisting suicide under section 2 of the [[Suicide Act 1961]] as amended (encouraging a young woman to livestream her suicide to his Telegram group), two counts of criminal damage, and one count of possessing indecent images. He was sentenced at the Central Criminal Court on 16 January 2025 by Mr Justice Jay to six years' imprisonment plus three years' extended licence. The judge assessed him as posing a high risk of serious harm to the public, including children, and applied a 25% reduction for youth and mental health. The sentencing remarks are published on the judiciary.uk website.[^32] +[[Cameron Finnigan]], 19, of Horsham, West Sussex, joined the 764 online extremist group in late 2023. Counter Terrorism Policing became aware of him in March 2024. He pleaded guilty on 4 October 2024 to five counts: one count of possessing a document for terrorist purposes under section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000 (an 11-page PDF outlining truck, knife, and firearm mass-casualty attack planning), one count of doing an act capable of encouraging or assisting suicide under section 2 of the [[Suicide Act 1961]] as amended (encouraging a young woman to livestream her suicide to his Telegram group), two counts of criminal damage, and one count of possessing indecent images. He was sentenced at the Central Criminal Court on 16 January 2025 by Mr Justice Jay to six years' imprisonment plus three years' extended licence. The judge assessed him as posing a high risk of serious harm to the public, including children, and applied a 25% reduction for youth and mental health. The sentencing remarks are published on the judiciary.uk website.[^32] ### Criminal Cases Linked to O9A: International @@ -114,45 +114,45 @@ Documented individuals who committed or planned violence while affiliated with o [[Andrew Dymock]], a British neo-Nazi charged with 15 terrorism and hate-related counts in the United Kingdom, with documented O9A affiliation. -[[David Copeland]], who detonated three nail bombs targeting London's Black, Asian, and LGBTQ communities in 1999, killing three and injuring 139, was found in possession of writings by [[David Myatt]].[^3] +[[David Copeland]], who detonated three nail bombs targeting London's Black, Asian, and LGBTQ communities in 1999, killing three and injuring 139, was found in possession of writings by David Myatt.[^3] ### The Proscription Non-Decision -O9A has not been proscribed in the United Kingdom as of mid-2026. The [[Home Office]] proscription criteria under Section 3 of the [[Terrorism Act 2000]] require the Home Secretary to believe that an organisation is "concerned in terrorism," meaning it: (a) commits or participates in acts of terrorism; (b) prepares for terrorism; (c) promotes or encourages terrorism; or (d) is otherwise concerned in terrorism. If the statutory test is met, the Home Secretary then applies discretionary factors including the nature and scale of the organisation's activities and the need to support the international counter-terrorism community.[^13] +O9A has not been proscribed in the United Kingdom as of mid-2026. The [[Home Office]] proscription criteria under Section 3 of the Terrorism Act 2000 require the Home Secretary to believe that an organisation is "concerned in terrorism," meaning it: (a) commits or participates in acts of terrorism; (b) prepares for terrorism; (c) promotes or encourages terrorism; or (d) is otherwise concerned in terrorism. If the statutory test is met, the Home Secretary then applies discretionary factors including the nature and scale of the organisation's activities and the need to support the international counter-terrorism community.[^13] The legal and structural problem O9A presents for proscription is its deliberate decentralisation. O9A has no formal membership rolls, no governing body, no public leadership structure, and no legal entity. Its basic unit is the autonomous nexion, connected by shared texts rather than hierarchy. Proscription under the Terrorism Act 2000 operates on the premise that there is an "organisation" whose members can then be charged with membership offences under Section 11. If the Home Office concludes that O9A's structure is too diffuse to constitute an "organisation" in the statutory sense, the proscription mechanism becomes legally uncertain even if the substantive test of concern in terrorism is met. This structural problem does not appear to have been definitively addressed in any published government document, but it is widely cited by counter-extremism researchers as the most likely non-political reason for the non-decision.[^14] ### Parliamentary Campaign for Proscription: Timeline -March 2020: [[HOPE not hate]] formally called for O9A proscription in its *State of Hate 2020* report, characterising O9A as "an incubator of terrorism."[^15] +March 2020: HOPE not hate formally called for O9A proscription in its *State of Hate 2020* report, characterising O9A as "an incubator of terrorism."[^15] March 2020: [[Yvette Cooper]], chair of the [[Home Affairs Select Committee]], called on the Home Secretary to "immediately" refer O9A to the proscription review group, following the New Statesman investigation that documented O9A materials being held under restricted access at the [[British Library]].[^16] -19 April 2021: [[HOPE not hate]] published "Government misses opportunity to proscribe Order of Nine Angles" on the same day the Home Office announced the proscription of [[Atomwaffen Division]] and [[The Base]] under the Terrorism Act 2000 (Proscribed Organisations) (Amendment) (No. 3) Order 2021. Hope not Hate CEO [[Nick Lowles]] stated: "The government's counter-terrorism strategy against the far-right threat remains deeply troubling." The statement argued that O9A had been recommended for proscription over a year earlier and that its influence on proscribed groups including Atomwaffen Division made the omission incoherent.[^17] +19 April 2021: HOPE not hate published "Government misses opportunity to proscribe Order of Nine Angles" on the same day the Home Office announced the proscription of Atomwaffen Division and [[The Base]] under the Terrorism Act 2000 (Proscribed Organisations) (Amendment) (No. 3) Order 2021. Hope not Hate CEO [[Nick Lowles]] stated: "The government's counter-terrorism strategy against the far-right threat remains deeply troubling." The statement argued that O9A had been recommended for proscription over a year earlier and that its influence on proscribed groups including Atomwaffen Division made the omission incoherent.[^17] 13 July 2021: Parliamentary debate, "Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism" (HC Deb), featuring extended discussion of O9A. [[Stephanie Peacock]] (Labour, Barnsley East) and [[Stephen Doughty]] (Labour, Cardiff South and Penarth) both called on the Home Secretary to proscribe O9A. The minister's response was the standard formula: the government "will not provide any commentary on which groups are or are not being considered for proscription by the review group" and that "the proscription review process is robust and working as it should."[^18] October 2021: Peacock renewed her call for proscription in response to the Danyal Hussein conviction, citing his contact with an O9A-associated individual as evidence that O9A's influence was translating into direct harm on British streets.[^11] -18 July 2023: CONTEST 2023, the fourth iteration of the UK counter-terrorism strategy, identified extreme right-wing terrorism as accounting for approximately 22 per cent of UK attacks since 2018 and approximately 25 per cent of MI5's caseload. It listed proscribed far-right organisations including [[Feuerkrieg Division]], [[Atomwaffen Division]], [[Sonnenkrieg Division]], and [[The Base]], but did not name O9A in accessible sections as either proscribed or under active review.[^33] +18 July 2023: CONTEST 2023, the fourth iteration of the UK counter-terrorism strategy, identified extreme right-wing terrorism as accounting for approximately 22 per cent of UK attacks since 2018 and approximately 25 per cent of MI5's caseload. It listed proscribed far-right organisations including Feuerkrieg Division, Atomwaffen Division, [[Sonnenkrieg Division]], and The Base, but did not name O9A in accessible sections as either proscribed or under active review.[^33] 15 September 2023: The Home Office Proscription Factsheet described the proscription review process and criteria in general terms but made no reference to O9A.[^34] -2 July 2025: The [[House of Commons]] debated the draft Terrorism Act 2000 (Proscribed Organisations) (Amendment) Order 2025, which proscribed three new organisations: [[Maniac Murder Cult]] (a US-based accelerationist group with documented O9A and 764 connections), [[Palestine Action]], and the [[Russian Imperial Movement]]. The Order was approved by 385 votes to 26 after a division. O9A was not included. During the debate, the parliamentary chair of [[HOPE not hate]] again urged the government to consider O9A proscription; the minister's response was the standard formula that the government does not comment on groups under or not under consideration. The Order bears SI number 9780348273373.[^35] +2 July 2025: The [[House of Commons]] debated the draft Terrorism Act 2000 (Proscribed Organisations) (Amendment) Order 2025, which proscribed three new organisations: [[Maniac Murder Cult]] (a US-based accelerationist group with documented O9A and 764 connections), [[Palestine Action]], and the [[Russian Imperial Movement]]. The Order was approved by 385 votes to 26 after a division. O9A was not included. During the debate, the parliamentary chair of HOPE not hate again urged the government to consider O9A proscription; the minister's response was the standard formula that the government does not comment on groups under or not under consideration. The Order bears SI number 9780348273373.[^35] -No proscription of O9A has been announced as of mid-2026. The government's consistent refusal to explain the non-decision stands in contrast to the public reasoning given for other proscriptions. When [[National Action]] was proscribed in December 2016, [[Amber Rudd]] made a public statement characterising it as "a racist, antisemitic and homophobic organisation which stirs up hatred, glorifies violence and promotes a vile ideology." No equivalent statement characterising O9A as below the threshold, or as failing the statutory test on structural grounds, has been published. +No proscription of O9A has been announced as of mid-2026. The government's consistent refusal to explain the non-decision stands in contrast to the public reasoning given for other proscriptions. When National Action was proscribed in December 2016, [[Amber Rudd]] made a public statement characterising it as "a racist, antisemitic and homophobic organisation which stirs up hatred, glorifies violence and promotes a vile ideology." No equivalent statement characterising O9A as below the threshold, or as failing the statutory test on structural grounds, has been published. ### Proscription Comparisons The gap between O9A's legal status and that of its downstream networks is substantial. The following proscribed organisations have documented O9A connections: -[[Sonnenkrieg Division]] (proscribed 2019): explicitly modelled on O9A philosophy and [[Atomwaffen Division]]; five members convicted of terrorism charges in the UK.[^19] +Sonnenkrieg Division (proscribed February 2020): explicitly modelled on O9A philosophy and Atomwaffen Division; five members convicted of terrorism charges in the UK.[^19] -[[Atomwaffen Division]] (proscribed April 2021): ideologically shaped by O9A through [[Tempel ov Blood]] and [[Joshua Caleb Sutter]]; considered O9A texts required reading.[^17] +Atomwaffen Division (proscribed April 2021): ideologically shaped by O9A through Tempel ov Blood and Joshua Caleb Sutter; considered O9A texts required reading.[^17] -[[The Base]] (proscribed April 2021): structurally influenced by O9A's nexion model; [[Rinaldo Nazzaro]] incorporated O9A aesthetics and doctrine.[^17] +The Base (proscribed April 2021): structurally influenced by O9A's nexion model; [[Rinaldo Nazzaro]] incorporated O9A aesthetics and doctrine.[^17] -[[Combat 18]] (proscribed February 2020, S.I. 2020/200): the organisation in which [[David Myatt]], O9A's attributed founder, served as "ideological heavyweight." Proscribed while O9A itself is not.[^20] +[[Combat 18]] (proscribed February 2020, S.I. 2020/200): the organisation in which David Myatt, O9A's attributed founder, served as "ideological heavyweight." Proscribed while O9A itself is not.[^20] ### New Zealand Designation @@ -160,11 +160,11 @@ The gap between O9A's legal status and that of its downstream networks is substa ### O9A Texts and the British Library -A specific detail from the March 2020 New Statesman investigation: O9A materials were being held in a secure, supervised section of the [[British Library]], accessible only under controlled conditions. This is a standard British Library procedure for materials assessed as potentially harmful rather than a formal legal restriction, but it was cited in the Yvette Cooper proscription call as evidence of the state's implicit recognition of O9A's dangerous character while formal proscription remained absent.[^16] +A specific detail from the March 2020 New Statesman investigation: O9A materials were being held in a secure, supervised section of the British Library, accessible only under controlled conditions. This is a standard British Library procedure for materials assessed as potentially harmful rather than a formal legal restriction, but it was cited in the Yvette Cooper proscription call as evidence of the state's implicit recognition of O9A's dangerous character while formal proscription remained absent.[^16] ### O9A and the 764 Ecosystem -O9A's influence on [[764 Network|764]] is documented but operates at one remove. 764 is not an O9A nexion and its members do not generally identify as O9A adherents. The connection works through three channels: first, aesthetic adoption, as 764 groups took on O9A visual symbolism and nomenclature; second, structural parallel, as the insight roles doctrine of committing crimes as spiritual progression mirrors 764's content economy in which criminal acts are required for advancement; third, distribution pipeline, as *Iron Gates* and other O9A texts circulated through Terrorgram channels that overlapped with the 764 radicalization environment. The ISD characterized O9A materials as having "directly influenced the operational practices of 764."[^22] +O9A's influence on 764 is documented but operates at one remove. 764 is not an O9A nexion and its members do not generally identify as O9A adherents. The connection works through three channels: first, aesthetic adoption, as 764 groups took on O9A visual symbolism and nomenclature; second, structural parallel, as the insight roles doctrine of committing crimes as spiritual progression mirrors 764's content economy in which criminal acts are required for advancement; third, distribution pipeline, as *Iron Gates* and other O9A texts circulated through Terrorgram channels that overlapped with the 764 radicalization environment. The ISD characterized O9A materials as having "directly influenced the operational practices of 764."[^22] ### Footnotes diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PARAMILITARY/Brigade 2506.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PARAMILITARY/Brigade 2506.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..1d2ef810 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PARAMILITARY/Brigade 2506.md @@ -0,0 +1,67 @@ +--- +category: "Paramilitary" +aliases: + - "Assault Brigade 2506" +tags: + - Organization + - Paramilitary + - Cuba + - CIA + - CubanExiles +summary: "CIA-trained Cuban exile force of the 1961 Bay of Pigs landing, whose veterans' association later joined CORU and whose members reappeared in Watergate, the Letelier inquiry and the Contra supply network." +start: 1960 +location: "Miami, Florida" +relations: + - type: funded + with: "[[Central Intelligence Agency]]" + reverse: true + start: 1960 + end: 1961 + fn: 1 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Bay of Pigs]]" + start: 1961-04-17 + end: 1961-04-19 + fn: 1 + - type: member_of + with: "[[CORU]]" + start: 1976-06-11 + role: "the brigade's veterans' association was a founding group" + fn: 4 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Felipe Rivero]]" + reverse: true + role: "veteran" + fn: 6 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Felix Rodriguez]]" + reverse: true + role: "veteran" + fn: 3 +created: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-22 +--- + +Brigade 2506 was the force of Cuban exiles organized, trained and equipped by the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] for the landing at the [[Bay of Pigs]] on April 17, 1961. It took its name from the membership number of a trainee, Carlos Rafael Santana, who died in a training accident on September 8, 1960. At the invasion it numbered about 1,400 to 1,500 men in six infantry battalions, with five tanks, sixteen B-26 bombers and transport aircraft. Of its members 114 were killed and about 1,179 captured.[^1][^2] On December 21, 1962, the New York lawyer James B. Donovan, recruited by [[Robert F. Kennedy]], signed an agreement with [[Fidel Castro]] exchanging 1,113 surviving prisoners for 53 million dollars in food and medicine. At the Orange Bowl in Miami on December 29, the brigade gave President [[John F. Kennedy]] its flag, which he said he would return "to a free Havana."[^2] + +### Veterans + +Veterans of the brigade formed the core of later CIA operations against Cuba.[^3] [[Bernard Barker]], [[Howard Hunt]]'s contact in Miami for the break-ins at the office of [[Daniel Ellsberg]]'s psychiatrist and at the [[Watergate]], had served under Hunt in the Bay of Pigs operation; he and the burglars [[Eugenio Martinez]] and [[Frank Sturgis]] were Bay of Pigs veterans.[^3][^5] [[Felix Rodriguez]], a veteran, took part in the capture of [[Che Guevara]] in Bolivia and in the 1980s ran the Contra resupply operation at [[Ilopango Airbase]] in [[El Salvador]] as "Max Gomez."[^3] [[Felipe Rivero]], a veteran, founded the [[Cuban Nationalist Movement]] with [[Guillermo Novo]] and [[Ignacio Novo]].[^6] [[Luis D. Elizondo III]], father of [[Luis Elizondo]], fought with the brigade and was held in Cuba for two years.[^7] + +### The Veterans' Association and the Letelier Case + +The brigade's veterans' association was one of five groups that formed [[CORU]], the Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations, under [[Orlando Bosch]] in the [[Dominican Republic]] on June 11, 1976, together with Bosch's Acción Cubana, the Cuban Nationalist Movement, the Cuban National Liberation Front and the 17th of April Movement. "We were conspiring there," Bosch later said. "Planning bombings and killings. Everything was planned there."[^4] + +In early September 1976, three weeks before the assassination of [[Orlando Letelier]] in Washington, the brigade's president, Roberto Carballo, Manuel Camargo and [[Bernardo de Torres]] called on Admiral [[Ronald McIntyre]] of the Chilean naval mission there. They told him the leadership was committed to uniting anti-Castro Cubans and ending the bombings of small groups in Miami; the "only discordant note" was Carballo's feeling "over the detention in Chile and handover to US authorities of the Cuban Otero," meaning [[Rolando Otero]].[^8] An undated memorandum to Colonel [[Manuel Contreras]] of Chile's [[DINA]], written after October 1976, reported that "the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] reached the conclusion that the perpetrators of the attack on Letelier were 4 members of Brigade 2506," naming Roberto Carvallo (Carballo), Carlos Pascual, Vicente Vásquez and Guillermo Novo, who "would have been deceived and paid by a Castro agent."[^9] By May 1977 the Letelier grand jury had summoned Armando López Estrada of the veterans' association among fifteen Cuban exiles.[^6] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: CIA Inspector General. "Inspector General's Survey of the Cuban Operation," October 1961, declassified February 22, 1998, in Kornbluh, Peter, ed., *Bay of Pigs Declassified: The Secret CIA Report on the Invasion of Cuba,* New Press, 1998; *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963,* vol. X, as cited on the Bay of Pigs page. +[^2]: Cuba Study Group (Taylor Commission), final report, June 13, 1961, FRUS 1961-1963, vol. X, doc. 169; Wyden, Peter, *Bay of Pigs: The Untold Story,* Simon & Schuster, 1979, as cited on the Bay of Pigs page. +[^3]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998; Hougan, Jim. *Secret Agenda: Watergate, Deep Throat, and the CIA.* Random House, 1984. +[^4]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami, file 2-471, "CORU," August 16, 1978, National Security Archive, Electronic Briefing Book 153, doc. 13; Dinges, John, and Saul Landau, *Assassination on Embassy Row,* McGraw-Hill, 1980, p. 250, quoting Bosch to Blake Fleetwood, *New Times,* May 13, 1977. +[^5]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities. *Final Report,* 1974, section on the Watergate break-in (Barker's background). https://archive.org/details/senatewatergater01unit +[^6]: Marina, Gloria. "Citan a Felipe Rivero en el caso Letelier," *El Miami Herald,* May 3, 1977, scan at latinamericanstudies.org/belligerence/Rivero-Letelier.pdf +[^7]: Elizondo, Luis. *Imminent.* William Morrow, 2024. +[^8]: Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78, as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* tomo 2, sworn declaration of Admiral Ronald McIntyre, 1978, translated from the Spanish. https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991-2.pdf +[^9]: Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78, as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* tomo 1, memorandum "Caso Letelier" to Colonel Manuel Contreras, undated, translated from the Spanish. https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991.pdf diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PARAMILITARY/Sandinistas.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PARAMILITARY/Sandinistas.md index 07fe667c..be4afdca 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PARAMILITARY/Sandinistas.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PARAMILITARY/Sandinistas.md @@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ The Sandinista government was opposed by the [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]] administra Despite the Reagan administration's efforts to link the Sandinistas to drug trafficking, the evidence never materialized. "Although uncorroborated reports indicating Nicaraguan involvement in the shipping of cocaine to the United States had been received, CIA was unable to confirm reports implicating high-level Sandinistas in drug trafficking," the CIA informed the [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]] in April 1984. Two years later, Justice Department officials reached the same conclusion.[^3] -President Reagan displayed a photograph of [[Federico Vaughn]], identified as "a top aide to one of the nine commandantes," loading an aircraft with drugs. A subsequent House Judiciary Committee investigation revealed Vaughn was likely a U.S. double agent whose house had been "continuously rented" by the U.S. Embassy since 1981, and who was associated with both Norwin Meneses and [[Oliver North]].[^3] +President Reagan displayed a photograph of [[Federico Vaughn]], identified as "a top aide to one of the nine commandantes," loading an aircraft with drugs. A subsequent [[House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]] investigation revealed Vaughn was likely a U.S. double agent whose house had been "continuously rented" by the U.S. Embassy since 1981, and who was associated with both Norwin Meneses and [[Oliver North]].[^3] ### Footnotes diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Allen and Company.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Allen and Company.md index f8aad73c..55bfe00c 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Allen and Company.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Allen and Company.md @@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ updated: 2026-09-22 Allen and Company is the [[New York City]] investment bank of the Allen family. In September 1983 [[Dominic Laiti]], chairman of [[Hadron]], the company controlled by [[Earl Brian]], and [[Paul Wormeli]], vice president of its public-safety software subsidiary [[Simeon]], went to New York to raise capital for Simeon and met at the bank's offices with the executive [[Mark Kesselman]] and "a young man whose last name was Allen." Kesselman later visited Simeon's Northern Virginia offices; he told the investigators of the special counsel [[Nicholas J. Bua]] that he had been asked by [[Charles Allen]] to assist Allen's nephew [[Nathaniel Kramer]] in the analysis, and that he left the firm in February 1984. [[Bill Hamilton]] of [[INSLAW]] held that the trip's purpose was the acquisition of INSLAW and its [[PROMIS]] software; Bua's investigators concluded the thesis was "incorrect."[^1] -About 1985 or 1986 the bank bought 7.8 percent of the stock of [[SCT|Systems and Computer Technology]] on behalf of an unnamed third party. INSLAW cited the purchase, in its rebuttal to Bua's report, as evidence that Brian was secretly behind SCT's attempted hostile purchase of INSLAW in 1986. The Justice Department's 1994 review rejected the inference as unsupported and noted that on INSLAW's own theory Brian by then already controlled the enhanced PROMIS and was selling it abroad, leaving him no motive to buy the company. Neither the Bua report nor the House Judiciary Committee's report connects the bank to the financing of Brian's later Infotechnology, [[Financial News Network]] and [[United Press International]] ventures, which collapsed in 1991.[^1][^2] +About 1985 or 1986 the bank bought 7.8 percent of the stock of [[SCT|Systems and Computer Technology]] on behalf of an unnamed third party. INSLAW cited the purchase, in its rebuttal to Bua's report, as evidence that Brian was secretly behind SCT's attempted hostile purchase of INSLAW in 1986. The Justice Department's 1994 review rejected the inference as unsupported and noted that on INSLAW's own theory Brian by then already controlled the enhanced PROMIS and was selling it abroad, leaving him no motive to buy the company. Neither the Bua report nor the [[House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]]'s report connects the bank to the financing of Brian's later Infotechnology, [[Financial News Network]] and [[United Press International]] ventures, which collapsed in 1991.[^1][^2] ### Footnotes diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Dialog.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Dialog.md index d83b2d2c..00d848fc 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Dialog.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Dialog.md @@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ Dialog maintained its membership list as confidential from founding through 2026 The confirmed 2026 registrants, as reported by *WIRED*, spanned U.S. partisan politics, the technology industry, finance, media, and the military. Beyond the headline figures, the list included [[Chamath Palihapitiya]] (founder of Social Capital), [[Neal Mohan]] (chief executive of YouTube), [[Peter Attia]] (physician and author of *Outlive*), [[Scott Belsky]] (partner at A24, former chief strategy officer and chief product officer at Adobe), and six members of the PayPal Mafia. *WIRED* additionally identified "sitting [[Donald Trump|Trump]] administration officials" and "a former [[Middle East]] chief" among the registrants without naming them in the published text.[^1] -*WIRED* and [[Gizmodo]] drew the explicit Bilderberg comparison on the basis of the roster's breadth: sitting U.S. senators of both parties, an active four-star military commander, sitting technology executives, and venture capital figures. Unlike Bilderberg, Dialog is a privately held U.S. entity with no disclosure obligations, no published attendee list, and no press access. Himes (the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee) and Grynkewich (the NATO SACEUR) appear on the same off-the-record roster as the executives whose firms contract to the agencies Himes oversees and Grynkewich commands.[^1][^3] +*WIRED* and [[Gizmodo]] drew the explicit Bilderberg comparison on the basis of the roster's breadth: sitting U.S. senators of both parties, an active four-star military commander, sitting technology executives, and venture capital figures. Unlike Bilderberg, Dialog is a privately held U.S. entity with no disclosure obligations, no published attendee list, and no press access. Himes (the ranking member of the [[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence|House Intelligence Committee]]) and Grynkewich (the NATO SACEUR) appear on the same off-the-record roster as the executives whose firms contract to the agencies Himes oversees and Grynkewich commands.[^1][^3] ### Prior Outings: The 2013 Invite and the Gelman Post diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Hunt Oil Company.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Hunt Oil Company.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..ea9f1650 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Hunt Oil Company.md @@ -0,0 +1,65 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +aliases: + - "Hunt Oil" +tags: + - Organization + - Oil + - Texas + - HuntFamily +summary: "Privately held Dallas oil company of H.L. Hunt and then of Ray Hunt, whose executives became ambassadors and whose 2007 Kurdish contract drew a congressional inquiry." +location: "Dallas, Texas" +relations: + - type: owned + with: "[[H.L. Hunt]]" + reverse: true + end: 1974 + fn: 2 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Ray Hunt]]" + reverse: true + role: "chairman" + fn: 3 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Paul Rothermel]]" + reverse: true + start: 1955 + role: "administrative assistant to H.L. Hunt; security chief" + fn: 5 +created: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-22 +--- + +Hunt Oil Company is the privately held exploration and production company of the Hunt family of Dallas. In 2011 it described itself as having "successfully conducted worldwide petroleum operations for over 74 years."[^1] [[H.L. Hunt]], who in 1930 bought the discovery well of the [[East Texas Oil Field]] from [[Columbus Marion Joiner|Columbus Marion "Dad" Joiner]], owned the company and founded [[Placid Oil Company]].[^2] + +### The Family Firm + +Hunt Oil's staff and the family overlapped. [[Margaret Hunt Hill]] married a company accountant, Albert Galatyn Hill, in 1938, and employees called her "the big boss"; [[Hassie Hunt]] drilled as the Hassie Hunt Production Company from an office in the building; [[Ruth Ray Hunt|Ruth Ray]], a legal secretary who came to the company with Claude O'Quinn when he left her law firm for its main client, bore Hunt four children from 1943 while he kept her in a house two minutes' drive from the family home, and married him in November 1957.[^4][^2] The former [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] agent [[Paul Rothermel]] wrote to [[J. Edgar Hoover]] on Hunt Oil letterhead on February 22, 1955, that he was "now associated with the Hunt Oil Company at Dallas"; the bureau described him as Hunt's administrative assistant and the press as his chief of security.[^5] + +Hunt Oil put about 45 million dollars into Hunt's food company, HLH Products, and in 1969 his nephew Tom Hunt, a company executive, found it losing heavily; investigators described six separate schemes against it. On February 3, 1970, the FBI's Cartha DeLoach reported that Hunt's sons had told Senator [[James Eastland]] they were trying to have their father declared incompetent and that Hunt Oil had lost about 80 million dollars over several years.[^2][^6] Private detectives hired by [[Nelson Bunker Hunt]] and [[William Herbert Hunt]] then tapped the telephones of four Hunt Oil executives, Rothermel among them.[^7] Indicted in 1975 for obstructing the resulting grand jury, the brothers said that more than 50 million dollars had been embezzled from Hunt Oil by employees who "were secret Government agents," after they had refused a [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] request to place officers in [[Hunt International Petroleum]]; the [[United States]] attorney acknowledged that "the CIA contacted the Hunts in the mid-1960s."[^7] + +On March 4, 1977, the company's spokesman, [[James C. Oberwetter]], issued a statement denying that Hunt "knew, ever communicated with or ever received communication from [[Lee Harvey Oswald]]," after the *Dallas Morning News* asked whether a handwritten "Dear Mr. Hunt" note attributed to Oswald was addressed to him.[^8] A former Hunt Oil official recalled seeing [[Eugene Hale Brading]] in the company's reception office on November 21, 1963, waiting to see Nelson Bunker Hunt.[^10] + +Hunt died in 1974, leaving all his Hunt Oil stock to Ruth Hunt and naming her son [[Ray Hunt]] sole executor. In a 1975 division with the sons of the first family, Bunker, Herbert and [[Lamar Hunt]] took Hunt Energy, Placid Oil and Penrod Drilling, and Ray kept Hunt Oil.[^3] + +### Under Ray Hunt + +Hunt Oil found the Alif field near Marib in 1984, the first oil discovered in North Yemen; on April 12, 1986, Vice President [[George H.W. Bush]] flew to Marib and dedicated the field's refinery. Yemen took back the block on November 15, 2005, and Hunt Oil and [[ExxonMobil]] filed for arbitration in Paris.[^11] Ray Hunt sat on the [[President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board]] from 2001, and two Hunt Oil executives became ambassadors: Jeanne L. Phillips, a senior vice president and Bush fundraiser, to the OECD from August 2001 to June 2003, after which she returned to the company, and Oberwetter to [[Saudi Arabia]], sworn in on January 8, 2004.[^9] + +On September 8, 2007, Hunt Oil and the [[Kurdistan Regional Government]] announced a production-sharing contract for a block in the Dohuk area under a regional oil law that Baghdad did not recognize; three days before the signing the company's regional manager, David McDonald, told the [[State Department]]'s reconstruction team in Erbil that it was interested in districts of northern Nineveh disputed between Erbil and Baghdad.[^12] On July 2, 2008, Representative [[Henry Waxman]] released documents and wrote to Secretary of State [[Condoleezza Rice]] that "contrary to the denials of Administration officials, advisors to the President and officials in the State and Commerce Departments knew about Hunt Oil's interest in the Kurdish region months before the contract was executed," quoting an internal Hunt Oil message: "This is really good for us."[^13] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Hunt Oil Company, home page, Wayback Machine capture of January 7, 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110107034940/http://www.huntoil.com/ +[^2]: Palmer, Jerrell Dean. "Hunt, Haroldson Lafayette," *Handbook of Texas Online,* Texas State Historical Association, 1995, revised 2023. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/hunt-haroldson-lafayette +[^3]: Porterfield, Bill. "H.L. Hunt's Long Goodbye," *Texas Monthly,* March 1975. https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/h-l-hunts-long-goodbye/ +[^4]: Hurt, Harry, III. *Texas Rich: The Hunt Dynasty from the Early Oil Days through the Silver Crash.* W.W. Norton, 1981. +[^5]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, headquarters file on Paul M. Rothermel Jr., released under the Freedom of Information Act. https://archive.org/details/RothermelJr.PaulM.HQ1 +[^6]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Headquarters file on H.L. Hunt, parts 1 and 2 (FOIA release), DeLoach to Tolson, February 3, 1970; "Two Rich Men the U.S. Would Put in Jail," syndicated column, 1974, CIA-RDP88-01315R000300490023-4. +[^7]: *United States v. Hunt,* 505 F.2d 931 (5th Cir. 1974); United States v. Nelson Bunker Hunt et al., indictment, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, July 1975, count 1; "Hunt Sons Charge C.I.A. Used Agents to Embezzle Funds," *The New York Times,* July 23, 1975, CIA-RDP88-01315R000300120024-3. +[^8]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Headquarters file on H.L. Hunt, part 2 (FOIA release), Hunt Oil Company and Estate of H.L. Hunt press releases, March 4 and April 1, 1977. https://archive.org/details/foia_Hunt_H.L.-HQ-2 +[^9]: "Top-secret cronies," *Salon,* November 17, 2005. https://www.salon.com/2005/11/17/pfiab/ ; The White House, Office of the Press Secretary, "Nominations and Appointments," October 5, 2001; U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, "Jeanne L. Phillips"; "Ambassador focuses on U.S.-Saudi cooperation," *NBC News.* https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna8293255 +[^10]: Golz, Earl. "Eugene Hale Brading; Suspect," two installments, November 29 and December 6, 1973, the second in *The Midlothian Mirror,* as cited on the Eugene Hale Brading page. +[^11]: "Vice President George Bush, completing a 10-day trip aimed...," *United Press International,* April 12, 1986. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1986/04/12/Vice-President-George-Bush-completing-a-10-day-trip-aimed/5692513666000/ ; "Hunt Oil & ExxonMobil File for Arbitration on Yemen Field," *Rigzone,* 2005. +[^12]: U.S. Embassy Baghdad, "Hunt Oil Signs Agreement with KRG under KRG Oil Law," cable 07BAGHDAD3071, September 12, 2007. https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/07BAGHDAD3071_a.html +[^13]: Waxman, Henry A., letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, July 2, 2008, as reported in "Bush Officials Condoned Regional Iraqi Oil Deal," *The Washington Post,* July 3, 2008. diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/INSLAW.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/INSLAW.md index 4a33a017..1ad0da2b 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/INSLAW.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/INSLAW.md @@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ Senior District Judge [[William Bryant, Jr.|William Bryant]] of the district cou The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI) issued a report in September 1989 finding "no proof" that [[Lowell Jensen]] and [[Edwin Meese]] had conspired to ruin INSLAW or steal its software. The Senate report nonetheless found that DOJ official Thomas Stanton had improperly sought special handling for INSLAW's bankruptcy and criticized the Department for placing Brewer in charge of the implementation contract given his prior employment by INSLAW.[^3] -The House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Representative [[Jack Brooks]], conducted a three-year investigation from 1989 to 1992. Its September 1992 report (House Report 102-857) found "strong evidence...that the Department of Justice 'acted willfully and fraudulently,' and 'took, converted and stole,' Inslaw's Enhanced PROMIS by 'trickery fraud and deceit.'" A key basis for this conclusion was testimony from Deputy Attorney General Arnold Burns, who had told DOJ's Office of Professional Responsibility in 1986 that INSLAW's proprietary rights claim was "legitimate" and that the government "would probably lose the case in court on this issue," yet DOJ continued litigating against INSLAW for another decade.[^1] +The [[House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]], chaired by Representative [[Jack Brooks]], conducted a three-year investigation from 1989 to 1992. Its September 1992 report (House Report 102-857) found "strong evidence...that the Department of Justice 'acted willfully and fraudulently,' and 'took, converted and stole,' Inslaw's Enhanced PROMIS by 'trickery fraud and deceit.'" A key basis for this conclusion was testimony from Deputy Attorney General Arnold Burns, who had told DOJ's Office of Professional Responsibility in 1986 that INSLAW's proprietary rights claim was "legitimate" and that the government "would probably lose the case in court on this issue," yet DOJ continued litigating against INSLAW for another decade.[^1] Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua issued a 267-page report in March 1993 finding no credible evidence that any DOJ official had committed criminal wrongdoing in connection with the INSLAW matter. The Senate subsequently referred INSLAW's remaining claims to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in May 1995. Judge [[Christine Odell Cook Miller|Christine Miller]] ruled on July 31, 1997, that all versions of PROMIS were in the public domain and that the government had always been entitled to use the software as it wished. A three-judge Review Panel upheld that ruling in August 1998. INSLAW received no compensation from the federal government.[^2][^6] diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/National Security Archive.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/National Security Archive.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..974d079f --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/National Security Archive.md @@ -0,0 +1,37 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +aliases: + - "NSArchive" + - "National Security Archives" +tags: + - Organization + - FOIA + - Declassification + - Archive +summary: "Nongovernmental research institute and FOIA litigant at George Washington University, founded in 1985, whose suits and briefing books released the Family Jewels, the Bay of Pigs inspector general's report and Gottlieb's testimony." +start: 1985 +location: "Washington, D.C." +created: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-22 +--- + +The National Security Archive, at George Washington University in Washington, was "founded in 1985 by journalists and scholars to check rising government secrecy." It describes itself as an investigative journalism center, a research institute, a library of declassified documents, a leading nonprofit user of the [[Freedom of Information Act]], a public interest law firm and a publisher of former secrets.[^1] + +### Releases Forced or Published + +After a two-year effort under the Freedom of Information Act, the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] declassified on February 22, 1998, the 1961 report of its inspector general, Lyman Kirkpatrick, on the [[Bay of Pigs]], published that year as *Bay of Pigs Declassified*, edited by the archive's [[Peter Kornbluh]].[^2] The CIA released the [[CIA Family Jewels|Family Jewels]], under Director [[Michael Hayden]], on June 26, 2007, after a lawsuit by the archive.[^3] On February 13, 2001, the archive drafted a complaint against the Archivist of the [[United States]] and the Secretary of State over the telephone transcripts that [[Henry A. Kissinger|Henry Kissinger]] had removed on leaving office and shipped to [[Nelson Rockefeller]]'s estate; the government recovered copies in August 2001.[^4] + +Its electronic briefing books have published the planning record of the 1964 coup in Brazil, in No. 118 (2004), edited by Kornbluh, and No. 465 (2014), edited by Kornbluh and James G. Hershberg;[^5] the drafts showing that the [[Gerald Ford]] [[White House]] altered the [[Rockefeller Commission 1975|Rockefeller Commission]]'s report, including [[Dick Cheney]]'s handwritten comments, in 2016;[^6] the 1978 confession of the DINA agent [[Michael Townley]] in 2023;[^7] documents on the assassination of General [[Carlos Prats]] in 2024;[^8] and in October 2025 the transcripts of [[Sidney Gottlieb]]'s Top Secret testimony to the [[Church Committee]] in October 1975.[^9] In 2025 it added a note to its 2000 publication of [[State Department]] documents on the killing of [[Charles Horman]] stating that the theory of an American role was now in doubt.[^10] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: National Security Archive, "About the National Security Archive." https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/about +[^2]: Kornbluh, Peter, ed. *Bay of Pigs Declassified: The Secret CIA Report on the Invasion of Cuba.* New Press, 1998, as cited on the Bay of Pigs page. +[^3]: CIA FOIA Reading Room, "The Family Jewels," released 2007, as cited on the CIA Family Jewels page. +[^4]: National Security Archive Briefing Book No. 852, ed. William Burr, February 13, 2024; NSAEBB No. 123, "The Kissinger Telcons," and No. 263. +[^5]: National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 118, "Brazil Marks 40th Anniversary of Military Coup," ed. Peter Kornbluh, March 31, 2004; No. 465, "Brazil Marks 50th Anniversary of Military Coup," ed. James G. Hershberg and Peter Kornbluh, 2014. +[^6]: National Security Archive, "Gerald Ford White House Altered Rockefeller Commission Report in 1975," February 29, 2016, as cited on the Rockefeller Commission 1975 page. +[^7]: Kornbluh, Peter, ed. "The Pinochet Dictatorship Declassified: Confessions of a DINA Hit Man." National Security Archive, November 22, 2023. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2023-11-22/pinochet-dictatorship-declassified-confessions-dina-hit-man +[^8]: Kornbluh, Peter, ed. "The Pinochet Regime at 50: The Assassination of General Carlos Prats and Sofía Cuthbert." National Security Archive, October 1, 2024. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2024-10-01/pinochet-regime-50-assassination-general-carlos-prats-and-sofia +[^9]: National Security Archive, "Top Secret Testimony of CIA's MKULTRA Chief, 50 Years Later," October 30, 2025, as cited on the Sidney Gottlieb page. +[^10]: Kornbluh, Peter, ed. "Chile in Their Hearts." National Security Archive, May 7, 2025, as cited on the Charles Horman page. diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Patricof and Company.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Patricof and Company.md index fbf0a0e2..ddd3c43d 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Patricof and Company.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Patricof and Company.md @@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ created: 2026-09-22 updated: 2026-09-22 --- -Patricof and Company, formally Allen Patricof and Associates and known in the special counsel's report as APA, was a New York venture capital firm founded in 1969 as Patricof & Co. Ventures by [[Alan Patricof]], later renamed Apax Partners.[^2] It managed several funds, among them [[53rd Street Ventures]], formed about 1976. [[Jonathan Ben Cnaan]], a native of [[Israel]] employed at the firm from 1981 to 1987, managed the funds and about 1982 made the firm's first investment in [[INSLAW]], 100,000 dollars through 53rd Street Ventures, describing himself to the investigators of [[Nicholas J. Bua]] as a "follower" investor with no active role in the negotiations. [[Patricia Cloherty]] worked at the firm from about 1970 to 1977, left for the Small Business Administration under [[Jimmy Carter]], ran [[Tessler & Cloherty|Tessler and Cloherty]] with her husband [[Daniel Tessler]] through the 1980s, during which that firm took over the 53rd Street fund in 1984, and returned to Patricof and Company in February 1988. Neither the House Judiciary Committee nor Bua found any wrongdoing by the firm, which entered the [[PROMIS Software Scandal|INSLAW affair]] only through its stake in the company and the handoff of the fund to the Tesslers, whose dealings with [[Bill Hamilton]] in December 1984 became the subject of his affidavit.[^1] +Patricof and Company, formally Allen Patricof and Associates and known in the special counsel's report as APA, was a New York venture capital firm founded in 1969 as Patricof & Co. Ventures by [[Alan Patricof]], later renamed Apax Partners.[^2] It managed several funds, among them [[53rd Street Ventures]], formed about 1976. [[Jonathan Ben Cnaan]], a native of [[Israel]] employed at the firm from 1981 to 1987, managed the funds and about 1982 made the firm's first investment in [[INSLAW]], 100,000 dollars through 53rd Street Ventures, describing himself to the investigators of [[Nicholas J. Bua]] as a "follower" investor with no active role in the negotiations. [[Patricia Cloherty]] worked at the firm from about 1970 to 1977, left for the Small Business Administration under [[Jimmy Carter]], ran [[Tessler & Cloherty|Tessler and Cloherty]] with her husband [[Daniel Tessler]] through the 1980s, during which that firm took over the 53rd Street fund in 1984, and returned to Patricof and Company in February 1988. Neither the [[House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]] nor Bua found any wrongdoing by the firm, which entered the [[PROMIS Software Scandal|INSLAW affair]] only through its stake in the company and the handoff of the fund to the Tesslers, whose dealings with [[Bill Hamilton]] in December 1984 became the subject of his affidavit.[^1] ### Footnotes diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Simeon.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Simeon.md index 160131af..d213330c 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Simeon.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Simeon.md @@ -22,9 +22,9 @@ Hamilton alleged that a 1983 fundraising trip to New York City by [[Dominic Lait Both Wormeli and Titus contradicted Hamilton's account under questioning by investigators. Wormeli confirmed the New York trip took place and that he and Laiti met with [[Earl Brian]] and executives from [[Allen and Company]] (including Mark Kesselman) to discuss funding. However, Wormeli stated that neither Laiti nor Brian ever discussed the acquisition of PROMIS or INSLAW with him, and that Laiti never mentioned PROMIS at any of the meetings. Titus denied ever telling Hamilton that the trip's purpose was to acquire PROMIS, and stated she was not present at or party to any conversations about acquiring INSLAW's software or any unethical or illegal activities to obtain it. She noted that the only court-related software company Simeon/Hadron had discussed acquiring was a Southern California company called Responsive Design.[^1] -The [[Department of Justice]] Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua, in his 1993 report on the INSLAW allegations, concluded that the evidence from Titus, Wormeli, and other interviewed witnesses did not support Hamilton's thesis and that there was no evidence Hadron or Simeon ever had any interest in obtaining INSLAW's PROMIS software. +The Department of Justice Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua, in his 1993 report on the INSLAW allegations, concluded that the evidence from Titus, Wormeli, and other interviewed witnesses did not support Hamilton's thesis and that there was no evidence Hadron or Simeon ever had any interest in obtaining INSLAW's PROMIS software. -The Bua report's findings were themselves contested by Hamilton and INSLAW, who maintained that the DOJ investigation could not be objective given the department's own alleged role in the PROMIS theft. The House Judiciary Committee's competing investigation reached more skeptical conclusions about the DOJ's handling of the INSLAW case and the Bua report's comprehensiveness. +The Bua report's findings were themselves contested by Hamilton and INSLAW, who maintained that the DOJ investigation could not be objective given the department's own alleged role in the PROMIS theft. The [[House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]]'s competing investigation reached more skeptical conclusions about the DOJ's handling of the INSLAW case and the Bua report's comprehensiveness. ### Footnotes diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/Sonnenkrieg Division.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/Sonnenkrieg Division.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..ef82f7c3 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/Sonnenkrieg Division.md @@ -0,0 +1,51 @@ +--- +category: "Extremism & Violent Networks" +aliases: + - "SKD" +tags: + - Organization + - NeoNazi + - Accelerationism + - OrderOfNineAngles + - SiegeCulture + - TerroristOrganization + - UnitedKingdom +summary: "British neo-Nazi group founded by Andrew Dymock after National Action's ban, modelled on Atomwaffen Division and the Order of Nine Angles, proscribed in the UK on February 28, 2020." +location: "United Kingdom" +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[Andrew Dymock]]" + reverse: true + fn: 1 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Michael Szewczuk]]" + reverse: true + role: "co-founder; administrator of the group's Gab page" + fn: 2 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Oskar Dunn-Koczorowski]]" + reverse: true + fn: 2 +created: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-22 +--- + +Sonnenkrieg Division (SKD) was founded by [[Andrew Dymock]], who had earlier founded the [[System Resistance Network]], a successor to [[National Action]] after that group's proscription in December 2016. Modelled on the American [[Atomwaffen Division]], it drew on the doctrine of the [[Order of Nine Angles]].[^1][^2] + +### Prosecutions + +[[Michael Szewczuk]], 19, of Leeds, a co-founder, and [[Oskar Dunn-Koczorowski]], 18, of West London, shared control of the group's page on Gab, where they posted material encouraging lone-actor terrorism, including an image of [[Prince Harry]] with a gun to his head captioned as a "race traitor." At the [[Old Bailey]] on June 18, 2019, Judge Rebecca Poulet QC, calling the content "abhorrent as well as criminal by reason of their clear intention to encourage terrorist acts," sentenced Szewczuk to four years and three months and Dunn-Koczorowski to eighteen months' detention.[^2] Dymock was arrested at Gatwick Airport in December 2018, convicted of fifteen counts, twelve of them terrorism offences, in June 2021, and sentenced by Judge Mark Dennis QC on July 21, 2021, to seven years with three years' extended licence.[^1] [[Harry Vaughan]], an eighteen-year-old Tiffin School student arrested on June 19, 2019, in an investigation of the [[Fascist Forge]] forum, had made and uploaded SKD propaganda and kept bomb-making manuals; he pleaded guilty to fourteen terrorism offences and in November 2020 received a suspended sentence from Mr Justice Sweeney, who called him "a dangerous offender."[^3] [[Jacek Tchorzewski]], who admired the group, wrote in a notebook, "Let's fill our hearts with terror and London's streets with blood."[^4] + +### Proscription + +On February 24, 2020, the Home Office announced orders to proscribe Sonnenkrieg Division and to treat the System Resistance Network as an alias of National Action, following a meeting of the Proscription Review Group. "By proscribing these groups we are making it much harder for them to spread their hateful rhetoric," said the Home Secretary, [[Priti Patel]]. The Terrorism Act 2000 (Proscribed Organisations) (Amendment) Order 2020, made on February 27, added "Sonnenkrieg Division" to the list after Ansaroul Islam and came into force on February 28; membership or support carries up to ten years' imprisonment.[^5] The [[Feuerkrieg Division]] was proscribed later that year.[^6] Australia listed Sonnenkrieg Division in August 2021, its first designation of a far-right group, before [[The Base]].[^7] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Tell MAMA UK. "Neo-Nazi student to be sentenced for terrorism and hate offences." 2021. https://tellmamauk.org/neo-nazi-student-to-be-sentenced-for-terrorism-and-hate-offences/ ; "British neo-Nazi who called for extermination of Jews sentenced to 7 years." *Algemeiner,* July 22, 2021. https://www.algemeiner.com/2021/07/22/british-neo-nazi-who-called-for-extermination-of-jews-sentenced-to-7-years-in-jail/ +[^2]: "Two British teens just convicted for promoting far-right terrorism online." *The Washington Post,* June 18, 2019. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/06/18/two-british-teens-just-convicted-promoting-far-right-terrorism-online/ ; HOPE not hate. "Jailed neo-Nazi Satanists were a legacy of National Action." June 18, 2019. https://hopenothate.org.uk/2019/06/18/jailed-neo-nazi-satanists-legacy-national-action/ +[^3]: "Teenage Satanist neo-Nazi avoids jail after admitting 14 terror offences." *ITV News London,* November 2, 2020. https://www.itv.com/news/london/2020-11-02/teenage-satanist-neo-nazi-harry-vaughan-sentenced-for-terror-offences +[^4]: Faith Matters. "Nazi-Obsessed Teenager Who Dreamt of Planning Terrorism Jailed." September 2019, as cited on the Jacek Tchorzewski page. +[^5]: Home Office. "Government takes action to proscribe right-wing terrorist groups." February 24, 2020. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-takes-action-to-proscribe-right-wing-terrorist-groups ; "Order to proscribe far-right terrorist group comes into force." February 28, 2020. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/order-to-proscribe-far-right-terrorist-group-comes-into-force ; The Terrorism Act 2000 (Proscribed Organisations) (Amendment) Order 2020, SI 2020/200, arts. 1-2. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/200/made +[^6]: The Terrorism Act 2000 (Proscribed Organisations) (Amendment) (No. 2) Order 2020, SI 2020/743. +[^7]: "The Base, Hezbollah get terrorist designation in Australia." *The Washington Post,* November 23, 2021, as cited on The Base page. diff --git a/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/HISTORICAL_PROGRAMS/SERE.md b/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/HISTORICAL_PROGRAMS/SERE.md index 20dcf2c8..1dd07f41 100644 --- a/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/HISTORICAL_PROGRAMS/SERE.md +++ b/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/HISTORICAL_PROGRAMS/SERE.md @@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ The program operates on the premise that resistance degrades in inverse proporti ### Post-9/11 Reverse-Engineering -Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, the [[CIA]] contracted psychologists [[James Mitchell]] and [[Bruce Jessen]], both with SERE training backgrounds, to design an interrogation program for high-value detainees held at black sites. Mitchell and Jessen drew directly on the SERE curriculum, adapting techniques trained as defensive simulations for offensive application. The Senate Intelligence Committee report (2014) documented this derivation in detail, noting that the theoretical basis for the "enhanced interrogation" program was the SERE research literature on resistance, inverted for use as an exploitation tool.[^2] +Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, the [[CIA]] contracted psychologists [[James Mitchell]] and [[Bruce Jessen]], both with SERE training backgrounds, to design an interrogation program for high-value detainees held at black sites. Mitchell and Jessen drew directly on the SERE curriculum, adapting techniques trained as defensive simulations for offensive application. The [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence|Senate Intelligence Committee]] report (2014) documented this derivation in detail, noting that the theoretical basis for the "enhanced interrogation" program was the SERE research literature on resistance, inverted for use as an exploitation tool.[^2] The adaptation reversed the original ethical premise: SERE techniques were designed to produce short-term compliance in controlled training environments with built-in safety protocols and trained personnel who could terminate a session. Applied operationally to real captives without those constraints, the same techniques produced a different profile of harm. The Senate report found the program produced false information and caused severe psychological damage to detainees without producing actionable intelligence that could not have been obtained by other means.[^2] diff --git a/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/COINTELPRO.md b/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/COINTELPRO.md index fbf58650..b8d4bee7 100644 --- a/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/COINTELPRO.md +++ b/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/COINTELPRO.md @@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ Hoover formally terminated COINTELPRO on April 27, 1971, less than two months af The Church Committee documented COINTELPRO in its final report, concluding: "Many of the targets of COINTELPRO were not criminals or terrorists but were private citizens who openly advocated unpopular ideas and who committed no illegal acts." The Committee found that "groups and individuals have been harassed and disrupted because of their political views and not their criminal conduct." The Bureau's own records showed it had opened more than half a million domestic intelligence files since 1960. The Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, S. Rept. 94-755, April 26, 1976, is the primary published government record of COINTELPRO.[^1] -The Senate Intelligence Committee's book-length study of domestic CIA and FBI surveillance activities, *Final Report of the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations With Respect to Intelligence Activities* (1976), remains the definitive primary-source compilation of the program's documented scope.[^1] +The [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence|Senate Intelligence Committee]]'s book-length study of domestic CIA and FBI surveillance activities, *Final Report of the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations With Respect to Intelligence Activities* (1976), remains the definitive primary-source compilation of the program's documented scope.[^1] ### Footnotes diff --git a/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/SOFTWARE_PROJECTS/PROMIS.md b/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/SOFTWARE_PROJECTS/PROMIS.md index aaec4c85..22429cd7 100644 --- a/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/SOFTWARE_PROJECTS/PROMIS.md +++ b/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/SOFTWARE_PROJECTS/PROMIS.md @@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ Bankruptcy Judge [[George Francis Bason, Jr.]] ruled in September 1987 that DOJ Freelance journalist [[Danny Casolaro]] began investigating the PROMIS Software Scandal in 1990 after being contacted by INSLAW founder Bill Hamilton.[^1] Casolaro believed the theft of PROMIS was one tentacle of a sprawling criminal conspiracy he called "[[The Octopus]]," which he believed linked U.S. intelligence agencies, international espionage and arms dealing, organized crime, drug cartels involved in the [[Iran-Contra Affair]], money laundering through [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]], and covert operations to manipulate foreign governments. He was working on a book titled "Behold, A Pale Horse" (later "The Octopus") encompassing these connected events.[^1] -Casolaro was found dead on August 10, 1991, in his hotel room in [[Martinsburg, West Virginia]], his wrists slashed twelve times. His death was ruled a suicide. His research files on PROMIS and the Octopus were missing from the hotel room. The House Judiciary Committee recommended further investigation into the circumstances of his death, and the case was later the subject of the 2024 documentary series *American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders*. Full details are at Danny Casolaro.[^2][^8] +Casolaro was found dead on August 10, 1991, in his hotel room in [[Martinsburg, West Virginia]], his wrists slashed twelve times. His death was ruled a suicide. His research files on PROMIS and the Octopus were missing from the hotel room. The [[House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]] recommended further investigation into the circumstances of his death, and the case was later the subject of the 2024 documentary series *American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders*. Full details are at Danny Casolaro.[^2][^8] ### The Backdoor Theory and International Proliferation diff --git a/40 - EVENTS/CONTRA_WAR/Boland Amendment.md b/40 - EVENTS/CONTRA_WAR/Boland Amendment.md index 15e37521..3b50dc52 100644 --- a/40 - EVENTS/CONTRA_WAR/Boland Amendment.md +++ b/40 - EVENTS/CONTRA_WAR/Boland Amendment.md @@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ The Boland Amendments were a series of congressional provisions, named after Mas ### First Boland Amendment (1982) -The first Boland Amendment was passed on Christmas Eve 1982 by a vote of 411–0, prohibiting the use of taxpayer funds "for the purpose of overthrowing the government of Nicaragua or provoking a military exchange between Nicaragua and Honduras." It was triggered by a Newsweek cover story, "America's Secret War: Target Nicaragua," which exposed the [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]] administration's covert war. Congressman Tom Harkin had proposed a complete funding cutoff, calling the Contras "vicious, cutthroat murderers" and urging Congress to "end our involvement with this group." Boland, who chaired the House Intelligence Committee and knew about the secret CIA project, persuaded Harkin to accept a weaker amendment.[^1] +The first Boland Amendment was passed on Christmas Eve 1982 by a vote of 411–0, prohibiting the use of taxpayer funds "for the purpose of overthrowing the government of Nicaragua or provoking a military exchange between Nicaragua and Honduras." It was triggered by a Newsweek cover story, "America's Secret War: Target Nicaragua," which exposed the [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]] administration's covert war. Congressman Tom Harkin had proposed a complete funding cutoff, calling the Contras "vicious, cutthroat murderers" and urging Congress to "end our involvement with this group." Boland, who chaired the [[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence|House Intelligence Committee]] and knew about the secret CIA project, persuaded Harkin to accept a weaker amendment.[^1] The amendment was largely a fraud. Internal government memos show the CIA, White House, Defense Department, and Contras' congressional supporters knew the Contras had no hope of defeating the [[Sandinistas]]. Since there was no way the Contras would overthrow the Nicaraguan government, supporters reasoned they could continue spending CIA funds despite the amendment. If the Contras received money for one purpose, arms interdiction, and used it for another, "that wasn't the CIA's fault."[^1] diff --git a/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report.md b/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report.md index 0c38ef60..70f69bc2 100644 --- a/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report.md +++ b/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report.md @@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ location: "Washington, D.C." Kerry's subcommittee investigation began in 1988, predating BCCI's July 1991 shutdown by three years. The subcommittee was originally focused on drug trafficking and money laundering when it first encountered BCCI through its investigation of [[Manuel Noriega]]'s Panamanian bank accounts and the [[Medellín Cartel]]'s financial infrastructure. [[Amjad Awan]], BCCI's manager for [[Latin America]] and Noriega's personal banker, became a key witness after his arrest in Tampa in October 1988 as part of a U.S. Customs sting. -The investigation expanded dramatically after Manhattan District Attorney [[Robert Morgenthau]] brought BCCI evidence to Kerry's attention, and after [[Jack Blum]], a former Kerry subcommittee investigator, continued developing sources within and around BCCI independently. The [[Bank of England]]'s forced closure of BCCI in July 1991 and the simultaneous international criminal indictments gave the investigation new impetus.[^1] +The investigation expanded dramatically after Manhattan District Attorney [[Robert Morgenthau]] brought BCCI evidence to Kerry's attention, and after [[Jack Blum]], a former [[Senate Foreign Relations Committee|Kerry subcommittee]] investigator, continued developing sources within and around BCCI independently. The [[Bank of England]]'s forced closure of BCCI in July 1991 and the simultaneous international criminal indictments gave the investigation new impetus.[^1] ### Principal Findings diff --git a/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/PROMIS Software Scandal.md b/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/PROMIS Software Scandal.md index 3837cee7..40d3e394 100644 --- a/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/PROMIS Software Scandal.md +++ b/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/PROMIS Software Scandal.md @@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ Bason's non-reappointment in 1988, when his four-year term expired after he soug The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI) examined the INSLAW matter in 1989 and found "no proof" that [[Lowell Jensen]] and [[Edwin Meese]] had conspired to ruin INSLAW or steal its product, and "no proof of any connection between [[Earl Brian]] or [[Hadron]] and the Department with regard to the INSLAW contract." The Senate report did find, however, that DOJ official Thomas Stanton had "improperly tried to get special handling for Inslaw's bankruptcy" and criticized the Department for placing Brewer, a former INSLAW employee, in charge of the implementation contract.[^3] -The House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Representative [[Jack Brooks]], conducted a three-year investigation from 1989 to 1992. Its September 10, 1992 report (House Report 102-857) reached substantially more damaging conclusions. The committee found "strong evidence...that the Department of Justice 'acted willfully and fraudulently,' and 'took, converted and stole,' Inslaw's Enhanced PROMIS by 'trickery fraud and deceit.'"[^1] The report cited an admission from Deputy Attorney General [[Arnold Burns]], who told DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility investigators in 1986 that INSLAW's proprietary rights claim was "legitimate" and that the government "would probably lose the case in court on this issue" - yet DOJ continued litigating against INSLAW.[^1] +The [[House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]], chaired by Representative [[Jack Brooks]], conducted a three-year investigation from 1989 to 1992. Its September 10, 1992 report (House Report 102-857) reached substantially more damaging conclusions. The committee found "strong evidence...that the Department of Justice 'acted willfully and fraudulently,' and 'took, converted and stole,' Inslaw's Enhanced PROMIS by 'trickery fraud and deceit.'"[^1] The report cited an admission from Deputy Attorney General [[Arnold Burns]], who told DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility investigators in 1986 that INSLAW's proprietary rights claim was "legitimate" and that the government "would probably lose the case in court on this issue" - yet DOJ continued litigating against INSLAW.[^1] The House Committee specifically examined the roles of Lowell Jensen and Edwin Meese in the affair. Jensen had developed DALITE (District Attorney's Automated Legal Information System), a competing case management software, while serving as Alameda County District Attorney; he was a member of the contract oversight committee at INSLAW's inception and later became Associate Attorney General and then Deputy Attorney General under Meese. The Committee found it "incredible that the Department, having made this determination [that INSLAW's proprietary rights claim was legitimate], would continue to pursue its litigation."[^1] Meese had served alongside Earl Brian in Governor [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan's]] California cabinet; Meese's wife purchased stock in a Brian-controlled company; Meese reportedly recused himself from PROMIS matters upon becoming Attorney General in February 1985, leaving Jensen to handle the issue.[^4] @@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ A distinct body of allegations, separate from the Brian conspiracy theory, held British media proprietor [[Robert Maxwell]], who had maintained intelligence relationships with Mossad since his association with [[Yitzhak Shamir]] in the early 1960s, allegedly served as the primary commercial distributor for the modified software through his Israeli company [[Degem]] and a network of international holdings. According to accounts drawing on Israeli intelligence sources, Maxwell sold PROMIS-derived software to agencies in Britain, Australia, South Korea, Canada, Jordan, Poland, the Soviet Union, South Africa, and numerous other countries, with total sales alleged to exceed $500 million.[^5][^6] INSLAW alleged that Maxwell had contributed $600,000 from a joint U.S.-Israeli intelligence slush fund to have INSLAW's lead counsel dismissed, preventing the company from fully litigating its proprietary claims against the U.S. government.[^1] -The House report itself never adopts the back door as a finding: it records that "the Hamiltons claim the modification of Enhanced PROMIS was an essential element of the enterprise, because the software was subsequently distributed by Dr. Brian to intelligence agencies internationally with a 'back door' software routine," and elsewhere that the modifications "possibly allowed for the creation of a 'back door,'" attributing the claim to the affidavits of Ben-Menashe and Riconosciuto; Riconosciuto's own affidavit of March 21, 1991, speaks of "modification" and "implementation," not of a back door. The Canadian thread, from the 1991 inventory error that put INSLAW and the committee on the trail of the [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police|RCMP]] to the RCMP's own [[Project Abbreviation]] of 2000, is set out on its own page. The Bua Report found "no credible evidence" supporting any of these international distribution allegations and concluded that only public-domain versions of PROMIS had been distributed abroad.[^2] The September 1994 DOJ review by Assistant Associate Attorney General John C. Dwyer reached identical conclusions.[^7] +The House report itself never adopts the back door as a finding: it records that "the Hamiltons claim the modification of Enhanced PROMIS was an essential element of the enterprise, because the software was subsequently distributed by Dr. Brian to intelligence agencies internationally with a 'back door' software routine," and elsewhere that the modifications "possibly allowed for the creation of a 'back door,'" attributing the claim to the affidavits of Ben-Menashe and Riconosciuto; Riconosciuto's own affidavit of March 21, 1991, speaks of "modification" and "implementation," not of a back door. The Canadian thread, from the 1991 inventory error that put INSLAW and the committee on the trail of the RCMP to the RCMP's own [[Project Abbreviation]] of 2000, is set out on its own page. The Bua Report found "no credible evidence" supporting any of these international distribution allegations and concluded that only public-domain versions of PROMIS had been distributed abroad.[^2] The September 1994 DOJ review by Assistant Associate Attorney General John C. Dwyer reached identical conclusions.[^7] ### Danny Casolaro and The Octopus @@ -76,7 +76,7 @@ The House Judiciary Committee's 1992 report noted that Casolaro had "encountered ### Hanssen and bin Laden -On June 14, 2001, the Washington Times reported that "accused spy [[Robert Hanssen]] gave secret U.S. software to his Russian handlers that later went to terrorist Osama bin Laden," the software "believed to be an upgraded version of a program known as 'Promis,'" sold on, unnamed officials said, for 2 million dollars; the same sources said the FBI's [[FOIMS]] and COINS systems, which the criminal complaint against Hanssen showed he had used extensively, "are believed to be upgraded versions of the Promis software program." [[Bill Hamilton]] told the paper that government sources had told INSLAW a modified PROMIS had been the "standard on-line database software" of the intelligence agencies since the mid-1980s. On October 16, 2001, Fox News reported that Hanssen had been "tasked with helping allies like Germany and England with the installation and use of their versions of the Promis program," that "Germany stopped using Promis software just last week," that Britain had begun closing it down and Canada had investigated tampering, and that "all we can get from the U.S. government is that they are no longer using Promis software"; FBI and Justice Department spokesmen said only that the department "has discontinued use of the program." In January 2003 Hamilton asked the national commission on the September 11 attacks to consider whether the department's misappropriation of PROMIS was "linked indirectly to pre-September 11 performance problems of U.S. intelligence," and said FBI Director [[Robert Mueller]] had acknowledged to INSLAW's lawyer [[C. Boyden Gray]] in late 2001 that the bureau's system was based on "the Inslaw software," a statement reported only through Hamilton; by then the government's position was a denial that it had used PROMIS or that Hanssen had delivered it. The Justice Department inspector general's 2003 review of the Hanssen case, which examines his use of the FBI's Automated Case Support system at length, does not mention PROMIS or FOIMS.[^9] +On June 14, 2001, the Washington Times reported that "accused spy [[Robert Hanssen]] gave secret U.S. software to his Russian handlers that later went to terrorist Osama bin Laden," the software "believed to be an upgraded version of a program known as 'Promis,'" sold on, unnamed officials said, for 2 million dollars; the same sources said the FBI's [[FOIMS]] and COINS systems, which the criminal complaint against Hanssen showed he had used extensively, "are believed to be upgraded versions of the Promis software program." Bill Hamilton told the paper that government sources had told INSLAW a modified PROMIS had been the "standard on-line database software" of the intelligence agencies since the mid-1980s. On October 16, 2001, Fox News reported that Hanssen had been "tasked with helping allies like Germany and England with the installation and use of their versions of the Promis program," that "Germany stopped using Promis software just last week," that Britain had begun closing it down and Canada had investigated tampering, and that "all we can get from the U.S. government is that they are no longer using Promis software"; FBI and Justice Department spokesmen said only that the department "has discontinued use of the program." In January 2003 Hamilton asked the national commission on the September 11 attacks to consider whether the department's misappropriation of PROMIS was "linked indirectly to pre-September 11 performance problems of U.S. intelligence," and said FBI Director [[Robert Mueller]] had acknowledged to INSLAW's lawyer [[C. Boyden Gray]] in late 2001 that the bureau's system was based on "the Inslaw software," a statement reported only through Hamilton; by then the government's position was a denial that it had used PROMIS or that Hanssen had delivered it. The Justice Department inspector general's 2003 review of the Hanssen case, which examines his use of the FBI's Automated Case Support system at length, does not mention PROMIS or FOIMS.[^9] ### Court of Federal Claims and Final Resolution diff --git a/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Watergate.md b/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Watergate.md index 0c1374cb..66393b77 100644 --- a/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Watergate.md +++ b/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Watergate.md @@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ The burglars and their supervisors were drawn from the intersection of the [[Cen ### Investigation and Resignation -Reporting in the *Washington Post*, an FBI investigation, and the [[Senate Watergate Committee]] revealed a secret taping system in the [[Oval Office]] and a fund used to buy the burglars' silence. After the Supreme Court ordered release of the tapes, which confirmed Nixon's role in the cover-up, the House Judiciary Committee approved articles of impeachment and Nixon resigned. The scandal directly preceded the [[Church Committee]] and Pike Committee investigations that exposed the broader history of intelligence abuses.[^1] +Reporting in the *Washington Post*, an FBI investigation, and the [[Senate Watergate Committee]] revealed a secret taping system in the [[Oval Office]] and a fund used to buy the burglars' silence. After the Supreme Court ordered release of the tapes, which confirmed Nixon's role in the cover-up, the [[House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]] approved articles of impeachment and Nixon resigned. The scandal directly preceded the [[Church Committee]] and Pike Committee investigations that exposed the broader history of intelligence abuses.[^1] ### Footnotes diff --git a/40 - EVENTS/MODERN_INCIDENTS/Cybertruck Trump Hotel Bombing.md b/40 - EVENTS/MODERN_INCIDENTS/Cybertruck Trump Hotel Bombing.md index 050968e8..0bfd4850 100644 --- a/40 - EVENTS/MODERN_INCIDENTS/Cybertruck Trump Hotel Bombing.md +++ b/40 - EVENTS/MODERN_INCIDENTS/Cybertruck Trump Hotel Bombing.md @@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ summary: "On January 1, 2025, active duty Army Special Operations soldier Matthe date: 2025-01-01 location: "Las Vegas, Nevada" --- -On January 1, 2025, active duty [[U.S. Army]] [[Special Operations Group|Special Ops Soldier]] [[Matthew Livelsberger]] parked a Tesla Cybertruck in front of the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas in Paradise, Nevada. The truck was filled with firework mortars and gas canisters and was detonated at approximately 8:39am injuring seven bystanders.[^1] Livelsberger allegedly shot himself in the head seconds before the explosion. The [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] is still deciding whether to classify this as an [[act of terrorism]]. +On January 1, 2025, active duty [[U.S. Army]] [[Special Operations Group|Special Ops Soldier]] [[Matthew Livelsberger]] parked a Tesla Cybertruck in front of the Trump International Hotel [[Las Vegas]] in Paradise, Nevada. The truck was filled with firework mortars and gas canisters and was detonated at approximately 8:39am injuring seven bystanders.[^1] Livelsberger allegedly shot himself in the head seconds before the explosion. The [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] is still deciding whether to classify this as an [[act of terrorism]]. ### Detailed Timeline - The truck was rented in Colorado using [[Turo]] on December 28[^2]. Livelsberger texted a girlfriend that he felt like batman or “halo.” - December 30, Livelsberger drove to Monument, Colorado and purchased two handguns diff --git a/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/INTELLIGENCE/KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation.md b/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/INTELLIGENCE/KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation.md index c77b9d4f..259b7f5c 100644 --- a/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/INTELLIGENCE/KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation.md +++ b/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/INTELLIGENCE/KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation.md @@ -54,13 +54,13 @@ In 1997, the Baltimore Sun obtained KUBARK through a Freedom of Information Act A successor document, the Human Resource Exploitation Training Manual (HRE), was produced in 1983 and used in training programs conducted by the CIA for foreign intelligence services in [[Honduras]], [[Colombia]], [[Ecuador]], [[El Salvador]], and other [[Central America|Central American]] and South American countries during the Reagan era. The HRE updated and expanded KUBARK's coercive interrogation framework and was produced for use with allied services rather than by CIA officers directly. -The HRE was declassified alongside KUBARK in 1997 following the Baltimore Sun FOIA request. Handwritten annotations in the declassified version indicate that the manual was modified between 1983 and 1985 to remove references to "electric shock" and to add language encouraging rapport-based approaches - modifications the House Intelligence Committee later characterized as occurring specifically in response to Congressional oversight rather than reflecting operational policy changes.[^2] +The HRE was declassified alongside KUBARK in 1997 following the Baltimore Sun FOIA request. Handwritten annotations in the declassified version indicate that the manual was modified between 1983 and 1985 to remove references to "electric shock" and to add language encouraging rapport-based approaches - modifications the [[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence|House Intelligence Committee]] later characterized as occurring specifically in response to Congressional oversight rather than reflecting operational policy changes.[^2] ### Post-9/11 Legacy The KUBARK framework informed the development of the CIA's post-September 11 enhanced interrogation program and the Department of Defense's Army Field Manual interrogation guidelines. The 2002 Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel memoranda (the "Torture Memos") that authorized specific enhanced interrogation techniques - sleep deprivation, stress positions, sensory disruption, isolation - drew on a legal and psychological framework continuous with KUBARK's approach to regression induction. -The Senate Intelligence Committee's 2014 report on the CIA's detention and interrogation program (the "Torture Report") examined the enhanced interrogation program in detail and found that many of the techniques employed were not effective at producing reliable intelligence - a conclusion consistent with KUBARK's own acknowledgment that extreme coercion tends to produce unreliable information.[^1] +The [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence|Senate Intelligence Committee]]'s 2014 report on the CIA's detention and interrogation program (the "Torture Report") examined the enhanced interrogation program in detail and found that many of the techniques employed were not effective at producing reliable intelligence - a conclusion consistent with KUBARK's own acknowledgment that extreme coercion tends to produce unreliable information.[^1] ### Footnotes diff --git a/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/INTELLIGENCE/The Octopus.md b/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/INTELLIGENCE/The Octopus.md index 9c7e04e2..54d52aff 100644 --- a/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/INTELLIGENCE/The Octopus.md +++ b/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/INTELLIGENCE/The Octopus.md @@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ The October Surprise: Allegations that [[William J. Casey]], [[George H.W. Bush] Iran-Contra: The covert supply of arms to Iranian-backed forces and funding of the Nicaraguan [[Contras]] through off-the-books channels, including weapons manufacturing operations Casolaro connected to the [[Wackenhut Corporation|Wackenhut]]-[[Cabazon Indian Reservation|Cabazon]] joint venture in California, where weapons were allegedly developed for Third World armies using the reservation's sovereign status to evade federal controls.[^1][^3] -BCCI: The [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]], which served as the primary financial infrastructure for covert operations, arms trafficking, and money laundering by the network. Casolaro believed the PROMIS backdoor had also been used to penetrate BCCI and other international banking systems including [[CHIPS]] and [[SWIFT]].[^1] +BCCI: The Bank of Credit and Commerce International, which served as the primary financial infrastructure for covert operations, arms trafficking, and money laundering by the network. Casolaro believed the PROMIS backdoor had also been used to penetrate BCCI and other international banking systems including [[CHIPS]] and [[SWIFT]].[^1] Drug Trafficking: CIA-connected drug networks flowing from the [[Golden Triangle]] and [[Central America]], with Casolaro connecting [[Robert Booth Nichols]] to both the Octopus network and to drug trafficking through the Medellin and [[Cali Drug Cartel|Cali Cartels]]. Casolaro also investigated connections between former DOJ official [[Michael Abbell]] and the Cali Drug Cartel, a lead provided by Riconosciuto.[^1][^3] @@ -39,15 +39,15 @@ Organized Crime: Figures including Nichols, who held alleged ties to the [[Gambi ### Key Sources -Casolaro's investigation rested heavily on [[Michael Riconosciuto]], a computer scientist and self-described CIA contractor who provided the central allegations about PROMIS modification and the October Surprise payment. Casolaro considered Riconosciuto's March 1991 affidavit a breakthrough, though subsequent investigations found Riconosciuto to be an unreliable witness whose accounts contained irreconcilable contradictions.[^4] +Casolaro's investigation rested heavily on Michael Riconosciuto, a computer scientist and self-described CIA contractor who provided the central allegations about PROMIS modification and the October Surprise payment. Casolaro considered Riconosciuto's March 1991 affidavit a breakthrough, though subsequent investigations found Riconosciuto to be an unreliable witness whose accounts contained irreconcilable contradictions.[^4] -[[Robert Booth Nichols]], an international operative under FBI investigation for money laundering and narcotics ties, spent hundreds of hours on the phone with Casolaro and warned him repeatedly to abandon the investigation. Nichols reportedly flew to [[Martinsburg, West Virginia]] shortly before Casolaro's death to persuade him to drop the story, and wrote a manuscript titled "Danny Casolaro's Octopus" after Casolaro died - asserting he believed Casolaro had been murdered.[^1] +Robert Booth Nichols, an international operative under FBI investigation for money laundering and narcotics ties, spent hundreds of hours on the phone with Casolaro and warned him repeatedly to abandon the investigation. Nichols reportedly flew to [[Martinsburg, West Virginia]] shortly before Casolaro's death to persuade him to drop the story, and wrote a manuscript titled "Danny Casolaro's Octopus" after Casolaro died - asserting he believed Casolaro had been murdered.[^1] Other sources included former CIA officers, arms dealers, and figures connected to the BCCI investigation. Casolaro's notes contained the names of intelligence operatives, and a 12-page memo from Riconosciuto detailing PROMIS allegations, though his files were missing from his hotel room when his body was discovered.[^1][^2] ### Casolaro's Death -On August 10, 1991, Casolaro was found dead in a hotel bathtub in [[Martinsburg, West Virginia]], his wrists slashed twelve times. His death was officially ruled a suicide. Before leaving for Martinsburg, he had warned his brother Anthony that if anything happened to him there, "it would not be an accident." His research materials were missing from the room. The House Judiciary Committee's 1992 report on the INSLAW affair noted that Casolaro had "encountered dangerous individuals associated with organized crime and the world of covert intelligence operations" and recommended further investigation into his death.[^2] FBI task force members privately questioned the suicide conclusion and recommended further inquiry; some documents related to the case remain withheld under national security exemptions.[^1] +On August 10, 1991, Casolaro was found dead in a hotel bathtub in Martinsburg, West Virginia, his wrists slashed twelve times. His death was officially ruled a suicide. Before leaving for Martinsburg, he had warned his brother Anthony that if anything happened to him there, "it would not be an accident." His research materials were missing from the room. The [[House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]]'s 1992 report on the INSLAW affair noted that Casolaro had "encountered dangerous individuals associated with organized crime and the world of covert intelligence operations" and recommended further investigation into his death.[^2] FBI task force members privately questioned the suicide conclusion and recommended further inquiry; some documents related to the case remain withheld under national security exemptions.[^1] ### Legacy and Later Usage diff --git a/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act.md b/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act.md index 63c27c11..7fa2503d 100644 --- a/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act.md +++ b/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act.md @@ -17,11 +17,11 @@ updated: 2026-05-22 summary: "The Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act (RISAA), enacted April 20, 2024, reauthorized FISA Section 702 through April 20, 2026, codified modest procedural reforms to FBI querying practices, and defeated a bipartisan warrant amendment by a 212-212 tied House vote." --- -The Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act (RISAA), Pub. L. 118-49, was enacted on April 20, 2024, reauthorizing [[Section 702]] of the [[Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act]] through April 20, 2026. It represented Congress's response to a documented period of significant compliance failures in the [[FBI]]'s warrantless querying of [[Section 702]] databases, following the disclosure through declassified [[Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court]] (FISC) opinions that the FBI had conducted more than 278,000 non-compliant U.S. person queries between approximately 2020 and early 2022. +The Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act (RISAA), Pub. L. 118-49, was enacted on April 20, 2024, reauthorizing [[Section 702]] of the [[Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act]] through April 20, 2026. It represented Congress's response to a documented period of significant compliance failures in the [[FBI]]'s warrantless querying of Section 702 databases, following the disclosure through declassified [[Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court]] (FISC) opinions that the FBI had conducted more than 278,000 non-compliant U.S. person queries between approximately 2020 and early 2022. ### Legislative History -The bill emerged from competing proposals backed by the House Judiciary Committee, which favored substantial reforms including a warrant requirement for backdoor searches, and the House Intelligence Committee, which backed more modest procedural changes. House leadership presented RISAA as a compromise. +The bill emerged from competing proposals backed by the [[House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]], which favored substantial reforms including a warrant requirement for backdoor searches, and the [[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence|House Intelligence Committee]], which backed more modest procedural changes. House leadership presented RISAA as a compromise. The central contested issue was whether to require the government to obtain a warrant or FISA Title I order before querying Section 702 databases using a U.S. person identifier. A House floor amendment to impose this warrant requirement, with bipartisan sponsorship, failed by a tied vote of 212-212 on April 12, 2024. This was the closest Congress had come to imposing a warrant requirement on Section 702 backdoor searches since the program was created by the [[FISA Amendments Act of 2008]]. diff --git a/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/Siege.md b/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/Siege.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..5e8eba9d --- /dev/null +++ b/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/Siege.md @@ -0,0 +1,38 @@ +--- +category: "Ideology" +aliases: + - "Siege: The Collected Writings of James Mason" +tags: + - Text + - NeoNazi + - Accelerationism + - SiegeCulture + - AtomwaffenDivision +summary: "James Mason's newsletter for the National Socialist Liberation Front, 1980 to 1986, collected as a book by Michael Moynihan's Storm Books in 1992 and revived on Iron March in 2015." +date: 1992 +created: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-22 +--- + +*Siege* was the newsletter that [[James Mason]] wrote for the [[National Socialist Liberation Front]], a group rooted in a 1970s periodical of [[Joseph Tommasi]], from 1980 to 1986. Its essays argued that democratic institutions were too corrupt to reform and had to be destroyed by terrorism, that lone attackers were harder to infiltrate and prosecute than groups, and that tensions should be escalated until a race war became unavoidable.[^1] Mason drew on the "leaderless resistance" of [[Louis Beam]].[^2] + +### The Book + +After Mason had failed for years to find a publisher, [[Michael J. Moynihan]] set up the Storm Books imprint and in 1992 published the collected essays as *Siege: The Collected Writings of James Mason*. [[Tom Metzger]] praised and distributed it; the rest of the neo-Nazi movement largely ignored or criticized it, and it stayed marginal for about two decades.[^2] + +### Revival + +From 2015 members of the [[Iron March]] forum promoted the book, and [[Atomwaffen Division]], announced there by [[Brandon Russell]] on October 12, 2015, made it required reading.[^3][^4] Mason made his first documented in-person appearance with the group at the [[2019 AWD Nuclear Congress]] in [[Las Vegas]], which was organized by the paid [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] informant [[Joshua Caleb Sutter]].[^5] A study published by the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism in 2022 found 33 extremist entities with documented ties to *Siege*, nine of them involved in violence and four in murders, and quoted [[Europol]]: "*Siege* and Accelerationism, both with significant potential for inciting violence, were the most prominent ideologies in 2021, especially attracting young people radicalised online."[^1] The [[Terrorgram Collective]] treated it as a foundational text.[^6] + +The book has turned up in the material of attackers. The manifesto package of the attacker in the [[2024 Eskisehir Mosque Stabbing]] in Turkey included it, together with Ted Kaczynski's manifesto.[^7] The 75-page manifesto of [[Cain Clark]] and [[Caleb Vazquez]], who [[2026 Islamic Center of San Diego Shooting|attacked the Islamic Center of San Diego]] in May 2026, called *Siege* and *[[The Turner Diaries]]* works that "should be read almost biblically by all soldiers of the white race."[^8] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: International Centre for Counter-Terrorism. "Siege Culture After Siege: Anatomy of a Neo-Nazi Terrorist Doctrine." 2022. https://icct.nl/sites/default/files/2022-12/siege-culture-neo-nazi-terrorist-doctrine.pdf +[^2]: Southern Poverty Law Center. "James Mason." Extremist Files. https://www.splcenter.org/resources/extremist-files/james-mason/ +[^3]: "Armed and Dangerous." ProPublica and PBS Frontline, 2018. https://www.propublica.org/article/atomwaffen-division-armed-and-dangerous +[^4]: Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. "The Iron March Forum and the Evolution of the 'Skull Mask' Neo-Fascist Network." https://ctc.westpoint.edu/the-iron-march-forum-and-the-evolution-of-the-skull-mask-neo-fascist-network/ +[^5]: Winston, Ali. "The Satanist Neo-Nazi Plot to Murder U.S. Soldiers." *Rolling Stone,* 2021. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/the-satanist-neo-nazi-plot-to-murder-u-s-soldiers-1352629/ +[^6]: "The Rise and Fall of Terrorgram: Inside a Global Online Hate Network." ProPublica and PBS Frontline, March 25, 2025. +[^7]: Anti-Defamation League. "Turkey Attacker Inspired by Accelerationism and Mass Killers, Manifesto Shows." https://www.adl.org/resources/article/turkey-attacker-inspired-accelerationism-and-mass-killers-manifesto-shows +[^8]: Anti-Defamation League. "San Diego Mosque Shooters' Apparent Manifestos Reveal Anti-Muslim Extremism." May 2026. https://www.adl.org/resources/article/san-diego-mosque-shooters-apparent-manifestos-reveal-anti-muslim-extremism ; "San Diego mosque shooters left 75-page neo-Nazi manifesto." *i24NEWS.* diff --git a/60 - PLACES/COUNTRIES/Thailand.md b/60 - PLACES/COUNTRIES/Thailand.md index 9642ce1a..0f9366c9 100644 --- a/60 - PLACES/COUNTRIES/Thailand.md +++ b/60 - PLACES/COUNTRIES/Thailand.md @@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ Thailand's geographic position made it central to the CIA's operations in the br ### CIA Black Site - Detention Site Green -Following the September 11, 2001 attacks and the beginning of the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program under President [[George W. Bush]], Thailand hosted the first CIA black site used for the "enhanced interrogation" of al-Qaeda detainees. The facility, identified in the Senate Intelligence Committee's report as "Detention Site Green," was a converted building in Thailand where Abu Zubaydah - an al-Qaeda logistics figure captured in [[Pakistan]] in March 2002 - was held and subjected to waterboarding 83 times, sleep deprivation, and other techniques authorized under the OLC "Torture Memos." Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was later reportedly also held briefly at the Thai site. +Following the September 11, 2001 attacks and the beginning of the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program under President [[George W. Bush]], Thailand hosted the first CIA black site used for the "enhanced interrogation" of al-Qaeda detainees. The facility, identified in the [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence|Senate Intelligence Committee]]'s report as "Detention Site Green," was a converted building in Thailand where Abu Zubaydah - an al-Qaeda logistics figure captured in [[Pakistan]] in March 2002 - was held and subjected to waterboarding 83 times, sleep deprivation, and other techniques authorized under the OLC "Torture Memos." Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was later reportedly also held briefly at the Thai site. The Thai government's knowledge of and consent to the black site was acknowledged in the Senate Intelligence Committee's 2014 report, which documented that foreign governments hosting black sites had been paid for their cooperation and had periodically threatened to expel CIA operations for political or domestic reasons. Thailand's role as the first black site location was not publicly acknowledged by the Thai government.[^1] diff --git a/60 - PLACES/MILITARY_INSTALLATIONS/Los Alamos.md b/60 - PLACES/MILITARY_INSTALLATIONS/Los Alamos.md index bb03b75d..aabd126c 100644 --- a/60 - PLACES/MILITARY_INSTALLATIONS/Los Alamos.md +++ b/60 - PLACES/MILITARY_INSTALLATIONS/Los Alamos.md @@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ Several figures who appear in this vault worked at or had connections to Los Ala ### PROMIS -The laboratory enters the [[PROMIS Software Scandal|PROMIS]] literature twice. [[John A. Belton]], a former Canadian stockbroker, told the Justice Department's reviewers in 1994 that "Trans World Arms in Montreal and ORA," the [[Ora Group]] of [[Ari Ben-Menashe]]'s account, had sold PROMIS in 1983 to "a Nuclear Regulatory Commission facility in New Mexico" that he believed was Los Alamos, on the word of an unnamed source and without producing any document; the reviewers found him "unbelievable." The [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police|RCMP]] investigator [[Sean McDade]] said in 2000 that a meeting of allied intelligence chiefs on the year-2000 computer problem had been held at the laboratory in December 1999, and that a source had suggested [[Mossad]] might have a two-way back door into the shared system reaching "top U.S. weapons secrets at Los Alamos and other installations." Neither the House Judiciary Committee's 1992 report nor the 1993 Bua report mentions the laboratory.[^3] +The laboratory enters the [[PROMIS Software Scandal|PROMIS]] literature twice. [[John A. Belton]], a former Canadian stockbroker, told the Justice Department's reviewers in 1994 that "Trans World Arms in Montreal and ORA," the [[Ora Group]] of [[Ari Ben-Menashe]]'s account, had sold PROMIS in 1983 to "a Nuclear Regulatory Commission facility in New Mexico" that he believed was Los Alamos, on the word of an unnamed source and without producing any document; the reviewers found him "unbelievable." The [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police|RCMP]] investigator [[Sean McDade]] said in 2000 that a meeting of allied intelligence chiefs on the year-2000 computer problem had been held at the laboratory in December 1999, and that a source had suggested [[Mossad]] might have a two-way back door into the shared system reaching "top U.S. weapons secrets at Los Alamos and other installations." Neither the [[House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]]'s 1992 report nor the 1993 Bua report mentions the laboratory.[^3] ### Footnotes diff --git a/60 - PLACES/REGIONS/Middle East.md b/60 - PLACES/REGIONS/Middle East.md index 22e2c616..658a5a13 100644 --- a/60 - PLACES/REGIONS/Middle East.md +++ b/60 - PLACES/REGIONS/Middle East.md @@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ created: 2026-09-22 updated: 2026-09-22 --- -The Middle East enters the vault first as an intelligence target. U-2 flights "continued to monitor sensitive areas, including the Middle East, and by 1958, CIA photo interpreters observed significant activity at an Israeli Air Force practice bombing range south of Beersheba, which turned out to be the early signs of the [[Dimona]] nuclear reactor"; [[Christian A. Herter]]'s farewell briefing to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on January 6, 1961, discussed "the 'disturbing' new element in the Middle East related to Dimona," and [[Carl E. Duckett]]'s work at the CIA "centered on assessing [[Israel]]'s nuclear capabilities and the potential for nuclear proliferation in the Middle East." In the Kennedy White House [[Myer Feldman]] "was authorized to monitor all State Department and [[White House]] cable traffic on the Middle East," to [[McGeorge Bundy]]'s dismay; [[Roswell L. Gilpatric]]'s committee urged "nuclear-free zones in [[Latin America]], Africa, and the Middle East, including Israel and [[Egypt]]"; and [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] became "the first American President to supply Israel with offensive weapons." The [[Committee for the Denuclearization of the Middle East]], Israeli scholars who went public in April 1962, urged United Nations intervention. [[Nikolai Bulganin]] during Suez and [[Leonid Brezhnev]] during the [[Yom Kippur War]] threatened Soviet intervention; the [[USS Liberty Incident|USS Liberty]] "had been monitoring Middle East communications traffic in international waters off the coast of Israel."[^1] +The Middle East enters the vault first as an intelligence target. U-2 flights "continued to monitor sensitive areas, including the Middle East, and by 1958, CIA photo interpreters observed significant activity at an Israeli Air Force practice bombing range south of Beersheba, which turned out to be the early signs of the [[Dimona]] nuclear reactor"; [[Christian A. Herter]]'s farewell briefing to the [[Senate Foreign Relations Committee]] on January 6, 1961, discussed "the 'disturbing' new element in the Middle East related to Dimona," and [[Carl E. Duckett]]'s work at the CIA "centered on assessing [[Israel]]'s nuclear capabilities and the potential for nuclear proliferation in the Middle East." In the Kennedy White House [[Myer Feldman]] "was authorized to monitor all State Department and [[White House]] cable traffic on the Middle East," to [[McGeorge Bundy]]'s dismay; [[Roswell L. Gilpatric]]'s committee urged "nuclear-free zones in [[Latin America]], Africa, and the Middle East, including Israel and [[Egypt]]"; and [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] became "the first American President to supply Israel with offensive weapons." The [[Committee for the Denuclearization of the Middle East]], Israeli scholars who went public in April 1962, urged United Nations intervention. [[Nikolai Bulganin]] during Suez and [[Leonid Brezhnev]] during the [[Yom Kippur War]] threatened Soviet intervention; the [[USS Liberty Incident|USS Liberty]] "had been monitoring Middle East communications traffic in international waters off the coast of Israel."[^1] ### Liaison and Clubs