vault backup: 2026-05-15 16:10:43

10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Bill Harvey.md

@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+---
+aliases:
+  - Bill Harvey
+  - William Harvey
+  - William King Harvey
+category: "Intelligence & Government"
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - CIA
+  - ColdWar
+  - Intelligence
+  - FBI
+  - Cuba
+  - 1950s
+  - 1960s
+summary: "William King Harvey (1915-1976) was a CIA officer known for his aggressive Cold War operations in Berlin and his involvement in the Castro assassination plots. After a career as an FBI agent, he joined the CIA and built the agency's Berlin Base into one of its most important Cold War stations, managing Operation Gold, the CIA-MI6 Berlin Tunnel operation. He was involved in the CIA-Mafia plots against Fidel Castro (ZRRIFLE/Executive Action) and was considered by some colleagues as the CIA's archetypal Cold War operator."
+born: 1915-09-13
+died: 1976-06-09
+location: "Indianapolis, Indiana"
+---
+
+William King Harvey was born September 13, 1915, in Danville, Indiana. He worked as an FBI agent before joining the CIA in 1947, and built a career as one of the agency's most aggressive and unconventional Cold War operations officers. He died June 9, 1976, of a heart attack in Indianapolis.[^1]
+
+### FBI Career and CIA Recruitment
+
+Harvey worked for the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] under J. Edgar Hoover before being recruited by the CIA in its early years. He left the FBI under circumstances that reportedly involved tensions with Hoover's management style. His FBI background gave him counterintelligence experience and contacts that were useful in the CIA's early Cold War operations.
+
+### Berlin Base
+
+Harvey took over the CIA's [[Berlin]] Base in 1952 and directed it until 1959, transforming it into one of the agency's most significant Cold War stations. His management style was confrontational and unconventional; he was known for carrying a pistol to meetings and maintaining an operations tempo that created friction with more cautious colleagues.
+
+From Berlin Base, Harvey planned and directed [[Operation Gold]], the CIA-MI6 tunnel operation that tapped Soviet military communications cables in the Soviet sector of [[Berlin]] from approximately 1955 to 1956. The operation produced a substantial intelligence harvest before being revealed - though it had been compromised from the planning stage by British MI6 officer and KGB agent [[George Blake]].
+
+Harvey was one of the CIA officers most deeply involved in the counterintelligence implications of the tunnel's compromise, investigating how the operation had been betrayed and working through the implications for other joint operations.[^1]
+
+### Cuba and the Castro Assassination Plots
+
+Following his Berlin assignment, Harvey was given responsibility for ZRRIFLE, the CIA's general assassination capability development program, and became the agency's primary officer for the CIA-Mafia plots to assassinate Fidel Castro. Harvey worked with organized crime figures - including Sam Giancana and John Roselli - in attempts to recruit assassins with access to Cuba. His handling of these operations, which included going around normal CIA oversight channels, created ongoing tensions with CIA leadership.
+
+During the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962, Harvey dispatched infiltration teams to Cuba without authorization from Director John McCone, an action that triggered a furious confrontation and contributed to his reassignment. He was moved to Rome as Chief of Station, a demotion he accepted with poor grace.[^1]
+
+### Legacy
+
+Harvey was regarded by colleagues as both one of the most effective operators of the early Cold War and one of the most personally difficult people in the agency's history - brilliant, heavy-drinking, combative, and genuinely dangerous. His career illustrated both the agency's aggressive capabilities in the early Cold War period and the institutional tensions created when officers pursued operations with minimal oversight.[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Weiner, Tim. *Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA.* Doubleday, 2007, pp. 104-111, 193-205. Mahoney, Richard D. *Sons and Brothers: The Days of Jack and Bobby Kennedy.* Arcade Publishing, 1999 (on Harvey and the CIA-Mafia plots). Murphy, David E., Sergei A. Kondrashev, and George Bailey. *Battleground Berlin: CIA vs. KGB in the Cold War.* Yale University Press, 1997.

10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Frederick Atwater.md

@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ When the program became operational and was renamed [[STARGATE PROJECT|Grill Fla
 
 After retiring from the Army, Atwater became the director of research for the [[Monroe Institute]] and then acting director following the death of [[Laurie Monroe]] and finally President in 2006 until his retirement in 2012.
 
-## Publications
+### Publications
 Atwater published or contributed to numerous papers regarding [[Hemi-Sync]] for the [[Monroe Institute]].
 ### Books
 Atwater wrote a book of memoirs released 2001 entitled *Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul: Living with Guidance* (ISBN-10 1571742476).

10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/George Blake.md

@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+---
+aliases:
+  - George Blake
+  - Georgi Behar
+category: "Intelligence & Government"
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - MI6
+  - KGB
+  - ColdWar
+  - Intelligence
+  - DoubleAgent
+  - Soviet
+  - 1950s
+  - 1960s
+summary: "George Blake (1922-2020) was a British MI6 officer and one of the most damaging Soviet penetration agents in Western intelligence history. Recruited by the KGB during his imprisonment in North Korea from 1950 to 1953, he subsequently betrayed an estimated 40 agents to Soviet intelligence (most of whom were executed) and revealed the existence of Operation Gold, the CIA-MI6 Berlin Tunnel, before its construction was even complete. Convicted of espionage in 1961 and sentenced to 42 years, he escaped from Wormwood Scrubs prison in 1966 and lived in Moscow until his death in 2020."
+born: 1922-11-11
+died: 2020-12-26
+location: "Moscow, Russia"
+---
+
+George Blake was born Georg Ernst Behar on November 11, 1922, in Rotterdam, Netherlands, to a Dutch mother and a Jewish Egyptian father who was a naturalized British subject. After his father's death he took British citizenship. During World War II he worked with the Dutch resistance, eventually making his way to Britain, where he worked with the Dutch government in exile. After the war he was recruited by MI6 and had a career that included postings in Germany and Korea. He died December 26, 2020, in Moscow, at age 98.[^1]
+
+### Korean War Capture and KGB Recruitment
+
+Blake was serving as MI6 head of station in Seoul, South Korea, when North Korean forces invaded in June 1950. He was captured and held as a prisoner of war for three years, during which time he was exposed to North Korean and Soviet Communist indoctrination. He was converted to Communism and made contact with Soviet intelligence. He was recruited as a KGB agent before his repatriation to Britain in 1953.[^1]
+
+Blake later described his conversion as genuine: he stated that it came from his experience as a prisoner of war and his observation of American air campaigns destroying Korean villages, which led him to embrace Communist ideology. Whether this account is complete is disputed.
+
+### Betrayal of Operation Gold
+
+In late 1953, Blake attended the planning conference in London at which CIA and MI6 officials briefed the concept for [[Operation Gold]] - the joint operation to dig a tunnel from West Berlin to tap Soviet military communications cables. Blake passed the existence, location, and details of the operation to his KGB handler shortly after the conference.
+
+The KGB chose not to immediately reveal the tunnel's existence in order to protect Blake's identity. Soviet forces instead allowed [[Operation Gold]] to proceed and operate for approximately eleven months before staging a "discovery" in April 1956. Soviet communications passed through the compromised cables for nearly a year while the KGB accepted the intelligence loss to protect their source.[^1]
+
+### Scale of Damage
+
+Blake subsequently betrayed an estimated 40 Western agents - individuals working for MI6 against Soviet bloc targets - to Soviet intelligence. Most of these agents were arrested; the majority are believed to have been executed. He also betrayed other operations and revealed information about MI6's organizational structure, personnel, and methods over approximately eight years of active service as a KGB agent after his return from Korea.[^1]
+
+### Exposure and Trial
+
+Blake was exposed in 1961 following information provided by a Polish intelligence defector, Michał Goleniewski, who had information about a British MI6 officer who had worked with the KGB. Blake was confronted by MI6 officers in April 1961 and confessed. He was tried at the Old Bailey, convicted on five counts of passing information useful to an enemy, and sentenced to 42 years in prison - at the time the longest sentence ever imposed by a British court. The judge sentenced him to consecutive terms of 14, 14, and 14 years, one for each count of espionage he considered most serious.[^1]
+
+### Escape from Wormwood Scrubs
+
+On October 22, 1966, Blake escaped from Wormwood Scrubs prison in London. He had been serving his sentence there and was assisted by two anti-nuclear protesters he had befriended in prison, along with a network of supporters including a former British soldier. He was hidden in London for several months before being transported through the Netherlands to East Germany and ultimately to Moscow.[^1]
+
+He settled in Moscow, where he was given a pension, an apartment, and the rank of colonel in the KGB. He lived in Russia for the remaining fifty-four years of his life, publishing his memoir, *No Other Choice* (1990), and giving occasional interviews. He became a Russian citizen and remained committed to his Communist ideology until his death.[^2]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Weiner, Tim. *Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA.* Doubleday, 2007. Murphy, David E., Sergei A. Kondrashev, and George Bailey. *Battleground Berlin: CIA vs. KGB in the Cold War.* Yale University Press, 1997.
+[^2]: Blake, George. *No Other Choice: An Autobiography.* Jonathan Cape, 1990.

10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Jacques Bergier.md

@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ An expanded version of his story, "The Secret of the Nautilus," was published in
 
 Whether Bergier's story was true or fabricated remains a debate, but it had real-world consequences. The Soviets used the news story to their strategic advantage, with [[Leonid L. Vasilev]], Russia's leading ESP researcher, claiming that Soviet parapsychology research was stimulated by the *Nautilus* reports[^1].
 
-## Publications
+### Publications
 *   "Thought Transfer, Weapon of War" (*Constellation*, 1959)
 *   *Morning of the Magicians* (co-authored with Louis Pauwels)
 

10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/John B. Alexander.md

@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ He also played a role in the [[STARGATE PROJECT|Grill Flame]] program, particula
 
 After retiring from the military, Alexander joined [[Psi]]'s corporate board in 1990, though he later stated it was a mistake[^1].
 
-## Publications
+### Publications
 *   "The New Mental Battlefield: Beam Me Up, Spock" (*Military Review*, 1980)
 
 ### Footnotes

10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Martin Gardner.md

@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ Gardner, along with [[Carl Sagan]], [[Ray Hyman]], [[Paul Kurtz]], and [[James R
 
 Towards the end of his life, Gardner experienced a religious epiphany, openly discussing his belief in a supernatural being or God. He asserted that this belief was not pseudoscience because it could neither be confirmed nor disproved by science or reason, calling it "philosophical theism"[^1].
 
-## Publications
+### Publications
 *   *Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science* (1952)
 
 ### Footnotes

10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Moshe Dayan.md

@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ In his later political career, [[Moshe Dayan|Dayan]] transitioned to diplomatic
 
 Despite his military prowess and diplomatic involvement, Dayan's perspective on the Palestinian problem remained notably limited. Along with [[Golda Meir]], he believed the Palestinian issue would eventually resolve itself, a view that reflected the thinking of many [[Israel|Israeli]] leaders of his generatzion but would prove overly optimistic in the decades that followed.[^2]
 
-## Publications
+### Publications
 
 - _Living with the Bible_ (1978)
 

10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/P. T. Van Dyke.md

@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ The study noted that it would not be conceptually difficult to imagine the utili
 
 Van Dyke and his co-author, [[M. L. Juncosa]], also highlighted the challenge facing anyone working on such studies, noting that the subject matter "tends to be polarized into uncritical acceptance or total rejection" of fact. They lamented that little progress was likely to be made as long as the research field remained a "childish battle between 'true believers' and 'the incredulous [who] dismiss the matter out of hand'"[^1].
 
-## Publications
+### Publications
 *   "Paranormal Phenomena—Briefing on a Net Assessment Study" (1973, co-authored with M. L. Juncosa)
 
 ### Footnotes

10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Aldous Huxley.md

@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ Huxley was present when Puharich attempted to drug [[Harry Stump]] with the *teo
 
 Huxley's interest in the sixth sense stemmed from a childhood eye infection that left him partially blind for nearly three years, making him keenly aware of perception beyond the five known senses[^1].
 
-## Publications
+### Publications
 *   *Brave New World* (1932)
 *   *The Doors of Perception* (1954)
 

10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Eugene Lessman.md

@@ -14,13 +14,13 @@ location: "Dundrum, County Down, Northern Ireland"
 
 **Eugene "Gene" Alden Lessman** was a U.S. Army intelligence officer and an important recruiter for "spooky" work according to [[Luis Elizondo]] in his 2024 book, _Imminent_. Known as Gene, he was also known by the name John James Kielty[^2] and passed away in 2019. Like his father before him, Gene spent much of his career in military intelligence and became a lead recruiter for the Army's "Great Skills" program.[^1]
 
-## Military Service
+### Military Service
 
 Gene served three tours in [[Vietnam|Vietnam]] from December 1966 to 1973[^5], where he served as a [[Green Berets]] in the elite [[Special Operations Group]] (SOG) and was part of the infamous [[Project Phoenix]].[^1] For his service in Vietnam, he received a Purple Heart, Bronze Star, and Air Medal with Valor.[^3]
 
 Following his tours in Vietnam, Gene was posted in Berlin where he ran counter intelligence operations.[^3] After 20 years of distinguished military service, Gene retired from the army and subsequently spent another 20 years in civil service.[^4]
 
-## Intelligence Programs and Remote Viewing
+### Intelligence Programs and Remote Viewing
 
 Gene became deeply involved in the military's psychic espionage programs. He allegedly recruited [[Luis Elizondo]] to the [[Great Skill Program]] to practice [[Remote Viewing]]. According to Elizondo, Gene claimed that "Great Skills" was also called "Grey Fox," though this appears to reference the different [[GRAY FOX]] program within the [[United States Army Intelligence Support Activity]] (USAISA or ISA) under the [[Joint Special Operations Command]] (JSOC).[^1]
 
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ Lessman recruited Elizondo into the Great Skills program after identifying him a
 
 Lessman believed that Elizondo had a natural gift for [[Remote Viewing]] and encouraged him to develop his abilities. The skills that Elizondo learned from Lessman would prove to be valuable throughout his career as an intelligence officer.[^1]
 
-## Blog
+### Blog
 
 Gene kept a blog entitled [A Boy from Dundrum](https://boyfromdundrum.blogspot.com/), where he shared personal reflections and memories from his military service.
 

10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/John L. LaMothe.md

@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ Citing scientists and experts like [[Oliver J. Caldwell]] and [[Sybil Leek]], La
 
 Despite the controversy, LaMothe's report circulated through the military and intelligence communities, prompting the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] to take action and escalate its own psychic research programs[^1].
 
-## Publications
+### Publications
 *   *Controlled Offensive Behavior—USSR* (1972)
 
 ### Footnotes

10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/M. L. Juncosa.md

@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ The study noted that it would not be conceptually difficult to imagine the utili
 
 Juncosa and Van Dyke also highlighted the challenge facing anyone working on such studies, noting that the subject matter "tends to be polarized into uncritical acceptance or total rejection" of fact. They lamented that little progress was likely to be made as long as the research field remained a "childish battle between 'true believers' and 'the incredulous [who] dismiss the matter out of hand'"[^1].
 
-## Publications
+### Publications
 *   "Paranormal Phenomena—Briefing on a Net Assessment Study" (1973, co-authored with P. T. Van Dyke)
 
 ### Footnotes

10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Matthew Livelsberger.md

@@ -10,13 +10,13 @@ location: "Arizona, USA"
 Matthew Alan Livelsberger was born July 22, 1987 in Arizona. He was raised in Bucyrus, Ohio where he attended Bucyrus High school and graduated in 2005.
 
 He attended Norwich University from 2016-2019 and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Strategic Studies and Defense Analysis (Summa Cum Laude).
-## Army Service
+### Army Service
 In January 2006, he joined the [[U.S. Army]] where he served actively until March 2011. He then joined the [[National Guard]] from March 2011 to July 2012. During this period he briefly worked for [[General Dynamics]] (July 2011-May 2012) as a hyperspectral Imaging Integrator on the “Lightguard Minotaur system.”[^7] This was followed by rejoining the [[Army Reserve]] from July 2012 to December 2012. He then reenlisted into active duty in the [[U.S. Army]] as part of the [[Special Operations Group|Special Operations]] where he served in active duty until his death January 1, 2025 in the [[Cybertruck Trump Hotel Bombing]] as a potential [[act of terrorism]].[^5]
 
 He served in Afghanistan (2017-2019), Ukraine (2016), the Republic of Congo (2014), Tajikistan (2016), and Georgia as a [[Green Berets]].[^1] He was awarded two Bronze stars and an Army Commendation Medal. In Dec 2016 he received the Department of State Meritorious Honor Award (DMSHA) for work in Central Asian States. At one point he was stationed at [[Fort Bragg]], but most of his career he was stationed at [[Fort Carson]][^3]. His last assignment as a Master Sargent was to the 10th group in Germany as a "systems manager” and involved building drones. He was on leave in the days preceding the bombing and his death.
 
 There were social media posts made that suggested he was helping to connect soldiers to recruiters for Ukraine.
-## Personal Life
+### Personal Life
 Livelsberger was married twice (first divorced in 2018) and had a young daughter from his most recent merger. His latest wife allegedly broke up with him in the days preceding the explosion over Matthew’s adultery.[^2]
 
 On the drive to Las Vegas, he was texting [[Alicia Arritt]], an old girlfriend, about the cyber truck.
@@ -25,11 +25,11 @@ On the drive to Las Vegas, he was texting [[Alicia Arritt]], an old girlfriend,
 > “I'm building drones in my new position”[^3]
 
 He was on a history channel reality show at one point.[^6]
-## Medical History
+### Medical History
 Matthew had back surgery twice from his time as a paratrooper[^3]. In 2019, following his service in Afghanistan, he suffered a traumatic brain injury causing behavior change. He did not seek treatment.
-## Politics
+### Politics
 Livelsberger was allegedly a supporter of Donald Trump and voted for him in Novemeber 2024.
-## Manifesto
+### Manifesto
 The day prior to his death, Livelsberger allegedly sent a manifesto ([[Cybertruck Trump Hotel Bombing#^5630d3|manifesto text]]) to [[Sam Shoemate]] (@samosaur) on December 31, 2024[^4] alleging, among other things, that the [[New Jersey Drones|NJ Drones]] are Chinese [[anti-gravitic]] devices, that the United States also possesses this technology, that he is aware of war crimes committed in 2019 by the United States, and that he has TSSCI with [[UAP Task Force]] [[Special Access Programs|USAP]] access. He indicated that these craft were controlled from a building at Groom Lake.
 ### Footnotes
 [^1]: [Man who rented Cybertruck that exploded in Las Vegas a Green Beret, official says](https://archive.is/RKsXC)

10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Albert Speer.md

@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ While serving a life sentence in Spandau prison, Speer recounted [[Rudolf Hess]]
 
 Speer also noted [[Adolf Hitler]]'s reaction to [[Heinrich Himmler]]'s interest in the occult, quoting Hitler as saying, "What nonsense! Here we have at last reached an age that has left all mysticism behind it, and now he [Himmler] wants to start that all over again. We might just as well have stayed with the church"[^1].
 
-## Publications
+### Publications
 *   *Inside the Third Reich*
 
 ### Footnotes

10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Joan Quigley.md

@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ Regan stated that "Virtually every major move and decision the Reagans made duri
 
 In her memoir, *What Does Joan Say?*, Quigley wrote, "Not since the days of the Roman emperors—and never in the history of the [[United States]] Presidency—has an astrologer played such a significant role in the nation’s affairs of State"[^1].
 
-## Publications
+### Publications
 *   *What Does Joan Say?* (1990)
 
 ### Footnotes

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Walter Ulbricht.md

@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+---
+category: "Intelligence & Government"
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Germany
+  - EastGermany
+  - Soviet
+  - ColdWar
+  - Communist
+  - 1950s
+  - 1960s
+  - 1970s
+summary: "Walter Ulbricht (1893-1973) was the dominant political figure of East Germany from the state's founding in 1949 until his removal in 1971. As First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party (SED), he oversaw the construction of the Berlin Wall on August 13, 1961, to halt mass emigration from the GDR, and directed the Stalinist consolidation of Communist Party rule. He was a hardline Soviet loyalist who resisted de-Stalinization and was removed by Erich Honecker with Soviet support in 1971."
+born: 1893-06-30
+died: 1973-08-01
+location: "Döllnsee, East Germany"
+---
+
+Walter Ernst Paul Ulbricht was born June 30, 1893, in Leipzig, Germany, into a working-class family. He joined the Social Democratic Party as a young man and moved to the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) following the 1917 Russian Revolution. He rose through Communist Party structures, spent years in exile in the Soviet Union during the Nazi period, and returned to Germany with Soviet forces in 1945 as a leading figure in the Soviet occupation zone's political apparatus. He died August 1, 1973, at his residence at the Döllnsee near Berlin.[^1]
+
+### Role in East Germany's Founding
+
+Following Germany's defeat in 1945, Ulbricht was among the KPD leaders the Soviet Union returned to Germany to build a Communist government in the Soviet occupation zone. The forced merger of the KPD and SPD in the Soviet zone in 1946, creating the Socialist Unity Party (SED), installed Ulbricht and fellow Moscow-trained Communists in effective control of the party. When [[East Germany]] was formally established on October 7, 1949, Ulbricht was Deputy Prime Minister; by 1950 he had consolidated his position as SED First Secretary and effective ruler of the GDR.[^1]
+
+### The Berlin Wall Decision
+
+The most consequential decision of Ulbricht's leadership was the construction of the [[Berlin Wall]] beginning August 13, 1961. Mass emigration from East Germany through the open Berlin crossing points - approximately three million people since 1949, disproportionately young, educated, and professionally skilled - threatened the GDR's labor force and political legitimacy. Ulbricht had long sought Soviet authorization to seal the border; Khrushchev, though ambivalent about the diplomatic costs, provided authorization in the summer of 1961 as the flow of emigrants accelerated to tens of thousands per month.
+
+The Wall sealed East Germany's population within its borders and halted the emigration crisis. It also defined the Cold War's physical geography for the following twenty-eight years.[^1]
+
+### De-Stalinization and Removal
+
+Ulbricht was a committed Stalinist who resisted the de-Stalinization policies Khrushchev pursued after 1956. He suppressed the workers' uprising of June 17, 1953, with Soviet military assistance. His political rigidity and his insistence on maintaining hardline positions even when they complicated Soviet foreign policy objectives created tensions with Moscow through the 1960s.
+
+By 1971, Ulbricht's insistence on conditions for inter-German normalization that conflicted with the broader Soviet-West German detente process led to his removal. The Soviet Union backed Erich Honecker, who had managed the Berlin Wall's construction logistics in 1961, as Ulbricht's successor. Ulbricht retired with nominal honors and died in 1973.[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Koehler, John O. *Stasi: The Untold Story of the East German Secret Police.* Westview Press, 1999. Taylor, Frederick. *The Berlin Wall: A World Divided, 1961-1989.* HarperCollins, 2006.