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- - - - - - - - - - - From 82612343671503f922a924c8088bd42e104a8317 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "disinfo.zone" Date: Wed, 7 Oct 2026 22:19:10 -0400 Subject: [PATCH 2/2] vault backup: 2026-10-07 22:19:10 --- 00 - META/CHANGELOG.md | 122 ++++++------ 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Arif Durrani.md | 2 +- 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/David Grusch.md | 8 +- 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Edward Jay Epstein.md | 2 +- 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Eric Davis.md | 2 +- 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/McGeorge Bundy.md | 179 +++++++++++++++++- 10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/A.Q. Khan.md | 2 +- 10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/C.B. Scott Jones.md | 6 +- 10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Mercer family.md | 2 +- 10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Salvatore La Russa.md | 93 +++++++-- 10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Andrija Puharich.md | 2 +- 10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Augusto Pinochet.md | 172 +++++++++++++++-- 10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Hal Puthoff.md | 2 +- 10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Peter Thiel.md | 4 +- .../GOVERNMENT/USA/U.S. government.md | 18 -- 20 - ORGANIZATIONS/Iron March.md | 173 +++++++++++------ ...rity and Public Sector Advisory Council.md | 2 +- .../PRIVATE/Associated Press.md | 2 +- 20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/BGC Group.md | 2 +- ...igelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies.md | 2 +- .../PRIVATE/Cantor Fitzgerald.md | 2 +- 20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Dynetics.md | 2 +- .../PRIVATE/GWU Program on Extremism.md | 2 +- 20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Sky Watcher.md | 6 +- 20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Sol Foundation.md | 4 +- .../To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science.md | 6 +- 20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Yakuza.md | 119 +++++++++++- ...anced Theoretical Physics Working Group.md | 4 +- .../INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/KONA BLUE.md | 2 +- .../The Nautilus (Telepathy Project).md | 4 +- 40 - EVENTS/CONTRA_WAR/Bay of Pigs.md | 8 +- ...cember 2017 New York Times AATIP Report.md | 4 +- .../Palantir Gotham.md | 2 +- 60 - PLACES/COUNTRIES/Panama.md | 2 +- 60 - PLACES/COUNTRIES/United States.md | 120 ++++++++++-- 80 - SOURCES/Wilson-Davis Memo.md | 6 +- 36 files changed, 844 insertions(+), 246 deletions(-) delete mode 100644 20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/U.S. government.md diff --git a/00 - META/CHANGELOG.md b/00 - META/CHANGELOG.md index 69e80e76..83c2410e 100644 --- a/00 - META/CHANGELOG.md +++ b/00 - META/CHANGELOG.md @@ -1,5 +1,64 @@ -- 2026-10-07T1952 · [[_QUEUE]] -- 2026-10-07T1952 · [[_WAVE_C_REPORT]] +- 2026-10-07T2120 · [[Salvatore La Russa]] +- 2026-10-07T2120 · [[Salvatore La Russa]] +- 2026-10-07T2120 · [[_WAVE_C_REPORT]] +- 2026-10-07T2120 · [[_REVIEW_E5]] +- 2026-10-07T2113 · [[_QUEUE]] +- 2026-10-07T2113 · [[The Nautilus (Telepathy Project)]] +- 2026-10-07T2113 · [[Wilson-Davis Memo]] +- 2026-10-07T2113 · [[Palantir Gotham]] +- 2026-10-07T2113 · [[December 2017 New York Times AATIP Report]] +- 2026-10-07T2113 · [[KONA BLUE]] +- 2026-10-07T2113 · [[Advanced Theoretical Physics Working Group]] +- 2026-10-07T2113 · [[To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science]] +- 2026-10-07T2113 · [[Sol Foundation]] +- 2026-10-07T2113 · [[Sky Watcher]] +- 2026-10-07T2113 · [[GWU Program on Extremism]] +- 2026-10-07T2113 · [[Dynetics]] +- 2026-10-07T2113 · [[Cantor Fitzgerald]] +- 2026-10-07T2113 · [[Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies]] +- 2026-10-07T2113 · [[BGC Group]] +- 2026-10-07T2113 · [[Anthropic National Security and Public Sector Advisory Council]] +- 2026-10-07T2113 · [[Peter Thiel]] +- 2026-10-07T2113 · [[Hal Puthoff]] +- 2026-10-07T2113 · [[Andrija Puharich]] +- 2026-10-07T2113 · [[C.B. Scott Jones]] +- 2026-10-07T2113 · [[A.Q. Khan]] +- 2026-10-07T2113 · [[Eric Davis]] +- 2026-10-07T2113 · [[Edward Jay Epstein]] +- 2026-10-07T2113 · [[David Grusch]] +- 2026-10-07T2113 · [[Arif Durrani]] +- 2026-10-07T2112 · [[Panama]] +- 2026-10-07T2112 · [[United States]] +- 2026-10-07T2111 · [[_REVIEW_E4]] +- 2026-10-07T2111 · [[U.S. government]] +- 2026-10-07T2111 · [[Associated Press]] +- 2026-10-07T2110 · [[Mercer family]] +- 2026-10-07T2110 · [[Iron March]] +- 2026-10-07T2110 · [[Iron March]] +- 2026-10-07T2109 · [[_REVIEW_E2]] +- 2026-10-07T2108 · [[_FOIA_E5]] +- 2026-10-07T2108 · [[Bay of Pigs]] +- 2026-10-07T2108 · [[_NOTES_E5]] +- 2026-10-07T2107 · [[_RULES]] +- 2026-10-07T2107 · [[McGeorge Bundy]] +- 2026-10-07T2107 · [[Yakuza]] +- 2026-10-07T2107 · [[McGeorge Bundy]] +- 2026-10-07T2107 · [[Yakuza]] +- 2026-10-07T2104 · [[_REVIEW_E6]] +- 2026-10-07T2103 · [[_REVIEW_E3]] +- 2026-10-07T2058 · [[Augusto Pinochet]] +- 2026-10-07T2058 · [[Augusto Pinochet]] +- 2026-10-07T2058 · [[_REVIEW_E1]] +- 2026-10-07T2052 · [[_NOTES_E3]] +- 2026-10-07T2050 · [[_FOIA_E3]] +- 2026-10-07T2050 · [[_NOTES_E4]] +- 2026-10-07T2047 · [[_NOTES_E1]] +- 2026-10-07T2046 · [[_FOIA_E1]] +- 2026-10-07T2045 · [[_FOIA_E2]] +- 2026-10-07T2045 · [[_NOTES_E2]] +- 2026-10-07T2043 · [[_FOIA_E4]] +- 2026-10-07T2042 · [[_FOIA_E6]] +- 2026-10-07T2042 · [[_NOTES_E6]] - 2026-10-07T1952 · [[Nikita Khrushchev]] - 2026-10-07T1952 · [[Nikita Khrushchev]] - 2026-10-07T1951 · [[_REVIEW_D3]] @@ -24,7 +83,6 @@ - 2026-10-07T1939 · [[Krista Killen]] - 2026-10-07T1939 · [[Krista Killen]] - 2026-10-07T1939 · [[_REVIEW_D7]] -- 2026-10-07T1935 · [[_RULES]] - 2026-10-07T1934 · [[_NOTES_D3]] - 2026-10-07T1934 · [[_FOIA_D3]] - 2026-10-07T1931 · [[_FOIA_D1]] @@ -40,61 +98,3 @@ - 2026-10-07T1926 · [[_FOIA_D5]] - 2026-10-07T1926 · [[_NOTES_D5]] - 2026-10-07T1858 · [[Richard Babayan]] -- 2026-10-07T1858 · [[Richard Babayan]] -- 2026-10-07T1858 · [[Osirak bombing]] -- 2026-10-07T1858 · [[Zafar Iqbal]] -- 2026-10-07T1858 · [[Saddam Hussein]] -- 2026-10-07T1858 · [[Korean War]] -- 2026-10-07T1858 · [[Yom Kippur War]] -- 2026-10-07T1858 · [[Korean War]] -- 2026-10-07T1858 · [[Yom Kippur War]] -- 2026-10-07T1857 · [[Saddam Hussein]] -- 2026-10-07T1857 · [[Zafar Iqbal]] -- 2026-10-07T1853 · [[_REVIEW_C5]] -- 2026-10-07T1851 · [[_REVIEW_C6]] -- 2026-10-07T1850 · [[Osirak bombing]] -- 2026-10-07T1849 · [[_REVIEW_C4]] -- 2026-10-07T1846 · [[_REVIEW_C2]] -- 2026-10-07T1845 · [[_REVIEW_C3]] -- 2026-10-07T1842 · [[_NOTES_C6]] -- 2026-10-07T1839 · [[_FOIA_C4]] -- 2026-10-07T1839 · [[_NOTES_C4]] -- 2026-10-07T1837 · [[_FOIA_C5]] -- 2026-10-07T1837 · [[_NOTES_C5]] -- 2026-10-07T1836 · [[_REVIEW_C1]] -- 2026-10-07T1835 · [[_FOIA_C2]] -- 2026-10-07T1835 · [[_FOIA_C6]] -- 2026-10-07T1835 · [[_NOTES_C2]] -- 2026-10-07T1834 · [[_FOIA_C3]] -- 2026-10-07T1833 · [[_NOTES_C3]] -- 2026-10-07T1831 · [[_FOIA_C1]] -- 2026-10-07T1831 · [[_NOTES_C1]] -- 2026-10-07T1815 · [[_RULES_2026-10-05_backup]] -- 2026-10-07T1810 · [[_PENDING_1975_newspapers]] -- 2026-10-07T1810 · [[Philip Arthur Thompson]] -- 2026-10-07T1810 · [[_LIVE_PAGE_backup]] -- 2026-10-07T1810 · [[merged_draft]] -- 2026-10-07T1808 · [[merge_src]] -- 2026-10-07T1755 · [[_SCORES]] -- 2026-10-07T1734 · [[draft]] -- 2026-10-07T1734 · [[_NOTES]] -- 2026-10-07T1734 · [[_NOTES]] -- 2026-10-07T1734 · [[draft]] -- 2026-10-07T1734 · [[draft]] -- 2026-10-07T1734 · [[_NOTES]] -- 2026-10-07T1734 · [[draft]] -- 2026-10-07T1734 · [[_NOTES]] -- 2026-10-07T1734 · [[draft]] -- 2026-10-07T1734 · [[_NOTES]] -- 2026-10-07T1734 · [[draft]] -- 2026-10-07T1734 · [[_NOTES]] -- 2026-10-07T1734 · [[_NOTES]] -- 2026-10-07T1734 · [[draft]] -- 2026-10-07T1734 · [[draft]] -- 2026-10-07T1734 · [[_NOTES]] -- 2026-10-07T1734 · [[draft]] -- 2026-10-07T1734 · [[_NOTES]] -- 2026-10-07T1734 · [[draft]] -- 2026-10-07T1734 · [[_NOTES]] -- 2026-10-07T1734 · [[draft]] -- 2026-10-07T1734 · [[_NOTES]] diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Arif Durrani.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Arif Durrani.md index 98bf3163..4d299425 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Arif Durrani.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Arif Durrani.md @@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ Arif Durrani was a [[Pakistan|Pakistani]] arms dealer convicted of illegally pro ### Arms Dealing and BCCI Connections -Durrani was described as a wealthy arms merchant who traveled the world in luxury.[^3] He admitted to supplying Iran with arms and stated that he was part of a joint operation conducted by the [[United States]] and [[Israel]] to release American hostages in the [[Middle East]].[^4] He met with a U.S. official named [[Oliver North]] to obtain HAWK parts.[^5] His arrest on October 3, 1986, occurred one month before the [[U.S. government]]'s secret arms-for-hostages deal with Tehran was revealed.[^6] +Durrani was described as a wealthy arms merchant who traveled the world in luxury.[^3] He admitted to supplying Iran with arms and stated that he was part of a joint operation conducted by the [[United States]] and [[Israel]] to release American hostages in the [[Middle East]].[^4] He met with a U.S. official named [[Oliver North]] to obtain HAWK parts.[^5] His arrest on October 3, 1986, occurred one month before the U.S. government's secret arms-for-hostages deal with Tehran was revealed.[^6] Durrani had close connections to the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]], knowing [[Agha Hasan Abedi]] personally and having his operations financed by the bank.[^7] He grew up in [[Karachi]] with many of the men who became BCCI executives and worked with them from the beginning of his career as an arms dealer.[^8] He stated that BCCI basically funded operations on instructions from the government of Pakistan, including the construction of a Mirage factory.[^9] diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/David Grusch.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/David Grusch.md index 80cb0827..5ac94bb9 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/David Grusch.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/David Grusch.md @@ -51,19 +51,19 @@ created: 2026-10-03 ### Whistleblower Testimony -In 2023, Grusch went public with his allegations, testifying under oath before the [[House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform|House Oversight Committee]]'s National Security Subcommittee. He stated that he was informed of a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse-engineering program during the course of his official duties. He claimed that the [[U.S. government]] is in possession of non-human technology and "biologics" from the occupants of these craft.[^1] +In 2023, Grusch went public with his allegations, testifying under oath before the [[House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform|House Oversight Committee]]'s National Security Subcommittee. He stated that he was informed of a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse-engineering program during the course of his official duties. He claimed that the [[United States|U.S. government]] is in possession of non-human technology and "biologics" from the occupants of these craft.[^1] Elizondo wrote that Grusch has provided hours of classified testimony to congressional committees and the Inspector General about the so-called "[[Legacy Program]]."[^1] ### Sworn statement of July 26, 2023 -At the hearing of the Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs of the [[House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform]], Grusch said: "I was an intelligence officer for 14 years both in the [[United States Air Force|U.S. Air Force]], both active-duty Air National Guard and Reserve at the rank of Major and most recently from 2021 to 2025, excuse me, 2023, at the [[National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency|National Geospatial Intelligence Agency]], NGA, at the GS-15 civilian level, which is the military equivalent of a full bird colonel." He described himself as "my agency's co-lead in unidentified anomalous phenomena and trans medium object analysis" reporting to the [[UAP Task Force]] and then to the [[All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office]]; said he "became a whistleblower through a PPD-19 urgent concern filing in May 2022 with the intelligence community inspector general"; and said that, in his [[National Reconnaissance Office]] reservist capacity, "I was a member of the UAP Task Force from 2019 to 2021," and that "in 2019, the UAP Task Force Director asked me to identify all special access programs and controlled access programs."[^2] He said: "I was informed in the course of my official duties of a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse engineering program to which I was denied access to those additional read-ons when I requested it," and "my testimony is based on information I have been given by individuals with a long-standing track record of legitimacy and service to this country."[^2] He also said "I have suffered retaliation for my decision."[^2] +At the hearing of the Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Grusch said: "I was an intelligence officer for 14 years both in the [[United States Air Force|U.S. Air Force]], both active-duty Air National Guard and Reserve at the rank of Major and most recently from 2021 to 2025, excuse me, 2023, at the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, NGA, at the GS-15 civilian level, which is the military equivalent of a full bird colonel." He described himself as "my agency's co-lead in unidentified anomalous phenomena and trans medium object analysis" reporting to the UAP Task Force and then to the [[All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office]]; said he "became a whistleblower through a PPD-19 urgent concern filing in May 2022 with the intelligence community inspector general"; and said that, in his National Reconnaissance Office reservist capacity, "I was a member of the UAP Task Force from 2019 to 2021," and that "in 2019, the UAP Task Force Director asked me to identify all special access programs and controlled access programs."[^2] He said: "I was informed in the course of my official duties of a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse engineering program to which I was denied access to those additional read-ons when I requested it," and "my testimony is based on information I have been given by individuals with a long-standing track record of legitimacy and service to this country."[^2] He also said "I have suffered retaliation for my decision."[^2] The record of the same hearing includes, as a document submitted by Representative [[Anna Paulina Luna]], the [[NewsNation]] article "We are not alone: The UFO whistleblower speaks," and, submitted by Representative [[Tim Burchett]], a statement for the record by [[George Knapp]] and a Defense Intelligence Reference Document titled "Advanced Space Propulsion Based on Vacuum (Spacetime Metric) Engineering."[^2] ### Sol Foundation -The résumé that David Grusch filed with the [[House Committee on Oversight and Accountability]] for its July 26, 2023 hearing lists, as its first entry under experience, "May 2023-Present, Chief Operating Officer (COO), The Sol Foundation," with the description "Managing day-to-day operations for a 501c3 federally recognized non-profit. The premier center for research in the natural and social sciences, engineering, and the humanities, but also extends activities to advisory and policy work for the U.S. government/public outreach," and lists "Non-Profit Leadership" among his key competencies. The same document lists "November 2021-April 2023, Senior GEOINT Capabilities Requirements Officer, [[National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency]] (NGA), [[Colorado Springs]], CO (GS-15, Colonel Equiv.)," and describes him as the NGA lead for unidentified anomalous phenomena and trans-medium anomaly issues who "executed new program of record responsive to direct tasking by the Congressional Intelligence Committees."[^3] +The résumé that David Grusch filed with the [[House Committee on Oversight and Accountability]] for its July 26, 2023 hearing lists, as its first entry under experience, "May 2023-Present, Chief Operating Officer (COO), The Sol Foundation," with the description "Managing day-to-day operations for a 501c3 federally recognized non-profit. The premier center for research in the natural and social sciences, engineering, and the humanities, but also extends activities to advisory and policy work for the U.S. government/public outreach," and lists "Non-Profit Leadership" among his key competencies. The same document lists "November 2021-April 2023, Senior GEOINT Capabilities Requirements Officer, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), [[Colorado Springs]], CO (GS-15, Colonel Equiv.)," and describes him as the NGA lead for unidentified anomalous phenomena and trans-medium anomaly issues who "executed new program of record responsive to direct tasking by the Congressional Intelligence Committees."[^3] [[The Debrief]] reported that the existence of the [[Sol Foundation]] first became apparent through that résumé and related documents in early August 2023, and that the foundation was then described as "pending recognition as a 501c3 federal non-profit." [[Garry Nolan]] said in September 2023 that Grusch's title had since become "Senior Founding Advisor," that the earlier title "seemed the right thing at the time," and that Grusch "is a founder of the Sol Foundation."[^4] The foundation's [[Internal Revenue Service|IRS]] ruling date as a 501(c)(3) is June 2024, and its 2024 Form 990 does not list Grusch among its officers or directors; the foundation's website, read October 3, 2026, does not list him among its executive leadership or advisory board either.[^5][^6] On November 18, 2023 Grusch joined the foundation's first symposium in [[Palo Alto, California]] by video from Washington and said, "This is why we have the Sol Foundation. We need to basically create a parallel track of research and independent discovery that aren't necessarily dependent on the U.S. government to provide us all the answers."[^7] @@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ A March 27, 2025 press release from the office of Representative [[Eric Burlison ### NewsNation and Skywatcher -[[Nexstar Media Group]]'s November 14, 2023 announcement of [[Ross Coulthart]] as a NewsNation special correspondent stated that he "will continue to provide reporting on UFO whistleblower David Grusch."[^10] NewsNation wrote in January 2025 that "In June 2023, NewsNation was the first television network to present an interview with Grusch."[^11] Grusch is listed among those interviewed or referenced in the Part I video of [[Sky Watcher]], alongside [[Alex Klokus]], [[Jake Barber]], [[Garry Nolan]], Col. [[Karl Nell]] and [[Fred Baker]].[^12] NewsNation's full special on Barber stated that Grusch and [[Luis Elizondo]] "say they've been told about it, they believe it exists, but they weren't a part of it themselves," and that Barber, "however, is different. He says he was part of that covert program."[^13] +[[Nexstar Media Group]]'s November 14, 2023 announcement of [[Ross Coulthart]] as a NewsNation special correspondent stated that he "will continue to provide reporting on UFO whistleblower David Grusch."[^10] NewsNation wrote in January 2025 that "In June 2023, NewsNation was the first television network to present an interview with Grusch."[^11] Grusch is listed among those interviewed or referenced in the Part I video of [[Sky Watcher]], alongside [[Alex Klokus]], [[Jake Barber]], Garry Nolan, Col. [[Karl Nell]] and [[Fred Baker]].[^12] NewsNation's full special on Barber stated that Grusch and [[Luis Elizondo]] "say they've been told about it, they believe it exists, but they weren't a part of it themselves," and that Barber, "however, is different. He says he was part of that covert program."[^13] ### Retaliation and Impact diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Edward Jay Epstein.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Edward Jay Epstein.md index ccfbe9df..2f1ae220 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Edward Jay Epstein.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Edward Jay Epstein.md @@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ Edward Jay Epstein (December 6, 1935, to January 9, 2024) was an American invest Inquest: The Warren Commission and the Establishment of Truth was published by [[Viking Press]] in 1966. It was his master's thesis at Cornell.[^1][^2] In the December 1966 issue of [[Esquire]] he published a further article that the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] later described as explaining away objections to the book.[^3] -A CIA dispatch to chiefs of certain stations and bases, titled "Countering Criticism of the Warren Report" and dated January 1967, stated that the trend of opinion about the [[Warren Commission]] "is a matter of concern to the [[U.S. government]], including our organization." Its sixth paragraph stated that "another kind of criticism has recently emerged, represented by Edward Jay Epstein's Inquest," that he "adopts a scholarly tone, and to the casual reader, he presents what appears to be a more coherent, reasoned case than the writers described above," and that [[Richard Rovere]] and [[Lord Devlin]], "previously backers of the Commission's Report," had changed their minds. The seventh paragraph stated that "Epstein's competence in research has been greatly exaggerated," giving as examples the date on which the CIA passed a [[Mexico City]] photograph to the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] (November 22, 1963, not November 18 as Inquest had it) and a Secret Service interview report that Inquest said had been withheld from the National Archives; the dispatch stated that an Archives staff member told a CIA officer that Epstein asked for the document, was told it was classified, and ended a two-day visit before the Secret Service declassified it. The eighth paragraph compared Epstein and other "intellectual critics" with [[Richard H. Popkin]], the author of The Second Oswald, whom it described as showing "love of theorizing and lack of common sense and experience." The action paragraph directed that "a useful strategy may be to single out Epstein's theory for attack, using the attached [[Fletcher Knebel]] article and Spectator piece for background."[^4] +A CIA dispatch to chiefs of certain stations and bases, titled "Countering Criticism of the Warren Report" and dated January 1967, stated that the trend of opinion about the [[Warren Commission]] "is a matter of concern to the [[United States|U.S. government]], including our organization." Its sixth paragraph stated that "another kind of criticism has recently emerged, represented by Edward Jay Epstein's Inquest," that he "adopts a scholarly tone, and to the casual reader, he presents what appears to be a more coherent, reasoned case than the writers described above," and that [[Richard Rovere]] and [[Lord Devlin]], "previously backers of the Commission's Report," had changed their minds. The seventh paragraph stated that "Epstein's competence in research has been greatly exaggerated," giving as examples the date on which the CIA passed a [[Mexico City]] photograph to the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] (November 22, 1963, not November 18 as Inquest had it) and a Secret Service interview report that Inquest said had been withheld from the National Archives; the dispatch stated that an Archives staff member told a CIA officer that Epstein asked for the document, was told it was classified, and ended a two-day visit before the Secret Service declassified it. The eighth paragraph compared Epstein and other "intellectual critics" with [[Richard H. Popkin]], the author of The Second Oswald, whom it described as showing "love of theorizing and lack of common sense and experience." The action paragraph directed that "a useful strategy may be to single out Epstein's theory for attack, using the attached [[Fletcher Knebel]] article and Spectator piece for background."[^4] ### Reader's Digest, Angleton and Legend diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Eric Davis.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Eric Davis.md index 64a6354e..81747f58 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Eric Davis.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Eric Davis.md @@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ Dr. Davis was a key scientific contractor for AATIP, working closely with Hal Pu Dr. Davis is best known as the alleged author of the Wilson-Davis Memo, a document that details a 2002 conversation with Vice Admiral [[Thomas R. Wilson]], then the Director of the [[Defense Intelligence Agency]] (DIA). The memo describes Admiral Wilson's discovery of and subsequent denial of access to a secret UAP reverse-engineering program. The leak of this memo has been a significant event in the UAP disclosure movement, providing a detailed account of the existence of a "[[Legacy Program]]" operating outside of normal government oversight.[^1] -In 2020, Dr. Davis made headlines when he told the [[New York Times]] that the [[U.S. government]] was in possession of "off-world vehicles not made on this earth." His public statements and briefings to Congress have been a major factor in the growing momentum for UAP transparency.[^1] +In 2020, Dr. Davis made headlines when he told the [[New York Times]] that the [[United States|U.S. government]] was in possession of "off-world vehicles not made on this earth." His public statements and briefings to Congress have been a major factor in the growing momentum for UAP transparency.[^1] ### Footnotes [^1]: Elizondo, Luis. *Imminent*. William Morrow, 2024. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/McGeorge Bundy.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/McGeorge Bundy.md index 31a57108..8bfdc3d1 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/McGeorge Bundy.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/McGeorge Bundy.md @@ -1,17 +1,186 @@ --- +aliases: + - McGeorge Bundy + - Mac Bundy + - Bundy + - McG. Bundy category: "Intelligence & Government" tags: - Person - - Politician - - Israel -summary: "McGeorge Bundy served as the National Security Advisor to President John F." + - NationalSecurity + - JohnFKennedy + - Mongoose + - BayOfPigs + - Vietnam + - CovertAction + - SpecialGroup + - FordFoundation + - SkullAndBones +summary: "McGeorge Bundy, Harvard dean, Special Assistant for National Security Affairs to Kennedy and Johnson (1961 to 1966) and chairman of the Special Group that reviewed CIA covert action, later headed the Ford Foundation." born: 1919-03-30 died: 1996-09-16 location: "Boston, Massachusetts" +relations: + - type: appointed + with: "[[John F. Kennedy]]" + start: 1961-01-20 + role: "Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs" + fn: 1 + - type: reported_to + with: "[[Lyndon B. Johnson]]" + role: "Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs; sent the February 7, 1965 memorandum on Vietnam" + fn: 2 + - type: head_of + with: "[[NSC Special Group]]" + start: 1961 + end: 1966 + role: "chaired the Special Group, renamed the 303 Committee in June 1964, as Special Assistant for National Security Affairs" + fn: 9 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Operation Mongoose]]" + role: "took part in the planning that led to the creation of Operation Mongoose and sat on the Special Group (Augmented)" + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Harvard University]]" + start: 1949 + role: "lecturer in government; Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences from August 1953" + fn: 6 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Council on Foreign Relations]]" + start: 1946 + fn: 5 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Skull and Bones]]" + fn: 4 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Ford Foundation]]" + start: 1966 + role: "President" + fn: 34 + - type: relative_of + with: "[[William P. Bundy]]" + role: "brother" + fn: 35 +created: 2026-10-07 +updated: 2026-10-07 --- -McGeorge Bundy served as the National Security Advisor to President [[John F. Kennedy]]. He desperately sought to cut [[Myer Feldman]] out of the flow of [[Middle East]] paperwork due to Feldman's strong pro-Israel bias, which often resulted in bureaucratic chaos within the [[White House]] staff. Bundy was suspicious of Feldman and also anxious about other Jewish National Security Council staff members handling Israeli issues.[^1] +McGeorge Bundy served as Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs under [[John F. Kennedy]] and remained in that post under [[Lyndon B. Johnson]], chaired the interagency committee that reviewed [[CIA]] covert operations, and in 1966 became president of the [[Ford Foundation]].[^1][^2] + +### Yale, Skull and Bones, and the Council on Foreign Relations + +Bundy majored in mathematics at [[Yale University]] and returned to [[Harvard University]] and its Society of Fellows after the war.[^3] [[Ron Rosenbaum]]'s 1977 [[Esquire]] article on [[Skull and Bones]] names Bundy among the society's members, together with [[Averell Harriman]], [[Henry L. Stimson]], [[Henry Luce]] and Supreme Court Justice [[Potter Stewart]], and places Bundy's brother [[William P. Bundy]] and [[William F. Buckley]] in the CIA after their years in the society.[^4] The [[Council on Foreign Relations]] lists Bundy among the members who joined in 1946.[^5] + +### Harvard + +Bundy began teaching government and world affairs at Harvard in 1949 and was named Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences in August 1953, at age 34.[^6][^3] [[Kai Bird]], Bundy's biographer, wrote that Harvard negotiated with the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] a policy under which the university would terminate the contracts of untenured scholars who refused to name names, would share information, sometimes from its confidential personnel files, with the FBI, and would use confidential FBI information to screen its employees.[^6] + +[[Sigmund Diamond]] stated in 1977 that in 1954, about three weeks after Bundy considered him for the post of Counsellor for Foreign Students and Dean of Special Students, the FBI asked him about his prior Communist Party membership and his associates, and that days later Bundy told him the appointment would be withdrawn if he refused to name names. Bundy responded that he was justified in withdrawing the recommendation because the post was administrative, and that only academic appointments "carried all the immunities of academic freedom."[^7] [[Robert Bellah]] wrote that in 1954 Bundy told him an "officer of the university" had informed Bundy of his political past, that he owed "complete candor," and that his fellowship would be cancelled if he failed to cooperate; the FBI then questioned Bellah, and he later declined a Harvard instructorship conditioned on his answering committees such as the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]].[^7] [[Leon Kamin]], subpoenaed by the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee under William Jenner and by [[Joseph McCarthy]]'s subcommittee, said Bundy urged him to name names and let him know that Bundy was in close contact with the FBI.[^7] + +### Special Group and 303 Committee + +The Cuba Study Group's June 13, 1961 narrative for President Kennedy described the Special Group (also called the 5412 Committee) as consisting of a Deputy Under Secretary of State, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, the Director of Central Intelligence and the Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs.[^8] The [[Church Committee]] recorded that with the inauguration of Kennedy in January 1961 Special Group meetings were transferred to the White House under the chairmanship of Bundy; that [[Maxwell Taylor]] chaired for a brief period, until Taylor became Chairman of the [[Joint Chiefs of Staff]], after which Bundy resumed the chair; and that in January 1963 NSAM 124 created the Special Group (Counterinsurgency), chaired by Taylor, on which Bundy and [[Robert Kennedy]] served.[^9] A CIA paper prepared in February 1967 for the [[Katzenbach Committee]] lists the chairmen as "first McGeorge Bundy, then General Maxwell Taylor, then back to Bundy, and finally to Walt Rostow."[^10] The Church Committee's account of the 1963 Cuba operations states that review and approval of covert operations against Cuba were the responsibility of the Special Group "chaired by McGeorge Bundy."[^11] + +On May 19, 1964, Peter Jessup of the [[National Security Council]] staff sent Bundy a memorandum proposing a drab new name for the Special Group, warning that if it were surfaced its members would be exposed to speculative publicity such as "Bundy’s Secret Task Force"; a handwritten marginal note, probably by Bundy, reads "McC[one] v. any change."[^12] National Security Action Memorandum 303 of June 2, 1964 provided that "Henceforth, the Special Group 5412 will be known as the 303 Committee"; an undated list in the file names its members as Bundy, [[John McCone]], Acting Deputy Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Thompson, and Deputy Secretary of Defense [[Cyrus Vance]].[^13] + +Bundy testified before the [[House Select Committee on Intelligence]] on December 10, 1975 that senior officials outside the CIA understood that no covert operation would be undertaken without the explicit approval of "higher authority," and that there was "a general expectation within the Agency that it was its proper business to generate attractive proposals and to stretch them, in operation, to the furthest limit of any authorization actually received."[^9] + +On March 24, 1966, [[Bromley Smith]], Executive Secretary of the National Security Council, drafted a memorandum for President Johnson describing the 303 Committee, whose members were Vance, [[U. Alexis Johnson|Alexis Johnson]], Admiral [[William Raborn]] and formerly Bundy, as "the small four-man group" that had been "meeting weekly since 1963," and asking for a White House representative.[^14] When Johnson named [[Walt Rostow]] Special Assistant on March 31, 1966, he designated Rostow and [[Bill Moyers]] within four days as Bundy's replacement on the 303 Committee; The [[New York Times]] reported on April 1 that the President seemed "reluctant to put in the hands of one man the kind of power within Government that Mr. Bundy had."[^15] + +### Bay of Pigs + +On the evening of April 16, 1961, Bundy telephoned the CIA deputy director [[Charles P. Cabell|C.P. Cabell]]. The Cuba Study Group's June 13, 1961 narrative for President Kennedy states that at about 9:30 p.m. Bundy "telephoned General C.P. Cabell of CIA to inform him that the dawn air strikes the following morning should not be launched until they could be conducted from a strip within the beachhead," and that further consultation "should be with the Secretary of State."[^8] Cabell's own memorandum of May 9, 1961 records that "I was called in the CIA headquarters for the Cuban operation by the Special Assistant to the President, Mr. McGeorge Bundy," who "notified me that we would not be permitted to launch air strikes the next morning until they could be conducted from a strip within the beachhead." [[Richard Bissell]] joined Cabell at the office of Secretary of State [[Dean Rusk]], where both arrived at about 10:15 p.m.[^16] In a memorandum to Kennedy of September 1, 1961, Bundy wrote: "I made it very clear to Cabell and Bissell on Sunday evening that if they disagreed, you would be willing to hear arguments from them."[^16] + +### Operation Mongoose + +The Church Committee recorded that Bundy "participated in the planning that led to the creation of [[Operation Mongoose|Operation MONGOOSE]]." He was also a member of the [[NSC Special Group|Special Group (Augmented)]], the body that oversaw the program.[^1] The March 1962 guidelines for the program were "revised slightly in response to suggestions made by McGeorge Bundy and McCone," and they stated that "The Special Group (5412 augmented) is responsible for providing policy guidance to the project, for approving important operations and for monitoring progress."[^17] + +Bundy's handwritten notes of a Special Group (Augmented) meeting on February 26 read, at one point, "[[Edward Lansdale|Lansdale]] Project: Consensus is that we are in no position to say when U.S. commitment."[^18] On October 5, 1961, Bundy issued NSAM 100, "Contingency Planning for [[Cuba]]," addressed to the Secretary of State.[^19] + +On March 29, 1962, Bundy met members of the [[Cuban Revolutionary Council]], [[José Miró Cardona]] and [[Antonio de Varona]], who urged that the council be given the means to invade Cuba. Bundy replied that if the United States supported any military action against [[Fidel Castro|Castro]], "such action must be decisive and complete."[^20] + +Bundy testified before the Church Committee that it was his "conviction" that "no one in the Kennedy Administration, in the White House, or in the cabinet, ever gave any authorization, approval, or instruction of any kind for any effort to assassinate anyone by the CIA." The committee's account records that Bissell and Bundy were personal friends, and that Bissell testified he never told Bundy about the plot, a fact Bundy confirmed.[^21] Earlier in the administration Bissell had discussed with Bundy a "capability" for "executive action," a term Bissell said included various means of "eliminating the effectiveness" of foreign leaders, including assassination.[^22] In later testimony Bissell said he "merely informed Bundy of the capability," and Bundy "said he received a briefing and gave no urging, though he raised no objections."[^23] + +### Middle East + +[[Seymour M. Hersh]] wrote that Bundy tried to cut [[Myer Feldman]] out of the flow of [[Middle East]] paperwork because of Feldman's strong pro-Israel bias, which Hersh said often produced bureaucratic chaos within the [[White House]] staff. Hersh also wrote that Bundy was suspicious of Feldman and anxious about other Jewish National Security Council staff members who handled Israeli issues.[^24] Hersh reported that [[Robert W. Komer]] recalled that Bundy had a standing rule not to send anything to Feldman, because Feldman was involved in issues where he had no business, and that it was hard to tell the difference between what Feldman said and what the Israeli ambassador said.[^24] + +In a December 22, 1969 oral history for the [[John F. Kennedy Presidential Library]], Komer said: "Bundy, I have reason to believe, always played it square with Mike in clueing him when he was going to send up a recommendation from State." He said Feldman "didn't have any of the intelligence clearances" and that "Kennedy and Bundy didn't give them to him," and, asked whether Feldman was used to communicate with the American Jewish community, answered that "That was a constant maneuver on Bundy's part as well as mine."[^25] + +On June 7, 1967, after the [[Six-Day War]] began, Johnson named Bundy, who took a leave of absence from the Ford Foundation, Executive Secretary of a Special Committee of the National Security Council to coordinate United States policy in the Middle East; the committee ended its formal work in mid-August.[^26] + +### NSAM 273 + +On November 20, 1963, officials met in [[Honolulu]] on Vietnam. Bundy wrote the first draft of National Security Action Memorandum 273 and sent copies to [[Roger Hilsman]] and William P. Bundy; the editors of the Foreign Relations series state that his draft was almost identical to the final paper, the major exception being paragraph 7, which in Bundy's draft read: "With respect to action against North Vietnam, there should be a detailed plan for the development of additional Government of Vietnam resources, especially for sea-going activity, and such planning should indicate the time and investment necessary to achieve a wholly new level of effectiveness in this field of action. (Action: DOD and CIA)." Hilsman answered on November 23 that the draft was "fine."[^27] + +At 3 p.m. on November 24, 1963, Johnson met Rusk, [[Robert S. McNamara]], [[George Ball]], Bundy, McCone and Ambassador [[Henry Cabot Lodge]] on South Vietnam.[^28] The memorandum issued on November 26, 1963 over Bundy's signature to the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, the Director of Central Intelligence, the Administrator of the [[Agency for International Development|AID]] and the Director of the United States Information Agency stated that the President had reviewed the Honolulu discussions and "has discussed the matter further with Ambassador Lodge." Its paragraph 7 read: "Planning should include different levels of possible increased activity, and in each instance there should be estimates of such factors as: A. Resulting damage to North Vietnam; B. The plausibility of denial; C. Possible North Vietnamese retaliation; D. Other international reaction."[^27] + +### Assassination of Kennedy + +The Church Committee recorded that on the morning of November 23, 1963, McCone met with Johnson and Bundy to brief them on information that CIA Headquarters had received from its Mexico Station about [[Lee Harvey Oswald]]'s September 1963 visit to [[Mexico City]], and that McCone met the President and Bundy again on December 1 and December 2, 1963; the memorandum of the December 1 meeting indicates they again discussed the story of "D."[^11] + +### Brazil + +At a meeting on March 28, 1964, which discussed Ambassador [[Lincoln Gordon]]'s message of March 27 on [[Brazil]], the group discussed the situation involving [[Joao Goulart]] and the Brazilian military, and Bundy said "we should be worrying that the military will not react." The participants included [[Richard Helms]] and [[Desmond FitzGerald]].[^29] + +### Vietnam + +On February 7, 1965, writing en route from [[Saigon]] to [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]], Bundy sent President Johnson a memorandum on the situation in [[Vietnam]]; he met the President from 10:48 to 11:25 p.m. that day. Its annex, "A Policy of Sustained Reprisal," opened: "We believe that the best available way of increasing our chance of success in Vietnam is the development and execution of a policy of sustained reprisal against North Vietnam." The annex added that "we may wish at the outset to relate our reprisals to those acts of relatively high visibility."[^2][^30] + +### FBI and CIA domestic programs + +In 1961 [[J. Edgar Hoover]] sent Bundy a report of the Interdepartmental Intelligence Conference on the status of internal security programs.[^31] In April 1965 Bundy asked the FBI for information concerning the Communist role in criticism of American policy in Vietnam; the following day Hoover met the President, and Hoover's account of the meeting refers to "the request he had made through Honorable McGeorge Bundy at the White House" for an over-all memorandum on the Vietnam demonstrations and communist influence in the same.[^32] + +In 1965, after the Long Subcommittee hearings on mail covers raised concern at the CIA about discovery of its New York mail-opening project, [[Thomas Karamessines]], then Acting Deputy Director for Plans, "gave instructions that steps should be taken to arrange to pass through McGeorge Bundy to the President after the subcommittee has completed its investigation." The Church Committee found that Bundy "does not recall ever having been informed of the project," that neither Karamessines nor Helms knew of any attempt to inform him, and that there is no documentary record of one.[^33] + +### Ford Foundation + +[[John J. McCloy]] offered Bundy the Ford Foundation presidency on November 7, 1965, and Bundy reported the offer to Johnson the next day. In a memorandum of December 4, 1965, Bundy told Johnson that he had asked the Ford trustees to let him accept "on the understanding that I shall always be free to accept any special assignments from you," that [[Jay Stratton]], McCloy's successor, had agreed in the name of the trustees, and that he would stay in the White House through February 1966; McCloy, for the foundation, had accepted the delay on November 29.[^34] On November 13, 1965, Johnson asked Under Secretary of State [[Thomas C. Mann]] about "Bill Bundy to succeed his brother."[^35] The [[Harvard Crimson]] reported on November 15, 1965 that McCloy, the foundation's chairman, approached Bundy in Washington about succeeding [[Henry T. Heald]] as president beginning January 1.[^36] + +In October 1966 the FBI learned that [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] had met with Bundy, "then Director of the Ford Foundation," and had received a tentative offer of a grant for the [[Southern Christian Leadership Conference]]. The FBI's Domestic Intelligence Division decided that if the foundation's officials were briefed on King's advisers "this might preclude any assistance being granted," and Hoover approved a plan to have a former FBI agent, then a vice-president of the [[Ford Motor Company]], approach Bundy. In a memorandum of October 26, 1966, [[Cartha DeLoach]] reported that Bundy had refused to talk with the former agent about King, saying he would only talk with a person having first-hand knowledge; Hoover wrote on the memorandum, "Yes. We would get no where with Bundy."[^37] + +### William P. Bundy + +William P. Bundy, McGeorge Bundy's brother, was Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs in November 1965.[^38] He joined the Central Intelligence Agency's Office of National Estimates in 1951 as chief of staff and liaison to the National Security Council staff, and served on the board of directors of the Council on Foreign Relations from 1964 to 1972.[^39] ### Footnotes -[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 8. \ No newline at end of file +[^1]: Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders: An Interim Report*, S. Rept. 94-465 (1975), p. 156 (Bundy testimony of July 11, 1975), https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94465.pdf +[^2]: McGeorge Bundy, memorandum to President Lyndon B. Johnson, "The Situation in Vietnam," with Annex A, "A Policy of Sustained Reprisal," February 7, 1965, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968*, vol. II, doc. 84 (source note: Bundy met the President from 10:48 to 11:25 p.m. on February 7), https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v02/d84 +[^3]: "Mac Bundy," *The Harvard Crimson*, November 10, 1956, https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1956/11/10/mac-bundy-pwhen-mcgeorge-bundy-became/ +[^4]: Ron Rosenbaum, "The Last Secrets of Skull and Bones," *Esquire*, September 1977. +[^5]: Council on Foreign Relations, "Celebrating a Century: Changing Membership," entry for McGeorge Bundy ("Joined in 1946"), https://www.cfr.org/celebrating-a-century/changing-membership +[^6]: Kai Bird, excerpt from *The Color of Truth: McGeorge Bundy and William Bundy: Brothers in Arms* (Simon & Schuster, 1998), "Open Book: Dean Bundy Deals with McCarthyism," *Harvard Magazine*, https://www.harvardmagazine.com/so98/browse.open2.html +[^7]: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, "Harvard's Troubled History with Free Association, Part 2" (summarizing Sigmund Diamond's 1977 and Robert Bellah's accounts in *The New York Review of Books*, including the Bellah quotations, and Leon Kamin's account), https://www.fire.org/harvards-troubled-history-with-free-association-part-2/ Sole source for the Diamond, Bellah and Kamin accounts so cited. +[^8]: Memorandum No. 1 from the Cuba Study Group to President Kennedy, "Narrative of the Anti-Castro Cuban Operation Zapata," June 13, 1961, paragraph 43 and footnote on the Special Group, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. X, doc. 231, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v10/d231 +[^9]: Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Final Report*, Book I, *Foreign and Military Intelligence*, S. Rept. 94-755 (1976), Part II, sections on the National Security Council and the Special Group (chairmanship 1961 to 1966; NSAM 124; Special Group (Augmented)), and the section on maintaining a covert capability quoting Bundy's House Select Committee on Intelligence testimony of December 10, 1975, Hearings, vol. 5, pp. 1794-1795, https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94755_I.pdf +[^10]: Paper prepared by the Central Intelligence Agency, "Coordination and Policy Approval of Covert Operations," February 23, 1967 (Appendix C to the report of the Katzenbach Committee), paragraph A.7, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968*, vol. XXXIII, doc. 263, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v33/d263 +[^11]: Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Final Report*, Book V, *The Investigation of the Assassination of President Kennedy: Performance of the Intelligence Agencies*, S. Rept. 94-755 (1976), sections on the CIA's Cuba operations in 1963, the November 23 McCone briefing, and the chronology for December 1 and 2, 1963, https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94755_V.pdf +[^12]: Memorandum from Peter Jessup of the National Security Council staff to Bundy, "Proposed Name Change for Special Group (5412)," May 19, 1964, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968*, vol. XXXIII, doc. 203, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v33/d203 +[^13]: National Security Action Memorandum No. 303, June 2, 1964, with editorial footnote on the undated membership list, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968*, vol. XXXIII, doc. 204, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v33/d204 +[^14]: Draft memorandum from the Executive Secretary of the National Security Council (Smith) to President Johnson, "Need for White House Representation on 303 Committee," March 24, 1966, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968*, vol. XXXIII, doc. 249, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v33/d249 +[^15]: Editorial note on the appointment of Walt W. Rostow, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968*, vol. XXXIII, doc. 164, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v33/d164 +[^16]: Memorandum from the Deputy Director of Central Intelligence (Cabell) to General Maxwell D. Taylor, "Cuban Operation," May 9, 1961, paragraphs 1 to 3, with editorial footnote quoting Bundy's memorandum to Kennedy of September 1, 1961, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. X, doc. 108, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v10/d108 +[^17]: "Guidelines for Operation Mongoose," with editorial note, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. X, doc. 314, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v10/d314 +[^18]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. X, doc. 307, footnote citing Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Meetings and Memoranda Series, Special Group (Augmented), Operation Mongoose, 2/62 to 4/62, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v10/d307 +[^19]: Senate Select Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders*, S. Rept. 94-465 (1975), p. 136 (NSAM 100, October 5, 1961), https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94465.pdf +[^20]: Memorandum of conversation, March 29, 1962, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. X, doc. 317, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v10/d317 +[^21]: Senate Select Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders*, S. Rept. 94-465 (1975), p. 119 (Bundy testimony of July 11, 1975, pp. 41, 54, 63; Bissell testimony), https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94465.pdf +[^22]: Senate Select Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders*, S. Rept. 94-465 (1975), p. 121 (Bissell testimony of July 22, 1975, p. 32), https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94465.pdf +[^23]: Senate Select Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders*, S. Rept. 94-465 (1975), pp. 182 to 183, https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94465.pdf +[^24]: Seymour M. Hersh, *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy* (Random House, 1991), ch. 8. Sole source for the passages so cited. +[^25]: Robert W. Komer, recorded interview by Dennis J. O'Brien, December 22, 1969, JFK #5, pp. 38 to 39 (Feldman as minorities adviser; Bundy "played it square"), p. 81 (intelligence clearances), p. 82 (communicating with the Jewish community), John F. Kennedy Library Oral History Program, https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/jfkoh-rowk-05 +[^26]: Editorial note on the Special Committee of the National Security Council, June 7, 1967, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968*, vol. XXXIII, doc. 178, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v33/d178 +[^27]: National Security Action Memorandum No. 273, November 26, 1963, with editorial note on the Bundy draft and Hilsman's reply of November 23, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. IV, doc. 331, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d331 +[^28]: Memorandum for the Record of meeting, November 24, 1963, 3 p.m. (drafted by McCone), *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. IV, doc. 330, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d330 +[^29]: Memorandum of conversation, March 28, 1964, National Security Archive, Electronic Briefing Book 465, document 11, https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB465/docs/Document%2011%20brazilnscdocument.pdf +[^30]: *Pentagon Papers*, Part IV.C.3, reproduction of the February 7, 1965 Bundy memorandum with Annex A, https://archive.org/details/204285-pentagon-papers-part-iv-c-3 +[^31]: Senate Select Committee, *Final Report*, Book III, *Supplementary Detailed Staff Reports on Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans*, S. Rept. 94-755 (1976), p. 465 (Hoover to Bundy, July 25, 1961, enclosing Interdepartmental Intelligence Conference report), https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94755_III.pdf +[^32]: Senate Select Committee, *Final Report*, Book III, S. Rept. 94-755 (1976), p. 483 (April 1965 request and Hoover's account), https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94755_III.pdf +[^33]: Senate Select Committee, *Final Report*, Book III, S. Rept. 94-755 (1976), chapter on CIA mail opening, section "1965 Proposal to Inform President Johnson" (citing Karamessines testimony of October 8, 1975 and a staff summary of a Bundy interview of April 19, 1976), https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94755_III.pdf +[^34]: Memorandum from Bundy to President Johnson, "Letter of resignation," December 4, 1965, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968*, vol. XXXIII, doc. 159, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v33/d159 +[^35]: Memorandum of telephone conversation between President Johnson and Under Secretary of State Mann, November 13, 1965, 12:15 p.m., *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968*, vol. XXXIII, doc. 157, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v33/d157 +[^36]: "Bundy, Bell Up for Key Posts," *The Harvard Crimson*, November 15, 1965, https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1965/11/15/bundy-bell-up-for-key-posts/ +[^37]: Senate Select Committee, *Final Report*, Book III, S. Rept. 94-755 (1976), p. 178 (October 1966 FBI plan concerning a Ford Foundation grant to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; DeLoach memorandum of October 26, 1966), https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94755_III.pdf +[^38]: Memorandum from Gordon Chase to Bundy, "World Disarmament Conference," November 20, 1965, footnote identifying "your brother William Bundy, Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs," *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968*, vol. XXXIII, doc. 373, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v33/d373 +[^39]: William P. Bundy Papers (MC189), Biography/History, Public Policy Papers, Princeton University Library, https://findingaids.library.upenn.edu/records/PRIN_MUDD_MC189 diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/A.Q. Khan.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/A.Q. Khan.md index c2f41987..8670c27a 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/A.Q. Khan.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/A.Q. Khan.md @@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ Abdul Qadeer Khan was a [[Pakistan|Pakistani]] scientist "closely associated wit ### Kahuta and the Procurement Network -In 1979 the administration of [[Jimmy Carter]] suspended aid to Pakistan under the Symington amendment after discovering the Kahuta enrichment plan; in 1981 the [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]] administration obtained a five-year waiver from Congress because of Pakistan's role in channeling U.S. aid to the [[Mujahideen]] in [[Afghanistan]]. State Department telegrams of September and November 1985 show U.S. officials pressing [[West Germany]] over Pakistani agents seeking aluminum tubes for the Khan Laboratory's centrifuge program, and by fall 1986 the [[U.S. government]] regarded Multinational Inc. as a "procurement agent" for Khan's network. In May 1986 Representative [[Stephen Solarz]] told [[Zia ul-Haq]] that U.S. intelligence indicated Kahuta was enriching uranium to weapons grade, which Pakistani officials denied.[^2] +In 1979 the administration of [[Jimmy Carter]] suspended aid to Pakistan under the Symington amendment after discovering the Kahuta enrichment plan; in 1981 the [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]] administration obtained a five-year waiver from Congress because of Pakistan's role in channeling U.S. aid to the [[Mujahideen]] in [[Afghanistan]]. State Department telegrams of September and November 1985 show U.S. officials pressing [[West Germany]] over Pakistani agents seeking aluminum tubes for the Khan Laboratory's centrifuge program, and by fall 1986 the U.S. government regarded Multinational Inc. as a "procurement agent" for Khan's network. In May 1986 Representative [[Stephen Solarz]] told [[Zia ul-Haq]] that U.S. intelligence indicated Kahuta was enriching uranium to weapons grade, which Pakistani officials denied.[^2] ### The Pervez Case diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/C.B. Scott Jones.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/C.B. Scott Jones.md index bc3806bc..b25c0c90 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/C.B. Scott Jones.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/C.B. Scott Jones.md @@ -82,19 +82,19 @@ Jones served as Special Assistant to Pell from January 1985 until March 1991 "wi ### The White Paper of 1992 -"Will the Real Scott Jones Please Stand Up?," dated February 20, 1992 and credited to [[Robert J. Durant]], appears in the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] reading room as CIA-RDP96-00792R000400300004-7; a note at its end states that [[George P. Hansen]] co-authored it without his name appearing.[^3] It opens by describing Jones as "the Renaissance Man of the Paranormal." Its claims, attributed to Durant, include that Jones chaired a panel and acted as liaison to "the Prince of Liechtenstein who was the major benefactor of the conference," at the [[TREAT II]] abduction conference at [[Virginia Tech]] in January 1990 organized by Rima Laibow; that [[MUFON]] appointed him Special Consultant in International Relations in 1989; that in 1991 he told the Chinese officials he visited about UFOs, in a story he later told at the Omega conference, that his questions were taken for pretense, and that metal given to him there proved to be debris from an electrical transmission tower; that he delivered "Government UFO Connections" at the 1991 MUFON symposium and there said he "honestly did not know of any activity of the [[U.S. government]]" on UFOs; and that he spoke approvingly of [[William L. Moore]] and met Moore and [[Richard Doty]] while on Pell's payroll.[^3] +"Will the Real Scott Jones Please Stand Up?," dated February 20, 1992 and credited to [[Robert J. Durant]], appears in the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] reading room as CIA-RDP96-00792R000400300004-7; a note at its end states that [[George P. Hansen]] co-authored it without his name appearing.[^3] It opens by describing Jones as "the Renaissance Man of the Paranormal." Its claims, attributed to Durant, include that Jones chaired a panel and acted as liaison to "the Prince of Liechtenstein who was the major benefactor of the conference," at the [[TREAT II]] abduction conference at [[Virginia Tech]] in January 1990 organized by Rima Laibow; that [[MUFON]] appointed him Special Consultant in International Relations in 1989; that in 1991 he told the Chinese officials he visited about UFOs, in a story he later told at the Omega conference, that his questions were taken for pretense, and that metal given to him there proved to be debris from an electrical transmission tower; that he delivered "Government UFO Connections" at the 1991 MUFON symposium and there said he "honestly did not know of any activity of the [[United States|U.S. government]]" on UFOs; and that he spoke approvingly of [[William L. Moore]] and met Moore and [[Richard Doty]] while on Pell's payroll.[^3] The paper also relates a story that [[Lee Graham]], an [[Aerojet]] technician, told [[Don Ecker]] and Durant: after an [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] agent and an unidentified man visited Graham in 1987 and discussed the [[Majestic-12|MJ-12]] papers, Jones telephoned Graham, said they had "a mutual acquaintance," and sent on Senate letterhead the Air Force biography of Major General [[Michael Kerby]], the Air Force legislative liaison director, whom Graham recognized as the visitor. In the paper's account Jones explained that Kerby had called on Pell, noticed Jones, and told him of the visit because "Kerby knew of my interest in these matters"; Jones declined to elaborate. Durant also wrote that an unnamed informant learned that [[Jaime Shandera]] and Moore were in contact with Jones, and listed rumors, which the paper attributes to unnamed "Scott watchers," that Jones had asked parapsychologists about recruiting psychics for military intelligence, had been involved for years in classified research on electronic mind control, and had approached media representatives in 1986 about a UFO program offering secret government information. The paper also describes dolphin telepathy experiments by Jones with Colonel [[John B. Alexander]] and [[Theodore Rockwell]]. The paper states of Jones's organizations that the Human Potential Foundation was established in 1989, was housed in the [[Vienna, Virginia]], offices of the law firm [[Sandground Barondess and West]] with [[Mark Sandground]] and Pell on its board, and was "reportedly funded by Laurance Rockefeller."[^3] ### Human Potential Foundation, 1989 to 1998 -Jones left Pell's staff in March 1991 and ran the Foundation until its dissolution in 1998.[^2] The Foundation's primary donor in its first two and a half years was Laurance Rockefeller, "whose support was conditional with a program designed to get the [[United States]] government to acknowledge the existence of alien life."[^2] Jones wrote as its president to [[John Gibbons]] at the [[Office of Science and Technology Policy]] from 1993 to 1995, to Representative [[Steven Schiff]], and in August 1995 to the congressional leadership; the letters are described under the [[Rockefeller Initiative]].[^10] [[Dinah Eng]]'s wire story of May 1995 on the Foundation's conference "[[When Cosmic Cultures Meet]]" (May 27 to 29, Washington) identified Jones as the Foundation's president and as a former naval intelligence officer who served on Pell's staff; it reported that the program would examine contact with extraterrestrials rather than debate whether intelligent life exists elsewhere, and quoted Jones as saying he had "no doubt that intelligent life exists elsewhere" and that there was "an extraordinary amount of fear associated with this phenomena."[^11] In a letter of February 17, 1994 he wrote to Gibbons: "My mention of mind-control technology at the February 4 meeting was quite deliberate. Please be careful about this. There are reasons to believe that some government group has interwoven research about this technology with alleged UFO phenomena."[^12] In his letter of August 11, 1994, after describing a conference of the [[Institute of Noetic Sciences]] in [[Chicago]] and Pell's seat on its board, he advised Gibbons to speak with [[James Woolsey]]; the passage that follows (the scan is torn) reports that Woolsey had a document search under way in his agency that had found nothing of significance, and quotes the statement: "If I had the responsibility to run a super safe black program on this subject, I would take it completely out of the government's [...] and run it from the private sector, probably somewhere within [the] aerospace community, or perhaps [[General Motors]]."[^13] A handwritten note signed "JHG" and dated 3/29/94 on the same letter reads: "Scott Jones used to be associated with Senator Pell. He was formerly a Navy pilot. The Human Potential Foundation is funded in part, I believe, by L.R."[^12] +Jones left Pell's staff in March 1991 and ran the Foundation until its dissolution in 1998.[^2] The Foundation's primary donor in its first two and a half years was Laurance Rockefeller, "whose support was conditional with a program designed to get the United States government to acknowledge the existence of alien life."[^2] Jones wrote as its president to [[John Gibbons]] at the [[Office of Science and Technology Policy]] from 1993 to 1995, to Representative [[Steven Schiff]], and in August 1995 to the congressional leadership; the letters are described under the [[Rockefeller Initiative]].[^10] [[Dinah Eng]]'s wire story of May 1995 on the Foundation's conference "[[When Cosmic Cultures Meet]]" (May 27 to 29, Washington) identified Jones as the Foundation's president and as a former naval intelligence officer who served on Pell's staff; it reported that the program would examine contact with extraterrestrials rather than debate whether intelligent life exists elsewhere, and quoted Jones as saying he had "no doubt that intelligent life exists elsewhere" and that there was "an extraordinary amount of fear associated with this phenomena."[^11] In a letter of February 17, 1994 he wrote to Gibbons: "My mention of mind-control technology at the February 4 meeting was quite deliberate. Please be careful about this. There are reasons to believe that some government group has interwoven research about this technology with alleged UFO phenomena."[^12] In his letter of August 11, 1994, after describing a conference of the [[Institute of Noetic Sciences]] in [[Chicago]] and Pell's seat on its board, he advised Gibbons to speak with [[James Woolsey]]; the passage that follows (the scan is torn) reports that Woolsey had a document search under way in his agency that had found nothing of significance, and quotes the statement: "If I had the responsibility to run a super safe black program on this subject, I would take it completely out of the government's [...] and run it from the private sector, probably somewhere within [the] aerospace community, or perhaps [[General Motors]]."[^13] A handwritten note signed "JHG" and dated 3/29/94 on the same letter reads: "Scott Jones used to be associated with Senator Pell. He was formerly a Navy pilot. The Human Potential Foundation is funded in part, I believe, by L.R."[^12] Jones presented a talk on exopolitics in [[Hawaii]] in June 2006.[^14] He founded the [[Peace and Emergency Action Coalition for Earth]] in 1998, which received its [[Internal Revenue Service]] ruling in October 1998.[^2][^15] ### Series 4 and 6 container titles -The finding aid lists Series 4 (Human Potential Foundation, with subseries for Pell, the Foundation Board, Grants and Funding, Projects and Events) and Series 6 ("Special Assistant to Senator Claiborne Pell," with Legislation, Symposium on Consciousness and Survival 1985, Soviet-American Relations, Paranormal Aide, Reports and organizations, Unidentified Flying Objects, Speeches and Subject Files subseries). Among the titles are "Uri Geller Scandal" files, "Soviet Psychotronics correspondence and memos," "National Science Foundation: [[Andrija Puharich]] reports and correspondence," "Howard J. Hoffman Government Liaison Project" and "A Model of Government Preparation for ET Contact and Cooperation" by Jones; the full title lists are on the pages for [[Human Potential Foundation]] and [[Claiborne Pell]].[^16] +The finding aid lists Series 4 (Human Potential Foundation, with subseries for Pell, the Foundation Board, Grants and Funding, Projects and Events) and Series 6 ("Special Assistant to Senator Claiborne Pell," with Legislation, Symposium on Consciousness and Survival 1985, Soviet-American Relations, Paranormal Aide, Reports and organizations, Unidentified Flying Objects, Speeches and Subject Files subseries). Among the titles are "Uri Geller Scandal" files, "Soviet Psychotronics correspondence and memos," "National Science Foundation: [[Andrija Puharich]] reports and correspondence," "Howard J. Hoffman Government Liaison Project" and "A Model of Government Preparation for ET Contact and Cooperation" by Jones; the full title lists are on the pages for Human Potential Foundation and Claiborne Pell.[^16] ### Footnotes diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Mercer family.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Mercer family.md index 516b10fa..d05faf31 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Mercer family.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Mercer family.md @@ -195,7 +195,7 @@ A Form D filed on February 9, 2023 by 1789 Capital Fund I, LP of Palm Beach, Flo [^15]: Mercer Family Foundation, Forms 990-PF for 2019 to 2024, Part XV (grants and contributions paid), ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer full text: 2019 https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/201982204/202012559349100501/IRS990PF; 2020 https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/201982204/202212639349100101/IRS990PF; 2021 https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/201982204/202213199349104431/IRS990PF; 2022 https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/201982204/202303189349100610/IRS990PF; 2023 https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/201982204/202423199349104317/IRS990PF; 2024 https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/201982204/202513169349100411/IRS990PF. The 2016 and 2017 DonorsTrust grants are from the Part XV lists in the returns for those years. The Part XV list for 2020 totals $26,031,269 including $6,772,269 to the Hospital for Special Surgery; the grants-paid field in the ProPublica summary for 2020 reads $19,259,000. [^16]: Federal Election Commission, committee record for ART ROBINSON FOR CONGRESS (C00481341), 2251 Dick George Rd, Cave Junction, Oregon; Schedule B disbursements to Cambridge Analytica of $20,000 in three payments, June to November 2014. https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/committee/C00481341/ [^17]: Mercer Family Foundation, Form 990-PF for 2014, Part XV (Job Creators Alliance, Addison, Texas, 100,000 dollars, "non profit donation"). https://990s.foundationcenter.org/990pf_pdf_archive/201/201982204/201982204_201412_990PF.pdf -[^18]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, DataSet 10, EFTA01400922 (letter of May 5, 2014, Mercer Family Foundation to Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas; related items EFTA01398726, EFTA01398757, EFTA01398924 and EFTA01398965 not reopened). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01400922.pdf +[^18]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, DataSet 10, EFTA01400922 (letter of May 5, 2014, Mercer Family Foundation to Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01400922.pdf [^19]: Government Accountability Institute (EIN 45-4681912), Form 990 for 2012, Part III (mission), Part VII Section A (officers and compensation), Schedule O; ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer record (recognition date January 1, 2013). https://990s.foundationcenter.org/990_pdf_archive/454/454681912/454681912_201212_990.pdf and https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/454681912 [^20]: Government Accountability Institute, Forms 990 for 2013, 2014 and 2015, Schedule L Part IV (business transactions involving interested persons) and Part VII: https://990s.foundationcenter.org/990_pdf_archive/454/454681912/454681912_201312_990.pdf ; https://990s.foundationcenter.org/990_pdf_archive/454/454681912/454681912_201412_990.pdf ; https://990s.foundationcenter.org/990_pdf_archive/454/454681912/454681912_201512_990.pdf (amount for 2013 as read from the scanned return) [^21]: Government Accountability Institute, Forms 990 for 2016 (Part VII Section A), 2017, 2020 and 2022, ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer full text: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/454681912/201743179349306999/IRS990 ; /201833199349301453/IRS990 ; /202111759349300306/IRS990 ; /202343009349300814/IRS990 diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Salvatore La Russa.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Salvatore La Russa.md index 2bb9ee79..0ca4952d 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Salvatore La Russa.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Salvatore La Russa.md @@ -2,7 +2,12 @@ aliases: - Sam the Barber - Salvatore LaRussa + - Salvatore La Russa - Sam La Russa + - Sam LaRussa + - Samuel LaRussa + - Salvatore LaRusso + - Salvatore "Sam the Barber" LaRussa category: "Organized Crime" tags: - AbuseNetworks @@ -11,7 +16,8 @@ tags: - Philadelphia - ScarfoFamily - RCHorsch -summary: "Sicilian-born Philadelphia barber, bar owner and restaurateur, a friend of mob boss Nicodemo Scarfo, whom R.C. Horsch named as the main backer of his 1973 pornographic feature." + - BustOutBars +summary: "Philadelphia barber, bust-out bar operator and restaurateur who was a friend of mob boss Nicodemo Scarfo and, according to R.C. Horsch, financed his 1973 film." born: 1938 died: 1996-08-18 location: "Whitemarsh Township, Pennsylvania" @@ -22,31 +28,88 @@ relations: fn: 1 - type: owned with: "[[La Cucina Ristorante]]" + fn: 1 + - type: funded + with: "[[The Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig]]" + role: "financier, per R.C. Horsch" + start: 1973 fn: 2 + - type: relative_of + with: "[[Michael LaRussa]]" + role: "brother" + fn: 17 created: 2026-09-23 -updated: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-10-07 --- -Salvatore "Sam the Barber" LaRussa (1938 to August 18, 1996) was a [[Philadelphia]] barber, bar owner and restaurateur known, in the words of his *Inquirer* obituary, as "a restaurateur and associate of local mobsters," chiefly through his friendship with the boss [[Nicodemo Scarfo]]. [[R.C. Horsch]] said that most of the budget of his 1973 pornographic feature *[[The Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig]]* came from LaRussa.[^1][^2][^3] +Salvatore "Sam the Barber" LaRussa (1938 to August 18, 1996) was a [[Philadelphia]] barber, bust-out bar operator, restaurateur and club owner who gained notoriety in law enforcement and underworld circles through his friendship with [[Nicodemo Scarfo]].[^1] [[R.C. Horsch]] said that most of the budget of the 1973 pornographic feature *[[The Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig]]* came from LaRussa.[^2] -### Locust Street and South Street +### Early life and barbering -LaRussa was born in "Campobella dell Gatto, near Palermo," in [[Sicily]], as the *Daily News* gave it, the eldest of five children, and emigrated to Philadelphia in the early 1950s, living on Sheridan Street near Porter in South Philadelphia. He left home at 19 to become a barber and cut hair at the Camac Baths. In the early 1960s he opened what became known as "bust-out bars," among them the Phone Booth, the HMS Pinafore and the ZuZu Club, featuring strippers in the red-light district around 13th and Locust Streets; he was arrested several times for liquor-code violations. In the early 1970s he bought the Piccadilly Club on South Street near Front, reopened it as Scruples and later Christine's, and next door opened La Cucina Ristorante, which became a gathering place for members and associates of the Scarfo family. In the 1990s he built and operated clubs on the Delaware waterfront, among them Club Vegas, the South Beach Club and the Aztec Club.[^2] +LaRussa was born in Campobella dell Gatto, near Palermo, in [[Sicily]], in 1938, the eldest of five children of Marianne and Joseph LaRussa.[^3] He emigrated to Philadelphia with his mother and sister in the early 1950s, and his three brothers and his father followed three years later. The family lived on Sheridan Street near Porter in [[South Philadelphia]].[^3] One account dates his immigration to 1951.[^1] He left home at 19 to become a barber and cut men's hair at the now closed [[Camac Baths]], where he met the jeweler [[Bobby Stone]], a friend of thirty years.[^3] -### Scarfo +### Bust-out bars and Locust Street -LaRussa said under oath that he had first met Scarfo as a teenager around 11th and Carpenter Streets. In the mid-1980s Scarfo and his senior associates were frequent customers at La Cucina, and a Christmas party Scarfo held there in 1985 drew intense police surveillance. The mob informants [[Nicholas Caramandi]] and [[Thomas DelGiorno]] testified that LaRussa had allowed Scarfo to use his house in [[Whitemarsh Township, Pennsylvania|Whitemarsh Township]] for initiation ceremonies; Caramandi said that he and two others were "made" there one afternoon after LaRussa had left. Questioned by a federal grand jury in 1987, LaRussa said he had been called away to work that day, that he was a frequent guest at Scarfo's waterfront house in [[Fort Lauderdale, Florida|Fort Lauderdale]] and had supervised construction work there, and that he knew nothing of Scarfo's criminal activities: "I never ask him any questions. We go out. We have dinner. We eat. We drink. We laugh. Christmas, we exchange gifts."[^1][^2] +In the early 1960s, while in his early twenties, LaRussa began opening what came to be known as "bust-out bars." They included the Phone Booth, the [[HMS Pinafore]] and the [[ZuZu Club]], which featured strippers in the then red-light district around 13th and [[Locust Street]].[^3] His dozen after-hours clubs and bars usually served until dawn, and he was arrested several times for liquor-code violations.[^3] He once described the Locust Street bars as "bust-out" joints, and was also in the construction business.[^1] The [[Pennsylvania Crime Commission]]'s 1990 report listed him among associates of the Bruno/Scarfo family, with prior arrests for liquor law violations at "bust-out bars" he had operated around 13th and Locust Streets.[^4] -### The 1973 Film +The Crime Commission listed bust-out operations at several Locust Street addresses in its 1974 report on police corruption in Philadelphia, among them the Skabidoo/AU in the Family at 1301 Locust Street, the Why Not Lounge at 1305 Locust Street and the RD Club on the second floor at 1301 Locust Street.[^5] -Horsch said in a 2013 interview that 60 to 70 percent of the roughly 20,000 dollar budget of *The Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig* came from LaRussa, who ran the Bag of Nails bar at 13th and Locust Streets, from "money that he had laying around in a shoebox behind the bar. We're talking about organized crime," and that LaRussa arranged the film's distribution through Philadelphia organized crime to [[Sam Lake]]. No other source ties LaRussa to the film; his obituaries do not mention it.[^1][^2][^3] +In the early 1970s LaRussa bought the [[Piccadilly Club]] on [[South Street (Philadelphia)|South Street]] near Front, reopened it as Scruples and later renamed it Christine's, after his granddaughter.[^3] Next door he opened [[La Cucina Ristorante]], a restaurant near Second and South Streets that he owned.[^1][^3] -### Death +### La Cucina and the Scarfo circle -LaRussa had undergone three open-heart operations and was awaiting a heart transplant, according to his godson. He died of a heart attack at Chestnut Hill Hospital on August 18, 1996, at 58, and was buried at [[Holy Sepulchre Cemetery (Cheltenham)|Holy Sepulchre Cemetery]] in [[Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania|Cheltenham]] after a Mass at Epiphany of Our Lord Church.[^1][^2] +The Crime Commission's 1990 report describes La Cucina Ristorante, 121 South Street, as having "long been a hangout for members of Scarfo's LCN Family."[^4] [[Philip Leonetti]], Scarfo's nephew, said that "There was a place on South Street called La Cucina that we used to go to. Sam the Barber, who was with us, owned it. We rented the place out and threw a big party," and placed there the Christmas party that Scarfo threw for himself after he became boss.[^6] In the mid-1980s Scarfo and several of his senior associates were frequent customers at La Cucina.[^1] In a 1987 account, [[Thomas DelGiorno]] said that on one night he met Scarfo, Leonetti and [[Salvatore Merlino]] at La Cucina, "a restaurant on South Street near Front," and told the three men that [[Salvatore Testa]] had been murdered.[^7] -### Footnotes +Scarfo's 1985 Christmas party at the restaurant drew police attention.[^1] The journalist [[George Anastasia]] quoted an unnamed participant describing Scarfo hosting "this big thing" at La Cucina that Christmas, with "forty, maybe fifty" members present from about two o'clock and invited nonmembers arriving after four o'clock.[^8] In the 1987 extortion trial, prosecutors showed the jury an FBI videotape of [[Leland Beloff]], [[Robert Rego]] and former state senator [[Henry Cianfrani]] entering "LaCucina Ristorante Extraordinaire, 117 South Street," at 4:30 p.m. on December 19, 1985, when a Scarfo Christmas party allegedly was under way inside.[^9] [[George Anastasia]] wrote that during a celebration at La Cucina, Scarfo offered [[Nicholas Caramandi]] his personal congratulations.[^10] -[^1]: [Obituary of Salvatore LaRussa], *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* August 21, 1996, sec. B, p. 4, as transcribed on Find a Grave, memorial 123805574. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/123805574/salvatore-la_russa -[^2]: Caparella, Kitty. [Obituary of Salvatore LaRussa], *Philadelphia Daily News,* August 20, 1996, p. 16, as transcribed on Find a Grave, memorial 123805574. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/123805574/salvatore-la_russa -[^3]: West, Ashley. "Unknowing Ray Horsch, Episode 2: Performance," *The Rialto Report,* Podcast 172, September 20, 2026, audio (republishing interviews recorded in 2013). https://www.therialtoreport.com/2026/09/20/ray-horsch-3/ +### The Whitemarsh house + +In the 1987 trial, Caramandi described an alleged event on November 25, 1984, "in a house in [[Whitemarsh Township, Pennsylvania|Whitemarsh]], [[Montgomery County, Pennsylvania|Montgomery County]]," with some 30 Mafia members standing around a dining-room table, at which he was initiated into the Mafia. He testified that Scarfo put a piece of tissue paper in his palm and lit it.[^11] The Third Circuit's 1990 opinion in [[United States v. Pungitore]] states that in the fall of 1984 [[Charles Iannece]] and [[Joseph Grande]], along with government witness Caramandi, became made members.[^12] + +Caramandi told Anastasia that "Finally, we get to the house and it's Sam the Barber's house," in Whitemarsh, which he said LaRussa built himself and was later offered about nine hundred thousand dollars for. Anastasia wrote that thirty-five members of the Philadelphia mob looked on as Scarfo administered the oath, and that LaRussa had left his house before the ceremony began; by four o'clock that afternoon, he wrote, the ceremonies were over and the drinks and food were served.[^13] + +LaRussa's own account, given to a federal grand jury in 1987, concerned his home in Whitemarsh. He said he had invited Scarfo to his home several times and that Scarfo finally accepted. LaRussa said he was called away to work that day and did not share in a catered meal for about 40 people that he had brought in from his restaurant. He told the grand jury: "I told him it's my pleasure to have him there."[^1] Caramandi later testified that he and two other mob figures were formally initiated, or "made," that afternoon, after LaRussa had left the house.[^1] DelGiorno and Caramandi testified that LaRussa allowed Scarfo to use his Whitemarsh home for Mafia initiation ceremonies.[^3] The Crime Commission's 1990 report states the same of the two witnesses' testimony.[^4] + +### Fort Lauderdale and the grand jury + +LaRussa told the grand jury that he was a frequent guest at Scarfo's waterfront home in [[Fort Lauderdale, Florida|Fort Lauderdale]], had supervised construction work there, and usually picked up the check when Scarfo ate at La Cucina. He said he was in the dark about Scarfo's mob activities: "I never ask him any questions," he said. "We go out. We have dinner. We eat. We drink. We laugh. Christmas, we exchange gifts."[^1] + +Leonetti said that Scarfo had him pay $650,000 in cash for a Fort Lauderdale house on the water, which Scarfo named Casablanca South. He said that "Sam wasn't a made guy, but he was with us," that Scarfo put LaRussa in charge of the renovations, and that Scarfo ended up spending close to $100,000 on them.[^14] + +### The 1973 film + +Horsch said in an interview recorded in 2013 that LaRussa put up "about 60, 70% of the money" for the film, money "that he had laying around in a shoebox behind the bar. We're talking about organized crime."[^2] Horsch said that LaRussa ran a bar called the [[Bag of Nails]] at 13th and Locust Streets and that the production cost "a little over $20,000." Horsch said that the contact with [[Sam Lake]] for distribution was arranged through the mafia in Philadelphia, through LaRussa, and that the film was sold to "Sam" for exactly $50,000.[^2] + +Horsch then said that "Sam was always complaining that it didn't make any money," and that the figure he had been given was that Sam ended up making four or five million dollars from the film, adding: "I don't know how true it was or not." Asked whether Sam the Barber was happy with his share of the profits, Horsch answered: "No, because he never really made as much money as he thought he was going to make."[^2] + +### Waterfront clubs + +LaRussa operated establishments along South Street and, most recently, along [[Delaware Avenue]].[^1] In the 1990s he opened clubs along the [[Delaware River]] waterfront, among them [[Club Vegas]], the [[South Beach Club]] and the [[Aztec Club]]. The Aztec Club was one he built, operated and later sold. A correction published August 21, 1996 stated that he constructed Club Vegas and South Beach but did not own the building or the liquor license of either.[^3] In May 1992 the Aztec Club was among the waterfront's old showplace standbys, with the [[Riverfront Dinner Theater]] and the Barbary.[^15] In May 1995 Club Vegas was new that year among about a dozen clubs along the waterfront.[^16] + +### Family + +LaRussa was married twice.[^3] His brother [[Michael LaRussa]] was described in 2012 as the owner of [[Dante & Luigi's]] at 10th and Catharine Streets in Bella Vista, where he said: "I do still have people that are 'connected' come in here. I don't make a fuss about it."[^17] + +### Death and survivors + +LaRussa died of a heart attack on Sunday, August 18, 1996. The Inquirer gave the place as [[Chestnut Hill Hospital]]; the Daily News gave it as Whitemarsh Township, Montgomery County. He was 58 and lived in Whitemarsh.[^1][^3] His godson, [[Angelo Borgesi]], said that LaRussa had three open-heart surgeries, three or four heart attacks, and was awaiting a heart transplant.[^3] A viewing was scheduled for Thursday, August 22, at [[Leonetti Funeral Home]] at Broad and Wolf Streets, at 9 a.m. in one account and 9:30 a.m. in the other, followed by an 11 a.m. Mass at [[Epiphany of Our Lord Church]] on Jackson Street near 11th Street, and he was buried at [[Holy Sepulchre Cemetery (Cheltenham)|Holy Sepulchre Cemetery]] in [[Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania|Cheltenham]].[^1][^3] + +The Inquirer listed four sons, Joseph, Salvatore Jr., Michael and Giovanni, a daughter, Sharlene Pantisano, and five grandchildren.[^1] The Daily News listed three sons and a daughter besides the fifth child, and said that his companion of eight years, [[Nadeen Seuss]], had recently borne him that child, Giovanni, named for a brother who had died 19 years earlier.[^3] + +[^1]: Anastasia, George, "Salvatore Larussa, 58, Friend Of Mob Figures," *Philadelphia Inquirer*, August 21, 1996, Wayback copy of the articles.philly.com page: https://web.archive.org/web/20150928205738id_/http://articles.philly.com/1996-08-21/news/25645305_1_nicodemo-little-nicky-scarfo-grand-jury-mob-activities +[^2]: West, Ashley, "Unknowing Ray Horsch, Episode 2: Performance," *The Rialto Report*, Podcast 172, September 20, 2026, audio transcript at 20:33 to 21:07 and 28:59 to 29:49 (republishing interviews recorded in 2013): https://www.therialtoreport.com/2026/09/20/ray-horsch-3/ Sole source for the passages so cited. In the transcript, "Sam" without a surname follows the reference to Sam Lake and is used for the buyer, the person complaining and the person said to have made four or five million dollars. +[^3]: Caparella, Kitty, "Heart Attack Claims `Sam The Barber'," *Philadelphia Daily News*, August 20, 1996, with the correction published August 21, 1996, Wayback copy: https://web.archive.org/web/2015id_/http://articles.philly.com/1996-08-20/news/25645508_1_heart-transplant-heart-attack-mob +[^4]: Pennsylvania Crime Commission, *Organized Crime in Pennsylvania: A Decade of Change, 1990 Report* (1991), p. 159 (entry for Salvatore LaRussa, also known as Samuel LaRussa, Salvatore LaRusso and "Sam the Barber"; the index also lists La Cucina Ristorante, 121 South Street, at p. 159), NCJ 133208: https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/133208NCJRS.pdf +[^5]: Pennsylvania Crime Commission, *Report on Police Corruption and the Quality of Law Enforcement in Philadelphia* (1974), public document on Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/reportonpoliceco00penn +[^6]: Leonetti, Philip, with Scott Burnstein, *Mafia Prince: Inside America's Most Violent Crime Family and the Bloody Fall of La Cosa Nostra* (Philadelphia: Running Press, 2012), pp. 131-133 (lending copy): https://archive.org/details/mafiaprinceinsid0000leon +[^7]: Daughen, Joseph R., "It All Began With Bug On One Mobster's Pad," *Philadelphia Daily News*, April 10, 1987, Wayback copy: https://web.archive.org/web/2015id_/http://articles.philly.com/1987-04-10/news/26194567_1_salvatore-testa-scarfo-family-mob-members +[^8]: Anastasia, George, *Blood and Honor: Inside the Scarfo Mob, the Mafia's Most Violent Family* (New York: William Morrow, 1991), p. 277 (lending copy): https://archive.org/details/bloodhonorinside00anas Sole source for the passage so cited; the passage does not name the quoted speaker. +[^9]: Smith, Jim, "Prosecution Rests Case In Scarfo Trial," *Philadelphia Daily News*, May 4, 1987, Wayback copy: https://web.archive.org/web/2015id_/http://articles.philly.com/1987-05-04/news/26163517_1_philadelphia-south-jersey-extortion-case-nicodemo-little-nicky-scarfo +[^10]: Anastasia, *Blood and Honor*, p. 211 (lending copy): https://archive.org/details/bloodhonorinside00anas +[^11]: Smith, Jim, "Big Scores Easy For Caramandi," *Philadelphia Daily News*, May 1, 1987, Wayback copy: https://web.archive.org/web/2015id_/http://articles.philly.com/1987-05-01/news/26161878_1_nicodemo-little-nicky-scarfo-mafia-members-knife +[^12]: *United States v. Pungitore*, 910 F.2d 1084 (3d Cir. 1990), text from the Caselaw Access Project: https://static.case.law/f2d/910/cases/1084-01.json +[^13]: Anastasia, *Blood and Honor*, pp. 214-215, 217, quoting Caramandi (lending copy; the book's index lists LaRussa at pp. 214 and 215): https://archive.org/details/bloodhonorinside00anas +[^14]: Leonetti, *Mafia Prince*, pp. 191, 193 (lending copy): https://archive.org/details/mafiaprinceinsid0000leon +[^15]: de la Vina, Mark, "Riverfront Jam Once Just Wet, It's Getting Wild," *Philadelphia Daily News*, May 22, 1992, Wayback copy: https://web.archive.org/web/2015id_/http://articles.philly.com/1992-05-22/news/26015302_1_waterfront-entertainment-aztec-club +[^16]: Weiner, Jennifer, "Checking Out The Clubs . . .," *Philadelphia Inquirer*, May 19, 1995, Wayback copy: https://web.archive.org/web/2015id_/http://articles.philly.com/1995-05-19/entertainment/25672572_1_club-vegas-waterfront-family-reunion-day +[^17]: Bender, William, "Dante & Luigi's: Still a longtime hit," *Philadelphia Daily News*, January 30, 2012: https://www.inquirer.com/philly/hp/news_update/20120130_Dante___Luigi_s__Still_a_longtime_hit.html diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Andrija Puharich.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Andrija Puharich.md index 924bc2d7..fdd859a6 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Andrija Puharich.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Andrija Puharich.md @@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ born: 1918-02-19 died: 1995-01-03 location: "Chicago, Illinois" --- -Henry Karel "Andrija" Puharich (1918-1995) was a prominent American physician, research scientist, and parapsychologist who became a central figure in the [[U.S. government]]'s investigations into [[Extrasensory Perception|ESP]] and [[Psychokinesis|PK]] during the [[Cold War]]. His lifelong quest to understand the nature of consciousness and anomalous mental phenomena led him to explore the intersection of science, mysticism, and the supernatural[^1]. +Henry Karel "Andrija" Puharich (1918-1995) was a prominent American physician, research scientist, and parapsychologist who became a central figure in the [[United States|U.S. government]]'s investigations into [[Extrasensory Perception|ESP]] and [[Psychokinesis|PK]] during the [[Cold War]]. His lifelong quest to understand the nature of consciousness and anomalous mental phenomena led him to explore the intersection of science, mysticism, and the supernatural[^1]. Born in [[Chicago]] on February 19, 1918, to poor [[Yugoslavia|Yugoslavian]] immigrants, Puharich had an early experience that shaped his future. As a milk delivery boy, he claimed to have calmed a vicious dog by sending "feelings of calmness and peace," leading him to believe in [[Telepathy|mind-to-mind telepathy]] and inspiring him to pursue medicine to understand the biological basis of such phenomena[^1]. He excelled academically, attending [[Northwestern University]] for philosophy and premedical studies before entering medical school. During his studies, he deeply contemplated the nature of the mind and consciousness, stating, "Understanding the nature of man’s consciousness... is my lifelong quest"[^1]. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Augusto Pinochet.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Augusto Pinochet.md index 8b21c9a1..a1bd2567 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Augusto Pinochet.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Augusto Pinochet.md @@ -1,4 +1,13 @@ --- +aliases: + - Augusto Pinochet + - Augusto Pinochet Ugarte + - Augusto Jose Ramon Pinochet Ugarte + - Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte + - General Pinochet + - General Augusto Pinochet + - Senator Pinochet + - Pinochet category: "Political Figure" tags: - KeyFigure @@ -6,37 +15,168 @@ tags: - Chile - CIA - OperationCondor + - TrackII + - DINA + - Letelier + - RiggsBank + - ColoniaDignidad + - Cardoen + - LondonArrest - ColdWar -summary: "Augusto Pinochet was Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Army who, with CIA backing, led the September 11, 1973 coup against President Salvador Allende and governed Chile as dictator until 1990; his regime participated in Operation Condor, a CIA-coordinated transnational assassination program targeting leftists across Latin America." +summary: "Chilean Army commander who led the September 11, 1973 coup against Salvador Allende and ruled Chile until 1990, with the Letelier assassination and Operation Condor documented in declassified US records." +location: "Valparaiso, Chile" created: 2026-05-14 -updated: 2026-05-14 +updated: 2026-10-07 born: 1915-11-25 died: 2006-12-10 -location: "Valparaiso, Chile" +relations: + - type: head_of + with: "[[Chile]]" + start: 1973-09-11 + end: 1990-03-11 + role: "leader of the military junta that took power in the coup of September 11, 1973; resigned March 11, 1990" + fn: 1 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Operation Condor]]" + start: 1975 + role: "Chile named as the center of Operation Condor in the FBI legal attache's cable of September 28, 1976" + fn: 4 + - type: reported_to + with: "[[Manuel Contreras]]" + reverse: true + role: "DIA report of April 15, 1975 states that the DINA director reported exclusively to and received orders only from Pinochet" + start: 1975-04-15 + fn: 4 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[Letelier-Moffitt assassination]]" + start: 1976-09-21 + role: "a 1987 CIA assessment concluded that he personally ordered the murders of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt" + fn: 11 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]" + reverse: true + start: 2000-04 + end: 2000-05 + role: "formal FBI investigation into his guilt for the Letelier-Moffitt murders, as described in the 2016 release of CIA records" + fn: 11 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[Riggs Bank]]" + start: 1985 + role: "customer whose accounts the 2004 Senate subcommittee report found the bank helped conceal from regulators and courts" + fn: 20 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[House of Lords]]" + start: 1998-10-16 + end: 1999-03-24 + role: "extradition proceedings on a Spanish warrant, decided by the Lords on March 24, 1999" + fn: 1 --- -Augusto Jose Ramon Pinochet Ugarte was born on November 25, 1915, in Valparaiso, [[Chile]]. He entered the military in 1933, rising through the Army officer corps to become Commander-in-Chief in August 1973, appointed to that post by President [[Salvador Allende]] - a decision Allende would not survive. Pinochet died on December 10, 2006, in [[Santiago]], Chile, from heart failure, without having been convicted of any of the human rights charges against him.[^1] -### CIA Support and the 1973 Coup +Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte was born on November 25, 1915, in [[Valparaiso]], [[Chile]], and entered the military in 1933. He was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Army in August 1973 by President [[Salvador Allende]]. He was the leader of the military junta that evicted Allende on September 11, 1973, and the junta remained in power until March 11, 1990, when he resigned.[^1] He died on December 10, 2006, in [[Santiago]], Chile, of complications from a heart attack, which the [[National Security Archive]] notes was International Human Rights Day.[^2] -The [[Central Intelligence Agency]]'s involvement in Chilean politics preceded the coup by years. Following Allende's election in September 1970, President [[Richard Nixon]] ordered CIA Director [[Richard Helms]] to prevent Allende from taking office ("make the economy scream"). The CIA funded opposition media and political parties, supported business strikes, and made contact with military officers. CIA Station Chief [[Henry Hecksher]] and other operatives were in contact with coup plotters including Pinochet and General [[Gustavo Leigh]]. +### Track II and the killing of René Schneider -On September 11, 1973, the Chilean military - led by Pinochet, Leigh, and Admiral [[Jose Merino]] - launched a coordinated coup. The presidential palace, [[La Moneda]], was bombed by [[Chilean Air Force]] jets. Allende died during the assault, either by suicide or homicide. The military junta established a dictatorship with Pinochet emerging as the dominant figure and head of state by June 1974.[^1] +On September 15, 1970, President [[Richard Nixon]] directed the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] to organize a military coup in Chile to prevent the inauguration of Allende. The [[Church Committee]], whose successor body was the [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]], wrote that the CIA was to take this action "without coordination with the Departments of State or Defense and without informing the U.S. Ambassador." The Committee's account of the meeting cites the handwritten notes of CIA director [[Richard Helms]], which contain the words "Make the economy scream."[^3][^4] -The 2000 [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence|Church Committee]] successor investigation and subsequent declassified documents confirmed the CIA's extensive involvement in destabilizing the Allende government, though the CIA disputed direct operational involvement in the coup itself. Secretary of State [[Henry Kissinger]] was documented as aware of and approving the coup conspiracy; the "[[Track II]]" operation to prevent Allende from assuming the presidency in 1970 was a CIA operation authorized by Nixon and Kissinger.[^2] +On October 16, 1970, CIA deputy director of plans [[Thomas Karamessines]] cabled the Santiago station chief, [[Henry Hecksher]], conveying [[Henry Kissinger]]'s orders: "It is firm and continuing policy that Allende be overthrown by a coup." The cable directed that the operations be run so as to hide the "American hand," and that the station ignore orders to the contrary from Ambassador [[Edward Korry]], who had not been told of the operations.[^4] A memorandum of an October 15, 1970 meeting of Kissinger, Karamessines and [[Alexander Haig]] records a discussion of promoting a coup, known as [[Track II]], and the possibility that the plot of Chilean officer [[Roberto Viaux]] might fail with "unfortunate repercussions."[^4] Between October 5 and October 20, 1970, the CIA made 21 contacts with key Chilean military and Carabinero officials.[^5] Henry Hecksher and other operatives were in contact with coup plotters including Pinochet and General [[Gustavo Leigh]]. + +The Church Committee's interim report on assassination plots records that the removal of the Army commander-in-chief, General [[Rene Schneider]], who insisted that the constitutional process be followed, became a necessary ingredient in the plans of the Chilean conspirators, and that the conspirators decided to kidnap him. It records unsuccessful attempts on October 19 and 20, 1970, a delivery of three submachine guns and ammunition by a CIA attache on October 22, 1970, and a third attempt that day in which Schneider was shot; he died on October 25.[^5] The report states that the guns used were "in all probability" not those supplied by the CIA, that the Chilean military court found Schneider had been shot with handguns, and that the Committee could not determine whether the machine gun at the scene was one of the three the CIA supplied.[^5] The Committee also records that a station cable of October 22, 1970 said the station had instructed the attache to "hand over $50,000 if Gen. Valenzuela requests."[^5] + +The National Security Archive's description of the October 1970 cables states that the CIA supplied a group of officers led by General [[Camilo Valenzuela]] with "sterile" weapons for the operation, which was to be blamed on Allende supporters, and that Schneider was killed by another group the CIA had been collaborating with, led by retired General Roberto Viaux.[^4] The CIA's 2000 report on its Chile activities, prepared under the Hinchey amendment to the Intelligence Authorization Act for fiscal year 2000, states that the Viaux group acted "independently of the CIA at that time" on October 22, that the three submachine guns, ammunition and tear gas grenades given to the Valenzuela group were "later returned unused to the Station," and that Valenzuela's representative insisted his group had nothing to do with Schneider's killing.[^6] The Church Committee also records that Kissinger and Haig testified that the White House stood down the CIA effort on October 15, 1970, while CIA officials, especially Karamessines, testified that they acted with White House knowledge and approval before and after that date.[^5] + +The 2000 report states that in November 1970 a member of the Viaux group who had avoided capture recontacted the CIA and requested financial assistance on behalf of the group. The report continues: "Although the Agency had no obligation to the group because it acted on its own, in an effort to keep the prior contact secret, maintain the good will of the group, and for humanitarian reasons, $35,000 was passed."[^6] The National Security Archive describes the payment as one made to a group of coup plotters after that group had murdered Schneider, and states that it was apparently withheld in 1975 from the Senate committee investigating CIA involvement in assassinations.[^7] + +### The 1973 coup and US knowledge + +On September 11, 1973, the Chilean military, led by Pinochet, Gustavo Leigh and Admiral [[Jose Merino]], launched a coordinated coup. The presidential palace, [[La Moneda]], was bombed by [[Chilean Air Force]] jets. Allende died during the assault; the CIA's 2000 report describes La Moneda as under bombardment from tanks and airplanes and states that Allende took his own life.[^6] The junta, composed of Pinochet, Leigh, Merino and [[Carabineros of Chile|Carabinero]] chief General [[Cesar Mendoza]], was sworn in on the evening of September 11, 1973, and Pinochet was designated its first president; the report states that the CIA actively supported the junta but did not assist Pinochet to assume the presidency.[^6] By June 1974 Pinochet had become the dominant figure and head of state.[^3] + +A State Department cable of September 13, 1973, titled "USG Attitude Toward Junta," states that the "US government wishes to make clear its desire to cooperate with the military Junta and to assist in any appropriate way."[^2] A [[Defense Intelligence Agency]] biographic profile of Pinochet, dated August or September 1973, survives in a version with heavy deletions.[^4] + +A November 1973 State Department memorandum on executions, sent to the Secretary of State by [[Jack Kubisch]], records that summary executions in the nineteen days after the coup totaled 320, more than three times the publicly acknowledged figure.[^2] A CIA intelligence report of October 27, 1973 records that 13,500 prisoners had been registered as detained by the armed forces between September 11 and October 10, 1973, and estimates 1,600 civilian deaths from the coup.[^2] + +The 2000 report states that within a year after the coup the CIA and other US agencies were aware of bilateral cooperation among regional intelligence services to track the activities of and, in at least a few cases, kill political opponents, which it calls the precursor to Operation Condor.[^6] After Pinochet's arrest in London in October 1998, the Clinton administration released a collection of about 24,000 declassified records.[^2] + +### DINA and Manuel Contreras + +A Defense Intelligence Agency report of April 15, 1975 describes the [[DINA]] as "the sole responsible agency for internal subversive matters." It states that the head of DINA, Colonel [[Manuel Contreras]], "has reported exclusively to, and received orders only from, President Pinochet."[^4] + +The CIA's 2000 report states that between 1974 and 1977 the CIA maintained contact with Contreras, and that the policy community approved the contact despite concerns that it might lay the agency open to charges of aiding internal political repression. It records that in December 1974 the CIA concluded that Contreras was not going to improve his human rights performance, and that by April 1975 intelligence reporting showed that he was "the principal obstacle to a reasonable human rights policy within the Junta," but that an interagency committee directed the CIA to continue the relationship.[^6] In August 1975, with interagency approval, Contreras met Deputy Director of Central Intelligence [[Vernon Walters]] in Washington.[^6] + +On the payment, the report states: "In May and June 1975, elements within the CIA recommended establishing a paid relationship with Contreras to obtain intelligence based on his unique position and access to Pinochet." It continues that the proposal was overruled, citing US policy on clandestine relations with the head of an intelligence service notorious for human rights abuses, and that "given miscommunications in the timing of this exchange, a one-time payment was given to Contreras."[^6] The National Security Archive's summary of the report states that the CIA made Contreras a paid asset only several months after concluding that he was the principal obstacle to a reasonable human rights policy.[^7] + +The report records that the CIA sought information from Contreras on Operation Condor, that by October 1976 the CIA decided to approach him on the matter, and that he confirmed Condor's existence as an intelligence-sharing network but denied that it had a role in extra-judicial killings. It states that during October 1976 "Contreras' possible role in the Letelier assassination became an issue," that the CIA met him about half a dozen times during 1977 (three of them to request information on the Letelier assassination), and that on November 3, 1977 Contreras was transferred to a function unrelated to intelligence and the CIA severed all contact.[^6] ### Operation Condor -Pinochet's Chile was a founding participant in [[Operation Condor]], the CIA-facilitated transnational network of South American military intelligence services (Chile, [[Argentina]], [[Paraguay]], [[Uruguay]], [[Bolivia]], [[Brazil]]) that coordinated the identification, tracking, and assassination of leftist dissidents across borders and in third countries. Condor's operations killed thousands of people across the continent; documented Condor assassinations include the 1974 car bombing of General [[Carlos Prats]] in [[Buenos Aires]] and the 1976 car bombing in [[Washington, D.C.]] of former Chilean diplomat [[Orlando Letelier]] - a rare Condor operation on American soil. The Letelier assassination was carried out by the [[DINA]] (Chilean secret police) under [[Manuel Contreras]]; Contreras was convicted in Chile in 1995.[^2] +The 2000 report describes Operation Condor as an intelligence-sharing arrangement among Chile, [[Argentina]], [[Brazil]], [[Paraguay]] and [[Uruguay]] established in 1975.[^6] A cable of September 28, 1976 from the FBI legal attache in [[Buenos Aires]], [[Robert Scherrer]], reports information from a "confidential source abroad" that Operation Condor was the code name for the collection, exchange and storage of intelligence on "leftists," communists and Marxists, recently established between cooperating intelligence services in South America "in order to eliminate Marxist terrorist activities in the area." The cable states that Chile is the center for Operation Condor and that its members include Argentina, [[Bolivia]], Paraguay and Uruguay, with Brazil tentatively agreed to supply intelligence input; that Argentina, Uruguay and Chile had engaged in joint operations, primarily in Argentina; and that a third and most secret phase involves special teams from member countries who are "to travel anywhere in the world to non-member countries to carry out sanctions up to assassination against terrorists or supporters of terrorist organizations." France and Portugal are named as European countries specifically mentioned for possible third-phase operations. The cable states that no information had been developed indicating that third-phase sanctions were planned for the United States, and adds: "however, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that the recent assassination of Orlando Letelier in Washington, D.C. may have been carried out as a third phase action of 'Operation Condor.'" Several passages about the special teams are excised.[^4] -### Arms and Carlos Cardoen +Scherrer also wrote to Chilean General [[Ernesto Baeza]] on June 6, 1975, reporting intelligence obtained through the interrogation of a captured Chilean leftist, Jorge Isaac Fuentes, who the National Security Archive states was detained through Operation Condor.[^4] An FBI summary dated January 21, 1982 of letters written from prison by [[Michael Townley]] reports, among other things, meetings between Pinochet and Italian terrorists and spies.[^4] -Chilean arms manufacturer [[Carlos Cardoen]] operated with CIA connections during the Pinochet era, developing cluster munitions and other weapons that were supplied to [[Iraq]] during the [[Iran-Iraq War]]. Cardoen's operations blended private arms manufacturing with intelligence relationships cultivated under Pinochet's government. Cardoen's companies were investigated by the U.S. government following the Persian Gulf War for their role in Iraq's weapons procurement.[^1] +The Archives of Terror, the Paraguayan police files from the dictatorship of [[Alfredo Stroessner]], are listed in the UNESCO Memory of the World register. The register entry states that on December 23 and 24, 1991, judges José Agustín Fernández and Luis María Benítez Riera searched and seized the files of the production department of the police in Asunción and the technical section of the Ministry of the Interior, following the investigation of the human rights defender Martín Almada; it dates the documents from 1927 to February 1989 and states that the files provide evidence of Operation Condor.[^8] -### London Arrest and Extradition Battle +### Letelier and Moffitt -Pinochet traveled to [[London]] for back surgery in September 1998. On October 16, 1998, Spanish judge [[Baltasar Garzon]] issued an international arrest warrant for crimes against humanity, and British police arrested Pinochet at the London Clinic. The 16-month extradition battle involved rulings by the [[House of Lords]] (which held that former heads of state have no immunity for torture) before British Home Secretary [[Jack Straw]] released Pinochet on medical grounds in March 2000. He returned to Chile where he faced numerous criminal and civil charges until his death.[^1] +On September 21, 1976, a car bomb in [[Washington, D.C.]] killed the former Chilean ambassador [[Orlando Letelier]] and his American colleague [[Ronni Moffitt]].[^9] According to the opinion of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the government's principal witness, Michael Townley, a United States citizen who entered the employ of DINA in 1974, admitted his complicity in the killings and struck a plea bargain with the government in return for his testimony.[^9] -### Footnotes +A CIA cable of October 6, 1976 reports that its source "believes that the Chilean government is directly involved in Letelier's death and feels that investigation into the incident will so indicate."[^2] The 2000 CIA report states that this was the CIA's first intelligence report containing the allegation.[^6] The indictments of August 1, 1978 named [[Guillermo Novo Sampol]], Alvin Ross Diaz, Juan Manuel Contreras Sepulveda, Pedro Espinoza Bravo, [[Armando Fernandez Larios]], [[Jose Dionisio Suarez Esquivel]] and [[Virgilio Paz Romero]]. Guillermo Novo, Ross and Ignacio Novo Sampol were tried by jury beginning January 8, 1979, and were found guilty on February 14, 1979. The Court of Appeals decided the appeal on September 15, 1980 (rehearing denied December 9, 1980) and reversed the convictions of Guillermo Novo and Ross, because informant testimony was inadmissible under the Supreme Court's decision of June 16, 1980 in [[United States v. Henry]], and remanded for retrial.[^9] The killing was carried out by the DINA, under Contreras, and was a rare Condor operation on American soil. On May 30, 1995, the Chilean Supreme Court upheld the prison sentences of Contreras (seven years) and Espinoza (six years) for ordering the assassination.[^10] -[^1]: "Augusto Pinochet," *Encyclopaedia Britannica.* https://www.britannica.com/biography/Augusto-Pinochet -[^2]: Kornbluh, Peter. *The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability.* The New Press, 2003. +A CIA special intelligence assessment dated 1987 concluded that there was "convincing evidence that President Pinochet personally ordered his intelligence chief to carry out the murder." The assessment added that Pinochet later "decided to stonewall on the case to hide his involvement and, ultimately, to protect his hold on the presidency."[^11] A memorandum from [[George Shultz]] to [[Ronald Reagan]] dated October 6, 1987 reported the CIA conclusion to the president as part of an effort to terminate US support for the regime.[^12] The assessment and related documents were handed to Chilean President [[Michelle Bachelet]] by Deputy Secretary of State [[Heather Higginbottom]] on September 23, 2016. The National Security Archive states that the Justice Department had identified the intelligence records as evidence during a formal FBI investigation into Pinochet's guilt in April and May 2000, and that the FBI reportedly concluded there was enough circumstantial evidence to indict Pinochet.[^11] + +The CIA's 1978 intelligence report on Pinochet's strategy, as summarized by the National Security Archive, describes a four-point plan to protect Contreras from successful prosecution, stonewall US requests for evidence, prevent the Chilean Supreme Court from honoring US extradition requests, and persuade Chileans that the investigation was a politically motivated tool against the regime.[^2] + +### Colonia Dignidad + +A 2017 motion of the German [[Bundestag]] describes the [[Colonia Dignidad]] settlement in southern Chile, founded by the German [[Paul Schaefer]], as the scene of systematic, serious human rights violations during the Pinochet dictatorship, committed in part together with DINA.[^13] The crimes it lists include unlawful deprivation of liberty, enforced disappearance, forced labour and slavery, child abuse, and bodily harm.[^13] The motion records that Schaefer was arrested in 2005.[^13] + +In 1987 the Green Party group in the Bundestag asked the federal government what it knew of cooperation between the colony and DINA, and whether Contreras visited West Germany in the winter of 1975 and 1976, including stops in Augsburg, Wiesbaden, Nuremberg and Cologne.[^14] + +In April 2016 the then German Foreign Minister, [[Frank-Walter Steinmeier]], stated on behalf of the whole [[Auswärtiges Amt]] that German diplomats had clearly done too little to protect their compatriots in the colony; he said the ministry was not to blame for the military coup or the seventeen years of dictatorship and bore no responsibility for the colony's activities, but that it should have more decisively given Germans counsel and assistance. The Foreign Office states that political prisoners were tortured and murdered in the colony during the Pinochet dictatorship, that since 2018 the Bundestag and the federal government have worked in a joint commission to help victims, and that a victims' aid concept was presented in May 2019.[^15] + +### Carlos Cardoen and Iraq + +[[Carlos Cardoen]], a Chilean arms manufacturer who returned to Santiago after the 1973 coup to work for the government-owned [[Chilean Mining Corporation]], is described by [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] as selling cluster bombs to [[Iraq]] by 1985 with the help of individuals connected to the CIA, and as having been charged in Miami in April 1992 by the US Customs Service.[^16] [[Alan Friedman]] reports that Cardoen's plant at [[Iquique]] produced about a thousand cluster bombs a month, with a first shipment worth 21 million dollars reaching Iraq early in 1984 during the [[Iran-Iraq War]]; a former CIA contractor described Cardoen to Friedman as "an all-purpose asset, designed to be one of those offshore stockpilers of military equipment who could be used by the CIA to ship arms to the Afghan rebels, to the boys in Angola, or anywhere the U.S. needed some help." The White House said in July 1991 that there "never were any sales, overt or covert, to Iraq or Iran through a third country." The British journalist [[Jonathan Moyle]], who was inquiring into Cardoen's helicopter project, was found dead in a Santiago hotel on March 31, 1990.[^17] + +### London arrest and the House of Lords + +Pinochet landed at Heathrow on September 22, 1998, and underwent back surgery in [[London]]. On October 16, 1998 a Spanish warrant was issued by judge [[Baltasar Garzon]] and a London magistrate issued a provisional warrant the same day. The Lords judgment states that Pinochet was arrested in a London hospital on October 17, 1998; Home Secretary [[Jack Straw]] told the House of Commons that he was arrested "that evening" after the Bow Street warrant was issued on October 16.[^1][^18] On October 28, 1998 the Divisional Court quashed both provisional warrants, on the ground for the second that Pinochet was entitled to state immunity as former head of state.[^1] + +The House of Lords first ruled on November 25, 1998, by majority that Pinochet was not immune for crimes under international law. That judgment was set aside on January 15, 1999, because the committee that heard it was not properly constituted, and the appeal was reheard from January 18, 1999.[^1] In the judgment of March 24, 1999, [[Lord Browne-Wilkinson]] wrote: "I do not consider that torture committed outside the United Kingdom before 29 September 1988 was a crime under U.K. law." He would allow the appeal "so as to permit the extradition proceedings to proceed on the allegation that torture in pursuance of a conspiracy to commit torture, including the single act of torture which is alleged in charge 30, was being committed by Senator Pinochet after 8 December 1988 when he lost his immunity."[^1] Straw described the key majority finding of the second Lords hearing as being that torture was an international crime over which parties to the torture convention had universal jurisdiction and that a former head of state did not have immunity from such crimes.[^18] + +Straw issued a second authority to proceed on April 14, 1999; on October 8, 1999 a Bow Street magistrate committed Pinochet to await the Home Secretary's decision. On October 14, 1999 the Chilean embassy made representations supported by medical reports, and Straw commissioned an examination by Professor Sir John Grimley Evans, Professor Andrew Lees and Dr. Michael Denham, joined by the neuropsychologist Dr. Maria Wyke. Straw informed the interested parties on January 11, 2000 that he was minded to conclude that no purpose would be served by continuing the Spanish extradition request, and on January 25, 2000 Belgium and [[Amnesty International]] applied for judicial review of the refusal to disclose the medical report.[^18] + +On March 2, 2000, Straw told the Commons that he had discharged Pinochet from the Spanish request "on the grounds that he was unfit to stand trial and that no significant improvement in his condition could be expected," and that he would not issue an authority to proceed on the Belgian, French and Swiss requests because none disclosed an extradition crime. He stated: "All the decisions which I have taken have been mine alone, and have not been decisions of Her Majesty's Government." A plane provided by the Chilean government carrying Pinochet left RAF Waddington at about 1.10 pm that day.[^18] The Solicitor-General stated in a written answer of the same date, on the advice of the Director of Public Prosecutions, that there was no realistic prospect of convicting Pinochet in England and Wales and that no court there would allow a trial of Pinochet to take place.[^18] A 35-page Home Office statement handed out in London set out reasons for the conclusion that Pinochet was not mentally or physically fit to stand trial in Britain or anywhere else.[^19] He returned to Chile, where he faced numerous criminal and civil charges until his death. + +### Riggs Bank accounts + +The minority staff of the Senate [[Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations]] released its report on [[Riggs Bank]] with a hearing on July 15, 2004. The report's title is "Money Laundering and Foreign Corruption: Enforcement and Effectiveness of the Patriot Act, Case Study Involving Riggs Bank." Its first finding states that Riggs "assisted Augusto Pinochet, former president of Chile, to evade legal proceedings related to his Riggs bank accounts and resisted OCC oversight of these accounts."[^20] + +The report finds that Pinochet was a Riggs customer for at least eight years, with total deposits that varied from about $4 million to $8 million. In July 1996 a Spanish indictment charged him with crimes against humanity. In 1996 and again in 1998, Riggs helped him set up two Bahamian shell companies, Ashburton Company Ltd. and Althorp Investment Co., Ltd., listed as nominal owners of accounts and certificates of deposit benefiting him and his family.[^20] The report also states that the bank delivered over $1.9 million in cashier's checks to Pinochet in Chile.[^20] + +### Carlos Prats and Enrique Arancibia Clavel + +On September 30, 1974, a car bomb in Buenos Aires killed the exiled Chilean general [[Carlos Prats]] and his wife, [[Sofía Cuthbert]].[^21] Kornbluh's 2024 compilation states that Pinochet met Contreras in June 1974 and ordered him to eliminate Prats. The task first went to the DINA station chief in Argentina, [[Enrique Arancibia Clavel]], and then to DINA deputy director [[Pedro Espinoza]], who gave it to Townley, who constructed, placed and detonated the bomb.[^21] + +On August 24, 2004, the [[Supreme Court of Argentina]] upheld the life sentence that a federal tribunal had imposed on Arancibia Clavel for association and necessary participation in the double aggravated homicide of Prats and Cuthbert. The court held that the crimes could not be time-barred, because crimes against humanity are imprescriptible.[^22] + +[^1]: *Regina v. Evans and Another and the Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis and Others, Ex Parte Pinochet (No. 3)* [1999] UKHL 17 (24 March 1999), speech of Lord Browne-Wilkinson, paras. 7-12 (facts, warrants of October 16, 17, 18 and 22, 1998, Divisional Court of October 28, 1998, Lords judgments of November 25, 1998, set aside January 15, 1999, rehearing January 18, 1999) and conclusion. https://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKHL/1999/17.html +[^2]: National Security Archive, "Pinochet: A Declassified Documentary Obit," Electronic Briefing Book No. 212, Peter Kornbluh and Yvette White, posted December 12, 2006, with descriptions of documents including the September 13, 1973 State Department cable, the November 1973 "Chilean Executions" memorandum, the October 27, 1973 CIA report, the October 6, 1976 CIA cable, and the June 23, 1978 CIA report. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB212/index.htm +[^3]: United States Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, "Covert Action in Chile 1963-1973" (staff report, 1975), section "2. Track II" and the chronology. https://archive.org/details/Covert-Action-In-Chile-1963-1973 +[^4]: National Security Archive, "Chile and the United States: Declassified Documents Relating to the Military Coup, September 11, 1973," Electronic Briefing Book No. 8, Peter Kornbluh, 1998, document descriptions including the September 15, 1970 Helms notes, the October 15 and 16, 1970 CIA records, the October 18, 1970 cables on the Schneider plot, the April 15, 1975 DIA report, the June 6, 1975 FBI letter and the January 21, 1982 FBI report on Townley; and FBI Buenos Aires cable to the Director, September 28, 1976 (reproduced in the briefing book as document 23, pp. 1-4). https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB8/nsaebb8.htm and https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB8/docs/doc23.pdf +[^5]: United States Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders*, Interim Report, S. Rept. 94-465 (1975), Chile chapter beginning at p. 225 (Schneider sections, including the findings and the discussion of the shooting of General Schneider and CIA/White House communication during Track II). https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94465.pdf +[^6]: Central Intelligence Agency, "CIA Activities in Chile," September 18, 2000 (report under Section 311 of the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000, the Hinchey Amendment), sections "Relationship with Contreras," "The Schneider Assassination," "Accession of General Augusto Pinochet to the Presidency," "Knowledge of 'Operation Condor'" and "Knowledge of Human Rights Violations." https://permanent.fdlp.gov/websites/www.cia.gov/www.cia.gov/cia/reports/chile/index.html +[^7]: National Security Archive, "CIA Acknowledges Ties to Pinochet's Repression," Chile Documentation Project, September 19, 2000, summary of the Hinchey report. Sole source for the characterization of the Contreras payment as making him a "paid asset" and for the statement that the Schneider-related payment was apparently withheld from the Senate committee in 1975. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/news/20000919/index.html +[^8]: UNESCO, Memory of the World Regional Register for Latin America and the Caribbean, "Archives of Terror, XXth Century" (Paraguay, registration ID 66/2011; institution: Centro de Documentación y Archivos para la defensa de los derechos humanos, Corte Suprema de Justicia). https://www.unesco.org/en/memory-world/lac/archives-terror-xxth-century +[^9]: *United States v. Sampol*, 636 F.2d 621 (D.C. Cir. 1980) (per curiam), argued June 10, 1980, decided September 15, 1980, rehearing denied December 9, 1980. https://case-law.vlex.com/vid/u-s-v-sampol-886429361 +[^10]: "Chile Officers To Go To Prison For '76 Murder," Los Angeles Times, reprinted in The Spokesman-Review (Spokane), May 31, 1995. https://www.spokesman.com/stories/1995/may/31/chile-officers-to-go-to-prison-for-76-murder/ +[^11]: National Security Archive, "CIA: 'Pinochet personally ordered' Letelier bombing," Electronic Briefing Book No. 560, September 23, 2016, quoting the CIA special intelligence assessment of 1987. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/node/3081 +[^12]: National Security Archive, "The Pinochet File: U.S. Declassifies Missing Documents in the Letelier-Moffitt Case," Electronic Briefing Book No. 532, October 8, 2015, describing the October 6, 1987 Shultz memorandum to Reagan. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/node/2899 +[^13]: Deutscher Bundestag, Drucksache 18/12943 (2017), motion on Colonia Dignidad (German; paraphrased). https://dserver.bundestag.de/btd/18/129/1812943.pdf +[^14]: Deutscher Bundestag, Drucksache 11/1409 (1987), minor interpellation of the Green Party group on Colonia Dignidad (German; paraphrased). https://dserver.bundestag.de/btd/11/014/1101409.pdf +[^15]: Auswärtiges Amt, "'Colonia Dignidad': Bilanzbericht der Gemeinsamen Kommission," September 21, 2021 (German; paraphrased), including the account of Steinmeier's April 2016 statement. https://auswaertiges-amt.de/de/aussenpolitik/laender/chile-node/bilanzbericht-colonia-dignidad/2483426 +[^16]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 1992. Sole source for the passages so cited. +[^17]: Friedman, Alan. *Spider's Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq*. Bantam, 1993, pp. 46-54, 64. Sole source for the passages so cited. +[^18]: UK House of Commons, *Hansard*, "Senator Pinochet," HC Deb 02 March 2000 vol 345 cc571-88 (statement of the Home Secretary, Jack Straw), and written answer of the Solicitor-General, HC Deb 02 March 2000 vol 345 cc336-7W. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/2000/mar/02/senator-pinochet and https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/written_answers/2000/mar/02/senator-pinochet +[^19]: CNN, transcript of March 2, 2000 (report on Home Secretary Jack Straw's decision and the 35-page statement). https://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0003/02/nd.03.html +[^20]: United States Senate, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, minority staff, "Money Laundering and Foreign Corruption: Enforcement and Effectiveness of the Patriot Act, Case Study Involving Riggs Bank" (report released with the July 15, 2004 hearing), Finding 1 (p. 7) and Section B (p. 18). https://archive.org/details/SenateSubcommitteeReportOnMoneyLaunderingAndRiggsBank +[^21]: National Security Archive, "The Pinochet Regime at 50: The Assassination of General Carlos Prats and Sofía Cuthbert," Electronic Briefing Book, Peter Kornbluh, October 1, 2024, narrative and CIA and DINA documents. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2024-10-01/pinochet-regime-50-assassination-general-carlos-prats-and-sofia +[^22]: Corte Suprema de Justicia de la Nacion (Argentina), *Arancibia Clavel, Enrique Lautaro s/ homicidio calificado y asociacion ilicita y otros*, recurso de hecho, Buenos Aires, August 24, 2004. https://www.cancilleria.gob.ar/userfiles/ut/fallo_arancibia_clavel_2004_01.pdf diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Hal Puthoff.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Hal Puthoff.md index 4bf0d802..ffcc5f80 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Hal Puthoff.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Hal Puthoff.md @@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ relations: fn: 16 --- -Harold E. "Hal" Puthoff (born June 20, 1936) is a physicist and engineer who co-founded the [[Stanford Research Institute]] remote viewing research program with [[Russell Targ]] in 1972 under [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] contract and served as its principal investigator through 1985. The program, which operated under the code names SCANATE, Gondola Wish, and [[Stargate Project|Grill Flame]] before consolidating as STAR GATE under [[Defense Intelligence Agency|DIA]] oversight, represented the primary [[U.S. government]] institutional effort to investigate anomalous cognition for intelligence applications over two decades. Puthoff subsequently contributed technical research to the [[Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program|AATIP]] [[Pentagon]] program and became a founding member of [[To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science|To the Stars Academy of Arts and Science]]. +Harold E. "Hal" Puthoff (born June 20, 1936) is a physicist and engineer who co-founded the [[Stanford Research Institute]] remote viewing research program with [[Russell Targ]] in 1972 under [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] contract and served as its principal investigator through 1985. The program, which operated under the code names SCANATE, Gondola Wish, and [[Stargate Project|Grill Flame]] before consolidating as STAR GATE under [[Defense Intelligence Agency|DIA]] oversight, represented the primary [[United States|U.S. government]] institutional effort to investigate anomalous cognition for intelligence applications over two decades. Puthoff subsequently contributed technical research to the [[Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program|AATIP]] [[Pentagon]] program and became a founding member of [[To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science|To the Stars Academy of Arts and Science]]. ### Early Career diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Peter Thiel.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Peter Thiel.md index c63af8ed..86d5c9d2 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Peter Thiel.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Peter Thiel.md @@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ updated: 2026-09-25 Peter Thiel (born October 11, 1967, in [[Frankfurt]], [[West Germany]]) is a German-born American billionaire investor and the central figure of the [[PayPal Mafia]], the informal network of founders and early executives of [[PayPal]] who went on to found or lead much of the subsequent generation of [[Silicon Valley]] companies. Thiel cofounded PayPal, founded the venture capital firm [[Founders Fund]], and cofounded and chairs the data-analytics and defense contractor [[Palantir Technologies]]. In 2006 he cofounded the secret society [[Dialog]] with [[Auren Hoffman]]. He is the most prominent documented financial patron of the neoreactionary philosopher [[Curtis Yarvin]], the founder of [[Neoreaction]] (NRx) and co-originator of the [[Dark Enlightenment]], and his political investments extended to funding the covert lawsuit that destroyed [[Gawker Media]] and bankrolling the U.S. Senate and subsequent vice-presidential campaigns of [[JD Vance]].[^1][^2][^3] -Across these activities Thiel has built a coordinated program for the privatization and concentration of state-adjacent capacity: payments (PayPal), intelligence and law-enforcement data integration (Palantir Technologies), elite convening (Dialog), and the ideological framework that argues this concentration is both desirable and inevitable (the Yarvin patronage and the neoreactionary current). The political donations placed figures aligned with the thesis (Vance, [[Blake Masters]]) inside the [[U.S. government]]. The set of activities is mutually reinforcing rather than a portfolio of separate bets. +Across these activities Thiel has built a coordinated program for the privatization and concentration of state-adjacent capacity: payments (PayPal), intelligence and law-enforcement data integration (Palantir Technologies), elite convening (Dialog), and the ideological framework that argues this concentration is both desirable and inevitable (the Yarvin patronage and the neoreactionary current). The political donations placed figures aligned with the thesis (Vance, [[Blake Masters]]) inside the [[United States|U.S. government]]. The set of activities is mutually reinforcing rather than a portfolio of separate bets. ### PayPal and the PayPal Mafia @@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ Thiel acknowledged the funding in a *Forbes* interview, framing it as retaliatio ### Political Investments: Vance, Masters, and Trump -Thiel's political activity moved from libertarian advocacy to direct electoral investment in the 2020s. He was the largest single donor to the 2022 U.S. Senate campaign of JD Vance in [[Ohio]], contributing approximately fifteen million dollars through a super PAC, and to the concurrent Senate campaign of Masters in [[Arizona]], who had served as president of [[Thiel Capital]] and as coauthor with Thiel of *Zero to One*. Vance won and, in 2024, was elected Vice President of the [[United States]] on the Republican ticket with [[Donald Trump]].[^2] +Thiel's political activity moved from libertarian advocacy to direct electoral investment in the 2020s. He was the largest single donor to the 2022 U.S. Senate campaign of JD Vance in [[Ohio]], contributing approximately fifteen million dollars through a super PAC, and to the concurrent Senate campaign of Masters in [[Arizona]], who had served as president of [[Thiel Capital]] and as coauthor with Thiel of *Zero to One*. Vance won and, in 2024, was elected Vice President of the United States on the Republican ticket with [[Donald Trump]].[^2] Thiel spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention endorsing Trump and was a significant contributor to his 2016 and 2024 campaigns. The Vance outcome compressed an unusually short cycle from investment to return: a single donor's fifteen million dollars in primary-cycle super PAC spending produced a sitting U.S. senator who became vice president within three years. The Masters campaign lost. Both candidates had been backed by Thiel and had worked under him (Masters as Thiel Capital president and *Zero to One* coauthor; Vance as a Thiel-funded political entrant).[^2] diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/U.S. government.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/U.S. government.md deleted file mode 100644 index f0c8b8ea..00000000 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/U.S. government.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,18 +0,0 @@ ---- -category: "U.S. Government" -tags: - - organization - - u.s.-government - - contra-war -summary: The U.S. government, through the CIA, NSC, and State Department, orchestrated support for the Contra war while simultaneously protecting Contra-connected drug traffickers from prosecution. ---- -The U.S. government, through the [[Central Intelligence Agency]], [[National Security Council]], and [[State Department]], orchestrated support for the [[Contras|Contra]] war while simultaneously protecting Contra-connected drug traffickers from prosecution. The contradiction between the government's public anti-drug stance and its covert protection of drug-running allies was the central theme of the [[Dark Alliance]] investigation.[^1] - -### The Dual Policy - -While the [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]] administration waged a public "War on Drugs" and Ronald Reagan and [[George H.W. Bush]] whipped the public into a frenzy over crack dealers, the CIA and NSC were facilitating cocaine trafficking by Contra-connected networks. The government used the [[DEA]] and [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] to investigate street-level dealers while shielding Contra traffickers from prosecution. When [[Celerino Castillo]] sent reports to DEA headquarters about Contra pilots smuggling drugs, they disappeared into a "bureaucratic black hole." The secret 1982 Memorandum of Understanding between CIA Director William Casey and Attorney General William French Smith exempted CIA assets from drug crimes reporting for thirteen years.[^2] - -### Footnotes - -[^1]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Prologue. -[^2]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 15, Epilogue. diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/Iron March.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/Iron March.md index 9c9e54fd..f4870fa0 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/Iron March.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/Iron March.md @@ -10,114 +10,163 @@ tags: - Russia - DatabaseLeak created: 2026-05-21 -updated: 2026-05-22 -summary: "Iron March was a Russian neo-fascist web forum founded by Alisher Mukhitdinov in 2011 that served as the primary incubator for Atomwaffen Division and several other neo-Nazi organizations until its closure in 2017, after which a 2019 database leak exposed 1,207 user accounts and enabled identification of military personnel, law enforcement employees, and organizational moderators across multiple countries." +updated: 2026-10-07 +aliases: + - Iron March + - IronMarch + - Iron March forum + - ironmarch.org + - International Third Positionist Federation + - ITPF +summary: "Iron March was a neo-fascist web forum founded in 2011 by Alisher Mukhitdinov, who used the alias Alexander Slavros, that closed in 2017 and whose database leak in 2019 exposed users in several countries." start: 2011 end: 2017 location: "Russia (online)" +relations: + - type: founded + with: "Alisher Mukhitdinov" + reverse: true + start: 2011 + fn: 1 + - type: member_of + with: "Benjamin Raymond" + reverse: true + role: "administrator (member number seven)" + start: 2011 + fn: 4 + - type: investigated + with: "Bellingcat" + reverse: true + start: 2019 + fn: 3 --- -[[Iron March]] was a neo-fascist web forum founded in 2011 by [[Russia|Russian]] nationalist [[Alisher Mukhitdinov]] (operating under the alias "Alexander Slavros") and active until its closure in 2017. During its six years of operation, it served as the primary international incubator for a new generation of neo-Nazi and neo-fascist organizations, most significantly [[Atomwaffen Division]], and played a critical role in popularizing [[James Mason]]'s 1992 book *[[Siege]]* among a younger generation of online militants beginning in 2015. +Iron March was a neo-fascist web forum founded in 2011 by [[Russia|Russian]] nationalist [[Alisher Mukhitdinov]], who used the alias "Alexander Slavros," and taken offline in November 2017.[^1] It was the online meeting place where [[Brandon Russell]] announced [[Atomwaffen Division]] in October 2015, and it served as the starting point for other neo-Nazi and neo-fascist groups, including [[National Action]] in the [[United Kingdom]] and [[Antipodean Resistance]] in [[Australia]]. The forum also gave a new readership to [[James Mason]]'s 1992 book [[Siege]].[^2] Its database was posted online in November 2019.[^3] -### Founding and Character +### Founding and Predecessor Forum -Mukhitdinov launched Iron March in 2011 as an explicitly neo-fascist and neo-Nazi discussion community. The forum's character distinguished it from older white nationalist online spaces by its emphasis on international fascist solidarity rather than American white nationalism specifically, its embrace of philosophical and esoteric neo-Nazism alongside more conventional political content, and its willingness to host members from across the world who were organizing actual offline groups. +The forum began as the International Third Positionist Federation (ITPF). On June 26, 2010, an unidentified user named Kacen created it on [[Bizhat]], an [[India]]-based hosting service that offered ready-to-use forum templates.[^1] ITPF had no activity until April 2011, when Mukhitdinov created a forum charter and discussion topics under the Slavros alias.[^1] In September 2011 its administrators created Iron March on the ironmarch.org domain using [[Invision Power Services]] software, migrated ITPF's data to it, and shut ITPF down.[^1] A moderator using the screen name "Woman in Black" alluded to unspecified technical problems in private messages, and the reasons for the migration are not known in detail.[^1] ITPF had regional sections for nine European countries and the United States, and most of its users wrote in English.[^1] -The forum attracted members who were simultaneously producing theory, building organizations, and planning operations, which made it unusually consequential relative to its size. Members who later committed acts of violence, founded violent organizations, or were prosecuted on terrorism-related charges had all been active participants in the Iron March community. +Slavros created Iron March to fill a niche in the online neo-fascist ecosystem, which lacked a community for "21st century Fascists," meaning a younger generation of adherents to Traditionalist neo-fascism.[^1] The leadership strongly encouraged offline activism, and moderators created sub-forums for any country with enough active members to sustain discussion.[^1] -### Predecessor: International Third Positionist Federation +Three premeditated violent plots conclusively linked to Iron March were disrupted between 2011 and 2017 while the forum was online, and the majority of terrorist activity linked to the skull-mask network, as the [[Combating Terrorism Center at West Point]] terms it, occurred after the forum disappeared.[^1] The first, disrupted in 2015, involved Iron March member Lindsay Souvannarath and an accomplice, who were arrested on their way to a planned mass shooting at a shopping mall in [[Halifax, Nova Scotia]]. Souvannarath pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2018 (R. v. Souvannarath, 2018 NSSC 96), and has since written several letters to Mason.[^1] -Iron March was not the forum's original identity. On June 26, 2010, an unidentified individual using the username "Kacen" created a forum called the "International Third Positionist Federation" (ITPF) on [[Bizhat]], an India-based hosting service offering ready-to-use forum templates. ITPF showed no activity until April 2011, when Mukhitdinov joined and began creating content. In September 2011, the ITPF administrators migrated the forum to a new domain, ironmarch.org, using [[Invision Power Services]] software, and shut down the ITPF instance. An Iron March moderator using the screen name "Woman in Black" referenced unspecified technical issues as the reason for migration in private messages recovered from the database. The identity of "Kacen" and of "Woman in Black" has not been established in open-source reporting.[^1] +### Administration and Named Moderators -### Forum Administration and Named Moderators +Mukhitdinov, who used the alias "Alexander Slavros," is the only forum administrator whose real identity has been published. A [[BBC News Russian]] investigation by Andrei Soshnikov, published on January 30, 2020, reported that the website slavros.org, which carried Slavros's early nationalist manifestos, was registered in 2011 in the name of Alisher Mukhitdinov, and that he was living in a three-room apartment in southwest [[Moscow]]. The BBC reported that investigators were not looking for him, that he did not speak to its reporters, and that he did not answer on the Signal messenger.[^4] His parents met in the 1980s as students at the [[Moscow State Institute of International Relations]] (MGIMO) and divorced in the 1990s. His father was a businessman, a sponsor of MGIMO, and the head of a foundation that assists labour migrants. His mother worked as a sports journalist.[^4][^5] According to two BBC sources with access to personal databases, a close relative on his father's side, [[Nuritdin Mukhitdinov]], fought at the Battle of Stalingrad, led the government of the [[Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic]] under Khrushchev, later sat on the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and served as Soviet ambassador to [[Syria]].[^4] -Mukhitdinov ("Alexander Slavros") is the only forum administrator whose real identity has been fully established. [[BBC News Russian]] identified Mukhitdinov in January 2020, following an investigation that located him still living in southwest Moscow in a prefabricated apartment block. His parents had met as students at the [[Moscow State Institute of International Relations]] (MGIMO), an institution with documented ties to Russian state security agencies. His father was a businessman and CEO of a charitable foundation. A close relative on his father's side, [[Nuritdin Mukhitdinov]], was a senior Soviet official who led the Uzbek government under Khrushchev and served as an ambassador. BBC Russia investigated claims that Alisher Mukhitdinov had been pressured by Russian authorities for alleged fundraising for the [[Azov Battalion]] (designated a terrorist organization in Russia) but found no evidence the fundraising occurred. He has not been prosecuted in any jurisdiction as of May 2026.[^2] +Slavros posted his last message on the forum on November 20, 2017, and the forum and the online journal Rope Culture disappeared a few days later. The BBC reported that the two sites sat on different hosting services.[^4] The American writer Andrew Auernheimer (known as weew) suggested in a podcast with a Canadian Iron March administrator using the name Zeiger that Slavros had withdrawn under pressure from the Russian authorities; Zeiger agreed and said Slavros had shared development plans with him days before the closure.[^4] A user calling himself The Eternal Armenian wrote that Slavros had probably been killed by the FSB, and another anonymous user wrote that Slavros had angered the FSB by raising money for the [[Azov Battalion]], a unit designated as a terrorist organization in Russia. The BBC wrote that although the forum had a thread devoted to Azov, it found no confirmation that Slavros collected funds for the battalion; the Azov press secretary did not answer its questions.[^4][^5] -[[Benjamin Raymond]], the co-founder of [[National Action]], was a named Iron March administrator. Raymond's administrative role on Iron March predated National Action's founding in 2013, and he served as the organization's primary propagandist. The Iron March database confirmed Raymond's Iron March presence in records surfaced after the 2019 leak.[^3] +[[Benjamin Raymond]] was, according to the BBC Russian Service, one of the original administrators of Iron March, registered as member number seven (Slavros was number one), and was thanked by Slavros on the last page of his manifesto under the name Benjamin Noyles.[^4] Under that screen name he organized and edited an online journal called ATTACK on the forum, and in 2013 he co-founded National Action with [[Alex Davies]]. He was convicted in 2021 of membership of National Action and sentenced to eight years in prison.[^1] [[Bellingcat]] gives his forum names as "Daddy Terror" or "Benjamin Noyles," and The Ferret refers to him as "Ben Raymond, aka Daddy Terror."[^6][^7] The Latvian news service LSM identified Noyles as an Iron March moderator whose real name is Benjamin Raymond.[^8] -[[John Cartwright II]], operating under the username "Blood and Iron," joined Iron March in September 2011, immediately after the forum's founding, and served as a moderator. Database records and private message content identified him as a U.S. Navy member last known to be residing in Millersville, Maryland. He participated in Skype groups with other early-period Iron March members. His moderator role placed him within the core administrative cohort alongside Slavros from the forum's inception.[^4] +[[John Cartwright II]], who used the username "Blood and Iron," joined Iron March in September 2011 and served as a moderator. An Iron March dossier reported that he was a U.S. Navy member and that he took part in Skype groups with other early members.[^9] -### Atomwaffen Division +### Atomwaffen Division and Siege -The most significant organizational product of Iron March was [[Atomwaffen Division]], announced to the community on October 12, 2015 by founding member [[Brandon Russell]]. Russell had been organizing AWD for years before the formal announcement, claiming active recruitment since at least 2012, and AWD's ideological foundation in *Siege* and [[accelerationism]] reflected the content environment Iron March had cultivated.[^3] +Brandon Russell announced Atomwaffen Division to the forum on October 12, 2015, under the screen name "Odin," and claimed that the group already had about 40 members. Slavros subsequently created a dedicated Atomwaffen thread on Iron March, where much of the group's recruitment took place.[^1] The Program on Extremism at George Washington University dates Russell's first appearance on Iron March to March 2014.[^10] Bellingcat reports that posts and photographs by Russell ("Odin") place him with [[Devon Arthurs]], then 16, in abandoned buildings in April 2015 during the early stage of the group, and with the founder of National Action outside [[Buckingham Palace]] a month later.[^6] The group's ideology drew on Siege and [[accelerationism]]. -The forum's 2015 rediscovery and promotion of *Siege* was the critical event in *Siege*'s resurgence as an influential text. James Mason's essays had been largely ignored since the 1992 compilation, but Iron March gave them a global neo-Nazi audience that included the membership base from which AWD recruited.[^5] +The [[United States Department of Justice]] announced on January 9, 2018 that Brandon Clint Russell, 22, of [[Tampa, Florida]], had been sentenced by Senior U.S. District Judge Susan Bucklew to five years in federal prison for possessing an unregistered destructive device and for unlawful storage of explosive material. He had pleaded guilty on September 27, 2017. The release describes the Tampa police response to a double homicide on May 19, 2017, at an apartment in the Tampa Palms area where Russell lived with the alleged shooter, Arthurs. It states that, according to Arthurs, the four roommates were active members of the "Atomwaffen," a neo-Nazi group "started and led by Russell." Officers found the explosive HMTD and other precursors in the garage, and Russell admitted that he had manufactured the HMTD and that he was a member of the "Atomwaffen."[^11] The May 2017 killings are covered at [[2017 Tampa Atomwaffen Murders]]. + +After a six-day trial, a jury found Russell guilty of conspiracy to damage an energy facility in [[Maryland]].[^12] On August 7, 2025, Senior U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar sentenced him, then 30 and of [[Orlando, Florida]], to 20 years in federal prison followed by lifetime supervised release. The conspiracy involved transformers in electrical substations around Baltimore from at least November 2022 until February 3, 2023. His co-conspirator, Sarah Beth Clendaniel, was sentenced to 18 years.[^13] + +The [[Southern Poverty Law Center]] Extremist File on James Mason states that since 2015 members of the Iron March forum, hate groups connected to it such as Atomwaffen Division, and their fellow travelers have advocated that Mason's visions in Siege present the only way forward.[^2] ### Organizations Incubated by Iron March -Beyond Atomwaffen Division, the forum directly produced or provided the founding membership for: +Beyond Atomwaffen Division, the forum directly preceded or supplied founding membership for several other groups. The first successful local group to emerge from Iron March was National Action in the United Kingdom, founded in 2013 by Raymond and Davies.[^1] National Action was added to Schedule 2 of the [[Terrorism Act 2000]] by an order made on December 15, 2016.[^14] -[[National Action]] (UK, 2013): Founded by Benjamin Raymond (Iron March administrator) and [[Alex Davies]], who used the username "Daddy Terror" on Iron March. National Action was the first offline organization to emerge directly from Iron March and served as a model for subsequent formations.[^3] +Antipodean Resistance in Australia was incubated on Iron March. [[Julie Nathan]] of the [[Executive Council of Australian Jewry]] wrote that the group began on the forum in February 2016 with a handful of people and, by October 10, 2016, had a name, a logo, and its own sub-forum.[^15] The group was announced on the forum on October 10, 2016, with an instruction to Australian users to contact the handles "Xav" and "Kehlsteinhaus."[^1] Nathan wrote that a member using the handle "Xav" posted the group's catchphrase on the forum.[^15] The White Rose Society identified "Xav" as the Melbourne-based [[Tim Heibach]] from the leaked private messages and account information, after first publishing a different name that it later corrected. It also identified the Iron March user "HalArts" (also "Rusty Sandusky"), who described himself as designing posters for Antipodean Resistance, as [[Nathaniel Anderson]], and the user "VandalNationalist" as [[Jacob Hersant]].[^16] -[[Antipodean Resistance]] (Australia, October 2016): Founded by [[Tim Heibach]] (username "Xav") and announced to the Iron March community on October 10, 2016, encouraging Australian Iron March users to contact "Xav" and "Kehlsteinhaus." The Iron March database later exposed Heibach's real identity. Other identified founding-era members included [[Nathaniel Anderson]] (username "HalArts," also "Rusty Sandusky") and [[Jacob Hersant]].[^6] +### The 2019 Database Leak -### Database Leak: Technical Record +The Iron March SQL database was posted to the [[Internet Archive]] on November 6, 2019, by a user identifying as "antifa-data."[^3] Bellingcat's how-to guide published the same day states that the Internet Archive has removed the dataset, that the information remained available through [[Distributed Denial of Secrets]], and that the database was also available as a torrent file and a magnet link.[^3] -The Iron March SQL database was uploaded to the [[Internet Archive]] on November 6, 2019, by a user operating under the handle "antifa-data," implying an activist motivation. The leaker's identity has not been established in any public record. The Internet Archive removed the dataset shortly after it was posted, but torrent links published by [[Bellingcat]] kept it circulating among researchers and journalists. +The leak contained user names, registered email addresses, the IP addresses of users, all public posts, and the private messages between members.[^3] The database is an SQL dump that can be read with MySQL Workbench or DB Browser for SQLite. The torrent also included exported spreadsheets for the main tables, including core_members, core_message_posts, and core_message_topics. Post times are stored as Unix timestamps.[^3] The BBC Russian Service reported that a U.S. site called Jewish Worker turned the leak into a searchable database, and that researchers around the world began identifying users.[^4] -The leaked archive contained a complete snapshot of the forum as it existed shortly before the site went offline in November 2017. Specific data fields included: member IDs, usernames, registration email addresses, IP addresses used at registration and login, registration timestamps (Unix format), two-factor authentication logs, all public forum posts, all private message threads (approximately 22,000 conversations), and forum administration data. The SQL dump required a database viewer such as MySQL Workbench or DB Browser for SQLite, but the same torrent included exported spreadsheets organized by field, lowering the technical barrier for non-specialist researchers.[^7] +Bellingcat's how-to also observed that a number of users identified themselves as active serving members of Western militaries, especially in the United States. Bellingcat published a list of potential research leads for those users and invited journalists and investigators to follow them up.[^3] [[Gizmodo]] reported on November 8, 2019 that Bellingcat's review found users compiling information on those users in a Google spreadsheet.[^17] Bellingcat's December 19, 2019 analysis published a map of the sign-up IP addresses in the leak and described the majority of users as located in the United States.[^6] [[Lawfare]] reports that Vice and Bellingcat found at least eight members of Iron March and Atomwaffen Division serving in the U.S. military.[^18] -The researcher operating under the handle "Jewish Worker" built an independent searchable website from the raw data, making the dump accessible to non-technical journalists and activists who could query usernames, email addresses, and post content without managing their own SQL environment.[^8] +The [[MIT Media Lab]] project "Investigating the Iron March Forums with Computational Tools," active from October 2020 to June 2023, applied network analysis and natural language processing to the forum. Its overview states that the project "provides evidence that extremist groups may start out ideologically centered, but that their growth may be understood as a process of social bonding," and that this "challenges the notion that ideologies themselves need to be challenged in order to curb extremist movements."[^19] -Bellingcat published a how-to guide for accessing and interpreting the data on the same day as the leak, November 6, 2019, and separately produced an interactive map geolocating all forum activity originating from IP addresses near U.S. military installations. Bellingcat also compiled a spreadsheet of all private message threads involving users who identified themselves as active-duty military.[^7] +### Forum Statistics -The [[MIT Media Lab]] undertook a computational analysis of the forum corpus using latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) topic modeling and network analysis, finding that Iron March grew through social bonding rather than ideological convergence, a finding with implications for counter-extremism strategy.[^9] +When the forum was shut down in November 2017 it had 1,207 regular users. Of the 183 users who reported their age, the average was 28 and the median was 26. Of the 1,185 accounts that did not appear to hide their IP addresses, at least 73 percent were created in English-speaking countries: 52 percent American, 9 percent United Kingdom, 7 percent Canadian, and 5 percent Australian.[^18] Of the 1,174 users who posted at least once, the top 5 percent of posters (58 users) wrote 54 percent of all public posts.[^18] Those users wrote more than 195,000 public posts and held 4,500 private conversations.[^18] -### Forum Statistics and Geographic Distribution +The user registry shows that 15,218 accounts existed at some point, of which only 1,207 are represented in the account database, which reflects the userbase as it stood when downloaded in late 2017 (banned and deleted accounts were wiped).[^1] The BBC Russian Service put the leak at about 1,200 accounts.[^4] Among non-English-speaking countries, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, and Brazil lead IP registrations.[^1] The SPLC had scraped well over 150,000 of the public posts before the leak.[^3] -At the time of its 2017 closure, Iron March had 1,207 registered user accounts. Those users produced more than 195,000 public posts and approximately 4,500 to 22,000 private message threads (sources vary in granularity). The median self-reported age of the user base was 26, and the average was 28, based on data from 183 users who disclosed their age. +### Military and Government Identifications -Among the 1,185 accounts that did not mask their IP addresses with a VPN or proxy, the dominant geographic concentrations outside the English-speaking world were the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, and Brazil. Within the English-speaking world, U.S.-based registrations dominated, followed by the [[United Kingdom]] (approximately 9 percent), [[Canada]] (approximately 7 percent), and [[Australia]] (approximately 5 percent).[^10] +[[David Cole Tarkington]] used the username "The Yank" on Iron March. Gizmodo reported on March 12, 2020 that his private messages show him as a 15-year-old newcomer in 2013 who became a prolific Atomwaffen recruiter and attempted to enlist at least 12 Iron March members by the end of 2016.[^20] Naval documents cited by Gizmodo place him as an aviation machinist's mate apprentice with [[Strike Fighter Squadron VFA-41]] at [[Naval Air Station Lemoore]], California; he enlisted in the [[U.S. Navy]] in July 2019 and graduated from the Naval Air Technical Training Center in Pensacola, Florida, in December 2019.[^20] Cmdr. Ron Flanders, spokesperson for Naval Air Forces Pacific Fleet, told Gizmodo that the Navy was investigating and that it "would not be appropriate for me to comment on an ongoing investigation," and confirmed that the [[NCIS]] was looking into the matter based on information provided by Gizmodo.[^20] On April 19, 2020, Flanders said of Tarkington's departure that "His separation was administrative in nature."[^21] -### Verified Real-Name Mappings: Military and Government Personnel +[[Travis Frey]] used the username "In Hoc Signo Vinces" on Iron March and joined the forum in 2013. [[Vice News|Vice]] reported in January 2020 that he was a captain at the [[Nevada Southern Detention Center]] in [[Pahrump, Nevada]], an [[ICE]] detention facility operated by [[CoreCivic]].[^22] Vice reported that in June 2017 he wrote on the forum, "I am interested in helping build the Indiana TWP," the [[Traditionalist Workers Party]], and later wrote that he was not a member and had not heard back from the party, and that he posted at least a dozen times between 2016 and 2017 while working as head of security at another CoreCivic facility in [[Indianapolis]].[^23] CoreCivic's director of public affairs, Amanda Gilchrist, said that the employee had been placed on administrative leave while the company reviewed the information that had come to light.[^23] An ICE spokesperson said that ICE holds those working in its facilities to high standards of professional conduct.[^22] On January 10, 2020, Senators [[Catherine Cortez Masto]] and [[Jacky Rosen]] wrote to the [[Department of Homeland Security]] Office of Inspector General requesting an investigation into conditions at the Nevada Southern Detention Center in Pahrump.[^24] -The database leak directly enabled identification of active-duty military and government employees whose extremist activity had been pseudonymous. The following cases are documented in published investigative reporting: +[[Boris Mihajlovic]] was one of the administrators of Iron March and among its most prolific contributors, with nearly 2,500 posts in two years, according to [[CBC News]], which reported on December 4, 2019. He used the alias "Moonlord." In private messages, he claimed to have joined the Calgary chapter of [[Blood and Honour]] in 2012. He joined the [[Canadian Armed Forces]] Naval Reserve in early 2016 and was promoted to leading seaman in April 2018. CBC reported that he worked as a supply technician for [[HMCS Tecumseh]], a naval reserve division in [[Calgary]], and that he told CBC he now rejects those views.[^25] CBC's national investigation found nine users traced to [[Canada]] who claimed to be in the Armed Forces or hoped to join, and it identified the Calgary-linked Moonlord account as particularly active in encouraging other users to join.[^26] The Canadian Armed Forces had issued an internal report the previous summer that found some of its soldiers were members of hate groups, including Atomwaffen Division.[^26] -[[David Cole Tarkington]] used the username "The Yank" and was active on Iron March from 2013 to 2016, at which point he was serving as an aviation machinist mate's apprentice with [[Strike Fighter Squadron VFA-41]] at [[Naval Air Station Lemoore]], California. Private message records showed he attempted to recruit at least 12 Iron March members into Atomwaffen Division. [[Gizmodo]] reporters identified him in March 2020 and notified the Navy. [[NCIS]] opened an investigation. Tarkington was administratively separated from the Navy in April 2020. No criminal charges were filed.[^11] +After a joint Newsy and Bellingcat report, the Navy confirmed that it had an active-duty member in the forum, and the report connected four further users to active-duty military service at the time of their posts.[^27] The Iron March Dossiers identified the user "22goy" as [[Thomas Adam Guba]], an employee of the [[Naval Medical Logistics Command]] in [[Baltimore]], and identified the users "Ozymandias" and "Turok" as [[Van Ramsey Laws-Spencer]], an active-duty Marine stationed at [[Camp Pendleton]], California.[^28][^29] -[[Travis Frey]] used the username "In Hoc Signo Vinces" and joined Iron March in 2013. He posted at least a dozen times between 2016 and 2017 while working as head of security at a [[CoreCivic]] jail in Indianapolis. By the time of his identification in January 2020, he had been promoted to captain at the [[Nevada Southern Detention Center]], a CoreCivic facility contracted with [[ICE]]. Database records included Frey's personal email address, phone number, birthday, and place of residence, enabling [[Vice News]] to identify him directly. Forum posts showed Frey describing himself as a "fascist" and expressing interest in organizing for the [[Traditionalist Workers Party]] in Indiana. CoreCivic placed him on administrative leave following Vice's January 2020 reporting. U.S. Senators called for a federal investigation into the Nevada facility.[^12] +[[Raivis Zeltits]], secretary general of [[Latvia]]'s [[National Alliance]], was linked by [[LSM]] on November 12, 2019 to the Iron March account "Latvian_Integralist," whose Gmail address carried his name (the party website lists a version of the address with the first and second names transposed). LSM reported that the account's messages included a request to the moderator Benjamin Noyles, signed "Raivis Z," to delete fragments of a quoted letter on party strategy. Asked whether he wrote the messages, Zeltits referred LSM to a Facebook post in which he said he was 20 at the time of the postings and wrote, "I have never concealed that I was more radical in the maximalism of my youth," and "I apologize to those close to me, supporters and to the National Alliance for this shadow."[^8] -[[Thomas Adam Guba]], using the username "22goy," registered with the email address tguba2004@hotmail.com, enabling his identification as a Navy employee at the [[Naval Medical Logistics Command]] in Baltimore, Maryland. His photograph appeared in the Naval Medical Logistics Command journal "Logistically Speaking" in its October-December 2017 issue, shortly after he had gone inactive on Iron March. Previously he had served as an aviation structural mechanic.[^13] +[[Benjamin Hannam]], a probationary [[Metropolitan Police Service]] constable who joined the force in 2018, posted on Iron March under the name "Anglisc." Counter-terrorism detectives found his involvement in February 2020 after the leak, and he was arrested the following month.[^30] He was found guilty at the [[Old Bailey]] on April 1, 2021 of membership of National Action, fraud by false representation (lying on his application and vetting forms), and possession of terrorist documents (a knife-fighting guide and an explosives guide), and was reported to be the first serving British police officer convicted of a terrorism offence.[^30][^31] Jenny Hopkins, head of the [[Crown Prosecution Service]] Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said: "Benjamin Hannam lied on his police application and vetting forms in an attempt to hide his dangerous and racist beliefs."[^32] He had separately admitted possessing an indecent image of a child. On April 30, 2021, Judge Anthony Leonard sentenced him to four years and four months in custody with a further year on extended licence, telling him: "I consider what you did to be very serious and you have harmed public trust in the police by your deceit." The Metropolitan Police had dismissed him for gross misconduct.[^31] Police Professional reported, from the prosecution case, that he signed up to Iron March in March 2016 when he joined the London branch of National Action and later tried to recruit a new member through the forum.[^31] -[[Van Ramsey Laws-Spencer]] was linked to two Iron March accounts: "Ozymandias" (registered with email pentaghast123@gmail.com, active October 2013 to April 2016) and "Turok" (email including Laws-Spencer's name, active August to October 2012). Multiple social media profiles operating under the "pentaghast123" username corroborated the identification. At the time of identification, Laws-Spencer was an active-duty Marine stationed at [[Camp Pendleton]], California.[^14] +[[Nicholas Waugh]], a Scottish businessman who used the username "HaggiSS," was identified in a joint investigation with the [[Daily Record]] and [[The Ferret]]. The Ferret reported that he was involved with [[Scottish Dawn]] and promoted both National Action and Scottish Dawn online under that pseudonym.[^7] The Ferret reported that on October 14, 2014 he wrote to National Action founder Ben Raymond, "aka Daddy Terror," asking for "a few bundles of stickers," and that he messaged fascists in Lithuania, Bulgaria and Australia to build international links and encouraged people to attend demonstrations in the UK. The Ferret wrote that Waugh "appears to have been a leading figure with National Action before it was banned" and that "There is no suggestion he is currently involved."[^7] -[[Boris Mihajlovic]] posted on Iron March in 2016, encouraging other Canadian users to enlist in the armed forces for weapons training. [[CBC News]] identified him and confirmed he had been promoted to leading seaman in April 2018 and was working as a supply technician for [[HMCS Tecumseh]], a naval reserve establishment in Calgary. When contacted, Mihajlovic acknowledged the posts and stated he had left extremist activity behind.[^15] +### Platform Response -### Verified Real-Name Mappings: Other Notable Identifications +In December 2019, [[Airbnb]] told Gizmodo that it had banned more than 60 users of Iron March. It said that it identified the accounts through its normal identity-verification system and that all the Iron March users it found on the platform appeared to have been guests rather than hosts.[^33] -[[Raivis Zeltits]], the Secretary-General of Latvia's [[National Alliance]] party from 2014 to 2020, was identified through the database on November 12, 2019, as the user "Latvian_Integralist." Zeltits acknowledged the account in a Facebook post, stating he had written those posts at age 20 and no longer held those views. He remained in contact with Iron March administrator Benjamin Raymond as late as 2015. The identification triggered calls for his resignation within Latvian political circles.[^16] +### Government Designations -[[Benjamin Hannam]], a probationary constable with the [[Metropolitan Police Service]] (London), was identified through Iron March database records as a member of [[National Action]] before he applied to join the police. He had signed up to Iron March when he joined National Action's London branch in March 2016, more than two years before his police application. He was convicted on April 1, 2021 at the [[Old Bailey]] of National Action membership, two counts of fraud by false representation, two counts of possessing terrorist documents, and possession of a prohibited image of a child. He was sentenced to four years and four months, the first serving UK police officer convicted of terrorism-related offenses. The Iron March database was the mechanism through which his connection to National Action was first established.[^17] +In the United Kingdom, [[Sonnenkrieg Division]] was proscribed by orders the Home Secretary laid in Parliament on February 24, 2020, which also recognized System Resistance Network as an alias of the already proscribed National Action.[^34] A 2021 order added "Atomwaffen Division (AWD), including National Socialist Order (NSO)" to Schedule 2 of the Terrorism Act 2000, after the entry for [[Feuerkrieg Division]]. The order was made on April 22, 2021.[^35] -[[Nicholas Waugh]] (username "HaggiSS"), a Scottish businessman from Aberdeenshire, was identified by a joint investigation by [[The Ferret]] and [[Daily Record]]. The database showed Waugh had attempted to order National Action stickers, messaged fascists in Lithuania, Bulgaria, and Australia to build international links, and encouraged members to attend demonstrations in the UK. He operated an Etsy shop named "Wodenstone" selling handcrafted traditional jewelry. He was identified as a significant figure in Scottish National Action and [[Scottish Dawn]] before proscription.[^18] +In Canada, Atomwaffen Division was among 13 groups added to the list of terrorist entities in a February 3, 2021 release from [[Public Safety Canada]]. The release placed it in the ideologically motivated violent extremist category, alongside [[The Base]], the [[Proud Boys]], and the [[Russian Imperial Movement]].[^36] -### Airbnb Platform Response +Australia's register of listed terrorist organisations shows Sonnenkrieg Division listed on August 12, 2021, The Base on December 10, 2021, National Socialist Order (NSO) on February 18, 2022, and Terrorgram on June 27, 2025.[^37] The Minister for Home Affairs' release of February 17, 2022 stated that the government had listed the National Socialist Order, "formerly known as Atomwaffen Division," with effect immediately, and described it as "a nationalist and racist violent extremist group based in the United States."[^38] The [[United States Department of State]] list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, as retrieved on October 7, 2026, contains no entry for Atomwaffen Division or the National Socialist Order.[^39] -In December 2019, [[Airbnb]] cross-referenced its identity-verification database against the leaked Iron March member list and banned more than 60 confirmed Iron March users from the platform. All identified Iron March accounts on Airbnb had been guest accounts rather than host accounts.[^19] +### Successor Forums -### Successor Forum: Fascist Forge +[[Fascist Forge]] was launched in April 2018 according to Vice, which reported that the founder, using the name "Mathias," wrote shortly after launch that the site aimed to fill the void left by the takedown of Iron March and to "continue where they left off."[^40] The [[Anti-Defamation League]] dates the launch to May 2018, and describes the forum as modeled on Iron March. Quoting the founder, the ADL reports that his "only desire for this site is to remain faithful to the message and worldview laid out by Slavros/Ironmarch."[^41] Vice reported on February 15, 2019 that the site's registrar had placed it in "clientHold" status on February 12, which prevents the domain from resolving, and a DreamHost spokesperson, Brett Dunst, confirmed that DreamHost had placed that status but said it could not comment on why.[^40] -In April 2018, approximately six months after Iron March's closure, a user operating under the name "Mathias" launched [[Fascist Forge]], explicitly described in a founding note as a replacement for Iron March intended to "continue where they left off." Fascist Forge replicated Iron March's vetting process, requiring prospective members to submit ideological essays before gaining full access. By February 2020 the forum had more than 1,500 registered users. Fascist Forge's hosting registrar took the site offline in February 2020. No strong successor consolidation forum emerged immediately, though the network's activity dispersed into encrypted messaging applications and alternative platforms.[^20] +Fascist Forge separated itself from other sites with a mandatory entrance exam in which new recruits were pressured into writing 26 essay questions drawing on radicalization texts by the founder of the [[American Nazi Party]] and others.[^40] The BBC Russian Service reported that Fascist Forge had a section devoted to Slavros.[^4] The Combating Terrorism Center reports that after Iron March went offline the network's online propaganda infrastructure migrated to Telegram.[^1] ### Footnotes -[^1]: CTC 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/ -[^2]: Meduza. "How a Moscow man from an Uzbek family started the world's biggest neo-Nazi forum." February 4, 2020. https://meduza.io/en/feature/2020/02/04/how-a-moscow-man-from-an-uzbek-family-started-the-world-s-biggest-neo-nazi-forum -[^3]: CTC 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/ -[^4]: Iron March Dossiers. "John Cartwright II, aka Blood and Iron, Moderator of Neo-Nazi Forum Iron March." March 13, 2020. https://ironmarch.noblogs.org/post/2020/03/13/john-cartwright-ii-moderator-of-neo-nazi-forum-iron-march/ -[^5]: SPLC. "Atomwaffen Division." Extremist Files. https://www.splcenter.org/resources/extremist-files/atomwaffen-division/ -[^6]: The White Rose Society. "Antipodean Resistance and the Lads Society." https://thewhiterosesociety.writeas.com/antipodean-resistance-and-the-lads-society; Times of Israel. "Antipodean Resistance: Australia's new Nazis." https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/antipodean-resistance-australias-new-nazis/ -[^7]: Bellingcat. "Massive White Supremacist Message Board Leak: How to Access and Interpret the Data." November 6, 2019. https://www.bellingcat.com/resources/how-tos/2019/11/06/massive-white-supremacist-message-board-leak-how-to-access-and-interpret-the-data/ -[^8]: Gizmodo. "Neo-Nazi Web Forum Iron March Has SQL Database Dumped on the Internet Archive." November 7, 2019. https://gizmodo.com/neo-nazi-web-forum-iron-march-has-sql-database-dumped-o-1839721580 -[^9]: MIT Media Lab. "Investigating the Iron March Forums with Computational Tools: Far-Right Forum Network and LDA Analysis." Project overview, October 2020 to June 2023. https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/investigating-the-iron-march-forums-with-computational-tools-far-right-forum-network-and-lda-analysis/overview/ -[^10]: Lawfare. "The Iron March Data Dump Provides a Window Into How White Supremacists Communicate and Recruit." https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/iron-march-data-dump-provides-window-how-white-supremacists-communicate-and-recruit; CTC 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/ -[^11]: Gizmodo. "Leak Exposes U.S. Navy Sailor as Once-Prolific Recruiter for Neo-Nazi Group." March 12, 2020. https://gizmodo.com/leak-exposes-u-s-navy-sailor-as-once-prolific-recruite-1841149776; Newsweek. "Navy Kicks Out Alleged Recruiter for Neo-Nazi Group Atomwaffen Division After Investigation." April 2020. https://www.newsweek.com/navy-kicks-out-alleged-recruiter-neo-nazi-group-atomwaffen-division-after-investigation-1498704 -[^12]: Vice. "ICE Detention Center Captain Was on a Neo-Nazi Website and Wanted to Start a White Nationalist Group." January 2020. https://www.vice.com/en/article/ice-detention-center-captain-was-on-a-neo-nazi-website-and-wanted-to-start-a-white-nationalist-group/; Vice. "ICE Detention Center Captain With Neo-Nazi Ties Was Just Placed on Leave." January 2020. https://www.vice.com/en/article/ice-detention-center-captain-with-neo-nazi-ties-was-just-placed-on-leave/ -[^13]: Iron March Dossiers. "Thomas Adam Guba: Samuel Shapiro, Naval Medical Logistics Command Employee and Fascist Iron March User." February 27, 2020. https://ironmarch.noblogs.org/post/2020/02/27/thomas-adam-guba-naval-medical-logistics-command-member-and-fascist-iron-march-user/ -[^14]: Iron March Dossiers. "Van Ramsey Laws-Spencer: Neo-Nazi Organizer on Iron March and Active Marine." March 4, 2020. https://ironmarch.noblogs.org/post/2020/03/04/van-ramsey-lawsspencer-neo-nazi-organizer-on-iron-march-and-active-marine/ -[^15]: CBC News. "Leak of thousands of posts from defunct neo-Nazi forum offers clues to identify Canadian members." November-December 2019. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/iron-march-message-board-canadian-forces-1.5353201 -[^16]: Baltic Word / LSM. "Latvian Senior National Alliance figure apologises." November 2019. https://eng.lsm.lv/article/politics/politics/senior-national-alliance-figure-apologises-for-cloud-of-far-right-messages.a338044/ -[^17]: ITV News. "Neo-Nazi police officer Ben Hannam guilty of belonging to terror group National Action." April 1, 2021. https://www.itv.com/news/2021-04-01/neo-nazi-police-officer-ben-hannam-guilty-of-belonging-to-terror-group-national-action -[^18]: The Ferret. "Named: the Scots businessman linked to neo-Nazi groups." 2020. https://www.theferret.scot/neo-nazi-haggiss-iron-march/ -[^19]: Gizmodo. "Airbnb Bans Over 60 White Supremacists After Iron March Forum Database Leak." December 2019. https://gizmodo.com/airbnb-bans-over-60-white-supremacists-after-iron-march-1840420392 -[^20]: ADL. "Fascist Forge: A New Forum for Hate." https://www.adl.org/resources/article/fascist-forge-new-forum-hate; Vice. "Fascist Forge, the Online Neo-Nazi Recruitment Forum, Is Down." February 2020. https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/43zn8j/fascist-forge-the-online-neo-nazi-recruitment-forum-is-down +[^1]: 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/ +[^2]: Southern Poverty Law Center. "James Mason," Extremist Files. https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/james-mason +[^3]: Bellingcat. "Massive White Supremacist Message Board Leak: How to Access and Interpret the Data." November 6, 2019. https://www.bellingcat.com/resources/how-tos/2019/11/06/massive-white-supremacist-message-board-leak-how-to-access-and-interpret-the-data/ +[^4]: BBC News Russian Service. Andrei Soshnikov, "'Наполовину русский': история москвича Алишера Мухитдинова и его глобальной фашистской сети" (in Russian), January 30, 2020. https://www.bbc.com/russian/features-51301305 Sole source for the details of Mukhitdinov's family, residence and contacts with the reporters; the relative's career is attributed there to two BBC sources with access to personal databases. +[^5]: Meduza. "How a Moscow man from an Uzbek family started the world's biggest neo-Nazi forum." February 4, 2020. https://meduza.io/en/feature/2020/02/04/how-a-moscow-man-from-an-uzbek-family-started-the-world-s-biggest-neo-nazi-forum +[^6]: Bellingcat. "Transnational White Terror: Exposing Atomwaffen And The Iron March Networks." December 19, 2019. https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2019/12/19/transnational-white-terror-exposing-atomwaffen-and-the-iron-march-networks/ +[^7]: The Ferret. "Named: the Scots businessman linked to neo-Nazi groups." https://www.theferret.scot/neo-nazi-haggiss-iron-march/ +[^8]: LSM (Latvian Public Broadcasting). Report on the Iron March account "Latvian_Integralist." November 12, 2019. https://eng.lsm.lv/article/politics/politics/senior-national-alliance-figure-apologises-for-cloud-of-far-right-messages.a338044/ +[^9]: Iron March Dossiers. "John Cartwright II, aka Blood and Iron, Moderator of Neo-Nazi Forum Iron March." March 13, 2020. https://ironmarch.noblogs.org/post/2020/03/13/john-cartwright-ii-moderator-of-neo-nazi-forum-iron-march/ Sole source for the Navy membership and Skype participation. +[^10]: George Washington University Program on Extremism. "Atomwaffen Division (AWD)." https://extremism.gwu.edu/node/5386 +[^11]: United States Department of Justice. "Neo-Nazi Leader Sentenced to Five Years in Federal Prison for Explosives Charges." Office of Public Affairs, January 9, 2018. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/neo-nazi-leader-sentenced-five-years-federal-prison-explosives-charges (archived copy: https://web.archive.org/web/2018id_/https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/neo-nazi-leader-sentenced-five-years-federal-prison-explosives-charges) +[^12]: Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center, reproducing the United States Department of Justice release "White Supremacist Leader Found Guilty of Conspiring to Destroy Regional Power Grid." https://mcac.maryland.gov/?p=7387 (original: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/white-supremacist-leader-found-guilty-conspiring-destroy-regional-power-grid) +[^13]: United States Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland. "Florida Man Sentenced to 20 Years for Conspiring to Destroy Baltimore Region Power Grid." August 7, 2025. https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/pr/florida-man-sentenced-20-years-conspiring-destroy-baltimore-region-power-grid +[^14]: The Terrorism Act 2000 (Proscribed Organisations) (Amendment) (No. 3) Order 2016, SI 2016/1238, made December 15, 2016. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2016/1238/made +[^15]: Nathan, Julie. "Antipodean Resistance: The Rise and Goals of Australia's New Nazis." Executive Council of Australian Jewry. https://www.ecaj.org.au/julie-nathans-latest-on-antipodean-resistance-australias-new-nazis/ +[^16]: The White Rose Society. "Antipodean Resistance and the Lads Society." https://thewhiterosesociety.writeas.com/antipodean-resistance-and-the-lads-society +[^17]: Gizmodo. Tom McKay, "Neo-Nazi Web Forum Iron March Has SQL Database Dumped on the Internet Archive." November 8, 2019. https://gizmodo.com/neo-nazi-web-forum-iron-march-has-sql-database-dumped-o-1839721580 +[^18]: Lawfare. "The Iron March Data Dump Provides a Window Into How White Supremacists Communicate and Recruit." https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/iron-march-data-dump-provides-window-how-white-supremacists-communicate-and-recruit +[^19]: MIT Media Lab. "Investigating the Iron March Forums with Computational Tools: Far-Right Forum Network and LDA Analysis." Project overview, October 2020 to June 2023. https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/investigating-the-iron-march-forums-with-computational-tools-far-right-forum-network-and-lda-analysis/overview/ +[^20]: Gizmodo. "Leak Exposes U.S. Navy Sailor as Once-Prolific Recruiter for Neo-Nazi Group." March 12, 2020. https://gizmodo.com/leak-exposes-u-s-navy-sailor-as-once-prolific-recruite-1841149776 +[^21]: Military.com. "Navy Boots Sailor who Allegedly Served as Recruiter for Neo-Nazi Group." April 19, 2020. https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/04/19/navy-boots-sailor-who-allegedly-served-recruiter-neo-nazi-group.html +[^22]: Vice. "ICE Detention Center Captain Was on a Neo-Nazi Website and Wanted to Start a White Nationalist Group." January 6, 2020. https://www.vice.com/en/article/ice-detention-center-captain-was-on-a-neo-nazi-website-and-wanted-to-start-a-white-nationalist-group/ +[^23]: Vice. "ICE Detention Center Captain With Neo-Nazi Ties Was Just Placed on Leave." January 7, 2020. https://www.vice.com/en/article/ice-detention-center-captain-with-neo-nazi-ties-was-just-placed-on-leave/ +[^24]: Cortez Masto, Catherine, and Jacky Rosen. "Cortez Masto, Rosen Call for Investigation into Conditions at ICE Detention Center in Pahrump." Press release, January 10, 2020. https://www.cortezmasto.senate.gov/?p=41080 +[^25]: CBC News. "Navy investigating reservist who encouraged fellow members of neo-Nazi web forum to enlist." December 4, 2019. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/navy-reservist-iron-march-data-1.5382424 +[^26]: CBC News. "Leak of thousands of posts from defunct neo-Nazi forum offers clues to identify Canadian members." 2019. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/iron-march-message-board-canadian-forces-1.5353201 +[^27]: Scripps News (Newsy) with Bellingcat. "We found more active duty military in leaked neo-Nazi forum." https://www.scrippsnews.com/us-news/military/we-found-more-active-duty-military-in-leaked-neo-nazi-forum +[^28]: Iron March Dossiers. "Thomas Adam Guba: Samuel Shapiro, Naval Medical Logistics Command Employee and Fascist Iron March User." February 27, 2020. https://ironmarch.noblogs.org/post/2020/02/27/thomas-adam-guba-naval-medical-logistics-command-member-and-fascist-iron-march-user/ Sole source for this identification. +[^29]: Iron March Dossiers. "Van Ramsey Laws-Spencer: Neo-Nazi Organizer on Iron March and Active Marine." March 4, 2020. https://ironmarch.noblogs.org/post/2020/03/04/van-ramsey-lawsspencer-neo-nazi-organizer-on-iron-march-and-active-marine/ Sole source for this identification. +[^30]: Reuters, "British police officer convicted of belonging to neo-Nazi group," published by Cyprus Mail, April 1, 2021. https://cyprus-mail.com/2021/04/01/british-police-officer-convicted-of-belonging-to-neo-nazi-group +[^31]: Police Professional. "Neo-Nazi police officer jailed for four years." April 30, 2021. https://policeprofessional.com/?p=132121 +[^32]: Reuters, "UK ex-police officer jailed for belonging to neo-Nazi group," published by The Business Standard, April 30, 2021. https://www.tbsnews.net/node/239737 +[^33]: Gizmodo. "Airbnb Bans Over 60 White Supremacists After Iron March Forum Database Leak." December 13, 2019. https://gizmodo.com/airbnb-bans-over-60-white-supremacists-after-iron-march-1840420392 +[^34]: GOV.UK. "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 +[^35]: The Terrorism Act 2000 (Proscribed Organisations) (Amendment) Order 2021, SI 2021/501, made April 22, 2021. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2021/501/made +[^36]: Public Safety Canada. "Government of Canada lists 13 new groups as terrorist entities and completes review of seven others." February 3, 2021. https://www.canada.ca/en/public-safety-canada/news/2021/02/government-of-canada-lists-13-new-groups-as-terrorist-entities-and-completes-review-of-seven-others.html +[^37]: Australian Government, National Security. Register of listed terrorist organisations. https://www.nationalsecurity.gov.au/what-australia-is-doing/terrorist-organisations/listed-terrorist-organisations Retrieved October 7, 2026. +[^38]: Australian Government, Minister for Home Affairs. "Eight terrorist organisations to be listed under the criminal code." Media release, February 17, 2022. https://minister.homeaffairs.gov.au/KarenAndrews/Pages/eight-terrorist-organisations-to-be-listed-under-the-criminal-code.aspx +[^39]: United States Department of State. Foreign Terrorist Organizations list. https://www.state.gov/foreign-terrorist-organizations/ Retrieved October 7, 2026. +[^40]: Vice. "Fascist Forge, the Online Neo-Nazi Recruitment Forum, Is Down." February 15, 2019. https://www.vice.com/en/article/43zn8j/fascist-forge-the-online-neo-nazi-recruitment-forum-is-down +[^41]: Anti-Defamation League. "Fascist Forge: A New Forum for Hate." https://www.adl.org/resources/article/fascist-forge-new-forum-hate diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Anthropic National Security and Public Sector Advisory Council.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Anthropic National Security and Public Sector Advisory Council.md index c642080a..fb56b496 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Anthropic National Security and Public Sector Advisory Council.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Anthropic National Security and Public Sector Advisory Council.md @@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ created: 2026-09-22 updated: 2026-09-22 --- -[[Anthropic]] announced the council on August 27, 2025, as "a group of leading bipartisan national security and public policy practitioners who will help Anthropic support the [[U.S. government]] and closely allied democracies in building and maintaining enduring technological advantages in an era of strategic competition," with the task of identifying "high-impact applications" in areas "ranging from cybersecurity to intelligence analysis to scientific research." Its inaugural members were:[^1] +[[Anthropic]] announced the council on August 27, 2025, as "a group of leading bipartisan national security and public policy practitioners who will help Anthropic support the [[United States|U.S. government]] and closely allied democracies in building and maintaining enduring technological advantages in an era of strategic competition," with the task of identifying "high-impact applications" in areas "ranging from cybersecurity to intelligence analysis to scientific research." Its inaugural members were:[^1] - [[Roy Blunt]], former senator from Missouri and member of the [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]], director of Tenet Healthcare and of the cyber company Nightwing, and former chairman of the advisory board of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. - [[David S. Cohen]], former deputy director of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] and under secretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence. diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Associated Press.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Associated Press.md index 6d071ecb..bb5a20f9 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Associated Press.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Associated Press.md @@ -180,7 +180,7 @@ On June 6, 2025 a panel of the [[United States Court of Appeals for the District [^15]: Associated Press, *Covering Tyranny*, 2017, Key findings, p. 7. [^16]: Associated Press, *Covering Tyranny*, 2017, Introduction, pp. 1, 4. [^17]: Robert Parry, "The Lost Opportunity of Iran-Contra," *Consortium News*, December 1, 2011, https://consortiumnews.com/2011/12/01/the-lost-opportunity-of-iran-contra/ ; Parry, "Regret over Gary Webb's Demise," *Consortium News*, June 1, 2013, https://consortiumnews.com/2013/06/01/regret-over-gary-webbs-demise/ -[^18]: Gary Webb, *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion* (Seven Stories Press, 1998), ch. 27 (citation carried from the existing vault page for the Associated Press; not reopened in this run). +[^18]: Gary Webb, *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion* (Seven Stories Press, 1998), ch. 27. [^19]: "Bad Deal For Berrellez," *Phoenix Republic*, April 2, 1978, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP09T00207R001000030015-6, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp09t00207r001000030015-6 [^20]: Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, "Justice Department defends decisions in secret seizure of AP phone records as criticism mounts," May 14, 2013, https://www.rcfp.org/justice-department-defends-decisions-secret-seizure-ap-phone-records/ (describing the Machen letter of May 10, 2013 and quoting Pruitt's letter of May 13). [^21]: James M. Cole, Deputy Attorney General, letter to Gary B. Pruitt, May 14, 2013, https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/oip/legacy/2014/07/23/dag-letter-to-ap-president-pruitt.pdf diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/BGC Group.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/BGC Group.md index 96edbf44..4b9a9ef8 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/BGC Group.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/BGC Group.md @@ -132,7 +132,7 @@ Under a Corporate Conversion Agreement dated November 15, 2022, BGC Partners and ### Leadership Change and the Lutnick Divestiture -Howard Lutnick, BGC's chief executive officer and chairman since 1999, was confirmed by the [[United States Senate]] as [[United States Department of Commerce|Secretary of Commerce]] on February 18, 2025, and stepped down that day. The board appointed [[John Abularrage]], [[JP Aubin]] and [[Sean Windeatt]] co-chief executive officers, appointed [[Brandon Lutnick]] to the board, and named [[Stephen Merkel]], the company's chief legal officer, to the board and as chairman. On May 19, 2025 BGC announced the repurchase of 16,452,850 Class A shares from Lutnick at $9.2082 per share, an aggregate of $151,501,133, "in furtherance of Mr. Lutnick's [[U.S. government]] ethics agreement." On October 6, 2025 Lutnick completed the divestiture of his holdings in BGC, Cantor and CFGM, selling the voting shares of CFGM to trusts controlled by Brandon Lutnick, who as of February 27, 2026 beneficially owned 2.0 million Class A and 109.4 million Class B shares, "collectively representing 75.1% of the total voting power."[^1][^8] +Howard Lutnick, BGC's chief executive officer and chairman since 1999, was confirmed by the [[United States Senate]] as [[United States Department of Commerce|Secretary of Commerce]] on February 18, 2025, and stepped down that day. The board appointed [[John Abularrage]], [[JP Aubin]] and [[Sean Windeatt]] co-chief executive officers, appointed [[Brandon Lutnick]] to the board, and named [[Stephen Merkel]], the company's chief legal officer, to the board and as chairman. On May 19, 2025 BGC announced the repurchase of 16,452,850 Class A shares from Lutnick at $9.2082 per share, an aggregate of $151,501,133, "in furtherance of Mr. Lutnick's [[United States|U.S. government]] ethics agreement." On October 6, 2025 Lutnick completed the divestiture of his holdings in BGC, Cantor and CFGM, selling the voting shares of CFGM to trusts controlled by Brandon Lutnick, who as of February 27, 2026 beneficially owned 2.0 million Class A and 109.4 million Class B shares, "collectively representing 75.1% of the total voting power."[^1][^8] ### The September 2019 CFTC Orders (Release 8035-19) diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies.md index 1dd0432e..67544940 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies.md @@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ Basterfield wrote on June 28, 2025, citing page 3 of the Ten Month Report, that Basterfield wrote on July 7, 2025, quoting the Ten Month Report, that its description of Project Campus gives the objective as "to stimulate, motivate and encourage the senior levels of the academic community within the [[United States]] to involve themselves in study and research of very advanced aerial spacecraft that is presently considered phenomenological." As a "test case" BAASS approached senior management at the [[University of Nevada, Las Vegas]], which "responded positively"; BAASS proposed ten scenarios, including announcements by the [[United States Air Force]] or other officials that unidentified aerial phenomena were real and extraterrestrial, for the university to study with regard to "the media, economy, department of defense, political groups, science, the general public, religion, public health and academia." The report states: "Dr. Smith and four others have expressed strong interest in submitting a specific proposal to BAASS by August 2009."[^4] -According to Basterfield's quotation, BAASS also sought proposals from [[Battelle Memorial Institute]], Southwestern Research Institute, the [[Center for American Progress]] and [[Sandia National Laboratories]] for a study budgeted at 400,000 dollars. The request for proposals states: "For the purpose of the proposed study we take the presence of such advanced exotic aerospace craft as a given." It asks whether "by 2050 there will be confirmation to the public by the [[U.S. government]] and its military authorities" of craft "beyond those of our own most advanced military craft," what format such a confirmation should take and what its effects would be on the military and "the U.S. body politic in the areas of commerce, religion, academia and so forth," and what steps could be taken to "soften the societal blow." As of the report date: "BAASS has not received a reply from CAP or SWRI regarding the RFP. Sandia National Laboratories volunteered that they did not have the expertise for the project and Battelle Memorial Institute declined the RFP."[^4] +According to Basterfield's quotation, BAASS also sought proposals from [[Battelle Memorial Institute]], Southwestern Research Institute, the [[Center for American Progress]] and [[Sandia National Laboratories]] for a study budgeted at 400,000 dollars. The request for proposals states: "For the purpose of the proposed study we take the presence of such advanced exotic aerospace craft as a given." It asks whether "by 2050 there will be confirmation to the public by the U.S. government and its military authorities" of craft "beyond those of our own most advanced military craft," what format such a confirmation should take and what its effects would be on the military and "the U.S. body politic in the areas of commerce, religion, academia and so forth," and what steps could be taken to "soften the societal blow." As of the report date: "BAASS has not received a reply from CAP or SWRI regarding the RFP. Sandia National Laboratories volunteered that they did not have the expertise for the project and Battelle Memorial Institute declined the RFP."[^4] ### Medical Effects Research diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Cantor Fitzgerald.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Cantor Fitzgerald.md index fe857dae..d782a949 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Cantor Fitzgerald.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Cantor Fitzgerald.md @@ -165,7 +165,7 @@ The SEC announced on April 6, 2020 that Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. had agreed to pa ### Government and Political Connections -An invitation sent on November 3, 2015 from the account "Lutnick, Howard" and forwarded to Epstein by his assistant [[Lesley Groff]] announced an event with [[Hillary Clinton]] at the Cantor Fitzgerald offices on November 11 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., described as "a very intimate fundraising event," with a [[Hillary for America]] contribution form attached (EFTA02671545). At his May 6, 2026 House Oversight interview Lutnick said that emails addressed to "Howard Lutnick" or "Lutnick, Howard" "went to [[Matthew Gilbert]]. They did not go to me," and that "You would know if they went to me if they are listed as 'HWL.'"[^38][^15] Lutnick was confirmed as Secretary of Commerce on February 18, 2025, and stepped down that day as chairman and chief executive of BGC; Brandon Lutnick was appointed chief executive officer and chairman of Cantor and chief executive officer of CFGM, and [[Kyle Lutnick]] executive vice chairman of Cantor and president of CFGM.[^2][^3] On May 19, 2025 BGC announced it would repurchase 16,452,850 shares from Lutnick for $151,501,133 "in furtherance of Mr. Lutnick's [[U.S. government]] ethics agreement," and that Lutnick would transfer his ownership interest in Cantor to trusts for the benefit of Brandon, Kyle and his other adult children, with Brandon as controlling trustee. The divestiture of holdings in BGC, Cantor and CFGM was completed on October 6, 2025, including the sale of all voting shares of CFGM to trusts controlled by Brandon Lutnick, who beneficially owned 2.0 million BGC Class A and 109.4 million Class B shares, 75.2 percent of BGC's total voting power, as of the date of BGC's annual report for 2025.[^2][^3][^39] The 2012 and later documents on Lutnick's relationship with Epstein are at Howard Lutnick; the 2020 [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] complaint concerning Lutnick, BGC and Cantor is at BGC Group. +An invitation sent on November 3, 2015 from the account "Lutnick, Howard" and forwarded to Epstein by his assistant [[Lesley Groff]] announced an event with [[Hillary Clinton]] at the Cantor Fitzgerald offices on November 11 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., described as "a very intimate fundraising event," with a [[Hillary for America]] contribution form attached (EFTA02671545). At his May 6, 2026 House Oversight interview Lutnick said that emails addressed to "Howard Lutnick" or "Lutnick, Howard" "went to [[Matthew Gilbert]]. They did not go to me," and that "You would know if they went to me if they are listed as 'HWL.'"[^38][^15] Lutnick was confirmed as Secretary of Commerce on February 18, 2025, and stepped down that day as chairman and chief executive of BGC; Brandon Lutnick was appointed chief executive officer and chairman of Cantor and chief executive officer of CFGM, and [[Kyle Lutnick]] executive vice chairman of Cantor and president of CFGM.[^2][^3] On May 19, 2025 BGC announced it would repurchase 16,452,850 shares from Lutnick for $151,501,133 "in furtherance of Mr. Lutnick's U.S. government ethics agreement," and that Lutnick would transfer his ownership interest in Cantor to trusts for the benefit of Brandon, Kyle and his other adult children, with Brandon as controlling trustee. The divestiture of holdings in BGC, Cantor and CFGM was completed on October 6, 2025, including the sale of all voting shares of CFGM to trusts controlled by Brandon Lutnick, who beneficially owned 2.0 million BGC Class A and 109.4 million Class B shares, 75.2 percent of BGC's total voting power, as of the date of BGC's annual report for 2025.[^2][^3][^39] The 2012 and later documents on Lutnick's relationship with Epstein are at Howard Lutnick; the 2020 [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] complaint concerning Lutnick, BGC and Cantor is at BGC Group. ### Footnotes diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Dynetics.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Dynetics.md index a6a84b95..dd85846e 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Dynetics.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Dynetics.md @@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ The consortium is an other-transaction arrangement between the Army Contracting ### FCC experimental licence WK2XCW -The FCC Experimental Licensing System lists call sign WK2XCW (station class MO, radar) in Dynetics' name. A modification filed February 3, 2022 (file 0025-EX-CM-2022) lists nine sites: Huntsville, [[Yuma Proving Ground]], [[White Sands Missile Range]], [[Dugway Proving Ground]], two at [[Eglin Air Force Base]], [[Joint Base San Antonio]]-Randolph, Redstone Arsenal and [[Joint Base Andrews]], with 9.2 to 9.9 GHz, 19.2 W mean and 7.6 kW peak power and emission designator 100MQ3N; it carries "[[U.S. government]] contract: Yes" and no Sierra Blanca location.[^14] +The FCC Experimental Licensing System lists call sign WK2XCW (station class MO, radar) in Dynetics' name. A modification filed February 3, 2022 (file 0025-EX-CM-2022) lists nine sites: Huntsville, [[Yuma Proving Ground]], [[White Sands Missile Range]], [[Dugway Proving Ground]], two at [[Eglin Air Force Base]], [[Joint Base San Antonio]]-Randolph, Redstone Arsenal and [[Joint Base Andrews]], with 9.2 to 9.9 GHz, 19.2 W mean and 7.6 kW peak power and emission designator 100MQ3N; it carries "[[United States|U.S. government]] contract: Yes" and no Sierra Blanca location.[^14] Later filings list a Sierra Blanca, Texas entry ("Ground Temp Fixed and Mobile, Sierra Blanca, TX," [[Hudspeth County, Texas]], 31 20 05 N, 105 30 16 W, 10 km radius). The filings are file 0012-EX-CM-2023 (filed January 16, 2023), 0148-EX-CM-2023 (May 5, 2023), 0007-EX-CM-2024 (January 10, 2024; adds "Ground Temporary Fixed and Mobile - Albuquerque, NM," within 10 km of 34-58-01 N, 106-26-44 W), 0127-EX-CR-2024 (February 15, 2024), 0161-EX-CM-2025 (July 30, 2025) and 0179-EX-CR-2026 (February 24, 2026). The exhibit to the February 2024 renewal (0127-EX-CR-2024), titled "Contract and Stop Buzzer Update Notification," states that the license file "should be updated to reflect support for the contract set forth below - which replaces the previously specified contract (DARPA No. HR0011-17-9-0017): New Contract: Agency/Customer: AvMC Contract No.: AMTC 20-01-017." The exhibit to the July 2025 modification states: "The contract below replaces the previously specified contract (DARPA No. HR0011-17-9-0017): New Contract: Agency/Customer: AvMC Contract No.: AMTC 20-01-017." The 2026 renewal's Exhibit 1 states "No Updates to Supported Contract Information: Agency/Customer: AvMC Contract No.: AMTC 20-01-017." Other licensees filing for Sierra Blanca locations in the same period are listed on [[Sierra Blanca, Texas]].[^15] diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/GWU Program on Extremism.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/GWU Program on Extremism.md index 55271389..fc26a0f4 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/GWU Program on Extremism.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/GWU Program on Extremism.md @@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ The acknowledgments of "ISIS in America" name the Program's research associates ### Court-record research -The Program's report of March 2021 on the [[January 6, 2021 Capitol breach|January 6 attack]], "This is Our House!", was written by Vidino, Hughes, [[Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens]], [[Devorah Margolin]], [[Bennett Clifford]], [[Jon Lewis]], [[Andrew Mines]] and [[Haroro Ingram]]. It counted 257 individuals charged in federal court as of February 25, 2021, identified 33 with military backgrounds, and stated that its data came from hundreds of court documents, Department of Justice press releases, [[Freedom of Information Act]] requests, interviews with [[U.S. government]] officials and news articles. The report stated that the Program had hosted an annual talk by the Domestic Terrorism Counsel since 2015.[^5] +The Program's report of March 2021 on the [[January 6, 2021 Capitol breach|January 6 attack]], "This is Our House!", was written by Vidino, Hughes, [[Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens]], [[Devorah Margolin]], [[Bennett Clifford]], [[Jon Lewis]], [[Andrew Mines]] and [[Haroro Ingram]]. It counted 257 individuals charged in federal court as of February 25, 2021, identified 33 with military backgrounds, and stated that its data came from hundreds of court documents, Department of Justice press releases, [[Freedom of Information Act]] requests, interviews with [[United States|U.S. government]] officials and news articles. The report stated that the Program had hosted an annual talk by the Domestic Terrorism Counsel since 2015.[^5] On December 18, 2025 the Program held an online panel, "Holding 764 Accountable," moderated by its senior research fellow [[Barry Jonas]], with [[Justin Sher]] of the [[Counterterrorism Section]] and [[Steve Grocki]], chief of the [[Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section]], both of the Department of Justice, [[Kavitha Babu]] of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois, and [[James Kitchen]] of [[Jones Day]].[^6] Earlier that month [[Luke Baumgartner]] and Barry Jonas wrote in [[Just Security]] that by charging a member of [[764 Network]] under [[18 U.S.C. § 2339A]], the Department of Justice "has signaled that NVE networks like 764 are terrorist enterprises."[^7] diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Sky Watcher.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Sky Watcher.md index 3c972629..e29c45df 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Sky Watcher.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Sky Watcher.md @@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ Skywatcher (also written Sky Watcher) is a private group that described itself a ### Formation and founders -NewsNation described Barber as the founder of Skywatcher and reported on January 16, 2025 that his "Skywatcher Team" had deployed "on behalf of the [[U.S. government]]" to investigate the [[2024 New Jersey drone sightings|2024 East Coast drone sightings]], and that in August 2024 the team had conducted "their own operation, with a psionic asset, to see if they could summon a UAP themselves."[^1] A later NewsNation column by [[Ross Coulthart|Coulthart]] gave the founders as "Jake Barber, James Fowler and financier Alex Klokus."[^4] The writer Jimmy of the [[UAP Files]] newsletter stated in August 2026 that the Skywatcher [[YouTube]] account was created on January 18, 2025, six days before Barber's January 24, 2025 appearance on Coulthart's "[[Reality Check (NewsNation)|Reality Check]]," and that Klokus "personally registered the skywatcher.ai domain in his name in December 2024."[^5] [[Jason Colavito]]'s blog wrote on January 19, 2025 that [[Steven Greenstreet]] had reported that Barber "launched his own UFO organization, Skywatcher, in November, and its website is owned by Alex Klokus, the co-founder of the [[SALT (conference)|SALT]] conference, where UFO figures frequently speak to tech and financial elites."[^6] +NewsNation described Barber as the founder of Skywatcher and reported on January 16, 2025 that his "Skywatcher Team" had deployed "on behalf of the [[United States|U.S. government]]" to investigate the [[2024 New Jersey drone sightings|2024 East Coast drone sightings]], and that in August 2024 the team had conducted "their own operation, with a psionic asset, to see if they could summon a UAP themselves."[^1] A later NewsNation column by [[Ross Coulthart|Coulthart]] gave the founders as "Jake Barber, James Fowler and financier Alex Klokus."[^4] The writer Jimmy of the [[UAP Files]] newsletter stated in August 2026 that the Skywatcher [[YouTube]] account was created on January 18, 2025, six days before Barber's January 24, 2025 appearance on Coulthart's "[[Reality Check (NewsNation)|Reality Check]]," and that Klokus "personally registered the skywatcher.ai domain in his name in December 2024."[^5] [[Jason Colavito]]'s blog wrote on January 19, 2025 that [[Steven Greenstreet]] had reported that Barber "launched his own UFO organization, Skywatcher, in November, and its website is owned by Alex Klokus, the co-founder of the [[SALT (conference)|SALT]] conference, where UFO figures frequently speak to tech and financial elites."[^6] The website's FAQ states that Skywatcher "is funded through private partnerships and professional consulting engagements," and, in answer to the question whether it is "a direct extension, surrogate for, or acting as a public messaging conduit for the US Government or any element of the US Intelligence Community," answers "No. Skywatcher is an independent and private entity." It also states that it does not "currently claim possession" of recovered materials, although it is "actively engaged in the public recovery and analysis of exotic aerospace materials."[^7] It lists 20 or more experts and "400+ years of combined" experience, and describes its approach as bridging "Special Operations, Advanced Sensing, & Non-Traditional Air Defense Techniques."[^7] Its research page lists a "Skywatcher Discovery Framework," described as "our proposed model for responsible UAP engagement, civilian access to data, and long-term transparency."[^8] @@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ No Form D filing by an issuer named Skywatcher was found in a full-text search o ### Trademark ownership -The SKYWATCHER service mark application (serial 98864113, Class 35 "Business management," intent to use, standard characters, filed November 20, 2024) names as owner [[ENNEA LLC]], "a limited liability company organized in Delaware," at the VCORP address in [[Wilmington, Delaware]]. The same owner holds applications for ENNEA (serial 98873547, filed November 26, 2024) and PSIONIC (serial 99091501, filed March 19, 2025). Every filing in the public [[United States Patent and Trademark Office]] file for SKYWATCHER (the application of November 20, 2024, an extension request of February 11, 2026 and a petition to revive of September 14, 2026) is signed "/[[Robert Drolet]]/," attorney of record, of [[Fort Lauderdale]]; no owner-signed declaration, specimen or owner email appears in the public copy. The owner telephone on the filings is the number printed on the 2016 Form D of Futurism, LLC (signed by Alex Klokus as chief executive officer) and on the March 30, 2026 Form ADV of [[SALT Fund Management LLC|SALT Fund Management, LLC]].[^16] +The SKYWATCHER service mark application (serial 98864113, Class 35 "Business management," intent to use, standard characters, filed November 20, 2024) names as owner [[ENNEA LLC]], "a limited liability company organized in Delaware," at the VCORP address in Wilmington, Delaware. The same owner holds applications for ENNEA (serial 98873547, filed November 26, 2024) and PSIONIC (serial 99091501, filed March 19, 2025). Every filing in the public [[United States Patent and Trademark Office]] file for SKYWATCHER (the application of November 20, 2024, an extension request of February 11, 2026 and a petition to revive of September 14, 2026) is signed "/[[Robert Drolet]]/," attorney of record, of [[Fort Lauderdale]]; no owner-signed declaration, specimen or owner email appears in the public copy. The owner telephone on the filings is the number printed on the 2016 Form D of Futurism, LLC (signed by Alex Klokus as chief executive officer) and on the March 30, 2026 Form ADV of [[SALT Fund Management LLC|SALT Fund Management, LLC]].[^16] ENNEA LLC is registered in Florida (document M25000008651, filed June 16, 2025) with "ALEX KLOKUS" as sole listed person, titled Member on the application, "CEO" on the annual report of April 17, 2026 and "Authorized Signer" on the amended report of July 15, 2026. The co-existence agreement it signed with Waterkress Creative LLC, effective November 19, 2025 and filed with the USPTO on December 7, 2025, carries the typed signature "Alex Klokus," title "ENNEA LLC Authorized Representative," and an Acrobat Sign audit entry "Signer alex@ennea.io entered name at signing as Alex Klokus," November 25, 2025.[^17] The Delaware certificate attached to the Florida application states that ENNEA LLC "was formed on the first day of January, A.D. 2024" and gives the file number 2861775.[^17] @@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ The domain skywatcher.ai was registered December 6, 2024; its public registratio - January 5, 2024: ennea.io registered; ENNEA LLC's Delaware certificate gives its formation as January 1, 2024.[^17][^19] - May 22 and August 9, 2024: ennea.io captures read "The central node for capital, research, and relationships fueling contrarian ideas."[^19] -- October 14 to 18, 2024: the "Explorer's Club by Ennea" gathering at the [[Esalen Institute]], announced as "patron-funded, invite-only"; no organizer is named on the captured pages.[^19] +- October 14 to 18, 2024: the "Explorer's Club by Ennea" gathering at the Esalen Institute, announced as "patron-funded, invite-only"; no organizer is named on the captured pages.[^19] - November 20, 2024: SKYWATCHER application filed in ENNEA LLC's name.[^16] - November 27, 2024: Skywatcher Technologies Corporation incorporated in Delaware.[^10] - December 6, 2024: skywatcher.ai registered to "Skywatcher Technologies."[^18] diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Sol Foundation.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Sol Foundation.md index 2e009b09..9b007db1 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Sol Foundation.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Sol Foundation.md @@ -97,7 +97,7 @@ A California business-registry entry last updated September 1, 2023 lists the co The [[Internal Revenue Service]] Exempt Organizations Business Master File lists the organization under EIN 93-3649160 as a 501(c)(3) with a ruling date of June 2024, in care of "Attn Nolan" at 5 Hermosa Road, [[Redwood City]], California 94062.[^6] The Form 990 for 2024 gives the Auburn address, a telephone number in the 408 area code, a year of formation of 2023 and California as the state of legal domicile.[^7] -The résumé that Grusch submitted to the House Committee on Oversight for its July 26, 2023 hearing lists, under "May 2023-Present," the position "Chief Operating Officer (COO), The Sol Foundation," and describes the employer as a "501c3 federally recognized non-profit," followed by the text "The premier center for research in the natural and social sciences, engineering, and the humanities, but also extends activities to advisory and policy work for the [[U.S. government]]/public outreach."[^3] The IRS ruling date on record for EIN 93-3649160 is June 2024.[^6] Nolan said in September 2023 that Grusch's title had since changed to senior founding advisor, that the earlier title "seemed the right thing at the time," and that Grusch was "a founder of the Sol Foundation."[^2] +The résumé that Grusch submitted to the House Committee on Oversight for its July 26, 2023 hearing lists, under "May 2023-Present," the position "Chief Operating Officer (COO), The Sol Foundation," and describes the employer as a "501c3 federally recognized non-profit," followed by the text "The premier center for research in the natural and social sciences, engineering, and the humanities, but also extends activities to advisory and policy work for the [[United States|U.S. government]]/public outreach."[^3] The IRS ruling date on record for EIN 93-3649160 is June 2024.[^6] Nolan said in September 2023 that Grusch's title had since changed to senior founding advisor, that the earlier title "seemed the right thing at the time," and that Grusch was "a founder of the Sol Foundation."[^2] The Form CT-1 registration of the California corporation with the California Attorney General's Registry of Charitable Trusts, stamped received May 2, 2024, lists Nolan as chair and director, Skafish as secretary and director and Berte as treasurer and director, gives January 22, 2024 as the date assets were first received, and answers "No" to line 3, which asks whether the organization "is under common control, does it have a close connection with, or is it related to, any other nonprofit or for-profit organization or trust." The Internal Revenue Service determination letter dated June 27, 2024, filed with the registry, gives an effective date of July 7, 2023.[^8] @@ -129,7 +129,7 @@ The Form 990 for the calendar year 2024 lists four people in Part VII: Garry Nol Press statements used other titles. Nolan was "Executive Director of the Board" and Skafish "Director of Research" in September 2023, and Skafish was "executive director" in December 2024.[^2][^22] Nolan said in 2023 that his Stanford appointment did not allow him to hold an officer role in an outside company and that he took no salary.[^2] [[Diana Walsh Pasulka]] posted on September 11, 2023 that she was joining the board, and the foundation named [[I. Charles McCullough III]], a former [[Inspector General of the Intelligence Community]], as its legal counsel.[^2] McCullough signed the November 12, 2024 letter to Congress on the review-board provisions of the [[Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Disclosure Act]] under the heading "Former Inspector General of the Intelligence Community," as did Nolan, Skafish, Pasulka and Gallaudet.[^23] McCullough is also counsel to Grusch, whom he represented in a May 2022 urgent-concern complaint to the Intelligence Community Inspector General.[^24] -Berte founded the machine-vision company [[Robovision]], which was reported in March 2023 to be assisting Stanford with artificial-intelligence applications for the study of complex diseases.[^2] Mindrila hosted the 2024 symposium as Director of Strategy.[^22] Part IV of the 2024 Form 990 answers yes to maintaining an office, employees or agents outside the [[United States]].[^7] +Berte founded the machine-vision company [[Robovision]], which was reported in March 2023 to be assisting Stanford with artificial-intelligence applications for the study of complex diseases.[^2] Mindrila hosted the 2024 symposium as Director of Strategy.[^22] Part IV of the 2024 Form 990 answers yes to maintaining an office, employees or agents outside the United States.[^7] ### Website roster diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science.md index e91503b2..b892d11d 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science.md @@ -60,11 +60,11 @@ updated: 2026-10-04 Tom DeLonge founded TTSA in 2017 with the goal of bringing the UAP conversation out of the shadows and into the mainstream. He assembled a team of former high-ranking government officials and scientists to lead the organization, including [[Luis Elizondo]], [[Christopher Mellon]], [[Jim Semivan]], and [[Hal Puthoff]].[^1] -The company was structured with three divisions: Science, Aerospace, and Entertainment. The plan was to use the entertainment division to generate revenue that would fund the scientific and aerospace research. TTSA released three Navy videos, "FLIR" ([[Tic Tac]]), "[[GIMBAL]]," and "GoFast," on its [[YouTube]] page. The 2017 [[New York Times]] article that revealed the existence of [[AATIP]] carried two of them (FLIR1 and GIMBAL), and GOFAST followed in March 2018.[^1][^2] [[The Black Vault]] describes the videos as "subsequently released by To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science, the source of where the New York Times originally received them." [[Pentagon]] spokesperson [[Christopher Sherwood]] told *[[The Intercept]]* in 2019 that the videos were released "for research purposes ... and not for general public release," and the [[Department of Defense]] stated on April 27, 2020 that it "authorized the release of three unclassified Navy videos," which had been "circulating in the public domain after unauthorized releases in 2007 and 2017." [[Politico]] reported in 2021 that the [[Washington Headquarters Services]] declassification division had approved the videos "for unlimited distribution" inside the government before the Times placement. The Office of the Secretary of Defense file released to [[The Black Vault]] under the [[Freedom of Information Act]] in August 2019 contains an August 23, 2017 email in which [[Luis Elizondo]] asked Michael Russo of the Defense Office of Prepublication and Security Review to "consider our request for unrestricted release"; an August 24, 2017 reply from Russo that if the service-level classification authority verified that removing the metadata made the videos unclassified, "please feel free to move forward with release"; and a DD Form 1910 whose publication-data block reads "Not Applicable. Not for publication. Research and analysis ONLY and info sharing with other USG and industry partners for the purposes of developing a database to help identify, analyze and ultimately defeat UAS threats." Joseph Gradisher, a Navy spokesman, said in 2019 that neither the cognizant Navy offices nor the review office had a record of correspondence responding to a request for unrestricted release of the videos in 2017.[^3] Mellon said in 2020 that he received the videos in the Pentagon parking lot from a Defense Department official.[^4][^5][^2] +The company was structured with three divisions: Science, Aerospace, and Entertainment. The plan was to use the entertainment division to generate revenue that would fund the scientific and aerospace research. TTSA released three Navy videos, "FLIR" ([[Tic Tac]]), "[[GIMBAL]]," and "GoFast," on its [[YouTube]] page. The 2017 [[New York Times]] article that revealed the existence of [[AATIP]] carried two of them (FLIR1 and GIMBAL), and GOFAST followed in March 2018.[^1][^2] [[The Black Vault]] describes the videos as "subsequently released by To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science, the source of where the New York Times originally received them." [[Pentagon]] spokesperson [[Christopher Sherwood]] told *[[The Intercept]]* in 2019 that the videos were released "for research purposes ... and not for general public release," and the [[Department of Defense]] stated on April 27, 2020 that it "authorized the release of three unclassified Navy videos," which had been "circulating in the public domain after unauthorized releases in 2007 and 2017." [[Politico]] reported in 2021 that the [[Washington Headquarters Services]] declassification division had approved the videos "for unlimited distribution" inside the government before the Times placement. The Office of the Secretary of Defense file released to The Black Vault under the [[Freedom of Information Act]] in August 2019 contains an August 23, 2017 email in which Luis Elizondo asked Michael Russo of the Defense Office of Prepublication and Security Review to "consider our request for unrestricted release"; an August 24, 2017 reply from Russo that if the service-level classification authority verified that removing the metadata made the videos unclassified, "please feel free to move forward with release"; and a DD Form 1910 whose publication-data block reads "Not Applicable. Not for publication. Research and analysis ONLY and info sharing with other USG and industry partners for the purposes of developing a database to help identify, analyze and ultimately defeat UAS threats." Joseph Gradisher, a Navy spokesman, said in 2019 that neither the cognizant Navy offices nor the review office had a record of correspondence responding to a request for unrestricted release of the videos in 2017.[^3] Mellon said in 2020 that he received the videos in the Pentagon parking lot from a Defense Department official.[^4][^5][^2] ### Role in UAP Disclosure -TTSA played a significant role in the early stages of the modern UAP disclosure movement. The organization provided a platform for Luis Elizondo to speak publicly about his work with [[Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program|AATIP]] after he resigned from the [[Pentagon]]. The company also produced the television show "[[Unidentified: Inside America's UFO Investigation]]" on the [[History Channel]], which featured Elizondo and other former government officials investigating UAP cases.[^1] +TTSA played a significant role in the early stages of the modern UAP disclosure movement. The organization provided a platform for Luis Elizondo to speak publicly about his work with [[Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program|AATIP]] after he resigned from the Pentagon. The company also produced the television show "[[Unidentified: Inside America's UFO Investigation]]" on the [[History Channel]], which featured Elizondo and other former government officials investigating UAP cases.[^1] While the organization was ultimately not financially successful and many of its key members, including Elizondo, Mellon, and Puthoff, eventually moved on, TTSA was instrumental in raising the public profile of the UAP issue and helping to break the long-standing stigma surrounding the topic.[^1] @@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ The report's related-party note states that "monies due to Mr. DeLonge under rel ### Launch and the December 2017 placement -At a launch event in October 2017 (reported as October 11, 2017, [[Seattle]]), Tom DeLonge invited Luis Elizondo onstage; Elizondo said the group was "planning to provide never-before-released footage from real [[U.S. government]] systems." [[Gideon Lewis-Kraus]] reported that on October 4, 2017, a week before, Christopher Mellon had arranged for the journalist [[Leslie Kean]] to meet Hal Puthoff, Jim Semivan and Elizondo at a hotel bar near the Pentagon, where she was told she could have the videos with chain-of-custody documentation "if she could place a story in the Times." [[Bryan Bender]] wrote in 2021 that Mellon, "by then also a paid adviser to DeLonge's TTSA," served as Elizondo's "unofficial public relations manager" and "started dangling the story to the New York Times, POLITICO and several other mainstream outlets."[^16][^5] Bender also wrote that DeLonge, in 2016, "reached out to Christopher Mellon" and that in the same year "one of DeLonge's cold calls unearthed the name" of Elizondo.[^5] The Times and Politico published on December 16, 2017; see [[December 2017 New York Times AATIP Report]]. Politico's article of that date described the company as "a for-profit company" co-founded by DeLonge, quoted DeLonge's video calling it a "public benefit corporation," reported that its website "claims 2,142 investors, who have purchased slightly more than $2 million worth of shares" with "a minimum purchase of $200 in common stock shares," and placed Mellon at "a recent press conference for To The Stars in [[Las Vegas]]" describing a Navy pilots' sighting; Elizondo was listed as "director of global security and special programs."[^17] +At a launch event in October 2017 (reported as October 11, 2017, [[Seattle]]), Tom DeLonge invited Luis Elizondo onstage; Elizondo said the group was "planning to provide never-before-released footage from real [[United States|U.S. government]] systems." [[Gideon Lewis-Kraus]] reported that on October 4, 2017, a week before, Christopher Mellon had arranged for the journalist [[Leslie Kean]] to meet Hal Puthoff, Jim Semivan and Elizondo at a hotel bar near the Pentagon, where she was told she could have the videos with chain-of-custody documentation "if she could place a story in the Times." [[Bryan Bender]] wrote in 2021 that Mellon, "by then also a paid adviser to DeLonge's TTSA," served as Elizondo's "unofficial public relations manager" and "started dangling the story to the New York Times, POLITICO and several other mainstream outlets."[^16][^5] Bender also wrote that DeLonge, in 2016, "reached out to Christopher Mellon" and that in the same year "one of DeLonge's cold calls unearthed the name" of Elizondo.[^5] The Times and Politico published on December 16, 2017; see [[December 2017 New York Times AATIP Report]]. Politico's article of that date described the company as "a for-profit company" co-founded by DeLonge, quoted DeLonge's video calling it a "public benefit corporation," reported that its website "claims 2,142 investors, who have purchased slightly more than $2 million worth of shares" with "a minimum purchase of $200 in common stock shares," and placed Mellon at "a recent press conference for To The Stars in [[Las Vegas]]" describing a Navy pilots' sighting; Elizondo was listed as "director of global security and special programs."[^17] Mellon told the Politico writer: "Tom called me up out of the blue and then through him I met Jim and Hal." DeLonge told Bender: "From day one, I figured I needed knights of the round table."[^5] diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Yakuza.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Yakuza.md index 42ee99b4..0fa2a155 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Yakuza.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Yakuza.md @@ -4,13 +4,120 @@ tags: - OrganizedCrime - Japan - TheOctopus + - PostwarJapan + - Lockheed + - Sanctions category: "Private Organization" -summary: "The Yakuza is a Japanese organized crime syndicate that was implicated in the broader network investigated by Danny Casolaro as 'The Octopus." +aliases: + - Yakuza + - Japanese Yakuza + - Japanese organized crime + - Boryokudan + - Gokudo +summary: "The Yakuza are Japanese organized crime groups named in CIA files on Yoshio Kodama, in the Lockheed bribery affair, in Treasury sanctions from 2012 and in the Casolaro Octopus literature." +created: 2026-10-07 +updated: 2026-10-07 +relations: + - type: member_of + with: Tadamasa Goto + reverse: true + role: leader of the Goto-gumi, described by David Kaplan as an offshoot of the Yamaguchi-gumi + fn: 21 + - type: participant_in + with: Harold Okimoto + reverse: true + role: alleged top agent of the Yakuza overseas + fn: 28 --- -The [[Yakuza]] is a Japanese organized crime syndicate that was implicated in the broader network investigated by [[Danny Casolaro]] as "[[The Octopus]]." The syndicate's involvement was highlighted in [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] wiretap summaries, which revealed a government drug trafficking operation that included high-ranking [[La Cosa Nostra]] figures, the [[Gambino Crime Family]], and the Yakuza.[1] +The Yakuza (also Boryokudan, Gokudo) are organized crime groups in [[Japan]] divided into clans, the largest of which, the [[Yamaguchi-gumi]], the [[United States Department of the Treasury|Treasury Department]] designated in 2012.[^1] The group appears in the postwar record through occupation-era [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] files on [[Yoshio Kodama]] and [[Ryoichi Sasakawa]], the 1976 [[Lockheed bribe scandal]], and the reporting of [[Danny Casolaro]] on [[The Octopus]]. -[[Robert Booth Nichols]], a key figure in Casolaro's investigation, was linked to the Yakuza. An [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] wiretap summary on Nichols, part of [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] agent [[Thomas Gates]]'s affidavit, connected Nichols to the Yakuza as a money launderer. Furthermore, [[Michael Riconosciuto]] alleged that Nichols was the "godson" of [[Harold Okimoto]], a figure believed to be a top Japanese organized crime figure based in Hawaii and described as a top agent in the Yakuza overseas.[1] +### Occupation-era files ---- -### Footnotes -[1] Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010. \ No newline at end of file +A CIA name file on Kodama, released under the [[Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act]], contains a profile sheet stating that Kodama "was instrumental in founding the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)," "had a hand in naming several ministers," and "commands the allegiance of Japan's ultrarightists and is blood brother to a number of yakuza (leaders of the Japanese underworld)."[^2] A second profile sheet in the file states that Kodama, "notorious since the 1920's for his connections with right-wing and underworld groups, is widely reported to have high-level connections in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)," that he has been described by many sources as "a powerful figure in behind-the-scenes political maneuvering," and that he was allegedly visited at his residence by cabinet ministers and by Prime Minister [[Eisaku Sato]]. The sheet also records a reported close relationship with [[Ichiro Kono]] and [[Bamboku Ono]].[^3] The file's background summary describes Kodama (alias Moshakoji Takeharu) as a rightist with underworld connections ("gambling and gangster groups") and with important LDP political figures, and gives his birth as February 18, 1911 in Fukushima Prefecture.[^4] + +A counter-intelligence memorandum dated October 3, 1945, filed in the same name file, identifies Kodama as the publisher of a nationalistic journal.[^5] A document dated April 24, 1950, excerpted verbatim in the file, states that on December 24, 1948, [[Shumei Okawa]], Sasagawa Ryoichi, Kodama and a fourth man "were released from prison by the allies and charges against them of being class 'A' war criminals were dropped," and that these men "are reported to be planning in secret the reconstruction of the Japanese military," with an initial aim of "a volunteer corps to join the Chinese Nationalists in their defense of Formosa."[^6] A CIA office memorandum of June 29, 1950 states that Kodama was released on December 24, 1948 along with 13 other suspects and that the Legal Section of [[Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers|SCAP]] announced that no additional trial would be brought. The same memorandum states that Kodama had apparently led underground right-wing movements since his release, that a magazine writer's list of released "Class A" suspects included Kodama, Sasagawa and others, and that Kodama was in fact a "Class B" suspect. It also lists Kodama among officers reported in a recruitment program in Japan for [[Chiang Kai-shek]] and the CC Clique, with 123 recruited on November 11, 1949, and states that when he was picked up by SCAP in 1945 he reportedly turned over radium that was placed in the Bank of Japan vaults.[^7] + +Counter-intelligence reports in the file note Kodama's close contact after his release from [[Sugamo Prison]] with [[Tsuji Masanobu]], whom the same reports describe as involved in recruiting Japanese soldiers and weapons for Chinese Nationalist forces.[^8] Handwritten notes of an interview with Kodama, attached to a CIA station dispatch of January 10, 1950 that describes him as a former naval intelligence officer in China and a known member of the revised JIS, record him proposing an espionage net whose members would be natives of Korea and China with whom he had business connections. According to the notes, he had promised Mr. Carpenter of the SCAP Legal Section to stay in Tokyo, and a former colonel then working in a G-2 section could vouch for him.[^9] + +A document dated April 7, 1950 and excerpted in the file describes a merger of the groups of General Maki, Kodama, a network whose name is obscured in the copy, and probably General Doi, together with a former Foreign Office intelligence group under Tsuchida, working covertly with GHQ and CIC.[^10] The file's background summary states that Kodama was one of the high advisers in Prince Higashikuni's administration in 1945, was the first man to make a personal connection with General [[Douglas MacArthur|MacArthur]] and the Premier, was arrested as a Class A war criminal for dealings in war materiel, and spent three years in jail before being found not guilty.[^4] + +A 1953 record in the file identifies Sasagawa as a former head of the Nationalist League who was increasingly active behind the scenes in political and financial circles and was said to be Kodama's "political adviser." The same record states that Sasagawa founded in 1951, with the backing of Osaka and Kansai financiers, an enterprise to promote motorboat racing.[^11] A 1952 record in the file describes [[Taketora Ogata]], a former editor-in-chief of the [[Asahi Shimbun]], as in contact with leading members of the pre-war [[Genyo-sha]], in particular with Sasakawa and Kodama.[^12] + +The [[Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group|Interagency Working Group]], which administered the [[Japanese Imperial Government Disclosure Act]], records in its 2007 final report that the Simon Wiesenthal Center lobbied for release of U.S. documents on amnesties granted to Japanese war criminals, including amnesties granted to supervisors of Japan's biological and chemical warfare program in exchange for data from experiments on humans in [[Unit 731]].[^13] + +### Covert funding of Japanese politicians + +The editorial note to the 1964 to 1968 Japan volume of the [[Foreign Relations of the United States]] series states that the U.S. Government approved four covert programs in Japan between 1958 and 1968. The note states that the Eisenhower administration authorized the CIA, before the May 1958 elections for the Japanese House of Representatives, to provide a few key pro-American and conservative politicians with "covert limited financial support and electoral advice." The recipients were told only that they were getting support from American businessmen. A 1959 program to split the moderate wing of the leftist opposition received $75,000 for 1960. The note states that "the subsidy program for Japanese political parties was phased out in early 1964," and that a broader program divided almost equally between propaganda and social action was funded at $450,000 for 1964 and continued "throughout the Johnson administration."[^14] + +The New York Times News Service reported on October 9, 1994 that retired intelligence officials and former diplomats said the CIA gave money to the [[Liberal Democratic Party]] and its members in the 1950s and 1960s. "We financed them," said [[Alfred C. Ulmer Jr.]], who ran the CIA's Far East operations from 1955 to 1958. [[Roger Hilsman]], head of the State Department's intelligence bureau in the Kennedy administration, said the payments were by the early 1960s "so established and so routine" that they were a part of American policy toward Japan, and [[U. Alexis Johnson]], Ambassador to Japan from 1966 to 1969, said: "We were financing a party on our side." The report states that the Liberal Democrats have always denied that the support existed.[^15] + +### Lockheed + +The CIA file contains a background summary on Kodama, titled as concerning his involvement in the Lockheed scandal with former prime minister [[Kakuei Tanaka]].[^4] The summary states that it was brought to light during the Lockheed scandal that Kodama received a bribe in connection with a sale, that he was not arrested because of illness but was prosecuted for tax evasion, that after his release from Sugamo he was involved in LDP fund-raising for [[Ichiro Hatoyama]], and that he died of heart failure on the evening of January 17, 1984. It adds that an actor in pornographic films crashed a small plane into Kodama's home and that Kodama's autobiography, translated into English as "I Was Defeated," was a best seller.[^4] + +### Sasakawa and the Unification Church + +The [[Unification Church]] founded the International Federation for Victory over Communism in Japan and named Sasakawa its honorary chairman, according to a 2023 article on the church's relations with the LDP. That article states that Sasakawa had close ties to former prime minister [[Kishi Nobusuke]] and to the conservative wing of the LDP.[^16] + +### Treasury designations + +Executive Order 13581 of July 24, 2011, issued by President [[Barack Obama]], blocks the property of significant transnational criminal organizations. Its Annex lists four entities: the Brothers' Circle, the Camorra, the Yakuza (a.k.a. Boryokudan; a.k.a. Gokudo) and [[Los Zetas]].[^17] + +On February 23, 2012, the Treasury Department designated the Yamaguchi-gumi, its leader [[Kenichi Shinoda]], and [[Kiyoshi Takayama]]. The release called these the first designations under Executive Order 13581. It states that the Yakuza was listed in the Annex for its involvement in serious criminal activities, including weapons trafficking, prostitution, human trafficking, drug trafficking, fraud and money laundering, and that "The Yamaguchi-gumi is the largest and most prominent of the Yakuza’s crime families."[^1] + +On September 27, 2012, Treasury designated the [[Sumiyoshi-kai]], which the release calls "the second-largest clan within the Japanese Yakuza criminal network," together with two of its leaders, Shigeo Nishiguchi and Hareaki Fukuda.[^18] An OFAC listing under the Transnational Criminal Organization program, dated December 2016, names the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi under the heading "YAKUZA" and lists Tadashi Irie as previously designated on December 19, 2013 as a member of the Yamaguchi-gumi.[^19] On October 2, 2018, Treasury designated two Kobe-based companies, Yamaki, K.K. and Toyo Shinyo Jitsugyo K.K., and four individuals under the same order, describing the companies as real estate firms tied to Yamaguchi-gumi operations.[^20] + +### Goto and the UCLA transplants + +[[Tadamasa Goto]] underwent a successful liver transplant in July 2001 at the [[UCLA Medical Center]], performed by [[Ronald W. Busuttil]], executive chairman of the university's surgery department, according to the [[Los Angeles Times]]. The Times reported in articles of May 30 and May 31, 2008 that four surgeries on Japanese men were done between 2000 and 2004, that the most prominent recipient, Goto, had been barred from entering the United States because of his criminal history, and that Goto leads the Goto-gumi, which the journalist [[David Kaplan]] describes in his book as an offshoot of the Yamaguchi-gumi. Goto flew from Narita to Los Angeles on May 18, 2001 with his son and, according to his lawyer [[Yoshiyuki Maki]], had hepatitis C.[^21] + +[[Jim Stern]], a retired chief of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]]'s Asian criminal enterprise unit, told the Times that the FBI helped Goto obtain a visa to enter the United States in 2001 in exchange for leads on potentially illegal activity in this country by Japanese criminal gangs. Stern said: "I don't think Goto gave the bureau anything of significance." Stern said the FBI did not help Goto arrange his surgery at UCLA, and a law enforcement official told the Times that Goto was again barred from reentering the United States after the transplant.[^21] + +The Times reported, citing a law enforcement official, that Busuttil performed liver transplants on three other men barred from entering the United States because of criminal records or suspected affiliation with Japanese organized crime groups, whom it did not name because they could not be reached. UCLA and Busuttil said in statements that they do not make moral judgments about patients and treat them based on medical need.[^21] Maki said that Busuttil traveled to Japan, examined Goto on more than one occasion and evaluated him while he was in custody in 2006, and that Busuttil's medical opinion was cited in a court petition to have Goto released for medical care.[^21] The former Yomiuri Shimbun reporter [[Jake Adelstein]] told the Times that after he made inquiries in 2005 about the circumstances of Goto's transplant, men visited him and told him: "Erase the story or be erased."[^21] + +In its follow-up, the Times reported that Goto donated $100,000 to the hospital less than three months after the surgery, that a plaque dated November 2001 recognizes the "Goto Research Fund," and that a second man from the group of four donated $100,000 in 2002. UCLA spokeswoman Dale Tate said the university had "no reason to question" the source of the money, and when asked whether the money had any bearing on the transplants said: "Absolutely not." Senator [[Charles Grassley]] said he would demand additional information from the university.[^22] Goto was arrested in Japan in May 2006 on suspicion of real estate fraud and was acquitted in March 2008.[^23] + +### Federal prosecutions + +On February 21, 2024, federal prosecutors in the [[United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York|Southern District of New York]] announced a superseding indictment charging Takeshi Ebisawa with trafficking nuclear materials from [[Burma]]. Prosecutors alleged that Ebisawa is a leader of a Japan-based international crime syndicate and that he and others showed samples of the material to an undercover agent of the [[Drug Enforcement Administration]] who was posing as a trafficker with access to an Iranian general.[^24] In a Justice Department release of March 3, 2026, Ebisawa was reported sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty before Judge Colleen McMahon to six counts, including nuclear materials trafficking, narcotics trafficking, weapons and money laundering offenses. The release states that the DEA investigated him from about 2019 until his arrest on or about April 4, 2022, and that he laundered $100,000 of what the undercover agent described as narcotics proceeds for a 15 percent commission.[^25] + +### Fukushima decontamination work + +The Asahi Shimbun reported that at least two gangsters were arrested in 2011 on suspicion of sending laborers to construction sites in Iwate Prefecture, one a senior member of a Sumiyoshi-kai affiliated gang arrested in July and the other a member of a Yamaguchi-gumi affiliated gang arrested in October. It reported that on January 31, 2013 police arrested a senior member of a gang affiliated with the Sumiyoshi-kai on suspicion of sending laborers in November to a decontamination project in Date, Fukushima Prefecture, which it described as the first arrest of a gangster over suspected involvement in a project to remove radioactive substances.[^26] + +Jake Adelstein, writing in [[The Atlantic Wire]], reported that Makoto Owada, identified as a high-ranking member of the Sumiyoshi-kai, was charged with dispatching workers to the Fukushima reconstruction site from May to July 2011. According to Adelstein, Owada first sent the workers to a [[Tokyo Electric Power Company|TEPCO]] subcontractor in Tochigi Prefecture, and some of the hazard pay the workers received was allegedly kicked back to the Sumiyoshi-kai as "association dues." Adelstein wrote that Owada admitted in initial statements to police that he had dispatched workers, including his own yakuza soldiers, to nuclear plant construction sites around Japan from as early as 2007, and that police suspected he worked with the Yamaguchi-gumi in a joint labor-supply venture.[^27] + +### Okimoto and the Octopus + +The writer [[Cheri Seymour]] wrote that FBI wiretap summaries revealed a government drug trafficking operation that included high-ranking [[La Cosa Nostra]] figures, the [[Gambino Crime Family]], and the Yakuza.[^28] Seymour wrote that the FBI wiretap summary on [[Robert Booth Nichols]], part of the affidavit of FBI agent [[Thomas Gates]], connected Nichols to the Yakuza as a money launderer.[^28] Seymour also wrote that [[Michael Riconosciuto]] alleged that Nichols was the "godson" of [[Harold Okimoto]], whom Seymour describes as a 67-year-old car dealer in Hawaii believed by some sources to be a top Japanese organized crime figure and a top agent of the Yakuza overseas.[^28] + +Seymour wrote that Okimoto's company, [[Island Tobacco]], sold cigarettes at the Casino du Liban, which was controlled by the Syrian mob and used as a front by narcotics people.[^28] + +[^1]: U.S. Department of the Treasury, "Treasury Imposes Sanctions On Key Members Of The Yakuza And Brothers’ Circle Criminal Organizations," press release, February 23, 2012, https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/tg1430. +[^2]: Central Intelligence Agency, name file "KODAMA, YOSHIO," vol. 1, released under the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act, PDF p. 11 (profile sheet, "Rightist Leader"), copy at https://mansell.com/Resources/special_files/KIKAN/KODAMA_Yoshio_Vol01_CIA.pdf. +[^3]: CIA, "KODAMA, YOSHIO," vol. 1, PDF p. 7 (profile sheet, "Rightist Leader"), https://mansell.com/Resources/special_files/KIKAN/KODAMA_Yoshio_Vol01_CIA.pdf. +[^4]: CIA, "KODAMA, YOSHIO," vol. 1, PDF p. 83 (background summary, "Background of KODAMA Yoshio, who was involved in the Lockheed Scandal with former prime Minister TANAKA Kakuei"), https://mansell.com/Resources/special_files/KIKAN/KODAMA_Yoshio_Vol01_CIA.pdf. +[^5]: CIA, "KODAMA, YOSHIO," vol. 1, PDF p. 23 (counter-intelligence memorandum, October 3, 1945), https://mansell.com/Resources/special_files/KIKAN/KODAMA_Yoshio_Vol01_CIA.pdf. +[^6]: CIA, "KODAMA, YOSHIO," vol. 1, PDF p. 46 (cross-file abstract of a document dated April 24, 1950, Attachment A, "Plans for Reconstruction of the Japanese Military"), https://mansell.com/Resources/special_files/KIKAN/KODAMA_Yoshio_Vol01_CIA.pdf. +[^7]: CIA, "KODAMA, YOSHIO," vol. 1, PDF pp. 48 to 49 (office memorandum, June 29, 1950, Request K-2202), https://mansell.com/Resources/special_files/KIKAN/KODAMA_Yoshio_Vol01_CIA.pdf. +[^8]: CIA, "KODAMA, YOSHIO," vol. 1, PDF p. 60, https://mansell.com/Resources/special_files/KIKAN/KODAMA_Yoshio_Vol01_CIA.pdf. +[^9]: CIA, "KODAMA, YOSHIO," vol. 1, PDF pp. 125 to 127 (dispatch to Chief, FE, January 10, 1950, with handwritten interview notes), https://mansell.com/Resources/special_files/KIKAN/KODAMA_Yoshio_Vol01_CIA.pdf. +[^10]: CIA, "KODAMA, YOSHIO," vol. 1, PDF p. 155 (cross-file abstract of a document dated April 7, 1950), https://mansell.com/Resources/special_files/KIKAN/KODAMA_Yoshio_Vol01_CIA.pdf. +[^11]: CIA, "KODAMA, YOSHIO," vol. 1, PDF p. 50 (activities of Sasagawa Ryoichi, September 10, 1953), https://mansell.com/Resources/special_files/KIKAN/KODAMA_Yoshio_Vol01_CIA.pdf. +[^12]: CIA, "KODAMA, YOSHIO," vol. 2, PDF p. 6 (abstract of a document dated October 10, 1952 on Ogata Taketora), https://mansell.com/Resources/special_files/KIKAN/KODAMA_Yoshio_Vol02_CIA.pdf. +[^13]: Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group, Final Report to Congress (April 2007), "Japan Under Scrutiny," pp. 20 to 21, https://www.archives.gov/files/iwg/reports/final-report-2007.pdf. +[^14]: Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968, vol. XXIX, pt. 2, Japan, ed. Karen L. Gatz (Washington: Government Printing Office, 2006), Editorial Note, p. 1, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v29p2/d1. +[^15]: "CIA Spent Millions to Back Right Wing in Japan, Ex-Agents Say," New York Times News Service, Deseret News, October 9, 1994, https://www.deseret.com/1994/10/9/19135214/cia-spent-millions-to-back-right-wing-in-japan-ex-agents-say/. +[^16]: Power News, "An Unholy Alliance: How the Unification Church Penetrated Japan's Ruling Liberal Democratic Party," nippon.com, March 3, 2023, https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-topics/c12101/an-unholy-alliance-how-the-unification-church-penetrated-japan%E2%80%99s-ruling-liberal-democrat.html. +[^17]: Executive Order 13581 of July 24, 2011, Blocking Property of Transnational Criminal Organizations, 76 Fed. Reg. 44757 (July 27, 2011), Annex, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2011-07-27/pdf/2011-19156.pdf. +[^18]: U.S. Department of the Treasury, "Treasury Sanctions Members and Associates of Japanese Criminal Organization," press release, September 27, 2012, https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/tg1722. +[^19]: U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control, "Transnational Criminal Organization Executive Order 13581," new designations, December 2016, https://ofac.treasury.gov/media/7026/download. +[^20]: U.S. Department of the Treasury, "Treasury Sanctions Individuals and Companies Associated with Japan's Major Organized Crime Syndicate, the Yakuza," press release, October 2, 2018, https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm499. +[^21]: John M. Glionna and Charles Ornstein, "Japanese gang figures got new livers at UCLA," Los Angeles Times, May 30, 2008, https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-may-30-me-ucla30-story.html. +[^22]: Charles Ornstein and John M. Glionna, "After livers, cash to UCLA," Los Angeles Times, May 31, 2008, https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-may-31-me-ucla31-story.html. +[^23]: "Japanese gangsters got livers at L.A. hospital," NBC News, May 30, 2008, relaying the Los Angeles Times story, https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/japanese-gangsters-got-livers-l-hospital-flna1C9463298. +[^24]: Associated Press, report of February 21, 2024 on the Ebisawa indictment, https://www.news4jax.com/news/national/2024/02/21/feds-accuse-alleged-japanese-crime-boss-of-conspiring-to-traffic-nuclear-material/; U.S. Department of Justice, "Justice Department Announces Nuclear Materials Trafficking Charges Against Japanese Yakuza," press release, February 21, 2024, https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-nuclear-materials-trafficking-charges-against-japanese-yakuza. +[^25]: U.S. Department of Justice release of March 3, 2026 on the sentencing of Takeshi Ebisawa, as posted by the Internal Revenue Service, https://www.irs.gov/node/157161. +[^26]: Asahi Shimbun, "Police struggle to prevent gangsters from profiting in disaster areas," Asahi Asia & Japan Watch, January 31 to February 1, 2013, as archived by the Japan Disaster Archive, https://jdarchive.org/api/item/1698468. +[^27]: Jake Adelstein, "How the Yakuza and Japan's Nuclear Industry Learned to Love Each Other," The Atlantic Wire, reprinted by TRANSCEND Media Service on July 22, 2013, https://www.transcend.org/tms/?p=32135. +[^28]: Cheri Seymour, *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal* (TrineDay, 2010). Sole source for the passages so cited. diff --git a/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/Advanced Theoretical Physics Working Group.md b/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/Advanced Theoretical Physics Working Group.md index 2e71b58c..756f70c1 100644 --- a/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/Advanced Theoretical Physics Working Group.md +++ b/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/Advanced Theoretical Physics Working Group.md @@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ Alexander wrote that the initial meetings were held in BDM's secure facilities a ### Attendees -James "Oke" Shannon of Los Alamos kept handwritten notes. A page headed "Attendees," which the Loose Threads authors place at a meeting of August 7, 1985 labeled "ATP Ten," has two columns. The left column reads: "Me" (LANL), [[Bill Wilkinson]] ([[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]), a blank first name with McConnell (NSA), John Alexander (AMC/USA), Bert Stubblebine (BDM), [[Hal Puthoff]], Jack Houck, [[Ed Speakman]] (INSCOM), [[Bill Souder]] (McD. D.), an unnamed line marked BDM, [[Jake Stewart]] ([[USDRE]]) and Ralph [[Freeman]] (with a question mark). The right column, headed "Others," reads: [[McDonnell Douglas]], [[Bob Wood]]; and Lockheed, Ron Blackburn, [[Milt Janzen]] and Don Keuble.[^5] According to the Loose Threads authors, Hal Puthoff appears in Shannon's notes of the first meeting as the presenter on remote viewing.[^6] +James "Oke" Shannon of Los Alamos kept handwritten notes. A page headed "Attendees," which the Loose Threads authors place at a meeting of August 7, 1985 labeled "ATP Ten," has two columns. The left column reads: "Me" (LANL), [[Bill Wilkinson]] (CIA), a blank first name with McConnell (NSA), John Alexander (AMC/USA), Bert Stubblebine (BDM), [[Hal Puthoff]], Jack Houck, [[Ed Speakman]] (INSCOM), [[Bill Souder]] (McD. D.), an unnamed line marked BDM, [[Jake Stewart]] ([[USDRE]]) and Ralph [[Freeman]] (with a question mark). The right column, headed "Others," reads: [[McDonnell Douglas]], [[Bob Wood]]; and Lockheed, Ron Blackburn, [[Milt Janzen]] and Don Keuble.[^5] According to the Loose Threads authors, Hal Puthoff appears in Shannon's notes of the first meeting as the presenter on remote viewing.[^6] A note in Vallee's *[[Forbidden Science: Volume Three]]* (p. 480), which [[Keith Basterfield]] quotes, gives a list of "alleged participants": [[Samuel Finch]], Oke Shannon and John Kink of Los Alamos; Bill Wilkinson of the CIA; Howell McConnell of the NSA; Hal Puthoff and Jack Houck; Ed Speakman of INSCOM; Bill Souder and Bob Wood of McDonnell Douglas; Jack Stuart of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering; Bert Stubblebine of BDM; Ron Blackburn, Milt Janzen and Don Keuble of Lockheed; and Ralph Freeman, [[Gary Bright]], [[Paul Tyler]], [[Ed Dames]] and Lieutenant Colonel [[Mike Neery]]. The note ends: "[[Ron Pandolfi]] of CIA also claims to have been involved." Pandolfi's name is not on Shannon's page.[^7] Alexander wrote that McConnell had written a position paper on UFOs; the Loose Threads authors take "Jack" to be Houck.[^6] According to the Loose Threads authors, [[Kit Green]] received an invitation to the meetings according to Puthoff but did not attend, and told Vallee in 1989 that he was reluctant to take part without an official funding stream.[^6] @@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ In a 1989 telephone conversation recorded in Vallee's journal, Vallee wrote that ### Later Statements -Asked in 2018 about Alexander's conclusion that no program could be found, Puthoff answered, in the words the Loose Threads authors quote, that "somebody else [was] doing it," and that "if materials are being held in [[Special Access Programs]], a casual conversation even with high-level people, who know your interest, and they're interested too, won't necessarily reveal facts."[^6] In his 2011 book Alexander wrote: "While many researchers, and even the general public, indicate they believe the U.S. Government is withholding critical information about UFOs; that is not a position in which I concur."[^1] [[Richard Dolan]] wrote in 2009 that Alexander said he had reached four-star levels in the Pentagon and found no evidence of such a program ("I've looked ... and it's not there"), and that Dolan spoke to several group members who expressed skepticism about that position, one of whom implied "an international or transnational structure" beyond control of the [[U.S. government]].[^6] On the radio program [[Spaced Out Radio]] he said that he "held some other meetings after I went to Los Alamos as well and some private stuff that went on in [[Santa Fe]]."[^6] +Asked in 2018 about Alexander's conclusion that no program could be found, Puthoff answered, in the words the Loose Threads authors quote, that "somebody else [was] doing it," and that "if materials are being held in [[Special Access Programs]], a casual conversation even with high-level people, who know your interest, and they're interested too, won't necessarily reveal facts."[^6] In his 2011 book Alexander wrote: "While many researchers, and even the general public, indicate they believe the U.S. Government is withholding critical information about UFOs; that is not a position in which I concur."[^1] [[Richard Dolan]] wrote in 2009 that Alexander said he had reached four-star levels in the Pentagon and found no evidence of such a program ("I've looked ... and it's not there"), and that Dolan spoke to several group members who expressed skepticism about that position, one of whom implied "an international or transnational structure" beyond control of the [[United States|U.S. government]].[^6] On the radio program [[Spaced Out Radio]] he said that he "held some other meetings after I went to Los Alamos as well and some private stuff that went on in [[Santa Fe]]."[^6] [[Eric Davis]]'s notes of an October 2002 meeting with Vice Admiral [[Thomas R. Wilson]], which came to public attention from the estate of [[Edgar Mitchell]], contain the abbreviation "AP-10" and a reference to a "BDM thing"; the Loose Threads authors write that Wilson has adamantly denied meeting Davis in 2002. Shannon said in a 2022 interview that in 1999 Wilson telephoned him and wanted to know "could he trust Eric Davis," adding "I think he may have even mentioned Hal Puthoff and one or two other people."[^6] diff --git a/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/KONA BLUE.md b/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/KONA BLUE.md index 68d07507..1f2a59ae 100644 --- a/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/KONA BLUE.md +++ b/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/KONA BLUE.md @@ -147,7 +147,7 @@ Section 1687 of [[National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024|Public ### Testimony on a transfer of material -Kirkpatrick's column describes a story told by "conspiracists" in which the United States hid and tried to reverse engineer recovered craft, abandoned the effort to private sector defense contractors, and later saw those contractors "want to bring the whole program back under [[U.S. government]] (USG) auspices," with the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] apparently stopping the transfer. He wrote that this was "all without substantiating evidence."[^19] At a House Oversight hearing on November 13, 2024 Representative [[Eric Burlison]] asked [[Luis Elizondo]] whether any branch of the government or defense contractors possessed such technology. Elizondo answered that a document cleared by the Defense Department's Office of Prepublication and Security Review stated that his predecessor program, AAWSAP, was trying to collect material of unknown origin, that "an aerospace contract company" had "requested to divest itself of the material" that "was collected in the 1950s," and that "that did not actually occur." Asked by Burlison whether the company was Bigelow Aerospace, he said yes. Burlison then cited the journalist [[Christopher Sharp]] as reporting a transfer among [[Lockheed Martin]], Bigelow Aerospace and the CIA that was blocked, and Elizondo replied: "it was blocked. Why it was blocked, I can only surmise." He said that former contract personnel had told him and others the account was accurate, that a memorandum from the Secretary of the Air Force would have been required to complete the transfer, and that he later sought one from Defense Secretary [[James Mattis]]. Asked who holds the material today, Elizondo said he could not discuss it in an open hearing. Representative [[Nancy Mace]] asked him whether material is given to contractors for their expertise, citing General Dynamics as an example, and what Lockheed Martin's expertise is; he answered "Aerospace, ma'am."[^21] +Kirkpatrick's column describes a story told by "conspiracists" in which the United States hid and tried to reverse engineer recovered craft, abandoned the effort to private sector defense contractors, and later saw those contractors "want to bring the whole program back under U.S. government (USG) auspices," with the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] apparently stopping the transfer. He wrote that this was "all without substantiating evidence."[^19] At a House Oversight hearing on November 13, 2024 Representative [[Eric Burlison]] asked [[Luis Elizondo]] whether any branch of the government or defense contractors possessed such technology. Elizondo answered that a document cleared by the Defense Department's Office of Prepublication and Security Review stated that his predecessor program, AAWSAP, was trying to collect material of unknown origin, that "an aerospace contract company" had "requested to divest itself of the material" that "was collected in the 1950s," and that "that did not actually occur." Asked by Burlison whether the company was Bigelow Aerospace, he said yes. Burlison then cited the journalist [[Christopher Sharp]] as reporting a transfer among [[Lockheed Martin]], Bigelow Aerospace and the CIA that was blocked, and Elizondo replied: "it was blocked. Why it was blocked, I can only surmise." He said that former contract personnel had told him and others the account was accurate, that a memorandum from the Secretary of the Air Force would have been required to complete the transfer, and that he later sought one from Defense Secretary [[James Mattis]]. Asked who holds the material today, Elizondo said he could not discuss it in an open hearing. Representative [[Nancy Mace]] asked him whether material is given to contractors for their expertise, citing General Dynamics as an example, and what Lockheed Martin's expertise is; he answered "Aerospace, ma'am."[^21] ### Footnotes diff --git a/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/PSI_RESEARCH_PROGRAMS/The Nautilus (Telepathy Project).md b/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/PSI_RESEARCH_PROGRAMS/The Nautilus (Telepathy Project).md index ba2ac30d..9bc09122 100644 --- a/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/PSI_RESEARCH_PROGRAMS/The Nautilus (Telepathy Project).md +++ b/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/PSI_RESEARCH_PROGRAMS/The Nautilus (Telepathy Project).md @@ -9,11 +9,11 @@ tags: - ColdWar description: The Nautilus (Telepathy Project) refers to a sensational 1960 French magazine article claiming successful telepathic communication with the USS Nautilus submarine, which spurred Soviet psi research. category: "Psi Research Program" -summary: "The Nautilus (Telepathy Project) refers to a fabricated 1960 French magazine story claiming the U.S. Navy had conducted successful telepathy experiments with the USS Nautilus submarine, a hoax that nonetheless alarmed Soviet and American military planners and accelerated government parapsychology funding." +summary: "A 1960 French magazine report that the U.S. Navy ran telepathy experiments with the submarine USS Nautilus, which the Navy denied and which Soviet researchers cited in seeking parapsychology funding." date: 1960 --- -[[The Nautilus (Telepathy Project)]] refers to a sensational 1960 article in the French magazine *Science et Vie* titled "The Secret of the Nautilus." The article claimed that the [[U.S. Government|U.S. government]], in secret tests, had successfully employed telepathy to communicate with the crew of the USS Nautilus, its first nuclear submarine, while it was submerged beneath the Arctic ice cap. The story suggested the project had the special attention of President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower]] and involved the [[U.S. Navy|Navy]], [[U.S. Air Force|Air Force]], Westinghouse, General Electric, [[Bell Labs]], and the [[Rand Corporation]].[^1] +[[The Nautilus (Telepathy Project)]] refers to a sensational 1960 article in the French magazine *Science et Vie* titled "The Secret of the Nautilus." The article claimed that the [[United States|U.S. government]], in secret tests, had successfully employed telepathy to communicate with the crew of the USS Nautilus, its first nuclear submarine, while it was submerged beneath the Arctic ice cap. The story suggested the project had the special attention of President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower]] and involved the [[U.S. Navy|Navy]], [[U.S. Air Force|Air Force]], Westinghouse, General Electric, [[Bell Labs]], and the [[Rand Corporation]].[^1] The implications of such a breakthrough were enormous, as communicating with deeply submerged submarines was a critical research goal. Telepathy seemed an ideal solution, as it appeared unaffected by seawater or other earthly obstacles. However, the story quickly unraveled upon closer inspection, with denials from involved parties and suspicious inconsistencies in the reported accuracy rates. It was eventually suggested that the article was a fabrication, possibly a disinformation ploy designed to stir up data on American psi research or to encourage the [[Soviet Union|Soviets]] to undertake wasteful psi research, or both.[^1] diff --git a/40 - EVENTS/CONTRA_WAR/Bay of Pigs.md b/40 - EVENTS/CONTRA_WAR/Bay of Pigs.md index 1603f347..30b64450 100644 --- a/40 - EVENTS/CONTRA_WAR/Bay of Pigs.md +++ b/40 - EVENTS/CONTRA_WAR/Bay of Pigs.md @@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ tags: - 1960s - AntiCastro category: "Intelligence Operation" -summary: "The Bay of Pigs invasion was the CIA's failed April 17-19, 1961 covert operation deploying approximately 1,400 Cuban exiles of Brigade 2506 against Fidel Castro, collapsing after Kennedy cancelled the follow-up air strikes and Castro's forces captured 1,179 survivors - prompting CIA Inspector General Lyman Kirkpatrick's suppressed postmortem conclusion that 'plausible denial was a pathetic illusion.'" +summary: "The CIA's failed April 17-19, 1961 invasion of Cuba by about 1,400 exiles of Brigade 2506, which collapsed after Kennedy cancelled follow-up air strikes and left 1,179 survivors captured." start: 1961-04-17 end: 1961-04-19 location: "Bay of Pigs (Bahia de Cochinos), Cuba" @@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ The cover story required that the attacking aircraft appear to be defecting Cuba ### The D-Day Air Strike Cancellation -On April 14, Kennedy directed Bissell to reduce the follow-up strikes to "minimal." On the evening of April 16, approximately 9:30 PM, National Security Adviser [[McGeorge Bundy]] telephoned CIA Deputy Director General [[Charles P. Cabell|C.P. Cabell]] to inform him that the dawn April 17 strikes "should not be launched" until they could be conducted from a secured beachhead airfield. (Source: Cabell's May 9, 1961 memorandum to the Taylor Commission, FRUS Vol. X, Document 108.) +On April 14, Kennedy directed Bissell to reduce the follow-up strikes to "minimal." On the evening of April 16, at about 9:30 p.m., according to the Cuba Study Group, National Security Adviser [[McGeorge Bundy]] telephoned CIA Deputy Director General [[Charles P. Cabell|C.P. Cabell]] to inform him that the dawn April 17 strikes "should not be launched until they could be conducted from a strip within the beachhead."[^4] Cabell's own memorandum of May 9, 1961 states: "I was called in the CIA headquarters for the Cuban operation by the Special Assistant to the President, Mr. McGeorge Bundy."[^5] Cabell and Bissell went to Rusk's office around 10:15 PM and argued for proceeding. Rusk refused, citing "political considerations" and Stevenson's insistence "that the air strikes would make it absolutely impossible for the U.S. position to be sustained." At approximately 4:30 AM on April 17, Cabell phoned the [[White House]] requesting fighter cover for ships withdrawing from the beach; Kennedy disapproved after consulting Rusk. @@ -115,4 +115,6 @@ Brigade 2506 veterans became the CIA's organizational core for subsequent Cuba o [^1]: CIA Inspector General. "Inspector General's Survey of the Cuban Operation." October 1961; declassified February 22, 1998. Published 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 (Cuba, January 1961-September 1962), Documents 108, 169, 198. U.S. Department of State, history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v10. [^2]: Cuba Study Group (Taylor Commission). Final Report. June 13, 1961. FRUS 1961-1963, Vol. X, Document 169. CIA Official History, Vols. I-V (Pfeiffer, 1979-1984). National Security Archive, nsarchive.gwu.edu, NSAEBB353 (2011) and NSAEBB564 (2016). Wyden, Peter. *Bay of Pigs: The Untold Story.* Simon & Schuster, 1979. -[^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. \ No newline at end of file +[^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]: Cuba Study Group, Memorandum No. 1, "Narrative of the Anti-Castro Cuban Operation Zapata," June 13, 1961, paragraph 43, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, Volume X, Cuba, January 1961-September 1962, Document 231. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v10/d231 +[^5]: Memorandum from General C.P. Cabell to the Cuba Study Group, May 9, 1961, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, Volume X, Document 108. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v10/d108 diff --git a/40 - EVENTS/MODERN_INCIDENTS/December 2017 New York Times AATIP Report.md b/40 - EVENTS/MODERN_INCIDENTS/December 2017 New York Times AATIP Report.md index 96f61e87..b0f2a469 100644 --- a/40 - EVENTS/MODERN_INCIDENTS/December 2017 New York Times AATIP Report.md +++ b/40 - EVENTS/MODERN_INCIDENTS/December 2017 New York Times AATIP Report.md @@ -41,11 +41,11 @@ On June 1, 2019 Pentagon spokesperson [[Christopher Sherwood]] told Keith Kloor ### The placement, in sequence -In 2016 [[Tom DeLonge]] cold-called [[Christopher Mellon]], who told Bender in 2021: "Tom called me up out of the blue and then through him I met Jim and Hal," meaning [[Jim Semivan]] and Puthoff. Mellon, who had kept his security clearance, then met Elizondo at a Pentagon briefing.[^6] In an email from August 2017, reviewed by Politico, Elizondo described a plan for an unclassified "community of interest" database of unidentified aerial phenomena reports. Politico reported that the [[Washington Headquarters Services]] declassification division approved three Navy videos "for unlimited distribution" within the government, and that Mellon, Elizondo and "others now in DeLonge's orbit" concluded that this was not enough and "needed to kick up a media firestorm."[^6] The Office of the Secretary of Defense file released to [[The Black Vault]] under the Freedom of Information Act in August 2019 contains an August 23, 2017 email in which [[Luis Elizondo]] asked Michael Russo of the Defense Office of Prepublication and Security Review to "consider our request for unrestricted release"; an August 24, 2017 reply from Russo that if the service-level classification authority verified that removing the metadata made the videos unclassified, "please feel free to move forward with release"; and a DD Form 1910 whose publication-data block reads "Not Applicable. Not for publication. Research and analysis ONLY and info sharing with other USG and industry partners for the purposes of developing a database to help identify, analyze and ultimately defeat UAS threats." Joseph Gradisher, a Navy spokesman, said in 2019 that neither the cognizant Navy offices nor the review office had a record of correspondence responding to a request for unrestricted release of the videos in 2017.[^7] +In 2016 [[Tom DeLonge]] cold-called [[Christopher Mellon]], who told Bender in 2021: "Tom called me up out of the blue and then through him I met Jim and Hal," meaning [[Jim Semivan]] and Puthoff. Mellon, who had kept his security clearance, then met Elizondo at a Pentagon briefing.[^6] In an email from August 2017, reviewed by Politico, Elizondo described a plan for an unclassified "community of interest" database of unidentified aerial phenomena reports. Politico reported that the [[Washington Headquarters Services]] declassification division approved three Navy videos "for unlimited distribution" within the government, and that Mellon, Elizondo and "others now in DeLonge's orbit" concluded that this was not enough and "needed to kick up a media firestorm."[^6] The Office of the Secretary of Defense file released to The Black Vault under the Freedom of Information Act in August 2019 contains an August 23, 2017 email in which Luis Elizondo asked Michael Russo of the Defense Office of Prepublication and Security Review to "consider our request for unrestricted release"; an August 24, 2017 reply from Russo that if the service-level classification authority verified that removing the metadata made the videos unclassified, "please feel free to move forward with release"; and a DD Form 1910 whose publication-data block reads "Not Applicable. Not for publication. Research and analysis ONLY and info sharing with other USG and industry partners for the purposes of developing a database to help identify, analyze and ultimately defeat UAS threats." Joseph Gradisher, a Navy spokesman, said in 2019 that neither the cognizant Navy offices nor the review office had a record of correspondence responding to a request for unrestricted release of the videos in 2017.[^7] Elizondo resigned from the [[Department of Defense]] effective October 4, 2017 per the Pentagon; his resignation letter to Defense Secretary James Mattis cited "bureaucratic challenges and inflexible mindsets" (Kloor, 2019), and *The Intercept* noted the letter does not mention AATIP or Elizondo's role as its director.[^2][^8] On October 4, 2017, at Mellon's request, Kean was called to a meeting in the bar of a hotel near the Pentagon, where Puthoff and Semivan introduced her to Elizondo, whose last day at the Pentagon had been the previous day, according to the account Kean gave [[Gideon Lewis-Kraus]] of *[[The New Yorker]]*. Over three hours she was taken through documents. Lewis-Kraus wrote that Kean "was told that she could have the videos, along with chain-of-custody documentation, if she could place a story in the Times."[^4] Kean later gave "all the credit to Elizondo and Mellon for coming forward."[^4] -After Elizondo left the Pentagon he and the other AATIP participants named above joined [[To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science]]. At the company's launch event in October 2017 DeLonge invited Elizondo onstage and Elizondo announced that the group was "planning to provide never-before-released footage from real [[U.S. government]] systems."[^4] +After Elizondo left the Pentagon he and the other AATIP participants named above joined [[To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science]]. At the company's launch event in October 2017 DeLonge invited Elizondo onstage and Elizondo announced that the group was "planning to provide never-before-released footage from real [[United States|U.S. government]] systems."[^4] Kean telephoned Blumenthal, an old friend and former Times staffer then at work on a biography of the [[Harvard University|Harvard]] psychiatrist [[John E. Mack]]. Blumenthal e-mailed executive editor [[Dean Baquet]] to say they wanted to pitch "a sensational and highly confidential time-sensitive story" in which a "senior U.S. intelligence official who abruptly quit last month" had decided to expose "a deeply secret program, long mythologized but now confirmed." After a meeting with representatives of the Times's Washington bureau, the paper agreed and assigned Cooper, its Pentagon correspondent.[^4] Bender wrote in 2021 that Mellon, "by then also a paid adviser to DeLonge's TTSA," acted as Elizondo's "unofficial public relations manager" and "started dangling the story to the New York Times, POLITICO and several other mainstream outlets," over several months; that reporters were shown the videos and unclassified documents on Bigelow's contracts; that the Times "was granted permission to broadcast the videos"; and that Politico "was shown the videos but not provided copies."[^6] diff --git a/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/INFORMATION_SYSTEMS_&_SOFTWARE/Palantir Gotham.md b/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/INFORMATION_SYSTEMS_&_SOFTWARE/Palantir Gotham.md index 9b870d59..1198348d 100644 --- a/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/INFORMATION_SYSTEMS_&_SOFTWARE/Palantir Gotham.md +++ b/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/INFORMATION_SYSTEMS_&_SOFTWARE/Palantir Gotham.md @@ -97,7 +97,7 @@ After the [[Government Accountability Office]] denied the protest of Palantir US On November 3, 2016, the court held that Palantir had not shown by clear and convincing evidence bias or bad faith by the Army, including over the 2012 report and over information papers that Colonel [[Charles Wells]] had sent to Congress on September 30 and October 18, 2011. It held that the Army had not satisfied [[10 U.S.C. § 2377|10 U.S.C. section 2377]], a requirement the court tied to investigating whether commercial items exist that can satisfy the government's needs in whole or in part before developing a product, and permanently enjoined an award under the December 23, 2015 solicitation as issued.[^2] The Army appealed. On September 7, 2018, the [[U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit]] affirmed in an opinion by Judge [[Kara Farnandez Stoll|Stoll]], writing: "To be clear, we are not suggesting that the Army must choose Palantir as the awardee." [[Theodore Olson]] of [[Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher|Gibson Dunn]] argued for Palantir, which was also represented by lawyers from Boies Schiller Flexner, including [[David Boies]].[^10] -The registration statement states that Palantir generated $51.9 million in revenue from its Army accounts from 2008 through September 2018, and $134.5 million from those accounts between October 2018 and June 2020, and describes the lawsuit as one that is "transforming the way the entire [[U.S. government]] buys software."[^1] USAspending lists Army order W56KGY19F0029 (March 25, 2019 to March 23, 2023, $23,956,939.20) with Palantir USG, issued by the Aberdeen office under indefinite delivery contract W56KGY18D0003 for a "commercial item that is a combined hardware and software" solution. Later Army orders carry the same W56KGY prefix as the 2015 solicitation number and are described as supporting "Army Capability Drop 2": W56KGY22F0029 ($36,658,071.03), W56KGY23F0029 ($34,534,395.88), W56KGY24F0045 ($35,203,406.82), W56KGY25F0111 ($14,883,564.02) and W56KGY26F0031 ($16,500,000).[^8] +The registration statement states that Palantir generated $51.9 million in revenue from its Army accounts from 2008 through September 2018, and $134.5 million from those accounts between October 2018 and June 2020, and describes the lawsuit as one that is "transforming the way the entire U.S. government buys software."[^1] USAspending lists Army order W56KGY19F0029 (March 25, 2019 to March 23, 2023, $23,956,939.20) with Palantir USG, issued by the Aberdeen office under indefinite delivery contract W56KGY18D0003 for a "commercial item that is a combined hardware and software" solution. Later Army orders carry the same W56KGY prefix as the 2015 solicitation number and are described as supporting "Army Capability Drop 2": W56KGY22F0029 ($36,658,071.03), W56KGY23F0029 ($34,534,395.88), W56KGY24F0045 ($35,203,406.82), W56KGY25F0111 ($14,883,564.02) and W56KGY26F0031 ($16,500,000).[^8] ### Special Operations Command and Navy Awards diff --git a/60 - PLACES/COUNTRIES/Panama.md b/60 - PLACES/COUNTRIES/Panama.md index 9e241def..92b110fb 100644 --- a/60 - PLACES/COUNTRIES/Panama.md +++ b/60 - PLACES/COUNTRIES/Panama.md @@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ Panama is a [[Central America|Central American]] nation that served as a major b ### Noriega Era -Manuel Noriega, Panama's military dictator, performed valuable work for the [[U.S. government|U.S.]] government in Central America during the 1980s, brokering deals with South American leaders, acting as liaison to Cuba's Fidel Castro, and providing intelligence on guerrilla and terrorist activities. The former CIA chief of operations in Panama testified on Noriega's behalf during a sentencing reduction hearing in 1998.[^2] +Manuel Noriega, Panama's military dictator, performed valuable work for the [[United States|U.S.]] government in Central America during the 1980s, brokering deals with South American leaders, acting as liaison to Cuba's Fidel Castro, and providing intelligence on guerrilla and terrorist activities. The former CIA chief of operations in Panama testified on Noriega's behalf during a sentencing reduction hearing in 1998.[^2] ### Contra Connections diff --git a/60 - PLACES/COUNTRIES/United States.md b/60 - PLACES/COUNTRIES/United States.md index 8bc4cba3..87e88ee8 100644 --- a/60 - PLACES/COUNTRIES/United States.md +++ b/60 - PLACES/COUNTRIES/United States.md @@ -1,33 +1,119 @@ ---- +--- aliases: - America + - United States of America + - USA + - U.S. Government + - U.S. government + - US government + - USG + - United States government + - federal government category: "Country" tags: - Geography - Country - - North_America - - Contra_War - - 1980s - - Dark_Alliance_Investigation -summary: The United States was the destination for Contra-connected cocaine trafficked by Norwin Meneses and Danilo Blandón, the site of the crack cocaine explosion in inner-city neighborhoods, and where the government simultaneously prosecuted the War on Drugs while protecting CIA-linked drug traffickers. + - NorthAmerica + - USGovernment + - ContraWar + - DarkAlliance + - CrackCocaine + - IranContra + - CIAInspectorGeneral +created: 2026-05-13 +updated: 2026-10-07 +summary: "The United States, whose government supported the Contra war in the 1980s while its inspectors general, a Senate subcommittee and the Iran-Contra counsel examined charges that Contra-linked traffickers supplied its cocaine market." +relations: + - type: investigated + with: "[[Senate Foreign Relations Committee]]" + reverse: true + start: 1985-12-01 + end: 1988-12-01 + role: "Senate subcommittee inquiry into Contra drug allegations, chaired by John Kerry" + fn: 18 --- -The United States was the destination for thousands of tons of [[Cocaine]] trafficked through CIA-connected networks during the Contra war, and the site of the [[Crack Cocaine|crack]] epidemic that devastated inner-city communities.[^1] +The United States is a federal republic in North America. Its government, acting through the [[Central Intelligence Agency]], the [[National Security Council]] and the [[State Department]], supported the [[Contras|Contra]] forces fighting the [[Sandinistas|Sandinista]] government of [[Nicaragua]] in the 1980s. The August 1996 [[San Jose Mercury News]] series [[Dark Alliance]], by [[Gary Webb]], reported that a drug ring in the San Francisco Bay area "sold tons of cocaine to the Crips and Bloods street gangs of Los Angeles and funneled millions in drug profits to a Latin American guerrilla army run by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency."[^1] Inspectors general of the CIA and the [[Department of Justice]], a Senate subcommittee and the independent counsel for the Iran-Contra affair each examined parts of the allegations. -### Contra Cocaine Pipeline +### The series and Webb's account -[[Norwin Meneses]] and [[Danilo Blandon|Danilo Blandón]] operated a cocaine distribution network that moved drugs from [[Colombia]] through [[Central America]] into the [[United States]]. Blandón was the first major trafficker to establish a direct connection between Colombian cocaine sources and [[South Central Los Angeles|South Central L.A.]] street gangs. [[Ricky Ross]] then distributed the cocaine nationwide through the [[Crips]] and Bloods networks.[^2] +Webb's 1998 book of the same name described a public campaign against crack dealers led by [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]] and [[George H.W. Bush]] alongside [[DEA]] and [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] investigations that, in his account, pursued street-level dealers while leaving Contra-connected traffickers alone. Webb also wrote that the CIA and the National Security Council facilitated cocaine trafficking by Contra-connected networks.[^2] -### Secret 1982 Agreement +In Webb's account, [[Celerino Castillo]], a DEA agent posted in [[Central America]], sent reports to headquarters about Contra pilots smuggling drugs, and Webb placed the fate of those reports in a "bureaucratic black hole."[^3] The Justice Department inspector general, [[Michael Bromwich]], wrote that "The government was not anxious to have DEA agent Castillo openly probe the activities at Ilopango airport because of the sensitive operations there."[^4] Castillo's 1994 account, *[[Powderburns: Cocaine, Contras & the Drug War|Powderburns]]*, places a conversation with the CIA chief of station in [[San Salvador]] on August 15, 1986, and states that three days later the chief of station gave him $45,000 in cash for an anti-narcotics group. CIA records show a $45,000 expenditure for three vehicles for the Salvadoran government accounted on August 18, 1986. An officer who recalls meeting Castillo in Guatemala denies that he "ever asked Castillo to back away from any narcotics investigation."[^5] -From 1982 to 1995, the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] and the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]] operated under a secret agreement that exempted CIA assets from drug crimes reporting requirements. During this period, the government could assert there was "no evidence" of CIA-connected drug trafficking because no one was legally required to report it. CIA Inspector General [[Fred Hitz]] testified before Congress 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.[^3] +### The distribution network in Webb's account -### Law Enforcement +In Webb's account, [[Norwin Meneses]] and Blandon operated a cocaine distribution network that moved drugs from [[Colombia]] through Central America into the United States, Blandon was the first major trafficker to establish a direct connection between Colombian cocaine sources and the street gangs of [[South Central Los Angeles|South Central Los Angeles]], and Ross distributed the cocaine nationwide through the [[Crips]] and Bloods.[^6] Webb also wrote that the DEA, the FBI and [[U.S. Customs]] held extensive intelligence about Contra-connected trafficking but were prevented from acting on it, that investigations were shut down, evidence destroyed, and informants discredited or imprisoned.[^7] -Federal agencies including the [[DEA]], [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]], and [[U.S. Customs]] possessed extensive intelligence about Contra-connected drug trafficking but were prevented from acting on it. Multiple investigations were shut down, evidence was destroyed, and informants were discredited or imprisoned.[^4] +### The California investigation (CIA Inspector General, Volume I) + +The CIA Inspector General, [[Fred Hitz]], issued Volume I of his report, "The California Story," on January 29, 1998. It reported that no information had been found indicating that any past or present CIA employee, or anyone acting on behalf of CIA, "had any direct or indirect dealing with" [[Ricky Ross]], [[Danilo Blandon]] or Norwin Meneses; that Ross provided no money to any Contra group; and that the drug trafficking of Blandon and Meneses was not shown to have been motivated by a commitment to the Contra cause.[^8] + +CIA files contained other material. An October 30, 1986 cable from a CIA station reported that three individuals "claiming [CIA] affiliation" had been arrested in Los Angeles County on narcotics charges and asked headquarters for traces. Headquarters replied the next day that it had no traces on Ronald Lister or Blandon, and cited station reports of December 5, 1984 and March 25, 1985 describing Meneses as "the Nicaraguan Mafia" and as a kingpin of narcotics traffickers in Nicaragua before the fall of [[Anastasio Somoza]]. Further cables on Meneses between 1983 and 1995 recorded allegations of cocaine shipments to him in Miami and, in 1991, his arrest in Nicaragua.[^9] The report states that Blandon and Meneses each claimed to have donated between $3,000 and $40,000 to Contra sympathizers in Los Angeles, that no information had been found to substantiate the claims, and that Blandon had a personal relationship with [[Eden Pastora]] and gave him rent-free housing and two vehicles, mostly after Pastora left the Contra movement.[^8] + +For the northern California "Frogman" case, Volume I reported that CIA contacted prosecutors in the prosecution of [[Julio Zavala]] to protect what the agency believed was an operational equity, a Contra support group, and that a CIA cable indicates about $36,000 seized from Zavala was returned at CIA's request. The prosecutors told the inspector general that the decision to return the money rested on other considerations. The report states that the actions did not appear intended to influence the outcome of the trial, which ended in Zavala's conviction.[^8] + +### The Contra program and drug allegations (CIA Inspector General, Volume II) + +Director of Central Intelligence [[John Deutch]] asked the CIA Inspector General on September 3, 1996 to investigate the allegations. Volume II, "The Contra Story," was issued in classified form on April 27, 1998, and in unclassified form on October 8, 1998.[^10] On March 16, 1998 Hitz told the [[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence]] that the review had found "no evidence in the course of this lengthy investigation of any conspiracy by CIA or its employees to bring drugs into the United States." In the same statement he described "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."[^11] He had told the [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]] in open session on October 23, 1996 that his inquiry was under way.[^11] + +Volume II found that "No information has been found to indicate that CIA as an organization or its employees conspired with, or assisted, Contra-related organizations or individuals in drug trafficking to raise funds for the Contras or for any other purpose."[^12] The same volume recorded that CIA received information that one Contra-related organization, the ADREN "15th of September" group, engaged in drug trafficking for fund raising; that in 1984 it received allegations that five individuals associated with the Democratic Revolutionary Alliance (ARDE) were in a trafficking conspiracy with the known trafficker [[Jorge Morales]]; and that CIA broke off contact with ARDE in October 1984 but "continued to have contact through 1986-87 with four of the individuals involved with Morales." It also received allegations or information concerning 16 other individuals who supported Southern Front operations, nine Contra-related individuals in the Northern Front based in Honduras, five other individuals used to support the Contra program, 14 pilots and two other individuals associated with companies that supported the program, and three such companies used from 1984 until at least 1988.[^12] + +Volume II concluded that "CIA acted inconsistently in handling allegations or information indicating that Contra-related organizations and individuals were involved in drug trafficking," listing cases in which CIA pursued confirmation, cases in which knowledge of the allegations "did not deter their use by CIA," cases in which CIA "did not act to verify" the allegations although it had the opportunity, and cases in which it judged the allegation unsubstantiated or not credible. It found that "several pilots and one mechanic continued to be associated with their companies in support of the Contra program" despite law enforcement information indicating a possible trafficking connection, and that CIA "did not inform [[United States Congress|Congress]] of all allegations or information it received."[^13] During the period in which the fiscal 1987 [[Department of Defense]] appropriations act barred aid to any Contra group that retained an individual "who has been found to engage in drug smuggling," CIA held allegations about ten Contras and no information was found that CIA informed Congress of eight of them. Hitz found no information that any law enforcement agency or other executive branch entity had been told of allegations concerning eleven Contra-related individuals and assets.[^13] CIA reported the association of Southern Front Contra members with Morales to the Justice Department in 1984 and made a 1988 referral about another Contra official.[^13] + +### The reporting arrangement + +Attorney General guidelines in force from August 15, 1979 to March 2, 1982 required CIA to report possible violations of "any" federal law by persons "employed by, assigned to, or acting for" the agency, a definition that included assets, agents and independent contractors. Reports on non-employees were limited to a fixed list of offenses that did not include narcotics.[^14] + +The memorandum of understanding that replaced them was signed by Attorney General [[William French Smith]]. On February 11, 1982 he wrote to CIA director [[William Casey]] that "no formal requirement regarding the reporting of narcotics violations has been included in these procedures." Casey signed the memorandum on March 2, 1982.[^14] Under it, agents, assets and independent contractors were moved into the non-employee category, and the non-employee list still excluded narcotics violations. The memorandum gave CIA discretion to report any offense by a non-employee.[^14] A February 8, 1985 internal Justice Department memorandum stated that CIA had no requirement to report non-employee narcotics violations and suggested that the memorandum be renegotiated.[^14] + +Webb wrote that the arrangement allowed the government to say there was no evidence of CIA-connected trafficking because no one was legally required to report it.[^2] The arrangement ran from March 2, 1982 to August 3, 1995, when it was revised and narcotics violations were added to the non-employee list.[^14] Hitz found that "No information has been found to indicate that the non-inclusion of narcotics violations by assets in the crimes reporting requirements of the 1982 DoJ-CIA MOU was intended to protect Contra activities."[^14] Hitz also found that no Agency-wide regulation explained CIA employees' crime-reporting duties under the memorandum until December 23, 1987, and that the 1982 memorandum did not require CIA to report narcotics violations by assets or independent contractors associated with the Contras.[^13][^14] The memorandum text appears as Exhibit 1 of the 1998 Hitz report.[^14] + +### The Gates memorandum + +On April 9, 1987, [[Robert Gates]], then acting director of central intelligence, sent a memorandum to [[Clair George]], the deputy director for operations, stating that it was "imperative" that the CIA avoid involvement with individuals tied to the Contra program who were "even suspected of involvement in narcotics trafficking."[^15] Hitz described the memorandum as instructing the operations directorate to vet contract air crews, air services companies and subcontractors with the DEA, U.S. Customs and the FBI.[^15] Hitz found that the memorandum "was not issued in any form that would advise Agency employees generally of this policy."[^15] + +### The Justice Department review + +In December 1997 Justice Department inspector general Bromwich completed a 407-page review of the investigations and prosecutions of Blandon, Meneses and Ross.[^16] Bromwich described the series as implying that "the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was aware of these activities and either attempted to protect the drug dealing of these Contra supporters or turned a blind eye to their activities."[^17] His conclusion was that "the allegations in the articles were exaggerations of the actual facts," and that the outcomes reflected ordinary investigative factors rather than "a systematic effort by the CIA to protect the drug trafficking activities of the Contras."[^4] Bromwich also found "no evidence that Blandon and Meneses were protected by any intelligence agency." He recorded that "The CIA did intervene in the Zavala case concerning the return of seized money to him" and that "Blandon did receive a green card improperly."[^4][^17] + +Blandon, arrested in May 1992, began cooperating with the government, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 48 months; in September 1994 prosecutors moved for a further reduction and he was resentenced to "time served," 28 months. Ross received a sentence of life without parole in 1996 in a case developed by Blandon acting on behalf of the DEA. Bromwich wrote that the OIG "did not find that he had any ties to the CIA" and that the reductions rested on his cooperation.[^16] + +The attorney general invoked Section 8E of the [[Inspector General Act]] on January 23, 1998, citing law enforcement concerns, and blocked publication until July 1998, when the report was released with no changes.[^16] + +### Congress and the Iran-Contra record + +The [[Senate Foreign Relations Committee|Senate Foreign Relations]] subcommittee on [[Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations|Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations]], chaired by [[John Kerry]], reported in December 1988, printed in 1989, that it had "uncovered considerable evidence relating to the Contra network which substantiated many of the initial allegations." The report states: "it is clear that individuals who provided support for the Contras were involved in drug trafficking, the supply network of the Contras was used by drug trafficking organizations, and elements of the Contras themselves knowingly received financial and material assistance from drug traffickers. In each case, one or another agency of the U.S. government had information regarding the involvement either while it was occurring, or immediately thereafter."[^18] + +The report lists among its findings "Payments to drug traffickers by the U.S. State Department of funds authorized by the Congress for humanitarian assistance to the Contras, in some cases after the traffickers had been indicted by federal law enforcement agencies on drug charges, in others while traffickers were under active investigation by these same agencies."[^18] It names four companies selected by the State Department's [[NHAO]] (the Nicaraguan Humanitarian Assistance Organization) to supply humanitarian assistance: [[SETCO]], established by Honduran trafficker [[Juan Matta Ballesteros]]; [[DIACSA]], a Miami air company run as the headquarters of an enterprise of convicted traffickers [[Floyd Carlton]] and Alfredo Caballero; [[Frigorificos de Puntarenas]], owned and operated by Cuban-American traffickers; and Vortex, an air service company partly owned by admitted trafficker [[Michael Palmer]]. Payments between January and August 1986 totaled $806,401.20: $185,924.25 to SETCO, $41,120.90 to DIACSA, $261,932.00 to Frigorificos de Puntarenas and $317,425.17 to Vortex. The report states that federal law enforcement had received information that the individuals controlling each company were involved in narcotics before the State Department contracted with it, and that neither the General Accounting Office nor NHAO could say whether the required screening of contractors had been done. NHAO's director, Ambassador Robert Duemling, could not recall how the companies were selected.[^19] + +In April 1986 the State Department told Congress that it had "evidence of a limited number of incidents in which known drug traffickers tried to establish connections with Nicaraguan resistance groups." In July 1986 it wrote that "the available evidence points to involvement with drug traffickers by a limited number of persons."[^20] The chief of the [[Central American Task Force]] at the CIA told the [[Iran-Contra affair|Iran-Contra]] committees in a deposition about Pastora: "We knew that everybody around Pastora was involved in cocaine."[^20] At a May 6, 1986 meeting with committee staff, CIA representatives "categorically denied that the [[Neutrality Act]] violations raised by the Committee staff had in fact taken place." Justice Department officials at the same meeting said the public statements by the department were "inaccurate." The report states that at that time the FBI had already assembled substantial information confirming the allegations.[^20] + +The final report of the independent counsel, [[Lawrence Walsh]], described the Posey-Corvo case, which the [[U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida|U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami]] investigated, as one that "involved allegations of contra-related gun-running, drug trafficking and Neutrality Act violations." Jesus Garcia, convicted in December 1985 of illegal possession of a machine gun, claimed that a pro-contra mercenary group led by [[Thomas Posey]] had plotted to assassinate the U.S. ambassador to Costa Rica to collect a bounty from a drug kingpin; other sources told federal investigators that [[Oliver North]], [[Robert Owen]] and John Hull were involved in gun-running. Assistant U.S. Attorney David Leiwant said that during an April 4, 1986 briefing an unknown official telephoned from Washington and told Kellner of the Miami office to go slow, which no one else at the meeting corroborated; Walsh determined that the evidence did not support an obstruction charge. Walsh found no direct evidence that [[Edwin Meese III]] obstructed either of the two investigations he examined, although Meese openly admitted seeking a delay in one, the investigations of [[Southern Air Transport]] after the [[Eugene Hasenfus]] shootdown, to avoid exposure of the [[Iran]] hostage-recovery efforts.[^21] + +Walsh wrote that the CIA came to regard Pastora as a security and public relations risk as "evidence mounted that Sandinista spies and drug smugglers had penetrated Pastora's inner circle."[^22] North's note of a July 12, 1985 meeting with a logistics chief of the [[FDN]], which also refers to to discussions with a CIA officer Walsh calls "Subject #1" about the "Supermarket," includes the line "$14M to finance came from drugs."[^23] ### Footnotes -[^1]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Prologue: "It was like they didn't want to know" -[^2]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 10: "Teach a man a craft and he's liable to practice it" -[^3]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Epilogue: "The damage that has been done" -[^4]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 9: "He would have had me by the tail" +[^1]: CIA Inspector General, *Allegations of Connections Between CIA and the Contras in Cocaine Trafficking to the United States*, Volume I, "The California Story," January 29, 1998, "Introduction" (quoting the first article of the series, August 18, 1996). https://fas.org/irp/cia/product/cocaine/intro.html +[^2]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Prologue. Sole source for the passages so cited. +[^3]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 13, "The wrong kind of friends." Sole source for the passages so cited. +[^4]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, *The CIA-Contra-Crack Cocaine Controversy: A Review of the Justice Department's Investigations and Prosecutions*, December 17, 1997, Chapter XII, "Conclusions." https://irp.fas.org/agency/doj/oig/c4rpt/ch12.htm +[^5]: CIA Inspector General, *Allegations of Connections Between CIA and the Contras in Cocaine Trafficking to the United States*, Volume II, Castillo section, numbered paragraphs 1029 to 1031, 1047 and 1063, drawing on Celerino Castillo, *Powderburns: Cocaine, Contras & the Drug War* (1994). https://archive.org/details/nps56-111612-04 +[^6]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998, chapter 10, "Teach a man a craft and he's liable to practice it." Sole source for the passages so cited. +[^7]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998, chapter 9, "He would have had me by the tail." Sole source for the passages so cited. +[^8]: CIA Inspector General, *Allegations of Connections Between CIA and the Contras in Cocaine Trafficking to the United States*, Volume I, "The California Story," January 29, 1998, "Summary" and "Findings." https://fas.org/irp/cia/product/cocaine/summary.html and https://fas.org/irp/cia/product/cocaine/findings1.html and https://fas.org/irp/cia/product/cocaine/findings2.html +[^9]: CIA Inspector General, Volume I, "Findings," section "Did CIA have any relationship or dealings with Ross, Blandon or Meneses?" (CIA cables of October 30 and 31, December 11 and 17, 1986, and the Meneses cables of 1983 to 1995). https://fas.org/irp/cia/product/cocaine/findings1.html +[^10]: CIA Inspector General, *Allegations of Connections Between CIA and the Contras in Cocaine Trafficking to the United States*, Volume II, "Introduction," paragraphs 1, 3 and 5, and CIA press release of October 8, 1998. https://permanent.access.gpo.gov/websites/www.cia.gov/www.cia.gov/cia/reports/cocaine/intro.html and https://irp.fas.org/cia/news/pr100898.html +[^11]: Hitz, Frederick P. Statement before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, March 16, 1998. https://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/library/congress/1998_hr/980316-ps.htm +[^12]: CIA Inspector General, *Allegations of Connections Between CIA and the Contras in Cocaine Trafficking to the United States*, Volume II, "Executive Summary and Conclusions," findings 12 to 19. https://permanent.access.gpo.gov/websites/www.cia.gov/www.cia.gov/cia/reports/cocaine/intro.html +[^13]: CIA Inspector General, Volume II, "Executive Summary and Conclusions," findings 33, 35 to 40. https://permanent.access.gpo.gov/websites/www.cia.gov/www.cia.gov/cia/reports/cocaine/intro.html +[^14]: CIA Inspector General, Volume II, "Executive Summary and Conclusions," findings 23 to 27 and 34, and "Findings," including Exhibits 1 and 2. https://permanent.access.gpo.gov/websites/www.cia.gov/www.cia.gov/cia/reports/cocaine/intro.html and https://permanent.access.gpo.gov/websites/www.cia.gov/www.cia.gov/cia/reports/cocaine/findings.html +[^15]: CIA Inspector General, Volume II, "Executive Summary and Conclusions," findings 30 and 31. https://permanent.access.gpo.gov/websites/www.cia.gov/www.cia.gov/cia/reports/cocaine/intro.html +[^16]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, *The CIA-Contra-Crack Cocaine Controversy*, Epilogue, July 22, 1998. https://oig.justice.gov/sites/default/files/archive/special/9712/epilogue.htm +[^17]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, *The CIA-Contra-Crack Cocaine Controversy*, Executive Summary, Part I, "Introduction," and Part II, "Oscar Danilo Blandon." https://irp.fas.org/agency/doj/oig/c4rpt/exsump1.htm +[^18]: Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, *Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy*, S. Prt. 100-165, December 1988, pages 36 and 37. https://ia800505.us.archive.org/4/items/KerryCommitteeReport/Kerry%20Committee%20Report.pdf +[^19]: *Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy*, S. Prt. 100-165, pages 43 to 45, "U.S. Government Funds and Companies with Drug Connections." https://ia800505.us.archive.org/4/items/KerryCommitteeReport/Kerry%20Committee%20Report.pdf +[^20]: *Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy*, S. Prt. 100-165, pages 37 to 39 ("The Executive Branch Response to Contra/Drug Charges"). https://ia800505.us.archive.org/4/items/KerryCommitteeReport/Kerry%20Committee%20Report.pdf +[^21]: Walsh, Lawrence E. *Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters*, vol. I, Chapter 31, "Edwin Meese III: November 1986," sections "Posey-Corvo Investigation" and "Role in Delaying FBI and Customs Investigations Into Southern Air Transport," pages 550 to 551 per the index. https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_31.htm +[^22]: Walsh, Lawrence E. *Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters*, vol. I, Chapter 19, pages 270 to 274. https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_19.htm +[^23]: Walsh, Lawrence E. *Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters*, vol. I, Chapter 21, "CIA Subject #1," pages 295 to 308, quoting North Note, 7/12/85, AMX 001225. https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_21.htm diff --git a/80 - SOURCES/Wilson-Davis Memo.md b/80 - SOURCES/Wilson-Davis Memo.md index 03ea0bb0..ca62bcf7 100644 --- a/80 - SOURCES/Wilson-Davis Memo.md +++ b/80 - SOURCES/Wilson-Davis Memo.md @@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ relations: updated: 2026-10-03 --- -The [[Wilson-Davis Memo]], also known as the "Wilson/Davis document," is a 13-page document that purports to be a summary of a 2002 conversation between astrophysicist [[Eric Davis]] and Vice Admiral [[Thomas R. Wilson]], who was then the Director of the [[Defense Intelligence Agency]] (DIA). The memo details Admiral Wilson's alleged discovery of and subsequent denial of access to a deeply hidden [[U.S. government]] program that was reverse-engineering technology recovered from crashed [[Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena]] (UAP).[^1] +The [[Wilson-Davis Memo]], also known as the "Wilson/Davis document," is a 13-page document that purports to be a summary of a 2002 conversation between astrophysicist [[Eric Davis]] and Vice Admiral [[Thomas R. Wilson]], who was then the Director of the [[Defense Intelligence Agency]] (DIA). The memo details Admiral Wilson's alleged discovery of and subsequent denial of access to a deeply hidden [[United States|U.S. government]] program that was reverse-engineering technology recovered from crashed [[Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena]] (UAP).[^1] ### The Memo's Content @@ -65,9 +65,9 @@ The [[Department of Defense]]'s [[All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office]] wrote i ### Elizondo's account -[[Luis Elizondo]] wrote in 2024 that he met [[Eric Davis]], "an astrophysicist with high-level national security clearances" who "worked with Hal as a contractor for the program," "much later" than his first meetings with [[Hal Puthoff]] at the [[Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program]], that he was told Davis "even provided the Presidential Daily Briefing," and that Davis "has become best known in UAP circles as the alleged author of the legendary Wilson/Davis memo."[^9] Elizondo's version of its origin is that "in the late 1990s" Davis "met and chatted up" Vice Admiral [[Thomas R. Wilson]], whom he describes as Director of Intelligence (J2) for the [[Joint Staff]], and wrote "a thirteen-page summary" of the talk, which he "confidentially shared" with a small group; that Puthoff and Davis gave a copy to the astronaut [[Edgar Mitchell]]; and that after Mitchell's death "his safe was opened and the memo was found and circulated publicly by his estate."[^9] A footnote in the book lists Wilson's other posts as Associate Director of Central Intelligence for Military Support, Vice Director of Intelligence for the Joint Staff and Director of Intelligence for [[United States Atlantic Command]], and states that he later became the thirteenth Director of the [[Defense Intelligence Agency]].[^9] The leaked document is headed "EWD NOTES 10/16/02" and runs to fifteen pages (see above and below); Elizondo gives the length as thirteen pages and the period as the late 1990s. +Luis Elizondo wrote in 2024 that he met Eric Davis, "an astrophysicist with high-level national security clearances" who "worked with Hal as a contractor for the program," "much later" than his first meetings with Hal Puthoff at the [[Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program]], that he was told Davis "even provided the Presidential Daily Briefing," and that Davis "has become best known in UAP circles as the alleged author of the legendary Wilson/Davis memo."[^9] Elizondo's version of its origin is that "in the late 1990s" Davis "met and chatted up" Vice Admiral Thomas R. Wilson, whom he describes as Director of Intelligence (J2) for the Joint Staff, and wrote "a thirteen-page summary" of the talk, which he "confidentially shared" with a small group; that Puthoff and Davis gave a copy to the astronaut [[Edgar Mitchell]]; and that after Mitchell's death "his safe was opened and the memo was found and circulated publicly by his estate."[^9] A footnote in the book lists Wilson's other posts as Associate Director of Central Intelligence for Military Support, Vice Director of Intelligence for the Joint Staff and Director of Intelligence for [[United States Atlantic Command]], and states that he later became the thirteenth Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.[^9] The leaked document is headed "EWD NOTES 10/16/02" and runs to fifteen pages (see above and below); Elizondo gives the length as thirteen pages and the period as the late 1990s. -Elizondo wrote that Wilson, "curious about certain black program line items in the budgets that crossed his desk," obtained a meeting with "representatives of a certain aerospace corporation" and "their attorney," learned that the contractor belonged to a program for "retrieving and reverse-engineering crashed advanced vehicles of unknown origin," and was told by the attorney that continued questions "could get him fired and cause him to lose his pension"; that the admiral "backed down," confided the encounter to Davis and "never spoke of it again, even after the memo leaked."[^9] He wrote that he learned the larger program "is referred to as the Legacy Program," involving "various elements of the US government and US defense contractors," and described the memo as "terrifying on many levels" because, in his words, materials held by contractors "become private property" after the officials who knew of them retire or die.[^9] Wilson's own statements to the reporter [[Billy Cox]] in 2008 ("Never") and in 2020 ("It's all fiction") are quoted above. +Elizondo wrote that Wilson, "curious about certain black program line items in the budgets that crossed his desk," obtained a meeting with "representatives of a certain aerospace corporation" and "their attorney," learned that the contractor belonged to a program for "retrieving and reverse-engineering crashed advanced vehicles of unknown origin," and was told by the attorney that continued questions "could get him fired and cause him to lose his pension"; that the admiral "backed down," confided the encounter to Davis and "never spoke of it again, even after the memo leaked."[^9] He wrote that he learned the larger program "is referred to as the Legacy Program," involving "various elements of the US government and US defense contractors," and described the memo as "terrifying on many levels" because, in his words, materials held by contractors "become private property" after the officials who knew of them retire or die.[^9] Wilson's own statements to the reporter Billy Cox in 2008 ("Never") and in 2020 ("It's all fiction") are quoted above. Elizondo wrote that Davis afterward briefed Department of Defense agencies and staff members of the [[Senate Armed Services Committee]] and the [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]], and attended "several senior-level meetings, to which I was invited, with various branches of the US military," at which Davis "detailed the Legacy Program's long-running efforts involving UAP"; he wrote that Davis told a [[New York Times]] reporter in 2020 that the government possessed "off-world vehicles not made on this earth."[^9] He wrote that the memo "would finally gain more attention from the media and the public" in the spring of 2022 when it "was submitted into the Congressional Record" during public hearings, and, in a later chapter, that at the hearing of May 2022, which he says lasted ninety minutes, "Congressman Mike Gallagher introduced the Wilson/Davis memo, mentioned earlier, into the Congressional Record on national television."[^9][^11] The book's appendix of web references lists the memo at a congress.gov file, https://www.congress.gov/117/meeting/house/114761/documents/HHRG-117-IG05-20220517-SD001.pdf.[^12]