tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88768489711196251622024-03-19T06:55:47.336-04:00The Refreshment CenterTRC offers analysis on the impacts of a ponzi-scheme, disaster capitalist paradigm. Mass awakening or mutually assured destruction? Refreshments served in the spirit of mass awakening w/sides of humor. All opinions are my own. Keep what resonates, kindly leave the rest.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger275125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8876848971119625162.post-62805454711611697262022-09-05T16:42:00.000-04:002022-09-05T16:42:21.033-04:00PSA: Armed With The Truth<div>
<center style="text-align: left;">submitted for your consideration...</center><center><br /></center><center><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="400" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/d88ucVxTeWM" title="YouTube video player" width="600"></iframe> </center><center> </center><center><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: center; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">We live in the world that your propaganda made,</span></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: center; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">but where you think you are strong you are weak.</span></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: center; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">Your lies tell us the truth we will use against you.</span></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: center; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">Your secrecy shows us where we will strike.</span></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: center; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">Your weapons reveal your fear for all to see.</span></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: center; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">From <span style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;"><a style="animation-name: none !important; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;" tabindex="-1"></a></span>Cairo to Quito a new world is forming,</span></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: center; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">The power of people armed with the truth.</span></div></center><center><br /></center><center><b style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b>#TICKTOCK</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div></b></center><center><b>*******</b></center><center><br /></center></div>
<b><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Future proves past. || We're remembering.</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b style="text-align: left;"><b> </b> </b></div></b>
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<i> </i> <i> Any amount is generous. Receipt will read The Road Home, Inc. Thank you!</i></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8876848971119625162.post-43978782730223330832018-09-11T14:28:00.008-04:002021-07-19T11:48:52.397-04:00We've Come A Mighty Long Way: An Open Letter To Julian Assange<center>
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To a fellow truth seeker and soul friend,<br />
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You've been on my mind a lot the last few months. Not long after your communications were cut off at the Embassy in London, you appeared in a dream that still lingers in my consciousness. There are only certain people in my life that I choose to discuss or analyze dreams with, but this dream -- like so many waking ones -- have whittled certain people out of my life.<br />
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That's alright. The few I can name are the best I could hope to call friends in this lifetime. I've come to appreciate quality over quantity.<br />
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I tell people that I am a recovering media analyst in the bearing witness protection program. I admit to myself that I've fallen off that wagon -- if I was ever on it. I've become increasingly reflective about this lately because I know you did not have a choice in the matter. People can choose to be silent for many reasons, but even the silent would not choose to lose their voice.<br />
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Those who cannot speak, the most vulnerable -- need us to speak now more than ever.</div>
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I think you'd agree that the ability to make our own choices is the very nature of freedom. To choose a path, a belief, a career -- even a book, or a newspaper -- the smallest choices we make in a moment may not be seen as good or bad until consequences, if any, arrive. I understand fully the consequences of your choices and I thank you for making the right ones in spite of them.</div>
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Choices I have made are much different, somewhat parallel but nonetheless isolating. It can be challenging to find our courage in an ocean of conformity. I've always respected your journalistic integrity, tenacity, and commitment to exposing the truth. I especially admire your uncompromising stance on protection of sources. I'm frankly appalled at treatment by others claiming to be anywhere near the same arena, who've never raised the bar as high and are now content to lower it.<br />
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I've learned this is a thankless position and audiences can be fickle...as mounting partisan evidence suggests. But there is something greater in taking a principled stance that keeps us going. A purpose or calling to something larger than ourselves.<br />
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Maybe it is because of my mercurial Gemini nature, but I've always been a sponge for information. I soaked up a lot in the last eight years and a lot of it was entirely too heavy to bear. Researching the BP oil disaster led me to the work of my late mentor and friend, Michael C. Ruppert, whose work continues to be prescient on many levels. I still find things he wrote that amaze me as I work on updating his source archives for posterity.</div>
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Mike's personal insights taught me more valuable lessons about denial and certain hard truths. The hardest one for me was learning the people I considered close, didn't much care about truth, like the way some people just don't care for music. As if truth and art were poor choices on a fast-food menu. I can't decide if it is ennui or nihilism but I find it tragic for any person, let alone a country that claims to be a vibrant, functioning democracy to have this attitude about the world.</div>
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Yet Mike knew as well as you and I do that this isn't solely the fault of the people. Yes, there is personal responsibility to be taken in a democratic society but propaganda media is to blame for much of the mess inherited. During Occupy, we dared to speak against it. We dared to share alternative views. You dared greater still, knowing the risks. Mike did, too. Like the time he confronted CIA Director John Deutch about the CIA and LAPD running drugs in south central LA.<br />
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That was epic. But I don't think people realize how great the risks have been for many others before now. I do feel a shift happening and I believe it is because of your good work. It is both powerful and palpable.</div>
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I didn't realize how far this country could fall after 9/11, even after Hunter S. Thompson's interview a month after the attacks. Listening to it now is eerily foreboding. Perhaps that was my own failure of imagination...a step too close to a deep rabbit hole. We were all afraid after that day, and for years after we couldn't really name what we feared. I recognized the decay slowly happening over time; how civics began to be less important to people compared to identity, or compared to success at all costs; compared to consumption and comfort at all costs. Hello debt slavery. Never mind those rights.</div>
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Making people uncomfortable has become more dangerous, too, as if words had become sticks and stones. We desperately need another wave of punk rock to shake up the consumer culture. The Buddha warned about making comfort a permanent guest. As a consequence, the truth will shock many right out of their easy chairs...not unlike the way Mike's work shoved me down a rabbit hole I'd avoided. The Buddha also said that what we resist, persists. The truth is certainly persistent.<br />
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I was reading Mike's book when I first learned of Wikileaks. Recognizing how important its work would be from the start, my then roommate and I downloaded as much of Chelsea's leaked material on Iraq as we could. We burned it to discs. We gave them away. We even hid them in random books in our local library. There was no turning away after those revelations. I could hardly wait to see future publications.<br />
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"Thank you" seems utterly anemic. Brother, it's been a hell of a ride. It certainly shows no signs stopping, so I do hope everyone is buckled up for the next go-round.</div>
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In a sea of ingrates, I am grateful. I am sorry you are experiencing such discomfort. It seems to be an unintended consequence for those who seek and share hard truths. It's an unmasking of not just what we call 'shadow government' but forces us to also acknowledge our own shadow. This is a very painful thing for people whose comfortable bubbles burst. It's been all too easy for the western mind to fall prey to plastic gurus, quick-fix pharma, techno-narcissism and navel-gazing. In all our self-searching, people have forgotten a basic lesson: the ability to imagine walking in another person's shoes. The horrible things happening in this world could be viewed as a collective failure of imagination. Without that we become distracted from real compassion, empathy, and faith in humankind to do the right thing in the midst of so much suffering. Even when many <i>are</i> doing the right thing, collective failure of imagination causes people to turn away, causing more harm.<br />
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I've just described the wheel of Samsara. [Or <a href="http://realitysandwich.com/138610/americosmos_mandala_unenlightened_states_affliction/" target="_blank">Uncle Samsara</a>, as the case may be.]<br />
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In the spirit of imagination, I'd like to tell you about my dream. It was Carl Jung who spent much of his life studying the importance of the psyche's unconscious messages. They can be incredibly revealing, especially during times of great upheaval. I'd say this moment certainly qualifies.</div>
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It began with me climbing the side of a building in a dark alleyway. I didn't know what city I was in, only that it was dark, damp and unforgiving. A light from a window above shone brightly out of the darkness and I was climbing up a lattice on the wall to get to it. It felt imperative to get there.</div>
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It seemed to take forever to reach top of the ledge where a small patio appeared. The large window just above the railing had white curtains, barely containing the light shining inside. Without a thought for decorum, I grabbed hold of the window's edge and slid it open. One of the curtains caught on a breeze, spilling it into the room like a loose sail. I climbed into the room.</div>
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There were people sitting in chairs to my right but my eyes were still adjusting to the brightness. My gaze was drawn first to the open door of an adjacent room. The interior was dark. I could not see who was there but I could hear them. Faceless people nervously whispering to one another in the shadows, both in mocking and lamenting tones about the room full of light. I turned back to see who was in the bright room. It dawned on me that I hadn't been stopped for entering through the window.</div>
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As my eyes adjusted, I saw there were people of many colors, from many places. All were smiling, shaking hands and talking jovially as if waiting for some event to begin. The room's interior was filled from light that came from above but it was too bright to look into directly. It filled the room with a healthy, natural glow of a sunrise or sunset. The cheerful people looked familiar but also nebulous; the way some faces in a dream tend to change fluidly. There were teachers, scientists, politicians and others were faith leaders. I saw a woman wearing striking colors, who I thought was Vandana Shiva. I approached with hopes of speaking with her.<br />
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She couldn't see me. I realized that I could see everyone in this room but no one in this room could see me. I was a mere observer and not a participant.<br />
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Slightly defeated, I was unsure where to go or what to do next. Feeling as one might when standing at a crossroads, I turned to look at the shadowy room full of judgmental whispers and back again toward the open window into the unforgiving dark. That's when I saw you.<br />
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A man with silver hair seated in a chair next to the billowing curtains was watching the entire scene. I recognized your bearded face when you turned my way. You could see me. With a warm smile, you gestured to an empty seat next to you and winked knowingly. </div>
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That's when I woke up.</div>
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Perhaps this dream was an invitation to sit quietly and observe. I don't know. I do know that I can no longer trust most of what I used to call journalism. I'm not alone in that. Those who trust their gut understand that this country has to wake up soon. I sincerely hope your sacrifice in exposing hard truths will bring about that much needed awakening of imagination. It will not be as pretty as the room in my dream, but it is past time to throw open the windows and shed light into dark places.<br />
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The dream also reminded me that in the darkest times, we must often supply our own light.<br />
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Thank you, my friend, for showing this country that we have choices other than the false ones we've been handed: 'it's the cards you're dealt' or 'that's just how things are'. I've never believed any of that nonsense. It leaves out unexplored possibilities. The kinds of possibilities that the powerful and corrupt would never allow. I've always held dear the words Mike used in his book, "Miracles can happen without our permission." I imagine miracles are human beings...who believe in possibilities.<br />
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I pray the right choices are made for your healthy, safe return to beloveds and the place you call home. Every day I try to raise awareness in hope that others are moved to demand nothing less than your safe passage to freedom.</div>
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Hunter Thompson said, "Freedom is something that dies unless it is used." You've sacrificed much to remind us that we ultimately have a choice and a stake in this pivotal moment of our shared history. Freedom of speech is not something I view as a choice, but rather a keystone to human rights. There is a reason it is the <i>First</i> Amendment. Take away the keystone and how does one define a demand? What is a petition? A plea? A redress of grievance? We must all use our free speech or lose it to the dark, whispering cowards that mock and fear collective enlightenment.</div>
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Here's to your health, to your freedom, and to history books that will record the end of dark days when freedom and imagination were taken for granted. May we never see those failures repeated. There's a mighty long way to go but I have faith in possibilities. We can get there with the friends who were always on the right side of history and always in our corner, saving us a seat.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBp3moKX-SdnAcYwDuyDNJ6gqTOc8GFvtJBMY0Zti0jjcInsfNrKz_3KembgqH6wRMYh5rVfIT97rDqkWHJPDSpR7gBGHFWe7Oue9oQq48K6EsoED9oRQeR1TpPBi11pVG-cBlpAZAWuwD/s1600/20992607_10155968955036686_6357622684355200987_n.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="960" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBp3moKX-SdnAcYwDuyDNJ6gqTOc8GFvtJBMY0Zti0jjcInsfNrKz_3KembgqH6wRMYh5rVfIT97rDqkWHJPDSpR7gBGHFWe7Oue9oQq48K6EsoED9oRQeR1TpPBi11pVG-cBlpAZAWuwD/s200/20992607_10155968955036686_6357622684355200987_n.jpg" width="200" /></a>Love and light to you, Julian.<br />
[And the other cat in the smart tie]</div>
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Your friend ~ Gabrielle</div>
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<i>Keep fighting ;) </i></div>
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You can help TRC continue to deliver archives, excerpts from Mike Ruppert's book, and trend analysis for researchers, journalists and citizens searching for truth.</div>
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<i> </i> <i> Any amount is generous. Receipt will read The Road Home, Inc. Thank you!</i></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8876848971119625162.post-59323039089321278322018-08-12T16:15:00.003-04:002022-08-28T10:07:44.980-04:00The Road Home -- or the Road To Hell...<div>
Greetings patrons.</div>
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Life circumstances dictate that I may need to ditch this venture.<br />
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The farm gig I started just a week ago has fallen through, for reasons that are so unbelievably stupid that I can barely imagine how people intend to function outside this culture while being tethered to the most problematic and destructive aspects of it...<br />
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Long story short, I can't assist these folks with any of their projects because one of them happens to be employed as a military contractor. [Hello, karma.] It is his clearance that dictates that they cannot have anyone living on site [their farm] while he's still employed by them, which means I can't be there.<br />
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I found this out a week AFTER quitting my regular online gig, and moving a third of my belongings and settling in. I was told, "I forgot to report to my bosses that you moved in, so you have to go or I lose my job."<br />
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This was obviously not something he thought through and I certainly didn't think to ask about such a scenario. It isn't my farm and what he does for a living was none of my business. I was hired to help develop a side business, implement some permaculture design and work on farm projects, like a produce stand, in exchange for room and board.<br />
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The moral? People who think they are free still aren't woke enough to see their own chains.<br />
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I'd love to keep doing the media work but I need to earn at least $200 a month to continue. Right now, I need to hustle to find work and see about another living situation later this week. No matter how good I feel my media analysis is, no media work is conducive to surviving a collapsing paradigm. [Or capitalism for that matter.]<br />
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It's true what they say...the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I need to focus more on my own actions than intentions or words now. I hope to be back here later in the fall. Thank for your understanding.<br />
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Sometimes we gotta do what we gotta do.<br />
Love and rocket stoves,<br />
Gabrielle<br />
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<i>If anyone would like to assist directly to see me back here sooner, you may donate directly at: </i><a href="https://paypal.me/TheRoadHome" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><i>https://paypal.me/TheRoadHome</i></a><i> || I'll update on Twitter when I can. This is my last post for awhile.</i></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8876848971119625162.post-69773600830720811572018-07-20T11:02:00.002-04:002022-08-28T10:08:51.283-04:00The Russia "National Security Crisis" is a U.S. Creation<center>
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Aaron Maté for <i><a href="https://therealnews.com/" target="_blank">The Real News</a></i> : President Trump's warm words for Vladimir Putin and his failure to endorse U.S. intelligence community claims about alleged Russian meddling have been called "treasonous" and the cause of a "national security crisis." There is a crisis, says Prof. Stephen F. Cohen, but one of our own making. </div>
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Help TRC continue to deliver News You Can Use, excerpts from Mike's book, and trend analysis for researchers, journalists and Americans searching for truth.</div><br style="text-align: left;" /><div><b>We're remembering.</b></div><center><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://paypal.me/TheRoadHome" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="377" data-original-width="640" height="117" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVkD89AE2hGQHCP5O2yCVBtVL9D8Q3wyuWU60ens6G0xE-v5pH4N-nhyphenhyphenY-gXOWPLTnUMvB7BxemFCrZLCduGM07GFkgXTl7U5BLqqrMN3I7Czmwpp1xm8DpoqePKNxmcKtV9bAJpXYmQs/s200/secure-paypal-logo.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div><div><i></i><i>Any amount is generous. Receipt will read The Road Home, Inc. Thank you!</i></div></center></center><center>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8876848971119625162.post-26791059553153914552018-05-18T16:39:00.006-04:002022-08-28T10:09:49.552-04:00[Video] Judical Watch Pres. Tom Fitton: Obama Admin. Spied on Trump Team, NEW Podesta Emailspresented for your consideration. Video updates available on TRC's Youtube page/playlists:<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/GabriellePrice" target="_blank">Gabrielle Jones-Price</a><br />
<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="400" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yscdrFN5Fk8" width="600"></iframe> </center>
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Help TRC continue to deliver archives, excerpts from Mike's book, and trend analysis for researchers, journalists and Americans searching for truth.</div>
<b>We're remembering.</b></center>
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<i><br />
</i> <i> Any amount is generous. Receipt will read The Road Home, Inc. Thank you!</i></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8876848971119625162.post-40899928766815643892018-05-10T23:42:00.003-04:002022-08-28T10:10:27.529-04:00Redpill Library: The Finders || Finally Found?Submitted for your consideration by <a href="https://www.twitter.com/TRCNewsUCanUse" target="_blank">Gabrielle Jones-Price</a><br />
<br />
With news out of New York about the disturbing and depraved NXIVM sex cult with ties to high ranking officials and Hollywood making the rounds -- it is time for me to start sharing information that I can no longer stay silent about. The NXIVM story is unfolding and I will be tracking it here in future posts.<br />
<br />
First you need to understand why any of this subject matter would possibly be of interest to me.<br />
<br />
In my mid-twenties, I was fascinated with true crime novels. Mostly the psychological profiling of serial murderers and the work of people like FBI agent, Ted Gunderson to catch these monsters. I started classes in computer programming just as the internet was becoming a household word. My goal? To help agencies like the FBI capture child predators.<br />
<br />
Needless to say, when I learned of the high levels of corruption and a history of looking the other way in these cases, I didn't imagine how one person trying to write DOS language could possibly help. Now at the wiser age of 50, I find my research skills may provide light on a disturbing subject that most people my age have long-forgotten. Turns out this is by design.<br />
<br />
Theodore L. Gunderson was an American Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent In Charge and head of the Los Angeles FBI. I first learned about Ted's work after I viewed the documentary, Conspiracy of Silence. It is a one hour video describing the Franklin Cover-Up originally due to be aired on the Discovery Channel in 1994. The documentary was pulled and the UK producers were paid off to obtain all copies by unknown political figures in congress. John DeCamp had obtained an in-house copy which he gave to Ted Gunderson in the late 1990s. He made available on his web site and at his talks. The version I watched was posted to Youtube on May 1, 2012.<br />
<br />
Mr. Ted Gunderson passed away after a battle with cancer on Sunday, August 1, 2011. He was 82. Below is Gunderson's 84 page intelligence report of his research into the CIA-linked cult called The Finders. A cult engaged in kidnapping and trafficking of young children and ritualistic abuse, which possibly began as the early as the 1980's.<br />
<br />
On December 29th, 2017, President Donald Trump proclaimed the month of January 2018, National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. And last month, on April 11th, the President signed H.R. 1865: <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/1865" target="_blank">Allow States and Victims To Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act</a> (2017-18).<br />
<br />
He knows.<br />
<br />
Those of us who do, understand that the only way to catch monsters is to expose them to light. They've worked in shadows too long. In the spirit of lifting veils -- I will share more information like this in future posts. Justice is long overdue.<br />
<br />
[For the record, it is my understanding that my departed friend and mentor, Michael C. Ruppert did not speak kindly about Mr. Gunderson, nor did a radio show host I never listened to -- but that's a discussion for another time [perhaps a vidcast]. Frankly, I didn't even know Mike had an opinion of Mr. Gunderson until last week. I connect my own dots and believe Mr. Gunderson's work speaks for itself. Suffice it to say, neither of these gentlemen are available to quote. It is futile to speculate on the thoughts of the deceased. I'm here to help the living.]<br />
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<iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" data-aspect-ratio="0.75" data-auto-height="false" frameborder="0" height="800" id="doc_89198" scrolling="no" src="https://www.scribd.com/embeds/63712523/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&access_key=key-uo4rro53p8881fg3qj3&show_recommendations=false" title="Ted Gunderson the Finders" width="600"></iframe></center>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">You can help TRC continue to deliver archives, excerpts from Mike Ruppert's book, and trend analysis for researchers, journalists and citizens searching for truth.</div><br style="text-align: left;" /><div><b>We're remembering.</b></div><center><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://paypal.me/TheRoadHome" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="377" data-original-width="640" height="117" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVkD89AE2hGQHCP5O2yCVBtVL9D8Q3wyuWU60ens6G0xE-v5pH4N-nhyphenhyphenY-gXOWPLTnUMvB7BxemFCrZLCduGM07GFkgXTl7U5BLqqrMN3I7Czmwpp1xm8DpoqePKNxmcKtV9bAJpXYmQs/s200/secure-paypal-logo.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div><div><i></i><i>Any amount is generous. Receipt will read The Road Home, Inc. Thank you!</i></div></center></div></div></center>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8876848971119625162.post-91255099540475084412018-05-04T13:47:00.004-04:002022-08-28T10:12:40.520-04:00PROMIS: Controlling The Data || Chapter 10 <center>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i>Submitted for your consideration </i><i>by <a href="http://www.twitter.com/TRCNewsUCanUse" target="_blank">Gabrielle Jones Price</a>, </i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i>archived with </i><i><a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2017/02/crossed-rubicons-birthday-message-for.html" target="_blank">permission from author</a> and copyright holder.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">From <i>Crossing the Rubicon: </i></span><i><span style="font-size: large;">The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil</span></i></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Published in 2004<br />🐇</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Chapter 10</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">PROMIS: Controlling The Data</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">by </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/CrossingTheRubiconOfficialPage/" style="font-size: x-large;" target="_blank">Michael C. Ruppert</a></div>
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<div style="font-size: medium;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">[<i>w/updated footnotes</i>]<br /><a href="https://youtu.be/dS3Hp7EXxS4" target="_blank">Audio excerpt</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">A</span> year before the attacks of 9/11 <i>FTW</i> completed a major investigation that
had begun when I was contacted by two members of the Royal Canadian
Mounted Police’s National Security Staff. The focus of that investigation was on
an almost mythical computer software program that was to later be a part of, and
connected to, insider trading on 9/11; new US government programs peering into
Americans’ private lives; resource management; biological warfare, and also — as
revealed by FOX news shortly after the attacks — in the hands of Osama bin
Laden.
The following story appeared in the September, 2000 Special Edition of <i>From
The Wilderness</i>, Vol. III, no. 7 — edited for length.</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">PROMIS </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
By
Michael C. Ruppert </div>
US journalist Mike Ruppert, a former Los Angeles police officer who
now runs a website that seeks to expose CIA covert operations, said he
met with RCMP investigator McDade on Aug. 3 in L.A. Ruppert said
the RCMP officer was anxious to see documents he received three
years ago from a shadowy Green Beret named Bill Tyre [sic] detailing
the sale of rigged PROMIS software to Canada. — <i>The Toronto Star</i>,
September 4, 2000.<br />
Only the legends of Excalibur, the sword of invincible power, and
the Holy Grail, the chalice from which Christ took his wine at the
Last Supper begin to approach the mysterious aura that has evolved
in the world of secret intelligence around a computer software program
named PROMIS. Created in the 1970s by former National
Security Agency (NSA) programmer and engineer Bill Hamilton, now
President of Washington, DC’s Inslaw Corporation, PROMIS
(Prosecutor’s Management Information System) crossed a threshold
in the evolution of computer programming. Working from either huge mainframe computer systems or smaller networks powered by
the progenitors of today’s PCs, PROMIS, from its first “test drive” a
quarter-century ago, was able to do one thing that no other program
had ever been able to do. It was able to simultaneously read and integrate
any number of different computer programs or databases
simultaneously, regardless of the language in which the original programs
had been written or the operating system or platforms on
which that database was then currently installed. [Note: This applied
only when PROMIS had actually been physically installed on computer
systems.]<br />
In the mid 1970s, at least as far as computer programs were concerned,
the “universal translator” of <i>Star Trek</i> had become a reality.
And the realm of <i>Star Trek</i> is exactly where most of the major media
would have the general public place the PROMIS story in their
worldviews. But given the fact that the government of Canada has just
spent millions of dollars investigating whether or not a special version
of PROMIS, equipped with a so-called “back door” has compromised
its national security, one must concede that perhaps the myths surrounding
PROMIS and what has happened to it need to be
re-evaluated. Myths, by definition, cannot be solved, but facts can be
understood and integrated. Only a very few people realize how big the
PROMIS story really is.<br />
It is difficult to relegate PROMIS to the world of myth and fantasy
when so many tangible things, like the recently acknowledged
RCMP investigation, make it real. Canadians are not known for being
wildly emotional types given to sprees. And one must also include the
previous findings of congressional oversight committees and no less
than six obvious dead bodies ranging from investigative journalist
Danny Casolaro in 1991, to a government employee named Alan
Standorf, to British publisher and lifelong Israeli agent Robert
Maxwell also in 1991, to retired Army CID investigator Bill McCoy
in 1997, to a father and son named Abernathy in a small northern
California town named Hercules. The fact that commercial versions of
PROMIS are now available for sale directly from Inslaw belies the fact
that some major papers and news organizations instantly and laughably
use the epithet “conspiracy theorist” to stigmatize anyone who
discusses it. Fear may be the major obstacle or ingredient in the myth
surrounding modified and “enhanced” versions of PROMIS that keeps
researchers from fully pursuing leads rising in its wake. I was validated
in this theory on September 23rd in a conversation with <i>FTW</i>
Contributing Editor Peter Dale Scott, PhD, a professor emeritus at
UC Berkeley and noted author. Scott, upon hearing of the details of my involvement, frankly told me that PROMIS frightened him. Casolaro,
who was found dead in a West Virginia motel room in 1991, had Scott’s
name (Scott is also a Canadian) in a list of people to contact about his
PROMIS findings. He never got that far.<br />
A close examination of the PROMIS saga actually leads to more
than a dozen deaths that may well be why so many people avoid it.
And many of those deaths share in common a pattern where, within
48 hours of death, bodies are cremated, residences are sanitized, and
all files disappear. This was certainly the case with my friend Bill
McCoy, a legendary retired army CID investigator who was also the
principal investigator for Hamilton in his quest to recover what may
be hundreds of millions in lost royalties and to reunite him with the
evolved progeny of his brainchild. Those progeny now have names
like SMART (Self Managing Artificial Reasoning Technology) and
TECH. I will never forget hearing of McCoy’s death and his immediate
cremation.<br />
In researching this story I found a starkly recurring theme. It
appeared first in a recent statement I tape-recorded from probably one
of the three best-informed open sources on the story in the world,
William Tyree. I also came across the same theme, almost verbatim, in
a research paper that I discovered while following leads from other
sources.<br />
The information from Tyree, recorded in a phone conversation on
August 28, 2000 and the research work on “block-modeling” social
research theory uncovered while researching other leads both describe
the same unique position or vantage point from hypothetical and
actual perspectives. Tyree described an actual physical point in space,
further out than ever thought possible and now used by US satellites.
This distance is made possible by PROMIS progeny so evolved that
they make the original software look primitive. The social research,
which included pioneering mathematical work — apparently facilitating
the creation of artificial intelligence — postulated that a similar
remote hypothetical position would eliminate randomness from all
human activity. Everything would be visible in terms of measurable
and predictable patterns — the ultimate big picture. Just one of the
key websites where I found this information is located at [<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20040203163307/http://web.syr.edu:80/~bvmarten/socialnet.html" target="_blank">original link archived here</a>].</blockquote>
</center>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
One of FTW’s guiding principles is our incessant drive to separate that which is important from that which is merely true. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
What would you do if you possessed software that could think,
understand every major language in the world, that provided peepholes
into everyone else’s computer “dressing rooms,” that could insert data into computers without people’s knowledge, that could fill in
blanks beyond human reasoning, and also predict what people would
do — before they did it? You would probably use it wouldn’t you? But
PROMIS is not a virus. It has to be installed as a program on the computer
systems that you want to penetrate. Being as uniquely powerful
as it is, this is usually not a problem. Once its power and advantages
are demonstrated, most corporations, banks, or nations are eager to be
a part of the “exclusive” club that has it. And, as is becoming increasingly
confirmed by sources connected to this story, especially in the
worldwide banking system, not having PROMIS — by whatever
name it is offered — can exclude you from participating in the ever
more complex world of money transfers and money laundering. As an
example, look at any of the symbols on the back of your ATM card.
Picture your bank refusing to accept the software that made it possible
to transfer funds from LA to St. Louis, or from St. Louis to Rome.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The other thing to remember is that where mathematics has
proved that every human being on Earth is connected to every other
by only six degrees of separation, in covert operations the number
shrinks to around three. In the PROMIS story it often shrinks to two.
It really is a small world.</blockquote>
<center>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<center>
</center>
<center style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The first rip-off </span></center>
Reagan confidant and overseer for domestic affairs from 1981 to
1985, Ed Meese loved PROMIS software. According to lawsuits and
appeals filed by Hamilton, as well as the records of congressional hearings,
the FBI, and dozens of news stories, the legend of PROMIS
began in 1981_82. After a series of demonstrations showing how well
PROMIS could integrate the computers of dozens of US attorneys’
offices around the country, the Department of Justice (DoJ) ordered
an application of the software under a tightly controlled and limited
license. From there, however, Meese, along with cronies D. Lowell
Jensen and Earl Brian allegedly engaged in a conspiracy to steal the
software, modify it to include a “trap door” that would allow those
who knew of it to access the program in other computers, and then
sell it overseas to foreign intelligence agencies. Hamilton began to
smell a rat when agencies from other countries, like Canada, started
asking him for support services in French when he had never made
sales to Canada.<br />
The PROMIS-managed data could be anything from financial
records of banking institutions to compilations of various records used
to track the movement of terrorists. That made the program a natural
for Israel that, according to Hamilton and many other sources, was one
of the first countries to acquire the bootlegged software from Meese and company. As voluminously described by Inslaw attorney, the late
Elliot Richardson, the Israeli Mossad under the direction of Rafi Eitan,
allegedly modified the software yet again and sold it throughout the
Middle East. It was Eitan, the legendary Mossad captor of Adolph
Eichmann, according to Hamilton, who had masqueraded as an
Israeli prosecutor to enter Inslaw’s DC offices years earlier and obtain
a firsthand demonstration of what PROMIS could do.<br />
Not too many Arab nations would trust a friendly Mossad agent
selling computer programs. So the Mossad provided their modified
PROMIS to flamboyant British publishing magnate Robert Maxwell,
a World War II Jewish resistance fighter who had assumed the Anglo
name and British citizenship after the war. It was Maxwell, capable of
traveling the world and with enormous marketing resources, who
became the sales agent for PROMIS and then sold it to, among others,
the Canadian government. Maxwell drowned mysteriously in late
1991, not long after investigative reporter Danny Casolaro was “suicided”
in West Virginia. Maxwell may not have been the only one to
send PROMIS north.<br />
In the meantime, after winning some successes, including a
resounding congressional finding that he had been cheated, Bill
Hamilton hit his own buzz saw in a series of moves by the Reagan and
Bush Justice Departments and rigged court decisions intended to
bankrupt him and force him out of business. He survived and fought
on. In the meantime hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties and
sales fees were going into the wrong pockets. And, as was later revealed
from a number of directions, this initial tampering with the software
was far from the only game in town. Both the CIA, through GE
Aerospace in Herndon Virginia (GAO Contract #82F624620), the
FBI, and elements of the NSA were tinkering with PROMIS, not just
to modify it with a trap door, but to enhance it with artificial intelligence
or AI. It’s worth noting that GE Aerospace was subsequently
purchased by Martin-Marietta that then merged to become
Lockheed-Martin the largest defense and aerospace contractor in the
world…<br />
Confidential documents obtained by <i>FTW</i> indicate that much of
the AI development was done at the Los Alamos National Laboratory
and Sandia Labs using research from other US universities, including
Harvard, Cal-Tech, and the University of California. And it was not
just Reagan Republicans who got their hands on it either. As we’ll see
shortly, PROMIS came to life years <i>before</i> the election of Ronald
Reagan. It was also, according to Bill Tyree, an essential element in the
espionage conducted by Jonathan Pollard against not only the US government but the Washington embassies of many nations targeted
by Israel’s Mossad.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-size: large;">The Last Circle</span></i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
For more than a year and half, members of the National Security
Section of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) have been
traveling through the US, often in the company of a savvy female
homicide detective named Sue Todd from the small California town
of Hercules. Even now questions linger as to what the Canadians were
really after. But there is absolutely no question that while surreptitiously
in the US the Mounties spent more time with author and
investigative reporter Cheri Seymour than with anyone else. And for
good reason.<br />
Seymour, under the pen name of Carol Marshall is the author of a
meticulously researched e-book entitled <i>The Last Circle</i>, available at <a href="http://lycaeum.org/books/books/last_circle/">http://lycaeum.org/books/books/last_circle/</a> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
Our fact-checker at <i>FTW</i> has found the book to be meticulously
researched and documented, an opinion shared by Bill Hamilton and
the RCMP, who have also told me of its precision.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
I first met Cheri in person this spring after she had contacted me
via the Internet. I traveled to her home, some three hours outside of
Los Angeles and viewed acres of documentation for a saga that started
with drug-related murders and police corruption around
methamphetamine production in northern California in the 1980s.
That investigation later connected to politicians like Tony Coelho and
major corporations like MCA and eventually led to a shadowy scientist
named Michael Riconosciuto. Familiar names like Ted Gunderson
and relatively unknown names like Robert Booth Nichols weave
throughout this detailed epic that takes us to the Cabazon Indian
Reservation in the California Desert and into the deepest recesses of
the 1980s Reagan/Bush security apparatus.<br />
Gunderson, a retired FBI Special Agent in Charge (SAC) from Los
Angeles, and Nichols, a mysterious Los Angeles man, exposed through
court documents obtained by Seymour as being a career CIA operative,
connected with scientist/ programmer Riconosciuto in a sinister,
yet now very well-documented phase of PROMIS’s development. In
affidavits Riconosciuto claimed that one of the tasks he performed at
the Cabazon reservation was to install a back door in the version of
PROMIS that was sold to Canada. In August of this year the RCMP
investigators told both Seymour and me that they had traveled to the
reservation several times and had confirmed many details of Seymour’s
research. They had also interviewed Riconosciuto on more than one
occasion. As with everyone else I have ever met who has spoken with him, both the Mounties and Seymour kept a reserved distance from
him and always “counted their fingers after every handshake.”<br />
<i>The Last Circle</i> describes in detail how PROMIS software was
modified by Riconosciuto to allegedly include the back door “eavesdropping”
capability but also enhanced with one form of AI and
subsequently applied to the development of new weapons systems
including “ethnospecific” biowarfare compounds capable of attacking
specific races. Riconosciuto, now serving time in a federal prison in
Pennsylvania has a cell a very short distance from fellow espionage
inmates Edwin Wilson and Jonathan Pollard. While his tale is critical
to understanding what has happened to PROMIS, the fact remains
that Riconosciuto has been out of the loop and in legal trouble for
eight years. He has been in a maximum-security prison for at least six.
What was surprising was that in 1998 he contacted homicide detective
Sue Todd in Hercules and told her that the murder of a father and
son, execution style, was connected to the PROMIS story. One connection
was obvious. Hercules is a “company town” connected to a
weapons manufacturer described in Seymour’s book that also connects
to the Cabazon Indian Reservation.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The three Bills</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
I lived in Washington, DC from August 1994 until late October of
1995. It was during that time that I was a semi-regular visitor at the
Fairfax, Virginia, home of Bill McCoy, a loveable 60-something giant,
always adorned with a beret who complained ruthlessly about what
had happened to the United States since “The Damned Yankee Army”
had taken over. Writers were “scribblers.” People who thought they
knew something about covert operations without ever having seen
one were “spooky-groupies.” “Mac,” as we called him, had his investigative
fingers in almost everything, but he was most involved with
PROMIS. McCoy was a retired chief warrant officer from the US
Army’s Criminal Investigation Division. He had broken some of the
biggest cases in army history. It was Mac who first introduced me to
both Bill Tyree and to Bill Hamilton in 1994. I recall scratching my
head as I would be sitting at Mac’s dinner table when a call would
come in from Hamilton asking if there was any new information from
Tyree. “Not yet,” McCoy would answer, “I’ll call as soon as I get
something.”<br />
“How,” I asked, “could a guy in a maximum security prison like
Walpole State Penitentiary in Massachusetts be getting information of
such quality that someone like Hamilton would be calling urgently to
see what had come in?” “That,” answered McCoy was the work of
someone known only as “The Sergeant Major,” and alternately as “His Eminence” who fed the information to Tyree, who in turn fed it to
McCoy, who then passed it on to Hamilton. Sometimes however,
Tyree and Hamilton communicated directly. To this day the identity
of the Sergeant Major remains a mystery and the puzzle piece most
pursued by the RCMP when they visited me in August 2000.<br />
It was also not by coincidence then that, in the same winter of
1994_95, McCoy revealed to me that he was using former Green
Berets to conduct physical surveillance of the Washington, DC offices
of Microsoft in connection with the PROMIS case. <i>FTW</i> has, within
the last month, received information indicating that piracy of
Microsoft products at the GE Aerospace Herndon facility were likely
tied to larger objectives, possibly the total compromise of any
Windows-based product. It is not by chance that most of the military
and all of the intelligence agencies in the US now operate on UNIX
or Macintosh systems.<br />
In late 1996 Tyree mailed me a detailed set of diagrams and a
lengthy narrative explaining the exact hows and whys of the murder
of Danny Casolaro and an overall view of the PROMIS saga that is
not only consistent with what is described by Seymour in <i>The Last
Circle</i> but also provides many new details. Those documents, as later
described to me by RCMP Investigator Sean McDade, proved to
be “Awesome and right on the money.”<br />
The essence of those documents was that, not only had the
Republicans under Meese exploited the software, but that the
Democrats had also seen its potential and moved years earlier.
Nowhere was this connection more clearly exposed than in understanding
the relationship between three classmates from the US Naval
Academy: Jimmy Carter, Stansfield Turner (Carter’s CIA director),
and billionaire banker and Presidential kingmaker (Carter’s Annapolis
roommate), Arkansas’ Jackson Stephens. The Tyree diagrams laid out
in detail how PROMIS, after improvement with AI, had allegedly
been mated with the software of Jackson Stephens’ firm Systematics
(now Axciom). In the late 70s and early 80s, Systematics handled
some 60_70 percent of all electronic banking transactions in the US.
The goal, according to the diagrams that laid out (subsequently verified)
relationships between Stephens, Worthen Bank, the Lippo
Group, and the drug/intelligence bank BCCI, was to penetrate every
banking system in the world. This “cabal” could then use PROMIS
both to predict and to influence the movement of financial markets
worldwide. Stephens, truly bipartisan in his approach to profits, has
been a lifelong supporter of George Bush, and he was, at the same
time, the source of the $3-million loan that rescued a faltering Clinton Campaign in early 1992. There is a great photograph of
Stephens with a younger George W. Bush in the excellent BCCI history,
<i>False Profits</i>.<br />
In the fall of 1997, Bill McCoy, having recently gone off his heart
medication was found dead in his favorite chair. In the days and weeks
before, he had been advised by Tyree that a Pakistani hit man, on an
Israeli contract, had been in the states seeking to fulfill a hit on
McCoy. There had been other hints that someone closer to McCoy
might do the job. Tyree recently told <i>FTW</i> that just before his death,
he had given McCoy information on Elbit flash memory chips,
allegedly designed at Kir Yat-Gat south of Tel Aviv. The unique feature
of the Elbit chips was that they worked on ambient electricity in
a computer. In other words, they worked when the computer was
turned off. When combined with another newly developed chip, the
Petrie, which was capable of storing up to six months worth of key
strokes, it was now possible to burst transmit all of a computer’s activity
in the middle of the night to a nearby receiver — say in a passing
truck or even a low-flying SIGINT (Signals Intelligence) satellite.
According to Tyree this was the methodology used by Jonathan
Pollard and the Israeli Mossad to compromise many foreign embassies
in Washington.<br />
Within 48 hours of his death Bill McCoy had been cremated and
in less than four days, all of Mac’s furniture, records, and personal
belongings had been removed from his home by his son, a full colonel
in the army. The house had been sanitized and repainted, and aside
from the Zen garden in the back yard, there was no trace that McCoy
had ever lived there. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<center>
</center>
<span style="font-size: large;">Harvard and HUD </span><b>(Department of Housing and Urban Development)</b> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
Former Assistant Secretary of Housing, Catherine Austin Fitts has had
about as much ink in <i>FTW</i> as anyone else.<br />
One of the empires Fitts threatened was that of the Harvard
Endowment. The Harvard Endowment is not really a benevolent university
fund but an aggressive investment predator with $19 billion in
assets, some from HUD-subsidized housing. Harvard also has a number
of other investments in high-tech defense operations and had a big
hand in investing George W. Bush’s lackluster firm Harken Energy.
“W” has a Harvard MBA. Fitts’ chief nemesis at Harvard, Herbert
“Pug” Winokur, head of Capricorn Investments, and member of the
board of the Harvard Endowment is also a PhD mathematician from
Harvard where the mathematical breakthroughs that gave rise to artificial intelligence using block-modeling research were discovered. In
the 60s Winokur had done social science research for the Department
of Defense on causes of inner city unrest in the wake of the 1967
Detroit riots.<br />
The pioneering research at Harvard that allegedly gave rise to the
artificial intelligence installed in PROMIS later moved north.
According to a Harvard website, “Much of the effort of the Harvard
group — no longer based solely at Harvard — was centered on the
International Network for Social Network Analysis (INSNA) at
Toronto...”<span style="color: red;">*</span> Things grew more suspicious as Fitts’ research disclosed that
Winokur, through Capricorn Investments, had a decisive role in the
1980s management of the intelligence/government outsourcing
mega-firm DynCorp, of Reston, VA. Winokur served as DynCorp
CEO from 1989 to 1997.<br />
In juxtaposition, Harvard and HUD differ in one striking respect
according to Fitts. The Harvard Endowment has enjoyed wildly
uncharacteristic above-market tax-free returns for the last decade, (33
percent in 1999), while HUD, in the same year, was compelled to do
a “manual adjustment” to reconcile a $59-billion shortfall between its
accounts and the US Treasury account.<br />
I was not surprised when Bill Hamilton confirmed to both Fitts
and to me that Winokur’s DynCorp had played a role in the evolution
of PROMIS in the 1980s. One other surprise was to come out of Fitts’s
investigations that had months earlier led her to conclude that she was
up against PROMIS-related interests. On the very day that DoJ and
HUD shut her down she was discussing software development with a
Canadian firm that is at the heart of the Canadian space program,
Geomatics. The term Geomatics applies to a related group of sciences,
all involving satellite imagery, used to develop geographic information
systems, global positioning systems, and remote sensing from space
that can actually determine the locations of natural resources such as
oil, precious metals, and other commodities.<br />
Apparently centered in Canada, the Geomatics industry offers
consulting services throughout the world in English, German, Russian,
French, Arabic, Spanish, and Chinese. Geomatics technology, launched
aboard Canadian satellites via US, European, or Japanese boosters
can help developing or industrialized nations inventory and manage
all of their natural resources. There are also several Geomatics-related
companies in the US including one not far from the Johnson
Space center in Houston.<br />
This situation is custom-made for enhanced PROMIS software with
back-door technology. What better way to map and inventory all of the world’s resources than by making each client nation pay for the work? By
providing the client nation PROMIS-based software it would then be
possible to compile a global database of every marketable natural
resource. And it would not be necessary to even touch the resources
because commodities and futures markets exist for all of them. An AI-enhanced,
PROMIS-based program would then be the perfect setup to
make billions of dollars in profits by watching and manipulating the
world’s political climate to trade in, let’s say Tungsten futures. Such a
worldwide database would be even more valuable if there were, for example,
a sudden surge in the price of gold or platinum.<br />
Bill Hamilton readily agreed that this was an ideal situation for the
application of PROMIS technology. In furthering our research on
Geomatics we discovered that almost everywhere Geomatics technology
went we also found Lockheed-Martin.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<center>
</center>
<span style="font-size: large;">Enter the Mounties</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
Thanks to a strong push in my direction from Cheri Seymour, the
Mounties and Hercules PD Homicide Detective Sue Todd arrived at
my door on August 3rd. They had already consumed most of the <i>FTW</i>
website and were well familiar with my writings. I had let them know,
through Cheri, that I did have information on PROMIS from Bill
Tyree and that I would be happy to share it. Before getting into details
we all went out for lunch at a nearby Chinese restaurant.<br />
Over lunch the Mounties were quite candid about the fact that the
RCMP had PROMIS software and that it even went by the name
PROMIS. I think they may have also mentioned the name PIRS,
which is an acknowledged system in the RCMP network. They stated
that they had been given their version of PROMIS by the Canadian
Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS).<br />
CSIS was an intelligence breakaway from the Mounties in 1984,
intended to be a pure [sic] intelligence agency. It was created largely
with the expertise and assistance of the CIA. All of us understood two
things about that arrangement, and we discussed them openly. First,
there was a question as to whether or not any intelligence service created
by the CIA could be completely loyal to its native country.
Secondly, it was also understood that there was a rivalry between the
two agencies similar to the one that existed between the FBI and the
CIA, or in a larger context, the Clinton gang and the Bush gang in the
US. The chief concern of the Mounties, clearly, was to ascertain
whether or not their version of PROMIS was one that was compromised.
McDade also described in detail how he knew that supposedly
secure RCMP communications equipment had been compromised by
the NSA. The Mounties acknowledged regular meetings with Cheri Seymour but evinced none of the interest she said that they had previously
shown in the Mossad. With me their single-minded focus was
Bill Tyree and where and how he obtained his information.<br />
Sue Todd, confirmed for me suspicions that there was an unspoken
alliance between the RCMP investigators and the FBI. She said
that during the course of her three years of efforts to solve the double
murder in Hercules, she had routinely visited FBI offices and enjoyed
access to FBI files relative to both the PROMIS investigation and anything
connected to her victims. That information was obviously being
shared with the Mounties, and that implied the blessings of the FBI.
In short, a domestic law enforcement officer was sharing information
with agents of a foreign government. In some cases that could provoke
espionage charges, but in this case it was apparently sanctioned. The
Hercules murder victims had no apparent connection to PROMIS
software in any way except for the fact that Riconosciuto had possessed
knowledge about the murders that he had provided to Todd
from prison. The Hercules Armament Corporation, featured in <i>The
Last Circle</i>, was an obvious link. I also noted that the father in Todd’s
case had been a computer engineer with passions for both geological
research and hypnosis and no other visible connections to the
PROMIS story.<br />
As we copied Tyree’s papers and went through other materials the
next day, I was aware that the Canadians expressed special interest in
Jackson Stephens and anything having to do with the manipulation
of financial markets. They asked for copies of news reports I had
showing that General Wesley Clark, the recently retired NATO commander,
has just gone to work for Stephens, Inc. in Little Rock,
Arkansas. (Undeclared Presidential candidate Wesley Clark maintains
a relationship with Stephens and Axciom to this day.) I also provided
documents showing that Stephens’ financial firm Alltel, heir to
Systematics, was moving heavily into the mortgage market. As the
Mounties repeatedly pressed for information on the identity of the
Sergeant Major I referred them to Tyree directly through his attorney
Ray Kohlman and to Tyree’s closest friend, the daughter of CIA bagman
and paymaster Albert Carone, Dee Ferdinand.<br />
McDade did eventually contact Ferdinand by phone, and shortly
thereafter one of the most bizarre twists in the whole story took place.<br />
About a week after meeting the Mounties I heard back from Sean
that the Tyree documents and flow charts from 1996 had been right
on the money. A special recurring theme in those documents that
meshes with Seymour’s research is the fact that modified versions of
PROMIS software with both artificial intelligence and trap doors were being smuggled out of Los Alamos nuclear labs in containers
labeled as radioactive waste. According to Tyree and other sources,
after an Indian reservation, the safest place in the world that no one
will ever break into is a nuclear waste dump. This also applies to containers
in transit between countries. The radioactive warning label
guarantees unmolested movement of virtually anything. PROMIS
software is apparently no exception. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<center>
</center>
<span style="font-size: large;">Bill Casey and Al Carone from the grave</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
Albert Vincent Carone has also been covered exhaustively in <i>FTW</i>,
both in the newsletter and on the web site. A retired NYPD Detective,
also a “made” member of the Genovese crime family, Carone spent his
entire working career as a CIA operative. <i>FTW</i> has special reports on
both Bill Tyree and Al Carone available from the web site. For more
than 25 years before his mysterious death in 1990, Al Carone served
as a bagman and liaison between George Bush, CIA Director Bill
Casey, Oliver North, Richard Nixon and many other prominent figures
including Robert Vesco, Manuel Noriega and Ferdinand
Marcos. The Carone-Tyree connection, covered in detail in the
Sept. 1998 issue (Vol. I, no. 7) goes back to operations in the mid
1970s when Tyree, serving with the Special Forces, engaged in CIA
directed missions for which Carone was the paymaster.<br />
Carone’s death from “chemical toxicity of unknown etiology” in
1990 resulted in the sanitizing of all of his military and NYPD records
as well as the theft and disappearance of nearly ten million dollars in
bank accounts, insurance policies and investments. Virtually
overnight, almost every record of Carone disappeared leaving his
daughter and her family nearly bankrupt under the burden of tens of
thousands of dollars in medical bills. In 1996, Carone’s daughter, Dee
Ferdinand, discovered that Tyree and Carone had known each other
and that Tyree could prove instrumental in helping to restore Carone’s
lost fortune. Ferdinand filed suit in US district court this spring
[Note: The suit has since been dismissed] seeking to recover pensions,
insurance policies and benefits in a case which has no known connection
to PROMIS. I have known Ferdinand and her family for more
than seven years. Never once has she mentioned a connection between
her father and PROMIS although she was well familiar with the case
from Tyree and conversations with Bill Hamilton. I had referred the
Mounties to her because of my belief that she could possibly help
identify Tyree’s source, the Sergeant Major.<br />
On August 10th, exactly one week after the Mounties came to see
me, the DoJ mailed Ferdinand a response to her suit seeking dismissal.
Included in the paperwork was a bizarre document, now in <i>FTW</i>’s possession, that, by the account of both Ferdinand and her lawyer,
had absolutely nothing to do with her case. The document in question
was a March 29, 1986 Declaration from CIA Director William
Casey, a close friend of the Carone family. Paragraph 6 of that document
(prepared for another case) stated, “<i>Two of the documents
responsive to Plaintiffs’ Request No 1, specifically the one-page letter dated
28 March 1979 and a one-page letter dated 8 January 1980, have been
released in the same excised form as they were previously released by the
Government of Canada. I independently and formally assert the state
secrets privilege for the information excised from these two documents.</i>”<br />
Dee Ferdinand called me immediately. The letter had nothing to
do with her suit. It mentioned Canada. Canada was not even mentioned
in her suit. What was going on?” she asked. “It’s blackmail,” I
answered. “CIA, which is monitoring everything the Canadians do,
everything I do, everything you do, knows that I will tell the
Mounties of these letters.” McDade didn’t grasp the concept at first.
He was a straight-ahead street cop. But I had been through something
similar when serving as the [L.A. County] press spokesman for the
Perot Presidential campaign in 1992. I explained it to Sean, “Sean,
you and I are just the messengers. But I guarantee that at some level
of your government the CIA’s reference to these letters will scare people
to death. It is a reminder that CIA has them.”<br />
A week later McDade told me that the dates were indeed significant
— very significant. That’s all he would say… </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Headlines</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
On August 25th the <i>Toronto Star</i> broke what was to become a series of stories by Valerie Lawson and Allan Thompson. The cat was out of the bag. Various figures known to have direct connections to Riconosciuto had been virtually dogging the Mounties’ every move as they traveled in the US. One even contacted me just days after the Mounties left LA. It was a story that could not be kept under wraps forever. Most of the <i>Star</i> story was accurate. It was going to be difficult for the RCMP to move quietly now. A Reuters story the same day closed with the following paragraphs, “<i>Canada’s national counterintelligence agency said in a June report that friendly nations were making concerted efforts to steal sensitive technology and information.</i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
“<i>The Canadian Security Intelligence Service said outsiders were particularly interested in aerospace, biotechnology, chemicals, communications, information technology, mining and metallurgy, nuclear energy, oil and gas, and the environment.</i>” </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
That was Geomatics, at the heart of Canada’s space program, Canada’s flagship space technology. I checked the <i>Star</i> story. There had been no mention of high tech or space related issues. What did Reuters know? In mid September, after receiving confidential source documents related to the case telling me that one version of PROMIS, modified in Canada was handled through the Canadian firm I.P. Sharp, I got an answer. A quick search on the web revealed that Sharp, a well documented component of the case, had been bought by a Reuters company in the early 90s. Hamilton later told me that he had heard that Reuters possibly had the PROMIS software. That would explain how they knew about the aerospace connection.<br />
Michael Dobbs of the <i>Washington Post</i> called and asked what I knew. I confirmed that I had met with the Mounties but didn’t know much else other than giving them the Tyree flow charts. The<i> Post</i> was never going to tell the truth. Their business was keeping secrets, not revealing them. The Mounties had made waves.<br />
On August 28 the phone rang and it was a collect call from Tyree. “Get a tape recorder and turn it on,” he said. Over the course of the next half an hour Tyree, obviously reading from detailed and copious notes, named individuals and companies dealing with PROMIS software and its progeny. The tape was specific down to naming specific engineers in military and private corporations doing PROMIS research. Tyree described specific Congressional committees that had been infiltrated with “enhanced” PROMIS. Tyree described how PROMIS progeny, having inspired four new computer languages, had made possible the positioning of satellites so far out in space that they were untouchable. At the same time the progeny had improved video quality to the point where the same satellite could focus on a single human hair. The ultimate big picture.<br />
PROMIS progeny had also evolved to the point where neural pads could be attached to plugs in the back of the human head and thought could be translated into electrical impulses that would be equally capable of flying a plane or wire transferring money. Names like Sandia, Cal-Tech, Micron, Tech University of Graz, Oded Leventer, and Massimo Grimaldi rolled from his lips as he tore through the pages of notes. Data, such as satellite reconnaissance, could also now be downloaded from a satellite directly into a human brain. The evolution of the artificial intelligence had progressed to a point where animal behavior and thought were being decoded. Mechanical humans were being tested. Animals were being controlled by computer.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Billy saved Canada for last.</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
“Here’s how we fuck Canada,” he started. He was laughing as he facetiously described what was coming as some sort of bizarre payback for the War of 1812. Then, placing the evolutions of PROMIS in context with the Canadian story Tyree asked a question as to why one would really now need to go to all the trouble of monitoring all of a foreign country’s intelligence operations. “There’s an easier way to get what I want,” he said. “I access their banks. I access their banks and I know who does what and who’s getting ready to do what,” he said. He described how Canada had been provided with modified PROMIS software that Canada then modified, or thought they had modified, again to eliminate the trap door. That software, turned loose in the financial and scientific communities, then became Canada’s means of believing that they were securing the trap door information from the entities to whom they provided <i>their</i> versions of PROMIS. But, unknown, to the Canadians the Elbit chips in the systems bypassed the trap doors and permitted the transmission of data when everyone thought the computers were turned off and secure. Tyree did not explain how the chips physically got into the Canadian computers.<br />
“This,” Tyree said “is how you cripple everything Canada does that you don’t like. And if you want proof I offer you the fact that we toppled the government of Australia in 1980 [sic].” “[Prime Minister] Gough Whitlam and Nugan Hand [Bank],” I answered. Tyree affirmed. The Labor Government of Whitlam had been suddenly unseated after making nationalistic noise and questioning the role of US intelligence agencies in Australian affairs.<br />
The issue of a coming feud between the dollar and the Euro came up. I suggested that rapidly vanishing support in South America and Europe both were threatening the military operations of “Plan Colombia” and the economic boost it would give the US economy. Tyree jumped in, “If I can put Canada in line and show the Eurodollar, the ‘Eurotrash’ what I have already done to my neighbor, whom I value to some degree — remember, these are not nice people — these are financial thugs at their worst. So what they are going to do is sit down discreetly and say, ‘Look, this is what we did to Canada. Now, would you like us to do this to the European market as well?’ Mike, they’re not going to think twice about it. A weapon is only good if someone knows what its capability is. Prior to using the atomic bomb it was irrelevant.” He continued, “They refer to it as the Nagasaki Syndrome.”<br />
…Then, chillingly, he described something familiar to any military strategist. The penetration and looting of HUD was the test bed, the proving ground, the “White Sands” of the PROMIS economic Atom bomb. Once the CIA and the economic powers-that-be had proven that, over a period of years, they could infiltrate and loot $59 billion dollars from HUD, they knew that they could do it anywhere. Said Tyree, “Then they knew they had what it took to go abroad and create mayhem. It was planned 20 years ago.”<br />
It took several days to reach Sean McDade who had been on vacation. I played the Tyree tape for him over an open phone line into RCMP headquarters. He asked me to make a physical copy right away and send it to him. After he had had time to listen to it he cautioned me against sending it anywhere else. I told him that as long as his investigation was active that I would do nothing more than make the standard copies I make of any sensitive documents as a precaution. I could tell that the tape had rattled him...<br />
If keeping the tape quiet would give the Mounties an edge I would do it — but only as long as they had a case.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Sudden Death</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
Then it was over.<br />
On September 16th the <i>Toronto Star</i> announced that the RCMP had suddenly closed its PROMIS investigation with the flat disclaimer that it did not have, and never did have, <i>any</i> version of Bill Hamilton’s software. That was as shocking a statement as it was absurd. “The only way that you can identify PROMIS,” said a perplexed Bill Hamilton, “is to compare the code. Sean McDade said that he was not an engineer and couldn’t read code so how did he know?” Hamilton was as emphatic as I was that McDade had said that RCMP had PROMIS. So was Cheri Seymour. I offered a fleeting hope that the Mounties were playing a game, saying that they had terminated the investigation to shake some of the incessant probing that had been taking place around McDade’s every move.<br />
I was finally convinced when McDade e-mailed me and said that it was his view that the Mounties did not have <i>any</i> version of PROMIS and that he had no objections if I decided to write a story. I then agreed with Seymour that, whether they had said so or not, both the Mounties and Sue Todd had left enough visible footprints that it was their intention for us to go public. It might be the only protection they had… </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Diplomacy</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
Just three days after the <i>Toronto Star</i> announced the abrupt termination of the RCMP investigation the Canada based International Network on Disarmament and Globalization (INDG) posted an electronic bulletin on a speech by former Canadian Ambassador to the US. In an address the night before, less than 48 hours after the termination of the RCMP investigation, Derek Burney, current president of CAE, a Canadian firm manufacturing flight simulators, criticized the US aerospace industry for being overly protectionist under the guise of national security. In addressing the Aerospace Industries Association of Canada, according to large stories that appeared in CP (Canadian Press) and Toronto’s <i>Globe and Mail</i>, Burney was characterized as sounding unusually tough in his criticism of American policy that was freezing Canadian firms out of aerospace contracts. Both stories were ambivalent in that they alternately made Burney sound critical of the US while championing Canadian interests and at the same time weak as he noted that Mexico stood poised under NAFTA to replace Canada as the US ‘s number one trading partner.<br />
The CP story made two telling observations. It quoted Burney as saying that Canada needed to do more to “preserve and enhance its access to the American market.” Then it closed it’s story on Burney’s speech, advocating a compromise agreement between the US and Canada, by saying that Burney’s position “risks being perceived here at home as a sellout or worse.”<br />
A close examination of Burney’s remarks, published in the INDG bulletin revealed something more like an obsequious surrender rather than a mere sellout. While there were a few tough-talking paragraphs that saved Canadian face, the essence of the speech was that Burney believed that American defense firms, the largest of which is Lockheed-Martin, were poised to transfer the bulk of their contracts to companies in Mexico. Citing Canada’s dependence upon access to American avionics and “databases,” Burney painted a picture that seemingly left Canada over a barrel. Without access to American technology the Canadian aerospace industry could not function.<br />
Buried deep in the text of Burney’s speech we found the following paragraph that is, we believe, the best place to end this story.<br />
“<i>That does not mean that we have to agree with everything Washington does or says or do things exactly as the Americans do. On the contrary, one of the advantages of being a good neighbor and close ally is that we can speak freely and forthrightly to the Americans - provided we have a solid case and are seeking to influence their position and not simply capture a quick headline. And, never forget, it is always more effective to be frank in private. Otherwise your motive can be somewhat suspect.</i>”</blockquote>
</center>
<center>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">PROMIS postscripts</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
At 2:15 on the afternoon of November 10, 2000, I was called by Jan Belton, a Canadian accountant with many years of experience in the securities industry. He had read the previous story and he wanted me to know that I was right on the money. He had been one of the people interviewed on many occasions by the Mounties during their investigation and he had been involved in its mysteries since the mid 1980s. Belton said that it was a given that PROMIS was used for a wide variety of purposes by intelligence agencies, including the real-time monitoring of stock transactions on all of the world’s major financial markets.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
He then confirmed for me that in April of 1991 Derek Burney, a close political ally of Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, received a personal briefing on PROMIS software. “Check it out,” said Belton, “It’s in [Israeli Mossad agent] Ari Ben-Menashe’s book [<i>Profits of War</i>].” Ben-Menashe was one of Israel’s top spies. In both congressional investigations and many reports, he was linked to the Iran-Contra scandal and the October Surprise in which Bush, Casey, and others, in order to win the 1980 presidential election, made a deal with the Iranian government not to release US hostages taken from the American embassy in Teheran until after Ronald Reagan had won the election. It was Ari Ben-Menashe, reportedly, who had tipped off the press to weapons shipments being handled by Oliver North which resulted in the breaking of the IranContra scandal.<span style="color: red;">1</span> Belton stated that complaints had been filed with the RCMP from as far back as 1983 regarding both Robert Maxwell and Earl Brian who had actually sold the Mounties their doctored version of the software. Brian, a medical doctor who founded the company Hadron, had also been involved in shady dealings with firms connected to disease research, cytology (the study of cells), and biotechnology. This has significance in the post 9/11 world because, as we shall see, Hadron will turn up at the heart of secret US government operations involving biowarfare and vaccines.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
PROMIS and whatever forms it has morphed into are incredibly powerful tools that can be used in any number of applications. It was not until a few months after the attacks of 9/11 that I even suspected that it might have been in the hands of Osama bin Laden.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
FTW published the following story on November 16, 2001:<span style="color: red;">2</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Bin Laden’s Magic Carpet: Secret US PROMIS Software </b></div>
<b><b>FBI/Justice Claims of Discontinued Use Leave Questions Unanswered </b></b><b></b><br />
<b>
</b>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><b>Britain and Germany in the Lurch? </b></b></div>
<b>
</b>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><b>Did bin Laden Use It To Break White House Codes And Threaten Air Force One?</b></b></div>
<b>
</b>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
by Michael C. Ruppert</div>
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<i>FTW</i>, October 26, 2001 — 1300 PDT (UPDATED November 16, 2001) — An October 16 FOX News report by correspondent Carl Cameron indicating that convicted spy, former FBI Agent Robert Hanssen, had provided a highly secret computer software program called PROMIS to Russian organized crime figures —who in turn reportedly sold it to Osama bin Laden — may signal a potential intelligence disaster for the United States. Admissions by the FBI and the Department of Justice in the FOX story that they have discontinued use of the software are most certainly a legal disaster for a government that has been engaged in a 16-year battle with the software’s creator, William Hamilton, CEO of the Inslaw Corporation. Over those 16 years, in response to lawsuits filed by Hamilton charging that the government had stolen the software from Inslaw, the FBI, the CIA and the Department of Justice have denied, in court and under oath, ever using the software.<br />
Bin Laden’s reported possession of PROMIS software was clearly reported in a June 15, 2001 story by <i>Washington Times</i> reporter Jerry Seper. That story went unnoticed by the major media. In it Seper wrote, “The software delivered to the Russian handlers and later sent to bin Laden, according to sources, is believed to be an upgraded version of a program known as PROMIS — developed in the 1980s by a Washington firm, Inslaw, Inc., to give attorneys the ability to keep tabs on their caseloads. It would give bin Laden the ability to monitor US efforts to track him down, federal law-enforcement officials say. It also gives him access to databases on specific targets of his choosing and the ability to monitor electronic-banking transactions, easing money-laundering operations for himself or others, according to sources.”<br />
In a series of excellent stories by the Washington Times, and as confirmed by parts of the FOX broadcast, it appears that Hanssen, who was arrested in February, in order to escape the death penalty this summer, agreed to provide the FBI and other intelligence agencies with a full accounting of his sale of PROMIS overseas. Reports state that almost until the moment of his capture, Hanssen was charged with “repairing” and upgrading versions of the software used by Britain and Germany.<br />
On October 17 two different spokespersons at the FBI’s Office of Public Affairs told FTW, “The FBI has discontinued use of the PROMIS software.” The spokespersons declined to give their names.<br />
On October 24 Department of Justice spokesperson Loren Pfeifle declined to answer any questions about where, when, or how PROMIS had been used and would say only, “I can only confirm that the DoJ has discontinued use of the program .…”<br />
“Numerous news stories, books and investigative reports including a September 2000 story in <i>FTW</i> (Vol. III, no.7), spanning nearly two decades, have established that PROMIS holds unique abilities to track terrorists. The software has also, according to numerous sources including Hamilton, been modified with artificial intelligence and developed in parallel for the world’s banking systems to track money movements, stock trades and other financial dealings. Systematics — since purchased by Alltel — an Arkansas financial and technical firm headed by billionaire Jackson Stephens, has often been reported as the primary developer of PROMIS for financial intelligence use. Systematics through its various evolutions had been a primary supplier of software used in inter-bank and international money transfers for many years. Attorneys who have been connected to Systematics and PROMIS include Webster Hubbell, Hillary Clinton, and the late Vince Foster.<br />
If true, and if claims by the FBI and the Department of Justice that they have “recently” discontinued the use of PROMIS are accurate, the likelihood than bin Laden may have compromised the systems the US government and its allies use to track him is high. Additional information in the FOX broadcast indicating that Britain stopped using the software just three months ago and that Germany stopped using the software just weeks ago are equally disturbing. These are mission-critical systems requiring years of development. What has replaced them? And even if the US government has replaced the software given to its allies with newer programs — several of which <i>FTW</i> knows to be in existence — the FOX report clearly implies that bin Laden and associates have had ample time to get highly secret intelligence data from both Britain and Germany. Those systems might, in turn, have compromised US systems. The WTC attacks had — by all reckoning — been in the works for years, and bin Laden would certainly have known that the US would be looking for him afterwards…”<br />
“Approximately two weeks after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the History Channel aired a documentary entitled “The History of Terrorism.” In that documentary, a law enforcement officer described some of the methods used to track terrorist movements. He stated that “computers” were able to track such things as credit card purchases, entry and exits visas, telephone and utility usage etc. It was implied that these diverse database files could be integrated into one unified table. He gave an example that through the use of such a system it would be possible to determine that if a suspected terrorist entered the country and was going to hide out, that by monitoring the water and electrical consumption of all possible suspects in a given cell, it would be possible to determine where the terrorist was hiding out by seeing whose utility use increased. Conversely, it would be possible to determine if a terrorist was on the move if his utility consumption declined or his local shopping patterns were interrupted. Aren’t those “club” cards from your supermarket handy?<br />
This is but the barest glimpse of what PROMIS can do. Mated with artificial intelligence it is capable of analyzing not only an individual’s, but also a community’s entire life, in real time. It is also capable of issuing warnings when irregularities appear and of predicting future movements based upon past behavior.<br />
In the financial arena PROMIS is even more formidable. Not only is it capable of predicting movements in financial markets and tracking trades in real time. It has been reported, on a number of occasions, to have been used, via the “back door” to enter secret bank accounts, including accounts in Switzerland and then remove the money in those accounts without being traced. Court documents filed in the various INSLAW trials include documentation of this ability as well as affidavits and declarations from Israeli intelligence officers and assets...”<br />
“…A key question that lingered after the meetings with the RCMP was how many versions of the software had the CIA and the US government given out and might they not have been also using a back door against “friendly” nations for economic motives to give advantage to US companies. It was not a question that the RCMP dismissed as unlikely.<br />
“In another mind-boggling development, on November 10 the <i>Calgary Sun</i> reported: ‘US police said many of the suspected al Qaida terrorists were nabbed through the use of a state-of-the-art computer software program called PROMIS. The system interfaces with any database and can provide information on credit card, banking, pension, tax, criminal and immigration records. Police can input an alleged terrorist name or credit card and the software will provide details of the person’s movements through purchases or phone records…<br />
“The FOX story reported that Osama bin Laden once boasted that his youth ‘knew the wrinkles of the world’s financial markets like the back of their hands and that his money would never be frozen.’ He may be right. And an administration so lost in covering up criminal conduct (no less than the conduct of the ones which preceded it) while trying to fight a war at the same time — might find itself doubly wounded by the software of Bill Hamilton and Inslaw.”</blockquote>
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And if you think that Bill Tyree’s descriptions of the capabilities of enhanced PROMIS progeny are exaggerated then consider the following recent developments from official sources:</div>
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“<i>At Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, for example, the military’s Alternative Control Technology Laboratory has experimented with systems that allow pilots to ‘fly by thought.’ By controlling their brain waves, human subjects at the laboratory can steer a flight simulator left or right, up or down, a skill that most people at the lab master in only an hour...”<span style="color: red;">3</span></i> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<i>Caltech researchers have invented a “neurochip” that connects a network of living brain cells wired together to electrodes incorporated into a silicon chip. The neurochips were unveiled at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, held in New Orleans the week of October 25-30, 1997</i>.<span style="color: red;">4</span></blockquote>
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FOOTNOTES:</div>
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<span style="color: red;">*</span> [Two footnotes, numbered 1 appear in the book. I added * for the first to avoid confusion.</div>
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No link was provided, however, I found this quote at 'Harvard Breakthrough', a chapter from a free online book, Social Network Analysis: A Handbook by John Scott. A lot of good research here.]</div>
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<a href="http://www.analytictech.com/mb119/chap2e.htm">http://www.analytictech.com/mb119/chap2e.htm</a></div>
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<span style="color: red;"><br />1 </span>An impressive cache of online documents on Ari Ben-Menashe can be found at [original link not found. Wayback Machine gave this...most bizarre message]:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP6MEoBtgZjRbNREIHY3A2Q4PvMIClpEKc5Ml9dLo1S_1ZtIj34KdPXNDh92-EQqtylVRnXSJI5oATEnCauIYOCxG-SylF-GvOEglB3cW90xw6YjmK_hNq_GgDj2BDGT4gSzEplT9mYhc/s1600/CtRWaybackMachine.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="297" data-original-width="567" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP6MEoBtgZjRbNREIHY3A2Q4PvMIClpEKc5Ml9dLo1S_1ZtIj34KdPXNDh92-EQqtylVRnXSJI5oATEnCauIYOCxG-SylF-GvOEglB3cW90xw6YjmK_hNq_GgDj2BDGT4gSzEplT9mYhc/s1600/CtRWaybackMachine.png" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: red;">2</span> Michael C. Ruppert, “Bin Laden’s Magic Carpet — Secret U.S. PROMIS Software”, <i>From The Wilderness</i>, Vol. IV, No. 8, November 20, 2001. [Mirror: <a href="http://www.copvcia.com/free/ww3/11_19_01_magic_carpet.html">http://www.copvcia.com/free/ww3/11_19_01_magic_carpet.html</a>] </div>
<www .pir.org="" ari_ben-2dmenashe.html="" main1=""><div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
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<www .pir.org="" ari_ben-2dmenashe.html="" main1=""><span style="color: red;">3</span> </www><a href="http://www.room23.de/room23_view_detail.php?ID=920">http://www.room23.de/room23_view_detail.php?ID=920</a> [original link not found, not on Wayback Machine search. May lead researchers down a few different/interesting rabbit holes, though...]</div>
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<span style="color: red;">4</span> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20010418034640/http://pr.caltech.edu/media/lead/102797JP.html/">https://web.archive.org/web/20010418034640/http://pr.caltech.edu/media/lead/102797JP.html/</a> [Wayback Machine snapshot]</div>
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<i>Please find links to previously released excerpts below with footnotes, which are the bulk of the work for this project. Crossing the Rubicon is over 700 pages long with upwards of 1,000 footnotes requiring updating since its 2004 release. TRC sincerely appreciates your support of his legacy. TRC does not receive commission from sales of Crossing the Rubicon. Book sales go directly to Mike's beneficiary and copyright holder who granted permission for TRC to share audio excerpts.</i></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Semper fi 🗽 </span></center>
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Jan. 8, 2012: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2012/01/petroleum-man.html" target="_blank">Petroleum Man</a></div>
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Jan. 9, 2012: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2012/01/simple-exercise.html" target="_blank">A Simple Exercise</a></div>
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Jan. 20, 2012: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2012/01/unholy-trinity-part-one.html" target="_blank">Unholy Trinity / Part One</a></div>
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Jan. 21, 2012: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2012/01/unholy-trinity-part-two.html" target="_blank">Unholy Trinity / Part Two</a></div>
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Jan. 22, 2012: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2012/01/unholy-trinity-part-three.html" target="_blank">Unholy Trinity / Part Three</a></div>
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Nov. 13, 2017: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2017/11/why-is-us-so-russiaphobic-inconvenient.html" target="_blank">Why Is US So Russiaphobic? Inconvenient Truths About Foreign Policy</a></div>
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Dec. 14, 2017: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2017/12/business-with-bin-ladens-real-saudi.html" target="_blank">Business With The Bin Ladens: The Real Saudi Arabia || Part One</a></div>
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<br /></div>
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Dec. 20, 2017: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2017/12/business-with-bin-ladens-real-saudi_20.html" target="_blank">Business With The Bin Ladens: The Real Saudi Arabia || Part Two</a></div>
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Jan. 1, 2018: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2018/01/define-bombshell-what-happens-when-fbi.html" target="_blank">Define Bombshell: What Happens When FBI Agents Blow The Whistle</a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8876848971119625162.post-36006794580229557912018-01-05T22:13:00.001-05:002019-07-24T14:23:38.915-04:00Crossing The Rubicon || Chapter 15: Israel [UPDATE]<center>
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<i>Submitted for your consideration </i><i>by <a href="http://www.twitter.com/TRCNewsUCanUse" target="_blank">Gabrielle Jones Price</a> </i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i>with </i><i><a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2017/02/crossed-rubicons-birthday-message-for.html" target="_blank">permission from the author</a> and copyright holder.</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">From <i>Crossing the Rubicon: </i></span><i><span style="font-size: large;">The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil</span></i></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Published in 2004<br />🐇</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Chapter 15</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Israel</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">by </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/CrossingTheRubiconOfficialPage/" style="font-size: x-large;" target="_blank">Michael C. Ruppert</a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">[<i>w/updated footnotes</i>]</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">N</span>o discussion of the events before, during, and after 9/11 is either complete
or intellectually honest without looking at Israel. Since 9/11, three nations
— the United States, the United Kingdom, and Israel — have stood virtually alone
as a tripartite alliance in complete support of the Empire’s actions. One of the best
questions to ask after any major event is <i>Cui bono?</i> “Who benefits?” And here,
Israel, the largest recipient of US military and economic aid, has ranked at, or near,
the top of the list in almost every world development. There is some good, and
much that is bad, to be said about Israel and its actions. But almost every attempt
at rational discourse on the question of the use of Israeli power has been hobbled
by emotional, almost hysterical preconceptions — either pro or con — that miss
some very important pieces of the new, accurate map I have been trying to draw
for you.</div>
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Many of the top members of the Bush administration have exceptionally close ties
with the Israeli government. These include the former Chairman of the Pentagon’s
Defense Policy Board, Richard Perle; Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz;
Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith; Edward Luttwak of the National
Security Study Group; Dov Zakheim, the Pentagon’s Chief Financial Officer on 9/11;
Elliot Abrams at the National Security Council, and Press Secretary Ari Fleischer.
Some have even worked on joint planning projects with Israeli ministries. These
relationships alone make Israel a subject worthy of discussion. These and many
other Israeli-connected experts formed the core group at the Project for a New
American Century that had drafted plans for the invasion of Iraq long before 9/11.</div>
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This chapter is a brief effort to put some very important pieces into place. And
I should say at the outset that none of my research has found any compelling data
to suggest that Israel was the architect or mastermind of the attacks of September
11, as is obvious from the preceding chapters. It would have been impossible for
the Israeli government to have so compromised US intelligence, military, economic,
and political systems as to have had control of the operation, not to
mention the full and unquestioning cooperation of the American mid-level functionaries
needed to execute it.</div>
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I’m repeating that statement here because it’s so important to prevent the very
common shaming, diversionary behavior illustrated by the following vignette: A
colleague of mine who has been tireless in his efforts to distribute evidence of US
government complicity in the attacks approached FOX News commentator Chris
Matthews at a post-9/11 book signing. After he waited in line and then tried to
place some of the evidence I’ve described in this book in Matthews’s hands — a
Quixotic effort in my opinion — Matthews asked him, “This isn’t one of those
‘The Israelis did it’ things, is it?”</div>
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This shows how little real analysis is being done by the media, but it also shows
the way valid questions are deflected or intentionally ignored by shame-based, propagandistic
rhetoric. Any criticism of Israel tends to get dishonestly recast as
anti-Semitism. So let’s get a couple of things straight. Israel is not Judaism. </div>
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One is a state and the other is a religion. For centuries, Muslims and Jews lived
side by side in relative tranquility in the Middle East. And during the Middle Ages
it was the Muslims who gave Jews fleeing European Christian persecution safe
haven in the Holy Land, where each group generally practiced its own religion in
peace. A single day’s reading in the Torah, the New Testament, and the Koran is
enough to show that within each monotheist sacred text are passages of exclusivity
and intolerance and other passages urging accord and acceptance. Islam is typical
here; and while it takes a dim view of polytheist cultures like Hinduism, much of
the Koran teaches that Jews should be good Jews and that Christians should be
good Christians.</div>
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The term “anti-Semitism” refers to a European social and political phenomenon
(which, like much of European pre-World War II ideology, still lingers in
some places, e.g., Japan). Anti-Jewish feeling, thought, and behavior are as old as
monotheism itself and have undergone almost as many transformations. There’s
the anti-Judaism of late antiquity; the massacres against Jews in the Crusades and
the Inquisition, the murderous pogroms by rural European peasants in the 18th
and 19th centuries, the middle-class resentment, mythologizing, and persecution
that led to the Dreyfuss Affair in 1890s France, and a massive wave of hatred
toward Jews that came upward from European folk ideology and downward from
fascist and rightist parties and governments in the first half of the 20th century.
Like all forms of bigotry, “Anti-Semitism” remains a serious problem all over the
world. But the phrase itself has no real anthropological basis; it dates from the
1870s, when most European writers still divided up the world’s peoples according
to Biblical categories — “Semites” were thought to be descended from Noah’s
son Shem, while everybody else came from either Ham or Japhet. In fact,
<i>Antisemitismus</i> was invented as part of an effort by German racist authors to
replace the religion-based Jew-hatred (<i>Judenhass</i>) of the past with a more modern,
ethnicity-driven contempt. Of course, this apparently intellectual construct barely
masked a deep reservoir of anti-rational, virulent hatred. It formed the basis for
the pseudo-scientific racism of the Nazi movement. </div>
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So the term shouldn’t be used to refer to the attitudes of either side in the Arab-Israeli
conflict, where it’s misleading and inapt. As is often pointed out, Arabs and
Jews are both called “Semitic” peoples. More importantly, “Anti-Semitism” is worse
than useless in any discussion of Israeli domestic and international affairs. To talk
about Israel as if its every citizen thought, felt, and acted as a unit in some giant
monolithic crowd is as unfair as assuming that every American supports all of the
US government’s actions, its economic policies, and its militarism with exactly the
same degree of feeling and for exactly the same reasons. Clearly, within Israel there
are hugely divergent opinions on everything including the occupied territories and
settlements, Palestinian history and politics, the conduct of Israel’s foreign and
domestic policies, and the vexing issue of compulsory military service. And Israel
has a sizeable antiwar movement opposing the invasion of Iraq by the US. So what
is important (indeed, essential) to examine are the actions of the Israeli government,
in exactly the same way that we have examined the actions of the US government.
Supporters of the state of Israel are often hysterically unable to tolerate that kind of
critique, as though they know (all-too consciously in some cases, perhaps unconsciously
in others) that a clear examination of Israel’s national conduct reveals a
pattern of stark horrors. This sort of denial is best maintained by ad hominem
attacks, the most effective being the easy slander of anti-Semitism; if you’re having
any trouble preventing criticism of Israel, call the critic a bigot and it’s all over.</div>
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Sometimes those reactions are triggered by the genuine anxiety that remains a
permanent feature of Jewish life since the Holocaust. But it’s very common for
journalists (say, Chris Matthews), politicians, officials, and disinformationists to
squander, sabotage, or abort an exceedingly important debate by turning on the
red megaphone that warns against what isn’t there. </div>
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To say that Israel did not perpetrate the attacks of 9/11 is not to deny that the
Israeli government was very close to those attacks and may have played a role in
them. There is evidence that points both ways. On the one hand it is clear that
Mossad made several attempts to warn the US government that the attacks were
coming — in one case even providing the US government with a list that included
the names of four of the 9/11 hijackers, including Mohammed Atta and that
charmed pair, Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almidhar.<span style="color: red;">1</span> Everybody knew the attacks
were coming. Yet even after this information was in American hands, various agencies
of the US government allowed Alhazmi and Almidhar to roam free and unmolested.</div>
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The analysis of insider trading by the Herzliya Institute for Counterterrorism
(ICT) is another example of Israeli action pointing toward, rather than away from,
evidence that the CIA knew what was going on and allowed the attacks to happen.</div>
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But perhaps the most compelling reason to discount assertions that Israel was
the primary executor of the attacks is the following UPI story, which is one of the
most overlooked bombshells in the whole 9/11 saga:</div>
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A leaked Federal Aviation Administration memo written on the evening of
September 11 contains disturbing revelations about American Airlines Flight 11, the first to hit the World Trade Center. The “Executive Summary,” based on information
relayed by a flight attendant to the American Airlines Operation Center,
stated “that a passenger located in seat 10B shot and killed a passenger in seat 9B
at 9:20 a.m. The passenger killed was Daniel Lewin, shot by passenger Satam Al
Suqami.” The FAA has claimed that the document is a “first draft,” declining to
release the final draft, as it is “protected information,” noting the inaccuracies in
reported times, etc. The final draft omits all mention of gunfire. Lewin, a 31-year old
American-Israeli citizen was a graduate of MIT and Israel’s Technion. Lewin
had immigrated to Israel with his parents at age 14 and had worked at IBM’s
research lab in Haifa, Israel. Lewin was a co-founder and chief technology officer
of Akamai Technologies and lived in Boston with his family. A report in Ha’aretz
on September 17 identified Lewin as a former member of the Israel Defense Force
Sayeret Matkal, a top-secret counter-terrorist unit, whose Unit 269 specializes in
counter-terrorism activities outside of Israel.<span style="color: red;">2</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
This particular story raises a multitude of questions. Guns were on the hijacked
flights? How did they get there? Why have they not been mentioned? What was
someone with Lewin’s background doing sitting in front of one of the hijackers on
the day of the hijackings? Was he still active? Mere coincidence is nearly impossible
here. So the question becomes: did the hijackers — all nineteen of them — plan
their activities to kill Lewin, or was Lewin following the hijackers even into the
gates of death? Did they have to kill him to complete their mission? Who had penetrated
whom, and who had compromised Lewin’s presence on the plane hijacked
by Mohammed Atta? One thing is absolutely clear from my vantage point: someone
at the highest levels of the Israeli government deemed Lewin expendable.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Behind the fragile logic and the false rumors that thousands of Jews didn’t show
up for work at the World Trade Center on 9/11 lie deeper truths that raise darker
questions. As a classic piece of disinformation, the rumor about Jews not showing
up for work — latched onto by prejudiced and undisciplined minds — made it
impossible to rationally discuss such things as the Zim Israeli-American shipping
lines having vacated their offices in the World Trade Center just a week before the
attacks and moving to Norfolk, Virginia. Two sources told me on condition of
anonymity that Zim broke its lease to make the move.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The disinformation worked like a charm. Here’s one example: an African American
poet, Amiri Baraka, nearly lost his post as Poet Laureate of New Jersey
in an apparent reprisal for his embrace of this particular rumor. Just a month after
9/11, Baraka published “Somebody Blew Up America,” a passionately internationalist
poem against fascism in all its forms. But he didn’t do enough homework,
and a single line, “Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers / To stay home
that day?” touched off a small storm of boring controversy that clogged much of
the Black press, the Jewish press, and the regional mainstream press for weeks. It’s
unfortunately true (and rarely noted) that Baraka has written some very bigoted
poems in the past 35 years, but “Somebody Blew Up America” is not one of them. Yet it’s the one that got all the noise, and the whole episode helped to shut down
any legitimate discussion of Israeli foreknowledge and possible involvement in
9/11. Those who believed the rumor think they needn’t look further, and those
who rejected it think the same, for opposite reasons. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
So let’s take a critical and rational look at Israel based upon facts. Let’s stop to
examine the truth behind an Israeli spy ring that was operating all over the United
States before 9/11 and documented by the DEA, the FBI, and the CIA. And then,
let’s try to place Israel within the context of 21st century transnational fascism and
the new order evolving at the end of the age of oil.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The record </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Let’s compare the violation of UN resolutions by Israel and by Iraq.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
IRAQ: </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
• UN Resolutions violated, ignored: 16 </div>
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• Countries attacked, invaded, violated: Iran, Kuwait </div>
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• Countries occupied for years: None </div>
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• Countries currently occupying: None </div>
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• Territory illegally annexed: None </div>
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• Wars started: 1980, 1990 </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
• Possesses weapons of mass destruction: Unverified as of this writing.
(However, evidence has surfaced this year showing that the
United States provided Iraq with bioweapons material for, among
other things, anthrax, plague, smallpox, and West Nile virus, as well
as materials for the manufacture of chemical weapons during the
1980s. Iraq also likely possesses small quantities of nerve agents such
as CS, GB (Sarin), and VX gasses. But these are not legally or intuitively
weapons of mass destruction. These gases dissipate and
become harmless roughly 30 minutes after being deployed on the
battlefield.) </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
• Possesses nuclear weapons: No. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
• Most notable atrocity against civilians: Mass killings of Kurds and
Shi’ite Muslims numbered at less than 5,000 per incident. (New
information from CIA records and testimony this year shows that
Iraq — as widely reported — was not guilty of gassing as many as
100,000 Kurds in the early 1990s. It was Iran, concerned about separatist
sentiments in its own Kurdish population.)<span style="color: red;">3</span> </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
• Currently under a regime of UN sanctions: Yes</div>
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<br /></div>
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ISRAEL: </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
• UN resolutions violated, ignored: 68 </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
• Countries attacked, invaded, violated: Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon,
Syria, Tunisia.</div>
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• Countries occupied for years: Egypt, Lebanon, Syria </div>
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• Countries currently occupying: Syria </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
• Territory illegally annexed: Golan Heights, Jerusalem, Palestinian
Territories </div>
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• Wars started: 1956, 1967, 1982 </div>
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• Possesses weapons of mass destruction: Yes </div>
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• Possesses nuclear weapons: Yes </div>
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• Most notable atrocity against civilians: 17,500 Lebanese civilians
killed in the 1982 invasion of Lebanon </div>
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• Currently under a regime of UN sanctions: No</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Most of this material was compiled by Richard B. Du Boff of Bryn Mawr
University and published by al Jazeera in September of 2002. The parenthetical
comments are mine.<span style="color: red;">4</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Ariel Sharon</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Having narrowly escaped (on a technicality) prosecution in Belgium for a 1982
three-day orgy of killing and rape at the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps that
occurred when he led an invasion of Lebanon and controlled the area as Israeli
defense minister, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was also charged with brutal 2001
and 2002 human rights violations in the Jenin and Nablus townships of the occupied
territories in Palestine. In post-9/11 Israeli incursions, many innocent civilians
were killed, houses were bulldozed, and people were left homeless and without
food, water, or medical supplies in areas totally surrounded by Israeli Defense
Forces (IDF).<span style="color: red;">5</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Covert operations and 9/11 connections </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
An Israeli owned company, ICTS, had a contract to provide security at Boston’s
Logan airport, from which 9/11 Flights 11 and 175 originated. And either directly
or through subsidiaries it had contracts at every other airport where planes were
hijacked on 9/11. The same company was apparently well aware that alleged shoe
bomber Richard Reid was connected to al Qaeda, and yet they still allowed him
to board the Paris-US flight he tried to blow up. If the UPI story about a gun on
Flight 11 is correct, then this might help explain how it got through screening.<span style="color: red;">6</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
FBI sources were quoted in an ABC News story indicating that five employees
of an Israeli-owned moving company were on the roof of their truck in New York
City with photographic equipment as the attacks were occurring on 9/11. A former
CIA official confirmed that the names of several had turned up in an
intelligence database, and the men were subsequently deported.<span style="color: red;">7</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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In December of 2002 Palestinian security forces arrested a group of Palestinians
for acting as <i>agents provocateurs</i> in collaboration with Israel. Those arrested had
been posing as al Qaeda operatives in attempts to discredit Palestinians in the eyes
of the US and the world and to buttress Sharon’s claims that al Qaeda cells were operating in regions where the IDF has been engaging in brutal operations. A follow-up
story in Israel’s Ha’aretz confirmed some details of the Palestinian
allegations and disputed others.<span style="color: red;">8</span> Historically, there has been no connection
between al Qaeda and the Palestinian cause.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
In June of 2002 six men carrying Israeli passports who had been previously
detained by the INS later became the subjects of a manhunt after US authorities
feared that they might be plotting terror attacks, possibly on the Alaska pipeline or
a Florida nuclear reactor. Release of the men — after confirming that their passports
were valid — by the INS before contacting the FBI reportedly made FBI
Director Mueller “furious.”<span style="color: red;">9</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
In the fall of 2002 a well-financed ring of Israeli computer hackers began a sabotage
and eavesdropping campaign against interests in America that had been critical
of Israel and supportive of Palestinian interests. One of the targets was University of
Illinois international law professor Francis Boyle. The tactics used included the
rewriting of text on certain websites, the sending of phony emails intended to create
animosity or discredit the victim, and deluging targets with tens of thousands of
messages. The ring, operating from Israeli occupied territory, was eventually tracked
down and exposed.<span style="color: red;">10</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
In August of 2002 a Zim Antwerp ship, operated by Israel, was seized in Germany.
It was filled with weapons and munitions headed for Iran. The firm, closely connected
to the Israeli government, had been licensed to export the cargo to Thailand, but
German intelligence had apparently determined that the final destination was Iran.<span style="color: red;">11</span> </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
In another backfired covert operation, what was originally heralded as a dramatic
January 2002 Red Sea interception of an Iranian ship filled with weapons
headed for Palestine turned out to be a major embarrassment for the Israeli government.
The <i>Karine A</i>, contrary to what the Israelis had asserted, was not a
Palestinian or Iranian vessel, and the whole affair was likely manipulated to provide
a propaganda edge for Ariel Sharon as US envoys met with Palestinian
officials. Lloyd’s of London produced documents proving certain parts of the
Israeli story false and disproving Israeli claims that the weapons had been bought
in Iran by Palestinian interests.<span style="color: red;">12</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
In 2000, after a protracted court battle, the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai
Brith (ADL) lost a civil suit in California federal court after it was found that the
ADL had engaged, in cooperation with Israeli and South African intelligence agencies,
in a massive domestic spying operation against American citizens and
organizations such as Greenpeace and groups opposed to US involvement in the
Contra war. American officials who cooperated with the ADL were sometimes
given all-expenses-paid trips to Israel, where they were introduced to representatives
from the Mossad and Shin Bet intelligence services. It was found that the
ADL had broken many laws by storing illegal intelligence records from local, state,
and federal law enforcement agencies. In ruling in favor of the plaintiffs a US
District Court judge permanently enjoined the ADL from engaging in any further illegal spying against “Arab-American and other civil rights groups.” Several members
of the House of Representatives were plaintiffs in the suit.<span style="color: red;">13</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
On April 25, 2002, former Congressman Pete McCloskey of California was
awarded a $150,000 judgment against the ADL in a related case. McCloskey’s suit
was prompted by FBI and San Francisco police raids on ADL offices which discovered
that the ADL had files on almost 10,000 people across the US, and that
about 75 percent of the material had been illegally obtained. Two of the three victims
in the case who won awards were Jewish. This ruling followed a March 31, 2001,
ruling in a Denver court upholding a $10.5 million defamation judgment against the
Anti-Defamation League for falsely labeling two Colorado residents as anti-Semitic.<span style="color: red;">14</span> </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
To think of the ADL affair as something that originated solely with Israeli
impetus is to overlook some key historical data. In the wake of myriad violations
of US law committed by the FBI, the military, the CIA, and other government
agencies in the 1960s and 1970s, and especially after the damning revelations of
the Frank Church (D-ID) and Otis Pike (D-NY) congressional investigations in
the mid 1970s, American agencies were forced to divest themselves of illegal
records and to cease domestic spying operations. The problem, from their point of
view, was how to hold on to data they deemed irreplaceable. The ADL, a nongovernmental
organization connected with a foreign government, seemed an
ideal solution. The solution was not without its costs.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
In the 1980s the Los Angeles Police Department’s Public Disorder Intelligence
Division (PDID) was found to have been doing what was accomplished by other
agencies directly through the ADL. Ultimately some ADL connections surfaced in
the PDID case. Tens of thousands of illegal intelligence records were disclosed as
having been stored in the private residence and storage facilities rented and maintained
by LAPD Detective Jay Paul. Paul, who was later revealed to have ties to
Israeli interests, maintained many of the records on computers provided by an
ultra-right-wing group, Western Goals. Sitting at the time on the board of directors
of Western Goals was Iran-Contra figure and retired Army General John
Singlaub, a virulent anti-Communist and CIA-connected covert operative.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
As the LAPD scandal was unfolding I served as one of the unnamed sources for
the <i>Los Angeles Times</i>’ reporting of the scandal. Although the <i>Times</i> stopped well
short of stating that US intelligence agencies had supported this intelligence gathering,
two decades later the pattern is very clear. The ADL was there when it was
needed. Yet in using the ADL as a plausibly deniable cutout, American intelligence
agencies at the state and federal level paid a price. They gave the ADL license to
use the data for its own purposes and created a monster that ultimately became a
liability in its own right.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The art students </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
A DEA report from 2001 firmly establishes that in 2000 and 2001 the United
States was entered by at least 120 Israeli intelligence operatives posing as art students.<span style="color: red;">15</span> The M.O. of the ring was to have its members conduct street and
door-to-door sales of artwork in specific areas of interest. Some of those areas were
in Hollywood, Florida, San Diego, and Phoenix, where many of the 9/11 hijackers
had lived and trained. The investigation revealed that the areas of interest at
one level were offices of the DEA and other federal agencies and the homes of
those who worked there.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Initial reports by FOX News’s Brit Hume and Carl Cameron caused great
national interest and international reaction in December 2001 by revealing active
government investigations into the ring before and especially after 9/11. The
report disclosed that many of the ring’s activities seemed to run parallel with the
movements of several of the 9/11 hijackers. Sources have told me that the information
breaking the story was leaked to Hume by Vice President Dick Cheney at
a DC-area a cocktail party about two months after the attacks.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The FOX stories raised interesting questions about two Israeli-owned companies
in the US. One of them, Amdocs, handles almost all telephone billing records
in the United States and thus was in a position to provide invaluable intelligence
information about who was being called from what phones anywhere in the country.
The second company, Comverse, has multiple contracts to handle sensitive
wiretap operations for government agencies, and FOX reported that the Comverse
systems included a “back door” for outside parties with access to it to overhear monitored
conversations.<span style="color: red;">16</span> This is reminiscent of the back door in PROMIS software.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Cameron’s story made it clear that federal investigators were highly concerned
about indications that suspects in the spy ring and — by implication — some of
the 9/11 hijackers were able to avoid detection and capture as a result of information
derived from these two companies. This was a bit of disinformation that
yielded great payoffs for the administration. The FOX and other stories from the
same period revealed that some 60 Israelis had been detained and deported just
after 9/11 for passport and visa violations.<span style="color: red;">17</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Comverse becomes especially interesting because of its relationship with the
Israeli instant-messaging firm Odigo. On September 11 employees of Odigo in
Israel received specific instant messages warning them of the attacks two hours
before they happened. Although the story received intense attention briefly, little
follow-up was done in the major press, and whatever was learned was subsequently
hidden behind veils of secrecy.<span style="color: red;">18</span></div>
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<span style="color: red;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
One breathtaking connection that was overlooked by the mainstream press,
however, was that in January 2001, Comverse, along with Lazard Technology
Partners and another venture capital group, purchased a $15 million stake in
Odigo, giving it access to Odigo’s operations, accounting, and technologies.<span style="color: red;">19</span></div>
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<span style="color: red;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The FOX stories clearly implied that the Israeli operatives had not done all they
could have to help prevent the attacks and suggested that the Israelis had more
knowledge about the attacks than had been publicly disclosed. At one point Hume
asked Cameron,</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Carl, I want to take you back to your report last night on those 60
Israelis who were detained in the anti-terror investigation, and the
suspicion that some investigators have that they may have picked up
information on the 9/11 attacks ahead of time and not passed it on.
There was a report, you’ll recall, that the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence
agency, did indeed send representatives to the US to warn, just
before 9/11, that a major terrorist attack was imminent. How does
that leave room for the lack of a warning?</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: left;">
To which Cameron replied:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
I remember the report, Brit. We did it first internationally right here
on your show on the 14th. What investigators are saying is that that
warning from the Mossad was nonspecific and general, and they
believe that it may have had something to do with the desire to protect
what are called sources and methods in the intelligence
community. The suspicion being, perhaps those sources and methods
were taking place right here in the United States.<span style="color: red;">20</span> </blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
As previously noted, the Mossad warning was specific enough to have named
four of the hijackers. Again, a bit of deception by FOX, whose news director is former
Reagan and Republican Party advisor Roger Ailes. Though subtle and vague,
Hume’s implication was that Israeli operatives were assisting the terrorists. And it
was enough to spark an Internet avalanche of speculation by biased covert operations
dilettantes claiming that Israel had masterminded and executed the attacks.
Once that had started, then the question about Israel, which had apparently begun
with a leak from Dick Cheney, was misdirected and distorted into something that
the media, e.g., Chris Matthews, could effectively dismiss out of hand. And yet the
incident had cost Israel dearly in terms of prestige and credibility. Also, as we shall
see below, it had served to hide some darker truths.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Shortly after the FOX News stories, investigative journalist and former naval
and NSA intelligence officer Wayne Madsen secured a copy of the DEA report
that had started it all. It revealed a great deal more than FOX let on. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Most of the targets for walk-in sales by members of the ring were DEA offices.
The DEA did not play any central role in 9/11.</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
• Members of the ring also made cold-calls at the private residences of
DEA employees, federal judges, Secret Service agents, and other federal
law enforcement and military personnel. This indicates that the
ring had acquired the home addresses — quite possibly through
telephone records — of DEA employees all over the country and
was quietly making that fact known for reasons I will discuss below.<br />
• On December 12, 2000, one Israeli named Shay Ashkenazi, when
stopped for an INS screening after entering the US, <i>volunteered</i> information about the art students to authorities indicating that it
was a fraud ring and actually named one of participants. Ashkenazi
told the INS officers that he was a “former Israeli intelligence officer
who was now traveling to ‘enjoy life.’” This means that one Israeli
intelligence operative tipped off the US government to the work of
other Israeli intelligence operatives.<br />
• The ring did have very heavy operations in some areas connected
with 9/11, especially the area around Hollywood, Florida, where
Mohammed Atta and other hijackers lived and trained, San Diego,
where Alhazmi and Almidhar lived; and Phoenix, Arizona. In fact, a
group of these agents were later confirmed to have been living virtually
next door to Atta’s Florida post office box and had been surveilling him
for some time. Some of these agents had entered the US from Frankfurt,
Germany, where Atta had also lived and planned for the attacks.<br />
• The CIA is mentioned in only one place in the report — San Diego
— where Alhazmi and Almidhar lived. The report said, “The San
Diego [DEA] Division is currently working with the FBI, Department
of State, and CIA personnel on advancing the investigation.”<span style="color: red;">21</span></blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Espionage 101 </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Those with experience in intelligence operations will recognize some patterns to
this widespread operation. First of all, when mounting an operation of wide scope,
governments usually allow the operation to be used for multiple purposes. Within
the Israeli government there might be three or four different intelligence units that
could benefit from a large-scale deployment of covert operatives. We have already
seen how closely intertwined narcotics and intelligence operations are worldwide.
Not only does drug dealing provide, in some cases, the necessary covert funding
for the operations themselves, it is also a means of generating income for national
economies. With the United States and the CIA as the “Alpha dog” in the worldwide
drug trade, there are few areas of competition left to generate large cash flows.
One area in which Israeli organized crime has excelled, however, is in controlling
the largest market share of trafficking in the drug MDMA (Ecstasy). And the
interfaces between intelligence agencies and organized crime are well documented.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Secondly, to have a multiplicity of purposes often throws counterintelligence
personnel off the scent of the real purposes of covert operations. It is common to
have covert operations that resemble Chinese boxes — one inside the other. Not every
member of the art student ring would have known of deeper operations intended to
track the 9/11 hijackers, and for good reason. And the fact that one Israeli intelligence
operative actually tipped US authorities off to the operation might well have been a
plausibly deniable heads-up to US intelligence that the ring was here and on the move.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
A close reading of the DEA report suggests that on one level it was a direct
intimidation effort aimed at various elements of the federal government. Nothing more disrupts criminal investigations than any hint that suspects have acquired the
home addresses of investigating officers and know how to find their families. In
dozens of cases, members of the ring showed up at private residences when only
wives or other relatives were at home. Some of those relatives, their suspicions
aroused, followed the art students and their canvases only to see that they had not
called on any neighboring homes. It would have been nothing for Israeli intelligence
to later hand over the addresses of these investigators to Israeli organized
crime members, who are not known for their congeniality.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Yet on a deeper level this story reveals that Israeli intelligence services were operating
as an accomplice of the US government to see that certain aspects of the attacks
would be successful, and that, if the need arose, other attacks could be prevented.
Israeli agents compromised in the operation would not have led directly to the US
government, and ultra-sensitive missions are often subcontracted between governments.
As history shows, Israel has benefited enormously since the attacks, using
the wave of emotion to brutally consolidate its positions — often to the point of
embarrassing the United States. And, when two people are both guilty of murder,
they can usually be counted on to keep their mouths shut.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
An interesting side note to the art student spy scandal is the fact that after
receiving the DEA report and authenticating it, Madsen wrote a story for the
newsletter <i>Intelligence Online</i> published by Guillaume Dasquié, author of <i>Forbidden
Truth</i>. From there it was picked up by <i>Le Monde</i> and reignited as a story of worldwide
interest. But in early March, Madsen also took the DEA report to TV news
reporter Dale Solly at Washington’s ABC affiliate WJLA. On March 5, at the top
of the 5 PM report, Solly aired an interview with Madsen. In that report Solly
asked, “<i>But what, if anything did they learn? At worst, Madsen says,” Solly continued,
“they had advance knowledge of the attacks and either didn’t share all of it with
US intelligence or were ignored if they did .… Late today, the FBI and DEA confirmed
the arrests. The French newspaper Le Monde called this the biggest Israeli spy case in
this country since the Jonathan Pollard case in 1986</i>.” <span style="color: red;">22</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Solly, then 53, a nonsmoker and dedicated runner, died of a sudden heart attack
on April 27. Anonymous sources who knew him stated that there was a considerable
delay in securing a statement from the coroner that the cause of death was
natural. What is harder to dismiss is the fact that one of WJLA’s newsroom directors,
Phil Smith, also died of a sudden cardiac arrest within three weeks of Solly.<span style="color: red;">23</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Before looking at deeper reasons why Dick Cheney would have wanted to
bring the whole matter to light, it’s necessary to look at the role of Israel in
American politics.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">AIPAC and Israeli political influence </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Few Washington insiders will deny that the American Israeli Public Affairs
Committee (AIPAC) is probably the most influential lobby in Washington. It is
not difficult to find press stories about Israeli politicians boasting that the American Congress is “controlled” by Israeli interests. Again, it is critical to find the truths
and the untruths in statements like this.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I have witnessed the power of AIPAC. In mid December 2001, while in
Washington, I happened to sit in on the mark-up of a House resolution in the
International Relations Committee. The resolution was one condemning Iraq for
its role in terrorism and its repeated violation of human rights. I walked into the
hearing room in the Rayburn office building and sat in the crowded spectator area,
which was occupied primarily by staff of the various members debating and voting
on the measure. They had come to watch an important political event in the
wake of 9/11. It proved to be more enlightening listening to the staff members —
who worked in the offices of members with whom I don’t usually do business —
than to the members themselves.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The vote started slowly, with many of the votes going against the resolution. It
seemed as though the harsh anti-Iraq resolution might fail. There had, after all,
been no evidence released that Iraq had had anything to do with the 9/11 attacks.
But then, from side doors in the rear of the hearing room, various representatives
started sticking their heads in the door long enough to say “Aye.” These were some
of the most powerful members of the committee including among others, Henry
Hyde, Ben Gilman, and Tom Lantos. As the members who were all voting in favor
of the resolution stuck their heads in the door to vote, I overhead staff members
all around me saying, “Here comes the AIPAC vote.” The staffers were cynical,
even fatalistic about the outcome. The measure passed by a wide margin, and it
was not long afterwards that I reached the conclusion that we were going to go to
war with Iraq.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Further evidence of Israeli influence over the US Congress was seen in
November 2001, when 89 out of 100 US senators signed a letter urging President
Bush not to hamper Israel’s activities in retaliation for a wave of Palestinian suicide
bombings that helped to turn Israel and Palestine into sausage factories. Justly
playing on the point that no act of terror against innocent non-combatants is justified,
the letter neglected to mention anything about the way Israel was using its
massive military might to dislocate hundreds and thousands of Palestinian citizens
who had nothing to do with the attacks.<span style="color: red;">24</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
On August 26, as if the wishes of the Israeli government were not already
known, an aide to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon formally urged the US to begin the
invasion of Iraq as soon as possible, saying, “Any postponement of an attack on
Iraq at this stage will serve no purpose.”<span style="color: red;">25</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The 2002 midterm elections </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Two African American members of the House fell, in large measure, as a result of
being targeted by AIPAC and pro-Israeli American Jewish organizations in their
2002 primaries before the November election. The chief crimes of Earl F. Hilliard
of Alabama and Cynthia McKinney of Georgia seem to be that they had openly supported Palestinian rights and had openly questioned the conduct of the Israeli
government. A fact that aided in McKinney’s demise was that she had long been
a vocal critic of the CIA, covert operations, and globalization under both
Presidents Clinton and Bush. And she had dared to make a public statement questioning
how much the administration knew about the attacks of 9/11 before they
happened. Shortly after this, a series of stories appeared suggesting that McKinney
actually supported terrorism because less than a half dozen campaign donors had
previously expressed support for Hamas and Hezbollah. I strongly suspect that at
least some of those donations were planted in her campaign to discredit her. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
McKinney’s courageous stance made her a target of Republican interests as well
as AIPAC, and the two combined in a serious effort, using heavy crossover (and
possibly illegal) voting by Republicans and very large campaign donations from
pro-Israel organizations and interests outside of Georgia into the coffers of her
pro-Israel, pro-war, African American rival, former state judge Denise Majette.
McKinney, a five-term member of the House, lost her primary. A lawsuit challenging
the legality of the crossover vote is currently under appeal.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
McKinney actually won the Democratic Party vote. Nevertheless the
<i>Washington Post</i>, Reuters, CNN, and the <i>Congressional News Service</i> all acknowledged
that she was targeted by AIPAC and out-of-state, pro-Israel funding, and
that this made the difference in her defeat.<span style="color: red;">26</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Just days after the 2002 midterm elections, the <i>Jerusalem Post</i> published a celebratory
story about how the 108th Congress would remain strongly pro-Israel,
tallying up the Jewish members of both Houses. While there is an ample, but by no
means uniform, correlation between Jewish identity and support for the state of
Israel among American Jews, that correlation is almost absolute among Jewish
members of Congress. The <i>Jerusalem Post</i> story noted how the 108th Congress
would bolster President Bush’s agenda for regime change in Iraq. Ironically, it cited
the strongly pro-Israel stance of the new senator from Minnesota, Norm Coleman,
as he replaced the late Senator Paul Wellstone — perhaps the only Jewish American
legislator to take a position substantively critical of Israeli policy in the occupied territories.
The <i>Post</i> didn’t discuss that aspect of Senator Wellstone’s legacy.<span style="color: red;">27</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Reaching an understanding </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Israel has always spied on the US. Perhaps the most famous Israeli spy is an
American Jew named Jonathan Pollard, who compromised secret US communications
technology in the 1970s and 1980s and remains in maximum security
lock-up. Former CIA officials have categorized Pollard as perhaps the most damaging
spy ever to have betrayed his country. And in December 2001 American
physicist Richard Smyth pled guilty to illegally providing Israel with nuclear triggers
in 1982. He then spent 16 years on the run until he was captured.<span style="color: red;">28</span> What
happened in these cases and in the case of the art students is nothing new. For
decades the Israeli desk at the CIA was the only national intelligence desk at the agency kept within the Counterintelligence Directorate. The portfolio was handled
for most of that time by the legendary alcoholic and paranoid James Jesus
Angleton, who — even today — many believe was an Israeli mole. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
In short, the mutually beneficial but mutually compromising relationship between
America and Israel is the source of both geopolitical cooperation and domestic political
sabotage. When an international institution like the UN threatens to take a
position against human rights violations or aggressive warfare, Israel and the US
can generally be found opposing it together. While the US maintains its permanent
military outpost in the most oil-rich region on the planet, Israel fends off the
legitimate claims of displaced Arabs without worrying over its own strategic encirclement.
But those needs require continual surveillance and penetration of each
country by the other. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
There is a compelling case that Israel acted as a partner with US intelligence
and financial interests in seeing to it that the attacks of 9/11 were carried out. Israel
had the unique HUMINT and the ELINT capabilities to track, and even quietly
protect, the 9/11 hijackers from capture without the hijackers knowing it. It also
had PROMIS software. In that role they served as a cutout for US interests and
afforded the CIA with a layer of protection. Neither the US nor Israel can afford
to have these secrets come out, and each has a blackmail option against the other.
If the claim that Dick Cheney leaked the art student story to Brit Hume is true,
then what we witnessed was the American giant disciplining its headstrong junior
partner.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
And what might be Israel’s future role? Consider the moneyed interests behind
the neo-cons as a kind of corporate board. In the new world order that is emerging
after 9/11, Israel is positioning itself to occupy the position of executive vice
president in charge of Middle Eastern affairs. As it does so, the financial and military
powers of what has become an almost openly fascist world order continue to
drive humanity toward the brink of destruction. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
However, as we shall soon see, there will be more very compelling evidence to
show that Israel acted as a junior partner to key US leaders to actually carry out
the attacks of 9/11.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
*******</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Footnotes below</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
CHAPTER 15 FOOTNOTES [Those scrubbed from the net have orig. links shown]:</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
1 “Mossad Agents Were on Atta’s Tail,” <i>Der Spiegel</i>, October 1, 2002. Original link broken. Archived at <a href="http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=a1200spyring#a1200spyring">http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=a1200spyring#a1200spyring</a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
2 “Insider notes from United Press International for March 6,” UPI, March 6, 2002: <a href="http://www.upi.com/print.cfm?StoryID=06032002-121706-8744r">www.upi.com/print.cfm?StoryID=06032002-121706-8744r</a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
3 Peter Dale Scott, Flash 28, “A U.S. Attack on Iraq Could Create a New Anti-U.S. Coalition,” March 18, 2002, http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~pdscott/qfiraq3.html [Berkeley archives retired, not found]</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
4 Richard B. Du Boff, “Comparing
Violations of UN Resolutions by Iraq and Israel,” <i>Al Jazeerah</i>, September 23, 2002, [Original not found. Archived here: <a href="https://israelect.com/reference/WillieMartin/Resolutions%20Against%20Israel%20[A].htm">https://israelect.com/reference/WillieMartin/Resolutions%20Against%20Israel%20[A].htm</a>]</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
5 “Sabra and Shatila 20 years on,” BBC <i>News</i>, September 14, 2002, <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2255902.stm">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2255902.stm</a>; “Israel/Occupied Territories: Israeli Defence Force war crimes must be investigated,” Amnesty International Press Release, November 2,</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
2002, [Original link is no longer online. http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/Index/MDE151542002?OpenDocument&of=COUNTRIES/ISRAEL/OCCUPIED+TERRITORIES; Full release archived here: <a href="http://peacenowar.net/Palestine/News/Nov%205%2002.htm#5">http://peacenowar.net/Palestine/News/Nov%205%2002.htm#5</a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
6 “All the 9-11 Airports Serviced By One Israeli Owned Company,” Undated, <a href="http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/ICTS.html">http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/ICTS.html</a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
7 “The White Van: Were Israelis detained on September 11 Spies?” ABC <i>News</i>, June 21, 2002, [Original link: http://abcnews.go.com/sections/2020/DailyNews/2020_whitevan_020621.html || archived story: <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=123885&page=1">http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=123885&page=1</a>]</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
8 “Palestinians arrest al-Q’aeda ‘poseurs,’” <i>Sydney Morning Herald</i>, December 8, 2002, <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/12/07/1038950239070.html">www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/12/07/1038950239070.html</a>; Danny Rubinstein, “Ibrahim, the Shin bet wants you to join Qaida,” <i>Ha’aretz</i>, December 15, 2002, [Link not found, story archived here: <a href="http://www.theinsider.org/news/article.asp?id=0490">http://www.theinsider.org/news/article.asp?id=0490</a>]</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
9 “U.S. papers: FBI hunting suspected terrorists with Israeli passports,” <i>Ha’aretz</i>, June 28, 2002, <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/u-s-papers-fbi-hunting-suspected-terrorists-with-israeli-passports-1.73560">https://www.haaretz.com/u-s-papers-fbi-hunting-suspected-terrorists-with-israeli-passports-1.73560</a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
10 Michael Gillespie, “Israeli Computer Hackers Foiled, Exposed,” Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, September 3, 2002. Archived at <a href="https://www.mediamonitors.net/perspectives/israeli-computer-hackers-foiled-exposed/">https://www.mediamonitors.net/perspectives/israeli-computer-hackers-foiled-exposed/</a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
11 “Israeli Arms Shipment Headed for Iran Seized in Germany,” Global Vision News Network, August 29, 2002, [Archived here: <a href="https://www.albawaba.com/business/israeli-arms-shipment-headed-iran-seized-germany-0">https://www.albawaba.com/business/israeli-arms-shipment-headed-iran-seized-germany-0</a>]</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
12 “Arms Seizure backfires, wounds Israel,” Stratfor, January 2002, Archived at <a href="https://worldview.stratfor.com/article/arms-seizure-backfires-wounds-israel">https://worldview.stratfor.com/article/arms-seizure-backfires-wounds-israel</a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
13 Michael Gillespie, “Los Angeles Court Hands Down Final Judgment in Anti-Defamation</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
League Illegal Surveillance Case,” Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, December 1999,</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="https://www.wrmea.org/1999-december/los-angeles-court-hands-down-final-judgment-in-anti-defamation-league-illegal-surveillance-case.html">https://www.wrmea.org/1999-december/los-angeles-court-hands-down-final-judgment-in-anti-defamation-league-illegal-surveillance-case.html</a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
14 Barbara Ferguson, “ADL Found Guilty of
Spying by California Court,” The Arab
News, April 25, 2002, Archived: <a href="http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/673896/posts">http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/673896/posts</a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
15 This report was originally made public by investigative journalist and former NSA analyst Wayne Madsen in late February and early March of 2002. Madsen obtained the report several months after FOX <i>News</i> stories by Carl Cameron and Brit Hume broke the initial story of the spy ring, but did not mention the DEA connections, which were central to understanding the context of the operation. The undated DEA report, extracted from a larger document, was written sometime in the summer of 2001. It can be found online at <a href="http://cryptome.org/dea-il-spy.htm">http://cryptome.org/dea-il-spy.htm</a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
16 The four-part FOX series by Carl Cameron began on Monday December 17, 2001. Although the story was subsequently removed from the FOX web site and “spiked” as some researchers have called it, transcripts are still available through web searches and through the Federal Document Clearing House. Series archived online at <a href="https://100777.com/search/node/Carl%20Cameron">https://100777.com/search/node/Carl%20Cameron</a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
17 Cameron, op. cit.; John Mintz, “60 Israelis on Tourist Visas Detained Since September 11,” <i>Washington Post</i>, November 23, 2001, archived here: <a href="http://newsmine.org/content.php?ol=9-11/questions/israelis/60-israelis-detained.txt">http://newsmine.org/content.php?ol=9-11/questions/israelis/60-israelis-detained.txt</a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
18 “Instant Messages Warned of WTC Attacks,” <i>Washington Post</i>, September 28, 2001, <a href="http://www.fpp.co.uk/online/01/09/WTC_Odigo.html">www.fpp.co.uk/online/01/09/WTC_Odigo.html</a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
19 “Odigo, Inc., the leading instant messaging provider, secures $15.35 million in private placement,” press release, Comverse, Inc., January 9, 2001, [Not Found: http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
CUdFXHT1MHgC:www.comverse.com/press/2001/010109.htm++Press+release++Comverse+Inc.+January+9+2001&hl=en&ie=UTF-8]</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
20 Cameron, op. cit. [Part Two, December 18, 2001] </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="https://100777.com/search/node/Carl%20Cameron">https://100777.com/search/node/Carl%20Cameron</a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
21 DEA Report, op. cit.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
22 5 PM newscast, WJLA TV. The transcript
of the story has since been
removed from the WJLA web site.
However, I was able to recover a copy of
the original teleprompter script from the
broadcast. [Not available]</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
23 “The View from Washington,” Poynteronline, September 10, 2002, [Not located. Archives at LoC here <a href="http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20020913001926/http://www.poynter.org/">http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20020913001926/http://www.poynter.org/</a>]</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
24 Elaine Sciolino, “89 Senators Urge Bush Not to Hamper Israel,” <i>New York Times</i>, November 16, 2001. Archived at <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/17/world/senators-urge-bush-not-to-hamper-israel.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/17/world/senators-urge-bush-not-to-hamper-israel.html</a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
25 Jason Keyser, “Israel Urges U.S. to Attack Iraq,” <i>Associated Press</i>, August 16, 2002. [Unable to locate original or archive: www.firstcoastnews.com/news/2002-08-16/usw_israeliraq.asp]</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
26 “Georgia casts votes in bitter house duels,”
<i>Reuters</i>, August 20, 2002, [Link not found: www.cynthiamckinney.net/articles/20020220_bitter_<www .cynthiamckinney.net="" 20020220_bitter_="" articles="" house_duels.htm="">house_duels.htm]; Thomas B. Edsall,
“Impact of McKinney Loss Worries Some
Democrats; Tension Between Blacks,
Jews a Concern,” <i>Washington Post</i>, August
22, 2002, Archive: </www><a href="https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-374552.html">https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-374552.html</a><www .cynthiamckinney.net="" 20020220_bitter_="" articles="" house_duels.htm=""><www .washingtonpost.com="" ac2="" contentid="A47064-2002Aug21&" notfound="true" pagename="article&node=" wp-dyn="">; Jim Burns, “McKinney
Contemplating Run For Georgia U.S.
Senate Seat,” CNS <i>News</i>, August 26, 2002: [Archived: </www></www>http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/739624/posts]</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
27 Jamie Zacharia, “New Congress remains strongly pro-Israel,” <i>Jerusalem Post</i>, November 6, 2002, [Unable to locate original or archived post: www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/A/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1036619253808]</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
28 “U.S. scientist sentenced for selling nuclear trigger devices,” Ananova Press Agency, December 29, 2001; “United States II: Nuclear Trigger Smuggler Pleads Guilty,” [Original link/archive not found: www.nti.org/d_newswire/issues/newswires/2002_1_2.html]; Cf. Gary Milhollin, Professor
Emeritus, University of Wisconsin Law
School and Director, Wisconsin Project
on Nuclear Arms Control, Testimony Before the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, May 26, 2000,</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://www.wisconsinproject.org/testimony-the-export-of-dual-use-technology/">http://www.wisconsinproject.org/testimony-the-export-of-dual-use-technology/</a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>Please find links to previously released excerpts below with footnotes, which are the bulk of the work for this project. Crossing the Rubicon is over 700 pages long with upwards of 1,000 footnotes requiring updating since its 2004 release. From The Wilderness web links are estimated at double or triple that amount. Mike's administrative team sincerely appreciates your support of his legacy. TRC does not receive commission from sales of Crossing the Rubicon. Book sales help the administrator who granted permission to TRC to share excerpts and official web hosting duties.</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Semper fi 🗽 </span></center>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
Jan. 8, 2012: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2012/01/petroleum-man.html" target="_blank">Petroleum Man</a></div>
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<br /></div>
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Jan. 9, 2012: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2012/01/simple-exercise.html" target="_blank">A Simple Exercise</a></div>
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<br /></div>
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Jan. 20, 2012: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2012/01/unholy-trinity-part-one.html" target="_blank">Unholy Trinity / Part One</a></div>
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<br /></div>
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Jan. 21, 2012: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2012/01/unholy-trinity-part-two.html" target="_blank">Unholy Trinity / Part Two</a></div>
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Jan. 22, 2012: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2012/01/unholy-trinity-part-three.html" target="_blank">Unholy Trinity / Part Three</a></div>
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Nov. 13, 2017: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2017/11/why-is-us-so-russiaphobic-inconvenient.html" target="_blank">Why Is US So Russiaphobic? Inconvenient Truths About Foreign Policy</a></div>
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Dec. 14, 2017: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2017/12/business-with-bin-ladens-real-saudi.html" target="_blank">Business With The Bin Ladens: The Real Saudi Arabia || Part One</a></div>
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Dec. 20, 2017: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2017/12/business-with-bin-ladens-real-saudi_20.html" target="_blank">Business With The Bin Ladens: The Real Saudi Arabia || Part Two</a></div>
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Jan. 1, 2018: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2018/01/define-bombshell-what-happens-when-fbi.html" target="_blank">Define Bombshell: What Happens When FBI Agents Blow The Whistle</a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8876848971119625162.post-50654089122720685232018-01-01T20:19:00.001-05:002018-05-11T23:35:37.116-04:00TRC Redpill Theater || A Good American: William Binneysubmitted for your consideration<br />
by <a href="http://www.twitter.com/TRCNewsUCanUse" target="_blank">Gabrielle Jones-Price</a><br />
<br />
Every American needs to watch this and have a long discussion with their families about the gravity of this in the current historical context. There is a lot of work to do -- but the work isn't what many imagine it was -- even last year.<br />
<br />
There are those who are half-woke but afraid to speak out about what they know to be true. I find young people are far more savvy about such things as folks my age -- but then folks my age and older think I'm insane because I don't watch the <i>Nightly News</i> or trust <i>NPR</i> [or intelligence agencies, but hey, that's historically for a damn good reason]. I don't poke fun, take cheap shots or utter the word 'resistance' -- it's been a year and it does nothing except win bad comedians more awards. It only brings headaches, arguments and focuses attention on feelings rather than facts.<br />
<br />
I haven't been able to bring myself to watch any mainstream news at all in the last 8 years. I'm used to this. It's been my job to redpill loved ones the the best way I know how. I've lost a lot of friends and loved ones in this fight. It has to be re-framed to appeal to a moral compass. I think this film is a great start.<br />
<br />
It is a new day and a new year. I know I'm not alone. The goal should be for people who 'get it' to be able to see each other. This is how we bridge gaps, come together and work toward a greater good for citizens who wish to restore what has been so utterly corrupted. It can be done. It will take many to do it.<br />
<br />
To those ends ~ be sincere, stay human and heart-centered.<br />
I think that's resolution enough, don't you? ~ G<br />
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<br />Give What You Can</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8876848971119625162.post-22370754298092822352018-01-01T18:49:00.000-05:002018-05-11T23:39:06.234-04:00Define Bombshell : What Happens When FBI Agents Blow The Whistle<center>
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<i>Submitted for your consideration </i><i>by <a href="http://www.twitter.com/TRCNewsUCanUse" target="_blank">Gabrielle Jones Price</a> </i><br />
<i>with </i><i><a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2017/02/crossed-rubicons-birthday-message-for.html" target="_blank">permission from the author</a> and copyright holder.</i></div>
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<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">From <i>Crossing the Rubicon: </i></span><i><span style="font-size: large;">The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil</span></i></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Published in 2004</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Chapter 12<br />Executing A Conspiracy: Shame And Honor In The FBI —
An Air Force Colonel Blows The Whistle</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">by </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/CrossingTheRubiconOfficialPage/" style="font-size: x-large;" target="_blank">Michael C. Ruppert</a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<div style="font-size: medium;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">[<i>w/updated footnotes</i>]</span></div>
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</span></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">I</span></b>t doesn’t take many people to execute a conspiracy, especially when the people
involved are accustomed to dealing with compartmentalized information.
Few organizations are more familiar with compartmentalized information, and
with what happens to whistleblowers who compromise intelligence operations,
than the FBI. Indeed, the bureau is almost always the first place where people seek
help when the inevitable retributions begin. It is the first place I went in 1978 after
resigning from the LAPD with tape-recorded death threats when I knew that the
CIA was dealing drugs. Who better to know and understand what whistleblowers
face when they make their momentous decisions to come forward?</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
But what happens when FBI agents blow the whistle? The truth of the matter
is that many FBI agents, employees, and even military personnel did speak out,
both before and after 9/11. What they said is damning. And what has happened
to them remains a continued warning (though not an excuse) for those who still
function within the system and keep it going. The main reason why these whistleblowers
have been so thoroughly smashed is because they all threatened to expose
direct US connections to the attacks of 9/11 and those who carried them out.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">White House orders</span></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
In a watershed moment two months after the World Trade Center attacks, the
BBC’s Greg Palast disclosed that shortly after taking office the Bush administration
acted to prevent an FBI investigation into two of Osama bin Laden’s brothers,
Abdullah and Omar, living in a DC suburb near CIA headquarters. With the
cooperation of veteran investigative journalist Joe Trento, Palast was actually able
to produce a classified FBI national security report disclosing the damning evidence.
The subject of the investigation was the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), a charity that had been repeatedly documented as having funneled money
to terrorists.<span style="color: red;">1</span></div>
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<i> </i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
In the course of the broadcast Palast made these remarks:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I received a phone call from a high-placed member of a US intelligence
agency. He tells me that while there’s [sic] always been
constraints on investigating Saudis; under George Bush, it’s gotten
much worse. After the elections, the agencies were told to ‘back off’
investigating the bin Ladens and Saudi royals, and that angered
agents. I’m told that since September 11th the policy has been
reversed. FBI headquarters told us they could not comment on our
findings. A spokesman said: ‘There are lots of things that only the
intelligence community knows and that no one else ought to know.’<span style="color: red;">2</span> </blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<i> </i>But the documents are more revealing, as Palast explains:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
This document is marked “Secret.” Case ID — 199-Eye WF 213 589.
199 is FBI code for case type: 9 would be murder, 65 would be espionage,
199 means national security. WF indicates Washington field
office special agents were investigating ABL — because of his relationship
with the World Assembly of Muslim Youth, WAMY… ABL
is Abdullah Bin Laden, president and treasurer of WAMY…<br />
The US Treasury has not frozen WAMY’s assets, and when we
talked to them, they insisted they are a charity. Yet, just weeks ago,
Pakistan expelled WAMY operatives. And India claimed that WAMY
was funding an organisation linked to bombings in Kashmir. And the
Philippine military has accused WAMY of funding Muslim insurgency.
The FBI did look into WAMY, but, for some reason, agents
were pulled off the trail.<br />
TRENTO: The FBI wanted to investigate these guys. This is not
something that they didn’t want to do — they wanted to .… they
weren’t permitted to…<br />
MICHAEL WILDES (LAWYER): I would never be surprised
with that. They’re cut off at the hip sometimes by supervisors or given
shots that are being called from Washington at the highest levels….<span style="color: red;">3</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Robert Wright</span></div>
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Twelve-year veteran FBI agent Robert Wright Jr. should be proud. Of all of the
FBI “brick” agents who have come forward since 9/11 to describe the deliberate
obstruction of investigations that could have prevented the attacks, no others have
taken the risks or endured the punishment that Wright has. For good reason.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Wright is the only agent in the FBI’s history to have conducted an investigation
of terrorists that resulted in the seizure of financial assets. In 1998 he began
an investigation — since terminated by the FBI — into terrorist money laundering in the United States. That investigation resulted in the seizure of bank accounts
and other assets of Yassin Kadi, who has “since been identified as one of the ‘chief
money launderers’ for Osama bin Laden.” Kadi is reported to have provided as
much as $3 billion to al Qaeda before Wright shut him down.<span style="color: red;">4</span> (Wright’s investigations
also put a major crimp in the funding for Hamas, another Palestinian related
support group that has been linked to terrorist activities in Israel).</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Based in Chicago, home of the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) where a great
deal of 9/11-related insider trading was to take place, Wright was in one of the three most
important financial centers of the United States. Nobody moves $3 billion without using
exchanges such as the NYSE or CBOE. It’s just too much money and must move in financial
streams where it would not stand out.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
In the only real coverage of Wright’s decision to come forward — which was
coupled with a formal complaint against the FBI for its suppression of him — the
<i>Congressional News Service</i> told a chilling tale as it reported on a press conference
held by Wright and his legal team on May 30, 2002: </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
In a memorandum written 91 days before the September 11 terrorist
attacks, an FBI agent warned that Americans would die as a result of
the bureau’s failure to adequately pursue investigations of terrorists
living in the country… Wright says that FBI management ‘intentionally
and repeatedly thwarted and obstructed’ his attempts to expand
the investigation to arrest other terrorists and seize their assets .…’ As
a direct result of the incompetence and, at times, intentional obstruction
of justice by FBI management to prevent me from bringing the
terrorists to justice, Americans have unknowingly been exposed to
potential terrorists attacks for years,’ he charged.<span style="color: red;">5</span></blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
FBI Director Robert Mueller held a May 29, 2002, press conference where he
stated, “It is critically important that I hear criticisms of the organization including
criticisms of me in order to improve the organization.” Meanwhile the FBI was
landing on Wright’s chest with both feet. It had issued Wright written orders not
to discuss what he knew and not to disclose, either in speech or writing, the contents
of an unpublished manuscript entitled <i>Vulgar Betrayal</i> that he had written for
Congress. Wright was threatened in writing with disciplinary action, civil suits,
revocation of security clearances, and even criminal prosecution if he talked. That
letter was received by Wright’s attorney, David Schippers, at 5:00 pm <i>on the same
day</i> Mueller lied to the American people about his pure intentions.<span style="color: red;">6</span></div>
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<span style="color: red;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The next day, Wright concluded his own press conference in tears: “To the
families and victims of September 11th,” he said, “on behalf of [FBI Special
Agents] John Vincent, Barry Carmody, and myself — we’re sorry.”<span style="color: red;">7</span> But the real
truth of what was done to this ethical law enforcement officer is contained in a
May 22 letter written by Schippers to the FBI and in the words spoken at the press
conference itself.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
In writing to Wright’s superior, Chicago Special Agent in Charge (SAC) Thomas
Kneir, Schippers described how Wright had voluntarily given a heads-up about a
<i>New York Times</i> investigation into what had happened with his investigations.
Wright was subsequently ordered not to talk to the press. He complied. Schippers
wrote, </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The FBI has failed seriously to address Robert Wright’s work-related
concerns regarding the FBI’s terrorism responsibilities. In fact, we
believe there has been a concerted effort by the FBI to discredit Agent
Wright and minimize his concerns regarding the FBI’s failures in connection
with international terrorism matters prior to September
11th, 2001. In part, this effort includes providing false and misleading
information to the New York Times regarding Agent Wright and
his Vulgar Betrayal investigation. Even more disturbing is the fact that
the FBI has prevented Agent Wright and Special Agent John Vincent
from providing written responses to the New York Times to counter
that false and misleading information .... Agent Wright has also filed
two complaints with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) in an
attempt to have his concerns addressed .... To our astonishment, the
DOJ employee advised that, although the allegations were extremely
serious, the Inspector General’s Office did not have the resources to
conduct an investigation of this anticipated size and scope.<span style="color: red;">8</span></blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The sheer vindictiveness of a system that seeks to silence whistleblowers was
most fully revealed in the press conference itself, in which it was disclosed that
Wright, Schippers, and attorney Larry Klayman of Judicial Watch (a Washington,
DC-based legal watchdog group) had actually met months before 9/11. They also
disclosed that Wright had written most of his manuscript and decided to speak out
about the repression well before the first plane hit the World Trade Center.
Repeating allegations that Wright had been threatened and intimidated by the
Bureau, Klayman stated that Wright’s manuscript hits both Bush and Cheney
“hard.” That leaves little doubt about where the orders to crush Wright were coming
from. Shippers added that Wright had even been ordered not to talk to Congress.
John Ashcroft was not spared in the scathing statements. Klayman said that “Ashcroft
very likely had all of this information” and didn’t use Wright’s investigative work
to pull the financial plug on al Qaeda before the attacks.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The lawyers also described how Wright had, since voicing his concerns, been
demoted to performing “innocuous tasks”; his office had been moved, computer
equipment had been taken away from him, and he had been forced to purchase
computers with his own money (which he did, out of sheer devotion to his work).
Klayman stated that his office, aware of the direct connections between Wright’s
work and Osama bin Laden, had called Attorney General Ashcroft immediately
after the attacks. The response was terse: “We’re tired of conspiracy theories.”</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
For a time C-SPAN carried a downloadable video file of the entire compelling
press conference, which received no attention in the major media.<span style="color: red;">9</span> It has since
been removed.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Kenneth Williams and the Phoenix memo: a CIA connection </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
On July 10, 2001, Kenneth Williams, the senior special agent from a Phoenix FBI
terrorism task force, sent a memo to FBI headquarters. That memo, resulting from
a seven-year investigation, alerted FBI headquarters that a number of Muslims, suspected
of radical ties, were taking flight lessons in Arizona. It was later confirmed
that Hani Hanjour, who was to be listed as the suspected pilot of the airliner the government
says crashed into the Pentagon, had received his flight training in Arizona.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The memo specifically mentioned Osama bin Laden and warned that terrorists
were possibly going to hijack aircraft or penetrate airport security. Williams
requested that the FBI institute a nationwide survey of aviation schools to ascertain
if there were large numbers of Middle Eastern students enrolled in them. The
request was denied, reportedly for lack of resources.<span style="color: red;">10</span> The excuse seems weak. A
list of flight schools is readily available through the Internet, and a telephone survey
would have yielded fast results. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Williams was not the first FBI agent in Phoenix to complain about interference
and obstruction by FBI headquarters. In 1994 Special Agent James Hauswirth
complained about it after retiring and wrote a letter of complaint to FBI Director
Mueller in December 2001. Hauswirth wrote, “The [international anti-terrorism]
program ground to a halt a couple of years ago because of the micromanaging,
constant indecision, and stonewalling.”<span style="color: red;">11</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
There was serious reason for the Phoenix “brick agents” to be concerned. They
had watched some of their suspects who were taking flight training practicing at
pistol ranges, and one of them was an associate of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman,
imprisoned for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.<span style="color: red;">12</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
After disclosure of the Phoenix memo’s existence in May of 2002, FBI Director
Mueller took the same tack as in the Wright case: he classified it and refused to
show it to members of the Senate panel investigating 9/11. This outraged Senator
Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, who threatened a subpoena and a fight.<span style="color: red;">13</span> Unlike
Wright, Williams — as a result of public pressure — was allowed to testify before
the intelligence panel, and that panel has seen the memorandum that, however,
<i>remains classified</i>. [<i>...is it still? ~ GJP</i>]</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Another person who saw the memo was <i>Fortune</i> reporter Richard Behar. This is
the same Richard Behar who was instrumental in destroying the credibility of IranContra
figure Terry Reed in the previous chapter. It seems Mr. Behar is a trusted
asset of intelligence agencies, who should not have disclosed anything the government
didn’t want known. But in his May 22 story on the Phoenix memo, he did.
He described the Phoenix Field office’s interest in a man named Zakaria Soubra:
“Soubra, the memo said, was a student at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona (according to the <i>Los Angeles Times</i>, he was questioned by FBI
agents in 2000, after he was observed at a shooting range with another Muslim,
who was a veteran of Islamic jihads in the Balkans and the Middle East…). The
organization named in the memo’s title, the Islamic Army of the Caucasus, is based
in Chechnya and was at one time headed by a man named Amir Khattab, who,
according to news reports, is suspected of having ties to Osama bin Laden.”<span style="color: red;">14</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
We have previously documented that Chechen rebels were trained in camps
funded and operated by the CIA, and that these operations were connected to
Osama bin Laden, who was acting on behalf of the CIA in both the Balkans
(Kosovo) and Chechnya. Khattab was one of the key players in those operations.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
As reported in a previous chapter, Michel Chossudovsky told us why the Williams
memo was so dangerous:
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
With regard to Chechnya, the main rebel leaders Shamil Basayev and
Al Khattab were trained and indoctrinated in CIA sponsored camps in
Afghanistan and Pakistan. According to Yossef Bodansky, director of
the US Congress’ Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional
Warfare, the war in Chechnya had been planned during a secret summit
of HizbAllah International held in 1996 in Mogadishu, Somalia.<span style="color: red;">15</span></blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Williams’s memo was sent to the desk of Supervisory Special Agent Dave Frasca
at FBI headquarters in Washington, where Frasca sat on it with an anvil. We may
never know what is in the rest of that memo and what Richard Behar kept hidden
for the interests he apparently serves. What has been documented here, however,
is yet another case of senior FBI personnel deliberately suppressing information
that might have prevented the attacks of 9/11 in order to protect CIA assets who
were subsequently connected to those same attacks. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Another major inconsistency in FBI operations is that, in 1995, after receiving
warnings that al Qaeda operatives might be planning to crash hijacked airliners
into CIA headquarters, the FBI “descended” immediately on flight schools all over
the country.<span style="color: red;">16</span> Yet in 2001 it was too busy.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Colleen Rowley</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
On May 22, 2002, Minneapolis FBI Special Agent Colleen Rowley hand-delivered
a 13-page memorandum to FBI Director Robert Mueller. In keeping with his customary
practices, Mueller immediately classified the memorandum from the
Minneapolis Field Office’s top lawyer “Secret.” That didn’t help much, because
Rowley, claiming protection under the federal whistleblower statute, had also
delivered copies to the Senate Intelligence Committee and two of the Committee’s
members, Republican Richard Shelby and Democrat Diane Feinstein.<span style="color: red;">17</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The efforts of Rowley and her fellow brick agents in Minneapolis centered on
the so-called twentieth hijacker, Zacarias Moussaoui, who had been in FBI custody
since August 15 on immigration charges. It seems that for months before 9/11, FBI headquarters (FBIHQ) had systematically blocked every effort to investigate yet
another case that — had it been supported — might have prevented the 9/11 attacks.
Rowley was irritated. It wasn’t long before the memorandum — edited of course
— was published by the likes of <i>TIME</i>, the <i>Associated Press</i>, and <i>Newsweek</i>. Rowley’s
move was supremely well considered and executed in such a way that there was little
else for Congress to do but embrace it. And the best thing to do with Colleen
Rowley is to get out of the way and let her speak for herself.</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
May 21, 2002<br />
FBI Director Robert Mueller<br />
FBI Headquarters<br />
Washington, D.C.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Dear Director Mueller:<br />
I feel at this point that I have to put my concerns in writing concerning
the important topic of the FBI’s response to evidence of terrorist
activity in the United States prior to September 11th. The issues are
fundamentally ones of INTEGRITY and go to the heart of the FBI’s
law enforcement mission and mandate .…<br />
To get to the point, I have deep concerns that a delicate and subtle
shading/skewing of facts by you and others at the highest levels of
FBI management has occurred and is occurring. The term “cover up”
would be too strong a characterization which is why I am attempting
to carefully (and perhaps over laboriously) choose my words here. I
base my concerns on my relatively small, peripheral but unique role
in the Moussaoui investigation in the Minneapolis Division prior to,
during and after September 11th .…<br />
I feel that certain facts, including the following, have, up to now,
been omitted, downplayed, glossed over, and/or mis-characterized in
an effort to avoid or minimize personal and/or institutional embarrassment
on the part of the FBI and/or perhaps even for improper political
reasons:…<br />
<b>2</b>*) As the Minneapolis agents’ reasonable suspicions quickly ripened
into probable cause, which, at the latest, occurred within days of
Moussaoui’s arrest when the French Intelligence Service confirmed
his affiliations with radical fundamentalist Islamic groups and
activities connected to Osama Bin Laden, they became desperate
to search the computer lap top that had been taken from Moussaoui
as well as conduct a more thorough search of his personal effects.
The agents in particular believed that Moussaoui signaled he had
something to hide in the way he refused to allow them to search
his computer….<br />
<b>3</b>) The Minneapolis agents’ initial thought was to obtain a criminal
search warrant, but in order to do so, they needed to get FBI
Headquarters’ (FBIHQ’s) approval in order to ask for DOJ …
approval to contact the United States Attorney’s Office in Minnesota.
Prior to and even after receipt of information provided by the
French, FBIHQ personnel disputed with the Minneapolis agents
the existence of probable cause to believe that a criminal violation
had occurred/was occurring. As such, FBIHQ personnel refused to
contact [DoJ] to attempt to get the authority. While reasonable
minds may differ as to whether probable cause existed prior to
receipt of the French intelligence information, it was certainly
established after that point and became even greater with successive,
more detailed information from the French and other
intelligence sources… [i.]<br />
Notably also, the actual search warrant obtained on September
11th did not include the French intelligence information. Therefore,
the only main difference between the information being submitted
to FBIHQ from an early date which HQ personnel continued
to deem insufficient and the actual criminal search warrant which
a federal district judge signed and approved on September 11th, was
the fact that, by the time the actual warrant was obtained, suspected
terrorists were known to have highjacked [sic] planes which
they then deliberately crashed into the World Trade Center and
the Pentagon. To say then, as has been iterated numerous times,
that probable cause did not exist until after the disastrous event
occurred, is really to acknowledge that the missing piece of probable
cause was only the FBI’s (FBIHQ’s) failure to appreciate that
such an event could occur ....<br />
It is obvious, from my firsthand knowledge of the events and the
detailed documentation that exists, that the agents in Minneapolis
who were closest to the action and in the best position to gauge the
situation locally, did fully appreciate the terrorist risk/danger posed
by Moussaoui and his possible co-conspirators even prior to
September 11th. Even without knowledge of the Phoenix communication
(and any number of other additional intelligence
communications that FBIHQ personnel were privy to in their
central coordination roles), the Minneapolis agents appreciated the
risk. So I think it’s very hard for the FBI to offer the “20-20 hindsight”
justification for its failure to act! Also intertwined with my
reluctance in this case to accept the “20-20 hindsight” rationale is
first-hand knowledge that I have of statements made on September
11th, after the first attacks on the World Trade Center had already occurred, made telephonically by the FBI Supervisory Special Agent
(SSA) who was the one most involved in the Moussaoui matter
and who, up to that point, seemed to have been consistently, almost
deliberately thwarting the Minneapolis FBI agents’ efforts (see
number 5). Even after the attacks had begun, the SSA in question
was still attempting to block the search of Moussaoui’s computer,
characterizing the World Trade Center attacks as a mere coincidence
with Minneapolis’ prior suspicions about Moussaoui. [ii.] …<br />
<b>5</b>) The fact is that key FBIHQ personnel whose job it was to assist
and coordinate with field division agents on terrorism investigations
and the obtaining and use of FISA searches (and who
theoretically were privy to many more sources of intelligence information
than field division agents), continued to, almost
inexplicably [v.] throw up roadblocks and undermine Minneapolis’
by-now desperate efforts to obtain a FISA search warrant….
HQ personnel brought up almost ridiculous questions in their
apparent efforts to undermine the probable cause. [vi.] In all of
their conversations and correspondence, HQ personnel never disclosed
to the Minneapolis agents that the Phoenix Division had,
only approximately three weeks earlier, warned of al Qaeda operatives
in flight schools seeking flight training for terrorist purposes!
Nor did FBIHQ personnel do much to disseminate the information
about Moussaoui to other appropriate intelligence/law
enforcement authorities. When, in a desperate 11th hour measure
to bypass the FBIHQ roadblock, the Minneapolis Division undertook
to directly notify the CIA’s Counter Terrorist Center (CTC),
FBIHQ personnel actually chastised the Minneapolis agents for
making the direct notification without their approval!<br />
<b>6</b>) Eventually on August 28, 2001, after a series of e-mails between
Minneapolis and FBIHQ, which suggest that the FBIHQ SSA
deliberately further undercut the FISA effort by not adding the
further intelligence information which he had promised to add
that supported Moussaoui’s foreign power connection and making
several changes in the wording of the information that had been
provided by the Minneapolis Agent, the Minneapolis agents were
notified that the NSLU [National Security Law Unit] Unit Chief
did not think there was sufficient evidence of Moussaoui’s connection
to a foreign power....<br />
The e-mail communications between Minneapolis and FBIHQ,
however, speak for themselves and there are far better witnesses
than me who can provide their first hand knowledge of these
events characterized in one Minneapolis agent’s e-mail as FBIHQ is “setting this up for failure.” My only comment is that the process
of allowing the FBI supervisors to make changes in affidavits is
itself fundamentally wrong .… understand that the failures of the
FBIHQ personnel involved in the Moussaoui matter are also being
officially excused because they were too busy with other investigations,
the Cole bombing and other important terrorism matters,
but the Supervisor’s taking of the time to read each word of the
information submitted by Minneapolis and then substitute his
own choice of wording belies to some extent the notion that he
was too busy. As an FBI division legal advisor for 12 years (and an
FBI agent for over 21 years), I can state that an affidavit is better
and will tend to be more accurate when the affiant has first hand
information of all the information he/she must attest to…. but
changes of some substance as apparently occurred with the
Moussaoui information which had to be, for lack of a better term,
“filtered” through FBIHQ before any action, whether to seek a
criminal or a FISA warrant, could be taken .... Even after September
11th, the fear was great on the part of Minneapolis Division personnel
that the same FBIHQ personnel would continue their
“filtering” with respect to the Moussaoui investigation, and now
with the added incentive of preventing their prior mistakes from
coming to light. For this reason, for weeks, Minneapolis prefaced
all outgoing communications (ECs) in the PENTTBOM investigation
with a summary of the information about Moussaoui. We
just wanted to make sure the information got to the proper prosecutive
authorities and was not further suppressed!…<br />
<b>7</b>) Although the last thing the FBI or the country needs now is a
witch hunt, I do find it odd that (to my knowledge) no inquiry
whatsoever was launched of the relevant FBIHQ personnel’s
actions a long time ago. Despite FBI leaders’ full knowledge of all
the items mentioned herein (and probably more that I’m unaware
of), the SSA, his unit chief, and other involved HQ personnel
were allowed to stay in their positions and, what’s worse, occupy
critical positions in the FBI’s SIOC Command Center post
September 11th. (The SSA in question actually received a promotion
some months afterward!)…<br />
<b>8</b>) The last official “fact” that I take issue with is not really a fact, but
an opinion, and a completely unsupported opinion at that. In the
day or two following September 11th, you, Director Mueller, made
the statement to the effect that if the FBI had only had any
advance warning of the attacks, we (meaning the FBI), may have
been able to take some action to prevent the tragedy .…<br />
The official statement is now to the effect that even if the FBI had
followed up on the Phoenix lead to conduct checks of flight schools
and the Minneapolis request to search Moussaoui’s personal effects
and laptop, nothing would have changed and such actions certainly
could not have prevented the terrorist attacks and resulting
loss of life. With all due respect, this statement is as bad as the first!
Mr. Director… I think you have also not been completely honest
about some of the true reasons for the FBI’s pre-September 11th
failures....<br />
NOTES<br />
…[v.] During the early aftermath of September 11th, when I happened
to be recounting the pre-September 11th events
concerning the Moussaoui investigation to other FBI personnel
in other divisions or in FBIHQ, almost everyone’s
first question was “Why? — Why would an FBI agent(s)
deliberately sabotage a case?” (I know I shouldn’t be flippant
about this, but jokes were actually made that the key
FBIHQ personnel had to be spies or moles, like Robert
Hansen, who were actually working for Osama bin Laden
to have so undercut Minneapolis’ effort.)…
Along these lines, let me ask the question, why has it suddenly
become necessary for the Director to “handpick” the
FBI management? It’s quite conceivable that many of the
HQ personnel who so vigorously disputed Moussaoui’s ability/predisposition to fly a plane into a building were simply
unaware of all the various incidents and reports worldwide
of al Qaeda terrorists attempting or plotting to do so....<br />
[vi.] ...for the SSA continued to find new reasons to stall…<br />
[viii.] For starters, if prevention rather than prosecution is to be our
new main goal, (an objective I totally agree with), we need
more guidance on when we can apply the Quarles “public
safety” exception to Miranda’s 5th Amendment requirements.
We were prevented from even attempting to question
Moussaoui on the day of the attacks when, in theory, he
could have possessed further information about other coconspirators.
(Apparently no government attorney believes
there is a “public safety” exception in a situation like this?!)<span style="color: red;">18</span><br />
[*<i>order as shown appearing in the book</i>]</blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Thus Moussaoui, who had paid the $7,000 for his flight lessons in cash; who
was, according to press reports, not interested in learning how to take off or land;
who wanted to know if the doors of an airliner could be opened in flight; and
who was particularly interested in air traffic patterns around New York City, remained totally protected until after the attacks of 9/11 had taken place. And it
was subsequently revealed that Zacarias Moussaoui had also fought in Chechnya
where some of the players had been connected to CIA training camps. </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The French had been following Moussaoui for years. In the 1990s
they tracked him to London where he learned militant Islam from
radical clerics including Abu Qatada. French intelligence has linked
Qatada to Osama bin Laden. Qatada preaches a particularly violent
brand of Islam and encourages Muslims to take up jihad wherever
they can. So Moussaoui took that advice and went to Chechnya to
join Muslims in their fight against Russian troops. French intelligence
was aware of that move and his later trip to Afghanistan.<span style="color: red;">19</span> </blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Zacaria Soubra from the Phoenix investigation and Zacarias Moussaoui in
Minneapolis had something in common, other than allegiance to Osama bin Laden,
which other members of al Qaeda did not. <i>They had both fought in Chechnya and
both had met Amir al-Khattab who had been trained at CIA-operated and sponsored
camps.</i> Conveniently, Khattab was reported killed in action in Chechnya in April
2002, just before the Williams and Rowley memos became news. Khattab’s death
was denied by Chechen rebel leaders.<span style="color: red;">20</span> Was a key witness being placed out of reach?</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
During my time as an LAPD officer and in the years since, I have met several
FBI agents, including one former assistant director, who bragged about the FBI’s
ability to conduct “black bag” burglaries (surreptitious entries) during the 1960s
and 1970s. Search warrants were never even a consideration. Keep this in mind as
you reread the Rowley memo on the amazing refusal of FBI leadership to grant the
field agents a FISA warrant. With Moussaoui’s laptop in their possession for weeks
before the attacks, it is very probable that they had already examined all of its contents.
The reason why they needed the warrant was to make the evidence they had
found admissible. Numerous press stories since 9/11 have indicated that the contents
of that laptop will be used to convict Moussaoui of complicity in the attacks
and most probably sentence him to death. I can only imagine the “off-the-record”
conversations that took place between the brick agents in Minnesota and
Washington as the brick agents — knowing of a certainty what was coming —
tried in vain to get their search warrant.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
And who was the supervisory special agent in Washington who brutalized the
Minneapolis agents; who rewrote search warrants; who lied, obstructed, roadblocked,
chastised, and suppressed? It was the same agent who received the
Phoenix memo and sat on it: one Dave Frasca.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Carnivore</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
In March 2000 Denver FBI agents and other reviewing agents were “furious” after
other agents in the bin Laden unit and at the International Terrorism Operations
Center destroyed significant quantities of e-mail intercepts (received under authorization of a warrant) for a case connected to al Qaeda. The explanation
given for the destruction of material of both evidentiary and intelligence value was
that an e-mail surveillance system called Carnivore had errantly intercepted emails
from additional innocent parties whose privacy had been violated. As a
result, “‘The FBI technical person was apparently so upset that he destroyed all the
e-mail take, including the take on the suspect ....” <span style="color: red;">21 </span>“Take” means raw intelligence
that has been collected but not yet analyzed.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
This explanation is absurd, transparent, laughable, and offensive. It plainly
contravenes 80 years of known FBI practice. Not only does it not make sense that
the FBI wouldn’t segregate the sought-after intelligence from that which was inadvertently
collected; there was, in fact, a legal requirement that they not destroy
anything at all. The Associated Press quoted Henry Perritt, the head of a review
panel: “The collection is supposed to be retained for judicial review .… If an agent
simply deleted a whole bunch of files without the court instructing, that’s not the
way it’s supposed to work.”<span style="color: red;">22</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Indeed, since a FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) warrant was involved
in this case, the destruction of anything collected or seized as a result of that warrant
is one of the most serious legal violations known. This would be true with any
warrant. And yet it was confirmed that the decision to do so had been made within
the UBL (bin Laden) unit, the same unit involved in the preceding cases. Here
again we find Dave Frasca.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
A <i>Washington Post</i> story confirmed the above details but did not ask the obvious
questions about why the entire take had been destroyed in direct violation of
legal requirements calling for judicial review. It blamed the inappropriate collections
on a problem with an Internet service provider. But even the <i>Post</i> story
acknowledged — quoting an internal FBI memo — “To state that she [the memo’s
author] is unhappy with [the International Terrorist Operations Section] and the
UBL Unit would be an understatement of incredible proportions.”<span style="color: red;">23</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
What was described here was not some frustrated, untrained agent knowingly
destroying material out of an offended sense of dignity over a loss of privacy by
victims who never even knew about it. What more likely happened was a deliberate
destruction of intelligence information leading to Osama bin Laden that
someone could not afford to have in any files where a dedicated agent might find
it and start asking questions or putting people in jail. The use of the Carnivore
program also suggests that whoever was running the unit had led field agents to
believe that whatever they collected in this manner was legally admissible — and
therefore protected from deletion. But in reality, both stories suggested that the
program was still under evaluation and open to challenge. The field agents didn’t
know this. The result would be a built-in ability to destroy any prosecution using
this material and allow the al Qaeda suspects to go free as a result of tainted evidence,
while allowing gatekeepers at FBI headquarters to know how close agents
were actually getting to sensitive covert operations. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Dave Frasca</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Before concluding that Supervisory Special Agent Dave Frasca of the Radical
Fundamentalist Unit at FBI headquarters was the primary agent responsible for the
deliberate, willful, and arguably harmful suppression of evidence and of investigations
that could well have prevented 9/11, a couple of key questions need to be
addressed. Various press reports have described FBI units with oversight in these
cases as the UBL (Osama bin Laden) Unit and as the Radical Fundamentalist
Unit. Are they referring to the same thing? Secondly, is there any indication that
any member of Congress or of any other oversight body has noticed at least some
of these connections?</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Dave Frasca was, until early 2002, the chief of the Radical Fundamentalist Unit
within the FBI’s Counterterrorism/Counterespionage branch. In that capacity,
according to press reports, he oversaw the operations of several subunits, one of
which apparently was the bin Laden or UBL unit. One ABC report said, “The
Bureau’s Radical Fundamentalist Unit, headed by Supervisory Special Agent Dave
Frasca, and its Osama bin Laden Unit first got a memo that Phoenix FBI agent
Ken Williams sent in early July.”<span style="color: red;">24</span> The UBL unit was created, according to a statement
by an FBI official, in 1999.<span style="color: red;">25</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
A description of the duties of the RFU and its chief was found on the website
of the high-technology, intelligence-connected SAIC Corporation, based in San
Diego, which recently hired Frasca’s predecessor, retired Supervisory Special Agent
Robert Blitzer. SAIC’s website gave a telling description of Frasca’s duties, as he followed
in Blitzer’s footsteps. </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
From 1993 to 1996, Blitzer served as chief of the Radical Fundamentalist
Unit, Counterterrorism and Middle East Section at FBI Headquarters.
As the leader of this unit, he was responsible for overall national coordination,
oversight, and direction of all criminal and intelligence
operations against the international terrorists who bombed the World
Trade Center and who attempted to conduct a wave of bombings in
and around New York City in early 1993.<span style="color: red;">26</span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: left;">
According to FBI spokesman Neal Schiff, Frasca’s tenure in the RFU position
lasted from 1999 until he was promoted in 2002. Frasca is currently the Assistant
Section Chief of the International Terrorism Operations Section I. Schiff was
ambiguous, at best, in describing the relationship between the RFU and the UBL
units. While maintaining that the two were completely separate units, Schiff
refused to confirm or deny that Frasca had supervisory responsibility for the UBL
unit. At the same time he would not deny numerous press reports indicating that
Frasca did work both units. The Phoenix memorandum was sent to the UBL unit,
and Frasca apparently had a role in the decision not to follow up on it. As to the
Wright case, and in contrast to statements given by Department of Justice officials
on condition of anonymity confirming the RFU’s role in squashing the Wright investigation, Schiff declined to confirm or deny any relationship. “That case is
still pending and I can’t comment,” he said.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
But the link between Robert Wright’s oppressors and FBI headquarters was
established only days after my office received the official statements from Schiff.
On December 19, 2002, ABC News investigative reporter Brian Ross aired an
interview with Wright and his partner John Vincent in which Wright stated, “The
supervisor who was there from headquarters was right across from me and started
yelling at me: ‘You will not open criminal investigations. I forbid any of you. You
will not open criminal investigations against any of these intelligence subjects.’”<span style="color: red;">27</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
It was made clear in the story that the Wright/Vincent investigations had
stemmed from the 1998 African embassy bombings and that the money trail led
to Osama bin Laden. This would have placed the investigation within the UBL,
Radical Fundamentalist Unit, and under the direct control of Dave Frasca. Schiff’s
assertion that the two units are separate and distinct entities is belied by Senate
documents, press stories, and Frasca’s own conduct post-9/11. A May 24, 2002,
letter from Senator Patrick Leahy to FBI Director Mueller said: </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
A press account on May 22 states that the Radical Fundamentalist
Unit at FBI headquarters had decided not to pursue the recommendations
in the Phoenix memorandum before September 11, 2001,
since according to “officials… the FBI counterterrorism division was
swamped with urgent matters.” Another press account on May 23
contains a correction by “a senior FBI official” and [stated] that the
FBI’s “Osama bin Laden Unit was responsible” for the decision rejecting
the recommendations ....<span style="color: red;">28</span></blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Leahy’s letter, in conformity with press stories, shows the interconnectedness of
the two units, and Frasca’s roles in cases involving both units is underscored by the
fact that he was the agent (and in some cases, the only agent) who provided congressional
testimony on all of these matters, whether they involved the RFU or the
UBL unit. Schiff was unable to resolve these contradictions and went into “no
comment” mode about press stories or congressional correspondence.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Knowing all this, it is now possible to state that Frasca almost certainly had
direct oversight responsibility for all five of the previously described incidents. FBI
sources I contacted confirmed, on condition of anonymity, that the RFU was the
control point for all of these cases and that Frasca issued the orders thwarting
investigations that could have prevented the 9/11 attacks. Looking at Frasca’s
actions, both in terms of their frequency and in terms of their consistency, it
stretches the imagination to accept press accounts attributing FBI “screw-ups” relevant
to 9/11 to incompetence, lack of resources, or overwork. There is a pattern
here, rationally explained in only one way. Someone at the FBI, or elsewhere in
government, needed to make sure that al Qaeda members were left in place —
either to perpetrate the attacks or to take the blame for them afterwards. And the Frasca connections — at least insofar as Minneapolis and Phoenix are concerned
— were noticed. Frasca testified before both the Senate Judiciary and Intelligence
committees, and many problems followed. First, Frasca told the Judiciary committee
that he didn’t see the Phoenix memo until after the 9/11 attacks. Later his
statement was corrected to indicate that had seen the Phoenix memo before 9/11,
but that the UBL unit had rejected the request for a survey of flight schools. His
statement was different from press accounts which indicated that because the
memo was marked routine, the deadline for response to it was 60 days, which
would have been after 9/11 — so Frasca had taken no action.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Senators Patrick Leahy, Charles Grassley, and Arlen Specter were understandably
miffed, especially when Leahy disclosed that he had acquiesced to a special
request from Mueller to hold the secret hearing where Frasca testified without a
stenographer or a transcript. Mueller didn’t seem to have minded, however, when
the Intelligence Committee was allowed to make a transcript of Frasca’s statements
for its members.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
On May 24, 2002, Leahy closed a terse and eloquent letter to Mueller on the
subject, signed also by Grassley and Specter:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Finally, it has been noted that Supervisory Special Agent Dave Frasca
in the Radical Fundamentalist Unit (RFU) may have been involved in
handling the Phoenix memorandum and the Moussaoui investigation
at FBI headquarters. [This had been previously confirmed in a number
of press stories. The FBI only started changing their position after
people started asking questions. - MCR] Please explain his role and the
role of the RFU in evaluating the requests from the Minneapolis field
office in the Moussaoui case; what connection, if any, he or others drew
between the two ongoing investigations; and whether he or others
brought such a connection to the attention of higher level FBI officials.
If a briefing rather than a written answer would facilitate your
response to the questions regarding agent Frasca, please let us know ....<span style="color: red;">29</span> </blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Some senators were a bit less polite in their remarks. Senator Richard Shelby,
the Republican ranking member of the intelligence committee, was quoted as saying,
“The information coming from Phoenix and the information coming from
Minneapolis was stifled here at FBI headquarters.” Senator Grassley of Iowa decried
“sabotage” by FBI officials.<span style="color: red;">30</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">A secret team</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
To understand how someone like Dave Frasca functioned inside the FBI, one
needs to understand how the CIA and other intelligence agencies place their people
throughout the government. Frasca fits that pattern perfectly. For those
unfamiliar with the way covert operations function within the United States government,
I cannot emphasize enough the importance of two books: <i>The Secret Team</i> by the late Air Force Colonel L. Fletcher Prouty (the Pentagon’s liaison with
the CIA during the 1960s), and <i>CIA Diary</i> by former CIA Case Officer Philip
Agee. Other excellent case studies in this area are found in <i>The CIA and the Cult
of Intelligence</i> by Victor Marchetti and John D. Marks. Operational patterns
described by all of these men are confirmed by hundreds of declassified documents
that have surfaced in investigations like those conducted by the Senate’s Church
committee in the 1970s.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
To sum up the lessons clearly explained in both books, all one needs to understand
is that the CIA routinely places its deep cover agents in every branch of the
US government, especially within the FBI, the DEA, and federal law enforcement
agencies. They even do it with municipal police departments such as LAPD,
NYPD, or the Chicago PD. The CIA attempted to recruit me in 1973 as a college
senior, and the proposition was made that I become a case officer with CIA and
then return to LAPD, go through their Academy, and use the LAPD position as a
cover. Although I declined that offer and have never taken a penny from the CIA,
I was able to find out years later that the CIA, because of my family connections
to the Agency and the NSA*, had actually steered several of my assignments as an
LAPD intern while I was an undergraduate at UCLA. When the CIA places its
agents inside the US military, the process is routinely called “sheep dipping.” [*<i>For the unfamiliar, it may interest readers to know Mike had Q clearance due to his parent's intelligence positions. ~ GJP</i>]</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Why would the CIA do this? Frasca’s behavior is right out of the textbook. At
LAPD I saw CIA assets and contractors with access to narcotics investigations
making deliberate decisions as to who got arrested and who got away. Gary Webb
documented one such instance in <i>Dark Alliance: The CIA, The Contras, and the
Crack Cocaine Explosion</i> when he looked at massive CIA-connected cocaine shipments
into Los Angeles. CIA assets doing CIA’s bidding are always protected.
There is no way to conclusively state that Dave Frasca either worked or works for
the CIA, either as a case officer or as an asset. But the role he played before 9/11
clearly served interests other than those of the FBI or the innocent Americans
killed or bereaved by the attacks. The power of this secret team is that they are
always able to protect their assets, no matter how badly they are exposed. And, as
Colleen Rowley noted, Frasca was actually promoted right after 9/11.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Tyrone Powers </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
On May 19, 2002, retired FBI Special Agent Tyrone Powers, currently the director
of the Institute of Criminal Justice/Legal Studies and Public Service, also an assistant
professor of law enforcement and criminal justice, was a guest on New York City’s
radio station 98.7 KIIS. He had some interesting things to say about 9/11. According
to an Internet report by Dennis Shipman based upon a transcript of the broadcast,
Powers made statements that are consistent with what we have just described.</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Tyrone Powers, a former African American FBI special agent, announced
on NYC’s … 98.7 KIIS FM … hosted by news director and morning personality Bob Slade, that he had credible evidence strongly suggesting
the Bush administration did in fact allow the September 11th
attacks to further a hidden agenda .…<br />
Like [sic] Pearl Harbor, the US government needed a substantive
excuse to enter World War II and end German hegemony over Europe
generally and England particularly .… So an environment had to be
created causing an anticipated furor enabling the Roosevelt administration
to declare war against this “axis of evil ....”<br />
Does this scenario sound familiar? It ought to, because Powers
argues persuasively that the Bush administration has taken a page from
history in its endeavor to maintain control over rapidly dwindling oil
reserves in the world generally and in the Middle East particularly ....<br />
Powers claims that the Bush administration superciliously perceives
itself to be the last world super power; an Empire and, by some
misguided albeit self-serving divine right, has to sometimes make
appalling decisions to further its imperialistic aim, which is the total,
unequivocal domination of the world and, more tellingly, its mineral
resources.<span style="color: red;">31</span></blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
During my post-9/11 investigations I verified that Powers had indeed appeared
on the broadcast. I also verified his credentials, both as former FBI agent and current
professor at Anne Arundel Community College in Maryland. He did not
return several calls asking for further comment.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Sibel Edmonds</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Initially it was bureaucratic infighting for more funding that derailed important
security investigations and questions about contacts of a co-worker with targets
of an FBI anti-terror investigation that prompted 33-year-old Sibel Edmonds
to blow the whistle inside the FBI in 2002. Hired on an emergency basis and given
a Top Secret clearance immediately after 9/11 because of her ability to speak fluent
Turkish, Farsi, and Azerbaijani, Edmonds was promptly put to work
translating mountains of audio recordings, videotapes, and written communications.
By 2004 her complaints were to become much more serious.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
At first she heard her supervisors telling her to slow down and not rush important
translations. The ostensible purpose for this foot-dragging at a time of great danger
was to allow FBI managers to ask for additional funding because they were so far
behind. Then she saw civilian translators leaving FBI headquarters with classified
material against regulations. The last straw was when a Turkish-American colleague,
married to a Major in the US Air Force, disclosed that she had ongoing relationships
with a Turkish organization that was an active FBI target. The colleague, Melek
Dickerson, suggested that Edmonds should meet people in the organization and get
involved. It got worse when Edmonds allegedly discovered that Dickerson had
attempted to arrange it so that all translations concerning the Turkish organization would be done by Dickerson exclusively. However, it was also an organization covered
in the “take” given to Edmonds, and she became suspicious.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Acting on those suspicions, Edmonds ordered files previously translated by
Dickerson, checked them, and found that material information relating to terrorist
investigations and espionage had been deleted, left un-translated, or marked as
irrelevant.<span style="color: red;">32</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Edmonds — a neophyte with no prior intelligence training — assumed the
worst but failed to comprehend the possibility that she was being “pitched” to spy
on an organization that may have already been penetrated. In that eventuality an
intelligence operation could be used to plant false information or perhaps even to
manipulate other assets who might believe they were receiving orders from Islamic
fundamentalist terrorists. Sanitized translations would prevent FBI agents from
compromising a CIA operation in Turkey.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Published photos depict Edmonds as strikingly attractive; people like her are
often prime subjects for recruitment as intelligence assets while being given as little
information as possible as to how they are being used. In very sensitive operations
if the “asset” has no knowledge that he or she is being “run,” so much the better.
One term used to refer to such assets in the intelligence community is “Dixie cups”
because they are often used once and thrown away. Such “assets” are expendable.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The likelihood that Edmonds was being “pitched” was confirmed by a Senate
intelligence staffer.<span style="color: red;">33</span> Yet if she was being pitched over an operation that had to do
with identifying real terrorist threats, whoever was doing it was going about it the
wrong way. Following the rulebook she had been given, Edmonds did exactly what
would have been expected of a loyal employee. She complained first to her immediate
supervisors and finally, in March of 2002, to the FBI’s Office of Professional
Responsibility (OPR) and then to the FBI’s Inspector General.<span style="color: red;">34</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Her contract was terminated for the convenience of the government in March
2002 but not until after she had received threats, both direct and implied, from
FBI supervisors and from Dickerson.<span style="color: red;">35</span> Her next stops were Congress and <i>60
Minutes</i> where she got a much better reception as she sought to find out what had
happened and correct what she felt were genuine problems. Senator Charles
Grassley found her convincing and credible.<span style="color: red;">36</span> In stories throughout 2002
Edmonds’ plight was discussed in the press but there was no discussion of advance
warnings of attacks known to the FBI or the White House. Edmonds filed suit
against the FBI over its refusal to respond to her Freedom of Information Act
request and against the Department of Justice for an improper termination. She
was followed routinely, especially to court appearances. Attorney General John
Ashcroft, in response to a request from FBI Director Mueller, sought and obtained
a gag order restricting what Edmonds could say about her case. The authority
invoked to secure the order was the rarely used “State Secrets” privilege.<span style="color: red;">37</span> The
same privilege was invoked again by the Justice Department in April 2004 as
Edmonds was subpoenaed to give a deposition in a $100 trillion civil suit against Saudi interests for their alleged connections to the 9/11 attacks. A massive public
response, including activist challenges to US Marshals and the clerk in US District
court over an attempt to hold a closed hearing on the motion to quash Edmonds’s
subpoena, apparently caught the government by surprise. One of those who challenged
the Marshal’s move to close the hearing was African-American former
26-year CIA counterterror case officer Leutrell Osborne. Osborne is also the
source from whom I received the unedited <i>Izvestia</i> story which went into great
detail about an explicit warning sent (including targets and dates) directly from
Russian President Vladimir Putin just days before the attacks.<span style="color: red;">38</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
After the confrontation and an apparent huddle in chambers, Judge Reggie
Walton decided to open the hearing. It was decided that he would issue a temporary
order to quash the subpoena but would not render a final decision until
sometime in June. As this book goes to press, the issue has not been decided.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
As Edmonds’s various legal matters continued into 2004 the 9/11 Commission
chaired by former New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean came in to the spotlight as
pressure from victim families, activists, and the mounting pile of documentation
flatly contradicting the Bush administration’s statements collided with the scheduled
testimony of many key witnesses including Richard Clarke, John Ashcroft,
Robert Mueller, George Tenet, Donald Rumsfeld, and National Security Advisor
Condoleezza Rice.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
At the same time that pressure was building for Rice to testify in public,
Edmonds gave testimony to the commission. According to <i>Salon</i>, she told the
commissioners that “the FBI had detailed information prior to September 11,
2001, that a terrorist attack involving airplanes was being plotted.”<span style="color: red;">39</span> In a number
of press interviews after Rice’s testimony, and after the publication of an op-ed in
which Rice stated that the administration had no specific information of a domestic
threat or that airplanes might be used as weapons, Edmonds said, “That’s an
outrageous lie. And documents can prove it’s a lie.”<span style="color: red;">40</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Unfortunately in the same interview, Edmonds also expressed the view that
when George W. Bush said that “they had” no specific information about
September 11, he was telling the truth. Perhaps if Edmonds had been permitted to
speak with some of her other colleagues she might feel differently; the system does
an equally good job of isolating whistleblowers from the media and from each
other. Alternatively, she may have been confining her criticism to the FBI out of a
desire to choose her battles, or perhaps to protect some ally elsewhere in the administration
whose responsibility included alerting the president. But all this is far less
likely than a genuine ignorance on Edmonds’s part; she knew enough to discredit
Rice, then gave Bush the benefit of the doubt in the absence of better information
about the president’s knowledge — information other whistleblowers had.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Steve Butler </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Steve Butler was yet another person with inside
knowledge who spilled the beans about US government complicity in the attacks of 9/11. While Vice Chancellor of the Defense Language Institute in Monterey,
California, Butler wrote a chilling May 26 letter to his local paper. It read:</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
A contemptible offense<br />
It’s about time conservative idiots like Steve Kelly and Rod Musgrove
got a dose of reality. Of course President Bush knew about the
impending attacks on America. He did nothing to warn the American
people because he needed this war on terrorism. His daddy had
Saddam and he needed Osama.<br />
His presidency was going nowhere. He wasn’t elected by the
American people, but placed into the Oval Office by the conservative
Supreme Court. The economy was sliding into the usual Republican
pits and he needed something on which to hang his presidency.<br />
For them to accuse Democrats of being “sleazy” is laughable. Isn’t
it ironic that Kelly begins his inane babble with a reference to Monica
Lewinsky? How many people died because of Monica Lewinsky? And
for Musgrove to call the assertions “contemptible” is another joke.
Funny how he manages to make disparaging remarks about President
Clinton, as well.<br />
Face it people, Bill Clinton was a great president. This guy is a
joke.<br />
What is sleazy and contemptible is the President of the United
States not telling the American people what he knows for political
gain. The Democrats asking pertinent questions is their duty as public
servants.<br />
Steve Butler<br />
Monterey.<span style="color: red;">41</span></blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Butler’s letter was startling when I learned of it by reading mainstream stories
that Butler had been suspended for it — and was facing a court martial.<span style="color: red;">42 </span>In fact a multitude of press reports, including stories from the <i>New York
Times</i>, the <i>Washington Post</i>, and <i>Newsweek</i>, all published between September 15
and 17, 2001, disclosed that at least five of the hijackers had received US military
training at bases in the US, including flight lessons. Among the latter was
Mohammed Atta, who apparently received his training while wanted for terrorist
activities. Atta’s US military training was confirmed by a separate story
published by Knight Ridder at a time when many of the military training connections
were causing the military to engage in some disingenuous doubletalk.
Several subsequent stories indicated that while the five names matched up with
9/11 hijackers, it was apparently a case of more than one person having the same
name. Yet the Department of Defense has not to this date disclosed the identities
of the five people whose names matched those of 9/11 hijackers. Even more compelling is the fact that Newsweek reported three of the hijackers had received
flight training at the Pensacola Naval Air Station.<span style="color: red;">43</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
All told, 14 of the 19 9/11 hijackers lived and studied for a considerable period
in southern Florida. No one has done a better job of investigating the
connections of these hijackers to military and intelligence operations than investigative
journalist Dan Hopsicker. His investigations have also produced
compelling evidence linking Rudi Dekkers, the operator of the flight school
attended by Atta and others, to US intelligence operations and the destruction
and/or immediate confiscation of incriminating records immediately after the
attacks <i>with the hands-on involvement of Florida Governor Jeb Bush.</i><span style="color: red;">44</span> Hopsicker, a
former broadcast news producer for MS-NBC, has produced a compelling video
called <i>Mohammed Atta and the Venice Flying Circus</i> that details many of these links.
He maintains a detailed website at: <a href="http://www.madcowprod.com/">http://www.madcowprod.com/</a><www .madcowprod.com=""> [inexplicably, in the
summer of 2004, Hopsicker performed a startling flip-flop by choosing to agree
with most of the Kean Commission’s highly questionable findings.]</www></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<www .madcowprod.com=""><br /></www></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<www .madcowprod.com=""> How did Steve Butler fare? In June the Air Force announced that it had concluded
its investigation and that Butler was going to face nonjudicial punishment
likely to consist of a letter of reprimand. Had he chosen, Butler could have insisted
on a court martial and public trial wherein he could have, and most likely
would have, exposed direct links between the military and the hijackers. I finally
located Butler in the summer of 2004. He confirmed having written the letter, but
denied any contact with or knowledge of the hijackers. His school, the DLI, was only
responsible for foreign language training. English language training was conducted
at other facilities.</www></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<www .madcowprod.com=""><br /> In spite of the US government’s position that there was no compelling case that
an attack on the US by al Qaeda was imminent, there was apparently one person
who was paying very close attention to the information coming in from the brick
agents in the field. In July 2001 Attorney General John Ashcroft stopped flying on
commercial airlines altogether, opting instead for a chartered government jet. This,
according to one story, was because of threat assessments from the FBI.<span style="color: red;">45</span></www></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<www .madcowprod.com=""><br /></www></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
*******</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Footnotes below</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<br />
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<i>CHAPTER 12 FOOTNOTES: </i>1 Greg Palast, “<a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6589.htm" target="_blank">Has Someone Been Sittingon the FBI</a>?” BBC Newsnight, November
11, 2001, <http: 1645527.stm.="" english="" events="" hi="" news.bbc.co.uk="" newsid_1645000="" newsnight="">. </http:></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<http: 1645527.stm.="" english="" events="" hi="" news.bbc.co.uk="" newsid_1645000="" newsnight="">2 Ibid. </http:></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<http: 1645527.stm.="" english="" events="" hi="" news.bbc.co.uk="" newsid_1645000="" newsnight="">3 Jeff Johnson, “<a href="https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/tearful-fbi-agent-apologizes-sept-11-families-and-victims-0" target="_blank">Tearful FBI Agent ApologizesTo September 11 Families and Victims</a>,”
Congressional News Service, May 30,
2002, <www .cnsnews.com="" 200205="" archive="" nat20020530d.html="" nation="">. </www></http:></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<http: 1645527.stm.="" english="" events="" hi="" news.bbc.co.uk="" newsid_1645000="" newsnight=""><www .cnsnews.com="" 200205="" archive="" nat20020530d.html="" nation="">4 Ibid. </www></http:></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<http: 1645527.stm.="" english="" events="" hi="" news.bbc.co.uk="" newsid_1645000="" newsnight=""><www .cnsnews.com="" 200205="" archive="" nat20020530d.html="" nation="">5 Ibid</www></http:><i><br /></i>6 Ibid. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
7 Ibid. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
8 David Schippers, Letter to Thomas J.
Kneir, SAC Chicago, May 22, 2002. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
9 http://video.c-span.org:8080/ramgen/idrive/ter053002_judicial.rm [Original link not available on C-Span but a websearch found it linked in many articles. Full video: <a href="https://youtu.be/vALc-oU3Hqg">https://youtu.be/vALc-oU3Hqg</a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
10 Rich Connell, “Response to Terror: FBI Brass Accused of Apathy; Investigations:</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Former agent wrote that Phoenix officials failed to make anti-terrorism a priority,”</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i>L.A. Times</i>, May 25, 2002, <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2002/may/25/nation/na-phoenix25">http://articles.latimes.com/2002/may/25/nation/na-phoenix25</a>;</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
David Johnston, “Pre-Attack Memo Cited bin Laden,” <i>New York Times</i>, May 14, 2002, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/15/national/15INQU.html">www.nytimes.com/2002/05/15/national/15INQU.html</a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
11 Connell, op. cit.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
12 Ibid.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
13 Anyone familiar with Mr. Specter’s role in the Warren Commission will appreciate the irony of his new position: outside the cover-up, shouting to be let in.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
14 “FBI’s ‘Phoenix’ Memo Unmasked,” Fortune.com, May 22, 2002. Archived</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
at www.unansweredquestions.net/timeline/2002/fortune052202.html [Original link not found. Fortune.com archived it, to its credit: <a href="http://fortune.com/2011/10/12/fbis-phoenix-memo-unmasked/">http://fortune.com/2011/10/12/fbis-phoenix-memo-unmasked/</a>]</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
15 Michel Chossudovsky, “Who is Osama bin Laden?” Centre for Research on Globalisation (CRG), Montréal, September 12, 2001, <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO109C.html">www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO109C.html</a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
16 Maria Ressa, “U.S. warned in 1995 of plot to hijack planes, attack buildings,” CNN.com, September 18, 2001, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/18/inv.hijacking.philippines/index.html">http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/18/inv.hijacking.philippines/index.html</a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
17 Patrick Martin, “New evidence that U.S. government suppressed September 11 warnings,” World Socialist Web Site, May 27, 2002, <a href="http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/may2002/sept-m27.shtml">www.wsws.org/articles/2002/may2002/sept-m27.shtml</a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
18 “The Bombshell Memo: Colleen Rowley’s Memo to FBI Director Robert Mueller.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
An edited version of the agent’s 13-page letter.” Time.com, May 21, 2002: www.time.com/time/</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
covers/1101020603/memo.htm [Orig. link not found, TIME link archived here: <a href="http://www.apfn.org/apfn/WTC_whistleblower1.htm">http://www.apfn.org/apfn/WTC_whistleblower1.htm</a>]</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
19 CBS News, May 8, 2002, <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/05/08/60II/main508362.shtml">www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/05/08/60II/main508362.shtml</a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
20 “<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/04/25/chechnya.khattab/index.html" target="_blank">Chechen warlord reported killed</a>,” CNN,
April 25, 2002</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
21 D. Ian Hopper, “Memo: FBI Destroyed Evidence in Bin Laden Case After Glitch With E-mail Surveillance System,” Associated Press, May 28, 2002, http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
news/archive/2002/05/28/national1704EDT0711.DTL [AP and SFgate links not found. More info here: <a href="https://epic.org/privacy/carnivore/5_02_release.html">https://epic.org/privacy/carnivore/5_02_release.html</a>]</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
22 Ibid.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
23 Dan Eggen, “Carnivore Glitches Blamed for FBI Woes,” Washington Post, May 29, 2002, <a href="https://www.policeone.com/terrorism/articles/52032-Carnivore-Glitches-Blamed-For-FBI-Woes/">https://www.policeone.com/terrorism/articles/52032-Carnivore-Glitches-Blamed-For-FBI-Woes/</a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
24 “HQ Unit Accused of Quashing Pre-9-11 Probes,” ABCNews.com, May 24, 2002, <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=91617&page=1">http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=91617&page=1</a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
25 Statement for the Record of Dale L. Watson, Executive Assistant Director, Counterterrorism and</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Counterintelligence, Federal Bureau of Investigation — on Joint Intelligence Committee Inquiry, September 26, 2002, <a href="http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2002_hr/092602watson.html">www.fas.org/irp/congress/2002_hr/092602watson.html</a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
26 “Robert M. Blitzer Joins SAIC’s Center for Counterterrorism Technology and Analysis as Associate Director”, News Release, www.saic.com/news/dec98/news12-17-98.html [No record of press release except on Zoominfo under Robert M. Blitzer: <a href="https://www.zoominfo.com/p/Robert-Blitzer/1091980">https://www.zoominfo.com/p/Robert-Blitzer/1091980</a> || More on SAIC: <a href="http://www.takeoverworld.info/saic.html">http://www.takeoverworld.info/saic.html</a>]</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
27 Brian Ross and Vic Walter, “Called Off the Trail?” ABC News, December 19, 2002, <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/Story?id=131907&page=1">http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/Story?id=131907&page=1</a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
28 Letter from Patrick Leahy, Charles Grassley, and Arlen Specter to FBI Director Mueller dated May 24, 2002, http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200205/05402a.html [Letter was not found on Leahy's site but was located on Grassley's: <a href="https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/grassley-leahy-and-specter-request-fbi-follow-moussaoui">https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/grassley-leahy-and-specter-request-fbi-follow-moussaoui</a>, another relevant link: <a href="https://spectator.org/52442_j-edgar-mueller/">https://spectator.org/52442_j-edgar-mueller/</a>]</div>
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29 Ibid.</div>
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30 Martin, op. cit.</div>
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31 Dennis Shipman, “Another Spook Who Sat Behind The Door: A Modern Day Tale,” Black World Today, <a href="http://dennisshipman.blogspot.com/2010/09/spook-who-sat-behind-door-modern-day.html">http://dennisshipman.blogspot.com/2010/09/spook-who-sat-behind-door-modern-day.html</a></div>
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32 CBS <i>News</i>, <i>60 Minutes</i>, July 13, 2003, “<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lost-in-translation-25-10-2002/" target="_blank">Lost in Translation</a>”; Gail Sheehy, “<a href="http://gailsheehy.com/journalism/whistleblower-coming-in-cold-from-the-fbi/" target="_blank">WhistleblowerComing In Cold From the FBI</a>,” <i>New
York Observer</i>, April 27, 2004.</div>
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33 Ibid. </div>
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34 S.D. EDMONDS, Plaintiff, v. FEDERAL
BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION, Defendant., Civil Action No. 02-1294
(ESH), UNITED STATES DISTRICT
COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF
COLUMBIA. [Docket info: <a href="https://dockets.justia.com/docket/district-of-columbia/dcdce/1:2011cv01329/149301">https://dockets.justia.com/docket/district-of-columbia/dcdce/1:2011cv01329/149301</a> w/PACER access available. PDF: <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/jud/edmonds072303.pdf">https://fas.org/sgp/jud/edmonds072303.pdf</a>]</div>
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35 Op. cit., Sheehy. </div>
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36 Letter from Senators Patrick Leahy and
Charles Grassley to the Department of
Justice Inspector General,
June 19, 2002. [<a href="http://www.justacitizen.com/articles_documents/Leahy_Grassley_Letter_to_Fine_6-19-02.pdf">http://www.justacitizen.com/articles_documents/Leahy_Grassley_Letter_to_Fine_6-19-02.pdf</a>]</div>
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37 Andrew Buncombe, “‘I saw papers that
show U.S. knew al-Qa’ida would attack
cities with aeroplanes’: Whistleblower the
White House wants to silence speaks to
the Independent,” <i>Independent</i>, April 2,
2004 [<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/i-saw-papers-that-show-us-knew-al-qaida-would-attack-cities-with-aeroplanes-558612.html">http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/i-saw-papers-that-show-us-knew-al-qaida-would-attack-cities-with-aeroplanes-558612.html</a>]</div>
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38 Eric Boehlert, “We should have had
orange or red-type of alert in June or
July in 2001,” <i>Salon</i>, March 26, 2004 [<a href="https://www.salon.com/2004/03/27/translator/">https://www.salon.com/2004/03/27/translator/</a>]</div>
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39 Ibid.</div>
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40 <a href="http://www.fromthewilderness.net/free/ww3/042604_edmunds_alert.html">www.fromthewilderness.net/free/ww3/042604_edmunds_alert.html</a>. I learned details of Osborne’s participation in a telephone conversation with him on April 27.</div>
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41 “A copy of Lt. Col. Butler’s letter,” the Monterey County Herald, June 5, 2002,</div>
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www.bayarea.com/mld/mcherald/3406502.htm [Orig. letter not found. Article here: <a href="https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2002/06/offi-j21.html">https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2002/06/offi-j21.html</a>]</div>
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42 “Air Force Officer Suspended for Criticizing Bush,” Reuters, June 4, 2002, www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.06E.butler.bush.htm [Link broken. His name is listed among many other patriots here: <a href="http://patriotsquestion911.com/military">http://patriotsquestion911.com/military</a>]</div>
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43 George Wehrfritz, Catharine Skipp, and John Barry, “Alleged Hijackers May Have Trained at U.S. Bases. The Pentagon has turned over military records on five men to the FBI,” <i>Newsweek</i>, September 15, 2001, <a href="https://www.wanttoknow.info/010915newsweek">https://www.wanttoknow.info/010915newsweek</a></div>
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44 Daniel Hopsicker, “Mohamed Atta and Rudi Dekkers Seen Together in Venice in Weeks Before September 11 Attack,” Mad Cow Morning News, February 17, 2003, www.madcowprod.com [<a href="http://www.madcowprod.com/2003/02/17/atta-and-dekkers-together-in-venice-before-sept-11-attack/">http://www.madcowprod.com/2003/02/17/atta-and-dekkers-together-in-venice-before-sept-11-attack/</a>] </div>
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45 Jim Stewart, “Ashcroft Flying High,” CBS News, July 26, 2001, <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/07/26/national/main303601.shtml">www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/07/26/national/main303601.shtml</a></div>
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<i>Please find links to previously released excerpts below with footnotes, which are the bulk of the work for this project. Crossing the Rubicon is over 700 pages long with upwards of 1,000 footnotes requiring updating since its 2004 release. From The Wilderness web links are estimated at double or triple that amount. Mike's administrative team sincerely appreciates your support of his legacy. TRC does not receive commission from sales of Crossing the Rubicon. Book sales help the administrator who granted permission to TRC to share excerpts and official web hosting duties.</i></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Semper fi 🗽 </span></center>
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Jan. 8, 2012: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2012/01/petroleum-man.html" target="_blank">Petroleum Man</a></div>
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Jan. 9, 2012: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2012/01/simple-exercise.html" target="_blank">A Simple Exercise</a></div>
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Jan. 20, 2012: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2012/01/unholy-trinity-part-one.html" target="_blank">Unholy Trinity / Part One</a></div>
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Jan. 21, 2012: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2012/01/unholy-trinity-part-two.html" target="_blank">Unholy Trinity / Part Two</a></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
Jan. 22, 2012: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2012/01/unholy-trinity-part-three.html" target="_blank">Unholy Trinity / Part Three</a></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
Nov. 13, 2017: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2017/11/why-is-us-so-russiaphobic-inconvenient.html" target="_blank">Why Is US So Russiaphobic? Inconvenient Truths About Foreign Policy</a></div>
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Dec. 14, 2017: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2017/12/business-with-bin-ladens-real-saudi.html" target="_blank">Business With The Bin Ladens: The Real Saudi Arabia || Part One</a></div>
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Dec. 20, 2017: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2017/12/business-with-bin-ladens-real-saudi_20.html" target="_blank">Business With The Bin Ladens: The Real Saudi Arabia || Part Two</a></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
Jan. 1, 2018: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2018/01/define-bombshell-what-happens-when-fbi.html" target="_blank">Define Bombshell: What Happens When FBI Agents Blow The Whistle</a></div>
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</center>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8876848971119625162.post-30548078568873496542017-12-20T15:32:00.002-05:002022-04-09T09:57:18.552-04:00Business With The Bin Ladens: The Real Saudi Arabia || Part Two<center>
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<i>Submitted for your consideration </i><i>by <a href="http://www.twitter.com/TRCNewsUCanUse" target="_blank">Gabrielle Jones Price</a> </i><br />
<i>with </i><i><a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2017/02/crossed-rubicons-birthday-message-for.html" target="_blank">permission from the author</a> and copyright holder.</i></div>
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<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Excerpt from <i>Crossing the Rubicon: </i></span><i><span style="font-size: large;">The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil</span></i></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Published in 2004</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
Chapter 9 || </span><i style="font-size: x-large;">Part Two</i><span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>[Con't from <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2017/12/business-with-bin-ladens-real-saudi.html" target="_blank">Part One</a>]</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br />
</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Business With The Bin Ladens: The Real Saudi Arabia</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: large;">by </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/CrossingTheRubiconOfficialPage/" style="font-size: x-large;" target="_blank">Michael C. Ruppert</a></span></div>
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[<i>w/updated footnotes</i>]</div>
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<b>Saudi Arabia: The Sarajevo of the 21st Century</b></div>
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• Is Iraq a Diversion from the Real Invasion or Will Bush Try to Occupy Both Countries at Once?</div>
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• A Saudi Sarajevo? </div>
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The global horrors of World War I (“the war to end all wars”) began with the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914. The apocalyptic war of the 21st century may have begun with a $1 trillion lawsuit filed in the United States by 9/11 victims’ families against Saudi Arabian banks and members of the Saudi royal family. In what may be the opening salvos of a financial and energy apocalypse, the <i>Financial Times</i> reported that wealthy Saudi investors had begun a run on their US banking deposits that may have taken as much as $200 billion out of US banks. These massive withdrawals — carved off of an estimated $750 billion total in Saudi US investments — occurred within days of the August 15 filing of the suit. Ironically, the principal attorneys in the suit are all political insiders; one of them is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. You might think they would have thought of this beforehand. </div>
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There are two basic questions to ask about Saudi Arabia. Why was Saudi Arabia not a focus of US action and serious media attention in the immediate aftermath of September 11, even though there were so many obvious connections? And why is Saudi Arabia now so prominently a focus of what is apparently government-approved US animosity? One thing is obvious: the deployment of US military personnel in the region for the invasion of Iraq is also a convenient placement of resources for what may be a one-two punch to take over a tottering kingdom that owns 25 percent of all the oil on the planet at the same time that Saddam Hussein is removed from power in a country that controls another 11 percent. Together, the two countries — which appear not to have peaked in production capacity just yet, and which are the only two nations capable of an immediate increase in output — possess 36 percent of the world’s known oil. [FTW became the first news service to report on the possibility of Saudi Arabia’s having peaked in May 2003. This was more than a year before the possibility was raised in the <i>New York Times</i>.] </div>
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The Saudi situation is complicated by much of Saudi Arabia’s wealth being invested in US financial markets; its sudden loss could devastate the US economy. But Bush brinksmanship — an understatement — is making possible a scenario where Saudis long loyal to the US markets cut off their own arm in a coyote-like effort to free themselves from a trap that threatens the stability both of their kingdom and of the global economy. </div>
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Osama bin Laden is a Saudi. Fifteen of the 9/11 hijackers [according to their passports] were Saudi. There has been an obvious and clear financial trail showing Saudi support for al Qaeda. In fact, as has recently been noted by French author and former intelligence officer Jean-Charles Brisard in his <i>Forbidden Truth</i>, the financial support network of al Qaeda is a virtual cut-and-paste reincarnation of BCCI, a Pakistani bank known for terrorist, drug, and CIA connections in the 1980s. One of BCCI’s former executives, Khaled bin Mahfouz, remains the banker for the Saudi royal family today. </div>
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After months of strenuous and repeated assertions by the Bush administration that Saudi Arabia was a key ally in the war on terror, that they were loyal and trusted partners in US-led efforts, someone has suddenly turned on the tap for anti-Saudi propaganda, and the mainstream media outlets are eating it up. </div>
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On June 20 [2002] the Jang group of newspapers in Dubai reported that al Qaeda networks were active in Saudi Arabia. This followed a June 18 announcement that a group linked to al Qaeda had been arrested inside the kingdom and charged with planning attacks on Saudi government installations.</div>
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On July 18 the BBC reported that Saudi Prince Nayef bin Sultan bin Fawwaz Al-Shaalan had been indicted by a Miami court on charges of having smuggled 1,980 kilos of cocaine on his private jet in 1999. </div>
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On July 28, Britain’s <i>Observer</i> released a story that quickly spread around the world. It was headlined, “Britons left in jail amid fears that Saudi Arabia could fall to al Qaeda.” The lead paragraphs read, “Saudi Arabia is teetering on the brink of collapse, fueling Foreign Office fears of an extremist takeover of one of the West’s key allies in the war on terror.” Anti-government demonstrations have swept the desert kingdom in the past months in protest at the pro-American stance of the de facto ruler, Prince Abdullah.</div>
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At the same time, Whitehall officials are concerned that Abdullah could face a palace coup from elements within the royal family sympathetic to al Qaeda.<br />
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Saudi sources said the Pentagon had recently sponsored a secret conference to look at options if the royal family fell .… </div>
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Anti-Abdullah elements within the Saudi government are also thought to have colluded in a wave of bomb attacks on Western targets by Islamic terrorists.<span style="color: #ff420e;">37</span> </div>
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After finally mentioning the apparently unimportant subject of the headline — the fact that several Britons had been jailed on bootlegging charges — the story concluded with the statement that feuding between factions in the Saudi court was going to increase with the death of King Fahd who was unstable in a Swiss hospital. </div>
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The story ended by quoting Saudi dissident Dr. Saad al-Fagih who declared, “<i>There is now an undeclared war between the factions in the Saudi royal family</i>.” </div>
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On the same day a lengthy essay on Saudi Arabia in the <i>Asia Times</i> by Ehsan Ahrari observed, “It is interesting to note that [Prince] Sultan is believed to be a preferred US candidate for the Saudi throne.” Abdullah is the crown prince, not Sultan.</div>
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On July 29 <i>Stratfor</i>, an intelligence reporting and analysis service, reported that a feud was brewing between Saudi Arabia and neighboring Qatar over Qatar’s willingness to openly support the US invasion of Iraq. Qatar is nearly sinking under the weight of predeployed military equipment and has a brand new state-of-the-art US Air Force Base. </div>
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On July 30 the suggestions that internecine warfare had erupted in Saudi Arabia were given credence by an <i>Agence France Presse</i> report describing the recent deaths of three Saudi princes in eight days. Prince Fahd bin Turki died of thirst in the desert on July 30. Prince Sultan bin Faisal died in a car crash on July 23, and Prince Ahmed bin Salman died the day before of a heart attack.</div>
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On August 1 the <i>World Tribune</i> reported that Saudi Arabia, which has been acquiring long-range ballistic missiles had also, according to reports confirmed by US officials, been attempting to acquire nuclear weapons from Pakistan — which has been well documented to have heavy concentrations of al Qaeda supporters within all parts of its government. </div>
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On that same day, Saudi dissident Dr. al-Fagih appeared on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation program <i>Lateline</i> and offered some startling revelations: </div>
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Prince Abdullah who is supposed to be the next in charge, the next King, would not accept to appoint Prince Sultan as Crown Prince, and Prince Sultan insists that he should be the next in line for Abdullah to be [king]. Al-Fagih predicted the imminent death of the ailing King Fahd and noted, “That’s why probably the foreign office have [sic] expected some major thing happening in the next few weeks .… “I mean, Prince Abdullah is in charge of the national guard, and Prince Sultan is in charge of the army, and either one will use his own force to fight the other to fight for power. Now they will use all elements of the population, of the society …” [including a large portion of the population that supports al Qaeda and radical Islamic fundamentalism].</blockquote>
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Al-Fagih said that there was a psychological barrier in the country because all information is so thoroughly controlled, and the regime maintains the appearance of complete control. Almost all Saudis dislike the corrupt regime for a multitude of differing reasons. But, said the medical doctor who once served with Osama bin Laden in the Afghan war against Soviet occupation, “Once this psychological barrier is broken, either by a dispute of the royal family, or by a financial collapse, you would expect a major act by the people against the regime.” </div>
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Al-Fagih also noted that in general the dislike of the Saudi people for the US was intense because of its unremitting support of Israel and also because the US had maintained a military presence on Saudi soil long after the end of the Gulf War.</div>
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Just five days later on August 6, the <i>Washington Post</i> reported that a month earlier on July 10, a top Pentagon advisory group had received a briefing from Rand Corp. analyst Laurent Murawiec describing Saudi Arabia as an enemy of the US and threatening seizure of its oil fields and financial assets if it did not stop supporting terrorism. The Pentagon group that received the briefing, the Defense Policy Board, is headed by renowned hawk Richard Perle. [Perle resigned from the board in February 2004 amidst growing controversy over his hawkish views and personal financial relations with firms seeking government contracts.] Although high-level Bush administration figures like Colin Powell downplayed the briefing’s significance, it received heavy-handed media play for several days. Subsequent reports stated that Vice President Dick Cheney’s staff had “embraced” the report. </div>
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On August 7 Saudi Arabia made clear and unequivocal public pronouncements that it would not allow its soil to be used for an invasion of Iraq. </div>
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On August 14 Reuters reported that King Fahd, who had just been moved to Spain, was in failing health and possibly near death. </div>
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On August 15 amid massive daylong publicity, a 15-count, $1 trillion lawsuit was filed against various Saudi interests for liability in the 9/11 attacks. Included among the defendants were the Saudi Binladin Group of companies (previously connected through the Carlyle Group to Bush family finances), three Saudi princes, seven banks, eight Islamic foundations, a number of charities, and the government of Sudan. </div>
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The three Saudi princes are Turki Faisal al Saud, Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz (same as above), and Prince Mohamed al-Faisal. </div>
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This new suit eclipsed three earlier suits, largely ignored by the major media, filed by victim families charging various degrees of liability and/or complicity by the US government. The key lawyers in the case have a history of close affiliation with the Republican Party, the Bush family, and/or the Council on Foreign Relations. Media coverage of the suits continued through the weekend ending August 18. </div>
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What gives? </div>
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<b>Following The Money </b> </div>
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The instability in Saudi Arabia may well be just the end result of internal decay and rot. But the consequences and implications of Saudi Arabia’s current crisis are deeper once one examines the financial threat that Saudi chaos might unleash. </div>
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Like that of the United States, the Saudi economy is in tatters, and like the US economy it needs only one thing to keep it afloat — cash. Saudi Arabia, for all of its wealth, actually began borrowing money to meet budget deficits and finance economic development in 1993.<span style="color: #ff420e;">38</span> It says something about the level of corruption that a nation with as much wealth and income as Saudi Arabia found its treasury running low. Yes, oil prices change things. But the implication is that the Saudi elites are lining their own pockets to the detriment of the long-term financial stability of their country — as happens in the United States, it seems. </div>
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The Saudi government rightly fears US military success in Iraq. A first inevitable consequence would be serious anti-American protests from the Saudi population. The second inevitable consequence would be an almost immediate increase in Iraqi oil production, [Iraq’s outof-control insurgency and the continuing sabotage of infrastructure have prevented this], generating a price reduction that might break the back of OPEC and dramatically reduce oil income. Seeing that the US economy is on the brink of collapse, the Bush administration, facing a potentially disastrous 2004 presidential election, must do whatever it takes to keep itself in power. For this administration, so predominantly populated by oil men (and woman), cheap oil is the obvious first choice; in other words, oil is not only the actual issue, it’s also the one to which the public relations and electioneering skills of this particular regime gravitate in the face of electoral trouble. By focusing their policy efforts on the energy issue — while pursuing a profligate, oil-dependent, war-driven future — they are addressing exactly the right thing in the most wrong way possible. Without significant capital investment in any alternatives, oil remains king. Where the oil is, there will be war.</div>
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Saudi Arabia seems to have seen this coming for some time. In April 2002 the Saudi government announced that it was considering privatizing parts of Aramco, the Saudi national oil company, and selling off some of Aramco’s operations to Exxon, BP-Amoco, Shell, and other major companies. Though little has been disclosed since the early announcements, this move would benefit the Saudis in two big ways. First, it would give Western companies an equity stake in the stability of the monarchy, making it difficult for the US to consider bombing or imposing embargos upon operations owned by Western companies. Secondly, it would generate large amounts of cash to offset declining economic growth, rising unemployment, and declining per capita income, according to <i>Stratfor</i> on April 29, 2002.</div>
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The oil-based standoff is mirrored by what is effectively a much more successful financial deterrent — the Saudis’ ability to wreck the US financial markets should they see their situation become utterly desperate. </div>
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<b>Owning the American Dream</b> </div>
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It is impossible to quantify exactly the Saudi holdings in the US economy. But anecdotal evidence is compelling. The New York Times reported on August 11, “An adviser to the Saudi royal family made a telling point about Saudi elites. He said an estimated $600 billion to $700 billion in Saudi money was invested outside the kingdom, a vast majority of it in the United States or in United States-related investments.” The BBC has estimated Saudi US investment at $750 billion.</div>
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Adnan Khashoggi, perhaps the best-known Saudi billionaire, controls his investments through Ultimate Holdings Ltd. and in Genesis Intermedia, which was reported to have been connected to suspicious stock trades around the time of the September 11 attacks. (No linkage has been made between these trades and the attacks themselves). The rest of his private US holdings are administered through his daughter’s name from offices in Tampa, Florida, not far from where many of the hijackers received flight training at both private schools and US military installations.</div>
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Khashoggi is a longtime financial player, deeply connected to the Iran-Contra scandal of the 1980s and also to BCCI. But Khashoggi doesn’t even make the Forbes list of the richest people in the world. One Saudi who does is Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, who ranks as the fourth richest man on the planet with an estimated net worth of $21.5 billion (Alwaleed is also an investor in and reported client of the Carlyle Group).<span style="color: #ff420e;">39</span> <br />
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Some of Alwaleed’s holdings and recent acquisitions include: </div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
• The single largest sharehold in Citigroup, the teetering US financial giant, which is reported to have a derivatives bubble of more than $12 trillion and has reportedly sought recent emergency assistance from the Federal Reserve. Alwaleed’s shareholding in Citigroup remains near the $10 billion mark. The BCCI scandal was not the last instance where the prohibited foreign ownership of US banks was an issue that touched Saudi interests. Prince Alwaleed’s heavy stake in Citigroup was concealed from 1991 until recently by the Carlyle group, which, acting as a virtual cutout, disguised Alwaleed’s heavy investment in the bank.<span style="color: #ff420e;">40</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
• Alwaleed also owns, according to an August 9, 2002 story in the <i>Guardian</i>, three percent of the total shares of Newscorp (FOX), making him the second-largest shareholder behind Rupert Murdoch.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
• Alwaleed’s other significant holdings include Apple Computer, Priceline, the Four Seasons Hotels, Planet Hollywood, Saks, and Euro Disney.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
• Alwaleed also sits on the Carlyle Group’s board of directors.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
• Alwaleed alone is in a position to pull the plug on the US economy. But, of course, he would cost himself billions to do it, and this is not a likely scenario because he has long been a pro-democratic US supporter.</blockquote>
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This applies to the rest of Saudi-held assets in the US, just as surely as it applies to Alwaleed’s. Taken as a whole, the dollar-denominated wealth of the Saudi royals is so large that its sudden withdrawal from the American economy would be devastating to America. And it would entail very serious financial losses for the Saudi investors, who would find themselves with a mountain of dollars whose value they had just decimated, backed by the full faith and credit of the tooth fairy. So the dreaded Saudi money-withdrawal is in nobody’s near-term interest and it does not happen. It keeps right on not happening, and will presumably continue to not happen for a long time to come. </div>
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<br />
But this assumes, of course, that the Saudi monarchy remains a stable political entity; that the US economy does not implode under its own debt-load; that no major, protracted regional conflict occurs; and that the US therefore remains the most profitable place for Saudi investment. But if the US economy fails? If the Euro becomes stronger than the dollar? The Bush administration’s unilateral and illegal commitment to an Iraqi invasion brings all three essentials into question. The August 20 [2002] report from the Financial Times suggests that the Saudis are, at minimum, firing a clear warning shot across the bow of the USS “Bush”…<span style="color: red;">41</span></div>
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Only two points of my analysis have proven incorrect. The now obvious guerilla war in Iraq and the deterioration of Iraqi oil infrastructure have prevented any real surge in Iraqi oil production. This fact alone would make Saudi Arabia and smaller swing producers in West Africa more important to US short-term needs. Second, King Fahd remains on life support in Spain. I can only conclude that his death will come at a time more convenient to US objectives, perhaps after the inauguration of a new president.</div>
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<br />
According to an investment banker in the author’s acquaintance who is well versed in Middle Eastern and oil finance, two capital streams emerged in the prelude to the invasion of Iraq. One was a stream of Saudi capital being returned to that country from the US. The second was a stream of Saudi flight capital fleeing to the US, being sent by an elite group who expected to soon be living here in exile, after the fall of the monarchy and the partition of the country. </div>
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<br />
Peter Dale Scott, reaching the same conclusions earlier, wrote: </div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The kingdom is now a key battlefield in the conflict between America and its allies and the forces of extremist Islam. It is a conflict that is now threatening to tear Saudi Arabia apart. Revolution is in the air.<br />
The Western community [in Saudi Arabia] is living in fear. It has become the target of a series of bomb attacks, carried out by al Qaeda linked terrorists who want to drive all non-Muslims out of the Arabian Peninsula. But the terrified Westerners have received little help from the Saudi authorities.<br />
The US may hope that it can weaken royal support for anti-American protests by its war preparations in the Middle East, including the timely regrouping of US forces from Saudi Arabia to neighboring Qatar. Alternatively, it may have to use them.<span style="color: red;">42</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
Additional entries from the Thompson timeline add the necessary pieces to confirm that the movements and activities of Osama bin Laden and his family are desired outcomes rather than effects of collective stupidity:</div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>1996</b>: FBI investigators are prevented from carrying out an investigation into two relatives of bin Laden. The FBI wanted to learn more about Abdullah bin Laden, “because of his relationship with the World Assembly of Muslim Youth [WAMY] — a suspected terrorist organization.” Abdullah was the US director of WAMY and lived with his brother Omar in Falls Church, a town just outside Washington. The coding on the document, marked secret, indicate the case involved espionage, murder, and national security. WAMY has their offices at 5613 Leesburg Pike. Remarkably, four of the 9/11 hijackers later are listed as having lived at 5913 Leesburg Pike, at the same time the two bin Laden brothers were there. WAMY has not been put on a list of terrorist organizations in the US, but it has been banned in Pakistan. A high-placed intelligence official tells the <i>Guardian</i>: “there were always constraints on investigating the Saudis. There were particular investigations that were effectively killed.” An unnamed US source says to the BBC, “There is a hidden agenda at the very highest levels of our government.” [BBC Newsnight, 11/6/01; <i>Guardian</i>, 11/7/01]<br />
<br />
<b>July 12, 2001</b>: Bin Laden supposedly meets with CIA agent Larry Mitchell in the Dubai hospital on this day, possibly others. Mitchell reportedly lives in Dubai as an Arab specialist under the cover of being a consular agent. The CIA and the Dubai hospital deny the story; <i>Le Figaro</i> and Radio France International stand by it. [<i>Le Figaro</i>, 10/31/01; Radio France International, 11/1/01] The <i>Guardian</i> claims that the two organizations that broke the story, <i>Le Figaro</i> and Radio France International, got their information from French intelligence, “which is keen to reveal the ambiguous role of the CIA, and to restrain Washington from extending the war to Iraq and elsewhere.” The <i>Guardian</i> adds that during his stay bin Laden is also visited by a second CIA officer, “several members of his family and Saudi personalities,” including Prince Turki al Faisal, then head of Saudi intelligence. [<i>Guardian</i>, 11/1/01] At the very least, doesn’t this show bin Laden was never estranged from much of his family?</blockquote>
</div>
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The story in <i>Le Figaro</i> caused a great international uproar, including fierce personal attacks on me for having publicized it. If true, it establishes that just two months before 9/11, one of the most wanted men on the planet was exchanging information — personally — with CIA personnel. In light of what has been revealed in this chapter, one thing can safely be stated with confidence: The historical context of the relations between the bin Ladens, the Bushes, and US economic interests certainly makes the <i>Le Figaro</i> stories plausible.</div>
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<b>September 13_19, 2001</b>: Members of bin Laden’s family and important Saudis are flown out of the US. The <i>New York Times</i> explains, “The young members of the bin Laden clan were driven or flown under FBI supervision to a secret assembly point in Texas and then to Washington from where they left the country on a private charter plane when airports reopened three days after the attacks.” If you read carefully, note they are flown to Texas and Washington before the national air ban is lifted — the fact of flights during this ban is now unfortunately widely called an urban legend. [<i>New York Times</i>, 9/30/01] There have been conflicting reports as to whether the FBI interviewed them before they left the country. Osama bin Laden’s half brother Abdullah bin Laden stated that even a month later his only contact with the FBI was a brief phone call. [<i>Boston Globe</i>, 9/21/01; <i>New Yorker</i>, 11/5/01]</blockquote>
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It turns out that the flights did occur, and according to former National Security aide Richard Clarke, in his testimony before the Kean Commission, the orders possibly came from “The White House.”<span style="color: #ff420e;">43</span></div>
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<br />
Paul Thompson’s timeline adds more details of the special flights: </div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>September 13, 2001</b>: Confirmation that bin Ladens and Saudis did fly during the no-fly ban and left the country before they could be properly questioned comes from a <i>Tampa Tribune</i> article. A Lear jet takes off from Tampa, Florida, while a ban on all non-military flights in the US is still in effect. It carries a Saudi Arabian prince, the son of the Saudi defense minister, as well as the son of a Saudi army commander, and flies to Lexington, Kentucky, where the Saudis own racehorses. They then fly a private 747 out of the country. Multiple 747s with Arabic lettering on their sides are already there, suggesting another secret assembly point. Intriguingly, the Tampa flight left from a private Raytheon hangar. [<i>Tampa Tribune</i>, 10/5/01]</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>October 27, 2001</b>: The bin Laden family divests from the Carlyle Group around this time, in light of public controversy surrounding the family after the 9/11 attacks. [<i>Washington Post</i>, 10/27/01]</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>October 14, 2001</b>: The <i>Boston Herald</i> reports: “Three banks allegedly used by Osama bin Laden to distribute money to his global terrorism network have well-established ties to a prince in Saudi Arabia’s royal family, several billionaire Saudi bankers, and the governments of Kuwait and Dubai. One of the banks, Al-Shamal Islamic Bank in the Sudan, was controlled directly by Osama bin Laden, according to a 1996 US State Department report.” A regional expert states, “I think we underestimate bin Laden. He comes from the highest levels of Saudi society and he has supporters at all levels of Saudi Arabia.” [<i>Boston Herald</i>, 10/14/01]</blockquote>
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Two of the three banks referred to above are not included in President George W. Bush’s crackdown on terrorist financing after the attacks. Both of the banks had played financing roles in W.’s Harken energy deals in the region.<span style="color: #ff420e;">44</span></div>
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A final note on the unwillingness of the US government to take advantage of numerous opportunities to neutralize bin Laden: Apparently several of the offers came directly from the Taliban. The <i>Village Voice’s</i> James Ridgeway wrote: </div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
[Niece of former CIA Director Richard Helms and Taliban Lobbyist Laila] Helms described one incident after another in which, she claimed, the Taliban agreed to give up bin Laden to the US, only to be rebuffed by the State Department. On one occasion, she said, the Taliban agreed to give the US coordinates for his campsite, leaving enough time so the Yanks could whack al Qaeda’s leader with a missile before he moved. The proposal, she claims, was nixed.<span style="color: #ff420e;">45</span></blockquote>
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Before going to Pakistan let’s revisit one of the most important quotes in The Grand Chessboard by Zbigniew Brzezinski: </div>
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Two basic steps are thus required: first, to identify the geostrategically dynamic Eurasian states that have the power to cause a potentially important shift in the international distribution of power and to decipher the central external goals of their respective political elites and the likely consequences of their seeking to attain them; second, to formulate specific US policies to offset, co-opt, and/or control the above.<span style="color: #ff420e;">46</span></blockquote>
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As with Russia, the political elites in Saudi Arabia are either created or defined by American money and influence. As the US used the Mafia in Russia to destabilize and neutralize that country, so too it appears it has done in Saudi Arabia with al Qaeda. That country, with 25 percent of the oil on the planet, has only existed since 1931. What arguable overriding loyalty to their country exists for those Saudis whose billions depend upon the Empire? If the performance of the Russian oligarchs is any standard, then the malignant Iraq war and the increasingly serious stirrings of Islamic protest might lead to a collapse in Saudi Arabia within a year or two that would play right into America’s hands. Then the biggest prize of all will have been safely secured before the world even understands what has happened. That prize will be secured whether the Bush regime endures in power or not because all the pieces are in place. The only delays as of this writing are the 2004 presidential election and the US military posture that has been seriously weakened as a result of massive Iraqi uprisings and the withdrawal of troops by many nations of the Bush coalition who no longer have the stomach for the carnage and the animosity created by US policy in occupied Iraq.</div>
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<br />
Skeptics will point to the fact that on April 29, 2003, the Pentagon announced that it was beginning to remove American military personnel and aircraft from Saudi Arabia to nearby bases in Qatar, Kuwait, and Dubai. They might assert that this shows that the US has no intention of military action against Saudi Arabia. I would contend, on the other hand, that if the kingdom becomes unstable, having military resources out of the country, but close enough to launch immediate attacks, is a way of protecting them from sabotage or attack if the anti-American sentiment felt by most of the Saudi populace is unleashed. That eventuality arrived in 2004 as the state department ordered an evacuation of Saudi Arabia, and bombs blew apart Saudi police facilities. </div>
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<br />
As for Osama bin Laden, he will not be caught or killed until two things happen: He has outlived his usefulness as an enemy at a time when the United States need no longer fear economic reprisals; and Israel has emerged as the de facto global manager of all economic interests in the Middle East. Neither is a certainty. </div>
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As Caesar might say, “It’s the way things work.”</div>
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*******</div>
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<b>Part Two Footnotes below</b></div>
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PART TWO FOOTNOTES [begin where part one left off for continuity]:<br />
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37 Martin Bright, Nick Pelham and Paul Harris, “Britons left in jail amid fears that Saudi Arabia could fall to al-Qaeda,” Guardian /Observer, Saturday July 27, 2002 [<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/jul/28/terrorism.alqaida1">https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/jul/28/terrorism.alqaida1</a>]</div>
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38 Brisard and Dasquié, op. cit., p. 77. </div>
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39 Dan Brody, op. cit.;[<a href="http://www.forbes.com/maserati/billionaires2004/LIR0RD0.html">www.forbes.com/maserati/billionaires2004/LIR0RD0.html</a>] </div>
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40 [<a href="https://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/msg81659.html">https://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/msg81659.html</a>] </div>
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41 Michael C. Ruppert, “Saudi Arabia: The Sarajevo of the 21st Century,” <i>From The Wilderness</i>, August 21, 2002, . New data updating this story has been added to the original, pending upload to the website, for greater clarity within this section. In-text notes within square parentheses were added to the story during the writing of this book. [Original print newsletter in pdf, with other articles: <a href="http://www.fromthewilderness.net/free/ww3/FTW_August_2002.pdf">http://www.fromthewilderness.net/free/ww3/FTW_August_2002.pdf</a>]</div>
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42 Peter Dale Scott, “FLASH 36: Is U.S. Arms Buildup In Response to Crisis in Saudi Arabia?” August 3, 2002, <a href="http://www.peterdalescott.net/qfsaud.html">http://www.peterdalescott.net/qfsaud.html</a> [< new link, orig. broken]</div>
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43 Richard A. Clarke, testimony before the Kean Commission, March 24, 2004. </div>
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44 Michael C. Ruppert, “Suppressed Details of Criminal Insider Trading Lead Directly into the CIA’s Highest Ranks,” <i>FTW</i>, Vol. IV, no. 7, October 15, 2001, pp. 6- 8 [<a href="http://www.fromthewilderness.net/free/ww3/10_09_01_krongard.html">http://www.fromthewilderness.net/free/ww3/10_09_01_krongard.html</a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">]</span></span></span>; Tom Flocco, “Profits of Death: Insider Trading and 9-11,” ed. Michael C. Ruppert, <i>FTW</i>, Vol. IV, no. 9, December 27, 2001, pp. 13-16[<a href="http://www.fromthewilderness.net/free/ww3/12_06_01_death_profits_pt1.html">http://www.fromthewilderness.net/free/ww3/12_06_01_death_profits_pt1.html</a>]; Tom Flocco and Michael C. Ruppert, “Profits of Death, Part III: All Roads Lead to Deutsche Bank and Harken Energy,” <i>FTW</i>, Vol. IV, no. 10, January 29, 2002, pp. 11-16 [<a href="http://www.fromthewilderness.net/free/ww3/01_09_02_death_profits_pt3.html">http://www.fromthewilderness.net/free/ww3/01_09_02_death_profits_pt3.html</a>]; Cf. “The Real Dirt on Bush/Harken Scandal,” sf.indymedia.org, July 5, 2002, [<a href="http://www.sf.indymedia.org/news/2002/07/136245_comment.php">www.sf.indymedia.org/news/2002/07/136245_comment.php</a>] </div>
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45 James Ridgeway, “The French Connection,” Village Voice, January 2-8, 2002 [<a href="https://www.villagevoice.com/2002/01/01/the-french-connection-2/">https://www.villagevoice.com/2002/01/01/the-french-connection-2/</a>]. </div>
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46 Zbigniew Brzezinski, <i>The Grand Chessboard</i>, p. 40.</div>
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Jan. 8, 2012: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2012/01/petroleum-man.html" target="_blank">Petroleum Man</a></div>
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Jan. 9, 2012: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2012/01/simple-exercise.html" target="_blank">A Simple Exercise</a></div>
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Jan. 20, 2012: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2012/01/unholy-trinity-part-one.html" target="_blank">Unholy Trinity / Part One</a></div>
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Nov. 13, 2017: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2017/11/why-is-us-so-russiaphobic-inconvenient.html" target="_blank">Why Is US So Russiaphobic? Inconvenient Truths About Foreign Policy</a></div>
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Dec. 14, 2017: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2017/12/business-with-bin-ladens-real-saudi.html" target="_blank">Business With The Bin Ladens: The Real Saudi Arabia || Part One</a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8876848971119625162.post-20268246955775054752017-12-14T22:39:00.001-05:002022-04-09T10:25:27.652-04:00Business With The Bin Ladens: The Real Saudi Arabia || Part One<div style="text-align: left;">
<i>Submitted for your consideration </i><i>by <a href="http://www.twitter.com/TRCNewsUCanUse" target="_blank">Gabrielle Jones Price</a> </i><br />
<i>with </i><i><a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2017/02/crossed-rubicons-birthday-message-for.html" target="_blank">permission from the author</a> and copyright holder.</i></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Excerpt from <i>Crossing the Rubicon: </i></span><i><span style="font-size: large;">The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Published in 2004</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Chapter 9 || </span><i>Part One</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Business With The Bin Ladens: The Real Saudi Arabia</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: large;">by </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/CrossingTheRubiconOfficialPage/" style="font-size: x-large;" target="_blank">Michael C. Ruppert</a></span></div>
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[<i>with footnotes</i>]</div>
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<i>The most important thing for us is to find Osama bin Laden. It’s our number one priority, and we will not rest until we find him.</i> — George W. Bush, September 13, 2001</blockquote>
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<i>I don’t know where he is. I have no idea, and I really don’t care. It’s not that important. It’s not our priority.</i> — George W, Bush, March 13, 2002 </blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: large;">O</span>sama bin Laden is probably the last witness the United States would like to have interrogated. There is a compelling case to be made that Osama bin Laden has long been a well-cultivated, protected, and valued asset of US and British intelligence. It is also possible that he has been used. </div>
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The bin Laden family of Saudi Arabia is vastly different from what has been described in the American press. Much of its wealth, power, sophistication, and political and economic influence has been overlooked. A close examination leads directly to US economic and intelligence interests. And this does much to explain why American corporate media has avoided discussing it in detail. </div>
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To understand the deep connections and alliances between the bin Ladens and Western economic and political interests — including the Bush family — is to glimpse the overall fragmented nature of Saudi Arabia: at once extremely powerful and extremely fragile because of its own internal fault lines; under intense pressure and held together by extraordinary means; manipulated unceasingly by the United States and its own elites. </div>
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It is necessary to dispel one popular myth that has remained in the public consciousness since September 11: that of Osama bin Laden as an outcast, totally estranged from his family. This estrangement allegedly occurred after the 1991 Iraq War as the United States kept its military bases on Saudi soil and Osama, who had been a US ally and CIA protégé during the Soviet-Afghan conflict of the 1980s, turned towards terrorism.</div>
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<b>Prodigal black sheep with an open door</b> </div>
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Both the United States government and global business trumpeted a 1993 statement by Bakr bin Laden, the successor as family head after the 1988 death of Osama’s older brother Salem. “The entire family regrets, denounces, and condemns all of the acts committed by Osama bin Laden.”<span style="color: #ff3333;">1</span> That was a convenient statement serving many interests. </div>
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After he took a public stance opposing the Saudi regime’s decision that allowed US troops to be housed on holy soil, Osama bin Laden’s citizenship was revoked in 1994, giving the appearance of a total split with both his family and the monarchy. Whenever financial transactions between either the family or Saudi potentates and Osama have been disclosed, the explanation has been offered that these were extortion payments to keep him from making attacks inside Saudi Arabia. This position has been essential to the US’s credibility in its business and diplomatic dealings. And, like so many other official US positions taken since 9/11, it is at least partially deceitful. </div>
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Not only did the bin Laden family continue to openly receive and visit Osama after 1994, members of the family have assisted in funding al Qaeda and its terrorist operations. That should not be taken to mean that they were acting in the interests of Saudi Arabia. It means that they were acting in the interests of the bin Ladens and their allies. This, at a time when they operated an enormous global financial empire that enjoyed large-scale joint business ventures with American oil companies including Enron, major financial institutions, and even the Bush family itself. The bin Ladens are major players in the new globalized financial order. For some companies, terrorism is good business. </div>
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In their book <i>The Forbidden Truth</i>, French authors Brisard and Dasquié wrote: </div>
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Osama bin Laden’s own sister recently admitted that it was inconceivable that ‘none of the fifty-four family members kept ties with him.’ But she also revealed the change in tone that has recently been adopted with regard to her brother. Since the September 11 attacks Osama bin Laden has become a ‘half brother’ to his siblings. But this word choice is arbitrary; in an Islamic country that practices polygamy, the children born of different wives are simply brothers and sisters.<span style="color: #ff3333;">2</span></blockquote>
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Of the more than 50 “brothers and sisters”<span style="color: #ff3333;">3</span> all fathered by Osama’s father Mohammed, Osama is the only child to have also been born of a Saudi mother. In the Saudi culture and “in the eyes of the authorities, this ‘Saudi’ son would make a trustworthy representative, and he would eventually become a close confidant of Prince Turki, the head of Saudi intelligence.”<span style="color: #ff3333;">4</span></div>
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Brisard and Dasquié also quote an undated CNN interview with Peter Arnett in which Osama claimed that his “mother, uncle, and brothers” had visited him in Khartoum, Sudan. This presumably occurred in the mid 1990s, during the period in which Osama resided there after the reported rift. </div>
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There is much more information showing that the reported schism in the family is a convenient charade. From Paul Thompson’s timeline:</div>
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<b>Spring, 2000</b>: Sources who know bin Laden later claim that bin Laden’s mother has a second meeting with her son in Afghanistan. The trip is approved by the Saudi royal family. The Saudis pass the message to him that ‘they wouldn’t crack down on his followers in Saudi Arabia’ as long as he set his sights on targets outside the desert kingdom. In late 1999, the Saudi government had told the CIA about the trip, and suggested placing a homing beacon on her luggage. This doesn’t happen — Saudis later claim they weren’t taken seriously, and Americans claim they never received specific information on her travel plans. [<i>New Yorker</i>, 11/5/01, <i>Washington Post</i>, 12/19/01].”<span style="color: #ff3333;">5</span></blockquote>
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This also is one of the literally dozens of opportunities for bin Laden’s capture which the US government chose to ignore. Sudanese officials had been keeping real-time surveillance of bin Laden’s movements in the country while he lived there until 1995 and giving the results to US intelligence. The US government could have easily apprehended bin Laden with Sudanese assistance. The Sudanese would have gladly provided it in order to continue receiving US financial aid. Instead the US forced the Sudanese to expel bin Laden, driving him back into Afghanistan, where he became a pivotal influence in the growing power of al Qaeda and the Taliban.<span style="color: #ff3333;">6 </span>In fact, the Sudanese government offered to take bin Laden into custody and was rebuffed. One is compelled to ask whether this is collective, contagious, and continuing stupidity or more evidence of desired outcomes being realized.</div>
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The <i>Washington Post</i> explicitly suggested that the real relationship between the United States government and Osama bin Laden may be quite the opposite of what it seems. “As early as March 1996, the government of Sudan offered to extradite bin Laden to the United States. US officials turned down the offer, perhaps preferring to use him ‘as a combatant in an underground war.’”<span style="color: #ff3333;">7</span> In other words, as a US government agent.<span style="color: #ff3333;">8</span> </div>
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In a follow-up story, the <i>Village Voice</i> expanded further on the Sudanese fiasco: </div>
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Nevertheless, one US intelligence source in the region called the lost opportunity a disgrace. “We kidnap minor drug czars and bring them back in burlap bags. Somebody didn’t want this to happen.” He added that the State Department may have blocked bin Laden’s arrest to placate a part of the Saudi Arabian government that supported bin Laden. (Much of bin Laden’s funding and some of his followers, including suicide bombers, come from Saudi Arabia, which was one of only three countries to recognize the Taliban. That changed after September 11. By then, the Saudis had fired their longtime intelligence chief, Prince Turki al-Faisal, reportedly for his support of bin Laden.) Another American intelligence official told the Voice, “I’ve never seen a brick wall like this before.”<span style="color: #ff3333;">9</span></blockquote>
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Not only did family connections continue after the “rift,” there is evidence that members of the family also supported terrorist activity. In reality, [the family’s] ties with Osama bin Laden had always existed and were never really broken. As one Western intelligence agency noted, the bin Laden family had rigorously followed ‘the principal of total family solidarity among all its members’ since the 1980s.</div>
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In this way, two of Osama bin Laden’s brothers-in-law, Muhammad Jamal Khalifa and Saad Al Sharif, played a crucial role, according to American authorities, in the financing of al Qaeda. The first did so through a charity organization based in Jeddah that did work in the Philippines. He also financed bin Laden’s activities in Malaysia, Singapore, and Mauritius.<span style="color: #ff3333;">10</span></blockquote>
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Khalifa was linked by former CIA official Vince Cannistraro to a Yemeni terrorist group that claimed responsibility for the 2001 bombing of the U.S.S. <i>Cole</i>. After he had been detained in the US by immigration authorities when this was known, instead of holding him for trial in the US, American officials deported him to Jordan, where he was wanted but was soon released on a technicality.<span style="color: #ff3333;">11</span></div>
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Two more compelling citations from Paul Thompson’s timeline further give the lie to the myth of Osama’s ostracism: </div>
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<b>February 2001</b>: A former CIA anti-terror expert tells the <i>New Yorker</i> that an allied intelligence agency sees “two of Osama’s sisters apparently taking cash to an airport in Abu Dhabi, where they are suspected of handing it to a member of bin Laden’s al Qaeda organization.” This is cited as one of many incidents showing “interconnectedness” between Osama bin Laden and the rest of his family. [<i>New Yorker</i>, 11/5/01]<span style="color: #ff3333;">12</span><br />
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<b>November 5, 2001</b>: A <i>New Yorker</i> article points to evidence that the bin Laden family has generally not ostracized … bin Laden as is popularly believed (for instance, see [<i>Newsweek</i>, 10/15/01]), but retains close ties in some cases. The large bin Laden family owns and runs a $5 billion a year global corporation that includes the largest construction firm in the Islamic world. One counter-terrorism expert says, “There’s obviously a lot of spin by the Saudi Binladin Group [the family corporation] to distinguish itself from Osama. I’ve been following the bin Ladens for years, and it’s easy to say, ‘We disown him.’ Many in the family have. But blood is usually thicker than water.” The article notes that neither the bin Laden family nor the Saudi royal family have publicly denounced bin Laden since 9/11. [<i>New Yorker</i>, 11/5/01]<span style="color: #ff3333;">13</span></blockquote>
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The family’s continuing support for Osama bin Laden became a matter of public record in 1999. As Thompson’s timeline observes:</div>
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<b>April 1999</b>: A Saudi government audit shows that five of Saudi Arabia’s billionaires have been giving tens of millions of dollars to al Qaeda. The audit shows that these businessmen transferred money from the National Commercial Bank to accounts of Islamic charities in London and New York banks that serve as fronts for bin Laden. $3 million was diverted from a Saudi pension fund. The only action taken is that Khalid bin Mahfouz, founder of National Commercial Bank, Saudi Arabia’s biggest bank, is placed under house arrest. Bin Mahfouz had invested in George Bush Jr.’s businesses starting in 1989. The US has not frozen the accounts of bin Mahfouz, and he continues to engage in major oil deals with US corporations. [<i>USA Today</i>, 10/29/99, <i>Boston Herald</i>, 12/10/01]</blockquote>
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Just what is the “Saudi Binladin Group” and what does it do? </div>
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<b>The Saudi Binladin Group (SBG)</b> </div>
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Perhaps the most comprehensive breakdown of the bin Laden family’s operations was compiled by former French intelligence consultant Jean-Charles Brisard as a project commissioned by the French intelligence community entitled <i>The Economic Network of the bin Laden Family</i>. Much of that work was reproduced in <i>Forbidden Truth</i>. </div>
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With its headquarters in Jeddah, the parent company of SBG, Saudi Investment Company (SICO) operates four subsidiaries: SICO Curacao (Dutch Antilles), the Tropiville Corporation NV (Dutch Antilles), Falken Ltd. (Cayman Islands), and Islay Holdings (Isle d’Islay). Falken and Tropiville together own Russell Wood Holdings Ltd. (London) and Russell Wood Ltd. (London). An additional six subsidiaries, controlled by either Russell Wood or Islay Holdings, all with innocuous sounding names starting with “Falcon,” “Globe,” “Turkey Rock,” or “Saffron,” are all located in Britain. In addition, one subsidiary, Falcon Properties Ltd., in conjunction with Saudi investor Ghaith Pharoan, owns the Attock Oil Company, also located in England. </div>
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Founded in 1931 at the same time as the nation of Saudi Arabia, the bin Laden family business is the largest construction company in the Middle East. But this easy observation leads to a tangled web of financial and political machinations. The holding companies are located on Caribbean islands frequently associated with money laundering. Obviously a great many financial and corporate entities can be concealed within tightly controlled holding companies. What else is known about the operations of this empire? </div>
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The Saudi Binladin Group owns orbiting satellites and has contracts with the US Department of Defense (DoD). Iridium Satellite, LLC is a privately held, bin Laden Group company which owns a series of 73 low-orbit stationary satellites designed to provide satellite phone coverage across the surface of the Earth. Originally developed by Motorola, Iridium LLC was bankrupt in 1999 when the bin Laden group purchased it and renamed it Iridium Satellite, LLC. The company is based in Leesburg, VA, not far from the CIA and the National Reconnaissance Office. Since the bankruptcy takeover, the company has garnered a $72 million DoD contract and a $300,000 NSF grant to “gauge the magnetic characteristics of the energy fields caused by solar storms.” </div>
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Apparently, 600 Iridium Satellite phones were en route to Florida on September 11 and were redirected to NYC to help with the tragedy. After September 11, there was some talk of using Iridium Satellite LLC’s “low Earth orbiting satellites to provide real-time cockpit voice and flight data monitoring of commercial aircraft, replacing the on-board ‘black boxes.’”<span style="color: #ff3333;">14</span> </div>
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SBG’s construction arm was involved in the building of US military bases in Saudi Arabia, including the Khobar towers, destroyed by a terrorist bomb in June 1996 killing 19 US servicemen. SBG also had business ventures with US oil companies such as Unocal and Enron. In addition they built large portions of the holy sites at Mecca for the Saudi government as a result of a special relationship they have enjoyed with the royal family since the founding of the kingdom.<span style="color: #ff3333;">15</span> </div>
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As the exclusive contractor for the holy sites in Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem (until 1967), SBG and the bin Laden family enjoyed virtually competition-free access to government contracts. The company even served as a tutor for members of the royal family on matters of business and international finance.<span style="color: #ff3333;">16</span> Even more significant, in an Islamic culture strictly opposed to the collection of interest, “the SBG is the only private Saudi institution able to issue bonds. In 2001 it had 35,000 employees with estimated revenues of $3 - 5 billion. In the 1980s it represented the likes of Porsche and Audi and developed Saudi partnerships with GE, Nortel, and Schweppes. All of these companies pretend to this day that SBG and Osama bin Laden are totally divorced.”<span style="color: #ff3333;">17</span> </div>
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As for its banking relationships, SBG is known to favor the Saudi Commercial Bank,<span style="color: #ff3333;">18</span> Deutsche Bank’s London office, and Citigroup.<span style="color: #ff3333;">19</span> It also has extensive financial relationships with Goldman Sachs and the Fremont Group, a San Francisco investment firm whose directorate includes former Secretary of State George P. Shultz. His connections to the SBG reach from the banking side to the construction side; Shultz is the former CEO of the Bechtel Group, a heavy construction firm with major interests in pipeline construction throughout the Middle East.<span style="color: #ff3333;">20</span> Just after the US occupation of Iraq in April 2003, Bechtel was awarded a contract worth up to $680 million to assist in the rebuilding of Iraqi infrastructure.</div>
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In 2001, the <i>Wall Street Journal</i> succinctly captured the importance of SBG in the operations of the Empire:</div>
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“If there were ever any company closely connected to the US and its presence in Saudi Arabia, it’s the Saudi Binladin Group,” says Charles Freeman, president of the Middle East Policy Council, a Washington nonprofit concern that receives tens of thousands of dollars a year from the bin Laden family.<span style="color: #ff3333;">21</span></blockquote>
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SBG also makes sizeable investments in foreign corporations, including many in the US. <a href="https://www.fromthewilderness.net/" target="_blank">From The Wilderness</a> (<i>FTW</i>) was among the first, just after the attacks of 9/11, to bring public attention to the fact that the bin Ladens had a multimillion-dollar stake in the Carlyle Group, a privately held US company.</div>
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<b>Carlyle</b> </div>
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On October 9, 2001, I published a story in <i>FTW</i> on connections between the Bushes and the bin Ladens; it helped start an uproar that eventually led to the SBG divesting itself from Carlyle. Why is Carlyle so significant? As a holding company and investment bank, it is a major component of the US defense industry. Most people are unaware that on September 11, 2001, as the attacks were taking place, members of the bin Laden family (along with other key investors) were in Washington, DC meeting with the Carlyle Group at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, just blocks away from the White House.<span style="color: #ff3333;">22</span> Following are excerpts from that story. </div>
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<b>The Carlyle Group, the Bushes, and bin Laden</b></blockquote>
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The warnings about the Carlyle Group, the [at that time] nation’s eleventh largest defense contractor, and the Bushes came long before the World Trade Center attacks. The Carlyle Group is a closely held corporation, exempt, for that reason, from reporting its affairs to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Little is known of what it actually does except that it buys and sells defense contractors. As of October 4, 2001, it has removed its corporate website from the World Wide Web, making further investigation through that channel impossible. Its Directors include Frank Carlucci, former Reagan Secretary of Defense; James Baker, former Bush Secretary of State; and Richard Darman, a former White House aide to Ronald Reagan and Republican Party operative.</blockquote>
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On March 5, 2001, just weeks after George W. Bush’s inauguration, the conservative Washington lobbying group Judicial Watch issued a press release. It said:<br />
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(Washington, DC) Judicial Watch, the public interest law firm that investigates and prosecutes government abuse and corruption, called on former President George Herbert Walker Bush to resign immediately from the Carlyle Group, a private investment firm, while his son President George W. Bush is in office. Today’s <i>New York Times</i> reported that the elder Bush is an ‘ambassador’ for the $12 billion private investment firm and last year traveled to the Middle East on its behalf. The former president also helped the firm in South Korea.<br />
The <i>New York Times</i> reported that as compensation, the elder Bush is allowed to buy a stake in the Carlyle Group’s investments, which include ownership in at least 164 companies throughout the world (thereby by giving the current president an indirect benefit). James Baker, the former Secretary of State who served as President George W. Bush’s point man in Florida’s election dispute, is a partner in the firm. The firm also gave George W. Bush help in the early 1990s when it placed him on one of its subsidiary’s board of directors.<br />
“This is simply inappropriate. Former President Bush should immediately resign from the Carlyle Group because it is an obvious conflict of interest. Any foreign government or foreign investor trying to curry favor with the current Bush administration is sure to throw business to the Carlyle Group. And with the former President Bush promoting the firm’s investments abroad, foreign nationals could understandably confuse the Carlyle Group’s interests with the interests of the United States government,” stated Larry Klayman, Judicial Watch Chairman and General Counsel.<br />
“Questions are now bound to be raised if the recent Bush administration change in policy towards Iraq has the fingerprints of the Carlyle Group, which is trying to gain investments from other Arab countries who would presumably benefit from the new policy,” stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.</blockquote>
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Judicial Watch noted that “even the Clinton administration called on the Rodham brothers to stop their business dealings in [the former Soviet Republic of] Georgia because those dealings started to destabilize that country.”</blockquote>
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Since the WTC attacks, the <i>Wall Street Journal</i> has reported (September 28, 2001) that, “George H. W. Bush, the father of President Bush, works for the bin Laden family business in Saudi Arabia through the Carlyle Group, an international consulting firm.” The senior Bush had met with the bin Laden family at least twice in the last three years (1998 and 2000) as a representative of Carlyle, seeking to expand business dealings with one of the wealthiest Saudi families, which, some experts argue, has never fully severed its ties with black sheep Osama in spite of current reports in a mainstream press that is afraid of offending the current administration.<br />
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The <i>Nation</i>, on March 27, 2000 — in a story co-authored by David Corn and Paul Lashma — wrote, “In January former President George Bush and former British Prime Minister John Major paid a social call on Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Abdullah .…” This story confirms at least one meeting between the elder Bush and Saudi leaders, including the bin Ladens. That the bin Ladens attended this meeting was confirmed in a subsequent September 27, 2001, <i>Wall Street Journal</i> (WSJ) story. The January 2000 meeting with the bin Ladens was also later confirmed by Bush (the elder’s) Chief of Staff Jean Becker, only after the WSJ presented her with a thank-you note sent by Bush to the bin Ladens after that meeting.<br />
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James Baker visited the bin Ladens in 1998 and 1999 with [then] Carlyle CEO Frank Carlucci.<br />
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The <i>WSJ</i> story went on to note, “A Carlyle executive said that the bin Laden family committed $2 million through a London investment arm in 1995 in Carlyle Partners II Fund, which raised $1.3 billion overall. The fund has purchased several aerospace companies among 29 deals. So far, the family has received $1.3 million back in completed investments and should ultimately realize a 40 percent annualized rate of return, the Carlyle executive said.<br />
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“But a foreign financier with ties to the bin Laden family says the family’s overall investment with Carlyle is considerably larger .…” In other words, Osama bin Laden’s attacks on the WTC and Pentagon, with the resulting massive increase in the US defense budget, have just made his family a great big pile of money.<br />
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More Bush connections appear in relation to the bin Ladens. The <i>WSJ</i> story also notes, “During the past several years, the [bin Laden] family’s close ties to the Saudi royal family prompted executives and staff from closely held New York publisher Forbes, Inc. to make two trips to the family headquarters, according to Forbes Chairman Caspar Weinberger, a former US Secretary of Defense in the Reagan administration. ‘We would call on them to get their view of the country and what would be of interest to investors.’” <br />
President G. H. W. Bush pardoned Weinberger for his criminal conduct in the Iran-Contra scandal in 1989.<br />
Our current President, George W. Bush, has also had — at minimum — indirect dealings with both Carlyle and the bin Ladens. In 1976 his firm Arbusto Energy was funded with $50,000 from Texas investment banker James R. Bath, who was also the US investment counselor for the bin Laden family. In his watershed 1992 book, <i>The Mafia, the CIA and George Bush</i>, award-winning Texas investigative journalist Pete Brewton dug deeply into Bath’s background, revealing connections with the CIA and major fraudulent activities connected with the Savings & Loan scandal that took $500 billion out of the pockets of American taxpayers. A long-time friend of George W. Bush, Bath was connected to a number of covert financing operations in the Iran-Contra scandal, which also linked to bin Laden friend Adnan Khashoggi. One of the richest men in the world, Khashoggi was the arms merchant at the center of the whole Iran-Contra scandal. Khashoggi, whose connections to the bin Ladens is more than superficial, got his first business break by acting as middleman for a large truck purchase by Osama bin Laden’s older brother, Salem.<br />
Another key player in the Bush administration, Deputy Secretary of Defense Richard Armitage, left his post as an assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan administration after a series of scandals connected to CIA operatives Ed Wilson, Ted Shackley, Richard Secord, and Tom Clines placed him at the brink of criminal indictment and jail. Shackley and Secord are veterans of Vietnam operations and have long been linked to opium/heroin smuggling. The Armitage scandals all focused on the illegal provision of weapons and war materiel to potential or actual enemies of the US and to the Contras in Central America.<br />
Armitage, [allegedly] a former Navy SEAL who reportedly enjoyed combat missions and killing during covert operations in Laos during the Vietnam War, has never been far from the Bush family’s side. Throughout his career, both in and out of government, he has been perpetually connected to CIA drug smuggling operations. Secretary of State Colin Powell, in a 1995 Washington Post story, called Armitage, “my white son.” In 1990, then President Bush dispatched Armitage to Russia to aid in its “transition” to capitalism. Armitage’s Russian work for Bush has been frequently connected to the explosion of drug trafficking under the Russian Mafias who became virtual rulers of the nation afterwards. In the early 1990s Armitage had extensive involvement in Albania at the same time that the Albanian ally, Kosovo Liberation Army, was coming to power and consolidating its grip, according to the <i>Christian Science Monitor</i>, on 70 percent of the heroin entering Western Europe.<span style="color: #ff3333;">23</span><br />
Armitage and Carlucci are both board members of the influential Washington think-tank, the Middle East Policy Council. [This is the same Middle East Policy Council that receives funding from the bin Laden family.]<br />
According to a 2000 story from <i>Harper’s Magazine</i>, in 1990 our current president had additional connections to the bin Laden family through a position as a corporate director of Caterair, owned by the Carlyle Group — at a time when the bin Ladens were invested in Carlyle. On March 1, 1995, when George W. Bush was Texas governor and a senior trustee of the University of Texas, its endowment voted to place $10 million in investments with the Carlyle Group. As to how much of that money went to the bin Ladens, we can only guess. But we do know that there is a long tradition in the Bush family of giving money to those who kill Americans.<span style="color: #ff3333;">24</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
In January 2000 it was announced that Louis Gerstner, outgoing IBM chairman, had replaced Frank Carlucci as chairman of the Carlyle Group.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<b>Bin Laden special services</b> </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
Paul Thompson’s timeline reveals what may be long-standing covert relationships between the bin Ladens and the Bushes. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<b>Covert operations</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>October 1980</b>: Salem bin Laden, Osama’s eldest brother, is later described by a French secret intelligence report as one of the two closest friends of Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd. As such, he often performs important missions for Saudi Arabia. The French report speculates that he is somehow involved in secret Paris meetings between US and Iranian emissaries this month. Frontline, which published the French report, notes that such meetings have never been confirmed. Rumors of these meetings have been called the “October Surprise” and some have speculated Bush Sr. negotiated in these meetings a delay of the release of the US hostages in Iran, thus helping Reagan and Bush win the presidency. All of this is highly speculative, but if the French report is correct, it points to a long-standing connection of highly illegal behavior between the Bush and bin Laden families. [PBS Frontline, 2001]<span style="color: #ff3333;">25</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Salem, the same bin Laden who was to turn over US control of US bin Laden family finances to George W.’s friend and Air National Guard squadron-mate, James Bath, in the early 1980s, also turns up again in Iran-Contra:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>Mid-1980s</b>: It is later suggested that Salem bin Laden, Osama’s eldest brother, is involved in the Iran-Contra affair. The <i>New Yorker</i> reports, “During the nineteen-eighties, when the Reagan administration secretly arranged for an estimated thirty-four million dollars to be funneled through Saudi Arabia to the Contras, in Nicaragua, Salem bin Laden aided in this cause, according to French intelligence.”<i> New Yorker</i> is obviously quoting the same French report posted by Frontline (see October, 1980). [New Yorker, 11/5/01; Frontline, 2001]<span style="color: #ff3333;">26</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<b>George W.’s wallet</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br />
Several bin Ladens turn up in the business life of President George W. Bush. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>1988</b>: Prior to this year, George Bush Jr. is a failed oil man. Three times friends and investors have bailed him out to keep him from going bankrupt. But in this year, the same year his father becomes president, some Saudis buy a portion of his small company, Harken, which has never worked outside of Texas. Later in the year, Harken wins a contract in the Persian Gulf and starts doing well financially. These transactions seem so suspicious that even the <i>Wall Street Journal</i> in 1991 states it “raises the question of ... an effort to cozy up to a presidential son.” Two major investors into Bush’s company during this time are Salem bin Laden, Osama bin Laden’s father, and Khaled bin Mahfouz. [<i>Salon</i>, 11/19/01; <i>Intelligence Newsletter</i>, 3/2/00]<span style="color: #ff3333;">27</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
We could devote a whole chapter to Harken Energy. As the corporate scandals of 2002 rocked the American financial landscape, a number of stories surfaced showing that George W. Bush had knowingly participated in a huge “pump and dump” scheme with Harken stock just before its collapse in 1991. Apart from its smaller scale, this is strikingly similar to the Enron debacle of a decade later. But in light of the fact that none of the evidence that surfaced in 2002 (including SEC records and statements) had even the slightest impact on the course of American history or the election of 2002, I see no point in delving deeper into that episode here. Harken energy is just another little piece that fits nicely into the broader landscape of that map.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<b>Kosovo and the Balkans</b> </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Osama bin Laden’s connections to, and service for, the CIA did not end when the Russians departed Afghanistan prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union. In fact, a compelling trail of evidence shows that the US has maintained continuous ties to al Qaeda, bin Laden, and other Islamic terror organizations to this day. Much of this evidence is found in the recent history of the Balkans, especially in the robust American involvement with the Kosovo Liberation Army. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Since 9/11 few have accomplished as much as Professor Michel Chossudovsky of the University of Ottawa in exposing the deceitfulness of US government statements about Osama bin Laden. In 1998 the United States openly sided with the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), then responsible for 70 percent of the heroin smuggled into Western Europe, in a war against another useful US-manufactured bogeyman, Slobodan Milosevic. And it is there, Chossudovsky tells us, that bin Laden footprints appear again. After examining 21 different source records — including US congressional records and reports by the Republican Party — he found direct links between Osama and the CIA:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The evidence amply confirms that the CIA never severed its ties to the “Islamic Militant Network.” Since the end of the Cold War, these covert intelligence links have not only been maintained, they have become increasingly sophisticated.<br />
New undercover initiatives financed by the Golden Crescent drug trade were set in motion in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Balkans. Pakistan’s military and intelligence apparatus (controlled by the CIA) essentially “served as a catalyst for the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the emergence of six new Muslim republics in Central Asia…”<br />
The same pattern was used in the Balkans to arm and equip the Mujahideen fighting in the ranks of the Bosnian Muslim army against the Armed Forces of the Yugoslav Federation. Throughout the 1990s, the Pakistan Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) was used by the CIA as a go-between — to channel weapons and Mujahideen mercenaries to the Bosnian Muslim Army in the civil war in Yugoslavia. According to a report of the London based International Media Corporation: “Reliable sources report that the United States is now [1994] actively participating in the arming and training of the Muslim forces of Bosnia-Herzegovina in direct contravention of the United Nations accords.”<span style="color: #ff3333;">28</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
Chossudovsky next draws the handcuffs tighter around the wrists of both bin Laden and the CIA:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
During September and October [1994], there has been a stream of “Afghan” Mujahideen …covertly landed in Ploce, Croatia .... Confirmed by British military sources, the task of arming and training of the KLA had been entrusted in 1998 to the US Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) and Britain’s secret intelligence service MI6 .… Bin Laden had visited Albania himself .... It is important to note that the KLA was basically an Albanian ethnic Army and that it has been documented that Albanian organized crime elements are both powerful and well respected in the region, even by their Italian counterparts. Also, remember that it was heroin grown in Afghanistan that was passing through the KLA’s hands that was funding a great many Islamic terrorist organizations all over Europe and Asia.<span style="color: #ff3333;">29</span></blockquote>
</div>
Chossudovsky documented that some of bin Laden’s most trusted operatives even participated in the fighting. “Another link to bin Laden is the fact that the brother of a leader in an Egyptian jihad organization and also a military commander of Osama bin Laden, was leading an elite KLA unit during the Kosovo conflict.”<span style="color: #ff3333;">30</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
Further corroboration came in a May 1999 story in the <i>Washington Times</i>. Citing intelligence reports presumably obtained from US agencies, reporter Jerry Seper wrote: </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The intelligence reports document what is described as a “link” between bin Laden, the fugitive Saudi including a common staging area in Tropoje, Albania, a center for Islamic terrorists. The reports said bin Laden’s organization, known as al Qaeda, has both trained and financially supported the KLA .…<br />
<br />
<i> Jane’s International Defense Review</i>, a highly respected British Journal, reported in February that documents found last year on the body of a KLA member showed that he had escorted several volunteers into Kosovo, including more than a dozen Saudi Arabians.<span style="color: #ff3333;">31</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
It is important to remember that the NATO commander in charge of all operations in the region was 2003-2004 Democratic presidential hopeful Wesley Clark at a time when NATO was supporting the KLA.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<b>Chechnya</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
One 9/11 researcher drew compelling links between Osama bin Laden and Chechnya, where Muslim separatists remain a formidable thorn in the side of Russian President Vladimir Putin: </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In his 28 September interview [with a pro-Taliban newspaper], bin Laden is quoted as follows: “I can go from Indonesia to Algeria, Kabul to Chechnya, Bosnia to Sudan, and Burma to Kashmir,” he said. “This is not a question of my survival. This is the question of the survival of jihad (holy war).”<br />
<br />
“Wherever required, I will be there.”<br />
<br />
This amounts to a confession that bin Laden has been involved with the very terrorists that the US has sponsored, for example in Chechnya, Bosnia, Macedonia, Algeria, and Indonesia, and also with the KLA whom the US government has sponsored in attacking Serbia.<span style="color: #ff3333;">32</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
Chossudovsky again expanded on and illuminated the secret and mutually beneficial relationship between Osama bin Laden and the CIA:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
With regard to Chechnya, the main rebel leaders Shamil Basayev and Al Khattab were trained and indoctrinated in CIA sponsored camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan. According to Yossef Bodansky, director of the US Congress’s Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, the war in Chechnya had been planned during a secret summit of Hezbollah International held in 1996 in Mogadishu, Somalia.<br />
The summit was attended by Osama bin Laden and high-ranking Iranian and Pakistani intelligence officers. In this regard, the involvement of Pakistan’s ISI in Chechnya “goes far beyond supplying the Chechens with weapons and expertise: the ISI and its radical Islamic proxies are actually calling the shots in this war.”<br />
Russia’s main pipeline route transits through Chechnya and Dagestan. Despite Washington’s perfunctory condemnation of Islamic terrorism, the indirect beneficiaries of the Chechen war are the Anglo-American oil conglomerates which are vying for control over oil resources and pipeline corridors out of the Caspian Sea basin.<br />
The two main Chechen rebel armies (respectively led by Commander Shamil Basayev and Emir Khattab) estimated at 35,000 strong were supported by Pakistan’s ISI, which also played a key role in organizing and training the Chechen rebel army [emphasis added].<span style="color: #ff3333;">33</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<b>On Her Majesty’s Secret Service</b> </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
Great Britain — one of the major players supporting the KLA in Kosovo — also maintained secret relationships with bin Laden and al Qaeda that served its interests. In 1996 Britain’s exterior intelligence service, MI6, actually funded and worked with al Qaeda in a plot to assassinate and overthrow Libya’s Muammar Qaddafy. Details of the relationship emerged after a British domestic intelligence (MI5) officer, David Shayler, went public with documents detailing the relationship between Britain and bin Laden. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
In November, 2002 — and in the wake of 9/11 — as Shayler’s trial brought the case to public attention, the British government invoked measures of the State Security Act to hide embarrassing information. The government’s efforts even went so far as the issuance of a “D” notice by Prime Minister Tony Blair requiring that previously published news stories on the case be withdrawn and removed from public websites. A remaining story in Britain’s <i>Observer</i> suggests the degree to which the British (and indeed, the US) government is exposed by the facts’ emergence. It reported, “The Libyan al Qaeda cell included Anas al-Liby, who remains on the US government’s most-wanted list with a reward of $25 million for his capture. He is wanted for his involvement in the African embassy bombings. Al-Liby was with bin Laden in Sudan before the latter returned to Afghanistan in 1996.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Astonishingly, despite suspicions that he was a high-level al Qaeda operative, [Anas] al-Liby was given political asylum in Britain and lived in Manchester until May of 2000 when he eluded a police raid on his house and fled abroad. The raid discovered a 180-page al Qaeda “manual for jihad” containing instructions for terrorist attacks.<span style="color: #ff3333;">34</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
Much of the information revealed by Shayler, who has reportedly been sentenced to six months for violating secrecy oaths, was confirmed by French authors Brisard and Dasquié, who noted in <i>Forbidden Truth</i> that the first real Interpol wanted notice for Osama bin Laden came not from the US but from another so-called terrorist leader, Muammar Qaddafy, in 1994. At the time, bin Laden was wanted for the murder of two German intelligence agents in Libya, and Qaddafy’s actions suggested that he had found common ground with some Western governments on the issue of Saudi Arabia’s most wanted son.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
Since the attacks of 9/11 Libya has rarely been mentioned as a state sponsor of terrorism and has recently “cleaned up its act” as US oil companies have secured new Libyan contracts. Qaddafy, the terrorist <i>du jour </i>of the 1980s, is now respectable. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
All this seemingly nonsensical behavior, rendering more incredible the now discredited US charges that Saddam Hussein was an ally of Osama bin Laden, is explained by information given to me by an influential investment banker shortly after the attacks of 9/11. That information indicated that Qaddafy had recently signed an oil lease with Texas oil magnates Nelson and Bunker Hunt, good friends of the Bush family. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
Britain’s dealings with Osama bin Laden have extended to allowing him to visit their country while he was a wanted man. As I noted in 1998, “the French Internet publication Indigo reported that bin Laden had been a London guest of British Intelligence as recently as 1996, and his treasurer recently defected to the Saudis as different factions shifted alliances for new campaigns in the Middle East. If Osama travels to London and has businesses in the Caymans and Geneva, how difficult can he be to find?”<span style="color: #ff3333;">35</span> </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
Unsurprisingly, a November 2002 UPI story by Arnaud de Borchgrave indicated not only that the Pakistani ISI had helped Osama bin Laden escape from Afghanistan but also that the American government had deliberately paid little attention to offers from an Afghan warlord to pinpoint and capture the alleged mastermind of 9/11. De Borchgrave reported that Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz took down the name of the warlord — who had communicated directly with the reporter — and promised to look into the matter, and that nothing ever came of it. De Borchgrave became frustrated. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Could it be that the intelligence community, already overburdened by the requirements of the coming war on Iraq and the war on terror, is not too interested in a ‘we’ve got Osama alive’ melodrama that might detract from the current ‘get Hussein’ priority objective? <span style="color: #ff3333;">36</span> </blockquote>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
While de Borchgrave worried about terror attacks if bin Laden were captured, I chuckled at the thought of frightened officials in Washington worrying over the possibility that bin Laden might one day talk. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
With this perspective it is possible to take a rational look at the actual state of affairs in Saudi Arabia in light of the controversy over the 28 censored pages of the House-Senate 9/11 intelligence report that reportedly focus on it. George W. Bush refuses to declassify this section of the report while what are reported to be its contents are conveniently leaked throughout the mainstream American press. I tend to think that the 28 pages, as originally reported, have more to do with advance warnings of the attacks from foreign governments than they do with Saudi Arabia. <br />
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
One must remember that Saudi Arabia is the ultimate prize in the war for oil. That’s because, to paraphrase convicted bank robber Willie Horton, “It’s where the oil is."</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
*******</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Part One Footnotes below</b></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
Continued: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2017/12/business-with-bin-ladens-real-saudi_20.html" target="_blank">PART TWO</a></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
PART ONE FOOTNOTES:
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
1 Brisard and Dasquié, op. cit., p.
103, citing a report in the APS Diplomat Recorder dated March 5,
1994. [Searchable DB of APS articles:
<a href="https://www.highbeam.com/publications/aps-diplomat-recorder-p65712">https://www.highbeam.com/publications/aps-diplomat-recorder-p65712</a>]</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
2 Ibid, pp. 104-105.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
3 “Bin Laden Family has Intricate
Ties with Washington,” Wall Street Journal, September 28-29,
2001.[<a href="http://www.uni-muenster.de/PeaCon/global-texte/g-notes/BinLaden-Carlyle.htm">http://www.uni-muenster.de/PeaCon/global-texte/g-notes/BinLaden-Carlyle.htm</a>]</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
4 Brisard and Dasquié, op. cit., p.
109, citing “Behind the Veil,” Jerusalem Report, June 3, 1993
[Article not found. J Report/J Post archives go back to 2005, not
before.]</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
5 Paul Thompson, “The Complete 9/11
Timeline: Introduction, Credits and Links (Version 1.7),” October
28, 2002, www.unansweredquestions.net/timeline. [broken URL. Great new site
w/searchable DB:
<a href="http://www.historycommons.org/project.jsp?project=911_project">http://www.historycommons.org/project.jsp?project=911_project</a>]</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
6 FTW, Vol. I, no. 7, September 19,
1998; “How the U.S. Missed a Chance to Get Bin Laden,” Village
Voice, October 31, 2001,
[<a href="https://www.prisonplanet.com/thanks_but_no_thanks.html">https://www.prisonplanet.com/thanks_but_no_thanks.html</a>]; Nafeez
Ahmed, War on Freedom [Book pdf:
<a href="https://wikispooks.com/wiki/File:The_War_on_Freedom.pdf">https://wikispooks.com/wiki/File:The_War_on_Freedom.pdf</a>], p. 203.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
7 “Sudan offered to turn over Osama
bin Laden,” Washington Post, October 3, 2001.
[<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/18/AR2007111800593.htm">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/18/AR2007111800593.htm</a>l]</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
8 If this means that OBL is to be “used
as a combatant” on the USG side, it strongly suggests that he is a
willing participant in such an effort and that his CIA affiliation
from the Mujaheddin war of the 1980s has persisted. If the same
locution means that OBL is to be “used” as a combatant on the
anti-USG terrorist side of the supposed war on terror, it strongly
suggests that the USG is engaged in the business of supplying itself
with enemies. That practice is called “false flag” operation, and
9/11 is its greatest exemplar in history.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
9 Jennifer Gould, “<a href="https://www.prisonplanet.com/thanks_but_no_thanks.html">Thanks
But No Thanks</a>,” The Village Voice, November 6, 2001.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
10 Brisard and Dasquié, op. cit., p.
104.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
11 Ibid, p. 105.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
12 See Thompson, “Timeline,” op.
cit. [<a href="http://www.historycommons.org/project.jsp?project=911_project">http://www.historycommons.org/project.jsp?project=911_project</a>]</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
13 Ibid. 14
www.rmfdevelopment.com/political/IridiumSatellite.htm. [URL/Site not
found]</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
15 Brisard and Dasquié, op. cit., pp.
106-108.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
16 Ibid, p. 106.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
17 Ibid, p. 107.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
18 The Saudi Commercial Bank is the
largest in the Kingdom. It is operated by Khalid bin Mahfouz, Saudi
Arabia’s former treasurer. Mahfouz has been reported in several
places to be Osama bin Laden’s brother in law. However, he has
denied this and brought intense legal pressure to bear demanding
retractions of these allegations. He has major partnership
investments with the multibillion-dollar Binladin Group of companies,
and he is a former director of BCCI, the infamous criminal drug-money
laundering bank which performed a number of very useful services for
the CIA before its 1991 collapse under criminal investigation by
several countries.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
19 Wall Street Journal, op. cit.,
September 28- 29, 2001.
[<a href="http://www.uni-muenster.de/PeaCon/global-texte/g-notes/BinLaden-Carlyle.htm">http://www.uni-muenster.de/PeaCon/global-texte/g-notes/BinLaden-Carlyle.htm</a>]</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
20 Kurt Eichenwald, “Bin Laden Family
Liquidates Holdings with Carlyle Group,” New York Times, October
26, 2001.
[<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/26/business/bin-laden-family-liquidates-holdings-with-carlyle-group.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/26/business/bin-laden-family-liquidates-holdings-with-carlyle-group.html</a>]</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
21 Agence France Presse, April 17,
2003, “U.S. Gives Iraqi Rebuilding Contract to Bechtel.”
[Multiple sources: <a href="http://www.historycommons.org/">http://www.historycommons.org/</a>
search term: Bechtel]</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
22 <a href="http://www.uni-muenster.de/PeaCon/global-texte/g-notes/BinLaden-Carlyle.htm">Wall
Street Journal</a>, op. cit., September 28- 29, 2001.
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23 “The Best Enemies Money Can Buy,”
FTW, Vol. IV, no. 7, October 15, 2001, pp. 13-15.
[<a href="http://www.fromthewilderness.net/free/ww3/10_09_01_carlyle.html">http://www.fromthewilderness.net/free/ww3/10_09_01_carlyle.html</a>]</div>
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24 Dan Brody, “Carlyle’s Way:
Making a Mint Inside ‘The Iron Triangle’ of Defense, Government,
and Industry,” January 8, 2002, [Mirror:
<a href="http://propagandamatrix.com/carlyles_way.html">http://propagandamatrix.com/carlyles_way.html</a>]
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25 Thompson, op. cit.
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26 Ibid.
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27 Ibid.
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28 Michel Chossudovsky, “Osamagate,”
Centre for Research on Globalisation, October 9, 2001, [Updated link:
<a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/osamagate/369">https://www.globalresearch.ca/osamagate/369</a>]</div>
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29 Ibid.
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30 Chossudovsky, op. cit.
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31 “KLA Rebels Train in Terrorist
Camps,” Washington Times, May 4, 1999.
[<a href="http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/KLA-binladen.htm">http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/KLA-binladen.htm</a>]</div>
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32 Jared Israel, “Bin Laden,
Terrorist Monster: Take Two!” The Emperor’s Clothes website,
October 9, 2001, [<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><a href="http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/jared/taketwo.htm">http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/jared/taketwo.htm</a>]</span></span></div>
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33 Michel Chossudovsky, “Who Is Osama
Bin Laden?” Centre for Research on Globalisation (CRG), Montréal;
posted September 12, 2001, [<a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO109C.html">http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO109C.html</a>]</div>
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34 “Startling Revelations by French
Intelligence Experts Back David Shayler’s Alleged ‘Fantasy’
about Gadaffi Plot,” Guardian/Observer, November 10, 2002 [<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2002/nov/10/uk.davidshayler">https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2002/nov/10/uk.davidshayler</a>]</div>
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35 Michael C. Ruppert, “Osama Bin
Laden — A CIA Creation and its Blowback,” FTW, Vol. I, no. 7,
September 19, 1998, p. 4. [Not on the FTW archive. Poss. paper
publication.]</div>
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36 “Conspiracy of Silence by Arnaud
de Borchgrave,” UPI Commentary, November 18, 2002.
[<a href="https://www.upi.com/Commentary-Conspiracy-of-silence/64091037654110/">https://www.upi.com/Commentary-Conspiracy-of-silence/64091037654110/</a>]</div>
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<b>Audio excerpts coming soon...</b></div>
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<i>Please find links to previously released excerpts below with footnotes, which are the bulk of the work for this project. Crossing the Rubicon is over 700 pages long with upwards of 1,000 footnotes requiring updating since its 2004 release. From The Wilderness web links are estimated at double or triple that amount. Mike's administrative team sincerely appreciates your support of his legacy. TRC does not receive commission from sales of Crossing the Rubicon. Book sales help the administrator who granted permission to TRC to share excerpts and official web hosting duties.</i></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Semper fi 🗽 </span></center>
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Jan. 8, 2012: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2012/01/petroleum-man.html" target="_blank">Petroleum Man</a></div>
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Jan. 9, 2012: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2012/01/simple-exercise.html" target="_blank">A Simple Exercise</a></div>
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Jan. 20, 2012: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2012/01/unholy-trinity-part-one.html" target="_blank">Unholy Trinity / Part One</a></div>
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Jan. 21, 2012: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2012/01/unholy-trinity-part-two.html" target="_blank">Unholy Trinity / Part Two</a></div>
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Jan. 22, 2012: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2012/01/unholy-trinity-part-three.html" target="_blank">Unholy Trinity / Part Three</a></div>
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Nov. 13, 2017: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2017/11/why-is-us-so-russiaphobic-inconvenient.html" target="_blank">Why Is US So Russiaphobic? Inconvenient Truths About Foreign Policy</a></div>
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Dec. 20, 2017: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2017/12/business-with-bin-ladens-real-saudi_20.html" target="_blank">Business With The Bin Ladens: The Real Saudi Arabia || Part Two</a></div>
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Jan. 1, 2018: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2018/01/define-bombshell-what-happens-when-fbi.html" target="_blank">Define Bombshell: What Happens When FBI Agents Blow The Whistle</a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8876848971119625162.post-15373786691401141442017-12-10T16:30:00.000-05:002018-05-04T16:15:48.410-04:00TRC Exclusive Project Announcement: Michael C. Ruppert Archives<center>
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Announcement from The Refreshment Center's founder, <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/p/contributors.html" target="_blank">Gabrielle Jones-Price</a></div>
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Greetings, patrons and visitors. </div>
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As this challenging year draws to a close, I'm reminded of many lessons I have learned in the last decade. What continues to resonate is the love and compassionate generosity of activists during Occupy. Men and women who have done the heavy lifting of inner work required to handle the terrain of truth and the beautiful audacity of souls that carry it: to believe we can change things for the betterment of all.</div>
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Or as the writings in my practice might phrase it, "<i>Om mani padme hum</i>."</div>
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I'm also reminded often of a quote from the introduction written by Michael C. Ruppert, in his book, Crossing the Rubicon: </div>
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"<i>Miracles can happen without our permission.</i>"</blockquote>
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I can attest to that, personally. They happen when we least expect them, often when things seem darkest. Hence the saying, 'It is always darkest before the dawn.' I'm certain we can agree that we are bearing witness to a dark time, the very Rubicon that Michael worked hard to warn us all before we crossed it. He painstakingly created a map of the 'big picture' that many have seen and far too many have yet to discover. Those who recognized where this map could lead, struggled to comprehend the lunacy of how we got here, myself included. One thing is certain ... the work is just beginning.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTFulAS-UMbh02HGUVLvqKSKbziP_nQCV_TEGJp56knKUaG9MvjTLdNt2Me1LeegH3kp81dlJO3ndZbHz9cHvB-1M9zvn3Fi6vZ0SFjcHgahH2h9Fvf3vU7wNCmnu7zSRiJkR-PwA_QqM/s1600/FortuneCookie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1103" data-original-width="1600" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTFulAS-UMbh02HGUVLvqKSKbziP_nQCV_TEGJp56knKUaG9MvjTLdNt2Me1LeegH3kp81dlJO3ndZbHz9cHvB-1M9zvn3Fi6vZ0SFjcHgahH2h9Fvf3vU7wNCmnu7zSRiJkR-PwA_QqM/s400/FortuneCookie.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Mike told us before he passed that there was no longer a map for what happens next. For some souls, uncharted territory is exciting and for others, scary. More than a few traditional native stories have prophesied of such times but their messages also included compassion and doing things in a sacred manner. I've always felt that it is important to know where we came from in order to understand where it is we're going. </div>
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I'm not talking about one nation's story. This is far bigger than this country's narrative in scope, which makes the current media landscape in the US little more than a minefield.</div>
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I believe that Mike's map is vitally important right now. Just as the oldest maps known to humankind are key to understanding our planet, our history, ourselves -- and especially our mistakes. That we're repeating many of those mistakes is a testament to the size and scope of propaganda and brainwashing that has occurred and continues in the wake of a collapsing paradigm. From the burning of the Library of Alexandria, to the dark ages of Catholicism and now the police/surveillance state, Graham Hancock's statement rings out like a bell: "We're a species with amnesia." Unfortunately, we've even forgotten recent teachable moments in history.</div>
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With your help, the project I'd like to undertake which received Mike's blessing in 2012, and the copyright holder's permission this year, is akin to what Ray Bradbury would have us all working together to do in his prescient, dystopian tale, <i>Fahrenheit 451</i>. </div>
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"We're Remembering."</div>
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TRC has a green-light. It needs your support to put the pedal to the metal.</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">The Scope of the Archival Project</span></b></div>
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Earlier this spring, I was honored to be asked to act as an administrator for Michael C. Ruppert's official fan page as well as archivist at the official book page for Crossing the Rubicon. The second honor being bestowed as a consequence of actually reading the book and also having permission from Mike to use any excerpt from it in 2012, after interviewing him at his then home in Sebastopol, California. </div>
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This year, I also helped to keep Mike's archives at <a href="https://www.fromthewilderness.net/" target="_blank">From The Wilderness</a> online for posterity and research for other investigative journalists. [Big thanks to all who gave, as it is now hosted for the next five years!] The URL however, had to be changed as the cost of keeping the original was too high and other solutions were not presented. Three administrators, including myself, made the decision to go with the .net instead of the .com. [Please spread the word.] Afterward, we decided Mike's legacy shouldn't be held hostage because someone neglected to renew. This occurred after the hosting fees were already raised and paid in full.</div>
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Needless to say, the frustration was palpable as the archival project had to be placed on hold until these things were corrected. After consideration by the copyright holder, two administrators are now in control of the host site and URL renewal. It will take a great deal of time to fix and update code on top of the archival work for Rubicon [video/audio excerpts are also planned]. Please note that nothing on the From The Wilderness site that was originally written by Mike will ever be changed, only fixing the search function [a sorely missing tool which aids in navigating the site], researching and replacing old/broken links and the ability to find the site in web searches.</div>
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All of this work is a sobering honor. I viewed Mike as a mentor who later became a friend who encouraged and applauded the work TRC did as an indie outlet during and after Occupy. I traveled down the coast from Portland to Phoenix in a 1980 Ford Bronco without heat or a radio when I landed my interview with Mike. Those were heady days, full of energy, possibilities and camaraderie. Bridges were built across borders, continents, among political ideologies and homes and hearts opened wide to a truly engaged human community. We were States United, seeing with clarity and openly discussing common enemies: the 1%, the banks and the MIC. </div>
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I'm sorry to say many media bridges have burned since. More were set alight after Mike's passing. I slowly began to feel about Occupy the way Hunter S. Thompson did recalling the sixties anti-war movement [<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1074-strange-memories-on-this-nervous-night-in-las-vegas-five" target="_blank">paraphrased</a>] "with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back." That's all I will say on the matter for now. Too much work has been left undone that could properly honor Mike's early sacrifices and contributions before Collapsenet.<br />
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TRC aims to honor these works specifically with this project. I'm certainly not alone in feeling he deserves that.</div>
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With clear vision, Mike helped many of us also see more than the jingoism behind 'the 1%'. He perceived the deepest part of the state and knew its shadow all too well. He lost a great deal more than a reputation because of its existence. Whether anyone believes the deep state is real or doesn't, is no longer my concern, nor should it be yours. I assume anyone familiar with Mike's work understands that this has been proven. Those familiar with his and other whistleblowers' investigations recognize the deep state members and missives. All other conversations that deny its existence are naive at best and tread icy waters of panic and inaction at worst. Others are simply sleepwalking or drunk with arrogance, like the blokes at the bar on the 'unsinkable' Titanic.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXtbuCYISKYJ9VWhKqyioK5fHlxIQW_g2ybcC-pD1NPfwptvP6UQtMvkzD_SwFnr1_nXrX5ixwl7mUycbpZYQgcZzRQrpKVnyXFvTy_R_jf9SnekBHfcJEWMS8BUO5RCsVhIogFBTLNZA/s1600/RomeInADay.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="902" data-original-width="1080" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXtbuCYISKYJ9VWhKqyioK5fHlxIQW_g2ybcC-pD1NPfwptvP6UQtMvkzD_SwFnr1_nXrX5ixwl7mUycbpZYQgcZzRQrpKVnyXFvTy_R_jf9SnekBHfcJEWMS8BUO5RCsVhIogFBTLNZA/s320/RomeInADay.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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We need to make way for those earnest souls who understand that the landscape has changed, irrevocably. Young people are waking from the American Dream and finding it is a nightmare. They need to know this did not start with Mr. Trump. For grown people to believe that is beyond naive and qualifies as willfully ignorant. The information that Mike provided in both his book and his website, are an inoculation against this willful ignorance.</div>
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The problem this project will tackle is updating the outdated. The links in the book and on the website are old, many are broken, often leaving no trail of source material that Mike worked so hard to vet and share. It will take a yeoman's effort, not unlike pouring through recent leaks without a team. MSM is loathe to do that and likely does not pay anyone to do it. They wouldn't be reported accurately anyway, as it isn't in the interests of the deep state to do so.</div>
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The days of cherry picking need to go in the dustbin of history, along with Ed Bernays' PR spin that brought us the not-so-new phenomenon of 'fake news'. Anyone familiar with Bernays calls 'fake news' what it has always been called: propaganda. It has also infected the trusted halls of science and higher-learning, leaving vital information under-reported or ignored altogether.</div>
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This project is a way for us to honor Mike's work by 'paying it forward.' I have the patience, the will, the equipment and the team to make this happen for young, liberty-loving people who will need this information. Mike was very proud of the work he did at From The Wilderness and of his book, Crossing the Rubicon. Future journalists, writers, and historians should have access to the gifts he left us and we can celebrate them by ensuring they are actively updated. Our team needs resources to cover the hours it will take to see it through.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqjxpiuRq4w-UpC6dpcY6CivNb-Xe94S7NRkJRQoYlVf8tWh0TM1TXwTHjHHjlvMx0OfStWz6HX1tZRSc_Ts-aazxqZm7Z5XGxGM4X1lTBB3ro3Z0hJ-lbRVKdwy4A-P30vylDYDRMGwY/s1600/CrossingRubiconBookQuote01JPG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="960" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqjxpiuRq4w-UpC6dpcY6CivNb-Xe94S7NRkJRQoYlVf8tWh0TM1TXwTHjHHjlvMx0OfStWz6HX1tZRSc_Ts-aazxqZm7Z5XGxGM4X1lTBB3ro3Z0hJ-lbRVKdwy4A-P30vylDYDRMGwY/s640/CrossingRubiconBookQuote01JPG.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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TRC has been granted permission. We need you to be the miracle.</div>
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You may donate through the Paypal link below. TRC will share future excerpts here, on our <a href="https://www.facebook.com/refreshmentcenter" target="_blank">FB page</a> and of course, on the official <a href="https://www.facebook.com/CrossingTheRubiconOfficialPage" target="_blank">FB Crossing The Rubicon page</a>. Audio and video excerpts will be announced in future. Funding will also help us host uploaded audio for download.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLPUtKy0TrkGXJR35PHhsn3tPIgpZuHj30K18ZssHCUO_zRtyjyM_PmThyphenhyphenncCiJQNk-3aY3WLCOp6rSVLj1qbiDWWrTr-87tGwBo5KBwKBdzxtO5oMfyzdKkkiUa738MlLTCPl0IFhBAo/s1600/TRC+monthly.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="254" data-original-width="348" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLPUtKy0TrkGXJR35PHhsn3tPIgpZuHj30K18ZssHCUO_zRtyjyM_PmThyphenhyphenncCiJQNk-3aY3WLCOp6rSVLj1qbiDWWrTr-87tGwBo5KBwKBdzxtO5oMfyzdKkkiUa738MlLTCPl0IFhBAo/s320/TRC+monthly.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">TRC current week</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilJC2uqCLrHDbJva-ues2UrqiWAJ4H4zdESo_mP-sgYdciT5EpbkkwAIv_SZmF50-LDKahvJqtTUtgChazoj3MFM5wsKNDs4r8Uen9yWpxY5pbJ240f_keD-w793e5PC_VLV7stBXV1DM/s1600/TRC+ALLTIME.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="253" data-original-width="348" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilJC2uqCLrHDbJva-ues2UrqiWAJ4H4zdESo_mP-sgYdciT5EpbkkwAIv_SZmF50-LDKahvJqtTUtgChazoj3MFM5wsKNDs4r8Uen9yWpxY5pbJ240f_keD-w793e5PC_VLV7stBXV1DM/s320/TRC+ALLTIME.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">TRC total views</td></tr>
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Thank you for reading and check back for more TRC exclusives from Crossing the Rubicon.</div>
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<i>Please find links to previously released excerpts below with footnotes, which are the bulk of the work for this project. Crossing the Rubicon is over 700 pages long with upwards of 1,000 footnotes requiring updating since its 2004 release. From The Wilderness web links are estimated at double or triple that amount. Mike's administrative team sincerely appreciates your support of his legacy. TRC does not receive commission from sales of Crossing the Rubicon. Book sales help the administrator who granted permission to TRC to share excerpts and official web hosting duties.</i></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Semper fi 🗽 </span></center>
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Jan. 8, 2012: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2012/01/petroleum-man.html" target="_blank">Petroleum Man</a></div>
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Jan. 9, 2012: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2012/01/simple-exercise.html" target="_blank">A Simple Exercise</a></div>
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Jan. 20, 2012: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2012/01/unholy-trinity-part-one.html" target="_blank">Unholy Trinity / Part One</a></div>
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Jan. 21, 2012: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2012/01/unholy-trinity-part-two.html" target="_blank">Unholy Trinity / Part Two</a></div>
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Jan. 22, 2012: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2012/01/unholy-trinity-part-three.html" target="_blank">Unholy Trinity / Part Three</a></div>
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Nov. 13, 2017: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2017/11/why-is-us-so-russiaphobic-inconvenient.html" target="_blank">Why Is US So Russiaphobic? Inconvenient Truths About Foreign Policy</a></div>
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Dec. 14, 2017: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2017/12/business-with-bin-ladens-real-saudi.html" target="_blank">Business With The Bin Ladens: The Real Saudi Arabia || Part One</a></div>
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<span style="color: red;">NEW</span>: Dec. 20, 2017: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2017/12/business-with-bin-ladens-real-saudi_20.html" target="_blank">Business With The Bin Ladens: The Real Saudi Arabia || Part Two</a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8876848971119625162.post-59402399201848842732017-11-13T12:50:00.002-05:002022-04-09T10:26:33.641-04:00Why Is US So Russiaphobic? Inconvenient Truths About Foreign Policy<div style="text-align: left;">
<i>Submitted for your consideration </i><i>by <a href="http://www.twitter.com/TRCNewsUCanUse" target="_blank">Gabrielle Jones Price</a> </i><br />
<i>with </i><i><a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2017/02/crossed-rubicons-birthday-message-for.html" target="_blank">permission from the author</a> and copyright holder.</i></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Excerpt from <i>Crossing the Rubicon: </i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: large;">The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Published in 2004 / Chapter 6</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Laying The Foundation: Destroy Russia, Prepare The Battlefield<br />
by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/CrossingTheRubiconOfficialPage/" target="_blank">Michael C. Ruppert</a></span></div>
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[<i>with footnotes</i>]</div>
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Zbigniew Brzezinski's 1997 <i>The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives</i> laid a foundation for what became the 9/11 attacks. Some four years before the fact, the book articulated what purpose that disaster served in the creation and extension of an openly imperial new American order. But in doing so, Brzezinski gave us all a vivid glimpse of the remarkable foresight and planning that was brought to bear upon world events by the players who participated.</div>
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If what we find predicted in that book has been validated by events since September 11, 2001, we must infer that Peak Oil is no surprise to the Bush Administration. And given the timing of the book, Brzezinski's background, and the patterns of strategic continuity that have dominated US foreign policy since the height of the Vietnam War, Peak Oil was never far from the minds of the Clinton administration, or the first Bush administration, or the Reagan administration, or the Carter administration. The Nixon administration faced the peak of US domestic oil production and the first massive OPEC-induced oil price shocks. To anyone whose head isn't totally submerged in the conventional wisdom, it's always been clear that a production cut must be either artificial or natural. Whether or not OPEC cuts oil production today, geology will be cutting it tomorrow.</div>
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When American oil production peaked in the early 1970's, there were hopes that oil discoveries -- particularly in central Asia -- would mitigate the peak. Still, there was one major obstacle to US control of the Middle East: Russia.</div>
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Brzezinski is [<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/26/us/zbigniew-brzezinski-dead-national-security-adviser-to-carter.html" target="_blank">was</a>] a member of the elite that presides above the American political system, which is frequently and accurately described as two factions compromising a single (corporate) party. He is best remembered as the National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981. But his influence and power are better understood in light of his ongoing service as an intelligence advisor to both President Reagan and Bush I. In 1988, he served as co-chairman of the Bush National Security Advisory Task Force. He is a Professor of American foreign policy at Johns Hopkins University. And perhaps most importantly, he's a colleague and friends of both David Rockefeller and Henry Kissinger. Brzezinski is a past member of the board of directors of the Council of Foreign Relations and a co-founder with Rockefeller of the Trilateral Commission (Jimmy Carter is also a member of both CFR and the Trilateral Commission). Brzezinski also served, as recently as 1998, as a paid consultant for BP-Amoco, one of the three largest investors in the Caspian basin.<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<span style="color: red;">1</span>)</span></div>
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On December 24, 1979, the Soviet Army occupied Afghanistan and seized the capital, Kabul. It was the beginning of a decade-long, Vietnam-like conflict that debilitated the Soviet Union. Afghanistan was so much like Vietnam that it quickly developed a self-sustaining dynamic of massive heroin smuggling from a neighboring country, a dynamic that ran parallel to the war while remaining linked to it -- not least by turning a percentage of the invading troops into addicts. In the case of Vietnam, the neighboring country was Laos, which then hosted the largest CIA station in history under the direction of legendary covert operative Ted Shackley. In Afghanistan, the neighboring country was Pakistan, where a massive CIA operation sprouted to support Mujahideen freedom fighters.</div>
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In both wars heroin became the dominant note in the theme music behind the action. As noted by Professor Alfred McCoy, in 1975 none of the heroin entering the US came from Pakistan. By 1980 some 40 percent of the heroin in the US came from Pakistan, which had virtually become a CIA protectorate by that time.<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<span style="color: red;">2</span>)</span> Another striking similarity is that in both conflicts the CIA created powerful local warlords who were very well armed and who effectively prevented any national government from restoring stability. In both cases, the warlords derived their power from their direct involvement in the drug trade.</div>
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In Afghanistan Brzezinski demonstrated that he and his colleagues were capable of preparing the stage for conflict long before the fighting -- or the stakes -- became visible to the world at large.</div>
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Just before the Soviet invasion, a Soviet-friendly regime had taken over Kabul in a coup and had instituted broad social reforms. But agitation believed to be backed by the regime of the Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran soon led to an uprising that prompted the first official request for limited Soviet military assistance to maintain control of key facilities in Herat.<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<span style="color: red;">3</span>)</span> In July, five months before the Russian invasion, President Carter, at the urging of Brzezinski, signed a secret directive for clandestine assistance to enemies of the pro-Soviet regime in Afghanistan (i.e., agents of our allegedly sworn enemy in Iran, the Ayatollah Khomeini).<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<span style="color: red;">4</span>)</span></div>
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This was the first indication that a major conflict was being engineered behind the scenes. US assistance created more battles, threatening the Kabul regime and, ultimately, threatening the Soviet troops. That was what sucked the Russians into making a move that the United States immediately portrayed to the world as a massive and unprovoked invasion. An important question, asked frequently at the time, was, What in the world could the Russians possibly want with Afghanistan? There were very few good reasons. Afghanistan wasn't producing much opium in those days.</div>
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Brzezinski admitted the setup and much more in 1998 to a French interviewer: "We didn't push the Russians to intervene, but we consciously increased the probability that they would... Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap. You want me to regret that?" When the interviewer asked if he regretted having supported the Islamic fundamentalists and giving arms and advice to future terrorists, Brzezinski replied: "What is more important to the history of the world ... the Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?"<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<span style="color: red;">5</span>)</span></div>
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By 1997 the Soviet Union had been dead for six years. A new world had emerged in which the United States alone ranked as a superpower. Yet Russia still remained a threat -- a potential block to the complete imposition of US economic and military will. So, to a lesser extent, did China, which, although it had a huge population, was technologically and militarily no match for the United States. China also represented the possibility of huge profits for American business. Another obstacle was the American people, who, as Brzezinski would note, were not psychologically built for the ways in which America would have to exercise dominion in absence of a fair fight. It was to these and other issues -- especially energy -- that Brzezinski turned his attention in 1997 when he wrote <i>The Grand Chessboard</i>. Russia, as it turns out, is mentioned more frequently than any other country in the book.<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<span style="color: red;">6</span>)</span></div>
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It was in Russia's backyard, the central Asian republics of the old Soviet Union, where Brzezinski saw that the move would have to be made. The history of mankind had always shown that controlling the heart of Eurasia was the key to controlling the entire globe. Though motives had changed over 20 centuries, this area's strategic importance remained essentially the same. Brzezinski spelled out the compelling issue driving American policy: </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
A power that dominates Eurasia would control two of the world's three most advanced and economically productive regions. A mere glance at the map also suggests that control over Eurasia would automatically entail Africa's subordination, rendering the Western Hemisphere and Oceania [Australia] geopolitically peripheral to the world's central continent. About 75 percent of the world's people live in Eurasia , and most of the world's physical wealth is there as well, both in its enterprises and underneath its soil. Eurasia accounts for 60 percent of the world's GNP and about three-fourths of the world's known energy resources.<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<span style="color: red;">7</span>)</span> </blockquote>
The energy theme appeared again later:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The world's energy consumption is bound to vastly increase over the next two or three decades. Estimates by the US Department of Energy anticipate that world demand will rise by more than 50 percent between 1993 and 2015, with the most significant increase in consumption occurring in the Far East. The momentum of Asia's economic development is already generating massive pressures for the exploration and exploitation of new sources of energy.<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<span style="color: red;">8</span>)</span></blockquote>
With the Middle East safely but quietly included in the dissertation, Brzezinski again stressed the energy importance of Eurasia, particularly for the critical goal of diversification of energy supplies:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Moreover, they [the Central Asian Republics] are of importance from the standpoint of security and historical ambitions to at least three of their most immediate and more powerful neighbors, namely Russia, Turkey, and Iran, with China also signaling an increasing political interest in the region. But the Eurasian Balkans are infinitely more important as a potential economic prize: an enormous concentration of natural gas and oil reserves is located in the region, in addition to important minerals, including gold.<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<span style="color: red;">9</span>)</span></blockquote>
As for Russia, the imperative was clear:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Understandably, the immediate task has to be to reduce the probability of political anarchy or a reversion to a hostile dictatorship in a crumbling state still possessing a nuclear arsenal. But the long-range task remains: how to encourage Russia's democratic transformation and economic recovery while avoiding the reemergence of a Eurasian empire that could obstruct the American Geostrategic goal...<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<span style="color: red;">10</span>)</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
But in the meantime, it is imperative that no Eurasian challenger [i.e., Russia] emerges, capable of dominating Eurasia and thus of also challenging America. The formulation of a comprehensive and integrated Eurasian geostrategy is therefore the purpose of this book.<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<span style="color: red;">11</span>)</span></blockquote>
Brzezinski gave one of several reasons why the US supported the Taliban and, indirectly, al Qaeda:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In fact, an Islamic revival -- already abetted from the outside not only by Iran but also Saudi Arabia -- is likely to become the mobilizing impulse for the increasingly pervasive new nationalisms, determined to oppose any reintegration under Russian -- and hence infidel -- control.<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<span style="color: red;">12</span>)</span></blockquote>
This is a clear signal and admission that the United States had fostered and encouraged radical Islamic fundamentalist movements as a means to an end in Central Asia. Their usefulness to that end, as we shall see in subsequent chapters, certainly did not end with the fall of the Soviet Union.<br />
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Before going to the next Brzezinski quotation, consider the following ironic examples of how the United States created hatred and violence in Afghanistan. The first example concerns the actions of the US agency for International Development (USAID), long known to be a progeny of the Central Intelligence Agency. I am indebted to the incredible work of Paul Thompson for finding these illustrative and darkly humorous anecdotes. His entire timeline can be found at <cooperativeresearch.org> [T<i>his URL appears in the book, published in 2004. The URL is no longer valid but you can find the timeline at <a href="http://historycommons.org/">historycommons.org</a></i>]<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
1984 - 1994: The US through USAID and the University of Nebraska, spends millions of dollars developing and printing text-books for Afghan schoolchildren. The textbooks are filled with violent images and militant Islamic teachings, part of covert attempts to spur resistance to the Soviet occupation. For instance, children are taught to count with illustrations showing tanks, missiles, and land mines. In the absence of any alternative, millions of these textbooks continue to be used long after 1994, and the Taliban were still using them in 2001. In 2002, the US has started making less violent versions of the same books, which Bush touts will have 'respect for human dignity, instead of indoctrinating students with fanaticism and bigotry." Bush fails to mention who created those books.<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<span style="color: red;">13</span>)</span> [<i>Washington Post</i>, 3/23/02, CBC, 5/6/02]</blockquote>
Just three years later Unocal, then fiercely motivated and fiercely frustrated by the Taliban in its efforts to build a trans-Afghani pipeline, hired the University of Nebraska to train 400 Afghani teachers, electricians, carpenters, and pipe fitters in anticipation of using them for their pipeline. They had 150 attending classes in anticipation of successful negotiations.<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<span style="color: red;">14</span>)</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Brzezinski's maps</b></span><br />
No doubt, Brzezinski had energy issues very much on his mind. He noted throughout the book that the region was becoming increasingly prone to violence. What he did not admit was that much of the violence was being initiated by US proxies. He placed two key maps in his book that would be of evidentiary value in the inconceivable scenario that the true 9/11 war-makers were ever brought to trial. One he labeled "The Global Zone of Percolating Violence."<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<span style="color: red;">15</span>)</span><br />
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The second was a map labeled "The Eurasian Balkans" on which he placed a large circle indicating where he felt the next global conflict would emerge.<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<span style="color: red;">16</span>)</span><br />
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Given that these maps were drawn and published a full four years before the first plane hit the World Trade Center, they would fall into a category of evidence I learned about as LAPD. We called them "clues."<br />
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As it turns out, The Grand Chessboard was a study prepared for the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), also founded by the Rockefellers.<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<span style="color: red;">17</span>)</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-size: large; text-align: left;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-size: large; text-align: left;"><b>Eliminating the competition</b></span></div>
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Two very important things happened immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991. The United States undertook a massive effort to help the FSU (Former Soviet Union), and in particular Russia, make a "successful transition" to capitalism, and the major oil companies stepped up their ongoing, oft-frustrated post-perestroika efforts to explore and establish joint ventures in the newly independent and oil-rich Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Oil companies frequently had a number of CIA covert operatives on their payrolls posing as geologists and oil experts.<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<span style="color: red;">18</span>)</span></div>
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As it turns out, both efforts were intended to remove large amounts of wealth from the region. Both may have had the equally important objective of preparing the way for the unopposed massive US military deployments in Central Asia that began in October of 2001 after the World Trade Center attacks.</div>
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Though the seeds had been planted by the outgoing first Bush administration, the US assistance program to facilitate Russia's transition to capitalism took off under the new Clinton administration in 1993. A task force headed by Vice President Al Gore, Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbot<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<span style="color: red;">19</span>)</span> and involving exclusive US Treasury contracts with Goldman Sachs, the Harvard Institute for International Development, the IMF, and the World Bank worked in partnership with the government of Boris Yeltsin to remake the Russian economy. What happened was that Russia, in the words of Yeltsin himself, became a "mafiocracy" and was looted of more than $500 billion in assets: its economy was ruined, its currency destroyed, its population rendered desperate, and its ability to support a world-class military establishment smashed.</div>
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Journalist Anne Williamson was for many years a leading expert on Russian and Soviet affairs, writing for, among others, the <i>Wall Street Journal</i>, the <i>New York Times</i>, <i>Mother Jones</i>, and <i>SPY</i>. She lived in Russia, spoke the language, and saw first-hand what was done to Russia in the 1990s. In 1999 she completed a book on the subject, <i>Contagion: The Betrayal of Liberty, Russia, and the United States in the 1990s</i>, which despite a signed publishing contract has never been published, like so many other completed manuscripts that might have been vital to the world's understanding. According to Williamson, one publisher simply refused to read her first draft (October 1997), in which she explained the causes and mechanisms of the impending collapse of the Russian market that occurred in August of 1998.</div>
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But Williamson did present her knowledge of what had happened in Russia to Congress in 1999, and that record is available. She pulled no punches in describing the rape of a country and of a people who had already been victimized by seven decades of Soviet communism: </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
And there is no mistake as to who the victims are, i.e., Western, principally US, taxpayers and Russian citizens whose national legacy was stolen only to be squandered and/or invested in Western real estate and equities markets.<br />
Western assistance, IMF lending, and the targeted division of national assets are what provided Boris Yeltsin the initial wherewithal to purchase his constituency of ex-Komsomol [Communist Youth League] bank chiefs, who were given the freedom and the mechanisms to plunder their own economy in tandem with a resurgent and more economically competent criminal class. The new elite learned everything about confiscation of wealth, but nothing about its creation.<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<span style="color: red;">20</span>)</span></blockquote>
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Brzezinski had made it a priority to identify the motivating factors that drove the political elites in a country that needed to be managed. What Williamson described is the creation and installation of a whole new set of elites, the oligarchs, whose motives -- personal enrichment at any cost -- were already known. The Empire loved the oligarchs because they were simple and could be easily controlled with money.</div>
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Williamson described two crucial mistakes made by the US fiscal experts who had exclusive contracts to manage the transition. First, they ignored the concept of private property (there had been none under Communism or under the Tsarist regimes). This gave the people no inherent rights to enormous physical equities such as real estate, manufacturing plants, oil refineries, mineral rights. Their only claim to ownership lay in the notion of post-Soviet assets as an abstract communal holding established by the Soviet Constitution inconvenient. In the privatization program Harvard University and World Bank operatives devised and US taxpayers unknowingly financed, those constitutionally guaranteed communal ownership rights were transferred to the state, and only then parceled out to elected individuals in rigged auctions. Second, the good guys from the West turned loose monopoly markets, which caused prices to skyrocket. What little money individual Russians possessed was transferred quickly into the hands of the corrupt oligarchs -- the "mafiya" with whom Boris Yeltsin had made his pact.<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<span style="color: red;">21</span>)</span></div>
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Once all the assets had been transferred to the oligarchs, who were becoming fabulously wealthy, it was a simple matter for them to liquidate those assets by selling them to the US and other Western countries, and then laundering their money through US financial institutions such as the Bank of New York.<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<span style="color: red;">22</span>)</span> The money laundering and transfer of wealth made more than the Russian oligarchs rich. Billions of dollars accrued to Bank of New York executives and stockholders in 1999.<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<span style="color: red;">23</span>)</span> And during the years of the Clinton administration, as Al Gore worked in exclusive partnership with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Victor Chernomyrdin, the Harvard Endowment's value rose from 3 to 19-plus billion dollars.<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<span style="color: red;">24</span>)</span></div>
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Compounding the pillage, a number of investment schemes sponsored by the Export-Import Bank of the United States, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), and a number of congressionally mandated "enterprise funds" were designed for individuals, Russian corporations, and banks. In essence, these initiatives wound up being huge money laundries. The domestic bound market's highly unjustified returns, paid with IMF loans, attracted many eager investors, and soon developed into a classic pyramid scheme. As quickly as the IMF, the World Bank, and other financial entities lent the money to Russia to realize mind-boggling returns for favored players, the money was taken right back out of Russia. Those huge sums, initially provided by taxpayers, returned to Wall Street, US banks and Harvard.<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<span style="color: red;">25</span>)</span> </div>
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Russia was literally a free lunch for American institutions and non-profits. Williamson observed: </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
Even the Ford Foundations's Moscow office sponsored its own internal Russian bond shop for which the unthinking Russian managers once asked this reporter to drum up US investors.<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<span style="color: red;">26</span>)</span></blockquote>
It's interesting to note that the Ford Foundation is actively involved in the funding of "progressive" American media outlets, including Pacifica Radio, FAIR, Progressive Magazine, and is indirectly involved in several other well-known progressive media outlets and pundits.<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<span style="color: red;">27</span>)</span> At the same time, the Ford Foundation has been linked to the secret society Skull and Bones (through the late McGeorge Bundy), the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the CIA.<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<span style="color: red;">28</span>)</span> Both George W. Bush and John Kerry are members of that secret society.<br />
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Remarkably, all that heavy Western investment in the Russian bond market was executed largely in defiance of Russian Federation legislation that limited foreign participation in that market. The Clinton administration and Harvard operatives looked the other way as major Clinton campaign donors employed corrupt Russian officials and financial notables to purchase bonds beyond the legal limits on foreign participation set by the Russian government. Williamson noted in her testimony, "The bread and butter of all equity markets are bonds. Wall Street wanted a debt market. You [USAID] build it and we'll come, they said."<br />
<br />
Williamson's unpublished manuscript details how those firms got in on the ground floor, such as Goldman Sachs, were able to work from the inside through alliances with personnel from Harvard's Russia Project.<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<span style="color: red;">29</span>)</span> Bonds represent debt. As with any debt, if it can't be paid, then the collateral used to secure it is forfeited. In this case, throughout the 1990s, what was forfeited was Russia's ability to function as a nation, to feed its people, and especially to support its military.<br />
<br />
In the end, literally starved for cash, Russia sold much of its military equipment onto the black market. Some of it wound up in the hands of terrorist organizations from Bosnia to Chechnya and Russia's southern frontiers.<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<span style="color: red;">30</span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">)</span> Again, when the time came for the US Empire to militarily occupy Central Asia and surround the oil fields of the Middle East, Russia had grave economic and military problems to deal with.<br />
<br />
In describing how one particular looting scheme operated, Williamson testified:<br />
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The CIA has determined that through Nordex, FPI [the International Foundation for Privatization and Private Investment] seized the export earnings from Russia's natural resource companies -- oil, gas, platinum, gold, diamonds -- and from industrial firms exporting items such as steel and aluminum, and then stashed the hefty profits in Western bank accounts. And only now, eight years almost to the day later, do US taxpayers learn that the 'eager, young reformers' to whom their resources were sent for the purpose of building a new Russia were in league from day one with the exhausted Soviet <i>nomenklatura</i> in a scheme to loot Russia's wealth and park it in the West...<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<span style="color: red;">31</span>)</span></blockquote>
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Directors stashed profits abroad, withheld employees' wages, and after cash famine set in, used those wages, confiscated profits and state subsidies to 'buy' the workers' shares from them. The really good stuff -- oil companies, metals plants, telecoms -- was distributed to essentially seven individuals, 'the oligarchs,' on insider auctions whose results were agreed beforehand. Once effective control was established, directors -- uncertain themselves of the durability of their claim to the newly acquired property -- chose to asset strip with impunity instead of developing their new holdings.</blockquote>
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Is all of this starting to sound a bit like Enron? Like WorldCom? Tyco? Halliburton? Like any of about 20 major US companies I could name? It is perhaps not by coincidence that we see some familiar names cropping up in the orchestration of this campaign to loot Russia that continued across two different presidential administrations. The US secretary of state who began the dialogues on privatization as well as the dismantling of Russia's nuclear weapons was James A. Baker. The James Baker Institute was the co-sponsor of the CFR report on energy in 2001, and James Baker was, in the words of one oil industry lawyer, "all over" the deals to get the major oil companies into Central Asia. The first official US envoy sent to aid Russia in its transitions was our current [2004] Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage. </div>
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Eventually, of course, the Russian economy collapsed so badly that it was necessary to secure an IMF bailout. That's the kiss of death for any country. Americans paid for that. Then in 1998 the Russian ruble inevitably collapsed because the debt couldn't be paid, and the people started starving in earnest. Consider these passages from a congressional investigation, the aforementioned Cox Report:</div>
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The culmination of the Clinton administration's fatally flawed macro-economic policy for Russia occurred in August 1998, when Russia's default on its debts and devaluation of the ruble led to the nation's total economic collapse. By all measurements, the disaster was worse than America's crash of 1929.<br />
The disaster that began on August 17, 1998, spread immediately throughout Russia. Millions of ordinary men and women who had deposited their money in Russian banks lost everything. ATM and debit cards ceased to work. Dozens of banks became insolvent and disappeared. Angry depositors besieged Russian banks, only to learn they had been wiped out.<br />
Millions of senior citizens, whose meager pension income had been suspended for months, were cut off completely. When the dust finally settled in March 1999, the ruble -- and with it, every Russian's life savings -- had lost fully 75 percent of its value.<br />
The devastation of Russia's economy was worse than what America experienced during the Great Depression. By 1932, the US gross national product had been cut by almost one-third. But within just six months of the 1998 crash, Russia's economy, measured in dollars, had fallen by more than two-thirds. From $422 billion in 1997 [the year when <i>The Grand Chessboard</i> was published], Russia's gross domestic product fell to only $132 billion by the end of 1998.<br />
At the end of 1929, following America's disastrous stock market crash, unemployment in the United States reached 1.5 million, representing 1.2 percent of the total population. The 1998 collapse of the Russian economy was far worse: 11.3 million Russians were jobless at the end of 1998 -- 7.7 percent of the nation's total population.<br />
In the crash of 1929, stock prices fell 17 percent by year end -- and 90 percent by the depth of the Great Depression four years later. By contrast, the Russian stock market lost 90 percent of its value in 1998 alone.<br />
"Most fundamentally," said Sergei Markow, an analyst at the Institute of Political Studies, "it is a crisis of the real economy -- Russia doesn't work."<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<span style="color: red;">32</span>)</span></blockquote>
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How much capital was looted out of Russia? Five hundred billion dollars, according to Congress.<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<span style="color: red;">33</span>)</span> And that $500 billion was not stockholder equity, a paper loss from some mutual fund. <i>It was cash</i>.</div>
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This congressional investigative report into what had happened in Russia came from the House Policy Committee under chairman Chris Cox (R-CA), a fierce Clinton opponent and supporter of the failed impeachment effort. It told some hard truths, but accomplished very little. Cox made the mistake of believing that what he had revealed -- e.g., that the Clinton administration and Al Gore had openly gotten involved with criminals, and likely engaged in criminal behavior themselves -- was something that would hurt his political opponents. Of course, it did not. What Cox failed to understand was that he was exposing an effort that was above partisan politics -- an effort that was therefore protected. On the other hand, James Leach, Chairman of the House Committee on Banking and Financial Services, understood this reality perfectly. Once "instructed," Leach immediately buried the findings from his own committee's 1999 hearings into Russian money laundering.</div>
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Cox would not be the first experienced member of Congress to suffer for his own naivete. As we will see, another Republican Congressman would make the same false assumption about the Clinton administration's activities, this time with respect to the Taliban. </div>
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Anne Williamson succinctly summed up what had been done to the people of Russia. She pointed out, "The Soviet Union was economically self-sufficient except for bananas, coffee, and coconuts."<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<span style="color: red;">34</span>)</span> By the dawning of the new century, except for small parts of Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and other cities where the oligarchs spent their money, it was as badly ruined as it had been at the worst part of World War II. It was a basket case that was self-sufficient in nothing except for its own oil that, incidentally, had already past peak of production.</div>
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<i>Special thanks are due to Anne Williamson, who provided most of the research for the Cox Committee's report and received so little acknowledgement for it.</i></div>
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*******</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
[<i>footnotes below</i>]</div>
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About : Published in 2004, Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil by Michael C. Ruppert, remains a book of great historic significance. Close to 700 pages long with over 900 footnotes, it is a testament to Ruppert's years of exemplary service as a detective and investigative journalist. Crossing the Rubicon's findings remain unchallenged, not a word was asked to be redacted, and Michael was never sued. It sits in the Harvard Law Library.</div>
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*******</div>
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<b>Footnotes: </b></center>
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(<span style="color: red;">1</span>)<b> </b>Bruce W. Nelan, <a href="http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,988272,00.html" target="_blank">The Rush for Caspian Oil</a>, TIME, May 4, 1998.</center>
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(2) Alfred W. McCoy, <i>The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade</i>, Lawrence Hill Books, 1992. [<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Politics_of_Heroin_in_Southeast_Asia" target="_blank">Wiki</a>]</center>
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(3) Ibid, p. 447.</center>
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(4) John K. Cooley, <a href="http://ebooks.bharathuniv.ac.in/gdlc1/gdlc4/Arts_and_Science_Books/arts/political_science/Politics%20Economics%20and%20Law%201/Books/Unholy%20Wars%20Afghanistan%20America%20and%20International%20Terrorism.pdf" target="_blank">Unholy Wars</a>, Pluto Press, 1999, p. 12</center>
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(5) Interview w/Vincent Javert in <a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/BRZ110A.html" target="_blank">Le Nouvel Observateur</a>, Paris, January 15-21, 1998, p. 76, trans. Bill Blum. Special thanks to Jan Rainwater, PhD.</center>
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(6) Zbigniew Brzezinski, <a href="http://www.takeoverworld.info/Grand_Chessboard.pdf" target="_blank"><i>The Grand Chessboard, American Primacy and its Geostrategic Imperatives</i></a>, Basic Books, 1997.</center>
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(7) Ibid, p. 31.</center>
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(8) Ibid, p. 125. </center>
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(9) Ibid, p. 124.</center>
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(10) Ibid, 87. </center>
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(11) Ibid, p. xiv.</center>
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(12) Ibid, p. 132.</center>
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(13) Paul Thompson, <i>The Complete 9/11 Timeline</i>, Center for Cooperative Research, <<a href="http://www.historycommons.org/">www.historycommons.org</a>>.</center>
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(14) <a href="http://www.mapcruzin.com/news/war111901a.htm" target="_blank">Oil Baron's Court Taliban in Texas</a>, The Telegraph, December 14, 1997.</center>
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(15) Brzezinski, p. 53.</center>
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(16) Ibid, p. 124.</center>
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(17) Nafeez Ahmed, <a href="http://www.williambowles.info/911/warfre-book.pdf" target="_blank"><i>The War on Freedom: How and Why America was Attacked September 11, 2001</i></a>, Tree of Life Publications, 2002.</center>
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(18) Bruce W. Nelan, <a href="http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,988272,00.html" target="_blank">The Rush for Caspian Oil</a>, TIME, May 4, 1998.</center>
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(19) "<a href="https://fas.org/irp/congress/2000_rpt/russias-road.pdf" target="_blank">Russia's Road to Corruption: How the Clinton Administration Exported Government Instead of Free Enterprise and Failed The Russian People</a>," Members of the Speaker's Advisory Group on Russia; United States House of Representatives 106th Congress. Hon. Christopher Cox, Chairman; House Policy Committee (Cox Report), September, 2000.</center>
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(20) Testimony before the Committee on Banking and Financial Services of the U.S. House of Representatives, presented, September 21, 1999. <a href="http://archives.financialservices.house.gov/banking/92199pal.shtml" target="_blank">Archive</a> || Anne Williamson testimony <a href="https://solari.com/blog/anne-williamsons-rape-of-russia-testimony/%20https://solari.com/blog/testimony-of-anne-williamson/" target="_blank">MP3</a> audio.</center>
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(21) Ibid.</center>
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(22) Michael C. Ruppert, "<a href="http://www.copvcia.com/free/economy/bony.html" target="_blank">The Bank of New York Laundromat</a>," in FTW, Vol. II, No. 7, September, 1999. Additional corroboration can be found in the <i>Wall Street Journal</i>, <i>New York Times</i>, <i>Associated Press</i>, <i>Washington Post</i> and SEC filings archive <<a href="http://www.sec.gov/">www.sec.gov</a>>.</center>
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(23) Ibid.</center>
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(24) See Catherine Austin Fitts, "The Money Lords of Harvard: How the Money Works at the World's Richest University," [original link not found] <a href="http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0207/S00146.htm" target="_blank">Archival link</a></center>
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(25) Williamson, op. cit; Cox Report op. cit.</center>
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(26) Williamson, op. cit.</center>
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(27) Bob Feldman, "Alternative Media Censorship: Sponsored by CIA's Ford Foundation"</center>
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[original link not found] <a href="http://educate-yourself.org/cn/alternativemediaandfordfoundation.shtml" target="_blank">Archival link</a></center>
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(28) Ibid., and James Petras, "The Ford Foundation and the CIA: A documented case of philanthropic collaboration with the secret police," December 15, 2001 [original link not found] <a href="https://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/FordFandCIA.html" target="_blank">Mirrored link</a>.</center>
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(29) Williamson, op. cit.</center>
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(30) Cox Report, op. cit. </center>
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(31) Williamson, op. cit.</center>
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(32) Cox Report, op. cit. (33) Cox Report, op. cit.</center>
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(34) Williamson, op. cit. </center>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8876848971119625162.post-62204019038135584272017-11-05T19:45:00.001-05:002022-04-09T09:59:38.262-04:00V for Vendetta or Victory? The Two Party System Unravels<center>
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submitted by <a href="http://www.twitter.com/TRCNewsUCanUse" target="_blank">Gabrielle Jones Price</a></div>
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Considering the absolute shit show that has occurred over this weekend, it is hard to know where to begin -- so let's start with the neoliberal/CON that occurred in Russia for an actual balanced report on why the Democratic Party and its flying monkeys are stuck on stupid with Russiagate.</div>
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There's about a dozen more hot messes to contend with afterward and making sense of any of it means we have to start with a little recent history. </div>
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So grab a drink, or several as Abby Martin and American journalist Mark Ames break down the history of the neoliberal con that was perpetrated on the Russian people, courtesy of a dead, deep state psychopath: Zbigniew Kazimierz "Zbig" Brzezinski.</div>
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The Grand Chessboard is in play -- pay attention or you may miss something.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8876848971119625162.post-16837774685252265632017-09-28T11:43:00.004-04:002022-04-09T10:00:24.984-04:00Thoughts on Censorship || Banned Books Week 2017<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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submitted by <a href="http://www.twitter.com/TRCNewsUCanUse" target="_blank">Gabrielle Jones-Price</a><br />
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Around this time every year, I take time to celebrate the American Library Association's reading initiative called Banned Books Week. This year they asked readers to get involved on social media by creating videos, sharing 'selfies' with favorite banned books and asking us to reflect on and discuss issues like intellectual freedom and censorship.<br />
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I've been at this <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2011/01/v-in-deja-vu.html" target="_blank">a long time</a> but I'm hard pressed to think of anything more timely with the current state of affairs. When I decided to create this video, I found myself going back to the one book and author that changed my young mind in high school literature class. It was a pivotal moment in my education and the book I chose has turned out to be more than a little prescient.<br />
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Banned Books Week ends this Saturday, Sept. 30th, but there is still time to get involved. You can find resources and several ways to celebrate at <a href="http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks">http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks</a> and find banners to share on your social media pages below the video.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8876848971119625162.post-33888811312138762262017-09-21T18:18:00.001-04:002022-04-09T10:02:50.234-04:00The Sky Is A Neighborhood Part II: Permaculture, Heretics and Synchronicity<div>
submitted by <a href="http://www.twitter.com/TRCNewsUCanUse" target="_blank">Gabrielle Jones-Price</a></div>
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This is a follow-up to: <a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-sky-is-neighborhood-younger-dryas.html" target="_blank">The Sky Is A Neighborhood: Younger Dryas, Red Herrings and A Troubling Theory</a></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>The end of the Younger Dryas, about 11,500 years ago, was particularly abrupt. In Greenland, temperatures rose 10°C (18°F) in a decade.<br />
<br />
"temperatures rose 10°C (18°F) in a decade."<br />
<br />
It is that bit of data that has been keeping me up nights scratching my head and poring over as much data as I can find. Especially after learning about the work being done by Randall Carlson and Graham Hancock. I literally stumbled upon them discussing a theory during a random Joe Rogan podcast playing in the background. An interesting tale about synchronicity.</i></blockquote>
<b>Permaculture, Heretics, and Synchronicity...Oh My!</b><br />
<br />
My chronicle of synchronistic phenomenon began in a hotel room where I sequestered myself for six months. I was there trying to wrap my mind around Mike Ruppert's work in Crossing The Rubicon while continuing news analysis and diving into study of peak oil. Late that summer, I had viewed the documentary he starred in called Collapse. This sequestration lasted from late 2010 after the BP Oil Disaster through early 2011 just before Occupy.<br />
<br />
I didn't find myself in this hotel by choice initially. My daughter, myself and my cat had to escape an abusive roommate's home. This was a person I did a great deal of research with, protested with, sat and watched Mike's documentary with and a person who understood immediately the gravity of the information. A great bell rang, my mind was blown and this ranked as my first, and thereafter most difficult spiritual epiphany: everything really IS connected. Let's just say he handled the information differently.<br />
<br />
After a time, my daughter took the cat and moved in with friends. I stayed in the hotel going through what other friends have since gone through, a few referring to it as our 'peak oil awakening'. I'd found these friends online in an intimate group familiar with Ruppert's work and in turn, introduced me to the work of others in the same vein. We discussed concerns openly and their support and friendship has been singular. Invaluable conversations were had and through those connections I discovered people practicing and sharing permaculture data. After a little digging, I was delighted to find a community in southern Indiana which at one time had its own peak oil task force.<br />
<br />
I no longer felt alone with this information and my curiosity had paid off. A huge weight was lifted. Now I had a goal to focus on, and solutions for others seeking to have less impact on the environment at the local level. This was a huge 'ah ha!' moment. It seemed so simple, so intuitive...and mirrored how my grandparents had lived. The kind of wisdom one feels in the bones; that 'something' I'd known all along and could finally put a finger on it. I felt blessedly sane and the nonsense of the world unfolded with clarity. Everything made sense.<br />
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___________</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Incidentally - mustn’t it be a peculiarly beautiful feeling to hit bottom in reality at least once, where there is no going down any further, but only upward beckons at best? Where for once one stands before the whole height of reality?</i> ~ Carl Jung; Red Book; Page 266</blockquote>
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<b>Heretics Unite (or Reunite?)</b><br />
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I should mention that before this awakening, I'd been engaged in some form of spiritual practice for years. Meditation, yoga, mindful walking, Buddhist studies, a little medicinal to keep the ol' mind limber, and other modes of healing that are personal to me. The theme throughout these chosen practices has always been Earth focused. Grounding is necessary medicine for a sun/moon in Gemini.<br />
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Oh, I know some may stop reading, drop their jaws or maybe rolling their eyes just now. That's okay. I'm used to controversy. I've always been the 'paisley sheep' in my family but I wasn't the only one. My twice great Aunt Nella was named one of the top 5 astrologers in the United States, was featured in Life magazine in 1946, and even had her own radio program. Like the title of this post and the previous [thanks Foo Fighters]: The sky is a neighborhood. I'm not ashamed to be familiar with mine.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiacAzqoLgv2lGYkjBcokV4mazu52vdK9_fUgVZjlcFehODWBjhNKpIOc2yDKu6F5u6K58HWFwDVY0v88kcVyljhEyyYkegOsFxafZdBRbhtkgaOWGGy8tn21eUyUiO5MZlNh_r4W8-SyU/s1600/1916376_191332496685_758167_n.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="329" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiacAzqoLgv2lGYkjBcokV4mazu52vdK9_fUgVZjlcFehODWBjhNKpIOc2yDKu6F5u6K58HWFwDVY0v88kcVyljhEyyYkegOsFxafZdBRbhtkgaOWGGy8tn21eUyUiO5MZlNh_r4W8-SyU/s320/1916376_191332496685_758167_n.jpg" width="186" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Aunt Nella, 1921 Follies dancer</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKasSZzqjAk8kA35A6SO7kZcRhKrpfEvaWUK3U-F9qAzkjAXgvF0TqD7iEPtIHm5wt7klWulSn7dxFKZOYXgBohKXeoCQ2JxhE-JUYFLVZy84hrD-sCTyfkfI2yOaG7Wb6gcRuP5XgPtI/s1600/13450185_10154781561981686_3755044752661816833_n.jpg" style="clear: left; display: inline; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="518" data-original-width="327" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKasSZzqjAk8kA35A6SO7kZcRhKrpfEvaWUK3U-F9qAzkjAXgvF0TqD7iEPtIHm5wt7klWulSn7dxFKZOYXgBohKXeoCQ2JxhE-JUYFLVZy84hrD-sCTyfkfI2yOaG7Wb6gcRuP5XgPtI/s320/13450185_10154781561981686_3755044752661816833_n.jpg" width="202" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Aunt Nella, 1946 Life Magazine</td></tr>
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After my sequestration I was invited to travel with a seasoned cameraman to cover Occupy camps on the west coast in December, 2011. I'd covered the movement on my blog and it caught attention from others in media. I landed a quick and dirty interview with Mike Ruppert while traveling near his then home, Sebastopol, CA. This was only possible because of the friendships I'd forged in the online group. A few texts, a phone call and it was set up.<br />
<br />Both elated and intimidated, this was a peak moment for me personally as well as a professional woman in media. It was difficult to imagine that in less than a year, I'd discovered Mike's work, went through personal hell and six months of exile ... to find myself at the doorstep to interview the man considered a mentor to many. I really couldn't make this shit up. Much of what happened <a href="https://youtu.be/ogo6hBlTELY" target="_blank">after our interview</a>, the travels during and after Occupy are going in a book I aim to finish this winter. The photo below: my copy of Crossing The Rubicon with Mike's personal signature; one of the dearest things I own.<br />
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I'll dedicate a post about my Aunt Nella in the future. She was a truly fascinating woman.<br />
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<b>Fast Forward</b><br />
<b><br />
</b> This past winter I took a pet sitting job offered by a professor of deep ecology with a focus on the Vedics. Another wonderful person I would never have met if not for a permaculture community in my chosen hometown in southern Indiana. It was not unlike being sequestered again, almost a six month gig, but this space was more a spiritual retreat; a lovely home with diverse books from floor to ceiling, Hindu art and sculpture, all surrounded by beautifully designed permaculture gardens.<br />
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Heaven.<br />
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Hell's 'honey do' list of healing: get closure on a heart-wrenching break up of a six year intimate relationship with a man I called friend for 30 years. [He 'ghosted'. In hindsight, I should've had a wake]. My favorite artist passed away tragically, as did friend and mentor, Mike Ruppert three years before. Loss of a job I was great at then ending a 15 year friendship whose heel-dragging, drunken drama lost me my apartment. Add collective shock over the election result and bonus bizarre email from my ex-ghost's not-so-new, saccharine-passive aggro-abuse-apologist girlfriend the same week...<br />
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Stick a fork in me. I was DONE and fresh hell waited unless I got serious about my work.<br />
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I put a Taoist proverb into practice: "Let go or be dragged." I let it all go: not my circus, not my monkeys, and definitely not my neighborhood. I fought to wrench my sanity back once and wasn't about to apologize for evolving past my old unconscious collective. I had been given the gift of a blessedly quiet, private, comfortable and sacred space to do inner work. I buried myself in studies, avoided other people's hell as much as possible and recorded a few podcasts. Thank goddess for like-minded friends and a little medicinal to keep the 'ol mind limber.<br />
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<b>Cue Joe Rogan</b><br />
<b><br />
</b> One day during this retreat I had my Youtube channel on random play, listening to older and posthumously released interviews with Michael Ruppert in the kitchen. I'd recently been given the title Administrator for his fan page and Archivist for the official page of Crossing The Rubicon. This honor was humbling, indeed. I needed Mike's sober words and thought perhaps he'd impart something unknown in newer, unreleased footage. I left the audio on in the background.<br />
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After lunch and a little medicinal ... I had my nose in a book by permaculture genius and neighbor, Peter Bane, called <a href="http://permaculturehandbook.com/" target="_blank">The Permaculture Handbook</a>. Peter was also publisher of Permaculture Activist which is now <a href="https://www.permaculturedesignmagazine.com/" target="_blank">Permaculture Design Mag</a>. He and his partner Keith were the same people who helped design the lovely gardens I was tending during my retreat. The professor left a copy of Peter's book out to study but I'd not opened it for a stretch. It happened to be sitting on the table in front of me.<br />
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While reading a portion of an entry enclosed in a sidebar, I gravitated to the words 'intuitive with the landscape'. Interesting, I thought...I'll keep reading. No more than a minute after seeing the words on the page, I heard "intuitive with the landscape" aloud from the monitor. Granted, it took me a moment to realize this actually happened outside my head. To prove that my mind wasn't a little <i>too</i> limber, I walked over to the device and found Joe Rogan interviewing Graham Hancock and Randall Carlson.<br />
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I was familiar with Graham but I didn't know a thing about this Randall Carlson fellow. What happened was the video before it was Joe's interview with Mike Ruppert. It had finished while I was distracted at lunch and the queue jumped to the next Joe Rogan Experience with Graham and Randall. I decided this instantaneous synchronicity was a sign and I shouldn't ignore it.<br />
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My ass got 'intimate with the landscape' of the couch. I settled in to discover what this interview was all about. Three hours of utterly mind-blowing epiphanies and several F-bombs later, I was overwhelmed, inspired and knew that more people in permaculture had to see this. Interesting to note, Mike Ruppert interviewed Graham Hancock in March of 2013, a little over a year before he shed this mortal coil.<br />
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I'm constantly reminded of my favorite quote from his book, Crossing The Rubicon, which I am now honored to be working on archiving with updated footnotes and links:<br />
<br />"Miracles can happen without our permission."<br />Indeed. They do, Mike.</div>
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8876848971119625162.post-40600365669280448032017-09-19T23:19:00.002-04:002022-04-09T10:14:36.037-04:00The Sky Is A Neighborhood: Younger Dryas, Red Herrings and A Troubling Theory<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
submission and photography by <a href="http://www.twitter.com/TRCNewsUCanUse" target="_blank">Gabrielle Jones-Price</a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ5STJtX4DdmylPwkbeoLx99wN4w8vdjbpoMFehSrlQsQ2aocyD1_k1dj9UNB5cWhYsghnDTZslQnx09i1b10qsXQZk_xioYR2t1RNb1VtXaEVHfgN7cN91lphOBMLTMfyvp5QDKMuqEA/s1600/1848_42566726685_8853_n.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="402" data-original-width="604" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ5STJtX4DdmylPwkbeoLx99wN4w8vdjbpoMFehSrlQsQ2aocyD1_k1dj9UNB5cWhYsghnDTZslQnx09i1b10qsXQZk_xioYR2t1RNb1VtXaEVHfgN7cN91lphOBMLTMfyvp5QDKMuqEA/s1600/1848_42566726685_8853_n.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Storm cloud 1, 2006<br /><br /></td></tr>
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From the <a href="https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/abrupt-climate-change/The%20Younger%20Dryas" target="_blank">NOAA website</a>: The Younger Dryas is one of the most well known examples of abrupt (climate) change. About 14,500 years ago, Earth's climate began to shift from a cold glacial world to a warmer interglacial state.<br />
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Partway through this transition, temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere suddenly returned to near-glacial conditions. This near-glacial period is called the Younger Dryas, named after a flower (Dryas octopetala) that grows in cold conditions and that became common in Europe during this time. The end of the Younger Dryas, about 11,500 years ago, <b>was particularly abrupt.</b> In Greenland, temperatures rose 10°C (18°F) in a decade.<br />
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"<i>temperatures rose 10°C (18°F) in a decade.</i>"</div>
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It is that bit of data that has been keeping me up nights scratching my head and poring over as much data as I can find. Especially after learning about the work being done by Randall Carlson and Graham Hancock. I literally stumbled upon them discussing a theory during a random Joe Rogan podcast playing in the background. That's an interesting tale about synchronicity for part two of this series.</div>
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Please bear with me. I do not claim special knowledge on climate science, nor do I claim to know more than half a dozen scientists through my work as a media analyst. Analysis requires I choose carefully what data I share. I've always been keen to share 'news you can use': the kind of information that may motivate people to prepare for consequences that mainstream media neglects to inform a (supposedly) democratic society. There is a LOT we're not told. There's also a lot more on the internet and wading through what means absolutely nothing or doesn't seem a damn bit useful to human beings trying to make sense of the world has been a lot like herding cats. Now it's like trying to catch a lone catfish barehanded from a barrel full of red herrings.</div>
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It is time to back away from the barrel and announce those waters have been intentionally muddied, making it more difficult to grasp a clear picture. As a photographer it is annoying for any subject to be out of focus. At the same time, focusing too much on the same subject gets increasingly dull and myopic. Even science can get stuck in a dogmatic loop when it ignores new data. So I must admit that when I see large corporations, mainstream media and multi-billion dollar NGO's parroting the same evidence as independent scientists [especially among what are known as 'doomer' or extinction groups], I simply cannot help but be a little skeptical...especially during an 'information drought'. </div>
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Is this really ALL there is to know? Can this really be the end of the road? I'm finding the answers to these questions are as preposterous as <a href="http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/pentagon-study-declares-american-empire-collapsing" target="_blank">the notion that America is still a 'superpower'</a>. </div>
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Anyone who has known me and the work I've done knows I'm jaded, but I'm in pretty fine company. I'm reminded of the words of Wendell Berry, from his poem, Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front,<br />
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<i>As soon as the generals and the politicos<br />
can predict the motions of your mind,<br />
lose it. Leave it as a sign<br />
to mark the false trail, the way<br />
you didn’t go. Be like the fox<br />
who makes more tracks than necessary,<br />
some in the wrong direction.</i></blockquote>
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That's exactly how I'm viewing Randall and Graham's work. The picture is far bigger than the barrel of red herrings. Frankly, I consider most news an utter distraction, not at all useful, unless of course your favorite pastime is paying a cable company to supply your own lobotomy.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I Was Born A Victory Gardener's Granddaughter </span></div>
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I know scientists familiar with economics, peak oil, limits to growth, botany, ecology and permaculture. By sheer proxy of living in Indiana and being a photographer, who used to be crazy enough to chase thunderstorms, I needed to employ keen and intuitive observation skills for abrupt weather changes. This also meant paying attention to radar, barometric pressure and even animal behavior. Tracking storms was how I came to know areas of my home state intimately...not to mention a cornucopia of music on the road.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Storm cloud 2, 2006<br /><br /></td></tr>
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Something that is asked of those who study permaculture is to 'be intuitive with your landscape.' I suppose this is exactly how I earned the title analyst. After all, observation and intuition is what any good photographer possesses. However, when you decide to chase storms, you have to analyse data along with using your intuition. Otherwise mother nature will treat your vehicle like a child's toy or hand you your ass...literally. 'Game over' by lightning, flying debris, or flash flooding. Awareness is key.</div>
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Admittedly, it was a bit of an adrenaline rush but I wasn't in it for that. It was the feeling of sheer awe to witness the beauty of nature's rage and her calmness; the bounty of blooming fields, the brightness of flowers and budding trees, even after the most violent spring storm. Incredibly humbling experiences. Fascinated by those changes since I was a little girl, I always asked lots of questions about my surroundings. Such is the bane of most adults; an overly inquisitive child with questions they couldn't always answer. We didn't have Google then so it was 'Get thee to a library!' if I wanted some answers no one could give me.</div>
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It was in a library I learned that lightning has enough electrical energy to separate nitrogen atoms in the air. Once separated they can fall to earth with the rain water, and combine with minerals in the soil to form nitrates, a type of fertilizer. Nitrogen made the grass and the leaves on the trees a brighter shade of green with every storm. A circle of life which I've come to learn is fractal on many levels.<br />
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Thank goddess for Carl Sagan.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Storm cloud 3, 2006<br /><br /></td></tr>
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Chasing storms was not unlike a sport, trying to capture lightning on film. A bit like fishing with a regular 35mm film camera, it was a game of chance. I had to read radar, pay attention to wind speed and direction in order to be out ahead of a storm, and then hope I was in the right place at the right time. I saw a lot more than I was ever able to capture but was never disappointed by a light show. Living in tornado alley, I thought humans who lived within it would, like me, automatically have great respect and reverence for nature. They certainly respect the destructive power, as evidenced by the large emergency/warning systems throughout the state. Many family farms employ their root cellars for cover during tornadoes. However, the little girl full of questions grew up to discover that farming techniques have changed for the worse. The rise of toxic fertilizer, pesticides and corporate seed has nothing to do with reverence but exploitation.<br />
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This is why I continue to support those working to shift that agricultural paradigm.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg03-hAvSCaFIuhy3C0kun6Qyd02k-Cp025fzKAWZsfArFof3CT5jYqfKS6yT59hEbsx69C9qHyQC_TcnMS-XW-sETFcrS-SURUcnZpFdPF6MP-voxS6uvs4v_jEbCUXskmt5onfILaCi0/s1600/11013165_10154058786656686_8491389792442881471_n.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="864" height="449" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg03-hAvSCaFIuhy3C0kun6Qyd02k-Cp025fzKAWZsfArFof3CT5jYqfKS6yT59hEbsx69C9qHyQC_TcnMS-XW-sETFcrS-SURUcnZpFdPF6MP-voxS6uvs4v_jEbCUXskmt5onfILaCi0/s640/11013165_10154058786656686_8491389792442881471_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Myself and farmer friend, Megan | Greenhorns Tent, Neil Young ecovillage, 2015, Monsanto Years Tour, Ohio<br /><br /></td></tr>
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You just aren't supposed to mess with natural cycles...but then again I've also learned that this is precisely what agriculture has been from the beginning. Agriculture is the birth of civilizations. Our industrial civilization which continues large scale mono-cropping is making the soil, the water, the air, the animals and all of us -- even our psyches -- incredibly sick. We did not remember the lessons of the Dust Bowl. We are disconnected from the circle of life; plugged into a mechanistic system that now hinges on the precipice of a cataclysm, known as 'peak oil' : steep energy decline. Growing seasons are unknown to many and younger generations don't understand that their food does not originate at a grocery store, or that water doesn't originate at the sink tap. To be fair, I may never have known these things myself had it not been for savvy grandparents; victory gardeners who were close to the land. What we now call organic is what my ancestors called, "food."</div>
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I miss their knowledge. The kind of folk wisdom that is passed down and sorely missing from our human experience.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We're A Species With Amnesia</span><br />
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This 'forgetting' is something that Graham Hancock reiterates often and I could not agree more. I would add that this is not simply because his work reveals more about ancient civilizations but that this amnesia continues through deliberate brainwashing of the current civilization. That barrel of red herrings we call 'news' is accurately described as propaganda, the brainchild of Freud's nephew, Ed Bernays. Public Relations has made us forget that we are human, that we are connected to the land, the animals, our food -- but we believe that a corporation is a person? This is dangerous amnesia. Revisionists have control of school books, newspapers, media, libraries and now work in the White House. Women's rights are being dragged into the dark ages. Racism is rampant. The social contract is in absolute tatters along with our psychological fabric when <i>this</i> is considered progress:</div>
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I'd say that is pretty cataclysmic...and fractal when we consider history we were never meant to forget. These things happened during WWII and what I learned from my grandfather about his service during his time as a field radio technician in France. He fought fascism, and so did I when I took to the streets during Occupy. Begging the question, if you are not anti-fascist...what are you if not an enemy of my ancestor who sacrificed greatly to secure Constitutional rights you're content to throw away? What we lose after that is basic human rights that are not handed to a soul but given by birthright.<br />
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These are heady and existential questions for another time. For the moment, I want to talk about a theory which is new to me, it is utterly mind-blowing and its consequences more dire than everything I have just mentioned...<br />
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...yes, <b>everything</b>.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption">After the storm - Mandelbrot tree reflection in pond, 2007<br /><br /></td></tr>
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There are some problems we can collectively do something about. Some issues that are not muddied, not unfocused. The theory put forth by Randall and Graham will require a great deal of political will to evoke a response worthy of the challenge we face. I'm unsure any subject will ever be more important and here is where I know my stance will be irrevocably controversial; the following subject is more important than the theory of "human caused" climate change.<br />
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Why?<br />
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Climate change began a really, <i>really</i> long time ago before fossil fuels were even discovered by humans...and the theory is that Younger Dryas ended "about 11,500 years ago, <b>was particularly abrupt" and points to cosmic impacts. </b>In other words<b>, </b>a comet [possibly a few] slammed into the earth and ended the ice age abruptly. The glaciers have simply been in steady decline and flux ever since.</div>
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Exactly like cheap, easy-to-get oil has been in decline since 1970. One thing we're certainly not running out of soon is a sky that is neighborhood to a LOT of comets. We just happen to be dodging some big debris that can effectively hand us our collective ass in an instant. Boom: No agriculture. No storm chasing. No libraries. No animals. No music, no art, no women, no men, no dancing, no books, no Democrats, no Republicans, no fascists, no Nazis, no money, no rights...no people.<br />
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<b>Nothing.</b></div>
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This tragedy would not occur because of something any of us <i>did</i> but because of something we <i>failed</i> to do. We stopped paying attention and looking at the natural world with reverence. We stopped seeing the bigger picture of our Earth in the sky. We were hypnotized by red herrings, propaganda, celebrity culture, zit creme, alien conspiracies, shitty pop music, manicured lawns and steel belted radials. All the while, centuries of amazing knowledge has been lost to us, continues to be rewritten, censored, mocked and even burned. What of the clues left behind? What if Mr. Carlson and Mr. Hancock have stumbled upon a great truth -- the mother lode of all truths? A global reset button. The 'three finger salute' from the Universe. Control, Alt, Delete.<br />
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<b>Reboot.</b><br />
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Now are you grasping what Graham Hancock means when he says 'we're a species with amnesia?' What has happened before, can happen again. Have mercy on us, goddess Kali! What I'm realizing in all the data they present is that climate change <b>can</b><b>not</b> <b>be</b> <b>stopped</b>. It is a natural cycle. It can only be mitigated and adapted to with as many permaculture principles as we can muster, teach en masse to heal the soil we've destroyed. Climate change did not do that -- humans did that. But we can evolve. We can adapt.</div>
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We also <i>have</i> the technology available to avoid another comet catastrophe. We'll not be able to avoid another one, unless and until -- we realize we're all one human family on this spaceship Earth and we start speaking loudly with one voice. A human voice. Like the heroic figures who fought Nazi's in WWII. Sophie Scholl comes to mind often these days because she understood that we will never survive what's on the horizon if we're at war with ourselves. The biggest questions left I can even think to ask are whether that one voice will be heard and if so, will it be the last cry of civilized humans to echo through the cosmos?<br />
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I don't know. I do not believe for an instant that any soul on this hurtling rock CAN know. What I can tell you is the curious little girl in my heart is amazed at the possibilities and in sheer awe of it all. She hopes you'll come back and see more data to be shared here and perhaps join her to work together to make something amazing happen. I am starting to follow some leads in the landscape to observe and continue study. Along with permaculture, this is my work. The work.<br />
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No more red herrings!</div>
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My 50 year old self invites my fellow human beings to work to find themselves and their authentic voices. Cut your cable cord. Do your shadow work. Go outside for 24 hours. No. Go outside longer. Get away from social media. Dance. Sing a song. Heal. Write a shitty poem. Define yourself or this culture will destroy that, too. It's the most important freedom we still have. Our voice needs to be sober, focused, clear and it damn well better be loud.<br />
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In the spirit of a focused voice of clarity, please note that in the last 11,500 years of data, there is no proof that the Earth revolves around anyone's genitals...nor is it flat. Hail Sagan.<br />
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<a href="https://refreshmentcenter.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-sky-is-neighborhood-part-ii.html" target="_blank">The Sky Is A Neighborhood Part II: Permaculture, Heretics and Synchronicity</a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8876848971119625162.post-79672157121199003122017-09-11T22:20:00.003-04:002022-04-09T10:18:20.621-04:00Walking Away from Empire...and Former Contributors<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht4aSVNAgQjM7QT9f0Ct_fp06jgxCEuxxXEp2EsyhWbSOCfGItv2mQ5q8d2MbkDc7Xa0nPpmtjth3TtDx6VAG9KsVLtRXriHhDVH67WwznuZe8x2m-r4gQxR0kn4yKeRX1fiIZ75vm8EQ/s1600/21370925_1438283462916346_4785844379433187228_n.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht4aSVNAgQjM7QT9f0Ct_fp06jgxCEuxxXEp2EsyhWbSOCfGItv2mQ5q8d2MbkDc7Xa0nPpmtjth3TtDx6VAG9KsVLtRXriHhDVH67WwznuZe8x2m-r4gQxR0kn4yKeRX1fiIZ75vm8EQ/s200/21370925_1438283462916346_4785844379433187228_n.png" width="200" /></a></div>
submitted by <a href="http://www.twitter.com/TRCNewsUCanUse" target="_blank">Gabrielle Jones-Price</a><br />
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TRC began posting at blogspot back in 2010 after the BP Oil Disaster and continued as long as possible after discovering the work of Michael C. Ruppert, and during/after Occupy.<br />
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The main focus has always been peak oil and warning of the subsequent dangers of collapse [including the political fall out, which continues unabated] for anyone with eyes to see it.</div>
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It's been real for awhile for many of us in media but shit got real for millions after the election -- and a great many folks panicked. Even feminism has been co-opted again...and it is rather ugly given Empire's new standard of 'normal'. </div>
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Faded movements and professional/creative differences with former contributors aside, our reach is relatively intact. My patrons have always come first. TRC would not be what it is without YOU, and because of this important and pivotal time in history, TRC aims to keep readers first and informed as possible. [Note: this outlet has always been staffed/edited by one person...who works diligently to stay sane inside the insanity].<br />
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However, my patrons may have noticed I have not been posting regularly since 2013 and had ceased using a certain source who formerly contributed to the blog before Mike Ruppert's passing [*see the large drop off in readership numbers after that time. I took a long break for a good reason. There was quite a lot to wrap my head around and a great deal of inner work to be done].</div>
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Sometimes walking away from colleagues who show a lack of integrity must be done quietly and thoughtfully. It is not only one reputation at stake when one chooses to have blog contributors. Letting karma take its own course usually happens when drama is not given a platform. There is far too much of that online [more than I've ever seen] and I hope by taking a break when I need one, I'm able to maintain the level of integrity and professionalism that Mike Ruppert brought to the table as a media analyst. Otherwise, I'd be completely useless to readers in this endeavor.<br />
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I'm sorry to say there aren't very many left sitting at the integrity table. New media is often its own circle of hell with egos involved. I experienced that during my travel with Occupy and in my personal dealings with 'unwoke' folk, not to mention personal relationships trying to impart solid information to well-meaning people in deep denial. Frankly, anyone involved in media deals with quite enough ego BS and reports on it 24/7 [and that's just from the White House]. I'll not sign up for it among supposed 'intellectual' colleagues who stand behind the word science but behave dogmatically as to be shunned by actual scientists I admire and whose followers appear like rabid dogs when they smell a chance to attack.</div>
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Now doesn't THAT sound like a familiar political tactic? Like paid trolls during a primary? You know, someone caught cheating but no one wants to read the emails? In this case, three years ago, I saw the same 'holier than thou' within the confines of a community touting scientific methods but this person would not be debated -- in fact didn't even encourage debate. That isn't science at all. Frankly, I consider the actions of both akin to religious cults. Full of charlatans, snark and snake oil and look out when their 'feels' get hurt simply because you don't agree with them...<br />
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That's called malignant narcissism, folks. Steer clear. It's the worst of human EROEI. Not to mention a time suck -- and right now -- there are far more important things to be talking about. It bothers those folks more to be utterly ignored. So ignore them...and focus on good shit...and good work.<br />
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I'd tell you to fasten your seat-belts but what I hope is that you're in a lifeboat and talking with each other about the changes underway. It's not the end yet -- let's stay with it and hold space for each other. There is more to say, but tonight I'll just add that the end of my book has literally written itself. </div>
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Do forgive this pause for TRC 'station identification' and thank you for reading. Let's get back to the shifting paradigm already in progress. Love and rocket stoves ~ Gabrielle</div>
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<i>'Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known." ~ Carl Sagan</i></div>
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<i>[RIP, Mike Ruppert. You are terribly missed.]</i></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8876848971119625162.post-79699660948780890482017-04-04T10:32:00.000-04:002018-01-01T13:07:12.988-05:00Psywar: Why I Killed My Television and Learned to Trust My Own Mindsubmitted by <a href="http://www.twitter.com/TRCNewsUCanUse" target="_blank">Gabrielle Jones-Price</a> <br />
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<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-size: large;">"<i>We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.</i>" ~ William Casey, CIA Director 1981-1987</span></span></blockquote>
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<a href="https://vimeo.com/102695015">Psywar</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/user4563180">S DN</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</center>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8876848971119625162.post-73001572326822393672017-03-24T11:00:00.001-04:002022-04-09T10:23:00.284-04:00The Deep State's Dominant Narratives And Authority Are Crumbling<div class="content">
<a href="http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-deep-states-dominant-narratives-and.html"><em>by Charles Hugh-Smith via OfTwoMinds blog</em></a><br />
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<em>This is why the Deep State is fracturing: its narratives no longer align with the evidence.</em><br />
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<strong>As this chart from Google Trends illustrates, interest in the Deep State has increased dramatically in 2017.</strong><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcBh7-uG118oB8nRzqf_aSQesOFvGfn9J-n_xHFfTBvsVCSiUtuLq6q8L5vZZDgJNjm53FLxOsJvJZK-ImroedxgiiEihJSHoNBs1k2zRw_E_6r7oXKE-dj4By1kSFdFx3w86jmRFeD6w/s1600/GoogTrendsDS.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="347" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcBh7-uG118oB8nRzqf_aSQesOFvGfn9J-n_xHFfTBvsVCSiUtuLq6q8L5vZZDgJNjm53FLxOsJvJZK-ImroedxgiiEihJSHoNBs1k2zRw_E_6r7oXKE-dj4By1kSFdFx3w86jmRFeD6w/s640/GoogTrendsDS.png" width="640" /></a></div>
</div><div class="content"><br /></div><div class="content"><br /></div><div class="content"><br /></div><div class="content"><br /></div><div class="content"><br /></div><div class="content"><br /></div><div class="content"><br /></div><div class="content"><br /></div><div class="content"><br /></div><div class="content"><br /></div><div class="content"><br /></div><div class="content"><br /></div><div class="content"><br /></div><div class="content"><br /></div><div class="content"><br /></div><div class="content"><br /></div><div class="content"><br /></div><div class="content"><br /></div><div class="content"><br /></div><div class="content">The term/topic has clearly moved from the specialist realm to the mainstream. I've been writing about the Deep State, and specifically, the fractures in the Deep State, for years.<br />
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<strong>Amusingly, now that "Progressives" have prostituted themselves to the Security Agencies and the Neocons/Neoliberals, they are busy denying the Deep State exists.</strong> For example, <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/20/there-is-no-deep-state" target="resource"> There is No Deep State</a> (<em>The New Yorker</em>).<br />
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In this risible view, there is no Deep State "conspiracy" (the media's favorite term of dismissal/ridicule), just a bunch of "good German" bureaucrats industriously doing the Empire's essential work of undermining democracies that happen not to prostrate themselves at the feet of the Empire, murdering various civilians via drone strikes, surveilling the U.S. populace, planting bugs in new iPhones, issuing fake news while denouncing anything that questions the dominant narratives as "fake news," arranging sweetheart deals with dictators and corporations, and so on.<br />
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<em>The New Yorker</em> is right about one thing--the Deep State is not a "conspiracy:" it is a vast machine of control that is largely impervious to the views or demands of elected representatives or the American people. The key to understanding this social-political-economic control is to grasp that <strong>control of the narratives, expertise and authority is control of everything.</strong> Allow me to illustrate how this works.<br />
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The typical politician has a busy daily schedule of speaking at the National Motherhood and Apple Pie Day celebration, listening to the "concerns" of important corporate constituents, attending a lunch campaign fundraiser, meeting with lobbyists and party committees, being briefed by senior staff, and so on.<br />
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Senior administrators share similarly crowded schedules, minus the fundraising but adding budget meetings, reviewing employee complaints and multiple meetings with senior managers and working groups.<br />
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<strong>Both senior elected officials and senior state administrators must rely on <em>narratives, expertise and authority</em> because they have insufficient time and experience to do original research and assessment.</strong><br />
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<em>Narratives</em> create an instant context that "makes sense" of various data points and events. Narratives distill causal factors into an explanatory story with an implicit <em>teleology</em>--because of this and that, the future will be thus and so.<br />
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For example: because Iraq has weapons of mass destruction (WMD), the future promises the terrible likelihood (more than a possibility, given Iraqi deployment of poison gas in the Iraq-Iran War) that America or its allies will be devastated by Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. This teleology leads to the inescapable need to eliminate Iraq's weapons of mass destruction by any means necessary, and remove the political will to use them by removing Iraq's leader from power.<br />
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<strong>Politicos and senior administrators rely on <em>expertise and authority</em> as the basis of deciding whether something is accurate and actionable.</strong> Professional specialists are assumed to have the highest available levels of expertise, and their position in institutions that embody the highest authority give their conclusions the additional weight of being authoritative. The experts' conclusion doesn't just carry the weight of expertise, it has been reviewed by senior officials of the institution, and so it also carries the weight of institutional authority.<br />
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So when the C.I.A. briefing by its experts claims Iraq has WMD, and the briefing includes various threads of evidence that the institution declares definitive, who is a non-expert to challenge this conclusion and teleology? On what technical basis does the skeptic reject the expertise and authority of the institution?<br />
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<strong>We can now define the Deep State with some precision.</strong> The Deep State is fundamentally the public-private centralized nodes that collect, archive and curate dominant narratives and their supporting evidence, and disseminate these narratives (and their implicit teleologies) to the public via the media and to the state agencies via formal and informal inter-departmental communication channels.<br />
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<strong>By gaining control of the narratives, evidence, curation and teleology, each node concentrates power.</strong> the power to edit out whatever bits contradict the dominant narrative is <em>the source of power</em>, for once the contradictory evidence is buried or expunged, it ceases to exist.<br />
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For example, the contradictory evidence in the Pentagon Papers was buried by being declared Top Secret. The bureaucratic means to bury skeptical (i.e. heretical) views or evidence are many. Sending the authors to figurative Siberia is remarkably effective, as is burying the heretical claims in a veritable mountain of data that few if any will ever survey.<br />
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<strong>Curation is a critical factor in maintaining control of the narrative and thus of control;</strong> the evidence is constantly curated to best support the chosen narrative which in turn supports the desired teleology, which then sets the agenda and the end-game.<br />
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The senior apparatchiks of the old Soviet Union were masters of curation; when a Soviet leader fell from favor, he was literally excised from the picture--his image was erased from photos.<br />
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<strong>This is how narratives are adjusted to better fit the evidence.</strong> Thus the accusation that "the Russians hacked our election" has been tabled because it simply doesn't align with any plausible evidence. That narrative has been replaced with variants, such as "the Russians hacked the Democratic National Committee." Now that this claim has also been shown to be false, new variants are popping up weekly, with equally poor alignment with evidence.<br />
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<strong>The primary claim of each Deep State node is that its expertise and authority cannot be questioned.</strong> In other words, while the dominant narrative can be questioned (but only cursorily, of course), the expertise and authority of the institutional node cannot be questioned.<br />
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<strong>This is why the Deep State is fracturing: the expertise and authority of its nodes are delaminating because its narratives no longer align with the evidence.</strong> If various Security Agencies sign off on the narrative that "Russia hacked our election" (a nonsense claim from the start, given the absurd imprecision of the "hacking"--hacking into what? Voting machines? Electoral tallies?), and that narrative is evidence-free and fact-free, i.e. false, then the expertise and authority of those agencies comes into legitimate question.<br />
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<strong>Once the legitimacy of the expertise and authority is questioned, control of the narrative is imperiled.</strong> The control of the narrative is control of the teleology, the agenda and the end-game--in other words, everything. If the institution loses control of the dominant narrative, it loses its hold on power.<br />
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<strong>This is why the Deep State is in turmoil--its narratives no longer make sense</strong>, or are in direct conflict with other nodes' narratives or have been delegitimized by widening gaps between "definitive" claims and actual evidence.<br />
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<strong>There is indeed a Deep State, but its control of dominant narratives, and thus its source of control and power, is crumbling.</strong> The gap between the narratives and the evidence that supports them has widened to the point of collapse.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8876848971119625162.post-30501803112957236372017-03-23T20:09:00.002-04:002022-04-09T10:23:45.909-04:00Podcast Archive: The Lifeboat Hour w/Michael C. Ruppert || 10-10-10submitted by <a href="https://www.twitter.com/TRCNewsUCanUse" target="_blank">Gabrielle Jones-Price</a><br />
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On this podcast, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Michael-C-Ruppert-196190570444/" target="_blank">Mike Ruppert</a> speaks with Janaia Donaldson of Peak Moment TV and also discusses the devaluation of the dollar and other currencies as well as another bailout [QE] that occurred at that time. He mentions food production and a story from the Denver Post regarding 1500 water main breaks that were a daily occurrence in the US. <br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8876848971119625162.post-19899995259371236802017-03-12T12:23:00.002-04:002022-04-09T10:28:47.840-04:00Podcast Archive: The Lifeboat Hour w/Michael C. Ruppert || 10-03-2010submitted by <a href="https://www.paypal.me/theroadhome" target="_blank">Gabrielle Jones-Price</a><br />
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On this podcast, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Michael-C-Ruppert-196190570444/" target="_blank">Mike Ruppert</a> speaks with Dmitry Orlov. A Russian-American engineer and a writer on subjects related to economic, ecological and political decline and collapse in the United States, something Orlov has called "permanent crisis".<br />
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TRC will share The Lifeboat Hour archives in chronological order in an effort to enlighten patrons about how important Mike's work has been in regards to where we're headed as a nation and as a species. <br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8876848971119625162.post-70196349137362662962017-03-09T10:29:00.002-05:002020-01-17T18:45:27.112-05:00How We Got Here: Truth and Lies - The Deep State's War On Democracysubmitted by <a href="https://www.twitter.com/TRCNewsUCanUse" target="_blank">Gabrielle Jones-Price</a><br />
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Michael C. Ruppert at Portland State University, Nov. 28, 2001<br />
#RIPMCR<br />
#SplinterItIntoAThousandPiecesAndScatterItIntoTheWinds <br />
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[Please note: fromthewilderness.com is mirrored at copvcia.com.]</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8876848971119625162.post-14843068387479314682017-03-08T22:23:00.003-05:002022-04-09T10:30:20.844-04:00COLLAPSE: A Documentary featuring Michael C. Ruppertsubmitted by <a href="https://www.twitter.com/TRCNewsUCanUse" target="_blank">Gabrielle Jones-Price</a><br />
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Michael C. Ruppert (February 3, 1951 – April 13, 2014) was an American writer and musician, Los Angeles Police Department narcotics officer, investigative journalist, political activist, and peak oil awareness advocate known for his 2004 book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0865715408/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=refreshmentce-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0865715408&linkId=5509ebfa6ac1a68e37098f81386010f8" target="_blank">Crossing The Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil</a>.<br />
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From 1999 until 2006, Ruppert edited and published From The Wilderness, a newsletter and website covering a range of topics including international politics, the CIA, peak oil, civil liberties, drugs, economics, corruption and investigating the motives behind 9/11. It attracted 22,000 subscribers. This 2009 documentary film Collapse, is based on his book A Presidential Energy Policy and received The New York Times' "critics pick". He served as president of Collapse Network, Inc. from early 2010 until he resigned in May 2012. He also hosted The Lifeboat Hour on Progressive Radio Network until his death in 2014.<br />
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I'm honored to be administrator of Mike's <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Michael-C-Ruppert-196190570444" target="_blank">fan page</a>, archivist and admin for his book, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Crossing-The-Rubicon-116296335109472" target="_blank">Crossing the Rubicon</a>'s Facebook page. With permission from him in 2012 and from the book's copyright holder, I'm able to to share essays from his book exclusively on TRC.</div>
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Donations help TRC continue to archive his important work.<br />
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