Death by Medicine a film by Gary Null

The Progressive Radio Network

Published on Oct 23, 2015

Death By Medicine takes a hard examination at the dominant medical paradigm contributing to America’s health crisis. Based on Gary Null’s ground breaking book on the hundreds of thousands of injuries and deaths caused by conventional medicine, the documentary looks at the medical industrial complex, the pharmaceutical industry’s usurpation of the nation’s medical schools, research, falsified drug clinical trials, peer reviewed scientific journals, and the complicity of federal health agencies to permit this to happen. The result is a medical system unfounded on sound science. Why is there a lack of oversight by government regulatory agencies and private interest lobbyists call the shots for national healthcare? From FDA and FBI raids on cherry and dairy farmers to the halls of Congress, we witness the hostile attack on the natural health industry. We witness what happens when a mercenary healthcare system and the failures of a just and fair healthcare policy leaves the US as the 37th healthcare system in the world. The result is the American medical system is broken and corrupted by money rather than scientific fact, and the answer is to create a new medical paradigm that addresses the health of people rather than raising of stock prices, careers and reputations. Don't let anyone fool you, so tune on http://prn.fm/ Run Time 1 Hr 33 Min Written and Directed by Gary Null Co-Directed by Valerie Van Cleve Produced by Valerie Van Cleve, Richard Gale Associate Producer Rachael Spratt Editor Bill DesJardins, Richie Williamson 3-D Graphics Corey Hanson, Donald Pearsall

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Nonprofits & Activism

 

Former CIA agent Victor Marchetti explained the U.S.-Australian relationship very well: "Australia is going to be increasingly important to the United States, and so long as Australians keep electing the right people then there'll be a stable relationship between the two countries." (Secret Country, p. 353).

The ‘Intelligence Special Relationship’ between Britain and the United States

JONJO ROBB, JUN 15 2014, 3147 VIEWS

THIS CONTENT WAS WRITTEN BY A STUDENT AND ASSESSED AS PART OF A UNIVERSITY DEGREE. E-IR PUBLISHES STUDENT ESSAYS & DISSERTATIONS TO ALLOW OUR READERS TO BROADEN THEIR UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT IS POSSIBLE WHEN ANSWERING SIMILAR QUESTIONS IN THEIR OWN STUDIES.

http://www.e-ir.info/2014/06/15/the-intelligence-special-relationship-between-britain-and-the-united-states/

Is it accurate to talk of an ‘intelligence special relationship’ between Britain and the United States?

The United Kingdom and the United States are often regarded as having incredibly close and cordial bilateral relations, to the extent that this is often described as a ‘special relationship’. President Barack Obama remarked when addressing Parliament on a state visit to the UK in 2011 that the two nations enjoyed ‘one of the oldest, one of the strongest alliances the world has ever known’.[1] On taking office in 2010, Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs William Hague commented that ‘the United States is without doubt the most important ally of the United Kingdom’.[2]  The two states share a language, a vast history, and a number of interests and values. The UK and USA have both in the past and at present cooperated intensively on military matters. Both were members of the ‘Big Three’ during World War II, both were founding members of NATO, and both formed the leading contingents in the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. As a result of their shared military experiences, the UK and USA have also cooperated on intelligence matters.

Much like other aspects of UK-USA relations, intelligence liaison and cooperation could be described as exceptionally close. It is said that ‘the US and UK have developed a complex network of close links between their defence and intelligence communities’[3], and that the UK and US intelligence communities regularly grant each other access to privileged intelligence ‘that would be unthinkable between most other states’.[4] They are the two founding members of what is often termed ‘Five Eyes’, a global intelligence community which has been described as ‘the world’s most exclusive intelligence sharing club’.[5] Once more, the recent public disclosure of the global surveillance programs jointly operated by the US National Security Agency (NSA) and the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) further demonstrates the intensity of this association.

This essay will endeavour to understand and explain the substance and relevance of the intelligence relationship between the two states. It will begin by exploring the emergence of intelligence cooperation between them during World War II and in its immediate aftermath. It will then discuss cooperation between the two states during the Cold War period, firstly with regards to Iran in 1953 and secondly during the Falklands Conflict of 1982. The second section will analyse present-day intelligence cooperation, both within the realms of Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) and finally with regards to counter-terrorism and Human Intelligence (HUMINT). It will conclude by determining that both historical examples of UK-US intelligence cooperation, but more importantly present day instances, demonstrate the intelligence relationship between the two countries could indeed be considered special.

From BRUSA to UKUSA: The emergence of an Intelligence relationship

It could be said that the United Kingdom and the United States first began cooperating extensively on intelligence matters during the Second World War. On 17 May 1943 the British Government Code and Cipher School (GC&CS, precursor to GCHQ) concluded an agreement with the US War Department concerning cooperation on matters of ‘special intelligence’.[6]  Also known as the BRUSA agreement, its significance for the intelligence relationship that would follow cannot be underestimated. Bradley F. Smith describes the BRUSA agreement as ‘the written constitution which arose the Anglo-American cryptanalytic partnership that flourished during the final two-and-a-half years of World War II, and, in modified forms, has continued until the present’.[7] Focused mainly on Communications Intelligence (COMINT) and the breaking of enemy ciphers during the War, BRUSA was ‘monumental. It established for the first time intimate cooperation on COMINT at the highest level’.[8] Aside from COMINT, British Security Coordination (BSC), an element of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), played a central role in the establishment of the Office of the Coordinator of Information (COI), the forerunner of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and consequently the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).[9] Clearly, British and US Intelligence services were very much intertwined from as early as the 1940s.

UK-US cooperation on COMINT was further cemented shortly after the end of the Second World War. The ‘British-US Communication Intelligence Agreement’ was settled on 5^th March 1946.[10] This originally concise agreement was edited and enlarged numerous times, before taking its current form as the UKUSA Agreement on 10^th May 1955.[11] This is the most recent version of the treaty publicly available and was significant in that Canada, Australia and New Zealand became parties to the alliance as UKUSA-collaborating Commonwealth countries.[12] Though the UKUSA agreement was a continuation of previous cooperation under the auspices of the BRUSA agreement, it deepened collaboration and allowed the five nations to ‘carve up the earth into spheres of primary SIGINT collection responsibility’.[13] This resulted in Britain and the US (as well as the three Commonwealth countries) coordinating their intelligence targets and trusting each other’s agencies to collect and disseminate intelligence within the alliance. This is clearly an exceptional level of intelligence cooperation and there is arguably no other intelligence relationship comparable. For example, it is alleged that the United States was heavily reliant on GCHQ’s collection capabilities in Britain’s outposts of Empire in the 1950s,[14] as ‘Britain’s old imperial bases dotted across the globe, from Cyprus to Singapore, became new homes to substantial SIGINT collection centres’.[15]

Arguably, the intelligence relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States has been ‘special’ since the outset. In wartime, the two states decided to coordinate COMINT resources in the hope of a more effective intelligence machinery for the allies. In the immediate peace following the conflict, the two countries chose to deepen their intelligence ties and take the unprecedented action of sharing burdens by allocating responsibility for certain targets between them, and distributing the intelligence collected between themselves and their Commonwealth partners. It is claimed that the UKUSA agreement remains in force,[16] and so continues to serve as the framework for SIGINT cooperation between the two countries. The arrangements made in the 1940s and 1950s laid the foundations for an intensely close intelligence relationship that remains to this day.

Cold War Companions: Operation BOOT and Operation CORPORATE

Though the intelligence relationship between Britain and the US was (and to an extent remains) prominently concerned with the realm of SIGINT, this has by no means been the limit of cooperation between the two nations’ intelligence communities. The Iranian regime change which occurred in 1953 provides a pertinent example of British and US intelligence agencies cooperating to execute covert action, rather than simply to collect and analyse signals and data.

When Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadeq nationalised the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) in 1951, Britain and its ally across the Atlantic sought to bring about the demise of Mossadeq.[17] The emerging prominence of the pro-Communist Tudeh Party was also significant in generating the political will necessary to authorise the operation.[18] The ‘London Draft’ of the Operational Plan to carry out this action, codenamed Operation BOOT by SIS, outlined the steps SIS and the CIA would take to execute ‘a planned and controlled replacement’ of Mossadeq.[19] This included ‘a massive propaganda campaign against Mossadeq’,[20] and the bribery of members of Iran’s legislature to ensure their support for the new government, which was to be headed by a new Prime Minister selected by SIS/CIA.[21] The intelligence agencies successfully conducted the operation, and Mossadeq was deposed as desired. That the British SIS and the American CIA conspired together to execute regime change in a joint operation demonstrates the special and truly unique relationship between the two countries’ intelligence services.

Nearly 30 years after Operation BOOT, Britain launched Operation CORPORATE to retake the Falkland Islands, then a British Crown Colony in the South Atlantic. The Islands were invaded by Argentina on 2^nd April 1982, and British Forces sought to liberate the territory from its occupying Argentine forces.[22] Though the United States was not militarily involved in the conflict, released archival documents reveal the wealth of intelligence that the US provided to Britain. In a meeting with US Secretary of State Alexander Haig, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher ‘expressed appreciation for U.S. cooperation in intelligence matters’.[23] Declassified intelligence reports disclose the highly detailed assessments US intelligence provided Britain. This included reports on the state and location of Argentine military assets which were ascertained from US satellite imagery.[24] As well as imagery intelligence, the CIA provided SIS with a ‘comprehensive overview’[25] of the Argentine military in the form of a ‘complete order of battle for President Galtieri’s army, navy and air force’,[26] which helped to provide British forces with ‘a highly accurate picture of the opposing team in the South Atlantic’.[27] Further to this, the NSA offered assistance to GCHQ by re-tasking one of its satellites for a few hours daily, providing valuable SIGINT on Argentine communications.[28] From what we know of US assistance during the Falklands War, it appears that a significant amount of CIA and NSA resources were delegated to assisting their British counterparts. The re-tasking of reconnaissance satellites was particularly expensive, and even shortened their operational lives.[29] However, this was to be no impediment for the willingness of the US to provide a vast quantity of intelligence assistance to the UK during its conflict with Argentina. This further underlines the distinctive levels of cooperation that make up the intelligence relationship between Britain and the United States.

SIGINT in the Twenty-First Century: ECHELON & Tempora

This essay has hitherto explored numerous examples in history of the special intelligence relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States. It will now examine how this intelligence relationship has developed in the twenty-first century, by examining intelligence cooperation between the two states in 2014. SIGINT continues to be an area of significant interest to the intelligence agencies of the UK and USA, and as such cooperation on SIGINT matters continues to evolve. As previously discussed, SIGINT cooperation between Britain and the United States is exercised within the framework of the ‘Five Eyes’ alliance that was established by the UKUSA agreement, comprising of the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

The capability of the Five Eyes coalition to intercept a momentous quantity of telecommunications data has long been a cause of concern to foreign states and privacy groups alike. It is alleged that a global interception system known as ECHELON is operated by Britain, the United States, and its three allies which it is suggested is able to ‘intercept any telephone, fax, Internet or e-mail message sent by any individual and thus to inspect its contents’.[30] The European Parliament established a temporary committee to investigate the ECHELON system, which reported its findings in 2001. Though the lengthy and in-depth report concluded that ECHELON did not provide such an absolute interception capability, it did state that given sufficient collection stations across the world, Five Eyes would be able to intercept ‘all telephone, fax and data traffic’[31] transmitted via satellites. The committee noted that ‘international cooperation is essential in particular for the worldwide interception of satellite communications’.[32] Such cooperation between the United Kingdom and the United States can be perceived at intercept stations such as RAF Menwith Hill in North Yorkshire, which was singled out as part of the ECHELON network by the Parliament’s report.[33] The official website of the Royal Air Force describes Menwith Hill as ‘an integral part of the US DoD world-wide defence communications network. Its primary mission is to provide intelligence support for UK, US and allied interests.’[34] The website also notes that only one-third of the 2200 staff at Menwith Hill are British citizens, and so the station is dominated by American staff of the NSA.[35]

Aside from the ECHELON system, the true scale of Five Eyes’ ability to intercept communications on a mass and global scale in the internet age has recently been revealed by a number of Western newspapers, with the aid of classified material provided by whistle-blower Edward Snowden.[36] Internal GCHQ documents provided by Snowden to The Guardian disclosed the existence of Project Tempora, a GCHQ system that allowed the intelligence agency to ‘tap into and store huge volumes of data drawn from fibre-optic cables for up to 30 days so that it can be sifted and analysed.’[37] The paper claims that this includes ‘recordings of phone calls, the content of email messages, entries on Facebook and the history of any internet user’s access to websites’.[38] The Guardian states that GCHQ’s ‘special source exploitation’ capability to intercept communications transmitted via fibre-optic cables led it to boast of having the ‘biggest internet access’ in the UKUSA alliance.[39] Consequently, GCHQ shares access to intelligence produced by the Tempora program with the NSA.[40] Cooperation between GCHQ and NSA is reciprocal, and documents obtained from Snowden also reveal that GCHQ has access to the NSA’s Dishfire database, which collects ‘almost 200 million text messages a day from across the globe, using them to extract data including location, contact networks and credit card details’.[41] Further to this, The Guardian has revealed that at least £100m has been invested in GCHQ’s capabilities by the NSA in recent years, including £15.5m for the redevelopment of GCHQ Bude, £17.2m for its ‘Mastering the Internet’ project, and half the costs of operating GCHQ’s listening post for the Middle East, Ayios Nikolaos on the island of Cyprus.[42]

Even with the little information that is publicly available, it is clear to see that the present relationship between Britain’s GCHQ and the United States’ NSA is incredibly close. Whether it be satellite communications mustered from the ECHELON system, or metadata produced by the Tempora and Dishfire programs, the two agencies appear to work in tandem and to be very open to sharing intelligence and technical information. The intimacy of the two agencies’ operations is emphasised by the revelation that the NSA provides funding for GCHQ’s projects, and that the two organisations jointly fund a SIGINT collection facility on Cyprus. It is difficult to envisage a closer relationship between two foreign intelligence agencies.

Cooperation on Counter-Terrorism

The UK Government’s Strategy for Countering Terrorism states that it aims to ‘work with other countries and multilateral organisations to enable us to better tackle the threats we face at their source’.[43] The nature of such cooperation is understandably secret and therefore there is even less information publicly available than that of cooperation on SIGINT matters. However, the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee did give an insight into some intelligence matters in its report on UK-US relations, published in March 2010.

The committee found that ‘the field of intelligence co-operation is one of the areas where the UK-US relationship can rightly be described as ‘special’’, and that ‘that there can be no doubt that both the UK and US derive considerable benefits from this co-operation, especially in relation to counter-terrorism.’[44] The committee did note that HUMINT cooperation is not as intimate as SIGINT cooperation, with the Security Service (MI5) and SIS ‘retaining operational independence, despite close co-operation with their US counterparts’.[45] However, the committee’s suggestion that ‘the default UK position appears to be set to allow the automatic relay of human intelligence to the US’[46] is a telling indication of the intelligence special relationship, if accurate. That one state permits its intelligence agencies to freely pass HUMINT to another without let or hindrance underscores the level of cooperation between them. One of the more curious findings of the committee’s evidence hearings was that the US benefit from their close HUMINT cooperation with the UK because ‘foreign assets are more willing to talk to British intelligence rather than to the Americans for a variety of historical or other reasons.’[47] The Foreign & Commonwealth Office, the ministerial department responsible for SIS, told the committee in their investigation that the ‘US is the UK’s most important partner in protecting UK interests at home and that strategic and operational co-operation is close in a bid to deny Al-Qaeda and other extremists safe haven’.[48] It is evident that counter-terrorism cooperation between the two states is indeed close due to their obvious shared interests to prevent terrorism attacks. This is yet further evidence of an ‘intelligence special relationship’.

Conclusions on the Special Relationship

This essay has presented what appears to be overwhelming evidence that the United Kingdom and the United States have an incredibly intimate intelligence relationship which could certainly be described as special. Even as early as the 1940s, the two states were forming alliances to share what was then unprecedented access to each other’s COMINT intelligence and capabilities. Since then, their level of collaboration appears to have grown and grown. Whether it be peacetime or wartime, a fight against the Third Reich or a conflict over islands in the South Atlantic, the two countries have stood by each other in the realms of intelligence cooperation.

What appears distinctive about the intelligence relationship between Britain and the United States is the level within which their intelligence agencies, specifically their SIGINT agencies, are entwined. It is not simply a matter of sharing what intelligence is relevant to the other state on an ad hoc basis. Rather, from what we can gather, their networks and technical capabilities are interlinked to such an extent that the intelligence product of GCHQ is freely accessible to the NSA, and vice-versa. Of course, there will be exceptions to this. It would be naïve to suggest that allintelligence collected by the two countries is freely shared between them. However, it does not appear unreasonable to suggest that the vast majority of such intelligence is pooled between them, with a relationship akin to that between two intelligence agencies of the same government, rather than two agencies of foreign powers. With regards to HUMINT, investigation into cooperation of a recent nature is hindered by the need for official secrets. However, from what little light was shone on the nature of HUMINT cooperation by the Foreign Affairs Committee, we can see that the bonds between MI5/SIS and the CIA/FBI appear close, even if not as close as those between GCHQ and the NSA.

One final point to make about the gravity of the intelligence special relationship that this essay has examined is its longevity. This relationship has stood the test of time. It is clear to see that the relationship has evolved to meet the requirements of intelligence consumers as old threats have dissipated and new threats emerged. Where the GC&CS and the US War Department would once work together to decrypt German and Japanese ciphers, GCHQ and the NSA now work together to scupper communications between terrorists in the internet age. This is perhaps the best testament to the relationship’s intensity, and it is unimaginable that this association will dissolve at any point in the near future. The intelligence relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States is indeed a relationship of a special nature, and it is hard to envisage another relationship so much so.

Bibliography

Aldrich, R. GCHQ: The Uncensored Story of Britain’s Most Secret Intelligence Agency (London, HarperPress, 2011).

Bamford, J. The Puzzle Palace: America’s National Security Agency and its Special Relationship with Britain’s GCHQ (London, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1982).

BBC News, Profile: Edward Snowden. Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22837100 [Accessed 07 April 2014].

Embassy of the United States, Remarks by the President to Parliament. Available from: http://london.usembassy.gov/obamavisit019.html [Accessed 05 April 2014].

European Parliament, ‘Report on the existence of a global system for the interception of private and commercial communications (ECHELON interception system)’ (Brussels: European Union, 2001).

Hastings, M., Jenkins, S. The Battle for the Falklands (London, Book Club Associates, 1983).

Her Majesty’s Government, ‘CONTEST: The United Kingdom’s Strategy for Countering Terrorism’ (London: The Stationary Office, 2011).

Her Majesty’s Government, Washington meeting press conference. Available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/foreign-secretary-william-hague-washington-meeting-press-conference [Accessed 05 April 2014].

House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, ‘Global Security: UK-US Relations’ (London: The Stationary Office, 2010).

James Cox ‘Canada and the Five Eyes Intelligence Community’ (Calgary: Canadian Defence & Foreign Affairs Institute and Canadian International Council, 2012).

National Security Agency, Agreement between British Government Code and Cipher School and US War Department in regard to certain “Special Intelligence.” Available from: http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/ukusa/spec_int_10jun43.pdf [Accessed 05 April 2014].

Richelson, J., Ball, D. The Ties That Bind: Intelligence Cooperation between the UKUSA Countries (North Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 1990).

Royal Air Force. Available from: http://www.raf.mod.uk/

Royal United Services Institute, The UK-US Alliance Under the Microscope. Available from: https://www.rusi.org/analysis/commentary/ref:C4BD6E91B58EE6/#.U0A7l6K9aLw [Accessed 05 April 2014].

Smith, B. The Ultra-Magic Deals and the Most Secret Special Relationship, 1940-1946 (Novato, Presidio, 1993).

The Guardian. Available from: http://theguardian.com

The National Archives. Available from: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

The National Security Archive, George Washington University. Available from: http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/

Walton, C. Empire of Secrets: British Intelligence, The Cold War and the Twilight of Empire(London, William Collins, 2014).

West, N. The Secret War for the Falklands: The SAS, MI6, and the War Whitehall Nearly Lost(London, Little, Brown, 1997).

[1] Embassy of the United States, Remarks by the President to Parliament. Available from: http://london.usembassy.gov/obamavisit019.html [Accessed 05 April 2014].

[2] Her Majesty’s Government, Washington meeting press conference. Available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/foreign-secretary-william-hague-washington-meeting-press-conference [Accessed 05 April 2014].

[3] Royal United Services Institute, The UK-US Alliance Under the Microscope. Available from: https://www.rusi.org/analysis/commentary/ref:C4BD6E91B58EE6/#.U0A7l6K9aLw [Accessed 05 April 2014].

[4] Ibid

[5] James Cox ‘Canada and the Five Eyes Intelligence Community’ (Calgary: Canadian Defence & Foreign Affairs Institute and Canadian International Council, 2012), p. 2.

[6]National Security Agency, Agreement between British Government Code and Cipher School and US War Department in regard to certain “Special Intelligence.” Available from: http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/ukusa/spec_int_10jun43.pdf [Accessed 05 April 2014].

[7] Smith, B. The Ultra-Magic Deals and the Most Secret Special Relationship, 1940-1946 (Novato, Presidio, 1993), p. 153.

[8] Bamford, J. The Puzzle Palace: America’s National Security Agency and its Special Relationship with Britain’s GCHQ (London, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1982), p. 314.

[9] Richelson, J., Ball, D. The Ties That Bind: Intelligence Cooperation between the UKUSA Countries (North Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 1990), p. 139.

[10] The National Archives, British-US Communication Intelligence Agreement (HW 80/4).Available from: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/details?Uri=C11536914 [Accessed 05 April 2014].

[11] The National Archives, Amendment No. 4 to the Appendices to the UKUSA Agreement (Third Edition) (HW 80/11). Available from: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/details?uri=C11536921 [Accessed 05 April 2014].

[12] Ibid

[13] Richelson, J., Ball, D. The Ties That Bind: Intelligence Cooperation between the UKUSA Countries (North Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 1990), p. 143.

[14] Walton, C. Empire of Secrets: British Intelligence, The Cold War and the Twilight of Empire(London, William Collins, 2014), p. 154.

[15] Walton, C. Empire of Secrets: British Intelligence, The Cold War and the Twilight of Empire(London, William Collins, 2014), p. 155.

[16] Aldrich, R. GCHQ: The Uncensored Story of Britain’s Most Secret Intelligence Agency(London, HarperPress, 2011), p. 90.

[17] Walton, C. Empire of Secrets: British Intelligence, The Cold War and the Twilight of Empire(London, William Collins, 2014), p. 288.

[18] Walton, C. Empire of Secrets: British Intelligence, The Cold War and the Twilight of Empire(London, William Collins, 2014), p. 289.

[19] The National Security Archive, “London” Draft of the TPAJAX Operational Plan. Available from: http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB28/appendix%20B.pdf [Accessed 06 April 2014].

[20] Ibid

[21] Ibid

[22] Hastings, M., Jenkins, S. The Battle for the Falklands (London, Book Club Associates, 1983), p. 61.

[23] The National Security Archive, Secretary’s Meeting with Prime Minister Thatcher April 8: Falkland Islands Crisis. Available from: https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/329527/19820410-secretarys-meeting-with-prime-minister.pdf [Accessed 06 April 2014].

[24] The National Security Archive, Secretary’s Military Forces, Argentina. Available from: https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/329563/19820528-military-forces-argentina.pdf [Accessed 06 April 2014].

[25]  West, N. The Secret War for the Falklands: The SAS, MI6, and the War Whitehall Nearly Lost(London, Little, Brown, 1997), p. 48.

[26] Ibid

[27] Ibid

[28] Aldrich, R. GCHQ: The Uncensored Story of Britain’s Most Secret Intelligence Agency(London, HarperPress, 2011), p. 415.

[29] Ibid

[30] European Parliament, ‘Report on the existence of a global system for the interception of private and commercial communications (ECHELON interception system)’ (Brussels: European Union, 2001), p. 23.

[31] European Parliament, ‘Report on the existence of a global system for the interception of private and commercial communications (ECHELON interception system)’ (Brussels: European Union, 2001), p. 34.

[32] European Parliament, ‘Report on the existence of a global system for the interception of private and commercial communications (ECHELON interception system)’ (Brussels: European Union, 2001), p. 23.

[33] European Parliament, ‘Report on the existence of a global system for the interception of private and commercial communications (ECHELON interception system)’ (Brussels: European Union, 2001), p. 56.

[34] Royal Air Force, RAF Menwith Hill – Primary Mission. Available from: http://www.raf.mod.uk/organisation/rafmenwithhillmission.cfm [Accessed 07 April 2014].

[35] Royal Air Force, RAF Menwith Hill – Personnel and Administration. Available from: http://www.raf.mod.uk/organisation/rafmenwithhilladministration.cfm [Accessed 07 April 2014].

[36] BBC News, Profile: Edward Snowden. Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22837100 [Accessed 07 April 2014].

[37] The Guardian, GCHQ taps fibre-optic cables for secret access to world’s communications.Available from: http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/jun/21/gchq-cables-secret-world-communications-nsa [Accessed 07 April 2014].

[38] Ibid

[39] Ibid

[40] Ibid

[41] The Guardian, NSA collects millions of text messages daily in ‘untargeted’ global sweep.Available from: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/16/nsa-collects-millions-text-messages-daily-untargeted-global-sweep [Accessed 08 April 2014].

[42] The Guardian, Exclusive: NSA pays £100m in secret funding for GCHQ. Available from: http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/aug/01/nsa-paid-gchq-spying-edward-snowden [Accessed 08 April 2014].

[43] Her Majesty’s Government, ‘CONTEST: The United Kingdom’s Strategy for Countering Terrorism’ (London: The Stationary Office, 2011), p. 7.

[44] House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, ‘Global Security: UK-US Relations’ (London: The Stationary Office, 2010), p. 42.

[45] House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, ‘Global Security: UK-US Relations’ (London: The Stationary Office, 2010), p. 39.

[46] Ibid

[47] House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, ‘Global Security: UK-US Relations’ (London: The Stationary Office, 2010), p. 40.

[48] Ibid

—Written by: Jonjo Robb
Written at: Aberystwyth University
Written for: Claudia Hillebrand
Date written: April 2014

Former CIA agent Victor Marchetti explained the U.S.-Australian relationship very well: "Australia is going to be increasingly important to the United States, and so long as Australians keep electing the right people then there'll be a stable relationship between the two countries." (Secret Country, p. 353).

John D. Marks

 http://spartacus-educational.com/JFKmarks.htm

Assassination of John F. Kennedy Encyclopedia

John D. Marks worked for five years with the State Department as an analyst and staff assistant to the Intelligence Director. After leaving the State Department he worked with Victor Marchetti on a book about the need to reform the Central Intelligence Agency.

The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence was completed in 1973. CIA officials read the manuscript and told Marchetti and Marks that they had to remove 399 passages, nearly a fifth of the book. After long negotiations the CIA yielded on 171 items. That left 168 censored passages. The publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, decided to go ahead and publish the book with blanks for those passages, and with the sections that the CIA had originally cut but then restored printed in boldface.

The publication of Marchetti's censored book raised concerns about the way the CIA was censoring information. It led to investigative reports by Seymour Hersh in The New York Times and the decision by Frank Church to establish a Select Committee to study government operations. The report, Foreign and Military Intelligence, was published in 1976.

Other books by Marks include The CIA File (1976), The Search for the Manchurian Candidate (1991) and Our Context (2002).

Marks later became a fellow of Harvard's Institute of Politics and an associate of the Harvard Negotiation Project and director of the Nuclear Network in Washington.

 Ted Shakley_"The Ghost" CIA Operative involved in the CIA Back Nugan Hand Bank
Please see: 

http://www.awn.bz/NuganHandBank_CIA_Drugs.html

'wider discussion will promote a better understanding of the law and what the courts are doing.... ..perhaps judges no longer enjoy the status which their predecessors enjoyed......if that is so, judges do  not stand alone, there are a number of casualties of the general decline in respect for institutions and authority.... ...........although judicial eminence was sacrosanct for centuries it was different today..... there is now a new demand for openness ... the media, if not the people want to know how power is being exercised today....'.....year 2000, Justice Sir Anthony Mason, previous Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia

 

'...There is no defense against an evil which only the victims and the perpetrators know exists..'... a former English High Court Judge and Grand Inspector Inquisitor Commander of the Thirty-First degree of the Ancient and Accepted Rite .....there are only about 400  appointed in the world..

'.....It may be a revelation to many people that the global drug trade is controlled and run by the intelligence agencies. In this global drug trade British intelligence reigns supreme. As intelligence insiders know MI5 and MI6 control many of the other intelligence agencies in the world (CIA, MOSSAD etc) in a vast web of intrigue and corruption that has its global power base in the city of London, the square mile.......'....James Casbolt, who worked for MI6 in 'black ops' cocaine trafficking with the IRA and MOSSAD in London and Brighton between 1995 and 1999. James Casbolt's  father Peter Casbolt was also MI6 and worked with the CIA and mafia in Rome, trafficking cocaine into Britain.

'It is likely that, as the reader completes this book, despair will replace curiosity, especially if his explanation of the events being reviewed has never been explored before. That is an unfortunate consequence of my research, and the author is sorry that he must be the bearer of such bad tidings. Despair, however, and reasonably be replaced with cautious optimism. The battle is not yet over, there is reason to be encouraged, but you are the final participant. What happens will largely depend on your action once you've read this book'......

'......The ultimate purpose of this Conspiracy is power. There are some who desire this more than even material goods, although the two frequently go together......'

……Ralf A. Epperson- The Author of the Unseen Hand

 

'....Who were the senior MI6 and MI5 agents in the tunnel on the night of the crash? Why was Klaus Werner deported after standing vigil outside Diana’s apartment? All these questions and much more are answered in this film....'.....A Message From British Film Director, CHRIS EVERARD

"...I'll call myself a conspiracy theorist if you call yourself a coincidence theorist."....John Judge

 

'....If the truth hurts, well there must be something wrong in the first place, with the way one is going about their activities........One must remember that justice and truth will always triumph and surface eventually, no matter how long it takes....'

'...It doesn't matter how wrong the orders are made against me and others who's interests I represent, because the more wrong and unjust they are the more evidence I gather against those who made them, and if the orders are fair,  then that means my message is getting through.....'....the author of 'The Triumph Of Truth (Who Is Watching The Watchers?)'.

 

From the book... 'Barrack Obama - The making of the man'

 by David Maraniss, who is an associate editor at the Washington Post...

 

David Maraniss us the author of critically acclaimed best-selling books on Bill Clintin, Vietnam and the sixties, Roberto Clemente and the 1960 Rom Olympics. David Maraniss won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of Clinton and has been a Pulitzer finalist three other times..

 

"..... One of his (Barrack Obama)'s English teachers at Punahou was Barabara Czurles-Nelson,the former journalist who had followed Barry's (Barrack Obama) journey since the week of his birth, when dr. Rodney West told her the unusual story of a Stanley giving birth. Barry was not the most talkative student in her class, she recalled. He (Barrack Obama) would sit neat the back of the room, relaxed, waiting for his opening in the conversation. One day they were dealing with a philosophical question about that people should most fear. The answers including, loneliness, death, hell and war. Then Barry straightened up. That was the sign that he was ready to participate. Nelson thought, when he was sure to sharpen the class discussion.

'Words,' he (Barrack Obama) said. ' Words are the power to be feared most .... Whether directed personally or internationally, words can be weapons of destruction.'......".. Barrack Obama, the president of the USA, when he was about 15 years old.

 

Back in the 1990's, an native American Red Indian who was holding American Indian Spiritual Sweat Lodges at Frank Scarf's Earth Repair Foundation's property in the Blue Mountains near Sydney said to Koala Bear when I showed a copy of the many the letters that I had sent to all the powerful people about the wrong things they had done, and/or have used their powerful positions have covered up…

and he said..

 "... these letters were like arrows.... once the letter has been sent..... then they will eventually hit their target....regardless how long it takes the arrow to have their final desired  effect on their target …... the important thing is that the arrow had been fired.... and eventually they will have their required  effect……

 

'.... sometimes justice takes a while...'.....stated by The Honourable Justice Seaman,  a  former Justice  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  Western  Australia  at his last trial before his retirement

 

'.....it is not an overstatement to say that the system of administering justice is in crisis...'.....the former High Court of Australia's, Chief Justice, Sir Gerard Brennan

'....when will people realise the robustness of truth.....'.....Bertrand Russell

 Global drug trade is controlled and run by the intelligence agencies

by James Casbolt

http://www.jamescasbolt.com/mi6.htm

It may be a revelation to many people that the global drug trade is controlled and run by the intelligence agencies. In this global drug trade British intelligence reigns supreme. As intelligence insiders know MI5 and MI6 control many of the other intelligence agencies in the world (CIA, MOSSAD etc) in a vast web of intrigue and  corruption that has its global power base in the city of London, the square mile.  My name is James Casbolt, and I worked for MI6 in 'black ops' cocaine trafficking with the IRA and MOSSAD in London and Brighton between 1995 and 1999. My father Peter Casbolt was also MI6 and worked with the CIA and mafia in Rome, trafficking cocaine into Britain. My experience was that the distinctions of all these groups became blurred until in the end we were all one international group working together for the same goals. We were puppets who had our strings pulled by global puppet masters based in the city of London. Most levels of the intelligence agencies are not loyal to the people of the country they are based in and see themselves as 'super national'. It had been proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the CIA has been bringing in most of the drugs into America for the last fifty years (see ex LAPD officer Michael Rupert's 'From the wilderness' website for proof). The CIA operates under orders from British intelligence and was created by British intelligence in 1947. The CIA today is still loyal to the international bankers based in the city of London and the global elite aristocratic families like the Rothschild's and the Windsor's. Since it was first started, MI6 has always brought drugs into Britain. They do not bring 'some' of the drugs into Britain but I would estimate MI6 bring in around ninety percent of the drugs in. They do this by pulling the strings of many organised crime and terrorist groups and these groups like the IRA are full of MI6 agents.

MI6 bring in heroin from the middle east, cocaine from south America and cannabis from morocco as well as other places. British intelligence also designed and created the drug LSD in the 1950's through places like the Tavistock Institute in London. By the 1960's MI5, MI6 and the CIA were using LSD as a weapon against the angry protestors of the sixties and turned them into 'flower children' who were too tripped out to organise a revolution. Dr Timothy Leary the LSD guru of the sixties was a CIA puppet. Funds and drugs for Leary's research came from the CIA and Leary says that Cord Meyer, the CIA agent in charge of funding the sixties LSD counter culture has "helped me to understand my political cultural role more clearly". In 1998, I was sent 3000 LSD doses on blotting paper by MI5 with pictures of the European union flag on them. The MI5 man who sent them told my father this was a government 'signature' and this LSD was called 'Europa'. This global drugs trade controlled by British intelligence is worth at least 500 billion a year. This is more than the global oil trade and the economy in Britain and America is totally dependent on this drug money. Mafia crime boss John Gotti exposed the situation when asked in court if he was involved in drug trafficking. He replied "No we can't compete with the government". I believe this was only a half truth because the mafia and the CIA are the same group at the upper levels. In Britain, the MI6 drug money is laundered through the Bank of England, Barclays Bank and other household name companies. The drug money is passed from account to account until its origins are lost in a huge web of transactions. The drug money comes out 'cleaner' but not totally clean. Diamonds are then bought with this money from the corrupt diamond business families like the Oppenheimers. These diamonds are then sold and the drug money is clean. MI6 and the CIA are also responsible for the crack cocaine epidemic in Britain and America.  In 1978, MI6 and the CIA were in south America researching the effects of the natives smoking 'basuco' cocaine paste. This has the same effect as crack cocaine. They saw that the strength and addiction potential was far greater than ordinary cocaine and created crack cocaine from the basuco formula. MI6 and the CIA then flooded Britain and America with crack [see Gary Webb--ed]. Two years later, in 1980, Britain and America were starting to see the first signs of the crack cocaine epidemic on the streets. On august 23, 1987, in a rural community south of Little Rock in America, two teenage boys named Kevin Ives and Don Henry were murdered and dismembered after witnessing a CIA cocaine drop that was part of a CIA drug trafficking operation based at a small airport in Mena, Arkansas. Bill Clinton was the governor of Arkansas at the time. Bill Clinton was involved with the CIA at this time and $100 million worth of cocaine was coming through the Mena, Arkansas airport each month. For proof see the books 'Compromise' and 'Dope Inc'. On my father's international MI6 drug runs, whatever fell off the back of the lorry so to speak he would keep and we would sell it in Britain. As long as my father was meeting the speedboats from Morocco in the Costa del Sol and then moving the lorry loads of cannabis through their MI6, IRA lorry business into Britain every month, British intelligence were happy. As long as my father was moving shipments of cocaine out of Rome every month, MI5 and MI6 were happy. If my father kept a bit to sell himself no one cared because there was enough drugs and money to go round in this £500 billion a year global drugs trade. The ones who were really paying were the people addicted. Who were paying with suffering. But karma always catches up and both myself and my father became addicted to heroin in later years and my father died addicted, and poor in prison under very strange circumstances. Today, I am clean and drug-free and wish to help stop the untold suffering this global drugs trade causes. The intelligence agencies have always used addictive drugs as a weapon against the masses to bring in their long term plan for a one world government, a one world police force designed to be NATO and a micro chipped population known as the New World Order. As the population is in a drug or alcohol-induced trance watching 'Coronation Street', the new world order is being crept in behind them. To properly expose this global intelligence run drugs trade we need to expose the key players in this area: 1- Tibor Rosenbaum, a MOSSAD agent and head of the Geneva based Banque du Credit international. This bank was the forerunner to the notorious Bank of Credit and Commerce international (BCCI) which is a major intelligence drug money laundering bank. 'Life' magazine exposed Rosenbaum's bank as a money launderer for the Meyer Lanksky American organised crime family and Tibor Rosenbaum funded and supported 'Permindex' the MI6 assassination unit which was at the heart of the John F. Kennedy assassination. 2- Robert Vesco, sponsored by the Swiss branch of the Rothchilds and part of the American connection to the Medellin drug cartel in Columbia. 3- Sir Francis de Guingand, former head of British intelligence, now living in south Africa (and every head of MI5 and MI6 has been involved in the drug world before and after him). 4- Henry Keswick, chairman of Jardine Matheson which is one of the biggest drug trafficking operations in the world. His brother John Keswick is chairman of the bank of England. 5- Sir Martin Wakefield Jacomb, Bank of England director from 1987 to 1995, Barclays Bank Deputy Chairman in 1985, Telegraph newspapers director in 1986 ( This is the reason why this can of worms doesn't get out in the mainstream media. The people who are perpetrating these crimes control most of the mainstream media. In America former director of the CIA William Casey was, before his death in 1987, head of the council of the media network ABC. Many insiders refer to ABC as 'The CIA network.) 6- George Bush, Snr, former President and former head of the CIA and America's leading drug baron who has fronted more wars on drugs than any other president. Which in reality is just a method to eliminate competition. A whole book could be written on George Bush's involvement in the global drug trade but it is well-covered in the book 'Dark Alliance' by investigative journalist Gary Webb. Gary Webb was found dead with two gunshot wounds to the back of his head with a revolver. The case was declared a 'suicide'. You figure that out. Gary Webb as well as myself and other investigators, found that much of this 'black ops' drug money is being used to fund projects classified ab ove top secret. These projects include the building and maintaining of deep level underground bases in Dulce in New Mexico, Pine gap in Australia, Snowy mountains in Australia, The Nyala range in Africa, west of Kindu in Africa, next to the Libyan border in Egypt, Mount Blanc in Switzerland, Narvik in Scandinavia, Gottland island in Sweden and many other places around the world (more about these underground bases in my next issue). The information on this global drugs trade run by the intelligence agencies desperately needs to get out on a large scale. Any information, comments or feedback to help me with my work would be greatly welcomed.  

http://www.whale.to/b/casbolt6.html

Coup D'etat in Australia

20 Years Of Cover Up

By Steve & Adelaide Gerlach

Former CIA agent Victor Marchetti

Sir Robert Menzies (1894–1978) was Prime Minister of Australia from 19 December 1949 to 26 January 1966



Robert Menzies
For 23 years before 1972, the Australian people had been electing the "right people," the Liberal-National Country Party Coalition headed for most of that period by Robert Menzies..... was a USA/CIA and United Kingdom/MI6 approved Prime Minister of Australia...

Harold Holt (1908–1967) was Prime Minister of Australia from 26 January 1966 to 19 December 1967

Then came Harold Holt as the next Prime Minister of Australia, who was part of the Liberal Coalition. There are strong rumors that the sudden disappearance of Harold Holt when he went swimming near his holiday home in Portsea, Victoria,  involved one of security agencies, such as the KGB, MI6 and/or CIA because they wanted another Australian Prime Minister such as John McEwen, who would be their bidding ...
John McEwen (1900–1980) was Prime Minister of Australia from 19 December1967 to 10 January 1968


John Gorton (1911–2002)  was Prime Minister of Australia from 10 January 1968 to 10 March 1971


William McMahon (1908–1988) was Prime Minister of Australia from 10 March 1971 to 5 December 1972


Gough Whitlam (1916–2014)  was Prime Minister of Australia from 5 December 1972 to 11 November 1975
who was efeftcivel,y removed with the help of the CIA/USA and MI6/UK
FRom then it seems clear that every Prime Minister of Australia  was CIA/USA and MI6/UK approved and vetted


Malcolm Fraser (1930–2015)  was Prime Minister of Australia from 11 November 1975 11 March 1983


Bob Hawke (1929–)  was Prime Minister of Australia from 11 March 1983 to 20 December 1991


Paul Keating (1944–)  was Prime Minister of Australia from 20 December 1991 to 11 March 1996


John Howard (1939–)  was Prime Minister of Australia from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007


Kevin Rudd (1957–) 3 December 2007 was Prime Minister of Australia from 3 December 2007 to 24 June 2010


Julia Gillard (1961–)  was Prime Minister of Australia from 24 June 2010 to 27 June 2013

Kevin Rudd (1957–) was Prime Minister of Australia from 27 June 2013 to 18 September 2013

Tony Abbott (1957–) was Prime Minister of Australia from 18 September 2013 to 15 September 2015


Malcolm Turnbull (1954–) was Prime Minister of Australia from 15 September 2015 to as at October 2017 is the Incumbent Prime Minister of Australia

That summer when prime minister Harold Holt vanished at sea

• Neil McMahon

That summer when... Harold Holt disappeared

In the first of a seven-part series examining famous moments in past Melbourne summers, we take a look at the disappearance of Prime Minister Harold Holt.

DECEMBER 15 2013

http://www.smh.com.au/national/that-summer-when-prime-minister-harold-holt-vanished-at-sea-20131214-2ze92.html

A summer Sunday - sticky, windy and hot. Christmas is a week away. A family gathers at their holiday home by the sea and as the day begins, the grandfather waltzes through the garden, hand-in-hand with his grand-daughter. She's three years old, and she's enchanted. So is he.

''I've made a new friend,'' a delighted Harold Holt tells his family, assembled at Portsea for the holidays. ''This looks like a great Christmas.''

As Nicholas Holt remembers it, his daughter Sophie was inclined to shyness around her grandfather. He was the prime minister, after all, and typically came with an entourage in tow and business to attend to.

But not this Christmas. The PM had driven himself alone from Melbourne the evening prior, and this Sunday - December 17, 1967 - held promise of adventures far removed from matters of state. ''He never had any entourage at Christmas, a strange thing … the house had no fences around it or guards or security. The front doors were always left unlocked. We didn't let him remind us that he was prime minister, he complained that he was the odd job man around the house … he liked that. It was a very happy atmosphere.''

This morning, as he often does, the prime minister - an active man, fond of sports - is planning an encounter with the ocean.

Within hours, that happy day is consumed by a shocking tragedy, one that shatters the Holt family and shakes the nation. That afternoon, word slowly emerges of stunning news: the prime minister is missing. He entered the wild surf at Cheviot beach and has not returned. He never will, except as a memory and as a man whose passing soon enters the realm of national myth.

But before it was a myth, indeed before it was a national moment, the disappearance of Harold Holt was at heart a family's loss and a family's memory to live with.

Nicholas Holt remembers being at Portsea front beach and a friend coming to alert him: ''Nick, you'd better go home. Something's happened.''

By the time he got to Cheviot beach he sensed it was hopeless. He went up in a chopper, sent by Reg Ansett. ''We went up and down the beach … it certainly seemed a hopeless task to find anyone alive. It was a pretty hard task to find a body I'd imagine.''

Day gave way to night, Sunday passed to Monday. Nicholas' mother, Zara, who had been at The Lodge, flew down. The family - and the world - waited for news. That this was a tragedy beyond their walls was quickly apparent. Zara Holt would take a call from Washington. It was Lyndon Johnson. ''Don't worry, Zara,'' said LBJ, the president to whom Harold Holt had pledged Australian loyalty in Vietnam. ''I'll be there.'' And he was, along with leaders from throughout Asia - a region Holt had embraced as Australia's future - and from allies of longer tenure, with a young Prince Charles and British PM Harold Wilson coming to Australia for a memorial service.

It was held the following Friday, two days before Christmas. There had been no December like this before in Melbourne. At the Holt family home in Toorak, a motorcade came straight from the airport. A White House aide knocked at the door; the president was here.

''I had a brief chat to him; he was very warm and friendly,'' Nicholas Holt recalls. ''Then he spotted my mother and he put his arm around her and they went into one of the little studies and talked and then he left.''

The world mourned at St Paul's Cathedral, and then the world moved on. For their part, the Holt family returned to Portsea, where they celebrated Christmas as a family, just as they had planned.

''We had a strange Christmas, but we still did it,'' Nicholas Holt says. ''Let's get on with it as if he'd been here. It was poignant, the helicopter kept going overhead looking for the body … Mum was making sure the helicopter went everywhere.''

The family has never put any store by the rumours and conspiracy theories that have engulfed the Holt memory - that he was depressed and took his life, or that he was taken by frogmen to a Chinese submarine off the Portsea coast. ''A lot of rubbish,'' Nicholas Holt says.

This Christmas, the Holt family will again celebrate together at Portsea, as they had always done before 1967 and as they have mostly done since. They've held the memory close - ''amongst ourselves, a private grief'' - of that summer when a leader, a husband, father and grandfather was lost to the ocean he loved.

Former CIA agent Victor Marchetti explained the U.S.-Australian relationship very well: "Australia is going to be increasingly important to the United States, and so long as Australians keep electing the right people then there'll be a stable relationship between the two countries." (Secret Country, p. 353).

http://www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles/20%20Years%20of%20Cover-Up1.html

For 23 years before 1972, the Australian people had been electing the "right people," the Liberal-National Country Party Coalition headed for most of that period by Robert Menzies. The Coalition was essentially conservative, and had a foreign policy which was sycophantic, to say the least. Menzies himself actually despised Australia, and would much rather have been the Prime Minister of Britain. He once said, "A sick feeling of repugnance grows in me as I near Australia." He hated his country so much, and loved England enough to beg the British government to conduct their nuclear bomb tests from 1952 to 1958 in the Australian deserts at Maralinga (home of thirteen Aboriginal settlements). Menzies agreed to the testing without even consulting his cabinet. As John Pilger says, "Australia gained the distinction of becoming the only country in the world to have supplied uranium for nuclear bombs which its Prime Minister allowed to be dropped by a foreign power on his own people without adequate warning." (A Secret Country, p. 168).

Later Liberal Prime Ministers turned their sycophancy towards the United States. John Gorton said in 1969 "We will go a-waltzing Matilda with you," and Harold Holt coined the phrase "All the way with LBJ" when sending Australian troops to the Vietnam War. Again, the Liberal government was so desperate to please the Americans that they did all they could to engineer from the South Vietnamese government an invitation to send Australian troops. When the South Vietnamese government was not forthcoming, the Liberal government sent troops and advisers anyway, and mislead Parliament in a similar way that Lyndon Johnson misled Congress with the Gulf of Tonkin incident.

Compared to the Coalition government (made up of the conservative Liberal and National Country parties), the Labor Party which was elected into office in December 1972 on the platform of "It's Time" quickly showed themselves to be the "wrong people" in the eyes of the United States.

In the domestic sphere, Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam's first 100 days put Bill Clinton to shame. The Whitlam government ended conscription and ordered the last Australian troops home from Vietnam. It brought in legislation giving equal pay to women, established a national health service free to all, doubled spending on education and abolished university fees, increased wages, pensions and unemployment benefits, ended censorship, reformed divorce laws and set up the Family Law Courts, funded the arts and film industry, assumed federal government responsibility for Aboriginal affairs (health, education, welfare and land rights), scrapped royal patronage, and replaced "God Save the Queen" as the national anthem with "Advance Australia Fair."

Whitlam and several of his ministers, most notably Rex Connor, Minister for Minerals and Energy, and Dr. Jim Cairns, who eventually became Treasurer and Deputy Prime Minister, wanted to pursue a policy of "buying back the farm."

BUYING BACK THE FARM

The 1973 oil crisis pushed the costs of energy to an all-time high, and caused disarray to economies all over the world. Australia suffered with the rest of them, with rising inflation and unemployment.

Yet one of the Whitlam government's platforms was to reclaim Australian ownership of Australia's vast natural resources, such as oil and minerals, and its manufacturing industries. By the late 1960s, foreign control of the mining industry, for example, stood at 60%, while 97% of the automobile industry was foreign-owned. Both Whitlam and Rex Connor had grandiose ideas for developing the necessary infrastructure, and the means to help Australian companies to "buy back the farm." Connor's schemes included a petroleum pipeline across Australia, uranium enrichment plants, updated port facilities, and solar energy development, as well as the establishment of government bodies with the authority to oversee development and investment in key areas, such as oil refineries and mining. Connor estimated that Australia's mineral and energy reserves were worth $5.7 trillion dollars.

However, buying back the farm would not be cheap for a nation in the grip of inflation and economic stagnation. It was determined that the government would need about $4 billion. While Australia had an excellent credit rating with its usual lending banks in the U.S. and England, no established bank would extend Australia an amount even close to a quarter of what it wanted.

The other side to the oil crisis of 1973 was that the OPEC members in the Middle East were rolling in petrodollars. To Whitlam, Rex Connor and Jim Cairns, the Middle East seemed an appealing source of funds, as it would also be yet another step towards gaining independence from Australia's traditional economic partners.

In 1974, Whitlam instructed Connor and Cairns to find a Middle Eastern source for a $4 billion loan.

So began the Loans affairs.

THE LOANS AFFAIRS

Once word got out that the Australian government wanted to obtain such a large loan, both Connor and Cairns were inundated with offers to broker the loan. Most offers were from crackpots. There were two offers, however, which brought about the downfall of both the Ministers involved, and eventually the downfall of the Labor government.

In March 1975, Treasurer and Deputy Prime Minister Jim Cairns met with George Harris, a Melbourne businessman, who told Cairns that a $4 billion loan was available "with a once-only brokerage fee of 2.5%." To confirm that the offer was genuine, Harris showed Cairns a letter from the New York office of Commerce International. According to an intermediary present at the meeting, Cairns rejected the offer, as the terms of the loan were "unbelievable" and a "fairy tale" and Cairns refused to sign any letters making a commitment to the brokerage fee. He did, however, write for Harris two letters saying that the Australian government was interested in raising a loan.

Two months later, Cairns was asked in Parliament whether he had signed a letter committing the government to a 2.5% brokerage fee. Cairns denied he had signed any such agreement. However, several days later, an incriminating letter with Cairns signature was reproduced in major newspapers around Australia. Cairns did not remember signing the letter, and said so. Nevertheless, he was forced to resign his position for misleading Parliament.

THE KHEMLANI AFFAIR

Minister for Minerals and Energy, Rex Connor, was also commissioned by Whitlam to find a Middle Eastern source for the $4 billion loan.

The Khemlani affair began in October 1974 when South Australian Greek emigre Gerry Karidis met up with and old friend of his, Labor Minister Clyde Cameron, at a party in Cameron's electorate. Karidis told Cameron that he knew of some sources for loans if the Australian government was interested. Cameron passed the information on to Cairns and Connor, who then met with Karidis.

Karidis was not certain of the sources of the funds, but a friend of his said that the money could certainly be raised.

The connection between Karidis and Khemlani is circuitous. Khemlani, who was manager of Dalamal and Sons, a London-based commodities firm, was a business associate of Theo Crannendonk, a Dutch arms and commodities trader. Crannendonk in turn knew Thomas Yu, a Hong Kong arms dealer, who in turn knew Karidis' friend, Tibor Shelley.

Khemlani said he first heard that the Australian government was interested in raising a loan while he was visiting his friend Crannendonk. Khemlani was in Crannendonk's office when a telex about the loan came through from Thomas Yu. Khemlani volunteered to broker the loan at very reasonable rates, despite the fact that he had no experience in brokering loans, let alone such a large one.

Khemlani arrived in Australia on November 11, 1974 with Theo Crannendonk, and met with Cameron and Connor. Connor told Khemlani about the government's interest in a $4 billion loan, and gave him a letter of introduction to that effect. On December 13, the Labor Party's Executive Council (which on that day consisted of Connor, Cairns, Whitlam, and Lionel Murphy) authorised Connor to raise the $4 billion 20-year loan "for temporary purposes."

The Executive Council can approve loan-raising activities without consulting the Labor Caucus or Parliament, but only if the loans are for temporary purposes. How Whitlam and his close circle of Ministers could consider a $4 billion loan over 20 years "temporary" is beyond comprehension, and smacks of attempting to keep the matter as secret as possible.

Unfortunately, by not consulting the Labor Party Caucus, Whitlam, Connor, Cairns, and Murphy were their own worst enemies. Had they consulted with their colleagues and Parliament, they would not have placed their party and their government in hot water, and would not have entertained the idea of a loan the terms of which meant that the Australian government would have to pay $20 billion in November 1995.

Various attempts were supposedly made by Khemlani to raise the money. But each time he claimed to have come up with the goods, the deals fell through. By late December of 1974, Australian Treasury and other officials became increasingly suspicious that Khemlani was leading the government on. Sir Frederick Wheeler, the permanent head of the Treasury Department convinced Cairns, then Treasurer, that Khemlani was lying to the Australian government about his ability to raise the loan.

On December 21, 1974, Connor telexed Khemlani and terminated their relationship. On January 7, 1975, the Executive Council revoked Connor's authority to search for loan sources.

Nevertheless, Khemlani continued to work on the loan-raising, and on January 28 Connor's loan authority was re-instated, on Khemlani's promise that he was confident that a loan would soon be provided, even up to $8 billion. Connor's authority, however, was reduced to securing a loan for only $2 billion.

But again Khemlani failed. For months Khemlani promised Connor he could raise the money. Connor became obsessed that Khemlani was the man to get results, regardless of the many disappointments. Khemlani let Connor down every time.

On May 20, 1975, Connor's authority was revoked once and for all. But three days later, Khemlani contacted Connor and told him that a loan was within short reach. Connor replied positively, and continued to deal with Khemlani, behind the government's back. Even Whitlam did not know of this. On June 10, Whitlam told a press conference that none of his Ministers any longer had the authority to raise a loan, and no loan was being raised. On July 9, Connor was asked to table in Parliament all documents relating to his loan-raising activities. He neglected to tell Parliament that he was still dealing with Khemlani.

Leaks of the loan deals appeared in various newspapers around the country. Then in October 1975, after nearly a year of promises to drum up a loan, Khemlani turned up in Australia with two suitcases full of the telexes Connor had sent him, including those sent after Connor was ordered not to contact Khemlani again. Khemlani handed the telexes over to the Opposition (who had provided Khemlani with bodyguards on his arrival to Australia), and the incriminating telexes appeared in newspapers around the country.

It is not known why Khemlani would turn on the government as he did, but it is presumed that he was handsomely rewarded for it. The Liberal-Country Party Coalition denied they had paid Khemlani, but there is evidence that the media did buy the telexes off him.

Connor was forced to resign on October 14 for misleading Parliament, just like Jim Cairns five months before him. As Whitlam had also told the Australian people that no more attempts were being made to raise such a large loan, he was also accused of misleading the public. The scandal provided for the Opposition with the "reprehensible circumstances" they needed to block the passage of the Budget though the Senate and force an election.

The scene was set for the dismissal of the Whitlam government.

TOWARDS DISMISSAL

Although the Labor party won the 1972 election, it did not have a majority in the Senate. A majority is only required in the House of Representatives in order to form a government. The Senate is usually seen, and usually behaves, as a rubber-stamp body, approving the Bills introduced in the lower house. Nevertheless, in late 1973, the Coalition led by then Opposition leader, Liberal MP Billy Snedden, blocked the passage of the Budget in the Senate in order to force an election. As a result, both houses of Parliament were dissolved.

As the Labor Government was riding high in popularity, Whitlam called an election for May 1974. His government was elected for the second time in 18 months. It also gained a few more seats in the Senate. Labor and the Coalition each held 29 seats, and two independents held the balance of power.

Then in February 1975, Attorney-General Lionel Murphy was appointed to the High Court, thus leaving his New South Wales seat vacant. Traditionally, when a Minister retired from or died in office, the Premier from his State would replace him with a person from the same Party. However, the New South Wales Liberal Premier broke with tradition and appointed a non-Labor Senator. In May that year, Labor Senator Lance Barnard retired, and the Liberal Party won his seat in the June by-election. Then in June, Labor Senator Bert Milliner died in office. Queensland Premier, Joh Bjelke-Petersen, a staunchly anti-Labor man, also broke with tradition and appointed a non-Labor man to the vacant seat. The government balance in the Senate was lost.

With three Labor seats handed to the Opposition or "independents", it was possible for the Liberal-National Country Party Coalition in Opposition to again block Supply in the Senate. Malcolm Fraser had threatened to do since he wrested the Liberal Party leadership from Snedden in March 1975. On becoming leader of the Opposition, Fraser had announced that he would allow the government to govern, but kept his chances open to block the budget in the Senate and bring down the government, if the Labor Party provided any "reprehensible circumstances" that would force him to do so.

When the loans scandals broke, Malcolm Fraser saw his chance to bring down the Labor Government. Attempting to raise $4 billion dollars was in itself reprehensible, but for two senior Ministers (Cairns and Connor) to mislead Parliament about their activities, and for the Prime Minister to mislead the public that loan-seeking had ceased, were definitely the "reprehensible circumstances" Fraser was looking for.

Fraser made sure that he had the backing of the senior bureaucrats, big business, the legal authorities, and the media. He personally phoned the four main press barons, who ensured their support. Then on October 16, Coalition MPs in the Senate, under Fraser's orders, deferred the Budget bills introduced by the Labor party, thus blocking Supply to the government.

Day after day in the Senate, Coalition ministers refused to pass the Budget. Without its passage, the government would run out of money and would not be able to pay civil servants' wages or pensions. The business of government would grind to a halt and cripple the country.

The Opposition insisted that Whitlam call an election for December 1975. Whitlam refused and threatened a half-Senate election - which would cause the Senate to go to the polls - something Fraser did not want, due to the threat that Fraser could lose seats and, therefore, control of the Supply bills. Neither side would back down. The Labor government sought alternatives to the Supply budget, and designed a credit system with various banks to pay pensions and wages. As the days dragged on, public opinion began to sway in favor of the Labor Government. The public blamed the Opposition for the deadlock in the Senate, and for the government's inability to pay wages and pensions. Many Coalition ministers began to waver, and tried to convince Fraser to back down. But Fraser stood firm in the face of public and party opinion, and risked his political career.

Meanwhile, the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr made feeble attempts to broker a peace.

ENTER THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL

The Governor-General is the representative of the Australian Head of State, the Queen or King of England, who is also the Queen or King of Australia. The position is one of appointment - the Governor-General is not elected by the Australian people, but is appointed by the Prime Minister of the day.

The duties of a Governor-General are ceremonial, though the there are some "reserve powers" which had never been used until November 1975.

Both John Kerr and Gough Whitlam came from working class families. Both followed careers in law, and wanted to pursue careers in politics. Both started out early in the Labor party. But while Whitlam worked his way slowly to the top, Kerr followed a different path. Even when in the Labor party, Kerr was essentially conservative, and a monarchist. As time passed, he left the Labor Party and at one time wanted to join the Liberal Party, on the condition that if he were elected, he immediately be given a seat on the front bench. Liberal party leader Robert Menzies told him he would have to wait his time like everyone else did, so Kerr abandoned the idea.

Given this background, it is interesting that Whitlam chose to appoint him Governor-General in July 1974. Kerr's appointment was seen as an attempt to appease those who wanted a titled Governor-General as well as those who wanted someone more sympathetic to Labor. Whitlam believed that Kerr as Governor-General would take, as is the norm, "advice from his Prime Minister and from no-one else."

But this was not the case.

THE DISMISSAL - NOVEMBER 11, 1975

The Budget crisis dragged on for a month.

On November 11, Parliament sat as usual, after the morning commemorations for Remembrance Day. Whitlam and Fraser met mid-morning, and Fraser made it clear that he would accept nothing less than a full election. Whitlam then telephoned Kerr to make a 1 p.m. appointment to speak to him about a half-Senate election. Kerr then rang Fraser and made an appointment to see Fraser 10 minutes after his meeting with Whitlam. Fraser arrived early, and to save appearances, Kerr insisted that his car be parked out of sight, so that Whitlam would not see it, and hid Fraser in a back room.

When Whitlam arrived, he was unaware that Fraser was waiting in the wings. Before Whitlam could present Kerr with the letter requesting a half-Senate election, Kerr asked the Prime Minister if he would hold a full election in December. Whitlam said no, but he would be willing to hold a half-Senate election. The Governor-General then used his reserve powers, and terminated Whitlam's commission, at 1:10 p.m.; dismissing the government from office.

Whitlam stormed out and went to the Prime Minister's residence, without informing his Senate ministers of what had occurred.

After Whitlam left, Kerr appointed Malcolm Fraser as caretaker Prime Minister until an election could be held on December 13.

The Senate resumed sitting after lunch, at 2 p.m. The change in government had not been publicly announced, but Fraser had informed Coalition ministers in the Senate. So when Labor Senators re-introduced the Budget Bills 75 minutes after Whitlam was dismissed, the Coalition ministers passed the Budget, thus guaranteeing their new government had Supply.

The new Coalition government called for an election on December 13, the last possible day to hold an election before the new year.

Fraser won the election.

KERR'S COUP

Sir John Kerr always insisted that the decision to sack the Whitlam government was his alone, and that he was well within his constitutional rights and duties to do so. He also insisted that he gave Whitlam enough warning about what he might do.

Neither appears to be the case. On November 4th, Kerr consulted with the Governors of New South Wales and Victoria, and received an agreement from both that if advised by Kerr, they would not issue writs for a half-Senate election. He did this behind Whitlam's back.

On November 6, he sought legal advice from Sir Garfield Barwick, the Chief Justice of the High Court. Barwick's written reply was that it was the Governor-General's duty to dismiss the Whitlam government if Kerr was satisfied that the Labor government could not secure supply. The letter further advised that Kerr should give Whitlam the options of resigning or holding a general election. If Whitlam refused to do either, then, Barwick advised, Kerr should sack him.

With Barwick's backing, Kerr knew that dismissing Whitlam would not be considered illegal should the matter go to court.

It is worth noting that Barwick's decision was hardly non-partisan. He is a conservative with no sympathy for the Whitlam government. Garfield was recently interviewed on ABC's Four Corners program, during which he admitted talking with former Liberal Prime Minister Robert Menzies a few days before the Dismissal. There is no doubt that the former PM would have taken the news of Kerr's decision to Fraser. This would explain why Fraser stood unwavering in his commitment to bring down the Labor government while the rest of his party were about to give up.

Kerr's letter dismissing Whitlam said that the deadlock in the Senate had to be resolved as quickly as possible, and that Whitlam had to either resign or call a general election. He said that as Whitlam refused to do either, he was being dismissed, and a caretaker government was being appointed to secure supply and hold an election before the end of the year.

However, there are many inconsistencies between Kerr's letter and his previous actions.

• At no stage did Kerr tell Whitlam that a prompt solution was necessary. And if a quick resolution was on his mind, why did he wait until the 26th day of the deadlock to dismiss Whitlam?
• Kerr never previously indicated that Whitlam had to either call a general election or resign. On the contrary, the opposite impression was given.
• Kerr never indicated that a half-Senate election was not suitable. Even on the 11 November, when Whitlam spoke to Kerr by phone about it, Kerr did not tell Whitlam that he would not accept it.
• Kerr said he was satisfied that there was no chance of a compromise, yet many in the Liberal party believed there would be one.
• Kerr said that a Prime Minister who could not obtain Supply could not govern, yet Supply had not yet been exhausted; the money would not run out for another two to three weeks. Why didn't Kerr wait until Supply had run out?
• Whitlam was never given the option to resign or call a general election. Kerr simply asked him if he would hold a general election. When Whitlam said no, Kerr sacked him. Therefore, Whitlam did not refuse both his options.
• Kerr moved very secretly, and very quickly. This indicates that he did not want to give Whitlam a choice.
• Kerr appointed as caretaker Prime Minister the leader of the minority party, and stood by his decision even after the House of Representatives had passed a vote of no confidence in Fraser.
• It is also interesting to note that Kerr must have known that Fraser would accept the commission as caretaker Prime Minister, with the conditions that he would call a general election and guarantee the passage of the Supply Bills. Does that mean that he spoke to Fraser before dismissing Whitlam? If so, Fraser had prior knowledge about Kerr's decision, and would have stood firm about blocking supply.

That may explain the comments made to the press by Deputy Liberal Party leader, Phillip Lynch just hours before the dismissal: "We believe the present course is sound for reasons which will become apparent to you later."

After the dismissal, two other Liberal ministers said that they had known what Kerr was going to do that morning. (The Unmaking of Gough, p. 355). Of course, Fraser and Deputy Opposition leader, Doug Anthony, deny they had prior knowledge of Kerr's decision.

These inconsistencies call into question Kerr's motives, and lead to questions about the timing and the real reasons behind the Dismissal of an democratically elected government.

COUP D'ETAT - WAS THE CIA INVOLVED IN THE DISMISSAL OF AN AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT?

While the Loans affairs and the Supply crisis exploded onto the front page headlines day after day, another crisis simmered in the background - the security crisis. As John Menadue, the head of the Prime Minister's Department, says, to understand the events leading to the dismissal, you must "follow the path of the security crisis." (The National Times, November 9-15, 1980).

The new Labor Government's changes in both domestic and foreign policy earned Whitlam Henry Kissinger's epithet of "one more effete social democrat." Neither Kissinger nor Nixon had any time for Whitlam or left-wing politicians in general.

People at the highest levels were concerned about what Whitlam might do to the long-standing Australian - U.S. relationship. CIA Director until 1975, William Colby, in his book Honorable Men, ranked the Whitlam government as one of the major crises of his career, comparable to the 1973 Yom Kippur (Arab-Israeli) War, when the U.S. had considered using nuclear weapons to help Israel win the war.

Many others in the intelligence community were concerned, including Ted Shackley, head of the East Asia Division of the CIA, who was said to be paranoid about Whitlam; and James Jesus Angleton, head of the CIA's Counter-Intelligence section, who despised the Labor government.

One has to ask why a new government in an allied country would cause such consternation. It seems that in the areas of foreign policy and foreign (and domestic) intelligence and security that Whitlam's Labor government stepped on a few (American) toes.

AMERICAN TOES

Almost immediately after Whitlam came into office, his government's foreign policy initiatives angered the Americans. Among Whitlam's many sins were opening an embassy in Hanoi and allowing Cuba to open a consulate in Sydney.

The question of the Vietnam War was a particularly sticky one between the new Labor government and the Americans. Several Labor politicians had gained popularity in Australia by leading the anti-Vietnam War movement. They outspokenly called Nixon and Kissinger "mass murderers" and "maniacs" for their conduct of the Vietnam War. Dr. Jim Cairns called for public rallies to condemn U.S. bombing in North Vietnam, and also for boycotts of American products. The Australian dockers unions reacted by refusing to unload American ships. While Whitlam was more moderate than Dr. Jim Cairns, Clyde Cameron and Tom Uren (prominent anti-Vietnam War Labor Ministers), he felt he had to say something to the Americans. He wrote what he considered a "moderately worded" letter to Nixon voicing his criticism of the bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong in North Vietnam, on the basis that it would be counterproductive. Nixon, needless to say, was not amused. Some insiders said he was apoplectic with rage and resented the implications that he was immoral and had to be told his duty by an outsider. Kissinger added that Whitlam's "uninformed comments about our Christmas bombing [of North Vietnam] had made him a particular object of Nixon's wrath." (Mother Jones, Feb.-Mar., 1984, p. 15)

Soon after Whitlam took office, the American ambassador to Australia, Walter Rice, was sent to meet with Whitlam in order to politely tell him to mind his own business about Vietnam. Whitlam ambushed Rice, dominated the meeting, and spoke for 45 minutes rebuking the U.S. for its conduct of the Vietnam War. Whitlam told Rice that in a press conference the next day, "It would be difficult to avoid words like 'atrocious' and 'barbarous'" when asked about the bombing.

Whitlam also brought up the issue of the American bases in Australia, and warned Rice that although he did not propose to alter the arrangements regarding the U.S. bases, "to be practical and realistic," Whitlam said, "if there were any attempt, to use familiar jargon, 'to screw us or bounce us' inevitably these arrangements would become a matter of contention." (Minutes of the meeting were reproduced in The Eye, July 1987.)

PINE GAP

The issue of Pine Gap was a touchy one for the Americans.

The Pine Gap installation at Alice Springs is one of several U.S. bases in Australia. Its stated primary function is the collection of data from American satellites over the Soviet Union, China, and Europe, and other CIA sources and transmitters around the world. The base could pick up the Soviet's coded messages about missile launchings, and can also intercept radar, radio, and microwave communications. It was integral for tracking Soviet missiles and missile testing during the Cold War, and making sure that the Soviet Union was adhering to arms control agreements. Pine Gap, as well as the other bases at Nurrungar in South Australia and North-West Cape in Western Australia are extremely important to the U.S. James Jesus Angleton, head of CIA counter-intelligence for 20 years, said Pine Gap's importance was "unlike any similar installation that may be in any other place in the free world, it elevates Australia in terms of strategic matters." (A Secret Country, p. 198). Among the reasons for Pine Gap's importance are the political stability of Australia, the Australian government's tendency towards loyalty to the United States, and the isolation of the location of Pine Gap itself. It is extremely well-placed for its purpose.

Pine Gap is supposed to be a joint facility, staffed equally by Australians and Americans. The information gathered there is also supposed to be shared. However, it had long been suspected by Australians, and by many in the Labor Party, that the Americans did not share all the information with the Australian government, nor was the U.S. forthright about some of the functions of the base.

There were at least three occasions when the Americans did not share vital information about the bases.

1) The transmitters at the North West Cape were used to assist the U.S. in mining Haiphong harbor in 1972. The Whitlam government was opposed to the mining of Vietnamese harbors, and would not have appreciated U.S. facilities on Australian soil being used to assist such an undertaking.

2) The satellites controlled by Pine Gap and Nurrungar were used to pinpoint targets for bombings in Cambodia. Again this was an activity to which the Whitlam government was opposed.

3) Whitlam was furious when he found out after the fact that U.S. bases in Australia were put on a Level 3 alert during the Yom Kippur war. The Australian bases were in danger of attack, yet the Australian Prime Minister was not alerted to this. (Incidentally, Kissinger was angered that Whitlam could be such a pest about such matters.)

There was also speculation that Pine Gap was really run by the CIA. Victor Marchetti, former Chief Executive Assistant to the Deputy Director of the CIA, and one of the drafters of the Pine Gap treaty, confirmed this suspicion: "The CIA runs it, and the CIA denies it," he said (A Secret Country, p. 198).

It was vitally important that the American base at Pine Gap remain in Australia. The U.S. had apparently discussed re-locating the base to Guam, because of the political turmoil in Australia in 1975. The cost of relocating the base was estimated to be over a billion dollars. Besides the costs, Guam was not considered to be nearly as suitable a location as Pine Gap (The National Times, Nov. 17-22, 1975).

Whitlam's conversation with Rice was not the only time he introduced uncertainties about the American bases. When asked in Parliament in April 1974 about Soviet approaches for scientific facilities in Australia (which were rejected), Whitlam suggested that the existing bases treaty with the Americans would not be extended.

The treaty covering Pine Gap was due for renewal in mid-December 1975.

In 1975, the Australian Defense Minister, Bill Morrison, met with CIA Director William Colby. Morrison was blunt with Colby, and said that he couldn't guarantee the future of the U.S. bases if it was found that the CIA was involved in activities the Australian government hadn't been told about. (The Sun, 30 April, 1977)

Yet despite such comments, it seems unlikely that Whitlam would have closed the bases down. Comments like those made to Rice and in Parliament were mostly posturing. Most comments made by Whitlam indicated that he did not mind the bases being in Australia. What he did want was to reform the alliance. He would have preferred that the U.S. keep the Australian government informed about the true functions of the bases, and disclose all information gathered by the bases - not a totally unreasonable request.

SECURITY RISK

Nevertheless, Whitlam's posturing caused alarm. When Ambassador Marshall Green (Walter Rice's replacement) was interviewed years after the Dismissal, it was suggested to him that Whitlam would never have closed the bases. He answered, "You might say that with hindsight, but you don't know how complex things were at the time. The trouble was you never really knew where you stood with him [Whitlam]" (Book of Leaks, p. 90).

Ted Shackley, chief of the East Asia Division at the CIA was furious about Whitlam's threats to the bases. According to Frank Snepp, who served with him, Shackley was "paranoid" about Labor, and regarded it as a security risk.

After Whitlam's threats to the U.S. bases, Shackley in return threatened to cut off the flow of intelligence information to Australia. This was a serious threat, as Australia was a long-standing member of the UKUSA agreement by which Australia, the U.S., England, Canada and New Zealand shared intelligence information with each other.

In this instance, the newly appointed CIA Station Chief in Australia, John Walker, successfully argued against cutting off the flow of intelligence information to Australia, on the grounds that the Labor government could then have legitimate grounds for shutting down Pine Gap.

THE HATCHET MAN

The appointment of Marshall Green as the U.S. Ambassador to Australia in 1973 indicates how seriously the U.S. took the situation. Green was far and away the most experienced man to be appointed Ambassador to Australia. The post was usually given to amateurs: friends of the President, or campaign contributors. Green, on the other hand, was a career diplomat who had served in many countries important to the U.S.

His appointment was seen by some Labor ministers as a sinister move. Senator Bill Brown called Green a "top U.S. hatchet man" and pointed out that Green's previous postings had been marked by coups and political upheaval in four of the countries in which he had been posted, including Indonesia. He was widely known as "the coupmaster".

Green's stated goals (in order of importance) were 1) to maintain U.S. bases in Australia; 2) to keep the door open to American investment; and 3) to encourage Australian political support to the U.S. when and where it needed it, such as at the United Nations, and over issues such as East Timor, North Korea, and Vietnam.

UNRELIABLE

Green's appointment did little to ease the tensions between Australia and the U.S. government and intelligence community. It was too late.

The security crisis began when Whitlam insisted that his aides did not need to be vetted by ASIO (the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation, whose function is similar to the FBI). Sir Arthur Tange, permanent head of the Defense Department, and the UKUSA's "main man" in Australia "dutifully" reported this to U.S. intelligence, who saw Whitlam's move as not only irresponsible but dangerous. The next day, a U.S. Embassy official told Richard Hall, author of The Secret State, "Your Prime Minister has just cut off one of his only options." (p. 2). Whitlam backed down immediately, but the impression of unreliability had already been made.

THE MURPHY RAID

The next glitch in the intelligence relationship came as a consequence of what came to be termed "the Murphy raid." In March, 1973, the Attorney General, Lionel Murphy, was preparing security of the upcoming visit from the Yugoslav Prime Minister. It came to Murphy's attention that ASIO was not being forthright about its knowledge of Croatian terrorist groups which might threaten the life of the Yugoslav Prime Minister. He flew down to the ASIO headquarters in Melbourne, where Commonwealth police had already secured the building, and went in search of the relevant information. The media got wind of the "raid", and blew it out of proportion.

The CIA was furious. "We entrusted the highest secrets of counter-intelligence to Australian services and we saw the sanctity of that information being jeopardized by a bull in a China shop," said James Jesus Angleton, head of counter-intelligence at the CIA until 1974. Angleton said the raid "had shown an outrageous lack of confidence," and added, "how could we stand aside without having a crisis in terms of our responsibilities as to whether we would maintain relationships with the Australian intelligence services." The threat of breaking off the intelligence relationship had been a distinct possibility (Denis Freney, The CIA's Australian Connection, 1977, p. 27-28).

Angleton had seemed perplexed by the fact that it was Murphy's prerogative, as an elected representative of the Australian people, and whose jurisdiction covered ASIO, to scrutinize ASIO's activities.

ASIO, ASIS, AND THE CIA

As members of the UKUSA agreement, ASIO and ASIS (the Australian equivalent of the CIA) were very close to the CIA, and have often been accused of being more loyal to the U.S. and British intelligence community than to their own country's government. In the early 1970s, many ASIO and ASIS agents were certainly ideologically closer to the right-wing elements in the CIA than to the Labor government. When Labor came to power, they did little to help the floundering relationship between the Whitlam government and the U.S., and instead tended to exaggerate the "threat" posed by the Labor party to themselves and to the American intelligence agencies.

The relationship between the Whitlam government and the intelligence services (ASIO, ASIS and the CIA) was further soured by a number of other factors. For example, members of the Labor Party complained that ASIO dedicated too much of their time to following the activities of left-wing groups, and not enough time to right-wing groups. The Croatian terrorist groups were a case in point. ASIO resented having their resources diverted to what they saw as wasteful areas, such as keeping tabs on the small Nazi party.

Another area of tension resulted when Whitlam discovered that ASIS agents were working with the CIA to destabilise Chile and overthrow President Salvador Allende. Whitlam ordered them to leave immediately. He was even more furious when he learned that the ASIS men had still not left Chile months later.

A similar fracas occurred over East Timor, during the lead-up to Indonesia's invasion of its small neighbour. In late October 1975, Whitlam sacked ASIS head William Robertson for not informing him that there was an ASIS contact working in East Timor. This caused great consternation in the U.S., because the American government wanted the Australians to at the very least ignore Indonesia's actions in taking over East Timor. The concern (though unfounded) was that Whitlam would side with the left-wing Timorese independence movement. Certainly many Labor ministers did favor the Fretelin movement over Indonesia.

The National Intelligence Daily, a top secret CIA briefing document for the eyes of the President, reported that "The Whitlam government seems willing to risk important relationships with Indonesia and the U.S. in order to appease leftist forces within the Labor Party." (Book of Leaks, p.93).

Whitlam also sacked ASIO head Peter Barbour in October 1975, though the reasons are unknown. Both Robertson and Barbour were long-standing and trusted members of the UKUSA community. Both were replaced by men Whitlam thought would be more loyal to him. The replacements were not approved of by the Americans.

Whitlam also set up the Hope Royal Commission in 1975 to look into the domestic intelligence services. This was widely perceived to be a threat to the power and existence of the various intelligence organisations.

The combination of incidents involving the security and intelligence services brought a sense of disquiet to U.S. intelligence, which was reinforced by Whitlam's occasional hints that the treaty concerning U.S. bases in Australia, including Pine Gap, may not be renewed if the U.S. did anything to anger Whitlam.

Steve Gerlach is a Melbourne based researcher. He founded the Australian JFK Assassination Information Centre in 1992, and was its director from 1992 to 1995 and editor of the Centre's magazine "Probable Cause". He now works independently, and is employed as a researcher by a major Melbourne newspaper.

Adelaide Gerlach has spent eight years in Peru and eight years in the USA. She has a BA (Hons.) in Politics and is employed as a researcher in the Australian trustee industry.

http://www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles/20%20Years%20of%20Cover-Up2.html

Part Two

The security crisis reached its peak in early November 1975. In October, various Labor staff members, including those at the Prime Minister's department, began to look into foreign intelligence involvement in Australia, including the U.S. bases.

They received a tip about Richard Stallings, the head of Pine Gap between 1966 and 1968, during the base's construction. Whitlam heard that he was a CIA employee working under the cover of the U.S. Defense Department. In order to authenticate the information, the Prime Minister's Department asked the Foreign Affairs Department for its list of all CIA agents in Australia. Stallings' name was not on it. However, it came to Whitlam's attention that the Australian Defence Department kept a more comprehensive list. Richard Stallings appeared on that list.

Sir Arthur Tange, permanent head of the Defense Department, warned Whitlam that he (Tange) had a duty to inform the CIA that Whitlam knew the identity of one of its deep cover agents. Apparently Whitlam did not object. The CIA now knew what Whitlam was up to.

In an almost campaign-style speech to an ALP rally in Alice Springs on November 2nd, 1975, Whitlam made a spur-of-the-moment remark: "Every week, he [Malcolm Fraser] gets more and more desperate in his abuse of me. I have had no association with CIA money in Australia as Mr. Anthony has," he said, referring to National Country Party Leader, Doug Anthony, deputy leader of the Opposition. Anthony and Stallings had been friends for quite some time, after Stallings and his family had rented Anthony's Canberra home.

Whitlam did not actually name Stallings. The next day, an article in the Australian Financial Review took up Whitlam's accusation, and named Richard Stallings as the CIA employee, and Pine Gap as a CIA-run installation.

Anthony was compelled to defend himself. He retorted that he was not aware that his friend Stallings was a CIA man. He demanded that Whitlam provide evidence. In a speech two days later, Whitlam stated that he knew of at least two instances in which the CIA had funded the Opposition parties, but he did not provide any proof.

At this point, the Australian Foreign Affairs and Defence Departments, via the U.S. embassy in Canberra, made it clear to the U.S. State Department and President Ford that they "would welcome formal U.S. government statements denying any CIA financial involvement in Australian political parties." (Mother Jones, p. 44). The U.S. State Department obliged, and categorically denied that Stallings was a CIA employee. The U.S. embassy and the head of the CIA, William Colby, also denied CIA involvement in Australian politics.

Sir Arthur Tange, was extremely concerned about the Stallings matter. Tange had extensive contacts with the intelligence community and realised how angry the Americans were about Whitlam and the press revealing CIA operatives and installations. He made frantic efforts to diffuse the situation. He asked Bill Morrison, the Defence Minister, to speak to Doug Anthony and convince him to drop the matter for the sake of "national security". But it was too late. Anthony wanted to clear his name and refused to drop it. Instead, he put a question on the Parliamentary notice paper for Whitlam to provide proof of his accusations.

Whitlam's answer was scheduled to be read on November 11, the very day Whitlam and his government would be dismissed from office in Australia's only coup d'etat.

"NATIONAL SECURITY"

A draft copy of Whitlam's answer was circulated, and a copy given to Sir Arthur Tange. The answer stated that Whitlam had obtained his information from the Defence Department, which in turn obtained its information from the U.S. Defence Department. Tange tried desperately to get Whitlam to modify his answer. He was concerned that because the U.S. government had categorically denied that Stallings was a CIA employee, Whitlam would be calling members of the U.S. government liars. But Whitlam refused to change his answer, as he believed that not to reveal his sources would be to mislead Parliament. On the day Whitlam was to read his answer in Parliament, Tange told a Whitlam staffer that "This is the gravest risk to the nation's security there has ever been." (The Nation Review, May 7-13, 1976, p.733).

The crisis inspired the now infamous cable from Ted Shackley via ASIO's Washington office to ASIO headquarters in Australia. It is reprinted here in full:

FOLLOWING MESSAGE RECEIVED FROM ASIO LIAISON OFFICER WASHINGTON: BEGINS: ON NOVEMBER 8 SHACKLEY CHIEF EAST ASIA DIVISION CIA REQUESTED ME TO PASS THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE TO DG [DIRECTOR GENERAL].

ON 2 NOVEMBER THE PM OF AUSTRALIA MADE A STATEMENT AT ALICE SPRINGS TO THE EFFECT THAT THE CIA HAD BEEN FUNDING ANTHONY'S NATIONAL COUNTRY PARTY IN AUSTRALIA. ON 4 NOVEMBER THE U.S. EMBASSY IN AUSTRALIA APPROACHED AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL AND CATEGORICALLY DENIED THAT CIA HAD GIVEN OR PASSED FUNDS TO AN ORGANISATION OR CANDIDATE FOR POLITICAL OFFICE IN AUSTRALIA AND TO THIS EFFECT WAS DELIVERED TO ROLAND AT DFA [DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS] CANBERRA ON 5 NOVEMBER. ON 6 NOVEMBER ASST SECRETARY EDWARDS OF U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT VISITING DCM [DEPUTY CHIEF OF MISSION] AT THE AUSTRALIAN EMBASSY IN WASHINGTON AND PASSED SAME MESSAGE THAT THE CIA HAD NOT FUNDED AN AUSTRALIAN POLITICAL PARTY. IT WAS REQUESTED THAT THIS MESSAGE BE SENT TO CANBERRA. AT THIS STAGE CIA WAS DEALING ONLY WITH THE STALLINGS INCIDENT AND WAS ADOPTING A NO COMMENT ATTITUDE IN THE HOPE THAT THE MATTER WOULD BE GIVEN LITTLE OR NO PUBLICITY. STALLINGS IS A RETIRED CIA EMPLOYEE [Author's emphasis].

ON NOVEMBER 6 THE PRIME MINISTER PUBLICLY REPEATED THE ALLEGATION THAT HE KNEW OF TWO INSTANCES IN WHICH CIA MONEY HAD BEEN USED TO INFLUENCE DOMESTIC AUSTRALIAN POLITICS. SIMULTANEOUSLY PRESS COVERAGE IN AUSTRALIA WAS SUCH THAT A NUMBER OF CIA MEMBERS SERVING IN AUSTRALIA HAVE BEEN IDENTIFIED -WALKER UNDER STATE DEPARTMENT COVER AND FITZWATER AND BONIN UNDER DEFENCE COVER. NOW THAT THESE FOUR PERSONS HAVE BEEN PUBLICISED IT IS NOT POSSIBLE FOR THE CIA TO CONTINUE TO DEAL WITH THE MATTER ON A NO COMMENT BASIS. THEY NOW HAVE TO CONFER WITH THE COVER AGENCIES WHICH HAVE BEEN SAYING THAT THE PERSONS CONCERNED ARE IN FACT WHAT THEY SAY THERE ARE, E.G. DEFENCE DEPARTMENT SAYING THAT STALLINGS IS A RETIRED DEFENCE DEPARTMENT EMPLOYEE.

ON NOVEMBER 7 FIFTEEN NEWSPAPER OR WIRE SERVICE REPS CALLED THE PENTAGON SEEKING INFORMATION ON THE ALLEGATIONS MADE IN AUSTRALIA. CIA IS PERPLEXED AT THIS POINT AS TO WHAT ALL THIS MEANS. DOES THIS SIGNIFY SOME CHANGE IN OUR BILATERAL INTELLIGENCE SECURITY RELATED FIELDS? CIA CANNOT SEE HOW THIS DIALOGUE WITH CONTINUED REFERENCE TO CIA CAN DO OTHER THAN BLOW THE LID OFF THOSE INSTALLATIONS WHERE THE PERSONS CONCERNED HAVE BEEN WORKING AND WHICH ARE VITAL TO BOTH OF OUR SERVICES AND COUNTRIES, PARTICULARLY THE INSTALLATIONS AT ALICE SPRINGS.

ON NOVEMBER 7, AT A PRESS CONFERENCE, COLBY WAS ASKED WHETHER THE ALLEGATIONS MADE IN AUSTRALIA WERE TRUE. HE CATEGORICALLY DENIED THEM.

CONGRESSMAN OTIS PIKE CHAIRMAN OF THE CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE INQUIRING INTO THE CIA, HAS BEGUN TO MAKE ENQUIRIES ON THE ISSUE AND HAS ASKED WHETHER THE CIA HAS BEEN FUNDING AUSTRALIAN POLITICAL PARTIES. THIS HAS BEEN DENIED BY THE CIA REP IN CANBERRA IN PUTTING THE CIA POSITION TO RELEVANT PERSONS THERE. 

HOWEVER, CIA FEELS IT NECESSARY TO SPEAK ALSO DIRECTLY TO ASIO BECAUSE OF THE COMPLEXITY OF THE PROBLEM. HAS ASIO HQ BEEN CONTACTED OR INVOLVED? CIA CAN UNDERSTAND A STATEMENT MADE IN POLITICAL DEBATE BUT CONSTANT FURTHER UNRAVELING WORRIES THEM. IS THERE A CHANGE IN THE PRIME MINISTER'S ATTITUDE IN AUSTRALIAN POLICY IN THIS FIELD? THIS MESSAGE SHOULD BE REGARDED AS AN OFFICIAL DEMARCHE ON A SERVICE TO SERVICE LINK. IT IS A FRANK EXPLANATION OF A PROBLEM SEEKING COUNSEL ON THAT PROBLEM. CIA FEELS THAT EVERYTHING POSSIBLE HAS BEEN DONE ON A DIPLOMATIC BASIS AND NOW ON AN INTELLIGENCE LIAISON LINK THEY FEEL THAT IF THIS PROBLEM CANNOT BE SOLVED THEY DO NOT SEE HOW OUR MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL RELATIONSHIPS ARE GOING TO CONTINUE[authors' emphasis].

THE CIA FEELS GRAVE CONCERNS AS TO WHERE THIS TYPE OF PUBLIC DISCUSSION MAY LEAD. THE DG SHOULD BE ASSURED THAT CIA DOES NOT LIGHTLY ADOPT THIS ATTITUDE. YOUR URGENT ADVICE WOULD BE APPRECIATED AS TO THE REPLY WHICH SHOULD BE MADE TO CIA. 

AMBASSADOR IS FULLY INFORMED OF THIS MESSAGE.

When Shackley was interviewed years later, he said that his cable had authorisation from above. Although he did not name names, the implication was that Kissinger had given the OK. (Book of Leaks, p. 97).

The implications of the message were firstly that the CIA was bypassing the Australian government and virtually demanding that ASIO intervene and pressure the government, and that ASIO has an obligation of loyalty to the CIA to do so. The message was not meant to be passed on to Whitlam. However, the acting head of ASIO was a Whitlam appointee who saw the seriousness of the matter. He handed the cable to Whitlam. The cable was made public several years later.

The cable also made it clear that the CIA had been deceiving Australian government about Richard Stallings and Pine Gap. What else were they deceiving the Australian government about?

The cable also implied that the CIA would threaten to cut off the flow of intelligence information to the Australian services, and perhaps take even more strenuous action.

As Shackley's cable indicated, there were several other CIA men working under cover in Australia. Their identities had not been revealed by Whitlam, but by the media. Nevertheless, there was no way for Shackley and the CIA to know how much Whitlam knew, and how much he would reveal to the public, especially about Pine Gap, but also about other CIA activities in Australia. Shackley may have already known that Whitlam had begun to look into CIA matters in Australia.

By revealing what he knew already, Whitlam had telegraphed his intentions. He had to be stopped.

Whitlam did not have the opportunity to present the proof he had about CIA involvement in Australian politics to Parliament on November 11. He was dismissed by Governor-General Sir John Kerr at 1:10 p.m. that day.

What may be nearly as unfortunate as the Dismissal of an elected government is the timing of Whitlam's revelations about the CIA and Anthony. Labor Minister Clyde Cameron, wrote in his diaries, "Once his allegations hit the headlines, the sources dried up immediately." (The Cameron Diaries, p. 499). Whitlam had moved too soon.

CIA IN CRISIS

Even in November 1975, speculation about CIA involvement in the Dismissal was rife. Since that day, speculation has not dampened.

Yet from the time allegations about Richard Stallings and Pine Gap hit the papers, the CIA and the American government denied any involvement in Australia.

This is understandable, considering that while the events of the dismissal unfolded, several Congressional committees were investigating the CIA's activities all over the world. The CIA were facing pressures never before encountered. On November 2, 1975, the same day Whitlam made his accusations about the National Country Party being funded by the CIA, Henry Kissinger fired CIA director William Colby for being too honest with Congress. The CIA was in trouble.

If Whitlam had stood up in Parliament on November 11 and revealed that Pine Gap was a CIA-run installation and that the CIA were funding political parties in Australia, the U.S. Congress may have initiated an investigation into CIA activities in Australia. It is bad enough to undermine a third world government, but to undermine an ally is worse. The CIA would have been condemned and swiftly re-organised or worse, possibly shut down completely.

Therefore they continued to deny any involvement in the political events in Australia, and hoped the matter would fade away.

STRAIGHT FROM THE HORSE'S MOUTH

Despite CIA denials, a picture has formed of their dirty tricks in Australia. And much of the evidence comes straight from the mouths of CIA employees.

Former CIA deputy director of intelligence, Ray Cline, denies that there was any "formal" CIA covert action program against the Whitlam government during Cline's time in office (Cline left the CIA in 1973). "I'm sure we never had a political action program, although some people around the office were beginning to think we should." He explains that the U.S. and Australia had a very healthy relationship in the area of intelligence exchange. "But when the Whitlam government came to power, there was a period or turbulence to do with Alice Springs [Pine Gap]." He went on to say, "the whole Whitlam episode was very painful. He had a very hostile attitude."

Cline denied direct CIA interference, but outlined a scenario he saw as acceptable U.S. intelligence behavior. "You couldn't possibly throw in a covert action program to a country like Australia, but the CIA would go so far as to provide information to people who would bring it to the surface in Australia..." for example a Whitlam error "which they were willing to pump into the system so it might be to his damage." Such actions do not, in Cline's opinion, amount to a "political operation."

The method as outlined by Cline would be for the CIA to supply damaging information which the Australian security services would use against the government, presumably via other people, such as the media and the Opposition parties. This scenario fits well with what others have said. A U.S. diplomat stationed in Australia at the time, tells how CIA station chief in Australia, John Walker would "blow in the ear" of National Country Party members, and not long afterwards, the Whitlam government would be asked embarrassing questions in Parliament (The National Times, March 21-27, 1982).

Former Deputy Prime Minister Jim Cairns concurred that the methods used by the CIA would be as simple as that. When asked if he thought the CIA were capable of interfering with Australian politics, Cairns told the authors, "The CIA is capable, no doubt." By interfering, Cairns means gossip, influencing people by words. He also said it was not a "conspiracy" as such, but that these people are like that anyway. That is, the CIA would seek out like-minded people: "They think the same way, act the same way - it's not a conspiracy as such, just the way they think and act. And it's still going on today."

The loans affairs are perfect examples where "gossip" could have been used to good effect - and was.

WAS CAIRNS SET-UP?

The evidence that Cairns was set up is compelling. The motives may have been not only to discredit and damage the Whitlam government, but also to get him out of the way. Cairns was already one of the most popular Labor ministers for his leadership of the anti-Vietnam war movement. His popularity rose over Christmas 1974, when as Acting Prime Minister he flew to Darwin to view the destruction caused by Hurricane Tracy. As Deputy Prime Minister, he would be the next in line to take on the leadership of the Labor Party. But as he was even more left-wing and anti-American than Whitlam, the prospect of Cairns being the next Prime Minister frightened the CIA. Even early on attempts were made to discredit Cairns. For example, ASIO leaked their dossier on him to the Bulletin (June 1974). It indicated that ASIO's main concern about Cairn's was the "terrorist" potential of his part in the anti-Vietnam war protests.

Far more startling are the facts concerning George Harris and the loans affair. The letter Harris showed Cairns was from Commerce International, an arms dealing company based in Belgium, and with widespread links with the CIA. Commerce International is a highly classified topic at the CIA.

It does not seem completely clear how the Opposition obtained knowledge of the letter with Cairns signature on it. However, Harris was seen with Phillip Lynch, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party, a few days before Cairns was asked in Parliament about the letter. If Harris was legitimate, why would he leak the information to the Opposition?

Further evidence of a set-up was provided by Leslie Nagy, an intermediary at the meeting between Cairns and Harris. According to Nagy, Cairns had left the meeting, refusing to sign his name to a letter making a commitment to a brokerage fee. Yet minutes later, to Nagy's surprise, Harris produced a letter with Cairns' signature agreeing to the 2.5% brokerage fee. While Harris denies that he set Cairns up, Cairns still does not acknowledge that he signed the incriminating letter.

Lastly, the CIA themselves provided an interesting hint that there was some sleight-of-hand in the loans affair. The National Intelligence Daily, the CIA's intelligence gathering arm's top secret briefing document for the President reported on July 3, 1975 that Dr. Cairns had been sacked, "even though some of the evidence had been fabricated." An ASIO officer writing for the Bulletin in June 1976 concurred. He said he believed that "some of the documents which helped discredit the Labor Government in the last year in office were forgeries planted by the CIA."

CREEPY KHEMLANI

Khemlani was a suspicious character from the word go. Why Connor chose to deal through him in the first place, and why he continued to deal with him, is a mystery.

Khemlani's behavior during the 11 months of the loans affair was certainly peculiar. The heads of the Treasury Department and the Reserve Bank had various lengthy discussions about him. They asked the very pertinent question of why Khemlani had volunteered in the first place, and why he continued to say he could get the $4 billion loan. After all, Khemlani spent a great deal of time, and presumably a great deal of money, yet the Australian government had never promised him anything in return and had never paid him a cent. In fact, the arrangement was that Khemlani was to be paid by whomever provided the loan, rather than by the Australian government. So where was Khemlani getting his money? Why was he so patient, and why did he continue to search for the money when he was promised nothing in return?

Khemlani's connections, and his activities after the Dismissal shed some light on the loans affair.

Khemlani heard about the Australian loan from Thomas Yu, a Hong Kong businessman. Both Yu and Khemlani's friend Theo Crannendonk had entered into a joint venture with Commerce International's Gerhard Whiffen, CI's Singapore representative, in a proposal to ship arms to the CIA backed rebels in Angola. The joint venture also included Chris Brading and Don Booth. Booth was a former CIA employee. Brading was a pilot for Air America, a CIA airline which operated extensively during the Vietnam war all over South East Asia.

It is highly possible that Yu sent Khemlani to Australia to conduct dirty tricks for the CIA.

Interestingly, the CIA says it does not have any files on Khemlani. However, they told journalists Brian Toohey and Marian Wilkinson that the NSA did have information on Khemlani. The National Security Agency (NSA) is the U.S. intelligence organisation which intercepts communications overseas to pass on to other intelligence agencies. It is not surprising that they would have intelligence on Khemlani, as he was firing off telexes all over the Middle East. The NSA was very active in monitoring communications in the area, especially in the mid 1970s.

Several years after the loans affair, Khemlani was still up to his old tricks, defrauding people of their money. In 1980, Khemlani financially ruined an American businessman by the name of Charles Murphy. He left behind in Murphy's home suitcases full of documents detailing many of his activities over the last couple of years, including his connection with the Nugan Hand Bank of Sydney.

In 1978, Khemlani entered into a relationship with the Nugan Hand Bank's Cayman Island's branch. The Nugan Hand Bank was based in Sydney from 1970. It collapsed in 1980 when one of its co-founders, Frank Nugan, was found dead in his car, with ex-CIA chief William Colby's business card in his pocket. Nugan Hand Bank has since been found to have extensive links to arms and drug dealing, and the CIA. Its list of employees reads like a who's who of the CIA and U.S. military circles. The other co-founder of Nugan Hand, Michael Hand, disappeared after the bank's collapse. Hand was employed by the CIA for covert operations in South East Asia during the Vietnam War. Other Nugan Hand managers included General Edwin Black (Commander of U.S. forces in Thailand), Rear-Admiral Earl Yates (former Chief of Staff for Policy and Plans of the U.S. Pacific Command and a counter-insurgency specialist), Patry Loomis (CIA employee), and William Colby, head of the CIA.

It is not known if Khemlani's ties with Nugan Hand predated their relationship in 1978. But in September of that year, he contacted them with a proposal to have Nugan Hand act as a trustee for several of Khemlani's projects.

The papers held by Murphy also show that after his loan-raising activities with Australia, he went on to pull similar stunts in several third world countries, including Haiti, Sierra Leone, and Ghana.

In 1979, Khemlani was arrested by the FBI for stealing $1 million worth of bonds from the Citizens National Bank in Chicago. He was given a suspended 3 year sentence for turning state's evidence and fingering the Mafia people he was working for. U.S. authorities informed ASIO of Khemlani's arrest. Why they told ASIO is not known, as there were no Australian warrants out for his arrest.

Other evidence corroborates Khemlani's possible CIA connections:

• Former CIA employee Ralph McGehee came out with his own tell-all book on the CIA, Deadly Deceits, following the example of Victor Marchetti and Phillip Agee, who in the early 1970s released their own books about the CIA's nefarious activities. McGehee says that the CIA played a major part in the downfall of Connor and Cairns by releasing forged documents. The documents were tabled in Parliament to discredit and damage the Whitlam government. The documents provided by Khemlani were among the forgeries.
• On November 11, 1975, Whitlam received a letter, along with a draft of a telex, which shows the CIA involvement with Khemlani. The draft was found in a hotel room in Hawaii, and was posted anonymously to Whitlam.

The draft reads:

DRAFT COPY ONLY
1. DO NOT TRANSMIT VIA PHONE OR LETTER. ENCIPHER BEFORE TRANSMITTING BY TELEX CONTACT 'LM' AT 536 6009 FOR ASSISTANCE.
REFERENCE YOUR CORRESPONDENCE ON 11 OCT, 1975.
ON 16 OCT., MR. T. KHEMLANI WILL BE DEPARTING FOR SINGAPORE TO ARRANGE MATTERS IN CASE GOVERNMENT CAPITULATION SEEMS NEAR.
IF NOT MR. KHEMLANI WILL RETURN TO AUSTRALIA ON OR ABOUT 26 OCT 75 TO CREATE FURTHER CHAOS.
NEWSPAPERS' EDITORIALS MUST CONTINUE TO PUT PRESSURE ON THE LABOR GOVERNMENT IF CAPITULATION IS TO SUCCEED.
IF NECESSARY OFFER....
IF CAPITULATION DOES NOT SUCCEED BY 14 NOVEMBER 75, SUPPORT FROM OVERSEAS WILL CEASE UNTIL MID 76. (Author's emphasis).

The draft telex appeared in the Sun newspaper in May 1977. The reporter said that the CIA denied they had anyone with the initials 'LM' working in Hawaii.

But when a National Times newspaper reporter rang the number given in the draft, they were connected to CIA headquarters in Hawaii.

WAS NUGAN HAND INVOLVED?

In 1981, a CIA contract employee, Joseph Flynn, claimed that he had been paid to forge some documents relating to the loans affair, and also to bug Whitlam's hotel room. The person who paid him was Michael Hand, co-founder of the Nugan Hand Bank. (The National Times, Jan. 4-10, 1981).

THE BOYCE TRIAL

In 1977, more confirmation and details about the CIA's involvement in Australian politics emerged when Christopher Boyce and Andrew Dalton Lee were arrested in the United States for selling secrets to the Soviet Union.

Boyce started work in 1974 with TRW Incorporated, a Californian aerospace company which did contract work for the CIA. Boyce's job was as a cipher clerk in the "black vault", a code room where top-secret messages from American bases and satellites were received and deciphered. Among the bases sending messages via TRW was Pine Gap.

Boyce and Lee were both disillusioned by the state of America. One day, whilst discussing the Watergate scandal and the CIA inspired coup in Chile, Boyce said to Lee, "You think that's bad? You should hear what the CIA is doing to the Australians." He then told Lee about the deceptions practiced by the U.S. on the Australian government.

Boyce and Lee decided that the best way to change things was to sell the secrets Boyce learned in the black vault to the Soviets. Boyce would photograph documents, and Lee sold them to the Soviet embassy in Mexico City. While Boyce's motivation was his idealism, Lee, a drug-addict, was in it for the money.

They were caught in 1977. Lee was arrested for loitering outside the Soviet embassy in Mexico City, and was brought back to the United States to face trial.

At his trial, part of Boyce's defence was that he was opposed to American and CIA activities overseas, particularly in Australia. Boyce told of his initial briefing at TRW, when he was informed that most of the communication received in the black vault came from Pine Gap, and that despite an agreement between the U.S. and Australian governments to share the information obtained at Pine Gap, the U.S. was not honoring the agreement. "Certain information" was being withheld from Australia.

Boyce also told that Pine Gap was being used to monitor international telephone calls and telexes to and from Australia, especially those of a political and business nature. In addition, he said he had come across cables from the Canberra bureau chief to Langley inferring that the CIA had worked to subvert Australian unions, especially in the transport industry, and had funded the Opposition parties during Whitlam's term. The CIA had been very concerned about an airport strike which would have delayed transportation of new equipment to Pine Gap. According to Boyce, the cable he saw said "don't worry about that, send the stuff, we'll take care of the strike the way we always do." (Sunday Press, 23 May, 1982). He also told reporter William Pinwill that the CIA had a deep distrust for the Whitlam government, and had a great interest in the "monetary crisis" of 1975.

The fact that communications between Pine Gap and the U.S. were handled by a private company was also news to Australia (The Sun, 27 May, 1977).

Boyce's lawyers had wanted to introduce evidence supporting Boyce's claims about CIA activity in Australia. However, the judge complied with a CIA request not to allow it, because of concerns about revealing secret government information.

Both Lee and Boyce were found guilty of selling secrets to the Soviets. Lee was immediately given a life sentence. However, Boyce was sent for 90 days of psychiatric evaluation, which indicated that he might get a light sentence, probably if he kept quiet about the allegations concerning Australia. Boyce made it clear he was "outraged" about the treatment of Australia, and was subsequently given a 40 year sentence. He is kept in solitary confinement.

In 1980, Boyce escaped from prison, and led the Federal Marshalls on an 18-month chase before he was caught again. The total sentence he now has to serve is 68 years. The circumstances surrounding his escape are very suspicious.

OTHERS SPEAK:

RICHARD STALLINGS

Despite repeated denials that Stallings was a CIA employee, Ted Shackley admitted Stallings' affiliations in his cable to ASIO on the 8th of November, 1975.

Stallings went into early retirement in 1975 after suffering an injury in a car crash.

However, during his tenure as head of Pine Gap, Stallings complained bitterly about CIA activities in Australia. According to Victor Marchetti, who knew Stallings well, Stallings was "copping a lot of static from the clandestine guys operating out of Canberra. Stallings didn't approve of the stuff at the time; he figured his information-gathering operation at Pine Gap was being put at risk by the station chief's men, who were interfering in Australia's political parties and labor unions." (Mother Jones, p. 20)

JAMES JESUS ANGLETON

In June 1977, during the furore caused by the Boyce trial, Angleton was interviewed on ABC radio's Broadband program, after complaints from ABC's top brass that the ABC had run too many programs slamming the CIA. For "balance", they asked Angleton to come on and give the Agency's point-of-view. Angleton had "retired" in 1974, but had devoted several years to attempting to restore the CIA's battered image. Angleton discussed many aspects of the "security crisis" which was the Whitlam government (in his opinion), including Murphy's raid on ASIO, Pine Gap, and whether the CIA funded political parties in Australia. When asked "If there was any funding by the CIA in Australian politics or unions, would it have had to come through your office in the time that you were there?" Angleton answered somewhat cryptically, "I will put it this way very bluntly - no one in the agency would ever believe that I would subscribe to any activity that was not co-ordinated with the chief of the Australian internal security." (Freney, The CIA's Australian Connection, p. 29) . He did not deny CIA funding, nor would he clarify his statement. He simply inferred that if the CIA were involved in Australian politics and unions, ASIO would know about it.

VICTOR MARCHETTI

In an interview with the Sydney Sun, the former CIA agent related what Richard Stallings had told him. He said that Stallings had told him that the CIA station chief in Canberra had channeled money directly to the conservative political parties (Liberals and the National Country Party). Marchetti said that money was used to undermine the Labor Party, since at least 1967. He also said that there were about six to eight "upfront" CIA agents in Canberra, and up to 30 clandestine operatives throughout Australia.

ANONYMOUS SOURCE

Robert Lindsay, who wrote two books about the Boyce trial, interviewed a CIA agent who wished to remain anonymous. The agent confirmed Boyce's allegations, but said that the CIA involvement in Australia was more complicated than Boyce realised. The agent said that CIA money was given to the Coalition and would probably have been sent through ASIO (Flight of the Falcon).

WHITLAM'S EVIDENCE

When the authors contacted former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, he politely declined to answer questions regarding CIA involvement in Australian politics. He did however, suggest that we read what he had said and written in the past.

While Whitlam was not able on November 11, 1975, to give his evidence to Parliament regarding the CIA and Richard Stallings, he did raise the matter in Parliament on May 4, 1977, because of the allegations of CIA activity brought up by the Boyce trial and by Victor Marchetti, a former CIA employee. Whitlam began by saying, "There is increasing and profoundly disturbing evidence that foreign espionage and intelligence activities are being practiced in Australia on a wide scale."

He went to speak about the Boyce trial, and said that he had suggested to Prime Minister Fraser that he bring the matter to the attention to Justice Hope (who was still conducting the Hope Royal Commission into intelligence organisations in Australia).

Whitlam then spoke about the cable sent to ASIO headquarters by Ted Shackley. He commented that "In plain terms, the cable revealed that the CIA had deceived the Australian Government and was still seeking to continue its deception. It confirmed that Mr. Stallings had been employed by the CIA. The cable made it clear that the CIA was making what was described, in the jargon of the trade, as an 'official demarche on a service to service link' - in other words, without informing the elected Government of Australia. Implicit in the CIA's approach to ASIO for information on events in Australia was an understanding that the Australian organisation had obligations of loyalty to the CIA itself before its obligations to the Australian Government. The tone and content of the CIA message were offensive; its implications were sinister. Here was a foreign intelligence service telling Australia's domestic security service to keep information from the Australian Government."

Whitlam also read out the statement he had prepared in response to Doug Anthony's question on notice for 11 November, 1975: "I did not disclose that Mr. Stallings was a CIA agent. The Right Honorable gentleman [Anthony] did that. I was informed that Mr. Stallings worked for the CIA, not by the head of the Australian Foreign Affairs Department, or the United States State Department, but by the head of another of our Departments which in turn was informed by a Department in the United States other than the State Department."

Whitlam then said, "The coup on 11 November prevented that answer being given." (Hansard, May 4, 1977)

Whitlam also briefly discusses (for less than two pages) CIA involvement in the "security crisis" in his book, The Whitlam Government, 1972-1975. He comments that the newspaper stories disclosing the identity of Stallings and other CIA agents "greatly agitated" both Australian and U.S. security services. "The CIA sent a cable to ASIO which must have been founded on the assumption that ASIO would put its links with the CIA ahead of its obligations to the Australian Government." He went on to say, "The episode lent colour to allegations that the CIA had been eavesdropping on me and my Ministers and had influenced the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, to sack us."

However, Whitlam seems unwilling to say more than that. As he said in Parliament in 1977, "The difficulty which any head of government faces in responding to these matters - or any former head of government...is that he is bound by obligations of secrecy in the national interest. He cannot disclose what he knows. I readily acknowledge my own obligation." (Hansard, 4 May, 1977, p. 1522). He will not reveal the confidences given to him by, or information about, the American installations in Australia.

While Whitlam seems to accept that at the very least Australia should investigate whether the CIA has interfered with Australian politics, he is not so sure of Sir John Kerr's role in relation to the security crisis.

In The Whitlam Government, he says, "It is a fact that any country with the technical resources of the U.S. can eavesdrop on anyone in the world if it feels the effort worthwhile....It is not a fact, however, that Kerr, fascinated as he had long been with intelligence matters, needed any encouragement from the CIA." (pp. 51-52)

"OUR MAN KERR"

Among Christopher Boyce's allegations is that the CIA chief at TRW had referred to Australia's Governor-General as "Our man Kerr."

One of the most contentious questions about the dismissal was whether Kerr acted on his own in dismissing Whitlam, or whether he was working to further someone else's goals. The question has come up in relation to the Liberal-National Party Coalition, and to the CIA and the intelligence community.

Kerr consulted with High Court Chief Justice Sir Garfield Barwick before making the decision about the Senate deadlock. Garfield was a former Liberal minister. Perhaps more serious than that are the allegations that Kerr was informed of the CIA and the intelligence community's concerns about Whitlam.

Kerr had a long association with the intelligence community, particularly military intelligence. During World War Two, he worked for the Directorate of Research and Civil Affairs, part of military intelligence. Whilst in Washington, he was seconded to the Office of Strategic Services (the OSS, precursor to the CIA). Kerr continued to work in intelligence after the war in the School of Civil Affairs (later renamed the School of Pacific Administration).

Later he became involved with the Association for Cultural Freedom, which is said to be closely affiliated with the activities of the CIA and U.S. State Department. He was also the founding president of the Law Association for Asia and the Western Pacific (LawAsia). Kerr went to the U.S. to obtain funds for LawAsia from the Asia Foundation. The Asia Foundation was discovered in 1967 to be backed by the CIA. According to CIA man Victor Marchetti, the Asia Foundation "often served as a cover for clandestine operations [and] its main purpose was to promote the spread of ideas which were anti-communist and pro-American." (CIA and the Cult of Intelligence, p. 178-79) Despite this (or because of it?), Kerr again went to the Asia Foundation to obtain funds for LawAsia.

It is not known if Whitlam was aware of Kerr's association with the intelligence community when he appointed him Governor-General. As Governor-General, Kerr was said to take an unusual interest in foreign policy and intelligence matters.

So much so that, according to Brian Toohey, on November 8, the day that ASIO received Ted Shackley's cable calling Whitlam a security threat, "a senior Australian defence official" was sent to brief Kerr "about allegations from the CIA that the then Prime Minister, Mr. Whitlam, was jeopardizing the security bases in Australia." (Financial Review, April 1977). The official is believed to be Dr. John Law Farrands, chief scientist at the Defence Department. He was probably sent by Tange. Farrands, Tange, Kerr all denied that Kerr was briefed about the CIA's concerns. Whether Kerr was influenced by the CIA's concerns is not known. But his timing of the dismissal is curious.

PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY

As can be expected, there is no "smoking gun" which links the CIA to the demise of the Whitlam government. There is no substantial evidence that there was a carefully orchestrated plot against Whitlam. Nevertheless, there is a large body of evidence pointing to the CIA. As the Governor of Victoria, and a former judge, Richard McGarvie says, "sometimes the most reliable evidence is circumstantial evidence."

Subtle means were used to bring down the Labor government. All that was necessary was for the CIA to find like-minded people, and whisper in their ears information which could be used to discredit and destabilise their mutual enemy.

The evidence pointing to the CIA's dirty dealings includes:

• Why did Sir John Kerr sack Whitlam on the same day that Whitlam was to provide proof to Parliament that the former head of Pine Gap was a CIA agent, thus proving that the U.S. had been misleading Australia about the bases?
• Whitlam was dismissed just weeks before the crucial Pine Gap contract was to be reviewed.
• The CIA knew, and informed the U.S. President, that documents used to discredit Jim Cairns were probably forgeries. How did they know? Did they provide them?
• Questionable loans brokers with links to Commerce International, itself heavily linked to the CIA.
• A draft cable, allegedly from the CIA, admitting that Khemlani was in Australia to cause chaos.
• The Christopher Boyce allegations.
• The words of several CIA employees.
• The deep concern expressed by Ted Shackley's cable that Whitlam would reveal all about Pine Gap and the CIA in Australia.

All solid evidence of CIA involvement - albeit circumstantial.

The only piece of the puzzle missing is a solitary fact, even small, that points the finger at the CIA knowing and participating not only after the event, but before and during.

COUP DE GRACE

The CIA and the U.S. government have repeatedly denied CIA activity in Australia.

In July 1977, President Carter sent Assistant Secretary of State for Asia and the South Pacific, Warren Christopher, out of his way to meet Gough Whitlam at Sydney airport.

Christopher delivered the following message from Carter: "The U.S. State Department will never again interfere in the domestic political process of Australia." (The Whitlam Government, p. 53 - emphasis added).

Never again...

The Pine Gap treaty still stands.

The Reserve Powers of the Governor-General to dismiss a democratically elected Government have not been revoked.

The CIA continues operations in Australia.

The events of November 1975 can be repeated.

POSTSCRIPT

On December 26, 1995 The Australian newspaper ran a front page story, using newly unclassified documents dated July 1, 1974, dealing with President Nixon ordering a full review of the relationship with the Australian Whitlam Government in the "political-security area".

Nixon, through Henry Kissinger, set out six areas to be investigated, all dealing with the supposed security threat to the U.S. military bases from the Whitlam government.

Of most importance is that one of the six areas in this now-released memo has been blacked out for security reasons.

This document is of vital importance to understanding that the Whitlam government was indeed seen as a threat by those in power in Washington. The memo was addressed to the acting Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, the Director of the CIA and also sent to the Joint Chiefs of Staff!

The censored area, taking up four lines of text, now seems to be the "smoking gun" in the case. After twenty years the American Government still deems these few lines of so vital importance that they are withheld from us completely. What the censored order says is open to conjecture. Could it be an order to contact friends or agents within the government or opposition parties? Could it be an order to destabilize the Whitlam Government?

Or could it be an order to re-activate Sir John Kerr as an agent for the CIA?

We will not know until the document is unclassified completely.

We have the key in the lock, one more twist and the door will be wide open.

Steve Gerlach is a Melbourne based researcher. He founded the Australian JFK Assassination Information Centre in 1992, and was its director from 1992 to 1995 and editor of the Centre's magazine "Probable Cause". He now works independently, and is employed as a researcher by a major Melbourne newspaper.

Adelaide Gerlach has spent eight years in Peru and eight years in the USA. She has a BA (Hons.) in Politics and is employed as a researcher in the Australian trustee industry.

The CIA and the Nugan Hand Bank

By John Simkin,  December 27, 2005 in JFK Assassination Debate 

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/5740-the-cia-and-the-nugan-hand-bank/

John Simkin Admin

Posted December 27, 2005

In 1971, Edwin Wilson left the CIA to run shipping companies for a secret Navy intelligence organization called Task Force 157. This included World Marine Incorporated in Washington. Wilson also ran this company for his own benefit. In 1973 he earned a $500,000 fee by delivering a spy ship to Iran under the cover of World Marine.

In 1973 Frank Nugan, an Australian lawyer, and Michael Hand, a former CIA contract operative, established the Nugan Hand Bank. Another key figure in this venture was Bernie Houghton, who was closely connected to Ted Shackley and Thomas Clines.

Nugan ran operations in Sydney whereas Hand established a branch in Hong Kong. This enabled Australian depositors to have access to a money-laundering facility for illegal transfers of Australian money to Hong Kong. According to Alfred W. McCoy, the "Hand-Houghton partnership led the bank's international division into new fields - drug finance, arms trading, and support work for CIA covert operations." Hand told friends "it was his ambition that Nugan Hand became banker for the CIA."

In 1974 the Nugan-Hand Bank got involved in helping the CIA to take part in covert arms deals with contacts within Angola. It was at this time that Edwin Wilson became involved with the bank. Two CIA agents based in Indonesia, James Hawes and Robert Moore, called on Wilson at his World Marine offices to discuss "an African arms deal". Later, Bernie Houghton arrived from Sydney to place an order for 10 million rounds of ammunition and 3,000 weapons including machine guns. The following year Houghton asked Wilson to arrange for World Marine to purchase a high-technology spy ship. This ship was then sold to Iran.

By 1976 the Nugan-Hand Bank appeared to have become a CIA-fronted company. This is reflected in the type of people recruited to hold senior positions in the bank. This included Admiral Earl Yates, retired chief strategist of the U.S. Pacific Command, as president. Other appointments included William Colby, retired director of the CIA, General Leroy J. Manor, the former chief of staff of the U.S. Pacific Command, General Edwin F. Black, former commander of U.S. forces in Thailand, Walter McDonald, retired CIA deputy director for economic research and Dale Holmgren, former chairman of the CIA's Civil Air Transport.

The investigative journalist, Jonathan Kwitny, became convinced that the Nugan-Hand Bank had replaced the Castle Bank & Trust of Nassau, as the CIA's covert banker. Former CIA agent, Kevin Mulcahy later told the National Times newspaper "about the Agency's use of Nugan Hand for shifting money for various covert operations around the globe."

Castle Bank had itself been closed down as a result of an IRS investigation. This came to an end as a result of pressure being applied on the IRS. According to the Wall Street Journal, “pressure from the Central Intelligence Agency… caused the Justice Department to drop what could have been the biggest tax evasion case of all time.”

In February 1976, Admiral Bobby Ray Inman, the new head of the Office of Naval Intelligence, discovered that Edwin Wilson was involved in some dubious undercover business deals. A few months later Wilson was asked to leave the ONI. Wilson continued to run the CIA-fronted companies he had established. The largest of these was Consultants International and over the next few years amassed a fortune of over $20 million. This enabled him to buy a 2,338-acre farm in Northern Virginia, where he often entertained his close friends, Ted Shackley and Thomas Clines.

Much of his money was made in the arms trade. His most important customer was Moammar Gaddafi, the dictator of Libya. Wilson claimed that it was Ted Shackley of the CIA who first suggested he should go to Libya. Wilson got contracts to sell Libya army uniforms, ammunition, explosive timers and 20 tons of C-4 plastic explosives.

In 1976 Wilson recruited Raphael Quintero to kill a Libyan dissident in Egypt. Quintero selected two brothers, Rafael and Raoul Villaverde, to carry out the killing. However, the killing was later called off.

One of the men Wilson employed was former CIA officer Kevin Mulcahy. He became concerned about Wilson's illegal activities and reported them to the CIA. However, Ted Shackley, Deputy Director of Operations, was initially able to block any internal investigation of Wilson. However, in April, 1977, The Washington Post, published an article on Wilson's activities stating that he may be getting support from "current CIA employees". Admiral Stansfield Turner, Jimmy Carter’s new director of the CIA, ordered an investigation and discovered that both Shackley and Clines had close relationships with Wilson. Turner demoted both men.

In 1978 Clines left the CIA. He now joined with Raphael Quintero and Ricardo Chavez (another former CIA operative) to establish API Distributors. According to David Corn (Blond Ghost) Edwin Wilson provided Clines with "half a million dollars to get his business empire going". In 1979 Clines established International Research and Trade Limited in Bermuda. Later that year he joined forces with Hussein Salem in providing U.S. military hardware to Egypt.

After leaving the CIA in September, 1979, Ted Shackley formed his own company, Research Associates International, which specialized in providing intelligence to business. He was also given consulting work with API Distributors, the company established by Clines, Quintero, and Chavez.

According to Alfred W. McCoy (The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade): "Throughout 1979 the Wilson network and the Nugan Hand Bank began to build a close commercial alliance in the netherworld of national security subcontracting". Shackley and Clines were also drawn into a relationship with the Nugan Hand Bank. Michael Hand wrote to Shackley on 27th November, 1979, suggesting a business meeting. Hand's latter also referred to Bernie Houghton, who had worked for Shackley in Vietnam.

Michael Hand probably wanted to talk about Edwin Wilson. In 1979 a Washington grand jury began gathering incriminating evidence about his illegal arms sales. To avoid arrest he moved to London. In the winter of 1979, Wilson had a meeting with Bernie Houghton and Thomas Clines in Switzerland in an attempt to help him out of his difficulties. This included a non-delivery of 5,000 M16 automatic rifles to Libya. The three men discussed ways of using the Nugan Hand Bank to float a $22 million loan to finance the delivery. Hand was obviously concerned that if Wilson was arrested he might begin talking about his dealings with the Nugan Hand Bank.

Michael Hand also had talks with William Colby, the former director of the CIA. It is not known what was discussed at this meeting but Colby submitted a bill to Nugan Hand Bank for $45,684 for his legal advice.

On 27th January, 1980 Frank Nugan was found dead in his car. Bernie Houghton was in Switzerland at the time and he immediately rang his branch office in Saudi Arabia and ordered the staff to leave the country. Houghton also visited Edwin Wilson's office in Switzerland and left a briefcase with bank documents for safekeeping. Soon afterwards, a witness saw Thomas Clines going through the briefcase at Wilson's office and remove papers that referred to him and General Richard Secord.

Two days after Nugan died, Michael Hand held a meeting of Nugan Hand Bank directors. He warned them that unless they did as they were told they could "finish up with concrete shoes" and would be "liable to find their wives being delivered to them in pieces".

According to one witness, Thomas G. Clines helped Bernie Houghton escape from Australia. Michael Hand also left the country accompanied by James O. Spencer, a man who served with Ted Shackley in Laos. The two men travelled to America via Fiji and Vancouver. Hand then disappeared and has never been seen again.

The Australian authorities were forced to investigate the bank. They discovered that Ricardo Chavez, the former CIA operative who was co-owner of API Distributors with Thomas Clines and Raphael Quintero, was attempting to take control of the bank. The Corporate Affairs Commission of New South Wales came to the conclusion that Chavez was working on behalf of Clines, Quintero and Wilson.

                                                                            

Nathaniel Heidenheimer Super Member

Posted December 28, 2005

  Nathaniel Heidenheimer said:

If Ted Shackley was so good at covert funding, would it be safe to assume that he was directing the Nugan Hand machinations?

Fianally, I was wondering if there are any connections with Nugan Hand and later financing adventures such as Iran Contra, and especially BCCI. I mean connections beyond Shackley and Clines involvement in both.

Are there any other lines of continuity?

The Nugan Hand Bank started carrying out its CIA work in 1976. Shackley was Deputy Director of Operations at the time. He therefore was second-in-command of all CIA covert activity. Given his close association with people like Michael Hand, Bernie Houghton and Edwin Wilson, Shackley is the prime suspect. Thomas Clines was probably the field officer (he seems to have played a major role in the clean-up operation). However, it is unlikely that Shackley would have used Nugan Hand as the CIA banker without the approval of the director of the CIA. Who was the director of the CIA in 1976? George Herbert Walker Bush.

John Dolva Super Member

Posted December 28, 2005 

  John Simkin said:

  Nathaniel Heidenheimer said:

If Ted Shackley was so good at covert funding, would it be safe to assume that he was directing the Nugan Hand machinations?

Fianally, I was wondering if there are any connections with Nugan Hand and later financing adventures such as Iran Contra, and especially BCCI. I mean connections beyond Shackley and Clines involvement in both.

Are there any other lines of continuity?

The Nugan Hand Bank started carrying out its CIA work in 1976. Shackley was Deputy Director of Operations at the time. He therefore was second-in-command of all CIA covert activity. Given his close association with people like Michael Hand, Bernie Houghton and Edwin Wilson, Shackley is the prime suspect. Thomas Clines was probably the field officer (he seems to have played a major role in the clean-up operation). However, it is unlikely that Shackley would have used Nugan Hand as the CIA banker without the approval of the director of the CIA. Who was the director of the CIA in 1976? George Herbert Walker Bush.

Fiji???

From posts in the Sprague topic that may be of interest here:

"Donald Freed, Gemstone (1974)

The full story remains to be told. But during 1972-Z3, our research group, the Citizens Research and Investigation CommitteeCRIC), receive severa bits of unconfirmed information which are worthy of note:

(1) On July 13, 1973 Roger Gordon, fifty-three, a member of the rigtit-wing Secret Army Organization (SAO) fled from a hiding place in Australia to beg asylum in Suva, Fiji. According to the Associated Press, Gordon "had secret information concerning Watergate" and feared for his life. His information: that the heavy-set man with the "Joisey brogue" seen giving orders toBremer on an Ohio ferry was Anthony Ulasewicz, a White House operative."

"John, I'm just offering this observation as a question, not to digress or anything. I've been reading this topic over time and don't have much to offer. One thing that on a couple of occasions has jumped out at me now is the reference to Fiji. I find it puzzling at first why anyone seeking refuge would contemplate Fiji? As someone living in a country fairly close to it and seeing its vunerability it just seems odd. Perhaps an answer may be found in its recent history. There was an attempted coup there, I think it involved 'native' Fijians asserting a traditional but unconstitutional right of 'rulership' over the largely Indian, Chinese majority. Perhaps within this 'military' clique of traditional rulers some clue as to why he considered Fiji a safe place?"

and:

"Again, John, I may be going right off on a tangent here but I thought I'd look into this a bit further.

Contrary to the impressions one gained from the events through media, the story is much more in the modern world.

Speight, the frontman of the coup had been educated in Andrews university in Michigan, a 'leading adventist university'. He then spent some time in Australia doing things like selling computers.

He had business problems. The coup is suggested by some as being an attempt to loot.

He was mainly involved in companies exploiting Fiji's forestry resources.

Michigan has a huge forestry industry. Fifth in the US in acreage. 12 billion a year in related monies. 200 000 employed.

Speights dad attempted a coup in 87.

I realsise the timeline is a bit out of place as far as events re Gordon. But the ingredients of money, computers, australia, america, (forestry? Adventists? Michigan?)"

Unfortunately if relevant it might 'tip the hand' but if possible a perusal of relevant Fiji census' may be fruitful?

Edited December 28, 2005 by John Dolva

John Simkin Admin

Posted December 28, 2005

  John Dolva said:

  John Simkin said:

  Nathaniel Heidenheimer said:

If Ted Shackley was so good at covert funding, would it be safe to assume that he was directing the Nugan Hand machinations?

Fianally, I was wondering if there are any connections with Nugan Hand and later financing adventures such as Iran Contra, and especially BCCI. I mean connections beyond Shackley and Clines involvement in both.

Are there any other lines of continuity?

The Nugan Hand Bank started carrying out its CIA work in 1976. Shackley was Deputy Director of Operations at the time. He therefore was second-in-command of all CIA covert activity. Given his close association with people like Michael Hand, Bernie Houghton and Edwin Wilson, Shackley is the prime suspect. Thomas Clines was probably the field officer (he seems to have played a major role in the clean-up operation). However, it is unlikely that Shackley would have used Nugan Hand as the CIA banker without the approval of the director of the CIA. Who was the director of the CIA in 1976? George Herbert Walker Bush.

Fiji???

From posts in the Sprague topic that may be of interest here:

"Donald Freed, Gemstone (1974)

The full story remains to be told. But during 1972-Z3, our research group, the Citizens Research and Investigation CommitteeCRIC), receive severa bits of unconfirmed information which are worthy of note:

(1) On July 13, 1973 Roger Gordon, fifty-three, a member of the rigtit-wing Secret Army Organization (SAO) fled from a hiding place in Australia to beg asylum in Suva, Fiji. According to the Associated Press, Gordon "had secret information concerning Watergate" and feared for his life. His information: that the heavy-set man with the "Joisey brogue" seen giving orders toBremer on an Ohio ferry was Anthony Ulasewicz, a White House operative."

"John, I'm just offering this observation as a question, not to digress or anything. I've been reading this topic over time and don't have much to offer. One thing that on a couple of occasions has jumped out at me now is the reference to Fiji. I find it puzzling at first why anyone seeking refuge would contemplate Fiji? As someone living in a country fairly close to it and seeing its vunerability it just seems odd. Perhaps an answer may be found in its recent history. There was an attempted coup there, I think it involved 'native' Fijians asserting a traditional but unconstitutional right of 'rulership' over the largely Indian, Chinese majority. Perhaps within this 'military' clique of traditional rulers some clue as to why he considered Fiji a safe place?"

and:

"Again, John, I may be going right off on a tangent here but I thought I'd look into this a bit further.

Contrary to the impressions one gained from the events through media, the story is much more in the modern world.

Speight, the frontman of the coup had been educated in Andrews university in Michigan, a 'leading adventist university'. He then spent some time in Australia doing things like selling computers.

He had business problems. The coup is suggested by some as being an attempt to loot.

He was mainly involved in companies exploiting Fiji's forestry resources.

Michigan has a huge forestry industry. Fifth in the US in acreage. 12 billion a year in related monies. 200 000 employed.

Speights dad attempted a coup in 87.

I realsise the timeline is a bit out of place as far as events re Gordon. But the ingredients of money, computers, australia, america, (forestry? Adventists? Michigan?)"

Unfortunately if relevant it might 'tip the hand' but if possible a perusal of relevant Fiji census' may be fruitful?

• Report post

 

•  

Posted December 28, 2005

  John Dolva said:

  John Simkin said:

  Nathaniel Heidenheimer said:

If Ted Shackley was so good at covert funding, would it be safe to assume that he was directing the Nugan Hand machinations?

Fianally, I was wondering if there are any connections with Nugan Hand and later financing adventures such as Iran Contra, and especially BCCI. I mean connections beyond Shackley and Clines involvement in both.

Are there any other lines of continuity?

The Nugan Hand Bank started carrying out its CIA work in 1976. Shackley was Deputy Director of Operations at the time. He therefore was second-in-command of all CIA covert activity. Given his close association with people like Michael Hand, Bernie Houghton and Edwin Wilson, Shackley is the prime suspect. Thomas Clines was probably the field officer (he seems to have played a major role in the clean-up operation). However, it is unlikely that Shackley would have used Nugan Hand as the CIA banker without the approval of the director of the CIA. Who was the director of the CIA in 1976? George Herbert Walker Bush.

Fiji???

From posts in the Sprague topic that may be of interest here:

"Donald Freed, Gemstone (1974)

The full story remains to be told. But during 1972-Z3, our research group, the Citizens Research and Investigation CommitteeCRIC), receive severa bits of unconfirmed information which are worthy of note:

(1) On July 13, 1973 Roger Gordon, fifty-three, a member of the rigtit-wing Secret Army Organization (SAO) fled from a hiding place in Australia to beg asylum in Suva, Fiji. According to the Associated Press, Gordon "had secret information concerning Watergate" and feared for his life. His information: that the heavy-set man with the "Joisey brogue" seen giving orders toBremer on an Ohio ferry was Anthony Ulasewicz, a White House operative."

"John, I'm just offering this observation as a question, not to digress or anything. I've been reading this topic over time and don't have much to offer. One thing that on a couple of occasions has jumped out at me now is the reference to Fiji. I find it puzzling at first why anyone seeking refuge would contemplate Fiji? As someone living in a country fairly close to it and seeing its vunerability it just seems odd. Perhaps an answer may be found in its recent history. There was an attempted coup there, I think it involved 'native' Fijians asserting a traditional but unconstitutional right of 'rulership' over the largely Indian, Chinese majority. Perhaps within this 'military' clique of traditional rulers some clue as to why he considered Fiji a safe place?"

and:

"Again, John, I may be going right off on a tangent here but I thought I'd look into this a bit further.

Contrary to the impressions one gained from the events through media, the story is much more in the modern world.

Speight, the frontman of the coup had been educated in Andrews university in Michigan, a 'leading adventist university'. He then spent some time in Australia doing things like selling computers.

He had business problems. The coup is suggested by some as being an attempt to loot.

He was mainly involved in companies exploiting Fiji's forestry resources.

Michigan has a huge forestry industry. Fifth in the US in acreage. 12 billion a year in related monies. 200 000 employed.

Speights dad attempted a coup in 87.

I realsise the timeline is a bit out of place as far as events re Gordon. But the ingredients of money, computers, australia, america, (forestry? Adventists? Michigan?)"

Unfortunately if relevant it might 'tip the hand' but if possible a perusal of relevant Fiji census' may be fruitful?

It is something worth exploring.

As an Australian you might be interesting in reading this article that suggests Ted Shackley was involved in the overthrow of Gough Whitlam's government.

http://www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles/20...0Cover-Up1.html

http://www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles/20...0Cover-Up2.html

Edwin P. Wilson-CIA

http://spartacus-educational.com/JFKwilsonE2.htm

Edwin Wilson was born in Idaho in 1928. The son of an unsuccessful farmer who died of cancer in 1940, Wilson managed to obtain a degree in psychology before joining the Marine Corps in 1953.

Wilson joined the Central Intelligence Agency in 1956. As a CIA agent, he spied on European unions before running shipping companies secretly owned by the agency. Over the next few years he arranged clandestine CIA arms shipments to Angola, Laos, Indonesia and the Congo.

In 1971, Wilson left the CIA to run shipping companies for a secret Navy intelligence organization called Task Force 157. This included a company based in Washington called World Marine Incorporated. Wilson used World Marine to carry out his own private business deals. In 1973 Wilson earned a $500,000 fee by delivering a spy ship to Iran under the cover of World Marine.

In 1973 Frank Nugan, an Australian lawyer, and Michael Hand, a former CIA contract operative, established the Nugan Hand Bank. Another key figure in this venture was Bernie Houghton, who was closely connected to CIA officials, Ted Shackley and Thomas G. Clines.

Nugan ran operations in Sydney whereas Hand established a branch in Hong Kong. This enabled Australian depositors to access a money-laundering facility for illegal transfers of Australian money to Hong Kong. According to Alfred W. McCoy, the "Hand-Houghton partnership led the bank's international division into new fields - drug finance, arms trading, and support work for CIA covert operations." Hand told friends "it was his ambition that Nugan Hand became banker for the CIA."

In 1974 the Nugan Hand Bank got involved in helping the CIA to take part in covert arms deals with contacts within Angola. It was at this time that Edwin Wilson became involved with the bank. Two CIA agents based in Indonesia, James Hawes and Robert Moore, called on Wilson at his World Marine offices to discuss "an African arms deal". Later, Bernie Houghton arrived from Sydney to place an order for 10 million rounds of ammunition and 3,000 weapons including machine guns. The following year Houghton asked Wilson to arrange for World Marine to purchase a high-technology spy ship. This ship was then sold to Iran.

By 1976 the Nugan-Hand Bank appeared to have become a CIA-fronted company. This is reflected in the type of people recruited to hold senior positions in the bank. For example, Rear-Admiral Earl P. Yates, the former Chief of Staff for Policy and Plans of the U.S. Pacific Command and a counter-insurgency specialist, became president of the company. Other appointments included William Colby, retired director of the CIA, General Leroy J. Manor, the former chief of staff of the U.S. Pacific Command and deputy director for counterinsurgency and special activities, General Edwin F. Black, former commander of U.S. forces in Thailand, Walter J. McDonald, retired CIA deputy director for economic research and Dale C. Holmgren, former chairman of the CIA's Civil Air Transport.

The investigative journalist, Jonathan Kwitny, became convinced that the Nugan Hand Bank had replaced the Castle Bank & Trust of Nassau, as the CIA's covert banker. Former CIA agent, Kevin P. Mulcahy later told the National Times newspaper "about the Agency's use of Nugan Hand for shifting money for various covert operations around the globe."

In February 1976, Admiral Bobby Ray Inman, the new head of the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), discovered that Wilson was involved in some dubious undercover business deals. A few months later Wilson was asked to leave the ONI. Wilson continued to run the CIA-fronted companies he had established. The largest of these was Consultants International and over the next few years amassed a fortune of over $20 million. This enabled him to buy a 2,338-acre farm in Northern Virginia, where he often entertained his close friends, Ted Shackley and Thomas G. Clines.

Much of his money was made in the arms trade. His most important customer was Moammar Gaddafi, the dictator of Libya. Wilson later claimed that it was Ted Shackley who first suggested he should go to Libya. Wilson got contracts to sell Libya army uniforms, ammunition, explosive timers and 20 tons of C-4 plastic explosives.

In 1976 Wilson recruited Raphael Quintero to kill a Libyan dissident in Egypt. Quintero selected two brothers, Rafael and Raoul Villaverde, to carry out the killing. However, the contract was later cancelled.

One of the men Wilson employed was former CIA officer Kevin P. Mulcahy. He became concerned about Wilson's illegal activities and sent a message about them to the agency. Ted Shackley, Deputy Director of Operations, was initially able to block any internal investigation of Wilson. However, in April, 1977, the Washington Post, published an article on Wilson's activities stating that he may be getting support from "current CIA employees". Stansfield Turner, director of the CIA, ordered an investigation and discovered that both Shackley and Clines had close relationships with Wilson. As a result, Turner made sure that both men's careers came to an end in the CIA.

In 1978 Thomas G. Clines left the CIA. He now joined with Raphael Quintero and Ricardo Chavez (another former CIA operative) to establish API Distributors. According to David Corn (Blonde Ghost: Ted Shackley and the CIA's Crusades) Wilson provided Clines with "half a million dollars to get his business empire going". In 1979 Clines established International Research and Trade Limited in Bermuda. Later that year he joined forces with Hussein Salem in providing U.S. military hardware to Egypt.

After leaving the CIA in September, 1979, Ted Shackley formed his own company, Research Associates International, which specialized in providing intelligence to business. He was also given consulting work with API Distributors, the company established by Thomas G. Clines, Raphael Quintero, and Ricardo Chavez.

In 1979 a gun that Wilson arranged to be delivered to the Libyan embassy in Bonn was used to kill a political dissident. Another dissident was murdered in Colorado by one of Wilson's men. According to Alfred W. McCoy (The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade): "Throughout 1979 the Wilson network and the Nugan Hand Bank began to build a close commercial alliance in the netherworld of national security subcontracting". Ted Shackley and Thomas G. Clines were also drawn into a relationship with the Nugan Hand Bank. Michael Hand wrote to Shackley on 27th November, 1979, suggesting a business meeting. Hand's latter also referred to Bernie Houghton, who had worked for Shackley in Vietnam.

Michael Hand probably wanted to talk about Edwin Wilson. In 1979 a Washington grand jury began gathering incriminating evidence about his illegal arms sales. To avoid arrest he moved to London. In the winter of 1979, Wilson had a meeting with Bernie Houghton and Thomas G. Clines in Switzerland in an attempt to help him out of his difficulties. This included a non-delivery of 5,000 M16 automatic rifles. The three men discussed ways of using the Nugan Hand Bank to float a $22 million loan to finance the delivery. Hand was obviously concerned that if Wilson was arrested he might begin talking about his dealings with Nugan Hand.

Michael Hand also had talks with William Colby, the former director of the CIA. It is not known what was discussed at this meeting but Colby submitted a bill to Nugan Hand Bank for $45,684 for his legal advice.

On 27th January, 1980 Frank Nugan was found dead in his car. Bernie Houghton was in Switzerland at the time and he immediately rang his branch office in Saudi Arabia and ordered the staff to leave the country. Houghton also visited Edwin Wilson's office in Geneva and left a briefcase with bank documents for safekeeping. Soon afterwards, a witness saw Thomas G. Clines going through the briefcase at Wilson's office and remove papers that referred to him and General Richard Secord.

Two days after Nugan died, Michael Hand held a meeting of Nugan Hand Bank directors. He warned them that unless they did as they were told they could "finish up with concrete shoes" and would be "liable to find their wives being delivered to them in pieces".

According to one witness, Thomas G. Clines helped Bernie Houghton escape from Australia. Michael Hand also left the country accompanied by James Oswald Spencer, a man who served with Ted Shackley in Laos. The two men traveled to America via Fiji and Vancouver. Hand then disappeared and has never been seen again.

The Australian authorities were forced to investigate the bank. They discovered that Ricardo Chavez, the former CIA operative who was co-owner of API Distributors with Thomas G. Clines and Raphael Quintero, was attempting to take control of the bank. The Corporate Affairs Commission of New South Wales came to the conclusion that Chavez was working on behalf of Clines, Quintero and Wilson.

Wilson was eventually indicted by the Department of Justice. However, he had moved to Libya and Moammar Gaddafi refused to extradite him. Wilson feared for his safety and the prosecutors knew this and in 1982 they sent Ernest Keiser to convince him that he would be safe in the Dominican Republic. Wilson flew to the Caribbean but upon arrival was arrested and flown to New York.

While awaiting trial Wilson attempted to recruit a fellow prisoner to kill Lawrence Barcella, the federal prosecutor. The prisoner instead went to the authorities and they set Wilson up with an undercover agent. The agent taped Wilson hiring him to kill the prosecutors, six witnesses and his ex-wife.

In 1984 Wilson was found not guilty of trying to hire Raphael Quintero and other Cubans to kill a Libyan dissident. However, he was found guilty of exporting guns and conspiracy to murder and was sentenced to 52 years in prison.

Wilson claimed he had been framed and claimed that he was working on behalf of the CIA. He employed David Adler, a former CIA agent, as his lawyer. Adler eventually found evidence that Wilson was indeed working for the CIA after he retired from the agency. In October 2003 a Houston federal judge, Lynn Hughes, threw out Wilson's conviction in the C-4 explosives case, ruling that the prosecutors had "deliberately deceived the court" about Wilson's continuing CIA contacts, thus "double-crossing a part-time informal government agent."

Despite the decision of Lynn Hughes, Edwin P. Wilson was not released. Eric Margolis has described him as "America's Man in the Iron Mask". Margolis has always believed Wilson innocent and spoke to him many times in prison. "I was framed by the government," Wilson told Margolis, "they want me to disappear. I know too much."

Edwin P. Wilson was released from prison in 2004 and died on 10th September 2012.    

Thomas Gregory Clines (August 18, 1928 - July 30, 2013^[1]) was a Central Intelligence Agency covert operations officer who was a prominent figure in the Iran-Contra Affair.

In the 1950s Clines worked at the CIA's Technical Services Division in Frankfurt.^[2]

As a CIA agent, between 1961–1962, Clines was involved in covert operations in Cuba. Clines later joined Ted Shackley, David Atlee Phillips and David Sanchez Morales at JM WAVE, the CIA's operational headquarters in Miami, Florida for the Cuban Project also known as Operation Mongoose, a project to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro in Cuba.

During this period, beginning shortly after the 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion, Clines developed a personal friendship with Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza Debayle, after his father, Anastasio Somoza Garcia, allowed the CIA to train anti-Cuban rebels in the country.^[3]

Between 1966-1970, during the Vietnam War, Clines worked as Ted Shackley's deputy in charge of the CIA's secret war in Laos.^[2]

Clines left Laos in 1970 and spent a year at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island.

In 1972, Clines was put in charge of CIA operations in Chile, and in 1973, he helped Augusto Pinochet overthrow Chile's democratically elected president, Salvador Allende.

While working on the attempt to undermine the government of Fidel Castro in Cuba, Clines became friends with Rafael Quintero ("Chi Chi"). When he was given responsibility for Nicaragua in 1978, Thomas Clines recruited Quintero to help the CIA in its efforts against the socialist Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) that governed Nicaragua. This included helping Anastasio Somoza Debayle to develop a counter-subversion program in the country.

The CIA in Kuwait: Parallels to a 9/11 Suspect

Posted on April 7, 2014by Kevin Ryan

https://digwithin.net/2014/04/07/the-cia-in-kuwait-parallels-to-a-911-suspect/

As discussed in my book, Another Nineteen, there are good reasons to believe that some 9/11 suspects were involved in previous deep state operations. For example, evidence suggests that Stratesec manager Barry McDaniel and Carlyle Group director Frank Carlucci might have participated in the Iran-Contra crimes. There are also interesting links between several 9/11 suspects and Ted Shackley, a leader of the “CIA within the CIA.” Shackley was close friends with Frank Carlucci and had a long, close relationship with Richard Armitage, whose State department provided express visas to the alleged hijackers. Additionally, Porter Goss, who led the initial cover-up of the 9/11 crimes, had worked with Shackley in several CIA operations.

Perhaps the most interesting historical link between Shackley and 9/11 is that Shackley’s activities in Kuwait paralleled those of Wirt Walker, the KuwAm Corporation director. KuwAm was the parent company of Stratesec, the security company for several 9/11 facilities. As I’ve written before, these companies appeared to be part of a private intelligence network.

Ted Shackley                          

Shackley had a long career in covert CIA operations and was the agency’s Associate Deputy Director of Operations from 1976 to 1977. Described by former CIA Director Richard Helms as “a quadruple threat – Drugs, Arms, Money and Murder,” Shackley was a central character in many off-the-books operations. He was a leader of the CIA’s anti-Castro plan Operation Mongoose, its secret war in Laos, the Phoenix Program in Vietnam, and the overthrow of Salvadore Allende in Chile.

Although Walker is officially only the son of a CIA man, his past has much in common with that of Shackley. In the 1980s, both men were strongly linked to the Bush family network, to Kuwait, and to aviation. They both ran security companies as well. Walker became close to the Kuwaitis at the same time as their government was working closely with Shackley and another CIA operative. Moreover, the people pulling the strings from the Kuwaiti side in those relationships were close relatives of KuwAm chairman Mish’al Al-Sabah.

After leaving the CIA in 1979, Shackley formed his own company, TGS International, which appeared to be focused on obtaining access to places like Kuwait and Iran. TGS functioned as a broker for Boeing 747 aircraft, attempted to sell various goods to Iran, and did construction work in Kuwait. Several of TGS’ shareholders were Iranian exiles, including former SAVAK agent Novzar Razmara.

At the same time, Shackley took part in the Reagan campaign operation that resulted in the American hostages in Iran being held until Reagan was inaugurated in 1981. Following this, Shackley and some of his former CIA friends, Thomas Clines and Richard Secord, became involved in the Iran-Contra affair.

When Walker’s KuwAm was just getting off the ground, Shackley was beginning to secure contracts with the Kuwaiti government. George H.W. Bush had helped Shackley get started in Kuwait around that time. Bush’s contacts there went back to the days when Kuwait and other oil-rich royals in the region helped fund his Zapata Off-Shore operation.

In his book Blond Ghost, David Corn wrote that, “Shackley viewed Kuwait as a tremendous source of profits.” Those profits appeared to be tied to the Kuwaiti royal family’s interests. In 1982, the year that KuwAm was incorporated in Washington, the Kuwaiti government specifically requested that the U.S. Navy award Shackley’s firm a $1.2 million contract to rehabilitate a warehouse for the Kuwaiti Air Force, although Shackley and his company had little or no experience in that kind of work. Toward the end of 1983, Shackley’s company signed a $6.3 million deal with the U.S. Navy to perform construction at the Ali Al-Salem Air Base, forty miles outside of Kuwait City.

TGS was also involved in suspicious dealings on the other side of the world. In October 1984, when Congress had cut off funding to the Contras, Jeb Bush, brother of Stratesec director Marvin Bush, put the Guatemalan politician Dr. Mario Castejon in touch with Oliver North. This led Castejon to propose that the U.S. State Department supply miscellaneous, ostensibly non-military, assistance to the Contras. The proposal was passed to the CIA through TGS International.

Shackley continued working in Kuwait by way of another of his ventures called Research Associates International (RAI), which specialized in “risk analysis” by providing intelligence to business interests. Shackley also testified that RAI was a security company. “We design security systems,” he said, confirming yet another similarity between his business activities and those of Walker. RAI’s primary customer was Trans-World Oil, run by a Dutch citizen named John Deuss. The work involved smuggling oil into South Africa in violation of an embargo.

Another CIA operative was working with the Kuwaiti royals at the same time as Walker and Shackley. In the case of Robert M. Sensi, CIA connections to the Kuwaiti royal family were confirmed. While working for the Washington office of Kuwait Airways, which was owned by the Kuwaiti government, Sensi operated covertly as a CIA asset. He organized the 1980 flights for William Casey to Europe for meetings on the deal to hold the hostages. In the mid-1980s, he helped set up CIA fronts in Iran along with Iranian exile Habib Moallem.

Sensi’s work for the Kuwaitis and the CIA came to light in a late 1980s series of articles in the Washington Post that covered legal proceedings in which Sensi had been accused of embezzling funds from Kuwait Airways. During the proceedings, the CIA admitted that Sensi had worked for the agency for years and Sensi’s supervisor at the company, Inder Sehti, admitted that Sensi had been allowed by the Kuwaiti government to use a slush fund for CIA purposes. Apparently, those purposes included managing the U.S. visits of Kuwaiti royal family members. Presumably, this would have included the travel arrangements for young Mish’al Al-Sabah when he came to live with Walker’s family.

Sensi claimed that he was nominally working for Kuwait Airways and the Kuwaiti royal family was funding his activities. He also claimed to be acting under the direction of the Kuwait ambassador to the United States. When Sensi signed on to the job, in 1977, the Kuwait ambassador to the U.S. was Khalid Muhammad Jaffar. In January 1981, while Sensi was still using the Kuwaiti funds for CIA work, Jaffar was succeeded by the father of Nayirah, the girl who later lied as part of the propaganda that started the Gulf War. Nayirah was a first cousin of KuwAm’s Mish’al Al- Sabah.

Sensi also clarified that, as a CIA asset, he was “being run directly by CIA director William Casey, in close concert with Vice President Bush.” This is an interesting connection between Walker and Sensi, in that Walker worked with Casey at Glore Forgan a decade earlier and with Bush’s son at Stratesec. Of course, Walker and his family had connections to the deep state going back generations.

The Kuwaiti royal who approved the use of this CIA slush fund for Sensi was Jabir Adbhi Al-Sabah, the vice chairman of Kuwaiti Airways and Kuwait’s chief of civil aviation. Like Nayirah, Jabir Adbhi Al- Sabah was closely related to KuwAm’s Mish’al Al-Sabah, as a first cousin once removed. What’s more, Jabir’s colleague, the chairman of Kuwaiti Airways, was none other than Faisal al-Fulaij, the Kuwaiti nominee for the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI). Al-Fulaij was deeply involved in the operations of BCCI and its U.S. subsidiaries.

In 2005, a different Mish’al Al-Sabah, who was another first cousin of KuwAm’s Mish’al, provided yet more evidence that Kuwait had al Qaeda ties. This Al-Sabah was brought to trial in Kuwait for certain inflammatory claims he had made. Mish’al Al-Jarrah Al-Sabah, Kuwait’s Assistant Undersecretary for State Security Affairs at the time of the 9/11 attacks, made these claims in an interview on a U.S.-funded Kuwaiti television program called Al Hurra. Al-Sabah was charged with claiming that “that there is an old base for the al-Qaeda organization in Kuwait.” He also accused two Kuwaiti government MPs “of belonging to al-Qaeda.” During a five and a half hour closed-door inquisition, he recanted the claims. Despite this retraction, other evidence exists that links KuwAm and al Qaeda.

KuwAm’s Aviation General was the parent of two wholly-owned subsidiaries: Commander Aircraft Company, which manufactured Commander-brand aircraft, and Strategic Jet Services, which provided aircraft brokerage and refurbishment services. Aviation General, Commander Aircraft, and Strategic Jet Services were all located in Hangar 8 of Wiley Post Airport in Bethany, OK, near Oklahoma City.

In another apparent coincidence, CIA asset Robert Sensi had listed an Oklahoma City address as his residence for a period of time. The address that Sensi gave was for the Oklahoma City Halfway House, a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center located 11 miles from Wiley Post Airport.

FBI summary documents prepared for the 9/11 investigations state that Mohamed Atta was spotted at Wiley Post Airport within six months of the 9/11 attacks. Atta was witnessed flying at Wiley Post along with two other alleged 9/11 hijackers, Marwan Al-Shehhi and Waleed Al-Shehri. Other FBI summary documents indicate that Saeed Al-Ghamdi was also seen flying in to Wiley Post Airport on an unspecified date and that Hani Hanjour had made inquiries to a flight school there.

Therefore it is a remarkable fact that Wirt Walker and his companies were located at this same airport. But the surprises don’t stop there. Wiley Post has approximately 24 hangars and Hangar 8 is set off away from the rest. Although Aviation General and its subsidiaries all went bankrupt or were sold off in the few years after 9/11, Hangar 8 still houses three businesses. At first glance, the most interesting of these new Hangar 8 companies is the flight school called Oklahoma Aviation. This is due to an incredible coincidence regarding the young man who heads the company, Shohaib Nazir Kassam.

In March 2006, Kassam was a government witness against Zacarias Moussaoui. He was, in fact, Moussaoui’s flight instructor. Kassam moved to Oklahoma in 1998, at the age of 18, coming from Mombassa, Kenya. He was originally from Pakistan. Two years after he arrived in Oklahoma, he completed his training to become a flight instructor. He was only 21 years of age when he spent 57 hours training Zacarias Moussaoui to fly.

To emphasize, the man who now occupies Wirt Walker’s offices in Hangar 8 at Wiley Post Airport not only knew Zacarias Moussaoui, he was Moussaoui’s primary flight instructor. These interesting links to 9/11 suggest that the lease for the Hangar 8 offices might be held by a deep state entity.

It certainly seems that there is more to the story of KuwAm’s aviation companies, and those related to Hangar 8. If nothing else, an investigation must consider that it is not simply a coincidence that Moussaoui’s primary trainer is now occupying the offices of Walker’s former businesses at Wiley Post Airport. And although KuwAm companies operated out of Wiley Post, they were all officially headquartered at the famous Watergate Hotel in Washington DC, in office space leased by the Saudi and Kuwaiti governments.

Another of KuwAm’s companies that held its meetings at The Watergate, Stratesec, provided security services for several facilities that were central to the crimes of 9/11. In the years leading up to 9/11, the company had security contracts at Dulles Airport, where Flight 77 took off that day, and with United Airlines, which owned two of the other three hijacked planes. Stratesec had also run security for Los Alamos National Laboratories, where, at the time, scientists were developing nanothermite materials of the type that have been found in the WTC dust. At the World Trade Center, Stratesec was responsible for the electronic security system for the complex in the period leading up to, and including, the day of 9/11.

Any investigation into 9/11 should consider the parallel activities of Wirt Walker and “private CIA” leader Ted Shackley. These men were strongly linked to the Bush family network and to Kuwait. Although Walker is certainly a suspect in 9/11 insider trading, his known connections to the CIA are currently only familial. However, if Walker was operating in the same private network as Shackley before 9/11, it would give reason to believe that, like Shackley’s cohorts Armitage, Carlucci, and Goss, the security company Stratesec and its leaders should be a primary focus of a new 9/11 investigation.