TBR News July 14, 2010
The Voice of the White House
Washington, D.C., July 15, 2010: “The FBI’s National Security Branch Analysis Center (NSAC) have presently assembled over 1.5 billion records from public and private sources for a massive data mining operation.. The records collected by the FBI include:
- financial records from corporate databases, such as hotel and rental car company transactions; millions of “suspicious activity reports” from financial institutions. All voluntarily supplied;;
- fifteen million records from commercial data firms, given voluntarily;
- a multitude of law enforcement and non-law enforcement government databases; and
- public information from the personal sites on the internet, telephone and utility records and a large area of information taken from published news articles.
The NSAC records include the FBI’s Investigative Data Warehouse, which was identified in a 2007 Department of Justice Inspector General report as the database storing information collected by the FBI through the use of National Security Letters (NSLs).
The ‘USA Patriot Act’ instituted after the rigged 9/11 atacks, purposefully expanded the FBI’s authority to collect information about people it does not specifically suspect of wrongdoing, to include, but not be limited to, financial, credit and communications information, using NSLs and enhanced suspicious activity reporting requirements from banks, casinos and car dealerships..
We might also mention the so-called Total Information Awareness (TIA) program. Shortly after 9/11, the government sought to build TIA, designed to be an immense data mining operation that would gather and evaluate an extensive list of databases containing personal information about Americans – including communications, medical, travel, education and financial data – in an attempt to detect supposedly “suspicious” patterns.
It does not matter if an American citizen is completely innocent of any wrongdoing, connection with purported “terrorists” or any such breach of what is now termed ‘National Security’ but so afraid is the government of public dissatisfaction and potential revolt that anything concerning any American citizen is important. After all, they reason (and this from a memo to the President from Cass Sunstine) ‘the more we can know, the petter prepared we will be for public dissent…..it is better to arrest a hundred innocent men than to let one terrorist, domestic or foreign, escape our net…’”
FBI Spying
June 25, 2010
ACLU
As the nation’s predominant law enforcement agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has robust powers to peer into the lives of American citizens. But the FBI claims even broader authorities when acting in the nebulous realm of “national security,” where its actions are largely hidden from public view and the procedural checks and balances that apply in criminal investigations are all but non-existent. The FBI has a long history of abusing its national security surveillance powers. The potential for abuse is once again great, particularly given that the lines between criminal investigations and foreign intelligence operations have been blurred or erased through the “war on terror.” As a result, intrusive surveillance tools originally developed to target Soviet spies are increasingly being used against Americans.
COINTELPRO
During the Cold War, the FBI ran a domestic intelligence/counterintelligence program called COINTELPRO that quickly evolved from a legitimate effort to protect the national security from hostile foreign threats into an effort to suppress domestic political dissent through an array of illegal activities. COINTELPRO targeted numerous non-violent protest groups and political dissidents with illegal wiretaps, warrantless physical searches and an array of other dirty tricks. The FBI used the information it gleaned from these improper investigations not for law enforcement purposes, but to “break up marriages, disrupt meetings, ostracize persons from their professions and provoke target groups into rivalries that might result in deaths.” The Church Committee, a Senate Select Committee that investigated COINTELPRO in the 1970s, found that a combination of factors led law enforcers to become law breakers. One factor was their perception that traditional law enforcement methods were ineffective in addressing the security threats they faced. Another was their easy access to damaging personal information as a result of “the unrestrained collection of domestic intelligence.” Unfortunately, these factors are all present again today as the FBI seeks to transform itself into an internal intelligence agency dedicated to preventing future acts of terrorism.
Reforms undone
The Church Committee’s exposure of the FBI’s COINTELPRO abuses led to a series of reforms, including laws designed to regulate government surveillance and internal guidelines (Attorney General’s Guidelines) which limited the FBI’s investigative authority and spelled out the rules that govern law enforcement operations. These reasonable limits have been either abandoned or ignored since 9/11, however, through legislation like the USA Patriot Act, through amendments to the AG Guidelines, and through an expansion of powerful Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTF) that operate with virtually no public accountability.
Patriot Act
With the enactment of the USA Patriot Act Congress expanded the FBI’s authority to make secret demands for personal information and records about not just suspected terrorists or spies but about anyone the FBI deemed merely “relevant” to an FBI investigation. Not surprisingly, a series of five audits by the Department of Justice Inspector General confirmed widespread FBI mismanagement, misuse and abuse of this unchecked authority, which is now used, more often than not, to target Americans. For more on the Patriot Act, see the ACLU’s extensive page on that issue.
Attorney General Guidelines
The AG Guidelines underwent four separate changes under the Bush administration, all of which gave the FBI increased surveillance authorities with reduced oversight. Attorney General John Ashcroft first amended the guidelines in 2002 to expand the investigative techniques the FBI could use during preliminary inquiries (which require less evidence of wrongdoing to initiate than a full investigation), and to increase the time limits to 180 days with the possibility of two or more 90-day extensions. The Ashcroft guidelines also allowed FBI agents to “visit any place and attend any event that is open to the public, on the same terms and conditions as members of the public generally.” The FBI later claimed this authority did not require the FBI agents attending public meetings to identify themselves as government officials.
Attempting to assuage concerns that the FBI would misuse this expanded authority by targeting First Amendment-protected activity, FBI Director Robert Mueller told Congress in 2002 that the FBI did not have plans to infiltrate mosques. Nonetheless, in the ensuing years there was a sharp increase in the FBI’s controversial use of informants as agents provocateur in religious settings, including in Miami, New York, and northern and southern California. In 2009 Director Mueller defended these tactics, saying the FBI would not “take [its] foot off the pedal of addressing counterterrorism.”
In 2005 the Department of Justice Inspector General (IG) audited the FBI’s compliance with AG Guidelines and found significant deficiencies: 53 % of the audited preliminary inquiries that extended beyond the initial 180-day authorization period did not contain necessary documentation authorizing the extension, and 77% of those that extended past the first 90-day extension period lacked the required authorizations. The IG was unable to determine whether or how frequently agents attended public events, however, because the FBI failed to keep records of such activity.
The final and most dramatic changes to the AG Guidelines were made in December 2008, in the Bush Administration’s final month in office. Then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey instituted new guidelines that authorize the FBI to conduct investigations called “assessments” without requiring any factual predicate suggesting the target of the investigation is involved in illegal activity or threats to national security. The Mukasey guidelines allow the FBI to utilize a number of intrusive investigative techniques during these assessments, including physical surveillance, retrieving data from commercial databases, recruiting and tasking informants to attend meetings under false pretenses, and engaging in “pretext” interviews in which FBI agents misrepresent their identities in order to elicit information. “Assessments” can even be conducted against an individual simply to determine if he or she would be a suitable FBI informant. Nothing in the new AG Guidelines protects entirely innocent Americans from being thoroughly investigated by the FBI for no good reason. The new Guidelines explicitly authorize the surveillance and infiltration of peaceful advocacy groups in advance of demonstrations, and they do not clearly prohibit using race, religion, or national origin as factors in initiating assessments.
Use of race and ethnicity
An internal FBI guide to implementing the new AG Guidelines, called the Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (DIOG), contains startling revelations about how the FBI is using race and ethnicity in conducting assessments and investigations. First, the DIOG says that investigative and intelligence collection activities must not be based “solely on race.” But the Department of Justice’s 2003 Guidance on the Use of Race in Federal Law Enforcement, which is binding on the FBI, says race can’t be used “to any degree” absent a specific subject description. There is a huge difference between using race as a factor and using race as the sole factor.
Moreover, the DIOG then goes on to describe the authorized uses of race and ethnicity for FBI agents, which include:
“Collecting and analyzing” racial and ethnic community demographics. The FBI, according to the document, is authorized to “identify locations of concentrated ethnic communities in the Field Office’s domain, if these locations will reasonably aid in the analysis of potential threats and vulnerabilities, and, overall, assist domain awareness for the purpose of performing intelligence analysis… Similarly, the locations of ethnically-oriented businesses and other facilities may be collected…” (DIOG page 32)
“Geo-mapping” of racial and ethnic demographics. “As a general rule, if information about community demographics may be collected it may be ‘mapped.'” (DIOG page 33)
Collecting “specific and relevant” racial and ethnic behavior. Though the DIOG prohibits “the collection of cultural and behavioral information about an ethnic community that bears no relationship to a valid investigative or analytical need,” it allows FBI agents to consider “focused behavioral characteristics reasonably believed to be associated with a particular criminal or terrorist element of an ethnic community,” as well as “behavioral and cultural information about ethnic or racial communities” that may be exploited by criminals or terrorists “who hide within those communities.” (DIOG page 33-34).
It is hard to imagine how any U.S. law enforcement agency would consider collecting and mapping racial and ethnic community demographics an appropriate use of its resources (or, for that matter, consistent with its obligation to not only follow but enforce U.S. civil rights laws). In fact, in 2007 the Los Angeles Police Department abandoned a similar plan to map LA’s Muslim community in the face of public outrage. The FBI hotly contested a 2007 report from Congressional Quarterly’s Jeff Stein that the FBI had tracked San Francisco falafel sales to try and find Iranian terrorists, but the DIOG certainly confirms that the FBI considers ethnic behavior and ethnic-oriented businesses fair targets for surveillance (and Stein stood by his story).
Data mining
The FBI is sweeping up incredible amounts of information about innocent Americans through unchecked data collection and data mining programs. According to documents obtained by Wired magazine in 2009, an arm of the FBI called the National Security Branch Analysis Center (NSAC) has collected 1.5 billion records from public and private sources in a massive data mining operation. The records collected by the FBI include financial records from corporate databases, such as hotel and rental car company transactions; millions of “suspicious activity reports” from financial institutions; millions of records from commercial data aggregators; a multitude of law enforcement and non-law enforcement government databases; and public information gleaned from telephone books and news articles. The NSAC records include data from the FBI’s Investigative Data Warehouse, which was identified in a Department of Justice Inspector General reports as the depository for information collected by the FBI through National Security Letters (NSLs) and illegal exigent letters.
The FBI has also established a new database called eGuardian to collect and share suspicious activity reports with the federal intelligence agencies, the Department of Homeland Security, fusion centers, the military and state and local law enforcement.
Report: NSA creating spy system to monitor domestic infrastructure
July 7, 2010 —
Raw Story
Internal Raytheon email calls system ‘Big Brother’
The National Security Agency has begun work on an “expansive” spy system that will monitor critical infrastructure inside the United States for cyber-attacks, in a move that detractors say could end up violating privacy rights and expanding the NSA’s domestic spying abilities.
The Wall Street Journal cites unnamed sources as saying that the NSA has issued a $100-million contract to defense contractor Raytheon to build a system dubbed “Perfect Citizen,” which will involve placing “sensors” at critical points in the computer networks of private and public organizations that run infrastructure, organizations such as nuclear power plants and electric grid operators.
In an email obtained by the Journal, an unnamed Raytheon employee describes the system as “Big Brother.”
“The overall purpose of the [program] is our Government…feel[s] that they need to insure the Public Sector is doing all they can to secure Infrastructure critical to our National Security,” the email states. “Perfect Citizen is Big Brother.”
Hundreds of Federal Agents Fall Victim to Ponzi Scheme
July 8, 2010
by Allan Lengel
AOL News
FBI agents are supposed to unearth scams, not become victims of them. This time is different.
Some 300 retired and current federal agents — representing the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement — collectively invested tens of millions of dollars of retirement money in what turned out to be a Ponzi scheme allegedly run by a Florida man who committed suicide last month, an attorney in the case said.
The FBI and the Securities and Exchange Commission are now investigating and trying to recover funds.
“There are definitely [agents] who have lost their life savings,” Fort Lauderdale attorney Michael Goldberg, who is representing the victims, told AOL News.
The reaction of the agents? “Pretty much what you expect,” Goldberg said. “Shock and anger.”
Behind it all, authorities said, was a self-described retirement investment adviser named Kenneth Wayne McLeod, 48. For years McLeod served as a trusted adviser to federal agents around the country, making free financial projections for retirement and in some cases offering high-yield returns of 8 to 10 percent on certain investments, according to an SEC filing in the case.
On June 22, McLeod was found dead in Jacksonville, Fla., of a gunshot wound.(!)
His Florida-based companies, Federal Employee Benefits Group Inc. and F&S Asset Management Group Inc., appear to have been shut down and all assets frozen, authorities said. Calls to both numbers went unanswered this afternoon and the voice mails were full.
McLeod allegedly mentioned to prospective clients the names of many federal agents he knew, including straitlaced FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, according to the website Gang Land News, which reported on the story today.
“[McLeod] would tell people that Bob Mueller was a friend of his,” a retired FBI agent told Gang Land News. “The guy was a real charmer. He would say that he and Bob were best of friends and that Bob and his wife used to stay at his place all the time. The worst thing about this is that this creep scammed hard-working GS-13s and GS-14s [federal employees].”
Mueller did in fact rent vacation properties in Amelia Island, Fla., for several years, Gang Land News reported. But Michael Kortan, the chief FBI spokesman, said in a statement that even if McLeod had owned one of those properties, Mueller had no idea who he was renting from.
“The director had no personal or professional relationship with Mr. McLeod, nor did he engage in any financial dealings of any kind with him,” Kortan stated.
According to the SEC, McLeod for years put on retirement seminars that federal agencies paid as much as $15,000 for. He offered some investments with such companies as Fidelity, which the FBI said appeared to be safe. But others investments appeared to be fraudulent.
In many instances, he offered high returns — 8 to 10 percent — through bonds.
“The security of the government bonds was a key element of McLeod’s deception but he never purchased any bonds,” the SEC said in a statement on June 25. “Instead, he used the investors’ retirement savings to conduct a Ponzi scheme, to pay himself and to pay for lavish entertainment, including annual trips to the Super Bowl for himself and 40 friends.”
FBI special agent Jeff Westcott of the Jacksonville, Fla., office, which is investigating the matter, told AOL News that McLeod had “an air of credibility.”
The irony and embarrassment of the case are clear to many agents around the country. And at the SEC, the unusual set of circumstances is not lost on officials.
Glenn Gordon, SEC associate regional director for the Miami Regional Office, said, “I am not aware personally of another case where this was the target audience.”
The Russian Bear Awakens
July 9, 2010
The Economic Collapse
Today most Americans consider the United States to be “the sole remaining superpower” – absolutely unparalleled economically and militarily. But the truth is not anything close to that. As we detailed in a previous article, China has become a very dominant economic and military superpower. But there is another world superpower that the American people and the American media are not taking seriously. The Russian Bear has awakened, and yet most people in the U.S. think of Russia as a Cold War opponent that we “defeated” and which is now a shell of its former self. The recent Russian spy case is a perfect example of the tremendous lack of respect which the American public has for Russia these days. It is almost as if the media is saying: “Oh look, isn’t it so cute that these little Russians are spying on us as if the Cold War was still going on?” But the truth is that it is a massive error to underestimate Russia. Today it is a fact that Russia is stronger both economically and militarily than it ever has been before.
You doubt this?
Quick – name the number one oil producer in the world.
Here’s a hint – it is not Saudi Arabia.
Russia has also recently become the number one oil exporter in the world.
Not only that, but Russia is also the number one exporter of natural gas in the world.
In a world starving for oil and natural resources, that puts Russia in a very strong position.
Back on December 28th, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was on hand to celebrate the opening of Russia’s first modern Pacific-based oil export facilities. The Pacific port of Kozmino now allows Russia to export huge amounts of oil to growing economies throughout Asia.
And to the United States.
Did you know that Russia is rapidly becoming one of the top suppliers of oil to the United States?
It’s true.
So is it smart for the U.S. to start becoming dependent on oil from Russia?
No, probably not.
But that is what is happening.
And the Russian economy is booming.
Russia experienced very high economic growth during the early part of the past decade, and analysts project Russia’s GDP will grow by more than 5% in 2010.
And most people think of Russian cities as crumbling, broken down cities where people stand in line for bread.
Not anymore.
According to Forbes, Moscow is now the third most expensive cities in the world in which to live. In fact, the cost of living is higher in Moscow than in any U.S. city.
Who would have thought that it costs more money to live in Moscow than in New York City?
But Russia has not just become an economic superpower once again.
Russia has also been using all of this new economic power to rapidly update and modernize both its conventional and strategic military forces….
*Over the last several years, Russia has been very busy updating and modernizing their strategic nuclear forces. U.S. officials still claim that America has a technological edge in this area, but everyone agrees that the gap is rapidly narrowing.
*On June 15th, Russia introduced their new “fourth generation” nuclear submarine to the world, which is apparently quieter than any other submarine in existence.
*Not only that, but a couple weeks ago Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin climbed into the cockpit of Russia’s new “fifth generation” fighter jet and announced that it was far superior to the F-22 Raptor.
And Russia is once again projecting their strength throughout the world. We all saw what they were able to achieve in Georgia. But they have been very busy elsewhere as well….
*Iran announced on Wednesday that the Bushehr nuclear power plant, a joint project with Russia, would be ready for operation in two months.
*Russia has signed major arms deals with Syria under which it will sell Syria warplanes, anti-tank weapons and air defense systems.
*After Russian President Medvedev’s historic visit to Damascus, Russia’s energy minister announced that his country is “studying the question” of building a nuclear power plant in Syria.
*Russian President Dmitry Medvedev recently announced that Russia and Turkey are becoming key strategic partners.
*The Russian government has agreed to a raft of new accords with the new, much more pro-Russian, government in Ukraine.
But still the United States is not taking Russia seriously.
According to Admiral James A. Winnefeld, the commander of the U.S. Northern Command, Russia is continuing to fly strategic nuclear bombers close to U.S. and Canadian airspace because the Russian military is seeking to maintain “the illusion of power”.
The illusion of power?
Is he kidding?
It is this dramatic underestimation of Russia power that could end up seriously burning us in the end.
The truth is this lack of understanding of the world situation goes all the way to the top.
Barack Obama is pushing for a plan which would reduce the size of the U.S. strategic nuclear arsenal to about 10 percent of what it was at the height of the Cold War.
Most Americans (and most people who will read this article) simply dismiss Russia as not being a significant threat, but that just shows how misinformed most people are.
And in many ways Russia is in a much better position right now than the United States is.
The Russian government actually ran large budget surpluses from 2001 to 2007 and has a very small national debt.
Meanwhile, the U.S. government has accumulated the biggest debt in the history of the world.
In fact, Russia owns about 100 billion dollars of that debt.
My how the tables have turned.
The frightening thing is that Russia and China are cooperating on a host of economic and military projects as they seek to “counterbalance” U.S. power in the world.
The truth is that the U.S. cannot just “do whatever it wants” in the world anymore.
Russia and China are both more powerful than they have ever been before and they aren’t going anywhere any time soon.
The world has changed. If the United States does not wake up and recognize this fact there are going to be some very serious consequences.
Irish block EU plan to allow data transfer to Israel
July 11, 2010
by Arthur Beesley in Brussels
Irish Times
The Government has moved to block a European Commission initiative to allow the transfer to Israel and storage there of sensitive personal data on European citizens.
The intervention by Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern reflects “profound concern” over transfers being made following the use of eight fake Irish passports by the alleged Israeli assassins of Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.
Dubai police have accused Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad of orchestrating the killing using fraudulent British, French, German and Australian passports along with the fake Irish passports. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement.
The commission wanted European governments to approve a declaration that the EU recognises Israeli data protection standards as being sufficient to allow member states to transfer such personal data to Israel. Two days ago, however, Irish officials called for the termination of the procedure under which EU governments were to endorse the commission’s declaration. Without such a declaration, the transfer of personal data to Israel is prohibited.
“It may well be the case that Israel provides data protections which meet EU standards,” said a spokesman for Mr Ahern.
“But the Minister believes the EU committee has to take very serious account of the forgery of EU passports – including Irish ones – by Israel in recent months.
“Personal data provided innocently to Israeli officials by Irish citizens was used in forging passports. Other EU countries, particularly the UK, had similar experiences and that is a matter of the gravest concern.”
The Government, which last month expelled an official from the Israeli embassy in Dublin as a result of the affair, believes the data used in the forged Irish documents was gleaned from the official inspection of travellers’ passports. Because of its formal objection to the declaration, EU governments will be asked to debate the issue in a committee that deals with protection of personal data.
The commission sought to push ahead with the declaration by way of a written procedure after a meeting of the committee where there was no quorum. Under the “silence” procedure in question, the decision to make the declaration would have taken effect automatically if no member state had raised an objection by Tuesday’s deadline. “There will now have to be a full hearing of the proposal at the . . . committee where Ireland will be able to voice our profound concerns at such a proposal,” Mr Ahern’s spokesman said.
The intervention reflects serious concern in Government circles that any formal decision by the EU to declare itself satisfied with the standards of data protection in Israel would be sensitive politically. This would be difficult for the public to understand, the Government believes.
Although Garda and Passport Office investigations discovered “no additional evidence” linking the forged Irish passports to Israel, the Government concluded that an official Israeli agency was responsible for the “misuse and, most likely, the manufacture” of the forged Irish passports.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2010/0708/1224274266971.html
Lieberman’s settlement bars Russian-Israeli families from buying homes
July 11, 2010
by Chaim Levinson
Haaretz
The Nokdim secretariat ruled two weeks ago to bar non-Jewish Russian-Israelis from buying homes in the small Bethlehem-area settlement where Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman makes his home. The decision came after a frenzied debate between residents over whether the entry of individuals not considered Jewish by religious law would lead to “assimilation” or improper behavior on the part of veteran residents and their children.
The current fracas was sparked after a number of families of Russian origin applied to be accepted in the community. In each of the families, at least one member is not Jewish according to halakha, or religious law. Nokdim is a mixed community of religious and secular Israelis, both native and Russian-speaking, in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc southeast of Jerusalem.
After several residents expressed opposition to admitting the families, the settlement’s absorption committee decided to bring up the issue at a secretariat meeting. Two weeks ago the panel decided the families’ applications would be rejected.
Nokdim’s secretary, Yossi Heiman, told Haaretz: “If there were an easy solution to this issue, we wouldn’t have to hold hearings on it. There are many considerations both ways; there are also strong arguments in favor of accepting these families. But, ultimately, the majority decided they were opposed to such a high number of these families coming in and changing the community’s demographics.
“The biggest problem is that if you accept 10 families in which the mother isn’t Jewish, then soon there will be 30 children, and tomorrow your son could fall in love with the good-looking girl next door. It’s a real problem,” Heiman said.
“It’s difficult enough with the dozens of terrorists who enter each morning,” added Nokdim resident Amit Gruen, in apparent reference to Palestinians employed in home construction in the settlement.
“We have to separate ourselves from the gentiles in commerce and everything else – particularly when it comes to living with them. It could lead to assimilation or idol worship; it opens the door to all kinds of trouble. They might lead us into committing offenses that Jews normally don’t do, like idolatry and incest and all kinds of other perversions. That’s why we have no place for them here,” he said.
“In principle, the fact that they serve in the army is a problem. They must not serve in the army – the fact that the state brought them over doesn’t mean a thing. Just as it brought them over, it can send them back to their own countries,” Gruen said.
Gil Gan-Mor, an attorney heading the branch on housing rights at the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, said any decision not to accept a family as residents in a community on the basis of race, religion or sex is illegal discrimination.
Israeli Military Faults Navy for ‘Intelligence Failures’ in Flotilla Raid
Panel Praises Commandos’ Behavior in Killing Aid Workers
by Jason Ditz, July 12, 2010
It is likely the closest the Israeli government will over come to an investigation of the attack on the Mavi Marmara aid ship, a deadly raid which left nine aid workers dead and one of Israel’s closest allies, Turkey, demanding explanations.
But today an Israeli military panel charged with probing the attack (in a limited manner) faulted the Navy in general for failures to coordinate with Mossad on pre-attack intelligence regarding the civilian aid ship. It did not, however, name any names or asign specific blame.
It also declared that the commandos who boarded the ship and killed the aid workers could be “praised” and that the overall raid saw “no negligence or failures on any significant matters.”
The probe was a foregone conclusion, and it lacked any mandate to criticize the operation or aftermath in any serious way. The only reason for he probe in the first place was to quiet demands for an international probe, and even then it came with promises, before investigation even began, that it would vindicate the attack and the killings.
And it by and large has been successful, with the United States praising the Israeli probe in advance and dropping its calls for an international probe the minute Israel made it clear that would be unacceptable to them.
- Published 17:33 12.07.10
- Latest update 17:33 12.07.10
IDF blames intelligence for Gaza flotilla ‘mistakes’, but defends use of commandos
First Israeli probe of deadly May 31 raid, led by Maj. Gen. Eiland, cites intelligence failures but does not single out any officers for rebuke.
The Israel Defense Force committee investigating the navy’s deadly raid on a Turkish-flagged aid flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip found the incident to be the consequence of failed intelligence and a lack of proper preparation for the operation, according to its report released on Monday.
Nine Turkish pro-Palestinian activists were killed in the May 31 raid after they used clubs and knives to attack Israel Navy commandos boarding the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara. Israel had previously warned that it would take over the ships to enforce its blockade of the Gaza Strip.
The committee led by Maj. Gen. (res. ) Giora Eiland, however, characterized the failures made at the planning level as “mistakes,” rather than as negligence or fault. The report also found that the navy would have had no means to stop the ship at sea without endangering the vessel, and thus backed the decision to carry out a commando operation.
The committee said in its report that the navy had failed to sufficiently consider the possibility that the commandos would encounter violent resistance when attempting to keep the ships out of Gaza.
It also criticized the navy for not cooperating sufficiently with the Mossad in gathering information ahead of the flotilla’s arrival and to discuss the process by which the raid was approved.
The report did not, however, call for disciplinary action against particular officers.
“To my relief, the investigation found no negligence or failures on any significant matters, and that it was due to mistakes made at the relatively top levels that caused the results to be different from what was planned,” Eiland said.
He also said that some aspects of the operation could be “praised,” particularly the way the Shayetet 13 commandos acted during the operation and the quick and efficient evacuation of casualties.
Eiland’s is the first to complete its investigation. The Turkel Committee, appointed by the government to examine whether the raid adhered to international law, has just begun its investigation. A team from the State Comptroller’s Office will be beginning its own probe of the flotilla raid shortly.
Meanwhile, the High Court of Justice on Monday opened the door to expanding the authority of the Turkel Commission.
The five-member panel was was appointed by the cabinet in June to investigate the naval raid – which resulted in the deaths of nine Turkish pro-Palestinian activists aboard the Mavi Marmara – and its adherence to international law.
The panel currently has a limited mandate. It is only supposed to determine whether Israel’s efforts to stop the flotilla from reaching Gaza accorded with international law, and whether the soldiers’ use of force was proportionate. It has no power to subpoena witnesses and cannot draw personal conclusions against those involved in the raid.
Turkel, however, wants to turn it into a full-fledged governmental inquiry committee with real teeth. That would allow it to subpoena witnesses and documents, warn those who testify before it that the panel’s findings could harm them, and hire outside experts in relevant fields.
At the hearing Monday to address a petition against the committee’s limited authority, the justices said the court would consider widening the panel’s mandate if its members seek to probe persons or events outside of their jurisdiction, including Israel Defense Forces soldiers.
MPs say Israel navy surrounds Libya aid ship
April 13, 2010
Ma’an
Gaza/Bethlehem – Ma’an – A PLC member in Gaza and an Israeli MK reported Tuesday afternoon that warships had surrounded a Libyan aid ship 100 kilometers off the Gaza coast.
A military spokesman said he could not confirm the reports, made to Ma’an from Jamal Al-Khudari in Gaza and MK Ahmad Tibi in Jerusalem.
Tibi and Al-Khudari, who are both reportedly in touch with the ship’s organizers, said the crews were determined to continue to their destination, the Gaza City Port.
Al-Khudari said he believed Israeli warnings were serious, noting the similarity of the Israeli actions to the 31 May attack on a ship from the Freedom Flotilla, when commandos belayed on board and shot nine passengers in order to commandeer the vessel. A recent military investigation into the incident found no fault with the actions.
Shortly after noon, the Israeli military made radio contact the ship which left the Greek port of Athens on Saturday under a Moldovan flag.
An Israeli military spokesman said first contact was made with the boat over 100 miles from the shore. “It wasn’t a warning,” the representative added, saying forces made contact to ask who was on board, and “clarified it was not allowed to dock in Gaza. It was not an ultimatum.”
He added that the boat “will not enter Gaza.”
Radio Israel reported the contact involved a request to the captain of the ship to dock in the Egyptian port of Al-Arish, and to abandon plans to dock in Gaza City. The Associated Press quoted Libyan organizers saying the crew had been contacted and ordered to change course, though military officials denied the report.
The Gadhafi International Charity and Development Foundation said its boat refused to alter its destination and will steam on for Gaza, the AP said.
Al-Khudari earlier told German press agency DPA that Israeli attempts to convince the ship to dock in Al-Arish or Ashdod “have failed.”
At the time, and Isralei military spokeswoman said to the best of her knowledge the ship had not responded.
Hours earlier, senior Hamas member Ahmed Yousef announced that in 24-hours, a Libyan ship would dock in the Gaza City Port, and finish the mission of the Mavi Marmara.
Speaking for the committee to end the Gaza siege, Yousef called on Arab states to support the ship, organized by the son of Libyan President Mumar Gadhafi.
Yousef’s encouragement came the day after hundreds rallied in Gaza City, encouraging the ship to stay its course, following rumors that it would divert to the Egyptian port city of Al-Arish.
At the same time, Israeli media said the nation’s military was preparing to once again stop aid ships en route to Gaza using “forceful interdiction,” while a report from the Jewish Telegraph Agency said the Israeli foreign ministry warned the military not to intercept the ship in international waters.
According to the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz, the same recommendation was made in advance of the Freedom Flotilla, which was attacked 91 miles from the Gaza coast.
Earlier attempts to break the siege
While the interception of the Rachel Corrie ship in early June was peaceful, passengers aboard the Mavi Marmara, a cargo ship sailing under the Turkish flag as part of the Freedom Flotilla, attempted to fight off Israeli commandos boarding the vessel. The resistance cost nine Turks their lives, one of whom was a dual Turkish-American citizen.
The Israeli military found its soldiers were not at fault in an internal investigation already being criticized for bias, while a second state investigation has yet to get underway as members of the investigation team and peace groups demand an expanded mandate for the inquiry, after Israel refused to participate in an international investigation of the attack, which occurred in international waters.
Pentagon memo outlines how to deal with media on Afghanistan
July 12, 2010
CNN
A Defense Department memo obtained by CNN Monday outlines “consensus recommendations” on how the U.S. military should interact with members of the media in relation to the war in Afghanistan.
Among other things, the July 2 memo includes a recommendation of weekly briefings for Pentagon press by military officials in the field. It also calls for “consistent media engagement by our most credible interlocutors.”
It cites a “need to more effectively explain and sustain public understanding of [the Afghan] mission, goals, complexities and direct relevance to national security.”
In addition, it calls for increased military engagement with local and regional media outlets.
According to the memo, the recommendations were framed in part by “the understanding that key milestones” such as the July 2011 drawdown date will “frame public and decision-maker perceptions.” They are also based on an “understanding that ‘win-lose’ terms need to be supplanted by better metrics and measurements of progress.”
The memo was obtained 10 days after Defense Secretary Robert Gates ordered a tightening of controls over military interaction with reporters. Military officials, he specified, are required to notify the Pentagon before
providing interviews on potentially sensitive subjects.
Gates issued his order shortly after Gen. Stanley McChrystal was relieved of his duties as the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan in the wake of the publication of a Rolling Stone magazine article in which the general and his staff were quoted criticizing and mocking key administration officials.
Gates said last week that information given by military officials has too often been “lacking in proper context.” Furthermore, he said, “highly classified” information has frequently been divulged without proper approval.
Gates said he concluded that “we need greater coordination and discipline” in dealing with the media.
– CNN’s Barbara Starr contributed to this report
The Entertainment Section: Howler of the Week
The latest news from the Illuminati Headquarters! Atomic Bombs (built in China for WalMart) about to seal off huge oil leak! Famous scientists on alert! Sorcha Faal consulted!
Why BP is Readying a ‘Super Weapon’ to Avert Escalating Gulf Nightmare!!!
July 12, 2010
by Terrence Aym
Sott.net
Chicago – In a desperate attempt to stop a huge area of the Gulf ocean floor from possibly rupturing due to subterranean methane gas (leading to a calamity no human has ever seen) BP has ripped a page from science fiction books.
The giant oil company is now quietly preparing to test a small nuclear device in a frenzied rush against time to quell a cascading catastrophe. If successful they will have the capability to detonate a controlled fusion generated pulse.
While the world watches BP’s attempt to contain the oil gusher at the former Deepwater Horizon site, company officials have given the green light on an astounding plan to use what is known as a nuclear EPFCG charge if all else fails.
Sea floor compromised
Reports still indicate that methane is flooding the Gulf waters at a rate one million times more than normal, and the NOAA research vessel, Thomas Jefferson has reported spotting new fissures.[1]
Last week the science ship stunned some reporters with the revelation that the oceanographic team had discovered and measured a rift in the ocean floor miles from the BP wellhead. The rift was reported to be more than 100 feet long and widening. Oil and methane continues to plume from that rift.
BP has also admitted damage beneath the sea floor.[2]
The Omega plan
Most enterprises – whether business, government, or exploration – have a Plan B to fall back on. To date, BP has attempted Plans B through N. Yet it is the last ditch plan-the Omega plan-that hold the greatest risk. Yet that plan may be the final hope to stop what some insiders now consider a catastrophe that could culminate with a world-killing mass extinction event that modern civilization could not survive.
At a super-secret security base-CFB Suffield-located in southern Alberta, Canada, area reports indicate that high level engineers, physicists and military scientists are feverishly working to complete an ‘explosively pumped flux compression generator’ (EPFCG).
According to published scientific papers [see sources below] an EPFCG generator can be powered by a very small, controlled fusion explosion-in other words, a tiny nuclear bomb.
Why the UK based BP has set up operations at CFB-Suffield is obvious: The company already runs three oil rigs on the base, have worked with Canada’s chemical and biological efforts on and off for almost 40 years, and have strong ties to the Commonwealth’s infrastructure.
The CFB Base, which incorporates DRDC Suffield, is one of research six Canadian military facilities and critical to the security of the country. DRDC Suffield is the lead facility for all of Canada’s engineering and weapons systems R&D.
The EPFCG – a Star Wars super weapon
A device that can only be used once, the EPFCG generates a high power electromagnetic pulse. It achieves this by using a powerful explosive, preferably nuclear. Advanced, nuclear driven EPFCGs can instantaneously create up to billions of amperes and hundreds of terawatts. Such raw power exceeds lighting bolts by huge orders of magnitude.
The pulse can be shaped and directed and used to knock out electronics-or more importantly in this case – to fuse virtually any material – including crumbling rock strata deep under the sea. The fantastically energized pulse can also compress objects to very high pressures and densities.[3]
According to engineers familiar with the technology, the devices can generate plasma arcs hotter than the surface of the sun that will melt and fuse materials in nanoseconds.
A special security force manned by members of AEGIS, a UK based paramilitary security corporation similar to the old US Blackwater Security company, is reported to have cordoned off the base. The security lid has clamped down hard while the engineers and scientists work with the nuclear materials.
BP’s secret Omega Plan kicked off in earnest on July 7th, 2010. According to sources on the base the British Geological Survey (BGS), the United States Geological Survey (USGS), BP and Halliburton have set up a test site at one of the drill rigs.
While the plan would admittedly only be executed if a worst case scenario seemed imminent, some geo-chemists have expressed concerns that detonating an EPFCG in the Gulf might ignite the methane.
Meanwhile the preparations for the test continue in Canada.
References
[1] Methane in Gulf ‘astonishingly high’-US scientist”
[2] BP Official Admits to Damage Beneath the Sea Floor
[3] Explosively pumped flux compression generator (EPFCG)
Sources: Scientific papers on a ‘super weapon’ (From The Famous Scientists Astonishing News Association, Sorcha Faal’s Russian Secret Journal and the Illuminti Reporter.
Fruits and vegetables less nutritious due to factory farming
July 12, 2010
by Chris in Paris
AmericaBlog
Here’s another good reason to grow your own (if you can) or buy from organic markets when affordable. MSNBC:
While we’ve been dutifully eating our fruits and vegetables all these years, a strange thing has been happening to our produce. It’s losing its nutrients. That’s right: Today’s conventionally grown produce isn’t as healthful as it was 30 years ago — and it’s only getting worse. The decline in fruits and vegetables was first reported more than 10 years ago by English researcher Anne-Marie Mayer, PhD, who looked at the dwindling mineral concentrations of 20 UK-based crops from the 1930s to the 1980s.
It’s happening to crops in the United States, too. In 2004, Donald Davis, PhD, a former researcher with the Biochemical Institute at the University of Texas, Austin, led a team that analyzed 43 fruits and vegetables from 1950 to 1999 and reported reductions in vitamins, minerals, and protein. Using USDA data, he found that broccoli, for example, had 130 mg of calcium in 1950. Today, that number is only 48 mg. What’s going on? Davis believes it’s due to the farming industry’s desire to grow bigger vegetables faster. The very things that speed growth — selective breeding and synthetic fertilizers — decrease produce’s ability to synthesize nutrients or absorb them from the soil.
The Conversations with the Crow
When the CIA discovered that their former Deputy Director of Clandestine Affairs, Robert T. Crowley, had been talking with author Gregory Douglas, they became fearful (because of what Crowley knew) and outraged (because they knew Douglas would publish eventually) and made many efforts to silence Crowley, mostly by having dozens of FBI agents call or visit him at his Washington home and try to convince him to stop talking to Douglas, whom they considered to be an evil, loose cannon.
Crowley did not listen to them and Douglas made through shorthand notes of each and every one of their many conversation. TBR News published most of these (some of the really vile ones were left out of the book but will be included on this site as a later addendum ) and the entire collection was later produced as an Ebook.
Now, we reliably learn, various Washington alphabet agencies are trying to find a way to block the circulation of this highly negative, entertaining and dangerous work, so to show our solidarity with our beloved leaders and protectors, and our sincere appreciation for their corrupt and coercive actions, we are going to reprint the entire work, chapter by chapter. (The complete book can be obtained by going to:
http://www.shop.conversationswiththecrow.com/Conversations-with-the-Crow-CWC-GD01.htm🙂
Here is the twelfth chapter:
Conversation No. 12
Date: Thursday, May 2, 1996
Commenced: 8:45 AM CST
Concluded: 9:22 AM CST
GD: Good day to you, Robert. How goes the battle with you?
RTC: I think I’m slowly losing ground, Gregory, but I’m still fighting.
GD: I’ve been fighting for years so I understand the concept.
RTC: I hear the Germans are not happy over some of your writings. You are disturbing the Jewish community with your allegations that we hired the head of the Gestapo.
GD: Who cares?
RTC: You heard the old saying that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned? Well, the Beltway has no fury like a Jew ignored. How dare we hire the head of the Gestapo? How could we do such a thing to them? They are the Chosen of God, after all.
GD: What did God choose them for? To stand in the shower lines in some Polish camp?
RTC: Oh, now, Gregory, show some compassion.
GD: My God, why should any of us care about all of those nonsense stories? Lampshades and cakes of soap, my ass.
RTC: We are all supposed to care about that, Gregory. And if they use it right, they can get discount airline tickets and something off on that new sofa.
GD: Stunning revelations indeed, Robert. Another group of obnoxious nuts.
RTC: Believe me, Gregory, there are far worse.
GD: Who? The Pedophile’s Protective League? The Bellowing Jesus Freaks of Bad Seepage, Ohio?
RTC: There are worse things in this world than the Society of Professional Hebrew Moaners.
GD: The Sackcloth and Ashes League? The Humpback’s Tuesday Afternoon Bridge Club?
RTC: Why don’t you try the Scientologists? Now that group is really something to contemplate.
GD: I’ve read a little about them but not much. Started by some old faker named Hubbard. L. Ron Hubbard. I used to be a science fiction nut and I remember reading one of his stories years ago. Awful writing. Sounded like it was written by a ten year old.
RTC: That’s the one. He may have been an awful writer but he was a class A conman. Those people made more Goddam trouble for us. They were running all over the Med in the ‘60s in some rusty tub called the Royal Scotsman. My God, what a ship of fools that was. We were getting requests from DoS and other people to look into them. All over the place, docking here and there, chasing frantic deserters into towns, screaming at people…my God what a circus that one was. And old Hubbard waddling around in some naval uniform, shouting at people one minute and trying to bribe some public official on shore the next.
GD: That I knew nothing about.
RTC: We did, believe me. Hubbard was as crazy as a loon and Washington was afraid he would start a war. You ever read about them?
GD: Just something here and there. Hubbard died, didn’t he?
RTC: Yes, about ten years ago. His people got rid of him because he was getting to be a flaming nut and threatened to fire all of his top people. Since their scam brought in about a million dollars a day, those at the top had no intention of allowing a fat, old psychotic liar to push them out.
GD: Was that in the press?
RTC: No. Hubbard was a raging paranoid, among other failings, and was convinced that everyone was out to get him so he went into hiding. That was where he was, out in California, when they gave him the needle. Of course they got the old idiot to sign a will leaving them everything and in with the drugs. As I recall, they cremated him as fast as possible and dumped his ashes into the Pacific off the stern of a sardine boat.
GD: Sic transit Gloria mundi, Robert
RTC: Isn’t that always the truth?
GD: How did they make a million a day? Print it?
RTC: No, Barnum was right, Gregory. There is a sucker born every minute. When I took Jim’s files out of there, I got the Scientology file, too. Three large boxes of files. My son read through some of them and said it sounded like a group therapy session over at St. Elizabeth’s The money? It came from legions and more legions of suckers who flocked to the tin can boys and paid until they were broke.
GD: Tin cans?
RTC: Yes. Hubbard had a very simple device that registered electrical skin responses. Works like the polygraph but has no value. We all have these electrical impulse things and of course the little needle jumps around. They have so called experts called auditors who tell the mark that this is helping to clear up their psyche so they can go out into the real world without a bag over their head. We know, and I am sure you do too, that the world is full of failures and worse. Now, instead of hanging themselves or jumping in front of Amtrak trains, they can grab the tin cans and let someone tell them that being ugly, stupid or a failure is really not their fault. Others are to blame. Of course they will never be free of their loads of guilt until the auditor tells them they are OK and that day never comes. As long as the marks have money, the tin cans are grasped and the wallets slowly empty. When it does, the sucker is tossed out on the street and then, broke, they jump off of railroad bridges and make messes on the tracks.
GD: A million a day?
RTC: Oh yes, at least. Hubbard once said that if a man wanted to be really rich, he should found a religion.
GD: Faking it with tin cans and some worthless meter is not a religion.
RTC: Oh, they turned it into one. They have a lock on a number of frustrated fanatics, fueled by vast sums of money pouring in from the army of suckers.
GD: You mentioned a boat?
RTC: Oh yes, in the 80’s, old Hubbard got it into his head that powerful forces were after him so he bought an old boat, filled it up with nuts and off they went, cruising all over the place and creating diplomatic havoc. Later, he got tired of his admiral’s uniform so he took over some town in Florida and terrorized the normal people before moving on to California, the true home of fruits and nuts. And in the meantime, before Hebe the Yench and the Dwarf, Miscarriage, terminated him, old Hubbard had his crazy followers break into government building and steal sensitive files. Of course they got caught but Hubbard claimed ignorance. He wasn’t stupid by any means but he had Borderline Personality disorder and couldn’t tell the truth when a lie would suffice.
GD: Who are the Hebe and the Dwarf?
RTC: In house for Heber Jentsch and David Miscavage. The first one is a front and the dwarf is the one who runs the show now that his founder is floating on the surf. Oh, you should read the nonsense….Gregory, do you know what a DC 3 is?
GD: Certainly. It’s an older commercial jet.
RTC: Hubbard said, and the ninnies still believe, that certain superior aliens, the father of all of the more enlightened of us, were brought to Earth from Venus millions of years ago on DC 3s.
GD: Robert…
RTC(Laughter) No, I’m serious. We don’t need to even discuss this moronic crap but thousands of panting believers accept it as the truth. The problem is, while they have stopped running around in the boat, they now try to take over small towns and are heavy in the electronics business. And of course swindling fools out of Daddy’s trust fund.
GD: You have material on them?
RTC: Yes, I do, Gregory.
GD: Any chance I could see it?
RTC: Of course, I can dig it out and ship it to you. But a word of caution here, Gregory, never try to use it.
GD: Why not?
RTC: My God, these twits sue everyone in sight for no reason. If you wrote that all up, they would sue you, your dog, your neighbors, your dead grandmother, your school and probably the mailman. The word ‘crazy’ is too mild to use in conjunction here. But, I will send this off to you with my caveat.
GD: You know, my sister’s cat keeps crapping on her bed. Maybe I could stuff it into a tin can and read the meter.
RTC: (Laughter) Be my guest. Why not audit a cat?
GD: I used to think it was books that were audited.
RTC: Gregory, these people can’t read books.
GD: Speaking of books, Bender is going ahead with the Mueller series so I guess Wolfe will hiss at you in the Archives like Loki.
RTC: Bill and I will look forward to the new books, Gregory. And we do need to get together in person sometime, right here. It’s safe enough here.
GD: Should we invite Kimmel?
RTC: Gregory, I have enough problems from the Justice people over you without fanning the flames. I think you love to fan the flames. Have you ever considered a gracious retirement?
GD: That takes money, Robert.
RTC: Yes, that it does. Sell more books.
GD: That’s not my bailiwick. Maybe I could start a religion, Robert. Tell people I came from Venus and if they are good, and give me lots of money, I can elevate them to a huge and invisible flying saucer and take them to Pluto where the men will have huge peckers and the women get to eat a ton of chocolates a day and not gain a pound. And they will all live forever and never worry about falling hair or sagging breasts. Why? Because I will turn them all into little green toads and eventually feed them to the Great God Dagon.
RTC: Well, that way we would get rid of everyone in Los Angeles and Washington.
GD: And our magic spaceship will be a 707 and we can call it the Ship of Fools.
RTC: I will look up those files for you Gregory.
GD: Thanks. It will beat reading the obits in the paper, looking for dead enemies.
(Concluded at 9:22 AM CST)
Dramatis personae:
James Jesus Angleton: Once head of the CIA’s Counterintelligence division, later fired because of his obsessive and illegal behavior, tapping the phones of many important government officials in search of elusive Soviet spies. A good friend of Robert Crowley and a co-conspirator with him in the assassination of President Kennedy
James P. Atwood: (April 16, 1930-April 20, 1997) A CIA employee, located in Berlin, Atwood had a most interesting career. He worked for any other intelligence agency, domestic or foreign, that would pay him, was involved in selling surplus Russian atomic artillery shells to the Pakistan government and was also most successful in the manufacturing of counterfeit German dress daggers. Too talkative, Atwood eventually had a sudden “seizure” while lunching with CIA associates.
William Corson: A Marine Corps Colonel and President Carter’s representative to the CIA. A friend of Crowley and Kimmel, Corson was an intelligent man whose main failing was a frantic desire to be seen as an important person. This led to his making fictional or highly exaggerated claims.
John Costello: A British historian who was popular with revisionist circles. Died of AIDS on a trans-Atlantic flight
James Critchfield: Former U.S. Army Colonel who worked for the CIA and organizaed the Cehlen Org. at Pullach, Germany. This organization was filled to the Plimsoll line with former Gestapo and SD personnel, many of whom were wanted for various purported crimes. He hired Heinrich Müller in 1948 and went on to represent the CIA in the Persian Gulf.
Robert T. Crowley: Once the deputy director of Clandestine Operations and head of the group that interacted with corporate America. A former West Point football player who was one of the founders of the original CIA. Crowley was involved at a very high level with many of the machinations of the CIA.
Gregory Douglas: A retired newspaperman, onetime friend of Heinrich Müller and latterly, of Robert Crowley. Inherited stacks of files from the former (along with many interesting works of art acquired during the war and even more papers from Robert Crowley. Lives comfortably in a nice house overlooking the Mediterranean.
Reinhard Gehlen: A retired German general who had once been in charge of the intelligence for the German high command on Russian military activities. Fired by Hitler for incompetence, he was therefore naturally hired by first the U.S. Army and then, as his level of incompetence rose, with the CIA. His Nazi-stuffed organizaion eventually became the current German Bundes Nachrichten Dienst.
Thomas K. Kimmel, Jr: A grandson of Admiral Husband Kimmel, Naval commander at Pearl Harbor who was scapegoated after the Japanese attack. Kimmel was a senior FBI official who knew both Gregory Douglas and Robert Crowley and made a number of attempts to discourage Crowley from talking with Douglas. He was singularly unsuccessful. Kimmel subsequently retired and lives in retirement in Florida
Willi Krichbaum: A Senior Colonel (Oberführer) in the SS, head of the wartime Secret Field Police of the German Army and Heinrich Müller’s standing deputy in the Gestapo. After the war, Krichbaum went to work for the Critchfield organization and was their chief recruiter and hired many of his former SS friends. Krichbaum put Critchfield in touch with Müller in 1948.
Heinrich Müller: A former military pilot in the Bavarian Army in WWI, Müller became a political police officer in Munich and was later made the head of the Secret State Police or Gestapo. After the war, Müller escaped to Switzerland where he worked for Swiss intelligence as a specialist on Communist espionage and was hired by James Critchfield, head of the Gehlen Organization, in 1948. Müller subsequently was moved to Washington where he worked for the CIA until he retired.
Joseph Trento: A writer on intelligence subjects, Trento and his wife “assisted” both Crowley and Corson in writing a book on the Russian KGB. Trento believed that he would inherit all of Crowley’s extensive files but after Crowley’s death, he discovered that the files had been gutted and the most important, and sensitive, ones given to Gregory Douglas. Trento was not happy about this. Neither were his employers.
Frank Wisner: A Founding Father of the CIA who promised much to the Hungarian and then failed them. First, a raging lunatic who was removed from Langley, screaming, in a strait jacket and later, blowing off the top of his head with a shotgun.
Robert Wolfe: A retired librarian from the National Archives who worked closely with the CIA on covering up embarrassing historical material in the files of the Arcnives. A strong supporter of holocaust writers