TBR News August 3, 2017

The Voice of the White House

Washington, D.C., August 3 , 2017:”The basic problem with any government agency is its frantic desire to expand, to control, to get more fundings from Congress and, most important, to squash rivals agencies (who are doing the same thing) In the US, the lead power-grabber is the CIA. They were set up in 1948 by Harry Truman to be a global information agency that would give him private briefings. Truman did this because he felt the US Army was feeding him inaccurate information. But like Topsy, the CIA growed and now it is an arrogant aggregation of self-important people who do as they choose and interfere in every level of government. Eventually, they get too powerful but woe to the President who threatens their existence. John Kennedy started to break them up and the had him killed so no other President dares to tamper with the Langley Louts.”

 

Table of Contents

• Sanctions, smoke and mirrors from a kindergarten on LSD
• Russian gas pipelines to go ahead despite U.S. sanctions
• Dumbo: WikiLeaks reveals CIA system to take over webcams, microphones
• Under Trump, a Hollowed-Out Force in Syria Quickly Lost C.I.A. Backing
• CIA Front Organizations

Sanctions, smoke and mirrors from a kindergarten on LSD

July 31, 2017

The Saker

The latest US sanctions and the Russian retaliatory response have resulted in a torrent of speculations in the official media and the blogosphere – everybody is trying to make sense of a situation which appears to make no sense at all.  Why in the world would the US Senate adopt new sanctions against Russia when Russia has done absolutely nothing to provoke such a vote?  Except for Rand Paul and Bernie Sanders, every single US Senator voted in favor of these sanctions.  Why?!  This is even more baffling when you consider that the single biggest effect of these sanctions will be to trigger a rift, and possibly even counter-sanctions, between the US and the EU.  What is absolutely clear is that these sanctions will have exactly zero effect on Russia and I don’t think anybody is seriously expecting the Russians to change anything at all in their policies.  And yet, every Senator except Paul and Sanders voted for this.  Does that make any sense to you?

Let’s try to figure out what is going on here.

First, a simple reminder: like all US politicians, from the county level to the US Congress, Senators have only one consideration when then vote – “what’s in it for me?”.  The very last thing which any US Senator really cares about are the real life consequences of his/her vote.  This means that to achieve the kind of quasi unanimity (98%) for a totally stupid vote there was some kind of very influential lobby which used some very forceful “arguments” to achieve such a vote.  Keep in mind that the Republicans in the Senate knew that they were voting against the wishes of their President.  And yet every single one except for Rand Paul voted for these sanctions, that should tell you something about the power of the lobby which pushed for them.  So who would have such power?

The website “Business Pundit: Expert Driven” has helpfully posted an article which lists the 10 top most powerful lobbies in Washington, DC.  They are (in the same order as in the original article)

• Tech Lobby
• Mining Industry
• Defense Industry
• Agribusiness Industry
• Big Oil
• Financial Lobby
• Big Pharma
• AARP
• Pro-Israel Lobby
• NRA

Okay, why not?  We could probably rearrange them, give them different labels, add a couple (like the “Prison Industrial Complex” or the “Intelligence Community”) but all in all this is an okay list.  Any name on it jump at you yet?

One could make the case that most of these lobbies need an enemy to prosper, this is certainly true of the Military-Industrial Complex and the associated high tech industry, and one could also reasonably claim that Big Oil, Mining and Agribusiness see Russia has a potential competitor.  But a closer look at the interests these lobbies represent will tell you that they are mostly involved in domestic politics and that faraway Russia, with her relatively small economy, is just not that important to them.  This is also clearly true for Big Pharma, the AARP and the NRA.  Which leaves the Israel Lobby as the only potential candidate.

“Israel Lobby” is, of course, a misnomer.  The Israel Lobby has very little interest in Israel as a country or, for that matter, for the Israeli people.  If anything, the Israel Lobby ought to be called the “Neocon Lobby”.  Furthermore, we also have to keep in mind that the Neocon Lobby is unlike any other lobby in the list above.

For one thing, it does not represent US interests.  Neither does it represent the interests of Israel.  Rather, it represents the interests of a specific subset of the US ruling elites, in reality much smaller than 1% of the population, which all share in the one common ideology of worldwide domination typical of the Neocons.

These are the folks who in spite of their 100% ironclad control of the media and Congress lost the Presidential election to Donald Trump and who are now dead set to impeach him.  These are the folks who simply use “Russia” as a propagandistic fulcrum to peddle the notion that Trump and his entourage are basically Russian agents and Trump himself as a kind of “Presidential Manchurian Candidate”.

Keep in mind that the historical record shows that while the Neocons are fantastically driven, they are not particularly smart.  Yes, they do have the kind of rabid ideological determination which allows them to achieve a totally disproportionate influence over US policies, but when you actually read what they write and listen to what they say you immediately realize that these are rather mediocre individuals with a rather parochial mindset which makes them both very predictable and very irritating to the people around them.  They always overplay their hand and then end up stunned and horrified when all their conspiracies and plans come tumbling down on them.

I submit that this is exactly what is happening right now.

First, the Neocons lost the elections.  For them, it was a shock and a nightmare.  The “deplorables” voted against the unambiguously clear “propaganda instructions” given to them by the media.  Next, the Neocons turned their rabid hatred against Trump and they succeeded at basically neutering him, but only at the cost of terribly weakening the USA themselves!  Think of it: 6 months plus into the Trump administration the USA has already managed to directly threaten Iran, Syria, the DPRK and in all cases with exactly zero results.  Worse, Trump’s behavior towards Europe and the anti-Trump propaganda inside Europe has now put the EU and the US on a collision course.  This is absolutely amazing: for the Russians the current tensions between the EU and the USA are a dream come true and yet they had absolutely nothing to do with it – it was all done by the self-defeating stupidity of the Americans who created this situation completely ex nihilo!

So while Kim Jong-un fires missiles on the 4th of July, the Syrian Army is closing in on Deir ez-Zor, the Ukraine is turning into Somalia, the Russian economy is back to growth and Putin’s popularity is as high as ever, the Neocons are totally freaking out and, as is typical of a person losing control, they don’t do things which would make sense but do what they are used to doing: slapping sanctions (even if they are totally ineffective) and sending messages (even if they are totally ignored).  In other words, the Neocons are now engaging in magical thinking, the deliberately chose to delude themselves about their power and influence and they are coping with their full-spectrum failure at everything by pretending that their votes in Congress matter.  They truth is – they don’t.

Here is where we need to turn to the other misconception in this matter, that the Russian reaction to these latest sanctions is really about these sanctions.  It is not.

First, let’s tackle the myth that these sanctions are hurting Russia.  They really don’t.  Even the 100% russophobic Bloomberg is beginning to realize that, if anything, all these sanctions have made both Putin and Russia stronger.  Second, there is the issue of timing: instead of slapping on some counter-sanctions the Russians suddenly decided to dramatically reduce the US diplomatic personnel in Russia and confiscate a two US diplomatic facilities in a clear retaliation for the expulsion of Russian diplomats and seizure of Russian diplomatic facilities by Obama last year.  Why now?

Many observers say that the Russians are “naive” about the West and the USA, that Putin was “hoping” for better relations and that this hope was paralyzing him.  Others say that Putin is “weak” or even “in cahoots” with the West.  This is all total nonsense.

People tend to forget that Putin was an officer in the foreign intelligence branch of the KGB, the so-called “First Main Directorate” (PGU).  Furthermore, Putin has recently revealed that he worked in the highly secretive “Directorate S” of the PGU and he was in charge of contacts with a network of illegal Soviet spies in East-Germany (were Putin was under the official cover of Director of the USSR-GDR Friendship House).  If the PGU was the “elite of the elite” of the KGB, and its most secretive part, then the “Directorate S” was the “elite of the elite” of the PGU and its most secretive part.  This is most definitely not a career for “naive” or “weak” people, to put it mildly!  First and foremost, PGU officers were “specialists of the West” in general, and of the United States especially because the USA was always officially considered as the “main enemy” (even if most PGU officers personally considered the British as their most capable, dangerous and devious adversary).  Considering the superb level of education and training given to these officers, I would argue that the PGU officers were amongst the best experts of the West anywhere in the world.  Their survival and the survival of their colleagues depended on their correct understanding of the western world.

As for Putin personally, he has always taken action in a very deliberate and measured way and there is no reason to assume that this time around the latest US sanctions have suddenly resulted in some kind of emotional outburst in the Kremlin.  You can be darn sure that this latest Russian reaction is the result of very carefully arrived to conclusion and the formulation of a very precise and long-term objective.

I submit that the key to the correct understanding of the Russian response is in the fact that the latest US sanctions contain an absolutely unprecedented and, frankly, shocking feature: the new measures strip the President from the authority to revoke the sanctions.  In practical terms, if Trump wanted to lift any of these sanctions, he would have to send an official letter to Congress which would then have 30 days to approve or reject the proposed action.

In other words, the Congress has now hijacked the power of the Presidency to conduct foreign policy and taken upon itself to micromanage the US foreign policy.

That, my friends, is clearly a constitutional coup d’état and a gross violation of the principles of separation of powers which is at the very core of the US political system.

It also is a telling testimony to the utter depravity of the US Congress which took no such measures when Presidents bypass Congress and started wars without the needed congressional authority, but which is now overtly taking over the US foreign policy to prevent the risk of “peace breaking out” between Russia and the USA.

And Trump’s reaction?

He declared that he would sign the bill.

Yes, the man is willing to put his signature on the text which represents an illegal coup d’état against this own authority and against the Constitution which he swore to uphold.

With this in mind, the Russian reaction is quite simple and understandable: they have given up on Trump.

Not that they ever had much hope in him, but they always strongly felt that the election of Trump might maybe provide the world with a truly historical opportunity to change the disastrous dynamic initiated by the Neocons under Obama and maybe return the international relations to a semblance of sanity.  Alas, this did not happen, Trump turned out to be an overcooked noodle whose only real achievement was to express his thoughts in 140 characters or less.  But the one crucial, vital, thing which Trump absolutely needed to succeed in – mercilessly crushing the Neocons – he totally failed to achieve.  Worse, his only reaction to their multi-dimensional attempts at overthrowing him were each time met with clumsy attempts at appeasing them.

For Russia is means that President Trump has now been replaced by “President Congress”.

Since it is absolutely impossible to get anything done with this Congress anyway, the Russians will now engage in unilaterally beneficial measures such as dramatically reducing the number of US diplomats in Russia.  For the Kremlin, these sanctions are no so much an unacceptable provocation has an ideal pretext to move on a number of Russian internal policies.  Getting rid of US employees in Russia is just a first step.

Next, Russia will use the frankly erratic behavior of the Americans to proclaim urbi et orbi that the Americans are irresponsible, incapable of adult decision-making and basically “gone fishing”.  The Russians already did that much when they declared that the Obama-Kerry team was недоговороспособны (nedogovorosposobny: “non agreement capable”, more about this concept here).  Now with Trump signing his own constitutional demise, Tillerson unable to get UN Nikki to shut the hell up and Mattis and McMaster fighting over delusional plans to stop “not winning” in Afghanistan, the Obama-Kerry teams starts to look almost adult.

Frankly, for the Russians now is the time to move on.

I predict that the Neocon-crazies will not stop until they impeach Trump.  I furthermore predict that the USA will not launch any major military interventions (if only because the USA has run out of countries it can safely and easily attack).  Some “pretend interventions” (like the ill-fated missile strike on Syria) remain, of course, quite possible and even likely. This internal slow-motion coup against Trump will absorb the vast majority of the energy to get anything done, and leave foreign policy as simply another byproduct of internal US politics.

The East-Europeans are now totally stuck.  They will continue to haplessly observe the unfolding Ukrainian disaster while playing at silly games pretending to be tough on Russia (the latest example of that kind of “barking from behind a fence” can be seen in the rather pathetic closure of the Romanian air space to a civilian aircraft with Russian Vice-Premier Dmitri Rogozin amongst the passengers).  The real (West) Europeans will gradually come back to their senses and begin making deals with Russia.  Even France’s Emmanuel Macron de Rothschild will probably prove a more adult partner than The Donald.

But the real action will be elsewhere – in the South, the East and the Far-East.  The simple truth is that the world cannot simply wait for the Americans to come back to their senses.  There are a lot of crucial issues which need to be urgently tackled, a lot of immense projects which need to be worked on, and a fundamentally new and profoundly different multi-polar world which needs to be strengthened.  If the Americans want to basically recuse themselves from it all, if they want to bring down the constitutional order which their Founding Fathers created and if they want to solely operate in the delusional realm which has no bearing on reality – that is both their right and their problem.

Washington DC is starting to look like a kindergarten on LSD – something both funny and disgusting.  Predictably, the kids don’t look too bright: a mix of bullies and spineless idiots.  Some of them have their fingers on a nuclear button, and that is outright scary.  What the adults need to do now is to figure out a way of keeping the kids busy and distracted so they don’t press the damn button by mistake.  And wait.  Wait for the inevitable reaction of a country which is so much more and better than its rulers and which now desperately needs a real patriot to stop Witches’ Sabbath in Washington DC.

Right now the USA appears to be plunging into a precipice very similar to the one the Ukraine has plunged into (which is unsurprising, really, the same people inflicting the same disasters on whatever country they infect with their presence).  The big difference is that immense and untapped potential of the USA to bounce back.  There might not even be a Ukraine in 10 years, but there will most definitely be a USA, albeit maybe a very different one or even maybe several successor states.

But for the time being, I can only repeat what Floridians say when a hurricane comes barreling down on them: “hunker down” and brace for some very difficult and dangerous times to come.

The Saker

 Russian gas pipelines to go ahead despite U.S. sanctions

August 3, 2017

by Oksana Kobzeva and Alissa de Carbonnel

Reuters

MOSCOW/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – New U.S. sanctions will make it harder for Russia to build two gas export pipelines to Europe but the projects are unlikely to be stopped.

U.S. President Donald Trump has reluctantly signed into law further sanctions on Russia but some of the measures are discretionary and most White House watchers believe he will not take action against Russia’s energy infrastructure.

This would allow Gazprom’s two big pipeline projects to go ahead, although at a higher price and with some delays.

The Kremlin, dependent on oil and gas revenues, sees the pipelines to Germany and Turkey – Nord Stream 2 and TurkStream – as crucial to increasing its market share in Europe.

It also fears that Western partners – needed to develop the deepwater, shale and Arctic gas deposits that will fill the pipelines – will be scared off by sanctions.

Gazprom warned investors last month that the sanctions “may result in delays, or otherwise impair or prevent the completion of the projects by the group.”

With all that in mind, the Russian gas giant is taking steps to reduce the impact of sanctions.

It has accelerated pipe-laying by Swiss contractor Allseas Group under the Black Sea for TurkStream – even though there is no final agreement on where the pipeline will make landfall in Turkey. It is also hurriedly building a second TurkStream line to export gas to Europe.

“The construction of the second line is underway just in case the sanctions hit,” a senior Gazprom source told Reuters.

A spokesman for Allseas said 100 km of the 900-km first line have been built since June 23 and preparatory work is underway for the second line.

The Ukrainian Connection

The biggest cost of any delays to the new lines could come from increased transit fees paid to Ukraine, the route by which Russian gas has traditionally reached Europe.

Nord Stream 2 and TurkStream bypass Ukraine, but if they are brought into use late, Gazprom will have to continue using the Ukrainian route and may have to pay more for the privilege.

The European Union, fearing sanctions will hurt oil and gas projects on which it depends, said it was ready to retaliate unless it obtained U.S. guarantees that European firms would not be targeted.

Five Western firms that have invested in Nord Stream 2 – Wintershall (BASFn.DE) and Uniper (UN01.DE) of Germany, Austria’s OMV (OMVV.VI), Anglo-Dutch Shell (RDSa.L), and France’s Engie (ENGIE.PA) – say it is too early to judge the impact of sanctions.

For now, they are standing by their pledge of up to 950 million euros ($1.13 billion) each to finance the 1,225 km (760 mile) Nord Stream 2.

Despite Trump’s desire to promote U.S. liquefied natural gas exports to Europe that would compete with the Russian gas, he said he did not want the sanctions to get in the way of efforts to resolve the conflict in Ukraine.

EU officials, industry sources and experts therefore doubt that Trump will use what he regards as “significantly flawed” sanctions to punish Moscow.

“Their approach is going to be strictly by the letter of the law: what do they have to do,” Richard Nephew, a former U.S. deputy chief of sanctions now with Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy.

Risk Premium

The sanctions law is however expected to hamper Gazprom’s efforts to raise money.

“The price of any project automatically increases,” said Tatiana Mitrova, director of the Skolkovo Energy Center.

“Gazprom’s relationships with partners, subcontractors, and equipment and service providers are severely complicated,” she said. “They will all ask for a risk premium.”

Gazprom will have to take on the additional cost itself, depend on Russian state banks, or seek money at higher rates from Asian lenders, financial analysts said.

“This, however, does not mean that Nord Stream 2 won’t be built,” said Katja Yafimova of the Oxford Energy Institute.

Industry sources say the loans from Western partners for Nord Stream 2 are already at above market rates to reflect the political risk of partnering with Russia in a project that has also faced opposition in Europe.

The added uncertainty ups the stakes further. “It’s like reading tea leaves,” one source with knowledge of the European side of the Nord Stream 2 financing structure told Reuters.

While big players may be able to stomach the risk, analysts say the smaller contractors on which Gazprom depends to build the pipelines may get spooked. “Not all partners can afford to see things through with Gazprom,” said Valery Nesterov, an analyst at Moscow-based Sberbank CIB.

A spokesman for Nord Stream 2 said more than 200 non-Russian companies from 17 countries, most of them European, are building the pipeline. Most of the big contracts for steel, port logistics and construction have already been concluded.

By forcing the pace of construction, Gazprom may have gained enough time to build the new pipelines but longer-term projects will take a hit.

“Unless Trump takes a really sharp turn, it is highly unlikely that companies that are supplying pipeline goods are going to be punished in the next year or so,” Nephew said. “A lot of companies are now thinking: ‘I’ve got maybe 12, maybe 18 months in which I can do some stuff but after that maybe I won’t’.”

Additional reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin in Moscow, Shadia Nasralla in Vienna, Vera Eckert in Frankfurt, Ron Bousso and Nina Chestney in London; Writing by Alissa de Carbonnel @AdeCar in Brussels; Editing by Giles Elgood

Dumbo: WikiLeaks reveals CIA system to take over webcams, microphones

August 3, 2017

RT

Details of the CIA’s Dumbo project, a system that manipulates devices such as webcams and microphones on Microsoft Windows-operating systems, have been published by WikiLeaks. The program also corrupts video recordings, according to the leaked documents.

The whistleblowing organization released the files as part of its Vault 7 series on the CIA’s hacking capabilities

According to Wikileaks, the technology is intended for use where the deployment of a special branch within the CIA’s Center for Cyber Intelligence could be compromised.

RELEASE: CIA project ‘Dumbo’ to switch off security webcams and corrupt recordings to hide physical intrusions https://wikileaks.org/vault7/#Dumbo

Dumbo can identify, control and manipulate monitoring and detection systems on a target computer running the Microsoft Windows operating system, according to the documents.

The earliest Dumbo document released by WikiLeaks is dated June 25, 2012. The Tool Delivery Review document states that the system’s capabilities are being requested by the CIA’s special branch to “deter home security systems that may identify officers or prevent operations.”

The program has to be executed “directly from a USB thumb drive,” according to a field guide for the system released by WikiLeaks on Thursday. The document indicates that the thumb drive has to be connected to the machine for Dumbo to work: “For the log to be maintained, the thumb drive Dumbo is executed from must remain plugged into the system throughout the duration of the operation.”

“Logging entries are also preceded by a header labeling if the entry is good, bad, or simply informative,” the field guide notes.

It identifies installed devices such as webcams and microphones, locally or connected by wireless (Bluetooth, WiFi) or wired networks, and it can block all processes related to the devices, including recording and monitoring. A user guide dated June 2015 sets out Dumbo’s capacity to mute microphones, disable all network adapters, and suspend camera recording. The program notifies its operator of any files to which those processes were actively writing so that they may be selectively corrupted or deleted.

WikiLeaks suggests that by deleting or manipulating recordings the operator can create fake – or destroy real – evidence of their intrusion into the device.

The documents say Dumbo operates on 32bit Windows XP, Windows Vista, and newer versions of the Windows operating system, but is not supported for 64bit Windows XP, or Windows versions prior to XP.

 

SECRET//NOFORN

Dumbo User Guide

1.0 (U) Introduction

(S) Dumbo runs on a target to which we have physical access, attempts to disable all network adapters, suspends any processes using a camera recording device, and attempts to corrupt any files to which those processes were actively writing.

1.1 (U) Requirement

(S) The Intelligence Community has identified the need (requirement # 2015-0150) for a capability to suspend processes utilizing webcams and corrupt any video recordings that could compromise a PAG deployment.

1.2 (U) Purpose

(S) This User Guide describes how to use Dumbo v2.0.

2.0 (U) System Overview

(S) The tool is meant to be executed on a target machine directly from a USB thumb drive. The application will require being run as SYSTEM. The tool will output details on disabling the network adapters, suspending processes using any camera devices, and corrupting those processes’ associated files that have write-permission.  The output will also be logged in a file called “log.txt” in the same folder as the tool’s execution.

(S) Note, although the tool attempts to disable all Bluetooth adapters, it does not explicitly check for the success of the operation.  The tool will, however, report the success or failure of disabling network adapters.

Runner.exe:  Main executable for Dumbo v2.0.  Takes no parameters, and should be run from a SYSTEM cmd.exe shell.scanner.sys:  Driver necessary for tool to run correctly on Windows XP 32 bit.  Driver will automatically be installed and removed, if necessary.  Driver must be named

“scanner.sys” and located in the same folder as Runner.exe to be installed correctly.

Driver is not needed, and will not be installed, on any operating system other than Windows XP 32 bit.

SECRET//NOFORN

 

SECRET//NOFORN

3.0 (U) Getting Started

3.1 (U) Pre-deployment

(S) Note that the tool requires being run as SYSTEM, and should be executed from a

SYSTEM level cmd.exe shell.  The tool will prevent itself from being run outside of such conditions and produce output such as seem below in the “Sample Output” section.

(S) Windows XP 64 bit is not supported.  If run on Windows XP 64, the tool will not attempt to do any of its features, and will display a warning for 5 seconds before exiting.  An example of this can be seen in a screenshot below in the “Sample Output” section

(S) The tool requires that the user be logged in.  This is achieved by blacklisting the

“LogonUI.exe” process that exists when a locked screen is present.

3.2 (U) Deployment

• (S) Run the tool from a SYSTEM level cmd.exe shell
• (S) The tool prompts for an exit timer once all of its steps are completed. The exit timer will not begin until the thumb drive the tool is run from is ejected. If the drive is ejected before the user manually inputs an exit time, the time is assumed to be 7 minutes.
• (S) The tool will clear and hide window once drive is ejected
• (S) The tool stores a text file back to the USB drive of all actions undertaken

3.3 (U) Additional Notes

(S) Dumbo works by discovering which processes have access to the physical camera device and uses that information to corrupt video files.  In some instances, programs emulate a camera input to other programs; such is the case with Fujitsu’s YouCam.exe.  When this occurs, YouCam.exe will have control of the actual webcam, and feed input to other processes that record images to files as needed.  In this scenario, Dumbo will suspend YouCam.exe but will not be able to detect the other processes to which YouCam.exe is feeding images.  Although the camera will not be able to record additional frames, Dumbo will not be able to corrupt files that were written to prior, as it is unaware of the processes writing the video files.  If the operator sees a process using the camera device, but Dumbo detects no files being written, the operator should manually search for video files.

(S) In some instances, video recording software has the ability to detect it is not responding, and will restart itself; such is the case with iSpy.exe.  When Dumbo detects a process using a camera device, it also claims control of the device.  If the recording software were to restart itself, it would no longer be able to access the camera until Dumbo exits.  In the case of iSpy,although the program may restart, it will be unable to record any additional frames; it will appear as if it was unable to access the camera, due to it already being in use.

SECRET//NOFORN

 

SECRET//NOFORN

3.4 (U) Sample Output

(S) Below is a sample output of a target running Windows XP 32 bit while actively recording a video called from a recording software called “iSpy”.  The screenshot was taken with the exit time entered as 5 minutes and is awaiting drive ejection. This represents a successful execution of the tool.

[SECRET]

 

[SECRET]

(S) All output above, with the exception of the last statements related to exit time, would also be stored in “log.txt”.

 

SECRET//NOFORN

(S) The tool requires that it be run as SYSTEM to execute.  If a user attempts to run the tool outside of a SYSTEM cmd shell, the following message will appear.  The process will sleep for 5 seconds to allow the user to read before exiting.  The following output is the result of a user attempting to simply double-click the executable from Windows 7.

[SECRET]

 

[SECRET]

(S) Windows XP 64bit is not a supported operating system.  If a user attempts to run Dumbo on this operating system, the following message will appear and wait 5 seconds before exiting.

[SECRET]

 Under Trump, a Hollowed-Out Force in Syria Quickly Lost C.I.A. Backing

August 2, 2017

by Mark Mazetti, Adam Goldman and Michael S. Schmidt

The New York Times

WASHINGTON — The end came quickly for one of the costliest covert action programs in the history of the C.I.A.

During a White House briefing early last month, the C.I.A. director, Mike Pompeo, recommended to President Trump that he shut down a four-year-old effort to arm and train Syrian rebels. The president swiftly ended the program.

The rebel army was by then a shell, hollowed out by more than a year of bombing by Russian planes and confined to ever-shrinking patches of Syria that government troops had not reconquered. Critics in Congress had complained for years about the costs — more than $1 billion over the life of the program — and reports that some of the C.I.A.-supplied weapons had ended up in the hands of a rebel group tied to Al Qaeda further sapped political support for the program.

While critics of Mr. Trump have argued that he ended the program to curry favor with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, there were in fact dim views of the effort in both the Trump and Obama White Houses — a rare confluence of opinion on national security policy.

The shuttering of the C.I.A. program, one of the most expensive efforts to arm and train rebels since the agency’s program arming the mujahedeen in Afghanistan during the 1980s, has forced a reckoning over its successes and failures. Opponents say it was foolhardy, expensive and ineffective. Supporters say that it was unnecessarily cautious, and that its achievements were remarkable given that the Obama administration had so many restrictions on it from the start, which they say ultimately ensured its failure.

The program did have periods of success, including in 2015 when rebels using tank-destroying missiles, supplied by the C.I.A. and also Saudi Arabia, routed government forces in northern Syria. But by late 2015 the Russian military offensive in Syria was focusing squarely on the C.I.A.-backed fighters battling Syrian government troops. Many of the fighters were killed, and the fortunes of the rebel army reversed.

Charles Lister, a Syria expert at the Middle East Institute, said he was not surprised that the Trump administration ended the program, which armed and trained thousands of Syrian rebels. (By comparison, a $500 million Pentagon program that envisioned training and equipping 15,000 Syrian rebels over three years, was canceled in 2015 after producing only a few dozen fighters.)

“In many ways, I would put the blame on the Obama administration,” Mr. Lister said of the C.I.A. program. “They never gave it the necessary resources or space to determine the dynamics of the battlefield. They were drip-feeding opposition groups just enough to survive but never enough to become dominant actors.”

Mr. Trump has twice publicly criticized the effort since he ended it. After The Washington Post first reported on his decision, Mr. Trump tweeted that he was ending “massive, dangerous, and wasteful payments to Syrian rebels fighting Assad.” During an interview with The Wall Street Journal last month, the president said many of the C.I.A.-supplied weapons ended up in the hands of “Al Qaeda” — presumably a reference to the Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front, which often fought alongside the C.I.A.-backed rebels.

Michael V. Hayden, a former C.I.A. director, said the president’s comments “might give the agency pause with regard to how much he will have their backs on any future covert actions.”

Gen. Raymond A. Thomas III, the commander of United States Special Operations Command, said during a conference last month that ending the C.I.A. program was a “tough, tough decision.”

“At least from what I know about that program and the decision to end it, it was absolutely not a sop to the Russians,” he said. “It was, I think, based on an assessment of the nature of the program, what we’re trying to accomplish, the viability of it going forward.”

A C.I.A. spokesman declined to comment.

President Barack Obama had reluctantly agreed to the program in 2013 as the administration was struggling to blunt the momentum of Syrian government forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad. It soon fell victim to the constantly shifting alliances in Syria’s six-year-old civil war and the limited visibility that American military and intelligence officials had over what was occurring on the ground.

Once C.I.A.-trained fighters crossed into Syria, C.I.A. officers had difficulty controlling them. The fact that some of their C.I.A. weapons ended up with Nusra Front fighters — and that some of the rebels joined the group — confirmed the fears of many in the Obama administration when the program began. Although the Nusra Front was widely seen as an effective fighting force against Mr. Assad’s troops, its Qaeda affiliation made it impossible for the Obama administration to provide direct support for the group.

American intelligence officials estimate that the Nusra Front now has as many 20,000 fighters in Syria, making it Al Qaeda’s largest affiliate. Unlike other Qaeda affiliates such as Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the Nusra Front has long focused on battling the Syrian government rather than plotting terrorist attacks against the United States and Europe.

The American officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to be identified discussing a program that is classified.

In the summer of 2012, David H. Petraeus, who was then C.I.A. director, first proposed a covert program of arming and training rebels as Syrian government forces bore down on them

The proposal forced a debate inside the Obama administration, with some of Mr. Obama’s top aides arguing that Syria’s chaotic battlefield would make it nearly impossible to ensure that weapons provided by the C.I.A. could be kept out of the hands of militant groups like the Nusra Front. Mr. Obama rejected the plan.

But he changed his mind the following year, signing a presidential finding authorizing the C.I.A. to covertly arm and train small groups of rebels at bases in Jordan. The president’s reversal came in part because of intense lobbying by foreign leaders, including King Abdullah II of Jordan and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, who argued that the United States should take a more active role in trying to end the conflict.

Given the code name Timber Sycamore, the covert program began slowly, but by 2015 the C.I.A.-backed rebel groups had made significant progress against Syrian forces, pushing into areas of the country long considered to be government strongholds. The offensive gained momentum after the C.I.A. and Saudi Arabia began supplying the powerful tank-destroying weapons to the rebel groups.

But the rebel push in Idlib, Hama and Latakia Provinces in northern Syria also created problems for Washington. The Nusra Front, often battling alongside the C.I.A.-supported rebel groups, made its own territorial gains.

It was Nusra’s battlefield successes that Mr. Putin used as one justification for the Russian military offensive in Syria, which began in 2015. The Russian campaign, a relentless bombing of the C.I.A.-backed fighters and Nusra militants, battered the rebels and sent them into retreat.

The program suffered other setbacks. The arming and the training of the rebels occurred in Jordan and Turkey, and at one point Jordanian intelligence officers pilfered stockpiles of weapons the C.I.A. had shipped into the country for the Syrian rebels, selling them on the black market. In November, a member of the Jordanian military shot and killed three American soldiers who had been training Syrian rebels as part of the C.I.A. program.

White House officials also received periodic reports that the C.I.A.-trained rebels had summarily executed prisoners and committed other violations of the rules of armed conflict. Sometimes the reports led to the C.I.A. suspending cooperation with groups accused of wrongdoing.

John O. Brennan, Mr. Obama’s last C.I.A. director, remained a vigorous defender of the program despite divisions inside the spy agency about the effort’s effectiveness. But by the final year of the Obama administration, the program had lost many supporters in the White House — especially after the administration’s top priority in Syria became battling the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, rather than seeking an end to Mr. Assad’s government.

During one meeting in the White House Situation Room at the end of the Obama administration, with C.I.A.-backed rebels continuing to lose ground in the face of withering Russian air bombing, Mr. Brennan pressed the case that the United States continue to back the effort to topple Mr. Assad, according to one person who attended the meeting.

But Susan E. Rice, the national security adviser, shot back. “Make no mistake,” she said, according to the person in the meeting. “The president’s priority in Syria is fighting ISIS.”

Backed by Russian aircraft, Syrian government forces gradually began to reclaim areas near the Turkish border that had long been rebel strongholds, and eventually pushed many of the rebels back to the besieged city of Aleppo.

Aleppo fell to Syrian government troops in December.

Eric Schmitt, Matthew Rosenberg and Matt Apuzzo contributed reporting.

 

CIA Front Organizations

August 3, 2017

by Harry von Johnston PhD

A

• AALC, see Afro-American Labor Center
• A.P.I. Distributors, Inc.

• Actus Technology
• ADEP, see Popular Democratic Action
• Advertising Center, Inc.
• Aero Associates
• Aero Service Corp. of Philadelphia
• Aero Systems, Inc
• Aero Systems Pvt. Ltd
• AFME, see American Friends of the Middle East)
• African-American Institute
• Agencia Orbe Latinoamericano
• Agribusiness Development, Inc.
• AID (Agency for International Development – shared facilities with NIA)
• Air America
• Air Asia
• Air Proprietary Company
• All Ceylon Youth Council Movement
• Alliance for Anti-totalitarian Education
• American Committee for Liberation (of Cuba
• American Committee on a United Europe
• America Fore Insurance Group
• American Association of the Middle East
• American Committee for Liberation from Bolshevism, Inc.
• American Committee for the Liberation of the People of Russia
• American Committee for the International Commission of Jurists
• American Council of Churches
• American Economic Foundation
• American Federation for Fundemental Research
• American Federation of Labor/Congress of Industrial Organization (AFL/CIO)
• American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)
• American Foundation for the Middle East
• American Friends of the Middle East
• American Friends of the Russian Freedom
• American Friends Service Committee
• American Fund for Czechoslovak Refugees
• American Fund For Free Jurists
• American Geographic Society
• American Historical Society
• American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD)
• American Institute of Cairo
• American Machine & Foundry
• American Mutual Insurance Company
• American Newspaper Guild
• American Newspaper Publishers
• American Political Science Association
• American Research Center in Egypt, Inc.
• Anderson Security Associates (Virginia)
• American Society of African Culture
• American University – Special Operations Research Office
• Ames Research Center
• D. Anderson Foundation
• ANSA (Italian Wire Service)
• Antell, Wright & Nagel
• Anti-Communist Christian Front
• Anti-Communist Liberation Movement
• Anti-Totalitarian Board of Solidarity with the People of Vietnam
• Anti-Totalitarian Youth movement
• Appalachian Fund
• Armairco
• Area Tourist Association
• Arbian-American Oil Company
• Arnim Proprietary, Ltd
• Arrow Air
• Ashland Oil and Refining Company
• Asia Foundation
• Association American Oriental Society
• Association of Former Intelligence Officers
• Association of American Geographers
• Association of Computing Machinery
• Association of Friends of Venezuela
• Association of Preparatory Students
• Atomics, Physics & Science Fund, Inc.
• Atwater Research Program in North Africa
• Audio Intelligence Devices, Inc.
• Australian Association for Cultural Freedom
• Assoziation ungarischer Studenten in Nordamerika

 

B

• R. Fox Laboratories (B.R. Fox Company)
• Bahamas Commonwealth Bank
• Bank of Lisle
• Ball, Janik, and Novack
• Bankers Trust Company
• Basic Resources
• Battelle Memorial Institute
• Beacon Fund (West)
• Berliner Verein (West)
• Berliner Verein zur Forderung der Bildungshilfe in Entwicklungslandern (West)
• Berliner Verein zur Forderung der Publizistik in Entwicklungslandern
• Bird Air
• Bishop, Baldwin, Rewald, Dillingham and Wong
• Blythe & Company, Inc
• Boni, Watkins, Jason & Company
• Brazilian Institute for Democratic Action (IBAD)
• BRS Holding Company
• Broad and High Foundation
• Frederick Brown Foundation
• Bruce Campbell and Company
• Burndy Corporation
• Burgerkomitee fur Au Benpolitik (SS)
• Butte Pipe Line Company

C

• Cahill, Gordon, Reindel & Ohl
• Cahill & Wilinski
• Caramar (Caribbean Marine Aero Corp)
• California Shipbuilding Corporation
• Caribban Marine Area Corporation
• Caspian Pipeline Consortium
• Castle Bank and Trust
• Catherwood Foundation
• (CRESS) Center for Strategic Studies
• (CEAS) CEOSL, see Ecuadorean Confederation of Free Trade Union Organizations
• Center for Strategic and International Studies
• Center of Studies and Social Action
• Central Investigative Agency
• Century Special (controled by ICC)
• Chalk№s International Airlines
• Chesapeake Foundation
• Church League of America
• Civil Air Transport
• Civilian Irregular Defense Group(s
• Civilian Military Assistance
• Clothing and Textiles Workers Union COG, see Guayana Workers Confederation
• CMI Investments
• Coastal Products
• Coastal Trade Unions Cross, Murphy and Smith
• Cocke and Phillips International
• Columbian Financial Development Company
• Colt’s Patent Fire Arms Company
• Committee for Free Albania
• Committee for the Defense of National Interests
• Committee for Liberty of Peoples
• Committee of One Million Against the Admission of Communist China to the United Nations
• Communications Workers of America (CWA)
• Community Congress for Cultural Freedom
• Combat Military Ordinances Ltd.
• Computerized Thermal Imaging, Inc.
• Confederation for an Independent Poland
• Conference of the Atlantic
• Continental Press
• Continental Shelf Explorations, Inc.
• Cooperative League of America
• Coordinating Committee of Free Trade Unionists of Ecuador
• Coordinating Secretariat of National Unions of Students (cosec), see
• International

Student Conference (ISC)

• Corporate Air Services
• Cosden Petroleum Corporation
• COSECOIN (Corporate Security Consultants International
• Council on Economic and Cultural Affairs, Inc
• Council of Foreign Relations
• Cox, Langford, Stoddard & Cutler
• CRC, see Cuban Revolutionary Council
• Crest Detective Agency (Santa Monica)
• CROCLE, see Regional Confederation of Ecuadoreas
• Crossroads of Africa
• Crusade for Freedom
• Cryogenics, Inc.
• CSU, see Urugayan Labor Conference
• CTM, see Mexican Worker Confederation
• Cuban Portland Cement Company
• Cuban Revolutionary Council (CRC, Cuban Exile)
• Cummings and Seller
• Curtis Publishing Company
• CUT, see Uruguayan Confederation of Workers

D

 

• Daddario & Burns
• Dane Aviation Supply
• Debevoise, Plimpton, Lyons & Gates (West)
• Defense Services, Inc
• Defense Systems, International
• Dektor Counterinteligence (Virginia)
• Deutscher Kunstlerbund
• Dominion Rubber Company
• Double-Check Corporation
• DRE, see Revolutionary Student Directorate in Exile

E

• Eagle Aviation Technology and Services
• Eagleton Institute of Politics – Princeton University East Asian Institute
• East-West Center
• EATSCO (the Egyptian American Transport and Service Company)
• EC (see also EC varients, PGES, Granville Road Company, Idaho Power Systems, Coastal Products, Fouch Electric, Linnco Electric, and law firm of Ball, Janik, and Novak)
• EC Company
• EC Distributing
• EC Engineering
• EC Pulp and Paper
• EC Technical Services
• EC Voice and Data
• Ecuadorean Anti-Communist Action
• Ecuadorean Anti-Communist Front
• Ecuadorean Confederation of Free Trade Union Organizations (CEOSL)
• Ecuadorean Federation of Telecommunications Workers (FENETEL)
• Editors Press Service
• Edsel Fund
• Electrical Construction
• Electrical Contractors
• Electrical Contractors of Oregon
• Electric Storage Battery Company
• El Gheden Mining Corporation
• Encounter Magazine
• End Kadhmir Dispute Committee
• Energy Resources
• Ensayos
• ERC International, Inc.
• ESI Electronic Specialties, Inc.
• Enstnischer Nationalrat
• Enstnischer Weltzentralrat
• Estrella Company
• Europe Assembly of Captive Nations
• Evergreen International Air
• Exeter Banking Company

F

• Fairfield Aviation
• Farfield Foundation, Inc.
• Federal League for Ruralist Action (Ruralistas)
• Federation for a Democratic Germany in Free Europe
• Inte. des Journalistes de Tourisme
• FENETEL, see Ecuadorean Federation of Telecommunications Workers
• Fidelity Reporting Service
• Fiduciary Trust
• First Florida Resource Corporation
• Food, Drink and Plantation Workers Union
• Ford Foundation
• Foreign Broadcast Information
• Foreign News Service
• Foreign Press Association B.C
• Forest Products, Ltd.
• “Forum” (Wein)
• Fouch Electric
• Foundation for International and Social Behavior
• Foundation for Student Affairs
• Franklin Broadcasting Company
• Free Africa Organization of Colored People
• Free Europe Committee, Inc
• Free Europe Exile Relations
• Free Europe Press Division
• Freie Universitat (FU)
• Frente Departmental de Compensinos de Puno
• Fund For Peace
• Fund for International, Social and Economic Development

G

• Gambia National Youth Council
• GEICO (Government Employees Insurance Company)
• Geneva’s Exchange and Investment Bank
• George L. Barnes & Associates (Los Angeles)
• Geological Society of America
• Georgia Council on Human Relations
• Gibraltar Steamship Corporation
• Global International Airways
• Global Financial
• Glore, Forgan & Company
• Golden West Airlines
• Goldstein, Judd & Gurfein
• Gotham Foundation
• Government Affairs Institute
• Grace Capital
• R. Grace and Company
• Granary Fund
• Grandville Road Company
• Gray and Company
• Great American Banks
• Grey Advertising Agency
• Guyana Workers Confederation (COG)
• Gulf Oil Corporation
• Gulf Stream, Ltd.

H

• Andrew Hamilton Fund
• Heights Fund
• Joshua Hendy Iron Works
• Hierax
• Hill and Knowlton
• Himalayan Convention
• Histadrut – The Federation of Labor in Israel
• Hiwar
• Hoblitzelle Foundation
• Hodson Corporation
• Hogan & Hartson Holmes Foundation, Inc.
• Hoover Institute on War, Revolution and Peace
• Hutchins Advertising Company of Canada
• Huyck Corporation

I

• IBAD, see Brazilian Institute for Democratic Action
• Independence Foundation
• Independent Research Service
• Industrial Research Service
• Information Security International Inc.,.,
• Institut zur Erforschung der USSR e.V.
• Institute Battelle Memorial
• Institute of Historical Review
• Institute of International Education
• Institute of International Labor Research Education
• Institute of Political Education
• Institute of Public Administration
• International-American Center of Economic and Social Studies
• International-American Federation of Journalists
• International-American Federation of Working Newspapermen (IFWN)
• International-American Labor College
• International-American Police Academy, see International Police Academy
• International-American Regional Labor Organization (ORIT)
• Intercontinental Finance Corporation
• Intercontinental Research Corporation
• Intermountain Aviation
• International Armament Corporation (INTERARMCO) International Air Tours of Nigeria
• International Commission of Jurists (ICJ)
• International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (IFCTU)
• International Cooperation Administration (ICA)
• International Development Foundation, Inc.
• International Fact Finding Institute
• International Federation of Christian Trade Unions IFCTU, see World Confederation of Labor
• International Federation of Journalists
• International Federation of Petroleum and Chemical Workers (IFPCW)
• International Federation of Plantation, Agriculture and Allied Workers (IFPAAW)
• International Federation of Women Lawyers (IFWL)
• International Geographical Union
• International Journalists Conference
• International Labor Research Institute
• International Police Services School
• International Press Institute
• International Rescue Committee
• International Secretatiate of the Pax Romana
• International Student Conference (ISC)
• International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation (ITT)
• International Trade Services
• International Trade Secretariats
• International Trading and Investment Guaranty Corp., Ltd.,
• International Transport Workers Federation (ITF)
• International Union Officials Trade Organizations
• International Union of Young Christian Democrats
• International Youth Center
• Internationale Federation der Mittel- und Osteuropas
• Internationale Organization zur Erforschung kommunistischer Nethoden
• Internationaler Bund freier Journalisten
• Internationales Hilfskomitee

J

• Japan Cultural Forum

K

• KAMI
• Kentfield Fund J.M.
• Kaplan Fund, Inc.
• Kennedy & Sinclaire, Inc.
• Kenya Federation of Labour
• Khmer Airlines
• Kimberly-Clark Corporation
• Komittee fur internationale Beziehungen
• Komittee fur Selbstbestimmung
• Komittee fur die Unabhangigkeit des Kaukasus
• Korean C.I.A.
• Korean Freedom and Cultural Foundation, Inc.

L

• Labor Committee for Democratic Action
• Lawyer’s Constitutional Defense Committee
• League for Industrial Democracy
• League for International Social and Cooperative Development
• Ligue de la Liberte
• Litton Industrial Company
• London American

M

 

• Manhattan Coffee Company
• Marconi Telegraph-Cable Company
• Maritime Support Unit
• Martin Marietta Company
• Marshall Foundation
• Center for International Studies (MIT-CIS)
• Mathieson Chemical Corporation
• McCann-Erikson, Inc.
• Megadyne Electronics
• Charles E. Merrill Trust
• MerexMexican Workers Confederation (CTM)
• Miner & Associates
• Mineral Carriers, Ltd.
• Mobil Oil Company
• Molden-Verlag
• Monroe Fund
• Moore-McCormack Lines, Inc.
• Moral Majority Moral Rearmament
• Movement
• Mount Pleasant Trust
• Movement for Integrated University Action
• Robert Mullen Company

N

• Narodno Trudouoj Sojus (NTS)
• National Academy of Sciences
• National Research Council
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
• National Board for Defense of Sovereignty and Continental Solidarity
• National Catholic Action Board
• National Council of Churches
• National Defense Front
• National Educational Films, Inc.
• National Education Association
• National Federation of Petroleum and Chemical Workers of Ecuador
• National Feminist Movement for the Defense of Uruguay
• National Student Press Council of India
• National Students Association (NSA)
• National Union of Journalists of Ecuador
• Newsweek
• New York Times
• Norman Fund North American Rockwell Corporation
• North American Uranium, Inc.
  Norwich Pharmaceutical Company

O

• Oceanic Cargo
• Oil Workers International Union
• Operations and Policy Research, Inc.
• Ukrainischer Nationalisten (OUN)
• ORIT, see International-American Regional Labor Organization Overseas New Agency

P

• Pacific Corporation
• Pacific Life Insurance
• Paderewski Foundation
• Pan-American Foundation
• Pan Aviation
• Pappss Charitable Trust
• Parvus
• Jere Patterson & Associates
• Pax Romana
• Peace and Freedom
• Penobscot Land & Investment Company
• Plant Protection, Inc.
• Plenary of Democratic Civil Organizations of Uruguay
• Pope & Ballard
• Popular Democratic Action (ADEP)
• Press Institute of India
• Price Fund
• Public Service International (PSI)
• Publisher’s Council

R

• Rabb Charitable Foundation
• Radio Free Asia Radio
• Free Europe
• Radio Liberation
• Radio Liberty Committee, Inc.
• Radio Swan
• Rand Corporation
• Regional Confederation of Ecuadorean Coastal Trade Unions (CROCLE)
• Research Foundation for Foreign Affairs
• Retail Clerk’s International Association
• Revolutionary Democratic Front (RFD, Cuban exile)
• Reynolds Metal Company
• Rubicon Foundation
• Rumanisches Nationalkomitee
• Russian and East European Institute
• Russian Institute
• Russian Research Center

S

• Safir
• Lucia Airways
• Saman
• San Jacinto Foundation
• San Miguel Fund
• SBONR Sentinels of Liberty
• Sith & Company
• Social Christian Movement of Ecuador
• Sociedade Anomima de Radio Retransmissao (RARETSA)
• Society for Defense of Freedom in Asia
• SODECO (Sakhalin Oil Development Cooperation Co)
• SODIMAC Southern Air Transport
• Standard Electronics, Inc.
• Standish Ayer & McKay, Inc.
• Sterling Chemical Co.
• Strauss Fund
• Student Movement for Democratic Action
• Sur International
• Sylvania Electric Products, Inc.
• Synod of Bishops of the Russian Church Outside of Russia
• Systems Development Corporation

T

• Tarantel Press
• Tetra Tech International
• Thai-Pacific Services Company
• Tibet Convention
• Tower Fund
• Transmaritania
  Twentieth Century Fund

U

• Udall Corp.
• United Fruit Company
• Unabhangiger Forschugsdienst
• Ungarischer Nationalrat
• USAID (Agency for International Development – shared facilities with NIA)
• USIA (United States Information Agency)
• USIA Weapon Sales
• S. News and World Report
• United States Youth Council
• S.-Russian Commercial Energy Working Group
• United Ukrainian American Relief Committee
• Universal Service Corporation
• Untersuchungsausschub freiheitlicher Juristen (UfJ)
• Uruguayan Committee for Free Detention of Peoples
• Uruguayan Confederation of Workers (CUT)
• Uruguayan Labor Confederation (CSU)

 

V

• Vangard Service Company
• Varicon, Inc,

 

W

• Wainwright and Matthews Joseph Walter & Sons

• Warden Trust
• Erwim Wasey, Ruthrauff & Ryan, Inc.
• Wexton Advertising Agency
• Whitten Trust
• Williford-Telford Corporation
• Wikipedia
• World Assembly of Youth (WAY)
• World Confederation of Labour
• Wynnewood Fund

Y

• York Research Corporation

Z

• Zapato Off-Shore Oil Company
• Zapato Petroleum Corp
• Zenith Technical Enterprises, Ltd
• Zenith Technical Enterprises University
• Zen Nihon Gakusei Jichikai Sorengo
  (Zangakuren)
• Zentrale for Studien und Dokumentation
• Zweites deutschen fernsehen (ZDF)