TBR News August 18, 2010

Aug 18 2010

The Voice of the White House

            Washington, D.C., August 17, 2010: “There were many more documents dug out of official email files by Bradley Manning than the public is being shown. It strikes me as rather odd that all the critical military papers about our involvement in Afghanistan seem to cover only the period when George Bush was in the White House. This does not mean that there are no papers relating to incidents during the Obama administration but merely that these are not being released. This would indicate to me that there is some hanky-panky going on. Never mind all that because the hacking world has gotten a good deal of fascinating Department of State messaging and this has been circulated to a few interested people. We have been publishing some of the more interesting messaging here and will continue to do so. Ambassadorial reports are much more informative than low-level combat material and some of the machinations of our officials are fascinating to read. The Slaughterhouse Informer will be carrying a discussion of the hidden war between the Army and the CIA over the murderous use of drones against Pakistan and Afghanistan civilians. An interesting, if vicious, turf war indeed! In essence, the Army is angry that the CIA has taken over some of their bases and are using them to launch drones against civilian targets anywhere, and in any country, they choose. The Army gets the blame for this wholesale slaughter and is getting very angry.”

Harvard University fund sells all Israel holdings

No reason for the sale was mentioned in the report to the SEC.

August 10 2010,

by Hillel Koren 

Globes

In another blow to Israeli shares, the Harvard Management Company notified the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday that it had sold all its holdings in Israeli companies during the second quarter of 2010. No reason for the sale was mentioned. The Harvard Management Company manages Harvard University’s endowment.

Harvard Management Company stated in its 13-F Form that it sold 483,590 shares in Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Nasdaq: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) for $30.5 million; 52,360 shares in NICE Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq: NICE; TASE: NICE) for $1.67 million; 102,940 shares in Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq: CHKP) for $3.6 million; 32,400 shares in Cellcom Israel Ltd. (NYSE:CEL; TASE:CEL) for $1.1 million, and 80,000 Partner Communications Ltd. (Nasdaq: PTNR; TASE: PTNR) shares for $1.8 million.

Harvard Management Company’s 13-F Form shows some interesting investments. Its two largest holdings, each worth $295 million, are in iShares ETFs, one on Chinese equities, and the other on emerging markets. Harvard also owns $181 million in a Brazilian ETF.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news – www.globes-online.com – on August 15, 2010

Foreigners beware in the Philippines
August 17, 2010

by Joel D Adriano

Asia Times

            MANILA – A spate of violent crimes against foreigners threatens to undermine the Philippine government’s drive to lure more foreign investors, tourists and retirees. Previously, only rebel-infested areas on the southern island of Mindanao were considered high-risk, but recent assaults on foreigners have been launched in the capital Manila and other places popular with international tourists.

            On July 17, US expatriate Frederick Boucher and his family were attacked by five armed men shortly after they arrived at the capital’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

            They were held at gunpoint and their vehicle was forcibly stolen after the suspects repeatedly bumped into the rear of their vehicle. Police investigators believe they were likely marked by “spotters” situated at the airport working on behalf of criminal gangs.

            Other high-profile carjacking cases in July included assaults against a popular local actor, a former Philippine ambassador and a Japanese business executive from Toshiba Philippines. Police statistics indicate an average of 130 auto thefts in Metro Manila each month, often targeting sports utility and other luxury vehicles.

            The Philippine National Police (PNP) have stepped up their anti-carjacking campaign, leading to the arrest of several suspects and the killing of two notorious alleged gang leaders. Nonetheless, the crime wave has prompted the US Overseas Advisory Security Council to warn its nationals about the risks of traveling through the international airport.

            Rising violence against foreigners represents the latest mark on the Philippines spotty image as a friendly destination for foreign investment and travel, adding to the burdens of outmoded infrastructure and endemic corruption. The police have responded by burnishing their crime statistics, giving the impression that crime is on the wane rather than rise. That’s been accomplished through a statistical loophole that allows crimes committed at the barangay level, the country’s smallest governmental units, not to be included on the national crime ledger.

            Many crimes, including kidnapping-for-ransom, are not reported due to widespread distrust of authorities who are often behind the crimes and possible reprisals. Still, Philippine officials bristle at the frequent depiction of the Philippines as a dangerous place for tourists and investors. Officials can’t believe that despite this year’s bloody protests and suppression in Thailand – including the shooting deaths of two foreign journalists – Bangkok remains a favorite destination for global travelers and is still widely viewed as a safer than Manila.

            In part, that’s because foreigners are being singled out by Filipino gangs and syndicates.

            For instance, on July 22, retired US Air Force Sergeant Albert Mitchell, his wife and their three housemaids were killed in a robbery in their home in Angeles City, outside of the national capital. The suspect, Mark Dizon, was arrested on July 27. He has since been accused in the murder and robbery of two other foreigners: 60-year-old South African national Geoffrey Allan Bennun and 51-year-old Briton James Bolton Porter and their respective live-in partners.

            Foreign kidnappings are also on the rise. On April 4, Swiss businessman Carl Reith was kidnapped from his beach home in Zamboanga on Mindanao island. He was rescued by the police two months later in a raid that killed one of the suspects. On April 11, Salvacion Gorenio, an American national, was kidnapped near her house in Cavite, a province just outside Metro Manila. After nearly a month in captivity she was rescued by the police in an operation that killed all three suspects. In July, Japanese national Amir Katayama Mamaito, a treasure hunter who operated a local pharmacy, was kidnapped in southern Sulu province. He is still being held at an unknown location.

            According to Pete Troillo, director of business intelligence at Pacific Strategies and Assessments Inc, a risk consulting firm, at least 33 foreigners were kidnapped in the Philippines last year, mostly Indian nationals. Indians are considered prime targets because many of them are engaged in small-time informal lending and hence often carry large amounts of cash.

            Chinese, Korean and American nationals, all of whom are believed capable of paying high ransoms, have also been frequently targeted, Troillo said. Including local victims, 139 people were kidnapped in the Philippines last year, up slightly from the 135 snatched in 2008.

Fudging the figures
           

Officials are grappling to explain the attacks. Many crimes in the Philippines are linked to the country’s high poverty rate. As much as one-third of the population live in poverty, according to some estimates. Economic desperation has recently been aggravated by the global economic recession and the severe flooding in Manila and surrounding areas last year.

            That’s compounded by a lack of effective law enforcement. Police are often suspected of being involved in many crimes in the Philippines, especially kidnappings for ransom. A number of suspects caught in past operations against kidnapping rings were either active or former policemen.

            Some sociologists attribute the crime to widely held Filipino perceptions that most foreigners, especially Caucasians, are rich. This notion is perpetuated by the media in movies and TV shows. They often view Filipinos with relatives in the US or abroad as comparatively better off.

            For instance, on July 19 four gunmen tailed and rammed the vehicle of a wealthy local family returning from a vacation in the US. When they stopped to inspect the damage, assailants held the family at gunpoint and shot businessman Jorge Bernas, a distant relative of former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, before stealing their van.

            To be sure, some foreigners have been at the wrong place at the wrong time. Briton Charles McKerchar, 69, was recently injured during a failed assassination attempt on Sulu Governor Sakur Tan at the Zamboanga City’s airport on August 5. McKerchar, who is married to a Filipino, was at the airport to retrieve an acquaintance. He is now in a serious but stable condition.

            Nor are all foreigners resident in the Philippines cowering in fear. James Musslewhite, an American expat from Houston who now lives in Mindanao and writes a blog about the Philippines, thinks that despite the recent negative news many foreigners living in the Philippines still believe its safer in Manila than in most US urban areas. “I feel safer walking in many streets in the Philippines than in the US,” he said.

            Police officials suggest that most of the violence against foreigners is motivated by a get-rich-quick mentality shared by many criminal gangs and syndicates. In self-defense, the PNP claims that nearly all of the high-profile crimes recently reported in the media have been solved – though the police frequently tally a crime as solved just by identifying a suspect.

            They often like to boast that they have a higher crime solution rate than their counterparts in the US and Japan. Last year the PNP claimed an 88% crime solution efficiency rate, compared to just 32% in the US and 31% in Japan. They’ve also reported a 57% drop in homicides and murders in the first half of this year, curiously at a time the media is awash with violent crime stories.

            Raul Bacalzo, director for police investigation and detection management, says the high crime solution rate may be attributed to some police chiefs ”under-reporting” the number of crimes in their region to make it appear that ”his area of responsibility is peaceful and crime incidents are manageable”. A new crime recording methodology implemented earlier this year is designed to correct the dysfunction in police procedures for processing crime and bring them on par with international standards.

            According to PNP director general Jesus Verzosa, the supposed drop in recent crime statistics was due mainly to a five-month gun ban aimed at reducing political violence ahead of the May 10 general elections. Some 3,000 people were arrested, including 200 government employees, during the gun ban period, which ran from January 10 to June 9.

            Because of the supposed dramatic decline in crime during the gun ban period, the PNP is now proposing a permanent gun ban. President Benigno Aquino, a gun enthusiast who target shoots as a hobby, has dismissed the idea out of hand, claiming that gun-related incidents represent a small percentage of the total crime statistics.

            Citing police statements that there were more unlicensed than licensed firearms across the county, Aquino believes that a gun ban would only affect those who are abiding by gun registration laws. Meanwhile, foreigners will weigh more cautiously whether to commit their capital or spend their holidays in a country where they are increasingly the target of heavily armed robbery, car-jacking and kidnapping gangs and syndicates.

            Joel D Adriano is an independent consultant and award-winning freelance journalist. He was a sub-editor for the business section of The Manila Times and writes for ASEAN BizTimes, Safe Democracy and People’s Tonight.

 

Humor: CIA Funnies- Why There’s The Easter Bunny !

 

CIA tapes of 9/11 plotter’s interrogation don’t show torture, official says

August 17, 2010 

by Peter Finn

Washington Post
 

The interrogation of Ramzi Binalshibh, a key figure in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, was recorded several times while he was being questioned in Morocco by local intelligence officers, according to a U.S. official. The disclosure resolves a mystery over what are believed to be the only existing recordings from the CIA’s secret detention program.

The two videotapes and an audiotape do not show any use of what the CIA has called “enhanced interrogation techniques,” the official said. Human rights groups have described the CIA’s methods as torture.

“The tapes, which were made and found years ago, show a guy sitting at a desk answering questions,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of ongoing investigations.

Still, the disclosure adds a new wrinkle to the public understanding of the documentation of the CIA’s detention and interrogation program.

The destruction of 92 videotapes depicting the harsh interrogation and confinement of senior al-Qaeda figures at CIA secret prisons around the world is the subject of a criminal probe. Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., the former head of the directorate of operations at the agency, issued an order to destroy the recordings in November 2005, as the CIA’s detention and interrogation program came under intense public and congressional scrutiny.

In January 2008, then-Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey appointed Assistant U.S. Attorney John H. Durham to investigate the destruction of the tapes. That inquiry continues.

The CIA first acknowledged having tapes of the interrogation of a high-value detainee in 2007 but never identified the detainee.

During the prosecution of Zacarias Moussaoui, the only suspect convicted in the United States in connection with the 9/11 attacks, the CIA made two declarations to U.S. District Court Judge Leonie M. Brinkema that it was not recording certain interrogations and did not have recordings of particular detainees.

But in September 2007, following Moussaoui’s conviction the previous year, the CIA discovered a videotape of Binalshibh being questioned by Moroccan officials. A subsequent search, requested by the Justice Department, then turned up another videotape and an audio recording of Binalshibh’s questioning, the Justice Department told Brinkema and Karen J. Williams, chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, in an Oct. 25, 2007, letter.

The Associated Press, which first revealed Tuesday that Binalshibh was the subject of the recordings, reported that the tapes were discovered under a desk at the CIA.

“The question becomes: If this is out there, what else is out there?” said Tom Durkin, Binalshibh’s former civilian attorney in the military commissions at Guantanamo Bay.

CIA spokesman George Little said the agency’s black sites and interrogation methods were “a thing of the past.”

“While we continue to cooperate with inquiries into past counterterrorism practices, the CIA’s focus now is exactly where it should be: protecting the American people now and into the future,” he said.

Binalshibh, a Yemeni who served as a key liaison between the 9/11 hijackers and al-Qaeda’s leadership, was captured in Pakistan on the first anniversary of the attacks, and held in the CIA’s secret detention program before the Bush administration announced his transfer to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in September 2006.

He was not among the three detainees who were waterboarded by the CIA, and it is not known what coercive techniques he was subjected to. A military court at Guantanamo Bay, where he is currently held, has heard that he is being treated with psychotropic drugs, and his mental competency to defend himself at trial has previously been at issue.

Binalshibh, 38, and four others, including Khalid Sheik Mohamed, the self-declared mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, were facing capital charges at Guantanamo Bay. Those charges were withdrawn in anticipation of a federal prosecution, but the Obama administration’s desire to transfer the case to civilian court has stalled in the face of public and congressional opposition.

Staff writer Ellen Nakashima and staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report

            Comment: The precious CIA must have used the same person to narrate these hilarious faked tapesas the one  who narrates their ‘Bin Ladin”howlers. Bin Ladin has been dead since 2003, boys.  
Sri Lankan waters run deep with China
August 13, 2010

by Sudha Ramachandran

Asia TImes

            BANGALORE – The first phase of Sri Lanka’s Hambantota project, a showpiece of the country’s significant and growing cooperation with China, is almost complete. Filling the harbor basin with water for the port on the southern tip of the island begins on August 15 and the first ship is expected to dock at the port by November.

            Hambantota is several nautical miles north of a major shipping route that links the Suez Canal with the Malacca Strait, which about 36,000 ships cross annually. Once the entire project is completed, it is expected to transform Sri Lanka into an important transshipment hub.

            The project is more than just a port. On completion, the Hambantota Development Zone will include a liquefied natural gas refinery, aviation fuel storage facilities, three separate docks that will give the port transshipment capacity, dry docks for ship repair and construction, and bunkering and refueling facilities.

            The entire project is expected to cost about US$1.5 billion and most of the funding could come from China. Already the Chinese have provided 85% of the first phase’s total cost of $550 million as a soft loan and pledged $200 million toward the second phase. A consortium of Chinese companies led by the China Harbor Engineering Company and the Sino Hydro Corporation is also involved in the project’s construction.

            Besides the Hambantota project, China is involved in several others on the island. It is constructing a second international airport at Hambantota, a $248 million expressway connecting the capital Colombo with the airport at Katunayake, a $855 million coal power plant at Norochcholai, and a performing arts theater in Colombo.

            China’s Huichen Investment will provide $28 million and manage a special economic zone at Mirigama for Chinese investors. In addition, China has provided $1million as humanitarian aid for internally displaced persons and technical assistance for demining operations in northern and eastern provinces.

            China’s relationship with Sri Lanka goes back many decades. In the 1950s, the countries signed a rubber-rice agreement that assured Sri Lanka with a large market for its rubber, even as it was provided with low-priced rice.

            While the Sino-Sri Lankan bond is decades old, the relationship expanded remarkably after Mahinda Rajapaksa became president in 2005. Since 2006, Beijing has provided Sri Lanka with $3.06 billion in financial assistance for various projects. Its aid to Sri Lanka, which was a few million dollars in 2005, jumped to $1.2 billion in 2009, over half the total aid the island has been offered by various countries. China is Sri Lanka’s largest aid donor today.

            An important reason for the close ties between the Rajapaksa government and China is Beijing’s robust endorsement and support of Colombo’s conduct in the war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). China was “instrumental to some extent in the Sri Lankan government’s success in defeating the LTTE”, said China expert Srikanth Kondapalli, an associate professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. “Colombo was trying to purchase arms from abroad for years and only China supplied it with weaponry on a sustained basis.”

            Many in Sri Lanka favor the burgeoning relationship with China for reducing dependence on neighboring India, whose presence had been enormous. “Chinese help to Sri Lanka, unlike that from India, is free from conditions,” said Soosipillai Keethaponcalan, senior lecturer at Colombo University’s Department of Political Science.

            Unlike India, which did not fully support Rajapaksa’s military operations against the LTTE and which refrained from supplying it with weapons that would worsen the plight of civilians, China had no such qualms. It fulfilled Colombo’s wish-list for military hardware, asking no questions, and has stood by Colombo in various international forums when it has been accused of gross human-rights abuses and war crimes.

In 2008, Sri Lankan Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohana told the New York Times that Sri Lanka’s new donors “conduct themselves differently. Asians don’t go around teaching each other how to behave,” he said. “There are ways we deal with each other – perhaps a quiet chat, but not wagging the finger.” China’s way of dealing with Sri Lanka by not raising uncomfortable questions works well for the Rajapaksa government.

            Economic and strategic reasons are behind China’s interest in Sri Lanka. The island provides it with a market for its goods. More important is the strategic interest. It is located close to India’s southern coast. A presence in Sri Lanka enhances China’s access to the Indian Ocean. As mentioned earlier, Sri Lanka is just a few nautical miles from an important sea lane, one that is taken by tankers carrying 80% of China’s oil.

            “China’s influence in Sri Lanka is as major as that of India’s,” said John Gooneratne, a retired Sri Lankan diplomat and author of A Decade of Confrontation: Sri Lanka and India in the 1980s. India’s investment in projects in Sri Lanka is largely in the war-torn Tamil areas, not visible to the majority Sinhalese community. “China has the ‘knack’ of making grants/loans for projects that visibly project the Chinese image – the Bandaranaike Conference Hall, the Courts complex, and now a Cultural Complex [under construction] in Colombo,” he told Asia Times Online.

            “There is reason for India to be concerned over the growing Chinese influence in Sri Lanka, particularly in the long term,” says Kondapalli.

            And the worry is showing.

            Indian security analysts have pointed out that while at present there is no talk of a Chinese naval base on the island, the possibility of one at Hambantota at a later stage cannot be ruled out.

            At the height of the war against the LTTE, India’s then national security adviser, M K Narayanan, went public with India’s concern over Colombo sourcing arms from China. More recently, India reached agreement with Colombo to set up a consulate in Hambantota, the district where the China-funded project is being built. India has a high commission in Colombo and a consulate in Kandy. Consulates in Jaffna and Hambantota are in the pipeline. This huge presence on a small island seems rather excessive. Sri Lankans believe the proposed Hambantota consulate is aimed at “keeping an eye” on Chinese activity there.

            The Sino-Sri Lankan relationship is not without its problems. Bilateral trade has doubled over the past five years and China has emerged the second-largest exporter to Sri Lanka and the 13th-largest export destination for Sri Lankan exports. However, “the trade balance is overwhelmingly in China’s favor”, Kondapalli told Asia Times Online.

            Sri Lanka’s exports consist of raw materials, rubber, tea, spices, gems and some minerals. “The Lankans want a diversification of the trade basket. Besides, Lankan traders are also having problems with the Chinese banking system,” he said.

            An issue that could trouble Sino-Sri Lankan relations in the coming years is that of China bringing in its own workers. This has triggered tensions in several countries such as Zambia, where Beijing is involved in big projects. Media reports have also drawn attention to claims that China uses convicts on overseas projects, a charge that Beijing has denied. Such allegations, especially if proved true, have the potential of triggering anti-China public sentiment and souring the current Sino-Sri Lankan bonhomie.

            Sri Lanka has taken care not to allow its dalliance with the Chinese to offend India. It has repeatedly clarified that it will keep India’s security concerns in mind.

            With the end of the war in Sri Lanka last year, India’s role in the island has diminished. All the same, the government recognizes it cannot afford to antagonize India, and geographical proximity to India is a factor that Colombo cannot ignore. Decision-makers in Colombo are unlikely to have forgotten past experiences.

            In the 1980s, when the civil war was unfolding, the Sri Lankan government sourced weapons from countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel, Pakistan and China – all with whom India was not on cordial terms at that time – ignoring India’s security concerns. That sparked a series of moves by India that culminated in its provision of limited arms and training to the Tamil militants. Then in June 1987, when India violated Sri Lankan airspace and dropped relief supplies to Jaffna’s beleaguered Tamil population, the J R Jayawardene government appealed to its Western friends and Asian allies for assistance. But little concrete help was forthcoming.

            China, for instance, expressed strong disapproval of the “bullying action of big powers”, but stopped short of naming India. It gave Colombo some arms, but that was it. China was aware that “it was too far away from Sri Lanka to sustain any military support operation on the island”, Kondapalli said. Beijing advised the Sri Lankan government to pursue a political solution to the ethnic conflict, reminding Colombo that “distant waters don’t put out fires on your doorstep”, Gooneratne, then in the Sri Lankan diplomatic service, recalled. It was proximate countries that were in a position to do so.

            This is a fact that Colombo will bear in mind as it does a careful balancing act between the two Asian giants.

Sudha Ramachandran is an independent journalist/researcher based in Bangalore                         

August 17, 2010 by TomDispatch.com

The Guns of August: Lowering the Flag on the American Century

by Chalmers Johnson

In 1962, the historian Barbara Tuchman published a book about the start of World War I and called it The Guns of August. It went on to win a Pulitzer Prize.  She was, of course, looking back at events that had occurred almost 50 years earlier and had at her disposal documents and information not available to participants. They were acting, as Vietnam-era Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara put it, in the fog of war.

So where are we this August of 2010, with guns blazing in one war in Afghanistan even as we try to extricate ourselves from another in Iraq?  Where are we, as we impose sanctions on Iran and North Korea (and threaten worse), while sending our latest wonder weapons, pilotless drones armed with bombs and missiles, into Pakistan’s tribal borderlands, Yemen, and who knows where else, tasked with endless “targeted killings” which, in blunter times, used to be called assassinations?  Where exactly are we, as we continue to garrison much of the globe even as our country finds itself incapable of paying for basic services?

I wish I had a crystal ball to peer into and see what historians will make of our own guns of August in 2060. The fog of war, after all, is just a stand-in for what might be called “the fog of the future,” the inability of humans to peer with any accuracy far into the world to come.  Let me nonetheless try to offer a few glimpses of what that foggy landscape some years ahead might reveal, and even hazard a few predictions about what possibilities await still-imperial America.

Let me begin by asking: What harm would befall the United States if we actually decided, against all odds, to close those hundreds and hundreds of bases, large and small, that we garrison around the world?  What if we actually dismantled our empire, and came home? Would Genghis Khan-like hordes descend on us?  Not likely.  Neither a land nor a sea invasion of the U.S. is even conceivable.

Would 9/11-type attacks accelerate?  It seems far likelier to me that, as our overseas profile shrank, the possibility of such attacks would shrink with it.

Would various countries we’ve invaded, sometimes occupied, and tried to set on the path of righteousness and democracy decline into “failed states?” Probably some would, and preventing or controlling this should be the function of the United Nations or of neighboring states. (It is well to remember that the murderous Cambodian regime of Pol Pot was finally brought to an end not by us, but by neighboring Vietnam.)

 

Sagging Empire

In other words, the main fears you might hear in Washington — if anyone even bothered to wonder what would happen, should we begin to dismantle our empire — would prove but chimeras.  They would, in fact, be remarkably similar to Washington’s dire predictions in the 1970s about states all over Asia, then Africa, and beyond falling, like so many dominoes, to communist domination if we did not win the war in Vietnam.

            What, then, would the world be like if the U.S. lost control globally — Washington’s greatest fear and deepest reflection of its own overblown sense of self-worth — as is in fact happening now despite our best efforts?  What would that world be like if the U.S. just gave it all up? What would happen to us if we were no longer the “sole superpower” or the world’s self-appointed policeman?

In fact, we would still be a large and powerful nation-state with a host of internal and external problems. An immigration and drug crisis on our southern border, soaring health-care costs, a weakening education system, an aging population, an aging infrastructure, an unending recession — none of these are likely to go away soon, nor are any of them likely to be tackled in a serious or successful way as long as we continue to spend our wealth on armies, weapons, wars, global garrisons, and bribes for petty dictators.

Even without our interference, the Middle East would continue to export oil, and if China has been buying up an ever larger share of what remains underground in those lands, perhaps that should spur us into conserving more and moving more rapidly into the field of alternative energies.

Rising Power

Meanwhile, whether we dismantle our empire or not, China will become (if it isn’t already) the world’s next superpower. It, too, faces a host of internal problems, including many of the same ones we have. However, it has a booming economy, a favorable balance of payments vis-à-vis much of the rest of the world (particularly the U.S., which is currently running an annual trade deficit with China of $227 billion), and a government and population determined to develop the country into a powerful, economically dominant nation-state.

Fifty years ago, when I began my academic career as a scholar of China and Japan, I was fascinated by the modern history of both countries. My first book dealt with the way the Japanese invasion of China in the 1930s spurred Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party he headed on a trajectory to power, thanks to its nationalist resistance to that foreign invader. Incidentally, it is not difficult to find many examples of this process in which a domestic political group gains power because it champions resistance to foreign troops.  In the immediate post-WWII period, it occurred in Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia; with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, all over Eastern Europe; and today, it is surely occurring in Afghanistan and probably in Iraq as well.

Once the Cultural Revolution began in China in 1966, I temporarily lost interest in studying the country. I thought I knew where that disastrous internal upheaval was taking China and so turned back to Japan, which by then was well launched on its amazing recovery from World War II, thanks to state-guided, but not state-owned, economic growth.

This pattern of economic development, sometimes called the “developmental state,” differed fundamentally from both Soviet-type control of the economy and the laissez-faire approach of the U.S.  Despite Japan’s success, by the 1990s its increasingly sclerotic bureaucracy had led the country into a prolonged period of deflation and stagnation.  Meanwhile, post-U.S.S.R. Russia, briefly in thrall to U.S. economic advice, fell captive to rapacious oligarchs who dismantled the command economy only to enrich themselves. 

In China, Communist Party leader Deng Xiaoping and his successors were able to watch developments in Japan and Russia, learning from them both.  They have clearly adopted effective aspects of both systems for their economy and society. With a modicum of luck, economic and otherwise, and a continuation of its present well-informed, rational leadership, China should continue to prosper without either threatening its neighbors or the United States.

To imagine that China might want to start a war with the U.S. — even over an issue as deeply emotional as the ultimate political status of Taiwan — would mean projecting a very different path for that country than the one it is currently embarked on.

Lowering the Flag on the American Century

Thirty-five years from now, America’s official century of being top dog (1945-2045) will have come to an end; its time may, in fact, be running out right now. We are likely to begin to look ever more like a giant version of England at the end of its imperial run, as we come face-to-face with, if not necessarily to terms with, our aging infrastructure, declining international clout, and sagging economy. It may, for all we know, still be Hollywood’s century decades from now, and so we may still make waves on the cultural scene, just as Britain did in the 1960s with the Beatles and Twiggy. Tourists will undoubtedly still visit some of our natural wonders and perhaps a few of our less scruffy cities, partly because the dollar-exchange rate is likely to be in their favor.

If, however, we were to dismantle our empire of military bases and redirect our economy toward productive, instead of destructive, industries; if we maintained our volunteer armed forces primarily to defend our own shores (and perhaps to be used at the behest of the United Nations); if we began to invest in our infrastructure, education, health care, and savings, then we might have a chance to reinvent ourselves as a productive, normal nation. Unfortunately, I don’t see that happening. Peering into that foggy future, I simply can’t imagine the U.S. dismantling its empire voluntarily, which doesn’t mean that, like all sets of imperial garrisons, our bases won’t go someday.

Instead, I foresee the U.S. drifting along, much as the Obama administration seems to be drifting along in the war in Afghanistan. The common talk among economists today is that high unemployment may linger for another decade.  Add in low investment and depressed spending (except perhaps by the government) and I fear T.S. Eliot had it right when he wrote: “This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper.” 

I have always been a political analyst rather than an activist. That is one reason why I briefly became a consultant to the CIA’s top analytical branch, and why I now favor disbanding the Agency. Not only has the CIA lost its raison d’être by allowing its intelligence gathering to become politically tainted, but its clandestine operations have created a climate of impunity in which the U.S. can assassinate, torture, and imprison people at will worldwide.

Just as I lost interest in China when that country’s leadership headed so blindly down the wrong path during the Cultural Revolution, so I’m afraid I’m losing interest in continuing to analyze and dissect the prospects for the U.S. over the next few years. I applaud the efforts of young journalists to tell it like it is, and of scholars to assemble the data that will one day enable historians to describe where and when we went astray.  I especially admire insights from the inside, such as those of ex-military men like Andrew Bacevich and Chuck Spinney. And I am filled with awe by men and women who are willing to risk their careers, incomes, freedom, and even lives to protest — such as the priests and nuns of SOA Watch, who regularly picket the School of the Americas and call attention to the presence of American military bases and misbehavior in South America.

I’m impressed as well with Pfc. Bradley Manning, if he is indeed the person responsible for potentially making public 92,000 secret documents about the war in Afghanistan. Daniel Ellsberg has long been calling for someone to do what he himself did when he released the Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam War. He must be surprised that his call has now been answered — and in such an unlikely way. 

My own role these past 20 years has been that of Cassandra, whom the gods gave the gift of foreseeing the future, but also cursed because no one believed her. I wish I could be more optimistic about what’s in store for the U.S.  Instead, there isn’t a day that our own guns of August don’t continue to haunt me.

Chalmers Johnson is the author of Blowback (2000), The Sorrows of Empire (2004), and Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic (2006), among other works.  His newest book, Dismantling the Empire: America’s Last Best Hope (Metropolitan Books), has just been published.  To listen to Timothy MacBain’s latest TomCast audio interview in which Johnson discusses America’s empire of bases and his new book, click here or, to download it to your iPod, here.

The Death Toll Does Not Lie — Afghanistan Is Obama’s War

August 16, 2010

by Robert Naiman

Huffington Post

            575. That’s how many U.S. soldiers have lost their lives in the Afghanistan war since Barack Obama became President at noon on January 20, 2009, according to the icasualties.org website, which tracks U.S. soldiers’ deaths using reports received from the Department of Defense — and which is widely cited in the media as a source of information on U.S. deaths.

According to the same website, 575 is also the number of U.S. soldiers who lost their lives in the Afghanistan war during the Presidency of George W. Bush.

Therefore, total U.S. deaths in Afghanistan have doubled in Afghanistan under President Obama, and when the next U.S. soldier is reported dead, the majority of U.S. deaths in Afghanistan will have occurred under President Obama.

This grim landmark should be reported in the media, and White House reporters should ask Robert Gibbs to comment on it. It is quite relevant to Gibbs’ implicit attempt to marginalize critics of the war in Afghanistan by claiming that they wouldn’t be satisfied with anything less than the abolition of the Pentagon. The majority of Americans – including the overwhelming majority of Democrats, and at least 60% of House Democrats – are deeply skeptical of the Administration’s Afghanistan policy not because they are knee-jerk pacifists – obviously they are not – but because the human and financial cost of the war is rising, we have nothing to show for the increased cost, and the Administration has not articulated a clear plan to reach the endgame; indeed, Administration officials, led by General Petraeus, have just launched a public relations campaign to undermine the substantial drawdown in troops next summer that Democratic leaders in Congress, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have said that they expect.

This grim landmark is not reported directly by the icasualties.org website — you have to have to go to the right places on the website to retrieve the data and then calculate it from the data given. The data retrieval and arithmetic is straightforward, but I will carefully explain it here so that any reader – and particular any reporter and news editor — can easily reproduce it.

The top-level organization of the icasualties.org website is divided into two parts, according to the designations previously given to the “two wars” by the Department of Defense: “Operation Iraqi Freedom” and “Operation Enduring Freedom.” The latter designation includes not just U.S. deaths in Afghanistan, but also non-Iraq U.S. deaths in the conflicts formerly known collectively as the “Global War on Terror”; for example, it includes deaths in the Philippines and Djibouti, far away from Afghanistan.

But you can find in the database U.S. deaths in Afghanistan since 2001 by year and month by first going to this link, and then, underneath the table that initially appears under “Fatalities by Year and Month,” choosing in the pop-up menus, “US” for nationality, “All Fatalities” for Fatality Type, and “Afghanistan Only” for Theatre.

You should then see a table that looks like this (view as web page) (download excel spread sheet).

As shown beneath the table, when you sum the yearly totals you get:

Total: 1150
2001-2008: 564
2009-2010: 586

But this wouldn’t give the right figures for Bush and Obama, because it would allocate all of January 2009 to Obama, when he was only President from noon on January 20.

Subtracting the 14 deaths of January 2009 from the total for 2009-10 gives:

2001-2008: 564
2009-2010 (not counting 1/09): 572

You can find the daily data for January 2009 by going to this link:

Scrolling down to January 2009, of the 14 deaths in Afghanistan (there was a January 30 death in Djibouti), 11 took place before January 20 and 3 took place after January 20.

Adding 11 to 564 and 3 to 572 gives:

Totals:
Bush: 575
Obama: 575

News media generally like landmarks as a way to visit and explain the U.S. death toll from the wars.

This landmark is surely a worthy candidate for consideration.

I expect Robert Gibbs to be asked about it.

Family of woman killed in botched drug raid to receive $4.9 million

August 16, 2010

CNN

Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) — The city of Atlanta will pay $4.9 million to the family of Kathryn Johnston, a 92-year-old woman killed in a botched November 2006 drug raid, Mayor Kasim Reed’s office announced Monday.

Johnston was shot to death by narcotics officers conducting a “no-knock” warrant. Investigators later determined the raid was based on falsified paperwork stating that illegal drugs were present in the home.

The incident prompted a major overhaul of the Atlanta police drug unit, and three former police officers were sentenced to prison terms for a cover-up that ensued.

Johnston’s family will receive $2.9 million sometime in fiscal 2011, the city said, with the remaining $2 million to be paid in fiscal 2012, on or before August 15, 2011.

The payment represents the settlement of a lawsuit filed against the city by Sarah Dozier, Johnston’s niece, Reed’s office said in a statement. Initially filed in state court, the suit was moved to federal court, where a judge ordered the parties to mediation.

As the search warrant was being executed November 21, 2006, at Johnston’s home, she fired at officers with an old pistol, apparently believing her home was being broken into. Six officers returned fire. Johnston’s one shot went through her front door and over the officers’ heads. They responded with 39 shots, hitting the elderly woman five times.

“The resolution of this case is an important step in the healing process for the city and its residents,” Reed said in the statement. “As a result of the incident, several police officers were indicted in federal and state court on charges and were later convicted and sentenced for their actions. In addition, the narcotics unit of the Atlanta Police Department was completely reorganized, which included changes in policy and personnel.”

Last year, former officer Jason Smith was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison, while former officers Greg Junnier and Arthur Tesler were sentenced to six and five years, respectively.

All three men pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to violate civil rights resulting in death. Smith and Junnier also pleaded guilty to state charges of voluntary manslaughter and making false statements, and Smith admitted to planting bags of marijuana in Johnston’s home after her death.

U.S. District Judge Julie Carnes ordered the three to split Johnston’s funeral costs of $8,180, and to serve three years of supervised release after they complete their prison terms.

“I pray daily for Ms. Johnston,” Smith said at the sentencing hearing, according to CNN affiliate WXIA-TV. “I also pray other officers in Atlanta will have the moral fortitude I didn’t have.”

Tesler was convicted on one state count of making false statements after filling out an affidavit saying that an informant had purchased crack cocaine at Johnston’s home, in a crime-plagued neighborhood near downtown Atlanta.

The informant, however, denied ever having been to Johnston’s home, leading to probes by federal and state authorities as well as the breakup and reorganization of the narcotics unit.

Tesler’s state conviction was reversed on appeal. According to their plea agreements, Junnier and Smith will serve their state sentences concurrently with the federal sentence.

Shortly after the probe began, Junnier began cooperating with authorities, providing “valuable assistance in the investigation and prosecution of Smith and Tesler,” according to a statement issued last year by federal prosecutors. Smith also cooperated to a lesser extent, and both men’s sentences were reduced in exchange for their cooperation.

Prosecutors have said that officers regularly presented false information to obtain warrants and that they cut corners to make more time for lucrative side jobs providing additional security to businesses, often while on duty, and receiving cash payments.

The investigation into the botched raid also led to guilty pleas from the police sergeant in charge of the narcotics unit and another officer who admitted to extortion, authorities said.

 

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 (noe one else ever does, either) 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 twenty-third chapter

Conversation No. 23

Date:  Monday, July 8, 1996

Commenced:  1:40 PM CST

Concluded:   1:55 PM CST

GD: Am I disturbing anything there? I hear conversations in the background.

RTC: My son was just leaving. See you later…yes, I will…sorry.

GD: I can call back later if you wish.

RTC: No, everyone has gone.  Anything new?

GD: Yes. Talking about the Swiss, I just discovered that the Swiss minister, Bruggmann, was a brother-in-law of Henry Wallace. Married his sister Mary. Anyway, old Henry used to tell Bruggmann everything he knew and the Swiss fellow sent long reports to Bern. Unfortunately, the Germans were listening in and knew all kinds of things. Did you know about this?

RTC: Yes, we did. We found it out later. Henry was somewhat left of center and in ’44, tried to nail down the nomination for President. The party told FDR that they would not hold still for that so Franklin, who had more or less supported Henry as Vice President, dumped him for Truman. I think everyone, including Roosevelt, knew he was not long for this world and the VP would be our next President. Henry had the full support of Stalin and, through him, the Communist labor movement here. We missed having a red flag over the Capitol by very little. Henry drifted into obscurity and then vanished off the stage.

GD: I found out the same thing. Roosevelt pretended to be a liberal just as Hitler pretended to be a revolutionary. Got more votes. Hitler was a conservative but he posed as a radical. Remember the blood purge in ’34. He got rid of the real revolutionaries then and went over to the side of the professional military and the banking houses.

RTC: If Roosevelt had put Wallace in, there would have been serious trouble, believe me. Henry would have had a car accident as I was told.

GD: That’s what usually happens. Or the heart attack. That’s not as messy and much easier to arrange, isn’t it?

RTC: Yes, generally.

GD: Stalin said it was easy to plan a murder but a suicide was more difficult.

RTC: I recall that after Roosevelt passed to Valhalla with his stamp albums, there was a reaction to all his Commie friends and you recall the savage persecutions, don’t you?

GD: I was younger then but I recall McCarthy and the rest of it.

RTC: The Catholic church was behind him. Your friend Müller was also involved there. They did clean house of the lefties all right.

GD: I suppose in the process, they ruined quite a few perfectly innocent people.

RTC: Talleyrand said that you couldn’t make an omelet without the breaking of eggs.

GD: The innocent always suffer, Robert. That’s what they’re there for. By the way, I was reading about the surge of AIDS in Africa. What a tragedy. Once the evil white colonists were kicked out, taking all the skilled technicians with them, the gloriously freed natives surged forward. Of course all the countries there are falling apart. I suppose in a few years, spears will be back in fashion and at some meeting of the heads of state, one of them arrives late and asks another if he missed much and was told that everyone’s eaten.

RTC: Gregory…

GD: And did you hear the one about Desmond Tutu passing his brother in the forest?

RTC: Now that’s actually funny.

GD: Yes, the evil masters leave and the countries descend into poverty and are all infected with AIDS. In America, we all know that AIDS is the exclusive property of the homosexual and drug communities and since the average African makes about five dollars a month and can’t afford a box of Aspirin, I think they must all be gay. Instead of enlightened ethnic freedom, we have mass buggery and protracted death.

RTC: Well, Africa is very rich in natural resources. If we all wait long enough, the indigenous population will all die off and the rest of us will have free pickings.

GD:  A rational observation, Robert. Unkind but rational. I get so tired of people who reject reality and bleat like sheep. Why? Reality terrifies them and bleating along with other sheep makes them feel mighty and meaningful.

RTC: You speak ill of sheep, Gregory. You are not a sheep, are you?
GD: No, I am a wolf. I eat sheep on a regular basis. I am a civilized wolf, however, and prefer them roasted with mint sauce and new potatoes.

RTC: I seem to have heard that you have lived by your wits and the money of other people.

GD: Robert, surely you realize that a fool and his money are soon parted?

RTC: Yes, so it would seem.

GD: I do love the crooked rich. They’re the easiest to prey on. I recall once when a friend of mine became enamored of the sculpting of Frederic Remington. He was a sculptor and made a small bust of an Indian warrior. I suggested he sign the wax with Remington’s signature and then put in the name of the Roman Bronze people. Then I took the finished product up to Butterfield and Butterfield in ‘Frisco and the greedy Bernie Osher bought it from me for a lot of money. Now, mark you, Robert, I never told Bernie that it was original. In fact, I told him I knew nothing about it and got it from my Grandmother’s attic after she died. The dumb schmuck actually signed the receipt ‘As Is.’ Which speaks for itself of course. Then he tried to sue me and lost. Lots of very bad publicity for him. In the meantime, Bernie and his co-religionists resold the same piece to a sucker in New York as genuine. And they sued me! I beat them.

RTC: How much did you get out of that?

GD: All together?

RTC: Yes. All together.

GD: Fifty thousand.

RTC: My, my, Gregory how comforting.

GD: No, beating old Bernie in court was comforting.

GD: How much did your lawyer get?

GD: I was in pro per. I was my own lawyer. I could easily pass any bar exam, Robert, but I never bother to inform people of that when contracting with them. I always get the long end of the stick and they get the squishy shit on the other end.

RTC: You set them up, don’t you?
GD: Always and they always assume I am a fool.

RTC: No, you are not. A wolf in sheep’s clothing?

GD: Very often, Robert.

(Concluded at 1:55 PM 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, and fatal, “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 to the United States.

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 Archives. A strong supporter of holocaust writers.

Note: We understand that a large collection of documents, assembled by Robert T. Crowley, will be offered to the public in the near future. Here is a listing of some of the documents which will be included:

DOCUMENT CATALOG

 

Catalog Number                  Description of Contents                                        __________________________________________________________________________________

1000 BH           Extensive file (1,205 pages) of reports on Operation PHOENIX. Final paper dated January, 1971, first document dated  October, 1967. Covers the setting up of Regional Interrogation Centers, staffing, torture techniques including electric shock, beatings, chemical injections. CIA agents involved and includes a listing of U.S. military units to include Military Police, CIC and Special Forces groups involved. After-action reports from various military units to include 9th Infantry, showing the deliberate killing of all unarmed civilians located in areas suspected of harboring or supplying Viet Cong units. *

1002 BH           Medium file (223 pages)  concerning the fomenting of civil disobedience in Chile as the result of the Allende election in 1970. Included are pay vouchers for CIA bribery efforts with Chilean labor organization and student activist groups, U.S. military units involved in the final revolt, letter from  T. Karamessines, CIA Operations Director to Chile CIA Station Chief Paul Wimert, passing along a specific order from Nixon via Kissinger to kill Allende when the coup was successful. Communications to Pinochet with Nixon instructions to root out by force any remaining left wing leaders.

1003 BH           Medium file (187 pages) of reports of CIA assets containing photographs of Soviet missile sites, airfields and other strategic sites taken from commercial aircraft. Detailed descriptions of targets attached to each picture or pictures.

1004 BH           Large file (1560 pages) of CIA reports on Canadian radio intelligence intercepts from the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa (1958) and a list of suspected and identified Soviet agents or sympathizers in Canada, to include members of the Canadian Parliament and military.

1005 BH          Medium file (219 pages) of members of the German Bundeswehr in the employ of the CIA. The report covers the Innere Führung group plus members of the signals intelligence service. Another report, attached, covers CIA assets in German Foreign Office positions, in Germany and in diplomatic missions abroad.

1006:BH           Long file (1,287 pages) of events leading up to the killing of Josef Stalin in 1953 to include reports on contacts with L.P. Beria who planned to kill Stalin, believing himself to be the target for removal. Names of cut outs, CIA personnel in Finland and Denmark are noted as are original communications from Beria and agreements as to his standing down in the DDR and a list of MVD/KGB files on American informants from 1933 to present. A report on a blood-thinning agent to be made available to Beria to put into Stalin’s food plus twenty two reports from Soviet doctors on Stalin’s health, high blood pressure etc. A report on areas of cooperation between Beria’s people and CIA controllers in the event of a successful coup. *

1007 BH           Short list (125 pages) of CIA contacts with members of the American media to include press and television and book publishers. Names of contacts with bios are included as are a list of payments made and specific leaked material supplied. Also appended is a shorter list of foreign publications. Under date of August, 1989 with updates to 1992. Walter Pincus of the Washington Post, Bradlee of the same paper, Ted Koppel, Sam Donaldson and others are included.

1008 BH           A file of eighteen reports (total of 899 pages) documenting illegal activities on the part of members of the U.S. Congress. First report dated July 29, 1950 and final one September 15, 1992. Of especial note is a long file on Senator McCarthy dealing with homosexuality and alcoholism. Also an attached note concerning the Truman Administration’s use of McCarthy to remove targeted Communists. These reports contain copies of FBI surveillance reports, to include photographs and reference to tape recordings, dealing with sexual events with male and female prostitutes, drug use, bribery, and other matters.

1009 BH           A long multiple file (1,564 pages) dealing with the CIA part (Kermit Roosevelt) in overthrowing the populist Persian prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh. Report from Dulles (John Foster) concerning a replacement, by force if necessary and to include a full copy of AJAX operation. Letters from AIOC on million dollar bribe paid directly to J.Angleton, head of SOG. Support of Shah requires exclusive contracts with specified western oil companies. Reports dated from May 1951 through August, 1953.

1010 BH           Medium file (419 pages) of telephone intercepts made by order of J.J. Angleton of the telephone conversations between RFK and one G.N. Bolshakov. Phone calls between 1962-1963 inclusive. Also copies of intercepted and inspected mail from RFK containing classified U.S. documents and sent to a cut-out identified as one used by Bolshakov, a Russian press (TASS) employee. Report on Bolshakov’s GRU connections.

1011 BH           Large file (988 pages) on 1961 Korean revolt of Kwangju revolt led by General Park Chung-hee and General Kin-Jong-pil. Reports on contacts maintained by CIA station in Japan to include payments made to both men, plans for the coup, lists of “undesirables” to be liquidated  Additional material on CIA connections with KCIA personnel and an agreement with them  to assassinate South Korean chief of state, Park, in 1979.

1012 BH           Small file (12 pages) of homosexual activities between FBI Director Hoover and his aide, Tolson. Surveillance pictures taken in San Francisco hotel and report by CIA agents involved. Report analyzed in 1962.

1013 BH           Long file (1,699 pages) on General Edward Lansdale. First report a study signed by DCI Dulles in  September of 1954 concerning a growing situation in former French Indo-China. There are reports by and about Lansdale starting with his attachment to the OPC in 1949-50 where he and Frank Wisner coordinated policy in neutralizing Communist influence in the Philippines.. Landsale was then sent to Saigon under diplomatic cover and many copies of his period reports are copied here. Very interesting background material including strong connections with the Catholic Church concerning Catholic Vietnamese and exchanges of intelligence information between the two entities.

1014 BH           Short file (78 pages) concerning  a Dr. Frank Olson. Olson was at the U.S. Army chemical warfare base at Ft. Detrick in Maryland and was involved with a Dr. Gottleib. Gottleib was working on a plan to introduce psychotic-inducing drugs into the water supply of the Soviet Embassy. Apparently he tested the drugs on CIA personnel first. Reports of psychotic behavior by Olson and more police and official reports on his defenstration by Gottleib’s associates. A cover-up was instituted and a number of in-house CIA memoranda attest to this. Also a discussion by Gottleib on various poisons and drugs he was experimenting with and another report of people who had died as a result of Gottleib’s various experiments and CIA efforts to neutralize any public knowledge of these. *

1015 BH           Medium file (457 pages) on CIA connections with the Columbian-based Medellín drug ring. Eight CIA internal reports, three DoS reports, one FBI report on CIA operative Milan Rodríguez and his connections with this drug ring. Receipts for CIA payments to Rodríguez of over $3 million in CIA funds,showing the routings of the money, cut-outs and payments. CIA reports on sabotaging  DEA investigations. A three-part study of the Nicaraguan Contras, also a CIA-organized and paid for organization.

1016 BH           A small file (159 pages) containing lists of known Nazi intelligence and scientific people recruited in Germany from 1946 onwards, initially by the U.S. Army and later by the CIA. A detailed list of the original names and positions of the persons involved plus their relocation information. Has three U.S. Army and one FBI report on the subject.

1017 BH           A small list (54 pages) of American business entities with “significant” connections to the CIA. Each business is listed along with relevant information on its owners/operators, previous and on going contacts with the CIA’s Robert Crowley, also a list of national advertising agencies with similar information. Much information about suppressed news stories and planted stories. *

(cont…)

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