TBR News December 20, 2015

Dec 19 2015

The Voice of the White House

Washington, D.C. December 19, 2015: “A Russian friend who is connected told me that Russia has now been arming the Kurds, mainly with “acquired” US military weaponry for use against Turkey. Not just a handgun here and a field telephone there but heavy-duty and very destructive hardware.

The Russians hope they can get the Iraqis into a shooting business with the Turkish troops now in their country because the Russians will heed the call for help and blast the retreat routes to Turkey, allowing the Iraqi troops to slice and dice.

My friend says the Turkish president is livid because the CIA promised him all assistance if he went after the Russians but, as usual, they faded quietly away.

After all, the CIA started the trouble in Kiev and then when there was a response from Russian-supported rebels in the east, promised Kiev NATO and US support.

Never happened.

Obama said the US would supply the Ukraine with American gas but that ranked with the Easter Bunny legends.

That never happened either.

Place not your trust in princes, or the CIA either.”

 

New Russian Air Defenses in Syria Keep U.S. Grounded

December 17, 2015

by Josh Rogin and Eli Lake

Bloomberg

 

There is a new crisis for the international effort to destroy the Islamic State, created by the Kremlin. The U.S. has stopped flying manned air-support missions for rebels in a key part of northern Syria due to Russia’s expansion of air defense systems there, and the Barack Obama administration is scrambling to figure out what to do about it.

Russia’s military operations inside Syria have been expanding in recent weeks, and the latest Russian deployments, made without any advance notice to the U.S., have disrupted the U.S.-led coalition’s efforts to support Syrian rebel forces fighting against the Islamic State near the Turkey-Syria border, just west of the Euphrates River, several Obama administration and U.S. defense officials told us. This crucial part of the battlefield, known inside the military as Box 4, is where a number of groups have been fighting the Islamic State for control, until recently with overhead support from U.S. fighter jets.

But earlier this month, Moscow deployed an SA-17 advanced air defense system near the area and began “painting” U.S. planes, targeting them with radar in what U.S. officials said was a direct and dangerous provocation. The Pentagon halted all manned flights, although U.S. drones are still flying in the area. Russia then began bombing the rebels the U.S. had been supporting. (U.S. manned airstrikes continue elsewhere in Syria.)

Inside the top levels of the administration, officials are debating what to do next. The issue is serious enough that Secretary of State John Kerry raised it with Russian President Vladimir Putin when they met on Tuesday, and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General John Dunford has discussed it with his Russian counterpart as well, a spokesman for U.S. Air Force Central Command told us.

“The increasing number of Russian-supplied advanced air defense systems in Syria, including SA-17s, is another example that Russia and the regime seek to complicate the global counter-Daesh coalition’s air campaign,” said Major Tim Smith, using another term for the Islamic State.

The increasing number of Russian air defense systems further complicate an already difficult situation over the skies in Syria, and do nothing to advance the fight against the Islamic State, which has no air force, Smith said. He added that Russia could instead be using its influence with the regime to press President Bashar al-Assad to cease attacking civilians. “Unhelpful actions by Russia and the Syrian regime will not stop coalition counter-Daesh operations in Syria, nor will such actions push the coalition away from specific regions in Syria where Daesh is operating,” said Smith.

Smith did not deny the administration officials’ characterization of the situation in Box 4. Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, told us that the U.S. continues to fly manned and unmanned strike missions in the areas of Syria where the Islamic State is active, including strikes Wednesday in the northeastern towns of Manjib and Mara. He also acknowledged that Russia’s recent deployment of air defense systems have complicated U.S. air missions there.

In Washington, top officials are debating how to respond to Russia’s expanded air defenses, said another administration official who was not authorized to discuss internal deliberations. The administration could decide to resume flights in support of the rebels fight Islamic State, but that could risk a deadly incident with the Russian military. For now, the U.S. seems to be acquiescing to Russia’s effort to keep American manned planes out of the sky there and “agree to their rules of the game,” the administration official said.

With U.S. planes out of the way, Russia has stepped up its own airstrikes along the Turkey-Syria border, and the Obama administration has accused it of targeting the rebel groups the U.S. was supporting, not the Islamic State. The Russian strikes are also targeting commercial vehicles passing from Turkey into Syria, the administration official told us. The Washington Post reported that the Russian strikes have resulted in a halt of humanitarian aid from Turkey as well.

These heightened tensions between the U.S. and Russia on the ground run counter to the public outreach Kerry has been pursuing as part of his effort to kick-start a peace process between the Syrian regime and the opposition. In remarks at the Kremlin Tuesday, Kerry said he was “grateful for President Putin” and looked forward to cooperating with Russia on the fight against the Islamic State. Kerry will meet with Russian leaders again Friday in New York.

Kerry also said the U.S. is not pursuing “regime change” in Syria, comments that were seen by many as another step away from the long-held U.S. call for Assad to step down. The latest U.S.-Russia talks didn’t focus on Assad’s status, Kerry said, adding that he was working to establish a political process that would allow Syrians to choose their own leadership.

While the diplomacy drags on, the Russian military continues to place Assad in a stronger position and constrain the coalitions’ operations, said Matthew McInnis, a former Iran analyst for U.S. Central Command and now a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.  “The Russians are trying to create zones where they would have to give permission for U.S. flights,” he said. “The Russians are increasingly defining the military landscape by their actions.”McInnis said he has heard other Western diplomats express concern about how much the U.S. may give in to the Russian and Syrian position to get a cease-fire. “There is definitely some nervousness about how far the administration is willing to go to accommodate the Russian position on Assad,” he said.

Robert Ford, Obama’s former ambassador to Syria, said the Russians may have another motive in expanding their military operations in northern Syria: to put pressure on Turkey. Russian-Turkish relations have turned ugly since Turkey shot down a Russian plane near its border last month. Turkey is keenly interested in the Box 4 region in Syria because it supports the Sunni Arab groups fighting there, working covertly with the U.S.

The Russians are doing this to squeeze the Turks,” said Ford. “It’s going to cause problems for the CIA program.”

The actual number of U.S. flights that were supporting Syrian groups in this area was not large. Officials told us that Defense Secretary Ash Carter had been resisting a more comprehensive air campaign in the area for two reasons: Some of the groups fighting there are not vetted and include Islamic brigades, including the al-Nusrah Front. Also, Carter prefers a strategy of supporting Syrian Kurds with weapons and having them take over the border territory.

But the Syrian Arabs and the Turks don’t want Kurdish troops to control Box 4, said Ford, because then the Kurds would then have a proto-state reaching all the way from the Mediterranean Sea to the Iran-Iraq border. 

The success of any U.S.-led effort to bring Assad to the negotiating table will depend on squeezing the Syrian regime. Yet at this crucial moment, the U.S. is not only decreasing pressure, but acquiescing to Russian pressure. This benefits not only Assad and Russia, but also the Islamic State.

(Adds response from Defense Department spokesman and clarifies statement from Central Command spokesman in seventh paragraph.)

 

Big Freeze: Earth Could Plunge into Sudden Ice Age

by Charles Q. Choi

Live Science

 

In the film, “The Day After Tomorrow,” the world gets gripped in ice within the span of just a few weeks. Now research now suggests an eerily similar event might indeed have occurred in the past.

Looking ahead to the future, there is no reason why such a freeze shouldn’t happen again — and in ironic fashion it could be precipitated if ongoing changes in climate force the Greenland ice sheet to suddenly melt, scientists say.

Starting roughly 12,800 years ago, the Northern Hemisphere was gripped by a chill that lasted some 1,300 years. Known by scientists as the Younger Dryas and nicknamed the “Big Freeze,” geological evidence suggests it was brought on when a vast pulse of fresh water — a greater volume than all of North America’s Great Lakes combined — poured into the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans.

This abrupt influx, caused when the glacial Lake Agassiz in North America burst its banks, diluted the circulation of warmer water in the North Atlantic, bringing this “conveyer belt” to a halt. Without this warming influence, evidence shows that temperatures across the Northern Hemisphere plummeted.

No time to react

Previous evidence from Greenland ice samples had suggested this abrupt shift in climate happened over the span of a decade or so. Now researchers say it surprisingly may have taken place over the course of a few months, or a year or two at most.

“That the climate system can turn on and off that quickly is extremely important,” said earth system scientist Henry Mullins at Syracuse University, who did not take part in this research. “Once the tipping point is reached, there would be essentially no opportunity for humans to react.”

For two years, isotope biogeochemist William Patterson at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada and his colleagues investigated a mud core — a tube of mud — taken from the ancient lake Lough Monreach in Ireland. Because this sediment was deposited slowly over time, each layer from this core effectively represents a snapshot of history, with slices just a half-millimeter thick presenting one to three months.

“Basically, I drive around in western Ireland looking for the right conditions — bedrock, vegetation and lake — to obtain the most complete record of climate,” Patterson explained.

The details

By looking at isotopes of carbon in each slice, the researchers could deduce how productive the lake was. When plants grow in lakes, they prefer carbon-12 to make up their organic tissue — that is, carbon atoms that have 12 protons and neutrons in total in their nucleus. This leaves the lake water with relatively more carbon-13. At the same time, oxygen isotopes give a picture of temperature — when animals or plants produce calcium carbonate, the ratio of oxygen-16 and oxygen-18 isotopes within are related to temperature.

At the start of the Younger Dryas, Patterson and his colleagues discovered temperatures and lake productivity dropped over the course of just a few years.

It would be like taking Ireland today and moving it up to above the Arctic Circle, creating icy conditions in a very short period of time,” Patterson said.

Their findings also suggest that it may have taken 100 to 200 years before the lake and climate recovered, rather than the decade or so that Greenland ice cores had indicated.

“This makes sense because it would take time for the ocean and atmospheric circulation to turn on again,” Patterson said.

The discrepancies between the evidence from the mud core and the ice cores might be due to disturbances in how material flowed within the ice. “Sometimes there’s melting, and you have percolation of material between layers, which can blur the records,” Patterson explained. “We found a core that had not been disturbed even on a millimeter by millimeter basis, so the sediment had been layered in order since it was deposited.”

Chilly future

Looking ahead to the future, Patterson said there was no reason why a big freeze shouldn’t happen again.

“If the Greenland ice sheet melted suddenly it would be catastrophic,” he said. 

This kind of scenario would not discount evidence pointing toward global warming — after all, it leans on the Greenland ice sheet melting.

“We could say that global warming could lead to a dramatic cooling,” Patterson told LiveScience. “This should serve as a further warning rather than a pass.”

“People assume that we’re political, that we’re either pro-global-warming or anti-global-warming, when it’s really neither,” Patterson added. “Our goal is just to understand climate.”

Patterson and his colleagues detailed their findings at the European Science Foundation BOREAS conference on humans in the Arctic, in Rovaniemi, Finland.

 

Dangerous smog smothers northern China

Beijing has been hit by a blanket of dangerous smog as authorities issued a red alert for the second time this month.

December 19, 2015

DW

Factories closed down, schools shut and half of cars were taken off Beijing’s normally traffic-clogged roads on Saturday in an attempt to cut levels of stifling smog engulfing northern China.

The government issued the second red alert this month after the city’s environmental protection office predicted that high levels of particle pollution would envelop the capital of 22.5 million people and surrounding areas until at least Tuesday.

Levels of PM 2.5, tiny and dangerous airborne particles, rose to as high as 303 in parts of Beijing on Saturday and could rise as high as 500 over the coming days. China issues a red alert when particle levels are expected to rise above 200 for more than 72 hours.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends exposure to no more than 25 in a 24-hour period, while the US Embassy deems 200 to be “very unhealthy.”

Support and criticism

Many Beijing residents supported the government’s measures to reduce air pollution. This comes as the perception grows that since a smog rating system was introduced two years ago, authorities had avoided issuing a red alert in order to not impact economic activity.

Others criticized the alert after smog levels in some parts of the city registered at near 100, which is below the level that would normally trigger such a warning in China, though still well above what is considered healthy by the WHO.

“I’m loving this traffic! Finally we can get around the second ring-road without getting stuck in a jam,” one user on the social network Weibo joked.

“The smog is not so bad. Why do they have driving restrictions?” complained another Weibo user.

China’s coal problem

The smog is caused largely by coal-fired heating of homes and power generation during the winter, and by emissions from factories and cars.

The pollution that has come alongside China’s economic growth is also a source of popular discontent with the government. High levels of air pollution have been linked to premature deaths and disease, including heart attacks, stroke, cancer and lung diseases.

Germany’s Max Planck Institute has published a study in “Nature” magazine estimating that some 1.4 million people die prematurely in China each year because of pollution.

The smog highlights the difficulties China may face balancing a growing economy with pledges to curb greenhouse gases and pursue greener energy. China is the world’s biggest carbon emitter, and has said it plans to upgrade coal power plants over the next five years as part of its climate change obligations.

China has pledged to peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 as part of a global climate deal reached in Paris earlier this month, but that would still allow the Asian giant to increase emissions for another decade and a half.

cw/tj (AFP, AP, Reuters)

 

The Secret Bush Conversations

 

On December 8, 1991, Russian President Boris Yeltsin called US President George H.W. Bush and had a talk with him for 28 minutes, immediately after the signing of the Bialowieza agreement (on the creation of the CIS) on December 8, 1991

Two weeks later, December 25, the first (and final) president of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev telephoned George W. Bush, and the conversation lasted 22 minutes.

Telephone conversation with President of the Russian Republic, Yeltsin

Participants: George H. W. Bush, the US president, Boris Yeltsin, the President of the Russian Republic

December 8, 1991, 13.08 – 13:36, Oval Office

President Bush: Hello, Boris. How are you doing?

President Yeltsin: Hello, Mr. President. I am very pleased to greet you. Mr. President, we are agreed that in the case of events of extreme importance we shall inform each other, I – you, and you – me. Today in our country there was a very important event, and I would like to personally inform you, before you find out from the press.

President Bush: Naturally, thank you.

President Yeltsin: We are gathered here today, Mr. President, the leaders of three republics – Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. We got together and after many long discussions that lasted almost two days, came to the conclusion that the current system and the Union Treaty, which they were urging us to sign, does not suit us.

So we got together and just a few minutes ago signed a joint agreement. Mr President, we, the leaders of the three republics – Belarus, Ukraine and Russia, – noting that the negotiations on the new [Union] treaty have reached an impasse — acknowledge there are objective reasons for the creation of independent states becoming a reality.

In addition, noting that the center’s short-sighted policy led us to economic and political crises, which have affected all spheres of production and the various segments of the population, we, the community of independent states of Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia signed an agreement. This agreement, consisting of 16 articles, in fact, leads to the creation of the Commonwealth or groups of Independent States.

President Bush: I understand.

President Yeltsin: The members of the Commonwealth aim to strengthen international peace and security. They also guarantee compliance with all obligations under international agreements and treaties signed by the former Soviet Union, including external debt.

We are also in favor of unified control over nuclear weapons and their non-proliferation. This agreement was signed by the heads of all states involved in the negotiations, – Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia.

President Bush: Good.

President Yeltsin: The president and chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Belarus is with me in the room where I’m calling from. I also just finished a conversation with President of Kazakhstan Nazarbayev. I read him the entire agreement, including all 16 articles. He fully supports all of our actions and is ready to sign the agreement. He is flying immediately to the airport in Minsk for signing.

President Bush: I understand. Boris, I am grateful for your call and your openness. We’ll look over all 16 points right now. What do you think, will be the reaction of the center?

President Yeltsin: First, I spoke with Defense Minister Shaposhnikov. I want to read Article 6 of the agreement. Shaposhnikov actually is in total agreement and will support our position. And now I read out Article 6 … […]

President Bush: We, of course, want to carefully examine them all. We understand that these issues should be addressed by the participants and not by third parties such as the United States.

President Yeltsin: That we can guarantee, Mr President.

President Bush: Well, good luck, and thank you for your call. We will wait for the reaction of the center and the other republics. I guess time will tell.

President Yeltsin: I am convinced that the rest of the republics will understand us and very soon will join us.

President Bush: Thank you again for your call after such a historic event.

President Yeltsin: Goodbye.

 

Telephone conversation with Mikhail Gorbachev, President of the Soviet Union

Participants: George H. W. Bush, US president, Mikhail Gorbachev, Former President of the USSR

December 25, 1991, 10:03 – 10:25, Camp David

President Bush: Hello, Michael.

Gorbachev: George, my dear friend. Glad to hear your voice.

President Bush: I am glad to greet you on such a great day, a historic day. Thank you for calling.

Gorbachev: Let me start with the pleasant: I want to wish you, Barbara and all your family a Merry Christmas. I thought about when I should make my statement – Tuesday or today. As a result, I decided to do it today, in the late afternoon. And so first I want to congratulate a Merry Christmas and best wishes.

And now I must say that in about two hours, I will speak on Moscow television, with a short statement about the decision I have taken. I sent you a letter, George. I hope you will soon get it. In the letter, I spelled out the most important things.

Now I would like to reiterate how much I appreciate what we have done in the time of our working together — when you were vice-president, and later, when you become President of the United States.

I hope that all the leaders of the Commonwealth countries, and especially Russia, understand the value of sharing lessons learned by the leaders of our two countries. I hope they understand their responsibility for the preservation and increase of this important resource.

In our Union, debates on what sort of state to form, have not gone in the right direction, the one I thought was right. But I want to assure you that I will use all my political influence and credibility so that the new Commonwealth becomes effective.

I am pleased that the leaders of the Commonwealth have already achieved agreements in Alma-ata on important nuclear and strategic issues. I hope that in Minsk other issues will be taken up, which will provide a mechanism for cooperation between the republics.

George, let me tell you what I believe is extremely important.

President Bush: I’m listening.

Gorbachev: Of course, you must follow through with the recognition of all these countries. But I would like you to take into account how important it is for the future of the Commonwealth to prevent any worsening of processes of disintegration and destruction. So it is our common duty – to help the process of cooperation between the republics. I would like to emphasize this point.

Now, about Russia — this is the second most important topic of our talks. In front of me on the table is the decree of the President of the USSR on my resignation. I also lay down the responsibilities of the Supreme Commander and I delegate authority for use of nuclear weapons to the President of the Russian Federation.

That is, I run things until the completion of the constitutional process. I can assure you that everything is under strict control. As soon as I announce my resignation, the decree comes into force.

There will be no disagreement. You can spend a quiet Christmas evening. Getting back to the subject of Russia, I want to say one more time that we must do everything we can to support it. I will do everything in my power to support Russia. But our partners must also try, and play their role in the care and support of Russia.

As for me, I’m not going to go hide in the forest, or in the woods. I will remain politically active,and maintain a political life. My main goal – to help in the process that began with perestroika and the new thinking in foreign policy.

Representatives of your press here have often asked me about our personal relationship. At this historic moment, I want you to know how much I appreciate our cooperation, partnership, and friendship. Our roles may change, but I would like to assure you that what we achieved, will not change. Raisa and I wish you and Barbara all the best.

President Bush: Michael, first of all I want to express my appreciation for your call. I listened to your message with great interest. We will continue to be involved, especially in regard to the Russian Republic, and the enormous difficulties which could get even worse this winter.

I am very glad that you are not going to go hide in the forests, and will continue political activity. I am absolutely sure that it will benefit the new Commonwealth.

I am grateful for your clarification on nuclear weapons. This is a vital issue of international importance, and I am grateful to you and the leaders of the republics for the excellent process of organization and implementation. I have taken note that the constitutional responsibility on this issue goes to Boris Yeltsin. I assure you that we will continue close cooperation on this plan … […]

Gorbachev: Thank you, George. I was glad to hear it all today. I say goodbye and shake your hand. You told me a lot of important things, and I’m grateful for that.

President Bush: All the best, Michael.

Gorbachev: Goodbye.

End of conversation

 

Conversaions with the Crow

 

On October 8th, 2000, Robert Trumbull Crowley, once a leader of the CIA’s Clandestine Operations Division, died in a Washington hospital of heart failure and the end effects of Alzheimer’s Disease. Before the late Assistant Director Crowley was cold, Joseph Trento, a writer of light-weight books on the CIA, descended on Crowley’s widow at her town house on Cathedral Hill Drive in Washington and hauled away over fifty boxes of Crowley’s CIA files.

Once Trento had his new find secure in his house in Front Royal , Virginia, he called a well-known Washington fix lawyer with the news of his success in securing what the CIA had always considered to be a potential major embarrassment. Three months before, July 20th of that year, retired Marine Corps colonel William R. Corson, and an associate of Crowley, died of emphysema and lung cancer at a hospital in Bethesda, Md. After Corson’s death, Trento and his Washington lawyer went to Corson’s bank, got into his safe deposit box and removed a manuscript entitled ‘Zipper.’ This manuscript, which dealt with Crowley’s involvement in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, vanished into a CIA burn-bag and the matter was considered to be closed forever

After Crowley’s death and Trento’s raid on the Crowley files, huge gaps were subsequently discovered by horrified CIA officials and when Crowley’s friends mentioned Gregory Douglas, it was discovered that Crowley’s son had shipped two large boxes to Douglas. No one knew their contents but because Douglas was viewed as an uncontrollable loose cannon who had done considerable damage to the CIA’s reputation by his on-going publication of the history of Gestapo-Mueller, they bent every effort both to identify the missing files and make some effort to retrieve them before Douglas made any use of them.

Douglas had been in close contact with Crowley and had long phone conversatins with him. He found this so interesting and informative that he taped  and later transcribed them.

These conversations have been published in a book: ‘Conversations with the Crow” and this is an excerpt.

http://www.amazon.com/Conversations-Crow-Gregory-Douglas-ebook/dp/B00GHMAQ5E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1450147193&sr=8-1&keywords=conversations+with+the+crow

 

Conversation No. 39

Date: Monday, September 30. 1996

Commenced: 12:23 PM CST

Concluded: 12:47 PM CST

 

RTC: Gregory?

GD: Yes, Robert. I am letting you know that I got a letter from Critchfield today.

RTC: Excellent! What did he say?

GD: If you know the score, a great deal and if you don’t, it’s still interesting. Shall I read it to you?

RTC: Not on the phone. Can you copy it and send it to me at home?

GD: He says that you spoke well of me and that you said I was a former intelligence employee, just as you said he would. He is very eager to get ahold of me to find out what I know about Mueller and who told me.

RTC: Oh, he’s a very alarmed person, Gregory. They all are.

GD: He did mention that his ex-CIA friends were all in a tizzy. Some believed me and other said that none of it could be true.

RTC: That’s typical, Gregory. We always had members who laughed at everything. You could tell them today was Monday and they would say, “Well, that remains to be seen.” How did he leave it?

GD: He is most insistent that I call him at home.

RTC: But be careful of that, Gregory. He’ll tape you. He wants to find out what you know about Mueller….have you mentioned Kronthal yet?

GD: I haven’t responded to the letter, Robert, but when we talk, I will.

RTC: He’ll ask you if Corson told you this. Say that he did not. Say that Mueller did. Also tell him that the Company terminated Kronthal because he was a faggot and was being blackmailed by the Russians. Got that?

GD: I do.

RTC: This might prove to be very interesting. Be sure you tape him. Do you have the equipment for that?

GD: I do indeed, Robert.

RTC: And be very accurate about Gehlen. No interesting stories.

GD: Robert, please give me some credit, won’t you? I’ve been doing this sort of crap for years now and I haven’t put my foot into it yet.

RTC: No, but I’ve never seen you in action.

GD: You will. I have had dealings with the CIA before. My God, what a bunch of idiots. They have two approaches, Robert and only two. They tell you that you’re in very serious trouble but they can help you or they say they want to be my friend. As far as the latter is concerned, I’d much rather try to fuck a rabid bulldog than trust one of them. They couldn’t talk a Mongoloid idiot out of a candy bar. Now, on the other hand, the Russians I know are far better. I’ve never had a bad word from any of them. I would say that the average Russian KGB person, but on a higher level, is far more intelligent and savvy than any CIA person I’ve ever met.

RTC: Ever been to Russia?

GD: Once. As a tourist, of course. I have a nice picture of myself sitting in their headquarters, reading a local paper under a picture of Lenin.

RTC: Are you serious?

GD: Certainly I am. I met one of their leaders when he and I were in Bern. He was a trade delegation person at their embassy of course. And they do know how to feed you. I got rather fond of smoked sturgeon and really good Beluga caviar, all washed down with a first class Crimean wine.

RTC: Who was your friend there?

GD: He’s in the First Directorate but somehow I seem to have forgotten his name. He was on the idiot tube during the Gorbachev problem a few years ago.

RTC: Stocky? Sandy hair? Thinning?

GD: I believe so.

RTC: My God. If I gave you a name would…

GD: No, I would not. Besides, I’m not a spy, Robert. Don’t forget, I’m an analyst, a scenario writer, not a spy. Besides the sturgeon, I enjoy dissecting a complex problem and arriving at a simple answer. It’s not popular with most people, Robert, but it’s almost always right.

RTC: Such vanity.

GD: I prefer to call it a realistic appraisal of facts, Robert.

RTC: Could I see the picture?

GD: I’ll show it to you in person but I would prefer not to send it to you by mail. It might get lost.

RTC: Yes, these things do happen.

GD: I will certainly speak with Critchfield and I will tape the conversation for you. Do you want a copy of the tape?

RTC: No, just play it for me so I can hear what the shit has to say. I’d like you to get him to talk about the Nazis who worked for him. You know Jim liked the Nazis and hired a fair number of them. Grombach made out a list after the war so they could track some of the war crimes boys who might be in POW cages. They called it the Crowcrass List. Jim got his hands on it and used it to recruit from. I told him once this could come back to haunt him if the Jews ever found out about it but Jim just said the Jews were loud-mouthed assholes, his exact words, and Hitler missed the boat when he left any alive.

GD: Do you want me to get him to say that?

RTC: Now that’s an interesting idea, Gregory. Would you?

GD: Why not? I really knew Gehlen, as I’ve said, in ’51. He told me once that his famous report that the Russians were planning to attack western Europe in ’48 was made up because the U.S. Army, who were paying him, wanted him to do this. He said he lied like a rug and that no German intelligence officer would ever believe a word of it. He said the Russians had torn up all the rail lines in their zone and they could no more move troops up to the border than crap sideways. He said that this was designed to scare the shit out of the politicians in Washington so the Army, which was being sharply reduced in size, would be able to rebuild. That meant more money from Congress and more Generals got to keep their jobs. He said it worked like a charm and even Truman was terrified. I assume that’s the real beginning of the Cold War, isn’t it?

RTC: That’s a very good and accurate assessment. Jim told me that Gehlen was a pompous ass whom Hitler had sacked for being a champion bullshit artist but he was very useful to our side in frightening everyone with the Russian boogeyman. It’s all business, isn’t it?

GD: Marx said that. The basis of all wars is economic.

RTC: Absolutely, Gregory, absolutely. But talk about the Nazi SS men he hired, if you can. My God, they say it was like a party rally up at Pullach. If we can get him to admit that he, and others, knew what they were hiring, I’ll have him over the proverbial barrel and then I can have some leverage over him. Why, you don’t need to know.

GD: I don’t care, Robert. From his letter, I would agree he is a gasbag with a bloated opinion of himself. He should never have written that letter because I can see right through it. He’s afraid I know too much and if I knew Mueller, he’s even more frightened Mueller might have said things about him. You know, Robert, if you dance to the tune, you have to pay the piper eventually.

RTC: Do keep the letter and try to get him to put more down on paper.

GD: I will try but I don’t think he’s that stupid. We’ll try the tape and see what I can pry out of him. Mueller got me a list of names working for Gehlen and some background on them. I agree that they hired some people who are going to haunt them if it ever gets out.

RTC: Well, you have a problem there. Your publisher is not big enough to reach too many people and a bigger one would be told right off not to talk to you. I also might suggest several things to you. If anyone tries to come to visit you, and they want to bring a friend, don’t go for it.

GD: Are they planning to shoot me?

RTC: No. The so-called friend would be a government expert. They would examine any documents you had and if there was the slightest hint that you were sitting on something you had no business having, they would go straight into federal court, testify that these papers were highly sensitive and classified and get a friendly judge to issue a replevin order. That means they would send the FBI crashing into your house and grab everything sight. If you had a Rolex it would vanish along with any loose cash and, naturally, all the papers. And one other thing, if you get a very nice offer from some publisher you never heard of, just begging you to let them publish, be warned that they would take the manuscript, send it to Langley and if Langley thought it was dangerous, give you a contract to publish it along with a token payment. Of course they would never publish it but since they paid you and had a contract to publish, you could never find another publisher. They’d get a court order in record time, blocking it. Just some advice.

GD: Thank you. But I never let these morons into my house. Oh, and I have had such invites but once you talk to these jokers, you can see in a few minutes that they know nothing about Mueller, the Gestapo or anything else. They read a book and think they are an expert but most post war books are bullshit written by the far left or by Jews and are completely worthless from a factual point of view. No, it takes me only a few minutes to figure them out and then, suddenly, my dog is tearing the throats out of the Seventh Day Adventists on the front porch and I have to ring off. I don’t know why these Mongoloids don’t find someone with an IQ larger than their neck size. That is a chronic disappointment. There’s no challenge there, Robert. It’s a little like reading Kant to a Mongoloid. Such a waste of my time and so unrewarding when you find they pissed on the rug.

RTC: That should do it for now, Gregory. Keep me posted.

GD: I’m going out of town for a few days but will get back with you next week.

 

(Concluded at 12:47 PM CST)

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