Le Cercle Pinay: Historical Membership List Plus Sources and Biographies

Source(s): February 21, 2012, Cercle chairman Lord Lothian's invitational letter to speak at Le Cercle to Saudi Arabia's deputy minister of foreign affairs Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz (released by Wikileaks around 2015; David Teacher made ISGP aware of the letter).

Appointed Syrian advisor to Crown Prince Abdullah in 1991. Deputy minister of foreign affairs 2011-. In 2012, during the Syrian civil war, Prince Abdulaziz asked Turkey to establish a "nerve centre" attempting to topple Bashar Assad. Founder in 2004 and chairman of the Centennial Fund. Founder in 2005 of Friends of Saudi Arabia with H. Delano Roosevelt, a grandson of FDR.

Source(s): 1985 Cercle particpants list, Washington D.C.

Astronaut 1967-69. Staff National Aeronautics and Space Council. Inspector general, Air Force Systems Command, Andrews Air Force Base 1974-76. Director for the F-16 Multinational Air Combat Fighter Program, Aeronautical Systems Division, Wright-Patterson 1976-80. Associate administrator for the Space Transportation System 1981-. Director of the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization 1984-89. Executive vice president Hughes Aircraft 1989-92. Co-founder in 1991 of Crescent Investment Management in New York with Mansoor Ijaz (negotiated Osama bin Laden's botched extradition from Sudan under the Clinton administration). James Woolsey served as vice chairman. Prince Alfred von Liechtenstein was another board member. Chairman of Oracle Corporation 1992-95. Commissioner of the 1997 White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security (Gore Commission) [with FBI director Louis J. Freeh and former CIA director John Deutsch of Raytheon]. Director of Stratesec security firm since 1997, together with Marvin Bush (WTC contracts 1996-1998). Held 25,000 shares in Stratesec-linked company KuWan as of April 2001. Chairman GeoEye, the world's largest space imaging company.

Source(s): 2002, David Rockefeller, 'Memoirs', pp. 412-413, referring to the Pesenti Group; April 6, 2003, The Observer, 'So, Norman, any regrets this time?'; June 18, 2004, Chancellery of HRH Crown Prince Alexander II of Yugoslavia, 'Reception in honor of the "Le Cercle" conference; September 5, 2004, Sunday Times, 'Le Cercle of the elite'

Adenauer was a lawyer and a member of the Catholic Center party. Became lord mayor of Cologne 1917. Became a devout follower of the Paneuropa Union, set up in 1923 by Count Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, son of an Austro-Hungarian diplomat. The Paneuropa was also quickly embraced by the Habsburgs, the Vatican, and the soon to be founded Opus Dei. Member of the provincial diet of Rhine province from 1917 to 1933, when he was dismissed by the National Socialist (Nazi) regime. Twice imprisoned, in 1933 and 1944, by the Nazis. Co-founder of the Christian Democratic Union (1945) and its president from 1946 to 1966. Attended the May 1948 Congress of Europe, which was convened by the United Europe Movement in The Hague. It was organized by Jean Monnet with the help of Joseph Retinger. Its chairman was Winston Churchill while Alcide de Gasperi, Paul Henri Spaak, Leon Blum, and Robert Schuman attended the conference. Chancellor of the Federal Republic of West Germany 1949-1963. Served as his own foreign minister 1951-1955. Took up Hans Globke in his secretariat and made State secretary and his most important National Security Advisor from 1953 to 1963. Globke was a former catholic Nazi collaborator (including persecution of the Jews), who wasn't allowed to join the Nazi party, because of his strong catholic affiliation. That's the only reason Globke's career (and freedom) survived during the de-nazification program right after WWII. Globke, often seen as Adenauer's Eminence Grise, brought Reinhard Gehlen in contact with Adenauer. Adenauer had also taken up Franz-Joseph Bach, a later organiser of Cercle meetings, to run his secretariat. Adenauer was hardline in his policies towards the USSR. Secretly contacted by Monnet and Schuman over the "Schuman Plan" (Monnet Plan) in 1950 to establish the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in 1951. After Adenauer agreed, the plan went public. Negotiated the 1952 West German peace treaty with the Western Allies and obtained recognition of West Germany's full sovereignty through the Paris Pacts (ECSC) and through an agreement with the USSR in 1955. Friend of Charles De Gaulle. Received the Charlemagne award in 1954. In 1956, Adenauer chose former Nazi general Reinhard Gehlen as the initial chief of the BND, West Germany's post-war intelligence agency that succeeded the Gehlen Organization. Earlier, Adenauer had allowed Gehlen to run his Gehlen Organization, undoubtedly at the recommendation of the CIA. The political architect of the astounding West German recovery (quite possibly through the Bormann flight capital), he saw the solution of German problems in terms of European integration, and he helped secure West Germany's membership in the various organizations of what has become the European Union. One of the signers of the Treaty of Rome in 1957, which founded the European Economic Community. In 1961 his party lost its absolute majority in the Bundestag, and he formed a coalition cabinet with the Free Democrats. In 1962 a cabinet crisis arose over the government's raid of the offices of the magazine Der Spiegel, which had attacked the Adenauer regime for military unpreparedness. Resigned from public office in 1963. Adenauer received the Magistral Grand Cross personally from SMOM (The Sovereign Military Order of Malta) Grand Master Prince Chigi.

Source(s): 1993, Alan Clark, 'Diaries', p. 369-374; July 10, 1997 An Phoblacht/Republican News, 'Editor's Desk'; February 1, 1998, News Confidential, 'Jonathan Aitken MI6, CIA?'; 18 June 2000, Sunday Telegraph / Lobster Magazine, Issue 40, winter 2000-2001.

Who's Who: Private Sec. to Selwyn Lloyd, 1964–66; Foreign Corresp., London Evening Standard, 1966–71; Man. Dir, Slater Walker (Middle East) Ltd, 1973–75; Dep. Chm., Aitken Hume Internat. PLC, 1990–92 (Co-founder, 1981; Chm., 1981–90); Dir, TV-am PLC, 1981–88. MP (C) Thanet East, Feb. 1974–83, Thanet South, 1983–97; contested (C) Thanet South, 1997. Minister of State for Defence Procurement, MoD, 1992–94; PC, 1994–97; Chief Sec. to HM Treasury, 1994–95. Mem., Select Cttee on Employment, 1979–82. Dir, Prison Fellowship Internat., 2003–; Exec. Dir, Trinity Forum Europe, 2006–; Chm., Prison Reform Gp, Centre for Social Justice, 2007–. Pres., Christian Solidarity Worldwide, 2006–; Vice Pres., New Bridge Soc., 2007–

Great nephew of Hitler-intimate Lord Beaverbrook, whose son ended up in the 1001 Club. Attended the 1990 Pinay meeting in Oman and the June 2000 meeting in Lisbon. Served as a war correspondent (and MI6 agent) during the 1960s in the Middle-East, Vietnam, and Biafra (short-lived state next to Nigeria). For 18 years he was on the backbenches. Then became a Conservative Member of Parliament in 1974. Admirer of Richard Nixon, who attended meetings of the Cercle after having left the White House. In the 1980s Aitken was a director of BMARC, a company that exported weapons to intermediary countries, who sold these weapons again to the intended countries (Iraq in that case). CEO of TV-Am and chairman of Aitken Hume Plc, a banking and investment group. In 1992 he was appointed as Minister of State for Defense. During this time he stood in close contact with co-Le Cercle member and MI6 head of Middle-East affairs Geoffrey Tantum. Aitken has been a chairman of Le Cercle. Protege of Lord Julian Amery, another former head of Le Cercle with a very significant Zionist family history. In 1994, he joined the Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, but resigned in 1995 to defend himself against accusations that whilst Minister of Defence Procurement (1993) he violated ministerial rules by allowing an Arab businessman to pay for his stay in the Ritz Hotel Paris (and a stay in Geneva). After telling lie, after lie, after lie, he was jailed in 1999 for 18 months (eventually he served 7), supposedly because he told a lie under oath about a 1500 pound bill. In the end it turns out that Aitken was lobbying for 3 arms contractors, GEC, Marconi and VSEL, in an effort to sell many, many millions worth of arms to Saudi-Arabia. His Saudi business contact was Said Ayas, who worked for Prince Mohammed, son of King Fahd. Through multiple offshore companies in Switzerland and Panama, submarines, howitzers, medium-range laser guided bombs, Black Hawks, and EH101 helicopters were sold and shipped. In 1997 he was asked to resign as chairman of Le Cercle, but within a few years a report surfaced he had been taken up again in this group. Chaired many Parliamentary committees and business groups including The British Saudi Arabian Parliamentary Group. One of the few people who had to resign from the Privy Council. Often the media has been confused about Aitken being an Anglican or a Roman Catholic. June 12, 1999, The Tablet, 'Jonathan Aitken says Sorry': "This week the fall of Jonathan Aitken, once a star in British politics, was complete when he was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Earlier he had given an assistant editor of The Tablet access to a revealing text in which he bares his soul. "I am a man of unclean lips." The speaker is Jonathan Aitken, and he is referring quite explicitly to his perjury, for which he was sentenced on Tuesday to eighteen months in prison. He is, of course, quoting Isaiah 6:5, but he hastens to add, "I'm not for one second comparing myself to Isaiah"... The trouble with Jonathan Aitken is that the public will never take him seriously again. He held a press conference to launch his libel action against the Guardian and Granada television with these words, "I will cut out the cancer of bent and twisted journalism with the simple sword of truth", only to be impaled upon his own sword. The Guardian were able to uncover evidence to prove that he had lied over the question of who had paid his hotel bill in Paris. It might seem a small matter, but on it hung allegations of taking secret commission for multi-million-pound arms dealings, over which Aitken had lied not only to the press but also apparently to his own Government. The deceit even involved the corruption of Aitken's own daughter, 13 at the time of the hotel incident, whom he had persuaded to sign a false statement saying she was in Paris. Corruption of the young, and self-enrichment from arms dealings, are commonly put high on the list of mortal sins. How do you emerge from a reputation as a mega-liar?... he has been a church-goer for years. It is a surprise, however, to hear that he has done the Alpha course, not once but three times, graduating from a humble student to a helper who pours coffee. Even more astonishing, he has done Ignatian retreats. His first experience was in the Westminster retreats in daily life, for MPs and others working at Westminster, and in due course he went away to the Coach House in Inverness to make an individually directed eight-day retreat with the Jesuit Gerry W. Hughes." Ignatian retreats refers to the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus. Gerry Hughes is a well known religious author; his name appears in prayer located on the website of the Jesuit Centre of Ignatian Spirituality, Malta. This same news report also claimed: "... stripped as a bankrupt of his Rolex watch, still able to draw from an unspecified source living expenses of 11,400 [pounds] a month"Aitken, like his follow-up chair at Le Cercle, Lord Lamont, is a serious eurosceptic. September 2, 2005, ePolitix, 'Jonathan Aitken - former Conservative minister': "The times have also changed in that there is no constitution referendum coming, the debate now is not should we go forward with more European integration, it is now should we come out of Europe... People have realised that the dream of a federal Europe with Britain at the centre of it has been a dream that has failed. I and a few others could see that it would fail and it has. The Conservative Party, a party that said under Heath "we are the party of Europe" is now the party of changing our relationship with Europe which is a very healthy thing. So I think that the views of the early eurosceptics has been vindicated."

January 10, 1999, The Guardian, 'Family rallies round Aitken's secret Khashoggi love child': "The Mother of disgraced former Tory minister Jonathan Aitken last night expressed her great joy at the news that her family had a new and unexpected member: an 18-year-old model who DNA tests prove is Aitken's daughter. Aitken - who is facing a criminal trial for perjury - learnt that he is definitely the father of close family friend Petrina Khashoggi only a month ago. Her mother, Soraya, had a well-publicised affair with Aitken before he married his wife in the late Seventies. ... We see her quite frequently and we are all very happy, she said. Petrina is a close friend of Aitken's twin daughters Alexendra and Victoria, who are also 18. Lady Aitken added: "I've suspected the link for some time now. The likeness between Petrina and the twins is striking. She looks like her two sisters, although she is a bit older. The link completes a bizarre and uncomfortable family circle for Aitken. Petrina's mother was once married to Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, whose sister was the first wife of Moha med al-Fayed whose revelations about clandestine meetings in the Paris Ritz were the beginning of Aitken's downfall. According to Lady Aitken, Petrina - who worked for the Storm model agency - has been confused about her family background for years. She uses the surname Khashoggi, even though millionaire Adnan divorced her mother seven years before she was born. ... "His daughters have been telling everyone they have a new sister. But the Khashoggis are not so happy. They are upset and Petrina is very confused."

March 5, 1999, Guardian, 'Secret deals behind arms trade': "The proposition - 'You agree to pay several million pounds of the profits into this Swiss bank account, and my political connections will get you an arms deal' - must have seemed like a scene from life in a corrupt Third World country. But this was Britain: and the proposal was real enough. The company in receipt of this brazen bribery proposal in London in 1993 was British through and through - arms giant GEC, whose Yarrow shipyard made anti-submarine warfare frigates, and whose Marconi electronics arm produced the latest 'smart' bombs. A British minister was involved: Old Etonian Jonathan Aitken, then in charge of negotiating foreign arms sales for John Major's Conservative government. But that connection was a secret. The middleman who presented this bribery proposition to GEC was a sleek and Westernised Lebanese, Said Ayas, Aitken's longstanding friend and business partner. Ayas had been acting as a bagman for bribes paid to the Middle East by European, Japanese and United States companies for more than two decades, and had grown wealthy on it. ... How did Ayas expect to ensure that GEC got the Saudi contracts? The answer was simple. His partner Aitken used his standing as a British government minister to lobby the Saudi royal family, urging them to buy these weapons. Aitken even arranged to slip King Fahd highly sensitive British MI6 intelligence reports on the plans of his enemies in Iran, in return for his co-operation. ... There was evidence, too, of similar agreements extracted by Aitken and Ayas from Britain's other top arms companies. Ayas had copies of secret deals signed with arms firm VSEL to pay bribes on the sale of submarines and the heavy self-propelled howitzers with which it was hoped to equip a Saudi brigade. Aitken told executives at VSEL in February 1993 that Saudi prospects were rosy for them to make a big sale. But it was not until later that year, after a visit from a Saudi military delegation, that the Barrow-in-Furness firm finally agreed to sign up with Ayas. The company agreed to pay 10 per cent of the contract price to Marks One Ltd. They signed up on July 28. GEC, which now owns VSEL, told the Guardian there were two separate agency agreements with Marks One, one for howitzers which was to expire after a year, and one for submarines, which was to remain valid for two years, until July 1995. The Yeovil helicopter firm Westland also signed up on May 1 1995 (via a mysterious offshore company, Phillimore Holdings SA) to pay 9.5 per cent on sales of their Black Hawk helicopter or the new EH101 anti-submarine helicopter to the Saudis. The huge amounts of money involved can be judged by the fact that the Westland agreement envisaged the commission payments exceeding £50 million. Westland's PR director told the Guardian last week that 'no records exist' today of any dealings with Phillimore Holdings. The company was set up in 1985 in Panama, where ownership can be concealed. It was wound up on September 25 1998, three days before Aitken was required under a court order to swear an affidavit disclosing his worldwide assets. It was when he was facing prosecution for his involvement with Aitken and a lawsuit from the prince that would have ruined him that Ayas at last spilled the beans. He handed over the incriminating documents to his solicitor, who swore an affidavit confirming their contents, on June 15 1998. That affidavit, obtained from sources unconnected with the lawyers, has finally broken open one of the greatest bribery scandals of modern British politics. Its abiding irony is that - largely because the Guardian exposed Aitken's murky trip to the Paris Ritz hotel - none of the deals came off, and none of the conspirators made a penny."

March 4, 1999, The Guardian, 'Jonathan Aitken: a timeline': "September 1988: Aitken joins board of BMARC as a non-executive director. March 1990: Resigns from BMARC. 1992: Aitken becomes Minister of Defence Procurement. November 1992 John Major sets up the Scott Inquiry to investigate the sale of arms to Iraq in breach of government guidelines during 1984-90. September 1993: Aitken is spotted at the Paris Ritz hotel. Said Mohammed Ayas and Wafic Said, two former business associates, were also seen there at the same time. His bill is paid by Prince Mohammed bin Fahd of Saudi Arabia. ... October 1994 The Guardian's 'cash for questions' investigation accuses Aitken and three other ministers. ... March 1995 Fresh allegations that Aitken knew about the arms deals with Iran in breach of the government embargo as he would have routinely seen BMARC company progress reports. Aitken denies knowledge of them. ... 10 April 1995: Jonathan Aitken announces he has issued writs against the Guardian and its editor-in-chief. Resigning from the Cabinet, he declares, "If it falls to me to start a fight to cut out the cancer of bent and twisted journalism in our country with the simple sword of truth and the trusty shield of fair play, so be it." ... June 1997: Aitken's libel case against the Guardian and Granada collapses when evidence shows that he, his family and friends had lied to the court. ... June 1995: Commons motion reveals that Jonathan Aitken had signed a controversial "gagging order" - officially called a Public Interest Immunity Certificate (PIIC) - in September 1992 for the Matrix Churchill trial. The documents covered by the PIIC included reports relating to the supply of arms to Iraq by BMARC, of which he was a company director at the relevant time. ... March 1998 Aitken becomes a representative for the arms company GEC-Marconi, who are believed to have sought his Saudi connections. His £2m legal bill from the failed libel case remains unpaid. Aitken sells his house in Kent."

June 22, 1997, The Guardian, 'We've had the lies. Where's the truth?': "Aitken had posed for photographers with his daughter at the 'sword of truth' speech. He also claimed that we had made another of his daughters cry by mobbing her with a television crew. That was a lie, and we proved it in the libel court by showing the judge the film we had taken. There was no daughter present. But presumably Aitken thought he could use his daughter to prejudice the court against us. ... Aitken persuaded Prince Mohamed and his circle to put pounds 2 million into his fledgling merchant bank, Aitken Hume. Another pounds 1m secretly went into a health farm, Inglewood. (The MP pretended he was the owner, while the Saudis hid behind a Panama company). And a further pounds 3m secretly went into the breakfast TV station, TV-am, via a front company in the anonymous Caribbean tax haven of the Netherlands Antilles. Aitken's pounds 500,000 mansion in his Kent constituency was owned by yet another mysterious Panama company. He received passing gifts from the Saudis of expensive watches. In return for this largesse, the MP provided the Saudi regime with various favours. He ran Prince Mohamed's London office. He helped him buy a personal airliner. He fended off newspaper allegations that the Prince consorted with prostitutes on his trips to London, and complaints from a woman that Prince Mohamed had fathered her child. He escorted the Saudis to casinos; he found them doctors and estate agents. He suggested call girls be whistled up to amuse them on trips to the health farm. And the business deals went deeper. In 1989 he arranged an agreement under which one of Prince Mohamed's group, Aitken's business associate Fahad al-Athel, would get 15 per cent commission if he persuaded the regime to buy helicopter weapons worth pounds 400m via the British arms firm BMARC. This was pounds 60m. As Aitken said in a memo, it was 'Big Money'. And Prince Mohamed would get his cut. The Conservative Government pretended these huge arms deals with the Saudis, which went under the name 'Al Yamamah', did not involve the payment of commissions (a polite term for bribes) to the Saudi royals and their hangers-on. This was a lie."

March 4, 1999, The Guardian, 'Millions in secret commissions paid out for Saudi arms deal': "Hundreds of millions of pounds were paid in secret commissions on the massive Al Yamamah defence deal with Saudi Arabia, according to evidence disclosed to the High Court that contradicts repeated denials by the former government. Details of the payments, in which Jonathan Aitken was closely involved, emerged in testimony by an arms company executive shortly before the former cabinet minister's libel suit against the Guardian collapsed last week. David Trigger, a former executive of BMARC, the arms company where Mr Aitken was a director, admitted commissions were paid on the pounds 20 billion Al-Yamamah project. He told George Carman QC, counsel for the Guardian and Granada TV, that he negotiated an Al-Yamamah contract between Royal Ordnance and British Aerospace for aircraft armaments. Mr Carman asked him if he could disclose the commission rate. 'No, I cannot tell you that,' Mr Trigger replied. Was it a secret? asked Mr Carman. 'Yes, it is,' replied Mr Trigger. 'The Al-Yamamah contract is a very complicated one that has an involvement with the Government, British Aerospace and other people, and it would be very difficult to put a figure on commission. Commission was obviously paid but my understanding is that all my work connected with that contract is governed by the Official Secrets Act.' Mr Trigger also revealed that he negotiated a 15 per cent commission agreement with Sheikh Fahad al-Athel, one of Mr Aitken's business friends, for future contracts. Saudi Arabian law allows agents only 5 per cent."

Source(s): 1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', p. 217-218

Born in 1911. Went to school with Georges Pompidou, a later president of the France. Teacher in History and Geography. Militant and leader of the Section Française de l'Internationale Ouvrière (SFIO) from 1933 to 1939, an important communist/socialist party, and part of Leon Blum's Popular Front. Just before the war, he became a fascist. Joined the Rassemblement National Populaire (RNP), the Vichy Laval-supporting group of Marcel Deat, which was founded early in 1941. Deat was another SFIO-socialist-turned-Fascist. Both Deat and his assistant, Georges Albertini, ended up working for Pierre Laval, Marshal Petain's premier, supposedly a top player in the secret and subversive Synarchist Movement of Empire, and one of the biggest nazi collaborators of the Vichy regime. Albertini, within a few years second-in-command of the RNP, worked closely with Jean Bichelonne, Vichy's Secretary of Industrial Production 1942-1944 and allegedly another major player in the Synarchist Movement of Empire. Patron of Cercle Européen, together with Deat. Jailed in Fresnes in September 1944. Supposedly first met with Hippolyte Worms in jail in September 1944, who, according to EIR quoting French intelligence documents from the 1930s, was identified as one of the original 12 members of the Synarchist Movement of Empire (SME). Albertini was sentenced to 5 years of forced labor and an additional 5 years of regular jail, but was released prematurely. According to former Cercle president Brian Crozier, who described Albertini as a friend: "From my SDECE friend, Antoine Bonnemaison, I learned that he [Albertini] was initially condemned to death but reprieved." Released after a few years and went to support De Gaulle, free enterprise and the market economy. Political advisor to Hippolyte's Banque Worms since 1951, and received regular payment since 1962. Crozier, 'Free Agent', p. 103: "For many years he held two jobs: In the mornings he was political advisor to the merchant bank and business consortium, Worms. In the afternoons, he crossed the Boulevard Haussman to run his fortnightly Est & Quest, the most authoritative publication in the French language on the problems of Communism." In 1956, some time before it actually happened, Albertini accurately predicted the seizure of the Suez Canal by Colonel Nasser (who was advised, in part, by escaped Nazis). Thereby he saved millions for the investors in Compagnie Universelle du Canal de Suez, securing his job at Banque Worms practically for life. One of Albertini's post-war associates was the anti-communist marxist Boris Souvarine, who was employed by Banque Worms since the 1930s while editing La Critique Sociale. Souvarine also worked for Les Nouveaux Cahiers, a bimonthly magazine founded in March 1937, which is said to have been a Synarchie front to weaken the fascist resistance of the anti-communist left. Frequently went to South-America. Met with Filippo Anfuso in Paris in January 1957, who was a former member of Mussolini's Grand Council of Fascism and a leading neo-fascist. 1966 brochure, Information Council of the Americas (INCA), 'What Lies Ahead?': "INCA international advisory committee: Alton Ochsner, M.D., chairman; Edward Scannell Butler, director; George Albertini, publisher, Est & Quest Magazine (Paris); ... Alberto C. Fowler, Director, International Relations, City of New Orleans; ... Juanita Castro, chairman, Marta Abru Foundation, anti-communist sister of Fidel Castro; ... Patrick J. Frawley, Jr.; ... C. C. Too, director, Psychological Warfare Section, Malaysia." Frawley was a major financier and strategy board member of the American Security Council. Butler was a member of the ASC also. Ochsner worked closely with Clay Shaw (of the JFK assassination) at International House and the International Trade Mart. September 10, 1968, New Orleans States Item, 'Dr. Ochsner Renamed by Info Council': ""Dr. Alton Ochsner Sr. has been reelected president of the Information Council of the Americas. Other officers recently elected were Dean A. E. Papale, honorary vice president; Percival Stern, honorary vice president; Dr. Robert J. Mead, first vice president; Ed Butler, vice president for mass communication; Dr. Joseph V. Schlosser, vice president for educational affairs; Edgar A. G. Bright, vice president for organizational affairs, and James T, Richards, vice president for financial affairs. Richard T. Newman, vice president for project development; R. Kirk Moyer, vice president for truth forum; Dr. James H. Allen, vice president for membership; Gonzalo Abaunza, Jr., secretary; Dr. J. D. Grey, treasurer; Gibbons Burke, general counsel; Bruce Baird, chief of protocol, and Robert Rainold, chief of security. INCA's new list of directors includes Richard Baumbach, Edgar A. G. Bright Jr., Pat Brown Sr., James Bryan, Perrin O. Butler, Gilbert Charbonnet, Capt. J. W. Clark, C. C. Clifton, Jr., E. T. Colton, Dr. Joseph Craven, Eberhard P. Deutsch, Richard G. Drown Jr., B. Frank Eshleman, C. Allen Favrot, Darwin Fenner and Pat Frawley Jr. Archbishop Phillip M Hannan, Clyde Hendrix Jr., Hayward Hillyer III, Dr. Joseph Hopkins, Harvey Koch, J. P. Labouisse, Dr, William Locke, William Monaghan, Clayton L. Nairne, Dr. John Ochsner, Bishop H. Perry, Frank G. Purvis Jr.,—Ed M. Rowley, Eustis H. Reily, A. J. Rhodes, William E. Robertson, Cecil Shilstone, C. C. Walther, J. Walter Ward Jr. and William Walter Young."" Crozier, 'Free Agent', p. 103 & 214: "He [Albertini] had built up a huge network of informants and helpers and was increasingly consulted by those in high offices of state to which he had ceased to aspire. Moreover, he and Georges Pompidou had been at school together, and during the Pompidou presidency [1969-1974] and beyond he was a true éminence grise for the Elysée [French presidential office]... Under President Pompidou, both Albertini's network and Jean Violet's Cercle had continued the modest London-Paris axis." Albertini ran some kind of private anti-communist outfit in France, with which the British IRD severed its relations in the late-1960s after a change in leadership. The new leadership, as opposed to Crozier, still regarded Albertini as a Fascist. In partnership with Albertini, Brian Crozier's Institute for the Study of Conflict (ISC) published 'Le Monde des Conflicts' in the 1970s, the French version of the ISC's 'Conflict Studies'. Crozier, 'Free Agent', pp. 217-218: "AT THE CERCLE meeting in Washington in December 1980, Georges Albertini had brought along a quiet Frenchman named Francois de Grossouvre. This was an impressive example of his foresight. De Grossouvre, a physician, was the closest friend and confidant of the Socialist leader and presidential candidate Francois Mitterrand. For many years, Grossouvre had carried out special missions for Mitterrand. By nature and training, he was self-effacing. He played no part in our debates, but listened carefully, taking notes. Five months later, Francois Mitterrand narrowly defeated Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in France's presidential elections. One of his first actions was to appoint de Grossouvre as his coordinator of security and intelligence. Shortly after, having obtained his direct line from Albertini, I went to see him in his modest office in the Elysée Palace." De Grossouvre is said to have been the head of the French Stay Behind network. According to Brian Crozier, when his 6I intelligence network was alarmed in March 1981 by a possible invasion of Poland by the Soviet Union, Albertini was the one who informed the Vatican about the situation. At the time the Reagan administration was working with the Vatican to undermine Soviet authority in Poland. Died in 1983.

Source(s): February 1985 list (Washington D.C.)

Possibly Alfredo Alcaino Barros. Biography: Born Santiago. Chile, January 10. 1926; admitted to the bar in 1953. Educated at the Universidad de Chile. Mayor, Municipality of Providencia, 1971-1981. Attorney General Lan Chile 1958-1961. President of Caja de Previsién de los Ferrocarriles del Estado, 1961-1964; Member Council, Member of Chilean Bar Association, 1965-1971.

Sources: March 3, 1980, Der Spiegel, 'Franz Josef sein Milljöh' (Franz Josef's milieu): "On 13 February 1979 the CSU parliamentary deputy Hans Graf Huyn wrote in a - "personal, confidential" - letter to the "very honorable, dear Mr. Strauss": "I would also like to inform you that I have just received a notification from Riyadh, from Prince Turki ben Faisal, head of Saudi intelligence and brother of the Foreign Minister, who pledged to come to the Cercle in Wildbad Kreuth. I believe that given the situation in the Middle East his participation will be of particular interest.""; 1997, Robert Hutchinson, 'Their Kingdom Come – Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei', pp. 153-158; June 21, 2005, Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia - London / Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 'Ambassador talks to major foreign policy-security group'

Also spelled as Turki bin Faisal. Born in 1945. Son of King Faisal, who was assassinated in 1975, and grandson of King Ibn Saud. His father King Faisal was a major force behind the Arab oil embargo against the United States in 1973. He is a nephew of the late King Fahd al-Saud, head of the House of Saud until his death in 2005. Faisal studied at Princeton, Cambridge, and Georgetown (Jesuit) Universities. Chairman King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies. Co-Founder King Faisal Foundation. Supposedly promotes a peaceful version of Islam. Big fan of expensive cars. He is a visitor of DAVOS and headed the Saudi foreign intelligence services from 1977 to September 1, 2001, which is when he "asked" to be replaced. As the head of Saudi intelligence during the 1980s, Prince Turki was a partner of Cercle member William Casey in supporting the Afghan resistance against the Soviet invasion. September 1, 1991, Washington Post, 'Pakistan's illicit economies affect BCCI bank...': "According to diplomatic sources, Saudi intelligence chief, Prince Turki bin Faisal -- working with Pakistan's main intelligence agency -- distributed over $1 billion in cash to Afghan guerrillas during the late 1980s... The financial transactions were handled principally between Saudi intelligence and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI), the main liaison between the United States, Saudi Arabia and the Afghan guerrillas, the sources said... As for drug trafficking, the sources acknowledged that Pakistan's ISI routinely condoned heroin manufacture and sales by some Afghan guerrilla groups. But they said there were also occasions when ISI cooperated with U.S. government efforts to eradicate poppy fields in Afghanistan." Some of the major Mujahedeen warlords were Abdul Rasul Sayyaf (Abbu Sayyaf), Burhanuddin Rabbani, and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. One of the spiritual founders of militant Islam was Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, a Muslim Brotherhood member who believed in a "clash of civilizations", not unlike Samuel Huntington. Bin Laden was an associate of all these people. After Prince Turki resigned from his position as head of Saudi intelligence, twelve days before 9/11, he became the Saudi Ambassador to Great Britain. December 5, 2002, Daily Telegraph, 'Saudi snare': "On closer examination, though, Prince Turki's appointment raises grave doubts. Some believe that he has been sent here in order to confer diplomatic immunity on him from law suits in America brought by the families of September 11 victims... Should the Saudi royal family be planning an exit strategy in the event of a popular uprising, then Prince Turki would certainly be the man to conduct it. He has scores of chits to call in with his long-time friends in the British establishment. Thus, in the current political climate, the SAS might be likelier to assist in a rescue mission for the House of Saud than America's Delta Force. On the same basis, London is a safer haven for their funds these days than New York: fewer questions asked." Because of the role of Saudi Arabia in 9/11, his old ties to Bin Laden and Wahabism have been re-examined. Turki Al-Faisal was named in a lawsuit from relatives of several hundred September 11 victims. In this lawsuit it is alleged that Prince Turki struck a deal in 1998 with the Taliban in Afghanistan whereby Saudi Arabia would stop trying to extradite bin Laden in exchange for a promise that he would not attack the kingdom (anymore). Members of the Saudi royal family, including Prince Turki, Prince Mohammed al-Faisal, and Prince Sultan, as well as Khalid bin Mahfouz are are also accused of having supplied the Bin Laden terror network with trucks and money, whether the kingdom was blackmailed or not. Had several meetings with bin Laden (and other Afghan anti-Soviet warlords/opium dealers), although he rejects any suggestion that he had dealings with the al-Qa'eda leader since the latter founded the terror group in the early 1990s. Faisal is named in a huge 911 law suit that has been launched by the victim's families against a number of Saudi princes, banks, and charities that are alleged to have funded the terrorists responsible for the attack. Faisal, together with the ISI and the CIA, played a major role in bringing the Taliban to power. In public, Faisal defends western intelligence agencies by never mentioning the role of the CIA or MI6 in financing the Bin Laden network. He did, however, talk about it at a meeting of the CFR. Wolf Blitzer of CNN interviews Faisal in January 2001 (aired February 1, 2001): "The last time I met him [Osama Bin Laden] was perhaps early 1990. It was after the soviets withdrew and he was back in the Kingdom, and he came to say hello, and he had other projects in mind which I turned down at the time, because they were so extraordinary and unacceptable." (what kind of projects Blitzer didn't ask) November 5, 2001, The New Yorker, 'The House of Bin Laden': "Both Al-Fagih [Saad Al-Fagih, a London-based surgeon and Saudi dissident, who heads a group called Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia] and Abdel Bari Atwan [editor of Al-Quds al-Arabi, an Arabic daily newspaper in Britain, interviewed Osama bin Laden in November, 1996, and is well acquainted with people close to bin Laden] claim that bin Laden's mother has twice met with her son since he moved to Afghanistan, in 1996. Atwan said that a trip in the spring of 1998 was arranged by Prince Turki al-Faisal, then the head of Saudi intelligence. Turki was in charge of the "Afghanistan file," and had long-standing ties to bin Laden and the Taliban. Indeed, Osama, before becoming an enemy of the state, had been something of a Turki protege, according to his biographers. Prince Turki, Al-Fagih said, "made arrangements for Osama's mother and his stepfather to visit him and persuade him to stop what he was doing... he didn't promise anything... The second trip, according to Al-Fagih, occurred last spring [2001]...They wanted to find out his intentions concerning the royal family. They gave him the impression that they wouldn't crack down on his followers in Saudi Arabia" as long as he set his sights on targets outside the desert kingdom." November 1, 2001, The Guardian, 'CIA agent alleged to have met Bin Laden in July': "Two months before September 11 Osama bin Laden flew to Dubai for 10 days for treatment at the American hospital, where he was visited by the local CIA agent [Larry Mitchell], according to the French newspaper Le Figaro... [French] Intelligence sources say that another CIA agent was also present; and that Bin Laden was also visited by Prince Turki al Faisal, then head of Saudi intelligence, who had long had links with the Taliban, and Bin Laden. Soon afterwards Turki resigned, and more recently he has publicly attacked him..." Dr. Muhammad al-Massari, head of the head of the London-based Saudi opposition group, Committee for the Defence of Legitimate Rights (CDLR), in a November 2003, published by the neocon Jamestown Foundation: "Never forget that the al-Sauds were once a small and irrelevant tribe. By aligning themselves with the Wahabi movement they evolved, over two and a half centuries, into the powerful establishment we see today. The legitimacy of the regime has always rested on its claim to be Islamic. That has been undermined, so everything else is coming under question... The [Saudi] regime invited the U.S. and it has to pay the price... There are two types of people in the regime who support bin Laden: 1) Some are sincerely fed up with the corruption and lack of respect for Islam. 2) The others hope to use the Jihadis for their "power game" inside the royal family. Turki Al-Faisal, the ex-intelligence chief and current Saudi ambassador in London, is one of the prime suspects... Al Qaeda has now become a jackass suitable for carrying any load... The connections are ideological and mostly informal. It is very difficult to forge operational connections. The real point is that Western intelligence can not penetrate these groups. We are talking about two divorced worlds with diametrically opposed cultures. Western intelligence is used to using bars, prostitutes and dancing clubs to entrap people, and of course the Jihadists have nothing to do with these things. Even Saudi intelligence, many of whose officers are devout classic Wahabists, has a hard time penetrating these groups. I knew someone in Kabul, and he told me that almost every one in Kabul knew, just before 9/11, that something big was going to happen in America. But of course Western intelligence had no clue." Since the London bombings al-Massari finally had some problems for being pro-terror, but London remains a relative safe haven for terrorists; many tend to be MI5 and MI6 informants. Al-Faisal was present with his wife at the wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles on April 9, 2005. Partial guest list published in the Sunday Times of April 10, 2005: "The King of Bahrain; The King and Queen of the Hellenes; Prince and Princess Constantijn of the Netherlands; The Crown Prince and Princess of Norway; Prince Radu of Hohenzollern and Princess Margarita of Romania; Prince Turki al-Faisal and Princess Nouf bint Fahd of Saudi Arabia; Prince Bandar bin Sultan of Saudi Arabia; Crown Prince and Princess Alexander of Yugoslavia [Le Cercle]." Zac Goldsmith, son of the late billionaire Sir James Goldsmith [Cercle associate], and Lord Rees-Mogg were among the staff at the wedding. In July 2005 Turki al-Faisal became Saudi Ambassador to the United States as a follow-up to Prince Bandar bin Sultan, who resigned after 20 years in that post. August 8, 2005, The Independent, 'Attacks in London: Home Office denies Saudi warning of imminent attack': "Prince Turki al-Faisal, the Saudi ambassador to the UK, said yesterday that details of a possible plot to attack London " obtained from terror suspects under interrogation " had been given to British intelligence four months ago. Insiders denied receiving detailed intelligence, with one saying: 'It has been suggested a number of times that somehow or other the Metropolitan Police was aware the attacks were going to happen but did nothing. You only have to use common sense. Do you really believe that if the Metropolitan Police had such detailed intelligence they would do nothing about it or tell the public? 'There was certainly a close liaison between the Saudi Arabian intelligence authorities and the British intelligence authorities some months ago when information was passed to Britain about a heightened terrorist threat to London.'" Both Prince Bandar and Turki Al-Faisal are close to the Bush family. In the 1990s Faisal worked closely with western intelligence trying to estimate the threat posed by Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction. Supported the Iraq invasion and in 2005 he still thought the Iraqis were now "masters of their fate". At least a member of Le Cercle since 1997, but his membership probably goes back further [it does, already went in the 1980s, according to Der Spiegel]. Spoke to Le Cercle in June 2005, where he gave his full support for the Bush Administration's agenda and denounced Al-Qaeda and the Israelis. June 27, 2004, The Telegraph, ' Saudi envoy's Zionist claims 'are offensive'': "The Saudi ambassador to London has reinforced controversial claims by the kingdom's royal family of a link between "Zionists" and recent al-Qaeda terror attacks in the country. In a television interview, to be broadcast today, Prince Turki al-Faisal is asked about comments made by Crown Prince Abdullah, Saudi Arabia's de facto leader, that "Zionist hands" have been behind the attacks... Prince Abdullah made his original remarks when he addressed a conference of leading Saudi officials and academics last month after an attack on contractors at the Yanbu oil facility that left six Westerners - including two Britons - dead. "Zionism is behind it," he said. "It has become clear now. It has become clear to us. It is not 100 per cent, but 95 per cent that Zionist hands are behind what happened." In his interview today, Prince Turki contends that Saudi Arabia has been subjected to concerted attacks by "so-called 'experts' with Zionist connections" for 50 years, and particularly since the terror atrocities of September 11, 2001... He insists that the regime is doing everything it can to root out terrorists and rejects claims that the Saudi royal family's days are numbered." Earlier, on April 27, 2004, Prince Turki said to the CFR: "To respond to the two first allegations, one must look into the phenomenon of al Qaeda and its figurehead, [Osama] bin Laden. Though a Saudi by birth, he developed his ideology and methodology in Afghanistan, under the tutelage of a radicalized cult of the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization I assume every one here knows." In 2005 and 2006, Al-Faisal warned that oil prices could rise to $200 if the United States would decide to attack Iran.

2005, Peter Dale Scott, 'The Road to 9/11: Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America', p. 62: "Prince Turki him­self acknowl­edged the pri­vate net­work for the first time in an uncharacteristically candid speech given to George­town Uni­ver­sity alumni in Feb­ru­ary 2002: ‘And now I will go back to the secret that I promised to tell you. In 1976, after the Water­gate mat­ters took place here, your intel­li­gence com­mu­nity was lit­er­ally tied up by Con­gress. It could not do any­thing. It could not send spies, it could not write reports, and it could not pay money. In order to compensate for that, a group of countries got together in the hope of fight­ing Com­mu­nism and estab­lished what was called the Safari Club. The Safari Club included France, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and Iran. The principal aim of this club was that we would share information with each other and help each other in coun­ter­ing Soviet influ­ence world­wide, and espe­cially in Africa. In the 1970’s, there were still some coun­tries in Africa that were com­ing out of colo­nial­ism, among them Mozam­bique, Angola, and I think Dji­bouti. The main con­cern of every­body was that the spread of Com­mu­nism was tied up. Con­gress had lit­er­ally par­a­lyzed the work not only of the U.S. intel­li­gence com­mu­nity but of its for­eign ser­vice as well. And so the King­dom, with these coun­tries, helped in some way, I believe, to keep the world safe at the time when the United States was not able to do that. That, I think, is a secret that many of you don’t know. I am not say­ing it because I look to tell secrets, but because the time has gone and many of the actors are gone as well.’"

Source(s): September 25, 2003, Damien McCrystal, City Editor for The Sun, 'Spooky tale from Salzburg; City Insider': "ACROSS my desk come details of a hush-hush gathering in Salzburg of a spooky collection calling itself Le Cercle. Members come from around the world and seem to be dominated by Right-wingers with an interest in the security services. Britain is represented by, among others, spy writer and former Tory MP Rupert Allason, Tory Deputy Leader Michael Ancram, Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Alan Duncan, former GEC and Warburg director Sir Ronald Grierson, Lord Lamont, Lt Col Tim Spicer of Aegis Defence Services and Sir Stephen Lander, former head of MI5. Is this a new Bilderberg group in the making?"

European Editor, World Intelligence Review (formerly Intelligence Quarterly), since 1985. The Branch: A History of the Metropolitan Police Special Branch 1883–1983, 1983; as Nigel West: non-fiction: Spy! (with Richard Deacon), 1980; MI5: British Security Service Operations 1909–45, 1981; A Matter of Trust: MI5 1945–72, 1982; MI6: British Secret Intelligence Service Operations 1909–45, 1983; Unreliable Witnesses: espionage myths of World War II, 1984; Garbo (with Juan Pujol), 1985; GCHQ: The Secret Wireless War, 1986; Molehunt, 1987; The Friends: Britain’s post-war secret intelligence operations, 1988; Games of Intelligence, 1989; Seven Spies Who Changed the World, 1991; Secret War, 1992; The Illegals, 1993; (ed) Faber Book of Espionage, 1993; (ed) Faber Book of Treachery, 1995; The Secret War for the Falklands, 1997; Counterfeit Spies, 1998; (with Oleg Tsarev) The Crown Jewels: the British secrets at the heart of the KGB archives, 1998; (ed) British Security Co-ordination: the secret history of British Intelligence in the Americas 1940–1945, 1998; Venona: the greatest secret of the Cold War, 1999; The Third Secret, 2000; Mortal Crimes, 2004; (ed) The Guy Liddell Diaries, 2005; Mask, 2005; Historical Dictionary of British Intelligence, 2005; At Her Majesty’s Secret Service, 2006; Historical Dictionary of International Intelligence, 2006; Historical Dictionary of Cold War Counterintelligence, 2007; Historical Dictionary of World War II Intelligence, 2008; fiction: The Blue List, 1989; Cuban Bluff, 1990; Murder in the Commons, 1992; Murder in the Lords, 1994

Source(s): 1983 Bonn meeting list

Instructor University Maryland Overseas Div., 1959-61; assistant professor political sci. Georgia Institute Tech., 1961-62; senior staff member Center for Strategic and International Studies, Georgetown University, 1962-66, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford University, 1966-69; foreign policy coordinator Richard Nixon Presidential campaign, 1967-68; senior staff member National Security Council, 1969; deputy assistant to President The White House, Washington, 1971-72; president Potomac International Corp., 1972-80; senior foreign policy adv. to President The White House, 1978-80; assistant to President for national security affairs National Security Council, 1981-82; president Richard V. Allen Co., 1982-90, chairman, 1991—2003. Distinguished fellow, chairman Asian Studies Center Heritage Foundation, 1982-98; senior counselor for foreign policy and national security Rep. National Committee, 1982-88; senior fellow Hoover Institution, 1983—; vice chairman International Dem. Union, 1983-88; chairman German-Am. Tricentennial Foundation, 1983; member Pres.'s Task Force on U.S. Government International Broadcasting, 1991-92; member adv. board Catholic Campaign for Am., 1993-96; member Rep. Congl. Policy Adv. Board, 1998-2001; member U.S. Defense Policy Board, 2001—; fellow St. Margarets College, University Otago, New Zealand, 2008-, hon. fellow, department politics. Chairman committee on intelligence Republican National Committee, 1977-80; trustee St. Francis Preparatory School, Spring Grove, Pennsylvania; board member, co-chair Committee for Human Rights North Korea, 2001. Member Am. Political Sci. Association, Council on Foreign Relations, Intercollegiate Studies Institute (trustee), Committee on Present Danger (director 1976-90), Univ. Club, Burning Tree Club (Bethesda, Maryland), Metropolitan Club.

Published a series of national security highly praised by the ASC.

December 26, 1968, Rowland Evans and Robert Novakfor the Washington Post, 'Nixon's Appointment of Assistant To Kissinger Raises Questions': "Beyond that, Allen is on close personal terms with several [American Security] Council staffers--particularly Col. Raymond S. Sleeper, a retired Air Force man and booster of high military hardware spending. Both Allen and Sleeper have addressed the National Strategy Information Center in New York with hard-line speeches."

Source(s): November 1988 – Issue 17, Lobster Magazine, 'Brian Crozier, the Pinay Circle and James Goldsmith' (quoting from the Langemann papers); 1993, Alan Clark, 'Diaries', p. 369-374; 1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', page 193; June 29, 1997, The Independence, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club; Is it the ultimate dishonour' (claims Amery was chair before Aitken); February 1, 1998, News Confidential, 'Jonathan Aitken MI6, CIA?'; Cercle lists: present at all meetings from the early 1980s.

Son of Leopold Amery (1873-1955), who concealed his whole life the fact that he was a Jew. However, Leopold was extremely pro-Zionist and Churchill once said of him that he regarded the Empire as his own personal property. As political secretary to the War Cabinet (appointed by Lord Milner) he was the author of the final draft of the Balfour Declaration which committed Britain to establishing a Jewish 'National Home' in Palestine (this letter was sent to Lord Lionel Walter Rothschild). He was highly significant in helping to create the Jewish Legion, the forerunner of what later became the Israeli army. As Dominions Secretary in the mid-1920s, he sympathetically presided over a seminal period in the growth of the Jewish community in Palestine. The senior Leopold Amery is described as "a passionate advocate of British imperialism"; he was on the staff of the Times, and wrote a 7 vol. history of the South African War for the Times; served in the Cabinet from 1916-1922; MP 1911-1945; first Lord of Admiralty 1922-1924; Secretary of State for India 1940-1945, and arranged for India to have independence. Trustee of the Rhodes Trust. Supporter of Rothschild/Warburg-financed Paneuropa Union of Count Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi. The envisioned Paneuropa Union did not include the British Empire. Cercle co-founder Otto von Habsburg became Coudenhove's successor while Leo's son would become head of the Cercle some day.

His second son, Julian Amery, the later Cercle chairman, was born in 1919 and educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford, before starting work as a left wing war correspondent in the Spanish Civil War from 1938 to 1939. Attache on British missions to Belgrade, Ankara, Sofia and Bucharest 1939-1940. Julian was an MI6 operative, although it isn't really known what he has been doing in this function. During WWII, he enlisted as a sergeant in the RAF, but was rapidly transferred to the Army, with the rank of Captain, and sent to the Middle East. Amery was a close associate of Lt.-Col. Billy McLean, a later Cercle member (and devout christian), since these days. Another rapid transfer sent him to Yugoslavia, to liaise with the partisans fighting Germany. In 1944 he was in Albania, working with the Albanian Resistance. Churchill’s personal representative to Chiang Kai-Shek (a notorious Triad leader, Opium smuggler, and all-round criminal) in 1945 (at the time that Baron Robert Rothschild was present there, at his own request, as secretary at the embassy in Chungking, the headquarters of Chiang Kai-shek's government; Jean Monnet had earlier bridged Kai-Shek's Chinese economy with the West). In 1950 he became a Conservative member of parliament. Married Harold Macmillan's daughter in 1950, although politically he was often at odds with him. Co-founder of the CIA-sponsored Congress for Cultural Freedom and met on 24/25 June 1950 with other founders as Melvin J. Lasky of Encounter, Arthur Koestler, Richard Lowenthal and others. Representative to the Round Table Conference on Malta in 1955. Representative to the Council of Europe 1950-1956. Parliamentary Under-Secretary for War under Macmillan 1957-1958. Same function at the Colonial Office 1958-1960. Member of the Rhodesia and Nyasaland Club in the 1950s and 1960s. Member of the Other Club since 1960, over the years together with the Duke of Devonshire (Cavendish), the 7th Marquess of Salisbury (Le Cercle), Lord Carrington (Pilgrims Society president), Lord Richardson of Duntisbourne (major Pilgrims Society member), Lord Rothschild, Lord Rees-Mogg, Prince Charles, Paul Channon (Le Cercle), Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Sir Edward Heath, Sir Denis Thatcher, and Winston S. Churchill. Member of the Privy Council since 1960. Secretary of State for Air 1960-1962. Minister of Aviation 1962-1964. With his friends David Stirling and Billy McLean, and help from the Cercle-affiliated royal houses of Jordan and Saudi Arabia, he set up a private SAS war in Yemen in the early 1960s in an effort to get Nasser out. 1999, Adam Curtis, 'The Mayfair Set' (broadcasted on BBC2), videoclip of a Julian Amery speech: "The prosperity of our people rests really on the oil in the Persian Gulf, the rubber and tin of Malaya, and the gold, copper and precious metals of South- and Central Africa. As long as we have access to these; as long as we can realize the investments we have there; as long as we trade with this part of the world, we shall be prosperous. If the communists [or anyone else] were to take them over, we would lose the lot. Governments like Colonel Nasser's in Egypt are just as dangerous." Stimulated considerable controversy by his enthusiasm for the Anglo-French Concorde project in the early 1960s. At this time De Gaulle first rejected British entry into the European Union January 1, 1992, The Times, 'Secret war waged on protesters; 1961 Cabinet Papers': "Harold Macmillan's government conducted a secret war against the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament during the autumn of 1961. R.A. Butler, the home secretary, told the cabinet that evidence should be obtained against the movement's organisers showing "a definite intention to commit breaches of the law". Searches would be made the day before the protests at the homes of CND members, he said. "Evidence might become available which would warrant the immediate arrest of some its main organisers on charges of conspiracy." Julian Amery, the secretary of state for air, said if any of the demonstrators gained access to an airfield "forceful action including the use of fire-hoses and police dogs will be taken."" Out of Parliament 1966-1969. Minister of State at Public Buildings and Works under Heath 1970. Minister of State at at Housing 1970-1972. Minister of State at the Foreign Office when Great Britain joined the European Union under Heath in 1973. Foreign Office 1972-1974. Since then served in the backbenches in Parliament until his retirement in the 1990s. From about 1970 to 1992 Amery was an active member and Patron of the Conservative Monday Club, where he became friendly with general Sir Walter Walker [Patron Western Goals], subsequently writing the foreword for Walker's 1980 anti-Soviet book 'The Next Domino'. President of the Conservative Monday club was Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, the 5th Marquess of Salisbury, from 1961 to 1972 (KG; PC; married into Cavendish family). His son, the 6th Marquess of Salisbury, took over in 1974 and ran it until 1981. The 7th Marquess of Salisbury (since 2003) is a member of Le Cercle while the third son of the 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, the supposed co-ordinator of the Round Table, is known to have been a member of the Pilgrims Society. The Cecils also are generational members of the Roxburghe Club, putting them in touch with the old ruling families of Britain, including Howard, Cavendish, Rothschild, Oppenheimer, and Mellon. February 22, 2002, The Independent, 'The Airey Neave File': "Critics of British policy in Ulster maintained that British intelligence became involved in treasonable policies. In 1987, the Labour MP Ken Livingstone used the cover of parliamentary privilege to suggest in the House of Commons that Airey Neave was a co-conspirator with MI5 and MI6 in disinformation activities involving the controversial whistle-blowing spies Colin Wallace and Peter Wright. He also alleged that, a week before his murder, Neave sought to recruit a former MI6 officer to set up a small group to involve itself in the internal struggles of the Labour Party... These were not the wildest allegations. There were improbable tales about how Neave, and others, had a decade earlier planned to set up an "army of resistance" to the Labour government of the Wilson era to "forestall a Communist take-over" and talked of assassinating Tony Benn should he become prime minister. Yet such was the febrile atmosphere of that Cold War epoch that some sceptics gave credibility to the possibility. This was, it must be remembered, the time, about 1970, when Auberon Waugh - fed by various sources, including his MI6 agent uncle Auberon Herbert - produced a series of clearly defamatory articles in Private Eye openly alleging that the former prime minister Harold Wilson was a KGB agent. Even as late as 1975, when Mrs Thatcher became leader of the Conservative Party, groups of senior Tories were secretly gathering to hear spy-writers such as Chapman Pincher [and Brian Crozier, an old friend with whom he worked] address them on the "grave dangers facing Britain from the left"... It was in response to such beliefs, according to claims by the anti-fascist magazine Searchlight, that plans for secret armed cells to resist a more left-wing Labour government were drawn up by a group that included George Kennedy Young - the ex-deputy director of the British intelligence service MI6 and a notorious racist and anti-Semite - and Airey Neave. The claim gained unexpected credence when, despite official MoD denials, two former British Army generals - Sir Anthony Farrar-Hockley, the former Nato commander of Allied Forces Northern Europe, and General Sir Walter Walker, another former head of Nato's forces - confirmed that a secret armed network of selected civilians was set up in Britain after the war and was secretly modernised in the Thatcher years and maintained into the 1980s. Moreover, Searchlight alleged, Neave and Young were key figures in an extreme-right group called Tory Action, which was at the centre of a smear campaign, involving the secret services, aimed at discrediting the Labour government in Britain in 1975." Like the Cecils, Amery was one of the most prominent supports of Ian Smith's racist white-minority government in Rhodesia in the 1970s. Smith's pro-business Rhodesian government had broken itself of from the Wilson government in 1965 to keep the wealthy white minority rule in place. Corporations like Lonrho supported this decision until the situation in the mid 1970s became untenable. Attacked Thatcher in 1979 in a bitter and powerful speech over her decision to abandon the Rhodesian Muzorewa-Smith government (Sept 5, 1996, The Independent, Amery's obituary). May 17, 2002 issue, Jeffrey Steinberg for Executive Intelligence Review, 'Ariel Sharon: Profile of an Unrepentant War Criminal': "On Nov. 15, 1982, a final meeting took place on several real estate purchases, mostly through Arab middle-men, to push the massive expansion of Jewish settlements throughout the West Bank at a handsome profit. Attending the meeting at Sharon's ranch were: Kissinger [Cercle], Lord Harlech (Sir David Ormsby-Gore), Johannes von Thurn und Taxis [1001 Club], Tory Parliamentarian Julian Amery [Cercle], Sir Edmund Peck, and MI-6 Mideast mandarin Nicholas Elliot [Cercle]." Appointed president/chairman of Le Cercle at the suggestion of Brian CRozier in 1985 and remained in this post until the early 1990s. Known to have attended the 1990 Cercle meeting in Oman. Present at a January 22, 1986 dinner hosted by Margaret and Denis Thatcher in honor of Shimon Peres. Jacob Rothschild and his wife, Mrs. Montefiore, Sir Geoffrey Howe, and Leon Brittan were among the few dozen guests. Chairman of the London branch of the Global Economic Action Institute, which which was funded by Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church. July 6, 1986, Sunday Times, 'Top Thatcher aides linked to Moonie cult': "Two of Mrs Thatcher's top advisers, the head of the No 10 policy unit, Brian Griffiths [Pilgrims], and her former economics guru, Professor Sir Alan Walters, have unwittingly joined an organisation funded by the Moonie cult along with a senior backbench Conservative MP. Both Griffths and Walters are listed as standing committee members of a free-market organisation called the Global Economic Action Institute, which holds economic and political conferences around the world. Following accusations by a cult monitoring group in the United States, the institute admitted last week that it was funded by the Moonie organisation. Also on the standing committee of the institute is the president of the Moonie church, Dr Mose Durst, who is listed as a senior director of the institute. The London arm of the institute is chaired by Julian Amery, the Conservative MP for Brighton Pavilion. The headquarters of the organisation are on Fifth Avenue in New York... In 1981 a British jury accepted that the controversial Moonie organisation - officially called the Unification Church - split families and used brainwashing to recruit and keep its predominantly young membership... Walters said that although he was told 'some time ago' by the institute's chairman, Robert Anderson, that the church was one of the funders of the institute, he felt that the actions of the institute should be judged on their own merit and he would not be resigning. Walters last week called for a more tolerant attitude towards the religion although he said that he was not a member." May 19, 1989, The Times, 'Social charter 'treat to employment': "Mr Julian Amery (Brighton Pavilion, C) said that Britain should agree to join the European Monetary System, not just when the time was right, but when British inflation was lower and there had been time to study the consequences of other EC countries abandoning their exchange controls." This would have put him at odds with Margaret Thatcher and later Cercle chairman Lord Norman Lamont. Consultant to the extremely corrupt Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) in the 1980s. August 7, 1991, Washington Post, 'BCCI Adept at Courting the Powerful and Rich': "In Britain, two senior Conservative members of Parliament and one former member listed themselves as consultants to BCCI -- part of what has been described as a global network of highly placed advisers. They are Sir Julian Ridsdale, a former defense minister; Julian Amery; and former Parliament member Sir Frederic Bennett, an honorary director of BCCI in Hong Kong until 1986 who received $10,000 a year from BCCI, according to the Sunday Observer. Amery declined to tell the Observer how much he received and could not be reached for comment here, but he has said he advised the bank on international affairs." Sir Frederic Mackarness Bennett (owned a Rolls-Royce and four homes, one of them in the Cayman Islands; director Kleinwort Benson Europe (his mother was a Kleinwort); long time Lloyds underwriter; influential member of Parliament from the 1950s to the 1980s; member Monday Club; always warning people about the KGB threat and supported every regime that opposed the USSR; chair FARI in 1978; vice-president of the European-Atlantic Group; leading official in the private group Council of Europe in the late 1970s and 1980s; honorary director of the BCCI in Hong Kong until 1986; Member of the Privy Council since 1985; ridiculed his party's (Conservatives) for their Euroscepticism after his retirement in 1987; supported Pinochet; Freeman of the City of London; has been to Bilderberg) was a member of relatively high society. In October 1998 Bennett wrote in The Times: "Sir, Of course it is true that Britain owes General Pinochet (reports, October 19, 20; letters October 20) and his then Government a deep debt of gratitude for the attitudes and actions by Chile from the onset of the Falklands war and throughout the conflict. It is undeniable that they shortened the war, and saved many British servicemen's lives." Lord Norman Lamont of Le Cercle also defended Pinochet; Cercle member Kissinger helped him to power. Became a Baron in 1992. Mentor to Jonathan Aitken, a later chairman of Le Cercle and another member of the Privy Council. Consistently voted against the return of the death penalty. Announced he would leave the House of Commons in January 1991 to spent more time with his wife, who was ill. Lady Catherine Amery, Julian's wife, died in July 1991. At the memorial services were present: the Duke of Devonshire (Cavendish; Roxburghe Club), the Marquess of Salisbury (Cecil; Roxburghe Club), Viscount and Viscountess Cranborne (Cecil; Cercle; Roxburghe Club), Lord Charles Cecil, Philippa Viscountess Astor, Paul Channon (Cercle), Sir Erik Bennett (Cercle), Dr Omar Al-Zawawi (personal advisor to the Sultan of Oman of the Cercle), Jonathan Aitken (Cercle), Nicholas Elliott (Cercle), and Winston S. Churchill (MP). The Times described him after has retirement announcement: "Julian Amery has trod the boards for 40 years. Like many of his generation, he had a good war, and has been defending the British empire ever since. To listen to him orate is to return to the pre-war House of Commons; plummy and proud, he could have stepped neatly out of the pages of Chips Channon's diaries. More recently, hidden behind a camel-driver's beard, he has said ``a few words'' over the grave of his chief enemy, Russian communism." Died in December 1996. Robert Cecil, a good friend of his, wrote an obituary: "The evening before his memorial service, Julian Amery's children held a party in his house in Eaton Square... As we drank, the sense of Julian Amery's spirit in the room was overwhelming. It seeped from the faded green paint on the walls; from the well-used but elegant furniture; from the photographs of foreign monarchs and statesmen on the tables; from the presents they had given lying about the room, golden swords and daggers, oriental carpets, arcana from all over the world. Above all, it seeped from us: British Cabinet ministers and politicians, spies, adventurers, servants of Empire, post-imperial servants of the Crown in foreign lands, Omanis, Afghans, Romanians, Albanians, Persians, Jordanians, Americans. Some, including the British, were political exiles. Some were high in their countries' governments... He was a British politician who never became a member of the Cabinet, an Air Minister who later became Minister of Housing and Minister of State at the Foreign Office. He was caricatured by the press as a white supremacist, a right-winger, an anachronism. And for them it must have been true. He had a plummy voice to prove it. In fact, Amery was a politician with a certain idea of this country. He was a patriot who believed in a British mission to the world, but who was convinced that our place was in Europe. He was a romantic, reared on the romance of Empire and of the great game, but who made a study of the realities of power. He believed in British culture and tradition, but he sympathised with the traditions of the peoples of the book."

The older brother of Julian, John Amery, was a gun-runner for General Franco (Knight of Malta) and an Italian intelligence officer. He met with Jacques Doriot, a French Fascist leader and was recruited by the Nazis. In November 1942, he began making pro Adolf Hitler broadcasts in Berlin. In April 1943 Amery established the Legion of St. George and attempted to persuade British prisoners to fight for Germany against the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front. In the final months of the war Amery moved to Italy where he made propaganda speeches on behalf of Benito Mussolini. He also made broadcasts on Italian radio. Amery was captured by Italian partisans in Milan in April 1945, and soon afterwards was handed over to the British authorities. After being interviewed by MI5 John Amery was tried for high treason and hanged.

Source(s): Gave a speech at "the Le Cercle Conference, Washington, DC, November 14, 2008" titled 'Iran and America: Can Obama Find a Political Solution?'

Professor Rutgers University. Senior associate member Oxford University. Founder in 1997 and president of the American Iranian Council (AIC). Among the directors is Chas W Freeman, Jr., who also gave a speech to Le Cercle. Two directors have senior positions in ConocoPhilips and ChevronTexaco. Another director, diplomat Thomas R. Pickering, has all the traitmarks of an intelligence operative. Pickering has been an ambassador to El Salvador and Israel, was vice chairman of Boeing until 2006 and is co-chairman of the International Crisis Group, where George Soros is a member of the executive committee. The other co-chairman is Lord Christopher Patten. Trustees of the International Crisis Group include HRH Turki al-Faisal (member of Le Cercle), Richard Armitage, Wim Kok, Zbigniew Brzezinski (held a speech at Le Cercle). Cyrus Vance (vice chair CFR; Pilgrims; Rockefeller Foundation; chair U.S. Ditchley; close to Rockefeller, Whitehead, Kissinger, Volcker, etc.) was the honorary chairman of the American Iranian Council from 1997 until his death in 2002. Photographed at the AIC while talking to Cyrus Vance and George Soros. Madelaine Albright has also attended speeches at the American Iranian Council (AIC) and gave a speech here herself. Recipient of several competitive fellowships and grants including the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Open Society Institute. Frequent contributor to national and international TV (including CNN, FOX, BBC, ABC, PBS, VOA), radio, and newspapers. President of Caspian Associates, Inc., an international strategic consulting firm headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey. Founder of the Center for Iranian Research and Analysis and served as its director for many years. Candidate for President in the Ninth Presidential Election in Iran in June 2005 (when the relatively liberal Khatami stepped down and the hardliner Ahmadinejad took over), but the conservative and religious Guardian Council disqualified him for his American citizenship and democratic platform. Consultant for the UNDP, the Aga Khan Foundation, the World Bank, and several governments. According to the New York Post, Hooshang Amirahmadi has been funded by the Iranian government through a fund seized by the US government. July 16, 2008, IPS, 'Iran Won't Wait for Obama to Talk to U.S.': "Despite opposition from some hardline factions in Iran, the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has responded positively to a proposal by the United States that it open a U.S. Interests Section in Tehran - its first formal diplomatic presence since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Hooshang Amirahmadi, who is currently visiting Iran and meeting with high-ranking officials in Ahmadinejad's administration to discuss bilateral relations, told IPS correspondent Omid Memarian by telephone from Tehran that he has sensed a new willingness to seek a thaw between the two countries. "It is not true that they will not negotiate with [George W.] Bush and are waiting for [Barack] Obama," said Amirahmadi, president of the American Iranian Council, a research and policy think-tank devoted to improving dialogue and understanding between the peoples of Iran and the United States. "This is not how Tehran is thinking and if they receive a proposal from the Bush government tomorrow, they are willing to consider it." Amirahmadi also heads the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies at Rutgers University, and is well known for his work to normalise U.S.-Iran relations during the period of Iran's pragmatic president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (1989-1997) and reformist President Mohammad Khatami (1998-2005). Because Amirahmadi is highly unpopular among radical conservatives, the government has provided high security during his stay in Tehran that will end later this month."

Source(s): Adrian Hanni (Visited the Cercle in 1989 and 1990)

British conservative political columnist. Formerly political editor of The Spectator and contributor to the Daily Mail, he wrote for The Independent, although his political position was typically different from the paper's editorial line, from 2003 to September 2010. He is now a freelancer.

According to biographers Francis Elliot and James Hanning, it may have been Anderson who recommended the young David Cameron to Prime Minister John Major as part of his question time team in the early 1990s.[2] Anderson holidayed with Cameron and his Conservative Central Office colleague Angie Bray in the summer of 1992.[3] After Cameron became a Conservative front-bencher in July 2003, Anderson tipped him in The Spectator as a future Prime Minister.[4] Anderson has also described himself as a 'family friend' of the Cameron's.[5]

February 15, 2010, The Independent, 'We not only have a right to use torture. We have a duty': "Torture is revolting. A man can retain his human dignity in front of a firing squad or on the scaffold: not in a torture chamber. Torturers set out to break their victim: to take a human being and reduce him to a whimpering wreck. In so doing, they defile themselves and their society. In Britain, torture has been illegal for more than 300 years. Shortly after torture was abjured, we stopped executing witches: all part of a move away from medieval legal mores and their replacement with the modern rule of law. Until recently, at least in the UK, torture and witch-finding appeared to be safely immured in a museum of ancient atrocities. Yet men cannot live like angels. However repugnant we may find torture, there are worse horrors, such as the nuclear devastation of central London, killing hundreds of thousands of people and inflicting irreparable damage on mankind's cultural heritage. We also face new and terrible dangers. In the past, the threat came from other states. If they struck at us, we knew where to strike back. Now, we can almost feel nostalgic for mutually assured destruction. In the Islamic world, a religious revival is taking place, analogous to the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. In that era, there was no shortage of volunteers for martyrdom. Today, failed states produce hate-filled young men, who appear to believe that Allah smiles on the suicide bomber. If you are going to destroy yourself, why not inflict maximum damage upon the enemy? Admittedly, there is no evidence that the terrorists are in a position to produce dirty bombs yet, let alone fully nuclear devices. But we know one thing about technology. It spreads. Difficult processes become easier. Today's remote possibility becomes tomorrow's imminent danger. There have been frequent objections to the use of the term "war on terror". None has been cogent. All of them give the impression that those who object to the phrase do not want to face the reality. It is a reality. For the foreseeable future, we will be engaged in such a war. It is unlike any other conflict we have ever faced, for there is no straightforward route to victory. Nor is there a certainty of success. In any war, there are two desiderata: appropriate strategies, and allies. In this case, the principal strategic resource is self-evident: intelligence. We have no easy way of establishing who the enemy is, where he will gather his forces or how he will strike at us. We also have to deal with the enemy within. All this requires an enormous intelligence effort. As other countries are facing a similar threat, they will be making a similar effort. It would be insane not to pool resources and share information. We and the Americans have long-established methods of intelligence co-operation, which are now even more important than they were in the Cold War. It also makes sense to work with other threatened nations, such as Pakistan, where a brave political elite is bearing a disproportionate burden, and receiving few thanks for doing so. But there is a problem. It seems likely that Pakistani interrogators use torture. Although we find torture repulsive, it does not follow that those who are tasked with governing Pakistan could safely dispense with it. Our enjoyment of Shakespeare and Elizabethan madrigals is not blighted by Walsingham's rack-masters in the Tower of London. We lament the premature death of Robert Southwell, but despite Tyburn and the rack, we would still speak of Elizabethan civilisation. So let us be more generous to the Pakistani authorities. Their difficulties are at least as great as those faced by Francis Walsingham and Robert Cecil in the 1590s. Can we blame the Pakistanis for employing some 1590s methods? When our intelligence services were invited to share the harvest reaped by the Pakistanis, there appears to have been no hesitation. Nor should there have been. We needed the information. Perhaps we should have offered the Pakistanis some advice on interrogation techniques which do not involve knife-work on suspects' genitals. It may be that we have indeed done so, in private. But Pakistan is a sovereign state and an embattled ally; a far more attractive state and a far less dubious ally than Russia was in the Second World War. We should be grateful for the Pakistanis' efforts on our behalf. We should also be grateful to the Americans. But we should insist, again in private, that if they did torture suspects, they were wrong to do so. As they are in a stronger position than Pakistan, their interrogation doctrine should be strongly post-Walsingham. Some of the problem may have arisen from Dick Cheney, arguably the most formidable Vice-President of all time. Mr Cheney combines the neo-Conservatives' moral certainties and the realpolitik school's ruthlessness. This means that he shoots with both barrels. It also creates the risk of overkill. Even so, there is one benefit from the Americans' experiments with robust interrogation methods: water-boarding. Christopher Hitchens wanted to demonstrate that it was absurd to demonise water-boarding and that it was only girlie-man's torture. So he subjected himself to it. He cried off after seven seconds. That is comforting, and not only to Mr Hitchens's critics. Thus far, there has been no need for either the UK or the US to consider torture, because neither of us has been confronted by a ticking bomb. As a result of the Hitchens trial run, we know that we have something which could work. That might sound frivolous. But there would be nothing frivolous about a ticking bomb. Cobra, the Cabinet's emergency committee, is in permanent session somewhere under Whitehall: the intelligence chiefs, grey and drawn from lack of sleep, inform the Prime Minister, ditto, that it seems almost certain that a nuclear device is primed to explode in the next few hours. There is a man in custody who probably knows where it is. They are ready to use whatever methods are necessary to extract the information... Before 9/11, in front of some serious lawyers, I once argued that if there were a ticking bomb, the Government would not only have a right to use torture. It would have a duty to use torture. Up sprang Sydney Kentridge, one of the great liberals of our age and a fearless defender of unpopular causes, from Nelson Mandela in the old South Africa to fox-hunting in modern Britain. I prepared to receive incoming fire. It came, in the form of a devilish intellectual challenge. "Let's take your hypothesis a bit further. We have captured a terrorist, but he is a hardened character. We cannot be certain that he will crack in time. We have also captured his wife and children". After much agonising, I have come to the conclusion that there is only one answer to Sydney's question. Torture the wife and children. It is a disgusting idea. It is almost a tragedy that we even have to discuss it, let alone think of acting upon it. But there is nothing to be gained from refusing to face facts, in the way that the Master of the Rolls, Lord Neuburger, did last week. His Lordship wrapped himself in a cloak of self-righteousness, traduced an entire security service, showed no understanding of the courage which its officers routinely display: no understanding, indeed, of anything beyond courtroom niceties. There is a threat not only to individual lives, which is of minor importance, but to our way of life and our civilisation. Torture is revolting, but we cannot substitute aesthetics for thought. Anyway, which is the greater aesthetic affront: torture, or the destruction of the National Gallery? Let us hope that we never face a ticking bomb in this country and never have to use torture. But there is only one way to avoid this. We must pray that the security services are as successful in the future as they have been in the recent past."

June 7, 2010, The Independent, 'Bruce Anderson: Obama, not BP, is the villain of this piece': "The evidence is overwhelming. Any fair-minded person who examines the Gulf of Mexico oil spillage is compelled to two conclusions. First, that there is no evidence of wrongdoing by BP. Second, that the President of the United States has behaved disgracefully. ... The modern world depends on oil. Over the next 20 years, merely to meet increased demand and replace declining production in mature fields, we will need the equivalent of two new Middle Easts or four new Saudi Arabias. In view of this, there is a clear need to explore alternatives to oil. BP has been in the forefront of such rational exploration, into energy sources that are economically viable and which would provide enough energy. Lord Browne, BP's former chief executive, almost wanted to rename the company "Beyond Petroleum". There was only one caveat. The world is in no condition to move beyond petroleum. But fresh supplies have been harder to come by. That is why the big oil companies have been drilling in deeper and deeper waters over the past 20 years. That is why most oil analysts can see no alternative to exploration in the Atlantic and the Arctic. It also explains the recent interest in the Falklands. Above all, it explains the extent of the drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, the fastest-growing oil region in the world, now producing 30 per cent of the US's oil needs. ... All the major oil companies – including BP – are obsessed with safety. They have offices and laboratories full of expensive scientists who think about nothing else. ... When a plane crashes, no one suggests that flying should be banned. It would be equally absurd to force all oil rigs to cease drilling. There is a lot of absurdity about. The international left has always hated the oil industry; the oil well and the motor car are two of capitalism's principal heraldic devices. It might have been hoped that the anti-oil nonsense would subside with the blowout of Marxism: not so. The poisonous gases merely found another vent: the extremities of the Green movement, and especially Greenpeace, which would like to deny mankind the energy resources upon which civilisation depends. At the moment, the Greens are able to win naive support by exaggerating the threat which oil-drilling poses to the environment. No one wants oil in the sea; for a start, it is a waste of a valuable product. But as Tony Hayward has reminded us – unwisely: at some moments, it is impossible to deal with a political-hysteria blowout – there is an awful lot of sea. Oil is organic and as such bio-degradable, especially in warmer water. The 1991 oil spills after the first Gulf War were supposed to threaten an environmental catastrophe. It took about two years for the Persian Gulf to return to normal. In the Gulf of Mexico, there are difficulties with fishing and tourism. These should not be exaggerated. Some of the lemming media would have us believe that the Louisiana coast is inhabited by pre-lapsarian fisher-folk whose arcadian tranquility has now been violated by the brutalities of BP. In reality, oil accounts for 80 per cent of Louisiana's gross domestic product. Many of the fishermen have relatives in the oil industry. The price they obtain for their catch is heavily influenced by the buoyancy of the oil dollar. BP has made it clear that those whose livelihoods are affected will be compensated. Five hundred loss adjusters are now at work, and have already accepted more than 31,000 claims. Has anyone ever met an insurance claimant who understated his loss? The real threat to Louisiana's economy, and to America's, comes from President Obama. His moratorium on offshore drilling will cost jobs, despite the recent evidence that the American private-sector recovery is weak. But the President is not interested in jobs, except one: his own. In one respect, it is surprising that recent events have redounded so badly on Mr Obama. Government agencies were on the scene rapidly. There was a much greater sense of grip than over Hurricane Katrina. But the Gulf spillage appears to have crystallised many Americans' doubts about their President. There is a problem. In the Liberal media, Mr Obama's rhetorical skills have been grotesquely overrated. He is not a good speaker. Presidents Reagan and Clinton were naturals, while George Bush Jnr could give a superb performance from a prepared text. But Barack Obama's delivery is cold and introverted."

Source(s): Adrian Hanni (1986 I Cercle list)

Natural resources company executive. Treausury secretary. Close to Eisenhower and LBJ. Lobbyist for Unification Church of Sun Myung Moon. Economic adviser to the Sultan of Oman. Went to jail for a year in 1987 on charges of tax evasion.

July 6, 1986, Sunday Times, 'Top Thatcher aides linked to Moonie cult': "Two of Mrs Thatcher's top advisers, the head of the No 10 policy unit, Brian Griffiths [Pilgrims], and her former economics guru, Professor Sir Alan Walters, have unwittingly joined an organisation funded by the Moonie cult along with a senior backbench Conservative MP. Both Griffths and Walters are listed as standing committee members of a free-market organisation called the Global Economic Action Institute, which holds economic and political conferences around the world. Following accusations by a cult monitoring group in the United States, the institute admitted last week that it was funded by the Moonie organisation. Also on the standing committee of the institute is the president of the Moonie church, Dr Mose Durst, who is listed as a senior director of the institute. The London arm of the institute is chaired by Julian Amery [Le Cercle], the Conservative MP for Brighton Pavilion. The headquarters of the organisation are on Fifth Avenue in New York... In 1981 a British jury accepted that the controversial Moonie organisation - officially called the Unification Church - split families and used brainwashing to recruit and keep its predominantly young membership... Walters said that although he was told 'some time ago' by the institute's chairman, Robert Anderson, that the church was one of the funders of the institute, he felt that the actions of the institute should be judged on their own merit and he would not be resigning. Walters last week called for a more tolerant attitude towards the religion although he said that he was not a member."

August 16, 1989, New York Times, 'Robert B. Anderson, ex-treasury chief, dies at 79': "Robert Anderson was a Democrat when he supported Dwight D. Eisenhower for President in 1952, but he switched parties in time for the 1956 elections and remained a Republican. He developed a reputation as a quiet and efficient administrator as Secretary of the Navy in 1953 and 1954 and as Deputy Secretary of Defense in 1954 and 1955, . Mr. Anderson became known as a conservative Treasury Secretary, putting a high priority on preserving the value of the dollar rather than cutting taxes or paying for additional outlays. As Treasury Secretary, he became highly influential within the Eisenhower Administration. It was on his recommendation that the President made an important decision concerning the budget for the fiscal year 1961, deciding that the projected surplus was to be used, not to cut taxes, but to pay off some of the national debt. Posts in Industry Before serving in the Eisenhower Administration, Mr. Anderson held various posts in Texas government. He resigned as Deputy Defense Secretary in 1955 to become president of Ventures Ltd., a Canadian holding company with farflung international interests, mainly in mining, until he was named Treasury Secretary. From 1961 to 1973 he was a limited partner in the New York-based investment banking firm of Loeb, Rhoades & Co. He also held other posts and directorships in business and finance and was an adviser to Phillips Petroleum, Texaco and other oil companies. He served as an economic adviser to the Sultan of Oman and worked as a Manhattan-based lobbyist and consultant for the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church. As Navy Secretary Mr. Anderson, at Eisenhower's behest, moved to end racial segregation at Navy posts in Charleston, S.C., and Norfolk, Va. Eisenhower wrote later that he felt gratitude and ''intense admiration'' for Mr. Anderson. The historian Stephen E. Ambrose, in a 1984 book on the Eisenhower Presidency, wrote that Mr. Anderson was Eisenhower's personal choice for his running mate as Vice-Presidential candidate in the 1956 election, but that Mr. Anderson rejected the idea. Mr. Ambrose, in the second volume of his biography ''Eisenhower,'' also wrote that Eisenhower urged Mr. Anderson to seek the Presidential nomination in 1960, but that Mr. Anderson said no. In the 1960's, Mr. Anderson carried out diplomatic tasks for President Lyndon B. Johnson, who was also a friend, including leading a commission that negotiated new treaties involving the Panama Canal. Two decades later, when Mr. Anderson was sentenced to the prison term by Judge Edmund L. Palmieri, he was also sentenced to five years' probation. Judge Palmieri directed him to make restitution to victims of the bank operation who had lost money on his advice. The judge said he was aware that Mr. Anderson had been hospitalized for alcoholism 10 times since 1981, and he ordered Mr. Anderson to enter an alcoholism treatment program. Mr. Anderson had pleaded guilty to evading taxes on more than $127,000 in income in 1983 and 1984 and operating an offshore bank in the British West Indies in which investors lost more than $4 million. A spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Gregory Bogdan, said yesterday in Washington said that Mr. Anderson had served his sentence in Federal Prison Camp at Allenwood, Pa., in August 1987. An official of the Federal Probation Office in Manhattan, Joseph Veltre, said yesterday that his house arrest was completed in January 1988. When he was disbarred by the Appellate Division of New York State Supreme Court last January, the court order said: ''This is a sad but, we think, necessary end to the legal career of one who has in times less beclouded by poor and corrupt judgment served his country in high office.'' A lawyer for Mr. Anderson suggested in court in 1987 that his client's mind might have been affected by the strain of caring for his wife, the former Ollie Mae Rawlings, who long suffered from Alzheimer's disease and died in 1987. They were married in 1935. In the years after Mr. Anderson left the Cabinet, his activities included serving as a partner in Robert B. Anderson & Company, an investment house, and as chairman of the American Gas & Chemical Company. Among the companies of which he was a director were Pan American World Airways and Goodyear Tire & Rubber. Robert Bernerd Anderson was born June 4, 1910, in Burleson, Tex., the son of a farmer. He graduated from Weatherford College in Weatherford, Tex., in 1927 and earned a bachelor of laws degree from the University of Texas in 1932. That same year he was elected to the Texas Legislature. In the 1930's he served variously as a Texas legislator, an assistant Texas attorney general, chairman of the Texas Unemployment commission, and state tax and racing commissioner. In World War II he was a civilian aide to the Army Secretary."

Source(s): October 1989 – Issue 18, Lobster Magazine, 'The Pinay Circle and Destabilisation in Europe'; 1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', pages 186, 191-193, and 241; 2002, David Rockefeller, 'Memoirs', pp. 412-413, referring to the Pesenti Group; 2010, Johannes Grossmann, 'Die Kulturelle Integration Europas', p. 330: "Andreotti war spatestens seit 1970 regelmassig im Cercle zu Gast"; Confidential Cercle document from about 1991 from the Julian Amery archive: "Andreotti is still a member but seldom appears."

Born in 1919. Former Italian prime minister, Knight of Malta (SMOM), and and great sympathiser of Opus Dei (other sources claim he is, or was, a member). June 28, 2001, Wall Street Journal, 'Knights of Malta Seek Respect From U.N. as Bona Fide Nation': "Count Marullo, whose 12,000 knights world-wide include King Juan Carlos of Spain and former Italian Premiers Francesco Cossiga and Giulio Andreotti, is bent on making the world pay more serious attention to all these trappings of sovereignty." May 18, 1992, New York Times: "In one of the most hotly debated acts of his papacy, Pope John Paul II beatified the Spanish founder of the conservative Opus Dei religious movement today, elevating Msgr. Jose Maria Escriva de Balaguer to a status just short of sainthood only 17 years after his death. The crowd overflowing St. Peter's Square numbered more than 200,000 and was one of the biggest ever seen at the Vatican -- testimony to the reach and influence that inspire many liberal Catholics to label Opus Dei a sinister and powerful force for conservatism in the church and elsewhere. One of the guests at the occasion was Italy's caretaker Prime Minister, Giulio Andreotti." 1997, Robert Hutchinson, 'Their Kingdom Come – Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei', p. 208: "Of the five [most important anti-communists of Italy], Andreotti took precedence in matters of policy, being nearest to the power structures of the Church and the Free World's political systems. Andreotti was the closest layman to Paul VI and he had his admirers in every capital of the Western Alliance... Andreotti had been on an Opus Dei retreat at the Castle of Urio on Lake Como, in northern Italy, and was received at the Villa Tevere by Escrivá de Balaguer." Graduated in Law in 1941 and later specialized in Canon Law (Roman Catholic Law). When Andreotti was head of the Catholic University Students' Federation from 1942 to 1944, he served as an assistant to Monsignor Montini, the later Pope Paul VI from 1963 to 1978. Co-founder of the still illegal Christian Democratic Party in 1943, together with the Paneuropean Alcide de Gasperi, who had a more dominant role in the founding. The Christian Democratic Party was the dominant party in Italy from 1948 to 1992. National delegate of the youth group of the Christian Democrat Party in 1944-1945. Became a member of the National Council of the Christian Democrat Party in 1945. Deputy in the Constituent Assembly since 1946 and would remain so throughout his entire political life. Under-secretary of State 1947-1954, until 1953 under de Gasperi. Minister for the Interior in January 1954. Minister of Finance 1955-1958. Secretary of the Treasury 1958-1959. Minister of Defense 1959-1966 under 5 different prime ministers. 2005, Daniele Ganser, 'NATO's Secret Armies', p. 70-71: "On election day in April 1963 the CIA nightmare materialised: The Communists gained strength while all other parties lost seats.... the Socialists were also given cabinet posts in the Italian government under Prime Minister Aldo Moro of the left-wing of the DCI [Christian Democratic Party]... Kennedy had allowed Italy to shift to the left. As the Socialists were given cabinet posts the Italian Communists, due to their performance at the polls, also demanded to be rewarded with posts in the cabinet and in May 1963 the large union of the construction workers demonstrated in Rome. The CIA was alarmed and members of the secret Gladio army disguised as police and civilians smashed the demonstration leaving more than 200 demonstrators injured. (46) But for Italy the worst was yet to come. In November 1963, US President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, under mysterious circumstances. And five months later the CIA with SIFAR, the Gladio secret army and the paramilitary police carried out a right-wing coup d'état which forced the Italian Socialists to leave their cabinet posts they had held only for such a short period. Code-named 'Piano Solo' the coup was directed by General Giovanni De Lorenzo whom Defence Minister Giulio Andreotti of the DCI had transferred from chief of SIFAR to chief of the Italian paramilitary police, the Carabinieri. In close cooperation with CIA secret warfare expert Vernon Walters, William Harvey, chief of the CIA station in Rome, and Renzo Rocca, Director of the Gladio units within the military secret service SID, De Lorenzo escalated the secret war. Rocca first used his secret Gladio army to bomb the offices of the DCI and the offices of a few daily newspapers and thereafter blamed the terror on the left in order to discredit both the Communists and the Socialists. (47)" Andreotti earned the label "the most powerful man in Rome, after the Pope" in the 1960s. Minister for Industry and Trade 1966-1968. Head of the Christian Democratic Party 1968-1972. Appointed by president Guiseppe Saragat on July 11, 1970 to try to form a new government with the four parties of the center-left coalition. In December 1970 another right-wing coup called Operation Tora Tora was about to happen, but it was called off at the last moment. Knight of Malta Prince Valerio Borghese, rescued by Knight of Malta James James Angleton at the end of World War II, was the leader of the coup. Stefano Delle Chiaie was another leading figure in the coup, which was supported by right wing elements in the CIA and NATO. Italian Prime Minister 1972–1973. Minister of Defense March-November 1974. Denied the existence of Gladio in 1974. Minister for the Budget and Economic Planning 1974-1976 under Aldo Moro. Prime minister of Italy 1976-1979. Again denied the existence of Gladio in 1978. 2005, Daniele Ganser, 'Nato's Secret Armies', p. 80: "Italy was in shock [over the kidnapping of Aldo Moro in 1978]. The military secret service and acting Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti immediately blamed the left-wing terrorist organization Red Brigades for the crime and cracked down on the left. 72,000 roadblocks were erected and 37,000 houses were searched. More than 6 million people were questioned in less than two months. While Moro was held captive his wife Eleonora spent the days in agony together with her closest family and friends and even asked Pope Paul IV [not a supporter of Opus Dei], a long-standing friend of her husband, for help. 'He told me he would do everything possible and I know he tried, but he found a lot of opposition.'" In March 1981, Italian police raided the villa of Licio Gelli, a Knight of Malta and the ultra-right leader of the P2 Lodge. 2005, Daniele Ganser, 'Nato's Secret Armies', p. 74: "Frank Gigliotti [one-time assistant to a hypnotist; Presbyterian clergyman; worked with teenaged boys, for whom he organized a social club named the Guiseppe Mazzini Club; recruited by the OSS; active in Italy] of the US Masonic Lodge personally recruited Gelli and instructed him to set up an anti-Communist parallel government in Italy in close cooperation with the CIA station in Rome. 'It was Ted Shackley, director of all covert operations of the CIA in Italy in the 1970s', an internal report of the Italian anti-terrorism unit confirmed, 'who presented the chief of the Masonic Lodge to Alexander Haig'. According to the document, Nixon's Military adviser General Haig [later Pilgrims Society executive], who had commanded US troops in vietnam and thereafter from 1974 to 1979 served as NATO's SACEUR, and Nixon's National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger [Le Cercle] 'authorized Gelli in the fall of 1969 to recruit 400 high ranking Italian and NATO officers into his lodge'. (60)... the secretive anti-Communist P2 members list confiscated [in 1981] counted at least 962 members, with total leadership estimated at 2,500... 52 were high-ranking officers of the Carabinieri paramilitary police, 50 were high-ranking officers of the Italian Army, 37 were high-ranking officers of the Finance Police, 29 were high-ranking officers of the Italian Navy, 11 were Presidents of the police, 70 were influential and wealthy industrialists, 10 were Presidents of banks, 3 were acting Ministers, 2 were former Ministers, 1 was President of a political party, 38 were members of parliament and 14 were high-ranking judges. Others on lower levels of the social hierarchy were mayors, Directors of hospitals, lawyers, notaries and journalists." Although Gelli's files had vanished by the time his villa was raided, the index of his files was discovered, and some of the headings included Giulio Andreotti's name. Roberto Calvi's [Knight of Malta, "God's banker", and found hanging below a bridge in the City of London] widow pointed to Giulio Andreotti as the true head of P2. 1997, Robert Hutchinson, 'Their Kingdom Come – Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei', p. 263-264: "P2 was formed in the late 1960s, allegedly at the behest of Giordano Gamberini, a Grand Master of the Grand Orient of Italy and friend of Gulio Andreotti. But he was much closer to Francesco Cosentino, who also was well introduced in Vatican circles. Either Andreotti or Cosentino, or perhaps both, were said to have suggested the creation of a small cell of trusted right-wing personalities in key national sectors, but especially banking, intelligence and the press, to guard against what they perceived as 'the creeping communist threat'. The person Gamberini chose to develop the P2 Lodge was a small-time textile magnate from the Tuscan town of Arezzo, midway between Florence and Perugia, who after two as a Freemason had risen to the Italian equivalent of Master Mason. His name, of course, was Licio Gelli. But the P2's top man, according to Calvi, was none other than Andreotti, followed in line of command by Cosentino and Ortolani [Umberto Ortolani; secret chamberlain of the Papal Household; member of the inner council of the Knights of Malta; said to be a member of Cardinal Giacomo Lercano; met with Licio Gelli, Roberto Calvi, and others in Rome in December 1969]. Andreotti always denied Calvi's allegation. But the fact remains that Calvi feared Andreotti more than Gelli or Ortolani. As for Cosentino, he died soon after the P2 hearings began. The truth of the matter, [professor] Javier Sainz said, is that the P2 Lodge was part of a secret right-wing network created with the Vatican's blessing as part of the Occident's bulwark against communism. The P1 Lodge was in France and the P3 Lodge was in Madrid. The P3 was headed by a former minister of Justice, Pio Cabanillas Gallas [cabinet minister under Franco, the dictator of Spain until 1975; secretary of the Council of the Realm, Franco's highest advisory body; Minister of Information and Tourism; remained influential in government after Franco's death; Minister of Culture; Minister of Justice 1981-1982; more centrist than Cercle member Munoz; member of the European Parliament]". Minister of Foreign Affairs 1983-1989. Supported the installing of American nuclear missiles in Europe. Prime Minister of Italy 1989-1991. On August 3, 1990, after having been put under pressure by Italian judge Felice Casson, Andreotti was the first person to admit that there existed a secret army of "stay-behind" units in Italy. In the case of Italy this unit was called Gladio and it had been involved in terrorist attacks on its own citizens, while blaming it on left-wing groups. This is how it kept the communist influence out of Europe. It soon turned out that these were hidden away in the secret services of most western countries. In 1993, Andreotti was investigated for corruption and accused of protecting the Mafia. Indicted in 1995, he also went to trial in 1996 for ordering the murder of a journalist said to have incriminating information. In 1999, he was acquitted of both sets of charges, a decision that ultimately was upheld on appeal. 1997, Robert Hutchinson, 'Their Kingdom Come – Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei', p. 350: "In 1994 Andreotti's friend and former foreign trade minister, Claudio Vitalone, brother of the lawyer Wilfredo with whom Carboni had been in almost hourly phone contact while shadowing Calvi's flight to London, was charged with ordering Pecorelli's [journalist who informed Andreotti beforehand he was putting out some damaging information on him] slaying. Accused with him were Mafia bosses Gaetano Badalamenti and Pippo Calò. Andreotti, friend of three popes who claimed never in his long career of public service to have forsaken his Catholic principles, joined them at trial, accused of issuing the contract against Pecorelli. Magistrates in Palermo had already stunned the world by accusing 'Uncle Giulio' of 'protecting, assisting and consorting with the Cosa Nostra' in return for electioneering support that helped maintain the Christian Democrat Party and Andreotti at the apex of Italian political life for more than three decades." Has been named as a member of the controversial Order of Zion, if it even exists or existed. Other rumors about the Order of Zion have named Cercle members Alain Poher and Otto von Habsburg.

*** ANDREOTTI WAS A GOOD FRIEND OF LICIO GELLI, HEAD OF THE P2 ***

1991, Philip Willan, 'Puppetmasters: The Political Use of Terrorism in Italy', p. 106: "The relationship between Giulio Andreotti and the coup plotters and, for that matter, his relationship with Gelli, have never been fully clarified. Several witnesses have testified that Gelli frequently spoke on the phone in their presence to someone he claimed was Andreotti. There is also an often-published photograph which shows the two standing together in evening dress and beaming smiles. Andreotti stated in a 1989 interview (Panaroma, 22 October 1989) that he had met Gelli because of the latter’s role as a director of the Permaflex mattress factory in Frosinone, which would mean their acquaintance dates from 1965 at the earliest, as the factory was inaugurated in that year. According to Gelli, however, the two first met in 1958. Andreotti described how he had met Gelli later, in Argentina when Juan Peron returned to power, and was amazed at the deference with Gelli was treated by the Argentine President, an observation that supports Arrigo Molinari’s assertion, examined earlier, that Gelli may have been in some way instrumental in presenting Andreotti to Peron. … Andreotti declared that he had no reason to think that ‘Gelli was someone to avoid’. … Gelli professes the highest regard for Andreotti."

*** ANDREOTTI SEEN AS POINT MAN FOR 1970 BORGHESE COUP ***

1991, Philip Willan, 'Puppetmasters: The Political Use of Terrorism in Italy', p. 107: "According to Paolo Aleandri, it was a common rumour among rightists that Andreotti had been considered by the Borghese coup plotters to be a kind of beacon or reference point within the political establishment. General Miceli offered a non-committal comment on this delicate subject during an interrogation by Judge Tamburino in 1974. ‘As for the rumours about Andreotti’s leanings towards a coup, I can say that there is a literature on the subject which has not been backed up by objective proof. Anonymous documents about it were in circulation in 1972 and I believe that D’Amato was in possession of a couple of reports which were passed to me and which I sent on to the Prime Minister [that is to Andreotti.]’"

Source(s): February 21, 2012, Cercle chairman Lord Lothian's invitational letter to speak at Le Cercle to Saudi Arabia's deputy minister of foreign affairs Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz: "At meetings last year, we were priviliged to talks from, amonst others ... Richard Armitage..."

Old associate of CIA station chief in the Far East, reportedly involved in the same drug trafficking schemes. Director ChoicePoint in the 1990s. Signed the 1998 PNAC letter to go after Saddam Hussein. Deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia and Pacific affairs 1981-1983. U.S. deputy secretary of state 2001-2005 under Colin Powell. Involved in the Valerie Plame scandal of 2002-2005. Director ConocoPhilips since 2006.

Source(s): March 3, 1980, Der Spiegel, 'Franz Josef sein Milljöh' (Franz Josef's milieu): "In this cercle the candidate for the chancellorship [Strauss] meets his right-wing extremist friends, like the Spaniard Federico Silva Munoz, Minister under dictator Franco, or the Ultra[Rightist] Kaulza de Arriaga, commander in chief in the Portuguese colony Mozambique once responsible for a bloody massacre among civilians."

1915-2004. From Portugal. Politician and military commander under Salazar (lived and ruled until 1970). Head of the Ministry of Defense Cabinet. President of the Nuclear Energy Joint Commission. Executive President of Angol SA, an oil company. Secretary of State for Air in the early 1960s, when the Angolan War began. In charge of stopping the April 1961 coup against Salazar. Apparently the coup had the quiet support of the Kennedy administration, but is said to have been carried out unprofessionally. Another idea is is that hardliner Américo Thomaz had unwisely been informed of the coup by one of the conspirators, Julio Botelho Moniz, and leaked it to Salazar and/or Arriaga. Professor of the Institute of High Military Studies anno 1966 and suggested to increase the efficiency of the military command. Commander in Chief of the Portuguese forces in the Mozambican conflict 1969-1974. Took over from General Augusto dos Santos. Studied the American tactics in Vietnam and consulted with General William Westmoreland. Organized Operation Gordian Knot in 1970. The objectives of this campaign were to seal off the independentist guerrillas' infiltration routes across the Tanzanian border and to destroy permanent guerrilla bases in Mozambique. The campaign lasted 7 months, but was not completely successful. Arriaga has been accused of covering up operations in which the Portuguese massacred civilians. In 1973 there was a prominent case in which Army units and the police force apparently surrounded villages (Wiriyamu, Chawola, Juwau, and others) and killed everyone. Arriaga lost power after the MFA's Carnation Revolution in 1974 when the leftists and moderates took over (and who forced co-Cercle member Gen. de Spinola, whom had been a compromise, to act relatively moderate). Imprisoned from September 1974 (when Spinola attempted to take back full control of the government) to January 1976. By July 1976 had set up the hard right political party Movimiento Independente de Reconstrusao Nacional / Independent Movement for National Reconstruction (MIRN). Set up the Portuguese Right-wing Party (PDP) in 1978 and remained active in it until 1980. Arriaga would attend Otto von Habsburg's CEDI's 1976 Congress in Spain with top Cercle members. The Cercle's political scholar in Portugal, Jaime Nogueira Pinto, has been a great supporter of Arriaga.

September 4, 1976, The Economist, 'Portugal; Under the volcano': "Right-wing soldiers are beginning to rally round the flag of a former commander-in-chief in Mozambique, General Kaulza de Arriaga, who is publicly campaigning against the country's colonial "sellout" last year. His arguments have been strengthened by recent revelations that the Mozambique independence movement, Frelimo, was preparing to negotiate a slow transition to independence before the Portuguese abruptly withdrew. Portugal's president, General Ramalho Eanes, has bowed somewhat to right-wing pressure. Last month he reshuffled the army leadership to mop up most remaining traces of red. The moderate left-wing commanders of Portugal's central and southern military regions were both replaced. Brigadier Lourenco's Lisbon command is expected to be absorbed soon into the central military region. The only left-wing enclave that remains is the army's emasculated revolutionary council. The president is trying to give the army a role as a neutral professional body outside of politics. He is reducing its size to 26,000 men -- the hard-core of its old colonial force."

May 28, 1977, The Economist, ' Please behave yourselves': "But the Movement for National Reconstruction, which is led by a colonial hawk, General Kaulza de Arriaga, might one day serve as a civilian nucleus for a right-wing coup."

Based on the numerous BBC World Reports, the Soviet press kept a close eye on the activities of de Arriaga.

February 21, 1980, BBC Summary of World Broadcasts (from Russia), 'In Brief; Kaulza de Arriaga's visit to South Africa': "On 18th February the radio's service in Portuguese for Portugal (2100 gmt) carried a commentary by Valeriy Ivanov on General Kaulza de Arriaga's visit to South Africa. Ivanov said Arriaga's first contacts with the South African authorities had been during his period as commander of the Portuguese colonial forces in Mozambique. He was now seeking to make political capital by making anti-Soviet remarks. For example, he had claimed that Mozambique was under Soviet occupation and was issuing warnings about Soviet designs of which only he was aware. However his remarks were approved by circles in Western countries "fomenting the myth of a Soviet threat"."

April 19, 1980, BBC Summary of World Broadcasts (Moscow; Excerpts from commentary by Yuriy Konstantinov), 'Portugal: More Freedom for Fascists': "The Salazarist former General Kaulza de Arriaga has stated that his Right-wing party [Note: the PDP] will contest this year's parliamentary elections . . . Since the installation in office of Sa Carneiro's Centre-Right Government, the (?supporters) of the Salazar-Caetano fascist dictatorship have been enjoying increasing freedom of manoeuvre in Portugal. They have been released from detention, rehabilitated, reinstated in state posts, paid high retirement pensions and, indeed, seen their old virtues eulogised. The former officers of the PIDE, are treated with greater solicitude by the current administration and by the judiciary than the people who languished in the dungeons of the Salazar regime. Kaulza de Arriaga's supporters have of late been praising to the skies Brigadier [sic] Pires Veloso, former Commander of the Northern Military Region, urging him to save the country from the Marxist threat. They are distributing provocative leaflets in Oporto announcing the opening of the Spring communist-hunting season and threatening democrats with massacres. All this is taking place in the pace of inaction - not to say connivance - of the authorities. The extremists are taking advantage of this attitude. They are eager for revenge and are rallying under their old flags. And how they have decided to go it alone in the next parliamentary elections."

February 3, 2004, Agence France Presse -- English, 'Portuguese general who crushed revolts in Africa dies': "General Kaulza de Arriaga, a prominent Portuguese military leader who helped put down rebellions in the country's then colony of Mozambique in the 1960s, has died aged 89, the Lusa news agency said Tuesday, quoting family members. Arriaga, who served under the dictatorship of Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, was notably accused of commanding a massacre which left hundreds of dead in the Mozambican village of Wiryiamu on December 16, 1972, a charge he always denied. As head of ground forces in Mozambique from 1969 to 1970, and then overall head of Portugal's armed forces from 1970 to 1973, he also oversaw an offensive which ran from July to early August 1970 in the Cape Delgado region in the north of Mozambique. The offensive was one of the bloodiest episodes of the colonial wars of the 1960s, which were to lead to the independence of Mozambique, Angola and Guinea-Bissau in 1974-75, along with the collapse of the dictatorship in Lisbon. Arriaga, who held top posts in both the nuclear power industry and a major oil company in the late 1960s and early 1970s, was an unrepentant defender of the dictatorship against the revolution which overthrew it in April 1974. He described the end of the regime, which ushered in democracy, as the "biggest disaster in Portuguese history". Family members said Arriaga died overnight on Monday after a long illness."

Source(s): April 6, 2003, The Observer, 'So, Norman, any regrets this time?'; September 5, 2004, Sunday Times, 'Le Cercle of the elite'

Born in Iraq. Graduated in Economics and Political Science from the Mustansiriyah University, Baghdad in 1967. Worked with the Iraqi Ministry of Oil, becoming Director of Planning and Development. In 1979 he founded General Mediterranean Holding SA of Luxembourg. Auchi's business empire, which has assets worth more than £1bn, is held offshore in structures whose ownership is difficult to penetrate. His holding firm, General Mediterranean Holdings SA, is registered in Luxembourg, and the Luxembourg and EU politician Jacques Santer sits on its board (in 1999, the Santer (EU) Commission resigned from their posts after charges of corruption. Santer is a Bilderberger and a supporter of Opus Dei). Lord Lamont, the Rothschild associate who headed Le Cercle, used to be another employee of General Mediterranean Holdings. Has links to British intelligence, through the former senior MI6 officer Anthony Cavendish (Le Cercle), who acts as a consultant to Auchi's business empire.

May 11, 2004, International Armament and Technology Trade Directorate, Office of Deputy Undersecretary of Defense (International Technology Security), 'Preliminary Findings: Report to the Inspector General into Mobile Telecommunications Licenses in Iraq', p. 19, For Official Use Only: "Auchi had effectively bought himself both respectability and influence in British social and political circles, and British political leaders and cabinet ministers have served and still serve on his boards of directors. In addition, there is a transatlantic organization called Le Cercle (“the Club”) founded decades ago by French minister Antoine Pinay, that brings together Europeans and Americans from the political, military, and intelligence communities to discuss issues of mutual concern and to network. In 2002 Auchi was brought into Le Cercle by Lord Cavendish, the former head of British intelligence. It is altogether possible therefore that the marriage between the British telecomm specialists in Iraq and the Auchi telecomm interests in the region was brokered in advance."

Served on an advisory committee to the Institute for Social and Economic Policy in the Middle East at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government 1996-2000. President of the Anglo-Arab Organisation (AAO) since its founding in 2002. The July 2004 meeting of the AAO was attended by Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, Michael Howard (Le Cercle), the Conservative Party leader and leader of the opposition, king Abdullah of Jordan, Sheikh Badawi (Islamic College of London), together with many political, business and media elite. During the 2004 AAO conference Auchi said: " [the organisation, at its core] is the desire to build on, and further enhance, the fruitful, warm and productive relations which have existed over so many centuries between the United Kingdom and the Arab world." Auchi stressed AAO's important role in furthering interfaith dialogue as well as supporting initiatives aimed at "further integration of the welcomed British Arab community into mainstream society." On one of the pictures Auchi is shaking hands with Prince Andrew and King Abdullah. Another ambiguity of his relations with the UK is demonstrated by one of his mementos, hanging in pride of place in his office - a portrait of the houses of parliament which 130 MPs of all parties have signed. It was presented to him by the science minister, Lord Sainsbury, "on behalf of Tony Blair" at the 20th anniversary ceremony of his GMH company. In November, 2003, Auchi was given a two-year suspended prison sentence for his involvement in the Elf scandal. A French court found him guilty of accepting £50 million worth of illegal commissions. He was also fined £1.4 million. In 2003, the Guardian and the Observer wrote a number of articles that Auchi has been involved in numerous corruption scandals and that he was a long supporter of, and arms supplier to, Saddam Hussein. Auchi later claimed these allegations were completely wrong, which led to the newspapers retracting their stories. During Gulf War II, Auchi was reported to have a full run on the palace in the Green Zone and met with "everyone important," including CPA top leader Paul Bremer. Auchi has also been named as a central figure in the U.N. oil-for-food program in which both the U.S. Congress and a special U.N. investigation have been looking after accusations of massive corruption and a missing $10 billion. In November 2003, Auchi was honoured by the Catholic Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George and the Royal Order of Francis I.

GENERAL MEDITERRANEAN HOLDING

Lamont was not only close to Auchi through Le Cercle. After leaving government he joined the five-member financial board of Auchi’s General Mediterranean Holding, a Luxembourg-based holding company for more than 120 companies. Anno 2011 Lamont still sits on the board. Jacques Santer, a former finance and prime minister of Luxembourg who is known to be sympathetic to Opus Dei, sits on the six-member main board of General Mediterranean Holding. In 2009 the Belgian Marc Verwilghen joined the main board, which is rather puzzling. Verwilghen headed the independent Dutroux Commission and was among the few officials that were open to the information in X-Dossiers which implicated Belgium’s elite in various child abuse rings.

April 6, 2003, The Observer, 'Tycoon in quiz over ties to Labour': "Auchi's extraordinary career began in the in the back streets of Baghdad in a post-war world of coup plots, intrigue and murder. Iraqi court transcripts from 1959 show that the man who would later hire British politicians Lord David Steel, Lord Norman Lamont and Keith Vaz to work for him, once stood trial with Saddam Hussein for conspiring to assassinate Iraq's Prime Minister Abdul Karim Qasim. Qasim's car was riddled with bullets from machine-guns wielded by activists from the banned Ba'ath Party that Saddam would later come to dominate. The assassination attempt and Saddam's escape on horseback to Syria later became part of the mythology of the Iraqi dicatator's rise to power. In the 1980s an Iraqi state film, The Long Days, was made about the attack and the bullet-riddled car is still exhibited in one of Saddam's palaces. Auchi admitted that the Baathist plotters had collected a machine gun from his house a week before the attack, but said he had not used the weapon and played no part in the conspiracy. Court records from the show trial that followed, show the name 'Nadhmi Shakir Auchi' in the list of dozens of accused along with the full name of the man who would become the feared leader of Iraq 'Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti'. It is not known if Auchi was ever convicted. The nature of the relationship Auchi had with the Iraqi dictator are not known. He has always denied dealing with Saddam after the last Gulf War and claims the dictator murdered his two brothers. But it is beyond doubt that the Iraqi businessman first established himself in Britain in the early 1980s with money he had earned from deals carried out for the regime in the pre-sanctions era. From the moment he arrived in this country Auchi was immersed in controversy. His first business coup was to broker a deal to sell Italian frigates to the Iraqi defence ministry, for which he received millions of dollars in commission. The deal to buy the ships and other military equipment from the Italian naval shipyards Cantiri Navali Riuniti sparked an Italian parlamentary investigation into alleged bribes. Investigators discovered that a Panamanian company owned by Auchi, The Dowal Corporation, was used to funnel alleged illegal payments. The Observer has obtained a letter from Auchi to the Italian shipbuilding company in February 1982 demanding payment of $17 million dollars to be paid into a bank account in Luxembourg. While Auchi has never denied the existence of this deal, he has always denied any wrongdoing in ths case and was never prosecuted. This was not be his last brush with the Italian authorities over his deals with Saddam regime. Four years later he began a relationship with one of Italy's most controversial bankers Pierfrancesco Pacini Battaglia, a man whose role at the heart of Italian political scandals was exposed by the 'Clean Hands' anti-corruption investigation. Such was Battaglia's influence he was dubbed the 'one below God'. In 1987, Saddam Hussein ordered the construction of a giant pipeline from Iraq to Saudi Arabia after the port southern port of Umm Qasr had been destroyed by air raids during the lengthy war with Iran. The contract to build the pipeline was one of the most lucrative in the world and the Italian-French joint venture used Battaglia and Auchi to secure the contract."

June 3, 2004, Lucy Komisar for Insight on the News, 'Following Saddam Hussein's secret money-laundering trail': "A detailed analysis of Saddam Hussein's secret money-laundering techniques shows here for the first time how he used the same offshore money launderers as Osama bin Laden. That covert money network, based in the tax havens of Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Panama and Nassau, helped bankroll the war machines of both Iraq and al-Qaeda. More than 1,000 pages of confidential corporate, bank and legal documents show how the network functioned. The papers come from court cases filed in several European countries, from corporate records, from investigations by Italian police, from a report of the Kroll international investigative agency, and from private sources. The documents are the basis of further investigations coordinated in Europe by the prosecutor of Milan. ... Saddam began constructing his offshore operation in 1968 in Switzerland, aware that the country's bank secrecy made it a prime place to organize the movement of illicit funds and the purchase of arms. That year, 11 years before his coup, Saddam sent his half-brother Barzan Ibrahim Hasan Al-Tikriti to Geneva to construct the network to launder secret commissions charged on sales of Iraqi crude oil. The system also would be used for kickbacks on purchases from Western arms dealers. Liechtenstein, which Swiss bankers and money managers often use to handle dubious clients, was used to ensure even more impenetrable secrecy: Real names of company and account owners would be hidden from law enforcers. The key Iraqis in the operation were Said Rahim Hussein Al-Mahdi and Nadhmi Auchi. Al-Mahdi was sent to Lugano because his father-in-law, Talaak El Naboulsi, an Egyptian soldier and member of the Muslim Brotherhood, was then working in Geneva for Barzan (who now is in U.S. custody). ... Banque Paribas, headquartered in Paris, with a significant portion of shares owned by Saddam's cousin Nadhmi Auchi, moved money for the Al-Mahdi network in the 1980s and was the bank chosen to handle the Iraqi oil-for-food payments. In fact, Iraq insisted that Paribas handle the oil-for-food escrow account. A corporate document for Al Taqwa Trade, Property and Industry Co. Ltd. of Liechtenstein – an al-Qaeda network shell company also shut down by the United States – lists Banque Paribas, Lugano, where it had accounts. (Paribas in 2000 merged with another French bank to create BNP Paribas, with Auchi continuing as one of the largest shareholders.) ... The Kroll report also dealt with Nadhmi Auchi, reporting the Italian intelligence view that he was a "high-level Iraqi defense procurement and intelligence agent." After Roger Watson became Saddam's financial consultant in 1987, he also became an adviser to Auchi's International Company of Banking and Financial Participations (CIPAF). According to official Italian documents, Auchi used Panama to launder kickbacks for two contracts for the Iraqi military. An Italian parliamentary report in 1987 said that one of them, Dowal, set up by Watson, was used to collect $23 million in hidden commissions on Baghdad's purchase of warships manufactured by the Italian shipyard, Cantieri Navali Riuniti. In another case, the Operation "Clean Hands" (Mani Pulite) investigation in Italy revealed in 1993 that Auchi received about $40 million in hidden commissions to facilitate approval of a Franco-Italian engineering project to construct a pipeline from Iraq to Saudi Arabia. Italian banker Pierfrancesco Pacini Battaglia declared to investigators that he had received instructions to transfer these commissions to accounts in Panama established in the names of Iraqi officials. Auchi's spokesman condemned any allegations of wrongdoing as "outrageous." The totals from skimmed oil revenues and contract kickbacks from the late 1970s through the oil-for-food 1990s have been estimated by U.S. officials to reach $30 or $40 billion. Jules Kroll said that until 9/11, a few staff members at the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control "were the only ones spending any energy on this issue in any organized way." He said, "The level of ignorance at the CIA was total, at the FBI it was beyond total. The law-enforcement and intelligence community in the U.S. was behind the curve. It was of little interest to them.""

April 30, 2003, New York Times, 'Aftereffects: Finances; Iraqi-Born Billionaire Has Big Stake in Bank That Holds Baghdad's Oil-for-Food Funds': "One of the largest private shareholders in BNP Paribas, the French bank that holds more than $13 billion in Iraqi oil funds administered through the United Nation's oil-for-food program, is an Iraqi-born businessman who once helped to arm Iraq in the 1980's and brokered business deals with Saddam Hussein's government, according to public records and interviews. The involvement of the businessman, the British billionaire Nadhmi Auchi, raises questions about how carefully the United Nations has vetted the bank in its continuing role as repository of oil-for-food funds. The oil-for-food program began in 1996 as an effort to ease the impact of economic sanctions on civilians after the United Nations imposed them on Iraq in 1990. Although the United Nations pressed Iraq to allow banks other than BNP Paribas to be the primary repository for billions of dollars in oil revenue, Iraq successfully insisted that BNP Paribas remain the sole caretaker of the program's escrow account. There is no evidence that Mr. Auchi, or BNP Paribas itself, engaged in any irregularities in the handling of the Iraqi funds. A United Nations spokesman said it was now impossible to determine why Iraq insisted on BNP Paribas, other than that the Iraqis had ''confidence and trust'' in the bank. ''It's moved on with the winds of history,'' said the spokesman, Ian Steele. He said the United Nations had no knowledge of Mr. Auchi or his investment in BNP Paribas. The United Nations gained nominal control of Iraqi oil profits through the oil-for-food program. But critics in the United States government and elsewhere say the United Nations has not policed the program effectively, and that some funds were diverted by Iraqi officials. The United Nations has defended its stewardship of the program. BNP Paribas said that it had had no contact with Mr. Auchi since it was formed in 2000 from the merger of Banque Nationale de Paris and Paribas, and that Mr. Auchi was uninvolved in the bank's management or shareholder relations. It also said that BNP had secured the oil-for-food account before its merger with Paribas and that Mr. Auchi played no part in winning the account. BNP Paribas added that its participation in the oil-for-food program was the result of competitive bidding and that the United States Treasury had approved its participation. ''We believe we were appointed by the U.N. for this contract because they were looking for a large European financial institution and we are the largest bank in continental Europe,'' BNP Paribas said in a statement. ''The oil-for-food program revenues represent about one-tenth of 1 percent of the total revenues of our company. It has no significant influence on our size or our level of profitability.'' Mr. Auchi, who declined to be interviewed for this article, holds his stake in BNP Paribas through a Luxembourg concern he controls called General Mediterranean Holdings. As recently as 2001, General Mediterranean Holdings described itself in an annual report as one of largest single shareholders in BNP Paribas. Mr. Auchi's London lawyer, David Corker, said that since 2001 General Mediterranean Holdings had reduced its BNP Paribas stake to about 0.4 percent of the bank's total shares, about half of the position he held before then. That stake would still make Mr. Auchi one of the bank's biggest single shareholders. Mr. Corker said his client had ''never knowingly had any business dealings with the Hussein regime.'' Mr. Auchi first became involved with Paribas, the predecessor to BNP Paribas, in the 1970's. He also played a central role in the 2000 merger of Paribas and BNP, helping to steer Paribas away from a merger with a rival concern. In 1996, according to European news accounts, Belgium's ambassador to Luxembourg charged that Banque Continentale du Luxembourg, a bank that Mr. Auchi and Paribas jointly controlled until 1994, had handled personal accounts for Mr. Hussein. Mr. Auchi sold his stake in the bank to Paribas in 1994, and Paribas sold off its stake in 1996. Mr. Corker said that Banque Continentale contested the Belgian ambassador's charge. Banque Continentale declined to comment. Earlier this month, Mr. Auchi was arrested and released on bail in London pending a court hearing next week on fraud charges involving the French oil giant TotalFinaElf. French prosecutors have accused Mr. Auchi of helping channel bribes to Total's executives, a charge Mr. Corker denies. Mr. Auchi was born in Iraq in 1937 and lived there until 1981, his lawyer said. He became a British citizen in 1981. Mr. Auchi sold Italian naval vessels to Mr. Hussein's government in the early 1980's. In 1993, an Italian banker told Italian investigators that in 1987, Mr. Auchi had helped an engineering concern secure a contract for an oil pipeline from Iraq to Saudi Arabia by bribing members of the Hussein government, according to a transcript of a police interrogation. A translated copy of that interview was furnished to The New York Times by Kreindler & Kreindler, a New York law firm hoping to recover financial damages for the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The banker, Pierfrancesco Pacini Battaglia, told Italian investigators that Mr. Auchi was ''one of the most important intermediaries in the affairs of Middle Eastern countries.'' Mr. Auchi's lawyer said his client never paid bribes to Iraqi officials involved with the Saudi pipeline project. "

Source(s): February 21, 2012, Cercle chairman Lord Lothian's invitational letter to speak at Le Cercle to Saudi Arabia's deputy minister of foreign affairs Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz (released by Wikileaks around 2015; David Teacher made ISGP aware of the letter; this person is listed as a past speaker to Le Cercle).

Pakistani Citibank executive who was the right-hand of President Musharraf and was prime minister in the period 2004-2007.

Sources: 1993, Alan Clark, 'Diaries', p. 369-374; 1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', page 193; June 29, 1997, The Independence, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club; Is it the ultimate dishonour'; present at all Cercle meetings early 1980s (lists)

Born in 1917. Personal assistant to Konrad Adenauer (ran his office), who was chancellor of the Federal Republic of West Germany from 1949 to 1963. CDU (Conservative) member of the Bundestag from 1969 to 1972. German ambassador to Iran. Commercial and financial advisor to the Siemens Corporation, which later went into business with Northrop, the General Telephone and Electronics Corporation, and the Nippon Electric Company in Iran. At about the time Bach retired from the Bundestag, he went to work for the swiss-based Economic and Development Corporation (EDC), an unacknowledged lobbying group for Northrop. The EDC received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Northrop. When Bach was interviewed over the phone during the 1975 Church Committee hearings about bribes that had been paid by the Northrop Corporation, he stated that he received no payments from Northrop or the EDC. On the other hand, he had been named as a shareholder of EDC and acknowledged that he had "advised them [EDC] about political things - the stability of a country, whether it was going to be an industrial country or not, whether it was going to be stable or not... I go to the country, see the country and make a report." (June 10, 1975, New York Times, 'Northrop Apologizes on Saudi Bribes; Senator Church Urges Sales Reforms') He refused to say what countries he had worked on, but said it did not involve Germany. He "could not remember" exactly if he started to work for the corporation when he still was a member of the Bundestag. In March 1975, Bach and other senior members of EDC were invited to the headquarters of Northop. Senator Church said about the Northrop arrangement: "an intelligence network like a government would emply to get inside information, to pull the strings... the records itself show that Northrop has been doing it." (June 10, 1975, New York Times, 'Northrop Apologizes on Saudi Bribes; Senator Church Urges Sales Reforms') Northrop officials had described it "a way of live, a necessary evil." EDC, founded in 1971, described itself as a company that tries "to seek economic relations with developing countries with the purpose of encouraging the economic development of these countries" (June 10, 1975, New York Times, 'Northrop apologizes on Saudi Bribes; Senator Church Urges Sales Reforms'). In 1972, Bach wrote a report for Andreas Froriep, a Zurich lawyer who ran the EDC. Froriep did acknowledge that he regularly relied on advise from people like Franz Josef Bach, "whose knowledge and expertise is of a unique nature" (July 27, 1975, New York Times, 'The F-16 and how it won Europe'). By 1975, Northop's F-17 had lost from its General Dynamics competitor who had built the F-16. Alan Clark about the 1990 meeting of Le Cercle: "The Cercle, an Atlanticist Society of right-wing dignitaries, largely compered by Julian Amery and Herr Franz-joseph Bach, staged one or two conferences a year and this one was travelling to Oman at the hospitality of the Ruler." In his 1993 biography, Brian Crozier wrote: "In 1980, Violet, who had serious health problems, asked me to take over the Pinay Cercle. In practice, I mostly shared the burden with a leading German member of the Cercle, Franz-Josef Bach, who had run Adenauer's secretariat and later served as ambassador in Tehran." Died in 2001.

Source(s): 1985 Cercle particpants list, Washington D.C.

Economist Mobil Oil Co., New York City, 1960-62; professor City University of New York, Queens, 1962-83; president Bailey, Tondu, Warwick & Co., New York City, 1962-75; special assistant to President Reagan The White House, Washington, 1981-83; private practice, 1984—. Author 8 books; contributor numerous articles to professional journals. Consultant Rep. Campaign, New York , Washington, 1980, 84, 88, 92, 00. With U.S. Army, 1956-58. Member The Univ. Club (Washington), Phi Beta Kappa.

September 6, 1991, Washington Post, 'Warnings of Wrongdoing at BCCI Went Unheeded Since 1984': "At about the same time, the intelligence community began collecting ominous information about BCCI. Norman Bailey, then a National Security Council economist concerned in part about illegal technology transfer, recalled reports mentioning BCCI between 1981 and 1984. "There was evidence the bank was involved in transfers of sensitive technology, embargo violations and the financing of guerrilla movements," said Bailey. "There was a specificity of knowledge about some of the bank's activities that was fairly high."" December 7, 1992, Newsweek, 'The BCCI-CIA Connection: Just How Far Did It Go': "As Norman Bailey, a former National Security Council official, said, the CIA was not interested in "blowing the BCCI cover.""

August 3, 1991, St. Petersburg Times (Florida), 'BCCI scandal reaches further into government': "High U.S. officials also knew about Noriega's criminal activities and looked the other way. A senior staff member of the National Security Council during the Reagan administration in the early 1980s, Norman Bailey, testified three years ago before the House Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control: "Clear and incontrovertible evidence was, at best, ignored and, at worst, hidden, and denied by many government agencies and departments of the government of the United States in such a way as to provide cover and protection for (Noriega's) activities . . "' The reason? Noriega was a means to an end. Whatever means were necessary to accomplish U.S. intelligence goals were acceptable."

July 23, 2008, Salon.com, 'Exposing Bush's historic abuse of power': "In May, I interviewed Norman Bailey, a private financial consultant with years of government intelligence experience dating from the George W. Bush administration back to the Reagan administration. According to Bailey -- who from 2006 to 2007 headed a special unit within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence focused on financial intelligence on Cuba and Venezuela -- the NSA has been using its vast powers with signals intelligence to track financial transactions around the world since the early 1980s. From 1982 to 1984, Bailey ran a top-secret program for President Reagan's National Security Council, called "Follow the Money," that used NSA signals intelligence to track loans from Western banks to the Soviet Union and its allies. PROMIS, he told me, was "the principal software element" used by the NSA and the Treasury Department then in their electronic surveillance programs tracking financial flows to the Soviet bloc, organized crime and terrorist groups. His admission is the first public acknowledgement by a former U.S. intelligence official that the NSA used the PROMIS software. According to Bailey, the Reagan program marked a significant shift in resources from human spying to electronic surveillance, as a way to track money flows to suspected criminals and American enemies. "That was the beginning of the whole process," he said. After 9/11, this capability was instantly seen within the U.S. government as a critical tool in the war on terror -- and apparently was deployed by the Bush administration inside the United States, in cases involving alleged terrorist supporters. One such case was that of the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation in Oregon, which was accused of having terrorist ties after the NSA, at the request of the Treasury Department, eavesdropped on the phone calls of Al-Haramain officials and their American lawyers. The charges against Al-Haramain were based primarily on secret evidence that the Bush administration refused to disclose in legal proceedings; Al-Haramain's lawyers argued in a lawsuit that was a violation of the defendants' due process rights. According to Bailey, the NSA also likely would have used its technological capabilities to track the charity's financial activity. "The vast majority of financial movements of any significance take place electronically, so intercepts have become an extremely important element" in intelligence, he explained. "If the government suspects that a particular Muslim charitable organization is engaged in collecting funds to funnel to terrorists, the NSA would be asked to follow the money going into and out of the bank accounts of that charity." (The now-defunct Al-Haramain Foundation, although affiliated with a Saudi Arabian-based global charity, was founded and based in Ashland, Ore.) The use of a powerful database and extensive watch lists, Bailey said, would make the NSA's job much easier. "The biggest problems with intercepts, quite frankly, is that the volumes of data, daily or even by the hour, are gigantic," he said. "Unless you have a very precise idea of what it is you're looking for, the NSA people or their counterparts [overseas] will just throw up their hands and say 'forget it.'" Regarding domestic surveillance, Bailey said there's a "whole gray area where the initiation of the transaction was in the United States and the final destination was outside, or vice versa. That's something for the lawyers to figure out." Bailey's information on the evolution of the Reagan intelligence program appears to corroborate and clarify an article published in March in the Wall Street Journal, which reported that the NSA was conducting domestic surveillance using "an ad-hoc collection of so-called 'black programs' whose existence is undisclosed." Some of these programs began "years before the 9/11 attacks but have since been given greater reach." Among them, the article said, are a joint NSA-Treasury database on financial transactions that dates back "about 15 years" to 1993. That's not quite right, Bailey clarified: "It started in the early '80s, at least 10 years before." Main Core may be the contemporary incarnation of a government watch list system that was part of a highly classified "Continuity of Government" program created by the Reagan administration to keep the U.S. government functioning in the event of a nuclear attack. Under a 1982 presidential directive, the outbreak of war could trigger the proclamation of martial law nationwide, giving the military the authority to use its domestic database to round up citizens and residents considered to be threats to national security. The emergency measures for domestic security were to be carried out by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Army."

Source(s): 2014, Johannes Grossmann, p. 552 (visited in 1992)

Senator from Tennessee 1967-1985. Senate Minority Leader 1977-1979, 1980-1981. Senate Majority Leader 1981-1985. Chief of staff to Ronald Reagan 1987-1988. Ambassador to Japan 2001-2005. Advisory board member for the Partnership for a Secure America. In 1996, he married former U.S. Senator Nancy Landon Kassebaum, daughter of the late Kansas Governor Alfred M. Landon, who was the Republican nominee for President in 1936.

Source(s): Cercle lists: 1982 Wildbad Kreuth ("Pat Ballestreri"); 1983 Bonn ("Pat Bellestreri - Assistant to Richard Perle, Assistant Secretary of Defense."); 1984 South Africa ("Pat Balestreri - Department of Defense, International Affairs")

Little seems to be known about this person. Assistant to Richard Perle, an important Cercle contact and friend of Brian Crozier.

Source(s): Cercle lists: 1983 Bonn

November 13, 1985, New York Times, '2 Journalists Cited for Works On 'Subversion of the Media'': "Paul Anastasiades, a Cypriot journalist, and John Barron, senior editor of The Reader's Digest in Washington, have been given a joint award of $70,000 for ''the best investigative journalism into subversion of the media.'' The award was made by Sir James Goldsmith, a British financier and publisher who has an international food manufacturing and retailing group. Mr. Anastasiades, who writes under the name Paul Anastasi, is an Athens-based journalist and part-time correspondent for The New York Times and The Daily Telegraph of London. He was given the award for ''outstanding courage in exposing Soviet subversion in the Greek press.'' Mr. Barron was cited for ''admirable and pioneering exposure of Soviet subversion of the international media in two major works.'' Mr. Barron wrote ''K.G.B.: The Secret Work of Soviet Secret Agents'' in 1974 and ''K.G.B. Today: The Hidden Hand'' in 1983."

March 9, 2005, Washington Post, 'John Barron Dies; Espionage Reporter': "John Barron, 75, an investigative reporter whose meticulously researched articles and best-selling books helped unravel the mysteries of Soviet espionage and the Khmer Rouge's mass killings in Cambodia, died Feb. 24 at Virginia Hospital Center of pulmonary failure. He was a resident of Annandale. Trained as a reporter, Mr. Barron began his career as a spy in Cold War Berlin, working as a clandestine naval intelligence officer in the mid-1950s. In 1957, he moved to the Washington Star and quickly became the paper's top investigative reporter, honored, among other things, for revealing the financial and ethical scandals surrounding Bobby Baker, a close adviser of the vice president (and later president), Lyndon B. Johnson. After moving to the Washington bureau of Reader's Digest in 1965, Mr. Barron used the ample resources of the magazine to renew his earlier interest in espionage. Fluent in Russian and with contacts in international spy agencies, he published six books from 1974 to 1996, most of them about the Cold War spy craft between the Soviet Union and the United States. He became an acknowledged authority on the subject. He was sued, and Soviet agents carried out measures around the world to discredit Mr. Barron and his anti-communist message, but he never had to retract a single fact in his writings. At times, Mr. Barron's adventures as a reporter rivaled those of the spies he wrote about. He often made multiple reservations to travel surreptitiously. In the 1970s, he was among the first Western journalists to cover the mass murders carried out by the regime of Pol Pot in Cambodia, detailing his findings in a 1977 book written with Anthony Paul, "Murder in a Gentle Land." More than once, former Soviet spies walked into the Reader's Digest offices in downtown Washington to tell Mr. Barron their stories. He followed other leads across Europe and to Afghanistan, South Africa, Asia and Canada, and sometimes entertained KGB defectors in his home. Mr. Barron wrote more than 100 articles for Reader's Digest, including an investigation of the Internal Revenue Service and a detailed examination of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's 1969 car accident at Chappaquiddick that disputed Kennedy's account. That story, published in February 1980, hastened the end of Kennedy's campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. Mr. Barron was best known, however, for peeling away the layers of intrigue surrounding the KGB and international intelligence. A Christian Science Monitor review of his 1983 book, "KGB Today: The Hidden Hand," said it "probes deeper into the secret Soviet agency than any other book yet written." His final book, "Operation Solo: The FBI's Man in the Kremlin" (1996), detailed the story of Morris Childs, an American Communist Party member who spent 35 years spying for the FBI at the highest levels of Soviet leadership. Mr. Barron got his scoop about Childs and his wife, who assisted him, in the simplest way imaginable. "One day," said Mr. Barron's wife, Patricia, "they just turned up in the Reader's Digest office." As an expert on the practices of the KGB, Mr. Barron testified in 10 trials about espionage, but never with such dramatic effectiveness as at the 1987 court-martial of Marine Sgt. Clayton Lonetree. Lonetree, a guard at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow -- who had read all of Mr. Barron's books -- fell into the clutches of a sultry Soviet spy named Violetta. Mr. Barron testified that the case was a classic example of the KGB's use of seduction to recruit spies. "As Barron told of KGB use of sexual entrapment," The Washington Post reported, "Lonetree was seen to wipe his eyes. Defense counsel William M. Kunstler said later that Lonetree had wept and whispered, 'I thought she loved me.' " John Daniel Barron was born in Wichita Falls, Tex., and as the son of a Methodist minister moved from town to town throughout West Texas. He graduated from the University of Missouri and received a master's degree in journalism from Missouri in 1952. He was in Navy intelligence from 1953 to 1957. At the Star from 1957 to 1965, he covered civil rights in the South and, in 1964, received the George Polk Award for exposing the ring of corruption around Baker. He was co-recipient of the 1985 Sir James Goldsmith Award for international journalism and, in 1987, received an Attorney General's Award for Meritorious Public Service. He retired from Reader's Digest in 1991."

Source(s): publications.parliament.uk: "1-2 December 2007, to Madrid, for speaking engagement at a meeting of Le Cercle. Travel and one night's hotel accommodation for me and a member of my staff provided by the organisers. (Registered 12 June 2008)"

Formerly: engrg apprentice (metallurgy), AEI, Manchester; exptl officer, Manchester Univ.; Labour Party res. asst, 1970–74; political adviser, Minister for Overseas Develt, 1974; Principal Researcher, Granada TV, 1979–83. Contested (Lab) Lincoln, Feb. 1974; MP (Lab) Lincoln, Oct. 1974–1979; PPS to Minister for Overseas Develt, 1974–75; Asst Govt Whip, 1975–76; Parly Under-Sec. of State, DES, 1976–79; Opposition front bench spokesman on health and social security, 1984–89; Mem., Shadow Cabinet, 1989–97; Shadow Chief Sec. to the Treasury, 1989–92; Shadow Leader, H of C, 1992–94; Campaigns Co-ordinator and Dep. Leader, Lab Party, 1992–94; Actg Leader, Lab Party, May–July 1994; opposition front bench spokesman on health, 1994–95, on trade and industry, 1995–97; Pres., BoT, and Sec. of State for Trade and Industry, 1997–98; Pres. of the Council and Leader, H of C, 1998–2001; Secretary of State: for Envmt, Food and Rural Affairs, 2001–06; for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, 2006–07; Minister of State (Minister for Housing and Planning), DCLG, 2008–09. Chm., Intelligence and Security Cttee, Jan.-Oct. 2008. Mem. NEC, Labour Party, 1980–81, 1985–86, 1988–97. PC 1993; MP (Lab) Derby South, since 1983. Member of the Top Level Group of UK Parliamentarians for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non-proliferation (TLG), together with Lord Carrington (Pilgrims president), 13th Marquess of Lothian (Cercle), Lord Guthrie (Pilgrims), Lord Howe (Pilgrims exec.), and Sir Malcolm Rifkind (Pilgrims).

Source(s): 1993, Alan Clark, 'Diaries', p. 369-374

Who's Who: Air Adviser to King Hussein, 1958–62; RAF Staff College, 1963; Jt Services Staff Coll., 1968; RAF Coll. of Air Warfare, 1971. Order of Istiqlal (Jordan), 1960; Order of Oman, 1980; Order of Merit (Oman), 1989; Order of Sultan Qaboos (Oman), 1985; Medal of Honour (Oman), 1989. retired from RAF, 1991; Commander, Sultan of Oman’s Air Force (in the rank of Air Marshal), 1974–90; s of Robert Francis and Anne Myra Bennett.

Born in 1928. Briefly served as an adviser to King Hussein of Jordan before moving to Oman in the early 1970s. In Oman he became an officer successfully helping Sultan Qaboos overthrow his father and fight Marxist rebels in Dhofar. Became a commander (Air Marshal) of Oman's Air Force in 1974, and still was in 1990 when Le Cercle held a meeting in Muscat in 1990. Alan Clark about the 1990 Le Cercle meeting: "I had a good meeting with Erik Bennett. He is a courtier of the very highest class. What are the characteristics? The voice, the intonation, the clarity of diction. The superficial speaking well of all and everyone. The way all communication occurs by the lightest of implied comment. Smooth, unwrinkled skin, and limitless endurance through ceremonial tedium. Also, in Erik's case, intelligence and wit. He has set up a draft letter 'from' HM inquiring about surplus military equipment sales after (EB said) 'rapprochement with Iraq'. I substituted 'a clearer determination of unpredictability in the region', which he admitted was preferable." When the Sultan's car was rammed from behind by a speeding car in Salalah, where he likes to spend the summer, on September 11, 1995, Bennett was sitting right next to him, and was seriously injured. Qaboos' deputy premier for economics and finance Qais Al Zawawi was killed in the crash. September 17, 1995, Sunday Times, 'Oman draws a veil over mystery car crash Briton; Air Marshal Sir Erik Bennett': "IT WAS a curious kind of crash. When Sultan Qaboos Bin Said of Oman stopped his four-wheel-drive vehicle in the middle of a wide, flat and empty highway last week to listen to the complaint of a shepherd, a speeding car appeared from nowhere and smashed into him and his passengers. Even more curious was the fact that although the most important person in the Sultan's life a powerful, reclusive Briton was badly hurt, nobody dared mention it publicly. However, Air Marshal Sir Erik Bennett, 67, is one of Oman's (and Britain's) best-kept secrets: the key figure in a group of elderly former military and intelligence officers who help the Sultan to run his rich, strategically vital country at the mouth of the Gulf... No doubt it would have all been an overnight wonder except for the unmentionable figure who had been sitting next to the Omani ruler. The dapper, ginger-haired Bennett is now said to be recovering in an Omani hospital. But the refusal to acknowledge his presence only reinforces the fact that Oman is where the last remains of the British empire have still not been laid to rest much to the Sultan's (and London's) delight. Even King Hussein of Jordan had to get rid of his beloved Glubb Pasha, the British commander of his troops, long ago. But the sultan of Oman is a more absolute ruler and a more determined Anglophile. Sent to England at 18, he was tutored privately for two years while living with an English family and was then trained at Sandhurst. He served for a year in the Cameronians before returning home in 1964. His father, Sultan Said, a man of medieval habits, responded to his raging Anglophilia by putting him under virtual house arrest in the family palace in Salalah, allowing him only a Koran to read. His mother smuggled in The Times every day, however, and eventually a few friends were allowed up to play bridge. Prominent among them was Timothy Landon, a classmate at Sandhurst, who was serving as an SAS officer fighting Marxist rebels attacking Oman from Yemen. Both Qaboos and Landon knew that the British were unhappy at the sultan's failure to fight the rebels adequately and at the medieval situation of Oman. With a population of 1m, it had only 10 miles of paved roads, 500 telephones and three schools. The gates of the walled city of Muscat were closed at night and strollers had to carry lanterns. Radios and just about anything else modern were illegal. The wearing of spectacles could lead to jail. In 1970 the British encouraged a palace revolt by Qaboos which ended when his father pulled a pistol to defend himself and shot himself in the foot. He was bundled on to an RAF jet waiting on the British base behind the palace. The old man lived out the remainder of his years in the Dorchester hotel on Park Lane while British soldiers and airmen fought the rebels for five more years. Among them was Bennett, shy of publicity and happiest mingling with other figures from the world of cloak-and-dagger wars and secret intelligence. A short, shadowy figure with an Anglo-Irish background he had been educated at King's Hospital, a Protestant school in Dublin Bennett had transferred to Oman from Jordan after doing a stint as Hussein's air adviser. While Bennett took command of the Omani airforce, Qaboos took the throne and hankered after London. He spent Pounds 100,000 on a bronze-and-gold-leaf clock that played the Westminster chimes, flew out a British circus on his birthday, and commissioned the entire London Symphony Orchestra to fly to Salalah to celebrate his accession. Because of the sensitivities of Arab nationalism, the sultan in recent years has had to be more clandestine about his Anglophilia. He instituted a programme of ``Omanisation'', and British officials now work behind the scenes. But a British major-general, Jeremy Phipps, and 65 army officers are still on ``loan service'' to the sultan. They eat curries, wear cummerbunds at formal dinners, and go ``wadi-bashing'' for fun. Another powerful figure is Tony Ashworth, a civilian with Whitehall connections whose influence is crucial in the tight limits that are kept on the number of visitors to the sultanate. Bennett is now officially retired, but he still gives his address as his palace in northern Oman and remains the sultan's ``special adviser''. Many in Oman say the two men, both unmarried and without children, are the closest of friends. Once in a while Bennett still performs mysterious missions. A few years ago, when British special operations officers who had fought a secret war in Albania returned for the first time since the war, Bennett went along as a friend although he had never visited the country. Landon, the SAS officer and former bridge partner, also keeps up his connection. He is listed as a ``counsellor'' at the Omani embassy in London. The connection between these men and the sultan is more than just Anglophilia and friendship. Oman has 1,000 miles of coast on the Indian Ocean and controls the strait of Hormuz through which pass the tankers of the Gulf oil states. With its output of 800,000 barrels of oil a day, it is also rich and likes to buy British. As Mark Thatcher found, when the sultan wanted a university he picked the British firm Cementation to build it."

Source(s): 1985 Cercle particpants list, Washington D.C.; Adrian Hanni (visited another meeting in 1985 and also in 1986 and 1987)

Staff director Senate Foreign Relations Committee (invited in this function).

Founder, president Bergner, Bockorny, Castagnetti, Hawkins & Brain, Inc., 1986; staff director foreign relations committee U.S. Senate; senior transatlantic fellow German Marshall Fund; assistant secretary for legis. affairs US Department State, Washington, 2005—2008; president, managing fin. partner Bergner Bockorny, Inc., 2008— Career Related Visiting professor Joseph W. Luter College Business & Leadership, Christopher Newport University, 2009—; trustee Asia Foundation; board directors Business Executives for National Security, Hudson Institute Creative Works Author: The Origin of Formalism in Social Science, 1981, The New Superpowers: Germany, Japan and the United States in the New World Order, 1991; co-editor (with William Bader): The Taiwan Relations Act: A Decade of Implementation, 1989

Source(s): Adrian Hanni (visited the Cercle once in 1987)

Trustee of the Library of Congress in the 1990s. American businessman and lobbyist who is a chairman of Ogilvy Government Relations, a division of Ogilvy & Mather (represents Blackstone and Carlyle). Berman is considered a key figure in Republican political advocacy who served as a senior advisor on the 2000 and 2004 Bush-Cheney campaigns. Berman is married to Lea Berman, who served as the Social Secretary and Special Assistant to the President under George W. Bush and prior to that, served as chief-of-staff for Dick Cheney's wife, Lynne Cheney. Berman was a close friend of Senator John McCain and a supporter of his during his 2008 presidential campaign. In October 2008, Berman made an anonymous comment to the press calling Sarah Palin, McCain's vice presidential nominee, a "diva". The quote received considerable media attention and infuriated Palin and others within the campaign. Considered an "überlobbyist", Berman supports Mitt Romney, who is widely considered to be the front-runner for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

Source(s): February 21, 2012, Cercle chairman Lord Lothian's invitational letter to speak at Le Cercle to Saudi Arabia's deputy minister of foreign affairs Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz (released by Wikileaks around 2015; David Teacher made ISGP aware of the letter; this person is listed as a past speaker to Le Cercle).

Studied at Harvard University and the University of Oxford, where she was President of the Oxford Union. Returned to Pakistan, where her father was ousted in a 1977 military coup and executed. Leader of the Pakistani Peoples Party 1982-2007. Prime minister of Pakistan 1993-1996. Assassinated in 2007 through a combination of a shooting and roadside bomb.

Apart from a Jihadist group, president Pervez Musharraf and the Pakistani ISI are suspected of having had a hand in the killing of Bhutto. On 3 May 2013, Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali, the special prosecutor in charge of the investigation of Bhutto's murder was killed in Islamabad when attackers on a motorcycle sprayed his car with bullets as he drove to the courthouse

Source(s): Cercle meeting lists: 1982 Wildbad Kreuth; 1983 Bonn

1918-1988. Council member Paneuropa Union since at least 1965. Joined the Monday Club in 1962. Brought MI6 deputy director George Kennedy Young to the Monday Club in 1967. President Monday Club 1974-76. National executive council National Association For Freedom. Director Foreign Affairs Research Institute (FARI). Life member AESP. National executive council Society for Individual Freedom (with Sir Frederic Bennett and under the leadership of George Kennedy Young).

2011, David Teacher, Rogue Agents: Habsburg, Pinay and the Private Cold War 1951 - 1991, 3rd edition: "One of the earliest members of the Monday Club, joining in 1962, was Sir John Biggs-Davison, a Conservative MP from 1955 until his death in 1988. From at least 1965 on, Biggs-Davison served on the PEU [Paneuropa Union] Central Council with Vice-President Otto von Habsburg and … Florimond Damman. A stalwart of the Monday Club, Biggs-Davison would serve as its President from 1974 to 1976. … Young was brought into the Monday Club by Biggs-Davison in 1967, and was largely responsible for the Monday Club’s rapid lurch to the extreme Right… The political support FARI enjoyed is illustrated by the Council membership of four top Conservatives whom we have met before – Thatcher’s leadership campaign manager and Shadow Minister for Northern Ireland Airey Neave and his deputy John Biggs-Davison of SIF [Society for Individual Freedom] and NAFF who at this time was Chairman of the Monday Club. Also on the FARI Council were Julian Amery, Lord Chalfont and Colonel Ronald Wareing, a former MI6 agent in Portugal and an associate of G. K. Young’s within Unison. … Both Agnew and Rodgers would join Biggs-Davison as AESP Life Members by 1977. … The RFST [Research Foundation for the Study of Terrorism], which operated from the address of Aims for Industry, included on its board many figures from SIF, NAFF, FARI, the ISC and the Cercle complex: Michael Ivens: Director of Aims…. Norris McWhirter…. Ian Greig…. John Biggs-Davison …. Nicholas Elliott. In 1989, the RFST merged with the rump of the post-Crozier ISC under the title of the Research Institute for the Study of Conflict and terrorism (RISCT)."

2010, David Miller, 'Producing and communicating terror expertise' (academia.edu): "In late 1986 he founded the Research Foundation for the Study of Terrorism, a corporate funded 'charity' that shared an office and phone number with the right-wing propaganda group Aims of Industry (Leonard 1988, Miller and Dinan 2008 pp. 59-62). The Foundation’s co-founder was Michael Ivens, the Director of Aims of Industry, who was best known for his anti-trades union activities. Seeking funding Wilkinson wrote to major corporations to ask for donations of up to £10,000 (Leonard 1988). ... In December that year he became a director of the Research Institute for the Study of Conflict and Terrorism (Debrett’s, 2007), a new think-tank that was formed by amalgamating the Research Foundation for the Study of Terrorism with the Institute for the Study of Conflict (ISC) (Greaves, 1989). The Institute for the Study of Conflict was set up by the anti-communist campaigner Brian Crozier in 1970, backed by US and British intelligence, with funding from BP and Shell (The Times, 1970). It was known particularly for its campaign against allegedly leftwing academics. This was described by one of its targets the sociologist Robert Young as ‘the closest British academic life got to a McCarthy-ite witch-hunt of radicals’ (Young 2005)."

September 1986, no. 12, Lobster magazine: "John Biggs-Davison, Julian Amery and Patrick Wall - all of them Monday Club members in the sixties and supporters/members of the Anglo-Rhodesian Society. Other Anglo-Rhodesian Society members were Monday Clubbers Ronald Bell, Stephen Hastings and Harold Soref, who were on its Council."

September 1986, no. 12, Lobster magazine: "Western Goals (UK): Who's Who: Thomas J. Bergen -- Vice President (listed once, in October 1989). US citizen, Senator Joe McCarthy Foundation, A.B.N.; article in European Dawn. Sir John Biggs-Davison -- Now deceased. Early Western Goals (UK) leaflets claimed his support, though he never became a patron/vice president. His early support, and that of Peter Dally's points to continuity between Western Goals (UK) and the British Anti Communist Council (BACC) (and thus to WACL). ... Roberto D'Aubisson -- Ex military commander in El Salvador, a senior position in the Arena Party. According to A. V. R. Smith (interview with author) Western Goals (UK) had been corresponding with him for some time before his 1989 trip to Britain. During this visit Western Goals (UK) hosted a dinner in his honour, and D'Aubuisson agreed to join its list of patrons. ... General Sir Walter Walker - Patron of Western Goals (UK), speaker at meetings. A recurring figure on the ultra right, member of Unison and Civil Assistance in 1973-5, founder member of New Britain Party, more recently active in British Israelites."

MP (C) Epping Forest, since 1974 (Chigwell, 1955–74 (as Ind C, 1957–58)).

Royal Marines, 1939, Lieut 1940; served in RM Brigade and RM Division. Indian Civil Service: Asst Comr, 1942; Forward Liaison Officer, Cox’s Bazar, 1943–44; Sub-Divisional Officer, Pindi Gheb, 1946; Political Asst and Comdt, Border Military Police, subsequently Dep. Comr, Dera Ghazi Khan, during and after transfer of Power to Dominion of Pakistan, 1947; retired from Pakistan Administrative Service, 1948. Conservative Research Dept, 1950–55; Sec., Brit. Conservative Delegn to Council of Europe, 1952, 1953. Contested (C) Coventry South, 1951. Co-founder Pakistan Soc., 1951. Indep. Observer of Malta Referendum, 1956. Mem. Parly Delegations: West Africa, 1956; Guernsey, 1961; Austria, 1964; France, 1965; Canada (Inter-Parly Union Conf.), 1965; Malawi, 1968; Tunisia, Gibraltar, 1969; Portugal, 1973; Cyprus, 1979; Canada, 1984. Vice-Pres., Franco-British Parly Relations Cttee; Chairman: British-Pakistan Parly Gp; Cons. Parly NI Cttee; Vice-Chm., Cons. Parly Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Cttee. An Opposition Front Bench spokesman on NI, 1976–78. Mem., Parly Assembly, Council of Europe and WEU, 1984–86. Mem. Exec., Cons. and Unionist Members (1922) Cttee. Governor, Clifton Coll., 1972. Hilal-I-Quaid-I-Azam award, Govt of Pakistan, 1988 (posthumous). George Wyndham, 1951; Tory Lives, 1952; The Uncertain Ally, 1957; The Walls of Europe, 1962; Portuguese Guinea: Nailing a Lie, 1970; Africa: Hope Deferred, 1972; The Hand is Red, 1974; Rock Firm for the Union, 1979; The Cross of St Patrick, 1985; contribs to many periodicals. Special Forces, Oxford Union Society.

September 19 1988, The Independent, 'Obituary: Sir John Biggs-Davison': "John Alec Biggs-Davison, politician, born 7 June 1918, MP Chigwell 1955-74, Epping Forest 1974-88, Kt 1981, married 1948 Pamela Hodder-Williams (two sons, four daughters), died 17 September 1988. SIR JOHN Biggs-Davison was one of the Conservative Party's gentle rebels. A shy, devout and engaging man, he was chiefly known in recent years for his profound Unionist hostility to the Anglo-Irish agreement. He was, of course, unusual in being a Roman Catholic Unionist, but he rejected utterly the suggestion that this position was a quirky or anomalous. He seized on opinion polls and speeches in an attempt to demonstrate to Westminster colleagues that most Catholics in the North rejected Irish unification. It was never a popular argument, but he was a persistent and persuasive man. What brought him into conflict with the Conservative leadership was that he extended this Unionist perspective, following the dissolution of the Stormont government, into a firm conviction that Northern Ireland needed to be integrated politically in the Westminster system. Writing last year in The Independent, he said: 'The lesson of Stormont is that the minority is safer under Westminster. There is Unionist-Nationalist dialogue there.' Unsurprisingly, then, Sir John was one of the 21 MPs who voted against the Anglo-Irish agreement, which he saw as unfairly biased against the Union. The influential chairman of the Tory backbench Northern Ireland committee, he became a trustee of Friends of the Union and one of the most regular contributors to Northern Ireland debates in the Commons. During the subsequent boycott of Westminster business by Ulster Unionist MPs - a tactic Sir John personally abhorred - he was one of a small band of Tory and Labour MPs who made sure Northern Ireland Ministers continued to be scrutinised and examined at question time. Sir John was an unlikely rebel, being personally diffident, undogmatic and humorous. Colleagues say he sought neither praise nor office and was one of the few MPs with no enemies on the Government benches and, probably, none on the Opposition benches either. But a rebel he was, nevertheless. An Opposition front-bench spokesman on Northern Ireland from 1976 to 1978, he resigned over sanctions against Rhodesia. Unusually for her, Mrs Thatcher had been convinced by the Tory whips that the interests of Conservative unity required the party to abstain over, rather than oppose, the annual renewal of sanctions. Sir John, Ian Gow and Winston Churchill were among the Tory MPs who decided not to abstain: Sir John resigned his front bench post and never regained it. More recently, he demonstrated his sturdy independence of mind and sense of fairness by campaigning on behalf of the Irishmen convicted - he believed wrongly - for the Guildford pub bombings. Born the son of an Army major, he had been educated at Clifton College and Oxford, where, like many others during the late 1930s, he embraced the Left. He served in the Second World War in the Royal Marines and then in the Indian Civil Service. Unusually, he stayed on in the Pakistan Administrative Service after the handover of power, retiring in 1948. Once back in Britain, he entered politics via the Conservative Research Department, contesting Coventry South in 1951 before being elected as MP for Chigwell in 1955. A right-wing, traditionalist and Royalist who was always interested in foreign affairs, he travelled the world on Parliamentary delegations, speaking in Commons debates on Africa, Asia and European affairs. It was not surprising that the pneumonia which preceded his death in Taunton had been contracted following a fact-finding visit to Angola in August, when he camped in the bush. Central to understanding Sir John Biggs-Davison was the depth of his commitment to his Roman Catholic faith. Infuriated at times by the left-wing views of some priests, he was always a deeply involved, thoughtful and obedient member of the Catholic laity. He was one of the grand old backbenchers of the Tory right, without the crustiness or pomposity customarily supposed to attend the role. Perhaps this was the reward for a 33-year stint as an MP normally working against the grain of modern Toryism."

Source(s): publications.parliament.uk: "7-11 December 2006, to Delhi, to attend conference of Le Cercle on India, with flight and accommodation expenses contributed to by the conference organisers and the Conservative Parliamentary Friends of India. (Registered 19 December 2006) ... 29 November-2 December 2007, to Madrid to attend conference of Le Cercle, a foreign policy think-tank, with flight and accommodation expenses paid by the conference organisers. (Registered 16 December 2007)."

Born in 1960. Sandhurst. MBA. Commnd, 13th/18th Royal Hussars (QMO), 1980; Troop Leader: UK and Cyprus, 1980–81; BAOR, 1984–85; Regtl Signals Officer/Ops Officer, BAOR/UK, 1985–87; Sqn Leader, 2IC UK, 1987–89; resigned commn, 1990; Rep., Forum of Private Business, 1991–92; Consultant, Politics Internat., 1993; Special Advr to Sec. of State for Defence, 1993–95, to Foreign Sec., 1995–97. MP since 1997. Opposition spokesman on NI, 2001–02, on trade, energy and science, 2002–03; on security and counter terrorism, 2009–; Opposition Whip, 2004–09. Member: Select Cttee on Defence, 1997–2000, 2003–04; Select Cttee on Envmt, Transport and the Regions, 2000–01. Sec., Cons. Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Cttee, 1997–2001; Chm., Conservative Middle East Council, 2004–08. Co-Chm., Council for Advancement of Arab-British Understanding, 2004–09

Source(s): February 21, 2012, Cercle chairman Lord Lothian's invitational letter to speak at Le Cercle to Saudi Arabia's deputy minister of foreign affairs Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz (released by Wikileaks around 2015; David Teacher made ISGP aware of the letter; this person is listed as a past speaker to Le Cercle).

Bio not available at this point.

Source(s): 1982 Wildbad Kreuth participants list; 2014, Johannes Grossmann, p. 494 ("Einige dieser neu gewonnen Kontakte [1970s], so der ehemalige franzosische Ministerprasident Pierre Messmer under der belgische Unternehmer Benoit de Bonvoisin, wurden immer zu Sitzungen des Cercle eingeladen. Regelmassige Teilnehmer wurden ausserdem mit Flaminio Piccoli zwei fuhrende italienische Christdemokraten...")

PSC. CEPIC. PIO. Controversial figure in Belgium. See Beyond the Dutroux Affair's accused list, as de Bonvoisin has been accused of child abuse.

Boss of Bougerol. Bougerol had received counter-insurgency training from the CIA, according to Ray Cline.

Source(s): Adrian Hanni (went to a Cercle meeting in 1987)

DECEMBER 15, 1984, Central News Agency - Taiwan, 'W. EUROPE SAID TOO SATED TO COMPETE WITH PACIFIC COUNTRIES': "A EUROPEAN EXECUTIVE WITH LONG YEARS OF ASIAN EXPERIENCE CHARGED THAT WEST EUROPE IS TOO SATED AND SELF-SATISFIED TO COMPETE OR TO COOPERATE WITH COUNTRIES IN THE PACIFIC. CORNELIS BOSSERS, NOW BOARD CHAIRMAN OF THE BIG GERMAN SUBSIDIARY OF THE DUTCH MULTINATIONAL GIANT, PHILIPS, HAD 35 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE WORKING IN ASIA, HIS LAST POST BEING THE HEAD OF PHILIPS' ASIAN OPERATIONS. HE WROTE AN ARTICLE FOR THE LATEST (DEC.14) ISSUE OF THE WEST GERMAN WEEKLY, WIRTSCHAFTS WOCHE (MEANING ECONOMIC WEEK), ON ASIA AND THE PACIFIC. TRYING HARD NOT TO MENTION INDIVIDUAL COUNTRIES IN THE REGION, BOSSERS TALKED OF THE DEVELOPING AND NEWLY DEVELOPED (THRESHOLD) COUNTRIES AS A WHOLE AND SAID THEIR ECONOMIC GROWTH MOSTLY IS MANY TIMES HIGHER THAN THAT OF THE THREE INDUSTRIALIZED COUNTRIES IN THE REGION, NAMELY, THE UNITED STATES, JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA. ADOPTING THE FREE MARKET ECONOMIC SYSTEM OF THE UNITED STATES, THESE COUNTRIES INTELLIGENTLY AND DILIGENTLY PRODUCE FINISHED GOODS FOR DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN CONSUMPTION. THEY ARE PROUD OF THEIR NATIONAL TRADITIONS AND THEIR SELF-RELIANCE AND ACCOMPLISHMENT. JAPAN AND AMERICA, BEING BIG POWERS IN THE PACIFIC BASIN, ARE SHOWING GREAT INTEREST AND DOING A LOT TO BUILD UP THEIR POSITION IN THE REGION. BUT "IN MY 35 YERARS WORKING IN THE PACIFIC BASIN I HAVE UNFORTUNATELY NOTICED ONLY VERY LIMITED EUROPEAN INFLUENCE. EUROPE HAS BECOME A BIT TOO SATED AND SELF-SATISFIED" IN THIS RACE TO THE PACIFIC WHICH IS BECOMING THE CENTER OF WORLD PROGRESS IN THE COMING CENTURY, SAID BOSSERS. THERE MAY BE A MULTITUDE OF REASONS ACCOUNTING FOR THE WEAK AND TIMID EUROPEAN ATTITUDE TOWARD EAST ASIA AND THE WESTERN PART OF THE PACIFIC REGION, BOSSERS SAID, CITING SUCH THINGS AS THE ATTEMPT TO INTEGRATE THE EUROPEAN COMMON MARKET ITSELF, THE RISING UNEMPLOYMENT AND THE THREAT FROM EASTERN EUROPE, ETC. IF EUROPE LACKS THE DYNAMISM IN DEALING WITH ASIA, ALL THE INTELLECTUAL ANALYSES OF A NEED TO GO AND COOPERATE WITH ASIA ARE IN VAIN, HE SAID. BUT BOSSERS PRESENTED HIS PROPOSALS ANYWAY: INTENSIVE CAPITAL INVESTMENT IN THE PACIFIC REGION, AN AGGRESSIVE EXPORT POLICY, INTENSIVE TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER TO THE REGION, AND ABOVE ALL, MODERNIZING AND RESTRUCTURING EUROPE'S OWN INDUSTRIES. ON THE POINT OF INTRA-REGIONAL DIFFERENCES IN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AMONG THE EAST ASIAN COUNTRIES, BOSSERS ALSO SEE PROSPECTS OF ASIAN INTEGRATION, AS SHOWN IN THE ASEAN (ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS) MOVEMENT."

Source(s): October 1989 – Issue 18, Lobster Magazine, 'The Pinay Circle and Destabilisation in Europe'

Swiss Military Intelligence Chief of Provisions. Attended the June 28-29, 1980 Zurich meeting of the Pinay Circle.

Source(s): 1985 Washington D.C. list; 1985 Cercle meeting in Bonn (name appears on a handwritten list of names of Garnier-Lancon, probably persons who were eligible for an invitation); Adrian Hanni (also went to a 1986 meeting, two in 1987 and another in 1989)

Involved with CNIP, Républicains Indépendants and Rassemblement pour la République. The Centre National des Indépendants et Paysans (CNIP) used to be under the leadership of Antoine Pinay. The party lost its peak influence after the French defeat in Vietnam in 1954. The second largest party of France behind De Gaulle from the late 1950s until 1962. Jean-Marie Le Pen was among the parliamentary representatives. Pro-European integration. Not the entire party is extreme right, but a portion of the CNIP members have always been extreme right and have maintained its ties with Front National of Le Pen. 2007, Mathias Bernard, 'La Guerre des Droites', p. 164: "By spring 1964, [Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour] announced his candidacy for the election scheduled for late 1965 and brings together his most important supporters, mainly recruited from the right wing of the CNIP: Jean Dides, Lacoste- Lareymondie, Le Pen, Thomazo, Fraissinet and Raymond Bourgine, a press baron who since the late 1940s involved himself with the right and the extreme right." Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour had worked for the Vichy government during WWII and was the attorney for members of the OAS, after they had tried to assassinate De Gaulle. Supporter of Georges Pompidou. Met Chirac through Pompidou and has been a supporter of Chirac ever since. In 1957 founder of Compagnie Française de Journaux (French Newspaper Company), which controlled Valeurs Actuelles and Le Spectacle du Monde. Tixier-Vignancour Committee. 1991, Jean-Pierre Rioux, Jean-François Sirinelli, 'La Guerre d'Algérie et les Intellectuels Français', p. 150: "Valeurs Actuelles uses, in 1987, the reference Le Pen to remind the Chirac government its commitments made to the right: Jacques Chirac, Raymond Bourgine contends, can only prevail during the presidential elections of 1988 if he secures the votes of the "national right". To Jean-Marie Le Pen, Bourgine is credited with having made public the issues of immigration and security." Senator 1977-90. In 1984 a co-founder of Solidarite Liberte with Cercle participants Charles Pasqua and Alain Griotteray, as well as a number of others.

Source(s): 2014, Johannes Grossmann, p. 473 (1970s visitor)

Founder of La Derniere Heure in 1906 with Fernand Oedenkoven. Also involved with La Libre Belgique. Affiliated with Europe Magazine and the National Front (May 2, 1990, Le Soir, 'Le baron noir plus d'un tour dans son sac de noeuds le baron dans un sac de noeuds').

Wikileaks unclassified State Department cable of November 23, 1977: "The interview requested by referenced telegram and filmed on November 10 between assistant for national security Brzezinski and Belgian newspaper publisher Maurice Brebart was shown November 18 on prime time -- right after the main evening news program -- on French language Belgian TV. Program included other interviews with prominent leaders such as former secretary Kissinger, banker David Rockefeller, former French finance minister Antoine Pinay, Belgian foreign minister Henri Simonet, defense minister Paul vanden Boeynants and German former defense minister Franz Josef Strauss. [Interview excerpts:] Q [Brebart].. "In some West European circles, the opinion still prevails that the U.S. is not in favor of a European integration project. Particularly in parties of the left the impression still exists that the U.S. wants to prevent European unity. What do you think about that?" A.. [Brzezinski:] "Let me say as a fundamental proposition that the U.S. has been, is, and will remain very much committed to the notion that a more united Europe is a desirable objective, one which the U.S. shares with those Europeans who have been so devoted to it over the years. We, as we look at the world, that it will be a more stable world if, in addition to the U.S., there is a Europe which is politically as well as economically more united and therefore able to play a more active role in creating a just, a more open, and more particapatory international system.""

Source(s): 2014, Johannes Grossmann, p. 552 (visited in the early 1990s)

State Department protege of Henry Kissinger. At one point helped George Shultz get settled as secretary of state. Also served as an assistant to Alexander Haig. Managing director of Kissinger Associates from 1989 to October 2001. Invited to Le Cercle in the early 1990s. Chair National Commission on Terrorism in 1999, with Fred Ikle and former CIA director James Woolsey serving on the board.

Joined Marsh and McLennan in November 2000 as a security and terrorism consultant. Marsh was headed at the time by Jeffrey Greenberg, a son of Maurice Greenberg, a life-long top-level CIA asset who ran AIG together with Henry Kissinger since the late 1980s. Bremer drew some attention for appearing on television hours after the 9/11 attack, explaining that "bin Laden was involved in the first attack on the World Trade Center. ... and there are at least two states, Iran and Iraq, who at least remain on the potential list of suspects." He additionally drew some attention for having been on the advisory board of Komatsu, a Trilateral Commission firm mentioned in Part 1 for having patented a quiet thermite device. It's not really possible, however, to argue that this device was used on 9/11 or has ever even been built. Co-chairman of the Heritage Foundation's Homeland Security Task Force soon after 9/11. Head of the provisional government in Iraq 2003-2004.

At RAND's Center for Middle East Public Policy, ran by the CIA's Frank Carlucci. Board member International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), the Netherlands-America Foundation, the International Republican Institute (IRI), and the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

Also on the board of Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., Akzo Nobel NV, Vivid Technologies, Conner Peripherals, the Harvard Business School Club of New York, and the Economic Club of New York. On the international advisory board of Chugai Pharmaceuticals.

Source(s): 1985 Cercle meeting in Washington D.C. participant list

Malvern; RMA Sandhurst; Cranfield Inst. of Technology (MSc); Harvard Business Sch. (MBA). Served Grenadier Guards, British Guiana (Battalion Pilot), Cyprus, BAOR, 1959–67; Captain 1963; TA, Grenadier Guards (Volunteers), 1981–91, Major 1985. Associate, Morgan Stanley & Co., New York, 1969–72; Pember & Boyle, 1972–74; Dir, ME Ops, Eur. Banking Co., 1974–78; Man. Dir, Falcon Finance Mgt Ltd, 1978–95; Vice Pres., Investments, Salomon Smith Barney, subseq. Smith Barney Inc., 1995–2004. Editor, Financial Intelligence Report, Newsmax Media Inc., 2006–08. Director: Worms Investments, 1981–83; Scansat (Broadcasting) Ltd, 1988–93; Internat. Bd, World Times (Boston), 1988–2001; Tijari Finance Ltd, 1989–92; Adviser: Barclays Bank Ltd, 1978–84; Trustees Household Div., 1979–83. Director: Churchill Private Clinic, 1980–91; Drug Free America, 1998–2003; Greater Palm Beach Symphony, 1998–2003; World Affairs Council, Palm Beaches, 2003–09. Councillor (C), Westminster Council, 1974–78. MP (C) Winchester, 1979–92; introduced: Trades Description Act (Amendment) Bill, 1988; Protection of Animals (Amendment) Act, 1988; Protection of Privacy Bill, 1989; Armed Forces (Liability for Injury) Bill, 1991. Member: H of C Treasury Select Cttee, 1982–87; Social Services Select Cttee, 1991–92; Secretary: Conservative Finance Cttee, 1982–84; Conservative Defence Cttee, 1982–83; Chairman: Conservative Smaller Business Cttee, 1987–90 (Sec., 1984–87); Lords and Commons Anglo-Swiss Soc., 1979–92 (Treas., 1984–87; Sec., 1987–92); UK deleg. to N Atlantic Assembly, 1986–92 (rapporteur on human rights, 1989–92). Contested: (Ind C) Winchester, 1992; (Ind Against a Federal Europe) Hampshire South and Wight, EP election, 1994; (UK Ind): Falmouth and Camborne, 2001; NE, EP election, 2004; N Devon, 2005. Mem., NFU, 1980–90. Mem., Winchester Preservation Trust, 1980–90; Patron, Winchester Cadets Assoc., 1980–90; Trustee, Winnall Community Assoc., 1981–94; President: Winchester Gp for Disabled People, 1982–92; Hursley Cricket Club, 1985–90. Mem. Court, Univ. of Southampton, 1979–90; Governor, Malvern Coll., 1982–. Liveryman, Goldsmiths’ Co., 1982–. OStJ 1979 (Mem., Chapter Gen., 1985–90). Interests include: economics, gold and internat. monetary affairs, defence, broadcasting. Tarantula: an Anglo American Special Forces hunt for bin Laden, 2003; Grenadier Grins, 2006; Cash Out to Cash In, 2010; A Frozen Account of the Romanovs, 2011; various articles on finance, gold (A New European Currency—The Karl, K̶), defence, Middle East, Soviet leadership. Boodle's. Senior Investment Strategist, Euro-Pacific Capital (New York), since 2008; Op-ed Columnist, Pittsburgh Tribune Review, since 2008; Visiting Fellow, Heritage Foundation, Washington DC, since 2008.

Source(s): 1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', pages 186, 191-193, and 241; Samuel M. Hoskinson speech about NATO expansion to Le Cercle at the 2000-2002 Atlantic Circle website: "That friend of Le Cercle, Zbigniew Brzezinski..."; 2014, Johannes Grossmann, 'Die Internationale der Konservativen' (Nov. 1977 participant)

Born in Poland in 1928. MA in Political Science of McGill University in 1950. PhD from Harvard University in 1953. Institute government and research fellow of the Russian Research Center at Harvard University 1953-1956. Guest lecturer at numerous private and government institutions since 1953. Participant in many international conferences since 1955. Assistant professor of government and research associate Russian Research Center and Center International Affairs at Harvard University 1956-1960. Associate professor of public law and government at Columbia University 1960-1962. Member of the faculty of the Russian Institute 1960-1977. Member of the Joint Committee on Contemporary China at the Social Science Research Council 1961-1962. Director of Research Institute of International Change 1962-1977. 1991 version, (1979 original) Deborah Davis, 'Katherine the Great', p. 177: "Without asking Katherine [owner of the Washington Post], [President] Kennedy appointed John Hayes, still the [Washington] Post Company's vice president for radio and television, to a secret CIA task force to explore methods of beaming American propaganda broadcasts to Communist China. The other members of the team were Richard Salant, president of CBS News; Zbigniew Brzezinski, a professor at Columbia University who had been on the agency [CIA] payroll for several years; Cord Meyer of the CIA [and Operation MOCKINGBIRD]; McGeorge Bundy, special assistant to the president for national security; Leonard Marks, director of the USIA; Bill Moyers, who went on to become a distinquished and highly independent journalist for CBS and then for PBS; and Paul Henze, the CIA chief of station in Ethiopia who had established secret communications capabilities there and who later worked on African problems for Brzezinski in the Carter White House." Member of the Policy Planning Council of the Department of State from 1966 to 1968. Always been very anti-communist. Columnist of Newsweek 1970-1972. Director of the Council on Foreign Relations from 1972 to 1977. Set up the Trilateral Commission at the request of David Rockefeller in 1973. Director of the Trilateral Commission 1973-1976. National Security Advisor to Carter 1977-1981. January 15-21, 1998, Le Nouvel Observateur, Interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski: "According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention... That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter. We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire... Nonsense [that Islamic fundamentalism represents a world menace]! It is said that the West had a global policy in regard to Islam. That is stupid. There isn't a global Islam. Look at Islam in a rational manner and without demagoguery or emotion. It is the leading religion of the world with 1.5 billion followers. But what is there in common among Saudi Arabian fundamentalism, moderate Morocco, Pakistan militarism, Egyptian pro-Western or Central Asian secularism? Nothing more than what unites the Christian countries." Cercle members William Casey and Turki Al-Faisal would step up the funding of the Afghan resistance in the early 1980s under Reagan. Advisor to Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. Professor of public law and government at Columbia University 1981-1989. According to Nexus Magazine, the following statement was made more than 25 years ago in a book which Brzezinski wrote while a professor at Columbia University: "Political strategists are tempted to exploit research on the brain and human behaviour. Geophysicist Gordon J. F. MacDonald [JASON scholar] -specialist in problems of warfare-says accurately-timed, artificially-excited electronic strokes 'could lead to a pattern of oscillations that produce relatively high power levels over certain regions of the Earth... In this way, one could develop a system that would seriously impair the brain performance of very large populations in selected regions over an extended period..." Trustee and counselor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) since 1981. Co-chair of the CSIS Advisory Board (located at the Jesuit Georgetown University, from which Brzezinski holds honorary degrees). Member of the President's Chemical Warfare Commission in 1985. Member of the NSC's Defense Department Commission on Integrated Long-Term Strategy 1987-1988. Member of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board 1987-1989. Co-chairman of the Bush National Security Advisory Task Force in 1988. In 1991, identified as a member of the advisory council of Americares (former honorary chair), together with Cercle member general Richard Stilwell. J. Peter Grace is chair of the advisory council and it counts heavy involvement of the Bushes and SMOM. August 11, 1991, Hartford Courant, 'Americares' success hailed, criticized charity uses clout and connections...': "Other international relief agencies marvel at AmeriCares' ability to cut red tape, navigate complex international protocol, perform in the public spotlight and simultaneously claim some of the lowest administrative expenses among groups of its kind... Much of AmeriCares' success comes from its ability to harness three potent forces: powerful political connections, alliances with influential religious figures and groups and cooperative ventures with businesses... Knowledgeable former federal officials, many with backgrounds in intelligence work, help AmeriCares maneuver in delicate international political environments. Its connections with the Roman Catholic Church have brought AmeriCares an influential ally in the Knights of Malta, a Catholic group that helps deliver relief supplies. And its ventures with pharmaceutical companies have filled AmeriCares' warehouses with donated supplies... n the international relief community, where there is an expectation that groups will operate altruistically and free of political motives, some complain about the way AmeriCares aggressively seeks media coverage and appears to design its missions to benefit conservative political causes... Photographs on the office's forest-green walls show [Robert C.] Macauley [wealthy; founder and chairman of AmeriCares] with former President Reagan, Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa... Macauley's friendship with [George W.] Bush dates back to childhood... Bush's son, Jeb, and the president's grandson, George P. Bush, went with AmeriCares to Armenia in 1988 to help survivors of a devastating earthquake... The president's brother, Prescott S. Bush Jr. of Greenwich, is a member of AmeriCares' advisory board... The chairman of the advisory committee is J. Peter Grace Jr... Retired Army Gen. Richard G. Stilwell, former deputy undersecretary of defense in charge of intelligence under Reagan, is also on the advisory committee. Another member is William E. Simon... Simon was also president of the Nicaraguan Freedom Fund, a now defunct private group formed by the Washington Times newspaper to send aid to the contras. (The Washington Times is owned by a group that includes officials of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church.) Gordon J. Humphrey, a retired Republican senator from New Hampshire who was a member of the Senate foreign relations committee, is also on the committee. And Zbigniew Brzezinski, the conservative former national security adviser for President Carter, is honorary chairman of the AmeriCares board of directors."... "Personally I have some questions about the way they focus," said one longtime worker in international aid. "They're connected into the American Republican power elite. You might say they work in areas where there is a large anti-communist benefit."... criticism has come from writers who contend that AmeriCares made shipments of aid to the contras in Nicaragua... Among the aid AmeriCares sent to Nicaragua in 1985 was newsprint for La Prensa, the anti-Sandinista newspaper... A review of AmeriCares' well publicized airlift missions shows that the organization sends aid rapidly and frequently to "hot spots" of public attention, places where disaster aid from America might reflect favorably on the U.S. government... In 1988, AmeriCares sent a series of airlifts to Armenia in the Soviet Union to help survivors of an earthquake. "That did more for the image of the United States than anything in recent history," Macauley said... In the early 1970s, at a time when his interest in international aid was beginning to coalesce into AmeriCares, Macauley heard about a Catholic priest named Bruce Ritter who was struggling to help runaway children on the streets of New York City... The alliance between Macauley and Ritter led to an audience with Pope John Paul II in Rome in 1982. (Ritter left Covenant House in February 1990 after accusations of sexual misconduct with some male runaways he was helping). The meeting with the pope gave life to AmeriCares. Although Macauley started AmeriCares in 1979, the organization did not go on its first relief mission until 1982, when the pope asked Macauley to send aid to his native Poland. AmeriCares' contacts with important Catholic figures brought it a valuable ally in the Knights of Malta, a Catholic organization that has helped distribute AmeriCares supplies. The Knights of Malta, formally known as the Sovereign Military Order of Knights Hospitallers of St. John and Jerusalem, is a worldwide Catholic charity founded in the 11th century to care for soldiers in the Crusades. Today, the group is based in Rome. J. Peter Grace, a member of AmeriCares' advisory board, is president of the American chapter of the Knights of Malta, based in New York City. William Simon, another AmeriCares advisory committee member, is also a member... The Knights of Malta make AmeriCares' job easier because of its worldwide network of volunteers, said Johnson, the president of AmeriCares. Members of the group, many of whom are independently wealthy, can be trusted to deliver the aid to its intended destination and do so more efficiently than AmeriCares, he said. "By using the Knights, there's very little opportunity for diversion," Johnson said. "They've all made their fortunes. Now they're interested in charity."... Because almost 50 countries afford the Knights of Malta the same status as a sovereign nation, they are often exempt from fees for border crossings and can pass customs inspections more easily. "The host country will generally waive inspection and duty," said Thomas L. Sheer, executive director of the American chapter of the Knights of Malta and an assistant to J. Peter Grace. "We can use that diplomatic status to move right through customs and to not pay customs fees. We can exploit that, particularly within a time of crisis."... Despite his ties to the Roman Catholic Church, Macauley is not Catholic, although he describes himself as a religious man. "They say I'm a right-wing Catholic conservative," Macauley said. "I'm not a Catholic, even though I go to Mass almost every day. I'm a very devout Protestant, I guess you'd call it." AmeriCares also receives small donations from Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network and the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church. AmeriCares has kept the commitment to Poland it began at the behest of the pope. "We go to Poland every week, either by ship or by plane," Macauley said. Between 1982 and this March, AmeriCares sent $94 million in aid to Poland, almost a quarter of all the aid it has dispensed. When the pope called on Macauley to help Poland, Macauley turned to corporate America for help... To get donations for Poland, he and some colleagues sat down with lists of the boards of directors from the nation's largest pharmaceutical companies. Among them, the group found, they knew at least one person on every board." Wrote a book titled 'The Grand Chessboard' in 1997, which describes a kind of upcoming 'Clash of Civilizations' (Samuel Huntington) and how the should isolate China and Russia from the mineral reserves of the Middle-East. Some of his main points were:

1) "About 75 per cent of the world's people live in Eurasia, and most of the world's physical wealth is there as well, both in its enterprises and underneath its soil. Eurasia accounts for 60 per cent of the world's GNP and about three-fourths of the world's known energy resources."
2) "The most immediate task is to make certain that no state or combination of states gains the capacity to expel the United States from Eurasia or even to diminish significantly its decisive arbitration role."
3) "It is also a fact that America is too democratic at home to be autocratic abroad. This limits the use of America's power, especially its capacity for military intimidation… Democracy is inimical to imperial mobilization."
4) "Moreover, as America becomes an increasingly multi-cultural society, it may find it more difficult to fashion a consensus on foreign policy issues, except in the circumstance of a truly massive and widely perceived direct external threat."

Governor of the intelligence-linked Smith Richardson Foundation (since at least the 1990s), together with Douglas J. Basharov (Georgetown University; scholar American Enterprise Institute; first director of the U.S. National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect 1975-1979), Christopher DeMuth (president American Enterprise Institute and revived it), Fred Ikle (Under-Secretary of Defense under Reagan, close to covert operations; CSIS; IISS; Cercle), Gen. Edward C. Meyer (former Chief of Staff U.S. Army), Samuel Huntington, Donald Rumsfeld (board member Smith Richardson Foundation until at least 1998; at Jamestown Foundation, also with Brzezinski; politician under Nixon, Reagan, and George H. W. Bush; Ambassador to NATO; President G. D. Searle; CEO General Instrument; chair Gilead Sciences, where George Shultz and Etienne Davignon could also be found; Secretary of Defense under George W. Bush), Michel Oksenberg (travelled to China as NSC member with Cyrus Vance in 1977 and Zbigniew Brzezinski in 1978; major U.S.-China policy advisor to every president since Carter), L. Richardson Preyer (Vick Chemical Company, founded by his grandfather; Banker; long-time Democrat Congressman; member House Select Committee on Assassinations), Lunsford Richardson (Another grandson of the founder of the Vick Chemical Company), Isabel V. Sawhill (senior fellow and vice president at Brookings; the Cabot Family chair), Ben J. Wattenberg (important during the election campaign of Nixon; served on various committees under Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr.; PBS host; senior fellow American Enterprise Institute), Martin Feldstein (studied at Oxford; George F. Baker Professor of Economics at Harvard; Bilderberg; Trilateral Commission; Group of 30; director National Committee on United States-China Relations), Roderick MacFarquhar (Born in Pakistan; RIIA fellow; British MP; Harvard Professor; China specialist), Dr. Edward F. Zigler (Yale psychology professor emeritus; founder Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy), Jane Preyer (South-East director of the Environmental Defense Fund since 1997; exec Biofuels Center of North Carolina; former member, NC Legislative Commission on Global Climate Change; environmetalist author), James Woolsey (BA Stanford; MA Oxford; Oxford Rhodes Scholar; Yale Law School; founder and president of Yale Citizens for Eugene McCarthy for President (who was anti-Vietnam war); CIA director 1993-1995, but had virtually no relationship with President Clinton and supposedly Woolsey was the only neocon allowed into the administration; "liberal neocon" Democrat; great promotor of Global Warming theories; vice chairman Crescent Investment Management in New York with Mansoor Ijaz and Gen. Abrahamson; advisor Washington Institute for Near East Policy; advisor Institute for the Analysis of Global Security; member Set America Free Coalition; senior vice president at Booz Allen Hamilton for Global Strategic Security; director Martin Marietta, British Aerospace, Inc., Fairchild Industries and Yurie Systems, Inc.; chairman Paladin Capital Group; chairman ExecutiveAction LLC (of Neil Livingstone); patron Henry Jackson Society; director Intelligence Summit (Mossad, CIA, British Intelligence, special operations, linked); chair Freedom House; chairman Smithsonian; co-chairman Committee on the Present Danger; chairman Clean Fuels Foundation and the New Uses Council; member PNAC; director Benador Associates; director American Committee for Peace in the Caucasus; governor Smith Richardson Foundation; within a day after 9/11 Woolsey suggested Iraq might be a financier of bin Laden's operations; chairman Foundation for Defence of Democracies, founded immediately after 9/11; advisory board United Against Nuclear Iran; director Arlington Institute from about 2001 to 2007 with Joe Firmage and headed by his friend, John L. Petersen (linked to peak oil, alien cults and Coast to Coast AM); dinner party with Steven Greer and Petersen in 1999 (where Greer "briefed" him about UFOs). His wife, Suzanne Woolsey: BA STanford psychology; Doctorate in Social and Clinical Psychology from Harvard; director Urban Institute (Deutch; Buffett; McNamara); executive director of the Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education NAS/NRC prior to 1993; chief communications officer of the National Academy of Sciences/ National Research Council 2001-2003, president of Institute for Defense Analyses (board in 2000 and president in 2010) and trustee of Caltech; director of Fluor and Neurogen (1993-2008).

April 3, 2001, Volume: 2 Issue: 14, North Caucasus Analysis, 'Chechen Foreign Minister in Washington': "On March 23, Il'yas Akhmadov, the separatist foreign minister of Chechnya, spoke at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. He noted that he had been in the U.S. capital for two weeks, during which time he had had discussions with Senators Paul Wellstone and Sam Brownback. He continued, "I have [also] had constructive discussions with Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, Richard Perle, Frank Carlucci, Lee Hamilton, Paula Dobriansky and James Woolsey." On March 21, he added, former Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbot and Ambassador Steve Sestanovich had joined him during a meeting with Ken Bacon. ... On March 27, Richard Boucher, spokesman for the U.S. Department of State, commented on the meeting of Akhmadov and Beyrle which took place the previous day, outside the grounds of the department, and lasted for about forty-five minutes. "They discussed the conflict in Chechnya," Boucher reported, "They discussed the prospects for a settlement there. Mr. Beyrle told Mr. Akhmadov that the Chechen side must condemn terrorism, must account for its alleged participation in terrorist acts and must take decisive action to prevent such acts in the future. Mr. Beyrle also stressed the need for dialogue to resolve the conflict" (Daily Briefing, U.S. State Department, March 27). The same day, during a visit to Minsk, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kas'yanov underscored that Russia relates negatively to the fact of the reception of Akhmadov by a representative of the U.S. State Department, but said that Russia did not intend to take any retaliatory measures. Russian presidential spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky dismissed the meeting with Akhmadov as "nothing more than a negative political gesture by the American administration toward Russia" (NTV.ru, March 27)."

Former member of the National Advisory Council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, together with Jeane Kirkpatrick, Jack Kemp, Senator Claiborne Pell, Senator Bob Dole, Richard Pipes, and Cercle member Edwin Feulner, Jr. Brian Crozier, former Cercle head, sits on the International Advisory Council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. Still a significant influence in Washington today and generally respected by both neoconservatives and liberals. Appointed chairman of the RAND Center for Middle East Public Policy Advisory Board in 2005 (where he followed up Franck Carlucci) and a member of RAND's President's Circle. Anno 2006, a member of the advisory committee of the American Committee for Peace in the Caucasus (ACPC), which is advocating against Russian intervention in Chechnya (used to be co-chair). Other members of the advisory board include Frank Gaffney, Alexander M. Haig, Jr., William Kristol (PNAC), Robert McFarlane, Richard Perle (friend of Cercle chair Brian Crozier), Richard Pipes (associate of Brian Crozier in the Reagan years), Caspar Weinberger, and James Woolsey. Director Polish-American Enterprise Fund and Polish-American Freedom Foundation. Trustee of Freedom House when under the chairmanship of James Woolsey. Freedom House lists USAID, US Information Agency, Soros Foundations and the National Endowment for Democracy, among its financial backers. September 9, 2004, ACPC member Richard Pipes in a New York Times article called 'Give the Chechens a land of their own': "A clever arrangement secured by the Russian security chief, Gen. Alexander Lebed, in 1996 granted the Chechens de facto sovereignty while officially they remained Russian citizens. Peace ensued. It was broken by several terrorist attacks on Russian soil, which the authorities blamed on the Chechens (although many skeptics attributed them to Russian security agencies eager to create a pretext to bring Chechnya back into the fold)... This history makes clear how the events in Russia differ from 9/11. The attacks on New York and the Pentagon were unprovoked and had no specific objective. Rather, they were part of a general assault of Islamic extremists bent on destroying non-Islamic civilizations. As such, America's war with Al Qaeda is non-negotiable. But the Chechens do not seek to destroy Russia - thus there is always an opportunity for compromise... Russia, the largest country on earth, can surely afford to let go of a tiny colonial dependency, and ought to do so without delay." Brzezinski is a critic of the Israel Lobby.

Mark Brzezinski, Zbigniew's son, was accused of undermining Ukrainian elections in 2004 (together with the NDI, Eurasia Society, and George Soros). Soros has been accused of doing the same in Georgia and Russia, and having caused the financial instability in Asia in 1997. March 27, 2008, 24.kg News Agency (Kyrgystan), 'Zbigniew Brzezinski: Revolutions in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan was a sincere and snap expression of political will': ""I believe revolutions in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan was a sincere and snap expression of the political will," Zbigniew Brzezinski a world-known political expert said in an interview with Georgian Times. "However, it does not mean that democracy will start blooming in these countries at once. But people have, more or less, expressed their will," the expert said when asked about efficiency of the color revolutions in the Post-Soviet states."

November 17, 2008, Chatham House speech of Zbigniew Brzezinski: "I'm also delighted to speak under the sponsorship of the Whitehead lecture series. John Whitehead, whom I've been priviliged to know for many years, I'll not talk about length, but suffice it to say that he was in my judgment the best Deputy Secretary of State the United States has ever had and he should have been Secretary of State. ... It's still nonetheless a fact, a sad fact, that the cumulative effects of national and financial self-indulge, of an unnecessary war of our own choice, and of ethical transgressions, have cumutively discredited that leadership. ... For the first time in human history, for the first time in all of human history, almost all of mankind is politically conscious and interactive. ... We are living in a time of the basic shift-away of the 500 years long global domination by the Atlantic powers. ... That shift is now taking us towards Asia. It is not the end of the preeminance of the Atlantic world, but it is now the surfacing of the Pacific region and most notably Japan, the no. 2 economic power, and China. ... And it is also complicated by the reappearance of Russia, which is something to be welcomed. ... Russia, which is still restless, [is] rather unclear about its own definition. Very undefinite about its recent past, and very insecure about its place in the world. And these new and old major powers face yet another novel reality - in some respects unprecedented. And it is that while the lethality of their power is greater than ever, their capacity to impose control over the politically awakened masses of the world is at a historical low. I once put it rather pungently, and I was flattered that the British Foreign Secretary repeated this, as follows. Namely, in earlier times it was easier to control a million people than to physically kill a million people. Today it is infinitely easier to kill a million people than to control a million people. It's easier to kill than to control."

Robert M. Gates replaced the neocon Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who had been pushing for war with Irak, in 2006. April 30, 2009, Time, 'Robert Gates': "Robert Gates was President George W. Bush's surprising choice as Secretary of Defense. When he accepted that onerous appointment — in the midst of a painful war and two years before the end of the President's term in office — he simply stated that he felt it was his duty to serve. Having known him for some 30 years, I know this statement was sincere. Gates, above all, is a patriot. But he happens to be also a very intelligent patriot, and that is truly reassuring. During his confirmation hearings before the Senate, Gates, 64, acknowledged the important role of Congress in any decision to initiate a new war. That earned him widespread bipartisan respect — and a wartime Secretary of Defense needs such support, particularly when the war is so unpopular. Gates' professional career has focused predominantly on national security issues. He served on the National Security Council (NSC) staff under Brent Scowcroft during the Ford presidency. He then became my special assistant when I was in charge of the NSC under President Jimmy Carter. He was the first person I would see every morning and usually the last one in the evening. I came to value highly his grasp of foreign affairs and his political judgment. His meteoric rise continued at the CIA, where he eventually became director under President George H.W. Bush. Cool, calm and collected, this is a man who would never be rattled by a sudden 3 a.m. phone call." Gates stayed on during the Obama administration.

According to John Judge, Zbigniew was involved in the Jonestown cover-up by given the order to strip the bodies of all victims of identification. The bodies were slowly retrieved, mostly after decomposition had made it impossible to identify them. Zbigniew's order was given to Haig, who passed it on to Robert Pastor, who passed it on to Col. Gordon Sumner.

ON DETENTE:

March 26, 1979, BBC Summary of World Broadcasts (Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union in English 1015 gmt 23 Mar), ''Pravda' on Brzezinski's "Dangerous Programme of Confrontation"': ""The 'tough' public speeches made by Mr Zbigniew Brzezinski against detente are not an adornment to American oratorical art. They do not benefit US foreign policy either", Sergey Vishnevskiy writes in the newspaper 'Pravda' today. Commenting on the interview given by the Assistant to the US President for National Security Affairs to the '15 NATO countries' journal [SU/6069/A1/1]. "Brzezinski fancies he sees the hand of the Reds everywhere", the author writes. "The Russians, he says, are characterized by the constant desire to use the opportunities that avail themselves and to create instability in the world. And this, he says, can spur on would-be East-West antagonisms. Really, the old line again . . . " [Tass ellipsis] This is the same well-known confrontation conception. ... The question is: and where is the process of detente, this dominant tendency of international life? Detente for Brzezinski is only a hindrance, Sergey Vishnevskiy points out."

January 5, 1979, BBC Summary of World Broadcasts (Czechoslovak Press Agency in English 0930 gmt 3 Jan 79), 'In Brief; CPCz paper on Brzezinski and detente': "'Rude Pravo' of 3rd January notes a report that the USA is to build two military bases in Luxembourg. This shows, it says, how sincere the US military-industrial complex is about detente. Zbigniew Brzezinski recently said that the USA was committed to the creation of a world in which there would be more co-operation and justice, but the two new bases in Luxembourg are facts, the paper goes on. The Pentagon has received 10,000 million dollars more than was originally provided in the military budget. Most of the new dangerous arms are located in West Europe, where there has always been a large concentration of military forces. In 1978, the number of troops and combat equipment in the FRG was further increased with the clear aim of changing the balance of military forces in an area which is very important for international stability. Brzezinski talked about the balance of forces as of a factor of stability, 'Rude Pravo' says, and adds that this balance exists, but many people in Washington are evidently losing sleep because of it."

October 24, 1979, BBC Summary of World Broadcasts (Hungarian television 1800 gmt 21 Oct 79), 'Zbigniew Brzezinski Interviewed on Prospects for SALT-2': "[Brzezinski:] "In my opinion it is important to widen contacts between the United States and the Soviet Union. I feel SALT-2 provides the basis for much more specific contacts in what is potentially the most dangerous field of relations between the two countries. Namely, nuclear weapons. I have no illusions that SALT-2 will end the political and military race between the United States and the Soviet Union. But SALT-2 lends greater stability and more secure foresight in military fields. With greater stability and foresight we may attempt to widen co-operation in other areas also. I strongly believe that Soviet-American detente must be comprehensive and mutual. This is why I believe SALT-2 is a useful starting-point for extending widening and preservation co-operation. ... I do not believe foreign policy is based on trust. Foreign policy is based on one's own interests and the given abilities. For instance, in the case of SALT there is an American interest, that there should be a SALT and I assume that this is also the interest of the Soviet Union. This is why we could make an agreement. Simultaneously, I believe the United States should ahve the ability to pursue an effective foreign policy and to maintain its national security. To this end we must I believe carry out certain things which we are now doing in the military field.""

POL POT:

1998, New York Times journalist Elizabeth Becker (has interviewed Pol Pot), 'When The War Was Over: Cambodia And The Khmer Rouge Revolution, Revised Edition', p. 435: "[Brzezinski:] "The invasion proclaimed the new China-U.S. alliance of interests and ensured that China continued to hold sway over affairs in Indochina, this time on the side of the West. To that end, National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski was of considerable help. Brzezinski himself claims that he concocted the idea of persuading Thailand to cooperate fully with China in its efforts to rebuild the Khmer Rouge. In the spring of 1979, Brzezinski says, he used the visit of Thailand's foreign minister to press forward his plans. Brzezinski said: "I encouraged the Chinese to support Pol Pot. I encouraged the Thai to help the DK [Democratic Kampuchea]. The question was how to help the Cambodian people. Pol Pot was an abomination. We could not support him but China could. The result was a policy that the United States continued to follow during the subsequent Republican administration. The United States "winked, semi-publicly," in Brzezinski's words, while encouraging China and Thailand to give the Khmer Rouge direct aid to fight against the Vietnamese occupation. "

NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR DEMOCRACY:

Congressional Record, Senate, October 31, 1995, S16433-S16434: "As the following letter from Messrs. Allen, Brzezinski, Carlucci, and Scowcroft points out, the National Endowment for Democracy is such a program. I ask that the letter be printed in the RECORD. The letter follows: 'October 20, 1995. Hon. Jesse Helms, Hon. Claiborne Pell, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Washington, DC. Hon. Benjamin Gilman, Hon. Lee Hamilton, House International Relations Committee, Washington, DC. As former National Security Advisers to the President, we are familiar with the work of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). In our assessment, NED, established under President Reagan as an instrument in his campaign for democracy, and sustained with the bipartisan support of the leadership of both houses of Congress, has served our national interest well through its timely support of those who advance the cause of democracy. The Endowment, a small bipartisan institution with its roots in America’s private sector, operates in situations where direct government involvement is not appropriate. It is an exceptionally effective instrument in today’s climate for reaching dedicated groups seeking to counter extreme nationalist and autocratic forces that are responsible for so much conflict and instability. Eliminating this program would be particularly unsettling to our friends around the world, and could be interpreted as a sign of America’s disengagement from the vital policy of supporting democracy. The Endowment remains a critical and cost-effective investment in a more secure America, and we support its work. We hope that you will join us in that support. Sincerely, Richard V. Allen. Frank C. Carlucci. Zbigniew Brzezinski. Brent Scowcroft."

Sources: October 1989 – Issue 18, Lobster Magazine, 'The Pinay Circle and Destabilisation in Europe'

Vatican prelate and BNG agent. Can't find anything about this person, besides what has been claimed by the original author.

Source(s): February 1985 list (Washington D.C.)

Francisco Bulnes, one of the most influential members of the traditional Right. Member of the National Party. Active in the coup against Allende. Chilean congressman. Senator. Member Council of State under Pinochet. Ambassador to Peru under Pinochet.

Spring 1986, Foreign Affairs, 'The Chilean Road to Democracy': "At the dawn of the 1960s Chile enjoyed the enviable reputation of being one of the few stable democracies in Latin America. It ranked among the most advanced countries of the region, having attained high levels of political, social and economic development. But in the course of the 1960s a combination of historical circumstances -- declining growth, rising demands, political mobilization -- radically metamorphosed Chilean politics, tearing it into three blocs, no two of which could govern together. In the space of a decade, a situation of a reasonable degree of consensus and regulated conflict was transformed into one of extreme polarization, culminating in the disruption of the democratic order when the military stepped in on September 11, 1973, to topple the government of Salvador Allende. ... The intervention also obviously had the blessing -- to say the least -- of the United States. From the very outset, the military government interpreted its mission as a war against Marxism. It banned the Communist Party and the other leftist parties in Allende's coalition government, and jailed and persecuted their members and suspected supporters. The population, worn out by years of sharp political conflict, had in fact become largely hostile to the government. The military assumed that it would also have the support of the parties opposed to Allende, even though it dissolved the National Congress after the coup. But its severe repression and constant violation of human rights alienated the Christian Democratic Party and the Social Democratic Party, whose attitudes rapidly switched to open criticism. The military government reacted with a markedly antipolitical and antiparty bias, declaring all parties not already banned "indefinitely recessed." It also weeded out moderate officers from the armed forces and encouraged the ascendance of the hard-line element, led by Pinochet, who was designated head of state less than a year after the coup. The entrepreneurial sector and the political right had felt threatened by the Allende government's policies, and so they extended unconditional support to the new government. Their most eminent figures collaborated in various official capacities as ministers (Hernan Cubillos, Marquez de la Plata, Jaime del Valle and many others) and ambassadors (such as Sergio Diez to the United Nations and Francisco Bulnes to Peru), and in advisory bodies such as the Council of State (of which former President Jorge Alessandri was appointed chairman). Given this backing and the regime's anti-Marxist stance, it is not surprising that the military government roundly declared itself in favor of a free-market economy. It handed over the management of economic affairs to a homogeneous group of economists trained at the University of Chicago, whose political loyalty Pinochet could trust. They promised the "modernization" of the country, based on a set of simple prescriptions: the free operation of the market and a merciless reduction of state intervention in the economy. The policies of this economic team seemed at first to work.A drastically restrictive monetary policy, backed by the ruthless exercise of dictatorial political power, brought inflation under control -- it had soared above 500 percent per annum at the time of Allende's fall. ... Those who suffered the most from the collapse of the economy were the first to take to the streets in protest of the Pinochet regime, demanding economic relief. In 1983 and 1984 unions and political parties took the lead in organizing monthly mass protests, held mostly in Santiago but also in provincial cities like Valparaiso and Concepcion, in which thousands of workers, students and shantytown dwellers participated. The middle class also joined the protests in significant numbers, but later began to withdraw as the combined action of political radicals, hooligans and excessive police repression led to increased violence. At the close of four years of decline (1982-85), then, Chilean society's change of heart was so radical that opinion polls carried out in Santiago in the second half of 1985 showed that not more than 15 percent supported the government or Pinochet himself. Roughly 80 percent expressed the wish for a return to democracy before the end of Pinochet's current constitutional term in office, i.e., before 1989. In the recent nationwide elections of the College of Teachers, the pro-government candidates stood at the bottom with about ten percent of the votes. And when student elections were held across the country in 1985, not only did the government fail to win any of them, but there was virtually no candidate who could be defined as pro-government. Thus, most of those who once supported the government, however conditionally, have now lost all faith in it."

2005, Jonathan Haslam, 'The Nixon administration and the death of Allende's Chile', pp. 5 and 141: "Senator Francisco Bulnes Sanfuentes - diehard of the Partido National (PN) - pointed out that "there were many people who did not believe that Allende was a Marxist, but I knew it; we were colleagues for many years. I believe that he knew little of Marxist theory, but he had the faith of a true believer which is the most difficult to break." ... ... On 6 October the first clear signal for action came when Francisco Bulnes declared in the senate "the opinion of the national party: that this government has become illegitimate. ... As its leader Jarpa subsequently revealed: "We had a strike department which encompassed bankers, private employees, public employees, shopkeepers, truck owners, agrobusinessmen, lawyers and doctors..." In such circumstances it must have been impossible to distinguish between CIA funding for the national party proper and for the conduct of the strike. ... Foreign correspondents soon discovered that street rioters were being hired at a rate of 300 escudos a day (a dollar at the current rate). ... When Allende had delivered a speech in September warning of a plan to paralyse the country by means of a transport strike, the pro-opposition Economist magazine - employing [Cercle member] Robert Moss, who spent an unusual amount of time with PyL - had mocked the claim."

October, 1998, Canadian Dimension, 'Allende: relevant today?': "The first time I met Salvador Allende was in 1965 in the bar of the U. S. Senate building. At that time he was a senator, and I was a graduate student writing my doctoral dissertation and was deeply involved in the anti-Vietnam War movement in the United States. Before leaving San Francisco for Chile, the organizers of an upcoming demonstration had asked me to tape an interview with Senator Allende expressing his support for the anti-war movement in the U. S. Allende's support was particularly important for the struggle in the U. S. because the mass base of our movement was basically composed of students, middle-class professionals and very few workers. We felt it would be important for morale to have the international support of a leftist presidential candidate who received over a million votes, mainly from the working class, peasants, and the trade unions. The interview went very well. Allende highlighted the importance of the Vietnamese people's struggle and the dangers of a U. S. military victory for the fate of Latin America: ''A military victory in Indochina will encourage the Pentagon to engage in military intervention in Latin America.'' He continued by pointing to the importance of our struggle within the U. S., clearly recognizing the difference between the U. S. government and the populace. ... The second point was that unlike some Latin American Left politicians, Allende rejected the cheap, nationalist anti-North American rhetoric. He recognized the political-social division within the U. S. He was an anti-imperialist in solidarity with our struggle and rejected the facile posture of lumping all North Americans in the same bag. At the end of the interview, a rightwing senator, Francisco Bulnes, came by our table and Allende rose to greet him and exchange a few pleasantries. This of course was 1965-eight years before Bulnes and the Right supported the murderous military coup that overthrew Allende. At the time, I was astonished by the civility of Senator Allende toward one of his arch-enemies."

January 23, 1979, BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, 'Chile-Peru Relations': "Radio Mineria (Santiago) on 20th January reported that it had been learned through news agencies that the Peruvian Government had declared the Chilean Ambassador in Lima, Francisco Bulnes, persona non grata and had asked his Government to withdraw him immediately. The agencies had indicated that the reason for the decision was "spy charges made against Chilean officers". The Peruvian Ambassador in Santiago, Guillermo Arbulu Galliani, had left for Peru that morning."

April 17, 1982, El Pais, 'Augusto Pinochet, bajo la sombra de Franco': "The situation described shows that the new Constitution has not initiated a process of transition and has only served to strengthen the personal power of the ruler, even triggering criticism from sectors of the Chilean right hitherto supported him. Noteworthy are the statements made by former senator and ambassador of the Pinochet regime Francisco Bulnes, who has stated: "I expected a long transition period less than we have. And above all, expect a sharp transition, which was truly transition. I believe the current system is an extension of the previous seven years more than the transition to a new regime ""

September 30, 1983, United Press International: "The military government resumed talks with opposition parties aimed at returning democracy to Chile but banished 15 people who participated in recent demonstrations against President Augusto Pinochet. Interior Minister Sergio Jarpa held a surprise meeting late Thursday with representatives of the Democratic Alliance, an umbrella group of five outlawed parties seeking an end to the 10-year-old Pinochet government. Gabriel Valdes, president of the Christian Democratic Party and head of the Alliance, told reporters after the meeting that his group presented a new set of demands to the government. The demands included a plebiscite for 1984, a comprehensive economic program aimed at relieving the plight of Chile's poor and establishment of a committee to investigate violence during recent public protests. Jarpa met twice before with the Alliance but the opposition group suspended the ''dialogue'' Sept. 10 to protest police repression of peaceful demonstrations against the government. Forty-one people have been killed and hundreds injured in monthly anti-Pinochet protests since May. Government counselor Francisco Bulnes described the two-hour meeting -- which also was attended by top members of the Catholic Church - as ''very useful'' and predicted a fourth session would be held ''in the upcoming days.'' The Alliance includes Democratic Christians and Socialists but excludes the Communist Party. Political parties in Chile have been outlawed since Pinochet overthrew the Socialist government of Salvador Allende on Sept. 11, 1973."

November 10, 1984, The Economist, 'Chile; Looking for a way out': "Chile is a victim of the politics of reprisal. Seven people were killed during protests against President Augusto Pinochet's regime on October 29th and 30th. The president responded by threatening to declare a state of siege. He ruled out the early legalisation of political parties or talks with them while they refused to recognise his constitution (which allows him to stay in power until 1989). Six more people were then killed in guerrilla attacks. The interior minister, Mr Sergio Jarpa, resigned, complaining that Chile's bishops had held a meeting with communist exiles in Rome and that he could not pursue his plans for a "democratic opening" in such circumstances. The president then declared his state of siege. It may not be as bad as it sounds. Mr Jarpa has agreed to stay on after all. And some moderate politicians, including, an ex-senator, Mr Francisco Bulnes, are working on an alternative to the present military regime that might just be acceptable to the opposition, the armed forces, the establishment and, eventually, even to General Pinochet, if enough pressure is put on him. These politicians come mainly from the two big non-Marxist parties -- the anti-Pinochet Christian Democrats and the pro-Pinochet National party. Their goal is the holding of a congressional election in 1986 instead of in 1989. Under Mr Bulnes's formula, the opposition parties would have to recognise the constitution and, implicitly, the president (although they would not have to declare an explicit approval of either). The president would have to legalise political parties, authorise a congressional election in 1986 and allow the congress to change his constitution. It is argued that, if the two big democratic parties presented this formula to the general, he would find it hard to turn down."

February 12, 1984, Associated Press, 'Fortress-Like House of Presidents Stirs Controversy in Chile': "During six years of design and construction, the House of Presidents has been shrouded in official secrecy, like the smog hanging in the valley it overlooks from the northeast corner of Santiago. Now, with its four terraced layers rising like a pagoda from a well-fortified hilltop, Chile's new presidential residence has suddenly become as well-known and as controversial as its would-be first occupant, Gen. Augusto Pinochet. ... The controversy has prompted two official spokesmen to announce that Pinochet, despite his wife's close supervision of the home's furnishing, probably won't move in. If that is the case, said Francisco Bulnes, a Pinochet adviser critical of the project, "no president will ever live there; it would cost too much to maintain.""

December 7, 1984, Washington Post, 'Repression by Pinochet Seen Driving His Traditional Supporters Away; News Analysis': "A month of strong repression by the government of President Augusto Pinochet has largely smothered his opposition, but the mounting political costs of the crackdown suggest that the general's hard-line policies cannot be sustained, diplomats and political analysts here say. ... For middle- and upper-class Chileans, the government has thus been able to offer an image of social peace. "It has been a very sophisticated, thought-out campaign," said Andres Zaldivar, a leader of the opposition Christian Democrats. "They have silenced a lot of sectors through sheer intimidation." Nevertheless, the military campaign has begun to provoke strong pressures from some of the government's staunchest civilian supporters. Three right-wing parties, including the venerable National Party, have taken a stand against the state of siege, and an influential conservative leader, Francisco Bulnes, resigned last week from a governmental political committee."

June 29, 1986, New York Times, 'The Challenge in Chile': "When the negotiations fell through, opposition protests were revived, leading to a successful national strike. Pinochet answered by declaring a state of siege in November 1984. Though it slowed the pace of resistance for some months, this drastic crackdown had disastrous political consequences, increasing the General's internal and international isolation, and forcing him, last July, to lift the state of siege. ... Last August, Juan Cardinal Francisco Fresno Larrain, the nation's Catholic leader, sponsored the drafting of a National Accord for a Transition to Democracy. ... The signing of an agreement on such basic issues did not mean, however, that yesterday's divisions had been healed. How to reconcile, for instance, the memories of Sergio Bitar, a former Allende minister who had signed the accord, with the memories of Francisco Bulnes, a co-signer who had been a high official in the Pinochet regime? Bitar cannot forget his murdered comrades, nor his detention without charges for many months after the coup, and his subsequent 10 years of exile. Bulnes cannot forget the left-wing peasants and workers who took over land and property during the Allende years."

"We had no choice. We were heading into either a military or a Marxist dictatorship. At that moment, a military government seemed the lesser evil."

PINOCHET TORTURE:

August 26, 2000, Vancouver Sun, 'Chilean torturers given chance to stay in Canada: The ex-secret police officers win a new immigration hearing': "A Federal Court judge has overturned the deportation of two former secret police officers in the regime of Chilean General Augusto Pinochet, a married couple Canada has been trying to send home for 22 years. In a ruling released Friday, Justice Frederick Gibson ordered a new immigration hearing on humanitarian and compassionate grounds for Toronto residents Fernando Naredo Arduengo and his wife Nieves Del Carmen Salazar Arduengo. Gibson ordered immigration officials to reconsider their earlier decision because he found they were ''completely dismissive'' of the interests of the couple's Canadian-born children, which they ''minimized in a manner completely inconsistent with Canada's humanitarian and compassionate tradition.'' Gibson also found that the Arduengos have ''led exemplary lives'' since coming to Canada in 1978, defecting from the Pinochet regime. The couple's latest victory comes just after Chile's Supreme Court lifted Pinochet's congressional immunity earlier this month, clearing the way for the former dictator to face trial on human rights charges. Friday's ruling describes in detail the torture, kidnapping and death of Chilean citizens in which the Arduengos participated. While living in Chile in the 1970s, the Arduengos were members of the DICAR, the secret police service that persecuted thousands of Chileans opposed to Pinochet's military rule. The couple has conceded in court documents that they participated in operations that resulted in the rapes, kidnapping, torture and even deaths of Chilean citizens during Pinochet's military reign. ''On one occasion (Arduengo) witnessed a one-year-old child watching his father being tortured,'' said the ruling. ''On another occasion (he) watched when a prisoner was being subjected to electric shock torture, which resulted in the victim's tongue becoming paralyzed. The prisoner choked to death. ''He witnessed the shooting of an unarmed man. He watched a man who had not paid his rent be blindfolded, beaten, subjected to electric shock torture and then abandoned on the street.'' Gibson notes that Arduengo took part in 10 operations in which prisoners died."

September 30, 1999, Calgary Herald, 'Pinochet defence claims instant death not torture': "But Crown lawyer Alun Jones challenged the allegation that Wilson Fernando Valdebenito Juica, a trade unionist, died instantly. Jones argued that fractures, deep bruising and burns on his body indicated that he had been severely beaten and given a series of electric shocks before the one that killed him. ''The suggestion that the man was not tortured both physically and mentally is just absurd. . . . It's offensive even to suggest such a thing,'' Jones said. Lawyers fighting extradition for Pinochet wrapped up their defence on Wednesday. The list of 35 charges say Pinochet's police tortured victims with, among other things, sleep deprivation and put them in positions of acute physical discomfort. They also used electric shock, hung people by their wrists, submerged them in water and let dogs bite them, the charges say. Pinochet's lawyers have argued the former dictator could not be held responsible for everything that happened in Chile under his rule, especially activities of ''ordinary'' police. Pinochet, 83, who ran Chile with an iron fist from 1973 to 1990, was arrested in London last year at the request of Spain, which wants to try him on torture charges dating from his rule. He has been under house arrest near London for nearly a year."

Source(s): June 29, 1997, The Independence, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club; Is it the ultimate dishonour'; July 10, 1997 An Phoblacht/Republican News, 'Editor's Desk'

A Northern Ireland politician, and was Ulster Unionist Party Member of Parliament for South Antrim. In the 1970s Burnside served as Press Officer for the Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party. After the collapse of Vanguard he joined the Ulster Unionists. In 1984 David Burnside was recruited by the British Airways Chairman 1001 Club member Lord King to become the company's head of public relations. In this role Burnside is widely acknowledged to have become one of the most powerful PR men in Britain, speaking for King, administering a £5 million budget and receiving numerous PR awards both in the UK and around the world. British Airways was witnessing the emergence of a dangerous rival, Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic. Virgin, which began with one route and one Boeing 747 in 1984 was beginning to emerge as a serious threat on some of BA's most lucrative routes. In 1991, King is reported to have told Burnside and CEO Colin Marshall to "do something about Branson". This began the campaign of dirty tricks, masterminded by Burnside, which ended in Branson suing King and British Airways for libel in 1992. In January 1993, following the settlement and investigations by BA's lawyers the board decided to sack Burnside. He was awarded a settlement of approximately £400,000 and free first class travel on BA for four years. He later reentered politics and had some criticism on the IRA.

Who's Who: Teacher, 1973–74; Press Officer, Vanguard Unionist Party, 1974–76; PR Dir, Inst. of Dirs, 1979–84; Public Affairs Dir, British Airways, 1984–93. Chairman: DBA Ltd, 1993–; New Century Hldgs Ltd, 1995–; New Century Media Ltd, 2007–. MP (UU) South Antrim, 2001–05; contested (UU) same seat, 2005. Mem., RBL, Antrim. Member (UU) South Antrim, Northern Ireland Assembly, since 2003.

March 12, 2003, BBC, 'Murphy denies cover-up claim': "Mr Burnside also claimed leading members of Sinn Fein were named in the report into the high profile break-in at the Special Branch office on 17 March last year. ... Sinn Fein assembly member Conor Murphy said his party knew nothing about the contents of the report into the Castlereagh break-in at hit back at Mr Burnside's claims. "Burnside is a well-known conduit for bogus MI5 and Special Branch briefings including recent remarks he made around the unionist paramilitary murder of Ciaran Cummings in his constituency," he said. "History has told us to be very sceptical about any remarks made by David Burnside." On a number of occasions, the IRA said it was not behind the Castlereagh raid but security sources continue to link the organisation to the incident. The IRA has blamed an element of British Intelligence." August 4, 2005, An Phoblacht, 'Burnside's broadside': "DAVID BURNSIDE, the spooky Ulster Unionist former MP for South Antrim unseated by Willie McCrea, was on RTÉ Radio's 5-7 Live this Monday, foaming at the mouth about the announcement of the proposed disbandment in 2007 of the locally-recruited unionist militia in the Six Counties known as the "home service battalions" of the Royal Irish Regiment, which incorporates the old [Loyalist/Unionist/Protestant] Ulster Defence Regiment and the anti-Civil Rights B Specials police force absorbed into the UDR. Burnside, a former spin doctor with British Airways, went bonkers at the news, babbling about how unionists had always had "a militia" — hailing the B-Specials, the RUC and the UDR — and how unionists might need them again against uppity [Nationalist/Catholic] nationalists, probably demanding outrageous things like equality. Burnside coyly omitted to say that he was once a foot soldier in the hated UDR (is he no longer proud of his regiment's record?). And RTÉ forgot to mention that this weekend's anniversary of the Miami Showband murders by the UDR/UVF was a particularly apposite time to announce its demise."

Source(s): Cercle's 1985 Washington D.C. meeting lists

Born in 1935. Educated in Italy and the United States. Army commander on Sardinia. Commander of the Italian military contingent in Iraq's Kurdistan in 1991. Deputy chief of staff of the army in the 1990s. Commander of the Sicilian army1992-1998 in an effort to suppress the mafia. Military advisor to the Council of Ministers. In 2002 he was president of the National Grenadiers of Sardinia.

October 30, 2006, ANSA English Media Service, 'ARMY could be sent to crime-hit Naples': "Calls mounted on Monday for troops to be sent into Naples after an 18-year-old youth was fatally stabbed by another teenager in an escalating wave of violence in the southern city. Justice Minister Clemente Mastella said that "the army idea is no longer a taboo because something must be done to ease the insecurity and fear felt by many of the locals". The latest murder, the third in as many days, took place on Sunday in Pozzuoli on the outskirts of Naples when a 16-year-old boy stabbed two 18-year-olds, Daniele Del Core and Loris De Roberto, in an argument over an ex-girlfriend. Del Core died from his wounds in hospital while De Roberto, who was stabbed seven times, is fighting for his life having undergone three operations to stem internal bleeding. The episode followed the Saturday night murder of a 45-year-old woman, Patrizia Marino, who was gunned down in a sports shop in the northern suburbs of Naples. Marino was a suspected a drug dealer and police believe her murder is linked to a turf war between rival clans in the Neapolitan Mafia, known as the Camorra. In another incident on Friday night, a Naples shop owner shot and killed a thief in order to defend his son. Santo Gulisano, who runs a tobacconist's in the city centre, killed the 30-year-old thief and wounded his 16-year-old accomplice after he found them inside his shop, threatening his son with a gun. Gulisano, an ex-policeman, told magistrates that the thieves had already stolen 200 euros from the till and had been threatening to kill his son unless the boy handed over more money. Meanwhile, a 19-year-old Neapolitan youth underwent emergency surgery on Monday after being stabbed by a friend in a tiff on Sunday night. Doctors said the youth was in a serious condition after being knifed in the abdomen and chest. The Italian media on Monday spotlighted the crime wave, reporting that 66 people had been killed in and around Naples since the start of the year. The press said 49 of the murders were linked to the Camorra while eight were the result of armed robbery. More than 750 thefts and burglaries were reported in the city, which has an unemployment rate of 24.7%, between the start of July and the end of August. Magistrates said much of the violence stemmed from the Camorra, noting that there were at least 4,000 known members of the some 20 clans active in and around Naples. Many politicians argued that the only hope was to send in troops, a solution which was adopted in Sicily in 1992-98 when 150,000 soldiers were sent to the southern island to help deal with a Mafia emergency. Retired General Mario Buscemi, who was once in charge of the army in Sicily, said he "totally agreed" with the idea of deploying troops in the region of Campania, of which Naples is the capital. "Perhaps you can't beat the Mafia with troops but a sufficient army presence definitely deters street crime, at least that's the way it was in Sicily," Buscemi told ANSA. He recommended that at least 8,000 soldiers be sent to Naples, which has a local police force of 13,250. His comments came as Italy's secret services warned that Naples could be heading towards a period of bloody clan warfare. Antonio Bassolino, who heads the regional government of Campania, said that "the Camorra, street crime and violence risk robbing us of our future and our children's future". "We mustn't let this happen. We must join together in this great battle for freedom and solidarity," Bassolino said. He did not rule out bringing in the army but said that boosting the local police force and the number of magistrates was of greater importance. "I'm not against the use of soldiers but the army has been here on other occasions and it didn't do much good. Only an idiot could think that murders like the Pozzuoli one could be avoided with the army. However, if the troops can free up the police, then that would be welcome," Bassolino said. Naples' chief prosecutor Giandomenico Lepore agreed that the city needed more police officers and investigators. "The deployment of troops might reassure some citizens and tourists, which wouldn't be bad for a city which is plagued by muggings, but what we really need is more people to work on investigations," Lepore said. Several small parties in the centre-left governing coalition of Premier Romano Prodi argued against sending in the army. The Green party and the Communist Refoundation Party said that more money needed to be invested in Naples overall, including its police force and job creation initiatives. Naples Mayor Rosa Russo Jervolino said that "crime prevention and territorial control are obviously important but it's vital to bear in mind that the roots of the problem are social and cultural"."

Source(s): Cercle's 1983 Bonn and 1984 South Africa meeting lists

Ian Butterfield brings to The Livingston Group more than 27 years of experience in international and energy matters, which he utilizes to advise foreign governments, non-U.S. companies seeking to establish or expand a U.S. commercial presence and U.S. companies planning overseas expansion. Mr. Butterfield served as the International and Government Affairs Director for the Westinghouse Electric Corporation, where he played the central role in opening up the Chinese market for U.S. exports of civilian nuclear power equipment, technology and fuel. Mr. Butterfield did this while simultaneously advancing the corporation’s conventional and nuclear power interests in Russia, Ukraine and West Africa. Prior to joining Westinghouse, Mr. Butterfield worked for 12 years in the United States Senate, counseling committee members on matters relating to nuclear, chemical and biological proliferation. He provided counsel on all matters relating to U.S. foreign, defense and intelligence policy to the committee chairman, Senator William V. Roth, who, in 1986, appointed him Secretary to the U.S. Senate delegation to the NATO Parliament. Before coming to the U.S. Senate, Mr. Butterfield was a member of the foreign policy team of the Heritage Foundation, where he wrote and published extensively on African affairs.

December 3, 1981, United Press International: "Libya is economically vulnerable and a U.S. embargo of Libyan oil could do much to curtail Moammar Khadafy's foreign machinations, the Heritage Foundation said Thursday. The foundation, a conservative research organization that helped formulate policies adopted by President Reagan, recommended in a 19-page report that the United States and its allies move now against Khadafy. ''The aggressive trend of Libyan foreign policy need not be allowed to continue,'' said Ian Butterfield, the report's author. Butterfield, a Briton, is the foundation's specialist on African affairs. ''Libya's economic future looks bleak,'' he said, because the high prices it demands for its oil during a period of glut have cut its sales and it is spending immense amounts on armaments, foreign intrigue and terrorism. ''Economic action by the United States and its allies at this stage could do a great deal to deprive Khadafy of the necessary funds for his foreign adventures,'' the report said. ''Should the West European powers prove reluctant to move against Khadafy, a unilateral U.S. embargo of Libyan oil would have a markedly deleterious effect upon his political and economic position.'' The report detailed Khadafy's interference in the affairs of 28 independent nations, most of them in Africa and the Middle East but ranging as far afield as support for guerrillas and opposition movements in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Spain, Italy and Great Britain where Libyan arms were supplied to the provisional wing of the Irish Republican Army. The report was compiled before Khadafy offered to send an anti-American Rapid Deployment Force to defend the Seychelles' socialist government, subject of an abortive coup attempt last week by a mixed band of South African and European mercenaries. The study suggested, in addition to an immediate U.S. embargo on all Libyan oil, that all U.S. personnel be withdrawn from Libya so they do not become hostages and that Egypt and the Sudan, Libya's most vulnerable neighbors, be built up economically and militarily. ''The sale of crude oil provides 99.4 percent of (Libya's) foreign earnings and finances, its domestic development plans, its foreign policies, its military machine and its broad range of imports,'' the report said. But because Libya refused to lower prices to Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries levels, it said, Libyan oil sales have slipped from $22 billion in 1980 to a projected $7 billion this year making Khadafy ''vulnerable to economic sanctions.'' Nigeria, it said, could take Libya's place by increasing its production of high quality crude. ''At the moment, America's allies and Khadafy himself, know that Washington's policy options are decidedly limited by the presence of 2,000 U.S. citizens on Libyan soil,'' the report said. ''Khadafy could easily seize these persons and use them to blackmail the United States.'' The report noted the State Department already has urged Americans, mostly engaged in oil production, to leave Libya and U.S. oil companies to abandon their Libyan operations. Only Exxon has complied. U.S. policy makers should be aware of the possibility of open warfare between Libya and Egypt, the study said, ''and be prepared to act accordingly.'' ''Washington cannot shirk legislative and economic action against Libya at this point,'' the report said. ''Appeals to pragmatism and practicality, at this stage, would simply leave the United States open to charges of hypocrisy, of being unwilling to match its rhetoric with substantive action.''"

Source(s): 2014, Johannes Grossmann, p. 473 (regular participant since 1975); Cercle's 1984 South Africa meeting lists

Foreign minister under Ian Smith. Friend of Lord Richard Cecil. Jan 08, 1977, The Times, 'Rhodesia rejects all proposals': "The Foreign Minister, leader of the Rhodesian delegation at the Geneva talks in the absence of Ian Smith..." July 10, 1979, House of Lords sitting, start at 2.56 p.m.: "[The Earl of Onslow:] ... Ian Smith and Van der Byl—or " Von der Bale " as he does not like to be called—have had their hands on the levers of power for a very long time, and they know exactly how to pull them. ... [Lord Hatch of Lusby:] ... He must try to get rid of Ian Smith and Peter Van der Byl because they are anathema to anyone who has any feeling for non-racialism. ... [Baroness Llewelyn-Davies of Hastoe:] ... It is not only Mr. Smith himself. As many noble Lords have said, others in the white leadership must go. The re-emergence of Mr. Van der Byl—the top white supremacist in Rhodesia, as the noble Lord, Lord Gladwyn, said—has caused what the censored Rhodesian papers called " raised eyebrows "." 2006, Fay Chung and Preben Kaarsholm, 'Re-living the Second Chimurenga: memories from Zimbabwe's liberation struggle', p. 311: "Ian Smith remained a political force after independence. In the initial years of independence, he used to meet regularly with Mugabe, but these meetings ended when Smith boasted that he was able to give instructions to his successor. Nevertheless, he continued to play an political role, with his right-hand man, Peter van der Byl, even claiming to be more socialist than anyone else in parliament. He based his claim on the fact that the Ian Smith government had done more than any other government to establish new state-owned and state-supported industries."

Source(s): Cercle's 1985 Washington D.C. meeting lists

February 3, 1981, New York Times, 'Anti-terrorist police in Italy assert the worst is over': "Italian police officers in charge of the fight against terrorism believe that they have crippled the terrorists as much as is militarily possible and that it is now up to the politicians to create the social and political conditions in which political violence will no longer appeal to the young. ''Operationally speaking, the worst is over,'' Gen. Umberto Capuzzo, the national commander of the Carabinieri, the nation's elite paramilitary police corps, said in an interview at his headquarters. He said that Prima Linea, the second most powerful terrorist organization in the country, had been virtually liquidated by police operations last year. The same was true of the other smaller groups. The Red Brigades, the most powerful organization, had suffered heavy losses, including several key members arrested or killed, but had been able to ''reconstitute'' their national command at a meeting in Rome last August, he said. The Red Brigades are now recruiting remnants of Prima Linea and other virtually defunct groups but ''recruitment is not the same as it was two years ago,'' General Capuzzo said. He said he did not want to name a date by which Italian terrorism would be completely suppressed. Police Powers Dispersed ''The Red Brigades can still strike, and strike hard,'' he said. ''It takes only four or five men to carry out an attack.'' He added that the terrorists had the initiative and a choice of targets, and that the security forces had to use a large part of their manpower on such unproductive defensive tasks as escort duties and protection of people and installations rather than on the active hunt for terrorists. But the terrorists have failed politically and operationally ''because no social class has gone over to them'' and because the number of their sympathizers and helpers in the population is going down, the general said. The Red Brigades consist of ''several hundred'' active guerrillas, the he said; he declined to be more specific. ''Italian terrorism is sui generis,'' he added. ''There is no great brain abroad.'' He said that members of underground organizations in many countries crossed national borders and maintained links and sporadic cooperation but that the Italian terrorists had no need for training abroad since their operations - killings and kidnappings - were simple and required no skills that were not amply available in the criminal underworld. He said that in a world riven by international tensions the weaknesses in a country's domestic situation were carefully watched and exploited by foreign powers. Terrorism, he said, is no exception; ''it's like the oil war or the grain war.'' Soviet Disputes Charge He thus appeared to discount allegations made by several politicians that the Red Brigades might have ''sanctuaries'' outside Italy. President Sandro Pertini touched off a controversy when he hinted in a television interview that the Italian terrorists might be receiving help from the Soviet Union. His remark brought a testy Soviet rejoinder and Mr. Pertini later said he did not mean the Russians. Since then the parties making up the Government coalition of Prime Minister Arnaldo Forlani have come down on opposite sides of the issue, with the Christian Democrats discounting foreign interference and the Socialists and Social Democrats asserting that it exists. General Capuzzo, a former military attache in Bonn and Moscow, is the highest ranking military figure in the fight against terrorism. The 85,000-man Corps of Carabinieri, which he commands, is the foremost of the six major police organizations in the country and has put a large part of its resources into the antiterrorist drive."

January 14, 1982, Jiji Press Ticker Service (Japan), 'Gen. Murai To Visit U.S., Italy': "Gen. Sumiomurai, chief of staff ground self-defense force (GSDF), will visit the United States and Italy from Sunday to Jan. 31. He is paying the visit at the invitation of Gen. Edward C. Meyer, United States Chief of Staff, and Gen. Umberto Capuzzo, Italian army chief of staff. Murai will make an inspection of troops and military facilities in those countries and exchange view with military leaders. This is the first official visit to Italy by a DSDF chief of staff."

April 4, 1990, IPS, 'Italy: Controversy over use of army to block illegal immegration': "According to Martelli, it was the Italian police who asked for the intervention of the military, because it is simply not in a position to patrol the thousands of kilometers of coastline. Former chief of the general staff Umberto Capuzzo, now a Christian Democrat senator, has commented that "the roles of the armed forces and the police must be carefully distinguished, otherwise problems could arise."

Source(s): Cercle's 1984 Bonn meeting list; Adrian Hanni (also went in 1979 and 1986)

1945-2006. With White House Staff, Washington, 1969—1970; campaign director re-elect Thurmond campaign, 1970—1973; legis. assistant to Senator Jesse Helms U.S. Senate, 1974—1982; private practice, 1982—2006. Board directors Westech. International, Inc., Washington Watch, Inc., Specialty Materials and Manufacturing, Inc., Tech. Holdings, Inc., The Stealth Corp., Inc.; member President Commission on Economic Justice, Washington, 1985-87. Rep. National Platform Staff, 1976, 80, 84, 88, 92, 96; Presidential Transition Team, 1980-81. Metropolitan Club. Republican. Presbyterian.

Helms was a major promoter of the cigarette industry.

September 1980 CIA's Confederación Anticomunista Latina (Inside The League).

drugwar.com, 'Drug War: Covert Money, Power & Policy: SETCO': "That was, word for word, the line peddled at the 1980 Buenos Aires meeting of the CIA's Confederación Anticomunista Latina, CAL, that D'Aubuisson would attend in September, in celebration of the Bolivian Cocaine Coup. Also attending the September 1980 CIA/CAL celebration was John Carbaugh, an aide to Republican Senator Jesse Helms. Helms, a rabid red-baiting segregationist in the 1950's, was an enthusiastic supporter of the fascists. As a ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, of course, Helms knew all there was to know about the death squads, but that didn't stop him from solemnly taking testimony from ARENA's distinguished killers. Between 1980 and 1992 Helms helped funnel $6 billion into the Salvadoran military. Hobnobbing with Carbaugh at the CAL confab was Stefano delle Chiaie, Klaus Barbie's top aide. Carbaugh had extensive personal contact with D'Aubuisson, and was instrumental in packaging the ARENA publicity campaign in Washington. Also attending the 1980 CAL meeting was Margo Carlisle, legislative aide to Senator James McClure (R-ID) and staff director of the Republican Conference of the U.S. Senate. Carbaugh and Carlisle hired Mackenzie-McCheyne to handle ARENA's advertising, while Paul Weyrich taught ARENA operatives effective campaign tactics."

The Iran-Contra Connection Secret Teams and Covert Operations in the Reagan Era by Jonathan Marshall, Peter Dale Scott , Jane Hunter South End Press, 1987: "Reports linking WACL to drugs became particularly flagrant in the period 1976-80, as the rift between WACL and Carter's CIA widened, and as a new Argentine-dominated affiliate of WACL in Latin America (the Confederacion Anticomunista Latina, or CAL) plotted to extirpate radical Roman Catholic priests and prelates fostering liberation theology. A high-point or low-point of the CAL plotting was reached in 1980, when Argentine officers, bankrolled by the lords of Bolivia's cocaine traffic, installed the Bolivian drug dictatorship of Luis Garcia Meza. Two of the Argentine officers involved turned out to be wanted Italian terrorists, Stefano delle Chiaie and Pierluigi Pagliai; together with the veteran Nazi fugitive and drug trafficker Klaus Barbie, the neo-fascists seized the radio station as a signal to launch the coup. Barbie and delle Chiaie were both deeply involved in the CAL project to identify and exterminate leftists and radical priests. Through this project delle Chiaie had advised d'Aubuisson by 1979; and at the September 1980 meeting of CAL in Argentina, delle Chiaie and d'Aubuisson met and arranged for weapons and money to be sent to d'Aubuisson in El Salvador. That 1980 CAL Conference was presided over by Argentine General Suarez Mason, today a fugitive wanted on charges arising from the Argentine junta's death squads. In attendance were Bolivia's dictator, Garcia Meza, wanted by U.S. drug authorities for his involvement in cocaine trafficking, and Argentine President Videla, today serving a life sentence for his policies of mass murder and torture. A featured speaker at the conference was Mario Sandoval Alarcon, who had brought his protege d'Aubuisson and arranged for him to be put in touch with delle Chiaie. What was being brokered at the September 1980 CAL Conference was nothing less than an "Argentine solution" of death squad dictatorships from Buenos Aires to Guatemala City. ... John Carbaugh met d'Aubuisson at the September 1980 CAL Conference ... In 1980 the incoming Reagan administration had links to the Latin American chapters of WACL, not just through P-2, but even more directly through Republican Senator Jesse Helms. Indeed Helms became a focal point for U.S. intelligence and Republican connections to CAL in Latin America, following a visit in 1975 to WACL headquarters in Taiwan. Helms also travelled to Argentina (via a WACL Conference in Rio) in April 1975; and at least two of his aides, Ramon Molina and Nat Hamrick returned, along with Daniel Graham, in early 1976, shortly before the Argentine generals' coup of March 24. Helms, according to Ramon Molina, "actually encouraged the military to move in and depose President Peron. The president in question was not Juan Peron, who had died in June 1974, but his widow, Isabelita, who was deposed in March 1976. This event followed from the more significant ouster in July 1975 of her mentor Jose Lopez Rega, the original fascist architect of the P-2/Italian terrorist presence in Argentina. The Argentinian army was responsible for both ousters, each of which followed a visit by Helms or his aides. The presence on the 1975 Helms delegation of two other associates (Victor Fediay and J. Evetts Haley), and the subsequent involvement of Daniel Graham, may help explain why the relatively inexperienced Senator from North Carolina (he had been elected in 1972) would involve himself in an Argentinian military takeover. In 1975 Fediay (a Russian emigre and prewar Polish fascist) and Haley (a Texas rancher) had just helped with Richard Allen to broker a request (which was eventually turned down) for U.S. backing behind a Eurofascist secessionist coup in the Azores (sponsored by the so-called Aginter-Presse intelligence service, with which delle Chiaie was affiliated). One can imagine that the message to the Argentine military was similar: the U.S. could support a military take-over, perhaps even death squads and terrorists like delle Chiaie, but only if the Lopez Rega connection to the newly forming Fascist International in 1975 was eliminated. This U.S.-Argentine connection in 1975-76 (Helms, Molina, Hamrick, Richard Stone, and Daniel Graham) would become the hard core Reagan-Sandoval-contra connection after 1980. We have seen how Graham and Singlaub assured Guatemalans in 1979 that "Mr. Reagan recognizes that a good deal of dirty work needs to be done. It was Helms who (after his aide John Carbaugh met d'Aubuisson at the September 1980 CAL Conference) received Sandoval's protege d'Aubuisson on an illegal visit in December 1980. (Since that time Carbaugh has worked closely with Mario Sandoval Alarcon's nephew, Carlos Midence Pivaral, to fashion a more marketable and "Republican" image for d'Aubuisson's new party, ARENA.)"

April 22, 1981, New York Times, 'Behind Senator Helms, A Cherubic Assistant Reigns': "His name does not appear on any of the walnut doors that line the corridors of the two Senate office buildings, nor has he ever voted ''yea'' or ''nay'' in the Senate chamber. But John E. Carbaugh might just as well be called a senator, for his influence has come to rival many of that institution's more visible elected members. Mr. Carbaugh, whose official title is foreign policy adviser to Senator Jesse Helms, Republican of North Carolina, underscores a fact of political life that is little known outside of Washington, namely that through persistence, contacts, shrewdness and legislative expertise Senate aides can exert power that far surpasses their official rank and salaries. ... Examples of his influence abound: - He was a major force in the decision of the State Department and the White House last month to cut off aid to Nicaragua, despite concerns among policy makers that termination of aid might alienate Nicaragua from the United States, according to White House and State Department officials. - He persistently lobbied the White House and the State and Defense Departments to win appointments to key policy posts for conservatives, including Fred C. Ikle, former chief of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency under Presidents Ford and Nixon, who has been named Under Secretary of Defense for policy, according to the same officials. - Acting on behalf of Senator Helms he has opposed the appointments of individuals viewed as too liberal or too close to former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger. His political pressure is said to have contributed to the long delays in White House nominations of dozens of officials in defense and foreign policy jobs."

March 24, 2006, Washington Post, 'Helms Foreign Policy Adviser John Carbaugh, 60': "John Carbaugh, 60, once an adviser to Sen. Jesse Helms and a leading member of the senator's "shadow State Department" that actively promoted foreign policies with a highly anti-communist edge, died March 19 at the Cleveland Clinic. He had a brain aneurysm and a staph infection. Although little known to the public, Mr. Carbaugh had considerable clout on Capitol Hill while working for Helms (R-N.C.) as a foreign policy adviser from 1974 to 1982. Now retired, Helms was a powerful member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and was often angry with the direction of U.S. foreign policy when it appeared to differ from his stark anti-communism. Mr. Carbaugh and other aides were often dispatched to report back to Helms about a country's political situation. Latin America became a focal point, with Mr. Carbaugh once saying President Jimmy Carter was carrying on a "dangerous flirtation" with leftist regimes there. Mr. Carbaugh conveyed political support to right-leaning dictators and candidates, many with severely criticized human rights records, such as Roberto D'Aubuisson in El Salvador and Anastasio Somoza in Nicaragua. Journalist Roy Gutman wrote in the 1988 book "Banana Diplomacy" that Mr. Carbaugh influenced the Republican Party platform toward supporting the "contra" guerrillas fighting the Marxist Sandinista rulers in Nicaragua. "I have no apologies for what we did because we were fighting totalitarianism and communism," Mr. Carbaugh later told a North Carolina reporter. "Helms was very useful to the U.S. government because as a so-called right-winger, when he said something, the conservatives in Latin America or South Africa listened to him." Speaking about Mr. Carbaugh, Helms once told the New York Times: "Every now and then I have to rein him in a bit, but I'd rather have someone creative and an activist on my staff than someone who sits around waiting for instructions. He has some influence, and he makes life tough for some people. But I'm proud of him for it. That's part of the game." In perhaps his most audacious move, Mr. Carbaugh and another aide traveled to England in 1979 during negotiations to settle the civil strife in the British colony of Rhodesia, soon to become Zimbabwe. There was a minor uproar at the State Department when Helms's employees reportedly passed word to outgoing Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith to "hang on" and not surrender many rights of the white community. According to news reports, Mr. Carbaugh and an associate said the United States would lift sanctions against Rhodesia regardless of the outcome at the London talks. This was said to have complicated diplomatic negotiations and led Secretary of State Cyrus Vance to protest the aides' interference. In 1982, Mr. Carbaugh quietly left Helms's office amid media attention about funding for the political trips abroad. Many were subsidized by tax-exempt conservative institutes of which he and Helms were officers. One group, the Institute of American Relations, was heavily funded by the oil heir Nelson Bunker Hunt. Mr. Carbaugh served on several Reagan-era presidential task forces and, until his death, had a lucrative business offering strategic advice to foreign trading companies, particularly in Japan. John Edward Carbaugh Jr., an Oakton resident, was born in Greenville, S.C., on Sept. 4, 1945. He was a 1967 graduate of Sewanee -- the University of the South in Tennessee and a 1973 graduate of the University of South Carolina law school. Early on, he was an aide to Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.). After joining Helms's staff, Mr. Carbaugh worked to oppose the Panama Canal and strategic arms limitation treaties. He encouraged Helms to hold up executive-branch nominations of those whose political convictions both men questioned as insufficiently conservative. Mr. Carbaugh was part of the Reagan transition team at the State Department. Although he sought a prominent diplomatic posting, Secretary of State Alexander Haig offered him the American ambassadorship in Paraguay. "I am deeply honored," he said he told Haig, "but I can serve the country better on Capitol Hill than in Paraguay." Although Mr. Carbaugh could be condescending toward those who veered from his political beliefs, many found him an amusing meal companion. He enjoyed blunt debate with such liberal columnists as Mary McGrory, and he found Jack Anderson useful at times for leaks. "This town is full of vaulting egos," Mr. Carbaugh once told The Washington Post. "It takes a certain amount of self-confidence to live here. Anyway, if I'm just 10 percent as effective as my critics claim I am, I'm happy." His marriage to Carol Ligon Carbaugh ended in divorce."

December 16, 1983, New York Times, 'Foreign affairs; Left Hand Right Hand': "For years now, U.S. foreign policy in Central America has been undermined by private or semi-private U.S. groups encouraging the extreme right to disregard official Washington warnings. A senior State Department official said not long ago that it must be dreadfully confusing for the local politicians. They are told publicly that the U.S. supports democracy and reforms, and opposes death squads and wanton murder of peasants. But then they hear whispers from Americans who seem influential that all this talk is for public consumption, and that the U.S. backs anyone who fights Communists. The contradiction is widely known in Washington. The private activities probably violate the Logan Act, passed in 1799 and still on the books. It forbids unauthorized U.S. citizens to deal with foreign governments in an attempt to influence foreign policy, which well-placed people were already trying to do in the earliest days of the Republic. Aaron Burr was an example. The act is considered virtually unenforceable now. But there are disturbing signs that private involvement in covert actions has substantially expanded well beyond political and economic measures, exemplified by the I.T.T. in Chile before the Pinochet coup, to paramilitary activities. Whether or not this subverts U.S. policy depends on what the policy really is. In any case, such involvement shields participants from the legal oversight mandated for specially cleared Congressional committees. According to Adm. Stansfield Turner, former C.I.A. Director, it also probably blocks C.I.A. control once operations are launched, risking runaway disasters. There is an argument in Washington about whether the Administration is deliberately disguising an attempt to overthrow the Sandinista Government in Nicaragua and help the far right elsewhere, or whether it is lax in reining in its own supporters. John Carbaugh, the busy former aide to Senator Jesse Helms, said flatly that the C.I.A. was totally in charge, sometimes through private contracts or by accepting ''contributions.'' These seem to include planes and possibly U.S. mercenaries sent to perform sabotage. Mr. Carbaugh has intimate knowledge of devious moves in Central America, but he doesn't hide his contempt for what the C.I.A. is doing. Philip Taubman and Jeff Gerth of The New York Times recently tracked several privately owned American planes involved in secret operations, but they haven't been able to pinpoint the source of the orders or the money. Argentine soldiers helped train ''contras'' in Honduras and plan attacks in Nicaragua before the Falkland war, but they are no longer available, Congressional sources say. The U.S. military and paramilitary network is now expanding through the region. The Administration says it endorses the efforts of the Latin Contadora group to demilitarize Central America and promote negotiated settlements. But U.S. actions cast doubt on the declarations, even as Henry Kissinger and his commission tour the area preparing to recommend huge sums of economic aid to evolve moderate regimes interested in negotiating. It is easier to see the political underpinning for the conflicting drive to the right. There are conservative ''think tanks'' in the Washington area that make a point of having good relations with such ultras as Salvador's Roberto D'Aubuisson and Guatemala's Mario Sandoval Alarcon, who are officially shunned by the U.S. because of their murderous reputations. Among them are the Council on Inter-American Security, the American Security Council, and the National Strategic Information Center, the last organized in the 1960's by William Casey, now C.I.A. Director. Retired U.S. military officers and former C.I.A. officials are among their active members. They travel to Central America, and arrange high-level meetings for their friends when they come to Washington. These sessions are then used by the Latins to spread word that they have confirmed secret U.S. Government backing, despite public denunciations. U.S. ambassadors have confided that they are powerless to reverse the impact. If the policy is what the Administration announces, to promote moderate, democratic regimes capable of social and economic development that will head off Communist advance, then it is being flouted by its servants and friends. If that is only lip service, it is not only deceiving the country and wasting a lot of money, it is compounding the danger. The jungle of intrigue, undercover attacks and provocation has helped make Central America the mess it is. There have been no successes. More militarization, in collusion with corporations, covert or open with U.S. troops, diminishes the prospects of both security and freedom. Mr. Kissinger should take the hidden side into account in his report."

September 22, 1985, Washington Post, 'A Vanguard For the Right; Activists Promote A New Establishment': "Among the first acts of Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr., on the second day of Reagan's first term, was the abrupt dismissal of the president's foreign policy transition team, which had been run by conservatives. The dominant figure on the team was John Carbaugh, then a foreign policy aide to Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), the New Right champion. Carbaugh compiled "hit lists" in black loose-leaf notebooks of ambassadors and Foreign Service officers he considered "unreliable," according to a former administration official who served on the transition team. By terminating the team, Haig was "sending a message to the FSOs that they shouldn't worry about these people," this source said. Helms, from his position on the Foreign Relations Committee, began delaying the confirmations of those he regarded as ideologically "unreliable." His aim was never mysterious: He would exchange these hostages for more movement appointments. Helms released Haig's appointees only after one of his own foreign policy aides, Richard T. McCormack, was named assistant secretary of state for economic affairs, according to a former administration official. (McCormack is now ambassador to the Organization of American States.) In 1982, a self-selected gathering of influential conservatives convened in a private dining room in the rear of the Brasserie restaurant, across the street from the Heritage Foundation. Their agenda included remedying the movement's isolation from the State Department. Among those present was CIA Director William J. Casey, who had been present at the movement's creation: He was the lawyer who incorporated National Review back in 1955. James L. Buckley, the former New York senator, as committed to the cause as his brother William, soon to be appointed president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, was there. So was Anthony Dolan, the president's rhetorician, who had been recommended for his job by William Buckley. (The idea for the meeting was Dolan's.) Also present was Frank Shakespeare, chairman of RKO and chairman of Heritage, a quietly ubiquitous figure who turns up at virtually all the movement's most important functions, from weddings to seminars. Shakespeare, who was director of the U.S. Information Agency in the Nixon administration, has been "responsible for many, many conservatives getting jobs," according to a top administration official. (Shakespeare was named this year to serve as U.S. ambassador to Portugal -- a plum, if a small one.) Fred Ikle, Scott Thompson, then associate director of USIA, and Edwin Feulner, president of the Heritage Foundation, joined the meeting, too. The assembled informally called themselves "The Group." "Inevitably, the personnel problem at the State Department came up," Dolan said in an interview. After two years of Brasserie lunches, The Group disbanded, having failed to breach the State Department walls. "The State Department," said Dolan, "will be the last citadel precisely because conservatives have been slow at gaining foreign policy credentials. Foreign Service bashing is silly. We need to learn from them.""

ON HELMS:

February 8, 1981, New York Times, 'Thunder from the right': "Helms's role in the Senate serves a number of political purposes. ''If Helms stakes an ultraconservative position,'' remarks one conservative Senator's aide, ''that draws the whole spectrum to the right. Helms is like a kind of insurance. You might have a burglar alarm that goes off too often. But at least it works when you need it.'' Even Helms's ideological ally James McClure admits that, ''There are times when, whether it's (liberal) Howard Metzenbaum or Jesse Helms, you wish they weren't out there playing their own game. But you have to have the radicals of the left and the right so you'll know where the center is.'' So one of Helms's obvious roles in the New Right is to set what the columnist George Will calls ''the outer limit of conservative activism.'' Helms's hand is also felt on foreign-policy issues, especially in Latin America and Africa. It is in the third world that Helms sees creeping Communism presenting the gravest peril to American survival. He unleashes his well-traveled aides, James Lucier, John Carbaugh and Richard McCormack, as watchdogs of international conservatism wherever he feels Western interests are threatened. This has meant lending support to the white-minority regimes in South Africa, Namibia (South-West Africa) and in Rhodesia before it became Zimbabwe. Helms calls them ''the only footholds we had left in Africa against Communism.'' Does he see Zimbabwe as merely a pawn in the East-West game? ''Right,'' he replies. Latin America, too? ''Right.'' Any hope today for Zimbabwe? ''We just talked Rhodesia into Page 84 the garbage dump. That country's gone.'' Helms created an international incident in 1979 when he sent Carbaugh and Lucier to London to monitor the talks that led to the transfer of power from Ian Smith's regime to the black leader Robert Mugabe. Helms's aides were accused of disrupting the negotiations by trying to give support to Smith and his black surrogate, Bishop Abel Muzorewa. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance stormed to Capitol Hill to lodge a protest with Frank Church, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (''the only time I've ever seen Cy Vance truly angry,'' said one person present). Vance claimed that the British had officially complained of interference by Lucier and Carbaugh, which perhaps was an overstatement. Helms, though, was prepared: ''I called Maggie Thatcher. She didn't know anything about it.'' ''Jesse's got his own foreign policy,'' is how Wisconsin's William Proxmire sums it up. Though Helms had virtually never been abroad before joining the Senate in 1972, and has never traveled with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee since joining it two years ago, he is now in a position to make his anti-Communist foreign-policy views felt. In the new Congress, he has been named chairman of the Subcommittee for Hemispheric Affairs because, he says, ''If we don't start getting things straight with our own hemisphere, starting with Canada, Mexico and all the way south, our own stability is in jeopardy.'' Helms occasionally travels abroad at the expense of one of the four ''educational,'' tax-free institutes his aides have founded in Washington. Most of these trips have been to conservative countries like Taiwan or to those with right-wing military dictatorships, such as Brazil, Chile, Argentina and Uruguay. During such visits, Helms operates independently of the American Embassy ''except for a courtesy call on the way out of town.'' He collects data in support of the right-wing cause or to discredit such deposed - or assassinated - socialists as Salvador Allende of Chile. ''He was a moral bum,'' says Helms. ''He ruined the country, its economy. He kept a mistress out at a country place.'' Helms is known for having his own pipelines, independent of other members of the Foreign Relations Committee, to hawkish dissenters at the Defense Department and the C.I.A. who keep him abreast of creeping moderation in the national-security establishment. ''Sometimes the committee would meet in executive session for a topsecret briefing,'' remembers one person present, ''and you could tell Helms already knew the stuff. It was embarrassing.'' No matter what the issue, one is almost certain to find the hand of the far right's Horatius stirring things up. ''He's the Ted Kennedy of the right,'' says one detractor, who nonetheless admires his political skill. ''He gets into everything.'' If the 1980 election was Jesse Helms's personal moment of triumph after years as a senatorial lone wolf, and if the New Right generally saw it as a turning point, 1981 has already had its disappointments. The unswerving Helms-McClure faction was outraged when Ronald Reagan appointed a Cabinet that only partially fulfilled conservative hopes. David Stockman at the Office of Management and Budget, John Edwards as dismantler of the Department of Energy, James Watt as an Interior Secretary who regards many environmentalists as ''obstructionists,'' General Haig at State and the Democratic neoconservative Jeane Kirkpatrick at the United Nations -these were their kind of people. But managerial wizard Weinberger at Defense, former Wall Street broker Donald Regan at Treasury, especially Terrel Bell at Education, where he was making noises about maybe not abolishing the department - these were disappointments. The conservatives have ways (beyond opposing appointees) to hold Ronald Reagan's feet to the fire. For example, Helms constantly invokes Mr. Reagan's name to hold him to issues the new President may now want to avoid. On the day Helms reintroduced his bill for a constitutional amendment banning abortion, he told a cheering rightto-life assemblage, ''If I know Ronald Reagan, he's not backing down. And, for what it's worth, neither is Jesse Helms.'' Mr. Reagan, who showed himself through his appointments to be a more pragmatic compromiser than some conservatives had expected, may not see it this way. ''There isn't going to be an abortion amendment, and Helms knows it,'' explains one activist in the Reagan-Bush campaign. ''You'd see lawlessness in this country to make Prohibition look like a picnic.'' Sensing their slippage, Helms's forces fought back. Again there was talk of running him for Vice President in 1984, a reminder to George Bush to eschew the politics of his Eastern Establishment past. This Vice-Presidential threat is the same tactic used to force Bush's endorsement of the hard-line 1980 party platform, which Helms and his allies wrote, and about which Helms says he got ''99 percent of what I wanted.''"

Source(s): Cercle's 1982 Wildbad Kreuth and 1984 Bonn meeting lists; Adrian Hanni (also went in 1986)

Legis. assistant to Senator James A. McClure US Senate, Washington, 1973, staff member budget communications task force, 1974-75, executive director steering committee, 1975-80; staff director Senate Rep. Conference, 1981-84; executive director Council for National Policy, 1985-86; assistant secretary for legis. affairs US Department Defense, 1986-89; vice president for government relations The Heritage Foundation, 1989-90; chief staff to Senator Thad Cochran US Senate, 1991-97; consultant National Security, 1997-98; commissioner Commission to Assess the Organization of Federal Government. Staff director national security and foreign policy subcoms. for Rep. platform, 1984, Washington. Trustee Philadelphia Society, Washington, 1987-88, 93—95, president, 1995-96; board advisors, Marine Corps University (Quantico), 1995-2006. Roman Catholic.

January 28, 1986, Washington Post, 'Talking Points; Proposal to Honor Savimbi Squelched': "New Pentagon Lobbyist . . . At the Pentagon one hears that Margo Carlisle, former executive director of the Senate's Republican Conference, is to be named assistant defense secretary for legislative affairs. As the Defense Department's chief lobbyist on Capitol Hill, Carlisle would be the highest-ranking woman at the Pentagon."

December 4, 1980, New York Times, 'Essay; The Madison Group': "On Jan. 4 of this year , a dozen men gathered in Room 607 of the Madison Hotel in Washingto n, D.C., to see what they could do to oust soft-liners from power. Most were about 35 years old; all were hawks in foreign policy and defense fields; all were present or former Congressional staffers; all had security clearances of top secret or higher. For students of Washington's underground ''power ronde,'' where old-boy networks are replaced by new-boy networks, which in turn are ousted by newer-boy networks, the bipartisan Madison Group - which met every other Friday for lunch to devise ways to bedevil, embarrass and defeat the doves in high places - offers a fascinating case study. The organizer was John Carbaugh, who had been press aide to Strom Thurmond, earned a law degree, and has served Jesse Helms since 1974. Carbaugh had helped orchestrate the blocking of SALT II ratification in 1979; he formed the Institute of American Relations, a tax-exempt foundation that netted a half-million dollars to finance a newsletter and later publish a book, ''A Program for Military Independence''; it also paid for lunches and trips for the Madison Group. Among the early members were Sven Kraemer, (Senator Tower's staff), Quentin Crommelin Jr. (Thurmond), Tidal McCoy (Garn), Richard Perle (ex-Jackson), William Schneider (Representative Kemp), Michel Pillsbury (Senate Steering), David Sullivan (Senator Gordon Humphrey), Jack Davis (Stone), Robert Andrews (Glenn), Mark Schneider (Garn), Angelo Cordevilla (Wallop), Margo Carlisle (McClure). The ''outsider'' was Charles Kupperman, of the Committee on the Present Danger, who later became informal liaison with Ronald Reagan's Richard Allen. The Madison Group was loose, inchoate, but effective in drawing issues - burying SALT II, challenging aid to Nicaragua's leftists, and above all increasing the defense budget. At the same time, some members excelled in channeling otherwise unobtainable information about U.S. weaknesses to like-minded members of the media. By combining legislative initiatives with news management, the Group imitated and countered the manipulation of its mirror-image in the Administration - the group of doves that John Carbaugh likes to call ''the Mondale mafia.'' Most of the time, the Madison Group operated as a separate locus of power, with the staffers' senators not fully knowing (or wanting to know) what their employees were doing. Thus, Carbaugh's operation can be viewed as (1) a cabal of ambitious, unsupervised ideologues out to grab power, or (2) a patriotic task force drawn together by a great issue - the dangerous drift of American security. ''We stole the doves' idea,'' explains Carbaugh today. In the 1976 interregnum, accommodationists shrewdly helped each other into second-level positions of policy formulation and operational influence. As a result, the dovish mindsets of William Miller, Richard Moose, David Aaron, Anthony Lake, David McGiffert, Roger Molander and Marshall Schulman reinforced one another and determined the Carter Administration's foreign-defense course, easily turning aside the half-hearted hawkishness of a Brzezinski. Today, the Madison Group seeks to follow that example. The Reagan Defense transition team is staffed by Carbaugh, Kraemer, McCoy, Perle and Bill Schneider; the Reagan Arms Control team has Pillsbury and Sullivan; the Reagan State Department team has Carbaugh and Perle, and the C.I.A. team has Cordevilla and Mark Schneider. The Group is ''in.'' The Mondale set is still fighting -Bill Miller of the Senate Intelligence Committee staff was able to get Barry Goldwater to fire a couple of the best Madison groupies, who were promptly rehired after the intercession of other members' senators. Now that they're triumphant, will the Madison Group cling together in power as well as those derided as the ''Mondale mafia''? Probably not: power's bells are breaking up that old gang of mine. Carbaugh and Pillsbury are frowning at each other on the issue of loyalty to Richard Allen; pro-Haig and anti-Haig lines are already being drawn; the outgoing network is seeding the media with horrific tales of the ''cabal,'' and some associates of Group members are still in such a leaky habit that The New York Times has been receiving copies of all transition memos even before the Reagan himuckeymucks do. Despite these cracks in what used to be a united front, the Madison Group -that newest-boy-network, plus Margo - will slot itself into the niche now occupied by its ideological adversary. That's healthy; when the voters speak, the bureaucracy should respond. The power ronde never ends. Even as I write, some of the more ambitious dov es are thinking of forming a group to get out the truth about what th e Madison Group does while in power. Good! They know where they ca n reach me."

November 9, 1995, National Journal, 'Staff Profile: Margo Carlisle': "You won't find Margo Carlisle, chief of staff to Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., with the rest of Cochran's staff in the Russell Senate Office Building. Carlisle's office is situated on the labyrinthine Third Floor of the Capitol. The location is telling. An expert on Senate rules, Carlisle is usually on the Senate floor or at the joint House-Senate leadership meetings that take place almost directly below her office. ''It's a little different from what other chiefs of staff do,'' she said, ''because Sen. Cochran has explicitly put me in a leadership role.'' Cochran is the chairman of the Senate Republican Conference. Carlisle, a native Rhode Islander working at the time for a Boston publisher, became interested in politics on the day that a friend dragged her to a speech at Boston University by then- Sen. Barry Goldwater, R-Ariz. ''What he said seemed perfectly obvious to me,'' she recalled recently. And so she volunteered for Goldwater's ill-fated 1964 presidential campaign. In a sense, Carlisle's career in Washington has come full circle. In 1973 she went to work for Sen. James A. McClure, R- Idaho. She eventually became staff director of the Republican Conference, which McClure headed. When Cochran was elected chairman, he turned to Carlisle. And so, after stints at the Defense Department as assistant secretary for legislative affairs and at the Heritage Foundation as vice president for government affairs, Carlisle is once again working for the Senator who chairs the Republican Conference."

Source(s): June 29, 1997, The Independence, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club; Is it the ultimate dishonour' (named as once a regular)

Irish-American catholic from Queens, born in 1913. Graduated from the Jesuit Fordham University in New York in 1934 and St. John's University School of Law in 1937. Also attended the Catholic University of America. After law school, he joined the Research Institute of America in Washington. Chairman of the board of editors of the Research Institute of America 1938-1949. Joined the Navy in 1943. In 1943, William Donovan, founding head of the OSS, hired Casey to organize the OSS secretariat. After that, he was sent to London and was soon managing the infiltration of Allied agents into Nazi Germany from there. At one point he had 150 agents reporting directly to him from occupied Europe. These included Richard Helms, like Casey, a later director of the CIA; and John Singlaub, a later Army general deeply involved in anti-communist warfare. Allen Dulles, William Colby, James Jesus Angleton, and David Bruce were among his OSS colleagues during WWII. December 17, 1986, Chicago Sun-Times, '...perhaps, but secrecy is vital to foreign policy': ""Great secrecy was necessary," Winston Churchill told a cheering Parliament, as he revealed the first Nazi surrender at the close of World War II, capitulation in Italy. It followed months of top-secret talks between German commanders and Office of Strategic Services "spy master" Allen Dulles, later the celebrated director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Historians have suggested that Dulles' triumph, code-named Operation Sunrise, was diplomatically flawed, that excluding the Soviets from those meetings - for the sake of secrecy - triggered the initial distrust between Allies that led to the Cold War. But in [March] 1945, few Americans would have doubted that ending the fighting was worth a spat with "Uncle Joe" Stalin. Sunrise was a milestone in the annals of U.S. secret intelligence, marking the start of that postwar crypto-diplomacy twilight zone where secret agents often supplant striped-pants ambassadors. And William J. Casey was there, privy to the secret as one of the best and brightest of young OSS executives. Now, 40 years later, he is the latest of Dulles' unenviable successors as head of the CIA." After the war, Casey was offered senior jobs in U.S. intelligence, but turned them down because he thought he should establish his financial independence first. Developed his publishing business and thrived as a tax lawyer, making a personal fortune estimated at between $8 and $12 million, and earning a reputation as a corporate dealer willing to take almost any risk if the potential return was worth it. Published a series of about 20 books explaining the intricacies of complex legislation. Special counsel of the small business committee of the U.S. Senate 1947-1948. Associate general counsel at the European headquarters of the Marshall Plan 1948. Jean Monnet from France (and initial member of Le Cercle) was one of the key players here. Lecturer tax law New York University 1948-1962. Lecturer Practicing Law Institute of New York City 1950-1962. Co-founder of Capital Cities in 1954, together with Lowell Thomas (Pilgrims Society; friend of the Dulles brothers) and Thomas E. Dewey (Pilgrims Society; friend of the Dulles brothers). Later director of Capital Cities was Alger Chapman (Pilgrims; also close to Dulles brothers and Dewey). Thomas reportedly was also connected to Lansky's mafia. Capital Cities grew so powerful that it was able to buy the entire ABC TV network in 1985, which was ten times as big. Casey supposedly still had a significant interest in the company through a blind trust created when he became CIA director in 1981. Cap Cities/ABC was bought in 1996 by Walt Disney, who changed its name back to ABC. February 20-27, 1987 issue of The LA Weekly, 'The Seizing of the American Broadcasting Company by Andy Boehm': "Cap Cities was founded in 1954 by several men who were or would become prominent. Chief among them, and the principal players in the company, were famed explorer-newscaster [Lowell] Thomas; Tom Dewey... and William J. Casey, who was Cap Cities’ chief counsel and a member of its board of directors until 1981, when he joined the Reagan administration. He still owns $7.5 million in stock in the now-merged entity called CC/ABC, his largest holding. ... (Allen Dulles, a friend, wartime colleague and, rumor has it, business partner of Casey.) Lowell Thomas was a larger-than-life figure — an explorer, a broadcast personality, a film documentarist and a best-selling author. The Soviets long accused Thomas of also being an American intelligence agent because he often appeared with photographers and film crews at highly sensitive points of “communist versus the Free World” conflict. Thomas, though he had at minimum good journalistic connections in the U.S. intelligence community, always denied being a spook in the face of published articles questioning his activities. But he made no bones about his staunch anti-communist leanings. (He even appeared with John Wayne, Martha Raye and several U.S. generals in No Substitute for Victory, a denunciation of commie-coddling sponsored by the far-right John Birch Society.) Thomas lived in a New York state enclave for the rich where one of his neighbors was Thomas E. Dewey. (Another was Lawrence E. Walsh, later to become special prosecutor in the Iran-Contra affair.) ... Joining Dewey and the Murphy family in Cap Cities ownership were powerful New York GOP leader Alger Chapman and, for balance, John McGrath, who managed Democrat Averill Harriman’s New York gubernatorial races in the 1950s. ... Kohn has reported that both the CIA (via Dulles) and the Mafia (via Lansky) funneled money and valuable information to Dewey’s political campaigns as well as to Dewey’s protege, Richard Nixon, and to Nixon’s pal Florida Sen. George Smathers...Rolling Stone in 1977, after being legally challenged by Resorts, retracted a story that CIA Director Allen Dulles was majorly involved in the buyout. Quoting CIA sources, Kohn wrote that in 1958 Dulles gave Dewey and Thomas $2 million in CIA money to set up a front company." Partner in Hall, Casey, Dickler & Howley 1957-1971. Founded the National Strategy Information Center in 1962, with alleged CIA links, to push for increased military spending. Member General Advisory Committee on Arms Control 1970-1971. Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission 1971-1973. April 29, 1974, Time, 'Their Own Best Witnesses': "John Mitchell, 60, the former U.S. Attorney General, and Maurice Stans, 66, the former Secretary of Commerce, had in a measure won their gamble-though not necessarily their cases. They had indeed been their own best witnesses against the Government's charges that they had plotted to gain special favors in Washington for Financier Robert Vesco, 38, in exchange for the moneyman's secret $200,000 cash contribution to Richard Nixon's 1972 presidential campaign... It simply never occurred to him, insisted Mitchell, that Vesco had given the $200,000 in order to get help in his struggle with the Securities and Exchange Commission (which eventually charged Vesco and 41 associates with perpetrating a $224 million stock fraud)... Mitchell freely admitted, as the prosecution charged, that after Vesco's donation was received he set up a meeting between the financier's lawyer and William Casey, then head of the SEC." Undersecretary of State for Economic Affairs 1973-1974. Member of the Council on Foreign Relations since the 1970s. Member of the Atlantic Council of the United States. President of the Export-Import Bank of the U.S. 1974-1975. Member President Ford's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board 1974-1976. Member of the in 1976 revived Committee on Present Danger, a reactionary anti-communist think tank that included people like John F. Lehman, Clare Booth Luce, Paul H. Nitze, Richard Perle (friend of Brian Crozier, head of Le Cercle at that time), Richard Pipes, (a later associate of Crozier), Eugene Rostow, Admiral Elmo Zumwalt (former Chief of Naval Operations), George Shultz (Pilgrims), Richard Stilwell (Le Cercle), Richard Allen, Jeane Kirkpatrick (Cercle), and David Packard. Co-founder of the Jamestown Foundation in 1984, together with the Cercle member Donald Jameson. The Jamestown Foundation's purpose was to protect and sponsor a group of high-level international defectors as they travelled the United States speaking out against the tyranny of communism. Today, the Jamestown Foundation has three program areas: China, Russia/Eurasia, and Terrorism, and counts the involvement of Glen Howard (SAIC; DoD; National Intelligence Council; Mid-East and Central-Asia oil consultant), James Woolsey, Zbigniew Brzezinski (attended at least one Le Cercle meeting), Dick Cheney, and Frank Carlucci. Counsel at Rogers & Wells 1976-1981, the law firm that represented Wackenhut. Outside legal advisor to Wackenhut during this time.

Campaign manager of Ronald Reagan in 1980. Robert Keith Gray, chair of Hill & Knowlton, the all-powerful (described by critics as a "secret government") Washington-based lobbying firm, was deputy director of communications in Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign. Gray reported directly to Casey. Sen. John DeCamp, 'The Franklin Cover-Up,' second edition, p.178-179: "Said to be Harold Anderson's [chair Larry King's Franklin Credit Union advisory board and part of Larry King's Nebraskan homosexual, pedophile, and ritual sacrifice ring] closest friend in Washington," Gray is also reportedly a specialist in homosexual blackmail operations for the CIA. Gray's own sexual proclivities were the subject of an article in the July-August 1982 issue of the The Deep Backgrounder, entitled "Reagan Inaugural Co-Chairman Powerful 'Closet Homosexual'?" The Deep Backgrounder tabloid featured exposes of homosexual networks in Washington, D.C.; its contributing editor was former CIA official Victor Marchetti. During the Watergate era, Robert Keith Gray served on the board of Consultants International, founded CIA agent Edwin Wilson [of Shackley's secret team]. When Wilson and fellow agent Frank Terpil got caught running guns abroad, Gray tried to deny his connection with Wilson. "Yet ten years before," according to Peter Maas' book Manhunt, "in a top secret Navy review of Wilson's intelligence career, Gray described Wilson as a person of 'unqualified trust,' with whom he'd been in contact 'professionally two or three times a month' since 1963."

Sen. John DeCamp goes on to quote from the book 'Secret Agenda' of Jim Hougan: "According to fugitive ex-CIA officer Frank Terpil, CIA-directed sexual blackmailing operations were intensive in Washington at about the time of the Watergate scandal. One of those operations, Terpil claims, was run by his former partner, Ed Wilson. Wilson's base of operations for arranging trysts for the politically powerful was, Terpil says, Korean agent Ton Sun Park’s George Town Club. In a letter to the author, Terpil explained that ‘Historically, one of Wilson’s Agency jobs was to subvert members of both houses [of Congress] by any means necessary... Certain people could be easily coerced by living out their sexual fantasies in the flesh... A remembrance of these occasions [was] permanently recorded via selected cameras... The technicians in charge of filming. . .[were] TSD [Technical Services Division of the CIA]... The unwitting porno stars advanced in their political careers, some of [whom] may still be in office."

Besides Terpil, (UPDATE: likely bogus) affidavits written and signed by Col. Edward P. Cutolo (assassinated) and special forces soldier William Tyree (in jail for murdering his wife. Cutolo - his boss -, and others, confirm Tyree was framed) confirm part of this story. Cutolo and Tyree talked about Operation Watch Tower, one of the many government-sanctioned drug-importing operations (from Escobar's Colombia to Noriega's Panama, over sea), and Operation Orwell, which was a specific program to spy on politicians and other important people to make sure A) that no outsiders were aware of Operation Watch Tower B) that the Army would have advance warning if anyone might want to expose the operation, and C) that some dirt could be gathered on those who might some day be in a position to expose Operation Watch Tower. Edwin Wilson was Cutolo's and Tyree's superior officer. Cutolo said something highly interesting in his affidavit: "I was notified by Edwin Wilson that the information forwarded to Wash. D.C., was disseminated to private corporations who were developing weapons for the Dept. of Defense. Those private corporations were encouraged to use the sensitive information gathered from surveillance on U.S. Senators and Representatives as leverage to manipulate those Congressmen into approving whatever costs the weapons systems incurred... As of the date of this affidavit, 8,400 police departments, 1,370 churches, and approx. 17,900 citizens have been monitored under Operation Orwell. The major churches targeted have been Catholic and Latter Day Saints [Mormons]... Per orders from Edwin Wilson, I did not discuss the implementation of Operation Orwell with my staff or others outside of the personnel assigned to surveillance. The only matter discussed with Operation Orwell personnel was what the SATs needed to know in order to carry out their mission. Certain information was collected on suspected members of the Trilateral Commission and the Bilderberg group... Among those that information was collected on were Gerald Ford and President Jimmy Carter. Edwin Wilson indicated that additional surveillance was implemented against former CIA director George Bush, who Wilson named as a member of the Trilateral Commission. I do not have personal knowledge that Ford, Carter, or Bush were under surveillance."

According to the affidavit, Wilson was involved in parallel operations with people like Thomas Clines, Robert Gates and William Casey. Col. Cutolo expressed his concerns to superiors that Wilson was talking too much. A few years later Wilson ended up in jail. Cutolo ended up dead. Ton Sun Park, the owner of the George Town Club where Wilson ran his sexual blackmail scheme, was an associate of radical cult leader Sun Myung Moon. October 31, 1978, a report printed for the use of the Committee on International Relations, 'Investigation of Korean-American Relations': "During 1976, the subcommittee also received information about an apparent attempt by Moon and his followers--along with Tong-sun Park--to buy a controlling interest in the Diplomat National Bank (DNB), which opened in Washington D.C., in December 1975. Neil Salonen, president of the UC of America, was called to testify concerning this and other allegations. Salonen said he had bought DNB stock at the suggestion of Pak Bo Hi, but denied the UC was in any way involved in financing the DNB stock purchases." Moon has been a major anti-communist activist and is connected to all the reactionary elements within this movement, most notably those involved with the World Anti-Communist League. These include Cercle members Count Hans Huyn and Otto von Habsburg in Bavaria, Germany, Paul Vanden Boeynants in Belgium, and Arnaud de Borchgrave, Rev. Jerry Falwell, George Bush, John Singlaub, and many others in the United States. Moon has also been tied to sexual blackmail rings. December 20, 2002 issue of Executive Intelligence Review (EIR), 'The 'No Soul' Gang Behind Reverend Moon's Gnostic Sex Cult': "The sex is a specialty of Moon's own Gnostic "family" cult. Remember the Congressional Madam scandals of the 1970s, featuring Tong Sun Park and Suzy Park Thomson? That was just the tip of the iceberg of "The Reverend" Moon's sexual-favors operation. Military intelligence officers who investigated Unification Church operations in Washington in the 1970s and '80s, report that the recruitment device used on ranking, conservative political and military officials was to hold weekly orgies, arranged by Col. Bo Hi Pak, the Unification Church official who was a top officer of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA). The special treat at these affairs were the "Little Angels"—Korean schoolgirls brought over by Moon as a singing group. The photo files from these sessions are reported to be a powerful influence in certain circles to this very day." DeCamp again, p. 179-180: "Gray’s associate Wilson was apparently continuing the work of a reported collaborator of Gray from the 1950’s—McCarthy committee counsel Roy Cohn [of Permindex, according to EIR; and connections to Fascist International in Europe since the early 1950s], now dead of AIDS. According to the former head of the vice squad for one of America’s biggest cities, ‘Cohn’s job was to run the little boys. Say you had an admiral, a general, a congressman, who did not want to go along with the program. Cohn’s job was to set them up, then they would go along. Cohn told me that himself.’ The first president of Tong Sun Park’s George Town Club, where Wilson’s sexual blackmail operations were reportedly run, was Robert Keith Gray. The first president of Tong Sun Park's George Town Club [in Washington], where Wilson's sexual blackmail operations were reportedly run, was Robert Keith Gray. Gray maintained his intelligence connections during the Reagan Administration, according to an affidavit filed... by Daniel Sheehan for the Christic Institute. The affidavit states that when CIA chief Casey, national security adviser Robert McFarlane, and NSC staff member Lt. Col. Oliver North were devising a method to circumvent a congressional ban on arming the Contras, they turned to Gray and Company. Gray employee Rob Owen set up a private group to solicit funds for the Contras. Owen was called before Congress, to testify on how he delivered bags of cash to the Contras [in return for the dope?]. In February 1989, Hill and Knowlton's Charles Perkins rushed to New York, for a fraction of the firm's usual fee, to help with public relations for Covenant House. The youth organization's director, Father Bruce Ritter, was alleged to have molested youth who took refuge with him." Larry King (not the one from CNN), the person who headed the Nebraskan pedophile, homosexual, and ritual sacrifice ring, greatly admired Casey. September 7, 1988, interview of the Metropolitan with Larry King (as quoted by Sen. John DeCamp in his book 'The Franklin Cover-Up,' second edition, p.175): "I know some of the people I admire aren't very popular. Ed Meese. The late Bill Casey of the CIA. And I love former Chief Justice Burger [Pilgrims Society]. Those are the people I really like to talk to. Bill Casey... I just thought so very highly of him." On page 327 and 329, Sen. John DeCamp, who has claimed he is barred from discussion large portions of the Franklin Affair case, adds some more context: "Larry King, FBI agent Gerry Wahl, Alan Baer, Harold Andersen, and former Omaha Police Chief Robert Wadman have all been reported as collaborators with this Satanic military-based ring. King reportedly told Paul's captors at Offutt, "He's young-but you trained him good." A member of Nebraska's Concerned Parents group reported hearing from two North Omaha witnesses that "King used to send limousines down to Offutt Air Base to pick up CIA agents for parties." Larry King reported his own adoring relationship to the late CIA Director William Casey in a Sept. 7, 1988, interview in the Omaha publication Metropolitan... Paul Bonacci reports the following "Monarch"-related activities, often involving his "Commander" at Offutt AFB, Bill Plemmons, and Lt. Col. Michael Aquino..."Although most people who attended Larry King's parties, were not aware of his pedophile network, Casey seems to awfully close involved with this person and some of the accused. In fact, his working partner George Bush Sr. (Julie Walters report, p.12; DeCamp adds "This was not the last time that the name of George Bush would surface in the Franklin affair") has been named as a member of the homosexual pedophile ring while Reagan's daughter was also close to King. DeCamp, p. 55: "It was the most impressive party I had ever witnesses... The attendance by top politicians was remarkable... At the center of the excitement was Larry King. Draped over him like a blanket throughout the evening was a heavyset woman, who I learned was Maureen Reagan, the president's daughter... I got to wondering... how does he do this supposedly on a salary of $16 thousand a year?" The Franklin Credit Union scandal (which laundered money for the CIA) broke in November 1988. Within a year, in June 1989, a new scandal broke with close ties to the Franklin Credit Union and Larry King's pedophile/homosexual/ritual sacrifice network. Craig J. Spence, who seemed to have had the same clandestine job as Larry King, albeit in Washington instead of Nebraska, was investigated for illegally having organized a midnight White House tour and for running a pedophile/homosexual extortion network. Casey is known to have attended parties of Spence. Also, later on, Spence would have remarked just before his death that "Casey's boys" were after him. June 30, 1989, Washington Times, 'Power broker served drugs, sex at parties bugged for blackmail': "Craig J. Spence, an enigmatic figure who threw glittery parties for key officials of the Reagan and Bush administrations, media stars and top military officers, bugged the gatherings to compromise guests, provided cocaine, blackmailed some associates and spent up to $20,000 a month on male prostitutes, according to friends, acquaintances and records... The man, a business associate of Mr. Spence who was on the White House tour [arranged by Spence and attended by two male prostitutes], said: "He was blackmailing people. He was taping people and blackmailing them."... After arriving in Washington in the late 1970s, Mr. Spence was hosting parties during the early Reagan years attended by, among others... former CIA Director William Casey [and] Gen. Alfred M. Gray [named by Kay Griggs as one of the top players in a network of criminal covert ops and sexual blackmail], the commandant of the Marine Corps... The businessman said this week that he did not know exactly what work Mr. Spence did, but that he often bragged about his contacts with Japanese businessmen and political leaders, particularly Mr. Nakasone. He described Mr. Spence as "strange," saying that he often boasted that he was working for the CIA... The businessman also said he attended a birthday bash for Roy Cohn at Mr. Spence's house. He said Mr. Casey was at the party." Roy Cohn, as an aide to Senator Joseph "reds under the bed" McCarthy, was accused in the early 1950s as an associate of the post-WWII Fascist underground of Skorzeny, Schacht, and Naumann while visiting Europe. Cohn, together with some members of the Fascist International, was later named by EIR as an initial director of Permindex, a corporation set up in 1958 which is suspected of having been a front organization in the planning of the John F. Kennedy assassination. As mentioned earlier, Cohn supposedly "ran the little boys". Arnaud de Borchgrave is also known to have attended a party at Spence's house. De Borchgrave, an intelligence-connected anti-communist radical and good friends with Sun Myung Moon, is a descendant of an obscure Belgian noble family. An unknown member of this family has coincidentally been named by one of the Belgian X-File witnesses, who came out in the aftermath of the Dutroux affair. Count Alexandre de Marenches, a good friend of Casey and Vernon Walters, is a cousin of the De Borchgrave family. November 13, 1989, Washington Times, 'In death, Spence stayed true to form': "Craig J. Spence, the once-powerful lobbyist who entertained and influenced Washington's elite, died Friday... On a mirror in Room 429 of the Ritz Carlton Hotel, Mr. Spence on Friday left his final enigma in the form of a suicide note... During the past few weeks, Mr. Spence told several friends that the call-boy operation was being investigated by the U.S. Attorney's Office and other federal authorities as a possible CIA front. He told the friends that the CIA used the service to compromise other federal intelligence officials and foreign diplomats... One friend quoted him as saying, "Casey's boys are out to get me," an apparent reference to former CIA Director William Casey, now deceased. Mr. Casey and Mr. Spence were friends, and the former CIA director attended parties hosted by the former lobbyist... During a lengthy interview at a Manhattan apartment in August, Mr. Spence frequently alluded to deep mysteries. "All this stuff you've uncovered (involving call boys, bribery and the White House tours), to be honest with you, is insignificant compared to other things I've done. But I'm not going to tell you those things, and somehow the world will carry on." February 2, 1990, Washington Times, 'Prostitutes corroborate Frank stories': "Penthouse magazine's anxiously awaited account of sexual adventuring by congressmen quotes a female prostitute as corroborating Steven L. Gobie's earlier story that Rep. Barney Frank knew Gobie was operating a bordello in the congressman's Capitol Hill apartment... The magazine [Penthouse] said Mr. Spence had agreed to "provide lurid details of Washington's bisexual wonderland." But before the interview could occur, Mr. Spence committed suicide in Boston on Nov. 10... According to Gobie, Mr. Spence told him, "Do you know what kind of power you can have over people if you've got something on them? . . . I need boys and girls for people in government and high-level businessmen for my parties, for individuals, for whatever comes up." The magazine quoted Gobie as saying Mr. Spence was "the most dangerous man I'd ever met. If he hadn't turned into such a crackhead, he could have blackmailed half this town. He used to say, 'Hey, foreign intelligence agencies are doing it.'" Casey is known to have visited Bohemian Grove camp Mandalay around 1980. Important adviser to Reagan 1981-1987. Director CIA 1981-1987. In the early 1980s, Casey was able to funnel almost $200,000 to Brian Crozier, the former head of Le Cercle who undermined the Labour government of Harold Wilson, for his 61 efforts. Crozier met with Casey, a member of Le Cercle, on several occasions during this time period. Casey and Oliver North supposedly never told Crozier about the Iran Contra affair, or drug imports for that matter. Spartacus Schoolnet: "On 16th March, 1984, William Francis Buckley, a diplomat attached to the U.S. Embassy in Beirut was kidnapped by the Hezbollah, a fundamentalist Shiite group with strong links to the Ruhollah Khomeini regime. Buckley was tortured and it was soon discovered that he was the CIA station chief in Beirut. Buckley had also worked closely with William Casey in the secret negotiations with the Iranians in 1980. Buckley had a lot to tell his captors. He eventually signed a 400 page statement detailing his activities in the CIA. He was also videotaped making this confession. Casey asked Ted Shackley for help in obtaining Buckley’s freedom... The following month, Ted Shackley traveled to Hamburg where he met General Manucher Hashemi, the former head of SAVAK’s counterintelligence division at the Atlantic Hotel... At the meeting Shackley told Hashemi and Ghorbanifar that the United States was willing to discuss arms shipments in exchange for the four Americans kidnapped in Lebanon. The problem with the proposed deal was that William Francis Buckley was already dead (he had died of a heart-attack while being tortured). Ted Shackley recruited some of the former members of his CIA Secret Team to help him with these arm deals." Besides arms shipments in return for the hostages, the Republicans of the Reagan team, including Casey and Bush Sr., also arranged with the Iranians to have the hostages released after the US elections, as this would almost certainly guarantee that Jimmy Carter would lose. This scandal would be called the October Surprise. Rodney Stich, 'Those Ugly Americans: 20th and 21st Centuries', p. 108 & 137: "One of the key meetings [of Iran Contra and the October Surprise conspiracy] occurred at the PepsiCo International Headquarters building in Barcelona, Spain in late July 1980. One of my CIA sources was present with Casey at that meeting, arranging for procurement and shipment of the arms from various European locations to Iran via Israel. The final meeting occurred in Paris on the October 19, 1980, weekend... Salinger described his conversations with respected American journalist, David Andelman, who was the ghostwriter of the 1992 memoirs of Alexandre de Marenches, French spy chief [and friend of Gen. Vernon Walters; and like Casey and Walters, a member of SMOM; Arnaud de Borchgrave is related to one of De Mareches' Belgian cousins]. At Salinger’s request, Andelman asked Marenches about the alleged Paris meetings involving Casey and Bush. Salinger wrote in his book, “Andelman came back to me and said that Marenches had finally agreed [that] he organized the meeting, under the request of an old friend, William Casey.... Marenches and Casey had known each other well during the days of World War II. Marenches added that while he prepared the meeting, he did not attend it.” Andelman testified to this admission before the House October Surprise task force in December 1992, but as with other creditable witnesses, this testimony was ignored so as to deny the existence of this crime." Casey modeled himself on the likes of Allen Dulles and John McCone (Bohemian Grove camp Mandalay), who ran things in the 1950s and early 1960s before serious questions were raised about the morality of covert action on a global scale. He thought Walter Bedell Smith, Allen Dulles, John McCone, Richard Helms, and George Bush were all great CIA directors. Bobby Ray Inman (director ONI; director DIA; director NSA; director Wackenhut; director SAIC) was his deputy director at the CIA in 1981 and 1982. He resigned in 1982 after a heated dispute with Casey (and Sharon) about limiting Israel's access to satellite data from locations over 250 miles from Israel itself. Inman was afraid that Israel would set the Middle-East on fire and Caspar Weinberger (Pilgrims Society executive in late 1980s and 1990s) supported this notion. According to Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein, Casey gave Pope John Paul II unprecedented access to CIA intelligence, including spy satellites and agents. In a 2006 interview Inman claimed that Casey intensely disliked George Bush, Sr. In 1981, Casey was called upon to co-ordinate the Polish Crisis where the Solidarity movement had risen up against the Soviet regime. This movement was largely organized by Opus Dei and funded through Calvi's (and Pesenti's) Banco Ambrosiano (according to Calvi, to the tune of $1 billion over several years). As a member of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, Casey immediately decided to fly to Rome, together with co-SMOM members general Alexander Haig (Pilgrims Society executive) and general Vernon Walters. Unfortunately for Casey, he was under investigation by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and couldn't go. Instead, he send Vernon Walters who visited the Vatican about a dozen times in the next five months. Walters arranged for Reagan to meet the Pope in June 1982. During the same time, Alexander Haig and William Clark were conferring with Cardinal Casaroli (Pro-Opus Dei, if not a member; Vatican Secretariat of State during the 1980s; seen by Calvi as one of his enemies and Calvi supposedly had "compromising documents" on him; appointed the "three wisemen" in July 1982 to "investigate" the Vatican Bank's dealings with Calvi's Banco Ambrosiano. Among the three was former UBS chair and white collar criminal Philippe De Weck) and Archbishop Achille Silvestrini (under-secretary of Casaroli) in another part of the Vatican. Casey couldn't attend these meetings too, as Israel had just invaded Lebanon. On other occasions Casey would rarely visit Europe or the Middle-East without first stopping in Rome for a meeting with the Pope. Casey loved to take foreign policy advise from Cardinal John J. Krol, Archbishop of Philadelphia; Cardinal Terence Cooke of New York, the successor of Cardinal Francis Spellman and the Grand Protector and Spiritual Advisor of the Military Order of Malta; Archbishop (later Cardinal) Pio Laghi, former the Vatican's top man in Buenos Aires. All of these Cardinals were strong Opus Dei supporters. Casey, with support of the Vatican, harnessed radical Islam to counter the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. This way he hoped to contain the Soviets in the Hindu Kush mountains while the radical Muslims would be too busy to turn on some of the Middle-East dictators sponsored by the West. He convinced the Saudis to largely bankroll this operation. Under Casey the CIA supplied the Mujahedin with 30mm anti-tank guns, .50 caliber sniper rifles (provided with a self-destructive round if the gun was to be left behind), special forces Parapoint systems, Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, and training courses by ISA and Delta Force special forces. With the British MI6 and Pakistani ISI, the CIA agreed to mount guerilla actions in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The Afghan opposition leader with whom these operations were coordinated was Gulbuddin Hikmetyar. Casey also committed the CIA to support an ISI operation that recruited Muslims from all over the world to come to Pakistan and fight with the Mujahedin in Afghanistan. December 13, 2003, The Guardian, 'Smart money' (a combined review of Loretta Napoleoni's 'Modern Jihad: Tracing the Dollars Behind the Terror Networks' and Jeffrey Robinson's 'The Sink: Terror, Crime and Dirty Money in the Offshore World'): "William Casey, Reagan's CIA chief, used Pakistan and its BCCI bank as fronts to train Afghan rebels against the Soviets. Covert operations required a "black network" within the bank and its state equivalent, the notorious ISI. The bank financed and brokered covert arms deals, complete with full laundry service. The short and logical step from there was a BCCI/ISI/CIA move into drug smuggling to feed the needy, and leaky, money pipeline to the Mujahedin. The Pakistan-Afghan connection became the biggest single supplier of heroin to the US, meeting 60% of demand, with annual profits a stratospheric $100-$200 billion." The BCCI was set up by Agha Hasan Abedi of the obscure and elite 1001 Club, mainly tied to the financial interests in London. The shady MI6 operative, Privy Counsellor, and Cercle chairman Julian Amery was an advisor to the BCCI. His protege Jonathan Aitken, the follow-up chair of Le Cercle, has been accused of massive illegal arms with the Saudis. 2002 (third edition), John Cooley, 'Unholy Wars', p. 110-111: "With President Reagan and CIA Director William Casey, a new era began. On January 21, 1982, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) which had largely avoided drug matters, was plunged squarely into them. Attorney-General William French Smith announced that the FBI, instead of the DEA, would henceforth control anti-drug campaigns inside the United States. This effectively ended hitherto secret cooperation between the two services. It moved the DEA, which was struggling to control drug trafficking both inside and from outside the United States, further away from the main power centers in the Afghanistan war: President Reagan’s National Security Council (NSC) and Casey’s CIA. Casey was now able secretly to engineer an exemption, sparing the CIA from a legal requirement to report on drug smuggling by CIA officers, agents or other “assets.” Attorney Smith granted exemption in a secret memorandum on February 11, 1982, two months after President Reagan had authorized covert CIA support for the Nicaraguan anti-Communist Contra army. Investigative work in Washington in the late 1990s has disclosed that Casey realized that the CIA would face a serious legal dilemma if federal law continued to require it to report drug smuggling by its agents. On March 2, 1982, Casey thanked Smith for the exemption which, Casey wrote, helped to protect intelligence sources and methods. After many details of CIA knowledge, if not control, of large-scale cocaine traffic from South America became public, President Clinton’s administration in 1995 quietly rescinded the CIA narcotics exemption. The Contra-cocaine issue arose again in 1996 with investigative articles by a reporter for a California newspaper. Despite CIA denials, the Agency’s inspector-general, Frederick P. Hitz, compiled a two-volume investigative report. He admitted that the CIA did indeed know about Contra drug trafficking and covered it up. The second volume reportedly was even more damning for the CIA, but at this writing it hasn’t been released." 2002 (third edition), John Cooley, 'Unholy Wars', p. 108-110: "All close observers of the war knew that the drug smugglers carried weapons into Afghanistan and took drugs back with them. Heroin laboratories began to spring up in the rear of the various Afghan battle­fronts... The Soviet account quotes the American Left-liberal magazine, Rolling Stone, reporting on a powerful narcobusiness network, including vast new fields of opium poppies on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistan border, created during the jihad. It was “complete with well-planned routes and a whole network of dozens of factories” to process the opium into morphine base and heroin. “Western experts” [names and nationalities unspecified] supervised creation of the labs in camps of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s [very radical and an associate of Bin Laden] group. However -and here, interestingly, the Russian view of the wartime drug traffic diverges from the Western one — “the real ‘King of Heroin,’” said Shvedov’s Russian team, “is considered to be Gaylani who has far surpassed Hekmatyar in narcobusiness and controls the overwhelming majority of the operations of the opium mafia.” The CIA, the Russians added, was working closely with both Hekmatyar and Gaylani... Sayad Ahmed Gaylani, called “Effendi Juan” by compatriots, headed the NIF [National Islamic Front of Afghanistan]. He was a wealthy Afghan aristocrat, supporter of the exiled king, Zahir Shah. Gaylani had a strong bent for business. In 1952 he married a woman of the royal dynasty, the Durranis. He wisely invested profits from holding the sales franchise for Peugeot cars in Kabul. At the same time, he kept the religious prestige attached to his descent from the Qadiriya brotherhood, one of the mystic Sufi orders of South Asian Islam... The Soviet intelligence report on Gaylani’s NIF found that it “has significant financial resources. Besides the aid from various foundations in the USA, Western Europe and Arab countries, it makes profit on selling drugs and exacting taxes from the population."" Gailani is, an American-educated commander, is one of more than a dozen Mujahedin rebel groups in Afghanistan. He's a Pashtun royalist seeking the return of King Mohammed Zahir Shah, who is in exile in Rome. September 30, 2001, Star Tribune, 'Drug trade filled coffers of Taliban, Bin Laden group': "Alfred McCoy, a professor of Southeast Asian history at the University of Wisconsin, said U.S. and Pakistani intelligence officials sanctioned the rebels' drug trafficking because of their fierce opposition to the Soviets. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a rebel leader who received $1 billion in covert CIA funds, was a major heroin trafficker, according to McCoy. Afghan opium production ballooned from 250 tons in 1982 to 2,000 tons in 1991." Earlier, it is known that the CIA, in collaboration with other US intelligence groups and special forces, was importing hundreds of tons of heroine in the US from the Golden Triangle in Shan Land, Burma. The money was largely laundered through the Nugan Hand Bank in Australia. Ted Shackley, Richard Armitage, and mafia boss Santos Trafficante were as those that handled the heroin coming from the Golden Triangle. William Colby, Casey, George Bush, and again Shackley were named in the Nugan Hand Bank affair. The far less well known follow-up of the Nugan Hand Bank was Bishop, Baldwin, Rewald, Dillingham and Wong (BBRDW). Rodney Stich, 'Those Ugly Americans: 20th and 21st Centuries', p. 342 & 343: "In March 1996, I acquired several boxes containing hundreds of CIA documents generated from the CIA’s secret operation in Hawaii, and within these boxes I found highly sensitive material, including notes that Rewald had made while the titular head of BBRDW. Certain notes and information provided to me by Rewald divulged CIA drug related activities, including drug money laundering. As I gathered from looking over the material and by talking with Rewald, he was unaware of much of the CIA activities originating out of BBRDW... Deeply imbedded in these documents was an envelope labeled “Lawyer- Client information.” The information was dynamite, divulging secret activities, including CIA drug trafficking, and CIA funding of secret overseas bank accounts for high U.S. officials. The information in this envelope included information from the “Green Book” that the CIA sought to get from Rewald while he was in the hospital recovering from the combination suicide and assassination attempt. The notes in the envelope listed high-level people with secret CIA-funded accounts. The names on the left side of the notes were the aliases Rewald used to identify the people on the right for which there were secret bank accounts opened and funded by the CIA through BBRDW.... Irwin M. Peach [=] George Bush... Mr. Bramble [=] George Bush... Mr. Branch [=] Richard Armitage... Mr. Denile [=] William Casey... Rewald‘s notes also indicated that fictitious names were used to hide money for B.K. Kim, Philippines’ President Ferdinand, and Imelda Marcos, among others." Rodney Stich, 'Those Ugly Americans: 20th and 21st Centuries', p. 340: "In November 1984, CIA Director William Casey complained to the Federal Communication Commission about the ABC television network for having aired a show featuring CIA agent Scott Barnes. In the television presentation Barnes said he was asked by two CIA agents in Honolulu to kill Ronald Rewald. This airing had the danger of revealing the CIA role in BBRDW and could expose an endless number of other covert CIA proprietaries and operations..." June 29, 1999, Michael Ruppert, 'Don't Blink!': "ABC's Peter Jennings, by the way, had been doing a series of investigative reports on the CIA drug bank (and successor to the Nugan Hand bank) Bishop, Baldwin, Rewald, Dillingham and Wong [BBRDW] when the buyout was initiated. Cap Cities (not surprisingly) secured SEC approval in record time and effectively and immediately silenced Peter Jennings who had previously refused to back down from Casey's threats. Thereafter ABC was referred to as "The CIA network." I have no doubt that the ABC "object lesson" was front and center for CNN founder Ted Turner and Time-Warner when Henry Kissinger, Colin Powell and (CIA vet) John Singlaub put the pressure on in the wake of April Oliver's 1998 "dead bang accurate" Sarin gas stories connecting CIA to the killing of American defectors." Rodney Stich, 'Those Ugly Americans: 20th and 21st Centuries', p. 326: "Parker said that [Michael] Hand [of Nugan Hand Bank] and Vice President George Bush were in frequent contact after Bush became vice president, and while Australian authorities were searching for Hand. Parker stated that CIA Director William Casey frequently met with Hand in Panama in the early 1980s concerning arms sales and drug trafficking. Parker stated that he and Hand took over one of the drug trafficking operations for the CIA in Central and South America. He said that Hand’s experience in developing the Golden Triangle drug operations for the CIA made him useful in expanding the drug operations from Central and South America into the United States...." Casey, like his CIA predecessors, worked closely with drug smuggler Manuel Noriega (trained at the School of the Americas, a US-based assassination school) from Panama and the different cocaine/heroine cartels, like Medellin and Cali. The profits were used for all kinds of black ops. January 28, 1990, Washington Post, 'The Case Against Noriega': "On Monday, November 14, 1983, Noriega's entourage took off for Washington... all expenses paid by the U.S. government. Almost two whole days, however, were set aside for the institutions that already had long-standing working relations with Noriega. At CIA headquarters in Langley, Noriega was swept off for a meeting with CIA Director William Casey. Back in Panama, Noriega would later boast about his four-hour lunch with Casey..." In 1988, Noriega fell out of favor in Washington after some disputes about drug and arms profits. Therefore the US invaded Panama and brought Noriega to trial on drug trafficking charges. Some important revelations were made during this trial. September 4, 1991, Washington Post, 'Noriega Defense Team Vows to Detail Secret U.S. Deals': "More than 20 months after he was toppled by a U.S. invasion, Manuel Antonio Noriega will go to trial on drug trafficking charges in federal court Thursday, and his defense lawyers vow to disclose new details about the former Panamanian dictator's secret dealings with the Central Intelligence Agency and high-level U.S. government officials... Court papers filed here describe Noriega as the CIA's "man in Panama" whose activities were conducted with the full consent and knowledge of the U.S. intelligence community for more than two decades... No written records tie Noriega directly to drug trafficking, prosecution sources said. But 60 to 80 government witnesses -- many of them convicted drug traffickers, arms dealers and other felons -- are expected to testify that he took multimillion-dollar payoffs from the Medellin drug cartel to turn his country into a "safe haven" for shipment of cocaine from Colombia to the United States... But most importantly, the motion describes Noriega's pivotal role in assisting CIA efforts to arm Nicaraguan contra guerrillas. Without citing new evidence, it calls that effort a "guns-for-drugs" policy in which drug-sale proceeds were used to finance shipment of arms to the contras. In addition, the filings -- with heavy deletions from the security officer -- allude to two meetings with Bush in 1976 and 1983 and numerous others with such figures as the late CIA director William J. Casey and former National Security Council aide Oliver L. North." August 23, 1991, The Miami Herald, 'Noriega: CIA, DEA OKd Deals': "Manuel Noriega says he had good reasons for allowing drugs and guns to slip through Panama: The last seven CIA directors, including George Bush, asked him to help with the guns, while four directors of the Drug Enforcement Administration sought his help on the drugs... The weapons shipments were destined for Nicaragua and Honduras, the papers said. Besides Bush, the CIA directors who asked Noriega to allow them to travel through Panama included Richard Helms, William Colby, James Schlesinger, Stansfield Turner, William Casey and William Webster... The DEA directors who purportedly asked Noriega to allow drugs to pass through his country included Terrance Burk, Francis Mullen, Jack Lawn and John Ingersoll... Diane Cossin, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office, said the prosecution will present evidence that links Noriega's BCCI money and drugs." June 24, 1985, Miami Herald: "Also involved in the anti-Sandinista [Contra] effort are several of Reagan's millionaire friends including beer tycoon Joseph Coors and industrialist J. Peter Grace... Grace spokesman Fred Bona said his boss "may have" asked the Central American chapters of the 900-year-old Knights of Malta order to help distribute privately collected humanitarian aid among Nicaraguan refugees. Grace heads the group's U.S. chapter. Former Treasury secretary William Simon and CIA Director William Casey also belong to the Knights of Malta. Simon and Grace declined comment on whether they had ever discussed with Casey alternate ways to help the contras. Simon heads the Nicaraguan Freedom Fund, a private aid group initially launched by the Unification Church-owned [Moonies] newspaper The Washington Times which received a letter from President Reagan dated May 30, 1985, expressing "wholehearted" support for its activity on behalf of the contras... While the contras get humanitarian aid from these groups, they rely mainly on retired Army Maj. Gen. John Singlaub and his World Anti-Communist League for private military aid." Celerino Castillo, 'Powderburns - Cocaine, Contras, & the Drug War': "The American Public would quickly lose interest in the Iran Contra scandal... Had they discovered our government hired and protected a squad of drug traffickers, and they gave them free passes into the U.S., the story might have ended very differently... My informants were perfectly placed... They fed me the names of Contra pilots. Again and again, those names showed up in the DEA database as documented drug traffickers. When I pursued the case, my superiors quietly and firmly advised me to move on to other investigations... I'll never forget Corr's [U.S. ambassador to El Salvador] response. "It's a White House operation, Cele. Stay away from it."" Cele, a high level DEA agent, was assigned to represent the DEA in El Salvador at the height of the Contra war. It was there that he began to record intelligence on how known drug traffickers, with multiple DEA files, used hangars four and five at Ilopango airfield to ferry cocaine north and weapons and money south. Hangars four and five were owned and operated by the CIA and the National Security Council. He found out that the traffickers were also being given US visas by the CIA, in spite of their well known activities. Castillo also documented and spoke out about CIA and National Security Agency abuses in a manner utterly consistent with his heritage and the reats of his life. Then Cele discovered that the Contra flights were under the direct supervision of US Lt. Col. Oliver North and had the additional protection of Felix Rodriguez (a retired CIA agent) who ran hanger 4 at Ilopango. Castillo was repeatedly warned that the drug profits were being utilized to support the Reagan-Bush backed right-wing "Contras" in Nicaragua and surrounding countries and that he should stop his investigations. December 1998, Michael Ruppert, 'Only the Godfather': "... a lingering and persistent body of evidence persists which indicates that Jim Sabow was murdered because he caught the CIA flying drugs onto a base where he was Chief of Air Operations. Much of the evidence indicates that the cocaine arrived on the same C-130s which had been given to the Forest Service. In a 1993 segment of her news program Eye to Eye, Connie Chung covered the Sabow death in detail and showed evidence of the murder by introducing statements from Sabow's brother, a medical doctor, that Sabow had been unconscious and aspirating blood for minutes before a shotgun was rammed so far down his throat that it sheared off the uvula. In that same segment, veteran Air America and CIA pilot Tosh Plumley stated that he flew loads of cocaine as large as 2,000 kilos onto El Toro in the years and months prior to Sabow's death - for the CIA. Plumley stated clearly that he was flying C-130s operated by the Forest Service and their contractors. In later conversations with this writer Plumley admitted that he routinely flew loads as large as 2,500 kilos onto military installations in California and Arizona for the CIA." 1991, Bo Gritz (ISA commander and Delta Force), 'Called to Serve', p. 341: "I remembered the time in Panama in 1976, when I was commanding Special Forces in Latin America from headquarters at Fort Gulick in the Canal Zone. We had obtained information through our intelligence channels that Manuel Noriega was not only allied with the communists, but was also a drug smuggler. I recommended - and we had the means - to terminate Noriega "with extreme prejudice," since he was clearly hurting America and was behind the sabotage of our military facilities within the Canal Zone. Surprisingly enough, I was personally told to keep my hands off Noriega, that he was "of immense value at the highest levels of our government." July 23, 1998, Michael Ruppert, 'The POWs, CIA and Drugs': "The ISA, which ran Gritz's mission, was created by Army General Richard Stilwell. It has been repeatedly linked to drug smuggling by sources including the daughter of Col. Albert Carone who served as Oliver North's bagman and bill-payer during the eighties. Records left behind after Carone's death in 1990 and eyewitness statements clearly indicate that Carone handled both drugs and drug money for CIA, North and the NSC. Carone's personal phone book contains the home addresses and telephone numbers of William Casey [Le Cercle], Gambino crime boss Pauly Castellano and Stilwell [Le Cercle]." 2004, Michael Ruppert, 'Crossing the Rubicon', p. 164: "A retired NYPD Detective, also a “made” member of the Genovese crime family, Carone spent his entire working career as a CIA operative... For more than 25 years before his mysterious death in 1990, Al Carone served as a bagman and liaison between George Bush, CIA Director Bill Casey, Oliver North, Richard Nixon [Le Cercle] and many other prominent figures including Robert Vesco [1001 Club], Manuel Noriega and Ferdinand Marcos." Carone, a member of the Knights of Malta, was good friends with Santos Trafficante, Sam Giancana, Vito Genovese, and William Casey. Casey used Carone as a "cut out" to pass sensitive insider information to Mob capo Pauley Castellano, says his daughter, Dee. Carone was the bagman for Casey and Oliver North in many of their drug trafficking exploits. Casey was deeply involved in the BCCI, the bank whose extreme money laundering practices were exposed in 1991. 1992, Senator John Kerry and Senator Hank Brown, Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, part 11: "In the case of BCCI, former CIA officials, including former CIA director Richard Helms and the late William Casey; former and current foreign intelligence officials, including Kamal Adham and Abdul Raouf Khalil; and principal foreign agents of the U.S., such as Adnan Khashoggi and Manucher Ghorbanifar, float in and out of BCCI at critical times in its history, and participate simultaneously in the making of key episodes in U.S. foreign policy... On February 23, 1992, NBC News broadcast the allegation that former Director of Central Intelligence William Casey met secretly for three years with Abedi [1001 Club; head of the BCCI], that such meetings took place every few months at the Madison Hotel in Washington, D.C., and that they discussed matters relating to U.S. arms deals to Iran and the arming of Afghani rebels... The BCCI official explicitly described meetings between Casey and Abedi at the Madison Hotel in the mid-1980's... The late Cyrus Hashemi, an Iranian expatriate living in London, is a key figure in the "October Surprise" allegations charging that William Casey and other members of President Reagan's election team in 1980 engaged in negotiations with Iran, whereby Iran would delay the return of U.S. hostages held in Iran until after the November, 1980 election, in return for the U.S. providing Iran with needed arms for its war against Iraq." A legal case brought before the District Court of Washington, D.C. in 1983, 12 citizens of Nicaragua and 12 members of the U.S. Congress sued President Reagan, CIA Director William Casey, former Secretary of State Alexander Haig, Secretary of State George Shultz, Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs Thomas Enders, Vernon Walters, Caspar Weinberger, Nestor Sanchez, and John Negroponte for violations of the law respecting U.S. support of the Contras. After being dismissed, the case was appealed to the Court of Appeals. The judge who filed the opinion on Aug. 13, 1985 affirming the dismissal was then Circuit Court judge and now U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia (spoke at the Bohemian Grove). Casey is reported to have been a good friend of George Shultz, Vernon Walters, Alexandre de Marenches, and Ronald Reagan. In his book 'The Conspirators' Al Martin claims that CZX Productions, which supposedly stood for "Casey Zumwalt, X-Files", was an Office of Naval Intelligence cut-out and one of the blackest parts of the Iran Contra affair. True or not, doing a bit of background checking (only one reference has turned up), it turns out that Dietrich Reinhardt, a shady Iran-Contra operative now connected to the flight school of Rudi Dekkers (dope-trafficking terrorists), was a partner in that firm. Martin also claims CZX and Casey made Oliver North head of the "National Programs Office," whose existence still is not confirmed. The NPO supposedly controlled much of the dope trafficking operations, the building of the US "Civilian Inmate Labor Camps", and the operations to some day overthrow the US government. Admiral Zumwalt, an associate of Casey since the 1970s and a major anti-communist warhawk, is part of a secret ONI group called "Goal Oversight Development" (GOD), according to Martin. No proof or other rumors exist about this group, but according to Martin GOD has/had almost unlimited powers to intimidate and assassinate people. December 17, 1986, The Times Union, 'CIA chief listed stable': "Casey, 73, continued to undergo diagnostic tests designed to determine the cause of two minor cerebral seizures he suffered Monday, the hospital said. Casey had been scheduled to testify Tuesday before the Senate Intelligence Committee on the arms sale to Iran and the diversion of proceeds to the Nicaraguan rebels... Earlier, CIA spokeswoman Kathy Pherson said agency officials who talked with Casey on Monday found him "lucid and pretty cheerful" and "joking with the nurses."... Casey remained mentally clear throughout the episodes, a hospital doctor said." December 30, 1986, San Jose Mercury News, 'Casey's condition is stable': "CIA Director William Casey continues to recover at Georgetown University Hospital where he underwent surgery Dec. 18 for the removal of a cancerous brain tumor, a spokeswoman said today... Hospital spokeswoman Cynthia Byers said Casey's condition remains stable and he is "fully conscious and sitting up periodically."" In January 1987 the operation was deemed successful, but it turned out he had other cancers that were spreading to other parts of his body (supposedly, he was already a year under treatment for prostate cancer). He died in May 1987 of pneumonia, a few weeks after Congress had begun looking into Casey mental health to determine if he could testify from his bed. In reaction to his death, Senator Patrick Leahy, the former vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said: "Casey probably knew more than anyone about the Iran-Contra affair, with the possible exception of fired White House aide Oliver North... And of course that we'll never know, because he didn't really tell us much about it before he died." July 11, 1987, San Jose Mercury News, 'Plan labeled 'Government within our government': "William Casey, the late CIA director, seized upon the Iran arms dealings as a way to create a secret contingency fund to finance a wide range of covert operations outside regular government channels, Lt. Col. Oliver North told Congress Friday. Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, termed the scheme a "secret government within our government," and Sen. William Cohen, R- Maine, said the disclosure was "perhaps the most serious revelation" of the 2-month-old hearings into the Iran-Contra affair... North rejected the characterization of Senate committee chief counsel Arthur Liman that the operations were a "CIA outside of the CIA." But House Intelligence Committee Chairman Louis Stokes, D-Ohio, told reporters "that's what it amounted to," and charged that a main reason for the scheme was a desire to avoid any oversight by Congress." In 1996 the neocon Center for Security Policy (CSP) created a compartment named William J. Casey Institute. It was tasked with studying "the nexus between international financial, energy, trade and technology flows and traditional U.S. national security policy concerns." Just one week before Casey got his seizures (he was already dying of cancer) he allegedly wrote an affidavit, with Cercle member Nixon as his witness, that in part outlined the CIA's involvement in the drug trade to finance covert ops. He also gave his justifications for it (which basically constituted a big "fuck you" to Congress and everyone else who might not agree) and certainly didn't forget to mention Bill Clinton's role in it (while forgetting the role of all his political allies, or other groups within the government). The document was leaked to the daughter of Albert Carone and has since then been classified Top Secret. According to Mike Ruppert, the document is factually correct, but it could still be a fake.

2005, Joseph Trento, "Prelude to Terror', p. 218: "Senator Goldwater had discovered “that Casey had a long and shady association with U.S. Intelligence… I was never comfortable with what he was up to. You never knew if it was out of national interest or personal interest.”" p. 221: "Casey was not kept informed of all the secret operations. Bush was running his own operations out of the executive office." p. 228: "The old-line veterans at the CIA were flabbergasted to see men like Shackley and Clines being welcomed into Casey's inner circle. Casey and Bush, who were rivals, ended up sharing some of the same intelligence assets." p. 256: "Bill Casey was given report after report confirming that the men around Sadat were up to their collective necks with Clines, Shackley, Secord, von Marbod, and Wilson. For Casey, none of it mattered." p. 227: "Through the 1980s... Casey and Bush became even more reliant on Shackley and his friends, especially for two adventures that became known as Iran-Contra and Iraqgate."

BERNADETTE CASEY SMITH (DAUGHTER):

Director OSS Society. Director William J. Donovan Foundation. Secretary Irish Educational Development Foundation. Director Henry Viscardi School at the National Center for Disability Services, the Tomorrow's Hope Foundation and the National Historical Intelligence Museum. She also serves on the Advisory Committee of New Yorkers for Choice in Education and is a member of the Board of Trustees of Young Americans for Freedom (Reagan Ranch). Bernadette is a member of St. Mary's parish in Roslyn, and is a Dame of Malta and Holy Sepulchre. Bernadette and her husband, Owen, live in her family homestead in Roslyn Harbor and in Palm Beach, Florida. Director of the Roman Catholic Christondom College, with Rick Santorum on the advisory board. It was founded by Warren H. Carroll. July 21, 2011, Catholic News Service, 'Founding president of Christendom College dies': "Warren H. Carroll, founding president of Christendom College in Front Royal and a leading Catholic historian ... Carroll served in the CIA's anti-communism division during the 1960s and wrote "Seventy Years of the Communist Revolution." "I was always anti-communist, but that deepened the strength of it," Carroll said of his experiences as an analyst of communist propaganda. Carroll was the college's president until 1985, then chairman of the history department until he retired in 2002. ". Dame of Malta.

Sources: 1993, Alan Clark, 'Diaries', p. 369-374; June 29, 1997, The Independence, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club; Is it the ultimate dishonour' (named as an old member); September 5, 2004, Sunday Times, 'Le Cercle of the elite' ("thought to include")

Not a family member of the Dukes of Devonshire. Former MI6 officer. Worked with George Kennedy Young and James Goldsmith in the past. Member Unison Committee for Action, which was set up in 1973 to counter the threat from Labour Unions, which supposedly were infiltrated by Soviet intelligence. Army general Walter Walker and MI6 head George Kennedy Young were involved with this group. Has been a long time friend of the former MI6 Director General (1973-1978) Sir Maurice Oldfield. In his memoirs, that have been partly censored by the British government, he defends Oldfield from charges that he was a Soviet mole. December 28, 1987, The Times: "Mr Cavendish, who left MI6 in 1953, has been trying to publish his book Inside Intelligence, to defend the reputation of his former friend and colleague, the late Sir Maurice Oldfield, ex-MI6 chief and Security Co-ordinator for Mrs Thatcher in Northern Ireland. The book contains many references to Sir Maurice, disputing allegations that he had homosexual relations with young men while he was Ulster security chief. It also details past MI6 covert operations, authorized by the Labour Government in the 1950s, which have been published in other books... Mr Julian Amery, Conservative MP for Brighton, Pavilion, who also received a copy of Mr Cavendish's book, declined to comment on the book itself but said that the Government's attitude towards publications by intelligence agents were 'wildly overdone'." Supposedly, he also made the claim that 50% of MI6 is gay (In any case, Maurice Oldfield admitted that he "from time to time engaged in homosexual activities."). Known to have corresponded with Julian Amery in the 1990s, a former chairman of Le Cercle. Invested as a Knight First Class in the catholic Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George in 2001. Promoted within the ranks of the Royal Order of Francis I, part of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order, to Knight Commander in 2005. Consultant to Nadhmi Auchi's business empire, who also has been honored by the Sacred Military Constantinian Order. He was still acting as a consultant in 2003. Granta Magazine, issue 24: "In 19--, Anthony Cavendish was made the -------------- officer of -----, the British ------. In 194-, he personally oversaw the illegal invasion of ------- that resulted in the deaths of ----------- of --------------. What did Cavendish finally see that we are not allowed to know now—over forty years later? And why has the British government spent hundreds of thousands of pounds trying to keep us from finding out?"

Sources: 1993, Alan Clark, 'Diaries', p. 369-374

Not a family member of the Dukes of Devonshire. The younger son of Le Cercle member and MI6 officer Anthony Cavendish. Major in the Life Guards. Served in the Sultan of Oman's Armoured Force. Friend of Alan Clark, who wrote about the 1990 Cercle meeting: "Andrew appeared, tall and beautiful as ever. He moves among the delegates with a very faint smile on his face, but his eyes are always watching. What experience in childhood, what gene, makes him instinctively so observant, and from which side of the family does this gene come?... I detached myself from the group and we had supper together. Andrew told me of his tales, and of the mood among the Military. Oman is a long way from Iraq, and their traditional apprehension is of Iranian muscle, their principal irritant is South Yemen. But the men, many of them, think privately of Saddam as a hero, who is leading the West a dance."

Sources: June 29, 1997, The Independence, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club; Is it the ultimate dishonour' ; July 10, 1997 An Phoblacht/Republican News, 'Editor's Desk'; 18 June 2000, Sunday Telegraph / Lobster Magazine, Issue 40, winter 2000-2001; Cercle lists: 1982 Wildbad Kreuth and 1984 Bonn

Member of the very powerful Cecil family that has produced numerous members of the Order of Garter and the Privy Council, starting with Sir William Cecil in the 1500s. They intermarried with elite blue blood families as de Vere, Arundel, Plantagenet, and Cavendish. Sir William Cecil was a student of John Dee, the official founder of Enochian Magic. The family forged links with the Republic of Venice around 1600 and built Hatfield House, which still is the family's residence, in 1607. William Cecil and his protege Sir Francis Walsingham devised an intricate spy network during the latter years of Elizabeth I's reign that succeeded in uncovering numerous Catholic plots against the monarch. Some people of that time have stated Cecil himself was a plotter behind these assassinations. Sir William Cecil’s daughter, Anne, married Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford and a member of what was quite possibly the bluest of blue blood families in existence. De Vere had worked for William Cecil and the throne since a young age and was later rumored to have written the works of Shakespeare. Lady Diana Cecil married the 18th Earl of Oxford.

This Pilgrim was the third son of (his namesake) Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, who was a member of the Order of the Garter and the Privy Council. The 3rd Marquess of Salisbury was the Chancellor of Oxford University from 1869 to 1903, a fellow of All Souls, and a British prime minister for 14 years. Carroll Quigley described the Rhodes Secret Society and the Milner Group as having evolved from the 3rd Marquess' "Cecil Bloc". The 3rd Marquess grew to like Benjamin Disraeli, who he had previously been distrusted as a Jew. Disraeli eventually became a housefriend of the family and was invested into the Order of the Garter. Baron Lionel de Rothschild was another close friend of Disraeli. One of Cecil's sisters was the mother of Arthur J. Balfour (wrote a letter to Lionel de Rothschild in November 1917 declaring that the British government stood behind Zionist plans to build a Jewish national home in Palestine) and Gerald W. Balfour. Even today, the Hatfield House is the Hertfordshire home of the family, built between 1609 and 1611 by the1st Earl of Salisbury; a Privy Councillor and Knight of the Garter who was the Chief Minister to James I.

The 5th Marquess of Salisbury (KG; PC; married into Cavendish family) was president of the Conservative Monday Club from 1961 to 1972. This was the center of the pro-colonial movement in Britain, which even prepared for a coup against the "KGB-infiltrated" Labour government of Harold Wilson in the 1970s. General Walter Walker and later Cercle chairman Julian Amery were among the members of this club. His son, the 6th Marquess of Salisbury, took over the Conservative Monday Club in 1974 and ran it until 1981. September 13, 1965, The Times, letter of the 5th Marquess of Salisbury, 'Government in Rhodesia - Arguments against majority rule': "[Churchmen] fall into the all too common error of assuming that the only form of Government compatible with the Christian way of life is majority rule. Actually, at any rate, in the case of primitive peoples, that has, I believe, never been so: nor, judging by our experience with other African states which have recently gained their independence, is it so now. Democracy is the most difficult of all sytems to work. It requires the highest degree of civilization. Can anyone who knows Rhodesia say that the average African in that country is ready for it yet? It could no doubt be argued - though I am sure that the signatories of the letter would not use such an argument - that majority rule is more important than the Christian way of life. But do they really expect anyone who has personal experience of Rhodesia to believe that the people of that country, whether white or black, would benefit either spiritually or materially by the introduction of majority rule at the present time?"

Viscount Cranborne and later 7th Marquess of Salisbury. Born in 1946. Attended Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford and became a merchant banker before going to work on the family estates. He began using Robert as his preferred Christian name from his 21st birthday. In 1970, aged 23, he married Hannah Stirling, niece of Lt Col David Stirling. Stirling was the co-founder of the SAS, founder of GB 75 (seemingly a short-lived psyop in 1974), worked with MI6 at times, ran Television International Enterprises which ran a security service for overseas heads of state, was gold stick to the queen, and headed Operation Lock, a pro-apartheid assassination program in Southern Africa. Cecil was selected, unexpectedly, as Conservative candidate for South Dorset in 1976, where his family owned lands, despite the presence of several former MPs on the shortlist. He spoke at the 1978 Conservative Party conference to oppose sanctions on Rhodesia, which had broken off from England illegally to maintain its fascist white-minority regime. He won the seat in the 1979 general election, the seventh consecutive generation of his family to sit in the Commons, and in his first speech urged Ian Smith to stand aside in favour of Abel Muzorewa. He attracted a general reputation as a right-winger, especially on matters affecting the Church of England. Member of the Other Club since 1981, together with the Duke of Devonshire (Cavendish), Lord Carrington (Pilgrims Society president), Lord Richardson of Duntisbourne (major Pilgrims Society member), Lord Julian Amery (former head Le Cercle), Lord Rothschild, Lord Rees-Mogg, Prince Charles, Paul Channon (Le Cercle), Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Sir Edward Heath, Sir Denis Thatcher, Winston S. Churchill (grandson of), and several dozen others. Took an interest in Northern Ireland, and when Jim Prior announced his policy of 'Rolling Devolution', resigned an unpaid job as assistant to Douglas Hurd. Lord Cranborne became known as an anti-communist through activities in support of Afghan refugees in Pakistan in the early 1980s, and sending food parcels to Poland (a joint operation of the Vatican, Opus Dei, SMOM and the CIA). He was involved in efforts to fund the Afghan resistance. His strong opposition to any involvement by the Republic of Ireland in Northern Ireland led him to oppose the Anglo-Irish Agreement and contributed to his decision to retire from Parliament in 1987. However, he had made a useful friendship with John Major while in Parliament. After the 1992 general election, Major utilised a rarely-used process known as a writ of acceleration, to call Lord Cranborne up to the House of Lords in one of his father's junior baronies. Lord Cranborne was summoned as Baron Cecil of Essendon (his father's most junior dignity), though continued to be known by his courtesy style of Viscount Cranborne. He served for two years as a junior Defence Minister before being appointed as Leader of the House of Lords. In 1994, he became a member of the Queen's Privy Council. When Major resigned to fight for re-election as Conservative Party Leader in July 1995, Lord Cranborne led his re-election campaign. He was recognised as one of the few members of the Cabinet who were personally loyal to Major, but continued to lead the Conservative Peers after Labour won the 1997 general election. March 30, 1997, The Independent, 'Courtiers down the centuries; Profile Robert Cranborne' (Lord Cranborne at the time and confidante of Prime Minister John Major): "At least for a few weeks more, a Cecil is in a position the family knows well: very close to the seat of power. It may be a slight exaggeration to say that he is running the government, but Lord Cranborne, Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the Lords, is spending the election as chief of staff at No 10 Downing Street. The peer, who has emerged as something of an icon to the Conservative right, is not only the link between Central Office and No 10, but has day-to-day responsibility for the latter... As one (well-bred) Tory puts it: "Robert has a remarkably close relationship with the Prime Minister. He is an engaging figure with considerable charm. People rather like glimpsing into his solid, English, aristo world of which they are not a part. They find it rather intoxicating. The truth is that they all fall for the toffs - even Thatcher fell for Ridley."... After the Guards it was the City and in 1970 he married, causing a family crisis because his bride, Hannah Stirling (daughter [actually niece] of the founder of the SAS), was a Roman Catholic. The Cecils take the defence of Protestantism and the Church of England seriously and Robert's mother, Mollie, took time to be reconciled. A compromise was reached and the two sons (the "heir and the spare") were brought up as Anglicans, the three daughters as Roman Catholics. In 1978 domestic calm was shattered when Lord Cranborne's brother Richard was killed by guerrillas while filming in Rhodesia. The family were strong supporters of the white settlers - the name of the country's capital, Salisbury (after the 3rd Marquess), giving away the connection. Robert went to Africa to try to find out how his brother died. His brother's death seems only to have reinforced his public support for the whites. During the 1980s he helped organise a secret meeting between Ian Smith and Tory MPs, and backed sporting links with apartheid South Africa. For a decade Lord Cranborne had a habit of turning up in war zones, places he found intriguing, according to friends, because of his fascination with military history. Often visits were combined with business trips. He is thought to have done well financially during the 1970s although, as one observer remarks, "it's almost impossible to know with that family who's inherited and who's made money". Friends see him as a sort of 19th- century Romantic figure, popping up in support of the mujahedin's opposition to Soviet expansionism or to back Polish dissidents... Ironically, for someone now seen as a champion of the right, he did not prosper under Margaret Thatcher, perhaps because his Toryism is of a more "trad right" hue... But eight years in the Commons had not been wasted. For one thing Lord Cranborne had become good friends with a Conservative MP of more humble origins who was to go on to become the Prime Minister [John Major]... Mr Major joined later in the 1979 parliament and got on well with Lord Cranborne who, far from patronising the young MP, invited him to Cranborne for the weekend... Inviting Lord Cranborne to his Downing Street flat, Mr Major has more than once apologised for bringing a man used to inhabiting the great houses of England to such humble surroundings. When John Major won the last election he speeded Lord Cranborne into the House of Lords and, after a mere two years as a defence minister in the Lords (salvaging the VE-Day span-fritters fiasco), he was catapulted into the Cabinet with a direct line to the premier. Mr Major relies on him for advice, knowing that, unlike most of the other ministers around him, Lord Cranborne, who will never be party leader, is not a threat. He has thrown himself with enthusiasm into the job of leading the Lords... Meanwhile, his political salon at Cranborne Manor, and in London, attracts many of the most colourful right-wing thinkers, with a sprinkling of hard-line Unionists from the organisation he helped to found, the Friends of the Union... He is a fierce Eurosceptic, who, despite speaking excellent French, sincerely prefers Dorset to the Dordogne. Yet he has not actively engaged with the parliamentary sceptics... He practises politics only in the rather detached manner of someone who knows that his historical duties have been fulfilled and that he can always return to cultivate a rather substantial garden. "His agenda," says a close friend, "is rather different from the normal one. It looks 100 years ahead."" When the new Prime Minister Tony Blair proposed the removal of the hereditary element in the House of Lords, Lord Cranborne negotiated a pact with the government to retain a small number (later set at ninety-two) of hereditary peers for the interim period. For the sake of form this amendment was formally proposed by Lord Weatherill, Convenor of the Cross-Bench Peers. However, Lord Cranborne gave his party's approval without consulting the Leader, William Hague (invited to Le Cercle), who knew nothing and was embarrassed when Blair told him of it in the House of Commons. Hague then sacked Lord Cranborne, who accepted his error, saying that he had "rushed in, like an ill-trained spaniel". All former Leaders of the House of Lords who were hereditary peers accepted Life Peerages to keep them in the House in 1999. Lord Cranborne, who had received the life Barony of Gascoyne-Cecil, remained active on the backbenches, until the House adopted new rules for declaration of financial interests which he believed were too problematic. Cranborne is known to have attended meetings of Le Cercle in the 1990s and 2000. Very good friend of Cercle chairman Julian Amery. Took 'Leave of Absence' on November 1, 2001. Therefore out of the House when he succeeded his father as 7th Marquess on July 11, 2003. Good friend of Lord Lamont, the Rothschild employee and Cercle chair. Member of the Other Club, together with the Duke of Devonshire (Cavendish), Lord Carrington (Pilgrims Society president), Lord Rothschild, Lord Rees-Mogg, Prince Charles, Lord Richardson of Duntisbourne (major Pilgrims Society member), Lord Julian Amery (Cercle head), Paul Channon (Le Cercle), Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Sir Edward Heath, Sir Denis Thatcher, and Winston S. Churchill (grandson of). Member of the Grillion's Club, together with the Duke of Norfolk (Howard), the Duke of Devonshire (Cavendish), the Earl of Perth (Drummond), Lord Carrington, Lord Richardson of Duntisbourne, Nicholas Baring (vice chair Baring Brothers until 1989) and John Major. Like his father and a number of ancestors, a member of the Roxburghe Club, together with the several generations of the Dukes of Norfolk, the Dukes of Devonshire, the Earls of Perth, the Rothschilds, Oppenheimers, Lord Rees-Mogg, and formerly Paul Mellon.

His uncle and namesake was chairman of the Supreme Economic Council of the Versailles Peace Treaty, member of the Pilgrims Society, first chairman of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, and a principal draftsmen of the League of Nations Covenant in 1919. The 3rd Marquess of Salisbury was possibly the most important founder of Quigley's Round Table. An older generation Robert Cecil, either the 1th Viscount of Chelwood or the 5th Marquess of Salisbury, is supposed to have said: "The Blood of Christ was replaced by the blood of the German war dead. From the Mayas to the Nazis, the shedding of blood to attract the attention of indifferent powers was the magic significance of human sacrifice. He would have sacrificed the happiness of the whole human race if ordered to do so by the mysterious Force whose commands he obeyed." This is very similar to what Lord Lothian said to the New York Pilgrims on the eve of WWII: "At bottom we are fighting a defensive war. We are trying to prevent the hordes of paganism and barbarism destroying what is left of civilized Europe." It is also similar to what Fritz Kramer supposedly said according to his son: "[He] publicly denounced Hitler's National Socialists as barbarian pagans and their communist rivals as proletarian thugs. He sometimes carried his small German imperial flag with its Christian cross of Malta into their street demonstrations..."

July 7, 1992, Evening Standard (London), 'The aristocrat behind the classless society': "The host is Viscount Cranborne, the most junior and recent member of John Major's Government and heir to Britain's oldest and most distinguished political family - the Cecils. Only the Churchills are comparable, but they do not go back so far. It is Cranborne who arguably hosts the most important political salon in Britain. Even in John Major's classless society the most prized invitation for an ambitious Tory is to this citadel of old-style privilege, a hunting lodge dating back to the days of King John surrounded by 1,300 acres of rolling Dorset countryside. Politicians have been coming here for 400 years, ever since the house was gifted to the Cecil family by the crown as a reward for securing a peaceful transition from Tudor to Stuart England. Its particular significance today comes from the fact that Robert Cranborne and his wife Hannah have for 15 years been the unofficial host and hostess for one of the most powerful but informal groups in the Tory party - the Blue Chips. Formed out of the 1979 parliamentary intake, the Blue Chips started when five then unknown MPs - William Waldegrave, Christopher Patten, John Patten, Richard Needham and Tristan Garel-Jones - were allotted rooms on the same staircase. All of them faintly sceptical about the prevailing Thatcherite orthodoxy, they established a dining club - the cooking was done by Mr Garel-Jones's wife Catalina - which has survived ever since. The name was given them by outsiders who noted the high proportion of blue-blooded members. Unlike most other dining clubs around Westminster, political discussion has never dominated proceedings when Blue Chips meet. The Test match, the latest novel, the next big society wedding are all serious subjects for the Blue Chips. They talk shop, too, of course - but high-grade political gossip rather than anything too serious and demanding. They are united by a common approach rather than a common ideology. They are fascinated by power rather than ideas. The dissidence of the early days did not last long. As one after another rose up the ranks of the government they became insiders in politics, brought together in what Lord Cranborne calls 'the belief that the Queen's government should be carried on'. There are those who hold the view that understanding the Blue Chips is the key to understanding the dynamics of John Major's administration. For an astonishing proportion of the group has either done well, very well or brilliantly - none more so than its most distinguished member, the Prime Minister. On their visits to Cranborne Manor the Blue Chips mingle chaotically with Lord Cranborne's Cecil relations, foreign politicians picked up on his travels and Scottish relatives of his wife - he married Hannah, the daughter of Highland landowner Bill Stirling, in 1970 and they have five children. At home Cranborne is very much a family man. Although dinner is formal, guests are afterwards compelled to play charades or intellectual word games. Later still there is time for political gossip and plotting. The Blue Chips are still regarded with bitterness and suspicion by Thatcherites who believe they were involved in the coup of November 1990 that drove Mrs Thatcher out of office. The modern Cecil is merely carrying on the family tradition for political hospitality and intrigue first displayed in Elizabethan days by his ancestors. Perhaps the only change is that in the 1990s the get-togethers are mainly held at Cranborne Manor rather than Hatfield House, the Jacobean masterpiece in Hertfordshire which Lord Cranborne will, in due course, inherit from his father when he becomes the seventh Marquis of Salisbury."

Source(s): Adrian Hanni (visited the Cercle in 1988)

8th Marquess of Exeter. Son of William Cecil, 7th Marquess of Exeter.

August 4, 2011, Vanity Fair, 'Washington Dropped the Ball on a Secret Afghan Wireless Communications Company that Might Have Prevented 9/11': "Vanity Fair contributing editor David Rose reveals for the first time that in 1999 the Taliban had granted license to an American company, Afghan Wireless Communications, to construct a cell-phone, and, Internet system in Afghanistan. Had the secret deal, named Operation Foxden, been completed, the U.S. would have had complete access to al-Qaeda and Taliban calls and e-mails in a matter of months. “The capability we would have had would have been very good,” a former N.S.A. official tells Rose. “Had this network been built with the technology that existed in 2000, it would have been a priceless intelligence asset.” But, as Rose reports, “at the critical moment, the Clinton administration put the project on hold, while rival U.S. agencies—the F.B.I., the N.S.A., and the C.I.A.—bickered over who should control it.” This “was one tool we could have put in Afghanistan that could have made a difference,” says a former C.I.A. official. “Why didn’t we put it in? Because we couldn’t fucking agree.” According to Rose, Ehsan Bayat, an Afghan-American telecommunications entrepreneur, who was also a counterterrorism source working for the F.B.I., had built close relationships with senior Taliban officials, including foreign minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil. Bayat was in the habit of giving his Taliban friends satellite phones as gifts—phones that Rose believes may even have been used by Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar. Through his connections, and with the aide of British partners, Bayat brokered a deal to set up a company called Afghan Wireless. The Afghan Ministry of Communications would hold 20 percent of the company and Bayat would retain the majority share. According to details of the deal outlined in Vanity Fair, “not only would the new phone company be the sole cell and landline provider in Afghanistan, it would also control the “gateways” out of the country—all voice and data traffic, including that carried by satellite phones and the Internet.”Bayat did not respond to Rose’s request for comment. His former British partners, Stuart Bentham and Lord Michael Cecil, are bound by a gag order stemming from a 2003 suit they filed against him that was stopped and sealed under the State Secrets Privilege."

Source(s): Adrian Hanni (visited the Cercle in 1986); 2014, Johannes Grossman, p. 494: "Up until the 1990s a usual guest was Alun Jones [Lord Chalfont]… Even in 1993 Lord Chalfont was brought forth as a possible president of Le Cercle in discussions."

Very controversial Pilgrims Society member (executive).

May 28, 1995, The Independent, 'profile; Lord Chalfont; Old soldier above the battle': "From 1941 to 1944 he fought in Burma, and stayed in the Army to take part in a series of anti-terrorist campaigns. In 1957 he won the Military Cross. He is diffident about this, but finally admits he was involved in ambushes against communists in the Malayan jungle. "I was lucky enough to carry out some successful ones." By 1961 he was a colonel and had been writing a series of articles on Soviet strategy in the Royal United Services Institute journal. One reader was Sir William Haley, editor of the Times. He asked Gwynne Jones if he would resign to become defence correspondent. With all the exciting bits of an army life behind him, he said yes. Had he said no, he would presumably now be a retired general. His articles continued to impress, and in the run-up to the 1964 general election he was asked for advice by all three parties. "I had no political affiliation at all, so I was quite happy to tell the parties the same thing." When he was asked to drop by Downing Street that October day, he was expecting to be asked about something he had written. Instead Wilson asked him to become a minister. "If the word had been invented, I would have said I was gobsmacked," he says. He and Wilson both made much of his being the only "minister of disarmament" in the world, though he now says the title was misleading. He was made a lord because Labour had a slim majority and Wilson could not afford to risk a by-election. Gwynne Jones's chances of winning a by-election might not have been improved by his lack of politics, either. "I told Wilson that I would take the job if I was not expected to support every aspect of Labour policy. Wilson puffed on his pipe and said, 'Not many of us do.' "Lord Chalfont says he would have been just as happy to be in a Tory or Liberal government (he is now a cross-bencher). He is baffled by those who label him a turncoat. "I've never expressed any political views that could characterise me as left or right," he says. In 1968 Wilson sent Lord Chalfont to Brussels to negotiate the UK's entry into the Common Market. General de Gaulle said "non", and in less than a year he was back in London." Minister in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office 1964-1970. Privy Council since 1964. May 28, 1995, The Independent, 'profile; Lord Chalfont; Old soldier above the battle': "The 1970 election saw the end of his brief political career. He became foreign editor of the New Statesman and a columnist for the Guardian, and made a series of profiles of world leaders for the BBC. He also moved into business, joining the board of IBM [appointed in 1973]... During the 1980s... he was a director of Lazard Bros [consultant in the late 1970s; appointed non-exec. director in 1981] and a handful of other companies, president of the Royal National Institute for Deaf People, deputy chairman of the IBA (and since 1991, has been chairman of the Radio Authority). More suspicious for those seeking evidence of right-wing connections, he was president of the UK Committee for the Free World, an organisation dedicated to countering communist propaganda. He was a natural to join the board of the newly privatised VSEL in 1986. Here, more than anywhere else, he has played an active business role. He edged out the chief executive and did the job himself for eight months before Noel Davies was appointed." Pilgrims Society executive since 1979. Member Conservative Monday Club. Pro-apartheid. Director pro-junta British-Chilean Council. Part of the group that tried to overthrow Labour Prime Minister Wilson in the 1970s, with the excuse that he was a communist agent. Council member of Foreign Affairs Research Institute (FARI) with Cercle members/presidents Brian Crozier, Julian Amery, and Robert Moss, just as the aristocrat Sir Frederic M. Bennett. February 1984, Issue 3, Lobster Magazine, 'American Friends: the Anti-CND Groups': "In 1981 FARI published an absurd booklet by their chairman Sir Frederick Bennett MP claiming Russian money was being used by CND." September 1986, Issue 12, Lobster Magazine, 'The British Right - scratching the surface - Digression 2': "When Gable wrote his memo FARI was being funded by the South African government (although it is possible that Gable was unaware of this), and its Council included four men who have appeared in Searchlight: Julian Amery (connection with the Italian fascist party, MSI, in March 1979), Lord Chalfont (connections with Chile, August 1979), and Robert Moss and Brian Crozier (all over issue 18, 1975)." March 20, 2004, Daily Telegraph, Obituary of Geoffrey Stewart-Smith: "In 1974 he had sought to distance his Foreign Affairs Circle from the World Anti-Communist League because of the WACL's strong anti-Semitic element, saying: "We wouldn't touch them with a barge pole." However, he later admitted that another of his organisations, the Foreign Affairs Research Institute, had been mainly funded by the apartheid government in South Africa. The admission came in 1987 when Stewart-Smith appeared at the London Bankruptcy Court, disclosing debts of pounds 150,388 and no assets." April 1986, Issue 11, Lobster Magazine, 'Wilson, MI5 and the Rise of Thatcher - Covert Operations in British Politics 1974-1978 - Appendix 3': "FARI was also reported to be receiving money from the US company Lockheed (Counterspy November 1981)... FARI was said to have "strong CIA links" by Gerry Gable in a memo leaked to the New Statesman... Nevertheless FARI has grown and grown. In 1980 it began organising an annual 'balance of power' conference in Britain, attracting some of the top level figures on the new right: Feulner of the Heritage Foundation, Ray Cline of NSIC, Frank Barnet of NSIC and the Committee for the Present Danger, General Daniel Graham ex-'Team B', DIA etc." ajweberman.com/monica.htm: "In June 1978, FARI co-sponsored a conference in Brighton, England with the CIA-connected Institute for the Study of Conflict. Among those who attended was Richard Mellon Scaife. Also attending the conference was William Casey, who would later be appointed head of the CIA by Ronald Reagan." Chair Institute for the Study of Terrorism, a clone of Crozier's anti-communist Institute for the Study of Conflict. Member Committee for a Free Britain, which spent more than Pounds 200,000 on press advertisements attacking Labour during the 1987 election. Together with Richard Mellon Scaife, Michael Ledeen and other neoconservatives, Chalfont was a member of the Committee for the Free World. Member Media Monitoring Unit, which attempted to "expose" left-wing bias in television news and current affairs programmes. Chalfont was deputy chairman of the Independent Broadcasting Authority under Thatcher. Consultant to private security firm Zeus Security Consultants (this firm did high level government contract work), owned by Major Peter Hamilton, a close associate of Stephan Kock, the MI5, MI6, SAS agent who allegedly once headed a government assassination team, Group 13.

Who's Who: Commissioned into South Wales Borderers (24th Foot), 1940; served in: Burma 1941–44; Malayan campaign 1955–57; Cyprus campaign 1958–59; various staff and intelligence appointments; Staff Coll., Camberley, 1950; Jt Services Staff Coll., 1958; Russian interpreter, 1951; resigned commission, 1961, on appt as Defence Correspondent, The Times; frequent television and sound broadcasts and consultant on foreign affairs to BBC Television, 1961–64; Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 1964–70; UK Permanent Rep. to WEU, 1969–70; Foreign Editor, New Statesman, 1970–71. Dep. Chm., IBA, 1989–90; Chm., Radio Authy, 1991–94. Director: W. S. Atkins International, 1979–83; IBM UK Ltd, 1973–90 (Mem. IBM Europe Adv. Council, 1973–90); Lazard Bros & Co. Ltd, 1983–90; Shandwick plc, 1985–95; Triangle Holdings, 1986–90; Dep. Chm., Television Corp. plc, 1996–2001; Chairman: Industrial Cleaning Papers, 1979–86; Peter Hamilton Security Consultants Ltd, 1984–86; VSEL Consortium, later VSEL, 1987–95; President: Abington Corp. (Consultants) Ltd, 1981–; Nottingham Bldg Soc., 1983–90. Pres., All Party Defence Gp, H of L, 1995– (Chm., 1980–94). President: Hispanic and Luso Brazilian Council, 1975–80; RNID, 1980–87; Llangollen Internat. Music Festival, 1979–90; Freedom in Sport, 1982–88; Chairman: UK Cttee for Free World, 1981–89; Eur. Atlantic Gp, 1983–; Member: Nat. Defence Industries Council, 1992–; IISS; Bd of Governors, Sandle Manor Sch. MRI; MInstD. FRSA. Hon. Fellow UCW Aberystwyth, 1974. Hon. Col, Univ. of Wales OTC, 1991–94. Liveryman, Worshipful Co. of Paviors. Freeman, City of London. PC 1964; OBE 1961; MC 1957; Chairman: Marlborough Stirling Group, 1994–99; Southern Mining Corp., 1997–99.

The Rt. Hon. Paddy Ashdown MP (special forces veteran; Pilgrims Society; co-president RIIA) in a letter to Margaret Thatcher, January 25, 1989 (reproduced in: 1993, Gary Murray, 'Enemies of the State', pp. 133-135): "You will recall that I raised with you at PMQs last week the subject of your appointment of Lord Chalfont as Deputy Chairman of the IBA. You expressed surprise that I should even ask. I do not want now to raise again the widespread concern that has been expressed about Lord Chalfont's views on television, although I share that concern... I have looked at the objects of Zeus which are stated, in the Articles of Association, as including: "To carry on business, as security experts and agents of all kinds and to provide advisory and consultancy services to Government and other Authorities and to encourage the adoption of security and precautionary measures and devices against industrial and other espionage." There is also well documented and public evidence that, at the time of the Sizewell operation, Zeus, or one of the companies which is in the Zeus group, was subcontracting such work to agents who had criminal records to engage in such work. I raise these matters in some detail because at the time of the instigation of the Sizewell operation, Lord Chalfont was Chairman of Zeus Security Consultants Limited. As at April 1988 he is named Consultant on the headed note paper of Peter Hamilton (Security Consultants) Limited. There is other evidence relating to those connected with Zeus and Government Departments which I would be happy to disclose to you should you wish it. Lord Chalfont has since joined a number of other directors of Zeus as a director of Securipol Limited, incorporated on 16 January 1986. Securipol shares a registered office and directors with Ensec Limited whose purpose is the undersea dumping of nuclear waste. Some prominent Conservatives are Directors of Ensec. The objects of Securipol, as stated in the Articles of Association, are almost identical to those of Zeus. According to the latest information at Companies House, Lord Chalfont has never resigned from the office of director at Securipol Limited." January 27, 1989, The Times, 'Ashdown is accused of Chalfont vendetta': "The Prime Minister accused Mr Paddy Ashdown yesterday of pursuing a vendetta against Lord Chalfont, who he has said is unsuitable for the post of deputy chairman of the Independent Broadcasting Authority because of links with private security companies... In a letter to Mrs Thatcher, Mr Ashdown said Lord Chalfont had been chairman of Zeus Security Consultants when it had been ''engaged by an unknown client for the investigation and surveillance of the objectors at the inquiry into the Sizewell B proposal''. He said Zeus changed its name to Peter Hamilton (Security Consultants) in September 1983 and ''as at April 1988 he (Lord Chalfont) is named as a consultant on the headed notepaper of Peter Hamilton (Security Consultants) Ltd''." August 24, 1990, The Guardian, 'Chalfont quits security firm: Broadcast chief recognises conflict of interest after security company offers inside information to ITV group': "Lord Chalfont was a director, between 1983 and 1986, of Hamilton Ingram's predecessor, Peter Hamilton (Security Consultants) Ltd. This had grown out of a company called Zeus Security Consultants, run by Peter Hamilton, one of whose tasks was covertly investigating anti-nuclear objectors at the Sizewell inquiry. Peter Hamilton, the joint managing director, is a former military intelligence officer who, like Lord Chalfont, served in Malaya and Cyprus." 1995, Gerald James (James used be a banker at Barings, a member of the highly influential Monday Club, and all his career moved in very high intelligence and financial circles. In the late 1980s his company was among those picked by "the cabal" to be sacrificed in the Iraqgate scandal in order to protect the real movers and shakers), 'In the Public Interest', pp. 154-155: "Various people are on record as to Kock's role in Intelligence. The CIA/State Department referred to him as SIS (MI6). Gerald Bull has said that he was a member of MI5 - 'He's a Yarpie - a South African. He works for the Midland Bank arms department, but he's also part of MI5 like Cuckney.' When I mentioned this to Lt.-Col. Colin Mitchell, former MP, late of the Argylls and now with Halo Trust, a charitable company involved in clearing mines from territories like Cambodia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Ethiopia and Mozambique, he told me, 'No, he was MI6.' In an unguarded moment Richard Unwin [friend of Stephen Kock; intelligence and arms company insider] told me that Kock, in his more active days, had been head of Group 13. The Foreign Office is said to draw Group 13 operatives from the SAS as well as from private security firms. Its duties involve 'service to the nation' of a kind only given to the most ruthlessly experienced SAS officers [assassinations]. Kock certainly still moved in such circles when he was working for Astra, and was close to former SAS personnel and men active in the private security business, including Major Peter Hamilton, a former Military Intelligence man who has admitted having 'spent much of his life in the Security and Intelligence world', and was linked to the 'highest echelons of British Intelligence'. Hamilton's firm, Zeus Security Consultants, provided services to the government, as did Defence Systems Ltd., the firm of another of Kock's friends, SAS Major Alastair Morrison MC [accomplished SAS veteran; helped set up Delta Force in the US; set up Defence Systems Limited in 1981, which "defended gold and diamond mines in Africa from thieves,.. oil pipelines in Latin America from guerrillas [and] guarded US and British embassies in the Middle East and elsewhere" (in 1997, former SAS personnel working for DSL were alleged to have trained a Colombian military unit linked to past atrocities and to have provided them with names of local citizens opposed to British Petroleum's project); sold DSL to Armor Holdings in 1997; helped set up Hart Group and Erinys; until March 2004 director of Erinys, which had an $80 million contract to guard Iraqi oilfields and installations; became head of Kroll Security Group in 2004; friend of Tim Spicer, the CEO of the controversial firm Sandline International and later founder of Aegis Defence Services; OBE]. Viscount Monckton [his father attended a number of Pilgrims Society meetings], who acted as one of Kock's patrons in 1967, was a director of Morrison's company, and Morrison was an associate, too, of Jonathan Aitken [intel-connected; unofficial arms negotiator; head of the private, hard-right intelligence group Le Cercle] both before and at the time that Aitken was director of Astra's BMARC [1980s]... Years later I bumped into Peter Shore [important politician and Privy Council member] in the changing rooms of the Roehampton Club... What I actually said to Shore was, 'Why has the main witness not been interviewed [in the Pergau Dam/ Malaysian arms deal affair]?' Shore, assuming that I meant Thatcher, began to reply - 'It's her prerogative as Prime Minister..." When I interrupted, telling him I meant Kock, Shore's telling response was, 'But that is another level of government altogether.'"

Director at the security firm Securipol. Close friend of the extremely influential neoconservative John Lehman, apparently a top player in the military-industrial complex (and member of the 9/11 Commission). 1995, Gerald James, 'In the Public Interest', p. 179: "Lehman's own book makes clear his Intelligence connections, and I discovered too that he was a close friend of Lord Chalfont. Chalfont is himself Intelligence connected, listing among his credits 'various... intelligence appointments'." Chairman second neoconservative Jonathan conference. The second Jonathan Conference on international terrorism, organized in 1984, was opened by a keynote speech of secretary of state George P. Shultz (Bechtel; Pilgrims Society), who was a key organizer of the meeting with Douglas Feith and Benjamin Netanyahu. He claimed that "pre- emptive actions by Western democracies may be necessary to counter the Soviet Union and other nations that... have banded together in an international "league of terror."" This was the real birth of the War on Terror and a policy of pre-emptive strikes, which became standard almost 20 years later after 9/11. Caspar Weinberger (Bechtel; Pilgrims) suggested that the United Nations might be called upon to deal with terrorism. Jeane Kirkpatrick, U.N. Ambassador at the time and still a very influential neoconservative, disagreed with that last notion and said it would be better to create a whole new organization to deal with international terrorism and "the power behind it, the Soviet Union". Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (worked for Averell Harriman in the 1950s; important United Nations official in the 1970s; important DLC operative; chairman of the 1997 Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy, which shed a little bit of light on the inner workings of the Black and Deep Black Programs, the latter officially known as Unacknowledged Special Access Programs; friend of the Rothschild family) and Yitzhak Rabin (Labour prime minister) supported Kirkpatrick. Senator Alan Cranston (D-Calif.), a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, "told the conference that Iraq is shopping for a new nuclear reactor and is fortifying the atomic plant site bombed by Israel in 1981. He said he also has information that "unwitting" American firms provided Iraq with several components for chemical weapons used against Iran in the 44-month war between the two countries." Among the other participants were Israel's Minister of Defense Moshe Arens; Senators Alan Cranston (president of the World Federalist Society), Alfonse D'Amato (leading figure in Iran-Contra investigation), and Paul Laxalt (lieutenant governor Nevada 1962-1966; general chairman National Republican Party 1983-1987; chair of Ronald Reagan for President in 1976, 1980, and 1984; co-chairman George Bush for President in 1988 and 1992); Rep. Jack Kemp; William Webster (director FBI 1978-1987; director CIA 1987-1991; partner Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy since 1991; director Anhauser-Busch); presidential counselor Edwin Meese (Heritage Foundation); Michael Ledeen (CIA connected Zionist extremist); Arthur Goldberg; Eugene Rostow; columnist George Will and television newsmen David Brinkley. Number 5, 1985-1986, The Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia, 'International Terrorism, Recent Developments and Implications for Australia': "The possibility of democratic states taking extra-legal action in response to political terrorism was more clearly spelt out by Lord Chalfont when he chaired the Second Conference on International Terrorism hosted by the Jonathan Institute in Washington in June 1984. In his closing remarks Lord Chalfont made the following observations: 'If our intelligence services detect preparations for a terrorist attack on our countries, or on our embassies, or on our citizens, the most draconian action should be taken to prevent that taking place. If that means clandestine operations to eliminate the terrorists before they can kill us, then they should not be ruled out. And if a terrorist attack can be prevented then those who sponsor it, or shelter its perpetrators will not be immune from a terrible retribution.'" April 1987, Issue 13, Lobster Magazine, Book review of the Jonathan Institute's 'Terrorism: how the West can win': "This book is mostly junk, mere propaganda. I had it with me to read on the train when I visited Colin Wallace. I showed him the list of contributors and mentioned the Jonathan Institute. "Oh, a Mossad front, you mean", he said, and put it down. A Mossad front? I don't know. But misinformation at worst, wilfully partial at best, this sort of crude propaganda can only do the Israeli state harm in the long run." An internet piece, listing Executive Intelligence Review as its source, wrote: "Britain's role in promoting the Afghan experiment was crucial, although now it is often overlooked. Almost immediately after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan Lord Nicholas Bethell, a career British Intelligence agent, formed Radio Free Kabul as a voice for the mujahedin. Bethell had been involved with Russian and Mid-East operations his entire career, and he was a close friend of British spy Kim Philby. Other members of Radio Free Kabul included Winston Churchill III, former Foreign Secretary Baron Chalfont, Lord Morrison of Lambeth the former head of the Foreign Office, and British Intelligence official Ray Whitney." Chalfont was a big supporter of Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, or Star Wars. November 19, 1986, The Wellsboro Gazette, '"Star Wars" could do more harm than good, experts say': "Lord Alun Chalfont of the British House of Lords, however, supports SDI as an alternative to nuclear escalation. "I feel those scientists who say it can't be done have a strange attitude toward research," he stated. "I have never believed that the idea of mutually-assured destruction is a useful policy. The consequences are devastating, terrible and unthinkable. For that reason, I think we need to look into a workable, non-nuclear defense."

Director of Computer Sciences Corporation in the 1990s.

Source(s): 1993, Alan Clark, 'Diaries', p. 369-374; June 29, 1997, The Independence, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club; Is it the ultimate dishonour'

Born in 1935. Member of the aristocratic Guinness family from Ireland. Lived with the Astors during WWII. Conservative member of parliament for Southend West until 1997 at which time, he stood down and was created a Life Peer. On 7 July 1972, Mac Stíofáin (one of the more violent leaders of the IRA) led an IRA delegation to a secret meeting with members of the British government, led by Secretary of State for Northern Ireland William Whitelaw, at Cheyne Walk in London. This was the Chelsea home of Paul Channon. Other IRA leaders in attendance were Dáithí Ó Conaill, Martin McGuinness, Gerry Adams, Seamus Twomey and Ivor Bell. Very much in charge, Mac Stíofáin spelled out the three basis demands of the Provisionals: (1) The future of Ireland to be decided by the people of Ireland acting as a unit; (2) a British government Declaration of Intent to withdraw from Ireland by January 1975 and (3) the unconditional release of all political prisoners. Member of the Other Club since 1973, together with the 7th Marquess of Salisbury (Le Cercle), the Duke of Devonshire (Cavendish), Lord Carrington (Pilgrims Society president), Lord Richardson of Duntisbourne (major Pilgrims Society member), Lord Rothschild, Lord Rees-Mogg, Lord Julian Amery (former Cercle chairman), Prince Charles, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Sir Edward Heath, Sir Denis Thatcher, and Winston S. Churchill. Channon's daughter Olivia was found dead in 1986 after a heroin overdose in the bed of Count Gottfried von Bismarck, a German nobleman living and partying in London. Von Bismarck has been described as: "... looking a bit strange. Pale, thin and sweating a lot but full, as ever, of brilliant and obscure conversation. He knows an awful lot about 19th and 20th century German and English history - much more than most English - but he definitely came across as a darkly complex man." (update: in the mean time, in October 2007, Count von Bismarck shot himself chock full of cocaine and jumped off his balcony. October 11, 2007, The Daily Mail: "It was from the roof terrace of this penthouse apartment [where the Count was found] that a partygoer plunged 60ft to his death last August after a gay orgy hosted by the homosexual von Bismarck... A pathologist told the hearing the 44-year-old's body contained the highestlevel of the drug he had ever seen... [The Count's friend] said: 'Gottfried had been up since Wednesday morning until early Fridaymorning. When he collapsed after a binge of partying it wasn't unlike him to sleep for 24 or 36 hours.' Tests on his body revealed that the levels of cocaine and heroin in his blood were both 'in the fatal range', the inquest heard. According to toxicologists, just 0.99mg of cocaine per litre of bloodis enough to kill, but von Bismarck's level was almost five times that amount. Pathologist Professor Sebastian Lucas said Bismarck had advanced liver disease caused by years of alcohol abuse as well as HIV and hepatitis B and C."). President of the Board of Trade and Secretary of State for Trade and Industry 1986-1987. Secretary of State for Transport 1987-1989. Sir Richard Loose, Sir Adam Butler and Paul Channon had been at university together and they were the ministers of state at the foreign office, the defence ministry and the department of trade during the same time. Seems to be a willing servant of the Lockerbie coverup. During his time as trade minister he allowed a chlorine plant to be sold secretly to Iraq by the British company Uhde Ltd, in the knowledge that it was likely to be used to make mustard and nerve gas, which was used in the war with Iran. Channon also instructed the export credit guarantee department (ECGD) to keep details of the deal secret from the public. Attended the 1990 Pinay meeting in Oman. Present at the memorial service of former Cercle president Julian Amery. Created a life peer as Baron Kelvedon. The Duke of Kent is a good friend of his and they shared their birthday parties at the home of Paul Channon in October 2005. The Queen attended the party. Prince Charles and Camilla, and the widow of the Duke of Devonshire (Cavendish) were expected by the Daily Mail to attend the party.

Who's Who: 2nd Lieut Royal Horse Guards (The Blues), 1955–56. Pres. of Oxford Univ. Conservative Association, 1958. MP (C) Southend W, Jan. 1959–1997; PPS, to Minister of Power, 1959–60, to Home Sec., 1960–62, to First Sec. of State, 1962–63, to the Foreign Sec., 1963–64; Opposition Spokesman on Arts and Amenities, 1967–70; Parly Sec., Min. of Housing and Local Govt, June-Oct. 1970; Parly Under-Sec. of State, DoE, 1970–72; Minister of State, Northern Ireland Office, March-Nov. 1972; Minister for Housing and Construction, DoE, 1972–74; Opposition Spokesman on: Prices and Consumer Protection, March-Sept. 1974; environmental affairs, Oct. 1974–Feb. 1975; Minister of State, CSD, 1979–81; Minister for the Arts, 1981–83; Minister for Trade, 1983–86; Sec. of State for Trade and Industry, 1986–87; Sec. of State for Transport, 1987–89. Chairman: Finance and Services Cttee, H of C, 1992–97; Transport Select Cttee, 1993–97. Dep. Leader, Cons. Delegn to WEU and Council of Europe, 1976–79. Chm., British Assoc. for Central and Eastern Europe, 1992–97. Mem., Gen. Adv. Council to ITA, 1964–66. President: Southend West Cons. Assoc.; Brentwood and Ongar Cons. Assoc.; Old Etonian Assoc., 1999–2000. PC 1980.

Source(s): Atlantic Circle website (existed from October 2000 to June 2002; one simple html page, 350 words; for 90% based on information already published in books or exposed in news articles): "Le Cercle, in the past, has been honored to hear the views of such notables as Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, David Rockefeller, William Casey, Franz Josef Strauss, Jeanne Kirkpatrick, Zbigniew Brzezinski, General Norman Schwartzkopf, the Sultan of Oman, Otto von Hapsburg, Winston Churchill II, Charles Pasqua, Anton Rupert, King Hussein of Jordan and President Ion lliescu of Romania."

Born in 1940. Son of the late Randolph Churchill (son of the famous prime minister) and later Mrs. Averell Harriman (Pamela Harriman). The marriage between these only lasted from 1939 to 1945. Pamela would have numerous affairs with rich men during and after her divorce, including Edward R. Murrow and John Hay Whitney (Pilgrims; close to Brian Crozier of the Cercle), Prince Aly Khan, Alfonso de Portago, Gianni Agnelli, and Baron Elie de Rothschild. Her later husband, Averell Harriman, a very elitist Pilgrims Society member, had many OSS/CIA connections. Pamela became very active in the Democratic Party and eventually under Clinton she became the US Ambassador to France (1993–1997).

MA from Oxford, Eton College. War correspondent in Yemen, Congo and Angola, 1963; Correspondent: Borneo and Vietnam, 1966; Middle East, 1967; Chicago, Czechoslovakia, 1968; Nigeria, Biafra and Middle East, for The Times, 1969–70; Special Correspondent: China, for The Observer, 1972; Portugal, for The Daily Telegraph, 1975. Presenter, This Time of Day, BBC Radio, 1964–65. Lecture tours of the US and Canada, 1965–2005. Contested Gorton Div. of Manchester, Nov. 1967. MP (C) Stretford, 1970–83, Davyhulme, Manchester, 1983–97. PPS to Minister of Housing and Construction, 1970–72, to Minister of State, FCO, 1972–73; Sec., Cons. Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Cttee, 1973–76; Conservative Party front-bench spokesman on Defence, 1976–78. Member: Select Cttee on Defence, 1983–97; Select Cttee on H of C (Services), 1985–86. Vice-Chm., Cons. Defence Cttee, 1979–83; Cons. Party Co-ordinator for Defence and Multilateral Disarmament, 1982–84; Mem. Exec., 1922 Cttee, 1979–85, Treas., 1987–88. Sponsored Motor Vehicles (Passenger Insce) Act 1972, Crown Proceedings (Armed Forces) Act 1987. Pres., Trafford Park Indust. Council, 1971–97. Member, Council: Consumers’ Assoc., 1990–93; British Kidney Patients Assoc., 1990–2004. President: Friends of Airborne Forces, 1996–2004; War Memls Trust (formerly Friends of War Memls), 1997–; Chairman: Nat. Benevolent Fund for the Aged, 1994– (Trustee, 1974–); Winston Churchill Meml Trust, 2002– (Trustee, 1965–); Trustee, Sandy Gall’s Afghanistan Appeal, 1995–. Governor, English-Speaking Union, 1975–80; Vice-Pres., British Technion Soc., 1976–. Hon. Fellow, Churchill Coll., Cambridge, 1969. Member of the Other Club, together with Lord Rees-Mogg, the Duke of Devonshire (Cavendish), Lord Carrington (Pilgrims president), Lord Rothschild and Prince Charles. Here they dine together with such individuals as Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Sir Edward Heath, and Sir Denis Thatcher (husband of). Lord Richardson of Duntisbourne (J. Henry Schroder; Bank of England; Morgan Stanley; BIS; Chemical Bank; Chase Manhattan; Rolls Royce; Ditchley; Group of Thirty; presided over G-10 meetings; Privy Council; Order of the Garter; Pilgrims Society) and Cercle participants Baron Kelvedon, Lord Julian Amery and the 7th Marquess of Salisbury (Cecil). White's. Buck's.

Source(s): 2014, Johannes Grossmann, p. 552 (visited in the early 1990s)

Born in 1952. University of Austin 1970-1977. General counsel to the secretary of state of Texas 1980-1981. Special assistant to White House chief of staff James Baker 1981-1985. Transition staff secretary of state James Baker and president-elect George H. W. Bush 1988-1989. White House staff secretary 1989-1990. Partner Akin, Gump, Strauss & Feld early 1990s-1998. Joined AT&T's legal staff in 1998. Director American Council on Germany. Trustee Brookings Institution 2000-. George W. Bush transition staff 2000-2001. Vice president George Bush Presidential Library. Bush-Cheney '04. John McCain 2008. New Republican Majority Fund. Fund for a Responsible Future. Director U.S. Chamber of Commerce. General counsel and executive vice president for law and government affairs AT&T anno 2015.

Sources: 1993, Alan Clark, 'Diaries', p. 369-374; June 29, 1997, The Independence, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club; Is it the ultimate dishonour'; April 6, 2003, The Observer, 'So, Norman, any regrets this time?'

Who's Who: Foreign Office, 1958; HM Forces, 1960–62; FO 1962; served Tehran, 1964–66; Jedda, 1966–68; Second Sec. (Economic), later First Sec., Paris, 1969–71; FCO, 1972–76; Dep. Hd of Mission, Freetown, 1976–80; FCO, 1980–84; secondment (with rank of Counsellor) to Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Ltd, 1984–86; Counsellor and Head of Chancery, Bucharest, 1986–89; Consul-Gen., Montreal, 1990–93; Sen. Overseas Inspector, FCO, 1994–96. Vice-Chm., Thanet Community Housing Assoc., 1999–2003. Complaint Convenor, Kent and Medway HA, 2002–05; Perf. Assessor, GMC, 2002–. Non-exec. Dir, E Kent Hosps NHS Trust, 2003–; Interim Chm., Shepway PCT, 2004–05. Trustee, Michael Yoakley’s Charity, 2000– (Chm. of Trustees, 2005–). Minister of Trade, 1986-1989, and Minister of State, Minister of Defence, 1989-1992.

Studied law. He did not practice however, and instead became a military historian. Controversial, irreverent, charming and vain, Alan Clark was one of the most colourful British politicians during the 1980s and 90s. Clark entered Parliament as MP for Plymouth Sutton in 1974 and served in various junior ministerial posts at the departments of Employment, Trade and Defence during the Thatcher governments of the 1980s. He attended the 1990 Pinay meeting in Oman. Clark was involved in the Arms-for-Iraq scandal, which eventually caused a landslide towards Tony Blair. At the same time he has cited in a divorce case in South Africa where it was revealed he slept with both the wife and her two daughters. He temporarily left politics, but he returned to Parliament as member for Kensington and Chelsea in the election of 1997. He died in 1999 of a brain tumor, a year before his book 'Diaries' was published, in which talked about the Pinay Circle being funded by the CIA. To date he is the only Member of Parliament to be accused of being drunk at the despatch box. To journalist Frank Johnson, Alan Clark is supposed to have said that: "Yes, I told him, I was a Nazi; I really believed it to be the ideal system, and that it was a disaster for the Anglo-Saxon races and for the world that it was extinguished. Oh yes, I told him, I was completely committed to the whole philosophy. The blood and violence was an essential ingredient of its strength, the heroic tradition of cruelty every bit as powerful and a thousand times more ancient than the Judaeo-Christian ethic."

September 15, 2009, The Independent, 'Dominic Lawson: Alan Clark was not 'wonderful'. He was sleazy and cruel - The diarist and Tory minister made his wife wretchedly miserable': "Alan Clark was not wonderful. He was sleazy, vindictive, greedy, callous and cruel. He was also a thorough-going admirer of Adolf Hitler, although his sycophants persisted in thinking that his expressions of reverence for the Fuhrer were not meant seriously. They absolutely were. ... One MP had the courage to offer an honest view of his late colleague: David Heathcoat-Amory – who had the genuine article's ability to see through Clark's phoney imitation of the upper-class Englishman. Heathcoat-Amory told the BBC that "he wasn't a particularly nice man. He could be very cruel with colleagues. ... The truth was that Clark had been content to see the men locked up on the basis of his perjurious evidence – for which he should have been prosecuted – and only came clean when the forced disclosure of documents he had connived in suppressing had put him on the spot. It turned out that Clark had earlier explained his motives for clearing the exports to Saddam: "The interests of the West were well served by Iran and Iraq fighting each other, the longer the better." He was indeed a notable historian of wars, one of his most acclaimed works being Barbarossa, an account of the Eastern Front in the Second World War. He was intent on proving Hitler's talent as a military leader, but over the years it became clear that there was more to it than mere technical admiration of Hitler the war strategist. In 1981 his diary records: "I told Frank Johnson that I was a Nazi; I really believed it to be the ideal system, and that it was a disaster for the Anglo-Saxon races and for the world that it was extinguished." Johnson, who was then on the staff of The Times, gulps and tells Clark that he can't really mean it. Clark really did mean it. But even when he complains in his diary that Johnson "takes refuge in the convention that Alan-doesn't-really-mean-it", his readers continue to believe that this is all an uproarious joke. Yet, and this is to his credit as a diarist, he does not attempt to mislead his readers about his true opinions: at one point he records his thoughts of defecting to the National Front, and when two NF emissaries come to visit him he writes, "How good they were and how brave [those] who keep alive the tribal essence." All this filth has been submerged by the tidal wave of obsession with Clark's sexual exploits. On that score Trewin's biography will not disappoint. We knew that the 30-year-old Clark married the 16-year-old Jane Beuttler in 1958. Yet Trewin has unearthed the following diary entry, written when Clark's wife-to-be was just 14: "This is very exciting. She [Jane] is the perfect victim, but whether or not it will be possible to succeed I can't tell at present." He did succeed in the endeavour of making this child a "perfect victim": in the course of their marriage he made her wretchedly miserable with his continuous betrayals. Sickest of all, perhaps, was the way in which on his death-bed he made this much younger woman promise him that she would never remarry. Naturally his "perfect victim" consented. Again, the reading public seems to find Clark's frenzied extra-marital rutting merely amusing: or perhaps it is just that they appreciate his lack of hypocrisy in admitting all to his diary. They should consider what it was like to be in receipt of his unwanted attentions. Some years ago the (married) journalist Minette Marrin recorded her own experience of it. They had both been invited to a "political" dinner at a private house. He instantly pressed himself on her in a most unsubtle way, demanding that she leave their hosts, join him for a private dinner and then... Marrin recalled: "He thought 'no' was a form of flirting ... When at last he came to believe that I was impervious to his charms and would not rush off with him into the night, he turned to me with a particularly vicious look. And this is what this self-styled gentleman, this intellectual, this flower of our civilisation, then said: "Well, fuck you then. Fuck off. I'm not talking to you any more." I think it would be better if we heard no more about the "wonderful" Alan Clark."

Source(s): Adrian Hanni (second Cercle meeting in 1985)

American politician, served under President Ronald Reagan as the Deputy Secretary of State from 1981 to 1982, United States National Security Advisor from 1982 to 1983, and the Secretary of the Interior from 1983 until 1985.

A devout Catholic, former seminary student, rancher, lawyer, and aide to Reagan in the California gubernatorial years, Clark served as a justice of the California Supreme Court prior to his Washington appointment, and was known to long to return to California. Interestingly, despite his later great personal and professional successes, the Los Angeles Times has noted that Clark initially "flunked out of law school" and "had to repeat the bar test",[1] evidently as a result of failing it at first; perseverance definitely paid off in his legal career. Clark attended Stanford University and Loyola Law School. He served in the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps. Clark was a judge for the Superior Court of California from 1969 to 1971 and an associate justice on the California State Supreme Court from 1973 to 1981. His five children, born to wife Johanna "Joan" Brauner (died April 2009), are Monica, Peter (nicknamed Pete), Nina, Colin, and Paul. In Washington, people called him "the judge" in deference to his previous court position. He reached the apex of his power when appointed National Security Advisor and temporarily became preeminent among presidential aides. A longtime rancher friend of Reagan, according to Edmund Morris's Dutch, Clark would walk into Reagan's office unannounced, an unheard-of practice for even the most senior officials. Clark even suggested to the president in light of foreign policy troubles bedeviling the US in the mid-1980s that Reagan consider not running for reelection in 1984. By that time however, George Shultz had surpassed Clark in influence, and Reagan apparently gave Clark's suggestion no thought. Morris writes that Clark resigned in late 1983 when he tired of the "unceasing hostility of [Michael] Deaver, [George] Shultz, and Nancy Reagan." Morris described Clark as "the only man who ever got within a furlong of intimacy" with the notoriously distant Reagan, and his ability to relate to Reagan inspired jealousy, at the same time that Clark's taciturn nature made him unlikely to build allies. On September 21, 1983 Secretary of the Interior James G. Watt embarrassed the administration by yet again making bigoted remarks to the media, causing him to resign on November 8, and Clark requested and received an appointment to replace Watt, disgusting environmentalists. He returned to California after his stint serving the administration and pursued a variety of law firm and other business interests. His wife, Joan, died in April 2009. In July 2011, Clark became a member of the United States Energy Security Council, which seeks to diminish oil's monopoly over the US transportation sector and is sponsored by the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS). He currently lives in the rural community of Shandon, California where he built a small chapel in the hills of his ranch.

Source(s): 1986 Bihay gendarmerie document: "Marcel Clement: principal leader of the Pinay Committee."

Seemingly the following person:

Marcel Clement (died April 8, 2005) is a philosopher, writer, scholar, journalist, editor and French teacher. He is the brother of Andrew Clement, founder of the Faculté Libre de Philosophie Comparée in Paris. He is the father of Pascal Clement, politician and former minister of justice in the cabinet of prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and uncle of Francis Xavier Clément, philosopher, diocesan director of Catholic Education of the Loire. Among the books he wrote was the 1960 book 'Le Communisme face à Dieu: Marx, Mao, Marcuse.'

Professor of philosophy. Specialist in the social doctrine of the Church. Editor of the Catholic newspaper L'Homme Nouveau 1962-1998. Promoter of Ultramontanism and said to have influenced a generation of Catholics.

News article: "In his inaugural address, the new President of the Departmental Assembly said he was "particularly excited and proud" to succeed Pascal Clement, Lucien Neuwirth and Antoine Pinay."

Source(s): 1982 Wildbad Kreuth participants list; Cercle lists: 1982 Wildbad Kreuth; 1983 Bonn; 1984 Bonn

NATO commander who continually warned for Soviet agression. Resigned from military service in 1980 when Belgium refused the deployment of cruise missiles. Vice president Mouvement d'Action pour l'Union de l'Europe (MAUE) since 1980. Co-founder European Institute for Security in 1981. Co-founder l'Institut Européen pour la Paix et la Sécurité with Jacques Jonet, Paul Vankerkhoven (WACL) and Nicolas de Kerchove in 1983. Jean Gol was a director of this institute. President WACL 1983-84 and West European vice president after that. President Western Goals Belgium. PRL senator 1981-1987. Frequent Resistence International signatory.

January 16, 1977, Xinhua General News Service, 'West European countries should keep vigilance against soviet surprise attack, notes belgian journal': "The article quotes belgian General Robert Close's book "the europe without defence?" as saying, "the growing imbalance of the forces stationed in europe might incite the soviets to try a lightning opertion.""

May 10, 1977, Xinhua General News Service, 'Feature from brussels: situation in western Europe is undergoing changes': "If anyone asks what is the best seller in brussels this spring? People here will tell you without hesitation: it is a book entitled "Europe Without Defence?" written by belgian General Robert Close, commander of the 16th armoured division of nato and former vice-president of Defence College of Nato."

December 7, 1979, The Globe and Mail, 'Closing NATO gap may ease pressure': "Most European NATO members support the SALT II agreement awaiting endorsement in Washington, even though it is realized its enactment might mean less assurance that the United States would risk a strike in defence of its European allies. The SALT II agreement in practical terms only covers the employment of long-range nuclear systems between the Soviet Union and the United States. European NATO members do not have medium- or long-range nuclear systems capable of reaching Soviet cities. ... The recent claim by Major-General Robert Close, a Belgian NATO commander, that the Soviet Union could easily overrun the existing NATO defences within 48 hours with a surprise attack, is widely discounted. In purely tactical military terms the General's appreciation could be accurate. But the view is that, so long as the capacity for instant NATO nuclear retaliation is maintained, the old men of the Kremlin would never risk their comfortable situations, particularly with millions of Chinese troops at their back door."

January 21, 1982, , BBC Summary of World Broadcasts (TASS), 'Retired Belgian General's Proposal for ''European Intervention Force''': "Washington has found in Western Europe a new advocate of its militarist policy aimed at undermining detente and reviving the cold war, in the person of retired Belgian General Robert Close, who is now a senator. The general was one of the directors of a special school training officer personnel for NATO headquarters in Brussels. This time he decided to lecture the peoples and governments of Western Europe. With this end in view the general gave a lengthy inter- view to the Right-wing French 'Figaro Magazine'. The interview consists of the standard array of arguments which the US administration, in particular, constantly adduces to justify its course of an upward spiralling of the arms race and heightening international tension. But the retired general would have been a bad servant of the US strategists if he did not mention what they regard as the main thing now - the ''need'' to attach Western Europe more fully and without demur to Washington's adventurist policy in the inter- national arena. His proposal to set up the so-called European Intervention Force after the pattern of the notorious US ''Rapid Deployment Forces'' has become the apex of the pro-Atlantic zeal of Robert Close. In other words, the general is pressing for Britain, France, Italy, and other countries to join in the preparations being conducted in the USA for new interventions abroad. Coming forward with bellicose calls to please Washington, Robert Close obviously underestimates the sentiments of the population of the European continent. ''The arms race worries broad sections of the public,'' the French newspaper 'L'Humanite' says. ''This is why the participants in the struggle for peace include not only communists but also members of other parties and religious circles. The mass demonstrations which took place in Paris and other European capitals not so long ago manifested, in particular, the peoples' striving for peace.''"

April 8, 1984, Central News Agency - Taiwan, 'WACL meeting to be held in Belgium April 9-11': "Dr. Ku and General Robert Close, Belgian Senator and chairman of the WACL Council..."

July 24, 1990, Central News Agency - Taiwan, 'WACL changes name to WLFD, but principles unchanged': "General Robert CLose, president of the European League for Freedom and Democracy..."

January 22, 2003, Central News Agency - Taiwan, 'WLFD Annual Congress Opens in Taitung': "The World League for Freedom and Democracy (WLFD) convened its annual congress in the eastern county of Taitung Wednesday, with the participation of 46 delegates from 26 countries. ... General Robert Close of Belgium said that Taiwan must be allowed to join the United Nations and expressed his hope that mainland China will follow Taiwan in becoming a democratic country."

Catena: Italiaans voor ‘ketting’. Codenaam voor een parallel stay-behindnetwerk in België waar rijkswachters, militairen en een aantal extreem rechtse figuren deel van uitmaakten. Based in Charleroi.

November 14, 1990, Le Soir, 'GLADIO ETAIT UN RESEAU DORMANT,MAIS CATENA? POUR MOI GLADIO EXISTAIT DEJA EN 1948 DE LA RESISTANCE A DES DERIVES?': "Selon lui, le «Gladio» italien a sans doute vu naître des «frères» et reçu une structure internationale officielle en 1952. Mais, en Belgique comme dans d'autres pays, il est sans doute toujours resté «dormant». Cette «passivité» serait d'ailleurs, toujours selon Moyen, à l'origine de l'émergence d'une dissidence, au début des années cinquante, le réseau «Catena» qui, lui, ne serait pas resté inactif dans sa lutte anticommuniste. ... Elles on été démantelées quand on a dissous l'équipe action du SDRA... en même temps que «Gladio» était dissous en France d'ailleurs. «Catena» en revanche a participé à de nombreuses actions anticommunistes en Europe. C'est une organisation «dissidente» née au sein de «Gladio» au début des années cinquante, à l'initiative de ses membres avides d'action. Des gens que j'ai connus soupçonnaient l'Opus Dei, le Vatican, Otto De Habsbourg, les Coudenhove-Kalergi d'y être mêlés."

Georges Marnette: "De naam van dit netwerk heette volgens mij Catena. Hooggeplaatste militairen zoals generaal Close, de kolonels Militis en Mayerus en majoor Bougerol maakten er deel van uit. Mogelijk hebben zij extreem rechts gebruikt om bepaalde spionageopdrachten uit te voeren."

Source(s): November 1988 – Issue 17, Lobster Magazine, 'Brian Crozier, the Pinay Circle and James Goldsmith' (quoting from the Langemann papers) - went to the December 1, 1979 meeting; October 1989 – Issue 18, Lobster Magazine, 'The Pinay Circle and Destabilisation in Europe'; 1997, Robert Hutchinson, 'Their Kingdom Come – Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei', pp. 153-158; June 29, 1997, The Independence, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club; Is it the ultimate dishonour' (named as a regular)

William E. Colby, the son of an army officer, was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, on 4th January, 1920. He attended Princeton University and graduated in 1940. In 1941 Colby joined the United States Army and in 1943 the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). The OSS trained him for special missions, and he served behind enemy lines in France and on one occupation helped to destroy a German communication centre in Norway. After the war Colby obtained a law degree from Columbia University in 1947. After working for a short time in a law firm, Colby joined the CIA. He served in Stockholm (1951-1953) and then in Rome (1953-1958), where he helped to arrange the defeat of the Communist Party in the Italian general election. Colby is said to have become both a member of Opus Dei and the Knights of Malta during his intelligence days and is known to have been a staunch Roman Catholic. In his 1978 autobiography, Honorable Men, Colby explains that he was sent to Scandinavia by Gerry Miller, chief of the CIA Western Europe desk, to build the Stay-Behind networks in Scandinavia. Some of his own words: "[After WWII there was] undertaken a major program of building, throughout those Western European countries that seemed likely targets for Soviet attack, what in the parlance of the intelligence trade were known as 'stay-behind nets', clandestine infrastructures of leaders and equipment trained and ready to be called into action as sabotage and espionage forces when the time came... [This was carried out] with the utmost secrecy... Therefore I was instructed to limit access to information about what I was doing to the smallest possible coterie of the most reliable people, in Washington, in NATO, and in Scandinavia." 2005, Daniele Ganser, 'Nato Secret Armies', p. 169-170: "'Berlingske Tidende can reveal that Absalon is the Danish branch of the international Gladio network. This has been confirmed by a member of Absalon to Berlingske Tidende who wishes at present to remain unnamed', a Danish daily newspaper sensationally headlined its discoveries in 1990. (6 [November 25, 1990, Danish daily Berlingske Tidende, 'Ogsa Danmark havde hemmelig haer efter anden verdenskrig']) The source, named Q by the newspaper, confirmed what Colby had revealed in his book. 'Colby's story is absolutely correct. Absalon was created in the early 1950s', the source Q related... 'Colby was a member of the world spanning laymen catholic organization Opus Dei, which, using a modern term, could be called right-wing. Opus Dei played a central in the setting up of Gladio in the whole of Europe and also in Denmark', Q claimed. 'The leader of Gladio was Harder who was probably not a Catholic. But there are not many Catholics in Denmark and the basic elements making up the Danish Gladio were former [World War II] resistance people...(7 [Ibid])'... When another group of Danish journalist insisted to be given at least the name of a Danish CIA contact person, Colby revealed that 'his Danish contact person' for the Gladio net had been Ebbe Munck, a central figure of the Danish secret service and a former member of the resistance movement who later had entered diplomacy [immediately after WWII] to become an advisor to the Danish Queen Margarethe [II]. (10 [November 26, 1990, Danish daily Information, 'Mere mystik om dansk Gladio'])" Colby was CIA station chief in Saigon from 1959 to 1962 and headed the agency's Far East division from 1962 to 1967. In 1968, while preparing to take up the post of Chief of the Soviet Bloc Division of the Agency, President Johnson instead sent Colby back to Vietnam as Deputy to Robert Komer, who had been charged with streamlining the civilian side of the American efforts against the Communists. Shortly after arriving Colby succeeded Komer as head of the U.S./South Vietnamese rural pacification effort. This was an attempt to quell the Communist insurgency in South Vietnam. Part of the effort was the controversial Phoenix Program, an initiative designed to identify and attack the "Viet Cong Infrastructure". From 1968 to 1971 he directed the Phoenix program during the Vietnam War. It is estimated that as many 60,000 supporters of the National Liberation Front were killed during the Phoenix program, although Colby put the number at 20,587. Colby also maintained that the deaths arose in combat and were not the result of a criminal assassination program, as critics of Project Phoenix labeled it. Attorney of the Nugan Hand Bank, a money laundering center of heroin profits, mainly from the Golden Triangle, and run by different US intelligence agencies. After Nugan Hand's cover was blown and the operation abandoned, the CIA redirected many of the Nugan Hand operations to another Pacific financial institution based in Hawaii, named Bishop, Baldwin, Rewald, Dillingham and Wong (BBRDW). By the end of 1980, BBRDW started setting up offices in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, Singapore, and Australia, all former Nugan Hand locations, staffing the offices with some of the same personnel. On 4 September 1973 President Richard Nixon appointed Colby director of the CIA. In 1973, he was questioned at a Senate hearing about the 40 Committee he was a member of. Here he admitted that Henry Kissinger was its chairman at that moment. When in 1975 both houses of Congress set up inquiries into the activities of the intelligence community, Colby handed over to the Senate committee chaired by Frank Church details of the CIA's recent operations against the left-leaning government in Chile. The agency's attempts to sabotage the Chilean economy had contributed to the downfall of South America's oldest democracy and to the installation of a military dictatorship. His testimony resulted in his predecessor, Richard Helms, being indicted for perjury. Colby was attacked by right-wing figures such as Barry Goldwater for supplying this information to Frank Church and on 30 January 1976 president Gerald Ford replaced him with Admiral Stansfield Turner. In retirement Colby published his memoirs Honorable Men. This resulted in him being accused of making unauthorized disclosures, and was forced to pay a $10,000 fine in an out-of-court settlement. In 1996 (age 76), after reportedly going out canoeing in the middle of the night, Colby died under suspicious circumstances near his home in Rock Point, Maryland. He did not mention any canoeing plans to his wife, which he usually did, nor was it normal for him to go boating at night at a rain swollen river while leaving his computer on, dinner at the table, and the door unlocked. Colby was found with no lifejacket, which he always wore when on the water, according to his wife. Some people claim that Colby was preparing to leak sensitive information to them. Steven Greer of the Disclosure Project and Kay Griggs of Colonel George Griggs were among those who claimed that. Also, Colby had lent his name to a small right-wing magazine called Strategic Investment, which blamed everything from Oklahoma and Iran Contra drug imports to the death of Vince Foster solely on Clinton. The editors of this magazine suggested that Colby was murdered for giving the magazine credence and because Colby was going to give them information on a conspiracy between Vince Foster and Clinton. However, Colby reported to his friend Senator John DeCamp that he should not believe one word he, or anyone else, wrote in Strategic Investment. Sen. John DeCamp, 'The Franklin Cover-Up,' second edition, p.387-388: "At the time of his death, Bill was working with Britain's Lord William Rees-Mogg, and his American sidekick, James Dale Davidson, publishing a series of newsletters, on international events, financial opportunities, and politics [Strategic Investment]. In fact, he was working on an article for one of those newsletters when he died. Rees-Mogg and Davidson are strange birds... After all, he [Rees-Mogg] used to write that in the coming age of society, an elite of 5% of the total population would rule over the other 95% as virtual slaves. But Rees-Mogg is not just nasty-- he represents great power... On several occasions, when I saw Bill or spoke with him during the last year of his life, I'd ask him whether I should subscribe to his newsletter, or, whether he'd just give me a few copies to look over. He always told me not to waste my money. "Ask me about any situation your interested in, and I'll give you as thorough a briefing as I possibly can. But don't believe a word you read in that newsletter I'm writing for." Strange. But, then again, Bill Colby spent his entire adult life in the shadow world of spies and counter-spies. Maybe his involvement with Rees-Mogg was more complicated than I ever speculated... And I recall another incident... Together with Rees-Mogg, the most savage press hound attacking Clinton was one Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, a Briton... [he] once called me, urgently demanding a meeting. I had never heard of him before, and so I asked Bill if he had ever heard of this fellow.... Bill answered, rather ominously, as I now look back, "His name is Ambrose Evans-Pritchard. And," he said, "be very careful." Colby advised Sen. DeCamp to drop his investigation into the Franklin child abuse and satanism case, because he would certainly be silenced. Instead, Colby recommended that DeCamp write a book and let the world know what he came across. Rees-Mogg, by the way, is a member of the extremely elite Roxburghe Club, together with the Cecils, Howards, Cavendishes, Rothschilds, Oppenheimers, and formerly Paul Mellon. According to Steven Greer, Colby received access to extraterrestrial material, together with a black budget of about $50 million. In the mid 1990s, Colby, of the opinion that the covert projects were out of control, decided to transfer a large sum and a revolutionary energy device to Greer's CSETI. But before he was able to do that, he was assassinated. The colonel who was the go-between between Colby and CSETI, and one of Colby's best friends, soon died of cancer. Greer and one of his closest associates also contracted cancer in that time period. Greer was the only one to survive.

Relationship with the Pike Committee was extremely bad. He undermined it, together with Shackley and Henry Kissinger.

Source(s): Cercle's 1985 Washington D.C. meeting lists; Adrian Hanni (went to the other 1985 Cercle meeting)

March 24, 1984, The Economist, ' French nuclear weapons; New Maginot line?': "For an argumentative people, the French have shown remarkable agreement in accepting the burden of nuclear weapons. President Mitterrand's support for the deployment of Euromissiles had widespread approval; the French unilateralist disarmament movement is tiny; French bishops have given their blessing to France's nuclear force de frappe; the Communist party has voted for construction of a new nuclear-armed submarine. An unexpected critic has now ruffled the surface. General Etienne Copel, who was one of France's fastest rising officers, has resigned as deputy chief of the air force general staff and published a book which says that France's dependence on nuclear arms could lead to catastrophe.* * "Vaincre la guerre". Editions Lieu commun. General Copel challenges France's "big bang" theory of nuclear defence, shared by the right and the left since it was laid down by General de Gaulle. According to this strategy, tactical nuclear weapons based in eastern France would be fired in one burst as a final warning to an advancing enemy. If the advance continued, France's long-range nuclear weapons would be used, again all at once, mainly against Russian cities. France's threat to unleash its strategic nuclear arsenal in one throw is believed to be a more effective deterrent than the threat of step-by-step nuclear retaliation. General Copel, argues that a Russian attack on western Europe would be non-nuclear: as the Soviet Army streamed across West Germany towards the Rhine, France would not in fact use its nuclear weapons on Russian cities. No French president would risk Russian nuclear retaliation. "Nuclear deters only nuclear," the general writes. In his view, the force de frappe is today's Maginot line. The general's criticisms are timely because French defence planners are putting more emphasis on nuclear than on conventional weapons. A rapid-deployment conventional force is being organised but this seems to be better adapted for more distant trouble spots than for use in Europe. This apart, new money is mainly being spent on enlarging the strategic nuclear force and in developing a medium-range nuclear-armed missile. General Copel's remedy is not for the faint-hearted, and may give pause to those tempted to agree with his criticisms. He thinks that French defence should concentrate on chemical warfare and on the neutron bomb. He wants French troops to be better protected against Soviet chemical weapons, and thinks France should develop its own. Low-blast, high-radiation neutron weapons, on his plan, would help to stop an enemy at France's borders. The general's unorthodoxy has had an icy welcome from the French defence establishment. General Pierre Gallois, France's leading nuclear strategist, says the book ignores France's allies, takes the Russians for imbeciles and will do more harm than good. A leading left-wing Socialist, Mr Jean-Pierre ChevAenement, defended nuclear weapons and said General Copel was recklessly exaggerating. In premature retirement, the general is unrepentant. Once freed from their preoccupation with long-range nuclear defence, he believes the French will reveal once more their martial qualities: "We can fight and resist", he says, "we are not cattle". No doubt. But is General Copel's defence as good as his attack?"

May 31, 1990, The Independent, 'Towards a new balance with no fear of the Bundeswehr': "That would be the result of any important modification of Germany's role in Nato. The latest Soviet version - that Germany should adopt the French solution, inside the political structure but not in the integrated military command - was warmly welcomed by General Etienne Copel, the former chief of France's air force, but by almost nobody else. It was rejected, in particular, by the West German Defence Minister, Gerhard Stoltenberg. For the Germans, there is little difference between this idea and the long-standing Soviet ambition to neutralise Germany. German forces are the largest Nato contingent and the most closely integrated. The entire Bundeswehr is assigned to Nato, comes under Nato command and has no general staff of its own. Removing the Bundeswehr would leave a large hole in Nato contingency planning which the Nato of today could not accept and the Germans of today do not want. It is not a particularly logical thing for the Soviet Union to want. The conventional wisdom that Nato's present arrangements keep Germany from threatening European peace logically suggest that the Soviet Union, too, is safer with Germany in Nato."

Source(s): Cercle's 1982 Wildbad Kreuth list

January 15, 1981, Christian Science Monitor, 'Reagan may block US firms from aiding on key Soviet pipeline project': "If the Soviet Union thought it could count on US help in building a natural gas pipeline from Siberia to West Germany, it probably cannot now. As part of its appreciably sterner policy toward Moscow, the Reagan administration is expected to prevent two major US firms from participating in the massive engineering project, according to Dr. Miles Costick, president of the Institute on Strategic Trade here. The two firms -- Caterpillar Tractor and International Harvester -- hope to sell millions of dollars worth of equipment to the Soviet Union for the Western-financed and -built pipeline, which would carry natural gas from the Yamal Penninsula in northwestern Siberia to West Germany. Here it would link up with a European pipeline network conveying gas to france, Italy, Belgium, and the Netherlands, among other countries. Last December, US Commerce Secretary Philip Klutznick issued export licenses to Caterpillar Tractor for 200 pipe-laying bulldozers and to International Harvester for compressor station components. The licenses were issued against the objections of Defense Department officials, who contended that the sale could make Western Europe more vulnerable to Soviet diplomatic pressure as it comes to rely, to a small degree at least, on Soviet energy. Dr. Costick, who strenuously opposes US participation in the pipeline project on the grounds that it would be needlessly assisting an implacable enemy, says that after conversations with Reagan transition officials, he is "strongly inclined to believe" that the export licenses will be revoked. Asked to comment on such an eventuality, a Commerce Department transition source "close to the trade situation" declares: "It would be my recommendation to the secretary that he carefully review these licenses." ... In a report published by the Institute on Strategic Trade, entitled "The Soviet Gas Deal and its Threat to the West," Costick and Marc Dean Millot, an institute research associate, declare that the "rush" by the West and Japan to build the Soviet pipeline -- thereby boosting Soviet energy production and at the same time creating "a hazardous dependency" on the Soviet Union for their own energy requirements -- seems "an extraordinary folly.""

Source(s): June 29, 1997, The Independence, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club; Is it the ultimate dishonour'

Who's Who: Pres., Cambridge Union, 1950. Called to the Bar, Middle Temple, 1953. Served Foreign Office, 1954–57; First Sec., Kuala Lumpur, 1957–61, Hong Kong, 1961, Peking, 1962; Foreign Office, 1963–66; Counsellor and Head of Chancery, Peking, 1966–68; Chargé d’Affaires, Peking, 1968–69; Head of Planning Staff, FCO, 1969–71; Under-Sec., Cabinet Office, 1971–75; Ambassador to German Democratic Republic, 1976–78; Leader, UK Delegn to Comprehensive Test Ban Discussions at Geneva, 1977–78; Ambassador to People’s Republic of China, 1978–83; Leader of UK team in negotiations over Hong Kong, 1982–83; Dep. Under Sec. of State, FCO, supervising Hong Kong negotiations, 1984; Chm., Jt Intelligence Cttee, 1985–92. the Prime Minister’s Foreign Policy Adviser, 1984–92.

Born in 1923. Studied Law at Cambridge. Joined the British Foreign Office in 1954. Counsellor in Beijing. Charge d'Affairs in Beijing 1966-1969. Head of the Assessments Staff in the Cabinet Office. Ambassador in Beijing 1978-1984. In this position he opened and headed the Sino-British negotiations of 1984, which led to the agreement that the socialist system of the Chinese Republic would not be practiced in Hong Kong for 50 years, starting in 1997 when Hong Kong would have to be given back to China. Hong Kong would keep its capitalist system and its way of life. Foreign Policy Adviser (especially on British-Soviet relations) to Margaret Thatcher 1984-1992. Said to have believed that the slow collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989-1990 was a deliberate Communist hoax. Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), the coordinating board between the intelligence agencies (MI5, MI6, GCHQ, Defense Intelligence Staff) and politicians 1985-1992. According to the former City banker and ASTRA chairman Gerald James, a person named David Hart, a member of Thatcher's inner circle and close friend of William Casey, was especially close to Sir Percy Cradock. Hart at some point boasted: "Thatcher told me so much. I could blow her out of the water in five minutes.", which was a reference to a possible smear campaign if Thatcher at some point would not go along with the City-Intelligence Services cabal. Not a whole lot has been written about the inner workings of the Joint Intelligence Committee. 1995, Gerald James, 'In the Public Interest', p. 128-130: "Stephen Dorril tells us that when, in July 1961, Cabinet Secretary Norman Brook failed to pass to the Prime Minister information about War Minister John Profumo's affair with Christine Keeler (a friend of KGB officer Eugene Ivanov), 'Harold Wilson stumbled on a crucial secret, namely the fact that the Cabinet Office, not the Prime Minister's office, had overall control of the security service and, crucially, the overall flow of information': putting the real power into the hands of permanent government rather than elected government. Intelligence about arms comes from intercepted communications, MI6 agents and informers, embassy officials, and arms dealers. Robin Robison, former administrative officer for the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) responsible for disseminating that information, has put on record that GCHQ [British NSA] arms-deal information goes via JIC to the Bank of England, the DTI, FCO, MoD and ECGD, but is rarely passed into the parliamentary arena. Robinson's job was to sift through transcripts of bugged telephone calls and other intercepted material for inclusion in JIC's 'Red Book' before its distribution. 'Although the Director-General [MI5] has a right to direct access to the Prime Minister, he does not lightly go over the heads of permanent under-secretaries for fear of creating future problems,' writes one former intelligence officer. Ex-Deputy Chief of MI6, George Kennedy Young [whom Gerald James knew well], admitted that, when it comes keeping the Prime Minister informed, the Cabinet Secretary may conveniently fail to find an 'oppertune moment' to pass the baton of power from permanent to elected government. Dorril and Ramsay quote another security source saying that the Home Secretary 'hasn't got a clue what is going on. If he comes around, you lock away any sensitive files and set up a display file specifically for him to look at - a spoof file on some imaginary subversive with lots of exciting material in it. He's not going to know any better.'... Again, every week the Queen receives JIC reports while our own ministers remain relatively in the dark. We are told that Her Majesty makes useful comments on these, and it may be that her comments are more useful than those that might be forthcoming from ministers, but I believe that many ordinary people, brainwashed by the tabloids into thinking that the purpose of the Royal Family is to offer entertainment along the lines of soap opera, would be surprised to learn about this system of disbursement of vital information to government... If most Prime Ministers take up office without much or indeed any knowledge of the security services, in Thatcher's case she was briefed by people associated with Brian Crozier's [former head of Le Cercle] Institute for the Study of Conflict even as leader of the Opposition during Jim Callaghan's government... she was the first Prime Minister to insist that she sit in on the highly secret Joint Intelligence Committee meetings." June 26, 1991, The Times: "Sir Percy Cradock, the prime minister's top intelligence adviser, has become a fondly regarded face in the Pentagon... There is a more prosaic reason for defence secretary Richard Cheney's interest in the man who directs British intelligence traffic through the corridors of Downing Street: Mr Cheney is conducting a bureaucratic battle to control his own spies, and on the strategies necessary for inter-service fighting, Sir Percy is considered a modest master." Made a secret mission to Peking to lay the ground for John Major's visit in 1991, the first by a major Western leader after the Tiananmen Square massacre. The purpose of this visit was to clear the differences of opinion over Hong Kong. Retired from government service in 1992. Member of the Privy Council since 1993. Member of the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George. Honorary Fellow of St. John's College, University of Cambridge. The most prominent critic of the liberalising policies of Lord Christopher Patten (Pilgrims Society), the last Governor of Hong Kong. His argument was that Patten, fully backed by the John Major government, caused unnecessary trouble by fiddling with plans to create a more representative government in Hong Kong. According to Sir Percy, if the old line had been adhered to, Hong Kong would be enjoying a smoother transition in 1997. Spoke at the Cercle in 1997.

Source(s): 1985 Cercle particpants list, Washington D.C.

President Tetra Tech International, a subsidiary of Honeywell (officially invited in this function).

March 26, 1985, New York Times, 'Ex-intelligence agents are said to have major roles in Oman': "Among the foreign advisers who have played a major role in the Persian Gulf nation of Oman is a former senior Central Intelligence Agency official who heads an American corporation that manages the country's most strategic region. The corporation, Tetra Tech International, has a contract with the Government of Oman to manage the development of the Masandam Peninsula that sits astride the Strait of Hormuz, which separates the area from Iran and through which travels a significant amount of the West's oil. For other Americans, even such official visitors as Congressional staff members, the sensitive Masandam region is off-limits, according to two American officials who recently visited Oman and were not allowed to tour the area. The parent of Tetra Tech International is Tetra Tech, which is based in Pasadena, Calif., and specializes in providing products and services in the areas of water and energy resources. It is a subsidiary of Honeywell Inc., a leading United States military contractor with headquarters in Minneapolis. Tetra Tech International helps manage several key Omani Government agencies in addition to Masandam Province, and the company and its parent work for both commercial and government customers in several other Middle Eastern countries, including Saudi Arabia, as well as in the United States. The president of Tetra Tech International and the man who helped to get its contract in Oman is James H. Critchfield, who, before joining the company in 1975, had an interest in Oman, working for the C.I.A. both as head of the Middle East desk and later as the chief intelligence official for energy, according to former intelligence officials and public documents. Mr. Critchfield is among about 20 American, British and Arab advisers to the country's ruler, Sultan Qabus bin Said, who have helped shape the country's foreign and domestic policies. Like Mr. Critchfield, many of the advisers have intelligence backgrounds. In an interview late last year, Mr. Critchfield acknowledged that he is one of the closest American advisers to Oman's ruler, and he said he no longer had anything to do with the C.I.A. Yet there is a widespread perception in Oman that Mr. Critchfield and others with intelligence backgrounds retain ties to their former employers. As a result, Western and Omani officials said, the role of Westerners in Oman has become a subject of dispute."

February 29, 2004, Washington Times, 'Soviet deception, recruiting an enemy': "In fairness to Gehlen, Hitler and his subordinates regularly denigrated Soviet military capabilities and ignored even good intelligence. And, in due course, Mr. Stephan concludes, Gehlen's "organization produced the best results of any German intelligence organization during the war." In any event, U.S. intelligence regarded Gehlen's recruitment as a coup. He ultimately became the responsibility of Jim Critchfield, first as a young Army colonel, then as an early officer of the CIA. [Critchfield served the CIA for more than 20 years as an operations officer; he died in April 2003.] Critchfield aptly describes West Germany as an "intelligence jungle" in the late 1940s and 1950s, with Western agencies competing against one another with almost as much energy as was directed against the Soviets. Early on he recognized Gehlen's value, and he spent considerable time fending off bureaucratic rivals. The CIA contingent and families settled into the Gehlen organization's compound in the village of Pullach and avoided contact with outsiders. Critchfield worked under the name "Kent James Marshall," and he writes that daughter Ann "many years later . . . humorously observed that until she was fourteen years old she thought all children had two names." Critchfield carried out another mission perhaps even more important than caring for Gehlen - the shaping of the intelligence and military structure of a democratic federal republic that took its place in NATO. That a CIA officer played such a seminal diplomatic role has escaped the attention of historians. Indeed, I skimmed the indexes of several biographies of Konrad Adenauer, the first chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, without finding mention of the CIA, much less "Kent James Marshall." Critchfield at once tells a good intelligence story and gives insight into how "diplomacy" functioned during the Cold War."

July 2004 - August 2004, Foreign Affairs, 'Berlin to Baghdad': "Partners at the Creation focuses on Critchfield's mentoring of two of Hitler's former generals, the controversial Reinhard Gehlen and the lesser-known Adolf Heusinger, both of whom would ultimately play large roles in West Germany's national security community. During the war, Gehlen directed the German army's intelligence organization on the eastern front, the Fremde Heere Ost, while Heusinger was wartime chief of the operations division of the German army general staff. Heusinger participated in the resistance movement against Hitler and was jailed for it in 1944; Gehlen did not. ... So, in 1947, the newly created CIA was brought into the picture, and by 1948 the agency was Gehlen's sole sponsor, with Critchfield in charge as the man on the ground. Heusinger ran Gehlen's postwar analytical branch and was more pro-U.S. than his colleague. From 1948 on, he believed that Western Europe could not defend itself alone and that any future West German military would have to be closely tied to NATO. (He would go on to become chairman of NATO's military committee in the 1960s.) "Germany's transition from an enemy to an ally of the United States and the West was probably destined by broader forces," Critchfield writes. "But the ultimate success of this pivotal moment in history should be credited in no small part to Reinhard Gehlen and the small circle of former German Army General Staff officers at the center of the Gehlen Organization.""

March 18, 2001, Washington Post, 'CIA Declassifies Its Records On Dealings With Ex-Nazis': "When [Carl] Oglesby got only a smattering of documents from the Army and the CIA, he sued in 1987, emphasizing meetings that Gehlen held in the summer of 1945 with U.S. officials at Fort Hunt, Va. He and some other researchers believe that the post-war hunt for Nazi war criminals was severely compromised by American intelligence demands for help in meeting the new Soviet menace. A retired CIA official who dealt with Gehlen's organization for seven years says those suspicions have been exaggerated into conspiratorial nonsense and that Gehlen and his top aides came out of the German army general staff that tried, several times, to overthrow Adolf Hitler. But he, too, expressed frustration that so much of the true story remains classified. "I've lived with this for 50 years," said James H. Critchfield, the CIA officer assigned to the Gehlen organization from 1949 to 1956. "Almost everything negative that has been written about Gehlen, in which he has been described as an ardent ex-Nazi, one of Hitler's war criminals -- this is all far from the fact." Critchfield said CIA records may turn up the names of six to 10 veterans of the SD, Gestapo chief Heinrich Himmler's intelligence service, who joined Gehlen's network in 1950. But he said Gehlen took them on reluctantly, under pressure from German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer to deal with "the avalanche of subversion hitting them from East Germany." By contrast, Critchfield said, Gehlen's top command consisted of 30 to 40 young staff officers trained under Gen. Ludwig Beck, who was executed in 1944 for conspiring to assassinate Hitler, and Gen. Franz Halder, who was imprisoned until the war ended. "They weren't really a bunch of Nazis," he said."

April 25, 2003, Associated Press, 'James Critchfield, CIA official who recruited Nazis, Iraqi Baathists, dies at 86': "James H. Critchfield, a powerful CIA insider during the Cold War whose anti-Soviet missions included recruiting former Third Reich operatives and supporting the Iraqi political party that put Saddam Hussein in power, has died. He was 86. Critchfield, a highly decorated U.S. Army colonel who led an assault battalion during World War II, died Tuesday from pancreatic cancer in Williamsburg, Va., his family said. Critchfield was born near Hunter, N.D., grew up in Fessenden and Fargo, and graduated from North Dakota State University. During a 26-year-old CIA career, Critchfield worked with the Dalai Lama of Tibet in a guerrilla war against Communist China and headed a CIA task force during the Cuban missile crisis. He also ran regional agency operations when the two superpowers raced to secure satellites first in Eastern Europe, then in the Middle East. Timothy Naftali, an intelligence historian, said Critchfield's talents as a spymaster, soldier and diplomat put him at the heart of a half century of historic moments. He described Critchfield's role in the CIA as analogous to that of a general commanding the most crucial missions. "What happened in Jim's lifetime was staggering," Naftali said. "Fighting the Nazis, then seeing a new global conflict emerge and fighting in that, then seeing that conflict move to the Third World and becoming a general in that." Critchfield was best known in intelligence circles as the CIA's liaison to the Gehlen Organization, a group of former Third Reich intelligence and military officials recruited by the Army because of their purported knowledge of the Soviet Union. That group turned out to be tainted with fabricators, double agents and war criminals, though Critchfield said it was instrumental in building a defense and intelligence network for West Germany. Critchfield himself drew parallels between the moral compromises made at the end of World War II with his recommendation in the early 1960s that the United States support the Baath Party, which staged a 1963 coup against the Iraqi government that the CIA believed was falling under Soviet influence. "We knew perhaps six months beforehand that it was going to happen," he said during an interview with The Associated Press last month. Critchfield described Saddam Hussein as a minor and peripheral figure in the Baath Party at the time. Saddam did not become a force in the party until the late 1960s and seized full power in 1979. "You have to understand the context of the time and the scope of the threat we were facing," Critchfield said. "That's what I say to people who say, 'You guys in the CIA created Saddam Hussein."' Critchfield joined the Army and became one of the youngest colonels of World War II. He led the 2nd Battalion of the 141st Infantry of the 36th Division into France, Germany and finally Austria, and won the Silver Star, Purple Heart and Bronze Star, among other decorations. He joined the CIA in 1948 and had long stints as chief of the Eastern European Division, and the Near East and South Asia Division. "I covered everything from Greece to Burma," he said of the latter post. With the growing political importance of Middle East oil, he became the CIA's national intelligence officer for energy in the late 1960s and early 1970s, then an energy policy planner at the White House. He also fronted a dummy CIA corporation in the Middle East known as Basic Resources, which was used to gather OPEC-related intelligence for the Nixon administration. The work of the Gehlen Organization resonates to this day. It has been the focus of a task force created to oversee the 1999 Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act, which has resulted in the biggest declassification of U.S. intelligence records in history. The task force is delving into the degree to which U.S. intelligence gave war crimes suspects jobs. For his part, Critchfield argued that the benefits outweighed the moral compromises. Critchfield said the Gehlen group, along with former German military officers he handled, helped create a defense and intelligence network for West Germany that was folded into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1955. Reinhard Gehlen, Nazi Germany's chief of anti-Soviet espionage, subsequently became West Germany's intelligence chief. A general Critchfield recruited became head of West Germany's military. After retiring from the CIA in 1974, Critchfield became a consultant, corporate president and adviser to the Sultan of Oman. Just before his death, he completed a memoir called "Partners at the Creation: The Men Behind Postwar Germany's Defense and Intelligence Establishments," to be published later this year."

November 21, 2004, Bismarck Tribune (North Dakota), 'One N.D. man who did much for his country': "The key operative of the CIA for a number of the major operations of the United States was from North Dakota. James H. Critchfield, in his 26 years with the CIA, recruited former Nazi intelligence and military officials to help gather and interpret information about the former Soviet Union; worked with the Dalai Lama of Tibet in a guerrilla war against Communist China; and supported the Baath party in Iraq in the 1963 and 1968 coups against the Iraqi government that helped bring Saddam Hussein to power. His work may appear to be highly controversial, but he always strove to do what appeared, at the time, to be in the best interests of this country. He was also remarkably effective. James Hardesty Critchfield, the son of a doctor and a schoolteacher, was born in 1917 in Hunter, N.D. He attended North Dakota Agricultural College, now North Dakota State University, taking part in the ROTC program. After graduation in 1939, he went into the military. During World War II, he quickly rose through the ranks, becoming one of the youngest colonels in the military serving in North Africa and Europe. Active in military intelligence at the close of the war, Critchfield joined the CIA in 1948. At the time, our country was in the grips of the Cold War and we were desperate to find out information about the Soviet Union. When challenged with finding a solution for this, Critchfield believed the best source would be the former Nazis who had conducted intensive surveillance during World War II. His first major contact involved Gen. Reinhard Gehlen. Gehlen had been the head of Foreign Armies in the East, but was fired by Hitler in April 1945. Knowing he had fallen out of favor with Hitler, Gehlen began microfilming all of the information he had on the Soviet Union prior to his firing. After the surrender of Germany, he turned himself in to the Allies in May. Gehlen was later flown to the U.S. where CIA officials debriefed him. Since he had been Hitler's master spy on the Eastern Front, the U.S. believed it was necessary to use him to their advantage. The CIA had him turn over his files on Russia and employed his former agents who were scattered across Europe. The man put in charge of this operation for the CIA was Critchfield. Critchfield was transferred to Gehlen's compound in Pullach, Germany. Through the efforts of Gehlen, more than 5,000 anti-Communist agents were trained and sent into Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union to act as spies and to become involved in sabotage efforts behind the Iron Curtain. Critchfield's involvement with Gehlen ended in 1956 and his operations in Europe terminated in 1959. On the use of ex-Nazis in the assistance of the CIA, Critchfield always contended that the "benefits outweighed the moral compromises." In 1959 Allen Dulles, the director of the CIA, asked Critchfield to take over operations in the Middle East with a particular emphasis on Iraq. In that year the monarchy in Iraq, established by Great Britain, had been deposed. According to Critchfield, "The Soviet effort in the Middle East tried to penetrate the Fertile Crescent from Damascus, to Baghdad, toward the Gulf, and through Egypt and the Suez Cannel to the Red Sea. So it was equally important for them (the Soviet Union) to get control in Baghdad." To keep the Soviets from doing this, it was Critchfield's responsibility to keep Iraq out of Russia's hands. He saw the Baath party as the key because he believed that Baaths were opposed to Soviet Communism. At that time, the Baaths were relatively moderate and the leadership was made up of intellectuals within Iraq. Karim Kassem ruled Iraq and he was leaning more to the Soviet Union. The U.S. became alarmed and began devising plots to have Kassem assassinated. The killing of Kassem needed to be carried out by an Iraqi, but the CIA was willing to supply the conspirators with lists of people who had to be eliminated immediately after a successful coup to ensure success. In 1963, Kassem was shot to death during a military coup. With Kassem and his followers out of the way, the U.S. was pleased. Months later a counter-coup occurred and, for the next five years, governments changed frequently. Within the Baath party the moderates were replaced by a more radical element. In 1968, again with the assistance of the CIA, a nearly bloodless military coup restored the Baath party to power. Following a series of military coups, Saddam Hussein took power later that year. Hussein was strongly anti-Communist and, in the early years, he was considered an important ally in the Middle East. When Critchfield retired from the CIA in 1974, it appeared the U.S. and the CIA had made a wise decision by helping prop-up Hussein in Iraq. Critchfield then became corporate president of Tetra Tech International, a subsidiary of Honeywell, which managed oil, gas and water projects in the Mideast. He also became a primary adviser to the sultan of Oman, focusing on Middle East energy resources. He then retired to his home in Williamsburg, Va., and died on April 22, 2003."

CRITCHFIELD'S ROLE IN IRAQ

In early 1963, Saddam had more important things to worry about than his outstanding bill at the Andiana Cafe. On February 8, a military coup in Baghdad, in which the Baath Party played a leading role, overthrew Qassim. Support for the conspirators was limited. In the first hours of fighting, they had only nine tanks under their control. The Baath Party had just 850 active members. But Qassim ignored warnings about the impending coup. What tipped the balance against him was the involvement of the United States. He had taken Iraq out of the anti-Soviet Baghdad Pact. In 1961, he threatened to occupy Kuwait and nationalized part of the Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC), the foreign oil consortium that exploited Iraq's oil. In retrospect, it was the ClAs favorite coup. "We really had the ts crossed on what was happening," James Critchfield, then head of the CIA in the Middle East, told us. "We regarded it as a great victory." Iraqi participants later confirmed American involvement. "We came to power on a CIA train," admitted Ali Saleh Sa'adi, the Baath Party secretary general who was about to institute an unprecedented reign of terror.

Sources: November 1988 – Issue 17, Lobster Magazine, 'Brian Crozier, the Pinay Circle and James Goldsmith' (quoting the Langemann papers); 1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', pages 186, 191-193, and 241; June 29, 1997, The Independence, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club; Is it the ultimate dishonour'; Cercle lists: 1982 Wildbad Kreuth; 1983 Bonn; 1984 South Africa;

Worked as a journalist for many different papers since 1936. Great supporter of the Truman Doctrine of Containment, which was first introduced in 1947 by George Kennan for the CFR's Foreign Affairs. Didn't think the Truman Doctrine went far enough and was of the opinion that this policy did not take into account Soviet clandestine subversion in the West. Reporter in Saigon and Singapore in 1952 and 1953, covering the French Indochina War and the Malayan Emergency for Reuters and the Australian Associated Press. Here he made his first intelligence contacts with the British and French. Joined the Economist in 1954 and became editor of the Economist Foreign Report in 1958. Used his intelligence contacts for background info and scoops while writing for The Economist until 1964, the Sunday Times, and the BBC. Invited into John Hay "Jock" Whitney's circle of dining friends at the Connaught Hotel, when this person was ambassador to Great Britain from 1957 to 1961. Also invited at Whitney's residence in the London area. Whitney was a Rockefeller-associate, a friend of the British royal family, a CIA cooperator, and in a 1973 membership list of the Pilgrims Society, he appears as a vice president of this club, together with David K.E. Bruce (head of the Bruce family, of Robert the Bruce) and Winthrop W. Aldrich, an uncle of the Rockefeller brothers. Crozier became an anti-communist activist in 1958, working with the CIA, MI6, and IRD (Information Research Department; secret anti-communist intelligence organization of the Foreign Office 1946-1977) on projects he supported. Got his own office at the IRD after some time. In their book on the IRD, Lashmar and Oliver note that "the vast IRD enterprise had one sole aim: To spread its ceaseless propaganda output (i.e. a mixture of outright lies and distorted facts) among top-ranking journalists who worked for major agencies, papers and magazines, including Reuters and the BBC, as well as every other available channel. It worked abroad to discredit communist parties in Western Europe which might gain a share of power by entirely democratic means, and at home to discredit the British Left". Also began to work with the intelligence agencies of France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Morocco, Iran, Argentina, Chile, and Taiwan. Invited to Antoine Bonnemaison's (a French colonel and SDECE agent specialized in psychological warfare) Centre de Recherche du Bien Politique in 1959, which initially was a secret discussion group involving intelligence officers, academics, businessmen, a few politicians, and trade union leaders of France, Germany, and the Netherlands. Besides countering communist subversion the "colloques" were aimed at Franco-German rapprochement. Crozier was a member of Interdoc, a European anti-communist subversion group in which the Dutch BVD officers who attended the "colloques" (and likely Le Cercle) played an important role. When Bonnemaison's Centre de Recherche was killed by de Gaulle in 1963, Bonnemaison set up the Centre d'Observation du Mouvement des Idées, this time financed by French corporations. The group lost its international character, and only Crozier remained a regular participant from outside France. In 1964, soon after he left the Economist, Crozier became an official consultant to the IRD and was approached by the CIA's Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF) to reconstruct, commercialize, and take over their features services. Crozier turned down the offer, because he was writing for dozens of international newspapers, was giving lectures, and was working on a book. Some time later he did accept an offer to travel to South America and prepare a report on the CCF's Spanish-language services. Didn't know much about the CCF at the time, besides that it had been described to him as "very rum". Worried about Salvador Allende in Chile at the time, who described as a communist-oriented demagogue. Allende would be overthrown by the US in the 1970s. In 1965, Crozier was notified that his recommendations of professionalizing the Spanish-language services were accepted by the CCF. Therefore the CIA's CCF had attracted John Hay Whitney to gather the necessary funds to accomplish this. Brian Crozier now accepted the part-time job to reconstruct Forum Service (funded by the CCF), made it Forum World Features (FWF), and became its president until the early 1970s. Crozier wasn't to happy that John Hay Whitney had changed most of the terms that were orally accepted to, but nevertheless accepted the position. Whitney bought FWF in 1966. Richard Mellon Scaife bought FWF in 1973, until he quickly dissolved it in 1975, just before Time out magazine exposed the role of FWF as a counter to communist propaganda. The International Herald Tribune (IHT) did a follow up article, which Crozier, as he would later do with Lobster's articles on Le Cercle, described as a "curious mixture of fact and fantasy." And of course, the author, Bernard Nossiter, turned out to be a KGB asset. In 1967 Crozier published his biography on Franco, for which he had lived a year in Madrid. July 10, 1967, Brian Crozier in The Times, 'Can the personal system of government survive?': "Today, the killing of the rich and the burning of churches must have lost much of their old appeal. In fact, more Spaniards than ever before now have a stake in prosperity and progress. Why, then, are so many Spaniards indifferent or hostile to the regime that has brought them stability and a taste of affluence?" October 28, 1967, The Times, 'Franco: the passion to survive' (review of Crozier's book): "[Franco] was never an orator like Hitler or Mussolini, or a theorist like de Gaulle; nor is he, despite the propaganda of the Left, a "fascist dictator". Rather, as Mr. Crozier points out, it was Franco who smashed Spanish fascism- something the Republic failed to achieve. In his main purpose - to improve the material conditions of all Spaniards - Franco believed implicitly in Order and Discipline as the essential prerequisites of progress; and it is as the enemy of Order that he fears Communism - of which, Mr. Crozier reveals, he began to make a careful study as early as 1928... [Franco's] regime, despite its faults - it is vastly less oppressive than those of eastern Europe - has given his people the longest period of peace, stability, and progress in modern Spanish history. If it was not for love of him that they voted overwhelmingly in his favour in last year's Referendum, it was certainly for fear of what might take his place." December 21, 1973, Brian Crozier for The Times, 'Prime Minister's assassination may push Spain even farther to the right': "General Franco is still a hate-symbol of the international left, which has never forgiven him his victory..." November 2, 1982, The Times, 'Is democracy such a good thing?': "We all have our intellectual assumptions, and the prevailing assumption in the West is that party democracy is necessarily good and dictatorship necessarily bad... The cause of relief was that the fragile flower of Spanish democracy was being saved - the important thing being the salvation of party democracy, not whether party democracy is necessarily good for Spain or will necessarily solve Spain's problems, which is at least open to doubt if hard facts mean anything. Since Franco died in 1975, inflation and unemployment have soared in Spain. So have terrorism and non-political crime. Moreover, the politicians have saddled their country with an unworkable constitution... No doubt one should make allowances after a dictatorship of 40 years, but the assumption that democracy is going to work in Spain does, I think, remain to be proved. Within a year of Franco's death, more than 500 political groups had registered... In France, a big majority voted against [Cercle associate] President Giscard d'Estaing's desire to extend his own mandate - and landed the French people with a socialist-communist coalition they did not want. In Germany, Herr Helmut Kohl [funded by fringe Vatican interests] came to power by a constitutional device which leaves him dependent on the support of Herr Schmidt's former coalition partners, the Liberals, who will probably be wiped out at the general elections next March. Against this dismal record, it might be a sound principle to value freedom and good government rather than party democracy..." May 2, 1985, The Times, Spain's Soldiers waiting for their orders: "Contrary to received opinion, the attempted coup four years ago was not to be a coup d'état but rather a coup de force. The army had no intention of taking over the government, but rather of forcing King Juan Carlos to suspend constitutial rule with army backing, for a limited period, so that various problems, especially terrorism, could be brought under control without allowing the civilian politicians to continue, as the plotters saw it, to make a mess of things. In other words, it was to be a temporary takeover on the Turkish model..." In 1970, after consulting with Leonard B. Schapiro, an intelligence-connected anti-communist London School of Economics professor, Crozier set up the Institute for the Study of Conflict (ISC). The main object of the institute was to expose Soviet subversion worldwide. Page 96 of Crozier biography: "Throughout my period as Director, the Institute for the Study of Conflict was involved in exposing the fallacies of 'détente' and warning the West of the dangers inherent a policy of illusion." Tried to get initial funding by John Hay Whitney (through this person's financial advisor, John Train, a very close associate of Sir James Goldsmith), the CIA, the IRD, and MI6, but failed. Received some initial, but very limited funding from BP and Shell. Soon thereafter, through his CIA contacts, he met with the now quite controversial Richard Mellon Scaife, who granted $100,000 a year to Crozier's ISC. Scaife was part heir to the Mellon fortune, a major shareholder in Gulf Oil, and the person who took over Crozier's FWF in the early 1970s. When the ISC took off, Crozier developed a closer relationship with the CIA and met with its representatives about 4 times a year in Langley. In 1975, Crozier helped set up a Washington Institute for the Study of Conflict (WISC). George Ball, a close friend of Jean Monnet and next to David Rockefeller a long time permanent attendee of Bilderberg, became chairman of the WISC. On the US Committee of the ISC/WISC sat Robert Komer (set up the Phoenix Program in Vietnam), Kermit Roosevelt (high level CIA officer and coup plotter whose family has Pilgrims ties), Zbigniew Brzezinski (Pilgrims), George W. Ball (Pilgrims, Bilderberg), Frank Barnett (president NSIC), John S. McCain Jr. (ASC), John Diebold (of Diebold Corp. and the new digital voting machines that became controversial during the elections of George W. Bush). Approached by Jean Violet in 1971, after this person had read a March 1971 interview with Crozier that appeared in the US News and World Report. Violet, a member of Opus Dei, and French, German, and Vatican intelligence, was funded and supported by Carlo II Pesenti, a person whose business empire was sponsored by the Vatican, and Otto von Habsburg, head of the Paneuropa Society and a member of Opus Dei and the Knights of Malta. Francois Duchene, one of Jean Monnet's closest associates; Crozier's former Economist colleague; and head of the elite International Institute for Strategic Studies, which describes itself as "the world's leading authority on political-military conflict," introduced Violet to Crozier as a person who represented "a powerful consortium of French business interests." (Crozier, 'Free Agent', p. 97) According to Crozier, it took many years before he would find out that Violet worked as a Special Advocate for French intelligence involved in psychological warfare for French interests. Involved with the Pinay Circle between 1971 and 1985. The ISC received assignments from the "Pinay Committee". In 1980 Violet asked him to take over the presidency of Le Cercle. In 1981 the Cercle-linked Heritage Foundation was funding Brian Crozier's International Freedom Fund. In 1985 Julian Amery became the new president of Le Cercle, at the recommendation of Crozier. In 1976, Brian Crozier set up a covert advisory committee called 'Shield', in order to secretly brief Margaret Thatcher and her closest colleagues on security and intelligence. The idea came from Sir Stephen Hastings, a Conservative member of parliament who had been a SAS soldier and SOE agent during WWII, before being recruited in MI6. Shield was composed of Crozier; Hastings; Conservative backbencher and WWII MI6 agent Nicholas Elliott; and Harry Sporborg of Hambros Bank, who was a deputy head of the SOE during WWII. Lord Carrington (Order of the Garter, Privy Council, president Pilgrims Society, chairman Bilderberg; Kissinger Associates) was among the very few officials that were briefed, but opposed almost everything that Crozier's group wrote down. Crozier adopted Jean Violet's 'Psychological Action' programme, which was a technique to find quick, short answers to three basic questions: What do People want? What do they Fear? And what do they feel strongly about? After reading Crozier's short answers to these questions, she said to him: "From now on, Brian, these are my ideas." According to Hastings obituary in the Daily Telegraph of January 11, 2005: "Hastings's background in MI6 gave him a certain mystique, and he was often embroiled in controversy concerning Communist infiltration. In 1977 he raised a storm of protest by alleging that five prominent trades union officials were agents for Communist countries. This information was culled from tape recordings made by the Czech former spy and defector Joseph Frolik. The following year, before Mrs Thatcher came into office, Hastings and Brian Crozier wrote her a paper setting out "the diabolical nature of the Communist conspiracy" against Britain. Mrs Thatcher was appalled: "Stephen," she said, "I've read every word and I'm shattered. What should we do?... In 1986 Hastings successfully sued the Observer for libel following allegations that he had been one of two Conservative MPs involved in an MI5 plot to oust Harold Wilson.""Thatcher subsequently was elected in 1979, 1983, and 1987. Council member of the Foreign Affairs Research Institute (FARI), together with Julian Amery (later Cercle head), Lord Chalfont (Jonathan Institute; anti-communist associate of the Cercle and Crozier), Robert Moss (Le Cercle), founder Geoffrey Stewart-Smith (Conservatice MP; adventures were allegedly sponsored by MI5; leading member of the Conservative Monday Club; chairman of its foreign affairs study group of the Monday Club in 1966; editor of East West Digest, an anti-communist magazine sent free to all MPs at the time), Sir Frederic Mackarness Bennett (son of a politician who was an appeaser to Hitler and member of the Anglo-German Society; owned a Rolls-Royce and four homes, one of them in the Cayman Islands; director Kleinwort Benson Europe (his mother was a Kleinwort); long time Lloyds underwriter; influential member of Parliament from the 1950s to the 1980s; member Monday Club; always warning people about the KGB threat and supported every regime that opposed the USSR; chair FARI in 1978; vice-president of the European-Atlantic Group; leading official in the private group Council of Europe in the late 1970s and 1980s; honorary director of the BCCI in Hong Kong until 1986; Member of the Privy Council since 1985; ridiculed his party's (Conservatives) for their Euroscepticism after his retirement in 1987; supported Pinochet; Freeman of the City of London; has been to Bilderberg), and air vice marshal Stuart Menual. Edgar O'Ballance of the International Institute for Strategic Studies was a scholar at FARI. FARI was said to have strong links to the CIA (which, of course, it had), and besides receiving money from the pro-apartheid government in South-Africa, reportedly also received funds from Lockheed. March 20, 2004, Daily Telegraph, Obituary of Geoffrey Stewart-Smith: "In 1974 he had sought to distance his Foreign Affairs Circle from the World Anti-Communist League because of the WACL's strong anti-Semitic element, saying: "We wouldn't touch them with a barge pole." However, he later admitted that another of his organisations, the Foreign Affairs Research Institute, had been mainly funded by the apartheid government in South Africa. The admission came in 1987 when Stewart-Smith appeared at the London Bankruptcy Court, disclosing debts of pounds 150,388 and no assets." In 1980, FARI began organising an annual 'balance of power' conference in Britain, which attracted people like Edwin Feulner (president of the Heritage Foundation; member Le Cercle; Knight of Malta), Ray S. Cline (OSS 1943-1946 and worked in the Far-East with Paul Helliwell and Gen. Singlaub; good friend of Chiang Kai-shek's son; set up the Asian People's Anti-Communist League (APACL) in Taiwan and South Korea in 1955-1956; CIA station chief in Taiwan 1958-1962; deputy director CIA 1962-1966; CIA station chief in Bonn 1966-1969 where he oversaw the local Gladio forces; confirmed the authenticity of FM 30-31A & B, instruction manuals of the DIA which included false flag terrorist actions that were to be blamed on the USSR; director Department of State's Bureau Intelligence and Research 1969-1973; director world power studies at Georgetown's CSIS 1973-1986; co-founder of the WACL with Gen. Singlaub; representative of CAUSA, founded by Moonie Col. Bo Hi Pak; the Jonathan Institute; founder of the US Global Strategy Council in 1981 and headed it from 1986 to 1994; great supporter of non-lethal weapons), Frank Barnett (founder National Strategy Information Center in Washington in 1976, a think tank dedicated to the preservation of containment militarism; member Committee on Present Danger), and General Daniel O. Graham (Republican Roman Catholic; deputy CIA director to William Colby in 1972-1974; director DIA 1974-1976; consultant American Security Council 1978-1981; founding chair High Frontier, Inc. 1981-1995, an organization intended to promote Star Wars; member USGSC under Ray Cline; member advisory board CAUSA; member of the Moon-linked American Freedom Coalition; director National Religious Broadcasters, together with Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson). In June 1978, FARI co-sponsored a conference in Brighton, England with Crozier's Institute for the Study of Conflict. Richard Mellon Scaife and William Casey (Cercle member) were among the participants. FARI in the late 1970s reported that the Navy of the USSR had shifted its focus from anti-carrier to anti-submarine warfare. It reported that the communists were trying to recruit men in the US Army, mainly blacks and Puerto Ricans. It also warned for the vulnerability of the West to a meltdown of the computer grid. August 15, 1978, Chronicle Telegram, 'U.S. vulnerable in computer war': "The United States, moreover, has been far too eager to supply the Soviet Union with sophisticated computer technology and training, Baron believes. "Computer companies in the West fall over each other in their enthusiasm to compete for the favors of the Soviet buying agencies,", writes Baron. "The western businessman's sheer naivete in dealing with the astute Soviet negotiators is quite depressing."" Following is an article from an author of the FARI group. It shows how Crozier and associates imply that the Soviet Union was behind terrorism worldwide. January 13, 1982, The Frederick Post, 'Terrorism a world war': "(The following commentary is by Col. Ronald Waring, author of five books on politico-military subjects and two novels. He has published numerous articles in professional military journals. He currently serves as a governor of the Foreign Affairs Research Institute, London.)... Looking back, the year 1981 should go down in history as The Year of the Terrorist. It started with the attempted murder and serious wounding of President Reagan, to be followed shortly afterward by the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II. In early October there was the brutal murder of President Sadat of Egypt. Finally, on Dec. 17, U. S. Army Brigadier General James Dozier was kidnapped by the Italian Red Brigade in Verona, Italy. While acts of violence against world leaders have made banner headlines, the deaths by terrorism of literally hundreds of men and women all over the world go almost unnoticed. In Northern Ireland thousands have died by bomb and bullet, in Spain and in Italy more are shot down. Virtually all over Europe, terrorists' bombs bring death and destruction. In Lebanon, terrorism has escalated into civil war, while in the bloody arena of Central America trucks go round collecting the corpses of those murdered by terrorist gangs. Only a few years ago we would have been sickened and horrified by all this, but today we have come to accept it as almost routine. Almost every country has its terrorist organizations and they are proliferating like dragons' teeth. In West Germany there is the Red Army Faction, which recently attempted to assassinate the Commander of the U. S. Army in Europe and has attacked other U. S. Military personnel in Germany. They are loosely linked with the remnants of the Baader Meinhoff Gang and are well organized and deadly. In Germany, too, there is the Grey Wolves Organization among the Turkish "guest workers" there. At first it was thought that it was they who had launched Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who attempted to kill the Pope. Now it is generally believed that Agca was manipulated by a far deeper and more complicated plot, directed from Moscow. Italy has become the home of terrorism and kidnapping. The notorious Red Brigades are only one of many Italian terrorist organizations, one of which planted a bomb at the Bologna railway station a year ago that killed 85 people. In Spain, the Basque separatists and militant Marxist ETA carry out a systematic campaign of murder, kidnapping and bombings. In Ireland the objectives of the IRA and the Provisional IRA are roughly the same; that is, the expulsion of the British from Ireland and the unification of Ireland as a Marxist socialist state. The political objective of most terrorist organizations is the imposition of some form of extreme left-wing government. Some terrorism is attributable to far-right groups, but Left and Right become meaningless political terms, and we find ideologically left wing groups cooperating with rightists in a common objective, the destruction of organized society and civilization. Throughout the Middle East, various guerrilla and terrorist organizations operate generally under the Palestine Liberation Organization, and, operating from bases in Lebanon and Jordan, make attacks on Israeli territory. Earlier this year, a Pakistani group organized by the son of Ali Bhutto, the former President of Pakistan, carried out a spectacular skyjacking. This organization calls itself Al Zulfikar and is run from Kabul in Afghanistan by Murtaza Bhutto. It is, of course, ideologically on the far left. Polisario is operating on the borders of Morocco, armed, supplied and trained largely by Libya's Col. Gadaffi. This has now become a formidable military force which has inflicted defeats on Moroccan regular army units, occupied towns and large tracts of country. Again largely Marxist-oriented, their ultimate aim is to topple the King of Morocco. In the Americas there are numerous Marxist terrorist organizations. In Guatemala more than 4,000 leftist guerrillas are trying to overthrow the government. In El Salvador five identified groups, which have formed the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, are fighting a guerrilla war. They are largely financed, armed and supplied by Cuba. On the other side rightist "death squads" have killed some 3,000 people in the past two years. In Brazil, in Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia and the Argentine, terrorist organizations exist on a greater or smaller scale. In Puerto Rico there are at least five groups which have carried out terrorist attacks in Puerto Rico, and in the United States. These groups demand independence for Puerto Rico: in 1979 they attacked and ambushed a U. S. Navy vehicle and killed two servicemen, and in 1975 they set off a bomb in a New York restaurant, killing four people. The CIA reported 760 acts of international terrorism in 1980, and the Associated Press in a worldwide survey identified some 50 major terrorist groups. The numbers of assassins, bombers, kidnappers, skyjackers and terrorist killers now runs not just into battalions, but into divisions and armies. They are to be found everywhere in almost every country. The idea that murder for a political motive, if not quite respectable, is somehow more a misdemeanor than a crime is pernicious nonsense. An attack is being mounted against our society, no less deadly than a war for those that it touches. In fact it is a form of warfare, and we should combat it to the limit of our power." In February of 1977, Crozier created The 61, together with Nicholas Elliott, general Vernon Walters (Graduated from Stonyhurst College, a 400-year-old Jesuit secondary school in Lancashire, England, without going to University; Still managed to become fluent in 8 languages, including Russian and Chinese; Knight of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta; lifelong bachelor and did not drink alcohol; Protege of Fritz Kraemer; aide to Pilgrims Averell Harriman and Henry Kissinger; co-founder and deputy chief of staff of SHAPE; BOSS (South-African intelligence) supposedly attributed the JFK murder to him; Military Attaché in Rome in 1963, which is generally overlooked in his biographies; deputy director CIA 1972-1976; Sent all over the world on to confidential missions by Ronald Reagan, together with co-SMOM member and Pilgrim Alexander Haig; Acted as a replacement of DCI William Casey for some time, making at least a dozen undercover missions to the Vatican; CFR) and "a leading figure in a major City of London bank" [p. 135]. Sir Peter Tennant is likely to have been the anonymous host, "a leading figure in the bank", that chaired Crozier's "very secret" Sunday morning , February 13, 1977 meeting at the executive suite of the anonymous "leading City of London bank", that established the private sector intelligence group The 61. The meeting was attended by three British (Crozier, Elliott, and the anonymous banker), four Americans (Gen. Walters; a Viennese born American who represented a big Belgian corporation; and two Congressional staffers), and one German (a member of the Bundestag and anti-Soviet author, probably Cercle member Count Hans Huyn). Jean Violet could not attend because of ill health. Crozier proposed the creation of a "Private Sector Operational Intelligence agency, beholden to no government, but at the disposal of allied or friendly governments for certain tasks which, for one reason or another, they were no longer able to tackle." Its main purpose would be to circumvent national legislation, avoid possible political embarrassments, and to conduct more effective non-violent counter-subversion operations. All members agreed on the fact that this organization should be created and that it should be kept very secret to any outsiders. The target figure for The 61 became $5 million a year, although it isn't known how these funds were gathered. The 61 supplied secret intelligence about the Communist empire (and its subversion) to specific people in the White House, the British government, the French government, and the Vatican. March 13, 2006, The Daily Mail, 'A very British coup': "Brian Crozier, the security expert who had made a study of communist insurgency in Britain and would later advise Margaret Thatcher, was twice invited to address officers at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. 'I took it upon myself to make them understand the problems of communism and that they might, at some time, have to intervene to destroy this danger,' he says. 'There was absolute silence as I explained how the trades unions were very heavily penetrated by communists and their sympathisers and were exerting a dangerous influence on the Labour Party, which largely depended on them. They wanted to hear every word I said.' After his speech, he received a number of private phone calls from very senior serving officers. 'I have never named them and I never will,' declares Crozier. 'They were standing ready to act if necessary. There were no "buts" about it. If things had gone on as they were, they would have moved... [article gives many details about the plot]." It was exposed in 1982 by the Langemann Papers. Crozier wrote 'The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Empire'. Claims he was a good friend of Richard "Prince of Darkness" Perle and general Richard Stilwell, the latter was a known Cercle participant and an expert in guerilla warfare. Brian Crozier and his protege Robert Moss were participants in the 1979 conference on international terrorism of the Jonathan Institute, a think tank set up in memory of Lt. Col. Jonathan Netanyahu, brother of Benjamin Netanyahu of the Likud party. Netanyahu helped organize the private, Israeli-based institute whose public board included people like Shimon Peres (Labour prime minister) and Menachem Begin (Likud prime minister). May 6, 1980, The Gleaner, 'Soviets and terrorism': "The Jonathan Institute of Jerusalem, Israel, has published a pamphlet on "International Terrorism: The Soviet Connection". The pamphlet consists of a number of presentations made at the Jerusalem Conference on International Terrorism held July 2-5 last year... The first contributor, professor Richard Pipes [associate of Brian Crozier] of Harvard, ... stated "The Soviet Union has enjoyed great success with terror and profited from it in many ways... We must expose its support of terrorism as widely as possible, and make the public aware of Soviet complicity... Brian Crozier, Director of the Institute for the Study of Conflict in London [and still chairman of Le Cercle], discussed the direct support that the Soviet Union has given to terrorist movements... Mr Crozier declared that the Soviets have provided training for terrorists within the USSR. He goes on to note the use of proxies by the Soviets Libya for example benefited from one of the biggest arms deals in history, an estimated $12 billion worth of arms were sold here by the Soviets in 1976... The other contributors, Ray S. Cline [former deputy director CIA; member WACL; founder of the US Global Strategy Council in 1981 and headed it from 1986 to 1994], Executive Director of the Centre for Strategic Studies at Georgetown University, Robert Moss [le Cercle], Editor of the Economist Foreign Report, Congressman Jack Kemp, Major General George J. Keegan [chief Air Force Intelligence at the 7th Air Force in Vietnam, 1967-1969; head Air Force Intelligence 1971-1977; retired in 1977; directly after his retirement claimed that the USSR was working on charged-particle beam weapons; vice chair Coalition for Peace through Strength 1980-1993], and Senator Henry Jackson [neocon pro-zionist democrat; the Henry Jackson Society, founded in 2005, is named after him] also look closely at Soviet involvement in terrorism." Some other participants in the 1979 conference were former CIA director George Bush, journalists George Will, Rome-based journalist Claire Sterling (recruit of James Angleton and associate of William Colby and Michael Ledeen. Published the book Terror Network in 1980, which claimed the IRA, ETA, PLO, and Red Brigade were all controlled by the USSR), Jacques Soustelle (dinner with Richard Bissell, Jr., head of the CIA's covert operations department, and Bissell's successor, Richard Helms on December 7, 1960 in New York City, organized by French intelligence agent turned anti-Gaullist CIA agent Philippe de Vosjoli; in January 1961 a co-founder of the fascist-terrorist OAS that tried to reignite the French Algerian War and assassinate de Gaulle; participent CIA-Mossad ran Jonathan Conferences; allegedly responsible for the transfer of nuclear technology to Israel), and Lord Alun Chalfont (minister in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office 1964-1970; Privy Council since 1964; Pilgrims Society executive since 1979; Conservative Monday Club; pro-apartheid; director pro-junta British-Chilean Council; council member of FARI with Cercle members/presidents Brian Crozier, Julian Amery, and Robert Moss, just as the aristocrat Sir Frederic M. Bennett; chair Institute for the Study of Terrorism, a clone of Crozier's anti-communist Institute for the Study of Conflict; member Committee for a Free Britain, which spent more than Pounds 200,000 on press advertisements attacking Labour during the 1987 election; member Committee for a Free World, an American neo-conservative group; member Media Monitoring Unit, which attempted to "expose" left-wing bias in television news and current affairs programmes; consultant to private security firm Zeus Security Consultants (did high level government contract work), owned by Major Peter Hamilton, a close friend of Stephan Kock, the MI5, MI6, SAS agent who allegedly once headed a government assassination team, Group 13; director at the security firm Securipol; close friend of the extremely influential neoconservative John Lehman, apparently a top player in the military-industrial complex; chairman second neoconservative Jonathan conference; deputy chairman of the Independent Broadcasting Authority). Jacques Soustelle later became a board member, just as George Shultz. The second Jonathan Conference on international terrorism, organized in 1984, was opened by a keynote speech of secretary of state George P. Shultz (Bechtel; Pilgrims), who was a key organizer of the meeting with Douglas Feith and Benjamin Netanyahu. He claimed that "pre- emptive actions by Western democracies may be necessary to counter the Soviet Union and other nations that... have banded together in an international "league of terror."" This was the real birth of the War on Terror and a policy of pre-emptive strikes, which became standard almost 20 years later after 9/11. Caspar Weinberger (Bechtel; Pilgrims) suggested that the United Nations might be called upon to deal with terrorism. Jeane Kirkpatrick, U.N. Ambassador at the time and still a very influential neoconservative, disagreed with that last notion and said it would be better to create a whole new organization to deal with international terrorism and "the power behind it, the Soviet Union". Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (worked for Averell Harriman in the 1950s; important United Nations official in the 1970s; important DLC operative; chairman of the 1997 Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy, which shed a little bit of light on the inner workings of the Black and Deep Black Programs, the latter officially known as Unacknowledged Special Access Programs; friend of the Rothschild family) and Yitzhak Rabin (Labour prime minister) supported Kirkpatrick. Senator Alan Cranston (D-Calif.), a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, "told the conference that Iraq is shopping for a new nuclear reactor and is fortifying the atomic plant site bombed by Israel in 1981. He said he also has information that "unwitting" American firms provided Iraq with several components for chemical weapons used against Iran in the 44-month war between the two countries." Among the other participants were Israel's Minister of Defense Moshe Arens; Senators Alan Cranston (president of the World Federalist Society), Alfonse D'Amato (leading figure in Iran-Contra investigation), and Paul Laxalt (lieutenant governor Nevada 1962-1966; general chairman National Republican Party 1983-1987; chair of Ronald Reagan for President in 1976, 1980, and 1984; co-chairman George Bush for President in 1988 and 1992); Rep. Jack Kemp; William Webster (director FBI 1978-1987; director CIA 1987-1991; partner Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy since 1991; director Anhauser-Busch); presidential counselor Edwin Meese (Heritage Foundation); Michael Ledeen (CIA connected Zionist extremist); Arthur Goldberg; Eugene Rostow; columnist George Will and television newsmen David Brinkley. July 31, 1993, The US Economist, 'Free Agent' book review: "The trouble is that all extremists see the world through distorting glasses. Brian Crozier's squint so far right that one can ask how much of what he saw was in his own head... He believes its Labour Party in the 1970s had "largely been taken over by the subversive left"; that in the nation "the dominant role, increasingly, was played by extreme-left Labour MPs and constituency managers"; that subversion would be Mrs Thatcher's "greatest problem" in power. And so on. "Bonkers," one (rightish) Labour MP wrote to him of such views; "a radical incomprehension of the Labour movement . . . contradicted by manifest facts."... Be grateful it has gone no further. For Mr Crozier, 1975-78 was a "critical" time, when Britain, via the then-ruling Labour Party, risked far-left takeover. He several times lectured army officers on their response. One bunch gave him a five-minute ovation... Should a journalist feed secret services? Or, like Mr Crozier, visit the Elysee "ostensibly to gather material for an article"; in fact to spy on de Gaulle? Should western spooks run "press" agencies? Mr Crozier's agency did not lie; that is, put out crude invention. But here is a man who calls even IRD analyses "rigorously accurate". Judge that by his account of Chile before the CIA/Pinochet coup of 1973. It is as if a puritan's account of Soho were offered as a guide to London." Crozier was among those intelligence and army officers, supported by Lord Mountbatten (husband of Queen Elizabeth II; founder 1001 Club; lifelong associate of Sir Evelyn de Rothschild), general Walter Walker (counter subversion specialist in countries like Burma and Malaya; NATO commander-in-chief; like some others in Le Cercle, he believed the Soviet collapse was not the end of Soviet subversion of the West), and colonel David Stirling (founder of the SAS; founder GB75, which was intended to intervene against "communist" labor unions in the event of widespread strikes, and basically to shove Harold Wilson's government aside; associate of James Goldsmith, Tiny Rowland, and Lord Robert Cecil, all members or associate members of Le Cercle). Scholar at the Heritage Foundation 1983-1995. August 21, 1991, The Times, 'On guard: world security in the wake of Moscow coup': "Sir, The amazing thing about the fall of President Gorbachev is not that he has fallen but that he lasted as long as he did. He had tried to square an ideological circle: declaring his allegiance to Lenin while attempting to undo the system Lenin created, and keeping the Leninist party in power. As his removal by the hardliners confirms, the system was unreformable. It was absurd to suppose that it could be reformed, and folly on the West's part to help a deeply unpopular and unelected leader to keep Lenin's party in power. With the hardliners (appointed by him) in charge in the Kremlin, the cold war will now be resumed. The only hope for a break with the past lies with Boris Yeltsin, Eduard Shevardnadze and others who broke with the party. But the obstacles they face are daunting: the army, the KGB and the interior forces. Perhaps, by now, President Bush may be regretting his parting words after his visit to Moscow: "God bless the USSR."" Gorbachev fought to preserve a socialist government and the unity of the Soviet Union, while Shevardnadze advocated further political and economic liberalisation. He feared the nationalists. Shevardnadze returned briefly as Soviet Foreign Minister in November 1991 but resigned with Gorbachev the following month when the Soviet Union was formally dissolved. Yeltsin rose to power. In the aftermath of Iran-Contra and the BCCI scandal, in which leading members of the US establishment were (mostly behind the scenes) exposed as the largest drug traffickers on earth, Crozier decided to do blame the communists of doing the same thing, without mentioning the revelations about the much bigger scale trade of his US buddies. January 28, 1990, Sunday Times, 'How the Colombian cocaine chain leads to Fidel Castro'. "Estevez revealed that Cuba had built up a multi-million-dollar drug trafficking network, with thousands of agents in the United States. He said Fidel Castro was personally involved in drug trafficking, with the aim of promoting violent crime, addiction and corruption in North America, while simultaneously financing terrorism in Latin America: a perfect definition of ``narco-terrorism''... By then the drug trade was bringing Castro's regime an estimated $10m a month. Another beneficiary was the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua. It emerged for the first time that the leading role in the drug traffic was played by Pablo Escobar Gaviria, now the most wanted of the Medellin cartel fugitives in Colombia. Escobar was living in Cuba with the full assistance of Fidel Castro. Another fugitive, the American financier Robert Vesco, was believed to be Escobar's number two. The American authorities had tried unsuccessfully to extradite Vesco from Costa Rica and the Bahamas... On February 10, 1988, Blandon [Medellin cartel baron] testified before a Senate sub-committee that Castro and Noriega were working together to promote ``drug-financed guerrilla movements throughout Latin America''. He saw Castro himself brokering an agreement in Havana to end a $5m ``misunderstanding'' between the Medellin cartel and Panama... There is little reason to doubt that Ochoa a friend of Fidel's brother and defence minister, Raul Castro was indeed involved in drug smuggling. But this was not the issue. His sin, in Castro's eyes, was that he was bypassing the mechanism controlled by the Castro brothers. Moreover, he had unwisely emulated the Castro brothers in the dispensation of patronage to friends and aides. This is the view of Arturo Cruz Jr, the son of a former Nicaraguan contra leader, and one-time friend of the glamorous Fawn Hall, former secretary to Colonel Oliver North. Not only did the execution of Ochoa remove a potential rival, it also enabled Castro, at no cost to himself, to improve his image at a time when continuing financial and military assistance from the Soviet Union may be in doubt, and when Castro's relations with Mikhail Gorbachev are notoriously under strain." November 23, 1991, The Times, Brian Crozier: "Sir, The outcry against a single European currency is puzzling. It would (will?) make travelling much easier: no more hurried reference to pocket calculators, no more middlemen's high percentage profits... All Europeans would welcome a responsibly and impartially governed central bank where an ecu (if that is to be its name) would be worth the same in 2001 as in 1991." Wikipedia quoted Brian Crozier, seemingly as someone with an "objective" look at Opus Dei: "Another historian, Brian Crozier, states that Opus Dei "is not, as its enemies either think or want others to think, a political party; nor is it a political pressure group...Opus Dei was not a group to be conciliated by being given a share in power, as the Monarchists were, or the Falange, or the Army." Distinguished visiting fellow Hoover Institute, Stanford, California, 1996-2001. Member of the International Advisory Council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, whose leadership is involved with the Moonies. Cercle member Edwin Feulner sits on the National Advisory Council of the VCMF, and Cercle participant Zbigniew Brzezinski used to. According to Crozier, "neo-colonialism" is a term invented by the communists.

Music and art critic, London, 1936–39; reporter-sub-editor, Stoke-on-Trent, Stockport, London, 1940–41; aeronautical inspection, 1941–43; sub-editor: Reuters, 1943–44; News Chronicle, 1944–48; and writer, Sydney Morning Herald, 1948–51; corresp., Reuters-AAP, 1951–52; features editor, Straits Times, 1952–53; leader writer, corresp. and editor, Foreign Report, Economist, 1954–64; commentator, BBC English, French and Spanish overseas services, 1954–66; Chm., Forum World Features, 1965–74; Columnist: Nat. Review, NY, 1978–95; Now!, 1979–81; The Times, 1982–83; Freedom Today (formerly The Free Nation), 1982–89. Co-founder, Inst. for the Study of Conflict, 1970 (Dir, 1970–79). Adjunct Scholar, Heritage Foundn, Washington, 1984–95

Crozier was continually featured in American newspapers in the 1960s and 1970s. Vietnam and the domino theory. Franco. January 25, 1968, Brian Crozier for the Los Angeles Times, 'Topical Comment: A British View: The U.S. must NOT leave Vietnam'.

December 16, 1990, The Observer, 'Special Report: Top companies funded smears through charity': "A CHARITY supported by leading industrial companies funded a printing press used to publish British Briefing, an extreme right-wing newsletter smearing writers, lawyers and Labour MPs as 'Communists'. The charity, the Industrial Trust, is now under investigation by the Charity Commissioners for possible breaches of the regulations governing charities' political activity. The trust's most recent published accounts, for 1988-9, reveal donations of pounds 5,000 to pounds 10,000 each from companies including Boots, Unilever, Bass, BP, Hanson Trust, Courage, GKN, Allied Lyons, ICI and United Newspapers who own the Daily Express and Sunday Express. Yesterday the companies denied all knowledge of British Briefing, which is edited by a former senior MI5 officer, saying any support they had provided for the publication had been unwitting. ... The trust secretary, John Arkell, a former Boots director, said he and the trustees and council of the charity were also unaware of British Briefing, claiming the trust was 'primarily a training organisation'. Its accounts filed with the Charity Commissioners state openly that since 1985 it gave nearly pounds 500,000 to Industrial Research Information Services (Iris), publishers of another monthly newsletter, Iris News, directed at trade unionists and containing detailed information on union elections and criticism of left-wing 'militant' candidates. The accounts also show the trust gave donations of pounds 5,000 a year to Common Cause, another right-wing group. Trustees of the Industrial Trust include Lord McAlpine, whose building firm is one of the biggest sources of Tory Party funds, and Lord Boyd-Carpenter, former chairman of backbench Tory peers. The trust also has a council, whose members include Sir Austin Bide, of Glaxo, Peter Cazalet (BP) and Sir Derek Palmar (Bass and United Newspapers). Last week The Observer disclosed that British Briefing was edited by Charles Elwell, the former head of MI5's 'F' branch, dealing with domestic subversion. Our investigation, made independently but in parallel with a Granada TV World in Action programme shown last Monday, revealed that Mr Elwell received regular payments totalling pounds 40,000 a year from David Hart, a close aide to Margaret Thatcher during most of her premiership. In turn, Mr Hart's publishing and political activity was funded by media magnate Rupert Murdoch. Mr Murdoch admitted he knew Mr Hart was backing British Briefing and said he had received copies. Further inquiries by The Observer have established that Mr Elwell began to edit British Briefing more than 10 years ago, soon after retiring from MI5. Before the appearance of Mr Hart, its main supporter was Brian Crozier..."

December 23, 1990, The Observer, 'Murdoch funded Kinnock smears': "Further inquiries have established that Mr Hart took over British Briefing in 1988. Earlier, its publisher was Brian Crozier, an old friend of Mr Murdoch, who supported the journal under the slightly different title of Background Briefing on Subversion."

January 12, 1995, The Guardian, 'MI6 'Alongsider' Crozier first named five'; Michael White and Richard Norton-Taylor on how MP and spywriter Rupert Allason sought a scoop by recycling names of MPs with left leanings listed in Cold War book': "Mr Crozier whom Mr Allason described to the Guardian this week as "an unidentified MI6 officer", though he was never on the payroll, merely what the agency calls an "alongsider". ... Mr Allason said this week that the "MI6 officer" had a "serious bust-up" with Sir Robin Butler, after the Cabinet Secretary and MI6 tried to stop a book he was writing - not because it mentioned the Labour Five, but because it revealed embarrassing details of Mr Crozier's and other rightwingers' secret and close relations with MI6 and the CIA."

December 23, 2003, The Guardian, 'Comment and Letters: The Carter-Ruck chill: The man who created the modern libel industry was a dedicated liar and a reactionary with a lust for cash': "The libel lawyer Peter Carter-Ruck, who died on Friday, had a chilling effect on the media. He was a chancer, out for the maximum fee. And he did for freedom of speech what the Boston Strangler did for door-to-door salesmen. Until Carter-Ruck got his teeth into the libel law, actions were infrequent and inexpensive. But from the 1950s, Carter-Ruck became the leading libel lawyer and clients sought him out. ... Libel was good to him: four homes, a Rolls-Royce and a string of yachts called Fair Judgement. ... In his memoirs he praised the rightwing financier Sir James Goldsmith for alleviating the injustice of the lack of legal aid with money from a foundation. ... The beneficiaries [of the foundation] tended not to be widows and orphans but rightwing politicos such as Neil Hamilton, who trousered £20,000 from the BBC for a Panorama programme - Carter-Ruck's bill was £240,000. The Goldsmith Foundation's other beneficiaries included Brian Crozier..."

MURDOCH-ROTHSCHILD-GOLDSMITH:

Lord Rothschild knows Rupert Murdoch well, having been friends since the Australian newspaper proprietor first came to the UK in the 1960s.

September 19, 1993, The Independent, 'Kicking up gold dust': "ON 23 APRIL, six months after his $ 10bn attack on the pound and three months before the rout of the franc, George Soros placed a small bet on gold. He announced he was paying Sir James Goldsmith and Lord Rothschild $ 400m for 13 per cent in Newmont Mining, a US gold-mining group. Goldsmith said he was putting some of the proceeds into gold options."

November 4, 2003, The Independent, 'Rothschild brought on board at sky as SOP to anti-Murdoch camp': "Lord Rothschild, the financier, was last night named deputy chairman at BSkyB, a new position, to try to counter the expected furore over the appointment of James Murdoch as chief executive."

November 9, 2003, Finance News (Daily), 'The FN profile: Rothschild steps into the light': "[Lord Jacob Rothschild] is the new deputy chairman of BSkyB, where Rupert Murdoch's son, James, has just been elected chief executive, and he was rumoured to be the trustee of shares in Yukos owned by the jailed Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky - reputedly Russia's richest man. What is so extraordinary is that Lord Rothschild, a rather quiet, highly cultured grandee who has always shunned the public spotlight in his business affairs, should choose now to tread the boards. Since 1980, when he so famously left the family bank, NM Rothschild, following a row over strategy with his cousin, Sir Evelyn Rothschild, he has pursued a relatively quiet career steering clear of the oxygen of publicity by keeping his interests unquoted. Until BSkyB, Rothschild has sat on the board of only one listed company. Instead, he spent the past two decades building a series of highly successful companies in insurance, banking and investment including Five Arrows, St James's Place Capital ... The great exception to his pursuit of the quiet life came in early 1989, when, with Sir James Goldsmith and Kerry Packer, he created Hoylake to bid for BAT, the tobacco group. ... Close friends are equally mystified. Perhaps he likes to surprise, to do the unpredictable, just as he has done through his friendship with the jailed Khodorkovsky, whose political ambitions are said to have troubled President Putin and led to his arrest. There are a few clues. He knows Rupert Murdoch well, having been friends since the Australian newspaper proprietor first came to the UK in the 1960s. The job is clearly a challenge the 67-year-old finds irresistible, one made all the more fascinating simply because of all the fuss kicked up by investors furious at what they considered Murdoch's blatant nepotism in pushing through his son's appointment. ... Meanwhile, Rothschild's links with Russia's Khodorkovsky, until last week head of the Yukos oil company, go back three to four years and stem from their shared love of the arts and philanthropy. Rothschild met Khodorkovsky through their patronage of the Hermitage Rooms at London's Somerset House but the two struck up friendship when the Russian businessman invited Rothschild to become a trustee of the Open Russia Foundation that he opened in London to promote educational and cultural ties between Russia and the West. But the true extent of their relationship became muddied last week after reports that Khodorkovsky, who was jailed last week for fraud and tax evasion, had transferred his share stake in the event of arrest to Rothschild, who would act as a trustee. However, Menatep, the Gibraltar-based holding parent company of Yukos, has consistently denied that Rothschild had any rights or links to the shares or that he was a shareholder himself. Menatep's Yury Kotler has said Rothschild had no involvement but that the shares were held in trust by Leonid Nevzlin, himself a big Yukos investor, now in exile in Israel. Rumours have been swirling in Russia for months that Rothschild might even become chairman of Yukos, but these have all been dismissed. Rothschild's London office maintains a Soviet-style silence on the issue, refusing to make any comments on the share stake, other than to report that "Khodorkovsky is a progressive businessman who is devoted to Russia'. ... He is chairman of Yad Hanadiv, the Rothschild foundation, which built and gave the Knesset government buildings and the Supreme Court to Israel, and chairs the Jewish Policy Research, dedicated to promoting issues affecting Jews worldwide."

November 21, 2010, Israel Business Arena, 'Murdoch, Lord Rothschild invest in Israeli shale oil': "Lord Jacob Rothschild and Rupert Murdoch have invested in an Israeli venture to produce oil from bituminous-bearing rock (shale) in the Elah Valley in the Judean foothills."

July 8, 1991, Toronto Star, 'Black ponders bid for Australian papers': "Australian billionaire Kerry Packer has been named as a possible partner in Black's bid for Fairfax. Packer owns Australian Consolidated Press, publishers of a number of Australian magazines, and the Channel Nine television network. The Sydney Telegraph-Mirror reported this week that Black has strong links to Packer through Hollinger board members Sir James Goldsmith and Lord Rothschild. Goldsmith and Lord Rothschild are long-time Packer associates and were partners with him in an aborted bid for English tobacco giant BAT Industries."

Source(s): 1986 Bihay Report on Opus Dei: "Also a member of Cercle Pinay." (an action paper written by Damman to the Pinay Committee was also included in the report)

Worked as secretary for the Paneuropa Union's Belgian chapter in the early 1960s. Chairman of the International Events Committee on the Central Council of the Paneuropa Union since 1966 (changed name to Mouvement d'Action pourl' Union Européenne (MAUE) in 1969). Leading member Cercle des Nations. In April 1970 Damman and Vankerkhoven would organize a Cercle des Nations reception in honour of the Greek colonels. Involved in the Ligue Internationale de la Liberté (LIL), the Belgian branch of the World Anti-Communist League, founded by Vankerkhoven. Another collaborative venture for Damman and Vankerkhoven was the joint organization of the 1970 Brussels Congress of the Anti-Bolshevik Block of Nations (ABN), an anti-communist group of mainly Ukrainian exiles financed by the CIA and the BND. Participated in the Wilton Park meetings with Jacques Jonet and others. Member Charlemagne dinners. After an initial contact in late 1968, [the fascist] Guérin-Sérac came to Brussels in January 1969 as Damman's guest to develop contacts amongst the elite conservative circles Damman frequented. Damman started by inviting Guérin-Sérac to the AESP's XIIth Grand Charlemagne Dinner on 27th January, 1969. Amongst the illustrious guests were Habsburg and Belgian Prime Minister Gaston Eyskens; one of Guérin-Sérac's dinner companions at table G was the Belgian neo-fascist Emile Lecerf, later to become notorious in connection with rumours of a planned coup in 1973 and a strategy of tension in Belgium in the 1980s. Damman and Guerin-Serac were working to set up a new group, CREC. Secretary for life AESP, which he largely founded for Habsburg and Jean Violet in 1969. Involved with Le Monde Moderne. Co-founer in 1977 of the Hongary Committee 1956-76 (Comite Hongrie 1956-76) with Ernest Tottosy, Francis Dessert, Emile Lecerf, Jacques Borst, Bernard Mercier en Victor de Stankovich (located at CEPIC and PIO headquarters, later also MAUE headquarters, while the building was part of Baron de Bonvoisin PDG firm). The Hungary Comittee's official purpose was to commemorate the Hungarian Uprising against the communists in 1956. However, Tottosy and de Stankovich were members of the P-7 Lodge, a smaller, parallel lodge to the P-2. The P-7 Lodge consisted of about 30 members who laundered CIA money for covert operations. Friend of Guerin Serac. Died in 1979. De Bonvoisin worked with Damman both as a member of one of the study Groups within the AESP and as a Board Member of MAUE; a 1981 report by the Surete de l'Etat, Belgium's internal security agency, makes it clear that de Bonvoisin took over MAUE after Florimond Damman died in July 1979.

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1975 saw the Academy dealing withsoviet subversion, as Florimond Damman described in April 1975 in his note No 167: 'The Soviet Union gains no advantage in provoking a war, because under the cloak of detente, it continues to wage a war of subversion, and is winning everywhere. The West puts up noopposition to this war of subversion, and encourages it through its weakness due to both splits in the domestic policy field and clashes on foreign policy between European countries and also countries within the Atlantic Alliance. I propose a meeting of an urgent braintrust which should establish: 1 the effects of the war of subversion in each of the countries of the Atlantic Alliance, in Europe as well as in the United States; 2 the effects of the war of subversion throughout the world; Korea, Vietnam, Middle East, Portugal, trade routes of raw materials; 3 the means that the Western block can use toinitiate effective subversive action both within Warsaw Pact countriesand in the contaminated countrics around the world; 4 how to encourage NATO countries to take immediate steps to define appropriate and officsive ideological tactics, which is the only way to win this war of subversion. The free movement of persons and ideas is one offensive tactic; we must find others. 5 Consider setting upanactioncentre for offensive tactics in the US or Canada.

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Portuguese opposition party CDS, Freitas do Amaral. Amaral also had close links to the Pinay Circle, as a letter from Archduke Otto to Damman of 29 August 1975 shows. "I sent replies to your previous letters via Pocking (the Archduke's residence) becauseof my trip toPortugal during which

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At the time Damman and Violet met, Damman was already planning a new group, CREC, together with Yves Guerin- Serac, leader of the fascist terror group Aginter Press, founded in September 1966. The propaganda put out by Aginter Press had already been distributed for several years by LIL's newspaper, Damocles, but Guerin-Serac's purpose in visiting Brusscls in January 1969 was to make more contacts. His guide was Damman, and Damman started by inviting Guerin-Serac to the AESP's 12th "Charlemagne Dinner" on 27 January 1969. Amongst the illustrious guests were Archduke Otto and Belgian Prime Minister, Gaston Eyskens; Guerin-Serac's dinner companions at table G included the Prince and Princess de Merode and Emile Lecerf, later implicated in rumours of a planned coup in 1973 and a strategy of tension in the 1980s. Guerin-Serac and Damman concluded an "agreement in principle" to found a group, CREC, which would try and reconcile two conflicting positions: the traditional right, anti-communist but not anti-parliamentarian, and the revolutionary extreme right represented by Guerin-Serac. Guerin-Serac and Damman then met at least twice more, as detailed in a progress report written by Guerin-Serac on 19 May 1969: "We should take stock of the progress made in our effort to set up CREC. I must admit that little progress has been made since the beginning of the year, ie since the agreement in principle on the two syntheses ... the major reasons for this delay are: - the difficulties suffered by the group of our Italian friends as a result of the chaotic and revolutionary situation in their country; - the centrifugal tendencies of the French group, whose conversion has not yet been completed. ... We should not however give up. In a Franco-Belgian preparatory meeting held in Brussels in March, we agreed on the following work programme: A -Definition of basic political positions with regard to European union. B - Definition of goals and strategy. C - Organisation of a structurc for CREC: bases and statutes. D - Preparation of a political plan and a psychological plan to be implemented by CREC. E - Organisation of a financial committee. In the meeting in Vienna at the beginning of thismonth, it wassuggested wedrew up a questionnaire so as to facilitate the definition, classification and alignment of the political ideas held by the various groups active on the subject of European ~ n i o n . " ~ It is intriguing that Guerin-Serac mentions a meeting with Damman in Vienna in May 1969; as we have heard above, Damman met Violet in Vienna the same month - could this be a Violet/Damman/Guerin- Serac meeting? There is no indication that Damman was aware of Aginter Press' real role, but with his excellent intelligence contacts, it would be surprising if Violet did not know of Guerin-Serac's activities.

Participated in the Wilton Park meeting in Madrid. "The economic future of Europe and inflation". Belgian delegation: Mr and Mrs de Limelette, General Vivario, Mr Damman, Mr Jonet, Miss Verlaine, Mrs Bauduin.

Aginter Press had been founded by Yves Guerin-Serac, a close associate of Otto Skorzeny and Stefano Delle Chiaie, two major players in the fascist underground of Europe. Serac had been one of the founders of the terrorist OAS, which had tried to assassinate De Gaulle and prevent the independence of Algeria (remember Calmette of FJ, WNP and Wackenhut, who had begun his career in the OAS?).

Crozier, 'Free Agent', p. 99: "Another of Violet's initiatives at that time was undertaken from Brussels. The operator Violet had chosen was an eccentric man, with the delectable name of Florimond Damman. Having made a small fortune from property deals, he ran a tiny business outfit with the grandiloquent name of Académie Européenne des Sciences Politiques. The three of us - Damman, Violet and I - drafted an appeal for 'Peace without Frontiers', in which we defined our concept of a true détente."

Lobster Magazine, No. 26: "On 6 November 1973, Le Monde Moderne organised a threeday restricted "braintrust" meeting on South Africa, attended by Jean Violet [Cercle], Francois Vallet [Le Cercle], Florimond Damman [Cercle], Brian Crozier [Cercle] and Mr Burger, South African Ambassador to France [Cercle members Strauss and Sanchez Bella were also involved in Le Monde Moderne]. The Ambassador presented a two-page report drawn up personally by Prime Minister Vorster, Information Minister Connie Mulder, his deputy Dr Eschel Rhoodie and General Hendrik van der Bergh, head of BOSS. Then a discussion was held as to how the ISC, the Academy and Le Monde Moderne could assist the secret propaganda campaign that the South African government was conducting through such Pretoria-funded publications as To The Point, a newspaper with which Le Monde Moderne worked. The meeting decided to launch several campaigns in favour of South Africa. One targeted Members of Parliament."

1984, Pierre Pean, 'V...: Enquête sur l'affaire des "avions renifleurs"': "For certain operations - generally secret - the Pinay Circle has many relays in the secret service of Western countries or in some clans of these special services. Thus, in the archives of Florimond Damman, we find many spies or people considered close to these services. In addition to R.P. Dubois and Violet, related both to La Piscine [SDECE] and the "services" of the Holy See (or, in case of the lawyer, to the German BND?), we find the names of the English Julian Amery and Brian Crozier, liasions to MI6; Lother Lohrisch, linked to the Portuguese PIDE; Camus, the former number 2 of NATO Intelligence; Colonel Lovinfosse, an OSS alumnus; Alfredo Sanchez Bella, reputed to have worked for the Spanish services; Count Huyn, Admiral Sorge..."

Source(s): Cercle's 1984 South Africa meeting lists

South Africa's foreign affairs secretary 1982-85.

Source(s): 1984 Bonn participants list

PRL congressman 1981-95. MR senator since 1995. Chair Council of Brussels 1995-99. Chair Senate 1999-2004 and 2007-10. Member l'Institut Européen pour la Paix et la Sécurité.

January 13, 2001, Het Belang Van Limburg, 'Vanden Boeynants met nationale eer begraven': "Met nationale eer is zaterdag voormalig minister van Staat Paul Vanden Boeynants begraven. De uitvaartplechtigheid in de Brusselse Sint-Michiels en Sint-Goedelekathedraal duurde ruim twee uur en werd bijgewoond door 800 à 900 mensen. Ook veel ministers en oud-ministers kwamen afscheid nemen van Paul Vanden Boeynants. Het was een serene uitvaart met toespraken waarin zowel familieleden als politici vooral de menselijke kant van VDB in herinnering brachten. Naast premier Guy Verhofstadt, vice-premier Louis Michel en defensieminister André Flahaut waren onder andere ook Kamervoorzitter Herman De Croo, Senaatsvoorzitter Armand de Decker, Brussels minister Jos Chabert, de oud-premiers Jean-Luc Dehaene en Leo Tindemans en oud-ministers Leo Delcroix, Willy Claes, Willy Declerq en Ferdinand Nothomb in de kathedraal aanwezig. Zowel de priester in zijn homilie als alle politici die aan het woord kwamen, noemden Vanden Boeynants een man die "trouw bleef aan het gegeven woord." Jos Chabert sprak over VDB als over het "groot oratorisch, politiek en menselijk talent zoals er maar weinig worden geboren." Leo Tindemans, minister van Staat, noemde VDB een groot staatsman die "zin voor nationaal belang had". Verder had Tindemans het nog over het karakter en doorzettingsvermogen van VDB."

Hij [VDB] leefde in een jachtig tempo, maar streefde altijd naar een evenwicht tussen lichaam en geest. Zo deed hij elke dag gymnastiek, vaak in het gezelschap van zijn vriend Henri Simonet, in een sportzaal op het Vossenplein in de Marollen of speelde hij tennis met Jules Everaert, een van zijn trouwe medewerkers, die militair bevelhebber werd van het Paleis der Natie.

Source(s): 2014, Johannes Grossmann, p. 552 (visited in the early 1990s)

British with Iraq-Jewish background. Former owner of Dalton Barton bank. Multi-billionaire.

Source(s): 1983 Cercle list, Bonn; Adrian Hanni (1985 Cercle meeting)

Member of Giscard d'Estaing's UDF (Union for French Democracy; Union pour la Démocratie Française) until 1998. In 1958, he became the director of Foreign Relations for the European Commission. He was the author of the foreword of the Treaty of Rome. In 1963, he was named French ambassador to Mauritania and in 1967 he was appointed as one of the French European Commissioners, as a member of the Rey Commission, in 1970 followed by his membership of the Malfatti Commission. He was responsible for the accession negotiations of Great Britain, the Republic of Ireland, Denmark and Norway, and for assistance to developing countries. In 1973, he entered the government of Pierre Messmer as Secretary of State for Coopération, and was then named Secretary of State to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in the government formed by Jacques Chirac after the election of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing to the presidency of the French Republic in 1974. In 1976, J.F. Deniau became France's ambassador to Madrid, on the request of the new king Juan Carlos, with whom he had begun a friendship during regattas. Deniau would play an active advisory role to the king and the government during Spain's democratic transition following the death of general Franco. In September 1977, Jean-François Deniau was named Secretary of State to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the government of Raymond Barre (Opus Dei supporter), then Minister of Foreign Commerce (1978), and finally Minister of Administrative Reform in Raymond Barre's last government (1981). From 1978 to 1981 and from 1986 to 1997 he was a member of the French parliament. Supporter of the Wilton Park meetings.

January 25, 2007, AP, 'Jean-Francois Deniau, former French minister and diplomat, dies at 78': "Born in 1928 in Paris, Deniau grew up with dreams of being an explorer. He was a graduate of the prestigious Ecole Nationale d'Administration, took an active role in European affairs and helped write the European Union's founding Treaty of Rome of 1957. He went on to be an ambassador, notably in Spain. He was sent there soon after the 1975 death of the dictator Gen. Francisco Franco and was close to King Juan Carlos. He helped Spanish leaders through their transition to democracy. An international champion of human rights, Deniau specialized in risky expeditions. In 1985, following up on a journalist's arrest, he entered secretly into Soviet-occupied Afghanistan and spent nine days there at a time when most Westerners were barred from the country. When Deniau visited Lebanon in 1986 as a member of the French National Assembly, the U.N. helicopter he was flying in was assaulted with machine-gun and anti-aircraft fire. No one was hurt, but fire tore through the fuel tank, forcing the aircraft to make an emergency landing at a soccer stadium. As a politician with the centrist UDF party, Deniau served in six ministerial posts, from agriculture to foreign minister. He was the founder of the annual Sakharov human rights prize, named after the Soviet dissident scientist Andrei Sakharov and awarded by the European Parliament. French President Jacques Chirac said he "embodied a noble French spirit made up of courage, panache and the taste for adventure." Deniau was a member of the Academie Francaise, the gathering of France's literary heavyweights. His novel "Un Hero Tres Discret" (A Very Discreet Hero) told of an ordinary man who reinvented himself as a hero of the World War II Resistance. The book was adapted into a movie by director Jacques Audiard and given the English-language title "A Self Made Hero.""

June 3, 2005, Intelligence Online, 'Francois-Xavier Deniau': "Director of strategy at the French foreign intelligence agency Direction Generale de la Securite Exterieure (DGSE) for the past four years, Francois-Xavier Deniau is due to shortly leave his job on the Boulevard Mortier in Paris. For some weeks he had been tipped for the post of permanent French representative at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna. But he is close to Dominique de Villepin who has just been named French prime minister and that could open new job prospects for him, perhaps on the staff of a senior minister. Aged 50 and a graduate of both the Polytechnique institute and ENA, Deniau spent most of his earlier career with the French foreign ministry, working on post in Rome, Brussels, Tunis and the Dominican Republic. He was also diplomatic adviser to the Gaullist equipment minister Bernard Pons and deputy chief-of-staff to a centrist foreign minister, Herve de Charrette. Deniau is the nephew of former center-right minister Jean-Francois Deniau and son of the ex Gaullist legislator, Xavier Deniau. The post of strategy director at DGSE traditionally goes to a diplomat but it seems the Quai d'Orsay has not yet come forward with a candidate to succeed Deniau. Elsewhere, Deniau's deputy at DGSE, Vincent Nibourel, will return to the agency's intelligence directorate to take charge of its External Relations service (which manages Totem relations) following the departure of Michele Ledirat, who has retired."

May 17, 1989, The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon), 'If only the guns were as silent as the rest of us are': "Jean-Francois Deniau, who was sent to Lebanon on a presidential mission to see what France could do, was disavowed by his own government for saying publicly that it was Syrian artillery pounding the Christians, and mentioning French press dispatches that annual drug exports from Lebanon, particularly the Syrian-controlled Bekaa Valley, now amount to $1 billion a year. That is said to be more than the total annual Arab contribution to the PLO. It is too late for such discretion. The Sovi- ets, evidently embarrassed by their Syrian allies now; the Saudis, who bankroll Damascus; the Europeans, with France as their main spokesman; the Vatican, and the United States can and should now join to demand an end to the fighting, troop withdrawals and real negotiations. If the United States is too inured to care about the stake of Lebanon in the Middle East, it does care about drugs. The silence is also deadening."

Source(s): Adrian Hanni (visited Le Cercle in 1987 with his wife)

Born in 1949. BA, Webster University, 1972. Postgrad., University Missouri Law School, 1980. JD, No. Virginia Law School, 1989. President, Meridian Emerging Markets, Ltd., Alexandria, Virginia, 1995— Producer, KETC-TV, St. Louis, 1970-71 Atty., of counsel, Squire Sanders & Dempsey, Washington, 1992-96 Attorney, Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue, Washington, 1991-92 Pub., president, Eton Court Pubs., Washington, New York City, 1986-89 Pub., editor-in-chief, Saturday Review Magazine, Washington, New York City, 1984-88 President, Citizens for Reagan, Washington, 1980-84 State legis., Missouri General Assembly, St. Louis, 1976-80 Producer, chief executive officer, Dietrich International TV, St. Louis, New York City, 1976 Producer, CBS-TV, St. Louis, 1971-74. President National Center Legis. Research, Washington, 1976-88, John Davis Lodge Center International Study, 1984-86; board directors Global Media Ltd., Los Angeles, 1986-88. Author, editor: American Foreign Policy and National Defense, 1984, Guide to U.S. Domestic Policy, 1984. Trustee Catholic University Am., Washington, 1986-93, Harvard University Pub. Health-Harvard AIDS Institute, 1990—, Congl. Human Rights Foundation, 1991—, Gorbachev Foundation, 1992—, International Foreign Policy Association, 1992—; board directors Sovereign Military Order of Malta, 1984. Member Virginia Bar Association, Metropolitan Club (Washington), Marlborough Fox Hunt Club (Upper Marlboro, Maryland). Republican. Roman Catholic.

Has been chairman, CEO and president of Foxhall Capital Management, Inc. He is also the principal mutual fund manager of the Shepherd Large Cap Growth Fund, previously known as Dominion Insight Growth Fund (DOIGX). DOIGX participated in some CIA-affiliated companies: Saytam Computer [Long-term CIA front, with operations in India, China, Japan, and much of Asia, owns the biggest fiber optics in Asia, CIA station in Guangzhou], America Movil S.A. de C.V [CIA Operation for eavesdropping in Latin America], Sasol Adr (SSL) [Two current/ex-CIA people in senior level positions], Legg Mason [Major financial powerhouse in Baltimore, MD, historically linked to U.S. State Department], AIG (also CIA linked).

Curious 2006 email letters of an anonymous person who worked for Paul Dietrich: "About a year ago I worked for a man by the name of Paul Dietrich. I had just moved to Leesburg, Virginia, and was looking for work when I saw an ad in the Loudoun Times/Mirror for somebody looking for a driver. I called and arranged to meet with the man. He gave me directions to his house which happened to be in the rolling hills of Loudoun county's horse country five miles north of Middleburg. I took a drive out to what turned out to be a rather large estate which was well known for it's fox-hunting history, lavishness and its previous owners. (Paul later divulged to me that he was merely renting the estate from billionaire Roy Ash, Nixon's head of OMB) I was a little taken aback by the opulence of the estate as we drove up to the front door of Huntland, formerly owned by George Brown, (Kellogg, Brown & Root) and used by LBJ as a "summer Whitehouse." Paul came out and greeted me at my vehicle. He gave us a tour of the house and told us about its rich history, (LBJ had his mistress there, LBJ had a heart attack there, Kennedy visited the estate often, as did Sam Rayburn, etc.) As we were walking around Huntland we started noticing pictures of Mr. Dietrich with heads of state, Pope John Paul II, Mother Theresa, Gorbachev, Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Nixon, Carter, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft, Jack Danforth (Paul was from Missouri, Senator Jack Danforth was his mentor). Mrs. Dietrich was also in several of the pictures. Paul is a lawyer and works as a capital investment adviser and handled accounts for King Juan Carlos of Spain, Gorbachev, Princess Diana and others. I came to find out that while on the planning board for Pan-American Health Organization (World Health Organization) he was involved in subverting tobacco-awareness campaigns in South America for big tobacco companies. He also told me that election-rigging in Loudoun county is de rigeur and pointed to his involvement with the Piedmont Environmental Council. The future of Loudoun county's growth was one of the points of a "First Fridays Lunch" that Mr. Dietrich attended along with chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, Kenneth Tomlinson, another Middleburg resident. Paul's wife, Laura was a former Assistant Secretary of State under Reagan and John Bolton's deputy at USAID. Paul told me that she was one of "Bolton's girls," the gaggle of very attractive female assistants that John Bolton had trailing behind him when he entered Senate hearing chambers on Capitol Hill, etc. Mrs. Dietrich is still in touch with John Bolton and was advising him about the Senate confirmation hearings for his appointment as U.S. ambassador to the U.N. last summer when I was working for Paul. It was while we were sitting in the parlor at Huntland during our initial meeting talking about his wife that he let slip that she was involved in something that he called "spy school". He informed me that she is a crack shot with an AK-47 and that she often brags about "killing" spies before coming home and preparing dinner. A friend of mine was present during these discussions and can confirm this information. Paul hired me to be his driver and I reported back to Huntland the next morning. I didn't really think much of Paul outing his wife to me as a CIA agent that day. Though I did think it a bit odd that he was telling somebody that he had known only twenty minutes that his wife was a high-level intelligence operative. My sister lives in Arlington and her good friend's husband work's for the Agency. I thought, "Well, it's Northern Virginia every other person up here probably works for the CIA," as per this article that I read in the Loudoun Times Mirror. ... This article I found to be a complete joke, because nobody is tight-lipped about their CIA involvement in NoVa [Northern Virgina]. The witches that ran the little New Age shop in Leesburg had worked for CIA: ... The guy who sold Nazi trinkets in the antique shop in Leesburg was CIA: ... I overheard people in line at the local Starbucks talking about their agency involvement. It was everywhere. LOL! I had been working for Mr. Dietrich for a couple of months. It was pretty slack work: drive him from Middleburg to his office in Alexandria, then come back to pick him up every evening. One evening in April I was driving Paul back from a late dinner meeting he had at the Majestic restaurant (owned by Mark Warner) in Alexandria. Paul was a big time name dropper anyway but this evening he was especially loose-lipped. He started telling me about his wife's involvement with the CIA. Paul told me that Laura had been involved in a "fast track" program with the CIA at Georgetown to recruit women in high position roles in the federal government. This was at the begining of the Reagan era and was facilitated by Jeane Kirkpatrick. Condeleezza Rice had also been apart of this program. He told me that the position Laura had held at State, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs was a front for the CIA at the State Department. Which made sense to me when he told me some of the actions in which she played a part. She got "Baby Doc" Duvalier out of Haiti, promised him a U.S. visa which she renegged and got him stuck in France, which made Mrs. Dietrich persona non grata in France. She also got Marcos out of the Philippines. Both of these actions didn't seem particularily "humanitarian" as her job title suggested. Rescuing Third World dictators and despots. She also was involved in El Salvador and the Sanctuary program. Mr. Dietrich went into detail about questions that she had to answer on the polygraph examination. She had purchased the book entitled "Blowing My Cover" by Lindsey Moran because it described the CIA's polygraph procedure she hadn't taken in a long time. He told me information about the CIA's spy school in Reston where Laura reported for work and that several "role playing" excercises were conducted on city streets in and around Northern Virginia. He described an exercise in which she was involved that took place at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Several of "her team" were ex-Navy SEALs. It was one of these SEALs job to transport a very small amount of radioactive material, nothing dangerous, just enough to be detected with measurement instruments. This material was placed in an ordinary box and flown to Yemen where it was placed in a cargo container. The container would make it's way to Marseilles, France, then across the Atlantic to Boston, MA. It was picked up by another team member and taken down the East Coast to Baltimore, where it would be picked up by Paul's wife, Laura. In the meantime she had made an appointment to have a meeting with the general manager of Camden Yards [sports stadium]. She took the box containing the radioactive material to the meeting with her where she would be cleared by security getting into Camden Yards because she is a "petite white woman with long blond hair." Walking to the manager's office she would make an unplanned detour and enter the bleachers area of the stadium, take out the box, reveal the mock device and press a button on it. This was simulating that she had detonated a nuclear device or "dirty bomb." This also marked the end of the exercise at Camden Yards. It was unclear whether or not an event was taking place at the time or if the management of Camden Yards was aware of the exercise. Paul told me that his wife was on an intelligence board and had been hand-picked by Donald Rumsfeld. James Woolsey is also on this Defense Department (?) intelligence board. Paul didn't elaborate any further on this. However I suspected the board was involved with DIA or at least met at Bolling Air Force Base as Laura had DoD stickers on her car that allowed her to enter that base. Paul told me that the counter-terrorism work Laura did involved a team that would go and gather every detail of a terrorist incident world-wide. He told me that Al Queda had been targeting western females, not as recruits, but as unwitting mules. He said that some of the things Laura's counter-terrorism team had uncovered was that terrorists were trying to attract young, often unattractive or "plain looking" girls from places like Ireland. The terrorist operatives would then wine and dine the young naive girls and fly them to resort areas in the Mediterranean. Paul stated that the purpose of this was that the Western girl-friends would have no idea that their new Arab boyfriends were terrorists and that eventually they would fly them someplace and the terrorist boy-friend would have placed a bomb in the girl's luggage without her knowledge. Paul's wife, Laura Dietrich, worked for the CIA and was currently employed training recruits. One of the excercises she was involved in can be seen here: I personally saw Laura Dietrich's tax information and pay stubs, the private military contractors she worked for are: MPRI, Armorgroup, Tessada & Associates, Hamilton Trading Group, Inc. I also heard her refer to what she was doing for the CIA as "spy school" and heard recorded messages from her contact, a woman by the name of "Sharon." ... Paul Dietrich is a member of the Federalist Society. He told me that he believes that privacy is something that is NOT protected by the U.S. Constitution. I am willing to defend what I have to say about the events that occurred March 2005 through August 2005, the time that I worked for Paul. As far as seeinjg his wife's tax returns it was in the capacity of the work I was doing for him. As well as a driver I also performed other duties such as messenger, etc. I'm really not worried about it. I was an undocumented, uninsured, unbonded worker working for him. It's his own damn fault. When he put his ad in the Loudoun Times Mirror I think he expected to get an uneducated undocumented illegal alien to work for him. ... Previously, he was the Founder of Meridian Emerging Markets, Ltd., a leading provider of global emerging markets company financial information. With offices in New York, Boston, London [wife has extended family in England] and Princeton, Meridian collected, compiled, and distributed fundamental financial data on all of the largest publicly traded companies in over 56 emerging markets [specializing in developing intelligence for his wife no doubt]. Mr. Dietrich has also been an investment adviser to a Bermuda-based,offshore investment fund [what CIA assets haven't been]. He is an international corporate attorney and was formerly associated with two Washington, DC law firms, Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, [Strong ties to CIA, including James R. Lilley (former US ambassador to South Korea), and other CIA assets specializing in Latin America, Asia, and China, with significant overlap with Saytam Computer] and Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue [Major tobacco lobbyist, has fronted for several prior CIA activities in Asia and South America]. Before entering the practice of law, he served as Publisher and Editor in Chief of SATURDAY REVIEW, one of the United States' oldest cultural magazines. [Recognized as a front organization, used as a training ground for propaganda and PSYOPS specialists. Well known to be a mouthpiece for CIA agendas, or positions.] As an attorney, he has been an advisor on privatization and economic development issues to the Czech government, as well as several governments in Asia and the former Soviet Union. [His wife was/is in the CIA Directorate of Operations, and specialized in running spies in Russia and the Czech Republic.] Mr. Dietrich has been a frequent contributor to the editorial pages of the WALL STREET JOURNAL, the LONDON TIMES and the INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE. From 1994 to 1997, he was editor of both the REUTERS EMERGING MARKETS GUIDE and the REUTERS ASIAN STOCK SOURCEBOOK. He is also President of the Institute for International Health and Development (IHD) (founded in 1982 by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, David Morse). [IHD is a known MI6-influenced organization used to advance U.S. and British agendas into poverty stricken countries, primarily Asia and South Africa. Ironically, Mr. Dietrich and his business associates have a history of financially exploiting these populations.] He has served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, was a member of the National Advisory Board of Harvard University's School of Public Health's AIDS Institute, a member of the Advisory Group on International Health Systems Assessment of the New York Academy of Sciences, and is currently a member of the Advisory Board to the John Templeton Foundation. He has also served as a member of the Development Committee of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), and as a member of the Board of Directors of the U.S. Congressional Human Rights Foundation and the American-European Community Association. ... We talked about a lot of things. If he didn't want this information out there then he shouldn't have told me anything. Apparently those involved in the PMC training of CIA agents are mid-level federal government retirees (military, CIA, FBI) so I would imagine those people would be really pissed. I mean the guy blew open the doors and revealed a lot about the training process of CIA operatives. ... "

Source(s): Adrian Hanni (visited Le Cercle in 1987 with her husband)

Born in 1952. Student, Stephens College, Columbia, Missouri, 1973. Deputy assistant secretary state [for Human Rights], U.S. Department State, Washington, 1984-87 Special assistant to secretary, Department Interior, Washington, 1983 Deputy director external relations, Agency for International Development, Washington, 1982-83 [USAID; Bolton was general counsel at USAID 1981-1982] Congl. liaison, U.S. Department Labor, Washington, 1981-82 Board directors, National Center for Legis. Research, Washington, 1981-89 Director, National Center for Legis. Research, St. Louis, 1977-81. Director Foundation Management, Inc., Washington, 1982-85. Editor: (monographs) Legislative Policy, 1979, State Anti-Trust Laws, 1979, Public Employee Collective Bargaining, 1979, Nuclear Energy: The Legislative Issues, 1980, The Proposed Washington D.C. Amendment, 1981; author: U.S. Asylum Policy, 1986; contributor editor Saturday Rev., 1984-85. Avocation: fox hunting. Me. Rep. National Committee. Member Foreign Policy Discussion Club, Sovereign Military Order of Malta, Marlborough Hunt Club, Middleburg Hunt. Married Paul George Dietrich, December 5, 1978.

Source(s): June 29, 1997, The Independence, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club; Is it the ultimate dishonour'; 18 June 2000, Sunday Telegraph / Lobster Magazine, Issue 40, winter 2000-2001; April 2, 2003, The Guardian, 'War in the Gulf: Billionaire linked to Labour arrested in London: France demands extradition of Iraqi friend of UK politicians'; September 25, 2003, Damien McCrystal, City Editor for The Sun, 'Spooky tale from Salzburg; City Insider': "ACROSS my desk come details of a hush-hush gathering in Salzburg of a spooky collection calling itself Le Cercle. Members come from around the world and seem to be dominated by Right-wingers with an interest in the security services. Britain is represented by, among others, spy writer and former Tory MP Rupert Allason, Tory Deputy Leader Michael Ancram, Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Alan Duncan, former GEC and Warburg director Sir Ronald Grierson, Lord Lamont, Lt Col Tim Spicer of Aegis Defence Services and Sir Stephen Lander, former head of MI5. Is this a new Bilderberg group in the making?"

Who's Who: Pres., Oxford Union, 1979. With Shell Internat. Petroleum, 1979–81; Kennedy Schol., Harvard Univ., 1981–82; oil trader, Marc Rich & Co., 1982–88; self-employed oil broker, 1988–92. PPS to Min. of State, DoH, 1993–94, to Chm. of Cons. Party, 1995–97; a Vice Chm. of Cons. Party, 1997–98; Parly Political Sec. to Leader of the Opposition, 1997; Opposition spokesman on health, 1998–99, on trade and industry, 1999–2001, on foreign affairs, 2001–03; Shadow Sec. of State for Constitutional Affairs, 2003–04, for Internat. Develt, 2004–05, for Transport, 2005, for Trade and Industry, 2005–07, for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, 2007–09; Shadow Leader, H of C, 2009; Shadow Jun. Justice Minister for Prisons, 2009–. Mem., Select Cttee on Social Security, 1993–95. Contested (C) Barnsley W and Penistone, 1987. Vis. Parly Fellow, St Antony’s Coll., Oxford, 2002–03. Freeman, City of London, 1980; Liveryman, Merchant Taylors’ Co., 1987. MP (C) Rutland and Melton, since 1992.

Before beginning his political career he became a millionaire as a trader of oil and refined products first with Shell and then with an independent commodity company, but he remained involved in politics as an active member of Battersea Conservative Association. Between the years of 1984 and 1986 he lived in Singapore. Member of Parliament for Rutland and Melton. since 1992. From 1993 to 1995 he sat on the Social Security Select Committee, his first governmental position was as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of Health, a position he obtained in December 1993 and resigned from in January 1994 after it was revealed that he had made a 50,000 pound profit exploiting right-to-buy legislation to buy his neighbour's council house in Westminster. When co-Le Cercle member and arms dealer Jonathan Aitken sued the Guardian two years ago, Alan Duncan defended Aitken by stating he was a "good and honourable man. I think he has struck a rich vein and good for him for taking a stand. There is not enough courage around and he has shown he's got it" (another Cercle member, Michael Howard, did the same). In July of 1995 he was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Chairman of the Conservative Party, Dr Brian Mawhinney. In June 1997 he was entrusted with the positions of Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party and Parliamentary Political Secretary to the Party Leader. In June 1999 he was made Shadow Trade and Industry Spokesman. Attended the June 2001 meeting of Le Cercle in Lisbon, Portugal. In September 2001, he was appointed a Frontbench Spokesman for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs. In November 2003, he became Shadow Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs. In September 2004, he was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for International Development. He now sits on the front bench as Shadow Secretary of State for Transport, a position he has held since May 2005. Described as a libertarian, wishing to minimize the role of the state and abolish laws against drugs. He is on the council of the Conservative Way Forward group. Duncan is a passionate fighter against AIDS. In 2004 he said: "The poor of the world need deeper debt relief, better aid, and freer and fairer trade." Duncan is openly gay since July 2002. Together with Nadhmi Auchi and Prince Andrew he is a member of the Anglo-Arab Organization. Auchi is the chairman. April 2, 2003, The Guardian: "[Auchi's] Le Cercle meetings - originally a cold war group of businessmen and politicians - have brought him into contact with political figures such as Lord Lamont and the Tory MP Alan Duncan, and with intelligence officers such as the former MI6 officer Anthony Cavendish and the former head of MI6's Middle East division, Geoffrey Tantum."

Source(s): 1983 Cercle list; Adrian Hanni (also visited the Cercle in 1987)

Edwards was born in Chicago in 1932. At an early age, he was introduced to conservative values and the importance of the written word by his parents; both of Edwards' parents were anti-communist, and his father was a journalist for the Chicago Tribune.[4] He holds a bachelor's degree in English from Duke University and a doctorate in world politics from Catholic University.[5][3] He also did graduate work at the Sorbonne in Paris.[5]. A distinguished fellow in conservative thought at the B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies at The Heritage Foundation. He is considered one of the foremost historians of the conservative movement in America,[1][2] and he has published more than 15 books,[3] including biographies of President Ronald Reagan, Senator Barry Goldwater, Attorney General Edwin Meese III and William F. Buckley, Jr. He is currently the Chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. Edwards' involvement in the conservative movement began in 1960. He was one of the founding members of Young Americans for Freedom (YAF), and later served as the director of information for the Barry Goldwater presidential campaign in 1964. In 1969, the New York Times dubbed Edwards “the voice of the silent majority.”[4] He has acted as a consultant for the Richard Nixon administration, Senators Strom Thurmond and Bob Dole, the Republican National Committee, YAF, the American Conservative Union, the Committee for a Free China and the American Council for World Freedom.[4] Edwards has written biographies of Ronald Reagan, William F. Buckley, Edwin Meese III and Goldwater,[6][7][8] as well as a number of other books, which include The Conservative Revolution: The Movement That Remade America,[9] The Power of Ideas,[10] a retrospective on the first 25 years of the Heritage Foundation, and a history of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute.[3] He was the initial editor of the Conservative Digest in 1975,[4] and has been a senior editor for The World & I.[11] He has also written for major newspapers including The Boston Globe, Detroit News, Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Times,[12] as well as magazines such as Crisis, National Review, Policy Review and Reader's Digest. He is a frequent commentator on television and radio and has appeared on Fox News Channel's The O'Reilly Factor and Fox and Friends, PBS' The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, C-SPAN's Booknotes and Washington Journal and NPR's The Diane Rehm Show. He has lectured in nearly 20 nations on various aspects of American and world politics.[3] Edwards was the founding director of the Institute on Political Journalism at Georgetown University and a fellow at the Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.[13] He is a past president of the Philadelphia Society and has been a media fellow at the Hoover Institution.[14][15] He is a distinguished fellow in conservative thought at the B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies at The Heritage Foundation,[16] and as of 2011, holds the title of adjunct professor of politics at the Catholic University of America and at the Institute of World Politics.[3][17] In addition, he is chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, an organization dedicated to the creation of an international memorial in Washington to the victims of communism across history and the online Global Museum on Communism.[18] He is a signatory of the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism.[19] Honors he has been awarded include the Millennium Star of Lithuania, the Cross of Terra Mariana of Estonia, the Friendship Medal of Diplomacy from the Republic of China (Taiwan), the John Ashbrook Award, the Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award and the Walter Judd Freedom Award.[17]

Source(s): Cercle's 1983 Bonn meeting list

September 11, 1987, BBC Summary of World Broadcasts (Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union in English 0736 gmt 8 Sep 87), 'British Sovietologist's View of USSR Society': ''We are witnessing a serious and in-depth reorganisation in all spheres of life in the USSR,'' Ian Elliot, the leading English Sovietologist, professor at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, the author of a number of books about the foreign policy of the Soviet Union, said in an interview published in 'Komsomolskaya Pravda' today. ''As far as people like myself are concerned, i.e. those who devoted their entire life to the study of the Soviet Union, we view the reorganisation process as a necessary phenomenon, and we feel profoundly gratified with the changes which are taking place in your country. ''The Soviet Union is now being perceived in the West as a dynamic society encountering problems, boldly speaking of problems, and trying to resolve them. Besides, the popularity of the Soviet Leader, his style of leadership and sincere striving to carry the reorganisation through and to secure radical changes in international relations have in many respects influenced people's attitude towards your country. ''Soviet society has become easier to understand: very many people in the West believe that a country which openly speaks of its difficulties, miscalculations and errors cannot pose a threat to other states. We gradually move on from the previous conviction that people have nothing to learn from the Russians to a new perception of the Soviet Union. Both you and we have our problems and achievements. Why not learn from each other?'' Ian Elliot emphasised. ''Over the 70 years of Soviet power, the peoples of your country worthily went through the ordeals of the foreign intervention and the second world war which brought innumerable suffering to Soviet people and resulted in the loss of millions of human lives. But despite all that the Soviet Union successfully developed. Suffice it to have a look at the statistical map of the world economy to see what role the USSR plays in the contemporary world. ''No sober-minded person will deny the successes. The policy of openness, which reveals opportunities for the initiative of all members of society, is an earnest of successful restructuring of the economy. The Soviet Union's strides in economic development raise no doubt. ''The great social experiment which has been under way in your country for 70 years now looks fascinating to me. When I was a student and only began to study the Russian language and Soviet history, I came to the conclusion that your society was notable for one very important feature: humaneness and concern for people,'' Ian Elliot pointed out."

Source(s): November 1988 – Issue 17, Lobster Magazine, 'Brian Crozier, the Pinay Circle and James Goldsmith' (quoting the Langemann papers); October 1989 – Issue 18, Lobster Magazine, 'The Pinay Circle and Destabilisation in Europe'; June 29, 1997, The Independence, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club; Is it the ultimate dishonour': Cercle meetings: all from 1982-85.

Elliot was an officer in MI6's 'Section D', which was created when WWII broke out. Its purpose was to perform more violent operations than usual, like sabotage and unconventional warfare. In 1962 / 1963, MI5 head Arthur Martin, after having interviewed the Russian defector Anatoli Golitsin, arranged for Kim Philby (MI6 officer - head of Soviet Affairs who turned out to be a communist spy) to be interviewed in Beirut in 1963 by Nicholas Elliot. Due to some of the comments made by Philby during the interview, Elliott got the impression that he had been tipped off to expect a visit from MI5. In turn, this led Arthur Martin to believe there still was a high-level communist spy within MI5. In January 1963, Philby fled to the USSR, a very short time after his interview with Elliot. Elliot also sat on the board of directors of Lonrho. Edward Du Cann, some time chairman of the Conservative Party and, until 1991 chairman of Lonrho, published his autobiography in 1995, 'Two Lives', which received little attention. He wrote: "Yet another dissident was Nicholas Elliot, a director of MI6, the man who botched Commander Crabb's underwater investigation of the Soviet cruiser Ordzhonikidze at the time of Kruschev's visit to the UK in 1956. A former head of station in Beirut, he travelled there in 1963 to obtain the traitor Kim Philby's confession. He succeeded in this, but then allowed his old friend from MI6 to escape to Soviet Russia. On the face of it these were two of the most monumental blunders perpetrated by British Intelligence since the War. Presumably the reality must have been different from the way in which the public perceived these events or he would surely have been dismissed in disgrace. For a while, until the shareholders of Lonrho dismissed him for his disloyalty to Rowland by an overwhelming majority, we were both directors of Lonrho. I never heard him make a single contribution of substance at any of our Board meetings. I always sat as far away from him as possible: he suffered badly from halitosis." May 17, 2002 issue, Jeffrey Steinberg for Executive Intelligence Review, 'Ariel Sharon: Profile of an Unrepentant War Criminal': "On Nov. 15, 1982, a final meeting took place on several real estate purchases, mostly through Arab middle-men, to push the massive expansion of Jewish settlements throughout the West Bank at a handsome profit. Attending the meeting at Sharon's ranch were: Kissinger [Cercle], Lord Harlech (Sir David Ormsby-Gore), Johannes von Thurn und Taxis [1001 Club], Tory Parliamentarian Julian Amery [Cercle], Sir Edmund Peck, and MI-6 Mideast mandarin Nicholas Elliot [Cercle]." Elliott has also been a Council Member of the Wilkinson / McWhirter / Ivens group, the Research Foundation for the Study of Terrorism. Elliot worked closely with co-Le Cercle member Brian Crozier, who included him in Margaret Thatcher's Shield committee and in 'The 61'.

Source(s): Adrian Hanni (visited the Cercle once in 1987)

Vice-president of New York's Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs. On the advisory board of the Free Africa Foundation, an advocacy organisation on African policy with close ties to conservative U.S. think tanks and foundations.

Source(s): Adrian Hanni (Nagle visited the Cercle in 1989 and 1990)

Former CIA senior official. Served as Chairman of the National Intelligence Council, National Intelligence Officer for the USSR and East Europe and Director of the Strategic Evaluation Center. Served as Special Assistant to the President during Ronald Reagan's presidency and Senior Director for Soviet and European Affairs in the National Security Council. January 19, 1987, Newsweek, 'Carlucci Cleans Up the Act at the NSC': "To head the NSC's Soviet department, Carlucci selected Fritz Ermarth, a widely respected hard-liner who has worked for Brzezinski, the Rand Corp. and, most recently, the CIA." November 19, 1999, Dinner remarks of Robert Gates at Texas A&M University, 'US Intelligence and the End of the Cold War': "With President Bush's express approval, that fall Brent and I established a top-secret, high-level contingency planning effort to prepare for the possibility of a Soviet collapse. It was chaired by Condi Rice of the NSC and her group included Dennis Ross at State, Fritz Ermarth and Bob Blackwell at CIA, and Paul Wolfowitz and Eric Edelman from the Department of Defense. This was in September of 1989. This group commissioned a number of studies by CIA and used them in reviewing and planning US options. The work was used to good effect when the Soviet Union imploded two years later." Anno 2012 on the advisory board of the Langley Intelligence Group Network with General Michael Hayden (NSA and CIA head), Lord William Rees-Mogg, John Bolton, Otto Reich and Arnaud de Borchgrave. Part-time senior analyst for the Strategies Group at SAIC.

July 27, 2006, Federal News Service, 'Hearing of the United States Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (Helsinki Commission) (As released by the Helsinki Commission)': "Mr. Fritz Ermarth, retired October of '98 as a member of the Senior Intelligence Service of the CIA. He has worked over 40 years in national security affairs and government, academia and commercial institutions specializing in Soviet strategic and regional conflict issues, and currently consults with several organizations working on national security, including nuclear weapons policy and intelligence reform, U.S.-Russian relations and regional security."

----------------------------------------------------

Alleged Anton Surikov links:

Boris, Victor and Anton Surikov all visited Dartmouth. Boris in 1988; Anton and Victor in 1992.

Boris Surikov (likely relative): Russian Major-General in the Air Force. Military advisor to the Russian government in the 1980s about SALT I and the U.S.' SDI project. Described by Jane's Defense Weekly as the Soviet Union's "expert on new types and systems of space-based weapons." Visited the Dartmouth Conference in 1988.

July 14, 1988, Associated Press, 'Soviet says Star Wars could be used to launch attack': "Star Wars anti-missile defenses in orbit could be used as a cover for nuclear weapons capable of hitting targets on earth on five minutes notice, a Soviet general says in a rare interview. Maj. Gen. Boris Surikov said Star Wars devices, which the Soviets call ''space strike weapons,'' could ''in the foreseeable future be used to destroy strategically important targets on earth and in space.'' ''The current technology also gives the opportunity to start cover deployment of space-to-earth strike weapons even now,'' he said in the interview published Wednesday by the British magazine Jane's Defence Weekly. ''Independently of the actual armaments of the U.S. (anti-ballistic missiles) stations, the Soviet Union would assume that they are armed with weapons able to destroy vital ground targets within five minutes of a decision to mount a nuclear attack from space,'' he said. Surikov also outlined steps the Soviets could take to outflank Star Wars, formally known as the Strategic Defense Initiative. Although Soviet civilians and U.S. critics of Star Wars have made points similar to Surikov's, the interview provided unusual detail from a Soviet military source that Jane's described as ''his government's expert on new types and systems of space-based weapons.'' Surikov hinted in the article that the Soviet Union might destroy such stations soon after they were deployed. U.S. officials have denied that Star Wars would use nuclear weapons or that other SDI devices, such as high-energy lasers, would be used against targets on earth. Congress has barred the Reagan administration from spending any money that might violate the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which places strict limits on missile defenses. Surikov acknowledged that the Soviet Union ''is engaged in research and development to improve the limited ABM system'' around Moscow. He said the system was ''fully in compliance with Article VII of the ABM Treaty,'' limiting each side to one ABM site equipped with not more than 100 interceptors. He also confirmed that the Soviet Union is conducting research on new weapons systems ''based on other physical principles,'' such as lasers, at a test site allowed under the ABM pact. The article appeared as the Reagan administration tries to decide whether to declare the Soviet Union in ''material breach'' of the ABM Treaty because it built a radar facility at Krasnoyarsk, deep inside Siberia, instead of near the border as required by the pact. The Soviets say the Krasnoyarsk radar is designed to track vehicles in space, but suspended work on it a year ago before it became operational. Surikov did not directly respond to U.S. allegations about the facility, but said ''all Soviet radars have lower potentials'' than the ceiling set in the ABM treaty, ''and cannot detect or track ballistic missiles automatically or with the necessary accuracy.'' The Soviet general also outlined steps that Moscow could take to foil any strategic defense system built by the United States. The countermeasure s, all of which have been discussed publicly by Western experts, include: -Early destruction or neutralization of orbiting stations by ''anti-ABM spacecraft armed with nuclear or conventional charges,'' ''space mines'' or ''clouds of heavy or lightweight obstacles (like metal balls, sawdust, sand. etc.)'' -''A build-up of offensive arms'' to present SDI with an overwhelming number of intercontinental ballistics missiles (ICBMs) to target; -''Cheap ICBM decoys ... which would greatly overburden the first space layer of the ABM defense'' and other ''imitation devices ... to effectively camouflage the real nuclear warheads.'' -''High acceleration missiles'' designed to release their warheads before the launch vehicle could be destroyed by the first layer of a space-based defense. -''Massive deployment of variously based cruise missiles'' or ''submarine launched ballistic missiles'' for which ''there are no interceptors at present.''"

Victor M. Surikov (father): Deputy director Central Research Institute of Machine Building (TsNIIMash), Russia's ICBM production facility, 1976-1992. TsNiiMash, just to the north-east of Moscow, was headed by Yuri Mozzhorin from 1961 to 1990. Known for his deep involvement in the creation of the Dead Hand system, an automatic nuclear launch system based on various sensors. Under normal circumstances this system is turned off. Assistant to the head of the Central Committee of the Defense Department, the party body responsible for force building, procurement, and arms control. Visited the Dartmouth Conference in 1992, along with his son. Founding head Institute for Defense Studies (INOBIS) in 1992, with help from his son Anton. Both became notorious for the November 1995 Surikov document.

Alternate (likely false) claim about Surikov: Born in Sukhumi, Abkhazia, Georgia, USSR, with the name Mansur Ali-Hadzhi Natkhoev, and later went to Moscow. [seems to be his false name] Unknown: Served in a GRU unit, based in Shindand, West Afghanistan in 1984. As a GRU agent supposedly involved in supporting Basayev in Abkhazia, Georgia, in 1992-1993, together with Ruslan Saidov.

Anton V. Surikov: Son of top Soviet ICBM builder Victor Surikov. Anton Surikov's bio at the Institute of Globalization Studies (accessed: August 18, 2006): "He was born on May 26, 1961 in the Moscow region. In 1984, he graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute ... as a mechanical engineer. Since the 1980s Surikov has been associated with work on defense projects. In November 1988, Surikov was a candidate of technical sciences, with a thesis on a special topic in the academic council of the military unit 73790 [Did exist: "Military Unit 73790" is referenced as a biographical note in a scientific studie published in 1995 entitled, 'Fractal analysis of fracture in aluminum alloy 01450T'; An impossible to open PDF at www.centralbank.ie reads: "Military Unit 73790 with a degree in experimental engineering..."; fas.org/spp/military/program/track/okno.pdf (translated from Russian): "50th Central Research Institute of videoconferencing - Jubilee p.Podlipki in / h 73790." Podlipki is just north-east of Moscow, in the industrial city of Korolev. Sounds a lot like Central Research Institute of Machine Building TsNiiMash of Surikov's father and was certainly part of this network here. ... Strangely, since about 1996 unit 73790 is named as the place where Russia hit its downed UFOs. Now they claim the unit was part of the Soviet Union's super secret (underground) base Kapustin Yar at Jitkur/Znamensk, just east of Wolgograd, where much of Russia's military space program was operated. Reportedly an UFO crashed here and was retrieved, just like Roswell in 1947. Probably not the correct "h 73790."] In June 1989, he was awarded the Lenin Komsomol Prize [for the best works in science, engineering, literature or art by young authors under 33 years of age] while at military unit 25840. [2000, Asif A. Siddiqi, NASA History Series, 'Challenge to Apollo: The Soviet Union and the Space Race, 1945-1974,' p. 39: "[General Andrey I.] Sokolov and Gaydukov were instrumental in creating the Scientific Research Institute No, 4 (NIl-4) [later known as TsNiiMash of Surikov's father] within the Fourth Directorate to investigate "the development of methods of testing, acceptance, storage and combat application of missile weaponry." Known secretly as "unit 25840" and located at Bolshevo [part of the industrial city of Korolev, where TsNiiMash has also been placed] near Moscow..."]" In 1990 invited by Andrei Kokoshin (Feb. 21, 1985, AP, 'Soviets Threaten Stronger Weapons to Defeat Space Defense': "Tass also quoted Andrei Kokoshin, deputy director of a think tank called the U.S.A.-Canada Institute, as saying international scientists fear a new arms race if the United States develops space weapons." Deputy director of ISKRAN and head of its military-political affairs division. Dartmouth Conferences 1983-2000. First deputy minister of defense in Russia 1992-. Secretary of the Defense Council -1998. Secretary Russian Security Council in 1998 (his predecessor, Ivan Rybkin, was later kidnapped by the FSB, drugged and apparently made to do "revolting, perverse" things without his conscious awareness. Claimed Putin was behind 1999 apartment bombings. Rybkin was forced to stop his presidential campaign and stayed out of Russia. Rybkin's predecessor Alekander Lebed, a fascist, was killed during a helicopter crash). Kokoshin prefers to work with the West, but still wants Russia to be a powerful nation. April 14, 2000, AP, 'Russia Lawmakers OK START II': "The Russian government and centrist lawmakers say the country's nuclear program should shift to developing a smaller arsenal of modern weapons, such as Russia's new Topol-M missile. ``A few modern missiles, capable of breaking through a missile-defense system in a retaliatory strike, would be a much more effective deterrent,'' centrist lawmaker Andrei Kokoshin said." Friend of the elitist Sam Nunn, who was also friends with Rogov (The Twilight of the Bombs, p. 91). Cooperates with the leadership of Harvard's Belfer Center, visited the Trilateral Commission and is pro-West.) to become a military strategist at the Institute for U.S. and Canadian Studies (ISKRAN). Anton Surikov's bio at the Institute of Globalization Studies (accessed: August 18, 2006): "In the summer of 1990, at the invitation of the deputy director of the Institute for U.S. and Canadian Studies ... [Andrei] Kokoshin, he joined this leading research institution, where he worked until September 1996. The work at the Institute for U.S. and Canadian Studies required numerous travels to various countries of the CIS and far abroad." November 29, 2009, Forummsk.info obituary of Anton Surikov: "On November, 23rd at about 6.00 p.m. Anton Viktorovich Surikov - constant author and a member of editorial board of FORUM.msk, bright publicist, one of the most outstanding experts in the field of strategic armaments, defensive industry and local conflicts, died. He was born on May, 26th, 1961 in Moscow Region. ... [states he joined IPROG in the summer of 1990] ... In the first half to the middle of the 90s he repeatedly visited regions of confrontation in the Caucasus (Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Nagorno-Karabakh, the Chechen Republic), with A. Surikov's explanation: "for the purpose of protecting human rights and renderingen assistance to victims of conflicts". According to the newspaper "Version", in 1992 he ostensibly served under Sultan Sosnaliev's command, Minister of Defence of the Abkhazian Republic ("Sgovor" - "Version", N29, August, 3rd, 1999), operating ostensibly under a name Mansur, was responsible for diversionary activity of the Abkhazian separatists. A.Surikov's reaction in the interview to the newspaper "Tomorrow": "... I visited Abkhazia. I was in Gagry, Gantiadi, Leselidze, in Sukhumi and Tkvarcheli, but the way my actions were described by "Version" during these trips is at its door. The fact of fulfilment of some diversions by me should be confirmed, it couldn't be asserted without substantiation". ("Tomorrow", N22 (391). Under the assertion of the newspaper "RT-TRIBUNE" ("The working Tribune", 20.10.98) he ostensibly delivered arms to Afghanistan, North Africa and also to Nagorno-Karabakh, where he was in contact with the president of unrecognized republic of that time: Robert Kocharyan. In 1994 he was dispatched to Great Britain as an scientific employee of the Department of defensive researches of Royal college of the London University. In 1995 he published in Great Britain two monographs devoted to the Russian defensive policy." Anton Surikov's bio at the Institute of Globalization Studies (accessed: August 18, 2006): "In 1994 A. Surikov was sent to the UK for several months in an outreach program to the scientific officer of the Department of Defence Studies, King's College, University of London [headed at the time by Robert J. O'Neill, also executive director 1982-1987 and chair 1997-2001 of the elitist IISS. O'Neill also became atrustee of the Rhodes Trust and managed various foreign policy centers at Oxford, All Souls]. In 1995, the same city in Britain, he published two of his books on various aspects of Russia's domestic and defense policy." Had also visited the Dartmouth Conference of 1992 with his father, Victor, where he met many leading Americans. In 1993 he wrote a paper together with his father and the establishmentarian Sergei Rogov entitled, 'Is START-II Good for Russia?'. His father became founding chairman of the Institute for Defense Studies (INOBIS) in 1992, which he founded with politician Yuri Maslyukov [defense industry minister in the USSR; as first deputy PM under Yeltsin 1998-1999, Anton Surikov was his spokesperson]. Anton joined in 1995 and by October the notorious Surikov document was released under the auspices of this institute. Entitled 'Conceptual Provisions of a Strategy for Countering the Main External Threats to Russian Federation National Security,' the study was provided to the Russian defense minister and various top generals. It read:

"On the whole, it appears the principal mission of U.S. and Western policy with respect to Russia is to keep it from turning into an economically, politically, and militarily influential force and to transform post-Soviet space into … a raw materials colony of the West. … The United States and its allies … should be considered the principal potential enemies of the Russian federation. … The comprador model of building the economy suggested to Russia by the IMF and World Bank consists of orienting Russia toward exporting raw materials and importing everything else, encouraging default on the debt to Russia by CIS countries, as well as encouraging outflows of capital from Russia to the West and, in parallel, destroying national industry science and agriculture. Attempts at destroying the high-tech potential of national industry, and above all our (Russian) military-industrial complex by not admitting Russia to world markets of arms and of space, missile, aviation and nuclear technologies and nuclear materials are most obvious at the present time. Protectionist measures against Russian exports of fuel for nuclear power stations, opposition to the Russian-Iranian nuclear deal and the hysteria over cryogenic rocket engine deliveries from Russia to India are the examples of such attempts. … It should be noted that in following that line, the West finds support among part of the Russian elite and relies above all on Russian comprader business, which has become especially entrenched in speculative-finance banking structures and export-oriented raw materials sector of the economy. … A so-called strategy of black holes, through which materials and financial resources are being pumped out of the country is being implemented to prevent this. ... The described “black hole strategy”, in the oil and natural gas industry; nonferrous and in part ferrous metallurgy, the timber industry and production of mineral fertilizers is leading to colossal plundering of the country’s national wealth in favor of a narrow group of people – the so-called “new Russians.” [the billionaire oligarchs] … The bulk of these funds settle in foreign bank accounts of “new Russians” or is invested in real estate, stocks, and bonds abroad. But even the receipts from export that return to Russia often go for comprador imports and for importing expensive consumer goods into the country for the “new Russians.” Or they go via the budget to commercial and above all “authorized” banks for “investment.” … various expensive projects of dubious importance. … It is also important to note that all major operations of pumping resources and funds out of the country are being carried out with the involvement of foreign partners … [often] connected with intelligence services of Western countries. … As a result [ of criminal activities], these representatives of the Russian business and political elite are not completely independent in their activities and are extraordinarily vulnerable to the pressure from outside forces who possess compromising information [to which intelligence services have access]. … [complains about western oil deals with Azerbaijan] … Another aspect of the West’s Caspian policy is the attempt to cut Russia off from the Transcaucasus by encouraging separatism in the North Caucasus, above all in Chechnya. … [Explains that eastern European countries are going to be accepted to NATO] … [Explains that the START II treaties aren’t in the best interest of Russia, the U.S. wants to build a shield against nuclear weapons and rebuild faster?...] … Strategy for the neutralization of external threats: …. – rejecting cooperation with the IMF and World Bank; revising results of privatization of state property; imposing elementary order in … foreign trade … banking … exporting sectors. … -extraordinary measures in fighting organized crime and corruption; - expropriation of criminal money and property; - economic integration within the CIS framework."

Anton Surikov's bio at the Institute of Globalization Studies (accessed: August 18, 2006): "In 1995, together with his work for the Institute of USA and Canada, A. Surikov becomes independent advisor to the Institute for Defense Studies [INOBIS]. Then he begins to widely publish their scientific and journalistic material in the central Russian newspapers, primarily in "Pravda-five."" He primarily publishes his views through Pravda. Produced a paper here: A. Surikov, 'Crime in Russia: The International Implications' (Centre for Defence Studies pamphlet 25, London: Brassey's. 1995). Apparently this paper brought him to the attention of Fritz Ermarth. Reportedly said: ""I am personally acquainted with Mr. [Fritz] Ermarth as political scientist since 1996. It’s well known by many people and we never hid this fact."

Surikov remained at ISKRAN until September 1996, when Yuri Maslyukov (communist; First Deputy Defense Industry Minister of the Soviet Union 1979-1982; head Soviet state planning agency; co-founder INOBIS with Surikov's father in 1992. member Committee on Budget Issues and Taxes in the Duma 1996-2010; minister of industry and commerce and first deputy PM under Primakov (who had Duma support, unlike his immediate predecessors) September 1998- May 1999 ), who had been a co-founder of INOBIS with Anton's father in 1992, asks him to become his spokesman. In 1999, together with prime minister Primakov, he was dismissed by Yeltsin's oligarchic circles, after he helped stabilize the economy. Ermarth is of Le Cercle. October 7, 1998, Associated Press, 'Russia Lowers Import Taxes': "Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov went on national television Tuesday to assure Russians there would be no food shortages this winter. To accomplish this, First Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Maslyukov said the government would soon lift import duties on five basic foods, which he did not identify. The government was discussing ``considerably reducing'' import duties on other foods and medicines, his spokesman Anton Surikov told the Interfax news agency." September 8, 1998, Associated Press, 'Yeltsin Mulls Compromise PM Choice': "Boris Yeltsin was considering compromise candidates for prime minister today, including a former Soviet official, while political leaders called for swift action to pull Russia out of an economic nosedive. ... There was speculation in the Duma, the lower chamber of parliament, that Yeltsin may be considering Yuri Maslyukov, a Soviet-era economic official and a member of the Communist Party who resigned last week as trade and industry minister. Communist and centrist leaders praised Maslyukov, saying they would back him for prime minister. ... Maslyukov was not offered any government post today, his press secretary, Anton Surikov, told reporters late in the day, according to Interfax." Primakov was appointed with Maslyukov his deputy. November 6, 1998, Heritage Foundation, 'Who's Who in Primakov's New Russian Government': "Evgeny Primakov, who turned 69 on October 29, is a former senior Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) nomenklatura member with a background in espionage and propaganda--first as Middle East correspondent for the chief Communist daily paper Pravda, and later as director of the Institute of International Economics and International Relations (known by its Russian acronym of IMEMO), a foreign policy think tank closely linked to the CPSU Central Committee's decision-making process. ... As a member of Yeltsin's government, Primakov refrained from openly criticizing free-market reforms. However, his sympathies reflect a quasi-socialist approach to government that advocates the predominance of state-run property and strong government regulation, not limited government and free enterprise. ... Primakov's foreign policy often leans toward supporting rogue regimes in the Middle East, and his political career is linked to that region. In 1990, for example, he was Gorbachev's special envoy to Iraq, charged with trying to avert the Desert Storm operation. Today, he counts among his personal friends such leaders as Saddam Hussein, Hafez-al-Assad, and Yassir Arafat. Primakov is wary of the United States and its Western European allies. He does not hesitate to challenge U.S. leadership by promoting the concept of "multi-polarity" and opposing NATO enlargement. Yet he is too pragmatic to allow Russian-U.S. relations to deteriorate dramatically. He might even pressure the State Duma into ratifying the START II Treaty, believing that such a move is in Russia's own interest. At the same time, however, Russia's flirtation with anti-American regimes across the world can be expected to continue. ... First Deputy Premier Yuri Maslyukov, 61, is the top Deputy Prime Minister and the government's chief economic executive. He represents the old system well. His career was made largely within the huge Soviet military-industrial complex that accounted for between 60 percent and 80 percent of the Soviet Union's GDP. He headed the U.S.S.R.'s State Planning Committee (GOSPLAN), which monopolized all economic planning and management, defining the type, volume, and prices of commodities manufactured at every single plant and factory across 11 time zones. According to the job description issued by the Primakov government, Maslyukov will supervise the Ministries of Economics, Trade, and Privatization; the military-industrial complex; and the arms trade. He is Russia's chief representative for talks with international financial organizations. This in itself is a strange appointment, both because of his Communist record and because he has no experience in negotiating sensitive financial issues. Maslyukov's foreign counterparts are unlikely to give his positions much credence.2 Maslyukov is a classic Soviet apparatchik. It is doubtful that his experience will benefit the Russian economy in the circumstances surrounding the current crisis. His first reported pronouncements favoring an increased money supply and restricted ruble convertibility already have caused concern. These policies would allow him to pour unlimited funds into the military-industrial complex. For example, Maslyukov has called for expanding the production of high-tech Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) by 40 units a year and stepping up manufacturing of sea-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) and new strategic nuclear submarines. He harbors the erroneous notion that a revival of the Russian military-industrial complex will lead to a general surge in industrial output. In truth, it will require colossal funding, which will only aggravate the country's economic depression. Maslyukov's anti-reform views on how to lift Russia from its crisis have disturbed many, including Alexander Shokhin, a liberal economist appointed by Primakov as Deputy Premier in charge of financial issues. Shokhin resigned just ten days after assuming his post, apparently in the belief that he could not reconcile his own economic policies with those of Maslyukov, to whom he reported. Finance Minister Mikhail Zadornov of the social democratic Yabloko party also has been highly critical of Maslyukov's economic platform, which the government finally renounced. After little more than one month in office, Maslyukov already is viewed as a top lobbyist for the military-industrial complex, instead of as a politician capable of dealing with Russia's financial crisis. Among Maslyukov's aides are such anti-market economists as Sergei Glaziev, head of the Federation Council3 Analytical Service and a consistent opponent of liberal reforms, and Anton Surikov, an observer for the ultranationalist Zavtra4 weekly paper and a proponent of the restoration of the Soviet empire by force. They can be expected to have an effect on Maslyukov's decisions."

Pravda.info, 'About' (translated from Russian) (accessed: July 23, 2013): "The Editorial Board of "Pravda-info": "Vladimir Filin, Chairman of the Editorial Board, Kiev; Alexei Kondaurov, a member of the Editorial Board, Moscow; Ruslan Saidov, a member of the Editorial Board, Istanbul; Natalia Roeva, a member of the Editorial Board, Izhevsk; Audrius Butkevicius, a member of the Editorial Board, Vilnius; Paul Basanets, a member of the Editorial Board, Shanghai; Heydar Jemal, a member of the Editorial Board, Moscow; Anton Surikov [deceased], Chairman of the Editorial Board (2008-2009)."

Pravda.info biography details: "In the first half - the mid-90's, have repeatedly been in regions of armed conflict in the Caucasus (Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Nagorno-Karabakh, Chechnya), under the version of the Surikov - "to protect human rights and provide assistance to victims of conflict." According to the newspaper "Version", in 1992, allegedly served under Sultan Sosnaliyev, Minister of Defence of the Republic of Abkhazia [1993–1996 and 2005–2007] ("Conspiracy" - "Version", N29, August 3, 1999) and as if, under the name of Mansour, was responsible for the sabotage of the Abkhazian Separatists. The reaction of the Surikov in an interview with "Today": "... I have to visit and see Abkhazia. Was in Gagra Gantiadi, Leselidze in Sukhumi and Tkvarcheli, but as described by my actions during these trips in the newspaper" Version "I will leave on their conscience. A report of a sabotage me any need to prove, not to assert without proof. " ("Tomorrow", N22 (391). According to the newspaper "RT-Tribune" (formerly "working platform", 20.10.98), allegedly involved in supplying arms to Afghanistan, North Africa, and in Nagorno-Karabakh, where contact with the then president of the unrecognized Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, Robert Kocharian. In 1994 he was seconded to the UK as a research fellow of the Department raised Defence Studies at King's College, University of London. In 1995, the UK issued his two monographs on the Russian defense policy. " Advisor to Nicholas F. Nikitina, general director and deneral designer at MIG aircraft May 1999 - 2000. Head of the State Duma Committee on Industry, Construction and High Technology February to April 2000 (chaired by Yuri Maslyukov). In May 2001, he made a "sensational" statement that appeared in the press, that the high-ranking Russian military engaged smuggle narcotics from Afghanistan to Tajikistan. In July 2002, he retired from public service. Chairman of the editorial board of "Pravdy.info" and member of the editorial board of the site "FORUM.msk." Military rank: colonel.

From February 2001 to September 2003 Surikov wrote articles for Pravda under the pen name Anna Kolchak. Surikov, under whatever name and whatever version of Pravda, never mentioned Primakov for some reason.

In his articles he criticized the oligarchs. Putin was officially elected on March 26, 2000. He assumed office on May 7, 2000. By late May 2000 Berezovsky, by then a Duma deputy for Putin's party (which he had set up), opposed Putin's anti-democratic reforms. On July 7 he resigned from the Duma, saying he "did not want to be involved in the country's ruin and the restoration of an authoritarian regime." He began to set up rival parties. July 18, 2000, Time magazine, 'Why Putin's Pet Oligarch Is Stirring the Pot': "Indeed, the new president's campaign against some of the other oligarchs — politically powerful billionaires who, like Berezovsky, accumulated their fortunes by questionable means in the Wild West early years of Russian capitalism — and his efforts to centralize power in the Kremlin have gotten Berezovsky so worried that he's announced his intention to quit parliament and launch a rival political party. In an exclusive interview with TIME this week, Berezovsky set out the aims of what he insists will be a loyal opposition. ... He believes the Chechen war is a quagmire. Berezovsky may have backed Putin to the hilt in using his media outlets to spin the war as a vote-winner for candidate Putin, but he now believes Putin is pursuing a disastrous course by seeking to impose Moscow's rule on the Chechens. ... Berezovsky is also concerned with protecting the rights of parliament and other elected bodies from Putin's attempt to centralize power. ... The tycoon's third concern, hardly surprising, is Putin's attack on the oligarchs and the businesses they control. ... Despite his move into opposition, though, Berezovsky is unlikely to find himself in a showdown with the president, to whom he still expresses loyalty. Party politics means comparatively little in Moscow's corridors of power, where the deals that count are often struck far away from the public eye." In August he used his ORT media outlet to criticize Putin's handling of the Kursk affair - how he was responsible for the deaths of the sailors by not allowing foreign help. By September and October 2000 Putin was going after Berezovsky full blast.

September 21, 2001, Anna Kolchak, 'Berezovsky Leaning to the Left': "Disgraced Russian oligarch Boris Berezovksi, who lives now in his villa in Antibes, still has ambitious plans about his leading role in Russian policy. He feels like Russian writer Herzen, exposing the authorities from abroad. Though Berezovski, taking into account his very real financial sources and position in the Russian mass media, as well as his political flair and capability to contract any alliance and readiness to change his colour for pragmatic aims, is not a comical figure. Berezovski is advancing. He is creating political and information projects in order to discredit today's authorities, for example "Novye Izvestia," which reported about the seizing of currency from Russian citizens. At the same time, he is creating a liberal opposition party. Though all these projects are aimed at intellectuals or on more or less well-to-do Russian citizens, Berezovksi would like to involve more wide sections of the population. A good way to acheive this goal is the use of trade unions the labour movement. This Spring, Berezovski is even launching his project to reform a trade union, dividing it into several more mobile sections. Although the events seem to be developing in another way. In August, an association of trade unions of vertically integrated companies workers was created. Its founders consisted of Lukoil and the Yukos [Khodorkovsky] companies heads and some other oligarchs interested in their pocket trade unions. Berezovski also took part in this project, as well as Kremlin administration workers who are genetically connected with the former president's family [Yeltsin]. Now, Berezovski wants to participate in left forces activities in the area of trade unions. According to some reports, recently, in his villa in Antibes, he received a group of politicians closely connected with trade unions and promised to financially support the movement for creating Soviet labour collectives. The movement will probably organize its session this December, and State Duma Deputy Anatoli Chekis, former chairman of the Kuznetsk Basin Trade Union Federation, could be appointed the leader of the movement. This is not the first time that Berezovksi has leaned ⌠to the left." He is still on friendly terms with the Socialist Party's founder, Ivan Rybkin, although this party does not currently exist. Maybe, by rushing sometimes to the right and sometimes to the left, Berezovski seriously intends to shake up Putin's boat."

September 10, 2002, Anna Kolchak (reportedly Anton Surikov) for Pravda, 'Did Berezovsky Buy Off Communists for US Intelligence?': "It seems that everybody already knows about relations between Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, the Communist party, and the Russian People's Patriotic Union, as Berezovsky and the communists admit the relations themselves. ... Some people think that relations with the Communist party are not compromising for Berezovsky at all; on the contrary, they look like the trick the bolsheviks played on the German Joint Staff in the WWI: they used German money for their own purposes. ... Being prosecuted for crimes in Russia, Berezovsky lives abroad in exile, but in fact he is a real political emigrant there. Because of the great power in Russia and the very fact that Berezovsky knows state secrets, he immediately drew the close attention of British and American special services. However, Berezovsky isn't given the status of a political emigrant, which would make him more independent in relations with the authorities in the country of residence. Although he has lots of formal reasons, he hasn't been given a residence permit either. Berezovsky could have been given residence permit, as he is a doctor of physics-mathematical sciences and corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Although no official refusal was issued, the emigrant still has no permit. It certainly exerts some definite pressure on him (Berezovsky is known as a man with an unstable psyche). ... Berezovsky has no life in Great Britain, as he has no long-term reasons for living there. Ex-deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council Boris Berezovsky is also practically of no interest from the point of view of revealing state secrets. He knows just a few strategic and defense secrets of Russia and knows nothing about Russia's intelligence activity. British specialists studied him in this respect since the very first days of his exile in the country, and the study is already over. Berezovsky is much more interesting from the point of view of different manipulations in domestic and partially in foreign political life. For this very purpose, British special services “handed Berezovsky over” to American colleagues. We have information that Fritz Ermarth, former CIA officer and specialist on special operations in the East-European region, is in close contact with the oligarch. Russiagate, the scandal on Russian budgetary finance laundering through BONY in August to September of 1998, was one of his projects. He is in contact with Former CIA Director Woolsey, who has no official job in Washington but is known as a person close to Cheney. It is not ruled out that it was Ermarth who suggested that Berezovsky switch his attention from the weak and unpromising micro-party Liberal Russia to financing and cooperation with the Communist Party. Some time ago, Berezovsky used to say that the threat of communism in Russia was even more dangerous for him than the threat of Putin and the special services. However, he suddenly changes his opinion, and his personal view didn’t change, as he still a staunch anti-communist. However, his new masters think that Berezovsky’s old contacts with communists are much more promising than control over a group of unpopular liberals. To all appearances, the idea to influence Vladimir Putin and his team with the so-called disclosure of their indirect participation in the organization of the tragic apartment bombings in Russia was invented by Berezovsky himself. Then, American specialists joined the process. In any case, the demonstration of the scandalous film about the explosions in Moscow was done professionally. There is information that the research was carried out by a consulting company close to US special services. ... The war against Iraq will begin by winter, which, in its turn, will cause a leap in oil prices. The war will be ended by April, and the USA will establish control over the Iraqi territories and oil prices will drop..." September 21, 1999, Federal News Service, 'Panels II and III of a hearing of the House Banking and Financial Services Committee': "REP. LEACH: The committee will now ask that the second panel will come forward, and I will introduce them. Our second panel is composed of the Honorable James Woolsey, who is the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Mr. Fritz Ermarth, who is a former CIA Chief Russian Analyst and National Security Council official. Mr. Paul Sanders, who is the Director of the Nixon Center. And Mr. Vladimir Brovkin, who is a professor at the American University Transnational Crime and Corruption Center."

Died November 23, 2009.

RUSSIAN APARTMENT BOMBINGS:

September 6, 1999, Newsweek, 'The Gangster State The Clinton administration hoped Yeltsin and his reformers would be able to lead Russia toward democracy. Instead, what Russia got was kleptocracy': "The biggest mystery is where all these billions came from. It's too much cash, most investigators agreed, to have flowed only from "traditional" Russian mob pursuits like prostitution, drugs or even arms sales. More likely, authorities believe, the money was looted from IMF loans ... or represents revenues from state assets like oil or aluminum. It might even be legitimate capital fleeing Russia. Whatever the source of the money, it probably originated with some of Russia's leading political and business figures, many of them engaged in what seems to be an unholy alliance with Mogilevich. ... Virtually no one, from the nation's business elite to President Boris Yeltsin to his major political opponents in next year's presidential election, seems untainted any longer by corruption. ... Authorities are fairly convinced that Mogilevich is a kind of lodestone drawing in a vast network of official Russian corruption. One U.S. official familiar with the probe says Mogilevich and other principals in the case have corporate links with both of Russia's main power centers: Boris Berezovsky, the industrialist and media baron who is Yeltsin's main financier; and Systema, a group of companies supporting Yeltsin's main political rival, Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov. Indeed, by last weekend both the Yeltsin and Luzhkov camps were hurling charges of corruption at each other based on the case. U.S. intelligence sources tell NEWSWEEK that the CIA, which has long watched Mogilevich, believes he also had business interactions with other members of the political elite, especially former prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and former economic czar Anatoly Chubais (both of whom deny wrongdoing). Russia's political and business elite sought out Mogilevich, officials say, because of his money-laundering savvy. Mogilevich has also denied criminal activity, and the FBI official cautioned that, contrary to some reports, there is as yet no direct criminal evidence linking the Bank of New York case to President Yeltsin or his powerful daughter, Tatyana, or to so-called oligarchs like Berezovsky (who like Luzhkov has also said he is guilty of nothing criminal). ... "We probably have been deluding ourselves that reform has taken hold," says Brent Scowcroft, national-security adviser to President Bush. Many investigators and Russia experts now say that the so-called Russian mafia is so tied in with the Russian state that the two are no longer distinguishable."

2002, Jonathan Nitzan and Shimson Bichler, 'The Global Political Economy of Israel,' p. 320: "Seeking legitimacy, illicit money has also penetrated Israeli politics. According to police and media reports, former Prime Minister Netanyahu and his Chief of Staff Lieberman have had contacts with suspected Russian-based criminals… Many of Russia’s new businessmen – including notorious mobsters Eduard Ivankov and Sergei Mikhailov, as as bigger sharks, such as Boris Berezovsky, Roman Abramovitch, Lev Leview and Vladimir Gusinsky – have actually become Israeli citizens, at least according to their passports."

January 24, 2000, Boris Kagarlitsky for Novaya Gazeta, 'We Don’t Talk To Terrorists. But We Help Them? A version of apartment explosions in Russia': "Everything that has been happening in our country for the past few months reminds me of a regular mystery plot. ... Strange questions about Moscow explosions, leakage of information from the special forces, the contradictions in official information, all of the above form certain questions. ... We figured out much, but not everything. It is clear that the war in Chechnya began as agreed; it is clear that commanders on Chechen fields were abandoned; nobody agreed on war with bloody bombings. Generally speaking, it is clear that apartment explosions in Moscow would not have happened if somebody in the Russian political elite did not want them. ... But there is more. ... One by one pieces of puzzle were put together [by various media outlets]. ... Back in summer in the Versiya newspaper there was an article about the meeting of [Alexander] Voloshin [economist and businessman; chief of staff to Yeltsin and Putin March 1999 - October 2003; considered one of the few insiders to Putin's foreign policy strategies; widely regarded as pro-oligarch, pro-Yukos and pro-West, even though he refrained from public comments on the issue, in contrast to Putin; later chairman of corporate giants RAO UES and Norilsk Nickel; in business with oligarch and in 2011 at Berezovsky trial stated that Abramovich "was and still is my friend." Claimed Putin forced Berezovsky to sell his ORT television station to Abramowich after Berezovsky was exploiting the August 2000 Kursk accident for his own political career. Abramovich claimed "Mr Berezovsky was paid for providing political influence and protection from criminal gangs..."; Chairman Norilsk Nickel 2008-2010 and director 2011-2012, soon after which oligarch Vladimir Potanin became executive chairman: Nat Rothschild nominated to join board of Norilsk Nickel, but Potanin's friends blocked this] with Basayev in France. This did not happen in Paris, as some of the newspapers reported later, but on the villa of Adnan Khashoggi, Arabic millionaire, on the Mediterranean. This villa was under the supervision of the French intelligence services, which noticed some unusual actions there. Russiagate had begun and French intelligence organized the leakage of information. When this information appeared in the newspapers, Khashoggi stated that he was being groundlessly accused and he was not even on the villa during the negotiations. But the main participants of the negotiations remained silent. Anton Surikov, the former member of army special forces (if there are former members among them), who earlier had supervised brothers Basayev in Abkhazia, met Voloshin in France. During Primakov’s time, Surikov worked in the staff of RF government. Despite this fact, he developed regular work relations with Voloshin’s people [Voloshin thought Primakov was incompetent in the economics area while Primakov regarded Voloshin as an ally of the corrupt Berezovsky, whom he despised.]. When some of the foreign reporters tried to ask Surikov about the meeting on the Azure seashore, Surikov ironically noted that he had never been abroad, especially in France. This seemed strange because a few months prior the country could see him in Washington, DC in the company of Maslukov and Camdessus. Also, he visited France at least twice: first time in December of 1994, and second in summer of 1999. He left on June 23 on the Aeroflot flight to go to Paris, and came back from Nice on July 21, a month later. ... The head of the president’s administration had a very urgent business he had to discuss with the head of Chechen forces. ... Voloshin was concerned about the situation in Russia and succession of power problem. Luzhkov seemed to be a threat, and his alliance with Primakov was already a decided matter. They had to be stopped, and there was only one way to stop them. The political situation and rules of the game had to be completely changed. In order to do this the conflict with external enemy was needed. ... he war had to remain small, otherwise Chechnya would need something like a real and big army, and Maskhadov would be in charge of it. In other words, a small war, a border conflict [with Dagestan was plotted.] ... Months after maneuvers, marches, and contramarches, attacks and special operations, both sides will announce themselves as the winners. Russians triumphantly get rid of Chechens on their territory, and Chechens will not let the enemy in the middle of Chechnya, and they will sign a declaration of peace. Basayev will be rewarded for his merits. First, attacks on [regions in Dagestan and North Ossetia] will bring him some good results. Second, he could be rewarded by Saudis (if needed, the Jordanian Khattab, who closely cooperates with Saudi Special Forces, will help) for fighting the enemy. The parties had departed pleased with each other. Everything looked spectacular. But they have not thought of just one detail, which happened to be fatal. Along with Voloshin other people participated in implementing of the plan in Russia. It is not a secret that Berezovsky favors Voloshin. Unfortunately, Berezovsky [founded the car dealership LogoVAZ in 1989, at the end of the Cold War; part of the Kremlin circle since 1993, after publishing Yeltsin's memoirs; acquired dual Israeli citizenship in 1993; in 1993 he founded the All-Russia Automobile Alliance with Alexander Voloshin, who for some time had been an ally of him in the automobile market (this was years before Voloshin ended up at the Kremlin); by 1994 held large stakes in Russia's largest media station, ORT, and the 7th largest oil producer, Sibneft; befriended Tatiana, Yeltsin's daughter, early in 1996 on his way back from DAVOS; deputy secretary Security Council 1997; admired Kissinger the most he said; publicly opposed NATO expansion east-ward; accused of financing Chechen warlords Shamil Basayev and Salman Raduyev in the 1996-1998 period, both at the security council and as a private individual, by providing them with hefty ransoms; among the group that wanted these warlords to invade Dagestan in order to subvert Chechnya] could not operate alone in this operation. In order for political and military mechanism to work he had to include other players in the game, such as Roman Abramovich, Anatoly Chubais [deputy prime minister for economic and financial policy 1994-1996; liberalized Russia's economy and provided oligarchs Berezovsky, Khodorkovsky (offered him Yukos) and Vladimir Potatin with extremely lucrative privatization deals; Yeltsin's re-election campaign manager and managed to get Yeltsin from a 3% approval rate to getting re-elected with 54% of the votes (Gusinsky and Berezovsky (NTV and ORT) played important roles in that, as well as a strategic alliance with Gen. Lebed, who ended as the no. 3 candidate)); chief of staff to Yeltsin 1996- March 1997 and again deputy prime minister to Yeltsin 1997- March 1998 [Primakov was foreign minister in this entire period, until September 1998, when Primakov was appointed PM, Maslyukov his deputy, and Surikov became his spokesman in government]; chairman and CEO of the giant RAO UES 1998-2008, with Voloshin on the board of directors; leader of the pro-Western capitalist Union of Right Forces party; survived an assassination attempt in March 2005 involving a roadside bomb attack on his armored car and attackers who shot with AK's. Neither he or his bodyguards were injured. Present at The Russia Forum in 2010; Bilderberg 1998 and 2012], and mainly General Anatoly Kvashnin, the Chief of General Staff [1997-2004]. All of them had a common interest with Berezovsky: to keep Luzhkov and Primakov away from power. But they also had their own interests. And so, being part of the plan, they started their own game. We thought that conflict between Chubais and Berezovsky started in December, after they could not divide fruits of the victory on the parliamentary elections. That was not the case, the fight began long before. Chubais was not satisfied with Berezovsky’s choice of successor. General Lebed was too close to the Moscow oligarchy. Chubais was looking for another individual, more dependent, and more familiar, for example, Vladimir Putin. Putin was also forceful, but from a different team; he did not have his own political and administrative staff, therefore was very dependent on Chubais’ team. In order to take leadership in his hands, Chubais had to break the original scenario and replace it with his own. At this point Kvashnin’s and Chubais’ interests met. For the Chief of General Staff the small war was good, but the big war was even better. He could use real military tactic, all kinds of troops, and conduct grand scale battles. The Voloshin plan was being destroyed. But the participants did not know about it. So, on one hand we have brothers Basayev, Voloshin, and Berezovsky, and on the other Chubais, Kvashnin, and Abramovich, who had joined them [hard to imagine there was a huge ideological split between Voloshin and Chubais. 1999 annual report of RAO UES (all (re-)appointed June 25, 1995): "Anatoly Chubais: Chairman of the Board of Management .... Alexander Stalievich Voloshin: Chairman of the Board of Directors. Aleksei Leonidovich Kudrin: Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors [and from 2000 to 2011 Russia's finance minister; named as a candidate for Russian PM]. Members of the Board of Directors: Anatoly Chubais. ... Boris Fyodorov [at the World Bank for Reconstruction and Development early 1990s; influential neoliberal reformer, but critical of Chubais' "loans for shares" scheme that brought the oligarchs to power; minister of finance in the mid-1990s who complained that Yeltsin was mainly interested in power and only listened to advise on economic reform in times of crisis; director Gazprom 2000-08 and Sberbank; wanted all his companie to do better bookkeeping]." Angus Roxburgh, '', pp. 19-22: "[Putin's] Patrons were ... known as the Family - President Yeltsin's inner circle of advisers. They included Yeltsin's daughter Tatiana, three successive chiefs of staff - Anatoly Chubais, Valentin Yumashev (later Tatiana's husband) and Alexander Voloshin - and the influential business tycoon Boris Berezovsky... It was [Chubais] who invited the unemployed Kudrin and Putin to work in the Kremlin. ... Putin quickly worked up his way through the ranks... He became deputy chief of staff to President Yeltsin in March 1997, director of the KGB's successor organisation, the FSB, in July 1998 and (simulteneously) head of the national Security Council in March 1999. ... They would soon engineer Putin's appointment as prime minister - with the intention of moving him into the presidency as Yeltsin's successor. They had been impressed by his loyalty [of suppressing any and all criminal investigations into Yeltsin's clique] ... In the summer of 1999 Yeltsin's coterie dispatched Berezovsky to ... offer [Putin] the job of prime minister. ... On 7 august 1999 Basayev and Saudi-born Islamist, Ibn Al-Khattab, launched a well-planned invasion of ... Dagestan. The attack also catapulted Putin to the highest office. The next day Yeltsin appointed [Putin] as prime minister to tackle the problem. ... He was still virtually unknown in the country, and indeed to much of the political elite. [the invasion of Dagestan and the Moscow apartment bombings, supposedly by Basayev Chechnya clique [that extreme aspect likely controlled by the GRU/KGB, changed all that instantly]" p. 24: "Berezovsky threw the entire weight of his ORT channel behind [Putin]... Night after night, Russia's main TV channel [of Berezovsky] harped on about Primakov's old age and infirmity and [Mayor] Luzhkov's alleged corruption [both ran for office against Putin], while glorifying Putin's heroics in Chechnya. ... Primakov [had] as prime minister [Berezovsky's] companies raided and threatened to jail businessmen like him for economic crimes."]. GRU is somewhere in between. In August everything was going according to the plan. The regiment of internal forces, which secured the border with Chechnya, was withdrawn from Dagestan, as local people demanded so. Frontier guards had left. Chechens easily crossed the border. Having disturbed Botlikhsky region, Basayev moved to Novolaksky, where he met some obstacles. Not only the roads to Khasavurt were closed by troops, but Karamakhi was blocked also. This was not a part of the plan. Basayev was mad. Anton Surikov had to go to Dagestan to resolve the problem. Despite that war was everywhere, the meeting went relatively quite. Basayev calmed down, but he did not know the whole truth at the time. General Kvashnin fights very good when he knows enemy plans. The operation in Dagestan went excellent, but he did not manage to stretch the war. At this point of time new events that were not agreed on started to happen. Kvashnin and Chubais had an advantage of not being bound by personal agreements with brothers Basayev. They had not known them as long as Berezovsky, they did not participate in the same operations with them, as Kvashnin did, and did not shake hands with them, as Voloshin did. Kvashnin and Chubais were in business with them, but they were not bound by any obligation. Chubais changed the plan. Stepashin was fired, but instead of Lebed Putin was appointed on the post of Prime Minister. This turn of events was unexpected for Berezovsky and Lebed. In the middle of crisis, Lebed flew from Krasnoyarsk and stayed in Moscow for few days waiting for an appointment. Unfortunately, while Berezovsky and Lebed tried to resolve the current situation, Chubais, Abramovich, and Kvashnin had already picked a different successor for Yeltsin. The new Prime Minister needed a new war, his own war. Unlike Lebed he did not have a reputation, and he wanted to create it in no time. Along with instability on the borders he needed a new terrible threat, which could unite the country around the new leader. Terrorism seemed to fit. During the January battles in Grozny Independent, the London newspaper, published an article, which Western readers found sensational. GRU officer Alexy Galtin was trapped by Chechens and testified that GRU was involved to the explosions of apartments in Moscow. GRU officials stated immediately that these accusations were “provocation, nonsense, garbage.” To tell the truth, GRU did not argue the fact either of Alexy Galtin’s existence or his entrapment by Chechens. This seemed strange. Nobody asked how Chechens trapped and identifies the GRU officer. After all, he was not the commander of Army Special Forces. Apparently, it was easy for brothers Basayev to find the GRU officer. They have been having serious problems with their management colleagues. Shamil had already been accused in the apartment explosions. But he fiercely denied the accusation and was absolutely right. Shamil was not involved in this terrorist action. However, Basayev helped. But it was a different Basayev. Basayev II Shamil Basayev is not only a GRU staff member with a tremendous work experience, but also a Chechen politician, capable of playing his own political games. His brother, Shirvani, is different. In GRU opinion, he is easily influenced. When the original plan was failing, the decisions were being made as an urgent matter. Shirvani was not well informed, and there was no time to check with his brother on every small detail. ... Chubais and Kvashin could have celebrated the victory. Everything looked like a good detective story. It was a zero-sum game. On one hand, all the goals were reached, on the other, all suspicions led to Berezovsky and his people, who had already been seen with Chechen fighters. Berezovsky had to make excuses, but nobody believed him. Shamil Basayev protested, but people had already labeled him as a devil and a murderer of sleeping babies. Shirvani had to keep silence. And during this time Chubais and Kvashnin could quietly play their game. They were not involved into an open conflict with Berezovsky. They continued to have a common interest in fighting against Luzhkov and Primakov. Therefore they had to support each other. Surprisingly, after the Moscow explosions Russian officials immediately blamed Basayev and Khattab, and nobody even mentioned Shirvani. Nobody had brought his name up or requested his extradition. As for Berezovsky, all close to him reporters started to support their boss immediately, insisting that Berezovsky was not a murderer, no matter what we thought of him. Press hostile to Berezovsky insisted that Berezovsky was a murderer. Evidently, such polemics pleased Chubais greatly. No, Boris Abramovich had not request explosions in the apartments. He had requested a war…"

9/11:

Putin came to support the U.S. in its incursions in the Middle East against radical Islam, as Russia had similar problems. However, the U.S. began to sponsor democracy all over Russia's border areas. On top of that the Bush administration withdrew from the anti-ABM treaty and began to push for the development of a missile shield. Condoleezza Rice and Sergei Ivanov actually became friends. Putin supported modern economic reform: Alexei Kudrin was happy with him. IMF did not approve of tax cuts and left the country. Inflation went from 20 percent in 2000 to 9 percent in 2006. Taxes began to be paid. Economy grew 6-7% per year. Oil revenues were able to pay off all foreign debt. Bush got along with Putin. Cheney, Rumsfeld, Bolton and others didn't like Russia. Even Powell and Rice were more wary.

Putin responded on a wave of terrorist attacks by increasing police state powers. Announced Russia had become too weak to suppress other ideologies.

Pravda: "The Arab world has nothing to do with it. Whoever is behind the acts of terrorism, the United States use their consequences for setting up a powerful infrastructure of its military presence on the territory of the former Soviet Union. ... I do not think that Osama bin Laden is what the world community represents him to be. Speaking about radical Islamic international terrorism (Basayev and Khattab are bright representatives of that), then it is Saudi Arabia and its special services that sponsor it. Bin Laden is a figure that has been deliberately created, a half-mythical person to take the public attention away from the real organizers of the radical Islamic terrorism."

"During the first Abkhazian war, Shamil Basayev was not closely connected with foreign special services, in particular with the Saudi services. It was not only Basayev but also other commanders of the militant groups like Ruslan Gelayev and others. No one heard about Khattab at that time. This is why they were free to do whatever they wanted, and they basically acted on Abkhazia’s side during the first Georgian-Abkhazian war. ... As far as the current situation is concerned, the Chechen bandit groups exist with the help of the Saudi money; moreover, they are commanded by the Arabs: by Khattab and other citizens of Arab countries. Of course, they execute the orders that they receive from there. Concerning the connection between Saudi Arabia and the US (on the level of special services), I think it is evident."

"Saudi Arabia and America need Chechnya just for that. Chechnya is like a buffer between Russia and the USA’s presence in the Caucasus. However, if Russia stabilizes the situation in Chechnya and liquidates the sources of terrorism there, then it will have freedom of action in the region."

On the board of the moderate, left-wing activist Institute of Globalization Studies (IPROG) since 2004. IPROG website, 'activity' (accessed: May 3, 2006): "It is no secret that Russian left is weak and faces a serious crisis. One of the reasons for this crisis is the domination of nationalism in Russian politics. For most of the 1990s opposition parties represented in the State Duma (parliament) criticized neoliberal reforms not for their capitalist and nature, but exclusively for doing something which contradicts "Russian spirit". In this regard official Communist Party (KPRF) was no different form other parties, showing for years no interest in labor movement, in young people, or ethnic and religious minorities. It kept speaking nostalgically about former greatness of the "empire" making no difference between the tsarist State and the Soviet Union. To the embarrassment of the opposition Russian ruling elite in the early 2000s picked up their nationalist rhetoric without abandoning neoliberal economic dogmas. This led to a massive identity crisis of the opposition. But this new situation also opens up space for a genuine socialist and internationalist left in our country. ... In June 2003, IMEMO (Russia's oldest foreign policy think tank and academic research center) and IPROG (a young, policy-oriented private institute), with support by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, held their first joint conference, "Russia in the Global Center-Periphery Relationship: A Status Quo Power or an Agent of Change?" The conference brought together scholars from a range of research centers and disciplines (political scientists, historians, sociologists, economists, philosophers), as well as activists of transnational movements for global democracy and justice..."

In 2001 Surikov helped embarress Putin's FSB and military clique by talking about its likely involvement in the Afghan drug tade. The CIA's Radio Free Europe helped him spread the word. June 8, 2001, Radio Free Europe, 'Central Asia: Charges Link Russian Military To Drug Trade ': "Prague, 8 June 2001 (RFE/RL) -- Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Central Asia has emerged as a major international drug trafficking route linking some of the world's largest illicit opium producers to the most lucrative markets of Western Europe. Analyst say the amount of drugs moving along the ancient Silk Road has become a major threat to the entire region, and beyond. Figures published last year by the United Nations Drug Control Program, or UNDCP, show that 80 percent of the heroin consumed in Western Europe originated in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and that one-half of these drugs traveled there through Central Asia. The UNDCP estimated that in Afghanistan, some 91,000 hectares of opium poppy were cultivated in 1999. This represented an increase of more than 40 percent compared to the previous year. But last summer, Taliban leader Mullah Omar officially banned opium poppy cultivation in all areas controlled by the militia. UNDCP officials who recently visited Afghanistan say that the Taliban prohibition is nearly total, while opium poppies continue to grow in territory controlled by the Northern Alliance opposition forces. The region's drug trade, however, continues to flourish. Geography, porous borders, organizational chaos, local conflicts, and wide-scale corruption are among the main factors that have contributed to the explosion of drug trafficking. The trafficking, in turn, has helped criminalize Central Asian economies. Some regional experts also believe that the presence of a large Russian military presence in the area has played a significant role in the spread of illicit drug trafficking. In a report published in March 2000, the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank cited allegations about Russian soldiers headquartered in the Tajik capital Dushanbe or deployed along the 1,200-km-long Tajik-Afghan border. Carnegie researchers Martha Olcott and Natalia Udalova said that Russian soldiers were suspected of helping drug traffickers by providing them with transport facilities. Yesterday Olcott told our correspondent that as long ago as two years ago she heard stories implicating the Russian military in the regional drug trade when she attended an international seminar in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek. "We got plenty of hints [then] that the Russian military could be involved. But people were not willing to address the issue of whether this was with the overt participation of senior military officials in place or with the covert participation of them. There is no question in my mind that part of the Russian military has been a corrupting influence in Central Asia from the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Part of the Russian military has been engaged in the illegal sale of their own weapons. And part of the Russian military seems to have actively facilitated the sale of drugs." In an interview published last week (dated 29 May) in the "Moscow News" ("Moskovskie Novosti") weekly, former Russian military intelligence officer Anton Surikov charged that a substantial portion of the drugs produced in Afghanistan had been directly shipped from the Tajik capital Dushanbe on board Russian military planes, helicopters, and trains. Surikov said: "You can come to an arrangement [with custom officials] so that the search of military transport planes remains purely formal. The same goes for train convoys carrying military cargo [to Russia from Tajikistan]." According to his account, Afghan opium producers usually sold drugs to Tajik citizens who smuggled them into Tajikistan with the active complicity of Russian border guards. The drugs were then put on board military planes or trains en route to Russia, where they were sold to local criminal gangs. Surikov, who now is an aide to the chairman of the Duma's committee on industrial policy, said he was posted to Tajikistan in 1993 after the start of the civil war that brought President Imomali Rakhmonov to power. He estimated the number of senior Russian officers involved in the Afghan drug trade to have been between 50 and 100. In the past, similar allegations against Russian officers serving in Tajikistan have appeared in both Russian and Western media. But Surikov is the first former officer -- and the first official, either military or civilian -- to publicly charge collusion between some Russian high military officers and Afghan drug traders. What prompted Surikov to talk to the press now is unclear. "Moscow News" correspondent Sanobar Shermatova specializes in Central Asian affairs. Shermatova told RFE/RL's Tajik Service that she had met in the past with a number of Russian officers, who privately confirmed that some of their peers had been actively involved in the Afghan drug trade. Shermatova says that even though the Russian high command is aware of the situation, it has failed to do anything to prevent corrupt officers from illegally shipping drugs to Russia. "For me, it has always been an enigma. How could you explain that neither the Defense Ministry nor any other official body has ever taken any measure when they have very detailed information on what is going on along the [Tajik-]Afghan border?" UNDCP officials told our correspondent that they were not aware of any possible Russian involvement in the Afghan drug trade and that they could therefore "neither confirm nor deny" Surikov's accusations. In Moscow, Russian authorities have not reacted to Surikov's charges. But a spokesman for the Russian border guards stationed in Tajikistan dismissed the accusations as "groundless." At the same time, a high-ranking Tajik official has added fuel to the controversy by saying that both Russians and Tajiks control drug transportation routes to Western Europe. In an interview with RFE/RL's Tajik Service, the deputy head of Tajikistan's UN-sponsored Drug Control Agency, Sheravliyo Mirzoavliyoyev said: "In the course of the emergency actions that we have conducted, many drug traffickers have been caught. Among them are not only Tajik citizens, but also citizens of other countries -- notably, citizens of Russia -- Russian border guards, Tajik border guards, police officials, and government officials.""

A few months before his death Surikov helped again expose Russia's right-wing security services. October 2, 2009, Financial Times, 'Vexed voyage': "Captain Ivan Boyko is baffled. “The authorities aren’t telling us anything,” says the deputy head of Solchart Arkhangelsk, an offshoot of the Russian-controlled Finnish company that operates the Arctic Sea, a cargo ship that went missing off Portugal two months ago. “Nothing like this has ever happened in living memory.” Secrecy still surrounds the ship nearly seven weeks since the Russian navy intercepted it and arrested eight men, claiming it had foiled an act of piracy. Four of the crew remain on board under heavy military guard, with the ship still at sea after being refused entry to the Canary Islands port of Las Palmas. ... Prosecutors have gagged the 11 members of the crew that have returned home to Arkhangelsk. “No one will speak to you here,” says one local entrepreneur. “Everyone fears for their jobs. Don’t dig too deeply or they will come at you from the side.” Questions surround why the Russian government, after a wait of more than 10 days, sent three battleships and a frigate to hunt down the ship and then brought back the 11 as well as the alleged hijackers in enormous military aircraft normally used for transporting armoured vehicles and troops. The Malta-registered ship was officially carrying only €1.3m ($1.9m, £1.2m) worth of timber. The US and UK governments are believed to have classified information about the incident, which appeared to cause a flurry of diplomatic activity between Israel and Russia. Some suspect the Arctic Sea may have been carrying S-300s, the Russian missile defence system equivalent to the US Patriot, or long-range Kh-55 missiles to Iran. Russia strongly denies the ship was carrying weapons. But even the normally well-connected members of the Russian parliament’s security committee say they do not know what happened. “Only one thing is clear – this is a dark business,” says Lev Gudkov, the committee’s deputy head. “There are too many strange things surrounding this ship, too many conflicting reports,” says Tarmo Kouts, the European Union’s anti-piracy rapporteur. “The fact that Russia will not allow the crew to talk speaks volumes. If this was a simple case of piracy, they would let them talk.” The timing of the incident could hardly be more fraught, as the US seeks an accord with Russia over Iran and missile defence. Information about a rogue shipment could jeopardise the chances of joint action against Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Moscow officials are insistent there was nothing on board apart from timber. “Nothing that could compromise the Russian Federation was found,” the Russian prosecutors’ investigative committee said last week after a search conducted on the open sea. But Anton Surikov, a Russian security expert and former military intelligence officer, advances the theory that smugglers, with the backing of elements in Russia’s security services, may have loaded ammunition and anti-tank missiles bound for Hizbollah in Lebanon, and four Kh-55 cruise missiles to be fitted to Sukhoi-24 bombers for Iran, on to the ship as it underwent repairs in Kaliningrad. Mr Surikov says he believes that when the the ship was boarded in the dead of night on July 24 off Sweden, the attackers found the weapons cache, photographed it as evidence and left. His scenario fits with initial reports conveyed by police in Sweden that the crew reported being attacked by about 10 men posing as Swedish policemen who searched the ship and departed in an inflatable dinghy. The photos were then shown, thinks Mr Surikov, to the UK and US security services – which arranged a second incursion as the Arctic Sea disappeared on August 1. “A behind-the-scenes trade between state powers then began,” he says. "

'92 - 93 - deputy of the Abkhazian minister of defense, makes friends with Shamil Basaev, commander of the special battalion trained by GRU. '94 - visiting scholar at the Center for Defense Studies, King's College London. '96 - ret. Colonel. Also on IPROG staff.

Anton Surikov was director of shadowy firm East Wast Ltd (co-founded with Kellog, Brown & Root, or KBR Halliburton). Charged with drug trafficking from Afghanistan and the theft and selling of nuclear missiles to Iran and Afghanistan. Also charged with brokering a meeting between Adnan Khashoggi and Russian government officials that led to the 1999 Russian apartment bombings, which in turn led to the second Russia-Chechnya war. 2010 book of Peter Dale Scott, American War Machine, is a good start. See Chapter 8.

On 23 November, KGB officials poisoned GRU General Anton Surikov, whom they regarded as the mastermind of a military plot, at a cafe in Izhevsk (Dec. 9, 2009, Kavkaz-Tsentr).

July 11, 2006, Moscow Times, 'Basayev Killed in Ingushetia Explosion': "The news of Basayev's death looks set to eclipse media coverage of the two-day Different Russia conference -- an opposition event meant to get world leaders' attention ahead of the G8 summit. It begins Tuesday and has strongly irritated the Kremlin. Political and security experts also said the timing of his death was a bit suspicious. "This death will allow Putin to tell Western partners at the summit that we here in Russia are doing the job, while you are mostly just talking about fighting terrorism," said Alexei Malashenko, a Caucasus expert with the Carnegie Moscow Center. Anton Surikov, a security expert who once knew Basayev, said federal forces could have attacked Basayev any time they liked. "This was a PR act especially dedicated to the G8 summit," he said. Alexander Khramchikhin, an analyst at the Institute of Political and Military Analysis, added: "Apparently, special services knew where Basayev was, kept track of his movements and destroyed him at a politically convenient moment." The FSB named Basayev the country's most-wanted terrorist after the Beslan school hostage-taking in September 2004 and placed a $10 million bounty on his head. It is unclear who will get the money now."

Reported"So, that is the FULL TRANSLATION of the letter of Anton Surikov: Mr. Grechenevsky, Mr. Ermarth is absolutely right denying any contacts between the consulting agency Far West Ltd. and the CIA, as well as between the agency and himself. Such contacts do not exist and never existed. I am not even sure that Mr. Ermarth ever heard about our agency. I am personally acquainted with Mr. Ermarth as political scientist since 1996. It's well known by many people and we never hid this fact. However, as I said, we never had any business relations with Mr. Ermarth."

June 8, 2001, Radio Free Europe, 'Central Asia: Charges Link Russian Military To Drug Trade': "Drug trafficking from war-torn Afghanistan through the former Soviet Union has dramatically increased over the past 20 years. UN-sponsored regional programs have so far been unable to stem the growth of narcotics-smuggling to Western Europe through Russia and the Central Asian states of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan. A major factor in the huge expansion of the Afghan drug trade may be the alleged involvement of some of the Russian military stationed in Tajikistan. RFE/RL correspondent Jean-Christophe Peuch reviews the evidence in light of new accusations recently made by a former Russian military intelligence officer. Prague, 8 June 2001 (RFE/RL) -- Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Central Asia has emerged as a major international drug trafficking route linking some of the world's largest illicit opium producers to the most lucrative markets of Western Europe. Analyst say the amount of drugs moving along the ancient Silk Road has become a major threat to the entire region, and beyond. Figures published last year by the United Nations Drug Control Program, or UNDCP, show that 80 percent of the heroin consumed in Western Europe originated in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and that one-half of these drugs traveled there through Central Asia. The UNDCP estimated that in Afghanistan, some 91,000 hectares of opium poppy were cultivated in 1999. This represented an increase of more than 40 percent compared to the previous year. But last summer, Taliban leader Mullah Omar officially banned opium poppy cultivation in all areas controlled by the militia. UNDCP officials who recently visited Afghanistan say that the Taliban prohibition is nearly total, while opium poppies continue to grow in territory controlled by the Northern Alliance opposition forces. The region's drug trade, however, continues to flourish. Geography, porous borders, organizational chaos, local conflicts, and wide-scale corruption are among the main factors that have contributed to the explosion of drug trafficking. The trafficking, in turn, has helped criminalize Central Asian economies. Some regional experts also believe that the presence of a large Russian military presence in the area has played a significant role in the spread of illicit drug trafficking. In a report published in March 2000, the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank cited allegations about Russian soldiers headquartered in the Tajik capital Dushanbe or deployed along the 1,200-km-long Tajik-Afghan border. Carnegie researchers Martha Olcott and Natalia Udalova said that Russian soldiers were suspected of helping drug traffickers by providing them with transport facilities. Yesterday Olcott told our correspondent that as long ago as two years ago she heard stories implicating the Russian military in the regional drug trade when she attended an international seminar in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek. "We got plenty of hints [then] that the Russian military could be involved. But people were not willing to address the issue of whether this was with the overt participation of senior military officials in place or with the covert participation of them. There is no question in my mind that part of the Russian military has been a corrupting influence in Central Asia from the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Part of the Russian military has been engaged in the illegal sale of their own weapons. And part of the Russian military seems to have actively facilitated the sale of drugs." In an interview published last week (dated 29 May) in the "Moscow News" ("Moskovskie Novosti") weekly, former Russian military intelligence officer Anton Surikov charged that a substantial portion of the drugs produced in Afghanistan had been directly shipped from the Tajik capital Dushanbe on board Russian military planes, helicopters, and trains. Surikov said: "You can come to an arrangement [with custom officials] so that the search of military transport planes remains purely formal. The same goes for train convoys carrying military cargo [to Russia from Tajikistan]." According to his account, Afghan opium producers usually sold drugs to Tajik citizens who smuggled them into Tajikistan with the active complicity of Russian border guards. The drugs were then put on board military planes or trains en route to Russia, where they were sold to local criminal gangs. Surikov, who now is an aide to the chairman of the Duma's committee on industrial policy, said he was posted to Tajikistan in 1993 after the start of the civil war that brought President Imomali Rakhmonov to power. He estimated the number of senior Russian officers involved in the Afghan drug trade to have been between 50 and 100. In the past, similar allegations against Russian officers serving in Tajikistan have appeared in both Russian and Western media. But Surikov is the first former officer -- and the first official, either military or civilian -- to publicly charge collusion between some Russian high military officers and Afghan drug traders. What prompted Surikov to talk to the press now is unclear. "Moscow News" correspondent Sanobar Shermatova specializes in Central Asian affairs. Shermatova told RFE/RL's Tajik Service that she had met in the past with a number of Russian officers, who privately confirmed that some of their peers had been actively involved in the Afghan drug trade. Shermatova says that even though the Russian high command is aware of the situation, it has failed to do anything to prevent corrupt officers from illegally shipping drugs to Russia."

--------------------------------------------

Source(s): 2014, Johannes Grossmann, p. 552 (visited in the early 1990s)

From Britain. Grandson of the late former Conservative Prime Minister Harold Macmillan (1894–1986). Educated at Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford. MP 1992-2001. Head master of Summer Fields School, Oxford, 2010-.

The son of Julian and Lady Caroline Faber, Faber comes from an aristocratic political family drawn from the Whig and latterly the Conservative traditions. His maternal grandfather Harold Macmillan was Prime Minister at the time of his birth. His grandmother, Lady Dorothy Cavendish, was descended from three Prime Ministers, the 4th Duke of Devonshire (1756–1757), the 2nd Earl of Shelburne (1782-1783) and the 3rd Duke of Portland (1783 and 1807–1809), related by marriage to President John F. Kennedy. Faber's great-great-great-granduncle was Lord Hartington and his great-grandfather Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire was also statesman. His cousin Andrew Cavendish, 11th Duke of Devonshire was married to Deborah Mitford. His uncle Maurice Macmillan was a leading figure of Edward Heath's 1970s government.

Wrote the 2005 book Speaking for England: Leo, Julian and John Amery, the tragedy of a political family, which is about his uncle by marriage, Cercle chairman Julian Amery, his uncle's father, Leo Amery (of the Pilgrims Society), and brother, John, the last of whom was executed after the Second World War for high treason.

Source(s): 1984 Cercle South Africa meeting

RENAMO spokesman in Lisbon in the early 1980s, followed around 1984 by the position of secretary general of RENAMO, an anti-communist rebel group active in Mozambique. There were unsuccessful peace talks between RENAMO, South Africa and the communist government of Mozambique in 1984.

April 4, 1986, Associated Press, 'Mozambican Rebels Reject Peace Talks With Marxist President': "Mozambican rebels, in a statement issued here Friday, said they rejected suggestions by Western nations that they open peace talks with Marxist President Samora Machel. The Mozambique National Resistance (Renamo) said a peace agreement was impossible with Machel and his followers, but rebel leaders would consider talks with others in the ruling Mozambique Liberation Front who did not support the government's "repressive policies." The statement accused Machel of torturing, deporting and killing political opponents since the southern African nation gained independence from Portugal in 1975. It said the refusal to negotiate with Machel was made "in relation to several efforts by Western countries and organizations to bring about talks." The statement did not name any countries, but the Portuguese news agency ANOP said Renamo Secretary-General Evo Fernandes was asked about a report that Chester Crocker, U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs, had tried to arrange peace talks. It quoted Fernandes as saying the report was "on the right track." Anop said the basis for the proposed talks was a 10-year power-sharing agreement, but Renamo opposed any accord that would maintain Machel as president. Another news agency, Noticias de Portugal, quoted unidentified Renamo sources as saying the Vatican also had been involved in efforts to arrange peace talks. Machel created a one-party state when he gained power after the Portuguese withdrew, and the pro-Western rebels backed by white-ruled South Africa began their guerrilla war against the government. Machel's government calls the rebels armed bandits and accuses them of killing civilians. Two years ago, South Africa acted as an intermediary in talks between the two sides that were held in Pretoria, South Africa, but they broke down without any agreement being reached."

March 18, 1989, Xinhua General Overseas News Service, 'Portugal regrets mozambique's expulsion of diplomat': "the portuguese government declared friday that a third secretary at the mozambican embassy, rafael custodio marques, was "persona non grata," and ordered him to leave the country within 24 hours. custodio marques was allegedly a planner and participant of the assassination of a mozambican anti-government renamo rebels leader, evo fernandes, near lisbon in april, 1988."

March 26, 1988, BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, 'Mozambique in brief': "Maputo, 24th March. The former Lisbon spokesman for the MNR bandits, Paulo Oliveira, has said in Maputo that there is a clash of interests surrounding control over the bandits. He said that a ''Washington-Paris axis'' is trying to break the monopoly control exercised over the MNR by the South Africans and by ''the Pretoria-Bonn axis''. . . He said that Artur Janeiro de Fonseca, the MNR's Foreign Relations Secretary, and Evo Fernandes, the former general secretary, ''have support in West Germany''. The support for Fernandes, he added, ''comes from West Germany the number three'' in this institution, whom he just named as ''Wolfgang'', saying that he was ''the godfather of one of Fernandes' children.'' [sentence as received] ''Another important link with West Germany is through advisers to Chancellor Helmut Kohl'', he added. As for support from the United States, Oliveira said that this came from private right-wing institutions such as the Heritage Foundation and ''Free the Eagle'', and from individuals such as Tom Schaaf, who appeared in Washington in 1985 as an MNR representative. . . Oliveira said that Schaaf has ''links'' with North Carolina Republican Senator Jesse Helms, well known for his anti-Mozambican positions. As for Paris, oliveira said that a journalist from the French paper ''Le Figaro'' had recently been inside Mozambique with the MNR. He had taken a request from the MNR's Supreme Commander, Afonso Dhlakam a, to contact President Mitterrand's advisers on African Affairs, and also advisers to French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac. All this, Oliveira said, ''reflects attempts from the United States to have a word to say over the control of Renamo. Up to now this has been blocked by the South Africans, who have a virtual monopoly of control. It is becoming increasingly difficult for the Americans to take control, but they try to keep themselves informed, and aware of what is going on.''. . . Oliveira said that material support from the United States for the MNR is of a non-lethal nature, including boots, communication equipment, medicines, Bibles, and other books. (AIM/PANA in English 1655 gmt 24 Mar)"

Source(s): November 1988 – Issue 17, Lobster Magazine, 'Brian Crozier, the Pinay Circle and James Goldsmith' (quoting from the Langemann papers); June 29, 1997, The Independence, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club; Is it the ultimate dishonour' (named as once a regular)

Born in 1941. Feulner has studied at the University of Edinburgh, the London School of Economics, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown University, and Regis University. Has been a roommate of the very influential John F. Lehman, and both later attended the Bohemian Grove. Feulner has attended the Bohemian Grove's Cave Man camp. Treasurer Philadelphia Society 1964-1979 and president 1982-1983. Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) 1965-1966. Public affairs fellow at the Hoover Institution 1966-1968. Confidential assistant to Nixon's Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird 1969-1970. Campaign manager of the [Philip M.] Crane for Congress Committee 1972. Administrative assistant to U.S. Congressman Philip M. Crane 1970-1974. Member of the US delegation to the IMF/World Bank 1974-1976. Executive director of the Republican Study Committee of the House of Representatives 1974-1977. President of the Heritage Foundation since 1977, Washington’s leading public policy organization/think tank, to which the Bechtels are major contributors. Unlike most other think tanks, Heritage not only suggests ideas but actively pushes them in Congress. Following are the words of Heritage vice presidents Stuart Butler and Kim Holmes, published in the 1995 Annual Report issued in the spring of 1996:
Butler: Heritage now works very closely with the congressional leadership.... Heritage has been involved in crafting almost every piece of major legislation to move through Congress.
Holmes: Without exaggeration, I think we've in effect become Congress's unofficial research arm.... We truly have become an extension of the congressional staff, but on our own terms and according to our own agenda.
Butler: That's right. As Kim knows, things have been happening so fast on Capitol Hill we've had to sharpen our management skills to take full advantage of the opportunities. There has also been an unprecedented demand on us to "crunch the numbers" for the new congressional leadership. Vice chairman of the trustees of Manhattan Institute Policy Studies 1977-1986. Chairman Institute for European Defense and Strategic Studies in London 1977-1996. Attended a meeting in Washington of Le Cercle in 1979, the covert European group set up by a mixture of Vatican intelligence, Opus Dei luminaries, and the Pan Europa leadership. Treasurer Mont Pelerin Society 1979-1996, which is a branch of the Paneuropa Union. Trustee Lehrman Institute 1981-1990. Member of the public delegation to the 2nd Special Session on Disarmament of the United Nations in 1982. Chairman of the US Information Agency 1982-1991. Member US Advisory Committee on Public Diplomacy 1982-1994. Member of the Carlucci Commission on Security and Economic Assistance 1983. Distinguished fellow of mobilization concepts at the Development Center of the National Defense University 1983-1989. Consultant to White House Counselor Edwin Meese, the seventy-fifth Attorney General of the United States from 1985 to 1988. Member of the national advisory board of the Center for Education and Research in Free Enterprise at the Texas Agricultural and Mechanical University 1985-1996. Chairman Citizens for American Education Foundation 1985-1989. Consultant for Domestic Policy to President Reagan in 1987. Director Sequoia National Bank 1987-1999. Member of the Sarah Scaife Foundation since 1988, which has been named after the mother of Richard Mellon Scaife. The Sarah Scaife Foundation is is financed by the Mellon industrial, oil and banking fortune, and Richard Mellon Scaife has been chairman since 1973. The Sarah Scaife Foundation is one of the biggest donators to Conservative and (formerly) anti-communist causes, often having worked in tandem with the CIA. On January 18, 1989 President Reagan conferred the Presidential Citizens Medal on Feulner as "a leader of the conservative movement." Member of the US Committee on Improving Effectiveness of the United Nations 1989-1993. Vice chairman of the National Economic Growth and Tax Reform "Kemp" Commission 1995-1996. Member of the advisory committee of the American Political Channel 1994-1996. Counselor to vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp in 1996. President Mont Pelerin Society 1996-1998. Member of the board visitors of the George Mason University 1996-2004. Member of the Congressional Policy Advisory Board 1997-2001. Senior vice president Mont Pelerin Society 1998-2000. Again treasurer Mont Pelerin Society since 2000. Distinguished visiting professor of Hanyang University in Seoul since 2001. Member of the Gingrich/Mitchell Task Force on United Nations Reforming in 2005. Member of the National Advisory Council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, together with Jeane Kirkpatrick, Jack Kemp, senator Claiborne Pell, senator Bob Dole, Richard Pipes, and formerly Zbigniew Brzezinski. Former Cercle head Brian Crozier is a member of the International Advisory Council of the VCMF. By Georges Magazine he was ranked nr 45 in a list of the 50 most influential politicians. Greenspan was one, Cheney was two. Member of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, according to his Who's Who. Member of the Union League (New York City), Metropolitan Club, Reform Club (London), Bohemian Club (San Francisco), and several clubs. Not a member of the CFR as of 2006.

Update 2010: Feulner is a secretary of the Korea-United States Exchange Council Inc. The vice presidents of this low profile group are Henry Kissinger, Richard L. Walker (Long-time expert on Korea; said to be CIA; former WACL member; member national committee Council for the Defense of Freedom, originally named the Council Against Communist Aggression; ambassador to Korea; director of the Korea Society, together with Robert D. Hormats of Goldman Sachs and the Atlantic Inst., and others from J. P. Morgan and Boeing, just as advisors as Alexander Haig, George H. W. Bush, and Gerald Ford), and Soo Gil Park (ambassador). Executive director is Otilie English (lobbyist for a Committee for a Free Afghanistan and supporter of the Mujahidin in the 1980s; traveled deep inside Afghanistan and seen as an expert on that country; came back to the U.S. with 7 hours of taped interviews with Al Qaeda prisoners, one who supposedly repeatedly threatened that they would be "coming to the U.S.". Washington representative to the Northern Alliance in 2000 and 2001; advisor to Haron Amin, the Northern Alliance spokesman during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan). The former executive director was Courtney Alexander Dodson. Assistant secretaries are Edward Stewart (partner in Ed Buckham's lobby firm Alexander Strategy Group; Ed Buckham was involved in a bribary scandal with Tom Delay and Jack Abramoff) and Yong Hoo Lee. Various other koreans are board members. March 10, 2005, Washington Post, 'S. Korean Group Sponsored DeLay Trip': "Justice Department documents show that the Korea-U.S. Exchange Council, a business-financed entity created with help from a lobbying firm headed by DeLay's former chief of staff, registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act on Aug. 22, 2001. DeLay; his wife, Christine; and two other Republican lawmakers departed on a trip financed by the group on Aug. 25 of that year." Seung Youn Kim (chairman of the Hanwha Group, a South Korean conglomerate which finances the Korea-United States Exchange Council; once jailed for purchase of Sylvester Stallone’s Hollywood mansion; September 1, 2007, Bloomberg Businessweek, 'Scandal-Plagued Asian Execs': "Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung Youn stayed behind bars for weeks after he was sentenced to 18 months in jail in July 2007. He was convicted of abducting and beating up bar workers [by his bodyguards and gang members] who had assaulted his son. But a Korean appeals court suspended the sentence two months later, ordering him to do 200 hours of community service instead. Kim was pardoned last August by Korean President Lee Myung Bak, who argued businessmen must take the lead in reviving the troubled economy." December 1, 2010, Korea Hearld, 'Hanwha boss questioned on funds': "Kim is suspected of handing over an illicit fund to the group’s collapsed subsidiaries in 2005, thus causing financial losses to the group. He is also accused of having kept tens of billions of won under a borrowed name account, thus constituting professional negligence and tax evasion. Hanwha Group, however, claimed that the money was a personal inheritance from Kim’s father, but did not clarify as to the reason why it was kept under borrowed names. Kim is also suspected of bribing politicians while taking over Korea Life Insurance in 2002 but the charges were excluded from the investigation due to the lack of evidence, according to officials." ) is chairman of the Korea-United States Exchange Council.

March 27, 1989, U.S News and World Report, 'Rev. Moon’s Rising Political Influence': "Through this method of recruiting, the church has established a network of affiliated organizations and connections in almost every conservative organization in Washington, including the Heritage Foundation ... As the Washington Times has become the voice of capital conservatives, the Heritage Foundation has become far more tolerant of church ties. The foundation accepts the participation of Lichenstein and other senior fellows in church-funded enterprises and allows its staff members to go to church conferences. ... Because almost all conservative organizations in Washington have some ties to the church, conservatives also fear repercussions if they expose the church's role. That happened when one organization, the Capital Research Center, published a newsletter last November warning of the church's attempt to create a "centralized world theocracy." One of its board members, who was also on the board of the International Security Council, resigned in protest, and conservatives charging that the paper was creating discord on the right, besieged the center with angry calls. "We got a very, very strong reaction -- almost as if we were the enemy -- because we raised the issue," says CRC Chairman Willa Johnson, a former president of the Heritage Foundation."

1997, Robert Parry for Consortium News, 'Dark Side of Rev. Moon: Buying the Right': "Left unmentioned in the happy sermon was the identity of the bigger guardian angel who had been protecting Falwell's financial interests -- from a distance and without publicity. That secret benefactor was the Rev. Sun Myung Moon ... Moon's lieutenant, Bo Hi Pak, ... When President Reagan and Oliver North were scratching for support for the Nicaraguan contras, The Washington Times established a contra fund-raising operation. Moon's international group, CAUSA, also dispatched operatives to Central America to assist the contras. By the mid-1980s, Moon's Unification Church had carved out a niche as an acceptable part of the American right. In one speech to his followers, Moon boasted that "without knowing it, even President Reagan is being guided by Father [Moon]." Yet, Moon also made clear that his longer-range goal was the destruction of the U.S. Constitution and America's democratic form of government. "History will make the position of Reverend Moon clear, and his enemies, the American population and government will bow down to him," Moon said, speaking of himself in the third person. "That is Father's tactic, the natural subjugation of the American government and population." As Andrew Ferguson wrote in the right-wing American Spectator, Moon's church attracted U.S. conservatives by advocating a muscular anti-communism."

July 5, 2011, Ed Feulner for the Heritage Foundation blog, 'Otto von Habsburg 1912-2011': "Today, we at The Heritage Foundation mourn the loss of Otto von Habsburg, a defender of freedom and friend of liberty in Europe and around the world. ... An occasional visitor to The Heritage Foundation, we will miss Otto’s keen perspective on liberty, and his efforts to free people from the chains of despair that dictators and tyrants continue to impose around the world. There are many unsung heroes of the Cold War, and Otto is certainly one of them."

Source(s): 1984 South Africa participants list ("Ambassador (rtd.) S.A. Institute for International Affairs")

Unknown.

Source(s): Cercle's 1985 Washington D.C. meeting lists ("South African Ambassador to the United States")

July 31, 2008, Cape Times (South Africa), 'Leading diplomat of apartheid era dies after short illness': "JOHANNESBURG: Brand Fourie, who headed the apartheid era's Department of Foreign Affairs for 17 years, has died in hospital in Pretoria after a short illness. He was 91. He joined the department in 1936, was secretary - the post later known as director-general - from 1966 until 1983 and, by the time he retired in 1985, was ambassador to the US. He chaired the SABC board from 1985 to 1989. Former foreign minister Pik Botha said Fourie had been a key player in South Africa's important foreign policy events from World War 2. "He was one of the most remarkable diplomats South Africa ever produced," Botha said. He had been an aide to Prime Minister Jan Smuts during World War 2 and attended some of his meetings with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. He attended the 1945 launch of the United Nations with Smuts and contributed to drafting the UN Charter. Fourie leaves his wife, Daphne, son Gerhard and daughter Nicolette. His funeral service is to be held at the Valleisig Dutch Reformed Church in Faerie Glen at midday on Monday."

Source(s): February 21, 2012, Cercle chairman Lord Lothian's invitational letter to speak at Le Cercle to Saudi Arabia's deputy minister of foreign affairs Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz: "At meetings last year, we were priviliged to talks from, amonst others ... Senator Wyche Fowler ..."

Congressman from George 1977-1987. Senator from Georgia from January 1987 to January 1993. Clinton's ambassador to Saudi Arabia 1996-2001. Director Carter Center. Chairman Middle East Institute.

Source(s): 1983 Bonn meeting list

From Spain. Spanish Ambassador in London 1973-1975. Co-founder of the Alianza Popular (AP) in 1976. The AP was a federation of several parties, which were all fascist or borderline fascist. It opted for a "more gradual" change to democracy than Suarez and his allies had planned for. Some co-founders with Manuel Fraga were former Franco ministers Gonzalo Fernandez de la Mora, fascist Cercle member Silva Munoz, and Lopez Rodo (influential minister in the 1960s and early 1970s, who is said to have engineered the Opus Dei takeover of the Spanish government). When the new constitution was approved in 1978, turning Spain into a parliamentary democracy, most members of the AP, as totalitarian as they were, decided to accept the constitution. Fraga became president of the Alianza Popular at some point. Visited Le Cercle. Member 1001 Club. Contact of Brian Crozier since 1965. AESP member since 1970.

Fraga on Opus Dei: "I answer simply to the question. Why do not belong to Opus Dei? First, because, unfortunately for me I never felt worthy of a vocation to perfection. Nor, fortunately for me I was an opportunist who has sought help from a spiritual nature, for problems of a temporary nature. Second, because, accepting as I agree in principle to the idea of ​​temporary institutions, I disagree with the inclusion of the activities of its members relations with politics and economics. It is well known that gluttony, libido and other capital vices, have a limit to human nature, but not the pride, the passion of send and greed, which are insatiable. But also, if it were true that these activities are acting individually, no one will believe it. I, of course, I never have. And something must go in this line of thought in Rome, where now the Opus Dei want to give up its status as a secular institute. Third, my personal experience of how things have worked in practice in our country, has confirmed to me that these fears were not vain. No end in my opinion, may justify certain media and certain premises. The inexorable time will judge all the confusion and clarify the present. Meanwhile, let us try all work together, conscientiously, with the true, wonderful and eternal work of God."

October 24, 2004, Order of Malta website, 'The Order's International Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela': "Presided over by His Most Eminent Highness Frà Andrew Bertie, close to 250 Knights and Dames of the Order of Malta gathered in Santiago de Compostela from the 15th to the 17th of October to participate in the international pilgrimage to the Tomb of the Apostle Saint James, culminating the events and activities which are traditionally undertaken by the Order during the Jacobean Holy Years. ... Coinciding with the pilgrimage, the Instituto de Estudios Gallegos “Padre Sarmiento”, in collaboration with the Spanish Association of the Order of Malta, the Government of the Autonomous Community of Galicia, the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, and “Xacobeo 2004 – Galicia” (the office responsible for Jacobean Year Activities), celebrated the II Seminar of Studies on the Order of Malta – its historic reality and its social projection, which on this occasion was focussed on the subject “Hospitality and Knighthood along the Camino de Santiago”. The most important social event on the program was the dinner in honor of the Grand Master hosted by the pilgrims and attended by the President of the Government of the Autonomous Community of Galicia, H.E. Manuel Fraga Iribarne, and other distinguished guests. During the dinner, the Grand Master, on his own behalf and that of the Order of Malta, expressed his appreciation to President Fraga for “all the courtesies which His Excellency personally and the Government of Galicia had extended to him and to the Order in general as a sovereign institution”. In his response, President Fraga said that “with this pilgrimage, you have given life once more to one of your first and most important vocations: for the past thousand years, your Order of Saint John of Jerusalem has stood forth – especially in Galicia – as the tireless defender of the pilgrims of the Camino de Santiago”"

Source(s): November 1988 – Issue 17, Lobster Magazine, 'Brian Crozier, the Pinay Circle and James Goldsmith' (quoting from the Langemann papers)

Lived from 1915 to 1994. Joined the South African Army as a part-time Citizen Force soldier in 1934 and became a full-time Permanent Force member in 1946. Served as Chief of the Army from 1966 to 1967, and as General Officer Commanding Joint Combat Forces, co-ordinating Army and Air Force operations and training, from 1967 to 1973. As GOCJCF, he was the third-highest ranking officer in the South African Defence Force's Supreme Command. Has written a dissertation on 'counter-insurgency measures' and how to avoid a communist revolution. The book he wrote around 1968 has set South-Africa's general counter-revolution policy up until the wall came down. Fraser believed that this counter-revolution "war" had to be fought by politicians for at least 80%. People who had a better lifestyle than the communists could offer, wouldn't be interested in a revolution. Consul-general in Iran under the Shah until 1979. March 9, 1979, Facts on File World News Digest, 'South African Ties Cut': "Iran severed diplomatic relations with South Africa March 4 because of its disapproval of that country's ploicy of "racial discrimination." South African Consul General Alan Fraser was summoned to the Foreign Ministry and was told to leave the country." He was a close personal friend of the Shah and introduced Brian Crozier, as a representative of The 6I, to the Shah at some point.

Source(s): February 21, 2012, Cercle chairman Lord Lothian's invitational letter to speak at Le Cercle to Saudi Arabia's deputy minister of foreign affairs Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz (released by Wikileaks around 2015; David Teacher made ISGP aware of the letter; this person is listed as a past speaker to Le Cercle).

FBI director 1993 - June 2001.

Source(s): MEPC website: "What Could Go Wrong for China? Remarks to Le Cercle June 23, 2007, Washington, DC. Ambassador Chas W. Freeman, Jr. (USFS, Ret.)"

Born in 1943. Speaks fluent Chinese, French, Spanish, and conversational Arabic. BA from Yale University and a JD from the Harvard Law School. After law school, he left to join the United States Foreign Service in 1965, working first in India and Taiwan before being assigned to the State Department's China desk. He was the principal American interpreter during the late President Nixon's path-breaking visit to China in 1972. Director for Chinese Affairs at the U.S. Department of State from 1979-1981. Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d'Affaires in the American embassies at both Beijing 1981-1984 and Bangkok 1984-1986. Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, African Affairs 1986-1989. CIA Medallion (Desert Shield/Storm) 1991. U S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 1989-1992. Assistant Secretary of Defense of International Security Affairs 1993-1994. Chairman of Projects International, Inc. since 1995. Co-chair of the U.S. China Policy Foundation and vice-chair of the Atlantic Council. Received some flak in recent years for being on the advisory board of the China National Offshore Oil Corporation, which has projects in Sudan and Iran. Succeeded Senator George McGovern as President of the Middle East Policy Council (MEPC) on December 1, 1997. Directors of the MEPC have retired from functions at ExxonMobil, the Saudi Binladin Group, Apollo Security, Central Command, the CIA, DIA and various ambassador posts in the Middle East. Among the National Advisory Committee members of the MEPC is Dr. Richard Falk, Professor of International Law and Practice, Princeton Center for International Studies, and a CFR member. He a member of this staff along with people from Bahrain Petroleum, U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce, Aramco Services, the U.S. Foreign Service, the Petroleum Finance Company, SAIC, and the London Middle East Institute. Falk wrote about David Ray Griffin, the famous 9/11 Truth author: "David Ray Griffin has established himself--alongside Seymour Hersh--as America's number one bearer of unpleasant, yet necessary, public truths." Falk wrote the foreword for Griffin's first book in 2004, 'The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9/11': Griffin also wrote: '9/11 and American Empire: Intellectuals Speak Out, Vol. 1' (2006), 'Osama Bin Laden: Dead or Alive?' and 'The Mysterious Collapse of World Trade Center 7' (2009). Oddly enough, Griffin has promoted the bogus no-plane theories at the Pentagon, which is rather suspect. On the website of the MEPC, several anti-neoconservative articles have been published, critically mentioning names as Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz and Ahmed Chalabi (at least one of the articles written by a former DIA official). Freeman has been a trustee of Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), a national security think tank from which the JASON Group sprang. Trustee of the Carnegie Corporation anno 2010.

Freeman himself has been very critical of the neoconservatives, the Israel lobby and even 9/11. In the fall of 2006, the MEPC was the first American outlet to publish Mearsheimer and Walt's working paper 'The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy.' According to an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, Freeman endorsed the paper's thesis, and he said of Middle East Policy Council's stance that "No one else in the United States has dared to publish this article, given the political penalties that the Lobby imposes on those who criticize it." In February 2009, unnamed sources leaked to the news media, initially to The Politico, that Freeman was Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair's choice to chair the National Intelligence Council in the Barack Obama administration. After several weeks of criticism, he angrily withdrew his name from the nomination, and he then charged the 'Israeli lobby' for what he saw as a smear campaign against him. After his withdrawal Freeman gave an interview to Robert Dreyfuss in The Nation saying he regretted he did not identify his attackers as “right-wing Likud in Israel and its fanatic supporters here,” what he called the “(Avigdor) Lieberman lobby.” Freeman commented at a Washington Institute for Near East Policy meeting in 2002 that, "And what of America’s lack of introspection about September 11? Instead of asking what might have caused the attack, or questioning the propriety of the national response to it, there is an ugly mood of chauvinism. Before Americans call on others to examine themselves, we should examine ourselves."

Charles W. Freeman III is the son of Chas and is also specialized in China. Freeman III is a director of the National Committee of U.S.-China Relations, together with Maurice Greenberg (vice chair), Madeleine Albright, Lee Hamilton (vice chair), Thomas Kean (vice chair), Henry Kissinger and Richard Holbrooke.

Source(s): February 21, 2012, Cercle chairman Lord Lothian's invitational letter to speak at Le Cercle to Saudi Arabia's deputy minister of foreign affairs Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz (released by Wikileaks around 2015; David Teacher made ISGP aware of the letter; this person is listed as a past speaker to Le Cercle).

Jewish Russian. Prime minister of Russia June to December 1992. First deputy prime minister of Russia September 1993 - January 1994. Key player in the attempt to transform Russia's economy from a state-controlled one to a market economy, which actually led to a disastrous oligarchy due to corruption of Yeltsin, a number of key Zionist and mafia-connected oligarchs and foreign powers as the neocons in the U.S. and the Israelis.

Sources: 1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', page 241

One of the main French sovereignist thinkers, and a staunch supporter of De Gaulle. Member of the Planning Group at SHAPE at the time it was founded. French Air Force General. Present at the October 1957 Bilderberg meeting in Italy, for which he had written the following text: "For each of the powers of the Alliance which do not possess nuclear weapons the question is this: might it find itself in such a situation that an incident of major importance for its own security or independence might be considered minor not only by guaranteeing atomic powers, but also by the other member countries of the Alliance? This assessment of the major or minor nature of a threat against Western countries must be estimated according to a new criterion the size of the nuclear risk. Even if a vast airborne nuclear exchange appears improbable, or even impossible, and if everyone knows that they were being blackmailed with fear, it is clear that everyone would weigh the size of the stake and of the risk. And in such a calculation it is very likely that countries not directly and immediately threatened might consider some enemy intervention of major importance for the country against which it is directed to be only a minor incident." Some time head of the French Air Force. Mostly known as the architect of the French nuclear deterrence. Brian Crozier wrote in 'Free Agent', page 241: "We agreed that the best way to mobilise Mitterrand on this issue was to persuade him to invite General Gallois to brief him on the SS-20 [nuclear ballistic missile] danger. We both knew Pierre Gallois. I had translated his important Conflict Study analysing the SS-20 threat, and interpreted for him at Pinay Cercle meetings. Jean Violet gave him a 'genius' rating." Later went into the aeronautic industry with Marcel Dassault, the aircraft maker, and became one of the most prominent architects of the French Air Force revival, working on the Mirage IV. Has written a lot about geopolitical issues. About the Balkan and Iraq bombings Gallois said that while some of our targets were clearly of a military nature, such things as water purification plants, sewage treatment plants, and fertilizer plants serve only to impoverish the population, not to promote military objectives. About the economic sanctions on Iraq, Gallois said they were "cruel, cowardly, ineffective, and stupid." April 16, 2004, Frontpage Magazine interview with Kenneth Timmerman, who has spent twenty years reporting on Europe and the Middle East: "Iraq was a special case. I was invited in the late 1980s to visit the Iraqi Army staff college, and was surprised when I saw a plaque donated to the college by visiting French general Pierre-Marie Gallois, the “father” of the French strategic nuclear force. Many in the French Gaullist elite saw in Saddam Hussein an Iraqi De Gaulle, a fellow spirit: someone willing to stand up to superpowers, and take his country on a “third way.” That third way, of course, led directly through Paris, in opposition to Washington." In 2001 a group of traditional Gaullists, including Gallois, signed a declaration calling on true Gaullists to vote for the candidate “who most respects the political choices made by the founder of the 5th Republic.” Without actually mentioning the name of the former Interior Minister, Jean-Pierre Chevènement, it is clear whom they mean. They also very explicitly denounced “the way in which the so-called Gaullist party has abandoned its traditions” and said quite clearly that they “do not find in the decisions taken by the president of the Republic (i.e. Chirac) any respect for the founding principles affirmed by General de Gaulle.” The Fifth Republic emerged from the ashes of the French Fourth Republic (1945-1958), replacing a weak and factional parliamentary government with a stronger, more centralized system. The office of the president, which had recently been occupied by De Gaulle, gained much more strength in the new system.

Source(s): February 21, 2012, Cercle chairman Lord Lothian's invitational letter to speak at Le Cercle to Saudi Arabia's deputy minister of foreign affairs Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz (released by Wikileaks around 2015; David Teacher made ISGP aware of the letter; this person is listed as a past speaker to Le Cercle).

First and to date the only female Prime Minister of India 1980-1984. Indira Gandhi was the daughter of India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Despite her surname Gandhi, she is not related to the family of Mahatma Gandhi.

Assassinated by Sikh nationalists in 1984. Her elimination by two of her bodyguards was a retaliation for the storming of the Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) in Amritsar that she ordered to counter the Punjab insurgency.

Sources: Online Archive of California, 'Register of the Monique Garnier-Lançon Papers': "The CONFERENCES series also contains some documents pertaining to Garnier-Lançon's attendance at the closed deliberations of an exclusive group known only as Le Cercle (sometimes referred to as Le Cercle Pinay and, later, as Le Cercle Violet) whose activities have attracted the attention of analysts interested in elite groupings and their influence upon policy decisions made by Western governments."

Journalist and producer for Organisation de la Radio-Télévision Française (ORTF) 1962-1971. Deputy mayor of Paris 1977-1989. Press Association Culturelle Franco-Allemande [German] pour la Jeunesse [Youth] 1980-1999. Met George H. W. Bush in 1981. Attended Cercle meetings from 1982 to 1985. Council member Franco-German Association 1982-1991, president since 1991. Vice president Institut Europeen de Securite / Europaeisches Institut fuer Sicherheitsfragen / European Institute for Security, Luxembourg, 1984-1987, and president 1986-1995. This institute was founded in 1981 by Nicholas de Kerchove, Gen. Robert Close, Otto von Habsburg and many Germans. Cercle member Franz Josef Strauss and Gerhard Lowenthal would join in 1982. Kai-Uwe von Hassel is the first chairman. Worked closely with Jacques Chirac. Co-president Western European Defence Association. Special Advisor for Europe at the American Foreign Policy Council in 1985. Delegate for Europe Center for International Relations in Washington D.C. Director of the American Foreign Policy Council 1987-1995. Fouding member of the Coordination Committee of Euro-Atlantique pour la Cooperation, in charge of relations with the USA and international organizations as the UN, NATO, and EU 1992-1995. Consultant to the International Policy Forum, Heritage Foundation, Council for National Policy, the American Security Council, and Hoover Institution.

Member National Press Club. Her personal files show she has corresponded with Julian Amery (83), Giulio Andreotti (85-91), Franz Josef Bach (83), Brian Crozier (82-93), Valery Giscard d'Estaing (74-88), Otto von Habsburg (82-89), Jacques G. Jonet (82-87), Jeane Kirkpatrick (82-84), Karl-Heinz Narjes (83). She has also corresponded with Richard Allen (84-86), George H. W. Bush (81), Alfred Cahen (87-88), Lord Chalfont (85-87), Jacques Chirac (78-89), Gen. Robert Close (82-86), Paul S. Cutter aka Paul Sjeklocha (82-84), Karl-Uwe von Hassel (85), Denis Healey (86), David Dreier, Jacques Foccart (1971, 1987; co-founded SAC with Cercle member Charles Pasqua; close to Mobutu; Chief of Staff to De Gaulle and Pompidou; seen as the major coup plotter in Africa; also an advisor to Chirac; co-created the Département Protection et Sécurité militia for the National Front in 1982 with Cercle member Francois de Grossouvre) Fred Iklé (85-86; DoD; hawk who pushed Stinger deliveries to Afhan and UNITA rebels; CSIS; gov. Smith Richardson Fdn), Thierry de Montbrial (82-88; Bilderberg; French Inst. for Int. Affairs), Helmut Kohl (82-94), Sven Kraemer (85), Melvin Lasky (85; Editor for CIA-funded Encounter magazine; AEI), Robert McFarlane (85), Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger (1987; Archbishop of Paris 81-05), François Mitterrand (89-93), Richard Pipes (83), Ronald and Nancy Reagan (84-85), John Rees (84-87), Alfredo Sanchez Bella (83-87; CEDI founder with Habsburg; Brother was head of Opus Dei in Spain), Ted Shackley (83), Giovanni Spadolini (83), Margaret Thatcher (85), Caspar Weinberger (84). Also in contact with Resistance International 1982-1987, set up in Paris by Soviet defectors as Eduard Kuznetsov, Vladimir Maximov, Alexandra Schmidt, and Olga Svintsvova.

April 19, 1985, Washington Post, 'Europeans Lobby For Aid to 'Contras'': "Winston Churchill II, grandson of the late British prime minister, visited the White House yesterday as part of a delegation of Western European figures urging Congress to release $14 million in aid to "contra"rebels fighting Nicaragua's Sandinista government.The visit by the British member of Parliament and a dozen other persons was part of a White House effort to gain the backing of various groups to help push Congress on the aid issue. ... Later the delegation participated in a Capitol Hill seminar chaired by Jeane J. Kirkpatrick... the 13-member delegation was sponsored by resistance international, a Paris-based human rights organization, and the American Foreign Policy Council... Other members of the delegation included former Australian prime minister J. Malcolm Fraser; ... Kai-Uwe von Hassel; ... Monique Garnier-Lancon... After meeting with Reagan, the group received a briefing from National Security Council officials on the administration's view of the situation in Central America." August 11, 1985, San Jose Mercury News, 'Smuggling Suspect: Dedicated Reporter or Shadowy Spy?': "He [Paul Sjeklocha] hobnobbed with high-ranking U.S. military and intelligence officials and constantly hinted to friends that he was an American agent. But he once barely avoided a U.S. fraud indictment and was thrown in a Yugoslavian prison on charges of writing bad checks and defrauding an airline.He wined and dined the deputy mayor of Paris. But he has been sued for non-payment of more than $42,000 in MasterCard and American Express bills." July 14, 1986, WRNEA, 'Pollard and Beyond': "Shapiro was never charged but he eventually lost his top secret security clearance. Not even that happened to Stephen Bryen who, while a staff aide on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was accused by a witness of offering highly-classified documents to Israeli officials in Washington. Bryen left the Senate and became executive director of the Jewish Institute of National Security Affairs (JINSA) while the FBI investigated the charges and actually found his fingerprints on a document the witness had heard him offering the Israelis. When no charges were brought against him, however, Bryen handed over JINSA to his wife and went on to become the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense who, at this very moment, coordinates U.S. efforts to protect secret American technology from falling into the hands of foreign powers. JINSA, under executive director Shoshana Bryen, now finds itself uncomfortably close to U.S. investigations of conspiracies to sell $2.5 billion in prohibited U.S. weapons, many of them already in Israel, to Iran for use in its war against Iraq. Paul Sjeklocha, also known as Paul Cutter, appointed to the JINSA board of directors in 1983, was convicted in 1985 of conspiring to sell anti-tank missiles to Iran."

Source(s): 1985 Cercle meeting in Bonn (name appears on a handwritten list of names of Garnier-Lancon, probably persons who were eligible for an invitation)

In 1974, he took part in the presidential campaign of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. MP 1978-89. Regional consul of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur 1986-98. Mayor of Marseille since 1995. Senator 1989-95 and since 1998. Vice president senate since 1998. Vice-President of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) since 2002. Knight of Malta.

October 13, 1997, Agence France Presse, 'Court suspends book implicating ex-ministers in murder': "A Paris court on Monday ordered the temporary suspension of a book which implicates two former French ministers in the 1994 mafia-style killing of a National Assembly deputy, Yann Piat. The court suspended sales of the book, "The Yann Piat affair: assassins at the heart of power," until October 24, when it will rule again on a defamation suit brought by the two politicians. Former defence minister Francois Leotard and former urban affairs minister Jean-Claude Gaudin took legal action last week over accusations in the book that two senior politicians ordered Piat's murder. The pair are not named in the book, but details about them make it clear who is being referred to. Leotard and Gaudin have openly denounced their implication in the affair. The book, by two journalists, notably cites a senior former intelligence agent as saying the two politicians ordered Piat's murder on February 25, 1994 because she knew too much about alleged sales of military land to mafia-linked businessmen. Leotard, leader of the Union for French Democracy, France's main opposition centre-right political group, and Gaudin have asked the Paris court to delete certain passages from the book published earlier this month. ... The book has caused a storm in French political circles since it was published earlier this month. Former defence minister Francois Leotard and former urban affairs minister Jean-Claude Gaudin took legal action last week over accusations in the book that two senior politicians ordered Piat's murder. The pair are not named in the book by journalists Andre Rougeot and Jean-Michel Verne, but details about them make it clear who is being referred to. Leotard and Gaudin have openly denounced their implication in the affair. Piat, 44, was shot dead on February 25, 1994 by two men on a motorbike which drew up alongside her car as she returned to her French Riviera home. Until now the affair has been considered a purely mafia killing. Leotard, leader of the Union for French Democracy, France's main opposition centre-right political group, and Gaudin, UDF mayor of Marseilles, have asked the court to delete certain passages from the book. The book notably cites a senior former intelligence agent as saying the two politicians ordered Piat killed because she knew too much about alleged sales of military land to mafia-linked businessmen. ... Gaudin welcomed Monday's court decision. "If the book's authors cannot produce by October 24 the evidence which so far is entirely absent from their work, they will be convicted," he said in a statement. "The process of re-establishing the truth has begun. They must pay the price for their lies," he said." October 28, 1997, Associated Press Online, 'French Publisher Pulls Book': "A French court ordered a publishing house Tuesday to excise passages in a book that linked a former defense minister to murder. In response, the publisher withdrew the controversial book. The court's decision highlighted the traditional willingness of French courts to censor or ban books that run up against the country's strict libel and privacy laws. ... Without using names, their book implies that Leotard and Marseille Mayor Jean-Claude Gaudin, a former minister of urban affairs, were responsible. The book used nicknames but provided identifying details. The book provoked a storm in political circles. Conservative politicians called it a plot to destabilize rightist candidates ahead of next year's regional elections. Leotard sued the book's authors, journalists Andre Rougeot and Jean-Michel Verne, and publisher Flammarion, demanding that the offending passages be removed. A Paris court late Tuesday ordered publisher Flammarion to immediately recall all books and remove the offending passages. It said it would fine the publisher $830 each time an uncensored book was sold. ''Rather than suppress the passages, the editor has chosen to withdraw the book from distribution,'' said Flammarion's lawyer, Jean-Yves Dupeux. The court said the journalists ''were not able to establish the truth of the facts and the seriousness of the investigation they claim to have led.'' Rougeot had refused to disclose the name of his source, identified only as an officer in military intelligence. Both Gaudin and Leotard say they are pursuing separate defamation lawsuits." January 20, 1998, Associated Press, 'Authors ordered to pay damages for book on politician's slaying': "A French court ordered two authors and their publisher to pay damages for a book that implicated ranking politicians in the killing of an anti-corruption crusader. Marseille Mayor Jean-Claude Gaudin had sued the authors of "Yann Piat, Assassins at the Heart of Power" for $ 1.6 million. The judge on Tuesday ordered the authors, Jean-Michel Verne and Andre Rougeot, to pay Gaudin about $ 32,000 each. Their publisher, Flammarion, was ordered to pay Gaudin about $ 50,000. ... Verne said he stood by his book. "I have the conviction that politicians were involved in the murder of Yann Piat," he said. "The conviction supported by evidence I gathered since the book came out. "I tell those people implicated that they will not escape their destiny," he said."

Source(s): 1982 Bonn meeting list; 1984 Bonn meeting list; 1985 Washington meeting list; Adrian Hanni (again in 1985, twice in 1987, in 1989 and 1990)

November 30, 1980, Washington Post, 'Reagan's Team on Foreign Aid Reflects the New Right's Influence': "It comes as no particular surprise, but President-elect Ronald Reagan's transition team for foreign aid is dominated by prominent leaders from the ideological conservative movement popularly known as the New Right. Heading the team is Edwin J. Feulner, executive director of the Heritage Foundation here, which was founded by Paul Weyrich, director of the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress and receives its principal financial support from Joseph Coors, the Colorado beer mogul and bankroller of rightist causes. Among those serving with Feulner are Jeffrey B. Gaynor, director of policy studies for Heritage; Jim Lucier, an aide to arch-conservative Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) and a prominent opponent of many Carter administration foreign policy initiatives, and Elliott Abrams, a former aide to Sen. Daniel P. Moynihan (D-N.Y.), who supported Reagan in the campaign."

February 16, 1978, New York Times, summary file: "Heritage Foundation dir of foreign policy studies Jeffrey B Gayner letter disagrees with Pres Carter that Panama Canal treaties have overwhelming support throughout Latin America. Contends Latin American nations are worried about toll rise and future security of canal. Suggests Latin Americans already alienated by other Carter Adm policies are further upset by the 'inconsistent generosity extended to the military dictator of Panama'."

November 25, 1985, The Guardian, 'The power and influence behind America's Right / Focus on the US Heritage Foundation': "The Foundation, meanwhile, has begun extending its sphere of influence and interest beyond American shores. It is funding a London affiliate the Institute for European Defence and Strategic Studies, according to the Foundation's Counsellor for International Affairs Jeffrey B Gaynor. It also has developed 'a cooperative relationship' with about 200 overseas groups and university professors; this includes exchanging information and visits and the periodic appointment of non-Americans to specific assignments and fellowships."

Source(s): November 1988 – Issue 17, Lobster Magazine, 'Brian Crozier, the Pinay Circle and James Goldsmith' (quoting from the Langemann papers; probably an associate member)

Hans Langemann 1980 paper: "Gehlen, who was always interested in the undertaking [of the Pinay Circle], its figures, its personalities and its results, succeeded in recruiting Violet [the Circle founder and Otto von Habsburg- and SDECE agent] as a special agent and granted him 6000 DM a month for many years. He also claimed that this sum had been agreed with the former head of the SDECE, General Jacquier because Violet is also receiving the same sum from the SDECE." Major General Reinhard Gehlen headed the Foreign Armies East section of the Abwehr (German intelligence), directed towards the Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Worked closely with the SS Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), tJehe controlling agency of the Gestapo and German State Security (SD). 1971, Heinz Hohne & Hermann Zolling, 'The General was a Spy', pp. 50-53: "Moreover another SS man appeared with increasing frequency at Gehlen's side - SS-Sturmbannfuhrer [Major] Otto Skorzeny, commander of the SS Special Service Formations. In November 1944 Skorzeny was commissioned to set up a resistance organisation in the Soviet rear areas and gain contact with anti-communist partisans... Skorzeny accordingly had to consult Gehlen if he was to gain contact with the partisans... He [Gehlen] visualized an intelligence organization, run by FHO and the RSHA, covering the whole of Eastern Europe deep into the Soviet Union and making use of all racial groups in the east... Without realising it, Gehlen had thus patented the post-war organisation which later bore his name... He, Skorzeny and Hengelhaupt in concert assembled all possible information about the existence of East European resistance groups... Gehlen ultimately became so close an ally of the RSHA that, during the death-throes of Adolf Hitler's regime he, together with the SS officers Skorzeny and Prutzmann, was charged with military direction of that macabre partisan and resistance organization known as "Werewolf", intended to spread panic among the enemy." Werewolf was dreamed up in the Autumn of 1944 by Heinrich Himmler, in cooperation with Skorzeny, Gehlen, and a few other high level German officers. It was to act as an early Stay-Behind army in case parts of Germany would be occupied by the Allies. Skorzeny's men gave intensive lessons in sabotage, demolitions, small arms, survival and radio-communications to these new Werewolf regiments, but in the end the lack of central command and sufficient resources made sure this operation was not effective. October 6, 1975, Star-News (Pasadena, CA), 'Plot to Kidnap Stalin Bared': "More than 500 paratroops and other special units led by SS Capt. Otto Skorzeny were ready in 1942 [after German tanks had almost reached Moscow] to fly from a German airfield in Poland to kidnap Soviet dictator Josef Stalin from the Kremlin, a Danish newspaper reported Sunday... Quoting an unnamed Danish pilot who served in the German air force during World War II, the paper said the plan was called off only because the dearth of agents in Moscow made it impossible for German intelligence to say with 100 per cent certainty when Stalin would be in his Kremlin command bunker... All Skorzeny needed was the final go-ahead from intelligence chief Heinrich [Reinhard] Gehlen. But the signal never came." Gehlen had begun planning his surrender to the United States at least as early as the fall of 1944. At that time, after D-Day, the United States had begun setting up an operation to recover valuable German officers and scientists. It was first called Operation Overcast, renamed in 1946 to Paperclip. Operation Apple Pie was another project to locate and interrogate key German personnel, this time of the RSHA (SS Reich Security Main Office) and members of the German Army Staff who were knowledgeable about Soviet industrial and economic matters. From 1948 to 1950 there was a program called Bloodstone, which involved the recruiting of anti-communist individuals in eastern Europe, including nazis. Scientists and military officers like Wernher von Braun (father of the US space program and missile technology), General Walter Dornberger (head Peenemunde, where jews who worked there were horribly treated; also head of Braun's research there), Franz Six (led a nazi special forces group that assassinated opponents; went to train US special forces after a brief sentence), Emil Augsburg (SS major; same job as Franz Six), Willi Krichbaum (SS colonel; in charge of the deportation of the Hungarian Jews since 1944; shot Raoul Wallenberg), Walter Rauff (SS colonel; involved in the holocaust), Kurt Blome, General Walter Schreiber, Heinrich Rupp, Otto Skorzeny, Klaus Barbie, and others were brought to the US (or stationed elsewhere with CIA and Gehlen Org support) and either went to work in the new Military-Industrial Complex or went to work for US intelligence and special forces. Some scientists had already left for the US and were already working in the Military Industrial Complex. Theodore von Karmann and Edward Teller were among the people in this group. What happened to Martin Bormann (who liquidated most of the assets of the Third Reich and transported it overseas) and his secret police aide general Heinrich Muller is not known. Officially they died in Berlin in 1945 while journalists like Paul Manning maintain that both successfully escaped from Europe and became leaders in the post-WWII Fascist underground. This was initially done through ODESSA (also referred to as "Die Spinne", or "The Spider") and Deutsche Hilfsverein, the CIA/SMOM-approved Nazi-ratlines, set up by the Nazis, that smuggled Nazis to the Middle-East, Spain, or South-America. Besides Bormann and Muller, Adolf Eichmann, Josef Mengele, and Erich Priebke are among the Nazis that escaped using this (controversial) network. The ODESSA network brought Nazis, with support of high level officers in the CIA and the Vatican mafia (SMOM; through catholic monasteries), to Genoa, Italy, as part of the ratlines (with at least one alternative route). From there the whole Third Reich is said to have reorganized itself as a new underground Fourth Reich. Supposedly, one of the later umbrella organization of the Fascist International in South America became La Arana (according to journalist Paul Manning). Even though this faction still might have had some influence, this new "Forth Reich" was not dominated anymore by Germanic Pagans (of the Thule Society, inspired by Blavatsky and such) that opposed the Catholic church and Freemasonry. Starting in March 1945, Dulles and Casey were involved in Operation Sunrise: negotiations with SS general Karl Wolff that finally brought an early end to the Italian campaign. In early March 1945 a group of Gehlen's senior officers microfilmed their holdings on the USSR. They packed the film in steel drums and buried it throughout the Austrian Alps. On May 22, 1945 Gehlen and his top aides surrendered to an American Counter-Intelligence Corps (CIC) team. At first locked up, they were soon discovered by higher ups in the US intelligence community. Gehlen was invited to the US from mid-1945 to February 1946 to discuss what to do with his information on Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. In the end it was decided at these meetings, held at the army's Fort Hunt in Virginia, that Gehlen's spy organization would be kept intact through CIA funds. Gehlen's group, including his immediate staff of about 350 agents, went back to Germany in February 1946, and became known as the Gehlen Organization. They became the CIA's eyes and ears in Eastern Europe and in the Soviet Union. Hundreds of German army and SS officers were released from internment camps to join Gehlen's headquarters in the Spessart Mountains in central Germany. When the staff grew to 3,000, the Gehlen Org moved its headquarters to a twenty-five-acre compound south of Munich, Bavaria, operating under the innocent name of the South German Industrial Development Organization. Gehlen oversaw some of the post WWII recruiting programs (ratlines) of Nazis by the CIA. On November 17, 1948 SMOM (The Sovereign Military Order of Malta) awarded one of its highest honors, the Grand Cross of Merit, to Reinhard Gehlen. In 1948, Reinhard Gehlen's brother was in Rome serving as the secretary to Thun Hohenstein. Conveniently for Reinhard, who was negotiating with the U.S. for the preservation of his Nazi colleagues, Thun Hohenstein was chairman of one of SMOM's grand magistral charities, the Institute for Associated Emigrations, and had arranged for two thousand SMOM passports to be printed for political refugees. Thun Hohenstein was also related to the leading German Knights of SMOM. In the early fifties it was estimated that the Gehlen Org employed up to 4,000 intelligence specialists in Germany, mainly former army and SS officers, and that more than 4,000 V-men (undercover agents) were active throughout the Soviet-bloc countries. August 11, 1954, Winnipeg Free Press, 'Hitler's Shadow Man Takes Top Spy Role': "Bruce Rothwell, foreign correspondent who wrote this story from Berlin, says his telephone was tapped while he and his staff were gathering the facts on General Gehlen. And during one important conversation, the line was disconnected... Gehlen, "The Man in the Shadows," already leads a $3,000,000 secret service from Munich paid for by the Americans. Now he will absorb the security organisation left headless by Dr. Otto John, who disappeared into Communist East Germany a fortnight ago... John, who feared tho rise of ex-Nazis in Germany, went into the East Zone accompanied by a pro-Communist psychiatrist. For some time there had been a struggle for supremacy between Gehlen's organisation and John's... Until late last night Gehlen was negotiating with officials of Dr. Adenauer's Government. It seems he has won an outright victory. Over 30 intelligence services... will come under Gehlen's hand. All this power goes to a man who is unknown to the German public... Bonn officials refuse even to say if he is married. News photographers have been trying vainly for five years to photograph him." The following year, in 1955, the Gehlen Organization became the BND, the official German intelligence service. Gehlen remained its head. May 17, 1984, Boston Globe, 'Death of a Nazi': "In the perverse climate of the Cold War years, Nazis such as [SS Col. Walter] Rauff, Reinhardt Gehlen, Otto Skorzeny and Klaus Barbie made themselves so useful to western intelligence services that they were able to transform the struggle against the Red Menace into a prolongation of the Fascist enterprise." General Foertsch, one of general Gehlen highest level deputies, was invited to Antoine Bonnemaison's (a French colonel and SDECE agent specialized in psychological warfare) Centre de Recherche du Bien Politique in the 1950s, which was a secret discussion group involving intelligence officers, academics, businessmen, a few politicians, and trade union leaders of France, Germany, and the Netherlands. Besides countering communist subversion the "colloques" were aimed at Franco-German rapprochement. Foertsch was a German general who was accused of serious war crimes, but after his release became very instrumental in building up the new German military under Adenauer. Paul Manning, p. 212: "When Colonel Nasser became president of Egypt [in late 1954], he asked the CIA for assistance in establishing a similar organization in his country. The CIA did not wish to become involved, and so referred him to General Gehlen, then chief of the West German federal intelligence organization, which was in fact maintained by the CIA. But Gehlen ducked the request, suggesting that former SS General Otto Skorzeny, son-in-law of Hjalmar Schacht, one-time Minister of Finance for Hitler [now worked with Aristotle Onassis], should be approached. Skorzeny, who made his headquarters in Spain, did not want the assignment either, for he was doing too well as an engineer and businessman in Spain [his secret Paladin group, located in Madrid, supposedly was a mercenary group], and was also owner of a large farming establishment outside of Dublin. But, urged by Schacht, he had Heinrich Mueller in Brazil send him a team of secret police specialists, who all arrived in Cairo as a German mission led by Skorzeny, who promptly returned to Spain after introductions had been made." In 1954, in the middle of the McCarthy affair, a strange story appeared about a new "nazi-communist" political underground. Many people believed that the Gehlen Organization had thoroughly been penetrated by the Soviets, as many operations and foreign agents were betrayed. Even though a communist alliance with the Nazis seems far-fetched, the following article does seem to confirm the existence of a post-war underground Nazi movement, led by some of the individuals mentioned earlier. March 31, 1954, The Chronicle Telegram, Ohio: "[Werner] Naumann [former State Secretary in Goebbels's Ministry of Propaganda] recalled the Nazi splinter parties behind him in an attempt to resurrect the Nazi movement. He praised Senator McCarthy and denounced President Eisenhower. Finally he was arrested by the British on charges of plotting to overthrow the West German government [his group was often referred to as "Naumann's Circle"]... Reporter Magazine charges that the "explicit aim of the Naumann group was to establish a Totalitarian West German Government oriented toward the Soviet Union." Naumann used a Dusseldorf export-import firm, the H. S. Luch Company, as a front for a world wide political network which kept in touch with Nazi exiles in Spain and Argentina, as well as pro Nazis in other countries. For example, Col. Otto Skorzeny, the rescuer of Mussolini, and Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, Hitler's former financial wizard, are connected with the company in Spain [where Skorzeny ran an underground mercenary group called Paladin, in Madrid]... Two members of the Nazi-Communist underground in Spain also took in Senator McCarthy's two junior G-men, Roy Cohn and David Schine, during their comic-opera, spy-hunting junket throughout Europe last year." Roy Cohn was later named by EIR as an initial director of Permindex, a corporation set up in 1958 which is suspected of having been a front organization in the planning of the John F. Kennedy assassination. During the 1980s even information surfaced that Cohn had ran a pedophile ring to subvert members of the US government (see William Casey bio in Le Cercle list). Schacht, the godfather of Hitler with Fritz Thyssen, used to be great friends with Pilgrims Society Wall Street and City of London bankers. January 1982, Mae Brussell: "Gehlen pioneered the setting up of dummy fronts and cover companies to support his farflung covert operations... By the time the Gehlen Organization became part of the West German state, Gehlen already had his agent-in-place in the United States. He was Otto Albrecht von Bolschwing, who had been a captain in Heinrich Himmler’s dreaded SS and Adolph Eichmann's superior in Europe and Palestine. Von Bolschwing worked simultaneously for Dulles' OSS. When he entered the U.S. in February, 1954, he cleverly concealed his nazi past. He was to take over Gehlen's network not only in this country but in many corners of the globe. He became closely associated with the late Elmer Bobst [Pilgrims Society; SMOM; anti-Jewish; accused of sexual abuse granddaughters and great-granddaughters] of Warner-Lambert Pharmaceutical, a godfather of Richard Nixon's political career, which brought him inside Nixon's 1960 campaign for the presidency. In 1969 he showed up in California with a high-tech firm called TCI that held classified Defense Department contracts. His translator for German projects was Helene van Damme, Governor Ronald Reagan's appointments secretary." Gehlen remained head of the BND until his retirement in 1968. He produced numerous reports claiming a Soviet invasion of the west was imminent; that the Soviets were building a fleet of flying wing jet fighters; that the Soviets were planning a huge submarine fleet to starve Europe into submission; etc, which heightened the tensions between the two power blocs. Many are of the opinion that some of these reports were exaggerated to justify the existence of Gehlen's Nazi spy outfit. Doubts have also been raised over the effectiveness of the Gehlen Org in providing intelligence on Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.

Sources: April 19, 2005, 18:30, Executives International, 'Forum Dinner - "The Barrel at $99?"' (Guest Speaker: Mr. Conrad Geber)

Studied economics, law, and diplomacy at the University of Cape Town and at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Internationales in Geneva. Worked as an economist in the government of Rhodesia. Admits that he first learned about the oil business in the 1970s when he was helping to circumvent international sanctions against Rhodesia and to procure illegal oil for his country. Started Petro-Logistics in 1980, shortly after the United Nations lifted sanctions against the country. Chairman and CEO of Petro-Logistics ever since, a firm that collects and analyses data on the world's supplies of oil. His company uses tricks from intelligence work to pierce the curtain of secrecy raised by oil-producing countries, especially the members of OPEC in the Persian Gulf. He tracks tanker loadings at major oil ports, relying on a network of about two dozen closely guarded sources. The tanker data is combined with tips from oil executives and synthesized into regular reports for his clients. Gerber's ability to move markets is well known. "Petro-Logistics estimates have a significant market impact, as they are widely recognized as an important source on OPEC supply," said Fatih Birol, the chief economist for the International Energy Agency (IEA), an organization based in Paris that is one of Mr Gerber's clients. Petro-Logistics, meanwhile, "is very well connected in the gulf and the Black Sea," said David Knapp, the senior editor for global markets at the Energy Intelligence Group, a publishing and information services company. Mr Knapp used to work at the International Energy Agency, where he said he relied on Mr Gerber's reports. Petro-Logistics is not the only group to rely on tanker tracking for supply data. Lloyd's Marine Intelligence Unit, part of the Informa Group, uses a network of 900 agents at 2,000 ports and cities, said Andrew Lorimer, manager of oil trade analysis for the unit, which is based in London. Lloyd's also publishes an estimate for seaborneoil on a regular basis. Among his business associates and friends, Mr Gerber counted Theodore G. Shackley, one of the CIA's most famous spymasters, who led efforts to battle Fidel Castro when he was station chief in Miami in the early 1960's. Shackley (an important Cercle member) engaged in some oil trading after he retired from the CIA in 1979. Mr Gerber said he was at Mr Shackley's bedside just before he died last year. Fellow of the London Energy Institute. Member of the Club de Nice (for Energie et Géopolitique). Member of Le Cercle and President of CRES (the Centre de Recherches Entreprises et Sociétés), a consulting firm based in Geneva.

Source(s): 1985 Cercle particpants list, Washington D.C.

Professor of international law University of Utrecht in the 1980s. Chair John F. Kennedy Institute, University of Tilburg. Director Nederlands Instituut voor Vredesvraagstukken, founded in 1969. In 1979 co-founder of the Centrum voor CVSE informatie, of which Cees van den Heuvel became the director. CVSE stood for Conferentie voor Veiligheid en Samenwerking in Europa, primarily a project of the East-West Institute of van den Heuvel. Chair of Professor of International Organizations at Tilburg University. Director Center Parcs Europe N.V.

May 29, 2007, Volkskrant, 'Will it become the networker or the party veteran? ('Wordt het de netwerker of de partijtijger?'): "This time an inspiring answer is expected of the two candidate chairmen of the CDA [Christian Democrat Appeal, a major Dutch party], Jeroen Alting von Geusau (39) ... Jeroen Alting von Geusau is the son of emeritus professor of international law Frans Alting von Geusau, a famed "communist-eater." Who at the height of the cruise missile debate in the Netherlands, more than a quarter century ago, reached national fame due to his observation that the peace movement was infiltrated and financed by the Russians."

royalehuwelijken.web-log.nl (1975 informatie): "De getuigen zijn professor dr. Frans Alting von Geusau en zijn echtgenote Anna Houben uit Oisterwijk..."

May 1985, No. 3, De Rooie Roeptoeter, p. 11: "Our townsman Prof. Jhr. F. Alting von Geusau has become a Knight in the Order of the Dutch Lion ... In RRT no. 1 we already reported on his activities in the OSL [Oud Strijders Legioen]. This time attention is given to his involvement in other right wing clubs as Opus Dei, ICIO and Stichting Vrije Vrouwen [anti-feminist Free Women Foundation]."

Christiaan Alting von Geusau joined the Knights of malta in 2008. Jonkheer Jeroen Alting von Geusau joined the Knights of Malta in 2012. An Alexander Alting von Geusau was chairman of the management board of the JASON Foundation.

July/August 1977, JASON Magazine: "Daily management: chairman: R.D. Praaning Prawira Adiningrat; ... General management: mr. Th. Bot; ... Advisory Board: dr. W. F. van Eekelen (chairman) ... C. C. van den Heuvel..." October/November 1985, JASON Magazine: "Redactie JASON Magazine: Chief editor: Alexander Alting von Geusau ... General management: A. Alting von Geusau... Advisory Board: Dr. W. F. van Eekelen (chairman) ... C. C. van den Heuvel..." Winter 1990-1991, JASON Magazine: "General board: A.G.F.M. Alting von Geusau ... Advisory Council: Prof. drs. V. Halberstadt ... C. C. van den Heuvel; H.J.M. Hoefnagels [from about 1987 and on]; Mr. J.G.N. de Hoop Scheffer [from about 1987]... R.D. Praaning... "

September/October 1977, JASON Magazine: "Vertegenwoordigers van drie politieke jongeren organisaties, PPR-jongeren, de Federatie van Jongeren Groeperingen in de PvdA (FJG) en de Jongeren Organisatie Vrijheid en Democratie (JOVD) vertelden hoe zij Oost-Europa zagen. ... De partijpolitieke stokpaardjes waren bij Ad Melkert (PPR jongeren) aanwezig in zijn aandringen op ontwapening, bij Gijs de Vries (JOVD ) in de vorm van de voorgestane "gelijkwaardigheid van alle mensen"..."

December 1982, JASON Magazine: "The idea was conceived to organize an exchange between Dutch and American policymakers, accompanied by some members of the Jason boards and editors, in order to increase the knowledge and understanding of each other's countries and polities. A counterpart american group, a committee on Future Dutch-American Relations, under chairmanship of Dr. Stanly R. Sloan, was set up too. Both organisations arranged a programme, which you will fmd in this issue. Of both pogrammes a list of participants can be found. ln this issue of Jason Magazine the programme in the Netherlands will be emphasized. The American delegation has got a wide view of Dutch society by visiting representatives of the different dornestic interest groups, both at the political and industrial level. ... [Those who gave speeches:] Dr. Ir. A .E. Pannenborg, vice president of Philips Company ... Prof. Dr. Jhr. F.A.M. Alting von Geusau, director of the John F. Kennedy Institute ... Richard Perle ... Eugene Rostow ... Helmut Sonnenfeldt ... Norman Bailey ... Dennis Blair ... "

December 1983, JASON Magazine: "Het kan nog alle kanten opgaan. De parlementaire hoorzitting Ter verbetering van het inzicht van de parlementsleden in de moderniseringsproblematiek wordt een openbare hoorzitting gehouden. Drie externe deskundigen zijn hiervoor aangetrokken: Yves Luysterborg van de Vrije Universiteit te Brussel, Léon Wecke van het Studiecentrum voor Vredesvraagstukken te Nijmegen en Gijs de Vries van het Instituur voor Internationale Betrekkingen te Leiden."

sites.google.com/site/ teldersdispuut/dispuut (accessed: May 9, 2014): "Het Volkenrechtelijk Dispuut "Professor mr B.M. Telders", verbonden aan de juridische faculteit van de Universiteit Leiden, is op 12 februari 1947 opgericht ter nagedachtenis aan hoogleraar Volkenrecht, professor meester Benjamin Marius Telders, die tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog in een Duits concentratiekamp is omgekomen."

sites.google.com/site/ teldersdispuut/dispuut/ organisatie-2 (accessed: May 9, 2014): "Honorary chairmen: Prof. Jhr Dr F.A.M. Alting von Geusau; ... Prof. Mr L.J. [Laurens Jan] Brinkhorst [politician; Bilderberg veteran; Friends of Europe; daughter married Prince Constantijn of Orange]; Prof. Mr J.G. [Jaap] de Hoop Scheffer [NATO secretary general; Bilderberg; Munich Security Conference; Centre for European Policy Studies; ECFR] ... Honorary Chairmen In Memoriam: Prof. mr F.M. baron van Asbeck; Prof. mr H.J. baron van Asbeck; Prof. Dr E.H. [Ernst Hans] van der Beugel [Kissinger wrote his 1965 Ph.D. dissertation; secretary of Bilderberg]; Prof. mr P.H. [Pieter] Kooijmans [foreign affairs minister] ... Previous directors: ... 1976-1977: ... Mevr. Drs L.E. Schimmelpenninck-Korthals Altes..."

Annual Report 2012, Hoge Raad van Adel (High Council of Nobility) (translated from Dutch): "Aan de Souvereine Militaire Orde van Malta, Afdeling Nederland, werd in het verslagjaar een verklaring van admissie tot deze orde verstrekt ten behoeve van Johanna Walburga Maria Ignatia van Meeuwen - barones van Hövell tot Westerflier en Wezeveld als dame van Eer en Devotie." Annual Report 2012, Hoge Raad van Adel (High Council of Nobility) (translated from Dutch): "Aan de Souvereine Militaire Orde van Malta, Afdeling Nederland, werden in het verslagjaar verklaringen van admissie tot deze orde verstrekt ten behoeve van Jonkheer Jeroen Emmanuel Petrus Maria Alting von Geusau en Huibert Willem Ernest baron van Hövell tot Westervlier en Wezeveld als ridders van Eer en Devotie en van Hermance Liliane Sophie barones van Heeckeren van Keil en Mechteld Yvonne Maria barones van Hövell tot Westerflier als dames van Eer en Devotie." Annual Report 2011, Hoge Raad van Adel (High Council of Nobility) (translated from Dutch): "Aan de Souvereine Militaire Orde van Malta, Afdeling Nederiand, werden in het verslagjaar verklaringen van admissie tot deze orde verstrekt ten behoeve van Carel Jan Bertram baron de Loë, jonkheer Lodewijk Thomas van Meeuwen en Juliaan René Marcel ridder van Rap- pard als ridders van Eer en Devotie, von. jonkvrouw Emilie Clementine Dorothée Rutgers van Rozenburg, Jenny Anne Marie barones van Voorst tot Voorst en Marie-Pauline Josine baro- nes van Voorst tot Voorst als dames van Eer en Devotie en van jonkheer Barend de Roy van Zuidewijn en jonkheer Jan Frangois Marie van der Does de Willebois als ridders van Gratie en Devotie." Annual Report 2010, Hoge Raad van Adel (High Council of Nobility) (translated from Dutch): "Aan de Souvereine Militaire Orde van Malta, Afdeling Nederland, werden in het verslagjaar verklaringen van admissie tot deze orde verstrekt ten behoeve van jonkheer Hugo Philippe Marie van der Goes, jonkheer Aurelius Eliot Groeninx van Zoelen, Axel Diederik Constantijn baron von Maltzahn, jonkheer Lodewijk Everard Reyndert Wittert van Hoogland en Willem Daniël Jan Marie baron de Constant Rebecque als ridders van Eer en Devotie en jonkheer Jan François Marie van der Does de Willebois als ridder van Gratie en Devotie." Annual Report 2009, Hoge Raad van Adel (High Council of Nobility) (translated from Dutch): "Aan de Souvereine Militaire Orde van Malta, Afdeling Nederland, werd in het verslagjaar een verklaring van admissie tot deze orde verstrekt ten behoeve van Alexander Frans Jacob baron van Hövell tot Westervlier en Wezeveld." Annual Report 2008, Hoge Raad van Adel (High Council of Nobility) (translated from Dutch): "Aan de Souvereine Militaire Orde van Malta, Afdeling Nederland, werden in het verslagjaar verklarin-gen van admissie tot deze orde verstrekt ten behoeve van Gysbrecht Christiaan Johannes baron Speyart van Woerden en van jonkheer Christiaan Willem John Maria Alting von Geusau. Laatstgenoemde wenste admissie tot de Oostenrijkse afdeling van de Orde. Weliswaar kon de Raad verklaren dat hij aan de (statutaire) voorwaarden van de Nederlandse afdeling voldoet, maar heeft geen competentie tot beoordeling van de voorwaarden van buitenlandse afdelingen." Annual Report 2007, Hoge Raad van Adel (High Council of Nobility) (translated from Dutch): "Aan de Souvereine Militaire Orde van Malta, Afdeling Nederland, werden in het verslagjaar verklaringen van admissie tot deze orde verstrekt ten behoeve van Olivier Charles Marie Ghislain baron van Lamsweerde, jonkheer Louis Emile Arnold Joseph van Meeuwen, Gerard Paul baron van Lawick van Pabst, jonkheer Elco Titus Jozef Marie van Grotenhuis van Onstein en Felicia Anna Cécile barones von Maltzahn." Annual Report 2006, Hoge Raad van Adel (High Council of Nobility) (translated from Dutch): "Aan de Souvereine Militaire Orde van Malta, Afdeling Nederland, werden in het verslagjaar verklaringen van admissie tot deze orde verstrekt ten behoeve van Emilie Anne Louise barones van Voorst tot Voorst, Leïla Marie Agnès Geneviève Andrée gravin de Marchant et d‟Ansembourg en Patrick Frederik Ferdinand ridder de van der Schueren." Annual Report 2005, Hoge Raad van Adel (High Council of Nobility) (translated from Dutch): "Aan de Souvereine Militaire Orde van Malta, Afdeling Nederland, werden in het verslagjaar verklaringen van admissie tot deze orde verstrekt ten behoeve van jonkheer Christiaan Frans Carel Theodorus Marie van Nispen tot Sevenaer, Dereck Herman baron van Hövell tot Westerflier, Eduard Theodoor Alphons Joseph Maria ridder de van der Schueren en jonkvrouw Ilona Reiniera Adelheid Machteld Genoveva Maria van Weede." Annual Report 2004, Hoge Raad van Adel (High Council of Nobility) (translated from Dutch): "Aan de Souvereine Militaire Orde van Malta, Afdeling Nederland, werd in het verslagjaar een verklaring van admissie tot deze orde verstrekt ten behoeve van jonkheer Frans Eugène Joseph Marie de Roy van Zuidewijn."

ordevanmalta.nl/ algemeen_kapittel.htm (accessed: June 2, 2014): "Association Netherlands - Present Board: Chairman: Jonkheer mr. Peter L.M. van Meeuwen; Coadjutor [co-chair]: Drs. Marie Christine I. barones van Hövell tot Westerflier ... Work Master: Willemijn M.M.J. Duynstee – de Roy van Zuidewijn; ... Previous Chairmen: Mr. Berend-Jan M. baron van Voorst tot Voorst 2005-2010; Mr. Zweder M.O.H. baron van Hövell tot Westerflier 2002-2005; Mr. Seger J.J. baron van Voorst tot Voorst 1992-2002; Mr. Erik T.M. baron van Voorst tot Voorst 1970-1992; Ir. Johannes Baptista G.M. ridder de van der Schueren 1964-1970; Mr. Eduard H.J. baron van Voorst tot Voorst 1953-1964; Zeno Th.J.F. baron van Dorth tot Medler 1942-1953; Zeno Th.J.F. baron van Dorth tot Medler (Acting) 1939-1942; Louis F.J.M. baron van Voorst tot Voorst 1936-1939; Mr. Eduard O.J.M. baron van Hövell van Wezeveld en Westerflier 1931-1936; J.J. Godfried baron van Voorst tot Voorst 1911-1931."

parlement.com/id/vg09llc7cdto/ h_f_m_baron_van_voorst_tot_voorst (accessed: June 2, 2014): " H.F.M. baron van Voorst tot Voorst... luitenant-generaal titulair b.d., 1948 ... - voorzitter ARKO (Algemeene R.K. Officierenvereeniging), omstreeks 1932. - voorzitter Legercommissie, van 10 juli 1947 tot juli 1948. - voorzitter Vlootcommissie, van 10 juli 1947 tot juli 1948. - voorzitter Defensiecommissie, van 9 juli 1948 tot juni 1949. - grootofficier civiele huis van H.M. koningin Juliana, van 28 april 1961 tot 9 juli 1971. ... ere- en devotie ridder Soevereine en militaire orde van Malta. ... Zijn zoons waren pater Jezuïet [Jesuit priest, common in the family). Zijn broers Cuno en Clemens waren officier, zijn broer Jan Joseph Godfried was later commandant van het veldleger. Commandeur in de Orde van Oranje-Nassau. ... familierelaties: - Zoon van J.J.G. baron van Voorst tot Voorst, Eerste Kamerlid en -voorzitter. - Neef van A.E. baron van Voorst tot Voorst, Commissaris der Koningin. - Neef (oomzegger) van A.E.J. baron van Voorst tot Voorst, Commissaris der Koningin. - Kleinzoon van W.C.J.J. Cremers, Eerste en Tweede Kamerlid."

December 13, 2006, Elsevier (mainstream Dutch publication), 'Society: De enige club waarvan je geen lid kunt worden': "Eindelijk, het mag weer,' zegt Max baron van Hövell tot Westerflier (56), notaris te Wijchen. Naast hem staat zijn schoonvader, de zwaar gedecoreerde baron Speyart van Woerden, voormalig ambassadeur en telg uit een oud adellijk geslacht. Van Hövell kijkt tevreden om zich heen en daarvoor heeft hij ook alle reden. Het is feest op paleis Het Loo en bijna alle genodigden zijn van adel. ... In een hoek vertelt dominee Peronne Boddaert (37), van Zeeuwse adel, dat ze dolgraag sneeuwhoen eet en aan rally's meedoet. Verderop legt Jan-Willem baron van Oldeneel tot Oldenzeel uit waarom hij beeldhouwer is geworden. En Maurice ridder de van der Schueren werft voor de Orde van Malta. Reden van het feest is de negentigste verjaardag van de Nederlandse afdeling van de oeroude Souvereine Militaire Hospitaal Orde van Malta, in de vroege Middeleeuwen begonnen als kruisridders. Organisator van het lustrum is de opgewekte René ridder van Rappard (58), die grote plannen heeft met de Orde van Malta. 'En wie mij kent, weet dat ik goeie partijen organiseer!' roept hij. Daarom heeft hij ook veel meer mensen uitgenodigd dan degenen die bij de Orde van Malta horen – overigens zouden dat er ook niet genoeg zijn om deze ruimte te vullen. ... Iedereen weet wie met wie is of was getrouwd, van wie dat de kinderen zijn, waar ze wonen en wat ze doen. Ze weten het van horen zeggen of uit de rode boekjes, in het jargon 'rode verklikkers' geheten, die sinds 1903 worden uitgegeven. Daarin staan alle adellijke famieljes, hun werk, huwelijken, echtscheidingen en kinderen. Binnen de adel bestaat een hiërarchie en iedereen weet wie de oudste familie is, wie nog landerijen heeft en op het voorouderlijk huis woont. Ook is er protestantse adel die neerkijkt op katholieke adel: de protestanten zijn immers inheems van oorsprong en de katholieken komen uit het zuiden. Of de exclusieve Maltezers die honend van de Johanniters zeggen dat 'iedereen daarbij mag'. ... De banden tussen de adel en het koningshuis zijn, om het netjes uit te drukken, zwak. Toch bestaat de Nederlandse adel omdat het land een koninkrijk is, zegt Wolleswinkel. In republieken als Duitsland en Frankrijk bestaat de adel staatsrechtelijk niet meer, al tiert die daar welig. Maar Majesteit lijkt niet veel belangstelling te hebben voor de Nederlandse adel. Die wordt niet of amper op feesten gevraagd. En de telgen van Oranje trouwen met gewone meisjes. 'Had nou niet één van die zoons met een meisje van adel kunnen trouwen?' vraagt Van Hövell zich licht geërgerd af. De adel voelt zich, zo lijkt het, genegeerd door het koningshuis, dat liever aansluiting zoekt bij nieuwe rijken. Zelfs hofdames zijn tegenwoordig niet meer allemaal van adel."

--- MK-ULTRA links and James Monroe who is linked Van den Heuvel --

2007, Beatrice de Graaf et al., 'Battleground Western Europe: intelligence operations in Germany and the twentieth century', pp. 172-178: "The Dutch were certainly given te initiative to develop plans for an institutional arrangement that could back up the twice-yearly colloques with a permanent base. Already in October 1959 Van den Heuvel led a study group that produced the report An Outline for an International Institute to Combat Communist Psychological Warfare, which proposed the formation of a network of national institutes that would then be connected by an overarching international coordination centre. The result of this study was the creation in 1960 of the Dutch national institute, the Stichting voor Onderzoek van Ecologische Vraagstukken (Foundation for the Investigation of Ecological Problems, SOEV), with Van den Heuvel, still in the BVD, as director. The SOEV was named after the CIA-funded Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology in New York, which Van den Heuvel had visited with a Study study group in February 1959. SOEV was meant to function as a coordination point in the Netherlands for the study of communist psychological warfare strategy and techniques, and possible methods for psychological defence, in the new context engendered by peaceful coexistence. Through Prince Bernhard’s contacts came the necessary financial capital from leading Dutch industrial concerns: AKU (later AKZO), Philips, Shell, Unilever. This was an extension of the active interest Dutch business had shown in combating communist influence during the 1950s. … The Dutch military … and certain political parties also made use of SOEV’s expertise. … SOEV’s task in the Netherlands was strengthened in 1962 with the Stichting ter Voorlichting over de Oost-West Verhouding (Institute for Information on East-West Relations). … in 1965 it was merged with SOEV to form Oost-West Instituut, thereby joining the training and advisory functions of SOEV with the scholarly-intellectual output of the journal. … psychological warfare capability within NATO had met opposition… Bonnemaison was forced to withdraw when in early 1963 de Gaulle close down the Cinquieme Bureaux. Already in January 1962 Einthoven learnt from his BND partners that French cooperation could no longer be guaranteed, and ‘that France could only “symbolically” join in with Interdoc.’ … De Gaulle was less interested in psychological warfare matters and the bureau had become a site of opposition to his policy for Algerian independence. What is more, de Gaulle’s reconfiguration of Atlantic affairs included a level of rapprochement with Moscow, a goal which obviously made problematic direct involvement in an international coalition developing anti-communist psychological warfare. … After 1962 French participants continued to be invited and to attend Interdoc meetings, but they came as individuals and not as official representatives. … In an article in 1961 Van den Heuvel himself referred to how this cadre formation must be focused on the three most influential areas in society: education, the military, and the business world. … Interdoc’s role was to establish training facilities for aspiring individuals who would then form a kind of anti-communist intellectual vanguard within each nation’s body politic."

2007, Beatrice de Graaf et al., 'Battleground Western Europe: intelligence operations in Germany and the twentieth century', p. 188: "Van den Heuvel to James L. Monroe [head Psychological Warfare Division, SHAEF; Responsible for the leaflet bomb; Close to CIA in Korean War prisoners; psychological warfare expert at the CIA-linked Human Resources Research Institute (HRRI; on the advisory board: Charles Dollard, president Carnegie Corp. (as chairman) and Dr. Leland DeVinney of the Rockefeller Foundation) until 1957; executive director CIA-funded Human Ecology Fund 1961-63; supervised the grants to MK-ULTRA scientists as Ewen Cameron], 21 July 1961, File: SOEV map I, Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology, 1958-1964. ... Brian Crozier has stated that Jean Violet "More or less took over the colloques." Brian Crozier, interview, London, 4 November 2004."

1995, Eric Thomas Chester, 'Covert network: progressives, the International Rescue Committee, and the CIA', p. 80: "To guarantee the financial solvency of this operation, the Harvard Refugee Interview Project "was funded by OPC [Office of Policy Coordination], using the Air Force Human Resources Research Institute as a conduit.""

1990, Harvey Weinstein, 'Father, Son and CIA', p. 137: "As these concerns heated up [signed confessions and seemingly uncoerced radio broadcasts from U.S. pilots captured by the Chinese], a working group was set up by the air force under the leadership of a man named Fred Williams. This group, the Air Force Psychological Warfare Division, was located a Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama, and was part of a network attempting to understand the implications of the POW confessions. Among those associated with this group were Colonel James Monroe (who was later to join the CIA); Albert Biderman, a sociologist; air force psychiatrists Herman Sander and Robert J. Lifton; Harold Wolff and Lawrence Hinkle at Cornell; and CIA psychologist John Gittinger. … It was Wolff and Hinkle who produced the major treatise on brainwashing that emerged during this period [Korean War]. Originally written as a report for the Technical Services Division of the CIA in 1956, it was published in a major psychiatric journal, the Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry, in the same year under the title, Communist Interrogation and Indoctrination of “Enemies of the State”…"

John Marks, 'The Search for the Manchurian Candidate', p. 115: "From 1955 to 1958, Agency officials passed funds through the Society for work on criminal sexual psychopaths at Ionia State Hospital, [3] a mental institution located on the banks of the Grand River in the rolling farm country 120 miles northwest of Detroit. This project had an interesting hypothesis: That child molesters and rapists had ugly secrets buried deep within them and that their stake in not admitting their perversions approached that of spies not wanting to confess. The MKULTRA men reasoned that any technique that would work on a sexual psychopath would surely have a similar effect on a foreign agent. Using psychologists and psychiatrists connected to the Michigan mental health and the Detroit court systems, they set up a program to test LSD and marijuana, wittingly and unwittingly, alone and in combination with hypnosis. Because of administrative delays, the Michigan doctors managed to experiment only on 26 inmates in three years—all sexual offenders committed by judges without a trial under a Michigan law, since declared unconstitutional. The search for a truth drug went on, under the auspices of the Human Ecology Society, as well as in other MKULTRA channels."

July 28, 1985, Washington Post, '25 Years of Nightmares': "Helms had ordered papers concerning the experiments in Montreal destroyed in 1973, but in 1977, acting on a Freedom of Information Act request by writer John Marks, then-CIA director Adm. Stansfield Turner announced that some files had not been destroyed. Those documents form the basis of what is generally known about the work of D. Ewen Cameron. A CIA chemist, Sidney Gottlieb, supervised the MKULTRA project from within the agency, documents show. A CIA doctor, Lt. Col. James L. Monroe, worked undercover and ran the Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology, the organization that channeled money to Cameron and the Allan Institute. Rauh contends that Cameron knew the CIA was interested in his work and actively solicited the grant. With the CIA's approval (and with checks drawn against U.S. Treasury funds), documents show that Monroe got at least $60,000 to Cameron."

August 13, 1977, Facts on File World News Digest, 'CIA mind-control tests revealed': "The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had sponsored a $25-million program of secret mind-control experiments at universities, prisons and hospitals, it was revealed Aug. 1-9. It was also reported that many of these experiments were funded through ostensibly private medical research foundations and that,in some cases, the tests were performed on unwitting subjects. Details of the experiments were contained in more than 2,000 documents discovered in the CIA's archives and made available to the press through the Freedom of Information Act. Additional information was revealed in the testimony of CIA officials at a Senate joint committee hearing and in press interviews with medical researchers connected with the project. According to the sources, the project had gotten underway in 1950 and had lasted until 1973. The tests had been prompted by the belief that the Chinese and Soviets had developed sophisticated "brain washing" devices and techniques that had to be countered. The CIA project had various code names over the 23-year period, including "Project Bluebird," "Project Artichoke" and "MK-Ultra." The project consisted of wide-ranging experiments using drugs, hypnosis and behavior control devices. It had aimed at developing means to induce disorientation, amnesia and unconsciousness in enemy agents or to make them susceptible to interrogation. According to the documents, the CIA had chiefly funded the mind-control tests through two private foundations, the Geschikter Foundation for Medical Research and the Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology Inc. The foundation had been established in 1939 by Dr. Charles F. Geschikter, a prominent pathologist and medical researcher. The society had been co-founded in 1955 by Dr. Harold Wolff, a friend of then-Director of Central Intelligence Allen W. Dulles. Air Force Col. James L. Monroe, a brain-washing expert, had assumed directorship of the society in 1956 at the CIA's behest, it was reported. The Geschikter Foundation, based in Washington, was still in existence. The society had been disbanded in 1965. Among the activities substantiated by the documents and testimony: * A plan to test drugs on terminal cancer patients at an unnamed medical school. The New York Times said Aug. 4 the institution was the Georgetown University Medical School in Washington. The Geschikter Foundation in 1955 had given Georgetown a $375,000 building grant. Dr. Geschikter was a professor emeritus of pathology at Georgetown. * Behavior-modification through sense deprivation experiments had been conducted between 1955 and 1960 at the Allan Memorial Institute of Psychiatry at McGill University in Montreal. The tests had been conducted on medical personnel by Dr. D. Ewen Cameron and had been funded through the Human Ecology Society. * The CIA, in cooperation with the now-defunct Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, in 1954 had established two "safe houses," on in New York City, the other in San Francisco. These were apartments apparently disguised as brothels to lure unsuspecting men from nearby bars.The subjects were given drugs and their behavior was observed through two-way mirrors. This project was code-named "Operation Midnight Climax." * Prisoners at the federal penitentiary in Atlanta and at the Bordentown Reformatory in New Jersey had been the subjects of experiments using the hallucinogen LSD. These tests were conducted between 1955 and 1964 by Dr. Carl Pfeiffer, a pharmacologist and had been funded through the Geschikter Foundation. * The Human Ecology Society had funded experiments on 142 "sexual psychopaths" at the Iona State Hospital in Michigan between 1957 and 1960.The patients had been given LSD and a marijuana derivative to see if the drugs might be useful during interrogation. * The CIA had channeled funds through the Office of Naval Research for LSD experiments on prisoners at the U.S. Public Health hospital in Lexington, Ky. The tests had been conducted in secret by Dr. Harris Isbell between 1952 and 1963. * Some 200 persons, many of them students from local universities, had been given LSD in experiments at the Boston Psychopathic Hospital (now the Massachusetts Mental Health Center) between 1952 and 1957. The tests had been funded through the Human Ecology Society. Director of Central Intelligence Stansfield Turner said Aug. 3 that the CIA had backed mind-control research at 80 institutions, including 44 colleges and universities. The peak period of the project, he said, was 1953 through 1963, during which the agency supported 185 nongovernment researchers engaged in 149 separate projects. Turner's remarks were made at a joint hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the subcommittee on health of the Senate Human Resources Committee. Turner told the committee members that the testing had been stopped and that he found it "totally abhorrent" that human beings had been "used as guinea pigs." Turner said he was working with Health, Education and Welfare Secretary Joseph A. Califano and Attorney General Griffin B. Bell in an attempt to locate the subjects of the experiments and discover if they had suffered ill effects from the tests. The documents left unclear exactly how many researchers knew they were working indirectly for the CIA and how many subjects had been duped into taking part in the experiments. The CIA had apparently taken great care to keep its involvement in the research a secret, although scattered evidence of the experiments had been uncovered in recent years, including the details surrounding the 1953 suicide of a man who had unknowingly been given LSD. [See 1976, p. 24F3] Observers noted that the U.S. in 1953 had adopted the Nuremberg Code of 1947, which stated that medical research should be conducted only if it was intended to improve the lot of mankind and with the full consent and knowledge of the subject."

March 12, 1988, Sydney Morning Herald (Australia), 'Torture sessions, paid for by the CIA; Canada': "The CIA has admitted paying Dr Cameron $A97,000 for his work, under a program called MK-ULTRA. The money came from a CIA organisation known as the"Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology". While newspaper stories had appeared in the US in 1977, it was not until the eight victims read about what had been done to them in a 1979 book, The Search for the Manchurian Candidate: the CIA and Mind Control, by John Marks, that they launched their action for $1.4 million. ... Dr Cameron was known as "the godfather" of Canadian psychiatry but a book to be published next year, Journey into Madness, by a British journalist, Mr Gordon Thomas, says that Dr Cameron had a "Faustian" relationship with the early CIA chief, Mr Allen Dulles. He says that the doctor sold his soul so he could perform experiments that would otherwise have been considered unethical The two met in Nuremberg in 1948 when Mr Dulles asked Dr Cameron to help with a psychological examination of Rudolf Hess. Dr Cameron was in Nuremberg to help write a code of ethics for medical experiments in the wake of the revelations at the post-war trials of Nazi "doctors". The code said that patients should be informed and given the right to consent to medical experiments. Dr Cameron died in 1967 at the age of 66 while mountain climbing. His son destroyed his files."

November, 1999, Peace Research, 'Carl Rogers worked for the CIA': "Professor Oya Ersever's article in Peace Research(f.1) advocating the humanistic philosophy of Carl Rogers as a guideline for peace should, perhaps, include a cautionary postscript in the form of an ad hominem criticism of Rogers. Readers should know that Carl Rogers was a knowing and willing accomplice in CIA funding of covert psychological research. Certainly, the CIA is not noted as an agency devoted tot he promotion of peace nor to the humane treatment of people.(f.2) ... The CIA's funding of psychological research was directed by Sidney Gottlieb.(f.4) Various funding fronts were used, for example, the Scientific Engineering Institute(f.5) and Psychological Assessment Associates.(f.6) In 1955, Harold Wolff, from Cornell University's Psychiatry Department created a CIA research front called the Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology. This was later shortened to the Human Ecology Fund. The plan was to promote research that would lead to techniques for getting information out of people without their co-operation and without their even knowing that was what you were doing. In 1957, the Human Ecology Fund was legally separated from Cornell. Lt.-Col. James Monroe, former head of the Psychological Warfare Division of the U.S. Air Force, became director, and Carl Rogers joined the board of directors. Rogers is on record as saying that he was well aware that the Human Ecology Fund was a CIA front for covert funding of psychological research, and that he had no problem working for the CIA.(f.7) In fact, the CIA gave Rogers $30,000, which enabled him to leave academics and settle in sunny La Jolla, California.(f.8) There he worked for the Western Behavioural Sciences Institute, which had contracts with the Pentagon for cross-cultural research.(f.9). ... Notes (f.1.) Oya G. Ersever, ''The Humanistic Philosophies of Mevlana Rumi and Carl Rogers: Principles of Effective Communication to Promote Universal Peace,'' Peace Research 31, no. 3 (August 1999), p. 42-50. (f.2.) W. Blum, The CIA: A Forgotten History (London: Zed, 1986). (f.3.) J.D. Marks, The Search for the Manchurian Candidate: The CIA and Mine Control (New York: Times Books, 1979). (f.4.) Ibid. Also Anon, ''CIA's Sidney Gottlieb, 80, Oversaw Brainwashing,'' Toronto Star, 11 March 1999, p. B4. (f.5.) Marks, op. cir Also P. Greenfield, ''CIA's Behaviour' Caper,'' APA Monitor 8, no. 12, p. 1, 10-11. (f.6.) Ibid. (f.7.) Marks, op. cit. (f.8.) M. Klare, The University-Military Complex: A Directory and Related Documents (New York: North, 1970). Also, J. R. Raser, ''Cross-cultural Simulation Research,'' International Journal of Psychology 2, p. 59-67. (f.9.) Greenfield, op. cit., Marks, op. cit."

July 28, 1985, Washington Post, '25 Years of Nightmares; Victims of CIA-Funded Mini Experiments Seek Damages from the Agency': "The experiments, Weinstein says, left his father "a human guinea pig, a poor pathetic man with no memory, no life. He lost his business, he lost everything." Weinstein is one of nine plaintiffs in a lawsuit, seeking damages from the CIA. To erase or "de-pattern" personality traits, Cameron gave his subjects megadoses of LSD, subjected them to drug-induced "sleep therapy" for up to 65 consecutive days and applied electroshock therapy at 75 times the usual intensity. To shape new behavior, Cameron forced them to listen to repeated recorded messages for 16-hour intervals, a technique known as "psychic driving." Cameron and the CIA were interested in brainwashing and the ability to redirect thought and action. The patients did not consent to the treatment and were never told they were being used for research. "When you're 13 years old and you see your father -- an independent, kind, smart person -- become a different man before your eyes, it's impossible to accommodate that," Weinstein says. "I remember one of his first visits home from the hospital. He didn't talk much, and when he did talk it made no sense. When he wasn't sleeping he was drowsy. He asked us things about his parents, even though they'd been dead for years. His memory was gone. At night once, when I was in bed, I saw him come into my room and urinate on the floor. He didn't know where he was. "My father has ended up feeling guilty that he had done something to deserve this punishment. He is convinced the CIA listens to his telephone. He's ashamed, embarrassed. My mother died without seeing the end of this. It will be a tragedy if my father dies without restoring some sense of dignity to his life." Today Louis Weinstein lives alone in Montreal, cared for by his two grown daughters. No one knows the whereabouts of all the subjects, some of whom may be dead. But Louis Weinstein and eight others, including Velma Orlikow, the wife of a New Democratic Party member of the Canadian parliament, claim they have been injured irreparably by the experiments. "I'd say Velma operates at about 20 percent of capacity," David Orlikow says. "It's horrific." The CIA's involvement in mind control experiments has been coming to light for years. The suit filed by the group against the U.S. government has been pending here in U.S. District Court since December 1980 before Judge John Garrett Penn. The plaintiffs originally asked for $1 million each in damages but have cut that to $175,000. The government has offered to pay $25,000. The group's attorney, Joseph Rauh Jr., calls the settlement offer "demeaning" and contends that the CIA has managed to delay the proceedings by "stonewalling." The CIA's counsel, Lee Strickland, declined to comment on the case. Agency spokeswoman Kathy Pherson said, "We don't comment on cases under litigation. It's inappropriate to try cases in the press." In Cameron's defense, Brian Robertson, the present director of the Allan Institute, and James Farquhar, a psychiatrist there, wrote in the Montreal Gazette that "we have not been able to uncover a single shred of evidence that Dr. Cameron knew of the CIA connection with his research funding." They said Cameron's work "must be placed in its historical context" and that "in Cameron's day researchers were not expected to inform their patients of the nature of their research in the way that they are today." The CIA has asked Judge Penn to block Rauh from taking depositions from two key agency figures -- Stacey Hulse and John Knaus, who have been publicly identified as former CIA station chiefs in Ottawa. They are both retired. Cameron, who died of a heart attack while mountain climbing in 1967, had been one of the most prominent psychiatrists in North America. A former president of both the Canadian and American psychiatric associations, he was selected to diagnose Nazi figures, including Rudolf Hess, during the Nuremberg trials. (He declared Hess sane.) But for his work on brainwashing and mind control, critics have called him a "mad scientist." "We hanged Nazis for doing the sort of things Cameron did," says Rauh. "Cameron wanted to be up there with Freud," says David Orlikow. "He wanted that stature, so he would do anything. Anything! It was horrific." Since World War II, U.S. intelligence agencies have been interested in the techniques of controlling behavior and thought. The military was especially intrigued by interrogation techniques used on American POWs during the Korean War. Brainwashing entered the American vocabulary. ... A CIA chemist, Sidney Gottlieb, supervised the MKULTRA project from within the agency, documents show. A CIA doctor, Lt. Col. James L. Monroe, worked undercover and ran the Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology, the organization that channeled money to Cameron and the Allan Institute. Rauh contends that Cameron knew the CIA was interested in his work and actively solicited the grant. With the CIA's approval (and with checks drawn against U.S. Treasury funds), documents show that Monroe got at least $60,000 to Cameron. Velma Orlikow: I suffer from chronic depression which sometimes becomes acute. I call those periods my 'black holes.' I don't see anybody and I won't leave the house. I can't read and I used to love to read. I can't write a letter. I have unexplained fears. I wake up at night afraid and I don't know why. I'm trying to limp through my life like someone who's been in a terrible accident that leaves them crippled. Dr. Cameron could be cruel if you didn't do exactly what he wanted. He was a god figure to the patients. He'd say to me, 'What's the matter with you, lassie?' I still hear his voice sometimes. Ewen Cameron was born in Scotland and educated at the University of Glasgow, the Glasgow Royal Mental Hospital and at Johns Hopkins. He first won a measure of fame for setting up mobile psychiatric clinics in the '30s in Canada. During the war, Cameron was part of an international committee of psychiatrists and social scientists who studied the origins and nature of Nazi culture. He published numerous articles on mass psychology during wartime. Cameron began the Allan Memorial Institute in 1943 with the help of a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. He gave numerous speeches on "the problem of Germany" and believed that the psychology and forces that gave to rise to Nazism may have been longstanding in German culture. Although he was based in Montreal, Cameron became an American citizen and angered many in the bilingual community of Montreal for being an insistent English speaker. More and more, Cameron came to believe in the possibility of changing the human mind, of altering thought and behavior patterns. But rather than experiment in psychotherapy, what Freudians have called "the talking cure," Cameron believed in quicker, organic means, including drugs and electroshock. He began experimenting on organic ways of controlling schizophrenia. The experiments of 1957-1961 were done on patients, mostly women, who entered the Allan Institute voluntarily, usually at the recommendation of a private physician. Louis Weinstein went to the institute suffering from respiratory and digestive difficulties caused by anxiety. After undergoing the complete treatment of LSD and other drugs, electroshock and psychic driving, Weinstein is, in his son's words, a "lost soul . . . My father has no social sense, how to keep clean, how to carry on a conversation." "They took his self away from him." Velma Orlikow suffered from depression after the birth of her daughter. After several years of treatment with a private psychiatrist in Winnipeg, she entered the Allan Institute to speed her progress. Without being told the nature of the injections, she was given shots of LSD on 14 occasions and went through psychic-driving sessions. She found the treatments frightening but, according to her testimony, Cameron persuaded her to continue until 1963. Now Orlikow says she cannot concentrate well, can no longer read books or magazine articles. Dr. Mary Morrow approached Cameron for a fellowship in psychiatry, but Cameron thought, after a physical exam, that Morrow appeared "nervous" and admitted her as a patient instead. For 11 days, Morrow says she underwent de-patterning experiments that included electroshock treatment, and barbiturates. The treatment resulted in a brain anoxia -- not enough oxygen reaching the brain -- and she was hospitalized. Today Morrow suffers from prosopagnosia -- she cannot recognize people's faces. The list goes on. Robert Logie, a native of Vancouver, says he cannot hold a steady job or sleep without the help of drugs. He suffers from severe depression and still dreams about the experiments. Lyvia Stadler of Montreal has been institutionalized. In his court claim, Rauh claims that not only did the experiments have "no likely therapeutic value," they also violated the accepted standards of medical experimentation as formulated at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials and ratified in the Charter of the United Nations."

Jeroen Alting von Geusau (son of Frans):
Université Catholique de Louvain Franciscan University of Steubenville. Leiden University 1990-1995. Member Minerva. IMD Business School 2008. Founder and president of the CDJA working group on Central and Eastern Europe, 1993-1995. CDA working group on European policy, 1993-1997. Treasurer and executive member of the European Young Christian Democrats (EYCD) 1994-1997. Participated in Central European training sessions in Bulgaria, Slovakia, and Slovenia of the Eduardo Frei Foundation***. Regional secretary VNO-NCW (largest employer organization) 1995-1997. Manager public affairs Corus (Hoogovens/smelting ovens) 1997-1999. Marketing manager automotive Corus 1999-2001. Product / project manager Automotive Philips Lighting (France) 2001-2005. Business manager (automotive) NXP Semiconductors (Philips) 2005-2008. External Communications Netherlands Railways 2008-2012. Several voluntary functions CDA [Christian Democrat Appeal, a major Dutch party]. May 29, 2007, Volkskrant, 'Will it become the networker or the party veteran? ('Wordt het de netwerker of de partijtijger?'): "This time an inspiring answer is expected of the two candidate chairmen of the CDA [Christian Democrat Appeal, a major Dutch party], Jeroen Alting von Geusau (39) ... Jeroen Alting von Geusau is the son of emeritus professor of international law Frans Alting von Geusau, a famed "communist-eater." Who at the height of the cruise missile debate in the Netherlands, more than a quarter century ago, reached national fame due to his observation that the peace movement was infiltrated and financed by the Russians." Joined the Knights of Malta in 2012.

*** 1997, Robert Hutchison, 'Their kingdom come - Inside the secret world of Opus Dei' (digital version): "The Vatican had initially supported the Christian Democrat leader, Eduardo Frei, but became uneasy about reports from Ibanez Langlois that Frei was building bridges to the radical trade union movement. Until then, the Vatican had regarded Chile as a possible model for social change in Latin America. While Vatican doubts set in, the Jesuits continued to insist that Frei was the only person capable of stopping Marxism in Chile. This view was not shared by Ibanez Langlois or his politically active recruits. With a Chicago-trained economist Pablo Baraona, they formed a Conservative think tank, the Institute for General Studies, which attracted a following of free-market economists, lawyers, publicists and technocrats. Frei's social programme made US president Richard Nixon see red, and at his insistence the CIA began financing the Institute for General Studies in the hope that it could form a counter-elite to the Christian Democrat party. Even when Frei's government had almost mastered Chile's runaway inflation, Nixon still wanted Frei 'hammered' should he be returned to the presidency in the next elections. The right-wing extremists led by Guzman and Puga [both Opus Dei] fractured the Conservative vote, with the result that Salvador Allende won instead by a narrow margin. The Madrid technocrats were opposed to Allende. The Spanish ambassador in Santiago contacted his American counterpart to see what could be done about the 'smiling doctor', as Allende was sometimes known. A broad section of Chileans regarded Allende's election success as a promise of national renewal, but his radical left wing did not wait to consolidate their position constitutionally. They launched 'People's Power', consisting of Peasant Councils that took over the larger farms and Workers' Assemblies that occupied the factories. Under such conditions, the extreme right was not long in making itself felt. The 'spoiling operation' ordered by the CIA was planned inside the Institute for General Studies and resulted in the September 1973 coup by General Augusto Pinochet. His spokesman was the Institute's co-founder Alvaro Puga. Another Institute director, Herman Cubillos, became Pinochet's foreign minister, and the Institute's co-founder, Pablo Baraona, was minister of the economy. The third Institute co-founder, Jaime Guzman, drafted the new constitution. At least two members of the military junta, Admiral Jose Merino and General Jaime Estrada Leigh, were said to be 'sons' of Escriva de Balaguer. Estrada, who previously headed the Nuclear Energy Commission, became housing minister."

Cees van den Heuvel's INTERDOC:

2012, Professor Giles Scott-Smith, 'Western Anti-Communism and the Interdoc Network: Cold War Internationale' (digital version): ""Financially Shell continued to be a faithful supporter [of Interdoc], as accounts for 1978 still indicate a sum of 30,000 guilders from the multinational (alongside 10,000 from Philips and 5000 from Unilever). ... He possessed strong allies, in particular Gerard Peijnenburg, the [Defense] Ministry's Secretary General from 1969 to 1984, and Liberal politician Harm van Riel (an OWI board member), who raised concerns in parliament over the declining motivation of Dutch military personnel. Peijnenburg, as a board member of Stichting Fondsenwerving Militarire Oorlogs- en Dienstenslachtoffers (SFMO: Foundation for Fundraising for Military Casualties in War) was in a key position to direct its large-scale funds (over 70 million guilders in the 1980s) to several of Van den Heuvel's projects, including the Institute for Psychological Defense (Geestelijke Weerbaarheid)... But input was coming elsewhere in the 1970s, as the OWI's financial reports indicate: in 1976 "foreign funds" provided 90,000 guilders.... The most likely source of this support is the Americans... Van den Heuvel, constantly on the lookout for how to maintain this source, would refer to "our Pittsburgh friends" (Scaife) in a letter to Bell. .... Other groups on the anti-communist right - WACL, CEDI, the Pinay Circle - had gradually faded away from Interdoc's circle by the late 1970s. ... Throughout the decade [1970s] Van den Heuvel was supported by two new partners, ... A.C.A. (Tony) Dake and the well-connected businessman Ernst H. van Eeghen [1001 Club]. ... The Dake family's Haëlla Foundation was a crucial new source of funds for Van den Heuvel's activities, providing 30,000 guilders in 1976 alone. [15] Van Eeghen, whose family business interests included the oldest private bank in the Netherlands (Oyens & Van Eeghen, established 1797) and the foodstuffs conglomerate the Van Eeghen Group (established 1662), was another formidable independent operator. Inspired both by his Mennonite beliefs and by the example of the informal Dartmouth conferences between Soviet and American representatives, in the 1970s Van Eeghen used the World Council of Churches and World War II veterans' channels to establish his own contacts with the Soviet security establishment and ran a series of informal seminars at his Berkenrode estate in Haarlem.16 The range of activities pursued during the 1970s to strengthen the transatlantic bond operated along the same lines of defence and offence which had been the trademark of the Interdoc circle since its inception."

2012, Professor Giles Scott-Smith, 'Western Anti-Communism and the Interdoc Network: Cold War Internationale' (digital version): "Finally, Interdoc also had a covert action side, using "dirty tricks" and sometimes direct action to disrupt communist front organizations. The origins and activities of Interdoc therefore fit the claim that the Cold War was primarily an ideological struggle – a battle of ideas. … But this was psychological warfare in its broadest possible sense: not propaganda alone, but a genuine contest between competing ways of life. There were of course many other anti-communist networks active during the Cold War but each had their limitations. Some, such as Paix et Liberte, its successor the Comite International d’Information et d’Action Sociale (CIAS) and the World Anti-Communist League (WACL), were simply too negative in their approach. Others, such as Otto von Habsburg Centre Europeen de Documentation et d’Information (CEDI) and Paul van Zeeland’s Comite International pour la Defense de Civilisation Chretienne (CIDCC), were extensive in membership but founded on catholic values that caused them to be too exclusionary. Then there were groups, such as the Pinay Circle (Le Cercle) around French Prime Minister Antoine Pinay, which were too private and behind-the-scenes [actually also very catholic/Opus Dei]. … One of these was the well-funded Ligue Internationale de la Liberte of Paul vankerkhoven and Suzanne Labin, with around 2000 members in Belgium alone. In a meeting with Mennes in Ghent, Vankerkhoven agreed to distribute Interdoc publications. In one way the Ligue was a step back, since it represented the simplistic kind of right-wing anti-communism that Van den Heuvel and Einthoven had been trying to escape from. Van den heuvel reported to Geyer after a trip to Brussels in January 1970 that, while the Ligue and its associated network (the anti-subversion Centre de Defense nationale, partner groups in France and Italy) were useful for contacts, conference contributions, and special actions “ that officially are better not carried out by Interdoc”, official links had to be limited with an organization that saw communist conspiracy everywhere. For these reasons he declined the offer to join the Ligue’s advisory board “ with polite and careful words.” On the other hand, these kinds of groups represented a new direction which Interdoc would focus on during the 1970s: the promotion of human rights. Other Belgian-based right-wing anti-communist groups, all of them interlinked, would also cross the Interdoc path in this area, such as Vankerkhoven’s cercle des Nations, marcel De Roover’s Brussels office of the Centre Europeen de Documentation et d’Information (CEDI) and Florimond Damman’s Academie Europeenne de Sciences Politiques. … Cedi was the transnational catholic network with Archduke Otto von Habsburg at its head, and there were close ties to the BND. The WACL was especially active in Asia, and it would provide some useful contacts there – Peeters spent the summer of 1968 doing research in Taipei [Taiwan], partly funded by Interdoc. But for an institute like Interdoc, attempting above all to establish itself as a credible voice, these were dangerous waters. Moderate anti-communists were hard to find in the late 1960s. "

Sources: 2002, David Rockefeller, 'Memoirs', pp. 412-413, referring to the Pesenti Group

Priest at the Vatican. Vatican diplomat. Representative to the UN. Prominent member of Opus Dei and a virulent anti-communist, according to David Rockefeller in his 2002 memoirs. Defender of Pope Pius XII, who has been accused of not standing up enough to Hitler during WWII. Wrote a novel about the battle between Marxism and Christianity.

Source(s): Name appeared on a hand-written note of persons to be invited to a Cercle meeting

1933-1997. Tory. Married the young daughter of Bolivian tin magnate and elite 1001 Club member Antenor Patino, who wasn't happy with the fact that his daughter married a Jew. Strangely, Patino's daughter, while still below the age of 20, died of a massive cerebral hemorrhage some time later.

By the early 1960s Sir James Goldsmith was part of the elite, right-wing Mayfair Set, together with John Aspinall, Lord Lucan, Tiny Rowland, the Cecil family, future Cercle head Lord Julian Amery and SAS founder David Stirling.

Joined the board of oil exploration company Basic Resources International in January 1979 and became chairman in 1980. Calvi associate Mr. Antonio Tonello served on the board of BRI in the 1975-1980 period as a representative of the Italian branch of Bank of America. Sued Private Eye magazine in the early 1980s.

Very supportive of the Reagan White House and the neocons. Eventually was allowed access to the White House and served on the board of the neoconservative Committee for the Free World, together with Donald Rumsefeld (chair), Midge Decter (founder and executive director), Jeane Kirkpatrick, Lord Chalfont, Irving Kristol (CIA's Encounter magazine), Melvin Lasky (CIA's Encounter magazine). November 2, 1990, Executive Intelligence Review, ''Green mole' Sir James Goldsmith becomes top ecofascist warrior': "A former senior Reagan National Security Council (NSC) staffer recalls giving a private briefing to Sir James and media mogul Rupert Murdoch on U.S. arms control policy in the office of Kenneth deGraffenreid, then head of Intelligence Programs at the NSC. ...
An official of the the CIA's retirees lobby the Association of Former Intelligence Officers [AFIO] who served in the CIA London station described Goldsmith as a "member of SIS [British Secret Intelligence Services] old-boys' board of directors" and the private financier who handles British intelligence's "Israel account." Sir Jimmy sits on the board of media magnate Conrad Black's Hollinger Corp. along with Henry Kissinger and Peter Lord Carrington. Hollinger recently acquired the Jersualem Post...
James Jesus Angleton, the late former head of the CIA counterintelligence division, said that Sir Jimmy was the first to tell him the slander that LaRouche's wife Helga Zepp-LaRouche was an "East German agent."
In New York, Wall Street investment banker and intelligence "spook" John Train has been an intimate of Sir Jimmy, according to the Nov. 23, 1987 Time magazine. ...
Goldsmith and Scaife have collaborated in numerous philanthropic joint ventures ... One is the funding of The American Spectator... In London, Goldsmith bankrolled the kooky intelligence newsletter of Kenneth de Courcy, according to a former business partner (see Feature)."

September 26, 1981, The Spectator, 'Probing Jimmy's World': "Sir James and I are not the only people who are concerned about subversives undermining the media... We have, for instance, the current best-seller, The Spike, which discloses under a thin fictional disguise that the The New York Times is pretty much controlled by agents of the KGB, the Soviet espionage service, using a skilful mixture of flattery, moral blackmail and false news tipoffs which apparently function with deadly efficiency, so different from the flush toilets in Moscow hotels. The Spike is a joint production by two journalists, Arnaud de Borchgrave and Robert Moss. ...
Robert Moss wrote (small world!) the cover story of the very first number of Sir James's then newsmagazine, Now!, exposing some of the activities of the KGB in this country. The Russians were, according to the Moss article, cleverly using Iraqi surrogates to ferret out British defence secrets...
Did one-sided reporting lead to American disillusionment with the war in Vietnam, and the eventual debacle? Whose side were the press on, anyway? ...
(2) Journalists working for much bigger publications, some of them majestic cupboard-liners like the New York Times, our own Sunday Times or even Sir James's own French newsmagazine L 'Express, are playing Moscow's game on the quiet, accepting planted stories, rumours, disinformation, and, according to some accounts, cash and sexual favours from something called Service A, the clandestine propaganda arm of the KGB.
(3) The contact point of these two conspiracies is a safe house at 34 Greek Street, WI, the offices of Private Eye, or the Coach and Horses, the Eye local just up the road."

Got to know George Soros in the mid 1980s at parties hosted by Soros. Soros bought a stake in the Newmont Mining Corporation (gold) from Sir James Goldsmith and Lord Jacob Rothschild in 1993.

In 1985 he took over the Crown Zellerbach Corporation in America, a forest products company with large timber reserves. In 1989 he pushed the Thatcher government towards green issues. In 1990 he announced to The Times to come out in favor of the environmental cause, despite being a right-winger with deep Reagan and U.S. neocon ties. He also explained to have funded the environmental and anti-nuclear energy work of his brother, Teddy Goldsmith, for many years. In the same period he introduced the debt-for-nature swaps to the British Foreign Office, meaning that Third World countries could hand over their rainforests and other natural resources in return for debt relief.

1999, Adam Curtis, 'The Mayfair Set': "In 1962, John Aspinall opened his own gambling club, the Clermont Club in Mayfair. [SAS founder David] Stirling was one of its members... [Other members] included James Goldsmith, a playboy and ferocious gambler who is to become a close friend of Stirling's; the tycoon Tiny Rowland [of Lonrho], who Stirling already knew from his time in Africa; Lord Lucan, the descendant of the man who led the charge of the Light Brigade; and Jim Slater, the takeover tycoon and asset stripper who ran the notorious Slater Walker. What united all these men was a belief in decisive reckless action. It was this, they believed, had made Britain great; not moderate post-war governments."

January 9, 2005, The Observer, 'Desperate Lucan dreamt of fascist coup': "The Countess of Lucan confirmed this weekend that Lucan was an extremist in his politics: 'He did have very right-wing views, some might describe them as fascist. I didn't know he was indulging in extremist reading matter in 1972, although I knew he listened to recordings of Hitler's speeches at Nuremburg Rallies..." [Lucan] and his associates, who included casino owner and party host John Aspinall, and the tycoon Sir James Goldsmith, were increasingly convinced Britain had fallen victim to a socialist conspiracy. Daily Express journalist Charles Benson, one of Lucan's friends, said: 'He was very right wing and never watered it down in front of liberals. He would talk about hanging and flogging and niggers to get a reaction.' ... Sir James Goldsmith began to develop his theory of "the Communist infiltration of the Western media". Over the smoked salmon and lamb cutlets, the talk turned to the pros and cons of a British military coup... The 7th Earl of Lucan ... disappeared in November 1974 after the murder of the family nanny [Goldsmith is said to have flown him out of the country]..."

Worked with Andrew Cavendish of MI6 and Le Cercle. Head of KAS Enterprises since 1990. Before that, this SAS/MI6 front firm was headed by SAS founder David Stirling. Officially, KAS was hired to protect elephants and rhinos from poachers in southern Africa. They were authorized to use deadly force. However, soon people began to notice that a disproportionally large amount of the people killed were ANC activists, many of them part of the armed resistance. Even though reportedly 1.5 million people ended up dead, the operation of bringing a halt to majority rule was unsuccessful.

On the board of Conrad Black's Hollinger Group, together with Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, Henry Kissinger, Pilgrims Society president Lord Carrington, Richard Perle and other elites.

Member European Parliament 1994-1997. Founder of the Euroskeptic Referendum Party in November 1994. The party dissolved soon after Goldsmith's death in July 1997. The party continued in 1998 as the Democracy Movement, presided over by Lady Annabel Goldsmith, Sir James' widow. During these years the Referendum Party overshadowed the equally Euroskeptic U.K. Independence Party (UKIP), headed by Nigel Farage 2006-2009 and 2010 to 2016.

May 24, 2001, The Guardian, 'Tebbit suspects MI6 euro plot; Veteran peer claims anti-EU party has been infiltrated to damage Tories': "Tony Blair is so determined to "bounce" Britain into joining the euro, according to the latest conspiracy theory doing the rounds among Eurosceptics, that he has instructed MI6 to infiltrate the United Kingdom Independence Party. ...
Lord Tebbit joined the ranks of conspiracy theorists after he was approached by a "disgruntled" former UKIP employee, who alleged that the party had been infiltrated by MI6. Armed with two names [Heather Conyngham and Christopher Skeate, both formerly located together in Latin America for MI6. Skeate was a 1997 Referendum Party candidate. Later, as UKIP press officer, he recruited Conyngham. He also served as an aide to Nigel Farage in Brussels. Stepped down from UKIP in early 2001. Opposed a David Irving-embracing Holocaust denying UKIP member in The Guardian in Feb. 2001.], the former cabinet minister hit the phones... Lord Tebbit, who said that the same MI6 agents worked for Sir James Goldsmith's Referendum Party (UKIP) in 1997, says the government should hold an inquiry after the election. ...
One of the UKIP's election candidates, Nigel Farage, said that he could not discount Lord Tebbit's remarks. "I have mused for a long time on the peculiar events in the UKIP," he said. "A lot of confidential letters, a lot of confidential conversations, were leaked in the most damaging way possible. I have mused over whether it was the far left, the far right, the Conservatives, but I just don't know.""

Two sons of Sir James Goldsmith both married into the Rothschild family. Sir James Goldsmith's son, Ben Goldsmith, was married to Kate Emma Rothschild (1982-) from 2003 to 2012. Sir James Goldsmith's other son, Zac Goldsmith (1975-), married to Alice Miranda Rothschild (1983-) in 2013. Both Rothschilds were daughters of Amschel Rothschild (1955-1996), a half-brother of Lord Jacob Rothschild. Amschel mysteriously committed suicide in 1996.

Lord Alistair McAlpin (1942-2014) was named a child abuser in a 1994 edition of Scallywag magazine. After his death, McAlpine's name surfaced in billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein's book of contacts. McAlpin was a concrete/construction baron, advisor to Margaret Thatcher, and a major financier of the Tory Party. He served as chairman of Sir James Goldsmith's euroskeptic Referendum Party and Referendum Movement 1996-1997 and headed the entire movement with Goldsmith's death in 1997. In 1998 McAlpine and Goldsmith's son-in-law forged ties with Chechen mafia bosses/politicians Aslan Maskhadov and Khozh Akhmed Noukhaev.

June 8, 2012, Telegraph, 'Goldsmith and Rothschild dynasties head for divorce': "Ben Goldsmith and Kate Rothschild, who married in 2003, have three children. ... how did the marriage of Ben Goldsmith and Kate Rothschild come to this?"

March 15, 2013, Daily Mail, 'Zac Goldsmith marries his Rothschild in thatched hut at a bird sanctuary': "When Zac Goldsmith and Alice Rothschild tied the knot yesterday, they kept things remarkably low-key."

July 8, 1991, Toronto Star, 'Black ponders bid for Australian papers': "Australian billionaire Kerry Packer has been named as a possible partner in [Conrad] Black's bid for Fairfax. Packer owns Australian Consolidated Press, publishers of a number of Australian magazines, and the Channel Nine television network. The Sydney Telegraph-Mirror reported this week that Black has strong links to Packer through Hollinger board members Sir James Goldsmith and Lord Rothschild. Goldsmith and Lord Rothschild are long-time Packer associates and were partners with him in an aborted bid for English tobacco giant BAT Industries."

September 19, 1993, The Independent, 'Kicking up gold dust': "ON 23 APRIL, six months after his $ 10bn attack on the pound and three months before the rout of the franc, George Soros placed a small bet on gold. He announced he was paying Sir James Goldsmith and Lord Rothschild $ 400m for 13 per cent in Newmont Mining, a US gold-mining group. Goldsmith said he was putting some of the proceeds into gold options."

Source(s): 1985 Cercle particpants list, Washington D.C.; Adrian Hanni (went to two other meetings in 1985 and 1986)

August 19, 1983, Facts on File World News Digest, 'Eatsco Fined in Arms Shipment Fraud': "The president of Egyptian American Transport and Services Corp. (Eatsco) July 22 pleaded guilty to overcharging the Defense Department $8 million for shipping U.S. military equipment to Egypt. [See 1982, p. 783F2] Eatsco, based in Falls Church, Va., was the exclusive shipping agent of the Egyptian government for arms bought from the U.S. with U.S. loans. The loans were an outgrowth of the 1979 Camp David peace accords. Eatsco President Hussein K. Salem ... Salem also agreed to cooperate with an on-going Justice Department investigation of the arms shipments. The department named as co-conspirators in the fraud Rolf Graage and Thomas Clines. Graage was the president of R. G. Hobelmann & Co., a Baltimore freight company that had extensive dealings with Eatsco. Clines was a former high-ranking official of the Central Intelligence Agency who had founded Eatsco with Salem in 1979. He was also a former business associate of Edwin P. Wilson, the renegade CIA agent currently serving a prison sentence for exporting explosives to Libya. ... The Justice Department was also investigating two former Pentagon officials who had been in charge of overseeing the Eatsco shipments. They were retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Richard V. Secord, an ex-deputy assistant secretary of defense, and Erich F. von Marbod, a former chief of Pentagon arms sales." This group, with help from Shackley and George H. W. Bush, got Inman out of the CIA, fearing their operations would be exposed.

January 17, 1984, Washington Post, 'Firm Headed by Ex-CIA Official Pleads Guilty in Arms Sale Case': "Thomas G. Clines, 55, now a Northern Virginia businessman and once a high official in the CIA's covert operations section, entered the plea and paid a $10,000 fine on behalf of Systems Services International Inc., a firm he founded in 1978. The company, which Clines formed with a loan from former CIA agent Edwin P. Wilson, is no longer in business. Wilson has been convicted of illegal arms dealings with Libya and is serving a 52-year prison sentence. The plea marked the end of a two-year federal investigation of Clines' role in Systems Services, which once held a 49 percent interest in the main shipping contractor for the arms, Egyptian American Transport and Services Corp. (Eatsco). Eatsco, based in Falls Church, pleaded guilty last July to collecting $8 million in illegal profits from overbilling the government for the shipment of tanks, jet fighters, radar devices and other U.S. military items to Egypt."

Source(s): February 21, 2012, Cercle chairman Lord Lothian's invitational letter to speak at Le Cercle to Saudi Arabia's deputy minister of foreign affairs Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz (released by Wikileaks around 2015; David Teacher made ISGP aware of the letter; this person is listed as a past speaker to Le Cercle).

Chairman Federal Reserve System 1987-2006. Liberal superclass member.

Source(s): September 25, 2003, Damien McCrystal, City Editor for The Sun, 'Spooky tale from Salzburg; City Insider': "ACROSS my desk come details of a hush-hush gathering in Salzburg of a spooky collection calling itself Le Cercle. Members come from around the world and seem to be dominated by Right-wingers with an interest in the security services. Britain is represented by, among others, spy writer and former Tory MP Rupert Allason, Tory Deputy Leader Michael Ancram, Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Alan Duncan, former GEC and Warburg director Sir Ronald Grierson, Lord Lamont, Lt Col Tim Spicer of Aegis Defence Services and Sir Stephen Lander, former head of MI5. Is this a new Bilderberg group in the making?"

Born 1921. Born in Nuremburg, Bavaria, and was educated at the Lycée Pasteur, Paris; High Gate School in London; and Balliol College, Oxford. Served in the Black Watch and the parachute regiments 1940-1946. Briefly a staff member of The Economist in London 1947-1948. Later in the Secretariat of the Economic Commission for Europe in Geneva. Executive director of S. G. Warburg and Company from 1948 to 1985. CEO of the Industrial Reorganization Corporation. Member Harvard College Faculty 1964–1965. Vice chairman of the General Electric Co. of Britain 1968-1996. Director-General for Industry and Technology for the European Commission in Brussels from 1973-74. Joined the board of RJR Nabisco in 1978, after serving on the international advisory board since 1974. Director W. R. Grace & Co. 1987-1994. Director of the Chrysler Corporation 1983-1991. Director British Aircraft Corporation (now BAE Systems) 1970-1971, Orion Bank 1971–73, International Computers Ltd. 1974-1976, Chime Communications 1998–2003, Safic Alcan & Cie (Paris), Bank in Liechtenstein (UK) Ltd. and Bank in Liechtenstein (Frankfurt) GmbH. Trustee of the Prince of Liechtenstein Foundation since 1991. Director Daily Mail & General Trust PLC 1994-2001. Director of Globalstar Telecommunications Ltd. since 1996. Trustee of the European Studies Foundation, Oxford University, since 1991. Chairman of Blackstone Europe, The Blackstone Group, United Kingdom anno 2005 (director since 1989). Keen interest in Anglo-American relations and was a member of the governing body of Atlantic College in the United Kingdom 1960-1970. Signer of the European "No" Campaign (ENC) petition, which has brought together executives of many leading British corporations to protest the adoption of a European Constitution. Among the signers are executives of De Beers, Jardine Matheson, IBM, Shell Transport and Trading, BP, Hambro, Schroder Salomom Smith Barney, Goldman Sachs, P&O, Hutchison Whampoa, and the British Invisibles. Executive member of the Pilgrims Society. Has occasionally visited Bilderberg. Known to have visited Le Cercle in 2003.

Source(s): 1985 Washington D.C. meeting

Fellow, Saybrook Coll., Yale, 1948–49; Correspondent, Time and Life magazines, 1949–55; Foreign Editor, Newsweek, 1956–63; Columnist, Washington Post, 1962–63; Conservative Research Department, 1963–64. MP (C) Bury St Edmunds, May 1964–1992; Parly Sec., Min. of Housing and Local Govt, June–Oct. 1970; Parly Under-Sec. of State, DoE, and Minister for Sport, 1970–74; opposition spokesman on trade and industry, and Europe, 1974–76. Former Chairman: Anglo-Iranian Parly Gp; Anglo-Polish Parly Gp. Pres., Special Olympics (UK). Consultant/Adviser, Nat. Police Federation, to 1988; President: Assoc. of Public Health Inspectors, 1969–70; Friends of Gibraltar; World Affairs Council, Orange County, California. Regents’ Prof., Univ. of California, Irvine. Dir, Center for Internat. Business, Chapman Univ., Orange, Calif. Dir, US and UK cos. Hon. Freeman, City of London; Hon. Citizen, Orange County, California. Medal of Honour, Republic of China, Taiwan.

December 24, 2006, Post and Courier, 'Iran's hatred makes diplomacy seem remote': "The chances of establishing a productive dialogue between Western states and the government of Iran seem remote, yet that's precisely what the members of the Iraq Study Group have called for, and that's exactly what Sir Eldon Griffiths advocates, too. Griffiths, a former British parliamentarian, minister and diplomat, a former correspondent for Time magazine and editor at Newsweek magazine, and the founder of the Walter Schmid Center for International Business at Chapman University in Orange, Calif., says engagement is the only good option. Griffiths' perspective is unique. He has worked in Iran or with Iranians for much of his long political career. He knew the country before the 1979 revolution and carefully followed events as they unfolded since. In Charleston for a Foreign Affairs Forum meeting recently, Griffiths said many Iranians are caught between a rock and a hard place. "Iranians in Iran suffer a genuine fear of invasion," he said. Afghanistan is on one side, Iraq on the other, and Americans are keeping busy in both, fighting insurgents and building permanent military bases. "They are scared stiff." And they're proud - proud of their venerable Persian history and rich culture, he said. Ahmadinejad, a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war who is widely perceived as a brave fighter and is motivated by religious doctrine, is taking advantage of these sentiments, scaring his people and using their fear to help justify wrongheaded policies. Griffiths said three big steps should be taken, which are outlined in his forthcoming book, "Turbulent Iran: Recollections, Revelations and a Plan for Peace." First, the world needs a "Gulf Security Pact" that must assuage Iranians' fears of invasion, provide for appropriate defense of Sunni Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and ensure that Iraq poses no threat to the region. Next, this nonaggression pact must be extended to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which is at the heart of the Mideast's problems. Syria and Lebanon must be engaged so a cooperative political settlement can be reached, one that recognizes both Israel's right to exist in security and the Palestinian's right to self-determination, self-government, security and territory. Finally, if the world is to demand a non-nuclear Iran, then it must not uphold a double standard by allowing Israel to maintain a nuclear weapons arsenal. Israel, Griffiths said, must disarm. What's more, some geopolitical shifting is likely to be required as the United States turns its attentions toward China and Latin America, both emerging economic and political forces, and away from Israel. Europe, which is much closer to the Mideast anyhow, should gradually exercise more influence in the region as the U.S. pulls back. Cycles of history "As history moves on, things do change," Griffiths said. "It's important for the United States not to get stuck in a posture that's not appropriate." Ahmadinejad, a fundamentalist with a good war record, has seized upon the nuclear weapons issue in an effort to assert his country's independence and rights. "And, frankly, we have helped him," Griffiths said. By countering Iran's nuclear ambitions with unyielding demands for disarmament, the West has only demonstrated how valuable nuclear weapons are, he said. As a result, Ahmadinejad is in a stronger position than he otherwise might be. His economy is not in great shape, but his people are scared. Furthermore, when he reached out to President Bush by sending him two letters earlier this year, the Bush administration should not have been so quick to brush him off, Griffiths said. Ahmadinejad was attempting to appeal to Bush's own religious sentiments, citing what he perceives to be the West's hypocrisy and moral decay. Ahmadinejad asked in one letter: How can the U.S. object to weapons of mass destruction, yet at the same time occupy Iraq and kill tens of thousands of people? "The day will come when all humans congregate before the court of the Almighty so that their deeds are examined," Ahmadinejad wrote. "I trust both of us believe in such a day when we must be answerable to our nations and all others whose lives have been affected by our actions." To this Bush made no response. "He is both mad and bad," Griffiths said of the Iranian leader, "but we nonetheless have to deal with him." Griffiths, who spent his first six months as a Parliamentarian in the same chamber with the aged yet ever imposing figure of Winston Churchill, said that during the first half of his life, Iran was a friend of the West, while during the second half of his life, Iran has become its mortal enemy. So how can the West and Iran work together? By pursuing common interests, Griffiths said. Iran is as concerned about narcotic trafficking as the United States and Europe, he said. Why not engage it to do something about poppy production in Afghanistan? And peace in the Mideast is certainly a common goal. Why not seek Iran's direct assistance in forging a solution? Ahmadinejad: Holocaust denier or diplomat? Madman or bad man? Griffiths knows it would be tough going, maybe impossible. "There's no simple answer, but that's not to say there's no answer at all," he said."

Source(s): 1985 Cercle meeting in Bonn (name appears on a handwritten list of names of Garnier-Lancon, probably persons who were eligible for an invitation)

Pinay's CNIP. Wanted to keep the colonies, including Algeria. MP 1967-73 and 1986-97. In 1963 he became a founding shareholder of the weekly Minute. In 1978 he was a co-founder of the right-wing Figaro Magazine, and became a shareholder, director and columnist. Co-founders were Patrice de Plunkett, Louis Pauwels, and Le Figaro owner Robert Hersant. Unification Church (Moonie Cult) website, Bo Hi Pak, 'Truth is My Sword, Volume II, Appendix 3 Pierre Ceyrac': "When Dr. Pak came to Europe to set up the CAUSA movement in 1983, Europe was in the midst of a major ideological struggle. ... After a careful and competent analysis, meetings with political and intellectual people in France and Europe, Dr. Pak decided to concentrate his activities in France in order to bring a new God-centered vision able to inspire the final battle against Marxism and communism in Europe. ... He was welcomed and assisted by many important personalities, including Alain Griotteray, deputy and editor-in-chief of Figaro magazine; Louis Pauwels, director of Figaro; Jacques Toubon, future minister of Culture in the Chirac administration... Another very notable personality that met with Dr. Pak was Dr. Jacques Soustelle, former vice prime minister of France and one of the main collaborators of De Gaulle during the Second World War and the French resistance." First foreign journalist to interview Reagan. Founder of Radio Alpha in 1981. His friend and co-founder of Figaro Magazine, Jean Ferre, founded Radio Courtoisie in 1987. Griotteray supplied him with his radio equipment from Radio Alpha. Director Radio Courtoisie 2002-2008. Radio Courtoisie gave a voice to all right-wingers in France: republicans, monarchists, Christians, atheists, nationalists, EU supporters and Atlanticists. In 1984 a co-founder of Solidarite Liberte with Cercle participants Charles Pasqua and Raymond Bourgine, as well as a number of others. December 27, 1977, AP: "The Ministry of Interior has listed 548 attacks by explosives in 1977, compared to 480 in 1976. Three persons have been slightly injured in the series of nighttime attacks during the past week. Property damage was obviously the sole objective. In only two cases have any organizations claimed responsibility for the attacks. The clandestine Corsican National Liberation Front has said that it organized the bombing of the railway station in Villepinte, 10 miles northeast of Paris, Monday morning, and the explosion which leveled the Corsican vacation home of Alain Griotteray, a veteran Paris politician."

May 18, 1986, Manchester Guardian Weekly, 'Violent language of the right recalls pre-war days': "THE Front National (FN) grew out of a ragbag of small groups, racked by constant infighting, which purveyed an ideology so discredited since the demise of the Third Reich and the collapse of the Vichy regime that it scarcely dared give itself a name. It was led by Jean-Marie Le Pen, a man battle-scarred by 30 years of trouble-making on the political stage -- and behind the scenes. ... Chirac's own Rassemblement pour la Republique (RPR) has long striven to win over activists from extreme rightwing movements like Occident, Ordre Nouveau, the Groupe Union Defense (GUD), and the Parti des Forces Nouvelles (PFN), who have been given positions of responsibility and are to be found in the entourage of the new Interior Minister, Charles Pasqua, and of Chirac himself. ... At international level there are several institutes and think tanks run by the apostles of anticommunism, cold war hawks, national security ideologues, and professional exponents of the strategy of tension. The most influential of these bodies are usually controlled and financed by the CIA and American military intelligence, for which they work. They include the American Security Council, the Foreign Affairs Research Institute, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, the National Strategic Information Centre and the Heritage Foundation. The best-known in France are the World Anti-Communist League (WACL) and Causa, both of which are financed by the Moonie sect, and to a lesser extent Marie-France Garaud's Institut International de Geopolitique. WACL members in France include the Union pour la Liberte (in fact its French branch), the students' union UNI (which is funded by the CIA to the tune of $600,000), the Association des Combattants de l'Union Francaise, the Union des Intellectuels Independants and many rightwing and extreme rightwing figures who also attend symposiums organised by Causa. All these bodies lend active support to the most extremist regimes under the pretext of combating Communist subversion and to representatives of the hard right in Europe and elsewhere in the world. French groups sympathetic to the far right include certain associations of repatriated pieds noirs (French born in North Africa), certain police federations, and movements such as Legitime Defense (which supports self-defence), the anti-abortionist Laissez-les Vivre, the fundamentalist Christian movement Chretiente (led by Bernard Antony -- alias Romain Marie --, an FN member of the European Parliament), and more fragile groupings like the Union Nationale pour l'Initiative et la Responsabilite, the brainchild of Jean-Mazime Leveque, ex-chairman of the bank Credit Commercial de France. Politicians like Alain Griotteray and Nice mayor Jacques Medecin play the role of middlemen between the right and the far right. Robert Hersant has been responsible for offering an outlet in his newspapers for an ideology formerly confined to the pages of small-circulation partisan and extremist publications. Figaro Magazine (edited by Louis Pauwels, who frequently attends Causa conferences) has opened its pages to the spokesmen of the new right from the GRECE and the Club de l'Horloge, such as Alain de Benoist, Jean-Claude Vala and Patrice de Plunkett, who can now plug their ideas directly to the bourgeois elite. Some of the same writers even contribute to Le Figaro, the prestigious mouthpiece of journalists who belong to the traditional, conservative or moderate right, but who do not seem all that put off by their bedfellows. And then there are the other newspapers in Hersant's group and the radio stations he controls. A noticeable feature of Hersant newspapers in recent months has been the tone of their ideological and political debate, which has nothing to do with that of the traditional right. Their overdramatisation, verbal violence, and vitriolic abuse are reminiscent of the worst excesses of the interwar years, during the rise of fascism."

June 21, 1997, The Herald (Glasgow), 'Le Pen waits to pick up the pieces of a shattered right': "The first into the breach last week was Philippe de Villiers, an independent conservative whose very right-wing views are only prevented from lurching into Le Pen's racist territory by his staunch Catholic beliefs. "If the right-wing keeps on considering the National Front to be its main opponent it will never get back into power," an exasperated De Villiers said. Many others agree. Disingenuously mixing up the ideas of political clout and political respectability, one senior conservative, Alain Griotteray, even interpreted the National Front's exceptional election score (higher than the UDF and only one point behind the RPR) as meaning it could no longer be considered extremist. "At 15%, it is no longer an extreme right-wing party," said Griotteray, despite the fact that Le Pen's declarations, on the equality of races in particular, has become ever more outrageous over recent months." October 5, 1999, International Herald Tribune (Neuilly-sur-Seine, France), 'A Widening Franco-German Rift?; New Books Add to the Suspicion of Berlin's Ambitions for Europe': "Mr. Griotteray, a former National Assembly deputy who like Mr. Druon and Mr. Marion is over 75 years old, writes harshly but probably accurately that being uneasy about Germany in France has meant ''being considered a Jew unable to forget the Holocaust or an old soldier obsessed by memories of the war.'' He asks, Is Germany worrying these days? The answer is yes. His argument is rather like Mr. Marion's. The current Greater Germany, Mr. Griotteray says, is only a more peaceful but no less dangerous version of Eternal Germany. ''Once reunified, powerful and compact,'' he says, ''Germany can consider that it's time to bring Europe together into a great federation whose reins would naturally be in its hands.''

Source(s): 1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', p. 217-218

Born in 1918. During World War II, François de Grossouvre was a member of Joseph Darnand's Service d'ordre légionnaire (SOL), a Vichyst militia. He left in 1943 to fight in the Vercors region. After Liberation, it was discovered that he had in fact infiltrated the SOL on behalf of Organisation de résistance de l'armée (ORA) of which he was a member. Often considered a strange man who reveled in the secrecy. He was a doctor who had never practiced his profession because of his wealth. Went into politics after WWII. Some sources say De Grossouvre first met with Francois Mitterrand in 1959. The Times, in 1994, stated that De Grossouvre first met with Mitterrand on a plane to China in 1962. Around this time, De Grossouvre held the largely ceremonial post of head of the Committee of Presidential Hunts, which organizes occasional informal gatherings in the countryside for the French President. In any case, De Grossouvre became a good friend to Francois Mitterrand. 1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', p. 217-218: "AT THE CERCLE meeting in Washington in December 1980, Georges Albertini had brought along a quiet Frenchman named Francois de Grossouvre. This was an impressive example of his foresight. De Grossouvre, a physician, was the closest friend and confidant of the Socialist leader and presidential candidate Francois Mitterrand. For many years, Grossouvre had carried out special missions for Mitterrand. By nature and training, he was self-effacing. He played no part in our debates, but listened carefully, taking notes. Five months later, Francois Mitterrand narrowly defeated Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in France's presidential elections. One of his first actions was to appoint de Grossouvre as his coordinator of security and intelligence. Shortly after, having obtained his direct line from Albertini, I went to see him in his modest office in the Elysée Palace. We had reacted with alarm to Mitterrand's victory, but de Grossouvre reassured me... 'One thing you need to understand about Francois Mitterrand is that he has a visceral hatred of the communists.' He did not explain the nature of this hatred which, later history suggests, probably reflected less an opposition to their policies than of Mitterrand's perception of the Communists as the main obstacle to his authority. Not for nothing was Mitterrand known as Le Florentin, in reference to his interest in Machiavelli and Florentine history. In his long career, he had been everything from apparently extreme Right to apparently extreme Left." Became Counselor for Police Affairs and Special Services in 1981, chosen by newly-elected president François Mitterrand, and charged with overseeing national security and other sensitive matters, in particular those concerning Lebanon, Syria, Tunisia, Morocco, Gabon, the Gulf countries, Pakistan and the two Koreas. As emissary to the Arab nations no one ever knew if he made an official or unofficial visit. He was also was a leading officer in the French branch of Gladio, "NATO's" stay behind paramilitary secret armies during the Cold War. 2005, Daniele Ganser, 'NATO's Secret Armies', pp. 90-91: "Maybe the most famous member of the French secret anti-Communist Rose des Vents [French Stay Behind/Gladio] army was Francois Grossouvre who in 1981 became the adviser of Socialist President Francois Mitterrand for secret operations. During the Second World War Grossouvre had enrolled in a fascist Vichy-backed militia that he later claimed to have infiltrated on behalf of the resistance. After the war the military secret service recruited him for the Rose des Vents secret army. SDECE agent Louis Mouchon who had himself recruited many secret soldiers for the network recalled how Grossouvre had been contacted: 'Our responsible man in Lyon, Gilbert Union, who during the war had carried out missions for the BCRA, was a passionate car driver and at that time had died on the road. To replace him, the SDECE had recruited, in 1950, Francois de Grossouvre.' Mouchin elaborated that Grossouvre was not only chosen for his wartime experience but as well for his contacts: 'His business, the A. Berger et Cie Sugar company, offered ample opportunities to stage fronts. He really had excellent contacts.' As special adviser of President Mitterrand, Grossouvre influenced French secret warfare in the beginning of the 1980s but was eased out of his main responsibilities in 1985 as his cloak-and-dagger style became intolerable to Mitterrand's staider colleagues. Yet the personal relations to Mitterrand allegedly remained good and when in late 1990 after the pan European Gladio discoveries President Mitterrand in the midst of the scandal had to close down the French Gladio network 'he had first consulted his "grey eminence", Francois Grossouvre'. By the time of Grossouvre's death his participation in the secret war was no longer a secret. 'He was recruited into the French espionage service and helped to organise Gladio, an American-backed plan to create an armed resistance movement in Western Europe against a Russian invasion', the British Economist noted in his obituary after Grossouvre, aged 76, had dramatically shot himself in the Elysee Palace on April 7, 1994." October 6, 1985, New York Times, 'Greenpeace ship reaches test site': "The Greenpeace flagship has arrived off the coast of the French nuclear test site in the South Pacific, where it joined another protest ship from the organization... The Greenpeace replaced the Rainbow Warrior, which was blown up on July 10 by French agents in New Zealand's Auckland harbor... Meanwhile, the largest opposition newspaper in Paris, Le Figaro, reported Friday that Mr. Mitterrand must have known of plans to sink the Rainbow Warrior, which was preparing to lead the Mururoa protest. Mr. Mitterrand's Socialist Government acknowledged secret service responsibility for the sinking last month. Defense Minister Charles Hernu and Adm. Pierre Lacoste, the head of the secret service, resigned because of the scandal. Le Figaro, without citing its sources, said the decision to mine the Rainbow Warrior was made in June in a meeting at the Elysee Palace attended by Mr. Hernu, Admiral Lacoste and the presidential adviser, Francois de Grossouvre. It was ''not believable'' that Mr. de Grossouvre failed to inform Mr. Mitterrand of the sabotage plans, Le Figaro contended." In the 1970s and 1980s, Greenpeace chairman David McTaggart was actively involved in opposing France's nuclear testings at Mururoa. In 1985, some time after the Rainbow Warrior scandal, De Grossouvre officially ended his functions as adviser to the president and was shoved aside for some reason. Remained chairman of Presidential Campaigns, an honorary position. However, he kept all the benefits of his previous position: office, secretary, car, apartment, bodyguard. Supposedly, François Mitterrand never fired those who had disappointed him nor those whom he no longer needed. He saved his victims from disgrace by making them wait for an explanation that would never come, and isolated them in their idleness. Not everyone is convinced that the friendship between de Grossouvre and Mitterrand had also ended privately. After his dismissal from Mitterrand's office, De Grossouvre worked as counsellor for arms trader Marcel Dassault, who headed Avions Marcel Dassault. Allegedly committed suicide on April 7, 1994 at his office at Élysée (presidential palace), although some, such as Captain Paul Barril, claimed that he had been murdered. It was the first time in the history of the Republic that a colleague of the Chief of State killed himself in the presidential palace. April 10, 1994, The Sunday Times: "Mitterrand was preparing to be interviewed for a live national television broadcast on Aids on Thursday when, for the second time in less than a year, his aides told him that a man he had trusted and worked with for more than 30 years had committed suicide. Like Pierre Beregovoy, the former Socialist prime minister who shot himself last May, Grossouvre was reported to have left no note... It also emerged that, like Beregovoy, Grossouvre was linked to one of the murkiest episodes in Mitterrand's rarely scrutinised past: his friendship with the late Roger-Patrice Pelat, a Socialist businessman who died of a heart attack in 1989 while awaiting trial on charges of fraud and corruption. To the dismay of Mitterrand's entourage, Grossouvre agreed to be interrogated last September by Thierry Jean-Pierre, the young judge who is investigating a Pounds 2m payoff that Pelat allegedly received as the middleman in a North Korean construction contract that was awarded to French companies. Pelat was also the man who supplied a generous interest-free loan to Beregovoy. The loan caused the former prime minister political embarrassment when details were disclosed shortly before his party's crippling defeat in the March 1992 elections. Grossouvre was questioned in connection with cartons of Pelat's files that mysteriously went missing. He was never charged, and his willing co-operation with a judge whose motives are questioned by Mitterrand aides appears to have increased his isolation at the Elysee... In an article in Le Monde on Friday,... [Edwy] Plenel was told that over the years Grossouvre had accumulated a number of files that he kept in a "safe place''. When he told Mitterrand last year that he was writing his memoirs, the president demanded that he hand over the files, which Grossouvre refused to do, Plenel wrote."

Grossouvre's death:

November 27, 2006, The New Times (Rwanda), 'Expert refutes Bruguière claims that RPF shot down Rwandan President’s aircraft in 1994': "Yet more hearsay evidence comes from Jean Kambanda in his fascinating confession to the ICTR. Kambanda, the prime minister in the interim government, says that President Sese Seko Mobutu of neighbouring Zaire, (now DRC) had warned Habyarimana not to go to Dar-es-Salaam on April 6. Mobuto said this warning had come from a very senior official in the Elysée Palace in Paris. There was a link between this warning, said Mobutu, and the subsequent suicide in the Elysée of a senior high-ranking official working for President François Mitterrand, an official who had killed himself on April 7 after learning about the downing of the Falcon. This was François de Grossouvre, a presidential advisor on African affairs."

November 12, 1994, Sydney Morning Herald (Australia), 'No sex please - We're French': "The man most likely to succeed Mitterrand is the Socialist candidate, Jacques Delors, European Commission President, a staunch Catholic and a family man. He will benefit from the public sympathy for the President, who has allegedly been involved in fraud and contributing to the death of former Prime Minister Pierre Beregovoy, who killed himself last year, as well as adviser Francois de Grossouvre, who shot himself metres from Mitterrand's office in the Elysee. The fraud allegations centre on the Pechiney affair of 1989 in which one of the President's closest friends, businessman Roger-Patrice Pelat, was accused of insider trading to profit from a French takeover of an American firm. Pelat died soon after the scandal broke, but the story did not. It resurfaced when Beregovoy committed suicide after revelations that he had received an interest-free loan from Pelat. De Grossouvre later shot himself after he was linked to a 20 million franc commission Pelat allegedly received for a deal with North Korea."

November 27, 2006, Africa News, 'Rwanda; Expert Refutes Bruguiere Claims': "We may never know who was responsible for shooting down of the Mystère Falcon jet under cover of darkness in the skies over Kigali at 8. 25 pm on April 6, 1994. Two African presidents, Juvenal Habyarimana of Rwanda and the president of Burundi, Cyprien Ntaryamira were assassinated that night and almost immediately afterwards, as the plane lay smouldering in the presidential garden, there was a promise from the UN that an international enquiry would be held. There was an imperative to find those responsible. No international enquiry was ever held. ... One theory, that soldiers from the Rwandan army (FAR), downed the plan, was reported almost immediately. In the intelligence headquarters of the Belgian army (SRG), an enquiry was launched and in the days to follow, a series of secret reports from Belgian agents revealed how everyone seemed to believe that Colonel Theoneste Bagosora, who had taken control in the chaos afterwards, was responsible. This would support the current prosecution case at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), where last November 2005, Bagosora was accused directly of the missile attack. As a former commander of the anti-aircraft battalion, he had been familiar with the flight paths and the approaches of aircraft to the airport, the prosecutor had said. The Belgian agents in Kigali in 1994 had two informers, one in contact with a former Rwandan minister and the other a high-ranking officer of the Rwandan armed forces. These informers claimed that Bagosora was behind the attack and in a report to headquarters the agents wrote: "...everything points to the fact that the perpetrators are part of the faction of the Bahutus inside the Rwandan army, and this is strange ... [it] leads us to believe that there was no improvisation in the events." They also wrote that within half an hour of the crash and well before the official announcement of the assassination over the radio, "ethnic cleansing" had started inside the country, and was carried out brutally on the basis of pre-established lists. The group responsible for this was gravitating around the president's wife, whose brothers and cousins had become senior authorities or dignitaries in the regime. "These high dignitaries were involved in terror and money and it was difficult for them to give up their privileges and advantages," the report noted. ... Information about the downing of the jet was also made available to the journalist, Colette Braeckman, the Africa Editor of Belgium's Le Soir newspaper. In mid-June 1994, she received a letter from someone calling himself "Thadée", who claimed to be a militia leader in Kigali. He told her that two members of the French Détachement d'Assistance Militaire et l'Instruction (DAMI) had launched the missiles on behalf the Hutu Power CDR party (Coalition pour la Défense de la République). Only four members of the CDR were involved. Those who fired the missiles had worn Belgian army uniforms stolen from the hotel Le Méridien. Members of the Presidential Guard spotted them leaving Masaka Hill from where the missiles were fired. The missiles had been portable, probably SAM, originally from the Soviet Union. Braeckman reported that in the three days after the missile attack, some 3,000 people living in the Masaka area were murdered. The French academic Gérard Prunier, an expert on the Great Lakes Region of Africa, has spoken of white men on Masaka Hill on the evening of April 6. Prunier has speculated that it might have been possible to hire mercenaries to shoot down the plane. If mercenaries were involved, Prunier believes that the French mercenary Paul Barril would know them. ... The presence in Rwanda of a French mercenary, Captain Paul Barril, does add another dimension to the mystery. Barril was spotted in Kigali at the end of 1993, telling people that he had been taken on as an "advisor" to Habyarimana. A former number two of the French Groupe d'Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale (GIGN), police Special Forces, he helped to create an anti-terrorist cell in the Elysée Palace that answered only to President Mitterrand. Barril had his own private security companies and had worked for Habyarimana since 1989, when he reorganised the intelligence service which operated from within the Presidential Guard. Barril said he was in Kigali on April 7. He claims to be close to the French anti-terrorist judge, Jean-Louis Bruguière, whose recently published report in Paris contains claims from Rwandan exiles, claiming to be former RPF soldiers, who say they took part in the missile attack on the orders of President Paul Kagame. Yet more hearsay evidence comes from Jean Kambanda in his fascinating confession to the ICTR. Kambanda, the prime minister in the interim government, says that President Sese Seko Mobutu of neighbouring Zaire, (now DRC) had warned Habyarimana not to go to Dar-es-Salaam on April 6. Mobuto said this warning had come from a very senior official in the Elysée Palace in Paris. There was a link between this warning, said Mobutu, and the subsequent suicide in the Elysée of a senior high-ranking official working for President François Mitterrand, an official who had killed himself on April 7 after learning about the downing of the Falcon. This was François de Grossouvre, a presidential advisor on African affairs."

August 8, 2008, Africa News, 'Rwanda; 'How France Aided Genocide'': "Rwanda this week launched the report of its commission of inquiry into the role of France in the 1994 genocide, in which up to one million people were killed. The report accuses former French President Francois Mitterand, his son and adviser Jean-Christophe, as well as the then French prime minister, ministers of foreign affairs, cooperation and defence of involvement in the genocide and calls for them to face trial. Below are highlights from the report. The 500-page report accuses the French Government of supporting the administration of President Habyarimana in the preparation and commission of the genocide. It also argues that France had a hand in the destabilisation of Rwanda by arming genocidaires based in the former Zaire. Prior knowledge of genocide France knew that preparations of mass massacres were in place, the commission argues. "Between October 1990 and April 1994 French army officers were present in all security organs of the country. From 1991 until at least December 1993, there was a high number of French military advisors in the national army (FAR), gendarmerie (Police), intelligence and other special organs, including the Presidential guard." According to the report, French military advisors took charge of high-level meetings where war strategies were being planned, and the French military commanded the war at the front line. "As stated by Gen. Dallaire (head of the UN peacekeeping mission), since there was evidence of French military involvement with the national army immediately before the genocide, it logically follows that the French had adequate information that a major massacre was being planned." Ideological complicity The French Government helped Habyarimana's regime in providing the ideological base for the genocide, the commission established. In their communication, it argues, the French portrayed the Rwandan issue as purely ethnic, an issue between the majority Hutu and a minority group of Tutsi. It quotes President Mitterand as having told his cabinet on June 22, 1994: "Rwanda, like Burundi, is numerically dominated by Hutus. In that sense, it is common knowledge that most of the population is behind President Habyarimana. Should the country be ruled by the minority Tutsi, who are now based in Uganda where most wish to establish a "Tutsi land" including not only Uganda, but also Rwanda and Burundi, certainly the track of democracy shall be interrupted". Support to FAR France, the report says, trained, organised and armed the former national army, FAR, which helped carry out the genocide. "France also actively participated in the war and several times fought side by side with the Rwandan National Army." In addition, according to the report, the French army manned road blocks in Kigali and different parts of the country where they checked individual identity cards on ethnicity. "Some of those who were identified as Tutsi were killed and tortured in the presence of members of the French army, who also participated in those acts of murder and torture", it says. Training of Interahamwe The report accuses France of not only training the national army but also the Interahamwe militias, vagabonds who were largely responsible for carrying out the genocide. "The French army trained and assisted in the training of the Interahamwe between 1992 and December 1993 in what was regarded as Operation Noroit. The training was conducted in the five military barracks where the French army was residing." This, according to the report, was confirmed by a French military policeman, Thierry Prugnaud, in an interview on French Television on April 22, 2005. "I saw members of the French army training Rwandan militias how to use rifles. That happened several times but the only time I actually saw it was when some 30 militiamen were trained how to fire in Akagera National Park," Prugnaud was quoted as saying. Preparing lists of suspected Tutsi The report also accuses France of having played an active role in preparing lists of suspected Tutsi and Government opponents. "According to your directive, I have the honour to submit to you an electronic filing system where you will easily trace people meant to be investigated", French adviser Michel Robardey wrote to the chief of the staff of the Rwandan gendarmerie in October 1992. The lists were later used by Rwandan soldiers to move from house to house, killing political opponents and distinguished Tutsi. The computerised lists project was initiated by Gen. Jean Varret, who was in charge of Rwandan-French military co-operation at the time. Before France's own commission investigating its role in the genocide, Varret confirmed that he was convinced France had helped Rwanda's intelligence services prepare the lists of Tutsis to be killed. Appointment of Bagosora According to the report, the French asked the then army commander, Col. Bagosora, to take control of the country after Habyarimana's death. Bagosora, the commission noted, was a known extremist who had earlier said he would 'prepare an apocalypse'. "On April 7, 1994, the French ambassador in Rwanda, together with Col. Jean-Jacques Maurin, went to meet Col. Bagosora and asked him to take charge of the situation," the report states. In addition, it says, French diplomatic and military support to the interim government continued during the genocide. "On May 9, 1994, Gen. Huchon hosted Lt.-Col. Ephrem Rwabalinda, adviser to the FAR chief of staff," the report says. "Gen. Huchon promised to provide ammunition in the category of 105mm, other types of ammunition as well as communication equipment to facilitate the communication with Gen. Augustin Bizimungu, FAR commander in chief." Delivery of Arms and ammunition Throughout the genocide, the report argues, France continued supplying the Rwandan interim-government with arms and ammunition. It quotes Belgian Col. Luc Marshall, who was heading a unit of UN peacekeepers in Kigali, as saying in the French Le Monde newspaper: "We were informed on 8 [April 1994] that French planes would land the following day around 6:00am. Actually, they arrived at 3:45am. Cases of ammunition - probably five tons - were discharged from a plane and were transported by vehicles of the Rwandan army to Kanombe barrack which was used as the base for the presidential guard." More ammunition was delivered at Goma airport in the former Zaire where the interim-government had fled. "In May, more than one month after the beginning of massacres, the French offloaded a cargo plane full of arms in Goma. The French Consul at Goma said he was not in a position to intervene since it was a private contract executed before the embargo on Rwanda was imposed," the report notes. The commission, according to the report, further found weapons purchase orders in Mugunga refugee camp in Goma involving two French companies, Sofremas and Luchaire. Operation Turquoise The report also raps the French military intervention in western Rwanda in June 1994 in what was called Operation Turquoise. "The first objective of this intervention was to divide the country in two starting from Kigali, to stop the advance of the RPF and to force it to negotiate a power-sharing agreement with the genocide government," the report says. The French did not intervene when Tutsi civilians were being slaughtered in the area under their control, often in their presence, the commission observed. "They left in place the genocide infrastructure, namely road blocks manned by Interahamwe. They requested Interahamwe to continue patrolling the road blocks and kill Tutsi moving around." The report also accuses French soldiers of having been directly involved in cases of rape and killing, and of having encouraged the Hutu population to massively flee to Zaire during the last days of their mission. "Col. Sartre organized a public meeting on July 13, 1994 at Rubengera where he strongly encouraged the population to flee to Zaire by promising France's assistance for a speedy armed return to Rwanda", the report notes. "French soldiers accompanied the ex-FAR and Interahamwe into Zaire where they immediately assisted them in the form of military training, arms and ammunition supplies to prepare an armed return." During Zone Turquoise, the report concludes, France's involvement in the genocide became most visible. As France had a mandate from the UN to create a humanitarian safe zone, it bears responsibility for the massacres carried out in the area under their control, it argues. "By deciding to maintain the politicians and administrators in place and collaborate with those who had perpetrated the genocide in the previous two and half months, by requesting them or allowing them to continue killing Tutsi, the French soldiers and their commanders took full control of the genocide project." French politicians accused - Francois Mitterrand: President of the Republic of France - Alain Juppe: Minister of Foreign Affairs - Leotard: Minister of Defense - Marcel Debarge: Minister of Cooperation - Hubert Vedrine: Secretary General in the President's Office - Edouard Balladur: Prime Minister - Delaye: Presidential Advisor - Jean-Christophe Mitterrand: Presidential Advisor - Paul Dijoud: Head of Africa and Madagascar Unit in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Dominique De Villepin: Assistant Head of Africa and Madagascar Unit - Georges Martres: French Ambassador to Rwanda - Jean-Michel Marlaud: French Ambassador to Rwanda - Jean-Bernard Merimee: French Ambassador to the UN."

Sources: 1999, David Guyatt, 'Circle of Power' (mentions Habsburg as a founding member); Simon Regan (Scallywag), 'Who Killed Diana?' (mentions Habsburg as a founding member); 2002, David Rockefeller, 'Memoirs', pp. 412-413, referring to the Pesenti Group; other books only confirm the close relationship between Otto von Habsburg, Jean Violet, and other figures of the Cercle and Pan-Europa Union; 2014, Johannes Grossmann

Born in Lower Austria in 1912 as a member of the Royal House of Habsburg, who have been allies of the Vatican for many centuries. Eldest son of Archduke Karl and Princess Zita von Bourbon-Parma. The Habsburg dynasty was, and is, very close to the Thurn und Taxis family (1001 Club) and the Vatican. During WWI his family lost the throne to the Habsburg kingdom. The Austrian parliament officially expelled the Habsburg dynasty and confiscated all of its property. Opposed the Nazi Anschluss of Austria in 1938 and went to the US (with help of the Knights of Malta). Spent most of the war years in Washington (1940-1944), after escaping from Austria to Portugal with a visa issued by the Portuguese consul in Bordeaux. He became friends with FDR, George F. Kennan (the father of the Containment policy), Felix Frankfurter, Winston Churchill and other important individuals. One of his main opponents at the time was Pilgrims Society member Lord Halifax (important to UN and pro-Nazi), who bluntly asked him: "Are you pursuing your intrigues even here?". Cordell Hull, pro-Vichy and pro-UN, was another opponent of Otto. Part of a mainstream bio: "A member of Koudenhove-Kalergi's Paneuropa Union since 1936 [24 years old then], Dr. Otto von Habsburg represented the organization in Washington D.C. beginning in 1940. In close collaboration with his brothers, the Archdukes Rudolf, Robert and Karl Ludwig, he convinced President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill to regard Austria as a victim state of Nazi aggression. Based on this recognition, Archduke Robert and Winston Churchill, who favored a postwar reconstitution of a Danube confederation forged the Moscow Declaration of 1943, which prepared for Austria's independence at the conclusion of the war." The Paneuropa Union was founded in 1923 in Vienna by Count Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, the son of an Austro-Hungarian (Habsburg) diplomat. Early leading members were Aristide Briand and Austrian chancellors Ignaz Seipel and Karl Renner. Opus Dei was founded in 1928 and at least in later times this group's objectives would essentially merge with those of the Paneuropa Union: 1) keep the Soviets out of Europe, and 2) create a Roman Catholic-oriented European superstate. Kalergi was of the opinion that Britain should be kept out of Paneuropa since it managed an autonomous empire. Unlike Russia, Turkey belonged to Asia and also should not be included in Paneuropa, according to Kalergi. The Paneuropean Union is also responsible for the 12 stars on a blue ground as official symbol for Europe, which symbolizes the stars of the virgin Mary. After the war Otto lived in exile in France and Spain. In Spain he received a secondary formal education by Benedictine fathers. An article in Lobster Magazine claimed that the impoverished Otto was subsidized to the tune of £50,000 a month by MI6 chief Stewart Menzies from 1939 to 1953. In 1949, together with Opus Dei member Alfredo Sanchez Bella (August 21, 1964, The Frederick News, 'Rev. Dr. Thorning Returns From Europe': "In Rome, Father Thorning was the guest of Spanish Ambassador Alfredo Sanchez Bella"; November 4, 1969, Greeley Daily Tribune, 'Economic, Social Advancement Aims of New Franco Cabinet': "[Alfredo] Sanchez Bella, aside from his own talents as a diplomat, is the brother of Florencio Sanchez Bella, leader of the Opus Dei in Spain."; Bella was Ambassador to Rome until November 1969), Otto founded the European Centre of Documentation and Information (CEDI), "whose objective was to construct around the Spanish Borbóns a federation of European states united in Christianity and anti-Communism. This sounded very much like a modern resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire over which Charles V had reigned. Like the Spanish empire of old, the envisaged Catholic federation was intended to have large-spectrum antennae in Latin America and the United States. CEDI was believed to be an auxiliary operation of Opus Dei. Although headquartered in Munich, it held its annual general meetings at the Monastery of El Escorial, near Madrid, and it continued functioning throughout the Cold War. Its tentacles spread among Catholic Monarchist circles throughout western Europe... [Otto] reportedly became one of Opus Dei's most treasured Old Guard supernumeraries. Like Opus Dei, CEDI published no membership lists, but the president of its Belgian chapter, Chevalier Marcel de Roover, was known to have close ties with the Belgian royal family. Indeed, Archduke Otto's nephew, Lorenz von Habsburg, son of international banker Karel von Habsburg, married Princes Astrid of Belgium [daughter of King Albert II, who stands accused of child abuse in the Pinon Affair, not unlike other members of the royal family; chairwoman Belgian Red Cross; patron Belgian Kids Foundation for Pediatric Research. The support committee of the Belgian Kids Foundation includes the wife of Count Maurice Lippens, who [the husband] stands accused of some of the most horrific child abuse practices. The support committee is presided over by Count Jean Pierre de Launoit, whose name once appeared on a list of people accused of involvement in trade in children and drugs. Nobody has been prosecuted], daughter of King Albert II. Astrid's aunt, the former Queen Fabiola, was related through the House of Aragon to the Spanish Borbón family. Professor Luc de Heusch of the Free University of Brussels, an expert on Sacred Kingship, maintained tha Queen Fabiola, a disciple of Escrivá de Balaguer [founder of Opus Dei], 'introduced Opus Dei to the Catholic aristocracy of Europe.' An idea of the company gathered from the membership of a sister organization, the Pan-European Union, headquartered in Zurich. An idea of the company CEDI kept can be gathered from the membership of a sister organization, the Pan-European Union, headquartered in Zurich. Also headed by Archduke Otto, among its members were two Belgian prime ministers, an Italian industrialist close to the Vatican, a former French prime minister, his legal counsellor, an aide to Valery Giscard d'Estaing, the secretary of Giscard's Independent Republican Party... the deputy head of NATO's intelligence division, a director of West German intelligence, the Spanish ambassador to the European Community and Alfredo Sanchez Bella." (1997, Robert Hutchinson, 'Their Kingdom Come', p.153-154). CEDI stood in close contact with the Belgian Cercle des Nations, which was a gathering place for Brussels fascist aristocracy which was founded in 1969. On the next page Hutchinson writes: "Otto is chairman for life of the CEDI. Married Princess Regina Von Sachsen-Meiningen in 1951 with the blessing of Pius XII. Vice-president of the Internationale Paneuropa-Union 1957-1972, working under Count Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi. His Opusian associate Jean Violet founded the Pinay Circle (Le Cercle) in the 1950s, one of the most influential behind-the-scenes anti-communist and pro-Europe organizations, which was, and is, riddled with questionable intelligence operatives. Otto's CSU (Bavaria) and CDU (the rest of Germany) party friends, Franz-Joseph Strauss (a hard-right politician), Count Hans Huyn (intermarried with Habsburg family), and Alois Mertes (important German politician in early 1980s) have all been leading members of both Le Cercle and the ultraconservative anti-communist faction in German politics. They are all suspected of having been members of Opus Dei. In 1959, Otto received the Knight Grand-Cross of Honour and Devotion of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta with the Cross of Honorary Professed Member. One of Otto's political secretaries, Jacques G. Jonet, is named as a co-founder of low-profile ultraconservative/fascist European-integration groups as Ordre du Rouvre, the Institut Européen pour la Paix et la Sécurité (IEPS), the Société Internationale de Wilton Park (Wilton Park conferences), and Cercle des Nations. Opusian Cercle founder Jean Violet was one of the few French members of Cercle des Nations (1990, Hugo Gijssels, 'De Bende & Co.', p. 130), together with Belgium's controversial hard-right aristocracy. Jonet was named as an individual that attempted to crush the Pinon investigation of the late 1970s and early 1980s, in which leading Cercle des Nations members like the Opusian Paul Vanden Boeynants, not to mention members of the Royal House of Belgium (counts Opus Dei and SMOM members in the family), were accused of child abuse. Jonet has been named as a member of Mouvement d'Action pour l'Union de l'Europe (MAUE), the Habsburg-founded Centre of Documentation and Information (CEDI), and CEPIC (of the Opusian Baron de Bonvoisin and Paul Vanden Boeynants, both named as child abusers in the Dutroux X-Files by a combination of X1, X2, and X3). Jonet is suspected of membership in Opus Dei and is the representative of the Belgian Order of Malta, while his wife is a member of the administrative council (anno 2006). In 1961, Otto finally renounced all claims to the Austrian throne and was eventually allowed to return to his home country in 1966. CEDI, earlier founded by Otto von Habsburg, had a secretary general named Paul Vankerkhoven, who became a member of the Ordre du Rouvre, the ultra right-wing catholic magazine Chantiers-Occident, and the fascist Cercle des Nations. Vankerkhoven was a co-founder and vice-chairman of l'Institut Europeen de Developpement, headquartered in the castle of the earlier-mentioned Baron de Bonvoisin. Vankerkhoven also founded the Belgian branch of the ultra-reactionary World Anti-Communist League (WACL), the 'Ligue Internationale de la Liberte' (LIL). The WACL was sponsored by the Sun Myung Moon sect and aristocrats like Count Hans Huyn and Otto von Habsburg were involved with it in Germany, at least in the late 1980s. Otto co-founded the Academie Europeenne de Sciences Politiques, located in Brussels, somewhere in the 1960s or early 1970s. It was an ultraconservative Paneuropa affiliated group, managed by the Opusian Cercle founder Jean Violet and Paul Vanden Boeynants, also Opus Dei, is said to have been one of its prominent members. When Franco's regime was challenged in the late 1960s by members of Opus Dei and other reformer, Franco designated Prince Juan Carlos as king of Spain at the moment Franco died. It has been claimed that Franco initially invited Otto von Habsburg to become the new king, but Otto refused and recommended Juan Carlos. Franco, Juan Carlos, and Otto von Habsburg all were Knights of Malta. When Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi died in 1972, Otto followed him up as provisional president of the Internationale Paneuropa-Union. At the suggestion of French president, Paneuropa- and Cercle member Georges Pompidou Otto was elected official president in 1973. He still served in this position anno 2006. January 2004, Contemporary Review, 'Otto von Habsburg and the future of Europe': "Archduke Otto was the right-hand man of Count Coudenhove-Kalergi, and when the Count died in 1972, the leadership of Paneuropa fell to him. Since then he has been the President. When interviewed in 1986, Otto von Habsburg was insistent that Paneuropa still had work to do, and would not be subsumed in the European Community (as it then was) itself. " Anno 2006, Otto is an advisor to the Coundenhove-Kalergi Foundation, together with Count Hans Huyn, Jakob Coudenhove-Kalergi (nephew of Richard, the founder of the Paneuropa Union), and Prince Carlo della Torre e Tasso (Thurn und Taxis). Nikolaus von Liechtenstein (younger brother of Hans-Adam) is an executive member of the the Coundenhove-Kalergi Foundation. In December 1973 Otto gave a speech to the Benedictine monks at the Woodside Priory School on San Francisco's peninsula. Hosts for the luncheon were Phil Gregory of Raytheon (Philip L. Gregory; one of the buyers of Raytheon in the 1940s, with what would become his wife (Raytheon was originally founded by Vannevar Bush in 1922-1925; Pilgrims Society member and president-descendant Charles Francis Adams IV would sit on the board of Raytheon from 1938 to 1997); executive director of Raytheon, first in New England and then in California until 1979; founded the Semiconductor Equipment Materials International (SEMI) with two colleagues in 1970, the non-profit group that presents semiconductor manufacturers trade forums worldwide; president, chairman, and executive director of SEMI; he and his wife traveled extensively in building SEMI internationally; among their tours was a trip in the early 1970s to Beijing, China, right after Kissinger, Rockefeller, and Nixon had "opened it up"; his wife was active in numerous catholics groups, including the Legion of Mary) and Bill Keady Jr., president of Advalloy (November 19, 1973, San Mateo Times, 'Dr. Von Habsburg to Speak'). Also reported by the San Mateo Times of that day: "Two distinguished visitors will be in the Bay Area next month and both will be guests of honor at Dec. 6 events at the Fairmont Hotel... Dr. Otto von Habsburg, son of the last emperor and king of Austria-Hungary, will be honored by the Woodside Priory School at a formal dinner dance... That noon, Monsignor John Patrick Carroll-Abbing, founder and president of Boys' Towns of Italy, will attend the Oscar de la Renta fashion show and luncheon benefiting Girls' Town of Italy (a part of Boys Towns)." Member of the European Parliament for the CSU 1979-1999, the party of his reactionary Opusian Cercle friends Franz-Joseph Strauss, Count Hans Huyn, and Alois Mertes. Among the foreign policy advisors to the Hanns Seidel Stiftung (Hanns Seidel Foundation) since 1975 (established in 1967), as well as the Kuratoriums Mitglied of the Ludwig Frank Stiftung (Ludwig-Frank Foundation). The Hanns Seidel Foundation, based in Germany, receives funding from the European Union. The foundation is a geopolitical trust attached to the Bavarian CSU party (the Bavarian Christian Democrats) of the Strauss, Mertes, Huyn, and Edmund Stoiber. It was active on all continents in funding anti-communist militias. July 2005, The Trumphet, 'From the Editor: German Election Crisis—and a New Charlemagne': "Here is what Mr. Armstrong’s Plain Truth staff wrote, September 1979: “On the United Nations, he [Otto] has declared that the organization is dominated by ‘anti-European illiterates, despots and cannibals.’... “Possibly von Habsburg’s most controversial suggestion has been his recipe for dealing with national emergencies. In the April 1978 issue of his conservative publication Zeitbühne, he suggested that in certain emergency situations (such as nuclear blackmail or other major acts of terrorism) governments should let a strongman take over for a period of nine months, allowing him to suspend laws and ‘take all measure necessary for the maintenance of the life of the population.’... Interestingly, von Habsburg counts Bavarian leader Franz Josef Strauss among ‘the few full-blooded politicians’ who ‘in the case of serious national crises are able to accept responsibility because of their clear-sightedness and indomitableness.’ Von Habsburg says he is ‘personally pretty close to his [Strauss’s] ideas in many ways on the European unity subject"... The zenith of Habsburg power came in the 16th century under Emperor Charles v. Chosen by electors in 1519 at the age of 20, Charles was crowned Holy Roman emperor by Pope Leo x in October 1520. He ruled until 1556 and is considered to have been the greatest monarch to bear the imperial crown since Charlemagne. He was the last emperor to vigorously attempt to realize the medieval idea of a unified empire embracing the entire Christian world... Christopher Hollis, in the foreword to von Habsburg’s book The Social Order of Tomorrow, points out that Otto ‘would like to see Europe resume her essential unity, and in the symbolism of that unity he thinks that the imperial crown of Charlemagne and of the Holy Roman Empire might well have its part to play.’ “Inter-European unity has long been a quest of the Habsburg dynasty. Otto himself often speaks of the similarities between the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages and his view of a coming United States of Europe. In this regard, Otto has stressed the importance of religion in the formation of a united Europe. He regards Christianity as Europe’s bulwark: ‘The cross doesn’t need Europe, but Europe needs the cross.’" The pope has also spoken out against Liberal Anglo-Saxon politics. Otto was a member of the Hilfskomitee Freiheit für Rudolf Hess (Freedom for Rudolf Hess Committee), which advocated the release of the former Thulist and number two in Hitler's early regime. Hess had secretly flown to England in May 1941, almost certainly trying to establish a peace between Hitler and the British Empire (through the opponents of Churchill affiliated with the British royal family) so both could attack Russia. Unfortunately for Hess, he was caught. After the war he was held in a prison until his death, mainly because the Soviet Union did not approve of his release. The Action Committee for the Freedom of Rudolf Hess made it to the international news a few times in the 1970s. SMOM member Kurt Waldheim, the secretary general of the United Nations who had to resign in 1986 after he was accused of war crimes, was a favorite of Otto. Otto was honored by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in February 1988. On 19 August 1989 he was the Patron of the Paneuropean-Picnic in Sopron, which was a protest against the Iron Curtain. Since 1988 he worked on the extension of the Paneuropa Union into the countries behind the Iron Curtain, on the independence of the Baltic States from Moscow, and of Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzgovina and Macedonia from Belgrade (Serbia). He is considered an enemy of the Serbs. When Croatia (90% roman catholic) and Slovenia (84% roman catholic) withdrew from Yugoslavia, the Vatican immediately supported the action, together with the German government. 1994, Jean-Paul Picaper, 'Otto de Habsbourg: Memoires d'Europe', pp. 209-210 (Otto to a Figaro correspondent): "If German recognized Slovenia and Croatia so rapidly, even against the will of [then German foreign minister] Hans-Dietrich Genscher who did not want to take that step, it's because the Bonn government was subjected to an almost irresistible pressure of public opinion. In this regard, the German press rendered a very great service, in particular the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Carl Gustav Strohm, that great German journalist who works for Die Welt." In the late 80s and early 1990s, Otto invited leaders from Croatia and Slovenia to the European Parliament. He visited these countries and stated they should prepare themselves for a place in the European Union. Habsburg and his allies warned about Milosevic, who had just become a prominent former-communist socialist nationalist and wanted to unite all land where a significant amount of Serbians (mainly eastern orthodox christians) lived. Civil wars followed in which the Serbians ultimately were driven back south and east into Serbia. German, US, an UK intelligence services, together with special forces, were secretly funding the (also quite brutal) opposition to Serbia. NATO also bombed the Serbs twice. Otto had called for the bombing of Belgrade (capital of the Serbs) in 1993. Some fear that Otto would like to see Serbia removed from the map, as he blames this nation for the downfall of his beloved Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 2005 Carla Del Ponte, chief prosecutor of the UN international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, claimed that the Vatican protected suspected war criminal general Ante Gotovina, a hero in Croatia. Before becoming a general in the Croatian army, Gotovina fought in the French Foreign Legion; then became a close collaborator of the hard-right Jean-Marie Le Pen. In good tradition of the Nazi ratlines, the Vatican allegedly hid him in a monastery. September 20, 2005, The Telegraph, 'Vatican accused of shielding 'war criminal'': "Carla del Ponte, the chief prosecutor of the UN international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, said she believed that Gen Ante Gotovina was being sheltered in a Franciscan monastery in his native Croatia... She said: "I have information he is hiding in a Franciscan monastery and so the Catholic Church is protecting him. I have taken this up with the Vatican and the Vatican refuses totally to co-operate with us." In July, Mrs del Ponte travelled to Rome to share her intelligence with the Vatican's ''foreign minister'', Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo. He refused to help, telling her the Vatican was not a state and thus had "no international obligations" to help the UN to hunt war criminals. Mrs del Ponte complained: "They said they have no intelligence and I don't believe that. I think that the Catholic Church has the most advanced intelligence services."" In 1989, he said to the European Parliament: "The [European] Community is living largely by the heritage of the Holy Roman Empire, though the great majority of the people who live by it don’t know by what heritage they live." Otto has met with Pope John Paul II to discuss at length the subject of European integration. In early 2006 he met with the new pope, Benedikt XVI (Ratzinger), whom he had already known. From September to December 2004 he travelled to Kosovo, Zurich, Rome, Vienna, Tyrol, Madeira, Croatia, London, again to Vienna, Paris, Strasbourg, Spain, Westphalia, Lower Saxony, Budapest, and three times to Hungary. In November 2002 the Austrian weekly Zur Zeit published an interview with Otto von Habsburg in which he had said: "If we consider America's internal politics, then we find that it is split in two halves. On the one hand, the Defense Department, in which the key positions are held by Jews; the Pentagon is today a Jewish institution. On the other hand, the blacks are in the State Department: for instance, Colin Powell or especially Condoleezza Rice. It is an internal conflict between hawks and doves. Currently, the Anglo-Saxons, that's to say the white Americans, are playing a relatively minor role." On April 20, 2005 National Public Radio (NPR) interviewed Otto and asked him about these comments. He confirmed what he said earlier and added: "There are many nationalities making up America. There are four states that in twenty years will have a majority of Spanish language [citizens]; and I don't think that's a catastrophy. It's a very good thing. I'm already well located. I have many children and all my children speak Spanish too." In the interview he's clearly hinting two or three times to the fact that he wants northern Africa to become part of the European Union. Otto thinks the rejected 2005 EU Constitution should be rewritten and reintroduced. Made a speech in German and French praising Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (former French president; like Habsburg, a good friend of Opusian Cercle founder Jean Violet; prominent member Paneuropa Union; received the Charlemagne award; Knight of Malta; Giscard's father had close connections to the Synarchy and Opus Dei) when this person was head of the Draft Treaty that should have established a Constitution for Europe. 2005, Ausgabe 2-3, Eurojournal pro management, p. 14, committee member Otto von Habsburg: "The original wording of the Constitution draft by Giscard d'Estaing was quite short and comprehensible. So why did it fail to convince the voters? This is plain: a campaign launched with the help of a book thick with legal terminology which, the bureaucrats hoped, voters would read and comprehend. Much money was spent, but nothing was gained. A Commission full of aged politicians to work on the draft which spoilt it just as "too many cooks spoil the broth". Giscard d'Estaing knew what would happen with his initial draft, and later photographs show the expression of a man in desperation who knew that should this revamped version fail, then he would be responsible anyway... No attempt was made to reach out to future generations as did the late pope John Paul II or as Pope Benedict XVI now does; two old men who somehow managed and manage to enthuse the masses. It is therefore no wonder that the battle was lost; the idea however still lives on, but we need new politicians to bring the idea home to voters." Giscard's initial draft version delegated a lot of authority to the EU presidency, who would be elected to serve for five years instead of the previous method of a six month rotation between all EU members. The European Council, the body made up of the heads of state of the member countries, would do the electing on the basis of Qualified Majority Voting. Giscard, who now favored the name United Europe, made many other proposals and was widely attacked for trying to reduce the influence of smaller EU countries, the commission and the European Parliament. Giscard did not see an EU president being directly elected by the European people "for another 50 years." Like Otto, Giscard d’Estaing is absolutely against Turkey joining the European Union. Tuesday 28 February 2006, Valery Giscard d'Estaing, speech at the London School of Economics entitled 'The Political Future of Europe' (transcript posted at website of LSE): "Let's be clear about this: the rejection of the Constitutional Treaty in France was a mistake, which will have to be corrected. Was the mistake due to the over-complicated presentation of the draft, or the choice of a referendum [public vote...] at a time when politicians were highly unpopular? It doesn't much matter. Everyone has accepted the democratic verdict, whatever their regrets. But the main victim has been a Treaty, which, according to the opinion polls, the French were not against. At a time when second chances are the order of the day, the Constitutional Treaty will have to be given its second chance. When? When France has completed her great electoral debate, with the presidential and parliamentary elections which are due to be held 14 months' time, in spring 2007. How? By refocusing the debate on the only genuinely constitutional parts, that is to say, the first part, and the Charter of Fundamental Rights demanded by the European Left, neither of which have given rise to much protest. Then the third part could follow a parliamentary route, which is far better suited to its legal nature." In this speech Giscard proposed that the two first parts of the Constitution could be subject to a new referendum, whereas the third and more controversial part would be subject to a parliamentary vote. On May 23, 2006 the Financial Times quoted Giscard d'Estaing as saying: "It is not France that has said no. It is 55 per cent of the French people - 45 per cent of the French people said yes... I wish that we will have a new chance, a second chance, for the constitutional project." Otto concurs and added in 2006 "A short, clear constitution text must go", suggesting the average person in the EU is interested in reading the document. April 09, 2002, Christian Science Monitor, 'Europe, prepare to greet Islam': "For centuries, the ruling Habsburgs defended the Continent against the expansion of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Now Mr. von Habsburg makes it clear that all nations bordering the Mediterranean Sea – including those in North Africa and the Middle East – have a place in his broad vision for tomorrow's Europe." In other interviews Otto indeed claimed that as far as he is concerned, Africa starts with the Sahara. The small strip above it should still be included in Europe. Otto is also happy to see that Central and Eastern Europe starts to have more and more influence in the rest of Europe. When Otto von Habsburg visited the United States in April 2005, one of the few people he spoke with in private was Henry Kissinger. Also interviewed by a few newspapers during his visit to the United States. April 18, 2005, Washington Times, 'Habsburg, 92, has eye on future': "The Cosmos Club's windows were ablaze with light... talk centered on Archduke Otto's lifelong quest to build and expand the European Union. "Ten new states have recently been admitted, and we are waiting for others, especially Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and the Ukraine," he told a reporter... Archduke Otto, amazingly hale and hearty at 92, readily admitted the EU was "already too big and unwieldy" but said that shouldn't matter: "The new [member states] will be better Europeans than the old because they know the totalitarian alternative. They will enrich us enormously." Later, he praised the Ukrainians for courageously taking to the streets to ensure democratic rule." Official supporter of Europe for Christ, which was founded in July 2005 and aims to insert the values of catholicism in the European constitution and the life of Europeans. The Vatican was "surprised" in 2003 that there was no specific reference to God and Christianity in the proposed EU constitution, even though the general importance of religions and spirituality on human society was in fact mentioned. Otto supports the Vatican on this issue. In November 2005 Otto denounced Putin as a KGB dictator and spoke in favor of Khodorkovsky, the famous oligarch, being released. Bavaria is known to have made large investments in Russia since the Oligarchs came to power. February 5-6, 2004, European Navigator/Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe, Otto von Habsburg interview in which he replies to the question what he thinks were the key players in European integration (translated from French): "Charles de Gaulle in the first place. Certainly one of the big visionaries of Europe... I will certainly also say Adenauer. Adenauer with his Rhenish vision because the Rhine plays a fundamental role in this Europe... Coudenhove, certainly; and... Schuman... I put them at the same level... Coudenhove said: "You know, it is awfully difficult to make Europe with the English, but without them, it is impossible" That is very true. And in case of France, that's also true. There are a lot of difficulties with the French, but we cannot make it without them. They are an essential element to us and without De Gaulle... France would have collapsed completely." February 5-6, 2004, European Navigator/Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe, Otto von Habsburg interview in which he replies to the question what he thinks about Jean Monnet (translated from French): "Jean Monnet had a role, an important role, but he certainly was not the only one... the relations between Monnet and Coudenhove were not exactly very intimate... I was on the side of Coudenhove during the whole time, because I agreed with his vision. Jean Monnet was rather a technocrat and Coudenhove was a prophet and a visionary. It was that big of a difference, in my opinion." In the end the only differences between Monnet and Otto seem to be that Otto is taking things slower and has traditionally not really been concerned with Britain entering the European Union, as this was not an original Paneuropean objective. Otto von Habsburg has been named as a member of the Order of Malta, a member of Opus Dei, and a member of the Mont Pelerin Society (a branch of the Paneuropa Union). Prominent Catholic and a patron of the Augustan Society. Former sovereign of the Order of the Golden Fleece, which has now become his son. King Juan Carlos of Spain is head of the only other Order of the Golden Fleece. Has also been named as a member of the controversial Order of Zion, if it even exists, or existed. Other rumors about the Order of Zion have named Cercle members Alain Poher and Giulio Andreotti. Otto and his wife reside at the Villa Austria in Pöcking, Bavaria, Germany.

Otto von Habsburg's oldest son, Karl Habsburg (b. 1961), who is to be the future head of the Habsburg family, married Baroness Francesca von Thyssen-Bornemisza in 1993. Baroness Francesca is the daughter of Baron Hans Heinrich von Thyssen-Bornemisza, who was a member of the 1001 Club. They had three children in the 1990s, whose godmother is Gloria von Thurn und Taxis, the wife of the late Prince Johannes von Thurn und Taxis. Karl is president of the Pan Europa Union in Austria and currently serves as the elected OVP Party representative of Austria to the European Parliament. His son Georg von Habsburg is a Hungarian diplomat to the EU and his daughter, Countess Walburga Douglas, is a Pan Europa representative, politician and author.

The Habsburg Empire did not entirely end after WWI. Currently HSH Prince Hans Adam II of Liechtenstein is a Habsburg monarch. He also has close ties to the Vatican, is a member of the Knights of Malta, and at least a supporter of Opus Dei. Hans Adam's younger brother sits on the board of the Coudenhove-Kalergi Foundation, together with Otto von Habsburg, Count Hans Huyn, Jakob Coudenhove-Kalergi (nephew of Richard, the founder of the Paneuropa Union), and Prince Carlo della Torre e Tasso (Thurn und Taxis). Hans Adam is known to have a lot of interest in the UFO/alien issue. He had an interesting conversation about this subject with Dr. Steven Greer. According to Greer, Hans Adam is a radical end-of-the-world fanatic who privately claims aliens have invented all the world's religions. According to Greer, Hans Adam claimed to him that one of his brothers was kidnapped by aliens. Greer says he has spoken to people in the US who claimed Hans Adam's brother indeed was abducted; not by aliens, but by a human stagecraft team to bring him aboard of a certain agenda.

5–6 February 1999, Mises Institute (founded in Auburn, Alamaba in 1982), Otto von Habsburg speech, 'The Mises I Knew: The Manifesto of Liberty': "You see, this university is in the great state of Alabama. ... My first meeting with Ludwing von Mises waas during the second World War. ... " A lot of rambling, but seems to say he and Mises were lobbying in the U.S. with regard to the old Austro-Hungarian Empire that used to be headed by the Habsburgs.

Source(s): karlvonhabsburg.at/newsroom /interviews-reden/detail/ (accessed: March 11, 2022; translated from German; original source: Jan. 21, 2012, Otto von Habsburg Symposion in Vienna, Karl von Habsburg speech entitled 'Europäische Außenpolitik: Otto von Habsburgs Verständnis von Europas Rolle in der Welt'): "One of the organizations still in existence today is “Le Cercle”. I also regularly attend the meetings. There's nothing mysterious about it at all. It's just a group of individuals with a common interest. I once gave a lecture there about the history of "Le Cercle", because most of today's participants no longer know how it came about. ...
Le Cercle [has been] described as a conspiracy association and Bilderberger offshoot. It was nothing other than an organization of interested parties from the political and security sectors who said, 'We are committed to exerting influence against the expansion of the Soviet Union, but also for a conservative orientation. And these organizations - most of them no longer exist today - were one of Otto von Habsburg's major areas of activity at the time, where an incredible number of international political contacts were made, which were then important for decades to come."

Son of Otto von Habsburg. Head of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine since 2007, when his father died.

karlvonhabsburg.at/newsroom/ interviews-reden/detail/ (accessed: March 11, 2022; translated from German): "There was one country that always particularly moved my father, and that was Rhodesia. He had personal friendships there. He felt that it was a country that had been betrayed and sold out by its mother country, Britain. History has undoubtedly proved him right when we look at Zimbabwe's situation today."

Source(s): publications.parliament.uk: "27 June-1 July 2002, to Morocco, flights and accommodation for my wife and me paid for by Le Cercle, a political group which organises conferences. (Registered 17 July 2002)"; February 21, 2012, Cercle chairman Lord Lothian's invitational letter to speak at Le Cercle to Saudi Arabia's deputy minister of foreign affairs Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz (released by Wikileaks around 2015; David Teacher made ISGP aware of the letter; this person is listed as a past speaker to Le Cercle).

Born in 1961. Went to Magdalen College, Oxford, and while there he was president of both the Conservative Association (OUCA) and the Oxford Union, a noted breeding-ground for political hopefuls and high-flyers. At Oxford, Hague studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) and graduated with first-class honours. Following Oxford Hague went on to study for an MBA at INSEAD (Elite French business school). Before entering Parliament, he worked for Shell UK and McKinsey & Co. Elected to Parliament in 1989. Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Lord Norman Lamont from 1990 to 1993, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer and chairman of Le Cercle. Entered the Cabinet in 1995 as Secretary of State for Wales. Member of the Privy Council since 1995. Leader of the Conservative Party from 1997 to 2001, in succession to John Major. When prime minister Tony Blair proposed the removal of the hereditary element in the House of Lords in 1998, Lord Cranborne (Cecil family), without consulting Hague, negotiated a pact with the government to retain a small number of hereditary peers for the interim period, which was later set at 92. Hague was embarrassed when Blair told him of it in the House of Commons and sacked Lord Cranborne. Seen as a political lightweight by many, and was widely mocked for his claim that he drank 14 imperial pints (8 litres) of beer in a day in his youth. Chairman of the International Democrat Union (IDU) 1997-2002, the global alliance of Conservative, Christian Democrat and like-minded parties. Went to Bilderberg in 1998. Deputy chairman of the IDU since 2002, under Australia's prime minister John Howard. Shadow Foreign Secretary and Senior Member of the Shadow Cabinet since 2005. UK Parliament record about William Hague: "27 June-1 July 2002, to Morocco, flights and accommodation for my wife and me paid for by Le Cercle, a political group which organises conferences. (Registered 17 July 2002)" Director AES Engineering, Rotherham.

Source(s): February 21, 2012, Cercle chairman Lord Lothian's invitational letter to speak at Le Cercle to Saudi Arabia's deputy minister of foreign affairs Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz: "At meetings last year, we were priviliged to talks from, amonst others ... Senator Chuck Hagel ..."

Senator from Nebraska 1997-2009. Secretary of Defense 2013-2015. Chairman of the Atlantic Council. Co-chairman of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board. Director Chevron. Important superclass member.

Source(s): Adrian Hanni (visited the Cercle once in 1987)

Halper began his US government career in 1971 in the Executive Office of the President. During the Nixon Administration he held positions in the White House Domestic Council and the Office of Management and Budget. With the Ford Presidency, Halper moved to the Office of the White House Chief of Staff where he had responsibility for a range of domestic and international issues. In 1977 Halper became Special Counsel to the Congressional Joint Economic Committee and Legislative Assistant to Senator William Roth (R-Del.). In 1979 he became National Policy Director for George H. W. Bush’s Presidential campaign and then in 1980 he became Director of Policy Coordination for the Reagan- Bush Presidential campaign. After Reagan entered the White House, Halper became Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs. Upon leaving the Department in 1984, he remained an advisor on National Security Affairs to the White House and the Republican National Committee until 1992. Halper has worked as a senior foreign policy advisor to various think-tanks and research institutions, including the Center for Strategic and International Studies, The Center for the National Interest, where he is a Distinguished Fellow, and the Institute for World Politics where he is a Research Professor. He has been a Senior Advisor to the Department of Defense, served on the Advisory Board of Directors of the School for Advanced International Studies and contributed to various magazines, journals, newspapers and media outlets. These include: The National Interest, The Washington Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, The American Spectator, the BBC, CNN , SKY NEWS, ABC, CBS, NBC, C-Span, and a range of radio outlets. Professor Halper is a member of the Cosmos Club in Washington, and the Travellers Club in London. He is the co-author of the bestselling book, America Alone: The Neo-Conservatives and the Global Order published by the Cambridge University Press (2004), and The Silence of the Rational Centre: Why American Foreign Policy is Failing,Basic Books, (2007). In April 2010, his book, The Beijing Consensus: Legitimizing Authoritarianism in our Time, was published by Basic Books. Also a ‘best seller’, it has been published in Japan, Taiwan, China, Korea and France.

Source(s): Cercle lists: 1982 Wildbad Kreuth; 1984 Bonn; 1985 Washington D.C.; Hanni (also went a second time in 1985, in 1986, 1987 and 1989)

Commissioned ensign US Navy, 1945, advanced through grades to rear admiral, 1972; service at sea Pacific and Persian Gulf, Bahrain, also Indian Ocean area; Commander Middle East Force, 1972-75; director security assistance division Navy Department, 1975-76, director strategic plans and policy div., 1976-77; retired, 1977; freelance writer, consultant, from 1977. Member U.S. Naval Institute (life, Silver medal essay contest 1968, 80, Bronze medal 1969, Gold medal 1970, 79), Army and Navy Club (president 1990-91). Republican. Author: The Unnoticed Challenge: Soviet Maritime Strategy and the Global Choke Points, 1980, The Cape Route: Imperiled Western Lifeline, 1981, The Pacific Far East: Endangered American Strategic Position, 1981, The U.S. Military Presence in the Middle East: Problems and Prospects, 1982, American Sea Power and Global Strategy, 1985; contributing author: America Spreads Her Sails, 1972, Sea Power and Strategy in the Indian Ocean, 1981; also numerous articles, books on strategic and international political military affairs and maritime history.

January 13, 1989, New York Times, 'Pro-Israel Lobbyists Face Charge on Election Role': "Former United States officials filed a complaint today against an influential pro-Israel lobbying group and 53 political action committees, charging they had violated Federal election laws. The complaint, filed with the Federal Election Commission, charges that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee has overstepped its legal bounds as a lobbying group by working to elect or defeat political candidates based on their positions toward Israel. The complaint said that the committee channeled money and volunteers to such campaigns in violation of its registered purpose as a lobbyist. The committee, which in the past has denied such activities, declined to discuss the details of the complaint filed today, citing F.E.C. regulations on confidentiality. Those who filed the complaint include George W. Ball, former Under Secretary of State; James Akins, former Ambassador to Saudi Arabia; Andrew Killgore, former Ambassador to Qatar; Adm. Robert J. Hanks, retired, who headed the Navy's Middle East Task Force; Richard Curtiss, a former chief inspector of the United States Information Agency, and Paul Findley, a former Representative from Illinois who contends he was defeated in 1982 because of a campaign by the pro-Israeli lobbying group. Action Sought by F.E.C. The complaint, researched by the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, which is a major Arab-American organization, asks the election commission to force the public affairs committee to register as a political action committee. If the group did so, it would have to file reports on its activities with the election commission. This could hamper the effectiveness of the lobbying group, which operates behind the scenes to recruit support for Israel, the largest recipient of United States aid with $3 billion annually, and to oppose weapons sales to Arab countries. In a statement, one of the plaintiffs, Mr. Curtiss, spoke of the lobby's ''formidable ability to mobilize congressional support'' and said the ability was ''based not upon an appeal to the American national interest but upon threats by a special interest that has resorted to conspiracy and collusion.''"

July 11, 2001, Washington Post, 'Robert Hanks Dies; Rear Admiral Led Middle East Force': "After he retired, he was a freelance writer, lecturer and consultant specializing in the Middle East. He wrote for the U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal, Strategic Review, Naval Review, Shipmate and others. He was president of the Army and Navy Club and a member of the American Legion, Navy League and the U.S. Naval Institute."

September 21, 1989, The Oregonian, 'B-2 not to be: No role for deterrence nuclear cruise missiles better suited, flexible': "In this instance, the enormous expenditures projected for the B-2 will clearly be unnecessary, and this country would be better advised to devote a larger proportion of its constricted defense funds to improving the nation's conventional warfare capabilities, for it is here that challenges to American international interests are most likely to materialize. ... Proponents of the plane, however, seem to be overlooking a fundamental flaw in the present Triad concept: response to a nuclear attack is now measured in minutes rather than the hours that made the B-52 an essential element in the strategic equation. Today, the manned bomber could not enter the fray until long after ballistic missiles had devastated an opposing nation. Even if some enemy missiles remained in the wake of an initial exchange -- mobile versions and misfires, for instance -- stealth proponents concede that the B-2 would be incapable of destroying them; the prime justification for the bomber when it was first proposed. Furthermore, it seems evident that nuclear deterrence can be adequately maintained by the other two legs of the Triad, as long as the land-based segment is modernized. Here, the Congress is wrong in gutting the MX and Midgetman programs. Still, the B-2 would not rectify this deficiency, in which case there appears to be no valid excuse for spending $70 billion on a new manned bomber. A far better solution to the B-52 dilemma exists: the nuclear-tipped cruise missile. If there is a valid requirement for post-nuclear-exchange strikes, the cruise missile -- launched from myriad land- and sea-based platforms and, perhaps, incorporating stealth technology -- would constitute an efficient and far less costly alternative to the B-2. B-2 advocates also claim that, compared to the ballistic missile, manned aircraft can be recalled, if necessary. They ignore the fact that cruise missiles, deployed in multitudinous ways -- land-based or on a host of sea-borne craft, naval and merchant -- need not be launched until the need arises. This contrasts sharply with the bomber, which would have to be scrambled on warning to avoid destruction on the ground during the opening nuclear exchange. Finally, backers of the stealth bomber contend that the plane could play a useful role in conventional warfare as the B-52 did during the Vietnam War. Again technological advances and the sheer economics of building B-2s renders the cruise missile a far better choice, even in wars approaching the magnitude and intensity of Korea or Vietnam. Altogether, one must conclude that, in pushing for full production of the B-2, the secretary of defense is making a serious error. In addition to modernizing the land-based leg of the deterrence stool, it is long past time that the Triad concept itself be brought up to date."

August 3, 1988, The Oregonian, 'Oil Still Key Reason For American Presence In Gulf': "Since Washington's decision to reflag a handful of Kuwaiti tankers, considerable debate has attended administration policies in the Persian Gulf. Now, in view of Tehran's apparent acceptance of U.N. Resolution 598 calling for a cease-fire in the seemingly interminable Iran-Iraqi war, it seems possible to expect the American naval presence in the region to return to pre-war levels. Most of the reasons Washington variously used to justify the initial naval buildup will no longer be valid. However, one critical factor to which the administration failed to give due credit will remain: American and allied dependence on Persian Gulf oil. U.S. petroleum problems center on the reality vs. the popular estimates of this nation's current reliance on supplies from the gulf, as well as with pertinent future projections. Most contemporary media accounts claim that American imports of Persian Gulf petroleum total about 6 percent of this nation's annual consumption. Significantly, these assessments studiously ignore forecasts of future U.S. production and demand, just as they did a decade and a half ago. In the spring of 1973, when Arab nations were threatening to invoke the ``oil weapon'' as a response to Washington's expanding military aid to Israel, American petroleum imports from the Persian Gulf were trumpeted in the press as being only 2 percent of annual consumption. As subsequent shortages decisively demonstrated, U.S. international oil companies were correct in saying that the actual figure was around 15 percent to 18 percent. This major discrepancy partly stemmed from the fact that the bulk of all U.S. armed forces deployed to the Far East and the Indian Ocean, as well as their bases, were then being fueled by Saudi Arabian oil from Ras Tanurah and Iranian oil from Kharg Island. In addition, many of the oil shipments lost their identity once they left the gulf, such as those shipped or refined in the Caribbean and in Rotterdam. With the Suez Canal still closed, only supertankers were economically viable, transporting gulf products south around the Cape of Good Hope. The supertankers were simply too large to enter relatively shallow-draft U.S. ports. And when smaller tankers -- to which Middle East cargoes of crude and refined oil had been transferred -- arrived in American East Coast and Gulf of Mexico ports, the oil in their tanks was no longer recognized as having originated in the Persian Gulf. One suspects that all of the foregoing miscalculations are imbedded in today's somewhat greater but nonetheless sanguine estimates of American dependence on oil exports from the Persian Gulf. Present conditions, however, are considerably different than they were in 1973. U.S. domestic oil production peaked around 1970 and is now down appreciably and steadily declining. It is projected to fall further through the mid-1990s. Moreover, consumption is rising. If one combines the two indicators, it becomes painfully clear that the outlook for this nation's energy future is anything but happy. Given these realities, where does the United States stand at the moment? Even if consumption remains constant -- a highly unlikely prospect -- imports will inevitably grow, and forecasts suggest that they will do so significantly by 1995. Nearly 70 percent of the world's excess production capacity is today to be found in Persian Gulf countries of Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. An end to the Iran-Iraq war eventually will add around five million barrels per day to that capacity. Furthermore, this region's share of world production in 1995 is expected to total somewhere between 30 percent and 45 percent. Thus, where will the United States look to make up the gap between its own output and necessary imports? Clearly, the Persian Gulf will be a prime source. It is in this context that the U.S. military presence in the Persian Gulf should be viewed. Just as the 1983 invasion of Grenada was designed not so much to rescue American medical students as to secure the primary sea lane along which Middle East oil shipments entered the Caribbean, so have recent U.S. efforts in the Persian Gulf been directed at protecting this nation's populace and industries from another energy shortage, other administration explanations notwithstanding. Amid the inevitable euphoria that will accompany termination of the Iran-Iraq war, Americans should not lose sight of the petroleum realities continuing to hover over their lives. Rear Adm. Robert J. Hanks is a former commander of the U.S. Middle East Force. Since his retirement in 1977, the former Portlander has written extensively from his home in Virginia on international political-military affairs, particularly the Middle East and maritime history."

Source(s): February 21, 2012, Cercle chairman Lord Lothian's invitational letter to speak at Le Cercle to Saudi Arabia's deputy minister of foreign affairs Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz (released by Wikileaks around 2015; David Teacher made ISGP aware of the letter; this person is listed as a past speaker to Le Cercle).

Born in Japan in 1935. Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries 1988-1989. Minister of Finance 1991-1992. Minister of Foreign Affairs 1993-1994. Deputy Prime Minister of Japan 1993-1994. Prime Minister of Japan April - June 1994.

Source(s): 1983 Bonn participants list

German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He studied philosophy and theology at the University of Tübingen. From 1957 to 1976 Heck was a member of the German Bundestag. Heck was Minister of Family Affairs and Youth from 1962 to 1968. After the resignation of the FDP ministers in 1966, he additionally headed the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development for a short time. Heck headed the Konrad Adenauer Foundation from 1968 to 1989. The Bruno Heck Science Prize, awarded biannually by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, was named in his honor.

Source(s): 1984 South Africa participants list

Born in 1926 in Johannesburg. Son of A. S. "Bob" Hersov. Chairman and CEO Anglovaal Group 1973-2001. President South African Foundation 1977-1993. Chairman Barclays South Africa. Honorary member Rotary Club, Johannesburg. Governor Hichaelhouse School, Balgowan. Board member National Business Initiative. Member of Pik W. Botha's defence council (ruled 1977-1994). Member Thabo Mbeki's economic advisory panel (ruled 1999-2008). 1001 Club.

November 8, 2001, All Africa, 'South Africa: 'Think About the Big Issues' - Basil Hersov': "In times of great turbulence and the confusion it brings, society seeks counsel from those with wisdom gained through experience. So former Anglovaal chairman Basil Edward Hersov, who retired last month after more than 52 years helping to mind the family business, may find even greater demands on his time in the years ahead. Hersov remains as passionate as ever about urging his countrymen to think, really think, about the big issues. And by playing what promises to be an even more active future role in heavyweight organisations like the SA Foundation and the National Business Initiative, he promises to keep raising uncomfortable questions that politicians prefer to avoid."

January 23, 2009, Financial Mail, 'Where are they now? Still up in the air': "He is the most senior honorary colonel of the SA Air Force. He was too busy to keep up with these trips regularly in his 26 years as chairman of Anglovaal, one of the top mining and industrial groups in SA before it was disbanded in 1998. Not too surprising as there were more than 20 companies in the Anglovaal group, involved in everything from gold mining to biscuits. He is sorry that he could not pass this business on to his sons, as his father Bob Hersov passed it on to him. One of his sons, James, shares the same offices and is a non executive director of Aveng and AVI. His brother Rob is a "serial entrepreneur" who sold his jet leasing business Marquis Jets to Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, which owns the market leader, NetJets. He is vice-chairman of NetJets Europe. Hersov still has an old school charm and cool which contrasts with the more pushy, abrasive businessman of today. But then he has never had to be pushy. "I grew up with the companies I later managed." He acknowledges that the model of family control of businesses is out of favour. "I could never understand why. We gave our shareholders a great return over the years, and I should know - I was one of the bigger ones." He says that the JSE is a very different place from the days 20 years ago when five groups controlled most of the exchange. "Most companies seem to be controlled by people who have not yet paid for their shares." Hersov still plays the occasional round of golf with former Anglo American boss Julian Ogilvie Thompson. He teases his old rival by saying that Anglovaal might have been a lot smaller but it was far more profitable."

January 1, 2007, Mail and Guardian Online (South Africa), 'Arms deal: Who got R1bn in pay-offs?': "Explosive new allegations of dirty money and influence-buying at the heart of South Africa's multibillion-rand arms deal have emerged from a British investigation of BAE Systems, the defence conglomerate that secured a R30-billion South African order for Hawk jet trainers and Gripen fighters. The allegations are contained in a formal application by the United Kingdom's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) for legal assistance from South African authorities. ... The SFO document mentions as beneficiaries of the suspected bribes, among others, former defence minister Joe Modise's adviser, Fana Hlongwane, and FTNSA Consulting, a company whose principal is, according to the SFO document, former Anglovaal and First National Bank (FNB) chairperson Basil Hersov. BAE has always maintained that it merely pays "normal" commissions and not bribes. However, the SFO document states: "The whole [commissions paying] system is maintained in such conditions of secrecy that there is a legitimate suspicion concerning the real purpose of the payments." The SFO also notes that "the failure of BAE to produce documentation believed to be located in office locations in Switzerland" adds to the suspicion that the "underlying documents which govern the payments cannot withstand scrutiny". The SFO document names a "highly secretive unit within BAE" called Headquarters Marketing, or HQ Marketing, "which coordinates all agreements and contracts with agents". It discloses the main front company used for the commission transactions, Red Diamond Trading, a mystery offshore entity registered in the British Virgin Islands. The document states that "between 2000 and 2005, South African agents received over £70-million through Red Diamond and over £6-million and $4-million through HQ Marketing accounts". It adds that "hardly any funds were paid to bank accounts within South Africa; the vast majority of payments being made to offshore accounts". ... * FTNSA Consulting, a company registered in the West Indies, whose principal, according to the SFO document, is Basil Hersov, former chairperson of FNB and member of President Thabo Mbeki's economic advisory panel. Hersov, now 80, is described as a man "with considerable influence". Agreements with him "allow access to the very top", according to BAE documents quoted by the SFO. According to the SFO document: "Documentation disclosed by BAE has revealed that … FTNSA was incorporated in Nevis in the West Indies in April 1992, and two months later entered into a consultancy agreement with BAE in relation to procurement of the Hawk aircraft in South Africa." At the time, in 1992, the South African government was still led by the National Party, with FW de Klerk as president. Apparently, BAE expected that FTNSA/Hersov's influence would continue to allow "access to the very top" and help secure the desired Hawk contract after the elections and the installation of an African National Congress government in 1994. According to the SFO request, FTNSA was paid, like the others, after delivery of the contract, between 2000 and 2005. It received a sum of £5,5-million (R77-million)."

Historic:

August 26, 1946, Time magazine, 'GOLD: 18-K. Beachhead': "Last week Wall Street's Ladenburg, Thalmann & Co. and Lazard Freres & Co. announced the formation of the American Anglo-Transvaal Corp., a privately-financed company to promote mining and industry in South Africa. (No stock in the new company will be offered to the public for the time being.) The London firms of Lazard Brothers & Co. and J. Henry Schroder were invited to share in the original $9 million subscription of American Anglo-Transvaal, and accepted. American Anglo-Transvall, will operate on a partnership basis with the Anglo-Transvaal Consolidated Investment Co., Ltd., a $32 million holding company, one of the most active in South Africa. American Anglo-Transvaal will supply the cash; Anglo-Transvaal (with active subsidiaries in steel, oil, glass, coal, lumber, manganese) will provide the knowhow."

The Anglovaal Group was a diversified South African Mining House. Interests were held through Anglovaal Industries Pty Ltd. (cement, construction, steel, food processing, car tyres, consumer electronics and financial services), and through Anglovaal Mining Pty Ltd (gold, platinum, copper, manganese, iron ore, nickel and diamonds). The Group was listed in Johannesburg and London but controlled by the founding families. At its peak the Group employed some 85,000 people and had a market capital of +/- $2.5bn.

His son, Robert B. Hersov:

Since January 2004, Mr. Hersov has been the vice chairman of NetJets Europe Ltd., a subsidiary of NetJets, Inc., a private aviation and fractional jet ownership company which was acquired by [Warren Buffet's] Berkshire Hathaway Inc. in 1998. Mr. Hersov founded and, from December 2002 to April 2004, served as the chief executive officer of Marquis Jet Europe, a private aviation company which was acquired by NetJets, Inc. in 2004. Since September 2007, Mr. Hersov has served as a non-executive director of Australian privately-owned company Global Aviation Leasing Group. Mr. Hersov is also chairman of Sapinda Limited, a UK private company, which is the main shareholder of Vatas GmbH, a private German investment company. Mr. Hersov also founded and, from October 1998 to December 2002, served as the chairman of Sportal Ltd., a company that operates an Internet site that offers sports-related games and videos. From October 1996 to September 1998, he served as the executive director of Enic plc, a holding company listed on the London Stock Exchange that invests primarily in the sports and media sectors. From September 1995 to September 1997, Mr. Hersov was the chief executive officer of Telepiu PayTV in Milan, Italy, a pay TV and digital satellite company. From March 1993 to August 1995, Mr. Hersov served as an executive director of [the Rupert family's] Richemont, a tobacco, luxury and media conglomerate listed on the SWX Swiss Exchange. We believe Mr. Hersov?s investment background will assist us in sourcing new avenues of financing needed to expand our business. Since June 2005, Mr. Hersov has been a member of the board of directors of Shine Media Acquisition Corp., a blank check company that was formed to acquire a direct or indirect interest in an operating business in the media and advertising industry in the People?s Republic of China. He was a director of Endeavor Acquisition Corp. from July 2005 to December 2007, a director of Victory Acquisition Corp. from January 2007 to April 2009 and a director of Triplecrown from June 2007 to October 2009. From 1989 to 1991, he served as a Business Development executive of News Corp. in New York (owned by Rupert Murdoch). Mr. Hersov received a B.B.S. from the University of Cape Town in 1982 and a M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School in 1989.

May 22, 1985, Courier Mail, 'South Africans counter-attack': "SOUTH African businessmen _ along with the Pretoria Government _ have been stunned over the last several months by the intensity of the campaign in the United States and elsewhere to disinvest from the apartheid republic. In Australia, Government and sporting leaders have expressed concern at the decision by Kim Hughes to lead a team of ""rebel" cricketers to the country. But after the initial bemusement, big South African business interests and personalities, with government assistance, have launched a counter-attack to take as much of the sting as possible out of the onslaught. A top-level delegation of South African businessmen laid the foundation of the counter moves by holding a secret summit in Britain last month with British, American and Swedish business executives. The meeting, at Leeds Castle, 60 km from London, was presided over by former British Prime Minister, Edward Heath, who played a leading role in arranging it. The focus of attention at the conference was the Reverend Leon Sullivan, author of the Sullivan Code of Conduct for American companies operating in South Africa. The South African delegation was led by the director of the South African Urban Foundation, Mr Jan Steyn, and included Mr Tony Bloom, chairman of the Premier group of companies, Mr Basil Hersov, executive chairman of the Anglo Vaal mining group and Mr Reinalt T Hofmeyer, executive director of Barlow Band, one of South Africa's largest industrial organisations. The conference was organised by US multi-national interests through the Rev Sullivan and Mr Heath _ without the blessing of the British or South African Governments _ and against the advice of the UK-SA Trade Association. The presence of a three-man Swedish delegation headed by Dr Aake Magnusson, chairman of the Council of Swedish Industries, was considered significant as the Swedish Government has been at the forefront of disinvestment moves. Informed sources said the conference had brought South African business leaders to a closer understanding with Mr Sullivan who, in turn, recognised the vital role South African businessmen were playing in promoting internal reforms _ a cue they had taken from American companies. The South African delegation argued that foreign investors could achieve more by continued involvement in South Africa than they could by opting for disinvestment or outright confrontation with the South African Government. A statement issued after the conference revealed a new consensus intended to simultaneously intensify business pressure on the South African Government and undercut the growing momentum for disinvestment. A key paragraph stated: ""It is important to reflect that economic growth and productive investments are essential to forces now taking place in South Africa.i. . . the participants are encouraged by the progress that has been made.""

March 7, 1986, BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, 'South Africa: In Brief; Change in South Africa Urged in Barclays Bank Annual Report': "The authorities should proceed ''with all deliberate speed'' to implement changes designed to move South Africa away from institutionalised discrimination. This is the view of the Chairman and Managing Director of Barclays National Bank, Mr Basil Hersov and Mr Chris Ball. In a strongly worded comment on the political situation in the bank's 1985 annual report, they stress that ''the human aspirations of people who are not white must be accommodated if we are to acheive a stable society and bring an end to conflict.'' This would require courage, they say. ''It is our belief that the majority of South Africans, both black and white, have accepted that apartheid has to be dismantled. Between the diehards who wish to maintain the staus quo at all costs on the one hand and the proponents of violence on the other, there is a large range of active interest groups in our society, including the business sector, who anxiously seek an opportunity for involvement in building a society beyond apartheid.'' The bankers express the hope that 1985 will prove to be a turning point in South Africa's history."

Source(s): 1984 South Africa participants list (vice chairman of the Rembrandt Group)

The most important partner of Anton Rupert in the Rembrandt for decades. Visited Le Cercle. Member 1001 Club since around the time of the founding.

September 12, 2005, Africa News, 'South Africa; Building an Empire From Humble Beginnings: Anton Rupert': "ANTON Rupert's study of world markets, as well as his own observations during the depression, convinced him that "tobacco and liquor had the best growth potential because I noticed during the depression of the 1930s that people didn't smoke less and, if anything, they probably drank more". ... In the initial years Rupert focused more on tobacco while Dirk Hertzog mostly attended to the liquor unit. Hertzog tended to keep a lower profile -- it was better that way, he often told friends and relatives, as a team could only have one captain: "Anton is the masthead."" March 24, 2006, Africa News, 'South Africa; Extraordinary Man of Many Parts': "The [Michael] O'Dowd legend lives on in the memories of colleagues at Anglo American, where they would take turns researching obscure subjects to casually drop into conversations to see if they could find something on which he could not contribute authoritatively. They never did. ... For most of our history as one of Africa's leading independent think tanks he was our chairman (1978-2005). More than that, he was a father figure and mentor. He became head of the Free Market Foundation after he and Dirk Hertzog reconstituted the foundation with the support of Harry Oppenheimer and Anton Rupert 30 years ago to combat the interventionism that characterised the 1970s and caused SA's declining economic fortunes." January 27, 2006, Financial Mail (South Africa), 'Obituary - Anton Rupert.': "His brother, Jan, was a senior group executive, and though Rupert had reservations about bringing family members into firms, he later recruited his son, Johann. This allowed Edwin, the son of Rupert's original and lifelong business partner Dirk Hertzog, to join Rembrandt as well and build up the group's hospital interests."

Source(s): 2014, Johannes Grossmann, 'Die Internationale der Konservativen: Transnationale Elitenzirkel und private Außenpolitik in Westeuropa seit 1945', p. 553. (Nov. 11, 1995 meeting)

From Germany. Daughter of former German politician Franz Josef Strauss. She completed a training as a hotel manager. Bavarian State Minister for Education and Cultural Affairs 1998-2005. In 2005, she decided to step down from her office, amid accusations she allowed party votes to be falsified and got jobs for friends. Already in 2004, Hohlmeier had resigned as head of the Munich branch of the Christian Social Union after she reportedly threatened critics within the party with unspecified revelations about their personal lives. Member of the European Parliament 2009-. Supervisory board TSV 1860 Munchen (1999-2007) and BayWa Aktiengesellschaft (since 2013). Member Hanns Seidel Foundation. Trustee Marianne Strauss Stiftung (deputy chair), Nathalie Todenhofer Stiftung, German European Security Association and Christliches Jugenddorfwerk Deutschlands (CJD).

Source(s): Adrian Hanni (visited the Cercle in a 1990 meeting)

As a boy during World War II, he was sent to live in the United States. He attended Millbrook School, where he befriended William F. Buckley, Jr., who remained a lifelong friend until Buckley's death on February 27, 2008. Horne served in the RAF in 1943–44 and with the Coldstream Guards from 1944–1947. He worked as a foreign correspondent for The Daily Telegraph from 1952–1955. He is an Honorary Fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford. Horne is the biographer of British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, a work originally published in two volumes. In early June 2008 he finished a soon-to-be-published authorised biography of Henry Kissinger (author's statement, Paris, June 13, 2008). As a result of the Iraq War, his 1977 book A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962 has recently been of interest to American military officers. It was also recommended to U.S. President George W. Bush by former United States Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger. In October, 2006 the book was republished[1] and in January 2007, by phone from his home in England, Alistair Horne was part of an Iraq War discussion panel on the Charlie Rose Show on PBS. According to the July 2, 2007 edition of the Washington Post, Horne reportedly met with President Bush sometime in mid-2007 at the administration's request. Staff writer Peter Baker reported that they discussed philosophy and history.

Source(s): 2014, Johannes Grossmann, p. 473 (visited in the 1970s)

From the same family as Titus Maria Horten (1882-1936), a Catholic Dominican priest. Busdestag member for the CDU 195-1972. Also involved in J. Weck & Co.

Source(s): 18 June 2000, Sunday Telegraph / Lobster Magazine, Issue 40, winter 2000-2001

Who's Who: Born in 1941. Junior Counsel to the Crown (Common Law), 1980–82; a Recorder, 1986. Contested (C) Liverpool, Edge Hill, 1966 and 1970; Chm., Bow Group, 1970–71. PPS to Solicitor-General, 1984–85; Parly Under-Sec. of State, DTI, 1985–87; Minister of State, DoE, 1987–90; Secretary of State for: Employment, 1990–92; the Environment, 1992–93; the Home Dept, 1993–97; Shadow Foreign Sec., 1997–99; Shadow Chancellor, 2001–03. Jt Sec., Cons. Legal Cttee, 1983–84; Jt Vice-Chm., Cons. Employment Cttee, 1983–84; Vice-Chm., Soc. of Cons. Lawyers, 1985. Pres., Atlantic Partnership; Chm., Northern Racing Ltd; Dep. Chm., Entrée Gold Inc. PC 1990; QC 1982; MP (C) Folkestone and Hythe, since 1983; Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition, 2003–05

He was called to the Bar (Inner Temple) in 1964 and specialized in employment law and planning issues. The late 1960s saw his promotion within the Bow Group where he became Chairman in 1970 shortly after the general election in which he was again defeated at Edge Hill. Howard entered the Government early, becoming Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Trade and Industry in 1985 with responsibility for regulating the financial dealings of the City of London. This junior post became very important as he oversaw the Big Bang introduction of new technology in 1986. After the 1987 election he became Minister for Local Government where he became involved in two major political controversies. On behalf of the Government, he accepted the amendment which became Section 28, and defended its inclusion. He then guided through the House of Commons the Local Government Finance Act 1988 which brought in Mrs Thatcher's new system of local taxation, officially known as the Community Charge but almost universally nicknamed the poll tax. Howard personally supported the tax and was respected by Mrs Thatcher for minimizing the rebellion against it within the Conservative Party. After a period as Minister for Water and Planning in 1988/89, in which time he was responsible for implementing water privatization in England and Wales, Howard was promoted to the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Employment in January 1990 when Norman Fowler resigned "to spend more time with his family". Howard therefore took on responsibility for legislation abolishing the closed shop. He campaigned vigorously for Mrs Thatcher in the leadership contest following her resignation in November 1990. He retained the same cabinet post under John Major and made many attacks on trade union power as part of the 1992 general election campaign. His work in the campaign led to his appointment as Secretary of State for the Environment in the reshuffle after the election. He undertook some diplomacy to encourage the United States to participate in the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, but was soon after appointed as Secretary of State for the Home Department in a 1993 reshuffle initiated by the sacking of Norman Lamont. His tenure as Home Secretary was especially notable for his tough approach to crime, which he summed up in the soundbite "Prison works". When he was Home Secretary he released high-level drug dealer John Haase from prison just 10 months into an 18-year sentence, along with his associate Paul Bennett. Haase's criminal career began with armed robberies in the 1970s. He moved on when he realised there was much more money to be made in heroin. He took control of the British end of the southern route for heroin smugglers, which runs from Afghanistan to Britain via Turkey and the Balkans. A member of Haase’s gang, Simon Bakerman, imprisoned for running an amphetamine factory, is Michael Howard’s cousin. His reputation was dented in 1996 when a critical inquiry into a series of prison escapes was published. In advance of the publication Howard made statements to assign blame to the prison service. Ann Widdecombe, his former junior minister in the Home Office, made a statement to Parliament about the dismissal of then Director of the Prison Service, Derek Lewis and famously remarked of Howard that "there is something of the night about him", a bitter and widely quoted comment that fatally damaged his 1997 bid for the Conservative Party leadership. The comment was taken as a "bitchy" reference to his dour demeanour, which she was implying was sinister and almost Dracula-like, related to his Romanian ancestry. Attended the June 2001 meeting of Le Cercle in Lisbon, Portugal. President and founding chairman of the Atlantic Partnership. After the 2001 General Election Howard was recalled to frontline politics when the Conservatives' new leader, Iain Duncan Smith, appointed him as Shadow Chancellor. After Duncan Smith was removed from the leadership by the parliamentary party, Howard was elected unopposed as leader of the party in 2003. In February 2004, Howard called on Tony Blair to resign over the Iraq war, because he had failed to ask "basic questions" regarding WMD claims and misled Parliament. In July the Tory leader stated that he would not have voted for the motion that authorised the Iraq war had he known the quality of intelligence information on which the WMD claims were based. At the same time, he said he still believed in the Iraq invasion was right because "the prize of a stable Iraq was worth striving for". His criticism of Blair did not earn Howard sympathies in Washington, where President Bush refused to meet him; Karl Rove is reported to have told Howard: "You can forget about meeting the president full stop. Don't bother coming." Howard is an old friend and cabinet colleague of Cercle member and Arms dealer Jonathan Aitken. Governor of the Ditchley Foundation.

Sources: June 18, 2004, Chancellery of HRH Crown Prince Alexander II of Yugoslavia, 'Reception in honor of the "Le Cercle" conference

Who's Who: Lieut Coldstream Guards, 1954–56. Joined Economic Section of Treasury, 1959; resigned, 1960. Leader-Writer and Special Correspondent, The Daily Telegraph, 1960–64; Chm. of Bow Gp, 1961–62; Editor of Crossbow, 1962–64; contested (C) Dudley, 1964. MP (C) Guildford, 1966–97. A Lord Comr of Treasury, 1970–71; Parly Sec., CSD, 1970–72; Parly Under-Sec.: Dept of Employment, 1971–72; NI Office, March-Nov. 1972; Minister of State: NI Office, 1972–74; Dept of Energy, 1974; Secretary of State: for Energy, 1979–81; for Transport, 1981–83. Chairman: Select Cttee on Foreign Affairs, 1987–97; H of L Sub-Cttee on EC Foreign and Security Policy, 1999–2000. H of L Opposition spokesman on foreign affairs, 2000–; Dep. Leader of the Opposition, H of L, 2005–. Chairman: Cons. One Nation Gp, 1987–97; UK-Japan 21st Century (formerly 2000) Group, 1990–2001. Sen. Vis. Fellow, PSI, 1983–85; Vis. Fellow, Nuffield Coll., Oxford, 1993–2001. Dir of Conservative Political Centre, 1964–66. Director: Jardine Insurance Brokers, 1991–97; Monks Investment Trust, 1993–2004; John Laing Plc, 1999–2002; Adv. Dir, UBS (formerly SBC Warburg), 1997–2000; Advisor: Japan Central Railway Co., 2001–; Mitsubishi Electric, Europe, BV, 2003–; Kuwait Investment Office, 2003–; Hermitage Global Fund, 2007–. Mem., Internat. Adv. Council, Swiss Bank Corp., 1988–97. Pres., BIEE, 2006–. Governor, Sadler’s Wells Trust, 1995–98; Trustee: Shakespeare Globe Theatre, 2000–; Duke of Edinburgh’s Commonwealth Conferences, 2008–

Baron Howell of Guildford. Born in 1936. Educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge. After five years as a journalist he unsuccessfully contested the constituency of Dudley in the 1964 General Election. Member of Parliament for Guildford from 1966-1997. Served in four other Government posts under Mr. Heath, including Minister of State for Energy and Minister of State for Northern Ireland. Member of the Privy Council since 1979. Secretary of State for Energy 1979-1981. Secretary of State for Transport 1981-1983. Writes a fortnightly column for The Japan Times in Tokyo since 1985. Regularly writes for the International Herald Tribune, E-biz Chronicle (New York) and to other newspapers and journals. Chairman of the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs since 1987-1997. Chairman of the UK-Japan 21st Century Group 1989-2002, the high level bilateral forum between leading UK and Japanese politicians, industrialists and academics. Member of the international advisory board of Swiss Bank Corporation from 1989-1996. Has been to the the Trilateral Commission several times since the 1990s. Advisory director and senior adviser to the board of SBC Warburg Dillon Read, London 1996-2000. Created a life peer as Lord Howell of Guildford in 1997. Chairman of the House of Lords European Sub-Committee on Common Foreign and Security Policy 1999-2000. Awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Sacred Treasure of Japan in 2001. European Consultant to Japan Central Railway Company, to Mitsubishi Electric, Europe, BV and to the Kuwait Investment Authority. 2003 panelist of the Atlantic Partnership. Howell's website, 2003: "With the support of the Atlanticist and free market-minded new members there is every chance of turning the EU away from its centralist obsessions and even repatriating powers to national parliaments." President of the British Institute of Energy Economists (BIEE) since 2004. Attended a meeting of Le Cercle in Belgrade, Serbia on June 18, 2004. Upon taking his post at the BIEE, Howell wrote: "I am delighted and honoured to take on this role. There can be no doubt that after a decade of relatively problem-free energy flows there are now major dangers ahead on both the supply side and on the generation and distribution sides. For the UK the situation is about to change radically. We will shortly become again, after many years, a net importer of both oil and natural gas, the latter being supplied by new contracts with Norway, Russia , Algeria and possibly Iran. This takes these aspects of energy supply right back into the heart of international politics in the most sensitive areas on earth. Meanwhile , here at home, we now have to make crucial new decisions on nuclear power. It is no longer a question of ‘keeping options open’ on nuclear power generation. Decisions have to be made now for a decade ahead. Investment in offshore windfarms cannot conceivably fill the gap which will be left by any nuclear closures. Finally, we now have to move towards a new generation of techniques for conservation and low energy consumption. There is much work to be done." At a Chatham House meeting in April 2005. October 19, 2006, subject matter of Lord Howell's speech to the Japan Society: "A new structure of International Relations is now in the making. As American power and influence diminishes, it will be replaced not by another bloc or superpower, such as The European Union or China, but by a complex new mesh or web of relationships between nations large and small. A vital strand in this new pattern will be the linkage between the UK and Japan. This linkage has the capacity to re-shape global affairs, including energy security and influence on both Middle Eastern and Asia-Pacific stability, to an extent far greater than hitherto realised. Lord Howell will explain how this scene will develop." Member of the advisory council of New Europe, a cross-party eurosceptics group. Deputy Opposition Leader in the House of Lords and spokesman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in the House of Lords. May 17, 2006, Viva Le Canada, 'The Commonwealth as the Ideal Model for International Relations in the 21st Century': "The Lord Howell argues that the Commonwealth is becoming a completely transformed entity and that an enlarged and reformed version of it should be centre stage in addressing the problems of the new international order... The Commonwealth normally refers to 53 member countries, formerly members of the British Empire. The Commonwealth's membership includes both republics and monarchies. The Head of the Commonwealth is Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Headquarters are at Marlborough House in London. Her Majesty also reigns as monarch directly in a number of states, known as Commonwealth Realms, notably the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and others. The Commonwealth's 1.8 billion citizens, about 30 per cent of the world's population, are drawn from the broadest range of faiths, races, cultures and traditions. About half of this population are less than 25 years old. Members range from vast democratic countries like India, Canada and Australia to smaller city states like Singapore. The Commonwealth has three intergovernmental organisations: the Commonwealth Secretariat, the Commonwealth Foundation, and the Commonwealth of Learning."

Source(s): Samuel M. Hoskinson 1998 speech about NATO expansion to Le Cercle (at the 2000-2002 Atlantic Circle website)

Senior member of the National Security Council Staff where he served under three National Security Advisors: Henry Kissinger, Brent Scowcroft, and Zbigniew Brzezinski. Vice chairman National Intelligence Council. Manager for international corporate strategy at the Bechtel Group. He later provided international consulting services to foreign and domestic clients. Executive vice president, CFO and director of Africa Petroleum, Inc., together with Cercle director Richard T. McCormack; Charles E. Waterman, a senior CIA officer and vice chairman of the National Intelligence Council; and Paul Bristol, executive chairman of the International Oil Club in London. President of the Alliance for a New Kosovo, together with Frank Carlucci, ambassador William Walker and Army Lt. Gen. Robert Gard. Promoted Brzezinski's strategic outlook in this Cercle speech.

Source(s): Cercle lists: 1982 Wildbad Kreuth; 1985 Washington D.C. ("Ambassador (Retired). Candidate for the Presidency")

Gómez was a son of the former President of Colombia, Laureano Gomez. Gomez came from an aristocratic family. In 1932 Gómez gained control of the Conservative party in Colombia, a role which he relished. Under his leadership the party was highly disciplined, and provided strong opposition to the ruling Liberal Government. In 1936 he founded the Colombian daily El Siglo. He was widely viewed as a brilliant parliamentarian and political tactician. Got into trouble for his open sympathy for fascism; he was an admirer of Adolf Hitler and Francisco Franco. In Colombia, this was agreeable to Laureano Gómez. He had publicly shown loyalty to the Franco regime as early as 1937. During a visit of Franco officials that year, the Conservatives arranged a banquet at which Dr. Gómez stated his approval: "Spain, marching forward as the sole defender of Christian civilization, leads the Western nations in the reconstruction of the empire of Hispanidad, and we inscribe our names in the roster of its phalanxes with unutterable satisfaction.... We bless God who has permitted us to live in this era of unforeseen transformations, and who has given it to us to utter, with a cry that springs from the very depths of our heart: 'Up Catholic, Imperial Spain!' " He was exiled several times, the last time from 1946 to 1948. President of Colombia 1950-1951, through acting president Roberto Urdaneta Arbeláez 1951-53 (had a heart attack). Fled to Franco's Spain after a military coup.

January 13, 1981, Executive Intelligence Review (EIR), 'Jesuits run both sides in Salvador': "[El Salvador president Jose Napoleon] Duarte's mentor, Rafael Caldera [president Venezuela], is-together with the self­confessed leader of Colombia's fascists, Alvaro Gomez Hurtado [Le Cercle]-a founding member of the European Center for Documentation and Information (CEDI), a think tank that is closely associated with the Mont Pelerin Society and the Black International's Pan European Union of reactionary Count Otto von Hapsburg [Habsburg]. Hapsburg is also a member of CEDI"

May 28, 1951, Time magazine, 'Colombia: First to Korea': "For the first time in 127 years, Colombian troops marched off last week to fight on foreign soil.* At a field Mass under the colonnade of the national Capitol in Bogotá, President Laureano Gomez presented battle colors to the Batalión Colombia, a 1,082-man combat team of volunteers for the war in Korea. Colombia is the 15th nation to send ground troops to Korea, the first Latin American country to join in the fighting. Commanded by Lieut. Colonel Jaime Polania Puyo, a veteran of 22 years in the Colombian army, the battalion has been training for four months in mountain country around Bogotá to get ready for Korea's rugged terrain. The troops are equipped with U.S. Army uniforms and materiel (paid for with Colombian cash), and have been checked out on North American infantry weapons by twelve Spanish-speaking U.S. Army noncoms." June 22, 1953, Time, 'Colombia: The Horrible Night Is Over': "President Laureano Gómez, a harsh, angry, forbidding man, ruled.Colombia (pop.: 12,000,000) with a will so stern that other men instinctively cringed and obeyed him. More than any other Colombian of this century, he dominated his country's life. But one afternoon last week, ten of the Colombian army's tanks clanked up and took positions around his modest suburban house, and then—simply, surprisingly—Laureano Gómez, 64, slid like a wilted leaf down history's drainpipe. The presidency Laureano Gómez lost had been the goal of his entire life. As far to the right as his friend, Spain's Franco, he led and symbolized Colombia's Conservative Party during its long years out of power. In 1945, when the Liberals split over presidential candidates, he pushed the Conservatives' silver-haired Mariano Ospina Pérez into office. Ospina, under the willful thumb of Gómez, felt obliged to return the favor in 1949. Clamping on a state of siege, using military police to drive Liberals from the rural polls, Ospina dutifully engineered Laureano's election. Gómez never lifted martial law, instead used it to press a bloody civil war with the hated Liberals out in the countryside. The war brought death to perhaps 20,000 people. Never relenting, Gómez drove the Liberals clear out of public life. Struck down by two heart attacks, he went into partial retirement, gave some administrative chores to Acting President Roberto Urdaneta Arbeláez, but kept the real power for himself. Cool Officer. That is how matters stood late last year, when General Rojas Pinilla, a career officer of moderate Conservative sympathies, returned to Bogotá from duty with the Inter-American Defense Board in Washington. What he saw shocked him. His friend Ospina, having announced new presidential ambitions for 1954, was being hounded out of public life by Gómez. The fighting with Liberal guerrillas was still going on, and Rojas' army was being forced to carry out the government's share of the butchery. Laureano was preparing an extremist constitution on the Spanish-Portuguese model, which would make the President all-powerful. Big, straight-talking General Rojas, an engineer officer with a record of 33 years' service, must have looked to Gómez like one man who might stand up to him. He demanded that Acting President Urdaneta fire the army chief. Urdaneta made out a retirement order—to go into effect the minute Rojas left Bogotá airport last April on an airline junket to Germany. Rojas' baggage was already on the plane when a loyal officer brought word of the order. He canceled the flight, and the firing was held off for the time being, to avoid trouble with the army. Sunny Spain. Last week, though still in bad health, Laureano Gómez decided to force the issue. He stalked into the Presidential Palace and abruptly resumed the full presidency, ousting Urdaneta. Implacable as ever, he immediately fired Rojas. The general, weekending at a country town, got the word by telephone, flew back to Bogotá, went to a battalion barracks in the heart of the city and waited. Soon the new Minister of War, named by Gómez that morning, arrived to take charge; Rojas quietly arrested him. Then the general sent tanks and troops into the city. In an hour, without a single killing or even much excitement, Rojas seized the government. Gómez, under house arrest, prepared to go into exile in Spain. That night Rojas offered the presidency to Ospina, then Urdaneta. When both declined, he took the title for himself, pending new elections, and set up an all-Conservative cabinet including three brother officers. Over the radio from the palace, he promised "clean elections" and "no more bloodshed, no more quarrels among the sons of Colombia." He also pledged scrupulous observance of all international obligations and sent personal greetings to the Colombian battalion in Korea, the only Latin American contingent fighting with the United Nations forces. Colombia threw off angry-eyed old Laureano Gómez with general rejoicing. This week 30,000 people gaily jammed narrow Seventh Avenue to cheer for the tall, ruddy general on the palace balcony. Liberals saw the hope of an end to Laureano's hinterlands slaughter. At Ospina's house, when the news came, drinks flowed and guests gathered, and the greeting they all used was a quotation from the national anthem: "The horrible night is over."" February 8, 1954, Time magazine, 'Colombia: Missionary Freeze': "After Lieut. General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla overthrew the ultra-Conservative regime of President Laureano Gomez last summer, some U.S. Protestant missionaries hopefully reported an apparent slackening in government restrictions on Protestants in Colombia. But President Rojas is a Conservative too, and state Catholicism is a prime plank of any Conservative government in Colombia. Last September the Rojas regime banned Protestant activity in 18 "mission territories" in remote parts of the country. Last week the government announced a further curb: Protestants may no longer engage in religious activities outside their churches, though within the churches they will not be molested. For the present, the decree will probably have the effect of freezing the Protestants in their present position: 11,958 members (out of a total population of 11,260,000) and 202 churches."

Alvaro is mostly remembered for being one of the writers of the Colombian Constitution of 1991 and for failing three times to win election to the presidency. MP 1944-46 and 1949-51. Senator 1951-52. Ambassador to Switzerland 1947-48, Italy 1953, the United States 1983-85, France 1991-93. Unsuccessfully ran for the presidency of Colombia three times: In 1974 against Alfonso López Michelsen, in 1986 against Virgilio Barco and in 1990 against César Gaviria. In 1988, Gomez was kidnapped by the M-19 guerrillas (anti-CIA; kidnapped and executed union leader Jose Raquel Mercado in 1976 for this), then led by Antonio Navarro. Navarro released him after the intervention of Álvaro Leyva. Professor at Sergio Arboleda University. Assassinated in 1995. Roman Catholic.

June 17, 1988, Toronto Star, 'Abduction divides Colombia': "BOGOTA - The kidnapping of prominent opposition leader Alvaro Gomez Hurtado late last month has pushed Colombian politics into a tailspin. The abduction, now believed to have been carried out by the M-19 guerrilla movement, has hit Colombia's small ruling class where it hurts most and underlines the government's inability to implement a solution for growing political violence and sabotage by Colombian rebels, analysts and politicians say. "The country is in crisis," Colombian attorney-general Horacio Serpa Uribe told The Star. "The kidnapping escalates the crisis and is polarizing Colombians even more. We need substantial democratic reforms." Four armed men kidnapped Gomez Hurtado, 69, a two-time presidential candidate and publisher of the conservative daily El Siglo, and killed his bodyguard May 29 as the two left a Bogota church. It was first thought that Colombian drug traffickers were responsible but the government now says it has proof that an urban cell of M-19 calling itself Colombians For National Salvation is responsible. Gomez Hurtado, an influential member of the Conservative party, had been actively pressuring the Liberal government of Virgilio Barco to broaden the state of siege that has been in force in Colombia for 30 years in order to end the growing influence of four main guerrilla groups that control large areas of the countryside. One of the key demands of the kidnappers has been a call for a national dialogue to shed light on - and end - the dirty war in which hundreds of people have been assassinated. The victims include members of Colombia's two traditional political parties, human rights activists, students and peasants. Death squads Most political parties, including the Union Patriotica [FARC], which has lost more than 600 of its members through political assassination during the past two years, have roundly denounced the kidnapping as a ploy to force political change. But now, for the first time, Colombian television stations have started allowing family members of victims who disappear to speak openly and they have featured programs on human rights in an attempt to comply with the kidnappers demands. "The kidnapping is aimed at sensibilizing people to the dirty war," one man said. "But you can't carry out a kidnapping to sensibilize people to disappearance." While drug- and crime-related violence have been endemic to Colombia in recent years, political killings and kidnapping by security forces and death squads is a relatively new phenomenon. Part of an official investigation into the killings leaked to the weekly magazine Semana in early May confirmed that some members of the armed forces are directly linked to the crimes. President Barco has reacted to criticism of his leadership by naming eight new cabinet members and increasing the armed forces budget. Some sectors opposing his style of government have suggested he should give more power to the armed forces, set up a ruling coalition with the opposition Conservatives or resign so that the congress can choose a replacement - an alternative that is permitted by law. Most analysts suggest the fate of Gomez Hurtado is key to the immediate future of Colombia. "There is a growing sense of anarchy," one Western diplomat says. "The situation has deteriorated with the kidnapping. It is more critical now than at any other time.""

July 21, 1988, AP, 'Former Presidential Candidate Released, Calls For Talks With Rebels': "The government, which made no promises after newspaper editor Alvaro Gomez Hurtado was abducted May 29, indicated after his release Wednesday night that it might talk to the guerrillas. ... Gomez Hurtado, the Conservative party candidate who lost the 1986 presidential race to President Virgilio Barco Vargas, is the some of former President Laureano Gomez Hurtado. ... In a telephone interview, he said he was released on the outskirts of Bogota, where he caught a taxi to his home. About 5,000 people joyfully screaming "Alvaro, Alvaro, Alvaro" gathered in a park in front of his apartment building within an hour. ... As the editor of the Bogota daily El Siglo, Gomez Hurtado's columns favored a military solution to the guerrilla problem. But in the interview, he seemed to have changed his position. "The episode of my kidnapping has been a confirmation that we are living in difficult times and that it is necessary to look for national reconciliation," he said, referring to the possibility of peace negotiations. The April 19 Movement, one of five guerrilla groups in Colombia, had said it kidnapped Gomez Hurtado and was demanding peace talks. Barco's government refused to make any promises to the rebel band, known as M-19. But the rebels agreed last week to release Gomez Hurtado anyway, perhaps because the kidnapping outraged Colombians more than any previous guerrilla undertaking. Shortly after Gomez Hurtado was released, Barco put out a cautious feeler that seemed to indicate a willingness to begin peace talks with the rebels. ... "I was treated well, and when I needed any medicine, it was given to me without delay," he said. In a communique released on week ago in Panama City, the M-19 said it would release Gomez Hurtado. The communique, read by Papal Nuncio Jose Sebastian Laboa, came after five hours of negotiations in the Vatican Embassy in the Panamanian capital. It said the decision had been made "in the spirit of finding routes that lead to a more equitable society, to the preservation of human rights and reconciliation among Colombians." Peace talks with the estimated 10,000 to 20,000 leftist guerrillas is a volatile issue in Colombia. Army generals, business leaders and congressmen say the guerrillas tricked President Belisario Betancur with their demands for peace talks in 1982. The opponents say the guerrillas used the negotiations to recuperate from severe setbacks against government security forces. Betancur's government negotiated a cease-fire with four of the five leftist guerrilla groups, including the M-19, but the truce collapsed within a year. Barco's government has kept up contacts with one of the guerrilla groups, the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces. Those talks have gone nowhere. Fighting between the group and government security forces has been fierce since Barco took office on Aug. 7, 1986."

December 15, 1988, New York Times, 'Massacres Are Jolting Colombia': "Colombian public opinion seems no less confused. Polls show that only about 10 percent of Colombians sympathize with the guerrillas and 2 out of 3 favor a tougher response by the armed forces, yet 70 percent oppose a rightist military coup and 80 percent believe that negotiations with the guerrillas offer the best hope of peace. ... Having kidnapped a prominent conservative politician, Alvaro Gomez Hurtado, last June in order to force the Government to initiate peace talks, the guerrillas rejected President Barco's peace initiative on the ground that he was demanding their surrender. And to prove they were not defeated, they launched their biggest offensive in years. Yet two guerrilla groups, the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces and the April 19 Movement, continue to demand negotiations with the Government and this month declared a unilateral cease-fire through Christmas as a way of supporting a competing peace plan proposed by an opposition politician."

September 28, 1988, PR Newswire, 'Colombian embassy replies to Amnesty International': "In a conference on human rights in Colombia, held today at American University under the auspices of Amnesty International, Luis Guillermo Velez, minister plenipotentiary of the Colombian Embassy in Washington, said that guerrilla groups and narcotics traffickers are the principal violators of human rights in Colombia. Specifically, he said that more than 500 members of the leftist-oriented Political Union Party (UP) have been assassinated by death squads organized and paid for by the narcotics traffickers. This information was revealed in the latest edition of "Foreign Affairs.""

October 30, 1998, Associated Press, 'Colombia Commander Arrest Ordered': "The former commander of a notorious army intelligence unit is being charged with organizing the assassination of Colombia's main opposition leader three years ago, probably on orders from a senior official, judicial sources said Friday. Former Col. Bernardo Ruiz Silva, for whom an arrest warrant was issued in mid-October, is accused of planning the Nov. 2, 1995, killing of Alvaro Gomez Hurtado, the officials said. Ruiz was still at large Friday and believed to be in Colombia, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons. Prosecutors had hoped to keep the arrest warrant secret until they captured Ruiz, but news of the charges was leaked by Colombian media. Ruiz is wanted on charges of aggravated homicide, intent to murder and conspiracy, a spokesman for the chief prosecutor's office said. Gomez, a three-time presidential candidate and head of the Conservative Party, was shot to death in broad daylight as he got into his car after teaching a class at a Bogota university. The assassination occurred during a period of great political turmoil, when Gomez was demanding that then-President Ernesto Samper resign because of evidence he was elected in 1994 with $6 million in contributions from drug cartels. Four former soldiers, all of whom had worked under Col. Ruiz, have been arrested for allegedly carrying out the assassination. Some have implicated Ruiz, who at the time of the killing commanded the 20th Intelligence Brigade, the sources said. In all, six people have been arrested in the case. The officials said prosecutors believe Ruiz was acting on the orders of higher-ranking officials, perhaps even someone within the Samper administration. The television news program CM& reported Thursday night that two generals and several leading politicians have also been implicated in the assassination. It did not name them, however, and no further arrest warrants have been issued. Some Colombian media have theorized that the assassination was ordered because Gomez was involved in a plot to overthrow [liberal President] Samper [1994-1998]. Without naming names, Samper repeatedly asserted that conservative politicians were trying to organize a coup against him. Former U.S. Ambassador Myles Frechette has said he was approached in August 1995 by Samper opponents who sought Washington's support for a coup. Frechette said he refused to help the conspirators, whom he has not named. Ruiz was relieved of his command in late 1997 and the 20th Intelligence Brigade was dissolved in May. The State Department, Colombian prosecutors and international human rights groups had repeatedly accused the brigade of sponsoring death squad killings."

May 27, 2008, The Times, 'Manuel Marulanda': "Manuel Marulanda Velez, Colombian guerrilla leader, was born in about 1930. He died of a heart attack on March 26, 2008, aged about 79 Commander of Colombia's biggest guerrilla fighting force who took up arms during the bloody protests of the late 1940s ... He took up arms during the political warfare of the late 1940s, and never returned to "normal" life. He eventually became the overall commander of Colombia's biggest and oldest guerrilla army, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc, holding that position for 18 years. ... When an army general, Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, seized power in 1953 and initiated a "pacification" policy, most of the Liberal chieftains laid down their arms, but Marulanda did not. Nor did he surrender when the Liberals and Conservatives concluded a power-sharing agreement, known as the National Front, a few years later, after the departure of Rojas Pinilla. Marulanda at first supported the dissident Liberal offshoot known as the Movimiento Revolucionario Liberal (MRL), founded by Alfonso Lopez Michelsen, the rebellious son of a former Liberal president. But later he moved close to the Colombian Communist Party, which was calling on peasants expelled from their land by the political violence to form "self-defence" communities and resist outside attacks. Marulanda and 48 other "primitive rebels", all former Liberal guerrillas, set up one such community, Marquetalia, in the mountains not far from the capital. A leading Conservative politician, Alvaro Gomez Hurtado, described Marquetalia as an "independent republic" and called on the Government to crush it. The military duly launched an all-out assault on the rebel stronghold in May 1964, forcing Marulanda and his followers to scatter. Within two years he and other local guerrilla commanders under Communist influence came together to found the Farc in the south of Tolima department in April 1966. The Farc at that time consisted of about 400 poorly armed peasants, under the overall command of Jacobo Arenas. The aims of the Farc were idealistic: "Colombia for the Colombians, with equality of opportunities and equitable distribution of wealth...where we can build peace with social equality and sovereignty." This was enough to attract a stream of recruits in rural areas, and the organisation grew steadily, despite sporadic attempts by the military to destroy it. In the mid-1980s the Conservative President of the day, Belisario Betancur, invited its commanders to a peace conference. A truce was declared in May 1984 to enable talks to take place, and the two sides subsequently agreed that guerrillas who laid down their arms could return to civilian life and form their own legal political party, the Patriotic Union (UP). Marulanda remained aloof, and the murder by death squad over the next few years of thousands of former guerrillas justified his suspicions: he would never agree to take part in any peace process that involved a cessation of hostilities, which would leave the guerrillas defenceless against paramilitary gangs. Marulanda became overall commander of the Farc in 1990."

--

May 1, 2010, The Times, 'Leaders 'gave drug baron sanctuary and smuggling routes'; Nicaragua': "The head of the Sandinista Government in Nicaragua protected one of the world's top drug barons and helped him to establish trafficking routes through the country, a former highranking officer has claimed. During the 1980s Daniel Ortega, the revolutionary leader and current President, gave Pablo Escobar, the head of Colombia's Medellín cartel, access to drug corridors as well as sanctuary and a military guard, according to the allegations. Cuba and Panama, then led by Fidel Castro Enhanced Coverage Linking Fidel Castro and Manuel Noriega, are also said to have participated in the deal, with Panama acting as a financial and money-laundering centre and Cuba protecting shipments. The claims have been made by Victor Boitano, a former colonel and member of the Nicaraguan Army's high command. Speaking to The Times this week Colonel Boitano said: "A mechanism was established here in Managua [the Nicaraguan capital] for the use of soldiers for personal protection of Escobar, for his residence and for the shipping of drugs." Escobar was allowed to use land routes, Nicaraguan waters and Los Brasiles airport, then controlled by the military, he added. The Sandinista National Liberation Front had worked with radical leftwing movements, such as the Colombian guerrilla group M19, to overthrow the dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979 and it was through those groups that contacts with Escobar arose, he added. "It was a good opportunity for the Government of Daniel Ortega to have liquid cash like that. He, Noriega and Castro did this deal with Pablo Escobar to use Nicaraguan territory to protect Escobar and to open up the drug routes which currently exist." Colonel Boitano, who said that he had received death threats for speaking out against Mr Ortega's Government, was then in charge of looking after left-wing movements to which the Government gave its protection. Contact between Escobar and Mr Ortega, he said, was managed by Tomás Borge, the Interior Minister, a relationship that brought the Sandinista Government $350 million, "an immense fortune" for the time. Escobar was given refuge in a residential area south of Managua during the 1980s, Colonel Boitano said, adding that he had seen the drug lord in a safe house on the city's southern highway. Escobar eventually left for Colombia. He was killed by police in 1993. Colombian drug traffickers and the insurgent group Farc continued to operate smuggling routes through Nicaragua and Farc maintained a presence there. "There are members of the Farc, of its high command, here in Nicaragua today." Nicaragua is still awash with arms from the Somoza era and the Sandinista revolution. Colonel Boitano said that the Sandinistas had long sent the weapons to the Colombian guerrillas. "The principal supply of arms to Farc in Colombia has been Nicaragua." Nicaragua has always denied involvement in the drug trade. In an interview with the Nicaraguan daily newspaper La Prensa in 2008, Mr Borge said that Managua had received an offer to act as a stopover point for Colombian drug traffickers, which had been discussed by the Sandinista leadership "but on principle we could not [agree]". 'It was an opportunity for Ortega to have liquid cash like that'"

July 19, 1984, New York Times, 'U.S. accuses Managua of role in cocaine trafficking': "A Government affidavit filed in a United States District Court today accuses the Nicaraguan Government of direct involvement in cocaine trafficking between South American countries and the United States. The affidavit, sworn testimony by an agent of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, Ernest S. Jacobson, said the Sandinista Government, in cooperation with a Colombian drug dealer, had recently built a new airstrip and hangar in Managua for use by cocaine traffickers. It also said a Nicaraguan Government official had been encouraging smugglers to begin using a new cocaine laboratory recently built in Nicaragua. ... The affidavit was filed in Federal District Court in Miami as part of a complaint against six men who were charged today with involvement in the cocaine trafficking. Three of the men, all Miamians, were arrested today, a spokesman for the Drug Administration said. They were identified as Carlos A. Bustamante, Paul Elzel and Felix Dixon Bates. Also charged were Mr. Vaughan, Pablo Escobar, a Nicaraguan, and Jorge Luis Ochoa of Colombia. 4-Month Undercover Operation The affidavit said the information about Nicaraguan involvement in the cocaine trafficking had resulted from a four-month undercover operation. It said the informant had tape-recorded phone conversations and taken photographs to substantiate the charges. At the end of the investigation early this month, the drug agency seized 1,452 pounds of cocaine, which the informant purportedly had flown to Florida from Managua. The affidavit also said the drug agency had independently corroborated the informant's information. The informant had been smuggling cocaine from South America since 1981, the affidavit said, and was recruited by drug dealers in Miami last April to fly cocaine from Colombia to the United States. He had agreed to work for the drug agency, it said. In Colombia, the informant was told that Colombian drug dealers had begun using ''a new airfield with a 6,000-foot strip in Nicaragua,'' the affidavit said. It added that the Colombian drug dealers ''had reached an agreement with the Sandinistas'' who it said were helping Colombians ''in developing the airfield and erecting a hangar.'' Unloading of Cocaine Described On May 30, the affidavit said, the Drug Administration informant picked up about 1,500 pounds of cocaine in Colombia and flew to Managua, where he was ''met by Federico Vaughan, an aide to the Minister of the Interior of Nicaragua.'' The cocaine ''was offloaded by Sandinista military personnel'' and by Mr. Vaughan and Mr. Escobar, according to the affidavit. The informant left Managua a few days later, leaving the cocaine behind, the affidiavit said."

August 2, 1983, Heritage Foundation, 'The PLO's growing Latin American base': "The Soviet Union has established a garrison in Cuba, while Eastern bloc states have joined Moscow in creating a base of operations in Nicaragua and Grenada. Yet another external force is escalating its interference in this Hemisphere -- the terrorist Palestine Liberation Organization. The PLO works closely with Nicaragua's radical Sandinista regime and is helping those who are trying to overthrow El Salvador's democratically elected government. At camps in Cuba and the Middle East, the PLO trains cadres of terrorists, which head back to Latin America to undermine established regimes. While the PLO is not the cause of Latin America's most basic problems, it is exploiting them. In turn, the PLO increasingly uses its growing Latin American base to reinforce its international terrorist campaign against the United States and Israel. ... Early covert contacts between the PLO and Nicaraguan rebel forces began in 1969 when Sandinistan leaders Pedro Arauz Palacios, Tomas Borge (now the Sandinistan Minister of the Interior), and Eduardo Contreras were given PLO training in Lebanon. Later that year, joint Cuban-PLO training of Sandinistas was begun in Lebanon, Algeria, and Libya. Tomas Borge was a major link in funneling Libyan money and PLO technical assistance into Nicaragua, and he arranged shipments of arms from North Korea and Vietnam into Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras. PLO-Sandinista links became public on February 5, 1978, when Benito Escobar, of the Sandinista Front for the Liberation of Nicaragua (FSLN), and Issam Sli of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, issued a joint communique from Mexico City. The communique spoke of the "bonds of solidarity which exist between two revolutionary organizations," and condemned American "imperialism" and Israeli "Zionism." Immediately after taking power in July 1979, the Sandinista regime signed what was called a government-to-government agreement with the PLO, allowing it to open an "embassy" in Managua with a staff of seventy. Since then, the PLO has been active in Nicaragua. For one thing, the PLO presumably had a hand in the Sandinista policies which drove the entire Jewish community of Nicaragua into exile. For another thing, intelligence sources confirm that of the thirteen camps on the Nicaraguan northwest coast for training revolutionaries from El Salvador and elsewhere, at least three are run by the PLO. A U.S. State and Defense Department joint backgrounder on Central America reports that up to fifty Libyan and PLO advisers have been active in Nicaragua, servicing equipment and training and arming guerrillas. The PLO has loaned the Sandinista regime over $12 million, Libya has given it $100 million in aid (and is considering a $300 million investment in agricultural projects), and Algeria has shipped Nicaragua more than thirty Soviet-made tanks and large quantities of arms."

Source(s): Cercle lists: 1982 Wildbad Kreuth; 1983 Bonn; 1984 South Africa; 1985 Washington D.C. list.

Brother of Alvaro.

February 16, 1993, Calgary Herald, 'Drug lord brings chaos to Bogota': "Two large car bombs exploded in the heart of Bogota Monday morning, causing four deaths, huge destruction and chaos, and helping to achieve one of drug baron Pablo Escobar's main tactical objectives: making life impossible in the Colombian capital. The first bomb exploded close to the municipal courthouses, wrecking homes, shops and a petrol station, and sending a dark mushroom of smoke into the air. Two minutes later a bigger bomb, estimated by police experts at over 200 kg of dynamite, was detonated near one of the city's main hotels. Getting to the disaster scene was complicated by nearly hysterical policemen clutching at reporters to try to bar access to the devastation. The ruins of a dozen cars were blazing, firemen were running their hoses, and thick smoke and steam billowed across the street. The injured were carried to ambulances, taxis and private cars as shards of glass fell from shattered windows. Local hospitals reported about 120 casualties, among them the radical conservative senator, Enrique Gomez Hurtado, and one of his bodyguards. Police and army units cordoned off large areas of the centre, while radio stations broadcast appeals for people to stay at home, and above all not to drive into Bogota and worsen the traffic chaos. The city's telephone system also quickly overloaded and failed. The objective of the bombers appears to be to make ordinary life impossible in the capital, and to provoke security measures so tough that they produce public resentment and pressure on the government to negotiate a new surrender agreement on Escobar's own terms. The drug chief successfully used a car bomb campaign in his first surrender negotiations two years ago, but the recent attacks have so far hardened public opinion. The government response to the first big bombing of Escobar's latest offensive, two weeks ago in Bogota, was to raise the price on his head to $ 7 million. A rival trafficking clan has also offered $ 1.5 million to anyone who kills him. They have begun killing his associates and employees, and placing their own bombs to destroy his property. Colombia appears to be, once again, drifting into a savage spate of narco-terrorist warfare."

February 15, 1993, UPI, 'Car bombs explode in Bogota, killing at least four people': "Suffering slight injuries in the second blast was Sen. Enrique Gomez Hurtado, who was in his office. ''My car disappeared from the street. All that remained was a piece of scrap metal. Everything else was destroyed. It seems one of the bombs was placed in my car,'' Gomez Hurtado told reporters at the scene. The senator said one of his police bodyguards who was near the car at the time of the explosion was seriously wounded and taken to the hospital. Authorities said no group immediately took responsibility for the attacks, but police said the method used by the attackers points to the Medellin cocaine cartel run by fugitive drug lord Pablo Escobar. The Medellin cartel has declared a ''total war'' against the government of Colombian President Cesar Gaviria because Gaviria rejected Escobar's terms for turning himself in. Escobar escaped from prison last July."

February 28, 1993, Houston Chronicle, 'Escobar's escape the biggest blow to Columbian leader ': "When [liberal] President Cesar Gaviria won the presidency almost three years ago [in office 1990-1994], his style was compared to that of John F. Kennedy. And when he promised an end to drug trafficking, negotiations to end the hemisphere's longest-running insurgency, and economic modernization, his approval rating shot past 80 percent. Talks with the guerrillas began, and Gaviria, citing lack of public support for a frontal assault on the powerful narcotics organizations, offered leniency and reduced sentences to drug barons who surrendered. The constitution was rewritten, banning extradition -- as the drug traffickers demanded. Now, almost three years through his four-year term, Gaviria, at 46 one of the youngest presidents in the hemisphere, has hit hard times. And the times are made harder because many believed that Gaviria offered the only hope of moving the country out of the cycle of violence that has plagued it for decades. He had taken up the banner of the late reformist presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan, who was killed by drug traffickers in 1989. Gaviria's ""prestige is at an all-time low,'' said a sympathetic veteran political observer. ""Everything hit him at once and he has not been able to do anything to recoup. '' Talks with the guerrillas broke off and fighting has increased. Medellin cocaine cartel leader Pablo Escobar surrendered, then humiliated the government by walking out of prison. His gang is again terrorizing the country with car bombs and assassination threats. The violence has overshadowed the progress Gaviria made in opening up the economy and taking steps toward regional integration with Venezuela and Mexico. The three are negotiating a free-trade pact. What seems to bother people most is again having to live with the uncertainty of random violence and the omnipresent signs of a country under siege. Passengers must arrive at airports three hours before takeoff for security checks. Streets where prominent officials live are sealed off by police barricades. Newspapers and other threatened targets are cordoned off. Heavily armed soldiers and police patrol streets and set up mobile roadblocks. ""What I really hate is the feeling that we are going backward toward 1989 (the height of narco-terrorism), instead of forward,'' said a prominent journalist who has been supportive of Gaviria. ""Expectations were so high, and now to be back to this is really disillusioning. '' In its annual national poll released in January, Semana magazine, the nation's largest weekly and generally protective of the government, found Gaviria's approval rating had dropped from 79 percent in January 1992 to 22 percent last month. ... Gaviria is also under fire from those who believe that the war against the traffickers is not winnable and therefore the state should negotiate with Escobar before traffickers destroy the country. Enrique Gomez Hurtado, an opposition senator who was slightly injured in a car bomb attack earlier this month, said the war was ""undertaken on the wrong terms,'' and urged talks with Escobar." Escobar was killed in December 1993 through a joint effort of the U.S., the rival Cali Cartel and other opponents of Escobar. The Cali Cartel largely came to an end in 1995 when most of its top leaders were arrested.

October 3, 2001, BBC Monitoring Latin America (El Espectador web site, Bogota), 'Colombia: Congressman submits bill to abolish demilitarized zone': "Yesterday, Conservative Congressman Enrique Gomez Hurtado submitted a bill in the Senate that seeks to end the term of the demilitarized zone DMZ . The bill, which consists of a single article, states the need to repeal Law 418 of 1997, which was extended two years later with a few modifications and serves as the legal foundation for the DMZ, established for purposes of the peace talks between the government and the FARC Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia . According to Gomez, "now that President Andres Pastrana has said that the law is what has allowed chaos to rule in Caguan, we must end it." Gomez has been a staunch critic of the peace process and has sponsored debates in Congress demanding tighter controls in the DMZ by the executive branch and effective actions by the armed forces against guerrillas."

April 26, 2001, Heritage Foundation reports, 'Helping Colombia fix its plan to curb drug trafficking, violence, and insurgency': "Colombia, America's fourth largest trading partner in Latin America, is the world's largest exporter of cocaine and heroin and a focal point for money laundering and arms trafficking in the Western Hemisphere. Its government has waged a losing battle against insurgents and drug traffickers for over two decades, and drug-related violence is now spilling into neighboring countries. In 1999, the Clinton Administration backed new Colombian President Andres Pastrana's agenda to curb drug smuggling. Plan Colombia included provisions for more aggressive eradication and interdiction efforts, encouraging rural guerrillas to disarm through peace talks, replacing coca farmers' lost income with alternative crop and employment programs, and strengthening the country's historically weak government. ... Moreover, insurgents have made money by protecting crops, airstrips, and cocaine labs for nearly three decades, and there are now complaints that the FARC is producing cocaine inside its own safe haven. n18 [n18 Statement by Senator Enrique Gomez Hurtado at The Heritage Foundation, Washington, D.C., August 28, 2000.] The distinction is crucial, because Plan Colombia deals with the guerrillas through a "peace process," while narcotraffickers and members of self-defense groups are subject to arrest."

Listen to Enrique Gomez Hurtado, a former high court judge from Colombia who still has shrapnel in his leg from a bomb sent to kill him by the infamous drug lord Pablo Escobar. In 1993, his country was a free-fire zone not unlike Mexico today, and Gomez issued this chilling -- and prescient -- warning to an international drug policy conference in Baltimore: "The income of the drug barons is greater than the American defense budget. With this financial power they can suborn the institutions of the State, and if the State resists . . . they can purchase the firepower to outgun it. We are threatened with a return to the Dark Ages."

One should not waste time in pointing out those who compete to see who is the best bootlicker of Bush. One of the best bootlicker is senator Enrique Gómez Hurtado. It must be made clear that while Venezuela is taking gigantic steps to achieve tangible human rights and where a truly participative democracy is taking place, Mr. Hurtado has conveniently ignored the assassination of labor leaders, human rights activists, among others in Latin America, opting instead to try to push through an OAE bill condemning Venezuela.

On April 13, the Colombian senate approved a resolution proposed by Senator Enrique Gomez Hurtado that condemns the “dictatorial regime” of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias and calls for the Organization of American States to apply the Interamerican Democratic Charter to Venezuela. According to Article 21 of the Charter “In the event of an unconstitutional alteration of the constitutional regime that seriously impairs the democratic order in a member state, any member state or the Secretary General may request the immediate convocation of the Permanent Council to undertake a collective assessment of the situation and to take such decisions as it deems appropriate.” What is meant by “such decisions” is not specified in the Charter, but it is generally accepted to include all actions up to and including military intervention by OAS states, including the United States.

Member of the Partido Conservador Colombiano, or Columbian Conservative Party, the other party in Colombia being the Colombian Liberal Party (PLC). Ambassador.

February 21, 2000, Associated Press Online, 'Colombia Town Scared by Massacre': "The dusty roads around this remote northern town became a killing ground last week when a three-day rampage by right-wing militiamen left a trail of disfigured corpses and burned-down shacks. As many as 20 unarmed villagers were reported killed and many others were forced to flee in the latest violence in Colombia's decades-old conflict, which has claimed at least 35,000 lives _ most civilians. The villages targeted in the attacks in northern Sucre state form part of a traditional leftist rebel stronghold now being challenged by landowner-backed paramilitary groups. The two rarely fight directly, instead killing villagers they believe to be sympathetic to the other side. ''This time they didn't fire a single shot. They beheaded everyone,'' said a 30-year-old farmer whose brother was dragged from his house and killed by the men wearing camouflage uniforms and carrying rifles. As officials searched for bodies over the weekend in some of the more remote hamlets, police said a separate paramilitary attack on Saturday claimed the lives of five peasants in Apartado, a town housing many war refugees near the border with Panama. The latest rightist violence followed the opening of debate in the U.S. Congress last week over a massive increase in military aid to Colombia as part of a proposed $1.6 billion package for fighting narcotics trafficking. Human rights organizations oppose the plan, saying Washington should not give more aid to the Colombian military, which has been accused of tacitly supporting the paramilitary groups. A paramilitary chief interviewed on Colombian radio Sunday was unrepentant about the killings near Ovejas. ''The guerrillas have disguised themselves as farm workers and hidden their weapons in the houses,'' said Santander Losada, the regional commander of a group calling itself the United Self-defense Forces of Colombia. Losada told RCN radio his men had killed 47 members of the country's largest rebel band, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. But villagers who fled to Ovejas insist the killing was indiscriminate. One field worker was hacked to death with a machete, they said, because he had on the rubber work boots commonly worn by the rebels. ''We aren't guerrillas. We're just poor peasants. They killed anyone who came by,'' one man, who asked to remain anonymous, told The Associated Press. Still shaking with fear, Mercedes Isabel Simancas said that after killing her son, the militiamen returned to kill her husband. Some were luckier. When the militias arrived, one man fled with his six children into a nearby jungle, where they hid for two nights. ''I left everything behind. Chickens, pigs, everything,'' he said. A battalion of government troops that reached the area on Sunday reported skirmishing with paramilitary squads, but Losada said the militias will not withdraw from the region. ''We will remain in the zone, to liberate it from the FARC rebels who want to split Colombia in two,'' he said. The 15,000-member FARC is engaged in peace talks with the government to end the nearly 36-year conflict. The talks have dragged on, and many conservative Colombians say the rebel group has feigned interest in peace while strengthening itself militarily. Some on Friday urged President Andres Pastrana to seek a halt to the killings by opening parallel negotiations with the 5,000-strong paramilitary groups, a proposal the FARC fiercely opposes. ''It's a necessary step in the peace process,'' said Sen. Enrique Gomez Hurtado of Pastrana's own Conservative Party."

Colombia:

Ramsey Clark's International Action Center, 'Fact sheet - Colombia: The Pentagon's new target': "Colombia is the northern-most country of South America, with ports on both the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. It is rich in natural resources, with an abundance of oil, natural gas, coal, nickel, and emeralds. Its agricultural riches include coffee and flowers, and there are vast forest and river resources. Approximately 30 percent of Colombia’s 40 million people are peasants. This includes several Indigenous communities with their own languages and customs. Colombia is facing the worst depression since the 1930s. Unemployment is running at an official rate of 20 percent, with some areas suffering 50 percent unemployment. A majority of the country lives below the poverty level. The Colombian peso has lost over half its value against the dollar since 1998. These problems are compounded by the Colombian government’s pro-International Monetary Fund neoliberal economic policies of budget austerity and privatizations."

Ramsey Clark's International Action Center, 'Fact sheet - Colombia: The Pentagon's new target': "The government: Colombia’s government has been dominated by two traditional parties, the Conservatives and the Liberals. These two parties have ruled essentially uninterruptedly for the past 150 years. The current president, Andres Pastrana of the Conservative Party, favors International Monetary Fund-backed neoliberal economic policies of austerity and privatization.
The Colombian Armed Forces: The U.S.-trained Armed Forces officially includes about 145,000 soldiers, mostly draftees. Many of the generals have been linked to gross human rights violations by international human rights groups. In addition to the Armed Forces, the 105,000 National Police engage in combat against the insurgencies. A host of other special units reinforce these main forces.
The revolutionary insurgencies: The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army (FARC-EP) and the National Liberation Army (ELN) are the country’s two largest guerrilla armies, together administering about 50 percent of the Colombian national territory. They are fighting for fundamental social change, including land reform, social ownership of the country’s wealth, and a restructuring of the Armed Forces.
The paramilitary death squads: Colombia's government uses paramilitary death squads as a matter of counterinsurgency policy. Right-wing paramilitary organizations like the “United Self-Defense Units of Colombia” (AUC) routinely attack the civilian population in an effort to terrorize the population into not supporting the insurgencies or the popular mass movements. They maintain close links with the Armed Forces—in many cases carrying out orders directly on behalf of the Army and security agencies—and have received organizational support from the United States Defense Intelligence Agency. The death squads and armed forces combined are responsible for the vast majority of the at least 40,000 Colombians killed in the last ten years.
The mass movements: Colombian workers, peasants, students, and others have powerful and militant mass organizations, carrying out vast protest campaigns despite death squad and government terror. For example, in September 1999, 20 million Colombians staged a two-day general strike against the government’s neoliberal economic policies."

Ramsey Clark's International Action Center, 'Fact sheet - Colombia: The Pentagon's new target': "In 1998, after a series of stunning military victories by the FARC-EP, the United States government dramatically increased its military aid to Colombia. Military funding tripled from $89 million in 1997 to $289 million in 1998. This funding included advanced Blackhawk attack helicopters and sophisticated intelligence equipment. The United States is Colombia’s largest trading partner and principal arms supplier. In December 1998, the Clinton administration announced plans to build a joint U.S.-Colombian military base in Colombia. The U.S. also began to train an elite 1,000-troop counterinsurgency battalion, using trainers from the elite U.S. “Green Berets.” The U.S. admits to having between 200 and 300 combat troops in Colombia at any one time. In June 2000, the U.S. Congress passed a $1.3 billion military aid bill. Ninety percent of those funds go to Colombia’s armed forces and police. The bill provides 42 Huey and 18 Blackhawk helicopters, along with Special Forces training for two more elite combat units. The main objective of the aid package is the “push into the South,” a FARC-EP stronghold. The Colombian revolutionaries and mass movements have called the package a “declaration of war.” ... The U.S. aid package is part of a massive $7.5 billion program called “Plan Colombia.” This plan, drawn up by Washington and articulated by President Pastrana, is a rescue package for Colombia’s ruling elite. It’s centerpiece is the U.S. military aid. The European Union, Japan, and other countries are being asked to provide economic aid for the notoriously corrupt Colombian government to hand out. A wide number of Colombian labor, community and human rights groups have gone on record opposing the Plan Colombia."

Ramsey Clark's International Action Center, 'Fact sheet - Colombia: The Pentagon's new target': "The dramatic escalation of U.S. intervention in Colombia is being portrayed by the U.S. State Department as part of the “war on drugs.” U.S. and State Department propagandists claim that the FARC-EP is involved in the cocaine industry in Colombia. This lie has been challenged by the likes of President Andres Pastrana and former U.S. ambassador to Colombia Myles Frechette. Even the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency admitted in an Aug. 1, 1999 interview with Bogota’s El Tiempo that they had no evidence that the FARC-EP was involved with drug trafficking. The FARC-EP does impose heavy taxes on drug cartels operating in its zones of control. It also forces drug traffickers to pay peasant growers a fair wage. But this hardly makes the FARC-EP and the drug kingpins allies. On the contrary, the drug lords work hand in hand with the paramilitary death squads to fight the FARC-EP In June 2000, the FARC-EP hosted a conference in the zone on Illegal Drug Crops and the Environment. FARC-EP spokesperson Raul Reyes put forward a far-reaching zone to demonstrate his organization’s commitment to eradicating drugs with a pilot crop substitution program in Cartegena de Chairá. Both the Colombian government and the U.S. government oppose this program."

Ramsey Clark's International Action Center, 'Fact sheet - Colombia: The Pentagon's new target': "In January 1999, President Pastrana opened talks with the FARC-EP on the possibility of a political solution to the 35-year old insurgency. As a precondition to the talks, the government withdrew the armed forces from five municipalities, roughly the size of Switzerland. The FARC-EP now administers that zone. ... Pastrana has also recognized the political status of the ELN and has made some moves to opening talks with them. The ELN advocates a National Convention to address Colombia’s social problems."

Source(s): November 1988 – Issue 17, Lobster Magazine, 'Brian Crozier, the Pinay Circle and James Goldsmith' (quoting the Langemann papers); present at all Cercle meetings early 1980s (lists)

Hans Huyn was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1930. A descendant of a noble Austro-Hungarian family that was involved in the defense of this Habsburgian empire in the 19th century. Studied in Munich, Paris, and South-Africa in Law, History, Philosophy, and Languages. Started his career in diplomacy, and was involved in some of the early negotiations dealing with the European Economic Community (EEC). Married Rosemary Gräfin Huyn in 1959, a descendant of Archduchess Maria Theresia of Austria (1717-1780), the first and only female head of the Habsburg dynasty. From 1963 to 1965, as an officer in the German Foreign Service, he was involved in European affairs and the Treaty of Elysée, also known as the Franco-German Treaty of 1963. This treaty was established as a result of clandestine meetings between De Gaulle, Pinay, Adenauer, and Strauss, with Jean Violet as a go-between. Retired from the Foreign Service in 1965 and became a journalist and lecturer. Government director of the Bundesfinanzverwaltung (Federal Finance Commission) in the late 1960s. Foreign policy advisor to Franz-Joseph Strauss in the Bundestag from 1971-1976, and Brian Crozier described him as a close friend of Strauss. Co-founder of the anti-communist Europäischen Konferenz für Menschenrechte und Selbstbestimmung (European Conferences on Human Rights) in Bern, Switzerland, in 1974. The ECHRS's 1974 topic titles included 'A Soviet handbook on war as an instrument of policy' and 'The whole of Europe must be kept free from communist dictatorship'. Entered the Bundestag in 1976 and has been reelected 4 times since then. During his career in the Bundestag he was a member of the Foreign Committee, the Committee on Germany's Domestic Affairs, and the Defense Committee. Acting chairperson of the Subcommittee for Disarmament and Arms Control. In the spring of 1978 he wrote an article in the Journal of International Relations, titled "Rhodesia and Southern Africa: Decision for the Future of the Free World". Presented a paper called "Countering subversion, neutralism and pacifism" at the second annual world balance of power conference in July 1982. In 1982 (August 17), the Miami Herald described Count Huyn as a "foreign affairs and defense expert for the Christian Democratic Party". At that time, he accused Chancellor Helmut Schmidt's government of not having investigated properly the possible use of slave labor by the Soviets a to build a Siberian natural gas pipeline to Western Europe. September 20, 1982, Miami Herald, 'Schmidt Fears Soft Attitude Towards U.S.': "A conservative member of Parliament, Hans Graf Huyn, said the United States would get "considerably easier agreement" to the planned stationing of U.S.-made medium-range nuclear missiles under a Christian Democrat government... Huyn's, whose party has close links with the Christian Democrats, also said the Christian Democrats would not be moved by the mass protests expected here if the NATO missiles are stationed as planned at the end of 1983." On August 16, 1984, the Philadelphia Daily News described Count Huyn as the "parliamentary foreign policy spokesman for the CSU, the second biggest party in the coalition government". The CSU (of Bavaria) was also the party of Otto von Habsburg. The CSU's national party was Franz-Joseph Strauss' CDU. Huyn countered some claims of a Polish-Soviet cardinal. Argued for German participation in the American Star Wars program in 1985. Member of the World Anti-Communist League. Director American-European Strategy Research Institute, part of Western Goals Europe, founded in 1981 with WACL members. Director of the Institut Européen pour la Paix et la Sécurité, founded in 1983 in Belgium and another WACL outfit. Member of Parliament in 1990. In 1990, Huyn favored more trade with the Soviet Union and the rest of the Warsaw Pact, except for high technology. He claimed Gorbachev remained a socialist in heart and soul and that therefore his perestroika would fail. April 9, 1990, Washington Times, 'Official figures indicate Soviet economy collapsing': "A series of official reports from Moscow confirm recent dire predictions that the Soviet economy is heading for collapse. "The economic situation has never been as disastrous as it is today," said Hans Huyn, a West German expert on Soviet affairs and a member of the Bonn legislature. "We are witnessing the complete collapse of Soviet-style socialism. I think the real Russian revolution is still to come."... "It is a chaotic and disastrous situation," Mr. Huyn said. Soviet President Mikhail "Gorbachev has already failed with perestroika, so there will be further change. If labor and economic unrest combines against the leadership, that could be the start of a civil war," he said." Cercle visitors Zbigniew Brzezinski and Count Hans Huyn were among important media spokesman during the crumble of the Soviet Union and its descent into anarchy. Supported the South African Apartheid policies in Namibia, before its independence in 1990. Involved with Radio Free Europe. Huyn headed the german department of the Catholic aid organization 'Aid to the Church in Need' (kirche-in-not.org) from 1988 to 2005. Besides giving human aid, the main purpose of this organization seems to be to spread Catholicism to all corners of the world. At the moment, Huyn is worrying about the rise of Putin and the communist influence in Russia. He seems to have a lot of respect for Henry Kissinger. Anno 2006, advisor to the Coundenhove-Kalergi Foundation, together with Otto von Habsburg, Jakob Coudenhove-Kalergi (nephew of Richard, the founder of the Paneuropa Union), and Prince Carlo della Torre e Tasso (Thurn und Taxis). Nikolaus von Liechtenstein (younger brother of Hans-Adam) is an executive member of the the Coundenhove-Kalergi Foundation. Count Huyn has written quite a number of books on East (Soviet) - West policy. Board members American-European Strategy Research Institute / Western Goals Europe: Count Huyn, Werner Marx, Hans Klein, Carl Gustaf Strohm and Hans Werner Bracht (November 1, 1985, Die Zeit, 'Universität Bielefeld unterwandert? Eingebildeter Rotschock').

Source(s): 1985 Cercle particpants list, Washington D.C.; Adrian Hanni (went to the other 1985 Cercle meeting)

Research associate Columbia Bureau Applied Social Research, 1950—1953; member social sci. department Rand Corp., Santa Monica, California, 1954—1961, head, RAND's social sci. department, 1968—1972; research associate Center for International Affairs Harvard University, 1962-63; professor political sci. Massachusetts Institute Tech., 1964-67; director U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, Washington, 1973-77; chairman Conservation Management Corp., 1978—1981, 1988—; under-sec. for policy Department Defense, Washington, 1981-88; Distinguished scholar Center for International and Strategic Studies, 1988—. Member Department Defense Policy Board; member National Committee on Terrorism, 1999-00, Governor Smith Richardson Foundation, 1996—; director U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea. CFR. CSIS scholar. Advisory council Center for Security Policy. Advisory board RAND's Drug Policy Research Center (at RAND since the 1950s). Director of the National Endowment for Democracy and the Defense Forum Foundation. One of the signatories of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) documents Statement of Principles. Metropolitan Club. Republican.

Played a role in setting up the Special Operations Policy Advisory Group (SOPAG) in the mid-1980s. It had been set up in 1983 by Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Fred Ikle, and was chaired by general John Singlaub (with Stilwell, Gen. Yarborough, Messing, Gen. Graham and Gen. Secord being among the other members).

Part of the National Strategy Information Center (NSIC) clique with Gen. Daniel O. Graham, William Colby, William Casey, Ray Cline, Ted Shackley, Richard Pipes, Richard V. Allen, etc.

November 9, 1988, PR Newswire, 'News Advisory': "The new study, "Intelligence Requirements for the 1990s," maintains that current U.S. intelligence capabilities are inadequate to meet the challenges of the coming decade. The study will be released at a time when congressional leaders and presumably the presidential transition team are grappling with many of the shortfalls spelled out in the assessment. It is the only study devoted exclusively to U.S. intelligence among a flood of recommendations that will bombard the presidential transition team. The findings reflect a consensus of a group of current and former intelligence chiefs, congressional specialists, scholars, and journalists meeting under the auspices of the Consortium for the Study of Intelligence in Washington in April and December 1987. Their conclusions and recommendations will be summarized by the editor of the study, Roy Godson of Georgetown University, and Kenneth deGraffenreid, former senior director of intelligence programs at the National Security Council (1981-1987). A book-length version of the study will be available, published by Lexington Books/DC Heath. The basic findings of the study have already been endorsed by former senior national security officials including Zbigniew Brzezinski, William Clark, President Nixon and retired Army Lt. Gen. William E. Odom. Among the participants in the study: Robert Gates, deputy director of central intelligence; James Geer, associate director of the FBI's Intelligence Division; Eberhard Blum, head of West Germany's foreign intelligence service (BND) in the mid-1980s; Stephen Engelberg, Washington correspondent for The New York Times; Fred Ikle, undersecretary of defense for policy (1981-1988); Hugh Tovar, former senior CIA offical responsible for covert action; Paul Seabury, professor of political science, University of California-Berkeley, and former member of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, 1981-1985; Eliot Cohen, senior research fellow at the U.S. Naval War College; and George Kalaris, former senior CIA official responsible for counterintelligence. The academic Consortium for the Study of Intelligence was founded in 1979 to provide an institutional focus for those seeking to articulate a balanced, coherent understanding of the role of intelligence in a democratic society. The consortium is a project of the National Strategy Information Center."

October 7, 1991, C-Span, on the International Security Council meeting 'Change and Continuity in Soviet Military Policy': Chairman of the meeting is William Van Cleave. Introduces the members of his delegation, which includes Fred Ikle.

January 31, 1983, Newsweek, 'An Arms Deal: Now or Never?': "The current government is still somewhat divided over arms control. Senior Pentagon officials, including Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, Under Secretary Fred Ikle and Assistant Secretary Richard Perle, are wary of any agreement with the Soviets, on the ground that Moscow will cheat and may not get caught. They have an ally on the National Security Council staff, Sven Kraemer, who in turn is close to hawks in the Senate."

November 24, 1987, Washington Post, 'Richard Perle's Nuclear Legacy': "Throughout SALT I, Perle had kept careful track of the progress of the U.S. delegation. His most important contact within the administration was John Lehman, then on the National Security Council staff. And, Perle points out, "I had quite a good relationship with [then Deputy National Security Adviser Alexander] Haig. He was easy to talk to." In early 1973, after Nixon's reelection, a bureaucratic guillotine swiftly detached about a dozen key arms controllers from the SALT I/Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty delegation and the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. The politics were exceedingly complex, but what is clear is that Kissinger, under constant bombardment for detente, did not protect those who served him. And Nixon sought to assuage the powerful Jackson by handing over human sacrifices. "When the purge happened, I asked Perle about it," says an ousted member of the U.S. delegation. "He said, 'Well, it wasn't anything personal.' " "They were people Scoop had no confidence in," says Fosdick about those purged. "They were probably doomed anyway." "Whatever was done was done by the people who employed them," says Perle. "The notion that I was responsible for this was ludicrous." But the purge was a stroke for Perle and his network. On the strength of Jackson's recommendation, Lt. Gen. Edward Rowny was appointed as the new representative of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the arms talks. Also on Jackson's advice, Fred Ikle' from Rand was named director of ACDA. Ikle' later named Perle's friend Lehman as his deputy. Rowny, as chief U.S. negotiator to the START talks under Reagan, became a crucial Perle ally -- "a vessel," says a source who worked with Rowny. And Ikle', while nominally Perle's superior at the Pentagon, never exercised real power over him, according to various sources."

February 7, 1981, Associated Press, 'Ikle Named to Pentagon Post': "Ikle took charged of the arms control agency [Arms Control and Disarmament Agency] in 1973, determined to rebuild confidence in the organization after a severe personnel change. He had a role in shaping U.S. strategic policy during the Nixon and Ford administrations, but was largely overshadowed by Henry Kissinger, who negotiated most of what became the SALT II treaty to set ceilings on American and Russian long-range bombers and intercontinental ballistic missilies. Ikle became a critic of the treaty, which remains unratified, and testified before the Senate that it left a strategic imbalance and made more difficult what he called "genuine arms control negotiations" with the Soviet Union. Ikle has spent most of his career dealing with nuclear strategy and generally favors caution in coming to terms with the Soviet Union. Even though he headed the arms control agency, he was considered more of a hard-liner than Kissinger, the secretary of state and national security director."

Kissinger’s loss of authority in strategic arms control decisions is evident in this discussion with Fred Ikle, director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency [1973-1977; Eugene V. Rostow 1981-1983]. As a result of the ACDA/State Department purge of arms controllers, demanded by Senator Henry Jackson at the end of Nixon’s first term, a more conservative group, headed by Ikle, took over the agency. Whatever role Kissinger may have played in the purge, he may have been sorry that it was so comprehensive because it greatly strengthened officials at ACDA and the Pentagon who were more suspicious and critical of détente and the SALT talks. [Kissinger acted as a consultant to the ACDA from 1961 to 1968]. February 6, 1976, secretary of state Henry Kissinger to Arms Control Agency director Fred Ikle: "You are, of course, directed by statute to have your opinion, but you are not entitled to cast personal aspersions on the Secretary of State under whose policy direction you are operating. Remarks like you made yesterday are totally unacceptable. ... I don't understand how the Arms Control Agency can put itself to the right of the Secretary of State on issue after issue. If you want to be the voice of the Pentagon, that is ..."

November 19, 1984, Christian Science Monitor, 'Pentagon view of Nicaragua, arms control debate': "Similarly, there is no sign that Weinberger's top assistant for national security policy - Fred Ikle - will not remain an influential figure. Thus, it is instructive to hear what Weinberger and Dr. Ikle been saying lately about arms control and Central America, topics which dominated radio and television broadcasts over the weekend in which these senior administration officials were questioned by reporters from several news organizations, including The Christian Science Monitor. Both Weinberger and Ikle look beyond the recent flap over the possible shipment of Soviet-built MiG fighters to Nicaragua to the possibility of Moscow gaining influence in this hemisphere. Pointing to what he continually calls ''the very large and increasing amounts of armaments coming into Nicaragua from the Soviet Union,'' Mr. Weinberger said on the Cable News Network: ''When you have one country outside the hemisphere pouring in weapons to a small country in this area far beyond what that country needs for its defense, you have to worry that some of the fundamental thinking behind the Monroe Doctrine, which has guided us since the formation of our country, is being violated.''"

Governor of the intelligence-linked Smith Richardson Foundation (since at least the 1990s), together with Douglas J. Basharov (Georgetown University; scholar American Enterprise Institute; first director of the U.S. National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect 1975-1979), Christopher DeMuth (president American Enterprise Institute and revived it), Zbigniew Brzezinski, Gen. Edward C. Meyer (former Chief of Staff U.S. Army), Samuel Huntington, Donald Rumsfeld (friend and protege of Frank Carlucci; shared boards with George Shultz and others in the 1990s), Michel Oksenberg (travelled to China as NSC member with Cyrus Vance in 1977 and Zbigniew Brzezinski in 1978; major U.S.-China policy advisor to every president since Carter), L. Richardson Preyer (Vick Chemical Company, founded by his grandfather; Banker; long-time Democrat Congressman; member House Select Committee on Assassinations), Lunsford Richardson (Another grandson of the founder of the Vick Chemical Company), Isabel V. Sawhill (senior fellow and vice president at Brookings; the Cabot Family chair), Ben J. Wattenberg (important during the election campaign of Nixon; served on various committees under Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr.; PBS host; senior fellow American Enterprise Institute), Martin Feldstein (studied at Oxford; George F. Baker Professor of Economics at Harvard; Bilderberg; Trilateral Commission; Group of 30; director National Committee on United States-China Relations), Roderick MacFarquhar (Born in Pakistan; RIIA fellow; British MP; Harvard Professor; China specialist), Dr. Edward F. Zigler (Yale psychology professor emeritus; founder Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy), Jane Preyer (South-East director of the Environmental Defense Fund since 1997; exec Biofuels Center of North Carolina; former member, NC Legislative Commission on Global Climate Change; environmetalist author), James Woolsey (Oxford Rhodes Scholar; founder and president of Yale Citizens for Eugene McCarthy for President (who was anti-Vietnam war); CIA director 1993-1995, but had virtually no relationship with President Clinton and supposedly Woolsey was the only neocon allowed into the administration; Neocon Democrat; great promotor of Global Warming theories; advisor Washington Institute for Near East Policy; advisor Institute for the Analysis of Global Security; member Set America Free Coalition; Senior Vice President at Booz Allen Hamilton for Global Strategic Security; Patron Henry Jackson Society; chair Freedom House; member PNAC; Within a day after 9/11 Woolsey suggested Iraq might be a financier of bin Laden's operations).

Sources: April 6, 2003, The Observer, 'So, Norman, any regrets this time?'; September 5, 2004, Sunday Times, 'Le Cercle of the elite'

Born in Romania. Studied in Moscow and became a communist politician in Romania. He served as Minister of the Youth Problems in 1967. However, in 1971, he was marginalized by Nicolae Ceausescu and he was sacked from all his political functions. Iliescu was the main political profiteer (and leader) of the revolution that overthrew Nicolae Ceausescu in December 1989, as he assumed leadership. Said to have been a KGB agent, which Ceausescu of course didn't know. Iliescu was the President of Romania for eleven years, from 1990 to 1996, and 2000 to 2004. His final term ended in December 2004, and his successor is Democrat leader Traian Basescu. Currently, Ion Iliescu is a Senator from SDP party. It is unknown when Iliescu visited Le Cercle, but as far as we know this would not have been that unusual after the wall came down.

Source(s): 2014, Johannes Grossmann

Source(s): November 1988 – Issue 17, Lobster Magazine, 'Brian Crozier, the Pinay Circle and James Goldsmith' (quoting from the Langemann papers); Cercle lists: 1982 Wildbad Kreuth; 1983 Bonn (with Shackley); 1984 South Africa; 1985 Washington D.C. (introduced as vice president of Research Associates International); September 11, 2007, Washington Post, 'Donald F.B. Jameson; Handled Russian Defectors for CIA'; Adrian Hanni (also visited again in 1985, 1986, twice in 1987, once in 1988 and once in 1990)

Junior CIA officer in his mid-20s at the end of WWII, mingling with the displaced persons crowded into West German camps. Recruited some of these people to infiltrate back into the Soviet, which wasn't very successful. Chief of the Soviet division of the CIA's Operations Directorate in the 1950s and 1960s. Expert on the USSR and defectors. Interviewed Yuri A. Rastvorov, the 1954 Soviet defector, who supposedly told him that the Soviets held maybe 10 to 15 US prisoners of war from Korea. Coincidentally, a person called Col. Philip Corso said he arranged the interrogation of Rastvorov. In telephone interviews in 1994 and 1995, Corso recalled in detail his encounter with Rastvorov and said the defector told him several hundred American POWs had been sent to Siberia in rail cars during the war. Corso has maintained that the Eisenhower administration chose not to force the issue with Moscow out of concern that a confrontation might escalate into all-out war. March 7, 1997, The Augusta Chronicle, 'Defector caught up in dispute - Former intelligence officer denies US prisoners of war taken in Korean wars': "At least two former U.S. intelligence officers say Mr. Rastvorov told them in separate conversations after his defection that he knew U.S. troops captured in the 1950-53 Korean War had been taken to Siberia and exploited by Soviet intelligence. One of those conversations is summarized in a long-secret White House memo that was declassified last spring... Publicity about the memo prompted the Pentagon to contact Mr. [Yuri] Rastvorov to see how much he knew. At a private meeting last Oct. 10, Mr. Rastvorov denied having any knowledge about U.S. POWs in Siberia. Further, he said that the statements in the White House memo were not his, and that he did not recall that any of the debriefings he underwent with U.S. officials in the 1950s dealt with POWs... Philip Corso, an intelligence officer in Korea during the war and later a National Security Council staff member in the Eisenhower White House, is equally emphatic that Mr. Rastvorov told him in a Jan. 28, 1955, debriefing that Americans had been taken to Siberia as part of a covert Soviet intelligence operation... Separate from Mr. Corso's assertions, Donald Jameson, a retired CIA officer, has said he recalls Mr. Rastvorov telling him in the 1950s that U.S. POWs had been taken to the Soviet Union and that Mr. Rastvorov had estimated it was 10 to 15 aviators. Mr. Jameson helped handle the Rastvorov debriefing after his defection." Senior CIA Soviet specialist. Retired from the CIA in 1973. Went to a Cercle meeting in 1980 in Zurich, Switzerland, together with general Richard Stilwell. Consultant on Oil and on Soviet Affairs in the 1980s. December 14, 2002, New York Times, 'Theodore Shackley, Enigmatic C.I.A. Official, Dies at 75': "In 1979, Mr. Shackley retired from the C.I.A. and founded Research Associates International Ltd., a Bethesda consulting firm specializing in analyzing risks and protecting executives". Vice president of Research Associates International in the 1980s (at least from 1980 to 1987), a firm founded by the very controversial CIA officer Theodore Shackley, who is closely linked to Cercle activities, not to mention illegal drug and oil trade. 2002, Chief Executive Publishing (more detailed date and a headline were not given; scanned from some book or document, judging by one or two common OCR errors): "In 1986, deals with the Soviets were lucrative, wrote Donald F.B. Jameson, a former member of the CIA and vice president of Research Associates International, a risk assessment firm in Arlington, Va. "The Soviets pay above-market prices and pay promptly. Negotiating can be trying, even for the big boys," he wrote in Chief Executive in a spring article titled, 'Trading with the Soviets'..."But if you have what they want and are persistent, you may well end up with a good deal, and after having done one deal, others usually follow. Trading with the Soviets is a race that goes to the strong," Jameson said." July 23, 1998, Michael Ruppert, 'The POWs, CIA and Drugs': "A former CIA officer told me in 1995 that Ollie North was leasing office space for his 1995 Senate run from Shackley's company, Research Associates International, in Rosslyn, Virginia." On the advisory board of the Nathan Hale Institute, founded by W. Raymond Wannall, a retired FBI intelligence division director. Ray Cline and General Daniel Graham were other advisors. Wannall, Cline and Graham were all ASC board members.

Vice-president of the Jamestown Foundation, which was founded in 1984 (with the help of Cercle member William Casey) to protect and sponsor a group of high-level international defectors as they travelled the United States speaking out against the tyranny of communism. Today, the Jamestown Foundation has three program areas: China, Russia/Eurasia, and Terrorism, and counts the involvement of Glen Howard (SAIC; DoD; National Intelligence Council; Mid-East and Central-Asia oil consultant), James Woolsey, Zbigniew Brzezinski (attended at least one Le Cercle meeting), Dick Cheney, and Frank Carlucci. Has been a member of the ultra conservative National Security Advisory Council (NSAC) of the Center for Security Policy, together with Ed Feulner, Dick Cheney, Richard Perle (good friend of former Cercle chairman Brian Crozier), Edward Teller, Frank Gaffney, and Jeanne Kirkpatrick. Jameson was at a conference on 15 November 1991 where former KGB and CIA officers spoke together in public for the first time. President of Jameson Associates in Great Falls, Va. in 1994. Writer and consultant on international finance and politics to various financial institutions and governments. Probably involved to some extent in the remote viewing programs. January 25, 2003, Gold Coast Bulletin: "In 1972, the CIA gave the institute $50,000 to study remote viewing. Russell Targ, who joined the project in 1972, recalls a CIA official telling him: "You are wasting your time looking at churches and swimming pools in Palo Alto." Two years later, the institute received the geographical co-ordinates of a "Soviet site of ongoing operational significance.'' The target was Semipalatinsk, in what is now Kazakhstan. A remote viewer provided a layout of a cluster of buildings and drew a puzzling, 'damned big crane'. He identified the underground facility as storage for Soviet missiles. Satellite photos verified the viewer's report, according to Donald Jameson, then a senior CIA Soviet specialist, who called the event a 'turning point'. One group within the agency refused to look at the Semipalatinsk data, objecting to the unscientific methodology. Another group called the process 'demonic'. When the CIA cut the program in 1975, the funds shifted first to the Air Force and then, in 1980, to the Defence Intelligence Agency. Between 1979 and 1994 Fort Meade's viewing site conducted roughly 250 projects involving thousands of missions." General Albert Stubblebine was a key sponsor of the research at Fort Meade.

September 11, 2007, Washington Post, 'Donald F.B. Jameson; Handled Russian Defectors for CIA': "Donald F.B. "Jamie" Jameson, 82, a branch chief in the Central Intelligence Agency's directorate of operations who was highly regarded for his work handling Russian defectors and other Soviet covert operations, died Sept. 5 at Holy Cross Hospital. He had complications of a stroke in March. Until retiring in 1973, Mr. Jameson spent more than 20 years working for the CIA. He was "one of the most experienced defector recruiters and handlers within the agency," according to journalist Tom Mangold's 1991 book, "Cold Warrior," about the CIA under James J. Angleton, the much-discredited chief of counterintelligence. In Mangold's account, Mr. Jameson criticized Angleton's handling of KGB defector Anatoly M. Golitsin, who in the early 1960s was considered a major CIA asset. Golitsin eventually sent the agency on a highly destructive hunt for an alleged Soviet mole within its own ranks. Mr. Jameson suggested Golitsin "needed to be stepped on," to rein in his requests for money and access to Washington's power elite. Angleton and his staff blocked that judgment and soon removed Mr. Jameson as Golitsin's case officer. From 1962 to 1969, Mr. Jameson headed the branch in charge of Soviet bloc covert action. His branch encouraged dissidents behind the Iron Curtain and helped smuggle banned books to and from the Soviet Union and its satellite countries. He also helped arrange for the defection of Svetlana Alliluyeva, daughter of former Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, and the English-language publication of her book "Twenty Letters to a Friend" (1967). Mr. Jameson retired as special adviser to the Soviet bloc division chief and became a writer and consultant on international finance and politics. Donald Fenton Booth Jameson, whose great-uncle was Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Booth Tarkington, was an Indianapolis native. He graduated in 1945 from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis and spent the end of World War II in the Pacific. He received a master's degree in international relations from Columbia University, and, fluent in Russian, he was recruited to the CIA to enlist and train agents to infiltrate the Soviet Union. In 1999, he told U.S. News & World Report that many of his recruits were used as observers to watch troop movements. Still others had assignments to collect leaves and frogs near plutonium processing centers so U.S. scientists could test the samples for chemicals. Most of the agents failed to work at all, he said. Some were caught and sent to the gulag, and others disappeared. In retrospect, he told the magazine, "Ours was a very large effort that produced virtually no results useful to intelligence." In 1955, Mr. Jameson interrogated an East German defector whom he later suspected of carrying the polio virus. Mr. Jameson received treatment at polio centers, but his limbs weakened substantially by the 1980s, and he was effectively a paraplegic. He was an Ashburn resident, and his memberships included the Cosmos Club and the Army and Navy Club. He also belonged to Le Cercle, a foreign policy think tank established during the Cold War that reportedly included senior politicians, diplomats and intelligence agents worldwide. His marriage to Barbara Nixon Jameson ended in divorce. Survivors include his wife of 38 years, Lisa Rodman Jameson of Ashburn; a son from his first marriage, Jeremy Jameson of Houston; three children from his second marriage, Margaret Jameson and Thomas Jameson, both of New York City, and Alexander Jameson of Washington; and a sister."

September 6, 1981, New York Times, 'Ex-CIA Agent's Associates Run Arms Export Concerns': "When Shackley left the C.I.A. in September 1979, he went to work for Mr. Clines at A.P.I. Distributors, S.S.I., and I.R.T. Ltd. Friends of Mr. Shackley familiar with his business activities said he viewed the association with Mr. Clines as a way of getting established in private business. They said that after Mr. Wilson was indicted, Mr. Shackley decided to reduce his association with Mr. Clines and his ventures. Last September, Mr. Shackley founded Research Associates International, a consulting company. Research Associates currently shares office space in Rosslyn, Va., with S.S.I. and I.R.T. Ltd., and the incorporation paperwork for Mr. Shackley's company was handled by the Washington law firm of Shaw, Pittman, Potts & Trowbridge, which represents A.P.I., I.R.T., S.S.I. and Eatsco, according to company officials. Friends of Mr. Shackley said he was looking for separate office space for Research Associates."

In 1975 he had an office at Tetra Tech Inc. of Cercle member and retired CIA officer James Critchfield. 1992, Carl Peter Runde and Greg Voss (for the International Freedom Foundation), 'Intelligence and the New World Order: Former Cold War Adversaries Look Toward the 21st Century', p. ix: "Between [retiring from the CIA in] 1973 and 1979, Mr [Donald] Jameson was employed as Senior Scientist and Project Director at Tetra Tech Inc. and as Secretary-Treasurer of Tetra Tech International. He directed US government projects in energy and Soviet weapons systems for Tetra Tech which provided technical services in the Middle East, especially Oman, where the company operated in an advisory capacity on oil, water and economic development"

Source(s): Adrian Hanni (1987 I Cercle list)

August 2, 1993, San Francisco Chronicle, 'Bay Area Disabled Team to Aid Russians': "Working with the World Institute on Disability are several business and disabled-rights experts, including longtime Soviet economics analyst Donald Jameson and his wife, Lisa Jameson, a former analyst with the National Security Council. Both will be going with Curtis and several other project members to Moscow on Saturday to meet with disabled- rights leaders."

Present at the Symposium on the Role of Special Operations in U.S. Strategy for the 1980s, held on 4-5 March 1983. Went as: Deputy for Non-Russian Broadcasting, USSR Division, the Voice of America. The event was sponsored by the National Strategy Information Center (NISC), the National Defense University and the National Security Studies Program at Georgetown University. Some oft he others present were Patti Benner Antsen, defense analyst at SAIC, Terrell E. Arnold, a controversial spook later involved with the 9/11 movement, Margo Carlisle, Arnaud de Borchgrave, Donald Jameson, Edward Luttwak, Oliver North, Ted Shackley, Richard Stilwell, Maurice Tugwell and many other special operations experts.

May 30, 1988, Washington Post, 'In Moscow, The First Ladies' Tour de Frost': "Like Russian girlfriends patching things up after a spat, Raisa Gorbachev and Nancy Reagan walked hand-in-hand around the Kremlin today for the whole world to see. ... She was believed by some to have been upstaged during the Washington summit because she wasn't prepared, but she is said to have done her homework for this trip. Among those who helped her were Lisa Jameson of the National Security Council staff and James Billington, librarian of Congress and a Soviet scholar, who is part of her entourage here."

August 20, 1991, U.S. Newswire, 'U.S. should recognize Yeltsin as legitimate authority in Russia': "President Bush should immediately announce U.S. recognition of the Russian president as the only legitimate authority in Russia at this time, according to Lisa Jameson, director of Soviet and East European affairs at International Freedom Foundation (IFF). "With Soviet tanks on their way to arrest Yeltsin at the Russian Parliament building," Jameson noted, "it is imperative that President Bush be clear and forceful in his statements to the Soviet junta. He should make it clear that the arrest of Yeltsin would have grave consequences for U.S.-Soviet relations." "Boris Yeltsin is the only elected official in the Soviet Union with the authority to unite the Soviet people against the junta," she continued. "The battle is shaping up outside the Russian Parliament building at this time may well be the decisive moment which will determine whether the coup succeeds or fails. If the United States offers its support to Yeltsin at this critical moment, it may well tip the balance in favor of the forces of democracy." "President Bush should immediately announce that, in addition to his fact finding mission to Moscow, Ambassador Strauss will insist upon a face-to-face meeting with President Yeltsin," Jameson concluded. "That kind of forceful show of support at this time might prevent Yeltsin's arrest and large-scale bloodshed on the streets of Moscow." Jameson is the editor of IFF's newsletter "Soviet Perspectives." She previously served in the second Reagan administration as director of European and Soviet affairs for the National Security Council. The International Freedom Foundation is a non-profit, educational foundation which works to expand free markets and individual rights throughout the world. It is headquartered in Washington and has offices in London, Hamburg, Brussels and Johannesburg."

Source(s): his www.blackseacom.eu biography: "[Japaridze] is also associated with the ... Le Cercle Group/London."

Spelled Tedo Japaridze or Tedo Dzhaparidze. Christian Orthodox. Faculty of languages and European lit., Tbilisi (Georgia) State University, 1972. PhD, USA and Canadian Studies Institute, Moscow, 1979. Senior researcher USA and Canadian Studies Institute, Moscow, 1974-1989. Vice chairman for United Nations Educational affairs Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tbilisi, 1989-1990. Deputy foreign minister 1990-1991. First deputy foreign minister 1991-1992. National security adviser 1992-1994. Ambassador to the U.S. Embassy of the Republic of Georgia 1994-2002. Appointed chairman of the Georgian National Security Council in 2002, appointed by President Eduard Shevardnadze. His predecessor apparently had committed suicide and was accused of both homosexuality and involvement in the assassination of a journalist who wanted to expose government involvement in a drug trafficking network linked to the Pankisi Gorge **. March 7, 2002, Japaridze to Eurasianet on why Shevardnadze had appointed him the new head of the NSC: "I have been closely involved in the discussions and planning of US military assistance to Georgia for counter-terrorism training. The President had meetings at the White House in October, and since then I have delivered several letters from him to the US administration. Given the beginning of a new level of cooperation with the United States, the President wanted the new head of the NSC to be someone who knows the American thinking." February 27, 2002, Associated Press: "... fighters allied with Osama bin Laden are holed up in a gorge near the border with Chechnya. Russia has called for joint operations with Georgia against the fighters in Pankisi Gorge, but President Eduard Shevardnadze reportedly prefers to work with the Americans." November 20, 2002, The Guardian: "British anti-terrorism experts from the secret service and Scotland Yard will train Georgian elite troops in sophisticated anti-terrorism techniques under a radical plan to expand the UK's contribution to the war on terror overseas. ... Georgia has been struggling to control the Pankisi gorge, a mountainous region on the border between Chechnya and Russia, where Chechen fighters - thought to be linked to al-Qaida - have been based. Georgia has deployed thousands of troops in the gorge in a bid to gain control, yet its ailing army still seeks international support and training. The Georgian national security adviser, Tedo Japaridze, travelled to London in the summer to negotiate terms on the British offer of help." September 14, 2007, Webster G. Tarpley: "On Monday September 6, Putin spoke for three and one half hours with a group of some 30 western correspondents and Russia experts at his dacha near Novo Ogarevo outside Moscow. There is no official transcript so far, but accounts have been published in The Guardian, The Independent, and Le Monde. The Washington Post waited until Friday, September 10 to publish an article, but left out the most significant remarks. ... Putin, a KGB veteran who knows whereof he speaks, told the gathering that the school massacre showed that “certain western circles would like to weaken Russia, just as the Romans wanted to destroy Carthage.” He thus suggested that the US and UK, not content with having bested Russia in the Cold War, now wanted to proceed to the dismemberment and total destruction of Russia..." Politically survived the November 30, 2003 bloodless Rose Revolution, which brought Shevardnadze's presidency to an end. The revolution was supported by Madelaine Albright's National Democratic Institute and George Soros' Open Society Institute. November 23, 2003, The Guardian: "But despised at home and increasingly isolated, he [Shevardnadze] miscalculated badly in the end. Most importantly, perhaps, he lost Washington's confidence as the guarantor of longer-term western interests in the country, which lies between Russia and the Middle East, astride the fabulous hydrocarbon riches of the Caspian basin. ... "Shevvy" had long been Washington's darling. But in recent months, the US has despaired of him. Richard Miles, the US ambassador in Tbilisi, has been actively grooming the young, US-trained lawyer Mikhail Saakashvili to lead the succession. A series of senior US figures passed through Tbilisi this year to warn Mr Shevardnadze that his days were numbered. "We would like to see stronger leadership," Mr Miles told the Washington Post recently in an unusually public criticism of a long-standing US ally." November 15, 2003, Washington Post: "Successive U.S. administrations have funneled more than $1 billion to Georgia, one of the highest per capita rates in the world. The CIA trained Shevardnadze's personal guards. President Bush dispatched Green Berets to train Georgians to deal with terrorists camped out in the lush but lawless Pankisi Gorge. "We used to be the darlings of Washington," recalled Tedo Japaridze, the Georgian national security adviser, who has six aides whose salaries are paid by the U.S. State Department. But now there are increasing signs that the long-indulgent United States has decided to stop cutting Shevardnadze so much slack. ... In the run-up to the election, Bush publicly encouraged Shevardnadze to hold an honest vote and chose the most influential envoy he could find to deliver the message, former secretary of state James A. Baker III, Shevardnadze's longtime friend from the final days of the Soviet Union. Baker came in July and pressured the Georgians into adopting a new election code. To impress upon Shevardnadze the importance of the situation, more American luminaries followed, including Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), John M. Shalikashvili, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Strobe Talbott, a former deputy secretary of state. ... The AES Corp., an Arlington-based firm that owned Tbilisi's electric utility, pulled out of Georgia in July in frustration and sold its assets to Russia's electric monopoly. Two months later, a U.S. aid official declared that, when it came to reform in the 27 former Soviet-bloc countries, "Georgia's progress has slipped near the bottom." Japaridze, a former ambassador to Washington, said he sees the shift in the e-mails from the White House that he finds each morning when he arrives at the office. He added that Shevardnadze grasps the situation. "He knows and understands better than anyone that Washington has a short memory," Japaridze said in the State Chancellery building, over the shouts of protesters outside. "Yes, he helped bring down the Berlin Wall, and there will be nice words. But politics is about other issues." Japaridze acknowledged that the election was deeply flawed and added, "We need to do our best to clean up this damage."" November 24, 2003, ABC News: "Georgia's main opposition leader Mikhail Saakashvili says it is "too late" for talks with President Eduard Shevardnadze to resolve a more than three-week stand-off. ... The Georgian President's press office confirmed reports that [Shevardnadze] had fired Tedo Japaridze, the head of the National Security Council. ... Last Friday Mr Japaridze, who rarely makes public comments, admitted that a disputed November 2 parliamentary election had been marred by fraud. The ballot sparked a political crisis which on Saturday resulted in opposition protesters storming the Georgian parliament. "There were instances of vote rigging and fraud during the vote count," Mr Japaridze said." November 25, 2003, Washington Post: "Japaridze joined Burdzhanadze [interim president] at a meeting of security officials Monday, where he agreed to serve her interim leadership and she reaffirmed the country's pro-Western foreign policy." Served as a foreign minister in the new government from November 30, 2003, to March 18, 2004. February 23, 2004, Washington Times: "President Mikhail Saakashvili of the Republic of Georgia, who addresses Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies tomorrow and meets with President Bush on Wednesday. He is accompanied by Foreign Minister Tedo Japaridze, Defense Minister Gela Bejuashvili, Interior Minister Giorgi Baramidze, Finance Minister Zurab Noghaideli and Education Minister Alexander Lomaia [executive director of George Soros' Open Society Georgia Foundation 2003-2004, which to a large extent funded Shevardnadze overthrow; secretary of the National Security Council]." President of the U.S.-Caucasus Institute in Tbilisi. Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, Washington, D.C. Secretary General of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC). Alternate director general at the International Centre for Black Sea Studies (ICBSS), Athens, since 2007. Associated with the Oxford-based Trilateral Group Ltd. (a group of international consulting firms), the Kennan Institute (the oldest program of the Woodrow Wilson Center focused on U.S.-Russia relations), Washington DC, and the Le Cercle Group/London. Joined the Virginia Tech Center for Technology, Security, and Policy in 2009 as an affiliate to support the center's ongoing counter smuggling projects in the Black Sea region.

** In this position he was the follow-up of Nugzar Sajaia, who had committed suicide in 2002, apparently after accusations that he was doing Shevardnadze's dirty work, that he was involved in the murder of journalist Giorgi Sanaia, and also was accused of being a homosexual. Human Rights Watch Staff, World report 2002: "The July assassination of Giorgi Sanaia, the young presenter of Rustavi 2's Night Courier news and discussion program, precipitated national mourning. Facing public suspicion about the role of the security ministries, the government swiftly invited the U.S. Fedral Bureau of Investigation to give forensic assistance to the investigation. The police quickly arrested a man previously detained on a fraud charge, yet at this writing prosecutors had not presented sufficient evidence to indict him for Sanaia's murder. Some commentators linked Sanaia's shooting, which appeared to be expertly planned and executed, to purported knowledge or video material he had obtained, allegedly demonstrating links between law enforcement officials with criminals in Georgia's Pankisi Gorge who engaged in kidnappings and the narcotics trade. Georgian police did not attempt to enforce the rule of law in the Pankisi Gorge, where 7,000 Chechen refugess had lived alongside Kists--Georgian ethnic Chechens--since late 1999. Several Georgians and foreign businessmen, most of them kidnapped in Tbilisi, were believed to be held for ransom in the gorge, which was also the center of the country's illegal drug trade. Fighting flared in the separatist-controlled region, Abkhazia, in October, as ethnic Chechen fighters launched an assault on breakaway Abkhazian forces in the Kodori Gorge. Some alleged that the security ministries had arranged to ferry the Chechen fighters from the Panski Gorge to the Abkhaz border."

Human Rights in Georgia (Humanrights.ge): "Giorgi Sanaia, director of the TV-show ‘Ghamis Kurieri’ (‘Night Career’), produced by TV Company ‘Rustavi 2’, was found dead in his flat on the 26th July 2001. The assassination of the journalist was initially connected with the tense criminal situation in the Pankisi Gorge and a videotape of high-ranking officials of both the Interior and Defense Ministries. The version of events, officially denied by the investigation, was confirmed in an exclusive interview to the ‘Human Rights Centre’, by Vephkhia Margoshvili’s relatives. Margoshvili was assassinated on the 17th October 2001. ... [Margoshvili] lived in Groznyy for some time under a false name, whilst fighting against Russia during the Chechen war. In 1998 Margoshvili returned to Georgia, to his native village with his wife Lida Saltaeva. ... We do not deny that Margoshvili also used to sell drugs then. Vephkhia was not an angel at all, but high- ranking officials of Interior and Defense Ministries, such as Kakha Targamadze, Kenchadze, Bakuradze and the others were deeply involved in the drugs business, along with other local and regional police officials too. That’s why Margoshvili, although a wanted man, was not arrested. ... Later Margoshvili’s relationships with his partners tensed. Both sides tried to settle the matter but in vain, after that Margoshvili was threatened. …Margoshvili began giving interviews to journalists, where he blamed the government for consciously increasing tension in the Pankisi Gorge. He divulged information that his partners did not like at all. ... Margoshvili mainly used to meet officials from the Defense and Interior Ministries in Phichkhovani at a fixed place and he taped all of the meetings using a secret video camera. He had a lot of information. Margoshvili gave Sanaia a copy of one of the videotapes. They watched the tape in the gorge too, although the journalist then took it to Tbilisi. We have heard from Vephkhia’s cousin that they were planning to transmit certain exerts from the videotapes on TV. ... It showed one of the meetings between high-ranking officials from the Ministries, Margoshvili and drug-dealers, where they spoke about their shares and the transferring of specific amounts of money in detail. It shows how they could not agree on certain questions etc. ... His brother Badri and his cousin Tamazi knew everything best. Badri used to say, Vephkhia’s killing was settled and his assassination was approved by the Deputy Interior Ministry... Shortly after Vephkhia’s funeral, [his wife] Lida was released from prison, and she left for Grozny. Margoshili’s brother, Badri and cousin Tamazi were arrested. They were accused of participating in the kidnapping of a person and covering up the crime and were sentenced to five years imprisonment. ... Margoshvili’s relatives believe that prisoners Badri Margoshvili and Tamaz Borchashvili will not be released until they have served their full terms. Moreover, they might be killed in Rustavi #1 Prison Camp. “They know everything. That’s why they were arrested. Nobody wants them alive.”"

Source(s): Cercle's 1983 Bonn meeting

A German politician of the Christian Democratic Union and diplomat. In 1960, he started working in the Bundeswehr administration in Stuttgart. He became an assistant in the Federal Ministry of Defense and later personal assistant and press contact of Federal Minister for the Affairs of the Defence Council Heinrich Krone. After the dissolution of this ministry, he worked from 1966 to 1969 as political assistant of Federal Minister of Finance Franz Josef Strauß. Member of the German Parliament, the Bundestag (1969–1990). Minister of State at the German Chancellery under Kohl (1982–1984). President of the Bundestag (1984–1988). President of the European Movement in Germany from 1985 to 1990, and has since been their honorary President. German Ambassador to Austria (1991–1995) and German Ambassador to the Holy See (1995–1997).

Source(s): Cercle list: 1984 Bonn meeting list

Son of a wealthy industrialist in the Cote d'Azur. Part of the extreme-right newspaper Defence de l'Occident (Defense of the West) in the 1960s and also involved with the similar extreme-right Figaro magazine in the 1970s. Appointed consul general to Ireland in 1973. Became naturalized Irish in 1997. Seems to be a fan of the IRA's war against England's occupation of Ireland - which makes sense considering the IRA is Catholic. Played a role in Franco-Irish rapprochement (both Catholic countries).

Source(s): April 14, 2007, Jaime Nogueira Pinto's blog, 'Adieu mon ami - A short memoir of Jacques Jonet': "I knew [Jacques Jonet] for almost 30 years, and at "Club" de Vaduz, "Le Cercle" and welcoming him to Lisbon (rare) and me to Brussels (more frequently), we must have met about 100 times over the years and on four continents."; Cercle lists: 1982 Wildbad Kreuth; 1983 Bonn; 1984 Bonn

Lawyer who lived in a suburb of Brussels. Once Otto von Habsburg's political secretary. Member of the honorary committee of Cercle des Nations in Belgium, together with Paul Vanden Boeynants, Vincent van den Bosch, Henri Simonet, Jo Gerard, Richard van Wyck, Nicholas de Kerchove, Charly de Pauw, Michel Relecom, and Ado Blaton, with Baron de Bonvoisin, Count Herve d'Ursel, Felix Przedborski, Pierre Salik, and Cercle founder Jean Violet being regular members. Member of the Charlemagne dinners at least since the early 1970s, just as Florimond Damman, Alain de Villegas, and Paul Vankerkhoven. Vice president of Mouvement d'Action pour l'Unite Europeenne (MAUE). Because of his role in the MAUE, the Belgian Pan-Europa branch ran by Florimond Damman, Jonet came at de Bonvoisin's CEPIC and PDG headquarters. Excerpts of a 1981 confidential State Security memo (translated from Dutch): "The seat of C.E.P.I.C. is located at no. 39 of the Belliardstraat in Brussels. This building also contains the Belliard auditorium, the seat of "Mouvement d'Action pour l'Unite Europeenne" (xx), just as the offices of the "Societe de Promotion et de la Distribution Generale" (P.D.G.), supervised, through a go-between, by Benoit de Bonvoisin... " Participated in Friends of Wilton Park conferences since at least the early 1970s. Founding member of the European Liason Committee of the Wilton Park Conferences in 1978, together with Cercle founder Jean Violet, Alfredo Sanchez Bella (CEDI founder with Habsburg; Opus Dei), and others. Member Académie Européenne des Sciences Politiques, with such men as Bernard Mercier, Baron de Bonvoisin, Florimond Damman, and Paul Vanden Boeynants, and Jean Violet. As a representative of the AESP, Jonet was received by the pope on October 1, 1977. In 1983 a co-founder of l'Institut Européen pour la Paix et la Sécurité with WACL general Robert Close, Paul Vankerkhoven (Belgian WACL founder), Nicholas de Kerchove, Brian Crozier, Count Hans Huyn, Gen. Daniel O. Graham, Gen. Robert C. Richardson,Wolfgang Reinecke, Jean Gol (Went to orgies at Les Atrebates and the Dolo club in the 1980s; Has known Nihoul since about 1980. Involved in some kind of "protected" Freemasonry lodge), Willy De Clercq (ATLAS document stated he "would take orders from [Felix] Przedborski"; involved in some kind of "protected" Freemasonry lodge). Giovanni Spadolini, a former prime minister of Italy and soon president of the Italian Senate, became involved with the IEPS in 1985. Official representative of the Order of Malta in Belgium until his death. His wife is a member of the administrative council of the Order of Malta. Aginter Press contacts Jean Thiriart and Francis Dessart worked with Emile Lecerf, Bernard Mercier, Jacques Jonet en Paul Vankerkhoven. Accused of having warned an editor of Pour (Magazine) not to publish details about the Pinon affair. A week later members of Front de la Jeunesse burnt down the headquarters of Pour. Chairman of Media-Participations. Chairman comic book publisher Dargaud-Lombard. Chairman ASSAM (Assainissement et Amélioration du Logement) in Brussels. Director of Editions Dupuis. Known to had an audience with the King of Belgium on March 10, 2003. Received a barony in 2005. Died in 2007. April 14, 2007, Jaime Nogueira Pinto's blog, 'Adieu mon ami - A short memoir of Jacques Jonet': "Jacques Jonet died a week ago. ... We had been with him just before, the weekend of 23-25 March, in Bendern, Liechtenstein. That weekend he felt ill and had to be hospitalized. He was outside the meeting in a wheelchair, as if sensing he would not last long, and wanted to say goodbye to some lifetime friends. I knew him for almost 30 years, and at "Club" de Vaduz, "Le Cercle" and welcoming him to Lisbon (rare) and me to Brussels (more frequently), we must have met about 100 times over the years and on four continents. ... I knew him as a combatant and militant with values as Conservatism – or better, Traditionalist – Catholicism, anticommunism, etc., etc. We did join some "battles" of the Cold War (we were friends of an important "bridge builder" of that period, Brian Crozier) and we tried to find other sinergias, for example "African". Jacques was coherent, courageous, religious, with a big sense of humor and a good friend. His codes in life had very much to do with the rules of the Knighthood: be faithful to God, fight the good battle, defend the weak, put the arrogant in their place, just as other kinds of wrongdoers. Although these are not very popular customs nowadays, he was not troubled by this. Neither am I. God receive him and raise him on the day of last Easter."

Married the sister of the wife of Guy Cruysmans (Head of Caisse Privee bank. Scouts leader of the Baden Powell Belgian Lonescouts in Brussels in the 1950s and 1960s. The Cruysmans family has been very involved with these scouts, also in the 1970s and 1980s. Their home would be used for meetings with the scouts. Member PSC and CEPIC). Vanden Boeynants, a good friend of Guy Cruysmans, did a lot of his shady business transactions through Caisse Privee Banque of the very noble d'Ursel family (intermarried with de Bonvoisin and both accused by X1 of serious child abuse). The Haemers gang was also involved with this bank through Guy Cruysmans (and Jean Cruysmans), who regularly visited CEPIC. Haemers Gang gendarmerie file (as published on ISGP website), p. 40: "Contact Ellebout (Pers. Direct. Caisse-Privee) dd 13/03/90 [March 13, 1990]: The person involved hands us a list of the persons employed at Caisse-Privee under CRUYSMANS (since '83)... The C.P. was founded in by the grandfather of Guy Cruysmans in 1923. Since then there has continually been a member of the CRUYSMANS family on the board. CRUYSMANS Guy would have managed the bank as a despot. HE was also a member of the OCMW in St.-Lambrechts-Woluwe and because of this function he recruited young people from Woluwe (delinquent or not). These recruitings created several problems for C.P. , mainly thefts on transports of the C.P. to gas stations. In this period there also were two robberies on money transports of the C.P. In this period there were also problems in the bank surrounding VDB [Vanden Boeynants] and the case GEYSSELS. A certain Jacques DUMONT would have been involved in this in one way or another. From another source we learned the person in question would have copied certain documents to blackmail the C.P. Certain documents, belonging to VDB, were copied. The original ones were copied and replaced by the copy. In 1968, Hubert MOUSON was employed by CRUYSMANS. At the time MOSOM kept himself busy with leading a group of boy scouts. He is known in the bank as a pedophile and in '86 would have violated an employee of the C.P. - a certain Franck MAZY, also recruited by CRUYSMANS. MAZY would have tried to blackmail KOUSON, but was found dead in his apartment two weeks later (died from the fumes of the boiler). MOUSON was fired from the bank last year, just as Bob LOUVIGNY [ex-member of the military security service; member Practical Pistol Club of Belgium in the early 1980s, together with militant Nazis Madani Bouhouche, Juan Mendez, Juan Bultot, Alain Weykamp; head private detective agency BDRI since 1974, which at one point hired an exposed member of the the Nazi militia WNP; BDRI can work for companies, for example, for which it can investigate employees suspected of theft, forgery, fraud or other illegal activities; BDRI can also work for the government or private citizens; Louvigny was the private detective who was hired by the famous Dr. Pinon and was largely responsible for the Pinon Affair; Pinon later stated he suspected Louvigny had ulterior motives, besides investigating the affairs of his wife: "Even though after looking back I can't complain about the way my divorce was handled, I am still convinced he withheld information - even though he worked for me. For example, the list of license plates he wrote down while spying on a sex party, I never saw it."; chairman of the National Profession Union of Private Detectives of Belgium] who ceased his activities for the bank in that year. Both still are good friends." More information on criminal links of the Caisse Privee bank: Haemers Gang gendarmerie file (as published on ISGP website), p. 66: "CASTIER tells us, off the record, that the first real criminal facts, carried out by LACROIX, SMARS [Thierry Smars; committed suicide in 1986, which wasn't suicide], HAEMERS [Delhaize gang of nijvel victim claimed to have recognized Haemers as a shooter; committed suicide in 1993], began after Philippe began to work in the Happy-Few [club] (late '83). They were good friends with Guy CRUYSMANS, director of the "Caisse Privee". They regularly had meetings with other persons around CRUYSMANS. Castier has brought Philippe to the home of CRUYSMANS on several occasions. The trio, sometimes accompanied by their women, were to bring over money from clients to the Caisse Privee. These funds were placed under their name in different banks in SWITZERLAND, ANDORRA, PANAMA, LICHTENSTEIN, etc... After a while they were transferred to other accounts, under another name. The trio received a percentage on the transported funds. The activities also continued after the death of CRUYSMANS (Dec. '85)." Jean Cruymans, the d'Ursel family, and prins Rodolphe de Croy-Roeulx (all Cercle des Nations) were shareholders of Terres et Domaines by the late 1950s. Terres et Domaines was founded in 1953 by Charly De Pauw.

Source(s): 1985 Cercle meeting in Bonn (name appears on a handwritten list of names of Garnier-Lancon, probably persons who were eligible for an invitation); 2014, Johannes Grossmann, 'Die Internationale der Konservativen: Transnationale Elitenzirkel und private Außenpolitik in Westeuropa seit 1945', p. 553. (Nov. 11, 1995 meeting).

Deputy mayor and chief financial officier of Paris under Chirac 1983-1995. Mayor of Bordeaux since 1995.

As a senior civil servant, he met Jacques Chirac at the end of the 1970s and became his adviser in the city council of Paris. Minister of the Budget and Spokesman for the Government from 1986 to 1988 under Chirac. Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1993 to 1995. Prime Minister of France 1995-1997. Minister of Defence and Veterans Affairs 2010–2011.

September 10, 1997, The Guardian, 'Inside story: The Vatican's Own Cult': "In Belgium, France, Germany, and Italy, Opus Dei members are highly placed in the commercial and central banking sectors and within the government bureaucracy. Opus Dei was introduced to the Catholic aristocracy of Europe by former Queen Fabiola of Belgium, who is related through the House of Aragon to the Spanish Borbon family. One of Opus Dei's bitterest reversals occurred earlier this year when a Belgian parliamentary commission placed the organisation on a list of dangerous religious sects, proposing legislation to bring them under stricter control. Opus Dei was handed another setback by the Socialist victory in France, where it has strong connections among the business establishment. President Chirac's wife, Bernadette Chodron de Courcel, although not a member, is a strong Opus Dei sympathiser. Under Alain Juppe, Opus Dei members held several important cabinet positions, controlling government policy on social communications, proposing legislation to repenalise homosexuality and playing a key role in the privatisation of TF1, a national television channel. The presence of Opus Dei in the UK, though now well rooted, is nowhere near as pervasive."

August 25, 1998, NPR, 'Juppe and corruption charges': "Sarah Chayes reports from Paris that former Prime Ministe Alain Juppe, a close ally of President Jacques Chirac, has been placed under investigation for corruption. The case reportedly involves a payroll scam at Paris city hall. The trail of evidence could lead to Mr. Chirac himself. NOAH ADAMS, HOST: In France, a judicial investigation was opened today against former Prime Minister Alain Juppe. He is charged with abuse of office and misuse of public funds, when he was chief financial officer of Paris City Hall. At the time, Juppe's immediate boss was Mayor Jacques Chirac, who has since gone on to become president. As Sarah Chayes reports from Paris, this is just the latest in a series of corruption scandals that has swirled around Chirac's long- tenure as mayor. SARAH CHAYES, NPR REPORTER: Former Prime Minister Alain Juppe, currently mayor of Bordeaux, is charged in connection with a payroll scam. Staff members of President Chirac's RPR Party and other political allies allegedly received salaries for their party work from the city of Paris. They were listed on the city payroll for jobs they never performed. Last May, a former Paris personnel director told the investigating judge on the case, there some 300 such fictitious positions at a cost to the city of approximately $15 million a year. At the time, Juppe was head of the city finances, and Chirac was mayor. The two men have been the closest of political allies for much of their careers. On national television news this evening, Juppe defending himself saying that at the time there were no laws governing the financing of political parties. ALAIN JUPPE, FORMER FINANCE DIRECTORY, CITY OF PARIS, FRANCE, SPEAKING IN FRENCH CHAYES: "Every political party made out however it could," Juppe said. Adding that once legislation clarified the rules for political financing, he purged Paris payrolls of party workers. But this payroll scam is hardly the first corruption scandal to hit Paris City Hall. No fewer than six investigating magistrates are examining evidence of what many Paris observers describe as a well- oiled system of corruption designed to finance the conservative RPR party, and through the party President Chirac's political career. Several different building contractors have testified that they had to pay to obtain public works contracts with the city of Paris. Private companies allegedly put party workers on their payrolls in return for favors. And relatives of city officials, including a former prime minister Juppe and the current mayor, were allowed to move into public housing or city owned buildings, legally reserved for low income renters. City council Alan Luganeche (ph), a socialist, says this kind of practice became rampant. ALAN LUGANECHE, SOCIALIST, PARIS; The kind of people were doing such a thing without knowing maybe at the beginning like it was illegal. But they keep going on and nothing happened. And so after a while, after 10, 15, or almost 20 years, people just don't know what's legal, what's illegal."

RWANDA:

France was accused of supporting the Hutu in their extermination campaign against the Tutsi and the many Hutu who believed that peaceful co-existence was possible. The Tutsi used to be the colonial adminstrators, but lost power after independence and to a large extent became second class citizens. In the years before the genocide Tutsi rebels from neighboring Uganda began a war, trying to get back into power. Both the Hutu and Tutsi were dominated by small groups of extremists.

March 18, 2011, BBC Monitoring Africa, 'Juppe said unlikely to change view on France's role in Rwanda genocide': "The executive secretary of the National Comission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG), Jean de Dieu Mucyo, on Thursday afternoon said he does not expect much from the new French minister of foreign affairs, Alain Juppe ... The recent appointment of Alain Juppe to head the French Foreign Ministry has created a certain unease in Rwanda. The same Alain Juppe, who held a a similar post in the French government in 1994, has been accused by the Rwandan government of having supported the former Rwandan regime that planned and executed the genocide of Tutsis."

August 8, 2008, Africa News, 'Rwanda; 'How France Aided Genocide'': "Rwanda this week launched the report of its commission of inquiry into the role of France in the 1994 genocide, in which up to one million people were killed. The report accuses former French President Francois Mitterand, his son and adviser Jean-Christophe, as well as the then French prime minister, ministers of foreign affairs, cooperation and defence of involvement in the genocide and calls for them to face trial. Below are highlights from the report. The 500-page report accuses the French Government of supporting the administration of President Habyarimana in the preparation and commission of the genocide. It also argues that France had a hand in the destabilisation of Rwanda by arming genocidaires based in the former Zaire. Prior knowledge of genocide France knew that preparations of mass massacres were in place, the commission argues. "Between October 1990 and April 1994 French army officers were present in all security organs of the country. From 1991 until at least December 1993, there was a high number of French military advisors in the national army (FAR), gendarmerie (Police), intelligence and other special organs, including the Presidential guard." According to the report, French military advisors took charge of high-level meetings where war strategies were being planned, and the French military commanded the war at the front line. "As stated by Gen. Dallaire (head of the UN peacekeeping mission), since there was evidence of French military involvement with the national army immediately before the genocide, it logically follows that the French had adequate information that a major massacre was being planned." Ideological complicity The French Government helped Habyarimana's regime in providing the ideological base for the genocide, the commission established. In their communication, it argues, the French portrayed the Rwandan issue as purely ethnic, an issue between the majority Hutu and a minority group of Tutsi. It quotes President Mitterand as having told his cabinet on June 22, 1994: "Rwanda, like Burundi, is numerically dominated by Hutus. In that sense, it is common knowledge that most of the population is behind President Habyarimana. Should the country be ruled by the minority Tutsi, who are now based in Uganda where most wish to establish a "Tutsi land" including not only Uganda, but also Rwanda and Burundi, certainly the track of democracy shall be interrupted". Support to FAR France, the report says, trained, organised and armed the former national army, FAR, which helped carry out the genocide. "France also actively participated in the war and several times fought side by side with the Rwandan National Army." In addition, according to the report, the French army manned road blocks in Kigali and different parts of the country where they checked individual identity cards on ethnicity. "Some of those who were identified as Tutsi were killed and tortured in the presence of members of the French army, who also participated in those acts of murder and torture", it says. Training of Interahamwe The report accuses France of not only training the national army but also the Interahamwe militias, vagabonds who were largely responsible for carrying out the genocide. "The French army trained and assisted in the training of the Interahamwe between 1992 and December 1993 in what was regarded as Operation Noroit. The training was conducted in the five military barracks where the French army was residing." This, according to the report, was confirmed by a French military policeman, Thierry Prugnaud, in an interview on French Television on April 22, 2005. "I saw members of the French army training Rwandan militias how to use rifles. That happened several times but the only time I actually saw it was when some 30 militiamen were trained how to fire in Akagera National Park," Prugnaud was quoted as saying. Preparing lists of suspected Tutsi The report also accuses France of having played an active role in preparing lists of suspected Tutsi and Government opponents. "According to your directive, I have the honour to submit to you an electronic filing system where you will easily trace people meant to be investigated", French adviser Michel Robardey wrote to the chief of the staff of the Rwandan gendarmerie in October 1992. The lists were later used by Rwandan soldiers to move from house to house, killing political opponents and distinguished Tutsi. The computerised lists project was initiated by Gen. Jean Varret, who was in charge of Rwandan-French military co-operation at the time. Before France's own commission investigating its role in the genocide, Varret confirmed that he was convinced France had helped Rwanda's intelligence services prepare the lists of Tutsis to be killed. Appointment of Bagosora According to the report, the French asked the then army commander, Col. Bagosora, to take control of the country after Habyarimana's death. Bagosora, the commission noted, was a known extremist who had earlier said he would 'prepare an apocalypse'. "On April 7, 1994, the French ambassador in Rwanda, together with Col. Jean-Jacques Maurin, went to meet Col. Bagosora and asked him to take charge of the situation," the report states. In addition, it says, French diplomatic and military support to the interim government continued during the genocide. "On May 9, 1994, Gen. Huchon hosted Lt.-Col. Ephrem Rwabalinda, adviser to the FAR chief of staff," the report says. "Gen. Huchon promised to provide ammunition in the category of 105mm, other types of ammunition as well as communication equipment to facilitate the communication with Gen. Augustin Bizimungu, FAR commander in chief." Delivery of Arms and ammunition Throughout the genocide, the report argues, France continued supplying the Rwandan interim-government with arms and ammunition. It quotes Belgian Col. Luc Marshall, who was heading a unit of UN peacekeepers in Kigali, as saying in the French Le Monde newspaper: "We were informed on 8 [April 1994] that French planes would land the following day around 6:00am. Actually, they arrived at 3:45am. Cases of ammunition - probably five tons - were discharged from a plane and were transported by vehicles of the Rwandan army to Kanombe barrack which was used as the base for the presidential guard." More ammunition was delivered at Goma airport in the former Zaire where the interim-government had fled. "In May, more than one month after the beginning of massacres, the French offloaded a cargo plane full of arms in Goma. The French Consul at Goma said he was not in a position to intervene since it was a private contract executed before the embargo on Rwanda was imposed," the report notes. The commission, according to the report, further found weapons purchase orders in Mugunga refugee camp in Goma involving two French companies, Sofremas and Luchaire. Operation Turquoise The report also raps the French military intervention in western Rwanda in June 1994 in what was called Operation Turquoise. "The first objective of this intervention was to divide the country in two starting from Kigali, to stop the advance of the RPF and to force it to negotiate a power-sharing agreement with the genocide government," the report says. The French did not intervene when Tutsi civilians were being slaughtered in the area under their control, often in their presence, the commission observed. "They left in place the genocide infrastructure, namely road blocks manned by Interahamwe. They requested Interahamwe to continue patrolling the road blocks and kill Tutsi moving around." The report also accuses French soldiers of having been directly involved in cases of rape and killing, and of having encouraged the Hutu population to massively flee to Zaire during the last days of their mission. "Col. Sartre organized a public meeting on July 13, 1994 at Rubengera where he strongly encouraged the population to flee to Zaire by promising France's assistance for a speedy armed return to Rwanda", the report notes. "French soldiers accompanied the ex-FAR and Interahamwe into Zaire where they immediately assisted them in the form of military training, arms and ammunition supplies to prepare an armed return." During Zone Turquoise, the report concludes, France's involvement in the genocide became most visible. As France had a mandate from the UN to create a humanitarian safe zone, it bears responsibility for the massacres carried out in the area under their control, it argues. "By deciding to maintain the politicians and administrators in place and collaborate with those who had perpetrated the genocide in the previous two and half months, by requesting them or allowing them to continue killing Tutsi, the French soldiers and their commanders took full control of the genocide project." French politicians accused - Francois Mitterrand: President of the Republic of France - Alain Juppe: Minister of Foreign Affairs - Leotard: Minister of Defense - Marcel Debarge: Minister of Cooperation - Hubert Vedrine: Secretary General in the President's Office - Edouard Balladur: Prime Minister - Delaye: Presidential Advisor - Jean-Christophe Mitterrand: Presidential Advisor - Paul Dijoud: Head of Africa and Madagascar Unit in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Dominique De Villepin: Assistant Head of Africa and Madagascar Unit - Georges Martres: French Ambassador to Rwanda - Jean-Michel Marlaud: French Ambassador to Rwanda - Jean-Bernard Merimee: French Ambassador to the UN."

Source(s): June 18, 2004, Chancellery of HRH Crown Prince Alexander II of Yugoslavia, 'Reception in honor of the "Le Cercle" conference

Born in 1945. Descendant of Serbian royalty. Son of Peter II of Yugoslavia, the last King of Yugoslavia. Born in London. Godparents were King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II. Current pretender to the abolished thrones of Yugoslavia and Serbia. By marrying a Roman Catholic, Alexander lost his place in line of succession to the British Throne, which he had held as a descendant of Queen Victoria. The couple divorced in 1985. Crown Prince Alexander married Katherine Clairy Batis, the daughter of Robert Batis and his wife, Anna Dosti, legally on September 20, 1985, and religiously the following day, at St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Church, Notting Hill, London. Alexander first came to Yugoslavia in 1991. He moved to Yugoslavia after Slobodan Milošević was deposed in 2000. In March 2001 Yugoslavian citizenship was given to him by the government and property seized from his family, including royal palaces, were returned. Alexander is a proponent of establishing parliamentary monarchy in Serbia within its current borders and sees himself as the rightful king. Hosted a 2004 meeting of Le Cercle.

Sources: 1997, Robert Hutchinson, 'Their Kingdom Come – Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei', p. 155

Born in 1918. BA, University Arizona, 1939. Postgrad., University Mexico, 1940. Best known as a public relations pioneer. Worked at Ford Motor Co. 1941-1948. Worked at several other companies the following 7 years. Assistant to the CEO at Litton Industries 1955-1965, a large defense contractor in the United States, bought by the Northrop Grumman Corporation in 2001. Worked at the Department of State in 1962. Head of the American delegation to the International Congress Air Force Associations, Turin, Italy, 1964. Chairman of Crosby M. Kelly Associates Ltd. 1965-1973. Chairman President Advertising Measurements, Inc. 1965-1970. Chairman of Performance Measurements Co., Detroit, 1968-1970. Order of Merit of the Republic of Italy 1969. Senior vice president at Litton Industries, Inc. 1973-1976. According to Len Horowitz, Litton Industries was given over $5 billion in military contracts during the first term of the Nixon administration, $10 million of which went towards the development of AIDS-like viruses. Vice president of communications at Rockwell International 1976-1978. Instructor at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School Business 1978. Again Chairman of Crosby M. Kelly Associates Ltd. 1978-1986. President of the Sage Institute in Portland, Oregon, 1980-1983. Director Western World Insurance Co. Guest lecturer European Institute Business Administration Fontainebleau, France, 1966. Robert Hutchinson: "Crosby Kelly made no bones about his political leanings. ‘I am a Rightist, Conservative and anti-Communist,' he told Hodgson. He was said to be a sometime CIA operative. He had designed and launched the sales campaign for the first Ford motorcar produced after the Second World War, and was among Robert McNamara's original 'whiz kids' at Ford. For thirteen years he had been on the board of Litton Industries. Kelly told Violet he would not invest a penny until satisfied that the invention was capable of finding water. [reference to the Sniffer Device affair]" Died in 1986.

Source(s): Cercle lists: 1982 Wildbad Kreuth; 1983 Bonn

Member of a centuries-old noble family. Visitor of Bilderberg in 1964 when a research assistant at the School of Political and Social Sciences of the Catholic University of Louvain. Representative Otto von Habsburg's CEDI international. Member honorary committee Cercle des Nations. CEPIC. Chef de cabinet of Paul Vanden Boeynants. Responsible for relations with NATO while working for secretary of defense Paul Vanden Boeynants in the 1970s. Contact of Vanden Boeynants to the questionable PIO intelligence organization. Representative CEDI (Habsburg; Bella) Belgium with Paul Vankerkhoven. Co-founder l'Institut Européen pour la Paix et la Sécurité with Jacques Jonet, Paul Vankerkhoven (WACL) and General Robert Close. Jean Gol was a director of this institute. 1998, Stef Janssens, 'The names from the cover up', p. 33: "In 1989, [Nicolas] de Kerchove d'Ousselghem and Paul Vankerkhoven, CEPIC member and co-founder of Cercle des Nations ... were employees of the magazine 'Revue Belge'. This right-wing magazine had as manager the present director of the Center for Missing Children and former BBL-director Daniel Cardon de Lichtbuer." Council member EIS. Director Institute Europeen pour la Paix et la Securite (IEPS).

Source(s): 1984 South Africa Cercle meeting list

Latymer Upper Sch.; University Coll., London(Fellow 1973); Bonn Univ. Served with HM Forces, 1939–46: Suffolk Regt, W Africa Force and Airborne Forces. Foreign Office, 1946–48; Control Commn and High Commn for Germany (Berlin, Frankfurt and Bonn), 1948–51; Private Sec. to Parly Under-Sec., Foreign Office, 1951–54; British Embassy, Addis Ababa, 1954–57; Canadian Nat. Def. Coll., 1957–58; Western Dept, Foreign Office, 1958–62; Imp. Def. Coll., 1962; Counsellor and Head of Chancery, British Embassy, Washington, 1963–68; Asst Under-Sec. of State, FCO, 1968–71; Ambassador to USSR, 1971–73; Dep. Under-Sec. of State, FCO and Permanent Rep. on Council of WEU, 1973–75; Ambassador and UK Permanent Rep. to NATO, 1975–79. Dir, Dunlop South Africa, 1980–85. Pres., 1985–92, Vice-Pres., 1992–93, GB Atlantic Cttee; Vice-Pres., Atlantic Treaty Assoc., 1992–94.

1985, No. 8, Lobster: "Thatcher had decided major changes were required and appointed a security co- ordinator for Northern Ireland. First choice was 'tough man' Sir John Killick who had a long career in intelligence going back to the war."

Source(s): 1984 South Africa Cercle meeting list; 1984 Bonn Cercle meeting list; 1985 Washington D.C. meeting

Born 12 May 1924; o s of 3rd Earl Kimberley and Margaret (d 1950), d of late Col Leonard Howard Irby; m 1st, 1945, Diana Evelyn (marr. diss. 1948; she d 2000), o d of Lt-Col Hon. Sir Piers Walter Legh, GCVO, CMG, CIE, OBE; 2nd, 1949, Mrs Carmel June Dunnett (marr. diss. 1952; she d 1992); one s; 3rd, 1953, Mrs Cynthia Westendarp (marr. diss. 1960; she d 1999); two s; 4th, 1961, Margaret Simons (marr. diss. 1965); one s; 5th, 1970, Mrs Gillian Raw (marr. diss. 1982); 6th, 1982, Sarah Jane Hope Consett, e d of Colonel Christopher D’Arcy Preston Consett, DSO, MC; died 26 May 2002. Had succeeded his father in 1941.

May 30, 2002, The Express, 'Obituaries: Earl of Kimberley, Flamboyant Peer': "He was an ace at bobsleighing, steeplechasing and tiddlywinks and spoke for the Liberal Party on defence, aviation and voluntary services in the Lords. He was also a gambler, drinker and playboy who had to sell the ancestral seat, Kimberley Hall in Norfolk, with its 5,000 acres, to pay off debts and divorce settlements and was, by his own admission, a terrible husband to his six wives and a "lousy" father to his four sons. ... His first marriage, at 21, was to Diana Legh, daughter of the Master of the Royal Household. He was in love with another girl but since the King and Queen were on the guest list, he felt he could not call it off. ... His political career was almost as colourful as his love life. In 1979, Liberal leader David Steel sacked him for urging Liberals to vote Conservative to keep Labour out. He joined the Tories soon after. After decades of alcoholism, he became vice-president of the World Council on Alcoholism and chairman of the National Council on Alcoholism (later Alcohol Concern) in 1982, but was forced out of the latter because he believed that recovering alcoholics need not become teetotal." Invited to the Cercle in the following capacities: Chairman House of Lords Defense Committee. Then House of Lords Speaker on European Affairs.

July 4, 2001, UK Newsquest Regional Press - This is Wiltshire, 'Lord lifts lid on Lucan': "WILTSHIRE Peer Lord Kimberley has revealed how he gambled with Lord Lucan on the night before he vanished. And he spoken of his belief that Lucan was murdered by a contract killer - and named the man he says paid for the hit. Lord Kimberley was playing the tables with the man everyone called 'Lucky' at the Clermont Club the night before Lord Lucan vanished after his children's nanny was murdered. A world-wide police hunt has failed to find any trace of Lord Lucan and officially no-one knows whether he is alive or dead. But Lord Kimberley, who lives at Cricklade, says he believes Lucan is dead ' and that his killer was paid by the gambling Lord's confidant, the late John Aspinall. He admits he has no evidence to back up his sensational claim, and Aspinall always denied any involvement in Lucan's disap-pearance. But Lord Kimberley argues that his theory would clear up the mystery still surrounding the missing Lord. He claims that zoo owner Aspinall, who died last year after a fight against cancer, had Lucan killed because he had threatened to blackmail him over the part he played in getting the wanted Peer out of the country. Lord Kimberley mentions both men only briefly in his biography, which is published this week. He put forward his theory during an exclusive interview at his home. He admits straight away that although he saw Lord Lucan regularly during his days as a high society gambler and serial womaniser the men weren't friends. "In fact he was extremely rude to me, but he disappeared without trace and I was never able to tell him what a rude sod he was," said Lord Kimberley. However, he argues strongly that Lord Lucan received a rough deal and had been "convicted" of the murder without evidence or witnesses. "A car was found abandoned at Newhaven and in it was found a piece of piping with which he supposedly hit the nanny on the head. But the inquest coroner who said he had murdered her had no right to say that. He was not on trial, there were no witnesses and no evidence and the inquest was not legal in British law. "I have no idea whatsoever whether Lucan did it but I always wondered whether he was helped to go abroad by the late Aspers and said he wanted to return to England. I think he may have blackmailed Aspinall for money to come back to, threatening to reveal the part he had played in his escape and naming him as an accessory to the crime. "Because of this Aspinall and co put a contract on him either in France or South Africa and had him knocked off. "It is just a thought but it is possible and would answer all the questions. "John Aspinall was the sort of man who would do this. He was ruthless. "Of course we will never know the truth but I do think he was helped abroad.""

Source(s): 1983 Bonn meeting list (Cortes member)

MP. Vice president Popular Alliance. Consul general of Spain.

June 25, 1982, BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, 'Other Reports on Britain; Postponement of talks on Gibralta': "Contradictions between Spain and Britain have become acute once again, because of the decision by the Spanish government to postpone for an unspecified period the opening of negotiations with London on the future of Gibraltar. Talks on the status of this British colony on the Iberian peninsula were due to have begun on 25th June. Spain had agreed to discuss problems concerning the lifting of the blockade which it had announced in 1969, in exchange for a promise from Britain to examine in all seriousness the possibility of meeting Madrid's demands for recognition of Spain's rights to this territory. However, the situation changed following London's neo-colonialist adventure in the South Atlantic, when Britain resorted to military force in its territorial dispute with Argentina. By this the Conservative government demonstrated clearly that it is not prepared to show flexibility in finding solutions to such problems. Prime Minister Thatcher has said that the British government is not prepared to discuss with Spain the problem of the sovereignty of Gibraltar. In the Spanish capital the break-off of the Anglo-Spanish negotiations on Gibraltar is being linked directly with a lack of interest in London in finding a mutually acceptable solution to the problem. The British government is not prepared to hold real talks. For its part the Spanish government does not see a need to take part in pseudo-talks. This was said by the government party UCD's official spokesman Javier Ruperez, setting out the Spanish position. The majority of Spanish political parties back the government in this position. Guillermo Kirkpatrick, Vice-President of the Popular Alliance, said that the Malvinas conflict has shown Britain's true views on the question of decolonization. Spain cannot renounce its rights to Gibraltar, he stressed."

April 17, 1985, The Guardian, 'Rightwing Spanish MEPs keenly awaited by Tories / Spanish Popular Alliance': "British Conservatives in the European Parliament are eagerly wooing the right-wing Spanish Popular Alliance in the hope of a lucrative political marriage next year when Spain joins the EEC and sends 60 MEPs to Strasbourg. The Popular Alliance, led by a former minister under Franco, is expected to have about 15 MEPs. Each will be worth about pounds 10,000 in administrative expenses to whichever group they decide to join. The Parliament's Christian Democrat and right-wing Liberal groups are also among the eager suitors. But the British Tories are the favourites - to the smouldering discontent of some of their own members, who say the Popular Alliance is too far right. The majority view, however, is that the group must expand after the Iberian enlargement, to retain crediblity, and a decent income of public subsidies. The 45 Conservatives are presently allied with one Ulster Unionist, and three Danish right-wingers. Together they call themselves the European Democratic Group (EDG). ... A senior Popular Alliance member of the Cortes, Mr Guillermo Kirkpatrick has been attending EDG group meetings as an observer, said Mr Prout."

February 14, 2008, South Wales Evening Post, 'History of city bar laid bare': "During its rich history, one of the highlights was the March 1992 gathering of 300 guests in the 17th Century cellar to celebrate three centuries of wine in Swansea (pictured). Then owners Ken and Elaine Thorpe (front left) asked Consul General of Spain Guillermo Kirkpatrick to propose the celebratory toast as a representative of one of the first countries to export its products to the town, with Lord Mayor of the day Byron Owen among those in attendance."

Source(s): Atlantic Circle website (existed from October 2000 to June 2002; one simple html page, 350 words; for 90% based on information already published in books or exposed in news articles): "Le Cercle, in the past, has been honored to hear the views of such notables as Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, David Rockefeller, William Casey, Franz Josef Strauss, Jeanne Kirkpatrick, Zbigniew Brzezinski, General Norman Schwartzkopf, the Sultan of Oman, Otto von Hapsburg, Winston Churchill II, Charles Pasqua, Anton Rupert, King Hussein of Jordan and President Ion lliescu of Romania."

One of the most influential neoconservatives during the 1980s and 1990s. Member of Reagan's National Security Council. U.S. Representative to the United Nations: (1981-85). President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board: Member (1985-1990). Defense Policy Review Board: Member (1985-1993). Secretary of Defense Commission on Fail Safe and Risk Reduction: Chairperson (1991-1992). U.S. Representative to the UN Human Rights Commission: (2003). At the time of her death, Kirkpatrick was a fellow at the AEI, where she wrote on human rights, UN reform, and international law. She also used this perch to actively promote policies pushed by the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), a letterhead group based in the same office building as AEI and headed by several neoconservative ideologues, including Irving Kristol's son William Kristol. PNAC played a singular role in championing the invasion of Iraq in response to the 9/11 attacks, arguing in an open letter to President Bush shortly after the attacks that the country should invade "even if evidence does not link Iraq directly to the attack." Kirkpatrick signed her name to this letter, along with a stable of high-profile neoconservatives and/or hardliners, such as Frank Gaffney, Charles Krauthammer, Richard Perle, and Marshall Wittmann.

Afghanistan Relief Committee, founding member; American Alternative Foundation: Former Member, Board of Directors; American Enterprise Institute Former Fellow; American Security Council: Former Active Participant; Center for a Free Cuba: Former Member, Board of Directors; Center for Strategic and International Studies, "faculty" member; Committee for the Free World: Former Member, Board of Directors; Coalition for a Democratic Majority: Former Member; Committee on the Present Danger: Former Member; Council on Foreign Relations (CFR); former member; Cuban American National Fund: Former Member, Advisory Committee; International Republican Institute Former Member, Board of Directors (2004); Empower America, co-founder, Board of Directors; Ethics and Public Policy Center: Former Chair and Member, Board of Directors; Freedom House: Former Member, Executive Committee and Board of Directors; Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD); Board of Directors; Georgetown University; member of "faculty"; Henry M. Jackson Foundation: Former Member, Board of Governors; Institute of American Universities, Aix en Provence, France: Former Trustee; International Campaign for Tibet, member of the International Council of Advisors; International Committee for Democracy in Cuba Member; Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA); Former Member, Board of Advisers; National Committee on American Foreign Policy: Former Member, Board of Advisers; National Security Advisory Council (a project of the Center for Security Policy); New Atlantic Initiative (American Enterprise Institute): Former Member International Advisory Board; Nicaraguan Freedom Fund: Former Vice President; PRODEMCA (Friends of the Democratic Center in Central America); Project for the New American Century: Letter Signatory; Social Democrats USA (SDUSA); founder; UN Watch Former Member, Board of Directors; U.S. Committee for a Free Lebanon: Former Golden Circle Supporter; and Washington Institute for Near East Policy (board member). Member, Committee of 100 for Tibet. Involved with the Cercle affiliated Jonathan Institute, together with the notorious Menachem Begin, Shimon Peres, the notorious Lord Chalfont, the CIA's Ray Cline, and Cercle members Brian Crozier and Robert Moss.

Source(s): October 1989 – Issue 18, Lobster Magazine, 'The Pinay Circle and Destabilisation in Europe'; 1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', pages 186, 191-193, and 241; June 29, 1997, The Independence, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club; Is it the ultimate dishonour'; 2002, David Rockefeller, 'Memoirs', pp. 412-413, referring to the Pesenti Group; April 6, 2003, The Observer, 'So, Norman, any regrets this time?'; September 5, 2004, Sunday Times, 'Le Cercle of the elite'; February 21, 2012, Cercle chairman Lord Lothian's invitational letter to speak at Le Cercle to Saudi Arabia's deputy minister of foreign affairs Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz: "At meetings last year, we were priviliged to talks from, amonst others ... Dr. Henry Kissinger..."

Henry Kissinger was born in the Bavarian city of Fuerth. He was a son of Louis and Paula Stern Kissinger. The elder Kissinger was a school teacher and after Hitler's rise to power, the family immigrated to London in 1938. After a short stay, they moved to Washington Heights in New York City. Recruited by Fritz Kraemer during WWII. Served in the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps 1943-1946. According to Hersh, Kissinger stayed on active duty in West Germany after the war and was eventually assigned to the 970th CIC Detachment, whose functions included support for the recruitment of ex-Nazi intelligence officers for anti-Soviet operations inside the Soviet bloc. Captain in the Military Intelligence Reserve 1946-1949. Went to Harvard in 1947, where he was picked by the Rockefellers, three of whom were overseers there at the time. Executive director Harvard International Seminar 1951-1969. Became an consultant to the Operations Research Office in 1951. According to Hersh, that unit, under the direct control of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, conducted highly classified studies on such topics as the utilization of former German operatives and Nazi partisan supporters in CIA clandestine activities. Became a consultant to the Director of the Psychological Strategy Board in 1952, a covert arm of the National Security Council. The first director (and primary founder) was Gordon Gray, who served in this position from June 1951 to May 1952. Under Eisenhower, on September 2, 1953, the role of this department was expanded and the name became Operations Coordinating Board (OCB). Became an consultant to the Operations Coordinating Board in 1955, which was then the highest policy-making board for implementing clandestine operations against foreign governments. JFK would abolish the OCB in 1961 although a similar unacknowledged structure would remain operational. Became known as the most trusted aide to Nelson Rockefeller in the mid 1950s, who by then had served as Eisenhower's Special Assistant for Cold War Planning and overseer of all the CIA's clandestine operations. Member of the Department of Government, Center for International Affairs, Harvard University, 1954-1969. Study director of nuclear weapons and foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations 1955-1956. Director Special Studies Project for the Rockefeller Brothers Fund 1956-1958, which worked out basic cold war policy manifestoes (hardline). They were in large part adopted by successive administrations in Washington. Author of 'Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy', released in 1957. Consultant Weapons Systems Evaluation Group of the Joint Chiefs of Staff 1959-1960. Consultant National Security Council 1961-1962. Consultant RAND Corporation 1961-1968. Consultant United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency 1961-1968. Consultant to the Department of State 1965-1968. Right-hand man to Nelson Rockefeller during the 1968 Republican nomination campaign. Nixon's National Security Advisor 1969-1973. Chairman of the secretive Forty Committee, the covert apparatus of the National Security Council, from at least 1969 to 1976, which oversaw the CIA's clandestine operations. Nelson Rockefeller, even in his Senate bio, has been named as an (earlier) chairman of the Forty Committee. As head of this committee Kissinger had access to more information than the other members and he is said to have distorted it at times. During this same time period Kissinger also set up and headed the Washington Special Action Group (WSAG), another very important foreign policy group. Committee Secretary of State 1973-1977. Made two secret trips to China in 1971 to confer with Premier Zhou Enlai. Together with David Rockefeller involved in setting up the National Council for US-China Trade in 1973. Negotiated the SALT I and ABM treaty with the Soviet Union. Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973. Made other secret trips to China in later years to make extremely sensitive intelligence exchanges. Robert C. McFarlane was among those who went to China with Kissinger, in his case between 1973 and 1976. Negotiated the end of the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Said to have played a role in the 1973 Augusto Pinochet coup. Approved President Suharto's invasion of East-Timor in 1973, which resulted in a bout 250,000 dead communists and socialists. Oversaw the drafting of 'National Security Study Memorandum 200: Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for U.S. Security and Overseas Interests', which was completed in December 1974 and adopted as official U.S. policy by President Gerald Ford a year later. The title of NSSM 200 is enough to make it controversial. Suspected of having been involved in Operation Condor which started around 1975 and was an assassination and intelligence gathering operation on 3 continents. Set up the Iran-US Business Council with Hushang Ansary. A meeting of the Iran-US Business Council in 1976 included Peter G. Peterson, Paul Volcker, and David Rockefeller. Director Council on Foreign Relations 1977-1981. Together with Cyrus Vance and David Rockefeller he set up the US-China Business Council in 1979, the successor to the Council for US-China Trade. Annual visitor of Bilderberg since at least the 1970s. Annual visitor of the Trilateral Commission since the late 1970s. Visited Le Cercle. Member of the Pilgrims Society. Visitor of Bohemian Grove camp Mandalay. May 17, 2002 issue, Jeffrey Steinberg for Executive Intelligence Review, 'Ariel Sharon: Profile of an Unrepentant War Criminal': "On Nov. 15, 1982, a final meeting took place on several real estate purchases, mostly through Arab middle-men, to push the massive expansion of Jewish settlements throughout the West Bank at a handsome profit. Attending the meeting at Sharon's ranch were: Kissinger [Cercle], Lord Harlech (Sir David Ormsby-Gore), Johannes von Thurn und Taxis [1001 Club], Tory Parliamentarian Julian Amery [Cercle], Sir Edmund Peck, and MI-6 Mideast mandarin Nicholas Elliot [Cercle]." Founder of Kissinger Associates in 1982, a secretive consulting firm to international corporations. Some of the first members to join Kissinger Associates were Brent Scowcroft (vice-chairman), Lawrence Eagleburger (president), Lord Carrington, Lord Roll of Ipsden, and Pehr Gyllenhammar. Some served until 1989, others were still active for Kissinger Associates in the late 1990s. 1992, Senator John Kerry and Senator Hank Brown, Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, part 20:: "Beginning in the fall of 1986, and continuing through early 1989, BCCI initiated a series of contacts with perhaps the most politically prominent international and business consulting firm in the United States -- Kissinger Associates." Chairman National Bipartisan Commission on Central America 1983-1984. Set up the America-China Society in 1987, together with Robert McFarlane and Cyrus Vance. Appointed chairman of AIG's advisory council in 1987. Received the Charlemagne award in 1987. Director of the Atlanta branch of the Italian Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL) from 1985 to 1991. This was during the 1989 BNL Affair (Iraq Gate) in which it became known that the Atlanta branch had made $4 billion in unreported loans to Iraq. After the revelation, the money was said to be used by the Iraqis to buy food and agriculture equipment, but in reality they were buying loads of military equipment. His consultancy firm, Kissinger Associates, set up the China Ventures fund with CITIC in 1989, which would be in the same year that he defended the Tiananmen Square massacre, arguing against sanctions being placed on China. Director of the Financial Services Volunteer Corps (FSVC), which was founded in 1990 by Pilgrims Society members Cyrus Vance and John C. Whitehead. Paul Volcker has been among the chairmen of the FSVC, which describes itself as "a not-for-profit, private-public partnership whose mission is to help build sound banking and financial systems in transition and developing countries." In 1990, he sat on boards of American Express, Union Pacific, R.M. Macy, Continental Grain, CBS, and the Revlon Group. Also a consultant to ABC news at this time. Member Atlantic Council of the United States. Member of the Council of Advisors of the United States-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce. Trustee of the Center Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the Arthur F Burns Fellowship, the Institute of International Education, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Honorary Governor of the Foreign Policy Association. Patron of the Atlantic Partnership and the New Atlantic Initiative. Chairman of the Eisenhower Exchange Fellowships, the Nixon Center, and the American Academy in Berlin. Co-chairman of the Editorial Board of 'The National Interest' magazine. Chancellor of the College William and Mary. Honorary chairman World Cup USA 1994 (Kissinger has attended football matches with his friend and colleague Etienne Davignon). Honorary chairman of the National Interest, a neocon foreign policy magazine founded by Irving Kristol, who also founded the CIA's magazine Encounter. Members of the advisory council of the the National Interest have included Morton Abramowitz, Dov Zakheim, John Mearsheimer, Conrad Black and James Schlesinger. Daniel Pipes has been a long time contributor to the National Interest. Co-founded the privately-funded American Academy in Berlin in 1994, together with Richard Holbrooke, Richard von Weizsäcker, Fritz Stern, and Otto Count Lambsdorff. Named Honorary Knight Commander of St. Michael and St. George, 1995. Director Freeport-McMoRan 1995-2001. Director of Conrad Black's Hollinger International Inc. Member of J.P. Morgan's International Advisory Council. Former member of the Advisory Council of Forstmann Little & Co. and American Express. Advisor to China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC). Member of the Europe Strategy Board of Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst. Director of Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation. Chairman of the International Advisory Board of the American International Group (AIG), a partner of Kissinger Associates. Also chairman of the Advisory Boards of AIG Asian Infrastructure Funds I & II and a director of AIG Global. In 1997, Kissinger became the central advisor to the Business Coalition for US-China Trade, a group of about a 1000 leading companies willing to invest in China. In 2000, Henry Kissinger was quoted by Business Wire: "Hank Greenberg, Pete Peterson and I have been close friends and business associates for decades." Maurice Greenburg is head of AIG and Peter G. Peterson is head of The Blackstone Group, which is the other major partner of Kissinger Associates. Peterson is also a former chairman of Lehman Brothers. Kissinger is a friend of Lynn Forester and introduced her to Sir Evelyn de Rothschild at the 1998 Bilderberg conference. They would soon become married. After Pulitzer Price winning journalist Peter Arnett produced a CNN report on Operation Tailwind (a Vietnam operation in which US Special Forces allegedly killed US defectors with Sarin) in 1998, Kissinger and his friends called up CNN to demand that the news network should distance itself from the story (a story which CNN initially approved) and made sure that the producers of the show were publicly humiliated and fired. Arnett was fired again by NBC and National Geographic in March 2003 immediately after he said the Bush Administration was looking for a plan B now that Iraqi resistance turned out to be much more intense than expected. Within 24 hours the Daily Mail hired him. When Henry Kissinger is invited to speak at the United Nations Association on April 11, 2001 Lord Jacob Rothschild is flanking his side. Picked as the initial head of the 9/11 investigating committee in 2003, although he turned out to be too controversial to remain in that position. Henry Kissinger is a patron of the Open Russia Foundation since 2001, together with Lord Jacob Rothschild. The Foundation was set up by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a controversial oligarch, later locked up by Putin. Honorary trustee of the Aspen Institute. Director of the Board of Overseers of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), together with Madeleine Albright, Maurice Greenberg, Henry Kissinger, Felix Rohatyn, and James Wolfensohn. John Whitehead, Tom Brokaw, and Winston Lord have all been chairmen of the Board of Overseers. When Otto von Habsburg visited the United States in April 2005, one of the few people he spoke with, besides the general meetings, was Henry Kissinger. Because of previous international attempts by European and South American judges to question him, he is known to take legal advice before traveling to certain countries in either continent.

Source(s): Cercle list: 1983 Bonn

Politische Tätigkeiten Königs: 1960 bis 1972 Bundesobmann der Jungen ÖVP 1970 bis 1995 Abgeordneter zum Nationalrat 1975 bis 1986 Vorsitzender des Rechnungshofausschusses 1986 bis 1990 Obmann des ÖVP-Parlamentsklubs 1990 bis 1994 Europabeauftragter der ÖVP für die Beitrittsverhandlungen mit der EU auf parlamentarischer Ebene 1990 bis 1994 Vizepräsident des Europarates.

Political activities of the King: 1960-1972. Federal Chairman of the Young OVP (Österreichische Volkspartei; Austrian People's Party ) 1970-1995. Member of Parliament from 1975 to 1986. Chairman of the Audit Committee from 1986 to 1990. Chairman of the ÖVP Parliamentary Group from 1990 to 1994. European Commissioner of the Austrian People's Party for the accession negotiations with the EU at the parliamentary level, 1990 to 1994. Vice President Council of Europe.

The OVP is a successor to Austrian Christian Social Party of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it is similar to the Christian Democratic Union of Germany in terms of ideology.

Source(s): Cercle list: 1985 Washington D.C.

With John Orr Young, Inc. (advertising agency), 1940-41; assistant professor University Virginia Law School, 1947-49; associate firm Shearman & Sterling & Wright, New York City, 1949-55, partner, 1955-58; deputy assistant secretary defense for international security affairs US Department Defense, 1958-61; general counsel US Department Treasury, 1961-62; partner firm Shearman & Sterling, New York City, 1962-80, senior partner, 1980-85, of counsel, 1986—2006; deputy chairman Federal Reserve Bank New York , 1976-77, chairman, 1977-83. Counsel to board United Technologies Corp., 1974-85; director international board Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp.; director I-Corps, National Leadership Bank, Mercator, Inc., Citizen Exchange Council; member Intelsat Arbitration Panel, 1971-91. Board directors International Vol. Services; chairman board directors University Virginia Law School Foundation, 1970-90; board directors Asia Foundation Served to lieutenant colonel US Army Air Force, 1941-45. Member American Bar Association, Federal Bar Association, International Bar Association, Inter-Am. Bar Association, Association of Bar of City of New York , N.Y County Lawyers Association, International Law Association, Washington Institute Foreign Affairs, Council Foreign Relations, Pilgrims Club, Links Club, World Trade Ctr Club, River Club (New York City), Army and Navy Club, Metropolitan Club (Washington), Round Hill Club (Greenwich, Connecticut), Ocean Club (Ocean Ridge, Florida), Farmington Club (Virginia).

Source(s): Cercle list: 1985 Washington D.C.

See ASC list.

Source(s): February 21, 2012, Cercle chairman Lord Lothian's invitational letter to speak at Le Cercle to Saudi Arabia's deputy minister of foreign affairs Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz: "At meetings last year, we were priviliged to talks from, amonst others ... Pof Victor Kuvaldin of the Gorbachev Foundation..."

Political history expert from Russia. Worked at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Science for many years. Speech-writer for Russian president Mikhail Gorbachev. Executive at the Gorbachev Foundation since its inception. Professor at the MGIMO University in Moscow.

Source(s): Cercle list: 1984 South Africa

1905-1993. Worked for the Vichy government in de Office of Education. Details unknown. Charge d'affaires in Washington 1946. Member United Nations Security Council in the early 1950s. Ambassador to Canada 1955-62. Ambassador to Belgium in the 1960s. De Gaulle apparently tried to annex Quebec and Wallonia to compensate for the loss in Algeria. United Nations high commissioner.

Sources: April 6, 2003, The Observer, 'So, Norman, any regrets this time?'; June 18, 2004, Chancellery of HRH Crown Prince Alexander II of Yugoslavia, 'Reception in honor of the "Le Cercle" conference; September 5, 2004, Sunday Times, 'Le Cercle of the elite'; Parliamentary biography; biography at Benador Associates

Who's Who: Chm., Cambridge Univ. Conservative Assoc., 1963; Pres., Cambridge Union, 1964. PA to Rt Hon. Duncan Sandys, MP, 1965; Conservative Research Dept, 1966–68; Merchant Banker, N. M. Rothschild & Sons, 1968–79; Dir, Rothschild Asset Mgt, 1978. Non-exec. Dir, N. M. Rothschild & Sons, 1993–95; Director: Balli Gp Plc, 1995–; RAB Capital 2004–; Jupiter Second Split Trust, 2005–; Chm., Jupiter Adria plc, 2006–. Chm., British-Iranian Chamber of Commerce, 2004–; Adviser to: Romanian Govt, on privatisation, 1995–97; Consensus Business Gp, 2002–; Western Union Corp., 2007–08; Hermitage Capital, 2007–. Contested (C) East Hull, Gen. Election, 1970. MP (C) Kingston-upon-Thames, May 1972–97; contested (C) Harrogate and Knaresborough, 1997. PPS to Norman St John-Stevas, MP, Minister for the Arts, 1974; an Opposition Spokesman on: Prices and Consumer Affairs, 1975–76; Industry, 1976–79; Parly Under Sec. of State, Dept of Energy, 1979–81; Minister of State, DTI (formerly DoI), 1981–85; Minister of State for Defence Procurement, 1985–86; Financial Sec. to HM Treasury, 1986–89; Chief Sec. to HM Treasury, 1989–90; Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1990–93. Chairman: G7 Gp of Finance Ministers, 1991; EU Finance Ministers, 1992; Mem., H of L Select Cttee on EU, 1999–2003, on Economic Affairs, 2005–. Chairman: Coningsby Club, 1970–71; Bow Group, 1971–72; Vice Pres., Bruges Gp; Pres., Economic Res. Council, 2008–. Pres., Clan Lamont Soc., 2006– .

Born in 1942. Graduated from Cambridge University. Chairman Cambridge University's Conservative Association in 1963. Worked for eleven years for N.M. Rothschild & Sons in the financial City of London 1968-1979. Also director of Rothschild Asset Management during this time. Conservative member of Parliament 1974-1998. Opposition Spokesman on Prices and Consumer Affairs 1975-1976. Opposition Spokesman on 1976-1979. Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Energy 1979-1981. Minister of State at the Department of Trade and Industry 1981-1985. Member of the Queen's Privy Council since 1982. Minister of Defence Procurement 1985-1986. Financial Secretary to the Treasury 1986-1989. Chief Secretary to the Treasury 1989-1990. Campaign manager of John Major in 1990. Chancellor of the Exchequer (Treasury Secretary) under John Major 1990-1993. Chairman of the G7 group of Finance Ministers and the European Union Finance Ministers in 1992. British negotiator at Maastricht. Lamont is former vice-president and now co-chairman of the Bruges Group, an independent think tank that describes itself as: "Set up in February 1989, its aim was to promote the idea of a less centralised European structure than that emerging in Brussels. Its inspiration was Margaret Thatcher's Bruges speech in September 1988." The opinion of the Bruges Group about the 2005 EU Constitution: "The EU Constitution will significantly alter the European Union. If adopted, it will move the EU even further away from our vision of a free trading, decentralised, deregulated and democratic Europe of nation-states." Lamont about the rejected 2005 EU Constitution: "The Europe of Delors [fervent Roman Catholic socialist; received Charlemagne award], Mitterrand [fervent catholic socialist; received Charlemagne award] and Kohl [fervent catholic; received Charlemagne award] is dead. No means no. Europe's self-serving political elite will make a profound mistake and create an awakening of bitterness if they try to sidestep France's historic vote. Europe is a dysfunctional mess. Europe needs to go back to square one. Blair and the British Government in their role as the Presidency of the EU should renegotiate the existing treaties to create a looser free trade Europe of 25 countries." Lamont and the Bruges Group support the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and think Britain should rejoin that. Its four remaining members, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland, have negotiated their own trade agreements with the EU, which allow them access to the single market. Switzerland and especially [the crown of] Liechtenstein are more oriented towards the EU then Norway and Iceland. Lamont handled Russia's negotiations with international financial institutions on behalf of Presidents Gorbachev and Yeltsin, and also represented Russia in negotiations to join the IMF. These negotiations were started in 1988 and after Yeltsin announced in 1991 to privatize the Russian economy, funds from the IMF started flowing in. The Rothschilds later turned out to be close business associates of the leading Russian oligarchs, who bought up the Russian media and raw material corporations for a dime and a nickel in the aftermath of the IMF negotiations. Allegations of fraud were numerous in the years following and one of these scandals seemed to have led to the death of 1001 Club member Edmond Safra. Director of N.M. Rothschild and Sons Ltd 1993-1995. July 2, 1995, Sunday Times, 'Rothschild rues its blues under the bed': "Last week it started to look as if Rothschild was planning to make a bid to become the government itself when John Redwood, a former Rothschild fund manager, launched his campaign to become the Tory party leader with Norman Lamont, a Rothschild director, at his side. But Rothschild's position as the hotbed of Tory Euro-sceptic activity is understandably raising some eyebrows both within the bank and outside... Lamont's appointment, more than any other of the political refugees to appear on the Rothschild board, was made despite the opposition of senior Rothschild corporate financiers. Sir Evelyn, however, is renowned for making these sort of appointments without reference to anyone. Whatever the outcome of the leadership election, many at the bank now hope that Lamont's reign at Rothschild where he earns around Pounds 25,000-Pounds 30,000, considerably less than many believe will soon be terminated." Strangely, Sir Evelyn was exposed in 2002 for funding Policy Network, the primary think tank for New Labour, which is very pro-Europe (September 22, 2002, Sunday Times, 'Rothschild bankrolls Mandelson think tank') Became chairman of Le Cercle in 1996 (he still was in 2005). Good friend of Lord Robert Cecil of Le Cercle. Member of the Royal Order of Francis I of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order, together with several other Cercle members. May 13, 2005, London Evening Standard, 'London Knight Life': "Many of the recent additions, awarded the Royal Order of Francis I for services to industry, science and the arts, aren't even Catholic. These include Baroness Thatcher, the Duke of Westminster, Lord Lamont and the enigmatic Islamic art collector Professor Nasser David Khalili, one of Britain's richest men, who proudly wears his order on a turquoise silk ribbon at official functions. All members are encouraged to donate to the order's spiritual and charitable works." Chairman of the Oil Club of independent oil corporations. Member House of Lords since 1998. Vice Lords Select Committee, Chairman House of Lords Select Committee on EU. Served as a director of Scottish Re since December 2001. Director of the Balli Group plc, a commodities trading company that specialized in steel, petrochemicals and non-ferrous metals. Director of Scottish Annuity & Life Holdings Ltd., Banca Commerciala Robank, European Growth and Income Trust, and Jupiter Finance and Income Trust. Chairman of the East European Food Fund. Advisor to Rotch Property Group Ltd., one of Britain's largest private property companies. Advisor to the Monsanto Corporation and to the Government of Romania. Director of the Luxembourg banking company Compaigne Internationale de Participations Bancaires et Financieres (CIPAF), which is a subsidiary of General Mediterranean Holdings, owned by Cercle member and Saddam associate Nadhmi Auchi. Vice Chairman of the International Nuclear Safety Commission (Chaired by Mikhail Gorbachev). Member of the Neoconservative Benador Associates. In February 2005 it was reported that John Major and Norman Lamont were holding up the release of papers on Black Wednesday under the Freedom of Information Act. Black Wednesday refers to September 16, 1992 when the government was forced to withdraw the Pound from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) by currency speculators - most notably George Soros who earned over USD$1 billion in doing so. December 10, 2000, The Guardian, 'Revealed: Pinochet drug smuggling link': "The Chilean army and secret police have spent almost two decades secretly flooding Europe and the US with massive shipments of cocaine. The trafficking began during the 17-year dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet and continues to this day, a year-long investigation for The Observer has established. Twelve tons of the drug, with a street value of several billion pounds, left Chile in 1986 and 1987 alone. The drugs, destined for Europe, have often been flown to Spanish territory by aircraft carrying Chilean-made arms to Iraq and Iran. Distribution to Britain and other European countries has been controlled by secret police stationed in Chilean embassies in Stockholm and Madrid. The revelations will come as an embarrassment to the Conservative Party, which criticized Pinochet's arrest in London in 1998 and backed his fight to avoid deportation to Spain on charges of murder and torture. The news will be particularly unwelcome to Lord Lamont, the former Chancellor, who was in Santiago last week to deliver a letter of support to the former dictator from Lady Thatcher. Under Conservative governments, large quantities of British arms were sold to Chile, and British firms such as Royal Ordnance collaborated with the development of Chile's weapons potential. There can be no doubt that Pinochet, whose power was absolute between the 1973 coup and his surrender in 1990, was a party to trafficking." Lamont pressed Home Secretary Robin Cook for Pinochet's release from captivity in England, claiming it was something the people of Chile had to deal with themselves. Has visited Bilderberg. Chairman of the British Iranian Chamber of Commerce since March 2004. Arrived in Iran in May 2004 as co-chairman of a mission to strengthen the ties between Iran and the United Kingdom and to increase UK foreign investment into Iran. During this time the neocons in the United States, led by Dick Cheney et al, are continually threatening to bomb Iran. Lord Lamont in February 2006, BBC radio, 'Any Questions?': "Well I think the idea of Iran getting a nuclear weapon is alarming. I think also President Ahmadinejad of Iran is a rather threatening person because of what he has said. Having said that I think we ought also to understand that there is an Iranian perspective which we don't always see in these matters. The first is that I think Iran actually has a deep sense of insecurity. The history of Iran has been interfered with by foreign countries. They remember how a prime minister, Mossadegh, was removed because he wanted - by the Americans and the British - because he wanted to nationalize oil. They remember above all the Iran/Iraq War in which Iraq with Western weapons invaded them, half a million people died. They're surrounded by countries with nuclear weapons as well. Second point I would just make about Iran is Iran is not nearly as anti-West, anti-American or as religious as it appears from the members of the government you see on television. After 9/11 there were demonstrations in favor of America in Tehran. President Khatami, the president of Iran at that time, actually made the strongest, most eloquent condemnation I've heard from anybody. Now the one thing I'm certain of is that sanctions will not work and we will find ourselves getting into a situation from which there is no exit. America already has sanctions because of the hostage crisis that maintained them ever since. I think a far better policy in the past would have been if we'd had no sanctions against Iran, we'd encouraged full economic ties, trade with Iran, admitted them to the World Trade Organization. It may now be too late. I don't think Iran is going to invade anybody but I think Iran - Iran has been a major beneficiary of the Iraq War, that is one of the problems which has emboldened, made them more confident. But I think in the past we have ostracized them, we have kept them at bay. I think Jack Straw has handled this very, very well because he's kept a dialogue going and although we are in a difficult situation I hope that Straw and the Europeans will still continue to maintain contact and still try to find a diplomatic solution, even though it is backed up with ultimate sanctions... I think they do want to have nuclear energy but I think they are - there was a program begun under the Shah but I think they probably do want to develop for the security reasons that I've outlined. And I think the awful thing is you would find that a huge part of the population of Iran agreed with that, I don't think you would find that - they see the West as interfering in their region. Dimbleby: But do you therefore believe that they represent - you described your perspective - do you believe - to go back to the question as it were in a yes or no - that they do represent a threat - it does represent a threat to world peace or not? Norman Lamont: I think Iran is a significant power in the region and its power has been increased by the Iraq world, a Shia belt has formed stretching Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon - I don't think they're going to wage an aggressive war against somebody, I really don't believe that, I don't think they will. But they have leverage via Hamas, Hizbollah. I think we do need to continue talking to them. I think unfortunately we are in the grip of history and forces that have put us in this position." One of Lamont 2003 House of Lords speeches: "I first declare an interest in that I am a director of a company which was specifically formed to participate in the reconstruction of Iraq, although nothing that I say is likely to enhance the prospects of that company. At the time I strongly supported the war both in this House and outside, but subsequently I changed my mind because I gradually came to believe that the country was misled about the reasons for the war. Of course, I am not saying that the Prime Minister acted in bad faith. I am not saying that the Prime Minister misled the country intentionally, but that he was so keen to go to war that he seemed to lose all critical faculty. The fact that his motives were right does not in any way modify or justify the consequences. I watched with disbelief the evidence that unfolded from the Hutton inquiry and read with concern the conclusions of the Butler report. I find it impossible to resist the conclusion that No. 10 was desperate to grasp at any evidence to support a decision that it desperately wanted to make. Like other noble Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Butler, for his excellent report... To watch last week the Republican Convention in New York was to watch a gathering in denial that seems to have turned this war into a fantasy. We know that the two governments were wrong and out of touch with reality before the war. The question is: are they any more in touch with reality now?... The invasion of Iraq has been discredited also by the subsequent chaos hugely influenced by Iraqi exiles who have their own agenda. The "American appointed government" control only part of Baghdad; even there its Ministers are car-bombed and assassinated. According to the press, Baquba, Samara, Kut, Mahmoudiya, Fallujah and Ramadi are all outside government authority. In their efforts to retain and regain control the Iraqi Government re-employ some of Saddam's generals and re-recruit his secret police. Mr Allawi has said that he wants to slash some throats." Appointed a Phorm non executive Director in December 2008. Phorm is a relatively controversial IT company that used to distribute spyware.

February 28, 2009, The Mirror, 'Sex scandal former dominatrix Lindi St Clair in car crash horror': " Former Miss Whiplash Lindi St Clair was recovering yesterday after being trapped upside down in her car in a stream for almost 24 hours. The former dominatrix, 57, was treated for hypothermia after crashing 15ft down an embankment on Thursday afternoon. It took rescuers using cutting gear nearly two hours to pull her free at a remote spot near Risbury, Herefordshire, after a passing motorist spotted her upturned vehicle. A fire brigade spokesman said: "She's lucky to be alive." Lindi, who lives on a farm in Risbury where she raises ducks as pets, was once notorious as a high-class hooker and "sex therapist". She hit the headlines when it emerged she was renting Tory Chancellor Norman Lamont's basement flat in Notting Hill in 1991. She claimed politicians were among her clients and once stood for Parliament, campaigning for more liberal sex laws."

September 20 1998, Sunday Times, 'Spy says MI6 has agent in Bundesbank': "A RENEGADE British spy has claimed that MI6 recruited a high-level mole inside Germany's central bank, paying him large sums of money to betray his country's most sensitive economic secrets. The mole, codenamed Orcada, is said to have betrayed to MI6 Germany's negotiating position during talks on the Maastricht treaty. He is also said to have provided inside information on Germany's proposed interest-rate movements. Orcada is a civil servant and a senior officer in the Bundesbank - Germany's equivalent of the Bank of England. He is said to have been leaking Bonn's financial secrets to British intelligence for the past 12 years. The claims have been made by Richard Tomlinson, the fugitive former MI6 officer, in a letter to a parliamentary committee. This evidence is also on the Internet, placed there by journalists in Switzerland, where Tomlinson is considering applying for asylum. ... Norman Lamont, chancellor of the exchequer between 1990 and 1993, said he was unaware of the operation. "I see no need to use MI6 to find out about confidential German monetary policy," he said. "That would seem to me a complete waste of money. I also think it would be highly improper and utterly pointless." The Bundesbank has effectively been the interest rate-setting body for Europe for the past two decades. Information about its changing stance on the single currency and German unification would have proved invaluable to ministers and Treasury officials in Britain. Patrick Minford, professor of economics at Cardiff Business School, said that leaks from the Bundesbank would be of "extreme importance" to the Treasury. "The Bundesbank was a major player in our leaving the exchange-rate mechanism [ERM]. It was incredibly important then to know what it was up to," said Minford. "Now we're not in the ERM we have been terribly interested in whether monetary union would happen and the Bundesbank has been a major player. Had it behaved differently in the past six to nine months they could have made it extremely difficult for the German government to sign up to monetary union." This is not the first time that it has been claimed that British intelligence has spied on our European allies. Peter Wright, the former MI5 assistant director, claimed in his book Spycatcher that Britain bugged the French embassy in London in a bid to discover France's attitude towards Britain's application to join the Common Market."

Source(s): September 25, 2003, Damien McCrystal, City Editor for The Sun, 'Spooky tale from Salzburg; City Insider': "ACROSS my desk come details of a hush-hush gathering in Salzburg of a spooky collection calling itself Le Cercle. Members come from around the world and seem to be dominated by Right-wingers with an interest in the security services. Britain is represented by, among others, spy writer and former Tory MP Rupert Allason, Tory Deputy Leader Michael Ancram, Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Alan Duncan, former GEC and Warburg director Sir Ronald Grierson, Lord Lamont, Lt Col Tim Spicer of Aegis Defence Services and Sir Stephen Lander, former head of MI5. Is this a new Bilderberg group in the making?"

Born 1947. Bishops Stortford Coll.; Queens’ Coll., Cambridge (BA, MA, Ph.D). Inst. of Historical Research, Univ. of London, 1972–75; Security Service [MI5], 1975–2002, Dir Gen., 1996–2002; non-exec. Dir, HM Customs and Excise, 2002–05. Non-executive Director: Northgate Information Solutions, 2004–08; Streamshield Networks, 2004–07. Panel Chm., Judicial Appts Commn, 2008–. Hon. LLD Hertfordshire, 2005; Hon. DSc Cranfield, 2007. Member, Solicitors Regulation Authority (formerly Regulation Board, Law Society), since 2006 (Independent Commissioner, 2002–05); Chairman, Serious Organised Crime Agency, 2006–09.

Source(s): Adrian Hanni (visited the Cercle twice in 1990)

Key person in overthrowing Oman in 1970. Major player in the country's oil industry since that time. Brought in British and U.S. intelligence officers for the oil industry, many of them associated with Le Cercle.

In 1977 Tim Landon married Katalina Esterhazy Galantha, a member of the Hungarian aristocratic House of Esterházy, noted for its felicitous marriages, great wealth, and large land-holdings, and historically loyal to the Habsburg Dynasty. The marriage produced a son, Arthur, who studied film production and has begun to be involved in his family business affairs in recent years. Arthur is, according to the Sunday Times Rich List, the wealthiest young person in Britain, with an inherited fortune of £200 million, and is "a close friend of the royal princes, William and Harry

July 14, 2007, Globe and Mail, 'Life of the White Sultan shrouded in controversy': "He orchestrated the overthrow of the sultan of a Middle Eastern state, threw a lifeline to white rule in Rhodesia and South Africa, gave arms to the mujahedeen of Afghanistan, amassed a fortune estimated to be twice that of the Queen's and died last week in his privately owned hamlet in south England. In Oman, where he spent much of his adult life, he was known as the White Sultan. In his adopted home of Britain, he's been heralded as a latter-day Lawrence of Arabia. But in his native land of British Columbia, this real life lord of war seems long forgotten. The son of a British Army officer and a Canadian mother, James Timothy Whittington Landon was born on Vancouver Island on Aug. 20, 1942. He left Canada at age 11 and later pursued an education at Sandhurst, Britain's top military academy, before serving with the British Army and Special Forces in Oman. But from his deployment to Dhofar, the southern region of Oman in the late 1960s, until his death from cancer on July 5, the career and life of Brigadier Timothy Landon - as he came to be known - were shrouded in more than a white veil. They were shrouded in secrecy and controversy. Brigadier Landon arrived in Oman around the same time that oil was discovered in the struggling state of the south Persian Gulf. He was part of a British military operation sent to help then Sultan Said bin Taimour defeat a Soviet-backed insurgency in Dhofar. In the south of the country, he was stationed as an intelligence officer before he was transferred to the capital, Muscat, where he became integral to a British-backed coup to remove the Sultan, who had fallen out with the British government over interests in Oman's oil reserves. The brigadier's role was to discuss the proposed overthrow with the Sultan's son, Qaboos bin Said - a fellow graduate of Sandhurst who was allegedly spared the wrath of school bullies when young Brigadier Landon took him under his wing. Having foreseen a potential coup, the Sultan had placed his son under house arrest on the coast of Salalah upon the son's return to Oman. There he was allowed only a select group of visitors - among them Brigadier Landon. According to John Beasant, author of Oman: The True Drama and Intrigue of an Arab State, the brigadier's role in the coup has been romanticized but not exaggerated as he personally persuaded Qaboos to overtake his father. "Landon was the catalyst for the coup. There were all these rip-roaring stories of him climbing the palace steps brandishing a pistol toward the Sultan, but Landon never went into the palace during the coup," he says. Brigadier Landon stayed with Qaboos as the plot unfolded on the afternoon of July 23, 1970, when the Sultan was confronted at his palace by a sheik and a British Army officer, who told Sultan Said his rule was at an end. The coup turned out to be a near-bloodless affair, with the only major casualty being Said's foot, which he inadvertently shot while drawing a pistol from beneath his robe. The deposed sultan spent the next two years in exile and died in a London hotel in 1972, having reportedly claimed that his greatest regret was "not having had Landon shot." Brigadier Landon assisted the new Sultan Qaboos as a trusted adviser during the first decade of his rule. Mr. Beasant says it was with the brigadier's guidance that the young and inexperienced Qaboos was able to transform Oman into a prospering state. "[Landon's] single greatest achievement was being available to the Sultan at a time when Qaboos came to the throne yet had no experience of governance whatsoever," Mr. Beasant says. His role as a trusted adviser to an Arab ruler has led some in the British press to herald him as a latter-day Lawrence of Arabia, but Mr. Beasant knew Brigadier Landon and says he was no Lawrence. "Tim was a man who always had his eye to the main chance. This Lawrence of Arabia slant is ridiculous; there's no comparison at all. What he did do through his advisory to Qaboos in fashioning a modern state, which primarily meant establishing a modern navy, army and air force, meant that he was able to make huge amounts of money through the arms deals he brokered on behalf of the Sultan," Mr. Beasant says. The White Sultan of Oman, as Brigadier Landon became known, amassed an estimated £200-million ($425-million) from trade deals and gifts from his grateful patron. He also built up Oman's military into one of the best-armed small forces in the world and helped to defeat the Soviet-backed insurgents. But his arms dealings and questionable enterprises didn't end there. In the late 1970s, as Ian Smith's internationally ostracized Rhodesian state struggled to withstand international sanctions and a bloody bush war, Brigadier Landon lent the white-minority ruler a helping hand in the form of Omani oil. He similarly helped South Africa's apartheid regime. "He was a product of the British Empire. He was born in the Dominion of Canada but had family relations who were under siege in Rhodesia and South Africa and here he was with his finger on the Omani oil tap," Mr. Beasant says. In the early 1980s, Brigadier Landon enjoyed intimate ties to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her son, Mark, a known arms trader. The latter connection helped him to facilitate Oman's key role as a weapons conduit across the Gulf to the Pakistani port of Karachi, where weapons were imported and sent overland to mujahedeen fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan. By 1982, Brigadier Landon held not only a Canadian passport but also an Omani passport when he helped organize the Sultan's visit to Britain. His connections with the British prime minister earned him an honorary knighthood that same year. Brigadier Landon returned in the early 1980s to Britain, where he lived a reclusive life in his rural hamlet and travelled to London in an inconspicuous, personally owned black cab. His secret business in the city has attracted controversy in Hungary, where it's alleged he bribed an Austrian businessman to influence Hungarian authorities to purchase Swedish fighter jets. That most recent scandal never infiltrated Brigadier Landon's life in the hamlet he owned in Hampshire, south England. Brigadier Landon lived out his latter days with his wife and son. It's said he enjoyed relaxing with a gun during pheasant shoots in the English countryside. He's also said to have enjoyed skiing holidays in Canada. Mr. Beasant says Brigadier Landon's reclusive lifestyle was a result of his operations in Oman. "He became very concerned about his own personal security. Tim realized that the way in which he had amassed his riches provoked such sentiments and he was fearful of the consequences," he says. Mr. Beasant himself could be viewed as a man once wronged by Brigadier Landon. Mr. Beasant was a journalist and author based in Oman for 11 years when he was ejected from the country after refusing a bribe to keep from publishing his 2002 book. He says Brigadier Landon was likely partial to the Sultan's decision to send him into exile in his native land of England. But despite this, Mr. Beasant doesn't hold any ill will against the dead brigadier. "Timothy Landon was by any measure an exceptional man. He was very much an individual who pursued his interests with a single-mindedness which can really only be respected. You can't help but admire him," he says. Brigadier Landon leaves his wife, Kata, a member of the Austro-Hungarian Esterhazy family, and their son. "

Source(s): Adrian Hanni (visited the Cercle in a 1990 meeting)

Educated at Tonbridge School, Cambridge and Yale Universities. After National Service in the R.A.F., Leahy joined the Foreign Office in 1952 at the age of 24. In a series of diplomatic appointments, Leahy became assistant private secretary to Selwyn Lloyd, Minister of State, who later became Foreign Secretary during the Suez crisis. Leahy also served as Foreign Office spokesman and was later seconded for a time to the Northern Ireland Office as Under-Secretary of State. Back at the Foreign Office, Leahy was appointed ambassador to South Africa and subsequently became the FCO's Deputy Under-Secretary of State (DUSS) for Africa and the Middle East. His last diplomatic appointment was as High Commissioner to Australia. Regarded as having "a safe pair of hands", Leahy carried out a number of sensitive assignments on behalf of the British government, and came face to face with leading political figures of the day. For example, in April 1984, he was sent to Jamba in Angola to secure the release of 16 Britons who had been taken hostage by the Angolan rebel leader, Jonas Savimbi. At the time, Savimbi's UNITA guerrilla movement was financed and supported militarily by the apartheid regime in South Africa.The mission was successful and Leahy brought the captives back to London. After his retirement from HM Diplomatic Service, Leahy held several non-executive appointments, including being a director of the Observer newspaper, before joining Lonrho as a non-executive director in October 1993. He became Chairman in November 1994. On 2 March 1995, after many internal upheavals, the company board dismissed the controversial businessman (Tiny Rowland), one of the Joint Chief Executives. Rowland was backing Leahy as the new chairman, which failed. In 1997 Leahy was succeeded by Sir John Craven.

Source(s): Adrian Hanni (visited the Cercle in 1989)

Brother of John F. Lehman, a major neoconservative and friend of Brian Crozier. John Lehman was a close personal friend of Richard Perle in attacking Kissinger over detente. Both men served on the Committee on Present Danger. Lehman was a roommate of Edwin Feulner.

Currently Director of the Center for Global Security Research at the United States Department of Energy's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He is also Chair of the Governing Board of International Science and Technology Center, an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Moscow and is a member of the Department of Defense Threat Reduction Advisory Committee.

Educated at Claremont McKenna College (B.S., 1968) and then Claremont Graduate University with PH.D. in 1975, the same year he went to Washington, D.C., as a fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University to begin his long and substantive diplomatic career in international arms control, disarmament, and the nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction. He has served three U.S. Presidents (Reagan, Bush, and Clinton), three Secretaries of State, three Secretaries of Defense, and three National Security Advisors in a variety of senior executive and advisory positions to promote peace through international disarmament and nonproliferation policymaking.

Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy (now Assistant Secretary of Defense for Global Strategic Affairs) from 1988 to 1989 and then Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency between 1989 and 1993. From 1985 to 1988, he served in the State Department as U.S. Chief Negotiator on Strategic Offensive Arms (START I) in Geneva. He has also served as Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, senior director on the National Security Council, professional staff of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, and in Vietnam with the United States Army. Lehman testified regularly before the U.S. Congress and was on the advisory board of the United States Institute of Peace. In 1995, he was appointed to the five-member President's Advisory Board on Arms Proliferation Policy.

Source(s): Cercle's 1983 Bonn meeting list

MP (C) Gainsborough, since 1997 (Gainsborough and Horncastle, 1983–97). St Philip’s Sch., Kensington; Oratory Sch., Berks; French Lycée, London; UC, Durham Univ. (BA Hons). Called to the Bar, Inner Temple, 1977. Mem., Cons. Res. Dept, seconded to office of Leader of Opposition, GLC, 1973–75; Prin. Correspondence Sec. to Rt Hon. Margaret Thatcher, MP, 1975–76. Member (C): Richmond Borough Council, 1974–78; GLC, 1977–81. Contested (C) Teesside, Middlesbrough, Oct. 1974. PPS to Minister of State, Home Office, 1990; Parly Under-Sec. of State, DTI, 1990–93. Chm., Public Accounts Cttee, H of C, 2001–; Sec., Conservative backbench Cttees on agric., defence and employment, 1983–90; Vice Chm., Conservative Back bench Cttees on foreign affairs and social security, 1997–2001. Chm., Nat. Council for Civil Defence, 1980–82; Dir, Coalition for Peace Through Security, 1982–83. Kt of Honour and Devotion, SMO Malta, 1994. Right Thinking, 1979; Responsible Individualism, 1994. Leigh was recently offered but declined the Ambassadorship to the Holy See.

November 20, 1986, Daily Telegraph: "The Media Monitoring Unit was conceived and created last year by a small group of self-described Right-of-centre political activists. The driving force is Julian Lewis [part of Crozier's 6I])... He runs a political pressure group called Policy Research Associates which pops up now and again in debates on such matters as council corruption, trade union law and CND. Lord Chalfont is a patron as is Norris McWhirter, who founded the Freedom Association, and Edward Leigh, MP... The increasing activity of the PRA and the decision to form the monitoring unit is indicative of a more aggressive approach in Right-of-centre circles to getting across its message... To get the unit off the ground he approached Sir Peter Tennant, 75, a senior City businessman and adviser to the CBI. Tennant in turn drew together a nucleus of sympathisers, mostly from the City, who put up the £25,000-or-so to hire a director, buy a video recorder and publish the report..."

Source(s): Cercle's 1983 Bonn meeting list

MP (C) New Forest East, since 1997. Dynevor Grammar Sch., Swansea; Balliol Coll., Oxford (MA 1977); St Antony’s Coll., Oxford (DPhil 1981). Sec., Oxford Union, 1972. Seaman, RNR, 1979–82. Res. in defence studies, 1975–77, 1978–81; Sec., Campaign for Representative Democracy, 1977–78; Res. Dir and Dir, Coalition for Peace Through Security, 1981–85; Dir, Policy Res. Associates, 1985–; Dep. Dir, Cons. Res. Dept, 1990–96. Contested (C) Swansea W, 1983. Opposition Whip, 2001–02; Shadow Defence Minister, 2002–04, 2005–10; Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office, 2004–05. Member: Select Cttee on Welsh Affairs, 1998–2001; Select Cttee on Defence, 2000–01; Exec., 1922 Cttee, 2001; Sec., Cons. Parly Defence Cttee, 1997–2001; Vice-Chairman: Cons. Parly Foreign Affairs Cttee, 2000–01; Cons. Parly European Affairs Cttee, 2000–01. Parly Chm., First Defence, 2004–09. Mem., Armed Forces Parly Scheme (RAF), 1998, 2000, (RN), 2004, (RCDS), 2006, (Jt Services), 2008. Trustee, 1998–2001, Vice-Pres., 2001–07, Pres., 2007–09, British Military Powerboat Trust. Trench Gascoigne Essay Prize, RUSI, 2005 and 2007; Dissertation Prize, RCDS, 2006. Changing Direction: British military planning for post-war strategic defence 1942–47, 1988, 2nd edn 2003; Who’s Left?: an index of Labour MPs and left-wing causes 1985–1992, 1992; Labour’s CND Cover-up, 1992; political pamphlets. Part of Crozier's 6I.

November 20, 1986, Daily Telegraph: "The Media Monitoring Unit was conceived and created last year by a small group of self-described Right-of-centre political activists. The driving force is Julian Lewis (part of Crozier's 61)... He runs a political pressure group called Policy Research Associates which pops up now and again in debates on such matters as council corruption, trade union law and CND. Lord Chalfont is a patron as is Norris McWhirter, who founded the Freedom Association, and Edward Leigh, MP... The increasing activity of the PRA and the decision to form the monitoring unit is indicative of a more aggressive approach in Right-of-centre circles to getting across its message... To get the unit off the ground he approached Sir Peter Tennant, 75, a senior City businessman and adviser to the CBI. Tennant in turn drew together a nucleus of sympathisers, mostly from the City, who put up the £25,000-or-so to hire a director, buy a video recorder and publish the report..."

In 1976, with secret funding from the Freedom Association, he posed as a Labour Party moderate and briefly won control of Newham North East Constituency Labour Party, in an unsuccessful attempt to reverse the deselection of the local MP, Reg Prentice.[1] Prentice himself eventually joined the Conservatives. Dr Lewis was a leading opponent of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and other Left-wing organisations, throughout the 1980s. From 1981-5, he was Research Director of the Coalition for Peace through Security. From 1985, he has been Director of Policy Research Associates. In Parliament, he actively pursues the retention and renewal of the British strategic nuclear deterrent, the UK Trident programme. From 1990 to 1996, he was a Deputy Director of the Research Department at Conservative Central Office, but resigned to campaign against Britain joining the single European currency before opposition to the euro was officially adopted by the Conservative Party.

September 18, 2010, Daily Echo (Newsquest Regional Press), 'Julian Lewis to investigate undercover work of HM Government's spooks': "IT'S the secret , dangerous and mysterious life that very few of us ever get in insight of. In fact the closest most of us ever come to it are the fantasy worlds of James Bond and the TV show Spooks. But now one Hampshire MP has been handed the very secretive role of investigating the undercover work of Her Majesty's Government's secret agents. Tory MP for New Forest EastJulian Lewis is to join a committee of Parliamentarians tasked with overseeing the work of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ. The appointment of Dr Lewis, along with six other MPs and two peers, to the Intelligence and Security Committee was approved by Parliament. Its formal work of holding inquiries and grilling witnesses, including the heads of the intelligence services, will begin once the nominations have been signed off by Prime Minister David Cameron in the next few days. The committee usually meets about 25 times a year to examine the expenditure, administration and policies of the intelligence services. It is expected to produce an annual report on its findings, but may also conduct special investigations when necessary. Recent reports from the committee have focused on the intelligence relating to the 7/7 London bombers and allegations about the Government's complicity in state abduction, known as extraordinary rendition. Unlike ordinary select committees, which shadow Whitehall departments, the Intelligence and Security Committee is able to demand papers from former governments and official advice to ministers, and is given access to highly classified material. Because of the sensitive nature of its work, its meetings are conducted in private, within the confines of the Official Secrets Act, and material from its published reports is often censored. Not surprisingly Dr Lewis was staying tight-lipped about the details of the shadowy committee warning: "I can't say an awful lot about it". But he told the Daily Echo: "I am naturally very pleased to have been appointed to what is probably one of the most interesting committees on which an MP can serve. "It is a subject in which I have long been interested, both as a matter of history, and current politics and international relations." Dr Lewis has in the past served on the Commons defence select committee, and was a Conservative shadow defence minister up until the general election."

Source(s): www.publications.parliament.uk: "Name of donor: Le Cercle Address of donor: c/o 5 Stanhope Gate, London W1K 1AH. Amount of donation (or estimate of the probable value): £1020 Destination of visit: Washington DC, USA. Date of visit: 19-22 November 2009 Purpose of visit: to speak to a meeting of Le Cercle about Middle East policy and to have meetings with US administration officials about various foreign policy matters. (Registered 16 December 2009). [ADDITIONAL:] Name of donor: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan. ... Amount of donation (or estimate of the probable value): £8592.01 Destination of visit: Tokyo Date of visit: 10-15 January 2010 Purpose of visit: to meet Japanese ministers and officials and British business leaders based in Tokyo. [AND:] Name of donor: Conservative Friends of Israel ... Amount of donation (or estimate of the probable value): £1000 Destination of visit: Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories Date of visit: January 2010 Purpose of visit: to meet Israeli and Palestinian Ministers and officials and business leaders to discuss the Middle East Peace Process."

Born in 1956. Ph.D. from Cambridge. British Petroleum plc, 1983–86; RTZ plc, 1986–87; Special Adviser to: Home Sec., 1987–89; Foreign Sec., 1989–90; Consultant, PPU Ltd, 1991–92. MP (C) Aylesbury, since 1992. PPS to Leader of the Opposition, 1997–99; Opposition front-bench spokesman on: home affairs, 1999–2001; HM Treasury affairs, 2001–02; environment, food and rural affairs, 2002–03; NI, 2003–07; foreign affairs [spokesman], 2007–. Following the 2010 general election Lidington was appointed a Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, with responsibility for Europe.

Source(s): September 25, 2003, Damien McCrystal, City Editor for The Sun, 'Spooky tale from Salzburg; City Insider': "ACROSS my desk come details of a hush-hush gathering in Salzburg of a spooky collection calling itself Le Cercle. Members come from around the world and seem to be dominated by Right-wingers with an interest in the security services. Britain is represented by, among others ... Tory Deputy Leader Michael Ancram... Is this a new Bilderberg group in the making?"; February 21, 2012, Lord Lothian letter to HRH Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, 'Le Cercle': "Lord Lothian, Chairman."

Lord Michael Kerr. Advocate, Scottish Bar, 1970. Contested (C) Edinburgh S, 1987. MP (C): Berwickshire and East Lothian, Feb.-Sept. 1974; Edinburgh S, 1979–87. Parly Under-Sec. of State, Scottish Office, 1983–87, NI Office, 1993–94; Minister of State, NI Office, 1994–97; Opposition front bench spokesman on constitutional affairs, 1997–98; Dep. Leader of the Opposition and Shadow Foreign Sec., 2001–05; Shadow Sec. of State for Internat. Affairs, 2003–05, for Defence, 2005. Member: Select Cttee on Energy, 1979–83; Intelligence and Security Cttee, 2006–. Chairman: Cons. Party in Scotland, 1980–83 (Vice-Chm., 1975–80); Cons. Party, 1998–2001. Chm., Northern Corporate Communications, 1989–91; Dir, CSM Parly Consultants, 1988–92; Mem. Bd, Scottish Homes, 1988–90. DL Roxburgh, Ettrick and Lauderdale, 1990. founding signatory in 2005 of the Henry Jackson Society principles. Member of the Top Level Group of UK Parliamentarians for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non-proliferation (TLG), together with Lord Carrington (Pilgrims president), Margaret Beckett (Cercle), Lord Guthrie (Pilgrims), Lord Howe (Pilgrims exec.), and Sir Malcolm Rifkind (Pilgrims).

Source(s): October 1989 – Issue 18, Lobster Magazine, 'The Pinay Circle and Destabilisation in Europe'; 1985 Washington D.C. meeting

Jewish. Had served in a concentration camp. Joined Radio In the American Sector (RIAS) in 1945. Deputy director RAIS 1951-54. Broadcaster at Sender Freies Berlin in the 1950s. Worked at the OECD 1959-63. European correspondent and head of the Brussels bureau of ZDF in the 1960s. Presenter ZDF Magasin 1969-87 (forced into retirement at age 65, as he generated a lot of controversy). He gave airtime to his ally Franz Josef Strauss and later also to Brian Crozier. Contacts at the BND and in particular Gerhard Wessel, Gehlen's deputy before and during WWII and BND head 1968-78. Lowenthal often visited Wessel at BND headquarters. Founding member in 1973 of the Freie Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Freundschaft mit den Völkern der Tschechoslowakei together with Count Hans Huyn, Luděk Pachman (a Czech, supporter of Franz Josef Strauss and long-time associate of Lowenthal), Jaroslav Pechacek (head of the Czech division of Radio Free Europe), Reiner Gepperth (director of international relations at the Hans Seidel Foundation) and Cornelia Gerstenmaier (daughter of Eugen Gerstenmaier, president Bundestag 1954-69 and early CEDI member. Founder Centre for the Study of Religion and Communism.). Co-founder Konzentration Demokratischer Krafte in 1974. Founded Burgeraktion Demokraten fur Strauss in 1980. Attended the 1981 joint WACL/CAUSA conference in Asuncion, hosted by Stroessner and Pinochet. Resistance International. Speaker at the Jonathan Institute. Director European Institute for Security. Died in 2002. Probably a relative of Richard Lowenthal, co-founder of the CIA's Congress for Cultural Freedom with Julian Amery and others.

April 24, 1972, Der Spiegel, 'Dann wird aufgeblättert, es wird mörderisch': "Franz Josef Strauss - a good friend of BND-General Gerhard Wessel..." Stern magazine in August 1978 claimed that Lowenthal frequently visited Wessel at BND headquarters (David Teacher).

August 2, 2002, , The Independent, 'Lt-Gen Gerhard Wessel': "Gerhard Wessel was seen by his friends as the embodiment of the elegant professional German officer and successful intelligence chief. His detractors regarded him as a loyal Hitlerite officer who at the end of the Second World War joined the winners at the first opportunity. From 1968 to 1978, he headed the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND, Federal Intelligence Service), the West German equivalent of the CIA. Before that he had built up the Militarischer Abschirmdienst (Mad, Military Intelligence Service) of the federal armed forces. Wessel was born in the north German town of Neumunster, the son of a clergyman, in 1913. In 1932 he joined the pre-Hitler armed forces as an officer cadet. As the German armed forces were expanded after 1933, his career prospered. He increasingly interested himself in intelligence matters and was recruited by General Reinhard Gehlen, who was in charge of Fremde Heere Ost, the intelligence unit which was responsible for collecting data on the Soviet armed forces. By the end of the war, in 1945, Wessel was Gehlen's number two. Gehlen had accumulated vast archives on the Soviets from radio intercepts, agents, captured material, and the interrogation of prisoners of war. He was convinced of his anti-Bolshevik mission and was determined not to go down after the German capitulation. With some British help, he negotiated a deal with the Americans, and his 350-man unit was taken over intact to continue its intelligence gathering. After the decision to re-arm West Germany was taken, Wessel was put in charge, from 1952, of developing a military intelligence capacity separate from Gehlen's organisation. This became Mad, which in 1955 was incorporated into the new armed forces, the Bundeswehr. Wessel retained command until 1962. It was a body that neither sought, nor was given, much publicity. From 1962 Wessel was the German representative on the military committee of Nato serving under German, Belgian and British chairmen. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general. However, his big chance came in 1968, when Gehlen retired as BND president. Wessel's appointment as BND president came at a critical time. Nineteen sixty-eight was known in German intelligence circles as the year of suicides. On 8 October Major-General Horst Wendland, deputy head of the BND, shot himself. On the same day Admiral Hermann Ludke, deputy head of the logistics department of Nato, killed himself after the discovery of photographs he had taken of top secret documents. A little later there were several other suicides, including that of Colonel Johannes Grimm of the Defence Ministry. In the case of Wendland, a Czech defector later claimed he had been working for the Soviets. In 1977, in one of a series of "lonely secretary" cases, a BND secretary was arrested for spying. Certainly, the East Germans were able to infiltrate a number of agents into the BND during Wessel's term of office. The service was also criticised for not warning of the fall of the Shah of Iran in 1978, and was taken by surprise by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Nor had its Soviet experts understood the rise of Leonid Brezhnev after Nikita Khrushchev's overthrow in 1964. On the other hand, the BND, under Wessel, did have its successes. It was able to predict the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 and, two years later, the unrest among the Polish shipbuilding workers in Danzig. Wessel's organisation also warned against the employment of Gunther Guillaume in the Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt's office in 1970. This advice was ignored and four years later Brandt resigned when Guillaume was exposed as an East German spy. Perhaps more important was the fact that Wessel transformed the BND into a modern intelligence service recruiting academic analysts, electronics specialists and other outside experts. Under Gehlen the service had been very much associated with its founder and run almost as a private fiefdom. Under Wessel change had to come in the direction of greater accountability to the government and parliament. It was discovered that Gehlen kept dossiers on many of his political bosses and members of the opposition. There was also controversy about contacts the BND had, during both Gehlen and Wessel's tenure, with the press. The BND was accused of manipulating prominent journalists and this raised the whole question of the relations between the media and the intelligence community in a democratic society. Inevitably, this issue was not resolved. Wessel retired from the BND in 1978, and was succeeded by Klaus Kinkel, who later became foreign minister under Helmut Kohl."

Source(s): November 1988 – Issue 17, Lobster Magazine, 'Brian Crozier, the Pinay Circle and James Goldsmith' (quoting from the Langemann papers); October 1989 – Issue 18, Lobster Magazine, 'The Pinay Circle and Destabilisation in Europe'

Editor of the Neue Zurcher Zeitung in the 1980s. Recipient of the Freedom Prize 1985. Member of International Society for Human Rights, Resistance International, WACL, CAUSA, the Jonathan Institute, Konservative Aktion and the European Institute for Security. Attended the 1980 Zurich meeting of the Pinay Circle.

Source(s): 1982 Bonn meeting list; 1984 South Africa meeting list; 1985 Washington meeting list

November 30, 1980, Washington Post, 'Reagan's Team on Foreign Aid Reflects the New Right's Influence': "It comes as no particular surprise, but President-elect Ronald Reagan's transition team for foreign aid is dominated by prominent leaders from the ideological conservative movement popularly known as the New Right. Heading the team is Edwin J. Feulner, executive director of the Heritage Foundation here, which was founded by Paul Weyrich, director of the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress and receives its principal financial support from Joseph Coors, the Colorado beer mogul and bankroller of rightist causes. Among those serving with Feulner are Jeffrey B. Gaynor, director of policy studies for Heritage; Jim Lucier, an aide to arch-conservative Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) and a prominent opponent of many Carter administration foreign policy initiatives, and Elliott Abrams, a former aide to Sen. Daniel P. Moynihan (D-N.Y.), who supported Reagan in the campaign."

July 7, 1986, U.S. News & World Report, 'Drug king? Spy? Not I, says General Noriega; Is Panama run by a military 'Mafia'?': "While Ronald Reagan was busy winning aid for Nicaraguan rebels from Congress, alarms began ringing over Panama and the canal that makes it a key strategic concern of the U.S. Together, the canal and U.S. military bases here mean the American stake in Panama is greater than in all the rest of Central America combined. Indeed, anxiety about canal security is part of the reason for U.S. concern about Marxist control of Nicaragua. Yet many things about Panama are turning sour at once. Panama's de facto ruler, military strong man Gen. Manuel Noriega, is accused of drug trafficking and laundering of drug money, arms smuggling and spying for Cuba. These charges have followed those alleging more-common regional sins such as election rigging and political intimidation. The country's fifth President is as many years, Eric Anturo Delvalle, is widely regarded as little more than a complaisant front man for Noriega. Unemployment, inequality, economic stagnation and huge foreign debts are creating what one U.S. diplomat warns is a "time bomb waiting to go off." In Washington, demands are growing that Reagan "do something" about Panama -- especially about Noriega -- though no one seems certain exactly what. Behind the agitation is concern that popular resentment in Panama could fuel the same kinds of leftist upheaval that brought Fidel Castro to power in Cuba and the Sandinistas to power in Nicaragua. If prolonged, the furor could revive the tensions that were supposed to disappear under treaties transferring control of the canal to Panama by the year 2000. For seven years, the transition moved calmly. A respected pro-U.S. economist, Nicolas Ardito Barletta, was elected President of Panama in 1984. Though there were strong suspicions that Noriega had stolen the election for Barletta, the preceding campaign was unusual in that los gringos and American control of the canal were not bitter issues. Panama's military chiefs, including Noriega, appeared to be withdrawing slowly from domination of politics and the economy. Serious trouble began last September when Barletta was forced to resign. He apparently had pushed too hard for an investigation into the brutal murder of Dr. Hugo Spadafora, a colorful political activist and persistent critic of Noriega's rule. Spadafora was last seen alive in the custody of troops from the Panama Defense Force, as the nation's military, which Noriega commands, is officially called. Then came the recent series of reports -- clearly leaked by high-level Washington sources -- about the general's alleged misdeeds. For many Americans, all this rekindled doubts about the kind of government that is taking over the canal. That, White House aides complain, is precisely the goal of conservative officials and lawmakers who seek to advance their "different agenda" by reviving charges that go back to the early 1970s. Whatever their agenda, a number of U.S. policymakers are worried about handing canal operations over to poverty-stricken, politically unstable nation. Skeptics fear that Panama's military chiefs are mainly interested in operating a Mafia-style racketeering network to enrich themselves and their friends. By that assessment, the huge cash flow generated by the canal might prove an irresistible temptation without major reform of Panama's endemic corruption and cronyism. "We want to turn the canal over to a viable, stable democracy, not a bunch of corrupt drug runners," fumes Jim Lucier, a key aid to Senator Jesse Helms (R-N.C.). Helms has been a leading critic of Noriega and the canal treaties. ... Panamanian military sources say that privately the general is angry about the stories. He reportedly is furious most of all about what he sees as "betrayal" by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, with which he has had close ties for many years."

May 8, 1994, Houston Chronicle, '"The Hillary of Honduras'; Aide was a one-woman CIA for Helms in Central America': "She disappeared on hush-hush missions to Central America, strapped scrambling devices on her telephones to foil eavesdroppers, and exposed secrets that shook up governments. Her name was Deborah De Moss, and for more than 10 years, she was the untold story behind Sen.Jesse Helms' dramatic string of forays into Latin America. De Moss helped make Helms, who doesn't speak Spanish, a force to be reckoned with. Virtually every time he made a move, the bilingual aide was there, supplying facts he wasn't getting from the CIA or State Department. ... With De Moss' help, Helms exposed Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega as a drug lord, undercut the Nicaraguan government and aided rebels in an aborted Panamanian coup and savaged the reputation of exiled Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. ... In 1979, the year De Moss entered college, her father died of a heart attack at age 53. The Arthur S. De Moss Foundation he left has assets of almost $ 500 million ... De Moss was a 20-year-old college student out to fulfill a course requirement when she stepped into Helms' office in 1981. ""I was interested in Latin American politics at the time, and I was a conservative, and I said, "Who better than Senator Helms? ' '' De Moss recalls. ""I literally walked in off the street, and said, "I'll work for free. ' '' Latin America then was a Cold War battleground. Marxists ruled Nicaragua. A Soviet-backed guerrilla movement threatened El Salvador. Cuba's Fidel Castro bragged that communism would triumph. Helms deeply immersed himself in it all. And Latin conservatives, attracted by his anti-communist stands, sought him out as an ally. De Moss had a skill Helms needed. ""I had access to Senator Helms that most interns didn't get because of my Spanish-speaking ability,'' she says. In hiring De Moss, Helms also connected with one of the best-known families among America's religious conservatives. De Moss' father, the late Arthur De Moss, made a fortune in life insurance and spent much of it on Christian causes. (The De Moss name has also often appeared in print as ""DeMoss. '') At the sprawling family estate in Bryn Mawr, Pa., Arthur De Moss hosted splendid dinners featuring the religious testimonies of celebrities such as Pat Boone, NFL coach Tom Landry and Sen. Bill Armstrong. Six months in Mexico that Deborah De Moss spent as a teen working for Campus Crusade for Christ helped spark her interest in Latin America, she says. Later, she earned mostly A's at one of the nation's most prominent evangelical institutions -- Wheaton College in Illinois. ... The foundation lists Deborah De Moss as a board member. She says she does not take an active role. Helms hired De Moss as a full-time aide when she graduated in 1982. The job became her life. She worked long hours at the office, enrolled in night classes and earned a master's degree in Latin American studies at Georgetown University. From the start she focused on Central America, a region on which some Helms aides were already working. As De Moss' knowledge grew, she quietly began making trips to Central America. Often, she spent her own money, which allowed her to travel much more than the typical Senate staffer. Few knew what she did. ""I didn't know she was there -- I would keep bumping into her,'' said Chris Manion, who often traveled Central America on Helms' behalf for a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee. On those travels, she began assembling an impressive network of generals, politicians, anti-communist guerrillas and executives. Back in Washington, she kept up with her sources by phone, often at her own expense. ""She used to complain about her $ 1,000-a-month phone bills,'' says ex-colleague Sean Moran. Even critics concede that her sources were excellent. They were also unorthodox. Senate aides typically keep tabs on foreign matters by reading news summaries, secret State Department cables and CIA reports available under their security clearances. De Moss was her own State Department, her own CIA. ""During my 13 years in the U.S. Senate, I only utilized my security clearance fewer than half a dozen times, because I had no need for it,'' she says. ""I developed information from hundreds of firsthand sources -- through sheer hard work, determination, dedication to ideals and principles and my foreign language ability. '' Helms staked his reputation on De Moss' findings, making them the basis of speeches and hearings that often caught official Washington off-guard. Few revelations drew more attention than the senator's salvo in 1986 against Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega: ""There's no question about Mr. Noriega being the biggest head of the biggest drug trafficking operation in the Western Hemisphere,'' Helms said on TV's ""Meet The Press. '' With that charge, Helms became the first U.S. official to publicly confirm anonymous reports about Noriega. Helms depended in large part on information De Moss developed, using sources in Panama, De Moss' ex-colleagues say. Three years later, Helms skewered the Bush administration for its handling of an attempt to overthrow Noriega. This time, De Moss had a direct telephone link to the Panamanian soldiers staging the coup. They'd taken Noriega prisoner and were desperate for U.S.help. Helms' office took the soldiers' plea to the Bush administration, which did nothing. Within hours, Noriega's forces freed the dictator and arrested the rebels. At least six were executed. Such foreign policy splashes enhanced De Moss' stature. She enjoyed easy access to presidents, the military and journalists. Right-wing Latins knew speaking to her was as good as speaking to Helms, and they knew Helms had a powerful position on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. De Moss fit right in with people of wealth and power, down to the clothes she wore. A Capitol Hill newspaper listed her as one of the Hill's best-dressed staffers. She always matched her designer Ferragamo shoes to her leather belt, the paper said, and never wore ""the same outfit twice. '' And she was a great schmoozer -- especially in Spanish, a language that encourages word play and personal closeness. One journalist recalled seeing her charm a room full of Salvadoran generals, making the macho men smile. ""She was their favorite gringa,'' the journalist said. Not so at the State Department. Officials there loathed how she sometimes interfered with their vision of foreign policy. More than once, Helms held up State Department appointments to Latin America posts on De Moss' advice. ""She's hard. A very tough lady,'' said one State Department official. ""It's better to deal with her than to try to go around her. You need to know what she's up to. '' Over time, De Moss began to fear that U.S. and perhaps other intelligence agencies were trying to intercept her telephone calls, sources said. She acquired scramblers that she could strap onto the back of her telephones with Velcro, according to several sources. Of all of De Moss' contacts, none proved more controversial than Roberto D'Aubuisson of El Salvador. D'Aubuisson came to political prominence during El Salvador's bitter civil war from 1980 to 1990. The charismatic former Army major shared Helms' strong anti-communist views. He also may have had a dark side. Many human rights activists and U.S. government officials believe he directed Salvadoran death squads that targeted suspected communist sympathizers. ""D'Aubuisson has served as principal henchman for wealthy landowners and as a coordinator of the right-wing death squads that have murdered several thousand suspected leftists and leftist sympathizers during the past year,'' says a 1981 CIA memo. Critics say Helms and De Moss should have heeded such warnings, as well as public news accounts implicating D'Aubuisson, who died two years ago. Instead, Helms portrayed him as a patriot. He attacked D'Aubuisson's critics, saying they had no hard evidence. De Moss, meanwhile, met with D'Aubuisson on several visits to El Salvador, and she was his Helms contact in Washington. In 1984, the Reagan administration suspected that D'Aubuisson planned to assassinate Thomas Pickering, the U.S. ambassador to El Salvador. It sent Ambassador-at-large Vernon Walters to tell D'Aubuisson to back off. Before Walters arrived, D'Aubuisson got a call ""from a girl in Helms' office'' telling him that Walters was coming to talk about the feared murder plot, according to a cable Walters later sent. The ""girl'' was De Moss, according to De Moss' former boss, Jim Lucier, former director of Helms' Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff. Neither Helms nor De Moss would confirm she called. Like them, Lucier doesn't believe D'Aubuisson was a killer. The call was merely to pass along unsubstantiated information to an anti-communist ally, he said. De Moss' associations with D'Aubuisson led critics to sometimes refer to her as ""Death Squad Debbie. '' By that, they didn't mean De Moss had knowledge of death squad activities, but that they believed her contacts with D'Aubuisson hampered U.S. efforts to stop the killings. ""People who worked the Latin American turf knew her by that name,'' says Birns, of the liberal Council on Hemispheric Affairs, who used the term. De Moss calls the nickname a ""reckless allegation'' that may yet endanger her. ""In Latin America, people take that quite seriously,'' she says. She denies she and Helms were D'Aubuisson supporters. In visiting Central America, she says, she took pains to speak to all sides -- except communists and guerrillas. But in marking D'Aubuisson's death from cancer in 1992, Helms publicly praised him: ""D'Aubuisson was a fighter, an army major who led his country in its fight against communism. '' One year later, a United Nations investigation concluded that D'Aubuisson had ordered the 1980 murder of a Salvadoran archbishop. ... To many, Jean-Bertrand Aristide seemed to be the president Haiti had long awaited. In 1990, voters overwhelmingly chose the soft-spoken Catholic priest in a free election -- a rarity in the impoverished Caribbean island nation. But he promised liberal reforms that frightened Haiti's military and wealthy business elite. Within months, he was tossed out of the country by military leaders who set up a dictatorship. Outraged, the United States negotiated the return of Aristide to power by last Oct 30. De Moss, however, was pleased with Aristide's ouster. She considered him a dangerous flake. Working behind the scenes, she arranged for a CIA analyst to brief a small circle of Republican aides. The analyst had some damning allegations: Aristide had been treated for mental problems in a Canadian hospital, and had advocated assassinations inside Haiti since becoming president. De Moss told Helms, who helped arrange for the analyst to brief a group of senators. Helms then took to the Senate floor, branding Aristide a ""psychopath'' and a killer. At least one CIA charge was false -- an investigation by The Miami Herald later determined Aristide had not been in a mental hospital. Many believe the remarks helped derail Aristide's return. De Moss lives among her sources now. She even married one. She met her new husband, Rene Fonseca, through her Senate work. For years, he was one of her contacts in the Honduran Army. The military is powerful in Honduras, and Fonseca, 46, is a power within the military. A colonel, he directs its pension program, said to have more than $ 150 million in assets. He's in line for promotion to general. Among close friends at the couple's December wedding in Palm Beach: the Honduran armed forces chief, Gen. Luis Alonso Discua. Acquaintances describe Rene Fonseca as charming, smart, ambitious. He speaks excellent English and jokes that Deborah speaks better Spanish than he."

December 1, 1993, Washington Times: "Jim Lucier, who led Sen. Jesse Helms' foreign policy staff until he was dropped in a reorganization two years ago, told the Raleigh, N.C., News and Observer that Mr. Helms is now harboring social Democrats. Under retired Adm. James Nance, Mr. Helms' Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff has become a refuge for staffers with pro-choice views that are a "betrayal" of the North Carolina Republican's beliefs, Mr. Lucier said. "He has no one on his staff who is conservative. They're mostly social Democrats or people with no outlook at all," Mr. Lucier, now a senior fellow at the James Monroe Memorial Foundation, told the News and Observer."

Source(s): Cercle list: 1984 South Africa

1925-2007. MP 1973-81. European Parliament 1984-89. Minister. President Centre national des indépendants et paysans (CNIP) 1980-87. Supporter of Jean Marie Le Pen's National Front. 1993, Peter Merkl, 'Encounters With the Contemporary Radical Right', p. 38: "Others (such as Philippe Malaud, a one-time minister in Georges Pompidou's government) thought that Le Pen and his friends were democrats and good citizens: "There is no proof that Le Pen is a fascist. His problem is the impression he conveys. When he talks about immigration, everybody thinks that he wants to [drown them]""

February 5, 1985, AP, 'Office Of French Right-wing Party Bombed, No Casualties': "A bomb exploded Tuesday night at the Macon office of the National Center Independents, a rightist political party, causing serious damage but no casualties, police reported. An anoymous caller telephoned the French news agency Agence France-Presse and said Direct Action, a left-wing terrorist group, was responsible for the attack. Police said the bomb exploded at 10:15 p.m. in this town 60 miles northwest of Lyon. Philippe Malaud, a deputy in the European Parliament, is the leader of the National Center Independents."

September 30, 1993, Intelligence Newsletter, 'Intelligence: An open Source Future ?': "Specialists maintain that at least 80 percent of information used by traditional intelligence services is comes from "open sources" with remainder emanating from "closed" or secret sources. But because that remaining 20 percent is classified, there is little or no "marketplace competition" to verify its real value or show that it doesn't simply duplicate open source information. Many intelligence specialists even consider over 80 percent of information from closed sources to be of little value in comparison to open source information and, even worse, unreliable or intentional disinformation. This waste and duplication is the target of an original conference to be held on 2-4 November in Washington: "National Security and National Competitiveness: Open Source Solutions." This is the second international symposium organized by Robert D. Steele and his Open Source Solutions, Inc. (OSS, Inc.). Last year's OSS conference benefited from the critical insights of such high caliber participants as the Deputy Director of the CIA, the Chief of Staff of the DIA, the Director of Defense Information and many leading technical experts. This year's conference seems to be well on its way to doing even better with an audience composed of one third government (mostly intelligence) officials, one third information industry professionals, and one third computer hackers. Indeed Steele's recruiting efforts in this latter category have been widely noted among potential participants. This year's conference promises to offer a major foreign presence with four KGB colonels, Philippe Malaud, French Minister Plenipotentiary and former Minister of Information, Jan Leijonhielm, of the Swedish National Defense Research Establishment, Robert Hall, Editor of Jane's Intelligence Review and Keiji Shima, Director of the Japanese Shima Media Institut. ... Given Steele's openly-declared past association with the U.S. Marines, the CIA and the American intelligence community, questions have been asked of Steele's financial backing. He openly acknowledges over a dozen corporate and institutional backers which include up until now the Jane's Information Group, Analytical Sciences Corporation (TASC), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), TRW/ESL, MITRE Corporation, Mead Data Central, BDM Federal, Inc., GTE Government Systems, Shima Media Institute, Science Applications International Corporation, PRC Corporation, PSYTEP Corporation and WAIS, Inc. OSS does have competitors but they are almost always specialized in a particular area such as Japan, business intelligence or technology watch. The originality of the OSS approach it that it is the only "federator" on the marketplace and has both governmental intelligence and business information experience behind it. It has also developed what Steele calls the "information continuum" concept with nine distinct sectors: K-12 or education (kindergarten to 12th grade), Universities, Libraries, Business, Private Investigators/Information Brokers, Media, Government, Defense, and Intelligence. According to Steele there are "iron curtains" between each sector which cripple both national security and national competitiveness."

December 15, 1994, Intelligence Newsletter, 'Open sources: OSS Builds up Euro Network': "Already well established in the United States, Open Sources Solutions (OSS), founded by Robert Steele, is seeking actively to build up its network in Europe. But he has run into the same resistance from intelligence services that he encountered at home. As a result, a seminar on the theme of "Open Sources and the Information Highway" that he was to conduct in Paris on Dec. 12 had to be cancelled owing to "reservations" voiced by certain "civilian authorities" in France. The seminar's organizer, the Cercle France-Europe (headed by former information minister Philippe Malaud and whose secretary-general is a former executive of Sweden's Wallenberg group, Samuel Mercier) sent invitations to officials from both the military and civilian intelligence services. The military services responded favorably but the civilians have boycotted the gathering. In all probability the agency in question was the DST as the organizers claim that top aides in the offices of France's prime minister and interior minister said they would turn up. After attending a SCIP France forum at Sophia Antipolis in southern France (see page 1), Steele travelled to Germany for a seminar on open sources that was expected to draw officials from the BND. Steele also plans to organize an OSS Europe seminar in Geneva in May with Douglas Bernhardt, chief of the company Business Research Group. It will be modelled along the same lines as the annual open source gathering in the United States. But here again the outstanding problem remains the response of European intelligence services to this type of initiative. I.N.- OSS was split into two distinct organizations last month: Conference Management Services Ltd, a non-profit association which will organize the annual OSS conference in the U.S. (its status will enable it to attract official speakers more easily) and a stock corporation, Open Sources, Systems & Services (OSS) which aims to set up a "Virtual Intelligence Center" and an "Open Sources Intelligence Center." Steele claims the group is "transitioning its capabilities from a 100% reliance on the U.S. intelligence community as a customer, to a more balanced customer base including foreign governments and international corporations.""

Source(s): February 21, 2012, Cercle chairman Lord Lothian's invitational letter to speak at Le Cercle to Saudi Arabia's deputy minister of foreign affairs Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz: "At meetings last year, we were priviliged to talks from, amonst others ... Gen. Nikolai Malomuhz..."

General in the Ukrainian army. Chairman of Ukraine's foreign intelligence service 2005-2010. Security advisor to the president of Ukraine. Very visible during the 2015 Ukrainian crisis with Russia. Warned that the Russians could have penetrated Ukraine's intelligence service and government.

Source(s): Cercle lists: 1982 Wildbad Kreuth

CDU MP 1965-85. Member Otto von habsburg's CEDI International council since at least 1972. Chairman parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee 1982-85. Has been a speaker at the Staats- und Wirtschaftspolitische Gesellschaft, together with Otto von Habsburg and Count Hans Huyn. Possibly affiliated with the Internationale Studiengesellschaft fur Politiek, founded in 1971. Board member American-European Strategy Research Institute / Western Goals Europe.

Source(s): Cercle lists: 1982 Wildbad Kreuth

President of the Colombian parliament in the 1980s. Senator in the mid 1980s. Foreign Trade minister. November 9, 1995, Toronto Star, 'Colombia holds 3 rebels in slaying': "Colombian authorities announced yesterday the arrest of three leftist rebels suspected of involvement in the assassination last week of veteran political leader Alvaro Gomez Hurtado. Meanwhile, Foreign Trade Minister Daniel Mazuera, a relative of the slain government critic, tendered his resignation, citing the assassination and a need for deep-rooted political change in Colombia."

June 5, 1995, IPS-Inter Press Service, 'Colombia-Drugs: Drugs and Exports': "A sharp increase in the size of Colombia's foreign trade this year has left some puzzled experts searching for the real story behind the bald statistics. Suspicions have centered on the likelihood that fraudulent invoicing -- a device used by Colombia's drug traffickers to hide their profits -- may be partly responsible for bloating the figures. Colombian Trade Minister Daniel Mazuera said there was no evidence to show the existence of fraudulent behavior. But economic analyst Eduardo Sarmiento said the statistics were "fantasy." Fictitious export statements had replaced normal sales. Figures from the National Department of Statistics (DANE) showed that in the first two months of this year Colombia's exports increased by 29.8 percent on the same period of 1994 -- from $ 1.1 billion to $ 1.4 billion. That reversed the trend of the last few years. The report attributed this change to improvement in prices on the world market for traditional exports like coffee, petroleum and minerals. Analysts like Sarmiento say these false statements were one of the drug traffickers' ingenious methods of introducing illegally earned currency into the country. The National Exporters Association (Analdex) has announced that it will be doing a "detailed analysis of the statistics." Its technical director, Javier Diaz, said many of Sarmiento's doubts "may have some basis." Analdex has discovered anomalies in the past when closely comparing the relative prices of exports with dollar income and the tonnage of goods moved. Some analysts pointed out that the increase in prices bore no relation to the fall in production of several products. For example, output of coffee fell from 1.7 to 1.5 million sacks. It is estimated that drug traffickers bring anywhere from $ 800 million US to three billion dollars into the country each year using various devices, including exaggerated import invoices, remittances and smuggling. The Ministry of Foreign Trade plans to examine the trade figures more closely to take account of the possibility of false invoices. Officials there supported DANE's claim that the increases were really due to the recovery of international prices. Trade Minister Mazuera said 20 percent of the increase was due to improved export prices for coffee, petroleum products, and other major products where any "strange behavior" would have been "easily detected." The remaining 9.8 percent corresponded to minor exports where the increase "is nothing out of the ordinary." A study of prices per ton of these products "revealed marked irregular increases" but these could be explained. These products came mainly from the chemical, metallurgical and agricultural sectors. Mazuera also pointed out that gold and platinum exports had shot up 200 percent since sales restrictions were removed in 1993. He admitted that "there could possibly be some element of over invoicing", adding that the increase in exports "is extremely positive anyway.""

November 9, 1995, BBC Summary of World Broadcasts (Source: Inravision TV-A, Bogota), Nigeria; Foreign trade minister submits resignation': "Foreign Trade Minister Daniel Mazuera Gomez resigned today after his uncle Enrique Gomez Hurtado made strong criticisms of the government. Meanwhile, Labour Minister Maria Sol Navia Velasco de Calderon, who is also a conservative, denied she has resigned, at least for the time being. Mazuera - recording What I want is the well-being of Colombia. I am not sure if the political crisis is good for the country. I believe what we have to do is to build a political project and push it forward. I believe it should be done outside the government. Unidentified reporter Is the government weak? Mazuera The government has many problems, unfortunately. Reporter What about the president? Mazuera The president is a man of goodwill who is doing what he can . Navia There are two different positions. Some are in favour of remaining in the government and others believe they should leave. It is something that is being discussed inside the party leadership. The result of the discussion will surely determine the party's position in the future and, logically, our position in the cabinet. Resignation submitted after party rejection of president's pact proposal Text of report by the Mexican news agency Notimex Santa Fe de Bogota, 8th November: Foreign Trade Minister Daniel Mazuera Gomez resigned today, 24 hours after his political movement rejected President Ernesto Samper's proposal to sign a governability pact. Local radio stations have reported that Mazuera, the nephew of murdered conservative leader Alvaro Gomez Hurtado, submitted his letter of resignation to Samper today."

October 25, 1995, IPS, 'Colombia: Widespread support for U.S. measures against drug trade': "U.S. measures designed to crack down on Colombian drug traffickers' financial activities in the United States, were applauded by local officials and exporters. Colombian Finance and Foreign Commerce Ministers Guillermo Perry and Daniel Mazuera see the measures, which include the freezing of accounts presumably tied to the drug trade, and a ban on U.S. companies to do business with Colombian firms that supposedly front for the cartels, as a thawing of U.S.-Colombian relations which have been chilly of late. In his Oct. 22 speech to the United Nations, President Bill Clinton said the Cali cartel kingpins will be hardest-hit by the measures. The measures seem to reflect Colombian demands that industrialized countries assume greater responsibility in the war against drugs, by cracking down on drug use, money laundering and the trafficking of raw materials used to produce narcotics."

Source(s): Cercle list: 1985 Washington D.C.; Adrian Hanni (also went to Cercle meetings in 86, 87 and 89); Corporationwiki.com (2010): "The Atlantic Cercle, Inc. - Incorporated by Julian Amery, Richard McCormack, Robert Zoelly, Theodore G Shackley, Thomas R Spencer, The Atlantic Cercle, Inc. is located at 801 Brickell Ave Ste 1901 Miami, FL 33131. The Atlantic Cercle, Inc. was incorporated on Wednesday, August 17, 1994 in the State of FL and is currently not active. Thomas R Spencer represents The Atlantic Cercle, Inc. as their registered agent."

Republican. BA, Georgetown University, 1963. PhD, University Fribourg, Switzerland, 1966. With Peace Corps, 1966-67. Senior staff member President Nixon's Advisory Council on Executive Organization 1969-1971. Candidate in primary elections for U.S. Congress in 1972 and 1974. With American Enterprise Institute, 1975-1977. Deputy assistant secretary for international economic affairs US Department of Treasury 1974. Member staff U.S. Senate 1979-1981.

December 4, 1981, Washington Post, 'Helms Ally in Line for Economic Post in Shuffle at State Dept.': "Richard T. McCormack, former aide to Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), has moved without announcement into a $50,000 consultant's role at the State Department, with a White House promise that he will be given the department's second-ranking economic policy job as soon as Myer Rashish quits the top-ranking State Department slot in that field. ... When the shift comes about, it will give conservative Republicans the broader base in policy-making at the State Department they have sought from the beginning of the Reagan administration. Helms initially fought the appointment of Rashish, a trade expert who had close links with the administration of President Kennedy. Helms succeeded in delaying the Rashish appointment for a while, but not killing it."

Assistant secretary of state for economic and business affairs U.S. Department State 1982-1985. US ambassador to Organization of American States 1985-89. Under secretary for economic affairs 1989-1991. He was also President Bush's principal 'sherpa' coordinator for the Presidentýs involvement in the G-7 economic summits, receiving high praise from the former President for his contributions. He was awarded the State Department's highest award, the Distinguished Service Award, from Secretary of State James A. Baker III. Consultant to the U.S. Government on International Economic Affairs 1992-2005. Senior advisor Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) 2004-2006. While at CSIS, Mr. McCormack led a major project reviewing the US current account, and broader economic imbalance issues. This involved consultations with many of the world's top central bankers and political leaders, and culminated in a conference at CSIS chaired by Senator Chuck Hagel. Mr. McCormack also visited and reported on Afghanistan, Lebanon, China, Japan, Pakistan, India and several Western European countries. His paper, 'Vulnerabilities in the Global Economy', was included in a major economics text book, International Financial Architecture, published in September 2005 by Palgrave/Macmillan. Several other papers on China and related issues also were published. Executive vice chairman Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, New York City, since 2006. Member Economic Club New York , Council of American Ambassadors, and Council on Foreign Relations.

Source(s): 1983 Bonn meeting list (Chairman Jefferson Corporation); 1984 South Africa meeting list; 1985 Washington D.C. Cercle meeting list ("financier")

The longtime owner of The Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper would make this list except for residence. He lives in near-sea-level Virginia, avoiding Santa Fe's 7,200-foot altitude on his doctor's orders.??

www.presidency.ucsb.edu: "Jimmy Carter ... Advisory Committee on Housing - Appointment of Chairman and 48 Members. October 30, 1980: ... Robert McKinney, of Indianapolis, Ind., chairman of the board, Jefferson Corp." Gave a $1000 to Carter.

August 1, 1978, U.S. News & World Report, 'How Old School Ties Help Carter Fill Jobs': "WHAT DO Stansfield Turner, A. Vernon Weaver, Robert H. McKinney and John M. Sullivan share with Jimmy Carter? First, all are 1947 graduates of the U. S. Naval Academy. Second, all now either hold or have been named to high federal posts. Although Carter left the Navy in 1952 with the modest rank of lieutenant, his promotion last November by the voters to Commander in Chief opened the way for presidential appointments of his fellow graduates. Turner, the only full admiral in the class, heads the Central Intelligence Agency and is the best known of Carter's classmates. ... McKinney, from Indianapolis, has become something of a controversial appointee on grounds of possible conflicts of interest and challenges to his stand on civil rights. He is a lawyer and chairman of the First Federal Savings and Loan Association in Indianapolis. He was also chairman of Carter's presidential campaign in the Hoosier State last year. ... Carter had no particularly close bonds with his associates in Academy days, but all alumni keep tabs on each other through an active association that numbers 20,000 members. Did old school ties play a part in selection of Carter's four Annapolis friends?"

January 19, 2005, PR Newswire, 'First Indiana Chairman Announces Retirement': "INDIANAPOLIS, Jan. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Robert H. McKinney announced today that he will retire as chairman of First Indiana Corporation following the Annual Shareholders Meeting on April 20, 2005. He will remain as a member of the corporation's board of directors. Marni McKinney, vice- chairman and chief executive officer, was named by the board as his successor. McKinney said, "This is a great time to retire, with Marni providing continuity as chairman, and with Bob Warrington as president and CEO of the bank giving us dynamic new leadership." McKinney was named chairman of First Federal Savings and Loan of Indianapolis (now known as First Indiana Bank, a subsidiary of First Indiana Corporation ) in 1961. He became chairman of First Indiana Corporation when it was formed in 1986. During his tenure, the organization converted to a publicly held stock institution in 1983 and grew from $30 million to $2.1 billion in assets. In addition to his work at First Indiana, McKinney was a founding partner of Bose McKinney and Evans LLP, one of the largest law firms in Indianapolis; chairman of Jefferson Corporation from 1961 to 1986; and chairman of The Somerset Group, Inc. , from 1986 to 2000. He had a leadership role in 4 national Presidential campaigns, beginning with that of John F. Kennedy in 1960. During the administration of President Carter, McKinney served as chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, the Federal Savings & Loan Insurance Corporation, and the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation. He also served as a presidential-appointed director of the Federal National Mortgage Association. McKinney graduated with an engineering degree from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946 and received a Doctor of Jurisprudence from the Indiana University School of Law in 1951. He served two Pacific theatre tours in the U.S. Navy. He holds honorary Doctorate of Law degrees from Marian College and Butler University and is a Knight of Malta. He served as president of the board of trustees of Indiana University and chairman of the board of Marian College. McKinney is a trustee of the Hudson Institute, the Sierra Club Foundation, and the U.S. Naval Academy Foundation, and is a director of the Indiana University Foundation. He was recently appointed as a member of the Cuba Broadcasting Board by President George W. Bush. He is also active in many civic organizations. Marni McKinney is the daughter of Mr. McKinney and the third generation to lead First Indiana. Ms. McKinney joined First Indiana in 1984 and was named vice-chairman in 1994 and chief executive officer in 2000. She also served as the chief executive officer of The Somerset Group from 1992 to 2000. First Indiana Corporation (NASDAQ:FINB) is a full-service financial services company offering comprehensive financial solutions to businesses and individuals. It is the holding company for First Indiana Bank, N.A., the largest commercial bank headquartered in Indianapolis. Founded in 1915, First Indiana Bank is a national bank with 32 offices in Central Indiana."

Source(s): 1990, Xan Fielding, 'One Man In His time: The Life of Lieutenant-Colonel N.L.D. ("Billy') McLean', p. 205; Cercle lists: 1982 Wildbad Kreuth; 1983 Bonn; 1984 Bonn; 1985 Washington D.C.

Colonel Billy Mclean & later co-Pinay Circle member Julian Amery were dropped in North-Albany in April 1944 as part of the British resistance against the Italian and German fascists. They worked with the Albanian resistance of Ihsan Toptani. After their task was accomplished they all became passionate anti-communists. In 1946, McLean was stationed as an intelligence officer somewhere near the Karakoram mountains. He was an MI6 officer for most, if not all, of the post-war period. After the war he became a member of Parliament who regularly travelled to different parts of the world to counter Communism. In 1962, Yemen was taken over by a communist regime and the Egyptian Nasser was supporting them by bombing Saudi-Arabia (who supported the deposed Imam). Already retired deputy head of MI6, George Kennedy Young, was approached by Mossad agents to find the right person to lead a guerrilla war against the Yemeni rebels, Young introduced Colonel McLean to the Israelis. Mclean's guerrilla war would eventually bring down the Yemeni regime and drive Nasser back to his own country. Very good friend of Julian Amery for all of his life. 1990, Xan Fielding, 'One Man In His time: The Life of Lieutenant-Colonel N.L.D. ("Billy') McLean', p. 205: "There was another institution which gave Billy particular pleasure. It was called Le Cercle, and outside the circle nothing was known about it but the name. Its origins and membership were (and still are) as deeply cocooned in mystery as those of the most exclusive Masonic lodge. It appears to have been founded by the French statesman, Antoine Pinay, and when he retired Julian Amery took over the chairmanship. It seems to have been a small assembly of European and American Conservatives meeting on an ad hoc basis once or twice a year, for two or three days at a time, to exchange views on world affairs. Because of his knowledge and understanding of the Middle East and North Africa, Billy was a most acceptable candidate for membership, which, in due course he acquired. He had already attended several meetings -- in Bonn, Munich, Washington and elsewhere -- and looked forward to attending more." 1990, Xan Fielding, 'One Man In His time: The Life of Lieutenant-Colonel N.L.D. ("Billy') McLean', p. 100: "It was at one of his many public meetings in the Highlands that the chairman, a personal friend of his [Billy], spotted that something was wrong with him, cancelled the meeting, and advised him to go home. Daska [his wife] put him to bed, hoping he would get some sleep, and watched over him. But he stayed awake, reading the Bible. He looked rather odd and told her he had had a revelation: there was dirty work afoot, a conspiracy against him; certain factions in the constituency were plotting to kill him; the Freemasons and Scottish Nationalists were actually going to crucify him - he had been shown the very hill they had chosen for the ceremony. Thoroughly alarmed, Daska sent for a doctor, who gave him a sedative which ensured him a good night's rest. But in the morning he seemed as confused as before. He told Daska that everybody had taken against him and only God was on his side. Seeing no improvement in his condition, she arranged for him to be transferred to a nursing home in London for specialist treatment. When the ambulance came to fetch him he grew more agitated than ever and cried out: 'They're going to take me away! Daska, don't leave me!... On arriving at the nursing home he at once asked for a Bible. The specialist advised Daska not to let him have it; instead she gave him Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. This did the trick, or at least must have helped, for by the time he had read all eight volumes he was cured... At the end of a fortnight he was able to leave the hospital and, after a short holiday in Portugal, was back to light parliamentary duties by the first week of November." The doctors assumed he became paranoid through a combination of heavy moodswings (seemingly normal for Celts), nervous exhaustion, and possibly alcohol. Attended Cercle meetings until his death in 1986. While he was dying Dasha did everything she could to get a Catholic priest on his bedside, in which she finally succeeded. Officially, Billy belonged to no church, but he was most sympathetic to the Roman Catholic church. A memorial after his death was attended by Crown Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia and his wife, representatives of the King of Jordan (Le Cercle), King Leka of the Albanians, the Imam of Yemen, the Crown Prince of Ethiopia, the Speaker of the House of Commons, and several Army officers.

Source(s): 1983 Cercle list, Bonn

MP since 1973. An ally of Chirac since the mid-1970s. Mayor of Vitre since 1977. From the centrist Union pour la Démocratie Française (UDF) to Chirac's centre-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). Minister of Justice 1993-95. Vice president UMP since 2007.

Source(s): 1985 Cercle list, Washington D.C.

See ASC.

Source(s): February 21, 2012, Cercle chairman Lord Lothian's invitational letter to speak at Le Cercle to Saudi Arabia's deputy minister of foreign affairs Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz: "At meetings last year, we were priviliged to talks from, amonst others ... Dan Meridor..."

Son of Knesset member Eliyahu Meridor. Cabinet secretary under Begin and Yitzhak Shamir 1982-1984. Knesset / Israeli MP for Likud 1984–1999, Centre Party 1999–2003, of which chairman of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee 1999-2001; Likud 2009–2013. Minister of Justice 1988–1992. Minister of Finance 1996–1997. Minister without Portfolio 2001–2003. Deputy Prime Minister 2009–2013. Minister of Intelligence and Atomic Energy 2009–2013. President of the Israel Council on Foreign Relations 2014-. International chair of the Jerusalem Foundation.

Dan Meridor's younger brother, Sallai Meridor, was chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel and the World Zionist Organization from 1999–2005, and was appointed as Israeli ambassador to the United States in 2006.

Source(s): 1997, Robert Hutchinson, 'Their Kingdom Come – Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei', pp. 153-158

Born in 1921. Studied at universities in Bonn and Paris. Joined the West German foreign service in 1951. Served in Paris and Moscow before being named head of the external security department in the Foreign Ministry. Elected to Parliament in 1972 as a Conservative Christian Democrat (CDU/CSU), where he served until returning to the Foreign Ministry in 1982. Contributed to the 1982 Trilateral Commission meeting. Parliamentary State Secretary (State Minister) at the Federal Foreign Office in Bonn in 1984. Ambassador Erdmann began his diplomatic career in 1984 as the personal assistant of Dr. Alois Mertes. Robert Hutchinson: "Both Strauss and Mertes were said to be linked to Opus Dei, though Mertes later denied it." Favored close relations with the United States and was very critical of Ostpolitik. Wrote 'Drei Deutsche in Russland: Osterman, Cancrin, Hass' in 1983. Count Osterman (1686-1747) was a German-born Russian statesman who came to prominence under Tsar Peter I of Russia (Peter the Great). Count Cancrin (1774-1845) was a German-born Russian Minister of Finance for 21 years. Mertes died in 1985.

Source(s): 2014, Johannes Grossmann, p. 494 ("Einige dieser neu gewonnen Kontakte [1970s], so der ehemalige franzosische Ministerprasident Pierre Messmer ... wurden immer zu Sitzungen des Cercle eingeladen.")

1916-2017. Member French Foreign Legion. French Gaullist politician. High-level African service as governor of Mauritania from 1952 to 1954, and then served as governor of Ivory Coast from 1954 to 1956. Governor general of Camaroon 1956-1958 when an anti-colonialist civil war broke out here. High commissioner of French Equatorial Africa from January 1958 to July 1958. High commissioner of French West Africa from 1958 to 1959. Minister of Armies under Charles de Gaulle from 1960 to 1969. Prime Minister under Georges Pompidou from 1972 to 1974.

Source(s): 1985 Cercle list, Washington D.C.

Served during the Reagan administration as special assistant to the director of Central Intelligence and vice chairman of the CIA's National Intelligence Council. He is author of Real-World Intelligence.

November 29, 1985, United Press International, 'Reagan officials to quit and open intelligence firm': "President Reagan's science adviser and an intelligence expert, both involved in the ''Star Wars'' program, are going into private business to help international corporations build their own intelligence gathering systems, one of the officials said Friday. Herbert Meyer, vice chairman of the National Intelligence Council, told United Press International he and George Keyworth II, the president's science adviser, will leave government before the end of the year to organize and operate their unique firm. The two are said to be important in the development of Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, the official name for his ''Star Wars'' defense shield. Meyer, who is the former special assistant to Central Intelligence Agency Director William Casey, denied the new venture represents a conflict of interest for either man. ''There's no conflict whatever,'' said Meyer, in a telephone interview. ''Also keep in mind we are not selling information but the design and information system, which is a very different thing.'' The company will be called Keyworth, Meyer International, and ''if it succeeds we've invented a new industry,'' Meyer said. Meyer said he did not know if President Reagan has been informed of their plans, but said ''the proper people know.'' The new firm will design and install intelligence systems for its corporate clients. He said the systems will enable chief executives systematically to monitor trends that affect a company's present or potential markets, its competition and its own operations. ... Before coming to Washington, Keyworth was director of the Physics Division at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory for 13 years. The National Intelligence Council is based at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. and Meyer is responsible for production of all U.S. National Intelligence Estimates and Special Intelligence Estimates from 1983 forward."

October 1, 2001, CNBC News Transcripts, 'Herbert Meyer discusses why the CIA failed to prevent terrorist attacks': "CHRIS MATTHEWS, host: It's still an amazing picture. President Bush has made clear that the spies of the CIA will be on the front lines of the new war against terrorism, but in today's Wall Street Journal, Herbert Meyer-Herbert Meyer, a former special assistant to the director of Central Intelligence writes, quote, "The core of the CIA's failure lies in its very structure and design, and until that is altered, the agency will never be able to pull its weight in the coming fight." Herbert Meyer joins us now from Seattle, Washington. In a moment, we're going to be joined, also, by retired Major Andy Messing who served with the US Special Forces. Welcome to you both. Let's go to Mr. Meyer--Meyer first of all. Is today's CIA as tough and as good as it was back in--when it was OSS back in World War II? Mr. HERBERT MEYER (Former Vice Chair of National Intelligence Council): No. It's not nearly as tough. It's not nearly as good. It's become very bureaucratic, very sporadic. It's basically a defensive organization, which isn't at all suitable for playing offense, which is what President Bush needs it to do if we're going to win. MATTHEWS: Has it been neutered, the way you neuter a dog? Mr. MEYER: Well, not quite the way you neuter a dog, but it's been wrecked. They've gotten rid of an awful lot of the best people they had. They've set up all kinds of bureaucratic obstacles to letting people get the job done, and it just can't do what they're built to do and what we need to have them do, and what happened on September 11th was just the result of that. It was just a cascading series of intelligence failures that led to the attack."

Source(s): February 21, 2012, Cercle chairman Lord Lothian's invitational letter to speak at Le Cercle to Saudi Arabia's deputy minister of foreign affairs Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz: "At meetings last year, we were priviliged to talks from, amonst others ... Senator George Mitchell..."

Senator from Maine 1980-1995, of which Senate Majority Leader 1989-1995. U.S. special envoy to Northern Ireland. Chancellor of the Queen's University, Belfast 1999-2009. Picked by President George W. Bush as the deputy chairman of the 9/11 Commission under chairman Henry Kissinger. When Kissinger was forced to leave due to public controversy, Mitchell also went. United States special envoy for Middle East peace under Obama 2009-2011. Co-chair of the Housing Commission at the Bipartisan Policy Center. Superclass member involved in quite a few NGOs. Featured in the Jeffrey Epstein child abuse affair as a visitor to Epstein's mansion.

Source(s): 2002, David Rockefeller, 'Memoirs', pp. 412-413, referring to the Pesenti Group

Roman catholic. Born in Cognac, France in 1888, in a family of cognac merchants. Abandoned his university-entrance examinations in 1904. Worked in the City of London at J.G. Monnet & Co., his father's company London branch 1904-1906. Represented J.G. Monnet abroad in Scandinavia, Russia, Egypt, Canada, and the United States 1906-1914. Sent to Canada in 1910 to open new markets for the family business. Here he hooked up with the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) and the Lazard Freres banking house. Due to his negotiations, J.G. Monnet's subsidiary United Vineyard Proprietors Co. started shipping large amounts of brandy to HBC, which this company sold on to the native Indians, a trade prohibited by law. At the time, HBC, a centuries old bastion of the British Empire, was headed by Privy Councillor and Pilgrims Society member Lord Strathcona who was replaced in 1914 by Sir Thomas Skinner (not much written about him). In 1916, Pilgrims Society member Lord Kindersley, a long time Lazard partner (chair at some point) and Bank of England director, became head of the company. Around this time, the Keswicks of the Pilgrims Society and Jardine Matheson started to gain a controlling interest in the HBC. Monnet was grateful for the deal with HBC, because he found it tough to compete on the legal market with better-known firms as Hennessy. When WWI broke out Monnet tested unfit for military service. In September 1914, one month after WWI started, Monnet managed to meet up with France's prime minister René Viviani. He convinced Viviani of a plan to coordinate the use of Allied ships bringing supplies to beleaguered France. As a result, Monnet was sent to London to set up the International Supply Commission, which organized the Anglo-French pool of ships to supply the Allied forces in France. According to Monnet, he arranged the meeting with the prime minister through his father's corporate lawyer. According to some outside writers, the HBC was responsible for arranging this meeting through its high level French contacts. In any case, in London Monnet arranged a $200 million contract for HBC to ship 13 million tons of goods to France on which HBC would take a 1% commission. Chef de Cabinet to France's economics minister Etienne Clementel in 1916. In 1917 he was instrumental in setting up the Inter-Allied Maritime Transport Council, to further improve the coordination of Allied shipping. He wanted this council to have full authority, but didn't get his way. He had, however, created his first supranational body. Before creating the Inter-Allied Maritime Transport Council, he had diner with Arthur Salter, who would become his lifelong friend, discussing the creation of this supranational body. Salter was a person closely involved with Quigley's Roundtable and his ideas of a federal Europe, which he would write down in 1931, would be adopted by Monnet, almost to the letter. Salter mentioned he was part of "small and secret committee" of economists who advised multiple prime ministers up to the outbreak of WWII. John Maynard Keynes (Cambridge Apostles member, just as Lord Victor Rothschild and Aldous Huxley; friend of J.P. Morgan & Co. chairman and CFR chair Russell C. Leffingwell) and Lionel Curtis (supposedly Round Table; primary founder RIIA) were involved in this committee. (Salter was educated at Oxford. First met Monnet in 1914. Had diner with Monnet in 1917, talking about the Inter-Allied Maritime Transport Council. Secretary of the Supreme Economic Council at Versailles in 1919, which also counted the involvement of Monnet from the French side. Head of the economic and financial section of the League of Nations secretariat, and in the League secretariat at Geneva, where he worked for stabilization of the currencies of Austria and Hungary, the former Habsburg empire. Arthur Salter wrote 'The United States of Europe' in 1931, a collection of papers which advocated a federal Europe within the framework of the League of Nations. Author and journalist in London in the early 1930s. Went to China in the early 1930s to advise the Chinese government on reorganizing its railways. Monnet was in China at the same time, working on the same issue. Appointed Gladstone professor of political theory and institutions at Oxford University in 1934, and became a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, supposedly the core of Quigley's Round Table. Carroll Quigley wrote in his 1981 book 'The Anglo-American Establishment': "In 1936, at least eleven out of twenty-six members of the council were of the Milner Group. These included Lord Astor (chairman), L. Curtis, G.M. Gathorne-Hardy, Lord Hailey, H.D. Henderson, Stephen King-Hall, Mrs. Alfred Lyttelton, Sir Neill Malcolm, Lord Meston, Sir Arthur Salter, J.W. Wheeler-Bennett, E.L. Woodward, and Sir Alfred Zimmern." Also according to Quigley, Salter was also one of seven board members of the Montague Burton Chair of International Relations at Oxford in the 1930s, together with the Viscount Cecil of Chelwood, of the family that supposedly coordinated the Round Table. MP for Oxford University from 1937-1950. Vice chairman of the Franco-British Economic Coordination Committee just before WWII. Appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1941. Appointed deputy director-general of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration in 1944. Minister of State for Economic Affairs at the Treasury, and Minister of Materials in 1952.) Appointed to represent France at the Allied Supreme Economic Council at the Versailles Peace Conference of 1919, where he worked with Pilgrims Society members as Lord Robert Cecil, Lord Milner, Nicholas Murray Butler, John and Allen Dulles, David Bruce, Elihu Root, and Russell Leffingwell. First deputy secretary general of the League of Nations 1919-1923. Sir Eric Drummond, the 16th Earl of Perth, was the original secretary general. Saw the League as a failure primarily because each member had a veto right. Rejoined the family business in 1923 to save it from a financial crisis. Obtained a loan from the HBC, which he was told he could treat as a gift, and saved his family's company. In 1925, Monnet moved to America to accept a partnership in Blair & Co., a New York bank which had done bonanza business in the war effort. Elisha Walker was head of the firm. Served as the company's representative in France and made a small fortune. Monnet's papers reveal that he received business referrals from Dulles and Lazard Brothers' banker Robert whose sister-in-law was Lady Nancy Astor. Monnet's work for Blair & Co. also brought him into the law offices of Blair’s attorney, John J. McCloy (Pilgrims Society) at Cravath, Swaine & Moore. Appointed vice president of Blair & Co. in 1928. Lost his small fortune in the great depression that started in 1929. A loan of the Lazard Bank, arranged through former Hudson Bay Company chairman Sir Robert Kindersley, helped Monnet back up on his feet. Monnet would only be able to fully repay the loan in the late 1950s/early 1960s. Blair & Co. merged with Bank of America in 1929, forming Bancamerica-Blair Corporation, which was owned by the Transamerica Corporation of Amadeo Peter Giannini (Bohemian Grove; largest competitor of the East Coast establishment). Elisha Walker was appointed chairman of Transamerica Corporation in January 1930; Jean Monnet became vice-chairman of Transamerica. Giannini retired to Italy, only remaining chairman of Transamerica's Advisory Board. On September 23, 1931, Walker announced that Transamerica would be selling most of its nation-wide banking assets, because of the financial crisis and because the board expected that nation-wide banking wouldn't be allowed anymore in the future. It is also announced that Lee, Higginson & Co., a Wall Street investment bank which started to fund the Nazis around this time, would be taking a majority control in Transamerica. Monnet's future investment partner, George Murnane, was among three directors of Lee, Higginson that were appointed to the board of directors of Transamerica, while Monnet remained vice chairman. In addition to the Gianninis, 19 directors were dropped from the Transamerica board. The following day Giannini announced that he wouldn't allow the sell off of Bank of America for what he termed a "ridiculously low" price. On December 10, 1931 the New York Times reported: "A. P. Glannini announced tonight that he personally would head a "fight to the finish" to oust Elisha Walker, chairman of the Transamerica Corporation, and "Wall Street domination" from the corporation which he founded. He made the statement after he had read a letter from Mr. Walker and James A. Bacigalupi to Transamerica's stockholders. He called the letter "an attack on my personal honesty and integrity"... He said the letter had been timed "to catch me unaware" as it was not released for publication until after he had left San Francisco tonight for Ventura and Santa Barbara, where he planned to carry on the battle for proxies on behalf of Associated Stockholders." Giannini won his Transamerica fight in February 1932, which is when Walker had to resign as chairman. Monnet seems to have been fired at the same time. Monnet was also fired as a director of the Bancamerica-Blair Corporation in March 1932. In November 1932, the Chinese Minister of Finance, Tse-Ven Soong (christian family; Green Gang triad family; governor of the Central Bank of China; sister married Chiang Kai-Shek; other sister married Sun Yat-sen, the person who established the Republic of China; still another sister was secretary to Sun Yat-sen) on behalf of Chiang Kai-Shek (the ruling Shanghai-based anti-communist pro-western warlord; member of the Green Gang Triad and close to its Soong family. This Green Gang was involved in the opium and gold smuggle, the sex trade, slave-girl trade, brothels, assassinations, and in keeping an eye on labor unions; would create the Taiwanese republic/police state after he lost the battle against the communists in the years after WWII), invited Jean Monnet to act as chairman of an East-West non-political committee in China for the development of the Chinese economy. Railroads played a central role in these economic developments. Monnet accepted, and in 1933 he took his assistant, David Drummond (the future 17th Lord Perth; from a catholic Hungarian family which emigrated to Scotland in the 11th century; two members of this family were among the eight original founders of the Order of the Thistle; son of Sir Eric Drummond, Monnet's superior at the League of Nations; raised by the Duke and Duchess of Norfolk, a very old catholic aristocratic family; later Privy Councillor; later chair of the Ditchley Foundation for 3 years; later representative of the Queen to the Vatican; arranged a meeting in his own flat during the early 1960s between Edward Heath, the minister responsible for the EEC negotiations, and Jean Monnet; became a member of the extremely elite Roxburghe Club, together with members of the Cecil, Cavendish, Howard, Mellon, Rothschild, and Oppenheimer families), to China where he lived until 1936. After some preliminary investigations Monnet found that his basic task would be the partnership of Chinese capital with foreign companies. This concept led to the formal inauguration of the Chinese Development Finance Corporation (CDFC), which was made up of the main Chinese private banks teamed with four government controlled ones. It was John Foster Dulles (Pilgrims Society) of Sullivan & Cromwell who provided the financial backing for Monnet's next investment company, Monnet, Murnane & Co., in 1935. Dulles wrote about Monnet to his partner W.N. Cromwell: "... one of the most brilliant men that I know" and "an intimate friend [who] has the full confidence of many of the most important financial people". George Murnane (vice president New York Trust Company; deputy commissioner for France in the American Red Cross; director Allied Chemical & Dye of the Speyer family; partner in Lee, Higginson & Co.1928-1935, a Wall Street investment firm once set up by Opium trade families who around this time were financing the Nazis; main advisor for the Belgian Solvays and Boëls in the United States; colleague of Robert Bosch who oversaw his interests at Mendelssohn Bank/NAKIB in Amsterdam since 1934; appointed chair of the American Bosch Corporation in 1935; in November 1940 he was designated by the Wallenbergs' Enskilda Bank as the sole voting trustee with complete power to vote the American Bosch stock at stockholders' meetings in the US. If Murnane would have died, John Foster Dulles would have taken his place; appointed director of North American Corp. in 1938; his firm Monnet, Murnane & Co. was briefly investigated in 1938 by the FBI for supposedly having traded with the Nazis; became a Lazard partner in 1944, personally picked by Andre Meyer; Trustee emeritus of the Rockefeller University; died in 1969) was a very well known investment banker and a former colleague of Monnet at Transamerica. They hired Frenchman Henri Mazot as an agent to set up their Shanghai office of Monnet, Murnane & Co., within the French concession of that town. Monnet tried to include Britain into the cooperation, rather than letting it conduct business on its own. Unfortunately for Monnet, many British diplomats felt he was looking after his own interests. Around this time Monnet wrote: "[Britain] is the one that best understands China and whose actions most benefit it." When Monnet returned to the United States in 1936 he was investigated for tax evasion. In 1938, Monnet, Murnane & Co. was briefly investigated by the FBI, suspected of having laundered Nazi money. The investigation was called off and no charges were laid, but today it is known that the Dulles brothers and Murnane's Lee, Higginson & Co. certainly were involved in trade with the Nazis, just as Monnet's later close friend, Clarence Dillon of Dillon, Read & Co. 2003, Christopher Booker & Richard North, The Great Deception, The secret history of the European Union, p. 21: "Following his lucrative spell in China, Monnet's career as a merchant banker had continued to be murky. On his return to America he had been investigated for tax evasion. In 1938 his company company had even come under suspicion by the FBI for having laundered Nazi money, although this inquiry was called off without any charges being laid." Appointed chairman of the Franco-British Economic Coordination Committee in 1939. Reunited with his friend Arthur Salter at the outbreak of WWII, who became vice chairman of the Franco-British Economic Coordination Committee. In December 1939, Jean Monnet was sent to London to oversee the collectivization of the two countries' war production capacities. When the French government fled Paris in June 1940, De Gaulle went to London to prepare for the French government's departure to North-Africa to continue the war from there. While in London, De Gaulle was approached by Jean Monnet who proposed to him the creation of a Franco-British Union. The two nations would be joined indissolubly as one, complete with a single government, joint armed forces, common citizenship, and even a single currency. Monnet had written: "The two governments declare that in the future France and Great Britain will no longer be two nations but a single Anglo-French Union. The constitution of the Union will entail common organisations for defence, foreign policy and economic affairs... The two Parliaments will be officially united." Monnet and a very enthusiast De Gaulle discussed the plan with Sir Robert Vansittart, Lord Halifax, and others who proposed it to Churchill. Churchill wasn't convinced, but after the positive reactions from his cabinet members all he crossed out was the common currency plan; everything else was approved and the British officials proposed the plan to the French government, still headed by Paul Reynaud. Unfortunately for Reynaud, his vice-premier Marshal Petain and his allies in government reacted with intense hostility to the plan, claiming it was a British plot to wrestle control over France. In the aftermath of this conflict, Reynaud resigned and Marshal Petain came to power, creating the Vichy state. The catholic anti-republican Petain government arranged an armistice with the Germans and soon actively collaborated with them. Britain was doomed, according to Petain. In August 1940, Jean Monnet was sent to the United States by the British government as a member of the British Supply Council, in order to negotiate the purchase of war supplies. He became particularly close to Harry Hopkins, FDR's right-hand man and a Soviet agent, according to the post-war ultra-conservative Le Cercle intelligence group. Through Hopkins he became President Roosevelt's personal advisor on Europe. After the war, the elitist John Maynard Keynes would say that Monnet probably shortened the war by a year. Went to Algiers in 1943 for the United States and British Munitions Assignment Board, which supplied the Free French forces with arms, headed by the two presidents, general Henri Giraud (supported Pétain and the Vichy government, but refused to cooperate with the Germans; supported by Robert D. Murphy, FDR's chargé d’affaires to the Vichy government who later became Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs and vice chair of the Operations Coordinating Board (OCB) under Eisenhower; mainly supported by FDR who was interested in supporting the anti-nazi elements in the pro-catholic anti-republican Vichy government) and general Charles De Gaulle (mainly supported by Churchill, who was responsible for keeping him in the picture; very much disliked by FDR), two bitter opponents which had to work together in this organization. According to his New York Times obituary, Monnet initially supported Giraud, who was ousted as co-president by De Gaulle within a year. After Giraud seemed to become the underdog, Monnet became a supporter of De Gaulle, who seemingly didn't held his previous support of Giraud against him. In 1943, while in Algiers, Monnet started to work closely with Harold MacMillan, Churchill's political representative to the Mediterranean. Both Macmillan and Monnet weren't fond of De Gaulle's high-handedness, but were of the opinion he was the only person to lead the French government in exile effectively. Monnet and Macmillan co-created the Comité Francais de Libération Nationale (CFLN), which was to be headed by De Gaulle in the end. At the same time, in Algiers, David Rockefeller, as a low-level Army Intelligence officer with almost unlimited connections, stood in close contact with both De Gaulle's and Giraud's aide-de-camp. In his 2002 memoirs, Rockefeller seemed to indicate he was more of a fan of Giraud than of De Gaulle, stating that by 1943 De Gaulle still was an obscure politician virtually none of the military officers liked. During a meeting on 5th August 1943, Monnet, who by this time had started brainstorming about post-WWII European integration, declared to the Comité Francais de Libération Nationale (CFLN): "There will be no peace in Europe, if the states are reconstituted on the basis of national sovereignty with its implications of prestige politics and economic protectionism... The countries of Europe are too small to guarantee their peoples the necessary prosperity and social development... the nations of Europe [must] form a federation of a European entity which will forge them into a single economic unit..." Went back to Washington in the 1944-1945 period. Immediately after the 1945 liberation, Monnet proposed a "global plan for modernization and economic development" to the French government. As Planning Commissioner of the National Economic Council from 1945 to 1952, appointed by De Gaulle, he carried out essential work for the reconstruction of the French economy. Henri Rieben, a later close associate of Jean Monnet, explained to the Empire Club of Canada in the 1967 speech 'Napoleon Failed—Will We Succeed? - Towards a United States of Europe': "Jean Monnet and General de Gaulle had probably at that time [1943-1945] come into conflict over two issues: national sovereignty--Germany... For a country which has fallen into the abyss, a striving to accomplish a mission will help it regain its selfesteem. But, de Gaulle added, this mission must not be such that the nation becomes diluted in a European entity... De Gaulle also feared Germany..." In early 1947, U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall (Pilgrims Society) created a team of officials to map out a strategy for economic support to Europe. Key members of this group were George Kennan, Dean Acheson, and Will Clayton, all three of the CFR and-or Pilgrims Society. Especially Kennan and Clayton had many consultations with Jean Monnet over this issue before they came up with the Marshall Plan, a scheme which gave economic aid to countries in Europe that renounced communism and opened up their markets (including economic assets) to the United States. In response to the Marshall Plan, 17 nations agreed to attend a Paris conference on July 12, 1947 and created the Committee for European Economic Co-operation (CEEC). As vice-chairman, Monnet was the key player in the CEEC, more so than its chairman, Oliver Franks. Pilgrims Society member and later permanent Bilderberg member George Ball worked for Monnet at the CEEC, advising how the CEEC case for economic aid could best be presented in the US. In 1948, the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) was created to administer the distribution of the Marshall Plan funding. Monnet pushed hard to create an executive council with supranational powers, but because of opposition by the British, Sweden, and Switzerland, the OEEC council remained intergovernmental. One of the main supporters of the Marshall Plan was the League for Economic Cooperation (ELEC), founded by Joseph Retinger (MI6; Vatican connections; knew many many people internationally; organized Bilderberg with his good friend Prince Bernhard) in 1946. In May 1948, the Congress of Europe was convened by the United Europe Movement in The Hague. It was organized by Jean Monnet with the help of Joseph Retinger; it's chairman was Winston Churchill while Alcide de Gasperi, Paul Henri Spaak, Leon Blum, Robert Schumann, and Konrad Adenauer, the latter soon to be chancellor of West-Germany, were among the attendants. The congress called for the creation of a Council of Europe, but was too large and unwieldly to reach any decisions on this issue. It was, however, agreed upon that the European Movement should be set up. Seven Resolutions on Political Union were adopted at the The Hague Congress. Resolution number seven stated: "The creation of a United Europe must be regarded as an essential step towards the creation of a United World." Retinger and Churchill's son-in-law Duncan Sandys, went to America after this congress to lobby for support for their campaign for European unity. Here they met two key figures, William Donovan (head OSS; founder in 1947 of the CIA; SMOM) and Allen Dulles (OSS; CIA; SMOM). These two very senior members of the intelligence community had recently joined in support of Coudenhove, an ally of the Habsburg family, to form a Committee for a Free and United Europe. But, as a result of the meetings with Sandys and Retinger, Coudenhove, who considered that he alone should lead any unity movement, was now dropped, amid some acrimony. A new organization was set up, the American Committee on United Europe (ACUE), which would be used as a conduit for covert CIA funds, augmented by contributions from private foundations such as the Ford and Rockefeller foundations, to support many important organizations in Europe that were pro-capitalist, anti-communist, and working towards European integration. This covert contribution never formed less than half the European Movement's budget until the 1960s. Allen Dulles, general Walter Bedell Smith (CIA; very good friend of prince Bernhard), and Mrs. John J. McCloy were among the ACUE's board members. In 1949, Monnet realised that the friction between Germany and France for control of the Ruhr, the important coal and steel region, was rising to dangerous levels. France was attempting to keep control over Germany's economy. The solution to this state of affairs could not however be the federation, because France, proud of its so-recently recovered sovereignty, rejected it. For this reason Monnet, together with a few collaborators, drafted a revolutionary proposal: to pool, under the control of a European government, Franco-German coal and steel resources. John Foster Dulles, the old friend and business associate of Monnet, called it "brilliantly creative." Monnet went looking for a prominent politician to promote his plan; he ended up with Schuman, France's foreign minister. The top secret Monnet Memorandum to Schuman stated: "By pooling basic production and the establishment of a new High Authority, whose decisions will be binding on France, Germany and the countries that join them, this proposal will lay the first concrete foundations of a European federation, which is indispensable to the maintenance of peace". Schuman, after having secretly conferred with Adenauer, accepted the proposal and rendered it public on May 9, 1950, not informing anyone the original text came from Monnet. Dean Acheson was among the handful that knew about the top secret plan before it went public. One year later, with the Treaty of Paris, six countries (France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg) founded the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). The model of "Europe's government" was almost exactly the same as Monnet's friend, Arthur Santer, had proposed twenty years earlier. President of the European Coal and Steel High Authority 1952-1955. Received the Charlemagne award in 1953. First met Henri Rieben in 1955. Rieben collaborated with the Steel Division of the UN's European Economic Commission on the preparation of a report, published in 1949, which, in terms of metallurgy, was a kind of precursor of the Monnet/Schuman Plan. Rieben defended his thesis 'From agreements of metalwork masters to the Schuman Plan' in 1952, under the guidance of Professor Firmin Oulès and Philippe de Selliers de Moranville, head of the Steel Division and member of an elite Belgian family. Monnet wrote a paper, calling for the establishment of the European Defence Community, a supranational European Army. He gave this paper to the French premier Rene Pleven, who introduced it as his own idea. It ultimately was rejected by a Gaullist French parliament which was more in favor of the intergovernmental NATO. In 1955, Monnet was disturbed by the failure of his European Defence Community (EDC), which was rejected by France. He decided to change his work strategy radically and founded the Action Committee for the United States of Europe, together with Henri Rieben. The Ford Foundation website wrote: "In the past the Foundation has assisted European agencies concerned with Atlantic-community problems—for example, the Center of Documentation of the Action Committee for the United States of Europe, headed by Jean Monnet—and similar groups in the United States." January 27, 1960, The Oneonta Star, 'In Europe political unity plans growing': "The Action Committee for the United States of Europe has recommended that the three executive organizations which head the Economic Community, the Coal and Steel Community, and Euratom be replaced by a single president and controlling board... Now Washington is worried... [The EEC] might close European markets to American goods. The United States is therefore seeking a merger of its own economic interests with those of Britain and the Continent, and with Canada, in a new overall organization to which other nations, especially. Japan, could be admitted." July 3, 1962, San Mateo Times, 'Today and Tomorrow by Walter Lippmann': "The committee has now spoken out unequivocally in favor of British membership in the European Economic Community and in a European political union. It has declared itself against the separatism of General de Gaulle which would lead to "profitless adventures and preserve that spirit of superiority and domination which not so long ago led Europe to the brink of destruction and could now engulf the world." At the same time the action committee declares for a partnership between the new Europe and North America, for a "relationship of two separate but equally powerful entities, each bearing its share of common responsibility in the world."... For if Great Britain and the Scandinavian countries and the European neutrals and the Commonwealth are all outside the Common Market, and in rivalry with it, it will be presumptuous of the Six to call themselves "Europe." and there will be little prospect of a partnership between Europe and the United States." March 26, 1967, The Fresno Bee: "Members of the Action Committee for the United States of Europe, which is headed by Jean Monnet of France, the "eminence grise" of the movement for unification of Western Europe. They [members] include Willy Brandt, West German vice chancellor and foreign minister; Pietro Nenni, Italian vice premier; Herbert Wehner, West German minister for all-German affairs—Socialists — and Rainer Barzel, leader of the Christian Democratic party in the West German Bundestag; Mariano Rumor, secretary general of the Italian Christian Democratic party; and Guy Mollet, head of the French Socialist party."" June 25, 1969, San Mateo Times, 'French Foreign Minister Opposed De Gaulle': "One of the more interesting cabinet appointments made by new French President Georges Pompidou is his selection of Maurice Schumann [Roman catholic who worked closely with Robert Schumann, De Gaulle and the UN in the aftermath of WWII] to be his foreign minister... In 1962 he [Maurice Schumann] became minister for development under Pompidou who then was premier. After a month, he quit in protest against De Gaulle's nationalistic policies... Also contributing to the "European" flavor of the new cabinet was the appointment of Valery Giscard d'Estaing to the post of finance minister. Giscard d'Estaing, a finance minister under De Gaulle for four years and a possible presidential candidate seven years from now, recently joined the action committee for the United States of Europe. This is an international group led by Jean Monet which favors both British membership in the Common Market and the political integration of Europe." August 16, 1969, The Gleaner, 'Britain's new bid to enter the ECM': "The Action Committee for the United States of Europe met for the first time in London on March 11, and expressed the belief that nothing is more important than to strengthen and continue the European integration which the Six have already begun by ensuring that Great Britain joins in. Both the main contenders for the office of President of France [Cercle members Alain Poher and Georges Pompidou] are vying with each other in their declarations that they want Britain in the Common Market, provided she will accept the terms of the Treaty of Rome. The West German Foreign Minister has expressed the belief and hope that negotiations for Britain's entry might begin before the end of the year; his colleague in the Finance Ministry, Herr Strauss [Cercle member], has urged immediate negotiations between Britain and the Six." Monnet chaired his Action Committee from 1955 to 1975, after which it lost its influence. July 25, 1969, Time Magazine: "They were all there, those aging statesmen who years ago committed their dreams to the ideal of European unity. Jean Monnet, 80, "the father of the Common Market," last week convened a session of his nonofficial Action Committee for a United States of Europe in Brussels. Former Common Market President Walter Hallstein was there, along with veteran French Politicians Antoine Pinay and Maurice Faure and dozens of other ranking European statesmen. Together, they constitute a sort of European shadow government." Vice president of the Action Committee for the United States of Europe was Max Kohnstamm, who failed trying to revive the committee after Monnet's death. Kohnstamm had become the initial 1973 European chairman of the Trilateral Commission, which was founded by David Rockefeller. Kohnstamm visited the Trilateral Commission until the 1990s and Jean Monnet Association is still represented today. Kohnstamm also became a president of the European Policy Centre, which is allied with the King Baudouin Foundation. First met the extremely influential Pilgrims Society member C. Douglas Dillon (of Dillon, Read & Co.; Rockefeller associate; married into European nobility; vice chair CFR) in 1956 when the latter was US ambassador to France. Monnet, although not invited to attend the signing of the Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community, did play an important role in the negotiations. Ernst H. van der Beugel (honorary secretary general of Bilderberger; vice chair of the Netherlands Institute for Foreign Affairs; Harvard lecturer) in his 1966 book 'From Marshall Aid to Atlantic Partnership' (foreword by Henry A. Kissinger): "Monnet and his Action Committee were unofficially supervising the [Treaty of Rome] negotiations and as soon as obstacles appeared, the United States diplomatic machinery was alerted, mostly through Ambassador Bruce [Pilgrims Society; descendant of Robert de Bruce of Scotland]... who had immediate access to the top echelon of the State Department... At that time, it was usual that if Monnet thought that a particular country made difficulties in the negotiations, the American diplomatic representative in that country approached the Foreign Ministry in order to communicate the opinion of the American Government which, in practically all cases, coincided with Monnet's point of view." Monnet's high-level friends, who assisted him in these strong-arm tactics, included President Eisenhower, Dulles, McCloy, Bruce, George Ball, and C. Douglas Dillon. When John Foster Dulles died in 1959 Jean Monnet came to the US to attend his funeral. Visited C. Douglas Dillon at this time and lunched with president Eisenhower. With behind-the-scenes lobbying and help from influential people like Douglas Dillon and John Tuthill (became head of the Atlantic Institute in the 1960s), Monnet managed to replace the OEEC in 1961, dominated by the British and their intergovernmental politics, with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). He also initiated a proposal, via Douglas Dillon, to include Canada and the United States in the OEEC/OECD as to further dilute the influence of Britain. Founding board member of the Per Jacobsson Foundation, which was established in 1963 to carry forward the work of Per Jacobsson (League of Nations; BIS; IMF) in international cooperation in the monetary and economic field. Some other directors of the Per Jacobsson Foundation in the 1960s to early 1970s were Viscount Harcourt (Pilgrims; IMF; World Bank; chair Morgan Grenfell & Co.), Gabriel Hauge (Pilgrims; chair Manufacturers Hanover Trust; treasurer CFR; Bilderberg steering committee) Herman J. Abs (chair Deutsche Bank), MarinusW. Holtrop (chair BIS and the Nedelandse Bank); (Lord Salter (Privy Council; League of Nations), Lord Cobbeld (Privy Council; Bank of England), David Rockefeller (Pilgrims), Lord Arthur Salter (Monnet's longtime friend and associate in establishing the United States of Europe; supposed Roundtable member; associated with Oxford and All Souls; Privy Council; League of Nations), Allen Sproul (Pilgrims; NY Fed), Maurice Frère (BIS; Sofina; Banque Nationale de Belgique; family today owns Frère-Bourgeois Group), Albert E. Janssen (Chair Société Belge de Banque), Samuel Schweizer (chair Swiss Bank Corporation), and others. Eugene R. Black (Pilgrims; Chase; World Bank; Fed; Brookings; Bilderberg) and Marcus Wallenberg were among the chairmen of the foundation. Banks in Austria, France, Italy, Norway, Finland, Ireland, Canada, United Arab Republic, Pakistan, India, the Philippines, New Zealand, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Chile, and Japan were also represented on the board of the Per Jacobsson Foundation. In 1961, the 17th Lord Perth, who went with Monnet to China in the early 1930s, arranged a meeting between Jean Monnet and Edward Heath (As Lord Privy Seal 1960-1963 responsible for the initial talks to bring Britain into the European Common Market; head Conservative party 1965-1975; Conservative prime minister UK 1970-1974; very committed to the EU; a close Sun Myung Moon associate) in his own apartment. This aristocratic and catholic Lord Perth was chairman of the Ditchley Foundation at some point, and in good family tradition, at times a liaison to the Vatican for the British queen. Edward Heath signed the United Kingdom into the European Union in January 1972, which became effective a year later. Jean Monnet and Paul-Henri Spaak were at his side during this signing. In earlier times, Monnet and his associates kept Britain out of the European Common Market, although Heath had been an early advocate of Britain joining the EU. December 13, 1972, New York Times: "Mr. Kissinger talked the other day to President Pompidou privately about the monetary, trade and political questions between the U.S. and the European Common Market, and the related question of money and commerce between these two and Japan. He also had a talk in Paris with Jean Monnet, the architect and philosopher of European unity, and Monnet will be going to Washington late in January to carry on these conversations." Died in 1979. April 24, 1981, the New York Times published an interview with Lazard banker Felix Rohatyn: "A hero, Mr. Rohatyn said, is Jean Monnet, who guided the creation of the European Common Market. ''Monnet never had a voice in the French Government,'' he said. ''But he accomplished a great deal. I don't flatter myself into thinking I'm Jean Monnet. But I believe that ideas in themselves have great power, if you have a platform that has legitimacy." Otto von Habsburg has stated that his ally and predecessor at the Pan-Europa Union, Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, was a prophet and visionary, while Monnet was a technocrat. Because of this, Habsburg said, Monnet and Coudenhove-Kalergi didn't get along very well.

Source(s): Adrian Hanni (1990 II list); 2014, Johannes Grossmann, p. 552 (visited in 1992, along with Senator Howard Baker)

As former U.S. Ambassador to the Sultanate of Oman, George Cranwell Montgomery knows the value of working with U.S. embassies on behalf of his clients in the Middle East. Diplomats always have the most up-to-date picture of the region, he says, and the most in-depth understanding of the politics and culture. Cran, as he is known, is anything but a stranger to the region. Before helping to found the International Practice Group at Baker Donelson in 1989, he traveled widely throughout the Middle East for more than a decade, first as legislative assistant and then chief counsel to U.S. Sen. Howard H. Baker Jr., and then as ambassador to Oman. He continues to visit the region several times a year, both to maintain longstanding relationships with political and business leaders there and to build new ones. Cran's depth of experience in the Middle East recently helped him win a major petrochemical contract in Qatar for a U.S. petroleum company. He has worked in virtually every country on the Arabian peninsula, using his knowledge of the region's governments to facilitate business development and to advise companies on strategic planning and risk assessment. He periodically represents Middle Eastern governments in the U.S. and recently began representing Middle Eastern financial institutions seeking to invest in U.S. businesses and real estate. As a commissioned ensign in the U.S. Navy, Cran served as an advisor to the navy of the Republic of Vietnam. He resigned his commission as lieutenant to enter law school, but continued to serve many years as captain in the Naval Reserve.

Legislative Assistant for Foreign Policy and National Defense to U.S. Sen. Howard Baker, 1976 – 1977. Chief Legislative Assistant to U.S. Sen. Howard Baker, Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 1977 – 1981. Counsel to Majority Leader Howard Baker, U.S. Senate, 1981 – 1985. U.S. Ambassador to the Sultanate of Oman, 1985 – 1989.

August 31, 1985, National Journal, 'Arab-American Lobby Fights Rearguard Battle to Influence U.S. Mideast Policy': "Prince Bandar, a nephew of King Fahd, is now the ambassador to Washington and has established himself as the capital's most articulate Arab envoy. A former jet fighter pilot, he is fluent in English and Western in manner. "Bandar is about as American as you can get," said a congressional aide. During the AWACS battle, Bandar had particularly close ties to Senate Majority Leader Howard H. Baker Jr., R-Tenn., and to Baker's top foreign policy aide, G. Cranwell Montgomery. These days, Bandar's access is even better. "He deals almost exclusively with Reagan, [Secretary of State George P.] Shultz and [White House national security adviser Robert C. (Bud)] McFarlane," said another Arab lobbyist."

May 12, 1988, New York Times, 'U.S. envoy seeks missiles for Oman': "The United States Ambassador to Oman, with the approval of the Administration, has asked Congress to reconsider the sale of Stinger antiaircraft missiles to Oman, just four months after Congress prohibited sales of such weapons to Oman and other countries in the Persian Gulf region. The Ambassador, G. Cranwell Montgomery, urged Congress to make a ''limited exception'' to the law for Oman, which occupies a strategic position on the Strait of Hormuz."

April 3, 2004, National Journal, 'Our Man in Baghdad': "Looking to help its clients with interests in Iraq and the surrounding region, the law firm Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz has opened an outpost in beautiful downtown Baghdad. Their man in Baghdad? Charles (Rick) Johnston, chairman of the firm's International Transactions and Trade Group and a 30-year veteran of international trade, transaction, and financial work for clients all over the world -- including Iraq and Afghanistan. Baker Donelson can also boast an impressive list of senior advisers with experience in the region, among them former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger, former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Mark R. Parris, and former U.S. Ambassador to Oman G. Cranwell Montgomery."

Source(s): Cercle list: 1985 Washington D.C.; Adrian Hanni (went again in 1987)

See ASC list.

Source(s): 2014, Johannes Grossmann, p. 552 (visited in the early 1990s, "banker William H. Moore")

Appears to be William Henson Moore, III. Born in 1939. Congressman from Louisiana 1975-1987. Deputy secretary of the United States Department of Energy 1989-1992. Deputy chief of staff to President George H. W. Bush in 1992. Partner in the Texas and New York-based law firm of Bracewell & Giuliani (includes senior partner Rudolph W. Giuliani) 1993-1995.

Source(s): November 1988 – Issue 17, Lobster Magazine, 'Brian Crozier, the Pinay Circle and James Goldsmith' (quoting from the Langemann papers); 1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', pages 186, 191-193, and 241.

Moss was a protege of British disinfo specialist Brian Crozier since 1969. Moss was a journalist who gained fame suggesting that Soviet agents secretly controlled a network of left and liberal groups in the US. He has been accused of spreading disinformation at times. In 1970-1971 he was involved in setting up of the Cercle associated Institute for the Study of Conflict. By 1974 Moss had written a couple of ISC 'conflict studies' - 2 on Chile, 2 on Uruguay and 1 on Northern Ireland. In 1973, he was working with CIA front Institute for General Studies (IGS) in Chile and makes the first public call for a military government in Chile in CIA-funded magazine SEPA (March 1973). In 1975, he is a founding member of the Washington Institute for Study of Conflict - ISC's US branch. Founder member and then director of National Association for Freedom (NAFF) in 1975, together with Brian Crozier and Viscount De L'Isle. Stephen Hastings and Chapman Pincher were at NAFF, just as MP Sir Frederic Bennett. During this time, he worked as a journalist for The Economist. Wrote the supposedly CIA sponsored paper, 'Chile's Marxist Experiment' in 1975. Council member of the Foreign Affairs Research Institute (FARI), together with Julian Amery (later Cercle head), Lord Chalfont (Jonathan Institute; anti-communist associate of the Cercle and Crozier), Brian Crozier (head Le Cercle; Moss' mentor), founder Geoffrey Stewart-Smith (Conservatice MP; adventures were allegedly sponsored by MI5; leading member of the Conservative Monday Club; chairman of its foreign affairs study group of the Monday Club in 1966; editor of East West Digest, an anti-communist magazine sent free to all MPs at the time), Sir Frederic Mackarness Bennett (owned a Rolls-Royce and four homes, one of them in the Cayman Islands; director Kleinwort Benson Europe (his mother was a Kleinwort); long time Lloyds underwriter; influential member of Parliament from the 1950s to the 1980s; member Monday Club; always warning people about the KGB threat and supported every regime that opposed the USSR; chair FARI in 1978; vice-president of the European-Atlantic Group; leading official in the private group Council of Europe in the late 1970s and 1980s; honorary director of the BCCI in Hong Kong until 1986; Member of the Privy Council since 1985; ridiculed his party's (Conservatives) for their Euroscepticism after his retirement in 1987; supported Pinochet; Freeman of the City of London; has been to Bilderberg), and air vice marshal Stuart Menual. For more information on FARI see the biography of Lobster. Speechwriter for Margaret Thatcher in 1976 and was a close associate, possibly a member, of Crozier's Shield committee. Visited Argentina, addressed the Air Force on the value of the Argentine military government as a model for the rest of the continent. In 1976, he visited Angola with Evan Davies (MI6, Churchill's bodyguard, Saudi National Security Advisor). He sat on the editorial board of US 'new right' journal Policy Studies and wrote the cover story for first issue. In 1979, he was a participant at the Jonathan Institute's first conference on international terrorism from whence a good deal of the 'Soviets behind world terror' line has emerged. Moss has also been involved with the Royal Institute for International Affairs and the Heritage Foundation. In 1980 he wrote the book 'The Spike', together with the ultra-conservative Arnaud de Borchgrave, who is a good friend of Sun Myung Moon. The Spike dealt with KGB infiltration in the West.

BECAME A DREAM EXPERT (never mentions his covert action and Cercle history in interviews and books):

Educated at Scotch College, Melbourne, Canberra Grammar School and the Australian National University where he gained a BA (1st class Hons.) and subsequently gained an MA. Lecturer in Ancient History at the ANU in 1969-1970. In 1970, he started PhD research at University College, London, but soon accepted an invitation to join the editorial staff of The Economist. From 1970-1980, he was an editorial writer and special correspondent for The Economist, reporting from some 35 countries. In 1986, Moss felt the need to get away from the commercial fast track and moved to a farm in upstate New York, where he started dreaming in a language he did not know that proved to be an archaic form of the Mohawk language. Helped by native speakers to interpret his dreams, Moss came to believe that they had put him in touch with an ancient healer – a woman of power – and that they were calling him to a different life. Became a prominent writer on Active Dreaming and has been on Coast to Coast AM on various occasions.

Source(s): 2014, Johannes Grossmann, 'Die Internationale der Konservativen: Transnationale Elitenzirkel und private Außenpolitik in Westeuropa seit 1945', p. 553: "In May 1996 ... important Jordanian leaders such as Crown Prince Hassan ibn Talal, first ambassador to Israel, Marwan al-Muasher, and former prime minister Zaid al-Rifai ... were invited."

Jordanian Christian. Following the 1994 Israel–Jordan peace treaty, Muasher became Jordan’s first ambassador to Israel 1995-1996. Ambassador to the United States 1997-2002. Jordan's foreign minister 2002-2004 and its deputy prime minister 2004-2005. Jordanian Senate member 2006-2007. Vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he oversees research on the Middle East. Senior vice president of external affairs at the World Bank 2007-2010. Sdvisory council of The Hague Institute for Global Justice since 2011.

Source(s): March 3, 1980, Der Spiegel, 'Franz Josef sein Milljöh' (Franz Josef's milieu): "In this cercle the candidate for the chancellorship [Strauss] meets his right-wing extremist friends, like the Spaniard Federico Silva Munoz, Minister under dictator Franco, or the Ultra[Rightist] Kaulza de Arriaga, commander in chief in the Portuguese colony Mozambique once responsible for a bloody massacre among civilians. The Portuguese Putsch-General Antonio de Spinola was there, intelligence agents were there, even David Rockefeller and Henry Kissinger..."

Born in 1923. State lawyer in his early career. Member of the Asociación Católica Nacional de Propagandistas (ACNP) and known to have been very involved in Catholic activities. At the ACNP he first met Gonzalo Fernandez de la Mora, like Munoz, a fascist. They became great friends and close political associates for the rest of their lives. Has been a banker. Ministor of Public Works under Franco (Knight of Malta; always very afraid of a possible Masonic conspiracy) June 1965 - April 1970. During this time he was an opponent of a bill sponsored by an aging Franco, which was supported by the Vatican, that would give civil rights to Spain's non-Catholic people. February 24, 1967, Time Magazine, 'Struggle for Freedom': "The most talked-about subject in Spain last week was something that did not happen: the failure of the Cabinet to pass a bill that would at last grant a measure of religious freedom to Spain's tiny non-Catholic minority... For years, Spain's non-Catholics have almost been non-people, barred from participating in the mainstream of Spanish life. They were, in fact, not even officially recognized as having been born, married or buried—since Spain acknowledged those milestones only when they were sanctioned by the Catholic clergy... Opposition quickly closed ranks. Interior Minister Camilo Alonso Vega, 77, who as Spain's top cop maintains that the Spanish are "the most unruly people in Europe", argued that religious freedom would only stir up trouble, just as the earlier measures granting workers and students more freedom resulted in the present rash of strikes and student riots. On a more philosophical level, Public Works Minister Federico Silva Munoz, 43, contended that granting religious liberty to minority sects would shatter Spain's spiritual unity. The ministers connected with the military supported the views of Vega and Munoz..." Most Opus Dei connected members in Franco's regime supported the bill. The army was normally associated with the Falange, the Fascist party of Franco. Munoz was among the few that survived the reorganization of Franco's cabinet in October 1969, which became dominated by Opus Dei members. At the time Franco was under pressure by Opusian European-oriented businessmen and technocrats. Franco also designated Prince Juan Carlos, a Knight of Malta, as his successor during this reorganization. October 30, 1969, The Times, 'Riot as Franco Alters Cabinet': "The Spanish Government officially announced the names of General Franco's new Cabinet tonight, and confirmed earlier speculation that members of the powerful Roman Catholic lay organization Opus Dei will dominate Spain's future... Only four of the 18 Cabinet posts are unaffected... The rise of Opus Dei, represented by young technocrats, is believed to signal the final languishing of the Fascist-rooted Falange as a significant element in the Spanish power structure... There is no doubt in Madrid that most of the new non-military ministers are members of Opus Dei, which only counts 20,000 members in all Spain. A spokesman for the organization told me today: "The victory is not for Opus Dei but for people who happen to be members. Our movement has no political policy." Nevertheless, the evidence would seem to be against this often repeated claim." Munoz resigned as Minister of Public Works in April 1970 for reasons that weren't entirely known. April 11, 1970, The Times, 'Resignation of Spanish Minister': "One of General Franco's "technocrat" ministers resigned today, possibly as the result of a deep ideological split in the government, reliable sources said. Senor Federico Silva Munoz, aged 46, Minister of Public Works since June, 1965, was said to have given his resignation to the General this morning... The present Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Senor Gonzalo Fernandez de la Mora, was said to have been chosen as the new Minister of Public Works. Like most of the present Cabinet, and unlike his predecessor, he is known to be a sympathizer with, if not a member of, the powerful Roman Catholic lay organization Opus Dei... [Munoz] is also thought, as a technocrat without any strong political orientation, to have been opposed to the reactionary political attitude of of Vice-President Carrerro Blanco [Franco's eminence grise; close allies with the CIA since the Dulles brothers; described as the main patron of Opus Dei in Spain; became Franco's prime minister in June 1973; hated by most of the population; assassinated in December 1973, apparently by the ETA] and some other ministries." In December 1973, after the assassination of Franco's eminence grise, Admiral Blanco, who had become de facto ruler of Spain with the approval of Franco, Opus Dei influence was pushed back, at least temporarily. In 1974, as a member of the Cortes Generales (the Spanish Parliament), Munoz was among the first to propose a slight amendment to the principles of Franco's rule to decrease tensions between the Franco regime and the Catholic church. At the time this was still seen domestically as heresy, and internationally as evidence of another internal power struggle. Franco died in 1975 and King Juan Carlos, a Knight of Malta and supporter of Opus Dei, became the new Head of State and was in charge of Spain's process towards democracy. He initially kept the Francoist hardliner Carlos Arias Navarro, who had succeeded Admiral Blanco, as president/prime minister. Navarro promised a change to democracy, but he was fired in 1976 by Carlos, because of a lack of faith by the opposition that he was really interested in carrying out these promises. Munoz subsequently appeared on a short list of Carlos' highest advisory body to be made prime minister of Spain. Carlos, however, opted this time for the more centrist, but still conservative, Adolfo Suarez Gonzalez, whom he thought would be best suited to unite the different factions within the government. July 4, 1976, The Modesto Bee, 'King Juan Carlos names new premier of Spain': "A third name submitted to the monarch by the Council of the Realm, his top advisory body, was that of Federico Silva Munoz, 52, a Christian Democrat and former public works minister." July 6, 1976, San Mateo Times, 'Boycott Stalls Spanish Cabinet': "Opposition members predicted technocrats of the Catholic lay organization Opus Dei who ran Spain in the 1960s were on the way back in. But political sources said Suarez was trying to balance his cabinet by naming one or two leftists... [on the other hand, I guess] The one name that seemed to come up most often [for consideration of a post in the cabinet] was that of Federico Silva Munoz, a public works minister under Franco." Munoz does not seem to have made it to the cabinet of Suarez. Suarez, said to be an Opus Dei member, created the Unión de Centro Democrático (UCD), which was joined by the Christian Democratic Party and other right-wing groups. It also worked with the Socialists (PSOE) and Communists (PCE). Munoz headed the newly created right-wing Christian Democratic group Unión Democrática Española (UDE) in 1976 and co-founded the Alianza Popular (AP), a continuation of Franco's fascist Falange Party, in October 1976 to challenge the Suarez government and the UCD. It was a federation of several parties, which were all fascist or borderline fascist. AP opted for a "more gradual" change to democracy. A few other important co-founders of the AP were Munoz's sidekick Gonzalo Fernandez de la Mora (member Privy Council of Count Juan de Bourbon, father of King Juan Carlos, since 1959), Laureano Lopez Rodo (influential minister in the 1960s and early 1970s, who is said to have engineered the Opus Dei takeover of the Spanish government; preferred selecting ministers with proto-"Thatcherite" neoliberal economic views), and Manuel Fraga Iribarne (1001 Club). According to Fernandez, Munoz was the first president of AP although Fraga is usually seen as the most important founder and leader of the party (who also became president at some point). As expected, the AP was quite unpopular. A new Spanish constitution was approved in July 1978, replacing Franco's "Fundamental Laws" and turning Spain into a Parliamentary Monarchy. Hours before the constitution was passed, two senior military officers were assassinated, supposedly by the Grapo, an extreme leftists group. Many were sceptical of that claim. On November 1, 1978 the final version of the constitution was approved with an overwhelming majority. Founding members like Silva Munoz and his sidekick Gonzalo Fernandez de la Mora, seemingly the most hardline of this already fascist group, left the AP federation soon after, while Fraga decided to accept the constitution. Munoz and Fernandez continued with their UCD party which became Derecha Democrática Española (DDE) in January 1979. That same month the DDE began negotiations with Fuerza Nueva (New Force) of ultrafascists Blas Pinar and José Antonio Girón, and Raimundo Fernández Cuesta. January 10, 1979, El Pais, 'Silva Muñoz unites with the ultraright to be presented at the elections' (translated from Spanish):"Federico Silva, Gonzalo Fernández de la Mora, Raimundo Fernández Cuesta, Blas Piñar, José Antonio Girón and other political leaders have formed a coaliton named Union of the Right [that] involves all political forces to the right of the coalition Fraga-Areilza-Osorio, in other words, the Derecha Democrática Española and the gathering of national forces [a reference to Pinar's New Force, which had the aim of "gathering the national forces"]." This is a rough translation (as my Spanish is very rusty) from "Federico Silva, Gonzalo Fernández de la Mora, Raimundo Fernández Cuesta, Blas Piñar, José Antonio Girón y otros dirigentes políticos han formado una coalición unitaria que se llamará Unión de Derechas y que agrupa a todas las fuerzas políticas situadas a la derecha de la coalición Fraga-Areilza-Osorio, es decir, la Derecha Democrática Española y las llamadas fuerzas nacionales." This alliance would fall apart almost immediately over a power struggle of who was going to get the top posts. Both groups were completely against the constitution. December 1, 1979, El Pais, 'The Constitution is a permanent factor of distortion, according to Federico Silva' (translated from Spanish): "The Constitution that was passed and that we accepted, even though we don't agree with most aspects of it, will continue be a permanent factor of distortion on the national life and of the life of the right in particular, says Federico Silva Munoz, promoter of Derecha Democrática Española, in a declaration to the European Press Agency. Their [political] group will celebrate their first national congress on the 8th and 9th of this month."

Earlier, in mid November 1978, just after the final approval of the constitution, Manuel Fraga had formed a coalition with José María de Areilza and Alfonso Osorio Garcia while Munoz and Fernandez began teaming up with all their (even more) fascist friends. The coalition between Fraga, Areilza and Osorio, although more oriented towards cooperation with the outside world, was anything but left-wing. Fraga was a prominent Franco minister since the 1940s and is a great supporter of the old regime until this day, even cautioning left-wing prime minister Zapatero not to bow to pressure to reinvestigate still living members of the regime. It has been said that Fraga played a central role in the 1976 Montejurra assassinations, carried out by Gladio agents as Stefano Delle Chiaie. Fraga was a mentor to, and responsible for José María Aznar's appointment as head of the Popular Party in 1989. Aznar was prime minister of Spain from 1996 to 2004. Count Areilza was Franco's ambassador to Argentina from 1947 to 1950. During this time he stood in contact with a close friend, the Belgian fascist Pierre Daye, who helped Peron with the transfer of Nazis from Europe to Argentina. After that, Areilza became an ambassador to Washington (and France), where he lobbied for economic support for his country. Like Fernandez de la Mora, Areilza used to be a member of the Privy Council of Don Juan de Bourbon, the father of King Juan Carlos. Both Fraga and Areilza were contributors to the May 1986 Madrid meeting of the Trilateral Commission and Areilza was president of the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe from 1981 to 1983. In early 1977, Areilza set up an earlier Popular Party (not to be confused with the later one that evolved from the Allianza Popular) and made Pio Cabanillas Gallas, who has been named as (later) head of the P3 Lodge in Madrid (alleged sister of the exposed P2), its chairman. Osorio had been president of RENFE, the national railroad corporation of Spain before he was appointed by King Juan Carlos to important Cabinet posts. He has also was vice president of British Petroleum (BP) in Spain and a member of the Knights of Malta.

In October 1989, David Teacher in Lobster Magazine named Munoz a "present" member of Le Cercle and a senior member of Opus Dei. Opus Dei was usually associated with the less fascist factions who were interested in bringing about a more democratic Spain. However, Opus Dei members are known to have been involved with Blas Pinar's ultrafascist party, not to mention the Belgian ultrafascists. Furthermore, the efforts of Fernandez de la Mora and Munoz were sponsored by Opus Dei and the Cercle. Munoz became an important columnist of Razon Espanola (Spanish Reason), which was founded on October 1, 1983 as an outgrowth of the Fundación Balmes (Balmes Foundation), in turn founded a few months earlier by a grant of the German Hanns Seidel Stiftung (Foundation). The Hanns Seidel Foundation was the political trust attached to Strauss' Christian Social Union (CSU) party, and was/is considered an important Opus Dei front for international political manipulation. At the time this foundation and magazine were founded, the social-democrat Felipe González Márquez had become prime minister. Márquez quite liberal, privatizing vast portions of the Spanish economy, but the old Cercle clique seem to have been of the opinion that he was not right wing enough. Also, the Roman Catholic radicals often criticize too liberal economies, probably to minimize the influence of the Anglo-Americans. Razón Española is a fascist magazine and EIR has spent a little bit of time on it. No. 115, September-October 2002, Razón Española, 'La imagen de España en el Perú' reads: "Seis meses más tarde, el 3 de septiembre de ese año, Inglaterra, tomando como excusa que Alemania había recuperado el llamado corredor de Dantzig, inicia la Segunda Conflagración Mundial, entre 1939 y 1945." Translated that is: "Six months later, on September 3 of that year, England began the 1939-1945 Second World War, using as an excuse Germany's recovery of the so-called Danzig Corridor." (thanks to Luis Vásquez Medina, writing for EIR). Razón Española has at least one sister newspaper in Peru, which is surrounded by some of the worst fascists in that country. La Razón in Peru is one of the few media outlets over there that supported the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Munoz died in 1997 and an obituary was written in Razón Española, #85, by his lifetime associate Gonzalo Fernández de la Mora, who had founded the magazine and subsequently became its president. Munoz and Fernandez are known to have been friends with the Bavarian Franz Josef Strauss. When the BBC on May 12, 1980 broadcasted a documentary on Strauss, and highlighted his friendship with Munoz and Fernandez, Brian Crozier felt he should speak out in favor Strauss. On May 30, 1980 The Times posted his comments: "Tom Bower made much of the fact that Strauss' foreign friends include two ex-ministers of General Franco, Silva Munoz and Fernandez de la Mora... neither Silva Munoz nor Fernandez de la Mora is an extremist: the former was a conspicuously successful "technocratic" minister of public works and the latter is a brilliant political analyst."

Additional info: Jose Maria Aznar, prime minister of Spain from 1996 to 2004, was the protege of Manuel Fraga.

Source(s): Adrian Hanni (Nagle visited the Cercle in 1989)

Retired CIA operative. Employee of Timothy Landon. Active in Oman. President Intel Research Corp. Reportedly an associate of Shackley.

March 26, 1985, New York Times, 'Ex-intelligence agents are said to have major roles in Oman': "In 1971, Robert B. Anderson, a former Secretary of the Treasury in the Eisenhower Administration, became an unpaid ecomomic adviser to the Sultan. His job, he said in an interview late last year, was ''to consult on ways to improve their economy'' and get Oman ''out from under the dominance of the British,'' who arrived in the country before the American advisers. Mr. Anderson said his Omani role was arranged in part by Ghassan Shakir, a Saudi with close ties to the United States and Mr. Anderson. Mr. Shakir also became an adviser to the Sultan, as did Mr. Omar, the Libyan exile, according to American intelligence officials and a 1981 report prepared by Ashland Oil lawyers for the company's board of directors. ... The Sultan's new, outside economic advisers also became involved in foreign affairs. Mr. Anderson said he was personally responsible for Oman's re- establishing long dormant diplomatic relations with key neighbors like Saudi Arabia. In 1971, as a result of Mr. Anderson's close ties with King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, Sultan Qabus made a state visit to Saudi Arabia, leading to the eventual establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, according to Mr. Anderson and American and Omani officials. ... The Omanis turned to other Americans to assist in economic development. In 1972, an American energy consultant, C. Stirling Snodgrass, was brought in by the Omanis to organize that country's petroleum ministry, according to Omani officials and other sources. According to two former United States intelligence officials, while working for Oman, Mr. Snodgrass also had a secret relationship with the C.I.A. and headed two C.I.A.-owned energy consulting companies in Washington until he died in 1974. Thomas W. Hill Jr., an American attorney, became legal adviser to the Sultan in 1972 as a result of introductions to Omani officials by Mr. Anderson, according to a former American adviser to the Omani Government. Over the next several years Mr. Hill was said to have written several Omani laws in the areas of commerce, banking and ethics. In addition, Mr. Hill was said to have provided a legal opinion that enabled Oman to void an earlier petroleum concession and award it, with the help of Mr. Anderson, to another venture. Mr. Hill no longer works for the Omani Government, but still does business in the country representing foreign businessmen. Mr. Hill was asked to be interviewed on his involvement in Oman and declined to comment, but he did say that he had not ever worked for the C.I.A. On another matter, Mr. Anderson said that he had arranged a marine survey contract in the early 1970's for an American company. The Sultan's uncle, Tariq bin-Taimur, who was Prime Minister at the time, voiced concern about the marine contract and asserted that it was a cover for C.I.A. operations in the Indian Ocean, according to Omani and British officials. The assertion was subsequently denied by Americans working on the project. U.S. Embassy Aide Asked About C.I.A. C. Patrick Quinlan, who was charge d'affaires and the highest-ranking State Department official in the country in the early 1970's, said in an interview in 1983 that he had raised questions about C.I.A. connections to Omani advisers. Mr. Quinlan said his protests were based on his concern that foreign policy was being undermined by back-channel discussions. ''I discovered that the C.I.A. had connections with Robert Anderson and Omar,'' he said. Referring to perceptions by many Omanis, he added: ''It was widely believed they were associated with the C.I.A., and I didn't know what representations they were making to his majesty in the name of the United States. They were unofficial representatives of the U.S. Government.'' Mr. Quinlan said he was also concerned about ''the large commissions'' being paid to Mr. Omar. In addition, he said, he recommended that ties between the C.I.A. and the Omani advisers be dropped. But, he said, he soon changed jobs and never heard back from the State Department. State Department officials said they were unable to find the relevant documents in response to a two-year effort to obtain them under the Freedom of Information Act. Mr. Anderson said in an interview that he was unaware of Mr. Quinlan's protests. He said he had voluntarily reported information to the C.I.A., ''if I learned something of advantage to the Administration,'' but said he had not had any ''official responsibilities'' on behalf of the agency. A Washington attorney who has represented Mr. Omar, Myles Ambrose, said Mr. Omar did not talk to the press. Sultan Visited U.S., And Relations Improved In 1975, with the help of Mr. Omar, Sultan Qabus made his first official visit to the United States, meeting with President Ford and other top officials, according to Omani officials. One former Omani official said that at the meeting, the United States agreed to the sale of TOW antitank missiles to Oman and that Mr. Omar received a commission on the sale. Relations between the United States and Oman improved after the 1975 meetings. In the next few years, wealthy advisers to the Omanis like Mr. Omar and Dr. Omar Zawawi, an Omani businessman and adviser to the Sultan, began making investments in the United States and elsewhere with the help of Mr. Hill, Mr. Critchfield and several former officials who had left the Ford and Nixon Administrations. according to public records. Dr. Zawawi, many advisers say, has come to symbolize American interests in Oman because he represents so many American and British companies doing business there. Others who became involved in Oman, according to the Western and Omani officials, included a former C.I.A. employee who installed security devices and electronic gear in the palace. He was still an adviser in charge of communications for the palace as of December 1984, the officials said. ... Chester A. Nagle, whom Omani and Western officials and public Ashland documents identified as another former Central Intelligence Agency employee, was involved in the sale of security equipment to Oman, according to an Omani official. Mr. Nagle now edits a military and diplomacy magazine in Virginia. After repeated requests for an interview, Mr. Nagle's administrative assistant, Leslie Roper, said, ''I don't think he has anything he wants to talk to you about.'' In 1979, Mr. Nagle registered with the Justice Department as a foreign agent of Oman, working for the palace office until 1982, according to public records. State Department documents show that in 1983, Mr. Nagle was listed as a special assistant to the palace office. According to Omani and American officials and foreign agent registration records at the Justice Department that were filed by Mr. Nagle, Mr. Nagle was hired by Mr. Landon, the British military officer. Mr. Landon has held various official positions within Oman. Though he is now based in England and most of his Omani dealings are in the commercial area, he is still considered to have the best access to the Sultan among non- Omanis, Omani and Western officials said. According to an Omani adviser, Mr. Landon is also the main connection in Oman for Mr. Critchfield, the president of Tetra Tech. Some See Company As Political Liability A few Omani officials said that the activities of Mr. Critchfield and his company could become a political liability for the Omani Government should more Omanis learn about the company's role in the country. They said that some Omanis objected to the Sultan's having turned over as much civil authority to a private company, especially because of the widespread perception that Mr. Critchfield retained ties to the C.I.A. despite Mr. Critchfield's denial of any present links to the agency. But other Omani officials praised Tetra Tech's work and said Mr. Critchfield had been a positive influence in trying to curb corruption within Oman and expand the country's educational and public services. In the Masandam province, Tetra Tech is in charge of speeding the development of the sparsely populated but strategic area and overseeing the development of communications, construction, transportation, public health, water, electricity, roads and ports and harbors, according to a Tetra Tech official. The American company has the same arrangement in another strategic province, Dhahira. Some Omani and American officials have criticized the company's arrangements with the Omani Government in Masandam, in part, they said, because of the large payments the company receives from the Omani Government to develop the area. A Tetra Tech spokesman defended the size of the contract on the grounds of the region's strategic importance and the difficulty and expense of development in the harsh mountainous terrain. Tetra Tech also advises the petroleum ministry on hydrocarbons, oil and gas as well as providing technical staff to the Omani Public Authority for Water Resources."

Sources: November 1988 – Issue 17, Lobster Magazine, 'Brian Crozier, the Pinay Circle and James Goldsmith' (quoting from the Langemann papers)

Born in 1924. LLD from the University of Hamburg in 1952. Joined the German Foreign Service in 1955. Deputy chef de cabinet of the president Commission of the European Communities 1958. Chief of Staff for the EEC Commission's president, Prof. Hallstein, in 1963. Head of the EEC Commission's public relations division 1967-1969. Minister of Economy and Transport in Schlewig-Holstein from 1969 to 1972. In 1972 he was elected to the German Bundestag. Dr. Karl-Heinz Narjes was awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz first class in 1977. In 1979 he attended a Pinay Circle meeting. In 1981 he was nominated European Community Commissioner, responsible for common market issues, tariff union, industrial innovation, environment, consumer issues and nuclear security. From 1984 until 1988 he was responsible for industrial policy, technology and research. During the same time, 1984-1988, Narjes was also a vice-president of the European Commission. Narjes has attended the Trilateral Commission and has been working on the internal market liberalization of the European Union.

Source(s): Adrian Hanni (visited the Cercle in 1987); February 21, 2012, Cercle chairman Lord Lothian's invitational letter to speak at Le Cercle to Saudi Arabia's deputy minister of foreign affairs Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz (released by Wikileaks around 2015; David Teacher made ISGP aware of the letter; this person is listed as a past speaker to Le Cercle).

BA, Yale University, 1960. Commissioned foreign service officer, U.S. Department State, 1960. Vice consul, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1961—1963. 2nd secretary, Saigon [during Vietnam War], 1964—1968. Member, U.S. Del. to Paris Peace Talks on Vietnam, 1968—1969. Member staff, National Security Council, 1970—1973 (under Henry Kissinger). Political counselor, Am. Embassy, Quito, Ecuador, 1973—1975. Consul general, Am. Embassy, Thessaloniki, Greece, 1975—1977. Deputy assistant secretary for oceans & fisheries affairs, US Department State, Washington, DC, 1977—1979. Deputy assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific affairs, US Department State, Washington, DC, 1980—1981. U.S. ambassador to Honduras, US Department State, Tegucigalpa, 1981—1985. Assistant secretary for oceans and international environmental and sci. affairs, US Department State, Washington, DC, 1985—1987. Deputy assistant to President for national security affairs, National Security Council, Washington, DC, 1987—1989. US ambassador to Mexico, US Department State, Mexico City, Mexico, 1989—1993. Special coordinator for post-1999 U.S. presence in Panama, US Department State, 1996—1997 US ambassador to The Philippines, US Department State, Manilla, 1993—1996. Executive vice president global markets, McGraw-Hill Cos., New York City, New York, 1997—2001. Permanent U.S. rep. to UN, US Department State, New York City, New York, 2001—2004. Warned against the dangers of invading Iraq. US ambassador to Iraq, US Department State, Baghdad, 2004—2005. June 27, 2004, Sunday Tribune, 'Oil in troubled waters?': "[Kissinger recruit] Paul Bremer, the US pro-consul in Iraq, will return to Washington. ... While his pro-consul job will be scrapped, he will be replaced by John Negroponte..." Director, Office National Intelligence, Washington, DC, 2005—2007. Deputy secretary, US Department State, Washington, DC, 2007—2009. December 15, 2010, New Zealand Herald, 'Top US envoy Holbrooke dies': "At the State Department ceremony in January 2009 when he was introduced as the special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Holbrooke spotted an old friend in the audience, John Negroponte, his one-time roommate in Saigon..."

February 17, 2001, Washington Post, 'Former Ambassador in Line for U.N. Post': "After Negroponte graduated from Yale, the early part of his career was focused on Asia. After an initial stint in Hong Kong, he was assigned to the political section of the embassy in Saigon, where in 1965 he was asked to brief then-Harvard professor Henry Kissinger. By 1970, he was working as a Kissinger aide on President Richard M. Nixon's White House staff. Negroponte, a member of the U.S. delegation to the Paris peace talks, eventually fell into disfavor with Kissinger after pointing out what he viewed as flaws in the agreement with Hanoi, according to various accounts from the period. He returned to the State Department and eventually took a diplomatic position at the U.S. Embassy in Quito, Ecuador. When Alexander Haig became secretary of state in 1981, Negroponte was tapped as ambassador to Honduras, fast becoming the military training and logistical base for the U.S.-backed contra war against neighboring Nicaragua's Sandinista National Liberation Front. The effort came under harsh criticism and congressional investigation as part of the Iran-contra scandal, when it was revealed that White House aide Oliver North had orchestrated the purchase of arms for the contras with funds from secret arms sales to Iran. Further controversy later erupted following allegations that Honduran military death squads had eliminated contra opponents during Negroponte's embassy tenure. Although he was unanimously approved by the Senate as ambassador to Mexico in 1989, the committee vote was held up for a time while senators questioned him closely about his knowledge and potential role in persuading Honduras to support the U.S. efforts in Nicaragua. The United States refused to allow Negroponte to testify at mid-1990s hearings by a Honduran commission investigating the killings."

November 8, 1982, Newsweek, 'A Secret War For Nicaragua': "Honduras had managed to remain relatively calm and largely unaffected after the 1979 Nicaraguan revolution by simply looking the other way as Cuban-Nicaraguan arms passed through to El Salvador. "There was kind of an understanding that if we looked the other way, the subversivos wouldn't look our way," said one Honduran Army officer. ... That changed when John Negroponte arrived. He was handpicked for the job and reported to Enders, with whom he had worked in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War and later under then national-security adviser Henry Kissinger. "Negroponte is the spearhead:," said one Washington insider. "He was sent down there by Haig and Enders to carry out the operation without any qualms of conscience." Negroponte forged close ties with powerful Hondurans, especially the commander of the armed forces, Gen. Gustavo Aldofo Alvarez, who is still the most powerful Honduran in the country despite the election in January of President Roberto Suazo Cordova, the first civilian president in nine years. "They discuss what should be done, and then Alvarez does what Negroponte tells him to," a member of the military high command said matter-of-factly. The two appear to dislike each other personally, said one aide to Alvarez, because "they both run the Army, although only one of them has the title for that job." Alvarez's G-2 military-intelligence agents act as liaisons to the contras and Alvarez himself reports to Negroponte. In addition, two officials in Washington said, Alvarez's military is the main conduit for small arms being delivered to the Nicaraguan exiles and is the main link to Argentine military advisers in Honduras. Alvarez has reason to cooperate: in the past two years, total U.S. assistance to Honduras has totaled $187 million. A $78.3 million aid package has been proposed for 1983."

Source(s): 2014, Johannes Grossmann, 'Die Internationale der Konservativen: Transnationale Elitenzirkel und private Außenpolitik in Westeuropa seit 1945', p. 553: "In May 1996 ... former Prime Minister Shimon Peres and his successor, Benjamin Netanyahu, were invited."

Israel's foreign minister 2002-2003, 2012-2013, 2015-. Israel's minister of finance 2003-2005. Prime minister of Israel 1996-1999, 2009-.

Sources: October 1989 – Issue 18, Lobster Magazine, 'The Pinay Circle and Destabilisation in Europe'; June 29, 1997, The Independence, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club; Is it the ultimate dishonour' (went to Le Cercle after leaving the White House); April 6, 2003, The Observer, 'So, Norman, any regrets this time?'; September 5, 2004, Sunday Times, 'Le Cercle of the elite'; Cercle's 1983 Bonn meeting list

In 1934 he graduated second in his class [Whittier College], and went to Duke University law school, where he received a full scholarship. During World War II, Nixon served in the United States Navy. He could have been exempt from military service because of his Quaker religion, but volunteered anyway. He later said he hated Hitler and was horrified by the attack on Pearl Harbor. Nixon served as a Cargo Officer in the South Pacific theater. He rose to the rank of Lieutenant Commander and his superiors praised him as an excellent officer and leader. Nixon was elected to the United States House of Representatives from California in 1946. In the House, Nixon served on a committee that helped to implement the Marshall Plan which aided war-torn Europe. He also helped in the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act which set up controls over labor unions. He proposed a bill to facilitate servicemen's voting that was passed by both houses and signed into law. Nixon climbed the political ladder swiftly, making his name as an anti-Communist and a rough, no-holds-barred campaigner. Jack Ruby worked for Nixon in 1947. In 1948, Nixon won both the Republican and Democratic nomination for re-election to the House. Nixon was elected to the United States Senate in 1950, defeating actress turned congresswoman Helen Gahagan Douglas, whom Nixon accused during the campaign of having communist sympathies. In 1952 he was elected Vice President on Dwight D. Eisenhower's ticket, although he was only 39 years old. In 1960, he ran for President on his own but lost to John F. Kefnnedy, ironically a friend of Nixon's (in contrast to Eisenhower). In the election of 1968, he completed a remarkable political comeback by defeating Hubert H. Humphrey to become the 37th President of the United States. He promised to end the Vietnam war, but that took many years. William Colby, 'Honourable Men', p. 395: "Certainly, in Track II in 1970 it [the CIA] sought a military coup [in Italy by Gladio], at the direct order of President Nixon." The coup was cancelled at the last moment. In 1972 Nixon was re-elected in one of the biggest landslide election victories in U.S. political history, defeating George McGovern and garnering over 60% of the popular vote. He carried 49 of the 50 states, trailing only in Massachusetts. Nixon was eventually investigated for the instigation and cover-up of the burglary of the Democratic Party offices at the Watergate office complex. He resigned over it in 1974.

WATERGATE: REAL OR MANIPULATED AFFAIR?

June 17, 1967: Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara creats the Vietnam Study Task Force, for the purpose of writing an "encyclopedic history of the Vietnam War". He doesn't inform President LBJ or secretary of state Dean Rusk. Assigns his close aide and assistant secretary of defense John T. McNaughton to collect the papers.

July 1967: McNaughton and his family die in a mid-air plane collission. Then DOD official Leslie Gelb takes over.

June 1971: The Pentagon Papers are leaked. Nixon initially doesn't care much, because the papers include JFK and LBJ administration affairs, but Kissinger persuades him to try and oppose publication to prevent more from coming out.

July 24, 1971: White House Plumbers Unit set up. Its task was to stop the leaking of classified information, such as the Pentagon Papers, to the news media. E. Howard Hunt, recommended by Charles Colson, becomes one of the leading figures of the unit. Its liaison to the CIA is John Paisley. Hunt's wife and Paisley later die under mysterious circumstances. The Plumbers' first task was the burglary of the office of Daniel Ellsberg's Los Angeles psychiatrist, Lewis J. Fielding, in an effort to uncover evidence to discredit Ellsberg, who had leaked the Pentagon Papers.

July 23, 1971. Heavy private criticism of Nixon on the CIA. 1998, 'Killing Detente: The Right Attacks the CIA', p. 74: "President Nixon had no confidence in either the CIA or CIA director Richard Helms. Helms's biographer, Thomas Powers, reports that "Helms had often been reduced to leaving him [Nixon] notes at National Security Council meetings..."In his memoirs, Kissinger writes that "Nixon felt ill at ease with Helms personally, since he suspected that Helms was well liked by the liberal Georgetown social set to which Nixon ascribed many of his difficulties." Nixon's opinion of the CIA is also revealed in notes kept by White House chief of staff H. R. Haldeman of an 11 A.M. White House budget meeting on July 23, 1971. President Nixon stated, "The CIA tells [me] nothing I didn't read three days earlier in the New York Times."He went on to say, "Intelligence is a sacred cow. We've done nothing [about reducing its budget] since we've been here. [The] CIA isn't worth a damn. We have to get at the symbolism." He suggested a "25% cut across the board" and getting "rid of the disloyal types." Later, at the same meeting, the president again raised the subject of intelligence and described it as "how to spend $5 billion and learn nothing." Returning to the topic one last time that morning, Nixon said, "Intelligence reform won't save a lot of money but will do a helluva lot for my morale." Nearly a decade later, Nixon's animus toward the CIA was still apparent as he wrote: "American presidents were being supplied by the CIA with figures on Russian military spending that were only half of what the Agency later decided spending had been." Thanks in part to this intelligence blunder, we will find ourselves looking down the nuclear barrel in the 1980s."

November 1971: CIA of Richard Helms gets more power. 1998, 'Killing Detente: The Right Attacks the CIA', p. 76: "In November 1971, Nixon announced a major reorganization of the intelligence community. The new plan gave CIA director Richard Helms sweeping authority over the whole intelligence community and established a National Security Intelligence Committee [which Helms never made use of, preferring to work through the CIA's operations department]."

January 27, 1972: In order to strenghten the Plumber Unit, G. Gordon Liddy (FBI until 1962, when he became a lawyer; used to be J. Edgar Hoover's ghostwriter and staff member, so an ultra-right person; today does very well in radio (Sirius) and tv (Fox News)) is attracted. He meets with attorney general John N. Mitchell, White House counsel John Dean, Nixon's chief of staff H.R. Halderman, and Jeb Magruder, an ally and former aide to Haldeman. In order to win the upcoming presidential election, Liddy describes a million dollar plan to disrupt the upcoming Democratic National Convention and protect the Republican National Convention. He proposes wiretaps, break ins, entrapping opponents with prostitutes, and the (temporary) kidnapping potential of leftist protest organizers. Mitchell and the others think the plans are way to extreme. Mitchel is the one who called in Libby and the person who controlled a secret Republican Fund to finance Libby's actions (June 15, 2014, CBS News, '"All the President's Men" at 40'').

February 4, 1972: Liddy has scaled down the plan. It will cost $500,000 and has scrapped most of the illegal operations. It still includes wiretapping, however. This becomes Operation Gemstone. Eventually the assigned budget becomes $250,000, with a number of smear operations and eavesdropping taking place against Democrat opponents.

February 1972: Nixon and Kissinger in China to discuss rapprochement.

June 17, 1972: Watergate Hotel break in. Agents are caught. Names: James McCord (security man for President Nixon's Committee to Re-elect the President), Frank Sturgis, Virgilio Gonzalez, Eugenio Martinez and Bernard L. Barker. Alfred C. Baldwin III, who was sitting across the street as an observer and who should have paid attention to any approaching police officers, was never convicted. Within hours the police find Howard Hunt's telephone number with two of the burglers. The men also carry bills with sequential serial numbers. The reason the men are caught is because someone put tape on security doors that prevented them from locking. The not too bright security guard removed the tape, but didn't call the police until an hour later when he noticed that tape had been put on the same doors.

Within a day Lee Pennington, a former top man at the FBI who runs domestic CIA agents and is involved with the American Security Council, goes over to McCord's house and helps his wife burn any documents tying him to the CIA.

June 23, 1972, Nixon White House Tapes, discussion between President Nixon and his chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman: "[Haldeman:] But the way to handle this now is for us to have [CIA deputy director Vernon] Walters call Pat Gray [FBI acting director from May 3, 1972, a day after Hoover's death, until April 1973] and just say, "Stay the hell out of his. This is--there's some business here we don't want you going any further on." That's not an unusual development. And that would take care of it. [President Nixon:] What's the matter with Pat Gray? You mean he doesn't want to? [Haldeman:] Pat does want to. He doesn't know how to, and he doesn't have any basis for doing it. Given this, he will then have the basis. He'll call Mark Felt [FBI deputy associate director under associate director Clyde Tolson, Hoover's lover whose health was failing, and director Hoover since July 1971; Felt's purpose was to rein in the power of William Sullivan, who reportedly carried out the FBI's blackests operations, including the assassination of Martin Luther King and assisting in the JFK and RFK assassinations; took over all of Hoover's incriminating files after his death in May 1972 and hit them from new acting director L. Patrick Gray; Felt was effectively in charge of the FBI due to the continued absences of Gray at the office; in 2005 Felt was confirmed as deep throat, the person who informed the papers about Nixon's ties to the Watergate break in] in, and the two of them--and Mark Felt wants to cooperate because he's ambitious. He'll call them in and say, "We've gotten a signal from across the river to put the hold on this." And that'll fit rather well because the FBI agents who are working the case, at this point, feel that's what it is: this is CIA. ... Well, [only] if they will [cooperate can we keep covering this up]. But then we're relying on more and more people all the time. That's the problem. And it does stop if we could, if we take this other step [of contacting the CIA]. [Nixon:] Alright. Fine. [Haldeman:] And they seem to feel the thing to do is to get them to stop. And they say the only way to do that is a White House instruction, and that it's got to be to [Richard] Helms and, what's his name? Walters. And the proposal would be that Ehrlichman and I call them in and say... [Nixon:] Alright. Fine. How do you call them in? I mean you just--well, we protected Helms from one hell of a lot of things. [Haldeman:] That's what Ehrlichman says. [Nixon:] Of course, this Hunt, that will uncover a lot of things. You open that scab there's a hell of a lot of things and we just feel that it would be very detrimental to have this thing go any further. This involves these Cubans, Hunt and a lot of hankypanky that we have nothing to do with ourselves. ... [Nixon:] [Mitchell] didn't know how it was going to be handled though [I think] -- with Dahlberg and the Texans and so forth? Well who was the asshole that did? Is it Liddy? Is that the fellow? He must be a little nuts. [Haldeman:] He is. [Nixon:] I mean he just isn't well screwed on is he? Is that the problem? [Haldeman:] No, but he was under pressure, apparently, to get more information, and as he got more pressure, he pushed the people harder to move harder -- [Nixon:] Pressure from Mitchell? [Halderman:] Apparently. [Nixon:] Oh, Mitchell. Mitchell was at the point (unintelligible) [that you made on this, that exactly what I need from you is on the... [Haldeman:] [Operation][Gemstone] Yeah. [Nixon:] All right, fine, I understand it all. We won't second-guess Mitchell and the rest. Thank God it wasn't Colson. [Haldeman:] The F.B.I. interviewed Colson yesterday. ... the F.B.I. guys working the case concluded that there were one or two possibilities... they think it was either a White House operation and they had some obscure reasons for it -- nonpolitical, or it was a Cuban and the C.I.A. And after their interrogation of Colson yesterday, they concluded it was not the White House, but are now convinced it is a C.I.A. thing... [Nixon:] Well, not sure of their analysis, I'm not going to get that involved. I'm (unintelligible). [Halderman:] No, sir, we don't want you to. [Nixon:] You call them in. [Haldeman:] Good deal. [Nixon:] Play it tough. That's the way they play it and that's the way we are going to play it. ... [Nixon:] OK., just postpone (scratching noises) (unintelligible) just say (unintelligible) very bad to have this fellow Hunt, ah, he knows too damned much, if he was involved -- you happen to know that. If it gets out that this is all involved, the Cuba thing it would be a fiasco. It would make the C.I.A. look bad, it's going to make Hunt look bad, and it is likely to blow the whole Bay of Pigs thing which we think would be very unfortunate - - both for C.I.A. and for the country, at this time, and for American foreign policy. Just tell him to lay off. Don't you? [Halderman:] Yep. That's the basis to do it on. Just leave it at that. [Nixon:] I don't know if he'll get any ideas for doing it because our concern political (unintelligible). Helms is not one to (unintelligible) -- I would just say, lookit, because of the Hunt involvement, whole cover basically this."

Helms and Walters refuse to cooperate with the request of Nixon and Halderman, however. And the FBI keeps looking into the case.

Woodward and Bernstein, working under Ben Bradlee at the Washington Post, are assigned to the story the same day of the break in. They begin to dig.

June 19, 1972, 2:00 AM at night in a parking garage, two days after the break in: "Deep Throat" tells Bob Woodward that Watergate is part of a larger campaign of Nixon to silence his opponents.

Mitchell threatens Katherine Graham, owner of the Washington Post, and Bradlee doesn't want to the two reporters to write too much, certainly not before the elections. Not entirely sure yet. (June 15, 2014, CBS News, '"All the President's Men" at 40'')

July 6, 1972: Richard Helms informs the FBI that the CIA will not be damaged by a full investigation into the Watergate break-in.

August 1, 1972: The Washington Post reports that a $25,000 cashier's check intended for Nixon's Committee to Reelect the President (CREEP) has been found in the bank account of a Watergate burglar.

September 29, 1972: Woodward and Bernstein of the Washington Post report that John Mitchell, while serving as Attorney-General, controlled a secret Republican fund used to finance widespread intelligence-gathering operations against the Democrats (Operation Gemstone).

October 27, 1972: Finally the rest of the press catches on. Walter Cronkite on CBS reports on Watergate opens the floodgates on the affair. Now media outlets in general start to become interested in the Washington Post stories.

September 1972: Nixon says to his chief of staff that Helms has to go as CIA director and that the budget of the CIA needs to be cut by as much as 40 percent.

November 15, 1972: Richard Nixon, Charles Colson, H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman meet at Camp David to discuss Howard Hunt's blackmail threat. He demands money for himself and the other burglars for legal fees and for their families to be taken care of. Nixon's people estimate $1 million will be needed to keep them all quiet. Hunt so receives a first $75,000.

November 20, 1972: Helms meets with Nixon and his chief of staff Haldeman. They inform Helms that they want him to resign, obviously for continued refusal to block the Watergate investigation. Rather ridiculously, they offer to send him as ambassador to the Soviet Union. Helms picks Iran instead, but says he might want to retire instead in March 1960 when his mandatory CIA retirement comes up. 2006, John Prados, 'Safe for Democracy: The Secret Wars of the CIA', pp. 390-391: "Bob Haldeman records in his diary for November 20, 1972, the fateful day at Camp David, that Helms recommended either Bill Colby or Tom Karamessines as his successor." 2006, State Department, 'Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers': "Helms "pushed" William Colby or Thomas Karamessines as his successor."

December 8, 1972: Howard Hunt's wife, Dorothy, dies in a plane crash. She is found with $10,000 in cash in her purse. 45 people die in total.

January, 13, 1973: James McCord and Gordon Liddy are convicted of conspiracy, burglary and wiretapping in the Watergate incident.

February 1973: Richard Helms is dismissed as CIA director, several weeks prior to what would have been his CIA retirement. The new CIA director, James Schlesinger, comes in with the message: "I'm here to make sure you don't screw Richard Nixon."

May 16, 1973: Bob Woodward sends a memo to Ben Bradlee, his boss at the Washington Post and an old friend of Richard Helms, that contains the latest information received from Deep Throat. This confirms that Richard Nixon, H. R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, John Dean, Frederick LaRue and John N. Mitchell are all involved in the cover-up of the Watergate scandal. He also points out that E. Howard Hunt has been blackmailing Nixon.

June 23, 1973: Watergate prosecutors find a memo addressed to John Ehrlichman describing in detail the plans to burglarize the office of psychiatrist's office to find files on Daniel Ellsberg.

July 2, 1973: William Colby replaces James Schlesinger, who becomes secretary of defense. Schlesinger has become a hated figure at the Agency, but Colby agreed with him and has become the logical successor. Colby's openness to Congress is loathed by Helms, Kissinger and others. 1979, The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 244, p. 58: "Yet if Schlesinger was resented as an outsider, William Colby came to be disliked by many (not all) CIA people as something even worse, a kind of traitor who betrayed the trust Helms had shown in him, and who severely damaged the Agency during the two and a half years he ran it. Helms had given Colby just about every important job he'd held. But Colby was fundamentaly out of sympathy with the sort of intelligence service Helms believed in, a fact which began to emerge as soon as Helms announced his departure. During the following six weeks, Colby established himself as Schlesinger's chief guide and confidant within the CIA. He frequently briefed Schlesinger in his office at the Atomic Energy Commission, persuaded him to drop the position of executive director/ comptroller, and won the appointment as Karamessines's successor."

April 1974: The House Judiciary Committee subpoenas Nixon to release the White House tapes. Nixon resists for several months and initially releases modified transcripts.

August 5, 1974: The above "smoking gun" tape is released to the public. It forces Nixon out of office for having tried to cover up the burglery.

August 8, 1974: In a televised address to the nation at 9pm, Richard Nixon announces that he will resign as president of the United States. A month later he is pardoned by Gerald Ford.

Source(s): 1983 Bonn meeting list; 1985 Cercle particpants list, Washington D.C.; Adrian Hanni (also to one meeting in 1986, two meetings in 1987, one in 1989, one in 1990)

Born in 1942. Co-founder of the pro-French Algeria Federation of Nationalist Students (FEN) in 1960. Edited the journal of FEN 1960-1967. Leading light in Europe-Action 1963-66. Co-author with Alain de Benoist of 'Le Courage est Leur Patrie' (Courage is Their Homeland) in 1965 (pro-OAS). Co-founder of the Mouvement Nationaliste du Progres (MNP) in 1966. Became a journalist for Spectacle du Monde in 1966. The magazine was owned by Cercle participant Raymond Bourgine through Compagnie Française de Journaux (French Newspaper Company). Co-author with Alain de Bedoist of 'Rhodésie: Pays des Lions Fidèles' (Rhodesia: Country of Faitful Lions; preface by Ian Smith) in 1967. In 1968 d'Orcival also became a long-time journalist and later editor of Valeurs Actuelles, also owned by Bourgine. D'Orcival would stay a writer for Spectacle du Monde and Valeurs Actuelles for the rest of his life. 1982, Volume 18, The Review of the news: "French Editor FRANCOIS D'ORCIVAL An Exclusive Interview With The Distinguished Editor Of France's Conservative Weekly Valeurs Actuelles On Changing Europe by John Rees." Anno 2011 he was president its editorial committee for Spectacle du Monde. December 23, 2004, French Business Digest, 'French National Press Federation Appoints President': "French National Press Federation (FNPF) has recently appointed Francois d'Orcival at the position of Xavier Ellie, former FNPF president, it was reported on December 23, 2004. D'Orcival is president of the board of editors of French magazine publishing group Valmonde, part of the French diversified holding Groupe Industriel Marcel Dassault. Enhanced Coverage Linking Groupe Industriel Marcel Dassault. Moreover, he is president of the professional trade union for the magazine and opinion press (SPPMO)." February 4, 2008, The Globe and Mail (Canada), 'Sarkozy makes it official': ""For the traditionalist and right-wing electorate, he [Sarkozy] was just too much," François d'Orcival, an editorial writer at the conservative magazine Valeurs Actuelles, said in an interview with Europe 1 radio. "He broke with their image of what the presidential family should be. So this marriage - even though it's his third marriage - could help calm the waters." The nosedive in Mr. Sarkozy's approval ratings began just about the same time as his highly public liaison with Ms. Bruni, a tall brunette who had no compunction in the past about posing in the nude and who once described herself in one of her songs as a woman "of excesses." For weeks, French and foreign magazines have featured photos of the couple smooching on weekend getaways to the Pyramids in Egypt and Petra in Jordan, prompting outrage from some Arab lawmakers." November 12, 2007, Agence France Presse, 'Sarkozy faces union showdown': " ... "Are the railway workers for Sarkozy what the miners were for Mrs Thatcher," asked right-wing commentator Francois d'Orcival in Le Figaro newspaper."

2007, James G. Shields, 'The Extreme Right in France: From Pétain to Le Pen', p. 95: "Attracting mainly university students, lycee pupils and some budding intellectuals on the far right, the FEN [Federation of Nationalist Students] was set up in May 1960 by Francois d'Orcival and Fabrice Laroche (generally held to be pseudonyms of Amaury de Chaunac-Lanzac and Alain de Benoist). It was conceived as a response to the ''growing Marxist influence within the UNEF" (National Union of French Students) [and wanted to keep French Algeria]..." p. 120: "Between January 1963 and November 1966, Europe-Action served as a politico-intellectual forum for former activists from Jeune Nation and the OAS, members of the FEN, self-proclaimed, fascists such as Lucien Rebatet and Maurice Bardeche, and residual Vichyites and anti-Semites like Henry Coston and Jacques Plonchard d'Assac. ... The leading figures in the movement were Dominique Venner (knew Francois de Grossouvre), ... Alain de Benoist (alias Fabrice Laroche), Amaury de Chaunac-Lanzac (alias Francois d'Orcival)... Europe-Action brought together these up-and-coming names with OAS activists like Maurice Gingembre, collaborationists like Maurice-Ivan Sicard (alias Saint-Paulien, and Waffen-SS veterans ... Beyond its French contributors, the journal also articulated its Europeanism through contributions by such impenitents as Otto Skorzeny, Erich Kern and the Belgian Rexist leader and Waffen-SS veteran, Leon Degrelle." Pp. 136-138: "The formation of the MNP [Mouvement Nationaliste du Progres] ] in January 1966 was a rejection, by Europe-Action and the FEN notably, of the personal quarrels and lack of 'clear and coherent political objectives' exhibited by Tixier-Vignancour's presidential campaign. The MNP reasserted the radicalism from which the latter was seen to have departed. Under Venner's leadership, it called for the creation 'not of a conservative party but of a revolutionary movement'. ... At the same time, those behind the launch of the MNP formed another, semi-clandestine organisation, the Centre Nationalist. This was conceived as a think-tank and liaison centre for diverse nationalist movements. Also under Venner's direction, the Centre Nationaliste comprised no more than a few dozen carefully chosen members, among thme leading lights from Europe-Action and the FEN such as Francois d'Orcival ..., Fabrice Laroche (Alain de Benoist)... Other notable figures were the former president of Jeune Nation, Francois Sidos, the former OAS treasurer, Maurice Gingembre, and the Waffen-SS veteran and future treasurer of the FN, Pierre Bousquet. The Centre Nationaliste was designed to serve as the brains behind the MNP in particular and French militant nationalism in general. The objective of the Centre Nationaliste and MNP together was to fill the doctrinal gap which had consigned Poujade, the OAS and Tixier-Vignancour to failure and to enable the radical right 'to take power in the service of a nationalist revolution'. ... Its political mission statement was nonetheless clearly as one with that of Europe-Action: 'To bring about a nationalist Europe and ensure the defence of the white man and of Western culture against the threats posed by coloured peoples and communism.' ... The MNP's inaugural congress was held in Paris on 30 April-1 May 1966. It was attended by over 300 delegates, with a reportedly strong showing among the young. Its leader was largely that of the Centre Nationaliste (Venner, de Benoist, ... the OAS veteran Jean-Marcel Zagame...) ... delegations were present at the MNP's inaugural conference from Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Britain, the United States and Argentina. The white minority government of Ian Smith in Rhodesia sent a Rhodesian national flag which was prominently displayed throughout the conference. In return for its propaganda in favour of colonialism, apartheid and the strong state, the MNP was suspected of receiving financial subsidies from the governments of Rhodesia, South Africa, Spain and Portugal. It also cultivated contacts with extreme-right groups not represented at its inaugural conference, such as the German Nation-Europe circle and the Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschland (NPD). Despite claiming a membership of 300,000, the MNP appears to have had no more than some 2,500 members."

Source(s): 1983 Bonn meeting list; 1985 Cercle particpants list, Washington D.C.

Grandson of Philips founder Anton Philips. Director of Philips until 1990.

November 25, 2011, www.perrypierik.com, 'Bernhard, Prince of the Netherlands (1911–2004), was involved in arms trade and military plans to take over Indonesia, says Dutch historian Gerard Aalders': "Press release: Bernhard, Prince of the Netherlands (1911–2004), was involved in arms trade and military plans to take over Indonesia, says Dutch historian Gerard Aalders. In 1948 Professor Duyff, a World War II resistance hero and close friend to the Prince, was sent to Indonesia on a mission to contact arms dealers and bankers in order to investigate the possibility of a military coupe in Indonesia. The Prince realised that he would have to mobilise the public opinion for such an operation. The Dutch government was opposed to the Prince’s plans, so Bernhard was forced to organize his own network, the so-called Tie Club [Dassenclub]. The network was run by important people such as Unilever frontman J.W.Beijen, Philips CEO Frans Otten and Moscow-ambassador Walter Bedell Smith. Gerard Aalders’ new book sheds new light on the life of the Prince. Until now, the dominant view was that of historian Cees Fasseur, who claimed that Bernhard was politically and financially naive. Gerard Aalders proves this wrong. Bernhard Zakenprins. ... ISBN 978-94-6153-015-8"

November 11, 2005, Volkskrant, 'Wars van kleine stapjes en grote ambities': "Is Johan Willem Beyen (1897-1976) een vergeten Nederlander? En zo ja, is hij dan terecht of ten onrechte een vergeten Nederlander geworden? ... Zijn talent als netwerker bracht hem als Londense balling gedurende dejaren 1940-1945 in nauw contact met prins Bernhard, die hem toeliet totzijn 'dassenclub', een exclusief soort eedgenootschap waarvan de ledenvolgens een padvinderachtige regel 'te allen tijde voor elkaar moesteninstaan, in elk opzicht'. Mede aan z'n voortreffelijke relatie met het aanstaande koningspaar (hijdeed in Londen z'n ochtendgymnastiek voor een foto van Juliana, Bernharden hun kinderen) zou Beyen volgens Weenink zijn benoeming op BuitenlandseZaken hebben te danken. De voorzitter van de dassenclub moet hem, nadat hemeen topfunctie bij de Wereldbank was ontgaan, samen met Hare Majesteitbehulpzaam zijn geweest bij het vinden van die passende betrekking in hetvaderland."

"Uit de marechausseerapporten komt met name de naam van Jan Willem Duyff naar voren als persoon die nauw contact onderhield met prins Bernhard en daarnaast met allerlei andere meer of minder louche figuren of wapenhandelaren. Bernhard had een ‘dassenclub’ of ‘Tie club’ om zich heen verzameld waarin ongeveer vijfentwintig industriëlen waren opgenomen. En Bernhard schreef brieven aan bijvoorbeeld Eisenhower om Duyff te introduceren."

"ajwb.Ontwerp van ‘Relaas van mijn handelingen’. [Sefton] Delmer was net als Beyen lid van de zogeheten Dassenclub, de groep nauwe vrienden van prins Bernhard. (pc vm.‘Overzicht van de voornaamste gebeurtenissen met betrekking tot de tegen h.m. de Koningin gerichte perscampagne’ geschreven door Van Heeckeren van Molecaten, 9-11-1956.)"

"... Teengs Gerritsen de bemiddelende rol die hem op het lijf was geschreven. Zijn nooit helemaal helder geworden betrokkenheid bij internationale vliegtuigbouwers (officieel vertegenwoordiger van Lockheed ‘stiekem’ ook werkzaam voor Northrop) versterkte zijn vriendschap met Prins Bernhard die al van meteen na de oorlog dateerde. Hij was lid van de exclusieve ‘tie-club’, het gezelschap intimi dat een das mocht dragen met de kleuren van het Huis Lippe Biesterfeld."

1962, Alden Hatch, 'H. R. H. Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands: an authorized biography': "The inner circle of his friends belong to the Tie Club. The insignia of membership is, not unexpectedly, a rather conservative necktie with a pattern of small stripes which Bernhard gives to those friends whose adoption is well tried."

Marcel Metze about this third book on Philips: "Ik heb honderden brieven gevonden die niet eerder zijn gebruikt. De lijst is bijna te lang om op te noemen. ... Verder sta ik stil bij de psychische stoornis van schoonzoon Frans Otten; ik vond heel veel brieven, onder andere aan Prins Bernhard, waar die uit blijkt. Opmerkelijk is ook hoe Anton een joodse zakenpartner bij Osram hielp om zijn geld uit nazi-Duitsland weg te sluizen. Met een volkomen illegale truc. Anton kon heel charmant zijn, maar ook keihard. Ook die harde kanten komen duidelijk naar voren."

2004, Marcellinus Metze, University of Amsterdam, Ph.D. dissertation, 'Anton Philips 1874-1951', Hoofdstuk 17: Verbroken verbindingen: "Willemm de Graaff was tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog een cruciale schakel in het contact tussen Anton Philips in de Verenigde Staten en zijn familie in Nederland, tussen de directies in Eindhoven en New York, én tussenn Nederlandse spionagegroepen en de Nederlandse en Britse inlichtingendienstenn in Londen.46 ... Otten had de prins vóór de oorlogg al diverse keren ontmoet, onder meer bij diens bezoeken aan Eindhoven.. In de kleine Nederlandse gemeenschap te Londen kwamen zee elkaar nu regelmatig tegen. De brieven wekken de indruk dat ze elkaar ookk privé ontmoetten en over talloze, vertrouwelijke onderwerpen met elkaarr spraken. Prins Bernhard herinnert zich Frans Otten ook anno 20044 nog zeer goed; hij liet deze auteur via zijn particulier secretaris weten:: 'Hij was een goede vriend... [die] zich bemoeide met alles en allen.... [hij ] wist alles beter en meestal wilde hij dat, wat hij vroeg, gisteren gedaann werd.'11 ... Watt wel opvalt, is dat Otten betrekkelijk goed wist wat er in het hart vann de regering speelde. Misschien ontleende hij die kennis - behalve aann prins Bernhard - deels aan contact met Piet Kerstens, de leider van dee Indische Katholieke Partij, die begin januari 1942 in Londen was gearriveerdd om minister van Economische Zaken Steenberghe op te volgen.. Kerstens was met zijn vijfenveertig jaren een leeftijdgenoot (Otten wass net zesenveertig geworden) en woonde een tijdje in hetzelfde Hotel Ritz.. Hij had een overrompelende, daadkrachtige persoonlijkheid en sprakk Engels, Frans en Duits.123 Otten had hem hoog, Kersten paste ook preciess in het profiel van zijn gewenste war cabinet.*2* Hoe goed Otten opp de hoogte was van de interne discussies in de regering, blijkt bijvoorbeeldd uit een brief van 12 maart 1942. Hij schreef prins Bernhard dat Nederlandd nu eindelijk een diplomatiek vertegenwoordiger naar de Sovjet- Uniee moest sturen, sinds de Duitse inval toch een bondgenoot.125 Inderdaadd hing een besluit daarover in de lucht... Zelfss zijn jonge helden in Londen vonden Frans Otten tijdens zijn vijf maandenn te Londen, eind 1941, begin 1942, een drukke man. Chris Krediett maakte later in een brief de opmerking dat hij in hun 'filosofische' gesprekkenn 'af en toe ook wel eens aan het woord wou komen'.139 Er is veell reden om aan te nemen dat Otten dat voorjaar weer in een meer manischee periode raakte. Het gesprek met Gerbrandy tijdens de val van Javaa toont aan dat hij vooral met zijn eigen ideeën bezig was en geen gevoell voor timing en tact (meer) had. Zijn enorme inzet in de zaak rond dee vlieger August van Rossum getuigt van betrokkenheid maar ook van eenn zekere obsessie. De frequentie en lengte van zijn brieven namen toe, somss stuurde hij prins Bernhard er twee op één dag, er doken weer de emotionelee onderstrepingen in op. Ter voorbereiding van gesprekken mett de prins en Van 't Sant maakte hij lijstjes met wel twintig tot dertig onderwerpen,, eigenlijk met alles wat in zijn hoofd zat. ... Hett valt kortom in te zien dat Frans Otten er niet in slaagde goede re-latiess met de Nederlandse regering te ontwikkelen. Men vond hem in diee kring nog altijd, net als in het voorjaar van 1941, bemoeizuchtig en betweterig,, en ging welwillend met hem om, maar niet iedereen nam hemm helemaal serieus. Omgekeerd nam hij zelfde Nederlandse regering enn overheid in Londen niet voldoende serieus. Hij zette zich in zijn brievenn aan Bernhard enorm af tegen de oude garde, die hij steevast slap, zwakk en ongeïnspireerd noemde. Hij klaagde voortdurend dat zowel hett leger als het regeringsapparaat te weinig kansen bood aan jongeren -- die hij per definitie aanduidde als fris, sterk en initiatiefrijk - en voeldee zich duidelijk veel meer verwant met eigenzinnige en roekeloze liedenn als Hazelhoff en ook prins Bernhard (toen pas eenendertig jaar oud),, en met 'mannen van de daad' als Kerstens dan met 'mannen van dee macht' als de laat-vijftiger Gerbrandy of de midden-vijftiger Furstner.. Gezien zijn temperament zal hij dit niet alleen schriftelijk aan prins Bernhardd maar ongetwijfeld ook in allerlei gesprekken aan anderen hebbenn geventileerd. ... Otten,, die natuurlijk als handicap had dat hij niet permanent in Londenn verbleef, stond ook weer niet helemaal buiten het Nederlandse establishmentt in de Britse hoofdstad. Hij was wel betrokken bij de Studiegroepp voor Reconstructieproblemen, die Paul Rijkens in de zomer vann 1941 na overleg met de regering had opgericht. Deze groep dijde uit tott rond tweehonderd leden in vierentwintig subcommissies, die tussen eindd 1942 en begin 1944 een groot aantal rapporten schreven over vraagstukkenn rond de terugkeer naar Nederland, na afloop van de oorlog.145 Ottenn werd voorzitter van de Amerikaanse afdeling van de studiegroep enn leverde - samen met Herman van Walsem - de nodige bijdragen aann de discussies over terugkeerthema's, waarover later meer."

"De macht van zo'n jongere wordt geïllustreerd aan de hand van een foto van de Raad van Bestuur van Philips in het jaarverslag van 1978. Rond een tafel zijn tien nette deftige oudere heren aanwezig en ook de ”snotneus” Frans Otten. Maar mr F.F. Otten is wel de kleinzoon van A.F. Philips, een van de oprichters en vele jaren de leider van het Philips-concern."

Source(s): February 21, 2012, Cercle chairman Lord Lothian's invitational letter to speak at Le Cercle to Saudi Arabia's deputy minister of foreign affairs Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz: "At meetings last year, we were priviliged to talks from, amonst others ... Urmas Paet, Foreign Minister, Estonia..."

Member of the Estonian Parliament 2003-2014. Member of the Reform Party, part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe. Minister of Culture 2004-2005. Minister of foreign affairs 2005-2014. Member of the European Parliament since 2014.

Source(s): November 1988 – Issue 17, Lobster Magazine, 'Brian Crozier, the Pinay Circle and James Goldsmith' (quoting from the Langemann papers)

Filippo Pandolfi born in 1927 in Bergamo, Italy, and holds a degree in literature and philosophy. He speaks Greek, Latin, French, and English in addition to his native Italian and managed a publishing house from 1952 until his election to Parliament. A Christian Democrat member of the Italian Parliament for more than twenty years, has held several important ministerial portfolios, including Finance (1976-1978), Treasury (1978-1980), Industry and Commerce (1980-1981 and 1982-1983), and Agriculture (1983-1988). In these ministerial posts he dealt with many central European Community issues, including the value-added tax, the European Monetary System, and the Common Agricultural Policy. He has played a central role in fostering the competitiveness of European industry, has expanded the EC investment in R&D in the member countries, and has established centers of excellence in many areas of technology. Pandolfi was a member of the Carnegie Group in 1991-1992.

Source(s): 1985 Washington D.C. list; 1985 Cercle meeting in Bonn (name appears on a handwritten list of names of Garnier-Lancon, probably persons who were eligible for an invitation); Atlantic Circle website (existed from October 2000 to June 2002; one simple html page, 350 words; for 90% based on information already published in books or exposed in news articles): "Le Cercle, in the past, has been honored to hear the views of such notables as Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, David Rockefeller, William Casey, Franz Josef Strauss, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Zbigniew Brzezinski, General Norman Schwartzkopf, the Sultan of Oman, Otto von Hapsburg, Winston Churchill II, Charles Pasqua, Anton Rupert, King Hussein of Jordan and President Ion lliescu of Romania."

In 1947 he helped create the section of the Gaullist Party RPF movement for the Alpes-Maritimes. From 1952 to 1971 he worked for Ricard, a producer of alcoholic beverages (most notably pastis), starting as a salesman.

With Jacques Foccart (later superior to coup plotter Bob Denard, who worked for Mobutu), he helped create the Service d'Action Civique (SAC) in 1959 to counter the terrorist actions of the OAS during the Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962). The SAC would be charged with the underground actions of the Gaullist movement and participated in the organization of the 30 May 1968 Gaullist counter-demonstration. The SAC recruited among the Gaullist movement, but also in the organized crime. Etienne Léandri, a friend of Charles Pasqua, was thus a former Collaborationist, reconverted in illegal drug trade and protected by the CIA for his anti-communist activities. Others famous gangsters of the time who were SAC members include Jo Attia or Christian David (French-Corsican mafia hitman; heroin trafficker spy; his name became later known for his alleged inside knowledge of the JFK assassination).

After de Gaulle's change of policy concerning the Algerian War (1954-1962) and his subsequent support of Algerian independence, many SAC members, supporters or outright activists of "French Algeria" resigned. Pierre Debizet, official director of the SAC, was replaced by Paul Comiti, a bodyguard of de Gaulle. General de Gaulle then sent the SAC against the Organisation armée secrète (OAS) terrorist group which launched a campaign of bombings and assassinations to try to block the implementation of the March 1962 Evian agreements on a cease-fire with the National Liberation Front (FLN).

A "strictly confidential" report from Belgium written by substitute magistrate Jean-Francois Godbille does just that. On pages 52 and 53 we read: "Major BOUGEROL and de BONVOISIN, according to a confidential report of the gendarmerie of the Wavre district dated August 14, 1985 (photocopy in appendix), were extremely close the lawyer Jean VIOLET, a member of the secret services of France and the Vatican, and close to the SAC and the P2 Lodge." Lobster Magazine #18: "Also in on the 1979 Teheran trip was the SDECE's expert, named in Marenches' memoirs as Capt. M. Could this be ex-SDECE Captain Jean- Charles Marchiani, who negotiated the hostages' release in Beirut for Chirac? If so, Chirac's hostages cell was no less than the key officers from Marenches' SDECE Iran desk in 1979. Marchiani had previously been involved in two of the dirtier episodes of SDECE history: he had been a member of the four-man 'Section 6' which dealt with 'honourable correspondents' (most notable example, Jean Violet) that was implicated in the 1970 smear of President Pompidou's wife (the Markovic affair); and the 1971 Delouette affair when an SDECE agent of that name was caught smuggling 44 kilos of heroin into the US. Apart from the fact that Marchiani was Delouette's 'handler', the man who supplied Delouette with the heroin was Marchiani's cousin, Dominique Mariani. The heroin was apparently to be sold to finance SDECE operations in the United States. The SDECE unit compromised by both scandals, Section 6, was widely thought to be hostile to Pompidou because he had betrayed General de Gaulle. Certainly in the subsequent investigation it emerged that Section 6 was close to the Gaullist parallel police, the Service d'Action Civique, founded by Charles Pasqua - Chirac's Interior Minister in 1987 and overall head of the hostages cell. Chirac's links to Paul Violet may also be a lead to future investigation."

First elected deputy of the UDR Gaullist party in 1968. In charge of the organisation of Chirac's campaign for the 1981 presidential election, won by the candidate of the Socialist Party (PS), François Mitterrand (1981-1995). Senator of Hauts-de-Seine (region that covers the near western suburbs of Paris) from 1977 to 1986, from 1988 to 1993, and from 1995 to 1999. President of the General Council of the Hauts-de-Seine from 1988 to 2004 and again a Senator after that. Seen as a mentor to Chirac, even though he broke with him in 1995. Interior Minister from 1986 to 1988, under Jacques Chirac's cohabitation government, and also from 1993 to 1995, under the government of Edouard Balladur. Created the euro-sceptic Rally for France and European Independence (RPF) in 1999. President of the Union for Europe of the Nations at the European Parliament from 1999 to 2004. In 2002 he ran for president, but dropped out after allegedly failing to obtain the 500 representatives' signatures needed to enter the race. Many suspect that he decided not to run because Jean-Marie Le Pen's presence in the election did not leave him enough political space.

Pasqua has been involved in various political scandals: the Angolagate arms trafficking scandal, the Sofremi affair, the Annemasse casino affair, as well as the Fondation Hamon affair. He has also denied receiving money from Saddam Hussein's government during the course of the Oil-for-Food Programme, following the publication of his name in 2004 on the list published by Al Mada.

The Sofremi affair is still under investigation. It concerns monies paid between 1993 to 1995 by the Sofremi, a weapons exporter attached the Ministry of Interior, to people close to Pasqua.

In the Annemasse casino affair, which dates back to 1994 while he was Interior Minister of Edouard Balladur, Pasqua was suspected of having delivered an administrative authorization to operate a casino in Annemasse to Robert Feliciaggi in exchange for future political funding. Robert Felliciagi was assassinated in March 2006 in Ajaccio, Corsica. he investigation was closed in February 2007.

In 2009 Pasqua was jailed for one year over the Angolagate Affair. Pasqua had been involved in the covert sales of arms to Angola. October 30, 2009, Afrik.com, 'AngolaGate: France-Angola: Charles Pasqua reveals secrets from the very top': "According to the details from the trial, a 790 million dollar arms deal was made in with the MLPA leader Eduardo Dos Santos, between 1993 and 1998. He was at war with Jonas Savimbi’s UNITA rebel faction at the time. ... The former French top cop has called for the lifting of an official secrecy act on arms sale documents. He has also accused former Presidents François Mitterand and Jacques Chirac, as well as former Prime Ministers, Édouard Balladur and Alain Juppé, of condoning the Angola arms sale despite a United Nations embargo." Interesting is the fact that France was supporting the communist/socialist MLPA, while the United States, Great Britain and South Africa have been supporting its opponent the UNITA in the 1980s. UNITA fell out of favor in the 1990s, however.

Source(s): 2014, Johannes Grossmann, 'Die Internationale der Konservativen: Transnationale Elitenzirkel und private Außenpolitik in Westeuropa seit 1945', p. 553: "In May 1996 ... former Prime Minister Shimon Peres and his successor, Benjamin Netanyahu, were invited."

Knesset member 1959-2007. Prime minister of Israel April - June 1977, 1984-1986, 1995-1996. Minister of defense 1974-1977, 1995-1996. Minister of finance 1988-1990. Foreign affairs minister 1986-1988, 1992-1995, 2001-2002. President of Israel 2007-2014.

Source(s): Adrian Hanni (visited Le Cercle in 1985, 1987 and 1989); an assistant of his visited in 1982, 1983 and 1984.

Born in 1941. Richard Perle and Edward Luttwak (member Special Operations Policy Advisory Group under Reagan, when Perle was at the Pentagon) were roommates at the London School of Economics. Both later went to work for Senator Henry Jackson's campaign in favor of additional ballistic missiles. November 11, 1985, Los Angeles Times, 'Perle Wages Behind-the-Scenes Crusade Against Kremlin : Soviets' Mortal Foe Lurks at Pentagon': "Perle interrupted his studies at USC to spend the 1962-63 academic year at the London School of Economics. His roommate was Edward N. Luttwak..." October 15, 2002, The Nation, 'Perle's Passion Is Served': "It was not far from there to the London School of Economics, where Edward N. Luttwak, now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, recalls Perle defending President Kennedy's bold embargo of Soviet missiles in Cuba in a university debate, almost single-handedly turning anti-American audience opinion." 2008, Justin Vaisse, 'Neoconservatism: the biography of a movement', p. 119: "In 1963 [Perle] attended the London School of Economics (where one of his classmates was Edward Luttwak…) … Wohlstetter, Nitze and Acheson wanted to help Jackson defeat Symington and were in need of research assistance. In addition to Perle, they hired… Paul Wolfowitz, the son of celebrated mathematician Jacob Wolfowitz, with whom Wohlstetter himself had studied. (Two other researchers would later be added to the staff: Peter Wilson and Edward Luttwak.)" Fellow Princeton University, 1964—1966, Social Sci. Research Council & America Council of Learned Society, 1967—1968. Recruit in the conservative establishment by Albert Wohlstetter, whose daughter he knew. Wohlstetter also recruited Paul Wolfowitz and together with Perle send him to Senator Henry Jackson, who hired both men. November 14, 2002, PBS, Think Tank with Ben Battenberg, 'Richard Perle: The Making of a Neoconservative': "Richard Perle: It was Albert Wohlstetter’s swimming pool in the Hollywood Hills. Albert’s daughter, Joan, was a classmate at Hollywood High School. We sat next to each other in Spanish class. She passed, I didn’t, but she invited me over for a swim and her dad was there. We got into a conversation about strategy, a subject I really didn’t know much about. Albert gave me an article to read, that was typical of Albert. Sitting there at the swimming pool I read the article which was a brilliant piece of exposition and obviously so. We started talking about it and… Ben Wattenberg: About nuclear weapons and that kind of stuff? Richard Perle: It was the called the “Delicate Balance of Terror.” It became quite a famous article in foreign affairs, and it was a way of looking at the strategic relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union and the product of the serious piece of research that he had done as the director of the Research Council at the Rand Corporation in Santa Monica. Ben Wattenberg: And Albert Wohlstetter is regarded by some as sort of the grandfather of this hawkish mode of looking at things in America? Is that right? Richard Perle: Well, it happens that a number of people who like to regard themselves as protégés of Albert’s can probably be described as hawks, but it isn’t so much that Albert was a hawk, it’s that Albert was extraordinarily rigorous. For Albert, it was just impermissible to assume anything. You had to run down every fact, every proposition. He was a mathematical logician by training. Ben Wattenberg: Who were some of his protégés? Richard Perle: Well, Paul Wolfowitz was one. Ben Wattenberg: Who’s now Deputy Defense Secretary. Richard Perle: Yes. Paul was his student in his doctoral thesis under Albert, and Paul Kezemchek who’s now at Dartmouth. But almost everyone who got to know Albert became his student formally or informally. Bob Barkley, the editor of the Wall Street Journal was a great admirer of Albert’s and learned a lot from him. You couldn’t help but learn from Albert because he was teaching all the time. And what he taught us to do was think hard about difficult issues, and if several of us wound up hawks, we’d like to think it’s because that’s the product of thinking hard about the dilemmas that a difficult world poses, particularly for policy makers in democratic societies. Ben Wattenberg: And then you ended up with Scoop Jackson? How did that happen? Senator Jackson, my hero, your hero, our hero, who really embodied hawkishness? Richard Perle: In a good cause always. Ben Wattenberg: Right. Richard Perle: It was a complete accident although it traces back. Albert Wohlstetter phoned me one day. I was still a graduate student at Princeton doing some research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and he said, could you come to Washington for a few days and interview some people and draft a report on the current debate shaping up in the Senate over ballistic missile defense, which was a hot issue in the Nineteen Sixty-nine debate. This was in Nineteen Sixty-nine. And he said, I’ve asked somebody else to do this too, and maybe the two of you could work together. The someone else was Paul Wolfowitz. So Paul and I came to Washington as volunteers for a few days, to interview people, and one of the people we interviewed was Scoop Jackson and it was love at first sight. I will never forget that first encounter with Scoop. Here we were a couple of graduate students, sitting on the floor in Scoop’s office in the Senate, reviewing charts and analyses of the ballistic missile defense and getting his views on the subject. Before I went back up to Cambridge, Scoop said, you know, you’re never… Ben Wattenberg: To Cambridge or to Princeton? Richard Perle: To Cambridge, well I was living in Cambridge… Ben Wattenberg: Oh, I see. Richard Perle: …while working on my thesis from Princeton. Scoop said, you’re never really gonna understand how these governments work until you have some direct experience, so why don’t you come and work for me for a year and you can work on your thesis in your spare time. But there was never any spare time working for Scoop, and I was there for eleven years. Ben Wattenberg: You became very involved in his sort of signature legislation, the Jackson-Vanek Bill, which was the human rights side of his toughness. Could you explain that? It involves the Soviet Union, which is now Russia, and where we stand on that now? ... Ben Wattenberg: Richard, you are Chairman of the Defense Policy Board. What is that? Richard Perle: It’s a group of volunteer civilians who advise the Secretary of Defense. It now includes a pretty illustrious list of people, Henry Kissinger, James Slessinger, Harold Brown, Tom Foley and Newt Gingrich, two former Speakers. These are wise men with deep experience who come together half a dozen times a year for extensive briefings, discussions, meetings, and advice for the Secretary of Defense." Perle and Wolfowitz also did work for the Committee to Maintain a Prudent Defense Policy. Professional staff member and protege to Senator Henry M. Jackson U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, 1969-80. Professor staff member subcommittee national security US Senate Committee on Government Operations, Washington, 1970-72. Jackson was a co-founder of the America-Israel Friendship League in 1971, together with Nelson Rockefeller. August 31, 2003, New York Times, 'How to Talk About Israel': "This confidence is what Podhoretz and other neoconservatives sought to save from the wreckage of Vietnam. One of their most powerful political allies in this enterprise was Senator Henry (Scoop) Jackson, mentor of Richard Perle, among others. Jackson, a gentile, a Democrat and a staunch cold warrior, was the perfect bridge on which former leftists could cross over to the right, without actually joining the Republican Party. Henry Jackson was a founder of the America-Israel Friendship League. Israel, to him, was not a sentimental issue but an essential part of his vision of the United States as a nation destined to free the world from tyranny." Brought Richard Pipes in contact with Senator Jackson. In 1970 Perle was embroiled in an affair involving the leaking of a classified CIA report on alleged past Soviet treaty violations. The leaker (and author of the report) was CIA analyst David Sullivan, and the leakee was Richard Perle. CIA Director Stansfield Turner was incensed at the unauthorized disclosure, but before he could fire Sullivan, the latter quit. Turner urged Sen. Jackson to fire Perle, but he was let off with a reprimand. Jackson then added insult to injury by immediately hiring Sullivan to his staff. Sullivan and Perle became close friends and co-conspirators, and together established an informal right-wing network which they called "the Madison Group," after their usual meeting place in--you might have guessed--the Madison Hotel Coffee Shop. The Madison Group lobbied against SALT, for support against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua and for an increase in the Defense budget. 2000, Robert G. Kaufman, 'Henry M. Jackson: a life in politics', pp. 333-335: "In the final days [of his 1976 presidential campaign], Jackson also had to divert precious attention from the Pennsylvania campaign to deal with a bizarre and totally false charge levied against his two most trusted foreign policy aides by Vice President Nelson Rockefeller. The vice president told a private session in Georgia on April 15 that communists might have infiltrated Jackson's staff. Rockefeller accused Dorothy Fosdick and Richard Perle of harboring such sympathies. ... She and Jackson had impeccable credentials as two of the toughest anticommunists and anti-Soviets ever to walk on Capitol Hill. ... He and Perle suspected that [Rockefeller's confidential source] was [Rockefeller's] old protege and close friend Henry Kissinger, whose policy of detente Jackson had excoriated for four years running. They also surmised that a desire to protect Kissinger and discredit his most outspoken congressional critic had motivated Rockefeller. Nationally syndicated columnist, George Will, a close friend of Jackson's and Fosdick's, commented in that vein: "The most likely explanation of Rockefeller's exercise in slander is that he is serving his former servant Henry Kissinger, who is known to resent Dickie and Richard, as he resents all the few remaining pockets of independent foreign policy judgment in government. It is a measure of Rockefeller's mind that he would try to peddle the idea that Jackson, of all people, is harboring a nest of sympathizers." ... Rockefeller relented in the face of this mounting pressure. ... he formally apologized on April 27 to the Senate and to Senator Jackson." ... It was not to be. [The Rockefeller-supported] Carter had too much money and momentum. Organized labor did not deliver for Jackson. Carter rolled to victory in Pennsylvania, winning 37 percent of the vote to Jackson's 25 percent..." On June 26, 1977, The Washington Post published one of Robert Kaiser's most revealing articles on the opposition to Kissinger's policy of detente, headed 'Behind-Scenes Power Over Arms Policy': "RICHARD PERLE is 35 years old and smart - or brilliant, or admirably effective, or an evil genuis, depending on who is describing him. Whatever the proper adjectives, Richard Perle has power. He may be one of the dozen most important people in Washington in the area of strategic arms policy. Perle's line is hard. From his cramped office on Capitol Hill runs what one critical friend calls " a detente-wrecking operation." (Perle has a lot of friends who don't agree with him, which is not so common for such a stalwart hard-liner.) Skeptics of detente and people who fear for America's future in the face of a Soviet military buildup describe Perle in heroic terms. "He's done our cause a lot good," said one. "Invaluable," said another. Though little known outside the areas of his expertise, Perle's name is a household word within the strategic community. He is a classic example of the powerful Washington who rarely even gets mentioned in a newspaper. On the other hand, he is quoted in the newspapers regularly, repeatedly. Only not by name. Perle appears as an "informed source" or something of the kind. "He is unquestionably one of our town's greatest leakers," according to one journalist who dealt with Perle often. Richard Perle has no official status that would give him power over affairs of state. His title is modest: "professional staff member" of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs. His influence comes not from his title, but from his actual position; Perle is Sen. Henry (Scoop) Jackson's right-hand man in the national security field. Jackson (D-Wash) has a special role in this area. As one former staff member in the Senate put it, he has traditionally been "by far the best informed" senator on national security issues. He is also one of very few who has tried to master those issues. Jackson's information comes largely from two intimate associates, Perle and Dorothy Fosdick. This trio is usually close and unusually hard-working by the standards of Capitol Hill. Perle is young enough to be Jackson's or Fosdick's son and, according to several associates, the two of them sometimes act as though they think of Perle that way. Fosdick, it is said, often prods Perle to come to work earlier - he likes to sleep late and work into the night. The work Perle and Fosdick do for Jackson is widely thought to be the most effective foreign policy staff work done for any senator. "They always have the best briefing books," one former colleague said... Many members of the strategic community in Washington - the several hundred people who try to follow and influence arms control and arms procurement decisions - tend to attribute enormous influence to Perle and Jackson, perhaps more than they actually have. Those on the dovish end of the spectrum often feel desieged by the Jackson camp and by Perle personally. Ironically, Perle and Jackson seem to feel the same way about the doves. Perle personally talks as though he is constantly under attack. Nevertheless, he is willing to talk about this accomplishments over the years, as are many if his friends, rivals and enemies. The Perle imprint can be seen in a number of Sen. Jackson's successful legislative and political maneuvers. For example: Jackson's "qualification" to the 1972 interim agreement with the Soviet Union controlling both countries' deployments of offensive strategic weapons. Jackson didn't like that agreement, because it allowed the Soviets larger quantities of some weapons - to compensate for other American advantages, according to the Nixon administration. He and Perle devised the "qualification" idea as a means of influencing future SALT negotiations. They proposed - and the Senate adopted - a statement asking the administration not to accept any future SALT agreement which limited the United States to an inferior number of weapons in any category. The Senate vote approving this - 56 to 35 - "had a profound effect on the whole climate," Perle acknowledges with evident pride. The "Jackson Amendment" to the 1974 trade bill, which withheld "most favored nation" status from socialist countries which restrict the right of their citizens to emigrate. With his amendment, Jackson may have substantially altered the course of "detente." After it was adopted, the Soviet Union abrogated its 1972 trade agreement with the United States and reduced the number of Soviet Jews allowed to emigrate. The amendment has been a source of friction in the Soviet-American relationship ever since... An explicit statement from President Carter that his new, more restrictive policy on the sales of American arms to other nations would not preclude special consideration for Israel's needs for advanced U.S. weapons. Jackson and Perle are as dedicated to Israel as they are to hard line on arms negotiations. Friends describe Perle as extraordinarily well-informed about Israeli affairs. HOW DO Jackson and his staff get these things done? According to many colleagues, the most important answers are brainpower and hard work. They learn their lessons. This is particularly true in the arms field, where Jackson has repeatedly displayed a mastery of the subject that seems to impress many of his Senate colleagues, who now defer to his expertise. Several sources on the Hiss said Kissinger unwittingly strengthened Jackson's hand during the last several years by allowing Jackson and Perle to find potential loopholes or hazy language in his agreements with the Soviets. Through Jackson's hearings on SALT, according to one former Senate aide intimately involved in these matters, the senator has established "a brilliant reputation" for finding the weak spots in the U.S. position... For Perle personally, power comes from information. He understands that the possessor of facts enters Washington's struggles with a great advantage. He is not an adept politican in personal dealings with others. Some on the Hill find him arrogant, singleminded and difficult to deal with. "He's a loner," one said... The strategic community has always been sharply divided between hard-liners and doves. Many of the former have shared a fear is as old as the arms race - a fear that America is congenitally vulnerable to Soviet cleverness and determination. This view attracts a wide range of people, from apparent fanatics to reflective intellectuals. Some adherents are - like Perle - longtime students of the strategic balance. Others are old-fashioned, reflexive anti-communists. Still others were drawn into the loose alliance of hard-liners through the Israeli factor - the belief that a hard-line on all aspects of Soviet-American relations should logically accompany a strong position in support in Israel. The theory here is that the Israelis defend American interests in the Middle East, whereas the Arabs are Soviet surrogates, and so support for Israel amounts to preserving American interests vis a vis the Russians. Another aspect of the Israeli factor involves arms; some American supporters of Israel feel they should encourage U.S. defense spending to insure that the United States has enough military equipment to sell or give the Israelis all that they need. Not surprisingly, people who share the same world view and the same fears often work together - and share information. For hard-liners inside the bureaucracy, this often means working with Richard Perle. Officials of the last three administrations said in interviews that Perle often knows more about the state of the SALT talks than high-ranking officials directly involved. The information Perle and Jackson accumulate can be used in closed or public hearings on the Hill, when Jackson can embarrass an official or warn him that some new gambit in negotiations with the Soviets is already known to them. Or the information can be leaked strategically... AMONG specialists in the field, Perle is widely thought to have special access to one journalistic outlet, the [Rowland] Evans and [Robert] Novak column. "Jesus," said one member of Congress, "I can't tell you the number of things Perle has told me that a few days later showed up in Evans and Novak. That's happened half a dozen times in the last year." Evans and Novak do trumpet a hard-line view on strategic issues, and many of their columns contain facts or allegations that have not appeared elsewhere. (If Perle has had influence on the column's strategic views, however, he has not affected the Evans-Novak stance on the Middle East, which is hostile to Israel by Perle's standards.) Several sources in Congress and the executive brance who regard Perle as an opponent said that he and his allies make masterful use of the Evans and Novak column. One congressional aide who tries to counter Perle's and Jackson's influence on arms issues said the Evans and Novak "connection" helps Perle create a "murky, threatening atmosphere" in his dealings with others. Former colleagues of Henry Kissinger and several other Ford administration officials suggested that Evans and Novak were - whether wittingly or not - used by a "cabal" involving Perle and two others: John F. Lehman Jr., deputy director of the Arms Control agency during the Ford administration, and Lt. Gen. Edward Rowney, since 1972 the Joint Chief's representative on the SALT delegation. Lehman and Perle are close personal friends. Several sources spoke darkly of this trio and its purported influence in persistent efforts to undermine Kissinger's SALT initiatives. The most important single public event these sources attributed to them was an Evans and Novak column published in December, 1975. That column may have changed the course of history. It charged the President Ford's "national security bureaucracy" was drafting SALT proposals that included "major concessions to Moscow in order to save a SALT II agreement at almost any cost." The column concluded that Kissinger was about to fly off to Moscow to offer these dangerous concessions and that only the then-new Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, could stop him. Rumsfeld's actions could "decide the fate of SALT II and influence the future of the country," Evans and Novak wrote. Soon afterward, according to informed officials, Rumsfeld did intervene with Ford and blocked a Kissinger mission to Moscow that December. The delay allowed hard-liners to muster support for their opposition to the compromises Kissinger favored. By the time Kissinger got to Moscow in january, 1976 - with Ronald Reagan's shadow already large on the Republican Party horizon - Gerald Ford was not interested in Kissinger's compromise proposals... Perle is a tough fighter. Sen. Gaylord Nelson (D-Wis.) recalled in an interview that, when he proposed a compromise to the Jackson amendment on emigration, Perle lost his temper with one of Nelson's aides and threatened to campaign personally against the senator in Wisconsin's Jewish community. Several reporters recalled receiving angry phone calls from Perle in which he lambasted them for writing something he disliked or found erroneous. "But not recently," said one. "Richard has calmed down." ONE THING is certain; Perle is not hindered by selfdoubts. One friend compared him to a Jesuit or a Bolshevik - so certain is he of his views. "He's almost invariably very effective even when he's saying outrageous things," this friend said." Assistant secretary for international security policy US Department Defense, 1981-87. In a 1983 New York Times article Perle was criticized for recommending that the Army purchase an armaments system from an Israeli company that a year earlier had paid him $50,000 in consulting fees. 1998, Anne Cahn, 'Killing detente: the right attacks the CIA', p. 30: "Members of the [Committee on the Present Danger were] CIA director William Casey, National Security Adviser Richard Allen, UN ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, navy secretary John Lehman, and Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Perle." 2002, Thomas R. Maddux, Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy, 'Cold War Termination': "Hard-liners in the Reagan administration had the most influence with Reagan at the start and quickly pushed for a strategic offensive against the Soviet Union. According to Schweizer, the hard-liners, led by CIA Director Casey, the National Security Council staff under the direction of Richard V. Allen and William P. Clark, and Secretary Weinberger, with advisers such as Richard Perle and Fred Ikle, shifted their pre-1981 perception of the Soviet challenge to emphasize fundamental Soviet political and economic weaknesses. Casey frequently presented Reagan with unfiltered intelligence data on the Soviet economy that supported this assessment. Reagan endorsed the recommendations of Casey and the NSC without much opposition from his advisers or Secretary of State Alexander Haig, who favored more negotiations with the Soviet Union than did the hard-liners. ... Weinberger's aide, Richard Perle, proceeded to develop the zero option of proposing to the Kremlin that it remove all of its missiles and that the United States cancel deployment of the Pershing. President Reagan went for the zero option because it involved meaningful arms reduction (unlike the previous SALT I and II accords, which had primarily put ceilings on the number of weapons) and because he could sell the zero option to the public. On strategic weapons Weinberger and Perle again recommended to the president a negotiating stance that would ensure the absence of an agreement. They urged Reagan to support a dramatic reduction, particularly on the Soviet side, by insisting on a reduction in ballistic missile throw-weights that would reduce the Soviets' land-based, more powerful rockets by 60 percent but would not affect the U.S. forces. State Department specialists opposed this stance, but in order to win Reagan's endorsement they had to support a negotiating stance that would reduce launchers, cut warheads by one third, and also include Perle's throw-weight ceiling. Again Reagan approved a position that would significantly reduce strategic missiles even as his negotiators on both sides believed the Kremlin would respond with another nyet. ... In the aftermath of Geneva, Gorbachev faced the most serious challenges from critics who argued that he came home from Geneva without anything. The Soviet leader, however, moved the farthest to work out an accommodation with Washington. In January he proposed the elimination of all nuclear weapons by the year 2000 and a response on INF missiles that moved toward Washington's position of zero on both sides. The prospect of getting rid of all missiles clearly interested President Reagan, who brushed aside the criticism of Richard Perle, the original author of the zero strategy, that Gorbachev was just engaging in propaganda. Gorbachev, however, had to use all of his powers of persuasion as well as the strong Soviet commitment to disarmament to persuade the Soviet military to accept his proposals. ... Instead of new thinking in Washington, the old conflict between hard-liners and moderates persisted. Weinberger and Perle, for example, pushed to break through the SALT II restrictions that the United States still had not reached. The arms control bureaucracy also continued its usual disagreements, and Undersecretary of Defense Fred Ikle tossed a knuckleball into the field with a zero ballistic missile proposal. Shultz liked the idea as a way to get Reagan to agree to limit SDI, as less offense would reduce the need for defense. Only Paul Nitze, a veteran arms control negotiator, vigorously objected to the proposal as nonnegotiable and very disruptive to both the ongoing strategic modernization program and to the Western allies. Nevertheless, Reagan went away with the zero missile proposal in July and linked it to SDI with a proposal to not withdraw from the ABM Treaty for five years and to continue research, development, and testing as permitted by the treaty."

Colin Powell: "We used to have major problems when Richard would wander off the farm and be caught doing things that were not consistent with the policies that [Caspar] Weinberger and [George] Shultz were trying to implement." One of his assistants visited Cercle meetings in the 1980s and he himself went also. Friend of Cercle chairman Brian Crozier. Also a friend of John F. Lehman, Jr. and worked close with Fred Ikle, his superior at the Pentagon who exercised no real control over him. Could quite easily get along with Alexander Haig. Resident fellow American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1987—. Member Defense Policy Board, 1987—2004, chairman, 2001—2003. In 1990 head of the Committee for Peace and Security in the Gulf (CPSG), a spin-off from Center for Security Policy that was headed by Richard Perle. It mobilized bipartisan support for the George H. W. Bush administration's war plans in the Persian Gulf. CPSG received start-up funding from the Lynde & Harry Bradley Foundation and worked closely with Citizens for a Free Kuwait, a pressure group financed by the Kuwaiti monarchy. Co-founder Project for the New American Century (PNAC) in 1998. Co-chairman, director Hollinger, Inc. Director Jerusalem Post. Member of neoconservative aspect of the Vulcans, the group that brought George W. Bush to power in 2000. Dov Zakheim, Paul Wolfowitz and Dick Cheney were neocon members too. Member editorial board The National Interest, with Henry Kissinger, Conrad Black, Zbigniew Brzezinksi and Samuel Huntington. He seems to have joined in 2002 (September 11, 2002, The National Interest, 'The Politics of Perle'). Member Committee for the Liberation of Iraq. Member Committee on the Present Danger. Visitor of Bilderberg where he pushed for war with Iraq and later Iran, in opposition to the majority of Bilderbergers. Member Council on Foreign Relations. Advisory board Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs. Member Benador Associates. Center for Security Policy. Director US Committee on NATO. Anno September 2012: advisory board member of the Foundation for Defence of Democracies (founded in 2001), together with General Paul X. Kelley and others while the leadership council consists of James Woolsey (chairman), Paula Dobriansky, Steve Forbes, Louis Freeh, William Kristol, Senator Joseph Lieberman and Robert McFarlane.

March 25, 2003, Asia Times, 'Perle: 'Prince of Darkness' in the spotlight': "Analysts are raising eyebrows over news that Richard Perle, the single most powerful hawk outside the administration, has been retained by Global Crossing to help ensure that Hutchison Whampoa, widely regarded by his fellow hawks as a front for China's People's Liberation Army, can buy a majority share in the bankrupt telecommunications company. ... According to a notice submitted by Global Crossing, Perle would be paid US$726,000 by the company, including $600,000 if the sale goes through. Whether it will remains unclear, however. Both the Defense Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have raised some "national security" problems with the deal because it would put Global Crossing's global fiber-optics network, which is used by the Pentagon itself, under Hutchison Whampoa's control. What is particularly remarkable - not to say mind-boggling - is that one of Perle's closest neo-conservatives proteges, soulmates and veteran collaborators, Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy (CSP), has been screaming about the dangers posed by the Hong Kong-based company to US national security ever since Panama awarded it a 25-year renewable contract to lease and operate the ports at both ends of the Panama Canal Zone in 1997. Gaffney began working for Perle way back in the 1970s when they were both on the staff of Washington state senator Henry M "Scoop" Jackson, the "Senator from Boeing", devoted to derailing detente with the Soviet Union. Their bureaucratic machinations with then defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and another Perle protege, Paul Wolfowitz, to frustrate a new arms-control agreement negotiated with Moscow by secretary of state Henry Kissinger earned Perle his famous nickname, the Prince of Darkness. Under president Ronald Reagan, Perle became an assistant secretary of defense and named Gaffney as his deputy. In the 1990s, they worked hand-in-glove - Perle at the neo-conservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI), and Gaffney at CSP. Perle serves on CSP's board of advisors; they serve together on the boards of the US Committee for a Free Lebanon and the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, and several other neo-conservative-dominated interest and lobby groups. ... Perle's private interests first came to light in a controversial New Yorker article this month by veteran investigative reporter Seymour Hersh. He reported that Perle met with Saudi businessmen, including Adnan Khashoggi, in Marseilles two months ago as part of an effort to raise investment cash for Perle's Trireme Partners LP, a company specializing in homeland security and defense. Perle denied that the conversation had anything to do with Trireme and called Hersh a "terrorist". Last week, The Guardian of London reported that Perle was also a director of a UK-based company, Autonomy Corp, with an option on 75,000 of the company's shares. The company, according to the Guardian account, is selling advanced computer eavesdropping systems to intelligence agencies around the world. Perle told the newspaper that he advises the company on market opportunities but that he has no input into specific procurement by US agencies, a point he also made with respect to the Global Crossing arrangement, which was reported by the New York Times on Friday. The Times also reported that Perle participated last Wednesday in a conference call sponsored by Goldman Sachs on the subject of "Implications of an Imminent War: Iraq Now. North Korea Next?" which apparently discussed investment opportunities. It did not disclose whether Perle was paid for his participation or made specific recommendations about companies in which he has an interest. As DPB chairman, Perle is not formally part of the US administration, and is thus not required to divest himself of commercial interests. But his influence and power with the administration are well known. Not only does he have a long-standing relationship with Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, but he also has worked closely as a lobbyist for Turkey and the Israeli arms industry with Douglas Feith, the Pentagon's Undersecretary for Policy, as well as other senior Pentagon officials."

February 25, 2009, Wall Street Journal, 'Richard Perle's Apologia': "The answer is simple. It is because all the talk about neoconservatism and its influence in the Bush administration amounts to little more than conspiracy theory. According to Mr. Perle, this conspiracy theory has been echoed by everyone from the New York Times to Lyndon LaRouche to David Duke. And so comes Richard Perle to tell us, as a note in the National Interest's table of contents puts it, "why 50 million conspiracy theorists have it wrong." At a discussion of the article televised by C-Span last Thursday, Mr. Perle went even farther, facing down a room full of critics and telling them at one point that "there is no such thing as a neoconservative foreign policy." (Thus setting up the Washington Post's headline, "Prince of Darkness Denies Own Existence.")"

March 7, 2004, C-SPAN, 'Richard Perle: An End to Evil' (interview): "PERLE: ... I astonished an Israeli interviewer -- a British interviewer a few weeks ago, who said, how long have you known Ariel Sharon? I said, I`ve never met him. Never met him. I was once at -- in the audience for a briefing that he gave to a group of people, including Scoop Jackson. It was a trip I made to Israel where he was among the people who briefed us. But I`ve never had a personal meeting with Ariel Sharon. LAMB: How close are you to Beebe Netanyahu? PERLE: Oh, he is -- Beebe`s an old friend. I think he -- he has been very clear and very outspoken on the importance of combating terrorism, not least of all because he lost - lost his brother in a terrorist attack. So I have a high regard for - for Beebe. I don`t agree with everything he says and does."

HOLLINGER-NATIONAL INTEREST-TRIREME

Perle joined the board of Hollinger in 1994. Sat on the three-man executive committee with Conrad Black. Close friend of Black and took trips with him on his private jet. At one point went to visit Netanyahu with him. Hollinger International makes an annual contribution of $200,000 to The National Interest, which Perle joined. Hollinger owned the Jerusalem Post, which Perle also joined as a director. Hollinger put £8m into UK firm Cambridge Display Technology, in which Perle has a stake, and £1.5m in Trireme Associates, which has links to venture capital fund Trireme Partners LP, co-managed by Perle. Kissinger served as a board member of Trireme.

April 6, 2003, Bloomberg Businessweek magazine, 'Richard Perle Is Not Alone': "Perle, with fellow Defense Advisory Board members Henry A. Kissinger and Gerald P. Hillman, has already set up a venture-capital firm, Trireme Partners, to invest in defense and homeland-security companies. "It looks like hell," says Charles Lewis, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Public Integrity. "We're waging war, and a number of the people serving on these bodies stand to make money from it." Kissinger calls that statement "overblown." He agreed to advise Trireme a year ago but has since had no contact with Perle, he says. ... Corrections and Clarifications: Henry Kissinger did not set up a venture capital firm with Richard Perle called Trireme Partners, to invest in defense and homeland-security companies ("Richard Perle is not alone," Cover Story, Apr. 7). He agreed only to serve on an advisory board to Trireme, which was supposed to meet once a year. It has never met. Kissinger has no financial interest in Trireme, has never received any payment from it, and, since agreeing to act as an adviser, says he has had no discussions about it with Perle." Bloomberg Businessweek, 'Executive profile: Conrad Moffat Black': "Mr. Black serves on the Advisory Board of Trireme Partners."

September 6, 2004, New York Times, 'Perle Asserts Hollinger's Conrad Black Misled Him': "He was named to the Hollinger board in 1994, joining other like-minded men selected by Lord Black, a self-made businessman from Canada who surrounded himself with conservative thinkers. He particularly did that at Hollinger, a global media company whose holdings at the time included The Chicago Sun-Times, The Jerusalem Post, The Sunday and Daily Telegraph and The Sydney Morning Herald. But the relationship between the two men was particularly special, friends and Hollinger officials recall. Lord Black approved plans that ultimately earned Mr. Perle more than $5 million - including a bonus formula that rewarded Mr. Perle for the successful investments he placed on behalf of a subsidiary of Hollinger but did not subtract for the losers. Mr. Perle served on a three-member executive committee of the board headed by Lord Black. The two men socialized frequently and traveled together extensively on the company jet, once going to see Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. Even so, by 2002, Lord Black was complaining in internal company messages about Mr. Perle. Now, their relationship, which has come under scrutiny by federal regulators and investors, has decidedly changed. In the face of federal investigations and a scathing internal report for Hollinger by Richard C. Breeden, a former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mr. Perle has broken ranks and turned on Lord Black. The report contends that Lord Black improperly took hundreds of millions of dollars for himself and associates - and that Mr. Perle was the enabler, approving some questionable transactions at the same time he was being heavily compensated at the direction of Lord Black. The report said that Mr. Perle told the committee he often signed documents without reading them, and it singled him out among the directors for conflicts of interest. "With the notable exception of Perle, none of Hollinger's non-Black group directors derived any financial or other improper personal benefit from their service on Hollinger's board," the report said. "It is, of course, possible for a conflicted board member to act at least somewhat responsibly. As a conflicted executive committee member, however, Perle did not. Rather, his executive committee performance falls squarely into the 'head-in-the-sand' behavior that breaches a director's duty of good faith and renders him liable for damages." From his vacation home in southern France late Friday, issuing the outlines of his legal defense for the first time, Mr. Perle said that he was misled."

Source(s): 1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', page 193; 2002, David Rockefeller, 'Memoirs', pp. 412-413, referring to the Pesenti Group

The three major family-owned companies in 1928 were Pirelli, a rubber and Tire producer owned by the Pirelli family, Italcementi, a producer of cement owned by the Pesenti family, and FIAT, a car company owned by the Agnelli family. The history of these three family groups is remarkably similar. Pirelli was founded in 1872 by Giambattista Pirelli, Italcementi was set up in 1865 by Carlo I Pesenti, and FIAT in 1899 by Giovanni I Agnelli. The first went public on the Milan stock exchange in 1922, the second in 1925, and the third in 1924. Each of them soon acquired control of their product market with shares between 60 and 80 percent of the domestic market and then expanded outside their industry. The Pirellis expanded in the electric sector and abroad; the Pesentis invested in banks and insurance companies; the Agnellis mostly invested in the mechanical and electrical components sectors, and in real estate.

Carlo Pesenti's uncle was close to Mussolini, who gave his uncle's firm Italcementi priviliged access to contracts for concrete in Italian-occupied Ethiopia.

Born in 1907. Graduated in Engineering at Milan Polytechnic. Appointed to the board of directors of Italcementi in 1940-1942. General manager and managing director of Italcementi 1942-1967. It has been alleged that Italcementi came under Vatican control after WWII. In 1946 he reorganized the Group into four branches: Italcementi retained the core business of cement manufacture; Sacelit headed the cement-based construction elements sector; CIDI was active in the hydrated lime industry whilst all the financial participations were concentrated in the hands of the newly incorporated Italmobiliare. General manager of Italmobiliare 1946-1955, which has been named as one of the primary companies in business with the Vatican Bank (IOR), next to Banco di Roma (vice-president was SMOM member Prince Massimo Spada in the late 1960s), and the Banco di Santo Spirito. Authors Giuseppe Turani (1980) and Giovanni Galli (1984) have argued that the many acquisitions of Italmobiliaire were financed with monopolistic profits enjoyed by the group in the cement industry and with unlimited credit obtained through strong political connections with the ruling (catholic) Christian Democratic party and the Vatican. By 1953, Italmobiliare had gained control of an important stake in a traded company producing machinery, Franco Tosi, after subscription to its major capital increase, it had acquired a 38 percent controlling stake in a traded insurance company RAS (Riunione Adriatica di Sicurtà; a sister company to the Generali, owned by Allianz since 1984; president was SMOM member Prince Massimo Spada in the late 1960s; included among its directors members of the Giustiniani family (descendants of the malevolent emperor Justinian), the Doria family (chief Genoese financiers of the Spanish Hapsburgs), and the Duke of Alba (descendant of the brutal Spanish marcher-lord whom the Genoese bankers sent to the Netherlands four centuries ago to crush their independence)) and obtained indirect control of its traded subsidiary l’Assicuratrice Italiana (Prince Massimo Spada, senior layman at the Vatican Bank and SMOM member since 1944, was vice president and managing director of the L'Assicuratrice Italiana in the late 1960s). In this early period, the group also owned several non-traded banks, including Banca Provinciale Lombarda and Credito Commerciale. It also gained control over IBI in 1967. In 1952 Carlo was on the Board of Directors of 28 companies. Managing director Italmobiliaire 1955-1967. In 1960 he was on the Board of Directors of 38 companies. Honored by Italy's president as a Knight of the Order of Labor Merit in 1962. Large contributor to Avanguardia Nazionale, founded in 1960 by the fascist Stefano Delle Chiaie, in the early 1960s. 2003, Stuart Christie, 'General Franco made me a terrorist - part 2', p. 235: "[Summer of 1960] The shift to the 'centre-left' (as perceived by the reactionary right) in European politics causes alarm and concern within conservative circles, particularly in Italy. The Vatican hails authoritarian Christian Democrat Prime Minister Tambroni as the 'wise and strong man'. The fascist Movimiento Sociale Italiano (MSI) is sufficiently confident to convene a national party conference under the chairmanship of Carlo Emanuele Basile, a former fascist prefect of Genoa whose name had figured in the list of war criminals. Twelve people are killed and many hundreds are injured in the anti-fascist riots that follow in most industrial cities throughout Italy. Stefano Delle Chiaie (SDC), a member of Pino Rauti's Nazi Ordine Nuevo (ON) organisation, later claimed it was around this time that he was recruited by an officer of the (Christian Democrat-controlled) Ministry of the Interior's Bureau of Confidential Affairs under Federico Umberto D'Amato to undertake covert operations against anti-fascists and left-wing militants. SDC leaves ON to set up his own neo-fascist organisation -- Avanguardia Nazionale (AN), whose gangs become activists of state-sponsored terror for two decades. AN is financed to the tune of 300,000 lire a month by Lombard cement manufacturer Carlo Pesenti." Chairman Italcementi and Italmobiliaire since 1967. David Rockefeller has written that Carlo Pesenti took him apart at an investment forum in October 1967 and invited him to join meetings of Le Cercle. Rockefeller referred to Le Cercle as the "Pesenti Group." Chaired some of the meetings of Le Cercle, according to Brian Crozier, likely somewhere in the 1960s and 1970s. Also set the agenda for Le Cercle meetings over an unknown period. In his 2002 book 'Memoirs', almost certainly talking about Le Cercle, David Rockefeller wrote: "Bilderberg overlapped for a time with my membership in a relatively obscure but potentially even more controversial body known as the Pesenti Group. I had first learned about it in October 1967 when Carlo Pesenti, the owner of a number of important Italian corporations, took me aside at a Chase investment forum in Paris and invited me to join his group, which discussed contemporary trends in European and world politics. It was a select group, he told me, mostly European... I accepted his invitation... Pesenti set the agenda for our thrice-yearly meetings, and Maître Violet, who had close connections with the Deuxième Bureau of the Services des Renseignements (the French CIA), provided lengthy background briefings. Using an overhead projector, Violet display transparency after transparency filled with data documenting Soviet infiltration of governments around the world and supporting his belief that the threat of global Communist victory was quite real. While all of us knew the Soviets were behind the "wars of national liberation" in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, I was not personally convinced the Red Menace was quite as menacing as Maître Violet portrayed it to be, but my view was a minority one in that group. Even though I found some of the discussions fascinating, the ultraconservative politics of some participants were more than a bit unnerving." In 1967, at the apex of its expansion, the Pesenti group was involved in cement industry, construction and real estate, mechanical and automotive sector, banking and insurance. At that time the Pesenti family was second in wealth only to the owners of Fiat group, the Agnelli family (rivals of the Pesenti family). In the early 1970s the Pesenti's vast business empire started to crumble and they had to sell some of their companies (mainly because of rival Michele Sindona). In 1972 Carlo Pesenti was on the Board of Directors of 33 companies. Has been a director of companies like Falck, Bastogi, IBI, Banca Provinciale Lombarda, RAS, Efibanca, and Franco Tosi. Member of the Academie Europeene des Sciences Politiques since the early 1970s. Italcementi is currently the fifth largest global cement producer. Italmobiliare was involved in the infamous bankruptcy of Banco Ambrosiano by buying itself into the bank in February 1982, becoming its largest minority shareholder just before the collapse in June/July 1982. Pesenti had become a director at that point. Carlo II Pesenti died in 1984 during court proceedings against him and other executives of Italmobiliare for fraud related to Banco Ambrosiano.

September 22, 1984, Globe and Mail (Canada), 'Carlo Pesenti Former vice-president of Banco Ambrosiano': "Carlo Pesenti, a prominent Italian businessman who was vice-president of the Banco Ambrosiano when it collapsed two years ago, died in a Montreal hospital of heart failure late Thursday night. He was 77. Mr. Pesenti, along with seven other bank directors, was ordered in June to face charges arising from the private bank's collapse - Italy's worst post-war banking crash. He had been living with his family in Monte Carlo. Mr. Pesenti, an executive at the bank while Roberto Calvi was its president, was due to appear before an investigating committee in Rome yesterday. Mr. Calvi was found hanged under a Thames River bridge in London in 1982. Visiting Montreal on private business, Mr. Pesenti was admitted to Montreal General Hospital on Sept. 15 when he suffered a heart attack. One of Italy's top industrialists, his empire included banks, holding companies and industrial groups. He climbed to the helm of Italian finances after the end of the Second World War when he founded Italcementi, a cement plant. He became manager of the insurance firm Riunine Adriatica Di Sicurita and the automaker Lancia, among other posts he held. Mr. Pesenti was also chairman of Italmobiliare Spa, one of the largest financial holding groups on the Milan Stock Exchange. The company accumulated large debts due to financial expansion and in 1972 Mr. Pesenti raised a secret loan from the Vatican's Institute for Religious Works to stave off bankruptcy. Mr. Pesenti's death means he will not be able to testify as to the whereabouts of more than $1.2-billion siphoned from the bank's assets - one of the questions to be answered at the investigation."

September 21, 1984, UPI, 'Italian financier suspected in Vatican bank collapse was 77': "Italian financier Carlo Pesenti died in Canada Thursday, one day before he was to appear in court on charges stemming from the collapse of an Italian bank with connections to the Vatican, his aides said Friday. Pesenti, president of both a holding company, Italmobiliare, and Italy's leading cement-producing company, Italcementi, died in Montreal's General Hospital of a heart attack. He was 77. In March 1982 Pesenti was declared the largest shareholder of the Banco Ambrosiano, then Italy's largest private bank. Three months later, Ambrosiano collapsed and its president, Roberto Calvi, was found hanged from a bridge in London. A London court ruled Calvi's death a suicide, but the financier's family contends he was murdered. Pesenti and 11 other people were charged with aiding and abetting the purchase of more than 1.1 million Ambrosiano shares, some of which ended up in the portfolio of a company that Pesenti headed. Pesenti also was under investigation in a huge loan the Vatican Bank made to Italmobiliare. The Institute for Religious Works, the formal name of the Vatican Bank, lent 50 billion lire -- $30 million at current exchange rates -- to Italmobiliare in 1972. Investigators now are trying to find out why Italmobiliare repaid the Vatican Bank 160 billion lire, more than three times the original loan, in 1979. The American who serves as bank president, Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, is also being investigated in connection with the loan. News of Pesenti's death had not reached Italy when the hearing on the sale of Ambrosiano shares opened Friday morning. A defense lawyer working for the financier told judges his client was ''not present because seriously ill.'' Pesenti had been undergoing treatment for heart trouble in Montreal for several days. The financier, a native of the northern city of Bergamo, had survived an earlier heart attack. His wife, Rosalie, and four children were at his bedside when he died."

July 3, 1984, American Banker, 'Ambrosiano directors are charged': "Banco Ambrosiano failed in August 1982 with $1.2 billion dollars of bad debts."

His brother Giampiero Pesenti took over the business empire. The Pesenti group went into financial distress in the 1980s and had to refocus on the cement sector by selling all control stakes in banks and insurance companies. Giampiero Pesenti is chairman of Italcementi, vice chairman of Fondazione Italcementi, head of Italmobiliare, and chairman of the RCS Mediagroup. Giampiero is a director of Pirelli, together with the Pirelli and Benetton families; and RAS, together with a De Benedetti family member.

1991, Philip Willan, 'Puppetmasters: The Political Use of Terrorism in Italy', pp 35-39: “The first major scandal involving the Italian secret services came to light on 11 May 1967, when L’Espresso magazine published the first of a series of revelations about preparations for a military coup which had been set in motion in the summer of 1964 but had never actually been brought to completion. Inquiries by a Defence Ministry commission and a later parliamentary commission showed that the carabinieri had drawn up a secret plan known as Piano Solo, which as the name implies, provided for the paramilitary police to intervene on their own in order to restore public order. In investigating the background to the coup the inquiries discovered that the secret services had embarked on a massive programme of surveillance of Italian political and business figures. This was partly intended to identify left-wing suspects who, under the plan, would be rounded up and then imprisoned in concentration camps on the island of Sardinia. … [the program] began in 1959 and expanded over the years until the secret services had amassed 157,000 files, including ’34,000 devoted to members of the business world, politicians and other categories of people of importance to the life of the nation’. … [The commission] also found the secret services had resorted to spreading false rumours and the recording them in their files: ‘the information was created and then gathered in.’ … This interpretation [that the operation was a NATO assignment] is supported by Roberto Faenza, who claims in his detailed account of US influence in Italian domestic politics, that a copy of the SIFAR dossiers was routinely deposited at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. He quotes an unclassified CIA cable acknowledging receipt ‘from our contact in the Italian secret services’ of reports on political leaders ‘under observation’. … [also under observation were] ‘prelates, bishops and priests of the various dioceses’. This snooping does not appear to have unduly antagonized the Vatican, given that the minority report of the parliamentary commission found that much of SIFAR’s intelligence-gathering was carried out on behalf of ‘countries of the Atlantic Alliance and the Vatican State’. … This operation, which continued over a number of years, at times with the approval of the President himself, was ordered by De Lorenzo at the request, according to Faenza, of CIA station chief William Colby [CIA station chief in Rome 1953-58]. … Rome CIA station chief Thomas Karamessines [1959-63] had asked General De Lorenzo, then head of SIFAR, for dossiers on politicians who favoured the formation of an alliance with the Socialist Party and, in particular, for detailed study of Moro’s circle of collaborators. … Virtually any politician of note was liable to come under the scrutiny of the secret services, whose job on occasion included developing a photographic chronicle of the subject’s ‘extra-conjugal or otherwise irregular sexual relations’. … According to Faenza, Rome station chief William Harvey urged the colonel to try to destabilize Moro’s attempts to reach an understanding with the socialists. Harvey suggested Rocca use his ‘action squads’ to ‘ caryy out bombings against Christian Democrat Party offices and certain newspapers in the north, which were to be attributed to the left’. Faenza also claimed that Harvey was in the possession of lists containing more than 2,000 names of right-wingers belonging to paramilitary groups, who were available for use against the communists. … [Colonel Renzo Rocca] had left the secret service a year earlier in order to work for the Fiat car manufacturer but the close collaboration between the secret service and Fiat meant that the change was merely cosmetic, despite official statements to the contrary. The Turin-based industry in fact made extensive use of SIFAR agents to spy on its own unruly workforce.”

Source(s): Cercle lists: 1983 Bonn

Research associate Foreign Policy Research Institute, 1964-71; assistant professor political sci. University Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1964-70; deputy director Foreign Policy Research Institute, 1971-73; associate professor international politics Fletcher School Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, 1971-78; president Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis, Cambridge, 1976—; professor international politics Fletcher School Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Medford, 1978-83, Shelby Cullom Davis professor international security studies, 1983—. Visiting lecturer Foreign Service Institute Department State, 1970—1971; George C. Marshall professor College of Europe, Bruges, Belgium, 1970—1971; short term academy guest professor National Defense College, Tokyo, 1981; hon. professor University St. Andrews; president U.S. Strategic Institute, Washington, 1977—1979, Institute Foreign Policy Analysis, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1976—; member international security adv. board U.S. Department State, 2006—. Mem.: International Institute Strategic Studies, Council Foreign Relations, International Studies Association, Army and Navy Club (Washington).

Author: Britain Faces Europe, 1957-1967, 1969, Politics and the International System, 1969, The Atlantic Community: A Complex Balance, 1969, The Study of International Relations, 1977, Power Projection and the Long Range Combat Aircraft: Missions, Capabilities and Alternative Designs, 1981, Contending Theories of International Relations: A Comprehensive Survey, 1981; co-editor: Contrasting Approaches to Strategic Arms Control, 1974, SALT: Implications for Arms Control in the 1970s, 1973, The Other Arms Race: New Technologies and Non Nuclear Conflict, 1975, Arms Transfers to the Third World: The Military Build-up in Less Industrial Countries, 1978, Intelligence Policy and National Security, 1981, Projection of Power: Perspectives, Perceptions and Problems, 1982, The U.S. Defense Mobilization Infrastructure: Problems and Priorities, 1983, International Dimensions of Space, 1984, National Security Policy: The Decision-Making Process, 1984, The Peace Movements in Europe and the United States, 1985, American Foreign Policy: FDR to Reagan, 1986, co-editor: Selling the Rope to Hang Capitalism? The Debate on West-East Trade and Technology Transfer, 1987, Emerging Doctrines and Technologies: Implications for Global and Regional Political-Military Balance, 1987, Protracted Warfare--The Third World Arena: A Dimension of U.S.-Soviet Conflict, 1988, Guerrilla Warfare and Counter-Insurgency: U.S.-Soviet Policy in the third World, 1988, U.S. Defense Policy in an Era of Constrained Resources, 1989, Contending Theories of International Relations: A Comprehensive Study, 1990, 4th edition, 1998, National Security Decisions: The Participants Speak, 1990, The United States Army: Challenges and Missions for the 1990s, 1991, The Future of Air Power in the Aftermath of the Gulf War, 1992, Naval Forward Presence and the National Military Strategy, 1993, Ethnic Conflict and Regional Instability: Implications for U.S. Policy and Army Roles and Missions, 1994, Naval Expeditionary Forces and Power Projection: Into the 21st Century, 1994, Roles and Missions of Special Operations Forces in the Aftermath of the Cold War, 1995, War in the Information Age: New Challenges for U.S. Security, 1997, NATO and Southeastern Europe: Security Issues for the Early 21st Century, 2000, The Role of Naval Forces in 21st Century Operations, 2000, Strategy and International Politics, 2000, Contending Theories of International Relations, 5th edition, 2001, others; contributor articles to professional journals, chapters to books.

Source(s): Lobster articles; 1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', pages 186, 191-193, and 241; 1997, Robert Hutchinson, 'Their Kingdom Come – Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei', pp. 153-158; 2002, David Rockefeller, 'Memoirs', pp. 412-413, referring to the Pesenti Group; April 6, 2003, The Observer, 'So, Norman, any regrets this time?'; June 18, 2004, Chancellery of HRH Crown Prince Alexander II of Yugoslavia, 'Reception in honor of the "Le Cercle" conference; September 5, 2004, Sunday Times, 'Le Cercle of the elite'

Mayor of Saint-Chamond from 1929 to 1977. December 17, 1994, De Tijd, 'De man die de Franse frank het leven redde, is dood' ('The man who saved the French Frank, is dead'): "Pinay's reputation wasn't always spotless. During World War II he initially supported the with the Germans collaborating regime of Marshall Petain. Because of that he was stripped from his political rights after the liberation. Because of his devotion, as mayor of Saint-Chamond, to the threatened French citizens during the occupation, he soon was rehabilitated." Served in the French National Assembly for nearly fifteen years before being named Premier. October 1989, Issue 18, Lobster Magazine, 'Pinay 2: Jean Violet': "In 1951 he [Jean Violet] was approached by Antoine Pinay, who was a cabinet minister at that point. On behalf of some Swiss lawyer Pinay sought to clear up the matter of a Geneva-based firm that had seen its factory in Germany seized by the Nazis during the war. Violet resolved the problem and Pinay was so satisfied he recommend him to the new French intelligence organization, SDECE. Violet duly became an SDECE operative, utilizing a global network of contacts to assist that agency in its work.(2) ..." Pinay was Prime Minister of France from March to December 1952. During his time as prime minister he tried, with Jean Monnet and others, to establish a European NATO Army, under the European Community of Defense (CED). It failed. Attended the first Bilderberg meeting in 1954, which he helped to establish. 1997, Robert Hutchinson, 'Their Kingdom Come', pp. 153-158: "Rumours of Nazi collaboration led to Violet's arrest following the war, but he was quickly released 'on orders from above'. [2] Shortly afterwards, he offered his services to SDECE, the French counter-espionage establishment referred to in the trade as La Piscine (the Swimming Pool). He joined Antoine Pinay's entourage in 1955. By this time Violet had become close to several Opusian personalities, among them Alfredo Sanchez Bella and Otto von Habsburg..." Co-founder of Le Cercle, which initially was called Cercle Pinay, together with Jean Violet and Archduke Otto von Habsburg in the 1950s. Pinay was France's Minister of Foreign Affairs 1955-1956; Jean Violet was part of his staff. Helped bring about Gen. Charles de Gaulle's return to power in 1958. Finance Minister in the cabinet of General Charles De Gaulle 1958-1960. Initially Pinay supported De Gaulle's right-wing leanings, but when De Gaulle granted Algeria its independence, Pinay strongly disagreed. Resigned in January 1960. De Gaulle would later survive several assassination attempts. Pinay remained widely popular in French political circles after leaving government, but rebuffed overtures to run for president in 1965 and 1969. December 17, 1994, De Tijd, 'De man die de Franse frank het leven redde, is dood' ('The man who saved the French Frank, is dead'): "In 1960 Pinay withdrew because of a disagreement over the policies towards the United States. As a liberal he could impossibly agree with the planmatic Atlantic Alliance." Pinay defended the Apartheid in Africa and was either a member of Opus Dei or strongly influenced by this Catholic cult. August 1984, Issue 5, Lobster Magazine, 'Brief Notes On The Political Importance Of Secret Societies': "In France, Opus Dei has had a particularly notable influence going back as far as 1938. It became strong in the army and among ex-Vichyites and right-wing Catholic integristes. It was said to have influenced Robert Schumann, Antoine Pinay and Paul Baudoin..." 1997, Robert Hutchinson, 'Their Kingdom Come', p. 155: "Various sources claim that Pinay was an Opus Dei supernumary, most recently Nicolas Dehan in 'Un étrange phénomène pastoral: l'Opus Dei', Le Sel de la Terre No. 11, Paris, Winter 1994-95, p. 139." 1994, R.T. Naylor (Professor of Economics at McGill University), Hot Money and the Politics of Debt, p. 267: "Pinay was installed by Bobby Leclerc in 1969 as president of the Compagnie de Guarantie des Investissements Industriels et Financiers in Geneva, which used Pinay's name to attract French funds. Leclerc also had good relations with... Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. Not least important of Leclerc's activities was his role, with Prince Jean de Broglie, cofounder of Giscard's Independent Republican party, in the administration of Sodatex, the Luxembourg-based holding company through which the principals of the notorious MATESA were looting Spanish government subsidy money in the 1960s... After the MATESA scandal broke,... came charges that Sodatex was the center of a huge arms- and drug-dealing operation across the French-Luxembourg border. All this assured that, when de Broglie was gunned down in a Paris street in 1976, the subsequent exposure of links to Sodatex set off a run on Bobby Leclerc's bank." Pinay died in 1994 at the age of 102.

Source(s): April 14, 2007, Jaime Nogueira Pinto's blog, 'Adieu mon ami - A short memoir of Jacques Jonet': "I knew [Jacques Jonet] for almost 30 years, and at "Club" de Vaduz, "Le Cercle" and welcoming him to Lisbon (rare) and me to Brussels (more frequently), we must have met about 100 times over the years and on four continents. ... The Portuguese coup-General Antonio de Spinola was there... "[Jonet, Crozier and I were] still trying to find other synergias, such as "African.""

Portuguese writer and university professor. A right-leaning political thinker, he has a law degree from the Faculty of Law, University of Lisbon, and is Doctor of Social Sciences, the Institute of Social and Political Sciences, Technical University of Lisbon, where he teaches courses in the fields of political science and international relations. He is director of the magazine Futuro Presente and presides over the Luso-African Culture Foundation. Also performs the tasks of consulting and business administration. Wrote a biography on Salazar and sees him as great political leader. Supporter of Afonso Dhlakama, leader of RENAMO in Mozambique. General de Matos referred Pinto to Brigadier Estanislau Fidelis, director of the MOSEG security firm in Mozambique, while writing his book African Games. Fidelis comes from a ruling Christian family of Mozambique, Pinto remarked. General Joao de Matos and Pinto seem to get along quite well. De Matos' biography is included below.

Salazar was the dictator of Portugal from 1932 to 1968. He was a supporter of Franco. In 1945, Portugal had an extensive colonial Empire. In Africa this included the Cape Verde Islands, Sao Tome e Principe, Angola, Portuguese Guinea, and Mozambique. Salazar, a fierce integralist, was determined to retain control of Portugal's colonies. He adopted scorched earth polices and in India he even ordered his army to fight until the last man. Salazar economically supported Ian Smith's breakaway Rhodesian government until his death. Ian Smith later wrote in his The Great Betrayal that had Salazar lasted longer than he did, the Rhodesian government would have survived to the present day, ruled by a moderate black majority government under the name of 'Zimbabwe-Rhodesia'. August 14, 1996, Chicago Tribune, 'General Spinola, led coup in Portugal': "Gen. Spinola was encouraged in his military career by dictator Antonio Salazar, a family friend. Trained under Spanish dictator Gen. Francisco Franco and Hitler's Russian front generals, Gen. Spinola earned a reputation for toughness and valor and became Portugal's most decorated officer. A hero of the old regime's wars against independence movements in the African colonies..."

General Joao de Matos: Has never been a member of the anti-Portuguese rule People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola - Labour Party (MPLA). Established considerable autonomy from the politicians in Luanda. Company Commander, 1975; Lieutenant, Battalion Commander, 1975-76; Lieutenant, Sector Commander, 197-77; Captain, Director of Regional Military Intelligence, 1977-79; Major Regional Commandant, 1979-87; Lieutenant-Colonel, 1987-89; Colonel, 1989-90; Major-General, 1991; Special Forces Commandant, 1991-92; General, Forcas Armadas Angolanas (FAA) Chief of General Staff, 1992-2001. De Matos' military leadership was decisive in turning the tide against Jonas Savimbi's UNITA forces after war resumed in 1992. A bold move was to hire South African security firm Executive Outcomes to assist the FAA's war effort. Many of EO's hired soldiers had served in the South African special forces alongside those of UNITA. EO became largely responsible for driving back the UNITA rebels and forcing them into a peace treaty in 1994. De Matos stayed in touch with EO after their contract ended and is close to EO-linked security company Alpha 5 (His brother is a major shareholder. Alpha 5 protects the diamond fields in Angola. The UNITA has accused it of harboring former EO personnel). Reportedly one of the primary shareholders of the company Teleservices, also linked to EO and also does security for mining and oil companies. Not enthusiastic about the 1994 Lusaka accords, De Matos thought the government should have maximised its advatage, taking all the major diamond fields in Lunda Norte and Sul (UNITA's financial backbone at the time). De Matos was the prime mover in Luanda's alliance with Rwanda's General Paul Kagame and Laurent-Desire Kabila's Alliance des Forces Democratiques pour la Liberation du Congo-Kinshasa to overthrow Mobutu Sese Seko. De Matos' support for the AFDL (transport and equipment) and the return of the Katangese gendarmes (who had been based in Angola since the late 1970s) proved critical for Kabila. Charles De Matos was led go over the mounting Angolagate scandal in France. Pasqua of the Cercle was convicted in 2009 for selling arms to the MLPA, which alongside Gen. de Matos was fighting the UNITA rebels. General de Matos referred Pinto to Brigadier Estanislau Fidelis, director of the MOSEG security firm in Mozambique, while writing his book African Games. Fidelis comes from a ruling Christian family of Mozambique, Pinto remarked.

Source(s): Cercle's 1983 Bonn participant list

Doctor of Laws degree in Philosophy, and Economics and Political Science, joined the diplomatic corps. His career in this field has included the positions of ambassador to Libya and Italy, consul in Nador and secretary of embassy in Bogota. His political career in the Spanish administration, was developed much in the last years of Franco and during the beginning of the transition. Between 1962 and 1967 he was Director General of Information and between 1967 and 1969 Popular Culture and Entertainment. After Franco's death, he was Minister of Education and Science (1975-1976), the government of Carlos Arias Navarro. And Adolfo Suarez to head of the executive, he held the positions of Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (1979-1981), Director General of Spanish Radio and Television (1981-1982) and president of the Ibero-American Cooperation (1982). Married to Elisa Fraga Iribarne, the sister of Manuel Fraga, the leader of Alianza Popular, and in that party was general coordinator, senator and member of European Parliament. Subsequently he joined the FAES Foundation as patron.

Source(s): Cercle's 1984 South Africa participant list

May 11, 1984, Associated Press, 'Peace Talks Open, But Dispute Delays Some Sessions': "South Africa's ambassador to France, Robert du Plooy, said Friday in Paris that the political situation in southern Africa is changing so quickly that "anything is possible, even a rapprochement with the ANC," a reference to the African National Congress. "If the ANC renounces its links with the Soviet Union, agrees to pursue its aims by exclusively peaceful means and declares itself willing to recognize the sovereignty of the South African government, everything could be discussed, including the fate of (ANC leader Nelson) Mandela and other ANC leaders serving prison terms for criminal activities," Du Plooy told reporters."

Source(s): November 1988 – Issue 17, Lobster Magazine, 'Brian Crozier, the Pinay Circle and James Goldsmith' (quoting from the Langemann papers - "'The reporting from this [Cercle] complex which also included the French statesman Poher...)

Born in 1909. Educated at Lycées Louis-le-Grand et Saint-Louis (Paris), Paris Faculty of Law. Also received degrees in Political Science and Engineering. Deputy-head of section at the Central Administration of the Ministry of Finance. Won the Resistance Medal and the Croix de Guerre for his efforts in WWII. Chairman of the Ministry of Finance Liberation Committee in 1944. Head of Social Services at the Ministry of Finance since January 1945. Mayor of Ablon-sur-Seine in 1946. Chef de Cabinet to the Minister of Finance, Robert Schuman, June-November 1946. Rapporteur-general for the Finance Commission of the Council of the Republic 1946-1948. Secretary of State for Finance and Economic Affairs in the government of Robert Schuman for a few days in September 1948. Secretary of State for the Budget in the Govt. of Henri Queuille September-November 1948. Commissioner-general for German and Austrian Affairs 1950-1952, French delegate and president of the International Ruhr Authority. Elected Senator for Seine-et-Oise department as member of the Mouvement Républicain Populaire (MRP) Parliamentary group in 1952. Held many leadership positions in the Mouvement Républicain Populaire in the 1950s and 1960s. Member of the Joint Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community 1952-1958. President of Transport Commission and chairman of the Joint Assembly's Common Market Commission 1954-1957. President of the Higher Trade Council in 1953. President of the Franco-German Governmental Commission for the Canalisation of the Moselle River 1955-1956. Secretary of State for the Naval Forces in the government of Félix Gaillard 1957-1958. Chairman of the Christian Democrat Group in the European Parliament 1958-1966. President of the European Parliament 1966-1969. President, Euro-African Parliamentary Assembly (CEE-EAMA: African and Madagascan States Associated With the EEC) 1967-1969. President of the French Senate 1968-1992. Acting president in April-June 1969, when Charles de Gaulle resigned. Attempted to formally run for the office, but lost to Georges Pompidou and re-assumed his Senate position once Pompidou was sworn in on June 20, 1969. Received the Robert Schuman Prize in 1971. The 1982 book 'Holy Blood, Holy Grail' reads: "By the early 1970s the Prieure de Sion had become a modest cause celebre among certain people in France. There were a number of magazine articles and some newspaper coverage. On February 13th, 1973, the Midi Libre [French newspaper] published a lengthy feature on Sion, Sauniere and the mystery of Rennes-le Chateau. This feature specifically linked Sion with a possible survival of the Merovingian bloodline into the twentieth century. It also suggested that the Merovingian descendants included a ‘true pretender to the throne of France’, whom it identified as M. Alain Poher... As far as we know, M. Poher never commented, one way or the other, on his alleged connections with the Prieure de Sion and/or the Merovingian bloodline. In the genealogies of the “Prieure documents’, however, there is mention of Arnaud, Count of Poher, who, sometime between 894 and 896, intermarried with the Plantard family the direct, descendants supposedly of Dagobert II... We could even trace the Merovingian bloodlines up to the present day to Alain Poher, to Henri de Montpezat (consort of the queen of Denmark), to Pierre Plantard de Saint-Clair, to Otto von Habsburg, titular duke of Lorraine and king of Jerusalem." Other rumors about the Order of Zion have named Cercle members Otto von Habsburg and Giulio Andreotti. Served again as acting president when Georges Pompidou died in office in April 1974. Went back to his Senate position when Valéry Giscard d'Estaing was sworn in as president on May 27, 1974. President of the Association of Mayors of France 1974-1983. Honorary Founding President of the Association des Liberté in 1977. President of the Association For Research and Information on Development Aid (ARIAD) in 1980. Contributed to a Trilateral Commission meeting of April 1989 in Paris. Member of the Honorary Committee of the French Organization for the European Movement. Vice-President of the Association for the Study of European Issues. Member, Honorary Committee, European Centre for Economic and Trade Research (CEREC). Member, Commission for International Exchanges in the Communal Domain. Member, Commission for the Study of Transport in the Common Market. Member, Patronage Committee of the European Centre for Observation by Opinion Polls (CEROS). Member, Steering Committee of the Association Française pour le Conseil des Communes d'Europe (French Association for Advice to the Communes of Europe). Member, Patronage Committee of the "Général Pierre Koenig" Foundation. Member, Standing Committee of the Higher Council for Tourism. Member, Board of the Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe. Member, Board of the Robert Schuman Foundation. Founder member, "Economie et Progrès" Association. Member, Honorary Committee of the International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism (LICRA). Received the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Sovereign Order of Malta.

Source(s): 2014, Johannes Grossmann, p. 552 (Cercle visitor in the early 1990s)

Son of air vice-marshal John Frederick Powell (1915-2008). In the Roal Air Force (RAF) during WWII. Speels with the Air Ministry and Minstry of Defence. Command Education Officer, Bomber Command Headquarters 1964-1966. Officer Commanding RAF School of Education 1966-1967. Director of Education Services, RAF, since 1967.

Lord Charles Powell was born in 1941. BA in modern history from New College, Oxford in 1963. Joined the Foreign Service in 1963. Posted to Helsinki as third secretary and then second secretary 1965-1968. At the Foreign and Commonwealth Office 1968-1971. First secretary in Washington, D.C. and private secretary to U.K. ambassador to the U.S., Rowland Baring, the 3rd Earl of Cromer (later Knight of the Garter and Pilgrims Society executive), 1971-1974. Subsequent postings were to Bonn in 1974 and, as Counsellor, to UKREP Brussels in 1980.

Private secretary and key foreign policy advisor to British prime minister Margaret Thatcher 1983-1990. Helped broker the controversial al-Yamamah arms deal with Saudi Arabia, which involved hundreds of millions in bribes (Cercle head Jonathan Aitken was the most key player in this affair). Private secretary to John Major 1990-1991. In business since 1992. Founding chair Singapore-British Business Council 1994 - November 2001. Controversially was Tony Blair's unpaid special envoy to Brunei at the same time that his brother served as chief of staff to Tony Blair and Powell himself as a paid consultant of BAE Systems, which had a dispute with Brunei over the purchase of three warships. Annual visitor of the Munich Security Conference (MSC) since the 1990s. On the international advisory board of Barrick Gold since the 1990s. Director of Jardine Matheson Holdings Ltd., Caterpillar Inc., Mandarin Oriental International Ltd, Schindler Holding Ltd, Tiphook plc, Textron Corporation and Yell Group plc. Chairman of Phillips Fine Art Auctioneers. Chairman of Sagitta Asset Management Limited and Louis Vuitton U.K. Ltd. British chair of the E.U.-China Business Association (EUCBA). Global advisory panel of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). Advisory board Centre for Policy Studies (CPS). Trustee International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). International advisory council Asia House. Trustee Aspen Institute. Chair Atlantic Partnership. Advisory board Diligence, LLC, founded in Baghdad in July 2003. Henry Jackson Society signatory in 2005. Became a Baron in 2000.

Charles' brother Jonathan Powell was chief of staff to prime minister Tony Blair from 1997 to 2007. Jonathan serves on the board of Hakluyt, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, the British-American Project, and the European Climate Foundation.

Source(s): 1985 D.C. meeting list

Son of a Lazard banker. Met Jacques Chirac in 1974 wile working under prime minister Pierre Messmer. Part of Chirac's inner circle. Advisor to premier Alain Juppe, operating under Jaqcues Chirac, 1995-1997.

Source(s): 1985 Washington D.C. Cercle meeting list

October 12, 1987, Newsweek, 'Casey's Domestic 'Covert Op'': "After more than four months on the job, CIA Director William Webster is still facing the problems left for him by his predecessor, William J. Casey. One largely unexplored area of Casey's activity involves a domestic-propaganda campaign designed to rally support for the Nicaraguan contras and discredit Americans who opposed them. NEWSWEEK has learned that the operation was far more extensive than formerly realized. By summer 1983 Casey knew the contra operation was in serious trouble both at home and in Central America. Congressional forbearance was wearing thin and the American public remained unenthusiastic. But Casey was determined not to abandon the contras. Working behind the scenes, he masterminded a complex effort to manipulate U.S. public opinion -- a domestic covert-propaganda operation that may have violated the executive order prohibiting the CIA from interfering in American politics. Much like his involvement in the Iran-contra affair, Casey's role was often indirect and carefully disguised. Documents released by the congressional Iran-contra investigation show him to be the prime mover behind the operation, much of which was actually run by his protege Oliver North. Casey seems to have tried whenever possible to keep the agency's hands clean, farming out the campaign to former CIA officials. Walter Raymond Jr., a longtime veteran of CIA overseas-propaganda work, left the agency to conduct "public diplomacy" from the National Security Council. Raymond told NEWSWEEK last week that Casey did not interfere with his work at the NSC, but at the time he wrote to his boss, Adm. John Poindexter, that Casey was "negative about turning the ball over" to anyone else. Other officials, in the administration and Congress, claim that Casey sent Raymond to the NSC in order to "insulate" the CIA. And sources say Casey occasionally involved the agency directly. In 1986, for example, he hired advertising specialist Peter Dailey as a CIA consultant. His job, according to a report Raymond wrote for Casey, was to "[generate] private-sector support and funding" for the PR campaign. The operation began in earnest in August 1983 when Casey gathered a group of public-relations consultants for what Raymond's report called a brainstorming session on how "to sell a 'new product' -- Central America." By spring 1985 the idea had blossomed into a coordinated effort. Some of the tactics seemed innocuous enough: North reported in a memo that the NSC was arranging press interviews for contra fighters. Other stratagems proposed in the memo were more elaborate: using U.S. intelligence agencies to research Sandinista human-rights abuses while the White House conducted opinion polls on "what turns Americans against Sandinistas." By itself, this effort might not have been unusual: the Reagan White House was hardly the first to wage a political battle for a cause. But its PR drive was more extensive and sophisticated than previous efforts -- and the CIA director's involvement, even from a distance, was highly irregular. Much of the campaign was run by the State Department's Latin American public-diplomacy office, installed in 1983 against the wishes of Secretary George Shultz. Run by State official Otto Reich, the unit actually reported to an NSC task force headed by Walter Raymond, and it was caught several times disseminating what one official called "selective" facts. A report to be released this week by the General Accounting Office confirms that the team conducted "prohibited, covert propaganda activities." According to the report, NSC officials ghostwrote op-ed pieces for The New York Times and The Washington Post and planted a story on NBC News -- yet portrayed the material as coming directly from contra sources."

September 13, 1988, Associated Press, 'Propaganda Campaign Was Run By CIA Covert Operations Specialists': "The report released Tuesday said that Donald Gregg, a former high-ranking CIA official who is now national security adviser to Vice President George Bush, initiated the recommendation that led to the assignment of former CIA propaganda expert Walter Raymond Jr. to the NSC group that directed the public diplomacy office. Bush, the GOP presidential nominee, has been questioned during the campaign about his role as chief of a Reagan administration task force on Central America policy and his association with Gregg. Raymond, according to the report, "was instrumental in facilitating the assignment of intelligence personnel from the Department of Defense to S/LPD and the expansion of State Department resources available to S/LPD," the report said. "On one occasion," the report said, "five intelligence experts from the Army's 4th Psychological Operations Group at Fort Bragg, N.C." were assigned to work with the office, then headed by Otto Reich, the current U.S. ambassador to Venezuela. The public diplomacy office sustained a private network of individuals and organizations whose activities were coordinated with and sometimes directed by Oliver L. North, the chief NSC operative in the Iran-Contra affair, the report said."

February 15, 1989, Jack O'Dwyer's Newsletter, 'Raymond, Ex-CIA, Escorts Gelb to Senate': "Congressional staffers have told the Newsletter they have been astounded to see ex-CIA executive Walter Raymond Jr. making the rounds of the Senate Foreign Relations committee with Bruce S. Gelb, who has been nominated to head the U.S. Information Agency. "Do you believe this -- an ex-CIA person introducing Gelb to the individual members of the committee!?" a staffer exclaimed to the NL. The staffer said the only explanation could be that Gelb is not sophisticated enough to know that is going on and Raymond is taking advantage of this. The former CIA executive retired from the CIA in 1983, where he was a senior official with worldwide responsibilities. He was an expert in covert propaganda operations and in Eastern Europe. He was a key figure in creating the State Dept.'s Office of Latin American Public Diplomacy and supervised it as an official of the National Security Council. Raymond worked closely with Lt. Col. Oliver North, who is now on trial. Raymond's name appears on North's calendar more than that of any other White House staff member or government employee, investigators said. Joined USIA in 1988 Raymond last year joined the USIA in a top post -- assistant director. His chief duty is congressional liaison. In that capacity, he has been introducing Gelb to the 19 members of the foreign Relations committee, who will shortly decide on Gelb's worthiness. Gelb, vice chairman of Bristol-Myers Co., went to prep school and Yale with President Bush and co-chaired the Bush finance committee in New York. His background is in advertising and marketing, having been VP-marketing at B-M. PR people were again disappointed with the choice of Gelb since no PR pro has ever headed the USIA -- considered by many to be the nations' pemier PR organization. Involvement of USIA people in the S/LPD's domestic PR campaign hurt the credibility of the USIA as did the transfer of Raymond to a high USIA post. Former USIA Director Charles Wick told the Newsletter that nay taint of the USIA by the CIA "would just destroy our people overseas." He said he did not know Raymond had been with the CIA and knew of no other ex-CIA person at the USIA. Attempts to reach Raymond to ask if he told Wick and the USIA of his CIA background have been unsuccessful. A USIA spokesman said that Raymond has talked to the media "only on an extremely few occasions.""

Source(s): 1993, Alan Clark, 'Diaries', p. 369-374; April 6, 2003, The Observer, 'So, Norman, any regrets this time?'; September 5, 2004, Sunday Times, 'Le Cercle of the elite'

Oman has long established ties with the British Empire based on a 1798 Treaty of Friendship, and was a British protectorate since 1891. The current Sultan of Oman, Qaboos, hosted a 1990 Pinay Cercle meeting in Oman. Qaboos spent his youth in Salalah where he was educated. At the age of 16, his father sent him to a private educational establishment in the United Kingdom. In 1960, he entered the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst as an officer cadet. Here he was a classmate of Timothy Landon, a future SAS officer who would become one of Sultan Qaboos's closest advisors. Having passed out of Sandhurst he joined a British infantry battalion on operational duty in Germany and also held a staff appointment with the British Army. After his military service, Qaboos studied local government in England and went on a world tour before returning home. The next six years were spent in Salalah studying Islam and the history of Oman and its people. Despite the wealth that Oman accumulated through its vast petroleum reserves, Qaboos's father refused to use this money for the benefit of his subjects, and the country essentially remained a feudal monarchy, run at Said's whim. In 1965, the province of Dhofar revolted, this time with the support of China and some of the nationalist Arab states, followed by an assassination attempt in 1966, which had a marked effect on Said causing him to become even more erratic in governing the country. Reportedly, even wearing eyeglasses was discouraged, and the Sultan meted out punishments to people who appeared in his dreams. No one was safe from the sultan's paranoia, and even his own son, Qaboos was kept under virtual house arrest at the Sultan's palace in Salalah. "With the help of British advisors," (according to state.gov) Qaboos rose to power after overthrowing his father, Sa’id ibn Taimur, in 1970. The new Sultan abolished many of his father's harsh restrictions, established a modern government structure, and launched a major development program to upgrade educational and health facilities, build a modern infrastructure, and developed the country's natural resources, mainly oil. Oil was first discovered in Oman in the western desert in 1964. The Petroleum Development of Oman (PDO) began production in August 1967. Today, the Omani Government owns 60% of PDO, while Royal Dutch Shell owns 34%. The first immediate problem that Qaboos faced was an armed Communist insurgency from South Yemen, and with the help of British military officials, like Sir Erik Bennett, he quickly defeated the incursion with little external aid. Sir Erik Bennett became his Air Marshall in 1974 and the British still have a strong presence around the Sultan until this day. Oman joined the Arab League and the United Nations in 1971. Oman's GDP grew 339% in the Sixties reaching a peak growth of 1,370% in the Seventies. Qaboos had a narrow escape from death in the evening of Sept. 11, 1995, when his four-wheel drive vehicle was rammed from behind by a speeding car in Salalah, where he likes to spend the summer. He had stopped the car in the middle of the road and walked over to listen to the complaints of a shepherd. Then came the crash. Qaboos survived. But in the back of the car, his deputy premier for economics and finance Qais Al Zawawi was killed. Qais' elder brother Omar, sitting next to him, was seriously wounded. In the front seat next to the Sultan was Air Marshal Sir Erik Bennett, then 67, who was also seriously injured. September 2004, volume 8, no. 3, Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA): "According to one Omani source, the sultan used to drive around at night by himself or with a friend "incognito." According to this same source, the car crash Qaboos survived was not an accident but a deliberate assassination attempt, and that many arrests were made following it." Qaboos has a number of enemies, including some members of prominent families, mainly Sunnis. Qaboos is a member of the relatively tolerant version Islam, Ibadhism. Another quote from the MERIA article: "... many Omanis (Ibadhis, Sunnis, and Shi'as) believe that Qaboos has indeed acted against the precepts of Islam in one important respect. Sultan Qaboos has been reported by several sources to be a homosexual... What Omanis think about this issue is hard to determine. Although I have been following Omani affairs for over two decades, only three Omanis have discussed this subject with me openly... All three agreed that the Sultan is generally believed to be homosexual by Omanis; All three agreed that Omanis only discuss this subject with trusted relatives and friends..." As Qaboos is the Sultan of Oman, he traditionally holds absolute power. He holds the portfolios of the Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, Defense Minister and Finance Minister. Despite his wealth and power, he is generally regarded as a benevolent ruler who pursues moderate ideological goals. At least to the West, he is known for his selflessness and generosity, and in General Tommy Franks's 2004 book 'American Soldier', he described the sultan as a true friend to the United States in the War on Terror, with "no guile, no secret agenda". In the last few years, Oman has taken some steps towards democracy. Free and fair parliamentary elections (in which women have voted and stood as candidates) have been held and the Sultan has pledged greater openness and participation in government. Oman relies on oil revenue for as much as 75 percent of its export earnings and 40 percent of its gross domestic product, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. 1993, Alan Clark in his 'Diaries' about the 1990 Cercle meeting: "Last night our delegation had dinner with the Ruler, Sheikh Qaboos, at the Barakha Palace. The drive was nearly a mile long, and every palm tree was floodlit... Qaboos had put me on his left, with Julian in the place of honour on the Ruler's right hand. He is intelligent, quick, almost feline in his responses, and commands the most perfect English — a mixture of Sandringham and Miss Newman. In contrast to the other Ruling Families on whom I had called in August, he is not frightened of Saddam. And his contempt for the oily little King of Jordan, who is, was palpable... Qaboos is delightful company. Wholly royal in manner and deportment, but never remote. He engages with you. Detached yes, but so different from the Windsors (except the dear QM) who are all of them remote — and obtuse."

Source(s): Adrian Hanni (went in 1985 and 1986 to two Cercle meetings)

Walter Raymond Jr. was born in New York in 1929. After graduating from the College of William and Mary in 1950 he joined the United States Army and saw action during the Korean War. Raymond joined the Central Intelligence Agency in 1952. According to Robert Parry (Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq) Raymond worked for the CIA's propaganda office. It is believed that he played an important role in Operation Mockingbird.

March 1983, Heritage Foundation, National Security Record: "The Soviet/KGB involvement in the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul in Rome almost two years ago and charges of alleged CIA manipulation of information linking the Soviets to the attempt have prompted Senators Steven Symms (R-Idaho) and Alphonse D'Amato (R-N.Y.) to send a letter to the President requesting a complete investigation. ... Additionally, Senate insiders insist that White House CIA aide, Walt Raymond, has not been entirely forthcoming in providing information to counter these allegations. Accordingly, Senators Symms and D'Amato have asked the President to turn the matter over to the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board for a thorough review and report of their findings to the Congress."

September 4, 1988, Washington Post, 'Reagan's Pro-Contra Propaganda Machine': "The explosive conclusion of that draft chapter was that the administration's covert propaganda operation had used "one of the CIA's most senior specialists, sent to the NSC by Bill Casey, to create and coordinate an inter-agency public-diplomacy mechanism. [This network] did what a covert CIA operation in a foreign country might do -- [it] attempted to manipulate the media, the Congress and public opinion to support the Reagan administration's policies." The troubling aspects of the domestic propaganda operation include: A CIA link. Iran-contra documents show that the propaganda campaign's chief architects were the late CIA director William J. Casey and Walter Raymond Jr., a veteran of CIA clandestine media operations overseas. In 1982, Casey detailed Raymond to the NSC staff where he set up the "public-diplomacy" machinery. One U.S. official described Raymond in an interview as the CIA's leading propaganda expert; Raymond told congressional investigators he was recommended for the NSC staff by another CIA veteran, Donald Gregg, national security adviser to Vice President George Bush. One senior NSC official acknowledged in an interview that the public-diplomacy apparatus was modeled after CIA covert operations overseas. "They were trying to manipulate [U.S.] public opinion . . . using the tools of Walt Raymond's tradecraft which he learned from his career in the CIA covert-operation shop," the official said. To sidestep legal bars on CIA domestic activities, Raymond retired from the CIA in April 1983 so that, as he said in his deposition for the Iran-contra committee, "there would be no contamination of this.""

February 1, 1989, Jack O'Dwyer's Newsletter: "PR people should read Appendix B, Vol. 22 of the Iran-Contra (once secret) depositions, which provide the sworn testimony of Walt Raymond and Otto Reich. ... PR people will be able to read the Walt Raymong "two-hat" defense of CIA director Bill Casey's role in a domestic PR campaign aimed at winning support for the Contras. This is the same defense being offered by several PRSA members, including two exnational officers, who met with Casey. In reply to a question, Raymond said that Casey, "taking his CIA hat off for a minute," was supportive of this (the PR campaign) in his (Casey's) contacts as adviser to the president, the Cabinet." At another point Raymond said that Casey was one of the key foreign policy advisers to the President and "frequently I think probably took his DCI hat off and looked at foreign policy issues as a senior member of the Administration.""

July 21, 2003, Salon.com, "Charlie Wilson's War": "One of the schemes devised by Richard "the Prince of Darkness" Perle, Oliver North and NSC staffer Walt Raymond was to encourage Soviet soldiers to defect to the mujahedin. The Afghan rebels were to use loudspeakers to tell the soldiers that deserting was their passage to the West and freedom. When Avrakatos went to the Reagan White House to brief them on the efficacy of the plan, he took several photographic blowups to show what Soviets who defected could expect. The photos showed the Soviet soldiers being raped, hanged and castrated by the mujahedin. Crile also recounts Avrakatos' attempts to derail the Iran-Contra scheme (including denying Oliver North access to a CIA Swiss bank account), not only because he thought it was crazy but because he knew it was illegal."

March 10, 2009, Blood and Treasure, 'Tale of the deserters': "The Beebs managed to track down a couple of ex-Soviet troops who deserted to the Afghan side during the war in the eighties, survived the experience and are still living and working in Afghan territory. Back during the war, one of the crazier notions of hardliners in Washington was the recruitment of a Vlasov Army of deserting Soviet troops lured by the siren sound of freedom. The tale is told in Charlie Wilsons War, as excerpted here: The meeting went very badly indeed. Gust accused North and Perle of being idiots. Larry Penn, Gusts consigliere, actually giggled in their faces. Avrakatos said to Walt Raymond, œYou know, Walt, youre just a fucking asshole, youre irrelevent. Avrakatos thought that would be the end of the Vlasov idea, but he greatly underestimated the political power and determination of this group, who went directly to Bill Casey to angrily protest Avrakatos insulting manner. .. At one point Avrakatos arrived for one of these White House sessions armed with five huge photographic blowups. Before unveiling them he explained that they would provide a useful understanding of the kind of experience a Soviet soldier could expect to have should he surrender to the mujahideen. One of them showed two Russian sergeants being used as concubines. Another had a Russian hanging from the turret of a tank with a vital part of his anatomy removed. Another showed a mujahid approaching a Soviet with a dagger in his hands. œIf you were a sane fucking Russian, would you defect to these people? he demanded of Perle. Yes, its that Richard Perle. For Vlasov army, read sweets and flowers in the streets of Baghdad. But the issue wouldnt go away. Perle, Raymond and the others continued to insist that the Agency find and send back to the United States the many Russian defectors they seemed to believe, despite Avrakatos denials, the mujahideen were harboring. They had visions of a great publicity campaign once these men reached America. As soon as their stories were known, others would defect. They refused to believe Avrakatos that there were no defectors. Avrakatos describes what happened next with the kind of pleasure he feels only when achieving revenge. It had been impossible to locate two prisoners, much less two defectors. The CIA found itself in the preposterous position of having to pony up $50,000 to bribe the Afghans to deliver two live ones. œThese two guys were basket cases, says Avrakatos, œOne had been fucked so many times he didnt know what was going on. The other was an alcoholic. We brought them back to the United States and I said to Walt Raymond, œDo you want me to give them your telephone number? Theyre yours now. Finally, Avrakatos turned the Soviets over to Ludmilla Thorne at the Freedom House. œOne guy had hallucinations of the KGB (NYSE:KGB) murdering him. The other started fucking with boys. The two men profiled by the BBC probably survived because they deserted to Ahmed Shah Massouds people: Massoud ran his leg of the Afghan insurgency flexibly, occasionally coming to local truces with the Soviets to enable the people in the area he controlled to get their crops to market through the Panjshir valley. He also tended to distinguish between the Soviets as invaders and the Soviet troops as human beings. This attitude caused him to be written off as a collaborator by the likes of Richard Perle. Most US support, under the further influence of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, went to people like Jalaluddin Haqqani and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, both currently leading war bands fighting in alliance with the Taliban."

NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR DEMOCRACY AND COUNCIL FOR A COMMUNITY OF DEMOCRACIES:

Council for a Community of Democracies (CCD), senior advisors, January 29, 2002 (webarchive; earliest possible - council founded in 2000): "CCD Senior Advisors, Board of Directors and Staff: Senior Advisors: John Brademas ... Frank C. Carlucci, Hodding Carter III, Max M. Kampelman ... John C. Whitehead. Staff: Walter Raymond, Jr., President. ... Board of Directors: Robert Hunter, Chairman. Walter Raymond, Jr., President. John Richardson, President Emeritus. ... Mr. Raymond was selected as President of the Council for a Community of Democracies in January 2001." On October 20, 2012: same people, with Madeleine Albright added and Paula Dobriansky on the board of directors.

ccd21.org/about/board/raymond.html (accessed: October 27, 2012): "Vi Raymond has served on the board of CCD since her husband, former CCD President, Walter Raymond passed away. His bio may be found below. Walter Raymond Jr., Former President (1929-2003) Note: This is an archival bio. Mr. Raymond passed away in April, 2003. Mr. Raymond was selected as President of the Council for a Community of Democracies in January 2001. He had an extensive career in the United States Government beginning in 1952. From 1982 – 1987 he served as Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and Senior Director for International Information, Communications and Democracy. From 1987-1992 he was Assistant Director of the United States Information Agency, served as the Director of Congressional Relations and USIA Coordinator for President Bush’s Support for East European Democracy. While at the NSC he played the key role in establishing the National Endowment for Democracy. Mr. Raymond had served as a Special Advisor, Program Director, Consultant and Board Member with several US Non-Governmental Organizations engaged in democracy building in East and Central Europe. He was awarded the Knights Cross of the Order of Poland in 1998."

September 22, 1991, Washington Post, 'Innocence Abroad: The New World of Spyless Coups': "NOBODY WAS rude enough to say so during last week's confirmation hearings for Robert M. Gates to head the CIA, but the old era of covert action is dead. The world doesn't run in secret anymore. We are now living in the Age of Overt Action. ... Preparing the ground for last month's triumph of overt action was a network of overt operatives who during the last 10 years have quietly been changing the rules of international politics. They have been doing in public what the CIA used to do in private -- providing money and moral support for pro-democracy groups, training resistance fighters, working to subvert communist rule. And, in contrast to many of the CIA's superannuated Cold Warriors, who tended to get tangled in their webs of secrecy, these overt operatives have been immensely successful. There's an obvious lesson here for Gates, or whoever ends up heading the CIA. The old concept of covert action, which has gotten the agency into such trouble during the past 40 years, may be obsolete. Nowadays, sensible activities to support America's friends abroad (or undermine its enemies) are probably best done openly. That includes paramilitary operations such as supporting freedom fighters, which can be managed overtly by the Pentagon. And it includes political-support operations for pro-democracy activists, which may be best left to the new network of overt operators. ... Allen Weinstein [pictured below], the recipient of Yeltsin's faxes, is probably the dean of the new overt operatives. Like many of the people running the new nations of Eastern Europe, he's an ex-professor. He taught history at Smith College for 15 years and even worked for several months writing editorials for The Washington Post. ... "The networking phenomenon is one of the things we've specialized in," explains Weinstein. His visitors in those early days included some of the insurgents who were later to lead protest movements across Eastern Europe in 1989. "People wander through your office," he says. "They become family." Weinstein founded the Center for Democracy in 1984 as an umbrella for his global meddling. He dispatched election-monitoring teams to the Philippines, Panama and Nicaragua that are credited with having helped topple undemocratic regimes in those countries through the ballot box. By 1990, he was hosting meetings for newly elected Polish parliamentarians; for legislative clerks from Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland; and for constitution-drafters from those three countries. ... Amazingly enough, these simple pro-democracy activities were once the exclusive province of the CIA. Back in the heyday of the Cold War, the wizards of Langley seemed to think it necessary to "recruit" the world's democrats and give them code names. ... The covert mentality penetrated nearly every aspect of American life. The mandarins decided that American students should attend international conferences and youth festivals to counteract Soviet propaganda. So the CIA secretly began funding the National Student Association. Anti-communist intellectuals in Europe were deemed worthy of aid, so the CIA subsidized the Congress for Cultural Freedom and Encounter magazine. It was decided that we should help democratic parties in Europe resist communist pressure. The CIA did it covertly. No activity was so innocent that the CIA didn't think it could be improved by secrecy. Even Gloria Steinem [pictured right], now a feminist leader, was drawn into the CIA covert web. According to CIA historian John Ranelagh, she was involved in a CIA operation to send American students to World Youth festivals in Vienna in 1959 and Helsinki in 1962. When these covert activities surfaced (as they inevitably did), the fallout was devastating. The CIA connection, intended to protect people and organizations from public embarrassment, had precisely the opposite effect. "A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA," agrees Weinstein. The biggest difference is that when such activities are done overtly, the flap potential is close to zero. Openness is its own protection. Allen Weinstein is just one of many overt operatives who helped prepare the way for the political miracles of the past two years by sponsoring exchanges and other contacts with liberal reformers from the East. It's worth naming a few more of them, to show the breadth of this movement for democracy: William Miller of the American Committee on U.S.-Soviet Relations; financier George Soros of the Soros Foundation [pictured below]; John Mroz of the Center for East-West Security Studies; John Baker of the Atlantic Council; and Harriett Crosby of the Institute for Soviet-American Relations. This has truly been a revolution by committee. The AFL-CIO also deserves a healthy pat on the back. Working mostly in the open, it helped keep the Polish trade union Solidarity alive in the dark days of martial law during the early 1980s. As the AFL-CIO's Adrian Karatnycky wrote in these pages two years ago, American trade unions and the U.S. Congress provided millions of dollars to the Solidarity underground. "The money underwrote shipments of scores of printing presses, dozens of computers, hundreds of mimeograph machines, thousands of gallons of printers' ink, hundreds of thousands of stencils, video cameras and radio broadcasting equipment," according to Karatnycky. The sugar daddy of overt operations has been the National Endowment for Democracy, a quasi-private group headed by Carl Gershman that is funded by the U.S. Congress. Through the late 1980s, it did openly what had once been unspeakably covert -- dispensing money to anti-communist forces behind the Iron Curtain. To read through the NED's grant list (a public document) is to take a stroll down the democracy movement's memory lane: In Czechoslovakia, the endowment began aiding democratic forces in 1984, including support for Civic Forum; in Hungary, the aid began in 1986 and included election help and funding for Hungary's first independent public-opinion survey; in Romania and Bulgaria, the endowment has supported new intellectual journals and other tools of democracy. Among its many activities in Poland, the endowment has backed the Gdansk Video Center, which helped produce and distribute pro-democracy videos throughout Eastern Europe during the 1980s. And through the Free Trade Union Institute and the Center for International Private Enterprise, the endowment helped support new unions and employers' associations across Eastern Europe -- building the infrastructure of a free economy. The endowment has also been active inside the Soviet Union. It has given money to Soviet trade unions; to the liberal "Interregional Group" in the Congress of Peoples Deputies; to a foundation headed by Russian activist Ilya Zaslavsky; to an Oral History Project headed by Soviet historian Yuri Afanasyev; to the Ukrainian independence movement known as Rukh, and to many other projects. Covert funding for these groups would have been the kiss of death, if discovered. Overt funding, it would seem, has been a kiss of life."

December 4, 1985, New York Times, 'Democracy Project Facing New Criticisms': "The National Endowment for Democracy is a quasi-governmental foundation created by the Reagan Administration in 1983 to channel millions of Federal dollars into anti-Communist ''private diplomacy.'' Its bylaws require ''openness'' and ''public accountability'' in its stewardship of millions of dollars a year in taxpayer funds, which are distributed to labor, business, education and other groups and organizations overseas to promote democratic ideas. Today, however, for the second time in its brief existence, the endowment finds itself in trouble with Congress. Some of its ''private diplomacy,'' it turns out, has been more than private; it has been secret."

March 13, 1987, New York Times, 'The Good Project Democracy': "The Soviet Union has long provided backstage aid to foreign comrades, and West German political parties have openly helped their third-world counterparts. Created by Congress in 1983, the bona fide National Endowment for Democracy disburses U.S. grants to parties, newspapers, trade unionists and schools around the world. Money flows to four ''core grantees'': a trade union institute, a unit of the Chamber of Commerce and institutes managed by Republican and Democratic parties. That some foolish grants have slipped through is less noteworthy than the general success of the venture. The endowment was meant to bury the bad old practice of using the C.I.A. to channel unaccounted-for funds to undisclosed recipients in the name of freedom. The lamentable result of the North confusions is to re-ignite suspicions of sinister American manipulation."

Source(s): 1984 South Africa participants list

Diocesan Coll., Cape Town; Trinity Coll., Oxford (MA). Joined Anglo American Corp., 1949 (Sec. to H. F. Oppenheimer and then to Sir Ernest Oppenheimer); Manager, Chm.’s Office, 1958; elected to Bd of Corp., 1965; Chm., Exec. Cttee, 1978; Director, Anglo American Corporation of South Africa Ltd, since 1966 (Deputy Chairman, 1977–82; Chairman, 1983–90). Mem. Bd, Anglo American Industrial Corp., 1973–90 (Chm., 1973–83). Chm., AECI Ltd, 1983–93; Dir, Minerals & Resources Corp. Ltd, 1974–. Mem., South Africa Foundn, 1975– (Pres., 1981–82). Chm., Bd of Trustees, WWF-SA, 1987–; Trustee: Univ. of S Africa Foundn, 1975–96; Univ. of the Witwatersrand Foundn, 1984–. Hon. LLD Rhodes, 1991; Hon. DComm Stellenbosch, 1993

Source(s): 2014, Johannes Grossmann, 'Die Internationale der Konservativen: Transnationale Elitenzirkel und private Außenpolitik in Westeuropa seit 1945', p. 553: "In May 1996 ... important Jordanian leaders such as Crown Prince Hassan ibn Talal, first ambassador to Israel, Marwan al-Muasher, and former prime minister Zaid al-Rifai ... were invited."

Prime minister of Jordan 1973-1976, 1985-1989. President of the Senate of Jordan from 1997 to 2009.

Source(s): 2014, Johannes Grossmann, p. 552 (visited in the early 1990s)

Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 1989 to 1994. Entered the House of Lord in 1994. Here she served as an Opposition Whip (1997–1998), Spokesperson on Culture, Media and Sport (1997–1998), Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1998–2010) and International Development (1998–2010). Following the 2010 general election, she served as the Government Whip with responsibility for Culture, Media and Sport and for Scotland. President of the British Antique Dealers' Association 2005-2013. Honorary secretary of grillion's dining club. Member Pilgrims Society.

Source(s): 1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', pages 186, 191-193, and 241; 1997, Robert Hutchinson, 'Their Kingdom Come – Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei', pp. 153-158; 2002, David Rockefeller, 'Memoirs', pp. 412-413, referring to the Pesenti Group

See his Pilgrims Society membership list for biographical details.

Source(s): 2014, Johannes Grossmann, p. 552 (visited in the early 1990s)

Born in Boston in 1943. Irish Catholic. Moved with his family to California after WWII. Almost became an Olympic boxer (162-2), but suffered a catastrophic injury in 1967. Also suffered a major back injury with amateur football. Robert Kennedy campus coordinator and operative for his campaign in Northern California 1968. Recruited by Robert Monagan in 1972 to work in Nixon's reelection campaign. Met governor Ronald Reagan in this period for the first time. Deputy assistant to the president for political affairs 1980-1981 and assistant 1981-October 1983 (Lee Atwater was his deputy). National campaign director of Reagan's re-election campaign 1984. Assistant to Reagan for political and government affairs in 1985. Passed over for the position of secretary of labor in 1985. Joined political consulting firm Russo & Watts. Campaign manager for Jack Kemp in early 1987, declining support for George H. W. Bush whom he didn't see as a true conservative heir of Reagan. Kemp didn't listen to Rollins' advise and lost.

Source(s): Internal Cercle paper from Julian Amery's archives (box 31, dated November 28, 1995).

See his Pilgrims Society membership list.

Source(s): Cercle lists: 1982 Wildbad Kreuth; 1983 Bonn; 1984 South Africa; 1985 Washington D.C.

Board member of the William J. Donovan Memorial Foundation. In 2002 the William J. Donovan Foundation was taken over by the Pilgrims Foundation, which supports the Pilgrims of the United States. April 2002, OSS Society: "The William J. Donovan Memorial Foundation (DMF) no longer exists under that name. It was transferred to the Pilgrim Foundation, Inc. at 122 East 58th St., New York City. ... According to Jeff Jones, the DMF’s continuity will be assured by John R. Drexel IV and William vanden Heuvel, military aide to the General in Thailand." This takeover appears to show the close alliance between the Georgetown Set/CIA leadership and the Pilgrims Establishment. Through family Vanden Heuvel is close to the mob-linked Music Corporation of America (see Lew Wasserstein's bio at the 1001 Club) and the left wing magazine The Nation. Vanden Heuvel has also been long time senior advisor to the banking firm Allen & Co, which organizes the anuual Sun Valley Meetings. Other remarks: General Singlaub has been a key player in the worldwide war on communism and is very close to the Cercle leadership. David S. Bruce's father (OSS) was vice president of the Pilgrims and his uncle a regular member. They are intermarried wih the Mellons. Francis Kellogg was a CIA linked 1001 Club member. Bernadette Casey Smith is the daugther of William Casey while Frank G. Wisner, Jr. (AIG; Enron; National Security Institute with Mark Brzezinski; Hakluyt, the British private intelligence firm) is the son ofthe CIA covert operations specialist. If all these men have become members of this Pilgrims is unknown at this point.

October 11, 1983, New York Times, 'Charlotte Curtis An Award for a Rothschild': "THE Appeal of Conscience Foundation is an interfaith group concerned with religious freedom, and it gave its annual award to Baron Guy de Rothschild the other night at the Pierre Hotel. The black-tie dinner for 500 began with cocktails, a receiving line and the dazzling arrival of the Honorable Joanne Herring, the Houston heiress. ... Mrs. Herring was there because the Rothschilds are friends, and she went in search of the Baroness, who was surrounded by those seeking introductions. She, too, was in black, with a sequin jacket collared and cuffed in starched white chiffon, and enormous pearls. ''New York is not so strange to me,'' the Baroness said between introductions. ''I went to Marymount School and College.'' Gradually, the crowd grew to include Baron Alexis de Rede from Paris, several Rothschild nephews, a slew of bankers (Ezra Zilkha, Dennis Weatherstone of Morgan Guaranty and James Levy from Lausanne), an array of prelates, Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3d, dozens of diplomats, Harry Helmsley, Mary Lasker, former Mayors John V. Lindsay and Abraham D. Beame, Henry Kissinger and Tatsuro Goto, former chief of Mitsui, the Japanese conglomerate. He hugged Mrs. Rockefeller. ... Thereafter, Mr. Marriott introduced Angier Biddle Duke, former Ambassador to Denmark, Spain and Morocco, foundation chairman and ''member of one of the nation's most distinguished families.'' ... After the benediction, guests were invited to dance. There was champagne for the Baron, and Spain's Countess Aline de Romanones slipped away because she had to catch a 7 A.M. plane the next morning. She removed her ruby and diamond earrings, zipped a black plastic sailing jacket over her white evening dress and ruby necklace and dashed for a taxi. ''Wasn't Kissinger marvelous,'' she exclaimed. ''Everything Guy said was important.''"

June 22, 1984, New York Times, 'Parties For the Arts, Uptown and Downtown': "Two parties Wednesday night reconfirmed one of the inexorable laws of New York nature. Uptown everyone loves a tiara. Downtown they just don't care. The occasions in question: the glittering black-tie reception before and the supper after the gala performance of ''Rigoletto'' by the English National Opera, attended by Princess Alexandra, a first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II ... Brooke Astor wore a baby blue dress that was a cascade of ruffles. ... Countess Aline Romanones, ... Lee Radziwill ... Among those who also attended the event: the Earl of Harewood; Sir Rudolf Bing; Lee Annenberg; Anthony A. Bliss; Bruce Crawford, the new president of the Metropolitan Opera; Carol and Arthur Ochs Sulzburger; William and Molly Rockefeller; Sydney and Marit Gruson; Harold Evans and Tina Brown; Kathleen Tynan; Arianna Stassinopoulos and John Loring, and Henry Luce 3d."

May 3, 1999, Chatanooga Times Free Press (Tennessee), 'Many Millions Going To Re-Establish Russian Tea Room': "Mrs. Astor was enthusiastic about the party she'd been to the night before at the Morgan Library to celebrate its 75th anniversary. Brooke said it was so much fun, she really didn't see why other events in NYC had to be so dull and deadly. She demanded to know why I had not been there. ... However, our idea that this would be a restful lunch ended during the nonstop stream who greeted Mrs. Astor: Aline, countess of Romanones, the Duchess of Kent, Hannah Pakula, Nancy Kissinger, ... "

November 4, 1990, New York Times, 'Success Was Not Enough': "GRAPHIC: Photos: William S. Paley braodcasting on CBS Radio in 1937. (pp. 1); William S. Paley and his wife, Babe, with Aline, Countess of Romanones, in Spain during the 1960's. (From "In All His Glory")"

September 18 1987, The Times, 'Friday Page: Countess espionage - As Agent 527, codenamed Tiger, American model Aline Griffiths became the toast of wartime Madrid - and enslaved a count': "'My breath came in deep gasps but I was alive. We were both lying on the ground, his body partly on top of mine, the revolver still in my hand. He was difficult to move, heavy and limp. Had I killed him? I couldn't take the time to find out.' Some 43 years after this incident, in which she almost lost her evening sandals, the Countess of Romannoes thinks the man probably survived. Her bosses at the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the wartime precursor of the CIA, later assured her that her assailant had been paid off and now worked for the same side. 'Who know what the truth is?' said the countess, sighing lightly, in a corner of the Savoy this week. 'There are a lot of things an agent never knows.' And with that, Aline, Countess of Romanones, confounded any further attempt to verify the sensational contents of her wartime memoirs, The Spy Wore Red, in which spies display self-conscious glee in their own duplicity. Why should one believe a word from any of them, even one as frangrant as the countess? But she insists that all her thrilling exploits - which rush from lock-picking in places, to incarceration in a Malaga jail, in a rousing narrative which slows down only for the regular discovery of corpses - are absolutely true. 'It is very, very accurate,' she says. 'I was very careful about that.' It was precisely to reassure the doubting that the book carries that ultimate guarantee of honest espionage: an approving line from the late William Casey, once the director of the CIA, formerly of the OSS. 'Her narrative reflects sensitively and accurately the clandestine intrigue and strategic maneuvers (sic) that marked the struggle between the secret services as well as the allied and axis powers and the atmosphere and high social life in the wartime Spain.' It is wise to keep Casey in mind when you meet the countess, whose preternaturally youthfully appearance in her mid-sixties, exotic social status and delicate name dropping - 'the Duke of Windsor once said to me . . . Deborah Kerr is a dear friend . . . when we stayed with the Rothschilds' - all suggest some laughable cover devised by a romantic fool in the CIA. In 1943 Aline Griffith, then 20 and a house model for Hattie Carnegie, an American haute couture house, had unwittingly advertised her availability to the OSS at a chance meeting at a dinner with a recruiting officer, to whom she confided her longing for active service. Within weeks she was Agent 527, condenamed Tiger learning to kill, pick pockets and construct a deadly weapon out of a rolled-up newspaper, at an OSS school in Virginia nicknamed The Farm. A little regretfully, the countess says she has since forgotten most of these skills; that the newspaper had never worked in the first place. She recently failed to break a safe to which she had lost the key, although the shooting is useful during the partridge season at her palace in Estremadura. According to the book, Tiger arrived in Spain on New Year's Eve, on a mission to discover Himmler's secret agent. Her main contact, Top Hat, told her: 'I hope you have a wardrobe to meet the demands of Madrid's social life. If not, I recommend a visit to Balenciaga.' While the allies were planning D-Day, Tiger was posing as a clerk at the American Oil Mission in Madrid, decoding Morse during the day, and dancing by night in clubs patronized by her elegant suspects. 'I do have a good memory,' the countess says of her staggering powers of recall. 'And if you remember people well, when you start writing it comes back very clearly.' She had some notes, and for the rest she jolted her memory with conversations with her Spanish family and friends - who may be surprised to find that their dazzling young guest spent her parties rifling through the bedrooms, while they watch flamenco in the salon. 'Of course I felt terrible about that,' she admits. 'They were inviting me, and I was going there to discover if they were Nazi agents.' But she appears more troubled by the breach of etiquette than the moral dilemmas of espionage: 'I think it is an honourable profession, the same as any other civil servant. I always felt it was a patriotic cause one was contributing to.' The countess's devotion to duty and undoubted bravery were such that she continued spying in France and Switzerland even after the war was over, and was about to find a new cover in Czechoslovakia, when Count Luis Romanones, Grandee of Spain, finally proposed. She had three sons, redecorated a palace, wrote a little - and acquired a taste for lecturing which now keeps her in America half the year, as a hired speaker on international espionage, subversion and the foreign affairs of the United States. 'I believe we must defend ourselves against Marxism,' the countess says, a fervent figure in a Krizia suit. 'I have seen it in so many countries that I realize what a terror it is.' She has had talks with 'the presidents of most Central American countries', including Nicaragua, where she is firmly behind American money for arms - 'but these little amounts of money, Pounds 100 million here, or Pounds 270 million there, are not enough. After wandering Madrid with a Beretta in her handbag and a few yards of microfilm in her girdle, the countess is unconcerned by the potential risks of her current interference. She reveals that in the past 25 years there have occasionally been things she darkly describes as 'missions'. 'I've done some things recently - very recently - that are maybe the most dangerous I've ever done.' What things? 'I couldn't tell you that,' the countess says, closing her little mouth. 'No. When you are in that business, you are in it forever.'"

March 26, 1990, Toronto Star, 'The countess was a spy and now she's telling all': "Aline Griffith, former model from Pearl River, N.Y., became a World War II spy, married into one of Spain's most aristocratic families, recruited the Duchess of Windsor for CIA work, conducted espionage against the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, and is now writing books about her experiences. Her latest, The Spy Went Dancing, written under her title of Countess of Romanones, recounts her efforts to find a Soviet mole in NATO in 1966, with the help of the Duchess of Windsor. The mole mingled in the best Parisian society, the Windsors' turf. It wasn't hard to get the American-born Duchess on side. "She kept saying to me, 'I'm not brave, I'm even afraid to fly in an airplane, but I like excitement and adventure, and I can finally do something worthwhile for my country,' " Romanones recalls."

May 31, 1994, CNN, '"The Well-Mannered Assassin"-Fact-Based Fiction': "LARRY KING: Welcome back to more of Larry King Live. Her code name was 'Tiger'. She was a real-life spy who came in from the cold after many decades of undercover activity. Aline, the Countess of Romanones, the former CIA operative who packed a pearl-handled pistol, is also a best-selling author. Her latest book weaves a tale of international intrigue based on her real-life relationship with the infamous terrorist, Carlos the Jackal. It is called The Well-Mannered Assassin. It is published by Putnam and Aline Romanones joins us here in Washington. It's always great to see her. This time, fiction. Why? ... ALINE, Countess of Romanones: I met Carlos. He happened to work in my husband's company in Madrid. Of course he was not with his identity as Carlos the Jackal. LARRY KING: Background it a little. First on you, so the audience who may not be aware of you yet, best-selling books, you were a spy. ALINE, Countess of Romanones: A spy. I worked in- for OSS in W.W.II. I landed in Spain in 1944 after having been three months in the spy school, the very best espionage school in the United States of America. Then, after working- LARRY KING: They solicited you- that's the only term I can think of- when you were a model, right? ALINE, Countess of Romanones: I was modeling. I had just graduated from college. I was modeling that summer and I got into this espionage school in Washington in September. I did not know there was such a thing as espionage in the United States, but they were looking for a girl who they could send into Spain who looked like she was innocent and a nice girl. LARRY KING: And Spanish? ALINE, Countess of Romanones: And- well, I wasn't Spanish. I was fairly American. LARRY KING: But you look Spanish. ALINE, Countess of Romanones: But I could fit in there well, and who could, perhaps, get some information on the German troops on the frontier of Spain and France, and a few things like that. LARRY KING: And your role was to do what? ALINE, Countess of Romanones: My role was to help the rest of our OSS agents there. We were only 10 or 11 or 12 at the most, and to try to get information from the southern part of France about where the German troops were, so that when the landing in the southern part of Europe took place- because we know a lot about the landing in Normandy because many many men were- many Americans were killed there- but the landing in the southern part of Europe was very successful. Very few people were killed, so we don't hear much about that. But we were doing that from Madrid, Spain, and from Algiers, where we also had an OSS office, and I had women that I had to hide out in my house, who got me across the frontier. I had, at one moment, to shoot at a man. I am afraid I killed him, when he tried to strangle me. He was frightened of being sent back to Germany at the end of the war for the war crimes trials. LARRY KING: No regrets over that? ALINE, Countess of Romanones: Well, I mean, if you're being killed and you know that you do whatever you can. I had been trained very carefully in the school in Washington, in our espionage school, how to take care of moments like that. ... ALINE, Countess of Romanones: Well I explained at the beginning of the book that, really, most of the book was written because- in what I thought was going to be non-fiction. You see, I had met Carlos. He had come to my house to deliver papers several times from my husband's office. I used to say to Luis, you know, what a well-mannered fellow you finally have in that office, so good-looking, so nice, he speaks English so well. About eight months later my husband said, 'oh, remember that well-mannered fellow that you were complimenting me on for having in my office? He turns out to be the world's number one assassin, the number one terrorist.' He had just come in from France, where he had killed two policemen, wounded, very badly, a commissioner, and also killed one of his own colleagues who he was working with. He did that deliberately. LARRY KING: Is Carlos someone who worked for anyone? ALINE, Countess of Romanones: Carlos was working for the PFLP, which is the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Then he went and he- to- and joined other groups. Many. He knows all the terrorists in the world. LARRY KING: I mean, is he for hire or is he a committed person? ALINE, Countess of Romanones: Well he probably started out as ideologically believing that he was going to help the masses by- through violence and murder, at which he had been trained very carefully in several places, one of them being in Jordan during the time that there was a battle, which was called the group of Black September, because so many people were killed. He was trained there and in Libya, and he originally began, because he probably was ideologically convinced, but- LARRY KING: And has become a- ALINE, Countess of Romanones: But I think now he's become a mercenary and he's been working for many different groups. LARRY KING: He's called Carlos because- is he from Spain? ALINE, Countess of Romanones: Well, no. He's from Venezuela, but he left Venezuela when he was young and went to England at the age of 17. Then he went to Russia and was educated for one year and a half in the university there. But he's probably the most ruthless terrorist. But, of course, in my book, I also talk about women who have done very extraordinary things in terrorism, who worked with Carlos, because he organized many of the most important operations of terrorism in the world that we read about in the 1970s, and he had, with him, working, many women. LARRY KING: And he was the Jackal? ALINE, Countess of Romanones: He was the Jackal. LARRY KING: Do they still call him the Jackal? ALINE, Countess of Romanones: They still call him Carlos the Jackal, and he was recognized as being the number one terrorist. Of course, he became famous for many reasons, not only because he had masterminded many operations where they would kill not only a few women and children, but sometimes great masses of people with bombs being exploded in airplanes that we have read about. I'm not going to go into the details of all these operations, but he was very successful with the ladies, because he had a lot of charm. He was then thinner. Now he's gotten plumper and he was charming and he was attractive and he was- he had a way about him. That's one thing I brought out in my book, that people may know terrorists and not realize that they do, because we even have terrorists here in this country. LARRY KING: How old is Carlos now? ALINE, Countess of Romanones: Carlos is now about 46, 47. LARRY KING: That's all? ALINE, Countess of Romanones: He's very young still, but he began this work in 1970 when he was 20, you see? LARRY KING: Where is he now? ALINE, Countess of Romanones: He is now in Syria, and that's why I decided to make it non- make it fiction."

December 16, 1997, Chicago Sun-Times, ''Carlos the Jackal' blames CIA for crimes': "Denouncing his murder prosecution as a "Zionist plot," the terrorist suspect known as Carlos the Jackal accused the CIA and Israel's Mossad on Monday of committing the killings for which he is being tried. A court appointed a new lawyer for the accused -- whose real name is Ilich Ramirez Sanchez -- when his three-member defense team walked out to protest the court's refusal to order a new investigation in the case. Monday's proceedings, interrupted by a half-dozen recesses, were punctuated by surprises and dramatic accusations, delaying progress in the second day of the trial. Ramirez, 48, is being tried in the 1975 killings of two French intelligence agents, Raymond Dous and Jean Donatini, and of a Lebanese man, Michel Moukharbal, whom Ramirez suspected of being an informer. The agents were investigating Ramirez's role in attacks on Israel's El Al airlines at Paris' Orly Airport. Ramirez, who faces a 30-year prison sentence in each of the killings, was convicted in 1992 in absentia. Under French law, he must be retried now that he is in custody. The court earlier Monday rejected the defense's request, made Friday, to throw out the trial on the grounds that Ramirez was illegally abducted from Sudan for trial. The three defense lawyers withdrew from the trial after the court refused another demand to investigate the CIA's and Mossad's alleged role in the killings. "These policemen were sent to the slaughterhouse by Israeli agents," the Venezuelan-born Ramirez told the court loudly in Spanish-accented French, adding profanities. He later denounced the trial as a "judicial scandal." "I refuse to prostitute myself in this abstract rite," Carlos said, claiming, once again, that he was the victim of a "Zionist plot." Lawyers for a civil party, SOS-Attentats, which defends victims of terrorism and is participating in the case, denounced the defense strategy as a "provocation." Ramirez gained international notoriety as the Cold War-era mastermind of deadly bombings, assassinations and hostage dramas. He carried out the 1975 seizure of OPEC oil ministers and was involved in the 1976 Palestinian hijacking of a French jetliner to Entebbe, Uganda, that ended with an Israeli commando raid. French judicial authorities are investigating Ramirez's role in at least three other attacks in France for which he could be tried."

Source(s): 1984 Cercle meeting in South Africa (list)

1921-2003. Member at-large US Congress from Del., 1967-71; US Senator from Del., 1971-2001; chairman US Senate Government Affairs Committee, 1981—1987, 1995, US Senate Fin. Committee, 1995—2001. Chairman Del. Rep. State Committee, 1961-64; member Rep. National Committee, 1961-64; president North Atlantic Assembly, 1996-98. Republican. Episcopalian.

Founding member of the Trilateral Commission in 1973.

Source(s): Cercle's 1983 Bonn meeting list

Born 1939 in Stuttgart, was Head of the Social Science Institute of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. From 1982 to 1988 he was Head of the Planning Staff of the German Ministry of Defense. Thereafter, he served as coordinator of the newly created Federal Security Academy. From 1990 to 1995 he was General Manager of the NATO Multirole Combat Aircraft Development and Production Management Agency (NAMMA). He publishes frequently on transatlantic security affairs, notably on nuclear proliferation.

Iran’s former deputy defense minister, who went missing during a 2006 official visit to Turkey, was kidnapped in a joint Israeli-German-British operation, according to an Iranian newsmagazine. Brigadier general Ali-Reza Asgari, who once commanded Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, disappeared on December 9, 2006, from his hotel room in Istanbul, Turkey. Little more than a year later, Hans Rühle, former Director of Policy Planning in the German Ministry of Defense, wrote in Swiss newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung that Asgari was in Western hands and that “information was obtained” from him.

On March 19, 2009, Hans Rühle, former chief of the planning staff of the German Defense Ministry, wrote in the Swiss daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung that Iran was financing a Syrian nuclear reactor. Rühle did not identify the sources of his information. He wrote that U.S. intelligence had detected North Korean ship deliveries of construction supplies to Syria that started in 2002, and that the construction was spotted by American satellites in 2003, who detected nothing unusual, partly because the Syrians had banned radio and telephones from the site and handled communications solely by messengers.

Source(s): February 21, 2012, Cercle chairman Lord Lothian's invitational letter to speak at Le Cercle to Saudi Arabia's deputy minister of foreign affairs Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz (released by Wikileaks around 2015; David Teacher made ISGP aware of the letter; this person is listed as a past speaker to Le Cercle).

Ford's chief of staff 1974-1975. Secretary of defense 1975-1977 and 2001-2006. High up in ISGP's Superclass Index. Pilgrims Society member in the early 1990s.

Source(s): Atlantic Circle website (existed from October 2000 to June 2002; one simple html page, 350 words; for 90% based on information already published in books or exposed in news articles): "Le Cercle, in the past, has been honored to hear the views of such notables as Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, David Rockefeller, William Casey, Franz Josef Strauss, Jeanne Kirkpatrick, Zbigniew Brzezinski, General Norman Schwartzkopf, the Sultan of Oman, Otto von Hapsburg, Winston Churchill II, Charles Pasqua, Anton Rupert, King Hussein of Jordan and President Ion lliescu of Romania."

South African billionaire. Established the Rembrandt-group (tobacco and alcohol) and became its chairman. Dominated South African corporate life from the 1950s. Chairman of the Technical Investment Corporation. Chairman of the South African tobacco giant Rothmans International tobacco company (taken over by British American Tobacco, which is a member of the Multinational Chairman's Group). Owned about 28% of British American Tobacco around the time of his death. Eventually he had migrated to less controversial luxury goods. A friend to European royalty, global leaders and business tycoons. For a while a member of the Afrikaner Broederbond, a secret, exclusively male and white Protestant organization in South Africa dedicated to the advancement of white Afrikaner interests. Together with later co-1001 Club members Harry Oppenheimer and Sir Francis de Guingand (former Military Intelligence chief heading Rupert's main company) a primary founder of the extremely influential South Africa Foundation in 1959. Together with Harry Oppenheimer he probably was the most important non-government man in South Africa for about half a decade. Played a role in establishing the WWF in 1961, together with persons like Julian Huxley, Prince Bernhard and Prince Philip. Trustee of the WWF international and president of WWF South Africa. Founder and chairman of the Peace Parks Foundation and chairman of the Club 21. January 21, 2006, The Telegraph, 'Anton Rupert': "Rupert's own aversion from his country's apartheid policies was expressed quietly but forcefully. He did not get on well with Dr Hendrik Verwoerd, regarded as the founder of apartheid, which Rupert considered a misguided vision of South Africa's future. In the 1980s he publicly urged the government of PW Botha to "get rid of the dead, stinking albatross of apartheid". He maintained steady behind-the-scenes pressure on successive white South African governments to look for an alternative policy that would involve partnership with the black majority." 2001, Terry Bell and Dumisa Buhle Ntsebeza, 'Unfinished business: South Africa, apartheid, and truth': "The South Africa Foundation brought together the doyens of English and Afrikaner business, Harry Oppenheimer and Anton Rupert. What it sought from the government was some official window-dressing, as it conveyed to the world the best possible 'non-political' image of the apartheid system from which its members profited. But the Dutch-born prime minister, Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd, a devout member of the Afrikaner Broederbond (Brotherhood) secret society, paid little head to outside advice, having established his own coterie of advisors." Together with 1001 Club member Harry Oppenheimer (close to a number of South African CIA programs), Rupert set up and ran the Urban Foundation since 1976, which had been founded after the bloody Soweta rebellion (and turned out to be bad for business).1992, Transformation 18, 'The Urban Foundation: Transformation possibilities': "The Urban Foundation was established in mid-December 1976 as a Section 21 (not for gain) company. It is widely accepted that the uprisings in Soweto earlier that year (June 16) and the country-wide tumult that followed had shaken the captains of industry who were fast losing confidence in Pretoria's ability to deal with deteriorating conditions in the townships (Leadership, 1987). With Anglo-American's Harry Oppenheimer as chairperson, and the doyen of Afrikaans business, Anton Rupert, as deputy, the U.F. began operating early in 1977. By 1978 regional offices and boards had been established in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth. Its initial finances came almost exclusively from the local business community, the biggest piece coming from Anglo-American itself. Reliance on essentially local sources has continued largely because the UF was politically blocked in attempts to raise funds abroad. In 1991 some R 28,3 million ofa total of R 35 million in donations received by the UF came from local sources, a freer fund-raising environment notwithstanding (Urban Foundation, 1991). While the goals of the Urban Foundation were rather fuzzy, initial emphasis fell on raising the socio-economic circumstances of the black population across a wide spectrum of areas (housing, health, education, welfare, community development and so on). ... Many of the UF's proposals have been perceived as being 'plain mean' and as relieving the state of its responsibility to provide for the poor. Thus the UF's penchant for introducing market relations and bringing the private sector into development has been received with skepticism in many quarters." Back in the late 1980's seven of his relatives were members of the 1001 Club. Rumored to have been an investor in the secretive KAS Enterprises, the SAS front company involved with Operation Lock. In 1997 Anton Rupert and Baron Edmond de Rothschild families formed the winery Rupert & Rothschild Vignerons, located in South Africa. The R & R Vignerons website: "The Rupert & Rothschild partnership was formed in 1997 by the late Dr. Anton Rupert of South Africa and the late Baron Edmond de Rothschild of France. Their visison and guiding principles were carried forward by their sons, the late Anthonij Rupert and Baron Benjamin de Rothschild. Today the Rupert family and Baron Benjamin de Rothschild share this prestigious partnership in wine production." Member of The Brenthurst Group, an informal association of South Africa's top industialists and financiers, called together by Anglo American's Harry Oppenheimer at Mandela's request to provide a sounding board for his thinking on economic and fiscal matters. Members include Rembrandt supremo Anton Rupert, Liberty Life’s Donny Gordon, Sanlam's Marinus Daling, Standard Bank's Conrad Strauss, Old Mutual's Mike Levett, Anglo American's Julian Ogilvie Thomson, Anglovaal’s Clive Menell and Barlows' Warren Clewlow. Between them they control three quarters of the shares on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. All are also members of the South African Foundation. Recently revived under its new director general Neil van Heerden, it represents South Africa's 53 leading companies. Died in 2006.

There have been suspicions and accusations that both Anton Rupert and Harry Oppenheimer were involved in the 1966 assassination of Hendrik Verwoerd, the racist, jew-hating, anti-British prime minsiter from Dutch origin. The maybe more hardline international private intelligence group Le Cercle, to which Anton Rupert has been invited, also has close ties to those who are accused of covering up the assassination.

The Story:

Henrik Verwoerd, a Dutchman, was prime minister of South Africa from 1958 until in assassination in 1966. He was the most fanatic apartheid supporting prime minister of South Africa and didn't tolerate any black personnel. Verwoerd did not like Jews either, called Israel an "apartheid state", and during World War II he had been anti-British and pro-German. In 1961 he managed to turn South Africa in a republic and stepped out of the British Commonwealth (this would last until 1994). The Oppenheimers, Ruperts and the more "moderate" wing of the National Party all had been denouncing Verwoerd since his appointment in 1958. In 1960 he survived his first assassination attempt: a shooter with the name David Pratt (who would soon commit suicide) didn't manage to fatally injure him. A second and successful assassination attempt happened on September 6, 1966 by Dimitri Tsafendas. In response John Vorster was appointed by the National Party to become his successor as prime minister, which he remained until 1978. His friend Hendrik van den Bergh, the intelligence chief, was already working under Verwoerd. Although Tsafendas could have acted alone, it is clear that Verwoerd at that point had become a serious opponent to both Rupert and Oppenheimer at the South Africa Foundation and also to members of Le Cercle, to which Anton Rupert has been invited. A few different sources on this assassination can be found below.

2001, Hilton Hamann, Days of the Generals', pp. 5-6: "On many occasions in the future, General van den Bergh would declare to the media that Tsafendas had been 'more thoroughly interrogated than any other suspected criminal'. Yet on the very day of the murder Vorster issued a press statement that appeared in The Star, saying that, as Minister of Justice, he could categorically state that Tsafendas operated alone and that there were definitely no accomplices. Conspiracy theorist believe that this makes Van den Bergh's supposed interrogation improbable. How could Vorster have known so much about Tsafendas before a proper interrogation was even done. They also point to the fact that the police officer originally involved in the interrogation was suddenly removed by Van den Bergh, who took over the questioning himself. The officer later said that his interrogation indicated that other people possibly have been involved. Jaap Marais (leader of the Herstigte Nasionale Party (HNP) - a right-wing grouping that broke away from the National Party, and at the time of Verwoerd's assassination a member of Parliament) - writing in Die Afrikaner of 10 September 1999, said: Within half an hour of the murder he [Vorster], as Minister of Justice, had reached a firm conclusion about the murder and the killer without the interrogation of the murderer even having started. In this regard it is revealing that Mr. P.W. Botha, former State President, said to me during a telephone conversation many years ago: "I don't want to imply anything, but a half hour after the murder a special Cabinet meeting was held and as we entered the room John [Vorster] was next to me and he said to me: 'This was one man's job.' During the course of the conversation Mr Botha also said he agreed with me that there was a conspiracy to kill Dr Verwoerd. Mr Vorster did not only share his views with Mr Botha. That same afternoon he issued an official statement to the press that on 7 September 1966 was published in The Star under the headline: "No sign of assassination plot. This was the work of a lone killer, says Vorster." The mystery deepened on 11 September 1966 when Beeld (then a Sunday newspaper) reported that Van den Bergh, in response to a phone call from the newspaper on the day of the assassination, had a file about Tsafendas on his desk within minutes."

August 28, 1966 (about a week before the assassination), Aida Parker for the Sunday Tribune, front page, 'Verwoerd Must Go Plan: Cape Nats [Nationalist Party Cape section] Back Anton Rupert': "The knives are out in the National Party ... And Dr Verwoerd is the target." Aida Parker was or became a friend of Hendrik van den Bergh (with John Vorster van den Bergh was a member during World War II of the pro-Nazi Ossewa-Brandwag; founding head in 1963 of South African intelligence under Verwoerd, and founded S.A. intelligence BOSS in 1969 under Vorster; sanctioned assassination and torture in defence of the apartheid; told a government commission investigating covert operations in the late 1970s: "I have enough men to commit murder if I tell them to kill. I don't care who the prey is. These are the type of men I have."), as Hilton Hamann reported. This worried him, but at least as interesting is that Aida Parker was sponsored by the CIA and Cercle leadership, including her mentor Brian Crozier and the CIA's Ted Shackley.

May 1, 1995, The Persbundel, 'Pioneer for the Truth' (translated from Dutch; clearly part of the Cercle network): "Aida Parker first met him [Brian Crozier] during a visit to Carmona (Angola), where the communists under the command of Holden Roberto had murdered women and children in electrical saw machines. ... It was the beginning of 30 years of Marxist terror where Rhodesia, South-West Africa and finally Africa would become the victims of. ... [Crozier] pointed to the merciless methods of the I.R.A. and P.L.O. .... the A.N.C. followed in their wake en added to it the burning of people with car tires and gasoline. ... From 1979-1989 the members of 'The 61' [including Crozier] did all they could to fight the communist, anywhere in the world. The costs on average were 1 million dollars a year, coming from fortunate friends as Rupert Murdoch, Sir James Goldsmith and Richard [Mellon] Scaife."

October 1996, Issue No. 200, Aida Parker Newsletter (APN): "The one [fax] from a man to whom I have long been a dedicated disciple: Brian Crozier [former chairman of Cercle meetings], the great British strategist. For his influence on my career, I owe him a tremendous debt of gratitude. I was, I believe, one of the first journalists to enter Angola when it was invaded by Holden Roberto's terrorist gangs in the early Sixties. ... Brian's message to APN: "I greet the 200th issue of the APN. Nowhere else can I read the unadorned truth about South Africa." ... A man who has done much to help APN along its rocky road is Theodore Shackley, a Deputy Director of the CIA under George Bush [and owner of Le Cercle]. ... Typically, [Shackley's] message was short and sweet: "APN's incisive reporting on history-making developments in South Africa for 200 issues has earned our respect and admiration."

Cercle ties would actually develop with Vorster and Van den Bergh after both ran South Africa.

Lobster Magazine, No. 26: "On 6 November 1973, Le Monde Moderne organised a threeday restricted "braintrust" meeting on South Africa, attended by Jean Violet [Cercle], Francois Vallet, Florimond Damman [close to Habsburg and the Cercle], Brian Crozier [Cercle] and Mr Burger, South African Ambassador to France [Cercle members Strauss and Sanchez Bella were also involved in Le Monde Moderne]. The Ambassador presented a two-page report drawn up personally by Prime Minister Vorster, Information Minister Connie Mulder, his deputy Dr Eschel Rhoodie and General Hendrik van der Bergh, head of BOSS. Then a discussion was held as to how the ISC, the Academy and Le Monde Moderne could assist the secret propaganda campaign that the South African government was conducting through such Pretoria-funded publications as To The Point, a newspaper with which Le Monde Moderne worked. The meeting decided to launch several campaigns in favour of South Africa. One targeted Members of Parliament."

Interesting detail is that the Foreign Affairs Research Institute (FARI), once of the Cercle afffiliated outfits, was largely sponsored by the pro-apartheid South African government, and undoubtedly during the period that prime minister Vorster and BOSS chief Van den Bergh ran that government. Julian Amery (Cercle), Lord Chalfont (Pilgrims board; big Intelligence guy), Brian Crozier (Cercle), Geoffrey Stewart-Smith, Sir Frederic Mackarness Bennett, air vice marshal Stuart Menual. Also involved with FARI at one point or another were Edwin Feulner (Cercle), Ray Cline (CIA; WACL), Frank Barnett, General Daniel O. Graham (CIA; DIA; Moonies), Richard Mellon Scaife (a financier of Cercle-related projects) and William Casey (Cercle).

Still, Anton Rupert seems to have been too much of a Rockefeller-type "liberal' and "internationalist" for Vorster (and van den Bergh) to like him.

August 24, 2006, Iafrica.com, 'Tributes to Anton Rupert': "Steven Mulholland: He was trying to dissuade National Party leaders from their path. For example, the late John Vorster detested Dr Rupert. He perceived that Dr Rupert was a man of immense power, both nationally and internationally, and he resented the fact that Dr Rupert disagreed with his policies. I remember that very well."

February 10-16, 2006, ANC Today: "In the end, Anton Rupert's ideas about "partnership" foundered in the face of militant opposition by the then ruling National Party, which was determined to implement its apartheid policy of "separate development", rather than "partnership". This included a number of acrimonious and fruitless meetings between Anton Rupert and HF Verwoerd, who had first met in 1937 when the latter, as editor of Die Transvalerí, had offered Anton Rupert a job on the editorial staff of the newspaper, which Anton Rupert declined."

The most serious accusations against Anton Rupert and his alleged involvement in the Verwoerd assassination unfortunately come from a completely unsourced and to some extent typical "new world order" conspiracy type article. Apparently the information has come from one or more books about the assassination, but as already stated, the sources are unclear. That having been said, even though the author mixes in his own philosophies, it could well be that the meetings mentioned - including exact date and sometimes the time - have taken place that. With the backgrounds of Rupert and Oppenheimer this certainly isn't out of the realms of possibility. And the recruiting and trapping of Vorster doesn't seem that far-fetched either. The text:

"In October 1958 Oppenheimer is informed during a session of a Freemason's Lodge in Johannesburg that Vorster was a spy for the Smuts government. This revelation was done by none other than Ernie Malherbe - the Chief of Military Intelligence under Smuts. ...

"In August of 1961 Vorster is promoted to Minister of Justice. He was informed of this by Verwoerd on July 24, 1961. When Vorster told his wife Tini this, she told him that he had to inform Anton Rupert. Vorster phoned Rupert on 24 July 1961 and informed him. Now get this. Anton Rupert told Vorster to come and see him (Rupert) at his home in Cape Town! Rupert basically summonses one of Verwoerd's most important ministers to his house! ... Vorster duly flew down to Cape Town on July 26, 1961 and met with Rupert the same day. Two interesting things happened at this meeting:

"1. Vorster is recruited as intelligence agent by the CIA. He is also promised the position of Prime Minister for the first time.
2. Vorster makes his first contact with Harry Oppenheimer - when he phones Oppenheimer from Rupert's house on Rupert's instructions. ... From then on Vorster was punted by the Rupert and Oppenheimer newspapers as one of the extremist rightwing trio of the National Party - along with Hertzog and Verwoerd. ...

"Vorster was further assisted by the CIA and MI6 through their covert operations. They ensured ongoing unrest, often resulting in the death of innocent black people, which in turn ensured that the safety and security situation remained a top priority with the government and the public. Which in turn made Vorster's role more and more important. And with the successes he achieved with the inside information that he received on these organizations from Oppenheimer, the CIA and MI6, he remained in the public eye. All of this ensured that Vorster became a more and more acceptable figure in the eyes of the conservative electorate.

"In the meantime, in 1962, Vorster increased his involvement and contact with the Brotherhood through his involvement in the South African Institute of International Affairs (a CFR front with which Vorster had an involvement since 1936), the South African Foundation (what's good for Anglo is good for SA) and was recruited as agent for MI6 in September 1962. ...

"[Anton Rupert] was directly involved in the murder of Verwoerd. In fact, he was the main driving force behind at least the second and successful attempt on Verwoerd's life. As far as can be ascertained, Rupert never met Tsafendas personally, but this is not to say that such a meeting never took place. Apart from the fact that he employed Tsafendas, and continued to support him financially after he was removed from Rothmans International, his car was used on at least one occasion, driven by his personal driver, to drive a MI6 agent to a meeting with Tsafendas. It was also possibly Rupert that supplied the R5 000 that Tsafendas was paid to commit the murder. ...

"In addition to this Rupert was present at the meeting held at Harry Oppenheimer's house in Parktown at 18h00 on July 27, 1964. It was during this meeting that Vorster was drawn into the murder plot, firstly by again promising him the post of Prime Minister after Verwoerd, and secondly, by threatening him to make public his involvement with supplying the CIA and MI6 (spying for them) with sensitive information from the inner circles of parliament and the Broederbond. A look at Vorster's profile below will show that this was not the only covert activities that he was involved in.

"The meeting started at 16h30 and lasted till 20h00.Vorster was apparently hesitant at first, but after the threats and promises, as well as a reminder of his duty as a Freemason, concurred. Present at this meeting was Oppenheimer, Rupert and Quinton Whyte (CFR, CIA and SA Institute to Race Relations [director of the "liberal" South African Institute of Race Relations, which used to be sponsored by the Ford Foundation and could well have received support of the CIA]) as well as an unnamed MI6 agent. It was also during this meeting that Whyte handed over to Vorster a final blueprint as to how he was to run the country after Verwoerd's death. (The first was handed to Vorster in 1963 after he became involved with the Council on Foreign Relations). More than two years before Tsafendas was to kill Verwoerd. ...

"As stated before, John Vorster was drawn into the plot to murder Verwoerd on July 27, 1964. It was also on this same day, later that evening, at a meeting at Vorster's house, that he pulled "Lang Hendrik" van den Bergh into the plot against Verwoerd. Van den Bergh and Vorster met at Vorster's house in Pretoria between 21h00 and 22h00 on the same evening as Vorster was drawn into the plot to murder Verwoerd. ...

"The idea to murder Verwoerd in parliament originated with Vorster, and was discussed by Henry Kissinger, the CIA, Mi6 and Lang Hendrik van den Bergh over the period of July 27 to August 6, 1965, during a visit of van den Bergh to the offices of the CIA and the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington DC. Kissinger was at that time employed by the CFR. MI6 informed everybody present of the progress of the plot to murder Verwoerd, and all present agreed to Vorster's plan for murdering Verwoerd in parliament. Van den Bergh was also instructed during this meeting that he and Vorster had to assist Tsafendas in gaining access to Parliament. Van den Bergh was further fully briefed by the CIA on how to go about covering their tracks and was instructed to destroy security documentation relating to Tsafendas.

"In May of 1960, Tsafendas mentioned to employees of Anton Rupert's British cigarette factory, Rothmans International, that he would kill Verwoerd, if he ever got the chance. This threat of Tsafendas' was brought to Rupert's attention in the same month, May of 1961. And just over a month later, in July of 1961, Tsafendas suddenly finds himself employed by Rothmans International! In January of 1962 this relationship of Tsafendas with Rupert's factory (Rothmans) was formally terminated, and as from February 1962 Tsafendas was "unemployed" - but he was still being paid from financial resources of Rupert. As far as can be ascertained, Rupert never personally spoke to Tsafendas during this period of six or so months. ... "

"Mi6 brainwashed or mind-controlled Tsafendas, and trained him in assassination techniques and in the use of weapons. ... it is not easy to kill a man with a knife. one of the strokes Tsafendas employed is only taught to specialist army and security units. It consists of stabbing the victim through the left shoulder - from above. ..."

A separate (unauthorative) claim, from rather antisemitic sources reads: "In 1966 the CIA financed the assassination of President Verwoerd, through their "lone nut" operative Demetrio Tsafendas, a Greek immigrant to South Africa. In particular, Oppenheimer's South African Foundation funneled CIA money to Hendrik Van Den Bergh of the South African Security Police and John Vorster, the Minister of Justice, who were the men who recruited Tsafendas to assassinate Verwoerd."

These last accusations whould be investigated further, considering the controversial histories of many Cercle and 1001 Club members - Anton Rupert was both.

Source(s): 2014, Johannes Grossmann, p. 473 (1970s visitor)

Belgian banker.

Source(s): Cercle lists: 1982 Wildbad Kreuth; 1983 Bonn meeting list; 1984 Bonn; 1985 Washington D.C.

Co-founder with Otto von Habsburg of CEDI in 1949. Board member Paneuropa Union. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic 1957-59. Ambassador to Colombia 1959-62. Ambassador to Italy 1962-69. Minister of Information and Tourism. Founding member AESP. Member Le Monde Moderne. Member European Liaison Committee to the Wilton Park conferences, together with Jonet, Violet and others. His brother, Florencio Sanchez Bella, was a leader of the Opus Dei in Spain.

In 1949, together with Opus Dei member Alfredo Sanchez Bella (August 21, 1964, The Frederick News, 'Rev. Dr. Thorning Returns From Europe': "In Rome, Father Thorning was the guest of Spanish Ambassador Alfredo Sanchez Bella"; November 4, 1969, Greeley Daily Tribune, 'Economic, Social Advancement Aims of New Franco Cabinet': "[Alfredo] Sanchez Bella, aside from his own talents as a diplomat, is the brother of Florencio Sanchez Bella, leader of the Opus Dei in Spain."; Bella was Ambassador to Rome until November 1969), Otto founded the European Centre of Documentation and Information CEDI), "whose objective was to construct around the Spanish Borbóns a federation of European states united in Christianity and anti-Communism. This sounded very much like a modern resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire over which Charles V had reigned. Like the Spanish empire of old, the envisaged Catholic federation was intended to have large-spectrum antennae in Latin America and the United States. CEDI was believed to be an auxiliary operation of Opus Dei. Although headquartered in Munich, it held its annual general meetings at the Monastery of El Escorial, near Madrid, and it continued functioning throughout the Cold War. Its tentacles spread among Catholic Monarchist circles throughout western Europe... [Otto] reportedly became one of Opus Dei's most treasured Old Guard supernumeraries. Like Opus Dei, CEDI published no membership lists, but the president of its Belgian chapter, Chevalier Marcel de Roover, was known to have close ties with the Belgian royal family. Indeed, Archduke Otto's nephew, Lorenz von Habsburg, son of international banker Karel von Habsburg, married Princes Astrid of Belgium [daughter of King Albert II, who stands accused of child abuse in the Pinon Affair, not unlike other members of the royal family; chairwoman Belgian Red Cross; patron Belgian Kids Foundation for Pediatric Research. The support committee of the Belgian Kids Foundation includes the wife of Count Maurice Lippens, who [the husband] stands accused of some of the most horrific child abuse practices. The support committee is presided over by Count Jean Pierre de Launoit, whose name once appeared on a list of people accused of involvement in trade in children and drugs. Nobody has been prosecuted], daughter of King Albert II. Astrid's aunt, the former Queen Fabiola, was related through the House of Aragon to the Spanish Borbón family. Professor Luc de Heusch of the Free University of Brussels, an expert on Sacred Kingship, maintained tha Queen Fabiola, a disciple of Escrivá de Balaguer [founder of Opus Dei], 'introduced Opus Dei to the Catholic aristocracy of Europe.' An idea of the company gathered from the membership of a sister organization, the Pan-European Union, headquartered in Zurich. An idea of the company CEDI kept can be gathered from the membership of a sister organization, the Pan-European Union, headquartered in Zurich. Also headed by Archduke Otto, among its members were two Belgian prime ministers, an Italian industrialist close to the Vatican, a former French prime minister, his legal counsellor, an aide to Valery Giscard d'Estaing, the secretary of Giscard's Independent Republican Party... the deputy head of NATO's intelligence division, a director of West German intelligence, the Spanish ambassador to the European Community and Alfredo Sanchez Bella." (1997, Robert Hutchinson, 'Their Kingdom Come', pp.153-154).

Source(s): February 21, 2012, Cercle chairman Lord Lothian's invitational letter to speak at Le Cercle to Saudi Arabia's deputy minister of foreign affairs Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz (released by Wikileaks around 2015; David Teacher made ISGP aware of the letter; this person is listed as a past speaker to Le Cercle).

Conservative judge. Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit 1982-1986 under Ronald Reagan. Permanent Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States 1986-2016. His death, during the run-up to the 2016 presidential elections that Donald Trump won, resulted in massive controversy at the Alex Show Show.

Source(s): 2014, Johannes Grossmann, 'Die Internationale der Konservativen. Transnationale Elitenzirkel und private Außenpolitik in Westeuropa seit 1945', p. x

Born in Pittsburgh, home turf of the Mellon family. Educated at Princeton University and leter studied in France and Germany. Graduated from Harvard Business School in 1929. Returned home to Pittsburgh. Lt. Colonel in the OSS during WWII, active in Africa. Married Helen "Patsy" Mellon, a member of the famous Mellon family, in 1936. Met her during a fox hunt at the Rolling Rock Club in the Ligonier Valley. Paw.princeton.edu/memorials /36/12/index.xml: "Dolph married Helen Mellon, who survives. Other survivors are his son, Thomas, a daughter, Sedgley Claire, four grandchildren, and one great-grandchild." Vice president and governor of the management firm T. Mellon and Sons, the firm which manages the financial and charitable interests of the Mellon family. President of the A. W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust 1946-1969. President of the Presbyterian-University Hospital. Co-founder of the Pittsburgh Playhouse. First chairman of the Three Rivers Arts Festival. Represented the United States at the 1957 Conference on North Atlantic Community and at the 1962 Atlantic Convention of NATO Nations. Ambassador to Canada under Nixon 1969-1974. Member CFR. Governor of the Atlantic Institute in Paris. Director of the Atlantic Council of the United States. Co-founder of the world Population Emergency Campaign at Princeton in 1960. Co-founder Population Crisis Committee in Washington D.C. in 1965, Co-founder Population-Environment Balance in 1973. Co-founder of the World Crisis Committee. Died in 2001.

Source(s): 1982 Wilbad Kreuth meeting list; 1983 Bonn meeting list

Educated at West Point and Fort McClellan, Alabama. Always been focused on strengthening the American-German relationship. International secretary Christian Social Union Party. Played a key role in the founding of the International Democratic Union and became a member of its Committee for International Affairs. Foreign policy director of the Institute for Foreign Relations at the Hanns Seidel Foundation throughout the 1980s and 1990s until his death in 1999. Head of the Franz Josef Strauss Symposium.

Source(s): Cercle lists: 1983 Bonn; 1984 Bonn

William J. Schneider Jr. is the chairman of the Defense Science Board in the Dept. of Defense. He is also president of International Planning Services, an international trade and finance advisory firm, and is an adjunct fellow of the Hudson Institute. From 1982 to 1986, Schneider was undersecretary of state for security assistance, science and technology. He initially joined the Reagan administration in 1981 as associate director for national security and international affairs at the Office of Management and Budget. In addition, he served as chairman of the President's General Advisory Committee on Arms Control and Disarmament (1987-1993); as a member of the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission; and as a member of the Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States. He currently serves as a consultant to the Dept. of State, Dept. of Defense, and Dept. of Energy. From 1987 to 1993, he served as chairman of the President's General Advisory Committee on Arms Control and Disarmament. Schneider's responsibilities in the Dept. of State included management of U.S. foreign economic and military assistance abroad, export control policy, and international telecommunications and information policy, as well as supervision of U.S. science attachés posted at U.S. embassies abroad. Schneider is the author of several works on defense policy, including Why ABM? Policy Issues in the Missile Defense Controversy, in 1969; Arms, Men, and Military Budgets, an annual review of defense budget issues; and Food, Foreign Policy, and Raw Material Cartels, a study of economic warfare, in 1976. He has also published numerous articles and monographs on defense and foreign policy, U.S. strategic forces, theater nuclear forces, and unconventional warfare. Schneider received his Ph.D. in economics from New York University in 1968. He is a member of the American Economic Association, the Econometric Society, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

William J. Schneider, Jr. is an American politician who has served in a number of prominent Federal Government positions. Schneider served as Under-Secretary of State in the Reagan administration, and later became a member of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC). He was one of the signers of the January 26, 1998, PNAC Letter sent to President Bill Clinton that encouraged an attack against Iraq. In that same year he served on the Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States, which came to the conclusion that Iraq could develop a ballistic missile capable of striking the US in ten years. In January 2001, as George W. Bush prepared to take office, Schneider served on a panel for nuclear weapons issues sponsored by the National Institute for Public Policy, a conservative think tank. Other members of the panel included Stephen Hadley, Stephen Cambone, and Robert Joseph, who later were appointed to senior positions in the Bush Administration. This panel advocated using tactical nuclear weapons as a standard part of the United States defense arsenal. In 2001 he was appointed by the senate to the Commission on the Future of the United States Aerospace Industry. Schneider was selected by Donald Rumsfeld to chair the Defense Science Board. In this position, Schneider continues to advocate using nuclear weapons in certain limited first-strike situations.

Source(s): Adrian Hanni (visited once in 1990)

CEO, Kelso & Co. Inc., New York City, 1980—. One of the oldest and most established firms specializing in private equity investing.  Since 1980, Kelso has made investments in over 110 companies in a broad range of industry sectors with aggregate initial capitalization at closing of over $39 billion.  The Firm is currently investing its eighth investment partnership, Kelso Investment Associates VIII, L.P., with $5.1 billion of committed capital.  Our Principals and employees are collectively by far the single largest investor in each of Kelso's four most recent funds.

Seems to be a devout Catholic with his wife. Donates to Catholic causes.

Source(s): Cercle's 1985 Washington D.C. meeting list

Originally founded on Aug 1, 1948 as the Henri Nannen publishing house, Gruner + Jahr was created in 1965 from a merger by acquisition, by publishers John Jahr Sr. and Gerd Bucerius joining the printing firm of Richard Gruner. In 1969, Richard Gruner retired, and thanks to the entrepreneurship of Reinhard Mohn, Bertelsmann acquired 25% of the ownership. Over the next fifteen years, the firm grew by expansion, acquisition (publishers Kindler & Schiermeier) and merger (Spiegel Verlag and Motor-Presse Verlag). By 1976, Bertelsmann owned a 74.9% stake, and the Hamburg publishing family Jahr owned 25.1 per cent, which balance has been maintained through 2007. In 1978, Gruner + Jahr became the first German publishing house to expand into other European and International markets. Over the next twenty years publishing houses in France, the USA, and Spain were purchased, and a number of new magazines were started in Germany including Impulse, Schöner Essen, and Gala. In 2005, Gruner + Jahr exited the U.S. magazine business, selling its women's magazine portfolio to the Meredith Corporation and its business magazine portfolio to Mansueto Ventures. In 2005-2006 Gruner + Jahr participated in the Du bist Deutschland marketing campaign. In 2006 Gruner + Jahr surpassed Hubert Burda Media to become the largest European publisher, based on market share. Gruner + Jahr publishes approximately 285 magazines and newspapers in 22 countries, including Poland, Spain, Russia, France and the People's Republic China.

By Sterling Seagrave Aug 22 2007, 06:43 PM: "Bill Casey was one of the key men in the acquisition of media after WW2. It was one of his proteges (a young German immigrant to the US) who was sent back to Germany after the war to take over Bertelsmann and build it up. Rupert Murdoch was very tight with Shackley, which is how he got launched on his global acquisitions and has now taken over the WSJ. Murdoch was running a failed national newspaper in Australia while Shackley was station chief in Oz. Then suddenly he becomes a US citizen literally overnight and goes on an endless buying spree. Shackley's pockets were infinitely deep. At the time, Murdoch was facing the likely closure of his newspaper THE AUSTRALIAN. His ticket out was Shackley. This also explains why Murdoch was allowed to break all the rules in acquisition of media in America."

February 12, 1981, PR Newswire: "Gerd Schulte-Hillen, 41, the new chairman of Gruner + Jahr USA and its parent Gruner + Jahr AG, has been with Bertelsmann since 1969. He served in the printing division, then as head of the Bertelsmann offset printing companies -- Printer Industria Grafica in Barcelona and Printer Portugesa in Lisbon -- before his appointment in 1973 to the board of Gruner + Jahr and as head of the company's printing divisions. In this capacity he was responsible for G + J's American printing operations and has recently spent over a year in the U. S., working on the restructuring and expansion of the Brown Printing Company."

May 19, 2000, AP, 'Bertelsmann supervisory board chairman to step down': "Bertelsmann AG supervisory board chairman Mark Woessner will leave the company Oct. 31... Gerd Schulte-Hillen, currently management board chairman at Bertelsmann unit Gruner + Jahr, will assume Woessner's position on the supervisory board Nov. 1."

July 2, 2001, OTS Originaltextservice, 'Bertelsmann Supervisory Board Adds Members / Liz Mohn, Andre': "The Belgian Groupe Bruxelles Lambert S.A. is thus contributing two Supervisory Board members. ... Reinhard Mohn is the Chairman Emeritus of the Supervisory Board. Thus, the Supervisory Board now comprises the following members: Gerd Schulte-Hillen, shareholder in the Bertelsmann Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH (BVG) and Deputy Chairman of the Bertelsmann Stiftung Executive Board and Board of Trustees, Hamburg (Chairman); ... Andre Desmarais, President and Co-Chief Executive Officer of the Power Corporation of Canada, Montreal; ... Liz Mohn, member of the Bertelsmann Stiftung Executive Board, Guetersloh and shareholder in the Bertelsmann Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH (BVG)"

July 31, 2002, Hollywood Reporter, 'Bertelsmann back to basics': "Although details are scarce, and Bertelsmann remains tight-lipped, Middelhoff's falling out with the company's supervisory board head, Gerd Schulte-Hillen, and with company patriarch Reinhard Mohn appears to have been linked to Middelhoff's plans to whip Bertelsmann into shape for an IPO in 2005. For nearly a year, Middelhoff has been on an efficiency drive to prepare for the flotation, setting a 10% profit target for each and every division in Bertelsmann's vast media empire. Companies that did not make the cut, including trade publication unit BertelsmannSpringer, were to be sold off. But with advertising revenue collapsing and such listed competitors as Vivendi Universal and AOL TW taking a beating on the capital markets, Bertelsmann's conservative board appears to have lost its taste for Middelhoff's risk-taking style." July 27, 2002, CNNMoney, 'Bertelsmann ousts CEO': "Indeed, the group's supervisory board chief Gerd Schulte-Hillen was instrumental in Middelhoff's exit. Having seen Bertelsmann's profits tumble in an increasingly tumultuous climate, Hillen persuaded the group's controlling shareholder, the Mohn family, to force Middlehoff out."

January 8, 2004, Tech Europe, 'Ex-Thyssen chief named to head Bertelsmann supervisory council': "He will take over as chairman on January 1, replacing Gerd Schulte-Hillen, who announced he was leaving last month following a clash with the chief executive, Gunter Thielen. Mr Schulte-Hillen had opposed the merger of Bertelsmann's music division BMG with Japanese giant Sony. Earlier this year Mr Schulte-Hillen had warned Bertelsmann's founders and majority shareholders, the Mohn family, not to interfere in the day-to-day running of the group. The Mohn family - headed by octogenarian patriarch Reinhard Mohn and his wife Liz - had been instrumental in forcing the departure last year of Mr Thielen's predecessor, Thomas Middlehoff."

October 8, 2002, New York Times, 'Bertelsmann Offers Regret For Its Nazi-Era Conduct': "Mr. Middelhoff was dismissed from Bertelsmann in July after a power struggle with Reinhard Mohn, the son of Heinrich Mohn, who inherited control of the company from his father in 1947. Today, in a statement, Mr. Middelhoff praised his former employer. "Bertelsmann is the first media company in Germany to probe its past in such an exhaustive manner," he said. "Reinhard Mohn and his family deserve enormous credit." The investigation has been painful for Bertelsmann because it taints the legacy of the Mohn family, which prides itself on having created a company with a conscience. The Bertelsmann Foundation, financed by the family's fortune, has become one of Germany's most generous philanthropies. But before the Mohns were benefactors, they were business people. The report documents how far Heinrich Mohn was willing to go to accommodate the Nazi party as it rose to power in the 1930's. Though not a party member, Mr. Mohn joined an SS patrons' circle, whose members supported the SS mainly through monthly donations. Bertelsmann profited from the Nazi war machine by cranking out popular fiction, known as "field editions," for the soldiers. Professor Friedlander said about 50 of the 1,200 titles published by Bertelsmann during that period were clearly anti-Semitic. The anti-Jewish tone was even more pronounced in Bertelsmann's religious literature, which began to use Nazi terminology. The scholars found no evidence of Heinrich Mohn's attitudes toward Jews one way or the other. "Above all else," the report says, "during the Third Reich, C. Bertelsmann remained a business enterprise whose publishing decisions were based on turnover, profit, investments and other fiscal data." The drive for profits was at the root of Bertelsmann's closing in 1944. The report asserts that the company was shut down largely because Nazi officials suspected that it was illegally hoarding stockpiles of paper. In 1945 Mr. Mohn was able to obtain a license to resume publishing from the British occupying force by contending that he had been a victim of the Nazis. His false statements were discovered two years later, and he turned Bertelsmann over to Reinhard Mohn, who built today's conglomerate."

Source(s): Cercle's 1983 Bonn meeting list

NATO commander for Middle-Europe 1977-79. Director Atlantic Brucke. 2010 annual report Atlatik Brucke, p. 13: "Auszüge aus der Rede von Friedrich Merz zur Entstehung des Expertengesprächs im Jahr 1990: I learned that Atlantik-Brücke’s first meeting with the U. S. European Command took place in Stuttgart at Patch Barracks on April 27, 1990 – just five months after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Cold War was not yet over and Germany still consisted of two sovereign states, but the dramatic developments in the Warsaw Pact Countries made it clear that Germans and Americans needed to sit down together to talk about the future. The initiative for the meeting came from Atlantik-Brücke member and retired General Franz-Joseph Schulze. At the “Wehrkunde” meeting in München, he suggested to the then-Commander-in-Chief of the U. S. European Command, General John R. Galvin, that under the auspices of Atlantik-Brücke a delegation of ten to fifteen prominent German defense experts should meet with the leadership of the U. S. European Command to discuss the future of Europe and NATO. General Galvin immediately agreed to the idea. Two weeks later, Dr. Walther Leisler Kiep – who was then Chairman of Atlantik-Brücke – wrote to General Galvin proposing that three topics be discussed: Security Risks in a Changing European Environment; The Importance of the U. S. Military Presence for Stability and Security in Europe; and Security Structures and Concepts after German unification."

Source(s): 2002, David Rockefeller, 'Memoirs', pp. 412-413, referring to the Pesenti Group

Roman Catholic. Born in Luxembourg in 1886. Moved to France in 1919 and was elected to the Chamber of Deputies. A moderate conservative he joined the more liberal Popular Republican Movement in 1940. In 1940 Schuman was arrested by the Gestapo, but escaped. In 1942 he joined the French Resistance. French prime minister 1947-1948. French foreign minister 1948-1953, in successive cabinets of Queuille, Bidault, Pleven, Faure, and Pinay. Attended the May 1948 Congress of Europe, which was convened by the United Europe Movement in The Hague. It was organized by Jean Monnet with the help of Joseph Retinger. Its chairman was Winston Churchill while Alcide de Gasperi, Paul Henri Spaak, Leon Blum, and Konrad Adenauer attended the conference. Presented the Schuman Plan in 1949, which became the basis for the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) that was established in 1952. Cercle member Jean Monnet was the person who had written the entire "Schuman Plan"; Schuman was only a frontman. Founding member of the initial Le Cercle group ("Pesenti Group"), according to David Rockefeller. In 1958 Schuman was elected president of the European Assembly in Strasbourg. Knight of the Order of Pope Pius IX. Intensely religious man and was strongly influenced by the writings of Pius XII, St Thomas Aquinas and Jacques Maritain. August 1984, Issue 5, Lobster Magazine, 'Brief Notes On The Political Importance Of Secret Societies': "In France, Opus Dei has had a particularly notable influence going back as far as 1938. It became strong in the army and among ex-Vichyites and right-wing Catholic integristes. It was said to have influenced Robert Schumann, Antoine Pinay and Paul Baudoin..." According to many articles in different languages Schuman was a great supporter of Opus Dei and could well have been a member. Died in 1963.

Source(s): Atlantic Circle website (existed from October 2000 to June 2002; one simple html page, 350 words; for 90% based on information already published in books or exposed in news articles): "In recent years, the Chairman of the group had been Britain's Lord Amery, a former Minister, QC, and member of Parliament. Lord Amery, because of declining health, yielded his stewardship of Le Cercle to Dr. Christian Schwartz-Schilling, a member of the Bundestag and former German Minister of Posts and telecommunications. The latter, in turn, passed the baton of leadership to Britain's Mr. Jonathan Aitken, member of Parliament and former Cabinet member."

Born in Austria in 1930. Devout Catholic. In 1957 he became manager of the battery factory Sonnenschein in Budingen in Hesse, which he remained until 1982. Joined the Christian Democratic Union in 1960. In 1964 he joined the regional board of the CDU in Hesse. In 1966 Schwarz-Schilling was elected into the regional parliament of Hesse and in 1967 he became the general secretary of the CDU in Hesse. Cercle member Konrad Adenaur was co-founder of the Christian Democratic Union in 1945 and its president from 1946 to 1966. Another important Cercle member, Franz Josef Strauss, was Defense Minister under Adenauer from 1956 to 1962, then Minister of Finance from 1966 to 1969 under new CDU chairman Kurt Georg Kiesinger. In 1969 the right wing CDU/CSU alliance went out of power. Strauss had been chairman of the CSU since 1961 and would be until his death in 1988. The aristocrat and co Cercle member Count Hans Huyn was Strauss' foreign policy advisor in the Bundestag from 1971 to 1976, and was likely a person involved in creating The 61. Huyn was a good friend of Strauss. A major aim of Le Cercle was to influence West German elections to ensure that Franz Joseph Strauss would become Chancellor of Germany. The Cercle favored him over Helmut Kohl, a great rival of Strauss within the CDU/CSU coalition. In 1980 Strauss lost the race for Chancellorship, went back to his CSU party in Bavaria and also continued as head of the Bavarian government. Until his death Strauss remained a fierce critic of Kohl. In 1971 Schwarz-Schilling became involved in national politics, becoming member of several councils. In 1971 he became a member of the Television Council of the ZDF, which he left in 1982. Bundestag member 1976-2002. Between 1975 and 1983 Schwarz-Schilling was chairman of the coordination council for Media Politics of the CDU/CSU and from 1976 to 1997 he was vice-chairman of the Small Business Union of the CDU/CSU. This put him right smack in the middle of Helmut Kohl at the CDU and Franz Josef Strauss at the CSU. Although little has been written about the relationship between Strauss and Schwarz-Schilling (probably because Schwarz-Schilling is seen as an unremarkable minister because he was not part of Kohl's " inner circle"), what is known is that Schwarz-Schilling was a critic of Helmut Kohl. Federal Minister for Post and Communication in the Kohl cabinet from 1982 to 1992. Resigned his post in 1992 in anger at Germany's inaction over atrocities in the then Yugoslavia — rebuffing Chancellor Kohl's protestations that Germany's post-war constitution barred it from stepping in. He told the chancellor he was "ashamed" to belong to such a government.

Official version of events in the former Yugoslavia: In 1991, the new Croat government, led by Franjo Tudjman (led the Croatian Christian Democrat Party; a dangerous fascist; reportedly once spoke about Soros' undermining of Croatia), seemed to be reviving fascism, even using the old Ustasha flag, and also enacted discriminatory laws targeting Orthodox Serbs. Aided by Serbian guerrillas in Croatia, Milosevic's forces invaded in July 1991 to 'protect' the Serbian minority. In the city of Vukovar, they bombarded the outgunned Croats for 86 consecutive days and reduced it to rubble. After Vukovar fell, the Serbs began the first mass executions of the conflict, killing hundreds of Croat men and burying them in mass graves. By the end of 1991, a U.S.-sponsored cease-fire agreement was brokered between the Serbs and Croats fighting in Croatia. In April 1992, the U.S. and European Community chose to recognize the independence of Bosnia, a mostly Muslim country where the Serb minority made up 32 percent of the population. Milosevic responded to Bosnia's declaration of independence by attacking Sarajevo, its capital city, best known for hosting the 1984 Winter Olympics. Sarajevo soon became known as the city where Serb snipers continually shot down helpless civilians in the streets, including eventually over 3,500 children. Bosnian Muslims were hopelessly outgunned. As the Serbs gained ground, they began to systematically roundup local Muslims in scenes eerily similar to those that had occurred under the Nazis during World War II, including mass shootings, forced repopulation of entire towns, and confinement in make-shift concentration camps for men and boys. The Serbs also terrorized Muslim families into fleeing their villages by using rape as a weapon against women and girls. The U.N. responded by imposing economic sanctions on Serbia and also deployed its troops to protect the distribution of food and medicine to dispossessed Muslims. But the U.N. strictly prohibited its troops from interfering militarily against the Serbs. Thus they remained steadfastly neutral no matter how bad the situation became. Throughout 1993, confident that the U.N., United States and the European Community would not take militarily action, Serbs in Bosnia freely committed genocide against Muslims. ...

At this point, some of the worst genocidal activities of the four-year-old conflict occurred. In Srebrenica, a Safe Haven, U.N. peacekeepers stood by helplessly as the Serbs under the command of General Ratko Mladic systematically selected and then slaughtered nearly 8,000 men and boys between the ages of twelve and sixty - the worst mass murder in Europe since World War II. In addition, the Serbs continued to engage in mass rapes of Muslim females. On August 30, 1995, effective military intervention finally began as the U.S. led a massive NATO bombing campaign in response to the killings at Srebrenica, targeting Serbian artillery positions throughout Bosnia. The bombardment continued into October. Serb forces also lost ground to Bosnian Muslims who had received arms shipments from the Islamic world. As a result, half of Bosnia was eventually retaken by Muslim-Croat troops. Faced with the heavy NATO bombardment and a string of ground losses to the Muslim-Croat alliance, Serb leader Milosevic was now ready to talk peace. On November 1, 1995, leaders of the warring factions including Milosevic and Tudjman traveled to the U.S. for peace talks at Wright-Patterson Air Force base in Ohio. After three weeks of negotiations, a peace accord was declared. Terms of the agreement included partitioning Bosnia into two main portions known as the Bosnian Serb Republic and the Muslim-Croat Federation. The agreement also called for democratic elections and stipulated that war criminals would be handed over for prosecution. 60,000 NATO soldiers were deployed to preserve the cease-fire. By now, over 200,000 Muslim civilians had been systematically murdered. More than 20,000 were missing and feared dead, while 2,000,000 had become refugees. It was, according to U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke, "the greatest failure of the West since the 1930s." In 1999 NATO bombed the Serbs again. A new massive campaign of ethnic cleansing (known as Operation Horseshoe) was cited as the reason for the intervention.

It has been argued by a number of reporters that the accusations of genocide on the part of the Serbs has been (severely inflated) - this to justify a military intervention and get rid of Milosovic, who has always been allied with Russia. It has also been reported that the West financed anti-Milosovic movements in the former Yugoslavia and that after the civil war started the CIA began to finance the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). There have also been separate accusations that Western intelligence agencies sent Muslim fighters to Bosnia. A number of news reports follow:

June 2, 2003, The New Statesman, 'NS Profile - George Soros': "The Yugoslavs remained stubbornly resistant [to the sponsored free market revolution in Eastern Europe] and repeatedly returned Slobodan Milosevic's unreformed Socialist Party to government. Soros was equal to the challenge. From 1991, his Open Society Institute channelled more than $100m to the coffers of the anti-Milosevic opposition, funding political parties, publishing houses and "independent" media such as Radio B92, the plucky little student radio station of western mythology which was in reality bankrolled by one of the world's richest men on behalf of the world's most powerful nation. With Slobo finally toppled in 2000 in a coup d'etat financed, planned and executed in Washington, all that was left was to cart the ex-Yugoslav leader to the Hague tribunal, co-financed by Soros along with those other custodians of human rights Time Warner Corporation and Disney. He faced charges of crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide, based in the main on the largely anecdotal evidence of (you've guessed it) Human Rights Watch. ... In Kosovo, for example, he has invested $50m in an attempt to gain control of the Trepca mine complex, where there are vast reserves of gold, silver, lead and other minerals estimated to be worth in the region of $5bn. He thus copied a pattern he has deployed to great effect over the whole of eastern Europe: of advocating "shock therapy" and "economic reform", then swooping in with his associates to buy valuable state assets at knock-down prices."

September 13, 2003, The Spectator, 'How we trained al-Qa'eda': "As part of the Dutch government’s inquiry into the Srebrenica massacre of July 1995, Professor Cees Wiebes of Amsterdam University compiled a report entitled ‘Intelligence and the War in Bosnia’, published in April 2002. In it he details the secret alliance between the Pentagon and radical Islamic groups from the Middle East, and their efforts to assist Bosnia’s Muslims. By 1993, there was a vast amount of weapons-smuggling through Croatia to the Muslims, organised by ‘clandestine agencies’ of the USA, Turkey and Iran, in association with a range of Islamic groups that included Afghan Mujahideen and the pro-Iranian Hezbollah. Arms bought by Iran and Turkey with the financial backing of Saudi Arabia were airlifted from the Middle East to Bosnia — airlifts with which, Wiebes points out, the USA was ‘very closely involved’. The Pentagon’s secret alliance with Islamic elements allowed Mujahideen fighters to be ‘flown in’, though they were initially reserved as shock troops for particularly hazardous operations against Serb forces. According to a report in the Los Angeles Times in October 2001, from 1992 as many as 4,000 volunteers from the Middle East, North Africa and Europe, ‘known as the Mujahideen’, arrived in Bosnia to fight with the Muslims. Richard Holbrooke, America’s former chief Balkans peace negotiator, has said that the Bosnian Muslims ‘wouldn’t have survived’ without the help of the Mujahideen, though he later admitted that the arrival of the Mujahideen was a ‘pact with the devil’ from which Bosnia is still recovering."

April 18, 1999, Sunday Telegraph, 'SAS teams move in to help KLA 'rise from the ashes'': "British and American special forces teams are working undercover in Kosovo with the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army to identify Serbian targets for Nato bombing raids....The SAS is also advising the rebels at their strongholds in northern Albania, where the KLA has launched a major recruitment and training operation. According to high-ranking KLA officials, the SAS is using two camps near Tirana, the Albanian capital, and another on the Kosovan border to teach KLA officers how to conduct intelligence-gathering operations on Serbian positions....It is the latest evidence of the growing co-operation between Nato and the KLA, a movement once denounced by the West's leaders as 'terrorists'..."

March 12, 2000, Sunday Times, 'CIA Aided Kosovo Guerrilla Army All Along': "American intelligence agents have admitted they helped to train the Kosovo Liberation Army before NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia. The disclosure angered some European diplomats, who said this had undermined moves for a political solution to the conflict between Serbs and Albanians. Central Intelligence Agency officers were ceasefire monitors in Kosovo in 1998 and 1999, developing ties with the KLA and giving American military training manuals and field advice on fighting the Yugoslav army and Serbian police. When the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which co-ordinated the monitoring, left Kosovo a week before airstrikes began a year ago, many of its satellite telephones and global positioning systems were secretly handed to the KLA, ensuring that guerrilla commanders could stay in touch with NATO and Washington. Several KLA leaders had the mobile phone number of General Wesley Clark, the NATO commander. European diplomats then working for the OSCE claim it was betrayed by an American policy that made airstrikes inevitable. Some have questioned the motives and loyalties of William Walker, the American OSCE head of mission. "The American agenda consisted of their diplomatic observers, aka the CIA, operating on completely different terms to the rest of Europe and the OSCE," said a European envoy. Several Americans who were directly involved in CIA activities or close to them have spoken to the makers of Moral Combat, a documentary to be broadcast on BBC2 tonight, and to 'The Sunday Times' about their clandestine roles. Walker dismissed suggestions that he had wanted war in Kosovo, but admitted the CIA was almost certainly involved in the countdown to airstrikes. Initially some "diplomatic observers" arrived, followed in October by a much larger group that was eventually swallowed up into the OSCE's "Kosovo Verification Mission". Walker said: "Overnight we went from having a handful of people to 130 or more. Could the agency have put them in at that point? Sure they could. It's their job. But nobody told me." Walker, who was nominated by Madeleine Albright, the American secretary of state, was intensely disliked by Belgrade. He had worked briefly for the United Nations in Croatia. Ten years earlier he was the American ambassador to El Salvador when Washington was helping the government there to suppress leftist rebels while supporting the contra guerrillas against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. Some European diplomats in Pristina, Kosovo's capital, concluded from Walker's background that he was inextricably linked with the CIA. The picture was muddied by the continued separation of American "diplomatic observers" from the mission. The CIA sources who have now broken their silence say the diplomatic observers were more closely connected to the agency. "It was a CIA front, gathering intelligence on the KLA's arms and leadership," said one. Another agent, who said he felt he had been "suckered in" by an organisation that has run amok in post-war Kosovo, said: "I'd tell them which hill to avoid, which wood to go behind, that sort of thing." The KLA has admitted its long-standing links with American and European intelligence organisations. Shaban Shala, a KLA commander now involved in attempts to destabilise majority Albanian villages beyond Kosovo's border in Serbia proper, claimed he had met British, American and Swiss agents in northern Albania in 1996. Belgrade has alleged the CIA also helped to arm the KLA, but this was denied by the guerrillas and agency sources. "It was purely the Albanian diaspora helping their brothers," said Florin Krasniqi, a New York builder and one of the KLA's biggest financiers. He described how sniper rifles were exported from America using a loophole in federal law that allowed them to be shipped to "hunting clubs". Armour-piercing Barratt rifles made their way to the KLA's "hunting club" in Albania. Agim Ceku, the KLA commander in the latter stages of the conflict, had established American contacts through his work in the Croatian army, which had been modernised with the help of Military Professional Resources Inc, an American company specialising in military training and procurement. This company's personnel were in Kosovo, along with others from a similar company, Dyncorps, that helped in the American-backed programme for the Bosnian army."

Dyncorps was actually linked to large scale child prostitution scandal. Apparently the whole leadership and a lot of the lower level personnel were involved in buying and selling underaged sex slaves. January 14, 2002, Insight Magazine, 'US: DynCorp Disgrace': "[Ben] Johnston was on the ground and saw firsthand what the military was complaining about. "My main problem," he explains, "was [sexual misbehavior] with the kids, but I wasn't too happy with them ripping off the government, either. DynCorp is just as immoral and elite as possible, and any rule they can break they do. ... Johnston reports that he had been in Bosnia only a few days when he became aware of misbehavior in which many of his DynCorp colleagues were involved. He tells INSIGHT, "I noticed there were problems as soon as I got there, and I tried to be covert because I knew it was a rougher crowd than I'd ever dealt with. It's not like I don't drink or anything, but DynCorp employees would come to work drunk. A DynCorp van would pick us up every morning and you could smell the alcohol on them. ... The mix of drunkenness and working on multimillion-dollar aircraft upon which the lives of U.S. military personnel depended was a serious enough issue, but Johnston drew the line when it came to buying young girls and women as sex slaves. "I heard talk about the prostitution right away, but it took some time before I understood that they were buying these girls. ... "At first," explains Johnston, "I just told the guys it was wrong. Then I went to my supervisors, including John Hirtz, although at the time I didn't realize how deep into it he was. Later I learned that he had videotaped himself having sex with two girls and CID has that video as evidence. Hirtz is the guy who would take new employees to the brothels and set them up so he got his women free. The Serbian mafia would give Hirtz the women free. ... "None of the girls," continues Johnston, "were from Bosnia. They were from Russia, Romania and other places, and they were imported in by DynCorp and the Serbian mafia. These guys would say 'I gotta go to Serbia this weekend topick up three girls.' They talk about it and brag about how much they pay for them - usually between $600 and $800. In fact, there was this one guy who had to be 60 years old who had a girl who couldn't have been 14. DynCorp leadership was 100 percent in bed with the mafia over there. I didn't get any results from talking to DynCorp officials, so I went to Army CID and I drove around with them, pointing out everyone's houses who owned women and weapons." ... CID spent several weeks working the investigation and the results appear to support Johnston's allegations. ... Werner admitted to having purchased a woman to get her out of prostitution and named other DynCorp employees who also had paid to own women. He further admitted to having purchased weapons (against the law in Bosnia) and it was Werner who turned over to CID the videotape made by Hirtz. ... According to Hirtz's own sworn statement to CID, there appears to be little doubt that he did indeed rape one of the girls with whom he is shown having sexual intercourse in his homemade video. ... Incredibly, the CID case was closed in June 2000 and turned over to the Bosnian authorities. DynCorp says it conducted its own investigation, and Hirtz and Werner were fired by DynCorp and returned to the United States but were not prosecuted."

Back to Schwarz-Schilling, who had resigned in 1992 from the Kohl cabinet protesting Germany inaction against Serbian aggression. As Yugoslavia lurched into chaos, Schwarz-Schilling began to try to mediate between the factions — a role later formalised in the Washington agreement of 1994, and which he held until 2004. During and after the war, Schwarz-Schilling travelled around the country, trying to resolve disputes and later overseeing the return of many refugees. Chairman of the secret international intelligence-related group Le Cercle for several years in the early 1990s. Board member of the International Crisis Group by the mid 1990s, together with Morton Abramowitz (former president Carnegie Endowment; influential policy maker; still a board member of the ICG in 2010), George Soros (close to the Cercle; still a board member in 2010), Prince El-Hassan bin Talal (brother of Cercle member King Hussein of Jordan), and Vernon Jordan (Senior managing director Lazard in New York; close to Kissinger and the Rothschilds; Bilderberg; Trilateral Commission; Sun Valley Meetings). General Wesley Clark, who played a crucial role in coordinating the CIA operation to arm the KLA in Bosnia, would later also become a board member of the International Crisis Group. Schwarz-Schilling still is a senior advisor to the International Crisis Group anno 2010. Also CEO of Dr. Schwarz-Schilling & Partner GmbH. In 1995 he became chairperson of the sub-committee on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid. In 1998 the sub-committee became a full committee and Schwarz-Schilling became its vice-chairperson, serving until 2002. High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina 2006-2007.

Source(s): 1993, Alan Clark, 'Diaries', p. 369-374; February 21, 2012, Cercle chairman Lord Lothian's invitational letter to speak at Le Cercle to Saudi Arabia's deputy minister of foreign affairs Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz (released by Wikileaks around 2015; David Teacher made ISGP aware of the letter; this person is listed as a past speaker to Le Cercle).

Attended the 1990 Pinay meeting in Oman. Born in Trenton, New Jersey to Norman Schwarzkopf, Sr., he graduated from West Point in 1956, and earned a masters degree in missile engineering from the University of Southern California in 1964. After graduating from West Point and receiving a commission in the infantry, Schwarzkopf had assignments in the United States and Germany before going back to school to earn his masters in guided missile engineering. Schwarzkopf then returned to West Point as a member of the faculty. Following Schwarzkopf's first year as a member of the faculty at West Point he requested a reassignment to Vietnam. Schwarzkopf served as an adviser to the Vietnamese airborne division during his two combat tours in the Vietnam War and received the Purple Heart after being injured. Schwarzkopf made general in 1978, and in 1983 was deputy commander during the US invasion of Grenada, and in 1988 was appointed to the U.S. Central Command. In 1990 he was chosen to run Operation Desert Storm, and was responsible for the "left hook" strategy that went into Iraq behind the Iraqi forces occupying Kuwait, and widely credited with bringing the ground war to a close in just four days. He was personally very visible in the conduct of the war, giving frequent press conferences, and was dubbed "Stormin' Norman." He was awarded the United States Republican Senatorial Medal of Freedom and the British Order of the Bath. Schwarzkopf has visited the Bohemian Grove.

Son of H. Norman Schwarzkopf, Sr. Schwarzkopf, Sr. was posted to Iran in 1942, due to the efforts of Mohammad Vali Mirza Farman Farmaian, and was tasked with organizing the Iranian police after the UK-Soviet intervention that made Iran an Allied protectorate. His recruits, the Gendarmerie, were active in suppressing the Soviet-inspired People's Republic of Azerbaijan (the so-called Marshabad Soviet) in 1946. After World War II, he was promoted to brigadier general, and in the late 1940s was sent to occupied Germany to serve as Deputy Provost Marshal for the entire U.S. Sector. Before retiring from the Army in 1953 with the rank of major general, Schwarzkopf was sent by the CIA as part of Operation Ajax (under Kermit Roosevelt) to convince the exiled Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, to return and seize power. Schwarzkopf went so far as to organize the security forces he had trained to support the Shah.

Source(s): 1983 Bonn meeting list of the Cercle; Adrian Hanni (also went to Cercle meetings in 87, 89 (together with Perle at this meeting) and 90); Corporationwiki.com (2010): "The Atlantic Cercle, Inc. - Incorporated by Julian Amery, Richard McCormack, Robert Zoelly, Theodore G Shackley, Thomas R Spencer, The Atlantic Cercle, Inc. is located at 801 Brickell Ave Ste 1901 Miami, FL 33131. The Atlantic Cercle, Inc. was incorporated on Wednesday, August 17, 1994 in the State of FL and is currently not active. Thomas R Spencer represents The Atlantic Cercle, Inc. as their registered agent."; "The Atlantic Circle, Inc. - Estate of Ted Shackley" (afio.com/publications/ Periscope04.pdf)

Ted Shackley, son of a Polish immigrant mother, went to work as an Army Counter Intelligence Corps officer in Germany in 1945, trying to recruit Polish agents. He himself was recruited into the CIA in 1953, and started to work for William Harvey (worked with mafia bosses Santo Trafficante and Johnny Roselli; CIA station chief in Rome in 1963 while Gen. Vernon Walters was military attaché in Rome) in the CIA's Berlin Station. Involved in overthrow of the socialist Guatemalan government of Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán in 1954. In 1962, Shackley was appointed by William Harvey (started ZR/RIFLE in November 1961, an assassination plot on Castro, which involved the recruitment of mob bosses Johnny Roselli, Santos Trafficante, Sam Giancana, and Meyer Lansky, and was originally negotiated by CIA chief Allen Dulles; demoted in February 1963 by Robert Kennedy and sent to Rome to become Chief of Station there, and just as DCI Allen Dulles, his Harrimanite deputy Bissell, and CIA deputy Director Charles Cabell (whose brother was the mayor of Dallas at the time Kennedy was shot).; he developed an extreme distaste for the Kennedy's) as deputy chief of JM/WAVE, the heavily funded CIA station in Miami that oversaw the operation to overthrow Fidel Castro. In April of that year, Shackley was involved in delivering supplies to Johnny Roselli (mob boss; murdered in September 1976, at the time of the Church committee; Roselli had been named as a participant in the JFK assassination) as part of the plan to assassinate Fidel Castro. Recruited Félix Rodríguez, who later organized the capture and execution of Che Guevara in Bolivia. CIA assassin David Morales first worked under Shackley at JM/WAVE, just as David Atlee Phillips. Porter Goss, who knew Barry Seal and later became a CIA director, went to work under Shackley at JM/WAVE, just as Frank Sturgis, who would be convicted for his role in Watergate. After the Bay of Pigs fiasco, when Harvey was ousted, Shackley became head of Operation Mongoose, and quite possibly of Executive Directives, a worldwide assassination program. Responsible for gathering intelligence and recruiting spies in Cuba. During this time, he worked closely with mob figures as Sam Giancana (murdered in June 1975, at the start of the Church Committee), John Roselli, and Santos Trafficante, all of them suspected of having been involved in the assassination on JFK. Headed JM/WAVE until 1965. In 1966, Shackley was placed in charge of the CIA's secret war in Laos. Thomas G. Clines was appointed his deputy. He formed the Military Assistance Group-Special Operations Group (MAG-SOG) political murder unit; Gen. John K. Singlaub commander of MACV-SOG 1966-68; Oliver North and Richard Secord were officers of the unit. According to mainstream journalist Joel Bainerman in 'The Crimes of a President', Shackley and his Secret Team (in Laos) included Thomas G. Clines, Carl E. Jenkins, David Morales, Raphael Quintero, Felix Rodriguez and Edwin Wilson. CIA chief of the Western Hemisphere Division 1972-76. Became a primary contact of the Israelis after James Angleton was forced out of the agency in 1974. Angleton would try to keep an eye on Shackley's operations from outside the agency. Undermined the Pike Committee with help from Senator Henry Jackson and others in the 1973-1976 period. 1976, Pike Report, pp. 112-113: “Upon hearing testimony from Helms in February 1973, Senator Church’s Multinational Corporations Subcommittee informed the CIA on 21 February 1973 that it had found “significant discrepancies” between Helms’s testimony and data ITT had supplied. On that same day, Theodore Shackley (Chief, Western Hemisphere Division, DP) took the first step to limit damage to the Agency. He recommended to DCI Schlesinger that the Agency should work [through Senators Stennis or Symington who “could be persuaded” to agree to a “controlled appearance” for the DCI before the Multinational Corporations Subcommitte] …  Two days later, on 23 February 1973, Agency officers began quiet efforts with the help of Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson, a close friend of the CIA, to blunt Senator Church’s scrutiny of CIA, Chile, and Richard Helms. Jackson offered his protective assistance in a remarkable backstage meeting he had with Ted Shackley and CIA Congressional liaison chief John Maury the next day. … [Jackson made several suggestions on how to protect the CIA, as written down by Shackley] … Jackson pledged to with CIA “to see that we got this protection.” Shackley noted that Senator Jackson, who had been “extremely helpful,” believed that it was “essential” to prevent the establishing of any procedure that could call upon CIA to testify before a wide variety of Congressional committees. Following that meeting, Shackley and Maury at once briefed Colby, who was then CIA’s Executive Director, and Tom Keramessines, the DDP. DCI Schlesinger then asked Senator Jackson to set the wheels in motion for Senator McClellan to call a special meeting of his Oversight Committee. Three weeks later, on 13 March, CIA’s senatorial friends arranged to shield the Agency from unwanted scrutiny… McClellan, Symington, Jackson, John Pastore (D-RI), Strom Thurmond (R-SC, and Roman Hruska R-NE). Colby, Shackley, and Maury accompanied DCI Schlesinger.” p. 173: “[CIA legal counsel Mitchell] Rogovin … accused Pike’s staff of having stolen a copy of the [Ted Shackley] memorandum outlining the sensitive meeting of CIA officers with Senator "Scoop" Jackson in May 1973…" CIA assistant deputy director of covert operations May 1976-1978 under George H. W. Bush (DCI Jan. 1976-Jan. 1977) and then some time under Stansfield Turner (DCI March 1977-Jan. 1981). Vernon Walters was the outgoing deputy director while Frank Carlucci came in during the final month's of Shackley's CIA career. In 1978 Ted Shackley recruited Wilson to privatize some intelligence operations, fearing Carter and CIA director Stansfield Turner would destroy the agency. During this period he and Clines were in contact with George H. W. Bush trying to get him into the White House. After Bush got into the White House, Reagan and Bush gave the intelligence agencies much more freedom. Bush helped Ted Shackley set up his oil consulting business in Kuwait.

December 27, 2002, The Telegaph, 'Ted Shackley': "After his army service ended in 1953, Shackley was offered a permanent post at the agency's Berlin base, which was then headed by a colourful former FBI Special Agent, William Harvey. There he married a CIA secretary, Hazel Burson. ... In April 1962, when Harvey was selected to head a new CIA station in Miami to topple Castro, he chose Shackley, then in the Czech Section of the CIA's Eastern Europe Division, to accompany him as his deputy and chief of operations. ... In May 1976 [Shackley] was made ADDO [assistant deputy director of operations] by the new Director, George Bush. Under normal circumstances the ADDO would have every expectation of succeeding his lacklustre DDO, William Wells, but Shackley soon ran into political trouble. He had remained on friendly terms with a former colleague, Edwin Wilson... [and thus was demoted in 1978 and quit in 1979]... When Admiral Stansfield Turner arrived as President Carter's DCI in May 1977 to reform the Directorate of Operations he removed Wells and, instead of replacing him with Shackley, gave him an insignificant job from which he resigned in frustration after a year, in August 1979. ... Later he was to play an organising role in Le Circle [ISGP: amazing, the info was there all along], a private group of respected Atlantic-orientated businessmen with an interest in security and political issues."

Received the David Atlee Phillips Founder's Award of the AFIO in 2000.

President Reagan’s Executive Order 12333, which privatized many covert intelligence operations, placed them out of the scrutiny of Congress and nosy FOIA requesters. Not surprisingly, CIA Director Bill Casey, CIA Deputy Director for Operations Ted Shackley, and former CIA Director George Bush reportedly attended the December 5, 1980 meeting to draft E.O. 12333, which states: “Agencies within the Intelligence Community are authorized to enter into contracts or arrangements for the provision of goods or services with private companies or institutions in the United States and need not reveal the sponsorship of such contracts or arrangements for authorized intelligence purposes....”

2005, Joseph Trento, Prelude to Terror', p. 283: "In the early 1980s, George Bush helped Shackley get established in Kuwait and in the oil business as a consultant. Shackley started Theodore Shackley and Associates and several other companies, which he used as a cover for his work for Bush. For the first time in his life, he was making large amounts of money. … He even told friends that he still had hopes of becoming DCI someday in a future Bush administration. The admiration of Israel by the neocons was shared by Ted Shackley. One of Shackley's friends and business associates was Michael Ledeen. ... Lawrence Walsh, the Iran-Contra special prosecutor, wrote in his book Firewall: "Ledeen was more than a messenger. He had pressed McFarlane to open discussions with (Shimon) Peres and had become the Washington spokesman for the Israeli arms merchants and Ghorbanifar." It was Ledeen who would use Shackley – and his influence with Bush – to orchestrate what would become the arms-for-hostages scheme with Israel as a partner (including the use of Ghorbanifar). Ledeen was a certified good guy to the private intelligence network. He had lobbied hard against the prosecution of Tom Clines and Richard Secord over EATSCO."

By Sterling Seagrave Aug 22 2007, 06:43 PM: "Bill Casey was one of the key men in the acquisition of media after WW2. It was one of his proteges (a young German immigrant to the US) who was sent back to Germany after the war to take over Bertelsmann and build it up. Rupert Murdoch was very tight with Shackley, which is how he got launched on his global acquisitions and has now taken over the WSJ. Murdoch was running a failed national newspaper in Australia while Shackley was station chief in Oz. Then suddenly he becomes a US citizen literally overnight and goes on an endless buying spree. Shackley's pockets were infinitely deep. At the time, Murdoch was facing the likely closure of his newspaper THE AUSTRALIAN. His ticket out was Shackley. This also explains why Murdoch was allowed to break all the rules in acquisition of media in America."

2005, Joseph J. Trento, 'Prelude to Terror', p. 35: "The colorful "special operations" expert, General John K. Singlaub, worked in Laos and Cambodia with Shackley. Under Singlaub during this period were Secord and a young Marine named Oliver North. Years later, Secord and North would control portions of the Iran-Contra operations for America's private intelligence network. Secord answered to both Singlaub and General Harry "Heinie" Aderholt, who headed the Military Assistance Command in Thailand. Both Singlaub and Aderholt would later become paws of the network. All these men socialized with one another over the years, and with opium warlord Vang Pao. ... One of his [Secord's] first assignments for Shackley was to drop dishwashing soap on the Ho Chi Minh Trail in the rainy season. The CIA had concluded that this would make the trail to slippery for the enemy to use. (Like most of what the CIA attempted in Asia, it did not work.)"

2005, Joseph J. Trento, 'Prelude to Terror', pp. 44-47: "All the weaknesses Shackley had shown in his earlier assignments quickly resurfaced in Vietnam. He demanded voluminous intelligence reports that forced case officers to concentrate on numbers rather than quality. When case officers tried to question him, his cold responses earned him the nickname "Ice Man". Shackley turned to old associates from Berlin and Miami to help him run what was then the largest CIA station in the world. Among them were his loyal cadre of Cuban refugees, like the legendary Felix Rodriguez [ran drug-related CIA counterinsurgency program in El Salvador and surrounding countries in the 1980s], who followed him first to Laos and then to Vietnam... Back in Miami, former Cuban employees of Shackley's were showing up with embarrassing frequency in drug busts. When the old Bureau of Narcotics and Drugs (BNDD) launched Operation Eagle in 1968, it found itself arresting scores of CIA employees. ... many of these men were working directly for Santos Trafficante, who, the BNDD learned, now controlled significant heroin traffic in the United States. But although it arrested several of Trafficante's deputies, the BNDD could not get the Nixon administration to go after Trafficante directly. By this time, Trafficante was taking a serious interest in Vietnam. Not long after Shackley moved to Saigon Station, Trafficante made a tour of the Far East... Meanwhile, it was an open secret in Saigon Station that President Nguyen Van Thieu, who had replaced Ngo Dinh Diem after the 1963 coup, and Vice President Nguyen Cao Ky were participants in the heroin trade. Ky, one of Colby's most frequently cited intelligence sources, had been removed from Operation Haylift, which was flying commando units into Laos, when U.S. officers caught him loading opium onto his plane. Another frequently cited CIA asset and Shackley source, General Dang Van Quang, Thieu's security advisor, was a frequent point of friction between the CIA station and the U.S. military command. The military believed Quang was a major distributor of heroin to U.S. troops, according to Peter Kapusta, former CIA case officer to Saigon Police Chief General Nguyen Ngoc Loan. ... Shackley even interfered with the Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID) in its probe of Ky 's top aide, General Ngo Dzu, who the Army investigators charged with being a major purveyor of heroin in Vietnam. ... By 1971, Congress was getting so many complaints about GIs returning home addicted that the BNDD began to investigate. It, too, immediately ran into problems with CIA cooperation. ... When the CIA ostensibly began cooperating, this cooperation took the form of lending some of its officers to the BNDD as "investigators". These, of course, were many of the same men who had assisted in setting up the Laotians and Thais in the heroin business in the first place. ... In Vietnam Shackley assigned Rodriguez and many of the other Cubans to Rudy Enders, who had also worked for Shackley at JM/WAVE. According to William Corson and others who served in Vietnam during this period Enders ran what were politely called Provincial Reconnaisance Units. These were units, engaged in, among other tasks, assassination. Enders's immediate boss was Donald Gregg, the CIA Base Chief for Region Three - Bien Hoa. Gregg would later play a key role as George Bush's contact man with America's private intelligence network after Bush became vice president. David Morales, a Yaqui Indian who had worked for Shackley ever since Berlin in the 1950s and who had been his deputy in Laos, also moved with him to Vietnam. Morales was loyal to Shackley to a fault. He took on any assignment Shackley gave him, from blowing up buildings to ferrying money to drug lords. Shackley's Cubans also included Frank Fiorini --who later changed his name to Frank Sturgis... and Rafael "Chi Chi" Quintero. The Cubans' roles in Laos in Laos and, later, Vietnam under Morales and others were what they had always been: as CIA killers. Quintero and some of the others later played an major role in the private intelligence network. These men worked under the aegis of Civil Operations and Rural Development Support (CORDS). CORDS was supposed to reward Vietnamese who turned in their Viet Cong neighbors through Project Phoenix. Project Phoenix turned into a massive interrogation and assassination program. To receive their rewards, the South Vietnamese smoked out alleged Viet Cong cadres, captured them, and turned them in to be interrogated. More and more, the interrogators gave way to torture and assassination. ... Under Shackley, Saigon Station spied on its own people as well as its enemies [spied on William Colby and General Creighton Abrams, who had secret Vietnamese girlfriends, and later George Bush]. ... If pressed on an undesirable topic by a colleague, Shackley would warn him off by mentioning any personal entanglements."

2005, Joseph J. Trento, 'Prelude to Terror', pp. 142-143: "While the intelligence Shackley collected through Wilson for Israel had been first-rate, Wilson’s business dealings—especially arms shipments he was now making to the PLO—made him suspect in the Israeli’s eyes. Other business ventures of Shackley’s people with Iran and Libya also raised serious questions in Tel Aviv. Some officials believed the joint intelligence operations could end in disaster. The Israelis had one American they trusted absolutely. Although James Angleton had been forced out of his job as Chief of Counterintelligence at the CIA, he was not about to allow his relationship with the Israeli intelligence hierarchy to be totally supplanted by Shackley. Angleton was not a Shackley fan. Angleton was also one of the few men, inside or outside the Agency, who still possessed the ability to penetrate Shackley’s and Clines’s activities and find out what they were doing. While the Israelis and the Saudis now relied on Shackley, who was doing liaison work with friendly intelligence services. The Israelis needed reassurance about his operations and his sources, especially Wilson. Angleton would be able to tell his Israeli associates if Shackley and his cohorts were playing it straight with them. Angleton had the perfect resource in an old friend, General Robert Richardson [ASC], who ran Exim, one of Wilson’s companies supplying Libya. Angleton’s courting of Wilson began in 1977 and continued up until Wilson’s indictment in 1980. Wilson said, “Old General Richardson was a real close friend of Angleton’s. About once a week he’s say, ‘Come on, Eddie, go to lunch with Angleton at the Army Navy Club.’” When Wilson’s name first surfaced in the investigations by the CIA Inspector General and the Office of Security, Angleton offered Wilson some advice: he suggested that Shackley was playing him for a fool. But Wilson ignored most of it. In retrospect, Wilson admits that when “I first had this trouble out there … Angleton was really trying to help me.” Angleton also warned Wilson that Erich von Marbod was not his friend, but again Wilson did not listen. “I drifted off and he drifted off. Richardson stuck with me as long as he could. He really tried to help. Angleton was right; he was on the right track.”"

2005, Joseph J. Trento, 'Prelude to Terror', p. 151: "[Edwin Wilson:] "Look, you guys, between you, Shackley, and Secord, you know every head of government, every intelligence chief, and every minister of defense in the world.""

2005, Joseph J. Trento, 'Prelude to Terror', pp. 145-146: "Wilson recalled a visit by Shackley to his farm, Mt. Airey, in the spring of 1978. Shackley spoke seriously of how the agency was being destroyed by Carter and Turner and how “the only hope was to take things private until they got both men out of office.” Wilson said Shackley was convinced that under a George Bush administration, he, Shackley, was going to be the next head of the CIA. “Things were looking good for Bush at that time, and I knew that Shackley and Clines were meeting with Bush,” Wilson said. Shackley suggested to Wilson that if he was willing to back a private company that would allow covert operations to be taken out of the CIA, Shackley would arrange for Wilson’s legal problems to end, and for him to be brought in from the cold. “He reminded me that under [DCI] Bush I was not a target of any grand jury investigations.” … That is when Wilson agreed to fund API, the company that would manage the PEMEX account. Wilson put up the money, and Clines, Quintero, and Chavez were the corporate officers."

KENNEDY ASSASSINATIONS RELATED:

2006, Joseph J. Trento, 'Prelude to Terror', p. xiii: "The first head of this "private CIA" was Shackley's old friend and ally, Richard M. Helms, who had protected and promoted him for twenty years. In 1973, Helms, then the beloved CIA Director, was fired by President Nixon and banished to the ambassadorship in Iran as the Watergate scandal engulfed Washington. Shackley became Helms's inside man in Washington. For the first time, the CIA was under public Congressional scrutiny, and Helms and Shackley worked to protect the institution they had given their lives to. ... When legal problems caused Helms' ultimate downfall, Shackley inherited the leadership role."

1994, David Corn, 'Blond Ghost: Ted Shackley and the CIA's crusades', p. 130: "Helms disclosed he was grooming Shackley to head the Directorate of Plans. There was one hitch. Shackley was not regarded as a team player, and Vientiane was a place where teamwork was essential. Placing Shackley there, Helms mused, might be good for him. The Director informed Sullivan that if the Ambassador ever gave the word, Helms would yank Shackley out of Vientiane. With such an escape clause, Sullivan accepted Shackley."

December 13, 2002, The Times (London), 'Ted Shackley': "Shackley was also involved in a scheme to recruit the Mafia to provide hired assassins. The CIA turned to Johnny Rosselli, a former member of the Al Capone gang, who contacted Sam Giancana, the Mafia boss of Chicago and heir to Al Capone. On one occasion Shackley and his CIA boss Bill Harvey rented a U-Haul truck, filled with $ 5,000-worth of explosives and weapons, left the van in a parking lot, and handed the keys to Rosselli."

"September 15, 1978, Washington Post, 'Assassinations Committee Turns to Tantalizing Leads': "Ruby made a "suspicious" number of long-distance phone calls in the summer and fall of 1963 to various individuals linked in some way with organized crime, including associates of Mafia leaders Santos Trafficante, Sam Giancana and Carlos Marcello, and of Teamsters union president James R. Hoffa and others in the Teamsters hierarcy. Six unidentified witnesses, "each corroborating the others," have told the committee in secret sessions that Oswald was in Clinton and Jackson, La., in late August and early September of 1963 looking for a job at East Louisiana State Hospital. Some of the witnesses have placed Oswald there with two deceased targets of New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison's controversial investigation of 1967-68; airline pilot David Ferrie and New Orleans businessman Clay Shaw. "It has been suggested," Blakey added without elaboration, "that the testimony that Oswald and Ferrie were together in Clinton and Jackson is, despite the Garrison prosecution, impressive," Blakey noted that Ferrie once worked as an investigator for Carlos Marcello "who has been identified as the organized crime boss of Louisiana and Texas." A founder of an anti-Castro commando organization called Alpha 66, Antonio Veciana Blanch, has told the committee in repeated interviews that an American can "directed him in all his activities" (including two plots to kill Castro) once met with Veciana in Dallas in August 1963. With the American was a third man whom Veciana later identified as Oswald. The American control agent, who went by the name of Maurice Bishop, has yet to be located, but Blakey said that while the committee cannot be conclusive, "It can say that Veciana's allegations remain undiscredited." The committee is still investigating the story of Sylvia Odio, a Cuban exile whose parents were imprisoned in Havana as a result of Veciana's assassination plots. She told the Warren Commission that a man who was introduced to her as "Leon Oswald" and who looked like Lee Harvey Oswald visited her apartment in Dallas in late September of 1963 in the company of two Latin men. They wanted to know if she would finance some anti-Castro undertaking they were planning, but she declined. The Warren Commission played down the Odio story, the committee was told, in tune with a staff attorney's memo of Sept. 19, 1964, which warned: "There are problems. Odio may well be right. The commission will look bad if it turns out that she is."""

October 25,1980, UPI, 'Investigator says committees skipped possible Oswald-CIA link': "Fonzi previously had investigated the subject for Sen. Richard Schweiker, R-Pa., who was on a subcommittee of the 1975 Senate panel probing CIA abuses. It was Schweiker who recognized a composite drawing of the alleged CIA Latin America spy known as Maurice Bishop and identified him as CIA agent David Phillips. The drawing was made based on data provided by Cuban exile Antonio Veciana, who said he worked 13 years as an anti-Castro terrorist under Bishop's sponsorship. Phillips denied in testimony he was Bishop. Veciana told Fonzi that just before he met with Bishop in a Dallas office complex in September 1963, he spotted his contact talking with a man Veciana positively identified, after Kennedy was killed, as Lee Harvey Oswald, the president's alleged assassin. ''There was no doubt in his mind,'' Fonzi said. ''When I asked him if the man could have been someone who resembled Oswald, Veciana said: 'Well, you know, Bishop himself taught me how to remember faces, how to remember characteristics. I am sure it was Oswald. If it wasn't Oswald, it was someone who looked exactly like him. Exacto. Exacto.'''"

George Joannides worked under Shackley at JM/Wave and was the contact person of the CIA with the Directorio Revolucionario Estudantil, which ran sabotage missions against Castro's Cuba and ran a media campaign against the Oswald weeks before he killed Kennedy. The DRE knew Joannides as "Howard", but the CIA has always denied Joannides' contact with the DRE. Joannides followed Shackley to Saigon, Vietnam in 1971 and 1972, together with others from the JM/Wave station, as well as Santos Trafficante. Left the agency in 1976 to start an immigration-law practice in Washington, D.C., but was called back by the CIA in 1978 to - bizarrely - become its liaison to the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA). According to HSCA investigator Ed Lopez [thinks George Joannides is the man in the picture of the Ambassador Hotel the night Bobby Kennedy was killed; Lopez' investigative partner Dan Hardway and DRE leader Chilo Borja also think it was George Joannides (the Joannides family refused to comment); Lopez met Helms and thinks he was the guy above Shackley who knew about the assassination. He found Helms to be very crude and angry with the HSCA investigation; --- As for David Morales: He was also seen at the video of the Ambassador Hotel, including in the background listening to the woman in the polkadot dress. April 29, 2011, L.A. Times, 'RFK assassin claims woman in polka-dot dress controlled his mind': "In a new court filing, the man who assassinated Robert F. Kennedy in 1968 said he was controlled by a mystery woman at the time of the killing. In the papers, which were reviewed by the Associated Press, Sirhan Sirhan says he was led to the Ambassador Hotel with a gun by an unidentified woman in a polka-dot dress. ... According to the new documents reviewed by AP, Sirhan said he didn't realize he was firing at Robert Kennedy. "I thought that I was at the range more than I was actually shooting at any person, let alone Bobby Kennedy," he said, according to the documents.". The polkadot dress women was observed standing to Sirhan Sirhan and seemed out of place for being "expressionless" among a crowd of cheerful Kennedy followers. Robert Walton, friend and lawyer to Morales: during a drinking night in 1973 Morales lost it a bit during a discussion on JFK and said "I was in Dallas when we got that motherfucker and I was in Los Angeles when we got the little bastard."; Ruben Carbajal (of a similar mindset as David Morales, including the killing of opponents of the U.S.; comes across as a bit of a simpleminded brute): "We [Robert Walton and him] wanted to get some information on what happened down there, you know, at Dallas. And as we were drinking and he let it know in that roundabout way, 'Well, we got that son of a bitch', that's what he said. And you do not have to be a brain [surgeon] to figure out what he meant, you know, right? Well, you know what he meant. And because he [Kennedy] caused all those deaths. He went back on his word [on the Bay of Pigs]; pulled those airplanes, five minutes before the attack." Carjabal: "No, no, he wasn't in Los Angeles, but he just said that 'we got him'. [talks superficial; doesn't really try to remember.]. Carbajal was with David Morales when Morales fell ill coming from a trip from Washington where he had been drinking with a few buddies. That night he got a heart attack. The ambualnce forgot to bring oxygen. According to Carjabal, they wasted five hours to get him to the hospital and said "they made damned sure he didn't [survive]. I guess they wanted him dead... by orders, I don't know... Do I have to draw you a picture? The same peole he worked for. The CIA. Yeah, because he was gonna go before the Senate. ... He knew too much. He was the number one in the CIA. He only had to bosses: the president and the head of the CIA." CIA operative Bradley Ayers said in 1995 to the Assassination Records Review Board that he knew a credible witness (David Rabern, covert operations specialist) who also placed Morales at the Ambassdor Hotel on the night of Kennedy's death. "He [Brad Ayers] showed me the picture and I told him that I had seen the guy there, on the premecis [at the Ambassador Hotel that night]. I had not seen him in the ballroom. I saw him out in the lobby area. In fact, I probably saw him several times. He was in and out. ... [looks at the video:] Ow, that's him. Oh yeah, [that's the same man I saw on the photograph of Brad Ayers]. That's him. They definitely were observing, collecting information. ... [looks at the pictures of Gordon Campbell and George Joannides] This man here [Campbell], I think he was talking to Morales at one time. Almost certain, yeah. Yeah, he's got the military stance. Arms behind their back. That's a dead giveaway. ... [looks at a video of Gordon Campbell] Yep, there he is. Ow yeah, that's him [from the picture and who he thought was talking to Morales]. ... Sirhan Sirhan was probably one of several on that were ready to take him [RFK]. Sirhan Sirhan was, in my opinion, also a throwaway. ... At level you get a professional [to do the planning and running]. ... [smiles but doesn't give any details on how and if he knew Gordon Campbell; only said that "to my knowledge, he is [still alive].]" Based on video at the Ambassador Hotel Robert Walton identified David Morales "to practically a 100 percent degree. ... This definitely from the profile is hugely similar. The body language is very very characteristic of Morales." And about Gordon Campbell: "Yeah, that's perfect. That is--I, I could certainly verify 90 percent ID of Gordon Campbell. Less a little hair, as I remember him. The facial features are certainly his. Absolutely. And I am looking beyond the face: the character, . It is a wonderful setting for an assassination because obviously what is gonna happen is this total and complete chaos and you get lost in the crowd [Campbell is moving opposite to the vast majority of the crowd and is clearly going somewhere. He is photographed several hours before the shooting standing besides George Joannides]." Wayne Smith, a former U.S. diplomat, who worked with Morales in 1959-1961 and saw him again on other occasions, immediately said upon seeing the video, "That's him. That's Dave Morales. ... yeah, I am virtually certain. ... Yeah, that's Morales. ... He said [once], 'Kennedy got what was coming to him.' ... He said it in avery determined way, so he took great satisfaction in it." Ruben Carbajal, on the other hand: "This guy right here? No way. No way, that's not him at all. No [there's not any resemblance]. ... That's not him. I guarantee you that's not him." Has a bit of a funny look on his face and most seems to have no interest in implicating his friend directly, only indirectly. Robert Walton: "I really don't know why Ruben would respond that way. ... He may be reluctant to condemn is lifelong friend. He can live with the thought that Morales was involved in some way. Maybe even proud of it. But the idea [of direct involvement] may to far of a reach for him. And it doesn't surprise me." Tom Clines and Edwin Wilson said the person at the Ambassador Hotel wasn't David Morales. But they used to work for Shackley and declined to be interviewed on camera. Other CIA officers and related, who were not interviewed on camera, all said they did not recognize any of the men. Other witnesses also recognized Morales and Joannides; others only though they had seen these men somewhere before, not coming up with any names. On the other hand, Gordon Campbell may have been Michael D. Roman (close to Omar Brandley and worked for a CIA-related company) and Frank Owens, a sales manager... maybe these men acted as doubles.] in RFK Must Die: "George was the gatekeeper. He was the guy who stonewalled us. They wouldn't give us the photos of the people going in and out of the Cuban embassy in Mexico City on the dates that Lee Harvey Oswald allegedly was there. The person who gave us these photos was Fidel Castro. ... There was some type of relationship between the CIA and Lee Harvey Oswald. Exactly what that relationship was we could never tell. I have no doubt in my mind that he was being run by someone at the CIA. Was there a connection to the point where they were running the assassinations - that we could not confirm. ... The CIA placed him I think in that position because they wanted someone who knew what had been going on back then to control what was made available to us or not made available to us. Was it a risky strategy? The odds of us finding out at the time, given our timeline, and the fact that we were just happy to be seeing files, slim to none. In retrospect... of course it looks fishy." April 12, 2001, Miami New Times, 'Revelation 19.63; For nearly four decades the CIA has kept secret the identity of a Miami agent who may have known too much too early about Lee Harvey Oswald': "Through four intensive investigations of the Kennedy assassination, Helms withheld information about a loyal CIA officer in Miami -- a dapper, multilingual lawyer and father of three -- who guided and monitored the Directorio Revolucionario Estudantil (the Revolutionary Student Directorate, or DRE). His name was George Joannides, and his charges in the DRE were among the most notoriously outspoken and militant anti-Castro Cuban exiles in the early Sixties. For several weeks in the summer of 1963, those same exiles tailed, came to blows with, and harassed Lee Harvey Oswald, who just a few months later changed the course of U.S. history. Helms never told the Warren Commission -- the presidential panel set up after Kennedy's death to investigate the assassination -- about his officer's relationship with the exile group. He never disclosed that the CIA was funding the DRE when it had contact with Oswald, who was agitating on Castro's behalf in New Orleans in August 1963. A skillful bureaucrat, Helms withheld files on Oswald's pro-Castro activities from an in-house investigation of the accused assassin (and when the veteran officer in charge of that probe protested, Helms relieved him of his duties). ... Helms stonewalled again in 1978, when Congress created the House Select Committee on Assassinations to re-examine Kennedy's murder. Once more the CIA kept every detail of Joannides's mission in Miami under wraps. Worse still, in veiled contempt of that inquiry, the CIA assigned to Joannides himself the job of deflecting sensitive inquiries from the committee's investigators. As recently as 1998, the agency still disavowed any knowledge of Joannides's actions in Miami. John Tunheim, now a federal judge in Minneapolis, chaired the federal Assassination Records Review Board, which between 1994 and 1998 opened more than four million pages of long-secret documents -- including a thin file on Joannides. Yet even then the CIA was claiming that no one in the agency had had any contact with the DRE throughout 1963. The Joannides story, Tunheim says today, "shows that the CIA wasn't interested in the truth about the assassination." Journalist and author Gerald Posner, whose 1993 best seller Case Closed argued that the DRE's harassment of Oswald was a "humiliation" that propelled him on his way to shoot the president, says he finds the Joannides piece of the JFK puzzle to be "obviously important" and suggests that the CIA is "covering up its own incompetence." In his view the agency's "intransigence, lying, and dissembling are once again contributing to suspicions of conspiracy." G. Robert Blakey, who served as general counsel for theHouse Select Committee on Assassinations, says the agency's silence compromised that investigation. "If I had known then what Joannides was doing in 1963, I would have demanded that the agency take him off the job of responding to committee inquiries ," he asserts. "I would have sat him down and interviewed him. Under oath." ... At the time the DRE was the single most popular exile group in Miami, according to a CIA survey, with a hard-core following of 2200 supporters. Since the group's founding on the University of Havana campus in early 1960, it had been receiving funding, training, and logistical support for its leaders, thanks to a CIA officer named David Atlee Phillips, known for his role in the 1954 overthrow of a leftist government in Guatemala. By the time of the missile crisis, the agency was giving the group's young leaders in Miami $25,000 each month. ... In the summer of 1962, Fernandez-Rocha sneaked back into Cuba and spent several dangerous months trying to shore up the group's clandestine network. With continuous funding from the U.S. government, the DRE headquarters in Miami was able to send delegates to international conferences in Vienna and Helsinki. The group published a newspaper, Trinchera (Trenches), and an English-language newsletter, the Cuban Report, which often was cited by New York Sen. Kenneth Keating, a leading Republican critic of JFK's Cuba policy. Additional DRE chapters sprang up in cities throughout North and South America. To announce the revival of the Directorate, the group's military section launched its most spectacular deed on the evening of August 24, 1962. Under the leadership of Salvat and Borja, two boats of DRE militants carried out a midnight fusillade attack on the Rosita Hornedo hotel in suburban Miramar, where Castro's Soviet-bloc advisors were gathering. (The man who fired the 20mm cannon was José Basulto, now famous as founder of Brothers to the Rescue.) Meanwhile the Cuban Report was publishing information provided by Luis Fernandez-Rocha from inside Cuba that the Soviet Union was installing large ballistic missiles on the island. The Kennedy White House dismissed such claims as exile exaggeration, but within weeks aerial-reconnaissance photos confirmed the reports. The missile crisis ensued. When that confrontation ended peacefully that fall -- but with Castro still in power -- the DRE again sought to force the United States to confront Cuba. On November 12, just six days after the Star story broke, Fernandez-Rocha appeared on The Today Show and repeated the details, claiming that nuclear missiles had been stashed in caves in the Yumuri valley in Matanzas, in the hills of Camagüey, and in Hershey in Havana province -- and that he had seen the sites with his own eyes. Kennedy was incensed at Fernandez-Rocha's brashness so soon after the near-nuclear confrontation with the Soviet Union had been defused. "The refugees," the president told his advisors, "are naturally trying to build up the story in an effort to get us to invade Cuba ." He ordered the CIA to rein in the young exiles, and within 24 hours Richard Helms summoned Fernandez-Rocha to Washington. The 49-year-old deputy director spent the better part of a day grilling Fernandez-Rocha and, according to the CIA's minutes of that meeting, concluded that the new missile allegations were not altogether reliable. Helms rebuked the Directorate for going public -- on national television no less -- but softened the reprimand by adding that he wanted to forge a "reasonable collaboration" with the DRE. He understood their disappointment with U.S. policy, he said. He confided that he was promoting a new agent in Miami who would be "personally responsible to me" for the success of the relationship.For this sensitive task Helms selected an up-and-coming political-action officer, George Efythron Joannides, who had been transferred to Miami earlier that year and was working as deputy chief of psychological warfare operations against the Castro government. With a staff of 24 and a budget of $2.4 million, he ran his clandestine activities out of a ramshackle office building in then-rural South Dade that was known to CIA hands by its aquatic code name: JM/WAVE station. Joannides reported to station chief Theodore G. Shackley, who was overseeing one of the CIA's largest operations in the world, with an annual budget of more than $50 million, more than 100 leased vehicles, several thousand Cuban agents, and 300-plus American employees. ... Luis Fernandez-Rocha, now a doctor at Mercy Hospital, recalls his initial meeting with "Howard," as the CIA man called himself. Howard spoke confidently, with a New York accent, and wore an ornate pinky ring. In Fernandez-Rocha's view he compared favorably with the DRE's previous handler, Ross Crozier. " He was a great human being, but he was a sergeant," Fernandez-Rocha says. "When I was dealing with this guy Howard, I was talking to a colonel." Howard was always available, Fernandez-Rocha adds. The agent would meet him anywhere from "three times a week to once every two weeks. We used to have a cup of coffee at a Howard Johnson's on U.S. 1." The relationship was complicated. While the DRE was financially dependent on the CIA, its leaders publicly vilified Kennedy for his actions regarding Cuba: the Bay of Pigs defeat followed by a missed opportunity to topple Castro during the missile crisis. When the president came to Miami on December 29, 1962, to welcome returning Bay of Pigs prisoners at the Orange Bowl, DRE leaders stayed away in disgust. In the spring of 1963, the Directorate's military section continued to plan raids on island targets, drawing up an elaborate scheme to destroy the Nazabal sugar mill in central Cuba. They sent word of the operation through Joannides to Richard Helms, according to a declassified CIA cable, but Joannides emphasized the CIA's opposition, and the raid never took place. The Kennedy White House, wanting no return to the tensions of the missile crisis, then cracked down hard on Cuban Miami. In April 1963 the Immigration and Naturalization Service issued an administrative order forbidding 25 of the most militant exile leaders from leaving Dade County without permission. On the list were DRE secretary-general Fernandez-Rocha, military-section leader Chilo Borja, and propaganda chief Juan Manuel Salvat, the group's corpulent, hot-tempered mastermind. The exiles didn't obey the order. "We worked with the CIA," recalls Salvat. "We never subordinated ourselves to them." Nor did the Directorate's members try to hide their anger. Joannides walked a fine line -- trying to discourage the group's military ambitions while encouraging their propaganda campaigns and intelligence-collection efforts. But by the summer of 1963, the DRE harbored an "extremely bitter animosity" toward Kennedy, according to Ross Crozier, Joannides's predecessor. In fact they were scarcely less hostile to the president than to Castro. On July 31 Joannides was promoted to chief of psychological warfare operations at the JM/WAVE station in South Dade. Among his most notable accomplishments, his supervisor wrote, was his "excellent job in the handling of a significant student exile group, which hitherto had successfully resisted any important degree of control." Chilo Borja has a clear recollection of the summer of 1963. Now the owner of a Miami air-conditioning business, he was 28 years old at the time. Skilled with guns and familiar with boats, he became the chief of the group's military section in Miami in 1961. In the summer of 1963, the Directorate was desperate and divided. "At this point there's a big wedge between the international faction and the military faction of the DRE," Borja remembers. "The CIA is pumping money to do anything in Latin America, but it's not giving anything for anything in Cuba. We have a lot of our good friends that are killed or in jail. Alberto Muller is in jail. We've got to tell these people that we are still doing something." Along with his good friend Salvat, Borja was undeterred by the Kennedy administration's crackdown on the exiles, and their antagonism didn't go unnoticed. The Miami station chief, Ted Shackley, had long since warned CIA headquarters that the DRE's attitude toward U.S. policymakers "was one of contempt repeat contempt." Shackley's assessment was on target. In a strategy memo to the Directorate in May 1963, Salvat proposed that the DRE continue to take CIA funding while the military section, under Borja's leadership, would act covertly to evade Washington's control. The DRE's goal, Salvat wrote in the memo (preserved in the University of Miami's Cuban Heritage Collection), was "to strike a surprise blow so strong as to bring about the fulfillment of the military section's plan" to overthrow Castro. As Borja safeguarded the group's boats and guns on Catalina Island, just off the southern coast of the Dominican Republic, he heard from a close friend, Carlos Bringuier, with whom he had grown up on the beaches of Tarara, just east of Havana. "Carlitos," Borja reminisces. "We called him Vistilla nearsighted , because he was a little bit blind, and his glasses were this thick. He was our delegate in New Orleans. He notified us that this guy was putting in propaganda all throughout New Orleans, and he wanted our directions." The guy was Lee Harvey Oswald. ... Meanwhile Oswald's support for the Cuban revolution had caught the attention of a local radio host named Bill Stuckey, also a friend of Bringuier. Stuckey invited Oswald to speak on his weekly program and asked Bringuier to participate. Before the planned debate, Bringuier wrote to Miami, to José Antonio Lanuza, who was in charge of the DRE's North American chapters, requesting background on the FPCC. Lanuza sent back information from the Directorate's files. On Saturday evening, August 21, 1963, Bringuier and Oswald debated the Cuban revolution over radio station WDSU. In the middle of the discussion, in which Oswald defended Castro's policies, Stuckey suddenly shifted gears. Was it true, the moderator asked, that Oswald had lived in Russia? "That is correct, and I think those -- the fact that I did live for a time in the Soviet Union -- gives me excellent qualifications to repudiate charges that Cuba and the Fair Play for Cuba Committee is communist controlled," Oswald replied, obviously taken aback. "I would like to know," Bringuier chimed in, "if it is the Fair Play for Cuba Committee or Fair Play for Russia Committee." Bringuier was pleased with the program. When it was over, he drafted a press release that called on the U.S. Congress to investigate Lee Harvey Oswald and denounce the FPCC. A rewritten and slightly toned-down version of the press release was issued in the name of the Directorate, as well as Alpha 66 and five other hard-line exile groups. Bringuier also sent a note to Lanuza three days after the debate, stating, "You can rest assured that the traitor Lee H. Oswald (the same one who tried to infiltrate the DRE here) came off looking so bad that it is possible that he will have to be transferred by his organization to another city." (Although Fernandez-Rocha says he has "no specific recollection" of telling George Joannides about the Directorate's actions against Oswald, Borja recalls that the CIA officer was "definitely" informed. "That's the kind of thing we took a lot of merits and credits for," he says. "That's what the money given to the DRE was for.") Joannides's career was only forced into the public record by the immense popularity of Stone's movie. In response to renewed interest in the JFK murder, open-government advocate Rep. Lee Hamilton, an Indiana Democrat, secured unanimous passage of the JFK Assassination Records Collection Act, intended to clarify public confusion about the Dealey Plaza tragedy. The law created an independent civilian panel with unique powers to declassify JFK files, even over the objections of federal agencies. Between 1994 and 1998, when its funding ran out, the panel, known as the Assassination Records Review Board, dislodged four million pages of classified documents. Among the new records were portions of George Joannides's personnel file. They confirmed he was the DRE's case officer. ... During its existence the review board and its staff solicited help from the public in locating JFK records. In December 1997 I suggested that the board ask the CIA to review its files on the Revolutionary Student Directorate. An official in the CIA's Office of Historic Review, J. Barry Harrelson, responded with a memo stating that no agency employee had been in contact with the DRE in 1963. "Major policy differences between the agency and DRE developed ... because the DRE would not take directions or instructions about a number of operational matters, insisting on engaging in activities the agency did not sanction," Harrelson wrote. It was a mystifying response, especially since the CIA had already allowed publication of the name of Joannides's predecessor, Ross Crozier. Then who, I asked, was Howard? Former members of the DRE had described him in detail to me. The Directorate's records corroborate their accounts of working closely with him in 1963. Harrelson professed ignorance. "Knowledgeable case officers" had been consulted, he wrote, and no one knew of any officer using the name Howard who had dealt with the Cuban students. The CIA, he claimed, had no evidence that Howard was an "actual person." At this the review board staff grew skeptical. Empowered by the JFK Assassination Records Collection Act, the board was able to conduct its own check of agency files, and in March 1998 Michelle Combs, an investigator who had once worked at the CIA, uncovered Joannides's personnel file. The board ruled that the file was an assassination-related record and ordered that it be made public. The file seems unexceptional. It contains just four performance reviews, three of them written during Joannides's tenure at the South Dade JM/WAVE station and one from 1978. The reviews describe his day-to-day responsibilities, grade his performance, and include written comments from his supervisor. That much was fairly routine. More intriguing was what the files did not contain. The CIA's archives contained no reports, receipts, memoranda, notes, or cables that accounted for how the Directorate spent U.S. funds in August 1963 (when Joannides's Cuban charges were in contact with Oswald) or for November 1963, when Kennedy was slain. In fact there are no reports in the file for the entire seventeen-month period he handled the DRE, from December 1962 to April 1964. Although Joannides's personnel file stated he was paying the Directorate for "intelligence collection" and "propaganda," the CIA's Office of Historic Review maintained that it had no reports from Joannides about the group's intelligence and propaganda activities. Why is the absence of those documents significant? Because such reporting almost always was mandatory. Contrary to Hollywood images of espionage, operations officers spend a lot of time at their desks doing paperwork. As a bureaucracy that collects information systematically and processes it efficiently, the CIA expects and requires its employees to account for their efforts. Such written reports were filed monthly by Joannides's predecessor, Ross Crozier, and are found in declassified CIA files. Reports were filed monthly by Joannides's successor as well. (And Joannides himself received praise in a July 1963 performance evaluation for his "adherence to valid reporting techniques.") From the public record, we know how the JM/WAVE station, located adjacent to what is now Metrozoo in South Miami-Dade, operated during Joannides's tenure in Miami. Case officers such as he were required to file reports with their "reporting officers." These rewrite men synthesized the information for station chief Ted Shackley, who reviewed the reports, edited them, added his own comments, and sent them on to Washington. In a brief telephone conversation in December 1998, Shackley confirmed that Joannides did report regularly on the DRE, if not monthly then at least quarterly. But when pressed to explain why no reports could be found in the files, he replied that he wouldn't want to speculate, then canceled a previously scheduled interview. Six retired CIA operations officers interviewed for this article agree that after November 22, 1963, Joannides had a duty to report, in writing, whatever he knew about the relationship between the Directorate and Oswald. "He would have been completely remiss if he didn't," says Justin Gleichauf, a retired CIA official who worked in Miami in the early Sixties. " The Directorate's members were up to their eyes with this guy Oswald , and they hadn't told him? He must've been hot about that. He undoubtedly reported it, and in writing." John Pereira, retired chief of the CIA's Office of Historic Review, concurs. "On anything that important," he says, "the normal reporting would have gone in writing." "There may not be a report in the file," adds Peter Jessup, a CIA officer assigned to the National Security Council in 1963, "but you can be sure there was a report." If there were such a report, someone at the CIA either destroyed it without authorization or is still keeping it secret. The former would be a violation of Title 18 of the U.S. Criminal Code, the latter a violation of the JFK Assassination Records Collection Act.If DRE members were "up to their eyes" with Oswald in August 1963, the modest propaganda victory provided by the WDSU radio debate was just the impetus they needed for ratcheting up their anti-Castro schemes. In early September the JM/WAVE station received a copy of a national tabloid called See, in which the DRE had taken out an advertisement offering ten million dollars to persons willing to help the group assassinate Fidel Castro.On September 15, the DRE's records show, Salvat and his cohorts used $660 provided by the CIA to travel to New York City to challenge pro-Castro students speaking at a conference in midtown Manhattan. The resulting brawl made page one of the New York Times. And on October 9, DRE propaganda chief Salvat made a six-day trip to Dallas, though he remembers he didn't inform Joannides of the mission. The purpose, he recalls during an interview at his family's Calle Ocho bookstore, Libreria & Distribuidora Universal, was to bolster the DRE chapter there, raise funds among local exile supporters, and buy weapons. As first revealed in Oswald Talked, a 1996 book by Dallas journalists Ray and Mary La Fontaine, Salvat's trip later came to the attention of the FBI. According to FBI interviews with two of his friends in the DRE military section, Salvat arranged a series of meetings in Dallas with a gun dealer of fervent right-wing views named John Thomas Masen. That name would be of interest to the FBI after the assassination, when the bureau learned that Masen was one of only two people in the Dallas area who sold the type of Mannlicher-Carcano bullets that had killed Kennedy. Salvat says he has no recollection of Masen's name but reports that he relied on the CIA for the names of weapons suppliers. His own notes show he returned to Miami on October 15, 1963. A little more than a week later, on October 24, the Directorate presented the CIA with a plan for an ambitious attack on Cuba. The group proposed to insert fourteen commando teams, totaling 200 men, inside the island. The fighting force would instigate an uprising against Castro's 25,000-man army while being resupplied by the CIA. Joannides's reaction to the scheme is unknown, but JM/WAVE station chief Shackley's was scathing. In a cable to headquarters, Shackley scorned the DRE leaders for imagining themselves "the equals of generals and ambassadors." He recommended that all funds to the Directorate's military section be cut off. A week later Richard Helms agreed. Joannides, who had been paying maintenance expenses for the group's boats and guns, had to deliver the message. On November 19, 1963, while President Kennedy was in Miami speaking to Latin-American newspaper publishers under tight security, Luis Fernandez-Rocha was called in to receive the news that the agency was cutting off its support. Three days later Kennedy traveled to Dallas. As the presidential motorcade passed by a friendly crowd in Dealey Plaza, Kennedy was struck by gunfire in the back and head and died instantly in his wife's arms. Ninety minutes later Dallas police arrested a suspect in the shooting: Lee Harvey Oswald.What exactly did George Joannides do on November 22, 1963, when news of Oswald's arrest spread? Few records exist to provide an answer.In 1978 José Antonio Lanuza told Gaeton Fonzi, an investigator for the House Select Committee on Assassinations, how the DRE reacted to Kennedy's murder. On November 22, 1963, Lanuza was coordinator of the DRE's North American chapters. When he heard the news stories linking Oswald to the shooting, he remembered delegate Carlos Bringuier's reports from New Orleans and went to DRE headquarters to check his files. There he found Bringuier's letters about the confrontations with Oswald, along with tapes of the WDSU radio debate. The group's leaders gathered, he said, and one of them -- Salvat, Fernandez-Rocha, or Borja -- "made the first outside call about the discovered material." That call, he said, went to the DRE's case officer at the CIA's JM/WAVE station in Miami. The Directorate "was told by the CIA not to do anything or contact anyone else about the discovery for at least one hour, time enough for the agency to contact Washington and get back to them with instructions," Lanuza told Fonzi. Later that night the case officer called back to say the FBI would come by to collect their evidence. By then, however, the DRE had already gone public. The group "was so anxious to get word out about Oswald's association with a pro-Castro group, that we waited only about 50 minutes," Lanuza related to Fonzi. Other members of the DRE then spread a variety of stories -- some true, some false -- about Oswald: He had attempted to infiltrate the Directorate in New Orleans (true), he had once lived in the home of the Soviet foreign minister (false), he had recently been in Mexico City (true). The details of Oswald's pro-Castro activism, as they hit the American airwaves on the evening of November 22, 1963, had an added benefit for the Directorate: They advanced the long-standing goal of the DRE's military section. "We wanted to put pressure on Castro," Salvat explains today. The ploy worked. Castro responded by putting his Revolutionary Armed Forces on high alert along Cuba's northern coast. Meanwhile Oswald was in jail in Dallas, denying he had shot Kennedy. "I'm a patsy," he told reporters. Joannides had only to read the next morning's newspaper to know his assets in the DRE were exerting a powerful influence on the coverage of the president's murder. Carlos Bringuier's story appeared in the Miami Herald: "Oswald Tried to Spy on Anti-Castro Exile Group." The story also made the Washington Post: "Castro Foe Details Infiltration Effort." ... Not long after Oswald was killed, the DRE laid off its efforts to link him and Castro. George Joannides continued to assist the group in ways large and small. He paid expenses, accepted intelligence reports, and helped "exfiltrate" Jorge Medina Bringuier, Carlos's cousin and the Directorate's last remaining leader inside Cuba who wasn't in prison. Fernandez-Rocha recalls only one conversation with the CIA man after November 22, 1963. They met for coffee, he says, around Christmas that year. The nation was still in mourning. With the Cuba dilemma receding from national attention -- and with the FBI pursuing a lone-gunman theory over a Castro conspiracy -- Joannides, in his forthright way, told Fernandez-Rocha the game was over for the Directorate. As the two sipped their cafecitos, the CIA man offered some advice: Get out of politics, go back to school, and get on with your life. Fernandez-Rocha was touched by Joannides's thoughtfulness. Several months later, in April 1964, Joannides left Miami. He was transferred to Athens with a job evaluation that praised his performance as "exemplary." Fernandez-Rocha quit the anti-Castro cause and enrolled in the University of Miami's School of Medicine the following September. In October 1964 the Warren Commission issued its final report, concluding that Oswald "alone and unaided" had killed Kennedy. The commission, of course, knew nothing about Joannides.If George Joannides's activities in 1963 were the whole of the story, it would be possible, though difficult, to dismiss Oswald's encounters with the DRE as a freakish twist of fate, an awkward convergence of agendas and individuals in New Orleans that was best laid to rest for fear of unleashing myriad conspiracy theories.But fifteen years after the tragedy, Joannides resurfaced in the Kennedy assassination story. During the intervening time, he had enjoyed continued success in the CIA. When Ted Shackley became CIA station chief in Saigon, Joannides followed him there and ran covert operations against the Vietcong in 1970 and 1971. He next returned to CIA headquarters to work in the general counsel's office until he left the agency in 1976 to start an immigration-law practice in Washington, D.C. The CIA called him out of retirement two years later. In 1978 Congress created the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) in response to a revival of JFK assassination-conspiracy speculation, and the committee's aggressive young investigators began to request sensitive files from the CIA. Officials at the agency grew concerned. How could they filter the questions? Deputy Counsel Scott Breckinridge thought Joannides would be just the man to handle requests for records. Breckinridge, who is now retired, said in a 1999 interview that he couldn't recall if he knew about Joannides's 1963 mission in Miami when he made the offer. "He was a man who had a good reputation," Breckinridge recalled. "He knew his way around and knew the Operations Directorate, the division in charge of mounting covert actions ." Breckinridge remembered that Joannides was especially adept at tracking down information. "He could find things in a hurry," he said. In June 1978 Joannides began his new assignment back at the office of the CIA's general counsel. Although he'd suffered health problems, his wit remained intact. He even joked with colleagues about the noise made by a mechanical valve doctors had installed in his heart a few years earlier. As he worked with congressional investigators, he betrayed nothing about his own participation in or knowledge of the events of 1963 -- nothing about the Directorate's well-documented hostility toward Kennedy, nothing to suggest he knew of the DRE's contacts with Oswald. "I worked closely with Joannides," says G. Robert Blakey, former general counsel for the HSCA who is now a law professor at the University of Notre Dame. "None of us knew that he had been a contact agent for the DRE in 1963. That was one of the groups we had targeted for investigation." Gaeton Fonzi, the investigator who'd questioned former DRE members in Miami for the committee, recalls his own efforts to get answers from the CIA. When he had asked who'd handled contacts with the Directorate in 1963, the committee was informed -- via the CIA general counsel's office -- that the agency did not know. "We got the runaround from day one on the DRE," says Fonzi, who now lives in North Bay Village and who eventually wrote a book blaming the assassination on the DRE's original patron, David Atlee Phillips, and assorted Cuban exiles. (Phillips denied the charge until his death in 1987.) The Joannides revelation, Fonzi adds, just reconfirms that the CIA deceived the American people about who really was responsible for Kennedy's death. The HSCA issued its final report in February 1979, chillingly concluding that "in all probability" there had been a conspiracy perpetrated by Oswald and persons whom the committee could not identify. Blakey believed the CIA had cooperated fully with the committee, a claim he no longer cares to defend. Joannides fooled him, Blakey admits. "He was a witness," he marvels. "The assassination happened on his watch." In November 1978 George Joannides retired permanently. He was not a man to talk about his work. He once told one of his children he was skeptical of JFK conspiracy theories but did not explain why. His heart problems worsened in his later years, and he moved to Houston to receive treatment from renowned surgeon Michael DeBakey. He died on March 9, 1990, at the age of 67. Family and friends mourned him as a loving husband, thoughtful father, and delightful and ethical friend. His obituary in the Washington Post on March 14, 1990, made no mention of his 28 years of CIA service, stating only that he had been a lawyer for the Defense Department.Fidel Castro and the majority of the American people don't often agree, but on the JFK conspiracy question they are like-minded. In December 1995 Fabian Escalante, retired chief of counterintelligence for Castro's security services, offered new details of the Cuban interpretation of Kennedy's assassination. As Castro had insinuated from the beginning, Cuban communists believed that certain exiles, working in league with CIA officials who loathed Kennedy's Cuba policy, were likely responsible for the crime. Speaking at a conference of JFK historians in the Bahamas, Escalante said he had conducted the Cuban government's first full-scale inquiry into the assassination in 1991 and 1992. He claimed he and a colleague had interviewed 150 people in Cuba and said he had reviewed all relevant files."I think that the people that had to do with the assassination are people in the DRE," he told the conference. But Escalante was another investigator who knew nothing of Joannides. He emphasized that he didn't think Juan Manuel Salvat or other military section leaders were the organizers of the plot. "When you are going to carry out an operation as complex as this one, you cannot put all your money on one single horse. You have to use different ways in order not to have any mistakes." He added, "Obviously the DRE was in on the whole plot against Cuba." Salvat shrugs at the suggestion that the Directorate had a hand in Kennedy's death. His response is self-deprecating, not defensive. "If there was a conspiracy," he offers, "it was at a much higher level than the DRE.""

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They became involved in the drug trade at this time. They did this via General Vang Pao, the leader of the anti-communist forces in Laos. Vang Pao was a major figure in the opium trade. To help him, Shackley used his CIA officials and assets to sabotage the competitors. Shackley and Clines also helped Vang Pao to obtain financial backing to form his own airline, Zieng Khouang Air Transport Company, to transport opium and heroin between Long Tieng and Vientiane (Mekong Delta). Shackley used the drug proceeds in turn to fund his hit squads and other covert operations. Vang Pao gained a monopoly over the heroin trade in Laos, but in the late 1970s his army was defeated by the communists. February/March 1988, Mother Jones, p. 46: “[Sheehan] talked to former military and intelligence officials who have sat in a room and listened to Ted Shackley devise the counter-insurgency program in Laos. One of his sources, he says, was a “courier” who brought money from Vang Pao to a Naval officer in Saigon named Richard Armitage. Directly? No, not directly; he was “on the chain.” How did the source know that the money was intended for Armitage? “He didn’t say.” But “he knows for sure.” At that moment Khun Sa and his independent Shan state in Burma rose to prominence. Virtually all the opium produced (and turned into heroin) was either produced in the areas he controlled or was transported over his territory, which meant a tax had to be paid and he was able to stop it. Delta Force and ISA commander Bo Gritz, who was initially searching for POWs, made contact with this person in December 1986. He not only found out that Khun Sa was not aware of any POWs, but also that the only reason this person was selling opium was to fund his war against the communists. Khun Sa offered to stop virtually all the opium coming from the Gold Triangle (he controlled it) if the US would A) recognize his Shan state (to stop the continuous warfare against him) B) help the Shan State with the development of a normal agricultural economy. Gritz took Khun Sa's written offer, specifically addressed to vice president George H.W. Bush, to Washington. Through his contact Bill Harvey (not the associate of Shackley) at the National Security Council Staff, Gritz was informed to drop the issue, because no one was interested in stopping it. After Gritz refused to do that he and his teammate were persecuted. In reaction Gritz returned to Khun Sa's remote camp with a small special forces team. The did an interview with the druglord (who was respected, not feared, by his people) which was videotaped. Khun Sa told his secretary to read the names of his American customers. They were Theodore Shackley (in charge of U.S. Golden Triangle opium business from 1965 to 1975), Santos Trafficante (Mafia don in Miami and Cuba and an employee of the CIA in the subversion of Cuba. Trafficante assisted in trafficking the heroin inside the U.S. and when it was there, in distributing it), Richard Armitage (at the time the Assistant Secretary of Defense and head of the rescue effort of POWs from South-East Asia, which he continually sabotaged. Later a PNAC signer and George W. Bush's Deputy Secretary of State. Armitage handled all the financial transactions with banks like the Nugan Hand), Daniel Arnold (CIA station chief in Thailand and Armitage successor in the heroin and weapons trade), and Jerry Daniels (CIA agent who also was a replacement of Armitage. Died under suspicious circumstances). According to Daniel Sheehan of the Christic Institute (Gritz noticed how much their information overlapped with his own): "From late 1973 until April of 1975, Theodore Shackley, Thomas Clines and Richard Armitage disbursed, from the secret, Laotian-based, Vang Pao opium fund, vastly more money than was required to finance even the highly intensified Phoenix Project in Vietnam. The money in excess of that used in Vietnam was secretly smuggled out of Vietnam in large suitcases, by Richard Secord and Thomas Clines and carried into Australia, where it was deposited in a secret, personal bank account (privately accessible to Theodore Shackley, Thomas Clines and Richard Secord). During this same period of time between 1973 and 1975, Theodore Shackley and Thomas Clines caused thousands of tons of US weapons, ammunition, and explosives to be secretly taken from Vietnam and stored at a secret "cache" hidden inside Thailand." This money, with the help of Raphael Quintero, found its way into the Nugan Hand Bank in Sydney, a money laundering center of heroin profits, mainly from the Golden Triangle (opium from this location was managed by Shackley, Armitage, and Santos Trafficante) and run by different US intelligence agencies. After Nugan Hand's cover was blown and the operation abandoned, the CIA redirected many of the Nugan Hand operations to another Pacific financial institution based in Hawaii, named Bishop, Baldwin, Rewald, Dillingham and Wong (BBRDW). By the end of 1980, BBRDW started setting up offices in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, Singapore, and Australia, all former Nugan Hand locations, staffing the offices with some of the same personnel. August 17, 1983, Wall Street Journal, 'Bank's Links to Ex-CIA Men Detailed': "Few men have had more to do with U.S. covert operations in the cold war than Theodore G. Shackley. Before he retired from the Central Intelligence Agency after 30 years' service in September 1979, Mr. Shackley had led the secret war against Cuba, the secret war in Laos, been CIA station chief in Saigon at the height of the Vietnam war and then No. 2 man running the clandestine services division at CIA headquarters in Langley... The Australian government report, prepared and released to Parliament in March by the Commonwealth-New South Wales Joint Task Force on Drug Trafficking, cites Mr. Shackley as one of the leading characters whose "background is relevant to a proper understanding of the activities of the Nugan Hand group and people associated with that group. The report says that Mr. Shackley had worked closely with Mr. Wilson in the CIA since 1955 and that Mr. Shackley "continued a close relationship with him (Wilson) whilst Wilson was employed by (U.S.) Naval Intelligence from 1971 to 1976, and after that." The report refers to contacts between Mr. Shackley and Michael Hand, the currently missing former CIA operator who founded, owned and managed the Nugan Hand banking group. Mr. Hand's partner, Australian Frank Nugan, died of a gunshot wound in January, 1980, later ruled a suicide, and Nugan Hand failed a few months later. Investigations following Mr. Nugan's death and the failure of the bank revealed widespread dealings by Nugan-Hand with international heroin syndicates, and evidence of massive fraud against U.S. and foreign citizens. Many retired high-ranking Pentagon and CIA officials were executives of or consultants to Nugan-Hand... both Mr. Chavez [CIA] and Mr. Shackley were working for A.P.I. Distributors, an international trading firm funded with $500,000 lent by Mr. Wilson. According to the report, it shared office space in Houston with a Wilson company that helped sell 20 tons of plastic explosives to Libya, for which Mr. Wilson was convicted. A.P.I. was headed by Thomas Clines, who had just retired after 30 years with the CIA, most recently as training director of the clandestine services branch under Mr. Shackley. Another former covert agent, Rafael "Chi Chi" Quintero, also was an executive at A.P.I... Among the high-level Pentagon and CIA officials associated with Nugan Hand were former CIA director William Colby, who was its attorney... " July 23, 1998, Michael C. Ruppert at FTW: "I have met Bo Gritz twice through my close friend, Mrs. Francis Gary (Sue) Powers... That Bo brought back utterly damning videotaped interviews with opium warlord Khun Sa in which Khun Sa described the roles of Shackley, Armitage, Clines, and the CIA in heroin trafficking also cannot be disputed." Case No. 98-CV-11829 JLT, September 29, 1998, deposition of Desiree A. Ferdinand, daughter of the late Colonel Albert Carone who provided a link between the CIA, DIA, and mafia groups involved in the distribution of drugs: "Frank Nugan and Michael Hand, my father was good friends with. Nugan Hand Bank. It was a bank used in the Hong Kong area to launder different monies. There were General Leroy Manner was involved. General Stilwell [Le Cercle] was involved. A man by the name of Paul Hollywell was involved. It was an operation where drug monies in different accounts from certain people were absconded with. One through Nugan Hand bank and they were used for operations that were not sanctioned by the U.S. government, black operations." Like Colby, Shackley heading Operation Phoenix in Vietnam for a while.

Shackley appears to played an important role in running the P2 lodge in Italy in 1969. 2005, Daniele Ganser, 'Nato's Secret Armies', pp. 74-75: "Frank Gigliotti [Presbyterian/Methodist priest; one-time assistant to a hypnotist; worked with teenaged boys, for whom he organized a social club with the peculiar name Giuseppe Mazzini Club; OSS Italy; Mason] of the US Masonic Lodge personally recruited Gelli and instructed him to set up an anti-Communist parallel government in Italy in close cooperation with the CIA station in Rome. 'It was Ted Shackley [Le Cercle], director of all covert operations of the CIA in Italy in the 1970s', an internal report of the Italian anti-terrorism unit confirmed, 'who presented the chief of the Masonic Lodge to Alexander Haig'. According to the document, Nixon's Military adviser General Haig [later Pilgrims Society executive], who had commanded US troops in vietnam and thereafter from 1974 to 1979 served as NATO's SACEUR, and Nixon's National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger [Pilgrims Society; Le Cercle] 'authorized Gelli in the fall of 1969 to recruit 400 high ranking Italian and NATO officers into his lodge'. (60)... the secretive anti-Communist P2 members list confiscated [in 1981] counted at least 962 members, with total membership estimated at 2,500... 52 were high-ranking officers of the Carabinieri paramilitary police, 50 were high-ranking officers of the Italian Army, 37 were high-ranking officers of the Finance Police, 29 were high-ranking officers of the Italian Navy, 11 were Presidents of the police, 70 were influential and wealthy industrialists, 10 were Presidents of banks, 3 were acting Ministers, 2 were former Ministers, 1 was President of a political party, 38 were members of parliament and 14 were high-ranking judges. Others on lower levels of the social hierarchy were mayors, directors of hospitals, lawyers, notaries and journalists. ... As a sign of trust and respect Gelli was invited in 1974 to the Presidential inauguration ceremonies of Gerald Ford and again in 1977 was present at the inauguration ceremony of President Carter. When Ronald Reagan became President in 1981 Gelli was proud to sit in the first row in Washington. He was Washington's man in Italy. ... [Licio Gelli said:] 'Many came from the ranks of mercenaries who had fought in the Spanish Civil War and many came from the fascist republic of Salo. They chose individuals who were proven anti- Communists. I know it was a well-constructed organization. Had Communist strength grown in Italy, America would have assisted us, we would have unleashed another war and we would have been generously supplied with arms from the air.' Gladiators were paid well, Gelli elaborated, for the US spent a lot of money on the network: 'The Americans paid them large sums of money, the equivalent of an excellent salary. And they guaranteed the financial support of the families in case the Gladiator was killed.'" November 18 1990, The Observer, 'Secret army's war on the Left': "In many other countries the secret societies have been moribund, but not in Italy, where all hell broke loose over charges that the CIA had conspired with Italian intelligence chiefs and Christian Democrat leaders to install a military dictatorship on the lines of the CIA-Colonels coup in Greece. This was to be achieved through a 'strategy of tension' to combat the 'Red Brigades' with bombings and assassinations on IRA lines. The purpose was to dishearten the Left and open the way to a takeover. Indeed, there were atrocities over the decades. There are charges that these culminated in the kidnapping and execution of former Premier Aldo Moro, whose insistence on defying an American veto on admitting Communists into the Cabinet infuriated Washington. Defying Andreotti and the Christian Democrat right, Moro was on the way to Parliament with the deal fixed when he was kidnapped. William Colby, CIA chief of the day, claimed recently that his agency had spent nearly dollars 100 million 'supporting politicians'. But Moro the loner was not for sale. Meanwhile, the inquiries have shown that Italian secret services successfully penetrated the Red Brigades, Moro's captors. 'Poor Moro had to go,' says a Communist party MP. 'We had 40 per cent of the national vote. We regarded the Brigades as mad extremists who were destroying the Left. It was easy to focus Red Brigade fury on Moro for leading the Communists into the capitalist camp. And once the Communists got into the cabinet, they could discover Gladio.' That Moro felt certain he was being sacrificed is evident from his last letters. More facts tumbled out as the row in the Italian parliament continued. Andreotti said that 139 secret arms dumps had been gathered in over the last decade but 12 were mysteriously missing. In the course of training partisans for the War That Never Was, hundreds of men had been flown from Sardinia to Corsica in blacked-out aircraft. Andreotti admitted that Gladio, born in 1951, was still active. ... One of Casson's visitors was former Defence Minister Paolo Taviani, who said frankly that during his time in office (1955-58) the Italian secret services were bossed and financed by 'the boys in Via Veneto' ie the CIA agents in the US Embassy in the heart of Rome. Declassified secret service papers reveal that Ted Shackley, deputy chief of the CIA station in Rome in the 1970s introduced the notorious Licio Gelli head of the neo-fascist P2 masonic lodge and for years a fugitive in Argentina to General Alexander Haig, then Nixon's chief of staff, and later, from 1974 to '79, Nato Supreme Commander. P2 was a right-wing shadow government, ready to take over Italy, that included four Cabinet Ministers, all three intelligence chiefs, 48 MPs, 160 military officers, bankers, industrialists, top diplomats and the Army Chief of Staff. After meetings between Gelli, Italian military brass and CIA men in the embassy, Gladio was given renewed blessing and more money by Haig and the then head of the National Security Council, Henry Kissinger. Just how those and later funds were spent is a key point in the investigation. Casson's dossier will be presented, along with a large batch of similar evidence compiled by another judge in Rome, to a parliamentary commission on terrorism. Together, they have revealed a long line of ghosts from Italy's post-war traumas. From the seven-hour testimony from Admiral Fulvio Martini, secret services chief, to parliament last Thursday, it is clear that the Gladio army had been readied since the Fifties not merely to intervene when the Russians came, but also in the case of the Left winning a general election. Italians have also learned that General Giovanni De Lorenzo, as secret service chief, compiled secret dossiers, including tapes and photographs, on some 150,000 people; that his successor, General Vito Miceli, received an dollars 800,000 handout from the Americans; that Miceli was linked to an abortive coup in 1970 led by Prince Valerio Borghese, a war-time mini-sub commander. De Lorenzo and Miceli received parliamentary immunity as MSI (neo-fascist) MPs, while Borghese was spirited out to Spain by ex-Nazis." Sept. 23, 2009, Herald de Paris, 'Rise and fall of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi between Mafia and Masonic Lodges': "It was the time of the post-war economic aid to Italy, a plan decided during the Truman administration to put pressure on the Italian Prime Minister in order to keep the left coalitions away from the Parliament and reconstitute new masonic lodges with strong anti-socialist and anti-communist principles. The bonds between the US and Italian masonries were established thanks to the activity of Frank Gigliotti, agent of the OSS (Office of Strategic Service, forerunner of the CIA) and close to the Sicilian Mafia. Frank Gigliotti’s disappearance from the scene seems to coincide time-wise with Licio Gelli’s arrival. After Italy’s liberation from the Nazi-Fascist regime in 1944, Licio Gelli, former fascist chief and officer of the RSI (Repubblica Sociale Italiana, the last attempt to recover the fascist regime after Mussolini’s death), became a collaborator of the US secret services, recruited by James Angleton, pro-monarchy and pro-fascism OSS member. Gelli’s admission within the Italian masonic scene found some hindrance due to his fascist past of persecution towards partisans as well as masons, but thanks to the help of masonic leaders such as Giordano Gamberini, close to the CIA, in 1965 he was initiated and in 1966 appointed as the Maestro of the P2 Lodge. In contrast with the masonic common rule, Gelli was renowned for his obsession for secrecy: he was the only one to know who the members were, they didn’t even know each other, and although according to the tradition members was supposed to approve new members’ application, within the P2, only Gelli was entitled to decide who could or could not be part of it. Also, associates of the other lodges were supposed to meet regularly, while P2 members were not allowed to meet. During Gelli’s management of the P2 a series of acts aimed at undermining Italian democracy took place: attempts of coups, attacks against civilians and politicians were part of the wider strategy of tension of the late 1960s and 1970s, whose goal was to prevent the “communist danger” from spreading. ... As had happened for Michele Sindona, also Mr Berlusconi’s rise was backed by a warm media campaign celebrating him as a selfmade man, whose fortune had raised only thanks to his personal ability. This is not the case, as all economic and political fortunes of P2’s members were carefully decided and backed by Gelli and all aimed at specific higher goals. By the late 1970s, members of the secret lodge were infiltrated in every pivotal circuit of the public life: secret services, mass media, bank sector, judiciary system, government, army, all ministers and both chambers of Parliament, police services. Unlikely the other lodges, that never reached more than 250 members, the P2 could rely on at least 400 loyal men at its service, becoming the biggest and most powerful Masonic Lodge in Italy. Says Giacomo Foddai, former head of Carabinieri (the military police) in the northeastern area of Sardinia during the Cold War: “There was the rumour that if you wanted to progress with your career you needed to be a P2 member, then when it came to light, little by little this membership became a hindrance and reason for discrimination.” ... Already in 1987, Berlusconi was questioned by judge Giorgio Della Lucia over the reason why he had hired as “collaborator” Mafia boss Vittorio Mangano, who lived in his villa in Arcore and was previous offender for crimes such as drug trafficking, money laundering, arm trafficking. It will come out that Berlusconi’s residence had been used as hideaway by more than one Mafia bosses."

A document was also found in the possession of Licio Gelli (Boss of P2) titled "Piano di Rinascita Democratica" (Democratic Rebirth Plan) which amounted to a declaration of the lodge's intent; essentially, Gelli's goal was to form a new political and economical elite to lead Italy towards a more authoritarian form of democracy, in an anti-communist perspective.

Richard Brenneke: "There is no doubt. The P-2 since the beginning of the 1970s was used for the dope traffic, for destabilization in a covert way. It was done secretly to keep people from knowing about the involvement of the U.S. government. In many cases it was done directly through the offices of the CIA in Rome and in some other cases through CIA centers in other countries."

According to Ibrahim Razin: "P-2 was at the center, one of the main participants in the illegal arms traffic, which was connected to the drug traffic from the outset. P-2 also made a substantial contribution to the recycling of large amounts of money used for this arms and drugs traffic from one country to another."

"According to a November 18, 1990 article by The Observer, quoted by Statewatch, "Declassified secret service papers reveal that Ted Shackleton, deputy chief of the CIA station in Rome in the 1970’s introduced the notorious Licio Gelli – head of the neo-fascist P2 masonic lodge and for years a fugitive in Argentina – to General Alexander Haig, then Nixon's chief of staff, and later, from 1974 to 1979, NATO Supreme Commander. P2 was a right-wing shadow government, ready to take over Italy, that included four Cabinet Ministers, all three intelligence chiefs, 48 MPs, 160 military officers, bankers, industrialists, top dipomats and the Army Chief of Staff. After meetings between Gelli, Italian military brass and CIA men in the embassy, Gladio was given renewed blessing – and more money – by Haig and the then head of the National Security Council, Henry Kissinger."

Head of the CIA's Western Hemisphere Division from 1972 to 1976, and played a major role in the 1973 Chile coup where Pinochet was put into power. In 1976 a Cuban airliner with 73 passengers was blown up, killing all on board. Luis Posada Carriles has been the main suspect all these years, a CIA agent who worked under Shackley in Operation 40, a top secret assassination and sabotage group of the CIA which was directed against Cuba. CIA Associate Deputy Director of Operations from 1976 to 1977, while serving under DCI George H.W. Bush. Retired from the CIA in 1979 after Stansfield Turner took over as DCI from Bush. Went to work for Systems Services International Inc., International Research and Trade Ltd., and API Distributors Inc., recently set up and managed by his ex-CIA buddies Edwin P. Wilson, Thomas G. Clines, and Rafael Quintero. Already in late 1970s this network of companies was investigated by Justice officials who suspected it of illegally selling high-tech military equipment to Iran, Egypt, Libya, and Turkey. When Shackley was still in the CIA, he tried to limit these investigations, which wasn't appreciated by Stansfield Turner. Founded Research Associates International in September 1980, which specialized in providing intelligence to business. It was incorporated by Shaw, Pittman, Potts & Trowbridge, the law firm that also represented API, IRT, and SSI. Initially, Research Associates International shared the same office with SSI and IRT. Former CIA chief Donald Jameson, who is known to have attended a 1980 Le Cercle meeting in Zurich, became a vice president of Research Associates International. July 23, 1998, Michael Ruppert, 'The POWs, CIA and Drugs': "A former CIA officer told me in 1995 that Ollie North was leasing office space for his 1995 Senate run from Shackley's company, Research Associates International, in Rosslyn, Virginia." Shackley was hired by oil baron John Deuss to organise shipments of oil to South Africa, then under a global oil embargo that Deuss cheerfully flouted. Became a very close friend of (later) Le Cercle member Conrad Gerber, who founded Petro-Logistics in 1980. Petro-Logistics would become the primary source of supposedly reliable data to the International Energy Agency (IEA), doing anything its power to penetrate OPEC's oil secrets. Suspected of involvement in the October Surprize, doing his part in defeating the Carter reelection campaign.

2005, Ted Shackley and Richard Finney, 'Spymaster: my life in the CIA', introduction (B. Hugh Tovar): "His aplomb in facing the in- evitable surely drew strength from a side of Ted Shackley that few of us were acquainted with—his Catholic faith, which had under- gone a recrudescence in recent years, and had become a significant part of his life."

2005, Ted Shackley and Richard Finney, 'Spymaster: my life in the CIA', p. 265: "In May 1972, as I entered on my new duties as chief of the Western Hemisphere (WH) Division, my "welcome home" interviews with Tom Karamessines and Richard Helms provided me with glimpses of what lay ahead."

1998, Guss Russo, 'Live by the sword: the secret war against Castro and the death of JFK', p. 251: "The day before placing the wager [of November 13, 1963] with [Michael] Forrestal, FitzGerald attended a Special Group meeting at the White House. In attendance were Robert Kennedy, his CCC leader Cy Vance, and the CIA’s Richard Helms and Ted Shackley, among others. FitzGerald took the occasion to apprise the group of Artime’s progress in Nicaragua and Costa Rica."

There are abundant indications in the newly released CIA documents that the CIA, along with other agencies, became part of a new U.S. strategy aimed at promoting revolt from within Cuba, particularly among the Cuban military. This inter-agency plan was called AMTRUNK inside the CIA, and "Operation Leonardo" by its original authors, George Volsky of USIA, the Cuban exile Nestor Moreno, and Tad Szulc of the New York Times. Szulc, who had excellent connections inside the Kennedy White House, presented the plan in early 1963 to Robert Hurwitch, the State Department Cuban Coordinator, when the State Department and the White House pressured the CIA "to consider a proposal for an on-island operation to split the Castro regime."[52] Among the CIA representatives at the meeting was Dave Morales, the chief of covert operations in JMWAVE, the CIA’s Miami station.[53] The CIA's own documents make it abundantly clear how distasteful this White House-backed plan was to them. Old disagreements from the Bay of Pigs operation were revived: the White House wished to use participants in the original Castro revolution, notably men close to Manolo Ray and Huber Matos; and such men were anathema to the more right-wing Cubans who had defected earlier and been championed by the CIA. By 1963 Ray and Nestor Moreno, both close to Szulc, had formed the anti-CIA and anti-Castro group JURE, which not only rejected CIA influence but was suspected by CIA of trying to penetrate its JMWAVE operations. The links of Moreno and Volsky to JURE became key arguments in the CIA's case for disliking AMTRUNK.[54] By April 5, 1963, JMWAVE Station Chief Theodore Shackley was ready to recommend that the whole AMTRUNK operation "be terminated at the earliest possible moment". ... Both the plans for an internal military-based coup and the supporting infiltration and sabotage missions were hereafter known to the CIA as AMTRUNK. The renewed CIA sabotage operations became operational in August 1963. As part of this program, a new exile group, with U.S. Army training and advisers, launched raids on August 18 and October 21 as "Comandos Mambises," from the CIA ship "Rex," a former subchaser.[64] ... The CIA's redirection of AMTRUNK exemplified their long-term disagreement with the Kennedy White House over policy objectives. Arthur Schlesinger has argued that, since 1961: The CIA wished to organize Castro's overthrow from outside Cuba, as against the White House, the Attorney General's office and State who wished to support an anti-Castro movement inside Cuba. The CIA's idea was to fight a war; the others hoped to promote a revolution. Any successful anti-Castro movement inside Cuba would have to draw on disenchanted Castroites and aim to rescue the revolution from the Communists. This approach, stigmatized as Fidelismo sin Fidel, was opposed by businessmen, both Cuban and American, who dreamed of the restoration of nationalized properties. But the CIA alternative was probably dictated less by business interests than by the agency's preference for operations it could completely control -- especially strong in this case because of the Cuban reputation for total inability to keep anything secret.[67]

David Corn, Blond Ghost: The Shackley and the CIA's Crusades (1994): ""The imprisoned rogue officer made Sheehan's head swim. The essence of Wilson's story, Sheehan claimed, was that the Agency in 1976 had created a highly secretive counter terrorist unit modeled on the PRUs of Vietnam and had run this entity apart from the main bureaucracy. The mission: conduct "wet operations" (spy talk for assassinations). After the election of Jimmy Carter, this group was erased from the books and hidden in private companies, and Shackley was the man in charge of the unit both in and out of government. The program was divided into different components. CIA man William Buckley supposedly had directed one out of Mexico with Quintero and Ricardo Chavez. Another unit was headed by a former Mossad officer. Felix Rodriguez was involved in yet one more in the Mideast. Sheehan took Wilson at his word. "Wilson went into such detail," Sheehan later maintained. "It's not something that's being made up." ... Wheaton continued investigating the Wilson crowd and other covert sorts. He started telling Jenkins that he believed he was chasing a decades-old, top-secret assassination unit. Wheaton claimed it had begun with an assassination training program for Cuban exiles that Shackley had set up in the early 1960s. The target was Castro. The secret war against Cuba faded, but the "Shooter Team" continued. It expanded and was now called the Fish Farm, and Shackley remained its chief. Sheehan knitted together all this spook gossip and misinformation with a few hard facts, and on May 29, 1986, he dropped the load. In a Miami federal court, Sheehan filed a lawsuit against thirty individuals, invoking the RICO antiracketeering law and accusing all of being part of a criminal conspiracy that trained, financed, and armed Cuban-American mercenaries in Nicaragua, smuggled drugs, violated the Neutrality Act by supporting the Contras, traded various weapons, and bombed the press conference at La Penca."

AFIO ACTIVITY:

September/October 2000, Volume XXIII, Number 3, AFIO magazine Periscope, pp. 1-2: "AFIO's National Symposium "Intelligence in the Information Age" was held 5 and 6 October 2000 at the BWI Marriott Hotel and the National Security Agency at Ft George G. Meade, MD. … the Hon. Caspar Weinberger, former SecDef, as keynote speaker. … James Sroder receives AFIO's Authors of 2000 Award for Dulles Biography … AFIO expresses its appreciation to the following for an exceptionally interesting Thursday session: … Mr. Ted Shackley … and Mr. Gilman Loui (In-Q-Tel). For the great Friday session at NSA, we thank Lt. General Mike Hayden, our host… HUMINT Panel – Clandestine Operations, Espionage and Overt Collection L to R … Ted Price – former Deputy Director for Operations, CIA. Ted Shackley – CIA/DO-Ret [Panel Chairman] and Lt Gen James R. Clapper, USAF (Ret) – former Director, DIA."

Fall 2001, Volume XXIV, Number 2, AFIO magazine Periscope, p. 1: "AFIO’s Fourth Annual Symposium ... 2 - 3 November 2001 ... The Honorable Joan Dempsey, Deputy Director of Central Intelligence for Intelligence Community Management greets the keynote speaker rising to follow her on the podium, the Honorable Porter J. Goss, Chairman, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. [TOP RIGHT - L TO R] Former Director of Central Intelligence R. James Woolsey, keynote banquet speaker, is introduced by AFIO President S. Eugene Poteat."

Fall 2001, Volume XXIV, Number 2, AFIO magazine Periscope, p. 9: "In 1998, the Strategy Committee of the Board under Ted Shackley, developed a statement of policy which remains valid and operable. This statement was approved by the Board in January 1999. It stated in part, (1) There is a continuing role for The Association of Former Intelligence Officers, and. (2) The mission of AFIO should remain the promotion of public understanding of the role of American intelligence, and AFIO should pursue a proactive policy stance in this endeavor. (3) The target audience in pursuing this policy includes: the American public; educators; Executive branch policy makers and their staffs; members of Congress and their staffs who deal with national security issues; active and retired members of the intelligence community; and media personalities or institutions that comment regularly on intelligence, foreign policy or national policy formulation."

2002, Volume XXV, Number 1 and 2, AFIO magazine Periscope: "2001 donors [life members]: ... Inman, Bobby R. ... Gittinger, John W. ... Hugel, Max ... Jenkins, Carl E. ... Schlesinger, James R. ... Shackley, Theodore ... Spencer, Jr. Thomas R. ... Wannall, W. Raymond ... Webster, William H. ... Wedemeyer, Albert D. ... 26 Anonymous Donors... Special volunteers of time & talent: ... Shackley, Ted; Spencer, Jr., Thomas R. ... New Member Sponsors for 2001: ... Angleton, James ... Critchfield, James; Critchfield, Lois ... Spencer, Thomas ... Corporate partners 2001: Du Pont Investment Bankers, Hill & Associates, Institute of World Politics, ... Lockheed Martin (M&DS), ... Motorola, ... SAIC, ... TRW. ... Current Members of the AFIO Board of Directors: Honorary Board of Directors: Co-Chairmen: Hon. George H. W. Bush; Hon. Gerald R. Ford; Mr. John Barron; Hon. Shirley Temple Black; Hon. Frank C. Carlucci; Dr. Ruth M. Davis; Adm. Bobby R. Inman, USN (Ret); Professor Ernest R. May; Mr. John Anson Smith; Hon. William H. Webster; Hon. R. James Woolsey. ... Board Members: ... Mr. Theodore G. Shackley; Thomas R. Spencer Jr., Esq. ... Present Board Members Re-elected for Another Term in 2002: Ted Shackley (Ret)... Officers: President: Mr. S. Eugene Poteat [confirmed Gulf of Tonkin incident was used by White House as a false flag event.]"

1992, Webster Griffin Tarpley and Anton Chaitkin, 'George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography - part 1', p. 394: "Rudy Enders, the head of the CIA's paramilitary section--and deployed by George Bush aide Donald Gregg--is a minority owner of Acta Non Verba (ANV). ANV's own tough-talking promotional literature says that it concentrates on "counter-terrorist activities in the maritime environment.'' A very high-level retired CIA officer, whose private interview was used in preparation for this book, described this "Fish Farm" in the following more realistic terms: "Assassination operations and training company controlled by Ted Shackley, under the cover of a private corporation with a regular board of directors, stockholders, etc., located in Florida. They covertly bring in Haitian and Southeast Asian boat people as recruits, as well as Koreans, Cubans, and Americans. They hire out assassinations and intelligence services to governments, corporations, and individuals, and also use them for covering or implementing 'Fish Farm' projects/activities. '"

1994, David Corn, 'Blond Ghost: Ted Shackley and the CIA's crusades', p. 394: "He continued to claim Shackley was overseeing an assassination outfit called the Fish Farm. During the cross- examination, Wheaton refused to say which retired CIA official had told him about Shackley and the Fish Farm." 1994, David Corn, 'Blond Ghost: Ted Shackley and the CIA's crusades', p. 394: "Rudy Enders, a former JMWAVE officer and now Rodriguez's supervisor, investigated and discovered that the local PRU commander was a VC agent. The episode convinced Donald Gregg , the current ROIC, to all but give up on penetrations."

June 14, 1981, New York Times Magazine, 'The Qaddafi Connection': "Wilson went to work for the C.I.A.'s Office of Security in 1951 and, after serving in the Marines, became a full-time C.I.A. contract employee in 1955. In the late 60's, he helped organize a Washington firm called Consultants International Inc. for the C.I.A. and the Navy. The firm's ostensible purpose was to conduct export-import operations, but that function was a cover for classified intelligence operations.
Over the next few years, his intelligence activities were combined and mingled with his private operations. He hired a number of associates, many of them with military or intelligence backgrounds, and, according to Federal officials, was routinely receiving huge kickbacks from American manufacturers and foreign governments on his procurement contracts.
The men working for him were convinced that he was still active in C.I.A. intelligence operations. ''I thought he was reporting directly to the President,'' one former associate recalls. ''Ed still must be sanctioned by the U.S. Government. The people I met were impressive. All of a sudden I'm on a first-name basis with big names in Congress and the Senate. It was always like the Government was supporting us.'' Robert Keith Gray, an influential public-relations man known for his close ties to the Eisenhower, Nixon and Reagan Administrations, was among those listed as a member of the board of Consultants International for five years, beginning in 1970. However, Gray, who served as co-chairman of Reagan's Inaugural Committee, expressed surprise in an interview upon being told of his official listing. ''I never knew I was on the board,'' Gray said. ''I never was invited to a board meeting.'' He acknowledged that he has had a social and business relationship with Wilson, whom he described as ''charming and very much a red-blooded American.'' ...
In 1971, Wilson dropped his C.I.A. connection and was a part of Task Force 157, a secret Navy intelligence unit that employed 50 to 75 agents to monitor and collect information on Soviet shipping. It reported not only on routine cargo items but also watched for the covert shipment of military goods and nuclear weapons. ...
Wilson's first C.I.A. assignment, in the 50's, was to infiltrate the Seafarers International Union, in which he was eventually appointed to a number of official positions. He also was involved in Congressional lobbying on behalf of the union and apparently began then forming his close relationship with a number of influential members of Congress. Wilson became a C.I.A. specialist on maritime issues and was involved in the procurement of equipment for clandestine Navy operations. During the Bay of Pigs, he was assigned as a paymaster and handled procurement as well. He later served in Southeast Asia and Latin America.
A full accounting of Wilson's connections and business activities may never be known. He has boasted of having a controlling interest in more than 100 corporations in the United States and Europe. ...
Under cover of their export-import business, Wilson and Terpil are said to have helped Libya set up a manufacturing plant for the production of assassination weapons; to have themselves helped Qaddafi plan political assassinations; to have recruited dozens of former Green Berets to teach Libyan soldiers and Arab terrorists how to handle volatile explosives - how, for example, to turn ashtrays into weapons of terror; to have illegally shipped arms explosives to Libya with the aid of forged and fraudulent State Department export certificates, and to have involved other former C.I.A. employees in their projects.
Information about the Qaddafi connection has been known by the Government since the fall of 1976. It was then that Kevin P. Mulcahy, at the time a partner of Wilson and Terpil, approached the C.I.A. and the Federal Bureau of Investigation with grave doubts about the legality and ethics of his company's business dealings with Libya. ...
In the early spring of 1976, Wilson walked him to another office a few blocks away, in downtown Washington, and introduced him to Frank Terpil, now 41. Terpil had served about seven years as a communications technician for the C.I.A. but was forced to resign in 1971 after a series of embarrassing private escapades, including an attempt to smuggle contraband liquor into India. Unlike Wilson, who mingled easily and effortlessly with senior C.I.A. officials, corporate executives and important members of Congress, the Brooklyn-born Terpil was a street operator who had been arrested twice for illegal trafficking in arms. Mulcahy knew nothing about Terpil except that he had worked overseas for the C.I.A. ...
If Mulcahy had any doubts about his new job, he suppressed them by believing - or wanting to believe - that Ed Wilson was still linked to the C.I.A. ''Ed would parade his contacts in the C.I.A. with the people he was doing business with to impress them that he was still C.I.A.,'' Mulcahy says. ''He would suggest he was still under deep cover.'' Often on Friday nights, Wilson made it a point to go drinking at bars in suburban Virginia known to be after-hours hangouts for C.I.A. officials on duty at the agency's headquarters in McLean. Mulcahy, the new partner, began going along. ''I thought he was agency,'' Mulcahy says of Wilson. ''I had no question in my mind.''
A few days after the new partnership was formed, Mulcahy discovered sales orders showing that Wilson and Terpil were in the process of selling machine guns and silencers to an arms dealer in Zambia. He was bothered by the sale of the silencers for he knew they had only one purpose - killing without drawing attention to the killer. He telephoned the F.B.I. and later showed copies of the sales orders to agents in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (B.A.T.F.), one of whose functions it is to monitor illegal arms deals and report on impending sales. He also asked about his new partners. The authorities said that the sale to Zambia was legal and that they had no derogatory infor-mation about Wilson and Terpil in their files. ''I said to myself, 'Christ, this has got to be an agency operation,' '' Mulcahy recalls. ''These guys are buying and selling silencers, and the F.B.I. and B.A.T.F. give them the O.K. So I'm feeling pretty good: I'd gone to the Federal authorities, shown them documents and they said Wilson and Terpil were clean.''
Wilson's contacts seemed inexhaustible. Ed Wilson was friendly, as Mulcahy and Federal investigators were later to learn, with many senior legislators, including Senators Strom Thurmond of South Carolina and the late John L. McClellan of Arkansas and Representative Silvio O. Conte of Massachusetts. He could telephone a contact in the Internal Revenue Service and within 15 minutes have intimate financial details on a potential customer. He was able, with a telephone call to Washington's police headquarters, to obtain registration information on a local automobile license plate. But sometime in late May of 1976, Wilson went a step further: He telephoned Theodore G. Shackley, a prominent C.I.A. official who was then serving as the assistant to the deputy director for clandestine operations - one of the most powerful posts in the agency. Shackley was renowned for his toughness and efficiency as a station chief in Laos and in South Vietnam during the height of the Vietnam War, when the C.I.A. was deeply involved in its still controversial Phoenix assassination program. He later served in Chile, when the C.I.A. was assigned the task of interfering with the Government of Salvador Allende Gossens.
Wilson arranged a meeting at Shackley's home a few nights later after work, bringing along Mulcahy and an American, Harry Rastatter, one of Terpil's business associates who had just returned from a business trip to Egypt, Turkey and Iran. Rastatter had obtained some information from Savak, the Iranian internal police, and was willing to pass it along to the C.I.A. Shackley was introduced by Wilson to Mulcahy and recalled knowing his father, who earned the National Intelligence Medal, the agency's highest reward, before retirement. There was talk about military and intelligence needs in Iran, Turkey and Libya. Wilson told Shackley that he and Terpil were planning to travel to Tripoli and meet with Qaddafi. ''By now I'm convinced that the whole thing is an agency front,'' Mulcahy recalls. ''I thought Ed was in bed with the C.I.A.'' Some Federal officials say they are still investigating Shackley's personal and financial involvement with Wilson. Shackely has acknowledged to Federal authorities that the meeting described by Mulcahy as well as other meetings with Wilson did take place, but Shackley insisted that at no time did Wilson receive any authority or sanction from the C.I.A. for his work in Libya. He said his contacts with Wilson were solely for the purpose of obtaining any stray bits of intelligence Wilson might have picked up. Wilson and Shackley had worked together in 1960 on the Bay of Pigs operation. Shackley, in an interview, confirmed Mulcahy's account of the meet-ing and said that he, like Mulcahy, was unaware then of Wilson's plans for supporting Qaddafi's terrorist program. Shackley said his purpose in talking to Wilson and Rastatter was to collect information from non-C.I.A.sources. ''I talked to them solely not to be a captive of the system,'' he said. ''Wilson was a guy who knew about a lot of things. He was a good contact.''
After the Shackley meeting, Mulcahy was brought into the Libyan operation. Muammar el-Qaddafi had placed a purchase order with Wilson and Terpil for hundreds of thousands of timers capable of detonating explosives at some specifically delayed time. Wilson and Terpil did not tell Mulcahy, however, the real purpose of the devices; instead he was led to believe that Qaddafi needed them to clear mines from harbors and battlefields by safely blowing them up. The mines, so Mulcahy was told, had been left from the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. The timers were to be demonstrated to Qaddafi's senior military and intelligence aides that June in Libya, and Wilson and Terpil had to find an immediate manufacturer. They decided to exploit a long-time C.I.A. contractor, the American Electronic Laboratories of Colmar, Pa., and Falls Church, Va., which had routinely been providing the agency with some of its most highly classified electronics and communications gear. ...
One of Mulcahy's first customers at the security show was a Syrian company, Abdallah Engineering, which was interested in purchasing high-speed communications equipment - gear so sensitive, Mulcahy thought, that the State Department would never permit its export. ''Frank told me, 'Don't worry about it. We don't need licenses. Just get the order,' '' Mulcahy recalls. ''By now it was obvious that Wilson and Terpil had a wide latitude for the agency.''
The equipment included encoding de-vices and radio monitors capable of tracking, intercepting and interpreting encoded signals. There was a meeting with representatives of the Irish Republican Army, who wanted American-made M-16 rifles. Mulcahy learned that such weapons could be found in plentiful supply; ; North Vietnam had sold its surplus weapons - seized in huge quantities after its army overran South Vietnam in 1975 - to Samuel Cummings of Interarmco, the European-based arms dealer.
It was in England also, Mulcahy says, that Terpil asked him if he wanted to earn $5,000 on his return flight to Washington by detouring to Cairo to deliver a ''cold gun,'' one with no identifying serial number. Mulcahy refused to deliver the weapon, but did learn months later that Qaddafi had provided Terpil and Wilson with a $1 million contract to assassinate Umar Abdullah Muhayshi, a Libyan defector who had plotted to overthrow Qaddafi's regime. The assassination assignment had been subcontracted by Wilson to three anti-Castro Cubans in Miami with whom he had once worked in the C.I.A. ''Frank was playing both ends against the middle,'' Mulcahy recalls. ''He was setting up an elaborate security system for the guy in Egypt to protect him while at the same time trying to bump him off.''
Mulcahy and Terpil got along well and the two men exchanged many confidences during their trips together. ''Frank tends to talk a lot; he likes to name-drop,'' Mulcahy says. ''What charges Frank's batteries is the thrill of the chase, the excitement, being on the periphery of power. He thrives on it.'' In time, Mulcahy said, he came to realize that there was more truth in Terpil's seemingly wild stories than he had thought.
Wilson is more discreet and far more dangerous, Mulcahy said. ''Ed is devious and cunning and he's living a lie -that he is the most important human being alive. He'll use anything to manipulate people or events to get them to come out in his favor. He's absolutely brilliant in the way he sets a deal up, puts people together and parcels out information. Ed compartmentalizes his own operation the same way the agency does. It allows him to play both ends against the middle and come out the winner. If Ed comes back and goes on trial, he's going to use every bit of information he's stored up for years to get the C.I.A. in court and put the agency on trial instead of Ed Wilson.'' ...
In fact, Wilson's attorney in Washington, Seymour Glanzer, has repeatedly told Federal prosecutors that the whole story of his client's involvement in Libya has not been aired. Glanzer, in a telephone interview, refused to comment. But the prosecutors have inferred from conversations with him that his defense will be: Wilson is still at work for the C.I.A. There is no known evidence that this is the case, however.
Mulcahy immediately sensed Wilson's essential toughness, but there was nothing unusual about such men inside the C.I.A. and it was a characteristic that could be admired. Mid-1976 was a period of travail for the C.I.A., which was under attack in the press for its illegal domestic spying activities and under investigation by the Senate Intelligence Committee for its foreign assassination efforts. Mulcahy learned, shortly after joining Wilson and Terpil, that President Ford had placed severe new restrictions on clandestine C.I.A. activities. Wilson and Terpil suddenly became more legitimate in his eyes: ''I thought it was logical that the agency would set it up this way and have their people on the street freelancing.'' ...
By this time, it was clear that the senior officers of American Electronic could not be persuaded to build 300,000 timers without verifying the order with the C.I.A. There was yet another scramble: This time to find a manufacturer who could begin delivering the timers within 45 days. Another Friday night meeting in a Virginia bar was arranged with Mulcahy and representatives of another long-time C.I.A. supplier, Scientific Communications Inc. of Dallas. Terpil had found the company, whose president, Joe L. Halpain, later agreed to manufacture 500 prototype timers within 30 days. At the Friday night meeting was William Weisenburger, then a branch chief in the C.I.A.'s Technical Services Division - the group responsible for producing the special weapons and safety devices that have been popularized by the James Bond movies. Thomas G. Clines, then a senior official in the C.I.A.'s Office of Training, also was in the bar that night, sitting with Ed Wilson. Mulcahy spent the night table-hopping as the manufacturing plans were worked out. Clines was well known inside the agency for his closeness to Ted Shackley. Like the others, Clines had played a role in the Bay of Pigs. After Shackley's retirement from the C.I.A. in 1979, he and Clines would set up a consulting firm.
Everybody smelled the big money that night in the bar. Mulcahy later learned that the final contract with Qaddafi called for a total payment of $35 million for 500,000 timers whose cost to supply, he knew, would be somewhere around $2.5 million. Even in the international-arms business, profits like that are not easy to come by. ...
The meeting with Brower had resolved the final stumbling block and Wilson flew to Libya, where he was to conclude the arrangements for establishing the weapons laboratory and to be on hand to insure the careful handling of the shipment of ''industrial solvent'' [RDX] from the United States. He also would receive the promised million-dollar payoff from Qaddafi. Kevin Mulcahy, meanwhile, flew to Europe for a meeting in London with Terpil and a group of British arms dealers. There was the inevitable party early one balmy Sunday afternoon, thrown by Sven Hoffelner, the trade link to South Africa. Hoffelner had rented a barge and as it was being poled along a canal near Oxford in the bright sun, Mulcahy began taking casual snapshots of the revelry. Terpil saw his camera, Mulcahy recalled, and ''went berserk. He got all red in the face; he was really, really nervous and told me to put the camera away before 'you end up dead.'"
Later that evening, Terpil explained that one of the guests on the barge was Carlos Ramirez, known to police throughout the world as ''the Jackal'' - the international terrorist believed to be responsible for planning the 1972 Olympics massacre in Munich, a deadly raid on the Fiumicino Airport in Rome and numerous aircraft hijackings. There was no photograph of Ramirez in existence, Terpil told Mulcahy; the ''Wanted'' posters on display at airports throughout the world contained only a composite drawing. Terpil also told Mulcahy that Ramirez was living in barracks No. 3 at the former Wheelus United States Air Force base in Libya. Terpil seemed awed by Ramirez, who was accompanied at the party by Sayad Qaddafi, chief of Libyan intelligence, identified by Terpil as Qaddafi's cousin and the second most powerful man in Libya. Mulcahy was now in far too deep and he knew it. It was late August and John Harper and other Wilson-Terpil employees were at work in Tripoli setting up the munitions laboratory for terrorist bombs and a training program for their effective use. Wilson and Terpil made it clear to Mulcahy that they did not want him to go Libya. Mulcahy kept his now grave doubts to himself and continued on his business trip, moving on to Copenhagen and another series of meetings. Terpil returned to Libya, and he and Wilson suddenly dispatched an urgent cable to Copenhagen: Mulcahy was to break off his trip and return to Washington to open negotiations there with the General Dynamics Corpora-tion for the purchase of one of its Redeye ground-to-air missiles. General Dynamics had advertised in trade journals that it had l8 Redeyes for sale to legally acceptable buyers. The missile, which could not be exported to Libya under the law, is shoulder-launched and has a heat-seeking component that enables it to track and destroy aircraft in flight. It had been used extensively and successfully by the Israelis during the 1973 war. ''My problem was not to worry about the paperwork,'' Mulcahy says. ''Terpil and Wilson had a pilot in Pennsylvania who would fly anywhere. Once he got over the water'' - and away from American legal jurisdiction - ''he would change the paper.'' If the Red Eye had been purchased, the pilot would simply change the intended recipient listed on the export license, from an approved ally, such as those in NATO, for example, to Libya. ...
''My friend told me that the only reason Libya would want one Redeye was for use in a terrorist attack,'' Mulcahy says. ''We speculated that Qaddafi probably wanted to be the first to shoot down a 747. To hit a fully loaded passenger plane in flight would be bigger than the destruction of planes at Dawson Air Field in Jordan,'' when P.L.O. terrorists in 1970 blew up three international airliners and held scores of passengers hostage."

Source(s): 2014, Johannes Grossmann, p. 552 (visited in 1992)

Degrees from the University of Southern California, the Harvard Business School and the New York University Law School. Chairman of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission between 1981 and 1987. Ambassador to the Netherlands 1987-1989. Died in 1994.

Source(s): February 21, 2012, Cercle chairman Lord Lothian's invitational letter to speak at Le Cercle to Saudi Arabia's deputy minister of foreign affairs Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz (released by Wikileaks around 2015; David Teacher made ISGP aware of the letter; this person is listed as a past speaker to Le Cercle).

Russian Jew who moved to Israel after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Spent nine years in Soviet prisons on charges of high treason related to spying for the U.S. Executive chairman of the Jewish Agency since June 2009

Source(s): Cercle lists: 1985 Washington D.C.

From the USSR. Undersecretary general of the United Nations secretariat in New York. He defected to the U.S. after experiencing New York.

March 21, 1998, The Independent, 'Obituary: Arkady Shevchenko': "In some ways Arkady Shevchenko was an unlikely candidate to turn his back on his country. Born in Ukraine in 1930, the son of a doctor, he had spent much of his childhood in the relative paradise of the Crimea (where his father met Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin at Yalta in 1945 while secretly evaluating the health of the dying US President). Shevchenko enjoyed the best the Soviet Union could offer: a prominent role in the Komsomol youth organisation, and then a place at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, academy of the diplomatic elite. He became a protege of Andrei Gromyko, the hugely influential and seemingly eternal Soviet foreign minister. Shevchenko accompanied Nikita Khrushchev on his famous visit to America in 1960, and from 1963 to 1970 served at the Soviet mission to the UN. After three years in Moscow as a senior aide to Gromyko, he returned as Under Secretary- General in 1973, aged just 43. By then he was one of the brightest stars of his diplomatic generation, surely destined for a senior ambassadorship, perhaps even deputy foreign minister. As a card-carrying member of the nomenklatura, he would - by Soviet standards - want for nothing. Shevchenko abandoned it all. One reason was material, stemming from a first stunning glimpse of New York on an earlier official mission in 1958: "I had seen photographs," he wrote, "but nothing had prepared me for the impact of the towering city on the horizon" (and, even more pertinently, of the plenty in its shops). From that moment, he was materially hooked on the West. Spiritually, the constraints and dishonesties of the Soviet system, magnified for one who lived abroad, became too much to bear. In retrospect, Shevchenko's defection was inevitable."

February 4, 1985, The Guardian, 'Soviet defector admits spying for CIA / Arkady Shevchenko': "A former high ranking Nations bureaucrat, Mr Arkady Shevchenko, who defected to the US in 1978, disclosed yesterday that he had been a spy for the CIA, for three years, to prove his good faith to the Americans. Mr Shevchenko first asked the US for asylum in December 1975 while he was UN under-secretary general. Like all Soviet bureaucrats in the UN Secretariat, Mr Shevchenko was responsible to the Soviet Foreign Office and was one of Mr Andrei Gromyko's senior aides, he worked closely with Soviet diplomats in the US, Soviet party officials and the KGB, and was trusted by the Kremlin. In an interview with Mike Wallace on American television early yesterday, Mr Shevchenko said that he was 'absolutely convinced' the Soviet Union was not seeking a war with the US and that they 'don't intend to use nuclear warfare weapons against the United States.' However 'there was a period when the Soviet Union was considering the use of nuclear weapons against China.' That was in 1969 but the then Soviet Defence Minister, Marshal Andrei Grichkov, was overruled by the majority of the Politburo. Initially US officials questioned Mr Shevchenko's motives in wishing to defect. The CIA suggested that if he was seriously opposed to the Soviet regime, he should postpone his defection and use his high position to get information for the US.' Mr Shevchenko knew that was a dangerous game. Since the second world war, the only two other high ranking Soviet officials who tried to defect and became spies were caught and executed in Moscow. Mr Shevchenko hoped he could get enough information to satisfy the CIA in a few months. 'I never had an idea of a long period of spying, but .. I was actually in their (the CIA's) hands. For 32 months he supplied 'the US with information on Soviet plans and objectives. He produced material on Soviet relations with Cuba, Soviet intentions in Central America and Africa - especially Angola, on Soviet leaders and on how policy is made in the Kremlin. He provided top secret position papers of the Soviet negotiators during the Salt II talks - among other things. Eventually the Kremlin began to realise that the US was anticipating its positions too often for it to be a coincidence. Moscow suspected that one of its three top men in the US might have turned: its ambassador to Washington, Mr Anatole Dobrynin; its ambassador to the UN, Mr Oleg Troyanovsky, or Mr Chevchenko. The Russians are believed to have baited traps, giving each of the three men different information. Evidently the ruse worked. In February, 1978, Moscow sent Mr Shevchenko a telegram summoning him home for 'immediate' consultations. Convinced that he had been discovered, Mr Shevchenko called his American contact using the emergency code the CIA had given him, 'Andy's in trouble, urgent.' In the middle of the night his contact picked him up in New York and brought him to a 'safe house.' He then notified the Kremlin that he would not go home again. His wife returned and committed suicide and his two children have remained in the Soviet Union. Mr Shevchenko now lives near Washington, is married to an American, and earns his living lecturing and writing. He has written a book about his experience, Breaking with Moscow, which is published this week."

Source(s): Cercle lists: 1982 Wildbad Kreuth list; 1984 Bonn meeting

December 19, 1993, Washington Post, 'Arnold M. Silver': "CIA Operations Officer Arnold M. Silver, 74, a former Washington resident who was a retired Central Intelligence Agency senior operations officer, died of multiple myeloma Dec. 16 at his home in Luxembourg City. His 30 years of service with the Agency included tours in Austria, Luxembourg, Germany and Turkey, in addition to Washington. After retiring from the CIA in 1978, he settled in Luxembourg and contributed articles on European and Soviet affairs to such publications as the Wall Street Journal and the International Herald Tribune newpaper. Mr. Silver, a Boston native and Tufts University graduate, received a master's degree in German philology from Harvard University. He entered the Army during World War II. He participated in the Normandy landings and later became a prisoner-of-war interrogator. In 1948, he retired from the Army as a technical sergeant and joined the CIA. Survivors include his wife, the former Annemarie Rassbach, of Luxembourg City."

October, 1981, Heritage Foundation Reports, 'The New Face of the Socialist International': "In the battle against communism, the Socialist International long stood in the front ranks. Committed to democracy and the West's tradition of individual liberties, for decades it waged an ideological and political battle against Leninism and other totalitarian variants of Marxism. In recent years, however, the Socialist International has begun to waver in its opposition to communism. Whether inadvertently or by design, the policies and proclamations of the organization seem to be converging, to an alarming extent, with those of Moscow on a number of critical matters. By so doing, the Socialist International betrays some of its most fundamental principles. Based in London, the Socialist International is a worldwide association of socialist and social democratic parties with a president, twenty-one vice presidents and a secretary general. The SI currently consists of forty-seven full member parties, fifteen consultative parties, three fraternal organizations and eight associated organizations. The twenty-two West European member parties provide not only the leading personalities and the bulk of the funds available to the organization, but also the historical-ideological bonds of the SI."

Source(s): Adrian Hanni (went once to a 1986 meeting)

Seems to be the Jewish neoconservative actor. Played in the 1983 movie Silkwood (1983), based on the story of Karen Silkwood, who was represented by Daniel Sheehan. Member Council on Foreign Relations. In 2000, he co-founded the organization One Jerusalem to oppose the Oslo Peace Agreement. Its purpose is to maintain "a united Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel". Silver, a Democrat for many years, left the party and became an Independent, and a supporter of President George W. Bush after the September 11 attacks, citing those attacks and Democratic policies regarding terrorism as reasons. He spoke at the United States 2004 Republican National Convention, continued to support President Bush, and was appointed Chairman for the Millennium Committee by New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Silver and some of his friends said that following his endorsement of President Bush he was ostracized by erstwhile friends and onetime colleagues. In Silver's blog on the Pajamas Media website, he also remarked that his colleagues on the set of The West Wing referred to him as "Ron, Ron, the Neo-Con." Narrator of the movie FahrenHYPE 9/11, a counter to Michael Moore's 2004 Fahrenheit 9/11 and released on the same date. FahrenHYPE features people as Frank Gaffney and Ann Coulter. On October 7, 2005, Silver was nominated by President Bush to be a Member of the Board of Directors of the United States Institute of Peace. On September 8, 2006, it was announced that Silver had joined an advisory committee to the Lewis Libby Legal Defense Trust. President George W. Bush appointed Silver to serve on the Honorary Delegation to accompany him to Jerusalem for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel in May 2008. In one of his last televised interviews he told Sky News that Senator John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as his Vice-Presidential candidate in the 2008 Presidential Election had been a "deal breaker" for him. In February 2008, Silver began hosting The Ron Silver Show on Sirius Satellite Radio, which focused on politics and public affairs.

August 6, 2009, Gawker, 'Mystery Solved: Ron Silver Was Not a CIA Agent': "When Ron Silver died in March, the New York Post's Cindy Adams eulogized him by revealing that he'd once been a CIA operative: "I remember him saying he'd been in the CIA at age 22." It's not true. Adams quoted Silver as once saying of his CIA service: "I thought it was patriotic. But then time came that life, love and girls distracted me." We took some interest in the tidbit, because Silver once told us the same thing: At a party, he claimed—off the record—to have worked with the CIA in the early 1970s in Laos, running drugs. Cool, we thought. Well it looks to have been a tall tale he used to impress reporters. We've obtained Silver's FBI file through a Freedom of Information Act request, and it is fairly definitive: While he briefly considered becoming a CIA analyst, he never worked for the Agency. In September 2007, Silver was named by George W. Bush to the board of directors of the U.S. Institute of Peace, a federally funded organization that advises the government on conflict resolution. Silver's position required a security clearance, so he subjected himself to an FBI background investigation. The results of the background check, which run to hundreds of pages, are the only records in Silver's FBI file. It contains everything from his credit report to interviews with his agent, neighbors, and former therapist—all in all, he seems to have been a stand-up guy. But it also says unequivocally that the FBI checked with the CIA, and the agency had no record of Silver having worked with it: Silver did travel around Southeast Asia in his early twenties, which in the Sixties and Seventies was practically a guaranteed tip-off that someone was a spook. But he told the FBI about his travels, and said it was all on the up-and-up. While he did very briefly consider a career as an "analyst in one of the intelligence agencies," he met once with one CIA representative and gave up on the idea: So somewhere along the line, it looks like Silver blew up a sit-down with a CIA recruiter into a few swashbuckling years in black ops. Of course, it is possible that Silver's service was so sensitive that he lied—under penalty if perjury—to the FBI about it. Or maybe it was scrubbed from the file before being submitted to the White House for review. Indeed, five pages of the file were redacted by the FBI because they were classified "in the interest of national defense or foreign policy"—which could mean dark secrets are hidden there. But we're betting on Ron Silver liking the sound of saying, "I used to work with the Agency.""

December 29, 1993, New York Times, 'At lunch with Ron Silver': "He had already decided that an earlier goal, a career as a China expert for the Central Intelligence Agency, was not for him. "Then I realized that to be really good at this requires a lot of energy, and concentration and skill," he says. "And I approached it like I approach everything else: 'O.K., who are the great teachers, what are the great things to read about? Let me do the research on this so I know what I'm talking about.' I didn't realize what I realize now: Acting is not about knowing all this stuff; it's about character. I know people, I compete with people, who are not as well educated as I am who are better actors than I will ever be. There's a certain intelligence that actors require that I don't fully possess." He acknowledges a paradox, since he is often called on to play brainy, hyperarticulate characters like himself. "What's difficult for me to do is to portray somebody terribly naive," he says. "But some actors I have met possess an intelligence that I can only dream of. It's about character, it's about behavior. They understand things about people that I simply don't see. I get lost in a miasma of intellectual . . . " and here he interjects a pungent barnyard expletive."

Source(s): Adrian Hanni (visited the Cercle once in 1987)

1916-2007. AB, University Michigan, 1937 Postgrad., Harvard University, 1940 MA, Columbia University, 1948 PhD, Columbia University, 1959 Cert., Russian Institute, 1948. Served from private to captain US Army Air Force, 1942-46; glider pilot, psychological warfare officer. Scholar in residence, Aspen Institute Humanistic Studies, summer 1973 Lecturer department government, Russian Research Center, Harvard University, 1956-60 Associate director, Russian Research Center, Harvard University, 1954-62 Special assistant to secretary, US Department State, 1950-53 Information officer, US Mission to UN, 1949-50 Vice president, Council for Democracy, 1940-42 Writer, National Safety Council, 1938-39 Newspaper reporter, Detroit News, 1937-38 Amb., special adv. on Soviet affairs to secretary, US Department State, 1977-80 Professor emeritus international relations, Columbia University, 1986—2007 Adlai E. Stevenson professor international relations, Columbia University, 1973-77, 80-86 Director Harriman Institute Advanced Study of Soviet Union, Columbia University, 1982-86 Director Russian Institute, Columbia University, 1967-74, 76-77, 81-82 Professor government, Columbia University, 1967-74 Professor international politics, Fletcher School Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, 1961-67 Research asso., Russian Research Center, Harvard University, 1962-67. Member International Institute Strategic Studies, London. Decorated Bronze Star.; Rockefeller Pub. Service award, 1953-54; Carnegie visiting research scholar, 1963-64; Whitney Shepardson fellow Council Foreign Relations, 1974-75. Fellow Am. Academy Arts and Scis.; member International Political Sci. Association, Council Foreign Relations (New York), Am. Political Sci. Association Clubs: Harvard (New York City), Century (New York City).

Source(s): February 21, 2012, Cercle chairman Lord Lothian's invitational letter to speak at Le Cercle to Saudi Arabia's deputy minister of foreign affairs Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz (released by Wikileaks around 2015; David Teacher made ISGP aware of the letter; this person is listed as a past speaker to Le Cercle).

Oxford-educated. Chief Economic Advisor (1972–76), Reserve Bank governor (1982–85) and Planning Commission head (1985–87) in the Indian government. Prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014.

Source(s): 2014, Johannes Grossmann, p. 552 (visited in the early 1990s)

Editor (and later co-owner) of Africa Confidential, a specialist newsletter. Editorial leader writer at the Times (1981-83), Moscow correspondent of the Daily Telegraph (1986-89), Washington correspondent of the Sunday Telegraph (1989-92). Joined The Economist in 1983 as Middle East Editor and became Political Editor and "Bagehot" columnist in 1992. In 1995 he became Europe Editor, starting the "Charlemagne" column, and in October 2003 he became the Middle East and Africa Editor.

Source(s): Corporationwiki.com (2010): "The Atlantic Cercle, Inc. - Incorporated by Julian Amery, Richard McCormack, Robert Zoelly, Theodore G Shackley, Thomas R Spencer, The Atlantic Cercle, Inc. is located at 801 Brickell Ave Ste 1901 Miami, FL 33131. The Atlantic Cercle, Inc. was incorporated on Wednesday, August 17, 1994 in the State of FL and is currently not active. Thomas R Spencer represents The Atlantic Cercle, Inc. as their registered agent."; 2014, Johannes Grossmann (visitor 1990s)

Son of Thomas Roy and Gladys (Nicolau) Spencer. Republican. AB, University Miami, 1966. JD, University Miami, 1969. Partner Myers, Kenin, Miami, 1969-82. Funding partner Spencer & Klein, 1982—. Chairman Dade Commission, Dade Clean, Miami, 1975. Member American Bar Association, Association Trial Lawyers Am., Association of Former Intelligence Officers (director in Washington), Federalist Society, University Miami Law Alumni Association (president 1979), University Miami Alumni Association (chairman, president 1980), Film Society Miami (chairman emeritus 1982). Attorney for General John Singlaub (OSS; founding member CIA; commander during the Vietnam war of the Military Assistance Group-Special Operations Group (MAG-SOG), a political murder unit; co-founder Western Goals Foundation in 1979 with John Rees (board member of the notorious Cercle-linked Maldon Institute, from which some Illuminati disinformation has eminated) and Larry McDonald; founder U.S. chapter WACL in 1981; board member American Freedom Coalition, which was extremely close to the Moonie Cult) in 1988 when General Singlaub, General John Poindexter, General Richard Secord, Ted Shackley, Albert Hakim, and Lt. Col. Oliver North were accused by the Christic Institute of cooperating with Columbian drug cartels during the Iran Contra affair. June 16, 1988, Sun Sentinel, 'Mercenary Prefers Jail To Testimony In Suit': "A U.S. magistrate in Miami recommended on Wednesday that a former mercenary go to jail for refusing to answer questions in a lawsuit charging that former CIA officials and Contra leaders ran a guns-for-drugs smuggling ring. Federal magistrate William Turnoff gave Sam Hall a chance to answer lawyers` questions in the $22 million lawsuit, but Hall said he would rather go to jail for contempt of court. The trial is scheduled to begin on June 27. ... The two journalists who filed the suit accuse former U.S. officials and Contras of running a secret team that carried out assassinations, drug running and arms trafficking to support U.S. foreign policy for nearly 30 years. Hall`s testimony is being sought because he worked in Nicaragua for retired U.S. Army Major Gen. John Singlaub, who paid Hall to be a military adviser for the Miskito Indians in the fight against the Sandinistas. Hall, 51, was expelled from the country after being accused of spying on the Sandinistas. Lawyers for the journalists, Tony Avirgan and Martha Honey, want Hall to answer questions about what he did for the Contras and who guided him. Hall said answering some of those questions would embarrass some defendants, especially Singlaub. Hall, now in the construction business in the St. Petersburg area, has maintained that the defendants` activities were legal. Hall has been encouraged to testify by his attorney and by Singlaub`s attorney, Thomas Spencer. Hall said he will not testify to protect his boss, whom he called a hero. Avirgan was injured in a 1984 news conference bombing in Nicaragua that he blames on the alleged conspirators. He and Honey are married. Defendants in the suit include Singlaub, Theodore Shackley, former deputy director of covert operations for the CIA; Contra director Adolfo Calero; cocaine cartel leaders Pablo Escobar and Jorge Ochoa; Iran-Contra figures Richard Secord, Robert Owen and Albert Hakim. The suit was filed in May 1986, six months before the Iran-Contra affair became public and many of the names it brought to light have been indicted or appeared before congressional committees investigating that case." April 10, 1994, Miami Herald, 'Blame the lawyer, then blame ourselves': "Attorney Thomas R. Spencer Jr., senior partner with the firm of Spencer & Klein, has practiced business law in Miami for 25 years. Spencer, who is currently defending Gen. Richard V. Secord in connection with the Iran-contra affair, wrote this article for The Herald." In March 2001, James Angleton Jr. along with Robert A. Heber and Thomas R. Spencer, Jr. incorporated the "Miami-Dade Chapter of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers" at the Florida Department of State, Division of Corporations. This was after Angleton Jr.'s contact with Timothy S. Cooper (originator of the MJ 12 documents), Hal Puthoff (NSA; Scientology; Aa SRI with Russell Targ, where they set up the remote viewing project, Project Stargate, which was funded by the CIA and DIA; American physicist interested in the paranormal, studying Uri Geller, Ingo Swann, Pat Price, and Joseph McMoneagle; CEO of EarthTech International, which focuses on zero-point energy) and Robert M. Collins (author of 'Exempt from Disclosure - The distubring case about the UFO coverup', with contributions of Richard Doty and Timothy S. Cooper). The Chapter status was active until dissolved September 16, 2005. It was replaced by a more informal organization; the Ted Shackley Miami Chapter of AFIO, which is currently still active. December 13, 2002, Baltimore Sun, 'Theodore G. Shackley, 75, CIA operative `Blond Ghost'': "His nickname came from within the agency. "He was blond and he was a ghost," said Thomas R. Spencer, his friend, lawyer and former colleague. "He never wanted his picture taken, nor could he have it taken for years.""

Thomas Spencer's bio at www.spencer-lawfirm.net: "Member, Presidential Student Advisory Committee, (Lyndon B. Johnson), 1966. Administrative Assistant, Congressman Charles E. Bennett, Florida 1966-1967. Intern, House Armed Services Committee. Arbitrator: American Arbitration Association, 1975-1990; Supreme Court of Florida qualified, 2005. Chairman, Keep Dade Beautiful, Inc. President, Society of Wig and Robe. Founder and Chairman, Film Society of Miami, Inc., Miami Film Festival. President, University of Miami Alumni Association: City of Miami Task Force (Chairman). Chairman, Players State Theater; Founding Chairman, Coconut Grove Playhouse. Member: Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce; British American Chamber of Commerce; American Security Council Foundation; Citizens Board, University of Miami; World Jurist Association; The Atlantic Circle; Martindale-Hubbell Preeminent Lawyers of America; Republican Lawyers Association; Council for National Policy; National Lawyers Association; Supreme Court of the United States Historical Society; Heritage Foundation; President's Club, Republican National Committee; Dade County Republican Party, Executive Committee. Life Member, Association of Former Intelligence Officers. Director: Association of Former Intelligence Officers; Finance Committee Bush-Cheney. Chair, National Business Intelligence Symposium, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001. Co-Chair, Alliance for Ethical Government. Counsel, Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. President, Miami Dade Chapter of Association of Former Intelligence Officers. Chairman: National Symposium on Business Intelligence and Law; American Bar Association, National Security Committee. U.S. State Department Commendation, Council of International Visitors, 2002; United States Coast Guard Auxiliary, Flotilla 3-2. Former Member, University of Miami Board of Trustees. Former Chairman, State Theater of Florida, Miami. Married to Heather McCarn Spencer, two children, two granddaughters. Mr. Spencer was a partner in Myers, Kenin (Miami, Florida) from 1969-1982, a business law firm. He was managing partner. In 1982, Spencer & Klein, P.A. was formed and Spencer was Senior managing partner from April 1982-April 2005. Mr. Spencer has achieved the highest rating for legal ability in Martindale-Hubbell and practices commercial law. He is listed in the Bar Register of Preeminent lawyers. In 2003, Mr. Spencer was listed as one of the top lawyers in South Florida by the South Florida Legal Guide. Mr. Spencer is now in private practice in Coral Gables, Florida. ... Mr. Spencer received the David Atlee Phillips Award 2001 from the Association of Former Intelligence Officers. The Award is made to an individual who advances the interests of the American Intelligence Community. He is the founding President of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers, Theodore Shackley Chapter (South Florida). ... Mr. Spencer was special counsel, Bush-Cheney '04. ... Mr. Spencer was appointed by Governor Jeb Bush to the Judicial Nominating Commission in August 2001. He is now the Chair of the Commission (Third District Court of Appeal of Florida). Mr. Spencer is a former member Executive Committee member of the Republican Party, member, Finance Committee, Bush/Cheney. ... Finance Committee, Bush/Brogan 2002. ... Mr. Spencer served as co-counsel for Bush/Cheney in the Florida Recount 2000. ... Finance Committee, Bush/Brogan 2002. ... headed the Miami-Dade Legal Team for Bush/Brogan 2002 and was Deputy Chief for the State of Florida. " Spencer received the David Atlee Phillips Award 2001 from the AFIO, a year after Shackley received it.

In the past Spencer represented the then CIA-financed Nicaraguan President in Exile Adolfo Calero and Calero's younger brother, the CIA doper Mario Calero.

Source(s): September 25, 2003, Damien McCrystal, City Editor for The Sun, 'Spooky tale from Salzburg; City Insider': "ACROSS my desk come details of a hush-hush gathering in Salzburg of a spooky collection calling itself Le Cercle. Members come from around the world and seem to be dominated by Right-wingers with an interest in the security services. Britain is represented by, among others, spy writer and former Tory MP Rupert Allason, Tory Deputy Leader Michael Ancram, Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Alan Duncan, former GEC and Warburg director Sir Ronald Grierson, Lord Lamont, Lt Col Tim Spicer of Aegis Defence Services and Sir Stephen Lander, former head of MI5. Is this a new Bilderberg group in the making?"

Born in 1952. Supposedly failed his SAS entry course. Saw active service in Northern Ireland, the Falklands campaign, the Gulf war and Bosnia, as well as serving in the Far East, Cyprus and Germany. Key appointments included Chief of Staff of an Armoured Brigade, Instructor at the Army Staff College, Staff Officer at the Directorate of Special Forces, Military Assistant to General Sir Peter de la Billiere, Military Assistant to General Sir Michael Rose in Bosnia and Commanding Officer of 1st Battalion Scots Guards. In 1992 Tim was awarded the OBE for operational service in Northern Ireland. Founder and head of Sandline International, a private military company, which he ran from 1994 to 1999. Sandline became involved in conflicts in Papua New Guinea in 1997 (having a contract with the government under the then Prime Minister Julius Chan) causing the Sandline affair, in 1998 in Sierra Leone (having a contract with ousted President Kabbah) and in Liberia in 2003 (in a rebel attempt to evict the then-president Charles Taylor near the end of the civil war). Spicer left Sandline in 1999 and started two new companies, Strategic Consulting International and Trident Maritime. Trident became a 50/50 partner with Hudson Marine Management Services to form Hudson Trident. The new endeavor was successful and provided the time and money for the creation of Aegis in September 2002. Founding CEO in 2002 of Aegis Defence Services. Non exec. chair of Aegis is Pilgrims Society president Lord Peter Inge (Chief of the Defence Staff. Aide De Camp General to the Queen. BAE. Vickers. Hakluyt. Aegis Defence Services). Because of a few major controversies while running Sandline, Col. Spicer enlisted the help of publicist Sara Pearson of The Spa Way to polish his image. She ghost wrote An Unorthodox Soldier, which portrays him as a kind of hero aiding those in troubled regions when no one else would. In 2005 Aegis' acquired the private military firm Rubicon International. Its head, John Davidson, joined the board of Aegis. AEGIS is a London based privately owned British risk management company with overseas offices in Afghanistan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the USA.

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March 25, 2005, Financial Times, 'U.K.: Lunch and Conversation with Alastair Morrison': "Morrison may have managed to remain largely out of the public eye - unlike his friend Tim Spicer, the retired British colonel who was embroiled in mercenary scandals in the 1990s - but he has been a continuous presence in the industry and a force behind many of the companies now operating in Iraq: Erinys, Hart Group, ArmorGroup and Kroll."

Friend of SAS Major Alastair Morrison [accomplished SAS veteran; helped set up Delta Force in the US; set up Defence Systems Limited in 1981, which "defended gold and diamond mines in Africa from thieves,.. oil pipelines in Latin America from guerrillas [and] guarded US and British embassies in the Middle East and elsewhere" (in 1997, former SAS personnel working for DSL were alleged to have trained a Colombian military unit linked to past atrocities and to have provided them with names of local citizens opposed to British Petroleum's project); sold DSL to Armor Holdings in 1997; helped set up Hart Group and Erinys; until March 2004 director of Erinys, which had an $80 million contract to guard Iraqi oilfields and installations; became head of Kroll Security Group in 2004; friend of Tim Spicer, the CEO of the controversial firm Sandline International and later founder of Aegis Defence Services; friend of SAS officer Stephan Kock, who worked for MI6 and allegedly was head of Group 13; associate of Cercle chair Jonathan Aitken; OBE]

December 7, 2003, Johannesburg Sunday Times, 'South African Company to Protect Iraqi Oil': "A JOHANNESBURG-based security company has been awarded a multimillion-dollar contract by Iraq's government of occupation to protect the war-ravaged country's oil industry. ... According to an oil industry journal, Erinys was awarded a year-long, 39.5-million contract "to train 6 500 Iraqis to guard oil pipelines, wellheads and refineries, as well as water and electrical facilities". Erinys had "beat out larger and more established competitors" to clinch the contract, the online, US-based Oil Industry Journal states. ... Information lodged with the DTI in Pretoria shows that the company... is steered by South Africans. Garratt is identified as a resident of the Dainfern housing estate near Midrand and has a South African ID number indicating his age as 41. Other directors of Erinys include Christian Gouws of Menlo Park, Pretoria, and Sean Michael Cleary of Constantia, Cape Town. A fourth director, Alastair Morrison, is listed as living in France. Garratt's assistant said Gouws and Cleary had resigned from the company, but their departures were not reflected in the latest data from the DTI."

June 6, 2004, The Observer, 'Mercenaries in 'coup plot' guarded UK officials in Iraq': "The presence of large numbers of South African mercenaries in Iraq has raised concerns, especially after some private guards were found to have dubious human rights records. Gray Branfield, who was killed while working for British security firm Hart Group in southern Iraq, had carried out many assassinations for the former apartheid regime. Deon Gouws, who was seriously injured while working in Iraq for British-led security firm Erinys, also carried out many killings in South Africa's secret wars. Francis Strydom, who was killed in the incident that injured Gouws, was a member of Koevoet, a paramilitary unit of South Africa's police with a record of killings and torture."

February 20, 2004, Jewish Daily Forward, 'Apartheid Enforcers Guard Iraq For the U.S.': "In its effort to relieve overstretched U.S. troops in Iraq, the Bush administration has hired a private security company staffed with former henchmen of South Africa’s apartheid regime. The reliance on apartheid enforcers was highlighted by an attack in Iraq last month that killed one South African security officer and wounded another who worked for the subsidiary of a firm called Erinys International. Both men once served in South African paramilitary units dedicated to the violent repression of apartheid opponents. François Strydom, who was killed in the January 28 bombing of a hotel in Baghdad, was a former member of the Koevoet, a notoriously brutal counterinsurgency arm of the South African military that operated in Namibia during the neighboring state’s fight for independence in the 1980s. His colleague Deon Gouws, who was injured in the attack, is a former officer of the Vlakplaas, a secret police unit in South Africa. “It is just a horrible thought that such people are working for the Americans in Iraq,” said Richard Goldstone, a recently retired justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa and former chief prosecutor of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. ... Erinys Iraq, the subsidiary of the largely unknown security company called Erinys International, was awarded a two-year contract worth $80 million last August to protect 140 Iraqi oil installations and train some 6,500 Iraqi guards. It then subcontracted some of its security duties to a U.S. private security firm called SAS International. The contract raised eyebrows in the industry because Erinys beat out better-known competitors. While the coalition authority has not released information on the tender, some of its officials were quoted as saying the bidding was fair. Neither the authority nor Erinys responded to e–mail queries regarding the tender and ultimate contract. ... Iyad Allawi told the Financial Times last December that Ahmed Chalabi, the leader of the Pentagon-backed Iraqi National Congress, had engineered the Erinys contract in order to set up a private militia that would end up undermining central authority over the vital oil sector. Private security companies, including Erinys International, have served as a magnet for poorly paid and highly skilled South African security officers, according to a recent United Nations report and articles in the South African press. Headquartered in London with offices in Johannesburg and Dubai, Erinys International reportedly was established in the summer of 2002 by former British and South African security officials. Its Erinys Iraq subsidiary reportedly was set up last May in the wake of the U.S.-led invasion, when the oil infrastructure had become a prime target for looters. Gouws, a former Pretoria police officer who then worked for the notorious Vlakplaas unit, was declared medically unfit and discharged from the police in December 1996 after a decade of service. That year, Gouws submitted an amnesty application to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a body set up after the apartheid to investigate past atrocities. According to records of the commission, Gouws and a colleague were granted amnesty in May 1999 for admitting their involvement in the 1986 murder of regional minister and opposition leader Piet Ntuli. Strydom belonged to the Kovoet unit, which had brutally suppressed the Namibian opposition. As Namibia edged toward its independence in the late 1980s, Koevoet was folded into the Vlakpaas unit. According to Goldstone — who chaired South Africa’s Standing Commission of Inquiry Regarding Public Violence and Intimidation in the early 1990s — elements of those government-sponsored hit squads continued to foment trouble even after Nelson Mandela was freed from prison and South Africa embarked on the road towards full-fledged democracy. In addition, several mercenary companies dispatched former South African soldiers to war-torn countries, including Angola and Sierra Leone. This prompted the new South African government to launch a campaign to outlaw mercenary companies. "

November 26, 2008, Bloomberg, 'London Police Say Traces of Polonium Found at Two More Premises': "Polonium 210, the radioactive isotope suspected in the death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, has been found at two more London addresses. One of the sites where traces of the material were detected is 25 Grosvenor Street, in the Mayfair district, a Metropolitan Police spokeswoman who declined to be identified said today in a telephone interview. The address is the London office of Erinys, a security company that operates in Russia, Iraq and Nigeria, according to the company's Web site. The second address is 7 Down St. in Mayfair, the spokeswoman said. Several U.K. newspapers reported that the building is an office of exiled Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky. Calls seeking comment from Berezovsky and from Erinys weren't answered. Litvinenko, who had become a British citizen, died in a London hospital with a ``significant quantity'' of polonium 210 in his body on Nov. 23, more than three weeks after becoming ill, according to authorities."

October 30, 2007, The Guardian, 'US soldier's family brings legal action against British private security firm': "Erinys was the subject of a great deal of attention in the summer of 2003 when the firm was awarded an $80m (£39m), 18-month contract to provide security for Iraq's oil refineries and pipelines. The firm created a new entity called Erinys Iraq. Erinys has also been caught up in controversy closer to home. Shortly before his murder, the former Russian security services agent, Alexander Litvinenko, visited the London offices of Erinys where traces of polonium 210 were found. The first recruits of the 14,000-strong oil protection force raised by Erinys Iraq were members of the Iraqi Free Forces, the US-trained militia that was headed by Ahmed Chalabi, an Iraqi exile who was America's protege in the run-up to the invasion. Members of Mr Chalabi's inner circle were among the founding partners of Erinys Iraq. Erinys now has about 1,000 employees in Iraq, the spokesman said. Most are UK nationals."

----

March 12, 2004, Daily Mail, 'A very superior DOG OF WAR': "It was in 1994 that, together with entrepreneur Tony Buckingham and fellow former Scots Guards officer Lt-Col Tim Spicer, he set up Sandline International... Mann also founded the [British arm of the] now-defunct mercenary group Executive Outcomes [with Buckingham]... One source, acquainted with the secretive activities of [Mann's] companies, explains that he is 'a very private person, bordering on the reclusive'. ... once again [Mann will be] the subject of discussion among the dukes and earls of White's club."

Co-founded Sandline with Simon Mann [5th generation of his family to go to Eton College; reclusive; SAS commander and intelligence expert in countries as Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Nigeria until 1985; in IT business 1985-90; worked at KAS Enterprises of David Stirling late 1980s until 1991; associate of oil man and rumored SBS or SAS veteran Anthony Buckingham since 1990; co-founder British branch of Executive Outcomes with Buckingham; caught in the failed 2004 Equatorial Guinea coup]

Co-founded Sandline with Tony Buckingham [reclusive; seems to go by a false name; reported SAS or SBS veteran; wealthy oil and natural resources man; partner in Executive Outcomes and may have played a role in its founding in 1993 with Eben Barlow (Mann himself claimed to be involved with the company, but Barlow, after Mann became controversial, denied his role); co-founder of Sandline International with Tim Spicer in 1994 (Sandline explained Buckingham was the"inspiration", but has never been a director of the company); he and Tim Spicer both claimed to be "close friends"]

October 8, 1998, Diamonds.net, 'Buckingham Resigns DiamondWorks': "DiamondWorks Ltd., announced that Tony Buckingham, founding director and board member, has resigned. Buckingham will continue to assist in the corporate development of DiamondWorks and has aided in arranging a US$2 million loan for the Yetwene and Luo mines. ... Buckingham left the company to spend more time on his other interests, notably emerging Heritage Oil & Gas."

October 7, 1998, www.diamondworks.com, 'DiamondWorks announces board change, financing': "Mr. Buckingham was a founding director of DiamondWorks, joining the board in October 1996 when DiamondWorks acquired 100% of Branch Energy Ltd., a company with diamond concessions in Angola and Sierra Leone. As a principal of Branch Energy Ltd. at the time of the acquisition, Mr. Buckingham agreed to sit on the DiamondWorks board until the company had established its diamond mining operations. ''Mr. Buckingham has played a key role in the company's growth into a consistent diamond producer,'' Mr. Walsham said. ''He has provided us with extensive knowledge and insight into operating in Africa and I am pleased that he has reaffirmed his continued commitment to the long-term development of DiamondWorks. We thank Tony for his hard work and support over the past two years and wish him all the best in his other endeavors.'' Mr. Buckingham retains voting control over approximately 25% of DiamondWorks shares, and will continue to assist DiamondWorks' management in pursuing new diamond opportunities in Africa. "

May 13, 1998, The Independent, ' Who is Tony Buckingham? ': "Lt-Col Spicer, who ran the latest Sierra Leone operation, publicly denies that Sandline and Executive Outcomes are formally linked, but he and Mr Buckingham have said they are close friends who have passed work to each other. In a rare interview, Mr Buckingham once said: "It is a fact that I did introduce Executive Outcomes into African countries that needed help."

April 4, 2012, Financial Times, 'City is right to crack whip on market abuse': "Cracking the whip has another virtue. Along with investors such as Nat Rothschild, chief executives such as Tony Buckingham of Heritage Oil, and non-executives such as Robin Renwick, a vice-chairman of JPMorgan Cazenove (all of whom are close to him), Mr Hannam has attracted companies from Kazakhstan, Iraqi Kurdistan and other murky spots to the City. Mr Hannam knows many go-getting adventurers from military backgrounds, who specialise in putting boots on the ground in conflict-torn regions with mineral wealth. He was a captain in the Territorial Army (part-time) Special Air Services. Mr Buckingham was in the special forces before joining Executive Outcomes, the former South African private military group."

April 4, 2012, Financial Times, 'City is right to crack whip on market abuse': " Tony Buckingham yesterday confirmed a merger that values his HERITAGE OIL company at nearly £3.5billion. That is double the value of BRITISH AIRWAYS and means Heritage will almost certainly join the FTSE 100 later this summer. The deal with Turkey’s GENEL ENERJI makes it one of the biggest players in oil-rich Kurdistan in northern Iraq and Uganda. And it caps a stunning journey for Mr Buckingham, 57, who started out in the oil industry as a North Sea diver in the 1970s. His 16 per cent stake in Heritage is now worth an estimated £560million. ... Mr Buckingham launched Heritage in 1993. He became a partner in a mercenary provider — EXECUTIVE OUTCOMES — months later after rebels attacked one of his Angolan oil fields. At Executive one of his partners was Simon Mann, who is in jail for a failed coup in Equatorial Guinea five years ago. He formed another mercenary business, SANDLINE INTERNATIONAL, in 1996 and served in Papua New Guinea and Sierra Leone before moving back to oil in 1998. He has had no involvement with military work since. Heritage’s biggest asset is the Miran field in Kurdistan — which could hold up to 4.2billion barrels of oil."

www.sandline.com, Comment by Sandline International, 14 March 2000, Book entitled 'Mercenaries - an African Security Dilemma': "Fact: ... a quick search at Companies House would have proven that ... EO was incorporated in the UK by Eben Barlow [alone]. ... Fact: Branch Energy is not and never has been a subsidiary of EO. ... Fact: Branch Energy is wholly owned by DiamondWorks Limited... Fact: EO has never owned shares in any Branch company. ... Fact: Mr Buckingham has never been a director of Sandline. ... Fact: Sandline was registered in 1996. The three [Barlow, Mann, Buckingham] did not register the company. ... Fact: Sandline was not incorporated by these individuals. Tony Buckingham was the inspiration behind Sandline, Tim Spicer is its Chief Executive, Michael Grunberg has acted as a consultant and Nic van den Bergh was the leader of the team sub-contracted from EO to undertake some of the work in Papua New Guinea. Neither Eben Barlow nor Simon Mann have ever had any involvement with Sandline. ... "

November 27, 2009, Money Week, 'Tony Buckingham: murky past of a mercenary turned oil baron': "Buckingham claims to have severed his racier connections, says The Sunday Times. Yet Logo Logistics – the company used by Mann to recruit mercenaries and supply military equipment and ammunition – is based at the same business address as two other firms connected with Buckingham companies. It seems an 'unfortunate' coincidence."

SIMON MANN:

June 22, 2008, Eeben [Barlow] forum message (http://www.flyafrica.info): "Having just returned from a short trip, I too noticed the claims that Simon Mann was the "founder" of Executive Outcomes. This is once again, in my opinion, an example of how the media can lie and then end up believing their own lies. EO was founded in 1989 by myself and someone who would shortly thereafter leave the company for numerous reasons. Bomroller, the company you refer to only met with me in 1993 - by then EO was long-established as a company and was doing business in South Africa, Botswana, South America and elsewhere. The story about Mann's involvement in EO was part of an MI disinformation document leaked to the media in order to "prove" that EO was an MI6 front. I believe that MI knew that many of these journalists they were using as agents of influence were too lazy to go to the Registrar of Companies and check out the "facts" as given by MI. To add more fuel to the fire, it was the SA Reserve Bank that instructed me to establish a separate company in the UK in order to assist EO with some of the payment problems the company was facing from foreign clients. As you may recall, an SA company had great difficulty in having foreign currency accounts in SA. The UK EO company could thus establish a US Dollar account in SA along with a Pound Sterling account. EO (UK) was incorporated in 1993 - again sans Mann and Buckingham. Again, all the journalists had to do was check the Companies Office in the UK to see who owned EO. Again, they were too lazy and preferred to accept MI's disinformation document. This appears to have suited Simon Mann very well as he often would imply with a "nudge-nudge, wink-wink" attitude that he was a "senior" member of EO and even the founder of the company. The problem is that Mann appears to have ended up believing his own BS. Even more despicable, he used this BS to recruit good men and lead them on a hair-brained, ill-planned mission - a mission that would allow him to become a legend in his own lunchtime. In the process, many good men's lives have been ruined - simply because they believed Mann and the false promises he made them. When he started recruiting the men for the scheme he had embarked on, many of the men thought they were being recruited by EO for a legitimate contract, as this was the impression that he created. In the process, I almost got dragged into the mess. The "Intelligence" community in SA went on to claim that I was also in some way responsible for Verwoerd's assassination - the fact that I was still in primary school was deemed irrelevant - and that EO was being paid in mineral concessions. Also, according to their own "secret" documents, I was also working for the CIA, the KGB and several other organizations. The problem these people face is that they now have to either admit their lies - which will probably show their employers the level of their deception and thus end their careers - or continue to build on the lies they wrote in the first place. They obviously choose the latter. So, in many ways, Simon Mann has become a victim of his own BS and the media has happily helped him along on his path of self-doom. As Agent Koos so eloquently wrote: "Simon Mann had as much to do with founding EO as Agent Koos had with the raid on Entebbe!""

"Having just returned from a short trip, I too noticed the claims that Simon Mann was the ?founder? of Executive Outcomes. This is once again, in my opinion, an example of how the media can lie and then end up believing their own lies. EO was founded in 1989 by myself and someone who would shortly thereafter leave the company for numerous reasons. Bomroller, the company you refer to only met with me in 1993 ? by then EO was long-established as a company and was doing business in South Africa, Botswana, South America and elsewhere. The story about Mann?s involvement in EO was part of an MI disinformation document leaked to the media in order to ?prove? that EO was an MI6 front. I believe that MI knew that many of these journalists they were using as agents of influence were too lazy to go to the Registrar of Companies and check out the ?facts? as given by MI. To add more fuel to the fire, it was the SA Reserve Bank that instructed me to establish a separate company in the UK in order to assist EO with some of the payment problems the company was facing from foreign clients. As you may recall, an SA company had great difficulty in having foreign currency accounts in SA. The UK EO company could thus establish a US Dollar account in SA along with a Pound Sterling account. EO (UK) was incorporated in 1993 ? again sans Mann and Buckingham. Again, all the journalists had to do was check the Companies Office in the UK to see who owned EO. Again, they were too lazy and preferred to accept MI?s disinformation document. This appears to have suited Simon Mann very well as he often would imply with a ?nudge-nudge, wink-wink? attitude that he was a ?senior? member of EO and even the founder of the company. The problem is that Mann appears to have ended up believing his own BS. Even more despicable, he used this BS to recruit good men and lead them on a hair-brained, ill-planned mission ? a mission that would allow him to become a legend in his own lunchtime. In the process, many good men?s lives have been ruined ? simply because they believed Mann and the false promises he made them. When he started recruiting the men for the scheme he had embarked on, many of the men thought they were being recruited by EO for a legitimate contract, as this was the impression that he created. In the process, I almost got dragged into the mess. The ?Intelligence? community in SA went on to claim that I was also in some way responsible for Verwoerd?s assassination ? the fact that I was still in primary school was deemed irrelevant - and that EO was being paid in mineral concessions. Also, according to their own ?secret? documents, I was also working for the CIA, the KGB and several other organizations. The problem these people face is that they now have to either admit their lies ? which will probably show their employers the level of their deception and thus end their careers ? or continue to build on the lies they wrote in the first place. They obviously choose the latter. So, in many ways, Simon Mann has become a victim of his own BS and the media has happily helped him along on his path of self-doom. As Agent Koos so eloquently wrote: ?Simon Mann had as much to do with founding EO as Agent Koos had with the raid on Entebbe!?"

1995, Mark Hollingsworth and Paul Halloran, 'South Africa ' Thatcher's Fortunes: The Life and Times of Mark Thatcher': "In 1972, [Mann] passed the gruelling selection procedure and became a troop leader in G Squadron 22 SAS. After serving in Cyprus, Germany, Central America and Northern Ireland, Mann left the army in 1979 and joined KAS, a private military company run by Colonel David Stirling, founder of the SAS. But it was not a success. KAS Enterprises was linked to scandals involving the misuse of World Wildlife Fund money and industrial espionage during major takeover bids. After the demise of KAS in 1991, Mann rejoined the army. ... After the demise of KAS in 1991, Mann rejoined the army. During the Gulf War, he served as an intelligence officer for General de la Billière, commander of the British forces during the Gulf War, based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. But hostilities lasted barely a year. Now aged 40, Mann was interested in making money and in 1993 joined Executive Outcomes (EO), a private military company which was hired by African governments to combat insurgency and sabotage. It was founded by Tony Buckingham ... and Eben Barlow ... In response, Mann [officially at least, wrong. Spicer and Buckingham] set up Sandline International, which was marketed as a more 'politically respectable' version of EO. In 1996, he recruited Colonel Tim Spicer, an old friend since they served together in the Scots Guards, and Sandline was hired by the regimes in Papua New Guinea ($36 million) and Sierra Leone ($6 million) to crush rebel forces."

March 14, 2005, Sunday Times, 'South Africa 'was told of Thatcher coup plot': "Mann, a former SAS officer and friend of Sir Mark, was arrested in Zimbabwe last March with an aircraft containing 66 mercenaries en route to Equatorial Guinea. ... In the statement, Mr van der Westhuizen said: “I encouraged du Toit to walk away from both Simon Mann as well as the coup idea. He told me he was worried because Simon had told him that the investors had spent too much money on the project and that the investors would definitely kill them if they have to withdraw from the project.” ... Du Toit’s wife, Belinda, whose brother is in jail in Zimbabwe because of the plot, claims in the documentary that her husband only ignored his doubts about his involvement in the coup because he was threatened by Mann. “If he doesn’t do what Simon and the others want, his life would be worth nothing, so would his family,” she told the film-maker James Brabazon, a friend of du Toit."

November 5, 2009, The Australian, 'Soldier of misfortune': "Soon he and his third wife, Amanda, moved to Cape Town, where he fell in with the likes of Thatcher and hatched a plot of stunning audacity and startling ineptitude. The idea was to seize control of Equatorial Guinea, Africa's third biggest oil producer, and replace Obiang with Severo Moto, an exiled opposition leader living in Madrid. ... His script might have been written by the regime. He described Thatcher as part of the plot's "management" team, not the "unwitting" financier that Thatcher has insisted. Mann claimed that reclusive London tycoon Ely Calil was the "boss". He said that the Spanish and South African governments sanctioned the coup attempt, and that the Pentagon, CIA and US oil companies that invest so heavily in Equatorial Guinea had given their tacit consent."

November 8, 2009, The Independent, 'Foreign Office warns Mann to 'keep quiet'': "Jack Straw, Britain's foreign secretary at the time of the attempted coup, initially denied that the Government knew about it in advance, but was later forced to admit that he did know. Whether any attempt was made to stop it, or encourage it, is not known. Mann has claimed that the UK, US, and Spanish governments all had prior knowledge."

September 19, 2004, Sunday Times, 'MI6 chief’s nephew was partner of coup leader': "A CLOSE relative of a former head of MI6 has emerged as having business links with Simon Mann, the former SAS officer involved in the plot to overthrow the head of an oil-rich African state. Justin Longley, the nephew of Sir Richard Dearlove — chief of MI6 at the time the coup attempt was staged last March — was a friend and associate of Mann, the Eton-educated former soldier jailed for seven years in Zimbabwe last Friday. Longley was working closely with Mann on goldmining, forestry and engineering ventures in Africa. He visited the continent as a representative of Logo Logistics, the company through which Mann later financed the attempt in March to overthrow Teodoro Obiang Nguema, president of Equatorial Guinea. One mining venture in Sudan also involved Sir Mark Thatcher, who was arrested last month by South African police and accused of being among the backers of the coup. ... Documents seen by The Sunday Times show Longley — the son of Dearlove’s sister — and Mann were corresponding on ventures in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon and Angola. Longley accompanied Mann on a trip to Sudan in December 2002 to inspect a mining and forestry area that could have yielded millions of pounds worth of gold and teak. A report of the visit identified Mann as “CEO of Logo while Justin Longley is a senior project manager”. At one point Mann wrote to Longley about the fantastic potential wealth in an African gold deposit: “The grade is awesome — ounces per ton.” Longley was connected with several business ventures that the Foreign Office was aware of or intervened in. He worked with Mann at DiamondWorks, an Angola-based diamond mining enterprise, in the 1990s. The company had links through investors to Sandline International, the private military company that supplied arms to unseat a group of rebels who had seized power in Sierra Leone. The Foreign Office knew in advance of the operation. Longley also worked as a manager for Oryx Natural Resources, the mining concern that had controversial links to Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe. Oryx’s attempts to get a London stock exchange listing collapsed when the Foreign Office criticised the company’s plans for mining in the Congo — a source of “blood diamonds”. Oryx denied any wrongdoing. ... As well as Dearlove, Longley had uncles from both sides of his family in MI6. His mother was headmistress of Roedean, the girls’ public school. He also had connections with other members of the coup conspiracy. He was a close contact of Greg Wales, who allegedly helped plan the mission. Longley is said to have regarded Wales as a “spook” and described him to an acquaintance as a man with influential connections in Washington who “worked for the CIA and the commercial wing of the Republican party”. In February, Wales met a senior Pentagon official in the Africa department and was in touch with an analyst who worked for the CIA. Longley left Angola in 1998 after a diamond mine where he was working was attacked by suspected Unita rebels. Eight mining personnel were killed, 24 injured and 10 went missing — presumed taken hostage during the raid. He now works with a relative of Mann for a technical services company based in Brighton, East Sussex. Last week he declined to comment in detail on his relationship with Mann. “I have no comment on Simon Mann and the allegations against him. My relationship with him was through DiamondWorks,” he said. “I was general manager and he was chief operations officer. That is public record. I’ve got nothing further to say in any way, shape or form, and I would be very disappointed if any of this discussion appears in the press.” "

Relationship between Justin Longley and Simon Mann (once worked for KAS Enterprises):

• Both Mann and Longley worked at DiamondWorks in the mid to late 1990s.
• The Sunday Times claimed to have seen documents in which Mann and Longley were "corresponding on ventures in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon and Angola."
• Longley worked at Mann's mercenary-support company Logo Logistics as"senior project manager".

Mann actually was a major financier of the Equatorial Guinea coup through his company Logo Logistics, of which Longley was the "senior project manager". Let's take a look at Tony Buckingham.

• Tony Buckingham was a partner in the mercernary firm Executive Outcomes. Simon Mann is often said to have been another partner in Executive Outcomes. However, the company's founder claimed Mann's was lying. This doesn't seem to mean though that there's no connection with Buckingham.
• Tony Buckingham was a founding director and major shareholder of DiamondWorks, the same company where Mann and Longley worked.
• Buckingham owned two companies at the same address as Mann's Logo Logistics.
• Buckingham and Colonel Tim Spicer have claimed to be "close friends."
• Tony Buckingham was the "inspiration" for Sandline International, but was not an official founder or board member. Instead the firm was founded by Colonel Tim Spicer.

GENERAL:

May 7, 2000, Observer, 'Anger at Kosovo mines contract': "A private military company accused of human rights abuses has been awarded lucrative Government contracts to clear unexploded mines and cluster bombs in Kosovo, The Observer can reveal. ... Since the end of the Kosovo conflict, the Government has awarded two mine-clearance contracts worth more than £1 million to Defence Systems, a London-based firm, founded by former senior SAS officer Alistair Morrison, which has been involved in a spate of human rights controversies. United Nations' special rapporteur, Enrique Ballesteros, stated in a 1998 report that it was concerned about DSL's alleged 'mercenary' activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo. DSL's activities in Colombia, where it has been employed by BP to protect its multi-billion pound interests, have long been a concern to human rights organisations. In 1998 it was expelled from Angola for alleged 'illegal activities'. DSL also recommended Sandline International - the firm involved in the arms-to-Sierra Leone scandal - to the government of Papua New Guinea when it needed mercenary help. ... He said DSL is not only used by private corporations but by the UN, human aid groups and Western governments to protect embassies. ... It was alleged that DSL trained Colombian police in counter-insurgency techniques using ex-SAS personnel and fed intelligence on anyone opposed to BP to Columbia's 14th brigade - a group of soldiers with a record of atrocities including the massacre of 43 people in 1988. A report by the Parliamentary Human Rights Group entitled 'The Business of Killing' said the main concern was that DSL passed on information on environmentalists and community leaders. Both DSL and BP claimed the only training they gave was defensive. But documents obtained by the Guardian showed that a senior DSL employee, Roger Brown, was in charge of security for the 520-mile Ocensa oil pipeline in Colombia, in which BP is a major shareholder. Brown was a key figure in a proposed pipeline protection project with the 14th Brigade and Israeli security company Silver Shadow, involving attack helicopters and the 'direct supply of anti-guerrilla special weaponry'. When this came to light, BP suspended Brown, who until recently continued to work for DSL. "

PAPUA

July 20, 1994, Christian Science Monitor, 'Self-sustaining rebels endure despite naval blockade and limited resources': "IN the highland strongholds of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA), the gardens and orchards tell the story: Everything about this rebel movement is home-grown, by necessity. Villagers seem self-sufficient. They grow their own food, employ bush medicine, use homemade shotguns and ammunition rummaged from World War II plane wrecks, and even run diesel four-wheel-drive vehicles and generators on coconut oil. Radios are powered by solar panels. The nearly 1,000-man armed force of the BRA is bankrolled by no one. ''We are at war with Australia, but it is not our intention,'' says Francis Ona, leader of the militia that forced the closure of the world's most advanced mining operation, the Panguna copper mine. ''We want Australia to be at least neutral, but they continue to support the Papua New Guinea Defense Forces (PNGDF).'' Throughout the villages comes a consistent refrain: ''What we need are clothes and medicine.'' The journey to get supplies to these settlements is perilous. Each week the BRA rebels run supplies through the Solomon Islands to the remote highland villages through a naval blockade imposed by the government of Papua New Guinea, with some help from Australia. The boat trip takes 12 hours; the rebels navigate by the stars. Adrift in the Pacific Ocean at midnight, engines cut, BRA rebels strain to hear the patrol boats pass in the darkness. The patrol boats pass without incident. As soon as they leave, the captain guns 80 horsepower engines and the boat speeds toward the looming shadow of Bougainville. Gunshots ring out the moment our boat enters the shallows. Five BRA guerrillas with dreadlocks and shotguns emerge on the beach. They yell at the boat crew to head for the next bay, as a PNGDF unit is on its way to intercept them. They speed off. Once on the island, the trek to Mr. Ona's stronghold takes four days - along narrow jungle paths that turn into a series of bogs during monsoon-size downpours, past ''ghost villages'' either destroyed or abandoned because they were within shelling range, on to the rim of the vast Panguna mine. To view this crater is to witness what appears to be an industrial apocalypse - pristine land overrun by powerful technology, with the resulting environmental disaster abandoned. Six years after the BRA forced it to shut down, the mine is a wasteland of debris and charred remains. Nearby rivers still run rust-orange from the mine's effluent, and at the bottom of the pit is a phosphorescent blue cesspool. Lining the bottom levels of the crater are 40 huge, 200-ton dump trucks, each valued at more than $ 740,000. They are burned beyond repair. The BRA torched the mining equipment and buildings. In his headquarters, Ona produces a series of survey maps of the island that he says were drawn by the PNG government and Conzinc Rio Tinto Australia, the Australian firm that owns the Panguna mine. ''These maps detail a plan to dig eight further mines on the island,'' he says. ''Basically they want to turn Bougainville into one huge pit.'' Ona cites a list of reasons he decided to sabotage the mine and launch a struggle for independence. ''The first was the takeover of our land, by force, with minimal or no compensation,'' he says. ''Then we became angry at the destruction of our environment: polluted rivers, poisoned fish, acid rain, dead birds. Our plants turned purple instead of green, and it is only now, six years after the mine closed, that fruit has begun to grow again.'' There was also the social impact of the mine, which brought thousands of workers from mainland Papua New Guinea to work on the mine. ''Ninety-five percent of the mine workers were from PNG, and they brought drinking, prostitution, and squatting with them. Local people were frustrated that the mine was not employing local workers,'' he says. Lack of local income from the mine was another factor. Ona claims that while the mine accounted for about 40 percent of PNG's total export earnings, Bougainville received less than 1 percent of the country's budget allocation. Finally, the issue of sovereignty. ''We have been exploited by five colonial masters in the past 100 years [Germany, England, Australia, Japan, and PNG], and Bougainvilleans believe it is time we managed our own resources and safeguard future generations.'' The realization comes that Australia is inextricably involved in this conflict - from the drone of the helicopter gunships, to captured M-16 rifles, to BRA guerrillas in Australian T-shirts saying, ''No worries, mate.'' Boys in BRA territory pour over surfing magazines, and old men reminisce about when they fought with Australian ''diggers'' (soldiers) against the Japanese. Now they feel like they are at war with Australia, and they can't understand why."

September 25, 1994, The Independent, 'Rebels draw hard line in native soil': "Despite peaceful protests and declarations of the island's independence, construction of the [Panguna] mine started in 1972 and it opened in 1974. To date it is estimated to have earned more than pounds 2bn, of which pounds 15m was paid to the landowners in compensation and royalties. As production grew, so did opposition. It was not just the crater itself that caused alarm. The Jaba River watershed stretching three-quarters of the width of the island was polluted by dumped overburden, tailings and processing chemicals, which turned it bright green. ''The environmental destruction by the mine at Panguna is enormous and unimaginable,'' said Bishop Gregory Singkai in a submission to an Australian delegation earlier this year. The company says the damage is not permanent, pointing out that fish and wild animals, including crocodiles, have returned to the river since the mine closed down."

September 8, 2000, The Guardian, 'Islanders sue in US over impact of Rio Tinto mine': "Three years ago the Panguna mine achieved international notoriety when Papua New Guinea brought in a private British military company, Sandline, to quell the rebellion using mercenaries from South Africa. The resulting scandal and a backlash by elements of Papua New Guinea's military led to Sandline being told to leave the country and the government falling. ... The company [Rio Tinto], the third largest mining conglomerate in the world, owns, through a subsidiary, 53% of the huge Panguna copper mine - a hole in the forest 3.7 miles long, 2.5 miles wide and a third of a mile deep. It was opened in 1972 but shut in 1989 when complaints about environmental damage grew into armed conflict over the island's mineral wealth between the government of Papua New Guinea and the Bougainville Revolutionary Army. An eight-year guerrilla war ensued. The legal claim, filed by a Seattle lawyer, Steve Berman, alleges that the company brought financial influence to bear on Papua New Guinea's government, which is accused by the plaintiffs of killing 15,000 islanders through aerial bombing, village-burning and other acts of destruction [for instance a naval blockade keeping essential supplies as anti-malaria medicines away]. It says that the company razed forests, polluted rivers, retarded crop growth and caused birth defects. The island has a population of about 170,000. Mr Berman said: "We intend to prove that Rio Tinto treated Bourgainvilleans with no respect and thought of them as inferior in every way: socially, economically, racially and politically.""

March 20, 2001, The Guardian, 'Papuan troops demand caretaker government': "Soldiers triggered the downfall of the Papua New Guinea government four years ago when they rebelled against the introduction of mercenaries from the British security company Sandline to crush a secessionist movement on the island of Bougainville."

MORE ON MINING IN PAPUA ET AL:

July 3, 2003, Jakarta Post, 'Australian hypocrisy over mining in RI forests': "Parliamentary questions revealed extensive lobbying of Indonesian officials by Australian Embassy staff in Jakarta, including the Ambassador, at the behest of Australian mining companies. Downer's answers revealed that mining giants BHP Billiton, Newcrest, Placer Dome, and Rio Tinto specifically requested, and received, lobbying assistance from the Australian Embassy on the matter of mining in protected areas. Australian embassy officials on nine occasions pressed Indonesian parliamentarians, officials, including the Ministers and Departments for Economic Affairs, Mining, Forestry and Environment to drop the ban on mining in protected areas. ... So who are these powerful interests, influential enough to demand the Australian government lobby on their behalf, and powerful enough to override opposition from the Environment Department and scientific reports carried out by the Department of Forestry? What of their policies and track record on environment protection? Just to the north of Indonesia, Placer mining company's Marcopper mine suffered a massive mine waste spill, filling the Boac River on the island of Marinduque with 3 million to 4 million tons of metal enriched and acid generating mine waste. In December 2001, Placer suddenly pulled out of the Philippines altogether, abandoning its commitments to clean up the Boac River and to compensate villagers affected by the 1996 mine waste spill disaster. Meanwhile, just across the border into Papua New Guinea, BHP-Billiton and Placer Dome have each built a giant gold/copper mine, OK Tedi and Porgera respectively. These two operations dump over a hundred thousand tons of mine waste into the Fly River system daily. The result of waste dumping from the Ok Tedi mine is an ecological and human disaster which will last for generations; according to BHP-Billiton's own studies, the Ok Tedi/Fly River fishery is destroyed and indigenous people's forests, food gardens and sago are smothered under a blanket of waste stretching inland for hundreds of kilometers along the river. Like Placer in the Philippines, BHP cut and run in the wake of the Ok Tedi disaster, entirely abandoning Papua New Guinea. But have these two companies really learnt their lesson? In Eastern Indonesia BHP-Billiton has begun work on a huge nickel mine on Gag Island in Papua province, now a protected forest area, and apparently plans to dump a staggering volume of mine sludge (""tailings"") directly into the ocean via the controversial Submarine Tailings Disposal method. Likewise, Placer Dome plans to dig an open cut gold mine in a protected forest area in South Kalimantan's Meratus Mountains, despite official statements of opposition from local indigenous people's organizations. The difference between Rio Tinto's operations in Australia and Indonesia clearly demonstrate a double standard. Rio Tinto's Jabiluka uranium mine project is located in the middle of World Heritage listed Kakadu National Park in northern Australia. The proposed mining at Jabiluka is resisted by the indigenous landowners and opposed by the majority of Australians. In an encouraging response to this opposition, Rio Tinto recently announced that they will not develop the mine in the foreseeable future. But crossing over to Eastern Indonesia, there is no such reticence from Rio Tinto, who holds mining leases over two protected areas, the Palu gold prospect in Poboya Great Forest Park and a sizeable share in Freeport's mining lease over Lorenz National Park. Like Kakadu National Park, Lorenz National Park is a rare World Heritage-listed property. And just like Jabiluka/Kakadu, the Palu/Poboya mine is opposed by local indigenous peoples. It seems Rio Tinto operates according to one ethical and environmental standard for Australia, and a different, much poorer, standard in Indonesia. "

SIERRA LEONE:

The Russian mafia was exploiting Sierra Leone in the 1980s. Boris Nayfeld and Mike Brandwain were involved in the diamond trade (and seemingly also arms and drug trade) with other Russian mobsters as Shabtai Kalmanovitch and Marat Balagula. After some power struggels, Foday Sankoh came onto the scene with his Revolutionary United Front (RUF). Backed by Charles Taylor of Nigeria and Muammar al-Gaddafi in Libya, Sankoh began an extremely violent civil war (and genocide) in Sierra Leone. His army captured the diamond fields. The international community accuses Charles Taylor of having bought the blood diamonds and proviing the RUF with weapons in return. Taylor denies this.

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Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which aims to unearth human rights violations and the exploitation of the country’s natural or public resources to perpetuate war, heard last Thursday that Roger D’Onofrio Ruggiero, an Italian-American 40-year veteran of the CIA, worked with Charles Taylor and others to channel diamonds into Europe through a number of front-companies. According to the allegations, D’Onofrio, who at the time lived outside Naples, Italy, helped organize the smuggling operation with Ibrahim Bah. Bah is a Senegalese with Libyan connections, who at that time was a member of Liberia’s Revolutionary United Front, a guerilla group that fought unsuccessfully against the government throughout the 1990s. According to Douglas Farah’s book Blood from Stones (Broadway Books, 2004), Bah was connected with D’Onofrio in the 1970s, when the former was funded by the CIA to join the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan in the war against the Soviet Red Army. In the early 1990s, Bah, who by then had established al-Qaeda connections, became Charles Taylor’s “Minister for Mineral Resources”, a post that enabled him to handle the majority of NPFL’s diamonds-for-arms deals. The smuggling was conducted through a front-company, International Business Consultant Ltd, and Kintex, a Bulgarian import-export company with offices in Switzerland. Kintex “supplied weapons and bullets to [International Business Consultant Ltd] and sold diamonds in return, camouflaged as oranges and olives”. This was allegedly done with the help of a Swiss lawyer, Rudolf Meroni. During last Thursday’s presentation in Monrovia, Imants Liepiņš recounted D’Onofrio’s 1995 testimony before Italian prosecutors, in which the former CIA agent admitted he owned shares in International Business Consultant Ltd, as did Charles Taylor, Ibrahim Bah, and others. Interestingly, Liepiņš revealed that among the shareholders was Nill Taylor (no relation to Charles Taylor), an American who claimed to be “a representative of the US Government” (though not apparently connected with the US Embassy in Monrovia, which in the 1990s was headed by a series of interim chargés d’affaires). Nill Taylor, who met with D’Onofrio in Liberia on at least one occasion, was an associate of Nicolas Oman, a notorious Slovenian weapons smuggler who was rewarded for his services to Charles Taylor by being named Liberia’s honorary consul in Slovenia. Mr. Liepiņš’ allegations have made headlines throughout Liberia, but have yet to appear in any mainstream Western media outlet. This is extremely disappointing in light of the fact that these allegations about D’Onofrio are not new. In 1995, the former CIA agent was arrested by Italian police officers investigating a money laundering and arms smuggling operation into the former Yugoslavia. Italian authorities charged D’Onofrio, whom the local press dubbed “Specter’, “after James Bond’s arch-enemy”, with using CIA “contacts [he] made during the 40 years he worked for the US intelligence agency to organize illegal financial deals and arms shipments”. These reportedly included a foiled attempt to supply Slovenian arms smugglers with osmium, a chemical element used to manufacture nuclear detonators.

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By 1995 some British companies seem to have become worried about their diamond investments in Sierra Leone. The International Development Research Center, 'Sierra Leone: Diamonds in the RUF': "Its back to the wall, the failing government of Valentine Strasser [one of the murderous heads of state of Sierra Leone 1992-1996] made a deal with one of the scavenging junior mining firms that had arrived at the end of Joseph Momoh’s Israeli experiments. DiamondWorks was, in 1995, a company incorporated in Canada and listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange with a head office in Vancouver. In fact it was managed from London, with operational headquarters in Johannesburg. Its Vancouver presence gave it access to Canadian stock exchanges where, like many other junior mining firms, it spent more time mining for shareholders than diamonds. DiamondWorks owned Branch Energy, a company listed in the shadowy registers of the Isle of Man. In turn, Branch Energy had a close relationship with a private South African military firm, felicitously named ‘Executive Outcomes’. Branch Energy introduced Strasser to Executive Outcomes’ founder, Eeben Barlow, who not long afterwards imported 200 mercenaries, air support and some sophisticated communications equipment. Within a week they pushed the RUF back from Freetown. Having few of the logistical, professional or political constraints that encumbered ECOMOG [the United Nations force], they cleared the diamond fields within a month, scattering the RUF like a train of soldier ants disturbed by a boy with a stick. A few weeks later, Branch Energy was given a 25 year lease on diamond concessions in Kono [a province of Sierra Leone]."

The situation never stabilized. President Kabbah, who had become president in 1996, was ousted from May 1997 to February 1998. During that time EO and Sandline became involved again.

February 10, 1999, Independent, 'Catalogue of errors' over Sierra Leone': "By the time the UN embargo was imposed in mid-1997, British "military consultants" from Sandline International were already negotiating to ship arms to President Kabbah. They were apparently recommended by Peter Penfold, Britain's High Commissioner to Sierra Leone. Mr Penfold, however, had not seen the arms embargo. Nor had he yet heard ministers' later statements that Britain should have "no truck with mercenaries". So in December 1997 he attended a cordial lunch in London with the firm's main operative, Tim Spicer, and his wealthy "patron" Tony Buckingham. There Mr Penfold was shown a copy of Sandline's plans, which made clear that a sizeable arms shipment was envisaged. Mr Penfold did not tell the Foreign Office straight away but posted a letter from Oxfordshire a week later. According to his colleagues, the letter never arrived. Another month went by before Mr Penfold passed a copy of Sandline's plans to the Foreign Office. No-one reacted, according to the Permanent Secretary Sir John Kerr, because "nobody could work out what it meant". Mr Spicer had also visited the Foreign Office in person to explain his mission - a meeting of which, mysteriously, no proper minutes were kept. ... Elsewhere, events moved on. In mid-February President Kabbah was restored with Sandline's help and in March a national newspaper reported contacts between Mr Penfold, Mr Spicer and President Kabbah. But still the politicians remained ignorant, and two junior ministers went to Parliament with briefings which were "grossly deficient," according to the committee."

November 18, 1998, Independent, 'Sandline boss gave advice on Angola kidnap': "Sandline was investigated for shipping arms to Sierra Leone's exiled government in breach of a United Nations embargo, but was never prosecuted because it emerged that officials had been kept informed of its plans. Sir John's revelation of contacts with Mr Spicer over last week's attack on the DiamondWorks mine in Angola was surprising because Sandline is not supposed to have anything to do with the operation. However, Tony Buckingham [owner Heritage Oil Corp.; partnered with EO and Sandline], the patron of Sandline, is also a shareholder in DiamondWorks."

May 16, 2000, Independent, 'Peace mission reopens mercenary debate': "Sandline International and South Africa's Executive Outcomes (EO) have made incursions in the past into Sierra Leone on behalf of President Ahmad Kabbah's government. Senior figures from these companies say the use of private military companies (PMCs) could have prevented the current crisis in Sierra Leone. A former senior officer of an EO force that routed the rebels in 1995, said: "Foday Sankoh's rebel group, the RUF, are not solders. They are criminals and should be treated as such. They are no match for highly trained, properly equipped soldiers whose commander has a clear mandate. "I think we have a difference in approach to the UN...You cannot sign an accord with rebels and send unarmed UN troops into rebel strongholds. This is why 500 soldiers were taken hostage," he said. Col Spicer agrees. "It's the standard problem for the UN. They have no standing military structure, no commonality of equipment, no common training or language. All the fabric that makes up a professional fighting force is missing." The British author and journalist William Shawcross has argued recently that if Western countries were reluctant to contribute troops to defeat the RUF, they should employ mercenaries to do the job for them. The South African journalist Simon Barber, writing in Business Day magazine, called for EO to be allowed back into Sierra Leone. The government there was forced to dispense with EO's services in 1997 in the face of international pressure. Mr Barber writes: "At least Sierra Leone's mineral wealth might have been saved and tens of thousands, mostly women and children from death, amputation, rape, Aids and sexual enslavement." But last week, the Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, told Parliament that "in the present situation, mercenaries would be nothing but a menace." Sandline rejects the term mercenary, saying it prefers to take up missions on behalf democratically elected governments. Lt Col Tim Spicer blamed Britain's insistence that Foday Sankoh be pardoned from a death sentence and given a role in government for the collapse of the peace accord. "It was like giving the fox the keys to the chicken coop," Col Spicer said. "It was extraordinary.""

Source(s): October 1989 – Issue 18, Lobster Magazine, 'The Pinay Circle and Destabilisation in Europe'

Born in an old aristocratic and wealthy family in 1910. Entered Colégio Militar in 1920, a military school in Lisbon, Portugal. Joined Portugal's Military Academy in 1928. Fought as a volunteer for General Francisco Franco in the 1930s Spanish civil war. Fought with Hitler's armies on the Russian front in World War II. August 14, 1996, Chicago Tribune, 'General Spinola, led coup in Portugal': "Gen. Spinola was encouraged in his military career by dictator Antonio Salazar [dictator of Portugal 1932-1968; strong Roman Catholic; supported by the former King Manuel II of Portugal; supporter of Franco; close friend of Ian Smith, who headed the illegal Rhodesian white minority government], a family friend. Trained under Spanish dictator Gen. Francisco Franco and Hitler's Russian front generals, Gen. Spinola earned a reputation for toughness and valor and became Portugal's most decorated officer. A hero of the old regime's wars against independence movements in the African colonies..." Service in Angola 1961-1964 where he reached the rank of Brigadier-General. Governor and Chief of the Army Forces in Portuguese Guinea 1968-1973. Here he followed a policy of bombing defenseless villages, destroying crops and burning hayfields at the end of the dry season to prevent the resistance (and anyone else) to construct huts for the rain season. Invited to become Minister of the Colonies in 1973, but refused. Vice Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces 1974. Director of Companhia Uniao Fabril (CUF), which dominated Guinea-Bissau's economy, had large interests in Africa, and owned 10 percent of Portuguese industrial capacity. Director of Champalimaud, a steel and banking giant, also with extensive interests in Africa. Champalimaud and CUF were seen as two of maybe 5 or 6 companies that controlled virtually the whole economy of Portugal at the time. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the continuing wars in the colonies not only began to take a heavy toll on the morale in the Portuguese Army, but also with the citizens at home. The economy in Portugal also suffered from the war and the large corporations in Portugal criticized Marcello Caetano, the follow up of dictator Antonio Salazar, for not pushing hard enough free market (or better, monopolist) policies. In February 1974, Spinola's book 'Portugal and the Future' was published in which Spinola claimed the colonial wars could not be won by force. Instead, he argued that a moderate black elite should be created in the colonies who would cooperate within a federation, headed by Portugal. The book, published by Companhia Uniao Fabril (CUF), became enormously popular in the weeks ahead. In March 1974, Spinola was fired by Caetano for writing the book. His superior General Francisco da Costa Gomes was also fired for his support of Spinola. On April 25, 1974, the Movement of the Armed Forces (MFA), a group of of lower-ranking officers opposing the colonial war and the fascist regime (who took advantage of the book's momentum), headed a coup against Caetano. Spinola knew about the upcoming coup. The plotters intended to make him commander of the armed forces while the more moderate Gomes would be head of the transitional government. In the end, the coup succeeded, but the plotters had failed to capture Caetano, who then demanded he would only surrender if Spinola became his successor. According to Caetano, Spinola was "the only man who could save" Portugal. To avoid a bloodbath, the plotters accepted, and Spinola became head of the national junta of the MFA. He became president of Portugal in May 1974. Spinola, however, strongly disagreed on most points with the with MFA and was generally only interested in a "renovation" of the economy and the policy pertaining to the colonies. He completely resisted the MFA's efforts in giving independence to the colonies, but he forced to comprise in almost every instance because of the powerful influence of moderates and the left. The people of Portugal had risen up en masse after Caetano had been driven out, had dismantled the secret police and taking out their frustration on anyone who had ever repressed them or caused some kind of grief. Socialism and Communism became very strong movements and Spinola, together with his fascist friends, did everything in their power to contain and reverse the situation. Spinola met with Nixon, a later Cercle participant, in the Azores (considered a key location for NATO forces) in June 1974. In July 1974, Spinola appointed a former fascist cabinet member as ambassador to the UN, which provoked large street demonstrations. Spinola confined leftists troops to their barracks on July 6-7 and send troops considered right-wing to break up leftist demonstrations. An Economic reform bill was issued on July 6 that limited the right to strike, strengthened private property, and encouraged foreign investment. Thousands of civil servants demonstrated against law on July 8. Spinola was ousted in late September 1974, presumably after having attempted to take full control of the government. The MFA had prevented this and installed the more moderate General Costa Gomes, their first choice. October 7, 1974, Winnipeg Free Press, 'Why Spinola Bowed Out': "With his resignation, President Antonio Spinola of Portugal has lost a long ideological battle with the Movement of the Armed Forces [MFA] which reluctantly brought him to power... According to young officers of the Movement [MFA], a coup d'etat was planned by right-wingers, some of them protesting loyalty to Gen. Spinola, who had been storing arms, indulging in economic sabotage, and creating an emotional climate of tension [sounds like Gladio]... So the Movement surrounded the presidential palace with tanks, took over the national radio and ordered newspapers to suspend publication. A sniper's rifle with telescopic sights is said to have been found in a house opposite the home of the prime minister, Brigadier Vasco Goncalves... Estimates of the right-wingers who have been detained vary from 70 to more than 300. Those arrested include Franco Nogueira, a longserving foreign minister to the late dictator Antonio Salazar,... Nuno Alves Caetano, son of the prime minister who was deposed by the April 25 coup, and Antonio Champalimaud, heir to Portugal's most powerful banking and industrial empire and son of Gen. Spinola's economic adviser... Gen. Spinola wanted to increase press censorship, ban strikes, enhance his own power and disband the Movement's co-ordinating committee. The Movement believed that if it allowed this to happen, its promises of democracy would not be carried out and the elections in March would be called off. Many of the members of the Movement not only believed that it was a disaster to appoint Gen. Spinola; they also believed that if real disaster was to be averted, he had to be removed. They feared that he would take Portugal back to something akin to what is now called the 'ancien regime' with a dictatorship ruling in the interests of the capitalisl interests... The young officers of the Movement are erroneously cast as left-wing and a few may be; but the majority at the centre of the Movement includes monarchists and conservatives." October 3, 1974, Winnipeg Free Press, 'Leftist Takeover Feared': "Top Portuguese financier Antonio Champalimaud warned in an interview published here of the dangers of a "totalitarian" takeover in Portugal "on orders of Moscow"... Turning to the economic situation, the financier said that it was essential for Portugal to collaborate with other nations and in particular extend its link with the Common Market." This sounds very much like a propaganda effort ala Le Cercle of which Spinola is said to have attended meetings. In March 11, 1975 Spinola tried to get back with a vengeance with a (failed) right-wing coup attempt, aided by Nixon's national security advisor Henry Kissinger (Le Cercle) and US ambassador to Portugal Franck Carlucci (CIA). Spinola and 18 others fled to Spain and then to Brazil. The attempted rightist coup by Spinola caused another major leftist countermovement, a wave of nationalizations of banks and other businesses, and the seizure of many large farms in southern Portugal. 1977, Phil Mailer, 'Portugal, the Impossible Revolution', chapter 8: "For three days the left and workers' group exercised total power. An article about Spinola in the Parisian paper Temoignage Chretien (March 6) had said that US ambassador Frank Carlucci (who had CIA connections) had given the go-ahead for a right-wing take-over in Portugal. Otelo's [head moderate MFA] remark on March 11 that 'Carlucci had better have plans to leave the country or face the con-sequences' was seen as related to the failed coup. Kissinger, according to a Sunday Times (London) report, had sanctioned the use of the CIA." April 23, 1975, Winnipeg Free Press, 'Mini-Cold War Weakens Portugal, NATO Ties': "[Soviet] Ambassador Kalinin's task has been made easy by U.S. and North Atlantic Alliance hostility toward the ruling leftwing military, who have made it clear that they cannot govern Portugal without sharing power with the Portuguese Communist party... Moscow is carefully moving into the power vacuum caused by the loss of influence and prestige during its [the US's] long association with the deposed dictatorship and its apparent support for Gen. Antonio de Spinola. Spinola's hostility to his former revolutionary associates led to an attempted coup last month... [US ambassador] Carlucci's image has been tarred with allegations that he is a top CIA operative assigned to destabilize Portugal and reverse the Socialist thrust of the revolution... Recently Dr. Kissinger contradicted the essence of the Carlucci speech in which he had expressed a measure of understanding for the idealism of the officers who deposed Portugal's rightist dictatorship last year... Ruling military moderates, among them senior advisers of President Francisco da Costa Gomes, are frankly distressed by a situation forcing them to strengthen Portugal's ties with the Soviet Union because "Nobody in the West is willing to help us so long as Washington remains aloof." They added: "Before our revolution, nobody wanted to help us because we were a right-wing colonialist dictatorship. Now that we are freeing the colonies and trying to create a pluralistic democracy, nobody wants to help us because we're left-wing." Aginter Press was the name of the CIA-supported Stay Behind network in Portugal. It was founded in 1966 by Guerin Serac (anti-communist Catholic; did assassinations and terrorism for Franco; co-founder OAS that tried to assassinate De Gaulle and destabilize peace in Algeria; worked for Portugal's secret police; friend of Florimond Damman, who was appointed by Cercle founder Jean Violet to run the Belgian Académie Européenne des Sciences Politiques) and Stefano Delle Chiaie (fascist; friend of Licio Gelli, official head P2; P2 member; undermined Italian politics by assisting in coups and terrorism; associate of Prince Valerio Borghese, who worked with former Nazi commander Otto Skorzeny; associate of former Nazi officer Klaus Barbie; involved in Operation Condor and the cocaine wars in the Americas) to counter leftist influences in Portugal. They supported Spinola. 2005, Daniele Ganser, 'NATO's Secret Armies', p. 121: "Upon learning that left-wing officers within the Portuguese military were planning a coup to start the 'Revolution of the Flowers', Aginter operatives plotted with right-wing General Spinola against the Portuguese centrists. Their plan was to occupy the Portuguese Azores islands in the Atlantic and use them as an independent territory and offshore base for covert operations against the Portuguese mainland. Unable to realize their plan Aginter Press was swept away together with the dictatorship when on May 1, 1974 the left-wing of the Portuguese military took over power and ended the dictatorship which had lasted for almost half a century. Three weeks after the revolutionary coup, on May 22, 1974, special units of the Portuguese Police on the orders of the new rulers broke into the Aginter Press headquarter in the Rua das Pracas in Lisbon in order to close down the sinister agency and confiscate all material. But by then the premises were deserted. With good relations to the intelligence community all Aginter Press agents had been warned and had gone underground and nobody was arrested. Leaving their offices in a hurry some documents were left behind. The special police units were able to collect a large amount of criminal evidence, proving that the CIA front Aginter Press had very actively engaged in terrorism." Spinola was able to return to Portugal in 1976. Appointed Field Marshal in 1981. Named a member of Le Cercle in 1989 by Lobster Magazine. Died in 1996.

Source(s): 1983 Bonn meeting list of the Cercle

July 9, 1994, The Independent, 'The German who bombed Hitler': "Hans Christoph Freiherr von Stauffenberg was at the theatre, listening to a performance of The Marriage of Figaro, when he heard the news of the event that has become a symbolic landmark in German history. ''They came on to the stage, and said: 'Something terrible has happened. There has been an attempt on the Fuhrer's life'. Then, the opera continued.'' Only the next morning did he discover the truth: that his own cousin, Claus, was at the centre of the plot, which failed - just - to end the Hitler regime. Claus had been executed by firing squad a few hours after the bomb he had planted exploded at the Wolf's Lair, Hitler's headquarters in East Prussia, on 20 July 1944. ''Long live Germany!'' he shouted, as the fatal bullets were fired. When the Gestapo came to take Hans Christoph away the next morning, he burnt a couple of letters before leaving. But he remained surprisingly calm. Now aged 81 (though he looks years younger), he remembers: ''They took me into the cellars. I was waiting to see if they'd put the pistol to my head. But they didn't. They bolted the doors of the cell. I looked to see if there was blood on the walls. Then I just fell asleep, on the hard wooden bench.'' Hans Christoph von Stauffenberg was arrested not because the Nazis had any reason to suspect him. Indeed, he emphasises that he was never an active member of the resistance - ''I was afraid of what I might say if I was tortured.'' Instead, he was taken in by the Gestapo as part of the Nazis' revenge for what Claus had almost succeeded in doing. All immediate relatives of Claus von Stauffenberg, and of the other main plotters, were rounded up in the days and weeks immediately after 20 July. This was Sippenhaft, ''family responsibility'', whereby everybody in the family was to be punished. Hans Christoph regards himself as lucky: he was released after a couple of months. Claus's widow, Nina, who is still alive, remained in the camps until the end of the war; Nina's mother, a defiant spirit who told the Gestapo that she was proud of her son-in-law, died there."

September 13, 1982, Der Spiege, 'Victory for Strauss': "Hans Christoph Freiherr Schenk von Stauffenberg, a distant relative of Hitler assassin Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, is a key figure in the intelligence network of the CSU. He maintains a confidential "information service " (circulation: 100 copies), based on domestic and foreign intelligence sources. Franz Josef Strauss takes the Stauffenberg service, according to a close collaborator, "very serious"."

Source(s): 1982 Wildbad Kreuth meeting list; 1983 Bonn meeting list; 1984 South Africa Cercle meeting list; 1985 Washington D.C. meeting

1923-1997. St Peter’s Sch., York; Emmanuel Coll., Cambridge (MA). Army, 1943–47. HM Colonial Service, Uganda, 1948–50; joined HM Diplomatic Service, 1951; FO, 1951; Vice-Consul, Basra, 1951; Third, later Second Sec., Tripoli, 1953; Foreign Office, 1956; Second Sec., Beirut, 1958; FO, 1961; First Secretary: Amman, 1965; Nairobi, 1968; Counsellor and Dep. UK Rep., Belfast, 1971; FCO, 1973; resigned 1975; joined Kleinwort, Benson as Adviser, 1975; Dir, and Hd of Export Finance Dept, Kleinwort Benson, 1985–87; Dir, cos in Cluff group, 1979–87; Chm., Network Television Ltd, 1981–87; consultant, 1987–96. Mem., Export Promotion Cttee, CBI, 1983–87. Dir, Arab British Chamber of Commerce, 1978–87; Member Council: Anglo-Jordanian Soc., 1980–88; Royal Soc. for Asian Affairs, 1981–88 (Vice-Pres., 1985–88); Royal Asiatic Soc., 1986–90 (Pres., 1988–90); Royal Geographical Soc., 1990–95 (Mem., F and GP Cttee, 1986–95; Vice-Pres., 1993–95); Mem. Cttee, Mount Everest Foundn, 1990–95. Trustee, Prostate Cancer Charity, 1996–.

January 5, 1998, The Guardian, 'Obituary: Frank Steele: Secret contact with the IRA': "FRANK Steele, who has died aged 74, was a former member of the Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, and played a central role in establishing the first secret contacts between the British Government and the IRA. He was an adventurer, a man of cool nerves who took risks but also inspired trust. He is still remembered as something of a hero in republican circles. Steele was summoned to Northern Ireland in 1971 following serious violence, which prompted the disastrously counter-productive internment policy - Bloody Sunday followed a year later. He was recruited from MI6 by Foreign Office diplomat Howard Smith, who headed the UK Representative's Office in Belfast. Smith recognised the need for a fresh approach since MI5 and the Home Office - this was before the days of the Northern Ireland Office - were buffeted by events, prisoners of their short-term view. Steele said he was astonished with what he saw. "There was very little coordination of whatever intelligence was being produced by the RUC, the Army and MI5". He met with people in the republican community including IRA members, and with extreme loyalist groups. He realised that it was going to be impossible to beat the IRA militarily, so the only alternative was a political solution, which the security services began to appreciate years later. Steele was born in Bangalore, and was educated at St Peter's School, York and Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he won a hockey Blue. After wartime army service he joined the colonial service, and was posted to Uganda. He enjoyed travelling rough, which attracted him to a newspaper advertisement offering work which involved travel - it had been placed by MI6. His fondness for exploration led to a close friendship with the explorer Wilfred Thesiger. They became friends when Steele was posted to Basra in Iraq, under cover of vice -consul, when Thesiger was living with the Marsh Arabs. Colleagues partly explain Steele's success in establishing contacts with republicans by referring to his time as an East African district commissioner. Steele, they suggest, saw Northern Ireland's deprived nationalist community "through the eyes of a colonial administrator". Steele understood that Northern Ireland was not a colonial situation, but he made a comparison with former Mau Mau head Jomo Kenyatta, who became president of Kenya. The Mau Mau's operational techniques rituals made the IRA look like a Sunday school choir, he argued, yet the royal family had ended up shaking Kenyatta's hand. So it was just pragmatic to talk to the IRA. In 1972, IRA leaders, Martin McGuinness, Sean Keenan, and Sean MacStiofain, offered Northern Ireland Secretary Willie Whitelaw a truce if he met the IRA. They insisted that their delegation must include Gerry Adams, who was released from internment in Long Kesh. Steele was charged with approaching the IRA leaders. Years later, Steele said he was surprised to find that Adams was "personable, intelligent, articulate and self-disciplined", and "obviously had a terrific future ahead of him." Steele and the IRA delegation were flown to RAF Benson in Oxfordshire and from there to the Chelsea home of Whitelaw's junior minister, Paul Channon. The meeting was a failure, with the IRA team demanding British withdrawal from Northern Ireland by 1975. Steele, who was to continue his secret contacts with the IRA, said later that in contrast to Adams' attitude MacStiofain behaved like "the representative of an army which had fought the British to a standstill and as if we British wanted out. He behaved like Montgomery at Luneberg Heath telling the German generals what they should do and shouldn't do if they wanted peace". Steele told the IRA leadership that it was wasting its time shooting soldiers and bombing Northern Ireland into a slum. He told Taylor later that he said to the IRA "they should be trying to persuade the Protestants and the Unionists that they would have some sort of satisfactory life - jobs, housing and so on - in some sort of linkage with the south." Eleven days after the Chelsea meeting, the IRA ceasefire ended. Steele left Northern Ireland in 1973, having played a key role in persuading the Social Democratic & Labour Party and the Faulkner Unionists to join the Sunningdale talks on the ill-fated power-sharing agreement. His work maintaining secret contacts with the IRA leadership was carried on by MI6. Subsequently, Steele became MI6 controller for the Middle East - he had been posted earlier to Amman and Beirut - but resigned in 1975 after a row with MI6 head Maurice Oldfield, who could not cope with the frankness of his extrovert senior officer. Steele never got a gong, which did not bother him. With a number of other retired MI6 officers, he joined the Kleinwort Benson merchant bank. He became vice-president of the Royal Geographical Society, worked for the Mount Everest Foundation, was a trustee of the Prostate Cancer Charity and worked for Tibetan-linked charities. He leaves a wife, a son and a daughter."

Source(s): 2014, Johannes Grossmann, 'Die Internationale der Konservativen: Transnationale Elitenzirkel und private Außenpolitik in Westeuropa seit 1945', p. 553. (Nov. 11, 1995 meeting)

French politician. Very close to Cercle visitor Alain Juppe in the Rassemblement pour la Republique (RPR). Deputy director of the cabinet of prime minister Alain Juppe 1995-1996. In 1995 he was chairman of the presidential campaign of Jacques Chirac (prime minister of France 1974-1976, 1986-1988, mayor of Paris 1977-1995, and president of France 1995-2007, whose backing was close to Le Cercle for decades). Involved in Chirac's 2002 presidential election. Secretary general Force Republicaine 2013-.

Source(s): 1980 meeting: November 1988 – Issue 17, Lobster Magazine, 'Brian Crozier, the Pinay Circle and James Goldsmith' (quoting the Langemann papers - spelled wrongly, like a couple of other names); 1985 Washington DC list; Adrian Hanni (also went to Cercle meetings in 86, 87 and 89)

The original (translated) text named a DIA-affiliated "General D. Stinwell" as a participant of the 1980 meeting in Zurich. The proper name must have been Stilwell (often spelled as Stillwel), because the name Stinwell doesn't exist, especially not as a general. The "D" seems to refer to "Dick", like he was often called, and even how his name was often written down on official occasions. His son, who had the same name also used the name "Dick" himself (only a colonel). The name of Paul Volcker was also spelled wrong in the text ("Volker").

Born in 1917. Graduated from West Point. Graduate of the Army War College and was a commandant of cadets at the U.S. Military Academy, a post that the Army reserves for its most promising officers. Joined the U.S. Army in 1938. Commander of U.S. forces in China, Burma and India during World War II. Appointed in January 1946 as assistant military advisor to secretary of state James F. Byrnes, who was a U.S. member of the Council of Foreign Ministers, the quadripartite organization designed to deal with post-war problems. As an outgrowth of this assignment, Stilwell became special military advisor to the American ambassador in Italy from 1947 to 1949. In this position, his staff responsibilities encompassed the Trieste question, finalization of the Italo-Yugoslav boundary and Italian rearmament. Chief of the Far East Division of the CIA from 1949 to 1952, and head of the Office of Policy Coordination (OPC). His area of responsibility included Burma, China, Indochina and Korea. This was one of the most, if not thé most, important CIA/OPC division at the time, since the Korean war had just started and the French were fighting in Indochina. In early 1951 the first of many airdrops were made to the remnants of the anti-communist KMT army in Burma. The KMT, led by Chiang Kai-shek, lost the battle for China in 1949 to Mao had his communist army. Chiang retreated to the island now known as Taiwan, but several other KMT armies withdrew from China via the south-west, into Burma. The Burmese army fought the KMT and drove them into Laos and a small area near the Thai border. The situation looked very bleak for the KMT, until early 1951, when they started receiving weapons, food, and training from the CIA to prevent a possible communist take over of South-East Asia. 1972, Alfred W. McCoy, 'The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia': "The first signs of direct CIA aid to 'the KMT appeared in early 1951, when Burmese intelligence officers reported that unmarked C-46 and C-47 transport aircraft were making at least five parachute drops a week to KMT forces in Mong Hsat. (143) With its new supplies the KMT underwent a period of vigorous expansion and reorganization. Training bases staffed with instructors flown in from Taiwan were constructed near Mong Hsat..." The KMT never successfully invaded China, but they did manage to take control of the Shan State's (eastern Burma) opium production, which increased from about 40 tons in the early 1950s to about 300 to 400 tons in 1962. In these early days, KMT controlled opium was sold to the general Phao Sriyanonda of the Thai police, a CIA agent, who redistributed the opium through his airplanes, motor vehicles, and naval vessels, which were provided to him by the CIA. 1972, Alfred W. McCoy, 'The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia': "The KMT shipped bountiful harvests to northern Thailand, where they were sold to General Phao Sriyanonda of the Thai police, a CIA client. The CIA had promoted the Phao-KMT partnership in order to provide a secure rear area for the KMT, but this alliance soon became a critical factor in the growth of Southeast Asia's narcotics traffic... Usually the KMT dealt with the commander of the Thai police, General Phao, who shipped the opium from Chiangmai to Bangkok for both local consumption and export. (160)... In 1951 a CIA front organization, Sea Supply Corporation, began delivering lavish quantities of naval vessels, arms, armored vehicles, and aircraft to General Phao's police force. (194) With these supplies Phao was able to establish a police air force, a maritime police, a police armored division, and a police paratroop unit. " The OPC, founded in 1948 and not responsible to the DCI until 1950, was a secret continuation of the tasks of the OSS, having been established in accordance with NSC 10/2. According to its secret charter, the OPC's responsibilities included "propaganda, economic warfare, preventive direct action, including sabotage, antisabotage, demolition and evacuation procedures; subversion against hostile states, including assistance to underground resistance groups, and support of indigenous anti-communist elements in threatened countries of the free world." The OPC was largely created by the State Department's George Kennan (CFR), who came up with the policy of Containment around the same time. Head of the OPC was Frank Wisner, a veteran of the OSS, who initiated Operation Mockingbird (to subvert the foreign and domestic media), was involved in Operation Bloodstone (one of the programs that involved the recruiting of former German Nazi officers and diplomats who could be used in the covert war against the Soviet Union), and was a co-planner of the coups which brought down Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran and Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala. By 1952, the OPC had 4,000 agents in forty-seven stations with a budget of $82 million. Money for the project was drawn from untraceable government accounts, such as those of the CIA, and laundered through American corporations whose leaders had expressed a willingness to work with Wisner and the OPC. Gehlen was deeply involved in the OPC project. Stilwell was in command of a regiment in Korea in 1953. Instructor at the Army War College in Korea 1954-1956. Chief of staff of the Presidential Mission to Far East in 1954. Chief of strategic planning at SHAPE 1956-1958. Left SHAPE in June 1958 to become Commander of the Western Area, Germany. In 1959, he drafted his recommendations for a special Presidential Committee under General William Draper reporting to President Eisenhower: that the U.S. help develop "higher level military schools" with political-economic curricula in the Third World, to encourage local armies to become "internal motors" for "socio-political transformation". He later formed a group of retired military personnel called the 'Gray Eagles', whose intent was to train third world armies. Member of the Council on Foreign Relations since at least 1961. Member of the Atlantic Council. Involved in 1962 in creating the big business and CIA-affiliated American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD), aimed at taking control over trade union movements in Latin America. The AIFLD used to be chaired by Pilgrims Society, 1001 Club, and SMOM member J. Peter Grace. Stilwell's partner in creating the statutes of the AIFLD was Col. Edward G. Lansdale, a designer of Operation Mongoose in 1961 and Operation Northwoods in 1962. Stilwell went on to command Army units in Vietnam and the the United States. Stilwell was at least informed of the 1963 Ngo Dinh Diem coup before it happened, and may have had an active role in planning it. Chief of operations of the U.S. Military Assistance Command in Vietnam in 1963. Chief of staff of U.S. Military Assistance Command, under general William C. Westmoreland, in Vietnam 1964-1965. Chief of the Joint U.S. Military Advisory Group in Thailand 1965-1967. Commanding general of the 1st Armored Division at Fort Hood, Texas 1967-1968. Deputy commander general at the 3rd Marine Amphibious Force. Commanding general of the XXIV U.S. Army Corps 1968-1969. In 1969, as opposition to the Vietnam war grew, Stilwell was the one who personally quashed the reports of dissenting colonels, and who, though he was not in intelligence at the time, went through the intelligence reports, tidying them up. Deputy chief of staff of military operations of the U.S. Army and senior Army member of the U.S. delegations Military Staff Committee of the United Nations 1969-1972. Commanding general of the 6th U.S. Army, San Francisco 1972-1973. Commander-in-Chief of UN and American forces in Korea from 1974 to 1976. Member of the in 1976 revived Committee on Present Danger, a reactionary anti-communist think tank that included people like John F. Lehman, Clare Booth Luce, Paul H. Nitze, Richard Perle (friend of Brian Crozier, head of Le Cercle at that time), Richard Pipes, (a later associate of Crozier), Eugene Rostow, Admiral Elmo Zumwalt (former Chief of Naval Operations), George Shultz, William Casey (Le Cercle), Richard Allen, Jeane Kirkpatrick, and David Packard. Friend of General John K. Singlaub, who set up the American chapter of the World Anti-Communist League (WACL). President of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers in the late 1970s (succeeding the first president David Atlee Phillips). June 16, 1978, Washington Post, 'Intelligence Bill Called 'Overreaction' to Abuses': "Former U.S. intelligence officers protested yesterday that a Senate plan for restructuring the nation's intelligence community would come close to stopping all covert operations. Continuing a series of intelligence-establishment complaints about the omnibus bill, the Association of Former Intelligence Officers assailed it at a Senate hearing as far too restrictive, "an overreaction to a few abuses of the past," in the face of a growing Soviet threat. Association President Richard G. Stilwell, a retired Army general who once served as the Central Intelligence Agency's chief of covert actions for the Far East, said his organization also feels that the bill is mislableled in being called "the National Intelligence Reorganization and Reform Act of 1978."... The head of the retired spy group, which claims more than 2,500 members, was even more critical of proposed controls on surveillance of foreign intelligence operations in this country. The Senate has already approved legislation to require the issuance of judicial warrants for such surveillance. Stilwell denounced the idea, insofar as it applies to "agents of foreign powers," as "incredible . . . unnecessary" and even "unconstitutional." He said it ought to be called "An Act to Convey Fourth Amendment Rights on the Soviet Embassy and all KGB Officers in the United States and All Other Foreigners."" Stilwell went to the January 1980 Le Cercle Meeting in Zurich. In November 1980, as one of the national security advisers to the newly elected Reagan, Stilwell co-wrote a report called 'Strategic Guidance' that claimed the United States had to be ready to use force on its own without its allies and that no part of the world would be outside US interest. Then he came up with the idea to administer lie-detector tests to civilian staff on a regular basis before giving them access to sensitive information. Stilwell was Deputy Under-Secretary of Defense for Policy from 1981 to 1985. Brian Crozier, a friend, Cercle chairman, and founder of The 61 secret intelligence group, wrote in his 1993 book (p.177): "A four-star general, Dick Stilwell had served with distinction in Vietnam. Under President Reagan, he was appointed Assistant Defense Secretary. While in this post, he joined the inner group of The 61... (He was not related to General "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell, who had liaised with Chiang Kai-shek during World War II: an assumption frequently made, to the annoyance of Dick Stilwell.)" Stilwell's 1991 obituaries concur, sometimes after a correction, that he was not related to General Joseph Stilwell. May 15, 1994, The Washington Times, 'Crozier, covert acts, CIA and Cold War': "I hesitate to envision the reaction of the late Gen. Richard G. Stilwell, with whom I worked in the 1980s, should he see himself publicly identified as a "61-er."... But Mr. Crozier is one of the heroes who spent a lifetime keeping the barbarians outside the gate. He, of all people, deserves a gloat over his victory." In 1981, Stilwell was involved in the creation of the Washington-based U.S. Global Strategy Council (USGSC), together with media-magnate and Pilgrims Society member Henry Luce III (his grandfather bought and held on to the JFK Zapruder film; President of the Pilgrims of the United States since 1997), and former CIA deputy-director Ray Cline (a member of the World Anti-Communist League - WACL). As deputy under-secretary of defense from 1981 to 1985, he created SFD-K, a secret intelligence group which mainly operated in South-East Asia and was involved in trying to rescue US POWs in North Korea and North Vietnam. After it was exposed in the early 1980s, Stilwell began patroning (some sources claim he founded it) Intelligence Support Activity (ISA), a top secret special forces unit set up under Jimmy Carter to retrieve South-East Asia POWs and to conduct the most secret and sensitive special operations around the world. It trained and worked with Delta Force and DEVGRU (the follow-up of Seal Team 6) and had no Congressional oversight. The DIA and Navy tried to gain control over ISA in later years. July 23, 1998, Michael Ruppert, 'The POWs, CIA and Drugs': "The ISA, which ran Gritz's mission, was created by Army General Richard Stilwell. It has been repeatedly linked to drug smuggling by sources including the daughter of Col. Albert Carone who served as Oliver North's bagman and bill-payer during the eighties. Records left behind after Carone's death in 1990 and eyewitness statements clearly indicate that Carone handled both drugs and drug money for CIA, North and the NSC. Carone's personal phone book contains the home addresses and telephone numbers of William Casey [Le Cercle; Wackenhut legal counsel; CIA; SMOM; Bohemian Grove camp Mandalay], Gambino crime boss Pauly Castellano and Stilwell [Le Cercle]." 2004, Michael Ruppert, 'Crossing the Rubicon', p. 164: "A retired NYPD Detective, also a “made” member of the Genovese crime family, Carone spent his entire working career as a CIA operative... For more than 25 years before his mysterious death in 1990, Al Carone served as a bagman and liaison between George Bush, CIA Director Bill Casey, Oliver North, Richard Nixon [Le Cercle] and many other prominent figures including Robert Vesco [1001 Club], Manuel Noriega and Ferdinand Marcos." Carone, a member of the Knights of Malta, was good friends with Santos Trafficante, Sam Giancana, Vito Genovese, and William Casey. Casey used Carone as a "cut out" to pass sensitive insider information to Mob capo Pauley Castellano, says his daughter, Dee. Carone was the bagman for Casey and Oliver North in many of their drug trafficking exploits. Deputy Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci, in a memo to Stilwell, described the ISA in 1982 as "Our own CIA... uncoordinated and uncontrolled". On February 4, 1983, a short cancellation notice was sent to a number of Defense Department officials at the request of Stilwell. The memo asked recipients to "remove and destroy immediately" any copies of two Defense Department directives in their possession--the top secret and confidential versions of a directive titled "The Defense Special Plans Office." As Stilwell explained in a memo two days earlier, "The directives were charter documents establishing a DoD activity whose establishment subsequently was not authorized by Congress." Chairman of the DoD Security Review Commission in 1985. Member of the Special Operations Policy Advisory Group (SOPAG) in the mid-1980s, together with general Richard Secord. It had been set up in 1983 by Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Fred Ikle, and was chaired by general John Singlaub (with Stilwell, Gen. Yarborough, Messing and Gen. Graham being among the other members). Aderholt and Singlaub would both play a role in fund-raising for the contras and arranging their resupply. December 5, 1986, Philadelphia Inquirer, 'Secord lost position over disclosure form': "Retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Richard V. Secord, considered a key figure in the Iran arms-contra aid controversy, was quietly dropped from his last Pentagon post a year ago because he refused to complete a personal financial- disclosure report, Defense Department officials said yesterday. Secord was removed from an unpaid position on the Special Operations Planning and Advisory Group, an 11-member panel dominated by retired senior generals who advise the secretary of defense and his top military and civilian officials on special and covert operations policy... According to R. Lynn Rylander [former executive director of SOPAG] and others, the panel was created in late 1983 to help Pentagon officials expand the role of Army Green Berets, Navy SEALS and Air Force Air Commandos in missions to aid anti-communist insurgencies and counterinsurgencies - including the Nicaraguan rebels, known as contras... Rylander described the special advisory group, which meets six to 10 times a year, as "totally non-sinister . . . merely a policy advisory group divorced from operational matters." An informed Defense Department official, however, said that the group was empowered to review all Pentagon covert operations, and one panel member said the group could consider such sensitive issues as military relations with the CIA. Both the panel member and the Defense Department official asked not to be identified. Current members of the group, all retired from active duty, include: Army Lt. Gen. Sam Wilson, former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency; Army Central Command Gen. Robert Kingston; Air Force Lt. Gen. Leroy Manor, a Southeast Asia commando leader during the Vietnam War; Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eugene C. Meyer; Army Gen. Richard Stilwell, a Korean War commander; Army Lt. Gen. William Yarborough, special forces commander in the Kennedy administration, and Army Brig. Gen. Donald D. Blackburn, former commander of the 77th Special Forces Group. They advise the secretary of defense, Caspar W. Weinberger; the assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, Richard L. Armitage, and the commander of the Joint Special Operations Agency, Air Force Maj. Gen. Thomas Kelly." General Edward Lansdale and general Harry Aderholt were other members of the panel. Secord was one of the key players in Iran Contra, and heavily involved with Shackley and the Nugan Hand Bank, which laundered billions of dollars of dope money coming from the Golden Triangle. Daniel Sheehan of the Christic Institute and Wall Street Journal journalist Jonathan Kwitny both exposed Secord's role in this bank. September 11, 1988, Washington Post, 'The ultimate conspiracy theory': "Serving first as the CIA's East Asia operations chief and later as assistant deputy director of clandestine operations, Shackley (with his trusty aide Clines) supposedly stole tons of U.S. weapons from South Vietnam and stashed them in Thailand. Later, Sheehan claims, Shackley, Clines, Secord and a member of the "shooter team" named Rafael "Chi-Chi" Quintero siphoned off millions of dollars in Southeast Asia opium profits and laundered them through the mysterious Nugan Hand bank of Australia." General Leroy Manor was head of the Philippine branch of the Nugan Hand Bank (name given by: August 17, 1983, Wall Street Journal, 'Bank's Links to Ex-CIA Men Detailed). Air Force colonel and CIA insider Fletcher Prouty wrote that general Sam Wilson of the DIA, also a member of the Special Operations Planning and Advisory Group, was aware of the use of drugs to pay some troops in Burma during WWII. Richard Armitage was one of the most important players in handling the financial aspects of the heroin trade in the Golden Triangle. On the other hand, Col. Bo Gritz, who exposed several of these dope dealers, named general Yarborough as one of his personal heros. President of Stilwell Associates from 1986 to his death in 1991, a consulting firm that specialized in national security affairs. It counted the Defense Department and the CIA among his clients (December 27, 1991, The Milwaukee Journal, Obituary of Stilwell). Consultant to the secretary of defense and to the CIA at the time of his death. Dick Cheney was secretary of defense in these years and William Webster was DCI. In 1987, one year after setting up his company, he travelled to the Philippines, where at that moment a coup against president Corazon C. Aquino was in the final stages of its planning. Aquino, a moderate socialist, was not very popular with either the Reagan administration or the communists. The coup would fail. September 16, 1987, Philadelphia Inquirer, 'U.S. backing for Philippine junta alleged': "In part because of the heavy U.S. military presence - as well as memories of four decades of American colonial rule and Washington's longtime support of Ferdinand E. Marcos - Filipinos are markedly wary of American intervention in their affairs... No available evidence directly links any U.S. officials to the political upheaval here. Lack of documented evidence, however, has not been enough to check the spread of reports of improper U.S. involvement. For example, according to an official familiar with the operations of the U.S. Embassy, such reports were fueled early this year by the presence of Maj. Gen. John K. Singlaub, a key figure in the channeling of funds to the contra forces in Nicaragua and a leader of the World Anti-Communist League. Singlaub came to the Philippines in November and early this year on visits that he described as purely private, a search for sunken treasure [some have alleged that the Golden Lilly, an enormous Japanese war loot that was mostly buried in the Philippines, has been dug up over the decades to finance covert operations. Col. Lansdale, another close associate of Stilwell, is said to have been a key figure in this process]. But when the visits were disclosed in the Philippines, Singlaub immediately left Manila amid reports that his real purpose may have been linked to covert operations. "Such presence in the country over the past year has made a lot of people suspicious," the official said. "There has been some right-wing American involvement in this country."... Last month, another American visitor to the islands raised further suspicions of U.S. covert involvement. That visitor was Richard G. Stilwell... Stilwell visited the Philippines for 10 days in August, leaving the country shortly before the Honasan uprising. He visited the islands of Cebu, Negros and Mindanao - islands that have been fertile ground for both the 23,000- member communist New People's Army (NPA) and right-wing separatist movements. Sources in Manila indicated that his mission was to look into a "contra- type" operation against the NPA. In an telephone interview from his consulting office in Washington, Stilwell denied that there was any official U.S. backing for his trip. "I was traveling at the request of no one," he said. "I had a compelling desire to see it firsthand." Stilwell however, did not deny that he was circulating a report on his findings in the U.S. military and intelligence community. In his report, Stilwell said that unless Aquino acted decisively on military and political fronts - and embraced the right-of-center leaders in the private and public sector - there could be "a political breakdown" resulting in a coalition government with the communists within the next two years. "Washington is worried" about that, he said, adding that the United States "very desperately wants her (Aquino) to succeed, wants to preserve her as the one unifying symbol of the non-communist populace."... He reiterated that Washington's overriding interest was the establishment of a stable democracy. "The U.S. interest in the bases," he said, "is less than, or subsumed to, the emergence of the Philippine government as a member of the free world."... Another official who closely follows event in the U.S. Embassy noted that embassy personnel could not be sure what individual Americans were doing in the Philippines. "The problem," the official said, "is that in the post-Iran era, people in the embassy aren't so sure any more that there is not some offshoot group operating here that they don't know anything about." One senior aide to Aquino said internal intelligence reports indicated that more than 150 CIA operatives were active in the Philippines. Last year, according to Reagan administration sources, President Reagan issued a ''finding" authorizing covert CIA operations in the Philippines. It is unclear exactly what that decision allows, but according to sources in Washington, Reagan's move would authorize the CIA to step up surveillance, counterrevolutionary training and assistance programs, and to sponsor and fund pro-U.S. groups in the Philippines. In a meeting Friday with several U.S. Embassy officials, a high-level Philippine government official described his own suspicion that a "lost command" of the CIA, maneuvering outside the normal channels of operations, played a role in events surrounding the Aug. 28 military revolt. In an interview later, the official said he met with the U.S. Embassy representatives at their request. They wanted to know, he said, "about perceptions of U.S. involvement in the events of the last two weeks." The palace official said he responded that "there was a general feeling that the U.S. was involved." He said he was not convinced that the United States had no role in the events and recalled, "I asked them why some CIA types were in town over the last eight weeks and what were they doing here." He said the U.S. officials did not answer that question directly but instead responded that Reagan "made this very strong statement" in support of the Aquino government. Still, the palace source said he believed that American involvement could not be ruled out. "They never tell you what they are up to," he said. "These CIA guys who are in town, we perceive as part of the lost command.""

AMERICARES

In 1991 Stilwell was identified as a member of the Advisory Committee of Americares, the largest US relief organization tied to the Knights of Malta and the Bush family. August 11, 1991, Hartford Courant, 'Americares' success hailed, criticized charity uses clout and connections...': "Other international relief agencies marvel at AmeriCares' ability to cut red tape, navigate complex international protocol, perform in the public spotlight and simultaneously claim some of the lowest administrative expenses among groups of its kind... Much of AmeriCares' success comes from its ability to harness three potent forces: powerful political connections, alliances with influential religious figures and groups and cooperative ventures with businesses... Knowledgeable former federal officials, many with backgrounds in intelligence work, help AmeriCares maneuver in delicate international political environments. Its connections with the Roman Catholic Church have brought AmeriCares an influential ally in the Knights of Malta, a Catholic group that helps deliver relief supplies. And its ventures with pharmaceutical companies have filled AmeriCares' warehouses with donated supplies... in the international relief community, where there is an expectation that groups will operate altruistically and free of political motives, some complain about the way AmeriCares aggressively seeks media coverage and appears to design its missions to benefit conservative political causes... Photographs on the office's forest-green walls show [Robert C.] Macauley [wealthy; founder and chairman of AmeriCares] with former President Reagan, Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa... Macauley's friendship with [George H. W.] Bush dates back to childhood... Bush's son, Jeb, and the president's grandson, George P. Bush, went with AmeriCares to Armenia in 1988 to help survivors of a devastating earthquake... The president's brother, Prescott S. Bush Jr. of Greenwich, is a member of AmeriCares' advisory board... The chairman of the advisory committee is J. Peter Grace Jr... Retired Army Gen. Richard G. Stilwell, former deputy undersecretary of defense in charge of intelligence under Reagan, is also on the advisory committee. Another member is William E. Simon... Simon was also president of the Nicaraguan Freedom Fund, a now defunct private group formed by the Washington Times newspaper to send aid to the contras. (The Washington Times is owned by a group that includes officials of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church.) Gordon J. Humphrey, a retired Republican senator from New Hampshire who was a member of the Senate foreign relations committee, is also on the committee. And Zbigniew Brzezinski, the conservative former national security adviser for President Carter, is honorary chairman of the AmeriCares board of directors."... "Personally I have some questions about the way they focus," said one longtime worker in international aid. "They're connected into the American Republican power elite. You might say they work in areas where there is a large anti-communist benefit."... criticism has come from writers who contend that AmeriCares made shipments of aid to the contras in Nicaragua... Among the aid AmeriCares sent to Nicaragua in 1985 was newsprint for La Prensa, the anti-Sandinista newspaper... A review of AmeriCares' well publicized airlift missions shows that the organization sends aid rapidly and frequently to "hot spots" of public attention, places where disaster aid from America might reflect favorably on the U.S. government... In 1988, AmeriCares sent a series of airlifts to Armenia in the Soviet Union to help survivors of an earthquake. "That did more for the image of the United States than anything in recent history," Macauley said... In the early 1970s, at a time when his interest in international aid was beginning to coalesce into AmeriCares, Macauley heard about a Catholic priest named Bruce Ritter who was struggling to help runaway children on the streets of New York City... The alliance between Macauley and Ritter led to an audience with Pope John Paul II in Rome in 1982. (Ritter left Covenant House in February 1990 after accusations of sexual misconduct with some male runaways he was helping). The meeting with the pope gave life to AmeriCares. Although Macauley started AmeriCares in 1979, the organization did not go on its first relief mission until 1982, when the pope asked Macauley to send aid to his native Poland. AmeriCares' contacts with important Catholic figures brought it a valuable ally in the Knights of Malta, a Catholic organization that has helped distribute AmeriCares supplies. The Knights of Malta, formally known as the Sovereign Military Order of Knights Hospitallers of St. John and Jerusalem, is a worldwide Catholic charity founded in the 11th century to care for soldiers in the Crusades. Today, the group is based in Rome. J. Peter Grace, a member of AmeriCares' advisory board, is president of the American chapter of the Knights of Malta, based in New York City. William Simon, another AmeriCares advisory committee member, is also a member... The Knights of Malta make AmeriCares' job easier because of its worldwide network of volunteers, said Johnson, the president of AmeriCares. Members of the group, many of whom are independently wealthy, can be trusted to deliver the aid to its intended destination and do so more efficiently than AmeriCares, he said. "By using the Knights, there's very little opportunity for diversion," Johnson said. "They've all made their fortunes. Now they're interested in charity."... Because almost 50 countries afford the Knights of Malta the same status as a sovereign nation, they are often exempt from fees for border crossings and can pass customs inspections more easily. "The host country will generally waive inspection and duty," said Thomas L. Sheer, executive director of the American chapter of the Knights of Malta and an assistant to J. Peter Grace. "We can use that diplomatic status to move right through customs and to not pay customs fees. We can exploit that, particularly within a time of crisis."... Despite his ties to the Roman Catholic Church, Macauley is not Catholic, although he describes himself as a religious man. "They say I'm a right-wing Catholic conservative," Macauley said. "I'm not a Catholic, even though I go to Mass almost every day. I'm a very devout Protestant, I guess you'd call it." AmeriCares also receives small donations from Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network and the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church. AmeriCares has kept the commitment to Poland it began at the behest of the pope. "We go to Poland every week, either by ship or by plane," Macauley said. Between 1982 and this March, AmeriCares sent $94 million in aid to Poland, almost a quarter of all the aid it has dispensed. When the pope called on Macauley to help Poland, Macauley turned to corporate America for help... To get donations for Poland, he and some colleagues sat down with lists of the boards of directors from the nation's largest pharmaceutical companies. Among them, the group found, they knew at least one person on every board."

www.americares.org (Feb. 11, 1998): "Ambassador-at-Large Barbara Bush. Honorary Chairman Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski. Founder and Chairman Robert C. Macauley. ... Vice President and Chief Financial Officer A. James Forbes, Jr. ... Corporate Operations Secretary Leila Macauley. ... Advisory committee: Chairman (1982-1995) J. Peter Grace, Jr. Chairman, W. R. Grace & Co. (1948-1995). Louis F. Bantle, Chairman Emeritus, UST. Prescott S. Bush, Jr. Prescott Bush Resources, Ltd. Lawrence S. Eagleburger, Former Secretary of State. Thomas J. Flatley, President, The Flatley Company. Robert W. Galvin, Chairman, Executive Committee, Motorola. Gordon J. Humphrey, United States Senate (1979-1990). James Earl Jones, Horatio Productions. Virginia A. Kamsky, Founder and CEO, Kamsky Associates, Inc. Sol M. Linowitz, Academy for Educational Development. Peter S. Lynch, Vice Chairman, Fidelity Management Research Corporation. J. Richard Munro, Chairman, Executive Committee, Time Warner. Gen. Colin L. Powell USA (RET). Howard J. Rubenstein, President, Rubenstein & Associates. Teresa I. Tarnowski, AmeriCares Project Director (1982-1996). Elie Wiesel 1986 Nobel Peace Prize."

www.americares.org (June 16, 2001): "Board of Directors: Robert C. Macauley. ... Richard G. Stilwell, Jr. [killed in a traffic accident in November 2002, some time after resigning the AmeriCares board]... Advisory Committee: Barbara Bush. Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski. J. Peter Grace, Jr. ... Prescott S. Bush, Jr. Lawrence S. Eagleburger. ... Robert W. Galvin. ... James Earl Jones ... Virginia A. Kamsky. Sol M. Lonowitz. Peter S. Lynch. J. Richard Munro. Howard J. Rubenstein. Teresa I. Tarnowski. Elie Wiesel."

www.americares.org (Oktober 15, 2002): "Board of Directors: Robert C. Macauley. ... Advisory Committee: Barbara Bush. Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski. Louis F. Bantle. Prescott S. Bush, Jr. Lawrence S. Eagleburger. Thomas J. Flatley. Robert W. Galvin. Gordon J. Humphrey. James Earl Jones. Virginia A. Kamsky. Sol M. Linowitz. Peter S. Lynch. J. Richard Munro. Howard J. Rubenstein. Teresa I. Tarnowski. Elie Wiesel. ... [same page:] On September 11, 2001, Aimee refocused her leadership skills to confront the devastating attacks on the World Trade Center. She worked with AmeriCares' project directors to coordinate and deliver over 200,000 lbs of disaster relief supplies to Ground Zero and its surrounding neighborhoods. "

Stilwell continued: Chairman of the Korean War Veterans Memorial advisory board. Personal military decorations included two Silver Stars, the Distinguished Service Medal, the Bronze Star, the Legion of Merit and the Purple Heart, as well as awards from Vietnam, Greece, Italy, Belgium, France, the Soviet Union, Thailand and South Korea. According to Al Martin in an interview with Uri Dowbenko, "Stilwell was also very close to Armitage, Carlucci, and Pete Peterson." According to Al Martin, in his 'The Conspirators', Stilwell was part of William Casey's (Le Cercle) "Restricted Access Groups". On the advisory board of the Institute for the Study of American Wars, a research center set up in 1984. Other members of the advisory board were Alexander Haig, Dean Rusk and Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr., with John H. Harkanson, a Wilmington manager of Du Pont, as chairman. Died in 1991. His son and namesake, who also used the name "Dick", died in a car accident in 2002. His son was a retired colonel.

www.americares.org (Oktober 15, 2002): "Board of Directors: Robert C. Macauley. ... Advisory Committee: Barbara Bush. Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski. Louis F. Bantle. Prescott S. Bush, Jr. Lawrence S. Eagleburger. Thomas J. Flatley. Robert W. Galvin. Gordon J. Humphrey. James Earl Jones. Virginia A. Kamsky. Sol M. Linowitz. Peter S. Lynch. J. Richard Munro. Howard J. Rubenstein. Teresa I. Tarnowski. Elie Wiesel. ... [same page:] On September 11, 2001, Aimee refocused her leadership skills to confront the devastating attacks on the World Trade Center. She worked with AmeriCares' project directors to coordinate and deliver over 200,000 lbs of disaster relief supplies to Ground Zero and its surrounding neighborhoods. "

COLONEL JOHN ALEXANDER:

June 2010, Fortean Times, 'Paranormal Soldier: John Alexander From Special Services to spoon-benders and UFOs': "JIM SCHNABEL: How did you end up getting the job at INSCOM? JOHN ALEXANDER: One day, I spoke at a big civilian conference in the Washington area on various psi phenomena. It turned out that a friend of the woman who had organised the conference was the wife of Richard Stillwell, a retired four-star general who was then an undersecretary of defence. She convinced her husband to talk to me, and soon I was called to have a meeting with him. It was a one-on-one meeting, a free ranging thing, and he asked me what sort of work I was doing and so on. Turned out he had plans for me, so I was taken out of IG and a short time later ended up at INSCOM under Major General Stubblebine. JS: What was your job description at INSCOM? JA: We created a position: Chief of Advanced Human Technology."

Sources: November 11, 1977, supposed White House memo K3100092255 on Strauss visiting Cercle Violet in 1977; October 1989 – Issue 18, Lobster Magazine, 'The Pinay Circle and Destabilisation in Europe'; 1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', page 192; 1997, Robert Hutchinson, 'Their Kingdom Come – Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei', pp. 153-158; 2002, David Rockefeller, 'Memoirs', pp. 412-413, referring to the Pesenti Group

Strauss studied germanistics, history and economics at the University of Munich from 1935 to 1939. In World War II, he served in the german Wehrmacht, on the Western and Eastern Fronts. While on furlough, he passed the German state exams to become a teacher. After suffering from severe frostbites at the Eastern Front at the end of 1942, he served as an Offizier fuer wehrgeistige Fuehrung (kind of political officer) at the anti-aircraft artillery school in Altenstadt, near Schongau. After the war, he was appointed deputy Landrat (county president) of Schongau by the American occupiers and was involved in founding the local (Bavarian) CSU there in 1945, in which Count Hans Huyn and Otto von Habsburg became involved. The national CSU was the CDU. He became a member of the first Bundestag in 1949 and, in 1953, Federal Minister for Special Affairs in the second cabinet of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, in 1955 Federal Minister of Nuclear Energy (supported the idea that Germany should build nuclear weapons), and in 1956 defense minister, charged with the build-up of the new Bundeswehr. Became chairman of the CSU in 1961. Great orator, not unlike Hitler. Forced to step down as defense minister in 1962, in the wake of the Spiegel scandal (he lied to parliament). Held a lakeside talk at the Bohemian Grove in 1962. Minister of finance 1966-1969, in the cabinet of Kurt Georg Kiesinger. August 16, 1969, The Gleaner, 'Britain's new bid to enter the ECM': "The Action Committee for the United States of Europe met for the first time in London on March 11, and expressed the belief that nothing is more important than to strengthen and continue the European integration which the Six have already begun by ensuring that Great Britain joins in. Both the main contenders for the office of President of France [Cercle members Alain Poher and Georges Pompidou] are vying with each other in their declarations that they want Britain in the Common Market, provided she will accept the terms of the Treaty of Rome. The West German Foreign Minister has expressed the belief and hope that negotiations for Britain's entry might begin before the end of the year; his colleague in the Finance Ministry, Herr Strauss, has urged immediate negotiations between Britain and the Six." After the SPD provided the Chancellor in 1969, Strauss became one of the most vocal critics of Willy Brandt's Ostpolitik. Rival of Helmut Kohl (and Helmut Schmidt). The aristocrat Count Hans Huyn was his foreign policy advisor in the Bundestag from 1971 to 1976, and was likely a person involved in creating The 61. Huyn was a good friend of Strauss. From 1978 until his death in 1988, Strauss was minister-president of Bavaria, possibly the most memorable figure to ever hold that office. After Strauss became minister-president of Bavaria, he slowly retreated from German national politics. A major aim of Le Cercle was to influence West German elections to ensure that Franz Joseph Strauss, the ultra right wing leader of the Christian Social Union Party, became Chancellor of Germany. It failed. Strauss was a close friend of Alexandre de Marenches and was a frequent visitor of the SDECE's headquarters during Marenches' time. In late 1977 he went to a meeting of Le Cercle. The Hanns Seidel Stiftung (Foundation), the political trust attached to Strauss' Christian Social Union (CSU) party, is an important group in international parapolitical manipulation. Active in Latin America for the Contras, supporting Mobuto in Zaire, involved in the Fiji coup in 1987. It was caught diverting state development aid from Germany into right-wing party coffers in Ecuador in 1987. Strauss and CSU were the main beneficiaries of identified Pinay Circle activities; i.e. the promotion of right-wing European politicians through Brian Crozier, Robert Moss, Fred Luchsinger of the Neue Zurcher Zeitung and Gerhard Lowenthal, anchorman on current affairs programmes for ZDF television, the major German network. In the end, all Cercle's activities have not brought the desired 'regime change'. Strauss was a great supporter of the Paneuropa Union. July 2005, The Trumphet, 'From the Editor: German Election Crisis—and a New Charlemagne': "The late Herbert W. Armstrong met with Mr. Strauss in 1970. Here is what Mr. Armstrong’s Plain Truth staff wrote, September 1979: “In the World Tomorrow television studios on April 2, 1970, Strauss reemphasized a theme that has been constant throughout his career—the urgent need, from his perspective, of a strong united Europe. Asked why he felt a united Europe was essential to the free world, he answered: ‘A united Europe is more essential now for the free world than it would have been anytime before. … Big powers have been established, the United States of America, Russia, Japan. I think that small and medium-sized European states are no longer able to face what the future demands from all of us. … “‘Therefore my political friends and I have been pleading for years and years now for a united Europe. … We need a strong Europe, a Europe with an attractiveness, a Europe with a fascinating cultural, economic, financial power, and a Europe which is also ready and prepared and capable of taking a greater share of the burden in Atlantic defense.’” The Plain Truth later quoted a Sunday Telegraph article about Strauss, which said that as Germany’s chancellor, “he will go for a tougher and more disenchanted view of détente [peace through negotiation]; a strengthening of nato’s defenses and a much stronger European profile within that alliance, including a new European nuclear profile” (July 9, 1979). (Mr. Stoiber has also been a proponent of German nuclear power.) “Strauss, who more than any man can lay claim to being the architect of the Bundeswehr [Germany’s army], is certain to voice his opinion on this issue and others loud and clear!” (Plain Truth, op. cit.)... In his book [The Grand Design], Strauss wrote, “An alliance of the great power of America with the great power of Europe is another matter. Both of them have an unlimited capacity for development in the economic, financial and technical spheres, and their alliance would enable Europe to return to its true historical function. Europe could again fulfill the historical role which it began to lose at the end of the First World War and which at the end of the Second World War appeared to have gone forever.”... That 1979 Plain Truth article contained some more history we must review... Interestingly, von Habsburg counts Bavarian leader Franz Josef Strauss among ‘the few full-blooded politicians’ who ‘in the case of serious national crises are able to accept responsibility because of their clear-sightedness and indomitableness.’ Von Habsburg says he is ‘personally pretty close to his [Strauss’s] ideas in many ways on the European unity subject... “On the United Nations, he [Otto] has declared that the organization is dominated by ‘anti-European illiterates, despots and cannibals.’... “Possibly von Habsburg’s most controversial suggestion has been his recipe for dealing with national emergencies. In the April 1978 issue of his conservative publication Zeitbühne, he suggested that in certain emergency situations (such as nuclear blackmail or other major acts of terrorism) governments should let a strongman take over for a period of nine months, allowing him to suspend laws and ‘take all measure necessary for the maintenance of the life of the population.’" President of Deutsche Airbus during the 1980's. Died while hunting with Prince Johannes von Thurn und Taxis in 1988. In later years, it came out that Strauss was very corrupt: he accepted bribes, expensive gifts, and visited brothels, which other people paid for him. He and some of his friends have also been suspected of taking bribes from companies like Thyssen, to arrange export licenses for the weapons industry. Strauss also maintained contact with DDR Stasi-spy Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski, with whom he arranged a 3 billion mark deal in 1983 to save the economy of the DDR, a move nobody expected of him. Max Strauss, his oldest son, is an acquaintance of Dieter Holzer and Holger Pfahls, BND agents and politicians who were under investigation for illegal weapon sales for Thyssen. In 2005, Angela Merkel of the CDU, the national sisterparty to Stoiber's Bavarian CSU, became the new chancellor of Germany. Immediately it became clear that the CDU's stance toward Putin is far more hardline than Chancellor Schroder's, who actually was on good terms with Putin. Stoiber, who really wanted to be chancellor himself, only partially supported Merkel, but eventually agreed to become Merkel's Minister of Economic Affairs. Edmund Stoiber was Strauss' political protege, and is now head of the Catholic Christian Social Union (CSU). He's a friend of Pope Benedict XVI and of Austria's extreme-right leader, Jörg Haider. Strauss and Stoiber have done a lot to built up Germany's and Bavaria's economy, including a high-tech industry.

April 24, 1972, Der Spiegel, 'Dann wird aufgeblättert, es wird mörderisch': "Franz Josef Strauss - a good friend of BND-General Gerhard Wessel..."

Source(s): 2014, Johannes Grossmann

BA of Cambridge University in 1951. President of the Cambridge Union Society in 1953. Also studied at Sorbonne in Paris. Secretary UK Delegation to UN Disarmament Commission 1955-1956. Wrote 'Disarmament: The Way Ahead' in 1957. Professor of History at the University of Reading, and Chairman of the European committee 1966-1975. Has written pro-European political works such as 'Europe: the Radical Challenge' (1973), as well as histories. In 1977 a 1,500 page third edition of his book 'Cuba, or the Pursuit of Freedom' (originally 1971), which traces the history of Cuba from Spanish colonial rule until the Cuban Revolution. Chairman Centre for Policy Studies 1979-1990, which at the time worked for Margaret Thatcher. Joined the House of Lords in 1981. House of Lords European Union Committee 1983-1986, Televising of Proceedings of the House 1984-1986, Select Committee on Broadcasting 1986-1987, Library and Computers Sub Committee 1988-1990, Works of Art Committee 2006-2010. In 1983 he wrote 'The Revolution on Balance' for the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF pamphlet #5). In 1986 he wrote 'Armed Truce', a history of the beginning of the Cold War. Various other books deal with the history of Spain and Latin America, as well as a book about the history of the slave trade. Trustee, Medinaceli Foundation, Spain.

Source(s): 1984 Cercle meeting in South Africa (list)

Born in 1938. Director Symms Fruit Ranch, Inc., Caldwell, Idaho, 1963-72; member 93d-96th Congresses from 1st Idaho District, U.S. Senate, 1980—1992; member committee on finance, armed service, environment, and pub. works, 1980—1992; president Symms, Lehn Associate Inc., 1993—1998; partner Symms & Haddow associate, 1999—2000, Parry, Romani, DeConcini & Symms, 2001—. Director with the PanAmerica Capital Group and Bellhaven Copper & Gold, Inc. Symms was selected to receive the U.S. Marine Corps "Iron Mike" award and the National Guard's "Minuteman of the Year" award, in addition to awards from such groups as the national Federation of Independent Business, the Freedom Foundation, the American Security Council, the Watchdog of the Treasury, Americans for Constitutional Action and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Senator who replaced Frank Church. Supporter of Cheney and Jesse Helms.

July 9, 1980, PR Newswire, '': "-- Several congressmen, including some with key committee assignments in the commodities area, are heavy commodity traders for their own accounts. In one case, Representative Steve Symms (R.-Idaho) made significant silver investments two weeks before cosponsoring legislation to buy $500 million worth of silver for the national stockpile. He sold his silver futures two weeks after the stockpile bill was introduced last year and made a substantial profit on the transaction."

November 17, 1978, AP: "A conservative organization that fought against ratification of the Panama Canal treaty accused the Carter administration Friday of spending nearly $11 million illegally to implement the agreement. ... Rep. Steve Symms, R-Idaho, a director of the ACU, said "the fight over the canal treaties is not over" and opponents will try to kill any legislation to implement the pacts, which were ratified by the Senate earlier this year. At issue is $10.9 million being spend from a military construction contingency fund to relocate American facilities from property being turned over to Panama as part of the treaty."

October 10, 2003, Lewiston Morning Tribune (Idaho), 'Bethine Church's book is lively look at her years in politics': "Bethine Church, a governor's daughter, was no stranger to politics when she married the future chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and shortly thereafter hit the campaign trail with a gusto that carried her through five Senate races and a run for the presidency. They were Frank Church's campaigns but they may as well have been hers, for she was laboring by his side or on his behalf throughout this joint career. ... Herman Welker, their opponent in the first general election campaign in 1956, she describes as "a notorious red baiter, known as the poor man's Joe McCarthy." Equally notorious in his own way was George Hansen, their opponent in 1968. Bethine has this to say about him: "A few years after that campaign, I discovered that George Hansen was the only person up to that time, and only the second in all time, with whom I would not shake hands." She does not elaborate. She and Frank might have lost the 1974 election, their fourth, had the Republicans nominated a decent antagonist. But their opponent that year was Bob Smith, a nearly unknown right-winger "whose principal source of support seemed to be the John Birch Society." It was a nasty campaign, and Bethine writes that "it turned out that the 1974 campaign would constitute the Right's dress rehearsal for their onslaught against Frank in 1980." That was the year Frank lost the Democratic presidential nomination to Jimmy Carter and lost his fifth run for the Senate to Steve Symms. If Symms is not the one man whom Bethine will never shake hands with, he is a good candidate. He ran a deceitful, below-the-belt campaign. But Bethine's coolness toward Carter, which surfaces several times in the book, may also have been justified by this race. If Carter had not conceded the victory to Ronald Reagan before the polls closed in the Pacific Time Zone -- perhaps causing many northern Idaho voters to stay home -- Frank might have squeezed out another term."

July 14, 1995, Buffalo News (New York), ''Wanted' democrats call Paxon ad direct threat': "Several Democratic House members charged Thursday that the "wanted" slinger published by Rep. Bill Paxon's House Republican Campaign Committee has exposed them and their families to physical danger. At a news conference, Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., one of the 28 targeted in the advertisement, warned that if he or his family are harmed or threatened as a result, "I intend to become very physical with Bill Paxon and confront him in a physical way -- and he knows what I mean!" "I've had to look over my shoulder for most of my life, and I don't take lightly being targeted by the same institution that I'm a part of," said Rush, a member of the Black Panthers in Chicago decades ago who said he had been harassed by federal and local police. ... The ad is part of a national fund-raising appeal mailed by the National Republican Congressional Committee that Paxon, R-Amherst, chairs. It depicts the 28 House Democrats and President Clinton on a "wanted poster" for failing to support the GOP's "Contract With America." Rep. Ronald Dellums, D-Calif., another of the 28, said he called Paxon this week and told him the slingers endangered those pictured and posed a threat to their families. Like Rush, Dellums said he would hold Paxon personally accountable. ... Miller displayed a blowup of a poster the ultraconservative John Birch Society handed out in Dallas in 1963 a few days before President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. The Birch poster carried a front and side view of Kennedy and said he was "wanted for treason." Rep. John Markey, D-Mass., another one of the targeted 28, held the JFK "wanted" poster aloft during Thursday's news conference in the Capitol. Paxon's congressional office referred reporters to the House campaign committee. There, spokesman Carl Veith said the fund-raising letter accompanying the "wanted" poster was not signed by Paxon but by former Sen. Steve Symms of Idaho. Veith said he did not know what title Symms used in the letter."

August 22, 1983, Washington Post, 'Reaction to Kissinger Panel; Right Plans Assault on Latin Policy': "Until last month, conservative groups were preparing a major promotional campaign to boost President Reagan's Central American policies: mailings, advertisements, speeches and television commercials designed to bring the disheveled national consensus into line and drag Congress along with it. Then Reagan named former secretary of state Henry A. Kissinger to head a bipartisan commission on long-range U.S. policy for the region. The right exploded. Now its thunder, in the form of a media assault beginning after Labor Day, instead will urge the public to instruct Reagan and Congress on true anti-communist behavior. "We were ready to make a massive commitment on the administration's behalf and they went and pulled one of the dumbest political moves of any administration yet," said Paul Weyrich, who heads the Coalitions for America but is better known as chief of the new-right Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress. The Kissinger commission is "the same people who gave us Vietnam and the Iran fiasco" and "a real slap in the face to conservatives," said Peter B. Gemma, president of International Policy Forum, a new group he described as "a sort of conservative Trilateral Commission." The media campaign now will "stick to what we think is the right thing to do . . . rather than linking ourselves to the president," Weyrich said. He said that the campaign could have an impact on the 1984 election campaign in the way similar efforts made the Panama Canal treaties a major issue in 1978 and derailed ratification of the SALT II treaty with the Soviet Union in 1980. By Election Day, 1984, Weyrich predicted, "people will be asking Reagan to do what we're asking him to do. It'll be the politically prudent thing for him to do it." Central America has become a top priority for most older conservative organizations and has sparked the founding of several new groups. Weyrich said at least 30 groups have been represented at weekly breakfast strategy sessions and at separate weekly briefings on Central America held by Faith Ryan Whittlesey, Reagan's public liaison officer. Many of these groups are offshoots of others and share officials, funding sources, mailing lists and office space. Most of them are aiming now at the forthcoming educational campaign, which Weyrich said will push "a clear-cut policy of victory in Central America." As outlined by several participants, the program of ads, speeches, television programs and newspaper articles, to continue through the 1984 elections, will include: A declaration that U.S. interests forbid further leftist advances in the region along with detailed descriptions of the Cuban, Nicaraguan and Soviet presence. "Polls show that if people understood about the bases there, that there might be a massive influx of refugees into the United States . . . there would be massive support" for a harder U.S. line, Weyrich said. ... The Citizens' Commission on the Crisis in the Americas, a 12-member conservative alternative to the Kissinger commission that Phillips and others formed to make its own report on long-term policy. Temporarily headed by James R. Whelan, editor and publisher of The Washington Times, the group includes Sen. Steve Symms (R-Idaho); Ron Godwin, executive director of the Moral Majority, and Lynn Bouchey, head of the Center for Inter-American Security."

October 18, 1983, Washington Post, 'White House Fights Release Of King's File': "The Reagan administration, brushing aside pleas by conservative activists, registered strenuous opposition in federal court yesterday to Sen. Jesse Helms' (R-N.C.) effort to gain access to sealed FBI records on the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. U.S. Attorney Stanley S. Harris accused Helms of ignoring the privacy interests of the slain civil rights leader's family. On behalf of the Justice Department, Harris also discounted Helms' claim that he needs the documents in order to cast "an informed vote" on pending legislation to commemorate King's birthday with a national holiday. Since Helms has already announced how he plans to vote, Harris said in a 10-page memorandum, "his real contention is that other senators need this information in order that they can cast 'informed' votes. This is a contention that should be made to his colleagues in the Senate rather than to this court." The government's move came on the heels of statements by Richard A. Viguerie, publisher of the Conservative Digest, and Paul M. Weyrich, president of the Free Congress Foundation, urging administration support of Helms' request. "With the Senate about to vote on legislation which would cast Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as a role model for future generations," Weyrich said, "it is essential all information on his background be provided to the Senate before the vote. The Reagan administration has a legal and moral duty to the American public to see that the information is released." U.S. District Court Judge John Lewis Smith Jr. has set a hearing for 9:30 a.m. today on Helms' petition, in which he was joined yesterday by Sen. Steve Symms (R-Idaho). The Senate is scheduled to vote at 10 a.m. on a motion to recommit the House-passed King holiday bill. The Reagan administration initially opposed the measure, which would make the third Monday in January a national holiday in honor of King's birthday, Jan. 15, 1929. Smith had ordered the tapes, transcripts and other records growing out of the FBI's bugging and wiretapping of King between 1963 and 1968 put under seal for 50 years. The court action in 1977 reflected a settlement between the Carter Justice Department and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which had sought a court finding that the FBI surveillance was illegal and unconstitutional."

July 28, 1985, New York Times, 'Conservatives push to induce Shultz to leave': "Secretary of State George P. Shultz has become a target of a new drive by Republican conservatives who accuse him of handling terrorism too gingerly and of being too soft in dealing with the Soviet Union. Three former ambassadors and leaders of several conservative groups have called for his resignation, accusing him of ''undermining President Reagan's foreign policy.'' Next Thursday, several groups, including Moral Majority, the Conservative Caucus, the Conservative Digest and the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress, plan a conference to mount a campaign against Mr. Shultz and the ''the Foreign Service bureaucracy.'' ... In the Senate, Republican conservatives like Malcolm Wallop of Wyoming and Steve Symms of Idaho have accused Mr. Shultz of lack of action in opposing what they view as Soviet expansionism in Central America. Attacks from Three Ex-Envoys But the sharpest attacks have come from outside Congress. Three former envoys have accused Mr. Shultz of ''undermining President Reagan's foreign policy'' and have called for his removal. They are David B. Funderburk, Ambassador to Rumania from 1981 to 1985; Charles M. Lichenstein, a delegate to the United Nations from 1981 to 1984, and Curtin Winsor Jr., Ambassador to Costa Rica from 1983 to 1985. Similar calls for his resignation have come from Ron Godwin, executive vice president of Moral Majority; Paul Weyrich, director of the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress; Howard Phillips, chairman of the Conservative Caucus; Burton Yale Pines, vice president of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative group, and James T. Hackett, the foundation's director of publications."

November 30, 1987, Washington Post, 'Soviets Hint at Major Shift in Military Policy; Reagan's Arms-Control Dream Is Nightmare for Conservatives': "Reagan came back from his first summit with Gorbachev in Geneva in 1985 convinced that he was a different kind of Soviet leader, one with whom he could negotiate. In the euphoria of post-summit evaluations, the president compared the Soviet leader to movie producers he had bargained with in Hollywood. The president's belief that Gorbachev was different persisted even after the disappointment of last year's Reykjavik, Iceland, summit in which the two leaders discussed a breathtaking array of proposals, including destroying their nuclear arsenals, without reaching any agreements. Last Sept. 22, at a White House meeting arranged by Paul M. Weyrich of the Free Congress Foundation, Reagan startled a group of conservative leaders with his positive evaluation of Gorbachev. As Weyrich recalled it, the president began his remarks by saying that they "should know better" than to think that his views on communism had changed. However, Weyrich said, the president went on to say that "Gorbachev is a different kind of Soviet leader, the first to say that his goal is not conquering the West . . . . Reagan's view was that internal conditions in the Soviet Union were forcing Gorbachev to deal differently with the West." The conservatives pressed their case that the Soviets remained the "Evil Empire" that Reagan had labeled them and cited examples of Soviet conduct in Afghanistan and other regional conflicts. Reagan did not take issue with these points, but he did not change his opinion of Gorbachev, either. "The president feels we have simply misunderstood everything," Weyrich said in an interview last week."

August 7, 1991, UPI, 'Symms won't seek re-election': "Symms moved in to the Senate after serving four consecutive terms in the House, where he was considered one of its more conservative members. Church's support of the Panama Canal treaties and opposition to the Vietnam War branded him a member of the Congressional left. Symms encountered controversy as a candidate because of close ties to Nelson Bunker Hunt, the colorful Texas millionaire whose silver speculating ended in disaster. Hunt was Symm's finance chairman. Symms denied charges he had a conflict of interest for buying silver futures while serving on a House subcommittee overseeing the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. In the Senate, Symms focused on trying to win passage of an anti- Castro policy. He wanted the threat of U.S. military force used to stop Cuban subversion in the Western Hemisphere or the use of Cuba as a base for Soviet nuclear weapons. He succeeded in attaching it to a 1982 supplemental spending bill with the support of President Reagan. While serving as a member of both the Budget and Finance committees, Symms spent much of his time deliberating tax cuts and spending reductions. He was also chairman of the Environment subcommittee on transportation and handled a number of highway bills including the nickel-a-gallon hike in the gasoline tax. In the House, he was an active participant in efforts by GOP conservatives to tie up the Democratic leadership through parliamentary maneuvers, such as demands for roll call votes, frequent quorum calls and numerous amendments. ... He was a member of the American Legion, the International Rotary, and Ducks Unlimited. He received the 1976 and 1977 Statesman Awards from the American Conservative Union, the 1976 Liberty Award from the Congress of Freedom, and the Award for Patriotic Service of the American Coalition of Patriotic Societies."

Source(s): April 6, 2003, The Observer, 'So, Norman, any regrets this time?'; September 5, 2004, Sunday Times, 'Le Cercle of the elite'

King of Jordan from 1952 to 1999. The country defied the west and the other allied leaders by siding with Saddam Hussein in the Gulf War. In 1994 King Hussein led negotiations to end the official state of war with the State of Israel resulting in the Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace. The king wrote three books: Uneasy Lies the Head (1962), about his childhood and early years as king, My War With Israel (1969), and Mon Métier de Roi. King Hussein was an avid amateur radio operator. He also loved to fly airplanes (prop and jet) as well as helicopters. February 18, 1977, Washington Post, 'CIA Paid Millions to Jordan's King Hussein': "The Central Intelligence Agency for 20 years has made secret annual payments totaling millions of dollars to King Hussein of Jordan, The Washington Post has learned... President Ford took no steps to stop the covert payments. Last hear Hussein was paid approximately $750,000 by the CIA. President Carter learned of the payoffs earlier this week after this newspaper began its investigation. He ordered that the payments be stopped... The secret arrangement with Hussein had not been disclosed to Carter by the CIA or by any member of the previous administration, including President Ford, former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger, or former CIA Director George Bush... As justification for the direct cash payments to Hussein, the CIA claimed that Hussein was allowing U.S. intelligence agencies to operate freely in his strategically placed Middle Eastern country. Hussein himself provided intelligence to the CIA and forwarded money from the payments to other government officials who provided intelligence or cooperated with the CIA. Nonetheless, some CIA officials considered the payments nothing more than "bribes" and reported the matter to President Ford's oversight panel... The payments were first made to Hussein in 1957 during the Eisenhower administration. The initial payments apparently ran in the millions of dollars but they were sharply curtailed to the $750,000 level last year. Hussein was only 21 when he first became a beneficiary of CIA funds. It was a time when Jordan was virtually a ward of the United States and Hussein had little money to support his lifestyle, which earned him the reputation as a "playboy prince." Hussein has a well-publicized taste for sports cars and airplanes. As once previously reported, the CIA has provided Hussein with female companions. The agency also provided bodyguards for Hussein's children when they were abroad in school... Over the years, Hussein has maintained friendly relations with the United States and his country has been the recipient of substantial military and economic aid - about $200 million in loans and grants last year alone. The "No Beef" payments to Hussein were made outside the conventional channel of military and economic assistance. Well-placed sources said that nonetheless the United States has not been able to direct Hussein's overall policy decisions. He has not been a "puppet," the sources said, but he has rarely drifted outside the U.S. orbit."

Sources: June 29, 1997, The Independence, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club; Is it the ultimate dishonour' (named as secretary of the Cercle); 23 May-5 June 2001, Punch Magazine, 'Spooks in the House'; September 5, 2004, Sunday Times, 'Le Cercle of the elite' ("thought to include")

Who's Who: Hampton Grammar Sch.; RMA Sandhurst; St John’s Coll., Oxford (MA 1st Class Hons Oriental Studies (Arabic)). MCIL. HM Forces, 1959–66; joined Diplomatic Service, 1969; Kuwait, 1970–72; Aden, 1972–73; FCO, 1973–76; Amman, 1977–80; FCO, 1980–85; Counsellor, Rome, 1985–88; FCO, 1988–95. Mem. Adv. Bd, Good Governance Group, 2008–. Order of the Star of Jordan, 2nd cl., 1995. Middle East consultant; HM Diplomatic Service, retired

An MI6 officer since 1969 who has served in Kuwait, Aden, Jordan. From 1992 until his retirement in late 1995, Tantum was head of MI6's Middle East section. He met with Jonathan Aitken every six weeks. The minister and the MI6 officer traded information and contacts candidly about the Middle East as Aitken had maintained close contact with his Arab business associates. May 21, 1998, The Guardian, 'Aitken lied 'to hide intelligence role'': "The former minister [Aitken] will say he was involved in at least 11 meetings with Geoffrey Tantum, the SIS director responsible for Saudi Arabia, and that, during his weekend at the Paris Ritz on September 17-19, 1993, he was discussing with the Saudis threats from Iranian submarines." Tantum was mentioned as the secretary of Le Cercle in 1997.

Source(s): 1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', page 193

Who's Who: Director-General, British National Export Council, 1965–71; Industrial Adviser, Barclays Bank International Ltd, 1972–81; Director: Prudential Assurance Company Ltd, 1973–81; Prudential Corporation plc, 1979–86; C. Tennant Sons & Company Ltd, 1972–80; Anglo-Romanian Bank, 1973–81; Northern Engineering Industries (International) Ltd, 1979–82; International Energy Bank, 1981–84. Sen. Mod. Languages Scholar, Trinity College, Cambridge, 1929; Cholmondely Studentship, Lincoln’s Inn; 1st Cl. Hons Mod. Langs Tripos, 1931; BA 1931, MA 1936, Cambridge. Cambridge Scandinavian Studentship, Oslo, Copenhagen, Stockholm, 1932–33; Fellow Queens’ College, Cambridge, and University Lecturer, Scandinavian Languages, 1933; Press Attaché, British Legation, Stockholm, 1939–45; Information Counsellor, British Embassy, Paris, 1945–50; Deputy Commandant, British Sector, Berlin, 1950–52; resigned Foreign Service to become Overseas Director, FBI, 1952–63; Deputy Director-General, FBI, 1963–65. Special Advr, CBI, 1964–65. Mem., Council of Industrial Design, 1954–71; Acting Chm., Wilton Park Academic Council, 1969–71; Mem. Bd, Centre for Internat. Briefing, Farnham Castle, 1954–72; Chm., Gabbitas Thring Educational Trust, 1971–91; Pres., London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, 1978–79 (Chm., 1976–78); Chm., British Cttee, European Cultural Foundn, 1975–90; Mem., Impact Foundn Council, 1974–91; Trustee, Heinz Koeppler Trust, 1985–. Vis. Fellow, St Cross Coll., Oxford, 1982. MA Oxford, 1982.

Wilton Park HC Deb 15 November 1982 vol 32 cc122-30 (Parliamentary debate): "Mr. Cyril D. Townsend (Bexleyheath) The headline, "The FO: soft soap but no hard sell" appeared above a powerful article by Lord Beloff in The Times on 25 October on the projection of Britain abroad. The article began: "It is by now common knowledge that the Academic Council of Wilton Park, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office discussion centre, is at odds with the FCO about the effect of the economies imposed on it in the latest round of cuts." ... This letter was followed by another on 3 November from Sir Peter Tennant, acting chairman, Wilton Park academic council, one on 8 November from Professor Hugh Seton-Watson and one on 9 November from Professor Agnes Headlan-Morley. Therefore, I have chosen Wilton Park for my fifteenth Adjournment debate to give the House a chance to hear the Minister's reply to these fears raised by five distinguished academics and their many supporters. Wilton Park is near Steyning in West Sussex. It has been used for international conferences since 1951. The conferences are a British contribution to the promotion of greater understanding between the world's democratic societies. Since 1957 more than 6,000 participants have attended from 25 countries."

Born in 1910. Went from Marlborough to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was senior modern language scholar and took a First in that subject two years later. In 1933 he was elected to a fellowship at Queens', and to a university teaching post. Spoke most European languages well, specializing in the Scandinavian tongues; his ear was so keen and his Swedish so perfect that he could not only pass in Stockholm for a native, but could imitate several regional accents as well. His first wife, whom he married in 1934, was Swedish. Colonel Sir Charles Hambro (head of Hambro Bank; close friend of Churchill and the Wallenbergs; head of the SOE 1942-1943; his son went to live with the Wallenberg family during WWII; Knight Commander, Order of the British Empire; corresponded with Leopold Amery in the early 1950s) recruited him into the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in the summer of 1940. Both were among its earliest members. Involved in German code breaking early in WWII. Among his many tasks, he helped Sefton Delmer (the Lord Beaverbrook agent who used to be in contact with Hitler's inner circle) with material for his black broadcasts to the German armed forces. He had a spy inside the German legation, for whom he secured British nationality and a new life after the war. Order of the British Empire in 1945. In the spring of 1945 the Foreign Office moved Tennant to Paris, where he spent five years with the title of Information Counsellor. This was, again, a propaganda task, but without the clandestine undertones of his work in Stockholm. Deputy commandant of the British sector in Berlin 1950-1952. January 17, 1997, The Times, 'Sir Peter Tennant': "In 1950 he was posted to Berlin as deputy commandant of the British Sector. One outcome was the Wilton Park conference, held each year so that British and German politicians could meet each other." Overseas director of the Federation of British Industry (FBI) 1952-1963. In his role at the Federation of British Industry he was much involved in the early debates over Britain and Europe and wrote a very prescient report on the negotiations that led up to the Treaty of Rome of 1957, which established the European Economic Community. In 1954, Humphrey Trevelyan (later RIIA chair), the British charge d'affaires in Beijing, and Sir Peter Tennant, the overseas director of the Federation of British Industry (FBI), met the Chinese vice-minister for foreign trade, Lei Renmin. As a result of this meeting, and an earlier meeting between Anthony Eden and Zhou Enlai, the Sino-British Trade Committee was established. Companion of the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George since 1958. Deputy director-general of the Federation of British Industry from 1963 to 1965. Special adviser to the Federation of British Industry 1964-1965 (the Confederation of British Industry since 1965, a political pressure group which represents about 200,000 businesses in the UK). Director-general of the British National Export Council 1965-1971. Gave a speech to the British Canadian Trade Association in May 1967. Knight Bachelor of the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George since 1972. Became a director of C. Tennant, Sons & Co. in January 1972. Joined Barclays Bank International as an Industrial Advisor in February 1972, located at the time at Lombard Street in the City of London, together with the Bank of England and Lloyds. Barclays is one of the primary Pilgrims Society dominated banks; examples are Pilgrims Gordon Adam, Sir Julian Crossley, Lord Carrington, and David Band. The Buxton and Oppenheimer families of the 1001 Club also have been involved with Barclays. Barclays replaced N. M. Rothschild & Sons when they withdrew from their daily gold fix ritual in 2004. Became a director of Prudential Assurance in January 1973. Identified as a director of Barclays International in 1973. Still identified as a Industrial Advisor to Barclays Bank International in 1976 and in 1978. Attended meetings of the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry and became its president in 1976. Remained president until at least the early 1980s. Member of the Council of the Corporation of Foreign Bondholders 1974-1975. Contacted by George W. Ball in August 1976 to co-organize a fundraising to save Canterbury Cathedral from decay. Ball, a Pilgrims Society member closely connected to the major globalist powers in the US, Britain, and France already had recruited Elliot L. Richardson (vice president of the Pilgrims Society since 1979 until at least the mid 1990s; Partner in Milbank, Tweed, Hadley and McCloy; closely associated with the NSA's legendary PROMIS software), Arthur H. Sulzberger (New York Times publisher who is said to have been recruited in the Mockingbird network; Pilgrims Society member; died in 1968?!), John Lindsay (Scroll & Key; NY mayor; brother Robert V. Lindsay, a J.P. Morgan and Morgan Guarantee Trust employee from 1949 to 1989, was a Pilgrims Society executive since 1991 until at least the mid-1990s, who also sat on the boards of the Fluor Corp. and Russell Reynolds Associates, Inc.), and Walter Cronkite (famous CBS managing editor; Bohemian Grove Hill Billies camp and said to have lent his voice to the Bohemian Owl; update: Pilgrims member). Head of a 19-men trade mission to the Caribbean in December 1976, where he met with government officials in Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, and Barbados. Chaired some of the meetings of Le Cercle, according to Brian Crozier, likely somewhere in the 1960s and 1970s. Likely to have been the anonymous host, "a leading figure in the bank", that chaired Crozier's "very secret" Sunday morning , February 13, 1977, meeting at the anonymous "leading City of London bank", that established the private sector intelligence group The 61. Present at the meeting were Brian Crozier, Nicholas Elliott, General Vernon Walters, and several other unidentified people from Germany and the United States. Jean Violet was supposed to attend, but couldn't make it due to ill health. Chairman of the British Committee of the European Cultural Foundation. Joined the board of the International Energy Bank in 1981, which was founded in 1973 by Société Financière Européene (30%), the Bank of Scotland (15%), Barclays International (15%), Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (15%), Republic National Bank of Dallas (15%), and Banque Worms (10%). The bank financed worldwide oil and gas explorations, starting with the United States and Europe. November 20, 1986, Daily Telegraph: "The Media Monitoring Unit was conceived and created last year by a small group of self-described Right-of-centre political activists. The driving force is Julian Lewis (part of Crozier's 61)... He runs a political pressure group called Policy Research Associates which pops up now and again in debates on such matters as council corruption, trade union law and CND. Lord Chalfont is a patron as is Norris McWhirter, who founded the Freedom Association, and Edward Leigh, MP... The increasing activity of the PRA and the decision to form the monitoring unit is indicative of a more aggressive approach in Right-of-centre circles to getting across its message... To get the unit off the ground he approached Sir Peter Tennant, 75, a senior City businessman and adviser to the CBI. Tennant in turn drew together a nucleus of sympathisers, mostly from the City, who put up the £25,000-or-so to hire a director, buy a video recorder and publish the report..." Member of the Council for Industrial Design, the academic council of Wilton Park, and the Gabbitas Thring educational trust. Amateur painter and yachtsman. Died in 1996.

November 20, 1986, The Guardian, ' Tory link with media monitors is revealed': "The Media Monitoring Unit, whose report on alleged left-wing bias among broadcasters was given widespread publicity yesterday, has intimate links with the Conservative Party. The unit was founded by a former Conservative parliamentary candidate who is closely associated with a Tory MP and with a political adviser to a Cabinet minister. The report claimed to be an 'objective assessment' which showed widespread leftwing bias across all four television channels. Lord Chalfont, who wrote a foreword to the report, was still maintaining yesterday that it had been compiled impartiality. The report's author, Mr Simon Clark, is a former editor of Campus, a student magazine noted for ferocious attacks on students' unions. He now edits the house magazine of the high IQ Society, Mensa. Mr Clark, who is described as the unit's 'Director' is its sole employee. He was recruited to write the report by the Tory candidate for Swansea at the last election, Mr Julian Lewis, who is described in its literature as a 'consultant' to the unit. Mr Lewis, along with Lord Chalfont, also organised financial support for the unit. Mr Clark's undisclosed salary and the printing of his 300-page dossier and PR expenses were met by a City businessman, Sir Peter Tennant, and business associates who share Conservative sympathies. Mr Lewis is the director of a rightwing think tank, Policy Research Associates, one of several campaigns and groups which were fathered by the Coalition for Peace Through Security, a rightwing pressure group founded in the early 1980s, whose hallmark has been aggressive attacks on the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Lord Chalfont has been associated with the Coalition group since its inception. Mr Lewis's co-founders were Mr Edward Leigh, Conservative MP for Gainsborough since the 1983 election, and Mr Tony Kerpel, now the senior political adviser to the Education Secretary, Mr Kenneth Baker. Both men have retained links with its campaigns and those it fathered. Mr Leigh's name appears on the letter headings of the Coalition for Peace Through Security as its 'Parliamentary Adviser. '"

"In the mid-eighties - after failing to win a seat for the Tories in Swansea West - Lewis expanded his activities by setting up the Media Monitoring Unit and Policy Research Associates. Lord Chalfont, whose name has been associated with a number of right wing pressure groups in the past two decades, was a close collaborator. Purporting to be independent, they soon demonstrated they were little more than arms-length adjuncts of Conservative Central Office. ... The Media Monitoring Unit had an early impact that went far beyond its resources and reputation. Targeting television current affairs programmes and the Today programme on Radio 4, its detection of left-wing bias was eagerly exploited by Conservative politicians and commentators. Its first report on television, commissioned by Lewis and with a foreword by Chalfont, was compiled by Simon Clark, a former student journalist, who, it emerged, ran the unit almost single-handed. Financial support came from the former diplomat and businessman Sir Peter Tennant. The Today "expose" was commissioned by the Daily Express."

Source(s): February 21, 2012, Cercle chairman Lord Lothian's invitational letter to speak at Le Cercle to Saudi Arabia's deputy minister of foreign affairs Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz (released by Wikileaks around 2015; David Teacher made ISGP aware of the letter; this person is listed as a past speaker to Le Cercle).

Leader of the Conservative Party 1975-1990. Conservative prime minister of Great Britain 1979-1990.

Source(s): Cercle lists: 1984 Bonn; 1985 Washington D.C.

Chairman of the Motherland Party in Istanbul until 1990. Shareholder Sheikh Saleh Kamel's Al-Baraka Investment and Development with Korkut Ozal (brother prime minister Turgut Ozal).

May 2, 2002, Turkish Daily News, 'Nine years after his death, phantom of Ozal pounds': "Turgut Ozal's wife Semra Ozal and Ahmet Ozal are claiming that he was poisoned by some circles, while he was preparing to return to active political life. It is not a new allegation, but their voices are not falling on deaf ears for the first time. It is remarkable that these allegations are raised again after Ahmet Ozal, who was an independent lawmaker in Parliament, joined the Motherland Party (ANAP) ranks. Semra Ozal has asked officials to open an official investigation about her husband's death during a television show, which is having one of the highest ratings. She shared her suspicions with millions of Turkish people, and said Turgut Ozal was looking too healthy in the morning, the day he died. "When important people die, an autopsy should be done. They didn't do an autopsy when my husband died, when he was the President of Turkey. I don't know why and I have a number of questions in my mind," Semra Ozal said. Meanwhile, Motherland Party (ANAP) Adana Deputy Musa Ozturk, who at the time was responsible for the security of the late Turgut Ozal, participated in the same program, and noted that a hair test can reveal the reason of Ozal's death. According to Ozturk the laboratories of the CIA and FBI can do such a test. Ozal died on April 17, 1993 after a visit to the Turkic Republics. It was announced that he died of a heart attack after a busy schedule."

DRUG TRAFFICKING IN TURKEY:

September 20, 1998, Manchester Guardian Weekly, 'Criminal Networks Enjoy Official Protection': "HIGHLIGHT: With last month's appointment of a new chief of staff, Husseyin Kirikoglu, Turkey's powerful generals are now discussing ways of dismantling the country's notorious mafia networks. This was made all the more urgent by the 17 August arrest of mafia boss Alaattin Cakici in Nice. Cakici, who had escaped from a Swiss prison, was in possession of a Turkish diplomatic passport and claimed to be working for the Turkish intelligence services. Turkey is currently seeking his extradition. However, with the growing state sponsorship of organised crime, any real attempt to clean up a corrupt system remains in doubt. THE attempted murder on 12 May this year of Akin Birdal, president of the Turkish Human Rights Association, has reopened the debate on the activities of the criminal networks that have flourished under the protection of the Turkish authorities. The attempt took place in Ankara a few weeks after a speech Mr Birdal made before a hearing of the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), of which he is vice-president, that drew wide public attention to what is going on in Turkey. "In Spain, the 28 murders committed by the GAL have become a matter of concern at the highest government level," protested Mr Birdal, "whereas in Turkey, which likes to present itself as a law-abiding state and which is seeking admission to the European Union, not one single perpetrator of more than 4,500 unsolved murders carried out since 1991 [the faili mesul cinayetleri] has so far been arrested. In my country, the murderers are on the streets and the intellectuals are behind bars." In a report published on 28 January 1997, the Turkish government's chief inspector, Kutlu Savas, described how, in the juridical noman's land of Kurdish Southeast Turkey, the army's "special war units" were not just killing with impunity, but were also involved in protection rackets, blackmail, rape and drug trafficking n1. The report also describes how the Turkish government handed over the security of a huge area -- around the towns of Siverek and Hilvan -- to the private army of tribal chief Sedat Bucak, a member of parliament close to the former prime minister, Tansu Ciller. In an incident which had major repercussions, this warlord politician was the sole survivor of a road accident in November 1996 near Susurluk. Mr Bucak had been travelling with a chief of police and a well-known far-right mafia boss, Abdullah Catli, who had been implicated in the attempted assassination of the Pope and was wanted both by Interpol for drug trafficking and by the Turkish state for the murder of seven left-wing militants. For the people of Turkey, the Susurluk affair and its sinister associations has become synonymous with the Turkish state's slide into mafia activities. It has prompted repeated calls for a clean-up in the upper echelons of the state. The public outcry has not been satisfied by the setting up of a parliamentary commission, nor by Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz's comments on its report in a TV appearance on 23 January 1997. These are just seen as attempts to cover up the extent of the gangrene eating at the very heart of the state, particularly since the political and police figures under suspicion are still very much at large and claiming that they acted on orders from high-up in the state apparatus n2. CHIEF inspector Savas accuses a man by the name of Yesil, known as "the Terminator", of responsibility for at least 19 killings, including that of a member of parliament, Mehmet Sincar. His report states that the Terminator, "acting in the full knowledge of the MIT [National Intelligence Organisation], one of whose chiefs he referred to as baba [father], was able to run a bank account in Ankara, through which huge sums of money passed deriving from protection rackets and drug trafficking". Carrying papers supplied by the prime minister's intelligence office, Yesil left Turkey on 23 October 1996 and headed for Beirut in the company of two MIT agents travelling on diplomatic passports. Another police-sponsored serial killer, Ayhan Carkin, was interrogated by the MIT on 28 August 1996. He said that he been "charged with being involved in 91 murders in East and Southeast Turkey. My interrogators have told me, 'We know about that and nobody's holding that against you. But why did you kidnap Omer Luftu Topal [the casino king]? On your own account? Don't you know you're serving a political master? Namely Prime Minister Tansu Ciller and Mehmet Agar [director-general of the national police]." Mrs Ciller's blustering statement back on 4 October 1993 has often been cited: "We know the list of businessmen and artists involved in racketeering with the PKK [Kurdistan Workers' Party] and we shall be bringing them to account." Beginning on 14 January 1994, almost 100 people were individually picked up by commandos wearing uniforms and travelling in police vehicles and were then killed somewhere along the road from Ankara to Istanbul in the "satanic triangle" of Kocaeli (a fiefdom of the far-right mafia and a focal point for the trafficking of heroin into Europe). The operative head of the special operations bureau, who has been directly implicated in these killings, was Abdullah Catli. Catli was close to the former prime minister, who paid him a fulsome tribute after his death in the Susurluk accident. He is reckoned to have been one of the main perpetrators of underground operations carried out by the Turkish branch of the Gladio organisation n3 and had played a key role in the bloody events of the period 1976-80 which paved the way for the military coup of September 1980. (During that period, as head of the far-right Grey Wolves militia, he had been accused, among other things, of the murder of seven leftwing students). Abdullah Catli is accused of having organised the escape from prison and flight to Europe of Mehmet Ali Agca, the man held responsible for the murder of the editor of the liberal daily paper Milliyet. He was also reported to have organised the assassination attempt on the Pope at the request of Turkish mafia boss Bekir Celenk, in exchange for the sum of 3 million marks. He moved to France and there, under the name of Hasan Kurtoglu, resumed his services for the Turkish state, which put him in charge of a series of attacks on Asala, the Armenian liberation movement, and other Armenian interests. These included blowing up the Armenian monument at Alfortville on 3 May 1984 and the attempted murder of activist Ara Toronian. The MIT paid him in heroin, and he was eventually arrested for drug trafficking in Paris on 25 October 1984. He was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment, and in 1988 he was handed over to Switzerland, where he was also wanted on charges of drug dealing. Despite a fresh seven-year sentence, he managed to escape in March 1990 and returned to Turkey, where he was then recruited by the police for "special missions". This at a time when he was officially being sought by the Turkish authorities for murder and faced a possible death penalty. Catli, described by Mrs Ciller as a "great patriot", was a terrible man with a dreadful record of atrocities to his name. For example, he would demand money from people on Mrs Ciller's "list", promising to get their names removed, and then pocket the money and have them kidnapped and killed. One of his victims, Behcet Canturk, was to pay $ 10 million, to which "Casino King" Omer Luftu Topal added a further $ 17 million. This double ransom did not stop Canturk from being kidnapped on 28 July 1996 by police officers under Catli's orders. The officers were recognised by a witness and reported to the Istanbul police on 25 August 1996. They were arrested and briefly held in Istanbul on 27 August, then promptly transferred by night to Ankara on the personal orders of the minister of interior. In order to cover for them, the minister placed them under the close protection of Sedat Bucak, a member of parliament and a key figure in Mrs. Ciller's "special organisation". The witness who so rashly reported the proceedings was eliminated on 28 August. The costs of the "special war" have been high. In 1993 a sum of $ 70 million was allocated from the prime minister's secret funds. According to Inspector Savas, this sum was used mainly for buying weapons and anti-terrorist equipment from Israel and for external operations. On the home front, racketeering and secret funding made it possible to maintain an array of hired killers and informers. However, the cost of maintaining private armies such as Sedat Bucak's (20,000 men) as well as the 64,000 "village guards" (pro-government Kurdish militias) made it necessary to find more funding. So Turkey's state-owned banks were mobilised to provide generous credit facilities for government supporters in the regions. But the main source of funding has been the trafficking of heroin on a massive scale. SINCE the 1950s Turkey has played a key role in channelling into Europe and the United States heroin produced in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. The operation is run by mafia groups closely controlled by the MIT. One of their personnel described their relations with the police in the following terms: "Our people are able to pass through Yesilkoy [Istanbul] airport whenever they wish, without being controlled by customs, with briefcases containing 3-5 million marks. Sometimes they stamp their passports, sometimes they don't. Our boss has got all kinds of false passports, stamps etc." n4. After the Gulf war in 1991, Turkey found itself deprived of the all-important Iraqi market. Since it lacked significant oil reserves of its own, it decided to make up for the loss by turning more massively to drugs. The trafficking increased in intensity with the arrival in power of the "hawks" after the death of President Turgut Ozal in April 1993. According to the interior minister, the war in Kurdistan had cost the Turkish exchequer upwards of $ 12.5 billion (n5), whereas, according to the daily Hurriyet, Turkey's heroin trafficking brought in $ 25 billion in 1995 and $ 37.5 billion in 1996 (n6). Only criminal networks working in close co-operation with the police and the army could possibly organise trafficking on such a scale. The traffickers themselves travel on diplomatic passports. According to witnesses at the parliamentary commission inquiring into the Susurluk accident, the drugs are even transported by military helicopter from the Iranian border. The president of the commission, Mehmet Erkatmis, has himself complained that these damning allegations have been censured out of the commission's official report. In an explosive document made public by the editor of the weekly Aydinlik at a press conference in Istanbul on 21 September 1996, the MIT itself accused its rival organisation, Turkey's national police, of having "provided police identity cards and diplomatic passports to members of a group which, in the guise of anti-terrorist activities, travelled to Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Hungary and Azerbaijan to engage in drug trafficking". It provided a list of names of some of the traffickers operating under the protection of the police. The police, via police chief Hanefi Avci, returned the compliment and handed over a list of named drug traffickers employed by the MIT. According to Inspector Savas's report, the intra-police war for control of this lucrative trade had thus far cost the lives of 15 MIT officers. Western Europe is the principal target of this massive trafficking operation. However, most European governments prefer to maintain an embarrassed silence over Ankara's dealings, in the same way that they have refrained from open criticism of the destruction of 3,428 Kurdish villages and the displacement of more than 3 million Kurds by their Turkish allies n7. However, on 22 January 1997 a German judge, Ralf Schwalbe, launched public accusations against the Turkish government in general and Mrs Ciller in particular. These were taken up by Tom Sackville, a minister at the British Home Office, who stated in the Sunday Times on 26 January 1997 that 80% of the heroin seized in Britain came from Turkey and that his government was concerned at reports that members of the Turkish police, and even of the Turkish government, were involved in drug trafficking. Prompted by these disclosures, on 17 June 1997 the head of the OECD's "Financial Task Force", Fernando Carpentieri, issued a solemn warning that Turkey was "the only member of the OECD not applying the measures decided by the OECD to prevent money laundering". The situation cannot be allowed to continue for much longer. We are giving the Turkish authorities until September to pass the necessary legislation. Otherwise the country could face a potentially destructive reaction from the world banking community." Even Washington, Turkey's faithful ally, has begun to break its silence. The International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR) by the US State Department, published in February 1998, revealed that "about 75% of the heroin seized in Europe is either produced in, or derives from, Turkey", that "four to six tons of heroin arrive from there every month, heading for Western Europe" and that "a number of laboratories for the purification of the opium used in transforming the basic morphine into heroin are located on Turkish soil". The report also stresses that Turkey is one of the countries most affected by money-laundering, which takes places via the countries of the former Soviet Union in particular, through the medium of casinos, the construction industry and tourism."

Source(s): Simon Regan, 'Who Killed Diana?'

CIA Deputy Director of Operations January 1991 - December 1993. Retired in 1995 after a 34 year career at the CIA's clandestine services. Twetten spent the majority of his career in Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East. 1992, Pete Brewton, 'The Mafia, CIA and George Bush', quoting CIA agent Hemmings, who worked under Twetten: "Twetten's decision and that of London station is highly suspect and negligent, as they knew, as I did, that the British government was, along with the British arms industry, Tiny Rowland, Ashraf Marwan and Adnan Khashoggi, his partner, deeply involved in such [arms] trafficking. Obviously, Twetten also knew that North, Shackley, Clines, Hakim, Robert Sensi, and Cyrus Hashemi, and Farhad Azima were also involved in such trafficking, as all these individuals were part of the same network; as him... My refusal to alter my testimony to fit the cover story then, and later in 1989 as a Senate witness, brought me under intense pressure to remain silent or else!! Death, unemployment and loss of access to my children were all used as weapons and threats." April 27, 1992, Time Europe, 'Pan Am 103: Why Did They Die?': "Thomas Twetten, who now commands the CIA's worldwide spy network, was then [1988] chief of Middle East operations based in Langley. He was also Ollie North's CIA contact." In February 1998 it was revealed that he was working outside his office or jurisdiction in a plot by Iraqi Generals to murder Saddam. Supposedly, Clinton himself had approved a feasible death plot. Mysteriously, all the names of the plotters were leaked from Washington and the plot was thwarted. MI6 were actively involved on an operational level directly with Twetten. In all some 120 officers were shot as a result.

Source(s): 2014, Johannes Grossmann, p. 473 (1970s visitor)

In France existed a Francois de Paule Vallet (1883-1947) who was a major representative of Opus Dei and the Jeuits. It is unknown at this point if there is a connection.

President of Vallet Pharma, France. Preceded by Louis Vallet, who founded the company in 1948. Followed up by Pierre Vallet.

Lobster Magazine, No. 26: "On 6 November 1973, Le Monde Moderne organised a threeday restricted "braintrust" meeting on South Africa, attended by Jean Violet [Cercle], Francois Vallet [Le Cercle], Florimond Damman [Cercle], Brian Crozier [Cercle] and Mr Burger, South African Ambassador to France [Cercle members Strauss and Sanchez Bella were also involved in Le Monde Moderne]. The Ambassador presented a two-page report drawn up personally by Prime Minister Vorster, Information Minister Connie Mulder, his deputy Dr Eschel Rhoodie and General Hendrik van der Bergh, head of BOSS. Then a discussion was held as to how the ISC, the Academy and Le Monde Moderne could assist the secret propaganda campaign that the South African government was conducting through such Pretoria-funded publications as To The Point, a newspaper with which Le Monde Moderne worked. The meeting decided to launch several campaigns in favour of South Africa. One targeted Members of Parliament."

Source(s): 2014, Johannes Grossmann, p. 544 ("Aus Italien stiessen in den 1980er Jahren lediglich der fruhere Generalkommandant der Carabinieri, Umberto Cappuzzo, und der evenfalls in Vaduzer Institut engagierte Giancarlo Valori zum Cercle")

Giancarlo Elia Valori (b. 1940) is an Italian businessman. Studied business administration. Named a secret chamberlain of the Papal Household, in which function he became a protege of Umberto Ortolani, a top figure in the P2 Lodge network. 1997, Robert Hutchinson, 'Their Kingdom Come – Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei', p. 263-264:

"P2 was formed in the late 1960s, allegedly at the behest of Giordano Gamberini, a Grand Master of the Grand Orient of Italy and friend of Gulio Andreotti. But he was much closer to Francesco Cosentino, who also was well introduced in Vatican circles. Either Andreotti or Cosentino, or perhaps both, were said to have suggested the creation of a small cell of trusted right-wing personalities in key national sectors, but especially banking, intelligence and the press, to guard against what they perceived as 'the creeping communist threat'. The person Gamberini chose to develop the P2 Lodge was a small-time textile magnate from the Tuscan town of Arezzo, midway between Florence and Perugia, who after two as a Freemason had risen to the Italian equivalent of Master Mason. His name, of course, was Licio Gelli. But the P2's top man, according to Calvi, was none other than Andreotti, followed in line of command by Cosentino and [Umberto] Ortolani [secret chamberlain of the Papal Household; member of the inner council of the Knights of Malta; said to be a member of Cardinal Giacomo Lercano; met with Licio Gelli, Roberto Calvi, and others in Rome in December 1969]. Andreotti always denied Calvi's allegation. But the fact remains that Calvi feared Andreotti more than Gelli or Ortolani. As for Cosentino, he died soon after the P2 hearings began. The truth of the matter, [professor] Javier Sainz said, is that the P2 Lodge was part of a secret right-wing network created with the Vatican's blessing as part of the Occident's bulwark against communism. The P1 Lodge was in France and the P3 Lodge was in Madrid. The P3 was headed by a former minister of Justice, Pio Cabanillas Gallas [cabinet minister under Franco, the dictator of Spain until 1975; secretary of the Council of the Realm, Franco's highest advisory body; Minister of Information and Tourism; remained influential in government after Franco's death; Minister of Culture; Minister of Justice 1981-1982; more centrist than Cercle member Munoz; member of the European Parliament]".

Valori joined the RAI media network and Lodge Romagnosi the Grand Orient in 1965. Met North Korean dictator Kim II Sung through his work for RAI. Secretary-general of the 1965-founded Italian Institute for International Relations (Istituto Affari Internazionale (IAI)) mid-1960s-1980s. 1975, Revue Roumaine d'Etudes Internationales, volume 9, no. 4, p. 398: "the General Secretary of the Institute [of International Relations], Mr. Giancarlo Elia Valori...". 1982, volumes 28-31, Institute of Asian Affairs, North Korea Quarterly, p. 63: "Giancarlo Elia Valori, Secretary General of the Italian International Relations Institute..." 2000, BBC summary of World Broadcasts, Asia, Pacific, no. 39-: "Giancardo Elia Valory, secretary-general of the Italian Institute for International Relations... Valori said that everything goes well in the DPRK under the wise guidance of the great Kim Jong-il..." Became deputy director general of Italstrade in 1976. Interacts with Giuseppe Santovito, a later SISMI director; and Nicola Falde of military intelligence. 1997, Robert Hutchinson, 'Their Kingdom Come – Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei', p. 210:

"Lopez Rega began to promote Peron as the only person capable of restoring civil order to Argentina. One of the most dedicated supporters of Peron's return was Giancarlo Elia Valori, younger brother of the assassinated Giuseppe Valori. In 1960, when thenty-three, he had been named a secret chamberlain of the Papal Household, becoming one of Umberto Ortolani's [top P2 Lodge figure] protégés. In the mid-1960s, he was named secretary of the newly formed Institute for International Relations, a more formalized version of the Pinay Group. As such he knew just about every prominent anti-Marxist on three continents. When Peron came to Rome, he stayed at Valori's villa, while conducting his business during the day from the Hotel Excelsior in the Via Venoto. If Peron wanted an introduction to the head of Banco Ambrosiano [Roberto Calvi], Valori arranged it. If he wanted a meeting with the Vatican's secretary of state, Valori saw that it was done. One day Ortolani called Valori to his office and introduced him to Licio Gelli who suggested that Valori should join the P2 Masonic Lodge. Valori did not reply immediately. But when in April 1973 he gave a lecture at the University of Madrid on The Concept of the Christian State, he sent a warmly worded letter to Gelli inviting him to attend. On Peron's next visit to Rome, Valori was not surprised to find Gelli cruising the lobby of the Excelsior. Gelli rushed over and asked to be introduced to the General's personal secretary, Lopez Rega. 'Your excellency,' the suave Gelli said in perfect Spanish, 'they say you are a man of God.' Indeed Lopez Rega believed he spoke directly with the Archangel Gabriel. Gelli charmed Lopez Rega, who he soon initiated into the P2 Lodge. Gelli described Peron as… 'misunderstood'…"

September 16, 2008, Farnesina: Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale, 'Press release detail': "At 9:15 tomorrow morning Minister for Foreign Affairs Franco Frattini will open the sessions of the conference "Italy, Europe and Israel: how to build a privileged partnership" arranged by the Aspen Institute and held in the International Conference Room of the foreign ministry in Rome. ... In addition to Israeli Minister of Welfare Isaac Herzog, who will also hold a meeting with Minister Frattini, other participants are to include ... Minister for Economic and Financial Affairs Tremonti and former Minister for Foreign Affairs Massimo D'Alema, business world such as Carlo De Benedetti [protege of the Agnellis], Piero Gnudi, Giancarlo Elia Valori, and journalism, including Renato Mannheimer, Edward Luttwak, Arrigo Levi, as well as major representatives of the Jewish community such as Chief Rabbi Di Segni and President of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities Gattegna." Luttwak and Valori (Le Cercle, P2, and major behind-the-scenes player in Italy) both have also been involved in the company Italintesa.

Source(s): Cercle's 1983 Bonn meeting list ("editor, Free Nation")

Philip Vander Elst is a freelance writer and lecturer who has spent nearly 30 years in politics and journalism, and is now a colleague of Richard Cunningham’s at Areopagus Ministries. After obtaining his Philosophy and Politics degree at Oxford University, where he was also an officer of the Oxford Union Debating Society, he worked at the Centre for Policy Studies, the Institute of Economic Affairs, and edited the political journal Freedom Today. He has written widely on political, philosophical, economic and religious subjects for papers on both sides of the Atlantic and has been a visiting lecturer at many American universities and colleges. His publications include: Idealism Without Illusions: A Foreign Policy for Freedom (Freedom Association, 1989), Resisting Leviathan: the Case Against a European State (Claridge Press, 1991); C.S. Lewis: Thinker of Our Time (Claridge Press, 1996); The Principles of British Foreign Policy (Bruges Group, 1997), and Libertarianism, A Christian Critique (Christian Institute, 2003). Candidate for the UK Independence Party in 2009. Columnist Bruges Group.

1989: Philip Vander Elst has worked at the Institute of Economic Affairs and is now editor of Freedom Today, the journal of the Freedom Association. He has contributed to numerous publications, including The Spectator, The Daily Telegraph, Political Quarterly, American Spectator, and Human Events. He is author of the IEA monograph Capitalist Technology for Soviet Survival.

July 21, 1991, Sunday Oregonian (Portland, Oregon), 'United Europe: No Boon To United States': "The great dividing line of the future will likely fall between those who cherish sovereignty and yet believe in independent nations, and those who think the nation-state passe and look to a new world order where the rules are set by the globalists of West and East. The natural allies of American nationalism may be found then among those British Tories who refuse to follow Prime Minister John Major -- and go gentle into that good night: EC '92. Among the resistance leaders: Philip Vander Elst, who has just penned for Claridge Press' Blasts, ``Resisting Leviathan, The Case Against a European State.'' A federated Europe may be where we are drifting, he writes, but: ``If the tide of history is flowing in the wrong direction, it is the duty of any sensible person to try and arrest its course rather than to swim with it in the spirit of Vichy and Quisling. ``Half a century ago, when Britain was fighting for her life and the freedom of Europe, no important body of opinion would have questioned the value of patriotism or the importance of preserving and cherishing our nationhood.'' What has changed in 50 years? Why is British sovereignty no longer worth preserving? When Slovenia, Croatia, Latvia and Lithuania are battling for independence and nationhood, why would a great people like the British be willing to give them up?"

December 8, 1992, Press Association: "Philip Vander Elst from the Freedom Association argues that Maastricht would be bad for Europe."

Source(s): 1984 Bonn participants list

Secretary-general of Otto von Habsburg's and Alfredo Sanchez Bella's CEDI. Member Ordre du Rouvre. Founding president of the Cercle des Nations. Founder of the Belgian branch of the WACL, also in 1969. In 1972, Vanden Boeynants and de Bonvoisin founded CEPIC, a clandestine think tank which represented a renewed effort to neutralize the leftists elements within their PSC party. Vankerkhoven once again was one of the co-founders. His idol was Pinochet. Organized a celebration for the 10 year anniversary of the dictatorship of Papa Doc in Haiti.

1990, Hugo Gijssels, 'De Bende & Co.', p. 204: "In the 1960s and 1970s, Aginter Press [Portuguese CIA-controlled stay-behind] stood in contact with Belgian organizations as Jeune Europe, Nouvelle Europe Magazine and WACL via two Belgian contacts, Jean Thiriart and Francis Dessart. It is also certain that Thiriart and Dessart worked together with Emile Lecerf, Bernard Mercier, Jacques Jonet and Paul Vankerkhoven."

1990, Hugo Gijssels, 'De Bende & Co.', p. 174: "Paul Vankerkhoven, renowned member of the Ordre du Rouvre, establishes in 1969 the 'Ligue Internationale de la Liberté (LIL), the Belgian branch of the 'World Anti-Communist League' (WACL). That same year he establishes in Brussels the select but controversial Cercle des Nations... possibly more important is his membership in the notorious extreme-right 'Centre Européen de Documentation et Information' (CEDI) of which Vankerkhoven is secretary-general. CEDI was established in 1949 and is headed by Otto von Habsburg, who is chairman for life."

1998, Stef Janssens, 'The names from the cover up', p. 33: "In 1989, [Nicolas] de Kerchove d'Ousselghem [CEPIC; chef de cabinet of Vanden Boeynants; contact of VdB to the PIO intelligence organization] and Paul Vankerkhoven, CEPIC member and co-founder of Cercle des Nations [among many other things]... were employees of the magazine 'Revue Belge'. This right-wing magazine had as manager the present director of the Center for Missing Children and former BBL-director Daniel Cardon de Lichtbuer. What in itself is not reprehensible, but does say something about the milieu in which the present director of this Center was involved with."

January 23, 2006, Central News Agency - Taiwan, 'Today in History': "1976: Some 3,000 persons attend the World Freedom Day rally at which ROC President Yen Chia-kan warns against communist peace talks. Other speakers at the rally include: ... Paul Vankerkhoven, president of the Belgian chapter of the World Anti-Communist League."

Sources: November 1988 – Issue 17, Lobster Magazine, 'Brian Crozier, the Pinay Circle and James Goldsmith' (quoting from the Langemann papers); October 1989 – Issue 18, Lobster Magazine, 'The Pinay Circle and Destabilisation in Europe'; 1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', pages 186, 191-193, and 241; 1997, Robert Hutchinson, 'Their Kingdom Come – Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei', pp. 153-158; June 29, 1997, The Independence, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club; Is it the ultimate dishonour'; 2002, David Rockefeller, 'Memoirs', pp. 412-413, referring to the Pesenti Group

1994, R.T. Naylor (Professor of Economics at McGill University), 'Hot Money and the Politics of Debt', p. 258: "Violet's political formation came in the 1930s in Le Comite Secret pour l'Action Revolutionnaire (CSAR). A far-right political cult modeled on a Freemasonic movement, complete with Masonic-style rites and rituals..., CSAR was sort of a predecessor of Licio Gelli's P-2. It was intensely secretive in all but its admiration of Franco and Mussolini, and after the war some of its members were accused of being Nazi collaborators. In the 1950s, with his own record pronounced clean, Violet became a collaborator of French intelligence, and an active supporter of Opus Dei." CSAR has been named as one of the more important fronts for the Synarchist Movement of Empire (SME). The CSAR undermined the regular French government and worked to establish what would become the pro-catholic anti-republican Vichy government. October 1989, Issue 18, Lobster Magazine, 'Pinay 2: Jean Violet': "In 1951 he was approached by Antoine Pinay, who was a cabinet minister at that point. On behalf of some Swiss lawyer Pinay sought to clear up the matter of a Geneva-based firm that had seen its factory in Germany seized by the Nazis during the war. Violet resolved the problem and Pinay was so satisfied he recommend him to the new French intelligence organization, SDECE. Violet duly became an SDECE operative, utilizing a global network of contacts to assist that agency in its work.(2) ..." Violet became involved in psychological warfare for French interests. As a close friend of Antoine Pinay, Violet was a primary founder of Cercle Pinay in the 1950s, which counted the involvement of his close ally Otto von Habsburg. 1997, Robert Hutchinson, 'Their Kingdom Come', pp. 153-158: "Rumours of Nazi collaboration led to Violet's arrest following the war, but he was quickly released 'on orders from above'. [2] Shortly afterwards, he offered his services to SDECE, the French counter-espionage establishment referred to in the trade as La Piscine (the Swimming Pool). He joined Antoine Pinay's entourage in 1955. By this time Violet had become close to several Opusian personalities, among them Alfredo Sanchez Bella and Otto von Habsburg... Many Pan-European members belonged to a right-wing association that had little formal structure but became known as the ‘Pinay Group'... Although it met under the auspices of Pinay, the co-ordinator for the Group was Jean Violet, a right-wing Gaullist and friend of Giulio Andreotti [Opus Dei; SMOM]. The Pinay Group was said to be another Opus Dei auxiliary operation, and its principal protagonists, Pinay and Violet, were variously reported to be connected with the Work... In his journeys, Violet came to know Father Yves-Marc Dubois, a French Dominican who was in charge of international relations for his Order... He [Dubois] was described as a 'member of the Vatican's intelligence network, if not its head'. [3]" February 5, 1984, Manchester Guardian Weekly, 'The sniffer planes -- now the American connection': "... the Institute of Diplomatic Studies run by Rene Cassin, the first civilian to join de Gaulle in London, and Novel Peace prize-winner in 1968. Two of the Institute's founders were the now celebrated Jean Violet and Father Dubois, who died a few years ago ("I think he was some sort of grey eminence of the Church")." Violet would cross Dubois path on a regular bases over many years. October 1989, Issue 18, Lobster Magazine, 'Pinay 2: Jean Violet': "Violet's early post-war deeds also featured a Roman Catholic priest, Father Yves Dubois. Both men figured in the creation of an Institute d'Etudes Diplomatiques, whose student body featured a young Yugoslavian refugee by the name of Jovanovitch. This individual would later acquire U.S. citizenship, call himself Daniel Boyer, and specialize in advising US and French businessmen interested in operating overseas. He would also cross Violet's path at regular intervals. (3) ... The Violet-Dubois combination proved durable and effective. As the Cold War raged, the pair acted as a conduit for SDECE funds used to maintain clandestine Vatican networks in Eastern Europe. During the Algerian war of independence (1954-62) Violet turned up at the United Nations, as part of the French delegation, and worked to shore up the support for France in the course of its traumatic struggle with Algerian nationalists. Not surprisingly, Father Dubois was also present, as part of the Vatican delegation, and he coordinated initiatives with Violet. Finally the man now known as Boyer was in the background; he has admitted to being in contact with Violet during this period." 1997, Robert Hutchinson, 'Their Kingdom Come', pp. 153-158: "Violet's boss, General Paul Grossin... was said by some to have transferred fees owing to Violet directly to Father Marmier's 'charities' [anti-Soviet] in Poland. [1]... According to Count Alexandre de Marenches,... Violet was 'given the heave' because he cost the French government more than any other spy on SDECE's long list of secret agents. De Marenches further claimed that Violet had been a triple agent working in addition for the Vatican and the West German BND." 1980, Langemann papers: "Gehlen, who was always interested in the undertaking, its figures, its personalities and its results [of Le Cercle], succeeded in recruiting Violet as a special agent and granted him 6000 DM a month for many years... In our conversations with Violet the Pinay Circle was never mentioned in any depth. However, on General Gehlen's orders, I did once give him, 30,000 DM for this aim." Said to have been involved in the 1970 smear of President Pompidou's wife (the Markovic affair). Approached Brian Crozier in March 1971, after reading an interview with him in the US News and World Report. Francois Duchene, Crozier's former Economist colleague, a director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and one of Jean Monnet's closest associates, introduced Violet to Crozier as a person who represented "a powerful consortium of French business interests." (Crozier, 'Free Agent', p. 97) Violet, without giving Crozier ever all the details surrounding his intelligence background, suggested that Crozier's ISC should put together a Study Group to inform Western leaders about the problems inherent the 'détente' process (relaxation of tensions with the USSR), a policy recently pioneered by Henry Kissinger, with the support of David Rockefeller. Violet introduced Crozier to Carlo Pesenti, who in October 1967 had informed and invited David Rockefeller to Le Cercle, and his Cercle. Violet and Crozier's ISC produced the 'European Security and the Soviet Problem' report in January 1972, which was funded by Carlo Pesenti and informed Western political circles about the USSR's subversion techniques. Kissinger, Nixon, Pompidou, Spanish and German ministers, and the Pope all received copies of the report. Launched the quarterly jounal Le Monde Moderne around this time with funds from Carlo Pesenti. At about the same time, Violet, together with Otto von Habsburg, founded the Académie Européenne des Sciences Politiques, a Brussels-based ultra-conservative Paneuropa think tank. Crozier, 'Free Agent', p. 99: "Another of Violet's initiatives at that time was undertaken from Brussels. The operator Violet had chosen was an eccentric man, with the delectable name of Florimond Damman. Having made a small fortune from property deals, he ran a tiny business outfit with the grandiloquent name of Académie Européenne des Sciences Politiques. The three of us - Damman, Violet and I - drafted an appeal for 'Peace without Frontiers', in which we defined our concept of a true détente." The fascist Belgian prime minister Paul Vanden Boeynants, who was a key player in the Belgian far-right shadow state that emerged in the 1970s; and Count Alain de Villegas, key player in Violet's Sniffer Device affair, a mystic, and a staunch believer that the UFO phenomenon is real, were among the members of Académie Européenne des Sciences Politiques. Damman was a member of the World Anti-Communist League (WACL) and a friend of CIA agent Carl Armfelt, who was a rabid anti-communist propagandist active in northern Europe, suspected of involvement in illegal arms deals. Like with Pinay, Violet became a good friend of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, who had become a member of Pinay's political party in 1956. His father, Edmond Giscard d'Estaing, was a close associate of Jean Frederich Bloch Laine, the Lazard banker who supposedly was a key member in the French Synarchist Movement of Empire. Post WWII, Edmond had some very significant connections to Opus Dei through his close associate Prince Jean de Broglie, who had many connections to both Opus Dei and people in the Paneuropa movement. Edmond also got people on the board of his bank, Banque des Interets Francais, who supposedly were some of the most influential Opus Dei members in Europe. Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, a member of the Paneuropa Union, was president of France from 1974 to 1981. In 1980, Violet, in ill health, asked Crozier to take over the presidency of Le Cercle. Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', p. 191-192: "It was not until the spring of 1993 that I learned the details of Jean Violet's real secret service role when General De Gaulle was in power. A background document was given to me by of of Violet's ex-colleagues. Ironically, a few years before Gabriel Decazes [pseudonym] and I started spying on De Gaulle [about 1965], Violet was masterminding a Service Spécial to promote the General's objectives in defense and foreign policy. The document began with a paragraphy of wistful praise for Britain's remarkable achievements in intelligence and clandestine action. But France, too, offered a precedent: Louis XV [de Bourbon; 1710-1770; his grandson was overthrown during the French revolution] had set up a special service know to the few who were aware of it as the Secret du Roi. This service reported directly to the King, bypassing the Foreign Ministry of the day. Only two people were aware of de Gaulle's latter-day model: General Grossin, the then head of the SDECE [from 1957 to 1962], and a certain 'Monsieur X'. It required no great deductive powers to assume that Monsieur X had to be Maître Violet, but Jean refused to comment when I asked him. My other source, however, confirmed my supposition. No wonder, in retrospect, that Violet's shadowy role and apparently bottomless purse stirred resentful envy among his colleagues and poisoned Alexandre de Marenches's mind against Violet, whom he had never met. By far the dominant theme in de Gaulle's foreign policy (as Violet interpreted it) was Franco-German reconcillation. A genius at (non-violent) operations of influence, Violet played an historically key role between 1957 and 1961 in bringing about this rapproachement, which is the real core of the European Community. He had developed a close friendship with Antoine Pinay, who had served as French Premier in 1951 under the unstable Fourth Republic. At a lower level, a complementary role was played by his SDECE colleague Antoine Bonnemaison. Violet was the go-between in secret meetings between Pinay and the West-German Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, which culminated in the Franco-German Treaty of January 1963 [Treaty of Elysée]... The Pinay Cercle was a natural offshoot of Jean Violet's Franco-German activities. To describe it as a 'forum' is strictly accurate. There were no members in the formal sense. It was an informal group of broadly likeminded people, who met twice a year, once in Amerika, once in Europe. Usually, some distinguished figure was invited to speak... Within the wider Cercle, a smaller gathering called the Pinay Group met on occasion to discuss possible action." Violet is said to have been involved with the Mont-Pelerin Society, another influential Pan-Europa outfit.

Source(s): October 1989 – Issue 18, Lobster Magazine, 'The Pinay Circle and Destabilisation in Europe'

Son of Cercle founder and president Jean Violet. One of president Chirac's closest advisors, at least in the 1970s and 1980s. Le Canard Enchaîné, a French satirical magazine, once termed Paul Violet Chirac's 'adjudant'. Anno 2006, he's national secretary of the Mouvement Républicain et Citoyen (MRC), a Republican party in France, and vice president of l’Académie du Gaullisme.

Chirac, a "neo-Gaullist", was prime minister of France from 1974 to 1976 under Giscard and from 1986 to 1988 under Mitterrand. Georges Pompidou regards him as his protege. Chirac was chairman of the Rassemblement pour la République (RPR), mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1983, and is the president of France since 1995. In December 1974, then Vice President Saddam Hussein invited then French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac to Baghdad. Chirac accepted and visited Iraq in 1975. Hussein approved a deal granting French oil companies a number of privileges plus a 23 percent share of Iraqi oil. Chirac agreed to sell two reactors to Iraq, which would be repeatedly sabotaged and finally bombed by Israel. The Iraqis purchased a 70-megawatt reactor, along with six charges of 26 points of uranium enriched to 93 percent -- enough weapons-grade uranium to produce three to four nuclear devices. Iraq also purchased a one-megawatt research reactor and France agreed to train 600 Iraqi nuclear technicians and scientists -- the core of Iraq’s nuclear capability in later years. French intelligence chief Alexandre de Marenches assisted Chirac in this effort. Chirac has been pursuing an European agenda that gives as much power as possible to France. Chirac went on national TV in April 2005 trying to persuade the French people to vote in favor of the newly proposed European Constitution. The reasons he cited was that a no "would halt the European project in its tracks, and pave the way to an unregulated, uncontrolled free-market world, dominated by the United States." Even though Giscard was largely behind the constitution, he is a great rival of Chirac.

Source(s): November 1988 – Issue 17, Lobster Magazine, 'Brian Crozier, the Pinay Circle and James Goldsmith' (quoting from the Langemann papers)

Volcker was born on September 1927 in Cape May, New Jersey. He earned a bachelor of arts degree, summa cum laude, from Princeton in 1949, and a master of arts degree in political economy and government from the Harvard University Graduate School of Public Administration in 1951. Research assistant in the research department of the New York Fed during the summers of 1949 and 1950. Pilgrims Society member and later Rockefeller Foundation vice-chair Robert Vincent Roosa was his mentor there, and Paul Volcker became part of his 'Brain trust', or 'Roosa bloc' in the following years. Volcker would also become a member of the Pilgrims Society. From 1951 to 1952, he was Rotary Foundation Fellow at the London School of Economics (Rotary International and the Lions Clubs are still seen today by some as the most important recruiting centers for the Masonic movement). He returned to the New York Fed as an economist in the research department in 1952, and special assistant in the securities department from 1955 to 1957. Financial economist at Chase Manhattan Bank 1957-1961. Director of the Office of Financial Analysis at the Treasury 1962-1963. Deputy Undersecretary for Monetary Affairs at the Treasury 1963-1965. Rejoined Chase Manhattan as vice president and director of forward planning 1965-1968. Undersecretary of the Treasury for Monetary Affairs 1969-1974. Senior fellow at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University for the 1974-1975 academic year. Director Council on Foreign Relations 1975-1979 & 1988. President Federal Reserve Bank of New York 1975-1979. On July 26, 1979 the New York Times stated: "David Rockefeller, the chairman of Chase, and Mr. Roosa were strong influences in the Mr. Carter decision to name Mr. Volcker for the Reserve Board chairmanship." Chairman Federal Reserve System 1979-1987. Identified by BND officer Hans Langemann as a person who attended the December 1, 1979 meeting of Le Cercle in the Madison Hotel in Washington. Others that attended the meeting were the German Karl-Heinz Narjes (Bundestag; soon went to the ECC), William Colby (the recently retired CIA director at the time), Ed Feulner (president of the Heritage Foundation), Julian Amery (later chairman of Le Cercle; Privy Councillor; father was one of the closest Rothschild allies in building up Israel), and Jean Violet (French intelligence officer; Habsburg employee; Le Cercle co-founder and chairman; Fascist militant before WWII). Volcker became a member of the advisory board of Power Corporation in 1988 and is a friend to Canadian Paul G. Desmarais, Sr., a Privy Councillor and controlling shareholder of Power Corporation since 1968 (Desmarais and the Belgian Albert Frère jointly own about half of the major industries in France and Belgium, including Suez, Société Générale, Total, Imerys, and Groupe Bruxelles Lambert). Director of Prudential Insurance 1988-2000. Chairman of Wolfensohn & Co. in New York 1988-1996. North American chairman of the Trilateral Commission 1991-2001. Chairman of the newly created J. Rothschild, Wolfensohn & Company from March 1992 to 1995, Wolfensohn & Co.'s London-based joint venture. Visited Bilderberg in 1997. Attended meetings of the Ditchley Foundation and has chaired some of them. Advisor to the Japan Society and the International House. Member of the advisory board of Hollinger, together with Henry Kissinger, Richard Perle, and Zbigniew Brzezinski. Director of UAL Corporation, Bankers Trust New York Corporation, and Nestle, S.A. Director United States/Hong Kong Economic Cooperation Committee. Public member of the Board of Governors of the American Stock Exchange American Stock Exchange. Honorary trustee of the Aspen Institute. American Council on Germany, and the American Assembly. Co-chairman of the advisory board of Leadership Forum International and a principal of the Council for Excellence in Government. Member Circle of Presidents RAND Corporation, which means he has donated at least tens of thousands of dollars if not millions. Trustee International Accounting Standards Committee. Honorary chairman Financial Services Volunteer Corps, a firm founded by Cyrus Vance and John C. Whitehead in 1990. Honorary chairman Committee to Encourage Corporate Philanthropy. Chairman Independent Inquiry Committee into the Oil-For-Food program, which also employed Rockefeller’s granddaughter, attorney Miranda Duncan. Chairman board of trustees Group of Thirty (2005). Paul Volcker is a visitor of the Bohemian Grove camp Mandalay. Director of the United Nations Association of the United States of America 2000-2004. Director of the Fund for Independence in Journalism. Wrote the foreword of George Soros' 2003 book 'The Alchemy of Finance'. Director of the Institute for International Economics, Washington, headed by Peter G. Peterson. Other directors of the institute are Maurice R. Greenberg and David Rockefeller. Trustee of the American Assembly anno 2005, together with Admiral Bobby Ray Inman (director ONI; director DIA; director NSA; deputy director CIA; director Wackenhut; director SAIC; Trilateral Commission; chairman of the "JPL Oversight Committee", which is not supposed to exist), David Gergen (Bohemian Grove; CFR; Trilateral Commission), and Frank A. Weil (governor Atlantic Institute; CFR). The American Assembly is sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation. Member of the President's Circle of the RAND Corporation, together with Lord Robin Renwick and Zbigniew Brzezinski.

Source(s): 2014, Johannes Grossmann, 'Die Internationale der Konservativen: Transnationale Elitenzirkel und private Außenpolitik in Westeuropa seit 1945', p. 553. (Nov. 11, 1995 meeting)

From Germany. CSU member of the Bundestag from 1972 to 2002. Deputy chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group on economic affairs from 1982 until 1989. Minister of Finance 1989-1998. Honorary consul to Liechtenstein. Executive director Hanns Seidel Foundation and the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). Director Accor. Advisory board Alcatel and Swissair. European advisory board Bayerische HypoVereinsbank and Eli Lilly. Trustee chairman University of Augsberg. Trustee Institute for Bavarian History at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.

Source(s): 1984 Bonn meeting

MP Bavaria 1962-70. CSU MP 1969-98. Minister under Kohl.

Source(s): 2014, Johannes Grossmann, p. 473: "Philippe de Weck, and Peter Tennant ... are invited to Le Cercle for the first time in May 1974."

1919-2009. Strongly Catholic and linked to Opus Dei. His marriage to Alix de Saussure linked him to one of Geneva's most notable protestant families. Studied law in Fribourg. Managing director UBS Bank 1966-1976, chair 1976-1980, and director until 1988. Director Nestle and SGS. Chairman of Fisalma, of the sniffer plane affair that also implicated Jean Violet, Count Alain de Villegas, and some of their friends. In July 1982 appointed by the pro-Opus Dei Cardinal Casaroli (in contact with Alexander Haig and the like) as one the "three wise men" to "investigate" the Vatican Bank's dealings with Roberto Calvi's Banco Ambrosiano, linked to the P2 affair.

November 21, 1982, UPI, 'Krol says Vatican cleared in Italian bank collapse': "The experts included Joseph Brennan, former chairman of the Emigrant Savings Bank of New York, Carlo Cerutti, an Italian banking official, and Philippe de Weck, former chairman of the Union de Banques Swisse. The three bankers spent two months studying the Vatican's dealings with Ambrosiano, in which the Vatican held at least 1.58 percent financial interest." July 3, 1989, American Banker, 'American Banker': "When the five laymen named to supervise Istituto per le Opere di Religione - the Vatican bank - hold their first meeting on July 18, they will bring to a close a troubled chapter in the bank's history. "As far as the past is concerned, the problems have been eliminated," said Philippe de Weck, a member of the new supervisory board ... The Vatican bank's problems date back to 1982, when Banco Ambrosiano, Milan, failed after $1.4 billion in loans were not repaid. Ambrosiano loaned $1.2 billion to 10 offshore shell companies that the Vatican bank controlled directly or indirectly. The Vatican bank also had extensive dealings with Roberto Calvi, Ambrosiano's president. About three weeks before Italian regulators closed Ambrosiano in August 1982, Mr. Calvi was found hanged in London."

One son of Philippe de Weck is Pierre de Weck, a director of Deutsche Bank and chairman of Sal Oppenheim. Another is Roger de Weck, the head of the Graduate Institute in Geneva.

Source(s): June 1982 Bonn meeting

News director, announcer, program director WLIP, WAXO-FM, Kenosha, Wisconsin, 1960-63; reporter Milwaukee Sentinel, 1963-64; political reporter, newscaster CBS, Milwaukee, 1964-65; news director Station KQXI, Denver, 1966; press secretary to Sen. Gordon Allott US Senate, Washington, 1967-73, special assistant to Sen. Carl T. Curtis, 1973-77; founder, president Heritage Foundation, 1973-74; national chairman Free Congress PAC, Coalitions for Am., from 1987, BOD, Amtrak, 1987-93; president Free Congress Research & Educational Foundation, 1977—2002, chairman, CEO, 2002—2008; president Krieble Institute, 1989—1996. National editor Transport Central, 1968-71; treasurer Council National Policy, 1981-92, president America's Voice, 1991-97; board directors All News Radio WEEI, Boston, 1984-90, Krieble Institute Russia; national chairman Committee for Effective State Government; chairman board Yorktownuniversity.com, 1999-2008. Member Central Electric Railroaders Association, International Policy Forum (chairman 1983-84); former member HUD Adv. Commission on Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing. He switched from the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church to that of Melkite Greek Catholic Church and was ordained protodeacon.

Convinced Jerry Falwell to found Moral Majority in 1979. Co-founded Religious Roundtable. Christendom College. Conservative Digest: Columnist (1980-1990); Co-Publisher (1988); Senior Editor (1985-1988).

From 1989 to 1996, he was also president of the Krieble Institute, a unit of the FCF that trained activists to support democracy movements and establish small businesses in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

December 19, 2008, Monterey County Herald, 'Moral Majority's Paul Weyrich dies': "Weyrich, who lived in northern Virginia, was one of three founders of the Moral Majority, and later had a hand in creating the Christian Coalition."

April 12, 1981, New York Times, 'Religiously-oriented right-wing group plans drive': "The occasion for the evening of religiously oriented politics was the founding meeting of the Memphis chapter of the Religious Roundtable, with Paul Weyrich, the Washington-based director of the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress, as the main drawing card in a motel dining room near the Memphis Metropolitan Airport."

January 8, 2009, The Times, 'Paul Weyrich; US political activist who started the Moral Majority movement and helped to give the Republican Party broader popular appeal': "Paul Weyrich was a driving force behind the creation of a populist Religious Right in the US in the 1970s and 1980s. He revitalised the Republican Party, broadening its appeal from what he called an "elitist social club" by embracing the Middle Americans unsettled by the social changes of the 1960s and 1970s, thereby beginning the conservative realignment in American politics that benefited Republicans from Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush. By founding the Heritage Foundation, Weyrich and the New Right challenged Democratic dominance of Washington intellectual life. By coining the term "moral majority" and cofounding the pressure group of that name, he ensured that social issues such as abortion and homosexuality would dominate US political culture. Yet Weyrich was no tub-thumping preacher. He joined the Melkite Greek Catholic Church in part because he appreciated the traditional liturgy, and he departed from Republican orthodoxy by attacking free trade and favouring public transport. ... Impressed by the intellectual backup that Democrats got from the Brookings Institution think-tank, Weyrich established a conservative equivalent, the Heritage Foundation, in 1973 with money from the Coors brewing dynasty. In 1974 he founded the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress to campaign for conservative candidates. ... The campaign started by Weyrich and Billings provided the foundation for the Moral Majority, established in 1979. Weyrich persuaded the Rev Jerry Falwell, whose Old-Time Gospel Hour TV show reached millions, to lead the organisation. Moral Majority embraced a wide agenda, including campaigning against homosexuality. The organisation galvanised culturally conservative voters to oust Jimmy Carter in 1980. Richard Viguerie recalled that the only time he ever saw Weyrich take a drink was at a conservative party to celebrate the election of Reagan and a Republican Senate that year. ... When the US showed itself tolerant of Clinton's sex scandals, Weyrich despondently told supporters that there was no moral majority, but his enthusiasm later revived. His recent articles about "The Next Conservatism" contradicted Republican policy by criticising "mindless" free trade. As a former director of the Amtrak rail network, Weyrich said: "Let no one say that voters will refuse to tax themselves for good transit," when voters in various states approved $75 billion for public transport on the night that Barack Obama was elected."

December 2, 1991, Washington Times, 'Mellowing in the warmth of establishment respect': "The main source of funding for Heritage is the $205 million Sarah Mellon Scaife Foundation of Pittsburgh, and it was Richard M. Larry, Scaife's president, who forced Mr. Feulner and others at Heritage to put aside their long-standing libertarian antagonism for New Right cultural conservatism. At a meeting in New York City last year, Mr. Larry upbraided Mr. Feulner for Heritage's lack of attention to cultural issues, say several of those present. "Don't you understand everything is deterioriating, and the rest of your stuff doesn't mean anything if the culture deteriorates," Mr. Larry told Mr. Feulner. Heritage's initial reaction was to study the federal government's role in determining cultural policy. "To our great horror, we are finding phenomenal bias in the federal government on issues of culture," Mr. Pines says of the three studies completed to date."

December 19, 2008, Washington Post, 'A Father of Modern Conservative Movement': "He turned to Colorado beer magnate Joseph Coors and Pittsburgh Tribune-Review publisher Richard Mellon Scaife for the funding to start the Heritage Foundation. He served as its first president and after three years left to start the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress. With only $5,000 from Coors, CSFC engaged Richard Viguerie to start a direct-mail campaign and eventually raised $500,000 for conservatives in 1974. The many groups he established trained a generation of conservative politicians, including Gingrich and former vice president Dan Quayle. In the early 1990s, he formed an institute to train activists for democracy movements in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. ... He was raised Roman Catholic, but after the changes of Vatican II, he converted to the Melkite Greek Catholic Church and served as a deacon."

June 21, 1991, Washington Times, 'Charges dismissed: Neo-cons 'not guilty'': "For example, he says supposedly neo-conservative foundations such as Olin and Scaife are funding Free Congress Foundation's work on cultural conservatism. They are not. Scaife funds our work on political training; Olin funds our judicial reform work. The financial connection between cultural- and neo-conservatism simply does not exist, at least as far as our foundation goes - and we invented cultural conservatism."

December 17, 1986, Washington Post, 'Reagan Doctrine's Passionate Advocate': "One key target of North's efforts within the movement was the Council for National Policy (CNP) -- an obscure, exclusive organization of millionaires, fundamentalist preachers, top New Right politicos and members of Reagan's California "Kitchen Cabinet." "The council is our hive, the greatest networking institution we have," said one participant. Among its members, paying a $ 5,000 fee, are Nelson Bunker Hunt, Joseph Coors, the Rev. Jerry Falwell, Marion G. (Pat) Robertson, Richard Viguerie, Paul Weyrich, Arnaud de Borchgrave and Henry Salvatori. Administration officials -- T. Kenneth Cribb, counselor to Attorney General Edwin Meese III; William Bradford Reynolds, assistant attorney general; and Gary Bauer, assistant secretary of education -- also have taken part in CNP activities this year. One member, Blair, said North was more than a guest: "Sure, he's a member." CNP sessions are closed to the press and public. And North has always insisted, as a condition of appearing as a speaker, that his remarks be kept off the record. But The Washington Post has obtained a tape of his speech before the CNP on May 31 in Nashville. Much of North's influence within the movement is attributed by many conservatives to his persuasive speaking ability. In his CNP speech, he implied that he was revealing facts never before disclosed, which perhaps had been suppressed by the press: "You never saw this in the American media," was a phrase he used several times. His voice quavered and broke as he recounted emotional stories about the contras: "All we offer them is a chance to die for a cause they believe in.""

March 8, 2008, Pam's House Blend, 'McCain addresses far right fringe group -- they want VP pick': "The depth of disaffection from Mr. McCain among prominent members of CNP is so strong that some are already questioning the group's bona fides. "It will say more about the state of the conservative movement than it does McCain," a veteran CNP member said. "If he is accepted at CNP, this will mark the official end of the conservative movement as we knew it."Who is in the CNP? We're talking far right. (H/t Right Wing Watch):The council was founded in 1981, just as the modern conservative movement began its ascendance. The Rev. Tim LaHaye, an early Christian conservative organizer and the best-selling author of the ''Left Behind'' novels about an apocalyptic Second Coming, was a founder. His partners included Paul Weyrich, another Christian conservative political organizer who also helped found the Heritage Foundation. They said at the time that they were seeking to create a Christian conservative alternative to what they believed was the liberalism of the Council on Foreign Relations.Other luminaries of the womb-control and bedroom peeping crowd at the CNP include Daddy Dobson, Phyllis Schlafly, Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association, and Richard A. Viguerie."

Source(s): 1985 Washington D.C. meeting

Flight Cadet, RAF Coll., Cranwell, 1959–61 (Philip Sassoon Meml Prize, qualified French Interpreter); commnd 1961; Flying Instructor, No 8 FTS, Swinderby, 1962. Churchill Coll., Cambridge, Oct. 1962–65. Trooper, 21st Special Air Service Regt (Artists’), TA, 1963–65; rejoined RAF 1965; Flying Instructor, RAF Coll., Cranwell, 1966–67; Tutor, Stanford Univ.’s British Campus, 1967; ADC to Comdr 2nd Allied Tactical Air Force, Germany, 1967; resigned RAF, 1967. Head of Universities’ Dept, Conservative Central Office, 1967–68; Aviation Specialist, Cons. Research Dept, 1969; Senior Administration Officer (Anglo-French Jaguar Project), Preston Div., British Aircraft Corp., 1969–70; Tutor, Open Univ., 1970–71; Vis. Lectr, OCTU RAF Henlow, 1971–75; Chief Flying Instructor, Skywork Ltd, Stansted, 1974–75; Gen. Manager, General Aviation Div., Brooklands Aviation Ltd, 1975–; PA to Chm., BAC, 1975–77; Senior Sales Executive, Eagle Aircraft Services Ltd, 1977–78; Sales Manager, Klingair Ltd, 1978–79. MP (C) Bradford W, 1970–Feb. 1974; contested same seat, Feb. and Oct. 1974; MP (C) Ruislip Northwood, 1979–2005. PPS to Minister of State for Industry, 1979–80, to Sec. of State for Defence, 1981–82. Chairman: Cons. Parly Aviation Cttee, 1983–85, and 1992–93 (Jt Sec., 1972–74; Vice-Chm., 1979); Cons. Parly Defence Cttee, 1993–94, 1996–97 (Vice-Chm., 1983–85, 1990–91, 1992–93; Sec., 1972–74 and 1980–81); Special Select Cttee on Armed Forces Bill, 1991; Member Select Committee on: Race Relations and Immigration, 1972–74; Sci. and Technol., 1972–74; Defence, 1987–90. Chairman: Anglo-Asian Cons. Soc., 1979–82; European Freedom Council, 1982–90; Cons. Space Sub Cttee, 1986–90 (Vice-Chm., 1983–85). Chm., Horn of Africa Council, 1984–88. Delegate to Council of Europe (Chm., Space Sub-Cttee, 1984–88, Migration Sub-Cttee, 2001–04; Chm., Cttee on Migration, Refugees and Demography, 2004–05) and WEU (Chm., Cttee on Scientific, Technological and Aerospace Questions, 1986–89), 1979–90, 2000–05; Leader, EDG/EPP Gp, Assembly of WEU, 2000–02; Chief Whip, EDG Gp, Council of Europe, 2001–04; Vice-Chm., British Gp, 2001–04, Vice-Pres., Cttee on Peace and Security, 2004–05, IPU; Chm., Defence Cttee, WEU, 2002–05. Parly Industrial Fellow, GKN plc, 1989–90; Postgrad. Fellow, TI plc, 1993; Parly Armed Forces Scheme attachment, RM, 1993–94; Metropolitan Police attachment, Parly Police Service Scheme, 2002–03. Mem., Commonwealth War Graves Commn, 1997–2003. Pres., London Green Belt Council, 1997–2005. CRAeS 1997. HQA (Pakistan), 1989; Order of Terra Mariana, 3rd cl. (Estonia), 1999; Order of Three Stars (Latvia), 2005; Order of Bernardo O’Higgins (Chile), 2005

Source(s): 2014, Johannes Grossmann, p. 552 (visited in 1992)

Educated at Princeton College (B.A. 1968, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs), Harvard Law School (J.D. 1971) and Cambridge University (1972-74, St. John’s College), to which he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship, a Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities and a Ford Foundation Fellowship.

Vice president and general counsel of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation 1981-1984. Practiced corporate law in Washington, D.C., as a partner with the law firms of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher and Jones Day, and in Tokyo, where he founded and headed up Gibson Dunn & Crutcher's offices in Tokyo and Hong Kong 1985-1989, 1992-1994. Deputy U.S. Trade Representative to Japan and Europe 1989-1992. Member of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. Involved in the energy business. Executive vice president and general counsel of Edison Mission Energy 1994-1997. President and CEO of the European Division of Edison Mission 1997-2000.

Directors of the East West Center, an educational institution located in Hawaii, appointed in 2007 by Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. Director World Affairs Council of Orange County, California and the Japan-America Societies of Washington, D.C., and of Southern California; the European Institute (Washington, D.C.) and the European Union Center (Claremont, California). He has also been a member of the Asia Pacific Economic Council.

Source(s): 1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', pages 186, 191-193, and 241

Born in 1914. BA Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University and a Doctor of Laws, Honoris Causa from Assumption College, Barry University, and Pepperdine University. Chief Engineer of Wilson Oil Tools from 1938 to 1955. Chairman of Wilson Oil Tools from 1955 to 1961 when the company was sold to Joy Manufacturing. Active in real estate development in California from 1961 through 1980. Director Jorgensen Steel Co. from 1973 to 1984. Active in ranching and farming in California and Mexico since 1980. Neighbor of Ronald Reagan and trustee of his finances. Helped get Karl R. Bendetsen get access to Reagan so Bendetsen could promote his High Frontier/SDI projects. March 4, 1985, New York Times, 'Reagan's Star Wars Bid; Many Ideas Converging': "In May 1981, Dr. George A. Keyworth 2d was named the President's science adviser. A nuclear physicist, he was intimately familiar with the X-ray secrets and had been strongly endorsed for the job by Dr. Teller. Also in 1981, a group of influential scientists, industrialists, military men and aerospace executives began to meet in Washington, D.C., at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative ''think tank.'' Their goal was to formulate a plan for creating a national system of defense. Among them were Dr. Teller, Dr. Wood and such members of the President's ''kitchen cabinet'' as Joseph Coors, a beer executive; Justin Dart, a wealthy businessman, and Jacquelin Hume, an industrialist. The group's top officer was Karl R. Bendetsen, once Under Secretary of the Army, later chairman of the board of the Champion International Corporation, and a long-time overseer of the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace. Since the 1940's he had known Dr. Teller, who in addition to his weapons work also held a post at Hoover. The group's second-in-command was Lieut. Gen. Daniel O. Graham ... But by late 1981 the group began to split over differing visions of how to carry out the task of space-based defense. Mr. Bendetsen, Dr. Teller and the Reagan 'kitchen cabinet' separated into a small group to investigate sophisticated proposals that would require much more research before being ready to use, while General Graham and his group, known formally as High Frontier, emphasized systems that could be built primarily from ''off the shelf.'' Another factor in the split, according to General Graham, was that Dr. Teller insisted on the inclusion of third- generation weapons powered by nuclear bombs. ''He wanted very much to leave in the nuclear options,'' the general said. ''The man is carrying a load and has taken a lot of abuse as the 'father' of the H-bomb. Now he wants to see nuclear technology turn out to be the answer in the opposite direction, to save the Western world.'' The split had vast implications in terms of Presidential access. Mr. Bendetsen and his friends visited the White House with ease. General Graham did not." March 3, 1985, Washington Post, 'Reagan Seized Idea Shelved In '80 Race; Activists Nurtured Shift to 'Star Wars'': "For the first two years of his presidency, Reagan focused on the modernization of offensive weapons: the B1 bomber, the MX, the Trident submarine. But others continued to advance the concept of strategic defense, including the Heritage Foundation, and Graham put together a study on the topic called "High Frontier." Reagan also talked about it with a group of "kitchen cabinet" friends, including industrialist Jacquelin Hume; brewer Joseph Coors; William Wilson, ambassador to the Vatican, and Karl R. Bendetsen..." Personal representative of President Reagan to the Vatican 1981-1984. Reagan's liaison with Le Cercle and The 61. Director of Pennzoil Company from 1983 to 1987. United States Ambassador to the Vatican 1984-1986. Because of the opposition of the American Catholic bishops to the Reagan administration's economic and nuclear policies, some bishops feared the administration would use its ambassador to the Holy See to attack them in Rome. One archbishop claimed that Ambassador Wilson gave a list of twenty or thirty troublesome bishops to the Vatican. Wilson denied this. Again director Jorgensen Steel Co. from 1986 to 1991. According to Commodore Applied Technologies, Inc., of which Wilson is a director since 2002: "Mr. Wilson is a Trustee of Saint John's Hospital and a member of the Knights of Malta." His Who's Who confirms this.

Source(s): 2014, Johannes Grossmann, p. 552 (visited in the early 1990s)

Notorious neocon. Undersecretary of defense for policy under Dick Cheney in the administration of George H. W. Bush. Deputy secretary of defense under Donald Rumsfeld in the administration of George W. Bush 2001-2005. President World Bank 2005-2007. Major superclass member.

Source(s): 1983 Bonn meeting list of the Cercle

Chairman CDU Rheinland and Nordrhein-Westfalen. Chairman Senioren-Union of the CDU.

Source(s): Confidential Cercle document from about 1991 from the Julian Amery archive: "Andreotti is still a member but seldom appears. Pasqua, Admiral Lacoste (the former French DMI), and Senator Bourgine have been regular attenders on the French side. The British, apart from Jonathan Aitken and myself have included Sir Philip Goodhart, Winston Churchill, Jr., Lord Chalfont and Lord Cranborne (Lord Salisbury's eldest son), Ardeshir Zahedi and van Heerden (the P.U.S. to the South African Foreign Office) are also attenders. Financially the Cercle operates on a shoestring. Members pay for their own hotel and travel arrengements. Contributions come from German, Dutch, French and British industry pay for conference facilities and meals."

Married to the eldest daughter of the Shah of Iran. The Shah's foreign minister and ambassador to the United States and the United Kingdom. Member 1001 Club from 1973 until today (but didn't appear on 1978 list). Visitor of the CIA-ran Cercle group. Visitor of the CIA-ran George Town Club in Washingto, D.C.

Dec. 3, 1975, The News and Courier, Betty Beale, D.C. Letter: ""Why did Katy Hepburn fail to show at a party where Washington bigwigs had gathered to meet her? Presidential candidate Sen. Lloyd Bentsen and his wife went to the George Town Club for the after-theater to-do… The James Lynns and President Ford’s new chief of staff, Richard Cheney, were there, and so were Sens. Mark Hatfield… John Tower… John Tunney… Pete Williams… and their wives. Rushing over to meet her from the big, swinging dinner dance the Iranian ambassador, Ardeshir Zahedi, gave for the Shah’s sister, Princess Ashraf, was Sen. Ed Brooke… and Sen. Claibore Pell, D.-R.I., who brought young Princess Nora Lichtenstein, who had just moved to town, is living with the Pells and has a job with the World Bank. Producer Robert Whitehead said he doubted all along Katy would attend since she had two performances the next day and told him, "Look, I’m not 35 anymore." … Persian Princess Ashraf is the shah’s twin but not all identical… Calm, smiling and chic, she doesn't give the impression of the powerhouse she is – head of Iran's delegation to the U.N. General Assembly for 12 years and a woman who has devoted her life to, and succeeded in getting, women’s rights in Iran. … Toasted sought-after bachelor Zahedi… Kissinger's lithe aide Winston Lord and his Chinese wife Bettie "hit the boards""

Source(s): Corporationwiki.com (2010): "The Atlantic Cercle, Inc. - Incorporated by Julian Amery, Richard McCormack, Robert Zoelly, Theodore G Shackley, Thomas R Spencer, The Atlantic Cercle, Inc. is located at 801 Brickell Ave Ste 1901 Miami, FL 33131. The Atlantic Cercle, Inc. was incorporated on Wednesday, August 17, 1994 in the State of FL and is currently not active. Thomas R Spencer represents The Atlantic Cercle, Inc. as their registered agent."

Until 1956, Robert E. Zoelly was vice president of the U.S. department of the Schwarzenbach textile company. He returned to Switzerland in 1956 to become chief engineer of Linoleum AG Giubiasco. On the board of Swissair from the about 1965 (listed as a director of Linoleum AG Giubiasco) to about 1992. 1001 Club members Ernst Schmidheiny (in the 1960s) and later also Thomas Schmidheiny (in the 1980s and 1990s) could be found here. President of Lorze AG in the early 1990s. President Samarit Medizintechnik AG in the mid 1990s. Director Brown Brothers Harriman Services AG in the mid and late 1990s. Privatbank IHAG Zürich AG. Partner and managing director Milro Trading GmbH anno 2004, with Francois Schwarzenbach. From Kustnacht, Switzerland, but in later years this person also seems to have had an address in Switzerland, Florida. Disappeared from the Atlantic Cercle's officers list after 2000. His last name is alternately spelled Zolly.