FTR #530 Alfa Males: One Helluva Conspiracy Theory

Recorded October 16, 2005
REALAUDIO

This broadcast sets forth elements of a network that Mr. Emory believes to be a Bormann/Underground Reich network. This network was part of the apparatus involved in the execution of the 9/11 attacks. Beginning with review of the Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft and its role in bringing 9/11 hijack ringleader Mohamed Atta to Germany, the broadcast traces the evidentiary tributaries running out of that organization. In addition to a fellowship operated on behalf of the Russian Alfa conglomerate, the CDG network also encompasses the Robert Bosch Foundation Fellowship. The Alfa firm, in turn, has profound links to criminal syndicates in Asia, Russia and Latin America, as well as elements that participated in activities overlapping both the Iran-Contra and Iraqgate affairs. One of the central elements in this network is the royal family of Liechtenstein, a tiny European country that is an epicenter for money laundering. In addition to participating in a front company that was part of the Al Taqwa constellation that funded Bin Laden, the Liechtenstein royal family (in 2001) assumed the powers of absolute monarchy, just in time to interdict any legal investigations that might have gone in the direction of 9/11. The head of the political party that fronted for Prince Hans Adam’s assumption of absolute power is a powerful lawyer who works for an Alfa subsidiary! The dovetailing of powerful German capital interests apparently linked to the Bormann milieu with Russian oligarchic and criminal elements appears to be an outgrowth of traditional German “Ostpolitik.” For more about Ostpolitik, be sure to access Germany Plots with the Kremlin by T. H. Tetens, available for free downloading at: Spitfirelist.com/Books.

Program Highlights Include: The German industrial figures on the board of directors of the CDS; a history of the Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft and its American subsidiary, the CDS; the Alfa Group’s links to Cheney’s Halliburton Oil company; the Alfa Group’s links to Iraqgate arms trafficking; the Alfa Group’s links to the oil-for-food scandal in Iraq; Alfa’s links to the Cali cocaine cartel of Colombia; Alfa’s links to heroin trafficking; Attorney Norbert Seeger’s role with Alfa subsidiary Crown Resources; Norbert Seeger’s role as head of the Progressive Citizens Party in Liechtenstein; links between Liechtenstein and the milieu of the CDU funding scandal; Atta’s father’s friendship with the German couple that sponsored Atta’s entry into Germany under the auspices of the Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft; review of John P. Schmitz’s links to many of the entities and personalities discussed in the program.

1. We begin with a review of the relationship between 9/11 hijack ringleader Mohamed Atta and the Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft, a joint U.S. German fellowship program that sponsored Atta’s entry to, and stay in, Germany. (For more about Atta and the CDS, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 477, 523.) “For at least four years while living in Hamburg during the 1990’s, terrorist ringleader Mohamed Atta was part of a ‘joint venture’ between the U.S. and German governments, the MadCowMorningNews has learned, an elite international ‘exchange’ program run by a little-known private organization with close ties to powerful American political figures like David Rockefeller and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.”
(“Mohamed Atta Worked for Elite U.S.—German Government Exchange Program” by Daniel Hopsicker; MadCowMorningNews; 4/24/2003.)

2. “The jointly-funded government effort picked up the tab for Atta on sojourns in Cairo, Istanbul, and Aleppo in Syria during the years 1994 and 1995, as well as employing him as a ‘tutor’ and ‘seminar participant’ during 1996 and 1997. Moreover, Atta’s financial relationship with the U.S.—German government effort may even extended back to his initial move from Egypt to Germany in 1992, after being ‘recruited’ in Cairo by a mysterious German couple dubbed the ‘hijacker’s sponsors’ in a recent news account in the Chicago Tribune.” (Idem.)

3. “Mohamed Atta, before becoming a ‘terrorist ringleader,’ enjoyed the patronage of a government initiative known as the ‘Congress-Bundestag Program,’ overseen by the U.S. State Department and the German Ministry of Economic Development, the German equivalent of the U.S. Agency for International Development busy currently supervising the secretive bidding race for tens of billions of dollars of post-war reconstruction contracts in Iraq.” (Idem.)

4. “News that Mohamed Atta had been on the payroll of the elite international program surfaced in a curious way just a month after the 9/11 attack a brief seven-line report by German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Oct. 18, 2001, under the headline ‘Atta Was Tutor for Scholarship Holders.’ The story quoted spokesmen for ‘Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft,’ described as a ‘German international further education organization,’ as having admitted paying Hamburg cadre principal Atta as a ‘scholarship holder’ and ‘tutor,’ between 1995 and 1997.” (Idem.)

5. “But what makes the story curious is that the German paper concealed the shocking implications of their story, that Mohamed Atta had been on the payroll of a joint U.S.—German government program, through the simple expedient of neglecting to mention that the ‘Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft’ was merely a private entity set up to administer the ‘exchange’ initiative of the two governments.” (Idem.)

6. The U.S. end of the program is run out of an address at United Nations Plaza in New York by CDS International. The letters stand for Carl Duisberg Society, also the name of its German counterpart in Cologne, the Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft. Both are named for Carl Duisberg, a German chemist and industrialist who headed the Bayer Corporation during the 1920’s . . . .” (Idem.)

7. “. . . Kissinger, to cite just one example, had at one time addressed over 100 international business leaders at an anniversary dinner organized and celebrating CDS International held at the River Club of New York June 2, 1987. Kissinger congratulated CDS International on its 20 years of service in keeping close business ties, not only between Germany and the United States, but more recently through career development programs for participants from other countries as well. Five years later, Mohamed Atta became one of these participants from ‘other’ countries. . . .” (Idem.)

8. “CDS International, states the organization’s literature, provides opportunities for young German engineers. Mohamed Atta wasn't, strictly speaking, a ‘young German engineer,’ but apparently Kissinger's praise for ‘career development programs for participants from other countries as well’ had been taken to heart by the friendly folks at the Carl Duisberg Society. ‘These young German engineers earn real world experience and are given assignments to contribute from the start,’ a program spokesman enthused in a newspaper interview. The organization is today understandably shy about mentioning that their most famous recent graduate's ‘real world experience’ included murdering almost 3000 people in New York City in slightly less than two hours.” (Idem.)

9. “A financial relationship between the terrorist ringleader and the U.S. and German Governments has not previously even been hinted at in America's major media. The conspiracy-minded might conclude that the fact that the scoop is going to the MadCowMorningNews may owe something to the program’s raft of politically-powerful boosters. Having big juice in high places may also explain more equally-curious omissions in a second story about Mohamed Atta’s time in Germany, which appeared recently in the March 7, 2003 Chicago Tribune, under the headline ‘9/11 haunts hijacker's sponsors; German couple talks of living with pilot Atta.’” (Idem.)

10. It is interesting, and probably significant that the mysterious German couple who brought Atta into Germany under the auspices of the CDS came to meet him through their friend, Mohamed’s father. In FTR#523, we examined the senior Atta’s apparent supervision of the hijackers in Florida. He was apparently the leader of the group, a fact covered up by the FBI. In FTR#519, we looked at the senior Atta’s endorsement of the London subway attacks. “The article describes the 1992 meeting in Cairo between Atta and a German couple running an ‘international student exchange program,’ a meeting which the Tribune says led Atta to move to Hamburg. During a visit to the Egyptian capital in fall 1991, the Tribune reported, the German couple had stayed with friends who knew Atta's father, a Cairo lawyer, and his father's friends had then introduced the German couple to Atta. [Italics are Mr. Emory’s.] ‘Atta, who had recently graduated with a degree in architectural engineering from the University of Cairo, told the couple he wanted to study architecture in Germany, but he had no particular idea where he should go,’ the paper reported.” (Idem.)

11. Notice the strange circumstances under which the faceless German couple came to sponsor Atta. Does this make sense? “Though the article neglects to mention it, the reason Atta found himself with ‘no particular idea where he should go’ was because although he had studied engineering at prestigious Cairo University, he had not fared well enough to gain admission to its graduate school. The paper quotes the German wife telling investigators: ‘In this first conversation, we suggested he continue his studies in Hamburg and offered him a place to live at our house.’ Atta, she states, accepted their offer right away. This magnanimous gesture by the German couple to an undistinguished young man they have just met raises serious questions. Perhaps their gesture is just the very milk of human kindness; perhaps it is something else.” (Idem.)

12. Notice that the identity of the German couple who sponsored Atta was kept secret by the Chicago Tribune. WHY?! “Why did this German couple running an international exchange program leap at the opportunity to help a young man not considered promising enough to gain entrance to graduate school in Cairo, and offer him a place to live at their house. The Tribune doesn’t say. And they have made it difficult for anyone lese to follow up on their story, because they neglected to identify either the couple or the ‘international’ program they ran by name. But although Tribune correspondent Stevenson Swanson cites the German couple for ‘having played such an important role in Atta's move to Germany,’ he never gives either their names nor that of the organization they worked for.” (Idem.)

13. “This is some curious, if you know what we mean. After all, the story is 1200 words in length. So it’s not as if they didn't have room to print the names, is it? ‘Jane and John Doe from Help-A-Student International’ would have been enough. You know: Who, What, When, Where, and Why. So, either The Tribune just forgot the 'Who,' or something even weirder happened.” (Idem.)

14. “After studying German in Cairo, Atta arrived in Germany on July 24, 1992, according to investigators' records, and then lived rent-free for at least the next six months in the couple's home in a quiet, middle-class neighborhood. And since just two years later Atta was on the payroll of the ‘Congress-Bundestag Program,’ it is reasonable to conclude--and no thanks to The Chicago Tribune--that it was also the ‘exchange program’ responsible for bringing him to Germany in the first place. . . CDS International's elite sponsors are apparently influential enough to have kept their organization’s name out of the newspapers. Or at any rate out of The Chicago Tribune.” (Idem.)

15. Next, Mr. Emory pontificates about evidentiary tributaries running between a number of elements, which—taken together—appear to form parts of a network that involves elements of German heavy industry and finance, massive drug trafficking, arms trafficking and Russian criminal elements. The focal point of this part of the discussion is the Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft, the organization that trafficked Atta around in Germany and possibly the United States. As noted in FTR#477, Atta was associated with Germans, Swiss and Austrians in Florida. As noted in—among other programs—FTR#492, the German BKA (the federal police of that country) and/or Atta paramour Amanda Keller identified many of Atta’s associates as sons and daughters of prominent German industrialists. In the past, Mr. Emory has speculated about whether the Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft might be an element of the Underground Reich. In FTR#305, we examined the Bormann group’s control of German industry, and in FTR#155, we noted that the children of key Bormann group members follow in their parents’ footsteps. Are we looking at a Bormann/Underground Reich network here? One that oversaw the hijackers’ activities? “ . . . ‘In the 1920’s, Carl Duisberg, General Director of Bayer AG in Germany, envisioned sending German students to the United States on work-study programs. Duisberg was convinced that international practical training was critical to the growth of German industry. Many of the returning trainees later rose to prominent positions at AEG, Bayer, Bosch, Daimler Benz, and Siemens, bringing with them new methods for mass production, new ideas, and new business practices. Following World War II, alumni from the first exchanges founded the Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft (CDG) in 1949 to help engineers, businessmen and farmers gain international work experience necessary for the rebuilding of Germany . . . .”
(“History of the Carl Duisberg Society".)

16. Note the prominent German industrialists on the board of directors of the Duisberg Society, and do not forget the Bormann group’s stewardship of German industry in this context. “Board of Directors Carl Duisberg Society: . . . Gerd D. Mueller (retired) [member of Bundestag on CSU ticket) Chairman of the Board; Executive Vice President and CFO Bayer Corporation . . . . Dr. Hans W. Decker; Treasurer of the Board; Professor—Columbia University . . . Robert Fenstermacher; Executive Director of CDS International, Inc. (ex officio) . . . Carl Geercken; Partner Alston & Bird LLP . . . Dr. Olaf J. Groth; Executive Director, Strategic Analysis & Integration—Boeing International Corporation . . . Dr. H. Friedrich Holzapfel; Managing Director—The Burlington Group . . . Dr. Gudrun Kochendoerfer-Lucius; Managing Director—InWEnt (Capacity Building International, Germany) . . . Fritz E. Kropatscheck; Manging Director—Deutsche Bank, A.G. (retired) . . . Wolfgang Linz (retired) Executive Director CDS International, Inc. . . . Dr. Karl M. Mayer-Wittmann (retired); President—WEFA, Inc. . . . Frances McCaffrey; Manager, Center Development—BMW of North America . . . Dr. Horst K. Saalbach Vice Chairman of the Board--Festo Corporation . . . Dr. Norbert Schneider; Chief Executive Officer—Carl Duisberg Centren GmbH . . . .”
(“Board of Directors: Carl Duisberg Society”)

17. Another of the fellowship programs that operates under the auspices of the CDS is the Alfa Fellowship, that functions on behalf of the Alfa Group, a Russian conglomerate with more links than a switchboard. Among the connections of the Alfa group are profound links to cocaine and heroin trafficking, Halliburton Oil (Dick Cheney’s former firm), and the oil-for-food scam in Iraq. The Iraqi oil scam, in turn, appears to be linked to Carlos Cardoen, one of the principal arms traffickers involved in the Iraqgate scandal presided over by the elder George Bush. (For more about the elder George Bush’s involvement in the Iraqgate scandal, see—among other programs—FTR#384.) Is this Russian part of the network connected to the network that was trafficking Atta around in Florida? “ALFA FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM: Nearly fifteen years after the fall of the Soviet Union, Cold War-era policies and concepts continue to affect U.S. relations with Russia. . . . The Alfa Fellowship Program is designed to address this problem . . . .”
(“ALFA FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM”; Page on the Carl Duisberg Society web site.)

18. Dick Cheney’s former firm—Halliburton—is connected to the Alfa company. “Under the guidance of Richard Cheney, a get-the-government-out-of-my-face conservative, Halliburton Company over the past five years has emerged as a corporate welfare hog, benefiting from at least $3.8 billion in federal contracts and taxpayer-insured loans. One of these loans was approved in April by the U.S. Export-Import Bank. It guaranteed $489 million in credits to a Russian oil company whose roots are imbedded in a legacy of KGB and Communist Party corruption, as well as drug trafficking and organized crime funds, according to Russian and U.S. sources and documents.”
(“Cheney Led Halliburton to Feast at Federal Trough: State Department Questioned Deal with Firm Linked to Russian Mob” by Knut Royce and Nathaniel Heller [Center for Public Integrity]; 8/2/2000.)

19. “Those claims are hotly disputed by the Russian oil firm’s holding company. Halliburton, which lobbied for the Ex-Im loan after the State Department initially asserted that the deal would run counter to the ‘national interest,’ will receive $292 million of those funds to refurbish a massive Siberian oil field owned by the Russian company, the Tyumen Oil Co., which is controlled by a conglomerate called the Alfa Group. . . .” (Idem.)

20. Note that a Russian intelligence officer identifies Chechens as behind the Alfa Group-connected heroin traffic. Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood are strongly connected to the groups active in Chechnya. Again, is this operation connected to Atta’s activities in Florida? “ . . . That document and the FSB report claim that Alfa Bank, one of Russia’s largest and most profitable, as well as Alfa Eko, a trading company, had been deeply involved in the early 1990’s in laundering of Russian and Colombian drug money and in trafficking drugs from the Far East to Europe. The former KGB major, who with the fall of communism in the late 1980’s had himself been involved in the plan by the KGB and Communist Party to loot state enterprises, said that Alfa Bank was founded with party and KGB funds, and quickly attracted rogue agents who had served in anti-organized-crime units. ‘They (the rogue agents on the bank’s payroll) quickly determined that dealing in drugs would bring the highest profits with literally no risk in Russia,’ according to the former KGB officer. He claimed that a ‘large channel of heroin transit was established from Burma through Laos, Vietnam, to the Far East [Siberia].’ From there the drugs were camouflaged as flour and sugar shipments and forwarded on to Germany. The drug operation was controlled by a Chechen mob family, he said. [Italics are Mr. Emory’s] . . .” (Idem)

21. The Cali cartel—connected to the Iran-Contra drug trafficking networks that were linked to Atta’s operations in Florida—is linked to the Alfa Group’s criminal activities. “ . . . The FSB document claims that at the end of 1993, a top Alfa official met with Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, the now-imprisoned financial mastermind of Columbia’s notorious Cali cartel, ‘to include an agreement about the transfer of money into Alfa Bank from offshore zones such as the Bahamas, Gibraltar and others, The plan was to insert it back into the Russian economy through the purchase of stock in Russian companies.’ The account from the former KGB officer is unclear about Alfa’s alleged role with Rodriguez, but apparently confirms that ‘in 1993-94 there were attempts of the so-called Chess Player [Rodriguez’s nickname] to launder and legalize large amounts of criminal money in Russia. He reported that there was evidence ‘regarding [Alfa Bank’s] involvement with the money laundering of . . . Latin American drug cartels.’ . . .” (Idem.)

22. The program highlights links between Alfa and people linked to the leadership of the Republican Party: “ . . . Tyumen could have significant access to the White House should the Bush-Cheney ticket win in the November presidential elections. Tyumen’s lead attorney at Akin Gump is James C. Langdon Jr., a managing partner at the firm. He is also one of George W. Bush’s ‘Pioneers,’ one of the elite fund raisers who have brought in at least $100,0000 for the Republican presidential hopeful. . . .” (Idem.)

23. The discussion concludes with the links of Alfa Group to the Iraqi oil-for-food scam and the Iraqgate weapons trafficking of the 1980’s. “ . . . One outfit that participated in the Iraqi oil trade is the Alfa Group, a Moscow firm with holdings in banking, telecom, oil and commodities trading, run by billionaire Mikhail Fridman. Alfa quite legally pumped the price of its cheap Iraqi crude by trading it to a succession of affiliates and friends with questionable pasts. [including Alfa subsidiary Crown Trade & Finance] The daisy chain, known internally as a ‘rondo,’ boosted Alfa’s proceeds and also made the money harder to trace. Alfa deposited funds in a Gibraltar tax haven. . . .”
(“The Saddam Shuffle” by Michael Maiello; Forbes; 11/15/2004.)

24. “ . . . A favorite rondo customer—and a point of entry to the U.S. market—was a Houston company, Bayoil. It participated in 32 Iraqi oil trades with Alfa companies between August 1999 and December 2000. Bayoil also bought directly from Saddam. Saddam had been dealing with Bayoil owner David Bay Chalmers Jr. before. During the 1980’s Iran-Iraq war Bayoil apparently got a fee of $2 a barrel for brokering 20 million barrels of Iraqi oil to the Chilean arms dealer Carlos Cardoen. . . .” (Idem.)

25. Crown Resources and other Crown entities are part of the Alfa Group, one of whose outgrowths is the CDS subsidiary program the Alfa Fellowship. One of the questions Mr. Emory raises in this program concerns the post-Soviet Russian oligarchy and organized milieu. In this program, we are seeing elements of intersection between the Russian criminal-oligarchical networks and German capital networks that appear to be linked to the Underground Reich. This raises some interesting questions. The Soviet Union was the economic basket case of the world. How did some of these Russian elements obtain the sort of global power and influence that they have? They had to have help, the advantages of looting state monopolies notwithstanding. More about this below, in connection with Alfa’s Crown subsidiary. “ A deal to sell the Swiss-based commodities operation of former U.S. fugitive financier Marc Rich to Russia-owned energy trading group Crown Resources is off. . . . Crown is owned by the Alfa Group conglomerate. . . . .”
(“Marc Rich Deal to Sell Commodities Operation to Russian Group Fails” [AP]; 6/8/2001.)

26. One of the principal figures in the Crown/Alfa network is Dr. Norbert Seeger, about whom we will more below. “ . . . 30. Dr. Norbert Seeger; Rechtanswalt, Vaduz [Liechtenstein]—Information includes: Knowledge of facts pertaining to role of Crown Finance Foundation and other Crown entities in money laundering and tax evasion activities. . . .” (From the legal documents in a lawsuit—“Rule 26 Initial Disclosures; UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT; SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK; NOREX PETROLEUM LIMITED No. 02 Civ. 1499 (LTS)(KNF); Plaintiff v. ACCESS INDUSTRIES, INC.; Et. Al. Defendants; PLAINTIFF’S RULE 26(a)(1) INITIAL DISCLOSURES; 1. INDIVIDUALS LIKELY TO HAVE DISCOVERABLE INFORMATION THAT MAY BE USED TO SUPPORT NOREX’S CLAIMS . . . . A. Individuals Associated With Plaintiff”; p. 8.)

27. A critical element of discussion here concerns the tiny principality of Liechtenstein—a small European country of 32,000 people, whose principal industry is money laundering. As we will see, Liechtenstein figures significantly in the events in and around 9/11. In 2001, Prince Hans Adam became (for all intents and purposes) the only absolute monarch in Europe. This gambit was accomplished through a popular referendum, effected under the auspices of a front group—the Progressive Citizens Party. The referendum ceded to the Prince virtually all real power. In particular, he had the ability to completely control the judicial system, thereby controlling all legal investigations in the country—a particularly interesting and important power in the very important year of 2001! This assumption of absolute power put Hans Adam in the position of being able to block or neutralize any legal investigation into any of the financial shenanigans that transpired in Liechtenstein, including 9/11-related activities! As will be seen below, the main business in this tiny country is money laundering. “ . . . In a referendum in March 23, 64% of voters in Liechtenstein approved a measure to give Prince Hans Adam II the power to dismiss governments, approve judicial nominees and veto laws. It is the most power of any monarch in Europe. Hans Adam had threatened to leave the country if the measure was not approved. . . The Prince’s involvement in legislation consists in a right to take initiatives in the form of government bills and in the right to veto parliamentary proposals. The Prince has the power to enact princely decrees. Emergency princely decrees are possible when the security and welfare of the country is at stake. A countersignature by the head of government is, nevertheless required. The Prince has the right to convene and adjourn parliament and, for serious reasons, to adjourn it for 3 months or to dissolve it. On the basis of the names put forward by Parliament, the Prince nominates the government district and high court judges, the judges of the Supreme Court, and the presidents and their deputies of the Constitutional Court and of the Administrative Court of Appeal. The Prince’s other authorities include exercising the right to mitigate and commute punishments that have been imposed with legal force and the abolition--i.e., the dismissal---of investigations that have been initiated. All judgments are issued in the name of the Prince. . . .”
(Wikipedia entry on the political system of Liechtenstein.)

28. The head of Liechtenstein’s Progressive Citizens Party is Norbert Seeger—a principal figure in Alfa’s Crown Resources subsidiary!! “ . . . Since 2001, it has been the Progressive Citizens Party that has provided all the members of the government. The minority parties, as opposition parties, act as a check on the government in Parliament and on parliamentary commissions. . . .” (Idem.)

29. “ . . . Political parties and leaders: Progressive Citizens’ Party of FBPL. [Norbert Seeger]; . . .” (Idem.)

30. Next, the broadcast reviews information from FTR#442. One of the most important connections illustrated in this program is the evidentiary tributary connecting the Bank Al Taqwa and the royal family of Liechtenstein. Recall that Bank Al Taqwa is a principal financial source for Al Qaeda and other Muslim Brotherhood offshoots. (For more about Bank Al Taqwa, see—among other programs, FTR#’s 343, 456, 513.) One should not forget that Al Taqwa itself originates from a firm established in Vaduz, Liechtenstein—that nation’s capital. Liechtenstein is one of the principal “funny money” centers of Europe, and a major pivot point for the Bormann organization. This information should be evaluated against the background of the information presented in FTR#’s 352, 357, 359, 377, 378. Those broadcasts highlight the intersection between the Al Taqwa milieu and European far-right interests, including the P-2 and Alleanza Nationale milieu in Italy. These links with powerful European capital interests and far-right networks indicate that there is much more going on here than just Islamic fundamentalism. In light of the links between Liechtenstein, Crown/Alpha (Norbert Seeger) and the Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft, the Asat Trust/Liechtenstein royal family connection assumes potentially larger significance. Do the various tendrils of the creature portrayed in this program description constitute a Bormann/Underground Reich network deeply involved in 9/11?! “ . . . The prosecution also alleged that [alleged Al Qaeda financier Soliman] Biheiri is linked to a secretive financial network in Switzerland and Liechtensstein called Al Taqwa, which American and European investigators say is a financial backer of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Brotherhood, often depicted as the ideological parent of most radical Islamic groups, recently has come under government scrutiny for its possible direct role in supporting terrorism, most prominently because of Al Taqwa.”
(“Terror Fund Trail Leads to Alpine Kingdom” by Marc Perelman; Forward; 10/17/2003.)

31. “The Bush administration and the United Nations have designated the Al Taqwa network and its main officials—two self-avowed Muslim Brothers and an admitted Nazi sympathizer—as supporters of Al Qaeda. As a result, their assets have been frozen and they are the focus of a Swiss investigation. The Al Taqwa officials have repeatedly rejected the charges. At the [alleged Al Qaeda financier Soliman] Biheiri detention hearing last month, prosecutor Steven Ward described Biheiri as the Muslim Brotherhood’s ‘financial toehold in the U.S.’” (Idem.)

32. “The prosecution said it had established links between [alleged Al Qaeda financier Soliman] Biheiri and the two principals of Al Taqwa, Youssef Nada and Ghaleb Himmat. According to testimony from special agent Kane of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the addresses of Nada and Himmat were found in Biheiri’s laptop computer. Kane told the court that there were ‘other indications’ of connections between Al Taqwa and Biheiri’s company BMI, including financial transactions. . . .” (Idem.)

33. “. . . One company in the Al Taqwa galaxy that was designated by the United States and the U.N. as a terrorist-related entity is a Liechtenstein entity called Asat Trust. Its director Martin Wachter, told the Forward this year that Asat Trust operates merely as a registry for businesses and is not involved in the operation of any company. He added that the American government had wrongfully designated Asat Trust as a terrorist-related entity because it had once represented Al Taqwa in a small real estate deal in Switzerland.” (Ibid.; pp. 2-3.)

34. “Still, copies of business registration documents on file with authorities in Liechtenstein show that Asat Trust has been intimately involved with the Al Taqwa network during the last 30 years, registering changes in company names, personnel and financial structure, which may explain why Asat Trust landed on the American and U.N. terrorist lists.” (Ibid.; p. 3.)

35. The information about the Al Taqwa links with the royal family of Liechtenstein is set forth as follows: “The records also shed light on the involvement of one member of the royal family of Liechtenstein in Asat Trust. According to the documents, deceased Prince Emanuel von und zu Liechtenstein became a board member of Asat Trust in May 1970 and stayed until November 1990, when he was replaced by Wachter, the trust’s current director. Florian Krenkel, a spokesman for the royal family, said Prince Emmanuel had died in 1987 and that he was a distant cousin from ruling Prince Hans Adam II. . . .” (Idem.)

36. “ . . . There also appears to be some links between Asat Trust and a bank owned by the Liechtenstein royal family. Several Asat Trust documents feature on their letterheads ‘Bank in Liechtenstein AG’ beneath ‘Asat Trust.’ The royal family bank has changed its name and is now called LGT bank. A telephone and an e-mail query to the bank’s spokesman Hans-Martin Uehringer went unreturned. . . .” (Idem.)

37. More about Liechtenstein and its money-laundering economy: “High atop an Alpine ridge sits a prince in a 130-room castle, in a tiny domain that has made a name for itself by hiding people’s money. It has also found a bit more international attention than it would like.”
(“The Prince and His Black Sheep: This Is No Liechtenstein Fairy Tale” by John Tagliabue; New York Times 4/8/2000.)

38. Note the references to Liechtenstein’s role in the CDU funding scandal. (These are the references to the conspiracy involving Kohl, the French oil company and the “decrepit oil refinery.”) For more about the CDU funding scandal, see—among other broadcasts—FTR#’s 193, 276, 278, 506. In FTR#’s 469, 476, we noted the links of John P. Schmitz to various aspects of the 9/11 investigations, as well as his links to the Bush milieu. Schmitz was a beneficiary of the Robert Bosch Foundation Fellowship, a subsidiary program (along with the Alfa Fellowship) of the Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft. When working with the Bundestag, Schmitz worked with Mathias Wissman, the former treasurer of the CDU! Later, Wissman went to work for Wilmer Cutler & Pickering, a law firm that also employed Schmitz and that represents key German government-linked corporations in their attempts to move into American markets. (For more about this, see—among other programs—FTR#492.) Again, with the Asat Trust [Al Taqwa] link to the Liechtenstein Royal Family, as well as the Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft/Atta/Alfa/Robert BoschFoundation Fellowship relationship, we may well be looking at a Bormann/Underground Reich network “in the raw.” “Last year, when German prosecutors investigated millions of dollars of secret donations to former Chancellor Helmut Kohl, the tail led to Liechtenstein, a principality the size of Fort Wayne, Ind. When Swiss investigators looked into millions of dollars of obscure ‘payments’ involving the sale of a decrepit refinery to a French oil company, the money trail also led to Liechtenstein. In 1996, when American agents seized a Swiss launderer of Latin American drug profits, he confessed that he loved to do business in Liechtenstein since its banks never divulged much about its clients.” (Idem.)

39. “The affable 55-year-old Prince Hans Adam II, whose ancestors bought the country from the Austrian crown some three centuries ago, sees his nation of 32,000 people as merely offering banking privacy and low taxes. To him, bank secrecy and wafer-thin tax rates are services the country just like its dairy products and its leading export, dental prosthetics.” (Idem.)

40. “Since many of Europe’s wealthy face income tax rates exceeding 50 percent, Liechtenstein offers a secluded place to squirrel away their fortunes. It also has a top income tax rate of just 18.9 percent. Taxes for holding companies or enterprises with no more than a mailbox here are a mere 1 percent.” (Idem.)

41. “But those kinds of lures have apparently attracted some unsavory elements. Liechtenstein’s headaches began last November, when the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel published what it said were details of a German intelligence report that made accusations against Liechtenstein banks and fiduciaries—specialists in establishing mailbox corporations that are used to mask bank accounts. The enterprises were tied to a Sicilian Mafia group, Latin American drug lords and Russian gangs, the report said.” (Idem.)

42. “The article also asserted that a former Liechtenstein prime minister had assembled a network of banks, government workers and lawyers to help organized crime. Prince Hans Adam, in an interview, accused Germany of seeking to ruin Liechtenstein as a tax haven. To do so, he added, the Germans ‘did not hesitate to commit character assassination on a country and on individual people.’ . . .” (Idem.)

43. Note that the Swiss currency is Liechtenstein’s “coin of the realm”—something that would no doubt facilitate the money laundering infrastructure in that tiny nation. “ . . . In 1924, after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire following World War I, Liechtenstein entered a customs union with Switzerland, whose currency is the coin of the realm. . . . It is not lost on Liechtensteiners that while German governments pillory their system, German politicians use it to hide campaign donations. In 1997, a local employee of one influential fiduciary gave Der Spiegel diskettes containing confidential client information. Among Germans stashing money here were not only well-known business people and an Olympic gold medalist, but also officials of Chancellor Kohl’s political party, the Christian Democratic Union. . . .” (Idem.)

44. Liechtenstein protested that their financial system was adequately transparent. “ . . . Yet when financial inspectors from the Council of Europe visited Liechtenstein in September, they came to very different conclusions. To lift bank secrecy, they found that requests must pass 12 appeal levels. They also found that the office for investigating bank reports of suspicious money has five overworked employees. So to learn where suspicious money comes from, the banks simply ask their clients. ‘The examiners fail to see how ‘tipping off’ in such circumstances can be avoided,’ the inspectors politely concluded in their report.” (Idem.)

45. “Peter Csonka, the team’s secretary, said Liechtenstein had 80,000 trust companies—almost 3 for every citizen—as well as 280 lawyers and 80 trustees, most of whom ‘are in some business where the purpose is not totally clear.’ Financial policing, he said, ‘equals zero.’ . . .” (Idem.)

46. Note the prince’s relative immunity, as well as his inclination to use private auditors to “keep the books” for the kingdom. Note, too, that Arthur Andersen was the auditor that facilitated the Enron rip-off. “One hurdle to reform, some say, is the growing political dissent between the prince and the government on matters like constitutional reform and law enforcement. The prince, for instance, proposes contracting oversight of the banking system to private auditors, and suggests PricewaterhouseCoopers or Arthur Anderson. ‘I’m a proponent of outsourcing whatever can be done better,’ he said. [Italics are Mr. Emory’s.] For his part, Prime Minister Mario Frick wants the deletion of constitutional passages assuring the prince’s immunity. ‘He could steal my car, and I can’t do anything about it,’ Mr. Frick said. The prince recently annoyed politicians by mailing his own proposals for reform to all households and posting them on his Web site: www.fuerstenhaus.li. . . .” (Idem.)

FTR #529 Nazi Roots and Fascist Flowers

Recorded October 9, 2005
REALAUDIO

This broadcast details some of the fruits that have been borne by the collaboration between elements of U.S. intelligence and Nazi and fascist groups from World War II. Beginning with discussion of the Ukrainian fascist OUN-B and its affiliated organization the ABN (Anti-Bolshevik League of Nations), the program highlights the position of Ukrainian head of state Victor Yuschenko's wife in that milieu. The former Katherine Chumachenko was a key official with the UCCA (the key OUN-B front group in the U.S.) and was Deputy Director for Public Liaison in the Reagan/Bush White House. In light of the fact that Yuschenko’s entire cabinet has either resigned in protest over the corruption of his regime or been fired, one must seriously consider to what extent his association with fascist fellow-travelers like the former Ms. Chumachenko may have paved the way for unsavory elements to enter the Ukrainian government. The program also highlights the links between both the GOP and the John Birch Society milieu and the Iron Guard, the Romanian fascist group that fought alongside Hitler and the Nazis. Joseph Schmitz, the son of John Birch Society luminary Joseph G. Schmitz and the former Inspector General of the Pentagon has been named as the head of the Blackwater company—a private security outfit employing former elite special operations troops. After reviewing the John Birch Society’s recovery of Japanese war loot from the Philippines in order to fund a private, right-wing national security establishment, the broadcast sets forth the links between the national security establishment and various “private” security organizations that function as proxy warriors and spies. Many of the right-wing outfits that spawn some of these “private” organizations also appear to have been the recipients of Japanese war gold. The broadcast concludes with an examination of the role of Graz, Austria (the hometown of the family of Arnold Schwarzenegger) in the Vatican “Ratline” escape networks that spirited Nazi war criminals out of Europe and, in many cases, into the service of elements of Western intelligence.

Program Highlights Include: The role of the OUN-B and the closely affiliated ABN in Nazi liquidations and atrocities on the Eastern Front during World War II; the close links between the OUN-B and ABN and the Reagan/Bush White House; the role of the Romanian Iron Guard in the ABN/GOP milieu; the postwar survival of much of the Iron Guard infrastructure; review of the links between elements of the MacArthur group within the military and the John Birch Society; the role of the Graz police establishment in the Ratline operations in that city, as well as the influence of the Cardinal of Graz in sheltering war criminals in the town.

1. In late 2004 and early 2005, much of the world’s attention was focused on the so-called “Orange Revolution” in the Ukraine, in which a challenger—Victor Yuschenko—ousted a corrupt and autocratic predecessor after the populace demanded that evident electoral fraud be invalidated. The bloom has since gone off the fruit, so to speak, as Yuschenko’s entire cabinet has either resigned in protest over corruption or been fired. This program begins with discussion of Yuschenko’s wife—a Ukrainian/American with a politically tainted past. A Wall Street Journal editorial lauded the former Katherine Chumahcneko: “In the most peaceful revolution since South Africa ended its apartheid regime by electing Nelson Mandela president in 1994, Ukraine has just elected opposition leader Viktor Yuschenko president of the former Soviet satellite republic. The victory comes for the pro-Western leader after a dirty campaign that saw him poisoned and only after hundreds of thousands of demonstrators filled the streets to protest voter-fraud. ‘We peacefully, beautifully, elegantly and without any drops of blood changed Ukraine,’ Mr. Yuschenko told cheering supporters.”
(“From America With Love” by John Fund; Opinion Journal—from The Wall Street Journal Editorial Page; 12/27/2004; p. 1.)

2. “What many Westerners do not realize, however, is when Mr. Yuschenko takes the seat of power, at his side will be a tough minded, savvy American-raised businesswoman. His wife, Kateryna Chumachenko Yuschenko, is the daughter of Ukrainian immigrants who grew up steeped in the traditions of her ancestral homeland. . . .” (Idem.)

3. Mrs. Yuschenko’s background is more than a little interesting, and gives a possible hint to a source of corruption: the former Ms. Chumachenko was closely affiliated with a front group for the OUN-B, a Ukrainian fascist group that worked with the SS under the Third Reich and has been an integral element of the postwar Underground Reich. The OUN-B worked closely with the Gehlen spy outfit and affiliated organizations, such as the ABN (see below.) For more about the Gehlen spy outfit, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 44, 113, 180, as well as RFA#’s 1, 2, 3, 22, 36, 37, available from Spitfire. “One Ukrainian nationalist group was the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) which split into two organizations: a less militant wing, led by Andrew Melnyk and known as OUN-M, and the extremist group of Stepan Bandera, known as OUN-B. The Nazis preferred the radical nationalist OUN-B. During the German military occupation, the Ukraine witnessed terrible atrocities against Jews and other groups targeted by Nazi policies. The OUN-B organized military units that participated in these atrocities. With the collapse of the Third Reich, many Ukrainian collaborationists fled their homeland.”
(Old Nazis, The New Right, and the Republican Party; by Russ Bellant; South End Press [HC]; Copyright 1988, 1989, 1991 by Russ Bellant; ISBN 0-89608-419-1; p. 69.)

4. The OUN-B, like the ABN, became a big part of the Republican ethnic heritage branch—a Nazi/fascist wing of the GOP with its roots firmly planted in the Third Reich. For more about the GOP/ABN/OUN-B connection, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 332, 465. In the passage that follows, note for the purpose of the present discussion the UCCA, the main OUN-B front group in the U.S. “After the war, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists-Bandera (OUN-B), a clandestine group financed in part by German intelligence and led by [Jaroslav] Stetsko, accelerated its work in the West. A secretive group, OUN-B’s tracks are difficult to follow. ‘You have to understand. We are an underground organization. We have spent years quietly penetrating positions of influence,’ explained an OUN-B member who insisted on anonymity. The positions of influence under discussion were Reagan Administration appointments. All of the OUN-B’s key Administration contacts were through an organization called the Ukrainian Congress of America (UCCA), headquartered in New York City. . . .” (Idem.)

5. The program presents more information about the ABN and its relationship with the former World Anti Communist League. For more about the OUN-B and the ABN—especially their influence within the Reagan administration, see—among other programs—FTR#367. For more about the World Anti-Communist League, see—among other programs—RFA#’s 14, 15—available from Spitfire. “ . . . The ABN is the high council for the expatriate nationalist groups that formed the police, military and militia units that worked with Hitler during World War II. Some were organized as mobile killing teams that exterminated villages and sought to murder whole ethnic, racial, and cultural groups. These mobile killing teams are the forerunners of the modern death squad. It is consistent, then, that the Latin American Anti-Communist Confederation (CAL) (for many years the Latin American branch of WACL) has a great affinity for the ABN and its members, according to several ABN members. CAL historically has served as an umbrella group for the regional death squads.” (Ibid.; p. 75.)

6. “A meeting of the youth sections of CAL and ABN in 1983 took place in Fedorak’s Ukrainian Cultural Center in Warren, Michigan. The resulting 16-point resolution bore statements that might surprise some of their conservative U.S. supporters. Not only were the usual anti-communist sentiments expressed, but also anti-capitalist positions were taken. One point, for instance, called for ‘rejection of all materialist doctrines (author’s emphasis) which defile the human individual by treating people as egotistical, covetous and selfish beings. . . .’ The resolution called for a ‘faith in Revolutionary, liberation nationalism . . . .’ and ‘unbending opposition to collectivist slavery, against communist and capitalist alienation of human labor. . . .’” (Ibid.; pp. 75-76.)

7. “These formulations mirror the classic outlines of National Socialism, which simultaneously fought the Communist and Western Capitalist powers ideologically and militarily. The Third Way, rejecting East and West, is still a position taken by significant elements of the contemporary neo-Nazi movement.” (Ibid.; p. 76.)

8. “The Stetskos were not only leaders of OUN but the multi-ethnic ABN as well. The July-August, 1983 ABN bulletin ABN Correspondence carries several cover photos which show the Stetskos and other ABN leaders as White House guests in July 1983, personally meeting with Reagan, George Bush and Jeanne Kirkpatrick.” (Idem.)

9. “After the Stetskos visited the White House, Yaroslav Stetsko’s wife Slava Stetsko, who lives in Munich, West Germany, called on the ABN to support Reagan’s re-election. She carried that message to ABN chapters during 1984 as well. The Reagan campaign cooperated with ABN, including scheduling an appearance by Michel Sotirhos, head of Ethnic Voters for Reagan-Bush Campaign of 1984 as well as the Republican Heritage Groups Council, at the 1984 ABN conference in New York City.” (Idem.)

10. “The Goal of the ABN is to pressure the U.S. government toward a ‘liberation’ policy aimed against the USSR, with ABN leaders as the liberators. Although ABN members say they only need technical assistance from the West, they want the U.S. military to put them in power in Eastern Europe and the USSR. This is the formula they tried under German Nazi sponsorship. Their manipulations of the American political system are toward that end.” (Idem.)

11. “The emigres of the ABN still dream of one more chance to create a new order in Europe. They even got Michigan Republican Congressman Paul Henry to enter a statement into the Congressional Record in July, 1986, commending the ‘independence’ of the Ukraine under Stetsko in 1941.” (Idem.)

12. “According to Henry ‘a representative assembly of the most prominent Ukrainian leaders from all walks of life issued a Proclamation of the Restoration of Ukraine’s Independence. . . . The proclamation received enthusiastic support of the Ukrainian people’ Henry referred to the ‘freedom fighters’ of the ‘Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), led by Stepan Bandera.’ When questioned about his praise for a document which included the line ‘Glory to the Heroic German Army and its Fuhrer, Adolph Hitler,’ a spokesperson for Henry said he’d ‘not been aware of the fine print. . . .’” (Idem.)

13. Notice Yuschenko’s wife’s position in this fascist/Nazi concatenation. The former Ms. Chumachenko had been director of the UCCA’s Captive Nations Committee and (as of 1988) been Deputy Director for Public Liaison at the White House! “On July 20, 1988, George Bush reaffirmed the ties between the Republican Party and the ABN by making a campaign stop at Fedorak’s Ukrainian Cultural Center in Warren, Michigan. Bush delivered a hard-line foreign policy speech to those attending the annual Captive Nations banquet sponsored jointly by the Captive Nations Committee and the ABN. Sharing the dais with Fedorak and Bush was Katherine Chumachenko, formerly the director of the UCCA’s Captive Nations Committee and currently the Deputy Director for Public Liaison at the White House. [Italics are Mr. Emory’s.] Ignatius M. Billinsky, President of UCCA, had already been named Honorary Chair of Ukrainians for Bush, and Bohdan Fedorak named National vice-chair of Ukrainians for Bush. . . .” (Ibid.; pp. 76-77.)

14. Next, the program highlights the role of Romanian Iron Guard units in the ABN. For more about the Iron Guard, the ABN and the GOP, see RFA#2—available from Spitfire, as well as many of the shows mentioned above. To learn more about the Iron Guard and its links to the GOP and the Underground Reich, use the search function at the top of this description. Note, in particular, Horia Sima’s role as head of an Iron Guard government in exile. We will examine links between the U.S. far right, the Iron Guard and Sima later on in this discussion. “ . . . (Romanian Liberation Movement). The Romanian affiliate of ABN and the World Anti-Communist League. Its leader for many years, Horia Sima, was also the head of the Romanian Iron Guard following WWII. Sima could hardly claim to have fought the Nazis and Soviets simultaneously, since he was released by the Germans from house arrest to head a Romanian puppet government-in-exile. It as set up by the Germans in Vienna in 1944, immediately the Romanian government abandoned the Axis and sued for peace with the Allies. As head of the government, Sima formed Romanian military units which fought on Germany’s behalf on the Eastern Front from 1944-45. Sima’s government-in-exile was disbanded nine days after Hitler’s death.” (Ibid.; p. 75.)

15. The Iron Guard is part and parcel to a milieu that has coalesced at the forefront of the trend toward privatization of national security matters. Iron Guard officials had significant interface with elements of the John Birch society. A book excoriating Senator Edward Kennedy was authored by one “Zad Rust”—a pen-name for Prince Michael Sturdza, the foreign minister for the Iron Guard government during World War II. This book was actively promoted by the John Birch Society and Robert Welch, and—as will see—Representative John G. Schmitz. Schmit’s legacy has been perpetuated by his sons John P. Schmitz and Joseph Schmitz. For more about the Schmitzes, see FTR#’s 469, 476.“ . . . On the questions of killing in ‘defense’ of one’s own ‘group,’ Robert Welch’s ideas are remarkably parallel with those expressed in deed by one of Europe’s most notorious gangs of political assassins. In a book titled, Teddy Bare: The Last of the Kennedy Clan and described by Welch as one of ‘a battery of heavier guns’ against ‘the enemy,’ we find its author Zad Rust aghast that the ‘founder’ of ‘the American Civil Liberties Union’ gave his full approval to the right of all, citizens and aliens alike, to advocate political assassination . . .[Teddy Bare; Western Islands, p. 147.]”
(“Assassination and the Strange Friends of John Schmitz” by Walter A. Carrithers, Jr.; paper authored in 1972; pp. 40-41. [PDF download])

16. “Rust”/Sturdza also wrote a book extolling the Iron Guard and promoting the canard of the “Jewish Conspiracy.” The book was endorsed by Representative John G. Schmitz, whose sons (as discussed in the references in paragraph 15) have carried on his legacy. His sons are involved in investigations into various aspects of the 9/11 situation. “As since revealed in JBS literature, ‘Zad Rust’ is a pen-name for Prince Michal Sturdza, author of The Suicide of Europe, greeted by John G. Schmitz as a ‘powerful book’ (Review of the News, Feb. 23, 1972, p. 48.) It is described in advertising as ‘brilliant memoirs’ and ‘a personal, first-hand witness to international intrigue, to a people’s courageous response to . . . treason by their highest leaders . . . . a vital contribution without which no accurate history of the Twentieth Century can be written.’” (Ibid.; p. 41.)

17. “How indeed does author Sturdza portray this ‘courageous response to . . . treason by their highest leaders. . . .’? Despite ‘Zad Rust’s’ mock shock at any idea that the advocacy of political assassination should be considered a civil right, the ‘response’ Sturdza admits and defends was that of the Iron Guard of Romania, one of the most notorious, bloodiest terrorist-assassination gangs in all of Nazi Europe—and Prince Sturdza was the Foreign Minister in its Cabinet after it finally gained power (and at once allied with Hitler and with Mussolini)!” (Idem.)

18. “To show a bit of what that means, we quote from Assassination and Political Violence (A report to the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence), p. 572: ‘Extreme nationalism and anti-semitism produced in Rumania a native form of fascism, the Iron Guard. The Iron Guard . . . utilized . . . tensions for direct action in the form of mass and individual violence . . . Nationalistic and rabidly anti-semitic, the Iron Guardists . . . ruthlessly . . . practiced a variety of violent tactics, inciting the population to pogroms and outrages against Jews, democrats and moderates who opposed them. Fascist students and Iron Guardists, in open disregard of the law and of the elementary rights of others, shot down public officials, and even fellow students. Codreanu {founder of the Iron Guard movement} shot down the prefect of police Manciu in court (1924) {in the birthplace of the movement}, participated in the assassination of Prime Minister Ion Duca (1933) . . . Again, in 1937 terrorists attempted to assassinate a courageous rector of the University of Yassi because of his opposition to antisemitic terrorism.” (Ibid.; pp. 41-42.)

19. “ ‘In 1936, a student, Mikhail Stilescu, who had resigned from the organization, was killed in a hospital in Bucharest by 10 Iron Guardists [a typical ‘courageous’ response] . . . When General Antonescu took over the government of Rumania in 1940, the Iron Guardists murdered more than 60 prisoners and kidnapped and murdered the leading Rumanian historian, Professor Nicola Iorga, who was a former Rumanian Prime Minister and himself a nationalist. A leading peasant party economist, Virgil Madgearu, met the same fate. Outrages against Jews followed afterwards. This is only a random sample of the numerous killings and outrages perpetrated by the Iron Guard.’” (Ibid.; p. 42.)

20. “In his defense of the Iron Guard whose agents assassinated two acting Prime Ministers of their country, ‘Zad Rust,’ the hatchet-man Founder Welch set upon Senator Edward Kennedy, pleads that it all was necessary to try and save the nation from ‘the Anonymous and Omnipotent Powers who decided that the hammer and sickle should replace the Cross where it has reigned for about two thousand years.’ (The Suicide of Europe; p. lxv.) Who were these ‘powers’ so ‘malevolent’ that they could only be combated by the assassin’s gun? Sturdza does not openly identify them; but it is no great task to read his intent, especially since one of his fellow-Iron Guardists, one at the right hand of its Leader, was Ion Mota, first to translate into Rumanian The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. . . .” (Idem.)

21. Note that the aforementioned Horia Sima and the Iron Guardists are an active part of the milieu of the John Birch Society, as well as the GOP. “ . . . (As a footnote, the Iron Guard movement in exile is neither defunct nor inactive. One can find indications of its activity in America even today. For $.35 we purchased one of the copies of A Declaration of the Rumanian Legionary Movement on sale at the Americanist bookstore at Knotts Berry Farm, Orange County, California. Printed in South America, its author is Horia Sima who, with Sturdza, was a member in the Iron Guard cabinet of Prime Minister Antonescu. After its downfall, Sima fled to take refuge in Nazi Berlin.)” (Ibid.; p. 43.)

22. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina and the devastation of New Orleans, there has been renewed focus on the privatization of national security matters, with the Blackwater security firm and other private security organizations assuming a leading role in the policing of that city. (For more about the privatization of national security matters, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 451, 522, 524.) In the middle of Katrina’s strike on New Orleans, Joseph Schmitz—son of John G. Schmitz and brother of John P. Schmitz—was appointed as the head of Blackwater’s parent company. “ . . . Just as the hurricane was hitting, Blackwater’s parent company, the Prince Group, named Joseph Schmitz, who had just resigned as the Pentagon’s Inspector General, as the group’s chief operating officer and general counsel. . . .”
(“Blackwater Down” by Jeremy Scahill; The Nation; 10/10/2005; p. 4 of 4.)

23. Next, the program recapitulates information from FTR#451 about the recovery of Japanese war loot from World War II and its use by the John Birch Society and other elements to finance their goal of a private national security establishment. (For more about the Japanese looting program, its background and history, see FTR#’s 290, 426, 427, 428, 446, 451, 501, 509.) The broadcast highlights the role of the John Birch Society in recovering Golden Lily treasure from the Philippines in tandem with mining engineer Robert Curtis. Note that the funds were going to be used to finance a private, right-wing vigilante force. (For more about the John Birch Society, see RFA#11, available from Spitfire.) Notice the reference to the Hunt Brothers’ attempts to corner the world’s silver market. The late Ali bin Musssalim (who maintained a Bank Al Taqwa account for Al Qaeda) was a participant in that scheme. “When the Hunt Brothers ere trying to corner the world’s silver production in the early 1970’s,’ Curtis told us, ‘they sent Colonel Herbert F. Buccholtz to me . . . later came Jerry Adams . . . Robert Welch, founder of the Birch Society; Congressman Larry McDonald, and Jay and Dan Agnew, and Floyd Paxton.’”
(Gold Warriors—America’s Secret Recovery of Yamashita’s Gold; by Sterling Seagrave and Peggy Seagrave; Verso [HC]; Copyright 2003 by Sterling Seagrave and Peggy Seagrave; ISBN 1-85984-542-8; p. 174.)

24. “The Birch Society was started in 1958 by a group of wealthy businessmen and far right politicians convinced that every closet in America contained communists, Jews, wetbacks, Afro-Americans, liberals and homosexuals. The Birchers also were dedicated gold and silver bugs. They had a longstanding grudge against U.S. presidents, starting with FDR, who had intervened to make private ownership of gold in America a crime, with penalties of heavy fines, confiscation and imprisonment. They also believed that Nixon had sold the United States down the river twice—first by taking America off the gold standard, second by his recognition of Red China. On the other hand, Nixon’s actions made it possible for the first time since 1933 for Americans to purchase and own gold legally. So Nixon opened up avenues for the Birch leadership to acquire gold overseas, and sneak it into America through the back door of Canada, where it added to the Society’s fund for anti-communist activities. Like other ultra-conservative groups in America and individuals like General Lansdale—one of their own—who had been forced out of the CIA and Pentagon by liberals, the Birchers had a long-term strategy to create their own right-wing vigilante force. Not something crude like Hitler’s Brown Shirts or Gestapo. More like a private FBI, assisted by elite private military forces. [Italics are Mr. Emory’s]. This would cost money, hence the need for large amounts of privately held gold.” (Ibid.; pp. 174-175.)

25. “Although he was a conservative, and a patriot, Curtis was not a Bircher. But he shared their fascination with precious metals. Once he joined the Marcos gold hunt, Curtis told the Birch Society board confidentially about the hidden Japanese loot. He described his role in the Leber Group, and his participation with Marcos in sanctifying the gold, and in finding discreet channels to market it.” (Ibid.; p. 175.)

26. “Curtis did not realize that the inner circle of the Birch leadership already knew about the Santa Romana recoveries, and the role of Robert B. Anderson and John J. McCloy in setting up the Black Eagle Trust. They also knew about the roles of Generals MacArthur, Whitney and Willoughby in the M-Fund, and all the financial manipulations in postwar Tokyo. They knew this because one of the founding members of the Birch Society was Colonel Laurence Bunker, a humorless fellow who had succeeded General Bonner Fellers on MacArthur’s personal staff in Tokyo. Bunker became MacArthur’s chief aide and spokesman in Tokyo from 1946-1951—the years of witch-hunging in Japan that made the McCarthy witch-hunts in America look bland.” (Idem.)

27. “The Birch Society money men who arranged the loan for Curtis were Washington State senator Floyd Paxton and his son Jerry, who ran Kwik Lok corporation, makers of the ubiquitous plastic clips used to close plastic bags in supermarkets. Another participant, Curtis said, was Jerry Adams of Atlanta, head of the Great American Silver Corporation, a precious metals company associated with the Hunt brothers. Curtis said he was informed by Congressman McDonald and Robert Welch that the loan for Curtis to work with Marcos had been ‘cleared’ by them personally. They told Curtis he was to deal directly with multi-millionaire Samuel Jay Agnew, who sat on the national council of the Birch Society.” (Idem.)

28. In addition to the Birch Society, it appears that other private right-wing interests also recovered large amounts of Golden Lily loot from the Philippines. “Private” is a questionable term, however, because the interests described below are inextricably linked with elements of the National Security Establishment. It is of particular significance that people associated with the Enterprise were involved with this apparent recovery. (The Enterprise was at the epicenter of Reagan/Bush covert operations of the 1980’s including the Iran-Contra and Iraqgate affairs.) Many people from this milieu are in prominent positions in the administration of the second George Bush. It is worth noting that the Golden Lily treasure may well have been a contributing factor to the growth of private military firms and private intelligence organizations—one of the major constellations in the contemporary national security firmament. “Once it was proved in U.S. courts that massive gold shipments did come out of the Philippines during the twenty years Marcos was president—gold that did not originate in the Central Bank, or in mines like Benguet—the remaining mystery is where did it go?” (Ibid.; p. 186.)

29. “To be sure, the gold was shipped covertly, usually after re-smelting in manila by Johnson-Mathey Chemicals, using equipment Marcos stole from Robert Curtis. Before it left Manila, some was re-papered by Johnson-Mathey Bank, then made its way to buyers throughout the gold pools in New York, Zurich and London. Other black bullion was sold privately to Saudi princes, and Middle Eastern syndicates, or to discreet groups of Europeans through Luxembourg and Liechtenstein.” (Idem.)

30. “Documents including waybills show that some shipments went to America aboard commercial ships and planes, while others went out on CIA aircraft to Hong Kong or to an American military base in Australia. So far as anyone can tell, the gold that went to America did not end up in Fort Knox. If it did, the U.S. Government is not admitting it. So where did it go? Who was shielding and helping Marcos, other than the CIA and Pentagon? Who else benefited from all this recovered plunder? Was the leverage of the federal government used to get some of this gold bullion into private hands?” (Idem.)

31. “The answer is that Marcos had connections beyond the CIA, to a shadowy network called The Enterprise, a cluster of private intelligence organizations (PIO’s) and private military firms (PMF’s). These were staffed by former CIA and Pentagon officers who saw themselves as Paladins of the Cold War. Many PIO’s and PMF’s got their start in the 1970’s during shakeups at the CIA. They mushroomed in the 1980’s after Jimmy Carter stirred up the anthill, and strongly motivated men had to continue their careers elsewhere.” (Idem.)

32. “At the end of 1972, when he replaced Richard Helms as CIA director, James Schlesinger made it clear that he intended to forcibly retire hundreds of agents who were dead wood, or part of a Dirty Tricks clique under Helms long engaged in operations that violated American laws, including assassinations. When it then became known that the CIA was involved in the Watergate break-in and other domestic break-ins, Schlesinger ordered an internal investigation and preparation of a complete list of all Agency projects that might embarrass the government. The resulting 693-page report, called ‘the Family Jewels’, led to leaks about assassination programs like Mongoose, death squads like Phoenix, and other wet-work hidden by national security. Over a thousand CIA agents were sacked or obliged to take early retirement.” (Ibid.; pp. 186-187.)

33. “When Nixon resigned, President Ford set up the Rockefeller Commission to investigate CIA wrongdoing, but staffed it with hardline conservatives who would avoid revealing things that would ‘blacken the name of the United States and every president since Truman.’” (Ibid.; p. 187.)

34. “Congressional hearings into Phoenix, the Lockheed bribery scandal, and later Iran-Contra, resulted in additional housecleaning at CIA and the Pentagon. Added to these purges were disputes between CIA officials like Ray Cline and President Nixon over rapprochement with China, and between Jimmy Carer and top military officers like major General John Singlaub, and Air Force General George Keegan. When Carter got rid of so many professional soldiers and spooks, he does not appear to have given much thought to what they might do to keep busy in private life. No Roman emperor would have been so careless in disbanding a legion.” (Idem.)

35. “Many of these clever and aggressive men regrouped privately, with funding from hard-right organizations like the Birch Society, Moonies, World Anti-Communist League, and wealthy conservative tycoons. Like Santy’s Umbrella organization, The Enterprise grew into a powerful and influential network during the late 1980’s. Although they were now private citizens, these men continued to have close ties to serving military officers, to top men in the CIA and the armed services. This overlap made it nearly impossible to distinguish between official U.S. Government operations and those that had private objectives. This was especially true because so many of these individuals had long experience in covert operations, deception, and the clandestine use of government resources and secret funds. They were accustomed to working with CIA proprietaries that had every appearance of being legitimate companies in private industry but were actually Trojan Horses for the intelligence community and, by extension, for the armed forces. In fact, some of the PMF’s were little more than fronts set up so that generals, admirals, and former spooks could continue to draw salaries and pensions as if they had never left government service. Many CIA agents spent years or even decades under various covers, so it was hard to establish beyond any doubt whether they ever left the Agency, or merely went underground.” (Idem.)

36. The program concludes with a point of speculative inquiry. In FTR#’s 504, 508 (among other programs), we examined the Vatican’s longstanding relationship with fascism and Nazism. In FTR#504, we took a look at the Vatican’s “ratlines”—the Vatican-sponsored escape networks used to spirit Nazi war criminals out of Europe and (in many cases) into the service of Western intelligence agencies, including American. RFA#17—available from Spitfire—has a detailed discussion of the ratlines. Gustav Schwarzenegger (Arnold’s father and a man categorized as a “Class Three” war criminal by the Austrian government) was a key police official in Graz in the immediate aftermath of World War II. Graz was also a key way station on the ratline, used to shelter Croatian Ustachi war criminals among others. This sheltering was done with the cooperation of the police chief of Graz. Was Gustav Schwarzenegger part of this Graz/Ratline operation? Was that why he quarreled with the British commissioner in the area? Was the tiny Graz suburb of Thal (where the senior Schwarzenegger became chief of police) also involved with the Graz/Ratline operation? For more about the Nazi background of Gustav Schwarzenegger and indications that he was part of the Underground Reich, see FTR#421. It is worth noting that right-wing Catholic connections appear to have played a role in the rise of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s political star. In FTR#422, we looked at his wife’s family connections to the fascist Opus Dei organization. Former Los Angeles mayor Richard Riordan is a member of the Knights of Malta. Might Arnold’s right-wing Catholic and Underground Reich connections be traceable to his father’s connections to the same elements? For more about the Knights of Malta, see Miscellaneous Archive Show M8, available from Spitfire. For more about Arnold Schwarzenegger, see FTR#’s 421, 422, 429, 434, 436, 492, 496, 520. The material in FTR#421 concerning the Nazis’ projected use of the police and other services essential for the maintenance of the postwar German infrastructure—material against which Gustav Schwarzenegger’s career must be measured—is from The Nazis Go Underground by Curt Reiss. Happily, this book is now available for download for free on the Spitfire website. “ . . . When asked about his post-war activities, Monsignor Petranovic cheerfully admitted that he helped ‘a couple of thousand people’ leave Italy via Genoa. When the war ended, he says he witnessed the Communist massacres of captured Ustashi. After a brief stay in Zagreb, he was dispatched to the Yugoslav-Austrian border, where he moved freely among the fleeing Ustashi. He settled for a time in Graz where many notorious war criminals were hiding. His work there was aided by Bishop Ferdinand Pawlikowski, who obtained clearance from the local police chief to allow Petranovic to stay in Graz. [Italics are Mr. Emory’s.] . . .”
(Unholy Trinity: The Vatican, the Nazis, and the Swiss Banks; by John Loftus and Mark Aarons; St. Martin’s Griffin [SC]; ISBN 0-312-18199-X; p. 106.)

37. The Cardinal of Graz also facilitated the Graz/Ratline connection. “ . . . Perhaps the ‘treasure’ had been in a monastery, but Gowen was certain that the British were now using it to finance ‘the Croat movement in Yugoslavia. The resistance forces go by the name of Krizari (Crusaders) . . . Radio contact is maintained by means of a field radio operated by Vrancic, a former Pavelic minister, located in the British zone of Austria. The Ustachia courier service within the Austrian Zones is believed aided by the Roman Catholic Church in Austria. The Cardinal of Graz is known to be on close terms with . . . Professor Draganovic, Krunoslav, known Pavelic contact in Rome. . . [Italics are Mr. Emory’s.]” (Ibid.; p. 123.)

FTR #528 Interview with Daniel Hopsicker About the Gus Boulis Murder

Recorded October 2, 2005
REALAUDIO

Featuring more of the landmark research of Daniel Hopsicker, this program fits another piece of information into the jigsaw puzzle of Mohamed Atta’s activities in Florida in the run-up to the 9/11 attacks. A self-professed Navy Seal took a Venice (Florida) cab-driving job, possibly to spy on Atta and associates. In addition, the program provides critical information about the three suspects arrested for the murder of Florida gambling-boat czar Gus Boulis, whose company was taken over by GOP kingpin Jack Abramoff after Boulis was killed. Among the evidentiary tributaries running through the Boulis murder is one leading toward the late Barry Seal, the subject of Daniel Hopsicker’s first book Barry and the Boys.

Program Highlights Include: Review of the profound discrepancies between the official version of Mohamed Atta’s acvtivities in Florida and the factual record, as investigated by Daniel Hopsicker; review of the links between the Gus Boulis murder and the milieu of both George Bush Sr. and George Bush, Jr.; discussion of the organized crime backgrounds of the three Boulis suspects; discussion of the possibility that the self-professed Navy Seal who squired Atta around in Venice may have been one of the Israeli agents who were tracking some of the 9/11 hijackers around in the United States.

1. Beginning with the subject of Mohamed Atta’s comings and goings in the United States prior to 9/11, the program highlights the profound discrepancies between the “official” (and false) version of Atta’s activities in Florida and the facts as they can been verified. As Daniel has pointed out in his landmark volume Welcome to Terrorland: Mohamed Atta and the 9/11 Cover-Up in Florida, Atta was in many places with many people that have never been reported by the mainstream press. In—among other programs—FTR#’s 477, 482, 483, 484, 516, 523, we have examined Daniel’s revelatory work about the “real” Mohamed Atta and the extraordinary efforts by the powers-to-be to obscure the record of what Atta was really doing in the United States and with whom he was doing it. An alleged former Navy Seal named Joe Gesell may well have beem surveilling Atta in the run-up to 9/11. Driving a cab in Venice, this individual left the cab company’s employ shortly after 9/11. In the interview itself (not the article reproduced here), Hopsicker relates that the individual in question was described as having dark hair and being “buff.” Daniel speculates that he may have been one of a number of apparent Israeli counter-intelligence agents following the 9/11 plotters. “Mohamed Atta may have been under U.S. military surveillance until just days before the 9.11 attack, long after the Tampa-based Able Danger military intelligence operation currently under scrutiny was disbanded, in early 2001. On August 6, 2001, the same day Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi returned to Venice after renting a car at Warrick's RentaCar in Pompano Beach, FL, and picking up Siad Al-Jarrah at the airport in Miami, the MadCowMorningNews has learned that a self-described former NAVY SEAL named Joe Gesell applied for and was hired as the night driver (they only need one) at Venice Yellow Cab.”
(“Was Pentagon Tracking Mohamed Atta Just Days Before 9.11 Attack?” by Daniel Hopsicker; Mad Cow Morning News; 9/19/05.)

2. “Gesell squired Atta around Venice and Sarasota in his cab on a number of occasions. What raises suspicions that he may have been working for more than just tips is this: after starting his new job on the day of Atta’s return, Gesell quit a month later, just one day after Atta left town for the last time. On Friday, Sept. 14, three days after the Sept. 11 attack, cab driver Bob Simpson, the day driver for Venice Yellow Cab at the time, was contacted by the FBI. According to Simpson, the FBI was intent on finding and interviewing Gesell. ‘I heard a voice say ‘this is Special Agent Joe Anderson from the FBI calling,’ Simpson recalled. “My heart sort of skipped a beat. Then he said, ‘don’t worry, you haven’t done anything wrong,’ and asked if I’d seen pictures of the terrorists, and if I had, wanted to know if I recognized any.’” (Idem.)

3. “‘I said yes, I recognized Mohamed Atta,’’ Simpson continued. ‘I told him, ‘I’m the day driver for Yellow Cab in Venice, and he was in my cab a bunch of times in August, 2001. The night driver had him even more than I did.’’ The Yellow Cab office manager in Sarasota confirmed that the FBI expressed a keen interest in cab rides Atta took with Gesell. If Gessell is shown to have taken part in unacknowledged U.S. military surveillance of Atta continuing until just before the attack, it would not be uncharacteristic...” (Idem.)

4. Hopsicker points out that elements of military intelligence had been investigating the Hamburg-based activities of Al Qaeda operatives for a long time before 9/11. “U.S. military surveillance of Al Qaeda terrorists like Mohamed Atta has been far more extensive than has been so far revealed. The Able Danger unit, for example, was by no means the first military intelligence investigation into the activities of the Hamburg cadre. According to one Army C.I.D. officer there at the time, military investigators were being detailed to Hamburg, Germany, tracking ‘Al Qaeda heroin flows’ from Afghanistan to the West as far back as 1991. Yet, in a discrepancy of monumental proportions, the 9/11 Commission's final report—which now may not be the final report—concluded that U.S. intelligence agencies were not aware of Atta until the attacks.” (Idem.)

5. Among the official institutions that have obscured Atta’s trail is the NSA, which destroyed surveillance tapes of some of the 9/11 conspirators shortly after the attacks. “Little wonder the Pentagon is pressuring the Senate Judiciary Committee to close to the public Wednesday’s hearings on the Able Danger military intelligence unit, as Congressional sources confirmed over the weekend. Also last week Pentagon officials told a hastily arranged briefing for reporters that much data generated by the project has already been destroyed in accordance with standard operating procedure for handling material that might contain the names of Americans. Oddly enough, this is the same excuse used by the secretive National Security Agency—the NSA—in revealing that they had destroyed tapes with 9.11 evidence, including conversations between Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Mohamed Atta, just weeks after the 9.11 attack.” (Idem.)

6. “‘Analysts at the super-secret National Security Agency, acting on advice from the organization's lawyers, have been destroying data collected on Americans or US companies since the Sept. 11 attacks - angering other intelligence agencies seeking leads in the antiterrorist probe, according to two people with close intelligence ties,’ reported the Boston Globe on Oct 27, 2001. ‘In heated discussions with the CIA and congressional staff, NSA lawyers have turned down requests to preserve the intelligence because the agency's regulations prohibit the collection of any information on US citizens. The lawyers said that preserving the information would invite lawsuits from people whose names appear in the surveillance reports.’” (Idem.)

7. Daniel presents some of the discrepancies between the official story of Atta and company and the verifiable facts. “The ‘official story’ about Mohamed Atta’s timeline, activities, and associates while in the U.S. is riddled with lies, misdirection and deliberate deception. Documents being destroyed by the Pentagon probably include at least a terabyte on Atta & company’s activities in Venice, Florida. On at least three occasions during the last six weeks of his life, for example, terrorist ringleader Mohamed Atta left the jazzier precincts of Miami to travel across the state to the more tranquil pace of life in the retirement community of Venice. The FBI has said nothing about this. The FBI says Atta didn’t live there anymore. The FBI says Atta was already nine months gone. The FBI is lying.” (Idem.)

8. “So, just what was Atta doing in Venice? It's a secret.... But the one thing the FBI seems most eager to hide—and it is horrible to have to contemplate that your own government is covering up mass murder—is the identity of who Mohamed Atta was doing it with. Why? Because this discovery would inexorably lead to the organization, or global network that was so clearly smoothing the way for Atta’s Hamburg cadre in America. And then... Then we would know just who in the United States had been doing business, on September 10, 2001, with Osama bin Laden’s thugs—on this end, the U.S. end, where this until-now unidentified enemy is still inside the gates.” (Idem.)

9. “Here’s a big clue: Mohamed Atta was seen in Venice with ‘flight school owner’ and international con-man Rudi Dekkers, who swore in testimony before Congress that he never saw Atta after he ‘left’ his flight school in December, 2000. For example, according to Bob Simpson and other Venice Yellow Cab employees interviewed by the FBI, Atta took numerous cab rides to and from Huffman Aviation as well as several other locations in Venice during August 2001. On at least two of these occasions Atta was traveling with Rudi Dekkers, a man who testified under oath before Congress that his relationship with the terrorist ringleader ended almost nine months earlier.” (Idem.)

10. “‘They knew each other well, really well,’ stated cabbie Simpson. ‘They were friends. They were going to a nightclub in Sarasota, talking and very sociable with each other. He and Atta were friends, you could tell.’ Simpson said he first took Atta and Dekkers from Huffman Aviation to James' Place, a restaurant in downtown Venice. On another occasion he picked the two up at the Pompano Road residence of former Huffman employee Charlie Voss, and took them to a Sarasota nightclub, the Gator Club, which Atta is known to have frequented. (It was Voss, recall, whose home was made available to Atta and Marwan when they arrived in Venice.)” (Idem.)

11. “The Yellow Cab office manager in Sarasota confirmed that the trips were recorded in the firm's cab logs. Yet in sworn testimony in front of the House Judiciary Committee in March 2002, Dekkers insisted his relationship with the terrorist ringleader had been distant, and ended the previous December, nine months before the attack. Dekkers told the hearing about complaints from his staff that Atta and Al-Shehhi had behavioral problems, that they were not following instructions, and that they also had bad attitudes. ‘On December 24th, 2000, Atta and Al-Shehhi rented a Warrior (N555HA) from Huffman Aviation for a flight,’ the Dutch national stated, telling of his last encounter with Atta.” (Idem.)

12. “‘Atta and Al-Shehhi returned to Huffman Aviation to make final payments on their outstanding bills. Because they were not taking any more flying lessons, they were asked to leave the facility due to their bad attitudes and not being liked by staff and clients alike. Huffman never heard about or from them again until September 11th, 2001.’ Speaking with reporters, he had been more colloquial. ‘They did not socialize with anyone,’ Dekkers said three days after the attack. ‘They did not go to the bar with us. That Atta guy was an asshole.’ Dekkers is guilty of a lot more than perjury... but its a start. Is Bob Simpson a credible witness? Could he somehow be mistaken in his identification of Dekkers? Not likely... He knew Rudi Dekkers well, he said, from numerous trips to Huffman Aviation to pick up arriving flight students.” (Idem.)

13. “And Simpson is a retired Navy veteran who saw duty off the coast of Libya, and other Mediterranean hot spots during the 1980’s, and he comes from a law enforcement background: his father was Asst. Chief of Police in Pleasant Hill, California, his brother is a cop, and he has an uncle in the DEA. Moreover, authorities deported three young Saudi students who had just arrived in Venice in early September, just before the attack, based primarily on Bob Simpson’s testimony that they were associates of Atta. So they had no trouble believing he was telling the truth.... Were he to be faced in court with conflicting testimony from Rudi Dekkers, we have no doubt who the jury would believe.” (Idem.)

14. “During final preparations for the Sept 11 attack, Mohamed Atta’s father was 'visiting' his terrorist ringleader son in Venice, Florida. After seeing him on television denying that his son had anything to do with the terrorist hijackings, a number of credible witnesses called the Sarasota office of the FBI to report they had seen Atta’s father in Venice with his son ten days to two weeks before the attack. Closed circuit videotape provided to the FBI as evidence of Atta Senior’s presence appears to have been intentionally erased. The FBI knew about the U.S. visit of Atta’s father, Cairo attorney Mohammed El-Amir, in Venice. So why has someone with clear foreknowledge of an attack which murdered almost 3000 civilians not been brought to justice? . . . .” (Idem.)

15. Much of the program consists of discussion and analysis of the arrest of three suspected organized crime figures in the murder of casino boat owner (and George H.W. Bush crony) Gus Boulis. After Boulis’ murder in February of 2001, Boulis’ SunCruz casino boat enterprise was taken over by a consortium featuring Jack Abramoff, a leading GOP lobbyist and close associate of indicted House GOP Whip Tom De Lay. For more about the Boulis murder and its links to the Bush family political milieu, see FTR#516. It is interesting—and possibly very significant—that Mohamed Atta and some of the other 9/11 hijackers visited one of SunCruz’s ships just a few days before 9/11/2001, possibly to launder money. “The investigation into the 4-year old murder of Sun Cruz Casino boat founder Konstantinos ‘Gus’ Boulis in Fort Lauderdale has begun to reveal hidden connections between Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s gargantuan fund-raising machine, essential to victory in the past two Presidential elections, and a cast of underworld characters not previously thought of as exemplifying what have come to be known as ‘Republican family values.’”
(“Hammer to the Slammer, Cruisegate: Curtains for the GOPMOB?” by Daniel Hopsicker; Mad Cow Morning News; 9/30/05.)

16. “The indictment of three men Tuesday in the Boulis ‘hit’ exposes an unholy alliance in Florida between the national Republican party and the Mob, details of which were first reported in the MadCowMorningNews three months ago ("The Secret World of Jack Abramoff: Terrorists, Torpedoes and Republican ‘Muscle’"). More indictments are expected soon. The trail of suspicion leads directly to Abramoff’s doorstep: the three names already released clearly implicate Adam Kidan, the Casino line’s erstwhile President, in the crime, who wrote checks—duh-uh!—for over $250,000 to one of the indicted men, Gambino goombah Anthony ‘Big Tony’ Moscatiello, 67, of Howard Beach, N.Y, for no easily discernible reason.” (Idem.)

17. “Although lawyers for Abramoff and Kidan, who face trial Jan. 9 on fraud charges, have repeatedly said neither man knows anything about Boulis' murder, since Kidan was hand-picked by Abramoff to run the unregulated collection of a dozen ships operating off the coast of Florida, Abramoff may even now be wondering who it might be safe to ‘roll on’ if and when he’s indicted for murder. Abramoff, of course, is best known as the target of a federal investigation in Washington into the tens of millions in fees he collected from casino-owning Indian tribes. But the wreckage from his brief and tumultuous time as owner of the gambling fleet threatens to overtake his Washington legal troubles. The breathtaking scope of ‘Cruisegate’ could make it the biggest American political scandal since Iran Contra. Should its tawdry details fully come to light, it might eclipse even the Watergate Scandal.” (Idem.)

18. Moscatiello (indicted for the Boulis murder) was convicted on a heroin trafficking charge because of the intercession of drug dealer and CIA officer Barry Seal. (For more about Seal, see FTR#’s 503, 512.) “Already, the dramatis personae includes a familiar name from previous scandals: Barry Seal . . . who was himself murdered on orders, according to his own lawyer's testimony, of then-Vice President George Bush. . . .” (Idem.)

FTR #527 Death Trap, Part II

Recorded September 18, 2005
REALAUDIO
See also FTR #471 Death Trap

In the run-up to the Iraq war, Mr. Emory suggested that the U.S. was falling into a trap laid by the Underground Reich, in which this country would find itself fighting a draining and (ultimately) annihilating war against the Muslim peoples of what the Third Reich’s geopoliticians called “The Earth Island.” The For The Record programs numbering in the late “390’s” and running up to number 400 discuss this scenario at length and in detail. In FTR#471 and FTR#502, we examined how the unfolding of the Iraqi misadventure appears to be bearing out these fears. In this program, we examine how the US invasion has helped bring about an Islamic fundamentalist government in Iraq—one aligned with Iran. After reviewing the Doomsday relationship between Saddam and al Qaeda, we examine the terrifying failure of the US to secure Saddam’s WMD scientists, thereby actually increasing the danger of WMD technology spreading beyond Iraq’s borders. This, of course, is precisely the scenario the U.S. was ultimately supposed to be going to war to prevent. Will this failure to secure Saddam’s WMD scientists actually accomplish what the war was ostensibly being fought to prevent—the dissemination of WMD technology to terrorists, al Qaeda in particular?! The program concludes with a look at Hitler’s projected use of the Muslim nations as proxy warriors for the Reich, as well as the recruiting boon that the war has been for al Qaeda and related elements.

Program Highlights Include: The story of Dr. Mahdi Obeidi, the developer of Saddam’s centrifuge program; the way in which the US invasion has actually scattered Saddam’s WMD scientists, most of whom are unaccounted for; the CIA’s foolish display of captured Iraqi nuclear technology on its website; the agreement between Saddam and bin Laden to share WMD information, so that bin Laden’s forces could act as a “back-up” for Saddam in the worst-case scenario of the U.S. removing him from power—a scenario which came true.

1. The program begins by presenting a column by Robert Scheer, which not only chronicles the extent to which the Iraq invasion has become a quagmire, but underscores the fact that that country is becoming an Islamic fundamentalist state with very close ties to Iran. It is worth noting that even though it is Shiite, Iran maintains very close ties to the Al Taqwa milieu. For more about the Iran/Al Taqwa ties, see—among other programs--FTR#’s 343, 352, 354, 371. Key Nazi operative Francois Genoud (discussed below in paragraph #36 and himself very close to the Al Taqwa milieu) paid for the Ayatollah Khomeini’s exile in France, as discussed in FTR#352. “WHO LOST Iraq? Someday, as a fragmented Iraq spirals further into religious madness, terrorism and civil war, there will be a bipartisan inquiry into this blundering intrusion into another people's history.”
(“Iraq’s Fig-Leaf Constitution” by Robert Scheer; San Francisco Chronicle; 8/31/2005; P. B7.)

2. “The crucial question will be why a ‘preemptive’ American invasion — which has led to the deaths of nearly 2,000 Americans, roughly 10 times as many Iraqis, the expenditure of about $200 billion and incalculable damage to the United States' global reputation — has had exactly the opposite effect predicted by its neoconservative sponsors. No amount of crowing over a fig leaf Iraqi constitution by President Bush can hide the fact that the hand of the region's autocrats, theocrats and terrorists is stronger than ever.” (Idem.)

3. “ ‘The U.S. now has to recognize that [it] overthrew Saddam Hussein to replace him with a pro-Iranian state,’ said regional expert Peter W. Galbraith, the former U.S. ambassador to Croatia and an adviser to the Iraqi Kurds. And, he could have added, a pro-Iranian state that will be repressive and unstable.” (Idem.)

4. “Think this is an exaggeration? Consider that arguably the most powerful Shiite political party and militia in today's Iraq, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and its affiliated paramilitary force, the Badr Brigade, was not only based in Iran but was set up by Washington's old arch-foe, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. It also fought on the side of Iran in the Iran-Iraq war and was recog­nized by Tehran as the government in exile of Iraq.” (Idem.)

5. Note that Ahmad Chalabi—a probable double agent for Iran—approves of the Islamic fundamentalist constitution and is an important figure in the new government. In FTR#502, we examined disinformation presented by a Chalabi-selected agent nicknamed “Curveball” and nurtured by the BND (the German foreign intelligence service and the successor to the Reihard Gehlen Nazi spy outfit). That disinformation was the basis for the US claim that Saddam was developing weapons of mass destruction, as well as the rationale for the war itself. “Or that former exile Ahmad Chalabi is now one of Iraq's deputy prime ministers. The consummate political operator managed to maintain ties to Iran while gaining the devoted support of Donald Rumsfeld's Pentagon, charming and manipulating Beltway policymakers and leading U.S. journalists into believing that Iraq was armed with weapons of mass destruction. Chalabi is thrilled with the draft constitution, which, if passed, will probably exponentially increase tension and violence between Sunnis and Shiites. ‘It is an excellent document,’ said Chalabi, who has been accused by U.S. intelligence of being a spy for Iran, where he keeps a vacation home.” (Idem.)

6. “What an absurd outcome for a war designed to create a compliant, unified and stable client state that would be pro-American, laissez-faire capitalist and unallied with the hated Iran. Of course, Bush tells us again, this is ‘progress’ and ‘an inspiration.’ Yet his relentless spinning of manure into silk has worn thin on the American public and sent his approval ratings tumbling. Even supporters of the war are starting to realize that rather than strengthening the United States' position in the world, the invasion and occupation have led to abject humiliation: from the Abu Ghraib scandal, to the guerrilla insurgency exposing the limits of military power, to an election in which ‘our guy’ — lyad Allawi — was defeated by radicals and religious extremists.” (Idem.)

7. “In a new low, the U.S. president felt obliged to call and plead with the head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution, Abdelaziz Hakim, to make con­cessions to gain Sunni support. Even worse, he was summarily rebuffed. Nevertheless, Bush had no choice but to eat crow and like it. ‘This is a document of which the Iraqis, and the rest of the world, can be proud,’ he said Sunday, through what must have been gritted teeth. After all, this document includes such democratic gems as ‘Islam is the official religion of the state and is a basic source of legislation,’ and ‘No law can be passed that contradicts the undisputed rules of Islam,’ as well as socialist-style pronouncements that work and a decent standard of living are a right guaranteed by the state. But the fact is, it could establish Khomeini's ghost as the patron saint of Iraq and Bush would have little choice but to endorse it.” (Idem.)

8. “Even many in his own party are rebelling. ‘I think our involvement there has destabilized the Middle East. And the longer we stay there, I think the further destabilization will occur,’ said Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel last week, one of a growing number of Republicans who get that ‘we should start figuring out how we get out of there.’ Not that our ‘what-me-worry?’ president is the least bit troubled by all this adverse blowback from the huge, unnecessary gamble he took in invading the heart of the Arab and Muslim worlds. ‘What is important is that the Iraqis are now ad­dressing these issues through debate and discussion, not at the barrel of a gun,’ Bush said.” (Idem.)

9. “Wrong again, George. It was the barrel of your gun that midwifed the new Iraq, which threatens to combine the instability of Lebanon with the religious fanaticism of Iran.” (Idem.)

10. Unfortunately, both the pro-war and anti-war sides have gotten it wrong with regard to Saddam’s relationship with Al Qaeda. Although there is no indication that Iraq or Saddam were involved with 9/11, the two entities did have a “doomsday back-up” arrangement. Saddam and bin Laden worked out an arrangement in which Iraq—in order to provide for a payback capability if the U.S. ousted the Baathist dictator—gave information about WMD’s to bin Laden’s people. Al Qaeda, in turn, was to act as a back-up unit for Saddam’s Iraq, striking at the United States if it knocked out Saddam. Of course, precisely that scenario has transpired. “It appears, however, that this version is the publicly admissible one, the one that can pass political muster. According to the same sources, there was another scenario more in keeping with the calculating mentality of Saddam Hussein and his secret services. In 1998, after declining all offers that had been made to them through official diplomatic channels, those services are reported to have established a secret operational ‘connection’ with bin Laden in Manila and in Kashmir. It was indeed difficult for Iraq to ignore an Arab like Osama bin Laden who so effectively humiliated the Americans.' Colonel Khairallah al Takiriti, the brother of the head of Mukkhabarat, the intelligence services, is reported to have been named case officer for the connection. The arrest of two Morroccan associates of bin Laden in Rabat on November 11, 1998, made it possible to establish to establish the link with certainty. According to Western sources, the Iraqi services have sought to secure the assistance of bin Laden's networks, in case Iraq were again to be attacked by the United States, in order to carry out attacks against American targets in Arab countries."
(In the Name of Osama Bin Laden; by Roland Jacquard; Copyright 2002 [SC]; Duke University Press; ISBN 0-8223-2991-3; pp. 112-113.)

11. “According to Arab sources, in anticipation of a foreseeable reversal of alliances in Kabul, bin Laden had been in discreet contact since September 2000 with associates of Oudai Hussein, another of Saddam’s sons; the ground for agreement was the anti-Israeli and anti-American battle. Bin Laden and the Iraqis are said to have exchanged information about chemical and biological weapons, despite the opposition of some of the Baghdad leadership, including Tarik Aziz” (Ibid.;p. 113.)

12. In light of the “Doomsday back-up” arrangement mentioned above, it is particularly frightening to contemplate how the failure to secure Saddam’s WMD scientists has potentially exposed the U.S. to exactly the scenario Condoleeza Rice and company were using as a rationale for war—a “mushroom cloud” smoking-gun. Was this all due to incompetence, or (as Mr. Emory suspects) was incompetence manipulated by Underground Reich elements in order to put the U.S. in a position to be destroyed and/or subjugated?! A pivotally important article from Mother Jones magazine discusses the alarming failure to secure the scientists. The article revolves around the story of Dr. Mahdi Obeidi, the man in charge of the Iraqi nuclear centrifuge program. (In FTR#395, we saw how that program evolved from the Third Reich’s nuclear development program.) “I met the mastermind of Saddam Hussein's former nuclear centrifuge program outside the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad a few days after U.S. troops took over the city in 2003. Despite the midday heat he was dressed in a sport coat and tie, which made him look incongruous amid a scruffy crowd of protesters gathered to shout slogans at the U.S. Marines guarding the hotel. He said his name was Dr. Mahdi Obeidi, and he showed me a printout of a prewar Washington Post story in which he was named as one of the Iraqi weapons scientists whom the U.S. government had very much wanted to interview. His eyes darted nervously back and forth between the protesters and the tense-looking Marines inside the cordon of concertina wire.”
(“In the Garden of Armageddon” by Kurt Pitzer; Mother Jones; Setptember/October/2005 [Vol. 30, Number 5.]; p. 42.)

13. “Minutes earlier he had approached a photographer friend of mine on the street, saying he wanted to reach out to Washington with some important information about Saddam's nuclear program. It was a desperate move. He had tried contacting U.S. troops, but they had rebuffed him and threatened him with arrest if he showed up again. Now he wanted to know if I could use my satellite phone to help him. At first I didn't know whether to believe him. But that night, at his urging, I dialed the Washington number of David Albright, a former American member of the United Nations weapons inspections team in Iraq. When I explained who had given me his name; the line went silent for a moment.” (Idem.)

14. “ ‘You are actually talking to Obeidi?’ Albright finally asked. ‘Where is he? What did he say?’ Albright had met Obeidi in Iraq in the 1990s, when the U.N. inspectors were dismantling Saddam's WMD programs. Saddam had kept Obeidi's identity secret longer than that of any other scientist, Albright said. If anyone could say for sure what had happened to Iraq's nuclear program, it was him. The next day we dialed didn't seem to have much of a plan for dealing with Saddam's WMD scientists.” (Idem.)

15. Obeidi had buried critical documents about Saddam’s nuclear program in his back yard. “So we waited. A dapper 59-year-old, Obeidi arrived every day to greet me wearing an elegant abiyaa robe. When he felt especially nervous, we met in clandestine locations: by lamplight at my translator's home or in the courtyard of an Iraqi acquaintance. At other times, we sat on plastic lawn chairs in his garden, trying to figure out how he could avoid arrest by U.S. troops, as his wife and daughters served us cookies and tea. Every now and again, he would drop hints about the secrets he wanted to reveal. Then one day, he gestured toward a spot in the garden. Buried under the lotus tree next to his rosebushes a few feet from where we sat, he said, was the core of Saddam's nuclear quest: blueprints and prototype pieces for building centrifuges to enrich uranium to bomb grade. Twelve years earlier, he had buried them on orders from Saddam's son Qusay-presumably, he said, to use them to restart a bomb program someday.” (Idem.)

16. Obeidi also had some of the hardware stored in his buried cache of blueprints—together with the drawings, they comprised a critical cache of knowledge. “Obeidi dug up the cache a few days later. When he showed me the four prototypes, his hands shook. The machine parts looked alien, like pieces of a futuristic motorcycle, most of them small enough to fit inside a briefcase. He explained that these components and the three-foot-high stack of diagrams were still immensely valuable—and immensely dangerous. They represented the core knowledge it would take to jump-start a covert bomb program, anywhere in the world. This was why Obeidi was so anxious. On any given day he might be arrested by U.S. forces who would consider him a ‘bad guy,’ or killed by Saddam loyalists who would see him as a collaborator, or kidnapped by some other country interested in what he knew. The decision to come forward had been a hard one.” (Ibid.; pp. 42-43.)

17. Obeidi asked why the Americans were not more interested in securing the documents and the many Iraqi scientists who possessed crucial know-how about WMD’s. Indeed, why aren’t they?! “The news from Albright over the satellite phone was discouraging. U.S. intelligence on the ground was hopelessly disorganized, and there was no guarantee that American troops wouldn't imprison Obeidi even if he offered to help them. As the days wore on he felt the clock ticking, and sometimes his fear and exasperation would show through. ‘Why aren't they more interested in finding out what I have to offer?’ he once asked in the textbook English he had learned as a student at the Colorado School of Mines in the 1960s. ‘I can answer many of their questions. Surely for a great nation like the United States, it is no big deal to offer me security in exchange for everything I want to divulge. Why don't they want to help me?’” (Ibid.; p 43.)

18. “I didn't have an answer. Just weeks earlier, before the invasion, President Bush had railed against Saddam for intimidating his WMD scientists and hiding them from inspectors. Colin Powell had appeared before the United Nations Security Council and warned that Obeidi's centrifuge program posed a threat to the world. It was hard to explain why, having gone to war ostensibly to get control of Iraq's dangerous knowledge, the United States was now doing so little to follow through. It’s not as if the administration hasn't talked about the danger posed by Saddam's WMD scientists. Whether Iraq had actual weapons or just ‘capabilities’ it didn't matter, it has long argued: Even mere capabilities could leak out to terrorist groups or the states that support them. During the presidential campaign, John Kerry and President Bush reached a rare point of agreement when both named the spread of nuclear weapons as the No. 1 danger facing the United States.” (Idem.)

19. “As it happens, Saddam's nuclear centrifuge program during the late 1980s was one of the most efficient covert nuclear efforts the world has ever seen. The scientists who pulled it off are very gifted men and women, many of whom are now out of work. Their names are still being kept secret by the international agencies familiar with their work. But a source close to one of those agencies recently said that of the 200-some scientists at the top of its nuclear list, all but three remain unaccounted for. In a country with porous borders, where everyone—but especially those associated with the former regime—is in danger every day, many experts say at least some scientists are bound to be tempted to sell their knowledge to the highest bidder. And as the Pakistani network exposed last year shows, the nuclear black market is alive and well.” (Idem.)

20. Analyst Anne Harrington framed the critical issue concerning Saddam’s WMD scientists: “ ‘Weapons don't make themselves, says Anne Harrington, director of the Committee on International Security and Arms Control at the National Academies. ‘Somebody has to interpret how to take military doctrine and intent and make it real. Materials, particularly nuclear materials, are not something you scoop out of the dirt. The human element is critical in all of this.’” (Ibid.; pp. 43-45.)

21. As noted by former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, the war may actually have increased the possibility of nuclear technology proliferating beyond Iraq. Was this intended by the Underground Reich from the beginning? “Nobody knows how many Iraqi scientists may have been lured over the borders into Iran, Syria, or beyond. Nobody knows because no one is keeping tabs. But several observers agree that so little attention is being paid to Iraq’s scientists, the war may actually have increased the chances of nuclear capabilities proliferating beyond the country’s borders. Between its unemployed scientists and the disappearance of large amounts of WMD-related materials from former weapons sites, Iraq now poses a nightmare scenario, according to Ray McGovern, who spent 27 years analyzing intelligence for the CIA and afterward co-founded Veteran Intellingence Professionals for Sanity. ‘The danger is much more acute, both from the proliferation side and the terrorism side,’ McGovern says. ‘Before we invaded, there was no evidence that Iraq had any plan or incentive to proliferate. They didn’t even have a current plan to develop WMD’s. They just hadn’t been doing it. Now, my God, we have a magnet attracting all manner of foreign jihadists to a place where the WMD expertise is suddenly unprotected. It just boggles the mind.’ [Italics are Mr. Emory’s.]”

22. “Iraqi scientists have good reason to fear what might happen if they offer to cooperate with the United States.’ Obeidi's former boss and Saddam's top science adviser, General Amer al-Saadi, turned himself in to U.S. authorities just before I met Obeidi. He was promptly jailed and kept in custody for at least two years; a military spokesman told the Associated Press last year that the U.S. was also detaining up to a dozen other scientists. The chemist Mohammed Munim al-Izmerly— also said to have worked on Iraq’s former WMD programs—was taken into custody for questioning in April 2003. Ten months later his body was dropped off in a U.S. body bag at a Baghdad hospital. He had been killed by a blow to the head.” (Idem.)

23. “In the weeks after the invasion, I got to know Obeidi quite well. He was no Dr. Strangelove. He loved science and the pure logic of an engineering challenge, and his eyes would light up when we talked about early Mesopotamian art or American history. He said he detested Saddam and lamented how the Baathists had turned the best minds of his generation toward destructive ends. What he cared about more than anything was the welfare of his wife and four grown children. But as the U.S. occupation wore on, that seemed an increasingly elusive goal.” (Idem.)

24. “More than a month after our first meeting, our satellite phone calls had failed to produce any kind of safe-haven offer from Washington. Operatives from the Defense Intelligence Agency as well as the CIA had tracked Obeidi down through third parties, summoned him to their respective headquarters, and demanded that he surrender all he knew. The DIA agents threatened to imprison him, he told me, and then asked that he not speak to anyone at the CIA; soon afterward, the CIA sent armed agents to his home and took away a sample of his documents; promising to safeguard his family. Then, early on the morning of June 3, 2003, more than a dozen soldiers jumped over Obeidi's garden wall, kicked in his front door, and put him and his family facedown on their living room floor at gunpoint. Obeidi's wife and children watched as he was handcuffed and put in a Humvee. Evidently, the Army had finally caught wind of Obeidi's significance—and, just as evidently, the troops knew nothing of their own intelligence agencies' contacts with him.” (Idem.)

25. “Obeidi escaped the fate of his former boss when the CIA intervened with the Army and got him released. Knowing that he was a marked man, he decided that his only hope was to go public. He consented to an interview with CNN, and soon afterward the CIA whisked him and his family off to Kuwait, where he underwent weeks of interrogations.” (Idem.)

26. Note that the CIA posted information on its website that could prove “incredibly useful” to anyone seeking to develop WMD’s. “On June 26, the CIA posted a press release about Obeidi's cache—the most valuable WMD evidence the U.S. has yet obtained in Iraq—on its official website. It also put up digital photos of the components and even one of the key centrifuge diagrams. The pictures, which Albright says could be ‘incredibly useful’ to any regime trying to start a covert nuclear program, were online for almost a week-long enough to be downloaded and made freely available on the Internet—before the agency took them down. Literally buried for 12 years, some of Saddam's hoard of nuclear knowledge got out because of the U.S. government, not in spite of it. [Italics are Mr. Emory’s.]” (Idem.)

27. “Obeidi now lives with eight family members in a U.S. city that he asked me not to name. His son and three daughters are learning English and looking for jobs, and he occasionally gives talks to groups of government officials. He seems more relaxed than he did when I first met him, as though he is finally able to shed some of the fear and pressure of life in Baghdad. But the thought of his former colleagues still weighs heavily on his mind. One day as we were eating falafel from plastic plates in the food court near his new American home, sitting anonymously among the shoppers, he asked me why he was still the only Iraqi scientist whom the United States had seen fit to take out of harm's way.” (Ibid.; p. 46.)

28. “ ‘There are a number of people who could be brought here, at least temporarily, and make positive contributions to this society,’ he said. ‘These are very educated and skill-full scientists. Surely this great nation could, absorb a few more talented people.’” (Idem.)

29. “During the 1990s, the International Atomic Energy Agency and other watchdog groups compiled lists of key participants in Saddam's WMD programs. The IAEA roll call alone included about 2,000 names. One of the few that has been made public is that of Dr. Paris Abdul Aziz, a mild-mannered engineer who oversaw a staff of more than 200 working on the nuclear centrifuge program. I met him in Obeidi's garden, and he told me that in the days after the invasion, he had gone to Saddam's former Republican Palace to offer cooperation to the U.S. military on behalf of himself and other top nuclear scientists. But U.S. officials only wanted to know if he knew where Saddam was hiding and where they might find WMD stockpiles. They never asked him back for another interview. Today, no one seems to know where he is. ‘We've been trying to get in touch with these guys for months,’ Albright says. ‘But by now they're probably so jaded and suspicious that they want nothing to do with the U.S.’” (Idem.)

30. “An even greater concern is the flight risk posed by scientists one level down: the technicians who have precise, hands-on knowledge of how to manufacture WMD com­ponents. Their expertise is priceless, especially to a covert program looking for engineers who know how to put the pieces together. A source with close ties to intelligence on the issue recently told me of the case of a female scientist who worked in Saddam's centrifuge program, most likely Dr. Widad Hattam al-Jabbouri. In the 1980s, Jabbouri had mastered one of the most troublesome aspects of the uranium-enriching machine: the magnetic upper bearing that holds the centrifuge rotor as it spins at supersonic speeds. Her expertise on classified magnet technology was deep, and extremely valuable. ‘From what we have learned she has ended up at a university in Syria,’ the source said. ‘Apparently the Syrians basically set up a refuge for senior scientists, especially those with Baathist connections, who couldn't get any work in Iraq.’” (Idem.)

31. “This does not necessarily mean that Jabbouri is working on a weapons program in Damascus. The Syrian govern­ment has stated that it has no nuclear program, despite the suspicions of many international experts. But her move to Syria underscores how loose a grasp the U.S. has on Iraq's WMD knowledge. ‘The proliferation risk is higher than it was before, and a chaotic situation means this technology is going to spread,’ says Robert Baer, who spent 21 years as a case officer with the CIA in the Middle East. If the administration had been serious about neutralizing Saddam's weapons program, he says, ‘the troops would have been securing equipment at weapons sites as they invaded, and they would have been looking for scientists.... It tells you that this war had nothing to do with WMDs.’” (Idem.)

32. “Shortly after the invasion of Iraq, Anne Harrington, then the deputy director of the Proliferation Threat Reduction Office of the State Department's Non-Proliferation Bureau, began planning a trip to Iraq to meet former WMD scientists and help them get to work on rebuilding the country. Harrington had a legendary track record of working with scientists from the former Soviet Union. In 1997, she had cut through the red tape of diplomacy and sent an email directly to the head of the State Research Center for Virology and Biotechnology in Siberia. The contact led to increased U.S. government funds to help former Soviet bioweapons scientists apply for civilian projects at home rather than sell their expertise on the black market. Anne believed this was the most important thing to do,’ says Carl Phillips, a biological weapons expert from Texas Tech University who signed on to help Harrington in Iraq. ‘She believed in going over and putting our boots on the ground to find these people, and she was fearless.’” (Ibid.; pp. 46-47.)

33. “Harrington and Phillips proposed a $20 million plan to reach out to scientists in Baghdad. Their plan didn't go over well with the Pentagon, which at that point controlled the interim government of Iraq; Phillips remembers being fold that as a condition for going, they had to agree not to make a formal request for the $20 million. Once they got to Baghdad, Harrington was aghast at the scale of the looting. Her $20 million would be a mere drop in the bucket. ‘You can't just put somebody in a lab,’ she notes. ‘Not when they don't have a microscope.’” (Ibid.; p. 47.)

34. Note that current U.S. ambassador to the U.N. was responsible for derailing Harrington’s project—an extremely modest one when considered against the backdrop of the billions of dollars in graft that have gone down the tubes in Iraq. “In the end, even Harrington's drop in the bucket evapo­rated—never mind that the State Department had made an official announcement allocating the $20 million—and Harrington and Phillips had to make do with $2 million scraped together from emergency funds. Albright says re­sponsibility for the reversal lies with John Bolton, then the State Department's undersecretary for arms control and international security. ‘All of this was going to land on Bolton's desk,’ he notes. ‘And he was in the camp that thinks all these scientists are criminals.’ Other programs to help Iraqi scientists—including a Department of Energy program coordinated through Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico—have also come up short. ‘There are tens of thousands of scientists and engineers in need of a job,’ says Dr. Arian Pregenzer, a senior scientist at Sandia's Cooperative Monitoring Center. ‘We estimated it would be a $50-million-a-year project. That money has not materialized from anyplace.’” (Idem.)

35. “Phillips ended up working on his own in Iraq, traveling in a civilian car to make contact with any WMD scientists he could find; so far, he's been able to set up a small center that employs eight former weapons researchers. Harrington, for her part, resigned from the State Department this past spring, partly in frustration over the lack of funds. ‘When the most we could squeeze out of the system was two $2 million grants,’ she says, ‘it made us sit back and scratch our heads a little bit and say, 'Didn't we go to war because they had people who could produce weap­ons of mass destruction?' It's a little difficult to square that circle.’” (Idem.)

36. In his last will and testament, Hitler saw alliance with the Muslim world as a key to future Nazi world domination. Note, in particular, the way in which he foresaw the “collective political will” of the Muslim nations as a significant factor. The Fuehrer felt that a transgression against one Muslim country is perceived as a transgression against all. Evaluate the accuracy of his remarks against the background of the information contained in paragraph #37, below. Note also that this political will and testament was bequeathed to Francois Genoud. Although he died in 1996, Genoud’s name crops up significantly in a number of important respects in the context of the events of 9/11. For an overview of Genoud’s career, see FTR#453. For more information about Genoud and 9/11, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 343, 354, 371, 456, 498, 499. “Adolf Hitler declared in his ‘Testament’, reported by Martin Bormann: ‘All of Islam vibrates at announcement of our victories. [...]. What can we do to help them [...], how can it be to our interest and our duty? The presence next to us of the Italians [...] creates a malaise among our friends of Islam, [...] it hinders us from playing one of our better cards: to support the countries oppressed by the British. Such a policy would excite enthusiasm throughout Islam. It is, in effect, a particularity of the Muslim world that what touches one, whether good or ill, is felt by all the others. [...] The people ruled by Islam will always be nearer to us than France, in spite of the kinship of blood’...”
(Testament of Hitler, Headquarters of the Fuhrer, February 4 to April 2, 1945, preface by Francois Genoud; noted as Footnote #8 in: “The Reds, The Browns and the Greens” by Alexandre Del Valle; Occidentalis; 12/13/04; p. 10.)

37. Echoing the views of Hitler on the collective behavior of the Muslim nations, it appears that sentiment for bin Laden and al Qaeda has increased since the U.S. invaded Iraq, falling into the “Deathtrap” that Saddam had arranged with Osama. Whether some of Saddam’s WMD expertise does indeed find its way into the hands of al Qaeda or related elements remains to be seen. “The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq has accelerated the of bin Laden's anti-Americanism among once local Islamic militant movements, increasing danger to the United States as the al Qaeda network is becoming less able to mount attacks, according to senior intelligence officials at the CIA and the State Department. At the same time, the Sunni Triangle has become a training ground for foreign Islamic jihadists who are slipping into Iraq to join former Saddam Hussein loyalists to test themselves against U.S. and coalition forces, these officials say. . . .”
("Spread of Bin Laden Ideology Cited" by Walter Pincus; Washington Post; 4/4/2004; p. 1.)