&quot;We the people&quot;

From the Washington Post:

Between 1AM and 2AM local time on 26 June/June 27, 1993, 23 Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched by two US Navy warships into downtown Baghdad. These hit a building which was believed to be the headquarters of the Iraqi Intelligence Service in the Al Mansur district of Baghdad. Iraq claimed that nine civilians were killed in the attack and three civilian houses destroyed.

July 20, 1993. Murder of Vince Foster.

Robert Fiske, and later Ken Starr, called the death of Vince Foster a suicide, but I call it what it clearly was.

From the New York Times:

Within hours of the death of Deputy White House Counsel Vince Foster in July 1993, chief White House counsel Bernard Nussbaum removed documents, some of them concerning the Whitewater Development Corporation, from Foster’s office and gave them to Maggie Williams, Chief of Staff to the First Lady. According to the New York Times, Williams placed the documents in a safe in the Clinton residence on the third floor of the White House for five days before turning them over to the Clinton family lawyer.

From the Washington Post:

At the time Foster killed himself, six months into the Clinton administration, Tripp worked for him occasionally as part of her job as Nussbaum’s executive assistant. In the days after Foster’s death, Tripp exchanged e-mail messages with co-workers in which they derided the way White House officials were handling materials left behind in Foster’s office, according to testimony and documents.

From the New York Times:

The United States Park Police report on its inquiry into the death of a top White House lawyer strongly suggests that Bernard W. Nussbaum, counsel to the President, impeded its investigators and offered a dubious account of the discovery of the victim’s brooding note, say Federal law-enforcement officials who have seen the report.

The park police investigators distrusted Mr. Nussbaum’s account of the circumstances surrounding the discovery in Mr. Foster’s briefcase of the note six days after his death, according to the report.

The note, a bitter lament on Washington politics, was found by Stephen R. Neuwirth, another Nussbaum aide. One investigator said he had watched Mr. Nussbaum inspect the briefcase earlier without finding the note.

The report also notes that Mr. Nussbaum, along with Patsy Thomasson, a White House administrative aide and a long-time Clinton associate, and Margaret Williams, Hillary Rodham Clinton’s chief of staff, entered and left the office between 10 P.M. and midnight on the night of Mr. Foster’s death. Mr. Nussbaum said the three entered the office looking for a suicide note, but did not find one and left after 10 minutes…

The note was not turned over to investigators for another 30 hours, White House aides said, so they could discuss it with Mr. Clinton and Lisa Foster, Mr. Foster’s widow.

At that point, the Federal Bureau of Investigation entered the case to determine whether there were any irregularities in the handling of the note. The F.B.I. investigation found no wrongdoing, but its fingerprint analysis uncovered only a partial smudged palm print and no fingerprints on the note.

Some investigators said that the lack of fingerprints seemed to suggest that Mr. Foster wrote the note and then tore into 28 pieces without leaving any prints — a circumstance that is not dealt with conclusively in the report.

This same day, July 20, President Clinton fired FBI Director William Sessions. He announced Louis Freeh as his choice to succeed him the next day.

January 1994. Attorney General names Robert Fiske Special Counsel to investigate Whitewater. Fiske says he will investigate Vince Foster as well.

Attorney General Janet Reno names New York lawyer and former U.S. attorney Robert B. Fiske Jr. as special counsel to investigate the Clintons’ involvement in Whitewater. Fiske announces he will also explore a potential link between Foster’s suicide and his intimate knowledge of the developing Whitewater scandal.

February 21, 1994. Aldrich Ames arrested.

From the FBI:

“At the time of his arrest, Ames was a 31-year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), who had been spying for the Russians since 1985.”

Following their arrest and guilty pleas, Ames was debriefed by FBI agents, at which time he detailed compromising the identities of CIA and FBI human sources, some of whom were executed by USSR authorities.

From the New York Times:

In 1985, Mr. Ames sold to what was then the Soviet Union the names of every important foreign agent working for the United States within that country. At least 10 of those agents were quickly arrested and executed.

April 1994. A Vice President of a bank, working with the CIA, is told that her role in providing information on Russian money laundering was compromised by Aldrich Ames.

Testimony of Karon von Gerhke-Thompson, Vice President, First Columbia Company, Inc.

From April of 1993 through September 1993, I served as an unpaid volunteer assistant on a CIA operation to penetrate what the CIA, FBI, and DOJ knew was a KGB money laundering operation that had tentacles that reached into the Kremlin to Boris Yeltsin…

Russia was in the early phase of its transition from a command economy to a free market economy. We had a pending appropriation bill before the Senate to provide Russia with $4 Billion in foreign aid to assist them in their transition to a free market economy. The $1.7 Billion Konanykhine wanted to move out of Russia and the $100rds of Millions of dollars held by individuals raised a “red flag” with me. No pun intended!

In April of 1994, I was summoned to an urgent meeting by a CIA intelligence officer… He informed me… that I had been compromised by Aldrich Ames on the operation…

The operation was not reported to appropriate congressional oversight committees as a significant failed intelligence operation as mandated under the National Security Act of 1947… of all the operations involving U.S. intelligence assets who were compromised by Ames, of which I was told there were many, my compromise was the only one that was not reported.

Summer of 1994: Linda Tripp transferred from the White House to the Pentagon after criticizing the handling of documents after Vince Foster’s murder.

I’m not sure what to make of Linda Tripp. She was right, of course, to criticize the handling of Vince Foster’s documents after his death. When she was transferred from the White House to the Pentagon and given a large raise, it looks like an attempt to shut her up obviously. The question I have is, did the FBI or someone tell her “we’ll get him later” on his weak spot, women? Because let’s face it, serious crimes like Treason, murder, and rape are never prosecuted against politicians by the Department of Justice. So I give Linda Tripp the benefit of the doubt on her motives. I doubt she knew what was going on with Russia, Felix Sater, and Osama bin Laden, or how the whole “Wag the Dog” operation would go down later.

From the Washington Post:

“During the summer of 1994, the White House instructed the Pentagon to hire Linda R. Tripp into its public affairs office without so much as a job interview, even though the office had no openings at the time. Tripp arrived at the White House during the Bush administration, working at first as a low-level secretary and eventually as an administrative aide. At the time Foster killed himself, six months into the Clinton administration, Tripp worked for him occasionally as part of her job as Nussbaum’s executive assistant. In the days after Foster’s death, Tripp exchanged e-mail messages with co-workers in which they derided the way White House officials were handling materials left behind in Foster’s office, according to testimony and documents. In late June of 1994, two months before she was transferred to the Pentagon — White House employees began receiving requests to testify in Whitewater, including about Foster’s death. Whether Tripp received one of these earliest subpoenas is not clear.

July 4, 1994. FBI Director Louis Freeh gets drunk in Moscow.

From the AP News.

For decades, FBI agents hunted KGB spies in the United States. The last caught was arrested in February – Aldrich Ames of the CIA, who also spied for the Russian Federation that replaced the Soviet Union.

But there was no public mention of Ames on Monday as Freeh headed a team of officials from the Justice and Treasury departments into the feared yellow building on Lubyanka Square. Its basement once housed a KGB prison, where by U.S. accounts murder was not uncommon.

Their host, Sergei Stepashin, director of the counterintelligence service, one of several successor agencies to KGB and not Ames’ employer, found it ″quite symbolic that the first meeting between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Counterintelligence Service is here in Lubyanka Square on your Independence Day…″

Honoring the tradition of this kind of Russian evening, Freeh downed something close to 10 shots and one tumbler of vodka in an effort to remain within polite hailing distance of his host, according to participants. Freeh didn’t jog Monday morning.

The Yegorov dinner ended with a momentarily hair-raising incident that suggested that the new U.S.-Russian crime-fighting alliance still has some cultural gaps to close.

As the U.S. guests headed to their motorcade, two high-ranking Yegorov aides, filled with the spirit of celebration and considerable spirits of vodka, emptied their pistols into the air, according to several participants.

As American officials flinched or ducked, the FBI agents who have guarded Freeh on the trip sprung to alert and crept warily back toward the dacha for a few moments before it became clear what had happened.

August 6 1994. Robert Fiske is replaced by Kenneth Starr as Independent Counsel.

From the Los Angeles Times:

The controversial Whitewater criminal investigation took a surprising turn Friday when a three-judge panel replaced special counsel Robert B. Fiske Jr. with Kenneth W. Starr, solicitor general under former President George Bush.

September 29, 1994. Miguel Rodriguez, Associate Independent Counsel, meets with Kenneth Starr, Brett Kavanaugh, and others to express his concern over the conclusions Robert Fiske was drawing on Vince Foster.

Rodriguez documents this meeting to “file” in a memo. The memo became public in 2009.

From FBI cover-up:

(1) why would VF “surrepticiously” get an unidentified gun (and where could he get two bullets only) to commit an “obvious” act of suicide when VF had his own weapon at his bedside, and (2) whose weapon did VF possess in his hand upon his death?…

I stated that the FBI refused to provide me with a scale map and a map indicating all maintenance roads. I pointed out that I walked a maintenance road from the second cannon area (where VF’s corpse was found) and that there was at least one additional supposedly pedestrian only entrance to the park (this second entrance is closer to the second cannon than the main entrance). The second entrance has a parking area. There is no evidence that this second entrance and parking area was secured or investigated at the time VF’s corpse was processed by USPP. Fiske counsel has not investigated any aspects of this; second entrance and it is not indicated in any FBI reports or reports. It appears Congress did not know of the second entrance and second parking area. Since VF’s death it appears a fence has been erected at this second entrance and the area between the second cannon and the maintenance road has been altered…

Also, as part of our general discussion, I pointed out that — although taken — no 35mm photos were successfully developed and although there were at least five photographers, only 18 polaroid photos were provided by USPP to OIC. 11 The USPP provided orc 18 “polaroid copies” of 18 polaroid photos and no 35mm photos of the death scene. The original polaroids were also provided. Both the original polaroids and the polaroid copies are of poor quality, depicting poor color and blurred, bleached objects. Obviously, the polaroid copies are even more distorted…

The USPP, the FBI and Fiske counsel did not attempt to investigate the metallic colored car or its occupant. W2’s (Patrick Knowlton) recollection of the occupant asa person watching him as he was next to VF’s car is not recounted in the Fiske report. Further, Fiske counsel did not address this witness’ account of the metallic car in its public report.

And there’s plenty more evidence that Starr’s investigation was a complete fabrication with regards to Vince Foster. The letter is 30 Pages of detailed evidence and reasoning from a US attorney that Starr’s team covered up the murder of Vince Foster.

January 17, 1995. Miguel Rodriguez resigns.

Here is his resignation letter.

This letter also wasn’t released until 2009. He basically said he resigned as Associate Independent Counsel because his professional efforts to investigate Foster’s death were obstructed.

April 17, 1995. Letter from Editor of Forbes to the White House shows the motives for Vince Foster’s murder.

Now if you want a “smoking gun” that Foster’s death wasn’t a suicide, it wasn’t the drop gun planted on Foster (as suspected by Miguel Rodriguez), it was a letter from a Forbes editor to the White House.

Letter from Editor at Forbes Magazine to White House Press Secretary:

“James R. Norman, Senior Editor at Forbes Magazine, sent the following letter to Michael D. McCurry, Press Secretary at the White house:

“Dear Mr. McCurry: “Forbes Magazine is preparing an article for immediate publication. We would like to offer the White House an opportunity to comment on the following assertions.”

1.) That Vincent W. Foster, while White House Deputy Counsel, maintained a Swiss bank account.

2.) That funds were paid into that account by a foreign government, specifically the State of Israel.

3.) That shortly before his death and coincident with the onset of severe and acute depression, Vincent Foster learned he was under investigation by the CIA for espionage.

4.) That this information was made available to him by Hillary Rodham Clinton.

5.) That while he was White House Deputy Counsel and for many years prior, Vincent Foster had been a behind-the- scenes control person on behalf of the National Security Agency for Systematics, a bank data processing company integrally involved in a highly secret intelligence effort to monitor world bank transactions.

6.) That Systematics was also involved in ‘laundering’ funds from covert operations, including drug and arms sales related to activities in and around Mena, Ark.

7.) That through Systematics’ relationship with E-Systems, Vincent Foster may have had access to highly sensitive code, encryption and data security information of strategic importance.

8.) That both prior to and after his death, documents relating to Systematics were removed from Vincent Foster’s office in the White House.

9.) That the meeting at the Cardozo (Landau) estate on the eastern shore of Maryland on the weekend before Vincent Foster’s death was attended by, among others, George Stephanopolous.

10.) That Hillary Rodham Clinton was also a beneficiary of funds from Foster’s Swiss account.

“Thank you very much for your prompt attention to this matter. Please fax your written response before end-of-business Tuesday, April 18, to Forbes at 212-620-2417. If you have questions, please call me at 212-620-2215.”

“Respectfully yours, “James R. Norman, Senior Editor”.

The Clinton/Bush drug running operation in Arkansas has been thoroughly documented. I took a look at it here trying to support Linda Ives in her effort to get some records released that may shed light on her son’s murder. The letter from the Forbes editor suggests to me that Vince Foster had evidence that could establish a link between the Clintons and the drug trafficking operation, not to mention the implications for Bush and the CIA.

Quickly on Systematics from conservapedia:

Hillary Clinton was the intellectual property lawyer for Systematics. Part of this “intellectual property” would involve a banking transaction software system based on the stolen PROMIS software. A federal bankruptcy court had ruled in 1987 that the US Justice Dept. ‘stole’ the PROMIS software from small company called Inslaw Inc when the DOJ refused to pay Inslaw for it. US intelligence took the PROMIS software and added a hidden “backdoor” for monitoring banking transactions and money laundering. Systematics was the marketing firm the National Security Agency (NSA) was using to get the PROMIS software with the hidden backdoor into the hands of banks worldwide. The intellectual property that Hillary handled and that Systematics was marketing had been stolen from Inslaw.

Malware is a thing we are all familiar with today, but back in the 80s to early 90s, it was still somewhat cutting edge, I suppose. The application of PROMIS was to monitor most all financial transactions in the world. It could have and should have been used to track the shorting of airlines and insurance companies prior to 9/11. There were plenty of Westerners aware of the 9/11 plot who made money from trades beforehand and left a digital record which has been suppressed to this day.

From the Washington Times:

The head of a computer firm wants the independent commission named to investigate September 11 intelligence failures to review accusations that his software-tracking program, which he says the Justice Department stole, was diverted to Osama bin Laden.
William H. Hamilton, president of Inslaw Inc., said the commission headed by former New Jersey Gov. David H. Kean should focus on the validity of published reports saying bin Laden penetrated classified computer files before the attacks to evade detection and monitor the activities of U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
The 10-member Commission on Terrorist Attacks will have the authority to subpoena witnesses and documents in an effort to determine whether intelligence lapses by the FBI, CIA and other agencies contributed to the deadly success of the September 11 attacks.

“Bin Laden reportedly bought the U.S. intelligence community’s version of the Promis database software on the Russian black market, after former FBI Agent Robert P. Hanssen had stolen it for the Russians, and used Promis in computer-based espionage against the United States,” Mr. Hamilton said in a two-page fact sheet.
“The national commission may wish to examine whether the Justice Department’s misappropriation of Promis was, at a minimum, linked indirectly to pre-September 11 performance problems of U.S. intelligence,” he said.

Here’s another link to an interview of James Norman, the Forbes editor, which has good explanations of things like Systematics, PROMIS, the Arkansas/CIA drug trafficking operation and how they interrelate.

June 1995. Monica Lewinsky joins the White House.

From the Washington Post:

As one of about 1,000 unpaid interns taken on by the White House each year, Lewinsky began work in June 1995 in the office of then-Chief of Staff Leon E. Panetta.

It’s been a year and a half since Ken Starr took over the “Whitewater” investigation at this point, with no progress. In the end, there would only be Monica, Monica, Monica.

June 26, 1995. Vice Foster’s secretary Deborah L. Gorham, testified to the Senate that Vince Foster gave her two envelopes to place in Nussbaum’s safe and she saw two 1-inch binders from the NSA.

From FBI cover-up, on the NSA documents:

Q. What documents do you believe Mr. Foster kept in Mr. Nussbaum’s safe?

MR. MILLS: You can describe the subject matter of the documents.

THE WITNESS: There were two 1-inch ring binders that were from National Security Agency.

And on the envelopes:

A: They were 8-1/2-by-11 sized gold envelopes.

Q: And I take it you don’t know what was in those envelopes?

A: I do not.

Q: Do you know whether or not there was anything in them? Did they feel heavy?

A: I should clarify that. There was writing on the outside of the envelopes, which led me to believe that what was contained inside.

Q: What do you recall about the writing on the outside? What did it say?

A: One said for eyes only and it said for eyes only not to be opened, and then it said William Kennedy on one envelope.

Q: You’ve been describing one envelope that said for eyes only not to be opened William Kennedy?

A: That’s correct.

Q: Do you know anything else about that envelope?

A: No, sir.

Q: Were there any writings or markings on the second envelope?

A: It said Janet Reno.

Q: Anything else?

A: No, sir.

Note that William Kennedy, nephew of Ted Kennedy, was acquitted in a rape trial in 1991, but the jury was not allowed to hear testimony from three women who said he raped or tried to rape them.

From the New York Times:

The rape trial of William K. Smith has come to an abrupt end, with Mr. Smith resoundingly exonerated. But anyone wanting to learn another facet of the case, one that the jurors did not hear but that is likely to linger, need walk only from the Palm Beach County Courthouse to Sir Speedy, the photocopying store nearby.

There, for $48.34, one can buy the nearly 600 newly unsealed pages of sworn depositions given in October by three women — a doctor, medical student and law student — who said that between 1983 and 1988 Mr. Smith either raped them or tried to. Twice, Judge Mary E. Lupo barred their testimony, rejecting arguments by the prosecutor, Moira K. Lasch.

So it looks like, between the NSA documents and the envelope on William Kennedy, that Foster kept “blackmail” material in Nussbaum’s safe. PROMIS/Inslaw/Systematics was the subject of yet another special counsel investigation that began November 7, 1991. It seems like the information regarding William Kennedy could pretty much only be “dirt.” What’s really interesting in the the testimony of Foster’s secretary shows that there was an envelope on Attorney General Janet Reno as well.

July 7, 1995. Daniel Pearson is chosen to be an independent prosecutor to investigate the finances of Commerce Secretary Ron Brown.

From the New York Times:

A panel of Federal appellate judges today appointed a veteran Miami lawyer as an independent prosecutor to investigate the personal finances of Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown. The inquiry is the fourth criminal investigation involving high-ranking officials in the Clinton Administration.

The judicial panel selected Daniel S. Pearson, a partner at Holland & Knight, one of Florida’s largest law firms.

Although the choice of Mr. Pearson was not known until today, the appointment of a prosecutor outside the Justice Department to investigate Mr. Brown had been been expected since May 17, when Attorney General Janet Reno sought the inquiry under the independent counsel statute.

October 22, 1995. London Sunday Telegraph breaks story that Patrick Knowlton’s eye-witness testimony contradicts the conclusions the Starr Commission is drawing concerning Vince Foster’s death.

From Patrick Knowlton’s lawsuit:

Shortly after Plaintiff learned from a reporter that Defendant Monroe had falsified his account, Plaintiff’s account of what he had witnessed at Fort Marcy and contradictory 5 information from his FBI interview reports was published in the in October 22, 1995 edition of the London Sunday Telegraph newspaper.

When the article reached newsstands in the U.S. on October 24, 1995, Patrick Knowlton was subpoenaed by Ken Starr.

On the same day that the Telegraph reached American newsstands, October 24, the Office of Independent Counsel, In re: Madison Guarantee Savings & Loan, prepared a subpoena for Plaintiff to testify before the Whitewater grand jury in this Court.

The subpoena is delivered to Knowlton on October 26, 1995, at which point government agents begin stalking and harassing him.

Two days after that subpoena was prepared, Defendant FBI Agent Russell Bransford served it… Beginning the same day that Bransford served Plaintiff the secret grand jury subpoena, at least 24 Defendants and Bransford harassed and intimidated Plaintiff before he appeared to testify before the grand jury, and one Defendant harassed Plaintiff after he testified:

(1) Eleven or more Defendants on October 26, 1995;

(2) Twelve or more Defendants on October 27, 1995;

(3) Two or more Defendants on October 28, 1995;

(4) Defendant FBI Agent Bransford on October 30, 1995; and

(5) One Defendant on November 2, 1995.

Most of these incidents happened in a rapid and coordinated fashion, so that before one man departed, another was approaching. The objects of the harassment were twofold. First, to intimidate and warn Plaintiff in connection with his grand jury testimony and second, to destabilize Plaintiff and discredit his testimony before the grand jury. This technique of subjecting a witness to an overwhelming campaign of non-verbal harassment to intimidate and warn, or alternatively to destabilize and discredit the witness, is known to federal intelligence and investigative agencies.

October 25, 1995. “Foster suicide note was a forgery, say experts”

From the Independent:

Three handwriting specialists presented analysis at a news conference of the note found in Foster’s briefcase after the deputy White House counsel was found dead on 20 July 1993 in a park near Washington. They said it appeared the note was not written by Foster but was a forgery…

The note, said to have been written days or weeks before Foster died, complained of life in Washington and concluded: “I was not meant for the job or the spotlight of public life in Washington. Here ruining people is considered sport.”

November 1, 1995. Knowlton’s attorney hand-delivers a letter to FBI Director Louis Freeh and also Brett Kavanaugh, asking for the FBI to take an interest in Patrick Knowlton’s safety.

From FBI cover-up:

My client and I were disappointed by the decision not to protect the witness Subpoenaed by the Office of Independent Counsel. We are asking that the F.B.I. take an active interest in Mr. Knowlton’s safety.

November 1, 1995. Brett Kavanaugh questions Patrick Knowlton.

From FBI cover-up:

Then, John Bates who was seated behind me leaned forward and passed a note to Brett Kavanaugh, from which Kavanaugh read the following questions,

He said, “Mr. Knowlton did the man in the park talk to you?” And I replied, “no.”

He asked me, “Did the man in the park pass you a note?” And I replied, “no.”

He said, “Did the man approach you?” And I replied, “no.”

“Did the man in the park point a gun at you?” I replied, “no.”

And lastly Kavanaugh asked me, “Did the man in the park touch your genitals?”

I looked at him and I was in shock. I was dumbfounded. I couldn’t believe he asked me such a question. Of course, I replied, “no.”

November 15, 1995. Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky begins. (Starr Report page 9)

It seems to me that Clinton and his co-conspirators were looking at this time for a gullible woman to become involved with Clinton in order to provide a distraction from Whitewater/Foster later. Monica fit the bill.

Sometime 1995. Halliburton and CEO Dick Cheney linked to Russian Bank Alfa Group, which is running heroin.

It wasn’t just cocaine that Bush et al were involved in trafficking. Russia was involved.

From Aspen Times:

In 1995 sacks of heroin were sold mistakenly as flour and sugar in a Siberian town of Khabarovsk where citizens got sick. A Russian bank, called Alfa group, was found to be transporting these drugs. The Alfa group had bought 51 percent of the Tyumen Oil Co., that was running drugs with oil as a cover. These particular actors were enabled to gain power through the efforts of CEO D. Cheney of Halliburton from 1995 to 2000. He secured loans for this Russian conglomerate from the CIA-infiltrated Export and Import Bank (EXIM) and Overseas Private Investment Corp (OPIC).

Here is a much more detailed article on the ties of Halliburton and Brown and Root to Alfa Group, Russia, and heroin from Serendipity.

Sometime 1995. Al Gore writes Bull on a CIA report given to him on the corruption of Viktor Chernomyrdin.

From New York Times:

In November last year, unnamed C.I.A. officials told The New York Times that in 1995 they had compiled a large dossier on Viktor Chernomyrdin, then the Russian Prime Minister. They sent the material to Vice President Al Gore, co-chairman of the Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission, in which much of the government-to-government business between the countries was handled. It came back, said the officials, with what was described as ”a barnyard epithet” scrawled on it.

Later at a presidential debate between Bush and Gore on October 11, 2000, Bush said “We went into Russia, we said, ‘Here’s some IMF money,’ and it ended up in Viktor Chernomyrdin’s pocket and others’” (as reported by Los Angeles Times).

January 4, 1996. Records related to Whitewater inquiry under subpoena mysteriously surface.

Of course there would be plenty of time to sanitize any records by now that just happened to be in a book room all along.

From PBS:

A copy of the Rose Law Firm billing records, under subpoena for nearly two years, is turned over to investigators by Mrs. Clinton’s assistant Carolyn Huber. Ms. Huber has testified that she found the records, along with a stack of other papers, in the First Lady’s book room in August, 1995. She moved all of the documents to her office before realizing in January that the billing records were among the papers.

January 15, 1996 – First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton answers questions before a grand jury about the unexplained discovery in the White House residence of records sought for two years by authorities.

Link to Mr Pop Culture.

“I do not know how the billing records came to be found where they were found but I am pleased that they were found, because they confirm what I have been saying … I, like everyone else, would like to know how these documents showed up after all these years”

February 1996-May 1998: CIA counterterrorism is denied raw intelligence on al Qaeda

CIA veteran named Michael Scheuer wrote a letter, published in The Atlantic, about his time in the field trying to bring Osama bin Laden to justice. He doesn’t go so far as to call people in our government Traitors, like I do, but he was clearly extremely upset. “featuring arrogance, bad judgment, disdain for expertise, and bureaucratic cowardice.” And for my part I’d like to add that while I believe the end result of what all happened with bin Laden speaks for itself, I believe that the people in the field were doing their absolute best based on the intelligence and resources that they were provided, and they were obstructed and sabotaged along the way. Since Scheuer presented his comments in a timeline, it fits well with this larger timeline, and I’ll submit many of his entries beginning where Scheuer said he needed the raw intercepts in the field, not summaries, starting February 1996.

From Michael Scheuer:

February 1996-May 1998: The Bin Laden unit and several other senior CIA officers requested transcripts rather than summaries of electronic collection against al-Qaeda … [V]erbatim transcripts are operationally useful, summaries are much less so, and they are usually not timely. The answer to these requests in every case was no. At one point the senior operations officer for an Intelligence Community component said that the National Security Act of 1947 gave her agency control of “raw” signals intelligence, and that she would not pass such material to CIA.

April 3, 1996. Ron Brown dies in a plane crash, with what appears to be a gunshot wound to his head.

From CNN:

The independent counsel who investigated the late Commerce Secretary Ron Brown before he died in a plane crash reached no conclusions on whether Brown violated any laws.

The final report by independent counsel Daniel Pearson, released today in federal court, says, “My office’s investigation of Secretary Brown ended unfinished with his death. The unfinished state of the investigation and considerations of fairness preclude our office from drawing conclusions about the allegations regarding possible criminal conduct by the Secretary.

From the Los Angeles Times:

Responding to homicide allegations, an official of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology acknowledged Wednesday that doctors initially were puzzled by a circular wound on the top of Brown’s head when his remains were recovered at the crash scene.

“Upon initial inquiry, it looked like a gunshot entry,” said Chris Kelly, the institute’s public affairs officer…

The motive for an alleged murder of Brown is not clear, although some backers of the theory have speculated he knew of possible wrongdoing by President Clinton or other administration officials. Brown’s own financial affairs were under investigation by an independent counsel at the time of his death. Before his Cabinet appointment, he had directed Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign…

Mfume said in a letter to Atty. Gen. Janet Reno that allegations that homicide was overlooked in Brown’s death “require an explanation.”

“The NAACP is very concerned about the ramifications of these allegations, and left unanswered and unresolved, they raise serious questions,” his letter said.

In a similar letter to Reno and to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Waters said the allegations “have sparked a firestorm of inquiries” from her constituents and others.

“I would like to request that you evaluate the issues raised . . . and make a determination of whether an investigation into the allegations is warranted,” Waters wrote.

Justice Department spokesman Myron Marlin said the department “is not looking into the matter now.” He added that “if there is credible information that a crime has been committed, we would look into it.”

There are many highly questionable deaths that suggest that there is organized crime ring that controls the Clintons and Bushes. Ron Brown is just one.

Now continuing with the timeline on Whitewater from PBS: “Once Upon a Time in Arkansas.”

April 1996. Jim and Susan McDougal and Governor Jim Guy Tucker stand trial for bank fraud.

“David Hale testifies that then-Governor Bill Clinton inquired about his $300,000 loan to Susan McDougal in 1986. President Clinton testifies via videotape and denies that he had any involvement with or knowledge of the Hale loan to Susan McDougal.”

May 1996. The McDougals and Governor Tucker are convicted.

“Soon after, Jim McDougal begins to cooperate with the independent counsel. Susan McDougal refuses to answer any questions before the grand jury and is sent to prison for contempt.”

Jim McDougal died of a heart attack in prison on March 8, 1998. Susan McDougal was later pardoned by President Clinton on his last day in office, January 20, 2001.

Mid to Late 1996, from Michael Scheuer: al Qaeda seeks nuclear weapons.

Mid-to-Late 1996: CIA’s Bin Laden unit acquired detailed information about the careful, professional manner in which al-Qaeda was seeking to acquire nuclear weapons … there could be no doubt after this date that al-Qaeda was in deadly earnest in seeking nuclear weapons. The report was initially suppressed within CIA, and then published in a drastically shortened form. Three officers of the Agency’s Bin Laden cadre protested this decision in writing, and forced an internal review. It was only after this review that this report was provided in full to Community leaders, analysts, and policymakers.

November 18, 1996. Harold Nicholson, of CIA Counterterrorism, is arrested for spying for Russia.

According to the New York Times, Harold started working for the CIA in 1994, when he started collecting names of CIA agents and selling them to Russia, including the names of his own students, as he was a teacher at the CIA. Nicholson picked up right where Aldrich Ames left off (arrested February 1994). So while I expect everyone to approach what I allege with caution, (that members of the US government conspired with Russia to support Osama bin Laden), let this sink in for a minute: At the same time you have Counterterrorism teams in the field looking to bring bin Laden to justice, you’ve got sons of bitches back in the states selling the identities of anyone they can discover to Russia, who would later “help” us with Osama via Felix Sater.

From the New York Times:

The highest-ranking C.I.A. officer ever convicted of espionage told the judge at his sentencing today that he had become a spy for Russia for the benefit of his three children…

In court today, Mr. Nicholson offered an apology of sorts to fellow intelligence officers for the careers and the covert operations he had ruined by selling to the Russians those officers’ names, ranks and missions, including the identities of scores of young trainees he instructed at the Central Intelligence Agency’s school for spies…

Until last fall, Mr. Nicholson was a $73,000-a-year C.I.A. officer working at the agency’s counterterrorism center. He had been on a fast track to the top ranks of the agency since becoming a station chief in Romania in 1990, at the age of 40.

But he had also been spying for the Russian intelligence service since 1994.

December 15, 1996. John Deutch resigns as Director of the CIA.

Soon after it was revealed that several of his laptop computers contained classified information wrongfully labeled as unclassified. Attorney General Janet Reno later declined prosecution. President Clinton pardoned him in his last day in office. She did, however, recommend an investigation to determine whether Deutch should retain his security clearance. Deutch had agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor for mishandling government secrets on January 19, 2001, but President Clinton pardoned him in his last day in office, two days before the Justice Department could file the case against him.

George Tenet becomes Acting Director CIA and is later confirmed as Director.

December 16, 1996. Time Magazine reports that Osama bin Laden uses satellite phones.

Before I get much into these satellite phones, let me make an important point. There is a big misperception in the American public about the role of Osama’s satellite phones.

Misperception: That darned media “leaked” intelligence about Osama’s satellite phones, thereby alerting him so that he stopped using the phone(s), thus avoiding capture.

Reality: Osama bin Laden knew the satellite phones were being tracked and had couriers carry the phones around creating false locations to mislead U.S. intelligence, thus: avoiding capture; leading the United States to strike targets in Afghanistan that had no chance of success to kill Osama; angering the Taliban and Afghanistan people against the United States; strengthening the Saudi Arabian bin Laden by casting him in the same role of defending the Afghanistan people against a tyrannical superpower as he had done against the U.S.S.R. in the 1980s.

From the Washington Post:

“One of the worst cases was the reporting on the U.S. ability to listen to Osama bin Laden’s satellite phone in the late ’90s. Because of that reporting, he stopped using that phone and the country lost valuable intelligence.”
— White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, remarks at a news briefing, Aug. 1, 2018

I’ll get into it more later. Note what Michael Scheuer said closely for now.

December 1996, from Michael Scheuer:

December 1996: From a CIA officer detailed to another Intelligence Community (IC) agency and serving overseas, the Bin Laden unit learned of the availability of a communications conduit used by Bin Laden and al-Qaeda. The other IC agency refused to exploit the conduit and threatened legal action against the Agency officer who advised of its existence. This officer bravely continued to supply the information; and I asked senior Agency officers to intervene with the other IC agency. There ensued a desultory interagency discussion without resolution. The CIA was forced to devise its own ability to exploit the communications conduit and secured about half of the available material. The other IC agency was able to secure the other half, but refused to share it. This capability was later lost because of an August 1998 leak to the media by the U.S. military.

February 23, 1997. Kenneth Starr completes the worst coverup in the history of the United States government.

From CNN:

“Independent counsel Kenneth Starr has concluded that presidential aide Vincent Foster was not murdered and that President Bill Clinton and the first lady were not involved in a coverup, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday. Starr’s probe marks the third investigation into Foster’s July 1993 death. The earlier examinations — carried out by a coroner and Robert Fiske Jr., Starr’s predecessor as independent counsel — also determined Foster’s death was a suicide.

The previous day, February 22, 1997, Kenneth Starr rescinded a resignation he had just made.

From CNN:

Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr’s decision Friday to withdraw the resignation he announced just two days earlier muddies an already murky situation.

Both Democrats and Republicans say Starr’s indecisiveness has damaged his credibility…

The 3-year-old Whitewater investigation is entering a crucial stage of evaluating evidence involving President and Hillary Rodham Clinton and other high government officials.

So now Starr is done with Foster, but is still looking for a way to conclude Whitewater without just saying “we’ve found nothing after 3+ years.” Monica Lewinsky and Osama bin Laden are unknown to the public.

March 1997. Reporter and film crew who interview Osama bin Laden are searched for tracking devices.

From Slate:

CNN producer Peter Bergen appeared on his network as a talking head. He had interviewed Bin Laden in Afghanistan in March 1997 and portrayed the Bin Laden gang as technologically savvy, saying: They scanned us electronically to make sure we didn’t have any kind of tracking device; they’re very concerned about anybody who might meet bin Laden, might have some tracking device from some intelligence agency. These people are fairly sophisticated. The guy has a fair amount of money. He communicates by satellite phone, even though Afghanistan in some levels is back in the middle ages and a country that barely functions. Bin Laden has been able to function fairly well there.

March 29, 1997. President Clinton tells Monica Lewinsky that a foreign government is tapping his phones.

This turns out to be Israel, who had the ability to spy on the entire government as well, but analysis of Israel’s role is best left for another article. If you want to know more on Israel’s spying during the Clinton administration, you can click on this excellent series of reports by Fox News.

In any case, Clinton’s remark to Lewinsky clearly shows that Clinton knows that his activities with Monica are being monitored by foreigners, and that his activities could be used against him by those foreign governments, yet he persists.

From the Starr Report: (Page 71)

According to Ms. Lewinsky, she and the President had a lengthy conversation that day. He told her that he suspected that a foreign embassy (he did not specify which one) was tapping his telephones, and he proposed cover stories.

August 1997, Linda Tripp reports that Kathleen Willey came out of the Oval Office “disheveled.”

Continuing the same behavior that began in Oxford in 1969, all the way through Arkansas, and now to the White House. This assault/encounter, or whatever it was, made it into the media in August of 1997. In that this was reported by Linda Tripp, it appears that she’s being somehow guided in her discoveries of improper behavior involving President Clinton.

Michael Isikoff, from Newsweek, reported that Tripp said that she had encountered Kathleen Willey coming out of the Oval Office “disheveled,” with “her face red and her lipstick was off.” Willey alleged that Clinton groped her. Clinton’s lawyer, Robert S. Bennett said in the Newsweek article, “Linda Tripp is not to be believed.”

August-September 1997: An valuable al Qaeda counterterrorism analyst is taken out of the field.

From Michael Scheuer:

August-September 1997: For most of a year the Bin Laden unit prepared for an operation in a foreign city that was set to come to fruition in late-summer 1997. The unit’s lead U.S.-based officer on this operation was an extraordinarily able analyst from another IC component; she knew the issue cold. Days before the operation occurred the IC component ordered her back to its headquarters. She protested, but was told that she would not be promoted if she balked at returning. I protested to my superiors and to the three most senior officers of the IC component who were then in charge of terrorism. All refused to intervene. The operation was much less well exploited because of the loss of this officer. A year later, al-Qaeda destroyed U.S. facilities in the area near the foreign city of the under-exploited operation.

September 1997. Linda Tripp begins recording Monica Lewinsky.

In April 1996, Lewinsky’s superiors transferred her from the White House to the Pentagon because they felt that she was spending too much time around Clinton…

Lewinsky told co-worker Linda Tripp about her relationship with Clinton, and Tripp began secretly recording their telephone conversations beginning in September 1997.

September 26, 1997. Judge orders letter from Patrick Knowlton attorney included with notes of Starr report, over Starr’s objection.

From FBI cover-up:

Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr submitted a 9-page motion asking the three-judge panel to reconsider including the evidence of the cover-up to the final Report.

Starr’s motion was denied and the evidence was included in Starr’s Report.

Judge Butzner wrote to his colleagues that if they did not order the evidence as part of the Report they could be “charged as conspirators in the cover-up.”

Judge Peter Fay wrote that “the [evidence] contradicts specific factual matters and takes issue with the very basics of the Report filed by the [Independent Counsel].”

Don’t be too quick to dismiss Vince Foster’s murder as “conspiracy theory” when you have judges saying that Knowlton’s testimony contradicts “the very basics of the Report” and literally express a concern in writing that they could be “charged as conspirators in the cover-up.” The coverup was that bad and that obvious.

Fall 1997, George H. W. Bush meets with Prince Bandar bin Sultan of Saudi Arabia in Kennebunkport, Maine.

From Vdare:

In the fall of 1997, former President George H. W. Bush, then age 74 and five years out of the White House, phoned one of his closest friends, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the longtime Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States. “Bandar,” Bush said, “W. would like to talk to you if you have time. Can you come by and talk to him?” His eldest son and namesake, George W. Bush, who had been governor of Texas for nearly three years, was consulting a handful of people about an important decision and wanted to have a private talk. He gave a big party for Bush at his palatial estate overlooking the Potomac River with singer Roberta Flack providing the entertainment, and went fishing with him at Bush’s vacation home in Kennebunkport, Maine – Bandar’s least favorite pastime but something Bush loved.

Bush Sr. implied that he was inviting the Saudi Arabian Prince over to talk about what would become the younger George’s run for the White House, but I think that they were discussing the “Wag the Dog” plot that was not far from kicking into high gear. The extensive connections of the Bush family to the House of Saud, coupled with the extremely strong circumstantial evidence of Bush/Saudi complicity in the 9/11 plot as reported by Craig Unger in “House of Bush; House of Saud” (although Unger did not state that claim explicitly), leave no doubt in my mind that the Bush family are Traitors. At this point in time, the fall of ’97, Osama’s laying low, the public is wondering if Starr is ever going to do anything about Whitewater after he covered-up Vince Foster, and Bill’s messing around with Monica behind the scenes. Not long after this, in January 1998, Felix Sater starts his “cooperation” in Moscow around the same time the FBI pulls Monica Lewinsky into a hotel room. What do you think George H. W. Bush and Prince Bandar bin Sultan were talking about?

December 17, 1997. “Wag the Dog” is released.

From Wikipedia:

Wag the Dog is a 1997 American black comedy film produced and directed by Barry Levinson and starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro. The screenplay concerns a spin doctor and a Hollywood producer who fabricate a war to distract voters from a presidential sex scandal.

Wag the Dog was released one month before the outbreak of the Lewinsky scandal and the subsequent bombing of the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Sudan by the Clinton administration in August 1998, which prompted the media to draw comparisons between the film and reality. The comparison was made again in December 1998 when the administration initiated a bombing campaign of Iraq just prior to Clinton’s impeachment over the Lewinsky scandal.

The plot and timing of this movie are way too convenient for me. It establishes the narrative ahead of time in the public’s mind that a President would abuse his office exactly the way President Clinton did. Then you get the feedback after the missile strikes against President Clinton to an extent that it became a rationale for him to not go after Osama bin Laden. “Wag the Dog” became a household term.

From the 9/11 Commission: (Pages 117-118)

At the time, President Clinton was embroiled in the Lewinsky scandal, which continued to consume public attention for the rest of that year and first months of 1999. As it happened, a popular 1997 move, Wag the Dog, features a President who fakes a war to distract public attention from a domestic scandal. Some Republicans in Congress raised questions about the timing of the strikes. Berger was particularly rankled by an editorial in the Economist that said only the future would tell whether the U.S. missile strikes had “created 10,000 new fanatics where there would have been none…”

The failure of the strikes, the “wag the dog” slur, the intense partisanship of the period, and the nature of the al Shifa evidence likely had a cumulative effect on future decisions about the use of force against Bin Ladin. Berger told us that he did not feel any sense of constraint.

Since even the Republicans were criticizing the President over his motives for use of the military, it was easy for Clinton to drag his feet over future military action against Osama bin Laden. That is exactly what he did.

In January 1998, Linda Tripp turns over tapes of Monica Lewinsky to Kenneth Starr.

From the Washington Post:

Tripp gave the surreptitiously recorded tapes to then-Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Tripp disclosed to Starr that she was aware of the relationship between Lewinsky and President Clinton, that Lewinsky had executed a false affidavit denying the relationship that was submitted to the federal court in Arkansas in the Jones v. Clinton lawsuit, and that Lewinsky had attempted to suborn Tripp’s perjury in the Jones v. Clinton suit to conceal the Clinton-Lewinsky relationship as well as Tripp’s claim regarding Kathleen Willey from the federal court. As Tripp explained, she was being solicited to commit a crime to conceal evidence in the Jones civil rights case.

January 16, 1998: The FBI and Ken Starr execute “Operation Prom Night” on Monica Lewinsky.

From People:

“Our team dubbed the operation ‘Prom Night.’ Fresh from the gym, wearing purple sweats, Monica arrived,” Starr writes of Lewinsky’s arrival at the arranged meeting spot, the Ritz-Carlton, according to NPR. Continues Starr in the excerpt, “After Monica and Linda had chatted for a short time in the lobby, by predesign Steve Irons and several other FBI agents swept in.”

Lewinsky was “facing federal charges of perjury and subornation of perjury,” Starr writes — and she lost it.

“For an hour, Monica screamed, she cried, she pouted, and complained bitterly about her scheming, no-good, so-called friend,” he writes, according to NPR. “After a while, she calmed down and began asking questions. The meeting turned into a marathon.”

I know I said I wouldn’t get into it, but very briefly, Netanyahu showed up in D.C. three days later, January 19, 1998, and the Washington Post reported on Lewinsky for the first time the next day.

January 1998, enter Felix Sater.

A manager of a mini-storage found some documents on Felix Sater’s old pump-and-dump stock scam while he was at White Rock/State Street, and this sets off an absurd chain of events.

From the Government’s August 27, 2009 5K1.1 motion to permit Judge Leo Glasser “to downwardly depart from the defendant Felix Sater’s Sentencing Guidelines range,” filed under seal and released to the public August 23, 2019:

In January 1998, the New York City Police Department received a call from the manager of a storage facility who was cleaning out a storage bin after its owners did not answer several delinquency notices. Inside the bin, the manager found loaded handguns and various documents related to White Rock/State Street which revealed Sater’s role in the above-mentioned fraudulent schemes.

Felix was in Russia when he learned about the FBI looking for him shortly after the manager of the mini-storage discovered the old documents on the pump-and-dump scam.

Felix learned in 1998 that the FBI was looking for him in connection with an investigation into the activities of State Street. At the time, Felix was in Russia, where he was working as a consultant for AT&T.

(Which raises questions to me: who was providing satellite phone service to Osama bin Laden- was it AT&T? How did he Sater get the phone numbers, et cetera…)

Our hero, Felix Mikhailovich Sheferovsky, now Felix Sater, became so upset by his past transgressions that he immediately rushed down to the United States Embassy in Moscow to help the United States government.

Through a Russian contact, Felix arranged to meet a high ranking U.S. military intelligence officer and former military attache’ at the U. S. embassy in Moscow (the “Officer”). At the Officer’s request, Felix began to gather sensitive intelligence information for the U. S. government.

Now, never mind that Russia would not have extradited Felix Sater. Never mind that in 1999, the FBI put Semion Mogilevich on their Top 10 most wanted list: “open-source reporting shows him to be involved in weapons trafficking, contract murders, extortion, drug trafficking, and prostitution on an international scale,” and Russia didn’t care. Felix Sater and his pump-and-dump scam required an immediate response from high-level intelligence of both the United States and Russia, at the US Embassy in Moscow, no less.

Why?

February 1, 1998. George Tenet hires a banker who would later short airlines prior to 9/11.

I’m going to do a mini-timeline on Alex Krongard and his banking ties within this larger timeline.

April 1997: Bankers Trust agreed to acquire Alex. Brown “in a move that would shatter the wall long dividing banks from brokers.” The new combined bank is named BT Alex Brown. (NY Times)
February 1, 1998: Alex Krongard, CEO of Alex. Brown and Vice Chairman of Board of Bankers Trust, begins employment at the CIA as a consultant to Director George Tenet. From the Baltimore Sun:

The Baltimore native (Alvin Bernard Krongard) has walked away from a lucrative job as vice chairman of Bankers Trust New York Corp., the parent of BT Alex. Brown Inc. and the seventh-largest bank in the country. At an age when most executives contemplate retirement, Krongard is headed into the darkness, trading the cordial world of high finance for the intrigue of the Central Intelligence Agency…

Krongard has cultivated a circle of friends in the upper reaches of the military and intelligence communities — including, he says, Defense Secretary William S. Cohen and Tenet.

Summer 1998: Banker’s Trust had “an unfortunately large position in Russian government bonds in the summer of 1998, brought the investment bank to the brink before being rescued in an acquisition by Deutsche Bank.” (From Forbes)
December 1, 1998: Deutsche Bank A.G. formally announced today its plan for a $10.1 billion takeover of the Bankers Trust Corporation. (NY Times)
June 5, 1999: Deutsche Bank completes the acquisition of BT Alex Brown, and drops the “BT”, thus putting Deutsche Bank in business in the United States under the name Alex. Brown.

From Baltimore Sun:

Breuer said Alex. Brown will not only retain its nearly 200-year-old name, but also will drop the “BT.” The Alex. Brown name has better brand recognition in the United States than Deutsche Bank’s name, Breuer said.

Deutsche Bank had been hunting for a U.S. acquisition for months when it found Bankers Trust, which came into the deal after losing a staggering $488 million in the third quarter of 1998 on investments in junk bonds and Russian securities.

September 6, 2001. From Wikipedia:

Alvin “Buzzy” Krongard’s name was brought up in conjunction with investigations into suspected 9/11-related insider trading because of timely Wall Street trades made through the investment bank he used to head, Alex. Brown.

Wikipedia quoted the 9/11 Commission here, page 499, in the Notes to Chapter 5:

“A single U.S.-based institutional investor with no conceivable ties to al Qaeda purchased 95 percent of the UAL puts on September 6 (2001) as part of a strategy that also included buying 115,000 shares of American on September 10. Similarly, much of the seemingly suspicious trading on September 10 was traced to a specific U.S.-based options trading newsletter…which recommended these trades.”

Also note that there are longstanding ties of the Bush family to the Brown family line of banking, dating to George Herbert Walker Sr., but that’s another article as well.

The 9/11 Commission dismissed the U.S-based insider trading before 9/11 in a footnote because they said there were simply “no conceivable ties to al Qaeda.” Let me tell you 3 conceivable ties real quick:

The CIA. Krongard worked for the CIA. Which is not to say that everyone in the CIA would be in a position to have insider knowledge of al-Qaeda’s activities, but Krongard was promoted to the #3 position in the CIA- Executive Director- in March 2001, and things like counterterrorism and counterintelligence are obviously their jobs. The CIA provided arms and military intelligence to Osama bin Laden and the Mujahideen in the 1980s to overthrow the U.S.S.R. in Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden renamed the Mujahideen as al-Qaeda in 1989. (Page 6). Maybe that’s the reason bin Laden renamed his organization- so some idiots could say there was no conceivable ties to al-Qaeda later, like saying that Colonel Sanders has no conceivable ties to Kentucky Fried Chicken because they renamed it KFC in 1991.
Russia. So not only did Tenet decide, “I know what we need, a banker,” he also picked one that helped manage to collapse an American bank with Russian bonds that Russia defaulted on later as their economy collapsed. I doubt a bank would make such a large commitment to Russian bonds without having some communication with the Russian government to gauge the risk level of these bonds. This at the same time Russia was “helping us out” with Osama bin Laden by providing Osama’s satellite phones and other intelligence via Felix Sater to the United States. “No conceivable ties?”
Germany. I’ve seen some reporting that Germany warned the U.S. about a cell of al Qaeda planning an attack with airplanes before 9/11, but I can’t pin it down to a good source. In any case, the cell is well-documented in the 9/11 Commission. Deutsche Bank is, of course, German.

THE HAMBURG CONTINGENT (Page 160)

Although Bin Laden, Atef, and KSM initially contemplated using established al Qaeda members to execute the planes operation, the late 1999 arrival in Kandahar of four aspiring jihadists from Germany suddenly presented a more attractive alternative. The Hamburg group shared the anti-U.S. fervor of the other candidates for the operation, but added the enormous advantages of fluency in English and familiarity with life in the West, based on years that each member of the group had spent living in Germany. Not suprisingly, Mohammed Atta, Ramzin Binalshibh, Marwan al Shehhi, and Ziad Jarrah would all become key players in the 9/11 conspiracy.

February 22, 1998. Osama bin Laden issues a “fatwa” against the United States. This was translated into English and is available here.

March 17, 1998. CIA Inspector General Frederick Hitz admits the drug ties of the CIA for the first time.

The CIA did not “expeditiously” cut off relations with alleged drug traffickers who supported contra Nicaraguan rebels in the 1980s, CIA Inspector General Frederick R. Hitz told the House intelligence committee yesterday. Hitz for the first time said publicly that the CIA was aware of allegations that “dozens of people and a number of companies connected in some fashion to the contra program” were involved in drug trafficking. “Let me be frank,” Hitz added, “there are instances where CIA did not, in an expeditious or consistent fashion, cut off relationships with individuals supporting the contra program who were alleged to have engaged in drug-trafficking activity or take action to resolve the allegations.”

This isn’t really necessary for the timeline; it just shows that the ties of the CIA to drugs are not just “conspiracy theory.”

April-May 1998: bin Laden unit ordered disbanded.

From Michael Scheuer:

April-May 1998: The Agency’s Bin Laden unit was ordered disbanded and reduced to a small branch. This was done, so far as I know, without the knowledge of the DCI [Director of Central Intelligence] … When DCI found out about this plan, he intervened in mid-May 1998. By doing so, the DCI preserved the unit and dodged the bullet of having to explain to the American people why the Agency thought Bin Laden was so little of a threat that it had destroyed the Bin Laden unit weeks before two U.S. embassies were demolished. Needless to say, the on-again, off-again signals about the unit’s future status made for confusion, distraction, and much job-hunting in the last few weeks before al-Qaeda’s August 1998 attacks in East Africa.

April 8, 1998. White House Paints Starr Inquiry as Witch Hunt. (New York Times).

Sound familiar? Remember how Trump wanted Comey to investigate the “pee tape” and nothing else? Covering up real crime with scandalous sex is a tried and proven strategy thanks to his buddy Bill Clinton.

Spring and Summer 98. Felix Sater receives information on Osama bin Laden.

From Felix’s 5K1.1 Letter.

As will be discussed in detail below, during the spring and summer of 1998, Sater traveled to Central Asia where he gathered and passed on information to United States sources about the Northern Alliance’s desire to resell Stinger missiles to the United States government as well as information about the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden, among other things. Sater contacted the FBI during this period and kept agents apprised of his activities overseas.

Busy saving the world while the American bin Laden unit is ordered disbanded…

May 1998-May 1999: Various chances to capture or kill bin Laden are declined.

From Michael Scheuer:

May 1998-May 1999: The CIA officers working Bin Laden at Headquarters and in the field gave the U.S. government about ten chances to capture Bin Laden or kill him with military means. In all instances, the decision was made that the “intelligence was not good enough.” This assertion cannot be debated publicly without compromising sources and methods. What can be said, however, is that in all these cases there was more concern expressed by senior bureaucrats and policymakers about how international opinion would react to a U.S. action than there was concern about what might happen to Americans if they failed to act. Indeed, on one occasion these senior leaders decided it was more important to avoid hitting a structure near Bin Laden’s location with shrapnel, than it was to protect Americans. Two other points: the truth has not been fully told about the chance to militarily attack Bin Laden at a desert hunting camp being used by wealthy Gulf royals; and our best chance to capture Bin Laden—an operation which showed no U.S. hand, risked no U.S. lives, and was endorsed by senior commanders of the Joint Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg—was cancelled because senior officials from the Agency, the Executive Branch, and other Intelligence Community components decided to accept assurances from an Islamic country that it could acquire Bin Laden from the Taleban. U.S. officials accepted these assurances despite the well-documented record of that country withholding help—indeed, it was a record of deceit and obstruction—regarding all issues pertaining to Bin Laden between December 1996 and May 1998. The makers of this decision ignored the extensive documentary record that showed nothing but uncooperativeness from this Islamic country.

May 15, 1998. Blackwater Lodge and Training Center opens.

Date taken from Dangerous Magazine article.

The aforementioned Alvin Krongard, who shorted airlines before 9/11, lied to the House Oversight Committee about his connections to Blackwater after being appointed by President George W. Bush to be inspector general of the State Department in 2005. Krongard had a conflict of interest in investigating Blackwater in the Nisour Square Massacre because his brother was on an advisory board for Blackwater.

Cofer Black, who played a major role in counterterrorism intelligence regarding Osama bin Laden in the months before 9/11, was later hired by Blackwater in 2005.

Cofer Black, in his own words, from his testimony to the 9/11 Commission:

The January 2000 operation to learn what a group of suspected al-Qa’ida associated men were doing in Kuala Lumpur is a case where our procedures were – inadequate. The first part of that operation was successful. We picked up on intelligence developed during the FBI’s investigation of the 1998 Nairobi attack, to identify two suspected al-Qa’ida men. We tracked them to a meeting in Kuala Lumpur where they met with other terrorist operatives. We were not able to learn what the men did during that meeting, but we were able to identify other participants. That information continues to be operationally useful today.

While the meeting was in progress, CTC officers detailed to the FBI kept the FBI updated through verbal briefings. Where we fell short was in our not informing the Department of State that we had identified two al-Qa’ida men so that the Department could decide whether to place them on the watchlist. Nearly two years later, those two men, al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi, were hijackers on Flight 77.

May 28, 1998. Boris Yeltsin asks President Clinton to support his efforts to stop a financial panic and keep investments in Russia.

There’s going to be a whole lot of money laundering going on soon. I think it’s logical to suspect that some of this Russian money wound up in the offshore accounts of American politicians and government officials, and with these people thus compromised by their criminal actions, they are more likely to look the other way on any evidence of conspiracy involving bin Laden, lest their roles be exposed.

Russia’s economy is in bad trouble, providing basis for large IMF loans later.

From Clinton Presidential Libraries, Page 334.

I would like to ask you. Bill, one way or another to state that the Russian leadership and government and president will handle the situation, which has now developed, and that you are sure of that. And second, I would like you to address your investors who work here in Russia so that they will not panic and do not leave Russia with their investments, that they do not take away their investments, as we have the necessary reserves. And there is no catastrophic situation here. We need your support. People in the world must know that you support us and that you are sure that Russia will handle the situation, that everything will be in order. Well, the situation is difficult.

May 29, 1998. A plan to capture bin Laden is canceled.

From the 9/11 Commission (Pages 111-114)

A compound of about 80 concrete or mud-brick buildings surrounded by a 10-foot wall, Tarnak Farms was located in an isolated desert area on the outskirts of the Kandahar airport. CIA officers were able to map the entire site, identifying the houses that belonged to Bin Laden’s wives and the one where Bin Laden himself was most likely to sleep. Working with the tribals, they drew up plans for the raid. They ran two complete rehearsals in the United States during the fall of 1997.

By early 1998, planners at the Counterterrorist Center were ready to come back to the White House to seek formal approval. Tenet apparently walked National Security Advisor Sandy Berger through the basic plan on February 13…

On May 20, Director Tenet discussed the high risk of operation with Berger and his deputies, warning that people might be killed, including Bin Ladin. Success was to be defined as the exfiltration of Bin Ladin out of Afghanistan. A meeting of principals was scheduled for May 29 to decide whether the operation should go ahead.

The principals did not meet.

June 1998. “Moonlight Maze” investigation into Russian hacking of Department of Defense, Department of Energy, military contractors, and universities.

The date I reference is the date from a document declassified in 2016 which Chris Doman reported here. Newsweek first broke the story on September 19, 1999.

From Newsweek:

The suspects: crack cyberspooks from the Russian Academy of Sciences, a government-supported organization that interacts with Russia’s top military labs. The targets: computer systems at the Departments of Defense and Energy, military contractors and leading civilian universities. The haul: vast quantities of data that, intelligence sources familiar with the case tell NEWSWEEK, could include classified naval codes and information on missile-guidance systems. This was, Pentagon officials say flatly, “a state-sponsored Russian intelligence effort to get U.S. technology”–as far as is known, the first such attempt ever by Russia.

June 1998. Britain becomes aware of Russian money laundering into the Bank of New York. Two banks are told by the FBI to keep Russian money laundering accounts open.

From the New York Post:

Investigators say billions of dollars – perhaps as much as $15 billion – flowed through the Benex accounts in thousands upon thousands of separate wire transfers…

And in June 1998, it finally did get noticed. British law-enforcement authorities keeping tabs on the Russian mob began to hear that Mogilevich – the same reputed mobster who started YBM – was laundering money through BNY accounts.

They told the FBI, and agents from the bureau began to monitor the cash flows.

A month later, officials at the Republic National Bank of New York filed a suspicious-activity report regarding Benex to the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

Republic then received written requests from federal law-enforcement authorities asking them to keep the account open: Agents wanted to see where the money was coming from and where it was going.

I think the FBI New York knew exactly where the money was coming from and where it was going, although they never figured it out publicly. Anyway, Thomas A. Renyi, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, The Bank of New York Company, Inc., later testified before the House Committee on Banking and Financial Services on September 22, 1999 as follows:

From house.gov:

The Bank learned of these investigations a year ago, in September 1998. When we requested the U.S. Attorney’s permission to close the accounts they were monitoring, we were asked to keep the accounts open; to advise no one, other than our bank regulators, about the investigations;…

The Bank of New York has done business in Russia since 1922, when Irving Trust, which we later acquired, opened an account for Vnesheconomobank, the Bank for Foreign Economic Affairs of the USSR. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, a new banking system began to emerge in Russia. Responding to public and private initiatives and encouragement to “bring Russia west,” we – and many of our nation’s other leading commercial and investment banks – were asked to aid the development of this system, in our case focusing on the development of the infrastructure for the Russian capital markets, where our expertise in funds transfer and American Depositary Receipts was pertinent. We committed Bank personnel and resources to planning committees, training sessions, technological discussions and the like with Russian banking executives and personnel.

A few months later, Chairman of the Russian Federal Securities Commission said, as quoted in the House report “RUSSIA’S ROAD TO CORRUPTION:”

The [IMF] money is all spent. It went to foreigners and Russian speculators [who] took the money out of the country. To me, the huge surprise is not the appearance of such a scam in the country. But I cannot explain why the western financial institutions and the governments didn’t pay serious attention to the presence of such things.

-Dimitri Vasiliev, former Chairman of the Russian Federal Securities Commission, as quoted in the Los Angeles Times, September 24,1998

Larry Summers testified to the House of Representatives later on September 21, 1999 to a panel on Russian corruption and money laundering:

From C-Span:

(1:13:12). Summers: “It is, I think best to think of capital flight in Russia or another country, not so much as a cause of economic problems, but as a symptom of economic problems..”

(1:43:37). Summers: “In the current approach, none of the IMF funds will actually reach the Russian Central Bank.”

(1:52:41) Maxine Waters: “Did the Russian banks offshore like in Antigua play any role in this money laundering and drug money laundering? Summers did not answer. Maxine Waters: “There are about 8 Russian banks in Antigua, a place that has about 60,000 people and 50 banks. 8 of them are Russian.”  A lengthy exchange ensues where Maxine Waters grows increasingly frustrated with Summers evasive answers about Russian drug money laundering.

(2:22:28) Summers:  “with respect to the Bank of New York, there is no evidence that IMF funds or cap.. that there were any IMF funds diverted in that context..”

(2:23:52) Summers:  “the reports and the evidence at this point does not point to their having represented… their having involved the diversion of IMF funds to inappropriate uses…”

June 1998. Turki bin Faisal travels to Afghanistan to negotiate with Taliban to expel or turn over Osama bin Laden.

Turkin bin Faisal al Saud was head of Saudi Arabian intelligence from 1977 to September 1, 2001. He resigned from his position ten days prior to 9/11.

From Spiegel:

Turki: After bin Laden had publicly announced that he and his Al Qaeda organization intended to target Americans and Jews worldwide and to “liberate” Islam’s holiest sites from the Saudi royal family, my government sent me to Afghanistan in June of 1998 to speak with Mullah Omar…

Turki: Incidentally, we had a rather friendly conversation in June 1998. I told Mullah Omar that it would be better to give us bin Laden, that is, if he had any interest in continuing his friendly relations with Saudi Arabia. He agreed, at least in principle. We agreed to set up a joint committee to arrange the details of bin Laden’s extradition.

From the Guardian:

By 1996, Bin Laden was back in Afghanistan. Turki says the kingdom knew it had a problem and wanted him returned. He flew to Kandahar to meet with the then head of the Taliban, Mullah Omar. “He said, ‘I am not averse to handing him over, but he was very helpful to the Afghan people.’ He said Bin Laden was granted refuge according to Islamic dictates.”

Later Turki says that this spirit of cooperation vanished after the missile strikes of August 1998.

June 15, 1998. Bill says he’s lobbying the IMF; Boris says he only needs about $5 Billion.

From Clinton Presidential Libraries, Page 350.

What is in question is not a very large amount of money, something around $5 billion dollars. The most important thing here is that the G7 statement reflects the confidence of leading countries that Russia will be able to deal with the situation so investors can have no fear investing in the Russian economy.

July 10, 1998. Boris tells Bill the situation is urgent; he needs money immediately.

From Clinton Presidential Libraries, Page 371.

THE PRESIDENT:

I’m doing great. I had a good trip to China and I’m just working on things here, spending a lot of time keeping up with the IMF proposal for Russia, and hope we can get it worked out quickly.

PRESIDENT YELTSIN:

Yes, Bill, soon is the word and it is not enough to describe the urgency of the situation. Otherwise, if we do not get a decision soon, by the end of next week, it would mean the end of reform and basically the end of Russia. The consequences would be catastrophic and drastic, not only for Russia but for the global financial system as well.

July 13, 1998. IMF reverses position, announces $17.1 Billion aid package for Russia.

From the New York Times:

Seven weeks ago the chief of the International Monetary Fund, Michel Camdessus, assured the world’s financial markets that there was no reason to panic about Russia.

”Contrary to what markets and commentators are imagining,” Mr. Camdessus insisted as investors were fleeing the Russian markets, ”this is not a crisis. This is not a major development.”

This week, in a complete reversal, the I.M.F. and the Russian Government announced a bailout package that will inject $17.1 billion in new loans to the beleaguered nation over the next 18 months.

The Clinton Administration was the driving force behind the reversal, impelled by the specter of Russia’s financial collapse.

July 25, 1998, Vladamir Putin is appointed by President Yeltsin to Director of the FSB.

From World History Project:

“once appointed conducted a thorough reorganization, which included the dismissal of most of the FSB’s top personnel.”

Russia’s mob is moving every penny they can get their hands on to offshore accounts, via U.S. accounts first, severely damaging Russia’s economy, and it triggers a revolt from the old KGB to get the mob under control. Yeltsin resigned in late 1999.

August 7, 1998: United States Embassies are Bombed in Tanzania and Kenya.

From Wikipedia:

The 1998 United States embassy bombings were attacks that occurred on August 7, 1998, in which more than 200 people were killed in nearly simultaneous truck bomb explosions in two East African cities, one at the United States Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, the other at the United States Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya.

The attacks, which were linked to local members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, brought Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and their terrorist organization, al-Qaeda, to the attention of the U.S. public for the first time, and resulted in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) placing bin Laden on its ten most-wanted fugitives list.

The FBI also connected the attack to Azerbaijan, as 60 calls were placed via satellite phone by bin Laden to associates in the country’s capital Baku.

So if Felix Sater was collecting information on Osama bin Laden, including his satellite phone numbers, in “spring and summer” of 1998, and returned to the United States in September 1998 to give these numbers to the FBI, and the embassies were bombed in August 1998, where the FBI at some point became aware of 60 satellite phone calls pertaining to the bombings, don’t you think that’s suspicious? What information did Felix Sater and the FBI have on Osama bin Laden’s communications prior to the August 7, 1998 embassy bombings?

August 14, 1998. In a phone call between Clinton and Yeltsin, they do not discuss the U.S. Embassy bombings. (Page 393)

(Nor would they discuss the Russian Apartment bombings, which began September 4, 1999, in a phone call on September 8, 1999. (Page 548)) Wikipedia said “According to historians, the bombings were coordinated by the Russian state security services to bring Putin into the presidency,” and provided 8 references.

President Clinton did mention Osama bin Laden, however, saying he “will continue to cooperate with you against terrorism and groups like Usama bin Ladin that train these people.” And he was referring, I believe, to the Chechen rebels.

August 17, 1998. Clinton admits “relationship with Miss Lewinsky that was not appropriate.”

Youtube link to President Clinton’s speech.

August 17, 1998. Washington Post article reports Bin Laden’s “electronic communications.”

Vincent Cannistraro, former head of the CIA’s counterintelligence unit, said he is aware of intercepted electronic communications among bin Laden associates in the aftermath of the embassy bombings in which they take credit for the attacks and exchange warm congratulations.

August 17, 1998. Russia defaults on its debts.

From the House report “RUSSIA’S ROAD TO CORRUPTION“

The culmination of the Clinton administration’s fatally-flawed macroeconomic policy for Russia occurred in August 1998, when Russia’s default on its debts and devaluation of the ruble led to the nation’s total economic collapse. By all measurements, the disaster was worse than America’s Crash of 1929. The disaster that began on August 17,1998, spread immediately throughout Russia. Millions of ordinary men and women who had deposited their money in Russian banks lost everything. ATM and debit cards ceased to work. Dozens of banks became insolvent and disappeared. Angry depositors besieged Russian banks, only to learn they had been wiped out. Millions of senior citizens, whose meager pension income had been suspended for months, were cut off completely. When the dust finally settled in March 1999, the ruble–and with it, every Russian’s life savings—had lost fully 75% of its value.

August 20, 1998. President Clinton launches missile strikes into Afghanistan and Sudan.

From PBS:

In Afghanistan, approximately 70 cruise missiles hit three alleged bin Laden training camps. An estimated 24 people were killed. But if they wanted to kill bin Laden, they failed. Bin Laden was not at the camps when the bombs hit. In the Sudan, approximately 13 cruise missiles hit a pharmaceutical plant. The night watchman was killed.

Days later, in the streets of Khartoum, Sudanese President al-Bashir led an anti-US march. Suddenly it seemed America was transformed from a victim of terrorism to an aggressor nation. (Emphasis mine). And in the days following the bombing, the President’s National Security Advisor Samuel Berger faced a barrage of questions–especially on the Sudan attack. Reports quickly circulated that the Sudanese missile strike had hit a working pharmaceutical plant with no easily-proven link to bin Laden.

FRONTLINE questioned National Security Advisor Sandy Berger about the attacks and he claimed they were justified. “Well, I believe we had solid knowledge that this facility was associated with chemical weapons,” said Berger. But on the day immediately following the missile strike, Berger had said that the camp was “producing chemical weapons.” Berger and others had backed away from their initial assertions about the camp as more evidence emerged.

From the New York Times:

But while the Republican leadership rallied to support the raids, some members of Congress reacted suspiciously, noting that the action followed by three days Clinton’s acknowledgment to the public and a grand jury of his relationship with former intern Monica Lewinsky…

When Clinton’s motorcade abruptly left the borrowed estate where he was secluded with his wife and daughter, reporters and photographers who were idling at the entrance assumed that he was going to play golf. Instead Clinton made a brief dramatic appearance to announce the strikes. Clinton flew to Washington for his Oval Office address as Ms. Lewinsky was testifying for a second time before the grand jury here.

He gave the final go-ahead in a telephone conversation at 3 a.m. Thursday morning with National Security Adviser Samuel Berger.

Pentagon officials denied any plan to assassinate bin Laden, saying they intended only to damage his network. (Emphasis mine).

The text I highlighted above in the PBS and New York Times articles makes the point I want to make, that the missile strikes only served the purpose of turning the perception of the U.S. from a victim of terrorism to one that would fire missiles haphazardly into Muslim areas. I add that only 10 years earlier, May 1988, the USSR had finally withdrawn its troops from Afghanistan thanks to the backing of the Mujahideen and bin Laden by the United States. So now we’re the bad guys. That’s a pretty good trick orchestrated by Russian intelligence. Russia’s role was revealed in Sater’s 5K1.1 Letter.

From Sater’s 5K1.1 Letter: (Page 8)

The defendant, who was born in Russia, used his connections with several high-ranking Russian military or former military and KGB officers to provide the United States intelligence community with key information, particularly concerning the Middle East. Beginning in 1998, Sater was in frequent contact with a former high-ranking KGB officer and arms dealer who possessed information about potential threats to the United States emanating from Afghanistan and certain Central Asian republics. Sater relayed specific, detailed information to the Central Intelligence Agency FBI and other agencies from this individual. In 1998, for instance, before he was arrested in connection with the case at issue, Sater passed on information that certain leaders of the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan wanted to resell Stinger missiles to the United States government. Sater even provided the serial numbers for each of the missiles. During the same period, Sater also passed on specific information about Osama Bin Laden, including what were believed to be Bin Laden’s satellite telephone numbers and information about who was supplying arms to Bin Laden.

Felix Sater said in a Statement released March 12, 2018:

“Information I provided, including the personal satellite telephone numbers of Osama bin Laden, was relevant to the bombing of Al Quaida training camps in 1998 by President Clinton.”

Now let’s muddy through some of this satellite phone reporting and the implications.

August 21, 1998. Washington Times article on Bin Laden’s communications, later cited in the 9/11 Commission as a “leak.”

From the 9/11 Commission (page 127):

“al Qaeda’s senior leadership had stopped using a particular means of communication almost immediately after a leak to the Washington Times. This made it much more difficult for the National Security Agency to intercept his communications.”

The article they referenced was listed in a footnote as “see Martin Sieff, “Terrorist is Driven by Hatred for U.S., Israel, Washington Times August 21, 1998.'” I can’t find the original link. But below is a followup that the Washington Times wrote in 2018 after Sarah Sanders made her comment on the “leak”, where the Times points the finger back at the above August 17, 1998 Post article. Got all that?

Washington Times:

In fact, for my book “The Terrorist Watch,” CIA officials told me that the agency believes it was an Aug. 17, 1998, Washington Post story that triggered bin Laden’s decision to stop using his satellite phone. The Aug. 17 Post story cited a claim by Vincent Cannistraro, a former CIA counterterrorism official from the late 1980s, that the United States was intercepting the phone calls of bin Laden’s associates.

If you want my thoughts, none of this reporting in 1998 is tipping Osama off about anything. Time Magazine already reported on his satellite phone in December 1996, and al Qaeda had already shown that they were sophisticated enough to understand GPS tracking in March 1997 when they searched Peter Berger and his crew for tracking devices. They all likely had communications training from the CIA when they were fighting the U.S.S.R. They’re just not this stupid. Now they couldn’t have moved around Afghanistan this easily without help, either, hiding from satellites, informants, and the NSA, which is where Felix Sater and Traitors in the U.S. Government come in.

I think the entire narrative of “Osama bin Laden stopped using his satellite phone after the August leak” is disinformation designed to cover the tracks of the Traitors in the U.S. Government. Remember what Michael Scheuer said earlier, in December 1996, around the same time the Time Magazine article reported on bin Laden’s use of satellite phones? He said “the Bin Laden unit learned of the availability of a communications conduit” and that “The other IC agency refused to exploit the conduit and threatened legal action against the Agency officer who advised of its existence.” That’s obstruction, and it dates back to December 1996, at least. He also said that from February 1996 to May 1998 that he tried to get actual transcripts of communication intercepts, but “the senior operations officer for an Intelligence Community component said that the National Security Act of 1947 gave her agency control of ‘raw’ signals intelligence, and that she would not pass such material to CIA.” That’s obviously the NSA. And since it dates back to 1996, and since Felix Sater began gathering evidence in 1998, what information did the NSA have on Osama bin Laden that they did not want to share with Michael Scheuer from 1996 until the August 1998 Embassy bombings, both provided by Felix Sater and not provided by Felix Sater? I think these are fair questions. If I’m wrong I’m wrong, but don’t hide the evidence. It’s time to declassify everything about Osama bin Laden that doesn’t compromise “sources and methods.” Don’t stand behind “National Security” AFTER the terrorist even happened and after bin Laden is dead and there’s good reason to believe that members of our government, including President Clinton, were involved with coordinating missile strikes in a manner that deliberately strengthened Osama bin Laden. There’s a document from Turki bin Faisal that the government won’t release on “National Security” grounds. I’ll get to it.

August 1998: Scheuer gets raw intel, for a little while.

From Michael Scheuer:

August 1998: After the bombing of two U.S.-based embassies in East Africa, the senior CIA managers asked what the Bin Laden unit needed most to enhance the attack against al-Qaeda. I again raised our dire need for verbatim reports derived from electronic collection. These senior managers ordered this to be arranged. After receiving less than a dozen such transcripts the process stopped. Despite repeated requests, I failed to get the flow of data restored. Also, tragically, no member of the Bin Laden unit was asked to testify before the State Department’s accountability boards for the 1998 bombings. This exclusion ensured that the systemic problems embedded in the Intelligence Community—which had become overwhelmingly clear before the 1998 al-Qaeda attacks—were not raised before the only pre-9/11 panel that might have been able to initiate remedial action.

John Brennan, at his confirmation hearing where he was confirmed as CIA Director in 2013, said the following about the August 20 missile strikes:

Youtube link to Brennan’s confirmation hearing:

I must point out Senator, that every single CIA manager, George Tenet, his Deputy, the head of Operations at the time, and other individuals, the chief of the counterterrorism center, argued against that operation as well, because it was not well-grounded in intelligence and its chances of success were minimal, and it was likely that other individuals were going to be killed.

And if everyone at the CIA was opposed to these missile strikes, that leaves Sandy Berger as the one who overrode their opinions.

September 1998. Turki bin Faisal returns to Afghanistan after the U.S. missile strikes, and Mullah Omar now refuses to cooperate.

From the Guardian:

In September 1998, Turki flew again to Afghanistan, this time to be robustly rebuffed. At that meeting, he was a changed man,” he says of Omar. “Much more reserved, sweating profusely. Instead of taking a reasonable tone, he said, ‘How can you persecute this worthy man who dedicated his life to helping Muslims?’” Turki says he warned Omar that what he was doing would harm the people of Afghanistan, and left.

From Spiegel:

SPIEGEL: The situation had taken a dramatic turn. In August, Al Qaeda terrorists blew up the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and the US government launched bombing attacks on bin Laden’s training camps in Afghanistan. Did this change Mullah Omar’s position?

Turki: I had come to pressure him to go ahead with the extradition, and I encountered a completely transformed Omar. He was extremely nervous, perspired, and even screamed at me. He denied that he had promised us he would extradite bin Laden, and wanted nothing to do with a joint committee. He wanted to know what had possessed us to want to arrest such an illustrious holy warrior as Osama bin Laden! And why we didn’t prefer to free the world of the infidels! He was furious. I could not help but think that we might have been taking drugs. When he continued to insult Saudi Arabia and the royal family, I ended the meeting. I recommended that my government freeze its relations with the Taliban, and that’s exactly what happened.

As I mentioned previously, there is a document where Turki bin Faisal told the CIA everything he knew about Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda. The government refused to release that document, as was reported by Florida Bulldog on September 11, 2019.

From Florida Bulldog:

…Turki said in 2002, “At the instruction of the senior Saudi leadership, I shared all the intelligence we had collected on bin Laden and al Qaeda with the CIA…”

No reference to a Turki interview appears in the Archives’ listings of 9/11 Commission documents. In 2011, while researching our book The Eleventh Day, the authors queried the omission with the Archives. “I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of a Prince Turki Memorandum for the Record,” an archivist wrote then, “I can’t tell you, or I’d be revealing more than I’m allowed to…If we have an MFR for Prince Turki, it would also be withheld in full.” The umbrella nature of the withholding – under which the public is not allowed to know whether a document on a subject even exists – is rare, usually invoked only in cases of national security.

Our appeal of the Archives’ response led – just weeks ago – to a communication revealing at last that a record of a Turki interview does exist. We are now told, though, that the State Department has determined that – because disclosure could “reasonably be expected to cause identifiable or describable damage to the national security” as well as to “confidential sources” – the interview “remains properly exempt from disclosure”. We intend to file a final appeal to the Information Security Oversight Office.

Do you really think that the national security of the United States is what’s being protected by the government’s refusal to release documents related to information gathered on Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda related to 9/11?

September 1998. Felix Sater returns to the U.S. with Osama bin Laden’s phone numbers and stuff.

So after Felix Sater runs around Central Asia (likely the former Soviet Republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) talking to people who know al Qaeda and stuff, and after Osama bin Laden issues a fatwa against the United States and bombs two American Embassies, Felix returns to the United States in September 1998.

From Felix Sater’s Sentencing Document:

Felix delivered Bin Laden’s satellite phone numbers to the FBI in September 1998, after he voluntarily flew from Russia to the United States to surrender to authorities. Felix was later told by an FBI agent that the numbers were authentic.

I don’t see how Felix Sater isn’t greeted by the FBI as Public Enemy #1 after a timeline like the one I’ve laid out here unless the FBI was complicit with Russia in the plot to strengthen Osama bin Laden. Where and when exactly did Felix Sater get Osama bin Laden’s satellite phone numbers? When did Felix Sater give these numbers to the FBI and what did the FBI do with them? Did the FBI get Osama bin Laden’s phone numbers before or after the August 7, 1998 Embassy bombings?” “Sater contacted the FBI during this period and kept agents apprised of his activities overseas.” How did the FBI know “the numbers were authentic?” Lots of people need to answer lots of questions about this. Declassify everything. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong. Prove it.

September 7, 1998. Los Angeles Times reports again on Osama’s Satellite phones, and that the NSA has his voiceprint.

From the Washington Post:

Sept. 7, 1998, that a newspaper reported that the United States had intercepted his phone calls and obtained his voiceprint. U.S. authorities “used their communications intercept capacity to pick up calls placed by bin Laden on his Inmarsat satellite phone, despite his apparent use of electronic ‘scramblers,’ ” the Los Angeles Times reported.

September 9, 1998. Starr Report. Mentions Whitewater only in passing.

I would like to invite everyone to pull up the “Starr Report” and use your Control-F buttons on your keyboard to check my count. Here’s what I get for the following words:

Lewinsky: 3093

Sex or sexual: 600

Oral: 98

Genitals or genitalia: 64

Whitewater: 4

Foster: 1

What can you say. How obvious does it have to be? 4 years after Kenneth Starr took over for Robert Fiske on Whitewater, in August 1994, he’s got nothing on that, but it only took him 9 months to come up with a huge report on a blowjob. Along the way Starr, along with the FBI, covered up and lied about the cause of death of Vince Foster 2.5 years after he took over. Starr was even later brought in to thrown cold water on the Epstein flare-up and negotiate a “sweetheart deal” to keep Clinton out of trouble. Along the way there were two investigations into Russian money laundering. One was sabotaged by a Traitor; one the FBI said let to let it roll and busted a few minor players later, never recovering the money.

And you know the rest, Clinton deliberately sort of perjures himself when all he had to do was take the 5th Amendment or simply admit that he had oral sex, when he already knew “the blue dress” was in evidence, but instead he went with option C: A big, ugly, public Impeachment dominating the news cycle. An Impeachment that had no hope of success but provided an epic distraction ending to the 90s, getting us back to where I started this article remembering the mass media daze, where Starr was overreaching, and Clinton wasn’t so bad after all.

P.S.

Here’s Starr’s use of the word “Whitewater.”

Page 15- The allegations with respect to Mr. Jordan and the job search were similar to ones already under review in the ongoing Whitewater investigation.

Page 17- OIC investigators and prosecutors recognized parallels between Mr. Jordan’s relationship with Ms. Lewinsky and his earlier relationship with a pivotal Whitewater Madison figure, Webster L. Hubbell.

Page 67- Q: Mr. President, . . . . [m]any Americans woke up to the news today that the Whitewater independent counsel is investigating an allegation that you . . . encouraged a young woman to lie to lawyers in the Paula Jones civil suit. Is there any truth to that allegation?

Page 151- “Didn’t the President talk to you about Monica’s name coming up in those cases [Whitewater or Jones v. Clinton]?”

Foster is mentioned as “Vince Foster Former Deputy White House Counsel,” under a list of “Lawyers and Judges.” (Page 13).

END

The DEA’s obstruction of a mother’s investigation of a 1987 double homicide highlights the criminal relationship between Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush, and the CIA

I have seen it reported where Linda Ives, understandably, does not want her son’s death used for any political purpose. This is not my purpose. Nor is it my purpose to become involved in the details of her son’s murder and “the government’s” subsequent cover-up of that murder. Her attorney, David Lewis, already did an excellent job of that.

THE DILEMMA FOR PLAINTIFF, LINDA IVES

It is difficult for the public to accept that the government of the United States and state of Arkansas, would be involved in the murder of two boys and/or cover up the murder of these boys in order to also cover up for cocaine trafficking by the same governments. It seemingly involves too many people from both political parties, and is so far against American values for us to believe. So public awareness is not on her side. I hope to change that.
If you assume the allegations are true, involving both major parties and both the United States government and government of Arkansas, their obstruction would be a huge obstacle to overcome without public demand.

Linda Ives Lawsuit

Plaintiff has been trying for the last 29 years (now 32) to learn how her son was killed, why and by whom and has been met with stonewalling at every tum. Plaintiff is trying by this action to learn how her son was killed, by whom, and how and why, how and by whom his cause of death was covered up.

Plaintiff believes the only reason she has not received adequate responses is that an adequate response would show crimes by government officials and would expose them and government agencies to suits for damages. Plaintiff will prove that there has been a massive cover-up by federal, state and county officials.

My purpose is to provide for the plaintiff and the public the overwhelming evidence of crime in our government which preceded the murders of Don Henry and Ken Ives, which the release of the documents to Linda Ives would expose to some extent. In order for the reader to have a proper understanding of our government’s criminal history, I will present facts and “allegations” in chronological order along with events that are not crimes, such as elections and other changes in government administration.

One of the more unsettling concepts that this timeline suggests is that the same people who profit from defense contracts and arms sales also control the terrorist networks that initiate the “dynamic events” (citing Erik Prince for that term) that form the basis for military actions and arms sales. I will not try to develop that theory, or any other theories for that matter, although I will make a few notes and observations along the way.

Point being, the murders of Don Henry and Ken Ives are commonly referred to as being related to “IranContra,” which is certainly true, but it’s much, much larger than that, as this timeline will illustrate. This whole mess involves Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, the Mujahideen and the Contras, just for starters. It involves the Republican and Democratic parties. It involves drug trafficking, arms trafficking, terrorism, assassinations, and likely child sex trafficking. It involves Christians, Jews, and Muslims.

Again, I’m not going to develop any of those points. You can think I’m crazy if you want, I don’t care. Read it and make up your own mind. If you’re one of those types who believe that only the Republicans, or the Democrats, or whoever it is are the only ones commit any crimes in our government, so be it. There’s plenty in here for any of you.

There is only one thing I want you to believe. Something very rotten lies at the core of the reason the DEA will not release the information Linda Ives asked for.

To familiarize you with “The Boys on the Tracks,” as they’ve come to be known, based on the title of a book written by Mara Leverill And available here: I’ll start with a the video “Obstruction of Justice” which summarizes the situation surrounding the murders. Then I’ll summarize Linda Ive’s lawsuit a bit. Then I’ll reference some reporting from Arkansas in 2018 about the government’s refusal to turn over documents to Linda Ives. Finally my research in timeline format in support of the release of documents requested.

VIDEO- “Obstruction of Justice.”

Don Henry and Kevin Ives were murdered and their murders were covered up, period. That’s not “conspiracy theory” to the people of Saline County, Arkansas. It’s what they know. The above video is a must watch to hear their story.

Linda Ives Lawsuit

https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2016/08/26/the-boys-on-the-tracks-are-back

On August 24, 2016, Linda Ives filed suit against the CIA, DIA, DOJ, DHS, DEA, USAO, USDOS, Arkansas State Police, Bryant Police Department, and the Saline County Sheriff’s Office.

Attorney David Lewis For Linda Ives did an excellent job laying that the governments of Arkansas and The United States are concealing criminal activity of government officials.

Some of the information contained in the lawsuit, from various sources, summarized as follows: (any errors in the summary are mine). Read it yourself though.

Medical Examiner Fahmy Malik falsified his autopsy report on the murders of Don Henry and Ken Ives.
The area where the boys were found by the train tracks was known locally to be a drop for drugs.
Saline County officials refused to consider a statement by Sharline Wilson providing key firsthand information implicating other Saline County officials in the coverup.
US Attorney General Edwin Meese, among other government officials, had received a bribe directly from Barry Seal.
IRS agent Bill Duncan testified that US Attorney Asa Hutchinson covered up evidence of money laundering involving the Mena, Arkansas drug operation.
Around $100 Million a month in cocaine moved through Mena, Arkansas, the largest drug smuggling operation in the United States.
Much of the cocaine money was laundered through the Arkansas Development and Finance Authority created by Bill Clinton.
Much of the cocaine was later sold in Los Angeles as reported by Gary Webb of the San Jose Mercury News.
A large amount of evidence demonstrating that the CIA was using the cocaine proceeds to fund the Contras in Nicaragua.
Money was paid from the Arkansas Development and Finance Authority to the Rose Law Firm.
William Casey said that Bill Clinton was “No. 1 on the short list” to be President if he didn’t “**** up.”

REPORTING BY LINDA SATTER

Agency ordered to disclose parts of files in ‘boys on the tracks’ case; 2 Arkansas teens found dead in ’87. August 13, 1980.

He (Chief U.S. District Judge Brian Miller) said two documents — one a report of investigation prepared May 4, 1983, and another a report of investigation prepared Jan. 24, 1995 — were “directly related” to Ives’ request. He said the DEA withheld the entire documents, citing exemptions to the Freedom of Information Act that limit disclosure of documents that will invade privacy, reveal the identity of confidential sources, circumvent the law and place people at risk of harm…

He wrote that in her Freedom of Information Act request, Ives asked for “all records, recordings, documents and emails, unredacted, relevant to the death of Kevin Ives,” and sought “all records, recordings, documents and emails regarding Mena Airport drug trafficking as they relate to Barry Seal.”…

In response, Miller said, the department “searched for information relevant to Kevin Ives, but did not search for information relevant to Mena drug trafficking and Barry Seal.”

The DEA pushed back against releasing these documents even after Judge Miller issued his ruling that the DEA improperly withheld information from Linda Ives.

Arkansas mom’s motion in bid to unseal files says DEA hiding crimes. August 18, 2018.

While the DEA claimed all the withheld information was exempt from disclosure, Miller said his review, in response to a federal lawsuit Ives filed, showed that the agency didn’t provide Ives with “all reasonably segregable information.”

He ordered the agency to submit to his court by Friday a proposed method of redacting the exempt parts from the non-exempt parts. He said he would review the DEA’s proposal and then decide to either release the information as the DEA suggests or come up with his own method of segregating out the protected information, and give the DEA a chance to object.

On Tuesday, however, the DEA asked him to reconsider, arguing that the release of the information could endanger confidential informants or law enforcement agents even decades after the reports were written. The DEA appears to contend that the confidential information is too entwined with any nonconfidential information to be adequately segregated.

Lewis scoffed at that suggestion, arguing Friday, “It is much more likely that the government wants to conceal this report because it shows that the government was engaged in illegal trafficking of guns and narcotics which would be politically embarrassing and would require criminal prosecutions of government employees.”

BEGINNING OF THE TIMELINE

1969. Bill Clinton Sexual Assault at Oxford.

Snopes calls this allegation “unproven.”

My thoughts: Look, you go to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, and don’t finish for whatever reason, then an FBI agent supposedly writes about a sexual assault, it’s worth noting.

Or as the Independent writes:

The most famous former Rhodes scholar is Bill Clinton, who arrived at Oxford in October 1968, stayed a year, smoked dope “without inhaling” and came away without completing his degree.

In a court of law, yes Bill Clinton would get the benefit of the doubt here. As far as this analysis goes, with all the history that is to come on Clinton assaulting women, he’s guilty. This event looks like a coverup involving intelligence agencies that Bill Clinton would later be beholden to, a very important point when the CIA is later trafficking cocaine through Arkansas while he is governor. Even if you dismiss this one allegation, it’s one of a great number of allegations about Bill Clinton, sexual assault, cocaine use, and the large amount of deaths that follow him around. There is a ton of “Kompromat” on Bill Clinton for sure. It just looks to me like 1969 is the point where it started, but pick another one if you like.

May 16, 1972. George Wallace Is Shot, Legs Paralyzed; Suspect Seized at Laurel, Maryland Rally.

George Wallace 1972 Laurel Shopping Center

George Wallace was a racist. As his daughter said on July 31, 2019: “The two greatest motivators at (Dad’s) rallies were fear and hate,” Wallace Kennedy said. “There was no policy solution, just white middle-class anger.”

Now, that said, George Wallace was well on his way to becoming President of the United States in 1972. A busing controversy began in January of 1972, and Wallace dominated the issue in the Democratic primaries.

As Britannica reported,

“in January 1972 a U.S. District Court judge merged school districts in Richmond, Va., and ordered that students be bused to achieve racial balance. Gov. George Wallace of Alabama, an opponent of federally ordered integration, entered the Florida primary and focused squarely on the issue. Florida Gov. Reubin Askew campaigned statewide against having an antibusing referendum placed on the presidential primary ballot by the Florida legislature. As the race grew more intense, political observers began to doubt that, with 11 names on the Democratic ballot, anyone could win a clear victory. George Wallace proved them wrong by taking 42 percent of Florida’s statewide vote and nearly all of the 81 delegates to the Democratic national convention.

Muskie, with 9 percent, lost his front-runner status. McGovern, who had written off Florida early, finished with 6 percent.

Note that McGovern, with only 6% in Florida at the time the busing issue began, would be the eventual Democratic nominee.

On the day Wallace was shot in Maryland, the Washington Post reported that he was expected to win in Michigan and Maryland. Wallace was winning Democratic primaries from the South, to New England, to the Rust Belt.

Racism aside, Wallace’s “anti-busing” stand was also “anti-Federal Government.” There was another extremely unpopular Federal government policy in 1972, the Vietnam War. All the Democrat candidates criticized it, Wallace included. A heavy bombing campaign in North Vietnam was underway in April, 1972, a month before Wallace was shot. President Nixon said he didn’t want Vietnam to be an issue in his 1972 re-election bid.

If Wallace had won the Democratic nomination, he would have ran to the right of Nixon on race and busing, and to the left of Nixon on Vietnam. He was a savvy politician who cared about winning, not any party platform. According to Wallace, “There’s not a dime’s worth of difference between the Republicans and Democrats.” Between the anti-busing and anti-war sentiments, Wallace would have easily defeated Nixon, in my opinion, even without the aid of another issue brewing in 1972, which surfaced in a Grand Jury Indictment 3 weeks after Wallace was shot.

From the indictment:

“The June 5, 1972 Grand Jury has heard evidence that has led it to return the indictment being submitted herewith. It has also heard evidence that it regards as having a material bearing on matters that are within the primary jurisdiction of the House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary in its present investigation to determine whether sufficient grounds exist for the House of Representatives to exercise its constitutional power to impeach Richard M. Nixon, President of the United States.”

July 1, 1972. Barry Seal arrested in New Orleans with explosives bound for anti-Castro Cubans in Mexico.

Wikipedia page on William Colby

On 1st July, 1972, Barry Seal was arrested in New Orleans and accused of sending C4 explosives to anti-Castro Cubans in Mexico. A DC-4 was seized at the Shreveport Regional Airport loaded with almost seven tons of plastic C-4 explosives, 7,000 feet of explosive primer cord and 2,600 electric blasting caps.

November 1972. Richard Nixon defeats George McGovern.

Shortly after the election, from Craig Unger’s House of Bush; House of Saud, which you can buy here:

Unger, Page 41 (I will quote the above book several times in this format)

In 1972, after his landslide reelection, President Nixon ordered a housecleaning based on one criterion— loyalty. “Eliminate everyone except George Bush,” Nixon told his domestic affairs adviser John Ehrlichman. “Bush will do anything for our cause.”

Interesting.

September 4, 1973. William Colby becomes CIA Director.

September 11, 1973. United States backs coup d’état in Chile.

Pictured above are Henry Kissinger and Augusto Pinochet.

Pinochet assumed power in Chile following a United States-backed coup d’état on 11 September 1973 that overthrew the democratically elected socialist Unidad Popular government of President Salvador Allende and ended civilian rule.

Following his rise to power, Pinochet persecuted leftists, socialists, and political critics, resulting in the executions of from 1,200 to 3,200 people, the internment of as many as 80,000 people and the torture of tens of thousands. According to the Chilean government, the number of executions and forced disappearances was 3,095.

September 18, 1973: American journalist Charles Horman executed in Chile;

September 22, 1973: American student Frank Teruggi executed in Chile; US Intelligence involved.

Pictured above are Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi, from left to right.

From The Guardian:

A court ruling released late on Monday (in 2014) said a former US navy captain, Ray Davis, gave information to Chilean officials about journalist Charles Horman and student Frank Teruggi that led to their arrest and execution days after the coup that brought General Augusto Pinochet to power.

Horman, 31, a freelance journalist and film-maker, was arrested on 17 September 1973. A national truth commission formed after the Pinochet dictatorship ended said Horman was executed the next day while in the custody of Chilean state security agents. The commission said Teruggi, a 24-year-old university student, was executed on 22 September.

Here is a link to the Charles Horman Truth Foundation.

October 10, 1973. Spiro Agnew resigns as Vice President of the United States; is replaced by Gerald Ford.

Early 1974. Operation Condor begins.

A declassified CIA document dated 23 June 1976, explains that “in early 1974, security officials from Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Bolivia met in Buenos Aires to prepare coordinated actions against subversive targets.”

The National Security Archive reported, “Founded by the Pinochet regime in November 1975, Operation Condor was the codename for a formal Southern Cone collaboration that included transnational secret intelligence activities, kidnapping, torture, disappearance and assassination, according to the National Security Archive’s documentary evidence from U.S., Paraguayan, Argentine, and Chilean files.”

The State Department briefing for Kissinger mentioned awareness of Operation Condor’s plans to conduct possible operations in France and Portugal – a matter that would be prove to be extremely controversial later in Condor’s history.

August 8, 1974. President Nixon Resigns, is replaced by Gerald Ford. Nelson Rockefeller becomes Vice President.

December 22, 1974: Seymour Hersh and New York Times report CIA abuses that lead to the Rockefeller Commission, Church Committee, and Pike Committee.

From the New York Times:

The Central Intelligence Agency, directly violating its charter, conducted a massive, illegal domestic intelligence operation during the Nixon Administration against the antiwar movement and other dissident groups in the United States, according to well‐placed Government sources. An extensive investigation by The New York Times has established that intelligence files on at least 10,000 American citizens were maintained by a special unit of the C.I.A. that was reporting directly to Richard Helms, then the Director of Central Intelligence and now the Ambassador to Iran.

The disclosure of alleged illegal, C.I.A. activities is the first, possible connection to rumors that have been circulating in Washington for some time. A number of mysterious burglaries and incidents have come to light since the break in at Democratic party headquarters in the Watergate complex on June 17, 1972.

Some sources also reported that there was widespread paper shredding at the agency shortly after Mr. Schlesinger began to crack down on the C.I.A.’s operations.

The legislation setting up the C.I.A. makes the director “responsible for protecting intelligence sources and methods from unauthorized disclosure.”

Professor Ransom said that his research of the Congressional debate at the time the C.I.A. was set up makes clear that Congress expressed concern over any police state tactics and intended to avoid the possibility. Professor Ransom quoted one member as having said during floor debate, “We don’t want a Gestapo.”

The CIA was established by Congress in the National Security Act of 1947.

1.4.75. President Ford establishes The United States President’s Commission on CIA Activities within the United States, otherwise known as Rockefeller Commission, to investigate abuses. Dick Cheney edits the report.

Emphasis in italics is mine.

The Gerald Ford White House significantly altered the final report of the supposedly independent 1975 Rockefeller Commission investigating CIA domestic activities, over the objections of senior Commission staff, according to internal White House and Commission documents posted today by the National Security Archive at The George Washington University (www.nsarchive.org). The changes included removal of an entire 86-page section on CIA assassination plots and numerous edits to the report by then-deputy White House Chief of Staff Richard Cheney…

President Gerald R. Ford himself had a key role in triggering the investigations, inadvertently but artlessly revealing the fact of CIA involvement in plotting assassinations during a meeting with press editors.

Meanwhile at the White House, Cheney led the way in “editing” the Rockefeller report—including suppressing the assassinations section. The final draft of the full report contained a brief passage noting that President Ford had asked the panel to investigate the assassination plots after its inquiry began, that the staff had not been able to complete the investigation, and that Ford had then asked that assassinations material be turned over to him. The Cheney edit inserted doubts by adding that it was unclear whether assassinations fell within the scope of the Commission’s mandate, thus resurrecting jurisdictional issues which had previously been resolved. The revised language also reduced President Ford to a bit player—asserting only that he had “concurred” in the panel’s decision to investigate rather than that he had revealed the existence of CIA plotting and then been obliged to modify the Commission’s terms of reference to include an investigation of the matter.

January 27, 1975. The Church Committee is established.

Before the release of the final report, the committee also published an interim report titled “Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders”, which investigated alleged attempts to assassinate foreign leaders, including Patrice Lumumba of Zaire, Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic, Ngo Dinh Diem of Vietnam, Gen. René Schneider of Chile and Fidel Castro of Cuba…

In addition, the committee produced seven case studies on covert operations, but only the one on Chile was released, titled “Covert Action in Chile: 1963-1973”. The rest were kept secret at CIA’s request.

According to recently declassified documents by the National Security Archive, the Church Committee also helped to uncover the NSA’s Watch List.

April, 1975. “Operation Babylift”

(Robert) Macauley first became involved in major charitable efforts following the Tan Son Nhut C-5 accident in April 1975, in which a United States Air Force Lockheed C-5 Galaxy carrying South Vietnamese orphans as part of Operation Babylift, crashed on landing killing more than 150 and leaving 175 survivors, many of them among the 2,000 children awaiting transportation to the United States in the days before Fall of Saigon to North Vietnamese forces later that month. When he learned that it would take more than a week to evacuate the surviving orphans due to the lack of military transport planes, Macauley chartered a Boeing 747 from Pan American World Airways and arranged for 300 orphaned children to leave the country, paying for the trip by mortgaging his house.

Macauley… attended Phillips Academy and then Yale University, where he shared a room with George H. W. Bush. Macauley founded Americares in 1982…

August 4, 1975. Pike Committee established.

The Ford administration came close to igniting a constitutional showdown with Congress more than 40 years ago over demands by a House panel known as the Pike Committee for evidence of possible abuses by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). At the height of congressional pushback against the “imperial presidency” in the mid-1970s, Representative Otis G. Pike’s investigation, which paralleled Senator Frank Church’s simultaneous inquiry, raised fears at the CIA and the White House about secret activities coming to light but also about setting precedents for Congress’s right of access to Executive Branch information.

The CIA had tried to impose controls on all the investigations in the form of exacting agreements on the handling of classified information. To a large extent it had succeeded with the presidential commission (the Rockefeller Commission) and the Senate inquiry (the Church Committee), but the previous HSC had been derailed precisely because of the impression of collusion between the CIA and the committee. Pike was not about to fall into that trap.

September 5, 1975. Assassination attempt on President Ford.

From SF Gate:

On Sept. 5, 1975, Charles Manson groupie Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme had tried to fire at Ford on the state Capitol grounds in Sacramento as he walked from the Senator Hotel across L Street to a meeting with then-Gov. Jerry Brown.

Nelson Rockefeller, who unsuccessfully sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1960, 1964, and 1968, would have become President.

September 12, 1975. Memo to Donald Rumsfeld on the Church and Pike Committees expressing concern over the Pike and Church Committees.

BACKGROUND

One of the most serious fallouts from Watergate was that the intelligence community became a topic for Congressional investigation, public and press debate. Starting with CIA links to Watergate, the issue has expanded to:

…CIA involvement in domestic affairs

…Questions of illegal or improper behavior such as assassinations

…Disregard of Presidential Orders (the toxins case)

…Poor management of resources and duplication of effort.

The President’s response to date has been to appoint the Rockefeller Commission to look at those situations in which the CIA violated the prohibition on domestic activities.

September 22, 1975. Memo to William Colby that Congress has subpoena power over CIA Documents.

In this sober 31-page legal memo, Special Counsel to the Director of Central Intelligence, Mitchell Rogovin and Paul Reichler warn that if the Pike Committee goes to court, “there does not appear to be any realistic way in which the Agency can come out the winner.” After a thorough legal analysis, Rogovin and Reichler conclude that, “If the House Select Committee on Intelligence goes to court to enforce its subpoena, it is a virtual certainty that the court will assume jurisdiction of the case.” Worse still for the Executive, the memo stresses that, “If the Committee goes to court, there is an excellent chance that it will persuade the court to enforce its subpoena. The Committee would have no trouble demonstrating that the information it is seeking is relevant, and possibly even essential, to its performance of the duties assigned to it by the House of Representatives.

September 22, 1975. Another assassination attempt on President Ford.

From SF Gate:

But for some quick action, Gerald R. Ford’s presidency, and his life, could have ended amid gunshots outside San Francisco’s St. Francis Hotel on the afternoon of Sept. 22, 1975.

As Ford emerged from the historic Union Square hotel’s Post Street entrance at 3:30 p.m. after addressing a World Affairs Council audience, he paused before getting into his limousine to wave to the crowd across the street.

In a flash, two shots rang out. The first narrowly missed the 38th president of the United States and the second was deflected by a bystander who grabbed at the arm of the shooter, a 45-year-old middle class housewife, dabbler in extremist politics and FBI informant named Sara Jane Moore.

January 30, 1976. President Ford replaces William Cohen with George Bush as CIA director.

February 18, 1976. Executive Order 11905 by Gerald Ford.

Executive Order 11905

Under pressure from Congress, President Ford signed Executive Order 11905, which is commonly referenced as having prohibited assassinations. Not exactly.

“Prohibition of Assassination. No employee of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, political assassination.” Note the qualifier “political.”

There’s also some other important text in Executive Order 11905:

“(A) Protection by lawful means against disclosure by present or former employees of the Central Intelligence Agency or persons, or employees of persons or organizations, presently or formerly under contract with the Agency.” It looks like this text will be used as a basis to destroy documents later.

May 20, 1976. Draft Letter from William Barr on behalf of George Bush, referencing Executive Order 11905, on resumption of records destruction by CIA.

Excerpts from Barr’s letter via muckrock.

The purpose of this letter is to advise you that it is our intention to proceed with destruction of records, now that the Select Committee has completed its investigation and issued its final report. We have so advised Senator Church…

Along with the backlog of routine administrative records, the Agency will destroy records which were collected and maintained by the Agency and which were subject to investigation by the Rockefeller Commission and the Select Committee. The Agency is required to destroy much of this latter material by the Privacy Act of 1974 (P.L. 931579) and by Executive Order 11905…

I trust you agree that this action is now necessary and appropriate.

Sincerely,

George Bush

Director

September 16, 1976. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger rescinds the delivery of a warning to Operation Condor nations against assassinations.

From Christian Science Monitor, 2012:

Only five days before a car bomb planted by agents of the Pinochet regime rocked downtown Washington D.C. on September 21, 1976, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger rescinded instructions sent to, but never implemented by, U.S. ambassadors in the Southern Cone to warn military leaders there against orchestrating “a series of international murders,” declassified documents obtained and posted by the National Security Archive revealed today.

“We know now what happened: The State Department initiated a timely effort to thwart a ‘Murder Inc’ in the Southern Cone, and Kissinger, without explanation, aborted it,” (Peter) Kornbluh said. “The Kissinger cancellation on warning the Condor nations prevented the delivery of a diplomatic protest that conceivably could have deterred an act of terrorism in Washington D.C.”

September 21, 1976. Orlando Letelier, former Chilean foreign minister, and his 26-year old American colleague, Ronni Karpen Moffitt, are assassinated in Washington D.C. by a car bomb.

Ronni Moffit worked at Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C.

Pictured are Ronni Moffitt, the bombed car, and Henry Kissinger shaking hands with Orlando Letelier.

From Global Research:

In early fall of 1976, after a Chilean government assassin had killed a Chilean dissident (Letelier) and an American woman with a car bomb in Washington, D.C., George H.W. Bush’s CIA leaked a false report clearing Chile’s military dictatorship and pointing the FBI in the wrong direction.

January 20, 1977. Jimmy Carter is inaugurated as the 39th President of the United States.

1977. Operation Condor in Argentina involves kidnapping babies and children.

From BBC, 2005:

In Argentina, efforts are also continuing to delve into the origins of Operation Condor – so far, with just as little success.

Gen Jorge Rafael Videla, who led the country’s military junta from 1976 to 1981, is under house arrest in connection with separate inquiries involving accusations of illegal adoptions of children born to women detainees.

However, he has refused to give evidence to a judge who is leading investigations into Operation Condor in Argentina, and attempts to try him for involvement have so far come to nothing.

From 1976 to 1983 an estimated 500 babies were stolen and secretly integrated and adopted into families of right-wing military members and their allies as part of a sweeping program that brutally targeted left-wing militants and sympathizers during the military junta’s seven-year rule.

Bringing, perhaps, a fragment of closure to that era, a former Argentine dictator, Jorge Videla, was convicted yesterday for his role in the program. Mr. Videla, who headed the coup that brought the military to power in 1976, was sentenced to 50 years in prison.

“The women giving birth, who I respect as mothers, were militants who were active in the machine of terror,” he said at the end of the trial.

Note: Like I’ve said before, Epstein’s network didn’t spring magically to life when Epstein bought Little St. James Island in 1998. I think this is a big clue.

March 9, 1977. President Carter replaces George Bush with Stansfield Turner as CIA Director.

7.11.77. Jimmy Carter intervenes with Congress on Bert Lance’s behalf

The BCCI Affair: Via Federation of American Scientists:

Jimmy Carter asked the Congress to suspend ethics rules that would have forced Lance to sell 190,000 shares of stock he owned in National Bank of Georgia. He based his request on the ground that Lance would lose $1.6 million if he was forced to sell, because the bank’s stock was depressed. Weeks of bad publicity followed, as well as an investigation by the Office of the Comptroller of Lance’s Georgia banks which found “unsafe and unsound” banking practices at NBG and the other banks, but no criminal behavior by Lance.

BCCI later became an international clearinghouse for terrorism, money laundering, drug trafficking, arms trafficking, and who knows what else. The investigation was obstructed. It all started with Bert Lance in 1977, who gave the criminal organization a banking beachhead in the United States.

As Unger wrote, Pages 30-32

After taking office in 1977, Carter had appointed his close friend Bert Lance, the CEO of the National Bank of Georgia (NBG), as director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)…

Lance had financed much of Carter’s electoral campaign through overdrafts at NBG, and now that he was in the glare of the Washington spotlight, those transactions had come under scrutiny…

An investigation and trial later found Lance innocent, but his reputation was devastated. In September 1977, only a few months after he had taken over at OMB, he resigned. Lance was heavily in debt and unemployed. He just had one thing going for him: he was still close friends with the president of the United States.

October 1977 (emphasis mine)

In October, just weeks after his resignation, Lance met with Agha Hasan Abedi, the Pakistani founder of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, or BCCI. At the time, BCCI was said to be the fastest growing bank in the world. Its assets had grown from $200 million to more than $2 billion in 1977. As a bank friendly to Muslim concerns, BCCI was perfectly positioned to take advantage of the petrodollars flowing into the Middle East in the wake of the OPEC oil embargo…

“You cannot be a global bank, an international bank, without some sort of presence in the United States,” Lance told BCCI founder Abedi… Desperate to sell his stock, Lance had just the thing in mind- a modest Southern bank, namely, the National Bank of Georgia.

On December 20, Lance announced he was selling his NBG stock to Pharoan for $2.4 million at $20 a share- twice what it had been worth only a few weeks earlier.

Agh Hasan Abedi and Jimmy Carter — President Carter and Agha Hasan Abedi

October 1977. Iranian Revolution begins.

Iranian Revolution begins. Demonstrations against the Shah commenced in October 1977, developing into a campaign of civil resistance that included both secular and religious elements, and which intensified in January 1978.

October 31, 1977. Stansfeld Turner lays off CIA agents in what he described as a turf war.

NY Times article on the assault.

Despite the facts, Turner says the press and public were deliberately misled by current and former agency employees into believing that he was actually firing 820 people. “What was really behind the outcries,” writes Turner, “was outrage at my challenging the traditional independence of the espionage branch. If I could summarily reduce the size of the espionage branch, I might next begin to supervise what it did. The cry was over power and turf.”

Craig Unger described how this conflict within the CIA affected President Carter’s administration.

Unger, Page 50

“Certainly the CIA itself saw Bush as a favorite son. Jimmy Carter’s appointment of Stansfield Turner as CIA director had angered hundreds of agents. In October 1977, Turner eliminated 820 surplus CIA personnel, many of whom had been counterintelligence officers. “You can’t imagine the tremendous anger against the Carter administration in the military and intelligence apparatus,” says Susan Clough, Carter’s personal secretary. “Emotions had been boiling for years.”

Widely hailed as the most popular director of Central Intelligence since Allen Dulles, Bush had enormous support with the Agency. As the campaign got under way, Reagan-Bush posters appeared all over CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, many cut in the middle with only the right side, the Bush side, on display.

November 15, 1977. Iranian students riot at White House against the Shah of Iran. Tear gas is used while Jimmy Carter is speaking.

2.17.78. Financial General Bankshares sues Bert Lance, BCCI, and Systematics. William Barr and Hillary Clinton are involved in legal representation of the parties.

From conservapedia:

By then Lance had left the Carter administration, and he and Jackson Stephens joined together to help BCCI in a hostile takeover of Financial General Bankshares. Financial General filed a lawsuit on February 17 and named “Bert Lance, Bank of Credit & Commerce International, Agha Hasan Abedi, Eugene J. Metzger, Jackson Stephens, Stephens Inc., Systematics Inc. and John Does numbers 1 through 25.” B. Francis Saul II, chairman of Financial General Bankshares, was represented by William Barr. Systematics was represented by C.J. Giroir, Webster Hubbell, and Hillary Rodham Clinton of the Rose Law Firm of Little Rock…

So Stephens, with the help of Bert Lance and others, brought in BCCI to wrest control of the bank from that group, and to put it into the hands of friendlier partners. By 1978 there were lawsuits, and Stephens’ software firm Systematics was represented by Joseph Giroir, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Vince Foster of the Rose Law Firm in 1978…

Systematics for many years had been laundering covert funds for the CIA and the intelligence community – legally at the time, as well.

Hillary Clinton was the intellectual property lawyer for Systematics. Part of this “intellectual property” would involve a banking transaction software system based on the stolen PROMIS software.

Jackson Stephens, Banker, Little Rock, Arkansas

I won’t try to get deep into Hillary Clinton’s involvement, but suffice to say that there was definitely an Arkansas connection to both BCCI and Systematics. The PROMIS software came to be subject of a Special Counsel investigation later (and it was a coverup). BCCI was investigated by Congress (obstructed as well). I said at the beginning of this article that I believed Bill Clinton was beholden to intelligence agencies going back to 1969. I think by 1978 we can add Hillary Clinton to the list as well, considering the criminal nature of BCCI (“bank of CIA”) and Systematics PROMIS software (a big scandal in he DOJ). It’s not like the CIA just threw a dart at a map and picked Arkansas to run cocaine through.

April, 1978. Juanita Broaddrick assaulted by Bill Clinton.

Juanita Broaddrick meets Bill Clinton. Later Juanita is assaulted in a hotel room by Bill Clinton, then the Attorney General of Arkansas. This assault didn’t become public until 1992.

The allegation was passed on to reporters for The Los Angeles Times and The New York Times in the waning days of the 1992 Presidential campaign. Regarding it as the kind of toxic waste traditionally dumped just before Election Day, both newspapers passed on the story — that a nursing-home executive had been sexually assaulted in 1978 by Bill Clinton, then the Attorney General of Arkansas.

And Mrs. Broaddrick denied the encounter in an affidavit in January 1998 in the Paula Jones case, in which she was known only as ”Jane Doe No. 5.” Through all those years, she refused to come forward. When pressed by the Jones lawyers, she denied the allegation. And now, she has recanted that denial.

April 27, 1978. Soviet-backed Saur Revolution in Afghanistan.

The Saur Revolution, also called the April Revolution or April Coup, was a coup d’état led by the Soviet-backed People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) against the rule of Afghan President Mohammed Daoud Khan on 27–28 April 1978. Daoud Khan and most of his family were killed at the presidential palace.

November, 1978. Bill Clinton elected governor Arkansas first time, and uses Arkansas State Troopers to arrange sex.

The LA Times reported what came to be known as “Troopergate” in 1994.

From the LA Times:

The troopers said they were often called upon to act as intermediaries to arrange and conceal his extramarital encounters. They say they frequently picked up and delivered gifts from Clinton to various women and often drove Clinton in his state limousine to meetings with women.“

Patterson, 49, is one of two troopers who have signed affidavits for the Los Angeles Times to buttress his charges. The other is Roger L. Perry, 44, a 16-year veteran of the state police and president of the Arkansas State Police Assn., who also served on Clinton’s security detail for about four years.

Two other troopers supported their accounts but have declined to be identified.

Peter Smith was involved in “Troopergate,” and also a 2016 search for Hillary Clinton’s missing emails. He died under questionable circumstances May 14, 2017.

12.28.78. Iran arrests employees of Ross Perot’s Electronic Data Systems (EDS). Perot hires mercenary who worked with Iranian Revolutionaries to free 70,000 prisoners, including the EDS employees.

There was, to be sure, some dispute as to whether William Gaylord and Paul Chiapparone, engineers for the Dallas-based computer company Electronic Data Systems (EDS), were technically hostages. Iranian authorities insisted that although no charges were brought against them when they were arrested on Dec. 28,1978, they were lawfully imprisoned. Eventually the authorities did charge them with bribing Iranian officials to secure a $20 million contract for EDS…

Perot’s initial step as to send a team to Tehran to try to negotiate the release of the hostage. But in case that failed — as it did — he had meanwhile contacted Arthur Simons, the colonel (now retired).

Simons and Perot first considered a military attack on Ghasr Prison, where the Americans were being held, but abandoned this idea as too risky. The prison was heavily guarded and surrounded by a 12-foot-high wall. They decided finally to proceed by provoking a mob attack on Ghasr; they hoped that in the confusion, as the prison’s 70,000 inmates poured into the streets, Gaylord and Chiapparone, might be able to slip away. Iranian revolutionaries were eager to storm the prison, which had become a symbol of the deposed Shah’s power, and were thus easy to mobilize…

The attack came on Feb. 11, 1979, Gaylord and Chiapparone did indeed escape with the rest, and they made their way to the Hyatt Hotel 10 miles away where they met up with Simons’ commandos. After a harrowing two-day trek, they crossed over into Turkey.

1.16.79. The Shah of Iran flies to Egypt in exile.

Link.

2.1.79. Ayatollah Khomeini returns from exile in Iran.

July 3, 1979. “Carter signed the first directive to secretly aid Afghan rebels known as mujahideen”

Unger, Page 97.

On July 3, 1979, on the advice of his brilliant and hawkish national security advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Carter signed the first directive to secretly aid Afghan rebels known as the mujahideen who were fighting the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul.

November 4, 1979. Iranian Hostage Crisis begins.

Fifty-two American diplomats and citizens were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979, to January 20, 1981.

December 1979. Barry Seal is arrested in Honduras and meets Emile Camp.

In December 1979, Seal was arrested and jailed in Honduras after authorities there found a machine gun in his airplane. While in jail, Seal met Emile Camp of Slidell, La., another drug pilot. After they were released, Camp became Seal’s co-pilot. “Emile and Barry worked really closely,” Dandra Seale said. “They were together at all times.”

December 24, 1979. U.S.S.R. invades Afghanistan.

April 24, 1980. Operation Eagle Claw fails to end Iranian Hostage crisis.

The operation, one of Delta Force’s first, encountered many obstacles and was eventually aborted. Eight helicopters were sent to the first staging area, Desert One, but only five arrived in operational condition. One encountered hydraulic problems, another was caught in a sand storm, and another showed signs of a cracked rotor blade.

During the operation’s planning it was decided that the mission would be aborted if fewer than six helicopters remained operational, despite only four being absolutely necessary. In a move that is still discussed in military circles, the field commanders advised President Carter to abort the mission, which he did.

As the U.S. force prepared to withdraw, one of the helicopters crashed into a transport aircraft which contained both servicemen and jet fuel. The resulting fire destroyed both aircraft and killed eight servicemen.

July 17, 1980. Klaus Barbie orchestrates the Cocaine Coup of Bolivia

From “Whiteout” by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair: (Page 167-168)

He helped orchestrate the so-called “cocaine coup” of 1980, when a junta of Bolivian generals seized power, slaughtering leftist opponents and reaping billions in the cocaine boom, of which Bolivia was a prime supplier.

All this time Klaus Barbie was one of the most wanted men on the planet. But he flourished until 1983, when he was finally returned to France to face trial for his crimes. In the whole sordid history of collusion between US intelligence agencies, fascists and criminals, no one more vividly represents the evil of such partnerships than Klaus Barbie.

In 1942 he was sent to Dijon, France, in the Occupied Zone. In November of the same year, at the age of 29, he was assigned to Lyon as the head of the local Gestapo. He established his headquarters at the Hôtel Terminus in Lyon, where he personally tortured adult and child prisoners. He became known as the “Butcher of Lyon”. The daughter of a French Resistance leader based in Lyon said her father was beaten and skinned alive, and that his head was immersed in a bucket of ammonia; he died shortly afterwards. Historians estimate that Barbie was directly responsible for the deaths of up to 14,000 people.

“In 1947, Barbie was recruited as an agent for the 66th Detachment of the U.S. Army Counterintelligence Corps (CIC).”

July 28, 1980. William Casey, Ronald Reagan’s campaign manager, travels to Madrid to meet with Iran about arms for hostages deal.

Newsweek and The New Republic had initially published disinformation articles providing an alibi for Casey, which were debunked in 1991 when documents were discovered.

From Global Research:

(William) Casey had skipped the key morning session on July 28, 1980. The significance of this confirmation of Casey’s trip to Madrid can hardly be overstated. The influential October Surprise debunking stories – ballyhooed on the covers of Newsweek and The New Republic – hinged on their joint misreading of some attendance records at a London historical conference which they claimed proved Casey was there and thus could not have traveled to Madrid. That meant, according to the two magazines, that the CIA’s Iranian agent Jamshid Hashemi was lying about arranging Casey’s two meetings with Karrubi in Madrid.

“At a meeting in Madrid arranged by the Hashimi brothers that includes Robert Gray, a man identified as Donald Gregg, and Mahdi Karrubi, William Casey says that if Iran could assure that American hostages were well treated until their release and were released as a “gift” to the new administration, “the Republicans would be most grateful and ‘would give Iran its strength back.'”[15] Karrubi says he has “no authority to make such a commitment.”

August 12, 1980. William Casey is informed that Khomeini has agreed to the arms-for-hostages proposal.

Wikipedia Page Iran-Iraq war.

About August 12, 1980: Karrubi meets again with Casey, saying Khomeini has agreed to the proposal. Casey agrees the next day, naming Cyrus Hashimi as middleman to handle the arms transactions. More meetings are set for October. Cyrus Hashimi purchases a Greek ship and commences arms deliveries valued at $150 million from the Israeli port of Eilat to Bandar Abbas. According to CIA sources, Hashimi receives a $7 million commission. Casey is said to use an aide named Tom Carter in the negotiations.

September 20, 1980. Iraq invades Iran.

October 19, 1980. George Bush and William Casey travel to Paris and meet with Adnan Khashoggi, to discuss a deal for Iran to hold US hostages until after the Presidential election.

From Napa Sentinel:

A BAC 111 aircraft, which had been reconfigured to carry a sufficient amount of fuel to travel 3,600 miles, left Andrews Air Force Base in the late afternoon of October 19, 1980. The aircraft’s destination: Paris, France. The Passengers aboard the aircraft included the command pilot U.S. Navy Captain Gunther Russbacher, Richard Brenneke and Heinrick Rupp, on the flight deck; and in the cabin was William Casey, soon to be the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency; Donald Greggs, soon to be the ambassador to South Korea; and George Bush, the future Vice President and President of the United States and former director of the Central Intelligence Agency. There were also Secret Service agents aboard the aircraft.

This is the weekend – three weeks before the November 1980 Presidential Election, that Bush has claimed he spent at Andrews Air Force Base.

Testifying to this flight is Russbacher, the pilot. The Navy pilot is currently at Terminal Island, a federal prison, awaiting an appeal on a charge of misuse and misappropriation of government properties, misuse of government jets, and misuse of government purchase orders for purchase of fuel. He was also a member of the Office of Naval Intelligence and worked with the Central Intelligence Agency.

Russbacher, in an exclusive interview, states that Bush stayed at the Hotel Crillion in Paris. Russbacher has stated that more than one flight was involved, but that this was the initial flight at which time an agreement was made between Bush and Casey and the Government of Iran to delay the release of American hostages in Iran until after the November 1980 election. Former President Jimmy Carter and several Congressmen are now asking for an investigation into the “October Surprise”.

The returning flight with Bush landed at McGuire Air Force base at approximately 2 a.m. on October 20. Russbacher states that Bush, while in Paris, met with Hashemi Rafsanjani, the second in command to the Ayatollah and now the president of Iran, and Adnan Khashoggi, a Saudi Arabian businessman who was extremely powerful. Arrangements were apparently made to pay Iran $40 million to delay the release of hostages in order to thwart President Jimmy Carter’s re-election bid. The $40 million was the beginning of terms that created the Iran-Contra scandal that is now being reopened by Congress.

January 20, 1980. Ronald Reagan is inaugurated as 40th President of the United States.

January 20, 1980. United States deposits $8 Billion in the Bank of England. Iran releases the American hostages.

Iran freed the 52 American hostages today on the 444th day of captivity…

Word of the long-sought release came at 11:36 a.m., less than a half-hour before Ronald Reagan succeeded Carter as president…

The U.S. Treasury said $8 billion was transferred to an Algerian account in London to be turned over to Iran…

Iran’s chief hostage negotiator, shortly before final agreement was announced, said, “Now the hostages are ready to fly, all preparations have been made and…the hostages will go home to their families — but only when Algeria confirmed the Iranian assets had been deposited in the Bank of England…”

The unexpected flap over the escrow account came after both Iran and the United States signed the documents to release the hostages and everything appeared “go” to end the crisis with Carter even flying to Wiesbaden, West Germany, to greet the returning hostages.

March 30, 1981. John Hinckley Jr shoots President Ronald Reagan, others.

March 31, 1981. ABC News reports on link of the Bush family to John Hinckley Jr.

Youtube Link: ABC reports Neil Bush meeting with brother of Reagan’s assassin John Hinckley

“This donut shop near the motel was visited by Hinckley, who reportedly waited for a phone call here each day, even though he had a phone in his motel room. The nature of the calls is not known. A touch of irony- the young man walking with the elder Hinckley is 30 year-old Scott Hinckley, John Jr’s brother. He and Vice President’s Bush son, Neil, are friends. They had planned to have dinner together in Denver tonight. The plans have been cancelled.”

1982. CIA not required to report some information on drug trafficking, as CIA Inspector General Frederick R. Hitz testified later.

The inspector general also said that under an agreement in 1982 between then-Attorney General William French Smith and the CIA, agency officers were not required to report allegations of drug trafficking involving non-employees, which was defined as meaning paid and non-paid “assets {meaning agents}, pilots who ferried supplies to the contras, as well as contra officials and others.”

Yesterday’s hearing was called to review the inspector general’s report, which was triggered by a series of articles published in the San Jose Mercury News in August 1996 that alleged a CIA connection to the introduction of crack cocaine into South Central Los Angeles by Nicaraguan drug dealers.

Aside: Here is one of Gary Webb’s articles in the San Jose Mercury News that provided the basis for the hearing.

William Barr’s wikipedia page.

Gary Webb was found dead in his Carmichael home on December 10, 2004, with two gunshot wounds to the head. His death was ruled a suicide by the Sacramento County coroner’s office.

May, 1982. William Barr begins service on the domestic policy staff at the Reagan White House.

May 18, 1982. Harvard expert testify that John Hinckley Jr. had mental problems.

From: The BCCI Affair. A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations United States Senate, by Senator John Kerry and Senator Hank Brown.

Dr. David Baer of the Harvard Medical School became the second defense expert to tell a jury that Hinckley suffered from a form of schizophrenia at the time of the March 30, 1981, assassination attempt. Baer, a psychiatrist with a special interest in studying how the brain affects emotions, said he diagnosed Hinckley as having ‘schizophrenic spectrum disorder’ and suffering from a major depression. Hinckley’s condition also was affected by a ‘significant loss of sleep’ over the five days before the shooting and by medicine he was taking at the time, Baer said. Prescriptions for the tranquilizer Valium and an anti-depressant drug were found in the hotel room where Hinckley stayed before the shooting.

August, 1982. Jeb Bush and Bob Graham attend BCCI branch opening in Miami.

We started in April 1982, but our formal opening in August 1982. Governor Graham came to that opening. Jeb Bush came to that opening too, along with Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young. Oil ministers from Venezuela, Abu Dhabi, the minister of economy and finance from Jamaica, Barbados, officials from Central Banks from all over the region. We had eight to ten ministers and central bank governors and leading businessmen from Venezuela and Peru and Trinidad, everywhere. It was a very successful opening. . .I have a videotape of portions of those in which Graham is being introduced to all BCCI people. Jeb Bush is also in those videotapes.

December 8, 1982. US House of Representatives votes unanimously to block funding of rebels in Nicaragua.

Edward Boland — Edward P. Boland, (D-Mass)

The Boland Amendment is a term describing three U.S. legislative amendments between 1982 and 1984, all aimed at limiting U.S. government assistance to the Contras in Nicaragua. The first Boland Amendment was part of the House Appropriations Bill of 1982, which was attached as a rider to the Defense Appropriations Act of 1983, named for the Massachusetts Democrat, Representative Edward Boland, who authored it. The House of Representatives passed the Defense Appropriations Act 411–0 on December 8, 1982 and it was signed by President Ronald Reagan on December 21, 1982. The amendment outlawed U.S. assistance to the Contras for the purpose of overthrowing the Nicaraguan government, while allowing assistance for other purposes.

Late 1982/ Early 1983. “Barry Seal begins making “frequent appearances at Mena.”

From The Washington Post:

Hadaway, who is now manager of an aircraft engine shop near the Mena airport, said Seal may have based some planes at Mena in late 1981. He said Seal began making frequent appearances at Mena in late 1982 or early 1983.

1983. Robert Maxwell, Israeli spy, brokers arms sales from U.S. to Iran, via his news editor.

Seymour Hersh alleged: “Nicholas Davies, foreign editor of the Maxwell-owned Daily Mirror, acted as a Mossad agent by brokering arms sales to Iran” in 1983.

March 17, 1983. George Bush and the National Security Council establish “a secret scheme to provide aid to the Contras in Nicaragua.”

Via Spartacus Educational:

George Bush had a secret meeting with Donald P. Gregg and Felix Rodriguez in the White House. As a result the National Security Council established a secret scheme to provide aid to the Contras in Nicaragua.

April 18, 1983. Hezbollah bombs the United States Embassy in Lebanon.

From the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette:

The April 18, 1983 United States embassy bombing was a suicide bombing in Beirut, Lebanon, that killed 32 Lebanese, 17 Americans, and 14 visitors and passers-by. The victims were mostly embassy and CIA staff members, but also included several U.S. soldiers and one U.S. Marine Security Guard. It was the deadliest attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission up to that time, and was considered the beginning of Islamist attacks on U.S. targets.

May 4, 1983. DEA Investigation Report directly related to Linda Ives FOIA request.

He (Judge Brian Miller) said two documents — one a report of investigation prepared May 4, 1983, and another a report of investigation prepared Jan. 24, 1995 — were “directly related” to Ives’ request.

July 30, 1983. George Wallace, Bill Clinton, and George Bush photographed together a Bush’s residence in Maine.

From CBS News:

Wallace and his third wife, the former Lisa Taylor, meet with Vice President George Bush and Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton at a lobster bake at Bush’s residence at Kennebunkport, Maine, July 30, 1983. The third Mrs. Wallace, whom the governor married in 1981, was 30 years his junior and half of a country-western singing duo, Mona and Lisa, who had performed during his campaign in 1968.

Bill Clinton was Governor of Arkansas in 1983. George Wallace was Governor of Alabama. The largest drug smuggling operation in the country ran through Arkansas at this moment. Wonder what Bush and Wallace were talking about?

September 19, 1983. Marc Rich indicted for violating trade sanctions on Iranian oil put in place after the Iranian Hostage crisis.

From the New York Times:

The two men (Marc Rich) were also accused of buying oil from Iran after trade with that nation had been declared illegal in response to the Nov. 4, 1979, seizure of American hostages. Prosecutors said it was the biggest tax- fraud indictment in history.

Marc Rich was later pardoned by President Clinton in his final hours in office.

From Reuters:

…the normally secretive Rich admitted to bribing officials in countries such as Nigeria and to assisting the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad. …among those who lobbied Clinton on his behalf for his pardon were former Israeli Prime Ministers Ehud Barak and Shimon Peres.

September 26, 1983. The National Security Agency intercepts a communication from Iran regarding a planned terrorist attack against the United States Marines.

From Wikipedia, quoting the above book, Peacekeepers at War:

On September 26, 1983, “the National Security Agency (NSA) intercepted an Iranian diplomatic communications message from the Iranian intelligence agency, the Ministry of Information and Security (MOIS),” to its ambassador, Ali Akbar Mohtashemi, in Damascus. The message directed the ambassador to “take spectacular action against the American Marines.” The intercepted message, dated September 26, would not be passed to the Marines until October 26: three days after the bombing.

October 23, 1983. Marine Barracks bombed by Hezbollah in Beirut, Lebanon.

Rescuers continue to probe the wreckage of the U.S. Marine command, Monday, Oct. 24, 1983 in Beirut building that was destroyed on Sunday by a terrorist bomb. In the background can be seen the control tower of the Beirut airport. (AP Photo/Zouki)

On October 23, 1983, two truck bombs struck buildings in Beirut, Lebanon, housing American and French service members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon (MNF), a military peacekeeping operation during the Lebanese Civil War. The attack killed 307 people: 241 U.S. and 58 French military personnel, six civilians, and two attackers.

Video version on youtube.

In hindsight, the Marines ignored or discounted a number of warning factors that might have led them to intensify security at their base, but apparently did not.

Following the bombing of the U.S. Embassy with the loss of 63 lives April 18, the Americans had evidence that they had enemies in Lebanon who were ruthless, efficient, fanatical and shady.

Having been in Lebanon without major incident for a whole year, the Marines themselves started coming under fire two months ago — from Druze and Shiite militiamen, and perhaps also from outside provocateurs.

Earlier this month, the Marines started taking fire from surrounding Shiite neighborhoods, and Geraghty said he had ”clear indication that there were new elements in town that were specifically targeting Marines.”

Finally, the Americans had received ”a lot” of warnings about car bomb attacks, Geraghty said, and four Marines were injured by a booby-trapped car only four days before the attack on their headquarters.

Despite the embassy bombing, the Marine headquarters at Beirut airport was not protected against a similar kamikaze attack.

There were no ditches, tank traps or other heavy objects that would have stopped a big truck coming through at speed. When the disaster occurred, a sentry at the perimeter fence had no ammunition in his rifle.

October 25, 1983. The United States invades Grenada.

November 4, 1983. Letter from John McMahon, Deputy Director CIA, responding to earlier letter from DEA Administrator Francis M. Mullen Jr to the CIA, expressing Mullen’s concerns.

I don’t know if Mullen’s letter is public record, but here’s what the CIA said in response.

From the CIA:

You have expressed concern that the HUMINT Collection Plan and the authorities and responsibilities of the Director of Central Intelligence and the CIA may somehow be interfering with law enforcement authorities and responsibilities that have been assigned to the Drug Enforcement Administration. I believe this concern to be unwarranted. The activities of the CIA and the Intelligence Community with respect to international narcotics intelligence collection are intended to support the law enforcement role of the DEA and the role of international policymakers in dealing with the international narcotics problem. For these reasons, I was surprised by your reaction to my letter of 31 August, which transmitted the HUMINT Collection Plan to you. As you know, representatives of DEA participated in development of the Plan.

I’ll pause right here. If I’m head of the DEA, and there’s a huge drug running operation in Arkansas that’s untouchable, I’m either in on it, or I’m pissed off about it. So I searched for the DEA administrator in this time frame and what did I find, correspondence with the CIA where he doesn’t sound too happy. And the CIA is like, well how in the world does taking over jurisdiction of intelligence on international narcotics trafficking while we’re internationally trafficking narcotics have anything to do with you? So the May 1983 investigation report that the DEA won’t release today may be a good one. It may very well have information saying that prosecution in this area was impossible and state the reason why.

December 1983. Donald Rumsfeld meets with Saddam Hussein while he is using chemical weapons.

Unger, Pages 67-68:

“In December 1983, when Iraq continued to use chemical weapons (against Iran) “almost daily,” (Donald) Rumsfeld traveled to Baghdad as a special presidential envoy to meet with Saddam and pave the way for normalization of U.S.- Iraqi relations.”

Unger, Page 65:

“U.S. support for Saddam Hussein could be traced all the way back to 1959, when the CIA hired him as a twenty-two year-old assassin to shoot Iraqi prime minister General Abd al-Karim Qasim. Saddam fired too soon, however, and as a result he killed Qasim’s driver and only wounded the prime minister.”

1983-1984. Bill Clinton, Roger Clinton use cocaine at the Arkansas’ Governor’s Mansion.

From the book “American Made” by Shaun Attwood.

A few highlights:

“Former 1958 Miss Arkansas Sally Purdue claimed that during her 1983 affair with Bill Clinton, she saw him use cocaine regularly”.
Grand Jury witness Sharline Wilson said she used cocaine with Bill Clinton, his brother Roger, the Attorney General of Arkansas, and members of the Arkansas State Police at the Governor’s Mansion in Arkansas.
Sharline Wilson said she provided cocaine for the Clintons at these parties at the Governor’s Mansion and worked for 3-4 months unloading cocaine at the Mena, Arkansas airport.

1984. United States provides biological weapons to Iraq.

Unger, Page 69

US Center for Disease Control provides biological weapons to Iraq, including viruses, retroviruses, bacteria, fungi, and… bubonic plague.

March 1984. Barry Seal becomes an informant for the United States government.

In March, 1984, Seal was indicted at Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for smuggling Quaaludes and laundering money…

In an attempt to avoid an expected 10 year sentence, Seal made contact with George H. W. Bush. He then appeared before a secret session of Bush’s Task Force on Drugs in Washington where he testified that the Sandinistas were directly involved in drug trafficking into the United States. Seal claimed that the Medellin Cartel had made a deal with the Sandinistas, awarding them cuts of drug profits in exchange for the use of an airfield in Managua as a trans-shipment point for narcotics…

As a result of Seal’s cooperation in setting up this sting, the judge in Florida reduced his sentence from ten years to six months probation.

May 1984. George Bush visits Pakistan; area produces heroin for export to the United States and Europe.

Unger, Page 106.

In May 1984, Vice President George H. W. Bush visited the region and peeked across the border into Afghanistan from the Khyber Pass in Pakistan. Armed with a $14-million check for humanitarian relief, Bush told the refugees, “Across the border, a brutal war is being waged against the people of Afghanistan. I Know your resistance will continue until the Soviets realize they cannot be able to subjugate Afghanistan.”

We do not know exactly where bin Laden was at that moment, but during this period he was nearby in Afghanistan…. Chances are, this is the closest that Osama bin Laden and George H.W. Bush ever got physically.

Unger, Page 107.

As the Soviets withdrew, however, the many unintended consequences of the war became increasingly apparent. The arms pipeline set up by the CIA had unwittingly become a drug pipeline as well. As first reported by the Herald, and English-language magazine in Pakistan, the main condos through which weapons reached the Afghan rebels was now one of the principal routes for the transport of heroin to Karachi for shipment to Europe and the Unites States.

“It is really very simple,” the Herald reported in January 1987. “If you control the poppy fields, Karachi, and the road which links the two, you will be so rich that you will control Pakistan. “ The article added that the drugs came down by truck from Peshawar with “sacks (containing) packets of heroin… This has been going on now for about three and a half years.”

Unger, Page 108, footnote.

*At the time he visited he war-ravaged region in May 1984, Vice President Bush was also serving as the head of the National Narcotics Border Interdiction System, a national network designed to stop the flow of drugs into the United States…. The CIA later insisted it had no knowledge of the heroin running. But according to the Financial Times, the CIA not only had knowledge, it actually started a special cell that “promoted the cultivation of opium and the extraction of heroin in Pakistani territory as well as in the Afghan territory under Mujahadeen control for being smuggled into the Soviet-controlled areas in order to make the Soviet troops heroin addicts.”

June 22, 1984. Robert McFarland arranges for Saudi Arabia to fund the Contras in Nicaragua; deal is approved by George Bush.

Unger, Page 64-66

However, even the Boland Amendment, as the bill was known, was not an insurmountable obstacle to a National Security Council that was prone to macho covert operations, bravado, and cowboy-style adventurism. It considered a variety of options to fund the contras, including obtaining funds from other countries and skimming profits from arms deals with Iran. Finally, in the spring of 1984, National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane raised the possibility of approaching Prince Bandar for the money. If the Saudis were to agree to the request, clearly they would gain favor from the Reagan administration. On June 22, 1984, Bandar and McFarlane agreed that the Saudis would give $1 million a month to the contras.

But the gambit was like playing political Russian roulette and had to be approved by the White House before it could proceed. What would happen in Congress found out? On June 15, 1984, a special meeting of the National Security Planning Group was called to discuss the issue. The highest officials in the country were present— Ronald Reagan, George Bush, George Shcultz, Caspar Weinberger, William Casey, and Robert McFarlane, among others. According to minutes at the meeting, James Baker, ever the vigilant attorney, argues that actively soliciting money from third countries— such as Saudi Arabia— could be an impeachable offense.

But Vice President Bush took issue with that position and said there was nothing wrong with encouraging third parties to help the anti-Sandinistas so long as there was no explicit quid pro quo. “The only problem that might come up is if the United States are to pro use these third parties something in return so that some people could interpret this as some kind of exchange,” he said.

Bush, after all, had been director of the CIA. The way to do it, he seemed to be saying, as for the United States to let the Saudis finance the contras. Afterward, the United States could then reward the Saudis fo rtheir loyalty, but the two events would have to happen without being explicitly tied to each other.

And so, Bandar deposited $8 million in a Swiss bank. Over time, the amount given by the Saudis to the contras reached $32 million. No explicit promises had been made to the Saudis, so the administration could assert there was no quid pro quo, and therefore no impeachable offense had taken place. And yet the Saidis did not go away empty-handed. After all, tens of millions of dollars had changed hands. At the time, King Fahd and Bandar wanted several hundred Stinger missiles from the United States, which had put restrictions on the sale of such weapons. To help the Saudis out, President Reagan invoked emergency measures to bypass Congress and four hundred Stingers were secretly flown to Saudi Arabia. The Saudis had received their payoff. To put it badly: in exchange for doing something that thad been explicitly prohibited by the House of Representatives by a vote of 411 to 0, Saudi Arabia received lethal, state-of-the-art American weaponry it would not have been allowed under normal conditions.

July 12, 1984. Oliver North sabotages DEA operation against the Medellin Cartel.

Oliver North leaks to press that Nicaragua’s Soviet-backed Sandinista government were allegedly linked to the Medellin cocaine cartel, a revelation that forced the Drug Enforcement Administration to kill the undercover sting because of risks to the agents involved. ‘There is no doubt about (North’s) interest in getting the story out,’ said Frank Monastero, the former assistant DEA administrator, who nonetheless would not accuse him directly of the news leak. Subcommittee Chairman William Hughes, D-N.J., came closest to pinning the disclosure on the now-retired Marine lieutenant colonel indicted on criminal charges in the Iran-Contra scandal. ‘The only people who had reason to leak this were Oliver North and the CIA,’ Hughes declared. ‘It has been consistent that those were the two who wanted to get it out.’

September 20, 1984 Hezbollah bombs US Embassy in Lebanon.

From Wikipedia:

On September 20, 1984, the Shi’a Islamic militant group Hezbollah, with support and direction from the Islamic Republic of Iran, carried out a suicide car bombing targeting the U.S. embassy annex in East Beirut, Lebanon. The attack killed 24 people.

December 1984, Barry Seal is busted again, this time for a cargo of marijuana.

In December 1984, Seal was arrested in Louisiana after flying in a cargo of marijuana. After paying a $250,000 bond, Seal was released and returned to drug smuggling. In return Seal provided information that resulted in the US government obtaining 17 criminal convictions.

December 27, 1984. The Washington Post reports that Americares funds the Contras.

“Americares Foundation, working with the Order of the Knights of Malta, has channeled more than $14 million in donated medical aid to El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala over the last two years.” Prominent in the U.S. end of the operation are businessman J. Peter Grace, head of the W.R. Grace conglomerate and chairman of the American division of the Knights of Malta; attorney Prescott Bush Jr., brother of Vice President Bush; former treasury secretary William E. Simon, and Macauley, a New Canaan, Conn., businessman. Among the 1,750 U.S. members of the Knights are CIA Director William J. Casey, former secretary of state Alexander M. Haig Jr. and former secretary of health, education and welfare Joseph A. Califano, although they apparently are not involved in the Americares effort. Former national security affairs adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski is honorary chairman of Americares’ board of director.

Of course most people will recognize Prescott Bush Jr and William Casey from this list, but note Brzezinski. He’s the former National Security Advisor for President Carter.

1985. Jonathan Pollard, Israel spy, meets with Pakistan and Iran to broker arms sales.

https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Nicaraguan_Freedom_Fund

Pollard “met with three Pakistanis and an Iranian foreigner in an attempt to broker arms in 1985.”

In 1987, as part of a plea agreement, Pollard pleaded guilty to spying for and providing top-secret classified information to Israel. He was sentenced to life in prison for violations of the Espionage Act.

February, 1985. Barry Seal’s co-pilot and partner, Emile Camp, is killed in plane crash in Arkansas.

Former Arkansas State Police Investigator Russell Welch was interviewed by Marvin Lee, March 1996, on Emile Camp’s death, and other subjects.

From Washington Weekly,

LEE: When did your own investigation start?

WELCH: In 1985. Emile Camp crashed between Mena and Nella. Emile Camp was one of Barry’s pilots. Freddy Hampton [of Rich Mountain Aviation at Mena airport] asked me to come out to the airport and take a part in the investigation. He was, at that time, concerned because, in his own words, Emile Camp was an important witness in a trial that was going on in Florida at that time. There was some concern that Emile Camp’s death wasn’t an accident, that he had been sabotaged. He kept that attitude until about three days later when Barry Seal showed up and took control. Everybody’s attitude changed. At first they told me that Camp was an extremely good pilot who had flown through these mountains numerous times, day and night. After Barry Seal arrived they said, “Well, Emile Camp wasn’t a very good pilot anyway, he probably flew right into the side of the mountain.” It was obvious that Barry Seal, among other things, had done damage control.

We looked for Emile Camp’s crash for three days before Barry Seal showed up but couldn’t find it. The business manager from Rich Mountain Aviation, Rudy Furr, told me that he had contacted the governors office and Governor Clinton had promised to send some National Guard helicopters to help in the search. They never showed up, because of the weather, I think. Rudy Furr also said that the orbit of a satellite had been changed to help with the search. He said they were going to place the satellite over Mena to see if it could pick up an ELT.

About 15 minutes after Barry Seal showed up, he found the crash, just before dark. It reeked of him knowing where the crash was before he got there. The first words that I heard Barry Seal say were on a radio from his helicopter, as he was explaining how he found the crash so fast. He said, “I know my plane and I know how Emile flies,” or something like that.

LEE: And then you tried to find out why it had crashed?

WELCH: There was nothing to make a determination. Like most airplane crashes it was eventually ruled a pilot error, and there wasn’t anything left to determine whether it had been tampered with or not. During my investigation I did some checking with a number of people who knew Emile Camp and they all said he was just as good a pilot as you could find.

Early 1985. William Casey and Prince Bandar discuss military action against Hezbollah.

Unger, Page 71

As reported in Bob Woodward’s Veil, in early 1985, Prince Bandar invited Casey to his home in Virginia just after the Iranian-supported Hezbollah had bombed American facilities in Beirut and kidnapped CIA station chief William Buckley. Casey and the Saudis agreed it was time to strike back. The target: Sheikh Fadlallah, leader of the Party of God, Hezbollah.

May 5, 1985. Oliver North creates Nicaraguan Freedom Fund, associated with Americares.

Nicaraguan Freedom Fund created by Oliver North. The main purpose of the Nicaraguan Freedom Fund was to divert attention from the covert channels through which real money flowed to the contras in violation of the Boland Amendment. The group’s 1985 tax return for the fund reported donations of $165,648 to Americares.

August 30, 1985. Israel sells American-made missiles to Iran.

Unger 72

..on August 30, Israel sold more than five hundred U.S.- origin TOW missiles (Tube-launched, Optically tracked, Wire-command) to Iran. Just over two weeks later, on September 15, 1985, the Reverend Benjamin Weir… was released.

Benjamin Weir had previously been kidnapped May, 1984 in Lebanon.

November, 1985. CIA provides air transport for arms shipment to Iran.

In November 1985, the CIA role deepened when it directly provided air transport for an arms shipment to Iran.

December 20, 1985. Barry Seal is sentenced and forced to travel to and from halfway house unarmed and unguarded every night for 6 months.

Barry Seal appeared before Judge Frank Polozola in Baton Rouge on 20th December, 1985. Found guilty of two drug felony convictions, Seal was sentenced to six months supervised probation. A condition of the sentence was that he had to spend every night, from 6.00 p.m. to 6.00 a.m., at the Salvation Army halfway house on Baton Rouge’s Airline Highway strip. Judge Polozola barred him from carrying a gun or hiring armed guards. Barry Seal told his friends “they made me a clay pigeon”.

Barry Seal was asked by his close friend, Rene Martin, if he feared being killed by the Ochoa family. Barry Seal replied that he was not afraid of the Colombians because he had not implicated senior members of the organization. Seal was more worried about his contacts within the US government. This view is supported by Lewis Unglesby, Seal’s lawyer. He confirmed that the man Seal was willing to testify against was George H. W. Bush.

February, 1986. Reagan Administration arranges for Saudi Arabia to arm Iraq with American-made bombs.

Unger, page 73

“Reagan administration had secretly authorized Saudi Arabia to transfer US-origin bombs to Iraq and encouraged the Saudis to provide Saddam with British fighter planes as well.”

February 19, 1986. Barry Seal is assassinated.

From the Wall Street Journal:

On 19th February, 1986, Barry Seal returned to his Salvation Army hostel at 6.00 p.m. As he parked his white Cadillac he was approached by a man carrying a machine-gun. Two quick bursts hit Seal’s head and body. One of Seal’s friends, Russ Eakin, observed the killing. “I saw Barry get killed from the window of the Belmont hotel coffee shop. The killers were both out of the car, one on either side, but I only saw one shoot, cause Barry saw it coming and just put his head down on the steering column.”

Over the next few days the police received information that enabled them to arrest several men for the killing of Barry Seal. This included Miguel Velez, Bernardo Vasquez, Luis Quintero-Cruz, John Cardona, Eliberto Sanchez and Jose Renteria. A seventh, Rafa Cardona, managed to escape back to Colombia. He was murdered later that year. Eliberto Sanchez and John Cardona were deported and never appeared in court for the crime. Nor did Jose Coutin who supplied the weapons for the killing of Seal. However, he was not charged with any crime and instead testified in court against Miguel Velez, Luis Quintero-Cruz and Bernardo Vasquez. According to Leslie Cockburn (Out of Control) Coutin was a CIA asset.

One of those originally arrested, Jose Renteria, took photographs of the dead Seal in the car. When his camera was confiscated by an FBI agent at New Orleans airport, it was opened and the film inside exposed. While being interrogated, Renteria claimed that Jose Coutin was linked to Oliver North. However, this information was never produced in court as Renteria was not charged with the murder and was instead deported to Colombia.

From Washington Weekly

WELCH: Just before Barry died, he made a tape recording of himself, DEA agent Jacobson and another person in Panama. It was a three way telephone conversation. The tape recording was with Barry in his car when he was killed. He was returning from his office in downtown Baton Rouge with a couple of boxes and other items. And on the tape recording, among other things, there was this conversation with these three people. And Barry was a desperate man, you can tell by his voice. He is trying to help find Pablo Escobar, and the agent – you can tell by his voice – that there’s nothing he can do with Barry anymore, he’s done his thing and the agent is trying to get rid of him on the telephone. Barry is desperate, he is trying to keep his position and status [as a valuable DEA informant]…

Anyway, on this tape recording, he is trying to give directions to the person in Panama, they are talking about streets, and Barry keeps telling him, “Don’t use my name on the telephone,” because all the telephones in Panama are tapped. The DEA agent comes in and says “Yeah, don’t use Barry’s name on the telephone!” And you can hear this fatalistic laugh of Barry in the background, like “I’m dead.”

March 3, 1986. Louisiana Attorney General William Guste questions United States Attorney General Edwin Meese over the arrangement which led to the assassination of Barry Seal.

From Louisiana Voice:

On March 3, 1986, only two weeks after Seal was murdered, Louisiana Attorney General William Guste hand-delivered a five-page letter to U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese. In his letter, Guste made a formal request for a complete investigation with respect to the government’s relationship with and handling of Seal.

“In October, as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Narcotics and Drug Interdiction of the President’s Commission on Organized Crime, I had presided over a seminar at which Barry Seal had testified,” Guste continued.

“His purpose there was to inform the commission and top United States officials of the methods and equipment used by drug smugglers….and (he) was scheduled to be a key witness in the government’s case against Jorge Ochoa-Vasques, the head of one of the largest drug cartels in the world. WHY WAS SUCH AN IMPORTANT WITNESS NOT GIVEN PROTECTION WHETHER HE WANTED IT OR NOT?” Guste asked, using all capital letters.

1986. Reagan administration and Congress begin arming the Mujahideen with Stinger missiles.

In 1986, the Reagan administration and its congressional allies put aside qualms about dispatching missile launchers. The Taliban emerged on top, and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency spent years trying to recover 600 unused Stingers, including 53 that found their way to Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader who hosted Osama bin Laden during the 9/11 attacks, according to the book “Ghost Wars” by Steve Coll.

April 8, 1986. LA Times reports that Israeli financed a U.S. to Iran weapons deal.

From LA Times:

In an apparent contradiction of Israeli claims that Israel played only a minor role in the shipment of U.S. arms to Iran this year, sources confirmed Friday that a top aide to Prime Minister Shimon Peres tried to help two arms merchants obtain $15 million to finance a U.S.-to-Iran weapons deal this spring. The aide, Amiram Nir, accompanied Saudi Arabian arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi and Iranian businessman Manucher Ghorbanifar to a meeting in London the night of April 8 with Roland W. (Tiny) Rowland, chief executive of Lonrho, a British trading and mining conglomerate, sources said. The meeting continued into the early morning.

August 23, 1986. Oliver North discusses arms deal with Manuel Noriega of Panama.

Oliver North, who met with Noriega’s representative, described the meeting in an August 23, 1986 e-mail message to Reagan national security advisor John Poindexter. “You will recall that over the years Manuel Noriega in Panama and I have developed a fairly good relationship,” North writes before explaining Noriega’s proposal. If U.S. officials can “help clean up his image” and lift the ban on arms sales to the Panamanian Defense Force, Noriega will “‘take care of’ the Sandinista leadership for us.”

North tells Poindexter that Noriega can assist with sabotage against the Sandinistas, and suggests paying Noriega a million dollars — from “Project Democracy” funds raised from the sale of U.S. arms to Iran — for the Panamanian leader’s help in destroying Nicaraguan economic installations.

The same day Poindexter responds with an e-mail message authorizing North to meet secretly with Noriega. “I have nothing against him other than his illegal activities,” Poindexter writes.

On the following day, August 24, North’s notebook records a meeting with CIA official Duane “Dewey” Clarridge on Noriega’s overture. They decided, according to this entry, to “send word back to Noriega to meet in Europe or Israel.”

August 26, 1986. Bill Clinton is the only Democratic governor to send his national guard to train in Honduras.

The nation’s governors disagreed sharply Tuesday over the Pentagon’s policy of training National Guard units in Honduras, but unanimously approved a resolution supporting their peacetime control of Guard units.

The debate over allowing state National Guard units to train in Honduras, the base for U.S.-supported guerrillas fighting to overthrow the Nicaraguan government, was the only spark of controversy in the four-day meeting of the National Governors’ Association.

Gov. Madeleine Kunin of Vermont, a Democrat, said the training policy is a ‘backdoor escalation’ of the American military presence in Central America.

But Republican Gov. John Ashcroft of Missouri said the deployments are nothing more than a training program and ‘not an exercise in aid to the Contras.’ Ashcroft went to Honduras with the Missouri Guard, which helped build a road between two towns.

‘Even those who support the administration’s Central America policy don’t want the Guard used without their say-so,’ said Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, a Democrat who allowed his state Guard to go to Honduras.

October 5, 1986. Barry Seal’s former plane shot down by the Sandanists; pilot parachutes to safety and has phone number to George Bush’s office on his person.

From Whiteout:

On October 5, 1986, a few weeks after the meeting in London, the bold plans explored by North and Noriega came crashing down in the wake of a similarly abrupt descent of a plane ferrying arms from Ilopango air base in El Salvador to Contra camps inside Nicaragua. As Eugene Hasenfus, a veteran of the CIA’s Air America operation in Laos, was kicking supplies out of the back of a C-123K, a Sandanista gunner scored a direct hit and only Hasenfus managed to parachute down and into the world’s headlines, offering incontrovertible proof of the Reagan administration’s illegal shipments. Among the phone numbers in Hasenfus’s notebook was that of George Bush’s office.

November 1985. Lebanese newspaper Al Shirra breaks story about US arms sales to Iran.

Above is from Unger, Page 76

November 24, 1986. United States Attorney General Edwin Meese blames the entire “IranContra” scandal on Oliver North.

The attorney general, (Edwin Meese) said on Nov. 24 that North was the only person in the U.S. government who knew precisely about funds from the Iran arms transfers being transferred to the contras.

December 14, 1986. Calls for immunity for Oliver North begin.

William Broomfield.jpg — William Broomsfield, (R-Michigan)

William S. Broomfield, R-MI, writes an op-ed to Washington Post “That crisis can be avoided by acting immediately to secure the truth by granting immunity to North for his testimony.”

December 20, 1986. LA Times reports on Israeli financing of U.S. to Iran weapons deal.

From the LA Times:

In an apparent contradiction of Israeli claims that Israel played only a minor role in the shipment of U.S. arms to Iran this year, sources confirmed Friday that a top aide to Prime Minister Shimon Peres tried to help two arms merchants obtain $15 million to finance a U.S.-to-Iran weapons deal this spring. The aide, Amiram Nir, accompanied Saudi Arabian arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi and Iranian businessman Manucher Ghorbanifar to a meeting in London the night of April 8 with Roland W. (Tiny) Rowland, chief executive of Lonrho, a British trading and mining conglomerate, sources said.

Amiran Nir.jpg — Amiram Nir, in 1985, with his wife Judy Mozes (Photo credit: Moshe Shai/ Flash 90)

Aside on Amiram Nir: Nir’s son, in 2014, said his father was assassinated.

From Times of Israel:

Twenty-five years after a famed Israeli counterterrorism operator died in a mysterious plane crash in Mexico, his son alleged on Friday that the death was an assassination, and pointed the finger of blame at the United States…

The TV report featured a lengthy clip of George H.W. Bush being interviewed by Dan Rather over what he knew of the Iran-Contra scandal, including over his presence during a visit to Israel in meetings with Amiram Nir. Bush had denied all knowledge of Iran-Contra during the 1988 presidential campaign.

From the Tower Commission report: Page 82

After Nir’s death, “a systematic series of burglaries,” carried out by professionals who were never caught, targeted documents relating to the Iran-Contra Affair. One of the burglary targets was the home of Nir’s widow.

February 27, 1987. The Tower Commission report is published, blaming William Casey for poor management of Oliver North, and clearing President Reagan.

Director Casey appears to have been informed in considerable detail about the specifics of the Iranian operation. He appears to have acquiesced in and to have encouraged North’s exercise of direct operational control of the operation. Because of the NSC staff’s proximity to and close identification with the President, this increased the risks to the President if the initiative became public or the operation failed.

There is no evidence, however, that Director Casey explained this risk to the President or made clear to the President that LtCol North, rather than the CIA, was running the operation. The President does not recall ever having been informed of this fact. Indeed, Director Casey should have gone further and pressed for operational responsibility to be transferred to the CIA.

May 5, 1987. Dick Cheney, as Ranking Republican Member of the House Select Committee to investigate Iran Contra, says in his opening remarks that the President has cooperated fully.

From Brown.edu:

I think it is also important, Mr. Chairman, to point out there is another individual who has been very supportive and cooperative of everything this committee has done to date, that is the President of the United States. These won’t be easy hearings to watch in the West Wing, but it is important, I think, for people to know that the President has indeed cooperated fully with our investigation.

Earlier this year he appointed the Tower Commission to examine these events on behalf of the executive branch. That report has been made public, and it, too, is not easy reading. It contains some very tough criticism of our foreign policy with respect to the events under investigation by this committee, but the President, I thought, responded well to those developments.

It takes a big man to submit himself and his administration to that kind of scrutiny. In connection with this inquiry, which he has encouraged, he has placed no obstacles in the path of our investigation, and as was mentioned earlier by Senator Inouye, he has even made available to members of the committee the most intimate personal thoughts of his administration, his own diary.

May 6, 1987. William Casey dies.