Saturday, May 28, 2016

Iran/Contra Pt 1: The Secret Team

      Beyond The Iran/Contra Affair: Part 1 The Secret Team


A special thanks to @arrghshell of https://n0p3.net  for helping me discover a huge amount of relevant information.


On October 5, 1986 a plane carrying weapons to the Contras from El Salvador was shot down over Nicaragua setting off what became known as the Iran Contra Affair. Three of the plane's passengers were killed William Cooper, Wallace Sawyer and an "unidentified Latin American" but Eugene Hasenfus survived and disastrously for the Reagan Administration he began to talk. In early November1986 a Lebanese newspaper leaked the story of the Iran's arms deals. On November 25 1986  Attorney General Edwin Meese held a press conference revealing that money from arms sales to Iran had been diverted to fund the contras. Thus this year will mark the 30th anniversary of the Iran Contra scandal although I'm guessing it will be largely ignored. Studying Iran/Contra opens a window onto the secret history of America and the world all of the things many mainstream historians try their best to ignore. Researchers at the time noted that Iran/Contra had it's origins in the covert wars from the very beginnings of the "cold war". Things that are still blocked out of the history books like the recruitment of fascists in Europe and Asia or the OSS and later CIA role in the global drug trade. It linked up with the Korean Warm the bay of pigs the Kennedy Assassination, Vietnam, Watergate, the October surprise, the shooting of the pope, all what Peter Dale Scott Calls Deep Events. Those are the more famous examples it also linked up with now largely forgotten scandals like P2, , SITBAM, Eatsco, Nugan Hand, the  S&L failures, KoreaGate Iraqgate. the Pizza connection and many more.


     At the time the whole effort by congress and the media aimed to contain the scandal by making the investigation as narrowly focused as possible. Thankfully others sought to pursue the case seeking justice or at least the truth. The "scandal" had an earlier origin then the Hasenfus crash. During the 80's American backed fascist countries like Guatemala and El Salvador were waging a bloody war on their own people involving torture and mass murder on an industrial scale. Many were forced to flee for their lives and in the US a secret network of americans many of whom were connected to the catholic church helped them hide from US authorities. They discovered that they had been accused of smuggling terrorists into the country in an FBI disinformation campaign and they called on the Christic Institute an interfaith law firm run by Daniel Sheehan that had taken on tough cases against the nuclear power industry and the KKK. He began his investigation and things exploded quite literally. In Costa Rica the CIA had been funding ARDE a contra group lead by a traitor to the Sandinista revolution Eden Pastora "Comandante Zero."  While Pastora was happy to collect CIA money to wage war on his own country he refused to unite forces with the FDN in Honduras since they were made up of Somoza's former national guard who had killed and tortured tens of thousands including some of Pastora's relatives. The CIA decided Pastora had to go. During a press conference Pastora held at La Penca a bomb exploded killing 8 people 3 of them journalists and injuring many others. Pastora got lucky and survived. The bomb would have killed far more people had it not been knocked over onto it's side by a woman bring Pastora his coffee, Instead of killing everyone in the room as intended the blast was directed towards the ceiling blowing the roof off instead. One of the injured journalists Tony Avirgan and his wife Martha Honey began to investigate the bombing and began to uncover the Iran Contra network. They contacted Daniel Sheehan who had even more pieces of the puzzle and together their investigation began to reveal a massive network of drug dealers, spies, ex-spies arms dealers, special forces vets and mercenaries. Sheehan labeled them the "Secret Team" a term coined by Fletcher Prouty in his classic book of the same title. Sheehan's Christic Institute attempted to bring the "Secret Team" to justice but while their case was eventually dismissed the investigation would at least help to reveal the truth. After the official "Tower Committee" investigation was over Jonathan Marshall, Peter Dale Scott, and Jane Hunter decided to write a book "The Iran-Contra Connection: Secret Teams and Covert Operations in the Reagan Era" to provide a much wider ranging and in depth understanding of Iran-Contra. Much of what I write here relies on their account of events.


   30 Years later Iran Contra has continued to shape our world "The War on Drugs" the "War on Terror" both have deep roots in the forces revealed during the Iran Contra scandal. Many officials involved in Iran Contra continue to be involved in what FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds dubs the GLADIO network. Indeed operation Condor, The Phoenix Program, and the GLADIO networks were deeply involved in Iran/Contra. Hence for those wishing to know how the world really works Iran/Contra provides a brief window into the shadowy world of spies, bankers, financiers, mercenaries, arms traffickers, fascists, terrorists, and drug dealers the empire of chaos employs to wage it's endless dirty wars. This is why I doubt there will be much attention given to the 30th anniversary of Iran/Contra our rulers would much rather we forget. But for those seeking to unravel the "deep history" of the world Iran/Contra is an excellent place to start. From Iran/Contra one can trace the threads backward to uncover the true history of World War 3 as I dub the cold war. Moving forwards one can follow the threads to the Wars on Panama, Iraq, Yugoslavia, Rwanda, DRCongo, 911, Iraq II, Libya, Syria, and Ukraine. Indeed one of the key Iran/Contra organizations the World Anti-Communist League or WACL played a key but largely unknown role in the destruction of the Soviet Union which kicked off what I call World War 4 aka the War on Terror, War on Drugs, the Long War etc.


   But first my younger readers may be wondering what was the Iran/Contra affair. In reality the Iran Contra Scandal was a window onto the massive and unending covert-War the United States had been waging on the planet from it's foundation. More specifically it was a window onto the final decade of World War 3. However the Media focused in particular on two countries Iran and Nicaragua. Before I give some background I'll just explain that the scandal revolved around the fact that arms were being sold to Iran which Americans, bitter over the hostage crisis and subjected to endless doses of Anti-Iranian propaganda since had assumed was a bitter enemy. Worse the arms were being traded for Hostages and the administration was always claiming that it didn't make deals with terrorists and was fighting terror around the planet. (In reality they were funding it of course )This aspect angered the Reagan supporters as well as his opponents.


  What angered the congress and the democrats was that money from the arms shipments for which Iran was of course overcharged were secretly diverted to pay for Contra's war on Nicaragua in defiance of the Boland Amendment they had passed to ban the any aid to the Contras either direct or indirect. The Contras had become infamous for the brutal atrocities they carried out in Nicaragua which were very reminiscent of ISIS today. Like ISIS they preferred to slice up their victims. In fact their atrocities were standard tactics of CIA dirty wars from the Philippines to Indonesia, to Vietnam, to Argentina to El Salvador. They are still being carried out today in places like Syria, Libya, and Mexico. However what inspired the Boland amendment was first the discovery of an "assassination" manual in reality merely a slightly altered manual from the Phoenix Program a guide to carrying out a terror campaign what the military call innocuously unconventional warfare or irregular warfare. Second the US had illegally mined Nicaragua's harbors. In response to this the Boland amendment was passed forbidding any US government aid to the contras. The Reagan administration had openly defied congress in continuing to aid the contras. Of course the scandal got even worse but the media were careful to suppress some aspects. Robert Parry who some of you may know for his courageous work exposing the war in Ukraine deserves mention here as the exception he broke the story of the fact that the Contra's were deeply involved in smuggling drugs before years before Gary Webb would later rediscover this story. Thus Reagan who had launched a massive intensification of the drug war  involving the infamous slogan "just say no" had been publicly supporting known drug traffickers the Contras. This was just the tip of the iceberg and if one continued to follow the trail one discovered an international network of current and former CIA agents, fascists, arms, dealers, drug networks, terrorists death squads, mercenaries, organized crime, political corruption, money laundering corprate, thefts, assassinations, false flag terror attacks, media disinformation campaigns, Cults, foreign lobbbies, and above all covert wars.


   Now to provide some background on the two primary countries involved Nicaragua and Iran. Both countries had undergone revolutions in the late 70's during the Jimmy Carter years ejecting brutal US installed dictators. In 1912 the US had invaded and occupied Nicaragua August Sandino had heroically resisted leading a guerrilla army and manages to avoid defeat despite the might of the US marines trying to capture and kill him. However eventually treachery succeeded where the marines failed and he was assassinated after agreeing to a truce. The US trained a brutal national guard to keep the people in line so it could be run in the interest of US corporations. They installed Anastasio Somoza Garcia sr a brutal and corrupt dictator. Eventually Somoza Sr was gunned down and he was was succeeded by his son Anastasio Somoza Debayle jr. He continued to rule in the same ruthless fashion as his father murdering any one he saw as a threat. He loved to have the victims thrown into volcanoes. However in the words of Fred Hampton "You can kill the revolutionary but you can't kill the revolution" decades after his death Augusto Sandino inspired a new generation of revolutionaries the Sandinistas  who overthrew Somoza Jr and attempted to build a Nicaragua that would serve the interests of it's people instead of massacring  and exploiting them. The Sandinistas perhaps naively abolished the death penalty and instead of executing the hated national guard they let them go. Instead of being grateful to be alive the National Guard began to plot their revenge. They were encouraged in this by the "Secret Team" a shadowy group of former and current CIA and Military men who had been involved secret wars, drug networks, and Arms deals for over thirty years but who had been purged during the Carter Administration in the wake of Vietnam, Watergate, Angola, the Church committee and other wars and scandals of the 70's. (See my February 2015 CIA in Africa  http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-cia-in-africa.html for more on this period) I will return to the "secret team" soon. They had been helping Somoza improve his death squads based on their experience with the the phoenix program in Vietnam.

   First I will also give a brief background on Iran. In 1953 the CIA had overthrown it's president Mossadegh because he believed that Iran's oil wealth should be used to benefit the people of Iran and not merely British oil companies. Mossadegh was trying to take Iran on an independent course so of course he was branded a communist despite the fact that he had engineered the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Iran. He was in reality a Nationalist. Mobs were paid to riot in the streets. False Flag attacks on Shiite clergy were carried out and Communists were blamed to inflame the people. Generals were bribed, lies were spread, and the CIA managed with the help of MI-6 to engineer a coup that installed the Shah as a corrupt and brutal dictator. The CIA (along with Mossad and Mi6 among others) trained his secret police the Savak and thru torture and terror they managed to keep the hated shah in power. Incidentally as Doug Valentine reveals in "Strength of the Wolf" his family were also big in the drug traffic like so many CIA allies.


   Eventually he was succeeded by his son who was overthrown in a massive revolution. The Shah fled wandering in exile and seriously ill. Carter knew what might happen but foolishly gave into his advisors (Kissinger and Brzezinski) pressure who Peter Dale Scott explains were acting on behalf of David Rockefeller who had launched both men's careers in the first place. The Shah was admitted to the US outraging the people of Iran who stormed the US embassy in protest taking the staff hostage. Carter had been warned this would happen but he was only President after all and was forced to act against his better judgement by his corporate masters. The Secret Team had been closely involved with the Shah as well as being involved in all sorts of shady arms deals throughout the middle east. With the end of the Vietnam war the Shah had become a major buyer of weapons and Iran became an important center in the Secret Teams network of drugs, arms, political bribery. Richard Secord, Theodore Shackley, and Ed Wilson were all deeply involved and it was in the 70's that they began working with shady middle eastern arms merchants who would later become infamous because of Iran Contra Manucher Ghorbanifar, Adnan Khashoggi. Khashoggi is a fascinating figure who was used by the CIA to hand out bribes on behalf of Lockheed airlines. Later he was famous for being "The Riches Man in The World" and for his Yacht stocked with models and call girls. He continues to be involved in all sorts of shady deals today according to Daniel Hopsicker.


    These arms dealers were also Mossad agents and Israel was a major player in the arms for Iran trade. During the Reagan era despite their reputation as pathological liars both Khasoggi and Ghorbanifar. would be used to funnel Israeli disinformation into the US government and media creating panics over nonexistent terror threats from Libya  that Reagan used to reverse the Carter era CIA cutbacks and launch a massive expansion of the CIA and special forces. I was strongly reminded of the phony intel supplied by Ahmed Chalabi and spread by the Neo-Cons in the run up to the Iraq War and in fact the Neo-cons were deeply involved in the Reagan Era and the Iran-Contra scandal as was Israel a fact seldom recognized at the time but obvious in hindsight. The Israeli role is central to the Iran Contra affair they hoped to make the Iran/Iraq war as destructive as possible to both countries as an important stage in their plans to balkanize the middle east. Plans the US and it's allies have now also adopted leading to the horrors of the wars on Lebanon, Iraq, Libya, Syria. If I don't give Israel the focus it deserves it is only because I have dealt with the Israeli role in Iran Contra and the wars of the people of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua in an earlier article "Israel Supported [Death Squads in] Nicaragua, El Salvador Nicaragua"

http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2014/04/israel-supported-el-salvador-guatemala.html

a Sequel to "Israel [Supported] Apartheid South Africa" both based on "Iran-Contra Connection" co author Jane Hunter's invaluable book "Israeli Foreign Policy: South Africa and Central America"

http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2014/03/israel-apartheid-south-africa.html

  Now to return to the Secret Team actually their connections with the Contras had begun even before the fall of Somoza training armies of drug dealing exiles was something they had decades of experience in starting during world war 2 When as the OSS they had worked with the KMT (Chinese "nationalists" army actually corrupt western backed fascists) in China's Yunan province. When Mao finally succeeded in liberating China these Chinese exiles had moved their drug networks to Burma and Thailand with help from the future secret team, later they moved to Laos. In Laos the secret team built the opium growing Hmong tribesmen into a "secret army" to use in their dirty war on the Pathet Lao and the NLF (the VC as americans called them) a role they had earlier played for the french. They were one of many proxies recruited as death squads and commandos for the covert war the CIA was waging all over Asia.


   Meanwhile profits from this huge heroin trade were used to fund right wing politicians via the infamous china lobby who launched Joseph McCarthy's career. Granted CIA protection this drug funded right wing lobby would also launch the careers of Richard Nixon and then Ronald Reagan. When Castro overthrew Batista liberating his country from more then a century of US domination his drug dealing underlings fled to Miami where the secret team again organized them into a drug dealing army of exiles. The Cubans would wage covert war on Cuba but would also be recruited into the secret team fighting the CIA's secret wars in Indonesia, the Congo, Laos and Vietnam among other wars. Thus it should come as no surprise that with the Nicaraguan revolution the secret team would adopt the same tactics yet again and history would repeat itself. Yet again the Nicaraguan exiles mostly veterans of Somoza's murderous national guard were organized into a drug dealing exile army. Actually the Cuban Exiles had connections to Central America dating back at least to the sixties when Central America became the base where they trained and launched terror attacks on Cuba from. Nicaragua and Guatemala were both major sites for this covert war on Cuba of which the bay of pigs was merely the most well known episode. I should mention that all this history was well known at the time of the Iran/Contra affair. Alfred McCoy had explained the South East Asian connection in his classic "The Politics of Heroin in South East Asia." The Cuban Exiles had been the target of the largest Drug bust in US history operation eagle. Yet the media still pretended it was impossible that the US could be involved in funding a drug dealing exile army. And even after Robert Parry had exposed the Contra connection in the 80's they still pretended Gary Webb was crazy when he rediscovered the story in the 90's. Just in case you had any doubts that the media exists to suppress the truth not report it.


   The Secret Team had one problem President Carter but they already had a solution future president Reagan. Reagan has of course been whitewashed by history in reality he was a long time ally of the extreme right and even a public supporter of out right fascists. Frankly he was a bit of a madman but he was also a fool so he was a useful front man for more dangerous interests. Of course he knew what was going on during Iran/Contra despite his denials but his job was to sell the dirty war not plan it. WACL the infamous alliance of death squads, drug dealers and open fascists was one of his major backers. His campaign manager Michael Deaver who managed his rise from 1974 to 1980 was a paid lobbyist for key WACL countries Taiwan, Argentina, Guatemala. They funneled millions of dollars in illegal campaign contributions to Reagan.

    In contrast to Reagan George H. W. Bush  was a long time CIA agent although officially his only connection with the agency was when he served a year as CIA director. Circumstantial evidence (most famously the names of the boats used during the Bay of Pigs) as well as his whole role as vice president point to a veteran deep state operative not a novice. Although his CIA role has long been suspected Russ Baker has managed to document his lifelong intelligence connections in his book "Family of Secrets" The "Secret team" managed Bush 1's  presidential campaign and when he was forced into the position of Reagan's VP they helped engineer Reagan's victory. Reagan's campaign manager William Casey was himself a veteran of the OSS (where he helped recruit nazis) and would be appointed to head the CIA after Reagan was elected.


    As for George H.W. Bush, not only did he supervise the whole Iran/Contra affair thru phoenix program vet Donald Gregg. He also had himself appointed head of anti-drug operations in Florida an odd role for a vice president and absolutely comedic given this era saw an explosion in the drug trade and he was connected to the cuban exiles, the Colombian cartels, Manuel Noriega, and of course the contras. His suspicious connections to drug networks are so notorious I'll merely add the tale of Barry Seal fmr CIA pilot and infamous drug smuggler gunned down by a death squad inside the US with George Bush's phone number in his wallet after he was heard threatening to expose the the contra role in drug trafficking. Seal's life was full of strange connections (like to Lee Harvey Oswald) and it was one of his former planes that Hasenfus was shot down in triggering the scandal. He was only one of many killed to keep the crimes of Bush and his allies during Iran Contra covered up.


    Bush 1 is doubtless the most well known of the Secret Team. Many hoped Iran/Contra would destroy his career but instead he was elected president. He went on to invade Panama, Bomb Iraq, Launch the covert wars on Rwanda, and Yugoslavia and then his son was elected thanks to shady tricks in Florida (the Base for the cuban exiles and the contra resupply effort and the center from which the CIA and military coordinate their endless war on Latin America) The rest is history although Bush II was a lot more like Reagan then like his dad. No sooner had people stopped complaining about the shady election then a shadowy CIA backed army of drug dealing exiles aka "Al Qaeda" struck and the tragicomedy of the war on terror launched into high gear. As Peter Dale Scott notes a shadowy network of Iran/Contra vets then put into effect plans that had been updated during the Iran Contra era for mass surveillance and mass arrests. (America has had contingency plans for mass arrests since at least world war 2 when they locked up masses of Japanese and long before that of course the Indigenes had been rounded up and imprisoned as well not to mention slavery) in the now forgotten aftermath of 9/11 thousands  were rounded up without charges some beaten and tortured.(See Peter Dale Scott's  book The American Deep State)  Mass surveillance, Assassination, torture became normalized. But of course all these things were also going on in the Iran/Contra era and long before that. One little studied aspect of the Iran Contra affair was Oliver North's role as head of counter-terrorism for the NSC he carried out a secret assassination program and launched a number of terrorist attacks most infamously a bombing in Beirut that aimed to kill then Hezbollah Leader Sheikh Fadlallah  but instead killed 92  innocent civilians and injured 259 one of many terror attacks that Oliver North was involved in.                              


   But lets return to the election of Reagan/Bush the secret team helped get them into office. John Singlaub went down to Central America on behalf of the American Security Council and WACL to meet with the contras and the brutal governments of Guatemala and El Salvador who hated Carter. Right wing Oligarchs all over Latin America began raising illegal donations for the reagan campaign. Even more important was the October surprise. The Secret Team used their connections in Iran to secretly negotiate a deal whereby they agreed not to release the hostages until after Reagan was elected. The fate of the Hostages was the media's obsession at that time. Carter's inability to free them made him look weak. They blamed Carter for his attempts to rein in some of the right wing dictators the US was supporting. Carter tried to use the state department to force the dictators to cut back on the murder and torture by which they maintained their control. Carter deserves some credit for these efforts as do figures like Robert White who actually did try to reform the empire. The fall of both Somoza and the Shah were in part caused by these efforts at reform. Somoza had his military aid finally cut off, while in Iran Carter ordered the CIA to stop bribing the mullahs which meant they joined and eventually seized control of the Iranian revolution.  The Secret Team blamed Carter for the loss of Iran and Nicaragua where they had been selling arms, training death squads and other profitable ventures. Of course it should also be remembered that Carter okayed Brzezinski's plan for the covert war on Afghanistan that provoked the soviet intervention there so Carter himself set in motion a major component of the Iran-Contra connection less you get the Idea that he was blameless.


   In Iran Carter launched a hostage rescue attempt ironically choosing secret team member Richard Secord to plan the operation. We can be forgiven for the baseless suspicion that Secord may have had something to do with it's complete failure. If that wasn't bad enough veteran CIA operative Miles Copeland intentionally had the entire rescue plan published a couple days before the super-secret operation was launched which as noted proved a failure. The  Reagan Campaigns secret deal to prevent an "October Surprise" meaning the release of the hostages just in time for the election was a complete success. It mirrored the Nixon campaigns sabotage of Lyndon Johnson's peace deal with North Vietnam which lead to 7 more years of war. Robert Parry has also done a great deal of work on the October surprise. But the original story was revealed by an outraged member of the Reagan Campaign Barbara Honegger. Thanks to these schemes and other intrigues (Bush had a bunch of angry carter hating CIA agents working on his campaign spying on Carter and playing other dirty tricks like stealing his plans for the debate) Reagan became president and the stage was set for the Iran/Contra affair.


    Well except that is only the narrow version of events in reality the network was far more international and they were involved in what they and I call world war 3. It was in 1980 that the now forgotten Santa Fe Statement was issued declaring that World War 3 was already underway and was being fought in Central America. Of course for me World War 3 began before World War 2 even ended the US did not wait for world war 2 to end before it began arming the fascists who were still officially the enemy to kill the communists who were officially allies. In Greece in China in Italy in North Africa, Korea, Vietnam the UK and the US relaunched their dirty war on the world. In the case of General MacArthur he was himself the face of fascism. His General Staff would go on to found every right wing and fascist movement in the US in alliance with the "China Lobby". Some of the older generation of the "Secret Team" would start off during world war 2 in OSS. Lucien Conein, Howard Hunt, Mitch WerBell and Paul Helliwell would all serve with the OSS in China deeply involved with the drug dealing KMT guerrillas. Each would go onto play a fascinating and sinister role in america's covert history. Helliwell would play an infamous role in setting up the drug trade involved with the infamous sea supply inc and Meyer Lansky. Hunt, Conein and Werbell would found the asian and Latin American branches of WACL APACL (Asian Peoples Anti-Communist League) and CAL in 1954. Another infamous secret team member who's bio is inextricably linked to America's deep History is Theodore Shackley "The Blond Ghost" he was in charge of the CIA's Miami station in charge of launching the cuban exiles (many were members of Santos Traficante's mob back in Cuba before being trained by the CIA and Special forces in the art of terror and assassination) From there he moved to Laos, where he managed the secret army drug dealing of Meo tribesmen in the secret war there being fought despite america's promise to withdraw it's advisers.


   Thailand and Laos became the center of the global heroin traffic thanks to CIA's infamous Air America, Originally Civil Air Transport. Other  veterans of the secret war in Laos included Richard Secord, Thomas Clines,John Singlaub and Oliver North among many others. To supply the Contras and to smuggle back drugs they would use the same exact tactics using a "former" CIA airline named southern air transport. Secord would later set up an airline to fly Al Qaeda fighters and heroin out of Afghanistan and into Azerbaijan en route to fight in Yugoslavia during the 90's as Peter Dale Scott Reveals in His "American War Machine"  After the US's humiliating defeat in Vietnam the Secret Team set up shop in Australia where the infamous Nugan Hand bank was used to launder the massive profits from the global heroin trade, finance arms deals and secret wars across the third world and to overthrow Australia's Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in a "soft coup". They were at the same time highly active in Iran selling arms to the Shah. And they were also advising Somoza in his attempt to stop the revolution. Central to events in Australia were more members of the Secret Team Ed Wilson and Frank Terpil who would end up fugitives because of their shady arms deals involving Libya and Syria. I can only introduce the secret team and tell you some of the highlights but take my advice and "follow these names" and you will begin to discover a host of forgotten scandals murders, Coups, wars, and covert operations. They played a major part in the phoenix program, Operation Condor, and Operation Gladio. For example Duane "Dewey" Clarridge a Gladio Veteran would help oversee Condors expansion into central America during as well as keeping the contras well supplied. Michael Ledeen another CIA GLADIO veteran would spread lies and disinformation on behalf of both the Reagan administration and the Israeli's (he was a major Neo-Con) against the Sandinista's the soviets the arab world and whoever else was targeted. The New York Times and other media dutifully helped him spread these lies.   They played a role in the JFK Assassination, Watergate, Iran Contra and 911. Sibel Edmonds and Peter Dale Scott both trace the origins of 9/11 to many of the players involved in the Iran Contra Scandal.


   While I'm giving out names it is figures that were less well known at the time of the scandal that have gone on to play a very sinister role in the global drug trade, covert wars, and the spread of terrorist death squads. Richard Armitage was a bagman for the secret team and would go on to play a an important role as part of the Gladio Network. John Negroponte, James Steel, Robert Ford who would later unleash the death squads in Iraq and Syria were busy during the 80's unleashing death squads in central America. Cheney and Rumsfeld were busy planning for Marshal Law in the event of an emergency during this period. Plans that became the patriot act and the department of homeland security. A good reason why the Iran Contra Era must be constantly revisited Is that just as in the 80's Iran Contra revealed 30 years of secret wars and coups from China, Guatemala, Iran, Cuba, Vietnam, Chile, Argentina, Laos, El Salvador to Nicaragua.  So today one Can trace the role of People involved in Iran Contra thru the covert wars and coups from Uganda to, Panama to, Rwanda, Iraq, Yugoslavia, DRCongo, Libya, Syria, Ukraine. In Ukraine for example WACL played a very important role in keeping Ukrainian Fascism alive throughout the cold war so that with the destruction of the USSR they could return and spread their fascist poison. In fact WACL played the same role throughout eastern Europe and were vital both in the break up of the Warsaw pact and the Soviet Union as well as in forming the right wing governments that replaced them. A topic I will return to in a future article. As for Rwanda and DRCongo David Kimche Mossad Veteran and a central figure in Iran/Contra went on to become one of Paul Kagame's main advisors as he seized power in Rwanda in a bloody civil war that left 800,000 dead then went on to invade Zaire (Renamed Democratic Republic of Congo after Mubutu was Overthrown) leading to over ten million dead in a war that continues to this day and is threatening to expand yet again into Burundi.


    Even with all this complex web of deep history I have only begun to explore the Iran Contra affair. My next article will focus on Iran/Contra as a window onto the many covert wars of the 1980's or the final decade of what I call World War 3. As I was writing this it began to grow a bit out of control and I decided it was best to break it into parts. Iran Contra is rather like the JFK assassination or 9/11 one could spend ones whole lifetime exploring it. Especially when one has as ones guide Peter Dale Scott my Virgil on my tour of of the inferno that is America's deep history. Thus having introduced some of the cast of characters and explained the basics of the scandal I'm forced to bring things to a rather abrupt end.

 To be continued



Sources


My main source was "The Iran-Contra Connection: Secret Teams and Covert Operations in the Reagan Era" By Jonathan Marshall, Peter Dale Scott and Jane Hunter." However after rereading this book I couldn't resist re-reading the epic "American War Machine: Deep Politics, The CIA Global Drug Connection and the Road to Afghanistan" By Peter Dale Scott which I highly recommend to anyone wishing to understand the world's "Deep History"

Iran Contra however intersects with many classic books on the "war on drugs" as well as the histories of america's covert wars. Thus in this first part I'll provide a list of recommended reading on the war on drugs and in the my next article one on covert warfare.

First also by Peter Dale Scott and Jonathan Marshall there is "Cocaine Politics:Drugs, Armies, and the CIA in Central America"
also Peter Dale Scott's "Drugs Oil and War: The United States in Afghanistan, Colombia and Indochina"

Douglas Valentine wrote the definitive insider account of the war on drugs in his Books  "Strength of the wolf"  and "Strength of the Pack."  I recommend you do a quick internet search to find plenty of great interviews and articles with him many Iran-Contra related.

Gary Webb wasn't the first to discover the Iran/Contra connection but his "Dark Alliance:The CIA, the Contra's and The Crack Cocaine Explosion" is still a classic for it's in depth account of how the contra cocaine connection lead to the crack cocaine explosion by fueling the rise of freeway Rick Ross. It also brings home the fact that only a tiny fraction of the profits were actually sent to the contra's most went to make their drug dealing sponsors filthy rich. The movie "Kill The Messenger" unfortunately didn't do justice to the depth of the story he uncovered but is also worth checking out.

"Powderburns: Cocaine, Contras & the Drug War" By Celerino Castillo III and Dave Harmon. Tells the story of "Cele" Castillo a DEA agent who was fired for attempting to blow the whistle on the contra drug connection and the dirty war in Latin America.

For more on the death of Barry Seal there is "Barry and the Boys:The CIA, the Mob and America's Secret History" by fearless investigative journalist Daniel Hopsicker. Check out his Mad Cow News he has also done great work on 9/11 as well as the drug-corporate connection.

http://www.madcowprod.com

There are a bunch of great resources online on the Iran/Contra affair

Cover-up Behind the Iran Contra affair is a great documentary

http://youtu.be/MIVbFhVYB64

Daniel Sheehan explains the Iran Contra affair in this speech from the 80's

http://youtu.be/RgYFD8_jmQY


Dave Emory is the World's top Anti-Fascist researcher his radio show is archived free online and his anti-Fascist Archive was invaluable in researching the Iran Contra affair and the many related scandals. He was following events long before the scandal ever broke with his then co-host Nip Tuck.

his site is

http://spitfirelist.com

3 parts of the Anti-Fascist Archive are especially relevant to Iran Contra 1st the Italy/Iran Contra connection in who shot the pope

http://spitfirelist.com/anti-fascist-archives/rfa-17-21-who-shot-the-pope/

The history of the CIA Drug connection


http://spitfirelist.com/anti-fascist-archives/rfa-24-28-the-cia-the-military-drugs/

And the Iran Contra affair itself

http://spitfirelist.com/anti-fascist-archives/rfa-29-34-the-iran-contragate-scandal/

Also check out the first part of a long series of interviews he did with Russ Baker on the Bush family

http://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr-711-interview-1-with-russ-baker-author-of-family-of-secrets/

Eclipse comics attempted to expose the Iran contra affair in creative ways they produced a set of surprisingly educational trading cards

http://www.authentichistory.com/1974-1992/3-reagan/5-irancontra/cards/Iran-Contra_Cards.html

And a Trading Card Series on America's Friendly Dictators

http://friendlydictators.blogspot.com

And a 2 part Comic Book "Brought to Light"  one part records the events surrounding the La Penca bombing

https://archive.org/details/BroughtToLightFlashpointTheLaPencaBombing

The Other is a 30 year history of the Secret Team

https://archive.org/details/BroughtToLightShadowplayTheSecretTeam


Robert Parry on Gary Webb

https://consortiumnews.com/2014/10/09/the-sordid-contra-cocaine-saga/

Consortium News Archive on the Contras and Drugs

https://consortiumnews.com/archive/crack.html

Thursday, May 26, 2016

Understanding Libya Part 2 v. 2

Editorial Comment:
Since this interview was completed there have been critical developments worthy of mention here.
It was surprising to see Russia and China among the 20 nations that pushed the Vienna agenda through, ignoring the fact that the Libyan people and the tribes had been excluded from dialog and had no part in the Libyan Political Agreement (Shirkat). The much touted “internationally recognized government” in Tobruk never legitimized this regime, which maintains the GoA’s dubious status.
Although present at the Vienna meeting, Egypt continues to ignore the “unity government” and support the Libyan army (LNA) in their fight against terrorism, in defiance of the Vienna communiqué’s rule that no nation can support or fund parallel institutions. Egypt understands that to give weapons to the GoA would be equal to shooting itself in the foot.
Yesterday, Khalifa Hafter (a controversial figure given his history with the CIA) announced his trip to Moscow to discuss Russian support in the fight against da’esh. Haftar has been in contact with Moscow numerous times since the launch of “operation dignity”. If Russia agrees to aid the legitimate army, this will disrupt, and quite possibly defeat the NATO nations’ agenda in Libya, eroding what remaining modicum of influence the GoA has.
Russia would know who they agreed to place at the helm of the nation. The UN did not conceal who they were holding meetings with in Istanbul, or that their “president s-elect” was working with Turkish-Saudi-Qatari intelligence.
It is inconceivable that Russia could fight these same terrorist groups in Syria and legitimize them in Libya. By doing so they jeopardize the success of their mission in Syria, as the US and UN continue to protect “moderate terrorists”.
Today, while Fayez Serraj was in Doha seeking support for a UN resolution that would legitimize the de facto regime, the Libyan National Army marched on Tripoli to liberate the city from the usurpers and their terrorist militias.
Alexandra Valiente
May 25, 2016
HT: I understand you have a correction to make to a comment made on our first interview.
AV: Yes. Recall that on April 12, Martin Kobler admitted that the Government of Accord (GoA) existed only on paper without the approval of the internationally recognized House of Representatives (HoR).
I said that April 19th the HoR had given a vote of confidence to the GoA, but that was only conditional. In addition to demands for amendments to legal documents, they required a meeting with the GoA in Tobruk. This frustrated foreign powers anxious to instate the regime, as the GoA were unable to travel beyond Tripoli, even under the protection of their militias – and inside Tripoli they required constant guard.
HT: So the HoR never acknowledged the legitimacy of the GoA? 
AV: No.The President of the HoR, Ageela Saleh, continues to extend the invitation for dialog, but his requests are ignored.
Because the HoR never acknowledged the GoA, by the United Nations’ guidelines, in accord with international law, the unity government remains illegitimate, regardless of what occured in Vienna. Nonetheless, the day after the Vienna meeting, Fayez Serraj, head of the Presidential Council (PC), activated the GoA, declaring the Tobruk parliament and the Libyan National Army in its current form, obsolete.
HT: What happened in Vienna?
AV: The Vienna meeting was the catastrophic finale, a masterful propaganda event jointly chaired by US secretary of state, John Kerry and Italian foreign minister, Paolo Gentiloni. Twenty nations were co-conspirators in the coup d’état that declared an illegitimate government legitimate and formalized the permanent foreign occupation of Libya. They placed terrorists in power and committed arms and funds to terrorist militias (Presidential Guard) tasked to protect the regime.
HT: Who are the Presidential Guard and what does this mean in terms of legitimizing extremist militias?
AV: In our earlier interview I referred to concerns expressed by human rights organizations, lawyers and the Resistance regarding the Shirkat Agreement (December17,2015). They warned that the unity government would not end human rights abuses, but grant full immunity to violators.
The Libya Political Agreement (LPA – Skhirat) is also referred to in the Vienna communiqué. The LPA included the disarming and dismantling of militias. However, since the GoA arrived in Tripoli, extremist militias operating under the “Libya Dawn” umbrella, were assigned to guard the PC. Simultaneously, Martin Koebler met in Istanbul with commanders of these militias, including al Qaeda’s Abdel Hakim Belhadj, to finalize power-sharing arrangements that would define their function under the regime. The plan was to replace the Libyan National Army (LNA) with the Presidential and National Guard.
HT: What can you tell us about the assassination campaign against members of the Libyan National Army?
AV: Regarding the Istanbul meetings held under the auspices of Turkish intelligence, Arabs of London published a detailed exposé. Khaled al-Sharif of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) proposed the assassination campaign targeting officers of the Libyan National Army as a means of neutralizing opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood’s usurpation of Libya. Since then, many members of the army in Tripoli have been killed. It is no coincidence that da’esh are carrying out the same campaign in Sirte.
HT: How have the people responded?
AV: The Vienna meeting took place at a time when the country was in the midst of escalating crisis; the advance of da’esh on several fronts, a humanitarian disaster, hospitals and clinics closed due to lack of equipment, medicine and supplies, people impoverished, displaced and food scarce.
Military operations conducted by the Tribes and Libyan National Army were underway to liberate Sirte while the campaign to clear Benghazi of terrorist elements continued and battles for Derna and Misrata intensified. Bani Walid, under threat from da’esh, was on high alert, yet its people extended the warmest welcome to thousands of refugees fleeing Sirte who escaped before all routes in and out of Sirte were closed.
In the face of these and other enormous challenges, people from every region of the country have made their rejection of the unity government and the Muslim Brotherhood coup d’état known. There have been widespread demonstrations. The people stand behind the Libyan National Army, demand the dismantling of militias, support efforts to combat terrorism and reject foreign interference. The HoR continue to function. The Libyan National Army operate under the authority of the HoR. In the Sirte operation, they have refused to cooperate with the Presidential Guard. The Tribes have their own security arrangements with regards to territorial defense and the liberation of Sirte. They are working with the LNA’s “unified command center”, independent from the GoA and their terrorist militias.
HT: How do you think the Resistance will respond to the current situation? 
AV: The Resistance stands with the Tribes and the people.
HT: What impact will installing a Muslim Brotherhood government in Libya have on the region? 
AV: A massive expansion of the war theater, an escalation of terrorism, weapons smuggling and human trafficking throughout Africa and the Middle East. In my view, the various organizations working within the Muslim Brotherhood network differ in degree but not in kind. There can be no effective end to terror without dealing with the spectre of the Muslim Brotherhood in its entirety.
HT: Could you discuss the human rights situation in Libya?
AV: Advances in securing the release of some political prisoners came solely through the dedicated work of the Tribes. Neither the Tripoli nor Tobruk governments exerted any effort to improve the human rights situation or relieve civilian suffering. Now that the GoA have been placed in power, human rights will further deteriorate. The fact that terrorist militias in Tripoli have been granted immunity for war crimes, crimes against humanity and ongoing human rights violations is an indicator of what the future holds under the GoA.
HT: What do you think the future holds for Libya?
AV: Libya has been at war since the beginning of the NATO invasion of 2011. It is not a civil war as Stratfor-sourced reports would have people believe. It has always been a struggle for removal of occupation forces and foreign multinationals exploiting Libya’s resource wealth. It has been a war against terrorism; terrorism brought to Libya by NATO.
Now that struggle will become more focused and aggressive.
Because of the irrepressible spirit, courage, dignity and resilience of the Libyan people, I have no doubt that they will overcome all obstacles in their path and successfully liberate their country from terrorism and foreign occupation.

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Understanding Libya pt. 2



  1. HT: I understand you have a correction to make to a comment made on our first interview.
    AV: Yes. Recall that on April 12, Martin Kobler admitted that the Government of Accord (GoA) existed only on paper without the approval of the internationally recognized House of Representatives (HoR).
    I said that April 19th the HoR had given a vote of confidence to the GoA, but that was only conditional. In addition to demands for amendments to legal documents, they required a meeting with the GoA in Tobruk. This frustrated foreign powers anxious to instate the regime, as the GoA were unable to travel beyond Tripoli, even under the protection of their militias – and inside Tripoli they required constant guard.
    HT: So the HoR never acknowledged the legitimacy of the GoA? 
    AV: No.The President of the HoR, Ageela Saleh, continues to extend the invitation for dialog, but his requests are ignored.
    Because the HoR never acknowledged the GoA, by the United Nations’ guidelines, in accord with international law, the unity government remains illegitimate, regardless of what occured in Vienna. Nonetheless, the day after the Vienna meeting, Fayez Serraj, head of the Presidential Council (PC), activated the GoA, declaring the Tobruk parliament and the Libyan National Army in its current form, obsolete.
    HT: What happened in Vienna?
    AV: The Vienna meeting was the catastrophic finale, a masterful propaganda event jointly chaired by US secretary of state, John Kerry and Italian foreign minister, Paolo Gentiloni. Twenty nations were co-conspirators in the coup d’état that declared an illegitimate government legitimate and formalized the permanent foreign occupation of Libya. They placed terrorists in power and committed arms and funds to terrorist militias (Presidential Guard) tasked to protect the regime.
    HT: Who are the Presidential Guard and what does this mean in terms of legitimizing extremist militias?
    AV: In our earlier interview I referred to concerns expressed by human rights organizations, lawyers and the Resistance regarding the Shirkat Agreement (December17,2015). They warned that the unity government would not end human rights abuses, but grant full immunity to violators.
    The Libya Political Agreement (LPA – Skhirat) is also referred to in the Vienna communiqué. The LPA included the disarming and dismantling of militias. However, since the GoA arrived in Tripoli, extremist militias operating under the “Libya Dawn” umbrella, were assigned to guard the PC. Simultaneously, Martin Koebler met in Istanbul with commanders of these militias, including al Qaeda’s Abdel Hakim Belhadj, to finalize power-sharing arrangements that would define their function under the regime. The plan was to replace the Libyan National Army (LNA) with the Presidential and National Guard.
    HT: What can you tell us about the assassination campaign against members of the Libyan National Army?
    AV: Regarding the Istanbul meetings held under the auspices of Turkish intelligence, Arabs of London published a detailed exposé. Khaled al-Sharif of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) proposed the assassination campaign targeting officers of the Libyan National Army as a means of neutralizing opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood’s usurpation of Libya. Since then, many members of the army in Tripoli have been killed. It is no coincidence that da’esh are carrying out the same camapaign in Sirte.
    HT: How have the people responded?
    AV: The Vienna meeting took place at a time when the country was in the midst of escalating crisis; the advance of da’esh on several fronts, a humanitarian disaster, hospitals and clinics closed due to lack of equipment, medicine and supplies, people impoverished, displaced and food scarce.
    Military operations conducted by the Tribes and Libyan National Army were underway to liberate Sirte while the campaign to clear Benghazi of terrorist elements continued and battles for Derna and Misrata intensified. Bani Walid, under threat from da’esh, was on high alert, yet its people extended the warmest welcome to thousands of refugees fleeing Sirte who escaped before all routes in and out of Sirte were closed.
    In the face of these and other enormous challenges, people from every region of the country have made their rejection of the unity government and the Muslim Brotherhood coup d’état known. There have been widespread demonstrations. The people stand behind the Libyan National Army, demand the dismantling of militias, support efforts to combat terrorism and reject foreign interference. The HoR continue to function. The Libyan National Army operate under the authority of the HoR. In the Sirte operation, they have refused to cooperate with the Presidential Guard. The Tribes have their own security arrangements with regards to territorial defense and the liberation of Sirte. They are working with the LNA’s “unified command center”, independent from the GoA and their terrorist militias.
    HT: How do you think the Resistance will respond to the current situation? 
    AV: The Resistance stands with the Tribes and the people.
    HT: What impact will installing a Muslim Brotherhood government in Libya have on the region? 
    AV: A massive expansion of the war theater, an escalation of terrorism, weapons smuggling and human trafficking throughout Africa and the Middle East. In my view, the various organizations working within the Muslim Brotherhood network differ in degree but not in kind. There can be no effective end to terror without dealing with the spectre of the Muslim Brotherhood in its entirety.
    HT: Could you discuss the human rights situation in Libya?
    AV: Advances in securing the release of some political prisoners came solely through the dedicated work of the Tribes. Neither the Tripoli nor Tobruk governments exerted any effort to improve the human rights situation or relieve civilian suffering. Now that the GoA have been placed in power, human rights will further deteriorate. The fact that terrorist militias in Tripoli have been granted immunity for war crimes, crimes against humanity and ongoing human rights violations is an indicator of what the future holds under the GoA.
    HT: What do you think the future holds for Libya?
    AV: Libya has been at war since the beginning of the NATO invasion of 2011. It is not a civil war as Stratfor-sourced reports would have people believe. It has always been a struggle for removal of occupation forces and foreign multinationals exploiting Libya’s resource wealth. It has been a war against terrorism; terrorism brought to Libya by NATO.
    Now that struggle will become more focused and aggressive.
    Because of the irrepressible spirit, courage, dignity and resilience of the Libyan people, I have no doubt that they will overcome all obstacles in their path and successfully liberate their country from terrorism and foreign occupation.

Friday, May 13, 2016

Soft Coups in Brazil Venezuela & South Africa

 "Soft" Coups Threaten Brazil Venezuela South Africa


    The Empire of Chaos(The US) has won a major victory in Brazil destroying a democracy in order to bring Brazil back under control. Dilma Rousseff has been impeached on trumped up charges ignoring the wishes of the 54 Million Brazilian's who voted for for her and replacing her with the traitor Michel Temer. Temer gives a whole new meaning to the idea of rule by the 1% because Temer has a 1% approval rating. Rousseff has been suspended from office for 180 days while the impeachment process continues. Brazil has joined the list of successful recent coups in Honduras, and Paraguay. Like the people of Argentina the people of Brazil are about to be reminded of what it means to be ruled by neo-liberal Hyenas. For the people of Brazil the battle has only begun. The 1964 coup in Brazil installed a brutal military dictatorship and was only the first of many coups that would leave the entire region under the fascist rule of Operation Condors network of military juntas. The people of Brazil and of all of Latin America are in deadly danger. By this act the US has signaled that even minor reforms like those carried out by Brazil's workers party are unacceptable. Nothing must be allowed to impede the looting and impoverishment of the planet at the hands of the multi-national corporations.  Yet the loss of Brazil has even worse consequences for the globe. It is a major strategic victory in the empire of Chaos attempt to reconquer Latin America. It is also a major victory in the effort to destroy the BRICS countries. It marks a major defeat in the effort to build a multi-polar world. Worse still Soft coups are also making gains in Venezuela and in South Africa. In Venezuela a recall referendum obtained the necessary signatures to remove Nicolas Maduro from office. In South Africa a court ruled that Jacob Zuma must again face hundreds of charges that were dismissed years ago. Both Venezuela and South Africa have been the victims of a covert war campaign. In Venezuela a wave of assassinations continues to murder those loyal to the Bolivarian Revolution. In South Africa a wave of arson attacks have been carried out that the government has blamed on the US embassy (ie the CIA). As if plunging large parts of the globe into unending warfare is not enough the empire of chaos is determined to destroy every independent country on the planet.


   Before I discuss the latest coup in Brazil I will give a brief description of the 1964 coup in Brazil that would go on to have such disastrous consequences for all of Latin America. My account is based on William Blum's Invaluable book "Killing Hope" Brazil is Chapter 27 out of 56 each recording coups or covert wars the US has carried out since 1945.  Jose Goulart had become president after Janio da Silva Quadros had been forced to resign or face a military coup. Goulart the Vice President barely made it into office Right-Wing military officers tried to bar him but Loyalist military officers had interceded forcing the fascists to back down. Quadros had been quite conservative but had sought to ally Brazil with the nonaligned movement and to trade with the USSR. Goulart was also only a mild reformer but even before the moment he came into office the CIA, the Pentagon, the State department began plotting his downfall. CIA officer Vernon Walters (operating under cover as a military attache ) who would go on to play a vital role in setting up operation Condor was a major player in the coup. He helped organize the coup plotters in the Military. Goulart was first targeted with economic warfare, political destabilization and media war. Globo Media which played a major role in the current anti-Rousseff coup played the same role in the 1964 coup. The CIA financed mass demonstrations, bribed political opposition and helped fund their campaigns. It created it's own labor movement the AIFLD to destroy the left wing labor movement and to stage strikes and even armed attacks. The tactics of color revolution/Hybrid War are far older then the terms themselves obviously. As mentioned the US had begun plotting against him  even before he ever assumed office and in fact had engineered him being fired as minister of Labor back in the 50's. Once he became president his offenses in the eyes of the empire were refusing to fire ministers the US labeled "Communist. He sought to trade with the eastern block. He instituted mild economic reforms including a very limited land redistribution program. He passed a law limiting the amount of profits multinational corporations could take out of the country and he nationalized a subsidiary of ITT. For this he was accused of seeking to install a "Totalitarian" Dictatorship by the State department. When they had stirred up enough chaos with their economic war and destabilization campaign when they had succeeded in vilifying Goulart in the media they launched the coup. The military who had been indoctrinated by the US in fanatical anti-communism and trained to see their own people as the enemy were given the go ahead for the coup. On March 31st the CIA backed fascist divisions moved to occupy the capital city Rio. However the CIA had only gained control of a faction of the military other loyal divisions were willing to resist. The US sent in a huge Naval detachment including Aircraft carriers and destroyers to signal their backing for the coup. Goulart decided to flee rather then risk a civil war. By April 1st he had fled and the Fascist General Castelo Branco seized power arresting thousands of opponents and shooting protestors. And of course the dirty war came anyways tens of thousands would be tortured and killed over the next decades. Although Latin America's endless dirty war began long before the Brazil coup (Unending war and oppression began in1492)  the 1964 coup would play a decisive role in helping to spread it throughout the continent. Brazil would play a vital role in the coups in Chile, Uruguay, Argentina and in training the death squads and torturers of the continent. Dilma Rousseff herself was among the hundreds of thousands tortured. Meanwhile members of the Condor Network are still powerful in many Latin American militaries and the CIA and Pentagon influence continues. For more on Operation Condor check out my October 2015 article "Operation Condor". For the continuing dirty war in Latin America see my March 2016 "War on Latin America." In light of this history it is clear why we must resist this latest coup which threatens to reignite Brazil's dirty war.

    Pepe Escobar has written the definitive account of the coup in Brazil. Thus for a detailed account track down the numerous articles he has written on the subject. Frankly I feel more like screaming or crying than writing about this tragic moment in Brazil's history. The only real difference between the April 64 coup and the May 2016 coup is that the military were not called in to overthrow the government. Hence people are referring to it as a soft coup. However the manufactured opposition, the media war, the economic war and doubtless the CIA bribes flying left and right are all the same. In fact just like Castelo Branco Brazil's new president Temer is a CIA asset. Brazil's coup has a lot in common with the recent coups in Honduras and Paraguay. Thus even though Brazil's coup was accomplished with legalistic means does not mean that the tortures and disappearances may not soon re-appear in Brazil not that they ever really ended given Brazil's unending "low intensity" drug war and privatized death squads that masquerade as security agencies. These agencies of course were a major factor in the coup part of what Pepe Escobar calls Brazil's "BBC." "BBC" stands for in this case not the notorious British propaganda outfit but for the three main economic interests manipulating Brazil's senate to vote for impeachment. BBC stands for the Bullet, The Bible, and the Cattle. The bullet is weapons and private security. The Bible is pastors and "Evangelical Fanatics." While Cattle is the powerful Agribusiness lobby. Pepe also lists some illuminating statistics on the senate they are 80% White although Brazil is largely a brown and Black country. 60 percent of the Senate  are from political dynasties 58% of them are under criminal investigation and 13% of them were not elected at all worming their way in as "alternates." These are the oligarchs who had the final say in destroying Brazil's democracy. They have ignored the wishes of the 54 Million Brazilians who voted for Dilma Rousseff and have replaced her with the traitor Michel Temer with his 1% approval rating.


The main front men for this CIA coup were first Judge Sergio Moro who with his completely one sided car wash investigation set the coup in motion. By ignoring the crimes of the right and focusing only on crimes by the left he turned a corruption investigation into a coup. Next there was then house speaker Eduardo Cunha notorious as one of the most corrupt politicians in Brazil with millions in swiss bank accounts. He lead the impeachment drive in Brazil's lower house fast tracking the impeachment process. However he lost his job as speaker so that the coup would not be a complete laughing stock. After all Dilma Rousseff is not even charged with having been corrupt and is innocent yet her impeachment campaign was lead by the Cunha "the Shark" one of the most corrupt. Lastly there is Michel Temer or Brutus as Escobar calls him. He openly admitted that the impeachment lacked all legitimacy before switching sides in a twisted power grab. These criminals have earned by their actions the hatred not just of Brazil but of Latin America and indeed of everyone who opposes the empire. Of course they were merely the tools of the Brazil's Oligarchs, the CIA, and Wall Street but by their treachery they have set Brazil back decades.

   The loss of Brazil will help sabotage BRICS. It will be a major blow to attempts to resist the empire of Chaos throughout the continent in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, and the other countries that have so far avoided soft coups. For the people of Brazil who had only slowly begun to climb out of poverty thanks to the reforms of Brazil's workers party which despite it's flaws did create a major rise in the standard of living the Coup means they will be Ruthlessly thrust back into poverty. Brazil's massive oil wealth will go not to improving the lives of it's citizens but to enriching the billionaires on Wall Street. Far worse may await them as the new coup government will eventually begin to wage war on the angry majority of Brazil to insure that they remain in power. The people must begin to prepare themselves for resistance and in my opinion for revolution. Democracy has failed in Brazil mild reforms have failed in Brazil. The people of Brazil must begin to organize to seize back the power. And should they ever prove successful they must make radical changes to their society that will make impossible this sort of "Soft coup". How long will Latin America's Oligarchs be allowed to wage their campaigns of mass murder before the people wise up and give them a taste of revolutionary justice? Goulart thought he could spare his country a war if he resigned and was proven tragically wrong. Rousseff appears to have made the same mistake and we can only hope that her failure to destroy these dangerous traitors does not lead to a repeat of Brazil's horrifying Dirty War. Recent experience in Honduras or Ukraine do not give us much reason to believe that things will go differently for Brazil. However there are two factors that give reason for hope that this coup may be reversed. First Brazil has powerful social movements, the landless workers movement, the landless peasants, and many thousands of smaller groups. Second if Lula can survive the attempts to destroy him as part of the Car Wash Scandal he may run again in 2018 seizing Brazil back for the people. I hope his security is on full alert sadly his potential to run again and restore democracy in Brazil means his life is in great danger.


   If only the idea of Lula being assassinated either violently or via cancer or heart attack were paranoid as some of you are doubtless thinking. But ask Fidel Castro who has survived dozens of assassination attempts. One can no longer ask the great Hugo Chavez  but the details of his murder continue to emerge thanks to the work of journalist Eva Golinger. She has uncovered even more evidence of his assassination in particular in a recent interview she discussed some of the many attempts to kill him which failed. One included a Colombian death Squad camped out at a Venezuelan Oligarchs place thankfully they were arrested in time. Another involved a sniper caught staking out someplace Chavez was about to speak at. Undoubtedly the most memorable involved the attempt to assassinate him with a radioactive chair at an "Prestigious" University in New York where Chavez was giving a speech. She also revealed the names of several traitors who defected to the united states shortly after his death. One of these traitors former Major General Herbert Garcia Plaza is now coordinating the destabilization of Venezuela from the safety of the US. I highly recommend you read the interview with her yourselves to learn even more shocking information.


   Unfortunately I must turn my attention to the ongoing "soft coup" in Venezuela. There was some good news the opposition plot to privatize Venezuela's public housing was struck down by Venezuela's supreme court as unconstitutional since it interfered with Venezuela's constitutional commitment to provide housing education healthcare and other social programs. Chavez's radical reforms have born fruit and Venezuela's Supreme Court is firmly committed to defending Bolivarian Socialism. However the opposition appropriately named MUD continues it's campaign to destroy Venezuela on the orders of their CIA/NED controllers. They launched a recall petition and easily achieved the 1% of signatures needed. Next they only need 20% of voters to agree to a recall referendum and then a Referendum forcing Maduro to resign can eventually be voted on. Maduro is determined to resist this scheme and hopes to fulfill his term which doesn't end until 2018. Obviously this is a dangerous new development. In addition a wave of assassinations continue to murder loyal government officials and Bolivarian politicians. The CIA is waging a dirty war on Venezuela using drug dealing Colombian death squads and right wing Venezuelan terrorists to wage an operation condor style Phase III assassination campaign aimed at weakening the government by killing it's most promising leaders. However even more destabilizing has been the economic war and Venezuela's Oligarchs continue to sabotage the economy eroding public support for the Bolivarian Revolution. The Venezuelan Revolution a source of hope and an inspiration for the entire world remains under deadly threat.


   In South Africa a soft coup threatens another BRICS member. South Africa is another victim of the economic war which has sent commodities prices plummeting. This has served to destabilize South Africa just as it has Venezuela, and Brazil. But of course the US isn't content  with destabilizing South Africa it wants to overthrow the ANC who have ruled South Africa since the fall or Apartheid. The ANC is far from perfect in a secret deal before coming to power they had to renounce their longstanding platform of nationalizing South Africa's resources and building a socialist society. However given it was 1994 and the Soviet Union had just collapsed the constant criticism they have suffered since from the left while valid is slightly unfair. Andre Vltchek points out that the ANC has made far more progress then people have given them credit for. They have also been plagued by corruption scandals but only a fool would believe that if the ANC are overthrown in a soft coup that corruption will suddenly disappear. Instead whoever replaces them would open the country to be looted by western corporations reversing whatever gains people have made since the fall of apartheid. You don't fight corruption with coups because coups are by their nature corrupting they involve people accepting bribes from the CIA and other intelligence agencies to betray their country. Obviously those willing to sell out their country are unlikely to resist bribes for lesser crimes. Just ask the Ukrainians.

   The destabilization campaign against Zuma began innocently enough with students demanding lower fees. However soon instead of chanting the "Fees must Fall" they were shouting "Zuma must Fall." Now EFF head Julius Melema is calling for Zuma's downfall even threatening to use force. And if that wasn't bad enough the US embassy (CIA) have been caught organizing opposition movements and even hiring organized crime to burn down 19 schools in the Limpopo province.  Worse now the supreme court has ruled that Zuma must face 783 charges against him that were dismissed back in 2007. They date from when Zuma was deputy president under Thabo Mbeki. Zuma was dismissed as deputy president but this lead to a power struggle within the ANC in which he emerged victorious. He was later elected president despite this scandal so it is ridiculous to try to overthrow him based on a 10 year old scandal.  Zuma like Maduro, and Rousseff is facing a soft coup attempt. Whatever petty crimes Zuma may have committed whatever the flaws of the ANC we must oppose this soft coup attempt. The goal has nothing to do with reducing corruption in South Africa or reducing inequality as the EFF deceptively claim. Anyone who thinks a CIA coup will reduce inequality in South Africa needs to read Blum's "Killing Hope" since every CIA coup has been undertaken to preserve or worsen inequality. Instead the goal is clearly to destroy the BRICS the main hope for a multipolar world. The goal is to break up the economic partnership between China and South Africa damaging China the economic engine of the multipolar world and further isolating Russia the military backbone of BRICS.


    We must oppose the coups in Brazil, Venezuela and South Africa. We must support the people as they resist the return of fascism in South America. We must support South Africa as it struggles to maintain it's independence. The Empire of Chaos thinks it can preserve itself by destroying all the alternatives. It is far to late for that Capitalism itself is in crisis and people are already dreaming of a better world. Remember the overthrow of Arbenz in Guatemala in 1954  inspired the revolutionary career of Che Guevara. In fact to carry out their economic war on the BRICS the Oligarchs are putting the whole stability of their global capitalist system at risk a dangerous gamble. Although 2016 has been a year of victory for the forces of counter-revolution beneath the surface all over the world people can sense revolution in the air. Thus even in the face of defeat and danger instead of despairing we must only redouble our efforts. The time of revolutions is approaching.
 


 



Sources

I highly recommend William Blum's "Killing Hope: US military and CIA Interventions Since World War II" sadly more relevant then ever this year with coups and covert wars ravaging the globe. For more on Operation Condor read "Predatory States: Operation Condor Covert War in Latin America" By J.P. McSherry

Dilma Rousseff's defiant speech in the face of the impeachment campaign against her

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2016/04/19/remarks-by-president-dilma-rousseff-to-news-media-after-the-vote-approving-the-impeachment-process/

An Interview with Dilma Rousseff

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2016/05/06/president-dilma-rousseffs-interview-with-telesur/

Pepe Escobar on the Coup in Brazil

https://www.rt.com/op-edge/342821-brazil-dilma-rousseff-impeachment/#.VzW4Ti_LM8M.facebook

The Landless Workers Movement on the Crisis in Brazil

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2016/05/05/brazils-landless-workers-movement-the-real-way-out-of-the-crisis/

Mike Whitney Interviews Eva Golinger on the Assassination of Hugo Chavez

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2016/05/03/the-strange-death-of-hugo-chavez-an-interview-with-eva-golinger/

My Article on Operation Condor

http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2015/10/operation-condor.html

My Article War on Latin America

http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/03/war-on-latin-america.html

Nil Nikandov on the coming showdown in Venezuela

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2016/05/06/president-dilma-rousseffs-interview-with-telesur/

Abayomi Azikwe on the destabilization of South Africa

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2016/05/08/tensions-escalate-ahead-of-local-government-elections-in-south-africa/

Eric Draitser on the US coups in Latin America part of a great series of interviews by Don Debar of PRN that have covered the war on the BRICS week to week subscribe to his youtube channel

http://youtu.be/YP6Q01PYct4

And Eric Draitser on South Africa part of his series of Articles on the War on The BRICS

http://www.mintpressnews.com/brics-attack-empires-destabilizing-hand-reaches-south-africa/215126/